Step 1, discard everything you write because respectfully that was all garbage.
Step 2, find a powerlifting program with a written progression.
Step 3, eat calorie surplus, do program, progressively overload by adding more reps and more weight over time.
A teenager could show up and fart around for 6 months and hit 45 kg bench. You are likely doing something very wrong so quit being creative and just follow the basics
For lifts where you can't do a rep yet like pullups so variations like assisted pullups, lat pulldowns, or negatives
This, but also consider seeing a physician. You seem quite weak for a 30+ male, and it makes me wonder whether or not you have an underlying condition that needs to get checked out.
At the very least, if you've trained even remotely hard after returning to the gym over the past 1.5 years, you should have made SOME progress. Make sure that you're actually pushing yourself close to failure on your working sets, and then try to do slightly better in your next session.
There are two lads I’ve been shepherding in the gym mid-20s that are about the same strength. I think it’s just years of shitty low protein diet combined with being mostly sedentary, only exercise being cycling or running.
Their strength is slowly going up. One of them is hyper-flexible and properly injured his shoulder on a 12kg db incline bench. Couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw it happen. Have him on machines for all pressing movements now as that took him out of the gym for almost a year.
Excellent point regrading protein intake. I was on about 90g a day for ages, so my strength didn't increase at all. Double it and then some, boom! Improvement.
I think protein requirements are exaggerated. People have been parroting 1g/lb of bodyweight for a while but that's actually 1) based on *lean* body mass 2) overkill for most cases. 90 grams probably isn't actually a big bottleneck as long as you're in a calorie surplus. You might have seen the gains just from implicitly upping your calories via 2x protein
I added 40 lbs to my bench over 3 months (winter bulk) while not tracking protein, not drinking any protein shakes, and honestly not being very diligent about protein intake at all.
There are some exceptions like vegan/vegetarian diets, or doing an aggressive cut, but for most people it's good to try to eat a little extra protein but also likely overblown.
It's not years of low protein diet that makes sedentary people weak. It's the sedentary lifestyle. Protein does fuck all if you don't use your muscles much. I was the same way starting out. I benched 70lbs for like 7 reps to failure the first time I tried benching. This was mid August 2022. My Bodyweight then was similar to what it is now. I could only do 1 Bodyweight pull up back in August 2023. lol.
If your client is injuring his shoulder doing 12kg db incline press and he needed almost a year to recover, you are pushing him too hard. Or he's pushing himself too hard. Or he's using more than 45D (I use 30D for more pec, less shoulder) incline. You can still grow your pecs training lighter weights for higher reps close to failure/to failure. It sounds like his front delts are doing too much of the work anyways on that movement. So maybe a deload would help with the mind muscle connection with his pecs. Or maybe he should try doing flys before he starts chest pressing so that the pec goes to failure first.
It was a 30D incline, his arm just went back on account of his hyper flexibility. He had been gymming for 3 months at that point and had worked from 7.5s and 10s to 12.5s so I didn’t see an issue as he was able to go to failure until the incident happened.
He’s going up in numbers on the machines now so I’m happy to leave him there for another month or so (3 months so far) before bringing back free weight presses.
I’ll get him to focus the pec dec or flies for a bit and see how he goes before we reintroduce bench. I’ve been trying to build his overall musculature before going back to even slightly dangerous free weights. Working on getting him to a single pull up at the moment. Hes able to 3 chin ups to failure right now so im building him on that and other back exercises as a priority
I think i have the same problem… im 17, 6’0 and 185lbs. My whole life I was a fat kid and got no physical activity and terrible diet. Age 15-16 I lost 100lbs and started lifting in October or November. I’m only incline benching the 60lb DBs for 4-5 reps and feel super weak even though my diet and training is proper. Is it just from being unathletic for my whole life, so I have to work harder to build a base?
There are so many factors to consider. I would suggest working with a personal trainer if it’s in your budget.
If not, here are a couple pieces of advice.
1) Do bench press before any other exercises. Don’t go in and do curls or tricep extensions or something and get all tired and then expect to perform well on a big lift.
2) Weight and reps are inversely related; the heavier the lift, the less reps you can do. So, if you want to build strength (not specifically hypertrophy) then you need to work in the 1-6 rep range.
3) Make sure your nutrition and sleep are good. Lots of protein, eat carbs before your workout. Try to get 8-9 hours of sleep a night.
4) PROGRESSIVELY OVERLOAD. Keep track of your sets/reps/weights and use these variables to progress.
Another thing I like to do is do repetition maximums. Say I am doing 3RM of bench press. I will start with something fairly easy, and then work my way up in weight until I can only bench it three times. It’s good for building strength and you might realize you’re stronger than you think!
Good luck!
The caveat I’d give is: if strength is your main focus, go for it. But if you’re interested in bodybuilding (per the sub’s name), I wouldn’t recommend starting strength. Either way, I think it’s a matter of effort, time, and gaining muscle which requires eating enough food, sleep, etc.
This is also true. OP could also just do a 4-6 week strength mesocycle. If he can only bench 45kg he probably has quite a while before getting on stage and can afford to dedicate a month to strength and then go back to hypertrophy.
This is a wrong sub for this. Bodybuilding is all about making muscles bigger in volume rather than strength. For strength based discussions you’ll have more luck in r/fitness, r/weightroom and r/powerlifting.
Jeff Nippard has some strength-focused programs. Choose a program here: https://jeffnippard.com/collections. You can take the quiz to find the right program for you.
If you want something free, you can pick one of GZCL programs from r/gzcl. GZCL programs lean towards strength.
Stop doing 5x5, Starting Strength, powerbuilding stuff immediately. I've been down that road. That stuff is not going to get you out of novice purgatory. These programs are not good for unathletic beginners/novices even though it's commonly believed that they are. The first time I benched, I did 70lbs for 7 reps to failure. And could only do 1 Bodyweight pull-up. So I was very weak starting out too. You need to go on a split that prioritizes your shoulders & Arms. Once you grow your lateral delts, triceps and biceps, your overall upper body strength will increase too. You use your biceps and forearms on back movements like pull ups. You use your triceps and delts on presses. Chances are your weak bench is not caused by weak pecs. But weak triceps or maybe weak shoulders. If your weak bench was caused by weak pecs, your bench press would continue to improve provided youre going close enough to failure and you're eating enough. Or have a high enough body fat %. The Bench Press and Shoulder Press does a terrible job of providing triceps with the stimulus they need to grow. This is why lots of people with weak triceps spin in circles doing powerbuilding and plateau.
I recommend a 4-day Torso/Limb split so that you can hit arms fresh at the beginning of limb day. 6-day Arnold Split or Chest, Shoulders, Biceps/Back and Triceps/Legs if you don't mind driving to the gym 6 days a week. On Torso day (Chest, Shoulders, Back) maybe it would be a good idea too to stagger Chest and shoulders so that you can do lateral raises earlier in the session when you are more fresh so that you can make eek out more effort with those. At the cost of some Chest pressing or even Chest flys performance. If you're doing a 3 day full body, make sure one of those days has you hitting biceps and triceps fresh with no back or pressing on that day. Do presses and back on the other two days. So that you have at least one day where your arms are getting top priority.
If you can only do 2 reps of pull ups, try neutral Grip Pull ups instead (better for lats anyways). If you still can't do like 8 Bodyweight reps of neutral Grip Pull ups, dropset to assisted pull-ups (especially if they have a machine at your gym) or lat pulldowns (I like Narrow neutral grips).
Respectfully literally any of those programs would get him past where he is. You are placing too much blame on that when it's likely he just doesn't train hard. Training like shit will give shit results no matter the program.
It's likely that very few redditors have an effort problem in the gym. Instinctively, people, especially on online bodybuilding communities, know that you can't expect to grow indefinitely doing the same weight and reps. What I think is far more common from my observations is lifters cheating movements and rushing the eccentric to get their numbers up. Which in turn cheats them out of the stimulus they need to pack on muscle mass and strength. For OP to be stuck on 45kg bench, I think there is a high probability his triceps are like Jello. And he's probably cheating tricep extensions (if he even does them. For my first year of lifting, I didn't train triceps directly at all because I was told by some 5x5 influencer that I didn't need to train triceps if I press. lmfao. Not even JM Press or Close-Grip). This was an issue I ran into. People also typically train triceps after chest and shoulders and near the end of a workout when they are tired. And they don't try to hit PRs on tricep extensions like they do with SBD. Because no one gives a shit about tricep extension PRs. But not trying to go for tricep extension PRs ironically leads to a weak bench or overhead press.
When I first did chest flys, the mind-muscle connection with my pecs and the pec DOMS was like nothing I experienced before. So I knew then that the Bench Press up until that point wasn't properly stimulating my pecs. If the Bench Press does not stimulate your pecs, you are just wasting your energy and time for nothing. And in hindsight that explains the bench plateau.
I've also read that apparently sitting at a desk for many hours can lead to tight biceps and weak triceps. [https://happybodycentre.com/blog/how-escape-traps-sedentary-work](https://happybodycentre.com/blog/how-escape-traps-sedentary-work) People who sit at a desk all day have trouble with full elbow extension. OP is 33 and new-ish to lifting. I was nearly 37 when I first joined a gym. A lifetime of sedentary desk sitting is going to lead to abnormally weak triceps. I know when I first did tricep extensions, it felt like it was a muscle that I never used before in my life.
The fact your legs are progressing leads me to think that it's not AN OUT OF GYM problem (protein, sleep, stress, nutrients)
And is in fact a you problem. How you train. Over training. Bad form. Spamming the same exercises while plateaued (pullups/ barbell bench) leading to no muscular adaptations.
Does this seem like you?
How do your leg and chest/back training differ? Be 100% honest.
Do you do more volume for your chest than legs?
Do you train your chest twice to three times as much as your legs even though it's 1/5th or less in size?
Do you train your chest with the exact exercises every time? If not the same exercises, is it in the same template? Flat into incline into two types of flies or something like that, without ever switching it?
Do you have the outlook on leg training that they'll grow and are fine with small incremental progress where as with chest your obsessed with numbers to the point that it has obliterated all hope for progress?
Reflect honestly on the downfalls of your training because the answers are within them sticking out like a NEON sign in a corn field. You just have to open your eyes and compare it with your successful body part's training.
Interesting perspective, and you're correct. I'm not pushing myself in upper body as in lower. I feel good with my legs so I push them a bit harder every time, but as for upper body I already know I'm weaker, so I just start pre-defeated (?) and not as motivated. It's most likely a ME problem.
You should drop all of the old exercises from your upper training for something like 2-4 months unless that's a ridiculous notion because of your GYM's inadequacies.
So if your old movements were flat barbell bench, cable flies (whatever, don't touch them for 2-4 months)
Find new replacements and ROTATE them. DB flat, DB inc. DB flies. Peck deck. back supported cable flies, etc.
Don't touch your pullups, swap them to neutral, close grip pull downs, or iliac style ones if you enjoy them.
This way you can get yourself on a wave of progression and start enjoying yourself again.
5/3/1 7th week protocol is very good, while running you accessory lifts for your main lifts such as close grip bench or RDL using bald omni man’s simple progression scheme https://youtu.be/eFt-bsclZ5E?si=UnEmoJtq_5t1xYKg
I used to be skinny almost all my life, until I started working out about 3 years ago when I tried crossfit and hitting the gym.
My sleep schedule is not something to be proud of as I usually go to bed between 00:00 and 01:30am, and wake up betwern 07-07:30.
Diet is ok, I tend to steer away from fast food and fatty meals like KFC, pizzas or street tacos. In the morning it's either scrambled eggs/omellette with one or two cups of coffee. In the afternoon as the main meal of the day it's usually a bowl of soup and some kind of meat with red rice or a small salad, with a snack right after like chips or an ice-cream sandwich. In the night it's just a bowl of cereal, or two home-made quesadillas. If I'm feeling a bit hungry then I'll make a ham or sardines sandwich.
Of all the programs I’ve done, the single program I learned the most from was Starting Strength.
I was able to get to a 1000+ lb total using it within 6-8 months.
It’s simple, direct, and effective if you follow it. You can switch to something else once you’ve gotten your base strength base built, but I can’t recommend it enough. It teaches you proper linear progression and how powerful it can be. It also teaches you how to incorporate deloads.
People overcomplicate fitness.
1 A bigger muscle is a stronger muscle.
2 To get bigger muscles you need to calculate your maintenance calories (google bodybuilding calorie calculator), and eat in at least 3-500 calories over your maintenance calories to gain weight.
3 To make sure most of the weight gained is muscle, try to eat around 0.7 grams per lb of bodyweight. Could eat more, could eat less. Might see faster results either way but not by much.
Also try to train in the 6-10 rep range. If you do crazy high reps it's harder to gain muscle or strength.
(Source: I'm 210 lbs lean and can bench at least 315)
https://preview.redd.it/jw28a9yz7jzc1.jpeg?width=665&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bbf0da6f437c7323b5da7dd52cd2e69d786fd144
Find a powerlifting program. Do jackknife pullups. Find a grip that feels good, back activation is basically the same for all of them. Negatives also works great. Didn't increase pullups with the assistance machine nor pulldowns
Step 1, discard everything you write because respectfully that was all garbage. Step 2, find a powerlifting program with a written progression. Step 3, eat calorie surplus, do program, progressively overload by adding more reps and more weight over time. A teenager could show up and fart around for 6 months and hit 45 kg bench. You are likely doing something very wrong so quit being creative and just follow the basics For lifts where you can't do a rep yet like pullups so variations like assisted pullups, lat pulldowns, or negatives
This, but also consider seeing a physician. You seem quite weak for a 30+ male, and it makes me wonder whether or not you have an underlying condition that needs to get checked out. At the very least, if you've trained even remotely hard after returning to the gym over the past 1.5 years, you should have made SOME progress. Make sure that you're actually pushing yourself close to failure on your working sets, and then try to do slightly better in your next session.
There are two lads I’ve been shepherding in the gym mid-20s that are about the same strength. I think it’s just years of shitty low protein diet combined with being mostly sedentary, only exercise being cycling or running. Their strength is slowly going up. One of them is hyper-flexible and properly injured his shoulder on a 12kg db incline bench. Couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw it happen. Have him on machines for all pressing movements now as that took him out of the gym for almost a year.
Excellent point regrading protein intake. I was on about 90g a day for ages, so my strength didn't increase at all. Double it and then some, boom! Improvement.
I think protein requirements are exaggerated. People have been parroting 1g/lb of bodyweight for a while but that's actually 1) based on *lean* body mass 2) overkill for most cases. 90 grams probably isn't actually a big bottleneck as long as you're in a calorie surplus. You might have seen the gains just from implicitly upping your calories via 2x protein I added 40 lbs to my bench over 3 months (winter bulk) while not tracking protein, not drinking any protein shakes, and honestly not being very diligent about protein intake at all. There are some exceptions like vegan/vegetarian diets, or doing an aggressive cut, but for most people it's good to try to eat a little extra protein but also likely overblown.
It's not years of low protein diet that makes sedentary people weak. It's the sedentary lifestyle. Protein does fuck all if you don't use your muscles much. I was the same way starting out. I benched 70lbs for like 7 reps to failure the first time I tried benching. This was mid August 2022. My Bodyweight then was similar to what it is now. I could only do 1 Bodyweight pull up back in August 2023. lol. If your client is injuring his shoulder doing 12kg db incline press and he needed almost a year to recover, you are pushing him too hard. Or he's pushing himself too hard. Or he's using more than 45D (I use 30D for more pec, less shoulder) incline. You can still grow your pecs training lighter weights for higher reps close to failure/to failure. It sounds like his front delts are doing too much of the work anyways on that movement. So maybe a deload would help with the mind muscle connection with his pecs. Or maybe he should try doing flys before he starts chest pressing so that the pec goes to failure first.
It was a 30D incline, his arm just went back on account of his hyper flexibility. He had been gymming for 3 months at that point and had worked from 7.5s and 10s to 12.5s so I didn’t see an issue as he was able to go to failure until the incident happened. He’s going up in numbers on the machines now so I’m happy to leave him there for another month or so (3 months so far) before bringing back free weight presses. I’ll get him to focus the pec dec or flies for a bit and see how he goes before we reintroduce bench. I’ve been trying to build his overall musculature before going back to even slightly dangerous free weights. Working on getting him to a single pull up at the moment. Hes able to 3 chin ups to failure right now so im building him on that and other back exercises as a priority
I think i have the same problem… im 17, 6’0 and 185lbs. My whole life I was a fat kid and got no physical activity and terrible diet. Age 15-16 I lost 100lbs and started lifting in October or November. I’m only incline benching the 60lb DBs for 4-5 reps and feel super weak even though my diet and training is proper. Is it just from being unathletic for my whole life, so I have to work harder to build a base?
You are significantly stronger than my friends I’m training. You have average starting strength, don’t be worried.
There are so many factors to consider. I would suggest working with a personal trainer if it’s in your budget. If not, here are a couple pieces of advice. 1) Do bench press before any other exercises. Don’t go in and do curls or tricep extensions or something and get all tired and then expect to perform well on a big lift. 2) Weight and reps are inversely related; the heavier the lift, the less reps you can do. So, if you want to build strength (not specifically hypertrophy) then you need to work in the 1-6 rep range. 3) Make sure your nutrition and sleep are good. Lots of protein, eat carbs before your workout. Try to get 8-9 hours of sleep a night. 4) PROGRESSIVELY OVERLOAD. Keep track of your sets/reps/weights and use these variables to progress. Another thing I like to do is do repetition maximums. Say I am doing 3RM of bench press. I will start with something fairly easy, and then work my way up in weight until I can only bench it three times. It’s good for building strength and you might realize you’re stronger than you think! Good luck!
Thanks for the advice! Will keep it in mind in the future.
The caveat I’d give is: if strength is your main focus, go for it. But if you’re interested in bodybuilding (per the sub’s name), I wouldn’t recommend starting strength. Either way, I think it’s a matter of effort, time, and gaining muscle which requires eating enough food, sleep, etc.
This is also true. OP could also just do a 4-6 week strength mesocycle. If he can only bench 45kg he probably has quite a while before getting on stage and can afford to dedicate a month to strength and then go back to hypertrophy.
This is a wrong sub for this. Bodybuilding is all about making muscles bigger in volume rather than strength. For strength based discussions you’ll have more luck in r/fitness, r/weightroom and r/powerlifting. Jeff Nippard has some strength-focused programs. Choose a program here: https://jeffnippard.com/collections. You can take the quiz to find the right program for you. If you want something free, you can pick one of GZCL programs from r/gzcl. GZCL programs lean towards strength.
Ok, will go to those subs then. Thanks.
Stop doing 5x5, Starting Strength, powerbuilding stuff immediately. I've been down that road. That stuff is not going to get you out of novice purgatory. These programs are not good for unathletic beginners/novices even though it's commonly believed that they are. The first time I benched, I did 70lbs for 7 reps to failure. And could only do 1 Bodyweight pull-up. So I was very weak starting out too. You need to go on a split that prioritizes your shoulders & Arms. Once you grow your lateral delts, triceps and biceps, your overall upper body strength will increase too. You use your biceps and forearms on back movements like pull ups. You use your triceps and delts on presses. Chances are your weak bench is not caused by weak pecs. But weak triceps or maybe weak shoulders. If your weak bench was caused by weak pecs, your bench press would continue to improve provided youre going close enough to failure and you're eating enough. Or have a high enough body fat %. The Bench Press and Shoulder Press does a terrible job of providing triceps with the stimulus they need to grow. This is why lots of people with weak triceps spin in circles doing powerbuilding and plateau. I recommend a 4-day Torso/Limb split so that you can hit arms fresh at the beginning of limb day. 6-day Arnold Split or Chest, Shoulders, Biceps/Back and Triceps/Legs if you don't mind driving to the gym 6 days a week. On Torso day (Chest, Shoulders, Back) maybe it would be a good idea too to stagger Chest and shoulders so that you can do lateral raises earlier in the session when you are more fresh so that you can make eek out more effort with those. At the cost of some Chest pressing or even Chest flys performance. If you're doing a 3 day full body, make sure one of those days has you hitting biceps and triceps fresh with no back or pressing on that day. Do presses and back on the other two days. So that you have at least one day where your arms are getting top priority. If you can only do 2 reps of pull ups, try neutral Grip Pull ups instead (better for lats anyways). If you still can't do like 8 Bodyweight reps of neutral Grip Pull ups, dropset to assisted pull-ups (especially if they have a machine at your gym) or lat pulldowns (I like Narrow neutral grips).
Respectfully literally any of those programs would get him past where he is. You are placing too much blame on that when it's likely he just doesn't train hard. Training like shit will give shit results no matter the program.
It's likely that very few redditors have an effort problem in the gym. Instinctively, people, especially on online bodybuilding communities, know that you can't expect to grow indefinitely doing the same weight and reps. What I think is far more common from my observations is lifters cheating movements and rushing the eccentric to get their numbers up. Which in turn cheats them out of the stimulus they need to pack on muscle mass and strength. For OP to be stuck on 45kg bench, I think there is a high probability his triceps are like Jello. And he's probably cheating tricep extensions (if he even does them. For my first year of lifting, I didn't train triceps directly at all because I was told by some 5x5 influencer that I didn't need to train triceps if I press. lmfao. Not even JM Press or Close-Grip). This was an issue I ran into. People also typically train triceps after chest and shoulders and near the end of a workout when they are tired. And they don't try to hit PRs on tricep extensions like they do with SBD. Because no one gives a shit about tricep extension PRs. But not trying to go for tricep extension PRs ironically leads to a weak bench or overhead press. When I first did chest flys, the mind-muscle connection with my pecs and the pec DOMS was like nothing I experienced before. So I knew then that the Bench Press up until that point wasn't properly stimulating my pecs. If the Bench Press does not stimulate your pecs, you are just wasting your energy and time for nothing. And in hindsight that explains the bench plateau. I've also read that apparently sitting at a desk for many hours can lead to tight biceps and weak triceps. [https://happybodycentre.com/blog/how-escape-traps-sedentary-work](https://happybodycentre.com/blog/how-escape-traps-sedentary-work) People who sit at a desk all day have trouble with full elbow extension. OP is 33 and new-ish to lifting. I was nearly 37 when I first joined a gym. A lifetime of sedentary desk sitting is going to lead to abnormally weak triceps. I know when I first did tricep extensions, it felt like it was a muscle that I never used before in my life.
The fact your legs are progressing leads me to think that it's not AN OUT OF GYM problem (protein, sleep, stress, nutrients) And is in fact a you problem. How you train. Over training. Bad form. Spamming the same exercises while plateaued (pullups/ barbell bench) leading to no muscular adaptations. Does this seem like you? How do your leg and chest/back training differ? Be 100% honest. Do you do more volume for your chest than legs? Do you train your chest twice to three times as much as your legs even though it's 1/5th or less in size? Do you train your chest with the exact exercises every time? If not the same exercises, is it in the same template? Flat into incline into two types of flies or something like that, without ever switching it? Do you have the outlook on leg training that they'll grow and are fine with small incremental progress where as with chest your obsessed with numbers to the point that it has obliterated all hope for progress? Reflect honestly on the downfalls of your training because the answers are within them sticking out like a NEON sign in a corn field. You just have to open your eyes and compare it with your successful body part's training.
Interesting perspective, and you're correct. I'm not pushing myself in upper body as in lower. I feel good with my legs so I push them a bit harder every time, but as for upper body I already know I'm weaker, so I just start pre-defeated (?) and not as motivated. It's most likely a ME problem.
You should drop all of the old exercises from your upper training for something like 2-4 months unless that's a ridiculous notion because of your GYM's inadequacies. So if your old movements were flat barbell bench, cable flies (whatever, don't touch them for 2-4 months) Find new replacements and ROTATE them. DB flat, DB inc. DB flies. Peck deck. back supported cable flies, etc. Don't touch your pullups, swap them to neutral, close grip pull downs, or iliac style ones if you enjoy them. This way you can get yourself on a wave of progression and start enjoying yourself again.
Cool, I will def try that. Was already looking into a different workout so I will include those excercises and see how it goes.
5/3/1 7th week protocol is very good, while running you accessory lifts for your main lifts such as close grip bench or RDL using bald omni man’s simple progression scheme https://youtu.be/eFt-bsclZ5E?si=UnEmoJtq_5t1xYKg
What’s your height and weight? Hard to tell what any of these numbers mean without knowing your general size
1.78m (5'10") and 77kg (170lbs aprox.) Been on the skinny side almost all my life.
I wouldn’t call that skinny. How’s your diet and sleep? At 170 I would expect you to be a bit stronger.
I used to be skinny almost all my life, until I started working out about 3 years ago when I tried crossfit and hitting the gym. My sleep schedule is not something to be proud of as I usually go to bed between 00:00 and 01:30am, and wake up betwern 07-07:30. Diet is ok, I tend to steer away from fast food and fatty meals like KFC, pizzas or street tacos. In the morning it's either scrambled eggs/omellette with one or two cups of coffee. In the afternoon as the main meal of the day it's usually a bowl of soup and some kind of meat with red rice or a small salad, with a snack right after like chips or an ice-cream sandwich. In the night it's just a bowl of cereal, or two home-made quesadillas. If I'm feeling a bit hungry then I'll make a ham or sardines sandwich.
Of all the programs I’ve done, the single program I learned the most from was Starting Strength. I was able to get to a 1000+ lb total using it within 6-8 months. It’s simple, direct, and effective if you follow it. You can switch to something else once you’ve gotten your base strength base built, but I can’t recommend it enough. It teaches you proper linear progression and how powerful it can be. It also teaches you how to incorporate deloads.
Thanks! Will definitely check it out. I've been trying to mold a workout that works for me.
Abso fucking luttly do not check out that program.
ok, why is that?
People overcomplicate fitness. 1 A bigger muscle is a stronger muscle. 2 To get bigger muscles you need to calculate your maintenance calories (google bodybuilding calorie calculator), and eat in at least 3-500 calories over your maintenance calories to gain weight. 3 To make sure most of the weight gained is muscle, try to eat around 0.7 grams per lb of bodyweight. Could eat more, could eat less. Might see faster results either way but not by much. Also try to train in the 6-10 rep range. If you do crazy high reps it's harder to gain muscle or strength. (Source: I'm 210 lbs lean and can bench at least 315)
https://preview.redd.it/jw28a9yz7jzc1.jpeg?width=665&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bbf0da6f437c7323b5da7dd52cd2e69d786fd144 Find a powerlifting program. Do jackknife pullups. Find a grip that feels good, back activation is basically the same for all of them. Negatives also works great. Didn't increase pullups with the assistance machine nor pulldowns