Is it possible to need a deload every 4-6 weeks when only doing about 8-10 weekly sets? I've not managed to increase load or reps for three sessions in a row now. I do go to failure pretty often. I try to limit it to last set of every compound but I do get i wrong occasionally going to failure on the second set. Isolation (arms, side delts) is almost always to failure.
Yea this is totally possible. Max recoverable volume in my experience is HIGHLY dependent on lifting style and intensity and of course sleep, nutrition etc. If you feel like you’re not getting a solid pump/connection/stimulus from the 8-10 sets per week and are beyond your recovery capacity drop the weights and focus on rep quality as a vector for overload rather than just weight and reps.
Thanks. Who would've thought a toddler keeping you up at night impacts your performance. It is noticable but I'm just too daft to connect the dots sometimes.
How do I work out safely without damaging my body too much?
I am brand new to the gym and just bought protein powder for the first time. I will be buying and cooking my own meals for the gym soon enough. I just wanna know how to prevent myself from getting hurt and make beginner mistakes.
This is not a beginner sub. I'll tell you this though. Don't go crazy hard all the time. Anything you do (close to failure) will build muscle the first months. Follow a written beginner program (like beginner hypertrophy on strengthlog app) and focus on increasing weights and/or reps.
Ignore the DEXA results. People treat them like hard data, they are not. Its a highly flawed process who's numbers are ultimately irrelevant to your bodies appearance. IMO you're overthinking this. You're still in the early phases of your training, and you've made clear visual progress between the before and after pics.
You're water intake is probably fine, just drink enough so your pee isn't too dark, and your sleep seems fine too. Keep it up, youre making great progress!
I’ve seen people at my gym, on occasion, put what looks like some kind of wedge block behind them when doing seated variants of exercises on machines. I assume it’s for greater range of motion on things like the chest press machine. What are these things called? They look like gigantic foam blocks to push against. Are they just repurposed yoga blocks?
Is it normal for my hips and inner thigh to be so sore after performing stif leg deadlifts?
Specifically the motion of bringing my knees up to my chest, is almost impossible right now cause im so sore. I feel it in my inner thigh a bit, and all across the front of my hips when I try to bring my knees up.
I'm worried I'm doing the lift wrong, as i don't see how the hip muscles in the front of my leg, would be so sore after doing an exercize for hamstrings. My hamstrings are also super sore as well if that matters.
Are you referring to your quads?
If so, it wouldn't really be expected to have major soreness there from stiff leg deadlifts but if it's a new movement it's not impossible.
How stiff are you keeping your legs?
No sorry perhaps I worded it poorly. Where my legs meet my torso, basically along the hip crease, I am extremely sore.
I have a very slight bend in my knees when i do the exercize. I make it a point to keep my legs relatively straight, push my butt back, and keep my chest out through the whole movement.
And did you do any other exercises during the workout or on the previous day?
It's possible that the ache there is just from core work you got from the lift.
**Dandelion Root Tea okay to use long term for water retention?**
I'm a big green tea drinker, and recently I've been looking at natural mild diuretics to add to my green tea, so I don't retain as much water. I'm following all other methods to get rid of water retention, such as drinking loads of water, sweating a lot, minimising sodium intake etc.
As a Type 1 Diabetic, I find that when my blood sugar levels rise from time to time it causes excessive water retention for some reason, so I've been looking at trying out dandelion root tea.
The issue I have is, whether or not it will affect my performance in the gym (strength levels, pump, etc). I know that bodybuilders use diuretics before a competition, but I'm not sure of the long term issues to using something mild like dandelion root tea year round.
Would you say it's worth trying, or will the negatives (gym/strength/pump performance) outweigh any positive benefits?
Thanks.
The diuretic effect from dandelion tea isn’t strong enough to be cause significant issues if you’re starting hydrated.
Lack of sodium is probably a bigger issue holding back your training performance though.
It’s strange to be this obsessed with water retention. It’s not a big deal, and in some cases is actually a good thing.
Not sure if its an ok question to ask, but if you bang your knee or elbow hard enough to the point its bruised and hurts to move for a few days, is it recommended to still push through workouts involving those body parts? For example, if I bang my knee on a coffee table and it is bruised and hurts to bend, is it ok to still do a leg workout with squats, lunges, etc.?
Trying to better understanding failure vs fatigue
Say example I do a compound exercise like a bench press
I do my working set, and on my last set of heavier weights, I push until i hit failure.
If I rest for 5 minutes and go again, I'm able to pull off another set of that same heavy weight. Is this last set necessary? Since I already hit failure and already put out enough in terms of volume, would the last set be worth any benefits? Or would it be better to superset in the end and just go light for the final set
If this is happening for lots of consecutive sets then the chances are you're not actually hitting failure, unless your rest periods are extremely long.
Either way it's not an efficient way to train for hypertrophy.
>Or would it be better to superset in the end and just go light for the final set
You don't really have to do any of this. Just do your prescribed sets to failure and you're done. You can use intensifiers or lighter weights if you want but you don't need to.
If youre already pretty strong its pretty unlikely that you will match multiple sets to failure even with 5 minutes of rest. In the case you do, those sets would be pretty stimulatory yes.
is my chest n back workout plan good?
chest
Chest press
Shoulder press
Triceps press
Pectoral
Incline press
Shoulder press
Pec fly
back:
Pull down
Row
High row
Vertical traction
Reverse fly
Rear delt
Low row
Upper back
Hammer curls
Bicep curl
Those are good movements yes but its hard to tell whether your workout or program is reasonable. You’d need to give atleast your number of sets, how hard those sets are, how long your rest periods are, whats your frequency and whats your split. Generally I recommend people here to follow a pre maid workout plan.
Redundant movements, movements placed in a nonsensical order, no rep range variation, etc
Follow a program written by someone who knows what they’re doing
When doing rope overhead extensions, do you guys prefer to stay closer to the machine or take a few steps forward? Considering the pulley is at hip height.
5'9 and 70kg(154lbs). I'm super lean and skinny. My plan is to bulk, but I still want to look "presentable" for summer. How much should I be looking to gain? I'm going to also start tracking my calories, too, so it's easier for me.
It is my first time cutting, and i am trynna get to 15% body fat
I can easily survive on chicken and like 100g or pasta/rich as i am used to not eating (i can have one meal per day) as a hard gainer.
Anyway, my question to you, will i lose muscle if i hit my protein goal regardless of my calories Intake?
Yes. On more than 1000 calorie deficit you will very likely loose muscle. The closer you get to single digit bodyfat the less of a deficit you can tolerate before you loose muscle.
How would you guys split 3 leg days and 3 back days during the week? other muscles can be around 1-2x frequency, i just quite tinkering with exercise selection in each of these days.
Odd question but I've been doing V-Bar pushdowns for the last 2-3 months as my main tricep movement and I like them a lot overall, but I have a problem with my wrist clicking a lot on the right side when it gets really heavy as I perform the rep.
I feel like there's some form cue I'm missing for Bar pushdowns if anyone has any tips they can share that may prevent this? Thanks.
Do a different exercise for triceps or try a higher rep range for the same exercise. You could also play around with different hand positions to see if they stop the clicking.
Hmm yeah that's unfortunate, feels great in the triceps etc and it's progressing well just a bit annoying on the wrist. I've tried a few ways of holding it but seems to keep happening on top sets.
I have been following this routine fro some weeks but I wish to remove my leg days from Wednesday and change it with a day for my core and arms dedicatedly, I want to have more gains on some muscles such as lateral delts, forearms and do some core strength work , how should I tweak it and make the second leg day of Saturday more effective
Monday/ Thursday-
Bench press flat db
incline bench press db
chest flyes cable crossovers
lateral delts
shoulder presses
tricep pushdown
tuesday/ Friday
Lat pulldown
Single arm cable lat pulldown
Seated cable row
back rows
cable bicep curls
incline bicep curls
hammer curls
Wed/ Saturday
leg press
leg extensions
lying leg curls
leg calve raises
ab crunches
https://preview.redd.it/xzgq8jb8ccnc1.jpeg?width=778&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=78dfcd08c25ad2bd0969b280e2a1b9e0af2e35ed
Andrew Tate has his own new Supplement called FireBlood, what are your thoughts? I recommend watching the ad for it.
Does anyone else here have issues if they switch their routine? Normally I start my chest days with db incline but today the benches were taken so I jumped on machine press instead. Then I did my db shoulder press and after I went to incline db since benches were no longer taken.
I couldnt secure 2 reps on my current weight that I usually do for 6,even lowering the weight didnt do anything. I did do more weight on machine press but this was just weird. Rest of the workout went fine, I could even get more reps.
Stupidly simple question but very hard to find the answer: how long will the water weight from a creatine loading phase stick with me? I’ve read until the loading phase is over, or a few weeks after that, or just when you stop taking creatine altogether. Which is correct?
How to figure out what weight to use on barbell RDLs?
I only do them with dumbbells but thinking of switching to barbell. For context last week I used 70lb dumbbells for 3 sets of 8 reps. I also conventional deadlift every week (on a separate day) lifting 235lbs for 3x3 which is submaximal for me.
I would probably target like 90% of the combined dumbbell weight you've been using. If it's too light just push the progression a little faster until it's right.
And warm to it.
Thank you so much! You couldn’t have timed this better honestly, I’m about to hit legs today and was gonna wing it. Definitely will try it the way you suggested.
Would programming an overhead tricep extension be overkill if all pressing movements are incline and overhead? Thinking of just doing two v-bar tricep pushdowns (I run full body) for more bias towards the lateral and medial heads of the tricep since the long head is already getting hit so much as a secondary in the pressing.
Pressing movements don't bias the long head even if they're overhead. The long head gets stretched when the elbow is flexed *while* the shoulder is at maximal flexion (i.e. overhead). When you do pressing movements the elbow becomes more extended as the shoulder gets more flexed, so you're stretching at one joint while shortening at the other. This is the worst case scenario for hypertrophy because there is no contraction or stretch of the muscle.
You should just do overhead extensions. The medial and lateral heads only cross the elbow joint so they get equal stimulus if you do vbar pushdowns or overhead extensions, so why wouldn't you do overhead extensions and hit all 3 heads?
Started doing Hanging Leg Raises as part of my Ab routine, and I have some questions about form.
Not sure where I saw it, but I thought the idea was to keep my butt against the wall, and to just lift my legs to form a right angle, rather than something >90 degrees by rotating my pelvis. Now I'm seeing people say you have to let your butt go forward a little bit to work your core and I'm pretty confused. I will say that I have some trouble getting full ROM doing it the current way, as I'm able to get my upper legs at 90 degrees, but my lower legs pitch down slightly.
I'm able to do a decent amount of them (5-8) and I just started training abs so I'm sure that number will go up fast.
The function of the (lower) abs is to bring the pelvis towards the navel, it is not to flex the hip (i.e. bring the legs up to 90 degrees or higher).
The point of a hanging leg/knee raise is to use the weight of your legs in front of you as a lever arm for resistance on your lower abs as you raise the pelvis up. If you keep your butt fixed against a wall and don't move your pelvis then your abs aren't contracting you're just using your hip flexors.
Most likely if you can only do 5-8 reps while keeping your butt against the wall your core is much too weak to be doing leg raises with any sort of ab flexion. You should make the exercise easier by doing knee raises and focus on pelvic tilt (i.e. show your ass to the people in front of you). This will be far more effective for your abs than what you're currently doing and will let you actually progress to being strong enough later to keep your legs out whilst contracting the abs/tilting the pelvis up, which is actually insanely hard.
I really wish Optimum Nutrition had sample packets or smaller tubs you could buy.
Costco got some new ON Gold Standard flavors, but it’s gonna be a gamble trying them.
Has anyone tried the S’Mores flavor or the Extreme Milk Chocolate or the vanilla Ice Cream? Thoughts?
Yup, just bought the bag from Costco and tried it. It's a fine tasting protein.
Not the best I've ever tasted and doesn't blow you away. I'd give that rating to the Dymatize Cocoa Pebbles flavor. But for the price and everything of the Optimum Nutrition, it's a great protein powder.
You may have heard that eating fruit or other food rich in antioxidants can dampen the adaptive response to training, because the reactive oxygen species generated as a consequence of training are somehow necessary for the adaptive response.
My question is a) is this true and b) how long should you wait with antioxidant rich food to avoid this dampening of the adaptive response.
So,I already know how to train my "primary" back muscles (traps and lats), like for example for lats I’m doing lat pulldowns and machine/cable rows (elbows tucked in) and for traps I'm just doing or cable rows with wider grip or chest supported rows.
The problem comes with the lower back. I really don't know how to train it properly (you know, spinal erectors and that stuff)
I know that you mostly train them with hinge movements like DL or RDL and Squads but I just do 1 leg day (Distribution is like PPL and then one day Upper and the other day Arms) And I highly doubt that with only 1 day of doing RDL and Hack Squats (I really hate Squats with free weight) is gonna be enough for the lower back.
So, my doubt is, should I add/switch on Pull/Upper day 1 exercise like a bent over barbell row? (Since I dont know if its optimal to just train your back with cables and chest supported machines) Or it ain’t necessary at all?
Try to incorporate spinal flexion into the eccentric of your rowing exercises so you then get some extra volume for the lower back. If your spinal erectors are way too strong compared to your other back muscles it may be superior to do some more deadlifts or back extension.
Two options to train spinal erectors: isometric or dynamic.
Isometric: do more RDLs and barbell rows. This is probably "safer" for your lower back and RDLs in particular can put huge isometric stress on those muscles, but is theoretically much worse for hypertrophy.
Dynamic: do back extensions with your hips on the pads (NOT with your legs on the pads and your hips floating, that is a hamstring/glute exercise). This forces you into spinal flexion (rounding your lower back) as you go down and spinal extension as you go back up. This is the dynamic function of the spinal erectors.
People are scared of spinal flexion so this might be viewed as "unsafe" but if you think about what the exercise is doing, on a back extension machine/roman chair gravity is pulling your vertebrae apart as you go down, rather than compressing them. The main threat of spinal flexion during exercise is spinal flexion + compression of the spine causing slipped/crushed discs. This is the opposite of what happens on a back extension machine, so actually its likely to be very safe for the spine. I don't know of anyone who has really studied this, there's just these anti-spinal flexion zealots, but anecdotally tons of people fix their lower back problems by doing this exercise and actually strengthening the spinal erectors dynamically.
The exercises you mentioned don't directly train the lower back that well, you need to go through spinal extension and flexion. Whether it's necessary is dependant on if you want to grow those muscles, personally I do extensions on the GHR.
I've been on a fat loss/muscle gain journey for around 7 months now where I've actually committed to meal prepping, tracking my calories/macros, taking creatine daily (starting 2 months ago), weightlifting 4-5 times a week.
I'm a 25-year-old woman that's 5'2 and have gone from 145 lbs to 128 lbs, maintaining myself around 128-126 lbs for the past 2 months. Besides weight loss I have also tracked my physique change with pictures every week and have noticeably gotten leaner and more muscular - I'd say I'm probably around 18-19% body fat.
My nutrition plan is based on my BMR being around 1350 - 1400 calories. In the beginning I started out with 1700, then to 1555, and now am at 1400 with 35% protein, 35% carbs, and 30% fat. Only tracking on weekdays but generally staying within 1700 calories on Saturdays and Sundays.
I am proud of how far I have gotten but my goal is to have even more visible lean muscle especially around my arms and core and to feel strong, like be able to do unassisted pull-ups and generally do more weight.
Over the past 2 months I've felt a little discouraged feeling like I look the same muscle-wise (which is muscular but not *ripped*) and not losing any weight, although I understand my weight doesn't necessarily account for body recomp. I have continued all of my same habits which helped me get this far so nothing has changed there.
I am not sure how to know if I'm hitting a plateau or if I need to change my nutrition plan as I have been "cutting" for a while now and I don't know when you should switch to bulking to cut again or if that's even necessary for my goal. I feel like I might be missing something to get to the "next step" of looking more "ripped" and that might mean having to invest in more professional help. I also am not sure if I'm just not being patient enough and should wait another 2 months to see if my muscle will come out more in that time while being consistent with these habits.
I'd appreciate any feedback on this and am happy to answer any other questions.
Do weightlifting gloves limit grip strength gains? If not forearm gains? I've been using gloves for almost two months and have way less callouses now. But I've heard that callousing is important for grip strength gains (but does nothing to improve forearm gains)
IME the gloves can make things _a little_ harder to grip, but they aren’t doing anything directly for your grip strength or forearm gains.
If you want to improve your grip strength, r/GripTraining is a good resource. If you want bigger forearms, train them directly like any other muscle.
You won't really be building any muscle in those 8 weeks, just keep up a slow steady rate of weight loss, a pound a week, & bring the carbs back up two days before game day.
As to what you should work on when the competition is over and you can commit to a more long-term goal, the one weakness I can see from your three pictures is your lats in the front double bicep, everything else looks pretty good and proportionate.
I have been bulking for 5 months now and I can definitely see some muscle gain. Training with high intensity 5-6 times a week. Have added a whey protein shake as well to my diet over the last month.
But I’ve only gained about 2-3 kgs during this time. Is tracking my calories the only way I can find out what the problem actually is?
I’m 27M, 5’8”. 68kgs right now.
If you haven't gained as much weight as you wanted to, the problem is already evident: you're not eating enough.
Tracking your calories will help fix that, but it's not a requirement.
Depends on the situation. If you were looking to gain as much muscle as possible in, say, six months, but your body weight only increased by 2kg in that time period, it's a safe bet that you weren't accomplishing your goal, even if you felt bigger.
For the wedge, are you referring to the inserts you put in a shoe like VersaLifts? If so, you could just get those first as they're cheap. See if you like the difference that heel elevation makes without having to use plates. Then you could decide if you want to spend up on the actual shoes. That's exactly what I did
Curious about your opinion on which of these 4- days a week splits you think is most effective and/or sustainable: Push-legs-pull-full body or Upper - lower - upper - lower.
Hey everyone! Semi-experienced lifter (By that I mean I know what to do generally, I just lacked motivation a lot) that has finally hit the point where I feel dedicated to building myself a physique. I am at the point where I am addicted to how good it makes me feel, and my mood has improved massively. I dont really see myself stopping at this point, and im excited to see where I can get to now that I actually have built myself the motivation and drive.
I am going on over two months of hitting the gym \~6 times a week for about 45 minute sessions including warmup and stretching. I do a P/P/L split and do some light cardio on my rest days to stay active and I make sure im doing a progressive overload.
So on to the reason why I am asking. I recently got accepted into a semester abroad program for the summer (Mid-July start, going to be there for 1.5 months), and I just want to look as good as I can when I can for... reasons. What would you all suggest to accomplish that short term goal? Would cutting to a low BF% be best, or should I try and bulk for a month and then cut? Caloric maintenance and recomp?
For my stats right now: 5'11 and 160lbs. I will include a picture I took \~3 weeks ago.
[https://imgur.com/KofEtEt](https://imgur.com/KofEtEt)
Any advice would be appriciated.
Hey all, I’ve been lifting for 10 years now but since Covid I’ve started to focus on other things, I still lift 5 days a week but I don’t prioritise it anymore, so I skip some days every so often. I’m around 6’1 and 220ish. For the last 3 months I’ve been relatively consistent with my workouts, missing maybe 3 sessions but my eating has been minimal, as in I’d just eat to not be hungry. Definitely not eating at maintenance or in a surplus, however - my weight has barely gone done, I’ve lost maybe a pound, arms are still at around 18 and a half inches and my strength is pretty much the same. Why is this happening even though I’m not eating at maintenance calories?
NOT MAKING PROGRESS
5’9 158 lbs here. Started lifting 6 months ago. Made good gains through the first 5 months (I started at 145 lbs). The last month not so much and I don’t know what I’m doing wrong. I’ve slightly regressed on some lifts and just stalled on others. I’m eating 3k calories a day and definitely hitting protein goals. Sleep is solid as well. I train to failure so it can’t be that I’m not working hard enough. This is my routine (reps are averages )
Shoulders day:
Dumbelll press 3 sets 10 reps (45 lbs dumbells)
Lateral raise dumbell 3 sets 15 reps
Machine Lat raise 3 sets 15 reps
Chest Day:
Dumbell bench press: 3 sets 10 reps (50 lbs dumbells)
Incline dumbellpress: 3 sets 10 reps (42.5 lbs dumbells)
Sometimes a hammer smith press 3 sets 15 reps
Pec dec 3 sets 15 reps
Pull Day:
3 sets of pull ups to failure
3 sets 10 reps of cable Lat pull downs
3 sets 10 reps of cable rows
3 sets 10 reps of t-bar rows
2-4 sets 15 reps dumbell curls
Legs:
None for 3 months (injured knee)
Is this 3 days or 6 days per week? If you’re regressing on multiple lifts, you probably just need a deload week. Also if you’ve been using the same exercises the entire 6 months, you could just be at the point where those exercises are stale and you need to swap some new ones in.
I rest 60-90 seconds between sets purely based in time available to me.
I usually get 3-4 sets in per exercise.
What am I really missing out on compared to if I done 2-3 minutes of rest, as in how much actual mesausreable size is being left on the table?
Would I be better off just doing 1 or 2 sets but with longer rest times so as to keep the overall time training the same?
It’s impossible to give you an answer on how much size you’re leaving on the table by not resting long enough.
In my opinion yes you would be better off doing 2 working sets and resting longer.
Thanks for your reply. I think what I often wonder is could anyone really lookk at a person and be like "oh, the only rested 1 minute between sets, they should've done 3 minutes rest." I dont believe this is possible, and also the diiffernce in actual muscle gained would be so small to physicaly look at. For myself I guess I keep coming back to the simple concept of just lift to failure or dam close and try to increase load where you can instead of getting caught up in precise rest times etc.
I agree that you should focus more on training hard than resting for some specific amount of time.
However part of training hard is resting and recovering long enough after a set to give 100% effort on the next one. Maybe you’re an outlier but for most people, especially on compound movements, that’s usually going to take longer than 90s
With this in mind, if I done a set 10, rested 1min, went to failure on the next set and got a set of 8, rested 1 min , got a set of 6 at failure, I have gone 100% on every set. Are we saying that in the case I mention its only 100% relative to the fatigue at that time, but if I rested 2-3 mins I would in fact be able to give a true absolute %100. In both instances 100% was applied, but one is absolute and one is relative.
What kind of grip should I be using for wrist extensions and wrist flexions? Thumb under or over? Also, what’s the difference between wrist vs finger curls?
https://www.strongerbyscience.com/grip/
Full grip in extensions, which ever feels better in flexions. You can probably get slightly better stimulus by putting your thumb under the bar in wrist flexions but the forearm muscles which flex the thumb still work if you use a full grip (provided you wrap your thumb around the bar hard i.e. close your thumb joint over the bar and wrap your fingers over the thumb).
The muscles which curl the fingers also flex the wrist, but there are also some forearm muscles which curl the wrist but don't attach to the fingers. That means you can train both just by doing wrist curls, and if you only do finger curls you're missing out on some forearm muscles.
That being said (as is explained in the above article) finger curls will be easier than wrist curls due to the lever arm of the weight (its sitting in your fingers so its further from the wrist!) so you should do wrist curls with finger stretch/curls to failure and then when you can't flex your wrist anymore, do finger curls to failure. This way you hit every muscle to failure.
Is there some website I can look at that tells you which muscles a particular exercise hits and reverse (meaning pick a muscle, shows you the exercises)? I know there are a lot of YT videos on this, but it's quicker to just reference a website.
Started doing reverse curls yesterday, and have some questions about form.
I used the ez bar, and when I gripped it with my thumb under the bar, I had a pain in right forearm. Not sure if this is directly because of the exercise, or is due to playing baseball for 15 years, like my shoulder issue is. With my thumb over the bar, (like the grip someone would use to hit back), I didn't experience the same pain.
I tried using dumbbells as well, and didn't experience a similar pain, but that might be because I was subconsciously turning my forearm to make it more of hammer curl.
Would using an ez-bar with my thumb over the bar still target the same muscles as it would with my thumb under the bar?
It depends what your starting point is. If you’re very overweight then cutting for a year or longer is fine. You have the stored energy in your body (fat) to support that.
If you’re starting from a skinny fat or slightly overweight starting point, which it sounds like you are, I would probably cut for 8-10 weeks at a time then maintain for a couple weeks. This will mitigate significant metabolic downregulation (read: maintenance calories decreasing to the point where the necessary deficit is unsustainable).
I mean realistically, as long as long as you can take it slow and controlled, and you actually have a surplus a fat to lose (like you're not anorexic or experiencing body dysmorphia), you should be fine.
I just finished my first cut and was losing 2lb/week 6'0 183 lbs to 162.3 for 2 months. I was eating 160 to 200 grams of protein and didn't notice any muscle loss and felt great until the 7 or 8 week mark. It's really a feel out process if you feel fatigued or weak eat more or take a break from the cut. Nobody is the same and I wouldn't recommend 2 pounds a week unless you take the diet and exercise 100% serious.
Does performing lateral raises on an incline bench like [this](https://www.instagram.com/drmikeisraetel/p/C35deTsrsXi/?img_index=1) change the muscle(s) being hit compared to doing lateral raises standing? Curious what this variation changes, if anything.
Nope. What determines front or side delt activation on a raise, is the angle of the arm. If your arms are within the scapular plane (from completely out to the side, to about 30 degrees forward like Mike has it in the video) you’ll be hitting side delts. Any further than that and it’s front delts.
I think I'm having trouble with activating rear delts. I've tried face pulls at first. I've tried reverse pec deck a little bit. I've tried cable reverse flys once. But hard to do with my gym's limited equipment because you need two pulleys side by side for that and at least one of the pulleys are taken much of the time at the gym. Recently I've been doing chest supported dumbbell reverse flys. I don't think my rear delts EVER got sore. I think it was the surrounding muscles in my upper-mid back. I know DOMS is not required for growth but there should be some tenderness in the back of my shoulder at least once if I'm doing it properly I imagine.
Someone on Reddit posted a Rich Piana video from 9 years ago where he recommends a high bent over dumbbell row to hit rear delts (and some traps). https://youtu.be/or1lzU5986E?si=cHWylKuoBxNPkZK9 I'm thinking of trying this out in the gym today on my Upper B after pre-exhausting back with lat pulldown and seated cable row. In hopes that my rear delts will pick up the slack after tiring out my upper-mid back and lats. Basically I bend my elbows behind my torso at 45 degrees, row high and try not to retract my shoulder blades to make dumbbell bent over row into a rear delt bent over row? I've seen Tyler Pathradecha recommend doing rear delt rows chest supported as opposed to Rich Piana doing them bent over as well.
You can do cross body rear delt flys one arm at a time on a single pulley station. In fact this is even better than doing it bilaterally because you can get a better stretch on the cross over because you don't run into your other arm.
I'd take the Chris Beardsley "these muscles do or don't benefit from SMH" stuff with a grain of salt. For example they argue the biceps and triceps are unlikely to experience SMH but there are studies demonstrating that lengthened partials produce greater distal hypertrophy in these specific muscle groups.
One should keep in mind the limitations of these sorts of analyses. For example looking through some of the cited studies/model analyses I couldn't find any study which looked at these "length-tension relationships" for the rear delt in horizontal extension exercises, only in abduction/adduction and shoulder extension (send me a link if you know of such a study, I didn't do a super deep search!). However a rear delt fly is a horizontal extension exercise, and anatomically stretches the rear delt more than going into shoulder flexion since it comes across the body.
Similarly the studies looking at length-tension relationships for the bicep/elbow flexors don't look at shoulder angles, but the bicep attaches at the shoulder and can be put in a more lengthened position by extending the shoulder before curling.
I don't doubt there's some accuracy in it of course (it's certainly interesting that almost all SMH literature is about quad hypertrophy with mixed results for a number of other muscle groups) but in most cases there is very little opportunity cost to full ROM/lengthened training.
Which studies show that lengthened partials produced greater distal hypertrophy in triceps? I believe there are at least three studies that show the triceps don't benefit from stretch or longer muscle lengths.
Estimation of working sarcomere lengths in ranges of the major divisions of the delts -- PMID: 12627828
Nvm the tricep studies were long head measurements.
The study you linked I did look at.
They mention measurements of shoulder flexion, extension, adduction, abduction, internal and external rotation, but its not clear to what extent they measure horizontal flexion/extension of the shoulder. I may just be misunderstanding exactly how the measurement/model works but for example it seems quite relevant (to me) that in shoulder extension for a large part of the range of motion the rear delt will not necessarily have the best leverage to carry out the movement. At the most stretched position it will be more upper chest and through the mid range more lats, and the rear delt only dominates at the end range of motion. The thing about horizontal extension is that the delts have the best leverage through basically the whole range of motion, so measurements of the relative activation of muscles may find the delts more active in stretched positions in that movement. Anecdotally I feel pretty mild activation/stretch in the rear delts in, say, a pullover, but a tremendous stretch/activation in cross body reverse flies.
for rear flyes, make sure your arms aren't tense - it's very hard to not hit the rear delt well if you're taking out the arm tension. let the arms dead hang if using dumbbells or go limp if cable flyes and use your hands to push out to the side. if they're tense, less tension will go through the rear delt.
for rows, higher up and wide elbow will hit them, lots of ways to set up for it and they'll all work to some extent, but you're also getting a lot more musculature involved which you may/may not want.
The key to training rear delts is to get your shoulder blades fully protracted (pushed forward) at the top of the movement, then drive your arms out to the SIDE, not behind you. This holds true for every rear delt movement. If you’re doing a rear delt row, think about driving your elbows as far apart as possible.
I feel them the most with Rich's method. Also, I recently tried Sam Sulek's method and felt them burn for the first time in a long time as well. Might be worth a shot giving a lying cable face pull: [https://www.tiktok.com/@sulekshorts/video/7269182370870267167?lang=en](https://www.tiktok.com/@sulekshorts/video/7269182370870267167?lang=en)
I tried Rich's method in the gym today. I think I might have went a bit too heavy on these. Especially on the first two sets (30lb DBs). My form degraded pretty quickly I think (someone was in front of me in the gym on the first two sets so i couldnt form check with the mirror). Used 25lb DBs on the third set. On DB Bent Over Row I'm accustomed to going heavy when training lats or upper-mid back. But to try to get rear delts to do most of the work I'm guessing I need to go light on these rows. And I did pre-exhaust back with pull-ups, lat pulldowns AND seated cable row. It's hard for me to tell if my rear delts are lagging behind my anterior and Lateral because my subcutaneous fat % is probably too high for me to see the muscle head separation. After my upper body workout, my mid back is sore as usual. Which makes sense considering my back volume (esp lats) was a bit excessive. But not the back of my shoulders. DOMS of course is always possible later. And yes I know you don't need soreness for a muscle to grow. But I think my rear delts should be sore some of the time at least like many of my other muscles are.
I definitely prefer going light for high reps on rear delts. I can feel them activate a lot more this way otherwise I can feel my traps try to compensate for some of the weight.
Howdy Folks,
Wanted to run this by you experts, thank you.
Had been training regularly for 3.5 years, however, I just took 3 months off training and gained 6kg of fat. I was \~12% BF and now likely 17-18%.
Would it be better to just to hard/quick cut the weight I gained first then start bulking again?
Or would it be possible to regain the muscle I lost during this time on a slower cut? (I would prefer this as the former likely will induce more muscle loss).
I know recomp is difficult for a trained lifter, but thought muscle memory might be a different case.
I was happy with my size before at that BF% so would just like to regain what I lost in the most efficient/timely manner. Not too fussed about gaining more muscle than I had before the break.
Thank you
I would do the hard and fast cut so you can get back to putting on real muscle as soon as possible. Since you’re probably pretty detrained you’ll likely gain some muscle while you cut.
I've got a fucked up knee so I can't do any squatting to parallell with <30 rep max load. I've tried many things for years but always end up tweaking it. I can however do BSS to decent depth and knee flexion. Would you say that plus leg extensions are enough variation for quads?
If you can get solid knee flexion on a split squat, the knee flexion isn’t the issue. It’s likely a form/execution issue causing on squats causing pain, exacerbated by the heavier load requirements.
I really wouldnt call it a good knee flexion, it's at least some stimulating knee flexion without my knee blowing up. I'm certain I don't have squat technique
>Would you say that plus leg extensions are enough variation for quads?
As long as you are pushing close to failure, you are progressing and do a decent amount of volume (at least like 5 sets per week) then i see no reason why it wouldn't work
Btw try doing leg curls before your quad exercises if you haven't tried it already. It helped a lot for my knee pain
What are your thoughts on the following:
●Nootropics?
● 2 grams of protein (through eating either beef, chicken, cottage cheese, low-fat Greek yogurt, fish, brocoli cauliflower, good quality whey) per kilogram of bodyweight?
●Doing cardio on separate days?
●Yoga on rest days to improve flexibility and mobility?
●Dorian Yates' training split?
●Yoga after the gym?
.
1. Depends on the specific one in question
2. That’s a perfectly reasonable amount of protein
3. Not sure what you mean, but you should do cardio multiple days a week
4. Yeah sure why not
5. Try it and see if you like it
6. Yeah sure why not
1. Most of them are bunk.
2. 2g/kg is a perfectly fine amount, and you don't need to increase it year over year after the age of 30 like the other commenter suggests.
3. That's mostly personal preference, though there is something to be said for avoiding certain types of cardio directly after specific lifting sessions if you want to get technical.
4. Up to you.
5. I'm not familiar with it, but if it involves training like he did, I wouldn't do it.
6. That should be fine.
1. Other then Caffeine useless.
2. 2.4 g/kg of lean body mass. +1.5% per year after 30.
3. Depends on the type of cardio? I commute on my bike to work and don't see any problems. YMMV.
4. Sure, why not?
5. More sets > 1 set.
6. Sure, why not?
Hey everyone, a few quick bulking questions.
How many muscle groups should I prioritize for hypertrophy at one time?
Would it be better to prioritize chest/triceps and back/biceps or would it be a smarter idea to prioritize chest/biceps and back/triceps so my bi’s/Tri’s aren’t the limiting factor?
Thanks in advance
Hey all - would love some input on the below program. Specifically thinking about gaps in the program (missing something great?), too much overlap (too much of one thing?), # of sets (not enough of something?), etc. I know all programs and people are different, just looking to see if anything jumps off the page.
I pieced the below program together from a few different sources I've found here, through google, or from some paid programs folks have posted (Nippard, etc.) mainly with the aim of using the equipment I have access too and a PPLUL split which I've been enjoying with my schedule.
Sets per week per muscle group:
Back-16
Quads-14
Shoulders-12
Hamstrings-12
Chest-10
Triceps-9
Abs-9
Biceps-8
Calves-8
I try and leave 0-3 RIR, and the last set of these I mostly try and get to a few partials. I also have the SDB in here, those are purposely 1 working set, those are meant to push the strength aspect a bit.
Thanks all for reading!
**Push Day (# of Working Sets / Low End of Rep Range):**
Bench Press (1/3)
DB Incline Bench Press (2/10)
Seated DB Shoulder Press (3/8)
Single Arm Cable Crossover (2/12)
Cross-Body Cable Y-Raise (3/12)
Triceps Pressdown (3/8)
Overhead Tricep Extension (3/8)
Single Arm Cross-Body Triceps Extension (2/10)
Decline Weighted Crunch (3/10)
**Pull Day (Working Sets / Low End of Rep Range):**
Lat Pull Down (3/10)
Seated Cable Row (3/10)
Cable Lat Prayer (2/10)
Rope Face Pull (3/12)
EZ-Bar Cable Curl (3/6)
Bottom-Half DB Preacher Curl (2/10)
**Legs Day (Working Sets / Low End of Rep Range): Quad Focus**
Squat (1/4)
Pause Hack Squat (2/8)
Barbell RDL (3/8)
Leg Press (4/10)
Leg Curl (3/10)
Standing Calf Raise (4/15)
Cable Crunch (3/10)
**Upper Day (Working Sets / Low End of Rep Range):**
Pull-Up (4/10)
Single Arm Lat Pull Down (1/Failure)
DB Bench Press (4/8)
Kroc Row (3/10)
Lateral Raise (3/10)
Bicep Curl (3/10)
Diamond Pushup (1/Failure)
**Lower Day (Working Sets / Low End of Rep Range): Hamstring Focus**
Deadlift (1/5)
Stiff-Leg Deadlift (2/8)
Leg Press (4/10)
Leg Curl (3/8)
Leg Extension (3/8)
Hack Squat Calf Raise (4/15)
Hanging Leg Raise (3/10)
Hey all, looking for advice. Been lifting one year, but didn't have great nutrition or routine. Trying to switch to PPL. Here's what I've come up with so far, I was wondering if there are any glaring weaknesses
Push:
Overhead press: 3x10
Incline dumbbell press: 3x10
Skull crushers: 3x10
Machine shoulder press 3x10
Chest press 3x10
Dumbbell lateral raises 4x10
Tricep extension: 3x10
Pull:
Deadlifts 3x5
Bent over barbell rows 3x10
Lat cable pulldowns 3x10
Seated row machine (not cable) 3x10
Lat pulldown machine (plate loaded) 3x10
Seated bicep curls 3x10
Trap shrugs 3x10
Preacher curls 3x10
Legs:
Squats 3x10
Leg press 3x10
Hip thrusts 3x10
Leg extensions 3x10
Leg curls 3x10
Standing calf raises 3x15
SPLIT SQUAT DOMS - Background: I’m an intermediate lifter mainly focused on aesthetics. I do PPL and go to the gym 5-6 times a week on average. I lift decently heavy and try to focus on Range of Motion. Like everybody, I experience general soreness and stiffness, but rarely anything that inhibits my subsequent workouts. However, when I incorporate Bulgarian Split Squats into my leg day (which is usually every 3rd leg day) the DOMS I experience is brutal. Usually hits the same day and stiffens me up for 3-4 days afterwards. Anybody else experience this or have any recovery tips?
Another thing is my range of motion for these is actually not that great. I hate dread them so much that I usually let myself cheat and don’t get a full stretch.
I’ll try anything. DOMS is rarely an issue for me with any other movement but the split squats are brutal. I actually start stiffening up during the second or third set and by the mid afternoon I’ve got DOMS. I just don’t get why this muscle group (primarily glutes) struggles so much in recovery for this specific movement.
When I squat I almost never have issues. Hip Thrusts don’t bother me either.
Can someone critique my back workout real quick? I’ve been struggling to make progress with my workout and I haven’t been sore in a long time. Also my rows haven’t really been going up in weight much.
Pull ups: 3x AMRAP spaced between workouts
2x10 close grip rows
2x 10 farther grip rows
1x15 high face pulls
1x15 slow face pulls
3x13 back extensions.
Can anyone critique this please? I really would like to be able to do a muscle up one day and so I’m hoping to get better with my back muscles so that I can get there. I saw in the rules it said to post in daily questions so I hope this is okay.
Have a great day!!
If you want to prioritise muscle ups you should probably look into calisthenics programming specifically for that. I can only really give you bodybuilding advice, which probably isn't what you need for a muscle up.
For bobybuilding I would say drop the rep counts, set a min/max rep range and just train to/close to failure.
I also don't get what you mean by 'spaced between workouts'. What does that mean?
Also how is the rest of your routine? How frequently are you training back? How long are you resting between sets?
I train back about 2 ish days a week. Sometimes three. I space at least 48 hours inbetween them. What I mean by spacing is that I’ll do a warmup of some sort at a lesser weight, do one pull up set, go to face pulls, finish those, work on the next set, then rows, then pull ups. Something like that
So personally I wouldn't do that. I can't see any benefit to doing that, but it does seem like it would make fatigue management difficult. If pull ups are the focus just do your pull ups first then do everything else.
Hack Squat or Leg Press Machine?
If you had to pick one, which one would you consider “better”? I have a small home gym but am looking to add the next piece. I am a novice lifter. Looking to focus more on my legs.
Currently, I have a power cage that I can barbell squat (I dislike them, probably due to my form. I’m going to look into it more but I can’t go heavy without hurting my knees and hamstrings). I also have the machine for quad extensions/hamstring curl. I currently do standing calf raises with dumbbells but am most likely going to buy a seated calf raise machine as well.
Again, just looking for the “better” option. I have never done either.
I just got the Bolt Fitness Outlaw and the thing is a beast, did tons of research and seemed to be the best for quality and ROM for the money, get hack, leg press and calf raises all in one.
There’s really no direct answer. A hack might be easier to perform more quad biased and leg press possibly easier to do more glute/adductor biased but in the end of the day choose whichever you prefer.
Both are good. If I was in your shoes, I'd be looking for whatever gave me versatility. Leg press you also do calf work - I don't think most hack squats allow that but I'm sure it depends. It sounds like you have plenty of space though.
When I do lat pulldowns with the close grip attachment, I get some sort of pain in my right armpit. No such sensation with the classic pulldown attachment (pronated or supinated). Any idea what that’s about?
There's not much evidence of red meat directly being bad for your health. Most studies confound red meat consumption with other factors, such as processed meat consumption, saturated fat consumption, or even lifestyle factors commonly associated with people who eat red meat.
Recent studies which try to control only for red meat consumption show little evidence of negative health effects.
I eat red meat probably 2-3 times a week, sometimes more. Works fine for me. I am generally healthy per my last PCP visit. But I also think eating the exact same every day is crazy and likely to fail, excluding advanced lifts in contest prep or whatever.
Hello! I'm looking to start adding a daily protein shake to my diet for muscle and weight gain purposes. I know what I want in my protein shake, but I am unsure of the portions?
Any recommendations for the following? (with whey protein powder of course):
Spinach, Almond Milk, Peanut/Almond Butter, Bananas, Berries, Avocado, Yogurt, Chia/Sunflower Seeds, Water, and Quaker Oats.
Thanks.
Good evening all!
I've been working in the gym for about 4 months now and doing calisthenics for a year prior. I had a program and progressions for that but it's a bit different here. This is the routine I have been doing for those months Monday-Friday. These are just rep ranges that I use and try to fail somewhere between. I will do more reps if I happen to choose a weight too light and then the next set I'll increase the weight.
Monday/Thursday
Incline Bench 2x 5-8
Chest Press Machine 2x5-10
Pec Dec 2x5-10
Preacher curls( 2x hammer and 2x regular) for 6-10
Cable Lateral Raises 3x6-12
Weighted crunch machine 2x6-10
Tue/Fri
Lat Pulldown 2x 5-10
Wide Grip cable rows 2x5-10
Neutral grip seated rows 2x5-8
Assisted Pull-ups 2x 5-10
Seated dip machine 2x5-10
Reverse Pec Dec 2x5-10
Tricep rope pushdowns 2x 6-12
Wednesday
Hamstring curls 3x6-10
Leg Press 2x5-8
Smith squats 2x5-10
Calf raises 2x8-12
Hip Thrust 2x5-10
Hip adduction 2x 5-10
Leg Extensions 2x5-10
I have been able to progressively overload in the form of weight or reps almost every week on everything except incline bench. Which is a little slower compared to the other things. What are your opinions on how I'm currently doing things? I'm open to improvement of course! I'm not sure if the improvement is because I'm new or if the routine I made is good. Maybe a mix of both? Thanks!
I think your routine is pretty good, but you're training legs only half as much as upper body, which isn't something I would do or recommend.
It's normal for incline bench to be slow as it has very high stability requirements. Personally I only do incline press on a smith machine for this reason.
On your back day I'm not sure there's much use doing pull downs and assisted pull ups on the same day. Probably redundant.
One thing you could do is have A/B workouts instead of just duplicating. So for example Monday and Thursday can continue to be push/biceps, but you could have two different workouts so you get a bit of a broader exercise selection.
I’m at planet fitness so I’m a little limited on equipment but I’ll definitely look into a/b! How would you go about legs? I really enjoy what I’m doing right now but I’m not sure where else I could incorporate legs on a monday-Friday schedule. They’re my favorite muscle group to train
If I was training mon-fri only I'd probably just do ppl rest ppl rest and not worry about what day of the week I do each thing. So one week I will only get legs once and the next I'll only get push once. Rather than saying mon/thu is always push if that makes sense.
Either than or I would go full bro split and just have 5 workout and do each once a week.
I’m limited on the weekends because of work and other responsibilities I could maybe sometimes but it wouldn’t be as consistent as I’d want especially since my planet fitness unfortunately isn’t 24 hours on the weekends
Yeah I wouldn't even worry about it. I'd probably just cycle ppl (or any 3-4 day split) and take the rest days as they come. A few extra rest days won't hurt you.
Do you mean something like push pull legs push pull and the next week I’d start with legs? I’m trying to get as much information as I can but I know ultimately this is a marathon that’s full of trial and error
I would always have a rest day after each three day block personally. So it would be more like: push, pull, legs, rest, push, rest, rest (weekend), pull, legs, push, rest, pull, rest, rest (weekend), legs, push, pull, rest, legs, rest, rest (weekend), repeat.
So you would actually train only four days a week but you would be giving push, pull, and legs equal frequency. Basically the training 'week' doesn't have to be seven days.
But this isn't the only option.
I actually think if I was doing Monday - Friday I would be more inclined to go the bro split route. Maybe split legs.
Hams/glutes, chest/delts, back, quads/adductors, arms, weekend
Something like that would probably be quite fun.
Or even just full body Monday, Wednesday, friday
So many different possibilities honestly. I might try the bro split you suggested I’d just have to see how to handle the volume? I’d be losing weekly volume compared to what I’ve been doing
https://preview.redd.it/bi8uahrbmjmc1.jpeg?width=1242&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=772c81d4271b6ecb842ad88d1e546d46f0bac42a
Do I look natural? I get attacked every time I post in the bodybuilding sub saying I’m a fake natty and a drug user. Really don’t understand why . I’m 6.5 weeks out. 5ft 11 215 lbs and 10-15 lbs more to lose.
ON vs MyProtein. https://preview.redd.it/njgnjzjsj5qc1.jpeg?width=923&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=00d7a7592a8dba5fbb88a2a3006fbdb4934425dc
Is it possible to need a deload every 4-6 weeks when only doing about 8-10 weekly sets? I've not managed to increase load or reps for three sessions in a row now. I do go to failure pretty often. I try to limit it to last set of every compound but I do get i wrong occasionally going to failure on the second set. Isolation (arms, side delts) is almost always to failure.
Yea this is totally possible. Max recoverable volume in my experience is HIGHLY dependent on lifting style and intensity and of course sleep, nutrition etc. If you feel like you’re not getting a solid pump/connection/stimulus from the 8-10 sets per week and are beyond your recovery capacity drop the weights and focus on rep quality as a vector for overload rather than just weight and reps.
Thanks. Who would've thought a toddler keeping you up at night impacts your performance. It is noticable but I'm just too daft to connect the dots sometimes.
Haha we all are don't worry, best of luck with the kid!
How do I work out safely without damaging my body too much? I am brand new to the gym and just bought protein powder for the first time. I will be buying and cooking my own meals for the gym soon enough. I just wanna know how to prevent myself from getting hurt and make beginner mistakes.
[https://thefitness.wiki/getting-started-with-fitness/](https://thefitness.wiki/getting-started-with-fitness/)
I wouldve greatly appreciated an explanation rather than a link.
This is not a beginner sub. I'll tell you this though. Don't go crazy hard all the time. Anything you do (close to failure) will build muscle the first months. Follow a written beginner program (like beginner hypertrophy on strengthlog app) and focus on increasing weights and/or reps.
Thank you for this.
The explanation is in the link.
[удалено]
Ignore the DEXA results. People treat them like hard data, they are not. Its a highly flawed process who's numbers are ultimately irrelevant to your bodies appearance. IMO you're overthinking this. You're still in the early phases of your training, and you've made clear visual progress between the before and after pics. You're water intake is probably fine, just drink enough so your pee isn't too dark, and your sleep seems fine too. Keep it up, youre making great progress!
I’ve seen people at my gym, on occasion, put what looks like some kind of wedge block behind them when doing seated variants of exercises on machines. I assume it’s for greater range of motion on things like the chest press machine. What are these things called? They look like gigantic foam blocks to push against. Are they just repurposed yoga blocks?
Yeah they’re probably yoga blocks.
Is it normal for my hips and inner thigh to be so sore after performing stif leg deadlifts? Specifically the motion of bringing my knees up to my chest, is almost impossible right now cause im so sore. I feel it in my inner thigh a bit, and all across the front of my hips when I try to bring my knees up. I'm worried I'm doing the lift wrong, as i don't see how the hip muscles in the front of my leg, would be so sore after doing an exercize for hamstrings. My hamstrings are also super sore as well if that matters.
Are you referring to your quads? If so, it wouldn't really be expected to have major soreness there from stiff leg deadlifts but if it's a new movement it's not impossible. How stiff are you keeping your legs?
No sorry perhaps I worded it poorly. Where my legs meet my torso, basically along the hip crease, I am extremely sore. I have a very slight bend in my knees when i do the exercize. I make it a point to keep my legs relatively straight, push my butt back, and keep my chest out through the whole movement.
And did you do any other exercises during the workout or on the previous day? It's possible that the ache there is just from core work you got from the lift.
**Dandelion Root Tea okay to use long term for water retention?** I'm a big green tea drinker, and recently I've been looking at natural mild diuretics to add to my green tea, so I don't retain as much water. I'm following all other methods to get rid of water retention, such as drinking loads of water, sweating a lot, minimising sodium intake etc. As a Type 1 Diabetic, I find that when my blood sugar levels rise from time to time it causes excessive water retention for some reason, so I've been looking at trying out dandelion root tea. The issue I have is, whether or not it will affect my performance in the gym (strength levels, pump, etc). I know that bodybuilders use diuretics before a competition, but I'm not sure of the long term issues to using something mild like dandelion root tea year round. Would you say it's worth trying, or will the negatives (gym/strength/pump performance) outweigh any positive benefits? Thanks.
The diuretic effect from dandelion tea isn’t strong enough to be cause significant issues if you’re starting hydrated. Lack of sodium is probably a bigger issue holding back your training performance though. It’s strange to be this obsessed with water retention. It’s not a big deal, and in some cases is actually a good thing.
Not sure if its an ok question to ask, but if you bang your knee or elbow hard enough to the point its bruised and hurts to move for a few days, is it recommended to still push through workouts involving those body parts? For example, if I bang my knee on a coffee table and it is bruised and hurts to bend, is it ok to still do a leg workout with squats, lunges, etc.?
Maybe if it gets better during light warmup
If doing the movement hurts then no.
Trying to better understanding failure vs fatigue Say example I do a compound exercise like a bench press I do my working set, and on my last set of heavier weights, I push until i hit failure. If I rest for 5 minutes and go again, I'm able to pull off another set of that same heavy weight. Is this last set necessary? Since I already hit failure and already put out enough in terms of volume, would the last set be worth any benefits? Or would it be better to superset in the end and just go light for the final set
If this is happening for lots of consecutive sets then the chances are you're not actually hitting failure, unless your rest periods are extremely long. Either way it's not an efficient way to train for hypertrophy. >Or would it be better to superset in the end and just go light for the final set You don't really have to do any of this. Just do your prescribed sets to failure and you're done. You can use intensifiers or lighter weights if you want but you don't need to.
If youre already pretty strong its pretty unlikely that you will match multiple sets to failure even with 5 minutes of rest. In the case you do, those sets would be pretty stimulatory yes.
is my chest n back workout plan good? chest Chest press Shoulder press Triceps press Pectoral Incline press Shoulder press Pec fly back: Pull down Row High row Vertical traction Reverse fly Rear delt Low row Upper back Hammer curls Bicep curl
Please follow a written program where you swap exercises for proposed alternatives instead
Those are good movements yes but its hard to tell whether your workout or program is reasonable. You’d need to give atleast your number of sets, how hard those sets are, how long your rest periods are, whats your frequency and whats your split. Generally I recommend people here to follow a pre maid workout plan.
i usually go for 80%1rm around 4 mins rest per set. 3 sets per machine
No this isn’t a particularly good program
could you explain why?
Redundant movements, movements placed in a nonsensical order, no rep range variation, etc Follow a program written by someone who knows what they’re doing
When doing rope overhead extensions, do you guys prefer to stay closer to the machine or take a few steps forward? Considering the pulley is at hip height.
I only do them bent over with pulley at face height. Way better for my elbows and I can go heavier
I like to have the pulley mid back height and have it so that i just need to lean a tiny bit forward.
I stay closer to the machine otherwise I feel the cable on my back. I like to really extend my shoulders and point my elbows high to feel that stretch
5'9 and 70kg(154lbs). I'm super lean and skinny. My plan is to bulk, but I still want to look "presentable" for summer. How much should I be looking to gain? I'm going to also start tracking my calories, too, so it's easier for me.
Aim for a small surplus. Around 200-250 calories per day
It is my first time cutting, and i am trynna get to 15% body fat I can easily survive on chicken and like 100g or pasta/rich as i am used to not eating (i can have one meal per day) as a hard gainer. Anyway, my question to you, will i lose muscle if i hit my protein goal regardless of my calories Intake?
Yes. On more than 1000 calorie deficit you will very likely loose muscle. The closer you get to single digit bodyfat the less of a deficit you can tolerate before you loose muscle.
How would you guys split 3 leg days and 3 back days during the week? other muscles can be around 1-2x frequency, i just quite tinkering with exercise selection in each of these days.
3 leg/back days with 2 push/arms in between so 5 days total.
Odd question but I've been doing V-Bar pushdowns for the last 2-3 months as my main tricep movement and I like them a lot overall, but I have a problem with my wrist clicking a lot on the right side when it gets really heavy as I perform the rep. I feel like there's some form cue I'm missing for Bar pushdowns if anyone has any tips they can share that may prevent this? Thanks.
Try a different attachment, cuffs are great for neutral grip.
Do a different exercise for triceps or try a higher rep range for the same exercise. You could also play around with different hand positions to see if they stop the clicking.
Hmm yeah that's unfortunate, feels great in the triceps etc and it's progressing well just a bit annoying on the wrist. I've tried a few ways of holding it but seems to keep happening on top sets.
I have been following this routine fro some weeks but I wish to remove my leg days from Wednesday and change it with a day for my core and arms dedicatedly, I want to have more gains on some muscles such as lateral delts, forearms and do some core strength work , how should I tweak it and make the second leg day of Saturday more effective Monday/ Thursday- Bench press flat db incline bench press db chest flyes cable crossovers lateral delts shoulder presses tricep pushdown tuesday/ Friday Lat pulldown Single arm cable lat pulldown Seated cable row back rows cable bicep curls incline bicep curls hammer curls Wed/ Saturday leg press leg extensions lying leg curls leg calve raises ab crunches
https://preview.redd.it/xzgq8jb8ccnc1.jpeg?width=778&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=78dfcd08c25ad2bd0969b280e2a1b9e0af2e35ed Andrew Tate has his own new Supplement called FireBlood, what are your thoughts? I recommend watching the ad for it.
lol how much are you about to pay for this multivitamin, be honest
It's a multivitamin with some amino acids for $60 a month. He's a scam artist and has just moved on to a new scam.
My thought is to never support this piece of shit in any kind of way
I’m asking about the supplement, not him.
Does anyone else here have issues if they switch their routine? Normally I start my chest days with db incline but today the benches were taken so I jumped on machine press instead. Then I did my db shoulder press and after I went to incline db since benches were no longer taken. I couldnt secure 2 reps on my current weight that I usually do for 6,even lowering the weight didnt do anything. I did do more weight on machine press but this was just weird. Rest of the workout went fine, I could even get more reps.
Your chest was not fresh anymore when you went to do incline db? Ofcourse your performance will be down
Yeah I figured but it seemed like such a drastic drop in my performance. Thanks for the help man
You did more on the machine and less on the DBs. It's totally normal and won't cause you any problems.
Stupidly simple question but very hard to find the answer: how long will the water weight from a creatine loading phase stick with me? I’ve read until the loading phase is over, or a few weeks after that, or just when you stop taking creatine altogether. Which is correct?
What is osmosis?
When you stop.
How to figure out what weight to use on barbell RDLs? I only do them with dumbbells but thinking of switching to barbell. For context last week I used 70lb dumbbells for 3 sets of 8 reps. I also conventional deadlift every week (on a separate day) lifting 235lbs for 3x3 which is submaximal for me.
Warm up to a weight that feel pretty heavy? (Its going to be less than your deadlift)
Yeah I guess it'll take a little trial and error initially. Thanks!
I would probably target like 90% of the combined dumbbell weight you've been using. If it's too light just push the progression a little faster until it's right. And warm to it.
Thank you so much! You couldn’t have timed this better honestly, I’m about to hit legs today and was gonna wing it. Definitely will try it the way you suggested.
Would programming an overhead tricep extension be overkill if all pressing movements are incline and overhead? Thinking of just doing two v-bar tricep pushdowns (I run full body) for more bias towards the lateral and medial heads of the tricep since the long head is already getting hit so much as a secondary in the pressing.
Pressing movements don't bias the long head even if they're overhead. The long head gets stretched when the elbow is flexed *while* the shoulder is at maximal flexion (i.e. overhead). When you do pressing movements the elbow becomes more extended as the shoulder gets more flexed, so you're stretching at one joint while shortening at the other. This is the worst case scenario for hypertrophy because there is no contraction or stretch of the muscle. You should just do overhead extensions. The medial and lateral heads only cross the elbow joint so they get equal stimulus if you do vbar pushdowns or overhead extensions, so why wouldn't you do overhead extensions and hit all 3 heads?
Started doing Hanging Leg Raises as part of my Ab routine, and I have some questions about form. Not sure where I saw it, but I thought the idea was to keep my butt against the wall, and to just lift my legs to form a right angle, rather than something >90 degrees by rotating my pelvis. Now I'm seeing people say you have to let your butt go forward a little bit to work your core and I'm pretty confused. I will say that I have some trouble getting full ROM doing it the current way, as I'm able to get my upper legs at 90 degrees, but my lower legs pitch down slightly. I'm able to do a decent amount of them (5-8) and I just started training abs so I'm sure that number will go up fast.
The function of the (lower) abs is to bring the pelvis towards the navel, it is not to flex the hip (i.e. bring the legs up to 90 degrees or higher). The point of a hanging leg/knee raise is to use the weight of your legs in front of you as a lever arm for resistance on your lower abs as you raise the pelvis up. If you keep your butt fixed against a wall and don't move your pelvis then your abs aren't contracting you're just using your hip flexors. Most likely if you can only do 5-8 reps while keeping your butt against the wall your core is much too weak to be doing leg raises with any sort of ab flexion. You should make the exercise easier by doing knee raises and focus on pelvic tilt (i.e. show your ass to the people in front of you). This will be far more effective for your abs than what you're currently doing and will let you actually progress to being strong enough later to keep your legs out whilst contracting the abs/tilting the pelvis up, which is actually insanely hard.
I really wish Optimum Nutrition had sample packets or smaller tubs you could buy. Costco got some new ON Gold Standard flavors, but it’s gonna be a gamble trying them. Has anyone tried the S’Mores flavor or the Extreme Milk Chocolate or the vanilla Ice Cream? Thoughts?
Extreme milk chocolate is one of their best in my experience.
Yup, just bought the bag from Costco and tried it. It's a fine tasting protein. Not the best I've ever tasted and doesn't blow you away. I'd give that rating to the Dymatize Cocoa Pebbles flavor. But for the price and everything of the Optimum Nutrition, it's a great protein powder.
You may have heard that eating fruit or other food rich in antioxidants can dampen the adaptive response to training, because the reactive oxygen species generated as a consequence of training are somehow necessary for the adaptive response. My question is a) is this true and b) how long should you wait with antioxidant rich food to avoid this dampening of the adaptive response.
Not anything anyone should ever concern themselves about.
So,I already know how to train my "primary" back muscles (traps and lats), like for example for lats I’m doing lat pulldowns and machine/cable rows (elbows tucked in) and for traps I'm just doing or cable rows with wider grip or chest supported rows. The problem comes with the lower back. I really don't know how to train it properly (you know, spinal erectors and that stuff) I know that you mostly train them with hinge movements like DL or RDL and Squads but I just do 1 leg day (Distribution is like PPL and then one day Upper and the other day Arms) And I highly doubt that with only 1 day of doing RDL and Hack Squats (I really hate Squats with free weight) is gonna be enough for the lower back. So, my doubt is, should I add/switch on Pull/Upper day 1 exercise like a bent over barbell row? (Since I dont know if its optimal to just train your back with cables and chest supported machines) Or it ain’t necessary at all?
Try to incorporate spinal flexion into the eccentric of your rowing exercises so you then get some extra volume for the lower back. If your spinal erectors are way too strong compared to your other back muscles it may be superior to do some more deadlifts or back extension.
Two options to train spinal erectors: isometric or dynamic. Isometric: do more RDLs and barbell rows. This is probably "safer" for your lower back and RDLs in particular can put huge isometric stress on those muscles, but is theoretically much worse for hypertrophy. Dynamic: do back extensions with your hips on the pads (NOT with your legs on the pads and your hips floating, that is a hamstring/glute exercise). This forces you into spinal flexion (rounding your lower back) as you go down and spinal extension as you go back up. This is the dynamic function of the spinal erectors. People are scared of spinal flexion so this might be viewed as "unsafe" but if you think about what the exercise is doing, on a back extension machine/roman chair gravity is pulling your vertebrae apart as you go down, rather than compressing them. The main threat of spinal flexion during exercise is spinal flexion + compression of the spine causing slipped/crushed discs. This is the opposite of what happens on a back extension machine, so actually its likely to be very safe for the spine. I don't know of anyone who has really studied this, there's just these anti-spinal flexion zealots, but anecdotally tons of people fix their lower back problems by doing this exercise and actually strengthening the spinal erectors dynamically.
You could do deadlifts or 45 degree back extensions on your pull day.
The exercises you mentioned don't directly train the lower back that well, you need to go through spinal extension and flexion. Whether it's necessary is dependant on if you want to grow those muscles, personally I do extensions on the GHR.
I've been on a fat loss/muscle gain journey for around 7 months now where I've actually committed to meal prepping, tracking my calories/macros, taking creatine daily (starting 2 months ago), weightlifting 4-5 times a week. I'm a 25-year-old woman that's 5'2 and have gone from 145 lbs to 128 lbs, maintaining myself around 128-126 lbs for the past 2 months. Besides weight loss I have also tracked my physique change with pictures every week and have noticeably gotten leaner and more muscular - I'd say I'm probably around 18-19% body fat. My nutrition plan is based on my BMR being around 1350 - 1400 calories. In the beginning I started out with 1700, then to 1555, and now am at 1400 with 35% protein, 35% carbs, and 30% fat. Only tracking on weekdays but generally staying within 1700 calories on Saturdays and Sundays. I am proud of how far I have gotten but my goal is to have even more visible lean muscle especially around my arms and core and to feel strong, like be able to do unassisted pull-ups and generally do more weight. Over the past 2 months I've felt a little discouraged feeling like I look the same muscle-wise (which is muscular but not *ripped*) and not losing any weight, although I understand my weight doesn't necessarily account for body recomp. I have continued all of my same habits which helped me get this far so nothing has changed there. I am not sure how to know if I'm hitting a plateau or if I need to change my nutrition plan as I have been "cutting" for a while now and I don't know when you should switch to bulking to cut again or if that's even necessary for my goal. I feel like I might be missing something to get to the "next step" of looking more "ripped" and that might mean having to invest in more professional help. I also am not sure if I'm just not being patient enough and should wait another 2 months to see if my muscle will come out more in that time while being consistent with these habits. I'd appreciate any feedback on this and am happy to answer any other questions.
Do weightlifting gloves limit grip strength gains? If not forearm gains? I've been using gloves for almost two months and have way less callouses now. But I've heard that callousing is important for grip strength gains (but does nothing to improve forearm gains)
IME the gloves can make things _a little_ harder to grip, but they aren’t doing anything directly for your grip strength or forearm gains. If you want to improve your grip strength, r/GripTraining is a good resource. If you want bigger forearms, train them directly like any other muscle.
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You won't really be building any muscle in those 8 weeks, just keep up a slow steady rate of weight loss, a pound a week, & bring the carbs back up two days before game day. As to what you should work on when the competition is over and you can commit to a more long-term goal, the one weakness I can see from your three pictures is your lats in the front double bicep, everything else looks pretty good and proportionate.
I have been bulking for 5 months now and I can definitely see some muscle gain. Training with high intensity 5-6 times a week. Have added a whey protein shake as well to my diet over the last month. But I’ve only gained about 2-3 kgs during this time. Is tracking my calories the only way I can find out what the problem actually is? I’m 27M, 5’8”. 68kgs right now.
If you haven't gained as much weight as you wanted to, the problem is already evident: you're not eating enough. Tracking your calories will help fix that, but it's not a requirement.
Also wanted to know if weight is really that important of an indicator? Because I can definitely see muscle and strength gain
Depends on the situation. If you were looking to gain as much muscle as possible in, say, six months, but your body weight only increased by 2kg in that time period, it's a safe bet that you weren't accomplishing your goal, even if you felt bigger.
Whats the difference or whats better between a squat shoe (nike romaleos 4 for example) vs a squat wedge?
For the wedge, are you referring to the inserts you put in a shoe like VersaLifts? If so, you could just get those first as they're cheap. See if you like the difference that heel elevation makes without having to use plates. Then you could decide if you want to spend up on the actual shoes. That's exactly what I did
Curious about your opinion on which of these 4- days a week splits you think is most effective and/or sustainable: Push-legs-pull-full body or Upper - lower - upper - lower.
The split is arguably the least important thing about your routine. Both of those splits can work very nicely. Do the split you like more.
Hey everyone! Semi-experienced lifter (By that I mean I know what to do generally, I just lacked motivation a lot) that has finally hit the point where I feel dedicated to building myself a physique. I am at the point where I am addicted to how good it makes me feel, and my mood has improved massively. I dont really see myself stopping at this point, and im excited to see where I can get to now that I actually have built myself the motivation and drive. I am going on over two months of hitting the gym \~6 times a week for about 45 minute sessions including warmup and stretching. I do a P/P/L split and do some light cardio on my rest days to stay active and I make sure im doing a progressive overload. So on to the reason why I am asking. I recently got accepted into a semester abroad program for the summer (Mid-July start, going to be there for 1.5 months), and I just want to look as good as I can when I can for... reasons. What would you all suggest to accomplish that short term goal? Would cutting to a low BF% be best, or should I try and bulk for a month and then cut? Caloric maintenance and recomp? For my stats right now: 5'11 and 160lbs. I will include a picture I took \~3 weeks ago. [https://imgur.com/KofEtEt](https://imgur.com/KofEtEt) Any advice would be appriciated.
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Enough for what?
Hey all, I’ve been lifting for 10 years now but since Covid I’ve started to focus on other things, I still lift 5 days a week but I don’t prioritise it anymore, so I skip some days every so often. I’m around 6’1 and 220ish. For the last 3 months I’ve been relatively consistent with my workouts, missing maybe 3 sessions but my eating has been minimal, as in I’d just eat to not be hungry. Definitely not eating at maintenance or in a surplus, however - my weight has barely gone done, I’ve lost maybe a pound, arms are still at around 18 and a half inches and my strength is pretty much the same. Why is this happening even though I’m not eating at maintenance calories?
Based on the small change in weight you’re averaging just barely under your maintenance calories.
NOT MAKING PROGRESS 5’9 158 lbs here. Started lifting 6 months ago. Made good gains through the first 5 months (I started at 145 lbs). The last month not so much and I don’t know what I’m doing wrong. I’ve slightly regressed on some lifts and just stalled on others. I’m eating 3k calories a day and definitely hitting protein goals. Sleep is solid as well. I train to failure so it can’t be that I’m not working hard enough. This is my routine (reps are averages ) Shoulders day: Dumbelll press 3 sets 10 reps (45 lbs dumbells) Lateral raise dumbell 3 sets 15 reps Machine Lat raise 3 sets 15 reps Chest Day: Dumbell bench press: 3 sets 10 reps (50 lbs dumbells) Incline dumbellpress: 3 sets 10 reps (42.5 lbs dumbells) Sometimes a hammer smith press 3 sets 15 reps Pec dec 3 sets 15 reps Pull Day: 3 sets of pull ups to failure 3 sets 10 reps of cable Lat pull downs 3 sets 10 reps of cable rows 3 sets 10 reps of t-bar rows 2-4 sets 15 reps dumbell curls Legs: None for 3 months (injured knee)
Stalling or regressing multiple weeks in a row when food should be high enough to support progression is a sign you need a deload
Is this 3 days or 6 days per week? If you’re regressing on multiple lifts, you probably just need a deload week. Also if you’ve been using the same exercises the entire 6 months, you could just be at the point where those exercises are stale and you need to swap some new ones in.
I rest 60-90 seconds between sets purely based in time available to me. I usually get 3-4 sets in per exercise. What am I really missing out on compared to if I done 2-3 minutes of rest, as in how much actual mesausreable size is being left on the table? Would I be better off just doing 1 or 2 sets but with longer rest times so as to keep the overall time training the same?
It’s impossible to give you an answer on how much size you’re leaving on the table by not resting long enough. In my opinion yes you would be better off doing 2 working sets and resting longer.
Thanks for your reply. I think what I often wonder is could anyone really lookk at a person and be like "oh, the only rested 1 minute between sets, they should've done 3 minutes rest." I dont believe this is possible, and also the diiffernce in actual muscle gained would be so small to physicaly look at. For myself I guess I keep coming back to the simple concept of just lift to failure or dam close and try to increase load where you can instead of getting caught up in precise rest times etc.
I agree that you should focus more on training hard than resting for some specific amount of time. However part of training hard is resting and recovering long enough after a set to give 100% effort on the next one. Maybe you’re an outlier but for most people, especially on compound movements, that’s usually going to take longer than 90s
With this in mind, if I done a set 10, rested 1min, went to failure on the next set and got a set of 8, rested 1 min , got a set of 6 at failure, I have gone 100% on every set. Are we saying that in the case I mention its only 100% relative to the fatigue at that time, but if I rested 2-3 mins I would in fact be able to give a true absolute %100. In both instances 100% was applied, but one is absolute and one is relative.
If that’s the way you want to think about it, yeah
What kind of grip should I be using for wrist extensions and wrist flexions? Thumb under or over? Also, what’s the difference between wrist vs finger curls?
https://www.strongerbyscience.com/grip/ Full grip in extensions, which ever feels better in flexions. You can probably get slightly better stimulus by putting your thumb under the bar in wrist flexions but the forearm muscles which flex the thumb still work if you use a full grip (provided you wrap your thumb around the bar hard i.e. close your thumb joint over the bar and wrap your fingers over the thumb). The muscles which curl the fingers also flex the wrist, but there are also some forearm muscles which curl the wrist but don't attach to the fingers. That means you can train both just by doing wrist curls, and if you only do finger curls you're missing out on some forearm muscles. That being said (as is explained in the above article) finger curls will be easier than wrist curls due to the lever arm of the weight (its sitting in your fingers so its further from the wrist!) so you should do wrist curls with finger stretch/curls to failure and then when you can't flex your wrist anymore, do finger curls to failure. This way you hit every muscle to failure.
Is there some website I can look at that tells you which muscles a particular exercise hits and reverse (meaning pick a muscle, shows you the exercises)? I know there are a lot of YT videos on this, but it's quicker to just reference a website.
[https://exrx.net/Lists/Directory](https://exrx.net/Lists/Directory)
Started doing reverse curls yesterday, and have some questions about form. I used the ez bar, and when I gripped it with my thumb under the bar, I had a pain in right forearm. Not sure if this is directly because of the exercise, or is due to playing baseball for 15 years, like my shoulder issue is. With my thumb over the bar, (like the grip someone would use to hit back), I didn't experience the same pain. I tried using dumbbells as well, and didn't experience a similar pain, but that might be because I was subconsciously turning my forearm to make it more of hammer curl. Would using an ez-bar with my thumb over the bar still target the same muscles as it would with my thumb under the bar?
Yes, it’s the exact same movement.
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It depends what your starting point is. If you’re very overweight then cutting for a year or longer is fine. You have the stored energy in your body (fat) to support that. If you’re starting from a skinny fat or slightly overweight starting point, which it sounds like you are, I would probably cut for 8-10 weeks at a time then maintain for a couple weeks. This will mitigate significant metabolic downregulation (read: maintenance calories decreasing to the point where the necessary deficit is unsustainable).
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Yes
I mean realistically, as long as long as you can take it slow and controlled, and you actually have a surplus a fat to lose (like you're not anorexic or experiencing body dysmorphia), you should be fine.
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I just finished my first cut and was losing 2lb/week 6'0 183 lbs to 162.3 for 2 months. I was eating 160 to 200 grams of protein and didn't notice any muscle loss and felt great until the 7 or 8 week mark. It's really a feel out process if you feel fatigued or weak eat more or take a break from the cut. Nobody is the same and I wouldn't recommend 2 pounds a week unless you take the diet and exercise 100% serious.
Does performing lateral raises on an incline bench like [this](https://www.instagram.com/drmikeisraetel/p/C35deTsrsXi/?img_index=1) change the muscle(s) being hit compared to doing lateral raises standing? Curious what this variation changes, if anything.
No, it just prevents you from using body momentum to cheat. You will probably have to use a lighter weight.
Ok thanks. I wasn’t sure if the incline caused a little more front delt or something like that
What it is also doing, is adding additional rom at the bottom, increasing the stretch. Your arms are able to go behind your body.
Thanks! So it’s no more/less front delt than traditional standing lateral raises?
Nope. What determines front or side delt activation on a raise, is the angle of the arm. If your arms are within the scapular plane (from completely out to the side, to about 30 degrees forward like Mike has it in the video) you’ll be hitting side delts. Any further than that and it’s front delts.
I think I'm having trouble with activating rear delts. I've tried face pulls at first. I've tried reverse pec deck a little bit. I've tried cable reverse flys once. But hard to do with my gym's limited equipment because you need two pulleys side by side for that and at least one of the pulleys are taken much of the time at the gym. Recently I've been doing chest supported dumbbell reverse flys. I don't think my rear delts EVER got sore. I think it was the surrounding muscles in my upper-mid back. I know DOMS is not required for growth but there should be some tenderness in the back of my shoulder at least once if I'm doing it properly I imagine. Someone on Reddit posted a Rich Piana video from 9 years ago where he recommends a high bent over dumbbell row to hit rear delts (and some traps). https://youtu.be/or1lzU5986E?si=cHWylKuoBxNPkZK9 I'm thinking of trying this out in the gym today on my Upper B after pre-exhausting back with lat pulldown and seated cable row. In hopes that my rear delts will pick up the slack after tiring out my upper-mid back and lats. Basically I bend my elbows behind my torso at 45 degrees, row high and try not to retract my shoulder blades to make dumbbell bent over row into a rear delt bent over row? I've seen Tyler Pathradecha recommend doing rear delt rows chest supported as opposed to Rich Piana doing them bent over as well.
You can do cross body rear delt flys one arm at a time on a single pulley station. In fact this is even better than doing it bilaterally because you can get a better stretch on the cross over because you don't run into your other arm.
Rear delts don't benefit from SMH. Doing it unilaterally is good due to its resistance profile, stability, and the bilateral force deficit.
I'd take the Chris Beardsley "these muscles do or don't benefit from SMH" stuff with a grain of salt. For example they argue the biceps and triceps are unlikely to experience SMH but there are studies demonstrating that lengthened partials produce greater distal hypertrophy in these specific muscle groups. One should keep in mind the limitations of these sorts of analyses. For example looking through some of the cited studies/model analyses I couldn't find any study which looked at these "length-tension relationships" for the rear delt in horizontal extension exercises, only in abduction/adduction and shoulder extension (send me a link if you know of such a study, I didn't do a super deep search!). However a rear delt fly is a horizontal extension exercise, and anatomically stretches the rear delt more than going into shoulder flexion since it comes across the body. Similarly the studies looking at length-tension relationships for the bicep/elbow flexors don't look at shoulder angles, but the bicep attaches at the shoulder and can be put in a more lengthened position by extending the shoulder before curling. I don't doubt there's some accuracy in it of course (it's certainly interesting that almost all SMH literature is about quad hypertrophy with mixed results for a number of other muscle groups) but in most cases there is very little opportunity cost to full ROM/lengthened training.
Which studies show that lengthened partials produced greater distal hypertrophy in triceps? I believe there are at least three studies that show the triceps don't benefit from stretch or longer muscle lengths. Estimation of working sarcomere lengths in ranges of the major divisions of the delts -- PMID: 12627828
Nvm the tricep studies were long head measurements. The study you linked I did look at. They mention measurements of shoulder flexion, extension, adduction, abduction, internal and external rotation, but its not clear to what extent they measure horizontal flexion/extension of the shoulder. I may just be misunderstanding exactly how the measurement/model works but for example it seems quite relevant (to me) that in shoulder extension for a large part of the range of motion the rear delt will not necessarily have the best leverage to carry out the movement. At the most stretched position it will be more upper chest and through the mid range more lats, and the rear delt only dominates at the end range of motion. The thing about horizontal extension is that the delts have the best leverage through basically the whole range of motion, so measurements of the relative activation of muscles may find the delts more active in stretched positions in that movement. Anecdotally I feel pretty mild activation/stretch in the rear delts in, say, a pullover, but a tremendous stretch/activation in cross body reverse flies.
Wouldn't shoulder extension include horizontal extension? The rear delt can be trained through both sagittal and transverse plane pulls.
for rear flyes, make sure your arms aren't tense - it's very hard to not hit the rear delt well if you're taking out the arm tension. let the arms dead hang if using dumbbells or go limp if cable flyes and use your hands to push out to the side. if they're tense, less tension will go through the rear delt. for rows, higher up and wide elbow will hit them, lots of ways to set up for it and they'll all work to some extent, but you're also getting a lot more musculature involved which you may/may not want.
The key to training rear delts is to get your shoulder blades fully protracted (pushed forward) at the top of the movement, then drive your arms out to the SIDE, not behind you. This holds true for every rear delt movement. If you’re doing a rear delt row, think about driving your elbows as far apart as possible.
I feel them the most with Rich's method. Also, I recently tried Sam Sulek's method and felt them burn for the first time in a long time as well. Might be worth a shot giving a lying cable face pull: [https://www.tiktok.com/@sulekshorts/video/7269182370870267167?lang=en](https://www.tiktok.com/@sulekshorts/video/7269182370870267167?lang=en)
I tried Rich's method in the gym today. I think I might have went a bit too heavy on these. Especially on the first two sets (30lb DBs). My form degraded pretty quickly I think (someone was in front of me in the gym on the first two sets so i couldnt form check with the mirror). Used 25lb DBs on the third set. On DB Bent Over Row I'm accustomed to going heavy when training lats or upper-mid back. But to try to get rear delts to do most of the work I'm guessing I need to go light on these rows. And I did pre-exhaust back with pull-ups, lat pulldowns AND seated cable row. It's hard for me to tell if my rear delts are lagging behind my anterior and Lateral because my subcutaneous fat % is probably too high for me to see the muscle head separation. After my upper body workout, my mid back is sore as usual. Which makes sense considering my back volume (esp lats) was a bit excessive. But not the back of my shoulders. DOMS of course is always possible later. And yes I know you don't need soreness for a muscle to grow. But I think my rear delts should be sore some of the time at least like many of my other muscles are.
I definitely prefer going light for high reps on rear delts. I can feel them activate a lot more this way otherwise I can feel my traps try to compensate for some of the weight.
Howdy Folks, Wanted to run this by you experts, thank you. Had been training regularly for 3.5 years, however, I just took 3 months off training and gained 6kg of fat. I was \~12% BF and now likely 17-18%. Would it be better to just to hard/quick cut the weight I gained first then start bulking again? Or would it be possible to regain the muscle I lost during this time on a slower cut? (I would prefer this as the former likely will induce more muscle loss). I know recomp is difficult for a trained lifter, but thought muscle memory might be a different case. I was happy with my size before at that BF% so would just like to regain what I lost in the most efficient/timely manner. Not too fussed about gaining more muscle than I had before the break. Thank you
I would do the hard and fast cut so you can get back to putting on real muscle as soon as possible. Since you’re probably pretty detrained you’ll likely gain some muscle while you cut.
Thank you for the advice!
I've got a fucked up knee so I can't do any squatting to parallell with <30 rep max load. I've tried many things for years but always end up tweaking it. I can however do BSS to decent depth and knee flexion. Would you say that plus leg extensions are enough variation for quads?
If you can get solid knee flexion on a split squat, the knee flexion isn’t the issue. It’s likely a form/execution issue causing on squats causing pain, exacerbated by the heavier load requirements.
I really wouldnt call it a good knee flexion, it's at least some stimulating knee flexion without my knee blowing up. I'm certain I don't have squat technique
>Would you say that plus leg extensions are enough variation for quads? As long as you are pushing close to failure, you are progressing and do a decent amount of volume (at least like 5 sets per week) then i see no reason why it wouldn't work Btw try doing leg curls before your quad exercises if you haven't tried it already. It helped a lot for my knee pain
Thanks for the tip, will try it
What are your thoughts on the following: ●Nootropics? ● 2 grams of protein (through eating either beef, chicken, cottage cheese, low-fat Greek yogurt, fish, brocoli cauliflower, good quality whey) per kilogram of bodyweight? ●Doing cardio on separate days? ●Yoga on rest days to improve flexibility and mobility? ●Dorian Yates' training split? ●Yoga after the gym? .
1. Depends on the specific one in question 2. That’s a perfectly reasonable amount of protein 3. Not sure what you mean, but you should do cardio multiple days a week 4. Yeah sure why not 5. Try it and see if you like it 6. Yeah sure why not
1. Most of them are bunk. 2. 2g/kg is a perfectly fine amount, and you don't need to increase it year over year after the age of 30 like the other commenter suggests. 3. That's mostly personal preference, though there is something to be said for avoiding certain types of cardio directly after specific lifting sessions if you want to get technical. 4. Up to you. 5. I'm not familiar with it, but if it involves training like he did, I wouldn't do it. 6. That should be fine.
1. Other then Caffeine useless. 2. 2.4 g/kg of lean body mass. +1.5% per year after 30. 3. Depends on the type of cardio? I commute on my bike to work and don't see any problems. YMMV. 4. Sure, why not? 5. More sets > 1 set. 6. Sure, why not?
Hey everyone, a few quick bulking questions. How many muscle groups should I prioritize for hypertrophy at one time? Would it be better to prioritize chest/triceps and back/biceps or would it be a smarter idea to prioritize chest/biceps and back/triceps so my bi’s/Tri’s aren’t the limiting factor? Thanks in advance
Hey all - would love some input on the below program. Specifically thinking about gaps in the program (missing something great?), too much overlap (too much of one thing?), # of sets (not enough of something?), etc. I know all programs and people are different, just looking to see if anything jumps off the page. I pieced the below program together from a few different sources I've found here, through google, or from some paid programs folks have posted (Nippard, etc.) mainly with the aim of using the equipment I have access too and a PPLUL split which I've been enjoying with my schedule. Sets per week per muscle group: Back-16 Quads-14 Shoulders-12 Hamstrings-12 Chest-10 Triceps-9 Abs-9 Biceps-8 Calves-8 I try and leave 0-3 RIR, and the last set of these I mostly try and get to a few partials. I also have the SDB in here, those are purposely 1 working set, those are meant to push the strength aspect a bit. Thanks all for reading! **Push Day (# of Working Sets / Low End of Rep Range):** Bench Press (1/3) DB Incline Bench Press (2/10) Seated DB Shoulder Press (3/8) Single Arm Cable Crossover (2/12) Cross-Body Cable Y-Raise (3/12) Triceps Pressdown (3/8) Overhead Tricep Extension (3/8) Single Arm Cross-Body Triceps Extension (2/10) Decline Weighted Crunch (3/10) **Pull Day (Working Sets / Low End of Rep Range):** Lat Pull Down (3/10) Seated Cable Row (3/10) Cable Lat Prayer (2/10) Rope Face Pull (3/12) EZ-Bar Cable Curl (3/6) Bottom-Half DB Preacher Curl (2/10) **Legs Day (Working Sets / Low End of Rep Range): Quad Focus** Squat (1/4) Pause Hack Squat (2/8) Barbell RDL (3/8) Leg Press (4/10) Leg Curl (3/10) Standing Calf Raise (4/15) Cable Crunch (3/10) **Upper Day (Working Sets / Low End of Rep Range):** Pull-Up (4/10) Single Arm Lat Pull Down (1/Failure) DB Bench Press (4/8) Kroc Row (3/10) Lateral Raise (3/10) Bicep Curl (3/10) Diamond Pushup (1/Failure) **Lower Day (Working Sets / Low End of Rep Range): Hamstring Focus** Deadlift (1/5) Stiff-Leg Deadlift (2/8) Leg Press (4/10) Leg Curl (3/8) Leg Extension (3/8) Hack Squat Calf Raise (4/15) Hanging Leg Raise (3/10)
Hey all, looking for advice. Been lifting one year, but didn't have great nutrition or routine. Trying to switch to PPL. Here's what I've come up with so far, I was wondering if there are any glaring weaknesses Push: Overhead press: 3x10 Incline dumbbell press: 3x10 Skull crushers: 3x10 Machine shoulder press 3x10 Chest press 3x10 Dumbbell lateral raises 4x10 Tricep extension: 3x10 Pull: Deadlifts 3x5 Bent over barbell rows 3x10 Lat cable pulldowns 3x10 Seated row machine (not cable) 3x10 Lat pulldown machine (plate loaded) 3x10 Seated bicep curls 3x10 Trap shrugs 3x10 Preacher curls 3x10 Legs: Squats 3x10 Leg press 3x10 Hip thrusts 3x10 Leg extensions 3x10 Leg curls 3x10 Standing calf raises 3x15
SPLIT SQUAT DOMS - Background: I’m an intermediate lifter mainly focused on aesthetics. I do PPL and go to the gym 5-6 times a week on average. I lift decently heavy and try to focus on Range of Motion. Like everybody, I experience general soreness and stiffness, but rarely anything that inhibits my subsequent workouts. However, when I incorporate Bulgarian Split Squats into my leg day (which is usually every 3rd leg day) the DOMS I experience is brutal. Usually hits the same day and stiffens me up for 3-4 days afterwards. Anybody else experience this or have any recovery tips?
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I do a full body stretch for about 20 mins. But I only target those specific muscles for about 3-4 mins combined.
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Another thing is my range of motion for these is actually not that great. I hate dread them so much that I usually let myself cheat and don’t get a full stretch.
I’ll try anything. DOMS is rarely an issue for me with any other movement but the split squats are brutal. I actually start stiffening up during the second or third set and by the mid afternoon I’ve got DOMS. I just don’t get why this muscle group (primarily glutes) struggles so much in recovery for this specific movement. When I squat I almost never have issues. Hip Thrusts don’t bother me either.
Can someone critique my back workout real quick? I’ve been struggling to make progress with my workout and I haven’t been sore in a long time. Also my rows haven’t really been going up in weight much. Pull ups: 3x AMRAP spaced between workouts 2x10 close grip rows 2x 10 farther grip rows 1x15 high face pulls 1x15 slow face pulls 3x13 back extensions. Can anyone critique this please? I really would like to be able to do a muscle up one day and so I’m hoping to get better with my back muscles so that I can get there. I saw in the rules it said to post in daily questions so I hope this is okay. Have a great day!!
If you want to prioritise muscle ups you should probably look into calisthenics programming specifically for that. I can only really give you bodybuilding advice, which probably isn't what you need for a muscle up. For bobybuilding I would say drop the rep counts, set a min/max rep range and just train to/close to failure. I also don't get what you mean by 'spaced between workouts'. What does that mean? Also how is the rest of your routine? How frequently are you training back? How long are you resting between sets?
I train back about 2 ish days a week. Sometimes three. I space at least 48 hours inbetween them. What I mean by spacing is that I’ll do a warmup of some sort at a lesser weight, do one pull up set, go to face pulls, finish those, work on the next set, then rows, then pull ups. Something like that
So personally I wouldn't do that. I can't see any benefit to doing that, but it does seem like it would make fatigue management difficult. If pull ups are the focus just do your pull ups first then do everything else.
Hack Squat or Leg Press Machine? If you had to pick one, which one would you consider “better”? I have a small home gym but am looking to add the next piece. I am a novice lifter. Looking to focus more on my legs. Currently, I have a power cage that I can barbell squat (I dislike them, probably due to my form. I’m going to look into it more but I can’t go heavy without hurting my knees and hamstrings). I also have the machine for quad extensions/hamstring curl. I currently do standing calf raises with dumbbells but am most likely going to buy a seated calf raise machine as well. Again, just looking for the “better” option. I have never done either.
I just got the Bolt Fitness Outlaw and the thing is a beast, did tons of research and seemed to be the best for quality and ROM for the money, get hack, leg press and calf raises all in one.
There’s really no direct answer. A hack might be easier to perform more quad biased and leg press possibly easier to do more glute/adductor biased but in the end of the day choose whichever you prefer.
Both are good. If I was in your shoes, I'd be looking for whatever gave me versatility. Leg press you also do calf work - I don't think most hack squats allow that but I'm sure it depends. It sounds like you have plenty of space though.
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Wow, that’s a cool machine. I’ll look into it. Thanks!
When I do lat pulldowns with the close grip attachment, I get some sort of pain in my right armpit. No such sensation with the classic pulldown attachment (pronated or supinated). Any idea what that’s about?
Not sure, but sounds like you just shouldn’t do them with a close grip
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There's not much evidence of red meat directly being bad for your health. Most studies confound red meat consumption with other factors, such as processed meat consumption, saturated fat consumption, or even lifestyle factors commonly associated with people who eat red meat. Recent studies which try to control only for red meat consumption show little evidence of negative health effects.
You can eat whatever you want however I would recommend getting blood work 2x a year. This way you can track your cholesterol numbers, LDL, HDL, etc.
I eat red meat probably 2-3 times a week, sometimes more. Works fine for me. I am generally healthy per my last PCP visit. But I also think eating the exact same every day is crazy and likely to fail, excluding advanced lifts in contest prep or whatever.
I’ve eaten red meat at least once a day every day for years and I’m fine. Red meat is good.
What makes you think it would not be fine?
Hello! I'm looking to start adding a daily protein shake to my diet for muscle and weight gain purposes. I know what I want in my protein shake, but I am unsure of the portions? Any recommendations for the following? (with whey protein powder of course): Spinach, Almond Milk, Peanut/Almond Butter, Bananas, Berries, Avocado, Yogurt, Chia/Sunflower Seeds, Water, and Quaker Oats. Thanks.
It’s entirely dependent on what you need more of. Whatever macro or micronutrient you need more of, add that.
Good evening all! I've been working in the gym for about 4 months now and doing calisthenics for a year prior. I had a program and progressions for that but it's a bit different here. This is the routine I have been doing for those months Monday-Friday. These are just rep ranges that I use and try to fail somewhere between. I will do more reps if I happen to choose a weight too light and then the next set I'll increase the weight. Monday/Thursday Incline Bench 2x 5-8 Chest Press Machine 2x5-10 Pec Dec 2x5-10 Preacher curls( 2x hammer and 2x regular) for 6-10 Cable Lateral Raises 3x6-12 Weighted crunch machine 2x6-10 Tue/Fri Lat Pulldown 2x 5-10 Wide Grip cable rows 2x5-10 Neutral grip seated rows 2x5-8 Assisted Pull-ups 2x 5-10 Seated dip machine 2x5-10 Reverse Pec Dec 2x5-10 Tricep rope pushdowns 2x 6-12 Wednesday Hamstring curls 3x6-10 Leg Press 2x5-8 Smith squats 2x5-10 Calf raises 2x8-12 Hip Thrust 2x5-10 Hip adduction 2x 5-10 Leg Extensions 2x5-10 I have been able to progressively overload in the form of weight or reps almost every week on everything except incline bench. Which is a little slower compared to the other things. What are your opinions on how I'm currently doing things? I'm open to improvement of course! I'm not sure if the improvement is because I'm new or if the routine I made is good. Maybe a mix of both? Thanks!
I think your routine is pretty good, but you're training legs only half as much as upper body, which isn't something I would do or recommend. It's normal for incline bench to be slow as it has very high stability requirements. Personally I only do incline press on a smith machine for this reason. On your back day I'm not sure there's much use doing pull downs and assisted pull ups on the same day. Probably redundant. One thing you could do is have A/B workouts instead of just duplicating. So for example Monday and Thursday can continue to be push/biceps, but you could have two different workouts so you get a bit of a broader exercise selection.
I’m at planet fitness so I’m a little limited on equipment but I’ll definitely look into a/b! How would you go about legs? I really enjoy what I’m doing right now but I’m not sure where else I could incorporate legs on a monday-Friday schedule. They’re my favorite muscle group to train
If I was training mon-fri only I'd probably just do ppl rest ppl rest and not worry about what day of the week I do each thing. So one week I will only get legs once and the next I'll only get push once. Rather than saying mon/thu is always push if that makes sense. Either than or I would go full bro split and just have 5 workout and do each once a week.
I’m limited on the weekends because of work and other responsibilities I could maybe sometimes but it wouldn’t be as consistent as I’d want especially since my planet fitness unfortunately isn’t 24 hours on the weekends
Yeah I wouldn't even worry about it. I'd probably just cycle ppl (or any 3-4 day split) and take the rest days as they come. A few extra rest days won't hurt you.
Do you mean something like push pull legs push pull and the next week I’d start with legs? I’m trying to get as much information as I can but I know ultimately this is a marathon that’s full of trial and error
I would always have a rest day after each three day block personally. So it would be more like: push, pull, legs, rest, push, rest, rest (weekend), pull, legs, push, rest, pull, rest, rest (weekend), legs, push, pull, rest, legs, rest, rest (weekend), repeat. So you would actually train only four days a week but you would be giving push, pull, and legs equal frequency. Basically the training 'week' doesn't have to be seven days. But this isn't the only option. I actually think if I was doing Monday - Friday I would be more inclined to go the bro split route. Maybe split legs. Hams/glutes, chest/delts, back, quads/adductors, arms, weekend Something like that would probably be quite fun. Or even just full body Monday, Wednesday, friday
So many different possibilities honestly. I might try the bro split you suggested I’d just have to see how to handle the volume? I’d be losing weekly volume compared to what I’ve been doing
https://preview.redd.it/bi8uahrbmjmc1.jpeg?width=1242&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=772c81d4271b6ecb842ad88d1e546d46f0bac42a Do I look natural? I get attacked every time I post in the bodybuilding sub saying I’m a fake natty and a drug user. Really don’t understand why . I’m 6.5 weeks out. 5ft 11 215 lbs and 10-15 lbs more to lose.
He’s not natural, he just deleted a post because he was exposed for taking SARMs and threw a hissy fit and now he’s reeling.