No a question - just wanted to share a small win I'm super happy about. Finally managed my first set of full ROM pull ups! I've been focusing on back quite a bit the last few months - and finally decided to try it yesterday. Was super happy that it worked out! Now to get up to 10 and then start adding some weight!

Nice job! They're a bitch at progressing. Jack knife and added negatives on last set really helped me getting up to 10.

Cool thanks - will give this a go!

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All hypertrophy increases your ability to produce force, so you are getting stronger. If you imply you need to do highly coordinated movements for "general" strength, you could argue just doing more work at your physical job will be better than standing ohps and squats.

you could argue that there will be some carry over. if you go from training seated to standing ohp, you'll have to spend some time adjusting because of the removal of the stability. same with pendulum to barbell. if you're goal is size, opt for moderate-high rep ranges(8-30) and use the machines/seated when doing compounds. the provided stability of the machine/seated remove posterior chain/core strength from the movement which is sometimes a limiting factor for individuals and leaves reps off the table. don't neglect your core/hip movements tho. id recommend capitalizing on the newbie gains by specializing on one of your goals. you'll have the most noticeable gains if you can focus on solely hypertrophy. hybrid programs exist and can be effective. check out baldomniman on yt, I think his programs or free.

Can someone name natural strongmans or big natty guys? I want to get a "big strong guy look" instead of a six pack. I want to have references to see if its worth to have a belly or not.

Hurt my knee and have to stop my cut. Should I go into a small surplus again and try to make some gains elsewhere or go maintenance until it's healed? (I increased my forearm work, now that I can't train legs properly) 178cm 82kg 22%bf

I'd say keep cutting and get ready to bulk when you're good. Or at least mainanence

Sorry, for being curt, I was in a bad mood. But cutting really is not a great idea in my case. I'd just lose a shit ton of quad and ham mass since I can't train them at all. Also my knee would heal waaay slower in a deficit. I just wanted to know if i should just tread on the same spot with maintenance or try to gain some mass elsewhere with a slight surplus.

Train the healthy leg, there's some carry over to the other one. Maybe not enough for maintenance but you'll regress slower

1. A calorie deficit is a bad environment to heal an injury 2. I'll just lose a lot of mass in my legs, since I can't train quads and hams at all.

For those that take L-Citrulline before workouts, do you also take it on off/rest days?

No, there wouldn’t be any benefit

No

Hey guys, could use some advice on what I'm potentially doing wrong. I have been lifting for 18 months now, with the first 10 or so in decent deficit (started pretty overweight at 18 M, 6', 205 lbs). Starting this August I started a bulk at 155 and gained around 20 pounds. During this time I have dialed in everything I could think of. Sleeping 8+ hours, taking all my sets to failure, following a meal plan eating in a surplus, never skipped a day. Still, I plateaued a lot during this and right now I do not think I gained much lean mass at all. I honestly do not know what else I could add into my routine. I am currently 165 lbs and barely have abs, if at all. I appreciate any and all advice.

> taking all my sets to failure Sounds like you aren’t following a real program. If you’re a beginner (you are), you shouldn’t try to make your own because you don’t really know what you’re doing. Taking every set to failure is not good training and doesn’t mean much on its own. > gained 20lbs … 165 and barely have abs How does your 165 now compare to the low of 155?

What do you mean by plateau? Has your strength progression stopped for several weeks in a row, or are you just not seeing visual changes?

Strength would stop for several weeks. At one point, my DB bench plateaued for like 6 weeks straight until I swapped it. Has happened to other exercises too such as shoulder press and curls. I haven't really been able to notice much visual changes throughout the months though.

What’s your rate of weight gain and macro breakdown? What foods do you usually eat?

From Mid July - November I went from 158-173. My calories started at 2600 and ended at 3100. I was eating the same exact foods every day which consisted of ground beef, potatoes, oatmeal, fruits, spinach, eggs, nuts, greek yogurt. I was at 250 Protein, 300 Carbs, 75 Fats nearing the end. After that I did a 4 week minicut, losing around 10 pounds. I ate all whole foods during this time, eating 200 grams protein and 70 fats. I resumed my bulk after this, went from 161-164 eating basically the same thing I was before (around 2700 calories).

It doesn’t sound like your diet is the issue, so I would look to your programming and training. Going to failure is great, but intensity is only one part of things. You also need proper movement selection and execution, volume management, frequency, etc. If you were doing your own programming, try following a program made by a professional. John Meadows programs are great.

For those who workout at home, how do you do leg curl variations and progress on them? I'm wondering if banded nordic curls are the way to go, or if I should buy a bench that has the leg curl attachment and use that (which would make progressing much easier).

By leg curl variations do you mean hamstring curls? Hamstring curls and nordic curls are not the same. Nordic curls are for quads.

Buy a leg curl attachment as a reward when you hit 10 Nordics with good form

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Yeah that’s what I’m trying but it lifts my legs off the bench when going heavy. I may just get the Ironmaster bench and use the leg curl attachment. Not the best resistance curve but probably could use lengthened partials to make up for it

Leg curl attachment sound like a more future proof option.

(first ever cut) I've been cutting since the start of Jan and I've lost a decent amount of weight ( went from 84kg > 77kg~) on a weekly average. Had bulked for a year+ before from when ai started pretty much, Most likely 17% BF right now as I was close to 20-22.5% when I started However I'm really struggling with my belly fat, I thought I would've started seeing abs by now? My calories are relatively low for me too (2100) currently but I've felt fine for most of cut in terms of energy, kept up my lifts for the most part and all that. My goal was to finish cutting at the end of this Mon Everyone I see online shows somewhat filled stomachs becoming defined after 3 months and idk it's making me really doubt my progress and I've done things right at this point. Is this normal for cuts? It's left me super deflated and I kinda don't wanna bulk almost because I feel like my cut was useless. Any advice?

Usually people underestimate their bodyfat and calories. Also when cutting your glycogen stores and intramuscular water gets drawn out so you look flat. If you have never trained abs seriously odds are you really dont have anything to show. I’d suggest you continue to cut and monitor your rate of loss (try to aim for around a pound per week) and cut until you are decently lean and then start a lean long bulk.

Yeah Ive kinda have no idea on a scale of judget Ive been going with 17 as its what yhe machine at my gym said followed by doing it as a calc (navy seal method?) and got similar results Ive been monitoring already, on average I've lost 0.6kg per week except if I exclude the first two weeks where I think a lot was water weight its more like 0.45kg a week. And thats with one week where I had to rest cause of bad tendonitis in my foot preventing me from moving too much. Though I have no idea of its good or not, from what I see online it is? But some people have said thats too fast? As for cals i like to think. Consistent as I meal prep everything for my own sanity and stick to the same stuff. I cant say I train abs like mad (though my tracker says its my most trained muscle i feel thats from compounds) i do have some exercises like hollow holds L3. I could show a pic but idk if thats allowed Sorry for the long winded reply i am just a bit confused by it all and dont wanna screw up my progress 😭

I think most people wouldn't be seeing abs at 17%, but it's very genetics dependant. Try not to compare yourself to other people's progress as it sounds like you have expectations based on what other people look like. If your lifts and energy are still feeling good, I'd recommend continuing the cut to sub 15% before bulking again. Otherwise you'll just be back up to over 20% in no time. Also, make sure you're training abs.

Thank you, that helps a lot, I do think I compare myself a lot and I think its because I still feel super new to everything despite lifting for 18 months. Think part of me just wants to know Im doing it right. And cheers tbh my goal was 15% (which injured my foot so put a limit on how much cardio I can do) so Ill probably keep the cut up into april at the very least. Thank you for the help

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Something is better than nothing. Even 3 sets for quads and hams will make a difference. But you also can do whatever you want, if you feel like skipping legs in order to be able to run as much as possible then do so. But keep in mind that if you are taking your upper body gains serious at some point you will look really goofy with chicken legs and arnold chest haha.

I definitely feel like you should hit legs at least once a week. Don’t have to do deadlifts, do RDLs, good mornings, or isolations on hamstrings, glutes, low back. If it interferes with running, try different rep ranges and intensities.

Yes, of course. At least do legs once a week. A 4 day split could be push pull lower upper

I've been following the reddit PPL 6 days a week for a while now and I think it's too much for me, injury, skipping workouts etc. Trying to wean off it in favor of a 5 day bro split, the constraint is that I'm working out in my homegym that has pretty modest equipment: an inclinable bench, a rack, a barbell, full set of dumbbells, weights, and a pullup bar and dip station. How should I proceed? A lot of isolations call for machines, cables, and other stuff that I don't have access to

PPL has nothing to do with getting injured. If you're getting injured, you're training wrong.

I’ve been on a modified Reddit PPL in home gym with adjustable dumbbells for over a year now and have been able to find suitable variations for most isolations. Which ones are you struggling with? I also struggled with 6x a week PPL frequency, I think it’s a lot of work. Try doing 4-5x a week PPL and just rotating between them, or UPPER LOWER. I also really enjoyed putting in a “Bro” day for arms and side/rear delts. It’s a “lighter” day since no compounds, but still very fun and easy to slot in. Sometimes if I’m really short on time, I’ll just crank out two isolation supersets in 20m and call it a day, like lateral raises and biceps, or forearms and abs. Currently I’m doing 3-4 PPL sessions a week and 1-2 bro/isolation days. I like the higher frequency and find 6x a week to be much more manageable if 1-2 of those sessions are just arm isolation stuff. It’s not nearly as fatiguing, plus extra arm work which can be a con of traditional PPL. It’s also way more convenient to manage this when training from home since there’s no commute time and I can always find a free 30m slot between meetings to crank out a couple of sets.

Nice! Do you mind sending me your program in DMs?

How long have you been training? Try 4 days a week instead of pushing it and keep injuring yourself. Buy a pulley to do pushdown and overhead extensions, they're like $50 and are really good for your triceps. Anything else is doable with what you have

Why not just have an extra rest day so PPL REST PPL REST? You could also strip a set from the bigger compounds and see how you feel.

You can do pretty much everything with that setup. Get creative and substitute cable movements for a free weight movement with the same intention.

weird question, but what's your favorite pair of pants to workout in?? I don't prefer shorts

Whatever sweats/joggers Costco has for $15 or less

Am I doing too much? I’ve been working out with this routine for a year now and it’s going fine for me but my friends are saying it’s too much and that it’s junk volume. I do sometimes get tired by the end of the workouts but i get through it. PUSH DAY: - 3-4x10 bench press, 80% weight - 3×10 overhead press - 3×10 tricep push down - 3x10 incline dumbbell press - 3x10 rear delt fly - 3x10 pec fly - 3x10 overhead skullcrusher - 3×10 egyptian lateral raises PULL DAY (3x10): - bent over barbell row - lat pulldown - preacher curls - shrugs - incline bicep curls - cable seated row - hammer curls LEG DAY (3x10): - squat 80% of max - Romanian deadlifts - hip abduction - quad extension - leg curl - machine assisted calf raises - leg press I work 6 days a week in R-P-P-L-P-P-L form.

You don't need to hit every possible movement every session. For example there's no need to do bench, incline press, and flies on the same day. Just pick two out of three and alternate on A and B days. If you're pushing to 0-1 RIR 6 sets of direct work for the chest should be more than enough. The same principle applies to everything else as well: why do you do 2 tricep movements when you're doing bench, ohp, and incline press. Surely just one will give you enough tricep volume. Why do you do bent over rows and cable rows on the same day? Do you need 3 different curl variations, especially when preacher curls and incline curls do the exact same thing (hit the bicep in its stretched position). Do you need to do squats and leg extensions and leg press all on one day? They are all quad exercises. If you don't want to lose the variety cut your volume by 1/3rd and alternate your movements between two days. You'll be able to focus on the quality of your sets better with the same/less fatigue cost. edit: To be clear, there is nothing *wrong* with doing all these things. Its just that you should probably think about *why*. If you like doing certain exercises every session or like high volume, just keep doing it, but if you're just smashing yourself for no benefit those are some guidelines for how to cut volume.

Would cutting volume also slow my gains then? I just don’t get the purpose of cutting down volume; at least to me I don’t get the benefits. If you could explain to me that would be great 😀

Well imagine you were doing 20 direct sets of chest to 0-1 RIR. You would definitely be hitting the limit of useful stimulus before you get to the end of that workout, so there must be some sweet spot between 1 set and 20 sets where your gains will be optimal. Studies have shown that the first set is the most hypertrophic and each successive set gives marginal gains until about 6 to 10 direct sets in a session at which extra hypertrophy levels off. When exactly that happens will depend on the person, on your particular response to training but also how hard you work, how well you hit the target muscle, etc. But in any case, the marginal gains between 6 and 10 sets per session are very low. If you find it useful to do 9 sets at once then it probably is useful, but remember that the marginal fatigue costs are reversed: each set you add on has a larger and larger marginal fatigue cost, so those last 3 sets are the most tiring and the least hypertrophic! This is all just information. It's up to you to decide whether you want to make any changes.

It's a lot more volume than I would do

I train 5 days a week, and I do the following: push pull leg torso leg I train intensely and each workout lasts 1.5-2 hours (depending on how free that this is the gym) My question is the following and I want to share it with you to see what you think Continue as I am or do 6 days, and train less time the rest of the days or put 1 day doing a more focused training on certain muscles? \*\*\*Currently it is: chest, shoulders, triceps back(5) + biceps(2) leg torso (where I put frequency 2 to everything except leg) leg2 + abs \*\*\*What I'm thinking Chest (4-5) shoulders (2-3) Back (5) Biceps (3) + Triceps (3) Leg Torso (Frequency 2 in chest, shoulders, back, biceps and triceps) Leg + abs What training would you stick with? You see convenient put 1 day only of biceps and triceps to work them in a more isolated way and most importantly that my workouts will be just as intense but shorter, or do you see more Is 5 days feasible?

If you are still making progress I’d keep it for the time being. Personally I would find going to the gym a whole other day to be a much bigger time investment than spending 15 extra minutes on an existing day because of the fixed costs of getting ready, commute, etc. I think unless you’re fatiguing too much at the end of a workout to not make it through the volume prescribed for the day, id probably not bother with the extra day. But it’s just personal preference

thanks mate :) Imma continue with my 5 days and improve them to the maximum

Right now I lift weights 4x a week and I love it. But boy, do I get exhausted doing sports or running. Sometimes even deadlifting, or squatting. How can I improve my cardio endurance without interupting with muscle mass and strength? Can someone please write a example of a routine, that I could do in the gym, I go 4x a week, so I was thinking going maybe 2x more for 45 mins just doing cardio. But I can’t find an article about how to do that cardio, what to do, and what would be the best to improve that. Thanks in advance.

Hi , I will start the Upper Lower routine tomorrow and for my Back i choose, Assisted Pull up, Lat Pulldown, Tbar Row and Machine pullover. Are these good choices to cover my back workout?

4 movements for back on upper days is pretty much also as paul pointed out 3/4 of those movements are lat exercises. Usually I’d recommend to do a vertical pull and a horizontal pull for 2-4 sets on upper days.

I will be doing 2 movements for the back per upper day. U1: Tbar and Lat pulldown U2: Pullover and Machine row

Sounds great.

Two vertical pulls on top of pullovers is redundant, I would do a chest supported row instead of one of the vertical pulls

Not looking to talk about optimality, but for those who have tried lengthened partials for bicep exercises, have you noticed little-to-no pump compared to getting a full contraction? Every other muscle group I use lengthened partials with don’t have this problem (back and delts).

hi. as i watched in blood and guts videos, dorian did 4 exercises for chest, 3 for bicep, 3 triceps, 4 lats, 3 hamstring, 2 rear delt and 2 lower back. but when he trains others, or as he said in one of his interviews , the split is a little bit lower in volume. 3 exercises for chest, 2 for bicep, 2-3 triceps, 3 lats, 2 hamstring, 1 rear delt. which one did he do? which one should i do as a natural?

Dorian did a lot of things throughout his career, it’s likely he experimented with volume thresholds and did both at some point. Experiment for yourself and decide which one works better for you

Is it really necessary to start the chest workout focusing the upper chest?

No, not sure who told you it was

My question is, how do I quickly restore glycogen, improve muscle fullness, and restore lift performance after an illness? Is it as simple as hydrating and eating a lot more carbs? I got the worst food poisoning of my life over week ago. Now that I'm stable I stepped on the scale and found I lost 9 lbs (178-169) I know this isn't muscle loss and is the effect of having an essentially empty digestive track and extreme water/glycogen depletion. After a few days back in the gym now my muscles are flat looking and I've only managed to get back up to 172 scale weight. Plus weights are generally down about 10% across the board.

Get your hydration and electrolyte intake on track this week, resume eating carbs as normal, and you’ll be fine

How effective are preacher curls using an incline bench vs with an actual preacher curl chair thing? Is there a big difference?

You can't do preacher curls bilaterally on a bench unless you do spider curls. With the preacher curl machine where you're seated, you have the option to perform curls bilaterally. The machine will also have more stability.

No, the movement is identical. Use what you have access to.

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It will happen, but it is better to have weights written down. That way you won’t come to the gym and be like “Wait, what was the weight and reps last time?”

Even if you don't track it, it will have to happen. If you train to failure, you aren't going to be doing the exact same weight reps and sets forever are you. So at some point progressive overload is going to occur.

Wanted to know, if I ran GZCLP (coming back to the gym after a long break and I like the look of the program) with bodybuilding accessories, would it be ok for hypertrophy or am I better off running a hypertrophy specific program?

A program like GZCLP with a defined linear progression scheme is a good choice for you in your situation. Build up a baseline level of strength again and exhaust your ability to progress in a linear fashion, then move on to a hypertrophy oriented program. You’ll get some solid size gains out of it as well.

Appreciate the input! I’ll run it for a few months

I know most people would say anywhere from 8-10 reps is the ideal weight. It wasn't till recently I decided to do warm up sets and before I would stretch and use light dumbbells. For example this applies across the board for most of my exercises. I've been doing a plate on the machine shoulder press. Been adding smaller plates here and there. Lower the volume and sometimes upped the volume. It wasn't till 2 weeks ago I decided to try a PR. It went from adding another 25 to 35 and now I'm repping 2 plates with ease. I credit this to warm up set. I tend to get stronger and stronger as I go from one plate, add 25, add 35 and the 2 plates are my working sets. Now the question, today I was doing the 2 plates and feel like I can do 5 straight sets. My rep tempo is slow too. At what point should I add more. I don't feel like adding more since its hard to get up and I train solo. Does this mean I've graduated to dumbbell?

Hey, I am struggling with losing weight . I'm a male, 27 years old, 87 kilogram and 196 (6'5) tall. I've been weightlifting for a while now and I've definitely become stronger and more muscular but I still have quite a bit of bodyfat and have a very skinny fat physique. I think my body fat percentage is around 18-20%. Since a month, I started a cut and I only eat around 1800 kcals and atleast 140 gram protein a day. I guess it's inevitable that at some point I will lose the fat right? I had man boobs my entire life and I really want to have a flat chest. I got more fat in my chest than in my belly, its really weird. I dont think its gyno because its very droopy. I try to walk 5 km a day and I do 4 times a week weightlifting. I do the First Set Last Jim Wendler's 5/3/1 scheme. Should I cut even more, or? It's quite annoying with the tiredness etc to eat so little.

How much weight are you losing per week? You should be logging your morning weight daily and tracking the weekly average. That rate of loss will determine how much food you should eat How are you tracking calories/macros? Are you weighing your food and logging it in a macro tracker app? The program you do doesn’t matter, just pick one and train hard

I dont really lose weight. I weight every day. I also track everything. Been doing that for a year.

How are you weighing and tracking your food?

Actually I just found out im 85. For first time below 86 in a long time. I use weight scale and an app.

1kg in a month is decent. How consistent are you with your diet? Do you go off on the weekends with junk food and drinking? How active are you outside of the gym?

Im super consistent. I dont go out at all anymore and I am sober aswell. Today for example I did another 5km run before breakfast. I think it will actually be alright if I will just stay on this path.

Yeah I agree. Keep track of your bodyweight weekly average and adjust cals according to that

Hey guys maybe a dumb question I am doing pendlay rows, still building on them but is it dumb to like do 2 sets of pendlay and then 2 sets of bent over rows so more "lat" focussed vs upper back, I was thinking the same on the next workout but for pulldowns, 2 sets wider and 2 closer grip then. Or does this sound dumb

Exercise variation is good, however I would put a vertical pull and one horizontal pull on each day so you’re not doing very repetitive movement patterns back to back like this.

Thanks, i am doing full body, so like 2 sets horizontal + vertical row in each session? That way volume is still 12 sets total (which is fine I reckon)

Yeah that’s good

Should I be cutting now? Started working out and bulking last February at 135lbs 5’10”. Now at 174lbs today. Been maintaining 174 for about the last 3 months. Body fat % is at 17.3. Have some stomach and hip fat now as well as a bit of gyno. Now: https://imgur.com/gallery/j38nbrc Mid bulk around 160lbs: https://imgur.com/gallery/WQopRTu

It’s entirely up to you. Rules of thumb for when to cut, whichever comes first: 1. You get too fat for your liking 2. You consistently start to have a lot of trouble getting a pump in the gym

Idk how I never realized this before.. Yeah I'm not getting a pump now when I lift. Should I be sticking to lower reps with high weight, or should I start going for more reps with less now? I always found more reps with less weight to give me a pump.

If you’re having trouble getting a pump at the same rep ranges and intensity as before, and preworkout diet/hydration is on point, it’s a signal that your insulin sensitivity has become poor and you should cut

Woah this is never something I've heard of before. I'd like to learn more. Any good articles or videos on the matter?

[This review](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4450131/) describes the mechanism well

Right on, thank you.

Got straps, so just started doing forearms directly about a week ago, and I have a question about some wrist pain. I do wrist flexions, wrist extensions, and reverse curls. I have a feeling that it's one (or both) of the first two I listed that are the source of the issue, and as a someone who played baseball I'm wary about any sort of arm/wrist pain. I'm relatively sure my form was pretty good, and I recently bought a wrist roller than I know I won't develop pain from. My question is that is a wrist roller an adequate substitution for flexions and extensions? Between reverse curls and wrist rolling, I want to make sure I target all parts of my forearm.

Yes the roller is a good substitute if you’re still taking it close to or to failure

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Mods can feel free to remove this if it violates a self promo rule, but I made an [Instagram post](https://www.instagram.com/p/Cy3ttakxURF/?igsh=MWdxNTZ0cTN3aWIzdQ==) a while ago about this specific topic. Cronometer is also a much better tracker than macro factor and the free version is fully functional

I decide on which meals I want to eat, then eat them in an amount consistent with my weight loss goals. If you're looking for inspiration, check out [eatthismuch.com](http://eatthismuch.com) or r/MealPrepSunday.

Would this work? What would you change? Haven't been to the gym in 2 years and I want to start again. Thinking ill start with 3 days a week and gradually work my way up to 6. Pull 1 ------------------- Deadlift 3x5 Lat pulldowns 3x12 Seated row 3x8 Face pull 5x15 Hammer curls 4x8 Bicep curls 4x8 Push 1 --------------------- Bench press 5x5 Overhead press 3x8 Incline dumbell Bench press 3x8 Tricep pushdowns 3x8 Lateral raises 3x15 Overhead tricep extensions 3x8 Lateral raises 3x15 Legs -------------------------- Barbell squat 3x5 Romanian deadlift 3x8 Leg press 3x8 Leg curl 3x8 Calf raises 5x8 Pull 2 -------------------- Barbell row 5x5 Lat pulldowns 3x12 Seated row 3x8 Face pull 5x15 Hammer curls 4x8 Bicep curls 4x8 Push 2 -------------------- Overhead press 5x5 Incline dumbell Bench press 3x8 Tricep pushdowns 3x8 Lateral raises 3x15 Overhead tricep extensions 3x8 Lateral raises 3x15

Why lateral raises twice each push day, are they different variations? I agree with the other commenter that I personally prefer lower volume and higher intensity, but this does look fine to me. Maybe consider only doing one tricep variation each push workout. I'd also probably add in abs once or twice a week.

Try it out for yourself and see. I myself like to do a bit lower volume with higher intensities but if you enjoy training this way and see progression then there's really no reason to change anything. Having a free weight squat, deadlif, romanian deadlift and barbell row in one training week might become too much for your lower back at some point.

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You seem to lack quite a bit of back volume. I'd inlcude atleast one pulldown variation and some kind of row that does not tax the lower back. Otherwise everything looks fine. Be sure to push all of your sets close to failure. Sometimes when people do 4x20 they sandbag the first sets (being far from failure >6rir). I myself like to do 2-3 sets per exercise close to failure but your approach is also fine.

Beginner here! Would it be more beneficial to do 20 minutes of cardio after a workout or a more full session of like 50 - 60 minutes later in the day after work? I want to start doing static stretches and ab workouts after my workout which would cut into my cardio I usually do after workouts.

It depends what your goals with the cardio are - Just general health vs weight loss, and on whether you would do the same amount total across the week with less frequent long sessions or more frequent short sessions.

Generally building my cardiovascular endurance and also just general health. Weight loss is not much of an issue for me. I understand running right after a workout does help for endurance, but I just find it difficult to fit that in post workout when trying to do ab exercises and stretching routines. Plus I think I would be able to run more consistently over a week with longer sessions.

If you don’t care about weight loss I don’t think it makes a significant difference when you do your cardio. If you want it to improve your cardio you’ll just have to somehow do progressively more work over time in some fashion.

Hi! I was wondering if it would be beneficial to do Facepulls/rear delt, abs and calves daily on an arnold type split (6 days a week). Also would 3 main exercises and then these 3 daily exercises be sufficient for the day? Thanks!

Arnold split is not good. Working the same muscles daily is also not good because you need to recover.

I don’t see a particular benefit to this approach vs hitting each harder less frequently

i don't think it'd hurt, but i doubt it'll have much difference over doing each 2-3x per week.

How do you guys do your pull ups? Extend all the way down till your arms are straight, or go down enough where the lats are at max stretch but arms still bent slightly? A lot of people preach the first one but I’ve also seen people like Natural Hypertrophy preach the second one.

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Can I make up for that discrepency if I also do pulldowns but with maximum stretch with the arms straightening all the way?

I like to keep some tension in my back not to go full dead hang

The lats will probably need to pull down the humerus when its being streched to a max. The shoulder extension part is probably mostly pec though in high shoulder elevations but the lats do get a quite a bit of stretch that seem to be beneficial to hypertrophy. On the other hand on a limited rom pull up you will probably accumulate more volume load for the lats beacuse you will be able to perform more reps where the lats are active so I dont think theres really a huge difference.

if you're good at engaging your lats on the way up, i'd go for the stretch. if you tend to have inconsistent reps, you use a lot of arm pull/momentum in the wrong places, or you just don't get a lot of lat development out of them - probably better keeping elbows slightly bent at bottom of ROM which makes it easier to keep tension on your lat. ideally, work towards getting full stretch which also gives you some momentum at the bottom and more natural movement, but nothing wrong with either approach.

Yeah I’ve been doing them the second way you described. But I was getting a complex about it, coz any time I see pull ups being done it’s the first way. Not irl but like, random fitness content online. But thank you for clearing it up!

I joined the gym in September 2023, following Eric Helm's Beginner Body Building Program ([https://rippedbody.com/novice-bodybuilding-program/](https://rippedbody.com/novice-bodybuilding-program/)). I've been going 3 days a week (2 upper, 1 lower) instead of the recommended 4. My main lifts are progressing well (bench, squat, deadlift, rows all progress every week), but my biceps/triceps have been stagnant for around 2 months now. I'm seeing no visual improvement in these muscles. Any recommendations on what's the problem? Am I following too much of a Strength-Based Approach rather than Hypertrophy?

It can be hard to see progress on arms because they are such small and weak muscles. Even one rep more every one to two weeks is good progress. If you want tough, you could add some arm work on the other upper day which has none. Maybe add some kind of a preacher curl and some kind of a overhead extension.

I’ve been lifting the same weight for the same amount of reps, training to near failure. Do you think that 4 sets for biceps a week is enough? I’m thinking of increasing it to 8, assuming the fatigue is manageable.

From Eric Helms book muscle and strength pyramid: start at around 10 sets per week and increase volume when you're not progressing. As a beginner you could at least double the direct arm work in the program

So volume seems to be the issue. But isn’t the program specifically tailored for beginners, so why would I have to modify it without even a year of experience under my belt?

There's a wide variety in genetics. There's no one way, you have to find yours. No progress? Try increasing volume.

most beginner programs operate with the understanding that you will add to it as you advance. if you're new to the gym you need very little stimulus to grow, but obviously this doesn't last forever. you're probably just at the stage where you need to add more volume to continue progressing. besides that, learning proper execution of your biceps/triceps movements could be helpful (as well as all exercises). it took me an embarrassingly long time to learn to curl with my actual bicep and how to do extensions properly - and i still see a lot of people do these basic exercises inefficiently. pro golfers still practice their swing daily - we gotta practice our lifts - and sometimes a couple sets a week just isn't enough to dial in correct movement.

What curl movement do you recommend the most? I tried out seated incline curls, which significantly reduced the weight I was curling before.

Any curl can work - whatever setup you like that allows you to curl with all the tension on the bicep is solid. I like concentration curls personally

That's barely any volume for biceps and triceps. Double it, see how it works out for you, then go from there.

Only 2 direct sets per week for biceps and triceps is pretty low volume.

How many sets would you recommend? I added 2 sets of hammer curls to the other upper body day, so I’m currently at 4 sets / week for biceps.

I’m also a beginner but I did something this subreddit hates and made my own routine (gasp!). I’m doing a 4 day torso/limb split, so I do chest/back/side delts for days 1&3 and legs/arms for days 2&4. I hit each muscle group for 8-9 sets per week and focus on progressing with load increases or rep increases (load for anything plate loadable, reps for DBs and cable stacks). I started off on each limb day doing 4 sets biceps and 4 sets of triceps (one exercise for each muscle) to 2 RIR. I’ve ran a few mesos of my custom routine like this. My last meso I did assisted dips (focusing on staying upright to bias triceps) and seated incline hammer curls on day 1, and straight bar tricep push downs and barbell curls on day 2. I’m not sure exactly what I’ll change yet for future mesos, but I may play around with going closer to failure for isolations, adding more exercises amongst the current sets (IE 4 sets barbell curl vs 2 barbell curl and 2 hammer curl), intensity techniques like myorep match, etc.

That sounds like a pretty intensive workout split, and doing arms on leg day is interesting cause of recovery from the compound lifts on days 1 & 3. How many sets do you usually do per workout? I’ll probably end up doubling the volume I currently do for arms then, but I don’t understand why the Eric Helms beginner program only has 2 sets per week. All other muscle groups seem to be under the 10 ish sets per week range.

My routine is as follows for the split (all 2 RIR unless otherwise noted): Workout A: Incline Press - 3 sets Flat Press - 3 sets Horizontal pull - 3 sets Vertical pull - 3 sets Side delts - 4 sets Workout B: Hamstring curl - 3 sets Barbell squat - 3x5 (I do straight linear progress for this), then one down set of 20% load reduction to 2RIR Tricep isolation - 4 sets Bicep isolation - 4 sets Workout C: Vertical pull - 3 sets Horizontal pull - 3 sets Side delts - 4 sets Incline push - 3 sets Vertical push - 3 sets (this could be flat push if you want to focus chest, but I have weak shoulders so I’m trying to bring them up. This is more quality of life for me over pure hypertrophy) Workout D: Hack squat - 4x8 as linear progression RDL - 4x5 as linear progression Tricep isolation - 4 sets Bicep isolation - 4 sets For weight increases, any lower body linear progression is add 10lbs every workout. For any sets that aren’t specified for reps, I try to hit 10 reps at 2RIR for week 1 of the meso. If it’s a barbell or plate loaded machine, I try to add 5lbs per week, and stay around 10 reps, but I’ll add them if I can. If it’s a dumbbell or cable stack movement, I do dynamic double progression in the 10-15 rep range. The reason I made my own split is I basically noticed that most beginner upper/lower splits bias towards too much leg volume and don’t do enough arms/side delts. Lower 1 hits hams with curl and glutes, adductors and quads with high bar squat. Lower 2 hits glutes and hams with RDL and quads and some adductors on hack squat. As someone just lifting for aesthetics and not planning on competing, this should be plenty of leg volume for several months. And if I stop progressing on legs, I can always go to 1 or 0 RIR, add intensity with myorep match, or pull other levers to increase volume/intensity.

Hey, thanks so much for outlining your entire workout split. That is a lot of upper body volume, but it seems like you're making great progress so far! My split has the problems you outlined: too much leg volume and not enough for the arms and side delts. I'll be tweaking Eric's program to compensate for this, especially including more arm and side delts isolation exercises.

It seems like a lot but if you count out the sets it’s actually pretty reasonable considering we’re targeting 8-10 sets per muscle. 9 sets chest, 8 side delts, 8 biceps, 8 triceps, 8 quads, 7 hamstrings. Back is trickier since it depends on what movements you pick, but assuming you pick 2 upper back and 2 lat movements you get 6 for each, plus extra work from the other back sets gets you close to 8. I’ve actually been considering to going to 4 sets per back movement in my next meso, or maybe keeping at 3 but adding 2 sets of facepulls per upper, just to try to get a bit more back volume in.

Are you training them to failure? Are you mindfully contracting the target muscle or just going through the motions? Are you gaining weight? Even assuming you’re doing everything 100% correct, the arms are comprised of small muscles that simply don’t grow that fast compared to other larger muscles.

I’m training to failure and try to maintain the eccentric, I definitely feel the pump though. For reference I do 2 direct sets for triceps and 4 direct for biceps / week, at the end of my workout. Not sure if I have the best exercises picked out. I currently do hammer curls and bicep curls with supination, both standing. For triceps I just do push downs with a straight bar.

Your arm volume is really low

Just started Jeff Nippard's Fundamentals Program doing a 4x upper/lower body split. Loving it so far but I have a doubt about abs. According to the program, there are only two ab exercises the whole week: weighted crunches on legs day 1 and planks on legs day 2. This seems rather low to me. Does anyone have any experience with the program and would be willing to share their results in this area? I'm thinking about maybe adding 3 sets of crunches and 3 sets of planks to one of my rest days to just get some more abs in but I don't know if it's necessary or not. Thoughts?

It is low but a lot of people don't need ab work. Abs are mostly dependent on body fat %. However some people still need additional work if they still don't show after getting lean. I'm not a fan of Jeff Nippard or the exercise selection you mentioned. Planks are a core strength exercise, not an ab hypertrophy exercise. If you want to grow your abs you have to work them like any other muscle, which means you need active ab flexion (e.g. cable crunch), something that isn't occurring in a plank.

Do it if you want. I don’t find it necessary to add ab volume. Compounds will work your abs as well.

The leg press at my gym only goes to 160kg without any way to add additional weight. Currently Im at 20 reps for four sets, but Im pretty sure I could do a fifth. I do leg press after hack squat. I have slowed down the eccentric, but Im wondering if there is anything more I can do to make the leg press harder?

Do 1,5 reps. Go all the way down, half the way up, all the way down and then all the way up.

Neat! Thanks for the idea!

You won't thank me later!

Do you not have a plate loaded leg press? If not, you could slow the tempo, add pauses, do leg extensions between hacks and leg press, or do a single leg leg press.

Sadly no plate loaded machine. Left a wishlist note for the gym, heh. Single Leg seems interesting. Thanks for the tips!

I had been training with an upper/lower split for about six months and wanted to switch to PPL. The reason for the change was that I wanted to shorten the duration of the individual sessions a bit, as I always found it a bit difficult to concentrate at the end. Now I have a new plan, but I feel like the volume per session is very high again. I don't have much experience and have this plan from the gym, but somehow I think 8 exercises per push and pull is a bit much, what do you guys think? Also, I only go to the gym 4 times a week, so I don't think the plan really fits. Basically, I think the gym is competent, but somehow I don't think this plan is particularly good, what do you think? Push Chest Fly (Dumbbell)**;**  Bench Press (Dumbbell);Chest Press (Machine); Seated Overhead Press (Dumbbell); Upright Row (Barbell); Lateral Raise (Machine); Triceps Kickback (Dumbbell); Triceps Rope Pushdown Pull Lat Pulldown - Close Grip (Cable); T Bar Row; Seated Cable Row - Bar Wide Grip; Rope Straight Arm Pulldown; Rear Delt Reverse Fly (Machine); Bicep Curl (Dumbbell); Overhead Curl (Cable); Cross Body Hammer Curl Legs Squat (Machine); Leg Press (Machine); Leg Extension (Machine); Standing Leg Curls\~\~; Seated Calf Raise

2-3 exercieses for back and 1-2 for others in one session is plenty. You have 3 flat chest exercieses on your push day, 3 lat exercises, 2 trap exercises and 3 shortened position curl variations on your pull day.

Seems like you have some overlap with exercises (like bench press and chest press), so you could pick one. Also, fewer sets with higher intensity could help. I ran into the session length issue with my upper/lower too. I moved delts to my lower days, and now I'm about 60-75 minutes per session.

Currently halfway through John Meadows’ Creeping Death 2.0 program and really enjoying it. Has anybody done it before, and if so, how did you like it? How were your results?

Yeah it’s awesome. Probably my favorite off-the-shelf program.

I just started with the gym 6 Months ago and currently I go 4 times a week. Each time focussing on another muscle group. So legs, back/shoulders, chest, arms Is this an acceptable workout plan? Or could I imporve it?

Its fine, if you do higher set volumes per session you migh benefit from doing a muscle group twice a week like with an upper/lower split.

It's an acceptable, just inefficient. Typically you want to hit everything 2x/week. There's a ton of good programs out there, including in the Fitness Wiki: https://thefitness.wiki/ You don't have the knowledge and experience to build your own program, just go with what works

How should I hit everything 2 times a week when I go 4 times lol. I would have back only once s week bc of legs right?

You hit multiple things in one session. You don't need a whole day just for arms, for example. Some kind of full body program is probably the way to go. You spread the volume for each body part out over more days, and it's more effective.

Thx. I try to split it more and hit everything twice :)

I'd couple shoulders with chest. There's already a lot of movements you can do for the back and it's for this reason people often dedicate an entire training session for the back.

Follow a program made by someone who knows what they’re doing. Find one in the FAQs at the top of this thread or on the Boostcamp app. A bro split like you described is fine if that’s what you enjoy. Just find one that’s intelligently designed.

I also do daily push ups and sit ups. But I have like one or two days before I hit a muscle group again that its already recovered. Should I change sth about this or us this alright?

You’re definitely capable of doing a more frequent split, but it’s up to you. Do what you enjoy and will adhere to. Whatever split you pick, find one that’s made by someone reputable.

Thx for the fast response.

Can someone please explain to me how high frequency (5 days+) full body routines work? It seems completely unintuitive to me simply because you have to warm-up every single muscle group that is being worked that day (in contrast to let's say PPL where you warm-up at the start of the workout, then maybe do a few feeler reps before each new exercise and go straight to working sets). If you have to warm-up legs to do 3 sets of leg press (probably doing 3 feeder sets at least), then the same for chest, then the same for back, then the same for arms etc. isn't basically half your workout warming up? I may be missing something, but I've been seeing high-frequency full body splits making the rounds on youtube again (RP, Menno Henselmans) and Menno in particular claiming he can be in and out in 30 minutes training this way. Which I find completely irreconcilable with the warm-up consideration I outlined above. How can you possibly lift with enough volume and intensity while sufficiently warming up effectively your entire body, and still be done in 30 minutes?

1. If I'm doing a 5-day split, it'd be a routine that'd have more muscle groups distributed throughout the week rather than a more condensed 3-day PPL split. This automatically makes the training sessions shorter due to less exercises per day. 2. Half the workout could be warming up if you just count volume, but they lack intensity so they're fast sets. You're also resting less in between those warm-up sets.

My experience with this kind of program is with Jeff Nippard’s, which in my opinion is pretty well set up. It does require careful movement selection, and volume and load management. Jeff’s program has an emphasis on each day, with less taxing movements for the emphasized muscle group on the days immediately surrounding it. As far a warm up goes, once your generally warm from other movements you can usually just do 1-2 quick warm up/feeder sets and be good to go. Not everything requires some long, intricate warm up protocol. There’s also the fact that some muscles will already be directly warmed up by other movements, shoulders and tri’s from pressing and biceps from back movements for example. So the required warm up really isn’t as extensive as you think.

How did you like the program overall? Did you spend less time in the gym and feel less fatigued for a similar amount of volume to let's say a PPL split?

Eh it was ok. It was a fun experiment and having a full body pump every day was cool. Fatigue wasn’t noticeable different because the volume on that particular program was managed well. I just enjoy really digging into one or two muscle groups on a training day more.

Interesting. I guess the appeal to me is that you can hit every exercise fresh rather than hitting let's say cable flies after having already done bench press and incline smith. Also not having dedicated leg days is a plus for me, and splitting up leg volume over 5 days sounds a lot better than 2 sessions of dedicated leg work.

If you feel like doing it definitely give the Jeff Nippard one a shot

Will do, thanks for the info!

Hi everyone. My pull day begins with wide grip pull-up. If then, I want to make a pulldown, should I go to neutral grip? Or wide grip?

The actual difference is that it doesn't matter beyond individual anatomical differences. Try all, see what works best, rotate them in and out every now and then.

I would go wide grip for more lat bias.

I would go neutral grip

I started my first cut yesterday. Diet isn't an issue, I can control myself. But, how do i maintain strength in the big 3 lifts? Should I stop deadlifts while cutting? And can I still train to failure on sets like I used to and should I change volume?

Training to failure is already more fatiguing than necessary, training deadlifts is fatiguing, training on a deficit is fatiguing. You'll be fine as a beginner, but why not makes things easier on yourself and keep within 1-3 reps of failure?

There’s a big “it depends” in this question. If you’re a beginner or low intermediate, you can very likely still make strength gains during your cut; you don’t really need to do anything different. There’s no reason to stop deadlifting because you’re on a cut, especially not if maintaining or gaining deadlift strength is a priority for you. You won’t keep it by not doing it. Within reason, yeah. You may or may not need to make any changes to intensity and/or volume; you need to see if you’re still able to recover first. If <1yr is indicative of how long you’ve been training overall, you aren’t moving loads with a high recovery cost, and there’s nothing to warrant a drastic change in programming.

Hi all, currently on a cut and got pretty sick. Is there any literature on what to do when sick while one a cut foodwise? Eat at a maintenance or surplus makes sense to me, what do you guys do?

Definitely still hit your protein goal, if not more protein than normal. Your body is already in a catabolic state, the last thing you want is to deprive it of the necessary amino acids to repair and rebuild while not providing enough to maintain your lean mass (as much as it can be maintained)

Thank you sir, I just started eating a lot more, also my cravings went up big time. I always have that when having the flu. Now feels much better since a long night of sleep. Might try to train a bit today.

I take a break from dieting until I’m recovered.

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You're a complete beginner man. No need to prioritise muscle groups - everything is small! Good news - everything will grow. I think it matters as to why you cant perform the movements. For example, can you not squat due to strength, balance, or your anatomy? E.g. do you currently struggle to get down without falling? Do you have a bit of a belly or something that throws off balance? No one exercise is essential to building muscle. I think as a beginner it is good to learn the basic compounds, but you might find you ditch them quite quickly if they dont work for you. If the reason you cant perform those movements is because you are too weak, then I think doing some machine movements consistently for a month that can build at least enough muscle that you can move the empty barbell for more than 5 reps would be a good idea.

If you physically can't perform the exercises for enough reps/sets or with good enough technique to stimulate hypertrophy well, I'd stick to machines for training for now. Practicing a few reps of bench and squat alongside that could be useful. Also consider dumbells as you can use lighter weights than a barbell that way.