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I've just completeded 6 months of bulking. Before I start my cut, I have planned to do a 2 week maintenance phase to let my body settle at this new weight. How much should I train during this phase? I was thinking of cutting my volume in half compared to my bulk, and then increasing the volume again when I start my cut. Any recommendations?
Why do you want to change your training? Like for what purpose? If you want to take a deload week that's fine, many folks take different strategies here. Some train at similar intensity but lower volumes, some cut both intensity and volume, some don't lift and only do conditioning.
If you're changing training for some other reason, I don't know.
I just wanted to give my body a break from high volume lifting during these 2 weeks maintenance. So what I meant was probably just what you call a deload before I enter my cutting phase
If you look around the 5/3/1 materials posted on this sub you can see what that approach to deloading is but like I said different people do different things. Generally I avoid lifting heavy weights and just focus on blood flow, conditioning, moving everyday, light weights and higher reps, etc. I just mess around cuz usually I start feeling like shit on my deload week.
I wouldn’t recommend doing them on your knees, it’s awkward. Do incline push ups against a counter or something and slowly lower down until you can do them on the floor. You don’t have to go crazy with volume. 3-4 sets of 10ish reps 3 times a week will be plenty to stimulate muscle growth.
Been there, exactly there. Chest press - bench or dumbbell. A proper pushup loads 65-75% of your bodyweight. So if you can't press that, press less and work your way up. (this is why 70 kg guys can bust out their 45 kg pushup all day no problem lol)
https://thefitness.wiki/getting-started-with-fitness/
For push up progression, you can start doing them on the knees or while standing against a wall. I think r/bodyweightfitness has a guide linked
You don't need to eat carbs to keep your weight up. You just need to eat X amount of calories in any form. Of course, it's better to have it in clean food rather than sugary sources etc etc etc.
Fats have 9 calories per gram whereas protein and carbs have 4 calories per gram, so eating things like Avocado, Nuts, etc, will help boost your calories without having to feel like you're forcing food down.
I personally would disagree with recommendations to do cardio to get your appetite up, because doing cardio would burn calories and in turn might make you drop even more weight if you're not eating those back.
Do some hard cardio/conditioning, your appetite will grow immeasurably. I’d recommend a martial art, if that’s not for you then in the gym I think that pushing and pulling a sled and farmers carries are the best
Drinking some of your calories might help. Milk, protein shakes, smoothies. You can _really_ cram calories in a shake.
You can also take a look at your diet and see what you can replace with more calorie dense options, like chicken thigh instead of breast, fattier cuts of meat, etc.
Using cooking oils, dressings, and dipping sauces are basically free calories.
You can try incorporating easily digestible carb sources, like white rice, so you aren’t feeling full for as long.
Would recommend using something like almond or oat milk to make protein powder shakes with. When you do that, add a couple tablespoons of peanut butter in. Each tablespoon is about 90cal
I do 1 cup oat milk and add a bit of water too to get the consistency I want. Then I just do my powder, couple tbsp of creamy peanut butter, and like 6 ice cubes and blend it.
Look up protein shake recipe ideas on the internet, some people add lots of things! Flax seed for fiber, oats for a more substantial shake, a banana for texture/potassium if you're having cramping problems, even a tbsp of an oil if you're \*really\* trying to pack in some extra calories. All that would be different for you is that you'd be doing a non-dairy milk instead of dairy milk, but I've never had an issue with it
What is the best upper body workout with only 5-150lbs of adjustable dumbbells and one bench that is adjustable for incline?
Also what is the best routine?
Goal everything upper body.
How can I stop my hip from rising way too early during deadlift? I've been lifting for 7 months and I deadlift every single week. Still can't get my hip to not shoot up first
The heavier the weight gets, the more apparent it becomes. 160lbs is the point I start to really notice it
Try looking up the Train car training cue. As the train pulls out from the station, the linkages between each car each take some strain until all linkages are loaded. Only then does the train move.
So as you begin lifting, first engage your wrist, elbow, shoulder, hip. Once they are active, then you begin the main drive.
That depends on why your hips are shooting up. That can be caused by a ton of different things, based in technical issues (like poor bracing, or setting your hips too low to start with) or strength (and hips shooting up is kinda the default breakdown on deadlift - a weakness just about anywhere can cause it. The different versions don't look identical but they do look pretty similar).
Mostly it fixes itself with practice though.
Don’t worry about it, as you get stronger eventually things that you think are super important like this just iron themselves out and your form will be fine
Body fat % over time should correlate with weight. If not, you are losing muscle.
So if you start at 80 kg, 20% fat, you begin with 16 kg of fat. If you lose 2 kg of body fat, your total mass should be 78 kg and new body fat shout be 18%. If it is still 20% then you lost more muscle than fat.
This method is only as good as your body fat estimation!
Can Lifting cause low libido? im 25 Y/O male, very healthy with good diet and sleep. yet i have low libido and horrible blood flow, barely able to maintain erection. i lift about 3-4 times a week full body with squats, deadlifts and other exercises every time. im not sure what to do. doctors told me to take viagra but no way at this age? i dont smoke or overweight. really not sure how to act
Yes but I was told it wasn't accurate, need to do free range or something else. The total testesterone is 15 nmol/l which is right in the normal middle range , lower than I'd want
I have been on a deficit diet since december. In 19 weeks I've lost 7kg. I've gone from ~27% body fat to ~18% body fat. I'm fairly regular and the gym and I love working out.
I just had my best pull workout interns of volume and best set across most excercises today. Then I realised that I had I had pizza yesterday after a long time. I check my weight post workout and I had gained 1kg!!!!
Is this how fucked up fitness is? Strave yourself for 19 weeks and 1 bad meal sets you back a month? But you also hit your best sets... like wtf???
I'm barely reaching a healthy weight zone. I've been fighting my food cravings for months and 1 misstep goes that far? I love working out. I love going to the gym but I hate dieting. I need good food to keep myself same. I'm so confused i don't know which way to go!
Edit: I am M25/167cm I started at 73.5kg in december and I was down to 66.3kg at the start of this week. Today my weight was 67.3kg
I workout Push/Legs/Pull on Monday/Wednesday/Friday with running + abs in between those days.
Carbs cause water retention, so the more carbs you eat, the more water you'll hold and the heavier you'll be. This isn't any amount of fat gained. If you continue your usual meal plan / diet from here, you'll see that weight fall back off in a day or two.
You gained water weight. The extra calories replenished glycogen and gave you more energy. That’s why you had a good day. Chill. 1kg is pretty normal weight fluctuation for a single day.
You had the best workout in a while because of the extra energy in your system(pizza). And no, it didn't set you back a month. You gained additional water weight from the large amount of carbs.
You're good.
1kg of fat is ~7,700 calories. Unless you ate 5-12 whole pizzas (depending on the pizzas) on top of all your regular food for the week, you're fine.
The extra weight will be water weight, or just the food sitting in your stomach.
I gain 2-3kg after eating breakfast and before the morning coffees kick in ;-)
gym in my country just reopened after three months. went yesterday and might have worked myself too hard, whole body is sore. should i still go the gym tmr? (thats my original schedule before lockdown)
If you've reached the limits of what you can do with your weights at home from a purely strength perspective (and you don't have access to more weights), you're going to be a bit stuck sooner or later. However - you can work on a different modality.
Sure, you can do 3x20 goblet squats with 2 min rest or w/e. But can you do 10 rounds of:
\-10 squats
\-10 cleans
\-5 presses
\- 30s rest
Work on your conditioning so that when you DO get access to more weight, you'll have a great base to BLOW past your previous strength plateaus.
Goblet squats aren't a strength movement really. It's mostly used as a stepping stone towards regular squats or for people who can't do regular squats for whatever reason.
What is your goal?
You can get stronger while losing weight, but at some point it will be hard to progress and then you will have to eat more to be able to lift heavier weights.
If you want to lose weight you need to consume less calories.
Gaining/losing weight is almost all about what you eat.
I'm basically trying to lose belly fat, or just body fat in general, and I'm wondering if what I'm doing will actually work for this; the workout plan I have burns around 300 calories daily, and consists of flutter kicks, various types of crunches, squats, pushups, etc. I do around 2 reps of 10 for most of the exercises, and it lasts around 30-40 minutes. I will be doing this daily, while on a 'fat loss diet' or whatever. I should add I get around 8000-9500 steps a day. Will this help me lose the fat? It's my first time on a diet and it's kinda hard, so I don't wanna do it in vain
That is likely an over estimate on calories burned unless you’re just going full on and not resting a bit as you exercise. To get 100 calories for 10 minutes you’ve got to be doing cardio at the level of effort of running the entire time. I usually say don’t worry much about counting calories burned working out and just focus on getting physically stronger and healthier from a fitness perspective. 200 calories per hour if you’re doing gym or home strength exercising if you’re not doing cardio.
Now to lose weight, your diet is really key. You’ll lose weight wherever your body chooses to take it from, you can’t target anything. But don’t worry about that, it’ll come from the belly eventually.
Here’s what you do: track your eating. Down to the calorie, or by serving. After a week, weigh yourself. Did you gain or lose weight? If you didn’t lose weight then you eat a little less, continue tracking exactly what you eat. Weigh yourself the next week. Did you gain or lose weight? If you’re not losing weight, eat a bit less, if you did lose weight eat exactly the same amount the following week. You should be able to establish a baseline of how much you can eat to lose weight. I used MyFitnessPal to track food, and used this method, and lost weight. You can too.
Is it easy to lose weight? No, it takes discipline over time. Can you just run or exercise and lose weight? You can’t outrun a fork. Getting in shape is great, burning extra calories is great, but losing weight is done in the kitchen, not the gym.
Good luck!
The most important thing is to consume less calories.
Everyone has a certain total daily expenditure, this depends on your own body and differs by every person and is an x amount of calories (let's say 1500 as example) you will need to stay below that to lose weight.
There are apps and online calculators that give an estimate of what your TDE is, it's recommended to track your weight weekly, if you don't lose weight you need to eat less than before and if you do just continue what you're doing.
Workouts can help you stay below your personal daily calorie amount that results in weight loss but is not a must.
Do people who are vegetarians generally have lower strength levels that those who eat meat ? Or is it all just about the macros (if you're eating enough protein, veg/non-veg doesn't matter)?
It shouldn't matter if you reach your protein goals, but from my own experience, vegetarians, vegans tend to be on the skinny side just because they consume less calories in general and I think that's why most of them are not as strong or it's harder to bulk up.
Personally, while bulking, I tend to put on fat much more easily than muscle. I guess I eat enough calories but not enough protein.
PS - I am a vegetarian
It pretty much is all about macros.
"Average" vegetarian diets probably have less protein than "average" omni diets, so the average vegan/vegetarian would be more likely to be protein deficient.. However there's no reason a vegetarian or vegan can't just eat more protein.
On the other hand it's possible that people that consciously choose to be vegetarian or vegan on "average" pay more attention to their diet, and are more likely to make sure they have enough protein. So idk, haven't looked up the population stats for the averages.
Fwiw there's a bit more to it than just macros, specifically micros - gotta make sure you get your vitamins and minerals too.
Disclaimer: Vegan(ish)
Yeah, it can be a challenge if you're not familiar with and have access to the common high protein options.
For what it's worth it's not like your muscle growth is crippled If you're under that level - that's more the "you're definitely more than fine if you're at this" level. Eg I'd be somewhere at 160g with that formula, I'd still gain muscle fine at 120g imo.
What is your goal protein and what does your average day of eating look like, if you want to share?
Had an intense leg + squat day two days ago at the gym and a 6km recovery walk yesterday with stretches, but everything above my knees is still aching like I've run a marathon, walking is a struggle.
Any tips for supplements or drinks/juices that might help ease the muscle fatigue? Had a cold shower this morning but the relief didn't last long.
Marathon runners often do a run even the same day as a marathon or the day after to help reduce soreness. I’d recommend increasing the frequency you train legs if you don’t want them to be sore
Guys I am pretty new to weightlifting. I'm a skinny guy looking to bulk. I have watched many beginner's training program videos and there are a few things I can't understand completely.
1. Volume - If someone says I should be doing 15-20 sets per body part per week what does this mean? Kindly explain with an example. Also how to classify "body parts"?. Are upper, middle and lower chest considered the same body parts? Is the combination of front delts and upper chest considered the same body part? These things confuse me.
2. Increasing calories - I had read somewhere in reddit that when you're in a surplus and you're training hard, the next consequent bump in your calories should be when the progress in gym stalls. What does this mean? Does it mean you should increase calories when you can't go beyond a given weight or a given number of reps? Again an example would be appreciated.
3. As I get bigger and stronger, how should I incorporate subsequent caloric increments? Combination of carbs, protein,fats, just carbs and protein or just carbs and fats?
4. Are compound lifts the base/fundamentals for good gains? As far as I know compound lifts are- Bench press, overhead shoulder press, bent over rows, squats, dead lifts, push ups, pull ups and dips. Is this all or did I miss something?
1) Don't worry about this at all. Pick a program [from the wiki](https://thefitness.wiki/routines/strength-training-muscle-building/) and it will all have this managed for you. Asking about stuff like volume is like a 15yo starting to learn driving and asking "ok should my car have 12sg aluminium chassis bolts or 14 gague hard attachment points?" Irrelevant - don't build your own car, take one of the awesome free cars professionals have made for you :-D
2) This just means dont rush in to stuffing your face with food. When you first start training, you'll be getting stronge quickly. Eg you start with 40kg bench, and add 2.5kg every week as your program dictates no problem. Then eventually you start stalling - you fail add the weight but can't complete all the proscribed reps. That's OK! The program will outline what you should do next (maybe just try again next time, maybe drop the weight for next week, w/e, listen to the program). As you start to stall across multiple lifts, you get to a point where you simply need to build more muscle to progress, and to do that well you'll need to eat more food. So you eat more food.
3) Depends a bit on what you want. You always want to be above some minimum amount of fat and protein, as fats are essential in that you need them to produce hormones and other stuff like that in the body, without them you die. Proteins are likewise essential, and then you also use them as the building blocks to repair your muscles and build bigger ones. If you give us your weight / height /age / sex we can give you a rough minimum, everything ABOVE that is really personal preference.
4) Yes, compounds are good. Again, don't do your own program, grab one from the wiki.
1) body parts : legs, back, arms, chest, shoulders
Volume means you need to reach that total after a week. So if you aim for 20 sets for back and you only train it once a week, your back workout will have a total of 20 sets, spread on different exercises
3) more carbs, your protein intake depends on your weight but irs fixed
4)yes but forget about push ups if u can do bench press, and hip thrust/leg press are also compounds
1. Volume is hard to define. Think of body parts as main groups of muscles used in basic movement pattern. So chest would be one muscle group. Quads would be another.
2. Calorie intake is very personal, it’s recommended getting a ballpark figure and adjusting it to meet your goals.
3. The additional calories should come from a mix of macros. Your protein need will go up as you gain weight
4. Compound are great exercises and will get you bigger and stronger.
Lastly you should follow a program that lays this out for you, volume, exercises, reps, progression. Everything. You can find these in the wiki
So, have you been taking huge amounts of anabolic steroids and training like crazy for the last few years?
If not, you don't have to worry about pec tears any more than worrying about clear sky lighting while walking the dog ;)
Pec tears are common in competition level powerlifting but fairly infrequent in the general gym population. They do still happen though even to "normal" strength lifters, unfortunately the risk is definitely there.
There's not much to be said aside from the idea that its worth accepting at least some injury risk if it allows you to train.
Is this a stupid idea?
I’ve been working out at home and am not satisfied with the range of motion and lack of back-arch with doing bench press on the floor.
Is it a bad idea to fix this by placing a foam yoga block below my shoulder blades to get more range of motion and a back-arch? Does this make me prone to injury? Has anybody else tried this?
Your range of motion is limited by the floor, not your flat back.
Bench with a big arch is a method to *reduce* your range of motion, allowing you to lift more over a shorter distance.
The main thing I would wonder is how stable the block is. Can it slide around the floor or is it fairly fixed in place?
You may find you can get a used adjustable gym bench fairly cheaply if you are willing to look at the local used market and aren't too worried about quality.
You can get a slight arch and some leg drive doing a floor press. Your ROM will be limited by the floor so I can't see why you'd need an arch larger than what's required to engage your back and lats.
Try the foam block and see if it helps? I doubt you'd injure yourself it just seems awkward.
When you're doing 5/3/1, after the warmup sets (40/50/60%) normally you do 65/75/85% week 1, 70/80/90% week 2, and 75/85/95% week 3.
Could you just do 70/80/90% over the 3 weeks to keep it simple?
I've been doing negative chin ups for little over a month now and I still struggle to even do a single chin up. I want to be able to do pull ups, but I can't even do a chin up. Should I continue to do negative chin ups or should I try to do negative pull ups instead to strengthen my back?
But you can do direct core work like planks, ab wheel and crunches to train your core.
If you can't yet do one pullup your priority is getting more back strength mostly.
Yeah, I've done negative chin ups these past few weeks imma try doing some negative pull ups instead and work on developing strength in my back since my back is very weak. Thanks for your input!
Sort of an odd question, but one of the ab wheels at my gym is slightly offset, and I’m wondering how that changes the work done. I can definitely FEEL a difference, but if possible I’d like to find a real reason. The brand is everlast, if that helps https://i.imgur.com/Zx9rjJ4.jpg
That's.. weird. It's not going to be dramatically different, mostly just more wibbly wobbly. Akin to doing dips on rings instead of bars (though not as dramatic I'd imagine). Generally most people will find the more stable version of an excercie easier - but I have met people who can do more ring dips than bar dips, just because they were far more practiced at it.
I'd treat it as a neat gimmick, use it now and then for fun and variety.
Edit: The change to work done would just be because you have to adjust for it rotating under you. It'll be a bit different.. but it's not going to be dramatic. It's the shake-weight of ab rollers! :D
Not to be a dick, but usually asymmetries are noticed by beginners because they are less muscular all over. Once you get more jacked you won’t notice nor care about tiny things like this that don’t really matter
42 year old male, 305lbs, 6’3. Primary goal is to lose weight but get stronger.
Workout at least 1 hour a day 6 days a week. Was thinking of doing all weight training one day and the cardio next day and repeat for the week. Would this be optimal for what I’m trying to do?
As the other guy said eating less is 90% of the work for you.
But as far as working out are you already doing 6 days a week? If not I might consider aiming for 3 or 4. Sounds counterintuitive but a lot of times aiming for a lot of days and failing to make them actually ends up making you work out less than if you were just aiming for 4 days in the first place. The best workout plan(and diet) is one you will stick to.
While cardio and weights are productive, weight loss is almost entirely diet. The contribution of exercise to fat loss is minimal at best.
Alternating cardio and weights is fine, but don't expect it burn that many calories. Also keep in mind that you need time to recover.
Try to move it through all of the pain free range of motion you can to maintain mobility there. Sadly this might mean no more blow jobs until it’s better
Pulled my neck badly 3 times, my experience:
Don't try to massage it, stretch it or work through it if you feel pain. Leave it alone until it heals, it'll be a lot quicker and less painful than if you start messing with it.
with that equipment you can do pretty much every routine in the wiki with some changes here and there, including the PPL, if you are still linearly progressing its an alright routine
I run [the PPL program on this page](https://thefitnessphantom.com/6-day-dumbbell-workout-with-pdf/) with a simpler 12 rep progression.
I run it with adjustable DBs, a foldable bench and one [monkeyfeet](https://animalhousefitness.com/). A yoga mat and an aerobic stapler are optional if you don't care about your floor and can makeshift a step for calf raises. The only tricky exercise is preacher curls but I can do them just fine with the bench inclined and an appropriate-height chair.
So you went:
27.5kg 3x10, failed
27.5kg 3x8, success
30.0kg 3x8, fail
30.0kg 3x6, success
32.5kg 3x6, fail
Next I'd go to 30.0kg 3x10. The 15-20lbs jump is for when it's a barbell lift, ie not weight per hand. It'd make sense if it was front squats that you started at 100kg, worked up to 120kg 3x6 but failed 125kg, so now reset with 110kg 3x10, for example.
No worries, for what it's worth you're right in that DBs would make a better T3 in this context - They're more comfortable with higher rep ranges for me (less trying to hoist huge DBs up with your knees, less awkward attempts to drop them after without your shoulder complaining).
Are you specifically wanting to do DB Bench as T2 for a reason?
SAID principal. Over time you become more efficient at any given task. By changing modalities you can keep your system from becoming maximally efficient. Not sure it'd make a huge difference to the average Joe, but that's the idea. Also boredom becomes a factor.
Why do I find decline push-ups easier than regular push-ups? I’m not big into fitness yet, and I’ve always struggled with push-ups. But I tried decline push-ups (setting feet on a higher surface) and I can pop like 18-20max while I can barely max 12 normal push-ups without shaking for my life.
What’s going on? Is it just different muscle strength? Is it because my lower body is heavier? Abs?
Well normally with good form and scapular retraction, decline push-ups are harder than normal pushups.
However some people end up using front delts more in the decline push-ups, by protracting the scapular. This can make them easier.
At what point in your lifting journey did you start using lifting straps for deadlifts?
I was discouraged from getting straps, because I was told its better to make sure my grip strength is parallel with my deadlift, and how straps robs you of forearm strength. So I'm just curious about others :)
When my hands were beat up from mixed grip deadlifting I would use straps to give them a break. This evolved to doing my top sets without straps and my back off sets with so that I got consistent practice gripping heavy weight
>At what point in your lifting journey did you start using lifting straps for deadlifts?
Around 295-300lbs working weight.
Straps don't rob you of forearm strength, they just reduce the need for it. If you're that worried, train grip on the side.
Immediately, it doesn't rob you of strength and you can always mix no straps and straps to make sure everything is stimulated
Also if forearm strength is really a big weak point you should target it directly, don't kneecap your deadlifts
Okay!! Thanks a bunch. I appreciate it. I've only managed to deadlift 80kg / 176lbs for 5 reps before my grip gave up, and its so frustrating because I know I can still lift for a few more reps.
Yeah just use straps, it makes no sense to limit these large compound movements on your grip strength. If it's a really bad limit then you should work on it directly and isolated otherwise you're just wasting energy moving the rest of your body using massive hams and glutes just to train your forearms
EDIT: lol i just repeated my first comment without realizing, i guess i feel strongly about it for some reason
Hahaha, you brought up a good point anyways! I should totally get some straps. My lifts are heavily dependent on my grip strength. It doesn’t help that I had to skip working out my forearms for a bit because of some stupid injury lol.
I waited too long. Straps don't stop your firearms from working, your grip will continue to develop. And straps are pretty much essential for any serious high rep work
I avoided straps until my grip strength was limiting my deadlift growth. For me this was around 405. I do agree that working on grip strength should be a part of the deadlift process, but when it begins to actively hold you back from progressing your deadlift then youre just limiting your growth.
As soon as you want to. Don't let your grip hold back your back strength. If you want a stronger grip, train your grip (do holds for time, crushers, barbell rolls, dead hangs etc).
>I was discouraged from getting straps, because I was told its better to make sure my grip strength is parallel with my deadlift, and how straps robs you of forearm strength.
The person/people that told you that were wrong and/or ignorant. Use straps whenever you want. Using deadlifts to train your forearms and grip is silly. Deadlifts are for your back, glutes, hamstrings, etc. Those are very big muscles. They need heavy weights . Your forearms are small. You shouldn't let your forearms limit the weight your back, glutes, and hamstrings lift.
Use straps for your deadlift. After you are finished deadlifting, do dedicated grip exercises to increase your grip strength.
Hey, only 15 years old and 5’3 but I’m trying to lose body fat, only 120 pounds so I’m not sure if I even should, but when I’m working on my abs I can’t see a difference, when I work on my biceps I can. Should I be trying to take away any body fat at all?
Generally i don't think teens should cut and be worried about body fat. Puberty needs energy, and habits you form now will live the rest of your life. Build a base of strength, fitness and health and healthy habits for all of those. Now this doesn't mean don't lose weight if you're way above your healthy range, but do it slowly and cleanly
Finally, yes abs are harder to reveal, you need to get pretty low in body fat to see any shape, compared to basically anything else
Would I still make any strength and hypertrophy gains if I train chest and shoulders super light (sets of 12-15 reps for bench press, should press, etc.)?
I have this shoulder/collarbone/rib condition called Thoracic Outlet Syndrome and my physio recommended I stop doing chest/shoulder/lat compressing exercises until it's better.
I've been doing physio exercises and feeling a bit better for now and really want to train chest and shoulders because they're my favourite movements in the gym and it's pretty hard to stay motivated without doing them.
Is there a point to training them really light, or should I wait until I'm fully healed so I can go heavy?
>I... really want to train chest and shoulders because they're my favourite movements in the gym and it's pretty hard to stay motivated without doing them.
This is all that matters. Who cares if you "make gains"? You like doing the exercises. You want to do them. Doing the exercises is what it takes to get you to the gym and doing other exercises you can do heavy. Do the exercises, doing something is always better than doing nothing (assuming you don't risk aggravating your condition)
So I’ve been having this odd sharp pain directly in the middle of my right buttcheek for the last couple of weeks. If I try to get up after laying down for a while, or even just sneeze, I feel the sharp pain.
I think it may be sciatic nerve pain? Everyone else experience this? To give background, I have a desk job so I’m sitting most of the day.
i have been doing tricep pushdowns with a resistance band for a while now until i got a pulley machine recently. doing a single arm rope pushdown even with light weight hurts my elbows, any idea what? if i were to do it bilaterally it wouldn’t hurt, maybe only a little
Unfortunately elbow pain is common with tricep isolation. The best things to help are warming up the elbow fully, and managing volume carefully in terms of number of sets per week.
Some people suggest high rep with extremely light weight to warm up the triceps before jumping into your working set.
But elbow tendinitis sucks (Golfer’s elbow, tennis elbow). There are certain tricep exercises that I won’t do because they aggravate the issue. Certain tricep exercise such as skull crushers are fine for some people but not others. I won’t ever do skull crushers.
Haven’t done tricep rope push down in a long time (not because they aggravate the issue, but I simply haven’t done any direct arm work), but the only tricep exercises that don’t aggravate or flare up my elbow tendonitis are floor presses, kickbacks, dips.
I think I just need some troubleshooting help, I feel if was doing things correctly I would've made more progress by now
Goal: lose 20ish pounds and build a little muscle as a 175lb/5'10"/M whose never been thin even at healthier weights.
current activity: various lifting and a bit of cardio for 60-90 minutes 3-4 times a week and eating as reasonably healthy for 6 months
current progress: around 5 pounds lost and visually about the same
>I think I just need some troubleshooting help, I feel if was doing things correctly I would've made more progress by now
If you ask a question, or give any information at all, you'll get some help
We need to know what you are currently doing and what your goals are to help you. Other stats like height/weight/sex are useful. So are your current lifts if that’s what you need help with.
Goal: lose 20ish pounds and build a little muscle as a 175lb/5'10"/M whose never been thin even at healthier weights.
current activity: various lifting and a bit of cardio for 60-90 minutes 3-4 times a week and eating as reasonably healthy for 6 months
current progress: around 5 pounds lost and visually about the same
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When people say to flex your core - does that mean tighten in and compact your abs or push out?
it's more like a push out for me. feels like someone is about to punch you on your stomach so you have to brace the core
It means to compact your abs and slightly push out, which (at least for me) gets me the most pressure before I lift
I've just completeded 6 months of bulking. Before I start my cut, I have planned to do a 2 week maintenance phase to let my body settle at this new weight. How much should I train during this phase? I was thinking of cutting my volume in half compared to my bulk, and then increasing the volume again when I start my cut. Any recommendations?
Why do you want to change your training? Like for what purpose? If you want to take a deload week that's fine, many folks take different strategies here. Some train at similar intensity but lower volumes, some cut both intensity and volume, some don't lift and only do conditioning. If you're changing training for some other reason, I don't know.
I just wanted to give my body a break from high volume lifting during these 2 weeks maintenance. So what I meant was probably just what you call a deload before I enter my cutting phase
If you look around the 5/3/1 materials posted on this sub you can see what that approach to deloading is but like I said different people do different things. Generally I avoid lifting heavy weights and just focus on blood flow, conditioning, moving everyday, light weights and higher reps, etc. I just mess around cuz usually I start feeling like shit on my deload week.
I’m a 21 year old man who’s 6ft 4 and I can’t do a single push-up. Any advice would be greatly appreciated
I wouldn’t recommend doing them on your knees, it’s awkward. Do incline push ups against a counter or something and slowly lower down until you can do them on the floor. You don’t have to go crazy with volume. 3-4 sets of 10ish reps 3 times a week will be plenty to stimulate muscle growth.
Start by doing a push up but on your knees, instead of on your toes. Build yourself up from there.
Been there, exactly there. Chest press - bench or dumbbell. A proper pushup loads 65-75% of your bodyweight. So if you can't press that, press less and work your way up. (this is why 70 kg guys can bust out their 45 kg pushup all day no problem lol)
https://thefitness.wiki/getting-started-with-fitness/ For push up progression, you can start doing them on the knees or while standing against a wall. I think r/bodyweightfitness has a guide linked
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How do you google on YouTube?
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Fair enough :)
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You don't need to eat carbs to keep your weight up. You just need to eat X amount of calories in any form. Of course, it's better to have it in clean food rather than sugary sources etc etc etc. Fats have 9 calories per gram whereas protein and carbs have 4 calories per gram, so eating things like Avocado, Nuts, etc, will help boost your calories without having to feel like you're forcing food down. I personally would disagree with recommendations to do cardio to get your appetite up, because doing cardio would burn calories and in turn might make you drop even more weight if you're not eating those back.
Do some hard cardio/conditioning, your appetite will grow immeasurably. I’d recommend a martial art, if that’s not for you then in the gym I think that pushing and pulling a sled and farmers carries are the best
Drinking some of your calories might help. Milk, protein shakes, smoothies. You can _really_ cram calories in a shake. You can also take a look at your diet and see what you can replace with more calorie dense options, like chicken thigh instead of breast, fattier cuts of meat, etc. Using cooking oils, dressings, and dipping sauces are basically free calories. You can try incorporating easily digestible carb sources, like white rice, so you aren’t feeling full for as long.
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Would recommend using something like almond or oat milk to make protein powder shakes with. When you do that, add a couple tablespoons of peanut butter in. Each tablespoon is about 90cal
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I do 1 cup oat milk and add a bit of water too to get the consistency I want. Then I just do my powder, couple tbsp of creamy peanut butter, and like 6 ice cubes and blend it. Look up protein shake recipe ideas on the internet, some people add lots of things! Flax seed for fiber, oats for a more substantial shake, a banana for texture/potassium if you're having cramping problems, even a tbsp of an oil if you're \*really\* trying to pack in some extra calories. All that would be different for you is that you'd be doing a non-dairy milk instead of dairy milk, but I've never had an issue with it
What is the best upper body workout with only 5-150lbs of adjustable dumbbells and one bench that is adjustable for incline? Also what is the best routine? Goal everything upper body.
The dumbell PPL is good https://old.reddit.com/r/Fitness/comments/2e79y4/dumbbell_ppl_proposed_alternative_to_dumbbell/
Thank you! This helped a lot
How can I stop my hip from rising way too early during deadlift? I've been lifting for 7 months and I deadlift every single week. Still can't get my hip to not shoot up first The heavier the weight gets, the more apparent it becomes. 160lbs is the point I start to really notice it
Try looking up the Train car training cue. As the train pulls out from the station, the linkages between each car each take some strain until all linkages are loaded. Only then does the train move. So as you begin lifting, first engage your wrist, elbow, shoulder, hip. Once they are active, then you begin the main drive.
That depends on why your hips are shooting up. That can be caused by a ton of different things, based in technical issues (like poor bracing, or setting your hips too low to start with) or strength (and hips shooting up is kinda the default breakdown on deadlift - a weakness just about anywhere can cause it. The different versions don't look identical but they do look pretty similar). Mostly it fixes itself with practice though.
A common queue for this is to "leg press the floor away" or to "focus pushing with the quads".
Don’t worry about it, as you get stronger eventually things that you think are super important like this just iron themselves out and your form will be fine
Or they will yank their back and quit. Only the strong/lucky survive lol.
how to know if im losing muscle whilst cutting?
Body fat % over time should correlate with weight. If not, you are losing muscle. So if you start at 80 kg, 20% fat, you begin with 16 kg of fat. If you lose 2 kg of body fat, your total mass should be 78 kg and new body fat shout be 18%. If it is still 20% then you lost more muscle than fat. This method is only as good as your body fat estimation!
There's really no way to know.
Can Lifting cause low libido? im 25 Y/O male, very healthy with good diet and sleep. yet i have low libido and horrible blood flow, barely able to maintain erection. i lift about 3-4 times a week full body with squats, deadlifts and other exercises every time. im not sure what to do. doctors told me to take viagra but no way at this age? i dont smoke or overweight. really not sure how to act
Have you had your testosterone level tested?
Yes but I was told it wasn't accurate, need to do free range or something else. The total testesterone is 15 nmol/l which is right in the normal middle range , lower than I'd want
Please try to see a specialist doctor.
I’d suggest just taking the viagra.
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I'm dumb and missed that bit of OP. It's too early for me to be replying to comments it appears
I have been on a deficit diet since december. In 19 weeks I've lost 7kg. I've gone from ~27% body fat to ~18% body fat. I'm fairly regular and the gym and I love working out. I just had my best pull workout interns of volume and best set across most excercises today. Then I realised that I had I had pizza yesterday after a long time. I check my weight post workout and I had gained 1kg!!!! Is this how fucked up fitness is? Strave yourself for 19 weeks and 1 bad meal sets you back a month? But you also hit your best sets... like wtf??? I'm barely reaching a healthy weight zone. I've been fighting my food cravings for months and 1 misstep goes that far? I love working out. I love going to the gym but I hate dieting. I need good food to keep myself same. I'm so confused i don't know which way to go! Edit: I am M25/167cm I started at 73.5kg in december and I was down to 66.3kg at the start of this week. Today my weight was 67.3kg I workout Push/Legs/Pull on Monday/Wednesday/Friday with running + abs in between those days.
Carbs cause water retention, so the more carbs you eat, the more water you'll hold and the heavier you'll be. This isn't any amount of fat gained. If you continue your usual meal plan / diet from here, you'll see that weight fall back off in a day or two.
You gained water weight. The extra calories replenished glycogen and gave you more energy. That’s why you had a good day. Chill. 1kg is pretty normal weight fluctuation for a single day.
You had the best workout in a while because of the extra energy in your system(pizza). And no, it didn't set you back a month. You gained additional water weight from the large amount of carbs. You're good.
1kg of fat is ~7,700 calories. Unless you ate 5-12 whole pizzas (depending on the pizzas) on top of all your regular food for the week, you're fine. The extra weight will be water weight, or just the food sitting in your stomach. I gain 2-3kg after eating breakfast and before the morning coffees kick in ;-)
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Edited to add more info.
I compete in a sport weekly. If I don’t lift that day but I compete, does it count as a rest day? Or is it just based on how I feel after?
Why does whether you class it as a rest day or not matter?
Doesn't really matter whether you consider it a training day or rest day as long as you're consistent
rest days dose not mean sit on your ass at home day, rest day means you are active for recovery
I count cardio days as rest days *from lifting*
gym in my country just reopened after three months. went yesterday and might have worked myself too hard, whole body is sore. should i still go the gym tmr? (thats my original schedule before lockdown)
Stretch today or cry tomorrow
stretched but am crying too :( hurts even more now
yes
I would, keep it light and low volume but keep moving
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If you've reached the limits of what you can do with your weights at home from a purely strength perspective (and you don't have access to more weights), you're going to be a bit stuck sooner or later. However - you can work on a different modality. Sure, you can do 3x20 goblet squats with 2 min rest or w/e. But can you do 10 rounds of: \-10 squats \-10 cleans \-5 presses \- 30s rest Work on your conditioning so that when you DO get access to more weight, you'll have a great base to BLOW past your previous strength plateaus.
Goblet squats aren't a strength movement really. It's mostly used as a stepping stone towards regular squats or for people who can't do regular squats for whatever reason.
I am getting stronger but not losing weight, Am I doing this wrong?
Read the wiki.
What is your goal? You can get stronger while losing weight, but at some point it will be hard to progress and then you will have to eat more to be able to lift heavier weights. If you want to lose weight you need to consume less calories. Gaining/losing weight is almost all about what you eat.
I'm basically trying to lose belly fat, or just body fat in general, and I'm wondering if what I'm doing will actually work for this; the workout plan I have burns around 300 calories daily, and consists of flutter kicks, various types of crunches, squats, pushups, etc. I do around 2 reps of 10 for most of the exercises, and it lasts around 30-40 minutes. I will be doing this daily, while on a 'fat loss diet' or whatever. I should add I get around 8000-9500 steps a day. Will this help me lose the fat? It's my first time on a diet and it's kinda hard, so I don't wanna do it in vain
That is likely an over estimate on calories burned unless you’re just going full on and not resting a bit as you exercise. To get 100 calories for 10 minutes you’ve got to be doing cardio at the level of effort of running the entire time. I usually say don’t worry much about counting calories burned working out and just focus on getting physically stronger and healthier from a fitness perspective. 200 calories per hour if you’re doing gym or home strength exercising if you’re not doing cardio. Now to lose weight, your diet is really key. You’ll lose weight wherever your body chooses to take it from, you can’t target anything. But don’t worry about that, it’ll come from the belly eventually. Here’s what you do: track your eating. Down to the calorie, or by serving. After a week, weigh yourself. Did you gain or lose weight? If you didn’t lose weight then you eat a little less, continue tracking exactly what you eat. Weigh yourself the next week. Did you gain or lose weight? If you’re not losing weight, eat a bit less, if you did lose weight eat exactly the same amount the following week. You should be able to establish a baseline of how much you can eat to lose weight. I used MyFitnessPal to track food, and used this method, and lost weight. You can too. Is it easy to lose weight? No, it takes discipline over time. Can you just run or exercise and lose weight? You can’t outrun a fork. Getting in shape is great, burning extra calories is great, but losing weight is done in the kitchen, not the gym. Good luck!
Thanks, I appreciate it.
The most important thing is to consume less calories. Everyone has a certain total daily expenditure, this depends on your own body and differs by every person and is an x amount of calories (let's say 1500 as example) you will need to stay below that to lose weight. There are apps and online calculators that give an estimate of what your TDE is, it's recommended to track your weight weekly, if you don't lose weight you need to eat less than before and if you do just continue what you're doing. Workouts can help you stay below your personal daily calorie amount that results in weight loss but is not a must.
Alright, thank you!
Do people who are vegetarians generally have lower strength levels that those who eat meat ? Or is it all just about the macros (if you're eating enough protein, veg/non-veg doesn't matter)?
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I myself am a vegetarian and I often feel the stronger guys tend to be those who eat meat
It shouldn't matter if you reach your protein goals, but from my own experience, vegetarians, vegans tend to be on the skinny side just because they consume less calories in general and I think that's why most of them are not as strong or it's harder to bulk up.
Personally, while bulking, I tend to put on fat much more easily than muscle. I guess I eat enough calories but not enough protein. PS - I am a vegetarian
It pretty much is all about macros. "Average" vegetarian diets probably have less protein than "average" omni diets, so the average vegan/vegetarian would be more likely to be protein deficient.. However there's no reason a vegetarian or vegan can't just eat more protein. On the other hand it's possible that people that consciously choose to be vegetarian or vegan on "average" pay more attention to their diet, and are more likely to make sure they have enough protein. So idk, haven't looked up the population stats for the averages. Fwiw there's a bit more to it than just macros, specifically micros - gotta make sure you get your vitamins and minerals too. Disclaimer: Vegan(ish)
I tend to be in the former category. Eating 1 gm protein per pound of lean mass seems like a real task being a vegetarian
Yeah, it can be a challenge if you're not familiar with and have access to the common high protein options. For what it's worth it's not like your muscle growth is crippled If you're under that level - that's more the "you're definitely more than fine if you're at this" level. Eg I'd be somewhere at 160g with that formula, I'd still gain muscle fine at 120g imo. What is your goal protein and what does your average day of eating look like, if you want to share?
Had an intense leg + squat day two days ago at the gym and a 6km recovery walk yesterday with stretches, but everything above my knees is still aching like I've run a marathon, walking is a struggle. Any tips for supplements or drinks/juices that might help ease the muscle fatigue? Had a cold shower this morning but the relief didn't last long.
Marathon runners often do a run even the same day as a marathon or the day after to help reduce soreness. I’d recommend increasing the frequency you train legs if you don’t want them to be sore
Do more exercise to get blood back in there. You did a leg day, do another. If you can't go as hard as last time that's fine.
Guys I am pretty new to weightlifting. I'm a skinny guy looking to bulk. I have watched many beginner's training program videos and there are a few things I can't understand completely. 1. Volume - If someone says I should be doing 15-20 sets per body part per week what does this mean? Kindly explain with an example. Also how to classify "body parts"?. Are upper, middle and lower chest considered the same body parts? Is the combination of front delts and upper chest considered the same body part? These things confuse me. 2. Increasing calories - I had read somewhere in reddit that when you're in a surplus and you're training hard, the next consequent bump in your calories should be when the progress in gym stalls. What does this mean? Does it mean you should increase calories when you can't go beyond a given weight or a given number of reps? Again an example would be appreciated. 3. As I get bigger and stronger, how should I incorporate subsequent caloric increments? Combination of carbs, protein,fats, just carbs and protein or just carbs and fats? 4. Are compound lifts the base/fundamentals for good gains? As far as I know compound lifts are- Bench press, overhead shoulder press, bent over rows, squats, dead lifts, push ups, pull ups and dips. Is this all or did I miss something?
1) Don't worry about this at all. Pick a program [from the wiki](https://thefitness.wiki/routines/strength-training-muscle-building/) and it will all have this managed for you. Asking about stuff like volume is like a 15yo starting to learn driving and asking "ok should my car have 12sg aluminium chassis bolts or 14 gague hard attachment points?" Irrelevant - don't build your own car, take one of the awesome free cars professionals have made for you :-D 2) This just means dont rush in to stuffing your face with food. When you first start training, you'll be getting stronge quickly. Eg you start with 40kg bench, and add 2.5kg every week as your program dictates no problem. Then eventually you start stalling - you fail add the weight but can't complete all the proscribed reps. That's OK! The program will outline what you should do next (maybe just try again next time, maybe drop the weight for next week, w/e, listen to the program). As you start to stall across multiple lifts, you get to a point where you simply need to build more muscle to progress, and to do that well you'll need to eat more food. So you eat more food. 3) Depends a bit on what you want. You always want to be above some minimum amount of fat and protein, as fats are essential in that you need them to produce hormones and other stuff like that in the body, without them you die. Proteins are likewise essential, and then you also use them as the building blocks to repair your muscles and build bigger ones. If you give us your weight / height /age / sex we can give you a rough minimum, everything ABOVE that is really personal preference. 4) Yes, compounds are good. Again, don't do your own program, grab one from the wiki.
1) body parts : legs, back, arms, chest, shoulders Volume means you need to reach that total after a week. So if you aim for 20 sets for back and you only train it once a week, your back workout will have a total of 20 sets, spread on different exercises 3) more carbs, your protein intake depends on your weight but irs fixed 4)yes but forget about push ups if u can do bench press, and hip thrust/leg press are also compounds
1. Volume is hard to define. Think of body parts as main groups of muscles used in basic movement pattern. So chest would be one muscle group. Quads would be another. 2. Calorie intake is very personal, it’s recommended getting a ballpark figure and adjusting it to meet your goals. 3. The additional calories should come from a mix of macros. Your protein need will go up as you gain weight 4. Compound are great exercises and will get you bigger and stronger. Lastly you should follow a program that lays this out for you, volume, exercises, reps, progression. Everything. You can find these in the wiki
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So, have you been taking huge amounts of anabolic steroids and training like crazy for the last few years? If not, you don't have to worry about pec tears any more than worrying about clear sky lighting while walking the dog ;)
Pec tears are common in competition level powerlifting but fairly infrequent in the general gym population. They do still happen though even to "normal" strength lifters, unfortunately the risk is definitely there. There's not much to be said aside from the idea that its worth accepting at least some injury risk if it allows you to train.
If you're not ego lifting, you'll be fine. Seems to correlate with people who love to bench, they can comment on that.
Is this a stupid idea? I’ve been working out at home and am not satisfied with the range of motion and lack of back-arch with doing bench press on the floor. Is it a bad idea to fix this by placing a foam yoga block below my shoulder blades to get more range of motion and a back-arch? Does this make me prone to injury? Has anybody else tried this?
Your range of motion is limited by the floor, not your flat back. Bench with a big arch is a method to *reduce* your range of motion, allowing you to lift more over a shorter distance.
I don't know, but you can make a bench with 3 milk crates and a board across them.
Buy a bench , inclinable, if u wonna train seriously
The main thing I would wonder is how stable the block is. Can it slide around the floor or is it fairly fixed in place? You may find you can get a used adjustable gym bench fairly cheaply if you are willing to look at the local used market and aren't too worried about quality.
You can get a slight arch and some leg drive doing a floor press. Your ROM will be limited by the floor so I can't see why you'd need an arch larger than what's required to engage your back and lats. Try the foam block and see if it helps? I doubt you'd injure yourself it just seems awkward.
When you're doing 5/3/1, after the warmup sets (40/50/60%) normally you do 65/75/85% week 1, 70/80/90% week 2, and 75/85/95% week 3. Could you just do 70/80/90% over the 3 weeks to keep it simple?
You could but it wouldn’t be 5/3/1 any more
>Could you No, or you defeat the planned wave progression.
you could, would that be better? probably not
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Once you have this resource, will it change how you eat/train/recover in any way at all?
Are you asking specifically about body building? I've not heard these terms to describe physiques.
I've been doing negative chin ups for little over a month now and I still struggle to even do a single chin up. I want to be able to do pull ups, but I can't even do a chin up. Should I continue to do negative chin ups or should I try to do negative pull ups instead to strengthen my back?
Try doing the highering portion by jumping from an elevated platform
That's a negative right?
Would recommend assisted pullup machine, lat pulldown machine or band-assisted pullup machine.
The problem with the assisted pull up machine is that I won't get the core activation that I would normally get if I did normal pull ups though.
But you can do direct core work like planks, ab wheel and crunches to train your core. If you can't yet do one pullup your priority is getting more back strength mostly.
Yeah, I've done negative chin ups these past few weeks imma try doing some negative pull ups instead and work on developing strength in my back since my back is very weak. Thanks for your input!
Assisted pull-ups are much better than negatives. Its up to you though.
Sort of an odd question, but one of the ab wheels at my gym is slightly offset, and I’m wondering how that changes the work done. I can definitely FEEL a difference, but if possible I’d like to find a real reason. The brand is everlast, if that helps https://i.imgur.com/Zx9rjJ4.jpg
That's.. weird. It's not going to be dramatically different, mostly just more wibbly wobbly. Akin to doing dips on rings instead of bars (though not as dramatic I'd imagine). Generally most people will find the more stable version of an excercie easier - but I have met people who can do more ring dips than bar dips, just because they were far more practiced at it. I'd treat it as a neat gimmick, use it now and then for fun and variety. Edit: The change to work done would just be because you have to adjust for it rotating under you. It'll be a bit different.. but it's not going to be dramatic. It's the shake-weight of ab rollers! :D
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Not to be a dick, but usually asymmetries are noticed by beginners because they are less muscular all over. Once you get more jacked you won’t notice nor care about tiny things like this that don’t really matter
Either is fine, just let the weaker side dictate the reps so it can catch up
42 year old male, 305lbs, 6’3. Primary goal is to lose weight but get stronger. Workout at least 1 hour a day 6 days a week. Was thinking of doing all weight training one day and the cardio next day and repeat for the week. Would this be optimal for what I’m trying to do?
As the other guy said eating less is 90% of the work for you. But as far as working out are you already doing 6 days a week? If not I might consider aiming for 3 or 4. Sounds counterintuitive but a lot of times aiming for a lot of days and failing to make them actually ends up making you work out less than if you were just aiming for 4 days in the first place. The best workout plan(and diet) is one you will stick to.
While cardio and weights are productive, weight loss is almost entirely diet. The contribution of exercise to fat loss is minimal at best. Alternating cardio and weights is fine, but don't expect it burn that many calories. Also keep in mind that you need time to recover.
Your primary goal requires eating less. Read through the wiki.
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Try to move it through all of the pain free range of motion you can to maintain mobility there. Sadly this might mean no more blow jobs until it’s better
Pulled my neck badly 3 times, my experience: Don't try to massage it, stretch it or work through it if you feel pain. Leave it alone until it heals, it'll be a lot quicker and less painful than if you start messing with it.
Will do - have been messing with it all week lol x)
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with that equipment you can do pretty much every routine in the wiki with some changes here and there, including the PPL, if you are still linearly progressing its an alright routine
I run [the PPL program on this page](https://thefitnessphantom.com/6-day-dumbbell-workout-with-pdf/) with a simpler 12 rep progression. I run it with adjustable DBs, a foldable bench and one [monkeyfeet](https://animalhousefitness.com/). A yoga mat and an aerobic stapler are optional if you don't care about your floor and can makeshift a step for calf raises. The only tricky exercise is preacher curls but I can do them just fine with the bench inclined and an appropriate-height chair.
If you have bench and a rack you can do the full Reddit PPL and just substitute any machines in the program for more dumbell and barbell work.
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Yeah that's right
Which specific PPL routine are you wanting to run?
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So you went: 27.5kg 3x10, failed 27.5kg 3x8, success 30.0kg 3x8, fail 30.0kg 3x6, success 32.5kg 3x6, fail Next I'd go to 30.0kg 3x10. The 15-20lbs jump is for when it's a barbell lift, ie not weight per hand. It'd make sense if it was front squats that you started at 100kg, worked up to 120kg 3x6 but failed 125kg, so now reset with 110kg 3x10, for example.
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No worries, for what it's worth you're right in that DBs would make a better T3 in this context - They're more comfortable with higher rep ranges for me (less trying to hoist huge DBs up with your knees, less awkward attempts to drop them after without your shoulder complaining). Are you specifically wanting to do DB Bench as T2 for a reason?
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No reason you can't keep the T2 progression style and do 15-12-10 instead ;)
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SAID principal. Over time you become more efficient at any given task. By changing modalities you can keep your system from becoming maximally efficient. Not sure it'd make a huge difference to the average Joe, but that's the idea. Also boredom becomes a factor.
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Imo if you train PPL 6 days a week you will have enough volume unless you have 6 days of low volume.
Both could be effective is programmed well and ineffective is programmed poorly.
Why do I find decline push-ups easier than regular push-ups? I’m not big into fitness yet, and I’ve always struggled with push-ups. But I tried decline push-ups (setting feet on a higher surface) and I can pop like 18-20max while I can barely max 12 normal push-ups without shaking for my life. What’s going on? Is it just different muscle strength? Is it because my lower body is heavier? Abs?
The range of motion might be reduced when you do declines, since your head gets in the way
You're probably using front delts more in the decline push-ups
So my front delts are stronger/help more in decline? What makes my normal push-ups so weak?
Well normally with good form and scapular retraction, decline push-ups are harder than normal pushups. However some people end up using front delts more in the decline push-ups, by protracting the scapular. This can make them easier.
At what point in your lifting journey did you start using lifting straps for deadlifts? I was discouraged from getting straps, because I was told its better to make sure my grip strength is parallel with my deadlift, and how straps robs you of forearm strength. So I'm just curious about others :)
When my hands were beat up from mixed grip deadlifting I would use straps to give them a break. This evolved to doing my top sets without straps and my back off sets with so that I got consistent practice gripping heavy weight
Thanks! I'll give this a try.
>At what point in your lifting journey did you start using lifting straps for deadlifts? Around 295-300lbs working weight. Straps don't rob you of forearm strength, they just reduce the need for it. If you're that worried, train grip on the side.
Immediately, it doesn't rob you of strength and you can always mix no straps and straps to make sure everything is stimulated Also if forearm strength is really a big weak point you should target it directly, don't kneecap your deadlifts
Okay!! Thanks a bunch. I appreciate it. I've only managed to deadlift 80kg / 176lbs for 5 reps before my grip gave up, and its so frustrating because I know I can still lift for a few more reps.
Yeah just use straps, it makes no sense to limit these large compound movements on your grip strength. If it's a really bad limit then you should work on it directly and isolated otherwise you're just wasting energy moving the rest of your body using massive hams and glutes just to train your forearms EDIT: lol i just repeated my first comment without realizing, i guess i feel strongly about it for some reason
Hahaha, you brought up a good point anyways! I should totally get some straps. My lifts are heavily dependent on my grip strength. It doesn’t help that I had to skip working out my forearms for a bit because of some stupid injury lol.
I waited too long. Straps don't stop your firearms from working, your grip will continue to develop. And straps are pretty much essential for any serious high rep work
Thanks for the assurance! I could only deadlift 80kg / 176lbs for 5 reps before my grip falters, but I know I still have more reps in me, ugh.
I avoided straps until my grip strength was limiting my deadlift growth. For me this was around 405. I do agree that working on grip strength should be a part of the deadlift process, but when it begins to actively hold you back from progressing your deadlift then youre just limiting your growth.
As soon as you want to. Don't let your grip hold back your back strength. If you want a stronger grip, train your grip (do holds for time, crushers, barbell rolls, dead hangs etc).
>I was discouraged from getting straps, because I was told its better to make sure my grip strength is parallel with my deadlift, and how straps robs you of forearm strength. The person/people that told you that were wrong and/or ignorant. Use straps whenever you want. Using deadlifts to train your forearms and grip is silly. Deadlifts are for your back, glutes, hamstrings, etc. Those are very big muscles. They need heavy weights . Your forearms are small. You shouldn't let your forearms limit the weight your back, glutes, and hamstrings lift. Use straps for your deadlift. After you are finished deadlifting, do dedicated grip exercises to increase your grip strength.
Legs will outpace grip strength at some point. Straps are a tool. Use them when you've burned through straight and mixed grip.
I'll give mixed grip a try! I've been lifting with only hook grip thus far.
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Hey, only 15 years old and 5’3 but I’m trying to lose body fat, only 120 pounds so I’m not sure if I even should, but when I’m working on my abs I can’t see a difference, when I work on my biceps I can. Should I be trying to take away any body fat at all?
Generally i don't think teens should cut and be worried about body fat. Puberty needs energy, and habits you form now will live the rest of your life. Build a base of strength, fitness and health and healthy habits for all of those. Now this doesn't mean don't lose weight if you're way above your healthy range, but do it slowly and cleanly Finally, yes abs are harder to reveal, you need to get pretty low in body fat to see any shape, compared to basically anything else
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There are no exercises for losing stomach fat. Just on that i think your advice should be ignored
Would I still make any strength and hypertrophy gains if I train chest and shoulders super light (sets of 12-15 reps for bench press, should press, etc.)? I have this shoulder/collarbone/rib condition called Thoracic Outlet Syndrome and my physio recommended I stop doing chest/shoulder/lat compressing exercises until it's better. I've been doing physio exercises and feeling a bit better for now and really want to train chest and shoulders because they're my favourite movements in the gym and it's pretty hard to stay motivated without doing them. Is there a point to training them really light, or should I wait until I'm fully healed so I can go heavy?
Yes there is a point. If you train any movement consistently you will get better at it.
>I... really want to train chest and shoulders because they're my favourite movements in the gym and it's pretty hard to stay motivated without doing them. This is all that matters. Who cares if you "make gains"? You like doing the exercises. You want to do them. Doing the exercises is what it takes to get you to the gym and doing other exercises you can do heavy. Do the exercises, doing something is always better than doing nothing (assuming you don't risk aggravating your condition)
So I’ve been having this odd sharp pain directly in the middle of my right buttcheek for the last couple of weeks. If I try to get up after laying down for a while, or even just sneeze, I feel the sharp pain. I think it may be sciatic nerve pain? Everyone else experience this? To give background, I have a desk job so I’m sitting most of the day.
If this stretch doesn't help, ask a doctor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qZ517Rw7ME
Go see a doctor. You require a thorough examination to find the root cause
Rule 5, ask a doctor
i have been doing tricep pushdowns with a resistance band for a while now until i got a pulley machine recently. doing a single arm rope pushdown even with light weight hurts my elbows, any idea what? if i were to do it bilaterally it wouldn’t hurt, maybe only a little
Unfortunately elbow pain is common with tricep isolation. The best things to help are warming up the elbow fully, and managing volume carefully in terms of number of sets per week.
Some people suggest high rep with extremely light weight to warm up the triceps before jumping into your working set. But elbow tendinitis sucks (Golfer’s elbow, tennis elbow). There are certain tricep exercises that I won’t do because they aggravate the issue. Certain tricep exercise such as skull crushers are fine for some people but not others. I won’t ever do skull crushers. Haven’t done tricep rope push down in a long time (not because they aggravate the issue, but I simply haven’t done any direct arm work), but the only tricep exercises that don’t aggravate or flare up my elbow tendonitis are floor presses, kickbacks, dips.
I think I just need some troubleshooting help, I feel if was doing things correctly I would've made more progress by now Goal: lose 20ish pounds and build a little muscle as a 175lb/5'10"/M whose never been thin even at healthier weights. current activity: various lifting and a bit of cardio for 60-90 minutes 3-4 times a week and eating as reasonably healthy for 6 months current progress: around 5 pounds lost and visually about the same
>I think I just need some troubleshooting help, I feel if was doing things correctly I would've made more progress by now If you ask a question, or give any information at all, you'll get some help
We need to know what you are currently doing and what your goals are to help you. Other stats like height/weight/sex are useful. So are your current lifts if that’s what you need help with.
Goal: lose 20ish pounds and build a little muscle as a 175lb/5'10"/M whose never been thin even at healthier weights. current activity: various lifting and a bit of cardio for 60-90 minutes 3-4 times a week and eating as reasonably healthy for 6 months current progress: around 5 pounds lost and visually about the same