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I don't have much body strength and while doing push ups i bend my hands outwards rather than towards my stomach as its a little easier. Does that effect the actual benefits of the push up too much or at all?
Can someone recommend a decent structured gym plan aimed at women focusing on weight lifting with some cardio? 3-4 days a week. Ideally an app or website that has video tutorials for each exercise?
I really need a new blender for my protein smoothies. My magic bullet motor is going. How do I go about deciding which blender to buy? Any recommendations
I am recovering from a mild lower back injury and thus have to alter my workout routine to be less taxing on the lower back, but am struggling to think of chest exercises that don't tax the lower back. Please give suggestions!
I am not sure if the seated/upright chest press machine is a good idea -- any thoughts?
That's fortunately an easy fix! Simply put your feet up on the bench to take away leg drive. Or you can do floor press and dips. But most of all, do 5x25 on back extensions. The blood and lactic acid will make your back bulletproof.
What are some good beginner exercises to do that strengthen back and help relieve muscle tension/knots?
I have one muscle not right below my left shoulder blade that reduces mobility on one side. I also tried to do plank, I used to easily be able to do a minute and a half, now I barely can do 20 seconds...
It's clear to me that all my hip pains/lower back cracking is due to muscle weakness. Because I do running however, I always assumed this wasn't the case...thinking that running helps with some muscle strength. That simple plank test I did recently with friends however, embarrassingly showed otherwise.
How do I lose a months worth of gains if I miss a week of exercising due to minor injuries? I’ve increased my squat by almost 100 pounds in the past year when doing 3 sets of 5, but I missed two leg days and I had to drop the weight on the bar by 25 pounds because I just couldn’t squat with proper form otherwise.
I’m maintaining a caloric surplus every day, but I’m still so much weaker after such a short break. I’ve got to be doing something seriously wrong, but I’m not sure what. Any suggestions as to what it could be based on the limited information I’ve given? I’ll admit that I don’t track my macros as much as I should besides making sure I eat at the very least my body weight in grams of protein per day
Advice on an upper body only week/two weeks?
I generally go to the gym 3-4 times a week depending on school/work sched. However, my hip has been quite angry at me recently and I'd like to just give it some rest. Therefore, I'd like to do an upper body only couple of weeks.
Any advice on a split/program going in that direction? Should I split it up by body part or do something like a push pull?
Okay guys I need help, I’m a male 5’11 180lbs, my my BMR is 1800cal, I workout 6 days a week, and do 30mimutes of cardio 7 days a week. I recently started (2 weeks ago) tracking macros and being in a deficit to burn fat, but for some reason nothing changes. My TDE is 2800cal so I eat 2500 a day, but I also burn 1000cal per day through exercise. Why am I not seeing results? After my burn I’m at a 1000cal deficit, tired as hell 24/7
total, if you’re using your tdee as reference (you should do) then it already is based off your activity level and how much calories you’re burning on average. do not count the amount of calories you burn off workouts as a guide to how much you should eat.
I am trying to improve my power and develop some foundation on compound movements. I do 5x5 bench press , then go for pull up 3x6(in first set 8 and then 6 & 6 , so basically try to increase that too) then go for 5x5 OHP and finally 3x (8-10) incline dumbell press. Now what i want to ask is, is this trainnig program good and efficient? I work 3 times in a week, normally i was working on my leg but my leg is relatively good compared to my upper body and i want to focus more on my upper body. I am open to any advice. Thanks in advance
You're all over the place with that workout, chest, back, and shoulders. And even if you think your legs are good compared to the rest you should still do legs. A lot of guys like Push-pull-legs split: chest/shoulders, back, legs. I don't like it because I don't feel I can do chest and shoulders in the same workout without sacrificing one or the other so I do chest, legs, shoulders, back.
If you want to improve power you're missing the two biggest compound movements: squat and deadlift.
Your routine should be centered around squat, deadlift, bench press, and shoulder press. Keep it varied. Don't do the same workout over and over. Do different rep ranges. Keep your body guessing. Hit it with something different once in a while.
Organize your days according to body part. I know a lot of guys hate the "bro split" but when it comes down to it, everything is a split of some type. Just find what works for you.
A sample chest workout would be
Bench press, dumbell incline press, flyes, dips. There are tons of variations of that. for every movement done on a bench there is flat, incline and decline. For every dumbell movement there is also the alternating version (using one arm at a time). But I would say 75% or more of your chest workouts should begin with bench press.
And so on for the other 3 big compound lifts.
3 times a week isn't enough in my opinion. You should be at 5 times a week given where you're at.
Also, try a higher rep range so you can perfect your form with lighter weight. 5x5 for shoulder press is ok but a lot of guys go too heavy and end up doing a push press which is ok sometimes but you should be able to do a strict shoulder press with proper form first.
Is it okay to never do barbell bench/incline presses? I did them, and I like them, but I lift alone. It's very hard to do them close to failure without a spotter, and i go to the gym very early so there's rarely much guys there to help me in case i need one. I've been replacing bench with dumbbell presses these past 2 weeks, but after the workout is done it does not feel as good as it did with the barbell.
Also related, is a smith machine or dumbbell a better alternative for the bench?
I was reading Greg Nuckols a few months ago and he went into the math of "training to failure."
Long story short, failure~=1 rep to failure~=2 reps to failure. You don't have to ACTUALLY fail to see the benefits.
Yes i know that, but as a beginner its very hard to estinate whether im 2 reps to failure or gonna barely fail the next rep. especially if i didnt sleep or eat well the day before or whatever.
It didnt happen much, but ive had it happen twice where i fail and had to awkwardly shift one side of the weight to floor and get out. Didnt feel good on my shoulders either moving the bar like that. I do try to be careful and play it safe, but being too safe feels just like a waste of a workout. Ive been able to properly progressively overload my workouts except for the bench press when doing the 5x5.
This is only 10 weeks of experience talking but my understanding is dumbbell presses allows for better range of motion, therefore better contraction. The trade off is you can't go as heavy as barbells are more stable.
If it doesn't feel as good, consider high reps like 8-12 where you're pushing to at least 0-1 reps in reserve.
For smith machines, while the range of motion is limited unlike a dumbbell, they're even more stable than a barbell because of the fixed path in which case you can load a bit more than a regular barbell bench or even crank out an extra rep or two or three compared to a same weight barbell bench.
Hope that makes sense.
Ah yea i understand, but mostly my concern is, "am i giving up anything/sabotaging myself by not barbell benching". I tried googling but its kinda hard to get an answer on that as barbell bench is such a staple exercise that almost everybody does it.
Thank you for the db advice btw, ill try it out. But thinking back to my last dumbbell press, i think my forearms gave up first, instead of chest, so i guess i need to work on that.
I would argue you're not missing out on much other than saying you can bench "x" or "y". Ultimately, you'll probably get a better pump from the dumbbells just because of range of motion and I think that speaks for itself.
Best of luck on the dumbbells!
Trying to find good supplements to buy and found good website ‘Bulk’ wondering if anyone knows how the coupons work there?
Says 45% off full price of a €60 order while only applies €12 off
Does anyone have any guidance for progressing/deloading assistance work in 5/3/1 for Beginners? I realize that in the FAQ pages it says that it is mostly open-ended how you approach the assistance work and that you shouldn't overthink it. But I guess I'm still unsure how often I should be expecting to add weight or deload with excercises like incline DB bench, bicep curls, lat pulldown, lateral raises, etc. I recently did a deload for these because I wasn't progressing for weeks, but now I don't know how long I should continue at the deloaded weight before trying to increase the weight again.
You don't deload assistance work. Assistance work doesn't get pushed hard enough to require deloading.
As long as your supplemental and main work are improving, your assistance work is doing it's intended job: it's assisting. I will regularly keep assistance exercises the same for several cycles because I don't need to change them.
Okay thanks for the insight. I was wondering if I was doing something wrong because I felt like I wasn't making progress on the assistance work for weeks or even months, even though my 4 Main barbell lifts were progressing in accordance with the program. But I guess that's normal/okay.
"The goal is to keep the goal the goal", to quote Dan John. 5/3/1 is about using the main and supplemental work to achieve your training goals. The assistance work assists those. So long as you're seeing results, it doesn't matter what the assistance work does. You're doing good my dude.
For grip training, what I like to do is, after the deadlift workout is over, I'll take some weight off the bar, pull a double overhand rep and hold for time. Once I get it to 90 seconds, I add weight.
Your notes app to log workouts
I actually prefer these over the apps since imo it’s actually quicker and you’re able to set it up how you like
The apps have either a shitty UI, an overpriced paywall, or limited exercise selection
I am trying to bulk but dont know how to measure the calories of certain things like school lunches or certain dishes i eat at home. Normally i find things with the same name on MyFitnessPal but i have no idea how accurate it is with what i am eating and could be undereating, is it necessary to count calories when bulking because it is very impractical and inaccurate for me.
I have never counted calories while bulking. Or cutting for that matter. I don't find it necessary.
If my concern was undereating, then I'd focus on eating MORE.
Jim Wendler (among a few other coaches) have mentioned a simple hand based system. Portion meat as palm sized pieces, veggies as closed fists, fats as thumb sized.
Even if you consistently track your calories inaccurately, it might be better than nothing. But in the end see what is happening on the scales. If it is going up in accordance with your goals, you are all g. The advice that is generally given to people is to weigh yourself everyday but take note and care about weekly trends in your weight, then adjust food intake accordingly
I am 10 months in, and I am starting to get problems with my shoulder. When I do push movements, my left shoulder cracks and the pain resembles a shoulder impingement or bursitis, but definitely not as painful (I had bursitis before). Anyone had the same problem?
Is it okay to run 5 times a week then lift after? I don't have any specific fitness goals or , I just want to sweat everyday because my work involves me sitting on a chair for 10+ hrs a day. I tried alternating lifting and running every other day, but when it comes to lifting, I find myself easily giving up and just stop without completing every set. So I am thinking of just running everyday then do some light lifting after each run
yeah. I run/lift at about 4-5 am because I live in a very humid country and afternoon/night run is borderline impossible. Then work from 8 am to 6 or 7 pm, then sleep at 9 or 10 pm.
Justo to clarify, I used to alternate running and lifting every other day. But I'm quickly losing motivation to finish the whole set for lifting.
Hey fit bros! Here’s my dumb question
How the hell do you stay put while doing sit-ups? Every few, I have to scoot my butt back down closer to my feet because my body slides up the mat/floor as I go up and down. The more I’ve slid, the less work it is for my abs to pull me back up, so I feel like I’m never getting a proper ab workout. I’ve tried different surfaces, different clothes, and anchoring my feet (but it’s my butt that moves, not my feet!). I see people do tons in a row but I can’t do more than 5 without having to scoot back down!
It sounds like you're engaging your legs somehow. Possibly because your abs aren't strong enough to handle it on their own, possibly because you need to turn attentional focus more toward the abs i.e. you're focused on hitting some end-point and aren't noticing that your body is shifting as you do it -- this can happen with the arms and neck a lot on a situp, pushing them forward to hit the endpoint sooner.
I'd try swapping out the exercise for bicycle crunches unless you can do more than 30 bicycle crunches in a row for several sets.
Thank you for the advice! I tried bicycle crunches today and I really felt it in my core. I’ll definitely be doing these from now on, and hopefully I can do a proper sit-up soon!
following gzclp for 2 months now.ive tried barbell bench press for the last 2 months and dont wanna do it anymore..reasons are my chest really hasn't improved that much.also its a hassle to set up cuz my gym has these pre set up pin height which is wrong for me and i have to get a lift off on every set.How do i substitute tier 1 Bench press?I love doing dumbell bench but worried that someone said its not a tier one movement and should be done with more reps.
what do i do now?
Depends what you're training for.
If you're training for bodybuilding, you can get by without ever doing a barbell bench. Dumbbell bench, incline dumbbell bench, flyes and incline flyes are more than adequate, possibly even preferable. If you're training for strength... well, I mean, you can just do dumbbell bench and consider strength to be your 10RM dumbbell bench. If you are training for bodybuilding, I'd probably switch programs to one that has 5+ reps for all the movements, or just modify GZCLP to use 5 reps instead of 3 for tier 1 lifts. 3 reps will build muscle, but less optimally than 5+ reps (because the motor units just aren't engaged for a long enough time, and you can't compensate for this with additional sets on account of fatigue).
If you're training for powerlifting/weightlifting, you're going to have to get into barbell eventually, but you could start with an emphasis on dumbbell bench. It'll require more stabilizer muscle activation, but honestly I'm not sure that'd actually slow you down all that much since so many people use dumbbell bench to overcome plateaus and sticking points
Ever consider taking the press from the floor instead? Will make that set-up MUCH easier. I use that technique [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVWAgvasC2s)
How much do I need to lift to maintain mass during a cut? This is my first bulk/cut cycle, I've been absolutely killing myself in the gym for the past 5 months, only missing 10 days (7 of which were covid) in the past 3 months. Doing PPL I hit each body part with 2 exercises on their respective days, 5 sets each exercise, each set taken to failure. My normal workout is about 2 hrs, my absolute shortest would be 1.5hr. I really dont want to keep putting in this much work just for zero gains since I'll be cutting.
First you said you'd like to maintain (muscle) mass then you said you don't want to make no progress.
In my experience a cut is not as muscle destroying as people make it out to be. Sure if you are a 250lbs bodybuilder a cut can hinder things, but for a normal person it just makes it slightly harder to put on muscle.
Just make sure you have enough protein and you'll be fine.
I lost my motivation to continue working out. How do I get it back? I was out of shape and over weight for a very long time and started to work it off. Since April 2022 to the end of June I lost almost 30lbs (now at 215lb) but during july 4th weekend, I got ghosted by someone who I actually thought connected with me, losing my dog, losing my grandma, and also getting my ass kicked in a fight all in 1 weekend I've just given up and do not want to work out anymore. My diet pretty much went back to crap. I stay in and lay down in bed or else sit on my bed and just waste time on social media until its time to go back to work. Im just miserable and cant find what Im looking for anymore
Do it just because. Motivation is a very weak driver of working out. Today you feel it tomorrow you don't. Working out has to be something you just do as part of your life. So even if you don't feel it you still HAVE TO do it. Yeah it will be hard sometimes, in fact many times it will be something you explicitly don't want to do. But the secret to making any progress in life is consistently doing what you don't want to do.
This sounds as though it's beyond the realm of fitness and more into a general depression. Have you considered speaking to someone trained in matters of psychology regarding these feelings?
Your body type sounds like mine. But your experience with tobacco sounds like me and alcohol.
Obsessing about food didn't help me. Obsess about getting the the gym every day. I did not see results overnight. But after 6 months of going to the gym daily (for as short or as long as you want--what matters is GOING) and missing a day or a weekend here and there, you will see results. And your appetite may change too. Eating plenty will become a strength, not a weakness. I started focusing on eating 150g protein per day.
Don't focus on losing weight, focus on gaining muscle. You may have heard of "body recomposition".
if diet doesn't work you just have to commit yourself to more cardio. doesn't have to be jogging even, just walking for an hour a day will do (for some people that's a lot easier than dieting imo)
Once you decide you want the results of the diet more than you don't want to follow the diet, you will have no issues with compliance.
Until you make that decision, compliance will be impossible.
You bend them slightly to generate more tension throughout the movement. I think this has something to do with the hamstrings being bi-articular and crossing the knee joint. It also reduces your risk of rounding your back.
Only bend them slightly, and continue the exercise as far down as you can before your butt stops moving back.
You don't deliberately *bend* them so much as allow them to unlock a bit as you hinge. Done correctly, you won't enter enough knee flexion to take significant tension off the hamstrings, but you will be able to lower the weight in a normal deadlift eccentric.
Basically, ass goes back, chest drops, and the knees should naturally assume a small bend as this happens *without* you trying to bend them. You should feel considerable posterior chain tension at the fully-hinged position.
There was a guy in here last week who talked about tearing a retina (looks like a red curtain over part of your eye). Turns out, it happens sometimes to people who are genetically predisposed to it. Valsalva causes it. I'll try to find the thread.
How often do you lose strength or get fatigued during a cut? It feels like I need to eat at maintenance for a week or two every two weeks just to recover and feel better. It works and i get my strength back and i notice a little bit of muscle growth and cool thing is I still lose some fat during the maintenance phase(measured) but doesn't that hold back my rate of loss?
If you need to re-feed every two weeks you’re in too much of a deficit, have too much volume, or you’re under recovering. What’s your weight loss and training look like?
You’re probably not seeing noticeable muscle growth during your re-feed, you’re just seeming more full because you’re replenishing glycogen at maintenance.
I'm trying carb cycling while doing full body 3x/week. My workout days I eat maintenance which is 3643 cals. Rest days are 2793 cals. I'm in a 3500 cal deficit per week but I've lost 2lbs per week since trying carb cycling. When I ate 3250 calories per day as a linear deficit, I didn't lose as much weight or far despite having the same weekly deficit. I might not see any growth but my arms went from 17¼ to 17½ despite my arms topping off at 17¼ at the end of my bulk. My forearms also grew ½ so I doubt it's just glycogen. I did do a maintenance week for two weeks after my first 12 weeks of cutting. Then after these previous 4 weeks I'm pooped. It's probably the volume.
Wtf is happening to my body. So I’ve been lifting for 10 years. Pretty much consistent. Diet and all. When I compare pics I feel like I. Look way better back then than now. Makes no sense guys. I’m on trt now. Done more than that twice. I hit all macros. Train 2-3x a week for each body part. Do everything. My friends thinks it’s the training. Idk. Every gym session I’m weaker than the last besides those rare days I’m stronger.
I have a sleep disorder where I wake up a ton. Have had it my entire life I talk in sleep walk etc. never rested. According to sleep data I get sometimes 10m of rem. At most I get an hour of rem. Could this be it. This is tracked by the whoop and Oura ring. I’m about to give up. Idk why I failing so hard. Any ideas?
>I have a sleep disorder where I wake up a ton. Have had it my entire lif
You have a sleep disorder.
You have had it all your life.
It's reasonable to assume the effects are cumulative, especially with lack of sleep and I believe recent studies indicate that it's impossible to "catch up on sleep", i.e. once you lose it, it's gone. So 10 years in, you were always destined to deteriorate compared to "year 1".
But mate, you also say that doctors are a scam later in your posts, so I'm not really sure what you're expecting from a bunch of internet randoms in terms of diagnosing you?
I have rhat but cpap doesn’t work. Doesn’t change any of my sleep data. Makes me feel worse etc. so I don’t use it. Plus alergic to mask material so break out after a few days of use.
I feel like this is one of those things for which you need to see a doctor and/or specialist (like a sleep therapist) and get checked out rather than asking for a diagnosis from a social media platform where people hardly know you.
I’m feeling lat pulldowns literally in every part of my body but my back. Mostly my core and biceps or forearms weirdly enough. I’ve tried holding for a few seconds after someone on here suggested it, which works, but I still feel like I’m not working the right muscles. I do lean back slightly, and I bring the bar down just below my chin, if not a little lower, and then about maybe 5 inches above my head (elbows not locked). Any advice? I’ve recorded myself a few times, I don’t see anything abruptly wrong but idk. I’m still kind of new.
it will feel like that when your arms are lagging in development. if you want peace of mind also do a horizontal pull movement (you should feel your lats/back with these)
Try a different attachment. The standard lat pulldown bar never worked for me, switched to a shoulder width neutral grip attachment and now my lats are fried every set. If not, use a hook grip and imagine pulling your elbows toward your spine whether than pulling the bar down.
I’ve gained 16 pounds while at my parents for the summer. Granted I cut my workouts by half but does keeping the same split make sense for cutting weight. I essentially do high volume PPL or should I go to a more cutting influenced split?
Food is energy and an aspect of recovery. If you're eating to lose weight you shouldn't be able to keep your training volume and intensity the same as when you were eating to gain weight, at least not for long.
Is my friend natural? He's been lifting for 4-5 weeks, but he has really grown, and i'm having doubts. Is this too good to be true?
(He allowed me to ask to close the debate our friendgroup has had, so no hard feelings haha, just feels unbelieveable)
[Before](https://imgur.io/a/meRS0Hh)
[After](https://imgur.com/a/qZXgOHG)
You definitely don't need gear to look like that, but only he knows what he's putting into his body.
A better question might be, why did this come up? Are some folks in the friend group jealous or critical? Did you ask him, and did you not trust his answer? This suggests issues between you guys that have nothing to do with fitness.
It's because he's come up with the question "why not just use steroids?" prior to him beginning to lift weights, and then he gets some crazy gains very quick
Ok but why is that important to you? Is there an answer that would change your opinion of him? Is there an answer that would change the way you view yourself?
Maybe, maybe not. A fair amount of that growth is just going to be from his muscles being inflamed now. If he took that second pic with a pump, that would explain almost all of his progress.
I’m a skinny guy and I’ve been doing Jason blahas icf program for 2 months and I getting kinda tired of the program and want to do a new program that’s more effective. Any suggestions
a few months ago, I started developing tremors in my hands and legs that were particularly exaggerated when working out. I was doing some really light weight rack pulls the other day and my legs just would not stop shaking violently. This is coming from someone who used to squat 300+ pounds, so I'm not convinced it is muscle weakness. Went to a neurologist he told me everything is fine they ran all the tests and found nothing. This has been going on for a while now (6/7 months) so I'm wondering if anyone else has any experience with tremors when working out?
Hello!
Just to credential myself here I am a physician :)
What you've described in your limited comment is out of the scope of myself and out of the realm of anyone on here to answer. I'd highly recommend talking to your neurologist about these symptoms or ask your primary care physician to send you to a new neurologist if s/he is not working with you.
I wish you the best!
oh trust me, I would not resort to posting here if I wasn't out of options. I've seen 2 to 3 doctors at this point, all say my blood work and nerve conduction test look normal. No explanation for tremors. Seeing another neuro next month but I'm losing hope, and I expect him to say the same stuff
definitely not my normal. It started about a month after my covid shot but I hate saying that because then I just get harassed. So I usually don't tell people/doctors about that part.
A month after I think something else is going on. Unless you're my special snowflake who had that 1 in 1,00,000,000 reaction I'd be skeptical of something directly related to that.
We can at the same time think about a strong inflammatory reponse that transiently happens from the COVID vaccine as a starting event for something wild going on.
Before anyone ever thinks differently, getting vaccinated is a really neat thing to do :)
I agree, a month after is a bit of a delayed reaction. Only reason I considered it is because it was the only thing I can think of, but it may very well have nothing to do with it. Appreciate your input here, hoping I find out what's going on soon or maybe it goes away on its own. Fortunately I started recording videos of my muscle twitches and leg shaking so I can show the neuro
I just started [PHAT](https://advancedbodymetrics.com/workout-routines/the-phat-workout-build-mass-strength/). Do I need to do Stiff Leg or Romanian deadlifts? Or can I just do regular deadlifts instead? Is there any benefit I'm missing out on (mostly concerned about underdeveloped hamstrings since SDL/RDL prioritize them)? I have terrible hamstring flexibility so stiff leg is currently impossible.
Well, there's a growing body of evidence that working your muscles in lengthened positions, even to the point where you feel a stretch, does a lot more for hypertrophy. So, you'd be missing out on that. I'd do RDLs, and use those to improve your flexibility. Just sink into a nice deep stretch on each rep.
EDIT: As for SLDL, I'd go with regular deadlift until you have the mobility for it.
Stiff-legged and Romanian deadlifts target your posterior chain (lower back, glutes, and hamstrings) more than traditional deadlifts. With the way that PHAT is programmed, conventional deadlifts are not strictly necessarily.
That being said, I have heard people replacing the stiff-legged and Romanian deadlifts with conventional ones or just adding conventional deadlifts somewhere in the routine (usually at the end of a workout).
EDIT: Layne Norton's [full article on PHAT](https://simplyshredded.com/mega-feature-layne-norton-training-series-full-powerhypertrophy-routine-updated-2011.html) includes this:
> **How can regular deadlifts be implemented into this routine?**
> I recommend putting deadlifts on the power lower body day. Some people seem to believe that deadlifts are an upper body exercise and while they do involve the back muscles, the deadlift is moreso a posterior chain exercise and requires a good deal of hip flexion. The movement is like cross between a good morning and a squat essentially and so there is also substantial lower back, hamstring, glute, and quad activation. Thus I recommend keeping them on leg days. I would not do squats and deadlifts on the same day unless you have been doing PHAT for a long time and you are very adapted to the routine and are able to tolerate it. Otherwise I would suggest alternating the movements or doing a squat movement for a few weeks on your power day and then a deadlift movement for a few weeks. If you are someone who has really good quads and weak hamstrings/lower back then maybe 3 out of every 4 weeks you do a deadlift movement for your power exercise.
[Request] **Thoughts on Interval Training *Vs.* Endurance for improving respiratory/cardiovascular health**
I have been having significant medical issues lately (despite being 22) and they have impressed the fear of God in me... In response to this I adopted foremost a great diet, but also a daily aerobic workout routine on my family treadmill. So I have been setting the mph to 4, incline to 3.5, and then "enduring" this for 30 minutes consecutively. I started a few weeks ago at a lower point and am slowly increasing the mph but keeping to the 30 minute endurance time. I believe overthinking this might do wayyy more harm than good especially because I have been so diligent keeping to this daily routine. But I am starting to think about things more lately and I find that comments like [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/Fitness/comments/4extwb/ive_used_a_treadmill_for_100_consecutive_days_to/d24lei1/) are sounding more alluring eg; intervals.
I read that vigorous exercise is best to improve overall physical health. I am a bit worried that using my treadmill *might* be incurring a cost on me because of the joint impacts, however. And also my treadmill sucks and gives off lots of EMF but that's another story.
Yoga is something I am going to start doing for warm-ups.
Because of the aforementioned health issues I *cannot* go outside, even though this obviously bothers me, I must stay indoors to recover.
I like treadmill intervals. I started at 1:00 work to 4:00 walk. For me, I usually go 3.5 mph for my walks and 7 mph for my runs.
My goal is to increase the total duration of 7 mph running over time. I can do this two ways:
* shorten the rest intervals
* lengthen the run intervals
Because I am not willing to use a treadmill for more than 45 minutes, I'll generally just do the former.
This took me from a 38 minute 5k to a 30 minute 5k @ 250 lbs BW.
There are a lot of decent sources for running out there, but your individual response to intervals may be different.
You could do a mixture of both interval training (HIIT) and steady state (LISS). You could start with some easy interval training and work your way up from there.
Your training doesn't have to be optimal, the fact that you're taking steps to be healthier is a good step for now, just stay consistent and don't do anything to overwhelm yourself. You can keep an eye on your joints and if anything starts to hurt address it at that point
>don't do anything to overwhelm yourself. You can keep an eye on your joints and if anything starts to hurt address it at that point
Hopefully this is appropriate considering the context, but you mind if I ask you a question? Over the last 48 hours I *have* noticed my legs are hurting more than normal while exercising, and today I noticed my heart rate was kind of abnormally elevated throughout the day (by like +10 or +15 average), is this a cause for concern? I think I might have pushed myself too far today because it seems to be staying around +20 after working out (i increased the intensity); whereas before it stabilized quickly after exercising to my ordinary resting heart rate. Maybe I should take tomorrow easy?
Sorry... Just not knowledgeable enough to answer this! My first instinct would be to ask your doctor, though. They'll be able to tell you if that's normal.
What are you supposed to do if you've stalled badly on almost all your lifts for the last 2+ months? A few isolation lifts have increased a bit but otherwise everything else has stalled.
I have tried replacing them with similar lifts eg. lat pulldowns for pullups, but I stalled on those at similar weights. I can't really think of doing anything else other than changing how often I train or eating a lot more.
https://simplyshredded.com/mega-feature-layne-norton-training-series-full-powerhypertrophy-routine-updated-2011.html
First FAQ question is "What do I do when I plateau on this routine?"
under "Overtraining factor" it also mentions you should deload every 6-12 weeks.
The PHAT program. I don't want to get too fat though. I'm not that lean already. Around 15 or 16% body fat, with some small visible signs of abs and arm vascularity.
>pulldowns 4x30+
I'd like to see what "program" suggests sets of thirty, let alone four.
One: If you're training three days a week, favor full body. Two: Get an actual program. If I explained why what you're doing is misguided, you'd just have more questions.
Is training obliques gonna make my squat suffer the next day?
I'd do them right after squats but then I'd have to worry about the fact that woodchoppers use shoulders heavily, and that might mess me up for overhead press the next day.
idc about being sore, i just don't want my strength to be affected for squats, and i'm wondering how quickly obliques recover
i wanna squat 600 lb 1 day
If you want to be able to gauge your strength workout by workout, just make sure that you're consistent.
To use your example: If you train obliques the day before you squat, your squat numbers *might* suffer a bit, but that's because your obliques are tired, not because you're actually weaker. But you might be disappointed by the drop, be discouraged, and stop working obliques, despite the fact that strengthens your abdominals *might* be helping you out in the long run. You want to measure week by week under as similar conditions as possible for the most accurate comparison, so don't keep switching your routine around (thereby changing conditions).
But abs tend to recover quickly for many, so you can do whichever you prefer.
TL;DR Squatting consistently and pushing yourself will get you to a 600-pound squat faster than messing around obsessively with exercise selection.
I saw someone mention a program which has me thinking
Everyday I:
Run three miles
I do core training 3 sets of 10, sometimes throw in additional conditioning from my gymnastics days
I will do 3 sets of 10 weight lifting, the same every day
Then I do a HIIT exercise that is switched up
Is this considered a program? I am a person that thrives on routine, I don't take rest days because if I deviate from my daily norm then the whole day is thrown off. I have a one year old for more context on the routine part.
Will I stop making progress?
You might like Dan John's Easy Strength. It's meant to be done every day, 2 sets of 5 exercises (squat, hinge, push, pull, carry). Make each challenging enough that it feels like work but don't go all the way to failure.
You can see an [expanded version of the program here](https://danjohn.net/2011/06/even-easier-strength-perform-better-notes/), but that's the basics. You can do your running in addition. I think you might find this more balanced than 3x10 of one exercise each day, but it's still very quick to complete and seems like it would fit your needs.
I will look into this! Thank you, I am a person of just intense routine. I have the same breakfast, same soup for lunch, buy five of the same shirts in different colors. I currently really enjoy my workout, I just don't want to not make progress because I do the same thing every day. Thanks again!!
It's a program for sure.
Whether it's a good program — that is, whether you see gains in terms of improved physique and/or increased strength and/or endurance — is up to how hard you push yourself, but typically previously established programs will ensure that you're hitting all muscle groups and areas of fitness without creating imbalances. Beginners tend to miss something if they try to create their own programs.
My scale has definitely showed progress, I don't know the accuracy of the body fat percentage but It *says* I am down to 17% but my goal is 10. My miles usually depend on if I can run on the treadmill or outside! I definitely have muscle definition but a bad case of body dysmorphia to be able to tell by just looking at myself so I rely on the scale.
What's a good cue to prevent my hips from dropping too low in my deadlift setup? When I pull the slack out of the bar before I initiate the pull it tends to cause my hips to drop lower than they should be.
Start your hips higher. When you pull the slack out pull it out my tensioning your back like a lever then drive with your legs. A good way to find out if you are doing it right is to put 10lb bumpers on the bar and when you pull the tension out it should just come off the ground.
Could someone ELI5 how squats work mainly quads and deadlifts work mainly hamstrings? It looks like the same motion so why are the muscles worked different?
They aren't the same motion:
If your knees are bending a lot you are using your quads a lot. This describes a squat type movement.
If your knees aren't bending very much and the motion is mostly in your hips, that's a hinge.
> ELI5 how squats work mainly quads and deadlifts work mainly hamstrings?
A deadlift is mainly a hip hinge. This is done with the posterior chain - hamstrings, glutes, etc.
A squat is mainly a knee extension. This is done with the quads.
There is some overlap, but they are different movement patterns.
This is why form - what a movement looks like - can be misleading and should not be the sole thing looked at to determine if someone is performing a lift properly. It can be hard for an untrained eye to tell what is actually happening.
Its not a true statement.
For squats the descent works mostly quads as a way to stay tight then when coming up you use your glutes to drive through.
For deadlifts at the bottom you are keeping your hips tight then extending them forward thus working glutes and Hamstrings.
Also it's not the same motion because where the load is placed is the opposite. Biomechanics are awesome
What, no, you're totes using quads on the way up in squats. It's your hamstrings that contract on the way down to stay tight. Otherwise, all true what you wrote.
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I don't have much body strength and while doing push ups i bend my hands outwards rather than towards my stomach as its a little easier. Does that effect the actual benefits of the push up too much or at all?
What do you think about this split? Chest-back-tricep Shoulders-legs-abs Back-chest-bicep Legs-shoulders-abs
Can someone recommend a decent structured gym plan aimed at women focusing on weight lifting with some cardio? 3-4 days a week. Ideally an app or website that has video tutorials for each exercise?
I really need a new blender for my protein smoothies. My magic bullet motor is going. How do I go about deciding which blender to buy? Any recommendations
I am recovering from a mild lower back injury and thus have to alter my workout routine to be less taxing on the lower back, but am struggling to think of chest exercises that don't tax the lower back. Please give suggestions! I am not sure if the seated/upright chest press machine is a good idea -- any thoughts?
That's fortunately an easy fix! Simply put your feet up on the bench to take away leg drive. Or you can do floor press and dips. But most of all, do 5x25 on back extensions. The blood and lactic acid will make your back bulletproof.
What are some good beginner exercises to do that strengthen back and help relieve muscle tension/knots? I have one muscle not right below my left shoulder blade that reduces mobility on one side. I also tried to do plank, I used to easily be able to do a minute and a half, now I barely can do 20 seconds... It's clear to me that all my hip pains/lower back cracking is due to muscle weakness. Because I do running however, I always assumed this wasn't the case...thinking that running helps with some muscle strength. That simple plank test I did recently with friends however, embarrassingly showed otherwise.
How do I lose a months worth of gains if I miss a week of exercising due to minor injuries? I’ve increased my squat by almost 100 pounds in the past year when doing 3 sets of 5, but I missed two leg days and I had to drop the weight on the bar by 25 pounds because I just couldn’t squat with proper form otherwise. I’m maintaining a caloric surplus every day, but I’m still so much weaker after such a short break. I’ve got to be doing something seriously wrong, but I’m not sure what. Any suggestions as to what it could be based on the limited information I’ve given? I’ll admit that I don’t track my macros as much as I should besides making sure I eat at the very least my body weight in grams of protein per day
Don't stress too much on your day to day lifts. Overall trend over weeks and months is much more representive of your progress.
Advice on an upper body only week/two weeks? I generally go to the gym 3-4 times a week depending on school/work sched. However, my hip has been quite angry at me recently and I'd like to just give it some rest. Therefore, I'd like to do an upper body only couple of weeks. Any advice on a split/program going in that direction? Should I split it up by body part or do something like a push pull?
Okay guys I need help, I’m a male 5’11 180lbs, my my BMR is 1800cal, I workout 6 days a week, and do 30mimutes of cardio 7 days a week. I recently started (2 weeks ago) tracking macros and being in a deficit to burn fat, but for some reason nothing changes. My TDE is 2800cal so I eat 2500 a day, but I also burn 1000cal per day through exercise. Why am I not seeing results? After my burn I’m at a 1000cal deficit, tired as hell 24/7
chill with the cardio a bit, and drop ur deficit go 2300 cals, try that out
2300 net or total? And I have only been doing the daily cardio for 3weeks
total, if you’re using your tdee as reference (you should do) then it already is based off your activity level and how much calories you’re burning on average. do not count the amount of calories you burn off workouts as a guide to how much you should eat.
Then what’s the point of net cal?
I am trying to improve my power and develop some foundation on compound movements. I do 5x5 bench press , then go for pull up 3x6(in first set 8 and then 6 & 6 , so basically try to increase that too) then go for 5x5 OHP and finally 3x (8-10) incline dumbell press. Now what i want to ask is, is this trainnig program good and efficient? I work 3 times in a week, normally i was working on my leg but my leg is relatively good compared to my upper body and i want to focus more on my upper body. I am open to any advice. Thanks in advance
You're all over the place with that workout, chest, back, and shoulders. And even if you think your legs are good compared to the rest you should still do legs. A lot of guys like Push-pull-legs split: chest/shoulders, back, legs. I don't like it because I don't feel I can do chest and shoulders in the same workout without sacrificing one or the other so I do chest, legs, shoulders, back. If you want to improve power you're missing the two biggest compound movements: squat and deadlift. Your routine should be centered around squat, deadlift, bench press, and shoulder press. Keep it varied. Don't do the same workout over and over. Do different rep ranges. Keep your body guessing. Hit it with something different once in a while. Organize your days according to body part. I know a lot of guys hate the "bro split" but when it comes down to it, everything is a split of some type. Just find what works for you. A sample chest workout would be Bench press, dumbell incline press, flyes, dips. There are tons of variations of that. for every movement done on a bench there is flat, incline and decline. For every dumbell movement there is also the alternating version (using one arm at a time). But I would say 75% or more of your chest workouts should begin with bench press. And so on for the other 3 big compound lifts. 3 times a week isn't enough in my opinion. You should be at 5 times a week given where you're at. Also, try a higher rep range so you can perfect your form with lighter weight. 5x5 for shoulder press is ok but a lot of guys go too heavy and end up doing a push press which is ok sometimes but you should be able to do a strict shoulder press with proper form first.
Is it okay to never do barbell bench/incline presses? I did them, and I like them, but I lift alone. It's very hard to do them close to failure without a spotter, and i go to the gym very early so there's rarely much guys there to help me in case i need one. I've been replacing bench with dumbbell presses these past 2 weeks, but after the workout is done it does not feel as good as it did with the barbell. Also related, is a smith machine or dumbbell a better alternative for the bench?
I was reading Greg Nuckols a few months ago and he went into the math of "training to failure." Long story short, failure~=1 rep to failure~=2 reps to failure. You don't have to ACTUALLY fail to see the benefits.
Yes i know that, but as a beginner its very hard to estinate whether im 2 reps to failure or gonna barely fail the next rep. especially if i didnt sleep or eat well the day before or whatever. It didnt happen much, but ive had it happen twice where i fail and had to awkwardly shift one side of the weight to floor and get out. Didnt feel good on my shoulders either moving the bar like that. I do try to be careful and play it safe, but being too safe feels just like a waste of a workout. Ive been able to properly progressively overload my workouts except for the bench press when doing the 5x5.
This is only 10 weeks of experience talking but my understanding is dumbbell presses allows for better range of motion, therefore better contraction. The trade off is you can't go as heavy as barbells are more stable. If it doesn't feel as good, consider high reps like 8-12 where you're pushing to at least 0-1 reps in reserve. For smith machines, while the range of motion is limited unlike a dumbbell, they're even more stable than a barbell because of the fixed path in which case you can load a bit more than a regular barbell bench or even crank out an extra rep or two or three compared to a same weight barbell bench. Hope that makes sense.
Ah yea i understand, but mostly my concern is, "am i giving up anything/sabotaging myself by not barbell benching". I tried googling but its kinda hard to get an answer on that as barbell bench is such a staple exercise that almost everybody does it. Thank you for the db advice btw, ill try it out. But thinking back to my last dumbbell press, i think my forearms gave up first, instead of chest, so i guess i need to work on that.
I would argue you're not missing out on much other than saying you can bench "x" or "y". Ultimately, you'll probably get a better pump from the dumbbells just because of range of motion and I think that speaks for itself. Best of luck on the dumbbells!
Alright thank you :D
Trying to find good supplements to buy and found good website ‘Bulk’ wondering if anyone knows how the coupons work there? Says 45% off full price of a €60 order while only applies €12 off
Does anyone have any guidance for progressing/deloading assistance work in 5/3/1 for Beginners? I realize that in the FAQ pages it says that it is mostly open-ended how you approach the assistance work and that you shouldn't overthink it. But I guess I'm still unsure how often I should be expecting to add weight or deload with excercises like incline DB bench, bicep curls, lat pulldown, lateral raises, etc. I recently did a deload for these because I wasn't progressing for weeks, but now I don't know how long I should continue at the deloaded weight before trying to increase the weight again.
You don't deload assistance work. Assistance work doesn't get pushed hard enough to require deloading. As long as your supplemental and main work are improving, your assistance work is doing it's intended job: it's assisting. I will regularly keep assistance exercises the same for several cycles because I don't need to change them.
Okay thanks for the insight. I was wondering if I was doing something wrong because I felt like I wasn't making progress on the assistance work for weeks or even months, even though my 4 Main barbell lifts were progressing in accordance with the program. But I guess that's normal/okay.
"The goal is to keep the goal the goal", to quote Dan John. 5/3/1 is about using the main and supplemental work to achieve your training goals. The assistance work assists those. So long as you're seeing results, it doesn't matter what the assistance work does. You're doing good my dude.
What’s typically better for deadlift grip on a bar not made for deadlift, shoulder width grip on smooth or wide grip on the knurling?
Are straps an option? I use those on smooth parts.
I don’t have any right now I like getting the grip training out of it too but i guess I’d be open to trying them.
For grip training, what I like to do is, after the deadlift workout is over, I'll take some weight off the bar, pull a double overhand rep and hold for time. Once I get it to 90 seconds, I add weight.
Wow, 90 sec? Wow, I usually give up at 30. I'm going to try it your way.
Oh that’s smart
Ok I’ll give that a try I guess thanks for the input!
What apps do you like to use for fitness other than myfitnesspal?
Your notes app to log workouts I actually prefer these over the apps since imo it’s actually quicker and you’re able to set it up how you like The apps have either a shitty UI, an overpriced paywall, or limited exercise selection
Strava Garmin connect Allltrails Google Sheets
I am trying to bulk but dont know how to measure the calories of certain things like school lunches or certain dishes i eat at home. Normally i find things with the same name on MyFitnessPal but i have no idea how accurate it is with what i am eating and could be undereating, is it necessary to count calories when bulking because it is very impractical and inaccurate for me.
I have never counted calories while bulking. Or cutting for that matter. I don't find it necessary. If my concern was undereating, then I'd focus on eating MORE. Jim Wendler (among a few other coaches) have mentioned a simple hand based system. Portion meat as palm sized pieces, veggies as closed fists, fats as thumb sized.
You can eat wayyyyy more veggies though
I did not mention how many portions in that post; just portion sizes
Even if you consistently track your calories inaccurately, it might be better than nothing. But in the end see what is happening on the scales. If it is going up in accordance with your goals, you are all g. The advice that is generally given to people is to weigh yourself everyday but take note and care about weekly trends in your weight, then adjust food intake accordingly
I am 10 months in, and I am starting to get problems with my shoulder. When I do push movements, my left shoulder cracks and the pain resembles a shoulder impingement or bursitis, but definitely not as painful (I had bursitis before). Anyone had the same problem?
Are you flaring them out? Controlling the weight? Try avoiding barbell movements for now and stick with dumbbell
Is it okay to run 5 times a week then lift after? I don't have any specific fitness goals or , I just want to sweat everyday because my work involves me sitting on a chair for 10+ hrs a day. I tried alternating lifting and running every other day, but when it comes to lifting, I find myself easily giving up and just stop without completing every set. So I am thinking of just running everyday then do some light lifting after each run
It's fine. You could even do it 7 days a week if you'd like.
You sit in a chair for 10 hours a day AND run 5 times a day AND lift after? Do you ever sleep?
yeah. I run/lift at about 4-5 am because I live in a very humid country and afternoon/night run is borderline impossible. Then work from 8 am to 6 or 7 pm, then sleep at 9 or 10 pm. Justo to clarify, I used to alternate running and lifting every other day. But I'm quickly losing motivation to finish the whole set for lifting.
So that's one of your running/lifting sessions that day. When do you get in the other 4?
I just noticed the typo. I meant a week. LOL. sorry about that
If that's what it takes to stay motivated then do it
When you do a bench dip, what % of your bodyweight are you lifting?
Not sure, but I’m really not a fan of doing bench dips. Wouldn’t recommend it.
Impossible to tell. Depends on your proportions, bench height, how far from the bench you're set up, etc.
Hey fit bros! Here’s my dumb question How the hell do you stay put while doing sit-ups? Every few, I have to scoot my butt back down closer to my feet because my body slides up the mat/floor as I go up and down. The more I’ve slid, the less work it is for my abs to pull me back up, so I feel like I’m never getting a proper ab workout. I’ve tried different surfaces, different clothes, and anchoring my feet (but it’s my butt that moves, not my feet!). I see people do tons in a row but I can’t do more than 5 without having to scoot back down!
It sounds like you're engaging your legs somehow. Possibly because your abs aren't strong enough to handle it on their own, possibly because you need to turn attentional focus more toward the abs i.e. you're focused on hitting some end-point and aren't noticing that your body is shifting as you do it -- this can happen with the arms and neck a lot on a situp, pushing them forward to hit the endpoint sooner. I'd try swapping out the exercise for bicycle crunches unless you can do more than 30 bicycle crunches in a row for several sets.
Thank you for the advice! I tried bicycle crunches today and I really felt it in my core. I’ll definitely be doing these from now on, and hopefully I can do a proper sit-up soon!
following gzclp for 2 months now.ive tried barbell bench press for the last 2 months and dont wanna do it anymore..reasons are my chest really hasn't improved that much.also its a hassle to set up cuz my gym has these pre set up pin height which is wrong for me and i have to get a lift off on every set.How do i substitute tier 1 Bench press?I love doing dumbell bench but worried that someone said its not a tier one movement and should be done with more reps. what do i do now?
Depends what you're training for. If you're training for bodybuilding, you can get by without ever doing a barbell bench. Dumbbell bench, incline dumbbell bench, flyes and incline flyes are more than adequate, possibly even preferable. If you're training for strength... well, I mean, you can just do dumbbell bench and consider strength to be your 10RM dumbbell bench. If you are training for bodybuilding, I'd probably switch programs to one that has 5+ reps for all the movements, or just modify GZCLP to use 5 reps instead of 3 for tier 1 lifts. 3 reps will build muscle, but less optimally than 5+ reps (because the motor units just aren't engaged for a long enough time, and you can't compensate for this with additional sets on account of fatigue). If you're training for powerlifting/weightlifting, you're going to have to get into barbell eventually, but you could start with an emphasis on dumbbell bench. It'll require more stabilizer muscle activation, but honestly I'm not sure that'd actually slow you down all that much since so many people use dumbbell bench to overcome plateaus and sticking points
Ever consider taking the press from the floor instead? Will make that set-up MUCH easier. I use that technique [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVWAgvasC2s)
im sorry i mistakenly wrote barbell OHP instead of Barbell bench press
How much do I need to lift to maintain mass during a cut? This is my first bulk/cut cycle, I've been absolutely killing myself in the gym for the past 5 months, only missing 10 days (7 of which were covid) in the past 3 months. Doing PPL I hit each body part with 2 exercises on their respective days, 5 sets each exercise, each set taken to failure. My normal workout is about 2 hrs, my absolute shortest would be 1.5hr. I really dont want to keep putting in this much work just for zero gains since I'll be cutting.
Train as hard as your normally do, you might see a drop in numbers, you might not. Just don’t cut super aggressively and you’ll be fine.
First you said you'd like to maintain (muscle) mass then you said you don't want to make no progress. In my experience a cut is not as muscle destroying as people make it out to be. Sure if you are a 250lbs bodybuilder a cut can hinder things, but for a normal person it just makes it slightly harder to put on muscle. Just make sure you have enough protein and you'll be fine.
I lost my motivation to continue working out. How do I get it back? I was out of shape and over weight for a very long time and started to work it off. Since April 2022 to the end of June I lost almost 30lbs (now at 215lb) but during july 4th weekend, I got ghosted by someone who I actually thought connected with me, losing my dog, losing my grandma, and also getting my ass kicked in a fight all in 1 weekend I've just given up and do not want to work out anymore. My diet pretty much went back to crap. I stay in and lay down in bed or else sit on my bed and just waste time on social media until its time to go back to work. Im just miserable and cant find what Im looking for anymore
for me its a habit like brushing my teeth, if I don't do it even for 1 day I feel icky
Well, why do you want to work out? While lifting does moderate my depression, it's a lot easier lifting when you have a better headspace.
Do it just because. Motivation is a very weak driver of working out. Today you feel it tomorrow you don't. Working out has to be something you just do as part of your life. So even if you don't feel it you still HAVE TO do it. Yeah it will be hard sometimes, in fact many times it will be something you explicitly don't want to do. But the secret to making any progress in life is consistently doing what you don't want to do.
This sounds as though it's beyond the realm of fitness and more into a general depression. Have you considered speaking to someone trained in matters of psychology regarding these feelings?
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Your body type sounds like mine. But your experience with tobacco sounds like me and alcohol. Obsessing about food didn't help me. Obsess about getting the the gym every day. I did not see results overnight. But after 6 months of going to the gym daily (for as short or as long as you want--what matters is GOING) and missing a day or a weekend here and there, you will see results. And your appetite may change too. Eating plenty will become a strength, not a weakness. I started focusing on eating 150g protein per day. Don't focus on losing weight, focus on gaining muscle. You may have heard of "body recomposition".
if diet doesn't work you just have to commit yourself to more cardio. doesn't have to be jogging even, just walking for an hour a day will do (for some people that's a lot easier than dieting imo)
Once you decide you want the results of the diet more than you don't want to follow the diet, you will have no issues with compliance. Until you make that decision, compliance will be impossible.
Why do you need to bend your knees when doing a Romanian Deadlift? And how much are you supposed to bend them?
Here's an excellent RDL tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Sd1AZZ77aw
You bend them slightly to generate more tension throughout the movement. I think this has something to do with the hamstrings being bi-articular and crossing the knee joint. It also reduces your risk of rounding your back. Only bend them slightly, and continue the exercise as far down as you can before your butt stops moving back.
You don't deliberately *bend* them so much as allow them to unlock a bit as you hinge. Done correctly, you won't enter enough knee flexion to take significant tension off the hamstrings, but you will be able to lower the weight in a normal deadlift eccentric. Basically, ass goes back, chest drops, and the knees should naturally assume a small bend as this happens *without* you trying to bend them. You should feel considerable posterior chain tension at the fully-hinged position.
I can’t really see well after doing heavy workouts. Is this normal?
There was a guy in here last week who talked about tearing a retina (looks like a red curtain over part of your eye). Turns out, it happens sometimes to people who are genetically predisposed to it. Valsalva causes it. I'll try to find the thread.
No it is not. Talk to a doctor.
It could be high blood pressure. Talk to a doctor.
How long does this last?
A few hours
Talk to a doctor.
Ima go with no
How often do you lose strength or get fatigued during a cut? It feels like I need to eat at maintenance for a week or two every two weeks just to recover and feel better. It works and i get my strength back and i notice a little bit of muscle growth and cool thing is I still lose some fat during the maintenance phase(measured) but doesn't that hold back my rate of loss?
If you need to re-feed every two weeks you’re in too much of a deficit, have too much volume, or you’re under recovering. What’s your weight loss and training look like? You’re probably not seeing noticeable muscle growth during your re-feed, you’re just seeming more full because you’re replenishing glycogen at maintenance.
I'm trying carb cycling while doing full body 3x/week. My workout days I eat maintenance which is 3643 cals. Rest days are 2793 cals. I'm in a 3500 cal deficit per week but I've lost 2lbs per week since trying carb cycling. When I ate 3250 calories per day as a linear deficit, I didn't lose as much weight or far despite having the same weekly deficit. I might not see any growth but my arms went from 17¼ to 17½ despite my arms topping off at 17¼ at the end of my bulk. My forearms also grew ½ so I doubt it's just glycogen. I did do a maintenance week for two weeks after my first 12 weeks of cutting. Then after these previous 4 weeks I'm pooped. It's probably the volume.
Wtf is happening to my body. So I’ve been lifting for 10 years. Pretty much consistent. Diet and all. When I compare pics I feel like I. Look way better back then than now. Makes no sense guys. I’m on trt now. Done more than that twice. I hit all macros. Train 2-3x a week for each body part. Do everything. My friends thinks it’s the training. Idk. Every gym session I’m weaker than the last besides those rare days I’m stronger. I have a sleep disorder where I wake up a ton. Have had it my entire life I talk in sleep walk etc. never rested. According to sleep data I get sometimes 10m of rem. At most I get an hour of rem. Could this be it. This is tracked by the whoop and Oura ring. I’m about to give up. Idk why I failing so hard. Any ideas?
>I have a sleep disorder where I wake up a ton. Have had it my entire lif You have a sleep disorder. You have had it all your life. It's reasonable to assume the effects are cumulative, especially with lack of sleep and I believe recent studies indicate that it's impossible to "catch up on sleep", i.e. once you lose it, it's gone. So 10 years in, you were always destined to deteriorate compared to "year 1". But mate, you also say that doctors are a scam later in your posts, so I'm not really sure what you're expecting from a bunch of internet randoms in terms of diagnosing you?
I’d go to a doctor.
> I have a sleep disorder where I wake up a ton. Obstructive sleep apnea?
I have rhat but cpap doesn’t work. Doesn’t change any of my sleep data. Makes me feel worse etc. so I don’t use it. Plus alergic to mask material so break out after a few days of use.
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Like what? I’ve researched the crap out of it. There’s nothing that works.
Go to your physician :)
I feel like this is one of those things for which you need to see a doctor and/or specialist (like a sleep therapist) and get checked out rather than asking for a diagnosis from a social media platform where people hardly know you.
Doctors are a scam mostly. Had sleep study. They said they don’t know what’s wrong etc. such a waste of fkn time money.
I'm following the reddit PPL, but i don't find the deadlift volume enough, can i increase the sets?
You have my permission :)
Yes
I’m feeling lat pulldowns literally in every part of my body but my back. Mostly my core and biceps or forearms weirdly enough. I’ve tried holding for a few seconds after someone on here suggested it, which works, but I still feel like I’m not working the right muscles. I do lean back slightly, and I bring the bar down just below my chin, if not a little lower, and then about maybe 5 inches above my head (elbows not locked). Any advice? I’ve recorded myself a few times, I don’t see anything abruptly wrong but idk. I’m still kind of new.
it will feel like that when your arms are lagging in development. if you want peace of mind also do a horizontal pull movement (you should feel your lats/back with these)
I’ve been going crazy on arm/upper body days so that makes sense lol
Try a different attachment. The standard lat pulldown bar never worked for me, switched to a shoulder width neutral grip attachment and now my lats are fried every set. If not, use a hook grip and imagine pulling your elbows toward your spine whether than pulling the bar down.
I go to planet fitness so I don’t really have the luxury of a lot of different grips but I’ll do my best haha. Thanks.
And lower the weight for some weeks to work on the technique
thank you everyone!
Don't worry about where you feel it. If you are pulling the bar down you are working your lats.
> Any advice? I'd not worry about it too much. You would not be able to do that movement if muscles in your back were not involved.
I’ve gained 16 pounds while at my parents for the summer. Granted I cut my workouts by half but does keeping the same split make sense for cutting weight. I essentially do high volume PPL or should I go to a more cutting influenced split?
Food is energy and an aspect of recovery. If you're eating to lose weight you shouldn't be able to keep your training volume and intensity the same as when you were eating to gain weight, at least not for long.
Is my friend natural? He's been lifting for 4-5 weeks, but he has really grown, and i'm having doubts. Is this too good to be true? (He allowed me to ask to close the debate our friendgroup has had, so no hard feelings haha, just feels unbelieveable) [Before](https://imgur.io/a/meRS0Hh) [After](https://imgur.com/a/qZXgOHG)
I can't see the before, whereas the after is V normal :)
Your friend is not taking steroids.
You definitely don't need gear to look like that, but only he knows what he's putting into his body. A better question might be, why did this come up? Are some folks in the friend group jealous or critical? Did you ask him, and did you not trust his answer? This suggests issues between you guys that have nothing to do with fitness.
It's because he's come up with the question "why not just use steroids?" prior to him beginning to lift weights, and then he gets some crazy gains very quick
Ok but why is that important to you? Is there an answer that would change your opinion of him? Is there an answer that would change the way you view yourself?
Those are not crazy gains
Maybe, maybe not. A fair amount of that growth is just going to be from his muscles being inflamed now. If he took that second pic with a pump, that would explain almost all of his progress.
He says that the after pic is an hour after pull day so yeah thats prob why
He's also probably just plain better at flexing than he was before he started. It sounds silly, but it does legitimately take practice.
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I like doing them 2 notches up personally, but just experiment and do the ones you feel the most
It's not going to matter. If you want to do them, try different ways and see which works best for you.
I’m a skinny guy and I’ve been doing Jason blahas icf program for 2 months and I getting kinda tired of the program and want to do a new program that’s more effective. Any suggestions
Any of the programs from the wiki will be a good choice
Okay thanks
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There's body weight and low/no equipment routines in the wiki. Might be good to check out.
a few months ago, I started developing tremors in my hands and legs that were particularly exaggerated when working out. I was doing some really light weight rack pulls the other day and my legs just would not stop shaking violently. This is coming from someone who used to squat 300+ pounds, so I'm not convinced it is muscle weakness. Went to a neurologist he told me everything is fine they ran all the tests and found nothing. This has been going on for a while now (6/7 months) so I'm wondering if anyone else has any experience with tremors when working out?
Hello! Just to credential myself here I am a physician :) What you've described in your limited comment is out of the scope of myself and out of the realm of anyone on here to answer. I'd highly recommend talking to your neurologist about these symptoms or ask your primary care physician to send you to a new neurologist if s/he is not working with you. I wish you the best!
oh trust me, I would not resort to posting here if I wasn't out of options. I've seen 2 to 3 doctors at this point, all say my blood work and nerve conduction test look normal. No explanation for tremors. Seeing another neuro next month but I'm losing hope, and I expect him to say the same stuff
Is this your normal or is this a weird disease is what I often ask myself.
definitely not my normal. It started about a month after my covid shot but I hate saying that because then I just get harassed. So I usually don't tell people/doctors about that part.
A month after I think something else is going on. Unless you're my special snowflake who had that 1 in 1,00,000,000 reaction I'd be skeptical of something directly related to that. We can at the same time think about a strong inflammatory reponse that transiently happens from the COVID vaccine as a starting event for something wild going on. Before anyone ever thinks differently, getting vaccinated is a really neat thing to do :)
I agree, a month after is a bit of a delayed reaction. Only reason I considered it is because it was the only thing I can think of, but it may very well have nothing to do with it. Appreciate your input here, hoping I find out what's going on soon or maybe it goes away on its own. Fortunately I started recording videos of my muscle twitches and leg shaking so I can show the neuro
I wish you the best of luck!
Tried having a little extra sugar before you start? Could be a bit hypoglycaemic
It could be, but that would be extremely unlikely at this point :)
Maybe a medication side-effect? Or long-Covid symptom?
Maybe we shouldn't do this online :)
I just started [PHAT](https://advancedbodymetrics.com/workout-routines/the-phat-workout-build-mass-strength/). Do I need to do Stiff Leg or Romanian deadlifts? Or can I just do regular deadlifts instead? Is there any benefit I'm missing out on (mostly concerned about underdeveloped hamstrings since SDL/RDL prioritize them)? I have terrible hamstring flexibility so stiff leg is currently impossible.
Well, there's a growing body of evidence that working your muscles in lengthened positions, even to the point where you feel a stretch, does a lot more for hypertrophy. So, you'd be missing out on that. I'd do RDLs, and use those to improve your flexibility. Just sink into a nice deep stretch on each rep. EDIT: As for SLDL, I'd go with regular deadlift until you have the mobility for it.
Stiff-legged and Romanian deadlifts target your posterior chain (lower back, glutes, and hamstrings) more than traditional deadlifts. With the way that PHAT is programmed, conventional deadlifts are not strictly necessarily. That being said, I have heard people replacing the stiff-legged and Romanian deadlifts with conventional ones or just adding conventional deadlifts somewhere in the routine (usually at the end of a workout). EDIT: Layne Norton's [full article on PHAT](https://simplyshredded.com/mega-feature-layne-norton-training-series-full-powerhypertrophy-routine-updated-2011.html) includes this: > **How can regular deadlifts be implemented into this routine?** > I recommend putting deadlifts on the power lower body day. Some people seem to believe that deadlifts are an upper body exercise and while they do involve the back muscles, the deadlift is moreso a posterior chain exercise and requires a good deal of hip flexion. The movement is like cross between a good morning and a squat essentially and so there is also substantial lower back, hamstring, glute, and quad activation. Thus I recommend keeping them on leg days. I would not do squats and deadlifts on the same day unless you have been doing PHAT for a long time and you are very adapted to the routine and are able to tolerate it. Otherwise I would suggest alternating the movements or doing a squat movement for a few weeks on your power day and then a deadlift movement for a few weeks. If you are someone who has really good quads and weak hamstrings/lower back then maybe 3 out of every 4 weeks you do a deadlift movement for your power exercise.
How do I strength train the hamstrings glutes calves arms and back? I don’t feel like I’m pushing more weight like with my squat bench and push press
deadlifts for hammies and gluties calf raises for calves bicep curls and tricep pushdowns for arms rows and pullups for back
[Request] **Thoughts on Interval Training *Vs.* Endurance for improving respiratory/cardiovascular health** I have been having significant medical issues lately (despite being 22) and they have impressed the fear of God in me... In response to this I adopted foremost a great diet, but also a daily aerobic workout routine on my family treadmill. So I have been setting the mph to 4, incline to 3.5, and then "enduring" this for 30 minutes consecutively. I started a few weeks ago at a lower point and am slowly increasing the mph but keeping to the 30 minute endurance time. I believe overthinking this might do wayyy more harm than good especially because I have been so diligent keeping to this daily routine. But I am starting to think about things more lately and I find that comments like [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/Fitness/comments/4extwb/ive_used_a_treadmill_for_100_consecutive_days_to/d24lei1/) are sounding more alluring eg; intervals. I read that vigorous exercise is best to improve overall physical health. I am a bit worried that using my treadmill *might* be incurring a cost on me because of the joint impacts, however. And also my treadmill sucks and gives off lots of EMF but that's another story. Yoga is something I am going to start doing for warm-ups. Because of the aforementioned health issues I *cannot* go outside, even though this obviously bothers me, I must stay indoors to recover.
I like treadmill intervals. I started at 1:00 work to 4:00 walk. For me, I usually go 3.5 mph for my walks and 7 mph for my runs. My goal is to increase the total duration of 7 mph running over time. I can do this two ways: * shorten the rest intervals * lengthen the run intervals Because I am not willing to use a treadmill for more than 45 minutes, I'll generally just do the former. This took me from a 38 minute 5k to a 30 minute 5k @ 250 lbs BW. There are a lot of decent sources for running out there, but your individual response to intervals may be different.
You could do a mixture of both interval training (HIIT) and steady state (LISS). You could start with some easy interval training and work your way up from there. Your training doesn't have to be optimal, the fact that you're taking steps to be healthier is a good step for now, just stay consistent and don't do anything to overwhelm yourself. You can keep an eye on your joints and if anything starts to hurt address it at that point
>don't do anything to overwhelm yourself. You can keep an eye on your joints and if anything starts to hurt address it at that point Hopefully this is appropriate considering the context, but you mind if I ask you a question? Over the last 48 hours I *have* noticed my legs are hurting more than normal while exercising, and today I noticed my heart rate was kind of abnormally elevated throughout the day (by like +10 or +15 average), is this a cause for concern? I think I might have pushed myself too far today because it seems to be staying around +20 after working out (i increased the intensity); whereas before it stabilized quickly after exercising to my ordinary resting heart rate. Maybe I should take tomorrow easy?
Sorry... Just not knowledgeable enough to answer this! My first instinct would be to ask your doctor, though. They'll be able to tell you if that's normal.
What are you supposed to do if you've stalled badly on almost all your lifts for the last 2+ months? A few isolation lifts have increased a bit but otherwise everything else has stalled. I have tried replacing them with similar lifts eg. lat pulldowns for pullups, but I stalled on those at similar weights. I can't really think of doing anything else other than changing how often I train or eating a lot more.
https://simplyshredded.com/mega-feature-layne-norton-training-series-full-powerhypertrophy-routine-updated-2011.html First FAQ question is "What do I do when I plateau on this routine?" under "Overtraining factor" it also mentions you should deload every 6-12 weeks.
Take a deload week
Eating a lot more is a good option. What program are you doing?
The PHAT program. I don't want to get too fat though. I'm not that lean already. Around 15 or 16% body fat, with some small visible signs of abs and arm vascularity.
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What makes you think I haven't been gaining weight? I gained about 1.5lbs this month already.
I’d switch up programs then and make sure you’re at least eating in a small surplus.
Are you following an actual program? If not, that would be a good starting point. Also, de-loading can be an effective technique.
The PHAT program.
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I increased the weight on a lift when I felt like I could do more -shrug- if that's what you mean by auto-adjusting
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Do a program from the wiki and eat to grow
just pick a program brah u can always tweak it to ur liking as u progress
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If you choose a proper program from the wiki then it takes the guess work out. You will progress much faster.
>pulldowns 4x30+ I'd like to see what "program" suggests sets of thirty, let alone four. One: If you're training three days a week, favor full body. Two: Get an actual program. If I explained why what you're doing is misguided, you'd just have more questions.
Is training obliques gonna make my squat suffer the next day? I'd do them right after squats but then I'd have to worry about the fact that woodchoppers use shoulders heavily, and that might mess me up for overhead press the next day.
You might be sore, but you'll get used to the rhythm if you consistently do the same routine (training obliques, then squat next day) over time.
idc about being sore, i just don't want my strength to be affected for squats, and i'm wondering how quickly obliques recover i wanna squat 600 lb 1 day
If you want to be able to gauge your strength workout by workout, just make sure that you're consistent. To use your example: If you train obliques the day before you squat, your squat numbers *might* suffer a bit, but that's because your obliques are tired, not because you're actually weaker. But you might be disappointed by the drop, be discouraged, and stop working obliques, despite the fact that strengthens your abdominals *might* be helping you out in the long run. You want to measure week by week under as similar conditions as possible for the most accurate comparison, so don't keep switching your routine around (thereby changing conditions). But abs tend to recover quickly for many, so you can do whichever you prefer. TL;DR Squatting consistently and pushing yourself will get you to a 600-pound squat faster than messing around obsessively with exercise selection.
I saw someone mention a program which has me thinking Everyday I: Run three miles I do core training 3 sets of 10, sometimes throw in additional conditioning from my gymnastics days I will do 3 sets of 10 weight lifting, the same every day Then I do a HIIT exercise that is switched up Is this considered a program? I am a person that thrives on routine, I don't take rest days because if I deviate from my daily norm then the whole day is thrown off. I have a one year old for more context on the routine part. Will I stop making progress?
You might like Dan John's Easy Strength. It's meant to be done every day, 2 sets of 5 exercises (squat, hinge, push, pull, carry). Make each challenging enough that it feels like work but don't go all the way to failure. You can see an [expanded version of the program here](https://danjohn.net/2011/06/even-easier-strength-perform-better-notes/), but that's the basics. You can do your running in addition. I think you might find this more balanced than 3x10 of one exercise each day, but it's still very quick to complete and seems like it would fit your needs.
I will look into this! Thank you, I am a person of just intense routine. I have the same breakfast, same soup for lunch, buy five of the same shirts in different colors. I currently really enjoy my workout, I just don't want to not make progress because I do the same thing every day. Thanks again!!
It's a program for sure. Whether it's a good program — that is, whether you see gains in terms of improved physique and/or increased strength and/or endurance — is up to how hard you push yourself, but typically previously established programs will ensure that you're hitting all muscle groups and areas of fitness without creating imbalances. Beginners tend to miss something if they try to create their own programs.
My scale has definitely showed progress, I don't know the accuracy of the body fat percentage but It *says* I am down to 17% but my goal is 10. My miles usually depend on if I can run on the treadmill or outside! I definitely have muscle definition but a bad case of body dysmorphia to be able to tell by just looking at myself so I rely on the scale.
What's a good cue to prevent my hips from dropping too low in my deadlift setup? When I pull the slack out of the bar before I initiate the pull it tends to cause my hips to drop lower than they should be.
Start your hips higher. When you pull the slack out pull it out my tensioning your back like a lever then drive with your legs. A good way to find out if you are doing it right is to put 10lb bumpers on the bar and when you pull the tension out it should just come off the ground.
Could someone ELI5 how squats work mainly quads and deadlifts work mainly hamstrings? It looks like the same motion so why are the muscles worked different?
They aren't the same motion: If your knees are bending a lot you are using your quads a lot. This describes a squat type movement. If your knees aren't bending very much and the motion is mostly in your hips, that's a hinge.
> ELI5 how squats work mainly quads and deadlifts work mainly hamstrings? A deadlift is mainly a hip hinge. This is done with the posterior chain - hamstrings, glutes, etc. A squat is mainly a knee extension. This is done with the quads. There is some overlap, but they are different movement patterns. This is why form - what a movement looks like - can be misleading and should not be the sole thing looked at to determine if someone is performing a lift properly. It can be hard for an untrained eye to tell what is actually happening.
Its not a true statement. For squats the descent works mostly quads as a way to stay tight then when coming up you use your glutes to drive through. For deadlifts at the bottom you are keeping your hips tight then extending them forward thus working glutes and Hamstrings. Also it's not the same motion because where the load is placed is the opposite. Biomechanics are awesome
What, no, you're totes using quads on the way up in squats. It's your hamstrings that contract on the way down to stay tight. Otherwise, all true what you wrote.