BG Fitness Fanatics II: We Work Out

[Vandalhart]

I've put like half the weight I'd lost back on by being a lazy food hoover so I'm getting back into the gym before it's too late.
I had stopped tracking my calories last April to see if I can maintain without, but it appears that I'm not. I also stopped going to the gym in the early fall.

Where might I find a few daily workouts (like 5, maybe 10) that I can just put in a hat and pull out one for that day? I'd likely be doing 10 minutes of cardio at the start of the workout. That's one thing I'd like to maintain from my past routine.

[Guitarman]

Can you be more specific? What kind of rep range did he have you doing? Do you have any other lifting periods to compare it to?

Essentially, if you're going for mass, doing your absolute max at 4-5 reps is fine if that's all you can do. As long as you're maintaining good form and doing full motions. He would have me do, say, max weight, low reps for growth; 70%~ish weight, max reps for strength.
As for lifting periods, I had done 6 months of just near-max, whatever sets on my own, and had completely stalled out. After following his routine my gains kicked back into high gear. I've been able to lift near 40% more since switching up what I was doing previously.

[BerenTebogo]

Dont usual periods of stalling / changing up need to happen no matter what routines you used?

I was starting to hit my walls and flatlining right before xmas. Hope the 3 weeks off / light weight allows me to come back better.

[Hushigoshi]

Another reason as to why you might stall is your (lack of) recovery. How often do you have deload weeks in your routine? You don't get stronger when you you lift; you get stronger when your body repairs itself. Are you allowing enough time for that? High level athletes and elite lifters tend to periodize cycles in a 3 week on, 1 week off (deload) system to allow their body to speed up the recovery process. Look at the training style Guitarman was doing previously; maxes every day/week/session. There will be a certain point where the body just can't handle that. Most likely, with the program he's on now with the trainer, he is constantly changing the percentile load he's lifting throughout different training blocks; some weeks heavier, some weeks lighter. That way he can recover and become stronger.

[Kuya]

So is the sauna for 10mins after every workout a bad idea for someone trying to gain weight or would it just be cleaning out my body of toxins?

[Cream Soda]

Resurrecting my squat form from the bottom up. Can't do as much weight as I could before (well I've had several back injuries since a long ass time ago anyways) so since my weight went to shit, decided to build back up slow and do it right.

Getting below parallel now and not looking up anymore. Keeping back a lot more straight.

Though this is 185 (taken during my warmup), I can do sets of 8-10 with 225 now like this

Spoiler: show

Versus before where I'd be doing 275 (for sets of 5) like this

Spoiler: show

Been doing a lot of work for my calf/hamstring flexibility and I feel a lot more stable during the squats as well

Now if I can work up to 3 plates on lower than parallel, I'll be happy.

One thing to mention is though due to having a bad lower back, I can't make any sudden movements, so I do all my squats as pause squats rather than coming back up as soon as I hit the floor. (makes a big diff from the ones I used to do) so climbing up in weight this way is difficult. I'll try to pause for a least a whole second at the bottom before trying to rise up.

Since I've been doing more stretching 2-3 days a week, I can also do deadlifts again w/o irritating my back. It's my first time doing them in about 2 years, so I've started really low and going to build my way up instead of jumping straight back into heavy weight. Sticking with around 185 for 3 sets of 8 twice a week.

Edit: regardless of new form (which is more difficult in terms of how low I go, and the pause at the bottom), you dont' know how shitty it feels to have dropped 50 lbs in weight 2 from a pic taken 2 years ago. Getting hit by a bus really has fucked me both physically and psychologically. Dont' care how I look if I don't have to strength to match my physique (Tired of hearing "I can't believe you look like that but can only lift this amount" lol). Same scenario with bench, it's also lower now than it was before my accident (despite that being a year ago now)

[Guitarman]

Another reason as to why you might stall is your (lack of) recovery. How often do you have deload weeks in your routine? You don't get stronger when you you lift; you get stronger when your body repairs itself. Are you allowing enough time for that? High level athletes and elite lifters tend to periodize cycles in a 3 week on, 1 week off (deload) system to allow their body to speed up the recovery process. Look at the training style Guitarman was doing previously; maxes every day/week/session. There will be a certain point where the body just can't handle that. Most likely, with the program he's on now with the trainer, he is constantly changing the percentile load he's lifting throughout different training blocks; some weeks heavier, some weeks lighter. That way he can recover and become stronger.

In essence, yes. I'm not being directly trained by this person, they kind of set me up with a plan of attack, so to speak. I tend to let my body do the deciding for me; if I'm feeling good, I'll do a max weight week. If i'm feeling a bit run down or just not into it, I'll take it as a week to do less-than-maximum.

Sidenote, I cannot stress enough the importance of getting enough sleep and eating. I was working a job where I had to be up at 3am for work, and would often get only 4-5 hours of sleep a night. The body just can't heal enough during that little sleep. Best to keep it simple and break it down this way; to gain muscle:
1. Alternate your weekly focus between max weight/max reps
2. Switch up your routine now and again so your body doesn't become accustomed to the movements and you stop gaining,
3. Eat well
4. Sleep. A lot.

[RKenshin]

Dont' care how I look if I don't have to strength to match my physique (Tired of hearing "I can't believe you look like that but can only lift this amount" lol). Same scenario with bench, it's also lower now than it was before my accident (despite that being a year ago now)

Psh, f the haters. Lift less with pride!

Sorry to hear about the back though, that does suck. I've had a few scares over the years, but thankfully they've all been minor and/or healed quickly. I avoid focusing on numbers now just because of that.

[Cream Soda]

I wouldn't care honestly if I wasn't weaker now than I was before. Just the lack of personal progress that irks me

[Sepukku]

Damn it is so hard for me to gain mass

Started eating a piece of fruit, tuna or protein bar, and choc milk for an evening snack to up my calories, went to my specialist today, still LOST 3 pounds since september

[thetruepandagod]

What bulk recipes do you have that doesn't involve milk, I am not gaining any fucking weight so far this year.

[RKenshin]

I wouldn't care honestly if I wasn't weaker now than I was before. Just the lack of personal progress that irks me

Look/feel or controlling the weight better at least? Or feel as though it's worse all around?

[Cream Soda]

oh no my form is way better now. The weight reduction is a combination of both injuries and fixing form, but still lol it was a pretty big drop. By the time I recovered from my injury, I was struggling with a set of 3 on 185 (from doing 3 sets of 8-10 with 225-235 as my standard; 250-260 for sets of 5) and still not back to that point yet. Feels a lot better though and getting lower as well thanks to calf stretching (didn't know how important calf flexibility was) and able to do dead lifts now w/o discomforting my back (which is why I backed off of them for 2 years).

Bench I'm almost to the numbers I left off at, but always leaves a bad feel in my shoulder. Since I got side swiped by a bus in the shoulder and then 6 weeks later took off a lady's side view mirror (she had to be going at least 50-55) w/ the same shoulder, I'm pretty sure there's just permanent fuckage there I'll be dealing w/ for life. It doesn't make it undoable or even unbearable, but it is quite irritating and feels like shit after my werkouts

[Milkster]

In essence, yes. I'm not being directly trained by this person, they kind of set me up with a plan of attack, so to speak. I tend to let my body do the deciding for me; if I'm feeling good, I'll do a max weight week. If i'm feeling a bit run down or just not into it, I'll take it as a week to do less-than-maximum.

Sidenote, I cannot stress enough the importance of getting enough sleep and eating. I was working a job where I had to be up at 3am for work, and would often get only 4-5 hours of sleep a night. The body just can't heal enough during that little sleep. Best to keep it simple and break it down this way; to gain muscle:
1. Alternate your weekly focus between max weight/max reps
2. Switch up your routine now and again so your body doesn't become accustomed to the movements and you stop gaining,
3. Eat well
4. Sleep. A lot.

This is terrible advice and you should stop giving it...

[Moss]

Damn it is so hard for me to gain mass

Started eating a piece of fruit, tuna or protein bar, and choc milk for an evening snack to up my calories, went to my specialist today, still LOST 3 pounds since september

me too brah, me too. need some damn soylent. would be so much easier if I could just bring some to work and then look at my intake when I get home and say "ok, I need to drink x more cups today"

[Milkster]

Just drink milk or milk based products. Peanut Butter, nuts/almonds, protein bars, etc. Soylent is overpriced crap.

[Wulfgang]

I can. The guy that trained me was a former professional bodybuilder and a personal trainer for years and said this to me. Wish I had a scientific study or something I could whip out, but based on what this guy was like/is like and my own personal results from taking his advice I've seen it work.

As a random aside.... fuck all these people that join the gym as a resolution. 22 treadmills and they're all taken by people that won't be there in two weeks, and every squat rack / upper body equipment is taken by morons pulling shit like in this vid.

Jesus christ, I can't watch these videos. Scares the hell out of me. If I didn't know what I was doing, OHS is the last thing I would try to pull off. There are like 5 people in that vid who are lucky they didn't break their neck literally.

Friends in town this weekend, so I'll likely not hit the gym again until Sunday night. As such, yesterday was a long day for me.

4x5 205 flat bench
4x3 225 flat bench
4x3 225 decline bench
Several sets of lolcurls
Shrugs
100 dips
50 pull-ups
50 triangle push-ups
Lat pulldown machine (don't really care for this thing)
4x7 225 backsquat
4x5 275 backsquat
4x3 305 backsquat
Calf raises

Rowed 3,000m at the end broken into two 1,500m HIIT sets (30s as hard as possible, 1m normal row, repeat). I fucking love the rowing machine.

And my workout could probably use some sprucing up, but I keep it pretty simple. Really should do more shoulder work (military press / push press / etc.) but I have some serious shoulder flexibility issues (I can barely grab the bar on a backsquat which is crazy). Still bummed out about jumping from 178 to 200 in like three months; TPG plz borrow my weight gain mechanism.

[Celeras]

This is terrible advice and you should stop giving it...

Switching up your routine is not terrible advice, the fuck you talking about? Any meaningful long term program centers around muscle confusion, first and foremost. And alternating weeks with max weight/reps is just a weird variation of the 'Texas Method' by Pendlay, which has you doing the same principles within your week (usually Monday high reps, Friday max weight, with a low weight/rep psuedo-recovery day on Wednesday).

[Cream Soda]

[Wulfgang]

Going to agree with CS here.