[JP10]

Originally Posted by NorCalAthlete

Damn I’m late to this thread. Copy/pasting these from another forum - gotta keep myself accountable here.

Starting from last week:

========================
Shot up to 191 lbs earlier in lockdown. Lots of body weight stuff (pushups, pull-ups, squats / lunges, etc) shaved back down to 183 (no cardio / running though just paddleboarding and golfing).

First day back in the gym yesterday, did legs.

Just finished shoulder day. Unfortunately all the cardio machines at my gym are closed off and I don’t have a treadmill at home and between smoke and protests and whatnot I haven’t been running outside or anything for cardio.

I do mix in dumbbells at home for arms + Hanging leg lifts off my pull-up bar for a bit of abs.

What is your height if you don't mind me asking?

A lot of high sets/reps in your workout, guessing your goal is just overall toning/conditioning rather then building muscle? I'd split chest and shoulder day with back day. Chest/shoulders utilize a lot of the same muscles as you're aware. Splitting with back could decrease muscle soreness, just an idea though. Didn't see any bicep workouts throughout, assuming you just hit them through auxiliary movements on backday, or skip all together?

Buy a jump rope for some in-place cardio!

[NorCalAthlete]

Originally Posted by JP10

What is your height if you don't mind me asking?

A lot of high sets/reps in your workout, guessing your goal is just overall toning/conditioning rather then building muscle? I'd split chest and shoulder day with back day. Chest/shoulders utilize a lot of the same muscles as you're aware. Splitting with back could decrease muscle soreness, just an idea though. Didn't see any bicep workouts throughout, assuming you just hit them through auxiliary movements on backday, or skip all together?

Buy a jump rope for some in-place cardio!

I’m 5’11.5” heh. About 184 lbs. A lot of the reason for high sets and reps at the moment is just getting back into the swing of things - haven’t lifted in about 8 months now beyond dumbbells, TRX, pull-ups, etc at home.

Biceps are generally done as a finisher after back day with dumbbells at home - nothing too big, a few sets of seated reclined curls, preacher curls, hammer curls. Generally your biceps ARE getting worked while doing back exercises, though not the primary muscle working. Same with triceps during shoulder or chest workouts.

When I’ve had breaks like this in the past, I’ll do high reps for a couple months till I can get over being sore within a day rather than 2-3. Then I switch to pyramid sets, drop sets, low rep higher weight muscle building. After a month or two of that I start cycling - 7 day a week workouts but in a rotation like chest, back, shoulders 2x a week with legs once a week, while adding in 2 running days as well (so my legs actually get 3 days a week) plus my usual hiking / paddleboarding / golf / dirtbiking / whatever activity on weekends.

BF % is currently hovering around 16%, I’d be happy getting back down to 10-12% but coming up on 40 years old I’ve kinda accepted that the constant 6 pack days matter less to me than great food and wine and such, so...

[floridaorange]

Been adding feeder workouts to my arms each day and they are definitely helping with strength and size!
6'2 198 lbs.

[1MOREMOD]

Rich piana style? How many reps?

[floridaorange]

Originally Posted by 1MOREMOD

Rich piana style? How many reps?

Rich Piana style - once I got past his extreme looks I started to notice he's a decent communicator with a lot of experience... figured I'd give his feeder's a try. Right now I'm doing 60 reps of 15 lb dbs skull crushers then standing on knees for 50 reps of hammer curls. 3 sets of both. Sometimes if the hammers are too much I'll switch to regular style curls. I've got smaller sized wrists so 17" biceps at the moment but will remeasure in 3 mos. This is just for fun of course. I plan to increase the skull crushers until I get to 100 like he suggests.

[1MOREMOD]

Yeah I tried them a few times but never stuck with it. Need to do leg and calf feeders personally.

[JP10]

Feel like my legs dwarf the rest of me, arms need to catch up. Have solid size on my chest and back.

[UncleWede]

I wasn't huge or anything, but it's been a few weeks since I was in the gym. Most of my "resistance" training has been chores in the yard.
I looked last night, I'm visibly smaller
I'm still about the same weight though

Gotta get back into a regular routine, even if I'm not building, gotta keep it tight

[floridaorange]

Originally Posted by 1MOREMOD

Yeah I tried them a few times but never stuck with it. Need to do leg and calf feeders personally.

I've been doing those for a few months, legs and calf feeders every other night, just less reps. Well more reps for calves. But ya, balance is key.

I'm just about 200lbs today (32 inch waist) It's been a challenge with covid, I really want to gain a ton of strength this yr. 400 dead, squat and bench.

[1MOREMOD]

Wtf if you can bench 400 squat and dead should be over 600

[NorCalAthlete]

Bleh apparently EVERYONE decided it was leg day today. Every single squat rack, smith machine, cage, even the crossfit racks - people squatting and crap. The cable machines for leg press and everything too. I did a half leg / half back split day with more biceps and core thrown in.

5x10 weighted back extensions / good mornings
8x12 leg press machine
5x10 wide grip iso lat pulldown
5x10 reclined dumbbell curls
5x10 calf raises
5x10 core ab rotations (like doing a baseball swing movement with a cable machine, 10 reps to each side is 1 set)

Half-ass workout for today but it was too packed to be able to jump between the stuff I really wanted to do (legs).

[floridaorange]

Originally Posted by 1MOREMOD

Wtf of you can bench 400 squat and dead should be over 600

Haha - I'm just saying my goal is to reach 400 for all 3, I doubt I'll be reaching all 3 at the same time.

[JP10]

Originally Posted by NorCalAthlete

Bleh apparently EVERYONE decided it was leg day today. Every single squat rack, smith machine, cage, even the crossfit racks - people squatting and crap. The cable machines for leg press and everything too. I did a half leg / half back split day with more biceps and core thrown in.

5x10 weighted back extensions / good mornings
8x12 leg press machine
5x10 wide grip iso lat pulldown
5x10 reclined dumbbell curls
5x10 calf raises
5x10 core ab rotations (like doing a baseball swing movement with a cable machine, 10 reps to each side is 1 set)

Half-ass workout for today but it was too packed to be able to jump between the stuff I really wanted to do (legs).

Lunges are your friend when this shit happens. Usually can knock them out anywhere in your gym, and plenty of variations to hit everything you want to!

[floridaorange]

^ yes, also dumbbell squats and dead's for variation...

You have to schedule a time to use our gym so only 9 people allowed in weight room - waiting is usually only a few mins - NorCal is your gym just full of ppl or what? Sounds crazy, especially right now.

[NorCalAthlete]

I mean I have to make reservations too and they’re only allowing a certain number of people...but for whatever reason, friggin everyone there wanted to do legs yesterday.

[1MOREMOD]

Originally Posted by floridaorange

Haha - I'm just saying my goal is to reach 400 for all 3, I doubt I'll be reaching all 3 at the same time.

My goal was 300 bench, 400 squat and 500 dead. Made that, actually pushed 350 bench.

[JP10]

Originally Posted by floridaorange

^ yes, also dumbbell squats and dead's for variation...

You have to schedule a time to use our gym so only 9 people allowed in weight room - weighting is usually only a few mins - NorCal is your gym just full of ppl or what? Sounds crazy, especially right now.

Originally Posted by NorCalAthlete

I mean I have to make reservations too and they’re only allowing a certain number of people...but for whatever reason, friggin everyone there wanted to do legs yesterday.

They need to take that system one step further then. Reserve day to workout and muscle group to be worked lmao.

[UncleWede]

My youngest is maybe 1/2" shorter than I, but pushing 260. His oldest bro and I had an intervention of sorts last night. I was dreading the confrontation, but he seems really receptive to us helping to motivate him to drop a bunch of weight. His bro has been doing a X-fit for nearly a year, and will start dragging him there on Monday.
I've always paid for his membership at the gym but "I thought they were closed right now"

The other thing I know he needs even more is the nutritional counseling. I'm just afraid of places like Lindora, that they will be more about selling him "products" than knowledge and lifestyle changes.

[NorCalAthlete]

Originally Posted by UncleWede

My youngest is maybe 1/2" shorter than I, but pushing 260. His oldest bro and I had an intervention of sorts last night. I was dreading the confrontation, but he seems really receptive to us helping to motivate him to drop a bunch of weight. His bro has been doing a X-fit for nearly a year, and will start dragging him there on Monday.
I've always paid for his membership at the gym but "I thought they were closed right now"

The other thing I know he needs even more is the nutritional counseling. I'm just afraid of places like Lindora, that they will be more about selling him "products" than knowledge and lifestyle changes.

I know they say "abs are made in the kitchen", but IMHO having been an athlete all my life and having weightlifted off and on for 20 years now...I'm gonna go against the strict trainer "wisdom" and shit and say it's 80% workouts and 20% diet.

I've had points where, per the dining facility charts and everything, I was consuming damn near 10,000 calories a day. I've also had points where I only consumed about 1,500 calories a day. My energy levels for workouts have varied but I stick to the plan and just vary the weights accordingly. Edit - additional note : a half ass workout is better than skipping a day. Consistency is key. A wall is built brick by brick and all that. Maybe some days you're able to lay 100 bricks and other days you don't have the energy and only manage 20 bricks, but as long as you keep adding bricks that's what matters. Keep at it, day by day, week by week. It takes about a month to build the habit to where you start looking forward to it or being able to self motivate to drag yourself to the gym and workout.

The primary factor is energy expended during the day has to be greater, by an order of magnitude, than the caloric intake. Doesn't matter if the calories are pizza and burgers or rice and grilled chicken - if you can work it off / sweat it out / etc you'll lose the weight. Additionally, don't be too focused on the pounds day by day - for starters, muscle weighs more than fat, so if you're weightlifting (rather than just doing HIIT cardio and shit to try and sweat out as much as possible) your "weight loss" will be slower or at times even stagnant, and focusing on lbs at that point will discourage you from continuing. Instead, focus on strength gains and tape measurements and it'll be easier to stay on track. I wouldn't focus on time either so much as reps completed, and proper form matters more than throwing weight around. You want steady, piston-like machine movements. If you're jerking shit around and have to use momentum to get it up / down / whatever, your form needs to improve.

Caveat - if you're doing olympic powerlifting like clean + jerk, that doesn't necessarily apply as much, I'm primarily referring to your core workout lifts like bench press, squat, overhead press, rows, curls, lat pulls, etc.

Additional disclaimer - don't fucking eat pizza and burgers every day, you DO have to maintain SOME kind of diet, I'm just saying don't trip too much over sticking to a strict one until you're down at like 12% body fat. If you're up over 20%, focus on the workouts and spending the energy more. Where a lot of people struggle and relapse into bad habits is when they try to tackle the whole problem all at once and stick to some kind of IFBB level super strict diet, workout, etc. Even the most motivated pros have trouble sticking to that shit without their trainers - you're setting yourself up for failure if you set that as your expectation at the beginning of your weight loss journey. I'd even go a bit further and say your trainers are trying to pad in some job security by setting you on that path at times. Sure, for the most optimum results if you stuck to that type of diet / workout you'd drop the weight faster, but a lot of this stuff is mental and you need small successes to build on. If you're immediately failing, time after time, because of super strict or unrealistic goals for yourself, you're going to relapse / yo-yo back to your old weight and beyond.

Some basic starters for diet :

• No soda. None. Not 0 calorie, not 0 sugar, none. Get that entire category gone.
• Limit beer intake - if you want to drink shift to wine or hard liquor; if your stomach can't handle that then simply drink less beer.
• Limit condiments - a grilled chicken salad sounds healthy until you slather it with 5 gallons of ranch dressing. Chill with that shit. Same goes with mustard, ketchup, BBQ sauce, etc. Yeah, it adds flavor and tastes good and whatever...it's still just add-on empty calories.
• Limit snacks between meals - chips, dip, etc. If you have to snack, make it healthier.
• Limit junk food - not saying you have to cut it out of your life immediately, I still love a good bacon cheeseburger, but I'd say I indulge that urge maybe once a month at this point. Hell, even a chicken bowl from chipotle can be healthier than Five Guys burgers.

[floridaorange]

Originally Posted by 1MOREMOD

My goal was 300 bench, 400 squat and 500 dead. Made that, actually pushed 350 bench.

Honestly that's more along the lines of what I should be aiming for. I only really started to get serious about squats and deadlifts in my late 30's.

1MOREMOD may I ask how tall you are?

For some reason I've recently started naturally gripping the bar much wider (so much easier on my elbows) during squats, which has been nice.

[JP10]

Originally Posted by UncleWede

My youngest is maybe 1/2" shorter than I, but pushing 260. His oldest bro and I had an intervention of sorts last night. I was dreading the confrontation, but he seems really receptive to us helping to motivate him to drop a bunch of weight. His bro has been doing a X-fit for nearly a year, and will start dragging him there on Monday.
I've always paid for his membership at the gym but "I thought they were closed right now"

The other thing I know he needs even more is the nutritional counseling. I'm just afraid of places like Lindora, that they will be more about selling him "products" than knowledge and lifestyle changes.

Creating a healthy affordable diet is not rocket science though, no need to shell out cash on nutritional counseling. There are plenty of healthy alternatives that can fix whatever cravings he is having (PEANUT BUTTER!!!!!! - my favorite food if you couldn't tell). Wish him luck, first step is actually understanding that you need a change. If he has that out of the way already then it's just a matter of perseverance. Good luck to him!

[JP10]

Originally Posted by NorCalAthlete

Some basic starters for diet :

• No soda. None. Not 0 calorie, not 0 sugar, none. Get that entire category gone. I can't resist 1 diet coke a day, unfortunate habit haha
• Limit beer intake - if you want to drink shift to wine or hard liquor; if your stomach can't handle that then simply drink less beer. I lose my most amount of weight when binge drinking, how can this be!? Lol kidding, it's because I don't eat and am basically dying.
• Limit condiments - a grilled chicken salad sounds healthy until you slather it with 5 gallons of ranch dressing. Chill with that shit. Same goes with mustard, ketchup, BBQ sauce, etc. Yeah, it adds flavor and tastes good and whatever...it's still just add-on empty calories. Everything in moderation on this one. I'm not eating a plain ass burger haha.
• Limit snacks between meals - chips, dip, etc. If you have to snack, make it healthier. 100% concur
• Limit junk food - not saying you have to cut it out of your life immediately, I still love a good bacon cheeseburger, but I'd say I indulge that urge maybe once a month at this point. Hell, even a chicken bowl from chipotle can be healthier than Five Guys burgers. Key is moderation again, every now an again is okay! I feel that the worst mistake someone just starting out in dieting can do is to over do it with that they cut out. This just leads to them quitting faster.

^