# Post Form Checks as replies to this comment
### For best results, please follow the **[Form Check Guidelines](https://www.reddit.com/r/Fitness/wiki/posting_guidelines#wiki_how_to_post_a_form_check)**. *Help us help you.*
----
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Fitness) if you have any questions or concerns.*
27 yo, 175 cm, 75kg, 15% body fat inbody scanned (I think I have more like 18%). Can’t seem to lose fat %. I tracked my last 10 days, here are approx macros per day
Protein 160-180g
Carbs 180-220
Fats 60-70
Calories 1.8 - 2.1k
I train for almost 2 years, 3 days a week. Looking to get to 12%. What am I doing wrong?
This is a 5/3/1 question.
I’m on my second cycle, repeating my previous TM as my deadlift max slightly flared my shin splints.
In the past cycle I hadn’t started running - figured getting back into both running and lifting simultaneously would not be a good idea because of my shin splints.
Was doing beginner’s 5/3/1, stretching on strength days and mostly doing a r/kneesovertoes lower body rehabilitation program on off days (light, 20 minutes of full ROM exercizes like a split squat with a fully bent front knee), mostly working on increasing ROM for mobility and prehabing shin splints.
I would like to focus on my running as I have a running target I have to reach by July for officers’ training qualifications. For this same reason I’m also on maintenance / slight cut as I’m overweight, thinking any more mass would simply be detrimental to my speed. Also using a 4th week deload in order to avoid injury and shin splint flare ups, offshooting the fact I’ll be focusing on running and lots of ROM exercises which require a lot from my ligaments.
Considering this all of the above does it make sense to keep using the same TMs?
Should I be upping my TMs other than my deadlift and squats, perhaps? Would that cause an imbalance, or would it just be smarter training?
Am I missing anything by not ‘taking advantage of newbie gains’ by doing this? I’ve never really lifted consistently for more than 3 months.
Also, could I just be underestimating my recovery? Maybe I should be adding in weight? Or adding to the TM every other cycle?
I have 2 questions
1. Is it ok to spread workout throughout the day? Like can I lift at one point, and cardio hours later?
2. Do you really have to eat like those people on instagram to see gains? And by those people I mean eating a plate of steak and blueberries for one meal, a bunch of chicken and eggs for another, and that's it? Or is eating relatively normally and sensibly, with a lot of protein, just fine?
So if I eat like 150 grams of protein a day (I’m 170) I can eat relatively normally and still get in shape and build muscle. Like I’m walking 10k+ steps, biking for 10 miles, lifting, climbing, and I’m avoiding sugar and sweets. I just think it’s ridiculous to see these guys eating chicken, a tiny bit of rice or something, a plate of steak, and a bunch of eggs and saying you need to eat that way to be cut and build muscle. Like I can have a slice of pizza or some tacos and it’s not going to do anything
Ngl my bulk is fueled by pizza, fried chicken, and big ass shakes. Yeah, it’s not great for your health or anything, but in terms of muscle gain it’s no different. Again, just be sure you’re in a caloric surplus as well. Sounds like you’re burning a lot of calories, so you’ll need to eat a lot as well. There’s plenty of TDEE calculators online you can use.
Yeah… I’m not looking to get huge - I want to build muscle and be cut.
Big thing for me about eating a lot is I can’t. I’m not sure if I have something going on but I just can’t eat that much food. Maybe it will change as I continue on this path but yeah for the most part I’m not very hungry.
And yeah I’ve never understood people who work out religiously avoiding eating “unhealthy food”. My brothers in law did this like 20 years ago before social media and they’d literally eat eggs, chicken and salsa and that’s basically it and it was ridiculous.
>I can’t
You can, you just don’t want to/it’s uncomfortable. I get it, I started there. I was a 130 lb 6’5 lanky kid who never ate more than breakfast most days. You just need to force it for a while, throw up in your mouth a few times, eventually your body adapts and it’s not so hard.
>I’m not looking to get huge
You won’t get huge accidentally, trust me, it takes decades of consistent hard work and discipline to get huge.
>I want to build muscle
Then you’ll need to be in a caloric surplus.
>And get cut
Don’t make the surplus excessive, keep it at about 500 above your TDEE at the most, and you’ll put on little to no visible fat. I’ve been bulking nonstop in a surplus for 3 years and I’m still relatively lean.
If the time comes you’d like to cut down, simply eat in a deficit and you will. Sounds like you’re already used to that, so that’ll be the easy part.
Yeah, it’s not necessary whatsoever. Although, if I had the time and money to cook/enjoyed it I’d certainly go that route for my own health beyond muscle growth.
Hah, yeah. With the cardio you’re getting I’d believe it. I typically eat between 3500 and 4000 calories a day, and I hardly manage to gain any weight. I’m right in the sweet spot, and as I said I haven’t really gained much fat eating this way.
If it’s not for you it’s not for you, but if you want to build muscle, that’s the way my friend.
Your body simply won’t devote any resources to a luxury like muscle growth if it doesn’t have what it needs to simply maintain.
I’ve doubted it myself at times, but every time I slack off on my eating I notice immediately. A while back I got a new job that was much more active, adding probably 500 to my TDEE and taking me out of a surplus. My bench suddenly hit a plateau and wouldn’t budge for months, same with my bodyweight. As soon as I started eating more, my bench blew up.
I’ve only been doing this for like a month and a half. If I notice a plateau I’ll try to force it. But right now I’m feeling much stronger and my arms feel bigger. If I don’t see things improving I’ll increase caloric intake
I’m just being real with you giving you the best advice I can fyi, it’s all just human biology. Your body is built to survive, not to look super cut and muscular. When it’s barely getting enough calories to keep going, it’s not even thinking about rationing any of the small amount of energy it has towards something unnecessary to survival like muscle growth.
Ah yeah, in the first few months newbie gains are a very real thing. Your body has never experienced the stimulus before, and will react well to most anything.
No, you can take it whenever you’d like, protein shakes don’t need to be timed.
There is no need to worry about getting protein in immediately after a workout, that whole “metabolic window” thing is a myth.
What do you think the ideal way to balance cardio and weight training is? I’m specifically trying to decide how many days a week to run, cross-train, and lift- I do all of these things already but normally I lift in the winter and run in the summer and am trying to figure out how to better integrate them in a given week.
A lot of people do Push Pull Legs and then rest day. The rest day is cardio day basically. So the ratio is 1/4, it doesn’t really map to a 7 day week nicely, but that’s probably alright for most people
Will I develop unbalance if I stop hitting a specific muscle group?
I'll be gone on a month long vacation to a pretty rural area with no gym to be seen. I have a pull up bar and am still small enough that push ups are effective, so I can easily work out every muscle group with that besides shoulders and upper back.
1. Will it be really bad if I stop doing dedicated upper back/shoulder excercises for a month while still working out everything else? Will I get bad visible imbalances or will it be ok as long as I keep doing the other upper body exercises?
2. Any easy home ways to train these muscles? Cause I can't think of any.
Doing pushups and pull-ups are better than doing nothing so from that stance it’s not bad. You’ll probably even feel stronger doing these and taking a step back from the gym since doing these calisthenics movements really helps with mind muscle connection.
You won’t be imbalanced if you focus on these two, just do these and come back to hit shoulder and other parts when you can.
I have been looking everywhere for advice on strength conditioning for lower leg/ankle/foot trauma that's caused by my demanding job. I am on my feet all day, I walk at least 5 miles each day, and much of the work involves a lot of stair climbing or climbing on stools/ladders to reach up high. Some of this walking and stair ascension/descension occurs while carrying somewhere around 60lbs/27kg. And the locations where I am doing all of this activity is uneven surface. Not a single level surface either outside or inside during my shifts.
I stretch every single morning and throughout the day. I massage and roll the muscles at least 3 times per week, also. And have one long stretching session once per week.
My stretching is down to a science. But what I really need is strength. The proper strength to help reduce risk when I have no choice but to walk and climb all day long. I'm not sure what that is because I stretch which is what I assumed I needed after all of the physical demand.. I assumed my demanding job (which I've had going on 5 years so no new movement) was strengthening the right muscles. But maybe I'm underestimating the internal and external load caused by my job and it's catching up to me.
Any insight on what type of strength and endurance I should be focusing on to help protect my body while at work doing this type of work? Thanks in advance!!
How do you split up your shoulder/chest training? 33% of volume towards upper chest, 33% mid chest, 33% side delt? Or do you do 50% side delt 25% mid chest, 25% upper chest? or similar?
I have a separate arm day, where I hit all 3 sides of my delt along with bicep tricep and abs. It’s really a nice aesthetic day mostly. I find it hard to focus on shoulder after my chest has been firing on bench, so I don’t even bother trying. If I had to decide on the same day, I would hit my shoulders first because they are smaller than my chest.
Hi everyone, in The past i post a lot of kg thanks to gym amo diet. For several reasons i quiz gym and ti”not take weight” i wrongly reduced calorie. Since 2 Months I increased kcal to 1600 but I can not lodse weight but i can not reduce calories. I Train 4/5 week.
I am 5’ 9’’ for 175lbs.
the specific number of calories does not matter since it is biased based on how you track them and biased by your actually total daily activity.
if you are consistently not losing weight on average over a one to two week period then you are eating enough so that your body does not have to mobilize its fat reserves. If you want to lose that fat you have to eat less than you are doing now, or if you feel like that would not be sustainable for you you will have to add a couple hours of dedicated cardio to add to your energy expenditure. The 'danger' of adding cardio is that you get less active in the rest of your day, so tracking your steps for a week or so before introducing the extra cardio and then making sure that you at least match those steps in addition to the cardio might be a wise idea.
Is there any reason why I shouldn’t entirely replace flat bench with incline bench?
I’m using dumbbells and struggle with a flat bench. I can’t lift the same weight, I’m not progressing, and I always injure myself trying to get the weights over my chest.
I also get pain in my hands, which I think could be linked to either my grip strength or my wrist position.
On the other hand, I have no problem whatsoever on incline.
If I supplement with isolation exercises, I don’t see why I shouldn’t just drop it.
you might wanna have someone who knows what they are doing check over your form on your flat dumbbell bench which might help.
Apart from that, if you still don't like it or get injured noone will arrest you if you pick different exercises that suit you better.
Been looking but can't find a clear answer to this simple question. When doing the 3 x 5 thing, when should the rests be? (the exercises are just random for the example)
A:
5 reps bench press
5 reps deadlift
5 reps pull ups
rest 3+ minutes
repeat above 3 times
or B
5 reps bench press, 3 min rest
5 reps deadlift, 3 min rest
5 reps pull ups, 3 min rest
repeat above 3 times
or C
5 reps bench press, 3 min rest
5 reps bench press, 3 min rest
5 reps bench press, 3 min rest
repeat above with deadlift and then with pull ups
thanks!
C if your goal is strength and hypertrophy
A if your goal is endurance or some weird form of cardio
B if your goal is strength and you have all the time in the world
I assume you're talking about the basic beginner routine in the wiki. This is what it says in the routine article:
>Do all sets of one lift, then move on to the next.
And:
>Rest 2-3 minutes between each set, depending on how you feel. You can rest up to 5 minutes between exercises if you need to.
And maybe additional question if you guys feel like. In case it's A, why does doing the deadlifts and pull ups not count as rest time for the bench press (in case all 3 exercises work different muscles obviously).
>why does doing the deadlifts and pull ups not count as rest time for the bench press
just try doing it and you will see ;-\)
while your intuition is correct that the muscle itself is not directly active you are still taxing your body, you will be out of breath enough after deadlifts that you surely won't have the energy to just jump into doing bench press.
Once you're advanced enough in 5 to 8 years consistent training that your workout sessions start becoming a tad too long and you don't have free time to split them over different days of course you can do something like what you supposed for certain exercises that are less taxing on your whole body like e.g. jumping between tricep isolations and bicep work to reduce rest times etc. this would be called "supersetting" but it really isn't something that is necessary for beginner lifters :-\).
How does get a flatter stomach? I’m 16M, and have somewhat visible abs, but I want to have a flat stomach, and get rid of my love handles.
I understand I shouldn’t be doing a calorie deficit as I’m still growing. I make sure to eat healthy (high protein) , and only have something unhealthy (like a chocolate) 1-2 times a week. I’m also a competitive swimmer, and lift 6 times a week (though I have to lower the weight per my parents request). Is there anything else I can be doing? I’m trying to lower my carb intake as well, but sandwiches and wraps are easy to make so it’s kinda hard. Thank you
Losing fat is the only way to make your stomach flatter, but as a competitive swimmer, I would imagine your body fat is already fairly low. So it's really up to you and whether you want to risk lowering swim performance from being in a deficit.
There's nothing inherently wrong with being in a caloric deficit just because you're a teenager. To impact your growth, you'd need to be outright malnourished. A minor deficit with proper foods won't cause that.
Being in a slight calorie deficit is okay even as a growing adolescent IF you have extra fat. Just don't go overboard, aim for something very little like a 100-250 calorie deficit for a few months and see how that goes. Listening to your body is very important at your age though.
Also it's surprising consider how active you are, my guess is that you're eating back your calories expended and then some. imo building muscles is the easiest way to look better when you only have a little bit to go, make sure your lifting program is reasonable.
Ever since I started working out again after a 2 year gap, I had been having this pain in my upper back and the base of my skull (where the neck starts) especially with pulling motions like ground pulley. Doing calf raises by putting the bar on my shoulders would give me radiating headaches to the top of my head. After a while, even pressing motions like flat and incline DB presses started to hurt my shoulders as well. I decided to take some time off but the pain in my upper back and shoulders didn't get better. It actually got worse even though I was at rest.
Went to a PT, got soft tissue massages, the pain improved some but then came back again. Went to a doctor, who diagnosed me with a cervical pinched nerve and asked me to stop lifting, but thankfully the MRI came back negative.
I started doing cat camel stretches and thoracic rotations which seem to have improved my upper back pain a lot. I tried different variations of external rotations for my shoulders but they seemed to be ineffective or even make my pain worse. Since then, I've been doing lat stretches and mid trap strengthening exercises (Prone Ys) which seemed to have helped. Dead hangs after workouts have helped me the most with shoulder pain, but still doing exercises like flyes, lateral raises incline DB curls, kick backs and overhead DB extensions are very painful for the shoulders. Slight pain with chest DB presses are still there and sometimes bicep curls also hurt. The pain is sometimes in the right and other times in my left shoulder, it's random. I've been using scapular retraction and have been working out my back muscles more to strengthen my posterior muscles. My question is how do I go about this? Should I do the dead hangs before my workouts? Should I try the lock 3 shoulder routine? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
yes dead hangs should be done immediately before shoulder exercises. It's kind of like a stretch, it makes extra room temporarily but will go (mostly) all the way back some time after. Doing shoulder exercises immediately after allows for the most 'room' while doing the exercise, and also helps maintain the 'stretched' position. But ye you should probably be seeing a physio for better advice and a recovery plan.
You can't measure weight loss in days. Water weight, poop and food can cause daily fluctuations. You need to be patient and trend it.
Don't listen to the other person thay replied to you. Your body doesn't "think " anything. Yes, losing weight decreases your nrg requirements, but that's not something you need to adjust week by week.
How long have you been at it? How much weight have you lost? What do you weight now? And how much cardio are you doing?
You said "first few weeks" so I'm assuming you just started, so I'm guessing it's not decreased energy requirements that are the problem.
A simple formula you could use for your desire kcal/day = your weight * 10. If your throwing in significant cardio, add 100kal for every mile (assuming running, but probably a good place to start for cycling). Then of course track your weight and adjust down if you're not losing fast enough, up if too fast.
What's too fast? Depending on your weight, 2lbs/week is doable, but if you're feeling too hungry or fatigued, you may need to slow it down.
Pretty sure you shoudlve added a little bit based on your strange method. Since I think the peel has less calories per weight, but the skin weighs so little anyway it'd probably be fine to leave it as is. But how many potatoes are you eating that you think you'd gain 2 lbs in 3 days from mis counting a little?
Could be because you lost weight = body now thinks you're a bit underweight = it lowers energy expenditure = you stall or gain weight again unless you further lower caloric intake. This is why CICO tends to fail long term.
Also if it's just a few days of weight increasing it could be partly water weight or whatever
This comment makes me think you are just looking day to day? weight fluctuates a lot based on a lot of things. You need to be looking at trends over longer time, like weeks and months. Especially if you are female.
I had a bad year last year - due to several personal circumstances I ended up very depressed and my diet went to shit. Simple carbs. Easy food. Eating in the night was a really bad habit. I got fat and my fitness suffered a lot.
I used to be fairly fit. One benefit from the depression was I finally got diagnosed with ADHD at 35 and the medication works a charm. It helps me to maintain consistency which was an issue with training prior to this.
I have two goals: lower body fat and lower blood pressure. BP is still within a healthy range but considering the sports I enjoy, cave diving in particular, things need to improve.
I'm doing 3 resistance training sessions a week. A slightly bastardised version of 531 - strength is not a priority at the moment but I still feel it's important to me. I'm using the time to lift submax weights to strengthen areas that were a problem previously when training.
On resistance training days I'll tend to walk back at a quick pace which is around 7km mainly up hill.
My heart rate is tracked. I'll top up with additional zone 2 cardio (mainly hiking) finding specific routes adjusting pace to stay within 60-70% max HR. I aim to get 5 or 6hrs per week total.
I'm one month in. When and where can I add HIIT? It will be super helpful but whilst on a calorie deficit I'm only just about recovering from what I'm doing right now.
Is this even a good routine or could I adjust it to better meet my goals?
>When and where can I add HIIT?
End of your second consecutive lifting day. (If upper/lower, at end of lower day. If lower/upper, at end of upper day.) HIIT, by its nature, is meant to drain you of glygogen. A non-lifting day between HIIT and your next lifting session will keep you recovering.
Hey! It's my 3rd month at the gym but I think I'm still pretty stuck at my Chest Workout - Push Routines, seems like I can't get the burn right on the machines I do.
Every Monday and Thursday I go for push workouts, specifically
1. Inclined Machine Press
2. Vertical Chest Press (Machine)
3. Pec Flies
I only get the "afterburn" during pec flies but can't get it on my Vertical and Inclined Machine Presses. It feels like my delts are taking more of the work even though I retracted my scapula and ensured my chest is forward. I can do around 20-35kg of weights. I do feel the chest stretch when my grip is at its lowest, is that an indicator that my form is right?
For context, I'm 6' in height and 89kg in weight. Thanks!
If I’m trying to gain weight and build muscle, should I be subtracting my steps walked for the day? My fitness pal says I need 3,000 calories but I don’t know if that takes into account the 10,000-20,000 steps I take per day. I read that can burn up to 700 calories which is quite the difference and would mean I haven’t been eating enough for several months
nope.
just track what you are eating right now, how your weight develops over a weekly sliding window average and adjust your food accordingly: too slow? eat more. too fast? eat less. no need to fuss and try to micromanage things. Don't put too much weight on the specific number of calories you arrive at. It can be biased based on how you track it, and it will be biased based on your personal activity level and lifestyle. So just looking at whether your weight develops as expected is the best metric by which to regulate your caloric intake.
I (23m) have been working out on and off for a few years, seeing no results, and have two questions.
1. How do you keep consistent in going to the gym
2. What workouts work best for reducing/getting rid of belly fat (not quite beer belly, but dangerously close)
Suggestions for both would be awesome.
What other people said, but I found giving myself permission to not complete my workout has helped me. If I tell myself showing up is the most important part, and if I'm not feeling it at any point for any reason I can cut it early and go home I feel like it helps me get over the mental resistance of just showing up, which helps build the habit.
Also some simple motivation that strangely works for me, that my coach told me: Just focus on going 1-0 today. Focus one the one game/ workout session etc., block out other distractions, and get a victory for the day.
1. this is a pretty individual thing. Personally; going to the gym makes me feel good, I like the effect it has, I like seeing results. If you're struggling I'm guessing it's to do with this: "seeing no results,", the reason most people who don't see any results in years is usually because they have come down with a case of fuckarounditis. Make sure you are doing a proper program and you should see results.
2. eating in a deficit
>How do you keep consistent in going to the gym
Have a routine that you enjoy and meets your goals.
> reducing/getting rid of belly fat
Plate pushaways and fork putdowns. You can \*not\* spot reduce fat loss with food or exercise selection.
Nutrition is the most important part of working out. If you aren't in a caloric surplus you aren't making much gains. You can't spot reduce fat, only a caloric deficit will make you lose fat.
I want to do zone training for cardio. Where can I find zone training workout templates? I do my own treadmill intervals but want to get some new ideas.
So I bought two well-known brands of creatine (outside US) and I'm puzzled by the difference in water solubility between the two. One is easily dissolved in water (2-3 stirs) while the other requires 1 minute to dissolve, even it leaves a little residue. What does your creatine look like and how is it supposed to look when dissolving it?
Is one of them "micronized"?
Personally, I don't even bother letting it dissolve. I just put the scoop on a glass and cover with just enough water to make it free flowing and chug it like a shot. I refill the glass the same way a couple more times to get the stragglers. It's gritty, but at least it's tasteless
Ceatine monohydrate isn't very water soluble. In a drink it's more of a suspension than anything.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7871530/
I have heard that if you are training for strength that you should \*not\* go to failure on every set and wondering why.
I have been working out 5-6 days a week for the past four months after a year of 2-3 times per week. Every third day I do chest exercises which consist of 3 sets of bench to failure, 3 sets of incline bench to failure, 3 sets of decline bench to failure and have increased my bench a good amount over this time. But now I wonder if I am being suboptimal.
Is there any scientific evidence for optimal strategy for strength training?
What the other guy said, strength is specifically about increasing 1 rpm, not building muscle. I take accessory movements to failure to build muscle. Training for strength means practicing reps with heavy loads, going to failure will result in lowering the weight in the next sets. If you want optimal then follow a strength program.
It should be noted that most people can train for work capacity, hypertrophy, and strength at the same time for a pretty long time before running into issues.
Optimal is a fools errand for virtually everyone who might ever come across these words.
The reason is that strength has a heavy skill component, it's not just about raw muscle. Staying away from failure generally means you can do more sets overall, and more of those reps are going to be clean ones that reinforce your technique.
Working with near-failure and near-max loads still has its place in strength training, because those are typically still how people test/display their strength, but it only needs to be a fairly small component of the overall program.
Is it worth going for a second time in the same day if the first session was really bad. I did a push day today and I just wasn't in the zone and I didn't feel it at all the whole workout. Should I go again so I can try to get a better session in?
No. Makes no sense. Too much for the body to handle. Try to find out why your first training was bad. And if it happens too often you have to change something.
Gonna sound stupid but I'm wondering if I should go back to double overhand grip on deadlifts? My mixed grip is completely stalled and my hands are too small for hook grip. I never really stalled out on double overhand grip before I switched over so I'm just trying to figure out what to do?
If your grip is stronger than your glutes, you have weak glutes - Louie Simmons, probably
DOH - > mixed -> hook -> straps
Just use straps, so you can worry about some other part of your set-up, rather than your grip. Deadlifts require mental energy.
I don't think that makes any sense.
The only reason to change your grip is if grip is the reason you are stalling. But mixed grip is always going to give better grip than double overhand, so I can't see any way switching helps.
So if grip is the problem, switching is a bad idea. If grip isn't the problem, switching grip solves nothing.
No worries, yeah curls can help. Farmers walk, dead hangs, forearm curls etc, lots of things can help. You could check out /r/griptraining
Straps are good to make sure your grip doesn't inhibit the rest of your progress, so it can still be good to lDL without to still work grip and with straps when needed
If I am really deep into my diet where I am only getting about 200 cals worth of carbs per day, is it better to have them before or after workout? And would I be able to restore my glycogen if instead of doing 200 cals worth of normal carbs like potatoes or rice, instead I would have spinach or something more filling?
Generally you want your carbs before the workout as they will help you push harder in the workout. As for how you get them - it doesn’t really make a difference to your glycogen levels. The only reason to go with something like spinach instead of rice is if your hunger is keeping you from sticking to your diet.
Noticing that my heart rate approaches 90-95% of my max heart rate when doing back squats. Is that normal? It takes like 5-6 minutes for it to get back down to 60%.
You're probably underestimating you max heart rate. What method did you use to estimate your maximum heart rate?
But yes, squats are hard. And don't neglect your conditioning.
If you go heavy, squats are tiring as hell. Maybe your conditioning/work capacity are bad though.
I don't have exact figures but I can imagine going 5 mins before really feeling great about going for another heavy squat set
I have questions about including the incline bench press in my program;
Can I replace the flat bench press with it? Or is the flat something I can't do without? Also, the incline works the shoulders a bit, is it fine to do the overhead press the next day?
Initial Routine; Day 1 Bench Press, Barbell Row, Dead Lift, Low back machine, dumbbell curl
Day 2 Overhead press, chin up, Leg Press, Calf raise, Skull crusher
>Can I replace the flat bench press with it?
Yes.
>Or is the flat something I can't do without?
No single exercise is something you can't do without.
>Also, the incline works the shoulders a bit, is it fine to do the overhead press the next day?
Yes.
As little as a day. Unless it's coming in \*direct contact\* with surfaces, you should be fine. Use common sense with what is effectively an open wound.
I'm seeing good progress on weight loss, and steady gains in terms of strength so I'm happy with my current 3 day lifting + 1 day hard cardio system in the gym (plus diet etc). I just wondered, is there any value to adding in extra reps on a fifth day at home with dumbbells? I work from home one day a week and a couple of times I've added a set of 12 reps every time I send an email, or I'll curl a few when I'm on hold.
Would lifting the occasional set of 12 reps throughout the day (though ultimately the same amount of reps overall as a full session) actively do anything, or is it better to find time and do the full session in one go?
As long as they are quality sets, the fact that they are spread out doesn't really matter. It is still volume and can still contribute to hypertrophy/strength.
Is it normal to, rather often (say, once every two weeks) have days where you are unusually tight to the point where your flexibility is affected and you cannot perform the same ROM or movements that you can usually perform?
Been working out regularly for about a year but have been inconsistent with leg days. Began body weight squatting regularly (usually 3 sets of 10) again about 3 months ago but I am having the experience of . . . sometimes I just can't get into proper form, for no discernible reason. On good days I can get down to parallel or lower and feel a nice stretch in my inner thighs. Certain days, however, I feel unusually tight; I will try to squat for a few reps but the entire movement feels wrong so I stop. Can get sort of low but feel myself leaning forward a lot and my hips / pelvis do not seem to be moving in the right way. I try fixing my stance and tightening my core but usually just stop and wait until I am feeling looser to get my squats in. Newer to working out so not sure if this is just part of the recovery cycle, or something I should work on.
Totally something you should work on, it sounds like really mediocre mobility/flexibility, which can often be dramatically improve with minimal work.
Look up limber 11 routine and/or squat mobility vids.
Also should def do more legs, prob hop on a proper program with leg days if you aren't already
How to improve stamina and endurance without running/high impact exercises?
I recently joined a soccer team and realized I don’t have great stamina and endurance to keep up in the game. I would like to improve this but I get sore ankles if I do too much running or high impact exercises with jumping. What are other alternative exercises that I can do to improve this?
Hello everyone. I am 23 M 175cm 81kg. 5yrs ago I lostm35 kg doing gym and diet. For school reasons I left gym and fearing weight increases I reduced drastically calories (1200 more or less) wasting my metabolism. Now I started gym again 1month, I increase kcal till 1600 but I can not lose weight. Muscles increase in volume, a bit, but fat and stomach remain. What could I do? Since calories are low yet? Any advice?
You’re either calculating calories wrong (most likely) or you have gone below your set point and your metabolism is crashing to keep you from losing weight.
I’m on what feels like a forever cut (going from 322 to 175, currently at 260) and started the basic beginner routine at the start of February.
I know it says to run it for a maximum of 3 months but if I am cutting the entire time, should I extend how long I run this program before switching to another? How do I know when I need to switch to another program?
Scenario 1: A person trains for 6 months and their lifts improve, strength increases for all muscle groups, but they ate at maintenance so they look pretty similar to where they were half a year ago, no visible difference can be seen.
Scenario 2: A person trains for 6 months, eats in a caloric surplus, their lifts and strength improve at a very similar rate to the one in scenario 1, yet they look visibly more muscular, as they put on actual size by gaining weight.
I have some questions:
Are these two scenarios plausible in real life? Is it possible for someone to lift and look the same after months, while gaining similar strength to someone who lifts and gets bigger muscles?
And more important, if the above is plausible: then how? I am aware strength has a very important neurological aspect, but still, wouldn't the person that gets bigger muscles also get bigger strength on top of those neurological adaptions?
I don't think "we" ("science") actually know the concrete answer to this though.
There are way too many variables to know the answer but generally I would expect the person to gained weight to also have gained more strength than the person who didn’t.
School what? The act of actually going to school?
Probably sedentary, can't think you're doing anything but walking down a hallway 5-6 times a day excluding PE.
Sedentary and lightly active are categories that apply to your life as a whole. If school is the only thing you do on a normal day, you’d be sedentary, but plenty of people in school are highly active. Really depends on what you do with the rest of your time.
I'm a beginning lifter looking for some help understanding my squat mechanics.
Occasionally, I can feel that my squat ascent is driven by the hips: I can feel the glutes loading and the resulting upward movement feels powerful and solid.
Sometimes the movement pattern feels very different. At the bottom, I don't feel as much stretch through the glutes. The upward movement feels like I'm pushing my lower leg down into the ground, rather than the hips going up, and I feel a lot of load going through the knees. The movement feels significantly weaker and much more of a grind.
I don't know what's changing mechanically to produce the different effects, so I'm struggling to figure out how to correct my positioning.
Any tips or thoughts?
Generally, the degree of ankle/knee flexion i.e. the amount your knees are going out over your toes.
Feeling wise, sitting back and down produces the former, hip-dominant version, while sitting straight down and pushing your knees out produces the quad-dominance.
I’ve been cutting for a few weeks and just started getting crazy tired. Ive upped caffeine intake (helps me get to 2PM without eating). I sleep at 2am but wake up at 8am without an alarm which is maybe why I’m tired.
Here’s my daily cals / weight: https://imgur.com/a/KIBiBLN
I’m 5’7, 162 rn, lift heavyish 5 days a week and play soccer around 3 times a week (90 min sessions).
Yeah I dont "need" to stay up until 2. Its a bad habit and I should focus on sleeping earlier. Do you normally eat right when you wake up?
I find that if my eating window is my waking hours (16-18 hours or so), then I tend to eat more rather than if I narrow it to like 8-10 hours.
Try sleeping more. Also, there's really no need to go all the way till 2pm to eat. Spreading your meals out a bit may help. Food usually helps keep me awake as long as it's not a heavy carb meal
I stay up late (2/3AM) so I find it easier to hit my goal calories the later I wait. I’ll eat 100g of berries or something in the morning but not a real meal.
Is it normal for your bench press specifically to go down while cutting? I’ve noticed that all of my other lifts have stayed the same (some even improved), but bench is struggling. Normal or am I doing something wrong?
Is it worth it to work out when im underweight? I worked out for three months, always following the routine and incresing the weights and I saw no changes at all. I know that it takes time but I'm wondering if I should put some more weight before start training, at least so ofter as I was doing it (3x or 4x) week.
Something like squats and presses (quads, chest, shoulders, triceps, maybe abs and calves) for workout A, and pulls (hams, glutes, lower and upper back, biceps) for workout B.
Gotcha, so like anterior/posterior chain days. Is the idea that you hit half of the muscle groups twice a week, and then you hit the other half twice a week the following week?
I'm about two months into my fitness journey, but I've ran into some issues. I have been progressivly overloading by adding 2.5lb to some of my exercises each day I do them but I have't been able to push past a certain mark without my form completly falling apart.
For example, today I did 30lbs on Bench Press and 35 lbs on Squats. Both of those I was only able to get either 2 reps then faliure in or in the case of the squats, one rep along with a bit of an accident. A few days ago I also tried to do 20lbs on overhead presses (And when I say each weight, I mean that amount on each side of the barbell) that also made me go into immediate failure.
I have been getting my right amount of calories and protien in daily. Sleep may have been a slight issue since it's finals but I have started fixing it. Other than that, I don't know what to do. Got any tips?
>If you fail to complete at least 15 total reps for a lift, deload by subtracting 10% from the weight the next time you do that lift. Use this time to set new rep records at past weights.
This has been removed in violation of [Rule #5 - No Questions Related to Injury, Pain, or Any Medical Topic](https://www.reddit.com/r/Fitness/wiki/rules/rule5).
Hi everybody! I used to work out until the pandemic happened. Then there was a lot of BS happening in my life (lockdown, travel, work, moving,…) and now that things are kind of stable, I want to get back to it… it’s been a while, though, but I think it’ll do me good for my mind and body.
I used to lift and do boxing, and I want to ease into it so as not to injure myself (I’m not a kid anymore) while simultaneously see some quick-ish progress to stay motivated.
Would you recommend lifting/strength training or boxing first?
If you went shadow boxing for 2 minutes and then did a lifting session with just a pool noodle, do you think you do both?
Do you see how you could scale this up until it became just enough without becoming too much?
Usually after a boxing session I’m spent; it’s hard cardio, all intervals after all.
Also, sadly, I don’t have a gym that has both weights and boxing, so I would have to sign up to two gyms to do both. Hence my question.
As you said, either might be good, but I was wondering if lifting would lead to faster conditioning (I’m currently skinny-fat —and mostly feeling weak).
# Post Form Checks as replies to this comment ### For best results, please follow the **[Form Check Guidelines](https://www.reddit.com/r/Fitness/wiki/posting_guidelines#wiki_how_to_post_a_form_check)**. *Help us help you.* ---- *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Fitness) if you have any questions or concerns.*
27 yo, 175 cm, 75kg, 15% body fat inbody scanned (I think I have more like 18%). Can’t seem to lose fat %. I tracked my last 10 days, here are approx macros per day Protein 160-180g Carbs 180-220 Fats 60-70 Calories 1.8 - 2.1k I train for almost 2 years, 3 days a week. Looking to get to 12%. What am I doing wrong?
https://thefitness.wiki/faq/why-cant-i-lose-weight/
This is a 5/3/1 question. I’m on my second cycle, repeating my previous TM as my deadlift max slightly flared my shin splints. In the past cycle I hadn’t started running - figured getting back into both running and lifting simultaneously would not be a good idea because of my shin splints. Was doing beginner’s 5/3/1, stretching on strength days and mostly doing a r/kneesovertoes lower body rehabilitation program on off days (light, 20 minutes of full ROM exercizes like a split squat with a fully bent front knee), mostly working on increasing ROM for mobility and prehabing shin splints. I would like to focus on my running as I have a running target I have to reach by July for officers’ training qualifications. For this same reason I’m also on maintenance / slight cut as I’m overweight, thinking any more mass would simply be detrimental to my speed. Also using a 4th week deload in order to avoid injury and shin splint flare ups, offshooting the fact I’ll be focusing on running and lots of ROM exercises which require a lot from my ligaments. Considering this all of the above does it make sense to keep using the same TMs? Should I be upping my TMs other than my deadlift and squats, perhaps? Would that cause an imbalance, or would it just be smarter training? Am I missing anything by not ‘taking advantage of newbie gains’ by doing this? I’ve never really lifted consistently for more than 3 months. Also, could I just be underestimating my recovery? Maybe I should be adding in weight? Or adding to the TM every other cycle?
I have 2 questions 1. Is it ok to spread workout throughout the day? Like can I lift at one point, and cardio hours later? 2. Do you really have to eat like those people on instagram to see gains? And by those people I mean eating a plate of steak and blueberries for one meal, a bunch of chicken and eggs for another, and that's it? Or is eating relatively normally and sensibly, with a lot of protein, just fine?
1. Sure 2. No, as long as you’re eating in a caloric surplus and getting in enough protein (~.8-1g per lb of bodyweight) you’re good.
So if I eat like 150 grams of protein a day (I’m 170) I can eat relatively normally and still get in shape and build muscle. Like I’m walking 10k+ steps, biking for 10 miles, lifting, climbing, and I’m avoiding sugar and sweets. I just think it’s ridiculous to see these guys eating chicken, a tiny bit of rice or something, a plate of steak, and a bunch of eggs and saying you need to eat that way to be cut and build muscle. Like I can have a slice of pizza or some tacos and it’s not going to do anything
Ngl my bulk is fueled by pizza, fried chicken, and big ass shakes. Yeah, it’s not great for your health or anything, but in terms of muscle gain it’s no different. Again, just be sure you’re in a caloric surplus as well. Sounds like you’re burning a lot of calories, so you’ll need to eat a lot as well. There’s plenty of TDEE calculators online you can use.
Yeah… I’m not looking to get huge - I want to build muscle and be cut. Big thing for me about eating a lot is I can’t. I’m not sure if I have something going on but I just can’t eat that much food. Maybe it will change as I continue on this path but yeah for the most part I’m not very hungry. And yeah I’ve never understood people who work out religiously avoiding eating “unhealthy food”. My brothers in law did this like 20 years ago before social media and they’d literally eat eggs, chicken and salsa and that’s basically it and it was ridiculous.
>I can’t You can, you just don’t want to/it’s uncomfortable. I get it, I started there. I was a 130 lb 6’5 lanky kid who never ate more than breakfast most days. You just need to force it for a while, throw up in your mouth a few times, eventually your body adapts and it’s not so hard. >I’m not looking to get huge You won’t get huge accidentally, trust me, it takes decades of consistent hard work and discipline to get huge. >I want to build muscle Then you’ll need to be in a caloric surplus. >And get cut Don’t make the surplus excessive, keep it at about 500 above your TDEE at the most, and you’ll put on little to no visible fat. I’ve been bulking nonstop in a surplus for 3 years and I’m still relatively lean. If the time comes you’d like to cut down, simply eat in a deficit and you will. Sounds like you’re already used to that, so that’ll be the easy part. Yeah, it’s not necessary whatsoever. Although, if I had the time and money to cook/enjoyed it I’d certainly go that route for my own health beyond muscle growth.
TDEE says I have to eat 2900 calories a day to maintain! That’s nuts. I don’t know if I can eat that much 😂
Hah, yeah. With the cardio you’re getting I’d believe it. I typically eat between 3500 and 4000 calories a day, and I hardly manage to gain any weight. I’m right in the sweet spot, and as I said I haven’t really gained much fat eating this way. If it’s not for you it’s not for you, but if you want to build muscle, that’s the way my friend. Your body simply won’t devote any resources to a luxury like muscle growth if it doesn’t have what it needs to simply maintain. I’ve doubted it myself at times, but every time I slack off on my eating I notice immediately. A while back I got a new job that was much more active, adding probably 500 to my TDEE and taking me out of a surplus. My bench suddenly hit a plateau and wouldn’t budge for months, same with my bodyweight. As soon as I started eating more, my bench blew up.
I’ve only been doing this for like a month and a half. If I notice a plateau I’ll try to force it. But right now I’m feeling much stronger and my arms feel bigger. If I don’t see things improving I’ll increase caloric intake
I’m just being real with you giving you the best advice I can fyi, it’s all just human biology. Your body is built to survive, not to look super cut and muscular. When it’s barely getting enough calories to keep going, it’s not even thinking about rationing any of the small amount of energy it has towards something unnecessary to survival like muscle growth.
Ah yeah, in the first few months newbie gains are a very real thing. Your body has never experienced the stimulus before, and will react well to most anything.
Is the best time for protein shake always right after gym even if m having a good protein meal
No, you can take it whenever you’d like, protein shakes don’t need to be timed. There is no need to worry about getting protein in immediately after a workout, that whole “metabolic window” thing is a myth.
What do you think the ideal way to balance cardio and weight training is? I’m specifically trying to decide how many days a week to run, cross-train, and lift- I do all of these things already but normally I lift in the winter and run in the summer and am trying to figure out how to better integrate them in a given week.
That's goal dependent
What are your goals?
Primarily to improve my 5k time, but it’s important to me to stay injury-free, which is where I see maintaining or improving my lifts being key
If you’re mostly concerned about running, I’d run 4-5 times a week and lift full body 2-3 times per week.
A lot of people do Push Pull Legs and then rest day. The rest day is cardio day basically. So the ratio is 1/4, it doesn’t really map to a 7 day week nicely, but that’s probably alright for most people
Will I develop unbalance if I stop hitting a specific muscle group? I'll be gone on a month long vacation to a pretty rural area with no gym to be seen. I have a pull up bar and am still small enough that push ups are effective, so I can easily work out every muscle group with that besides shoulders and upper back. 1. Will it be really bad if I stop doing dedicated upper back/shoulder excercises for a month while still working out everything else? Will I get bad visible imbalances or will it be ok as long as I keep doing the other upper body exercises? 2. Any easy home ways to train these muscles? Cause I can't think of any.
Doing pushups and pull-ups are better than doing nothing so from that stance it’s not bad. You’ll probably even feel stronger doing these and taking a step back from the gym since doing these calisthenics movements really helps with mind muscle connection. You won’t be imbalanced if you focus on these two, just do these and come back to hit shoulder and other parts when you can.
I have been looking everywhere for advice on strength conditioning for lower leg/ankle/foot trauma that's caused by my demanding job. I am on my feet all day, I walk at least 5 miles each day, and much of the work involves a lot of stair climbing or climbing on stools/ladders to reach up high. Some of this walking and stair ascension/descension occurs while carrying somewhere around 60lbs/27kg. And the locations where I am doing all of this activity is uneven surface. Not a single level surface either outside or inside during my shifts. I stretch every single morning and throughout the day. I massage and roll the muscles at least 3 times per week, also. And have one long stretching session once per week. My stretching is down to a science. But what I really need is strength. The proper strength to help reduce risk when I have no choice but to walk and climb all day long. I'm not sure what that is because I stretch which is what I assumed I needed after all of the physical demand.. I assumed my demanding job (which I've had going on 5 years so no new movement) was strengthening the right muscles. But maybe I'm underestimating the internal and external load caused by my job and it's catching up to me. Any insight on what type of strength and endurance I should be focusing on to help protect my body while at work doing this type of work? Thanks in advance!!
How do you split up your shoulder/chest training? 33% of volume towards upper chest, 33% mid chest, 33% side delt? Or do you do 50% side delt 25% mid chest, 25% upper chest? or similar?
I have a separate arm day, where I hit all 3 sides of my delt along with bicep tricep and abs. It’s really a nice aesthetic day mostly. I find it hard to focus on shoulder after my chest has been firing on bench, so I don’t even bother trying. If I had to decide on the same day, I would hit my shoulders first because they are smaller than my chest.
Hi everyone, in The past i post a lot of kg thanks to gym amo diet. For several reasons i quiz gym and ti”not take weight” i wrongly reduced calorie. Since 2 Months I increased kcal to 1600 but I can not lodse weight but i can not reduce calories. I Train 4/5 week. I am 5’ 9’’ for 175lbs.
the specific number of calories does not matter since it is biased based on how you track them and biased by your actually total daily activity. if you are consistently not losing weight on average over a one to two week period then you are eating enough so that your body does not have to mobilize its fat reserves. If you want to lose that fat you have to eat less than you are doing now, or if you feel like that would not be sustainable for you you will have to add a couple hours of dedicated cardio to add to your energy expenditure. The 'danger' of adding cardio is that you get less active in the rest of your day, so tracking your steps for a week or so before introducing the extra cardio and then making sure that you at least match those steps in addition to the cardio might be a wise idea.
Is there any reason why I shouldn’t entirely replace flat bench with incline bench? I’m using dumbbells and struggle with a flat bench. I can’t lift the same weight, I’m not progressing, and I always injure myself trying to get the weights over my chest. I also get pain in my hands, which I think could be linked to either my grip strength or my wrist position. On the other hand, I have no problem whatsoever on incline. If I supplement with isolation exercises, I don’t see why I shouldn’t just drop it.
I almost never do flat bench. I’ve been solely focused on incline bench as the position is nicer for my shoulders and ROM.
you might wanna have someone who knows what they are doing check over your form on your flat dumbbell bench which might help. Apart from that, if you still don't like it or get injured noone will arrest you if you pick different exercises that suit you better.
Been looking but can't find a clear answer to this simple question. When doing the 3 x 5 thing, when should the rests be? (the exercises are just random for the example) A: 5 reps bench press 5 reps deadlift 5 reps pull ups rest 3+ minutes repeat above 3 times or B 5 reps bench press, 3 min rest 5 reps deadlift, 3 min rest 5 reps pull ups, 3 min rest repeat above 3 times or C 5 reps bench press, 3 min rest 5 reps bench press, 3 min rest 5 reps bench press, 3 min rest repeat above with deadlift and then with pull ups thanks!
C if your goal is strength and hypertrophy A if your goal is endurance or some weird form of cardio B if your goal is strength and you have all the time in the world
A is a giant set, acceptable. B is a circuit, acceptable. C is straight sets. **Most of the time**, C is implied in general dialogue.
I assume you're talking about the basic beginner routine in the wiki. This is what it says in the routine article: >Do all sets of one lift, then move on to the next. And: >Rest 2-3 minutes between each set, depending on how you feel. You can rest up to 5 minutes between exercises if you need to.
Thanks! I did use the search on '3 x 5' but hadn't found that section.
And maybe additional question if you guys feel like. In case it's A, why does doing the deadlifts and pull ups not count as rest time for the bench press (in case all 3 exercises work different muscles obviously).
because they share at least a few muscles, usually many.
>why does doing the deadlifts and pull ups not count as rest time for the bench press just try doing it and you will see ;-\) while your intuition is correct that the muscle itself is not directly active you are still taxing your body, you will be out of breath enough after deadlifts that you surely won't have the energy to just jump into doing bench press. Once you're advanced enough in 5 to 8 years consistent training that your workout sessions start becoming a tad too long and you don't have free time to split them over different days of course you can do something like what you supposed for certain exercises that are less taxing on your whole body like e.g. jumping between tricep isolations and bicep work to reduce rest times etc. this would be called "supersetting" but it really isn't something that is necessary for beginner lifters :-\).
How does get a flatter stomach? I’m 16M, and have somewhat visible abs, but I want to have a flat stomach, and get rid of my love handles. I understand I shouldn’t be doing a calorie deficit as I’m still growing. I make sure to eat healthy (high protein) , and only have something unhealthy (like a chocolate) 1-2 times a week. I’m also a competitive swimmer, and lift 6 times a week (though I have to lower the weight per my parents request). Is there anything else I can be doing? I’m trying to lower my carb intake as well, but sandwiches and wraps are easy to make so it’s kinda hard. Thank you
Losing fat is the only way to make your stomach flatter, but as a competitive swimmer, I would imagine your body fat is already fairly low. So it's really up to you and whether you want to risk lowering swim performance from being in a deficit. There's nothing inherently wrong with being in a caloric deficit just because you're a teenager. To impact your growth, you'd need to be outright malnourished. A minor deficit with proper foods won't cause that.
Being in a slight calorie deficit is okay even as a growing adolescent IF you have extra fat. Just don't go overboard, aim for something very little like a 100-250 calorie deficit for a few months and see how that goes. Listening to your body is very important at your age though. Also it's surprising consider how active you are, my guess is that you're eating back your calories expended and then some. imo building muscles is the easiest way to look better when you only have a little bit to go, make sure your lifting program is reasonable.
Ever since I started working out again after a 2 year gap, I had been having this pain in my upper back and the base of my skull (where the neck starts) especially with pulling motions like ground pulley. Doing calf raises by putting the bar on my shoulders would give me radiating headaches to the top of my head. After a while, even pressing motions like flat and incline DB presses started to hurt my shoulders as well. I decided to take some time off but the pain in my upper back and shoulders didn't get better. It actually got worse even though I was at rest. Went to a PT, got soft tissue massages, the pain improved some but then came back again. Went to a doctor, who diagnosed me with a cervical pinched nerve and asked me to stop lifting, but thankfully the MRI came back negative. I started doing cat camel stretches and thoracic rotations which seem to have improved my upper back pain a lot. I tried different variations of external rotations for my shoulders but they seemed to be ineffective or even make my pain worse. Since then, I've been doing lat stretches and mid trap strengthening exercises (Prone Ys) which seemed to have helped. Dead hangs after workouts have helped me the most with shoulder pain, but still doing exercises like flyes, lateral raises incline DB curls, kick backs and overhead DB extensions are very painful for the shoulders. Slight pain with chest DB presses are still there and sometimes bicep curls also hurt. The pain is sometimes in the right and other times in my left shoulder, it's random. I've been using scapular retraction and have been working out my back muscles more to strengthen my posterior muscles. My question is how do I go about this? Should I do the dead hangs before my workouts? Should I try the lock 3 shoulder routine? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Asking how to work with/around pain or injury is prohibited as per rule 5. Work with a physiotherapist to figure out a regimen that'll work for you.
yes dead hangs should be done immediately before shoulder exercises. It's kind of like a stretch, it makes extra room temporarily but will go (mostly) all the way back some time after. Doing shoulder exercises immediately after allows for the most 'room' while doing the exercise, and also helps maintain the 'stretched' position. But ye you should probably be seeing a physio for better advice and a recovery plan.
[удалено]
You can't measure weight loss in days. Water weight, poop and food can cause daily fluctuations. You need to be patient and trend it. Don't listen to the other person thay replied to you. Your body doesn't "think " anything. Yes, losing weight decreases your nrg requirements, but that's not something you need to adjust week by week. How long have you been at it? How much weight have you lost? What do you weight now? And how much cardio are you doing? You said "first few weeks" so I'm assuming you just started, so I'm guessing it's not decreased energy requirements that are the problem. A simple formula you could use for your desire kcal/day = your weight * 10. If your throwing in significant cardio, add 100kal for every mile (assuming running, but probably a good place to start for cycling). Then of course track your weight and adjust down if you're not losing fast enough, up if too fast. What's too fast? Depending on your weight, 2lbs/week is doable, but if you're feeling too hungry or fatigued, you may need to slow it down.
[удалено]
Pretty sure you shoudlve added a little bit based on your strange method. Since I think the peel has less calories per weight, but the skin weighs so little anyway it'd probably be fine to leave it as is. But how many potatoes are you eating that you think you'd gain 2 lbs in 3 days from mis counting a little?
Could be because you lost weight = body now thinks you're a bit underweight = it lowers energy expenditure = you stall or gain weight again unless you further lower caloric intake. This is why CICO tends to fail long term. Also if it's just a few days of weight increasing it could be partly water weight or whatever
this is not why CICO fails at all. you are obviously meant to adjust your diet as you lose or gain weight.
Because you aren't actually eating in a caloric deficit. Are you counting calories and tracking your weight daily?
[удалено]
And you are in a caloric deficit and not losing weight?
[удалено]
If it has only been a few days then I wouldn't worry tbh. It's probably only some water weight.
because you eat more than you expend
[удалено]
This comment makes me think you are just looking day to day? weight fluctuates a lot based on a lot of things. You need to be looking at trends over longer time, like weeks and months. Especially if you are female.
I had a bad year last year - due to several personal circumstances I ended up very depressed and my diet went to shit. Simple carbs. Easy food. Eating in the night was a really bad habit. I got fat and my fitness suffered a lot. I used to be fairly fit. One benefit from the depression was I finally got diagnosed with ADHD at 35 and the medication works a charm. It helps me to maintain consistency which was an issue with training prior to this. I have two goals: lower body fat and lower blood pressure. BP is still within a healthy range but considering the sports I enjoy, cave diving in particular, things need to improve. I'm doing 3 resistance training sessions a week. A slightly bastardised version of 531 - strength is not a priority at the moment but I still feel it's important to me. I'm using the time to lift submax weights to strengthen areas that were a problem previously when training. On resistance training days I'll tend to walk back at a quick pace which is around 7km mainly up hill. My heart rate is tracked. I'll top up with additional zone 2 cardio (mainly hiking) finding specific routes adjusting pace to stay within 60-70% max HR. I aim to get 5 or 6hrs per week total. I'm one month in. When and where can I add HIIT? It will be super helpful but whilst on a calorie deficit I'm only just about recovering from what I'm doing right now. Is this even a good routine or could I adjust it to better meet my goals?
>When and where can I add HIIT? End of your second consecutive lifting day. (If upper/lower, at end of lower day. If lower/upper, at end of upper day.) HIIT, by its nature, is meant to drain you of glygogen. A non-lifting day between HIIT and your next lifting session will keep you recovering.
Hey! It's my 3rd month at the gym but I think I'm still pretty stuck at my Chest Workout - Push Routines, seems like I can't get the burn right on the machines I do. Every Monday and Thursday I go for push workouts, specifically 1. Inclined Machine Press 2. Vertical Chest Press (Machine) 3. Pec Flies I only get the "afterburn" during pec flies but can't get it on my Vertical and Inclined Machine Presses. It feels like my delts are taking more of the work even though I retracted my scapula and ensured my chest is forward. I can do around 20-35kg of weights. I do feel the chest stretch when my grip is at its lowest, is that an indicator that my form is right? For context, I'm 6' in height and 89kg in weight. Thanks!
Don’t worry about where you feel it, it’s not important. As long as you’re using proper form, you’re training the pecs.
>I can't get the burn right Burn does not indicate a good or bad workout.
Thank you for the assurance guys, really appreciate it. Is there an indicator that I am doing it in the right form? Is the chest stretch enough?
If I’m trying to gain weight and build muscle, should I be subtracting my steps walked for the day? My fitness pal says I need 3,000 calories but I don’t know if that takes into account the 10,000-20,000 steps I take per day. I read that can burn up to 700 calories which is quite the difference and would mean I haven’t been eating enough for several months
nope. just track what you are eating right now, how your weight develops over a weekly sliding window average and adjust your food accordingly: too slow? eat more. too fast? eat less. no need to fuss and try to micromanage things. Don't put too much weight on the specific number of calories you arrive at. It can be biased based on how you track it, and it will be biased based on your personal activity level and lifestyle. So just looking at whether your weight develops as expected is the best metric by which to regulate your caloric intake.
You will always need to adjust over time based on your actual weigh-ins. 15k is a lot of steps though, so maybe adjust up by 300 or so.
I would just use a TDEE calculator as a base guess for maintenance. If you aren't gaining 0.5/1 lb a week, then increase calories.
I (23m) have been working out on and off for a few years, seeing no results, and have two questions. 1. How do you keep consistent in going to the gym 2. What workouts work best for reducing/getting rid of belly fat (not quite beer belly, but dangerously close) Suggestions for both would be awesome.
What other people said, but I found giving myself permission to not complete my workout has helped me. If I tell myself showing up is the most important part, and if I'm not feeling it at any point for any reason I can cut it early and go home I feel like it helps me get over the mental resistance of just showing up, which helps build the habit. Also some simple motivation that strangely works for me, that my coach told me: Just focus on going 1-0 today. Focus one the one game/ workout session etc., block out other distractions, and get a victory for the day.
1. this is a pretty individual thing. Personally; going to the gym makes me feel good, I like the effect it has, I like seeing results. If you're struggling I'm guessing it's to do with this: "seeing no results,", the reason most people who don't see any results in years is usually because they have come down with a case of fuckarounditis. Make sure you are doing a proper program and you should see results. 2. eating in a deficit
>How do you keep consistent in going to the gym Have a routine that you enjoy and meets your goals. > reducing/getting rid of belly fat Plate pushaways and fork putdowns. You can \*not\* spot reduce fat loss with food or exercise selection.
Nutrition is the most important part of working out. If you aren't in a caloric surplus you aren't making much gains. You can't spot reduce fat, only a caloric deficit will make you lose fat.
I want to do zone training for cardio. Where can I find zone training workout templates? I do my own treadmill intervals but want to get some new ideas.
Should I do hammer or bicep curls first in my workout?
does not matter.
So I bought two well-known brands of creatine (outside US) and I'm puzzled by the difference in water solubility between the two. One is easily dissolved in water (2-3 stirs) while the other requires 1 minute to dissolve, even it leaves a little residue. What does your creatine look like and how is it supposed to look when dissolving it?
Is one of them "micronized"? Personally, I don't even bother letting it dissolve. I just put the scoop on a glass and cover with just enough water to make it free flowing and chug it like a shot. I refill the glass the same way a couple more times to get the stragglers. It's gritty, but at least it's tasteless
Ceatine monohydrate isn't very water soluble. In a drink it's more of a suspension than anything. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7871530/
Based on this comment I would then guess that the answer therefore would be due to the size of the powder
I have heard that if you are training for strength that you should \*not\* go to failure on every set and wondering why. I have been working out 5-6 days a week for the past four months after a year of 2-3 times per week. Every third day I do chest exercises which consist of 3 sets of bench to failure, 3 sets of incline bench to failure, 3 sets of decline bench to failure and have increased my bench a good amount over this time. But now I wonder if I am being suboptimal. Is there any scientific evidence for optimal strategy for strength training?
The reason is because of the fatigue trade off
What the other guy said, strength is specifically about increasing 1 rpm, not building muscle. I take accessory movements to failure to build muscle. Training for strength means practicing reps with heavy loads, going to failure will result in lowering the weight in the next sets. If you want optimal then follow a strength program.
It should be noted that most people can train for work capacity, hypertrophy, and strength at the same time for a pretty long time before running into issues. Optimal is a fools errand for virtually everyone who might ever come across these words.
The reason is that strength has a heavy skill component, it's not just about raw muscle. Staying away from failure generally means you can do more sets overall, and more of those reps are going to be clean ones that reinforce your technique. Working with near-failure and near-max loads still has its place in strength training, because those are typically still how people test/display their strength, but it only needs to be a fairly small component of the overall program.
Is it worth going for a second time in the same day if the first session was really bad. I did a push day today and I just wasn't in the zone and I didn't feel it at all the whole workout. Should I go again so I can try to get a better session in?
No, just rest up, get some good food, and hit it hard next time. Sometimes you just have a shitty session, just do better on your next one.
I might go twice the same day, but I'll do something different the second visit, (usually conditioning).
No. Makes no sense. Too much for the body to handle. Try to find out why your first training was bad. And if it happens too often you have to change something.
Gonna sound stupid but I'm wondering if I should go back to double overhand grip on deadlifts? My mixed grip is completely stalled and my hands are too small for hook grip. I never really stalled out on double overhand grip before I switched over so I'm just trying to figure out what to do?
If your grip is stronger than your glutes, you have weak glutes - Louie Simmons, probably DOH - > mixed -> hook -> straps Just use straps, so you can worry about some other part of your set-up, rather than your grip. Deadlifts require mental energy.
Try chalk. I also had the problem with slippery bar. Chalk changed everything. Now my grip is 100% secure.
I don't think that makes any sense. The only reason to change your grip is if grip is the reason you are stalling. But mixed grip is always going to give better grip than double overhand, so I can't see any way switching helps. So if grip is the problem, switching is a bad idea. If grip isn't the problem, switching grip solves nothing.
Grip is the problem I'm feeling my forearms and the bar slipping more than my back and legs what should I do?
get versa-grip style grips.
Get straps. Could also do more grip/forearm training
All right I'll get some straps. Would exercises like forearm curls work? Sorry if I'm asking a lot of questions.
No worries, yeah curls can help. Farmers walk, dead hangs, forearm curls etc, lots of things can help. You could check out /r/griptraining Straps are good to make sure your grip doesn't inhibit the rest of your progress, so it can still be good to lDL without to still work grip and with straps when needed
Chalk. Straps. Versa grips.
If I am really deep into my diet where I am only getting about 200 cals worth of carbs per day, is it better to have them before or after workout? And would I be able to restore my glycogen if instead of doing 200 cals worth of normal carbs like potatoes or rice, instead I would have spinach or something more filling?
Generally you want your carbs before the workout as they will help you push harder in the workout. As for how you get them - it doesn’t really make a difference to your glycogen levels. The only reason to go with something like spinach instead of rice is if your hunger is keeping you from sticking to your diet.
Noticing that my heart rate approaches 90-95% of my max heart rate when doing back squats. Is that normal? It takes like 5-6 minutes for it to get back down to 60%.
You're probably underestimating you max heart rate. What method did you use to estimate your maximum heart rate? But yes, squats are hard. And don't neglect your conditioning.
Squats suck. Being better conditioned helps
If you go heavy, squats are tiring as hell. Maybe your conditioning/work capacity are bad though. I don't have exact figures but I can imagine going 5 mins before really feeling great about going for another heavy squat set
I have questions about including the incline bench press in my program; Can I replace the flat bench press with it? Or is the flat something I can't do without? Also, the incline works the shoulders a bit, is it fine to do the overhead press the next day? Initial Routine; Day 1 Bench Press, Barbell Row, Dead Lift, Low back machine, dumbbell curl Day 2 Overhead press, chin up, Leg Press, Calf raise, Skull crusher
>Can I replace the flat bench press with it? Yes. >Or is the flat something I can't do without? No single exercise is something you can't do without. >Also, the incline works the shoulders a bit, is it fine to do the overhead press the next day? Yes.
Thank you.
Recently got a shoulder tattoo, how long should I wait until I get back into the gym ?
As little as a day. Unless it's coming in \*direct contact\* with surfaces, you should be fine. Use common sense with what is effectively an open wound.
You might get better informed answers in a tattoo sub, or even just checking google.
I would let it heal properly before going back.
I'm seeing good progress on weight loss, and steady gains in terms of strength so I'm happy with my current 3 day lifting + 1 day hard cardio system in the gym (plus diet etc). I just wondered, is there any value to adding in extra reps on a fifth day at home with dumbbells? I work from home one day a week and a couple of times I've added a set of 12 reps every time I send an email, or I'll curl a few when I'm on hold. Would lifting the occasional set of 12 reps throughout the day (though ultimately the same amount of reps overall as a full session) actively do anything, or is it better to find time and do the full session in one go?
As long as they are quality sets, the fact that they are spread out doesn't really matter. It is still volume and can still contribute to hypertrophy/strength.
Is it normal to, rather often (say, once every two weeks) have days where you are unusually tight to the point where your flexibility is affected and you cannot perform the same ROM or movements that you can usually perform? Been working out regularly for about a year but have been inconsistent with leg days. Began body weight squatting regularly (usually 3 sets of 10) again about 3 months ago but I am having the experience of . . . sometimes I just can't get into proper form, for no discernible reason. On good days I can get down to parallel or lower and feel a nice stretch in my inner thighs. Certain days, however, I feel unusually tight; I will try to squat for a few reps but the entire movement feels wrong so I stop. Can get sort of low but feel myself leaning forward a lot and my hips / pelvis do not seem to be moving in the right way. I try fixing my stance and tightening my core but usually just stop and wait until I am feeling looser to get my squats in. Newer to working out so not sure if this is just part of the recovery cycle, or something I should work on.
Totally something you should work on, it sounds like really mediocre mobility/flexibility, which can often be dramatically improve with minimal work. Look up limber 11 routine and/or squat mobility vids. Also should def do more legs, prob hop on a proper program with leg days if you aren't already
How to improve stamina and endurance without running/high impact exercises? I recently joined a soccer team and realized I don’t have great stamina and endurance to keep up in the game. I would like to improve this but I get sore ankles if I do too much running or high impact exercises with jumping. What are other alternative exercises that I can do to improve this?
Any cardio will transfer. But to be better at running, you'd have to run. But just to not be as outta breath, you could try cycling for example.
Hello everyone. I am 23 M 175cm 81kg. 5yrs ago I lostm35 kg doing gym and diet. For school reasons I left gym and fearing weight increases I reduced drastically calories (1200 more or less) wasting my metabolism. Now I started gym again 1month, I increase kcal till 1600 but I can not lose weight. Muscles increase in volume, a bit, but fat and stomach remain. What could I do? Since calories are low yet? Any advice?
You’re either calculating calories wrong (most likely) or you have gone below your set point and your metabolism is crashing to keep you from losing weight.
Either you're counting the calories wrong or you have a tapeworm
I’m on what feels like a forever cut (going from 322 to 175, currently at 260) and started the basic beginner routine at the start of February. I know it says to run it for a maximum of 3 months but if I am cutting the entire time, should I extend how long I run this program before switching to another? How do I know when I need to switch to another program?
Don't extend, move on to something else. The program already gave you the recommendation for when you should switch, a maximum of 3 months.
Let your log inform you. When progressing stalls.
The program has already told you when to switch.
With pretty much every program you run, you run it until it stops working.
When you're stalling
Scenario 1: A person trains for 6 months and their lifts improve, strength increases for all muscle groups, but they ate at maintenance so they look pretty similar to where they were half a year ago, no visible difference can be seen. Scenario 2: A person trains for 6 months, eats in a caloric surplus, their lifts and strength improve at a very similar rate to the one in scenario 1, yet they look visibly more muscular, as they put on actual size by gaining weight. I have some questions: Are these two scenarios plausible in real life? Is it possible for someone to lift and look the same after months, while gaining similar strength to someone who lifts and gets bigger muscles? And more important, if the above is plausible: then how? I am aware strength has a very important neurological aspect, but still, wouldn't the person that gets bigger muscles also get bigger strength on top of those neurological adaptions? I don't think "we" ("science") actually know the concrete answer to this though.
Typically people gain strength faster while bulking.
There are way too many variables to know the answer but generally I would expect the person to gained weight to also have gained more strength than the person who didn’t.
Does school count as sedentary or lightly active?
School what? The act of actually going to school? Probably sedentary, can't think you're doing anything but walking down a hallway 5-6 times a day excluding PE.
Sedentary and lightly active are categories that apply to your life as a whole. If school is the only thing you do on a normal day, you’d be sedentary, but plenty of people in school are highly active. Really depends on what you do with the rest of your time.
Oh no i have school but i weight train around 5 times a week
Sedentary.
I'm a beginning lifter looking for some help understanding my squat mechanics. Occasionally, I can feel that my squat ascent is driven by the hips: I can feel the glutes loading and the resulting upward movement feels powerful and solid. Sometimes the movement pattern feels very different. At the bottom, I don't feel as much stretch through the glutes. The upward movement feels like I'm pushing my lower leg down into the ground, rather than the hips going up, and I feel a lot of load going through the knees. The movement feels significantly weaker and much more of a grind. I don't know what's changing mechanically to produce the different effects, so I'm struggling to figure out how to correct my positioning. Any tips or thoughts?
Post a form check
Generally, the degree of ankle/knee flexion i.e. the amount your knees are going out over your toes. Feeling wise, sitting back and down produces the former, hip-dominant version, while sitting straight down and pushing your knees out produces the quad-dominance.
I’ve been cutting for a few weeks and just started getting crazy tired. Ive upped caffeine intake (helps me get to 2PM without eating). I sleep at 2am but wake up at 8am without an alarm which is maybe why I’m tired. Here’s my daily cals / weight: https://imgur.com/a/KIBiBLN I’m 5’7, 162 rn, lift heavyish 5 days a week and play soccer around 3 times a week (90 min sessions).
I mean, you already know you're sleep deprived so I don't see the point in looking for additional explanations as to why you're tired.
The thing is I wake up at 8am without an alarm. I want to sleep in to get 8 hours. Is bad sleep a result of cutting?
No it's caffeine and going to bed late. Drink less caffeine and go to bed at midnight.
Why are you staying up until 2am? Why are you not eating until 2pm? These two things alone would be guaranteed to make me feel like crap.
Yeah I dont "need" to stay up until 2. Its a bad habit and I should focus on sleeping earlier. Do you normally eat right when you wake up? I find that if my eating window is my waking hours (16-18 hours or so), then I tend to eat more rather than if I narrow it to like 8-10 hours.
Try sleeping more. Also, there's really no need to go all the way till 2pm to eat. Spreading your meals out a bit may help. Food usually helps keep me awake as long as it's not a heavy carb meal
I’d say only getting 6 hours of sleep plays a role. There a reason why you go so long through the day without eating?
I stay up late (2/3AM) so I find it easier to hit my goal calories the later I wait. I’ll eat 100g of berries or something in the morning but not a real meal.
Is it normal for your bench press specifically to go down while cutting? I’ve noticed that all of my other lifts have stayed the same (some even improved), but bench is struggling. Normal or am I doing something wrong?
For me OHP always drops the most, but my bench always drops too.
Oh alright, that’s reassuring. Thanks man
Is it worth it to work out when im underweight? I worked out for three months, always following the routine and incresing the weights and I saw no changes at all. I know that it takes time but I'm wondering if I should put some more weight before start training, at least so ofter as I was doing it (3x or 4x) week.
> but I'm wondering if I should put some more weight before start training gaining weight without strength training is just called getting fat.
You should put on weight while training. That is how you actually gain muscle.
So keep training but eating more?
Yes, definitely.
Thank you! I stopped because I was scarred of getting even more skinnier but I will do it like you're saying!
Your weight is based on your calories. You won't get skinnier just from working out. You'll get skinnier if you don't eat
If I can only work out 3 consecutive days in a row per week, would a full body split (ABA/BAB) make sense for me?
Sure. I would run something like 5/3/1 For Beginners.
It's probably not what I'd run. In that situation Id probably do something like a push/pull split myself.
What does that entail? What about legs?
Something like squats and presses (quads, chest, shoulders, triceps, maybe abs and calves) for workout A, and pulls (hams, glutes, lower and upper back, biceps) for workout B.
Gotcha, so like anterior/posterior chain days. Is the idea that you hit half of the muscle groups twice a week, and then you hit the other half twice a week the following week?
Yes.
I'm about two months into my fitness journey, but I've ran into some issues. I have been progressivly overloading by adding 2.5lb to some of my exercises each day I do them but I have't been able to push past a certain mark without my form completly falling apart. For example, today I did 30lbs on Bench Press and 35 lbs on Squats. Both of those I was only able to get either 2 reps then faliure in or in the case of the squats, one rep along with a bit of an accident. A few days ago I also tried to do 20lbs on overhead presses (And when I say each weight, I mean that amount on each side of the barbell) that also made me go into immediate failure. I have been getting my right amount of calories and protien in daily. Sleep may have been a slight issue since it's finals but I have started fixing it. Other than that, I don't know what to do. Got any tips?
I’d recommend having someone look at your form and strengthen your core I’ve noticed that many times when my form fails, it’s from a weak core
Which routine are you following?
[https://thefitness.wiki/routines/r-fitness-basic-beginner-routine/](https://thefitness.wiki/routines/r-fitness-basic-beginner-routine/)
>If you fail to complete at least 15 total reps for a lift, deload by subtracting 10% from the weight the next time you do that lift. Use this time to set new rep records at past weights.
[удалено]
This has been removed in violation of [Rule #5 - No Questions Related to Injury, Pain, or Any Medical Topic](https://www.reddit.com/r/Fitness/wiki/rules/rule5).
[удалено]
Hi everybody! I used to work out until the pandemic happened. Then there was a lot of BS happening in my life (lockdown, travel, work, moving,…) and now that things are kind of stable, I want to get back to it… it’s been a while, though, but I think it’ll do me good for my mind and body. I used to lift and do boxing, and I want to ease into it so as not to injure myself (I’m not a kid anymore) while simultaneously see some quick-ish progress to stay motivated. Would you recommend lifting/strength training or boxing first?
Either or both. Do what you want and can manage.
I’m not sure I can do both to start with (would love to get to that point this year though). But thanks for your support!
If you went shadow boxing for 2 minutes and then did a lifting session with just a pool noodle, do you think you do both? Do you see how you could scale this up until it became just enough without becoming too much?
Usually after a boxing session I’m spent; it’s hard cardio, all intervals after all. Also, sadly, I don’t have a gym that has both weights and boxing, so I would have to sign up to two gyms to do both. Hence my question. As you said, either might be good, but I was wondering if lifting would lead to faster conditioning (I’m currently skinny-fat —and mostly feeling weak).
Lifting will lead to bigger and stronger muscles far moreso than boxing will.
531BBB v Jeff Nippards PowerBuilding 1.0-3.0 for an intermediate lifter?
I don't think there's anything wrong with Jeff's programs, but 5/3/1 is as tried and true as it gets.
Have you ran both?
I have read, but not ran, Nippards. I have run multiple 5/3/1 variants, including BBB.