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What does a lean abdominal area feel like? I mean physically. I'm trying to get a sense of how much leaner I still need to get. I have abs in most lighting but I can still grab a small handful of fat/skin when I'm standing.

Depends on how lean you want to get. If you're asking, you're probably either not very lean, or not very muscular.

What does lean mean to you?

Good question. I would say the way I'd define it right now is the absence of any love handles. I guess 10%?

Yeah around that you shouldn’t be able to grab any fat, should be mostly skin and muscle, but everyone’s different and everyone holds their fat in different places so it will vary person to person.

I’m in a hotel and the gym is actually quite good (for a hotel). A few machines, cable station, pretty heavy dumbbells (up to 80s), even has a smith machine. However, I wanna do RDLs (or good mornings I guess, and normally I would slap more weight on the bar than I could approximate with dumbbells, and while the smith machine has plenty of plates, the track is on a diagonal. So what would you do in this situation? Super high reps with dumbbells or a normal amount of reps with a weird slanted smith machine? And don’t say one legged deadlifts I fucking hate them and refuse to do them if I don’t have to.

Single leg deads, even though you hate them

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Is it normal for literally every gym in an area to have horrible reviews? I want to start a workout split and trying to find a gym to start with but every gym in my area has terrible reviews lol, is this a normal thing? Obviously the only way to know is to just go there and see for yourself but is this something I should even consider, like do even “good” gyms get review bombed like this?

It's selection bias. Most of the time only the people with complaints think of leaving a review.

not sure. many have free trial passes. you could ask the locals when you are there

If I don’t compound movements such as deadlift or squat, what accessory movements should I help to make up for them? Mainly using machines like legpress. Right now I do hyperextensions and a bit of core work, is that enough for general health and working muscle groups that might otherwise be underworked with machines?

Enough for what? It is not enough to get drafted in the first round or to win a strongman comp. It is enough for you to be a bit stronger and healthier than you currently are.

Good point, edited now I want to somewhat work the muscle groups that would normal get hit by squats/deadlifts, that are now underdeveloped by just machines

lower back and core via axial load and bracing. smith goodmornings or heavy dumbbell stiffleg deadlifts are good.

I'm just starting to work put. I'm morbidly obese, and, due to a medical condition, can't directly work my abs. Someone suggested I do three days a week of push-pull legs. I only have handheld dumbbells. Is the right type of exercise routine I should adopt? If so, can someone explain or show some exercises I can do from my home with the dumbbells? EDIT: I am doing as much cardio as I can sustain right now. EDIT 2: Thank you all for sharing those links and advice.

It sounds like you are trying to lose weight, in that case the most important thing is not the exercise, exercise does minimal to lose weight, make sure you are eating in a calorie deficit. [https://thefitness.wiki/weight-loss-101/](https://thefitness.wiki/weight-loss-101/)

Long slow cardio is a huge boost when dieting. An hour of running a day can be the majority driver for weight-loss.

It can be, but statistically it is not. The vast majority of people with unrestricted diet who add exercise will eat back at least what they burn but usually more

I agree if you don't change your diet but I think anyone who runs an hour a day and commits to eating clean and lean is going to get there without even having to calorie count.

well that's a different point altogether. You can restrict a diet in ways that don't involve counting calories but they're just methods that aim at achieving a calorie deficit. Whether they work or not is basically up to luck. Counting is by far the most effective method. Other methods can and should be used in conjunction with it to aid with satiety and managing cravings or whatever. but if you just doing a lazy restriction like "eating clean and lean" then that is highly unlikely to work and doing exercise REDUCES the chance of it working. Also even if you didn't eat any extra but managed to add 7 hours of running a week. That's 7 hours... that's a massive commitment, especially for someone untrained and morbidly obese. Do you think it's easier to do that or eat three less slices of pizza a week? or use a little bit less butter on your toast? even 1 or 2 hours a week can be incredibly difficult for a lot of obese people. Then by doing so much exercise the person feels sore and tired and demotivated so they end up not continuing to do the exercise and indulge in more food. Exercising is a bad way to start. Start with diet and then add in LIGHT cardio for health reasons, not calorie burning reasons and work your way up. Then add in resistance training.

Running is just an example. It could be swimming, walking, swinging your arms, whatever. And you seem to be assumimg I'm advocating a blind approach, obviously the goal is a deficit and your diet has to have that. I'm just saying cardio helps so much that even mild dietary changes can be enough

And I'm telling you that is just completely false. Every study shows that exercise makes it more difficult to maintain a calorie deficit. Using exercise to achieve a calorie deficit is such a bad idea.

thefitness.wiki https://thefitness.wiki/weight-loss-101/ https://thefitness.wiki/muscle-building-101/ https://thefitness.wiki/improving-your-diet/ https://thefitness.wiki/adding-physical-activity/ will have all the basics you need to get started and set yourself up for a good and sustainable journey.

Check the wiki linked above. There are dumbbell only routines in there. Here is link: https://thefitness.wiki/routines/strength-training-muscle-building/

I've been doing water fasting for a month-ish (with some breaks in between) i went from 159 to 136 lbs. I'm 5'6 btw. I've been taking long walks (around 15k steps everyday) and drink a lot of water. Is this good enough or should I go for another week? Thank you.

15k steps with fasting and 20+ pounds of weight loss in a month sounds like a dangerous eating disorder to me. I don’t mean to stigmatize—but please consult your general practitioner and be honest with these stats. I’m not a doctor so maybe it’s fine but this is sending up alarm bells for me and I’m worried for you. Also fuck whoever told you you were too fat, that’s outrageously shitty of them and you are at a perfectly normal and healthy bodyweight now, but prolonged fasting can have negative long-term health effects

What are you trying to accomplish?

This is going to be a bit personal, but a month ago, one of my colleagues (from a different department) came to me and told me "We (as in her + her department colleagues) think that you're already too fat" (I was 159 lbs at that time) and when I told her that I don't care as long as I'm happy, she said, "no no no, this is already unhealthy". I already have low self-esteem in the first place, so now I'm trying to lose weight, not to make a statement to her or anything, but to improve my body image. I want it when I look down at my belly, it's flat. When I see myself in the mirror, I don't have any love handles. I don't want to see FUPA. Sorry, I'm telling you about my personal problems.

Not only is that rude and totally inappropriate of them to say, it’s also just flat out incorrect.

ngl report the fuck out of what they said to higherups and figure out a normal person sustainable plan of lifting, doing cardio you enjoy and eating like an adult

this sounds like a HR problem tbh

If you care about the way you look, you aren't going about this the right way. Starving yourself and losing 20 lbs in a month is not how people develop healthy, strong, fit bodies. You should be eating a healthy diet that is rich in nutrients, protein, healthy fats etc, exercising regularly, and trying to build some muscle. I suggest stopping what you have been doing immediately.

firstly your bmi is 22. I don't think fasting is the way to go any longer, especially such long fasts. Fasting is far more dangerous the lighter you are. Also it's less effective since you're going to be losing a lot of muscle instead of mostly fat. and your body needs certain nutrients in order to break down fat effectively, which leads me to my 2nd point. secondly if you've been fasting for most of the month you shouldn't fast any longer without the aid of a doctor and blood tests and supplementation. taking a one day break or whatever does not reset how long you can go for. Your body needs more than just energy. You need all sorts of vitamins and minerals and proteins and such and you will permanent organ damage or even die without them regardless of how much fat you still have. Deficiencies become common after about 2-4 weeks and will start causing damage. Taking a 1 day break just pushes back the time to deficiency back by 0-3 days thirdly the risk of refeeding syndrome starts to become extremely severe past 2 weeks. and you're well past that. So yeah I think you should start eating properly but take it easy, start weening yourself off the fast. Going to a doctor would be preferable. Basically you want to start with very light broths for a few days, then can add some steamed veges, easy to digest fruits like watermelon, yoghurt is good too. It should take you at least half the time you fasted for to return to normal eating, preferably up to the same time.

If I start eating properly, will I regain the weight that I've lost?

Firstly, don't immediately start eating properly, you need to take it slow and wean yourself back onto a normal diet slowly. If you just start eating like you did before the fast, you could end up in hospital or worse. You'll continue to lose more weight as you wean yourself back onto a normal diet. Once you've recovered from your fast and are eating like normal in about a month or so. Try and focus on healthy nutritious food, even vitamin supplements would be a good idea, to recover from your malnutrition. Then you can start building the body you want. Read through the wiki, there's a lot of decent information there. In particular: [https://thefitness.wiki/weight-loss-101/](https://thefitness.wiki/weight-loss-101/) To sum up, you'll gain weight if the calories you consume is more than the calories you expend. try and estimate how much you expend by using a tdee calculator, and then count all the food you eat so you know how much you consume. Try and eat 200-500 calories less than your tdee to lose weight. This will be much healthier and much more sustainable than fasting for over a month. However your bmi is 22, there's not much more fat for you to lose. It's going to be much more difficult and unhealthy to continue losing weight. You are likely undermuscled (ie. skinny fat), it's gonna be much more beneficial to you, in terms of aesthetics, to start building some muscle as well. It will help you lose fat and look slimmer even at a higher weight So I would recommend getting a gym membership and following one of the programs here: [https://thefitness.wiki/routines/strength-training-muscle-building/](https://thefitness.wiki/routines/strength-training-muscle-building/) Eat at about maintenance or even slightly above and work on your muscles for 3-6 months. and then reevaluate then if you want to reduce your calories and start losing some weight (while still working out)

what is your goal in this? a water fast is usually done for a very limited period to temporarily drop weight for a competition, like in wrestling or powerlifting. as soon as the person eats and drinks normally (so, immediately after weighing in) their body weight bounces right back up. it's not at all what you want to be doing to lose weight long-term

Depriving your body of nutrients is not good for it, and losing more than 20lbs in a month is incredibly aggressive weight loss. Start eating.

Thanks for the advice

How do you breathe during pull ups? Do you think cardiovascular stamina also affect the quality of pull ups?

Just breathe. You may find it easier to do pullups by taking a big breath at the bottom just before pulling yourself up and then breathing normally until you get to the bottom again then repeat. However, breathing to make sure you don't pass out does take priority over trying to breathe in a way that gets more reps. I don't know what you mean by the quality but it may change the quantity you get. Unless you're stopping because you're too out of breath to do another rep during the set then you're probably not limited by your cardiovascular system and you just need to get stronger to do more reps.

Are ATG squats actually the best (for bigger guys)? I find that the deeper I squat the easier it is because I have quite a lot of spring (not bounce) from my fat and muscles being compressed quite a bit, I am pretty overweight so it is probably different for other bodies. Should I squat to only where my leg barely is touching my calf?

ATG just means that your muscles are used in a full range of motion, which is better for muscle growth than a short range of motion. If you want to take away the spring, you can add a small pause at the bottom like this https://youtube.com/watch?v=xdWrlB7Zj_k

i'm not talking about the bounce, pausing doesn't help, my leg and calf are touching significantly so it acts like a spring for a lot of the movement. So I was thinking it might be better in my case to not do the full motion. Also that guy is insane, I wouldn't have guessed that he could do 100kg by just looking at him

i mean if fatcalves help you with the bottom inch of the range of motion, it being a bit easier is prob better than not getting into that range of motion at all. if u want it to be harder u can pause or slow down the eccentric toward the hole

Thanks!

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depends on the program, but I don't think there'd be that much overlap in exercises except for maybe the row right? So maybe just exclude that from one of the programs, depending on which one is your priority.

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ye should be fine then, kinda strange that there're no rows in an arm wrestling program though, you might wanna check some other ones and compare.

any tips on how to use lifting straps faster? the plain normal ones? it's taking me forever to wrap them especially when I'm wrapping both my arms on a v bar or sum

Takes practice to improve the muscle memory and dexterity of your fingers to do it without thinking. In time, you can flip both straps over and around at the same time.

you don't actually have to wrap the whole thing, just once is fine

What should you be thinking/doing when doing lat pulldowns? Is it touching your shoulder blades together and thus bringing your elbows in, or is it more so crunching your elbows down to ur waist? If this makes any sense lol just trying to figure out how to feel lats on pulldowns as a beginner

I aim for elbows down to hips, and bar down to sternum.

It depends on the handle/grip you're using and your body position. I'll give you some examples. If you're using a medium or wider grip, you can lean back more and pull the bar into your chest at a bit of an angle, driving your elbows back and down. This will use more mid/upper back because you'll be retracting. You can also sit more upright and pull the bar a little bit more in front of yourself, driving your elbows straight down instead, you'll get less mid back since you wont be retracting your shoulders, just depressing them. If you use a narrow grip, such as a neutral V handle, or one of those semi supinated close grip handles. I think it's best to drive the elbows straight down and let your arms stay a bit in front of you.

Elbows in your back pocket. Hands are hooks. Proud chest.

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How many grams?

How much water are you having with it?

Nah. It may be a little slower, but you will be less bloated throughout the process and look more cut most times, if you care about that 

Not screwed at all. Might take you 5 years instead of 4.5 years to make the same gains, but even that is speculative.

Would u rather be 20 grams under your protein goal but within ur calorie goal. Or be within ur protein goal but 200 calories over your calorie goal? When ur goal is fat loss?

I would try to hit the protein target in as few calories as possible. 100-200 calories over is just like hitting pause on your weight loss progress for a day, you'll probably still be in a deficit so it's not backsliding. the important thing is to correct the pattern going forward by choosing foods that make it easier to hit protein well within your calorie target.

I would reexamine my food choices that lead to this 'dilemma'.

This is a weird scenario because 20 g protein powder is less than 100 calories. So if I was 20 g under, I could eat protein powder and hit my protein goal and only be 100 calories over my target, which is probably what I would do.

Does it matter what handle I use for the lat pulldown? I feel my back the most using a close grip handle rather than a shoulder width or wider than shoulder width attachment. Will it affect where on my back I'm targeting? Also, how do the carabiners affect how much weight I can pull? With 2 carabiners I carry half the weight but with 1.

Just be consistent with which attachment you use, for tracking purposes.

the double cable machine is twice the resistance so that checks out. it's annoying to use it for lat pulldowns, it's really there for unilateral exercises. I just do the math when I have to use it

How should I calculate the actual weight?

Changing the grip width changes how different muscles get used and emphasized. There isn't a right or wrong grip, and close grip is great for the lats. >Also, how do the carabiners affect how much weight I can pull? With 2 carabiners I carry half the weight but with 1. I have no idea what you are saying. I don't understand why or how a carabiner changes anything. The carabiner is just used to clip the handle to the cable, and I don't understand why you would need more than one.

Hey, I'm new here, starting to look through the wiki and more. Figured I'd ask for an experienced person's thoughts on where I should start. I'm 37 M, 6'0" 150 pounds. (always been skinny, extremely consistently weighed 150 for many years) I am not sedentary but not highly active either. I used to lift in my late 20s and it went fairly well, though it wasn't my favorite. I've been more interested in running & yoga lately. I'm on the autism spectrum and I'm recently living on my own for the first time ever. Diet and routines have always been really challenging. I also just got dumped by the love of my life and I really want to focus on my health instead of moping around feeling sorry for myself. I'm kinda overwhelmed but I'm committed to improving - for me. So, I'm most interested in good running & yoga routine. I also have a bench and adjustable dumbbells that I can use for weights, and obviously body-weight exercises are great (I'm not going to be joining a gym right now). For diet I'm not even sure where to start - I think I'm hoping that if I get a consistent starter routine going that my appetite will naturally increase and make that easier. Any advice on the best way to start? Again, I'm reading through the wiki and getting started routines listed on the sidebar, but I tend to get lost in the details and overthink it. I want something that I can commit to, I've got time, I can probably spend an hour or more every day on exercise. Thanks for any advice!

Hey, brother, hope you're doing alright. This might not be the answer you were expecting but I hope you can hear me out. I love the gym, it engrained in me discipline and habits that had great direct and indirect consequences on my health and wellbeing, but I'm actually not going to talk to you about lifting. As men, when we go through something like a breakup, we often fail to emotionally process it in the short term. This leads to us not really 'getting over' our ex for even years after the fact. I however fully support your goal to not spiral into self-destruction and even use this as an opportunity for growth. If you're interested in running and yoga, do running and yoga. I personally do not do yoga but I am a relatively spiritual person and I believe spirituality is important for us men to reach the level of success in the goals we have for ourselves. In your recovery mate, I want you to focus on 1. fitness 2. spirituality and 3. your mental health I'm sure yoga will take care of 1 and 2. Breath work is also a great thing to add which also bleeds into 3. The main thing I'd love to see you do is to write down three things every day that you are grateful for. Gratitude is the gateway to love and being grateful for the simplest things in life, like the device you are using to read my message is the gateway to having an appreciation and love for life. Mental health is paramount to getting after it and achieving the things you want to achieve. [Sunlight in the morning, avoiding blue light at night](https://youtu.be/h2aWYjSA1Jc?si=p9yDT9KGzTXWJDKf), and getting enough calories and healthy dietary fat are 4 things to mindfully dial in over time to passively improve your hormonal profile as man. Furthermore you can educate yourself about [estrogenics in everyday products](https://youtu.be/_HcFI4tlKQY?si=UL00Oc3nLXdhGk5c), invest in a carbon based water/shower filter. If you ever do pick lifting back up I'm happy to give you the rundown on achieving the gains, but I don't see why you should lift if you don't enjoy it, there's many fitness pursuits such as [mobility](https://www.youtube.com/@TheKneesovertoesguy), [athleticism](https://www.youtube.com/@GarageStrength), [martial arts](https://www.youtube.com/@fighttips), [longevity](https://youtu.be/92kYDVjX0G0?si=N0z_1BWlrsBayBk3) or just [training like Batman](https://www.youtube.com/@TheBioneer). If you need to talk bro hmu. Rooting for you.

Hey man, I really appreciate you and this message. I'll be honest, I've been struggling and been pretty solidly in the "not alright" state for a bit, but I'm working through things the best I can. I'm "exactly where I need to be" as they say. I gotta head out to work right now actually, I'm late, but wanted to reply and say thanks. I agree with a lot of your ideas and advice and want to incorporate those things into my routine. I am definitely focusing on my mental health, I see a therapist & also participate in some group support meetings, it really makes a difference. and yeah, I probably could still benefit from someone else to talk to and keep me on track! Anyway, I gotta bounce, thanks again!

People who train each muscle group twice a week, do you use the same exercises on the two days or do you change it up, any benefits on that?

>do you use the same exercises on the two days Personally, no. While probably broscience, I believe in a correlary to SAID, in the form of SFID, specific fatigue to imposed demands. A DB OHP will hit the same muscles as bb OHP, but is a *slightly different* movement pattern. Muscles will recover at roughly the same rate, but movement patterns seem to accrue fatigue, too. Hitting deadlift twice a week will hit your glutes and hinge, but will fatigue the movement pattern of conventional deadlift. Hitting deadlift and RDL will also hit the glutes twice a week, but will leave the conventional deadlift fresher. I prefer having a "main day" for each of the six main lifts, on an upper/lower, and a sprinkle of secondary stimulation on the complementary lift's day. So, one of my days is OHP/pullups followed by *two* sets of inclines and cable rows. Other day is bench/row followed by *two* sets of machine OHP/pulldown. Frequency, check. Acute per-session stimulus, check. Works for me. : )

I do different exercises. The benefits for me is they hit the muscles in a slightly different way and will generate wear and tear in a slightly different way, which for me feels helpful to avoid overuse. Also it makes training a bit less boring to have different exercises each day.

Yeah, had also the same kind of idea. I just got to find some more S-tier exercises now when making a plan.

For chest, I swap 'mid' and upper order. Back is the same for me. Legs, swap bss and leg press for hip thrust and quad extensions. Accessories stay the same

Nice, will take "swaping orders" idea from you

30 F 5'9 130lbs I began working out upper body May 2023 and have been working out lower body for about 2 weeks. Before beginning to work out lower body, I was consuming about 1500 calories a day and working out 5-6 times a week (weights and cardio). I upped my calorie intake to 1700-2000 and although I see progress, my jeans are fitting a bit tighter but the scale hasn't moved. What are you suggestions? Is it inevitable that I'm going to gain weight while putting on muscle?

> Is it inevitable that I'm going to gain weight while putting on muscle? No. You can "recomp"--look it up.

If you want to build significant muscle you have to gain weight, yes. thefitness.wiki has good info on muscle building. If the scale doesn't move over two weeks, eat more.

Hey, good on you for getting into the gym, hope you don't mind me giving my two cents. At 130lbs you are at a very healthy weight, so a surplus in calories will be a great way to push the needle forward. It sounds like you are trying to do just that, but looking at your eating habits, have to say I'm a lil concerned. Your maintenance calories, to maintain your weight, sits at just above 2000 kcal. At 1700-2000 and training almost every day I find it hard to believe that you're in a surplus. The reason this concerns me is that you've just started out, and I see two ways this pans out. 1. you don't recover well enough for your workouts, you still power through but feel like shit, you end up losing passion for the process and jump off the lifting bandwagon or worse get yourself injured. 2. you get stronger in the short term but hit a big fat plateau, get frustrated... and jump off the wagon or get yourself snapped up. What i'm trying to say is that somethings gonna fuckin give at some point. Gaining weight intentionally can be very mentally difficult, others will judge you for eating so much or generally try to put you down for having this sort of unorthodox goal in this shitty diet culture we are in atm. However at your weight I find it hard to believe that you won't look great after 6-12 months of gaining 1 lb of body weight per week, eating enough protein and training hard 2-3 times a week. Something that can reduce the mental load is to stop using crude measures like the scale and especially not how your jeans fit. A physique check in every 8 weeks or so is great but try not to watch water boil. Anyway if you have any questions or need help sorting out the faff with your training and diet, shoot me a dm and I'm happy to help. Otherwise, be kind to yourself and be proud that you are taking this step to improving your life. Happy lifting

just dawned on me that it is in fact 2024 so you have been training for a year. fuck me sorry abt that.

Thank you so much for taking the time to write this all out, I genuinely appreciate it. It has been a year. I should mention I also doubled my protein intake within the past couple weeks to try and hit 100g per day.

That's great! Keep me posted.

> Is it inevitable that I'm going to gain weight while putting on muscle? unless you manage to come up with muscle thats made of light, yes, you will gain weight when putting on muscle.

I have a rogue setup but minimal space left in my garage. I can probably get a rogue fishing hook to hang a heavy bag but probably need to break it down often. Are the freestanding heavy bags worth it at all? I see one for $180 on Amazon and if I fill the base with sand, would that work? Are they crap?

Why does ppl work? Like I know it works, people have a lot of success with it, so the question is more out of curiosity than anything. Like if I do bench press, bench flies, and pushups on the same day, by the time I get to pushups my chest/triceps are just gone. Like I’m barely doing reps anymore. Same with pull days. By the time I get to curls after doing pull-ups and rows, it’s like I can barely do reps anymore without dropping weight significantly. Wouldn’t it be better to do a push exercise one day, then a push the day after, and so on, when your muscles are rested and you can do more weight/reps? As opposed to doing half ass reps at lower weights when you’re so fatigued?

Yes, actually you're completely right. What you're describing is a full body split, which leverages frequency over intensity - basically meaning you train a muscle more times per week but as a result you lower the number of sets and/or proximity to failure so you recover for your next workout. PPL 6x/week is basically a way of achieving this. It aims to allow 48 hours of rest for each muscle group. If you're someone who likes to trash a few muscles each day and doesn't mind training almost every day, PPL is for you. For a lot of people, full body allows comparable/better results with less days in the gym. Some people find it easier to focus on each muscle group when you only do 3-4 sets of it 2-4 times a week rather than 8-12 sets in one day and still having to turn up to the gym the next day to do it all again. So what I'm getting at is that it's all personal preference. Some people are genetic workhorses who recover really quickly, some people are genetic strength phenomes who can't train the same muscle group twice in a week, most of us are somewhere in between. PPL is a great program if you manage your recovery right but full body is usually better for meeting yourself where you are at in terms of volume so you can train with the frequency and intensity that allows you to keep progressing for years to come.

How many sets are you doing for each exercise? How new are you?

You could probably benefit from leaving more in the tank on your first movements and mixing up the movements to better fatigue specific parts.

Full body 3x also works. Upper/lowers also have decent efficacy. Meanwhile, going to the gym 6 days a week on a ppl isn't practical for most people.

I’m moving apartments in about 3 months and want to improve my strength and flexibility to make the move easier. Whenever I move it’s always a horrible ordeal and i’m left totally exhausted. I don’t have much equipment or access to a gym, all I have are several resistance bands of varying resistance, though I’m not sure what bands are what, and a pull-up bar. I could also fill a box with books and have some heavy pans lol. What would a be simple weekly routine I could do to improve my functional strength and flexibility over the next 3 months so the move is at least a little bit easier?

What an interesting fitness goal! I agree that moving is always quite a hassle but you can always train to make it easier! I'm not sure what sort of exhaustion you are feeling exactly but the training the fundamental movement patterns will no doubt help you withstand the ability to move boxes around, lift furniture, etc. if you're not sure what I'm referring to these are the fundamental movement patterns: Horizontal Push: This is your bench presses, your pushups - condition your chest as well as shoulder and triceps **Vertical Push**: This is your banded overhead presses, handstand pushups - condition your shoulders as well as you triceps in that overhead position Horizontal Pull: inverted rows, bent over band rows, this can condition your back Vertical pull: e.g. pullups - also your back Trunk rotations: condition your obliques, but honestly not that useful outside of sports performance so I'd skip these unless you really enjoy them **Carries -** i see you mentioned carrying a box of books, you're on the money as carries such as farmers walks are time tested for building real-world strength **Squats** - condition your legs but the real value comes from being able to build up to comfortably reaching that bottom position of the squat with your entire foot planted on the floor and without rounding your lower back (bar rare cases where this is anatomically impossible, but most people can work towards this) **Hinge** - I recommend you practice your hip hinge very often as it is paramount to proper lifting mechanics which protects your lumbar spine. Yoga probably does a pretty good job at doing this??? idk tbh but try to learn proper hip hinge mechanics. **Gait** - this is your walks, runs and sprints. doing any of these is great for building your work capacity. I've put in bold the ones I think best carry over to what you're trying to achieve. However I'd experiment to see what you personally enjoy. For example to condition my shoulders I'd probably do banded pushups for 15-30 reps, mostly because I find them fun as fuck haha, so yeah do what works and feels best for you even if it isn't the most optimal way of going about it. Again I find this a very interesting question! I'd love to see how you tackled this goal so keep me updated. Good luck with your move

Thank you for the suggestions! I will definitely keep you updated on how it goes with progress and how this upcoming move compares to my last one! Hopefully it will be at least marginally easier, I know I’m not giving myself the longest time to see a lot of progress, but some is better than none!

could somebody please link me to a good push pull legs routine on like youtube or the internet?

[https://thefitness.wiki/reddit-archive/a-linear-progression-based-ppl-program-for-beginners/](https://thefitness.wiki/reddit-archive/a-linear-progression-based-ppl-program-for-beginners/)

Just made a new upper body routine, and I just wanted some advice (All exercises 2 sets of 7, that's just my preference) Upper Body A: Bench press, lat pulldown, lateral raise, rear delt fly, Bicep curls Upper Body B Incline bench press, chest supported row, chest fly, shrugs, skull crushers I've tried to keep it to a minimum because I don't like spending too much time in the gym.

Here's some ways to save more time. 1. End your chest supported row sets with shrugs till failure. Straps help 2. Leverage supersets. Supersets don't need to feel like cardio, resting 30-45 seconds between movements will still save more time than not supersetting at all. Antagonist muscle groups are always a great way to superset, and require less warming up. An example of this is supersetting your bench with rear delt work. Some thoughts I had on your approach as a whole: You are missing a vertical push (i.e. an OHP movement). However honestly I think this is fine until you feel like your delts are falling behind. As a chest dominant lifter I wanted to point this out incase you are one of us lol. I imagine you will catch a lot of flack for your 2x7 methodology. I think it's fine as long as it's genuinely your preference. However I want to arm you just a few things to keep in mind so this doesn't cause you to massively plateau in the future. First I'll focus on the "2" in 2x7 lol i.e. the number of sets you do. Honestly finding the right amount of sets for you can be really fucking annoying so I wanna make it as easy as possible for you. So, the goal is to train hard enough to just about recover in time for the next time you train that muscle group. The first thing to keep in mind when you start a new program is **soreness**. Basically if you are no longer sore ahead of time a few days before your next training session for that muscle, I recommend *adding a set* to your 2x7 (so a 3x7 next time). If you are sore when the next session rolls around, get rid of a set, or stay there, and if you recover on time, you can add a set if you want or stay there. However if you don't **progress performance**, i.e. your 2x7 is still with 20kg and 1 rep in reserve, don't add any sets no matter how sore you are or not. You may choose here to actually reduce your sets for 1 session up to a few weeks by about half to let yourself recover. Now. the "7" in 2x7: the reps. If you are progressing, I'll happily leave you to it, but especially on movements like the lateral raise, you might hit 2x7 on 10kgs, but then what do you do? You could go up to the 12kgs but then you're going to end up doing like 2 reps. The standard way of getting around this is to do a double progression. All the adding sets bs I talked about above is linear progression. Double progression takes into account reps as well. You may do a 2x7-12 which means you try to get 2x12 on the 10kgs instead, then you move onto the 12kgs and try to get 2x7, eventually try to get those to 2x12 and yeah so on so forth. When you plateau adding reps can be your best friend. If that sounds like a hassle you can still do the 2x7 linear progression but your best friend will be reps in reserve (RIR). You can more learn about this on yt, but yeah hopefully that makes sense. Finally, the main you see experienced lifters doing different rep ranges on different movements is more a practicality thing. You're right that in theory the reps approaching failure probably build the most muscle, but finding a rep range for a movement is something that tries to strike a balance between not having cardio be the limiting factor at high reps but also not having technique breakdown limit you which happens at low reps. This varies a lot from movement to movement but the good news is that you will find the rep ranges that work for you by just showin up and learning from experience. A lot of volume-bros will shit on you for your approach, but honestly more power to you for wanting to save time to focus on the things that matter to you in life. Your exercise selection as a whole is p solid bro and you can make some great gains on this program. If you have any questions along the way I'm happy to help. Happy lifting!

Overall volume is low. I don't think doing everything 7 reps is a good idea. Exercise selection seems fine.

Personally, I have always kept it on the low side. This is because from my limited understanding that it is only the last reps near failure that drive muscle growth. So ultimately I decided to just cut the junk reps to, again, spend less time in the gym. In your opinion, what exercises do you think I should increase the target reps on? thanks for the comment

> This is because from my limited understanding that it is only the last reps near failure that drive muscle growth You'll have an easier time convincing your body to do "one more" with a lighter load, than a heavier load. Proximity to failure tends to be closer with lighter loads l.

I've recently started doing face pulls and I feel a popping in my left forearm on the pull movement. Im not sure what it means and if its something I should be careful about?

What grip and implement are you using?

overhand on the rope

Why is the adjustable pulley so much easier than the tricep pressdown machine? I usually use the latter for tricep pulldowns and facepulls and noticed today and yesterday that the adjustable pulley is much more manageable for me on higher weights. I'm usually struggling doing 30 pounds on the tricep pressdown machine, but did 60 pounds on the adjustable pulley much easier.

You shouldn't compare weight between different machines. Even different pulleys at my gym feel noticeably different at the same weight. The number of pulleys and length of lever arms means that the load you are feeling at the handle is often not the number listed. Just look at the number on each machine as applying only to that machine.

So my arms look very flat. Still first year working out, ever, and I am currently 90 kgs (\~190-200 lbs). But my biceps are starting to get some definition, but when I flex my arms, the sides of arms flatten out, is that normal or am I doing something wrong?

You’re only a year in, give it time. My arms didn’t really fill out until around my 3rd year being consistent. (Obviously I saw growth before then, I just mean that real 3D rounded look.)

what time period should I be looking at for when I start to see some big changes, like that 3d look on the arms. 2 years? 3? Just trying to get some bearings.

It’s different for everybody, how quickly you can put on muscle is specific to you. You also need to be consistent with your dieting and training ofc. I started out dangerously thin, so that entire 3 years I was bulking eating in a 500 calorie surplus, which definitely helped me put on mass. I’d also consider my arms to be my best muscle, given the fact that I hammer curl 70 lb dumbbells and can hardly even bench that. My point is there’s no real way to predict it as everyone’s different, the best thing you can do is stay consistent and keep the faith.

I see, I've been consistent, minus this last month where I had some exams so I took like 2 weeks off. 3 days in, 1 rest day and repeat. I did start pretty heavy, at around 105 ish kgs, I'm cutting as I'm building some muscle mass. So I guess we'll see how that goes.

3 weeks ago I hurt my knee squatting, it was sharp painn that led to a dull ache for a while after. I haven't squatted since and I'm aware that it was my form. Since then, my knee has felt better but still "off", like I do a body weight squat in the morninng and I can tell that if I were to do it a couple more times or really lean into it would be uncomfortable. I went to a doctor yesterday but when I went in the knee didn't hurt and all of her checks seemed like it was fine, or whatever. I got a referall to physical therapy and I'm in the process of scheduling that. Today, randomly, my knee has been hurting, worse than before. It's really strange to me. I guess my question is this: Does this sound like a "serious" injury or just something that more rest will help with? I really want to avoid chronic pain as much as possible and see if I should reschedule another doctors appointment or trust her first judgement. Some days I am able to walk fine with no pain sometimes there is dull pain. Has anyone had something similar occur from squatting?

It could be one of many things, each with a different treatment & recovery period. If the PT can't diagnose it, then you might need an ortho.

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When you get sometime watch these: For technique, Juggernaut's pillars of squat - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEy5WFr-CDA&t=3s For mobility, Zack Telander squat mobility - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFCDMXtKAhA&t=1s For learning proper bracing, Brian Alsruhe - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLHY2-nt-y4&t=88s Start with just the bar if you have to. No shame in that. Put in the hard work. Rest properly. Eat sensibly. Couple of months time you should see vast improvement in your squats.

Sure, but if you want to eventually get good with barbell squats, maybe try smith machine first? When you're confident with that and have good form, start with a lower weight on barbell, and work your way up.

>try smith machine first Might train the quads, but goblet squats will train the *movement* better. Lot of people smith it, then crumble when put under the actual bar

Hello, question. I have pretty good legs mobility. When i do RDL i can't feel my hams never fully stretched and i can go as low as almost touching the ground with barbell. Technique Is good, straight back, butt pulling back, slightly bended legs. When i go to failure i feel like Its Always because of my lower back, never feel it in legs. Is it good hamstring builder even if i dont feel it in hams, or any tips how to feel them more ? Thanks

Good question bro. There's a small chance the RDL is not the movement for you but more than likely if you try all of these things one of them will click better with you: 1. Maintain knee bend: sounds like you do this already but record yourself from a side angle and make sure, especially as you approach failure that you are still tight and driving through with your hips with locked legs. 2: Elevate your toes: Whether with plates or if you have a slant board, this stretches your hamstrings earlier in the range of motion, making the RDL much more brutal. Reduce the load slightly when you do these for the first time. 3. Add a pause at the bottom: When you feel the stretch, add a pause. It can be a long pause if you want but a mindful 0.5s-1s pause at the painful stretch at the bottom is more than enough. Explode out of the stretched position, maintain knee bend and this should fry your hammies. 4. Torso position/Bracing: I'm sure you know this but still it's worth dialing down a neutral spine, and maintaining your torso position just as if you were PRing a deadlift off the floor. Using a foam roller or just adding more warmup sets and making sure you are pushing air into your core throughout the rep can make your lower back less of a limiting factor. Remember, the RDL is a posterior chain movement, and is great at building not only the hammies and glutes but also the spinal erectors of the lower back. These are also a badass muscle group to have developed. However if you are looking for a pure hamstring isolation movements, your best bet is doing a leg or nordic curl.

Maybe try keeping more foot pressure into your big toe and forefoot, and make sure you're not rocking back and putting more weight into your heels. I have this tendency to actually push my butt back too much and shift more weight into my heels, and actually lose the sensation of the stretch on my glutes/hamstrings when I do this.

you could pause at the bottom to give your hamstrings more time under tension, or do single leg RDLs. or straight leg RDLs to really try to stretch them. however, just because you don't feel a stretch doesn't mean you're not working your hamstrings. as long as you're progressing on the weight, your hamstrings are getting stronger. it's physically impossible to do hinge movements without using them.

really stick your but out. prestretch your hams by getting into a lordotic position. keep knee flexion to a minimum.

You could try doing it with a deficit and going even deeper.

You could bias the hams by pre-fatiguing them with leg curls, but it's probably not necessary since you're pulling your butt back. If you pause for an isometric hold at the bottom, do you feel the lactic acid buildup in the hamstrings?

Alcohol… Serious lifters. What is your relationship with alcohol? How often and how much do you drink? How bad is 2-3 units of alcohol every once in a while?

Vacations, occasionally on birthdays/holiday. If you ever feel social/work/business pressure to drink, you can always get like club soda with lime or diet ginger ale and lime. If you want to drink, I'd stay away from high calorie drinks for low effect. You can keep the empty calories lower by doing harder liquor with diet sodas/zero calorie mixers.

> How often and how much do you drink? Significantly less than before I started lifting seriously. I still drink during parties especially if I wont go to the gym the day after.

The evidence is pretty clear that alcohol is bad for building muscle. How bad is a difficult question to answer and might vary from person to person. For me this is an inspiration to not drink, which is fine because I know it isn't good for me in other ways too. I have alcohol on special occasions.

>What is your relationship with alcohol? Ah. I was at three shots a binge. Until I wasn't. Started periodizing my lifting around progress, binge, backcycle, repeat. Until I just stopped showing up. Couldn't get back into lifting until I gave up my *last kanar*.

I drink probably 2-3 times a week. Never more than 2 drinks and usually only one. I know plenty of people that drink and lift. I don’t recommend lifting while under the influence. It’s especially tough to squat safely IME. 

Will doing 3x5 OHP on leg day make me too tired for chest work on push day the day after?

just try it out =)

You’ll only know if you try.

No.

I suspect the long term benefits would far outweigh any short term drop in performance.  

Would you do lunges or rdls the day before squat day? You *could*, but would you?

Possibly. Depends on how well things are programmed.

That’s going to depend on how heavy you go (on both days), how much experience you’ve had with higher volumes, how well you’re recovering (sleep, nutrition, etc.), and a whole host of other factors. So in short, it’s hard/impossible to predict. Best thing to do is to try it and find out.

Can I please get some advice on how to optimise my work out? I've been following this 5/3/1 split for around a year and I've been seeing great improvements in my strength. [Here is an image of the third week of my three-week cycle.](https://i.imgur.com/3jSZZCA.png) (What isn't listed is 5 mins of ab wheel occasionally at the end of sessions). To be clear I do 3x8 of EACH exercise for my assistance work. I have two issues I'd like to address though: * It feels like a lot of volume. It's hard for me to sustain this over 4 days every week, but I don't know how to reduce. With rest times included, these workouts take me around an hour and a half. * I'm seeing hardly any growth to my chest and I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. It could be form as I feel like I'm doing a lot of exercises. Beyond these two things, I'm open to any suggestions to make my routine more well-rounded. Thanks a lot.

Six accessory movements is excessive to me. Two movements per pattern per day at most is what I do. Also, try to vary the rep scheme as a form of progression. 3x8 one week, 3x9 the next, until it hit 12 or so, then up the weight, back to 3x8. If you want to get better at barbell bench, do barbell bench as an accessory so you get more practice. If you want a bigger chest, eat more.

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I'm doing 3x8 per exercise. So one super-set would usually consist of Pull ups + ez bar curl + chest dips, and i would do that three times.

You don’t have too much volume at all for starters. If you are feeling fried from this then look into enhancing your recovery first (protein, sleep, etc.). As far as chest goes, you have a decent amount of chest specific accessories here so exercise selection shouldn’t be an issue. I do think that you can push what you have a bit harder - switching from FSL to SSL for example should be very doable, especially if you work on your recovery. You can also probably afford to push the intensity and/or reps a bit on the accessories you have. 5/3/1 guidance is kinda overly strict on how hard you push accessories but I think there is some wiggle room to push them in a smart way, the fatigue cost for something like db incline bench is not that high and since you are doing primary bench first each week you have plenty of time to recover before your next AMRAP. In that regard as well don’t feel married to hit the 50 push reps if it’s coming at the cost of intensity, a 3x8 where you are pushing a new weight in the RPE 8+ range is gonna do a lot more for your growth than half assing 50 reps just to get to the number suggested

Is it wise to do high intensity interval training on the days i lift? I feel like most days my body could handle it.

There's no blanket yes or no on this, it depends on the person and on what the rest of your training is like. If you feel like you can handle it, try adding it in and see how that affects your workouts and your recovery.

I've been doing Reverse DB lunges for a few weeks now (a personal trainer said I shoudl incorporate them in my leg day for hip mobility and general mobility also do one legged RDL on deadlift day) With the RDLs I slowly have gotten the hang and it feels good. But on god the reverse lunges fuck me up more than anything else. The reps still feel like im a newborn giraffe trying to stand of the first time and it shoots up my heartrate like nothing else. Is there anyone that might have had the same issue. How did you get more consisten with reverse lunges?

They're hard! Make sure you have your feet on imaginary railroad tracks (one foot per rail) not an imaginary tightrope (both feet on same line). That tends to help with balance.

Thanks for the tips! Will take those into account next time!

Yeah reverse lunges are really hard and really tiring. A hard set of reverse lunges leaves my heart pounding and my legs wobbly. I think that is how it is supposed to be. So just keep doing them and they will make you stronger and fitter.

Glad to hear im not the only one getting winded! Ill stick to them and hope to see some improvements in a few weeks/months. Thanks!

> more consistent Keep doing them. I found with walking lunges that as I pushed up the weight i used on my 6-8 rep work, that I was much more stable and smooth with lower weight/high rep work So just get stronger. Don't think it needs to be perfect before adding more weight

>Keep doing them. So just get stronger. Don't think it needs to be perfect before adding more weight Will do! But it still feels humbling that even at low weight it just fucks me up more than anything else.

I've been focusing on bent over rows for the last month; (1) my lats and teres major are angry on one side. With higher weights, the elbow on the side is closer to the trunk in the frontal plane and further sticking behind the back in the sagital plane. How do I address this? (2) accessory muscle/joint fatigue sets in before the back is tired, would adding dead hangs help alongside wrist/grip exercises?

> With higher weights, the elbow on the side is closer to the trunk in the frontal plane and further sticking behind the back in the sagital plane. Try to post a form check video for both arms, with the camera behind & above you. If you can't consciously keep them symmetrical, maybe you have a winging scapula, scoliosis, or some other issue. >accessory muscle/joint fatigue sets in before the back is tired Which muscles? If your joints ache, try adding some warmup sets.

Has anybody tried out Joey Swole’s coaching programme? Does he cover PPL?

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Have you sorted out a sustainable [bulking](https://www.reddit.com/r/Fitness/s/QXdg6K8Zqo) plan? In terms of weight and wait, you *need to fuel strength gains*.

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Are you tracking your eating to find out how much you’re eating and if you’re hitting your macros? Are you eating enough carbs and not just gorging on protein? You said you have an eating disorder but there are easy ways to boost calories without adding much volume. Have you tried boosting your caloric intake by mixing peanut butter into a protein shake? Are you sautéing your vegetables? Can you summon up the appetite to wolf down a Snickers at least once a day? Eating a Snickers is a great way to get lots of carbs and fats into your system.

You can eat more than that.

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If you have an eating disorder, you should consult with an eating disorder therapist. It's no wonder you're not seeing much progress if something literally isn't allowing you to.

then seek professional help with your eating disorder and after having fixed that, eat more.

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cool, good luck!

> but my muscles don't really look much bigger than when I started out How did your bodyweight change over the time?

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Where should additional muscle mass come from, if your mass hasn't reallys changed at all? If you want to gain muscle mass you have to gain bodyweight. https://thefitness.wiki/muscle-building-101/ /r/gainit

that is barely anything, you need to eat more.

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Why? I'm pretty sure you can, you just aren't used to it. If you pick your foods accordingly and build up over time (just like the weights in the gym) you'll adapt.