Consistency, Growth , Self Belief - Gaining muscle and then getting lean

OP

22/06/19:
Bent Over Row 65kg for 5x5 :smile:

Pull Ups bodyweight 6x6
Cable Rows 59kg for 5x8 (form was way better than last week)
Barbell Bicep Curls 27.5kg for 3x8
Alternating curls 10kg for 3x8
Face Pulls 3x12

stretching and foam rolling

I am finding that I am way too exhausted by the big lifts by the time I get to the curls.

Reply 62

OP

AH you win some you lose some...

Overhead Press 40kg - 1x3,1x5,1x4,3x3

Bench Press 55kg for 3x12

Incline Dumbell Press 18kg for 3x8

Tricep V bar push down 21kg for 3x9 SS with 3kg lateral raises 3x9

Dips 10kg for 3x8

Ah so annoyed I didn’t get the Overhead Press as 40kg is pretty light for most people.

Also the past week I managed to eat around my calorie goal of 2350, and I have maintained so today and the next 7 days I am bumping up calories to 2500. Lifting instensely 6 days a week probably burns too many calories.

Current weight 71.6kg

Reply 63

OP

Looks like I am ready to start squatting again in terms of my knee. But need to build up back to my weight from the bar it seems. Great opportunity to rework on my form I guess.

Today I squatted the Barbell 5x5 felt fine on my knees. I have noticed that I struggle to my elbows down enough even when squatting high bar so I really need to work on my upper back/shoulder mobility.

wall sits 3x45secs
Squat 5x5 20kg
Hip Thrusts 45kg 4x6
supported partial leg raises 3x5
stretches

Also 4x7 pull ups as I am doing pull ups 3x a week

Going to transistion to the actual legs programme for my programme soon lol. Also going to add squats to one of my upper body days because I really want to get my squat back up ASAP

(edited 4 years ago)

Reply 64

OP

Today is rest day but went gym anyway and probs will do this in the future. Gym 7days a week

Today mainly was to try running and see how my knee was doing. I managed to do about 10 mind running on speeds 6-7 in increments of about 30secs-1min15. Knees feel great right now but I stopped running when I felt some discomfort come about.

Before my run I warmed up with dynamic lunges, and then bodyweight glute bridges and body weight hip thrusts. I tried single legged glute bridges but they still don’t feel right so I am going to focus on getting stronger on the double legged variations.

After my run I hit abs. Do 6 hanging raises (knees more extended so getting close to leg raises). Each set would be 6 hanging raises followed by 6 knee raises. 3 sets.

Finished off with stretching. Stretching everyday has done wonders for my knee problem.

Hopefully by the end of summer I will be able to run a lot, and then hopefully my knees will have recovered and then I get involved in a martial art or another sport in my 2nd year of university.!!!!!

:wink:

life changes quickly. I’m so proud of myself. I used to feel worthless and helpless. Now the goal is to implement my success and consistency in fitness into other aspects of life

Reply 65

OP

Today was a tough day at the gym. I felt really gloomy, and couldn't even focus on how many sets/reps I had done lol. But its fine I know that if I keep working at it and learning from my mistakes then I will be where I want to be at in the future.

Deadlift 120kg for 1x4? or 5? Idk...
Pull Ups 7x5
Rows 59kg for 3x6. Ah failed this, idk where I went wrong as last time 3x10 was good.
Bicep Curls 30kg for 3x6
Alternating curls 12kg 2x12
Facepulls 3x8 15kg

idk what was up today but for the first time in a while I didn't enjoy the gym. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

In back at you

OP

Bulk progress.

I am pretty sure that I am counting calories properly but I still gain weight too damn easily. I haven’t managed to get less than 0.4kg a week which is what is my aim.

https://imgur.com/a/RAqx18Q

Today’s weight must have been influenced by water gain, Was running out of food and had lots of calories left yesterday so ate bread,peanut butter and rice before going to sleep. Btw I do weigh myself on an empty stomach.

Before 16th June - goal was 2350 calories but I was still in Halls and often went accidentally over most days by a lot.

June 16 - 21st - felt like I was gaining too quickly so was strict and managed to get 2350 (give or take 50 some days).

2350 seems to equal maintaince am I right? (Especially since I lift 6 days a week).

So I bumped it up to 2500 and here I am. Gonna see how much I weigh on Sunday

Opinions? @Angry cucumber @Gone Revising II @illusionz and anyone else who’s watching

(edited 4 years ago)

Reply 68

I have never counted calories. I did a very slow bulk years ago when I consciously ate more.

At the moment I'm just aiming to lean bulk or recomp and am eating normally with a few protein shakes chucked in.

I have never cut in my life. (well, I thought about it for a week and ate less carb. Then I stopped).

Essentially it's physics. If you're gaining too fast eat less, knock it down by 200 calories or so. Do that for a week or two and see how weight changes.

(edited 4 years ago)

Reply 69

OP

Good workout today :biggrin:

.

Bench Press 80kg 4x5,1x3 a few reps on the 4th set were questionable. So going to hit this again next week. Counting as a failure, and probably going to change programme because the same thing has happened a few times. I need to stop trying to force LP

Overhead Press 27.5kg 3x10
Incline Dumbell Press 18kg 3x10
Tricep vBar push down 21kg 3x10 SS with Side cable lateral raises 3kg for 3x9
Dips 10kg 3x8
Cable Lateral raises 1kg 3x15

3x8 hanging knee raises (tried to do it slower and hold it)

So proud of my bench press today. When spotting someone I also noticed that my gyms bench restricts 1 arm more if that makes sense which could be a problem.

In terms of bench press technique I tried focusing on squeezing glutes (while keeping them on bench) more. I also focused on the cue ‘drive your feet into the ground’ and that worked a few times. So I am looking forward to my lighter bench session where I will be practicing my form a lot with 3x12 :smile:

(edited 4 years ago)

Reply 70

OP

Programme update:

I’ve decided to come to terms with the fact that I can’t linear progress anymore, and if I keep trying I’m just going to be failing/end up hurting myself.

I’ve decided to change my programme to 5/3/1 progression on (Bench Press,Deadlift,Overhead Press). I can progress linear on Squats because I’ve had to start again at low weight anyway. Rest of the programme is pretty much the same + volume. I will be changing accessories so I don’t get bored.

I’m setting myself up the best in the long run, and theres more to life than lifting the heaviest anyway.

Reply 71

Good luck. One thing I will say (learning from mistakes I made in the past) is stick with it for at least a few cycles to give it a chance. It may feel like ti's too easy the first cycle as you set your training max.

Don't deload after 4 weeks though, make it at least 7.

Original post by SuperHuman98

Programme update:

I’ve decided to come to terms with the fact that I can’t linear progress anymore, and if I keep trying I’m just going to be failing/end up hurting myself.

I’ve decided to change my programme to 5/3/1 progression on (Bench Press,Deadlift,Overhead Press). I can progress linear on Squats because I’ve had to start again at low weight anyway. Rest of the programme is pretty much the same + volume. I will be changing accessories so I don’t get bored.

I’m setting myself up the best in the long run, and theres more to life than lifting the heaviest anyway.

Reply 72

OP

Original post by illusionz

Good luck. One thing I will say (learning from mistakes I made in the past) is stick with it for at least a few cycles to give it a chance. It may feel like ti's too easy the first cycle as you set your training max.

Don't deload after 4 weeks though, make it at least 7.

Took me a while to understand 5/3/1. I didn’t read anything about a deload though?? Could you explain plz :smile:

Yeah 5/3/1 looks like it isn’t enough but I guess if I stick with it for a year in the long run it all adds up, and I have accessories anyway, and I don’t risk screwing myself up like I have been the last month with LP

Reply 73

Gone Revising II

13

If your food intake, training and lifestyle are stable, and your weight isnt moving, then that is your maintenance.

Good luck with 5/3/1, lits of people speak positively about it. Are your goals entirely strength focussed?

Reply 74

OP

Original post by Gone Revising II

If your food intake, training and lifestyle are stable, and your weight isnt moving, then that is your maintenance.

Good luck with 5/3/1, lits of people speak positively about it. Are your goals entirely strength focussed?

Not entirely. I want both strength and muscle mass. I don’t want to be the strongest guy ever but I wanna get respectable numbers. Like benching atleast 100kg for sets, and deadlifting 150kg.

Mainly I’m just super salty because I trained since I was 16 but made 0 gains, and now I know what I am doing I just want to get to where I should be if that makes sense.

Reply 75

The volume comes from tge accessory work you do. The main lifts are not enough. It takes quite a lot of thought, or at least it felt like that to me. Are you doing one of the common accessory sets? Boring But Big probably does what you want.

Every 531 variant I've seen had a deload week as the 4th or 8th week where you do like 50% of your training max. Am surprised you've not seen anything about that. Wendler does seem to tinker and update it all the time, so my information is probably a few years out of date.

Finally, most gains and all growth come from your diet. You need to eat big to get big. Wendler advises people to eat big on all of his programs.

(edited 4 years ago)

Reply 76

OP

Original post by illusionz

The volume comes from tge accessory work you do. The main lifts are not enough. It takes quite a lot of thought, or at least it felt like that to me. Are you doing one of the common accessory sets? Boring But Big probably does what you want.

Every 531 variant I've seen had a deload week as the 4th or 8th week where you do like 50% of your training max. Am surprised you've not seen anything about that. Wendler does seem to tinker and update it all the time, so my information is probably a few years out of date.

Finally, most gains and all growth come from your diet. You need to eat big to get big. Wendler advises people to eat big on all of his programs.

On Reddit I’ve gotten conflicting advice. People say that 5/3/1 is just a template so I could programme it into my PPL (this programme is from Reddit). But then others say that it’s easy to mess up 5/3/1

I was looking at the different variants like Boring But Big but I am unsure what to do because of my squatting situation. Unless I just do BBB and then do my own thing when it comes to squat days

Reply 77

The core of 531 is just a template. It defines a low volume progression system for the 4 main lifts.

There is a large amount of freedom to program the rest of your routine yourself. Thus, you can take the base 531, do one main lift a day and add accessories. There are various things you can do to increase volume of the main lifts, whether joker sets, first set last (FSL), or as lighter accessory eg BBB.

Or you can take the 531 progression for the main lifts and add it to your PPL.

531 is incredibly flexible which can be great but can also be bad, as you need to do quite a lot of thinking about how you're going to program it.

Original post by SuperHuman98

On Reddit I’ve gotten conflicting advice. People say that 5/3/1 is just a template so I could programme it into my PPL (this programme is from Reddit). But then others say that it’s easy to mess up 5/3/1

I was looking at the different variants like Boring But Big but I am unsure what to do because of my squatting situation. Unless I just do BBB and then do my own thing when it comes to squat days

Reply 78

Gone Revising II

13

From the man himself;

https://www.t-nation.com/workouts/531-how-to-build-pure-strength

Reply 79

OP