***The 2020 Gym Rats Thread*** ᕦ( ͠°◞ °)ᕥ
- Thread starter Somnambulist
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Man of Honour
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Sounds like true love to me.
Caporegime
#bromance
Caporegime
Hi all. I've been lifting weights for about 8 months now and am 5'11" and 93Kg, ~23% body fat, 39yo.
I've seen really significant improvements in how my body looks, but it could be much better and I'm struggling with what I should do next in terms of:
1. Continuing what I'm doing, which is basically eating (as healthy as possible but not strict) and lifting as much as possible, with almost no cardio, vs.
2. 'Cutting' i.e. more cardio in the form of skipping and incline treadmill, continuing with compound lifts as heavy as I can maintain
I feel that my body fat is too high but also that I'm not strong / muscly enough. I'm training 2-3 times per week and as long as I eat enough each week, my lifts are improving at a reasonable rate.
My goal isn't to look like a strong man but I do want to improve my lifts and build more muscle, and I suppose just have a better looking body.
My lifts are currently (for 3 x 8):
30Kg DB bench press
45Kg overhead BB press
140Kg deadlift
100Kg squat
60Kg BB row
Pics:
What do you think I should do / focus on? Thanks for any advice.
I've seen really significant improvements in how my body looks, but it could be much better and I'm struggling with what I should do next in terms of:
1. Continuing what I'm doing, which is basically eating (as healthy as possible but not strict) and lifting as much as possible, with almost no cardio, vs.
2. 'Cutting' i.e. more cardio in the form of skipping and incline treadmill, continuing with compound lifts as heavy as I can maintain
I feel that my body fat is too high but also that I'm not strong / muscly enough. I'm training 2-3 times per week and as long as I eat enough each week, my lifts are improving at a reasonable rate.
My goal isn't to look like a strong man but I do want to improve my lifts and build more muscle, and I suppose just have a better looking body.
My lifts are currently (for 3 x 8):
30Kg DB bench press
45Kg overhead BB press
140Kg deadlift
100Kg squat
60Kg BB row
Pics:
What do you think I should do / focus on? Thanks for any advice.
Caporegime
Can you train more often? 2 times a week is pretty low. 4 would be ideal.
As unhelpful as this might be, it depends on what you actually want. As LiE suggests, 2-3 times/week isn't really enough to make use of those extra calories, or make the biggest gains.
If you want more mass, then train more. If you want to lean out, train more and keep your diet constant.
Man of Honour
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Deadlift day and effortlessly managed 235kg singles again followed by 225kg doubles. Plenty more in the tank. Happy that the progression continues.
Watched some people squatting. Dear lord - knee caving, 1/2 squats, soft shoes with feet caving inwards. The whole thing just looks painful. Amazing how many people I haven’t seen for weeks who have returned weak and with giant bellies. Then of course try to continue where they left off.
AC joint feels great. Tweaked it slightly on Wednesday, took some ibuprofen and it instantly went down and all pain has since gone. So back to bench on Sunday.
Im so tempted to test max lifts, but will stick to the program and maintain the progression - pretty much 1.25kg onto bench and deadlift every two weeks and 2.5kg onto squat. It’s gradual, but my aim is safe, continues progression.
OHP is at 77.5kg for reps and sets, the goal is strict 80kg for reps.
@Participant as the others have said, more frequent training. Skip cardio, focus on weights and the rest will come. Add more sets in as your fitness improves. Just keep going, especially with the big lifts.
Watched some people squatting. Dear lord - knee caving, 1/2 squats, soft shoes with feet caving inwards. The whole thing just looks painful. Amazing how many people I haven’t seen for weeks who have returned weak and with giant bellies. Then of course try to continue where they left off.
AC joint feels great. Tweaked it slightly on Wednesday, took some ibuprofen and it instantly went down and all pain has since gone. So back to bench on Sunday.
Im so tempted to test max lifts, but will stick to the program and maintain the progression - pretty much 1.25kg onto bench and deadlift every two weeks and 2.5kg onto squat. It’s gradual, but my aim is safe, continues progression.
OHP is at 77.5kg for reps and sets, the goal is strict 80kg for reps.
@Participant as the others have said, more frequent training. Skip cardio, focus on weights and the rest will come. Add more sets in as your fitness improves. Just keep going, especially with the big lifts.
Fat can be lost a lot faster than muscle can be gained, and the reality is the higher your bf is, the longer you’ll have to end up dieting to get to a level most people would be happy with. If I was 23% I’d just cut calories to get myself down to 12% or so and look to maintain my lifts. Yes this might take 12-16 weeks (with a 1.5-2 week diet break in the middle), but then once you’re done and get back to gaining you’re then done for another 12 months or so as long as you eat slightly above maintenance vs everything in sight and piling weight back on. You don’t need to add cardio in to cut, just cut calories sufficiently (which then gives you the option if you have a serious still to add that in rather than cutting calories further) and aim to be seeing 0.5-1% total bodyweight lost a week.
You won’t gain absolute strength as quickly (if at all towards the end of the diet) but your relative strength will improve in terms of the strength:bodyweight ratio and you’ll be able to see what your base physique actually looks like. You just have to be realistic that fat gain comes with the territory when it comes to building your physique; at some point this fat has to come off, and better you float between 12% and the upper teens, with like a ratio of bulking to cutting where the former far outweighs the latter vs yolo’ing it till you get really fat then having to spend a year dieting to get rid of it.
Consigliere
How are you guys measuring bodyfat accurately?
My gym has a Boditrax system which i am using weekly to track progress but read it isn't totally accurate.
My gym has a Boditrax system which i am using weekly to track progress but read it isn't totally accurate.
I use a mirror.
Man of Honour
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They're all inaccurate, even DEXA which is the most reliable (and expensive), but if you use methods like bio-electrical impedance under the same conditions consistently, or are able to use calipers proficiently, then even if the number given out is incorrect you can see the trend which is fine.
Like most I just use the mirror along with some bf estimation in pictures guides (easily searchable). You can only go by subcutaneous fat, since visceral fat isn't visible, but since the latter is easier for the body to utilise it's typically the first stuff to go - nobody abs lean is going to be carrying much, if any. The thing that throws people off is that when they don't have enough lean mass...
But if you lift and want to look good it's just a range thing:
- 12-16% beach lean, which is low enough for most people to be happy with. Yay abs, muscle definition etc, easy to diet down to without needing to do anything fancy.
- 8-12% you're in ripped territory which is more sustainable for some than others and the lower down the range you go, the more you gross people out with your vascularity/striations. This is where it starts getting hard to achieve but do-able if the mindset is there and you don't mind being a bit OCD with tracking diet/activity.
- <8% unsustainable crazy low levels people in bodybuilding get to for their competitions, which nobody achieves without Herculean dedication and intent... for regular people this is an N/A range.
So really it doesn't matter what the exact % is as much as just aiming to fall in the target range.
Man of Honour
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And just like that the January rush is over 
Associate
Haven't been training in 4 months now cos I've been in hospital. Gonna start training again as soon as I get hrt. Cba training with 2.6nmol test. Can't wait to eat chicken and steak all the time again
Ooft. Sorry to hear it, ut good luck!
Man of Honour
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Frustrating.
You could do what a guy just did in my gym, shadow box your way down the main corridor
- it’ll distract everyone from your lost gains and everyone will think your well tough 
Soldato
Same. I'm now at expert level.
I saw a physio on Thursday. Apparently I have hip flexor tendinopathy. She's given me some exercises to do anyway. I've been logging my 1RMs this week as I've an op on Wednesday that'll prevent me lifting for at least a couple of weeks. I'm really hoping I'll be able to go straight back into LP at 80% of where I am currently.
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Man of Honour
Soldato
I ask my mrs, doesn't get more brutal and truthful than that
Ha! Similar to me!
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