Ah thanks a lot for this list. It’ll definitely come in handy
You’re pretty underweight. If you’ll follow my advice:
Do you have a LIDL nearby mate?
If so, you’re set. You need to find a product called ‘mortadella’. It’s like an enormous italian sausage with olives and seeds and stuff in it, only it comes in thin slices. If you want to- and once you’ve tasted it you will- then stuff whole slices of it into your mouth and swallow them in like 10 bites.
I’m not being sarcastic, I’m 100% serious. Along with Mark Rippetoe, I thank Mortadella every day for the weight I’ve managed to put on.
Just a suggestion. When I was 15 I couldn’t afford a gym membership either and my mother was spending every penny trying to keep us a float. So I walked a few miles to the closest gym and I talked to the owner and explained my situation and he let me work a hour after each session so about 5 times a week. I cleaned the equipment, stocked up coolers, cleaned locker rooms, and stuff like that and he let me train there for “free”.
Awesome. I used to do the same, but with horses rather than iron.
Hey guys, been almost a year since I first made the post so here’s an update:
I continued with starting strength (adapted to what I had available) for a few months. Here are my numbers
Bench Press: 58.4Kg (23.75 both sides plus 10.9Kg bar)
Deadlift - 90.9Kg (40 both sides plus 10.9Kg bar)
OHP - Could barely make progress here… 33Kg
Pole assisted pistol squat: 3x5
Close Pull-up - 10,7,6
As I started to stall, I moved to bodyweight for around a month:
Pole assisted squat - Same as above
Half wall handstand push-up - 5,5,3
Archer push-up - 4,4,4 (both sides)
1 leg elevated Bench inverted row - 7,7,7
1 arm 1 leg lift plank - 50 seconds (25 each side)
I’m 6ft tall and weigh 65Kg. My body fat % is roughly 14-15
So as you can see, I’ve gotten relatively strong over the year. Not much bigger though. Which leads me to my next question:
What should I do NOW? I want to increase size more than strength now, but I don’t know what to do.
Things to know about my gym (only one for miles):
It DOES have barbells, but not proper ones. They can only support 20kg on each side, bar weighs roughly 3 kg. It has a smith machine. It has dumbbells. It has a pullup bar and dip bars. And many, many machines for isolating muscles. There is no way of weighting pullups/dips as far as I know.
Hope I’ve given enough info, thanks in advance!
Since you have plenty of machines and not much to support traditional lifts, I think a standard bodybuilding split would do… I believe there’s a couple in the “Do this routine, not that dumb one” thread… upper/lower, push/pull, push/pull/legs… do some research to see what fits your interests. Personally, I’d go with push/pull, but I’ve never done upper/lower.
[quote]1 Man Island wrote:
Since you have plenty of machines and not much to support traditional lifts, I think a standard bodybuilding split would do… I believe there’s a couple in the “Do this routine, not that dumb one” thread… upper/lower, push/pull, push/pull/legs… do some research to see what fits your interests. Personally, I’d go with push/pull, but I’ve never done upper/lower.[/quote]
I will check out the routines and start tomorrow once I’ve decided on one! Thanks for pointing me in the right direction
[quote]Flight1 wrote:
I’m 6ft tall and weigh 65Kg. My body fat % is roughly 14-15[/quote]
Iit’s been a full year since you started this thread and you’ve gained 9kg, and presumably very little bodyfat.
Like I told you a few months ago, you’re seeing slow and steady progress, with an emphasis on slow. Bro, buddy, pal, man, you… have… to… eat. Not to rain on the parade at all, because your strength has come up a good bit, but someone in your position could’ve and should’ve made that weight gain in at most half the time.
You’re a tall, young kid who’s training consistently, and you’re obviously very dedicated. Food is the only thing holding you back. I don’t know if an issue of convenience/practicality, money, habit, appetite, or what, but until you really start pounding down an obscene amount of calories seven days a week, you’re going to keep plinking along gaining just a couple of pounds every once in a while.
Try to get fat. No joke. Set a deadline for the next 6 weeks and intentionally try to get 10 pounds or 5kg fatter, while still training hard and smart of course. See what happens to your body.
What, exactly, did you eat yesterday?
I agree that something like the classic back/bis, chest/shoulder/tris, legs could be a good choice. Or, like I mentioned on Page 3/a few months ago, the upper/lower split I wrote about here, subbing exercises where necessary:
A better barbell would be nice, but this is still everything you need, no worries.
Do you know what weight the dumbbells go up to? Based on the limited barbells, I just don’t want to presume there’s a ton of DBs available.
If there are dumbbells, then there are ways, but we’ll get to that if/when we need to.
Thanks for the reply Chris, I will DEFINITELY eat more then! My diet has been pretty good but not enough calories, clearly. Sample day:
Breakfast:
Porridge with nuts, cup of tea, 2 toast with jam/peanut butter, banana and/or other fruit.
If it’s not a workout day and I have time i make a 3 egg omelette.
Lunch:
Work out days I come home and make pasta, I make and eat A LOT ( Around 220g is the uncooked measurement of pasta) of that. Often with pesto/cheese. Piece of fruit.
Non work out days I have 2 fresh sandwiches from local cafe, usually cheddar salad bagels but some times chicken, pesto mozzarella sandwiches since they’re also cheap.
Snacks: 1 or 2 more pieces of fruit, sometimes handful of nuts and some more toast. Glass of milk. Sometimes a cookie.
Dinner: whatever parents make (or what i make). traditional stuff. stir frys, pasta bolognese, lasagnas, roast dinner etc. I be sure to always eat about 3 times as much as everyone else.
And yeah, that’s about it. Should I use MyFitnessPal ( or alternative calorie tracker app) to measure? I briefly used it at one point, shooting for 2,800 calories a day.
Dumbbells go pretty heavy. Highest one is 40kg and I can Goblet Squat that but not much else. I had a look at the thread suggested but couldnt find anything I thought was suitable unfortunately.
Thanks in advance for any more help!
Honestly I don’t think this is all that bad a situation for a beginner. I still wouldn’t stray from training full body three days a week, but instead of fucking around with these poor quality barbells, I would focus on something along the lines of making your key lifts the dip, chin up and split squat. Work up to doing a whole load of dips and chin ups with a 20kg plate strapped to you as well as doing the rear foot elevated split squat with 35kg in each of your hands for a good few reps and you’ll be a whole heap bigger, stronger and more conditioned without worrying about trying to squat without a rack or deadlift with a 10kg bar. Maybe mix up the rep ranges and swap the grips on pull ups, sub the dips for weighted push ups (if you have a training partner) and the split squats for skater squats or lunges every now and again and in my opinion you’ll have a pretty damn good place to start. (and if you wanna get big eat more)
[quote]Flight1 wrote:
Hey guys, been almost a year since I first made the post so here’s an update:
I continued with starting strength (adapted to what I had available) for a few months. Here are my numbers
Bench Press: 58.4Kg (23.75 both sides plus 10.9Kg bar)
Deadlift - 90.9Kg (40 both sides plus 10.9Kg bar)
OHP - Could barely make progress here… 33Kg
Pole assisted pistol squat: 3x5
Close Pull-up - 10,7,6
As I started to stall, I moved to bodyweight for around a month:
Pole assisted squat - Same as above
Half wall handstand push-up - 5,5,3
Archer push-up - 4,4,4 (both sides)
1 leg elevated Bench inverted row - 7,7,7
1 arm 1 leg lift plank - 50 seconds (25 each side)
I’m 6ft tall and weigh 65Kg. My body fat % is roughly 14-15
So as you can see, I’ve gotten relatively strong over the year. Not much bigger though. Which leads me to my next question:
What should I do NOW? I want to increase size more than strength now, but I don’t know what to do.
Things to know about my gym (only one for miles):
It DOES have barbells, but not proper ones. They can only support 20kg on each side, bar weighs roughly 3 kg. It has a smith machine. It has dumbbells. It has a pullup bar and dip bars. And many, many machines for isolating muscles. There is no way of weighting pullups/dips as far as I know.
Hope I’ve given enough info, thanks in advance![/quote]
You re NOT relatively strong at all. Plese understand this is not an insult. Even if you are using machines and isolation exercises, these must increase in weight for you to get bigger even though you would like to “increase size more than strength”.
Though gaining muscle will be largely a function of your diet, I can assure you that if you gain 50lbs and still only bench your bodyweight, you will be reaching dream bulker status.
[quote]Flight1 wrote:
And yeah, that’s about it. Should I use MyFitnessPal ( or alternative calorie tracker app) to measure? I briefly used it at one point, shooting for 2,800 calories a day.
Dumbbells go pretty heavy. Highest one is 40kg and I can Goblet Squat that but not much else. I had a look at the thread suggested but couldnt find anything I thought was suitable unfortunately.
Thanks in advance for any more help![/quote]
The Myfitneesspal app is excellent! Use it but don’t get fixated on an abitrary number for caloric excess. Try 2800 calories for a week nd evaluate results. If you are gaining muscle with negligible little bodyfat, go ahead and increase calories. Conversely, if you are gaining too much fat, dial the calories a bit.
If you do not have the necessary equipment to do the major lifts, better alternatives would be machines that can put the most load on your targeted muscle groups, which includes THE SMITH MACHINE. You CAN bench and squat in the smith machine and you will grow as long as you add weight to the bar and put emphasis on your diet. Dumbell work can be done as your second exercise to develope your stabilizers.
[quote]dt79 wrote:
The Myfitneesspal app is excellent! Use it but don’t get fixated on an abitrary number for caloric excess. Try 2800 calories for a week nd evaluate results. If you are gaining muscle with negligible little bodyfat, go ahead and increase calories. Conversely, if you are gaining too much fat, dial the calories a bit.
If you do not have the necessary equipment to do the major lifts, better alternatives would be machines that can put the most load on your targeted muscle groups, which includes THE SMITH MACHINE. You CAN bench and squat in the smith machine and you will grow as long as you add weight to the bar and put emphasis on your diet. Dumbbell work can be done as your second exercise to develop your stabilizers.
[/quote]
Sure! Sounds good, the reason I kind of stopped using Myfitnesspal was due to me finding it hard to accurately say what was going in my food when i ate at restaurants etc. was also quite tedious measuring all foods at home.
I have a quick question regarding, improvement: How many reps should I look to increase each time? Or am I not aiming to increase reps, only weight? If so, how much weight do I increase after each work out
[quote]Flight1 wrote:
[quote]dt79 wrote:
The Myfitneesspal app is excellent! Use it but don’t get fixated on an abitrary number for caloric excess. Try 2800 calories for a week nd evaluate results. If you are gaining muscle with negligible little bodyfat, go ahead and increase calories. Conversely, if you are gaining too much fat, dial the calories a bit.
If you do not have the necessary equipment to do the major lifts, better alternatives would be machines that can put the most load on your targeted muscle groups, which includes THE SMITH MACHINE. You CAN bench and squat in the smith machine and you will grow as long as you add weight to the bar and put emphasis on your diet. Dumbbell work can be done as your second exercise to develop your stabilizers.
[/quote]
Sure! Sounds good, the reason I kind of stopped using Myfitnesspal was due to me finding it hard to accurately say what was going in my food when i ate at restaurants etc. was also quite tedious measuring all foods at home.
I have a quick question regarding, improvement: How many reps should I look to increase each time? Or am I not aiming to increase reps, only weight? If so, how much weight do I increase after each work out
[/quote]
Hmmm… maybe i wasn’t making myself clear before. You must be in a CONSTANT caloric excess. The amount of EXCESS calories will be dependent on an individual’s daily needs and genetics. Which is why You need to check the scale and the mirror to determine how many calories you actually need and adjust from there.
If you are unclear about the amount of calories in certain foods, you need to get familiar with food labels and search the net for, say, how much protein and calories are in 200g of beef and make your best estimate.
For weight progression, you can either increase reps or weight each session. It doesn’t matter as long as there is improvement each session and how much weight you increase doesn’t matter as long as its more than what you have lifted before. If you really love a structured increment you can always use the 531 progression for your first exercises.
Since you won’t be doing many technical lifts, your main focus should be all out intensity. Get in the zone and really fucking EXPLODE the weight up on the concentric and lower under control.
[quote]dt79 wrote:
Hmmm… maybe i wasn’t making myself clear before. You must be in a CONSTANT caloric excess. The amount of EXCESS calories will be dependent on an individual’s daily needs and genetics. Which is why You need to check the scale and the mirror to determine how many calories you actually need and adjust from there.
If you are unclear about the amount of calories in certain foods, you need to get familiar with food labels and search the net for, say, how much protein and calories are in 200g of beef and make your best estimate.
For weight progression, you can either increase reps or weight each session. It doesn’t matter as long as there is improvement each session and how much weight you increase doesn’t matter as long as its more than what you have lifted before. If you really love a structured increment you can always use the 531 progression for your first exercises.
Since you won’t be doing many technical lifts, your main focus should be all out intensity. Get in the zone and really fucking EXPLODE the weight up on the concentric and lower under control.
[/quote]
Ah right, I understand now! And thanks I will do that! Did my first workout at the gym today after coming back. Did one of the upper body splits in Chris’s “Teaching a kid to lift”, went pretty well I guess. Now just need to eat LOTS I guess
Current amount I can lift on various stuff (I’m not sure if the dumbbells/machines are in lbs or KGs so if someone could guess id be thankful)
Goblet Squat: 3x8 - 38
Romanian Deadlift: 3x9 - 40Kg plus bar
Pallof Press Hold: 3x9 (10 secs) - 15Kg
Barbell Row: 4x8 - 32.5Kg plus bar
Standing Dumbbell Press: 4x10 - 12 in both hands
Push out Chest Machine thing: 2x10 - 40
Triceps Pressdown Machine: 2x8 - 25
Alternate DB curl: 2x8 - 14
Hammer Curl: 2x8 - 12
Leg Press Machine: 3x8 - 120
Leg Curl Machine: 2x9 - 50
Front Pulldown Machine: 4x8 - 50
1 arm DB row: 3x6 - 24
Lateral Raise: 3x6 - 8
Alternating Arm Curl Machine: 2x9 - 25
Tricep extension machine: 2x9 - 55
Probably should’ve done more leg work during the time but I play soccer so it’s not too bad
I now weigh 68Kg. 3Kg more than the beginning of April which is good. Unsure what my BF % is, I think it’s slightly higher than before. So maybe 15%
Wanted to ask a couple things:
- Anyone have any tips for bulking cheaply? Parents are getting annoyed at how much food costs now that I eat more.
- is it safe for me to cut? Ideally wanted to be around 11% body fat for around August 22nd when I’m going on holiday/vacation. Wasn’t sure if it’s ok for a growing kid to do that.
Anyone?
[quote]Flight1 wrote:
Wanted to ask a couple things:
- Anyone have any tips for bulking cheaply? Parents are getting annoyed at how much food costs now that I eat more.
- is it safe for me to cut? Ideally wanted to be around 11% body fat for around August 22nd when I’m going on holiday/vacation. Wasn’t sure if it’s ok for a growing kid to do that.
[/quote]
It gets slow here on weekends… patience young skywalker.
RE: pounds vs. kg, it doesn’t matter.
-
Search for threads about this. There have been numerous. Heck, I think there’s even videos, but the basics are non-lean meat, maybe protein powder, rice, oats, and beans, I believe. The trade off is that you’ll gain more fat than a more expensive bulk.
-
Cutting in itself is neither safe or unsafe, it’s just your methodology. A faster cut is more dangerous than a slower one. Most folks here will advise to forget about bf percentages because it’s just an abstract number, but I find them useful in getting an idea of how much to cut and how long it will take. I think (not based on personal experience), for bulking and just strength, it’s generally advised to stay in the 12 to 18 ballpark, but for natural bbers that compete, you never want to walk around with much more than 12… then again, others would advise you to just eat. You could attempt a very slow bulk/cut (basically, recomp), but it’s nutritionally more difficult and you have to be patient.
You will also be sacrificing most of your gains thus far, especially if you cheap bulk for a couple months and then do a quick cut. Pick a reasonable goal and own it.
[quote]1 Man Island wrote:
RE: pounds vs. kg, it doesn’t matter. [/quote]
Sure, as long as I just ensure I’m increasing reps/weight I guess.
[quote]
- Search for threads about this. There have been numerous. Heck, I think there’s even videos, but the basics are non-lean meat, maybe protein powder, rice, oats, and beans, I believe. The trade off is that you’ll gain more fat than a more expensive bulk. [/quote]
Will do, I’ve been starting to buy some of this stuff myself so my family aren’t annoyed. Going to aim for a least 1 litre of Milk a day.
[quote]
2) Cutting in itself is neither safe or unsafe, it’s just your methodology. A faster cut is more dangerous than a slower one. Most folks here will advise to forget about bf percentages because it’s just an abstract number, but I find them useful in getting an idea of how much to cut and how long it will take. I think (not based on personal experience), for bulking and just strength, it’s generally advised to stay in the 12 to 18 ballpark, but for natural bbers that compete, you never want to walk around with much more than 12… then again, others would advise you to just eat. You could attempt a very slow bulk/cut (basically, recomp), but it’s nutritionally more difficult and you have to be patient.
You will also be sacrificing most of your gains thus far, especially if you cheap bulk for a couple months and then do a quick cut. Pick a reasonable goal and own it.[/quote]
Sure, perhaps it’s best to continue bulking for 3-4 more weeks then? Then I’d comfortably be 15% bf, and then do a normal cut of just 500 calories under my TDEE after that for a month?
Milk is probably the cheapest way to go, but it can get kind of sloppy. Some folks prefer half and half because of the macro ratios.
Also, after a bulk/cut, you generally want to maintain that weight for a month or two so your body can reestablish that new weight as a sort of baseline, or risk losing your gains… even then small changes (2-5 percent) are recommended to sort of ween off the intake levels.
So, given your 3-4 month timeline, you’d spend about a month bulking, a month maintaining, and a month cutting. You might see some difference, but most folks would probably recommend a slow cut, bulk, or recomp… like I said, own it.