At the start of the year I put together a basic garage gym, bench, squat stands, barbell and just over 100kg of plates and started doing greyskull. With the aim of losing some fat and getting a bit stronger/gaining muscle.
Im 6”2 and weighed 95kg when I started. I now weigh 87kg. Still some fat, I was skinny fat when I started, but I feel and look better.
I used macro factor to track and calculate my calories. It varied how much it told me to eat but in general it was 1900-2100
My question is how much of an effect would me being in a deficit have been? My lifts were not very impressive considering my height and having done it for 9 months or so.
My deadlift topped out at 100kg, bench was 55kg and squat was only 55kg also! I did tweak my lower back a couple of times squatting so I switched to zerchers.
I do have longer limbs which as far as I know doesn’t help with the squat and bench but it still seems low.
I have taken a break of about a month from greyskull, still lifting just to keep at it but some bodybuilding stuff, but I’m not sure where to go from here. I was eating at deficit before so would eating at maintenance be a good idea. I would like to gain muscle but I don’t want to gain any fat back. Ideally I’d lose more
I forgot to mention that having done both for a bit I prefer the “bodybuilding rep range”. I’d rather go a bit lighter for more reps. Joints feel better doing that
Experience is pretty minimal. I did starting strength about 10 years ago, then my daughter was born and I had to stop and never got started again. i don’t run it that long, the only weight I remember was a 120kg deadlift for 3 reps.
At the moment my routine is only upper body. The long break from greyskull was due to a 2 week holiday then a health issue. I had to have something removed from my calf. As a result I currently have stitches in my calf so until that is fully healed I’m avoiding anything that involves the legs, I really don’t want to risk popping a stitch.
So at the moment it’s 2 sessions a week of bench, dumbbell rows, bicep curls and tricep push downs. 4 sets each 10-12 reps. It’s purely just to keep in the habit of doing it.
I’m ok with the amount of fat I have, but only ok. In an ideal world I’d do a bit of both but if pushed I think it would be gain muscle, providing I don’t gain fat.
How much is hard to answer. I can post a photo tomorrow though. I seem to carry most of my weight in my midsection and chest which probably makes it look worse than it is, but who knows
We might need more info to really go into why you’re stalling. How long has it been, what’s the whole program look like, where do you get stuck, injury history, etc. Having such a small squat in comparison to squat and bench seems a little odd.
In any case, to your specific question: if muscle gain is the goal, have you tried changing your Macro Factor goal to at least “recomp”?
So I was following greyskull, Monday, Wednesday, Friday. The exact time I ran it is hard to say, I started tracking it with an app I no longer have. I believe it February, it might have been March.
My deadlift stalled at 100kg for the conventional so I switched to sumo and got to 78kg before I took the break.
With the bench I got to 53kg and couldn’t add anything so I switched to incline. I got to 35kg on that.
I think the squat is low because I never stuck to one variation. I kept at it with back squats no matter if I tried high or low bar it always tweaked my lower back at a certain weight. So most of my time was spent building it up, small injury, dropping the weight a lot and going again. I did get to a 65kg zercher squat in the past so either my technique is appalling for the standard back squats or it just doesn’t work for me as a lift.
Does greyskull work best at 5 reps or could you run it in the 10 rep range?
As far as the recomp on MacroFactor no I haven’t. Somehow I didn’t notice setting!
Do you have video? Or can you take some when you get back at it?
I don’t know much about the program you’re doing, but there’s not a magical rep range: I don’t see why slightly higher reps will fundamentally change things. That gets different if we’re talking about practicing singles, but moderate rep range to moderate rep range isn’t a major switch.
I’d imagine, though, this isn’t really a programming issue. I think you probably need to learn how to perform these lifts, especially if you’re training experience is primarily alone in a garage. These barbell lifts don’t necessarily come naturally to everyone. It will likely just take some deliberate practice; videos would help folks here offer some tips.
Yeah I’ll do a video when I can. My guess is I’m bent too far forward as it’s always my lower back that hurts. I may have gone up in weight too fast and used my back to compensate for my legs?
It’s a beginner linear progression programme. Squat Monday+Friday, Deadlift Wednesday. Bench and overhead press alternate every workout. 3x5 on everything adding 1kg for upper body and 2.5 for lower if you get all reps. The last set is an amrap set, if you get 10+ you double the weight increase.
About a month, probably just over. Let’s say 6 weeks. The first 2 was a holiday, the last 4 due to the minor surgery.
So for the last 4 I’ve been doing bench, dumbbell row, bicep curl and tricep pushdowns. All on the same day twice a week, Tuesday + Friday. 4 sets each, 10-14 reps
You need to give a little more detail here.
What did you eat and what did training look like every day last week. List out every day.
When can you train legs again.
Do you go to a commercial gym?
Oh sorry, thought you meant just the weights. Specific foods I’m not sure. It would have been about 2000 calories a day, 130g of protein. I let carbs and fat be whatever.
The stitches are supposed to be coming out Monday but they were also supposed to have been taken out last Tuesday, it hasn’t healed fully yet. I would imagine once the stitches are out it’ll be fine to start again.
I train at home. I have a bench, squat stands, barbell and 2 dumbbells.
I should say the squat stands I have don’t have safety rails. I have wondered if that’s put me off really pushing it.
