OK hang with me here this might get kind of long. First off I NEED HELP! My routine sucks donkey. It’s homemade and just plain ole sucks. It looked good at first but I’ve been spinning my wheels for 6 months or more.
I’ve read through all the necessary readings here on this site. Numerous times I read the how to build your own lifting program and I still don’t feel confident in putting together a routine on my own to optimize my lifting. I’ve spent time on the MH forums boards and any questions over there regarding lifting programs always gets a link to this website.
I’ve also been on the bodybuilding.com forums. Same crap different website. Or a lot of comments of “you should get a professionally designed program” or a “proven program from someone that know what they are doing.” I then ask for specifics and no one has any. So here I am!
Nutritionally I know I need to eat. I will eat! I know this already so we don’t need to go over my diet. I want to hang around the 9% BF that I am at right now but put on some size. 20lbs would be great. If you get over to bodyspace I have a profile there. You’ll see where I came from to where I am now. But I don’t want to stop.
I have 2 plans. One is the Bill Starrs 5x5 routine. I’ve researched and read up on it. I like it. 3 days a week and not a ton of lifts to do or a lot of special equipment needed. I work out at home so I don’t have access to a lot of stuff.
What I do have is a 300 BB set, DB’s from 15-75lbs and a smith machine. Yeah I know, a smith machine. I mainly use it as a rack stand with the BB and plates though. So I’m not relying on the smith for any lifting other than seated rows and things like that.
The other plan is to find a routine that I can perform with what I have. 3 or 4 days a week. I need everything from days off or in between lifts, to set x reps to the lifts themselves. HELP ME GAIN 20LBS OF MUSCLE!!!
There is a but to all of this though. Sorry this a long post. I had a spinal fusion back in November. My dr says I will be back to normal within a month from now and lifting some weights by mid march. He said some. I’ll have to wait and see what “some” are but I’m thinking he might yank the squats and DL’s from me. They really load up the spinal column. If that’s the case this lifting routine will have to incorporate that request or order.
Anybody wanna help? I thought about sending in an email to the Physique Clinic but I didn’t want to bother them with my scrawny little runt guy problems.
I don’t think there’s a need to sell the smith at this point. I take the bar and put it up to the top so it’s out of the way. Then I use the adjustable arms that stick out the front to set the barbell on.
I can set it up high enough to get under it to do normal squats like in a squat rack with free weights. Same with the bench press. So it works double duty pretty well. In fact i think I’ll probably take it apart and just take that bar out of there completely.
I’m very anxious and chomping at the bit to start the 5x5. Hopefully I’m given the okey dokey to do the big lifts. If not I might as well move in with Martha fricken Stewart.
If I can’t do the 5x5 I will need a new routine. That’s probably my main objective here right now. To find an alternative routine to the 5x5. My old routine is such a pile o crap . I will never lift with that program again.
Trust me I will eat more. I love to eat almost as much as I love to workout. I’m planning on 1500 calories over maintenance. Hell maybe 2000 calories. I don’t know, I’ll have to see how the body handles the food.
the 5x5 plus good eatin’ (ie milk…umm) will be ideal i think fo you. to gian 20lbs youll have to eat loads more food 3000-4000 calories, so im afraid youll lose yourcurrent figure, but youcan always cut after, that smith machine of your sounds versitile enouh to keep. make sure you do your lifting on a concrete base, or at least the ground floor. one of my friends slip his bedroom floor(wooden beams) when he droped a bb after a failed clean, lets just say it realy pissed his landlord off
I dont think you need to get into the mentality of “Bulk-Cut-Bulk-Cut-Bulk-Cut”. Eating healthy, calorie-dense, high protein foods will help you gain muscle, and if you do it correctly, you shouldnt gain too much fat.
Thanks guys. My daily caloric intake will be in that neighborhood (3500-4000). My resting daily intake has been figured at 2350-3400 without doing anything but breathing and farting.
I’ve got some nice 1" thick rubber mats that I use on the basement floor to save the plates and the floor. I started using the smith as intended but after reading up and hearing things i decided to stop using it that way.
Now squats, bench, shoulder shrugs any big lifts have been with the barbell. I think i need to add a few holes for a little more adjustment on the smith though. I’ll have to see. There’s arms that you can attached that stick out the front or away from the frame. Works great for setting the barbell on.
I’m definitely a very driven/motivated individual. It’s just my routine sucked, I was lifting 5 days a week, with most weeks 6 days a week. Most of those days really overtraining myself.
Well I little education later and I know what I have to do. I’ll probably have to force myself to not work out 6 days a week - lol. It will be a slow process. I think I have my diet in check so I should put on minimal fat if i can stick with it for 4-5 months.
Sorry bout the confusion. I didn’t mean to get your panties in a bundle this morning. That should have been 2350-2400 calories. Actually I just pulled my sheets from the last few years and it was 2350-2380.
I have found most people a little envious of my almost effortless ability to stay in single digit BF. It’s all from my clean, healthy eating. I wasn’t always that way. I’ve added a new photo in my profile. It’s not the greatest but it was preworkout/pre clean eating.
At my lowest point after my divorce I had dropped over 20lbs and was down to 130lbs. But I was still 15% BF. Someone I managed to put on over 20% of my bodyweight in muscle on my own and drop down into sub 10% BF. But now I need a little help.
Lets put things in perspective a little. If I was 6’ 1" and weighed 200lbs and was 9% BF and within 1.5 years I weighed 240lbs (20% increase) and was still 9% BF I would look like a behemoth. People would say you had to take “something” to get that big.
I’ve come along way but I don’t want to stop. I believe my lifting regimen/routine is the hold up and NOT the diet.
I GOT THE ADVICE! I will be eating more than 1500 over maintenance. Any more than that and the body will not process it at as muscle! I can eat 6000 calories a day. It would be hard but I could do it. But for what? Just to have to cut again for months to get back to my current BF?
If you actually read all of the original post you would see that I want to stay at my current BF% through this growth. That’s not going to happen no matter how clean I eat if I eat more than 4000-4500 calories a day. That’s pretty much been scientifically proven over and over again so why go there?
Flame away if you want too. But no matter how hard you try to go against science and what the body is capable of you won’t win.
Thanks Crew, I’ll dig that log up and read it. As for posting what my diet looks like? Geesshhhzzz it would take me a half a day to write up what 30,000 calories looks like for a normal week of eating.
6 meals a day sometimes 7 consisting of 3 bigger meals 800-900 cals a piece. 3 or 4 smaller meals 350-400 cals a piece. Most the numbers I’m throwing around are from Fitday. I’ve found it to be pretty accurate.
I’m not taking in a lot of calories from shakes, pre or post workout. Those are mainly a good hefty does of protein from a good whey supplement. Daily intake of protein is between 190-220g.
Most of the weight gainer shakes have a ton of filler (sugar) in them. For my purpose of staying lean and putting on weight they kind of defeat the purpose.
Squat, dead lift, shoulder and bench presses, barbell rows, and chins/pullups, should be what your program consists of. You look like you have a fast metabolism judging from your thin frame. In light of that I recommend lifting three days a week and resting, eating, and recovering, the other days of the week. Hit chest upper body one day. Rest day then legs and or back alternating week to week, and then shoulders upper body for your third workout.
You would only be doing three workouts per week, but on those days drop a nuke on those body parts. Hit it hard and then, as everyone has said, eat an adequate amount of healthy food to facilitate gains. Don’t be so worried about staying at 9% bodyfat if you want to gain some considerable muscle. There’s nothing wrong with getting up to around 14% and hovering around there if you want to make considerable progress. 13 to 15% is still healthy and shouldn’t make one look overweight.
Thanks Dedicated. That seems to be another common theme “drop a nuke on those body parts.” That could have been one area I was lacking before. Some of it was mental but a majority of it was my routine.
I was way overtraining with to many sets and reps. I wasn’t focusing on just pounding out good quality lifts and progressing both with muscle growth and amount of steel being moved. So in a nutshell I wasn’t spending quality time in the workout room. It was all about quantity. Some days I would lose focus by the end of the workout.
Yes I am a hunter. That’s another thing that I love about the food I eat. I clean, process and package almost all my own red meat. I have an endless supply of it so it’s easier on the grocery bill. Plus it’s among the healthiest red meat you can eat.
Cool, looks like you’re getting it. You may only do three compound lifts per lifting session and if they are done with enough intensity they should wipe you out and be all you need. The motto is bomb the muscle group and then let it recover and feed it the nutrients to do so.
As far as venison goes I agree with you and my freezer is full of it as well!
I’m gonna miss BB shrugs though. It’s probably my favorite lift I’m currently doing. I’m listening to everything I read about this program and I’m not gonna mess with it. I just wish shrugs were a part of it.
Believe it or not I actually look forward to being “sore” from lifting, or wiped out. Kinda sounds like I have sick and twisted mind but I think things are change and progress will be made.
I started serious lifting last summer. I was down to 118 lbs (5’7) i was literally a skeleton. After much reading about diet and exercise, and hard work from then until now… Im at 135lbs. Keeping the workout simple but effective and compound is the key, as well as the diet. Just make sure you are eating enough. Im currently doing this plan. 3x a week
Workout A:
5 min c2 rower, mobility stretching
Squat warm up + 5x5
Bench Press warm up + 5x5
BB Row warm up + 5x5
Dips 3xfailure (+1 set each week)
Skull Crushers 5x5
Reverse Crunches on bench (5x25)
Workout B:
5 min c2 rower, mobility stretching
Deadlift (Warm up + 10x3)
Front Squat (Warm up + 10x3)
DB Mil. Press (Warm up + 10x3)
Chins 3xfailure (+1 set each week)
BB Curl (4x6)
Abs Super Set (hanging oblique raises + situps) 3x25 each
Workout C:
5 min c2 rower, mobility stretching
Incline BB Bench Press (warm up + 4x6)
Back Squat (warm up + 4x6)
DB Row (warm up + 4x6)
Pullups 3xf (3 sets til failure)
DB Tri Extension 4x6
Abs Super Set (Russian Twists 3x25, Reverse Bench Crunch 3x25)
diet consists mainly of eggs, chicken, cheeses, quinoa, yam, Metabolic Drive, cottage cheese, yogurt, lots of veggies of different types and fruit. Tea as well.
OK you guys wanted it, here it is! This is my first complete entry into Fitday. This is very typical of my day to day food intake right now. Note I said right now!
I’m currently not lifting due to my surgery. I can very easily account for another 800 calories onto this when I was lifting. Also not the protein intake. There’s no pre & post workout drink in there which would add 60g more.
I could use a little more fat but not right at the moment. That will come from the addition of cottage cheese, more PB, more nuts and things like that.