Seeking Training/Nutrition Advice

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
1

Preface: This is not meant to be a poor me/troll thread, I’m legitimately looking for advice/discussion. Apologies in advance for the long-windedness.

Since I’ve graduated from college (where I had all the free time I could ever need to lift) and entered the real world (read: 14-16 hour days) my training has obviously suffered. Sitting that much has definitely tightened my entire posterior chain, coupled with the fact that I just haven’t had as much time to go to the gym (no more 6x/week schedules), and when I do I’m far from fresh.

Just wanted to know how people who were successful in managing this thought through it.

My current stats are: 5’8, 178lbs, ~10%bf.

Lifts:
Bench: 255x5
Squat: 305x8
Dead: 315x8
Pull-ups: 19-rep max (BW)

  1. Training: Had been using stripped down hypertrophy for the past 8 weeks. Made solid gains in bench press, but I felt that it was at the expense of my lower body (they have you squat after your pressing/pulling upper body movements). Another comment was that bench pressing 4x a week FUCKING HURT my shoulders, even with prehab etc.

I have enough time for a 4x/week schedule, and until this program was doing splits vs. full body. Was thinking of building my program to be an alternating upper/lower body, high/low volume split. Either that or something more body part split focused. Thoughts on this?

  1. Nutrition: As an FFB (hat tip shugs), I can’t get away with as much as others, and given I now sit most of the day, doubly so. I try to limit my carb intake as much as possible, and really only have carbs (aside from the incidental) around my workouts (bananas/surge etc.)

Understand this affects my gains in the gym, but fat gain can be pretty annoying/demotivating. It’s also completely impossible for me to make food, as I don’t have the time.

  1. What preworkout supps would be best, considering I tend to work out later in the evening (like 9pm), and don’t want something that will preclude sleep? I have been dosing bcaa’s pre/peri workout, with 1 scoop Surge / 1 scoop whey post + creatine. Something that would help with focus etc. Power Drive has been a thought. Also Alpha-GPC and Beta-7 (the latter not really focus).

Thanks for all the input in advance, and hope that this thread isn’t misinterpreted as anything but looking for advice and open discussion.

J

2

I guess I don’t think there’s any kind of magical nutrition or supplement information you haven’t already heard. I assume you already know how to interpret the way your body looks / feels when eating things at certain times. If not, I highly suggest doing so.

As for the lifting routine, though, have you ever considered setting up your own routine and just kind of doing whatever feels good/right to you? I only ask this because I followed programs for some time, and found myself worrying about insignificant minutia and things related to said routines. Eventually, I started modifying them to the way that felt right to me, and eventually that simply morphed into whatever I do now, which is providing me with the best gains of my life.

You’re not a rank beginner by any means; I assume you’ve got a fairly decent understanding of your body, body mechanics, etc. It’s not a glitzy and exciting answer, but I’ve come under the impression in the last year that many folks who break past the initial beginner stage would do very well to tailor everything they do to their personal style and preferences.

EDIT: Sorry, I really don’t know if this is the kind of answer you were looking for, but your issues are things that have been covered in many, many threads so I’m just trying to contribute something that hasn’t been reverberated through thread upon thread.