Strength & Recomp Questions

Bigger Stronger Leaner
1

Training seriously one month to the day
“Working out” for about 3 years now
Thread is long but trying to be as specific as possible.
Goals - strength and body recomp for not as Im 5’10 165 and skinnyfat

Diet for the past month and am seeing progress:

Breakfast - one serving oatmeal and flax meal mixed in
3 egg whites and 2 whole eggs

PWO meal - Chicken breast/tilapia (usually 5 ounces cooked) and serving brown rice

Meal 3 - Same protein and fruit or vegetable

Meal 4 - Same protein and fruit or vegetable

Meal 5 - vegetable, protein nuts

Routine - I train every day
Squat workout is 4-6 rep range with heaviest I can handle. I wait 5 mins between sets and when Im done Im done (I dont go in with a set amount of sets but when I walkout and know I cant continue Im done)
I do 5x10 with a lightish weight (usually ends up being between 95-120 lbs) depending on feel

Press day is done the same with on min lifts. Chins are done for 50 reps (currently on assist for 30 lbs) as many sets as needed. Normally takes me 5

I do rack pulls atm as keeping my back straight from the floor going heavy is tough. I am progressing towards it and am set on the last pins of the rack atm. Same protocol. No set number of sets I go til I know Im done. This is followed by 5 sets with 135 from the floor to practice form.

Bench day follows the same idea. I max out in the 4-6 range wit 5 mins rest and go til i cant. I do 5 sets of 10 after as I like the form practice and 5/3/1 was probably the best training book I read. Do kroc rows on this day til I cant hit 15 reps per side anymore.

My question is should I do anything different? My goal is to recomp my body as I am 5’10 about 165 and while people think Im strong I know I am not when we are talking about strength standards.

My lifts in good form are as follows(latest numbers)
Squat - 155 got 7 reps (last month began with 105 but judging my max is not something I am good at same for all lifts)
Rack pulls - 200 for 7 reps was the best set today (that 7th was a cheat rep and I know it)
Bench - I worked with 180 for 5 last time. I know this seem weird but when I was “working out” it was the only lift I cared about since people told m squatting and deadlifting was “bad for you” and I listened.
Press - Hit 95 for 7 as my best yesterday.

I alternate those workouts based on my feeling when I pull up to the gym. If I benched 2 days ago I normally press and the same for squat/rack pulls depending on what I hit the day before.

I feel like my intensity is there, especially with squats as after a set I routinely see the whites of my eyes (that feeling like you are gonna passs out but dont Im sure you have experienced it). On rack pulls I generally need to go to one knee after a set. Benching and pressing arent as intense but I know I worked on my sets.

Anyway, given my goals of strength and body comp, do you feel I should change anything. I am progressing every workout and love training, but have read about “overtraining”. I feel it is a myth created by people who can’t push themselves. I of course could be wrong. Thanks in advance for all help.

2

Hey
The best adive i can give is to do your big lifts in an asending load
eg.
Set Rep Load (1RM)
1 6 65%
2 6 70%
3 5 75%
4 4 85%
5 6+ 70% (This load should feel heep lighter after the 85%)

Your Rest breaks between sets are all good, as long as your using your time between sets to do activation and release exercise or “priming” exercises
Eg. calf stretches when doing squats, or dislocations between bench or pressing lifts
Then give yourself about 1-2 mins of sitting before the next lift

This should prevent and nueral overtraining, just add the smallest weight plates possible each week.

The body Recomp is the stuff you can go nuts on and get that muscle pump or pass out [if thats what your into]
Keep the rep range between 10-15 reps, with no more than 4 sets and maybe 2 exercises per muscle group.
You could use drop sets, rest pauses, etc. on the last set for an extra bit of a hit.

Hope this helps, let me know if i need to explan it better

3

First and foremost, I would recommend you get yourself on a set program. You’re not experienced enough to greatly benefit from going by “feel” as much as you seem to be. I say this from personal experience…I wasted a LOT of time when I first started lifting, trying to just figure stuff out for myself without benefitting from the wisdom of others. I’m sure you have good intentions by this, but save the creativity for a few years down the road, when you have more time under the bar, and more weight on the bar.

4

[quote]hungry4more wrote:
First and foremost, I would recommend you get yourself on a set program. You’re not experienced enough to greatly benefit from going by “feel” as much as you seem to be. I say this from personal experience…I wasted a LOT of time when I first started lifting, trying to just figure stuff out for myself without benefitting from the wisdom of others. I’m sure you have good intentions by this, but save the creativity for a few years down the road, when you have more time under the bar, and more weight on the bar. [/quote]

Agreed. I advise you to schedule workouts either by bodypart or major lift. If I lifted whatever I felt like when pulling up to the gym, I would rarely lift legs, ignore abs, and would workout biceps every day. The benefit to making your self a schedule and tweaking it, is that you start to relate the results to tangible changes in your program. You will learn what works and what doesnt, because eventually, the progress stops. And you need to learn what changes will kick start it again, rather than burn you out.

5

I guess something like SS would be more suited to my ends then? I just kind of hated the idea of having a pre-set workout. Then again you are right…Im not exacgly an expert which is why Im asking. If that is the case, strength being the goal as I want to be well…stronger, should I hit something more like:

Squat
Bench
Dead
Chins
Curls

Squat
Press
Row
Dips
Curls

and alternate and hit progression? I mean that is what I have seen prescribed and is essentially 5/3/1 for beginners of SS wit the add ons. Thanks for the help thus far.

6

You said 5/3/1 was the best book on training you have read, why don’t you just do 5/3/1?

You don’t even really have to change much, just use the percentages on your main lifts.

7

[quote]random91 wrote:
I guess something like SS would be more suited to my ends then? I just kind of hated the idea of having a pre-set workout. Then again you are right…Im not exacgly an expert which is why Im asking. If that is the case, strength being the goal as I want to be well…stronger, should I hit something more like:

Squat
Bench
Dead
Chins
Curls

Squat
Press
Row
Dips
Curls

and alternate and hit progression? I mean that is what I have seen prescribed and is essentially 5/3/1 for beginners of SS wit the add ons. Thanks for the help thus far.[/quote]

I dont think you need to schedule the workout completely. Just make certain days mandatory, and certain compound exercises. You can leave room for creativity.

8

Demonthrall is right just pick one big move to track and design a WO around then just do other exercises based on how good you feel that day

9

Make sure you are eating a lot and gaining weight. 5’10" at 165 is pretty light. If you want to see progress, you will need to gain weight. I would recommend that you think of what you are doing as building muscle, more than recomposition. You’ll lose the fat eventually, but it will be easier once you build the muscle.

10

[quote]random91 wrote:
I guess something like SS would be more suited to my ends then? I just kind of hated the idea of having a pre-set workout. Then again you are right…Im not exacgly an expert which is why Im asking. If that is the case, strength being the goal as I want to be well…stronger, should I hit something more like:

Squat
Bench
Dead
Chins
Curls

Squat
Press
Row
Dips
Curls

and alternate and hit progression? I mean that is what I have seen prescribed and is essentially 5/3/1 for beginners of SS wit the add ons. Thanks for the help thus far.[/quote]

I would drop the curls on one of the days and do abs instead. It’s a nice vanity exercise, but it’s not the most important, especially if your goals are primarily strength-oriented.