No-one said this. Literally no-one. They said, from the beginning, that running A PROGRAM is better than running whatever you came up with by just doing whatever you want and whatever you like.
Given that you need A PROGRAM then 5/3/1 was suggested as a good option given your goals. There are lots of good programs out there, the point made was pick one and follow it. You’ll learn a lot about training by following a tried and tested program designed by experts in the field.
Sure, that makes more sense then.
I am looking for something that is somewhat enjoyable and good for progress.
Even if I can get 75% of 5/3/1 results but have 2x more enjoyment that is preferable to me. I’m not trying to become a crazy bodybuilder/powerlifter, I just want to get some decent physique and go on with the rest of my life.
That being said, if you have any suggestions for something higher volume/frequency and not below 5 reps then that is something that can check off both boxes. Something like “Coolcicada’s PPL Routine – The Most Well-Rounded Routine For Aesthetics” on suncefit .com seems decent.
Once again im sure you know this too, but if diet is bad (like it has been), results will be bad, that is still the #1 thing I am fixing now.
Do you even know what 531 is? You are assuming it is half as enjoyable as what you currently do?
The reason people recommend 5/3/1 is because it works very well for almost everyone and is enjoyable. I have achieved great results in my 15 odd years training, lots of it not running 5/3/1, im not running 5/3/1 right now, but you what I would tell myself when I was 16 when I joined the gym? Id tell myself to run 5/3/1.
Yes I agree your diet is the biggest issue, and its good you recognise that. But these things work synergistically and if you improve your training as well you will see much better, and more visible, results.
Than why shoot for a strength goal like 100 pounders for 5 reps?
I consider results in your case anything that creates a condition where you don’t have to start a thread with “7 years with minimal results”.
Results are usually measured by steady progress. At the end of a training block (4 weeks, 6 weeks, 3 months, whatever) are you stronger or not? Has your physique improved or not?
Yes, it seems decent. Now run it, EXACTLY AS WRITTEN. Oh dear, it starts with barbell bench. Are you going to do Barbell bench?
Its amazing how often this happens!
No it’s just a simple program, that can be adapted to just about any users liking, and has a ton of resources available to make continued progress on. It is true that there are other programming options. Most good programs have more in common than they have differences which is an important observation.
have you ever tried focusing on the eccentric portion of the exercises
It may do nothing for you…then again it may
you can still do the exercises you want, but concentrate on the negatives
One thing you seem to be missing here is that with your old diet, and decent training, you would be muscular and strong but also fat, not just fat. I fell under this umbrella for awhile (strong, muscular and fat).
Your calories and protein were sufficient (more than sufficient) to gain muscle if you had a good stimulus for muscle growth. You didn’t have a good stimulus for muscle growth, so you just got fat.
No i would just be fat still, i was probably in a caloric surplus of 2500 a day, doesnt matter if I have Arnold’s stimulus, without gear I was gonna get fat only no matter what.
And just FYI, my longest “bulk” in the past has been maybe 2.5 months before I (drum roll) got too fat and then cut again, so no I dot think I would have been muscular at all iin either case, just fat.
Cant out-train a bad diet, and definitely cant outtrain an atrocious diet
This applies to having a lean physique, not gaining muscle.
Your diet was actually probably pretty good for putting on a maximum amount of muscle at the cost of also getting fat. Your training sucked, so you skipped the muscle part, and just got fat.
You seem to want to refuse looking at the training, to hyper focus on diet.
I am not telling you to ignore diet. If you want a lean physique it needs to be addressed. If you want a lean and muscular physique, you need to look at both.
I’ll also add a program recommendation for you since you seem to hate 531. Cube Kingpin. I added 50+ lbs to my squat and deadlift, and 30+ lbs to my bench in 30 weeks on that. Guess what though, it is going to be a lot harder than what you are doing. You won’t enjoy it (at least I didn’t), but it works.
Nailed it
I give up…
Right but maximum amount of muscle I read is 2 lbs per month.
I was getting a caloric surplus of 2 lbs every week (which is why I was rapidly gaining weight and having to cut and repeat).
I know you are focused on training which I agree too needs some work, but the root cause has to be diet, otherwise why am I now doing so much better even with a shitty program compared to before?
The reality is that, no one is going to get jacked with 2500 calories surplus per day, I was having pizza hut every other day for 4 months straight in their buffet system. And its all pretty poor calories too (hence blood sugar increase).
Training matters but I still think all experts agree, if you go too overboard on calories naturally you will just get fat.
Cube Kingpin.
Thanks I will take a look at this
My main focus now is still heavily based on my diet, that is the root devil which has kept me in this cycle of cutting and bulking for the last X years
Yeah, you were gaining too fast for sure. I have done the same, but maybe not to that extent. I was getting really strong while doing it though.
I think enhanced BBers are partly to blame for misinformation about eating. I also thought you had to force feed to gain muscle. I just add in a bit if trying to gain (right now I am gaining, and kept the diet the same and added a bagel and cream cheese every morning).
And here lies the problem he refuses to acknowledge
I do agree with OP that he was over the top with his bulking. You can only put on so much muscle, and the rest will be fat. If you go overboard, the amount of time to accrue muscle before needing a cut is too short, and you go to a cut, and lose a lot of that muscle.
It is an interesting point that bulking with the right amount of calories can make a pretty big difference when you consider the muscle lost during cutting.
But he did say he did it for 2.5 months. Right now if I ate a 2500 calorie surplus for 2.5 months, I better be benching 4 plates after. That is why I think both his training and diet sucked. That is why I am saying to fix both. I don’t believe in the “the diet is everything” statement. That is true if you just want to be lean, but not if you want to be jacked.
Yeah I guess my training for that retarded surplus wasnt sufficient at all, and the continuous cut and bulk cycles jesus christ
It was either 5000 calories a day → bulk stupidly (and 5000 calories isnt hard to eat, I was eating complete trash and ready to eat 5000 again the next day without any issues, a big bag of doritos is like 1300 calories and i could finish that in 25 minutes and still be hungry)
1200 calories a day → cut stupidly and lose everything
So there you see the cycle of frustration. And also inconsistent training.
I at least have a better grip on the diet now, just need to work on the training.
Realistically my end goal is just to have a lean and decent physique, nothing too overboard. If I can just look good enough doing 90 lb db bench for reps thats fine as long as I can be lean.
I don’t want to lift heavy long term since I am not doing this for pro reasons or anything, just to have a decent physique.
Another caveat is that I didnt start off skinny so I tried bulking with that diet when I was already terribly skinny fat, which you know how it ends
Ok. This is a good fallback position but you need to drop it.
Have you looked at the training logs and volume of work people who get results are doing?
Training is one thing. @hankthetank89 touched on that earlier. What you appear to have been doing is checking in at the gym so you could justify eating more pizza.
Does that sound about right?
Someone with a bad diet and good training will get strong and fat. Someone with bad training and a good diet will be lean and weak.
OP is fat and weak. This leads us all to believe he has a bad diet, and bad training.
Also, still no veggies, fruit, or cardio for this prediabetic fatso.
Haven’t we all done this? I ran Mass Made Simple just so I could justify eating burgers at 1am.
Can we give @T3hPwnisher an excuse to upload one of his moonwalking deadlift videos to show what real effort looks like? Might be an object lesson in why dumbbell benching 75lbs is less effective at affecting physical change than heavy barbell movements.