You're a bit beyond linear progression, but going to a weird split probably won't work as effectively as full body work still.
My thoughts exactly. I would definately stick with full body, especially since exercises like deadlift, bench press and squat, are compound exercises.
I would go with a full body workout where you alternate between two workouts, and work out every second day. Also I would do deadlifts on the first workout, squats on the second one and alternate them because it can be quite heavy to do them on the same workout.
So I've really stagnated at 75kg. I have an extremely fast metabolism, so it's basically impossible to gain any fat. I would like to gain some muscle before getting ready for the beach season, but eating clean is really expensive. Should I just dig in a lot of pizza, burgers etc. to get enough protein?
On December 22 2009 03:18 StimD wrote: So I've really stagnated at 75kg. I have an extremely fast metabolism, so it's basically impossible to gain any fat. I would like to gain some muscle before getting ready for the beach season, but eating clean is really expensive. Should I just dig in a lot of pizza, burgers etc. to get enough protein?
You don't have a fast metabolism, you just don't eat enough. I mean it. It's not impossible to gain any weight, you just eat too little to do so.
Eating clean is expensive? At least in Sweden chicken, tuna, salmon and meat isn't expensive if you buy at supermarkets and look for deals. Add rice/pasta/potatoes to that and you suddenly have alot of calories on your plate.
Look, it's about more than gaining weight. Eating junk like that daily will fuck with your cholestorol, heart, brain and body in general. And I thought you wanted to get ready for the beach and not get fat?
Getting enough protein is SO easy. Eat a can of tuna, some chicken and lots of eggs and voila, you are looking at around 150 g protein/day.
On December 22 2009 03:18 StimD wrote: So I've really stagnated at 75kg. I have an extremely fast metabolism, so it's basically impossible to gain any fat. I would like to gain some muscle before getting ready for the beach season, but eating clean is really expensive. Should I just dig in a lot of pizza, burgers etc. to get enough protein?
Lots of Peanut butter and a gallon of milk a day. Peanut butter is cheap as fuck.
On December 22 2009 03:18 StimD wrote: So I've really stagnated at 75kg. I have an extremely fast metabolism, so it's basically impossible to gain any fat. I would like to gain some muscle before getting ready for the beach season, but eating clean is really expensive. Should I just dig in a lot of pizza, burgers etc. to get enough protein?
Lots of Peanut butter and a gallon of milk a day. Peanut butter is cheap as fuck.
These are good suggestions. Also you can drink some olive oil, eat cashew/peanuts, add a gainer after your workout etc.
On December 22 2009 04:25 travis wrote: oatmeal is good nutrition and is super cheap
not much protein though, ive actually started to add whey protein powder to my oatmeal to make it a more balanced meal. More protein + tastes better = win
On December 22 2009 04:25 travis wrote: oatmeal is good nutrition and is super cheap
not much protein though, ive actually started to add whey protein powder to my oatmeal to make it a more balanced meal. More protein + tastes better = win
Milk + oatmeal is a very good mix though and gets up the protein. Also the quality of the protein becomes better when you combine oatmeal with milk.
Hey all, been a bit of a weird year for me. Didn't quite make it to 90kgs and have actually dropped to 85 when I started taking a lot of carbs out of my diet.
I still have 2 major problems hoping you can help me with:
1) I have plateaued badly in terms of my lifting ability. I just can't seem to move past a certain level I've been at for about 2-3 months.
2) Left/Right imbalance. My right side is bigger and stronger than the left. I've heard differing advice on how to help fix this, but should I mainly be focussing on barbell or dumbell exercises?
I'm thinking of trying a new routine to increase strength based around purely compound exercises; namely squats, deadlifts, presses and calysthenics. Good/bad idea?
How much protein should I be taking in to get that extra 5kgs of muscle? I've always followed the 2g of proteing for every kg of weight, but even at around 220g of protein a day I seem to just maintain rather than gain. I do have Crohns Diseases which holds me back some, but yeah, I've really stagnated and need an overhaul of how I do certain things.
On December 22 2009 03:05 travis wrote: So, im posting my current workout schedule. I would like advice on it (mainly from eshlow since he has experience with isometric progressions). My goals are
primary: planche and front lever progression. running faster and for longer.
secondary: getting fit as hell in any way possible
warmups before each strength workout. strength workouts in the morning, running in the afternoon.
Monday:
Planchex3, Front Lever x3, some kind of hard core exercise(today it was dragon flags x3), Pushupsx5(varying styles)
Afternoon 1.5m uphill run
Tuesday:
Front Leverx3, Planchex3, Legs(if not bodyweight squats then pistols, or jumping, or somethin), huge volume of pullups
Wednesday:
Legs, Some kind of core endurance routine, then yoga
Thursday:
repeat monday
Friday:
repeat tuesday
Saturday:
some kind of intense core workout, fast paced enough to also be an aerobic workout
Sunday:
yoga
Ok so...
What are you actually doing when you are saying planche x3?
Do you have access to rings? Rings will make you a beast really fast.
On December 22 2009 20:51 RowdierBob wrote: Hey all, been a bit of a weird year for me. Didn't quite make it to 90kgs and have actually dropped to 85 when I started taking a lot of carbs out of my diet.
I still have 2 major problems hoping you can help me with:
1) I have plateaued badly in terms of my lifting ability. I just can't seem to move past a certain level I've been at for about 2-3 months.
2) Left/Right imbalance. My right side is bigger and stronger than the left. I've heard differing advice on how to help fix this, but should I mainly be focussing on barbell or dumbell exercises?
I'm thinking of trying a new routine to increase strength based around purely compound exercises; namely squats, deadlifts, presses and calysthenics. Good/bad idea?
How much protein should I be taking in to get that extra 5kgs of muscle? I've always followed the 2g of proteing for every kg of weight, but even at around 220g of protein a day I seem to just maintain rather than gain. I do have Crohns Diseases which holds me back some, but yeah, I've really stagnated and need an overhaul of how I do certain things.
Cheers!
1. What is your current routine? How much sleep do you get? What's your nutrition look like?
Do you have any injuries? Poor posture? Play sports? Previous injuries?
2. Generally, barbell work BUT if it doesn't improve with squats/DLs/etc you may need unilateral work.
I like the pure compounds and bodyweight... but we'll see. Gaining the mass is generally a product of diet as long as you can come up with a half decent routine.
What are you lift numbers right now?
3. OK, crohns you NEED to get rid of everything related to grains/wheat. Start taking fish oil if you haven't already.
ONLY eat fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, meat, fowl, fish (unless you have other allergies as well...) Eliminate eggs and dairy as they may cause problems as well. Supplementing protein may have to be an option with crohn's to get enough I'm not sure. Once your condition improves you can reintroduce eggs and/or dairy and see how well you do.
On December 22 2009 03:05 travis wrote: So, im posting my current workout schedule. I would like advice on it (mainly from eshlow since he has experience with isometric progressions). My goals are
primary: planche and front lever progression. running faster and for longer.
secondary: getting fit as hell in any way possible
warmups before each strength workout. strength workouts in the morning, running in the afternoon.
Monday:
Planchex3, Front Lever x3, some kind of hard core exercise(today it was dragon flags x3), Pushupsx5(varying styles)
Afternoon 1.5m uphill run
Tuesday:
Front Leverx3, Planchex3, Legs(if not bodyweight squats then pistols, or jumping, or somethin), huge volume of pullups
Wednesday:
Legs, Some kind of core endurance routine, then yoga
Thursday:
repeat monday
Friday:
repeat tuesday
Saturday:
some kind of intense core workout, fast paced enough to also be an aerobic workout
Sunday:
yoga
Ok so...
What are you actually doing when you are saying planche x3?
Whatever stage of planche progression im at... uh I guess just in regards to iso holds though. right now it is tuck planche, it will be advanced tuck soon I think. same goes for the front lever. im at advanced tuck front lever right now.. not sure when I will be moving on to straddle. almost feels like I have plateaued.
Do you have access to rings? Rings will make you a beast really fast.
man I wish. especially cuz the bar im using right now sucks ass. it isn't exactly parallel to the ground, and it can kind of turn in place so i sometimes have to adjust my grip lol. but... it serves it's purpose at least.
Do you have access to weights?
just some dumbbells, I doubt anything useful. i really wish i had a weight belt
Mostly strength goals? Any mass goals?
don't care about mass. in fact, I like being lighter. but if a heavier weight will increase what I can functionally do with my body, then that is fine.
I've hit the limit of my strength at my weight so I need to mass gain now.
Depends on your weight/height if you need to do so or lose more fat or whatever else. I don't know your height weight right now.
PL/FL m,tu,th,f is fine. I would aim for the 40-50s of quality work at your level of ability. Once you can go to the next progression and hold it for about 3-5s then do so.
I don't think you need core specific work... IF only you had rings that would make everything better. Ask for rings for christmas (even though it's proabably too late!!).
The direction in which you go with legs depends on your goals. I would honestly suggest something like DLs/squats + sprinting or something. As far as "functional" goes being strong + being able to run fast... doesn't get much better than that.
You can probably add in another push/pull to your other days. I would suggest dropping pushups because they're too easy even if you go to different variations. Now you can do the planche pushup or front lever pullup variations but this is also a good time to work on stuff like dips, handstand pushups, pullups, maybe some type of rowing (one arm rows?) and potentially progress towards one arm pullups. Low volume... 3 sets of 5 or so at max.
My recommendation, generally, is it work on 2 push, 2 pull and 2 legs goals at once. Then use maybe 2-4 exercises at a time (for each category) to work towards achieving these goals. If I do an A/B type routine then I would spead out exercises 3-4 exercises. If I decide to do a repetitive routine I usually stick with 2-3 exercises at most.
So for example if I was working on 2 pushing goals -- planche and maltese -- I'd go with some maltese progression variation, planche holds on rings and maybe pseudo planche pushups or something like that. Keep it pretty simple. Progress for 4-8 weeks or whenever you plateau.. take a backoff week and then reevaluate if you want to continue or change up exercises if you need to.
On December 22 2009 20:51 RowdierBob wrote: Hey all, been a bit of a weird year for me. Didn't quite make it to 90kgs and have actually dropped to 85 when I started taking a lot of carbs out of my diet.
I still have 2 major problems hoping you can help me with:
1) I have plateaued badly in terms of my lifting ability. I just can't seem to move past a certain level I've been at for about 2-3 months.
2) Left/Right imbalance. My right side is bigger and stronger than the left. I've heard differing advice on how to help fix this, but should I mainly be focussing on barbell or dumbell exercises?
I'm thinking of trying a new routine to increase strength based around purely compound exercises; namely squats, deadlifts, presses and calysthenics. Good/bad idea?
How much protein should I be taking in to get that extra 5kgs of muscle? I've always followed the 2g of proteing for every kg of weight, but even at around 220g of protein a day I seem to just maintain rather than gain. I do have Crohns Diseases which holds me back some, but yeah, I've really stagnated and need an overhaul of how I do certain things.
Cheers!
1. What is your current routine? How much sleep do you get? What's your nutrition look like?
Do you have any injuries? Poor posture? Play sports? Previous injuries?
2. Generally, barbell work BUT if it doesn't improve with squats/DLs/etc you may need unilateral work.
I like the pure compounds and bodyweight... but we'll see. Gaining the mass is generally a product of diet as long as you can come up with a half decent routine.
What are you lift numbers right now?
3. OK, crohns you NEED to get rid of everything related to grains/wheat. Start taking fish oil if you haven't already.
ONLY eat fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, meat, fowl, fish (unless you have other allergies as well...) Eliminate eggs and dairy as they may cause problems as well. Supplementing protein may have to be an option with crohn's to get enough I'm not sure. Once your condition improves you can reintroduce eggs and/or dairy and see how well you do.
1) I'm currently doing about 3-4 sessions a week. My gym buddy busted his toe, so I've been going solo. Sleep is anywhere from 6-8 hours a night. Not long enough I know, but in between everything else I get what I can.
Nutrition is pretty good. I'm doing about 3000 calories a day about 200-220 of which is protein. I haven't broken it down to much detail, but I avoid sugary foods and saturated fats as much as I can.
Been seeing a physio for calf related injuries lately, but it hampers my sport and not the gym much at all (except for things like calf raises which I don't do much anyhow. Deadlifts and squats have been fine). I have bung shoulders, particularly my left. Have popped left 3 times and right once. I prob need some work done on the left in particular, but it's not too bad. I avoid doing dumbell raises above my head (e.g. military press) but that's about all.
I play a lot of sport in between gym. During the week I play in indoor soccer and bball comps, swim about 1km, and also do bootcamp, and social tennis on the weekends.
My Crohns is fairly manageable. I'm fine with most foods except hard fibers like nuts and grains, which I generally stay away from. I think the biggest issue is I don't absorb nutrients as well as others.
Anyhow, as I wrote this I could see a lot of problems! I'm pretty much too active and need more rest and food. I'll maybe try adding a 6th meal into my day and try the new routine to see how it goes. What would you recommend as the best compound exercises? I was thinking:
Squats, deadlifts, standing military press, barbell bent over row, bench press, pull ups, chin ups, dips, push ups, hyper externsions and a whole lot of abs work.
On December 22 2009 20:51 RowdierBob wrote: Hey all, been a bit of a weird year for me. Didn't quite make it to 90kgs and have actually dropped to 85 when I started taking a lot of carbs out of my diet.
I still have 2 major problems hoping you can help me with:
1) I have plateaued badly in terms of my lifting ability. I just can't seem to move past a certain level I've been at for about 2-3 months.
2) Left/Right imbalance. My right side is bigger and stronger than the left. I've heard differing advice on how to help fix this, but should I mainly be focussing on barbell or dumbell exercises?
I'm thinking of trying a new routine to increase strength based around purely compound exercises; namely squats, deadlifts, presses and calysthenics. Good/bad idea?
How much protein should I be taking in to get that extra 5kgs of muscle? I've always followed the 2g of proteing for every kg of weight, but even at around 220g of protein a day I seem to just maintain rather than gain. I do have Crohns Diseases which holds me back some, but yeah, I've really stagnated and need an overhaul of how I do certain things.
Cheers!
1. What is your current routine? How much sleep do you get? What's your nutrition look like?
Do you have any injuries? Poor posture? Play sports? Previous injuries?
2. Generally, barbell work BUT if it doesn't improve with squats/DLs/etc you may need unilateral work.
I like the pure compounds and bodyweight... but we'll see. Gaining the mass is generally a product of diet as long as you can come up with a half decent routine.
What are you lift numbers right now?
3. OK, crohns you NEED to get rid of everything related to grains/wheat. Start taking fish oil if you haven't already.
ONLY eat fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, meat, fowl, fish (unless you have other allergies as well...) Eliminate eggs and dairy as they may cause problems as well. Supplementing protein may have to be an option with crohn's to get enough I'm not sure. Once your condition improves you can reintroduce eggs and/or dairy and see how well you do.
1) I'm currently doing about 3-4 sessions a week. My gym buddy busted his toe, so I've been going solo. Sleep is anywhere from 6-8 hours a night. Not long enough I know, but in between everything else I get what I can.
Nutrition is pretty good. I'm doing about 3000 calories a day about 200-220 of which is protein. I haven't broken it down to much detail, but I avoid sugary foods and saturated fats as much as I can.
Been seeing a physio for calf related injuries lately, but it hampers my sport and not the gym much at all (except for things like calf raises which I don't do much anyhow. Deadlifts and squats have been fine). I have bung shoulders, particularly my left. Have popped left 3 times and right once. I prob need some work done on the left in particular, but it's not too bad. I avoid doing dumbell raises above my head (e.g. military press) but that's about all.
I play a lot of sport in between gym. During the week I play in indoor soccer and bball comps, swim about 1km, and also do bootcamp, and social tennis on the weekends.
My Crohns is fairly manageable. I'm fine with most foods except hard fibers like nuts and grains, which I generally stay away from. I think the biggest issue is I don't absorb nutrients as well as others.
Anyhow, as I wrote this I could see a lot of problems! I'm pretty much too active and need more rest and food. I'll maybe try adding a 6th meal into my day and try the new routine to see how it goes. What would you recommend as the best compound exercises? I was thinking:
Squats, deadlifts, standing military press, barbell bent over row, bench press, pull ups, chin ups, dips, push ups, hyper externsions and a whole lot of abs work.
If you're healthy don't avoid saturated fats. Sats fats are needed to make cholesterol, which are needed to make testosterone and other steroid hormones. In addition, they are used to make cell membranes, the brain, lung surfactant, etc. Basically, you need saturated fats. Eat them. Whole eggs.. eat them. Animal fat.. eat it. If you have a heart condition THEN it may not be a good idea to eat them but you don't AFAIK.
The exercises look fine. I like them (except pushups and abs work). Don't really need that stuff if you're doing everything else right but I suppose you can add them in if you want. Hard progressions are better than doing zillions of reps.
I do think you should get your diet down straight though, and get resolving those injuries. I can help you if you want, but I'm going to need a lot more information. You can ask the physio about your shoulders as well... most are willing to help you out if you have another issue.
Had a free pass to my shitty franchise gym with a 20x30 free weight area and no squat rack thats the only one near my house but is still better than nothing. Did full body because i only have a couple free passes lol. had to do squats and bent over rows on the smith machine because there's no squat rack. Watched a fat 12 year old come in, do ez bar curls, followed by dumbell curls, followed by tricep extensions. I died a little inside. On the bright side, i had a guy come up to me and tell me he was glad to see someone squatting properly and allerted me to the fact that at1-2 am (gym open 24/7) its dead and i can use the squat rack/tbar thats upstairs in the attic (had to help put those there when i used to work there lol...sad day).
On December 24 2009 16:22 decafchicken wrote: Had a free pass to my shitty franchise gym with a 20x30 free weight area and no squat rack thats the only one near my house but is still better than nothing. Did full body because i only have a couple free passes lol. had to do squats and bent over rows on the smith machine because there's no squat rack. Watched a fat 12 year old come in, do ez bar curls, followed by dumbell curls, followed by tricep extensions. I died a little inside. On the bright side, i had a guy come up to me and tell me he was glad to see someone squatting properly and allerted me to the fact that at1-2 am (gym open 24/7) its dead and i can use the squat rack/tbar thats upstairs in the attic (had to help put those there when i used to work there lol...sad day).
haha that is sad if the gym has a squat rack in the attic
EPT
