Sup brahs, i have a questions about routines. Iv been on a 5x5 full body routine for 7 months and most of my lifts have gone up quite a lot (also made good gains). However i want to try something new. How does this look, Monday - chest & biceps/ Tuesday - legs/ Wednesday - back & triceps, Thursday off, Friday - legs & shoulders. I will big keep compounds bench, deadlift, squat, row, ohp all 5x5 with weekly progression and the other lifts 3x10. I know it seems like more pressing than pulling but second leg day includes deadlifts as primary leg movement which hits the back. Keeping this fairly high volume. How does it look? Any advice appreciated.

I have those - same color too. Awesome shoes for squatting. You feel like you have giant magnets on the bottom of your feet.

Got a bit of a different question. Over the past 1.5 months been doing HIIT and cardio, lost a fair bit of fat, picked up a heap of conditioning and a bit of strength but in general if anything I would sleep better after a solid workout. Over the past 2 weeks I have started barbell strength training and am finding my body is running unusually warm overnight while I'm trying to sleep, making sleep rather difficult. Not fever type warm but noticeably warmer than pre barbell workouts. I don't have any symptoms of any illness and my workouts are not suffering so that's unlikely to be the cause. The only supplement I'm taking is a protein supplement which I took during the HIIT as well so again that's unlikely to be the cause. Any ideas / thoughts on what the cause might be and how to make it easier to sleep, short of sleeping pills?

Wear less clothes. Seriously. Change to lighter sheets. A fan can also help.

I cannot sleep well if I'm warm/hot. These things help me.

I have to strip to nothing and have a sheet / light blanket at most to get any sleep. The wife is wearing long sleeves and pants and has 2 blankets on to give an idea of temperature.

Looks fine

since I don't have my own thread (yet?) I have to cry here:
I've never actually missed a deadlift half-way. I either just can't break the floor, or break it by like an inch or two.

I've never seen myself in the mirror so shakey...I almost suspect that threw me off on the pull heh

My upper body is getting bigger faster than my lower body. What assistance exercises can I do to get bigger calves/quads?

Here's my routine now (running 5/3/1):

Press Day + [Chinups]
Deadlift Day + [Hanging Leg Raises, Pushups]
Bench Day + [Pullups, Kroc Rows]
Squat Day + [Lunges, Ab Wheel Rollouts]

So the only lower body assistance I'm doing is lunges really.

For calves do calf raises.

Probably the best 'assistance' for lower body is to do high rep, low weight squats. Like 5 x 10 x (50% your 3x5 weight). Be careful that form doesn't break down...

bulgarian split squats is another good one. HBBS if you primarily do LBBS could be a good change

Pistols ainec.

Height: 6'2
Weight:180
BodyFat: 14%
Goal: Maintain weight and get cut (basically look good)

Im doing p90x as my muscle sculpting tool.
Im eating around 2200 Cals as my fat burning tool. (300ish calorific deficit will burn fat).

Now my question:

If i for instance ate a 1k cal Pizza and 1k cal fried chicken a day (extreme)
i would still be in my calorific deficit and probably still be getting enough protein.
But would it have a bad effect on my looks?

I know i need veggies but working with this extreme example im just trying to workout to what extent macro nutrients matter over calorific deficit when trying to look good.

I know some people do Dirty bulks... so i guess my question could also be can u do a dirty cut.

Thanks

Yes.

You're sort of asking two different things.

Underlined is really more about micronutrients than macronutrients. In your example, you'd probably be deficient in many micronutrients, causing a variety of issues. You'd also feel like ****. This would lead to even more issues, one of them being decreased gym performance leading to more muscle loss than necessary. All of this is if you can even stay full, since the high calorie type of food will be so much less volume of food than necessary. If you can't be satiated, you'll likely break your calorie deficit occasionally if not go on binges.

Bold is a different issue. Calorie deficit (surplus) determines weight loss (gain), outside of transient things like water and glycogen stores. Protein will help retain muscle and provide satiation. Fat helps with hormone production and also satiation. Carbs help with energy, mood, and do vary much more from person to person than the other macros. So being deficient in a certain macro is a whole different question, and one that is dependent on the macro.

You'll also tend to look like **** if you're nutrient-deficient. Bad skin, etc.

How much protein do you think you need and how much do you think 2000 cal pizza/fried chicken contains? I'm guessing 100 g at most, so I'm not sure how you think you'd hit your macros... As well do you realize this would be like max 2-3 pieces of chicken and pizza? Try it out though and let us know how it goes!

Why don't you just add a load of veggies on to your pizza? It will add lots of required micro-nutrients and fiber and is not going to add much in terms of kcals. Also eat one decent sized side of broccoli with your chicken and profit.

I did a dirty cut and lost 25kg. I ate mcD, pizzas and fried stuff but it only takes a single big side of green veggies (not that many kcals) to hit your micro-nutrient requirements. Also, pizza is a pretty wholesome meal esp with veggies and meat.


This depends on a few things. If the pizza has a couple of different meats on it, a medium sized Pizza Hut Chicken Supreme can contain ~75g protein for 1,100kcals (this includes some veggies as well).

6 Pieces of KFC Boneless fried chicken strips contains ~800kcal and 64g protein.

That's ~140g protein from ~2000kcals. Worth noting that Pizza Hut and KFC are probably the worst recipe choices in terms of fat, sodium and high caloric content. Clean those two recipes up a bit and you could be consuming the same number of proteins with almost the same taste but less calories.

The nutritional data is from Indian version of KFC & Pizza Hut.

I mean you can't get the same taste decreasing the fat, despite talk of 12 secret herbs and spices and whatever, the taste of KFC derives from being essentially pressure cooked in fat. KFC and Pizza Hut taste like **** anyway, so your point stands that you can get fried chicken and pizza that both tastes better and is less calorific.

Thanks Helpful answers! Especially Saw

Im hearing that basically yes you can do a dirtycut and get ripped but its likely to not give you enough nutrients as Dirty food is less nutrient rich per calorie than clean food.

SO yes you can get a sixpack by eating pizza and kfc (Not that i want to) but it will make you ill and probably weaker, physically and mentally.

This kind of confirms what i thought but leads to the question of what nutrients are ok to cut corners on.

IE: is the sugar spike acceptable when eating a chocolate bar to make up them extra 300cals in your day?

Or are those 150 grams of carbs and sodium spikes gonna have any medium term percievable effects on your body/mind when making up the last 800 calories of your day with say half a pizza?

The thing is, when on a caloric deficit, unless you eat pizza and fried chicken everyday or other meats in a fatty concoction there are not that many realistic 'dirty food' variations that you can sanely eat and still hit your energy macros whilst staying in that deficit, let alone micro-nutrients, unless you want to eat the same **** everyday.
You don't need to cut corners on any micro-nutrients. Just don't eat 1k pizzas or 1k fried chicken every day.

Just make sure you keep your protein, fat, carbs & fiber intake consistent with the requirements for your body, include some fruits and nuts for snacks and there is no way you will become depleted in important micro-nutrients or feel weak and mentally slow

Don't over think it. Just lift, bust ass in gym and eat well. Averages are more important than exact daily intake so eat in variety and eat what you like

Hey guys,

Am thinking of getting a barbell for home use. Any recs on where I should look online for this, things to look out for, etc?

Any guidance would be great!

Likely going to have to find a new gym soon. Anyone have any opinions (good/bad/meh) on LA Fitness?

I got a power cage, 350# of iron, barbell, flat bench, couple belts, 2 50# dumbbells for $450 2 years ago from craigslist. Cheap barbell only weighs 39#, but was fine for SS.

I think used is a good way to go for metal things with no moving parts.

meh

went for a couple of years, just an average globo gym. kinda expensive, but tolerable until they got those stupid octagonal plates.

Just a barbell? What kind of $$ do you want to spend?