Cheat meal is overrated imo. Just focus on eating well, don't give yourself a distraction such as a cheat day. It doesn't have to be good or bad because the bigger picture is what matters but if you're suffering so much from your diet that you absolutely need a cheat day once a week to make up for it then you're probably doing your diet wrong in the first place

Wat.


If you eat a cup a day, you are only eating 3g more fiber in the brown rice. You think that makes a difference in a 2400 calorie diet?

Plain, they taste the same to me. Like shiet.

Paleo is stupid as hell.

Cheat meal is just for compliance. Don't program it in but just relax and 'cheat' whenever appropriate. Like if your GF orders you a pizza...

You should tell her to eat it herself.

So I've noticed over the last year, I've drifted over to a more elbows out style of bench. I do it because my bench is stronger this way, but it's also worse on my shoulders. Neither of those things is too surprising.

In my new effort to keep the elbows in, I find that I'm narrowing my grip a little. Is it unusual that I find it easier to keep the elbows in when I narrow the grip, or is that standard too. Should I try to keep the grip wide?

Post a vid. Elbows out means different things to different people. Fact is raw benchers don't need to tuck much to bench safely.

OK. I don't video bench a lot at home because there's not an easy place to set my phone and get useful vid. Or maybe I'll do it when I'm out of town at a gym. What's the best angle to figure out what you're looking for. Is default side view good enough?

Like 45 degree angle from an elevated position if possible

Hi everyone! I have a question about weight loss and getting ripped.

In May of this year I was 88.8kg (196lbs) so I decided to lose weight and I went on a caloric-deficit. I consumed about 1800 calories a day and I did a variety of cardio workouts (treadmill, cycling, skipping) 6 times a week. I also do mild calisthenics workouts but I do NOT lift weights at all. I read from a variety of sources that lifting weights and building muscle halts weight loss and it turns fat into muscle.

I am now 79.5kg (175lbs) and I intend to go down to 72kg (159lbs). I am 5 feet 7 inches tall. Recently I've hit a plateau. I have lost very little weight this week even though I am strictly counting my calories.

My goal is to be 72kg and to look ripped. Should I start lifting weights now or should I stick to my caloric-deficit diet and only start lifting weights when I'm 72kg?

Thanks in advance for the advice.

Starting to weightlift ASAP seems to be the way to go. Right now you are losing fat and muscle mass. How do you think you will look "ripped" @72kg or any other weight if you are constantly losing muscle mass?

"Turning fat into muscle" is not that likely. You might gain some muscle mass, but mostly you will stop the loss of muscles induced by your diet. This will also help you with your weightloss because muscles use more energy throughout the day than fat does, even if you are not active on a certain day. The only negative might be, that you could feel more hungry being active, athough I don't see that happening that much with you as you are already doing cardio workouts six times a week, which also use a lot of energy ldo.

You could trying doing a SS/GSLP-style workout three times a week instead of three of your cardio workouts. This will work for a few weeks. When weights get heavier, you might start getting problems with squatting mutliple times a week while also running and cycling. I would start GSLP and then switch to a two day version of GSLP once you reach the stage I mentioned above.
That is basically what I did from January to October. I lost a little more than 25kg and increased my lifts a lot (although I had to reset twice - once because of injury and another time because I was away from home for three weeks). Right now I have switched to lifting three times a week and running only twice (for the winter) and I am still losing weight (my bodyweight had a 10-week breakeven stretch in there, because I wasn't as strict with my diet as I should have been).

In case you have any questions on SS or GSLP you should find all the information you need in the FAQ.

Thanks for the help GermanyGuy!

Hi guys, i have some problems in how to schedule my workouts and if i do the right workouts.

So Im 33yo, 195cm (6`5) tall and 116kg (256 lbs) fat.
In the past 6 months I mostly did this routine with some indoor cycling/rowing, swimming and/or hiking for cardio and with this i lost some weight and gained some muscle.

In October i started to play some team sports, indoor soccer on Wednesdays and basketball on Thursdays and well i cant seem to properly recover if i try to do an activity 6days per week.

ATM my schedule looks like:
Monday: 2*25min fast walking to/from fitness studio, some rowing for cardio and weight lifting
Tuesday: 2*25min fast walking to/from fitness studio, HIIT spinning for cardio and weight lifting
Wednesday: indoor soccer
Thursday: basketball
Friday: 2*25min fast walking to/from fitness studio and either swimming or some light spinning
Saturday: Tuesday: 2*25min fast walking to/from fitness studio, HIIT spinning or rowing for cardio and weight lifting
Sunday: free day

Doing this i felt quite tired for last 2-3 weeks, but to be honest my diet for last 10 or so days was **** so i definitely need to be more consistent in what i eat.

So does my schedule/workout seem ok or should do less/different weight lifting routine and/or do more light cardio instead of HIIT and rowing?

First of all: great that you are doing this. Your programm basically looks like what most peolpe here woule recommend, although SS/GSLP are more geared to lower reps and incorporate squats more often than your program. It would be interesting to know about the weight you are lifting, progression and form, to give you some better advice on the weightlifting parts of your programm (and I am a beginner there myself, but there are a lot of experienced people around here).

Concering the cardio part of you programm: if you feel you are doing too much, why don't you skip the Friday workout? I realize Wednesday and Thursday probably won't be easy to move around, but I would try something like this:
Wed: soccer
Thu: basketball:
Fri:weighlifting
Sat:rest day
Sun: weightlifting
Mon: rest day
Tuesday: weightlifting

Gives you an extra recovery day and you still have a recovery day between weightlifting days. Friday workouts might be tough, though. You could also stick to your programm and just use Friday as an extra rest day, if weightlifting Monday and Tuesday seems mostly fine to you.

Wed, Thu and Sun cant be changed and i kinda want to do 6 in 7 :P, but yeah in worst case ill get another rest day. Today I felt great again as I ate more balanced food over the weekend. My diet over previous 10 days seemed to be really really ****.

I mostly do my lifting on machines as i dont have a spotting partner

Bench press machine: 10x75kg (165lbs)
Row machine: 10x85kg (187lbs)
I did 10x85kg (187lbs) lat pull-downs, but switched to assisted pull-up machine like a month ago as i felt its a superior workout(?) - I do 6-7x65kg (assisted) (143lbs)
Shoulder press machine: 10x35kg (77lbs)

I was kinda lazy with my squats, but i started 3x6 and progressed to 3x15 bodyweight, now i do some kind of a 10xgoblet squat with about 15kg (33lbs) weights.
I do plan to do more squats and focus more on progression and am planning to add split squats to my routine.

As for deadlifts Im kinda afraid of them so i started them with really light weights (20kg - 44lbs) and mostly focus on form. My back started to hurt in the summer so i dropped them for a bit more than a month and again when i started playing basketball. I did them today - 8xbar+25kg(121lbs)

Hey guys,

Question about moving from a 3-day routine to a 6-day routine. Been lifting for ~8 months or so. I'm currently on a GSLP variant that I like and am still progressing in. The reason I'm interested in a 6 day routine is because lifting in the morning makes me feel ****ing amazing for the rest of the day, and I want that every day.

A lot of the 6-day routines I see are PPL, which I honestly don't know much about. I would love to basically transform my GSLP routine if possible, with some thrown in accessory lifts maybe? I'd like to keep my workouts to <= 60min, some of the PPL workouts I've seen look pretty long.

Any suggestions?

has anyone ever done 5x5 on a calorie deficit? or at maintenance wouldnt that make you pretty ripped?

Just bought some harbinger wrist wraps because I've been feeling some strain in my wrists at the end of heavy or high rep bench and ohp sets. Should I warm up without them and only use them on heavier work sets?

Last warm-up and worksets is generally what's recommended.

sounds good, thanks

How'd this go un-addressed?

It doesn't matter what program you do. "Build Muscle" program is what you want first.

"Pretty Ripped" means what? Low body fat with muscle belly's that aren't flat.

You get that through diet - but you do need to have some muscle belly size first so you're not just skinny/thin.

Dumb question incoming:

I've always lifted in older running shoes - but injured my foot recently running a half-marathon, and the foot-doctor was pretty clear that continuing to use worn-down running shoes for anything (even yardwork or whatever) was a dumb idea given my feet.

So I'm buying new shoes for the sole purpose of going to the gym. Do I just get running shoes (I have a brand I really like which works for my weird-shaped feet)?

Because of headache issues, my weight-lifting is mostly stuff that I can do at least 8-10 reps of. I can't really max out on anything, so I don't know if that matters.

Thanks.

Weightlifting shoes are good for weightlifting.

What do you do in the gym? If only weights look into shoes like Adidas Power lift. If you do a lot of other stuff like cardio you might want something with better flex etc but I'd still get a solid training shoe with a pretty flat sole. You want to avoid soft soled non flat shoes like running shoes for lifting because of stability problems.

Thanks for the response. To be clear I understand - the risk of wearing running shoes is less stability - right? Which only would affect me on heavier lifts? Or is there an injury risk I'd be taking on even at the weights I work at?

Background: I usually do a cardio warmup for 10-15 minutes is all. Other than that, I lift, but nothing too high intensity. If I did something max effort, there's a good chance I get a bad headache that lasts for months (it's happened twice, and it sucks so, so much). I'd prefer to just wear running shoes because I have a shoe I really like and I want the extra support when I'm warming up. But I want to be sure I understand the downside. Thanks.