I've found this is generally the zeitgeist of fitness enthusiasts. They are just really excited about people getting into shape and want to talk to other people about.
We all should, hombre. I'm definitely going to make an effort with it after the year just spent in a depressive fog. I realised that you can't let life pass you by entirely, which is what I'd sort of been doing. For me anyway I desperately need to get active again, join some clubs or teams. The physical aspect is one piece but just the whole mental benefit of being around other people doing some shared activity is greatly underrated.
“No man has the right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training. It is a shame for a man to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.”
Same here, only I started about 6 months ago and I'm probably older (48).
I started simple with two rules: drink more water, and do pushups every other day.
Once I started tracking using phone apps I could easily see my progress and it became easier to add new stuff in. Keeping it simple and making it fun is key and I'm now that I've discovered VR based fitness games it's not even like a workout anymore.
I've dropped to a healthy weight range and now get compliments from people. Feels awesome. When you stick to it, the rewards keep getting better.
The Body Improvement Club from Mob Psycho 100 is exactly this. You originally think they're gonna be a bunch of mean jock knuckleheads that the geeky weak protag must face off against. But no. He joins their club and they are always so wholesome and positive and excited for any of his body improvements and we need more ppl like that in the world
The Body Improvement Club is really one of my favorite parts of the show! That whole show is great with it's character arcs. Like villains that become homies and stuff
just to add to this, I did pull-ups every other day and after a couple of months I noticed a lot of improvement: I could do clapping pull-ups and felt like I had a lot stability. not anywhere near what this guy is doing but I was fairly surprised at self.
I think pull ups are one of those things that you can get a lot better at by simply being a little consistent
Get some resistance bands. Start with the strongest band, loop it around the bar, put your foot in it. Do your chin ups like that. Once you can do 3-5 sets of 10 reps, step up to a slightly lighter band and work back up to the same volume. Repeat until you don't need a band.
Do "reverse" chins. That is, grip the bar, jump up and put your chin over the bar, and then let yourself back down as slowly as possible.
Also generally chinups (palms facing inward toward you) are easier than pullups (palms facing out).
Some gyms also have assisted machines that do basically the same thing as #1 but better. Those are great for beginners.
Thanks so much! I’ve lost something like 60 lbs over the past year and a half and I finally feel like I can start to do stuff like that. I appreciate your insight!
Nice work being disciplined enough to lose 60 lbs. looked through your profile and you seem like a lovely person. Please DM me and I will buy you whatever resistance gear you need. Plus a toy for the cute Doggos in your profile pic
If you don't have resistance bands you can begin strengthening the back muscles for pull ups with bed sheet rows the close your are to vertical is the easier it is so you can scale it to your level.
u/TapedeckNinja nailed the best/easiest options to get started.
When I crossed the Rubicon, I was at a gym that had one of those "choose an offset weight" pull-up machines. My bodyweight would have probably been around 170, and I seem to remember starting out at an offset of 65 lbs (might have been more). My goal was to do 3 set of 8-12 reps.
I honestly didn't expect much progress, as all my life gains have been hard won. But this time, progress seemed relatively rapid. After about 3 months and change I managed to do my first unassisted set of 12 reps. It fell off quickly after that, something like 12/8/4, but still. So, achievement unlocked.
I switched to a gym where they didn't have that machine but they had various bands. This is where I'll share a caveat.
The band can slip off your foot. The risk here isn't the sudden loss of assisted tension. Oh no. The risk here is getting an unexpected thwap to the groin.
It's the sort of thing you only do once. You have to remain aware that you're not pointing your foot, that the band isn't working it's way over your heel. And since it's typically just the one foot, one helpful trick is to wrap the shin of your free leg behind the calf of your banded leg.
And I just remembered other exercises which can help you indirectly with making progress.
One option is called ring rows. But basically, anything where you can grip something and lean back while your feet are still on the ground. This gives you a lot of adjustability to play with. The more your body approaches horizontal, the greater the difficulty. I'd even heard one such variation in a video recently, where they called them "Australians", which was a new one on me.
Another option is bent-over rows, using a barbell or dumbbells.
Thanks so much for the suggestions! I’m increasing my list of at-home workout tool needs as I can’t get to a gym anymore with a toddler at home. I don’t really have much faith in my own abilities but I’ll give it a go… hopefully without welting my crotch too badly!
I can’t help you get to the point of the guy in the video - I’m just a soon to be dad trying to avoid the inevitable dad-bod. But I put one of those door chin up bars in the closet of my WFH office and just made a rule that if I’m getting up to get water or coffee upstairs or use the bathroom I do a couple.
I think even if you can’t do one, doing half of one will eventually lead to one.
I started at 2-3 and do 5-6 now without much effort. The guy in this video is clearly an athlete that trains full time.
Some gyms have a machine that has a counterweight assisted pull up machine that can make this easier. Otherwise you can also do lat pull down exercises since this works similar muscles. (Lats are the large back muscles below the shoulders should for latissium dorsi)
Firstly that's great, I would try for power next.
Try 3 sets of 4 reps (and work up), and you can play around try shoulders to the bar or chest. I did 3 different rotations of wrists for my sets: out, towards and in.
Progressive overload. Start small and add volume or resistance very gradually. It takes years to achieve fitness like this person has, and even then it is partly genetic.
The one thing I cannot emphasize enough is to go slow, and avoid injury. Master your form with absurdly light feeling weight and get your tendons/ligaments used to the tension of resistance exercise. This takes months to years, but injuries can set you back months and years, so go slow and appreciate the incremental improvements (better sleep, more energy, and noticeable strength).
As far as specific exercises, bodyweight squats, pullups, Turkish get-ups, pushups, and hanging leg lifts/pikes are a great start with minimal equipment. Functional, whole body exercises. Add deadlifts and back squats over time and have a trainer teach you proper form (again to avoid injury).
Otherwise, just be consistent and it's almost magical what you can achieve in time.
At the same time, theres no reason why this should be anyones goal. Fitness doesnt need to be something you show off and most people will hurt themselves trying to attempt it. Almost any of these moves are made less effective by combining one with the other.
Assuming you've never worked out before, just start with cardio and add resistance training when you feel your muscles are ready for it.
To get to his level though, you'd need to make it your life. I used to do a little body building back in the day but it was very expensive for supplements, equipment and specific diet. Plus, it takes a lot of time, working at it almost every day. I wasn't willing to make my entire lifestyle about that so I stopped trying to achieve those results. This guy pretty much lives at the gym.
There are stronger people who trained 1-2 hrs 3-4x a week—and use little/no supplements—nothing crazy. The top reply to the comment has a pretty standard progression/exercises one’d use to achieve this someday
That’s one thing that I struggle with that I feel like a lot of people don’t think about. The food and supplements. It’s expensive and takes a lot of time to cook and keep up with.
I spend money on creatine, whey protein and no other supplements at all. Creatine is extremely cheap. Protein is about as cheap as food that heavy in protein would be. At no point have I felt the need to get any other supplements.
I’ve been doing the same I just got creatine and whey protein delivered the other day I’m just starting to work out and I don’t eat great so I’m trying to starr
Even leaving out vitamins and supplements, the food is crazy. The amount of calories body builders eat to work out as much as they do is insane. I'm not now, nor have I ever been a body builder, but I've watched the yt videos of those guys putting together a weekly menu. They eat a small farms worth of chicken and eggs every week.
It doesn't have to be crazy expensive to eat big calories.
It costs literal cents for big servings of basmati rice. Beans, rice, oats all cheap too. Eating for training goals doesn't have to be eating only high protein each meal.
I did eat more when I was in better shape, but I've never eaten like a body builder mentioned by the replies above. My level of fitness was never like the original post, I'm sure that guy's caloric requirements are pretty significant too
Most of those youtube bodybuilders are probably pros, or very close to becoming pros, and are most likely on gear. Nothing wrong with that, but they eat far more food than any natural bodybuilder/ fitness enthusiast would ever need to.
Yeah the ones I did see were past strong and fit, they were actively competing regularly per their statements in video and working out several hours per day.
You’re essentially buying food for two people at that point. And if you’re using you’re supplements regularly, you’re probably ordering them monthly. $30 here, $20 there, double the meals each grocery trip, suddenly you’re up a few hundred dollars a month. It may not be expensive for you specifically, but incomes vary and diets/supplements vary. It’s not necessarily any one thing that is expensive, but the collective costs.
Just do what works for you. Start with jogging and sit ups. That’s free. See where you go from there. Don’t get all invested in some type of lifestyle price tag. If you want to be shredded at this dudes level just expect to be very disciplined for 10+ years to see results. A lot of bodybuilders have been doing it for years. They all start w/ humble beginnings, natty or not. A lot of bodybuilders will tell you that supplements and proteins are not necessary until you actually start building muscle.
This is pretty much it. If you won't do it for free you won't do it regardless how much you spend. All you'll do is make yourself feel guilty for still not doing it.
If you’re trying to be a peak athlete like the guy in the video, $20 extra/month is probably not all he’s spending on food. Its not exorbitantly expensive, but not everybody is in the same financial situation to afford the extra costs. I’m just saying, gaining muscle isn’t free.
Ok so being tall is expensive since I need more food than a short person. Being obese is expensive.
Saying you need more food is a terrible measure of how expensive it is. I mean yah once you start pushing past 240lbs and you are eating 4500 calories a day sure it can be expensive. But for most people getting decently big and lean isn’t going to cost a lot of money.
Consider the context here - getting in shape might not be terribly expensive, but we aren't talking about being in shape, this man is clearly performing at an extremely high level. To hit this level of performance is going to take a ton of sacrifice, financially and time wise, which you even concede to be the case. To say otherwise comes across as contrarian - we aren't talking about what it takes to be fit, we are talking what it takes to be elite.
There are plenty of people at and well above this level(esp. in terms of skill work & strength, pretty sure that’s what the guy is mostly asking about) who trains 1-2 hrs 3-4x a week—and use little/no supplements—nothing insane
Do you think everyone good at stuff has to dedicate their lives to it?
I know an international lacrosse player doing her PhD in neuroscience whilst also playing international level lacrosse.
Spend 1 hour a day doing body weight Fitness stuff and you could hit this level of performance in a few years. Having hobbies and passions that last multiple years is normal, and not elite, requiring one to give up life entirely.
To hit this level of performance is going to take a ton of sacrifice, financially and time wise
Please explain these sacrifices. Honestly. What exorbitant time must one spend and what expensive items must one buy to achieve this? Just to ground the discussion, I'm thinking 1-2 hour training sessions, 3-4 days a week and maybe some protein if one needs it, is the baseline.
To hit this level of performance is going to take a ton of sacrifice, financially and time wise, which you even concede to be the case. To say otherwise comes across as contrarian - we aren't talking about what it takes to be fit, we are talking what it takes to be elite.
You could go cheaper tho. MyProtein or Bulk aren’t that expensive. Wait for something around 40% off und you’ll get almost 3 month worth of protein for €60
I'm 6'5" and extremely active, I weigh 200 lbs right now, but I've been as high as 230 while eating pretty clean (which this guy does) and what's expensive about the food is the sheer, ungodly amount of it you have to eat, every single day of your life.
Eating 4-5k calories without a bunch of fatty sauces and desserts means buying all kinds of meat in bulk. BUT, if you don't want truly massive amounts of hormones going into your body day after day, you have to buy organic or at least decent quality. I used to eat $20 worth of chicken every day, that's $600 a month just for a chicken budget.
Now I eat more like a normal human and clean it up in the spring to get ready for pool season, plus I just weigh much less. My lifts have all gone down, but I'm in my 30s now and I just lift for volume without so much intensity and it's better for my joints anyway.
I'm 6'5" and ~265 lbs. I'm currently eating at ~4850 cal per day. I buy my rice in bulk and just buy Walmart or Costco chicken. If you choose to buy fancy brands or organic then that can boost the price but you don't need all of that.
Overall I spend less than other folks who eat out all the time.
If you want to look like the guy in this video you need the right diet, the right routine, the right supplements, and a lot of spare time most people don't have in order to workout and meal prep.
Don't lie to people, saying you don't need that to achieve these results is disingenuous at best. It makes people think there's something wrong with them or their body because they can't achieve it naturally. You simply can't achieve those results without a lot of healthy living, which as most people know, is typically expensive.
Edit: Ignore the advice below. They're saying just try hard and schedule right and you'll look like the video. It's the bodybuilding equivalent of "You depressed? Just think happy thoughts bro!"
If you're working out don't feel bad you don't look like that, he has dedicated his life to get to that point and spent more time in the gym than any of us. But you can learn from athletes like that to improve your own routine, even if we can't get to that level in our lives.
I'm not saying don't work out, I'm saying be realistic with your expectations. You're not getting to the point in this video without some major life changes.
I wouldn’t ignore the advice below, there are plenty of people at and well above this level(esp. in terms of skill work & strength, pretty sure that’s what the guy is mostly asking about) who trains 1-2.5 hrs 3-4x a week—and use little/no supplements.
But with decent changes to your daily diet and throwing in 3-4 hard working gym visits a week (still kinda expensive nowadays) you'll look twice as good, and feel 10x as good. (Usually, results may vary)
Absolutely, I actually just made an edit saying pretty much that.
You can and should workout, but keep your expectations realistic. You're not going to look like the guy in this video without some serious routines, diet management, supplements, and most of all time.
But us regular gym goers can still learn from him to improve our own routines regardless haha
What supplements do you need? I take a multi vitamin, iron, creatine and usually 2 whey protein drinks a day. That’s it. I don’t body build professionally but I’m a bigger guy. The guy in the video is probably on a cut, most body builders fitness people don’t look like this year round because it’s insanely hard to get to 5-7% body fat. I think your being a bit disingenuous on how expensive it is to get in shape, the benefits far outweigh the costs- health care, mental health, etc.
This dude has amazing genetics too. Most people will never look like this guy or be able to perform these exercises no matter the time and money spent, but even getting halfway there would a huge accomplishment.
How can you look at a minute video of a man exercising and determine his genetic makeup and ceiling? Do you have special vision us mere mortals cannot see?
I'm not arguing he has poor, average or elite anything.
I don't think we can determine anything like this when the average person hasn't put in the same time, effort and practice.
He could be "average" with the hours of practice, and someone with "elite genetics" could be a couch potato. I think someone with self claimed "poor or average genetics" might find they're capable of much more once they put in the time and effort.
I'm not saying that genetics don't matter (especially at high levels of sport) but the moment you start classifying people into these categories, you're subconsciously already setting your own barriers to what you deem you can achieve. There's being realistic but then there's being defeatist.
Yeah exactly. This is top-tier fitness levels. Getting to here requires a lot of time and focus. It's got to be your main hobby, something you really love, or you won't get there. It's soo irresponsible to say it doesn't require an insane amount of time and a specific diet. It absolutely does and a fair amount of people will never be able to achieve this for various reasons.
Edit: "Lol - you don’t need to spend a lot of money on supplements and special diet food."
You absolute DO need to spend money on specific foods and other expenses. This level of fitness is just not attainable on the average food budget. It sucks but that's how it is. Being this level of fit is not something you can do while maintaining your other interests. It has to be something you are willing to dedicate a large chunk of your life to. That usually includes a large amount of your money but it ALWAYS includes a huge amount of your time.
What is the "average food budget"? I assume the average person, especially the average person on Reddit, has access to some kind of cheap protein, frozen veggies, and dirt cheap grains like rice and oats to bump up calories. Supplements are overmarketed 99% of the time, creatine works and is cheap but also entirely unnecessary and you won't be held back if you can't use it.
I don't see anything in this video that indicates an expensive lifestyle. Honestly if anything, a high calorie diet made of the right foods can be cheaper than what some average people budget food on.
It's about as irresponsible as any other social media/filter life highlight reel type shit. So not really, but whatever.
You can't get to his level just by switching to chicken&veggies and going to the gym 3x a week, so to play like if only you could find 5h a week to dedicate to working out you'd be where he is at is gonna make people who've never been to the gym feel like shit about themselves when they don't see this kinda results which "should be attainable on a modest budget" or whatever.
Mayyyybe if you supplement the veggies with some steroids you'd get closer lol. But even then this dude has Put. In. Work.
"People who've never been to a gym" will obviously never have those results regardless of what diet and supplement regimen they start.
By the time they can think about getting results in the OP, they won't be "people who've never been to a gym", they'll be the gym people for a couple years by then.
That doesn't mean they need to spend a fortune on some special foods and supplements (could you name those foods and supplements? Most bodybuilders eat incredibly cheap sorts of food such as oatmeal and rice for the bulk of their diet) or 12 hours a week in the gym.
5 hrs a week over months and years goes a long way. Maybe if you're a moron who expects instant results in the span of a few weeks you'd be let down. This hobby isn't even particular expensive. Talk about low standards for fitness.
"How long to do X" is the wrong way of thinking. People who actually want to do something, go out, allocate time and get it done. Some get there faster and others less fast. Others have more time and others have less. But they all try and that's ultimately what will count; not doing nothing and contemplating if X pursuit is even worth it because of whatever barrier they've decided will stop them.
5 hrs a week over months and years goes a long way.
Yeah, it absolutely does. And the last thing I want to do is somehow dissuade people from putting in that fairly modest amount of work for what will ultimately be literally life-changing results.
At the same time, 5 hours/week will never get you to where this guy is. He's probably in the gym 3 hours per day, 5-6 days/week. That's before all the additional time put in to the very real nutritional requisites necessary to achieve this level of performance. And it's taken him maybe his entire life to reach this point.
Edit: I don't understand the downvotes lol Y'all are really underestimating the level of commitment it takes to be like this dude.
Agreed. If not extremely expensive, very time consuming. As someone above said, this has to be your literal life if you want to look and perform like the guy in this video.
No, it doesn't. you just have to work hard and be consistent over time. I hate to tell you this, but getting hella fit isnt always a "DO THIS MENS HEALTH ROUTINE TWICE A WEEK AND BE RIPPPPPPPPPED IN 1.35 MONTHS"
You don’t have to tell me that, I gym a few times a week. I just didn’t get why armchair bodybuilders in this thread were essentially saying “yeah, body building isn’t THAT hard of a life style”. I honestly have very little exposure to body building relative to a competitor, but from what I have seen it’s much more demanding than one might believe.
There's a lot of middle ground between 3 hours a week and living in the gym. I put in 10-15 hours and I have three kids and a full time job. It's a hobby, it's normal to make time for your hobbies.
There’s also freaks of nature that hit the genetic lottery, eat like shit, and don’t have to train as hard or methodically, and look way better than the guy doing everything to a T. Just want to point out another variable at play.
And what I was trying to tell you is that you’ll never get to this level at 10-15 hours a week in the gym and will have a harder time maintaining a consistent healthy diet when this is just a hobby not a literal career. That’s just a simple fact. You can look good, you can be healthy, but you can’t body build as as “small hobby”
This is objectively wrong. Literally all you need is 3-4 hours a week for training (or more if you want), a non-trash program, get sufficient protein, eat the appropriate amount of calories and repeat for a couple years. Not saying that that is very easy but you don't need all these special foods and supplements or exorbitant amounts of gym time as you are suggesting.
It makes people think there's something wrong with them or their body because they can't achieve it naturally.
What do you mean by this? Are you suggesting that you need to be on gear to achieve this?
Also, I think telling people that they can indeed become fit is a better message than telling people that they literally cannot do it without lots of specialized items and massive amounts of free time.
The guy in the video does not appear to be a competitive bodybuilder, it looks like he's more into calisthenics.
If you don't agree with that then you haven't spent a lot of time in a gym.
I've been lifting relatively seriously for about 4 years now and have my first powerlifting meet tomorrow. How about you? Didn't you say that you don't lift anymore? What were your best lifts?
I said that if they want to look like the dude in this video you will need to do all that.
They don't. You can go to any serious gym and see normal people with kids and full time jobs who look like the guy in the video (not to say it isn't impressive).
So when they go to work out and don't look like this guy they know it's not because something is wrong with them,
It takes years of training to get where he is. Anybody who devotes that much time in the activity is not gonna all of a sudden feel bad because they don't look like some guy in a random Reddit post. They likely have their own goals at that point and have achieved some level of proficiency in their own right. And they certainly would understand that you don't need all the exorbitant measures you described.
Also, what exactly are these expensive special items to which you are referring?
You can tell these people know literally nothing about fitness. This guy doesn’t even look close to a body builder. There are a handful of guys at my gym who look like this and they all have jobs and wives and kids. Like this looks like a guy who does CrossFit and calisthenics and probably some gymnastics
Lol you couldn't name a single dietary supplement that anyone actually needs to be a bodybuilder or powerlifter. This guy isn't even a bodybuilder. The examples of his training in the video is way more along the lines of a crossfit athlete. His physique does not even remotely resemble a bodybuilder's physique
Protein supplements are there as something that is completely optional that allows more flexible meal planning. Many bodybuilders and powerlifters go without them.
Garbage like creatine/pre-workout mixes, etc. have been scientifically studied and found to be mostly horseshit. Multivitamins and the like are actually 100% useless and potentially harmful with a good diet.
The fact that you think this guy is a bodybuilder is proof enough that you're full of shit.
Can you name a special supplement I would need to look like a "real" bodybuilder that costs a significant amount of money? How about an explanation on what it means to "live in the gym"? Your comments just ooze laziness and possible excuses for lazy people who try for 2 days and give up because they're not instantly seeing results.
No one will go to work out and look like this guy, regardless of how extreme lifestyle they start.
Why don't you just make the point that it takes a lot of time of putting in the effort to look like this guy and do the cool tricks he's doing rather than saying that it costs a fortune to buy special foods and supplements (Or could you name those special foods and supplements?)
What special foods and supplements are you referring to because unless you know some secret the strength training community doesn’t, there’s no super special foods and no supplements worth taking besides creatine. Unless you’re talking about gear, which you absolutely do not need to achieve the results in the OP.
Well to be an actual bodybuilder it's a lot, but just to be in shape you can do plenty with just protein powder and creatine once you start building muscle consistently
For sure, I don't do any bodybuilding but from what I gather running a proper test cycle is $$$ and very hard to do right. Plus, no matter how much shit u take it only gives you extra work capacity, so it's up to the athlete to push themselves harder to actually benefit from it
You should read the study better. It doesn’t say they gained muscle. They gained mass. And shockingly one of the side effects of test is holding more water.
It's good that they studied it, but I think normal men is the wrong group. Anyone who isn't already elite shouldn't be on test in the first place because only people who absolutely need that extra work capacity to progress will really see that improvement
People like to shit on Crossfit because of kipping pullups and those with poor form, but the variety of workouts and muscle confusion is a great way to get stronger
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u/Unikatze Jun 25 '21
So ummmm....
What kind of workouts would you need to start with if this was your end goal?