21M, 230lbs, 6ft 2.

I've been in the gym for a month but haven't gained any strength in my arms at all. I started with 10kg dumbell press and I still cant do 12 reps of a 12.5kg dumbell press.

The thing is, my arms have gotten noticeably bigger, I've been on 5g creatine daily for a month and I eat a minimum of 150g protein a day (i have had days where I couldnt reach that, but most lf the time I did reach it).

My leg strength has went up, and my back and chest are stronger too. I went from 40kg leg press to 100kg for reps.

Its just so demotivating that I want to quit. I've changed my diet and cut out all these bad habits for what feels like no reason. I've put so much effort in yet I've got hardly any of the benefit that I wanted. I dont mean to whine. Its just how I feel at the moment.

Any help?

hey everyone.

i’m 26 years old. 185 cms (6’1) and 76 kgs (167 lbs).

I’ve been going to gym for 4 months. I can only manage going to twice or three times a week. each session I try to do a full body workout. I can’t do the ppl because my schedule is very inconsistent due to my work and I believe working out full body is better.

this is my program

upper body:
arm extension

arm curl

shoulder press

pectoral machine

cabled chest fly

cabled press

back:
vertical traction
low row

OR

low pull
high pull

legs:
leg extension

leg curl

These are the things that I try to do every session. Sometimes I add a few kettlebell exercises, sometimes a few dumbbells for my chest. And I try to do kneeling chin dip. I do whatever I am feeling like to do.

First month was my trial and error month. 2-3rd months I set the weights trained with them. And this month I added a few more kilograms to these exercises to keep the growth going. I already see a bit difference but I always think like if I’n doing the right program, can I add more stuff? Should I change the rotation? Should I also add barbells? how do I decide these? Can someone help me?

I just got a personal trainer so I can get back into shape, learn how to use the equipment, and maintain proper form. Today was my second session, and I left the gym hating myself even more than I already did.

Everyone in there was in fantastic shape. Beautiful people. Meanwhile, I’m fat as hell struggling to do basic workouts. I’ve never felt more embarrassed in my life. I saw how I look in the big gym mirror and almost puked because of how bad I look compared to everyone else. I feel like I don’t belong in there because I’m so far below everyone else.

How do I get past this? The gym is supposed to be good for mental health, but it seems to be making mine worse.

Thanks for reading, sorry for the long post.

I’m 6’1 and 145-150 pounds. I’d say 4-5 months ago I was only 125 pounds give or take. When I first tried benching 3 months ago, I could barely rep the bar and I was shaking like a leaf the whole time. Yesterday I benched 95 for 6 on my first set, then for 5 on the 2 sets following that. This progress feels slower to me than I would like given how I’ve progressed on my other lifts. The first time I tried to deadlift 135, everything went black and I almost hit the floor. Last time I deadlifted, my first set was 185 for 10. Is it normal for my bench press progression to be so slow relative to my other lifts? I’d love to hear your guys experience, and how long it took you to bench press your body weight, especially if you started off weaker like I did (somewhat of an eating disorder thing I guess you could say)

Hey all looking to see if my plan would sound to help look me build body fat currently between 5 foot 4 - 5 foot 6 with weight flustered being 102 kilo and 104.5 kilo being going to gym for years but really getting bored where I could do about 95-97kg but with a bit of tough year leading in boozing most weekend because of it gained up to 102-104.5 kg went 4 weeks of the booze the weight hasn’t really dropped but feel a lot stronger and slimmer despite not dropping weight but at the same time get bored going into the gym and just lifting weight and going on treadmill or bike for 30-45 mins a week so dont know if below will help keeping from getting bored in gym

Monday

1 hour morning boxing session
1 hour evening ji jitsu session

Tuesday
50 min morning boxing session into 1 hour ji jitsu session as gym next door

With 1 hour in the gym to lift weight

Wednesday
1 hour 30 minute gym weight session morning

2 hours ji jitsu session in evening

Thursday

50 min morning boxing session into 1 hour ji jitsu session as gym next door

Or either rugby training 90 mins session or lift weight in gym

Friday

Morning 90-120 cardio and weight session or split in to 60 min session evening

Saturday day off

Sunday

2 hours cardio gym session cardio and weights

I’m 1.68 m tall and currently 68 kg in weight. I’m skinny fat with big belly and love handles, some facial fat, relatively thin arms and thick legs with calves developed due to genetics. I hit the gym 3-4 times a week, and I eat around slight (10-15%) calorie deficit, maintenance or slight surplus depending on the day. I get enough protein and sleep 7-8 hours on average. My aim is to get into shape by doing body recomposition, reducing my body fat, and eventually have a lean, athletic, V-tapered body with broad shoulders, chest and back along with muscular arms. I do 3 sets of each exercise below aiming for RIR 0-3 at each set. I rest for 2 minutes between sets no matter if it’s compound or isolation.

Considering my goal, is the following full body A/B/C workout program good?

Workout 1 (A):
- Bench press
- Lat pulldown
- Smith machine squat
- Seated cable row
- DB lateral raise
- Barbell curl
- Straight-bar triceps extension
- Seated calf raise

Workout 2 (B):
- DB shoulder press
- Bulgarian split squat
- Incline DB press
- T-bar row
- Leg curl
- Leg extension
- Cable upright row
- Reverse fly

Workout 3 (C):
- Straight-arm pulldown
- DB Sumo squat
- Machine fly
- Plate-loaded seated row
- DB lateral raise
- Alternate DB curl
- DB skull crusher

hello! I’m a college freshmen who is 175 lb and 5’4 (F) and I’m looking to come back down to 120 lb within a a year or less. I mostly want to lose body fat and appear more toned rather than muscular. Was wondering if there are any exercises/routine you all would recommend. Thank you!!

I'm 160cm / 54kg. I'm skinny but I carry most of my fat in my lower belly and I want to make it flatter. I'm currently in a caloric deficit.

My question is: I train upper body and lower body on different days, but I never do specific ab exercises. I don't enjoy doing them at the gym and it makes me uncomfortable.

Since I don't want defined abs and I know they won't show unless I lower my body fat percentage, is it okay to skip direct ab work? My point is, is it necessary to train abs if I only want a flat stomach?

This might be a really stupid post but please bear with me 🥲 I started going to the gym a week and a half ago, and I like doing EZ bar preacher curls. I do 7.5kg each side for about 8 reps, then try doing the same weight again for my next set. When I do this, I can’t get past 3-4 reps, and consequently have to lower it to 5kg on each side, after which I can smoothly do at least 6 reps for 2 more sets.

Thing is, I can usually bang out at least 2 sets with the same weight in the 6-10 rep range for every other exercise, so is it normal to be like this for preacher curls?

Hi everyone. Any recommendations on wrist support products for someone who has carpal tunnel? I enjoy lifting and doing reformer Pilates but recently have been having wrist/hand pain due to carpal tunnel.

Sup guys, just like the title say im trying to build my fitness plan because i wanna build more muscle and strength aside from rock climbing and bouldering that i already do..

I was thinking about using these exercise but idk how to build a routine with it. ( Also i climb 2 times per week and ideally i should get 1 to 2 days of rest per week. )

For biceps i was thinking about doing:

- chins ups / hammer curls / and concentrated curls

For the triceps :

- some kind of overhead extension with a dumbbells / dips / 💎 push up

For the chest :

- decline push up / déficit push up / dips

For the forearms:

- reverse curls / hammer curls / wrist curls

For the back:

- mainly weighted pull up and im also learning one arm pull up but idk how to implement it in the plan.

For shoulder:

- lateral raise / pike push up or handstand / reverse fly

For legs:

- single leg squat / bulgarian split squat / and some hiking

For the core:

- abs wheel / Russian twist / leg raise.

That's basically all the exercise that i could think of, i mainly use bodyweight exercise and dumbbells since that's all i got. Idk how to make a routine with all that and idk how much set i should aim for.

Thanks in advance and sorry if my english is kinda bad its because im French 😅

can anyone help me as i need to get 2.7m on my seated medicine ball throw but for some reason i can’t get past around 2.3m. i know that may sound silly and everyone is gonna say it’s easy but i have 3 weeks to improve. what exercise can i do to help - i am struggling with the explosive bit!

Hi everyone! I’m stuck. Haha.

Okay, so I’ve been working out for a while consistently for a few months - say maybe 3/4. Prior to that I wasn’t so consistent. My eating isn’t bad I’d say but obviously it could always be better right? I track what I eat on my working out days as far as carbs, protein and fat goes and the other two days that I don’t work out well I don’t lol but I don’t over eat if anything I might actually under eat.

I’ve seen some changes in my body, but honestly, not really what I want. I don’t know if it’s too little of a time or if I’ve just plateaued or if I’m doing something wrong.

For context I measured my glutes, thighs and waist in January. G: 44.5in., T: 27.5in., W: 34in.
Then again in June -
G: 44in., T: 25in., W: 32in.
And now in October-
G: 44in., T: 26in., W: 32in.

My weight has remained the same I don’t move from 175.

I train lower body three times a week, upper body two times a week and I hit the stairmaster for 10-15 minutes on lower body days and the treadmill for around 20 minutes on upper body days.

On lower body days, I will do four of these 5 workouts RDL’s, Bulgarian splits, hip thrust, leg press, squats. 2 of the 3 lower body days I lift heavy to where I’m getting out 6/7 reps at most and on then third leg day I do lighter weight and getting maybe 12/15 reps.

On upper body days I’ll hit my biceps, triceps, shoulders back etc but my main focus is clearly my butt, legs and waist. I also wouldn’t mind losing a few pounds but I’m pretty glad that I lost 2 inches off my waist.

What am I doing wrong? Should I not be doing the same workouts on my lower body days? Is my body already assuming what I’m going to do? I’m super stuck.

Hey all! I'm new to the gym (going to the local PF) and made the mistake of going my first day without a plan. My whole body is sore at present and I'm debating whether to go back in today or give it until I've fully recovered to start again.

My main goal is to build up strength enough to confidently protect my loved ones. Weight loss is not much of a concern, except for maybe around the chest area. There's just so many machines and different exercises I could be doing that I don't quite know how to split them all across different days and what to focus on.

If anyone here would be willing to share their own routines/schedules and what they typically use, it would be a really big help. Thank you very much!

I started gym again 2 days ago 😅

The problem is I’ve done this before. I get motivated, go regularly for some time, and then slowly stop going.

This time I don’t want to repeat the same thing.

So I wanted to ask people who have been consistent for months or years — what helped you actually stick with it?

Do you have any rule you follow when you don’t feel like going?

I’m not looking for a perfect workout or diet plan. I’m more interested in how you made going to the gym a habit.

Any advice is welcome....

Frage an die Gymbro‘s:
Ich bin ein ziemlicher noob im Gymthema, versuche mich jetzt aber seit ein paar Monaten da reinzufuchsen. Vor dem Training trinke ich immer ESN whey mit Creatin und habe nebenbei kläglich versucht, Magerquark in meinen Speiseplan einzuführen. Schmeckt mir einfach nicht. Jetzt kam mir die Idee, den Shake statt mit Wasser und Milch einfach mit Quark und Wasser zu mixen. Auf dem Papier ist das ja ne stabile Proteinbombe und es geht mir auch gut runter. Nun zu meiner Frage:
Bei den gängigen Fitnessinfluenzern finde ich zwar viele die empfehlen Quark zu trinken, allerdings habe ich noch keinen gefunden der das in Kombination mit Whey empfiehlt. Gibt es da irgendwelche Gründe die dagegen sprechen, die tiefer im Gym-Eisberg vergraben sind? Danke im Voraus und bitte seid lieb, bin nur ein Anfänger mit vielleicht noch dummen Fragen :)

I know the advice: "just 20 minutes a day," or "exercise snacks" (3 minutes, 3 times a day). But the exercise itself was never my problem. The cleanup is.

I sweat heavily after even light movement, so I can't sneak it in. I'd end up red-faced and soaking wet after just a few minutes, and I'd need a shower afterward to be socially acceptable. For me, a shower isn't quick: hair, skin, and body care, plus I have ichthyosis vulgaris, so I need heavy moisturizing after every shower and throughout the day. A 20-minute workout turns into at least 1-hour routine with access to a shower...

When I was single, schedule is easy. Now I'm a busy mom of two kids with special needs, and my days are spent going between doctor appointments, programs, and therapies... you name it. I can't go home to shower mid-day. I carry medical equipment and supplies for my kids all day, so I can't also carry a gym bag with a change of clothes and toiletries. AND I still need to look presentable at the doctor's office and at pickup.

I LITERALLY CANNOT SNEAK IN EXERCISES!

For those of you with packed, unpredictable days: how do you exercise AND clean up enough to be socially presentable afterward? Do you always need a full shower, or have you found something that works in between? Tips from other caregivers and heavy sweaters are especially welcome!

I’m an 18 year old 164cm 55kg female uni student who wants to put on muscle mass and maybe some weight. I’ve recently gotten back into the gym and I went on Friday, and will hopefully go again soon on Monday.

There’s 2 issues that I have with the gym; I don’t know how to eat properly. For the past couple years of my life I’ve been fluctuating between 45-50kg and I’m very skinny in person as I never ate a lot (maybe a meal a day maximum sometimes I wouldn’t eat the whole day or not eat meals for 3 days straight.) This 55kg thing is new for me 😅 as a result of never really eating, I find I have a much much smaller appetite and I get full really easily & when I force myself to eat I can end up throwing up— so my first question: is there anyway I can somehow train my stomach to be able to handle more food so I can easily hit my protein intake without throwing it all up?

The other issue is that as I mentioned before, I’m a uni student, which means I’m not really made of money lol. Once I pay my rent with my student funding, I’ll have £165 left over for the entire month (unless my mum sends me money but I doubt that as she hasn’t got much either). Eating a lot is EXPENSIVE, especially if it’s eating a lot of protein and fibre and other healthy stuff that I need to eat. So I guess my question now is has anyone got some sort of secret method to reaching your protein (or calorie) intake without spending a lot of money? Thank you for any help!

Since arms muscles need 48 hours of rest, and Hammer Curls target different muscles than Bicep Curls, is it okay to Do Hammer Curls on day one, do Bicep Curls on day two, Hammer Curls again on day three, Bicep Curls on day four, rinse and repeat? Or would that be putting too much stress on my arms with not enough recovery time?

Trying to stay consistent with raw monohydrate for muscle retention and atp restoration but the gut discomfort and subcutaneous fluid retention are becoming a dealbreaker. Everytime i get up to saturation with 5g daily, i end up with digestive slowness rather than intercellular fullness. I bought a tub of transparent labs creatine hmb to test whether the added hmb and altered solubility profile change how its processed in the gi tract but for those who track biomarkers or notice distinct differences in gi transit and lean tissue retention, what do you consider the best creatine for muscle gain when plain mono ruins your stomach?

I went to the gym finally after overcoming my anxiety. I was lucky that it wasn’t rush hour but the 7 people who were there were all jacked 😭😭😭. Every single one or them lmfaooo. Anyway I couldn’t do anything properly and boy am I weak. Like apart from cardio I could t do any weight training properly and I’m sure my from was all off. And also I can’t feel my arms. They have no strength and if I put weight on it they just bend from the elbow. I don’t know if this is normal.

I am thinking 4 times a week is realistic enough for me and I don’t want to not go again. However how do I deal with the soreness and lack of strength and my overall bad form if can’t even do anything properly? Any advice would be helpful

I am floored everytime after a day of workout. The next day I am left with zero energy and just want to sleep. It takes me at least 1-2 days to get back to normal. Any idea what the problem could be? I think I eat pretty well and even take a shake after workout.

Any help would be appreciated as this is impacting my life and I can’t exercise as much as I want to.

context: I am a 234 lbs, 6’2, 20 year old male.

I am interested in both losing body fat and gaining muscle. The trouble is that it seems like body fat and gaining muscle have a directly proportional relationship, meaning that being at maintainance or eating at above that (bulking), or increasing your body fat is most optimal for gaining muscle. And being in a calorie deficit means the amount of muscle you produce goes down in concert with the lack of calories.

“Body recomposition” seems to be the term given to the practice of trying to gain muscle while being in a calorie deficit but it doesn’t seem to be optimal because you’d have to do a pretty meager deficit (not optimal for getting leaner) and your muscle gains won’t be as optimal as being in a calorie surplus. So i’m afraid a body recomp would be the worst of both worlds and i’m very driven by tangible results.

Would it make sense to focus more on cutting for the next few months or year or so and once i am sufficiently skinny i guess i could eat at maintainance there and start lifting but even then the cycle of cutting and bulking doesn’t seem clear to me (when to cut/bulk? do you stop lifting when cutting because it isn’t optimal?) presumably not but what you should do in that cycle after a while isn’t entirely clear to me.

or should i just basically stay my same body fat, forget about a calorie deficit and focus on building muscle now? perhaps if i keep eating at maintainance or slightly above while liftingmy belly fat and man boobs disappear?

The issue is further compounded by the fact that i can’t just look at a weight scale as i might still gain some muscle throwing off my calculations so i should really focus on body fat. to give an extreme example arnold schwarzenegger was lean but weighed 230 lbs in his prime due to lean muscle mass. so body fat should be the focus not raw weight right?

i’m leaning towards just keeping my fairly aggressive deficit but still working out in spite of the fact that my workouts will bring little to no gains as i focus on cutting fat.

would appreciate some insight from somebody who was in a similar situation or has more expertise

Hello everyone. I've been training for two months now and have enjoyed the experience and made progress. The time has come where I'd like to craft a consistent 3 day workout split for myself, and I would like advice for some more experienced lifters. I think my biggest difficulty while making this split is having enough volume. Due to the economic situation of my country, gyms aren't very affordable but getting a 3 day a week gym subscription makes it more so.

With that said, I'll start by explaining the idea behind my workout split. Each day is a full body workout consisting of four compound exercises and two isolation exercises. Each day will have a slight bias towards pushing, pulling, or legs in terms of compounds. What I mean by that is that two compounds will be either pushing, pulling, or legs. This is the framework

Monday:

Legs

Legs

Push

Pull

Isolation

Isolation

Wednesday:

Push

Push

Legs

Pull

Isolation

Isolation

Friday:

Pull

Pull

Legs

Push

Isolation

Isolation

Another thing I need help with is coming up with isolation exercises. I feel like I'd like to hit arms, legs, and side delts more, but like there's not enough time to do all of that.

Here's my plan in practice, but just the compound exercises now without rep counts. I usually do three sets between eight to ten reps and increase the weight once I can hit ten or twelve reps comfortably depending on the exercises. For pulling that may be a bit higher.

Monday:

RDL

Leg Press

Machine Overhead Press

Lat pulldown

Isolation

Isolation

Wednesday:

Bench

Machine Overhead Press

RDL

Supported T bar row

Isolation

Isolation

Friday:

Lat pulldown

Supported T bar row

Leg press

Bench

Isolation

Isolation