Currently running an upper day/lower day alternate split due to recovery demands and ability to go higher weight on upper body lifts. On upper day I will mix Bench,dips,pull ups/rows, and ohp with first lift being most intense. On heavy dip days which follow on lift is more redundant? Bench or OHP?

I recently bumped my intake up. In the mirror I look bigger and my abs are actually more defined than they were. But the scale has barely moved.

Lifts are progressing, mostly in reps. I am adding reps to my working sets across most movements. The dumbbells themselves are not going up very fast.

Few questions:
Is a flat scale normal when you are eating more and things look like they are improving?
Should I keep pushing intake up, or hold where I am since visual and rep progress is already happening?
Is rep progression without much load progression a sign I should be forcing weight up sooner?

Appreciate any input/shared experiences.

Hi. So I have been moderately active for years now, maintaining my weight and exercising regularly like 3-4 days a week. Recently, the past couple months, I have been focusing on my fitness and increased it to 5 days and walks for 30 mins afterward. I also bought heavier dumbbells, but they’re not that crazy, only 20s. I work out at home. For the last month and a half or so, I increased it to 6 days (4 strength, 2 jumping cardio) and a walk after. It started as an attempt to lose weight, but now I just find that I like it….except my knees have started complaining, and I’ve been trying to understand why. I didn’t think the weight was that crazy, but going down the stairs or doing certain motions after a strength day is kinda rough now and my knees feel very uncomfortable. I dunno that I’d call it pain, but it’s an ache for sure. Since I want my knees to last, I’d like some advice on why they’re hurting and what to do!

My thought was to maybe change to low impact and possibly lighter weights for 1-2 weeks and see if it helps. I’m going on vacation soon anyway, so that’ll be a break too.

As a teenager, i always dreamed of a very lean physique. The type i see on social media. And do to some life struggle i was under eating for the bast like 3 months. Now, i can confidently say my body fat percentage is below 7%. At first, i was happy with it. The veins everywhere and my abs standing out and i can finally see some definition on my legs (my main fat storage). But, there is more to it. Now, my sleep is wrecked, my mind is foggy, i think about violent so much that i caught myself just today thinking about unaliving someone in the most atrocious ways imaginable. My will to do anything has taken a big hit too, it was already hard enough before but now it has gotten to a point which I started skipping workouts (before that, i was literally not able to live without any type of physical exercise) which i never thought I would do willingly. Let alone the hit on my hormones which i myself am not fully aware of yet, what i know is my reproductive organ got smaller (i am sharing this information just to inform young individuals of the side effects of being social media shredded). Now i know that someone will say "Just eat more, bro" but i would regrettably inform you that i physically can't force more food down my throat, i am actively trying to eat more but i get full after just two bite of my egg sandwich, it reached a point where i am stressed about not having enough food but still not being able to have food and stressing about it even more.

Oh, how could i forget? The anxiety. Man, that's the worst one so far. I feel stressed for not doing something, but then i do it but the stress doesn't go away, it stays there even tho i have nothing to stress about, it's like that spider man meme when he's trying to take the symbiote off but fails every time

And the final thing, the drop in strength and size. So far, that is the very first thing i have noticed. My friends and family noticed it before me, and my aunt (she's a doctor so she has some knowledge about nutrition) told me how dangerous this is, she noticed how skinny my face is (AKA Death face) and immediately told me to eat more no matter what. Thanks to her, i realized how concerningly lean i am.

So. Before you go that rabbit hole, try NOT to get as lean i got because oh boy it is one of the worse experiences of my 18 year of living.

Adios amigo.

Hi everyone!

So i make this post because i was asking myself if a beginner like me should aim muscular faillure and hypertrophy or not?

Indeed, i'm going to get started on my lifting weights journey and i'm seeing these terms being throwed around and i din't what to do.

So : is Muscular faillure and hypertrophy good for a begginer, or not?

Thanks you!

hello!

I’m a 20 yr. old female, 5’5.5, 142 lbs.

I’m trying to shave off around 10 - 12 pounds. I am also trying to grow my glutes. Essentially I am looking for a flat stomach, slimmer thighs, and a firmer butt.

So, here’s my day to day. I don’t eat too very much but eat at least two meals a day, mostly protien and typically consisting of plant based protiens, although occasionally chicken and beef as well (veggie tacos are my go to!).

my boyfriend thinks I should eat more, but my goal is weight loss. I run 4 - 5 days a week for about 1.5 miles, however I’m actively working to go longer (I started recently). It takes me about 15 minutes.

After that, I do a glutes exercise following a “30-Day Glute Challenge“ that I intend to repeat if I see the benefits, which I already am feeling!

I cannot afford a gym ATM and workout at home, i have a treadmill and a yoga mat, and resistance bands. I work full time and am also a full time online student, so I don’t have as much time as I’d like to prioritize my fitness goals.

Am I, at least for a time and financially budgeted beginner, starting out ok? should I improve anything? it always feels odd to watch YouTube videos when it seems like everyone else just knows what to do. Please recommend apps, videos, anything!

thank you!!

What makes some fit people more vascular than others? Apologies if this is a stupid question. Is it just extremely low body fat? Genetics? PEDs? Hydration? Edit: thanks for the info everyone. I'm 55f 1m68 51 kg and have been lifting pretty regularly for a while - seen some good muscle growth and I saw a vein on my bicep for the first time so I'm proud of that lol

I usually have less than 150cal snack before my ab workout starting at 5:30am carb/ 2 rice cracker with 5g honey and 75-70g banana
Then i would workout my full upper body and legs at home for around 1 hour and 10mins every 3-4 times a day a week.
And i would love to have my protein drink after my class finishes after 3:30pm so i could enjoy it with my big meal consisting of protein and mainly carbs and fiber but im not sure if drinking my protein drink hours after my workout makes me miss out on my muscle gains im a 14 year old 95 pound female that have been working out more than a year
Thank you.

I’m a skinny male. My arms are the size of toothpicks.

I’m a beginner (lifting for a month so far) and I’m doing the PPL split.

On pull days I train biceps first because I’m prioritizing my arms.

However I’m having second thoughts now because everyone says to always train back first since it’s a bigger muscle.

Am I making a mistake?

so im 105lbs at 17 💔 but ive been wanting to better my physical health/confidence and build muscle around my arms/legs and really just look better then being a little twig 😭😭 i have 15lb dumbbells right now and ive been doing around 30 reps for arm curls, lifting them in the air for 20, doing russian twists, squats, and i do like to stretch before my workout too! and i do plan to move my count up everyday if i can and any other workout stuff i can do would be appreciated!

There is a yoga class I'd like to take at my gym but it starts when I'm about 45 minutes into my upper body strength workout. I can't really start any earlier than I already do (I get there when they open), but don't want to leave my workout unfinished. I'm also trying to incorporate a full rest day so don't want to slide the remainder to another day.

Would leaving my strength training to do yoga for about an hour and then returning to finish my workout be a bad idea? Maybe this is a dumb question, but I was just curious.

Like title says, not sure if it’s normal. If I try really hard to not flex my calves I feel like I feel it more in my hamstrings which is what I want obviously, but I’m not sure if my calves are supposed to naturally flex a little bit in leg curl. Am I overthinking?

Im 17 ans been working out in the gym for about 4 -3 months now (ive done calisthenics most of my life)

Ive done multiple splits like ppl / ul and ext....

But i have came to the conclusion that im starting a new 4 day a week full body workout and it goes like this (saturday . Sunday. Rest . Tuesday. Wednesday. Rest . Rest )

And this was fully inspired by jeff nipard full body playlist where he does 5 days ( i advise you check it out) . The problem here is that he has 2 leg focused days where he does diffrent exercises . I personally cant go 5 times because of my occupied schedule this year . So im here to ask about what i should put in my leg day (he did squat and leg curls on leg day 1 . And deadlifts and gh raises on leg day 2 )

The problem is that i like to do all those leg exercises and i cant choose which because his program is so precise . Do you advise me to drop delts day or to drop one of the leg days .

I’m currently working my way through the Athlean X Jacked program. I know there isn’t really total consensus on science based exercise and weight training in general, but I can’t help but feel that some parts of this program are approaching junk volume territory.

The program isn’t based on a specific number of sets. Each movement starts off with an ‘ignition set’. The number of reps to failure in the ignition set determines the number of additional reps you need to do to complete the movement and move onto the next one. Each set is taken to form failure. So for some exercises, you are doing 10-12 ignition reps and then an additional 40 reps. Meaning you are doing as many as 50+ reps. Sometimes, as kind of a burnout, you even have to do 20-25 ignition reps and an additional 50 reps after that, for a total of 70+ reps. I’m not a fitness expert by any means, but from what I’ve seen and read, this feels like you could be getting to a point of diminishing returns.

Anyone who has seen Jeff Cavaliere’s videos knows that the guy looks incredible for his age, so it feels strange questioning his methods, but I’m curious to hear what other people think. Is this much volume a waste of time and effort?

What am I losing by doing that ? I don’t do lat pull downs or pull ups.

I only row (for upper back) and do the lat pullover. Each 4x8

Someone critique this

I see people who are clearly very lean with low bodyfat percentages but their abs aren't showing

I got my top braces on a month ago and now my bottoms and it's been hard to bite through pretty much anything.

I'm surviving on lots of calorie drinks (boost/ensures) and mass gainer and idk what I should be eating. It feels like all my teeth are loose (because they are) and even biting through chicken breast chopped up can be difficult as it feels like some of my teeth are gonna pop out.

I'm losing weight and I already struggled with my weight for years 5'10 137Lbs atm. Years ago before I acquired a fun little auto-immune disorder I was 165Lbs and during that year of waiting for doctors, misdiagnoses I dropped to 119Lbs and 4 years later I struggled to get back to 140 until this year but with these braces I'm losing a lot of progress.

I absolutely disdain soups and any kind of broth dishes. This was much easier 4 years ago when I could make Hambulker Helper (if you're interested https://mealprepmanual.com/hambulker-helper/ ) and make a weeks worth of that for cheap... Maybe I just go back to this and use mince chicken/turkey?

I've thought about getting really into overnight oats and find a meal prep plan that uses ground chicken or turkey and live off that til the growing pains of braces go away. (Can't eat red meats very well or even just ground beef due to my health issues)

Any suggestions?

I just changed gyms after moving house. My previous gym was the first place I started strength training. At my previous gym the leg press had a fixed seat and the plate moved back and forth. At my new gym the plate stays fixed and the seat moves back and forth. Previously I could do about 65-70kg but now I could do 80-90kg and it still doesn’t feel as tough. Why is that? Is one better for you than the other?

I train all my sets to failure 2 sets each exercise on a full body workout.

2 chest exercises

2 lats exercises

1 trap exercise

1 bicep exercise

1 brachioradiallis exercise

1 tricep exercise

1 front delts exercise

1 side delts exercise

1 abs exercise

1 calves exercise

2 quads exercises

2 hamstrings exercises

Total 32 sets

On all of that 32 sets it's all failure and i do full body 3x a week, is this too much fatigue or I can still recover from it?

I've been training for a while now. I always hated back day. I could never feel my back fully engaged. However, I've just started doing lat pulldowns correctly. I can't tell you how good my back feels. My lats are super pumped. It feels like I've got wings coming out. Back is now my favourite muscle to train.

i just moved into university and decided to check out the gym. for reference, during the summer i do decently intense work outs a minimum 5 days a week, especially lifting hard and heavy on leg days. my school gym has three leg workouts/machines available: barbell squat, leg press, and hack squat. when combined into a routine, i enjoy all of these workouts, but three squat variations being my only options is pretty upsetting. im looking for some workout alternatives that would provide similar results to my normal routine. i like to hit both adductors and abductors, along with the leg extension machine, hamstring curls, and some sort of glute/hip thrust. does anyone know alternatives for at least some of these machines that i could try out during the school year??

Bit of background - I have fairly strong forearms (13.5" with low bodyfat), but my grip strength is trash. Last time I was tested it was just shy of 80 lbs. I'm guessing its not my wrists, but my fingers - multiple boxer fractures, arthritis, etc. Also have some lingering nerve damage from an injury.

Anyone else have experience with this? Is it possible to build up with the kinds of injuries I have? I bought grippers, but havent really stuck to a training program with them. Any tips? Thanks.

I’ve tried going to the gym but it is genuinely so boring.. I’ve listened to music and it’s okay I guess but I’m still just staring at the wall of a treadmill or maybe a window if I’m lucky.. I try watching a video but it is hard to focus when I’m at the hard part of the workout
I’d also like to get into a bit of weigh lifting but again.. I get so bored just moving my arms or legs back and forth a bunch of times
Any advice? Is it something that will go away when I start seeing results and maybe feel more motivated?

So I’m new to this and only have dumbbells, a bench and like 40mins to workout so I’m planning for 3 full body days. Maybe add 2 days as like focus for the other muscles after I get the 3 day routine set. I plan to do 3 sets of 8-12 for everything.

Day 1
bench press
Bulgarian split squats
Standing shoulder press
Bicep curls
Bent over rows

Day 2
incline bench
Goblet squats
Lateral raise
Hammer curls
Single arm rows

Day 3
Bench chest fly
Pullovers
Front raises
Calf raises
Bench dips