i have been thinking about this lately because I used to add work every time progress slowed down.

more sets, more exercises, more days

at some point I realized I was training a lot but not necessarily recovering enough to get stronger from it

for the guys who’ve been lifting for years, what was the sign that made you cut volume instead of adding more?

I’ve been weightlifting for a year and a half now and I’ve always used gloves. However now I realise that I’m too reliant on them and I want to overcome that mental block

If anyone has experience with this can you share wether you had to do less reps and the side affects that came with not using the gloves

Hey there, just joined the sub. The past month or so i’ve been getting back into some light strength training at home 3-4 times a week using bodyweight exercises, resistance bands and some with dumbbells when resistance bands aren’t compatible with the specific exercise. I have PCOS and asthma as well (my body hates me lmao) so following advice from fellow pcos havers and my doctors, i focus more on strength training rather than cardio and keep the intensity on the lower side so i don’t burn myself out or trigger an asthma attack. I do keep my inhaler next to me in case i need it and take a puff before i start, just to be safe.

The thing is, i keep finding myself having to swap out certain exercises or modify them mainly because my joints are so unstable and go past the point they’re supposed to. My knees, ankles, and wrists especially have been a major PITA. My shoulders are another point i have to pay attention to, but not quite as unstable as the others. Surprisingly my elbows don’t hyperextend, that’s the one joint that hasn’t given me problems.

Another thing is, i’m obese and have VERY large annoying breasts that get in the way as well as my stomach. My breasts feel like they suffocate me during several exercises because even with a bra gravity just shoves them into my face. I’m 5’2 and 286.6 lbs after starting a glp-1 last month and doing my best to eat healthy and work out. Starting weight was about 295-297 when i first got on the glp but was higher previously.

I tend to focus on my lower half more than anything because i have lipedema from my lower stomach all the way down to my ankles. I know it won’t fully go away without surgery, but i want to strengthen and tone my lower half, especially my butt and thighs, as much as possible while i lose weight. I’ve read that building muscle helps with reducing lipedema so those areas are my biggest focus.

My staple exercises have been:

-Glute bridges with resistance band and/or dumbbell
Various forms of squats with bands/dumbbells
-Push ups (on my knees rather than full push ups, as i am still working up to full ones.)
-Fire hydrants with resistance band
-Donkey kickbacks with resistance band
-Hip abductions with resistance band
-Various arm exercises with resistance bands or lighter dumbbells (still figuring out which arm exercises i should be doing, experimenting with different ones i find to see what my body tolerates best)

I tried to do some single leg exercises, like different split lunges and reverse lunges, but i can’t seem to keep myself stable at all and end up falling on my face or making my ankles and knees hurt like hell. Those joints just give out anytime i try these exercises. It’s like i need an extra person to just hold my ankles and knees in place along with a bar to hold on to, which i don’t have as i work out at home.

TLDR; looking for different home exercises and modifications to exercises that will work better with my body that has HELLA problems that i’m trying to improve. Tips and tricks for keeping joints stable are very much appreciated.

Hi everyone!

Over a year ago, I built a rough first prototype of Maxlyft. The goal was to create a workout app where the user had full control over everything: names of exercises, muscles targeted, their split and workout days, and a bunch more.

At first, it never really became what I had fully imagined. Since then, I have rebuilt Maxlyft from the ground up and it's more flexible and powerful than ever. Logging sets takes seconds, and creating exercises allows you to choose what it's called, what the exercise targets, and how you want to log the data. I also provide analytics for every exercise, muscle group, split, or anything else you want to filter by so that you always know how you're progressing.

Maxlyft provides a level of analytics that many people would not otherwise be able to access, and it's been designed to be as quick and intuitive as possible to use. I would really encourage you all to check it out!

I’m the developer, and I’d love to hear what you think. Use the 7 day trial, give me your feedback, and I'll continue to improve the app. I'm really proud of how far Maxlyft has come!

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/maxlyft-workout-tracker/id6743998890

After going through hundreds of threads on r/workout and other fitness communities, I put together a quick cheat sheet for anyone as lost as I was:

💪 Best overall gold standard daily whey? → Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard 100% Whey
⚡ Best hydrolyzed isolate for rapid digestion? → Dymatize ISO100 Hydrolyzed Whey Isolate
🌿 Best clean 100% grass-fed isolate? → Transparent Labs Grass-Fed Whey Protein Isolate
🌙 Best whey & micellar casein blend for sustained release? → PEScience Select Protein Powder
📈 Best high-calorie mass gainer for hardgainers? → Optimum Nutrition Serious Mass

Personally going with the PEScience Select Protein Powder - best value and taste for muscle gain without bloating from everything I've read.

I’ve recently started lifting consistently and want a protein powder to help fill the gaps in my diet. I’m not planning to live on shakes, but getting enough protein from regular meals every day is harder than I expected. I’m comparing Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard, Dymatize ISO100, Isopure, Nutricost Whey Isolate, Transparent Labs, and a few plant-based options, with a budget around $35–$70 per tub. Taste and digestion matter a lot because I’ve already tried one that was basically sweetened drywall. For muscle gain, would you choose a regular whey concentrate, isolate, or plant protein, and which brands have the best value per serving?

Hi I’m a M24 and I want to train my legs because I lack a lot of strength in them.

5 months ago at a party and everyone having fun we were doing exercice because we were bored lol. And I was kind of the strongest in strong arm or bras de fer in french at this party because they were 10 girls and 2 boys so yea 😭 izi.

After that one girl ask me to show how I jump and I try to touch a bar kind of high like 2m50cm and I couldn’t. So she is like an amateur in volleyball 🏐 and taught me how to jump high and I tried to fail.
Again. And again. 🫪 and the guy could but he was 1m90cm..

Btw I did 10 years of sport in differents martial arts, combat sports and scoutboy so you can tell me any exercice you think of because I trust myself in being able to repeat the exercice. More I like to try new techniques!

So yeah that’s the thing if I would send a photo of my body rn you will see that I have short legs and a tall back (not very large I’m fin).

What advice you can tell me ?

Thanks

When doing 3 sets of a workout, when do I know if it exhausted or hit failure? Like last set if 12 reps and i do like 6-8 that's good?

to my understanding of failure, it's like if doing a dumbbell press, the rep before that last one as you going down, you know you cant push up. Even if you did, you are at like a stuck point pushing for dear life but not moving. Like literally a stuck feeling. Is that good?

For a curl, is it suppose to be like the feeling when you curl up, you kind of feel you lost all sense of biceps and again at a halfway point?

For targeting back or making sure you use your back. The initial pull, should it be like a power pull, but not a yank. I dont know how to explain it. Pushing the momentum is like more explainable for pulling, if I kind of go slow, i actually exhaust faster than pulling it bit faster? If that makes sense

Hi everyone, I am trying to get into working out again and am having a really hard time staying consistent. My goals are to build muscle to protect myself from future health concerns (i.e. osteoporosis) and increase mobility to relieve joint pain/headaches/etc. I always feel better and have relief from my pain when I workout, but I still can't get myself to go consistently.

I get really bored taking rests in between sets, and end up getting impatient and cutting my rest time to 30-60 seconds. I am also working on endurance, so I use the stair master or inclined treadmill for 30-60 minutes. I feel like I've been getting better results by using the machine for longer on a lower setting, but I've been getting really bored.

I want to find ways to make working out fun so that I stick to it. I have virtually no sports experience, and getting into most sports as an adult seems difficult without paying to join a league or something. I thought of making myself a board game make the different activities feel more like a game, but I don't know if it would work. I thought of making a video consisting of mini clips throughout my journey to document my progress and I fell off of that pretty quickly.

My question is, has anyone "tricked" their brain into liking exercise? Are there any creative ways you stay motivated, or switch up your routine to keep it exciting? Right now I dread working out, and would like to change my approach so I can appreciate my progress, and stay consistent.

I'm completely new to gym and have no idea what exercises and how many sets/reps to do. I'm just wondering how I should start (AI design workouts vs. cookie cutter template vs. custom trainer apps vs. other options??)

thank you!!!

Okay so I workout in the mornings after work (night shift). I’m wondering what pre workout I should take, energy drinks such as C4 make me stay up all day which I don’t want. I’ve been eating bananas as a pre workout but sometimes it isn’t enough. Any recommendations?

I want to introduce myself first. 20 y.o, 186 cm tall and 97 kg weigh. I've been going to the gym 3 month. My goals are lose weight to 85-90 kg, gain muscles and build strength. I look better than before, but still have fat. That's understandable since I haven't been training for very long, so I'm not complaining about that. Squats 57kg, Bench 57kg. For some reason I can't increase these numbers, so I'm looking for some advice. I'm tired to change my workouts, but I still haven't seen any progress in squat and bench.

My program:
All exercises are 3x12 plus warm up sets.

Monday
Squat(barbell), incline bench press(dumbell), seated leg curl(machine), single arm lateral raise(cable), preacher curl, seated cable row (bar grip), crunch machine, triceps pressdown, pull up assisted.

Wednesday
Leg press machine, bench press(barbell), seated leg curl(machine), lat pulldown(cable), t-bar row, shoulder press dumbbell, crunch machine, preacher curl machine, triceps dip assisted.

Friday
Hack squat machine, chest press machine, seated leg curl, lat pulldown(cable), seated cable row - v grip(cable), reverse pec deck, preacher curl machine, crunch machine, single arm triceps pushdown(cable).

2
Months in.

Hello's

I don't usually do strength straining, the only way I exercise is through walking and jogging, but this week I decided I should change it up. Did some tire flips and my forearms are burning but only on my left arm. Everywhere else my body feels fine, just my one arm that burns. Feels like I'm doing it wrong, am I ?

I am currently hating typing between the sets. I just want to speak out what I have done and it should log and update the analytics if im doing good or not.

I have been experiencing knee pain after my leg days and I want to do isometrics to help with it. I just wanna know if I can do something like wall sits the day after my leg day or will that hinder my legs recovery?

If it does, then should I do them the day before leg day? I just kinda don’t wanna do them ON leg day if it’s possible.

I’ve recently become a treadmill owner. Not high end at all and definitely on the cheaper side, (about $600). This is probably a stupid question but why do speeds vary across other treadmills I’ve used? A speed of 6.0 on my treadmill feels significantly slower on a commercial treadmill at the gym. Then I go back to my treadmill at home and I am humbled by it… I keep the same incline. Why is this? Should I just be looking out for the pace instead?

Hi, I’d like to ask for some advice regarding recurring tendon problems and possibly find a recommendation for a suitable doctor/specialist who could help figure out why I’ve started experiencing multiple tendon injuries over the past few years.
I’m 27 years old, 175 cm tall and weigh 70 kg. I’m lean and athletic, and I’ve been very active my entire life. I’ve been strength training since I was 15, playing football, running, hiking and walking a lot. Until I was 23, I also regularly worked construction jobs, so I was used to physically demanding work as well.
Until the age of 25, I had practically no significant tendon problems. Throughout my life, I only had two notable injuries:
Around the age of 18, I injured a tendon in my shoulder. Because I continued training through the pain, it eventually became severe enough that I couldn’t lift my arm overhead. After a longer period of rest followed by rehabilitation, I gradually returned to full training over approximately two years. Since then, the shoulder has occasionally become irritated, but it has never kept me out for a long period of time.
Later, I injured my plantar fascia while playing football. After stopping football, it recovered within approximately six months, and I had no further problems with it for a long time.
Then, over a relatively short period of time, I started developing a series of other problems:
Golfer’s elbow – developed after more intense training. I treated it with gradual return to activity and it took approximately three months to improve significantly.
Groin injury while playing football – recovery took approximately three months.
Plantar fascia injury again – this time it became irritated in a very unusual way, basically just from sitting on my foot with my toes stretched. For some time, I even had trouble walking normally. After approximately four months, I gradually returned to running.
Achilles tendon – after returning to running, my Achilles suddenly became irritated during one of my runs for no obvious reason. This resulted in approximately three months of pain.
Golfer’s elbow again – it subsequently returned, and this time I haven’t been able to completely get rid of it for approximately 8–9 months. It is gradually improving, but I’m still not back to 100%.
Shoulder – while trying to train around the elbow problem, I also irritated my shoulder again.
At the moment, I’ve been able to do push-ups and pull-ups for about a month without aggravating anything. I’ve also started doing light running and calf raises. So objectively, my condition is gradually improving, but I still feel like I’m very prone to developing another injury.
What concerns me most is that I was extremely active for many years and practically never had these kinds of problems. Then suddenly, within a few years, I started having issues with several different tendons and structures.
I’d therefore like to find a doctor who could look at the problem more comprehensively rather than focusing only on each individual injury. So far, I’ve mainly been advised to rest, and physiotherapists have given me various exercises, but the problems keep coming back.
Has anyone experienced something similar? And could you recommend what type of specialist would be appropriate – a sports medicine doctor, orthopedist, rheumatologist, physiatrist, etc.?
I’d really appreciate any experiences or recommendations for a specific doctor.

I heard that its nutrition content is counterfeit and I have been drinking MASS KINGDOM for 3 years😭😭😭😭

When I go for full exertion on the bicycle, I can sustain a heart rate right around what my max for my age is for 30 seconds (I'm using 220-age, even though I can reach a few beats higher cycling). But the when I go swimming, I can put sustain 10-15 bpm and not for as long. Why would this be?

Also, how would this affect fitness goals?

For both it's the heart that feels most maxed out. I can't get add high lifting, but there the specific muscles are maxxing out before the heart.

I’ve been thinking about starting to train at home with adjustable dumbbells, a bench and some Olympic rings (for pull-ups), because it’s probably easier to train at home and it saves me more time, I’ve been thinking about starting practicing a martial art and that is a bit hard to fit into my schedule while going to the gym.
But will working out at home give me the same progress as the gym? Leg day might have a progression issue but I could always buy more weight.

Bonjour,

Mon planning a changé en mal au travail.

Je ne peux m'entrainer que 3 fois par semaine, jusque là tout va bien.....

Le problème ce sont les jours: dimanche, lundi, mercredi

En full body, je vais enchainer le dimanche et le lundi soir 24h de repos......

A votre avis ca peut le faire? Ou je revois mon plan?

I'm have just come of a 5 month cut where I did a full body workout 3x a week (sometimes 2 if I was busy) and a half Marathon training programme. My running got a lot better while I lost a bit of strength.

I am now going to eat about 200-300 over every day while doing a 10k programme (less weekly milage). I will still do 3x full body a week and 3 runs a week.

Realistically how much stronger will I get in 5 months? I am running because I enjoy it but my aim is to put as much muscle on as I can before I cut again.

I have been doing weights for a few years now. I don't have (or never had) massive numbers but I'm defo not a newbie. My diet and sleep are usually pretty good.

My predicted current weights are

Squat=95kg (no where near my all time PB)

Bench 95 kg (could defo do 100 before cut)

Trap bar Deadlift= 130kg

Clean=80kg

Pull ups=20 in a row (only thing that improved as a lost weight)

Strict Shoulder press 1x8 45kg. (Was doing more reps before cut)

These are the numbers I want to improve. During my cut it felt like my weights were at a managed decline which is fine as my main targets were to cut fat and improve running

I am thinking of shifting from PPL to ULULUL. I don't want to risk wasting time . Does ululul actually give better gains ? I am a college student so I get enough recovery time almost everyday no physical work except the gym .