I pretty much did “body building” for about 10-12 years, meaning the primary goal of my training was size gains at the exclusion of anything else. Now that I’m a dad of 2 I no longer think having legs so sore you cant bend down without risking a groin tear is cool any more, so heavy and high volume full ROM leg days are out.
Im down to 3-4 days a week, generally upper/lower or push/pull (although sometimes I’ll even go full body), and I do WAY more cardio than before (generally 45-60 minutes of weights, followed by 20-30 of low intensity biking)… Shockingly I am not much smaller than I ever was, and maintain a more lean physique year round.
Full ROM stuff on bench and squats are out as they preclude me to injury, so for those I do limited range stuff or skip the bench all together for large periods of time.
Lessons learned would be: Cardio is not the devil in terms of killing gains, and full body shit works 95% as well as body part splits for my goals.
Only been lifting for a little less than 6 years so still trying to figure things out but…
Went from bro split of chest/back/legs/shoulders/arms/legs to upper/lower split. (It should be noted my “leg” day was squats at 95lbs and deadlifts at 135lbs, awful technique with no intention of increasing weight on the bar)
Used to do a lot of continuous core at the end of workouts 3-5x a week. I would do planks every other minute as my “rest” so it would look like plank/leg raises/plank/russian twist/side plank… and so on. Started at 5 mins and worked up to 12 mins straight of core stuff. Should probably get back into that as I tried it a year ago and just 3 minutes was hard.
Had a phase of 0 days off, 0 progression, 0 deloads. Just grind for 2-3 hours every day doing PPL on an endless loop with stupid amounts of junk volume.
Went from mostly horizontal pressing to only incline and overhead pressing.
More recent changes:
Was a big believer in strength = size up until this past year where I got a lot stronger but maybe only put on 2-3lbs of muscle. Currently experimenting with higher rep/intensity stuff to see what happens.
Was doing a classic bulk in the winter and cut in the summer type of diet. Now I’m trying to beat the log book and just make sure I’m eating enough to do so, whatever happens on the scale happens.
Future changes:
When I’m done with school in December I want to start doing yoga 2-3 times a week and get back into running a bit. Stronger and bigger than ever but feeling stiff and out of shape
Considering doing a 3 day split of back to back upper/lower followed by 2 days off then full body with strongman implements followed by 2 days off. This kinda depends on work schedule and where I get a job at though.
that’s good to hear, I somewhat remember deadlifts feeling good a couple years back when I was running 10-15 miles a week so I’m hoping for a similar result. I’ve done 1 informal yoga class a couple months ago and I know my hips really need it.
I think my biggest problem is starting to take lifting too seriuosly so everything that wasn’t lifting got tossed out. “I can’t run 3 times a week, I’ll lose weight and I’m already underweight for my weightclass!” And then I go on to take last place anyway so I should probably just start running again…
That’s fair. I started weighing myself once a week 3 years back and when I look back I’d keep about 50% of the scale weight I gained up until this year
3 years ago 149lbs>173lbs>164lbs
2 years ago 164lbs>181lbs>174lbs
Last year 174lbs>186lbs>176lbs
Maybe I just maxed out my newbie gains and the slow grind finally started
10 walking hamstring stretch (same as quad stretch)
20 high knees
20 butt kicks
arm swings
hurdle step overs (10 forward, 10 backwards)
one 90 meter build-up run
This only takes two laps total. Jog one lap, use one straightaway and one curve for the dynamic stuff, run the other straightaway, walk the curve, done (or continue running the straightaway, walk the curve for several laps).
Doing a little running and moving fastish several days a week goes a long ways.
Freshman year I did random workouts and only benched. Didn’t really squat and never deadlifted
Sophomore year I did a ppl. No deadlifts lol. Benched focused. Only reached 155x1 bench. I could quarter squat 275 on leg day.
Junior year
I decided to use my brain and research. I found myself on bodybuilding forums. They told me to do Fierce 5. It didn’t work for me. Then I found myself here. I discovered 5/3/1 and made the decision to try fierce 5 again or 5/3/1 I picked 5/3/1. Lol I annoyed people by asking what a pr set or ssl or fsl is in 5/3/1. I believed that’s when I met @dagill2. I went on 5/3/1 and my lifts skyrocketed
Senior year
Present Day. I screwed up my training maxes for bbb beefcake but now I found them so I’m just waiting til thursday to start this.
I stopped doing this sort of thing once I stopped playing soccer, but recently have re-introduced running/mobility drill training 1-2/week. Really does help with “athleticism”. Its also useful when travelling if the gym is not available… there is always a park you can find to stretch out the legs.
I’m hoping to progress to sprint repeats and maybe even 400m runs. As I am no longer training to compete, I have to remind myself to take things slower and make sure I maximise recovery.
Same here. But I now subscribe to the Carter and Meadows way of thinking of working up to a top set and take that to failure. I do amrap or drop or rest/pause sets on that top set typically. But generally that top set is between 6 and 12.
I also use preexhaustion especially on leg day. If I want to focus on quads I’ll hammer leg extensions before I do anything else to get them fired, also helps my knees from bitchin’. I’ll do curls for hams or pull through for glutes if I want to focus on that before I really start the rest of the lifts.
All of this stuff seems to have helped me a ton but have to say what has helped the most is staying on top of my nutrition and sleep. My sleeping has been better. Still needs work but it’s better.
This is a tough lesson to learn. I think my max effort running days are over. 80-90% is as hard as I need to go. I also have to build up to that. 90+% just results in hamstring strains these days.
In my late teen & early twenties I used to love spending time in the gym. 4, 5, 6 times a week was the sweet spot.
Now in my early thirties, I still like being in the gym, just way less frequently. I prefer spending more time training outside, doing some yoga, walking with my wife or fixing up things on my house.
Also general well being Is vastly more important to me than it used to be. Almost no one in my family has valued wellness anywhere in the same order of magnitude that I do, and I’m really starting to see what a lifetime of putting health on the back burner does to a person later in life. As such, mobility, nutritional health and cardiovascular fitness have really taken a front seat in my overall approach to training.
This is something that’s coming more and more to the forefront for me. My in laws are an absolute train wreck healthwise, purely self inflicted. They can’t play with their grandkids. They can’t even look after their grandkids, or visit them. My own family weren’t great, but have turned themselves around well with dramatic improvements to quality of life.
Within my own life, I know that when I make mostly good choices health wise, I feel better, I get ill less, i feel happier.