No Routine Since February. I Want to Restart

Hi all,
Due to Covid and other circumstances I haven’t been training consistently since February.

I’ve lost a lot of strength and muscle and put on some fat (must be 20%+). I’m 23 and have been training for a few years.

Where would you advise me to start diet-wise and training-wise?
My goal is amateur bodybuilding. I can train 3 times/week.

At 20%+ Id say focus on the diet first, then 12k+ steps a day and then training. your timing is great for a restart - just join the T-ransformation challenge and start rocking.

does amateur bodybuilding mean you lift for fun or that you want to get on an amateur stage one day?

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I mean not aiming to compete at all: lift for fun and will to be big and jacked.

Full body 3x a week, then yeah walk, some cardio and focus on your diet

Any good routine reccomendations?

Good base template. Start light, higher reps, then in a few weeks increase intensity… Then later start incorporating intensity techniques for a few lifts

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Nice thank you!

One of my friends lent me a book (From Alessio Ferlito, I’m Italian) where a training protocol is explained. It looks fun, yet I don’t know how much it is specific for bodybuilding purposes. But I digress… I simply find it fun but don’t know if it’s adequate to my goals.

It’s basically ABA BAB .

A

  • Bench Press
  • Bent Over Row
  • Squats

B

  • OHP
  • Chinup
  • SLDL

Each exercises starts with 5 sets of 8, and every workout you add 1kg to upper body lifts and 2 kg to lower body lifts. Once you can’t do 5x8 anymore for two consecutive wokouts at a given weight, you do 5x7 with that weight, and keep adding weight every workout until you can’t do 5x7 with a given weight anymore, then you repeat the process up to 5x6, then 5x5, then 5x4, then 5x3.

Then you restart at the weight that had you stall at 5x8 and restart the whole cycle (might take a few months to get here but you’ll be much stronger).

At the end of each workout you can do some fluff-n pump work (Like:
A
2-3x10-15 curls, skullcrushers and wrist curls
B
2-3x10-15 side laterals, shrugs, calves

@Chieftain
@aldebaran

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looks good assuming you can do these movements pain free. Barbell only might be a very good choice currently as gyms are closed in many countries. Personally I like to add machines but the exercise selection and progression is sound. Give it an good try and stay with it for a few months before changing routines.

what does your diet look like?

Yeah, I have always done those movements pain-free. Moreover I train in a home gym.

I’ll be aiming for lots of greens, 1-1.2g/lb prot, eat 90% the time whole foods; carbs and fats may vary daily but i’ll monitor using myfitness pal.

I will start calorie wise at bw (kg) x 29 and lower that amount if i don’t lose weight for 2 consecutive weeks

Yeah no problem with this routine

BW in pounds x 20 is generally horrible starting point if you want to lose weight. Unless you already know this to be maintenance for you? If you need a starting point, and are currently maintaining weight the best thing would be to track your eating for a week or two to know what maintenance is for you.

If you don’t have that patience and have to get started straight-away I’d recommend that you start at 15 x bw on training days and 13 x bw on off-days.

For the record, x 20 is the caloric ceiling for a lot of people when gaining.

My recommendations stem from me allowing myself to make some inferences to your daily activity level as you are at 20%+.

My bad. I intended to write 29. And that was in kg anyway.

So in lbs would be 13.5 or so @Voxel

That’s better :sweat_smile: just don’t jump from 29 → 19 :wink:

I totally agree with the author that if your coming back from a layoff for whatever reason or have a really physical job, whole body 3/days a week is the way to go. I started late August after a year of not doing anything completely detrained and I was totally blown away at how fast things came back. I’m already close to or meeting my all time best and in the case of horizontal pressing surpassing my all time best.

Once I was at like maybe 75% of ‘former glory’ I had to go to upper/lower because either I wasn’t recovering or not able to push hard enough to optimally progress.

I like whole body if working a physical job because that way no one thing so sore that it keeps me from doing my job well. I can’t just be like ‘I know it’s super busy today but yesterday was leg day so I gotta take it slow, mmm-kay boss’ :rofl:

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I’ll think about my next move in a few months, maybe an upper/lower but we’ll think about that later!
Thanks for telling your personal experience and your advice!

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