Good!
Fair enough. But as I said stay at the BW you’re at right now, then over time you’ll add ½ kg of muscles lose ½ kg fat and then 1 kg of each and you’ll be much much better of than losing 2 kg right now.
But I’m not you and I get your mindset. I think we all got that mindset, when I raced bikes even though I was knocking on the best ranks in Denmark (well not pro cyclists, but I did some races against them and trained some times together with one or two) I still thought I wasn’t good enough and wanted more… at the age of 35…
Keep those pictures you have right now and when you turn 50 take a look, and you’ll know what I mean.
Keep up the spirit, keep training and keep your goal. Stay positive.
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You look amazing!
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You have loose skin? Where? I honestly don’t see any - just a very lean guy.
I’d suggest sitting down every day and just listing the things you have and are grateful for/proud of on a piece of paper. Reflect on that and, over time, it will build and you’ll feel better. You’ll be able to add accomplishments to it.
Remember, one day at a time. I think they say that in AA? Try not to rush the future or you’ll wonder where all the time went.
Keep on truckin’ man!
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Yeah I think I’m going to do that. I tried to look at myself with a neutral view, while moving in front of the mirror etc. And yeah I am actually quite lean. My back especially looks like an anatomical drawing. No need to rush things now. Especially considering I lost 2 kgs in 2 days the week before. I’ll just eat more.
Her’s a pic from tonight, with a better lighting. Gyms are opening on tuesday! This is exciting. But at the same time I am very anxious to run on my ex at my tiny gym. I’ll try to go earlier whenever I can.
Well thank you.
@everybodygetsone I have some actually, look at my 05/13 video, but it doesn’t bother me appart from the skin/fat I have on my chest. Probably because as I kid I hated my gyno.
Anyway thank you. Yeah, one day at a time. I am grateful for many things. I think that it comes down mainly to just being heartbroken. But yeah it’s hard. Like today, appart from some chores. I didn’t do anything. And it was my off day. I felt nothing doing chores, no enjoyment in anything, not wanting to do anything, and sooo tired. i didn’t even train, again. But times heals everything, right.
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Mate you are seriously fat… oh wait a minute I was looking at my reflection in the phone 
Seriously though, you are very lean and getting leaner than this will start to impact on performance, strength, everything, everything. You still need to do what you want either way it’s your choice.
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You’re probably right. Perhaps it is just a disorder. But performance is reamly good right now, setting PRs and I’m really not optimal on nutrition, stress and sleep. I believe I have some margin.
But yeah I guess after years trying to get stronger with such little results has been discouraging (even though the lack of results might have many explanations), meanwhile last year I had really good physical results despite being in maintenance or deficit all the time (this could be explained by being followed a coach, and new stimulus by doing pure hypertrophy)
So for me being aesthetic is at least achievable.
Cried again this morning at work. I just miss her so much and feel so lonely. Right now I can’t enjoy life without her. “I could not awake my heart to joy”, right! Even yesterday evening, playing Call of Cthulhu with my mate, I couldn’t stop thinking about her. How can somebody who’s not in your life anymore take so much of your energy and thoughts. Dreamt all night about her as well. Probably extra stressed about the gym reopening and seeing her again. Stressed I’ll just break down, can’t train. I should probably just change gym
I’m sorry guys. I shouldn’t keep on rambling about such things. I guess sometimes the pain is too much.
I honestly think the situation at work is feeding my breakup pain tenfold. It has always tough, but it’s been super tough for like 6 months. The pressure put on the morning team is insane. No matter what, we’ll never be good enough, fast enough.
This morningy boss cried because the vacuum cleaner had flipped over. She told me she couldn’t withstand the pressure and just wanted yo go home. And she’s on a 4 days week. Then my manager was so stressed because a machine was apparently broken she tried to play electrician and almost electrocuted herself in a burst of sparks. Gave me a mini heart attack. She was on the verge of a breakdown. As well as my other coworker.
Ugh I’ll take a nap, do some exercise later and be positive now.
You don’t need to apologise mate. Sometimes it’s best to talk about stuff and that’s what we are all here for. Break ups are never easy, it is natural to feel sad and miss your ex and it takes Time to get used to life without then. But with time you will get used to it, you will feel better.
The job just sounds like a nightmare, so you have any other options with regards finding a different job? If I were you I would be doing everything I could to find something else?
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We’re about the same height and weight and you carry a lot more muscle. What’s your waist circumference?
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Yeah thanks. I guess being positive would be that I will have learned from my mistakes, and that I never loved someone like this, and never got a girl like this, so I think I have improved!
I was about to quit for another job just before lockdown. But right now finding another one is pretty hard. My unemployed friends have lots of trouble. And I need the money. I guess 3-4 months of pain will be worth it if the money saved will allow me to reach my goal.
@Voxel I didn’t really know where to measure so it’s 31" at the widest and 29" at the smallest
Take this in the spirit intended, but that is what I was thinking. I also thought it curious that your mother has said what she said…and by that I simply mean that she might also have some dysmorphia stuff going on. In any case, part of the reason this community exists is so that you can vent/share that kind of stuff, and then we can tell you what we think. What you decide to do with that input is up to you.
That said, I would repeat that I don’t see any fat or loose skin on you. And photos usually make you look worse than real life. So don’t sweat it.
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Probably, I’m terrible at taking pics. I’m going to take it slow.
Okay so the new gym hours because of social distancing/etc will make it problematic to not bump into my ex. Ughhh I loved training with her. Or before that, it was my “me” moment. Now it will be a stressful/painful time. I’m really sad right now. Shit in my heart, in my job, in my gym, and I can’t enjoy anything at home.
I don’t have any specific advice regarding your ex, but hang in there dude. If nothing else it will get better as days go by, that is one axiom that always seems to prove true.
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All right guys so the gym will be limited to 3 sessions per week for a while. What would be the best 3 days split for maximum hypertrophy? (considering I could do some pump/fluff work at home up to 70 kgs DB/BB as well)
@dagill2 @T3hPwnisher @Voxel @Frank_C @simo74 @robstein
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Top votes for me are DoggCrapp and Super Squats, with 5/3/1 Building the Monolith clocking in if we don’t count conditioning as a gym day.
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Thanks. Yeah of course I will do some conditioning on the side.
Ok, so I wrote out a long response and it started to turn into a complex T-Nation article on how to build your perfect program.
This will be easier. What are your goals for:
- chest
- delts
- back
- arms
- legs
Also, do you have any strength goals for specific lifts. If so, what are they?
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Honestly I just want to get bigger everywhere? And this time actually do calves and abs. Then priority is legs and chest (most likely my weaknesses) and the least important would be back (my obvious strength)
I don’t really care about strength this time but my actual maxes are (well at least before covid so squat, deadlift and bench have suffered)
• Squat (high bar): 155
• Bench: 115
• Deadlift: ?? at least 180, probably 200
• OHP: 78
My ultimate goal would be the coveted 2/3/4/5 plates. The one I would like the most would be the 4 plates squat. Also I must precise that over time I’ve come to terms that the squat is just shit for my legs. I have really long legs, and I’m all back and glutes. Switching to high bar allowed me to use my legs better. But what is holding me back I think is the lack of leg press/hacksquat here. I will be doing vertical leg press à la Arnold in the smith machine and see how it goes.
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Good vote if you know how to go absolutely berserk. You have to make up for the lack of volume by bringing a lot of intensity. When I explored DC, I read through the old Cycling for Pennies thread. Here’s a good measuring stick,
Either next quad workout or next time you dont feel like doing your normal leg workout, be true to yourself and take the number of plates you load up on the leg press for a hardcore 10 reps deep —cut it exactly in half and do one set of 50 reps deep. So if your bragging to everyone that you can do 12 plates on each side for 10 then guess what your going to be doing - 6 a side for 50. And you know what-- everyone reading this can do the 50 reps, it just comes down to who has the most balls or not. You cannot lock your knees the whole set and you cannot rest your hands on your knees either. I try to get 25 first and then pause at the top (with knees slightly bent) and take 5 deep breaths and then get 10 more (5 deep breaths) and 5 more.(im at 40 now)…then the last 10 reps is pure tortuous hell…i usually do 3 reps (take 3 breaths)3 more reps, 3 more breaths, then 2 reps (3 deep breaths) and finally the last 2 reps=50 reps. Your legs will be absolutely destroyed and you better start stretching or walking the next day is going to be an adventure.
Now, I didn’t do leg press that often before that so I kind of went in… blind? And, I was already somewhat fatigued from other stuff in the gym. Anyway, I worked up to a heavy ten. And then I forgot about the halving the weights bit and “just” did it again for 50. People look at you when you scream, but I did do all the reps.
There’s also a neat three-day split of Fortitude Training. Scott Stevenson was a DC-trainee for a decade or longer if memory serves, but personally I prefer FT over DC for the variety and higher frequency and it’s more “balanced” with regards to hypertrophy triggers.
If you explore either I highly recommend watching some videos of trainees that employ either system to garner the intensity, and the rep style. The programming in genuinely good, but the programming in and of itself isn’t the entire puzzle. The way in which the reps are performed also has an impact (mTor).
Caveat emptor: if you were to adhere to either, you’d find that performance increase at a slower rate if you adhere to something else given the rotation of exercises. And arguably, you shouldn’t adopt a system partially. With programs, finding exercise substitutions and so on is fine, but I wouldn’t recommend someone to massacre 5/3/1, nor would I recommend someone massacres DC/FT.
And therefore it was good that @Frank_C asked what your goals are.
And, maybe I’m reading too much into this,
Because then you kind of care about performance still. Which is fine! I’m not, for as much as I want to be, solely motivated by hypertrophy either. Then the game becomes figuring out how to balance the two. How much of a strength component do you need to stay motivated. And, do you need it every workout, or some of your weekly workouts or are you fine rotating say 4 weeks of hypertrophy with 2-4 weeks of more strength-oriented work.
And, honestly, only you can find that out by trial-and-error?
FWIW, CT says that for people with our build that are in it for the aesthetics should eschew back squats (either kind) for front squat. I don’t do this, because all my squatting is limited by poor core stability so I do both. But, and it’s important to note, CT predominantly writes programs that are a mixture of performance/athleticism/hypertrophy. You don’t need to barbell squat to build legs. But it’s nice to squat, in a self-hating kind of way.
I recently linked Charles Staley’s M-W-F split, that could work for you I suppose. I added some additional nuance to it when I did:
If you want a higher frequency of practice on the big lifts, I’d do maybe something like
All days:
Squat
Incline Press
Deadlift
and then do these either in different rep ranges or emphasize different means of contraction through tempo work and then tack on some hypertrophy,
Monday:
Upper body push
Wednesday:
Upper body pull
Friday:
Legs
Sorry @T3hPwnisher, I noticed now this became a reply to you, while the rest of the post is referencing @aldebaran whenever I use the word “you”
I’ll @ @danteism because without him I probably would’ve never tried DC or FT.
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