Goals - Weight, fat, nutrition
07-06-2015, 06:25 PM
#21
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Originally Posted by JonBoy' timestamp='1436022068' post='23669695
Wow - 50" chest and 33" waist? That's beyond freakish. I am 6' and have slightly bigger arms and the same waist but my chest is 44". I can't imagine adding another 6". Good for you! My weight is also between 188-192 lbs and my peak was 204 lbs (last year). I haven't been below 184 lbs in the last ten years.
I'm 35, too, which means my body probably needs more recovery time compared to a 20-25 year old.
I'm 35, too, which means my body probably needs more recovery time compared to a 20-25 year old.
I consider myself pretty successful at what ive done, but I don't know everything and am always looking out for some new information that someone may have that will help me reach my goals more effectively, and I gather that's what this thread is, so just wanted to offer what little i had to contribute. Enough rambling from me.
07-07-2015, 10:36 AM
#22
Originally Posted by s2000Junky' timestamp='1435994179' post='23669556
In a nutshell, ive been lifting steady since 26 yrs old, so 15 years now. I am 5' 11" same as OP. Was always a fairly muscular but thin build with fairly broad shoulders, at 155-160lb all through high school and into my mid 20's. I noticed I was starting to get a gut in mid 20's, and last thing i wanted was that skinny fat guy build, so i got serious about weight lifting and learned a lot over the years through trial and error on what works and what doesn't to finally get me the results i was after, which was simply to put on as much muscle size naturally as I could.
For the first 5 years I hit it hard 5 days a week and did what I thought was good, which was live on basically a steak and salad diet, and though I made some nice gains after a couple years of that, I was stuck at 175 for several years no matter how hard I worked in the gym.
Eventually I slacked off on that food regiment started slacking on the frequency to 4 days a week, and started getting into the 180's for the first time, which was thrilling. My body was obviously starving for carbs and rest. I worked down to 3 days a week as ive been doing for the last 10 years or so, however my lifts and muscle size increased consistently during this time, wile my mid section stayed the same. The heaviest I got was up to 208 but at 14% body fat, which was when I was eating and drinking anything and everything as long as I got enough protein. Rather crude, but I was in the mass building zone and didn't care of a little puge/softer look.
In the last year or so Ive reduced drinking by 50%, pay attention to my calories I actually need to maintain my ideal body weight after learning that my macros were way off for me going off general calculations, so I through that out the window. I now have kept a steady 187-194lb average, dropped my waist from 35" to 33" more cut looking yet have maintained my 50" chest and 16.5" arms, so ive actually dropped 2% body fat, but kept or increased my muscle mass, all wile still eat pretty much anything i want, including too much sugar and junk food, however I monitor it and keep close to within my fats/carbs/protein balance ive learned through trial that I need for my activity level and lifting regiment. I will jog maybe once a week 3-4 miles at best, and lately in this heat, have slacked that off to near 0 over the last 2 months. Ive never looked better now at 40yrs old then ever in the past. I rarely eat lean meats and vegetables. Those things are healthy and I should eat more of them for that reason, but as far as building muscle mass, if you eat bird food, you will look like a bird. The secret for me is eating enough carbs and protein to meet my daily caloric needs that puts on muscle mass and maintains it, that muscle in turns burns the fat for you. Let your body work for you. You must have plenty of down time. Clearly the OP is over training. Take a break, eat some ice cream and then go lift heavy weights with authority the next day lol.
My general macros I follow loosely are 3250 total calories to maintain 190lb 12%. 66/434/248. And im still making muscle gains. From the sounds of it, I am expending much less time and energy in a weeks time then Op, and yet have a body that looks as though im working much harder. Time and consistency has been on my side, and so time has a lot to do with it, but time doing the right or wrong things are just as important looking back. I wish I would have done some things differently during my time, which would have sped up my progress.
For the first 5 years I hit it hard 5 days a week and did what I thought was good, which was live on basically a steak and salad diet, and though I made some nice gains after a couple years of that, I was stuck at 175 for several years no matter how hard I worked in the gym.
Eventually I slacked off on that food regiment started slacking on the frequency to 4 days a week, and started getting into the 180's for the first time, which was thrilling. My body was obviously starving for carbs and rest. I worked down to 3 days a week as ive been doing for the last 10 years or so, however my lifts and muscle size increased consistently during this time, wile my mid section stayed the same. The heaviest I got was up to 208 but at 14% body fat, which was when I was eating and drinking anything and everything as long as I got enough protein. Rather crude, but I was in the mass building zone and didn't care of a little puge/softer look.
In the last year or so Ive reduced drinking by 50%, pay attention to my calories I actually need to maintain my ideal body weight after learning that my macros were way off for me going off general calculations, so I through that out the window. I now have kept a steady 187-194lb average, dropped my waist from 35" to 33" more cut looking yet have maintained my 50" chest and 16.5" arms, so ive actually dropped 2% body fat, but kept or increased my muscle mass, all wile still eat pretty much anything i want, including too much sugar and junk food, however I monitor it and keep close to within my fats/carbs/protein balance ive learned through trial that I need for my activity level and lifting regiment. I will jog maybe once a week 3-4 miles at best, and lately in this heat, have slacked that off to near 0 over the last 2 months. Ive never looked better now at 40yrs old then ever in the past. I rarely eat lean meats and vegetables. Those things are healthy and I should eat more of them for that reason, but as far as building muscle mass, if you eat bird food, you will look like a bird. The secret for me is eating enough carbs and protein to meet my daily caloric needs that puts on muscle mass and maintains it, that muscle in turns burns the fat for you. Let your body work for you. You must have plenty of down time. Clearly the OP is over training. Take a break, eat some ice cream and then go lift heavy weights with authority the next day lol.
My general macros I follow loosely are 3250 total calories to maintain 190lb 12%. 66/434/248. And im still making muscle gains. From the sounds of it, I am expending much less time and energy in a weeks time then Op, and yet have a body that looks as though im working much harder. Time and consistency has been on my side, and so time has a lot to do with it, but time doing the right or wrong things are just as important looking back. I wish I would have done some things differently during my time, which would have sped up my progress.
In light of all these comments I changed up my diet to include a few more carbs. macros are more or less 40/40/20 now although I'm all over the place a little these past two days since I haven't nailed a new meal plan down and I was ham on some sweet potato fries
I feel stuck though right now and I really don't want to bulk up just yet, at least until summer time passes by. Guess my option is to deal with it and carb up get more energy or suck it up for a couple more months and get to it then.
My general build is quite thin. I had to work really hard on my shoulders and lats to get my V shape going, guess some people have that in their genes and then working on it just accentuates it so much more.
07-09-2015, 05:26 AM
#23
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I used to monitor all of this more regularly. I would hover around 170 pounds, which at 5'10" for a male my age is solid. I would love to be about 165 and 8-9% body fat, but I simply don't have the discipline anymore, and I have not checked my weight in a while. I know I have put on some, I would guess I am in the low 180s.
I really wish I could get get back the motivation - at 10% body fat I start to look pretty good.
I really wish I could get get back the motivation - at 10% body fat I start to look pretty good.
07-28-2015, 03:50 PM
#26
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I'll sneak a video of him next time we work out together 
Lol. To the OP what is your workout routine? Have you tried changing it up and I mean drastically changing it? There are plenty of plans out there that you can do that will change how you are going about your workout. I have found that to be the key for continuing change since doing the same thing over and over gets easy, boring and stops working because you body gets used to it. Try switching up your lifts. Or doing a different program.
Also I am not really a fan of doing large muscle groups together like chest and back. It usually would make for a really long gym visit and you probably aren't pushing whichever you do 2nd as hard as you can since you are fatigued from the first group. I personally prefer to do chest with triceps and back with biceps. Your arms are a small muscle group and if your goal is losing body fat dedicating an entire day to them isn't burning very much like the bigger muscle group are.
Lol. To the OP what is your workout routine? Have you tried changing it up and I mean drastically changing it? There are plenty of plans out there that you can do that will change how you are going about your workout. I have found that to be the key for continuing change since doing the same thing over and over gets easy, boring and stops working because you body gets used to it. Try switching up your lifts. Or doing a different program. Also I am not really a fan of doing large muscle groups together like chest and back. It usually would make for a really long gym visit and you probably aren't pushing whichever you do 2nd as hard as you can since you are fatigued from the first group. I personally prefer to do chest with triceps and back with biceps. Your arms are a small muscle group and if your goal is losing body fat dedicating an entire day to them isn't burning very much like the bigger muscle group are.
07-28-2015, 10:38 PM
#27
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I actually recently changed my workout plan to have back and chest on different days.
FYI I recently did another BF% test and came in around 9% which surprised me. My abs are visible but I just figured I was still over 10. I'm tempted to swap up to a lean bulk again but I do like seeing my abs
My routine:
Monday - Chest/triceps - I alternate between 5x5 and 3x8-12 every week
-Incline dumbells
-flat bench
- seated fly machine
-Tricep Rope pulldown
-skull crushers
-decline bench or seated bench machine
-body weight dips
- don't know what this one is called but it's basically a tricep rope pull up?
- 15-20 minutes of HIIT if I'm feeling it
Tuesday - Legs
Leg extensions
Leg curls
Leg press
face down lying leg curls
good girl bad girls - No idea what these are actually called but it's the one where you close your legs and then the machine that you push them open
walking lunges
Stair master if my legs aren't completely shot
Wednesday - Back / Bicep
Pull ups till failure
seated rows
lat pull down
preacher bicep curl machine
closed grip lat pull down
closed grip seated row
lower back exercise - no idea what it's called
cable curls
21s (7-7-7)
HIIT for 20 minutes if I'm feeling it
Thursday - Rest
Friday - Cardio and abs (p90x Ab ripper)
Saturday - Arms and Shoulders
Longest day at the gym really.
I end up doing 5 exercises for each muscle group and change it every week
Sunday - Legs
Squats - lots of sets
Sumo deadlifts
leg curls
calves
FYI I recently did another BF% test and came in around 9% which surprised me. My abs are visible but I just figured I was still over 10. I'm tempted to swap up to a lean bulk again but I do like seeing my abs
My routine:
Monday - Chest/triceps - I alternate between 5x5 and 3x8-12 every week
-Incline dumbells
-flat bench
- seated fly machine
-Tricep Rope pulldown
-skull crushers
-decline bench or seated bench machine
-body weight dips
- don't know what this one is called but it's basically a tricep rope pull up?
- 15-20 minutes of HIIT if I'm feeling it
Tuesday - Legs
Leg extensions
Leg curls
Leg press
face down lying leg curls
good girl bad girls - No idea what these are actually called
but it's the one where you close your legs and then the machine that you push them openwalking lunges
Stair master if my legs aren't completely shot
Wednesday - Back / Bicep
Pull ups till failure
seated rows
lat pull down
preacher bicep curl machine
closed grip lat pull down
closed grip seated row
lower back exercise - no idea what it's called
cable curls
21s (7-7-7)
HIIT for 20 minutes if I'm feeling it
Thursday - Rest
Friday - Cardio and abs (p90x Ab ripper)
Saturday - Arms and Shoulders
Longest day at the gym really.
I end up doing 5 exercises for each muscle group and change it every week
Sunday - Legs
Squats - lots of sets
Sumo deadlifts
leg curls
calves
07-29-2015, 10:01 PM
#28
I typically do chest and back on the same day But i like to break rules i guess lol The bottom line is to listen to your body and do what feels best. As you get older, this becomes a key factor in getting the most out of your workouts. For me, working out 3 days a week feels the best But seriously, what ever muscle group you see is behind the rest, focus more energy on that muscle until it catches up and you build a proper summitry in your physique. Following some crazy new workout strategy from the latest internet vid or mag may give you some ideas for more complicated movements to incorporate into your repertoire, and that can be helpful, but more times then not these are hype, and almost always people need an individualized program that they discover works for them which is fluid and changing as their body and gains are changing. Listen to your body during your workout and the days after. If just losing weight/burning calories is the current goal, well that's very different from body building/muscle growth and the eating and strategy in the gym are rather apposing, you can find a balance of doing both to some degree, however expect results in both fronts to take a lot more time, rather then focusing on one at a time. You will never see your hard earned muscle if you have it all covered up with fat, and by the same token, you will not build muscle wile you are depriving yourself of calories and expending energy on cardio to lose fat. However it can be done to some degree, it just takes more careful focus and more time and patience.
What ever day I feel like- chest/back
what ever day i feel like- Bi/tri
what ever day i feel like- Shoulders/legs... and i say that loosely lol
repeat next week.
My standard is a bit more then typical. 5-6 sets of each exercise and 3-4 of those are the max/heavy sets. With 3 to 4 exercises per muscle group. I will drop set at least one of these often if I feel compelled to really tear into the muscle, but this depends on what im feeling after the exercise if it will be useful or not. I find that this general scope is what it takes for me after nearly 15 years to get into the muscle and stress it enough. Less sets per exercises I found a long time ago doesn't allow my muscles to get fatigued enough because after warm up, 1-2 heavy sets isn't enough. 6-12 reps is standard for me depending on exercise and set.
On chest/back and bi/tri days I typically do 3 exercises each, 6 sets of each exercise x 6 total = 36 total sets. 1 min rest between sets and 4-5 min between muscle groups with a total workout time of 75 min typically. On Shoulder/leg day I focus highly on the shoulders, 5 exercises typical same 5-6 sets for each. Legs I admittedly don't focus on as much, 1-2 exercises 5-6 sets each as I don't want big thigh rubbing tree trunks. Broad upper body and prowess with summitry is the key focus for me.
But i like to break rules i guess lol The bottom line is to listen to your body and do what feels best. As you get older, this becomes a key factor in getting the most out of your workouts. For me, working out 3 days a week feels the best But seriously, what ever muscle group you see is behind the rest, focus more energy on that muscle until it catches up and you build a proper summitry in your physique. Following some crazy new workout strategy from the latest internet vid or mag may give you some ideas for more complicated movements to incorporate into your repertoire, and that can be helpful, but more times then not these are hype, and almost always people need an individualized program that they discover works for them which is fluid and changing as their body and gains are changing. Listen to your body during your workout and the days after. If just losing weight/burning calories is the current goal, well that's very different from body building/muscle growth and the eating and strategy in the gym are rather apposing, you can find a balance of doing both to some degree, however expect results in both fronts to take a lot more time, rather then focusing on one at a time. You will never see your hard earned muscle if you have it all covered up with fat, and by the same token, you will not build muscle wile you are depriving yourself of calories and expending energy on cardio to lose fat. However it can be done to some degree, it just takes more careful focus and more time and patience. What ever day I feel like- chest/back
what ever day i feel like- Bi/tri
what ever day i feel like- Shoulders/legs... and i say that loosely lol
repeat next week.
My standard is a bit more then typical. 5-6 sets of each exercise and 3-4 of those are the max/heavy sets. With 3 to 4 exercises per muscle group. I will drop set at least one of these often if I feel compelled to really tear into the muscle, but this depends on what im feeling after the exercise if it will be useful or not. I find that this general scope is what it takes for me after nearly 15 years to get into the muscle and stress it enough. Less sets per exercises I found a long time ago doesn't allow my muscles to get fatigued enough because after warm up, 1-2 heavy sets isn't enough. 6-12 reps is standard for me depending on exercise and set.
On chest/back and bi/tri days I typically do 3 exercises each, 6 sets of each exercise x 6 total = 36 total sets. 1 min rest between sets and 4-5 min between muscle groups with a total workout time of 75 min typically. On Shoulder/leg day I focus highly on the shoulders, 5 exercises typical same 5-6 sets for each. Legs I admittedly don't focus on as much, 1-2 exercises 5-6 sets each as I don't want big thigh rubbing tree trunks. Broad upper body and prowess with summitry is the key focus for me.
08-05-2015, 04:59 AM
#29
Community Organizer
This is my normal routine, as long as long as my work schedule and my wife's schedule allows, plus the weather can easily convert a planned bike ride into a not as fun trainer session in my basement.
Monday: legs, abs, shoulders, light cardio (walk on the treadmill, shoot around in our gym at work)
Tuesday: light cardio at work, 20 mile evening bike ride.
Wednesday: arms, light cardio
Thursday: light cardio at work, 20 mile evening bike ride.
Friday: chest and back, light cardio.
Saturday: 30-50 mile bike ride.
Sunday: 20-30 mile bike ride.
Also, depending on the day, I often get up from my desk and do a half mile walk through our campus at work. It is laid out and feels like a college campus, and you can really stretch your legs with some lengthy walks and runs. My daily step goal is 10,0000 so I do my best to get to it or surpass it.
Monday: legs, abs, shoulders, light cardio (walk on the treadmill, shoot around in our gym at work)
Tuesday: light cardio at work, 20 mile evening bike ride.
Wednesday: arms, light cardio
Thursday: light cardio at work, 20 mile evening bike ride.
Friday: chest and back, light cardio.
Saturday: 30-50 mile bike ride.
Sunday: 20-30 mile bike ride.
Also, depending on the day, I often get up from my desk and do a half mile walk through our campus at work. It is laid out and feels like a college campus, and you can really stretch your legs with some lengthy walks and runs. My daily step goal is 10,0000 so I do my best to get to it or surpass it.
