Grassroots Strength Training - Bodybuilding, Power Lifting, Etc.

In reply to Beer Baron :

It really is. Sometimes I watch strongman eating videos for motivation haha. It also doesn't help much that I've never had a large appetite, so I'm borderline force feeding half of my meals. Bryan Shaw does about 6K/day or more, his eating videos are nuts. 

Even at 3500/day, it's a lot. My breakfast is a shake, 2 cups of Silk almond/cashew protein blend milk. Good stuff. 2 bananas, 1 serving of peanut butter, 5g creatine, half a scoop of chocolate protein. Sometimes a handful of frozen blueberries. About 700 calories and I slam it as quickly as possible. First lunch is often a massive bowl of oats, recipe above. Second meal might be two chicken sandwiches, today it's half a rotisserie chicken and 1.5 servings of rice, so probably not enough calories. No clue what dinner might be; possibly 2 quesadillas with lots of guac, that's always a favorite. 

The worst part is when life gets in the way and I miss a meal. Making up those calories is tough. 

Good news, I'm up 1 pound! All this hard work is finally paying off. I did some lightweight squats yesterday—95 pounds, then upped it to 135 pounds, and had no back pain afterward, so that's a strong positive. I usually only do barbell squats about once a month and my back aches afterwards for the rest of the day (arthritis, torn muscle). I guess all this stretching, collagen powder, and BPC-157 have been helping a bit. Decided to take a progress pic, and yes I know the mirror is dirty, my son splashed a bunch of soapy water at the mirror last night.

Now I need to stop being lazy and work my abs more than once a month haha. Not bad for being in my forties though I guess.

@InfiniteNexus: Jealous Yeti is jealous. :)


My plantar fasciitis seems to be decreasing in direct proportion to my bodyweight. I woke up at 178.4 today and I'm going to run Murph again, seriously this time. No more talking between sets, holding a quicker pace on the runs, etc.

I was straight-up embarrassed by my previous performance. 

I removed pull ups from my gym routine. I've been doing a set when I walk by the bar I hung up in my house now- not every time, but once a day.

 

The kid was starting to get bored with 5/3/1 so we transitioned to an 8-week hypertrophy phase using moderate to light weight and high reps with slow and controlled movement using this split:


Day 1  = chest and triceps

Day 2 = legs

Day 3 = rest or cardio

Day 4 = shoulders and traps

Day 5 = legs, back and biceps


The rep speed and volume took some time to adjust to; such sore, very DOMS. 

I haven't hit the heavy bags in a week or two and I'm curious if this training style will affect my hand speed.

In reply to infinitenexus :

Not gonna lie bro, I wish I had a body style like you have lol. Guess I have to work my traps more so I get that V-taper like i'm a human dorito.

I deadlifted like a madman back in the day, and my traps have been pretty decent since. I don't do any direct trap workouts now, just basic overhead presses and lateral raises, but my traps stay a pretty decent size considering I'm small. 

As for lats, that's about the only part of my body that doesn't hurt so I work them pretty hard. I generally finish my lat pulldown sets by lifting the whole stack (250lbs) for 7-8 reps.

One of my crossfit partners is in hospital with Rhabdo today. Concerning since we do the same workouts side by side five days a week at the same level, and we are the same size, age and build. The only difference is he took two weeks off to have a mole cut out of his cheek.

Redemption!


I woke up at 178 today which is where my bodyweight seems to have stabilized for the moment, no biggie, I have a decent V-taper, nice definition on my shoulders, arms, chest, and quads, and there are some abs starting to show through on the sides.


I had my usual cup of coffee with a teaspoon of coconut oil while I tried to rouse the kids for some weight room shenanigans. Like typical teenagers, they grunted and went back to sleep. So I downed two scoops of amino energy and rode my bike to the gym as a little pre-warm-up for my 43-year-old joints.

Once there I hopped on a treadmill and started my second attempt at Murph.


I finished at 46:40. It's not a blazing time but, I feel much better about that than I did about taking an entire hour.


I followed the same 10/20/30 rep strategy for the chins/pushups/squats. This time I did a mixture of pullups and chins (alternating with each set), and substituted dips for the pushups but I stuck with the standard squats. I thought about doing "Bulgarian" split squats but, standard squats are hard enough for me.


Now it's time for food!



My foot issues didn't crop up at all during the run(s) but, later on at work, my heel was very unhappy. I was an idiot and did sprint intervals for my second mile; 9 mph for one minute then down to a trot somewhere between 4.5 and 6 mph for one minute, then back up to 9 for another minute.
 

Ok, I'll post on this even though I'm not a huge lifter.

Journey so far, I'm 43 YO, 6'1" and 155 lbs, I had ballooned up to 205 in 2020/21.  My brother, who is a 56 YO ultra runner that gets me to try diets etc, finally got me into running last year, and trying the Whole30 diet.  I trail run probably 10 miles a week now, I walk at least 5 miles a day.  Lifting, I shoot for 2 exercises a day, 10 sets of 10, abs, legs, arms, chest and shoulders.  I don't lift more then 20-30 pounds, strength and endurance is more important then bulk.  I definitely feel better now physically then I ever have, most of that I chalk up to diet.

Any recommendations on brands or outfitters for dress clothes for someone who is muscular?

Active clothing is easy. It all stretches. Work clothes and daily wear aren't tough. I have fully embraced Duluth Trading.

I donated all my old suits, shirts, slacks, and other dress clothes. None fit anymore. I'm probably in need of some more soon.

I'm presuming that any place that actually tailors pants and jackets will end up getting a decent fit. I've got more booty, chest, and shoulder compared to waist than average, but they can take in different amounts of material at different points. Dress shirts I'm more worried about, since they're generally off the rack.

^


+1 for that question. 

When I wear anything other than gym clothes or T-shirts I always wind up looking and feeling like a buffoon. Especially if I have to move my arms or reach for something.

Yeah where you like, show your belly button off and your shirt suddenly becomes a crop top?

Exactly!


And your shoulders get constricted by the fabric.

For t-shirts I found that Woven fits me really well.  But I'm probably more of a slim fit than athletic compared to some of you guys.

The_Jed said:

Redemption!


I woke up at 178 today which is where my bodyweight seems to have stabilized for the moment, no biggie, I have a decent V-taper, nice definition on my shoulders, arms, chest, and quads, and there are some abs starting to show through on the sides.


I had my usual cup of coffee with a teaspoon of coconut oil while I tried to rouse the kids for some weight room shenanigans. Like typical teenagers, they grunted and went back to sleep. So I downed two scoops of amino energy and rode my bike to the gym as a little pre-warm-up for my 43-year-old joints.

Once there I hopped on a treadmill and started my second attempt at Murph.


I finished at 46:40. It's not a blazing time but, I feel much better about that than I did about taking an entire hour.


I followed the same 10/20/30 rep strategy for the chins/pushups/squats. This time I did a mixture of pullups and chins (alternating with each set), and substituted dips for the pushups but I stuck with the standard squats. I thought about doing "Bulgarian" split squats but, standard squats are hard enough for me.


Now it's time for food!



My foot issues didn't crop up at all during the run(s) but, later on at work, my heel was very unhappy. I was an idiot and did sprint intervals for my second mile; 9 mph for one minute then down to a trot somewhere between 4.5 and 6 mph for one minute, then back up to 9 for another minute.
 

My time was 47.44. I did knee pushups and no weighted vest and broke it into 5-5-5-15 until the end when I did 5-10-15. I am 57 and pretty happy with that.

In reply to bearmtnmartin (Forum Supporter) :

Damn! Good work!

I've tweaked something right in the middle of my back below the shoulder blades. Every day it takes a half an hour of movement for it to loosen back up, and if I sit still for a couple of hours it tightens back up. 
I'm avoiding anything more strenuous than walking or easy pace bike riding until it's healed up.

I could use some input on a new plan I'm building guys- I worry that I've added way too much to it like I like to do. Basically I'm shooting for a body like Infinitenexus has (sup bro!) and I hope to tailor it as I continue swimming and practicing martial arts locally with a new Jui Jitsu trainer. For now it's kind of a prototype, since for the past ~9 months I've been using a similar split like DirtyBird222 and I've really liked it, especially the 10/8/5/3 drop sets on the big lifts they did. Currently, major lifts are: Squat is up to 275x3, bench is 185x3, deadlift is 355x3. I like this 10-8-5-5-3 split for the major lifts but I do wonder if it's too much.

Some things that I've added- Kettlebell work! In particular I really like doing shoulder presses with a kettlebell instead of an overhead press because now my arm has more freedom of movement and has to stabilize. I've also added pushups and ab work into the warmup because I've always been weak there.

Some things I want to add- more calisthenics. I try to watch guys like BrolyGainz on youtube because I like the work to improve stability and the ability to do dumb E36 M3 that looks cool- but frankly his material is full of bro science (That dude I swear has 4 separate videos on semen retention).

WARMUP EACH WORKOUT DAY:

5 Minutes on treadmill/elliptical to increase HR.

Walking Lunges

Kettlebell Halos

Wood Choppers

Pushups.

Monday: Legs and Shoulders

Back Squat                                                          5 Sets                                    10-8-5-5-3

Kettlebell clean and press                             5 sets                                    10-8-5-5-3

Prone Leg Curl                                                   3 sets                                    12 reps                             

Arnold Press                                                      3 sets                                    8-10 reps

Landmine Single-leg Romanian deadlift  2 sets                                    10-15 reps

Pistol Squat                                                        2 sets                                    5-7reps per leg

Kettlebell Swing                                                                3 sets                                    15 reps

Seated Calf Raise                                              3 sets                                    12-15 reps                          90-100-110

One arm cable lateral Raise                         3 sets                                    8-12 reps

DB Shrugs                                                            3 sets                                    10 reps

Wednesday: Chest and Triceps

Face pulls                                                            3 sets

Floor press (warmup to benching)            2 sets

Decline barbell bench press                         3 Sets                                    10-8-5-5-3           135-145-155-165-185

Costal Cable Flye                                              3 sets                                    8-12 reps                             25-30-35

Dips                                                                       3 sets                                    10 reps, no weight

Seated overhead tricep extension            3 sets                                    10 reps                                 20-25-30

Cable Tricep Kickback                                     2 sets

L-Sit

Friday: Back and Biceps

Hex/Trap Bar Deadlift

Meadow’s Row

Back extensions

Pull ups

Lat Pulldown Machine                                    4 sets                    6-8 reps

Straight arm lat pushdown

Superset Preachers curl (Biceps) with Inverted row (Traps, Lats, biceps)

Landmine Row

Reverse Plank

Trap Bar Farmers Walk

It looks like a program I'd like to try but, I usually spread the exercises out a bit more to hit the gym more frequently and keep my metabolism ramped up. Monday looks like a killer!

I might take the pushups out of the warm up and put them after some heavy bench work as a drop set, then put a minute or two of jumping rope in their spot of the warm up.

Would you be doing Jiu Jitsu on Tuesday, Thursday, and/or Saturday?

In reply to GIRTHQUAKE :

I think you can rearrange that plan to get more gains, in less gym time, with easier recovery.

This video talks a lot about rep ranges for different adaptations, and would serve as a good guide.

The short version is: I would invert how you do drop sets (drop weight and increase reps) and hit multiple muscle groups every session instead of focusing one one area per day.

First off - your goal as you have described is mostly body-building, or maybe a "power-building" mindset (looking for medium bulk but good max strength for your size). You do a lot of other physical activities that you don't want to be completely worn out by lifting for.

You will see the most gains by getting the most total volume in a week. You don't need to train to failure to see gains. You will see a LOT more gains by going 70-80% two or three times a week, than training 90% once a week.

Different rep ranges produce different adaptations and require different amounts of recovery.

• 1-3 max strength
• 3-6 Basic strength
• 5-10 Hypertrophy of major muscles
• 10-20 Hypertrophy for small muscles

Properly doing heavier weights at lower reps also requires your muscles to be less fatigued. So *start* with your highest exertion and then add in the volume for hypertrophy.

You seem to like drop sets, so let's stick with that.

For each major muscle group:

• 1x per week - open with heavy set of 2-3 then drop: (2-3), 5, 6, 8, 10; hit 80%+ Exertion
• 1x per week - medium-light weight: 6-12; 70% exertion
• 1x per week - supplementary exercises 10-20; feel the burn

I would mix these up with different exercise variations of the major exercises. The heavy day will be the primary lift, and then lighter days may be variations.

So for chest/ticeps, those might be:

• Heavy = bench
• Medium-Light = dumbbell press, incline press, decline press, pin press, ring push ups (my favorite), etc.
• Supplemental = cable flies, face pulls, skull crushers, triceps extensions, etc.

I would break it up something like:

• Monday - Heavy Legs/Shoulders; Medium Back/Biceps; Light Chest/Triceps
• Wednesday - Heavy Chest; Medium Legs/Shoulders; Light Back/Biceps
• Friday - Heavy Back; Medium Chest/Triceps; Light Legs/Shoulders

In reply to The_Jed :

I kinda worried that it was too much; I even thought about adding another bit of leg work on shoulder/leg day to work adductors. I can try to split it further into dedicated days, but frankly Saturday/Sunday are designated for rest because my work schedule keeps me from doing any "real" exercise on those days, and Juijitsu will likely be Thursday but I'm waiting on a response; I quickly run into just daily limitations.

Do jump rope instead of pushups, and move them to after bench? I'll think about it, I've been doing that for months and I haven't seen much improvement in my pushups having them afterwards.

I REALLY like the program outline that Beer Baron laid out but, for me (and it's just me, you and Beer Baron and many other people for that matter may be different) since I'm well into my 40's and not on any PEDs or supplemental hormonal regimen I would have to pick my exercises very carefully since I wouldn't be able to hit everything from every angle. I would focus on compound movements as much as possible. 


For example (again, credit to Beer Baron for the layout and using your usual warm up):



Monday:

KB Clean and Press from the floor (I would run the Rite of Passage) 

Squats (Back/Front/Zercher whichever feels best on that day) = 5x5

Pullups/Chins (maybe with some weight, these help to decompress the spine after heavy squats) = 3 x 6-8 with bodyweight drop sets 

Bodyweight Rows = (on a bar in a squat rack or TRX bands or Rings) 3 x 12-15 dropset to curls

Diamond or Narrow pushups = shoot for 100 total reps, however you can get there
 




Wednesday:

Incline DB Bench = 3 x 6-8 (I might throw in some pushup drop sets, I LOVE pushups)

KB Swings = (I like high reps on these with a heavy bell, it builds grip strength and endurance) 3 x 15-20 or shoot for 100

Leg Press = (I would use DirtyBird's 10-8-5-5-3 rep scheme)

Landmine OHP = 3 x 8-10 

Reverse Flyes/Face Pulls = 3 x 8-12

Pulldowns = 3 x 15-20 (I'd go thumbless and super wide, trying to bring the handle to my chest and really squeeze my shoulder blades together) 





Friday:

Trap Bar Deadlift = EMOM (I'd pyramid slowly to around 70%-80% of my 1rm then pull it every minute for 15 minutes or so)

Dips = (weighted preferably, again these help to unload the spine after heavy deads] with, you guessed it, pushup drop sets) 5 x 5

Overhead extension = (Dumbell or EZ Bar, whichever feels the best to hammer those triceps) 3 x 8-12

Leg Curls + Leg Extensions  (+calf raises?) = (I'd superset these and aim for 100 reps each, fry those legs!)

Bottom-Up KB press = 3 x 8 

Lu Raise or Nasser Tri-set = 4 x 12 or 3 x 10 respectively



I'd throw in some LISS, Turkish Get Ups, and KB Windmills (kind of active recovery) on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, unless you're grappling.

In reply to Beer Baron :

I've never heard of this dude- I'll give him a watch tonight, already I'm interested in this video for obvious reasons.

I can easily do drop sets that way instead, but I have to ask- earlier with my 10/8/5/5/3 split, I was partially using the higher rep lifts as warmups for the bigger stuff. If I launch directly into the heavy lift, how would my warmup look and what would my rest periods look like in between sets?

So your idea- and Mikes it seems- is more of a full-body style workout plan, where you're just putting the majority of your focus on a body part and not focusing on it alone? So if I just shuffle things around, not remove anything yet, would that then look like:

Monday Squats/Shoulders

• Back Squats (heavy drop set)
• Kettlebell clean and press (heavy drop Set)
• Prone Leg Curl (Medium-light)
• Arnold Press (Medium-light)
• Seated Calf Raise (Medium-light)
• One-arm cable lat raise (Medium-light)
• Back Hyperextensions (added for light back) (supplemental)
• Pistol Squat (Supplementary)

Kettlebell cleans, arnold presses and the hypers should be enough to add medium back/biceps on this I feel.

Wednesday Chest/Triceps

• Pull ups Wide grip (added from back day Medium light )
• Decline Bench Press (Heavy Drop Set)
• Landmine Row (added from back day for light back/biceps) (Heavy Drop set)
• Face Pulls (Supplemental)
• Costal Cable Fly (Supplemental)
• Dips (Medium light)
• Seated Overhead Triceps extension (Supplemental)
• cable tricep kickback (Burnout high rep set, supplemental)

Friday Back/Biceps

• Hex Bar Deadlifts (Heavy)
• Farmers Carry (Supplemental, but here because the bar will already be loaded)
• Meadow's Row (Medium light)
• Landmine single-leg romanian deadlift (add for light legs) (Medium light)
• Kettlebell Swing (added for light legs, some back. Supplemental)
• Lat pulldown machine, underhand grip (back/bis, but also chest) (Medium light)
• Straight arm lat pushdown (Medium light)
• Superset preachers curl w/ inverted row (Supplemental)

... and then maybe change up the warmups on each a day a bit? That seems to at least, even things out to ~8 exercises per day for now.

In reply to The_Jed :

Woah, that is completely different than what I was making!