Changing My Life & Grand Plans For The Future

[Syd Barrett]

Thanks very much for all the responses everyone! There's been some fantastic info in here and I've realised I may need to change things up more than I first thought.


Sorry for the late reply, I wanted to actually wait until I had been to the gym and trained - incorporating some of the advice here - before posting. Rather than just saying I intend to do this or might do this - I have actually been to the gym today and done this.


I'm not sure my total daily calories and macros but I have been maintaining weight almost exactly around 73kg for the past few months. I have noticed some change in body composition in favour of more muscle, a slightly slimmer belly/waist, and less fat - but I don't think it is a huge difference.


Unfortunately the only Crossfit gym in my city (Glasgow, Scotland) is really out the way for me and wouldn't be practical. But it is something I'll bare in mind for the future.


I'm pretty confident that the form of the exercises I do is at least decent, as I have spent a lot of time watching a lot of YouTube videos and reading a lot and really practising my form. It has been a big focus for me. To be honest, the time and effort I put into the form for each exercise is part of the reason I'm hesitant to learn a full new workout routine. But I am willing to do so now I realise it is necessary to change up a lot.

Today in the gym I focused on upping my weights on my current exercises - such as squats. I also have started deadlifts and seated cable rows, though I'm focusing on perfecting my form before I up the weight fully.

I have to admit that I still did all my abs stuff in full. I saw a few people such as snake mention that "all that extra ab stuff is not really going to do that much for your abs" - can anyone explain this to me?

From my initial research of this is it correct to assume that I would be better focusing on lowering my body fat percentage, as abs workouts will only grow my abs muscles which could in fact expand my waist/belly with the fat that is there on top?

So maybe I should cut back on abs specific stuff and focus on more high-intensity cardio and diet to lower my body fat percentage, in turn achieving more of a flat belly and lean look that I desire?

Again, thanks very much everyone for the info, it's all very much appreciated!

 

[CJ]

You're pretty light for your height (About 160lbs at about 6' tall for us Americans). You should focus on slowly gaining good lean muscle, and not worry about dropping fat/abs.

I promise you that if you add 20 good pounds to your frame, you'll look 100x better than you would if you just tried to drop bodyfat right now. Say you drop 10lbs of pure fat right now. 6' tall @150lbs looks like an unhealthy starving person. 6' @180lbs looks like an athlete.

Your choice.

 

[Raider]

Just gonna throw this out there. If I read correctly you want to put on muscle and will devote 2 days to weights and 1 day for cardio, perhaps hold off on the cardio and dedicate 3 days to gaining muscle.Just throws it out there. Maybe even get a machine to keep at the house and hit some quick cardio whenever time allows. Just throwing it out as an option, but do what’s best for you my man!

 

[Syd Barrett]

Thanks very much for the replies. I do think I'm now realising more that I just need to focus on gaining muscle with compound movements at increasing weights and my body fat percentage will drop naturally so long as I keep my diet in check also.

Would halving my current abs stuff and doing this last, adding in deadlifts and seated cable rows, working in a 6-8 rep range with 3 sets, and constantly working on upping my weights so I can barely squeeze out the last rep be sufficient?

Or would it be considerably better to do one of the below beginner workouts:

forum.bodybuilding .com/showthread.php?t=159678631
allpro-sbr.fandom .com/wiki/AllPro_Simple_Beginners_Routine_Wiki

I would rather keep things as similar as possible so add to my current workout. Even if it's not necessarily true I'd feel bad not doing my dips/pull-ups/chin-ups I've been working on for mBut if it is truly fundamentally flawed I could just put the effort in and change completely.

 

[Iron1]

Syd, I don't know much about you but I like the way you're handling the feedback you're getting.

Nice work, man. Keep it positive, these guys won't steer you wrong.

 

[CJ]

Don't worry about perfection, a decent program will still be 90%+ good enough.

Dips, Pullups, and Chinups are FANTASTIC compound exercises by the way, and I don't think anyone would say otherwise. If you like them, and they feel good, absolutely still do them.

Rows and Deads are great too. DEFINITELY add in some horizontal rows of some sort, whatever feels good to you, but is still tough. You can never do too many rows if you want to be a strong SOB.

Work on good form, feeling the muscles working, and slowly progressing over time via weight, reps, and/or sets.

In terms of rep ranges, some exercises just lend themselves to higher or lower reps, due to potential joint issues or fatigue under load. I wouldn't do sets of 3 for bis/tris(elbows would blow out), nor would I do a max set of 15 Deadlifts to failure(back stabilizers could fatigue under the constant tension, rounding the back).

Some exercises you'll find that if you go up in weight, you'll lose the "feeling" of the exercise, that you no longer feel the target muscle working, the load gets spread out too much. Not a big deal on pure strength exercises like Squats for instance, but an issue if you're trying to grow a particular muscle(like chest) but can't feel it working(front delts take over). I personally like to use the heaviest weights that I can still feel the target muscles with, whatever the rep range is, it is.

I don't hate the ab work either, if you like it, do it. It's a good warmup/cool down.

 

[snake]

. Abs are a produce of genetics, diet and training in that order.

.

I have to admit that I still did all my abs stuff in full. I saw a few people such as snake mention that "all that extra ab stuff is not really going to do that much for your abs" - can anyone explain this to me?

You did read what I wrote I assume?

My AVI abs are about what my abs are, on average. They get softer when I go up 5-7 lbs and more cut when I go down. I'm serious, my normal ab work is 3 sets of 4 reps once a week. That's all I do for abs but it works for me.

Your time is limited so I would rather see you work on other things that will provide you with more results. And consider putting up a pic. These guys have no idea of what you need without seeing you. Don't worry how you look now because it's not important. How you're going to look 6-12 months from now is.

 

[Syd Barrett]

Thanks again for the really useful replies. I've spent a lot of time thinking about it and I think I will go with the All Pro's beginner routine with a couple of minor changes/additions.

One major challenge would be adapting to a nearly exclusively barbell focused workout routine - when in the past I have used almost exclusively dumbbell variations (DB Bench Press, DB Overhead Press, DB curls etc).

The All Pro's routine and details is here:

allpro-sbr.fandom .com/wiki/AllPro_Simple_Beginners_Routine_Wiki

It involves increasing reps (8, 9, 10, 11, 12) for 5 weeks cycles and upping the weights at the end of each cycle. Some criticism is progress can be slow for beginners - but I'm in it for the long haul. My main thing is finding something that's safe and works.

The exercises are, in order:

1.) Squat
2.) Bench Press
3.) Bent-Over Row
4.) Overhead Barbell Press
5.) Stiff-Legged Deadlift
6.) Barbell Curl (I would do this not the upright row option)
7.) Calf Raises


My changes would be:

1.) I would only do this workout twice-per-week instead of three times but focus on intensity during my sessions. I would still progress in 5 week cycles as instructed.

2.) I would only do the calf raises once per week.

3.) On Day 1 I would add in 2 sets of Pull-Ups, on Day 2 I would instead add in 2 sets of Dips - alternating. So once a week an extra 2 sets of pull-ups, once a week an extra 2 sets of dips. This is because I don't want to cut these exercises out entirely.

4.) I would still add in 1 circuit of my current ab routine at the end of each workout (so half of what I'm currently doing abs wise as I usually do everything twice).

Hopefully the extra pull-ups/dips and extra abs is okay considering I'm only doing 2 sessions a week instead of the recommended 3.

If this looks okay then I think I have a solid plan and my initial question is answered and I can now go forward with my new workout routine for the coming year at least.

Again, if I am wrong, I am happy to listen to any advice and change what is needed.

 

[CJ]

Looks fine to me. One suggestion though, on the double progression model (increase reps each week, then the weight at the end of cycle and drop reps back down). If you find that the weights are easy, it's 100% a-ok to up the weights in the middle of the cycle.

Your strength adaptation should increase more quickly than the 5 week block in the beginning. If you end up using too light of a weight, you'll just be spinning your wheels.

One way to check this, is to take the last set of an exercise as close to failure with good form as you can. If the reps called for 8,8,8,8 but you hit 8,8,8,12, then it's much too light. They were all basically warmup sets.

Ideally, the last rep of the last set should be hard to complete, so your body will adapt to the extra rep the following week.

Also, on Day 2 of your week, feel free to do the exercise listed with DBs, or slight variations in grips. Day 1 can be the barbell day, where you follow the structured progression plan you laid out. I suggest this because you state you love DBs, as do I, and they're very useful.

Good luck, enjoy the transformation!

 

[Syd Barrett]

Looks fine to me. One suggestion though, on the double progression model (increase reps each week, then the weight at the end of cycle and drop reps back down). If you find that the weights are easy, it's 100% a-ok to up the weights in the middle of the cycle.

Your strength adaptation should increase more quickly than the 5 week block in the beginning. If you end up using too light of a weight, you'll just be spinning your wheels.

One way to check this, is to take the last set of an exercise as close to failure with good form as you can. If the reps called for 8,8,8,8 but you hit 8,8,8,12, then it's much too light. They were all basically warmup sets.

Ideally, the last rep of the last set should be hard to complete, so your body will adapt to the extra rep the following week.

Also, on Day 2 of your week, feel free to do the exercise listed with DBs, or slight variations in grips. Day 1 can be the barbell day, where you follow the structured progression plan you laid out. I suggest this because you state you love DBs, as do I, and they're very useful.

Good luck, enjoy the transformation!

Thanks very much for these points, that is an absolutely brilliant idea regarding the dumbbell day! Because I really was a bit worried about moving so much away from dumbbells, so if I do the dumbbell variations sometimes and barbell variations others then I can get the best of both worlds.

Also, that's also a great tip regarding progression. I'll definitely bare that in mind. And it'll really help me to get a feel for if my current exercises are at an appropriate weight also.

Absolutely brilliant advice. Thank you very much for your help.