Cohiba's Journey from Skinny Fat

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44 yr old male, 6'1" 175 lbs. Goal is to gain muscle mass and cut fat.


I started about the same weight actually, but a high bodyfat % and no muscle definition at all. I will try to post some before after pics.


I've been at it the past year. 5-6 days a week. I have 2 trainers I use periodically. This isn't the routine I started with. I just found that the one I started with didn't give me enough volume and things were spread out, and after a while I wasn't getting sore after workouts.


This current routine evolved out of a shorter one I was doing during hunting season because I deer hunt and that had cut me down to 4 days a week of training for 3 months.


So my goal coming up with this was to hit each muscle group hard with a lot of volume at once to create hypertrophy. It seems to be working. The only problem I am finding is if I do too much sometimes I may need to move things around, for example, if my triceps are still killing me and it is now chest day, I might move up leg day.
 
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Pretty much everything is 4 sets of 12, 10, 8, and 6 reps, and I'm trying to do the last 2-3 sets to failure. 30-45 second intervals usually. I usually spend an hour and a half in the gym. I also do some HIIT before and during my workout to keep my heart rate up and burn some fat. like just a few minutes of jump rope, row machine, or eliptical here and there.



Day 1 - Back / Chest (I sometimes split this into 2 separate days depending on time constraints)


--Back—
Lat Pull Down (widegrip) *or* chin assist
Lat Pull Thru’s *or* DB Lat Pull Overs
1 Arm DB Row
Seated Low Row
ISO lateral row Hammer Strength
face pulls
Reverse cable crossovers


--Chest--
Barbell Flat Bench Press
Incline DB Press
Decline Bench Press
Pectoral Fly Machine
Cable Cross Overs
Reverse Shrug dips



Day 2 - Legs

Squats (3 sets)
Dead lifts (3 sets)
Leg Extensions
Lunges with barbell (40-60 depending on weight)
Lying Leg Curl
Standing calf machine
Seated calf 4 sets to failure at 45 lbs (light for me) focusing on form (like getting real high and low with the ankles), then 4 sets to failure increasing weight 10 lbs each time
Abduction Machine



Day 3 - Shoulders

Barbell shoulder press
DB Shoulder Press
Iso lateral shoulder press
upright rows
Side Lateral Raise
Front Lateral Raise
Rear delt machine
DB Shrugs
Calf Machine Shrugs
Wide grip barbell shrugs (behind the back)
Cable External Rotation (in-out)
Cable Internal Rotation (out-in)



Day 4 Arms

-triceps-
Tricep Dip Assist
Cable Tricep Push Down
Overhead DB Tricep Ext
EZ Bar Skull Crushers
One arm cable tricep push down


-biceps-
Standing Ez bar curl
Hammer Curls
Behind the back cable curl
Concentration Curls
overhand barbell curls
Wrist forearm curls




Day 5 - Core

Decline Situps
Leg Raises
stability ball crunches
medicine ball twists
TRX shit
back extensions
planks (have been avoiding lately)
 
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Also, sometimes I skip the core day by adding in those exercises on other days. This helps keeps my workouts more frequent for the muscle groups I'm trying to target. I kind of go by how my body is feeling, like if legs and arms are sore - I'll do the core day. If nothing is sore, I'll go back into the upper or lower body days and add in some core stuff to those.
 

CJ

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Hard to tell with the limited scope of the pics, but you don't look like you have too much bodyfat, so you might be best served by slowly just gaining good quality weight.

Adding some beef to the frame tends to take care of the problem.
 
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Hard to tell with the limited scope of the pics, but you don't look like you have too much bodyfat, so you might be best served by slowly just gaining good quality weight.

Adding some beef to the frame tends to take care of the problem.

Yeah, I'm probably about 15% bf right now, was down to 13% before the holidays. I do wanna have abs though, and I need to get down to around 10% I think to really have all my abs showing. At 13% I still had a little fat over my lower abs.

My trainer has me on a 35% Protein / 35% Carb / 30% Fats macro split. I'm currently eating an excess caloric intake about 2500-2800 / day. I'm really more concerned about building muscle right now than having abs.
 
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Y'all, I need help with my chest. My bench press is very weak and chest is proportionally smaller than the rest of my body.

I think a big reason for this is that my first routime I ran for 6 mos empasized my back because my trainer was trying to help my posture.

Here is my chest routine (4 sets of each, 12, 10, 8, 6, last 2-3 to failure);

Barbell Flat Bench Press
Incline DB Press
Decline Bench Press
Pectoral Fly Machine
Cable Cross Overs
Reverse Shrug dips (this is new, saw it on a john meadows vid)

Lately I've tried starting with fly and cable crossovers, even adding a few extra sets in, so like 6 sets on each.

Any suggestions?
 

So1970

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I might have missed it how long you been lifting?
 
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Just remember it's a marathon not a sprint it took me years to put on any size work hard eat right and you will realize your goals

So you think my chest routine is ok? I feel like it is because I'm getting DOMS, moderate day 1-2 after. Or should I be killing it to the point where have severe muscle soreness?
 

CJ

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You don't have to get sore to have progress. If you're increasing weight and/or reps over time, you're progressing just fine.

You don't want SEVERE muscle soreness, but a little is ok. If it's too much, it can affect your next workout, and you might be spending all of your time healing, and not progressing.

Fwiw, I think having both chest fly machine and cable crossovers, might be a bit redundant. They're both basically the same exercise.
 

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I don't think you need extreme pain . I would focus on steady progress
 
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You don't have to get sore to have progress. If you're increasing weight and/or reps over time, you're progressing just fine.

You don't want SEVERE muscle soreness, but a little is ok. If it's too much, it can affect your next workout, and you might be spending all of your time healing, and not progressing.

Fwiw, I think having both chest fly machine and cable crossovers, might be a bit redundant. They're both basically the same exercise.

Ok, I'm with you on avoiding the severe DOMS, because when that happens it does affect my routine in a bad way, like I will have to wait an extra day to do my scheduled lift session. I kind of aim for a little tightness / soreness that is gone or barely noticeable by day 2.

I've been trying to increase volume, that's why I added the cable crosses. Any other chest stuff I should try?
 

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