Weight Gainers: Week 1

Looks good


I should be starting well. Woke up last night at 3am absolutely starving! (had some BSN dessert just before bed too) 3am cottage cheese, natural pb and oats pick me up :P

Nice work YIL..And thanks for taking the time to put this together.. I am about to go train heavy upper in about an hour. I laid out my goals for this current cycle of training. Now the only thing left to do is make it happen and that is exactly what I am going to do.

Charts look great!. It's nice to do this with a team on this site, thanks.

Man I'm off to a rough start...hurt my left bicep after doing heavy weighted dumbbell shoulder presses without a spotter after already being fatigued from my upper back routine on saturday. Had to cut my chest training after six sets today because it started acting up. So I expect not much gains in lifts this week.

Not taking creative or glutamate or any of that stuff at the moment maybe I need to start...

Sorry to hear you are beat up right now. But don't worry about gains at the moment. It is a marathon not a sprint and it is not worth risking further injury. Ice those injuries, that will help.

Wow, that's very interesting. Chest development has always been hard for me. Apparently, I am at ideal weight for my height right now and need to grow chest a bit more to get the %'s for hips and waist right but the others meet or exceed %'s.

using their BF calcs I just got 12.68% which I think is more accurate for me.

Charts look great!. It's nice to do this with a team on this site, thanks.

Man I'm off to a rough start...hurt my left bicep after doing heavy weighted dumbbell shoulder presses without a spotter after already being fatigued from my upper back routine on saturday. Had to cut my chest training after six sets today because it started acting up. So I expect not much gains in lifts this week.

Not taking creative or glutamate or any of that stuff at the moment maybe I need to start...

You and me can start a sub-team... "Team Injury"! lol But in seriousness I know how much it stinks to have to cut down on your workouts cause of an injury. Especially when you just started getting into a good routine and you have goals in mind, and now you can't give your full potential. Sorry to hear about it man... I hope you heal up quickly so you can get back to it.

I just got a knee brace (good googly moogly there are tons of them to choose from!!!) Hopefully I got a decent one. I've been icing the back of my knee and taking advils, but I might go easy on it this week too and hopefully start squats and deadlifts again next week.

In good news though, I've been steadily increasing weight for my bench presses and shoulder presses

I have a mac and can't use excel, can you tell me the ideals a 6 1/8" wrist would give?

Thanks whyflysouth! 27 waist!?! I don't think wrist is a very good place to start, unless I measured wrong, just above the bone, not on it. According to this I have to lose 1.3" off my hips and 6.8 off my waist! My waist is 31.5" which, according to BMI charts, and all my biology friends/doctors is about perfect for my frame.

Ideal: (Current:)
Chest 39.81 (36.34)
Hips 33.84 (35.125)
Waist 27.87 (31.5)
Thigh 21.1 (20.5)
Neck 14.73 (15.25)
Upper Arm 14.33 (13.25)
Calf 13.53 (12.75)
Forearm 11.55 (11)

After testing many body fat calculators that use body measurements, I have around 8-12% body fat... which is a nice increase from the 6% I had in college (an extra credit lab test using calipers and all that good stuff).

Like I said before, I have decent upper body strength for my size, and have scrawny legs. My left side is also a bit smaller than my right. I think I need to find a different set of ideals! My priorities are: calf, thigh, chest, forearm, abs, upper arm. At least this list gives me something to look at, although far from perfect for my body.

How long have you been training for?

edit: at your lifting levels I would be using a full body workout 3 times a week (as I am )

I do this:

Squat 3 x 10
Bench press 3 x 8
Bent row 3 x 8
Military press 3 x 8
Deadlift 2 x 8
Hang Clean 3 x 8

3 mores. More weight, more reps or more sets. (in that order)

If I make the reps then up the weight. If I don't make the reps then add an extra set. Progressive overload

It's been about 8 weeks, initially was mlan attempt at MAX-OT that modified by adding more reps/sets because I wasn't completely convinced that 4-6 reps would be enough put on muscle mass - looked more like a strength building regimine.

So I've been doing something like 15 sets of 6-10 reps per muscle group but only about once a week and you're suggesting to do everything 3 days a week but only 3 sets or 30 reps all together per muscle group... I guess i could try that.

It's been about 8 weeks, initially was mlan attempt at MAX-OT that modified by adding more reps/sets because I wasn't completely convinced that 4-6 reps would be enough put on muscle mass - looked more like a strength building regimine.

So I've been doing something like 15 sets of 6-10 reps per muscle group but only about once a week and you're suggesting to do everything 3 days a week but only 3 sets or 30 reps all together per muscle group... I guess i could try that.

Hey Whyflysouth. Ever tried a power/hypertrophy split? Where you train each muscle group twice a week but one half of the week is lower rep heavier weight training and the second half is more of the traditional BB type of WO. Higher rep ranges ect..This way you can get the best of both styles of training since you seem interested in both.

Haven't tried it, although sounds like something I would like. At this point is might be a good time to switch things up.

One thing that I end up getting fixated is set/rep volume. How many reps should each workout cover in total? 30 reps per muscle group total? E.g. Power workout: 5 sets x 6 reps, Hypertrophy: 3 sets x 10 reps?

Would that be enough? I feel like that wouldn't be enough, but I think I may have gotten obsessed with overdoing it as I've been doing between 90 to 150 reps total per muscle group lately.

btw..yesterday I was able to reach 375lbx5 squats to parallel which beats my previous best from my last microcycle of training and is a PR at my current body weight. Last time I squatted 375lbx5 I was 40lbs heavier. Maybe in the not so distant future I can post up a vid of me squatting 405lbs for the first time ever.

Also I did not get to bed til 1am last night and I am toast today. Had a real bad leak in my ceiling the night before during a terrible all night andday rain storm which had me in anxiety mode all night and got very little sleep. But even so I was able to have a very productive day of training yesterday and that is what matters.

btw..yesterday I was able to reach 375lbx5 squats to parallel which beats my previous best from my last microcycle of training and is a PR at my current body weight. Last time I squatted 375lbx5 I was 40lbs heavier. Maybe in the not so distant future I can post up a vid of me squatting 405lbs for the first time ever.

Also I did not get to bed til 1am last night and I am toast today. Had a real bad leak in my ceiling the night before during a terrible all night andday rain storm which had me in anxiety mode all night and got very little sleep. But even so I was able to have a very productive day of training yesterday and that is what matters.

That's awesome that you got your squats back to 375. I'm hoping to hit 200 sometime in the next couple months :glasses:

Also, your traps pic has me so jealous haha.

Thanks YIL! You are obviously making very good progress yourself. and you are 21 years old and your body is as primed for strength and growth as it is ever gonna be.

Ahh yes to be 21 again... lol. I remember I took up weight training religiously for about 10 months back in 2000 and I put on a good 10 lbs of muscle. That's a great time to get into it, you get good gains at that age - just remember to EAT and LIFT and you'll get there. Unfortunately I had gotten away from the weights for a couple months, came back to them and got serious DOMS from trying to keep pushing the same weight and didn't follow through... and here I am about ten years later :laugh:

What good about doing stuff when your 30 is you're much more patient to wait for results, or at least I am, I have a larger timescale - I can accept that a process can take years towards fruition. My eldest son is 7 years old. I want to be able to challenge him when he's 15.

Wfs I have a friend who got in to weight training at 48 years old. When he began he was obese and in very poor health. Now at 50 he is around 220lbs and has a truely amazing physique and is in remarkable health. So you are still very much capable of getting yourself in to as good a shape as you want.

Here is a sample of what the power/hypertrophy routine may look like. You can design it with the exercises ect..that you prefer. This is just a sample guide that may be helpful..You could also make this a 5 day routine and do your lower/upper hypertrophy training over the course of 3 days not 2.

Monday Heavy lower

Standing calves (As many warm up sets as needed then the working set or sets(this goes for all exercises)
Squats
Deadlift
(4 to 8 sets of static stretching post WO every day you WO)

Tuesday Heavy upper

Bench press
Barbell row
Shoulder press

Wed-Off

Thursday-Lower hypertrophy

Standing calves
seated calves
Squats
Leg press
Leg curl
Leg extension

Friday.Upper hypertrophy

Incline press
seated row
Barbell curl
close grip press
shoulder press

Weekend-off

Yeah, I think I'm gonna take a break from my Max OT mutated routine. I'll give this power/hypertrophy routine a shot. I did a little lifting last night and after about 5 sets my left bicep started acting up again so I stopped there... don't want to aggravate it till it keeps me off the weights for a month or something. In the meantime, I'll take a week off, prepare my new routine, eat, and maybe do body weight squats, pushups, do some light work with some of the dbs I have at home, got a pair of 15s, 20s, and 30s and a bench. Avoid the biceps and I figure it shouldn't take more than a week to get back to normal.