Da_Chozen_Juan Member

Hmm interesting. Were you able to make any sort of gains with your body weight workouts? For example, were you able to consistently add in an extra push up every here or there, add a min to your plank, etc?

School is the reason why my schedule will be hectic for the next 5 weeks. I'm taking a 6 week pre calculus course at my local CC and an online 12 week Kinesiology course at the moment. Both these classes take up most of my time, and getting to the gym is quite hard (Im a mathtard, so I have to devote more time to studying…

My primary goal for leg work is to increase functional strength.

Same here. With back squats, I just find myself leaning forward a bit too much on ascension. I thought it was an ankle mobility issue, but surprisingly I don't have trouble keeping an upright torso in the front squat, which demands greater ankle mobility than the back squat.

Sounds good. I'm not worried about the lesser degree of development of the posterior change from cutting out back squats. The deadlifts, hamstring curls, split squats, and hyper extensions that I do will definitely be sufficient enough in developing the posterior chain.

No wonder my strength was building up quicker than usual. And here I thought I might not even need to bulk because I'm making all these gainz on maintenance haha.

I figured it out using multiple cookie-cutter caloric calculators online. It looks like I'm just going to have to do a bit of experimentation and manually find my maintenance range. Would you recommend weighing In every few days over weighing in at a designated time and day once a week?

Before this morning, I weighed myself around week 4 or 5 and I remember weighing in at 178. I do feel/look a bit more bloated though, for what it's worth.

Same. Jan 1st of 2015 I was 250lb. Now I'm 178. Since you recently started lifting, you can do both at the same time fairly easy. Once you max out on noob gains as I have, the gains will slow down by a lot if you continue to do both simultaneously.

Are you on a bulk, eating at maintenance? I've been lifting for a year (entirely on a caloric deficit) and am able to hit 225 for triplets. So compared to me, your progressing just fine lol.

Your right. I'm going to take the fly's out.

Also I do include the OHP. Read carefully bud. And I stopped doing flat bench because I've plateaued on it recently so I'm trying something different. Hence focusing on incline and decline bench instead for now.

I should've added that my knee caps are prone to dislocate due to previous knee dislocations in the past. I actually stopped doing lunges as well. My knee gave out doing barbell squats a couple months ago so I try to avoid them altogether. On the split squats I don't use drastically heavy weight. In fact, it's a challenge…

I lift 4 days a week so on the 1st off day I simply work on my mobility and rest, 2nd off day I do 20-30 min of hiit cardio, 3rd off day I walk at least 10,000 steps. Don't burn yourself out, include more rest in your program man.

Not exactly. I'm mainly doing an upper/lower split 4 days a week with a primary focus on compound movements with a little bit of isolation work.

I have been training for 1 year entirely on a caloric deficit. I was 250 when I started, now I'm 180 lbs.

That's not a problem for me as there's really no rush, consistency is what matters. How long do you suggest going on a mini bulk for? Mini cut for?

I personally find the leg press to be fairly knee friendly. Oh I see, maybe you flared your elbows out a little too much when you benched?

Yea my situation is a genetic plague that my grandfather passed down to me, unfortunately enough. I actually have heard that unilateral leg work is potentially just as beneficial as bilateral squats. I am definitely going to add those to my program. Are you doing those with high reps leaning towards hyper trophy, or…

No yea I'm sure that's why my knees give out still, due to the imbalance of strength in my posterior chain. I'm going to take a break from barbell squats either way but not DL's (fav exercise), to focus on that. Besides straight leg raises (because I already do them) and FS, what would you recommend to isolate the quads…

I have actually and I absolutely hated them lol. I simply didn't have enough dorsi flexion and wrist mobility to execute them properly. Also I think my quads are way weaker than my hips/glutes which is why I found the back squat somewhat easier than the FS.

I have actually been to PT many times I forgot to mention. It helped somewhat but not so much. Maybe I just need to go back and build a solid foundation.

Thanks to everyone responding btw. I will take everyone's suggestions into consideration as I attempt to improve my squat form.

well I mean I get it- 20 people off the street- but someone who actually lifts I expect would know a little more. Shrug- my expectations are to high it seems. [/quote] I posted this with hope of first hand insight from people who have dealt with butt wink before or tips I haven't previously heard of. Although I don't know…

Of course I have. I have watched countless educational videos from the likes of Johnny Candito, Omarisuf, and many others. I have tried a lot of mobility drills, played around with foot angles, etc. but still find that I butt wink to some degree no matter what I do. It's one thing to learn about these things, and another…

I think my feet are positioned similar to how you perform your squats.

It's nothing bad at all lol. Its just when your butt dips down at the bottom of a squat. Google it to visualize

BTW ON Whey is only 120 cal per scoop w 24 G of protein. Perfect for staying/getting lean and for when you're in a caloric deficit.

Sounds good but remember, protein shakes should ideally be used just to keep your macros on point. You should take maximum 2 scoops a day and get the rest of your protein from quality foods. I recommend standard Optimum Nutrition Whey Protein Isolate (flavor is obviously up to you). Best of luck bro!