Retroguy2000 Member

You're right to keep working around it. Warm up the area a bit more than usual too. Try to look for alternatives. Maybe bicep curl is out, but preacher curl may be OK. Maybe bench press is out, but close grip press might be OK. Pullups are out for you, but maybe T-bar row or similar is OK. Etc. Whatever you can do without…

You can probably go as high as 500 daily calorie surplus, get close to 1g per pound bw protein, and follow Dr. Mike on YT at Renaissance Periodization. Watch the playlist on hypertrophy for starters. Focus on compounds, 8-15 reps, with consistency, intensity and progression.

Goblet squat is fantastic for beginners, but for beyond that I feel most people are phoning it in with the low db weight they have available. At that point, switch to Bulgarian maybe. I often use the strengthlevel site for their 1RM estimate. Not that I care about 1RM, but to give me an idea I'm on track with the rep count…

Yes, when I said things like, "if you want to build more strength", I was meaning the general 'you'.

Here's a good example. I've no clue who this guy is, but it's a YT short I quickly found that shows it well. If you can lower the weight (slowly) to the floor, fine. Maybe my flexibility and height works against me for that depth, plus my bar is slightly elevated from the floor by the mats I mentioned (and I also put a 10…

I use that site often, but I've never made an account. Maybe I should. I just have crappy foam squares that I put down as needed. They're better than nothing, and probably the least desirable option. Decent rubber mats would be better for sure. Thing is, if you're doing things properly, you shouldn't ever need to drop the…

Very interesting first post, but I feel it's conflating strength and muscle building a bit. You touch on it when talking about improving technique, and neurons making connections. That's because it's a skill. Strength is a skill, built with 1-5 reps, not to failure. However, you can also slowly grow strength at higher rep…

Nice! How do you get that graph btw, what site/app is that? For squats without rack (that's me too), I do and also recommend: Barbell hack squat. A "forgotten" exercise. Also called reverse deadlift. Bar behind your heels, raise and lower to squat depth, repeat. You'll feel it in your quads, not your lower back. And you'll…

Also your bar should have gaps or notches in the knurling, to make it easier to line up your hands.

TBH, that sounds like the kind of thing that will help you. Free weights builds neuron connections (skill) and stabilizing muscles in ways that machines do not. As Mitchell Hooper said in a recent vid, that's why when people try barbell bench for the first time, they're wobbling all over the place because the brain hasn't…

I guess you won't be getting a tsunami bar then. This bar is more floppy, also 4" longer than a standard Olympic bar, at 90". Bugenhagen here. Look at the wobble on this. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/WvilFiTc3F0

It's a fools errand to try to estimate calories per exercise. For one thing, the app wouldn't know how intense those sets were, how much or how little rest time between, etc. If you go to Exercise and Add Cardiovascular → Strength training, enter total session time, that's a reasonable estimate. For individual lifts, I…

I have heard great things about those grips elsewhere. I just use cheap straps, but it sounds like those wouldn't help you. The Versa's should help a lot. In the meantime, your forearms should bulk up!

@springlering62 Yeah, it helps to do a lot of research for sure. There's significant variety in adjustable db's. As you said, they're not all round weight discs. One of the popular ones is square! No thanks. Some are more resilient than others wrt dropping. Some are going to last longer, due to their mechanical design and…

My mate has a 5ft 1" barbell with screw handles/collars, and he doesn't like it. For one thing, the bar makes more noise when moving as things never get quite flush. And as you said, the extra time too.

If you need a shorter bar, look into an EZ-bar maybe. It's shorter than regular barbells. It's good for arms, and it should be able to hold enough weight to do other things too, such as chest and back etc. Basically the inside hand holds of the bar will be angled for curls etc., and if the outer hand holds are flat you can…

Huh, those are odd bar diameters. I've only heard of 1" and 2". I'm not sure what you mean by "iron with grip". Do you mean the edges have indents or the plates have holes to make picking them up easier? You may want to look into floor options in case you drop iron weights. Even in regular use you should be careful. At…

Congrats on the visible progress. I assume you're going from 1" to 2". This is why I recommend planning ahead, otherwise you can end up essentially re-purchasing weight. So if you're going to get an adjustable db set, make sure they go plenty heavy enough for a long time, and/or are expandable. And don't mix and match bar…

Why no equipment? Get a set of bands. I like my Bodylastics set that I take for traveling and use for a couple of other exercises. Bands are good for upper body, and you can do some stuff for lower body too.

There's no compelling reason to stop taking creatine. If you started taking it recently, it may have added several pounds of water weight. You may also be retaining water because of your cycle. Give it a couple more weeks then maybe lower calories a bit if your goal is to lose weight.

Very generous of you to credit me for what was really a minor contribution, and also all of the initiative was yours :-)

10-12 working sets per week might mean 10 total sets of say squats + leg extensions + leg press in one session per week, or 6 total sets of squats + leg extension done twice per week, or 4 sets of squats done three times per week. I agree with noss that PPL is a poor split if that's over 7 days. Better to do full body 3x…

@nossmf It's already an asynchronous split. Push - Pull - Rest - Rest - Legs - Rest

As a new lifter, you should target about 10-12 working sets per week per muscle group. It sounds like you're maybe a bit short of that, on average. You can still make gains with what you're doing, plus good nutrition and high protein and plenty of sleep and low stress, but more volume means more gains. It also sounds like…

What is a typical day there, e.g. push day? What exercises, how many working sets and reps, and how many reps in reserve would you estimate for each exercise?

BMR is an estimate (based on population statistics) of your calorie burn if in a coma. The Fitbit watch probably over-estimates calories for some activities and under-estimates for others, but sure you could use it an estimate for your TDEE and see how it goes. If you are genuinely about 350 under each day then you should…

After seeing this, I went to the home page here and clicked on the notice for new privacy policy. I scrolled down, saw a couple of places where it said I could customize it with a link to "cookie preferences", which worked as expected. There were also links to opt out of targeted advertising. They worked too. /shrug

You're welcome!

OP, your weight loss and diligence with this is commendable. I'm always second guessing my workout calorie estimations That's smart. It's best to be conservative with those estimates if your goal is to maintain or lose weight. IMO, if you've been doing this for a while like you have, it's best to track your calories in and…

Ann, I think if I'm reading that right, you're essentially saying that people need to balance their activity choices to their goals, so that most of their energy goes to the right places. For myself, I know that I can go for a walk every day and it doesn't impact my regular lifting sessions, which are my priority. However,…