Retroguy2000 Member

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,…

That's good info. What you're doing with the calories and nutrition sounds perfect, assuming you're also getting enough variety and vegetables. Your deficit can be calculated via your weight change, e.g. if you're really at a 300 deficit then your weight should be going down about 0.6 pounds per week. Re the exercises,…

Good catch! I missed that.

Happy to help. Right now I do legs & glutes on Tuesdays & Saturdays, and arms & core & back on Thursdays. I don't know if that makes me over-work the legs and glutes though. That's perfect. You could actually do arms and core more frequently if you wanted, although you don't have to. In general, more working sets per week…

You didn't feel pecs with supinated grip and scoop style movement of arm? Just sitting in my chair here, I can feel it when doing that. Even more so lying flat on bench.

So is that a stack of weight, 10kg each? Stick a pin in the weight you want, that sort of thing? I would suggest a longer term solution is buy light fixed db's or cheap iron plates at 5kg and 2.5kg, and use zip ties to quickly connect them to the stack. 1-5 reps is strength building range. You could do some sets at 5 reps…

You may gain a few pounds of water weight with new lifting. Other than that, your weight will go up in a calorie surplus or down in a calorie deficit, and note that lifting doesn't burn many calories compared to cardio exercise. Unless you're specifically training for strength with high intensity in the 1-5 rep range, if…

Lifting with consistency, and intensity, and progression. Plus high protein. Plus good sleep and less stress. Being younger and a new lifter is relatively easy mode too. Creatine monohydrate is the best supplement you can add.

Ugh, those kinds of trainers suck. I remember Mitchell Hooper talking about how he went from being in the hospital after a gym injury, to deadlifting 265kg (584 pounds) four weeks later, and ofc he went on be the Strongest Man on Earth and has won every major international strongman title, including the Arnold's last week.…

If you're by yourself, no collars and/or safety bars above your neck line are the safest way to do it. People have died by not following those simple safety precautions. The bar can roll on to your neck and without collars, just pushing one side leads to all that weight sliding off. Yeah, you might damage your floor or…

You have low range of motion with a lying on the floor press, especially for the pec stretch. You can do a single arm db press while lying on the bench. Balance shouldn't be an issue with 5kg weight, but if it is, hold the same weight in the other hand. Personally, I think anyone is better off doing both arms at the same…

There are cheap hacks you can explore to add micro weights: Chain. It's as cheap as $1 per foot in our hardware chains here. That plus a carabiner and S-hook is how I made my own super cheap "belt" to do weighted pullups. Wrap the chain around the db handle or barbell handle, and if most of the chain is on the floor when…

Dumbbells: I don't have enough disks to stock them to suitable weights. I could do presses with two 5kg disks in my hands, but that's all I can do. The next step up would be 10kg, and I can't control them anymore Are these loadable dumbbells that you can buy more plates for? If so, buy a set of 2.5's and 1's. Or look on…

I'm able to touch the ground with my feet, but then I arch my lower back. It's completely fine to arch your back. Many would encourage it. Only a powerlifter should do the extreme arch they do though. I suspect that having greater stability with your feet on the floor plus a small arch is actually much better than having…

It's such a low weight to do them well, that it's hard to progressive overload. There's no load on the muscle in the stretched position, because your lower arm is vertical with a relaxed triceps. As mentioned, research shows this is sub-optimal. That might be mitigated with heavy weight, but see first point above. You're…

Your feet should be able to touch the ground? Your thighs can be on each side of the bench which is probably 17" high. Based on your description I wonder if you're pressing the bar quite high up on your chest, and/or with a wide grip. The pecs do arm adduction, so a narrower grip means more adduction, plus bring the bar a…

The advertised "weight" of bands is almost meaningless. For one thing, that (if it's even accurate) refers to the resistance at max stretch, which you're probably not doing. That's not your fault, it's just a comment about how far they can stretch. Consider how much harder an exercise is depending whether you grab the…

Ann's advice about easing into it is spot on. I wonder though, what you actually mean re the weights workouts. Because I'm thinking of a typical lifting workout such as, 10-20 reps which are challenging at the end, put weights down and rest 1-2 minutes, repeat. I'd also note that we're all much stronger with certain…

That sounds good. Although I don't know what zone cardio means. Which zone? The dumbbell weight sounds incredibly light. If the final reps in a 10-20 range aren't slower and harder than the early reps, then it's not heavy enough, and I doubt ~5 pounds is heavy enough.

I haven't used Hevy. I recently started using FitNotes and I like it. It does all that I need, which is track exercises, sets, weight and reps, in a clean and easy to use way.

You can post daily if you want. You can add via Exercise here (adds your workout type + session time + calories to your daily log and database), and then you'll have a record you can easily review. That's convenient to track cardio and weights at a high level. If it's lifting, you can use apps like FitNotes to track your…