Arkk's Weight Lifting / Fitness Thread

Ossoi said:

Heh, I'm not a new lifter but in my five years of lifting this is my first serious and sustained attempt at eating at a surplus

As referred to above, I've gone through several cycles of falling off the wagon and dieting back down. My only real previous attempts at getting bigger were ended early because I was scared of getting fat

So I feel like I still had some untapped growth potential

I actually went with my online coach because he'd written an article about how trying to gain muscle with minimal fat was a slower way of doing it. I wanted to break out of my permacut mindset and told him I don't care about fat I just want max gains, hence putting the calories up


But like I said you're way out with your 15lbs estimation. 75% fat 25% muscle gain is more into "dirty" or uncontrolled bulk territory. We've increased my calories slowly and I track everything every single day

If from the 19lbs 4 is water then that leaves 15lbs of fat and muscle. Maybe 50/50 split is the best estimate - that would roughly mirror what my Wi-Fi bio impedance scales say, and yeah yeah I know they're not accurate but they weren't that far it from the dxa

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Only somewhat related, but several years ago I saw an article or YouTube video that was talking about the idea of "dirty bulking" being bad and how it may not necessarily be true

Basically, every fitness guru will tell you it doesn't work! But the issue is almost every single one of them has done one. What it boils down to is the question of whether everyone needs to do a crappy bulk where you put on a ton of fat at least once in order to build that base of strength. After your first one, you can go with a more "lean bulk" where you don't put on excess fat. While doing several dirty bulks and then cuts is likely spinning your wheels, the first one may be necessary.

Anyway, you may be right. I thought about your water weight, but didn't say anything. But if you've legitimately got several pounds of water weight on (could be more than 4 if you started up creatine), that would definitely explain some of your weight. But still, a pound of muscle a month is on the very high end of what is possible in someone that isn't completely untrained.

I always go back to the whole, go to the grocery store and pick up a pound of ground beef. Now pick up 10 (or 5 or 20, or whatever the person is discussing, although usually it's on the higher end). Do you really think it's reasonable to put that much lean muscle on that fast? People get depressed about putting on 12 pounds in a year when that is fucking massive.

Anyone have issues/experience with foam rolling causing joint pain? I've been foam rolling as part of my warm up routine since I started hitting the gym again in November and it was working well. It was helping with feeling loose and relieving some lower back issues I had.

I typically stretch and then roll my IT Band, Adductors, Piriformis, Back, Quads and Hamstrings. About a week and a half ago I decided to foam roll my calves. Ever since then I have had some nagging knee pain and I don't know if it's just because I'm in the process of correcting an issue via the rolling or if it's the actual cause of the issue. They were very tight and rolling them (with a knobby roller) is quite painful at the moment.

I squat 3 days a week and this is causing problems because I don't want to have to remove the extra squat days from my program. My legs are far too weak and this was working really well and I was making great progress with no issues until I rolled my fucking calves.

No on foam rolling causing joint pain. I would say you should be foam rolling prior to stretching though.

Where in the knee is the pain?

You taking any supplements for joint health?

matsb84 said:

No on foam rolling causing joint pain. I would say you should be foam rolling prior to stretching though.

Where in the knee is the pain?

You taking any supplements for joint health?

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Not taking any supplements. I guess the best way to explain it is the "top" of the knee closer to the quad. It's not really pain as much as a nagging ache.

I may just need a de-load. I'm hitting it hard 6 days a week and I'm no spring chicken. Plenty of aches elsewhere but those are from old injuries and crop up all the time and I expect that. This is just the first time I've ever experienced knee issues and may be overthinking it.

Top of the knee can be the pcl, which can be caused by overuse. Maybe try icing afterwards and reducing load for a few weeks, see how it feels then. I'll usually get something similar if I up my running too quickly after too much down time.

Why do you need\want to squat 3x a week? Heavy load? Any other leg work on those days? Seems excessive to me, but you know your body. As I've gotten older I take more days off in between working certain muscle groups as I just dont recover like I used to.

It's a variation of a full body 5/3/1 template. There is only one "max effort" day and the other two days only go to 70-80% of training max. My legs are a weak point and need focus. When I started lifting again a few months ago after a few years on and off (mostly off) my squat and bench were even. No bueno.

It's a 3 week cycle of 80% -> 90% -> 95% on the big lifts and 70% -> 75% -> 80% on assistance days over the 3 weeks. Then I increase max by 5lbs on Chest/OHP and 10lbs on Squat/Deadlift and repeat the 3 week cycle.

Monday is my main squat lift day. Wednesday I do box squats at the assistance percentages and Friday I do normal squats at the assistance percentages.

Ossoi learned about back day!

Looks good, really, even if I disagree about a lot of your health choices (primarily the "body change" gurus etc) that is a decent increase!

You still in Keto-land, Khane? Just curious, as it helps define your increases/attempts pretty easily.

5/3/1 broke my body.

Itlan said:

5/3/1 broke my body.

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Were you doing everything?

I did it just for bench press a few years ago and made some insane progress. Kind of makes me want to try it again. I could see doing multiple exercises being brutal though.

The 5/3/1 Forever book has tons of templates and ideas for programs. I highly recommend it as it covers just about anything you could possibly want. I similarly started my year off with a more squat centered program as it is my weak point. It is basically just a 3 day / week full body program. For squats, one day per week is with 5/3/1 progression as usual. The other two days start out with squats using first set last (FSL) weights. This just takes the weight from the first working set for the given week. I do a 5x5, 5x10, or 10x5 with that weight depending on the weight, day, and energy level. Those days are mainly for skill work and some extra volume. Hands down, my squat form has improved dramatically and it allowed me to pay more attention to my lower back and making sure it was feeling solid before going too heavy.

ubiquitrips said:

The 5/3/1 Forever book has tons of templates and ideas for programs. I highly recommend it as it covers just about anything you could possibly want. I similarly started my year off with a more squat centered program as it is my weak point. It is basically just a 3 day / week full body program. For squats, one day per week is with 5/3/1 progression as usual. The other two days start out with squats using first set last (FSL) weights. This just takes the weight from the first working set for the given week. I do a 5x5, 5x10, or 10x5 with that weight depending on the weight, day, and energy level. Those days are mainly for skill work and some extra volume. Hands down, my squat form has improved dramatically and it allowed me to pay more attention to my lower back and making sure it was feeling solid before going too heavy.

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That is the template I am using as a base. Though fuck doing OHP + Deadlifts on the same day. I use a 4 day variation on it now because I tried for the first 2 cycles to OHP + Deadlift on Fridays and that was just madness.

Gravel said:

Were you doing everything?

I did it just for bench press a few years ago and made some insane progress. Kind of makes me want to try it again. I could see doing multiple exercises being brutal though.

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I did a modified powerlifting version. 4 days a week. It was just the high % over time taking its toll.

Hopped on Kizen to help build some work capacity and it's really just blowing my squat and deadlift #s up. Bench is stagnant so I'm trying to approach to it differently now. Going to bench twice a week, one day high intensity (85%+) for doubles or triples high sets, and then another bench session 3 days after in the 70-80% range following Kizen's template.

I'll let you know if i can even recover from it but my bench is just pissing me off so I'm going to throw enough shit at the wall until something sticks.

Khane said:

That is the template I am using as a base. Though fuck doing OHP + Deadlifts on the same day. I use a 4 day variation on it now because I tried for the first 2 cycles to OHP + Deadlift on Fridays and that was just madness.

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Did you deadlift, then OHP?

Squat -> OHP -> Deadlift

It was brutal.

Saw this today and it kind of makes me want to lift something heavy. From The Arnold.


Also, for good measure, The Mountain. Made it look easy, too.

Looks like he finally let himself get a little fat. He always seemed too concerned with staying on the leaner side and the fatter guys like Shaw and Savickas would always take it. He's still the leanest lookin guy at those comps but he at least has a bit of a gut now.

Tuco said:

very impressive!!!! I think you may have inspired me to start working out again.

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why did you stop?