Ive just finished a 5 year transformation from being 270lbs at 5,10 and 39% bodyfat (dexa) to 190lbs with a six pack and went from 14 inch arms to 17 inches. Mostly importantly went from narrow shoulders and flat ass to wide delts and big plump glutes which makes me look so much more aethstic in pants and pants now fit properly.
I tried full body and bro splits and high volume and all the strict programs and it just burned me out as a fat guy. Here is what I did and what I would suggest you do. Starting at a realistic baseline is the key
Key rules
> One upper day a week one lower day a week 3 sets per muscle group with high intensity and 8-12 reps
>Stop training like a powerlifter its a meme just lift like a bodybuilder and progressively get stronger in a moderate 8-12 rep range. Stop thinking deadlifts and squats will do anything magical other than fatuige the shit out of you
>Don't count calories just eat breakfast lunch and dinner and be sensible, you know what that looks like if you are honest with yourself
>Do 2-3 cardio sessions a week keep it fun, don't sick to a solid routine just do whatever you can stick to
>Every 2 months take a week off training for recovery and to allow your nervous system to recover
>To combat loose skin issues incorporate fasting. Cut off all eating at 6pm and don' eat breakfast until 10AM
Sample upper lower
Upper
Incline bench variation 3x8-12
Lateral raises 3x8-12
Yates row 3x8-12
Curl variation 3x8-12
Tricep extension or press 3x8-12
Crunches 3x8-12
Lower
Glute bridge variation 3x8-12
Squat or leg press variation 3x8-12
RDL 3x8-12
Hypers 3x8-12
Calve raises 3x8-12
Cardio examples
Stationary bike (start at 15 minutes work up to 45 minutes
Running (start at 1 mile work up to 5km)
Ball or wall slams (intervals ramp up duration or try to beat slam numbers)
Heavy bag (increase time of intervals or overall time)
Try and get 1g of protein per lb of LEAN body mass. Not total bodyweight.
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Do you still have any love handle remnants noticeable in the 3/4 view or did that start to melt away once you got lean enough? I'm to the point where they're negligible dead on but still kind of visible from an angle
So you only do weightlifting twice a week?
Impresive job-
Yes but its harder than it sounds because every sets is balls to the wall to failure. Progression is once I hit 12 reps on all 3 sets I add weight. Keeps progression rate slow but continuous as i can hit new rep PRs at a certain weight for a few weeks before adding weight.
Hey man nice job,
I'm doing something somehow similar and went amazing the first couple weeks, then the fatigue started catching up to me and felt like shit, I had to reduce cardio to 3 times a week and I'm lifting 2 to 3 times a week, on Saturdays I go hiking and it's the most exhausting day (would hate to drop this, I find it very fulfilling to go and frick around in nature), I'm 35, 240 pounds and would like to lose more fat, I used to just do a powershitter routine and no cardio, got strong but also fat, so how can I recover faster?, take a few days off or reduce cardio/lifting?
Eat nutrient dense meals. Sleep is a huge factor. And yeah drop the days and focus on just making the days you do something count. 3 days a week total but good workouts you enjoy is better than 5 that feel like a grind and you can't stick to.
Biggest issue in the fitness culture is letting best be the enemy of better. A sub optimal routine you can stick to vs the perfect routine you despise is no contest.
Congrats! Some of us prefer being big and lift big numbers, that being said cardio should never be omitted
Great fricking job
>lifting twice a week
sounds boring as frick.
Intense workouts are never wrong.
Started going to gym last week, knowing what worked is super helpful. Thanks bro
No worries man. Remember if you frick up on your diet or skip a workout don't adopt the atitude i made a mistake so i might as well do nothing and binge eat for the rest of the week.
Small continuous steps forward get you there much quicker than a giant leap forward then 47 steps backwards.
As a former fatty I can affirm that cardio is a game changer. Simply no amount of lifting in the world can replace a real good cardio session. Running is the goat, but during these cold months I just hop on the stationary bike for 30 minutes 2 times a week and pedal away. Simple as.
Gratz on the accomplishment.
Been lifting since my teens and never once considered all upper one day, all lower another, just two workouts per week. But I can see it working at the very least for maintenance, you're probably not gonna lose size or strength if you've already built a base. Everybody's different so you've got to go with your strengths and what you can do well/easily. You have a fantastic build, you look like a pro athlete now but you honestly still looked good before, the dadbod dream.
10/10 thread, this is what IST should be about. Congratulations on the accomplishment
>you know what that looks like if you are honest with yourself
Probably the most difficult yet mandatory lift here. Good job.
I get zero results in the 8-12 rep range. High volume (thousands of reps) makes me incredible gains. Check out House of Hypertrophy they have a thing where they talk about rep ranges and how the statistical average only some people fall in, some do better at lower than the average, and others only at much higher. Obviously I only respond to very high rep range.
As for fatigue that is never an issue for me, I have unlimited energy, my body soreness is the only limiting factor.
I do cardio every single day for hours except sometimes I'll do something very insanely challenging and intense and require a whole week of recovery afterwards, like last week I ran up and down two stair cases I think it was like 400 times (did it for 3 hours straight), and did a squat to overhead press at the top with two 30 lb dumbbells in slow motion, and a deep sumo squat no weights at the bottom also slow motion.
After that I couldn't walk for about 5 days. Yesterday I was finally able to walk again so I did a 75 milke bike ride with more than 3,000 ft of ascent and descent. Got these two badges on Garmin.
So you're saying you ate less and exercise more?
That's all it ever boils down to
Yep, add it to the list. Once again one of the greatest natty bodies ever and it is achieved by training 2-3x a week. This shouldnt come out as a surprise anymore but for some reason it does. All the silver era lifters lifted 3x a week, Alex Leonidas build his body by lifting 2x a week. High frequency is for roidtrannies. It's just simply not possible to recover and train 6x a week without steroids. Or well obviously it is but your results will reflect that.
Kinobody too, always preaching 2-3x a week lifting. It really is the ultimate secret to great natty physiques.
I think the biggest thing to realise is mental fatigue inhibits most people from doing so. Overtraining is mostly a mental issue. Part of what makes elite bodybuilders who they are Is that they have a far higher tolerance to mental fatigue along with elite genetics.
It's why they love training in the first place while most people hate it. If you have standard CNS responses trying to train on a high volume split while actually progressively overloading to elicit stimuli is almost impossible.
If you have freak genetics AND you don't get fatigued mentally you can train almost any way and see perpetual gains.
Most average guys would do better doing low volume and low frequency and actually progressing albeit much slower.
impressive
>I tried full body and bro splits and high volume and all the strict programs and it just burned me out
can relate
you are right
>3 sets per muscle group
>tricep extension and bench press on the same day
????