Weightlifting for Kiwis - Discussion and support regarding the art of swole

[dick brain]

So instead of just asking for random stuff, try looking into 2-3 exercises for each of these groups

Pecs
Shoulder (include front, rear, and side)
Bicep
Tricep
Back
Quads
Hamstrings

Or just look up a routine instead of reinventing the wheel.

I'll reiterate my position that nobody under 1/2/3/4 needs to be doing more than bench, rows, OHP, pullups, squats and deadlifts unless you're working around an injury or trying to correct an imbalance or something. But I don't know how that translates to machines.

 

[Just Hamsters]

1. you aren't doing any back exercises?
2. at the bare minimum, you should probably have a push pull and leg day
3. make sure you are doing the exercise correct. Prioritize that over weight
4. If this is something serious, find a good trainer to help you figure things out
5. Design your own plan. Don't need to pay for it until you become much better at lifting which it seems you are a ways away from

Are those fly machines good for that kind of stuff?

But no, haven’t been doing back.

Rear flies are good for the rear delts, but you'll wanna target lats, rhomboids, and your lower back at least a little or you're begging for injury. Plus good lats look good on everyone.

DSP's Tax Lawyer gave solid advice, you should try to do some sort of Push, Pull, Leg routine. That way every muscle group gets a chance to train. Compound exercises are your friend.

I do that plus a 4th cardio and core day, but you could squeeze core in with legs or something.

 

[VeteranOfTheRetardWars]

So I’m wondering if this gym routine works. On arm day I do biceps, triceps, shoulders, and pecs. On leg day I do calf’s, whatever all the thigh muscles are, and abs. Should I give my abs and pecs their own designated day or am I good as is?

You’re clearly a bit of a noob, and that’s good it means we can start you off on the right track.
The basics are that we want to hit every muscle, so we make a workout split. You’re doing a bit of a bro-split that’s missing massive areas.
To fix that but still keeping it similar, I would go Shoulders/Arms, Chest/Back, Legs, Abs every day, with rest days wherever you like your rest days. I think of this as the Golden Bro Split, it was the big training split back in the Golden Era and I’m personally a fan of it.
For arms and shoulders, the exercises I recommend are Barbell/EZ Bar Curls and Hammer Curls for biceps, Dips and Overhead Cable Extensions for triceps, a really high Incline Press and Side Lateral Raises and Reverse Pec Dec for the delts.
For chest and back, Chin Ups and One Armed Dumbbell Rows for back, and Bench Press/Dips and Cable Flies for chest. Also, Pullovers. Do Pullovers, they are the best for lats and mandatory in my book.
For legs, Squats and RDLs and Calf Raises.
For the abs, Hanging Leg Raises and Russian Twists are phenomenal. Just finishing off your workout with these and progressively overloading them is the way to go.
For how to progress, here’s the system I really like:

I am a big fan of Double Progression. It's super simple and works like a charm.
Say we are benching for three working sets. Our rep range is 5-12. It would look like this on a program:
Bench Press (100x10, 100x10, 100x7)
So, we just add reps each workout until we hit three sets of twelve with our weight.
Bench Press (100x12, 100x12, 100x12)
At this point, we increase the load. How much you increase really depends on a lot of things, but for our example we will just add five pounds.
Bench Press (105x10, 105x8, 105x5)
We repeat this cycle ad infinitum, it allows for consistent progress week to week. Sometimes I only get one more rep, sometimes I smash my numbers, but the system remains the same and I still progress.
In short, you pick a rep range for your working weight, and once you hit the end of that rep range you increase the weight and just keep going.
The true magic of this system, especially for bodybuilding and general weightlifting, is that you are milking the weight for all the progress it can give you. Rather than chase heavier weights, you outgrow lighter weights.
For powerlifting and such there are different systems, but Double Progression has always been my bread and butter.

Hope that helps some.

 

[Hyper Vigilant Dumbass]

Happy New Years guys. I've been working out forearms and I can tell a difference in grip strength. It's pretty cool.

 

[ducktales4gameboy]

So I’m wondering if this gym routine works.

One small thing to add to VeteranOfTheRetardWars' post (which is v solid; DO PULLOVERS): Lateral raises are important since there's a lot of ways for you to unknowingly offload work you're thinking is hitting the side delts to other muscles and you can get some nasty injuries if they fall behind. Lateral raises are quick, simple and force you to actually use your side delts. You can just leave them to shoulder/arm day or do them whenever; personally I do them almost every session because they work well as a cooldown between heavier exercises.

 

[Helvítis Túristi]

What's a good source of protein(10-20g) that would be a good snack before bed and won't keep me up all night? I've been thinking about buying ricotta or cottage cheese, but I don't know if it will keep me up.

 

[The Stranger]

What's a good source of protein(10-20g) that would be a good snack before bed and won't keep me up all night? I've been thinking about buying ricotta or cottage cheese, but I don't know if it will keep me up.

greek yogurt

I need help kiwis, how do I isolate glutes? I've been doing those glute bridges but I feel a lot of activation in my hamstrings which makes it hard doing on top of the squats and deads I also do. I'm trying to isolate glutes because they've always been a weak point for me and it's especially noticeable when I'm hiking up hill. What do?

 

[QMe7VTb]

Made insane gains in 8 months period, well developed arms and back. Been doing 25kg weighted pullups via belt and chain.
Always hit forearms, rear delts, side delts, triceps and biceps as they usually recover in a day or two. Along either with my chest or legs.
Got fat grips for the ezbar so I can curl 30kgs(15kg plates) + ezbar with them for more forearm growth

 

[Anime Waifu NFT collector]

greek yogurt

I need help kiwis, how do I isolate glutes? I've been doing those glute bridges but I feel a lot of activation in my hamstrings which makes it hard doing on top of the squats and deads I also do. I'm trying to isolate glutes because they've always been a weak point for me and it's especially noticeable when I'm hiking up hill. What do?

If you want to isolate the glutes you should do lunges but with a particular technique:

• Almost all of your weight goes on the front foot, you don't spread the weight evenly among both legs, this ensure the force goes to your glute being stretched.
• You don't take super long steps, you take short steps.
• You stay as upright as you can, you don't lean forward.
• As a general note always do these exercises doing a tripod with your foot, meaning that the weight goes on the top left of the foot, top right and back.
• The growth for your glutes comes from the stretched position that your front leg puts your glutes on, this means that if you stab on a elevated surface on your front foot, like a plate, your stretch more and make the exercise harder.
• I recommend training with myoreps doing all the sets in one leg and then all the sets in the other, this saves time rather than doing one leg and then the other, that gives your legs time to recover, if your cardio can handle it do it that way.
• You can keep the most stretched position in your glute at the bottom for 2 seconds if you want, and you can load with dumbbells.
• It's easy to lose balance with lunges, so you can hold onto something.
• Push your knee a tiny bit outwards in each rep, also if you want to know if you are doing it right to target the glutes you can hold the bottom position isometrically or do half reps at the bottom, your glute should be on fire shortly.

You will barely feel your quads if you do them with that technique, in the other hand if you lean forward when doing lunges and you take longer steps and try to go as knee over toe as you can you will feel you quads a lot more.

 

[overweight]

tried eating the normie diet of mostly normie carbs around christmas and new years
and my body reacted with inflammation, i got legit sick
currently im back to meat and sauerkraut and every day feels like i have grown my bizrps

 

[666NASTYFUCKINGFREAK666]

Only 3 more months until my bulk ends. I feel like a fat fuck.

My arms are fucking huge (probably due to being 200lbs) and the arms on my shirt like to ride up on my arms which is pretty cool.

I haven't gone to the gym in 2 weeks for some fucking reason, tonight will be the night I'll start again, hopefully I skipped most of the NY resolutioners.

 

[FedPostalService]

hopefully I skipped most of the NY resolutioners.

My gym is a nightmare at the moment. I’m in at 6am to avoid them but there’s still a few. Hopefully that will wear off soon.

 

[dick brain]

My gym is a nightmare at the moment. I’m in at 6am to avoid them but there’s still a few. Hopefully that will wear off soon.

>my gym has individual bathrooms/showers with locking doors instead of communal showers
>go to change, it's unlocked
>walk in on fully naked man taking a shit

>a week later
>go to change, now I knock first since apparently NYRfags don't know how to lock a door
>half naked asian woman fucking answers the door

I hate January.

 

[TerminalTryHard]

So I’m wondering if this gym routine works. On arm day I do biceps, triceps, shoulders, and pecs. On leg day I do calf’s, whatever all the thigh muscles are, and abs. Should I give my abs and pecs their own designated day or am I good as is?

My first question is how many days to you work out a week? Do you go to the gym twice a week or do you repeat this multiple times a week?

 

[Soycast Guy]

My first question is how many days to you work out a week? Do you go to the gym twice a week or do you repeat this multiple times a week?

It really depends on when I can. Typically I would say I go 4-5 times a week on average. I do my arm and leg days in cycles. So if I do arms one day, I do legs the next time I go.

 

[thejackal2]

What a fucking shit show the gym is this time of year. 5 freshly hired 23 year old tech bros huddled around a bench or cable machine. One set every 5 minutes per guy. An hour later they've worked chest or lats. Congrats. Working out in groups is such a waste of time. But hey the gym is a Gen z combiner as well I guess.

That and the middle aged "punk" people reeking of nicotine with the trainer just milking that half assed effort at $80/hr. Just put down the cigs it will do more than that pathetic effort on the smith machine.

Anyways, my lifting this year was good. No major injuries other than the usual middle aged muscle strains. I'm not setting any PRs with my injury history and age but I sure am maintaiting some explosion and power. Feels good to be doing a lot of the same metrics as I was at 27, 15 years later now. Body fat is a bit higher, mile time a bit slower, but damn man, could be worse. Really liked my supplements this year, added AKG and taurine to the creatine and cissus. Don't do vitamins beyond that. Maybe when I'm 50 I'll do TRT, but not worth the potential downsides. Well beyond lifting for vanity.

 

[dick brain]

Anybody fuck with rucking?

Aside from backpacking, I used to make do with a standard 25 plate in a regular backpack, but the plate tended to move away from my back and create ergonomic issues. I've been eyeing a proper pack for over a year now, one that's both functional as a pack but can also be loaded with purpose-made plates, and keeps them close to your back, but those rigs are like $300. About a month ago it occurred to me that for that kind of money I can get one of those up-and-over plate carrier (as in body armor) backpacks and some steel core plates, and have a heavy backpack that might save my life rather than a heavy backpack that does nothing. As a Christmas gift to myself I ordered one and some III+ alloy plates totalling around 18lbs for like $320 all said and done. They haven't arrived yet but I'm excited and wanted to sperg about it.

My backpacking pack is often 40-50lbs so 18lbs probably isn't going to do much, I'm probably going to have to figure out an elegant way to add weight, but I'm psyched to have 1) an excuse to ruck and 2) an inconspicuous plate carrier for normie environments. And if a glowie asks why my backpack feels like it has steel plates in it I can just extoll the health benefits of combined low-impact cardio and light resistance training in the form weighted walking until their eyes glaze over.

 

[ducktales4gameboy]

Finally got to the point where my shoulder mobility's back to normal, hooray. Feels good being able to do strict-form benches again.

I hate January.

I feel lucky this year. Since the beginning of the month I've noticed several new crowds of teenagers, a couple tweens and parents, a very flamboyant gay guy, half a dozen couples and a guy with a pretty severe case of cerebral palsy. Out of all of them, the only one who's hit the stereotype is the flamboyant guy and it's only because he fucks around on his phone too much. At least he does it in the hallway rather than tying up equipment. Also palsy guy benches like 275, good for him.

 

[Hyper Vigilant Dumbass]

Bunch of middle aged mom types joined up at the gym I go to. They bring a book while they pedal on the bikes. It's kind of endearing. There's this pretty heavy set guy that joined as well and he was doing squats but didn't go for depth. Good to see someone take control of their life in some form. The only person I can say who's joined recently is this tall bald guy who moans and groans really loud while lifting. I don't mean in a way that's excusable. He does it on every fucking exercise.

 

[FedPostalService]

They bring a book while they pedal on the bikes. It's kind of endearing.

Literally me. Rest day I’ll do forty minutes on a bike either doing Duolingo or with my Kindle.