Gym Routine

[villaglint]

I have never noticed a major difference but some days you go the gym and just arent "on". Has this happened multiple times? How big is your sample size!

 

In other news the gym I go to is part of a group of four and you can use any of them. I normally go to the one nearest as it is at the end of my road and usually deserted at lunchtimes.

 

However the next nearest one is the flagship of the group and has just had a £1.2m facelift. It is now blooming enourmous with every piece of equipment you could ever imagine. There are 9 squat racks!

 

It is obviously much busier but because it is so big you can always get on what you want to without any bother at all and there are so many news toys to play with. I feel like a kid in a sweetshop.

Edited August 25, 2015 by villaglint

[Stevo985]

9 squat racks?!?!

 

My gym has one!

[villaglint]

I've never seen anything like it, the gym I used to go to at the end of the road only had a smith machine.

 

Each one of the squat racks comes with four different weights of bars that are all hung up vertically.

[BOF]

My gym is fairly enormous and yet they've managed to fill it with shit.  It has 2 squat racks that are always in use, surrounded by fairly niche shit that is always idle.

 

 

Going back to villaglint's question, I'm pretty much never 100% 'on' in the mornings.  It's varying degrees of failure.  I even struggle to do a full warm-up on the treadmill.  I think it's just that I need to put more time between getting out of bed and going to the gym.  Which goes back to sleeping patterns etc.  I think I just need to avoid mornings which is a shame because the place is much emptier at that time

[BOF]

Oh and I definitely did not tweak my back yesterday and am not now walking around like a cripple for the next week. Nope. No Sirree Bob.  Never happened.

[villaglint]

dislike

[Stevo985]

The long bulk has begun.

I'm on 2 weeks maintenance eating then I'm going to ramp it up slowly until I hit a nice 1lb per week gain. That should hopefully help me avoid piling on the pounds like I've done previously.

Incidentally, since my holiday I haven't really done much back work due to a niggling lower back injury. I've done back days, but they've been pretty light sessions. 
So last week I hit the back day hard again for the first time since May. Felt good, but the DOMS afterwards were probably the most severe I've ever had! It was good pain but it was ridiculous. I was considering calling in sick one day because they were so bad!

 

I've also dropped weight off my lifts to start my bulk, with an emphasis on form. Think I've gotten a bit sloppy on some things (eg dumbell bench not keeping my elbows tucked in enough, lat pull down not keeping my body stationary enough, squats not being ATG etc) so starting from a slightly lower position on most things than previously.

 

As for routine, I'm doing 6-8 weeks of my usual 4 day split. Then, depending on how I'm doing, I'm going to do a cycle of GVT. THen I'll re-evaluate and either go back to my 4 day split or do another GVT cycle.

Edited September 7, 2015 by Stevo985

[villaglint]

How "clean" are you planning to bulk?

I am also on a bit of a bulk at the moment as there is not a holiday in sight. However I'm not being super anal about it and just pretty much eating whatever to make sure I am in a calorie surplus whilst also making sure I am getting lots of protein.

However I know if I did my macros there would be way more fat in there than would be ideal. I'm kind of just thinking that will all be taken care of when I do the next cut whenever that might be.

 

 

[Stevo985]

I'm aiming for very clean.

 

My previous bulks haven't been clean and whilst I've put on a fair amount of muscle, I've piled on the pounds of fat too. I find it makes it much harder to hold onto your muscle in a cut then because you've got so much to lose.

 

So my aim is to keep the calories as low as possible whilst still increasing lifts and putting weight on. Whereas in previous years I've just aimed for 3500 calories and hoped for the best.

[Dr_Pangloss]

How important is stretching? Because stretching before using a piece of equipment can be the difference between you getting it and some other knob going on it whilst you're stretching.

From experience I'd recommend dynamic stretching before big compound lifts. As Stevo says, for other exercises like curls I don't tend to bother, but that's because by the time I get onto isolation exercise I've hit the compounds hard so am sufficiently warm and elastic. 

 

Incidentally I've recently (past 6 weeks) returned to the gym after a long time out of action. Making pretty damn good progress to but can't resist gorging on junk on the weekends!

[JB]

So my aim is to keep the calories as low as possible whilst still increasing lifts and putting weight on.

This. Absolutely spot-on.

I'm not a fan of the typical bulk/cut approach. Unless you're an extreme "hard gainer", an unassisted lifter won't generally see much benefit in going beyond 10-15% above maintenance. For example, my maintenance level is 3600kcal and I rarely go above 4000 per day. A bit of extra body fat is unavoidable but too many guys think that they need to be crushing 5000+ calories a day for their gainzzz and end up getting tubby. The leaner you can stay whilst in a surplus, the easier it is to build muscle. I believe it's to do with insulin sensitivity. The "rebound" phase after a diet is always when I look and feel my best!

[Stevo985]

That's been my mistake in previous years. Just gone for maintenance plus 1000 calories and stuck to it. When you add in it's usually around christmas when you pig out anyway, the additional fat I put on was ridiculous when I think back to it. I didn't really know any different though.

So yeah I'm eating maintenance now (about 2500-2700). I'll ramp that up to 3000 in a couple of weeks and monitor my weight and go from there.

[supermon]

Just discovered this thread, so my routine is:

Mon - Back and Bi's

Tues - Footy

Weds: Chest and Tri's

Thurs - Leg day

Fri - Shoulders and Traps

Sat - Arms day (beastmode)

Sunday - Rest

[villaglint]

I have never really done a bulk before and to be honest I have no idea how I would eat 5000 calories a day unless I hit the kebabs hard.

I'm just trying to keep a bit of a surplus as before I think I have always just maintained really which I think has made it difficult to progress too much through the weights.

 

[villaglint]

Just drove to the gym at lunchtime. Got there and realised I'd left my kit at home.

Muy muy dissapointado.

[BOF]

5,000 calories a day? Sweet Jesus. I'd be an absolute hefelump in a matter of weeks. I've found that my maintenence is about 1,500 calories. Goes back to something JB said in the past where the generic 2,500 calorie intake doesn't reflect everyone. I can quite easily cut at 1,000 and not be hungry.

[Stevo985]

1000 calories a day is mental.

This year my maintenance started about 3000. I was doing 2500 to cut. But then I had to drop that more and more to keep the cut going so I was down to 2000 a day by the summer.

[BOF]

Metabolism innit   I've a very sedentary lifestyle and if I'm not in the gym I'm probably doing nothing at all.

[sexbelowsound]

I'd imagine most people at this stage of the year are going to be bulking.

I'm 6ft 2 and around 195lbs at the moment but i'm only going to raise my maintenance by 100 calories to 2650. I'm of the opinion that a surplus is a surplus and as long as I have the energy to progress in the gym then that's fine by me.

I may even pull my calories back slightly for a week or so if I feel i'm putting on too much. I guess the difference is whilst Stevo for example is aiming to put on 1lb a week i'll be looking to put 1-2 on a month.

[Morley_crosses_to_Withe]

Absolutely agree with what's being said - going massively over your maintenance calories is unnecessary. 

Running a reasonable surplus whilst making sure your body never goes catabolic is a much more sensible approach to bulking.