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I won a 5 year fight with ulcerated colitis Now i want to get ripped.

Currently I am 165 lbs 15 pounds and been working out for a year and I need advice.

Crashgymrat
Crashgymrat g Ryan Bowns
9 Post(s)
9 Post(s) Gender: Male Goal: Gain Muscle Date Joined: March 3, 2017
Posted

Hello all and thank you for looking at my post

To start things off I will list my goal. gain another 10 or 12 lbs of muscle and lose 2-3% body fat.

My current stats

6 foot tall

165 lbs 

35 years old --> I feel like i am 25 though and act like im 18 sometimes lol

14% body fat maybe 13% I let my porfile pic be the judge 

 

Eating schedule I do IF -helped reduce my stomach issues but I can still eat 2500 calories from noon to 8pm np :-)

My current workout schedule.

Each has a 2 min rest period

3-4 days a week on a day off a day plan

Program A

Incline bench Reverse pyrmid traning after warmup (6-8-12) reps

Military press (8-8-8)

Front squats (10-10-10) Just got the hang of front squats with the ok grip :-)

weighted dips 10-9-8 (same wight usually 45 lbs on a belt)

 

Program B

weighted chin ups ( 60 lbs 6 reps 50 lbs 10 reps 50 lbs 8 reps)

sumo deadlifts 6-6-6

barbell curl 10-10-10

machine cable rows 10-10-10

 

My issue. My upper body is not growing like my lower body. A bro from the gym said I am doing everything wrong since I am not doing a split of bics/tri's on one day back and shoulder on another legs on another etc bascially he is telling me to move to islation movements to get big

My question

Is he right and if so Should I do 4 days a week or 5 days a week

-side note I am natural 

 

 

jorgeegroj
jorgeegroj g Jorge Villarreal
106 Post(s)
106 Post(s) Gender: Male Goal: Gain Muscle Date Joined: January 1, 2017
Posted
Posted By: Crashgymrat

Hello all and thank you for looking at my post

To start things off I will list my goal. gain another 10 or 12 lbs of muscle and lose 2-3% body fat.

My current stats

6 foot tall

165 lbs 

35 years old --> I feel like i am 25 though and act like im 18 sometimes lol

14% body fat maybe 13% I let my porfile pic be the judge 

 

Eating schedule I do IF -helped reduce my stomach issues but I can still eat 2500 calories from noon to 8pm np :-)

My current workout schedule.

Each has a 2 min rest period

3-4 days a week on a day off a day plan

Program A

Incline bench Reverse pyrmid traning after warmup (6-8-12) reps

Military press (8-8-8)

Front squats (10-10-10) Just got the hang of front squats with the ok grip :-)

weighted dips 10-9-8 (same wight usually 45 lbs on a belt)

 

Program B

weighted chin ups ( 60 lbs 6 reps 50 lbs 10 reps 50 lbs 8 reps)

sumo deadlifts 6-6-6

barbell curl 10-10-10

machine cable rows 10-10-10

 

My issue. My upper body is not growing like my lower body. A bro from the gym said I am doing everything wrong since I am not doing a split of bics/tri's on one day back and shoulder on another legs on another etc bascially he is telling me to move to islation movements to get big

My question

Is he right and if so Should I do 4 days a week or 5 days a week

-side note I am natural 

 

 

So, the thing here is, you can put on mass by lifting weights. If you want to put on strength, follow 5x5s or 8x3s or stuff like that. If you want to put on muscle definition and grow your muscle, you can do it by gaining strength, or breaking down muscle (hypertrophy). Where you will want to play with Time Under Tension, Cheat and Recover, and other such schemes. A 4x8-10 rep scheme should help reach hypertrophy if you're doing enough weight.

 

As far as programming your split vs. full body, the full body provides more frequency and let's you get better at some movements. However, the split provides isolation which will help you break down a specific muscle more. That's why full body routines are usually recommended for beginners and splits for more advanced lifters. (although powerlifters and strongmen tend to do higher frequency too, so maybe at an advanced level it's worth checking out different splits or programming differently. The main issue people have with full body routines is that since you're spending time on all your muscles all the time, you can't isolate them enough for growth past a certain point or you might be neglecting some muscle groups like shoulders, or rear delts or lower back, etc. I would suggest a PHUL if you're interested in doing 4 times/week. It does forget a couple minor muscle groups, I can't remember which right now, but it does a fairly good job of covering (almost) everything. I almost went for a similar program a while back but decided to make my own routine instead bc I'm a programming nutcase.

 

Lastly, since you're not natural, I'm not entirely qualified to tell you how your body will respond to any of these, but from my understanding, what works for nattys helps non-nattys too and they can even see better results. So maybe full body is going to work out for you because of that, since you might not need to hit your muscles that much in order to grow. However, I would still recommend the split for anyone tryna put on size. You might want to try a PPL or a classic bro-split like Arms/Chest/Back/Legs.

 

 

Best of luck with your goals!

Frat bro turned barbell boss. Two black belts. (Tae-Kwon-Do and Ai-Ki-Do)
Crashgymrat
Crashgymrat g Ryan Bowns
9 Post(s)
9 Post(s) Gender: Male Goal: Gain Muscle Date Joined: March 3, 2017
Posted

Thank you for the post. I think you misunderstood my post above I stated that I am natural so I am a not sure if a 5x a week program would work for me or not thats all cool

jorgeegroj
jorgeegroj g Jorge Villarreal
106 Post(s)
106 Post(s) Gender: Male Goal: Gain Muscle Date Joined: January 1, 2017
Posted
Posted By: Crashgymrat

Thank you for the post. I think you misunderstood my post above I stated that I am natural so I am a not sure if a 5x a week program would work for me or not thats all cool

DAMN, totally read it as "I am not natural" for some reason. Sorry for the brain fart.

I'm natty too, lol. 5x5 works if what you want is to build strength!

I put up 20 more lbs on my Bench, Incline, BBRow, Deadlift, OHP and about 40 on my squat over the last month with a 5x5 rep scheme. (my squat gains are unheard of, but I was lifting under capacity beforehand so idk how much is actual gains and how much is strength gains I already had but hadn't realized).

 

5x5 as a rep scheme is totally viable, it's just a different focus. With a 5x5 (you have to allow bigger rest periods than the 60-90 second windows from hypertrophy training for the muscle to actually recover), but it will lead to strength gains which will then lead to muscle gains.

(I had never done a strength program before and I'm doing a hybrid now, PPL+some 5x5), and it absolutely works as a natty, it's just a different mechanism to build muscle.

 

As far as how many times a week you work out, some do 6x, some do 3x, I personally do 4-5 weightroom workouts/week + 1 active rest day (pick up basketball) and 1 fully off day. However I do a split so that my muscle is able to recover from the stress of exercising before I hit it agian.

 

 

My routine is:

day 1: chest

day 2: back

day 3: active rest (basketball)

day 4: legs

day 5: shoulders

day 6: arms

day 7: off

 

(sometimes day 5 and day 6 become just one huge arm workout if I don't have the time to do two workouts or I have to move something around due to scheduling) I also train martial arts 4x/week on the side.

 

I'm definitely NOT overtraining the muscle, in fact I sometimes feel like I should be hitting them more often. However, I am going super hard when I train so my CNS (central nervous system) gets fried. This happens every 3-4 weeks, so I take a deload week and start over.

 

I actually made a forum post about it, feel free to check it out. (it's on the "today's posts" tab). But I just want you to know that working out 5x/week is perfectly fine and will totally work, but you have to allow your muscles to rest, which is a huge pro that split routines have over full body and you have to get your diet in check as well.

 

I like to make my routines so that every workout I focus on one muscle group (say chest) and one particular lift (say flat bench). So I'll take Flat Bench for a 5x5 (with a linear progressive overload [adding +10 lbs or +5 lbs every chest workout]) and then do incline/decline/flyes/cableflyes/etc as assistance for that muscle group and that particular lift. This helps me finish off the muscle and build up so that next week I can lift more weight. You don't necessarily have to add weight if you weren't able to complete your 5x5 the previous week (which you should still finish even if you have to lower the weight), but you can try again at the same weight and make sure you get more reps. This makes it so that your body gets stronger and is able to move more weight and then later on you can do bodybuilding with more weight on the bar and thus get better results.

Frat bro turned barbell boss. Two black belts. (Tae-Kwon-Do and Ai-Ki-Do)
Crashgymrat
Crashgymrat g Ryan Bowns
9 Post(s)
9 Post(s) Gender: Male Goal: Gain Muscle Date Joined: March 3, 2017
Posted

Okay I am going to give your plan a try

 

 

jmboiardi
jmboiardi p John M Boiardi
2.6K Post(s)
2.6K Post(s) Gender: Male Goal: Bodybuilding Date Joined: October 10, 2013
Posted
Posted By: Crashgymrat

Hello all and thank you for looking at my post

To start things off I will list my goal. gain another 10 or 12 lbs of muscle and lose 2-3% body fat.

My current stats

6 foot tall

165 lbs 

35 years old --> I feel like i am 25 though and act like im 18 sometimes lol

14% body fat maybe 13% I let my porfile pic be the judge 

 

Eating schedule I do IF -helped reduce my stomach issues but I can still eat 2500 calories from noon to 8pm np :-)

My current workout schedule.

Each has a 2 min rest period

3-4 days a week on a day off a day plan

Program A

Incline bench Reverse pyrmid traning after warmup (6-8-12) reps

Military press (8-8-8)

Front squats (10-10-10) Just got the hang of front squats with the ok grip :-)

weighted dips 10-9-8 (same wight usually 45 lbs on a belt)

 

Program B

weighted chin ups ( 60 lbs 6 reps 50 lbs 10 reps 50 lbs 8 reps)

sumo deadlifts 6-6-6

barbell curl 10-10-10

machine cable rows 10-10-10

 

My issue. My upper body is not growing like my lower body. A bro from the gym said I am doing everything wrong since I am not doing a split of bics/tri's on one day back and shoulder on another legs on another etc bascially he is telling me to move to islation movements to get big

My question

Is he right and if so Should I do 4 days a week or 5 days a week

-side note I am natural 

 

 

As someone older with a lot of training experience, the good news is less is more as you get to 35 and older. At 35 and above, your testosterone and growth hormone levels experience the biggest declines naturally. Obviously thru proper diet and training you can reduce the amount of the decline but you can't stop it. This means for naturals like us you will never be as absolutely strong and recover as quickly as someone younger. Your training needs to account for this.

 

I do 4x a week full body Push/Pull workouts. When I was younger, I did the 6x week "bro splits". When you're younger, new to lifting, have higher hormone levels, and are full of piss and vinegar, these will show consistent results for most anyone. When you are older, it is easy to do too much and spike cortisol levels to the point you don't lose body fat and your testosterone and growth hormone levels take a dive.

 

My advice is workout 3-4 times a week and focus more on compound free weight exercises and supplement with isolation/machine exercises. Eat a wholesome and nutritious diet and get at least 7-8 hours of sleep each night. At this point rep ranges and amount of exercises per body part are not as critical. Go with how you feel and let your body guide you as to the amount of volume you can handle - you will know when you are overdoing it. No need to over-analyze. If you do at least 3 exercises for large muscles and 2 for smaller muscles and keep the rep range in the 8-12 range, you will see growth with proper nutrition and rest. Your peak growth is determined by genetics and as you get older the amount of new muscle you can put on per year naturally is small.

 

The key is intensity - short, intense workouts 60 minutes or less are best as you age. Hours down the gym, especially when natural and older, is a total waste of time and counter-productive - regardless of what the "bro-science masters" say. You can increase intensity by decreasing rest time between sets, doing super sets/drop sets. giant sets, and adding more weight. I am in and out of the gym in 60 minutes and I do 4 body parts plus abs and can do at least 500 - 600 total reps in that time. I then do an additional 10-15 minutes of HIIT sprints 2-3 times a week to get some cardio - depending on how I feel. That is all that is needed when done correctly. I have had the best results with this compared to when I was in my 20's, 30's, and 40's. I am also as lean as I was when I was in my 20's.

 

John

34 years of lifting and nutritional experience and resident "old man" :-) MS Athlete and past Super Hermanite since 2013.
fenrispack
fenrispack g dave kelleher
7 Post(s)
7 Post(s) Gender: Male Goal: Lose Fat Date Joined: June 6, 2016
Posted

Awesome post guys, esp the two views based on age. I'm sure we all appreciate the effort you put into these posts.

jorgeegroj
jorgeegroj g Jorge Villarreal
106 Post(s)
106 Post(s) Gender: Male Goal: Gain Muscle Date Joined: January 1, 2017
Posted
Posted By: jmboiardi

As someone older with a lot of training experience, the good news is less is more as you get to 35 and older. At 35 and above, your testosterone and growth hormone levels experience the biggest declines naturally. Obviously thru proper diet and training you can reduce the amount of the decline but you can't stop it. This means for naturals like us you will never be as absolutely strong and recover as quickly as someone younger. Your training needs to account for this.

 

I do 4x a week full body Push/Pull workouts. When I was younger, I did the 6x week "bro splits". When you're younger, new to lifting, have higher hormone levels, and are full of piss and vinegar, these will show consistent results for most anyone. When you are older, it is easy to do too much and spike cortisol levels to the point you don't lose body fat and your testosterone and growth hormone levels take a dive.

 

My advice is workout 3-4 times a week and focus more on compound free weight exercises and supplement with isolation/machine exercises. Eat a wholesome and nutritious diet and get at least 7-8 hours of sleep each night. At this point rep ranges and amount of exercises per body part are not as critical. Go with how you feel and let your body guide you as to the amount of volume you can handle - you will know when you are overdoing it. No need to over-analyze. If you do at least 3 exercises for large muscles and 2 for smaller muscles and keep the rep range in the 8-12 range, you will see growth with proper nutrition and rest. Your peak growth is determined by genetics and as you get older the amount of new muscle you can put on per year naturally is small.

 

The key is intensity - short, intense workouts 60 minutes or less are best as you age. Hours down the gym, especially when natural and older, is a total waste of time and counter-productive - regardless of what the "bro-science masters" say. You can increase intensity by decreasing rest time between sets, doing super sets/drop sets. giant sets, and adding more weight. I am in and out of the gym in 60 minutes and I do 4 body parts plus abs and can do at least 500 - 600 total reps in that time. I then do an additional 10-15 minutes of HIIT sprints 2-3 times a week to get some cardio - depending on how I feel. That is all that is needed when done correctly. I have had the best results with this compared to when I was in my 20's, 30's, and 40's. I am also as lean as I was when I was in my 20's.

 

John

I absolutely agree with keeping workouts short. It is proven that longer workouts are actually hurting your gains rather than helping them. NOTHING past the 90 minute mark. As far as HIIT post workout, I'm actually against that. I would much rather do a separate time for HIIT. (of course it comes down to scheduling and availability, but when I'm on a cut, I'll do quick HIIT when I wake up and won't work out until late at night. This helps my workouts remain shorter and thus aids my gains.

 

As far as how to train at 35+, I'm not sure because I haven't gotten there lol. I love strength training much more than I do bodybuilding style though which is why I work with shorter rep schemes (5x5, 3x5 + 1x8, etc). I just find way more motivation in lifting more weight than in trying to grow the muscle without gianing as much strength. To me it just seems counterintuitive to build muscle and not strength when I can easily do both (however, I understand that age imposes restrictions, and being 24 is truly a blessing in that aspect, but I hope I'm shredded and huge when I'm 35 so I won't have to worry about it too much).

Frat bro turned barbell boss. Two black belts. (Tae-Kwon-Do and Ai-Ki-Do)
Crashgymrat
Crashgymrat g Ryan Bowns
9 Post(s)
9 Post(s) Gender: Male Goal: Gain Muscle Date Joined: March 3, 2017
Posted
Posted By: jmboiardi

As someone older with a lot of training experience, the good news is less is more as you get to 35 and older. At 35 and above, your testosterone and growth hormone levels experience the biggest declines naturally. Obviously thru proper diet and training you can reduce the amount of the decline but you can't stop it. This means for naturals like us you will never be as absolutely strong and recover as quickly as someone younger. Your training needs to account for this.

 

I do 4x a week full body Push/Pull workouts. When I was younger, I did the 6x week "bro splits". When you're younger, new to lifting, have higher hormone levels, and are full of piss and vinegar, these will show consistent results for most anyone. When you are older, it is easy to do too much and spike cortisol levels to the point you don't lose body fat and your testosterone and growth hormone levels take a dive.

 

My advice is workout 3-4 times a week and focus more on compound free weight exercises and supplement with isolation/machine exercises. Eat a wholesome and nutritious diet and get at least 7-8 hours of sleep each night. At this point rep ranges and amount of exercises per body part are not as critical. Go with how you feel and let your body guide you as to the amount of volume you can handle - you will know when you are overdoing it. No need to over-analyze. If you do at least 3 exercises for large muscles and 2 for smaller muscles and keep the rep range in the 8-12 range, you will see growth with proper nutrition and rest. Your peak growth is determined by genetics and as you get older the amount of new muscle you can put on per year naturally is small.

 

The key is intensity - short, intense workouts 60 minutes or less are best as you age. Hours down the gym, especially when natural and older, is a total waste of time and counter-productive - regardless of what the "bro-science masters" say. You can increase intensity by decreasing rest time between sets, doing super sets/drop sets. giant sets, and adding more weight. I am in and out of the gym in 60 minutes and I do 4 body parts plus abs and can do at least 500 - 600 total reps in that time. I then do an additional 10-15 minutes of HIIT sprints 2-3 times a week to get some cardio - depending on how I feel. That is all that is needed when done correctly. I have had the best results with this compared to when I was in my 20's, 30's, and 40's. I am also as lean as I was when I was in my 20's.

 

John

Hey John,

Thank you for the message.

Some additional back ground on me. I had a testosterone check a few months back and I was in the low 800's with free at 92. Although this may seem high it may be low to my level say back when i was 25 (not sure what it was back then since I never tested it )

As far as recovery I usually go on a day off a day and spend about 80 min total at the gym including stretch time. I am going to try a little more isolation movements and see what the effects are in 2 months time.

Side note i just did Scott's arm workout and I really like it.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5L1bzh8NzE

 

 

muscular strength
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