My Novice 5x5 For Bodybuilders.

[OBigdog26]

all carbs are digested as glucose (blood sugar) so the type makes no difference

I'm following the dietary recommendations of PHD Dr. Greg Ellis for optimal performance and muscle gains. He recommends no more than 15% as carbs and the lower the better and 70-80% fat because this is the primary fuel of the body. Fill in the rest with protein

I actually just reduced my calories because I cant stand to carry over 10% bodyfat any longer. So I cut the carbs out pretty much all the way. Trace amounts coming from eggs, cheese, or heavy whipping cream. My macros are 70% fat and 30% protein. I'm doing a 20% deficit, cut my calories from 3000 to 2400. If I need a further deficit i'll create it by increasing the poundage of my weighted vest walks.

I'm never hungry since fat is so satiating and more energy dense than carbs.

Pretty much my day of eating is like this:
A.M. Weighted vest walk (2 miles on training days, 4 miles on off days)
afterwards: heavy whipping cream or cream cheese
Late afternoon: meat and eggs
Dinner: nice size hunk of meat

70 fat, 30 protein??? That means you don't eat carbs? Dude, that setting yourself up for failure. It will greatly affect your performance. Just saying...

[Jerseylump]

Question: May have been answered but there is a lot of posts to weed through; Is it appropriate to train more then 3 times a week if feeling up for it (on-off-on-off) ? Or is the two day rest at the end of the week vital? Cheers.

[dohste]

Squats, knees, and shoe orthotics?

I've had knee pains in the past, which discouraged me from squatting. They've been fine for a while. On Monday though my right knee started paining me in the middle of a set, which has really discouraged me. In the past I had become accustomed to an almost constant mild pain in my knees (see background below), and used to just work through it till it became too permanent.

Considering that I had prior non-lifting related knee pains, which I originally ignored when lifting. I'm half afraid that the solution to that prior problem (shoe orthotics) may not offer sufficient support for squatting weight. Wondering what the consensus is here on squatting with orthotics?



Background:
In the past I had taken a fairly large pause from squatting at all due to knee pains. At the time though my knee's were paining me generally and it even got to the point were I had a mild pain in them even when just walking. At that point I went to a doctor and physio, who told me that my legs are slightly "misaligned" (in my wording not hers) so that when standing, or walking the angle my knees made was off and that over the years this built up to cause the pain I have.

Their solution were orthotics which I now permanently have in my shoes, and sure enough a month or two after I started wearing the orthotics the knee pain subsided and is now almost never there. I then started squatting again and took extra care to ensure my knees didn't collapse in, which I find is something I do have to focus on. But I started my squatting at really low weights focusing very much on form and my knees and am only now starting to approach my bodyweight with them.

[tmartin89]

Question: May have been answered but there is a lot of posts to weed through; Is it appropriate to train more then 3 times a week if feeling up for it (on-off-on-off) ? Or is the two day rest at the end of the week vital? Cheers.

No it is not appropriate, 3 times a week is plenty with this much volume.

[Bioengineered]

How wide should your grip be in comparison to the rings on the bar?

On my bench press my hands are about an inch and a half inside of the rings. Maybe a little less. I think I have somewhat long arms though, at least for my frame.

[tmartin89]

On my bench press my hands are about an inch and a half inside of the rings. Maybe a little less. I think I have somewhat long arms though, at least for my frame.

So you think someone who is taller should grip the ball narrower?

[Bioengineered]

So you think someone who is taller should grip the ball narrower?

No I think if someone is taller then they will have longer arms which would cause the grip to be wider, if you are trying to get your forearms vertical at the bottom of the lift. Sorry if my example didn't make sense. If you can video yourself, or just take the bar and do your bench press. Look at your forearms at the bottom of the lift and see if they are vertical, if not correct.

I was having a difficult time finding the correct width, so I videoed myself and realized I was too wide. Corrected it and it helped my lift increase. I can't remember what video I heard it from but if you just think about it, to generate the best force to lift the weight your forearms should be vertical because that is where you want the weight to go. If your grip is too wide some of that force is exerted outwards.

[opto2017]

Sorry if this has already been asked, but any of you brahs know how to break through a plateau? I've kind of stalled on the bench press and have been doing roughly ~105lbs for the past several weeks. Last semester is whenever I started lifting, and one of my friends had set me up with a routine where I had worked up to about 105 on the bp, from struggling doing 3x8 with only the bar at the beginning, but I pretty much quit the gym during december because of school and vacations and such.

But since January I've been following this program religiously, and have seen gains in pretty much everything except the BP.

My lifts as of this week look like
Squat 175
Bench Press 105
Barbell Row 125
Barbell Shrug 130
(I do cable tricep extensions) 70
Straight Bar Curl 55
Hyperextention w/ 25lb plate
Kneeling Cable Crunch 100
Deadlift 145
Standing Press 60
CGBP 95

And my stats are I'm 6'1 ~165lbs

Thanks!

[BennettC]

70 fat, 30 protein??? That means you don't eat carbs? Dude, that setting yourself up for failure. It will greatly affect your performance. Just saying...

my performance is better than ever actually

[joshwah]

Can someone post me a vid of proper barbell row form?

I feel that now I've increased the weight to 155 my form might be off.

Also @BennettC so you doing keto essentially?

I'd die without carbs.

[BennettC]

Damn I was having trouble getting enough calories into my body , metabolism is full on now earing bout 3000 calories a day so

I just bought some 4D Lean Mass Gainer . 59 grams of protein , 1000 calories per serving .

That should get me to 4-5000 a day , Im going to grow HUGE !

Currently around 200 pounds , Im hoping to put on about 50 pounds in the next 1-2 years before I start cutting .

sounds like you would benefit a lot from the book Brad Pilon just put out. why would you wwant to "bulk up" to 250lbs and be a fatass who doesn't even look like he lifts. and if i had to take a wild guess you prolly aint too lean at 200lbs either

[BennettC]

Can someone post me a vid of proper barbell row form?

I feel that now I've increased the weight to 155 my form might be off.

Also @BennettC so you doing keto essentially?

I'd die without carbs.

yes I like to refer to myself as the modern day carnivore. carbs make me feel lethargic and id much rather just eat more meat. Dr. Ellis says you don't need to go ridiculously low to get the benefits and anywhere from 60-100 grams does wonders.

for me zero carbs is optimizing the process and i'm never hungry which is a good thing for someone who was once obese. from my research in the long run one could posses 10lbs more mucle and 10lbs less fat by going VLC. thats very significant

[BennettC]

Squats, knees, and shoe orthotics?

I've had knee pains in the past, which discouraged me from squatting. They've been fine for a while. On Monday though my right knee started paining me in the middle of a set, which has really discouraged me. In the past I had become accustomed to an almost constant mild pain in my knees (see background below), and used to just work through it till it became too permanent.

Considering that I had prior non-lifting related knee pains, which I originally ignored when lifting. I'm half afraid that the solution to that prior problem (shoe orthotics) may not offer sufficient support for squatting weight. Wondering what the consensus is here on squatting with orthotics?



Background:
In the past I had taken a fairly large pause from squatting at all due to knee pains. At the time though my knee's were paining me generally and it even got to the point were I had a mild pain in them even when just walking. At that point I went to a doctor and physio, who told me that my legs are slightly "misaligned" (in my wording not hers) so that when standing, or walking the angle my knees made was off and that over the years this built up to cause the pain I have.

Their solution were orthotics which I now permanently have in my shoes, and sure enough a month or two after I started wearing the orthotics the knee pain subsided and is now almost never there. I then started squatting again and took extra care to ensure my knees didn't collapse in, which I find is something I do have to focus on. But I started my squatting at really low weights focusing very much on form and my knees and am only now starting to approach my bodyweight with them.

i would suggest you make sure you are squatting "ass to grass". also a lot of the time now i take my shoes off when i squat and deadlift and it seems to help me overall with the lifts

[stuntmanhy]

How the fuk do you do a kneeling cable crunch without farting?!

[missladyj]

How the fuk do you do a kneeling cable crunch without farting?!

lolol!!

[brucedelaney]

How the fuk do you do a kneeling cable crunch without farting?!

Sounds like a dietary issue to me...

[OBigdog26]

my performance is better than ever actually

Interesting. Gonna have to do a little research on that when I start cutting. For now, gonna enjoy my 360-400 gms of CHO on a daily!!

[WhiskeyRitalin]

That doesn't tell us ****. Find your maintenance calories. Calculate you protein, CHO, fats. If you want to put on mass, eat 250-500 calorie surplus. Increase slowly to minimize fat gain. You can't out train bad nutrition.

The calories calculators are absolute jokes. There's no way my maintenance is 2753 Calories. I eat about 2,000 I should be losing weight like anything right now.

Can you give me a good online calculator? (although it appears everyone i've tried so far has been terribly unreliable.)

[Grailer]

Any reason why benching 2x a week every week would be bad idea?

[tmartin89]

Any reason why benching 2x a week every week would be bad idea?

Your benching 3 times a week on this program.

[brucedelaney]

Your benching 3 times a week on this program.

^^^ This and repped

[Grailer]

Your benching 3 times a week on this program.

ok awesome , going to switch CGBP for just BP 5x5 3 times a week , thanks and repped .

[lrd3]

ok awesome , going to switch CGBP for just BP 5x5 3 times a week , thanks and repped .

go back to bed....... there grown folks talking now..........
did you start your own thread yet??????????
i would rep you = but i'm on spread with you.........

[tmartin89]

ok awesome , going to switch CGBP for just BP 5x5 3 times a week , thanks and repped .

That was counting CGBP. But sure, looks good.

[BuffMaltese]

Switched to Box Squats today because I was starting to notice my form was **** during my regular squatting, even with warm up weights and I was just going to end up hurting myself adding 5 lbs every workout. What is giving me trouble with my squats are flexibility issues, subconscious fear of falling backwards (leaning forward/knees in front of feet), weak hamstrings..etc.
Anyway, big difference with the box. Form looks so much better and I felt the lift so much more in the back of my legs versus feeling like its all quads. They were very challenging and I only had to take 20 lbs off from my last normal squat workout.

Now I'm starting to notice that I don't think I can do deadlifts with proper form once again due to flexibility issues. I can't keep from rounding my back at the bottom of my starting stance.
Is the answer to put a 45 lbs weight (or two) on the floor to raise the barbell off the round a few more inches so I don't have to bend over as far??? Thus keeping my back straight. I'm really new to deadlifting and I'm up to 175 lbs today and just concerned about throwing my back out.
Also, is it common to "bang up" your shins and lower legs trying to keep that bar close to the body?

Going just keep stretching on a daily basis.

[justdoit40]

Switched to Box Squats today because I was starting to notice my form was **** during my regular squatting, even with warm up weights and I was just going to end up hurting myself adding 5 lbs every workout. What is giving me trouble with my squats are flexibility issues, subconscious fear of falling backwards (leaning forward/knees in front of feet), weak hamstrings..etc.
Anyway, big difference with the box. Form looks so much better and I felt the lift so much more in the back of my legs versus feeling like its all quads. They were very challenging and I only had to take 20 lbs off from my last normal squat workout.

Now I'm starting to notice that I don't think I can do deadlifts with proper form once again due to flexibility issues. I can't keep from rounding my back at the bottom of my starting stance.
Is the answer to put a 45 lbs weight (or two) on the floor to raise the barbell off the round a few more inches so I don't have to bend over as far??? Thus keeping my back straight. I'm really new to deadlifting and I'm up to 175 lbs today and just concerned about throwing my back out.
Also, is it common to "bang up" your shins and lower legs trying to keep that bar close to the body?

Going just keep stretching on a daily basis.

If you aren't flexible enough to properly perform a squat or a deadlift you don't have any buisness in the weight room yet.

[Grailer]

That was counting CGBP. But sure, looks good.

Oh , no worries I wasnt really too worried about working my triceps , more interested in getting to 225 bench .

And the beauty of having home gym is that right now as I type im on 3rd set of bench and for some weird reason the 2nd set was alot easier than the first .

[mattc90]

Ok so I have finished my first week on this progarm and its great. Couple of questions though can you change the shoulder shrugs to a different shoulder workout? And is the two days of rest really essential I feel like going to the gym and hitting some weights up..

[JedDaIron]

Does bent over row have any carry over to pullups? I row 145x5 and can only do 3 straight pullups

[Grailer]

Switched to Box Squats today because I was starting to notice my form was **** during my regular squatting, even with warm up weights and I was just going to end up hurting myself adding 5 lbs every workout. What is giving me trouble with my squats are flexibility issues, subconscious fear of falling backwards (leaning forward/knees in front of feet), weak hamstrings..etc.
Anyway, big difference with the box. Form looks so much better and I felt the lift so much more in the back of my legs versus feeling like its all quads. They were very challenging and I only had to take 20 lbs off from my last normal squat workout.

Now I'm starting to notice that I don't think I can do deadlifts with proper form once again due to flexibility issues. I can't keep from rounding my back at the bottom of my starting stance.
Is the answer to put a 45 lbs weight (or two) on the floor to raise the barbell off the round a few more inches so I don't have to bend over as far??? Thus keeping my back straight. I'm really new to deadlifting and I'm up to 175 lbs today and just concerned about throwing my back out.
Also, is it common to "bang up" your shins and lower legs trying to keep that bar close to the body?

Going just keep stretching on a daily basis.

Stick to bar or even just no weight at all on squats until you are comfortable doing them IMO , same with deadlift , the risk on injury is high if your form is bad on those 2 lifts, espeically deadlifts