Nutrition issue or what?

[Shadowman82]

I'm wondering what the issue here could be . I am very sore allot and I have dry skin . My gains are very slow . I'm 35 years old , 6'1" tall and I weigh about 175 pounds . I always get at least 1 gram of protein per pound and I have no problem eating enough fat . Calorie wise I seem to be more or less at maintenance as I'm neither gaining or loosing much weight . I only work out 4 days a week but I also have a physical job 5 days a week . My work out routine is fairly similar to Fierce 5 .

Does this sound like a nutritional problem or lack of sleep or what ?

[Heisman2]

How long have you been training, what are your goals, please type out your full training program and a typical day's worth of eating/drinking with calorie/macro counts. Also, how much are you sleeping each night and do you feel well rested during the day? Do you have an estimate for your bodyfat percentage?

[Vandeman17]

Have you asked your doctor?

[Shadowman82]

Yes I have asked my doctor , I do have light hypothyroidism but I take thyroid hormones for that and my most recent blood test says my hormone dose is good .

as far as macros are concerned as I was saying with protein I always make sure I hit 1 gram per pound so that's 175 grams per day . Fat I go for 0.5 grams per pound so that's around 88 grams . Now carbs I don't have an exact number as quite a bit of the carbs I eat are not pre packaged and therefor have no nutritional labels . And I'm certainly not going to put everything I eat on a scale , that's just way too anal . If I had to guess I'd say around 300-350 grams of carbs a day . Seeing that I'm not loosing weight I'm not under eating carbs and 175 pounds for a guy my size is considered normal and not underweight . Body fat I would say could be around 15% . As far as sleep goes I get 6-7 hours a night on work days which is 5 days a week and 8-9 hours on my off days which is the other two days .

My work out program is as follows , I work out 4 days a week . I tend to stay with heavier weights in the 6 rep range

Monday:
flat bench press 3 sets 6 reps
dumbbell kick back 3 sets 6 reps
incline bench press 3 sets 6 reps
some ab work ( sits ups etc.)

Tuesday:
body weight pull up 3 sets of however many I can manage ( around 6-7)
body weight wide grip pull up of however many I can manage ( around 4 maybe)
dumbbell curl 3 sets 6 reps
dumbbell row

Wednesday
seated overhead dumbbell press 3 sets of 6 reps ( I choose seated as the ceiling is low where I work out so no standing press )
dumbbell lateral raise 3 sets of 6 reps
incline bench press 3 sets of 8-10 reps
dumbbell rear lateral raise 3 sets of 6 reps


Thursday
dumbbell squat 3 sets of 6 reps
dumbbell deadlift 3 sets of 6 reps
some ab work
( Now here the program I follow would also have you do leg presses but I do not have access to a leg press machine)

As for my goals I just want to be stronger and have bigger muscles , I am not looking to be a fitness model with super low body fat and I do not plan to enter any bodybuilding competitions .

[CommitmentRulz]

Where do you normally have DOMS?

[Shadowman82]

Mostly on the left side of my body , in particular shoulder and neck . I also have some sore elbows sometimes .

[pinggolfer96]

im hypothyroid and even with meds and the combo of working out and gripping the bars, my hands are always dry and rugged. they never heal regardless of what I do. just is what it is. they get so bad to where they crack and bleed on my knuckles.

[Shadowman82]

Yeah but my hypothyroidism was fairly mild to begin with . I only take 25mg of hormones a day to get to a normal level .

[ErikTheElectric]

I'm wondering what the issue here could be . I am very sore allot and I have dry skin . My gains are very slow . I'm 35 years old , 6'1" tall and I weigh about 175 pounds . I always get at least 1 gram of protein per pound and I have no problem eating enough fat . Calorie wise I seem to be more or less at maintenance as I'm neither gaining or loosing much weight . I only work out 4 days a week but I also have a physical job 5 days a week . My work out routine is fairly similar to Fierce 5 .

Does this sound like a nutritional problem or lack of sleep or what ?

Get your thyroid rechecked.

[xsquid99]

Mostly on the left side of my body , in particular shoulder and neck . I also have some sore elbows sometimes.

I would too if I was lifting that heavy on my curls and triceps lifts. Lighter weights, higher reps for me... My old joints can't take the strain.

[Heisman2]

I see dry skin as separate from the other issues; that is usually easily addressed with standard good dry skin care advice, consisting of:
- daily baths or showers in lukewarm water, then patting yourself dry instead of rubbing vigorously
- using unscented soaps/shampoos as well as gentle laundry detergents
- applying a moisturizer to the body twice daily to any areas where you get the dry skin, including right after patting dry from the shower (ideally within 3 minutes of patting yourself dry), examples of good moisturizers are vaseline, aquaphor, eucerin, aveeno, cerave

You would probably benefit from an extra hour of sleep on weekdays if possible considering you tend to sleep more on the weekends.

Regarding your workout program, it would be better to use a program where you hit each muscle group twice a week. How long have you been doing the type of program you are using, and what weights are you using with the dumbbells for the squats/deadlifts/benching/rows?

[Shadowman82]

I just had my thyroid blood test done early this year ( January) and the results were good so the dose is good for me .

I figure because I also have a physical job hitting each muscle group just once a week should be enough . I mean if I'm sore doing them once a week I would be even more sore if I hit them twice . I think I might have been doing this particular program for maybe about 1.5-2 years . I feel that I was at my biggest muscle wise when I used to work on a pig farm but there I had to wrestle 220lbs animals in and out of pens , scales etc . back then I also used to lift weights but it was pretty random . I guess I got big from the farm labour . I also probably ate more calories , back then I didn't really care that much about eating healthy . I think I also got more sleep and of coarse I was more than 10 years younger . lol

[CommitmentRulz]

I mean if I'm sore doing them once a week I would be even more sore if I hit them twice .

Nope, increased frequency should REDUCE soreness - if it is DOMS.

[kusok]

If I was you I'd not work out 4 days in a row, or even 3. take off Wed and hit gym again Thr and Fri. Or even 3x per week on non consecutive days if still having recovery issues. And use some standard normal routine that is already pre-made and tested out etc. You can also try upping protein which helps with soreness in many people, thou this is anecdotal. Skin-wise, you gotta drink more water, you can try dropping carbs and upping the fat which helps with skin in some people. There are of course other steps you can take, do you live in a dry climate? Then a humidifier in a bedroom may be a good idea, fish oil, collagen etc.

[ErikTheElectric]

I just had my thyroid blood test done early this year ( January) and the results were good so the dose is good for me .

Who's Determining "Good" here?

[Mrpb]

My work out program is as follows , I work out 4 days a week . I tend to stay with heavier weights in the 6 rep range

Monday:
flat bench press 3 sets 6 reps
dumbbell kick back 3 sets 6 reps
incline bench press 3 sets 6 reps
some ab work ( sits ups etc.)

Tuesday:
body weight pull up 3 sets of however many I can manage ( around 6-7)
body weight wide grip pull up of however many I can manage ( around 4 maybe)
dumbbell curl 3 sets 6 reps
dumbbell row

Wednesday
seated overhead dumbbell press 3 sets of 6 reps ( I choose seated as the ceiling is low where I work out so no standing press )
dumbbell lateral raise 3 sets of 6 reps
incline bench press 3 sets of 8-10 reps
dumbbell rear lateral raise 3 sets of 6 reps


Thursday
dumbbell squat 3 sets of 6 reps
dumbbell deadlift 3 sets of 6 reps
some ab work
( Now here the program I follow would also have you do leg presses but I do not have access to a leg press machine)

As for my goals I just want to be stronger and have bigger muscles , I am not looking to be a fitness model with super low body fat and I do not plan to enter any bodybuilding competitions .

That's a VERY suboptimal program. And it's nothing like Fierce 5.

First find a good program.

[Shadowman82]

Well my doctor said my thyroid levels are normal now .

As far as the program goes I did used to do one where I would work out every other day and pretty much hit all muscle groups in every work out but I don't think I gained any more muscle doing that . As far as Fierce 5 goes I think I never did that one because it has too many exercises that I can't do because I do not have the equipment .

The program I'm doing is based on Michael Matthews "Bigger , leaner , stronger" book . I do have other books too though , I also have Arnold Schwarzenegger's book , maybe the programs in there are better ?

[Mrpb]

Well my doctor said my thyroid levels are normal now .

As far as the program goes I did used to do one where I would work out every other day and pretty much hit all muscle groups in every work out but I don't think I gained any more muscle doing that . As far as Fierce 5 goes I think I never did that one because it has too many exercises that I can't do because I do not have the equipment .

The program I'm doing is based on Michael Matthews "Bigger , leaner , stronger" book . I do have other books too though , I also have Arnold Schwarzenegger's book , maybe the programs in there are better ?

Good programs train a muscle at least 2x per week. And doing triceps work before incline bench or doing biceps work before rows is a bad idea.

[Shadowman82]

I think the idea behind the program is that because you train with lower reps and heavier weights training the muscles too often would not leave room for adequate recovery . But yeah I don't do Fierce 5 as it has too many exercises I can't do because I don't have the equipment ( I only have free weights , an adjustable bench and a pull up bar ) . For instance many will have exercises that use that machine with the cables , forgot what it's called but I don't have that .

Maybe you guys can point me to a program/book that uses only ( or mostly only) free weights , a bench and a pull up bar .

[Heisman2]

Do you have a barbell or just dumbbells? What is your heaviest set of dumbbells?

[Shadowman82]

I have just dumbbells . Right now I only have the Bowflex select tech 552 which go up to 52.5 pounds each but I'm planning on getting the Ironmaster with extension up to 120 lbs .