feedback on various exercises (bb bench press, bb incline bp, db shoulder press, etc)

[peterm28]

This is a research thread so I request you please stay on this topic. Feel free to write anything about any of the below, but if you want to comment on what I was doing previously there are different threads for that.

Basically, I'm starting out with the exercises that the very famous free coaching app (starts with J) picked for me, then adding a few to it.

I'd love to hear any feedback about what you think of this program. (Please don't post off-topic memes etc, this isn't /misc.)

Here are the exercises the "J" app picked for me:

There are 3 days, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Monday is Chest and Triceps; Wednesday is Back and Biceps; and Friday is legs:

Monday: Chest and Triceps

• barbell bench press (3 sets of 10 reps, 120 seconds rest);
• Barbell Incline Bench press: 3 sets of 10 reps (rest: 120s);
• Dumbbell Shoulder Press 3 sets of 8 reps (rest: 90 seconds);
• Dumbbell Lateral Raise 3 sets of 15 reps, 60 seconds rest.;
• Cable One Arm Tricep Extension (it shows a pushdown): 3 sets of 15 reps: rest: 60 seconds.

Wednesday is Back and Biceps

• barbell deadlift (3 sets of 8 reps, 120 seconds rest);
• seated machine row: 3 sets of 10 reps (rest: 120s);
• Pull Ups 3 sets of 8 reps (rest: 90 seconds);
• Barbell Shrug: 3 sets of 15 reps Rest: 90 seconds;
• Barbell preacher curl: 3 sets of 12 reps Rest: 60 seconds.
• Dumbbell alternate hammer curl: 3 sets of 12 reps Rest: 60 seconds.

Friday: Leg day

• Barbell squat (3 sets of 10 reps, 120 seconds rest);
• Leg press: 3 sets of 12 reps (rest: 120s);
• Leg extensions 3 sets of 12 reps (rest: 90 seconds);
• Seated leg curl: 3 sets of 12 reps, 90 seconds rest.;
• Bodyweight lunge: 3 sets of 20 reps rest: 60 seconds.
• standing calf raises: 3 sets of 15 reps rest: 60 seconds.
• step machine: 15 minutes.

I plan on doing all of these on every respective day, or if I miss a day for scheduling reasons then do them on the next day. If I skip two days (for example if I miss Wednesday and Thursday) then on the day that I make it (Friday) I would do the ones I missed as well as the ones slated for that day. I plan on keeping a journal to track my progress. (What should I record?) I was thinking of recording where I felt sore, which as a beginner I think is a fair indication of what muscles are being worked.

In addition to this basic approach, when I have extra time I plan to add a bit to the above exercises - but without removing anything.

These are the main additions I'm planning on adding:

On chest and triceps day I plan on adding:

• chest flys using a machine
• overhead tricep extensions using the cables
• and using a tricep isolation machine
  
• I plan to use a chest press machine as well, since I can use it safely with more weight than a barbell benchpress.

This day also is a good time for abs since there are no abs or obliques listed in the above program: so I plan on:

• using an ab isolation machine
• do 2-3 sets of 15 reps of a kind of bicycle crunch where I hold weight while doing it
• leg raises where I'm suspended on my arms (maybe 2-3 sets of 15);
• and supine leg raises with some weights on my feet;
• for obliques I plan to add something called the woodchopper exercise described here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAplQXk3dkU maybe 2-3 sets of 15.
• And finally some inclined situps with bodyweight or maybe holding extra weight, I haven't decided.

For obliques I also plan to do 50 twists while just standing.

The biceps day program it came up with includes barbell shrugs but I plan to add:

• I plan to add shrugs with the biggest dumbbells I can pick up, as many as I can do, since that seems a safe exercise.
• I plan to add a bicep isolation machine exercise...
• ...followed by concentration curls, since those aren't listed.

Back and biceps day also doesn't include any pulldowns (just pullups) so I plan to:

• add the pulldown machine, haven't decided on the reps.

• On leg day I will add weights to the bodyweight lunges (i.e. use more than just bodyweight);
• I may increase the stepper machine time, not sure. It's the only cardio listed in the program.
• sometimes I may add wrist curls for forearms. I don't need much weight for this.

I also think that there is room for rear delt isolation exercises but I haven't decided which one: https://vshred.com/blog/rear-delt-exercises/

Any recommendation?

My basic approach I think will be to do all of the exercises that are suggested in the program (don't skip anything), and then to add to them what I think is missing or do some more to failure, when I have time.

Additionally usually when I get home I:

• also use a hand gripper for 100 reps on each hand
• for forearm development, towel twists;

Finally, I plan on doing face pulls with a moderate amount of weight every day, because they are good for posture. There is a video by athleanx that recommends the proper technique, but basically you pull rope on the cable machine with your hands back (pulling your scapula in) so that your hands reach your body line first, not your elbows - this ensures proper form.


There is no stretching listed in my program but regardless of the amount of weight the coaching program recommends, I will always warm up with the lowest weight on each exercise for 10 reps. I never just do an exercise at the suggested weight without warmup.

I plan on continuing to do a few stretching exercises for anterior pelvic tilt (APT), but no other stretching.

For APT, I use the 4 exercises in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjAK8E19T5A - if you don't want to watch, it's

1: Lunge strength
Progression: hands in the air
turn towards leading leg.
2: Butterfly stretch
Progression: slowly lean
forward.
3: Squat
<A Rounded back is ok
without weight>
4: Modified Plank
<Squeeze buttcheeks>

Other than these 4 stretches there is no stretching of any kind (either warmups stretches or stretches afterward), so if you have something you think is important for me to do please let me know.

--

If you see anything you think I can improve about this program, please let me know. Also, if you think any of the exercises I listed that I would be adding really don't do much then you could save me some time by suggesting I remove them.

If you think I'm missing something major that I can add quickly, I'm all ears.

The gym I go to is pretty well-equipped and there are a lot of isolation machines that are not listed either in the program the app picked or my additions. For the moment I don't plan on using any of them.

[air2fakie]

The program with the additions sounds like a "research" driven workout you'd do. Good luck!

[peterm28]

The program with the additions sounds like a "research" driven workout you'd do. Good luck!

Thanks.

If you want to help me tailor my next program: I would still ideally like to continue to cut so I haven't decided what nutrition I will combine the above program with. (surplus or deficit). I think you have a good idea of my goals (basically, get to 12% bodyfat, don't care that much about muscle) over the next year, do you think I can use this program with a mild deficit to get there? Or do you think I'll get there faster if I use a mild surplus for some lean gains first, and then cut? (In which case if I had additional muscle the ensuing cut would be faster.)

also since you're here, thanks, @air2fakie, for your recent write-up in the other subforum collecting my first program, I saw it in the Workout program subforum.

I'm aware I structured my write-ups pretty ad-hoc (very wordy and I didn't really make it as clear as you did.)

I thought your summary with my quotes was pretty fair overall, but I PM'd you a few important additions that you left out (my PM shows unread so I think you didn't read it) One of which I think is crucial - but on the whole I think you collected my quotes very well and I appreciate the work. Thanks for your time!

[WakingOp]

Thanks.

If you want to help me tailor my next program: I would still ideally like to continue to cut so I haven't decided what nutrition I will combine the above program with. (surplus or deficit). I think you have a good idea of my goals (basically, get to 12% bodyfat, don't care that much about muscle) over the next year, do you think I can use this program with a mild deficit to get there? Or do you think I'll get there faster if I use a mild surplus for some lean gains first, and then cut? (In which case if I had additional muscle the ensuing cut would be faster.)

also since you're here, thanks, @air2fakie, for your recent write-up in the other subforum collecting my first program, I saw it in the Workout program subforum.

I'm aware I structured my write-ups pretty ad-hoc (very wordy and I didn't really make it as clear as you did.)

I thought your summary with my quotes was pretty fair overall, but I PM'd you a few important additions that you left out (my PM shows unread so I think you didn't read it) One of which I think is crucial - but on the whole I think you collected my quotes very well and I appreciate the work. Thanks for your time!

Did you just thank him for trolling you? Crystal meth will get you below 12% bodyfat in less than a year if you doubt care about muscle mass

You need to be in a deficit to cut. Idk why that's a question. There's no way around it, you have to spend more calories than you consume.

You need to care about muscle, or you are gonna look like ****. And feel terrible. Your body is gonna start getting rid of all of it as you approach 12% bf. You better build a little extra to make up for what will be lost, then give your body a reason to keep it.

Get a program with a predesignated progression. Eat at maintenance as long as you can still progress as directed. Check back in for further advice when that happens, and we can see where you're at.

The all pro routine is highly recommended for such goals and easy to follow. It's recommended to be run at no less than 2000 calories daily, with a loss of no less than 1 lb per cycle. Which works out to 100 cal/day deficit. It's really unlikely you have a tdee less than 2000

[air2fakie]

If you want to help me tailor my next program: I would still ideally like to continue to cut so I haven't decided what nutrition I will combine the above program with. (surplus or deficit). I think you have a good idea of my goals (basically, get to 12% bodyfat, don't care that much about muscle) over the next year, do you think I can use this program with a mild deficit to get there? ...

I thought your summary with my quotes was pretty fair overall, but I PM'd you a few important additions that you left out (my PM shows unread so I think you didn't read it) One of which I think is crucial

I don't think I can give you any advice that hasn't already been given, or that you'd use in an effective way. But if this helps - if you don't care about muscle, it doesn't matter much what you do for your workout.

In terms of optimism, I genuinely expect you'll be extremely happy with the results of this new workout and feel like you've never looked or felt better.

Please contact my editor-in-chief for any proposed edits to prior posts.

[peterm28]

Please contact my editor-in-chief for any proposed edits to prior posts.

Not sure what this is supposed to mean. As my PM to you is still unread, I've now replied in that thread listing about 6 edits I feel are important. Other than that you did a very good job capturing my "progress or lack thereof". Thanks.

It doesn't matter whether people think you're "trolling" by accurately quoting me; it's great editing and captures most of my program and results. As far as editing goes it's very scientific (srs). Thank you.

[peterm28]

You need to be in a deficit to cut.

right. I can just look at my weight and if it's going up I'm bulking if it's going down I'm cutting.

The only thing is that I'm not that muscular at the moment so I might achieve my goals faster by bulking a bit and then cutting, as you state:

You better build a little extra to make up for what will be lost, then give your body a reason to keep it.

So you think I should bulk right now?

Get a program with a predesignated progression. Eat at maintenance as long as you can still progress as directed. Check back
in for further advice when that happens, and we can see where you're at.

The app I have now does have a progression built into it. It tracks weights.

The all pro routine is highly recommended for such goals and easy to follow.

You mean this one:

https://allpro-sbr.fandom.com/wiki/A...s_Routine_Wiki

?

Most of those 7 exercises are in the program the app assembled for me. Could I just add the missing ones from those 7 exercises, to my program?

I like the program the app assembled for me quite a bit. Couldn't I get the best of both worlds by adding the 7 beginner all pro exercises to it?

[WolfRose7]

right. I can just look at my weight and if it's going up I'm bulking if it's going down I'm cutting.

The only thing is that I'm not that muscular at the moment so I might achieve my goals faster by bulking a bit and then cutting, as you state:


So you think I should bulk right now?



The app I have now does have a progression built into it. It tracks weights.



You mean this one:

https://allpro-sbr.fandom.com/wiki/A...s_Routine_Wiki

?

Most of those 7 exercises are in the program the app assembled for me. Could I just add the missing ones from those 7 exercises, to my program?

I like the program the app assembled for me quite a bit. Couldn't I get the best of both worlds by adding the 7 beginner all pro exercises to it?

No you couldn't.

This is why apps are a bad idea for programming...

I don't like PPL splits like your original post that aren't run twice (6 days) a week.
And most of these I see lack variation of the main lifts and have too much fluff work in it's place.

[peterm28]

No you couldn't.

This is why apps are a bad idea for programming...

I don't like PPL splits like your original post that aren't run twice (6 days) a week.
And most of these I see lack variation of the main lifts and have too much fluff work in it's place.

Definitely true about lack of variation. When you say "fluff work", could you be more specific? Which exercises in the app's recommendation do you consider fluff?

Do you have an opinion on allpro, that someone else in this thread recommended? I think you can see the program here:
https://allpro-sbr.fandom.com/wiki/A...s_Routine_Wiki

(I found that link.)

The thing about allpro is that I looked for, and found, before/after pictures, and they look like this:

https://ibb.co/KxvYs5K (warning: guy in his underwear).

Those comparison pics are 4 months, which is not that long. If you look at his abs he has the start of a six-pack but it's not well-developed; the allpro program doesn't list any ab exercises does it? And also from what I can tell there are no twisting motions in it for obliques?

It also doesn't include any shrugs of any kind, hence he has no traps, period. Correct me if I'm wrong but it looks like I have better traps right now, before getting on a structured program.

So I don't think that I want to only do the all-pro program! I think I definitely want to do more.

what you said about variation is interesting. Not sure how I could work it easily into a structured program, other than the way I was thinking which is just to add some of the above exercises to the structured program the app recommended for me.

What's your program recommendation? How do you recommend getting "variation"?

[air2fakie]

Not sure what this is supposed to mean. As my PM to you is still unread, I've now replied in that thread listing about 6 edits I feel are important. Other than that you did a very good job capturing my "progress or lack thereof". Thanks.

It doesn't matter whether people think you're "trolling" by accurately quoting me; it's great editing and captures most of my program and results. As far as editing goes it's very scientific (srs). Thank you.

Was meant to consolidate info without added commentary from me. But yes, purposely didn't include your underwear or tight pants pics, esp since I didn't open them myself.

Saw your lengthy commentary in your reply to that post but didn't read. Fine by me, add more if you have them.

[peterm28]

Was meant to consolidate info without added commentary from me. But yes, purposely didn't include your underwear or tight pants pics, esp since I didn't open them myself.

Saw your lengthy commentary in your reply to that post but didn't read. Fine by me, add more if you have them.

No I think you have it all covered. The only thing I could possibly add is screenshots of girls opening me or saying stuff about how blatantly attracted they are to me, or I can include matches I get now (just tried it on happn, I had a shirtless pic up there and swiped right a few times now, and just now, literally a few minutes ago I got a "hot" 19 year old and several other "hot" matches.

I want to use this example, since it's a match I just got. But it's hard to tell what these girls really look like because of how filtered it is - her filtered face looks like a paint sample card and her teeth look like a sheet of paper - actually since this has nothing to do with a real face, here is a screenshot:

https://ibb.co/n1qZhdY (typical 19 year old "hottie" matching with me now - but who knows what she looks like without the filter.)

Actually I decided to censor her name and it's hilarious, you can see in the middle of her face where I censored her name with a color swatch, it looks exactly like her cheek or nose, it's filtered so bad.

By the way here's the picture of shirtless me in jeans that she or others swiped right on - I have zero profile text and my face isn't visible, it's pure body:

https://ibb.co/XDygDym

That's literally my only picture, mid-thirties, no profile text. Zero profile text!

People who think that she would have swiped right on 90 day-old me are, well, they're simply just wrong and that's it. She would have swiped left on me 90 days ago. That's not the only information, I have a lot more experiences but I don't feel like sharing everything with the forum.

I should track my hotness scientifically somehow lol. Because that metric was going up and up.

It's really so frustrating when people honestly claim that there is no change or minimal change, when the change to my lifestyle has been so large. I can't stress this enough but, yay, I have sex.

anyway back to working on my next program.

Cut or bulk?

[air2fakie]

The only thing I could possibly add is screenshots of girls opening me or saying stuff about how blatantly attracted they are to me, or I can include matches I get now... I can't stress this enough but, yay, I have sex.

Still not going to view your pics, but feel free to reply to the other thread with whatever pics or intimacy logs you want, but please comply with forum rules and obtain consent as appropriate.

[WakingOp]

Definitely true about lack of variation. When you say "fluff work", could you be more specific? Which exercises in the app's recommendation do you consider fluff?

Do you have an opinion on allpro, that someone else in this thread recommended? I think you can see the program here:
https://allpro-sbr.fandom.com/wiki/A...s_Routine_Wiki

(I found that link.)

The thing about allpro is that I looked for, and found, before/after pictures, and they look like this:

https://ibb.co/KxvYs5K (warning: guy in his underwear).

Those comparison pics are 4 months, which is not that long. If you look at his abs he has the start of a six-pack but it's not well-developed; the allpro program doesn't list any ab exercises does it? And also from what I can tell there are no twisting motions in it for obliques?

It also doesn't include any shrugs of any kind, hence he has no traps, period. Correct me if I'm wrong but it looks like I have better traps right now, before getting on a structured program.

So I don't think that I want to only do the all-pro program! I think I definitely want to do more.

what you said about variation is interesting. Not sure how I could work it easily into a structured program, other than the way I was thinking which is just to add some of the above exercises to the structured program the app recommended for me.

What's your program recommendation? How do you recommend getting "variation"?

Traps- rows, sldl, ohp

Add in some farmers walks/ shrugs as an accessory if you must.

And yeah those progress pics have you beat by a long shot

[peterm28]

Still not going to view your pics, but feel free to reply to the other thread with whatever pics or intimacy logs you want, but please comply with forum rules and obtain consent as appropriate.

I censored her personal info, there's no personally identifying information on her screenshot (I see people posting much more on misc so should be okay by forum rules). But thanks for the headsup.

[peterm28]

Traps- rows, sldl, ohp

Add in some farmers walks/ shrugs as an accessory if you must.

thanks. Do you see anything in the original program at the top of the thread that you consider "fluff" or useless?

And yeah those progress pics have you beat by a long shot

well I could be making the wrong decision but I personally would rather have my current body than his 'after' body. However it's true he made way more progress, since he started with way more fat.

now it's time to take my physique to the next level with a real program