What does your typical on day look like?

[jjos8]

For those that workout hard enough for folks to think you are fairly ripped what does your day look like on a day where you get to the gym? How do you structure your time so you don't feel like you're being wasteful with your energy?

I workout in the Am and I'm disciplined with my diet, but I get a little impatient and want to workout throughout the day(even if it's just air squats). Watching bodybuilding youtubers I see how they eat and train..do they just snooze the rest of the day or what? lol

I do have a day job at a desk for about 8ish hrs btw.

[EliKoehn]

I would disregard most of the "programming" information that you see on YouTube, as it is tailored for display. The tried and true is what works, but there is a financial incentive to appear unconventional and unique to garner attention in the highly saturated fitness industry.

A variation of emphasis is important, but anything like ~10-30 sets totaling about the same overall intensity, of the major compound lifts in addition to some select isolation work is the core of my training.

[jjos8]

I would disregard most of the "programming" information that you see on YouTube, as it is tailored for display. The tried and true is what works, but there is a financial incentive to appear unconventional and unique to garner attention in the highly saturated fitness industry.

A variation of emphasis is important, but anything like ~10-30 sets totaling about the same overall intensity, of the major compound lifts in addition to some select isolation work is the core of my training.

What are your thoughts on being sedentary the remainder of the day aside from walking to and from snacks, meals etc... how much "real" rest aside from sleeping does the body need to recover is kind of what I'm getting at.

[coachcalande]

For those that workout hard enough for folks to think you are fairly ripped what does your day look like on a day where you get to the gym? How do you structure your time so you don't feel like you're being wasteful with your energy?

I workout in the Am and I'm disciplined with my diet, but I get a little impatient and want to workout throughout the day(even if it's just air squats). Watching bodybuilding youtubers I see how they eat and train..do they just snooze the rest of the day or what? lol

I do have a day job at a desk for about 8ish hrs btw.

Not sure I follow but if this is what you are asking, I prefer to train first thing and then rest eat and grow all day afterwards- My mindset for training has changed alot in the last six
Months to where Im alittle too motivated and do too much. I used to wisely limit myself to 45-60 min but now can easily drive my set count up …12 sets per body part starts to creep to 20 in a hurry.

So for me I am thinking of doing each body part on a timer…sort of deliberately under training my motivation….

To save time in the gym I always superset pushes with pulls and superset bis with tris.

After work, its all family, home, and a nap

[TolerantLactose]

Not worth worrying about.

[EliKoehn]

What are your thoughts on being sedentary the remainder of the day aside from walking to and from snacks, meals etc... how much "real" rest aside from sleeping does the body need to recover is kind of what I'm getting at.

I would ignore all of that and not count anything that isn't part of your training and getting 7-9 hours of sleep a night, or thereabout. We're not that fragile and unless you work a manual labor job, the level of activity in a normal, sedentary life is completely negligible.

[jjos8]

I appreciate the feedback. I'm certainly not someone anyone would call lazy, but feel better knowing other folks who hit the gym hard hit downtime hard as well.

[mdonnelly80]

There are days when I'll hit the weights twice. I'll get my core lifts out of the way at the gym in the morning and then do my assistance work at home at night. That's only when I have a high volume core lift workout planned. Outside of that, I make sure I walk 10k+ steps per day.

[SuffolkPunch]

The simple idea that you need to take each set you do reasonably close to failure will help you avoid wasting effort. Some people don't really know where failure actually is - especially if you are doing high reps, sometimes you can go a lot further than you think. It's worth trying a single set to true failure after a thorough warmup just to give yourself a yardstick.

Then work sets can be 1-3 reps shy of this.

This advice is mainly for hypertrophy. If you are using heavier weights for strength development then (say) doing 1 reps when your max is really 3 is not a waste of time, you'll be learning technique and motor pathways as well as stimulating some growth. But for higher reps, it's more important that every set reaches a high enough exertion level otherwise you could be wasting energy...

[Rsurf72]

I'm currently trying to do a program that works, ideally hit my muscle groups twice a week.

I've just began a push pull
Push- 3 sets of bench, squat, followed by some side lats/tricep type of deal.
Pull- 2 sets of pullups, 3 sets of rows, RDL, reverse flys shrugs 1h row,maybe end with bicep curls.

I try this every other day however it seems I'm not recovering enough, i have been working out a few months now, trying to find a split, eating alot, my lifts are all under 100lbs (bench is 105)

Yet even after a push day my shoulders, lats, so sore I sometimes must give two-3 rest days before my next pull, which is odd because my volume is not super high

I like to hit calf, neck, abs, once in a while too, forearms when my wrist ever heals..

[coachcalande]

I'm currently trying to do a program that works, ideally hit my muscle groups twice a week.

I've just began a push pull
Push- 3 sets of bench, squat, followed by some side lats/tricep type of deal.
Pull- 2 sets of pullups, 3 sets of rows, RDL, reverse flys,maybe end with bicep curls.

I try this every other day however it seems I'm not recovering enough, i have been working out a few months now, trying to find a split, eating alot, my lifts are all under 100lbs (bench is 105)

Yet even after a push day my shoulders, lats, so sore I sometimes must give two-3 rest days before my next pull, which is odd because my volume is not super high

I like to hit calf, neck, abs, once in a while too, forearms when my wrist ever heals..

Recovery =growth

Find your sweet spot. For me, I hit a muscle every four days .

[paulinkansas]

I workout in the mornings, then start my day. I sit at a desk and post polls on the internet. I'm occasionally interrupted by work. In the afternoon I might be mowing lawns, moving or repairing appliances/furniture, shampooing carpets, etc. Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings I have a paper route. I collect green paper from those places I mow lawns.

[Xpiro]

Just eat a lot of food and get a high stim pre workout and you don’t have to worry about it as much

[mdonnelly80]

I feel it's important to have a firm strength progression tied into your programming. That quantitative aspect of training is a great gauge for the overall programming you're using. There's a good chance you're doing things right if you're getting stronger through various compound lift. If you're not getting stronger, than it's probably time to readjust your programming.

I've run across too many folks who feel that I'm suggesting they run a "power lifting" program when I throw this at them, which isn't the case. There are many ways to set up a linear progression that don't involve heavy sets of bench squat, deadlift (etc.). I have an adjustable set of dumbbells and an adjustable bench at home which I now use consistently when I get busy. Here's an example of a dumbbell progression I use for incline and shoulder presses with my little home gym:

I use the same weight for three weeks, all at an RPE of 9.
Week 1: 5x5-6
Week 2: 4x6-8
Week 3: 3x8-10
Week 4: Deload.
Week 5: Add 10 pounds to the weight I used for Weeks 1-3 and rinse, repeat.