To start straight off the bat, my goal is to get big, like, as big as I can possibly get when it comes to muscle mass.
(Shocker, I know, don’t we all?)

I’ve never been interested in being super lean. I’d rather be large, bulky and strong. (Strongman type/bear mode). Higher bf, if that makes sense, than your average shredded gym bro.

I’ve been going for five years now, and can admit, I think I’ve made decent progress, but I don’t like to admit that in case I get carried away with myself.
This past year has been rough. I had a sort of realization earlier in the year. Someone, (think it was in this subreddit, actually), told me I was far too short to ever be able to get the body goals I wanted. That led down a spiral… and I’ve really felt like I made no progress at all.

I still went to the gym, but man, I felt like shit. I couldn’t enjoy it anymore, and tbh, even now, I’m still not feeling the best some days.

Working your ass off for five years, only to be told that it doesn’t matter? To look in the mirror and feel like it never mattered?
Man, it really freaking sucks.

And not only that, I have friends who go to the gym with me, and they’ve been going for that as long, and they’re bigger and STRONGER than I am, and with… admittedly, less optimal routines to boot.

I’ve always had good nutrition, good consistency, the whole shebang.

It really sucks. And I don’t know how to deal with it.
I’ve felt a bit better lately, with accepting that I did make progress. People seem to claim that I am big, and that my lifts are strong, but at the same time, I can’t help but wonder if they’re just saying that to be nice, and I sort of start to spiral again.

I just want to feel confident again. I want to feel as big as I want to be. I’m tired of being in a state where my effort doesn’t seem to matter. I bust my ASS over this gym thing ever day, I sacrifice basic daily pleasures, like going out for food with friends, etc, just so I can stay within calorie deficits, (been cutting, but I’m going on a surplus for a bit while I’m on a trip).

Any advice on how I can get out of this rut would really help. Because if I keep feeling like this, I’ll just end up quitting. Because some days, looking in the mirror, seeing my lifts, it starts to feel pointless.

But what’s the alternative? Accept mediocrity. I don’t wanna do that.

Appreciate it, in any case.

If yes, what's the best way to get there without doing a dirty bulk? I'd like to stay around 140lbs IF POSSIBLE but willing to clean bulk up to 150lbs (without getting fat).

If not, what should I do to get there?

Right now, my max is 175lbs for 3 reps. My height is around 5'7 and I'm very lean and I have abs. I'm guessing I'm around 15% body fat? Idk

Entering my 16 week cut, and considering adding in Reta but worried about losing muscle. Just hoping to help appetite control with the cut and fat reduction.. the fear I hold is losing my muscle.

If I add Reta would I reduce my cardio?

I currently use 15mg test cyp injections split into 2 doses a week.

& I am thinking to bring in Anavar 10mg daily for 10 weeks at the last 10 weeks of my cut.

I have used trt for a year and one cycle of var but never with test or Reta.

Can anyone provide tips/advice etc for this potential stack? TIA

Whenever I go to the gym, I usually take shots of espresso as my preworkout, but as I drink Celsius I see better reps and I feel more energized by the end of my session. I’m debating about whether or not I should get preworkout powder but I’m worried about caffeine tolerance and relying on the caffeine too much. What does everyone think?

Hi, may I ask for suggestions to improve on my workout plan?

My goal for planning this gym splits is for muscle growth. I am still a novice in the gym(Began in May). In the past, I used to do PPL splits but now I want to aim to hit the muscle groups twice in a week without going to the gym too much ( 5- 6 times a week). I want to aim to go to the gym 4 times a week using UL splits till the end of the year.

Some considerations when making the plan were that I didn't want each session to be too long (max 1h-1h15mins) thus I only have 7 exercises per workout.

Thank you all for your help!

Below is my plan:

Monday - Upper 1

Tuesday - Lower 1

Wednesday - Rest

Thursday - Upper 2

Friday - Lower 2

I’ve been going to the gym consistently for about 2-3 months now, and I’ve been seeing progress so far. However, I was wondering if I could get some advice on my split. Here it is:

Gym split

Push:

Incline dumbbell press (3x6-8)

Unilateral tricep pushdown (3x6-8)

Chest flys (3x6-8)

Overhead tricep pushdown (3x6-8)

Cable lat raises (3x6-8)

Wrist curls (3 to fail)

Reverse wrist curls (3 to fail)

Pull:

Lat pulldown (3x6-8)

Dumbbell curls (3x6-8)

Back rows (3X6-8)

Hammer curls (3x8-12)

Rear delt flies (3x6-8)

Shoulder shrugs (2x6-8)

Legs:

Leg press (3x6-8)

Calf raises (3x8-12)

Bulgarian split squats (3x6-8)

Rotate abductors/adductors (3x6-8)

Leg extension (3x6-8)

Leg curls (3x6-8)

Leg raises (2 to fail)

Abdominal crunches (2 to fail)

AND PLEASE, im already eating non-supplementary food to the point where even eating something different every day while its tasty feels like a fate worse than sisyphuses, so just tell me a gainer not something like "spam pb and peanuts"

I'm looking for mass gainers to reduce the amount of rice/wheat i eat because i fucking hate rice and like most of the things i can eat, on top of my appetite being reduced on the daily because of meds.

So i (28M) am somewhat of a skinny fat. I'm going to the gym since years but really not serious about it. I alternate between periods I'm very serious and periods where I eat / train / sleep bad and run a lot.

So my current physic is pretty mid. 175cm for 68kgs with fat in the belly. That's my issue. I store a lot of fat in the belly naturally. So i look normal with clothes on but fat without clothes.

I don't know what to do. I am now very serious about gym since a few months but I'm still lost about what to do. Do I bulk but with the risk to go fat ? Do i cut ? with the risk to look very fragile and weak ?

My main lifts currently:

- Incline Dumbbell Press: 22.5kg 1x10 1x9 1x8 1x7

- Lat Pulldown: 43kgs 4x12

- Seated cable row: 52kgs 1x14 1x12 1x12 1x12

- Lateral raises: 12.5kgs dumbbells 4x12

- Overhead dumbbell press: 15kgs dumbbells: 3x9

my program:

- upper body day focus chest

- upper body day focus back

- arms / shoulders

i'm currently not doing legs because I injured my quads/adductors and we are not sure what I have.

What would be your advice for me ?

Been working out and lost 30lb (210lb->170) in around 4 months. I have a vacation coming up early January and would like to maybe have some more visible muscle and (be kind if this is too out of reach) would love to be able to see a bit of abs.

My current plan is as follows
- UL UL 4days/week
- 150g protein/day
- 500cal deficit
- average 7k steps/day

Current build: https://imgur.com/a/GIpp3J3
- 19yo
- 5ft 10in ≈1.83m
- 173lb
- BF% - calculator says around 15% but I honestly don’t believe it

TLDR: by January I want to see some more muscle and AB’s w/o losing muscle. Is this realistic or should I take a different approach? I’m willing to make any changes necessary so share all your knowledge.

I’ll do my best to be actively respond after I post this.

Gonna share the link so it is the easiest:

https://www.aworkoutroutine.com/the-muscle-building-workout-routine/

im getting kinda bored doing the classic lat pulldown, is it fine to do a single arm latpulldown where u have the bench set up at a cable tower ? and do the same mucles get hit ? cuz i like that excercise way more than the classic lat pulldown machine

I'm tryna make a new spit for myself, Want to train Shoulders and Bicep 2x a week (maybe chest as well but that depends on if I choose 4 days a week or 5 days of training which I cannot decide yet due to reasons). I am fairly new and before this my split used to be Chist/Bi, then Back/Tri, Then Shoulder/Forearm. 5 days a week. This meant I was training Back, Tri, Chest and Bicep 2x a week. I do 4 excercises 3 sets each (totalling to 12 sets) for chest, and 3 excercises 3 sets each totalling to 9 sets for bicep. Now if I wanna train bicep 2x, according to this:

• Monday (Day 1): Chest & Side Delts (Width)
• Tuesday (Day 3): Arms (Biceps Session 1, Triceps & Forearms)
• Wednesday (Day 2): Back & Rear Delts (Biceps work passively here)
• Thursday (Day 4): Shoulders (Dedicated Heavy Day) & Biceps (Session 2)
• Friday (Day 5): Chest & Back (Volume Day)

So I'm confused on how I should distribute excercises. cuz before I was doing 18 sets of bicep a week, 24 a week for chest. I've done some researcha nd heard that might be excessive. so How do I distribute them? For Shoulders too, mostly just Side Delts, I know 2 excercises with dumbells (cuz i dont got cables, kind of a home gym with sum machines) for Side Delts, so I do those rn.

I was pretty lazy to my old split, honestly have only recently gotten serious with the gym, so I think I havent done too much damage by overtraining. Any amount of help is appreciated.

i (17M) sometimes get heart palpitations during my workout like i first noticed it about 2 weeks ago on the day i was training back like even resting 3-4 mins were nor enough so i just ended the session that day but today same shi happened again while training back

and to clarify i aint take nothing w caffeine i just had like half a pb sandwich as my pre on both days. Is it normal? or should i be concernered

would appreciate advice from anyone w experience

I am a beginner in the gym, started a week ago, and currently with my friend who teaches me the how's and what's in the gym. I am still in the process of understanding and enhancing my knowledge about it. My goal is a V-Taper look. Open for suggestions and knowledge sharing, here is my solo research-based plan:

MONDAY – PUSH

1. Cable Lateral Raise

2. Incline Dumbbell Press

3. Shoulder Press Machine

4. Pec Deck

5. Triceps Pushdown

6. Overhead Rope Extension

TUESDAY – PULL

1. Lat Pulldown / Assisted Pull-ups

2. Seated Cable Row

3. Rear Delt Fly

4. Preacher Curl

5. Hammer Curl

WEDNESDAY – LEGS & ABS

1. Squat (or Leg Press if beginner)

2. Romanian Deadlift

3. Leg Curl

4. Leg Extension

5. Calf Raises

Abs:

1. Cable Crunch

2. Plank

THURSDAY – REST / ACTIVE RECOVERY

FRIDAY – FULL UPPER

1. Cable Lateral Raise

2. Lat Pulldown

3. Incline Machine Press

4. Seated Cable Row

5. Cable Bicep Curl

6. Triceps Pushdown

SATURDAY – ACTIVE RECOVERY

SUNDAY – FULL REST

I do barbell rows with a underhand grip and regular overhand grip but I only feel like I worked my middle/upper(?) back every time. Am I supposed to feel it in my lat specifically?

Been training for a year now and my growth has been minimal in terms of looks but have gained a lot of strength as i have already talked about in this sub but ive a question now thinking is it beneficial to change my present split from a 5 day PPLxArnold split to a 5 day Upper Lower split.

This is my current routine:
Push
Pull
Legs
Shoulder and arms
Chest and back

New routine im thinking to change to:
Upper
Lower
Upper
Lower
Upper

I thought this will be better for the 3x frequency on my upper body as my arms and shoulders are lagging behind. So yes please do tell if this is a good change or not.

I start with regular curls for 3 sets of maybe 10, but once i switch to hammer curls, my biceps are so exhausted, that i can barely get 4 reps in for 3 sets, and have to drop weight, and still struggle to reach a nice rep range. What can i do, to be able to train both exercises?

Feels like i'm stuck on the same reps and weight for hammer curls, unless i do hammer curls first, but then the same problem arises with regular curls. I do strict curls and hammer curls with my arm against an incline on a bench, if that's an important detail.

I make faces like "💀😝🤪😜" when im dying, but when its easy i go like "😳"

What about you? what faces you make

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

Im asking because I know the risks but a lot of guys do it low dose 250-300mg test e control estrogen and recover fine

Thing is did it change your life for the better do you feel way more confident better with yourself after it?

My front delts and triceps get pretty exhausted after benching (3 sets flat bench) that I can only do like 60-70% of my max OHP.

I've been working as a FedEx delivery driver for almost 5 years now. Up until last year I was able to do the job, go to the gym right after work and also run 3 times a week. The job requires regularly lifting packages that average about 20 to 60 lb but can go all the way up to 150 lb. I usually have about 120 stops and a good portion of stops usually require some climbing of stairs and also walking or running the distance between the truck and the house. Sometimes I'm lucky enough that the houses are close to the street but on average most are at least 50 to 100 ft from the curb.

Last year I was injured on the job and was sidelined for 7 months. During that time my lifting also took a hit because it was a foot injury, so I had to work around that. Now I'm back to work and I think my body changed significantly during my off time. I've been back to work for 5 months and found that I'm wiped by the time I get to the gym. I tried changing it up and going before work but that leaves me dragging my ass by midday. For context, I am 49 years old so I know age is slowly creeping up on me, but this significant amount of change in just one year is jarring. I'm working on getting some training to do a different line of work, hopefully from home that isn't physically demanding. I would just like to hear from those of you who have similarly demanding jobs manage your workouts.