Originally Posted by
rmifaabsbb
Hello Rip,
It's been two months, I feel great, I am stronger, I look better. This is working, and for the first time I feel like I belong at the gym, compared to past <1 month attempts, when I hated going each single time. I don't want to get overconfident though, so I want to kind of present what I'm learned as an average Joe, hoping that there are no pitfalls in my knowledge or mindset. Also my goals are: Build lower body strength with squats, eventually move to exclusively weighted bodyweight exercises for upper body. I basically want to be impressive above the bar, and below it. Also Stats:
Bodyweight: 79KG
Height: 181cm (6ft?)
Squats: 40KG => 80KG
OHP: 25KG => 40KG (Goal is 55+ till end of year, my girl weighs 55)
Bench Press: 30KG => 50KG
T-bar Row: (Without Bar weight) 30KG => 45KG
Push-ups (In one go): 7 Reps => 23 Reps
Dips: 0 Reps => 3 Reps
Chin-ups (In one go): 4 Reps => 12 Reps
Some wisdom I consider true for now:
1. Workouts must be goal specific, even variations of a single exercise should be dependent on your goals. If the goal is to be good at Olympic lifting, front squats and high-bar squats, powerlifters should go for the low-bar squat as it engages more muscle. If you don't have specific goals, you can mix it up sometimes, but not too often.
2. Your body mechanics might prevent you from performing certain exercises well, in which case you should change up the variation of the exercise (example, short torso and long femur makes the low bar a bit awkward, since you have to lean forward way more, or spread your knees way more, which affects your hip position and demands way more mobility, in this case you'll feel better with a high-bar squat)
3. Compound movements are king, isolations are done only after
4. High weights, explosive fewer reps for strength. Lots of slow reps, lower weights for size
5. Explosiveness and momentum are two different things, pauses are important
6. If I can't do it right, I either lower the weights until I can do it right, work on mobility or don't do the exercise at all
7. Injury and weakness are two different things, weakness is there to be fixed, injury should be treated as the doctor advises. If your lower back is weak, you should train it, instead of being afraid of injuries, if I'm careful, I'll be fine
8. don't do 50 exercises, just do 5-10 of them intensely
9. Whey protein is convenient, not a replacement for food. You don't need 40 protein shakes everyday. (I just use whey protein when I feel that my protein intake was low for that day, or I can't be bothered to cook)
10. Active recovery is underrated, does magic to progress
11. The best workout method is consistency
12. Progressive overload is the most important, de-load phase can be important for long-term progress (Note for future)
13. Most supplements are unnecessary
14. A good workout is the one where you accomplish your goals for the day
15. I slump for 3 weeks straight and then progress drastically unexpectedly, I don't really know why
16. It doesn't actually take all that long to look good, not a model, but even 2 months can be enough to look healthy and athletic, at least for me it was
17. Every man should be able to overhead press his significant other, difficulty may vary, I'm working on it
18. The Bench press is a glorified isolation exercise
19. Always take a dump before squatting or so I'm told
20. Soviet style stretches my grandpa did, are apparently the best way to do it. Nothing static