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  • 3 weeks later...

After two or so years of non stop gym. Well maybe 3-5 times a week for those two years. I've sort of hit a wall for the past 2 months and have hardly gone due to lack of motivation to go to the gym, and to carry out with my workout. Only gone a dozen times during that time.

Not sure how to get back into it.

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After two or so years of non stop gym. Well maybe 3-5 times a week for those two years. I've sort of hit a wall for the past 2 months and have hardly gone due to lack of motivation to go to the gym, and to carry out with my workout. Only gone a dozen times during that time.

Not sure how to get back into it.

When I doubt, simplify. I know we've discussed your routine in the past and I always thought the number of exercises was too much. It's easy to start dreading the gym when you've got 7 exercises to do every session.

Personally, I think you should pare your lifts down to squats, benches, deadlifts, presses, 2-3 back exercises, and some arm isolation work with your main focus on getting strong on the four compound lifts I listed.

Training for aesthetics without having a plan for progression on your lifts is a fools errand. You cannot build muscle without progressive overload, and the exercises with the greatest muscle building potential are lifts that (1) involve a lot of muscles working in coordination, (2) have a fairly long range of motion, (3) you can use a lot of weight on, and (4) allow for nearly infinite progression.

Given the above qualifiers for exercises with the best potential for building muscle, you have squats, benches, deadlifts, presses, and rows with a barbell as your best muscle builders. Second comes the above movements (sans deadlifts) with dumbbells. Dumbells fall behind barbells on muscle building potential because the progression is not easy. And far behind the barbell and DB movements in terms of effectiveness is everything else.

If I were you, this is how I would program my gym sessions:

Note: only work sets shown for total volume. Start all warm ups with the EMPTY BAR and add weight in roughly equal jumps until you hit your work set weight for the day.

The warmup for the squat would look something like this:

BAR x5x2

135 x5

185x4

225x3

275x2

315x5x3 (work sets)

A:

Squat 3x5

Bench 3x5

Lat Pulldowns 4x10-12

Curls 4x10

B:

Deadlift 2x5

Press 3x5

BB Rows 3x5

Lying Triceps extensions 4x10

I would lift 3-4 times per week with the following of two potential schedules:

A

B

(day off)

A

B

(weekend off)

OR

A

day off

B

day off

A (then do BAB schedule the next week)

The plan for progression would be to add 5-10lbs per session to all of the exercises listed with 3x5 as the prescribed volume.

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I am trying to get healthy. I spent the whole Summer eating out and drinking wine. This Morning I went to the park, walked up the water tower, and enjoyed nature. It's pretty calming. Trying to get back to stuff like that, to be more balanced. Taking it easy, not to overdo myself, be healthy, eat healthy.

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When I doubt, simplify. I know we've discussed your routine in the past and I always thought the number of exercises was too much. It's easy to start dreading the gym when you've got 7 exercises to do every session.

Personally, I think you should pare your lifts down to squats, benches, deadlifts, presses, 2-3 back exercises, and some arm isolation work with your main focus on getting strong on the four compound lifts I listed.

Training for aesthetics without having a plan for progression on your lifts is a fools errand. You cannot build muscle without progressive overload, and the exercises with the greatest muscle building potential are lifts that (1) involve a lot of muscles working in coordination, (2) have a fairly long range of motion, (3) you can use a lot of weight on, and (4) allow for nearly infinite progression.

Given the above qualifiers for exercises with the best potential for building muscle, you have squats, benches, deadlifts, presses, and rows with a barbell as your best muscle builders. Second comes the above movements (sans deadlifts) with dumbbells. Dumbells fall behind barbells on muscle building potential because the progression is not easy. And far behind the barbell and DB movements in terms of effectiveness is everything else.

If I were you, this is how I would program my gym sessions:

Note: only work sets shown for total volume. Start all warm ups with the EMPTY BAR and add weight in roughly equal jumps until you hit your work set weight for the day.

The warmup for the squat would look something like this:

BAR x5x2

135 x5

185x4

225x3

275x2

315x5x3 (work sets)

A:

Squat 3x5

Bench 3x5

Lat Pulldowns 4x10-12

Curls 4x10

B:

Deadlift 2x5

Press 3x5

BB Rows 3x5

Lying Triceps extensions 4x10

I would lift 3-4 times per week with the following of two potential schedules:

A

B

(day off)

A

B

(weekend off)

OR

A

day off

B

day off

A (then do BAB schedule the next week)

The plan for progression would be to add 5-10lbs per session to all of the exercises listed with 3x5 as the prescribed volume.

Woah, damn +1, thanks for the reply.

Yeah I've cut back on my exercises the past few months already. I am not able to do all those exercises as my bad shoulder sometime prevents me from doing so, but I'll take your suggestions into consideration. Thanks again.

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After two or so years of non stop gym. Well maybe 3-5 times a week for those two years. I've sort of hit a wall for the past 2 months and have hardly gone due to lack of motivation to go to the gym, and to carry out with my workout. Only gone a dozen times during that time.

Not sure how to get back into it.

I used to lack motivation, now it's just become a regular routine for me. Even if im not motivated before, I usually get pumped there watching the power lifters push insane amounts of weight.

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I am trying to get healthy. I spent the whole Summer eating out and drinking wine. This Morning I went to the park, walked up the water tower, and enjoyed nature. It's pretty calming. Trying to get back to stuff like that, to be more balanced. Taking it easy, not to overdo myself, be healthy, eat healthy.

Started doing this as well.

Been having fruit and veggie smoothies (lots of carrots, dragonfruit, and kale) for snacks, breakfast and lunch the past week instead of whatever garbage I would have usually eaten (then have a nice hearty dinner), and have dropped 5 pounds (most is probably water weight, but screw it I'll bring it up). I actually feel a lot better though, have a lot more energy during the day and have been avoiding any mid-afternoon crash that I usually have.

I simply can't motivate myself to spend an hour doing intense structured work outs 5 days a week. I try to do it 3 or 4 times a week, but usually only for like 15-30 minutes or so, and they're not exactly well structured. I'll also mix in a couple of 1km-2km swims every week.

I'm naturally pretty muscular, but I've got a layer of chub on me, if I can slowly cut that down (and I think I'm making a good start here) and maintain my muscle mass through my current workouts I should be doing pretty good for myself me thinks.

Edited by Jägermeister
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I used to lack motivation, now it's just become a regular routine for me. Even if im not motivated before, I usually get pumped there watching the power lifters push insane amounts of weight.

Seeing someone bench what you squat is good for perspecitve, isn't it?

Going for 315 bench monday!!!!

Ive done it at 200 lbs but im at 190 now. I did 275 for 5 a few weeks ago and it felt pretty good so im hopeful that ill get it.

You should have that. 275x5 usually translates to 315+. Kill it!

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