Could use some help and criticism

[kpok]

I have been lifting off and on for a while now and keep putting on weight, which was the plan to start with. Although, now for work I travel and don't have access to a gym all the time. I'm trying to get rid of my pooch and love handles. I just started back at the gym last week. Any tips, tricks, or guides would be nice. I also had a back injury a few years ago so dead lifts, leg lifts, and running is no longer my strong suit. And I also need my chest to fill out more but can never seem to get it to do so.
Max bench: 245 lbs
Max squat: 335 lbs

 

[john.patterson]

Welcome to the forum. Consistency with training and diet will be the biggest factors in your success. A big key will be focusing on eating enough protein (at least 1g per pound of body weight). It's difficult to tell from the pictures, but your delts and arms look like they're developed well. I would focus on heavy compound movements, and spend some time focusing on your chest upper back to balance out with your delts.

Are you currently tracking macros/calories? I would suggest figuring out your estimated TDEE by using an online calc, and begin to track your food intake. This is the easiest way to do it and it will hold you accountable. I think your next steps should be to dial in your nutrition and work on keeping the lifting consistent, and focus on progressive overload.

After you've been consistent with diet and training and you're back into the swing of things, you could consider adding a thermogenic or natural anabolic product to help. I would read up on Alphamax XT, it's a very comprehensive natural anabolic that helps by increasing natural test, limiting cortisol and estrogen, and also helps to reduce stress and improve recovery. Alphamax XT contains forskolin as well, which can be beneficial for improving body composition. This could be a great product to add in after you've been consistent with eating right and lifting hard for a while

 

[gbirch98]

Fasted cardio, high fats (a lot of nuts), low carbs (eaten only in preworkout and post workout meal), fasted cardio in the morning for 30 minutes. Personally I walk on the treadmill Monday through Friday at 3 mph at 5 percent incline. The fasted cardio sets you up for sure weight loss. It gives your body something called epoc which means excess post exercise oxygen consumption. Basically your body burns at a high metabolic rate for the rest of the day when you do fasted cardio. As far as diet goes. Carbs are bad. What many people don't know is that the release of insulin from carbs lowers cortisol levels which is the stress hormone. So really a lot of the time that we eat carbs is just because we are feeling overwhelmed. So try to avoid them. You do need them however in your preworkout meal and in whatever you take intraworkout. Eating large amount of nuts is probably one of the best things you can do for your health and gainz. Some study showed that people who eat a handful of mixed nuts a day were more likely to live longer. Nuts also help sky rocket DHA which is a hormone released in the brain which is perhaps even more important than testosterone. And lastly. Consume two tablespoons of raw organic unfiltered apple cider vinegar a day. Does wonders for fat loss. Good luck and let me know your progress!

 

[NoAddedHmones]

Fasted cardio, high fats (a lot of nuts), low carbs (eaten only in preworkout and post workout meal), fasted cardio in the morning for 30 minutes. Personally I walk on the treadmill Monday through Friday at 3 mph at 5 percent incline. The fasted cardio sets you up for sure weight loss. It gives your body something called epoc which means excess post exercise oxygen consumption. Basically your body burns at a high metabolic rate for the rest of the day when you do fasted cardio. As far as diet goes. Carbs are bad. What many people don't know is that the release of insulin from carbs lowers cortisol levels which is the stress hormone. So really a lot of the time that we eat carbs is just because we are feeling overwhelmed. So try to avoid them. You do need them however in your preworkout meal and in whatever you take intraworkout. Eating large amount of nuts is probably one of the best things you can do for your health and gainz. Some study showed that people who eat a handful of mixed nuts a day were more likely to live longer. Nuts also help sky rocket DHA which is a hormone released in the brain which is perhaps even more important than testosterone. And lastly. Consume two tablespoons of raw organic unfiltered apple cider vinegar a day. Does wonders for fat loss. Good luck and let me know your progress!

wow haven't seen such bs posted in quite a while, u living in 2006 brah?

 

[john.patterson]

I'm not usually one to call people out on the forums, but the information stated here is simply bad advice. Let's clarify a few things here....

Fasted cardio, high fats (a lot of nuts), low carbs (eaten only in preworkout and post workout meal), fasted cardio in the morning for 30 minutes. Personally I walk on the treadmill Monday through Friday at 3 mph at 5 percent incline. The fasted cardio sets you up for sure weight loss. It gives your body something called epoc which means excess post exercise oxygen consumption. Basically your body burns at a high metabolic rate for the rest of the day when you do fasted cardio.

Fasted cardio can be beneficial, but certainly isn't necessary and has been studied to have no significant difference over cardio after a meal. I am an advocate for fasted cardio, but mainly out of convenience. OP would benefit from any cardio, fasted or not. Fasted cardio isn't anything special or magic.

Carbs are bad. What many people don't know is that the release of insulin from carbs lowers cortisol levels which is the stress hormone. So really a lot of the time that we eat carbs is just because we are feeling overwhelmed. So try to avoid them. You do need them however in your preworkout meal and in whatever you take intraworkout.

This is incorrect. Carbs are not bad - they are your body's primary source of fuel. Insulin is one of the most anabolic hormones in the human body. Insulin stops catabolism and allows amino acids to be delivered to the muscles for recovery and growth. I would agree that high insulin levels all day isn't ideal, but insulin is not the devil and carbs are certainly not "bad".

Eating large amount of nuts is probably one of the best things you can do for your health and gainz. Some study showed that people who eat a handful of mixed nuts a day were more likely to live longer. Nuts also help sky rocket DHA which is a hormone released in the brain which is perhaps even more important than testosterone. And lastly. Consume two tablespoons of raw organic unfiltered apple cider vinegar a day. Does wonders for fat loss.

Nuts and ACV are great, I agree with you there. But eating nuts in excess really doesn't deliver much benefit. Healthy fats are definitely needed in your diet to keep hormones balanced and keep your body functioning optimally, but eating tons of nuts (especially raw nuts which can be difficult for your body to digest) isn't beneficial. ACV is a great ingredient to add in, but again.... it isn't magic.

 

[kpok]

Thank you everyone. My diet has been consisting of strictly lean meat and vegetables with a protein bar in between. I will keep this thread updated and once again thank you all for the help.

 

[Driven2lift]

Welcome new brother in iron!

Ignore anyone telling you specifically what to eat. Calories are king, and you are just getting back into things.

You will want a slight calorie surplus and a good training regime. Don't worry about anything more than that yet.

I hear you on training with a back injury, there are a number of us on here in similar scenarios.

Can I ask what your training is like typically?

 

[gbirch98]

wow haven't seen such bs posted in quite a while, u living in 2006 brah?

Haha na dude just telling telling people what worked for me.

 

[kpok]

I was doing the squat everyday program off of bodybuilder.com and I ended up doing that almost exactly for a month (all but the dead lifts which I sub for other exercise). And now I'm doing

Every other day on the squat rack
Start at 185 x 10 with upping the weight each time so my sets are
10,10,8,8,8,5,5,3,3,1. Until I get to 315. And then I put 225 and do 5 sets of pause reps.

And then I do
Chest and bi's
Back and tri's
Shoulders, traps, lats
-each line is a different day

 

[kpok]

I started on the 5th and this is from the 13th. Just to keep progress updated

 

[gbirch98]

I'm not usually one to call people out on the forums, but the information stated here is simply bad advice. Let's clarify a few things here....



Fasted cardio can be beneficial, but certainly isn't necessary and has been studied to have no significant difference over cardio after a meal. I am an advocate for fasted cardio, but mainly out of convenience. OP would benefit from any cardio, fasted or not. Fasted cardio isn't anything special or magic.



This is incorrect. Carbs are not bad - they are your body's primary source of fuel. Insulin is one of the most anabolic hormones in the human body. Insulin stops catabolism and allows amino acids to be delivered to the muscles for recovery and growth. I would agree that high insulin levels all day isn't ideal, but insulin is not the devil and carbs are certainly not "bad".



Nuts and ACV are great, I agree with you there. But eating nuts in excess really doesn't deliver much benefit. Healthy fats are definitely needed in your diet to keep hormones balanced and keep your body functioning optimally, but eating tons of nuts (especially raw nuts which can be difficult for your body to digest) isn't beneficial. ACV is a great ingredient to add in, but again.... it isn't magic.

I think I wrote what I was trying to say in the wrong way and things got confused. Definitely my fault and I apologize. I am not against carbs at all I think they are an absolute necessity in one's diet. However, the only times I believe they should be taken in are before the workout to spike insulin and blood sugar levels and to give your body the fuel you need to complete the workout, intraworkout, and the meal immediately after the workout is completed to spike insulin levels and push nutrients into the muscle and aid in recovery. Fasted cardio I agree with what you said and I am also and advocate i think it is great to get cardio in and your body's metabolism burning at a higher rate as soon as you wake up. I personally am a fan of doing my cardio fasted because I feel much better doing cardio with nothing in my stomach. When I said nuts I made a mistake. What I should have said is eat a right amount of polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats. I said nuts because they are my go to as far as fats go and because of the affect that they have on DHA levels. While carbs are the most efficient fuel for the body, fats are the longest lasting and keep you satiated longer and are very important for energy if on a low carbohydrate diet. Also I I do not do low carb for the bulk of the year! It was my understanding that the individual we are all trying to help by giving advice to has the goal of losing fat. The best way in my opinion and it has worked for me and many people around me is a low carb diet to lose weight. When I am bulking however I do the exact opposite, high carb. I hope this helped clear things up that we confusing in my first post. And thank you for calling me out and sharing the knowledge haha. Good luck to everyone!

 

[kpok]

This is now the end of the second week. Trying to keep the same angles as before.

 

[Fasted]

One thing I'd add to the thread:

OP, you stated with your job you have to travel a lot. You should make sure you have a nice routine of excersizes you can do with body weight and no gym. Pushups, pullups, jumps, planks etc. can provide great muscle stimulation in the absence of a gym.

 

[kpok]

My chest has been filling out and been getting bigger. I think it's about time to do cutting only