[CJ]

What ingredients or products are you looking for?

Hi Clare,

I am looking for GABA, L-Theanine and Biotin.

[CJ]

Hi Rich,

Can you see it now? Actually, I didn’t want to change this split too much, but both the environment here motivated me to use this type of program for a short time, and as I mentioned, the machines are very limited. Of course, I can do something with barbells and dumbbells, but the adjustment period and so on got me thinking, wondering if I should just continue using the program I used before.

[CJ]

Hello mate; is that planned cheat meals by your coach or is that your cheat meals out of plan you done by yourself?

Supposedly next step would be to remove them to get the little stubborn areas, lower back and midsection.

But if you feel you can binge, and ruin everything, best would be a little step back to restore energies and mindset BUT my trouble here is that if you refeed for some days; hunger gonna be even worst, that’s well known that hunger hits harder when you eat more, so mentally i don’t know if you will handle it.

It takes courage to be disciplined and a lot of self control; so there is no real solution here except being brave and disciplined.

Not at any price though: binging will damage many things, so goal is to avoid that

Hello Alisson,

I don’t have a coach, these cheat meals are purely the result of the mental struggles I’ve been facing after dieting for such a long time. In other words, I’ve been pushing myself too hard with the diet. I know that I still need to get rid of the remaining fat on my waist and back, but I feel like I don’t have the mental strength for it anymore.

At this point, my main question is: would it be a very bad idea for me to start a 6–8 month slow bulk phase with gradual calorie increases from this current body fat level? By bulk I mean trying to build muscle mass and get stronger as much as possible without getting any( or a Little bit) fat.

[CJ]

Hi CJ

So with the exercises your physio has recommended and you are noticing a good difference, I would leave these in on both of your workouts. The key is to be able to train pain free and with good execution, which is sounds like you have. What you could do is work on different rep ranges for those two exercises so you have some variety.

For upper back t bar rows are fine. Personally instead of a wide grip cable rows I would opt for a chest supported row to bias your upper back

What are your options for upper chest in your gym?

Hey Marc,

My physio told me to do scapula push-ups and side external rotations. He also mentioned that for back exercises I should go unilateral, first set my scapula, and then pull – and that’s been helping a lot. So for upper back, instead of wide grip rows I’ll just stick with chest-supported rows.

Unfortunately, there isn’t a machine for upper chest here. I tried doing low-to-high cable flys, but honestly I can’t really feel my upper chest the way I do with incline bench press. That’s why I thought you might have a good suggestion for me.

And lastly – do you think the upper body programs look solid and make sense overall?

[CJ]

Sorry guys, i forgot to add my program. You can see it with pictures below.

[CJ]

Hi Adam,
I’ve noticed from spending some time on the forum that compared to other professionals, you seem more focused on the strength side of training. I have a quick question for you.

Right now my goal is both to get stronger and to add as much muscle mass as possible. In the past, I followed a powerlifting program and saw great results for strength gains. I was wondering if I could use a similar program now for both hypertrophy and strength.

The plan would be 4 days per week, full-body style, with S/B/D plus accessory lifts. It feels like this could also work for my hypertrophy goals. Could you help me out on this? Doesn’t getting stronger on the main compound lifts also mean I’ll be able to build muscle at the same time? I have like 1 years of experience.

I’ll attach the program image. Thanks in advance!

[CJ]

Are you recovering ? Are you progressing ? Is the split based around what you need ?

I would run compounds here as priority then iso work later

I’ve been trying out this split for a few weeks now, and in every workout either my weights or my reps are going up. That already shows I’m on the right track, but here’s what I’ve been thinking: if I had started this program with just 1 set per exercise, I probably still would’ve been able to make progress — but I wouldn’t have realized that I could progress with 2 sets. Right now, I’m making good progress with 2 sets per exercise, but I wasn’t sure if I should push it to 3 sets. From what I understand though, I probably don’t need to overthink that too much.

Other than that, I’m going to apply what you said about compounds. I just want to ask about one thing — I’ve always done conventional deadlifts after leg curls, leg extensions, etc. I actually got that idea from your video, where you mentioned doing them later in the session so they don’t overload your nervous system too much. Should I still be doing deadlifts earlier instead?

[/quote]

Yes do them earlier until you get strong strong

1/2 sets is fine 3 you won’t progress [/quote]
Thank you very much for all your answers, Kuba. I hope to apply this program for a long time and get good results. I have one last question in mind, and I would appreciate your opinion on it.

When I first started working out, I received training from a great Powerlifting coach for a long time. Thanks to this training, I gained a lot of strength. It was a program aimed at increasing compound weights, with four days a week of FB-style workouts. I noticed that this program contributed significantly to my strength. Could I use the program I’ll attach in the image to build muscle mass as well? The program primarily focuses on free weights, with minimal use of machines. If I were to use this program again for a period of time in the future, would it be an incorrect choice in terms of promoting hypertrophy? Or would I achieve hypertrophy as well if I continue to build strength? As you mentioned in your latest video, I’m trying to prioritize compound lifts, and I thought this program might be good for that purpose. (As I mentioned earlier, I have been involved in this sport for approximately one year, and while I am slightly beyond the beginner level, I cannot definitively classify myself as intermediate.)

[CJ]

Are you recovering ? Are you progressing ? Is the split based around what you need ?

I would run compounds here as priority then iso work later

I’ve been trying out this split for a few weeks now, and in every workout either my weights or my reps are going up. That already shows I’m on the right track, but here’s what I’ve been thinking: if I had started this program with just 1 set per exercise, I probably still would’ve been able to make progress — but I wouldn’t have realized that I could progress with 2 sets. Right now, I’m making good progress with 2 sets per exercise, but I wasn’t sure if I should push it to 3 sets. From what I understand though, I probably don’t need to overthink that too much.

Other than that, I’m going to apply what you said about compounds. I just want to ask about one thing — I’ve always done conventional deadlifts after leg curls, leg extensions, etc. I actually got that idea from your video, where you mentioned doing them later in the session so they don’t overload your nervous system too much. Should I still be doing deadlifts earlier instead?

[CJ]

All looks fine to me mate if this is were your priority lies in terms of exercise selection

Now it’s just a case of assessing progress / feedback n seeing what if anything needs changing.

At this point, should I only consider progress in terms of weight and rep count? I understand it as if I increase reps or lift slightly heavier weights every workout, that’s considered progress, and I should keep tracking it this way. Since I’ll be dieting for a while, the progress I track in training will likely only be through the weights, as adding muscle mass might not be as feasible in the short term due to recovery limits, and I probably won’t see changes in my body too quickly (because i will diet with 1900 kcal, will not have any extra muscle mass in 2-3 months i guess).

Additionally, I get a bit confused when it comes to volume, especially with all the research online. For example, there are studies claiming each muscle group needs at least 10 sets, sometimes even more (studies from people like Brad Schoenfeld, Layne Norton, etc.). Looking at that, I end up doing 8 sets per workout for shoulders, chest, etc. But these experts generally argue that the minimum is 10 sets, and if we can push it, 20 sets per muscle group per week will increase the likelihood of adding muscle mass.

I’d really appreciate some clarification here—should I be disregarding these types of studies, or do they still hold weight in how I should be structuring my training?

[CJ]

Any comments will be really helpful for me 🙂 I dont have any idea if i choose the right exercises & if it has low volume.