[Louis Schuler]

I’ve personally found that upping the volume on shoulders and arms has made these areas greatly improve. My shoulders respond much better to a higher number of sets, nothing under 10 reps apart from presses and more isolation work.

I start with 3/4 sets of rear delts, 3/4 sets of lateral raises, 3/4 sets of front raises, 2/3 sets of presses. Warm ups not included, for warm up I sitll go up to 10-12, unlike other body part where I save it for the working sets. Since training like this my shoulders have grown and gotten much rounder.

As for arms, same strategy. It’s not quite what moste people preach on here but try it out!

[Louis Schuler]

It’s down to you but hope you keep logging, information is so valuable. Thanks

[Louis Schuler]

What I have found that works well for bringing up delts is:

Chest / One lateral raise variation / Biceps
Back / Rear delts
Rest
Legs
Shoulders / Triceps
Rest

This means you’re hitting delts pretty often. Find exercises that you feel very well and stick to them! My shoulder workout is:

Dumbbell lateral raise (done one arm at a time): starting with a lateral variation has really improved my delts
Rear dumbbell fly
Press variation (sometimes 2 presses)
Front dumbbell raise
Shrug variation

Connection and pump is unreal after just 3 sets of exercise 1. I’ve gone away from the top set back off set system for shoulders, I find more sets more effective.

As for arm training, for biceps I pick 4 movements that I connect well with, that target the bicep differently (for me incline dumbbell curl, EZ bar curl, dumbbell hammer curl, dumbbell preacher curl) and I perform them in a giant set fashion, pump is incredible and I’ve seen good growth from this. Got the giant set idea from Justin Compton. For triceps I think nothing is better than dips, so you can add them on the chest day and do tricep isolation work on the shoulder day if you choose to go with this split.

All this goes against the grain on this website but for body parts such as shoulders and arms I find this is what works best for me at least. All the other bodyparts I stick to the principles preached on this site. Hope this helps

[Louis Schuler]

Thank you very much for all the detailed answers, will take them on board, very insightful

[Louis Schuler]

If say you usually sleep 8 hours and you get one night of 5, really not the end of the world, train as normal. If you’re regularly on 4-5 hours, performance will suffer probably. Sleep is important but overrated, you can operate and get a good session on 5 hours sleep. In my opinion

[Louis Schuler]

What I personally did in my upper lower split is start with 6 sets for back, 5 sets of pressing, 2 sets of flies, 3 rear and 3 lateral. Hit all those sets all out and monitor your recovery. If you don’t get stronger across the board (considering caloric surplus, sleep etc) then this may be too high volume. If feels good and getting stronger, great. If you feel like you’re not getting enough work, add a set and re evaluate

[Louis Schuler]

Been doing this approach on rdls too. First set aiming for 10-12, making sure I’m feeling it where I should then increasing weight set 2 and going all out. I find after an accurate first set I’m able to stay tighter and more in the groove for an all out second set.
Awesome side tricep shot

[Louis Schuler]

Off season

200 grams beef mince 5% into two patties
2 slices of American cheese (or whatever cheese you like)
Rice + olive oil on top
Bagel

Glorious

[Louis Schuler]

Congrats on the degree. Well done

[Louis Schuler]

Feel like updating this.

Quick recap of the last 6 months:

So went through with the mini cut which turned into a traditional cut of 12 weeks. Wanted to get as much off as possible to start from a good position. Lowest I got down to was 157.2. Ran 225P 210C 50F on training days throughout. This macro breakdown took me from mid 170s to high 150s.
Immediately increased carbs to 350 on training days. Started to look better and better with the food increase.

Food is adjusted based on bodyweight and gym performance.

Fast forward to now, 1/08 where I’m sitting at 163 pounds as of this morning. Happy with the look at this bodyweight.

Diet currently is:

TD: 225P 525C 60F (pull/legs)
TD: 225P 465P 60F (push)
NTD: 225P 275C 90F

Main protein sources: chicken breast, 5% beef mince, eggs, whey isolate
Main carb sources: ground rice, potatoes, basmati rice, bagels, rice cakes, rice krispies, tortilla wraps
Main fat sources: almond butter, coconut oil, olive oil, eggs

Training is going well at the moment, particularly leg training. Pull training is good, heavily focusing on rows and rdls. Going through shoulder problems so my push set up is a little different to what we’re used to seeing on here.

Will update as training goes.

Today we have legs:

1) Seated calf raise (making these as a priority)
2) Seated ham curl
3) Leg extension
4) Cybex hack squat
5) Banded leg press (quad)
6) Bulgarian split squat on smith
DC quad stretch
7) Adductor

Hardest session of the week but most rewarding.

[Louis Schuler]

Head up Mark, great showing

[Louis Schuler]

Depending how far you are into this journey, keeping your abs the way you want them ,to gain proper muscle is just not going to happen. You can’t have it all. Based on pics you have lots of room to push up

[Louis Schuler]

I would say no more than 3. 4 means you would be hitting a movement every 2 weeks. In 2 weeks, personally, I would lose the feel and the groove of the move. Yes you are picking variations of a movement but to me that’s too long in between moves. The science guys would say you will possibly lose neurological adaptations by not doing a move for 2 weeks. Just my opinion

[Louis Schuler]

Also, remind yourself what your goal is. Are you purely eye driven and want to look good for the beach or is your aim to gain muscle and get jacked? If it is the latter, not having visible abs is needed to gain muscle. Especially natural.

[Louis Schuler]

I’m with Stephen, don’t focus on the look too much because it is so subjective (your idea of what you look like might be very different to others). + cals are higher, more carbs = more water. Focus on the scale, the training. Chances are if scale is not moving and getting stronger in the gym, no way you’re gaining fat. Pictures would be very useful