Posted: 31 Jul 2021 02:00 AM PDT

Welcome to the /r/Fitness Daily Simple Questions Thread - Our daily thread to ask about all things fitness. Post your questions here related to your diet and nutrition or your training routine and exercises. Anyone can post a question and the community as a whole is invited and encouraged to provide an answer.

As always, be sure to read the wiki first. Like, all of it. Rule #0 still applies in this thread.

Also, there's a handy search function to your right, and if you didn't know, you can also use Google to search r/Fitness by using the limiter "site:reddit.com/r/fitness" after your search topic.

Other good resources to check first are Exrx.net for exercise-related topics and Examine.com for nutrition and supplement science.

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(Please note: This is not a place for general small talk, chit-chat, jokes, memes, "Dear Diary" type comments, shitposting, or non-fitness questions. It is for fitness questions only, and only those that are serious.)

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M/28/6'0" 170 - 185lbs. Two Years of Progress.

Posted: 30 Jul 2021 11:57 AM PDT

Hello /r/fitness.

I just wanted to share my progress over the past two years.

First up progress pic: April of 2019 to July 2021

Currently I am M/28/6'0"/184lbs. When I started this journey back in 2019 I was a super skinny fat 170lbs.

I had always been the super skinny weak kid growing up. Me at 24 vs 28

Early on in my training I think I maxed out my bench at around 95-100lbs. I had literally no strength or sports background, so it was literally starting from square one.

My goal in posting this, is to maybe give some people hope that don't have a background in sports or strength training at all. I fucked up many times in this process, but everything was a learning experience and I feel like I am constantly getting better. It just takes time.

Below are my lift progressions, all in pounds.

Lift	Before	After
Bench	95	275
Squat	215	405
Deadlift	225	465

Unfortunately I don't have video of the other two from my mock powerlifting meet earlier this year.

So, what all did I do?

Well the first I went to therapy for my depression in 2019. My therapist required me to hit the gym, and be active. I work as a software developer and love playing video games and whatnot, so my activity level was basically zero. I would eat like garbage and drink tons of soda.

I started going to the gym and was running Shortcut to Shred by Jim Stoppani at the recommendation of a friend. I kind of had fuck-around-itis the entire time, never kept track of weights. But the important thing was I started building the habit. The gym I was going to didn't really have a decent barbell setup, so eventually I switched gyms and programs. I hadn't made a ton of progress at that time.

I had no idea what I was doing with my diet, and while I made decent strength gains at the time, I didn't really make any visible aesthetic progress.

That's when I found out powerlifting existed and I fell in love with it/switched to a large gym with lots of oly lifting platforms. All I wanted to do was progress on the big 3, and progress I did. My lifts shot up(comparative to where I was) and I was finally able to get a 135lbs bench. It was a HUGE milestone for me.

I trained exclusively with powerlifting programs for a while, got into the 1000lbs club and hit the milestones I wanted to. I got lucky and built a homegym literally 3 months before the pandemic hit, so I was set for that.

Most of my lifting was done in 3-5 rep range, and I was benching squatting and deadlifting 2-3x per week. Very little accessories.

But around the start of 2021 I realized I looked like DYEL. My arms were small, my shoulders much much larger than my biceps. I had too much bodyfat. You couldn't even see my muscles I had spent time building. Yeah I could bench 255-265 at the time, I could squat almost four plates, but it wasn't really visible.

Look at this beefcake greek god

So I got frustrated and phoned it in for a while. My diet fell off the rails and I just coasted through the little workouts I would do.

Around 4 months ago I got back on the wagon, dialed in my diet and started slamming actual bodybuilding workouts.

After years of doing PPL, 5/3/1, Hybrid Powerlifting, GCZL and other programs, I swapped to a fully bro split bodybuilding program. Which Reddit can't stand. But it really got me passionate about lifting again. The pumps were INSANE.

I am currently running Gamma Bomb by John Meadows and seeing great progress.

The split is split up into five days:

Day 1: Back + abs + calves

Day 2: Chest + Shoulders

Day 3: Legs

Day 4: Arms + Abs + Calves

Day 5: This day is a dedicated pump day. In the first 6 weeks it is upper body pump day, and in the second 6 weeks it is a lower body day.

John Meadows loves cluster sets and drop sets, and the program increases in volume every week for 6 weeks until you deload.

In week 1 you are doing anywhere from 18-25 sets in a workout, by week 6 the hardest week has up to 38 sets. It is BRUTAL, but if you love training to failure and a bro split, I cannot recommend the program enough. The other thing with Meadow's programs, they are never the same week to week. He keeps things really fresh and mixes up the exercises every week. This can be a little hard to gauge progress on sometimes, but since you are using Reps in Reserve and training to failure often, it is a plus for me.

I am on a slight bulk of about 250 calories, currently eating around 2900 per day. I don't track my macros, but I religiously tracked for about a year, so I have decent expectations of portion sizes.

A day of eating currently looks like:

Greek Yogurt + 4 eggs and some vegetables for breakfast.

Protein Shake.

Lunch - 40-60g of protein in a lean meat(usually chicken), along side a carb like rice or potatoes + some onions and peppers.

I eat a meal preworkout, usually a banana alongside my preworkout supplement for energy.

Another protein shake

And then for dinner I eat BIG. Me and my wife cook dinner together every night. It is usually fajitas, shrimp pasta, steaks, or anything else protein heavy and filling.

I have completely cut out soda, and milk(I used to drink 4-5 glasses a day), and I feel myself getting leaner and more vascular all the time.

As far as how I got to my current macros, It has just been a lot of fine tuning over the past year. I would watch the scale religiously and adjust up or down, all while making sure I got enough protein. I try to eat 1.2g per lbs of bodyweight at all costs.

The other big thing was I got my T checked around the start of this year. I went to an endo out of curiosity, and I ended up having sub 300 T levels. This is REALLY REALLY low, which my endo says explains my size/weight before and my depression and other symptoms I was having. I got on a mild T booster and got myself back up to a healthy level with my doctors help, and it has been a game changer as far as energy and mental health goes.

What's next? I'm going to keep grinding and focus on aesthetics and bodybuilding. I hit a 4 plate squat, I am over caring about the numbers I put up. I just want to feel good and look good, and get over this body dysmorphia.

I feel like my arms/chest/calves REALLY need some growth, so I will focus on that on the caloric surplus, and then probably try to cut down 10-15lbs.

I'll finish it off with a few more progress pics

My arms in late 2019

Arm progress in 2021

Me today in the middle of an Arm Workout

Legs some time around mid 2020

If you have any questions or suggestions, definitely let me know.

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Gym Story Saturday

Posted: 31 Jul 2021 12:16 AM PDT

Hi! Welcome to your weekly thread where you can share your gym tales!

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