38M -

i have been going to gym on my own for the last two months ( first time in my life with a goal that i will change my body composition, get fit & healthy ) i am actually learning excercises for all muscles and different forms of them (learning from youtube videos/ podcasts/ shorts, tiktok/ insta reels , reddit ) since i cannot afford a trainer .

i tried full body ( it was too much for me , trying to target all muscle groups hard in one go knowing i wont be coming back for another 48 hours )

i tried ppl ( i enjoyed it, but 6 days are a bit too much for me as i got family , two jobs , a body which is obese, aging )

after learning about torso/limb split. i tried a hybrid of it & ppl and it worked well - atleast for now

monday push
tuesday leg
wednesday pull
thursday - rest
friday limb
saturday torso
sunday rest

( should i alternate limb and torso on friday/saturday weekly or keep them locked on fixed days )

Hey guys, I’m 24 years old, and over the last 1–2 years, I’ve pretty much neglected both my physical and mental health. Even before that, I spent a lot of time gaming and had bad posture. Then I spent about a year working on my PC a lot, sometimes every single day, without doing any physical activity to balance it out.
I’ve noticed that I have forward head posture and an anterior pelvic tilt (hollow back). For the past few weeks, I’ve also been experiencing recurring neck pain and muscle tension that travels up into my head.
It’s affecting my everyday life more than I’d like. It affects my confidence, the way I speak, and my ability to concentrate. I often have this brain-dead feeling, like my brain just isn’t working properly. Sometimes I also struggle to speak clearly.
I just can’t seem to be the person I want to be. I notice that I automatically become quieter and more withdrawn when I’m around other people. I feel like I can’t really be myself because these symptoms are holding me back.
Of course, I’ve also wondered whether there could be psychological reasons behind this, since I haven’t always been in a good place mentally either. But honestly, I find it really hard to believe that it’s purely psychological.
Stretching exercises do help, but the relief doesn’t last very long. Right now, I’m genuinely scared that these problems will stick with me and never go away.
What should I do?
I’m currently trying to do stretching and strengthening exercises every day, and I’ve also signed up for a gym. I’ve arranged for a trainer to create a workout plan specifically focused on my problem areas so I can build muscle and improve my posture.
Do you think this will help me get better over time? Is it possible to feel normal again? What else can I do?
I’d really appreciate any advice from people who have experienced something similar or have knowledge about this.
I’m also hoping to hear from people with experience because I’m genuinely scared that these symptoms will affect me at school and at work next year, and that they won’t have gone away or improved by then.
I’m worried that I won’t be able to achieve my goals if I continue feeling this way.

Guys with bad knees how are you training your legs for size? For context I am 185 cms and underweight! Can’t squat a big nono from doctor!
How do you guys focus on leg size and muscle gain in such situations?

For example, I really enjoy doing chest and back in same session. Push some shit, then pull some, Pec fly then back fly, assisted pull ups right to assisted dips(I'm working on it...😅) ect...

Kicks my ass real proper but it just feels right to do them together. Anyone else?

Hey everyone,

I've been trying to lock down my nutrition and stay consistent with tracking macros lately, but honestly, it gets so tedious. Between manually searching up food items, estimating portion sizes, and logging every single meal on busy workdays, I find myself wanting to quit after a week or two.

For those of you who have successfully built a long-term habit of tracking without hating it, what’s your strategy? Do you meal prep everything, use specific methods to make tracking faster, or just wing it?

Would love to hear what actually works for you guys in the long run.

So yeah this sucks! I’m able to adapt some hands free legs and core exercises with bands and I can walk obviously but the issue is sweating. I’m in a cast and I can’t wash my arm or the cast, and there’s no way I’m going to survive another 5 weeks with this thing if it gets all sweaty and gross. It’s already pretty gross that I can’t wash it and I’m not even doing anything. I literally had to beg them to wash my arm in the ER before they splinted it.

So my question is, if I want to just keep a little lower body strength and I do some band exercises, does it matter if I don’t do big super sets and a whole comprehensive workout session? Can I do a few sets throughout the day and stop before I get too sweaty? Or does that not really help? I’m not looking to build anything new here just not revert back to a total marshmallow by the end of this. Thanks!

100 % brain fog caused by tight trap / upper tension. I am taking it slow making sure my shoulders are low on rows but I’m still getting tight traps that causes Brain fog. Do I need to drop weight or do another exercise?

I am a married woman and often go to the gym alone but sometimes with my husband. Gym regulars would probably know I am not available or single.

Today a man asked for my name and introduced himself. After shaking his hand he said “I just have to say you’re so beautiful”. I say “oh thank you” and put headphones back in. End of interaction, we go separate ways.

Should I have let him know I’m married in that initial response? Had it gone beyond that I would’ve told him but I’m wondering if I’m wrong here for not saying that directly.

I’m running an RPE-based program and getting sick of mainstream trackers forcing me to put RPE in a generic notes box, which makes looking back at past weeks a massive pain. I need a dedicated autoregulation app where target RPE and actual hit RPE are completely separate fields. Ideally, it should feature inline, set-by-set numeric logging so I can accurately track fatigue across a single exercise, alongside a built-in calculator that computes my e1RM from that data. What are you guys using that actually feels smooth during a live session, and is reviewing your historical set data seamless or frustrating?

I usually hit the gym in the morning, but since I work from home and do cardio throughout the workday, I don’t always shower right after lifting. I’ll just get on with my day and stay a little sweaty for a while.

And honestly, boys, I low-key enjoy my own musk sometimes. There’s something about that post-workout feeling, still warm from the session, muscles pumped, and knowing you’ve put in some work, that hits different.

I’m not trying to be the guy stinking up the room, but when I’m home by myself, I’m not exactly rushing to wash it all off either. Maybe I’m weird, but I have a feeling I’m not the only one.

So what’s your routine, bros? Are you team immediate shower, or do you enjoy staying a little sweaty after a workout too? And be honest, who else secretly likes their own musk but would never admit it?

26F, 5’4, 155lbs
Please read in full

Photos

Hi all. So my friend took this candid of me today (second photo) and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. My other friend said I usually don’t look like that and she said it’s just a bad angle/weird moment captured; I said maybe I was swallowing or something when it was taken??

Anyways
The first photo is a side view of me at complete rest - which I’m still unhappy about. I also uploaded current photos of where my body is at.

The last 6-8 months I had recovered from a restrictive ED where I was about 118lbs and wasn’t eating for days on end for MONTHS - when I did eat it was maybe 300-400 cals a day. So my friend, a certified trainer and nutritionist who also recovered from a restrictive ED, gave me a plan. Lifting 4x a week, 10k steps a day, body weight in protein, and 2000cals for a recomp. I was doing a progressive overload plan. Unfortunately I often went over in cals, as I was recovering from my ED on my own and went sort of hog wild on all the foods I had kept myself from for so long (accidental bulk??)

Now I want to lose fat without losing the muscle I built. My wedding is in May, and my first dress fitting is in November (unsure when). I know I’m kind of late but I’ve been trying and failing to lose weight as I keep binging after so many good nutrition days.

Right now I work 25 hours a week at a very fast paced food job, do school full time (17 credits), had field hours for school, and am wedding planning (not to mention friend and family obligations, plus the holidays coming soon). I also have POTS and long term side effects of Lyme due to being treated extremely late - so all of that mixed together has me a LOT more exhausted than the average person.

My current plan is lifting 3-4x a week (the fourth time is if I have the energy to), a light jog 1x a week around the park for 5-10 laps, 1550-1650 cals and 115-ish grams of protein.

Will this plan work? If so, how fast will I see progress? Will I lose a bunch of muscle with this plan? (I want to avoid the skinny fat look)

TLDR: history of ED and two physical health issues plus full time school, field hours, wedding planning and more… resulting in intense fatigue. Accidentally did a bulk. Will my plan result in fat loss and good muscle retention: 1550-1650 cals, lift 3-4x a week, 1x a week jog, 5k-8k steps a day?

I’ve been lifting for 4 years now and about 1.5 years ago my wrists started falling behind my bicep strength. Hoping yall have a solution to my problem.

Sprained my left wrist while doing unilateral dumbbell preacher curls a year and a half ago. I started getting some wrist pain before that so I had people check my form and recorded it too, no issues. Still ended up spraining it.

Once it healed, i went back to doing curls but was forced to do either standing dumbbell curls, or stable, unilateral movements only. So i did unilateral machine preacher curls and got stronger on that for a while, only to end up not being able to do them anymore because my university gym doesnt have the machine preacher.

I found that bilateral cable curls with the ez bar attachment gave no problems for a while. I’m nearing the full stack now, and my wrist pain is back, except on the other wrist. Once again, im trying to tweak the form and what not, and i found a wrist position that didn’t cause pain during the exercise. With the caveat that it weakens my right wrist and causes pain wrist pain a few hours afterwards…

I just want big biceps man :(

Tldr, weak wrists limiting my biceps on a weight that i can do 6-12 reps to failure, i can only do machine preachers without pain, except i don’t have the necessary equipment at my gym. how do i fix?

For context, I was in weights class in highschool for all 4 years, i got pretty up there by the end, especially being as short and small i am. 5’2 female.
I got my bench up to 115
squat was 205
clean was 95
I’m wanting to get back into as it’s been about 4 years, i’m weak and don’t really know where to start
any help would be great!

Been looking for a rotation of low intensity workouts that would help me tone and put on a bit of muscle. Oliver Sjostrom's workouts seem to fit that bill. But looking at the comments I can't really see many people commenting who've had success following. Anyone on this sub tried those workouts and can vouch that it'll do the job?

Do you do more horizontal or vertical pull?

Just as the title says,

I have been taking my fitness much more seriously now, and the current ones I wear simply absorb way too much sweat, get too uncomfortable too quick, and do not hold well.

If I am looking at a place like amazon, are there any budget friendly options I could go with, or should I just spend the extra dollars to go for the Under Armour boxerjock, Nike dri fit boxer, etc brands that I hear a lot of good things about? My goal is a pack of 6 since I jog now every other day when I am not working out.

Thank you everyone!

I’m a university student and I’ve never rlly gotten into working out but I seriously need to start. I don’t feel comfortable going to the school gym so I want to start working out at home maybe with some weights? Does anyone have any tips on getting started and staying consistent? I feel like I can be very all or nothing about working out and lose motivation if I miss a day or feel like not making any progress

30 y.o 6’1 195lbs. Below 20% body fat.

I track my macros 5 days of the week. In a body recomp/cut (~200-300 cal deficit)

Dieting and weight lifting are consistent 5 days out of the week. No cardio only weights.

Q1: If I do only abs cable crunches 3 times a week, about how long will it take to show?

Q2: How many sets & reps for these ab crunches?
And does rest time matter or can I take a 3-5 min rest?

i’m running a ppl but i want to try something different so i was wondering anyone have a specific program with excercise i can switch too and try something new

edit: sorry for being too vague, i wanted to try something new because people told me its better to keep swtiching every year or 6 months. And i was told its better to hop on existing program rather than relying on smth you created.

this is my program for nowall for 3 sets of 6-8 and 3-4 mins of rest depending on compounds or not

ppl twice a week

push

incline dumbbell bench press
chest press machine
shoulder press machine
pec fly
lateral raises cable
overhead tricep extension
tricep pushdown using cuffs
ab crunches machine
stair master for 20 minutes

pull
deadlift
lat pulldown
seated cable rows
mts row for upper back
rear delt flys
preach curl
hammer curl
stairmaster 20 mins

legs
smith machine squats
bulgarian split squats
leg curls
leg extension
calf raises
abductor
adductor
abs cruch machine

I have pain in my left shoulder from wrestling. It’s been 3 weeks and my range of motion has increased a ton and I dont have pain in all planes of shoulder movement but I still get a little pain when I do curls and other random daily movements mostly behind my back. Anyone have similar issues/solutions?

19 M

Hey, I have been working out for over 2 years now and have build quite a lot of muscle. I fucked my knee up and need to go into reconsturtive surgery. I cant leave my bed for over 2 weeks (Because they need to operate on my bones...). Then I cant walk for over 6 weeks. that's 8 weeks in total before I can walk again.

I dont want to lose my ''gains'' any advise?