Tag Archives: lifting

What Is Killing My Gains?

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“Why have I been working out for TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AND STILL CAN CURL MORE THAN I SQUAT!?”

I doubt anyone in history has ever said that!  I doubt anyone actually will…BUT now that I have your attention, I want to talk about gains and why some of us aren’t having any.

You may have been lifting for a while and hit a plateau, and you may even seem to get weaker.  These things happen, but as long as you stay consistent

you will grow stronger.

maxed out muscles

Maxed Out Muscles

About as strong, in fact, as this stick figure that I hastily drew in Microsoft Paint.  Look at those biceps!!

However, he did skip leg day which I would say is pretty bad!

Now jokes aside, all of us hit plateaus or walls in our training and it can be pretty depressing.  I know because this has happened to me, and is happening to me now.  So I write today as optimistic as I can!  I don’t know from experience that I will overcome this plateau, but I am optimistic!

Without further ado I want to list some possible reasons why I, or you, are hitting a plateau and how I, or we, can overcome this:

  • Diet

Diet is probably the easiest to call out because, without proper nutrition, how can your body grow?  There is a lot of controversy on diet(feel free to post your opinion in the comments).  A lot of bodybuilders and strength coaches say you should eat whatever your basal metabolic rate calls for while eating a gram of protein per pound of body weight.  However, some text books say you should eat no more than 60% of your body weight in protein and other people recommend 50 grams a day.

I personally feel that the gram per pound approach will be most effective for me personally.  This is because, when I look at other people who have been bodybuilding(natties included), I notice that most heavy lifters recommend eating a lot of protein.  A lot of them have good aesthetics too, and it doesn’t look like they converted any excess protein into fat.

Simply due to my own preference and based off what I have seen I will choose the gram per pound method.  Again, feel free to comment your own opinion below and I suppose I will show you how mine works over time 🙂

  • Complacency

This is my other point and what I feel is the kicker for me lately.

As I work full time, have a part time job, and enjoy some time to relax..

it gets REALLY hard to even want to lift on some days.  It even becomes difficult to write these posts on other days.  However, I am consistent and self-motivated!  No matter what life is tossing me, I will strive to continue what I started.  Now, it has become depressing to work out and see little results lately but as I’ve been consumed by other things I realize that it is a feat in and of itself that I’ve made it to the gym and maintained.

..and I’d like to add that today I worked out hard!!  And it felt GREAT!  So no more complacency in the gym, and a better diet is not my recommendation;  no complacency in the gym and a better diet is my prescription!

It’s always time to continue fighting the resistance we have in front of us and put our best foot forward!  Today is that day, and so is tomorrow.

Do your best and make some gains!

Write A Lot For Stronger Muscles

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By writing something every day I have found that finding something important enough to write about is often a journey that becomes incredibly introspective.  You have to dig deep inside your own head sometimes to find what it is that you want to share with others, and what is really on your mind.  You finally find it, after all of that hard thinking, and you realize each time that you are possibly gaining more from this than your audience:

  1. Self-Respect – You completed a big task today.  You got the new post up.  You worked hard on something you loved and you are actively pursuing your dreams.
  2. Yourself – this process is incredibly wrapped around your individuality and what you contribute to other people.  You find where you fit in.  You find what your passion is.  You find who YOU are.

The above is what I have learned by writing new posts for you.  The more dedicated I become, the more I realize I have further to go.  I also find how dedicated I truly am to this.  In the process, I realize that I am extremely passionate about writing and fitness.  Because of this, I’m about to explain to you how writing and working out go well together and how you can use both of them in conjunction to achieve your fitness goals:

  1. Keeping a journal – As I mentioned in my post Be Smart and Work Hard, writing in a journal or in your phone’s notepad app can be incredibly beneficial.  The reason why?  We go about our days constantly being bombarded with situations and problems.  Life can be a lot to wrap your head around so having a journal can help you categorize your thoughts and find a better plan of action.  It can also be incredibly helpful in recording your gym results.  You write down your accomplishments and then you may look back and see what you have to improve on.
  2. Re-finding your passion – Again, life can be a lot to wrap your head around sometimes.  Sometimes life just pushes us so much that we want to be lazy or complacent.  And it’s easy to be lazy or complacent, but it’s not easy to live your dreams.  However, you have to take a step each day towards being aggressive about your goals.  Do not allow yourself the comfort of settling somewhere shy of success.  A good way to prevent this is to write things out online a lot like I am here, on Maxed Out Muscles.  I look back at my old posts and where I started, and I see how far I’ve come.  I realize each time that I have a serious passion for lifting weights and becoming the best Christian Boyles.  Not only that, but the comments that some of  you leave on my posts are what often motivate me to hit the gym and work harder.
  3. Networking – Networking and writing can be two sides of the same coin now that blogging has become so popular.  When you put your voice out there in the form of a well written article you’ll find others who have the same interests and goals.  These people will often be who push you and motivate you to work harder.  It goes along well with what I said above about re-finding your passion.

Those are just three small ways that writing can help you with building your dream physique.  You can use it in a number of ways.  As I said, you could use it as a lifting journal or count your macros by writing them down.  Just, by writing out something, I am sure you will be more organized and more prone to success.

So write it down and reach your full potential in life and in the gym. 

How Do You Split Your Workouts?

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Working out doesn’t have to be tricky or complicated, but that’s not saying it can’t be! So, today, I wanted to make a post with a slightly different style. Today’s post is a question. I’m going out on a limb here hoping for a response but here is my question: How do you split your workouts? Also, what is your reasoning behind this?

This applies to all of you, even those of you who mostly stick to cardio or yoga. Do you have days where you work out at a harder intensity? Do you have arm days?

I’ll go first. I typically work legs on Sundays, I do chest and back on Mondays, and arms on Tuesdays. I repeat this on Wednesday through Friday, and take Saturdays off. So it’s like this:

Sunday: Legs

Monday: Chest and Back

Tuesday: Arms(bicep, tricep, forearms)

Wednesday: Legs

Thursday: Chest and Back

Friday: Arms again

Saturday: Rest

I throw cardio in at the end of all of my workouts, so I don’t really cycle my cardio in any way. There was my plan, thanks for reading! What do you do?

Good Exercises For Arm Day

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It’s arm day for me. A lot of people love working their arms and chest so much they don’t usually work anything else. I personally like to work all my different muscle groups throughout the week, but if you love doing arms here’s a routine for you.

  1. Preacher curls – Do 3 sets of preacher curls with a 25 lb barbell and whatever additional weight you want. Do repititions of 8, 6, 4 on strength days and 12, 10, 8 for hypertrophy.
  2. Overhead barbell tricep extension – this is really useful to superset with your preacher curls. Do the same sets and reps as you curl.
  3. Hammer curls – you do these by sitting down and holding the Dumbbells to your sides. Keep the Dumbbells parallel to your sides and curl without twisting your wrist. Do the same reps as above workouts or mix it up to how you see fit.
  4. Tricep extension – put your knee on the bench and lean over to where your hand is on the bench also. With one hand grasping a dumbbell extend your arm until fully extended. If you are doing this right, you should feel it in your tricep. Do both arms and do the same sets and reps as the hammer curls, so this is basically another superset.
  5. Cable work – Adjust the cables to do both bicep curls and tricep curls. Adjust your position and the cable to work different parts of the tricep and bicep. Do at least 3 sets for bicep and tricep. If you work different parts of the bicep and tricep you may be able to get 9 sets of each.

If you need more information on how to do some of the exercises I can only recommend you look on YouTube at the moment. I will be uploading videos sometime soon though, so I will be able to give you training tutorials and information. Thanks for reading. Have a great arm day!

Lifting Shouldn’t Own You

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You should own your lifting, and own up to yourself.

Don’t let lifting make you self conscious, don’t have body dis morphia, and don’t be the a-hole that talks about lifting all the time(I went through this one, personally). If you don’t focus on yourself as the individual and you’re focused on other people and activities, you will lose a part of yourself for a while.

Grasp reality, that you are a cool, strong, independent, happy, AWESOME person and then do what makes you happy.

Remind yourself of why you wanted to lift in the beginning. Thanks for reading.

Cut The Easy Calories Out First

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I don’t like the idea of doing a full on cut or a full on bulk. There’s obviously maintenance cycles also, and you could do different moderation a of a maintenance and cut/bulk.

That opinion of mine is not set in stone. If you’re a bodybuilder and do diets all out like that for competition, more power to you. However, for the average person I’d suggest doing something closer to what I’m doing.

Cutting out one thing at a time. If you want to lose fat or just have a healthier lifestyle(and fat loss would be a byproduct of that), then just cut one unclean thing from your diet every week or two weeks. Maybe even make changes once a month.

An immediate change of your whole diet would be a lot harder to keep than one simple change once in a while.

For example, simply cut out soda as a start. Stop drinking soda tomorrow, if you want to, and don’t drink it again. Next month you could go a step further and drop candy and ice cream, or fast food.

So you won’t be doing an immediate change, but a gradual change that will help you make better choices and aid in lifelong fitness. It’s all a matter of preference, though. Have a great night!

No One Size Fits All Diet!

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For one thing, everyone has a Basal Metabolic Rate and you can go about 500 calories above your BMR for bulking or 500 below for cutting. You can figure yours out by googling “Basal Metabolic Calculator”.

I’m not sure if these calculators will be completely accurate but you could use them as a baseline and then just check your weight periodically after setting a daily caloric limit.

If you’re gaining a bit too fast and getting fat, then you’d just lower your calories a little bit. If you’re doing the opposite and it feels like you can’t gain any muscle, you’d want to increase your calories slightly until you see better results.

Due to your body being different than your friends, you’re going to have to eat different amounts to get results. Everyone’s different. Know your body, and figure out what diet works best for you.

Gym Buddy/Relationship Goals

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It really helps a lot in the gym to have a good gym buddy to work out with. If you can find someone who shares the same interest in whatever type of program you are doing (ex. Weight lifting, conditioning, bodybuilding, strongman, running..) then you can probably get better results. It will help you if you have someone pushing you harder the whole time.

I remember back in high school I didn’t think I would ever get in shape and I felt miserable because I hadn’t competed in any athletics so my junior year I ran cross country. I went from not being able to run a mile to running 3 miles in under 20 minutes. I had also gotten in great shape, cutting down from 200 lbs to 180 lbs.

I found that being on that cross country team with runners who were better than me and were my friends motivated me. I use that same tactic today just with a different goal, gaining lean muscle. I am currently bulking and went from 220 to 230 lbs these past few months, thanks in part to having a good gym partner to keep me on track.

So if you want the extra push or motivation you can have, find a gym buddy or boyfriend/girlfriend who has the same fitness goals as you and workout together.

I can’t remember where I heard this but just remember that “those who train together, gain together.”