bozodos

as if not train in a singlet all year round. Works for me.

Thanks for the advice Markos - I'll continue with your beginner workout. It's a pity that all of the strength type gyms around here are crossfit only though. Do you no longer get the overweight beginner types now? I'll hit you up again once I've hit your beginner target for deadlift and bench, I think some of the problem may be a mental one. Maybe one day I'll be as strong as one of your girls, or old people

dunno about where you guys live, but around here you can always find cheap gym equipment from people who lapse and end up never using it.

Ok I'll give it a go. If you no longer think what you put in your newsletters is relevant, why are they still there without any explanation of that? It confuses the hell out of me because the routine you then suggest is totally different to what u thought you wanted people to do. thought you were all into doing the big 3 lifts multiple times a week. I then thought your beginner program would be really beneficial but no? I meant cardio days if I was doing your 3 day a week beginners plan, with that routine you suggested I would not. Are you able to tell me why I'd be doing isolation exercises though? I'm not trying to question you, I just like to know the reasons behind things. As for effort, well I push myself as hard as I can, the results will speak for themselves. I'm still a bit unsure about the diet thing - I'm 180cm, and last time I weighed about 120kg, mostly carried on my stomach. From what I calculated my bmr is about 2300, and I've dropped 20kg since January if that helps. Eating fairly closely to your previously posted diet advice, or have you revised that too? I did notice it was hard to eat enough on it when eating only lean meat and minimal carbs.

Well so much for 110kg being my 1rm, I did 2 sets of 15 tonight, albeit with difficulty!

Is that a joke routine? You mention numerous times in your newsletters what a wank excercises like tricep pressdowns and leg press are, and the folly of a very low calorie diet - I'm totally confused here. My BMR is 2300 calories alone.That goes totally against what you've put in your newsletters, so I'm assuming this is your very dry sense of humour having a go at me. If you're being sincere, fair enough. I'm seriously asking for advice on what cardio I can do minus kettlebells to at least mimic the stuff you do there - the thrusters look like a good addition for my routine. If I lived anywhere near a PTC, I'd go to one, trust me.

I realise that I can't have it all at once - but you did ask what my goals were! I'm doing your beginners workout, with what I've mentioned above at lighter weights on the cardio days, so 5 days a week I train, I was eating at ~1000cal defecit, I've dropped that to ~500 or so and increased protein intake, low carb, whilst eating more than what I was, especially post workout. Are you saying that I'm going the wrong way about it for cardio? I'm currently focused on cutting fat and building strength, I did not think the two were mutually exclusive for me. Unfortunately I'm still too fat to eat at a surplus just yet, I'll reassess the situation once I'm down to around 100kg or so. Obviously I won't be unrealistic about strength gains until I'm eating enough to suit.

I'm fat, attempting to build strength, lose fat, muscular endurance, and muscle size in that order of priority.

do you still stand by your beginner program of issue #39 , and is it overdoing it if I do pullups/chinups, pushups/lunges/squat press on the cardio days? (no room for farmers walk in my gym, nor does it have kettlebells).

I started doing negatives of chinups today and then did my assisted pullups - I can get half of a regular chinup out now! Cut the assistance weight in half, though chins/pullups are a movement i'd also not done much of until lately, in favour of lat pulldowns.

All I usually see in my gym are curlbros, footballers and hungry skeleton types, with the odd competitive bodybuilder / obvious juicer who smashes out on the machines and only does light compounds (they also may be training multiple times a day, I don't know). Haven't seen many other fatties doing anything other than sitting around on the pec dec machine though. I look up to one of my training partners for an example, sub 12% bodyfat, big muscles, and very strong (at least compared to everyone else at the gym). He also has a good knowledge of proper form and mobility movements like stretching, so has been a HUGE help to me. Markos, yeah I was trying to get an idea of whether I should be trying to add every session - I was reading through your thread on AusBB and got the answer I was after (yes until it slows down, then every week).

Oh well, at least I only wasted 6 months doing bro routines, not years! With your beginner program, is the intention still to add weight on every session?

I know how Markos will respond to that as well lol. He'll probably say he'll listen after you post your results. I train with two big strong looking guys and they both only just surpass those 'beginner' numbers. I also have never seen anyone at my gym go over 100kg bench, or 100kg squats / deadlits. Even the aesthetic, bulky looking guys. I've never stepped foot in a PTC though, and from all the reading, it seems to be more of an indicator of just how weak people at commercial gyms are, given how many people go to PTC and can surpass those numbers easily. I stopped using gloves / pad on squats, I prefer not using either now - I think i was using them as a crutch for a lack of strength.

Markos generally talks about using 1RM as a measure of strength, so I'd assume so.

there's a wrong way of doing lunges? :S

I don't know what the 'rules' are, but Ive done a set of 10 at 140 and below parallel. So have my training partners. I've done 1 at 170kg once too, but don't know if I could replicate it. I was regularly doing 120 x 10 x 4 until I started doing 20 x 100 sets the other week. That was with the pussy pad, in a power rack, I didn't pause at the bottom if you're meant to do that if that's what you're getting at. FWIW I leg press 260kg if that can be compared. I've got no reason to talk my lifts up to anyone, and it baffles the shit out of me that I'm so stuck on deadlifts comparatively. Maybe my form is just that shithouse - I did have a lot of trouble with grip strength until very recently as well. Started your beginners program tonight, it was quite the workout! Ended up doing the SLDLs @ 70kg.

I can do the squat and bench, but my deadlift is ~90-110kg, which is partly why I'm starting your beginner program and eating more (that and realising that bodypart split training is not going to get me where I want to go very effectively). Should I do SLDL, RDL or regular deadlifts to try and fix that? Or like with most of it, it does not matter as long as I am doing some form of deadlift more than once a week?

trying to get stronger and ideally less bodyfat.

I thought you were against fruit in the afternoon and eating rice etc unless bulking Markos? I've started eating 2 x burgers with decent protein content first thing (plain because I like them like that, usually Kangaroo or the sphincter of the universe), banana + protein shake @ 9am, lean meat like chicken breast or beef/tomato/beans + veg for lunch, protein shake at 3.30pm, protein shake post workout, then most nights steak + veg followed by a Chobani yogurt for dinner. I skip the potato / bread etc for the most part. I could eat more meat, but I'm struggling eating it 3 times a day as it is!

I did some experimenting about pre workout eating - for me it seems to be protein (usually a shake for convenience) an hour and a half or so before gives me more energy. That and sleeping more.

sounds like much the way I do it now - minus the 1RM, but I'll give it a go next time I do regular deadlifts!

usually about 4x10 @ 90-100kg depending on the day and how slippery the bar is (no chalk or gloves). The program I'm starting this week is 3x15 SLDL on each of the 3 days, I plan to stick with it for 6 weeks at least so will report back afterwards!

just can't pick up any more weight off the floor - like it won't move, or I can feel that my back is rounding. What do you mean by using a 1rm to break a plateau? I've always been erring on the lighter side with deadlift due to paranoia about hurting my back if I don't pull it off the floor correctly. Have also realised that my diet had gone too low in calories / protein, and my generic bro split routine was probably not helping either.

I'm still blowing out at 110kg x 5, or 100kg x 10, really frustrating given that it seems to be so weak compared to my squat or bench. Starting Markos' beginners program this week with SLDL, so be interesting to see how it goes.

probably depends where you're starting from mate