So I like plants and gardening. My appartment is full of plants and I have a small herb nursery in my window sill. I’m currently growing three basil plants and a pepper plant.
I go to social media for tips and tricks and as usual it’s full of people with grade A set ups producing lots of herbs and veggies and stuff. I started growing my pepper plant and after weeks I managed to produce a whopping number of 1 pepper. The weird thought that occurred to me was: I failed. I failed because my pepper plant isn’t as productive as the plants I see online.
Meanwhile: did I have fun doing this? Yes, I loved watching the progress of this plant. I did feel cool when I added my home grown pepper to my dinner. Isn’t that what hobbies are about?
How many people are out there quitting things because they aren’t immediately good at it because social media primed us to crave instant satisfaction through constant dopamine hits? Pick up hobbies, be bad at them, learn, have fun.
Well I’m focused on gaining weight and getting bigger muscles/muscle hypertrophy, so I don’t do many skills, just the basics done with high intensity, close to or at muscular failure in the 6-15 rep range. So definitely not high rep calisthenics. I’ve been training seriously for your about over a year and a half, in my early 20s, 70kg/154lbs at 185cm/6’1. Before starting, I used to weigh 57kg/125lbs. Once I get to 15 reps, I change out the exercise for a harder variation. I’ll put my current rep counts in brackets. All reps are pause reps with controlled negatives, this is very important so that you don’t cheat the reps by using momentum.
Day 1:
Three sets of chest to bar pull ups (10), three sets of single leg squats(13 on each leg), three sets of decline push ups with elevated hands for a deeper chest stretch (12), and three sets of single leg calf raises with a deep heel stretch and an 8 second negative (11).
Day 2:
Three sets of single arm inverted rows (12), three sets of of partial rep Nordic curls (6), three sets of pike push ups with elevated hands and feet for a deeper stretch (8), and three sets of tibialis raises for ankle health (15).
Day 3:
Same as day 1.
Day 4:
Same as day 2.
After this, rest for one or two days, depending on fatigue. If really exhausted, rest for a third day.
For me diet has always been focused on clean bulking because I was so underweight. I’ve found peanut butter to be very helpful in adding calories to meals. I put it in my oatmeal now, also lots of peanut butter sandwiches. Also rice is really cheap where I live. So I had a lot of egg fried rice with some protein with chicken or beans added to it and cheap vegetables like carrots, with lots of spices and soy sauce for flavour.
Thanks a lot, for the detailed reply, especially with the videos, rep counts and info on your nutrition. Thanking you for the extra effort you put in it.
In my case, I’m sort of ‘skinny fat’(saw the term on yt). I have a belly(not too big, but noticeable) and when I try to flatten it up by decreasing food intake, the belly remains and my face starts to lose fat making me look malnourished.
Recently I git a pair of cheap dumbbells and started doing some rows, bicep curls, shrugs, tricep exercises etc.
I feel that my belly is in-effect smaller now, as other parts of my body are starting to look a bit bigger.
I also think that I should maybe practise holding in my stomach a bit, because when I see people on youtube, movies, random videos n all, most of them look like they are keeping it contracted.
And regarding rice, rice is very popular in my region too. We eat it in some form for all 3 meals.
Putting this as a separate comment, as it may be too much random stuff to comment here or bother you with, with me making this a pseudo health questions thread, going away from OP’s topic. Will delete this comment if so.
I found YouTube links in your comment. Here are links to the same videos on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
Link 1:
Link 2:
Link 3: