Good Morning. Yes, both bars provide different engagements. First of all, the standard bar works the rear muscles more thoroughly including the lower back, hamstrings, glutes, and adductors. The trap bar works MOSTLY the front muscles, including the quads and core. The trap bar is more similar of a movement to a squat than a deadlift. You can also use the trap bar to do heavy shrugs, which is helpful.

As a result, I would try to stick to standard deadlifts, and just pay attention to your form. Wear a good belt, and use straps if necessary.

Depending on your own body's sensitivity to dairy, both are fine to consume regularly. However, I would advise to stick to organic vs regular, due to the increased shelf life, as well as no added hormones of organic.

If you have a sensitivity to dairy, then obviously you need to be careful consuming both.

Conduct a lean bulk. The basis for which is to find your general BMR. From there, you will do strength training as usual, add 30 mins of HIIT cardio, and then calculate total caloric expenditure, finally adding a total of 300 cals to that.

Example. If you are needing 2,000 cals to meet your BMR, per day, then 1 hr of weight lifting + 30 mins of HIIT (around 700 cals), you are burning 2,700 cals per day. Your total intake then, should be approximately 3,000 cals on workout days. On non-workout days, it would be 2,300 (300 more than BMR).

You would also eat fewer carbs on non-workout days (somewhere in the area of 100g fewer on non-workout days).

Pay attention to your body and increase/decrease as necessary. If you start gaining fat, reduce total calories by reducing carbs. If you are not gaining rapidly enough, increase total calories, with a 40/40/20 split of protein/carbs/fat.

I weight 194lbs 5'11. I bulked. Recently Ive been training Jim Wedlers 5/3/1 since jan. Love the gains. Before that i was doing a 5x5 each muscle core per day.

I want to be at 180 of pure muscle and lean. I found this diet plan (i know its silly, but it seems to be working for him)

Breakfast - granola bar + banana. Coffee
Lunch - hot pockets/lean pockets
Snack - beef jerky
Dinner - Chicken + veggies/black beans

From what I can see, all that matter is calorie intake low. I dont prefer to cook either. It just doesnt work with my time.

Is this a valid diet plan? Im training hard aswell. Would it make me leaner but still keep the muscle gains.

hello, i've been jogging daily ( sometimes not on weekends ) for about 30min for past 6 months. BUT, i went off the rails during the holidays and got a couple weeks worth of sickness after. for the past month i've been back on the horse, my problem is time. i'm a pretty busy dad / work FT. i'm about 6 foot or 6'1" and i'm guessing around 260lbs, could be a little less. i've never done any kind of HIIT workouts. i'd like to use this in my daily routine, any thoughts as to what i should do?
goal: lose weight ( not sure on ideal weight, maybe 220 but idk what that even looks like for my height )

food: i use to eat really crappy. but i've flipped it around. eating salad/chicken, salad/rice, salad with black beans, stuff like that for dinner. while at work, i have about 3 bannanas + 2 apples, and a meal replacement shake. all spread out throughout the day.

environment: i exercise at work, we have a track. i also have a private office, if thats better for HIIT. on weekends or at nights ( i exercise here and there at night at home, will start doing it daily though ) i have an apartment gym. gym contains elliptical, treadmill, those heavy ball things, and a multi-function weight system, and like 5lb or 10lb dumbbells. haven't checked, but their tiny.

so, what can i do to rapidly lose weight in such a time crunch? i'd say, i can spend about an hour at my home gym, maybe hour and a half.



i would also like to get strong, all through out my body ( chest, shoulders, biceps, legs ). idk if this should wait?

This post was edited by Bankai on Feb 6 2015 06:01pm

hey raynor, do u have any routine to hit every body parts 2x a week?
preferably a str routine

This post was edited by Noun on Feb 6 2015 06:18pm

That diet plan is absolutely awful.

First of all, you are protein deprived. Secondly you have very low fiber, and very low overall nutrition. Hot Pockets are processed garbage with tons of additives, high sodium, and low overall protein. Beef jerky is good for a snack, but for the price, it's much cheaper to eat eggs or whey protein. The only valid meal here is the Dinner meal, as chicken and green veggies is very common for any type of cut. The black beans also are very filling and give you a good amount of fiber and slow digesting carbs.

Instead of using a starvation diet, go for something more tailored to you.

If you want to be 180 lbs, you will need 1,800 cals on non-workout days, and approximately 300-500 additional calories per hour of exercise on workout days (depending on intensity).

You should limit carb intake to no more than 200g on non-workout days, and 300g on workout days. Protein must be at LEAST 200g on non-workout days, and 250-300g on workout days.

Keep the carbs during the first 2 meals prior to working out, and the meal immediately after. All other meals should be zero carb.

As far as a sample diet goes:

First thing upon waking - Drink 2 cups of coffee (or take 3 GAT Jet Fuel) with 20 oz water and perform 20 mins of fasting cardio.
Meal 1 (wait another 15 mins after finishing cardio) - 40g Protein shake w/ 1 cup oatmeal (cooked volume) + handful of berries
Meal 2 - 6oz chicken breast + large green salad + o-oil and vinegar
Meal 3 - 5 oz lean beef (90/10 or better) w/ mixed veggies
Meal 4 - 6 oz chicken breast + 1/2 cup black beans + 1/2 cup green pepper
Meal 5 (assuming this is POST WORKOUT, if not adjust this meal to PWO) - 1 Protein shake + 1 tbsp peanut butter + handful mixed berries
Meal 6 - 1 cup cottage cheese + 1 TSP peanut butter + cinnamon


Obviously, on non-workout days you can reduce the calories accordingly. You can also increase/decrease as necessary based on your body and its unique metabolism.

to go with what i posted, i also posted my day's intake.

http://forums.d2jsp.org/topic.php?t=72201316&f=60

This post was edited by Bankai on Feb 7 2015 07:49pm

Hello there. First of all, in order to get down to the 220 lb mark, you will need approx 2,200 cals on non-workout days, and around 2,500 cals on workout days (assuming 1 hr of medium intensity training - you can add more calories if you work out more, but figure 300 cals per hour of medium intensity).

Here is a sample diet plan (2,500 cals)

Meal 1 - 3 whole eggs + 5 egg whites + green peppers and onions + 1 cup oatmeal (cooked volume) + handful of mixed berries (any)
Meal 2 - 6 oz grilled chicken + 1 large salad + 1 tbsp olive oil + vinegar
Meal 3 - 2 slices whole grain bread + 1 can of tuna + 1 oz of 2% cheese + 1tbsp mayo + veggies (tuna sandwich
Meal 4 - 6 oz grilled sirloin steak (trim off the fat) + 1/2 cup black beans + 1/2 cup brown rice + veggies + 1 tbsp olive oil
Meal 5 - 40g protein shake + handful mixed berries + 1 slice whole grain bread w/ 1 tbsp peanut butter and 1 tsp jelly
Meal 6 - 1 cup of 2-4% cottage cheese + handful mixed berries + 10 almonds + cinnamon to taste


On non-workout days (2,200 cals)

Meal 1 - 2 slices whole grain toast + 2 tbsp peanut butter + 1 tsp jelly + 20g protein shake (half a shake basically)
Meal 2 - 4 oz LEAN ground beef or steak + 1 cup broccoli + 1 cup black beans
Meal 3 - 1 large apple, 1 large banana, 20g protein shake
Meal 4 - 6 oz chicken breast + large green salad + olive oil and vinegar
Meal 5 - 6 oz salmon or other fish + green beans + carrots
Meal 6 - 1/2 cup greek yogurt + handful of mixed nuts




As far as routine goes:


Do a full 45 minutes of strength training at the gym. I don't know exactly what you have available to you, however I'll let you pick the exercises based on your knowledge and intuition. Stick to upper/lower splits, meaning work upper body on day 1, lower on day 2, and so forth, like this


Day 1 - upper
Day 2 - lower
Day 3 - OFF
day 4 - upper
day 5 - lower
day 6 - OFF
day 7 - OFF

This is 4 days a week, if you want to add more go ahead. Cardio immediately afterwards, in the form of HIIT (at least 15-30 mins worth).


good luck

Here are a few:


http://forums.d2jsp.org/topic.php?t=21269614&f=60&p=345358141
Hypertrophy Plan 3-on-1-off (regular)

http://forums.d2jsp.org/topic.php?t=21269614&f=60&p=353331310
Hypertrophy Plan 3-on-1-off (modified for BB, DB, and Bench)


Or for pure power:


6 day POWER training

The 5x5 plan is basically 5 reps for 5 sets of a particular exercise for most days. Other exercises will be 5 sets of 8-12 reps. You will do at LEAST 20 total sets per day. It will be used in the following manner for 5x5:

Set 1 – 5 reps of 60% max weight
Set 2 – 5 reps of 70% max weight
Set 3 – 5 reps of 85% max weight
Set 4 – 5 reps of 85% max weight
Set 5 – 5 reps of 90% max weight

So if you can bench press 225 lbs for 1 rep, your set would look like this –
Set 1 – 135 lbs [135 x 5]
Set 2 – 155 lbs [155 x 5]
Set 3 - 185 lbs [185 x 5]
Set 4 - 185 lbs [185 x 5]
Set 5 – 205 lbs [205 x 5]

Day 1 (Chest/Tris) - Bench Press 5x5, Incline Bench Press 5x5 , Decline Bench Press 5x5, Close-Grip Bench Press 5x5 , Skullcrushers 5x12, Close-Grip Dips 5x12

Day 2 (Back/Bis) - Deadlifts 5x5, Bent Over BB rows or T-Bar Rows 5x5, Weighted Pull-ups or Lat Pulldowns 5x5, Olympic Bar Curls 5x12, E-Z Preacher Curls 5x12, Alternating DB Curls 5x12

Day 3 (Legs/Shoulders) - Squats 5x5, Leg Press 5x5, Calf Raises 5x12, Military Press 5x5, Front Raises 5x12, BB Shrugs 5x12

Day 4 - OFF

Day 5 - repeat day 1

Day 6 - Repeat day 2

Day 7 - Repeat day 3

Day 8 - OFF


Alternatively, you can do 6 days in a row, taking the 7th day off, then repeat, whichever is more convenient for you.


Granted this is for FUNCTIONALITY, not aesthetics.

I recommend that on all of these sets you perform each rep slowly and with control. Maintain good form, and avoid cheating unless you are trying to build more volume at the end of each set.

You MUST push yourself with these exercises. You are going to be going heavy and really cranking out each rep as if your life depends on it.


Also as far as ABS go, I want you to TRY and do at least 20 sets of abs, 2x per week. You can do whatever exercises interest you (instinct training) but make sure to work hard! I recommend roman chair situps, alternating weighted crunches, hanging leg raises, and weighted decline situps. Try to go for 5 sets of each exercise for around 8-12 VERY HARD reps.