#ryocos tips

So as a person that also worked a very labor intensive job (farmer) I’ll speak from personal experience here.

1. My first suggestion would be to see if you can workout before going into work. For me, it woke me up and warmed my body up to let me perform better at work. This is my personal experience, though.

2. If you have to work out after work, try working out later in the night after eating. Having food in your system could boost your energy levels for your workout and possible decrease how much stress you put on your already-tired muscles. Eat lots of protein for your muscles, carbs for energy, and drink some electrolytes! 

3. Adjust your routine. I decreased how heavy I lifted when I started my job as a farmer, and switched to a lower weight, higher rep routine. I found that since I was lifting heavy already at work, I was really overworking my body by trying to continue lifting heavy while at the gym. You could do 2 days of high reps during your weekdays, and 2 heavy days during your weekends. An upper body/lower body split would be perfect for this.  If I was in your shoes, I would try something like:

Monday: Upper body high rep / Tuesday: Rest / Wednesday: Lower body high rep / Thursday: Rest / Friday: Upper body heavy / Saturday: Lower body heavy / Sunday: Rest.

If you’ve just started working out, soreness is going to be a thing for a few weeks no matter what. If you’re not a beginner and the soreness is really bad, you could be straining yourself from your job + working out. I think adjusting your routine would probably help you a lot in this case.

I generally like take my ‘personal’ progress pictures in the bathroom.  All the bathrooms I’ve ever has in my places have never had a window in them, so I have always gotten consistent lighting no matter what. 

Since bathrooms are pretty small, I also split my progress shots into top and bottom sets so I didn’t have to worry about getting all of me in one shot.

Generally I do traditional bodybuilding poses when I take my progress shots, but most people take a regular standing front picture, standing back picture, and standing side pictures (both sides), then a flexing front, and flexing back shot. It can be important to get some relaxed, non-flexing shots to help see your progress, especially if you’re taking a more cardio-focused route. This is a really old picture and it wasn’t taken in my bathroom so the lightning is cheaty, but it’s an example of this method of progress pictures.

Also, be consistent with what you do before taking your pictures. I always take my pictures fasted, and after a workout. Taking your before shots before a meal and then taking your after shots after a meal, or any combination, will mess up your progress shots so much! Here is a link to a post where I show how progress shots can be manipulated/messed up with this.

So my advice:

1. Chose a spot that won’t get much sunlight. It doesn’t have to be a bathroom (that’s just how I do it)!

2. Take both relaxed and flexed pictures!

3. Be consistent with your routine before taking your pictures!

4. Most importantly, remember that progress takes time, so don’t be discouraged if your weekly pictures don’t look different. I saw good progress pictures progress at least 6 months after getting into fitness.

Hope that helps!

I have an old youtube video on working up to your first pull-up. Below is a general write up.

You can start at the bench station: Lay on a flat bench with the barbell unloaded and racked. With your hands in bench press position, pull your body up from the laying position up until your chest is near the barbell. Do these for sets of however many you can do.

Get to a smith machine: Adjust the bar to a little lower than chest height. Hold onto the bar with both hands and create an angle with your body (your feet should be waaaay in front of you). Mimic a pull up with your feet on the ground.  It’ll look just like doing the table assisted pull-up pictured below, only picture the smith-machine bar instead of the table edge.

Assisted pull up machine: Do sets every back day. I started my pull up training with one of these. Not many gyms have them, however. If yours does, stop using it once you surpass the smallest weight assistance (usually 25lbs) and move onto the next step.

Reverse pull ups: This will usually be the final exercise before you can do pull ups. Find a smith machine with the bar above chest height, or a pull up station (you’ll have to find a step-up box to get you to the top of the pull up position). You’ll start the exercise at the topmost position and slowly lower yourself down the the lowest position of the pul lup. Release and climb back up the top position. Do this for sets/reps.

Tips: 1. Just hang around. Build up grip strength by hanging for as long as you can at  a pull up station (or anything else you can hang off of).

2. Do chin ups: While it works some different muscles than the traditional pull up, it is a great way to practice lifting yourself up with the aid of your biceps. You can also slowly widen your grip with chin ups to transition into pull ups!

If you’re not eating enough calories in a day (doing a cut) then your body will mostly use the protein to keep your body ruining rather than building muscle. If you are eating at a surplus (doing a bulk) then the protein is used for building muscle.

Your body can use protein to build muscles for up to 2 days after a workout (based on some studies I’ve seen) so the timing doesn’t matter in terms of how that protein gets used. As long as you are eating at a surplus, that protein will get used for muscle building even if you are doing cardio after having a protein shake.

So the barbell squats work out different muscles depending on which form you use. High bar is quad dominant and low bar is hamstring dominant, so squats are just a general really good lower body exercise.

If you want help in figuring out why you are bad at barbell squats, we can delve into that but you don’t need to do barbell squats if being a powerlifter isn’t your immediate goal. I actually don’t do back barbell squats anymore and I’m doing fine (I’ve replaced it with front squats entirely).

I like to do dumbbell/kettle bell squats in which I hold a single weight in front of my chest. This is good for the quads and I also feel it really good in my glutes.

The leg press is also another good general leg exercise, and IMO it’s a better exercise for making your legs look bigger (even if it won’t make you as strong as other exercises). If you place your feet closer together it is a quad exercise, and if you place your feet further apart it is a hamstring exercise.

Jumping squats are another exercise that can be good for working the legs, if your knees allow for jumping.

Lunges are one of the best glute/hamstring exercises. I would include lunges in any leg workout.

Of course there are the many leg machines like the leg curl and leg extensions as well.

When you sit you better isolate the bicep. While standing there can be a tendency to sway your hips or use other muscles to curl the weight up. By sitting down you take away your lower half and force your hips to be still, which also forces you to use more of your biceps.

Concentration curls (the ones you see between the legs) is done to force concentration on the bicep and take away any other muscle group from helping.

Howdy! I have tag called beginner help / ryocos tips. Its a collection of asks / posts that I think can help beginners in general. I even have a guide for some of the main exercises. 

I also have some youtube videos, though some are pretty outdated but most of the exercises are things I still do.

As for my food, I eat whatever I want! I just count calories (I eyeball my calories though, since I’m pretty used to how much I can/can’t eat. I recommend beginners pick up MyFitnessPal to get started). I eat mealpreps for my lunches and regular dinners, along with other snacks throughout the day.

My current routine is a bro-split with a focus on arms and abs:

Day 1: Chest, triceps and abs.

Day 2: Legs, biceps and abs.

Day 3: Shoulders, triceps and abs.

Day 4: Back, biceps and abs.

Day 5: Legs, tricep and abs.

Nice goal! There are a few things you can do to help increase your trap bar deadlift:

You can do heavy shrugs with the trap bar to increase the strength of your traps, which helps you lockout at the top.

You can do farmers walks with the trap bar to increase your grip strength and grip stamina.

If you have issues getting heavy weights OFF the ground, then elevate yourself by standing on a plate or anything else that’s short and study and do your deadlift like that. This will help train the muscles involved with getting the weight off the floor.

If you have issue locking out at the TOP then do do rack pulls with a heavy weight to practice locking out.