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How Lifting Aided my Self-Improvement

  • amarticles21
  • Feb 10, 2022
  • 4 min read

Josh Chang is a 23-year-old Consultant and Bodybuilder. Although he works a demanding STEM job in the day, he also helps others as a Personalized Online Fitness Coach. Today, he shares his own story of how lifting and fitness helped his Self-Improvement. Thanks, Josh.


Advice and Tips for Lifters

By: Josh Chang


What’s up everyone, I’ve been a lurker on this website for a while and really support the cause. I think media and society in general definitely overlook Asian males, especially when it comes to social and professional settings. Through my experience as a second-generation Asian-American, specifically a Chinese/Taiwanese male, I have gone through countless numbers of rejection, not only in dating, but also in a social male setting (not getting into a fraternity the first time I rushed), which led me down the rabbit hole of self-improvement, and learning about behavioral psychology and seduction.


One of the pillars of self-improvement is fitness and the goal of this post is to provide a guide with advice and tips to help expedite those gainz we all go to the gym for. While there are a ton of free resources online about this topic, I personally found that it was pretty difficult to sift through the bullshit and find content that was helpful (you’ll notice a trend of people juicing their brains out giving advice to natty lifters… that’s a rant for another post). So if you’re a beginner, have been lifting for a while but haven’t seen much progress, or are a pro lifter and want to read for shits and gigs, I hope you can take something out of this post. Definitely feel free to comment if you want to add something I’m missing or have any question.

A little background about myself, I’m 5’ 7” and weigh around 170 lbs right now. My gym PRs on the powerlifts are: 405 squat, 315 bench, and 500 lb deadlift. I played competitive soccer growing up and ended up playing Division III soccer in college for a year before injuring myself and getting foot surgery. I decided I was more into lifting at this point (Sophomore year of college) and wasn’t having as much fun playing soccer so I quit competitive soccer and started taking lifting more seriously. I’ve been lifting seriously for around three and a half years now and have opted with the natural route. Not condemning anyone that uses the special sauce, but I don’t think the health risks associated with blasting tren are worth it for me considering fitness is just a hobby for me. Additionally, my ideal physique isn’t a life-size chode, there’s only so much muscle you can put on a short frame like mine lol.

I’ll try to make this post straightforward and easy-to-follow by breaking it down into three components:

  1. Training

  2. Nutrition

  3. Supplements

Training

Since there are so many free workout programs online to explore, I’ll keep this section simple and recommend a beginner program, as well as post a self-made program I was running before starting contest prep.

As a beginner, it’s very important to stay consistent and a program that is solid if you’re looking to lift 3 times per week is the StrongLifts 5 x 5 Program


. It’s a great program that covers the powerlifts: squat, bench, and deadlift, as well as other compound movements and isolation exercises.

For my own program, I incorporate high frequency (one of the key components of a solid program for natural lifters), with a modified push pull leg (PPL) split (to ensure adequate frequency and volume for each muscle group). Here’s a breakdown of PPL:

  • Push: Chest, Shoulders, Triceps

  • Pull: Back, Biceps

  • Legs: Lower body muscle groups

Here’s the self-made program that I was running that will help you achieve good results if you stick with it (plug in your 1 RM – 1 RM calculator


). The set-rep format I utilize in the post is: is sets x weight x reps or sets x reps:


Day 1 – Push

  • Barbell Bench Press (Reverse Pyramid): 2 x 85% x 2-3, 2 x 75% x 4-6, 2 x 60% x 6-8)

  • DB Lateral Raises: 4-5 x 12

  • Incline DB Press: 4-5 x 10-12

  • Face Pulls or Reverse Pec Deck: 4 x 15

  • Tricep Rope Pushdowns: 3-4 x 8-12

  • Pec Deck or Seated Cable Flies: 4-5 x 12

  • Seated Overhead DB Extensions: 3-4 x 8-12

  • Straight Arm Rope Pulldowns: 4-5 x 12-15


Day 2 – Pull

  • Lat Pulldowns: (Pyramid): 2 x 12-15, 2 x 8-12, 4 x 6-8

  • Barbell Curls: 4-5 x 8-12

  • One Arm DB Rows: 4-5 x 12

  • One Arm DB Preacher Curls: 3-4 x 8-12

  • Rope Crunches: 4-5 x 8-12


Day 3 – Legs

  • Squat or Leg Press: 5 x 5

  • Leg Extensions: 4-5 x 12-15

  • Leg Curls: 4-5 x 12-15

  • Calf Press (on leg press machine): 4-5 x 15-20

  • Reverse DB Crunches: 4-5 x 12-15


Day 4 – Rest


Day 5 – Push

  • Incline DB Press: 4 x 6-8

  • One Arm DB Upright Rows: 4-5 x 8-12

  • Hammer Strength Iso-Lateral Press: 4-5 x 12

  • Seated Bent Over DB Flies: 4-5 x 8-12

  • Skullcrushers or Dips: 4-5 x 12-15

  • Standing Downward Cable Flies: 4-5 x 8 - 12

  • Standing Upward Cable Flies: 4-5 x 12-15


Day 6 – Pull

  • Seated Cable Rows: 4 x 8-12

  • Rope Curls: 4-5 x 8-12

  • Chest Supported Incline DB Rows: 3-3 x 12

  • Concentration Curls: 3-4 x 12

  • Barbell 21s: 3-4 x 21

  • DB Pullovers: 4-5 x 12-15

  • Rope Crunches: 4-5 x 8-12


Day 7 – Legs

  • Squat or Leg Press: 4-5 x 8-12

  • Leg Extensions: 4-5 x 8-12

  • Leg Curls: 4-5 x 8-12

  • Hip Abduction Machine: 4-5 x 12-15

  • Hip Adduction Machine: 4-5 x 12-15

  • Captain’s Chair Leg Raises (with weight between feet): 4-5 x 12-15

 
 
 

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