u/Shank_

Hi everyone! Was hoping to get some feedback on my current routine and see what more I can do to increase muscle.

For reference, I am a 6'2 male at around 200-205lbs. I've been lifting since college, so about 9ish years but I am not a bodybuilder by any means. In the past few years I burned out on lifting and as a result stopped caring as much. (used to try and do a six day PPL split for a few years) Recently I pulled my lift days back to 3 days a week and it's been a nice adjustment, however I feel like I'm missing something with it and could be doing more.

My routine is as follows:

Monday - Upper A

• Bench press: 4x5 ## been trying to increase the volume on this one and getting better. Currently around 205 x 5.
• OHP: 4x5 ## currently around 115x5 but I'm worried about form
• Seated Rows: 3x12
• Bodyweight pull ups: 3xfailure ## lately failure has been 4. does not feel good, wish I could do more!
• Dumbbell Shoulder Press: 3x12 ## currently around 55lbs I think?
• Hammer Curls: 4x12 ## these felt tedious when I was doing one arm at a time, so I started doing both arms and it feels better
• Tricep Pushdowns: 3x12

Wednesday - Lower

• Squat: 3x5 ## around 225lbs right now, again worried about form all the time. Extremely worried about tweaking my back and getting fucked up as I've done this before a few times.
• Hex bar deadlift: 3xwhatever ## this one is tricky. I do not like deadlifting, and have never been able to get the form down. Literally fumbled a gym crush over this. I find my hex bar deadlift is comfortable but at times I realize I'm just squatting. Might replace with something else.
• Leg press: 3x6 plates ## the old reliable.
• Lying Leg Curls: 3x12
• Standing Calf Raises: 4x20 ## this is nice but I'm currently around 320lbs for 20 reps and still don't have huge calves. Skill/form issue? Should I be going slower?

Friday - Upper B

• Incline Bench Press: 4x12 ## 135lbs right now but I feel I can go higher
• Lat Pulldowns: 3x12
• Lateral Raises: 3x15
• Triceps Extension: 3x12
• Preacher Curl: 3x12

Outside of this I don't do much cardio in the gym. I try to get out on the bike a fair bit when I can on weekends/with friends and walk in my neighborhood often. I try to get in and get out within an hour after work because I'm tired, and unfortunately I don't have time in the morning to get to the gym before work at 8am (gym opens at 7am). I also find that Monday feels pretty heavy in comparison to the other two days and often goes for longer than one hour.

I've recently started to just try and make everything go to failure which has been helpful, but it's difficult to remind myself every single time. I'd like to optimize things more and figure out my weak spots here. Obviously I'd like to be more lean but would prefer to build more muscle first before attempting to cut down. I basically feel like I'm not pushing myself enough - like my sessions just feel like I'm going through the motions and another thing I have to do in the day before I get home. Should I pay for a PT to show me my weak points as a refresher? Maybe do more cardio? I don't take any supplements, eat three meals a day and prioritize protein in most meals.

Let me know what you think and if I can change/add/remove anything from this.

I’ve always wondered how I can answer the inevitable question of “so what do you do!” At weddings or parties. Every time I say “I work in IT!” I get a lot of “oh…”s from people which is weird to me. Even going deeper and saying “yeah I work with servers and do fun computer stuff” doesn’t really help here. I’ve always struggled with describing what I do to new people, how do you do it? Personally I’m considering just telling people I’m a “corporate firefighter” or something not serious going forward.

I’ve had three IT jobs since college, and lately I can’t stop comparing them.
Job 1 — Video conferencing specialist. It took about a month to learn the systems and figure out how the office actually worked. After that, I had maybe 30 minutes of real work a day. The rest of the time I just had to be there in case something broke or someone needed me. I stayed two and a half years because the benefits were good, but I could feel the time disappearing every single day. It reminded me of working security at a bar, except a bouncer at least talks to people. I was just a body in a chair, on standby for a problem that usually didn’t come.
Job 2 — IT at a bank. Small team, four of us. Worst pay of the three by far, but easily the best experience I’ve had. Constant meetings, constant collaboration, always in the loop on what we were building and why. It was hybrid, and somehow that never burned me out — office days were for absorbing everything going on, remote days were for actually getting heads-down work done. I left because another company offered me almost double what I was making there.
Job 3 — where I am now. The pay bump job. In office five days a week, 8 to 4. My manager isn’t great, and there’s basically no collaboration unless something’s actively on fire. Lately they’ve been sending me out to different sites because they need a body somewhere, not because the work specifically needs me. Today was a normal Monday: long stretches of sitting and waiting, not much actually happening.
So I keep landing on the same question: is this just what a lot of IT is? Is a big chunk of these jobs really just “be present in case something happens,” dressed up as a technical career? The roles I actually want — sysadmin, something more hands-on — feel completely gatekept. I can’t tell if the field is shrinking, if I’m missing some invisible requirement, or what, but I haven’t found a way through despite trying.
I watched a video today of some guy about my age, sitting in his car, calling himself a “wage slave,” saying to try as many different things as you can while you’re young — because once you’re locked into one career path for years, it gets a lot harder to see a way out of it. That one hit harder than I expected. I’ve done bar work, I’ve done delivery driving. Bars are fine for fast cash, not a way to actually live. The delivery guys I knew were pulling 70-hour weeks. So realistically, IT is all I really know.
What the bank job proved to me is that a good team and a good manager can make even a low-paying, unglamorous job genuinely worth showing up for. I just haven’t found that combination again since.
So — anyone else feel this? Is there an actual tier of IT work where you stop being “on call in case something happens” and start doing real, engaging work most of the day? Or is that rarer than I think?

I’ve had three IT jobs since college, and lately I can’t stop comparing them.
Job 1 — Video conferencing specialist. It took about a month to learn the systems and figure out how the office actually worked. After that, I had maybe 30 minutes of real work a day. The rest of the time I just had to be there in case something broke or someone needed me. I stayed two and a half years because the benefits were good, but I could feel the time disappearing every single day. It reminded me of working security at a bar, except a bouncer at least talks to people. I was just a body in a chair, on standby for a problem that usually didn’t come.
Job 2 — IT at a bank. Small team, four of us. Worst pay of the three by far, but easily the best experience I’ve had. Constant meetings, constant collaboration, always in the loop on what we were building and why. It was hybrid, and somehow that never burned me out — office days were for absorbing everything going on, remote days were for actually getting heads-down work done. I left because another company offered me almost double what I was making there.
Job 3 — where I am now. The pay bump job. In office five days a week, 8 to 4. My manager isn’t great, and there’s basically no collaboration unless something’s actively on fire. Lately they’ve been sending me out to different sites because they need a body somewhere, not because the work specifically needs me. Today was a normal Monday: long stretches of sitting and waiting, not much actually happening.
So I keep landing on the same question: is this just what a lot of IT is? Is a big chunk of these jobs really just “be present in case something happens,” dressed up as a technical career? The roles I actually want — sysadmin, something more hands-on — feel completely gatekept. I can’t tell if the field is shrinking, if I’m missing some invisible requirement, or what, but I haven’t found a way through despite trying.
I watched a video today of some guy about my age, sitting in his car, calling himself a “wage slave,” saying to try as many different things as you can while you’re young — because once you’re locked into one career path for years, it gets a lot harder to see a way out of it. That one hit harder than I expected. I’ve done bar work, I’ve done delivery driving. Bars are fine for fast cash, not a way to actually live. The delivery guys I knew were pulling 70-hour weeks. So realistically, IT is all I really know.
What the bank job proved to me is that a good team and a good manager can make even a low-paying, unglamorous job genuinely worth showing up for. I just haven’t found that combination again since.
So — anyone else feel this? Is there an actual tier of IT work where you stop being “on call in case something happens” and start doing real, engaging work most of the day? Or is that rarer than I think?

Just when you think life can’t get any worse it comes around and kicks you in the balls.

Funny imagery however of me immediately realizing I got locked out, grabbing the ladder in the hallway to try and climb through my window,(???) and subsequently falling off the ladder sideways as my window was locked.

Happy Memorial Day.

Ungrateful users, bosses that treat you like an idiot for not knowing everything, management burnt out, dead office culture, no work from home to de-stress - how do you guys keep doing this? Had a rough week at my job (internal help desk) and seriously haven’t had intrusive you-should-quit-TODAY thoughts this bad in my life. I have no in person coworkers but I work in an office with my checked out boss. Need advice here