u/routinematters

Building up to hopefully compete next year and hamstrings have been identified as my weakest spot. I consulted with two coaches and both of them told me that my lats and quads are borderline too big but my hamstrings and delts are lacking, for bikini. Therefore, the coach I went with decided that my current split leading up to prep will be 4 days with 3 days of glute and hamstrings work, and 1 day maintaining the rest, with heavy delt work.

The problem is, the second I started working this program, I realized myself that the hamstring volume is way too high. I have more than 30 sets of hamstring work in the week and it’s a bit against my personal understanding of exercise science. I dropped the volume against his advice, and still, I feel under recovered.

More than a week ago, he switched my dumbbell RDL to a SLDL on a belt squat for more range. This range is new to my body and because of the neutral grip and stability I could go way heavier than the dumbbells, as a result, I woke up with extremely sore hamstrings. I followed up with a lot of stretching and heat but it’s been sore going on the second week now. His response to it is keeping the same frequency but dropping the volume again. I don’t feel confident that I can hit hamstrings monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday even with less volume. Note that my frequency for hamstrings prior to this program is once a week. Now we are in a disagreement that he thinks the only way to grow my hamstrings is with more volume, whilst I think I can’t sustain it but I also am concerned with the lack of development in them.

I did more research and realized that hamstrings are made up of mostly fast twitch fibers and theoretically respond well to low volume. I wonder why mine are terrible compared to my glute and quads, I suspect it’s because of my anterior pelvic tilt. I’m also interviewing new coaches now for a second advice. Wondering how everyone else is able to grow their hamstrings, especially if you had poor genetics there to begin with. And what would you have programmed for me, if you needed to grow only glutes, hamstrings and delts while maintaining everything else. Also, any suggestions to recovering awfully sore hamstrings going on weeks. Thank you.

Building up for a show next year and hamstrings have been identified as my weakest spot. I’m in a smaller division for women and the rest of me is considered competitive/over developed, for example my quads or back are close to being too muscular, according to two coaches I interviewed with. Therefore, the coach I went with decided that my current split leading up to prep will be 4 days with 3 days of glute and hamstrings work, and 1 day maintaining the rest of me.

The problem is, the second I started working this program, I realized myself that the hamstring volume is way too high. I’m a trainer myself and the program I’ve received is someone I wouldn’t have written myself, I have more than 30 sets of hamstring work in the week and it’s a bit against my personal understanding of exercise science. I dropped the volume against his advice, and still, I feel under recovered.

More than a week ago, he switched my dumbbell RDL to a SLDL on a belt squat for more range. This range is new to my body and because of the neutral grip and less stability I could go way heavier than the dumbbells, as a result, I woke up with extremely sore hamstrings. I followed up with a lot of stretching and heat but it’s been sore going on the second week now. His response to it is keeping the same frequency but dropping the volume again. I don’t feel confident that I can hit hamstrings monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday even with less volume. Note that my frequency for hamstrings prior to this program is once a week. Now we are in a disagreement that he thinks the only way to grow my hamstrings is with more volume, whilst I think I can’t sustain it but I also am concerned with the lack of development in them.

I did more research and realized that hamstrings are made up of mostly fast twitch fibers and theoretically respond well to low volume. I wonder why mine are terrible compared to my glute and quads, I suspect it’s because of my anterior pelvic tilt. I’m also interviewing new coaches now for a second advice. Wondering how everyone else is able to grow their hamstrings, especially if you had poor genetics there to begin with. And what would you have programmed for me, if you needed to grow only glutes, hamstrings and delts while maintaining everything else. Also, any suggestions to recovering awfully sore hamstrings going on weeks. Thank you.

Trainer here. I have many clients with stubborn lower stomach fat but generally lean in other places, or what people nowadays would call skinny fat. They are typically beginners, so I start them off on a very basic program with compound lifts that covers major muscle groups, slight caloric deficit and 2-3 sessions of zone 2 cardio a week.

This routine helped most of them in putting on some muscle and strength and losing some fat. But I’ve noticed that some clients still have the stubborn fat months in. I at first thought they didn’t adhere to the diet appropriately, but they have and they’ve been tracking. Some of them are losing visible fat in limbs and even dropping weight in the scale but still have the stomach fat there so I know they are in a deficit, but the program isn’t as effective on this population compared to the rest.

Is it that it’s just simply going to take longer with these clients? Should they be on a slightly more aggressive deficit? More met con stuff than traditional resistance training? Am I missing something here? I’m female myself and was able to lose my stomach fat pretty easily with a similar program at the very beginning of my fitness journey 10 years ago so I feel like I have a hard time relating to their (perhaps genetic issues) and hence difficult to gauge the adjustments in program.

Sorry if anything comes off ignorant, I’m trying to learn.

Personal trainer here. I get a new female client everyday that comes from a cut program from their last trainer without even enough muscle mass to cut to. On this subreddit I see average sized men and women working on getting leaner just because they don’t see abs, but without enough muscle mass as a foundation, not in prep for competition, to justify the need of getting leaner beyond aesthetics preference.

Body recomp is very possible in most populations. There’s research showing that it’s less possible in advanced athletes but most of us overestimate how advanced we are. Unless obese, most beginners don’t need to lose weight. Their optimal health calls for increased strength, muscle mass, flexibility and aerobic endurance. All of this doesn’t need to be done in a deficit. And are much easier to do in maintenance. I’ve seen a lot of success in recomp then cut, or recomp-bulk-cut in my clients than other ways around. I’m sitting at 27% bodyfat right now and going to compete next year, just spoke to my coach, Stan Efferding, who reassured me to stay in maintainence and not worry about cutting until 16 weeks out. On here, I see many women at 20-25% bodyfat with less than half of the muscle mass I have, worrying about cutting. Same thing goes for men at 17-25%.

So many people are stalled in hypertrophy because they are trying to do it in an aggressive deficit. Once again, if you are trying to do it purely for aesthetics, then go for it. But honestly most people needing to actually grow and develop their core, limbs and back before cutting down to see them.

Personal trainer here. I get a new female client everyday that comes from a cut program from their last trainer without even enough muscle mass to cut to. On this subreddit I see average sized men and women working on getting leaner just because they don’t see abs, but without enough muscle mass as a foundation, not in prep for competition, to justify the need of getting leaner beyond aesthetics preference.

Body recomp is very possible in most populations. There’s research showing that it’s less possible in advanced athletes but most of us overestimate how advanced we are. Unless obese, most beginners don’t need to lose weight. Their optimal health calls for increased strength, muscle mass, flexibility and aerobic endurance. All of this doesn’t need to be done in a deficit. And are much easier to do in maintenance. I’ve seen a lot of success in recomp then cut, or recomp-bulk-cut in my clients than other ways around. I’m sitting at 27% bodyfat right now and going to compete next year, just spoke to my coach, Stan Efferding, who reassured me to stay in maintainence and not worry about cutting until 16 weeks out. On here, I see many women at 20-25% bodyfat with less than half of the muscle mass I have, worrying about cutting. Same thing goes for men at 17-25%.

So many people are stalled in hypertrophy because they are trying to do it in an aggressive deficit. Once again, if you are trying to do it purely for aesthetics, then go for it. But honestly most people needing to actually grow and develop their core, limbs and back before cutting down to see them.

I find myself programming almost identical routines for baseline beginner clients with similar goals. I’m the only female trainer at my gym and the owner just push me for most female clients because they feel more comfortable with me (not complaining). And now most of my clients have almost identical situations and goals (feel skinny fat, never really did resistance training systematically enough, want to lost a bit of fat, have back definition and grow glutes, etc).

I find myself feeling like I look bad having back to back clients doing almost the same routine on the floor, and only have some variation for more advanced clients with specific physique goals; meanwhile the other trainers are doing fancy plyometric and sled stuff with their clients. Should I incorporate variation early just to keep things interesting? What do you guys do?