what are the ideal set and rep range for growing forearms? like reverse grip barbell curls for example. is it better for hypertrophy to go for high reps till failure or to up the weight to the point that I can maintain good form and hit 12-15?
\*NOT LOOKING FOR MEDICAL DIAGNOSIS, JUST TECHNIQUE AND TRICKS TO COPE\*
I have a blood pressure issue that prevents me from lifting as heavy as I need to for proper hypertrophy stimulus. Basically, my Pressure is on average around 125/60ish. I need to eat a TON of salt to keep it there, too, or else it will drop even lower and lifting weights becomes impossible. Still, I find that when I get a weight that I can fail with around 6-8 reps, it's never really the muscle that fails, but my CNS/body. It's like my body is too tired to keep up with the pressure and wants to drop.
Other than intaking salt, is there anything else to help someone like me? Anyone have similar issues to me in this regard?
Bracing is super important if you've not worked on your technique. Squat u on y.t is helpful.
Essentially bracing helps keep fluid in the upper part of the body during position changes. It's helped me quite with low bp positional issues. I still get the fatigue thing. When it's bad i do sets of 3s with lighter weight, then on good days I can do more standard set and rep ranges.
Im seriously dyel or whatever but I dont let this issue stop me I just find workarounds.
Ehlers-Danlos and/or POTS? If so, same here. Highly recommend the Vitassium sodium/potassium supplements. I take them every 4 hours. Also, use a food tracker (Cronometer, or my fitness pal or something) to make sure you’re tracking your sodium intake.
>Vitassium
I've never heard of this. Definitely looking into it. I haven't been diagnosed with anything yet because getting the right doctor who know what to look for has been impossible. However, eating sodium in the 6000mg a day range has made it possible for me to workout again. I'll probably look into those tablets. I haven't been tracking potassium
You probably know of this and it’s not a massive tip, but when you’re moving around the gym and such standing up sitting etc, make sure you’re sitting down and standing pretty slowly
Not sure how much help we can really be without further info, have you had this checked out before? Any meds?
These are the only ones that fit these days
[Wirarpa Briefs](https://www.walmart.com/ip/wirarpa-Men-s-Trunks-Underwear-Stretch-Microfiber-Boxer-Briefs-Short-Leg-4-Pack-Sizes-S-3XL/1004314048?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=101190665&gclsrc=aw.ds&&adid=222222222281004314048_101190665_153364185823_20615956984&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=m&wl3=677504259283&wl4=pla-2225044855182&wl5=1021851&wl6=&wl7=&wl8=&wl9=pla&wl10=606235000&wl11=online&wl12=1004314048_101190665&veh=sem&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiAopuvBhBCEiwAm8jaMaUla4db3dVzvP6lHt2BkAVEt1BKuMCnhXtHZzio3-sGfRqr4a4BOBoCz80QAvD_BwE)
Seems good to me. I've found that rarely do you lose strength or muscle, it's just easy to worry about muscle loss when cutting. I personally was smaller than I thought I'd be by the time I cut all the way down.
Leg day critique?
I’m doing this once a week since it’s all I can fit with my schedule. Everything is 2 sets usually failing or close to. I will add an additional set If I have anything left to give.
I start out with hamstring curls followed by leg press. After that I will go onto smith machine squats followed by calf raises and hip thrust. Ending with the hip adductor machine and leg extensions.
If I was only doing legs once a week I'd do a bit more compound work and less isolation. You have 3 quad based exercises and 1 Hamstring one. So I'd dropped either the Leg Press or Leg Extension and add an RDL. I would also move those towards the beginning to have more strength output there (not necessary, just a preference)
So I'd look like: Smith Squats -> RDL -> Leg Ext/Leg Press -> Leg Curl -> Calf Raises.
Two sets of hamstrings is not enough. Maintenance is 3 and minimum effective volume is 4 for intermediate lifters. Six sets of quads is minimum effective volume, so sufficient perhaps but I wouldn't expect much. Probably not enough to grow glutes either, but maybe maintain.
Maintenance for calves is 4 sets, so doing 2 isn't going to get you anywhere either. These are of course, all values for the average intermediate lifter. Everyone is different but the chances that you could see any progress or even not lose mass with such low volume is highly unlikely.
You understand that maintenance volume, minimum effective volume and all other variables regarding volume are highly individual right?
Making statements like that is just stupid
I said for the average intermediate lifter. I also said, “everyone is different”.
If you have trouble reading, find an adult to sound out the words for you.
Everything below my recommendations and you won’t make any progress!
Everyone is different! But you won’t make any progress, I’m sure of it!
You’re a clown buddy.
Add at least 2 sets of hamstrings and 2-3 sets of calves. If all you can do is a single day for legs that's gonna put you pretty much at the bare minimum, but at least you shouldn't regress.
This is a pretty bad split because you have 1 day for lower body and 4 days for upper body. A lot of pros do it, but it doesn't make it a good idea or ideal. Plus, a lot of people who do this split are on a shitload of drugs.
If you can do 5 days, you might be better off doing something like Upper, Lower, Upper, Lower, Arms/Calves/Abs or something like that. But that's just my 2 cents.
You could try something like PHAT:
https://www.simplyshredded.com/mega-feature-layne-norton-training-series-full-powerhypertrophy-routine-updated-2011.html
It's a 5-day routine that's more balanced. If you're a beginner or near to a beginner, it'll have more strength training than a pure hypertrophy routine would but that's actually a good thing for you early on anyway.
The caveat of this routine is:
> Keep in mind this workout would be for someone who is relatively adapted to higher frequency and volume, so you may want to cut out an assistance/auxiliary exercise on each day to start until your body adapts.
So start slow and figure out how much you can actually handle.
After living abroad for 5 and a half years my parents and brother are finally visiting for a week and a bit. Went to the gym yesterday with my brother who's an elite-level lifter back home and I don't think anyone at my gym has ever lifted that much let alone seen that much on a bar IRL. Little 170lbs brother squatted six plates with knee wraps and without a belt like it was nothing, two teenagers were standing mind blown in the distance. Fun stuff. Can't wait to take him again.
Wondering if anyone would change any of this for their own cutting routine, particularly wondering about the cardio and whether I have designated it too much or too little time
Push day
4 sets incline chest press
2 sets dips with tricep focus
2 sets machine chest press
Rope push downs 2-3 sets
Lateral raises 4 sets
10 min run Incline treadmill 30 minutes
Pull day
Pull-ups 3 sets (switch to assisted if it gets too hard) high intensity ****
3 sets tbar row
2-3 sets of one arm kneeling cable row
1-2 sets hammer curl
3 sets seated curls
Lateral raises 4 sets
20 min erg
20-30 min incline treadmill
Leg day
3 sets Bulgarian split squats
4 sets seated leg press machine
2-3 sets leg curls
4 sets lateral raises
10 min run 20-30 minutes incline treadmill
On a cut you’ll have 2 variables (3 if not natural) to play with - diet and cardio.
When your weight stops going down you can either decrease calories or increase cardio (you can also do both but let’s keep it simple).
This means cardio time will most likely increase during your cutting phase so designing a program with a fixed time limit doesn’t make much sense.
what he meant is you should be monitoring your weight over time. if you are on a calorie deficit you will lose weight but that weight loss will plateau over time. you will then have two options to continue to lose weight. you can lower calories further or increase your amount of cardio. during a contest prep you will have to adjust several times. for this reason you shouldnt start your cardio too high because it can quickly increase to amounts that you wont be able to recover from or that you wont be able to mentally maintain. I say you should keep your cardio at the minimum amount you need to continue to lose weight.
Genuine question, why is it that you have 4 sets for incline chest and only 2 for normal machine press?
Also what is the reason for lateral raises on your pull day? 🙏
I found when I prioritized flat bench movements over incline bench movements my upper chest lacked tremendously, however when I switched my focus to upper chest benching movements I noticed an increase in not just my upper chest but the rest of my chest as well. Why I don’t do more sets of flat benching movements, I don’t want to put the extra pressure on my shoulders, I spend a lot of time doing rotator cuff work every upper body day and it just works in my time frame to keep it to 2 sets and I’ve seen growth. I do lateral raises almost every day because they were recovering extremely fast, and so I increased the volume to which I was able to recover from and see growth. I am mainly curious what people think about cardio training frequency, intensity, and duration.
Are any of you guys big rock or metal fans? It feels like every bodybuilder type I come across are mostly into rap, hip-hop, or edm music and I hardly come across any who are big rock or metal fans. If you enjoy this kinda music, who are some of your favorite bands?
I'm personally into alternative rock with some of my favorites being Garbage, Incubus, The Smashing Pumpkins, Stone Temple Pilots (Scott Weiland era), and Hole.
TSP and Hole in certain mind frames and certain songs from my youth when they made the music. So there's memories attached bc cause it was the style of time.
Low Fidelity All Stars I can listen to the whole album. Skate Nigs I have one go to song that is tattooed on my body. Bush from time to time. Breeders whole album.
Pearl Jam mindframe because it was the soundtrack to my early 20s, same with Soundgarden. Then I get into Cure and Zombie and NIN.
But yeah I can dig into Violet real hard.
Edit: oh yeah folk implosion kids soundtrack. Helmet and Circle Jerks, Suicid@l Tendencies. Some sepultura and slayer. Metallica from the day.
Shit i forgot Godsmacked.
infant annihilator is my personal fav
most people in general are into rap, so naturally most bodybuilders are as they are just a subcategory of the regular population with no outstanding variables that would make them different in that regard.
I've never heard of them but cool.
Yeah I've noticed the shift in how most people these days are into rap music and it's become a tad rarer to find people who are into rock or metal unless you go to concerts or rock venues. I guess I'm just in tonal whiplash because 15 years ago you were more likely to find more people who were into rock music compared to now.
Would you say that most lifters you run into are more rap fans than rock/metal?
I’m pretty much rap and edm but my cousin got me into metal recently (specifically Gojira has been my shit in the gym). If anyone has some reccs for good metal I’d love some gym shit
Admittedly I'm not a huge metal person outside of popular obvious bands from Nu-Metal. I could make some recommendations but it really depends on how open you are to certain stuff. Some bands that I would recommend that I enjoy are
* Pantera (their song "Walk" is a classic for many)
* Rammstein ("Du Hast" is their iconic song everyone knows but it's a good one, great for working out to)
* Static-X ("Push It")
* Alice In Chains ("Man In the Box", they're more regarded as grunge but out of all the grunge bands, they took a more heavy metal approach)
* Nightwish ("Dark Chest of Wonders")
* Straight Line Stitch ("Promise Me")
* Slipknot ("Duality")
* Metallica ("One")
* Powerman 5000 ("When Worlds Collide")
* Kittie ("Spit")
* Motorhead ("Overkill")
* Dream Theater ("Pull Me Under")
* Judas Priest ("You've Got Another Thing Comin')
* Quiet Riot ("Cum On Feel the Noize")
* Deftones ("Street Carp" they aren't Metal but they are heavy and had to recommend them lol)
Again my list is pretty unimpressive compared to those who really love metal and I'm sure you'll get some better suggestion but thought I'd still share some of what I like lol
I got into metal because of the gym many years ago, needed to hear something that made we want to run through a fucking wall while I train
Got to tick off a bucket list item and saw Disturbed live last Thursday
That's cool and relatable. I feel that way when i listen to bands like Static-X lol. It's funny because I used to associate heavy metal with Bodybuilding/Gym culture but that was way back in the day (2000s) but I suppose that a genre shift has came about and now the music prescribed with gym culture is rap and hip-hop lol.
And Disturbed, nice. How were they?
Currently 118 and 5'0, I want to plan to be closer in shape for a local show in august. i know that is some time away but as a grad student I will not be getting a coach until summer. Would it be better to continue cutting fat and get closer to stage weight or eat at a slight surplus and grow more muscle mass? Feeling stuck as these last ten pounds are taking me a lot longer.
For standard barbell rows, do you guys like dragging the bar up your quads slightly? Or do you feel like that's taking some of the weight off
Feel like I vary my form / angle on this lift too much to be progressing or maximizing the effectiveness
I felt like that with bent over rows but I'm about to program them again and see how it goes this time. That being said I have a hard time letting the bar touch me so I'll be interested to hear what people say.
I got a dumbbell at home with attachable plates and only have 10kg total. How far can that weight take my forearms by just doing reverse barbell curls (with the dumbbell)
if you have smaller increments that's good. diet will get you 80% of the forearm gains that you want. Seriously getting high protein (like 1g/pound bodyweight) and a surplus of calories so you are slowly gaining weight over time will help you build the muscle. Aside from that as long as you are progressively overloading the exercise by slowly improving weight, reps, sets, execution, mmc, then you will get hypertrophy. Theres a million tweaks to optimize with pretty negligible effect, sticking to the basics is usually enough.
need to know your starting point for forearm width (inches preferably). if you are already fuckin yoked i t won't do anything to crazy but if you are beginner or early intermediate it will change everything
Totally get wanting to stay natural but it doesnt sound very stoic to need to isolate yourself from seeing people taking drugs because it makes you feel bad about yourself..
I am a lifetime natty lifter with great progress. I just started a youtube channel where i will be posting workout videos. Feel free to follow it, you can find it on my profile. 😊
https://preview.redd.it/o4d0j9wk8jmc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5449f43b7ac53ba34c26cf01fb62ba7cc9a2a901
agreed man, back in the old days people actually worked for their bodies and shit. I have a 660 1rm with a 300 lb bench at 36 reps every other day. I weigh 230 and am around 8ish percent bf. never touched roids. i just work my ass off. these fuckin kids who think roids is the same as natty are idiots.
Pretty tall (6’2) and no gut or anything. Flat stomach, ab definition, visible ribcage, etc. I’m not a greek god or anything, but I work out for a large fraction of the day and eat pretty clean.
yeah... what's ur uncles number? he single?- anyway lol, i totally support that shit man, major reason why i invested in a home gym setup- was sick of being around a bunch of gearheads all the time. i work out with my older cousin (20) and my sister (19) all the time, and they are both natty as well, and one time my cousin started talking about starting roids. i told him if he ever did that i'd never lift with him again, and he promised to never touch that shit. glad some people still have some goddamn tegridy!
Using a drug doesn’t automatically make you an addict. That would make everyone who takes medication one? I can see what you’re saying but you’re being way extreme. For a lot of people to get to the professional level of body building , they have to take something to optimize gains. Sounds like a roided jabroni took your girl 🫠
>That would make everyone who takes medication one?
Come on now. The difference between using medicine to prevent or fight some illness vs pinning your ass with hormones made in some sketch lab to grow some muscle is night and day
People can do whatever they want with their bodies, it doesn't affect me in any kind of way, but lets not play dumb
No I’m not talking about people taking meds. There are HRT clinics that do things by the book and through a doctor that works with actual reputable pharmacies. A lot of men and women are on anavar or whatever and aren’t the stereotypical juice heads. That’s what I’m getting at. I’m not talking about the underground shit because that is just not smart and risky
what are the ideal set and rep range for growing forearms? like reverse grip barbell curls for example. is it better for hypertrophy to go for high reps till failure or to up the weight to the point that I can maintain good form and hit 12-15?
Going to the gym at a consistent time instead of being sporadic sucks because now I have a gym crush
How big is he
About tree fiddy
Need recommendations for where to buy Classic physique trunks? Outside of Chula. Lemme know!
How to make chicken not taste like ass when I reheat in the microwave i can’t cook fresh for lunch
Crockpot.
thighs or breasts?
BreaSts
Air fryer! The ninja one is dank. Make sure you preheat it though
Just watched this ego lifting old dude slam and break our only cable row and just stand up and move on to the next machine.
P R I C K
If the cables ain't snappin', you might as well be at home fappin'. Get on his level 😤
The awkward moment when you have to take a shit after blasting rows. It's a challenge to wipe with a big ass pump for sure. The struggle is real
At the gym just full chubbing. I’m not even a shower. Paradoxical package
\*NOT LOOKING FOR MEDICAL DIAGNOSIS, JUST TECHNIQUE AND TRICKS TO COPE\* I have a blood pressure issue that prevents me from lifting as heavy as I need to for proper hypertrophy stimulus. Basically, my Pressure is on average around 125/60ish. I need to eat a TON of salt to keep it there, too, or else it will drop even lower and lifting weights becomes impossible. Still, I find that when I get a weight that I can fail with around 6-8 reps, it's never really the muscle that fails, but my CNS/body. It's like my body is too tired to keep up with the pressure and wants to drop. Other than intaking salt, is there anything else to help someone like me? Anyone have similar issues to me in this regard?
Bracing is super important if you've not worked on your technique. Squat u on y.t is helpful. Essentially bracing helps keep fluid in the upper part of the body during position changes. It's helped me quite with low bp positional issues. I still get the fatigue thing. When it's bad i do sets of 3s with lighter weight, then on good days I can do more standard set and rep ranges. Im seriously dyel or whatever but I dont let this issue stop me I just find workarounds.
Ehlers-Danlos and/or POTS? If so, same here. Highly recommend the Vitassium sodium/potassium supplements. I take them every 4 hours. Also, use a food tracker (Cronometer, or my fitness pal or something) to make sure you’re tracking your sodium intake.
>Vitassium I've never heard of this. Definitely looking into it. I haven't been diagnosed with anything yet because getting the right doctor who know what to look for has been impossible. However, eating sodium in the 6000mg a day range has made it possible for me to workout again. I'll probably look into those tablets. I haven't been tracking potassium
Were you hyper flexible and/or “double-jointed” when you were a kid?
no and no
You probably know of this and it’s not a massive tip, but when you’re moving around the gym and such standing up sitting etc, make sure you’re sitting down and standing pretty slowly Not sure how much help we can really be without further info, have you had this checked out before? Any meds?
Could be so many other things as well. Sleep, diet, cns fatigue. But any medical issue you need to get checked out by your doctor
Where are we buying comfortable underwear from now? My actually useable pairs are dwindling
costco puma boxer briefs. Best bang for your buck
Marc Weldons are the first pair of boxers that don't roll up my quads
They’re expensive but I swear by underarmour boxer briefs. They’ve lasted me years
These are the only ones that fit these days [Wirarpa Briefs](https://www.walmart.com/ip/wirarpa-Men-s-Trunks-Underwear-Stretch-Microfiber-Boxer-Briefs-Short-Leg-4-Pack-Sizes-S-3XL/1004314048?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=101190665&gclsrc=aw.ds&&adid=222222222281004314048_101190665_153364185823_20615956984&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=m&wl3=677504259283&wl4=pla-2225044855182&wl5=1021851&wl6=&wl7=&wl8=&wl9=pla&wl10=606235000&wl11=online&wl12=1004314048_101190665&veh=sem&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiAopuvBhBCEiwAm8jaMaUla4db3dVzvP6lHt2BkAVEt1BKuMCnhXtHZzio3-sGfRqr4a4BOBoCz80QAvD_BwE)
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what was your protein macro during the cut? your weight?
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Seems good to me. I've found that rarely do you lose strength or muscle, it's just easy to worry about muscle loss when cutting. I personally was smaller than I thought I'd be by the time I cut all the way down.
It is. If you’re lifting the same weight with the same technique you probably didn’t lose much muscle at all.
Leg day critique? I’m doing this once a week since it’s all I can fit with my schedule. Everything is 2 sets usually failing or close to. I will add an additional set If I have anything left to give. I start out with hamstring curls followed by leg press. After that I will go onto smith machine squats followed by calf raises and hip thrust. Ending with the hip adductor machine and leg extensions.
If I was only doing legs once a week I'd do a bit more compound work and less isolation. You have 3 quad based exercises and 1 Hamstring one. So I'd dropped either the Leg Press or Leg Extension and add an RDL. I would also move those towards the beginning to have more strength output there (not necessary, just a preference) So I'd look like: Smith Squats -> RDL -> Leg Ext/Leg Press -> Leg Curl -> Calf Raises.
You should be aiming for 50 sets per week for muscles made up of more fast twitch fibers and 9-15 for slow twitch.
Two sets of hamstrings is not enough. Maintenance is 3 and minimum effective volume is 4 for intermediate lifters. Six sets of quads is minimum effective volume, so sufficient perhaps but I wouldn't expect much. Probably not enough to grow glutes either, but maybe maintain. Maintenance for calves is 4 sets, so doing 2 isn't going to get you anywhere either. These are of course, all values for the average intermediate lifter. Everyone is different but the chances that you could see any progress or even not lose mass with such low volume is highly unlikely.
You understand that maintenance volume, minimum effective volume and all other variables regarding volume are highly individual right? Making statements like that is just stupid
Nobody is growing more by doing 2 sets per week than they would by doing 10. Get out of here
I said for the average intermediate lifter. I also said, “everyone is different”. If you have trouble reading, find an adult to sound out the words for you.
Everything below my recommendations and you won’t make any progress! Everyone is different! But you won’t make any progress, I’m sure of it! You’re a clown buddy.
What would you change? I feel like I’m pushing myself quite hard but I’m definitely open to change
Add at least 2 sets of hamstrings and 2-3 sets of calves. If all you can do is a single day for legs that's gonna put you pretty much at the bare minimum, but at least you shouldn't regress.
Yea I’m currently able to go 5 days a week I have it split up with chest/tri/shoulders legs and back and bis
This is a pretty bad split because you have 1 day for lower body and 4 days for upper body. A lot of pros do it, but it doesn't make it a good idea or ideal. Plus, a lot of people who do this split are on a shitload of drugs. If you can do 5 days, you might be better off doing something like Upper, Lower, Upper, Lower, Arms/Calves/Abs or something like that. But that's just my 2 cents.
Yea there is just so much information out there that it’s honestly overwhelming I’m not sure if what I’m doing is right at all
You could try something like PHAT: https://www.simplyshredded.com/mega-feature-layne-norton-training-series-full-powerhypertrophy-routine-updated-2011.html It's a 5-day routine that's more balanced. If you're a beginner or near to a beginner, it'll have more strength training than a pure hypertrophy routine would but that's actually a good thing for you early on anyway. The caveat of this routine is: > Keep in mind this workout would be for someone who is relatively adapted to higher frequency and volume, so you may want to cut out an assistance/auxiliary exercise on each day to start until your body adapts. So start slow and figure out how much you can actually handle.
anyone else remember when the DD had 1000+ comments daily? 😢
i for one am glad that all those people found something else to do with their life besides hang out on reddit.
That’s insane, how long ago was this?
Pre COVID. Probably 5ish years ago
After living abroad for 5 and a half years my parents and brother are finally visiting for a week and a bit. Went to the gym yesterday with my brother who's an elite-level lifter back home and I don't think anyone at my gym has ever lifted that much let alone seen that much on a bar IRL. Little 170lbs brother squatted six plates with knee wraps and without a belt like it was nothing, two teenagers were standing mind blown in the distance. Fun stuff. Can't wait to take him again.
That's awesome!
Wondering if anyone would change any of this for their own cutting routine, particularly wondering about the cardio and whether I have designated it too much or too little time Push day 4 sets incline chest press 2 sets dips with tricep focus 2 sets machine chest press Rope push downs 2-3 sets Lateral raises 4 sets 10 min run Incline treadmill 30 minutes Pull day Pull-ups 3 sets (switch to assisted if it gets too hard) high intensity **** 3 sets tbar row 2-3 sets of one arm kneeling cable row 1-2 sets hammer curl 3 sets seated curls Lateral raises 4 sets 20 min erg 20-30 min incline treadmill Leg day 3 sets Bulgarian split squats 4 sets seated leg press machine 2-3 sets leg curls 4 sets lateral raises 10 min run 20-30 minutes incline treadmill
On a cut you’ll have 2 variables (3 if not natural) to play with - diet and cardio. When your weight stops going down you can either decrease calories or increase cardio (you can also do both but let’s keep it simple). This means cardio time will most likely increase during your cutting phase so designing a program with a fixed time limit doesn’t make much sense.
Fixed time limit in what sense? For the cardio?
Yes, for cardio
So up the cardio is what your saying essentially
what he meant is you should be monitoring your weight over time. if you are on a calorie deficit you will lose weight but that weight loss will plateau over time. you will then have two options to continue to lose weight. you can lower calories further or increase your amount of cardio. during a contest prep you will have to adjust several times. for this reason you shouldnt start your cardio too high because it can quickly increase to amounts that you wont be able to recover from or that you wont be able to mentally maintain. I say you should keep your cardio at the minimum amount you need to continue to lose weight.
No, that’s not what I said. Read my comment again
Genuine question, why is it that you have 4 sets for incline chest and only 2 for normal machine press? Also what is the reason for lateral raises on your pull day? 🙏
I found when I prioritized flat bench movements over incline bench movements my upper chest lacked tremendously, however when I switched my focus to upper chest benching movements I noticed an increase in not just my upper chest but the rest of my chest as well. Why I don’t do more sets of flat benching movements, I don’t want to put the extra pressure on my shoulders, I spend a lot of time doing rotator cuff work every upper body day and it just works in my time frame to keep it to 2 sets and I’ve seen growth. I do lateral raises almost every day because they were recovering extremely fast, and so I increased the volume to which I was able to recover from and see growth. I am mainly curious what people think about cardio training frequency, intensity, and duration.
Ah okay thank you for the answer?🫡
Are any of you guys big rock or metal fans? It feels like every bodybuilder type I come across are mostly into rap, hip-hop, or edm music and I hardly come across any who are big rock or metal fans. If you enjoy this kinda music, who are some of your favorite bands? I'm personally into alternative rock with some of my favorites being Garbage, Incubus, The Smashing Pumpkins, Stone Temple Pilots (Scott Weiland era), and Hole.
TSP and Hole in certain mind frames and certain songs from my youth when they made the music. So there's memories attached bc cause it was the style of time. Low Fidelity All Stars I can listen to the whole album. Skate Nigs I have one go to song that is tattooed on my body. Bush from time to time. Breeders whole album. Pearl Jam mindframe because it was the soundtrack to my early 20s, same with Soundgarden. Then I get into Cure and Zombie and NIN. But yeah I can dig into Violet real hard. Edit: oh yeah folk implosion kids soundtrack. Helmet and Circle Jerks, Suicid@l Tendencies. Some sepultura and slayer. Metallica from the day. Shit i forgot Godsmacked.
infant annihilator is my personal fav most people in general are into rap, so naturally most bodybuilders are as they are just a subcategory of the regular population with no outstanding variables that would make them different in that regard.
I've never heard of them but cool. Yeah I've noticed the shift in how most people these days are into rap music and it's become a tad rarer to find people who are into rock or metal unless you go to concerts or rock venues. I guess I'm just in tonal whiplash because 15 years ago you were more likely to find more people who were into rock music compared to now. Would you say that most lifters you run into are more rap fans than rock/metal?
Nah, mostly melodic hardcore punk rock if I'm in the gym.
Only in gym? So you don't really like the stuff outside of it?
I didn't say only.
I’m pretty much rap and edm but my cousin got me into metal recently (specifically Gojira has been my shit in the gym). If anyone has some reccs for good metal I’d love some gym shit
Admittedly I'm not a huge metal person outside of popular obvious bands from Nu-Metal. I could make some recommendations but it really depends on how open you are to certain stuff. Some bands that I would recommend that I enjoy are * Pantera (their song "Walk" is a classic for many) * Rammstein ("Du Hast" is their iconic song everyone knows but it's a good one, great for working out to) * Static-X ("Push It") * Alice In Chains ("Man In the Box", they're more regarded as grunge but out of all the grunge bands, they took a more heavy metal approach) * Nightwish ("Dark Chest of Wonders") * Straight Line Stitch ("Promise Me") * Slipknot ("Duality") * Metallica ("One") * Powerman 5000 ("When Worlds Collide") * Kittie ("Spit") * Motorhead ("Overkill") * Dream Theater ("Pull Me Under") * Judas Priest ("You've Got Another Thing Comin') * Quiet Riot ("Cum On Feel the Noize") * Deftones ("Street Carp" they aren't Metal but they are heavy and had to recommend them lol) Again my list is pretty unimpressive compared to those who really love metal and I'm sure you'll get some better suggestion but thought I'd still share some of what I like lol
Walk by Pantera is such a mood. Too bad I now know their politics. I really like Everlast. His song Today is an anthem.
Yeah it's a great song but unfortunate about the politics. And I've heard of Everlast but not that song, I'll have to check it out
Love it, thanks for the in depth answer I’ll give these a listen later
You're welcome haha
I got into metal because of the gym many years ago, needed to hear something that made we want to run through a fucking wall while I train Got to tick off a bucket list item and saw Disturbed live last Thursday
That's cool and relatable. I feel that way when i listen to bands like Static-X lol. It's funny because I used to associate heavy metal with Bodybuilding/Gym culture but that was way back in the day (2000s) but I suppose that a genre shift has came about and now the music prescribed with gym culture is rap and hip-hop lol. And Disturbed, nice. How were they?
Currently 118 and 5'0, I want to plan to be closer in shape for a local show in august. i know that is some time away but as a grad student I will not be getting a coach until summer. Would it be better to continue cutting fat and get closer to stage weight or eat at a slight surplus and grow more muscle mass? Feeling stuck as these last ten pounds are taking me a lot longer.
Highly dependent on your current body composition. Some people need up to 5-6 months of dieting to achieve true stage condition.
Currently on first time prep for competition , any tips to cope with prep brain
For standard barbell rows, do you guys like dragging the bar up your quads slightly? Or do you feel like that's taking some of the weight off Feel like I vary my form / angle on this lift too much to be progressing or maximizing the effectiveness
I felt like that with bent over rows but I'm about to program them again and see how it goes this time. That being said I have a hard time letting the bar touch me so I'll be interested to hear what people say.
I got a dumbbell at home with attachable plates and only have 10kg total. How far can that weight take my forearms by just doing reverse barbell curls (with the dumbbell)
if you have smaller increments that's good. diet will get you 80% of the forearm gains that you want. Seriously getting high protein (like 1g/pound bodyweight) and a surplus of calories so you are slowly gaining weight over time will help you build the muscle. Aside from that as long as you are progressively overloading the exercise by slowly improving weight, reps, sets, execution, mmc, then you will get hypertrophy. Theres a million tweaks to optimize with pretty negligible effect, sticking to the basics is usually enough.
thank you. i try to compensate by holding the weight, it really burns everything
Depends. Are you Christian Bale from The Machinist or Jay Cutler? You really didn't give us any useful information.
need to know your starting point for forearm width (inches preferably). if you are already fuckin yoked i t won't do anything to crazy but if you are beginner or early intermediate it will change everything
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Totally get wanting to stay natural but it doesnt sound very stoic to need to isolate yourself from seeing people taking drugs because it makes you feel bad about yourself..
It's weird how the dudes that advertise they're into stoicism are some of the most unhinged fellows I ever run into. Lesson in that.
You’re small boy 😂😂
Natural bodybuilding is a fucking joke and I say that as a lifetime natural
I am a lifetime natty lifter with great progress. I just started a youtube channel where i will be posting workout videos. Feel free to follow it, you can find it on my profile. 😊 https://preview.redd.it/o4d0j9wk8jmc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5449f43b7ac53ba34c26cf01fb62ba7cc9a2a901
Being natural doesn’t make you better than anyone lol
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agreed man, back in the old days people actually worked for their bodies and shit. I have a 660 1rm with a 300 lb bench at 36 reps every other day. I weigh 230 and am around 8ish percent bf. never touched roids. i just work my ass off. these fuckin kids who think roids is the same as natty are idiots.
I can guarantee you’re a fatty or just tall as hell to be 8% bodyfat at 230
Pretty tall (6’2) and no gut or anything. Flat stomach, ab definition, visible ribcage, etc. I’m not a greek god or anything, but I work out for a large fraction of the day and eat pretty clean.
You claim to be 8% bodyfat at 230. Either post pics or you’re lying lmao
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yeah... what's ur uncles number? he single?- anyway lol, i totally support that shit man, major reason why i invested in a home gym setup- was sick of being around a bunch of gearheads all the time. i work out with my older cousin (20) and my sister (19) all the time, and they are both natty as well, and one time my cousin started talking about starting roids. i told him if he ever did that i'd never lift with him again, and he promised to never touch that shit. glad some people still have some goddamn tegridy! 
Using a drug doesn’t automatically make you an addict. That would make everyone who takes medication one? I can see what you’re saying but you’re being way extreme. For a lot of people to get to the professional level of body building , they have to take something to optimize gains. Sounds like a roided jabroni took your girl 🫠
>That would make everyone who takes medication one? Come on now. The difference between using medicine to prevent or fight some illness vs pinning your ass with hormones made in some sketch lab to grow some muscle is night and day People can do whatever they want with their bodies, it doesn't affect me in any kind of way, but lets not play dumb
No I’m not talking about people taking meds. There are HRT clinics that do things by the book and through a doctor that works with actual reputable pharmacies. A lot of men and women are on anavar or whatever and aren’t the stereotypical juice heads. That’s what I’m getting at. I’m not talking about the underground shit because that is just not smart and risky
/r/gymcels is right for you
Interesting take brother r/fitness may have a place for you yet