The Official Gym & Fitness Thread

OK...you're asking us to give you a supp suggestion for rapid gain of muscle by the pound, not gonna happen. Like I said, supps are NOT magic pills. You want muscle fast, go on a PH cycle. I wouldn't recommend that, not at your age (guessing your 25 or younger, sorry if I'm wrong, can't see your profile).

And it sounds like you've fallen under the spell of "abs are made in the kitchen". Laughable.

You're not gonna make gains eating the lowest calorie food you can find. Eat dirty, train hard. If you're not satisfied, work fucking harder. Ask @zacharypaul89 how many times I've told him that.

 

Not really. Essential body fat for a male is 8-10%.

That's show time % and not a good gauge of fitness as that's after 12-16 weeks of prep specific to that event. The body needs fat as its an energy source and booster for natural testosterone. Every nutrient in a competitor is depleted, water, fat, carbs etc. Not a healthy way to walk around at all.

 

Nothing against Tyson of course amd congrats on the placement, but competitions are not where its at.

The depletion to near exhaustion, the gorging and blowing up after.

Functionality > photogenic posing

 

MY ex wife got half of it in the divorce

 

Thanks man.

You're correct, from what I've read & understand (had to look it up), I won't be doing any PH (pro hormone?) type stuff.

My goal started as, in my mind, living life deliberately. Pretty much involving everything I have input with in my life that I feel/felt I could improve (from what I put in & how I treat my body to how I handle a problem at work).

There's more than I'll type here as far as my motive and what has & hasn't worked but, I feel I've had some decent success with most of the things I've changed...even tho that is a small number of things. With that, this isn't a short term goal and, as cool as it would be, I understand a silver bullet doesn't exist for most things in life. Even if it did, for this, I wouldn't do anything to compromise or jeopardize my health.

That's a brief summation of why I'm here, to learn from guys who appear to be having success, trying to find what works best.

Again thanks for your honest input.

Proof of why I ask...I quoted that number after reading a chart off the internet. I'd prefer hearing from the people doing it.

 

BAD ASS MAN

 

Very important: Train with proper form! I see more bad form and techniques than good in the gym (95%). Weight and reps are just numbers! If you can't feel it in the muscle you want to hit-it didn't work. I trained with a guy who told me all about his 1000lbs leg press(I loled)...within 15min I killed his legs with 270lbs on the same machine. He didn't last 30min and was sore for days after.

Do it right, do it slow- keep tension on the muscle both ways. If you can't control the movement 100% and stop/start at any point use less weight.

 

Ha, Just a week or so ago (after some reading), I began focussing on how I accomplish each rep.

I was just knocking it out but, I've started using a 4 second count in each direction for every rep. On bench for example, I squeeze the muscle first then do a 4 second count up, stop, then count 4 seconds taking the weight back down. Ends up each rep taking 8+ seconds. Have also added in a few devices to help isolate certain parts like curls using a plate to keep my elbows stationary (don't know what it's called). I went from not really feeling it to being sore the next day so I think that single change of counting to 4 alone has made a difference.

 

I've been working out since about 2010. No supplements are necessary. I only take protein powder because it's cheap and convenient.

I hate veggies, but I like micronutrients, so I just drink 2 cups of low sodium V8 every day...shit's good

I think I'm gonna take a few weeks off my pre. I've become caffeine-dependent

Supplements aren't necessary. If you hate veggies, take a multi. If you don't wanna eat chicken everyday, take protein. If you want your muscles to hold more water and look bigger, take creatine. If you want more energy, take a pre-workout. If you want to train fasted, take BCAA's. If you want to pack on 20 lbs of muscle in like 3 months, PH's are the way to go lol. If you want to waste your money, take anything else.

If you can run fine on 6 h rs of sleep, that's fine. Everyone's body is different. I have to have my 8 hrs, but I have friends who run on 5-6 hrs a day.

Once you start getting in the low single-digit body fat levels, your metabolism slows greatly. We have 2 types of fat: 1 is essential (coats your organs, in your bones, etc) and the other is stored (love handles). When your stored fat is getting low, your metabolism slows in order to keep more stored fat because that's what your body uses for energy in a sticky situation (starving to death). When you lose most of your stored fat and get in the 6% and below range, your glycogen stores are depleted, so you have 0 energy, hormone imbalances, etc). When you see a guy on a magazine or stage, they probably look like that for a few hours. Afterwards, they pig out and go back up to a healthier percentage (7-12%). Your body is optimal at 8-20%. Walking around at below 6-7% would be a nightmare.

source
source

 

That's how I like to do, too. I see these dudes on bench press going so fast that the weight is bouncing off their chest. I like to do everything slow and with a huge squeeze at the peak. There's no point in lifting heavy if your muscles aren't actually doing any work.

 

True, I'm gonna have to watch my form or increase weight for some workouts, as I don't get sore sometimes.

 

The best two things I do to make sure I get sore are to always do different workouts and to variate between high and low reps. Soreness is an indication that a muscle isn't used to something, but soreness isn't a sign of a good workout. Since I've switched to an upper/lower split, I hardly ever get sore anymore because I'm hitting every muscles from different angles so often. When I did just one chest day per week, I got sore every time. If you do flat bench one day, the next chest day, do incline or decline. Some dudes do the same 3-4 workouts every session, but your muscles get used to that. I'm always trying to switch it up. Also, doing light weigh and high reps one day and heavy weight and low reps another will confuse your muscles, as well.

 

Okay, good info for the weight/reps. I usually switch workouts each week. One week I'll use machines and the next I'll use free weight. I run out of different workouts to do though, so I try and look them up online and use the correct form.

 

I use this. You can select a muscle group and it gives you the highest-rated exercises for that group. I wrote down the top 10 for each muscle group and use that list in the gym.

 

Looks good, thanks. I think if I plan my workout before I go that'll be helpful too

 

It's not hard guys. Goto the gym, cause muscular hypertrophy then leave and consume nutrients.

Supplements are a waste of money. Black coffee will work just as well as c4 or assult. Drinking eggwhites in the carton > protein powders/weight gainers.

If you wanna be big (200lbs with abs as a rough example) you're not gonna get there eating chicken and rice, eggwhites and oats. You need those dirty foods, sushi, pizza, chinese, burgers, etc everyone once in a while. I drink on average 2 liters of egg white a day. (200g protein) then eat a couple more times during the day. I eat maybe 4x a day. I cheat once a day, usually post workout. I don't eat veggies unless it's on a pizza or a burger or chicken sandwich. my life doesn't revolve around my next meal, next workout, etc and I still manage to maintain a pretty good physique. The key is consistency and finding out eat works for you. Lots of trial and error.

Form > weight
cause muscular hypertrophy
consume food

The HARDEST thing for most people is consistency and actually going to the gym 3-5 days a week and doing it right. Right doesn't mean you spend 2 hours in the gym doing marathin workouts. I'm usually in and out in 30-45 mins. After 45m in the gym you are pretty much spinning your wheels and not making any progress.

I suffered fromy reading all the bro science for years and it hindered my progress GREATLY.

As soon as I started getting most of my protein from a good source, loosening up my diet, and shortening up my workouts the changes were like night and day.

 

That's a lot of fucking eggs. I eat 6 a day and I thought that was a lot.

 

1 carton is equal to 10, so I have 40 by my count. 6 is nothing. That's like a quick snack.

 

Again, that's a lot of fucking eggs.

 

Hm, interesting story. To each their own though, I try to have a more balanced diet.

I'm usually in the gym for about an hour I guess. Depends on what parts of the body I'm working out