The Official Gym & Fitness Thread

It’s a powerlifting program, not a fitness program. Intent is to increase the squat, bench, and deadlift.

 

Hell yea! Nice! Those max effort sets suck much. Haha.

 

It’s all bullshit. The 45 min window blah blah blah. Sometimes I don’t eat for 2-3 hours after a workout. Eat when hungry and only when hungry. It’s that simple, anyone who says otherwise is trying to sell supplements.

24 hour nutrition is what matters. Sometimes only eat 2x per day, sometimes 6-7x per day. Depends on many factors. Once I got over the eating by the clock shit, that’s when I made the MOST progress. Your hunger dictates everything.

 

Only eating when hungry ain’t going to do it. It’s not about hunger. It comes down calories in vs. calories out. If you want to gain, eat at a surplus. If want to lose eat at a deficit. That’s it

 

Me, science, and math agree.

 

Lmfao to each their own brotha

 

Agreed on the BS. Good thing too cuz it makes our life simpler.

I'm gonna go ahead and disagree with you on the eat when hungry part, but in relation to myself. I can't do that. I'd shrink! But power to you if it's working for ya! Like many things in fitness, do what works for your body and goals!

 

Problem is, if you’re not hungry 6x per day (or enough to gain size), why do you think that is? Your diet blows, your digestion is fucked, your hormones are wack, body fat not low enough (bad insulin sensitivity), etc. That’s what you guys don’t get and can’t read between the lines of for all of you preaching eating when not hungry.. forcing more food does NOT result in more muscle. Fat and water, sure, but go do a Dexa scan after your “bulk phase” in a hydro tank and tell me how muscle you gained lol. I’ll wait.. you’re in for a nasty ass surprise like I was when I believed all that force feeding shit when I first started..

I don’t have good genetics at all man, but if you’re only hungry for enough calories that make you LOSE weight and that’s your reasoning for force feeding because you “need to get big,” you’re doing it wrong and your body is out of wack. But shit what do I know, keep on doing what you’re doing brother, but by your logic I should be tiny as hell and you should have a killer physique because I don’t force calories... BUT I set myself up to be hungry - big difference!

The correct way:

GET LEAN *FIRST* I’m talking a true 6-7% bf and tell me you aren’t hungry 24/7 when it comes time to “bulk.” You’ll be hungry for so many calories it’ll make you wonder what the hell is going on for it to be so effortless compared to before. Why? Because your hormones are now aligned!!! You have no business training to gain “mass” if you can’t visibly see all your abs not flexed - the weight you gain will not be the ratio you want (mostly fat). It doesn’t matter if you’re 130lbs skinny fat or 300lbs obese. “If you’re abs aren’t showing, you aren’t growing” is a famous line by one of the most knowledgeable bodybuilding coaches of all time.. and I’m not talking about an outline of your upper abs either lol. True, full on abs and low low body fat.

You guys barely seeing your abs don’t need “tons of food to grow.” You aren’t growing or very hungry because your insulin sensitivity sucks dick and your hormones are probably not optimal as well. You need to correct that by getting very LEAN first. Truly lean.. not dad bod lean lol.

Read between the lines, I’m not telling anyone you’re going to get huge eating 1000 cals per day lol. What I’m saying is if you’re only hungry for 1000-2000 cals per day, something is VERY WRONG. If you had any idea how slow muscle grows over time, you wouldn’t be using the scale to dictate “gains” and force feeding. The mirror is your friend..

Always the guys who won’t ever post a picture trying proving their “knowledge.” Instead of that logic, post of some pics cropped like mine above^ and I’ll gladly give you advice based my knowledge as a former NPC competitor. I’ll tell you if you’re lean enough to be talking about “gaining weight.” Unless you just don’t care if it’s muscle or fat (and don’t care about your health as well) then by all means keeping over eating..

Anyways, I’ll let you guys go on, I stopped personal training years ago when I realized no matter what you tell people - they’ll just hear what they want to hear lol.

Good luck!

 

So what’s the best way to get to 5-6%? How much deficit ? Just ignore your body when hungry? What kind of workout ?

I currently think I eat a lot and my body still gets hungry. Not mentally but physically craving food. Eating even less would be hard for sure.

 

On his plan I lifted Mon, Tues,Thurs,Friday. Weds was cardio day.

Wendler is an incredible powerlifter, this is a routine for specifically strength focused goals, its not a bodybuilding plans.
Its simple and to the point. There is not a lot of wasted time.

He focuses on the fact most people have egos and its causing them to lift too heavy which isn’t leading to proper strength gains. He slices 10% of 1 RM right off the top then creates a prescribed routine off that in which you slowly build up strength in the main 4 lifts.

The program is incredibly challenging and has several variations.

I like his plan because I hate bodybuilding. Those plans have you in the gym for two damn hours doing 40 different exercises for the same friggin muscle group... I’m not interested in that.

And he has conditioning ontop of his plans. Hes big sleigh sprinting.

Liver enzymes that assist in getting blood glucose to your muscles to replenish glycogen does have a tight window.

We can argue if this window is all that critical to people not looking to get competion level results but that window does exist and it isn’t days wide.

 

Ahhh gotcha. I workout to burn fat first muscle 2nd. Couldn’t give 2 shits about who can lift more or less. Does look like a sweet and simple program.

 

I’ll do squat, bench, dead, shoulder press, and then an arm day on Friday. After the main lifts I’ll do accessories/bodybuilding type lifts for reps. Abs/conditioning/cardio a few days a week after lifting.

 

Not gonna lie, I'm not always hungry 6x a day, especially when bulking. 23 hours a day I hate myself when bulking, but at least that 1 hour in the gym pays off. Some people cannot help digestion issues, I do suffer from that - no matter the foods I eat.

I don't think many of the people here care about super low BF either. Most of the guys are power lifters here. BB is a different world and game. Lot's of the guys here post photos too. This thread has been around a long time, you won't find photos instantly and all at once.

I believe many individuals in here are fairly intelligent on their body and nutrition, and it dos take time to dial things in and begin to see all the results come through. As you said, everyone is different.

I do agree it's important to start off lean, but for our general members here - that's counter productive as they are power lifters.

Getting that low of BF, while natural, will result in massive muscle loss. It is not worth it to get that low of BF %. Unless you have worked out and built mature muscle for many years and absolutely know your body to a T, not worth it.

 

Lol

 

In my opinion, if you are experiencing cravings, you diet is lacking in a macronutrient or micronutrients.
For me, if my fat levels are not in check, I get cravings no matter what my caloric intake is.
When fat intake goes up I have zero cravings.

Cravings are your bodies way of letting you know you are missing something. They need to be addressed. Play with your diet to figure out what your body needs.

The key for me keeping my body fat down (albeit not 5-6%... because why? Lol) has been to balance my fats. The higher the better.

Eat shit tons of variable veggies everyday too. 8-10 servings and don’t eat the same type more than two days in a row and eat them with a fat. Fat helps aid nutrient absorbtion. I see a lot of bodybuilders get into zero calorie or low fat salad dressings and avoid oils and butter, your body absorbs less nutrients and virtually no Vit D without fats.

 

Y’all are full of knowledge. There’s a lot to this stuff. I’m trying to take it all in but it is a lot.

 

I've never been a fan of the bulk/cutting cycle. Unless you know what you're doing and are a competitor (Powerlifting/Bodybuilding) it's not the way I'd advise to add muscle of just to be athletic. If you want to lose weight, get to that desired weight/BF% and get an idea what it takes to maintain that. If you want to add muscle after that, do a "lean bulk".

 

It seems overwhelming... but overall its really simple.
Calories in, calories out

Balance carbs/fats/proteins based on the basic rules of 1g protein per lb body weight and 0.7g of fat per lb of body weight. Carbs are based on preference.

Don’t lose more than 2lbs per week in a cut.

Eat a variety of healthy whole foods.

It all eventually becomes easier to do over time, but none if the concepts are a secret or complex.
Fitness is like personal finance, its 20% math, 80% behavior. The challenge is in the behavior part.
We all know its money in money out, live on less than you make, you’ll be wealthy.
Calories in calories out, take in less than you burn you’ll be lean.

But fucking temptations like truck mods and donuts at work fuck you up every damn time!

 

True! It gets tricky when you’re trying to take less calories in while still fighting cravings. It’s like saving money but bills pop up. Either way we have talked about it a million times. Sometimes I make convo on here just cause I’m bored and like to pick brains. You are correct tho on the fact that overall, it’s simple.

 

But that’s what I’m saying - if you don’t care about your health (or body fat levels) because clearly you don’t, then what I said doesn’t apply. But you’re making yourself suffer trying to force food by trying to gain “size” while not very lean, it’s SO bad for your body.

So before you say 6-7% is unhealthy (it’s not very hard bro), just realize over eating is 10000x worse. 6-7% natural you won’t lose “tons” muscle if you know how to properly use refeed days and reset the metabolism. Even if you lose a little, what it does to reset all your hormones putting you in an excellent position to gain quality muscle is more than worth the rebound.

If your goal is strength - train like a power lifter and eat like a fatass. If you want to build muscle as effortlessly as possible, be prepared to get lean as I described first or you’ll be spinning your wheels for years like I did.

Again, if your goal is muscle gain, force feeding is about the single worst fucking thing you can do for your body. It’s a complete and utter waste. Strength - totally different topic whatsoever, but that’s not I’ve been talking about.

To each their own, simply giving my take as someone who has been there done that with a physique to back it up.