combatingNorwooding
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This is an updated version of my last thread. This thread is very similar since I copy pasted it into here but added a few things, edited them, added sections etc. because I thought the last thread wasn’t informative and productive enough. I wont go too deep into the biomechanics and kinesiology since its really not that relevant and will only probably confuse most of yall.
Table of contents:
Gymcelling is LEGIT, don’t let other twinkcels tell you otherwise + what we chase
Simplest way of looking at hypertrophy (terms you need to know) + how to create your own gym routine
Popular gym misconceptions
Sleep & nutrition
miscellaneous (fashion, accessories, neck training, equipment)
Channels I advise you to take a look at if you wanna get further on on gymcelling:
Chris Beardsley, hypertrophy past and present
TNF
Keenan
Jackson (Scientifically Jacked)
Science Based Lifter
Dorian
I only mentioned YouTube/spotify here but most of these people are more active on instagram and TikTok.
thanks for reading. for any question feel free to reply here under this thread
@Jenson @Sayori @mohito @teddy101 @norwoodingmanlet
Table of contents:
- Gymcelling is LEGIT, don’t let other twinkcels tell you otherwise + what we chase
- Simplest way of looking at hypertrophy (terms you need to know) + how to create your own gym routine
- Popular gym misconceptions
- Sleep, health & nutrition
- miscellaneous (fashion, accessories, neck training, equipment)
Gymcelling is LEGIT, don’t let other twinkcels tell you otherwise + what we chase
first, we need to address why you should go to the gym and if you should even do it as a natty. So as an enhanced guy myself, I advise you to only start a cycle when you’re at least 2 years in the gym to see if you like what you see in the mirror because when you start roiding you will most likely fall for a rabbit hole of nonstop cycles which is something we prefer to not fall into. But if you DO wanna roid and you wanna stick to that, be my guest. Roiding is great. But this is not the guide for you. If you wanna check a good guide on roiding then Click this. This guide is simply a guide that will practically help you learn everything you need to learn in order to make the best out of your training while being natty.
Gymcelling is one if not the MOST if not THE method to increase your SMV and dimorphism and its 100% LEGIT:
This guy went from very low SMV to much higher just solely thanks to increasing his muscle mass.
(NATTY BTW)
Even if you’re LTN you will look so much more masculine, confident and desired. Women would notice you way faster.
Totally achievable natty btw
Look at this faceless nigger who is just a bit jacked
And then, look at the comments….
It’s only 1/10 of the comments BTW I just wanted to make this clear that these women didn’t glaze him in the comments because of his face nor probably height but because of his physique
BUT there’s a BIG BUT. Gymcelling won’t turn your life entirely. They just WONT. My opinion on when gymcelling is going to make a bigger change on your dating life is if you’re MTN+, has a small waist (ideally 70-80CM circumference but that depends on your bidlet and hips), 16-20CM+ bidlet ( as a starting point) and 5’10+. A good physique will always look better when you’re tall and good looking:
That doesn’t mean that hitting the gym won’t help you in the dating life if you’re below the requirements I listed above, it’s just that people will clown you just for trying and that will make you a “gymcel”.
But I guess people will clown you on everything you do when short and ugly.
Another Good thread about gymcelling you can keep in mind.
The objective for us looksmaxers is to have aesthetic features and having high amounts of muscle mass.
This is not a physique we thrive for-
But neither does this-
(Don’t worry, even with copious amounts of roids you won’t achieve it JFL)
We want something in the middle-
Those physiques are aesthetics because they consists of broad shoulders (bidlet), small waist (not too small or too big), long torso, big neck and good amount of muscle.
To get there, you would need top tier genetics, probably roids, consistency and smart training.
To make the illusion of having the features I mentioned above we need to emphasize 6 muscle groups (not by order):
side delts,
Front delts,
Lats,
Neck,
Upper chest,
Biceps.
By prioritizing these muscle groups you can reach the ideal ratios (circumference measured ideally):
This does NOT mean you get to neglect the other muscle groups. This will make your physique look pathetic and very unappealing. Train EVERY muscle groups other than glutes (unless you have to for medical reasons obv), obliques, upper traps and potentially erectors since erectors can make your waist bigger when overdeveloped.
And yes, I advocate for leg training. It can make your physique look much more aesthetic when having a sex. Imagine fucking a girl and you look like this-
Just LOL. Legs are aesthetic asf and I regret not training them early on in my training days.
Ways of making your physique look better after you Gymmax-
- tan. having a tanned physique is a very underrated way of making your physique far better:
Such an easy looksmax to your face as well BTW (H2O)
You can simply tan by being in the sun but to minimize being unnecessary amount of time in the sun, you can use a tanning lotion and MT1/2.
I will NOT recommend using a tanning spray since it’s stupid asf. Why risk being exposed using it when at the beach when you can simply get longer tan when ACTUAL TANNING.
- Low BF is LAW. Anything between 10-18% BF is great. Don’t go too low or too high. Being right in the middle is perfect when you’re trying to attract women. This guide changed my mind on how people perceive BF%.
- Being shaved. No not in the place you think. This is underrated but having a shaved physique will really point out your muscles. Hair can hide some features. I would aim to trim your chest, back, legs, and armpits hair. ONLY SHAVE/TRIM IT IF ITS TOO HAIRY!!! This is very important since if you don’t have much hair theres no reason to fixate over those little things, it won’t looksmim you by any means. If you want Check this guide to learn more about body hair.
- acneless body. When your physique is full of acne it looks awful. It’s pretty obvious so I don’t have much more to add
I would fix it by eating a good diet, try to minimize sweating and if this doesn’t help then use accutane.
Gymcelling is one if not the MOST if not THE method to increase your SMV and dimorphism and its 100% LEGIT:
This guy went from very low SMV to much higher just solely thanks to increasing his muscle mass.
(NATTY BTW)
Even if you’re LTN you will look so much more masculine, confident and desired. Women would notice you way faster.
Totally achievable natty btw
Look at this faceless nigger who is just a bit jacked
And then, look at the comments….
It’s only 1/10 of the comments BTW I just wanted to make this clear that these women didn’t glaze him in the comments because of his face nor probably height but because of his physique
BUT there’s a BIG BUT. Gymcelling won’t turn your life entirely. They just WONT. My opinion on when gymcelling is going to make a bigger change on your dating life is if you’re MTN+, has a small waist (ideally 70-80CM circumference but that depends on your bidlet and hips), 16-20CM+ bidlet ( as a starting point) and 5’10+. A good physique will always look better when you’re tall and good looking:
That doesn’t mean that hitting the gym won’t help you in the dating life if you’re below the requirements I listed above, it’s just that people will clown you just for trying and that will make you a “gymcel”.
But I guess people will clown you on everything you do when short and ugly.
Another Good thread about gymcelling you can keep in mind.
The objective for us looksmaxers is to have aesthetic features and having high amounts of muscle mass.
This is not a physique we thrive for-
But neither does this-
(Don’t worry, even with copious amounts of roids you won’t achieve it JFL)
We want something in the middle-
Those physiques are aesthetics because they consists of broad shoulders (bidlet), small waist (not too small or too big), long torso, big neck and good amount of muscle.
To get there, you would need top tier genetics, probably roids, consistency and smart training.
To make the illusion of having the features I mentioned above we need to emphasize 6 muscle groups (not by order):
side delts,
Front delts,
Lats,
Neck,
Upper chest,
Biceps.
By prioritizing these muscle groups you can reach the ideal ratios (circumference measured ideally):
- SWR (shoulder to waist ratio) - ideal is 1.6+
- WHR (waist to hip ratio) - ideal is 0.80
- SHR (shoulder to hip ratio) - ideal is 1.4+
This does NOT mean you get to neglect the other muscle groups. This will make your physique look pathetic and very unappealing. Train EVERY muscle groups other than glutes (unless you have to for medical reasons obv), obliques, upper traps and potentially erectors since erectors can make your waist bigger when overdeveloped.
And yes, I advocate for leg training. It can make your physique look much more aesthetic when having a sex. Imagine fucking a girl and you look like this-
Just LOL. Legs are aesthetic asf and I regret not training them early on in my training days.
Ways of making your physique look better after you Gymmax-
- tan. having a tanned physique is a very underrated way of making your physique far better:
Such an easy looksmax to your face as well BTW (H2O)
You can simply tan by being in the sun but to minimize being unnecessary amount of time in the sun, you can use a tanning lotion and MT1/2.
I will NOT recommend using a tanning spray since it’s stupid asf. Why risk being exposed using it when at the beach when you can simply get longer tan when ACTUAL TANNING.
- Low BF is LAW. Anything between 10-18% BF is great. Don’t go too low or too high. Being right in the middle is perfect when you’re trying to attract women. This guide changed my mind on how people perceive BF%.
- Being shaved. No not in the place you think
. This is underrated but having a shaved physique will really point out your muscles. Hair can hide some features. I would aim to trim your chest, back, legs, and armpits hair. ONLY SHAVE/TRIM IT IF ITS TOO HAIRY!!! This is very important since if you don’t have much hair theres no reason to fixate over those little things, it won’t looksmim you by any means. If you want Check this guide to learn more about body hair.- acneless body. When your physique is full of acne it looks awful. It’s pretty obvious so I don’t have much more to add
I would fix it by eating a good diet, try to minimize sweating and if this doesn’t help then use accutane.
Simplest way of looking at hypertrophy (terms you need to know) + how to create your own gym routine
In this section I will briefly go through some of the main terms you need to know when it come to building your program/routine and I will teach you how to implement them into your own gym routine.
-RIR (Reps In reserve)
This concept is pretty self explanatory. It merely refers to the number of additional reps you could have performed if you were to take a set to failure. You can think of 0RIR as failure. If you did 9 reps but could have attempted a 10th that would be 1RIR. 8 Reps would be 2RIR. So on and so forth.
Beginners find it hard to gauge RIR because they don’t know what failure feels like.
Because of this confusion I typically don’t quibble over the definition and when I say 1RIR I view 1RIR as “not failure” even if I don’t think I could get another rep. Luckily for us, hypertrophy is not going to be dictated on us arguing over what we consider 0 or 1RIR to be, as growth can be achieved with sets that are taken to or close to failure. The mere difference between 0RIR to 1RIR is simply to lower fatigue while still keeping high tension.
-How to implement RIR in your routine
Considering you know how to gauge RIR, then it’s the simplest thing ever. Do 0-1 RIR on isolations (single joint exercises, for example bicep curl) and 1-2 RIR on compounds (multi joint exercises like squats).
-Progressive overload
If you curl 30lb dumbbells for 5 reps to failure in a session with a 1 second concentric (positive portion of the movement) and a 2 second eccentric (negative portion), you would need to increase to 6 reps or more the next session or complete 5 reps the next session with more weight and the same tempo to be considered progressive overload. This does NOT mean there has been no improvement if you do the same number of reps and weight. It simply means in this context you would not call it progressive overload.
NOTE: you DONT force progressive overload you let it come to you. What does this mean? This simply means you need to only increase the reps/weight when you get to the point you wanted to
-How to implement progressive overload in your routine
Progressive overload like I said is an outcome not something you chase.
Use a double progression model. This model simply means that you pick a rep range, lets for example take the 5-8 rep range. When you get to 8 reps with a particular weight with strict form and ideally 1RIR, then you add weight accordingly to the exercise so you will next set perform 5 reps. That way you can always know when to add weight. Do this on every exercise you perform and pick the rep ranges you like training with (ideally do 5-10 reps). If you can’t increase weight/reps for over a month then don’t try to force your reps/weight, it’s most likely not the reason. Studies have shown that we only tend to grow 0.5-1 LB of muscle per month on average, so that basically means muscle
Building is very slow and you probably need to take a look at your program and see what can be the real cause since it’s probably not your weight/reps that make the difference. You should progress every 2-3 weeks ideally.
-ROM (Range Of Motion)
This is a topic that often gets confused because people regularly refer to things as Full ROM and Partial ROM as if there isn’t more nuance. For example, full ROM on a squat is often thought of as bending the knees until they will no longer bend (butt as low as possible) and then standing up until the knees are completely straight. However, there is a very clear point when the subject performing the exercise is no longer providing a quality stimulus to the acting tissues.
Telling the subject that they must fully straighten the legs after this point to achieve Full ROM is arbitrary and likely unnecessary, as they could directly reverse their momentum into another rep. That is why you may hear some people refer to some movements as “Arbitrary ROM”. Fully straightening the legs above a point where the acting tissues are provided any meaningful stimulus would be an example of Arbitrary ROM. In general Full ROM can be used when in doubt, but it will not be necessary for all muscle groups at all times to achieve an adequate stimulus. There is muscle ROM and a movement ROM. Two completely different things.
-How to implement ROM in your routine
This vary very widely between individuals but I would suggest to check the correct ROM of the exercises your performing and do it that way as long as it’s comfortable to you. I would advocate to film yourself while doing that exercise to check if you do it properly.
-Redundancy
Everyone has seen the person in their gym that walks in, grabs a barbell and does 3 sets of curls before moving to the dumbbell station, doing 3 sets of curls, and then finishing off with straight bar cable curls for 3 sets. This would be a good example of exercise redundancy. You are challenging the same muscle group through a very similar movement pattern.
This does NOT mean that you can never work the same muscle group in different ways during a session. If you decide to do a pressing motion for the quads and a leg extension in the same session we would not consider this complete redundancy. While they both emphasize quadriceps, they have more tension in different portions of the movement and even work slightly different muscles. ( Squat patterns don’t hit the rectus fem much if at all while leg extension work all the heads of the quads).
How to implement redundancy in your routine
Well obviously DONT implement it, but we can avoid it.
You can easily avoid redundancy by simply learning joint actions and the 5-set-rule. By learning joint actions you can examine the way you perform an exercise. For example like I said previously, if you do 2 sets of a supinated (reverse grip) seated bicep curl then 2 sets of supinated standing bicep In cable you basically did the exact same joint action for 4 sets (which for most individuals would be considered redundant)- elbow flexion with a supinated wrist. You can assess this on every other exercise by yourself by simply learning these joint actions.
-Intensity
In a hypertrophic context intensity refers to proximity to failure. The closer to failure, the higher the intensity of the set. 5RIR or more would be considered low intensity by almost everyone in the science based community. People may quibble over what they would consider to be "high intensity", but at the very least we can agree that getting closer to failure is progressively higher intensity with 0RIR most certainly being "high intensity".
By going closer to failure you increase mechanical tension (MT), thus higher threshold MUR (Motor Unit Recruitment) gets recruited = you get stimulus to your muscles.
Forcing failure is DUMB tho. You already reached 0RIR, why keep going? You are only adding unnecessary fatigue not stimulus. That’s why drop sets, super sets etc are BUNS. the only reason i would ever advocate for doing drop sets, super sets is if you dont have enough time and in a hurry.
-How to implement intensity in your routine
Train hard. Yes that’s the best advice I can give. Do each set with 0-2 RIR and you will see gains, don’t overcomplicate this it’s very simple.
-Volume
Volume in a hypertrophic context is always referring to the number of working sets done. This is not to be confused with volume load which is the total amount of weight moved in a workout. So if I say that my volume for the biceps is 4 sets this means 4 sets WITH high intensity. Warm up sets are not counted towards volume. A working set is defined as being within a predetermined proximity to failure. If the RIR is very high (4+), it should NOT be counted as a working set. That would count towards warm ups.
-How to implement volume in your routine
find your MAV. Best way to do so is to find your MRV (maximum recoverable volume) and MEV (minimum effective volume). You can find it by doing the 5 sets rule we talked about.
The 5 set rule is also a VERY good rule for examining your volume in a session. It’s basically a method to mitigate fatigue by doing MAX 5 sets per each muscle group you care about including overlap. This can vary from person to person and by the splits you’re going ofc. For example 1 person won’t be able to recover from 5 sets per muscle groups and the other would. But with this rule you can find your MAV (maximum adaptive volume, AKA the sweat spot for recovery). So if you see a regression/plateau in your gains after doing 5 sets for each muscle group for over 4 weeks you probably need to lower it until you see see gradually increase in progressive overload.
-Stability
This is a highly contentious topic (but shouldn't be) within the bodybuilding community. Generally speaking, stability is something that you should seek out within an exercise if hypertrophy is the goal. And deep down every bodybuilder knows this. If you ask someone the best way to grow their back and they give you this exercise..
You would automatically know their advice is fucking horseshit. So the TRUE point of contention is not whether stability matters. It’s how much it matters.
In MOST cases, additional stability is a good thing for muscle growth. It allows us to more intentionally focus on the muscle group we want to grow and less on coordinating the movement. You see, people often separate brain and muscle, but the two are intrinsically linked. If the brain is spending too much of its attention on stabilizing the body, it will actively take away from the stimulus we are working for. This does NOT mean that you can’t grow a muscle without perfect stability. It simply means that, generally speaking, it makes more sense to pick the more stable exercise IF all else is equal (path, resistance profile, comfort).
This is why you will see people within the science based community opt for quality machines over free weights in many circumstances. This is not to say that the use of free weights will not lead to growth. In fact it would be moronic to say that it won’t. But if the movement pattern and construction of a machine is biomechanically solid, it is difficult to make the argument to choose the free weight option for maximum efficiency. Having said that, at times the construction of the machine can be imperfect leading to the free weight option being a higher quality choice despite increased stability demands. How this looks in your home gym will be individualized.
-How to implement stability in your routine
I really don’t know what to say tbh. But always look for the most stable exercise you can for an exercise. For example instead of doing standing bicep curl do it seated.
-Frequency
If I could choose one topic that has the most buzz surrounding it at the time of creating this, it would be frequency. It currently is HIGHLY contentious and I will attempt to be as impartial as one can while discussing it. To understand this discussion, I probably should give you a couple studies that influenced people’s thinking on this topic. In 2016 this paper was released by Brad Schoenfeld et al.
I will not go into every detail of the study, but the conclusion is when comparing studies that investigated training muscle groups between 1 to 3 days per week on volume-equated basis, the current body of evidence indicates that frequencies of training twice a week promote superior hypertrophic outcomes to once a week. It can therefore be inferred that the major muscle groups should be trained at least twice a week to maximize muscle growth; whether training a muscle group three times per week is superior to a twice-per-week protocol remains to be determined, but we can potentially say it’s better since if the studies show the same outcomes we can look at mechanisms as well. 3x is better than 2x mechanistically.
Seemed pretty straightforward and for at least a few years the majority of people agreed that training a muscle group with a frequency of more than one time per week yielded superior results. However, just a couple years later, A paper by the SAME author came out.
Contradicting the previous review, this paper stated in the abstract:
And gave the practical takeaway:
“Thus, for a given training volume, individuals can choose a weekly frequency per muscle groups based on personal preference.”
In other words, the update was that overall volume per week was what mattered and NOT whether a muscle group was being trained multiple times within the training week. Alas, it was only the beginning of the war. People began to question these findings. Certain mechanisms weren’t adding up. Here are some of the questions people began to have:
These questions/mechanistic issues have led many people to believe that the takeaway from this review must be wrong. That frequency matters and weekly volume is not the highest quality metric to make the foundation of hypertrophy programming. And that leads us to our next topic.
-How to implement frequency in your routine
find a split you enjoy and that gives you minimum 2x frequency per muscle group.
-Fatigue
This is also a hotly debated topic. And for those that are worried about how to practically apply things we’ve talked about, do not worry. We will get to that later. I am merely outlining the current landscape for smart/effective training.
Now back to fatigue. We have two types of fatigue that we generally care about when it comes to deciding how to train. We have CNS fatigue. And peripheral fatigue.
Peripheral fatigue can be thought of as the fatigue that directly inhibits specific muscle groups from operating at full capacity, while CNS fatigue is a reduced capability of the brain to send proper signalling to the muscles. Peripheral fatigue is why we don’t want to do too many sets for an individual muscle group in a session, and CNS fatigue is why we don’t want to do too many total sets within a session (or across multiple days), regardless of which muscles are being trained.
Fatigue is why this next topic matters so much.
-How to avoid fatigue in your routine
Rest adequately. Studies show that resting more than 1 minute is better. As well as This studythat compares 1 vs 3 minutes resting period and the 3 minute rest was better. So rest adequately between each set. I would advice to rest 2 minutes minimum between sets and 5 minutes maximum.
Find your MAV (talked about this too many times LOL) but finding your MAV is the best way to reduce fatigue single handily.
Also a very good way of reducing fatigue before during and post workout is taking carbs pre workout, intra workout and post workout. It’s crucial to consume carbs to maintain blood glucose and to Increase energy thus reduce your Supra spinal CNS fatigue . Eat 1g of carbs per KG of body weight 1-1.5 hours prwoekout, 20-50g of carbs intra workout (something like an orange juice is the best), and post workout 1g of carbs per KG of bodyweight.
And no. Preworkout carbs do not replenish your glycogen stores. That process is Very slow. We’re trying to replenish liver and not muscle glycogen because most of muscle glycogen is replenished AFTER the workout so we don’t really get much glycogen depletion before our workout since it doesn’t deplete at all during sleep. So what we can take from this is to eat adequate amount of carbs pre, intra and post workout to maximize your workouts.
Sleep good.
Dont do much work before your workout. So don’t get tired before it.
-Sequencing
Imagine you’re a track athlete and I told you to run 100m as fast as you possibly could. Let’s say you achieve a time of 13.5 seconds. I then give you 5 min to recover. Your heart rate goes down, your muscles aren’t sore and overall you feel good. I then ask you to do it again. Do you think your time would improve? Assuming you did things right the first time around, you would not expect to run faster the second time around. In fact you would expect to be slightly slower. Despite feeling good, fatiguing mechanisms are still present, and this reduces output.
Even if you did happen to run as fast the second time due to an unforeseen variable, do you think you could do it again the 3rd time? How about the 4th? Slowly you would be forced to admit that your body just isn’t capable of putting out a max effort repeatedly, even with enough rest time for the heart to slow and the muscles to “feel” relaxed. We fundamentally understand this when it comes to sport, but fail to apply it at the gym.
If you had 8 total exercises to perform in the day and biceps were the muscle group you wanted to grow the most, it would be foolish to make biceps the 8th exercise in the day. Fatiguing mechanisms lead to decreased output and ultimately less growth. Whenever you are deciding how to program your workouts, sequence based on the goals for your physique. Of course genetics will mean that some muscles grow easier than others. But if your strong points are being sequenced first in your workouts, they will even more significantly outpace your weak points than they already are.
-How to implement sequencing in your routine
The fatigue subsection already covered the fatigue management but we can take away from this that putting the muscle groups you tryna bias first in the session will always be more effective in order to emphasize them.
-Deloads
when it comes to hypertrophy training, deloads are likely not necessary IF you program effectively. Often I will see people say they need to deload regularly only to show me a program that has them overworked constantly. If you overtrain, you definitely will want time where you're doing less intensity or taking time entirely off of the gym (deloading). That is BECAUSE you are too fatigued. That is why we emphasize fatigue so much. If it is managed effectively, deloads will become unnecessary for continued progress.
Therefore, my general take on deloads is do them reactively, not proactively. If you ever find yourself feeling too beat up for productive gym sessions...just take a day off...or two...or three. Placing these arbitrary rules on when you need to take time.
-Motivation
A very good way of increasing your motivation in the gym is listening to music.
Affect Behavior Cognition (ABC)
Music can influence performance in many ways.
• Psychological (Mood, Emotion, Affect)
• Physiological (Heart Rate, Hormonal balance)
• Psychophysical (Perceived Exertion)
• Ergogenic (Work Capacity, Endurance)
How to maximize these effects for biggest performance boost:
• Prioritize self-selected / preferred music
• Match tempo to exercise intensity (120-140 BPM for most lifting)
Strategic Timing can be like this- be pre task for arousal/priming (High-energy, self-selected) (Improved power/motivation), In-task for distraction/sustainment (Tempo matched) (Lower RPE/improved endurance), Post-task for recovery (Slow tempo) (Faster HRV/Improved recovery)
Looping your favorite song during working sets can build Pavlovian Conditioning
Training your brain to "go" the moment it plays
But potency can fade, neural Habituation = Brain downregulating to repeated stimuli. Dopamine/motivation hit weakens after 2-4 weeks of heavy use
Rotate core songs every 2-4 weeks or when ever you feel like they don’t hit the same
-Intensity Techniques
Dropsets, Supersets, MyoReps, Mechanical Dropsets. The more we learn about fatigue and stimulus, the more we are seeing a move away from regularly incorporating intensity techniques by many within the scientific lifting sphere. The reasoning is fairly simple. Nearly all (if not all) intensity techniques do not seem to add any meaningful stimulus that could not simply be accomplished through adding additional straight sets. As I said previously, I would only do these if I was short on time.
-How to create your own gym routine 101
i won’t go into the weeds of how should your program look as a beginner (1-2 years of lifting) /intermediate (3-5) /advanced (6+) since I already have went through it Here and I don’t want this thread to be too long. I will summary what I wrote in that thread to here for the sake of simplicity.
1. Identify what muscles you want to train and how much emphasis you want to give each one. In our case we want to give most emphasis to side delts, front delts, upper pecs, biceps and neck (neck training is going to be in the misc section) and lats. A simple way of doing it is to take each muscle group, put it in a table/list and ordering it by 1 (strong), 2 (mid) and 3 (weak) then put your strongest muscles in the end of the workout and vice versa. But even if the muscles that we are trying to emphasis are your strong points, keep them in the start of the session since the bigger the are the more aesthetic you will look.
2. exercise selection. Pick 1-3 movements for each muscle group. IMO more exercises > more sets always. Pick the most stable exercises you can, that you enjoy and that take little time to set up and most importantly, perform the joint action of the group you tryna bias. I already went over ALL the joint actions each muscle perform Here but I will summary it here and list the joint actions of the major muscle groups we are going to focus about-
Upper pecs- Shoulder flexion in the top half of the ROM. So any low to high fly in the top ROM of the movement will be great. To potentially bias more fibers you can also add a supinated smith machine incline bench.
Side delts- shoulder abduction. Any lateral raise will cover the most of the side delt.
Front delts- shoulder flexion. The front delts is a strong shoulder flexor even tho the chest take most of the work at the top half of the ROM. Any shoulder press will target the front delts very well.
Biceps- Elbow flexion with supinated wrist. Any curl will work it just as well.
Lats-Shoulder extension and Shoulder adduction. Any close grip row/pulldown and wide grip pulldown with target both well. Shoulder extension is a bit more upper fibers of the lats and the latter is more lower fibers.
3. Choose a split. That could be PPL, UL, FB etc as long as you’re getting 2x frequency minimum you’re good. dont overcomplicate it just stick to a split you like.
4. Volume. Your volume is highly dependent on your frequency:
• 3x/week frequency or more: 1-3 direct sets/day
• 2x/week frequency: 2-6 direct sets/day
• 1x/week frequency: 6+ (can obviously be quite high)
this is a general assumption btw, not objective. So find what you can recover from and you’re good.
And that’s it. It is that simple. Use the methods and terms I mentioned above and you WILL progress.
General splits programs:
-FULL BODY
-UPPER / LOWER
-PUSH / PULL / LEGS
Quick note: I advice you to have a logbook written to you in docs/XL and a logbook where you use during your workout to know what weights & reps you have done last session so it will help you compensate your current session. Good apps for this are Hevy and Tracked.
-RIR (Reps In reserve)
This concept is pretty self explanatory. It merely refers to the number of additional reps you could have performed if you were to take a set to failure. You can think of 0RIR as failure. If you did 9 reps but could have attempted a 10th that would be 1RIR. 8 Reps would be 2RIR. So on and so forth.
Beginners find it hard to gauge RIR because they don’t know what failure feels like.
Because of this confusion I typically don’t quibble over the definition and when I say 1RIR I view 1RIR as “not failure” even if I don’t think I could get another rep. Luckily for us, hypertrophy is not going to be dictated on us arguing over what we consider 0 or 1RIR to be, as growth can be achieved with sets that are taken to or close to failure. The mere difference between 0RIR to 1RIR is simply to lower fatigue while still keeping high tension.
-How to implement RIR in your routine
Considering you know how to gauge RIR, then it’s the simplest thing ever. Do 0-1 RIR on isolations (single joint exercises, for example bicep curl) and 1-2 RIR on compounds (multi joint exercises like squats).
-Progressive overload
If you curl 30lb dumbbells for 5 reps to failure in a session with a 1 second concentric (positive portion of the movement) and a 2 second eccentric (negative portion), you would need to increase to 6 reps or more the next session or complete 5 reps the next session with more weight and the same tempo to be considered progressive overload. This does NOT mean there has been no improvement if you do the same number of reps and weight. It simply means in this context you would not call it progressive overload.
NOTE: you DONT force progressive overload you let it come to you. What does this mean? This simply means you need to only increase the reps/weight when you get to the point you wanted to
-How to implement progressive overload in your routine
Progressive overload like I said is an outcome not something you chase.
Use a double progression model. This model simply means that you pick a rep range, lets for example take the 5-8 rep range. When you get to 8 reps with a particular weight with strict form and ideally 1RIR, then you add weight accordingly to the exercise so you will next set perform 5 reps. That way you can always know when to add weight. Do this on every exercise you perform and pick the rep ranges you like training with (ideally do 5-10 reps). If you can’t increase weight/reps for over a month then don’t try to force your reps/weight, it’s most likely not the reason. Studies have shown that we only tend to grow 0.5-1 LB of muscle per month on average, so that basically means muscle
Building is very slow and you probably need to take a look at your program and see what can be the real cause since it’s probably not your weight/reps that make the difference. You should progress every 2-3 weeks ideally.
-ROM (Range Of Motion)
This is a topic that often gets confused because people regularly refer to things as Full ROM and Partial ROM as if there isn’t more nuance. For example, full ROM on a squat is often thought of as bending the knees until they will no longer bend (butt as low as possible) and then standing up until the knees are completely straight. However, there is a very clear point when the subject performing the exercise is no longer providing a quality stimulus to the acting tissues.
Telling the subject that they must fully straighten the legs after this point to achieve Full ROM is arbitrary and likely unnecessary, as they could directly reverse their momentum into another rep. That is why you may hear some people refer to some movements as “Arbitrary ROM”. Fully straightening the legs above a point where the acting tissues are provided any meaningful stimulus would be an example of Arbitrary ROM. In general Full ROM can be used when in doubt, but it will not be necessary for all muscle groups at all times to achieve an adequate stimulus. There is muscle ROM and a movement ROM. Two completely different things.
-How to implement ROM in your routine
This vary very widely between individuals but I would suggest to check the correct ROM of the exercises your performing and do it that way as long as it’s comfortable to you. I would advocate to film yourself while doing that exercise to check if you do it properly.
-Redundancy
Everyone has seen the person in their gym that walks in, grabs a barbell and does 3 sets of curls before moving to the dumbbell station, doing 3 sets of curls, and then finishing off with straight bar cable curls for 3 sets. This would be a good example of exercise redundancy. You are challenging the same muscle group through a very similar movement pattern.
This does NOT mean that you can never work the same muscle group in different ways during a session. If you decide to do a pressing motion for the quads and a leg extension in the same session we would not consider this complete redundancy. While they both emphasize quadriceps, they have more tension in different portions of the movement and even work slightly different muscles. ( Squat patterns don’t hit the rectus fem much if at all while leg extension work all the heads of the quads).
How to implement redundancy in your routine
Well obviously DONT implement it
, but we can avoid it.You can easily avoid redundancy by simply learning joint actions and the 5-set-rule. By learning joint actions you can examine the way you perform an exercise. For example like I said previously, if you do 2 sets of a supinated (reverse grip) seated bicep curl then 2 sets of supinated standing bicep In cable you basically did the exact same joint action for 4 sets (which for most individuals would be considered redundant)- elbow flexion with a supinated wrist. You can assess this on every other exercise by yourself by simply learning these joint actions.
-Intensity
In a hypertrophic context intensity refers to proximity to failure. The closer to failure, the higher the intensity of the set. 5RIR or more would be considered low intensity by almost everyone in the science based community. People may quibble over what they would consider to be "high intensity", but at the very least we can agree that getting closer to failure is progressively higher intensity with 0RIR most certainly being "high intensity".
By going closer to failure you increase mechanical tension (MT), thus higher threshold MUR (Motor Unit Recruitment) gets recruited = you get stimulus to your muscles.
Forcing failure is DUMB tho. You already reached 0RIR, why keep going? You are only adding unnecessary fatigue not stimulus. That’s why drop sets, super sets etc are BUNS. the only reason i would ever advocate for doing drop sets, super sets is if you dont have enough time and in a hurry.
-How to implement intensity in your routine
Train hard. Yes that’s the best advice I can give. Do each set with 0-2 RIR and you will see gains, don’t overcomplicate this it’s very simple.
-Volume
Volume in a hypertrophic context is always referring to the number of working sets done. This is not to be confused with volume load which is the total amount of weight moved in a workout. So if I say that my volume for the biceps is 4 sets this means 4 sets WITH high intensity. Warm up sets are not counted towards volume. A working set is defined as being within a predetermined proximity to failure. If the RIR is very high (4+), it should NOT be counted as a working set. That would count towards warm ups.
-How to implement volume in your routine
find your MAV. Best way to do so is to find your MRV (maximum recoverable volume) and MEV (minimum effective volume). You can find it by doing the 5 sets rule we talked about.
The 5 set rule is also a VERY good rule for examining your volume in a session. It’s basically a method to mitigate fatigue by doing MAX 5 sets per each muscle group you care about including overlap. This can vary from person to person and by the splits you’re going ofc. For example 1 person won’t be able to recover from 5 sets per muscle groups and the other would. But with this rule you can find your MAV (maximum adaptive volume, AKA the sweat spot for recovery). So if you see a regression/plateau in your gains after doing 5 sets for each muscle group for over 4 weeks you probably need to lower it until you see see gradually increase in progressive overload.
-Stability
This is a highly contentious topic (but shouldn't be) within the bodybuilding community. Generally speaking, stability is something that you should seek out within an exercise if hypertrophy is the goal. And deep down every bodybuilder knows this. If you ask someone the best way to grow their back and they give you this exercise..
You would automatically know their advice is fucking horseshit. So the TRUE point of contention is not whether stability matters. It’s how much it matters.
In MOST cases, additional stability is a good thing for muscle growth. It allows us to more intentionally focus on the muscle group we want to grow and less on coordinating the movement. You see, people often separate brain and muscle, but the two are intrinsically linked. If the brain is spending too much of its attention on stabilizing the body, it will actively take away from the stimulus we are working for. This does NOT mean that you can’t grow a muscle without perfect stability. It simply means that, generally speaking, it makes more sense to pick the more stable exercise IF all else is equal (path, resistance profile, comfort).
This is why you will see people within the science based community opt for quality machines over free weights in many circumstances. This is not to say that the use of free weights will not lead to growth. In fact it would be moronic to say that it won’t. But if the movement pattern and construction of a machine is biomechanically solid, it is difficult to make the argument to choose the free weight option for maximum efficiency. Having said that, at times the construction of the machine can be imperfect leading to the free weight option being a higher quality choice despite increased stability demands. How this looks in your home gym will be individualized.
-How to implement stability in your routine
I really don’t know what to say tbh. But always look for the most stable exercise you can for an exercise. For example instead of doing standing bicep curl do it seated.
-Frequency
If I could choose one topic that has the most buzz surrounding it at the time of creating this, it would be frequency. It currently is HIGHLY contentious and I will attempt to be as impartial as one can while discussing it. To understand this discussion, I probably should give you a couple studies that influenced people’s thinking on this topic. In 2016 this paper was released by Brad Schoenfeld et al.
I will not go into every detail of the study, but the conclusion is when comparing studies that investigated training muscle groups between 1 to 3 days per week on volume-equated basis, the current body of evidence indicates that frequencies of training twice a week promote superior hypertrophic outcomes to once a week. It can therefore be inferred that the major muscle groups should be trained at least twice a week to maximize muscle growth; whether training a muscle group three times per week is superior to a twice-per-week protocol remains to be determined, but we can potentially say it’s better since if the studies show the same outcomes we can look at mechanisms as well. 3x is better than 2x mechanistically.
Seemed pretty straightforward and for at least a few years the majority of people agreed that training a muscle group with a frequency of more than one time per week yielded superior results. However, just a couple years later, A paper by the SAME author came out.
Contradicting the previous review, this paper stated in the abstract:
And gave the practical takeaway:
“Thus, for a given training volume, individuals can choose a weekly frequency per muscle groups based on personal preference.”
In other words, the update was that overall volume per week was what mattered and NOT whether a muscle group was being trained multiple times within the training week. Alas, it was only the beginning of the war. People began to question these findings. Certain mechanisms weren’t adding up. Here are some of the questions people began to have:
- Question 1: If weekly volume is all that matters, why do we have a study showing superior results for training a muscle 3x/week with 1 set compared to 1x/week with three sets?
- Question 2: If we know that growth from an individual workout does not last seven days, what is happening for the remainder of the week?
- Question 3: Why do strength gains seem to level off much quicker than hypertrophy gains in high volume studies? If that much more contractile tissue was added, should strength gains not continue to rise alongside the additional growth?
These questions/mechanistic issues have led many people to believe that the takeaway from this review must be wrong. That frequency matters and weekly volume is not the highest quality metric to make the foundation of hypertrophy programming. And that leads us to our next topic.
-How to implement frequency in your routine
find a split you enjoy and that gives you minimum 2x frequency per muscle group.
-Fatigue
This is also a hotly debated topic. And for those that are worried about how to practically apply things we’ve talked about, do not worry. We will get to that later. I am merely outlining the current landscape for smart/effective training.
Now back to fatigue. We have two types of fatigue that we generally care about when it comes to deciding how to train. We have CNS fatigue. And peripheral fatigue.
Peripheral fatigue can be thought of as the fatigue that directly inhibits specific muscle groups from operating at full capacity, while CNS fatigue is a reduced capability of the brain to send proper signalling to the muscles. Peripheral fatigue is why we don’t want to do too many sets for an individual muscle group in a session, and CNS fatigue is why we don’t want to do too many total sets within a session (or across multiple days), regardless of which muscles are being trained.
Fatigue is why this next topic matters so much.
-How to avoid fatigue in your routine
Rest adequately. Studies show that resting more than 1 minute is better. As well as This studythat compares 1 vs 3 minutes resting period and the 3 minute rest was better. So rest adequately between each set. I would advice to rest 2 minutes minimum between sets and 5 minutes maximum.
Find your MAV (talked about this too many times LOL) but finding your MAV is the best way to reduce fatigue single handily.
Also a very good way of reducing fatigue before during and post workout is taking carbs pre workout, intra workout and post workout. It’s crucial to consume carbs to maintain blood glucose and to Increase energy thus reduce your Supra spinal CNS fatigue . Eat 1g of carbs per KG of body weight 1-1.5 hours prwoekout, 20-50g of carbs intra workout (something like an orange juice is the best), and post workout 1g of carbs per KG of bodyweight.
And no. Preworkout carbs do not replenish your glycogen stores. That process is Very slow. We’re trying to replenish liver and not muscle glycogen because most of muscle glycogen is replenished AFTER the workout so we don’t really get much glycogen depletion before our workout since it doesn’t deplete at all during sleep. So what we can take from this is to eat adequate amount of carbs pre, intra and post workout to maximize your workouts.
Sleep good.
Dont do much work before your workout. So don’t get tired before it.
-Sequencing
Imagine you’re a track athlete and I told you to run 100m as fast as you possibly could. Let’s say you achieve a time of 13.5 seconds. I then give you 5 min to recover. Your heart rate goes down, your muscles aren’t sore and overall you feel good. I then ask you to do it again. Do you think your time would improve? Assuming you did things right the first time around, you would not expect to run faster the second time around. In fact you would expect to be slightly slower. Despite feeling good, fatiguing mechanisms are still present, and this reduces output.
Even if you did happen to run as fast the second time due to an unforeseen variable, do you think you could do it again the 3rd time? How about the 4th? Slowly you would be forced to admit that your body just isn’t capable of putting out a max effort repeatedly, even with enough rest time for the heart to slow and the muscles to “feel” relaxed. We fundamentally understand this when it comes to sport, but fail to apply it at the gym.
If you had 8 total exercises to perform in the day and biceps were the muscle group you wanted to grow the most, it would be foolish to make biceps the 8th exercise in the day. Fatiguing mechanisms lead to decreased output and ultimately less growth. Whenever you are deciding how to program your workouts, sequence based on the goals for your physique. Of course genetics will mean that some muscles grow easier than others. But if your strong points are being sequenced first in your workouts, they will even more significantly outpace your weak points than they already are.
-How to implement sequencing in your routine
The fatigue subsection already covered the fatigue management but we can take away from this that putting the muscle groups you tryna bias first in the session will always be more effective in order to emphasize them.
-Deloads
when it comes to hypertrophy training, deloads are likely not necessary IF you program effectively. Often I will see people say they need to deload regularly only to show me a program that has them overworked constantly. If you overtrain, you definitely will want time where you're doing less intensity or taking time entirely off of the gym (deloading). That is BECAUSE you are too fatigued. That is why we emphasize fatigue so much. If it is managed effectively, deloads will become unnecessary for continued progress.
Therefore, my general take on deloads is do them reactively, not proactively. If you ever find yourself feeling too beat up for productive gym sessions...just take a day off...or two...or three. Placing these arbitrary rules on when you need to take time.
-Motivation
A very good way of increasing your motivation in the gym is listening to music.
Affect Behavior Cognition (ABC)
Music can influence performance in many ways.
- Emotional state (Affect)
- Physical execution & performance metrics (Behavior)
- Thought process & focus (Cognition)
• Psychological (Mood, Emotion, Affect)
• Physiological (Heart Rate, Hormonal balance)
• Psychophysical (Perceived Exertion)
• Ergogenic (Work Capacity, Endurance)
How to maximize these effects for biggest performance boost:
• Prioritize self-selected / preferred music
• Match tempo to exercise intensity (120-140 BPM for most lifting)
Strategic Timing can be like this- be pre task for arousal/priming (High-energy, self-selected) (Improved power/motivation), In-task for distraction/sustainment (Tempo matched) (Lower RPE/improved endurance), Post-task for recovery (Slow tempo) (Faster HRV/Improved recovery)
Looping your favorite song during working sets can build Pavlovian Conditioning
Training your brain to "go" the moment it plays
But potency can fade, neural Habituation = Brain downregulating to repeated stimuli. Dopamine/motivation hit weakens after 2-4 weeks of heavy use
Rotate core songs every 2-4 weeks or when ever you feel like they don’t hit the same
-Intensity Techniques
Dropsets, Supersets, MyoReps, Mechanical Dropsets. The more we learn about fatigue and stimulus, the more we are seeing a move away from regularly incorporating intensity techniques by many within the scientific lifting sphere. The reasoning is fairly simple. Nearly all (if not all) intensity techniques do not seem to add any meaningful stimulus that could not simply be accomplished through adding additional straight sets. As I said previously, I would only do these if I was short on time.
-How to create your own gym routine 101
i won’t go into the weeds of how should your program look as a beginner (1-2 years of lifting) /intermediate (3-5) /advanced (6+) since I already have went through it Here and I don’t want this thread to be too long. I will summary what I wrote in that thread to here for the sake of simplicity.
1. Identify what muscles you want to train and how much emphasis you want to give each one. In our case we want to give most emphasis to side delts, front delts, upper pecs, biceps and neck (neck training is going to be in the misc section) and lats. A simple way of doing it is to take each muscle group, put it in a table/list and ordering it by 1 (strong), 2 (mid) and 3 (weak) then put your strongest muscles in the end of the workout and vice versa. But even if the muscles that we are trying to emphasis are your strong points, keep them in the start of the session since the bigger the are the more aesthetic you will look.
2. exercise selection. Pick 1-3 movements for each muscle group. IMO more exercises > more sets always. Pick the most stable exercises you can, that you enjoy and that take little time to set up and most importantly, perform the joint action of the group you tryna bias. I already went over ALL the joint actions each muscle perform Here but I will summary it here and list the joint actions of the major muscle groups we are going to focus about-
Upper pecs- Shoulder flexion in the top half of the ROM. So any low to high fly in the top ROM of the movement will be great. To potentially bias more fibers you can also add a supinated smith machine incline bench.
Side delts- shoulder abduction. Any lateral raise will cover the most of the side delt.
Front delts- shoulder flexion. The front delts is a strong shoulder flexor even tho the chest take most of the work at the top half of the ROM. Any shoulder press will target the front delts very well.
Biceps- Elbow flexion with supinated wrist. Any curl will work it just as well.
Lats-Shoulder extension and Shoulder adduction. Any close grip row/pulldown and wide grip pulldown with target both well. Shoulder extension is a bit more upper fibers of the lats and the latter is more lower fibers.
3. Choose a split. That could be PPL, UL, FB etc as long as you’re getting 2x frequency minimum you’re good. dont overcomplicate it just stick to a split you like.
4. Volume. Your volume is highly dependent on your frequency:
• 3x/week frequency or more: 1-3 direct sets/day
• 2x/week frequency: 2-6 direct sets/day
• 1x/week frequency: 6+ (can obviously be quite high)
this is a general assumption btw, not objective. So find what you can recover from and you’re good.
And that’s it. It is that simple. Use the methods and terms I mentioned above and you WILL progress.
General splits programs:
-FULL BODY
Frequency: 2-3.5× / week
- S/A Lateral Raise - 1x6-9
- S/A Scapular Plane Raise - 1x6-9
- Seated Smith Shoulder Press - 1x5-8
- Wide-Grip Lat Pulldown - 1x5-8
- Sagittal T-Bar Row - 1x5-8
- Kelso Shrug - 1x6-9
- S/A Low-to-High Fly (Seated, Cuffed) - 1x6-9
- Incline Smith Bench Press - 1x4-8
- Smith Machine Bench Press - 1x4-8
- Recline Curl - 2x5-8
- S/A Cuffed Tricep Extension - 1x6-9
- JM Press - 1x5-8
- Leg Extension - 1x5-8
- Seated Leg Curl - 1x5-8
- Hack Squat - 1x5-8
- Single-Leg Calf Raise - 1x5-8
- Hip Adduction - 1x5-8
- Seated Calf Raise - 1x5-8
- Back Extension - 1x5-8
- Crunch - 1x5-8
-UPPER / LOWER
Frequency: Minimum 2x / week
-UPPER
-LOWER
-UPPER
- S/A Lateral Raise - 2-4x6-9
- S/A Scapular Plane Raise - 2-4x6-9
- Seated Smith Shoulder Press - 1-3x5-8
- Wide-Grip Lat Pulldown - 2-4x5-8
- Sagittal T-Bar Row - 2-4x5-8
- Kelso Shrug - 2-4x6-9
- S/A Low-to-High Fly (Seated, Cuffed) - 1-3x6-9
- Incline Smith Bench Press - 1-3x4-8
- Smith Machine Bench Press - 1-3x4-8
- Recline Curl - 1-3x5-8
- S/A Cuffed Tricep Extension - 1-3x6-9
- JM Press - 1-3x5-8
-LOWER
- Leg Extension - 2-3x5-8
- Seated Leg Curl - 2-3x5-8
- Hack Squat - 1-2x5-8
- Single-Leg Calf Raise - 2-4x5-8
- Hip Adduction - 2-3x5-8
- Seated Calf Raise - 2-4x5-8
- Back Extension - 1-2x5-8
- Crunch - 1-2x5-8
-PUSH / PULL / LEGS
Frequency: 7-8 day rotation
PUSH
PULL
LEGS
PUSH
- S/A Lateral Raise - 2-4x6-9
- S/A Scapular Plane Raise - 2-4x6-9
- Seated Smith Shoulder Press - 1-3x5-8
- Incline Smith Bench Press - 2-4x4-8
- Smith Machine Bench Press - 2-4x4-8
- S/A Cuffed Tricep Extension - 2-3x6-9
- JM Press - 2-3x5-8
PULL
- Wide-Grip Lat Pulldown - 2-4x5-8
- Sagittal T-Bar Row - 2-4x5-8
- Kelso Shrug - 2-4x6-9
- S/A Low-to-High Fly (Seated, Cuffed) - 2-4x6-9
- Recline Curl - 1-3x5-8
- Crunch - 1-3x5-8
LEGS
- Leg Extension - 2-4x5-8
- Seated Leg Curl - 2-4x5-8
- Hack Squat - 1-3x5-8
- Single-Leg Calf Raise - 2-4x5-8
- Hip Adduction - 2-4x5-8
- Seated Calf Raise - 2-4x5-8
- Back Extension - 1-3x5-8
Quick note: I advice you to have a logbook written to you in docs/XL and a logbook where you use during your workout to know what weights & reps you have done last session so it will help you compensate your current session. Good apps for this are Hevy and Tracked.
Popular gym misconceptions
There are endless myths about the gym in the fitness industry. I’m going to address each popular and relevant one and debunk it.
-Bulking
So yes, bulking is absolutely vaulted. I’m talking about bulking as a natty or as someone who isn’t severely underweight, if you are at BMI > 18.5 and natty this is for you.
As I hinted prior this thread, muscle building is a slow process if you’re not a beginner.
For those of you who don’t understand why people bulk, it’s simply because they think it will grow their muscles quicker but it’s not the case AT ALL.
The only way your muscles will experience stimulus is by working out, it’s signaling dependent. You HAVE to work out in order to simulate your muscles BUT it is energy deepens to a degree since it requires a certain levels of calories to create new myofibrils. However the energy requirements and metabolic needs are VERY small, this is why you may hear some fitness coaches say it’s not energy dependent which is false. You do need sufficient amounts of protein to aid with new muscle gain. Sufficient amounts of fat to support hormonal function. And adequate carbs to ensure your glycogen stores aren’t too low. I will go more in depth about this in the sleep & nutrition section. Maintenance calories are enough to “maximally” build muscles. The energy required to support muscle growth is included in the maintenance calories already. A study - Effect of Small and Large Energy Surpluses on Strength, Muscle, and Skinfold Thickness in Resistance-Trained Individuals: A Parallel Groups Design with randomized 21 trained individuals were split into 3 groups, a caloric maintenance group, a 5% caloric surplus group and a 15% calories surplus group. After 8 weeks of training the outcomes between all groups were similar. Researchers concluded this-
“Therefore, we conclude faster rates of BM gain (and by proxy larger surpluses) primarily increase rates of fat gain rather than augmenting 1-RM or MT”. So basically a surplus will probably result in more fat gain rather than more muscle gain.
-“muh you need the perfect program”
This is something I’m trying to get out of my ADHD head, but it’s not true. You do not need the perfect program in order to make gains in the gym. The only thing that matters is intensity, adherence and consistency. Without those 3 you WONT grow muscle. The quote “the guy who like walking will get further than the guy who likes the destination” is very very true. If you over fixate everything in your program to be perfect but you keep switching exercises, splits etc you just will hinder your gains by a lot. So what you need to do is to stick to a decent routine, get very strong at every lift and you will see results.
A guy with adherence will always grow more than someone with a perfect program but very low consistency.
- Soreness
Soreness or DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) is only caused by unfamiliar hard tasks. For example doing legs after a long time of not training them. The more frequently you do a movement the less sore you will be overtime. Many people think getting sore after their workouts is a good indicator of muscle growth. But ironically, it’s exactly the opposite. Soreness is not an indicator of muscle growth. If that was true we would look like Ronnie Coleman after a marathon. Unfortunately it’s not the case. Soreness means JACKSHIT. It’s not an indicator for anything. It doesn’t means you’re not recovered as well. So you can still train when sore unless it’s REALLY bad which in that case it will probably be better to not train since it will increase your POE (perception of effort) which will reduce your overall performance.
- The pump
The pump does NOT result in muscle growth. A pump basically only means you’re training the targeted muscles. Thats the only thing it indicates. It means nothing for hypertrophy. Actually the pump can be bad since “Muscle fiber swelling causes a decrease in mechanical tension” which as we know is the sole driver of hypertrophy. This does not mean that if you chase the pump you will die. It’s just that it’s suboptimal for growth. That’s all.
- Not feeling a muscle is bad
A lot of gym goers think this way actually. But this is not true. A lot of people like different exercises because they “feel” the muscle more in it. When you perform the concentric (lifting phase) of an exercise your muscles contract but no exercise will give you a better contraction than the other. So why does it feel that way? One reason for this is exercises that are harder in the shortened position. There is more resistance there so it feels like the contraction is greater. Second reason for this is active insufficiency (simply when a muscle is shortened at 2 joints such as in a high cable curl)
This overly shortened position causes the greater feeling of the contraction. But when a muscle is experiencing active insufficiency it becomes unable to generate force because the contractile units within the muscle that produce force are overly shortened. In conclusion feeling a muscle more in one exercise than the other doesn’t really mean it’s better. Always check if an exercise you’re performing make your muscles experience active insufficiency, try to not run into this.
-Bulking
So yes, bulking is absolutely vaulted. I’m talking about bulking as a natty or as someone who isn’t severely underweight, if you are at BMI > 18.5 and natty this is for you.
As I hinted prior this thread, muscle building is a slow process if you’re not a beginner.
For those of you who don’t understand why people bulk, it’s simply because they think it will grow their muscles quicker but it’s not the case AT ALL.
The only way your muscles will experience stimulus is by working out, it’s signaling dependent. You HAVE to work out in order to simulate your muscles BUT it is energy deepens to a degree since it requires a certain levels of calories to create new myofibrils. However the energy requirements and metabolic needs are VERY small, this is why you may hear some fitness coaches say it’s not energy dependent which is false. You do need sufficient amounts of protein to aid with new muscle gain. Sufficient amounts of fat to support hormonal function. And adequate carbs to ensure your glycogen stores aren’t too low. I will go more in depth about this in the sleep & nutrition section. Maintenance calories are enough to “maximally” build muscles. The energy required to support muscle growth is included in the maintenance calories already. A study - Effect of Small and Large Energy Surpluses on Strength, Muscle, and Skinfold Thickness in Resistance-Trained Individuals: A Parallel Groups Design with randomized 21 trained individuals were split into 3 groups, a caloric maintenance group, a 5% caloric surplus group and a 15% calories surplus group. After 8 weeks of training the outcomes between all groups were similar. Researchers concluded this-
“Therefore, we conclude faster rates of BM gain (and by proxy larger surpluses) primarily increase rates of fat gain rather than augmenting 1-RM or MT”. So basically a surplus will probably result in more fat gain rather than more muscle gain.
-“muh you need the perfect program”
This is something I’m trying to get out of my ADHD head, but it’s not true. You do not need the perfect program in order to make gains in the gym. The only thing that matters is intensity, adherence and consistency. Without those 3 you WONT grow muscle. The quote “the guy who like walking will get further than the guy who likes the destination” is very very true. If you over fixate everything in your program to be perfect but you keep switching exercises, splits etc you just will hinder your gains by a lot. So what you need to do is to stick to a decent routine, get very strong at every lift and you will see results.
A guy with adherence will always grow more than someone with a perfect program but very low consistency.
- Soreness
Soreness or DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) is only caused by unfamiliar hard tasks. For example doing legs after a long time of not training them. The more frequently you do a movement the less sore you will be overtime. Many people think getting sore after their workouts is a good indicator of muscle growth. But ironically, it’s exactly the opposite. Soreness is not an indicator of muscle growth. If that was true we would look like Ronnie Coleman after a marathon. Unfortunately it’s not the case. Soreness means JACKSHIT. It’s not an indicator for anything. It doesn’t means you’re not recovered as well. So you can still train when sore unless it’s REALLY bad which in that case it will probably be better to not train since it will increase your POE (perception of effort) which will reduce your overall performance.
- The pump
The pump does NOT result in muscle growth. A pump basically only means you’re training the targeted muscles. Thats the only thing it indicates. It means nothing for hypertrophy. Actually the pump can be bad since “Muscle fiber swelling causes a decrease in mechanical tension” which as we know is the sole driver of hypertrophy. This does not mean that if you chase the pump you will die. It’s just that it’s suboptimal for growth. That’s all.
- Not feeling a muscle is bad
A lot of gym goers think this way actually. But this is not true. A lot of people like different exercises because they “feel” the muscle more in it. When you perform the concentric (lifting phase) of an exercise your muscles contract but no exercise will give you a better contraction than the other. So why does it feel that way? One reason for this is exercises that are harder in the shortened position. There is more resistance there so it feels like the contraction is greater. Second reason for this is active insufficiency (simply when a muscle is shortened at 2 joints such as in a high cable curl)
This overly shortened position causes the greater feeling of the contraction. But when a muscle is experiencing active insufficiency it becomes unable to generate force because the contractile units within the muscle that produce force are overly shortened. In conclusion feeling a muscle more in one exercise than the other doesn’t really mean it’s better. Always check if an exercise you’re performing make your muscles experience active insufficiency, try to not run into this.
Sleep & nutrition
-Sleep
Your sleep routine is just as important as your gym routine. Your gains occur when you sleep. Bad sleep = bad gains. As simple as that.
I won’t get TOO deep into this since there are countless guides on this forum about sleep (like The sleepmaxxing playbook and The importance of sleep) and most of you probably know what to do.
Best time to sleep is between 22:00-00:00 and wake up at 6:00-8:00.
Bad sleep is awful for looksmaxxing but it’s awful for literally everything else, like brain function, energy, health indicators and most importantly your physical capabilities- Chronic Lack of Sleep is Associated With Increased Sports Injuries in Adolescent Athlete
You should sleep around 7-9 hours a night.
-How should you sleep max then?
IMO, diet is kinda overrated in the sense of it’s not what’s going to make or break your physique, but it is undoubtedly will make a good impact on your gains. I just don’t think you should over fixate on every single thing in your diet. It’s important but you don’t notice much difference if you eat 100g of protein and 150g of protein.
The basics should be eat 3-4 meals a day so your body can digest each meal properly, try to spread protein, fat and carbs evenly between these meals.
-Calories
The first step is to find your maintenance calories. You can use a TDEE calculator by entering your age, weight, height, and activity level. This will give you a starting point for your maintenance. The most accurate method is to track your calories and your weight for 3 to two 4. If your weight stays stable during that time, those calories are your maintenance.
Once you know your maintenance, you can decide your goal. If you want to cut fat, you should eat below maintenance, typically around 300 to 500 calories less per day. Cutting is appropriate if your waist is growing, your abs are not visible, or your body fat is higher than you want. Eating around maintenance is ideal if you are in a healthy body fat range, approximately 12 to 17 percent, and want to maintain your current weight. It is important to check your body and not rely solely on numbers. A BMI calculator can serve as a rough guideline. A BMI below 18.5 usually indicates you are underweight and may benefit from bulking. A BMI between 18.5 and 24.9 is considered normal and suggests that maintaining or doing a lean bulk is appropriate. A BMI over 25 often means you should cut. Keep in mind that BMI is not perfect because it does not distinguish between muscle and fat.
According to BMI, Ronnie Coleman is obese
Visual assessment is crucial. If you cannot see your abs, your veins are not visible, or you just look fat overall, cutting is recommended. If you appear very lean but struggle to gain strength and muscle, a bulk may be necessary (CONSIDERING THE LIMITING FACTOR IS YOUR DIET AND NOT ANYTHING ELSE LIKE YOUR SLEEP, TRAINING PROGRAM etc).
You should adjust your calories as you go. Track your progress weekly.
-macros and micros
For those who can’t differentiate between them, it’s simple-
macros = fats, carbs, protein.
Micros = vitamins and minerals.
So I will divide this into 2 subsections which are micros and macros.
-Macros and micros
Micronutrients are the vitamins and minerals your body needs in small amounts to function properly. They are critical for performance, recovery, hormone balance, and overall health. Even if your calories and macros are on point, a deficiency in micronutrients can limit your results and leave you constantly fatigued or under-recovered.
Vitamins are organic compounds your body mostly cannot produce on its own, so you must get them from food.
-Macronutrients
Macros are basically just fat, carbs and protein. Each plays a unique role in your training and overall performance. Fats are essential for hormonal regulation, including testosterone and other key hormones that influence muscle growth, recovery, and energy levels. Including healthy sources of fats like olive oil, nuts, seeds, and fatty fish helps you feel stronger, maintain stable energy, and perform better in the gym. Protein is the building block of muscle. It stimulates muscle protein synthesis, which is the process your body uses to repair and grow muscle fibers after training. Getting enough protein from sources like meat, eggs, dairy, and legumes ensures your muscles recover efficiently and grow over time. Carbohydrates are your body’s favorite source of energy, especially for high intensity workouts. They fuel your muscles, help maintain performance during training, and aid in recovery by replenishing glycogen stores. Prioritizing carbs from whole grains, fruits, and starchy vegetables allows you to train harder, recover faster, and get the most out of your workouts This study - Neuromuscular responses to mild-muscle damaging eccentric exercise in a low glycogen state, This study - Effects of Carbohydrate Intake on Body Composition and Muscular Strength in Trained Men Undergoing a Progressive Resistance Training and This study - CNS fatigue and prolonged exercise: effect of glucose supplementation both showed a lack of carbs can severely limit muscle gains by reducing MT and MUR. So it’s important to eat adequate amounts of carbs.
Each macros calories are-
Protein: 4 calories
Carbs: 4 calories
Fats: 9 calories
-How much of each should you consume ?
Let’s give an example of someone who is 70 kg and his LBM (Lean Body Mass)is 60 kg.
He would consume 1.5-2 grams of protein per kg of Lean Body Mass, so if your LBM is 60kg, consume either 90-120 grams of protein.
Let’s say that individual is eating 120 grams of protein that means he’s eating 120x4=480 calories from protein only.
Then I would opt for him to eat 40-50 grams of fat daily, which is 50x9=450, so that’s 450 calories of fat only.
For carbs, I would fill the rest, considering he’s eating at maintenance and let’s say it’s 2,500, so he needs to fill the rest of the calories (fat and protein are 930 calories) so 2,500-930=1,570, so if we divide 1,570:4 that will equal to 392-393 grams of carbs, which is great. So we got
Fat: 50 grams
Protein: 120 grams
Carbs: 393 grams
In % it’s
fat: 18%
Protein: 19%
Carbs: 63%
Morning: focus more on fats and protein.
Noon: focus on carbs and protein, and a bit of fats.
Preworkout: mostly carbs, aim for 1g per kg of body weight.
Evening: mostly fats, carbs and a bit of protein.
It doesn’t matter that much when you eat your fats and protein, but keep space for carbs when it’s 3-4 hours preworkout. Dont eat a lot of fats before a workout since the carbs will digest much slower.
You can also use carbs intra workout and post workout to maximize recovery and energy during your workout and after it.
Supplements are great, but don’t think they will turn your physique 360°. They can only aid a bit in recovery, sleep and inflammation.
Supplements for the gym is great, since it can help you push a little further than your body normally can. I will list all the supplements you should take if you want to maximize hypertrophy.
Your sleep routine is just as important as your gym routine. Your gains occur when you sleep. Bad sleep = bad gains. As simple as that.
I won’t get TOO deep into this since there are countless guides on this forum about sleep (like The sleepmaxxing playbook and The importance of sleep) and most of you probably know what to do.
Best time to sleep is between 22:00-00:00 and wake up at 6:00-8:00.
Bad sleep is awful for looksmaxxing but it’s awful for literally everything else, like brain function, energy, health indicators and most importantly your physical capabilities- Chronic Lack of Sleep is Associated With Increased Sports Injuries in Adolescent Athlete
You should sleep around 7-9 hours a night.
-How should you sleep max then?
- sleep in a pitch dark room.Studies show that being in a dark room can help you sleep much more efficiently. You can wear a face mask if you can’t have a complete dark room.
- Sleep at the same time every day. When you sleep at different times every day you disrupt your circadian rhythm which is crucial for your sleep.
- No caffeine 6-10 hours before bed
- Sleep in a cool room (ideally 14-20°Celsius)
- No working out at least 2 hours before sleeping
- No screens 1-1.5 hours before sleep
- No bright lights 2 hours before sleeping
- Hot shower 2-1 hour before sleep Hot shower / bath before sleep helps calm the body
- Watch the sunset and sunrise (sunrise is optional)
- Don’t eat big meals 2-3 hours minimum before sleep
- Be very active during the day. Walk a lot, be in the sun (with protection)
- Read a book right before you go to sleep
- Melatonin- 5-20mg 1-2 hours before sleep
- Magnesium glycinate- 360mg of elemental magnesium 1-2 hours before sleep
IMO, diet is kinda overrated in the sense of it’s not what’s going to make or break your physique, but it is undoubtedly will make a good impact on your gains. I just don’t think you should over fixate on every single thing in your diet. It’s important but you don’t notice much difference if you eat 100g of protein and 150g of protein.
The basics should be eat 3-4 meals a day so your body can digest each meal properly, try to spread protein, fat and carbs evenly between these meals.
-Calories
The first step is to find your maintenance calories. You can use a TDEE calculator by entering your age, weight, height, and activity level. This will give you a starting point for your maintenance. The most accurate method is to track your calories and your weight for 3 to two 4. If your weight stays stable during that time, those calories are your maintenance.
Once you know your maintenance, you can decide your goal. If you want to cut fat, you should eat below maintenance, typically around 300 to 500 calories less per day. Cutting is appropriate if your waist is growing, your abs are not visible, or your body fat is higher than you want. Eating around maintenance is ideal if you are in a healthy body fat range, approximately 12 to 17 percent, and want to maintain your current weight. It is important to check your body and not rely solely on numbers. A BMI calculator can serve as a rough guideline. A BMI below 18.5 usually indicates you are underweight and may benefit from bulking. A BMI between 18.5 and 24.9 is considered normal and suggests that maintaining or doing a lean bulk is appropriate. A BMI over 25 often means you should cut. Keep in mind that BMI is not perfect because it does not distinguish between muscle and fat.
According to BMI, Ronnie Coleman is obese
Visual assessment is crucial. If you cannot see your abs, your veins are not visible, or you just look fat overall, cutting is recommended. If you appear very lean but struggle to gain strength and muscle, a bulk may be necessary (CONSIDERING THE LIMITING FACTOR IS YOUR DIET AND NOT ANYTHING ELSE LIKE YOUR SLEEP, TRAINING PROGRAM etc).
You should adjust your calories as you go. Track your progress weekly.
-macros and micros
For those who can’t differentiate between them, it’s simple-
macros = fats, carbs, protein.
Micros = vitamins and minerals.
So I will divide this into 2 subsections which are micros and macros.
-Macros and micros
Micronutrients are the vitamins and minerals your body needs in small amounts to function properly. They are critical for performance, recovery, hormone balance, and overall health. Even if your calories and macros are on point, a deficiency in micronutrients can limit your results and leave you constantly fatigued or under-recovered.
Vitamins are organic compounds your body mostly cannot produce on its own, so you must get them from food.
Each vitamin helps with different things, for example: Vitamin A is important for vision, immune function, and cell growth and can be found in liver, carrots, sweet potatoes, and dark leafy greens. Vitamin C supports collagen production, acts as an antioxidant, and aids recovery, and is found in citrus fruits, peppers, and broccoli. Vitamin D is crucial for bone health, immune function, and testosterone production, and can be obtained from sunlight exposure, fatty fish, and fortified foods. Vitamin E is another antioxidant that protects your cells and is abundant in nuts, seeds, and vegetable oils. Vitamin K is essential for blood clotting and bone health and is found in leafy greens, broccoli, and fermented foods. B vitamins, which include B1 through B12, help convert food into energy, support red blood cell production, and maintain nervous system function. They are found in whole grains, meat, eggs, dairy, and leafy vegetables.
Minerals are inorganic elements required for essential bodily functions like muscle contraction, nerve signaling, fluid balance, and enzyme activity. Calcium supports bones and muscle contractions and is found in dairy, leafy greens, and fortified foods. Magnesium is involved in hundreds of biochemical reactions, including energy production and muscle relaxation, and is found in nuts, seeds, and whole grains. Sodium and potassium maintain fluid balance and proper nerve and muscle function, and are found in salt, bananas, potatoes, and vegetables. Phosphorus contributes to bone structure and energy metabolism and is present in meat, dairy, and beans. Iron is critical for oxygen transport and energy levels and is found in red meat, legumes, and fortified cereals. Zinc supports immune function, hormone production, and protein synthesis, and can be obtained from meat, shellfish, and seeds. Other minerals like copper, sulfur, and fluoride play specialized roles in enzymes, tissue repair, and bone health.
Iron deficiency can cause persistent fatigue, while low vitamin D or magnesium can affect testosterone and muscle function. B vitamin shortages can make energy production less efficient, leaving you drained during workouts. The key is consistency. Eating a variety of colorful vegetables and fruits, incorporating dairy, nuts, seeds, whole grains, meat, eggs, and fish ensures you cover most vitamins and minerals. If your diet is limited or you suspect deficiencies, a basic multivitamin or targeted supplements like vitamin D, magnesium, or zinc can help, but they are only a backup to a nutrient-rich diet. Think of micronutrients as the foundation for everything else in your training. Without them, protein, carbs, and training stimulus cannot reach their full potential.
Minerals are inorganic elements required for essential bodily functions like muscle contraction, nerve signaling, fluid balance, and enzyme activity. Calcium supports bones and muscle contractions and is found in dairy, leafy greens, and fortified foods. Magnesium is involved in hundreds of biochemical reactions, including energy production and muscle relaxation, and is found in nuts, seeds, and whole grains. Sodium and potassium maintain fluid balance and proper nerve and muscle function, and are found in salt, bananas, potatoes, and vegetables. Phosphorus contributes to bone structure and energy metabolism and is present in meat, dairy, and beans. Iron is critical for oxygen transport and energy levels and is found in red meat, legumes, and fortified cereals. Zinc supports immune function, hormone production, and protein synthesis, and can be obtained from meat, shellfish, and seeds. Other minerals like copper, sulfur, and fluoride play specialized roles in enzymes, tissue repair, and bone health.
Iron deficiency can cause persistent fatigue, while low vitamin D or magnesium can affect testosterone and muscle function. B vitamin shortages can make energy production less efficient, leaving you drained during workouts. The key is consistency. Eating a variety of colorful vegetables and fruits, incorporating dairy, nuts, seeds, whole grains, meat, eggs, and fish ensures you cover most vitamins and minerals. If your diet is limited or you suspect deficiencies, a basic multivitamin or targeted supplements like vitamin D, magnesium, or zinc can help, but they are only a backup to a nutrient-rich diet. Think of micronutrients as the foundation for everything else in your training. Without them, protein, carbs, and training stimulus cannot reach their full potential.
-Macronutrients
Macros are basically just fat, carbs and protein. Each plays a unique role in your training and overall performance. Fats are essential for hormonal regulation, including testosterone and other key hormones that influence muscle growth, recovery, and energy levels. Including healthy sources of fats like olive oil, nuts, seeds, and fatty fish helps you feel stronger, maintain stable energy, and perform better in the gym. Protein is the building block of muscle. It stimulates muscle protein synthesis, which is the process your body uses to repair and grow muscle fibers after training. Getting enough protein from sources like meat, eggs, dairy, and legumes ensures your muscles recover efficiently and grow over time. Carbohydrates are your body’s favorite source of energy, especially for high intensity workouts. They fuel your muscles, help maintain performance during training, and aid in recovery by replenishing glycogen stores. Prioritizing carbs from whole grains, fruits, and starchy vegetables allows you to train harder, recover faster, and get the most out of your workouts This study - Neuromuscular responses to mild-muscle damaging eccentric exercise in a low glycogen state, This study - Effects of Carbohydrate Intake on Body Composition and Muscular Strength in Trained Men Undergoing a Progressive Resistance Training and This study - CNS fatigue and prolonged exercise: effect of glucose supplementation both showed a lack of carbs can severely limit muscle gains by reducing MT and MUR. So it’s important to eat adequate amounts of carbs.
Each macros calories are-
Protein: 4 calories
Carbs: 4 calories
Fats: 9 calories
-How much of each should you consume ?
Let’s give an example of someone who is 70 kg and his LBM (Lean Body Mass)is 60 kg.
He would consume 1.5-2 grams of protein per kg of Lean Body Mass, so if your LBM is 60kg, consume either 90-120 grams of protein.
Let’s say that individual is eating 120 grams of protein that means he’s eating 120x4=480 calories from protein only.
Then I would opt for him to eat 40-50 grams of fat daily, which is 50x9=450, so that’s 450 calories of fat only.
For carbs, I would fill the rest, considering he’s eating at maintenance and let’s say it’s 2,500, so he needs to fill the rest of the calories (fat and protein are 930 calories) so 2,500-930=1,570, so if we divide 1,570:4 that will equal to 392-393 grams of carbs, which is great. So we got
Fat: 50 grams
Protein: 120 grams
Carbs: 393 grams
In % it’s
fat: 18%
Protein: 19%
Carbs: 63%
Morning: focus more on fats and protein.
Noon: focus on carbs and protein, and a bit of fats.
Preworkout: mostly carbs, aim for 1g per kg of body weight.
Evening: mostly fats, carbs and a bit of protein.
It doesn’t matter that much when you eat your fats and protein, but keep space for carbs when it’s 3-4 hours preworkout. Dont eat a lot of fats before a workout since the carbs will digest much slower.
You can also use carbs intra workout and post workout to maximize recovery and energy during your workout and after it.
Supplements are great, but don’t think they will turn your physique 360°. They can only aid a bit in recovery, sleep and inflammation.
Supplements for the gym is great, since it can help you push a little further than your body normally can. I will list all the supplements you should take if you want to maximize hypertrophy.
- magnesium glycinate- relieves stress, help sleep and help with heart health, helps with insulin resistance. I would do 200-400 elemental mg, it’s individual dependent.
- caffeine- help with perception of effort by reducing it which allows you to train harder and stay focused during the workout. Take 3-6 mg of caffeine per kg of body weight as a pre workout. Dont consume 10 or less hours before going to sleep.
- melatonin- not for the gym but it’s great for helping with sleep quality. I would opt for 2-15 mg depends on what works best for you. Take it 30 minutes before sleep
- Creatine- great, S tier supplement, has no side effects and is the most researched compound ITW, I suggest you to get 5-10 grams of it daily and it doesn’t matter much when you take it. It will give you a small boost in training and it’s great for your brain as well
- zinc- can boost your test and it activates enzymes for MPS (muscle protein synthesis). I would opt for 50 mg.
- Electrolytes- makes you hydrated, when you are hydrated you are performing much better and taking electrolytes before the gym with your preworkout is great, also consider to take it intra workout if you sweat a lot
- Fish oil- help with heart health, brain, joint function, skin health. Take 2,400 EPA/DHA
- Vitamin D3 + K2- help with bone health, testosterone, immune system. It depend on sun exposure but considering you are not in the sun much I advice for 5,000 IU minimum.
miscellaneous (fashion, accessories, neck training, equipment)
Now that we covered everything we need to know in order to maximize our gains in the gym, let’s look at what we should be wearing to the gym, what equipment we should use and what accessories.
-fashion
-upper body
-Ideally a wife beater/tank top. Something like this
The black ones are better (for once). Really no shirt is better. Compression shirts are great as well but they are kinda cringe ICL.
price: 10-50$
-Do NOT wear stingers:
It looks like actual shit on everyone.
-Wear AIRPODS to the gym. Yes this might sound weird but wearing AirPods is a very niche statusmax. Imagine going to the gym With these
It will make you look like a poor weirdo.
price: 50-200$
-A hat is a great niche mysteriousmaxxing way of making yourself more mysterious. If your hair doesn’t look good that day you go to the gym, a hat might save you. Something life this will suit everyone
Carhartt’s hats are great.
price: 20-100$
-necklace is such a good looksmax as well.
Something like this mogs hard. Always always wear a clear necklace (without any attachments to it like a cross, an animal etc).
price: 30-200$
-Bracelet
A bracelet mogs hard and i personally think it’s better than a necklace but wearing both is a good mix.
Something like this is the most basic and elegant. Do not wear a gold one it’s ugly and feminine. SAME FOR THE NECKLACE
price: 20-100$
-Lower body
Nothing much to say. Wear jeans/long pants and I would opt for air force but it’s your choice. You can stick an insole in there if you want and you know there’s going to be baddies in the gym that day.
Long pants + black wife beater + Air Force is top tier gym fit.
-Equipment
I think the less equipment the better but there are some exercises that require equipment.
-Must-have equipment
-Cuffs
Will help you mainly on cable exercises. They will eliminate some of the elbow and wrist flexors which will increase MUR in your exercises.
price: 10-40$
-Straps
Your grip is the limiting factor in any pulling and rowing movement as well as in something like an hinge (SLDL, 45s), straps will ensure you stop when your back give up and not your forearms
price: 10-40$
-Wraps
These are optional tbh but are very important for wrist health if you do heavy presses.
price: 10-40$
-Optional accessories
seatbelt- mainly for leg extension/leg curls to help you being more stable. price: 5-20$.
Resistance bands- can help with changing an exercise resistance profile. price: 10-60$.
Gym pin- for increasing weight on a particular exercise. price: 30-100$.
-Neck training
I already said that neck is important for aesthetics but didn’t mention why and what to do to maximize it. In this subsection I will go briefly about it and straight to the point.
The neck is a VERY important muscle because it’s one of the only muscles other than forearms that people subconsciously asses when seeing you with a shirt. An individual with a small neck will always be perceived as more skinny, feminine and low dimorphism.
Who looks more intimidating and dimorphic here?
The ONLY thing that changes here is his neck width.
Just look at how big of a difference a few CM of neck development can make. The left one looks like a junky and the right one looks masculine.
Also a good note to add is that a wide neck can make the illusion of your jaw becoming wider which is a very important pro to consider.
Another hopefuel pics of how a big neck can ascend oneself.
-Neck routine
Now that we understand the importance of having a wide neck. Let’s go into how should your routine look like for the most optimal growth.
The only equipment you need is
But we will keep it as simple as possible. The neck has 4 main functions
-Lateral flexion, basically tilting the head from side to side/getting your ear closer to shoulders. This movement bias the lateral side of the neck, more specifically your Sternocleidomastoid (same side), Scalenes and your Levator scapulae.
You can do this with two ways-
1. laying down in the side on a bench/bed when your head is at the edge of them and then just lateral flex your neck. I wouldn’t recommend doing this with a plate since it’s very unstable and awkward. But you can do it with a neck harness on an incline bench like this:
This is a great way of doing it.
2. The second way is by doing isometrics. Yes isometrics can build similar growth compared to traditional resistance training if done right BTW. And I find it way easier to do on this specific movement. Just sit and put your hand/ a pillow/anything that will keep you resisting it isometrically.
-Neck flexion, getting your chin to chest. This will bias the anterior part of your neck, more specifically your Sternocleidomastoid (primary) and your Deep neck flexors (longus colli/capitis).
You can train this by simply putting your head in the edge of the bench/bed and flex it, you can also do a chin tuck in the end of the ROM to standardize it.
And you can also do it with a neck harness-
But I find it way easier to do it with a plate for some reason. Do whatever you enjoy.
-Neck extension, looking up. This will bias the posterior part of your neck, more specifically your upper trapezius, Splenius capitis/cervicis and your Semispinalis.
You can train it by putting your head on the edge of your bench/bed and extend your neck.
I find it VERY awkward and uncomfortable since the ROM is very limited so I advice you to do it with a neck harness.
-rotation, turning head left right. This will bias your rotational control / SCM dominance, more specifically your Sternocleidomastoid (opposite side) and splenius (same side assists).
I personally don’t train it and I don’t think you should since lateral flexion will cover the side of the neck pretty well. But if you insist on it then you can train it by rotating your head while wearing a neck harness.
A good neck routine would look something like this:
Preferably 1 RIR on each and 2 minutes minimum. You don’t have to milk the stretch too much.
You can choose whatever you want, either doing it with plates or with a harness. What ever feels comfortable to you.
More videos/threads to watch about neck training:
what nobody tells you about neck training
neck simplified
jeff nippard neck guide
guide to neck training
porportions of the neck
Blackpill neck training
-fashion
-upper body
-Ideally a wife beater/tank top. Something like this
The black ones are better (for once). Really no shirt is better. Compression shirts are great as well but they are kinda cringe ICL.
price: 10-50$
-Do NOT wear stingers:
It looks like actual shit on everyone.
-Wear AIRPODS to the gym. Yes this might sound weird but wearing AirPods is a very niche statusmax. Imagine going to the gym With these
It will make you look like a poor weirdo.
price: 50-200$
-A hat is a great niche mysteriousmaxxing way of making yourself more mysterious. If your hair doesn’t look good that day you go to the gym, a hat might save you. Something life this will suit everyone
Carhartt’s hats are great.
price: 20-100$
-necklace is such a good looksmax as well.
Something like this mogs hard. Always always wear a clear necklace (without any attachments to it like a cross, an animal etc).
price: 30-200$
-Bracelet
A bracelet mogs hard and i personally think it’s better than a necklace but wearing both is a good mix.
Something like this is the most basic and elegant. Do not wear a gold one it’s ugly and feminine. SAME FOR THE NECKLACE
price: 20-100$
-Lower body
Nothing much to say. Wear jeans/long pants and I would opt for air force but it’s your choice. You can stick an insole in there if you want and you know there’s going to be baddies in the gym that day.
Long pants + black wife beater + Air Force is top tier gym fit.
-Equipment
I think the less equipment the better but there are some exercises that require equipment.
-Must-have equipment
-Cuffs
Will help you mainly on cable exercises. They will eliminate some of the elbow and wrist flexors which will increase MUR in your exercises.
price: 10-40$
-Straps
Your grip is the limiting factor in any pulling and rowing movement as well as in something like an hinge (SLDL, 45s), straps will ensure you stop when your back give up and not your forearms
price: 10-40$
-Wraps
These are optional tbh but are very important for wrist health if you do heavy presses.
price: 10-40$
-Optional accessories
seatbelt- mainly for leg extension/leg curls to help you being more stable. price: 5-20$.
Resistance bands- can help with changing an exercise resistance profile. price: 10-60$.
Gym pin- for increasing weight on a particular exercise. price: 30-100$.
-Neck training
I already said that neck is important for aesthetics but didn’t mention why and what to do to maximize it. In this subsection I will go briefly about it and straight to the point.
The neck is a VERY important muscle because it’s one of the only muscles other than forearms that people subconsciously asses when seeing you with a shirt. An individual with a small neck will always be perceived as more skinny, feminine and low dimorphism.
Who looks more intimidating and dimorphic here?
The ONLY thing that changes here is his neck width.
Just look at how big of a difference a few CM of neck development can make. The left one looks like a junky and the right one looks masculine.
Also a good note to add is that a wide neck can make the illusion of your jaw becoming wider which is a very important pro to consider.
Another hopefuel pics of how a big neck can ascend oneself.
-Neck routine
Now that we understand the importance of having a wide neck. Let’s go into how should your routine look like for the most optimal growth.
The only equipment you need is
- plates. price: 50-200$ depeneds on the weights you use
- a bed (preferably a bench) price: 100-400$ for the bench. If you don’t have a bed you got bigger problems to worry about
- neck harness. price:30-70$
But we will keep it as simple as possible. The neck has 4 main functions
-Lateral flexion, basically tilting the head from side to side/getting your ear closer to shoulders. This movement bias the lateral side of the neck, more specifically your Sternocleidomastoid (same side), Scalenes and your Levator scapulae.
You can do this with two ways-
1. laying down in the side on a bench/bed when your head is at the edge of them and then just lateral flex your neck. I wouldn’t recommend doing this with a plate since it’s very unstable and awkward. But you can do it with a neck harness on an incline bench like this:
This is a great way of doing it.
2. The second way is by doing isometrics. Yes isometrics can build similar growth compared to traditional resistance training if done right BTW. And I find it way easier to do on this specific movement. Just sit and put your hand/ a pillow/anything that will keep you resisting it isometrically.
-Neck flexion, getting your chin to chest. This will bias the anterior part of your neck, more specifically your Sternocleidomastoid (primary) and your Deep neck flexors (longus colli/capitis).
You can train this by simply putting your head in the edge of the bench/bed and flex it, you can also do a chin tuck in the end of the ROM to standardize it.
And you can also do it with a neck harness-
But I find it way easier to do it with a plate for some reason. Do whatever you enjoy.
-Neck extension, looking up. This will bias the posterior part of your neck, more specifically your upper trapezius, Splenius capitis/cervicis and your Semispinalis.
You can train it by putting your head on the edge of your bench/bed and extend your neck.
I find it VERY awkward and uncomfortable since the ROM is very limited so I advice you to do it with a neck harness.
-rotation, turning head left right. This will bias your rotational control / SCM dominance, more specifically your Sternocleidomastoid (opposite side) and splenius (same side assists).
I personally don’t train it and I don’t think you should since lateral flexion will cover the side of the neck pretty well. But if you insist on it then you can train it by rotating your head while wearing a neck harness.
A good neck routine would look something like this:
Preferably 1 RIR on each and 2 minutes minimum. You don’t have to milk the stretch too much.
You can choose whatever you want, either doing it with plates or with a harness. What ever feels comfortable to you.
More videos/threads to watch about neck training:
what nobody tells you about neck training
neck simplified
jeff nippard neck guide
guide to neck training
porportions of the neck
Blackpill neck training
Channels I advise you to take a look at if you wanna get further on on gymcelling:
Chris Beardsley, hypertrophy past and present
TNF
Keenan
Jackson (Scientifically Jacked)
Science Based Lifter
Dorian
I only mentioned YouTube/spotify here but most of these people are more active on instagram and TikTok.
thanks for reading. for any question feel free to reply here under this thread
@Jenson @Sayori @mohito @teddy101 @norwoodingmanlet
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