JerichoTorrent
Iron
- Joined
- May 25, 2025
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Why most gymcels stay small
Most normies at my gym look exactly the same year after year, meanwhile I'm making huge gains and vastly surpassing them without roiding. I see the same thing on .org and even within the fitness community itself. Why?
It comes down to a few simple truths and mistakes beginners, and even advanced lifters make. GTFIH if you're a gymcel.
Training like a girl
I'm sure you've heard of the concept of progressive overload. The basic concept is that you need to increase the weight, or reps, over time in order to achieve increased strength and hypertrophy. That means those 3 sets of bench press at 185 pounds you do every week is completely ineffective. At best you're maintaining the strength you already have.
Most normies at my gym look exactly the same year after year, meanwhile I'm making huge gains and vastly surpassing them without roiding. I see the same thing on .org and even within the fitness community itself. Why?
It comes down to a few simple truths and mistakes beginners, and even advanced lifters make. GTFIH if you're a gymcel.
Training like a girl
I'm sure you've heard of the concept of progressive overload. The basic concept is that you need to increase the weight, or reps, over time in order to achieve increased strength and hypertrophy. That means those 3 sets of bench press at 185 pounds you do every week is completely ineffective. At best you're maintaining the strength you already have.
- Mike Mentzer
That quote summarizes the philosophy. You need to be putting additional stress on your body to achieve hypertrophy. You need to stack a higher load on the bar and force your body to adapt to that load. B-but.. muh cortisol! Shut up. Acute stress does not decrease your testosterone. Lift heavier. Ultimately, you need to train with more intensity. It comes down to willpower. If you can't figure out how to will yourself to lift a heavier weight, or do more reps, past the point of exhaustion, you will not grow or get stronger.
The Carb Pill
If I had a dollar for every gymcel that said not to eat carbs, I'd be a millionaire. That is the absolute worst advice ever, even when in a calorie deficit. You need carbs to produce glycogen and have optimal motor unit recruitment. In other words, you need to convert carbs to energy. It's much more efficient than converting your body's fat to energy, unless you're a fast oxidizer (30% of the population) or you're running other compounds. It's a safe bet to get the majority of your calories from carbs and protein, then fill up only a smaller amount of your macro-nutrient profile with fat. As long as you have enough fat to dissolve the micro-nutrients your body needs (usually 80G-100G daily), you're good.
There's a reason why bodybuilders and athletes "carb up" before a performance. It makes you appear fuller, but it also gives you a lot of energy. You'll go to bed after eating a heavy carb meal, and wake up with much more energy than if you just ate nothing but meat and eggs before bed. This is the case for most people. You need carbs; stop coping.
Compound Lifts
This part actually makes me angry. People avoiding compound lifts (bench, squat, deadlift, overhead press) because they're "sub-optimal" or "prone to getting injured" are so stupid it should be a federal crime. Here are the reasons you should do compound movements for your first movement of each lift session:
1. It increases testosterone. Compound lifts allow you to move heavy weight. You can put the most stress on your body and have the leverage necessary to move the highest weight. This allows you to spread out the load to more muscle groups and activate a higher amount of androgen receptors. This will lead to the highest production of testosterone when compared to isolation/accessories.
2. The increased load on your body from the leverage utilized by compound lifts lead to the most growth. By targeting larger muscle groups and stabilizer muscles, you are able to spread the metabolites throughout a larger part of your body and stimulate more growth in a wider area than isolation exercises. You should ALWAYS start a lift with compound movements when you have the most energy and the least fatigue.
3. They are more functional. Compound lifts like bench, squat and deadlift and much more functional than using machines. These mimic real movements your body is naturally bred to perform. Don't cope and say that a smith machine is a natural movement. It's not. When performing compound lifts with good technique, you will not get injured. Yes, that includes deadlifts.
Your Natty Potential
This is what a lifter at the peak of his natural potential looks like:
Yes, obviously Casey Kelly has insane genetics. But before someone copes and say he roids, he competes in natural bodybuilding and gets drug tested. Yes, they also test for masking agents. Now, obviously the genetics pill here is brutal. But you are most likely NOWHERE near your natural potential. Before you become a SARM goblin, consider that your sub-optimal training is the primary reason why you look nothing like this guy, not because you need to start roiding after 3 months of lifting to achieve this physique.
Most of you guys are not disciplined enough to achieve a good physique because you go weeks without going to the gym. Every time you make progress, you take a week off or throw away your split for some new thing you saw on TikTok. Stop doing that. Stay disciplined until you reach a plateau, then switch things up with actual intention.
Eat More
That quote summarizes the philosophy. You need to be putting additional stress on your body to achieve hypertrophy. You need to stack a higher load on the bar and force your body to adapt to that load. B-but.. muh cortisol! Shut up. Acute stress does not decrease your testosterone. Lift heavier. Ultimately, you need to train with more intensity. It comes down to willpower. If you can't figure out how to will yourself to lift a heavier weight, or do more reps, past the point of exhaustion, you will not grow or get stronger.
The Carb Pill
If I had a dollar for every gymcel that said not to eat carbs, I'd be a millionaire. That is the absolute worst advice ever, even when in a calorie deficit. You need carbs to produce glycogen and have optimal motor unit recruitment. In other words, you need to convert carbs to energy. It's much more efficient than converting your body's fat to energy, unless you're a fast oxidizer (30% of the population) or you're running other compounds. It's a safe bet to get the majority of your calories from carbs and protein, then fill up only a smaller amount of your macro-nutrient profile with fat. As long as you have enough fat to dissolve the micro-nutrients your body needs (usually 80G-100G daily), you're good.
There's a reason why bodybuilders and athletes "carb up" before a performance. It makes you appear fuller, but it also gives you a lot of energy. You'll go to bed after eating a heavy carb meal, and wake up with much more energy than if you just ate nothing but meat and eggs before bed. This is the case for most people. You need carbs; stop coping.
Compound Lifts
This part actually makes me angry. People avoiding compound lifts (bench, squat, deadlift, overhead press) because they're "sub-optimal" or "prone to getting injured" are so stupid it should be a federal crime. Here are the reasons you should do compound movements for your first movement of each lift session:
1. It increases testosterone. Compound lifts allow you to move heavy weight. You can put the most stress on your body and have the leverage necessary to move the highest weight. This allows you to spread out the load to more muscle groups and activate a higher amount of androgen receptors. This will lead to the highest production of testosterone when compared to isolation/accessories.
2. The increased load on your body from the leverage utilized by compound lifts lead to the most growth. By targeting larger muscle groups and stabilizer muscles, you are able to spread the metabolites throughout a larger part of your body and stimulate more growth in a wider area than isolation exercises. You should ALWAYS start a lift with compound movements when you have the most energy and the least fatigue.
3. They are more functional. Compound lifts like bench, squat and deadlift and much more functional than using machines. These mimic real movements your body is naturally bred to perform. Don't cope and say that a smith machine is a natural movement. It's not. When performing compound lifts with good technique, you will not get injured. Yes, that includes deadlifts.
Your Natty Potential
This is what a lifter at the peak of his natural potential looks like:
Yes, obviously Casey Kelly has insane genetics. But before someone copes and say he roids, he competes in natural bodybuilding and gets drug tested. Yes, they also test for masking agents. Now, obviously the genetics pill here is brutal. But you are most likely NOWHERE near your natural potential. Before you become a SARM goblin, consider that your sub-optimal training is the primary reason why you look nothing like this guy, not because you need to start roiding after 3 months of lifting to achieve this physique.
Most of you guys are not disciplined enough to achieve a good physique because you go weeks without going to the gym. Every time you make progress, you take a week off or throw away your split for some new thing you saw on TikTok. Stop doing that. Stay disciplined until you reach a plateau, then switch things up with actual intention.
Eat More
- Rich Piana (RIP)
If you're not getting bigger, you need to eat more food. It's quite literally that simple. B-but I eat soooo much food! You have no idea how much food I'm eating! Ok, do you track your calories? No? Then stop coping. Skinny people vastly overestimate the amount of food they eat, just like fat people vastly underestimate the food they eat. You will only truly see how much you're eating when you start tracking your calories. Plug your bodyweight into an online calculator to see what your maintenance calories are, and add 400 calories to that. Optimize your macro-nutrient profile and you should gain weight (hopefully mostly muscle if you're lifting correctly). If you don't gain weight, add 200 calories. Rinse and repeat until you start making gains. If you end up eating 10,000 calories a day without gaining weight, then yeah, it's truly over and something is critically wrong with your metabolism, but that's more than likely not the case for you.
Tl;dr
If you DNR'ed then the simple thing to do is train with more intesity, optimize your training split with compound movements, don't cut carbs, and eat more food in general. Carnivore diet is cope.
If you're not getting bigger, you need to eat more food. It's quite literally that simple. B-but I eat soooo much food! You have no idea how much food I'm eating! Ok, do you track your calories? No? Then stop coping. Skinny people vastly overestimate the amount of food they eat, just like fat people vastly underestimate the food they eat. You will only truly see how much you're eating when you start tracking your calories. Plug your bodyweight into an online calculator to see what your maintenance calories are, and add 400 calories to that. Optimize your macro-nutrient profile and you should gain weight (hopefully mostly muscle if you're lifting correctly). If you don't gain weight, add 200 calories. Rinse and repeat until you start making gains. If you end up eating 10,000 calories a day without gaining weight, then yeah, it's truly over and something is critically wrong with your metabolism, but that's more than likely not the case for you.
Tl;dr
If you DNR'ed then the simple thing to do is train with more intesity, optimize your training split with compound movements, don't cut carbs, and eat more food in general. Carnivore diet is cope.
