The Bodybuilders Thread!

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That sounds like win lol.

I am not a nutrition fundi but it is a very difficult balance, basically you would need to maintain (I.e keep your intake at the maintenance level and split your macros perfectly so that your body has nothing to store and not too little to eat muscle at the right times)

this method kind of naturally takes place for guys who are new to gymming, they will find their weight going up but losing fat (I.e muscle growth and fat loss) but it is generally short lived
 
no not carb cycling, body recycling, it is changing your body's composition, i.e. using fat to build muscle

You mean body recomposition? Lol we're probably talking about the same thing, I've just never heard anyone call it body recycling.

Anyways, after months of procrastination and research I'm also starting SS in a week or two. Also with dips and BB curls added in oddly enough.

It seems to be the best thing to do to get a good strength base before you move onto other things. I also like the idea of linear progression. Plus the squats will help with my knee pain (strengthen the quads were the doc's orders).

What are you guys' opinions on substituting pull ups with lat pulldowns and increasing the weight until you get to body weight or at least can then do a decent amount of pull ups?
 
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You mean body recomposition? Lol we're probably talking about the same thing, I've just never heard anyone call it body recycling.

Anyways, after months of procrastination and research I'm also starting SS in a week or two. Also with dips and BB curls added in oddly enough.

It seems to be the best thing to do to get a good strength base before you move onto other things. I also like the idea of linear progression. Plus the squats will help with my knee pain (strengthen the quads were the doc's orders).

What are you guys' opinions on substituting pull ups with lat pulldowns and increasing the weight until you get to body weight or at least can then do a decent amount of pull ups?

Tough one, I've always been able to do pull ups for some reason - even though I've always been chubbyish - its the same movement so if you work your lat pull down to your weight then theoretically its the same movement.

A lot of people suggest starting at the top of the pullup movement and letting yourself down in a controlled manner to aid in doing your first proper pull up

I replaced rows in SS with pull ups - although will probably alternate
 
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You mean body recomposition? Lol we're probably talking about the same thing, I've just never heard anyone call it body recycling.

Anyways, after months of procrastination and research I'm also starting SS in a week or two. Also with dips and BB curls added in oddly enough.

It seems to be the best thing to do to get a good strength base before you move onto other things. I also like the idea of linear progression. Plus the squats will help with my knee pain (strengthen the quads were the doc's orders).

What are you guys' opinions on substituting pull ups with lat pulldowns and increasing the weight until you get to body weight or at least can then do a decent amount of pull ups?

lol yes that is the word, sorry my bad :D

lat pull downs and pulls ups (I assume you mean the over hand variety) are close but imo proper pull downs will work more muscle groups, stabilising muscles and just generally better. I think they will help you be able to do lat pulldowns after doing then, also as said pick yourself up with a bench, then slowly lower yourself, or do the weight assisted variety.
 
The big thing with lat pull-down is to push your chest forward and your shoulders back at the end of the rep - do that properly and you're getting the most out of it. The thing about pull-ups is that it's a compound movement involving core as well which is generally at rest during lat pull-down.
 
Broke the rules on Saturday and instead of starting with Barbell or Dumbell press, instead did 5x sets of 8-10reps on Pec Dec.
Afterwards went into my pressing routine, I could feel pec muscle contraction way better and my pecs where exhausted after presses that I didnt even get around to flyes.
It's Monday and I can still feel it.

Nothing wrong with a little pre-exhaustion :D works a charm to hit those big muscles a little from the sides and then pound em.
 
Nothing wrong with a little pre-exhaustion works a charm to hit those big muscles a little from the sides and then pound em.

I'll try this maybe once a month, the pump in your pecs is insane, it almost feels like it's going to tear.

I used to be a stickler and stick with the same routine day in and day out, big mistake.
Beginning this year I threw the book out and created my own program, have dumped some stuff but always trying new methods, as long as the target muscle hurts the next day I must have achieved hypertrophy.

I have seen the most growth this year, especially muscle separation, I can now clearly see fibres in my delts and seperation between upper and lower pecs.
Very addictive.
I only added wide-grip pullups to my back rountine recently, keen to see the growth spurt to follow, currently add 50 pullups after deadlifts and rows.
 
I'll try this maybe once a month, the pump in your pecs is insane, it almost feels like it's going to tear.

I used to be a stickler and stick with the same routine day in and day out, big mistake.
Beginning this year I threw the book out and created my own program, have dumped some stuff but always trying new methods, as long as the target muscle hurts the next day I must have achieved hypertrophy.

I have seen the most growth this year, especially muscle separation, I can now clearly see fibres in my delts and seperation between upper and lower pecs.
Very addictive.
I only added wide-grip pullups to my back rountine recently, keen to see the growth spurt to follow, currently add 50 pullups after deadlifts and rows.
In truth, your body get's used to a routing, so I do change mine up, but not too often, otherwise you never get the most out of a program.

So what I do is, I follow a program for at least 6 weeks to 3 months. After 3 months I always take a week off to give muscles a rest and time to grow a bit so I can get back fresh. After 2 months into a program, I already start to research and plan the next program, so I have up to a month to work on it. This is, because I actually like to build the programs into excel sheets using formulas to calculate where I should be at every workout. That way I have no guessing, and sometimes I end up pushing myself quite a bit harder. This however is easier to do with powerlifting routines than with bodybuilding routines, which I also mix up a bit.
 
So what I do is, I follow a program for at least 6 weeks to 3 months. After 3 months I always take a week off to give muscles a rest and time to grow a bit so I can get back fresh. After 2 months into a program, I already start to research and plan the next program, so I have up to a month to work on it. This is, because I actually like to build the programs into excel sheets using formulas to calculate where I should be at every workout. That way I have no guessing, and sometimes I end up pushing myself quite a bit harder. This however is easier to do with powerlifting routines than with bodybuilding routines, which I also mix up a bit.

I'm on a 2 day on, 1 day off for rest.
I used to gym at least 6 days a week, was bad idea as my system did not cope.
I am going to add some strength routines next month, keep my muscles guessing, just a tad difficult gymming from home with limited equipment.
I also need to introduce squats this week.
So week should look like:
Monday: Chest
Tuesday: Back
Wednesday: rest
Thursday: Shoulders
Friday: Legs

I used to do shoulders on the 3rd day after back but they get such a hammering from chest and back the previous day that they need their rest, arms get a workout from the rest so will leave them out for now.
 
For me I use to work on 4 day split - the classic chest/tricep_back/bicep_rest_shoulders_legs_rest_rest but the time it started taking to get through my workouts was becoming an issue. Don't get me wrong - I am not an advocate of all this overtraining talk, though I recognize it is a problem for some, but if you eat right and rest well enough a long gym sessions should not break you. Hell there are people doing 1-2.5h sessions and getting great results. I just like to keep my sessions compact.

So now it's a 5 day split;
M: Chest
T: Back
W: Shoulders
T: Legs
F: Arms
S: Rest
S: Rest

I don't follow a specific routine. I use to read up all kinds of routines and following those things to the letter, but I find that if you keep your basic compound lifts you can choose any great auxiliary excersise to go along and never do the same thing twice. Keeps things interesting in the gym and you never have to wait for racks or weights because you can always sub. Nice and flexible.
 
no not carb cycling, body recycling, it is changing your body's composition, i.e. using fat to build muscle

As nice as that sounds it's not humanly possible. Fat is stored energy, and can be used to provide energy for muscle-building activities for sure. Muscle is created from proteins and amino acids and requires those ingredients, not energy. Otherwise we'd all be eating deep-fried Mars bars instead of drinking whey shakes. Fat cannot transform into muscle. One has to get rid of the fat, and build the muscle. This is possible to do simultaneously, but it's the long winding route and will not yield as much result as concentrating on each phase.
 
As nice as that sounds it's not humanly possible. Fat is stored energy, and can be used to provide energy for muscle-building activities for sure. Muscle is created from proteins and amino acids and requires those ingredients, not energy. Otherwise we'd all be eating deep-fried Mars bars instead of drinking whey shakes. Fat cannot transform into muscle. One has to get rid of the fat, and build the muscle. This is possible to do simultaneously, but it's the long winding route and will not yield as much result as concentrating on each phase.

can you not read? or do you just like to be "that" way?

and I did not say turn fat into muscle, I said use fat to build muscle. you do not get big eating only protein, without carbs and fats for energy good luck with that.
 
can you not read? or do you just like to be "that" way?

and I did not say turn fat into muscle, I said use fat to build muscle. you do not get big eating only protein, without carbs and fats for energy good luck with that.

If I misunderstood you I apologize, it seemed as if you were saying fat can be converted into muscle.
 
If I misunderstood you I apologize, it seemed as if you were saying fat can be converted into muscle.
D3x! been posting here awhile now, and while he may not be an expert, at least he knows quite a bit more than most beginners. When I read your post I decided I would just leave it as is.

You can see I've been following the thread awhile now, so you know which posters know what and kinda on what level they are.
 
D3x! been posting here awhile now, and while he may not be an expert, at least he knows quite a bit more than most beginners. When I read your post I decided I would just leave it as is.

You can see I've been following the thread awhile now, so you know which posters know what and kinda on what level they are.

who is your beginner, i will bench the *** out of you charna :p
 
Trying. Been forcing down food for months (gained 3-4kg in the last 6 months), but was having a small breakfast. Decided to increase that with the oats last week and now every meal is an effort (to the point of nausea) and I'm not even waking up hungry.

Just realised it's probably the GABA I started taking two weeks ago to help me sleep :/
How is the GABA working for you? Anyone else here started using it recently? I need something to make me go lights out cause if I'm not very tired then I struggle to sleep cause my sleep patterns are kind of irregular :( Any side effects to GABA that might cause one concern?

I take about 3g of ZMA and 5g of GABA before bed... purely for sleep, not interested in the other sales points.

Sleep like a baby, I struggle to wake up in the mornings, when I don't take it I'm up at 3-4AM.
edit: ok, i see it was discussed somewhat i.t.o. side effects on page 228 :)
 
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I've just recently started using it and I'm afraid it's not doing the trick for me. What I find is that I'm not sleeping well - I'm restless. I'm also trying Casein and I think I should be taking the stuff at least an hour before bed. I have taken both twice now and both nights were bad. The only side effect I've heard about Gaba is possible shortness of breath - the guy at the pharmacy said that's what he didn't like. I'm going to keep taking Gaba, but likely I'll try it a bit earlier than just before bed. The catch 22 for me is that I want to get some Casein in my system before bed too and Gaba should be taken after meals - at least an hour after your last meal.

I'm open to the trouble being with the brand I'm using - Biogen - in capsule format. They say take 1-5 capsules and 5 capsules has around 3.5gm of active ingredient... I'm not sure what taking less than 5 is going to achieve, and I would have expected the top end to be closer to 5gm.
 
yeah very curious of the long term effects of taking anything that affects sleep.

your casein, unflavored? how do you take it?
 
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