Agree with this 100% i’ve tried most legal supplements over the years, and don’t find them much help. To me, it’s all just added complication. The only supplement I would recommend to some is ZMA for sleep, but i find exhaustion does the job for me these days. Once I run out of my current supply, I don’t intend to reorder.
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Yeah, I do have some supps now. I meant in the long term, I want to drop most of the supps like pre workout, protein powder etc. But I think things like multivitamin and D3 are consistently useful.
Yeah I guess, personally I haven’t seen extremely jacked people in business but it could happen (like fitness influencers).
Moreover, I think if you could rep 315, it probably not that easy to maintain compared to 185 or 225. Because at that point you’ll probably have a lot of mass and your body is going to be hungry constantly. I am just guessing here, but seems like very jacked dudes have pretty high caloric needs haha.
Forgot to post this today:
Week 2 - Jeff Nippard’s Hypertrophy Fundamentals, Body Part split routine
14 November 2021 Sunday - General Stuff:
- Weighed in at 78.6kg
- From the Apple Watch, slept 7.5h last night
Average bodyweight this week was: (79.5 + 79.1 + 79.2 + 79.0 + 78.8 + 78.6 + 78.6) /7= 78.97kg (8 to 14 Nov). I’m thinking just 1 more kg drop and then switch to maintainence/slightly above. I’m still kind of looking gross/fat in the mirror (waist is still around 32 inches and kind of hanging out which really sucks). Still hovering around 2000 calories @tlgains @kdjohn, what do you guys think? I’m thinking cut 1-2kg more and then switch, this should make my waist right around 31 inches which feels like a good base point.
I also have chest/tris tomorrow, I’m still not feeling fatigued just yet, maybe if i can hit 150, its a reasonably good sign of some incremental progress.
Also @kdjohn about cardio – I was thinking why not 15 minutes intense cardio 5x per week (after workout) rather than 30min, 3x per week?
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This will continue until you put an appreciable amount of muscle on. Sad reality, but the truth is rarely sunshine and rainbows.
The full benefits of aerobic training don’t really start to take hold until the 30-minute mark. I know it sounds like a weird arbitrary number, but it has to do with the amount of sustained effort over certain heart rate percentages before your body goes, “Well fuck, we should probably adapt to this.” Increased aerobic ability leads to a whole host of good shit for your heart, veins and mitochondria, which in turn will lead to better recovery over all forms of physical activity, which will mean better gainzzz. That’s a 10,000-foot analysis, obviously, not the technical nitty-gritty.
Plus, continuously operating at a high intensity would wreck your shit in the long run. It’s why I suggest rotating between low, medium and high intensities. When using higher intensity speeds, use an interval method, where you jack your HR up to peak, then taper down to a low intensity (remember, as long as your HR is at a sustained percentage, you’ll be seeing aerobic improvement), before spiking back up with high intensity again.
Now, before you go, “Well why don’t I just lift really fast and get my HR jacked up, then taper down in rest periods. That’ll work!” Wrong. The physiological effects of lifting lead to a “hardening” of the heart, due to the force of the contractions. This will actually lead to a reduction in aerobic ability over time, because the heart needs pliability to contract effectively and smoothly. Aerobic training causes the heart to contract in a way that expands the heart and makes it flexible and efficient.
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Just to keep on soapboxing here, this is actually one of the reasons why, I suspect, we see so many bodybuilders eventually have heart issues. Obviously preexisting conditions, diet, drug use, etc still play into it, but it does make me wonder how many of those factors could possibly be mitigated if they trained their aerobic system to a higher degree. Would having a stronger, more efficient and flexible heart have helped? Possibly, depending on the scenario.
Another thing to keep in mind is that two markers for longevity of life are 1) a strong and healthy low back (which can be achieved through lifting), and 2) a strong cardiovascular system.
So kids: eat your greens, lift heavy shit, and fucking run (or cycle, swim, hike, ruck, row, whatever).
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I like these posts so much. Can you go back to 20 year old me and tell him please?
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I would fully support you taking on a whole thread about this. I think a lot of us need some exposure to what you’re saying and aren’t necessarily looking in this log.
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I would second this.
Reading Tactical Barbell was very eye opening for me. I feel like you express the same things but in a more engaging way (I don’t like the style of writing in Tactical Barbell at all).
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Thanks boss, appreciate your words, very useful.
I am definitely going to implement the cardio sessions into my routine, I could definitely use a lot of conditioning.
And yes, I guess I just need a lot more muscle, would you suggest switching over to maintenance (or slight surplus was it?) calories sometime this week or trying to cut just a little more for next 1-2 weeks?
I take it you have seen my most recent physique? Imgur: The magic of the Internet
Really appreciate the kind words, gents. I shamelessly rip information from a variety of sources. All I know is simply passed down from those smarter than myself.
Ehhh, I’m hesitant. I get too frustrated in the lower-levels of the forums. Prefer to spend my time in the Training Logs section.
Also, I’m far from some kinda aerobic guru, and feel like a sham starting a thread like I’m some kinda expert.
I am absolutely the wrong person to ask about this. My whole “worldview” when it comes to lifting is for performance and health. To me, cutting and bulking is silly, and I always eat to support A) more weight on the bar, and B) better athletic and aerobic capacity. If aesthetics and physique are your goals, more power to ya, but I’m the wrong guy to ask.
I have now. And I’ll say the same thing as before: build that muscle, baby. You just need to get bigger and stronger. If you wanted to cut to the point where you were actually lean, you, right now, would probably look emaciated. You just need more muscle. That will require you to get bigger than you think you want to be, then cut down. Go look at pictures of the top-tier, old school bodybuilders in their off seasons (like Dorian Yates). Motherfuckers look like balloons. They get as swole as possible, then shed fat to reveal the muscle.
Also, I know you mentioned cutting back on protein, but for future reference, on a cut, NEVER DO THAT. Protein is muscle-sparing, and when you’re cutting you want to keep as much muscle as possible.
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Nice, thanks again.
I will start to eat around maintenance (or a little higher, maybe 100 calories) towards this week, hopefully it works out and I can gain some muscle! Will keep this log updated and will appreciate any advice as I start this phase of training!
I have usually always screwed up around “bulking,” I guess overeating. This time I really want to do this right! So please feel free to point or suggest any changes any of you see!
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Maybe you and others disagree, but I believe you’d be better served to not weigh yourself or measure your navel at all for now.
The issues you’ve pointed to that have held you back from progressing in the past were not in these minutia. They were much broader and pretty obvious once you reflected.
Believe me, right now I’m in the middle of a 2 year long recomp and have spreadsheets of my daily macros and morning weight dating all the way back to the start, so I understand the sense of control that delivers. But the bulk of my size came when I wasn’t doing that, and now I’m at the point I have to be on point for every extra ounce of muscle I hope to gain.
I think building a base is paramount right now, and you could be making this much easier on yourself. I’d even argue you’ll make more progress if you stop worrying about measurements for a few years, honestly. Let yourself gain an intuition for how it feels to eat well enough and destroy each and every workout.
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TBH, that is exactly how I ended up here, I’m not good with intuitive eating.
I was downing Raviolis thinking it is probably 500-600 calories, but in reality it was probably 1500 calories. Protein shakes also add up, I was probably having 600 calories worth of protein shakes thinking its 200-300.
I think personally having some sort of statistic or measure to just even look at to keep you in check could help. Especially for someone like me who is in pretty bad shape, I kind of need to not wing-it in anything right now and consistently focus on seeing how my body responds.
Like you really don’t even think about it and you suddenly measure yourself one day and you are 200 lbs with a 42 inch waist (this literally happened to me).
I do get your point though, I think these things are useful to analysis on how the body responds, but I guess not to overanalyze and kind of just train hard and eat well, while keeping on eye on what you are doing daily. I’m a mathematician and there’s a pretty good saying we have in this field (esp in probability theory, which is is something I studied):
In God we trust, all others must bring data.
See this is why I’d even double down on my point now haha. You need to learn good intuition, since you haven’t let yourself in the past. If you are 100% reliant on measurements and a well controlled experiment setting for yourself, what do you do when you’re traveling? On vacation? Stuck at the airport with a delay? Let it all go to shit again? Freak out and give up if your food scale runs out of batteries?
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Maybe use intuition on healthy food and not ravioli
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That is fair, and thats something I am trying to build now, because I’m seeing for instance what sorts of meals I’m having and how many calories they are having and so on.
And I think right now, I seriously need a well-controlled environment with the shape/strength/bodyfat I am at. I’m avoiding (actively) all restaurants possible, I actually haven’t had any restaurant food in the last 3 weeks, and don’t foresee it for the next 4-6 weeks at least.
That being said, I don’t think there is harm in just having these datapoints, I’m 100% sure if I try intuitive eating right now (when I know I still cant fully properly) and stop taking measurements, I’m asking for the last 7 years on replay once again. I’m really in a bad spot right now where I don’t want to wing anything even if I can. If I go kind of blinded in some sense, I’m just asking for trouble as off right now.
Yeah, that’s really good awareness to have right now. You gotta do what’s best for you. You could take baby steps maybe. Like as you get more on autopilot, maybe 1 day a week you stop with the measuring and try to establish some intuition.
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Yeah, thats a great idea.
I’m trying hard to make this finally work! Really hoping that this year is the one for me! 
Enough hoping, it will be the year as long as you put in the effort.
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