I believe there are diets dedicated to just that, actually. LOL.
Jokes on you, I was born in Brum.
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Great thread. Just like most lifters, i have my own principles whether they make sense or not.
- Train 3 days a week and never train 2 days in a row.
- I cant recover from 4 workouts and feel exhausted. 2 workouts just dont cut it. 3 days give me a great balance between lifting and family life. We have a 17 month son so family life is really tiring.
- Weigh yourself every morning on an empty stomach and without clothes.
- It doesnt matter if im trying to lose or gain weight, i do this 365 days a year without exceptions. I dont track macros or count calories so scale is my main guide for reaching my goals.
- Train in 6-10 rep range.
- I rarely go lower or higher. I use the same rep ranges for both upper and lower body. 15-20 reps in calves and abs only. ( I almost never train these 2 )
- Increase carbs if you want to gain weight.
- My diet is almost %80 plant based. High protein carbs like legumes, pasta, oats, whole wheat bread are my main foods. If i want to gain weight like nowadays i increase them and add some simple carbs as well. My fat and animal protein consumption dont change at all.
- Eat more on rest days.
- On rest days my body is always sore from previous day’s workout so i eat more. I believe most people do the opposite.
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Did you get the accent too? He giveth and he taketh away.
Luckily no, we moved when I was 2. To Cheltenham actually, so I talk proper now
Nice part of the world that, not far from me.
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Beautiful place, fur sure. I did my degree in Bristol round the corner from you as well.
That’s where I used to live! Right on the Downs.
Absolutely beautiful part of the world. If only I could persuade the missus to move back there.
It’s nice to know what parts of England are actually nice to live in (cousin’s evaluations are very poor), but I’m not sure it’s very informative regarding training or nutrition
Wonder what the principles are like around that part of the globe.
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Idk about the UK, but in China (gen pop), modern physical culture (Bodybuilding, powerlifting, CrossFit etc)is at least 10 years “behind” and borrows heavily from the US in terms of training/nutrition, so no significant difference- just a LOT more rice and very inaccurate food labels 
In my experience, my principals are very outside of the norm here.
Not sure if its a Dorian throwback but the few here and there that do take it seriously are all about intensity in training.
Seems a much smaller community though, most gyms seem to just be full of ‘hardgainers’ who just turn up, do some light DB bench and go home.
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Good thing people took your post 100% seriously, as it was meant to be taken.
But yeah, I’m guilty of assisting the derail, nostalgia got the better of me.
Will add a principle for solidarity - I virtually never drink any water during workouts beyond a sip, and that includes the triathlon I ran in the hottest day of the year - I hydrate a ton before, but I always feel like I should push through and don’t want it during. Maybe that’s dumb, dunno.
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No I get that we went off topic, and he wasn’t actually asking.
But I’m genuinely interested in what Principles you see / hear other people strictly adhering to that just don’t make sense.
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Haha I figured dude, was just poking fun.
I honestly think my water one makes no sense beyond my weird belief that if I can’t do it without water during I can’t do it.
For other people - I see some people religiously doing static stretches before lifting. I think that’s “wrong.” Wrong being in quotes, because who am I to actually say it’s wrong, haha.
Yup. “Water makes you weak”. Every former high school athlete knows that, haha.
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Do a hamstring move before squats to get ready. That’s a good one from Leeds.
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I don’t think I have any principles I fall back on, I’m still fairly early on in this lifting thing but this thread got me thinking so I wrote down a few and will necro this sometime if I stick to them and get some decent results.
Nutritionally though: eggs must be eaten by the dozen, anything else is blasphemy
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Do the basics
What has worked for me in comparison to people I know is that I do the basics. I will try to squat, barbel row, bench press and and OHP once per week. I am surrounded with people that do not do the basics and they are always complaining they have no muscle mass. I recently had a friend crying out to me that his ex girl friend has told him he has chicken legs. He started squatting
Do cardio.
I have always being in sports. And I cant grasp my head how some people I train with cant fucking do walking lunges for ten reps per leg and 4 sets. I am like how the fuck are you going to fuck a women well if you cant even do 4 sets of lunges…I am a smoker and I have a better cardio thqn 99 % of the population, it is amazing
And recently discovered… sleeep
As someone that trained 7 times per week in the morning I rather skipp working out and sleep.
I am down to 3 workouts per week, mostly in off work days in order to get good sleep. I have never felt stronger, healthier, quicker ( althoigh I am 10 kg over my regular weight). My brain functions better. I am able to do much more work at my job. I skipp junk food and over eating if I slept well.