Post fitness redpills
>reverse curls are a forearm compound
>super sets and giant sets are amazing timesavers and can replace part of your cardio
>most people egolift on RDLs, people should always go to the limit of their hamstring flexibility instead of just below the kneecap
>front lever pulls are free lat volume, throw them in on lower/leg days if lats are a focus for you
>pullovers, either bent arm and/or straight arm, are mandatory
>abs should be trained hard and frequently
>becoming flexible through resistance training is very easy
>calves, specifically gastroc, should be trained with an absurdly high intensity (10+ negatives after hitting concentric failure) to reduce the needed sets to a minimum so you don't skip
>adductor isolation is important so you don't get groin tweaks squatting
>deadlifts are good for strength but not necessary for hypertrophy, RDLs + lots of rowing can entirely replace them. doesn't mean they're bad for hypertrophy either though
>BTNP is safe if you know how to move your scapula correctly to avoid impingement
>pretty much anything on rings is amazing for hypertrophy, especially pushups and dips
>more people should isolate external rotation to prevent rotator cuff injuries
>lower traps and infraspinatus are very underrated muscles for back aesthetics
>pecmaxxers should train their pec minor for even more growth, most people entirely overlook this muscle
>myoreps are underrated
>leg machines are highly underrated, however there are also very obscure home gym alternatives for many of them that are just as good
>anyone can squat ATG given enough added heel elevation, but some people may not find this practical
>seated good mornings are to squats what RDLs are to deadlifts
>deep ring dips are one of if not the best chest exercise, as the rings accomodate for your build while allowing you to get an absurd stretch on your pecs
Cont.
>forearm training is very important for aesthetics, large upper arm but small lower arm looks very unaesthetic
>hammer curls are a hybrid lift
>the rectus femoris does not get adequatly stimulated by squatting, you need to isolate it
>hip thrusts are one of the only heavy lower body movements that you can effectively do myoreps on, highly recommended for assmaxxers
>most people should have some sort of unilateral squat in their program
>training is the most important variable for muscle gain besides steroids; sleep, diet, hydration, and meme supplements only exist to support the training, therefore they are less important
>hamstrings are highly overrated for squats
>dead hangs and back extensions will fix back pain for the vast majority of people, with a few other exercises needed for the exceptions
>most people can and should do more volume for their legs and upper back
>thoracic erectors are highly underrated; you can train them by rounding and extending your thoracic spine on chest supported rows
>the stretch is more stimulative than the squeeze, but the squeeze should not be avoided either, and typically it is also easier on the connective tissues
>powell raises are amazing for rear delts
>pause deficit pushups as your last horizontal press are very effective as you won't need any extra weight to work within a relevant rep range, go ham on this for big chest gains
>the muscles you're going to want to work to help deal with shoulder pain are: all heads of the deltoid with a focus on the rear delts, the traps and rhomboids as a whole with a focus on the lower traps, the infraspinatus, the teres minor, the serratus anterior, and in some cases the pec minor. besides these do dead hangs and shoulder mobility work.
Cont.
upper arm but small lower arm looks very unaesthetic
i've seen many real life examples of this. they always think they look good.
Favorite ways to train the Pec Minor, and the rear delts?
For pec minor, pec minor dips are the best way to isolate them. 2-3x a week, 10-15 reps, make sure to add weight like any other exercise. https://youtu.be/4HnIGSTOwnE
If you want a compound that hits the pec minor pretty well, super deep dips are probably your best option. Don't think any other compound hits them well since you need the scapula to elevate/retract and depress/protract during the movement to hit the pec minor. This is the best video I've seen on performing these https://youtu.be/odDZS9OWZg8
For rear delts, powell raises are my favorite. Make sure your upper arm goes across your upper pec during the negative instead of your lower pec (since your humerus jams into your shoulder in a weird way if you do this, it's nothing injurious but it does not feel good lmao), and use a very slow eccentric on the movement to frick up your rear delts big time. I was sore for days in my rear delts the first time I did these, and I still get sore (less than before obviously) whenever I do this movement. 2-3x a week, 2-3 sets, 5-10 reps works pretty well. Also make sure to do them on a bench, for some reason a lot of demonstrations for them are done on the ground which isn't good IMO since it limits your range of motion.
Thanks brah, Powell Raises look fun.
i feel like doing RTO ring dips will hit the pec minor too.
>i feel like doing RTO ring dips will hit the pec minor too.
They probably do, and they're a very good exercise anyway so I would do them regardless.
>dead hangs and back extensions will fix back pain for the vast majority of people
I will try this out. I feel like my skeleton is skewed at many points, with my hip being out of whack. It feels like that alone pulls at my inner organs, causes my right leg to act up and make me feel generally like I'm being pulled in many directions.
Thanks for the thread, OP
>Thanks for the thread, OP
No problem bro, glad to help
get one of these bad boys and hang upside down on a pullup bar. like $20 on amazon
these look really cool ngl
>forearm training is very important for aesthetics, large upper arm but small lower arm looks very unaesthetic
>i've seen many real life examples of this. they always think they look good.
My brother, I'm hoping its not just cursed genetics
Size isn't very genetic tbh, some people might have shit insertions but you can still grow them a lot so that they become proportional to the upper arms. Just gotta put in the work to train them hard and often
>movement is medicine, if you have pain in a tendon/joint you can't just let it rest, you need to get lots and lots of bloodflow to it. that being said don't put tons of load on it either as that will just make things worse
>more people should do piriformis work, everything involving the hip feels nicer after. weighted incline (flat once you progress enough) pigeon good mornings are my go-to
>everyone should have a squat-pattern exercise with maximal knee bend somewhere in their program for knee health and VMO development. doesn't necessarily have to be a barbell squat though
>larsen press is better than bench press for pec hypertrophy in most cases
>you should spend as much time as possible in a surplus, as you're playing offense in a surplus and defense in a deficit. therefore, bulks should be 1 year long at minimum, preferably 1.5-2 years, while cuts can be much faster.
>permabulking is also an option if you have a small appetite as the periods where you slack on your diet will work as a minicut, meaning that in some cases you can literally bulk for 5 years straight if you're comfortable being at a slightly higher bodyfat
>recomping does work, but the tradeoff is that it is much slower than bulk/cut cycles. it is only useful for novices who are not too skinny or too fat, and for advanced lifters that need a period of stability for whatever reason, as this is the main benefit of a recomp
>while tracking calories is fine, you can bulk and cut without tracking calories by closely monitoring your weight and altering your intention of how much food you need to consume depending on whether you're bulking/cutting too fast, too slowly, or at just the right rate. this won't work for everyone though
Cont.
>static rep ranges like 3x10 are not particularly good for hypertrophy because of sandbagging, rep ranges like 3x8-12 are much better. however, the fewer sets you do, the less flawed static rep ranges are, for example there is no sandbagging at all with 1x5, but 5x5 will result in a lot of sandbagging
>on exercises where adding reps is extremely hard but adding small amounts of weight is easy, static rep pyramids are also better than static rep ranges. instead of 3x8 for example, you would do 9/8/7 reps
>training the tibialis anterior and the soleus can help fix knee/shin pain from high impact activities; the soleus is also important for achilles tendon health
>once you're out of the novice stage, you should write your own program instead of continuing to use cookie-cutter programs as programming for yourself will account for your individual differences and preferences much better. though you could simply make changes to the novice program you were running over time, so that it evolves with you as your training progresses
>when training for strength, you want to get the most advantageous leverages to lift the most amount of weight possible. when training for hypertrophy, you want to get the most disadvantageous leverages to lift the least amount of weight possible
>the easiest way to get in grip work for deadlifts is to hold the last rep at the top until your grip gives out, or for a prescribed duration. if you have grip issues, try this before adding other exercises
>if you want free work for your upper traps, after finishing a set of any exercise that involves holding a barbell/dumbbells in your hands, do shrugs to failure. if the weight is too heavy (deadlifts, rackpulls), hold it at lockout instead. straps are necessary for this, obviously
Cont.
>static rep ranges like 3x10 are not particularly good for hypertrophy because of sandbagging
What?
What the HELL is sandbagging
I'm not sure what it originally refers to, but sandbagging is a term that's used in the business world. so in that context, lets say you have a quarterly $100,000 revenue quota, and it's currently March 25th, the quarter is almost over.
you've already closed say $125,000 of business and you have another large deal (say $80,000) that is ready to close this week. you're really close to the decision maker and you ask him to sign on April 3rd so that it will count towards your Q2 quota.
that's it. due to the incentives you're inclined to do something to benefit yourself (look ahead to Q2 quota) even if it puts the company at slight risk (they were ready to close in March, but April 2nd at 10pm a purchasing freeze could come down and they might never do the business).
same concept with static rep ranges. hopefully OP can further clarify.
If you do 3x10 chances are you are simply leaving reps in the tank for the first 1 or 2 sets. So they aren't even true hard working sets.
If you can do 10 reps with the same weight on the first set and the last set you can most likely do 12 reps on the first set but you're not doing them for no reason.
Increase the weight or simply go more reps on your first and second set where you're leaving them in the tank because you fear you wont be able to hit 10 reps on the final set if you go too hard on the first two.
You could also just do 2 working sets instead of 3 so it's easier mentally to go hard on all sets instead of just leaving reps on the tank in the early sets
so just go to failure each time
You won't be able to repeat the reps again if you actually hit failure in most cases. Eg if you hit failure on a set of 10, you might get 9 reps on your second set, and 8 reps on your third set. In almost all cases if you can repeat the reps on each set you're probably not hitting failure on the initial sets.
So my strategy of going 3x10 and only adding weight if I get 3x12 is ineffective?
I mean it's not like it won't work, it just isn't optimal IMO. I would favor doing 3x8-12, and add weight when you get to the top of the rep range (not 12/12/12 though since that's still sandbagging, something like 12/11/10 or 12/11/11 would be about the right time to add weight)
From an earlier post:
>Sandbagging is when you do not use your full effort, in this case you cannot go to failure (or even 1-2 RIR in some cases) on the first set because you wouldn't be able to hit the same amount of reps on the later sets due to fatigue, so you have to stop multiple reps from failure on the first set to prevent that from happening, which isn't what you want. Even if you don't intend on going to failure anyway this still causes the intensity on each set to be different as the later sets will be closer to failure than the earlier ones, while with a rep range you can keep the amount of reps in reserve about the same on each set.
>Now, sandbagging isn't inherently bad if you're doing it intentionally, but static rep ranges force you to unintentionally sandbag, which is obviously bad.
There's a multitude of factors that go into this. For example, if they were in a 500 calorie deficit and went straight into a 500 calorie surplus, that's +1000 calories right there. Then due to the increased caloric intake, their BMR and NEAT will increase, resulting in their TDEE going up which means they have to eat more food to get back up to a 500 calorie surplus. Then due to a presumably increased protein intake, the amount of energy they're burning to digest food goes up, which means they have to eat even more food to get into a surplus. And many people will actually increase their cardio going into a bulk (Very unconventional but it actually makes sense: you have more energy for cardio in a bulk, and cardio is very important for work capacity which can be beneficial to your training (especially if you're bulking since your work capacity naturally becomes worse the fatter you become), and in some cases adding cardio actually makes you recover faster since you can generally do more work if you're fitter. Also health benefits) so this ends up burning off more calories that they have to eat back again.
did not read
bump
>thots who spam abductor work actually make their asses look worse; the glute medius and minimus sit near the top of the pelvis, so when they grow a lot you get inverted triangle ass, which looks really bad. this isn't to say that you shouldn't train your abductors, rather you should get your abductor work indirectly from unilateral leg exercises instead so you don't get this issue
>nordic curls are one of if not the best hamstring isolation exercise if you have a good setup for them, because they're the most difficult in the lengthened position unlike most leg curl machines which are typically more difficult in the contracted position
>because you should always do RDLs with a full range of motion, you will get more flexible hamstrings over time, which means that eventually you'll need to alter the exercise to accomodate for the greater ROM. for most people, bar to toes off of a deficit with a wide grip, knees behind ankles, and a neutral/arched back is fairly realistic after 1-2 years, 3 max
>pause reps and slow eccentrics are extremely good for hypertrophy
>adductors are very underrated for aesthetics, they're a larger muscle group than the hamstrings and contribute a lot to how wide your legs appear from the front
>if you get wrist pain/snapping sensations from traditional wrist curls, try doing behind the back barbell finger curls instead, as they tend to be much easier on the wrists while still providing a good stimulus to the forearms
>OHP is a good side delt builder, but this doesn't mean you should skip your lateral raises; do both
>inverted rows, especially on rings, are an extremely effective upper back exercise, especially at the end of a workout when you are already fatigued. you can also do them at the start of a workout, but this becomes problematic when you gain enough strength due to how much extra weight you'll need to add. highly recommended for home gym enjoyers
Cont.
>your cardio should be good enough to do high rep pause squat/deadlift variations without any problems; if this isn't the case, you can work on it by simply doing pause squat/deadlift variations for low reps, and slowly increase the reps over time. some standard cardio on the side will help with this too
>don't fear-monger over movements that hit the hip flexors, the hip flexors should still be trained like any other muscle as weak hip flexors can actually cause problems. ideally you want to have hip flexors that are both strong and flexible
>lu raises are highly underrated for side delts
I'll elaborate on any of these when asked. Discuss.
post body
Have you ever posted body?
Here ya go
>pullovers... are mandatory
red pilled
>*endless text*
white pilled
>we are all going to make it
Both is best, and I'm fairly active in the whitepill threads anyway. I posted this thread again because a very based anon in this thread
convinced me to, take it or leave it. Just gonna see what happens
thanks buddy.
you're welcome
The true Red Pill is that 99% of the time you should ignore and do the opposite of what you read on this board.
>meme image
All of these things are good though
curls are a forearm compound
i know, i use them for forearms
same
>reverse curls are a forearm compound
Reverse curls are not a compound movement, they are an isolation movement.
Yeah but that's not what I'm referring to: I'm referring to the fact that reverse curls hit all the major parts of your forearm (brachioradialis, finger flexors, wrist extensors). Point is that if you only have space for one forearm movement, reverse curls are likely your best bet since they hit more parts of your forearm than any other movement. Yes, two of the muscles it hits it only hits isometrically, but that's better than nothing in this case, especially for the wrist extensors since I find that they tend to give out at about the same time as the brachioradialis.
>Prove me wrong.
I can't, because if you're talking about hypertrophy training, you're completely correct. You can do all of your squats in the 10-15 or 15-20 rep range and get massive quads easily. You still need to get within close proximity to failure, but as long as you do that there's no problem with high rep squats. They're time proven anyway, 20 rep squats are known for building gigantic legs. If we're talking about strength however, you will need to squat heavy for low reps at some point due to the law of specificity, but I assume you're not talking about that.
Agreed on a lot of takes, I'm going to start implementing shrugs after barbell/dumbbell work. Recommend some more supersets for free volume with little impact on performance
>Recommend some more supersets for free volume with little impact on performance
DB OHP superset with DB overhead tricep extensions is an option if you find that long head work doesn't interfere with presses. You can also superset any standing barbell press (OHP/BTNP) with barbell overhead tricep extensions or barbell curls (or both lmao), you'll have to change the weight in that case but it doesn't take that long so it isn't an issue. Front lever pulls superset with pullups/chinups are great, even if you're very strong at pullups the front lever pulls pre-fatigue your lats a ton so you won't be getting a ton of reps even though you're just using your bodyweight. Another convenient superset would be pullups/chinups with hanging leg raises, since although you can superset hanging leg raises with nearly anything, it's extra convenient with pullups/chinups since you're already using a pullup bar so you don't have to go anywhere if you're in a busy gym. If your work capacity is enormous and you also have a really strong lower back you could try supersetting RDLs with some kind of barbell row, it's very tough and I wouldn't recommend it for most people however I have seen some people do it so it is possible.
because their maintenance is pretty high due to hard training a few times a week?
Can you give me gaining tips? I have acid reflux and don't like eating processed and sugary foods. I have an air fryer and it helps a lot.
>I have acid reflux and don't like eating processed and sugary foods.
To begin, avoid whatever foods give you acid reflux, and as for the processed and sugary foods, that isn't actually a bad thing since I think that you should bulk on clean foods for optimal results since those unhealthy foods tend to cause lots of inflammation, digestive distress for some people, and are less micronutrient dense which will negatively impact your recovery. If you don't like eating fruit that will be a bit of an annoyance since fruit is a very convenient way to run up more calories, but I will write this post with the assumption that you can eat fruit since although fruit has a lot of sugar, they're still much less sweet compared to shit like candy.
Increasing your meal frequency is the first thing you should do. EG if you eat 3 times a day, go to 4, if you eat 4 times a day, go to 5. If you can't add another meal, add a pseudo meal in the form of a liquid meal (eg throw a bunch of shit in a blender and drink it). Next, you'll want to use foods that you can eat a lot of without being satiated. For example, rice is typically the go-to carb source for many strength athletes since you can eat lots of it without being satiated as easily compared to say potatoes. Then you'll want to find ways to shove in some extra calories into your meals without running into satiety issues. Some people put olive oil onto their meals (if you're having oats and milk or something similar, honey works a lot better, olive oil is more for stuff like rice and beef), and a neat way of getting in more calories is having some liquid calories (milk/kefir/fruit juices etc) at the end of a meal since even if you're fairly full it's pretty easy to get those down (fruit also works really well here too).
Cont.
Also forgot to mention, focus on eating your meals quickly. It takes time for your body to release the hormones that make you feel satiated, so if you can put down your meals super fast you won't run into the issue where you feel too satiated to keep eating (unless your stomach starts getting super full, in that case you probably need to spread the food between more eating windows, or eat food that takes up less space in your stomach)
>although fruit has a lot of sugar, they're still much less sweet compared to shit like candy.
I first saw a dietician for this. He said that fruits and honey have a lower glychemic index so they don't cause your blood sugar to spike up like coca cola does.
My concern about sugar is that it causes acne on me. So does consuming a lot of dairy. I also tried nuts and nut butters. Eating a handful of almonds etc. is okay but whenever I amp it up it causes acne the very next day. Especially peanuts.
A few years back I said frick it and just spoon nutella and peanut butter. It made my skin more oily and I had daily acne. But I did gain a significant amount of weight. I gave it back after I saw a dermatologist and he told me to cut sugar and things that would trigger my Rosacea.
Hmm, so dairy/nuts/fruit/honey are a no go then? That's pretty tough, you might just have to load up on rice and other easy to eat carbs then. I personally have acne issues as well but they don't seem to be exaccerbated by dairy or sugar so I have them without any problems. Are bananas workable or do they cause problems as well?
I'll keep in mind the things you said. I personally use a olive oil and butter. I prefer to cook and I use oils all the time.
I am still eating a handful of nuts everyday as a snack. I also found these fibery cookies that have lowered sugar.
The reason I'm sort of trying to control my acne is that I have an active dating life and I enjoy having a clean face. Definitely a plus on my energy and confidence.
Bananas are a problem. There are plenty of sources you can look up. I don't remember it technically but it is the same as milk for your skin. It can cause zits to form thanks to one of its nutrients that trigger your hormones.
Thanks for the other info as well I'm reading and taking notes anon.
So fruit in general is out then, should still be workable though since there are still lots of other sources of calories. How about eggs? Though they are somewhat satiating I find that it's not too hard to get a bunch of them down, and they have a decent amount of calories so that could work. Plus you get a shit ton of micronutrients which is always good
I eat two eggs usually every day with some shredded cheese on them and a spoon of olive oil. Some days I just get sick of eggs and make a toastbread sandwich with some pork and spanish meats.
That could be another option then, if your weight gain stalls you could add 1-2 eggs to keep it going. If you get sick of them then maybe see if there's other ways you can cook them to keep them palatable. I eat 6 boiled eggs every day no problem but I think I just really like eating eggs. Also I tend to feel better when I eat that many for whatever reason, especially my joints. Probably from the micronutrients tbh
You also want to make sure that you're getting in calories during periods where you otherwise wouldn't be getting any. EG if you have long training sessions, you're in classes, etc etc you want to have some form of calories you can consume during that time period. There's quite a lot of options here: you can have sandwiches, you can have some sort of fruit (bananas work really well here), you can have nuts, liquid calories are also great, etc etc. Just make sure that you don't have any large windows of time during your day where you aren't consuming any calories.
I could probably keep going but these tips will probably be enough for now. If you want more information, these two videos are some of the best I've seen on this topic so I highly recommend that you watch them:
>pretty much anything on rings is amazing for hypertrophy, especially pushups and dips
I can do push well on rings been doing them for 6 weeks now.
I had trouble on dips though but I can do easily 20 body weight dips on the stand that is available.
How to advance on ring dips?
Two things
>keep doing ring pushups and get better at them
>do holds at lockout on the rings, both in the pushup position and the dip position
That's pretty much it, for me personally I actually skipped the latter, but because of that it took me a full year of ring pushups before I could do ring dips (might have been a bit less tho bc I didn't try very frequently, just one day I randomly decided to do them and I managed to get 3 so I put them into my program). For the holds, you can also do them on parallel bars, and you can do them weighted as well, it should have some carryover to the rings, but obviously most of your work should probably be done on the rings due to specificity. Besides that just get stronger and/or lighter and you'll eventually be able to do it.
Also forgot to mention, once you're able to do a couple ring dips progression is not particularly complicated, I've been able to add reps or weight most sessions for quite a while with no problems.
Based thanks for the replies
I was able to do 3 ring dips but the form felt like dogshit. This was 6 weeks ago when I first got the rings. I'm going to try again today or Tuesday now that I've been doing the push ups and regular dips.
>I was able to do 3 ring dips but the form felt like dogshit.
That's really good if you were able to do that the first time you got the rings, you should be doing them easily in no time. I would recommend doing them with a slow eccentric+pause though, I find that it makes the movement much better since you can control the rings more easily so that you can keep good technique and I also tend to feel my pecs a lot more when I do them like that.
>I would recommend doing them with a slow eccentric+pause though, I find that it makes the movement much better since you can control the rings more easily so that you can keep good technique
Noted
>I also tend to feel my pecs a lot more when I do them like that.
I actually bought the rings for this reason from one of your other threads you made with all the green text tips. I want something to hit my chest exceptionally well. The stretch I feel even on the ring push ups is amazing I can only imagine how ridiculous it is with good form ring dips.
>I want something to hit my chest exceptionally well.
If you want some other options, give db flye-presses a shot. Those are the absolute best way to demolish your pecs with free-weights IMO, since you get to overload the stretched position unlike most other exercises. I should probably include it in the OP post tbh, I only found out about these recently. Make sure to pause at the bottom to spend time in that insanely stretched position ofc. Best vid I could find demonstrating these (on an incline tho but it's not too different from flat) https://youtu.be/5ha8zAbTSVE
Also you can do flye-presses on ring pushups, I actually do them myself and they're fricking amazing. I'm actually weaker on ring pushups than ring dips for this reason, rn I can only get like 7-8 reps on ring pushups (also off of a decline tho) while I can do like 7 reps with +7.5kg on ring dips at the moment.
Also as a sidenote, when I first started doing ring dips even though I was only doing 4-5 reps on each set I would get these absurd chest-bursting pumps where my pecs would literally be bright red from the amount of blood in them. Make of this what you will lmao
>starts talking about cut/bulk
stopped reading
If you're a skinny 140lb guy and you want to become a 200lb jacked dude, how the hell are you supposed to do that without bulking?
lean bulk into maintenance, no bulk/cut cycles
If this was a superior method people would already be doing it. The reason why people cut is so that you can bulk: you can't bulk indefinitely because you'll end up becoming too fat obviously isn't a good thing. Yes you can technically just cruise at maintenance until you eventually lose enough bodyfat to justify bulking again, but if you look at how long this takes realistically, it's much faster to just shed some fat before bulking again since you will lose very little muscle if any at all (assuming you do it right) which makes room to keep bulking which will allow you to put on more muscle.
I think you would be more interested in bulk/mini cut cycles instead, where you do a fast cut for 4-6 weeks once you start getting too fat, which buys you another 6-ish months of bulking before you need to do another mini cut. From what I've heard it works very well, and you no longer have to deal with being in a caloric deficit for months on end which feels terrible due to all your lifts going to shit and your energy being sapped and all that
>If this was a superior method people would already be doing it
Frank Zane was doing it and he is LITERALLY, UNDOUBTEDLY The Greatest of All Time
The reason why people bulk/cut is because they are lazy pieces of shit, maintain is not fun
>Frank Zane was doing it and he is LITERALLY, UNDOUBTEDLY The Greatest of All Time
Subjective, people have their favorites
>The reason why people bulk/cut is because they are lazy pieces of shit, maintain is not fun
I don't think you quite understand. The reasoning behind bulking/cutting is the idea that you want to spend as much time as possible in a surplus since you build the most muscle in this state, as oppposed to a deficit/maintenance. With this in mind, the ideal scenario would be bulking indefinitely, however this is not sustainable since eventually you get too fat which negatively affects your nutrient partitioning (in theory anyway), your health, and your work capacity, all of which negatively impact your training and your ability to put on mass. So instead, we spend a short period cutting to remove that fat while retaining our muscle mass, so that we can continue bulking.
Now, can you put on mass during a maintenance phase? Yes, it is entirely possible. However, it is much slower than bulk/cut cycles. The benefit is that it is much more stable: your strength does not fluctuate as much. This can be beneficial for certain populations, so it does have its place. But for most people, bulk/cut cycles are best because they simply allow you to spend most of your time in a caloric surplus, which is better for putting on mass than maintenance calories.
Time to for some more redpills
>db flye-presses are extremely good for pec development since you can overload the pecs in a stretched position, but make sure to start light so that the pec tendons can adapt to the extreme positions
>wide grip pullovers are one of the best ways to develop your teres major and outer-lat region. the position does feel fairly awkward at first so work into them slowly
>performing front squats after high-bar squats, or any other quad dominant compound movement, makes them even better for hypertrophy since your legs will give out before your thoracic extension does due to pre-fatiguing the legs
tfw smaller forearms than most women
Time to start training them hard then
I want to increase my athleticism by maxxing out my strength/weight ratio. How best to do it? Just max deadlift and press?
>I want to increase my athleticism by maxxing out my strength/weight ratio.
If maxxing out your strength/weight ratio is your goal then maybe look at the way powerlifters in lighter weight classes train, since they can't just gain more muscle to become stronger due to being capped by their weight class.
Superset gays hog up many machines. They are gym parasites and everyone hates them.
I train in a home gym so don't worry about me, but there's a lot of ways you can do supersets without needing a ridiculous amount of equipment. I listed a couple earlier
but there are many more.