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BigDeadFreak
Member
That's great. I'm at a similar level to you but I've hit a massive plateau with my bench and overhead press. I think my form was off so I've corrected that but I still can't get beyond a certain point. It's very frustrating.
Krappadizzle
Member
Any of you guys deal with what I guess is "Golfer's Elbow"? It's really only on my left arm at all, and really the hardest when on my pull day I'm doing pullups and db curls. Conflicted as I don't really want to take time off, so I'm debating trying to figure out how to do back work with less of my left arm.
VenomousCoffee
Member
I got it a few years ago from doing too many pull-ups. I'd recommend really backing off on anything that bothers it. It sucks.
BigDeadFreak
Member
I've had that on and off for years. I think it developed as a result of doing judo but it's never really gone away. I have to be very selective when it comes to any pull lifts. I can't do dumbbell curls, pull ups or any biceps isolation exercises. I've just replaced it all with variations of rows (barbell, cable, etc). For some reason I can get away with EZ curls but that's about it.
with regards to short term pain relief I found that ice packs are best.
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Majormaxxx
Member
My fitness evolution: from 80kg, 20 pull-ups, 40 dips to 88kg, 3 pull-ups, 8 dips. Not ideal.
For golfers elbow do negative only slow dumbbell one arm curls. Again - eccentric only! This should stretch the muscle.
For golfers elbow do negative only slow dumbbell one arm curls. Again - eccentric only! This should stretch the muscle.
Majormaxxx
Member
Dang bro strong upper body
Krappadizzle
Member
Yeah, today I went back to an old lift routine I used to use which essentially skips the pullups and does rows. Still, gotta say, I miss the pullups. Gonna give the ez-bar a shot next pull day because I really could only bicep curl my right arm and couldn't even do 25lbs curls with my left. Gonna be a rude adjustment I guess, not digging it.
Aces High
Member
If you feel pain during a certain movement pattern, don't do that movement pattern.
If you feel pain without moving, don't train at all.
Pain is usually the consequence of wrong execution and/or too little focus on regeneration.
EZ-bar is not effective for biceps. The main task of your biceps is rotating your lower arm in order to supinate your hand (supination = palms facing upwards like a plate so you can fill soup in).
That's why biceps curl movements are always done with full supination. Curl movements without full supination will distribute the stress over biceps and brachialis which will make it harder for you to train these muscles to failure.
If I were in your shoes, I would stop doing pull and curl movements for two weeks and then dive back in with focus on perfect form and reduced volume.
If you feel pain without moving, don't train at all.
Pain is usually the consequence of wrong execution and/or too little focus on regeneration.
EZ-bar is not effective for biceps. The main task of your biceps is rotating your lower arm in order to supinate your hand (supination = palms facing upwards like a plate so you can fill soup in).
That's why biceps curl movements are always done with full supination. Curl movements without full supination will distribute the stress over biceps and brachialis which will make it harder for you to train these muscles to failure.
If I were in your shoes, I would stop doing pull and curl movements for two weeks and then dive back in with focus on perfect form and reduced volume.
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Krappadizzle
Member
Thank you for the suggestion. It was funny, I bartended last night and 2 out of season body builders came in. They both more or less said the same thing. I didn't think to ask them though, when were talking taking a rest for a few weeks, as long as I'm not feeling pain on my push days, I should be fine to do that? Or just a flat out 2 week break from all exercise would be best?
I've become so neurotic and tunnel visioned on being at the gym I don't know what I'd do with myself.
Aces High
Member
You can take off 2 weeks from all exercises no problem. You won't lose any muscle mass at all.
Less is often more when it comes to bodybuilding.
You want to max out aspects like intensity, form, nutrition and regeneration. This will keep your system healthy and give you peak physical and cognitive performance in everyday life.
You don't want to max out aspects like volume and frequency unless you do nothing all day except bodybuilding. The cumulative effects of stress from work, stress from family, stress from traffic, etc put a heavy toll on the nervous system of an average adult. Adding extreme physical stress to that will eventually lead to sickness and injury.
Less is often more when it comes to bodybuilding.
You want to max out aspects like intensity, form, nutrition and regeneration. This will keep your system healthy and give you peak physical and cognitive performance in everyday life.
You don't want to max out aspects like volume and frequency unless you do nothing all day except bodybuilding. The cumulative effects of stress from work, stress from family, stress from traffic, etc put a heavy toll on the nervous system of an average adult. Adding extreme physical stress to that will eventually lead to sickness and injury.
Raven117
Member
Alright, so there is another school of thought on this. He is a polarizing figure so take his advice or not. (I'll admit, I tried it. It did help my tennis elbow over the course of about 2 weeks).
In summary. Actually use it and work through the pain.
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Krappadizzle
Member
Thank you! I'm actually subscribed to that channel already! Love the timber of that guys voice. I have so many things I'm sub'd to that I can't even parse it sometimes and didn't even think to do anything outside of google the symptons.
Raven117
Member
He is definitely a character that's for sure! I mean, why not try it? Its probably not going to make it much worse. It definitely helped me.
porkchopexpress
Member
Today at work someone referred to me as “jacked”…
Today was the best day of my life since my last child was born.
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Aces High
Member
That's potentially dangerous input. I would be very cautious about this.
In order to treat a medical problem, you need a diagnosis first.
And for most sports-related injuries, it is impossible to make a diagnosis without medical imaging like x-ray, MRI or CT scans.
Everyone who says "that's a golfer's elbow just keep training" without having seen the results of medical imaging is a charlatan.
That's how people get tendon ruptures.
Here's my advice:
1. Get proper rest
2. Get back in and check if pain is still there.
If pain is gone, great. If not, go see a doctor and get a disgnosis.
Raven117
Member
Hence why I prefaced it with a disclaimer and a warning. There is always going to be an ache here, a pain there, and not every time can one go run off to the doctor for expensive MRIs and CT scans. One has to use a considerable amount of judgment when it comes to this stuff. Its easy to just say "rest and MRI and CT." Thats not really actionable advice every time something acts up on you. You would rarely train.
More often than not, getting it moving (not going balls to the wall heavy), but getting some work in to the point you can tolerate, will lead to a faster recovery. HOWEVER, of course there are major injuries that this wont work. Clearly. Again, one has to use judgment and listen to their body.
Raven117
Member
Hell yeah man!Today at work someone referred to me as “jacked”…
Today was the best day of my life since my last child was born.
I was at the gym the other day doing heavy bench presses (for me), and a dude came up and was like "wow man, thats moving great...good lift!" Felt effing awesome.
Aces High
Member
Pain in muscles is okay after or during training.
Pain in tendons and joints is never okay. If you have this, you need to change your approach to training.
Raven117
Member
I agree. Its an excellent indicator that you are doing something wrong (probably form, but maybe programming). You can then work through it. You don't ALWAYS have to run off to the doctor because you are inflamed somewhere. Again, its judgement.
BigDeadFreak
Member
Someone at the gym once referred to me as a beast. It was over 4 years ago but think about this at least 3 times a day.Today at work someone referred to me as “jacked”…
Today was the best day of my life since my last child was born.
Badlucktroll
Member
how do you completely lose stubborn love handels
Aces High
Member
You lose love handles by lowering your body fat.
It's a matter of genetics and some people have to go really low into bodybuilding competition territory in order to lose them.
There's no real natural fix, though. As soon as bodyfat goes up a little, love handles will return immediately.
Love handles are in my experience one of the primary reasons why people start manipulating their body with drugs and/or by surgery, which both can have severe and long lasting side effects. Everybody I know who manipulated their bodyfat by surgery would undo the changes if they were given the chance.
People often don't know that the human body is incapable of "freezing" that perfect big muscle and low bodyfat physique that we all know from social media and hollywood movies. You can retain peak physique for one, maximum two weeks. Everything else is highly unhealthy. Those who run around with a perfect body all year will eventually pay the ultimate price.
Accepting your strengths and weakness is one of the most important aspects of your fitness journey (and life in general). Those who don't make peace with themselves will never reach their goals. You can't force these things and for many gym goers, doing too much in order to get rid of that one little weak spot is what holds back the big overall progress that's waiting just around the corner.
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22:22:22
NO PAIN TRANCE CONTINUE
Yeah diet.
RD DL and good ab training will help but its mostly done in the kitchen
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Raven117
Member
This is sage-like advice and should be in the OP of the thread.
Ozzy Onya A2Z
Member
22:22:22
NO PAIN TRANCE CONTINUE
I know man. Had surgery 5 weeks ago. Still have to wait till next Wednesday for the stitches to dissolve.
Been (power)? walking a lot. Only thing I can do.
So yeah after next week I can start going to the gym again.
Gonna be scary and frustrating but at the end of February I'm back where i was 5 weeks ago. Maybe more maybe less.
We'll see..
The best part will be that I've stopped smoking for almost 3 months by then.
Wish you the best
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Artoris
Gold Member
the kitchen thing is the hardest
Raven117
Member
Im sorry to hear you had surgery. You doing okay?I know man. Had surgery 5 weeks ago. Still have to wait till next Wednesday for the stitches to dissolve.
Been (power)? walking a lot. Only thing I can do.
So yeah after next week I can start going to the gym again.
Gonna be scary and frustrating but at the end of February I'm back where i was 5 weeks ago. Maybe more maybe less.
We'll see..
The best part will be that I've stopped smoking for almost 3 months by then.
Wish you the best
22:22:22
NO PAIN TRANCE CONTINUE
Indeed.
Aww thanks man. But it was a good thing to happen. But 6 weeks without stretching gym etc was pretty hard. Worth it though. Thanks for your concerns. Very kind.
VenomousCoffee
Member
Congrats!
VenomousCoffee
Member
About a year ago I switched to tank tops from Nike and Under Armour and haven't looked back. Vast improvement in fit.
Aces High
Member
Chris Bumstead at the age of 18:
Shows his awful biceps genetics.
Maybe that image can serve as a motivation for someone.
Chris never gave up training even though he had really bad genetics in a muscle that many gym goers regard as the most important one for everyday flexing.
Today he is five times Mister Olympia.
Shows his awful biceps genetics.
Maybe that image can serve as a motivation for someone.
Chris never gave up training even though he had really bad genetics in a muscle that many gym goers regard as the most important one for everyday flexing.
Today he is five times Mister Olympia.
Aces High
Member
You cannot fix tendon insertions and bad muscle-to-tendon ratio with roids.
You biomechanics will always stay the same, no matter if you're natural or enhanced.
Only way to fix this is would by surgery. But no one in his right mind would re-attach his healthy tendons with surgery.
JimmyRustler
Gold Member
Can't believe I'm saying this but after more than 5 years of hiatus yesterday I looked at myself in the mirror and thought... damn, I'm back in peak shape. From hereon in, probably for the first time in my life, I'll be hitting the gym without any specific goal in mind. Whatever improvements I make now are just extra. I never thought I'd reach this point in my life.
Just wanted to share my joy. I'm sure you guys know how hard it is to reach this point. Keep on struggling boys!
If someone wants some inspiration... I made some HUGE improvements in the past three months applying the following regiment.
Training:
I also stopped completely working with sets. What I will do for almost each exercise is to pump up my muscle gradually. Meaning, I start super low and increase gradually until I hit failure. Incline DB Press with 10 reps for example: I will literally do 10 reps with 2 kg and will then do sets with higher weight until I can't any more (10 reps with 2, 10 reps with 6, 10 reps with 10 etc.) with no break inbetween. Then I will give myself a 30 second break and go on with the next higher weight and keep doing sets with 30 seconds break. Once even that fails, I give myself 60 seconds breaks and go higher - and at this point I will stop once I reach a weight were I can't hit the 10 reps any more.
Every time I do this my muscle feels like bursting when I'm done. No worries, it's sounds like this takes forever but I'm usually done quicker than I was before when doing 2+ minutes breaks between my 5 sets. Also this kind of training is quite variable because you it's up to you how much weight you increase with each set.
Naturally this does not work well with each exercise. For squats and bench I still do the "usual" style mostly but it works very well on machines. Also I found this training to be very good to avoid injury. Haven't had issues for a very long time.
Supplementation:
I ditched any and all pre-workouts and found that Huberman's testo boost works very well. So I'm doing this:
Diet:
I may have an advantage here because I usually don't even like eating, so in order to minimize this annoyance I'm only eating twice a day - in the morning when I get up and in the evening (usually at around 7pm). What I eat is mostly always the same.
The last point I bolded for a reason. I don't give a fuck any more. I read somewhere that it is very important to also eat something you really like - and from my experiance nothing is more true than that. I was waaaayyyy to anal about this for too long.
What I also find to be true, and I only heard this recently, is that you have to eat the trash in combination with the good stuff. Meaning, it's always just desert for me. I only eat sweets directly after my good stuff. Same thing for alcohol. I never eat or drink it on it's own. I'm no doctor but I do think that it makes a huge difference.
That's it. If someone wants to apply something from this... feel free. Stay swole bros.
Just wanted to share my joy. I'm sure you guys know how hard it is to reach this point. Keep on struggling boys!
If someone wants some inspiration... I made some HUGE improvements in the past three months applying the following regiment.
Training:
- 8 weeks training - 1 week rest cycle
- Training 4 times a week
- First two weeks of training full body, 1 exercise per muscle each workout
- 8 / 10 / 12 / 15 reps (meaning you hit every muscle with each rep count once a week)
- Three weeks training Upper/Lower Body
- Same rep count, in the 3rd week add one more excercise with 8 reps (meaning you hit every muscle 2 times per week with 8 reps)
- Three weeks training with Bro Split (Chest/bi, Back/Tri, Shoulder, Legs - Abs each time)
- Increase every week by 1 exercise per reps count so at the final week you hit each muscle twice with 8 / 10 / 12 / 15 reps
- Beware: Final week workout takes a bloody long time
- Then one week break and start from again.
I also stopped completely working with sets. What I will do for almost each exercise is to pump up my muscle gradually. Meaning, I start super low and increase gradually until I hit failure. Incline DB Press with 10 reps for example: I will literally do 10 reps with 2 kg and will then do sets with higher weight until I can't any more (10 reps with 2, 10 reps with 6, 10 reps with 10 etc.) with no break inbetween. Then I will give myself a 30 second break and go on with the next higher weight and keep doing sets with 30 seconds break. Once even that fails, I give myself 60 seconds breaks and go higher - and at this point I will stop once I reach a weight were I can't hit the 10 reps any more.
Every time I do this my muscle feels like bursting when I'm done. No worries, it's sounds like this takes forever but I'm usually done quicker than I was before when doing 2+ minutes breaks between my 5 sets. Also this kind of training is quite variable because you it's up to you how much weight you increase with each set.
Naturally this does not work well with each exercise. For squats and bench I still do the "usual" style mostly but it works very well on machines. Also I found this training to be very good to avoid injury. Haven't had issues for a very long time.
Supplementation:
I ditched any and all pre-workouts and found that Huberman's testo boost works very well. So I'm doing this:
- 4 weeks a combinaton of Tongat Ali / Turkesteron / Fadogia Agrestis (and for my next cycle I'll also add Tribulus Terrestris) with double dosage (usually the bottles are for 60 days but I take em in 30 days)
- 4 weeks cycle of creatin monohydrate, also double dosage
- During 1 week break I don't take ANYTHING, not even a protein shake
Diet:
I may have an advantage here because I usually don't even like eating, so in order to minimize this annoyance I'm only eating twice a day - in the morning when I get up and in the evening (usually at around 7pm). What I eat is mostly always the same.
- Breakfast: 50g oats / 50g protein flips with 150g of home made yoghurt + 200 g of some sausage (just want so meat in the morning and this is easiest)
- Durning days: only one Protein Shake
- Dinner: 200g of chicken, 100g rice/noodles + some veggies and.... chips or ice cream + a shot of whisky or rum afterwards
The last point I bolded for a reason. I don't give a fuck any more. I read somewhere that it is very important to also eat something you really like - and from my experiance nothing is more true than that. I was waaaayyyy to anal about this for too long.
What I also find to be true, and I only heard this recently, is that you have to eat the trash in combination with the good stuff. Meaning, it's always just desert for me. I only eat sweets directly after my good stuff. Same thing for alcohol. I never eat or drink it on it's own. I'm no doctor but I do think that it makes a huge difference.
That's it. If someone wants to apply something from this... feel free. Stay swole bros.
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Aces High
Member
What are your serum testosterone levels?
When was the last time you checked them?
Do you even have symptoms of low testosterone?
Don't ever buy anything Huberman recommends. He's a snake oil salesman and everytime he's opening his mouth, shit comes out.
Creatine Monohydrate
Omega 3 in the form of Krill Oil
Vitamin D
Magnesium Glycinate
(Whey Protein)
Those are the supplements that are proven to have a positive effect on athletes. Everything else is bullshit. I put whey protein in () because there's only one single time where whey protein is not among the worst protein choices and that is immediately after workout. Drinking whey randomly during the day is a waste of money and a simple glass of low fat milk will give you a much greater benefit for health and fitness.
JimmyRustler
Gold Member
Yeah, I know. Everybody in the fitness industry knows better than everybody else. I’ve been reading this shit for more than a decade.
I’ve personally long come to the conclusion that nobody knows shit. Our body works in wondrous ways and no one really gets something. Everything everybody says is just a rough statement and possibly won’t apply to you at all.
To answer your question. No, I have not measured my test levels because I think it’s a waste of time. I did that once when I was training like mad with perfect diet, yet looked and felt like shit and would not get horny for weeks at a time and my doc told me…. Test levels are normal.
Listen, I made some mad progress with my current regiment and wanted to share. Take it or leave it, I don’t care.
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Aces High
Member
What you are taking for testosterone boost is hepatoxic. That's why Tongkat Ali is banned in the European Union.
So you're not only wasting your hard earned money on snake oil, but you're also damaging your liver.
Fact is: You don't need these supplements. You can achieve your goals without them.
So you're not only wasting your hard earned money on snake oil, but you're also damaging your liver.
Fact is: You don't need these supplements. You can achieve your goals without them.
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JimmyRustler
Gold Member
Thanks mom. I don't take any of this serious as long as stuff like nicotine and a lot of the crap we eat is still legal.
Also, from what I was able to gather Tongat Ali is not allowed in the EU and not banned.
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Aces High
Member
That Huberman testo stack costs how much?
$120 per month for all three supplements?
That's $1,440 per year for stuff that does nothing besides damaging your liver.
I'm just trying to help you. You would be much better off if you invested that money into an ETF like MSCI World.
$120 per month for all three supplements?
That's $1,440 per year for stuff that does nothing besides damaging your liver.
I'm just trying to help you. You would be much better off if you invested that money into an ETF like MSCI World.
DavidGzz
Member
Idgaf about that. I am just making fun of the fact that you're talking about drug abusers making it big.