*** The 2015 Gym Rats Thread ***

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Quinnaay said:
Sweet, can see your bigger and have much more width.

"wannabe strongman" what's your numbers like? Squats, Barbell chest press, dumbell OHP? Like to see where I am considering the weight discrepancy.
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I've not 1rm since the start of the year but they were around 120kg bench, 150kg squat, 170kg deads for reps and 80kg OHP.
 
I cant imagine ever being anything over 70kg, im sure i posted a pic in the picture thread a while back at 70KG and whilst not all that much muscle mass i was obese. Im starting to believe i'll only ever have a 4pack aswell lower abs just never appear... feelsbadman.
 
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You generally always have to get a lot leaner/lighter than you think you do to get to that 8-10% range where most will get a full six pack - if you look at some of the shorter elite Chinese lifters like say, Wu Jingbiao he's about 5ft5, 56kg of lean meat:

wu2006.jpg


Lower abs on men is stubborn fat and thus tends to be one of the last places to go, unfortunately. Also it does help a lot if you have a solid base (heh...) since the guy at 8% bf whose musculature is modest won't look as good as the guy at 10% who is a lot further down the road.
 
Might sound stupid, but is there a recommended body fat percentage of when you would swap from cutting to bulking?

I'm currently 14% down from 16 but as you can tell haven't been doing this gym stuff for too long...
 
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/muscle-gain/general-philosophies-of-muscle-mass-gain.html/

The above covers it pretty well.

Cliff Notes = generally 8-10% is as low as you can go without hormones/energy/mood going down the toilet and past 15% things like calorie partitioning get worse (less muscle gain compared to fat gain at the same surplus) and you have to spend longer than is ideal dieting to get rid of it, so dieting down to lean-but-not-contest-lean then and bulking till you start getting just a little fluffy is recommended for most - a desirable ratio of mass gain to dieting is about 3:1 or 4:1 - some people prefer spending months aiming for slow weight gain and a couple of months moderate dieting, some will do shorter gaining cycles like 12-16 weeks then diet aggressively for 4-6.
 
Thanks somnambulist I only skimmed through as I'm pretty tired tonight (will read fully tomorrow) but read the conclusion of cut until roughly 10%, 2 weeks stabilising the diet, then bulk over 16 weeks until roughly 15% and 2 weeks stabilising diet again - then repeat for muscle gains and shred.
 
Pretty much. His Generic Bulking Routine is a 6 week cycle with 2 deload at the end, and he thinks doing a couple of rounds of that (16 weeks total) followed by a relatively short diet while reducing training volume/just keeping lifts static is a happy medium for most people who just want to look good and don't let themselves get too fat, hence his 16 week recommendation. Obviously if you're doing a different program with different training cycle lengths you can adjust as necessary.
 
Somnambulist said:
Pretty much. His Generic Bulking Routine is a 6 week cycle with 2 deload at the end, and he thinks doing a couple of rounds of that (16 weeks total) followed by a relatively short diet while reducing training volume/just keeping lifts static is a happy medium for most people who just want to look good and don't let themselves get too fat, hence his 16 week recommendation. Obviously if you're doing a different program with different training cycle lengths you can adjust as necessary.
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Thanks :) I've really only been following this Ldn Muscle cutting guide which is 15 weeks worth but I'll continue until I'm 12% I think. I realise people might say the guide is a waste of money and all you need is will power but it motivates me and has taught me a fair few things.

Delvis said:
Son my six .months was a bit excessive? :D
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Depends what your starting body fat % was I guess haha
 
I really don't get on with barbell row, struggle keeping proper form no matter the weight and feel like its putting a lot of pressure on my lower back. Is dumbbell row a resonable replacement?
 
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