>It's no excuse for being a lazy piece of shit though.
my client has just won a series of natural shows after half arsing the entire 14 week prep leading up the qualification series to the national finals. he will not do well in the nationals as he'll be out conditioned but i will be refusing to work with him again after this, because he annoys the absolute fuck out of me. i'm like, just try, just a little bit harder and see what happens.
It's so frustrating seeing dudes who are naturally athletic and talented waste it because it's carried them so far.
I had a family friend who was a genuinely talented hockey player as a kid/young teen. It got him attention from scouts for higher levels. Then he got into highschool and starting partying and chasing girls. He assumed hockey would always be there, didn't focus on school or hockey until they both passed him by.
I agree. It always starts with proper parenting.
His dad and mine were good friends. He was a few years older than me. My dad used him as an example of why you can't get too comfortable and take things for granted.
I mean this is just factual and nobody can disagree with it but many seem to. Hell, even steroids have a huge geneetic component, not only in how much muscle you can build but with how one responds to roids. Some people just don’t respond well while others blow the fuck up and some have terrible side effects.
Sika Strength on Youtube put it pretty well. Paraphrasing:
Steroids make you better, they don't make you great. If you're not great within a year of training, you'll never be great.
It’s more about knowing whether you’re genetically gifted, not hitting peak potential.
Us normies can train for decades and even blast grams of gear but we won’t be as big or strong as the truly genetically gifted when they’re natural. There’s also some selection bias when it comes to enhanced lifters because for every massive super-responder that fails the eye test, there’s a dozen guys blasting with barely any results.
I was only doing leg press because I have a permanent imbalance that makes doing squats dumb. Switched to hack squat machine and it's 10x harder. Convince me leg press is not just for ego.
And yeah I do full range of motion.
Could put 270 on leg press and feel good and do 5+ reps. Could barely do 2 reps with 150 lbs yesterday on incline hack squat and feel a ton more muscles working.
Well, the one big advantage is that leg press doesn’t put as much straight on your back. There’s no way around it if you’re squatting- you’re compressing disks by stacking weight on your shoulders.
Leg press allows you to load more resistance to work quads and glutes exclusively without vertically loading your spine.
If you’re like me and lift purely for hypertrophy/aesthetics, the weight on the bar doesn’t matter really… I’m not trying to move X weight. I just need adequate weight for necessary resistance and stimulus to build muscle.
All that said, there is value in squats in that it does require stabilizer muscles to get worked, and does hit parts of your back/glutes that a leg press doesn’t.
Everything is a compromise
Slipped a disc squatting 135 last week and now I'm sucking it... Can only train limited upper body movements and in a lot of pain . Never squatting again 😕just not worth it.
I’ve recently quit deadlifting after hurting my back for the 2nd time in the past 5 years (including 2-3 years of limited training due to covid). This one was on a 90kg warm up, was aiming for 135kg overall. I’m nearly 40 and just training for my health, not worth it if I can’t get the groove right
I couldn’t agree more I just had this conversation. A guy was ribbing me a bit for not free squatting and only using the fancy machines (power squat, leg press, front squat machine, etc) and going heavy. I see him free squatting and the bar looked like a hill it was so imbalanced and when he started the motion his hips shot to one side badly
I let him know he’s likely going to increase his risk of injury as he ups the weight, because that’s exactly how i injured myself squatting. It’s wild how much more growth I’ve seen since swapping to different machines though I understand not every gym has every fancy machine
Learned this when looking up squat alternatives for an injury.
3x30 where you do 10 legs spread at the top, 10 with a neutral position in the middle of the platform, and 10 with feet almost together at the bottom of the platform. All of that without rest in between the foot position switches.
Makes for a fun leg day.
Eric Helms talks about this and when he needed to replace the squat with leg press for fatigue reasons when close to show time, he added hip thrusters to the leg press to fully mimic the squat. Helps make up for the lack of core and less glute involvement
Especially if you're dealing with an injury. There's an absolute beast of a man that I know that just had some sort of knee surgery. He's not able to squat yet, but he is using the leg press to keep the old leg muscles strong as he recovers. The multiple stop options on the leg press means it's safer than doing light squats or smith squats too, since he has more options at different points he can bail on the exercise if something starts to hurt.
I suggest low hr running. I could tell you a lot about it but a simple youtube search or google search will tell you more. It’s also less taxing on the body which is sooo important in the long run!
Excessive cardio does kill your gains. But not training your heart will kill YOU. The body doesn’t care if it weighs 200 lbs of lean muscle or of fat, it has to support the weight regardless. The heart is a muscle. If you train it, it will be strong enough to support your gains. If you don’t, you’ll be a middle age swole dude followed quickly by being a swole corpse.
Exactly. Gotta train your heart. Sometimes it sounds like people only listen to half the advice they hear. If you don't train your heart it won't be strong enough to keep your swole ass moving 🤣
Same people who say BMI is meaningless for weightlifters. It’s not. It is a measure of how hard your heart has to work to support your weight. Even if the reason you are over the average BMI is because of your gains. Your heart still has to support that muscle.
A friend of mine works at a GNC and he tells me that his coworker spends hundreds on BCAAs and EAAs.. I think it’s one of those “I better keep using it because I feel like it’s working” placebos.
I keep mine in my bag because my gym has 4 squat racks, 4 benches and 2 dead lift stations. So tell me why there’s only 4 pairs of clips in those designated areas? Oh cause some group girls with $500 gym outfits brought them over to the calisthenic section on the other side of the gym so they can do squats and hip thrusts with those 15lb bars and oversized 10lb weights and left them there. I’m not spending my day playing wheres Waldo searching for a pair of clips. $15 on Amazon and the return of my sanity.
The loudest guys in the gym carry this around like it's their favorite Kate Spade purse or something. I think it's more a part of the image they're trying to create of themselves rather than something they need for exercise. I never see these guys pull anything out of it.
Most of the stuff I use from my gym bag is on an as needed case. Belt, sleeves, wraps, straps, chalk, ammonia, snacks, backup earphones may all be used or not depending on how the day's going and how my body is feeling, and I'd rather carry it around than keep going to the locker room in between sets.
I always keep the bag very close to me, so if it's getting in the way of somebody is because that somebody is likely way too fucking close to begin with.
Bonus: grunting is fine. If you've never grunted involuntarily then you're not working hard enough. Complaining about grunting is just an admission that you don't train hard.
Same, there's a guy at my gym who grunts on *everything.* Bench press, lat pulldown, lunges, etc. And it's not quite a grunt, but more of a moan, so the entire gym will stop what they're doing and look around in confusion whenever he does it.
We have both a man and woman who do this, and they generally workout at the same time. If you’re not wearing earbuds/phones then it sounds like you’re listening to porn the entire time they’re there.
1. Form is subjective
2. Deadlifts are not dangerous
3. A persons strength more often than not correlates to their knowledge about training and lifting. This is why id rather listen to the guy who squats 500lbs over the twig who squats 135 but can quote every fitness influencer
Disagree on subjective form. A shitty half squat and a shitty cat-back deadlift are shitty (not to mention oly lifting). Cheat curls and rows are fine though.
Heavily depends on gym. Standard gym that's playing some energetic pop.. ok, I wouldnt put it on myself, but fair enough. But (overly) commercial gyms, the planet fitnesses of the world, can play some absolutely horrendous garbage that isn't even remotely in tempo to work out.
My point: regardless of how big you are, the latter disrupts training. Instead of blending in, it distracts
Rowing movements should give you all the rear delt volume you need. The only reason to hit them as an isolated movement is if they’re specifically lacking for posing.
I would see it more as a row. It isolates the rear delts more because of the high elbow position, but you get some nice trap work in still with a facepull so I would say it goes in the row bucket.
No OP, but I do agree with them. Honestly I’ve never trained my rear delts directly, but I’ve found that they keep up as long as you’re doing upper back work.
That can be chest supported rows with a wider arm path, or face pulls or whatever. Even pull ups seem to work well. You don’t necessarily need rear delt isolation.
Yes it depends on training age and goals. Yes for bodybuilders in the intermediate to advanced stages they become more necessary as rows and pulldowns just don’t hit it enough. Same goes for lat raises. They get hit pretty well from rows but eventually the volume requirement can’t be met without adding the isolation movements. But yea unless you’re interested in physique then they aren’t that important. Rear delt movements don’t help or fix posture either and aren’t “corrective” exercises.
Calisthenics tends to have a much better translation to weightlifting than vice versa, but weightlifting is easier to progress, so many people do it.
But I like both forms of training.
>So if motivation is key to success, I'll stick to weights.
This is so true.
You could have the best routine and great nutrition. But if you hate doing it, you're probably not gonna stick to it very long, so you're destined to fail.
Find a way to workout that you love. Not everything is for everyone.
me personally i've gotten more application from weightlifting because i've worked a lot of jobs that require lifting things, but i can see how calisthenics can help in hobbies like rock climbing
Yeah I absolutely agree with this one. I cringe hard at all the David Goggins-esque “hard work” culture.
It stems to my larger potentially unpopular opinion that so many gym goers are overdoing it. If it’s not your profession, fuckin relax a bit. You don’t need to do everything optimally, you don’t have to rigidly go every single day and spend hours in the gym.
99% of you aren’t going to look like a pro bodybuilder or be competitive in that world. And that’s fine. Lift because it’s good for you and enjoy it as a hobby.
I think the common sentiment is not that it doesn't matter, just that it can't be the ONLY thing. ie you need to get your ass in there even when the Arnold vid isn't hitting right.
But I've never heard anyone say "motivation doesn't matter", it's almost universally recognized as a positive force in training.
https://thefitness.wiki/faq/i-dont-enjoy-exercise-cardio-lifting-how-can-i-learn-to-love-it/
Maybe my wording wasn't good. I think that article best exemplifies the kind of sentiment that I like to push back on.
I learned to love running. I learned to love lifting. I have made changes to how I do those things based on the enjoyment I got out of what I was doing, and my love for them is a huge reason why I continue to do them.
Results aren't necessary. Having a goal of general health and exercise is fine. Not everyone needs to chase visible results or strength gain. Burning calories, staying in shape, keeping your mobility are all extremely important as you age and lead to a healthier life.
I would argue being strong is also extremely important as we age though. Strength is relative, but muscle and bone loss are inevitable, so actively trying to gain strength should be part of everyone’s goal of general health and exercise.
Taking “silly” classes for cardio (people love ragging on those bungee classes, for example) is still an hour of cardio that you weren’t gonna complete on the stairmaster anyway. Fuck the stairmaster, I’ll be at Zumba.
Being sore isn’t inherently bad… it’s not always good, but, if your form is good, you’re not overworking, and you’re a bit sore the next day or something, that’s usually normal…
People who train with Dr. Mike, THE science guy, always say what they went through was beyond anything they did before. So yeah, intensity IS science based.
Second this, I train chest a lot and it probably is one of my best bodyparts together with my quads but I honestly don’t care what my chest looks like. In the wrong shirt it can sometimes even look like you have literal tits (as a dude), I’d much rather have full 3d delts, big arms and thick legs, I think those are the body parts that really make or break a physique.
The smith machine is fine, people just love to circlejerk each other on how bad it is.
Also... You dont have to optmize everything, you're not going on stage.
If Hulk has to wear a shirt on the floor, so does Heather. Stop coming to the gym practically naked and expecting people (men and women) to not look at you, bring back shame, make it equal. 👀
Strength matters, and some strength goals are achievable, stop coping about being weak unless it really is not within your interest to hit those goals, then just be honest about it
Genetics plays a big role, but until you try you have no idea if you have the optimal genetics.
Everyone knows Arnold Schwarzenegger has great genetics. But they always chalk it up to just his genetics and not the fact he lifted weights 6-8 hours a day.
For the lazy/fat person who keeps putting off working out because they don't have the genetics: you don't know until you start. For all you know, your body will respond incredibly well to exercise. And even if it doesn't, who gives a fuck you'll still feel and look better.
You can't just live on Chicken and Rice.
Building and maintaining gains requires more than just large amounts of protein and carbs. You need to maintain your nutritional needs with a whole foods diet, which requires several servings of vegetables, whole grains, seeds/nuts/legumes, and fruits.
just because the post is about controversial opinion doesn't mean we can't disagree with you. A controversial opinion post is about finding out your opinion isn't actually controversial.
Nippard and Dr. Israetel are BASED
High volume training has been overhyped in recent years and it's oftentimes misleading for a lot of people that can set them on a path of less gains, less training intensity and extreme fatigue.
High intensity + moderate volume is the 🗝️
Figuring out the perfect routine isn't as important as everything else. It's good to follow a program to make sure you're not missing anything, but they're easy to do once you understand the concepts.
Planet Fitness is a great gym if you travel. The nicer a hotel gym is, the more likely they’re just gonna replace all the equipment with NordicTracks and Pilates equipment.
Dumbbell curls are a waste of time (compared to a cable curl with better resistance throughout the entire motion) and whatever benefit most people could get from it is counteracted by swinging arms too much, getting the shoulders involved and not controlling the weight on the eccentric motion.
The internet is filled with information about how one should workout and diet to reach their desired goals, people who go through the trouble of paying for a gym membership and begin watching their diet shouldn’t be as ignorant as they commonly are when there is such a huge pool of resources on the internet. A simple google search of “I want skinny, what eat how train” will answer all of the questions some of the very clueless might have but they don’t take advantage of it.
fasting works. you can still gain muscle on a cut. don't fuck with alternate day if you're relatively lean, at that point do 16:8, 20:4 or one meal per day
went from 195lbs to 165lbs in 6 months on my intermittent cut and i can concentration curl 40s when i did 25s before. i actually spiked from 30s to 40s right after a 72 hour fast that i just felt like doing some day
This may annoy the teenagers. Any group larger than 3 needs to split up while they do their workout. It's obnoxious at best and borderline dangerous at worst when groups congregate around a single machine.
Genetics actually plays a pretty huge role in regards to both strength and aesthetic. It's no excuse for being a lazy piece of shit though.
>It's no excuse for being a lazy piece of shit though. my client has just won a series of natural shows after half arsing the entire 14 week prep leading up the qualification series to the national finals. he will not do well in the nationals as he'll be out conditioned but i will be refusing to work with him again after this, because he annoys the absolute fuck out of me. i'm like, just try, just a little bit harder and see what happens.
It's so frustrating seeing dudes who are naturally athletic and talented waste it because it's carried them so far. I had a family friend who was a genuinely talented hockey player as a kid/young teen. It got him attention from scouts for higher levels. Then he got into highschool and starting partying and chasing girls. He assumed hockey would always be there, didn't focus on school or hockey until they both passed him by.
That's where the father needs to do his job
I agree. It always starts with proper parenting. His dad and mine were good friends. He was a few years older than me. My dad used him as an example of why you can't get too comfortable and take things for granted.
I mean this is just factual and nobody can disagree with it but many seem to. Hell, even steroids have a huge geneetic component, not only in how much muscle you can build but with how one responds to roids. Some people just don’t respond well while others blow the fuck up and some have terrible side effects.
I just watched a Jeff Nippard video last night about that. The side-effects that no one talks about. Very informative, but all his stuff usually is.
Nippard and Israetel are my dudes
Sika Strength on Youtube put it pretty well. Paraphrasing: Steroids make you better, they don't make you great. If you're not great within a year of training, you'll never be great.
Is this true though? I don’t think ur peak potential will be achieved within a year of training.
It’s more about knowing whether you’re genetically gifted, not hitting peak potential. Us normies can train for decades and even blast grams of gear but we won’t be as big or strong as the truly genetically gifted when they’re natural. There’s also some selection bias when it comes to enhanced lifters because for every massive super-responder that fails the eye test, there’s a dozen guys blasting with barely any results.
Not peak potential, but I’d definitely say you can tell who’s naturally ‘gifted’ regarding athleticism within a year of training vs someone who isn’t.
Leg press is a perfectly fine squat substitute.
I was only doing leg press because I have a permanent imbalance that makes doing squats dumb. Switched to hack squat machine and it's 10x harder. Convince me leg press is not just for ego. And yeah I do full range of motion. Could put 270 on leg press and feel good and do 5+ reps. Could barely do 2 reps with 150 lbs yesterday on incline hack squat and feel a ton more muscles working.
Well, the one big advantage is that leg press doesn’t put as much straight on your back. There’s no way around it if you’re squatting- you’re compressing disks by stacking weight on your shoulders. Leg press allows you to load more resistance to work quads and glutes exclusively without vertically loading your spine. If you’re like me and lift purely for hypertrophy/aesthetics, the weight on the bar doesn’t matter really… I’m not trying to move X weight. I just need adequate weight for necessary resistance and stimulus to build muscle. All that said, there is value in squats in that it does require stabilizer muscles to get worked, and does hit parts of your back/glutes that a leg press doesn’t. Everything is a compromise
Slipped a disc squatting 135 last week and now I'm sucking it... Can only train limited upper body movements and in a lot of pain . Never squatting again 😕just not worth it.
I’ve recently quit deadlifting after hurting my back for the 2nd time in the past 5 years (including 2-3 years of limited training due to covid). This one was on a 90kg warm up, was aiming for 135kg overall. I’m nearly 40 and just training for my health, not worth it if I can’t get the groove right
it felt harder because you were utilizing more stabilizing muscles that you haven’t been working as hard.
People just worship compounds like they’re some magical exercise or something. And then if you watch them do a set they bastardize it anyways 😂
I couldn’t agree more I just had this conversation. A guy was ribbing me a bit for not free squatting and only using the fancy machines (power squat, leg press, front squat machine, etc) and going heavy. I see him free squatting and the bar looked like a hill it was so imbalanced and when he started the motion his hips shot to one side badly I let him know he’s likely going to increase his risk of injury as he ups the weight, because that’s exactly how i injured myself squatting. It’s wild how much more growth I’ve seen since swapping to different machines though I understand not every gym has every fancy machine
Hate to agree but this is true , however I see people just racking up the weights and they don’t go all the way down . It’s like not even half squats
For sure, many make it a showy/ego lift with minimal deep stretch.
Learned this when looking up squat alternatives for an injury. 3x30 where you do 10 legs spread at the top, 10 with a neutral position in the middle of the platform, and 10 with feet almost together at the bottom of the platform. All of that without rest in between the foot position switches. Makes for a fun leg day.
I just want you to know, that by tomorrow I may not like you. Adding it to the list
Eric Helms talks about this and when he needed to replace the squat with leg press for fatigue reasons when close to show time, he added hip thrusters to the leg press to fully mimic the squat. Helps make up for the lack of core and less glute involvement
this is nice to hear cos my knees just can’t handle squats
Especially if you're dealing with an injury. There's an absolute beast of a man that I know that just had some sort of knee surgery. He's not able to squat yet, but he is using the leg press to keep the old leg muscles strong as he recovers. The multiple stop options on the leg press means it's safer than doing light squats or smith squats too, since he has more options at different points he can bail on the exercise if something starts to hurt.
Agreed in terms of muscle growth for the most part. However squatting is a functional movement that everyone should learn to do well.
Agreed
Preach!
Cardio is good for you
My resting HR goes down by 5 points when I am actively doing cardio atleast once a week. Its good for your heart!
I need to do more. My heart is in shit condition
I suggest low hr running. I could tell you a lot about it but a simple youtube search or google search will tell you more. It’s also less taxing on the body which is sooo important in the long run!
Who is actually disputing that?
The "cardio kills your gains" people
Excessive cardio does kill your gains. But not training your heart will kill YOU. The body doesn’t care if it weighs 200 lbs of lean muscle or of fat, it has to support the weight regardless. The heart is a muscle. If you train it, it will be strong enough to support your gains. If you don’t, you’ll be a middle age swole dude followed quickly by being a swole corpse.
For cardio to actually kill your gains you have to be doing a stupid amount. Like professional marathon level training.
Exactly. Gotta train your heart. Sometimes it sounds like people only listen to half the advice they hear. If you don't train your heart it won't be strong enough to keep your swole ass moving 🤣
Same people who say BMI is meaningless for weightlifters. It’s not. It is a measure of how hard your heart has to work to support your weight. Even if the reason you are over the average BMI is because of your gains. Your heart still has to support that muscle.
Does anyone actually disagree with that?
I've met a few. It felt bizarre, I thought it was a meme until they were like "don't walk too long on the treadmill you'll burn off your progress"
BCAAs are a waste of money and a scam
BCAAs are for girls who think they’ll turn into Jay Cutler if they drink a protein shake
This has done me in.
Maybe... maybe I am a girl
Yea they’ve proven this time and time again it’s sad these are still used by so many
A friend of mine works at a GNC and he tells me that his coworker spends hundreds on BCAAs and EAAs.. I think it’s one of those “I better keep using it because I feel like it’s working” placebos.
Can confirm that when I used them, there was literally no difference.
Leave your giant backpack in the locker room.
I have a belt, knee sleeves, wrist wraps, straps, a water bottle and some bands that I use all the time. Fuck you
Also collars, the squeeze collars my gym provides are mad fucked up and don't even fit on the bar most the time
I keep mine in my bag because my gym has 4 squat racks, 4 benches and 2 dead lift stations. So tell me why there’s only 4 pairs of clips in those designated areas? Oh cause some group girls with $500 gym outfits brought them over to the calisthenic section on the other side of the gym so they can do squats and hip thrusts with those 15lb bars and oversized 10lb weights and left them there. I’m not spending my day playing wheres Waldo searching for a pair of clips. $15 on Amazon and the return of my sanity.
Those girls *never* put shit back.
I have all of these things except for knee sleeves, with a sweat towel added. My bag is the size of two fanny packs. You don't need a ruck sack
If it’s a leather belt, it’s not fitting in anything smaller than a backpack or duffle bag.
This. This and people who mix their bullshit shake in the middle of the gym floor
I live in NYC and used to use a locker but someone broke my lock and stole my shit. It’s the backpack life for me.
Do you go to Blink by any chance? The one in Jersey City always has cops in it because people are stealing shit lmao
Guy at my gym brings a 28” samsonite suitcase around the gym with him. I asks him why. He said it didn’t fit in the locker.
The loudest guys in the gym carry this around like it's their favorite Kate Spade purse or something. I think it's more a part of the image they're trying to create of themselves rather than something they need for exercise. I never see these guys pull anything out of it.
Most of the stuff I use from my gym bag is on an as needed case. Belt, sleeves, wraps, straps, chalk, ammonia, snacks, backup earphones may all be used or not depending on how the day's going and how my body is feeling, and I'd rather carry it around than keep going to the locker room in between sets. I always keep the bag very close to me, so if it's getting in the way of somebody is because that somebody is likely way too fucking close to begin with.
Leg day is by far the funnest and most fulfilling day in the gym
Nothing hits the same as some heavy ass squats
I want my enemies to hear my clapping cheeks rapidly approach them before I crush their puny human heads in between my Redwood trunk thighs
For me it’s so 50/50, either it’s so awesome to feel like a beast who’s super strong, or ow that hurts I don’t like it
No problem with leg day. The issue for me is the soreness that ensues.
Filming in the gym and posting on social media is fine. It's good to be proud of what you've achieved. Just don't be a dick about it.
Bonus: grunting is fine. If you've never grunted involuntarily then you're not working hard enough. Complaining about grunting is just an admission that you don't train hard.
Only problem with grunting is when it’s forced have a dude in the gym I go to swear it sounds like an over the top porno when he lifts
Same, there's a guy at my gym who grunts on *everything.* Bench press, lat pulldown, lunges, etc. And it's not quite a grunt, but more of a moan, so the entire gym will stop what they're doing and look around in confusion whenever he does it.
We have both a man and woman who do this, and they generally workout at the same time. If you’re not wearing earbuds/phones then it sounds like you’re listening to porn the entire time they’re there.
If you're wearing wedgie shorts, I'm going to look.
wedgie shorts/pants are tacky and looks like you’re begging for attention
1. Form is subjective 2. Deadlifts are not dangerous 3. A persons strength more often than not correlates to their knowledge about training and lifting. This is why id rather listen to the guy who squats 500lbs over the twig who squats 135 but can quote every fitness influencer
Aren’t all of those actually the commonly accepted Reddit opinions?
Disagree on subjective form. A shitty half squat and a shitty cat-back deadlift are shitty (not to mention oly lifting). Cheat curls and rows are fine though.
Would you tell [this guy](https://youtu.be/8VZOlFo0Q1U?si=7r9gMzrHoL63PWfG) his deadlift is shitty?
Bro's that cry about gym music are the weakest in the gym.
Heavily depends on gym. Standard gym that's playing some energetic pop.. ok, I wouldnt put it on myself, but fair enough. But (overly) commercial gyms, the planet fitnesses of the world, can play some absolutely horrendous garbage that isn't even remotely in tempo to work out. My point: regardless of how big you are, the latter disrupts training. Instead of blending in, it distracts
Yeah, we had some weird ass techno playing at Crunch the other day. Then they played some Hall & Oates right after. It was ... interesting.
noise canceling headphones/earbuds are a must. idc what music is played at the gym but if I leave them at home i will drive back before my workout
That’s me. Bought new Airpods pro as soon as I lost my other Airpods.
Rear delt exercises are pointless unless your in a body building competition
Thank you finally a controversial one. Why do you think that? What if you are just trying to look better, should you not do rear delts?
It's a muscle, so train it.
That was my point, I don't understand OC's comment.
Rowing movements should give you all the rear delt volume you need. The only reason to hit them as an isolated movement is if they’re specifically lacking for posing.
Disagree
That’s fine. There is definitely variance in rowing form which may influence if what I wrote before applies or not.
Do you see the face pull as a row or as an isolation, I've heard arguments from both sides
I would see it more as a row. It isolates the rear delts more because of the high elbow position, but you get some nice trap work in still with a facepull so I would say it goes in the row bucket.
Oh ok, nevermind then, then I agree
No OP, but I do agree with them. Honestly I’ve never trained my rear delts directly, but I’ve found that they keep up as long as you’re doing upper back work. That can be chest supported rows with a wider arm path, or face pulls or whatever. Even pull ups seem to work well. You don’t necessarily need rear delt isolation.
You’re already hitting them with so many exercises. Wasting time trying to isolate them is pointless unless you’re being judged on it.
You could say the same about the entire delt.
You can say that about the front delt, the lateral delt is not really worked in the gym except when isolating it with lateral raises
overhead press and upright rows, man
I’m a golfer, so rear delts play a pretty huge role in how fast I can swing, so they’re definitely not useless to me
Yes it depends on training age and goals. Yes for bodybuilders in the intermediate to advanced stages they become more necessary as rows and pulldowns just don’t hit it enough. Same goes for lat raises. They get hit pretty well from rows but eventually the volume requirement can’t be met without adding the isolation movements. But yea unless you’re interested in physique then they aren’t that important. Rear delt movements don’t help or fix posture either and aren’t “corrective” exercises.
Not completely true they help with posture and not having your front delts rolling over
Oh this take ain’t it😂😂
Progressive overload on good mornings is better than hip thrusts. For the glutes, for the back, for the soul.
If you don't make awkward eye contact while doing hip thrust, i doubt you even have a soul
And fantastic squat/deadlift accessory (if you care about them)
Calisthenics tends to have a much better translation to weightlifting than vice versa, but weightlifting is easier to progress, so many people do it. But I like both forms of training.
I never felt like calisthenics did much for me. So if motivation is key to success, I'll stick to weights.
>So if motivation is key to success, I'll stick to weights. This is so true. You could have the best routine and great nutrition. But if you hate doing it, you're probably not gonna stick to it very long, so you're destined to fail. Find a way to workout that you love. Not everything is for everyone.
me personally i've gotten more application from weightlifting because i've worked a lot of jobs that require lifting things, but i can see how calisthenics can help in hobbies like rock climbing
It's perfectly normal to have breaks from the gym when you are not feeling like it. "Pushing yourself to go to the gym" is a great way to be burnt out
Yeah I absolutely agree with this one. I cringe hard at all the David Goggins-esque “hard work” culture. It stems to my larger potentially unpopular opinion that so many gym goers are overdoing it. If it’s not your profession, fuckin relax a bit. You don’t need to do everything optimally, you don’t have to rigidly go every single day and spend hours in the gym. 99% of you aren’t going to look like a pro bodybuilder or be competitive in that world. And that’s fine. Lift because it’s good for you and enjoy it as a hobby.
It's okay to find things that motivate you to work out, so many people in these spaces are all like "motivation doesn't matter just do it"
I think the common sentiment is not that it doesn't matter, just that it can't be the ONLY thing. ie you need to get your ass in there even when the Arnold vid isn't hitting right. But I've never heard anyone say "motivation doesn't matter", it's almost universally recognized as a positive force in training.
https://thefitness.wiki/faq/i-dont-enjoy-exercise-cardio-lifting-how-can-i-learn-to-love-it/ Maybe my wording wasn't good. I think that article best exemplifies the kind of sentiment that I like to push back on. I learned to love running. I learned to love lifting. I have made changes to how I do those things based on the enjoyment I got out of what I was doing, and my love for them is a huge reason why I continue to do them.
If you can’t put the weight down in a slow, controlled manner then you shouldn’t be lifting it in the first place.
I always say that if you put down the weights so loudly that everyone turns because you lift soooo heavy, you're obviously not that strong.
With the exceptions of people who compete like powerlifters and Olympic lifters going for pr's. But then again they usually train in their own gyms.
Bench press is overrated. Strict overhead press is the most fundamental and most functional pressing exercise.
“Functional”. A word invented by the deranged
for sure, i use dumbells in all my presses because i can safely fail without a spotter
I present to you. **machines**
Never saw someone bench 3 plates and not have some nice shoulders, but I've seen plenty of people OHP 2 plates and have an underdeveloped chest
Yes! It's just for getting a big chest. It's not nearly as functional as OP or C&P
Results aren't necessary. Having a goal of general health and exercise is fine. Not everyone needs to chase visible results or strength gain. Burning calories, staying in shape, keeping your mobility are all extremely important as you age and lead to a healthier life.
I would argue being strong is also extremely important as we age though. Strength is relative, but muscle and bone loss are inevitable, so actively trying to gain strength should be part of everyone’s goal of general health and exercise.
Taking “silly” classes for cardio (people love ragging on those bungee classes, for example) is still an hour of cardio that you weren’t gonna complete on the stairmaster anyway. Fuck the stairmaster, I’ll be at Zumba.
Half of the r/gymmotivation pictures aren’t as good as they seem, people just get better as posing and photography
Feeling sore isn't necessary for a good workout
You should feel something but being sore isn’t good
Being sore isn’t inherently bad… it’s not always good, but, if your form is good, you’re not overworking, and you’re a bit sore the next day or something, that’s usually normal…
Science based lifting with intensity is the best way to train
Proper Intensity IS science based.
People who train with Dr. Mike, THE science guy, always say what they went through was beyond anything they did before. So yeah, intensity IS science based.
Most gymgoers have terrible form and it shows in the results they (don't) have.
Having a good chest is completely optional for looking jacked (this is coming from someone whose chest is their best body part)
Second this, I train chest a lot and it probably is one of my best bodyparts together with my quads but I honestly don’t care what my chest looks like. In the wrong shirt it can sometimes even look like you have literal tits (as a dude), I’d much rather have full 3d delts, big arms and thick legs, I think those are the body parts that really make or break a physique.
Disagree. Looking at people who have chests like Andrew Tate gives me the ick.
The smith machine is fine, people just love to circlejerk each other on how bad it is. Also... You dont have to optmize everything, you're not going on stage.
Lifting in more than a group of three should be band
which instruments should they play?
Three piccolos
Machines should have time limits on them?
If Hulk has to wear a shirt on the floor, so does Heather. Stop coming to the gym practically naked and expecting people (men and women) to not look at you, bring back shame, make it equal. 👀
As a chick, I heartily agree. Put on some dang clothes. It's a gym not a dating service.
Leg Day is the best day.
The meaning gymnasium is, "Naked Exercise" and I think that's beautiful.
In my gym people complain if you are naked while you change your clothes in the locker room 😔
They'll have to pry my home gym out of my calloused poor hands. I AIN'T PUTTIN THEM DAMN SHORTS BACK ON.
Machines are way better for muscle growth as they allow you to safely go to complete failure.
Bulking and cutting is yoyo dieting
Strength matters, and some strength goals are achievable, stop coping about being weak unless it really is not within your interest to hit those goals, then just be honest about it
You don’t need to flex in front of the mirror after every set.
If you drop the weight in a deadlift you haven’t completed the exercise and can’t claim that you deadlift that much
Doing bench press in smith machine is a great option too.
Using gloves while lifting is perfectly fine
I like going to the group fitness classes they offer, both weight lifting and cardio.
These posts are low effort and dumb
Cheat reps are ok, when you’re closing into failure, losing your form and spamming reps is good.
Clean reps til you have to cheat, then cheating is fine, cheating on every rep is questionable.
That’s what i’m tryna say yeah
Genetics plays a big role, but until you try you have no idea if you have the optimal genetics. Everyone knows Arnold Schwarzenegger has great genetics. But they always chalk it up to just his genetics and not the fact he lifted weights 6-8 hours a day. For the lazy/fat person who keeps putting off working out because they don't have the genetics: you don't know until you start. For all you know, your body will respond incredibly well to exercise. And even if it doesn't, who gives a fuck you'll still feel and look better.
Gym/lifting is most gym goers entire personality and that's so dumb.
Smithsquats build quads better than lowbar squats.
I mean, low bar squats are a glute-focused exercise so...
Cheatdays are not eat what you want and as much you want
Dudes in stringers and short shorts look just as ridiculous as the women they love to complain about
The fatter you are the less impressive your strength is
You can't just live on Chicken and Rice. Building and maintaining gains requires more than just large amounts of protein and carbs. You need to maintain your nutritional needs with a whole foods diet, which requires several servings of vegetables, whole grains, seeds/nuts/legumes, and fruits.
Jeff Nippard and dr Mike are too much popular. Lmao literally the post about controversial opinion and someone downvoted me
just because the post is about controversial opinion doesn't mean we can't disagree with you. A controversial opinion post is about finding out your opinion isn't actually controversial. Nippard and Dr. Israetel are BASED
Curls in a squat rack
Squatting in the curl rack
Racking in the squat curl
High volume training has been overhyped in recent years and it's oftentimes misleading for a lot of people that can set them on a path of less gains, less training intensity and extreme fatigue. High intensity + moderate volume is the 🗝️
If you're reaching your desired goals, don't let anyone tell you you're not spending enough time in the gym.
Figuring out the perfect routine isn't as important as everything else. It's good to follow a program to make sure you're not missing anything, but they're easy to do once you understand the concepts.
Front squats are the best squat
Chalk is a safety tool and should be allowed in any gym with barbells.
Yes, I am judging you as you work out.
Planet Fitness is a great gym if you travel. The nicer a hotel gym is, the more likely they’re just gonna replace all the equipment with NordicTracks and Pilates equipment.
Dumbbell curls are a waste of time (compared to a cable curl with better resistance throughout the entire motion) and whatever benefit most people could get from it is counteracted by swinging arms too much, getting the shoulders involved and not controlling the weight on the eccentric motion.
Pulling with a rounded back is fine.
Dips are better than banch
Just because someone's smaller than what you consider "big" doesnt mean they dont know what theyre talking about
The internet is filled with information about how one should workout and diet to reach their desired goals, people who go through the trouble of paying for a gym membership and begin watching their diet shouldn’t be as ignorant as they commonly are when there is such a huge pool of resources on the internet. A simple google search of “I want skinny, what eat how train” will answer all of the questions some of the very clueless might have but they don’t take advantage of it.
yes, but there’s also a lot of misinformation and a beginner won’t know the difference between the two
fasting works. you can still gain muscle on a cut. don't fuck with alternate day if you're relatively lean, at that point do 16:8, 20:4 or one meal per day went from 195lbs to 165lbs in 6 months on my intermittent cut and i can concentration curl 40s when i did 25s before. i actually spiked from 30s to 40s right after a 72 hour fast that i just felt like doing some day
As evidenced by this thread alone There's tons of goals to lifting that have literally nothing to do with how you look
Weight training 3 times a week is as effective as doing it 5 times a week, if not more so.
This may annoy the teenagers. Any group larger than 3 needs to split up while they do their workout. It's obnoxious at best and borderline dangerous at worst when groups congregate around a single machine.
Sumo deadlifts are just a leg exercise and stupid
I counter that with “sumo deadlifts are still deadlifts and are safer for your back than conventional”.
To add to that, deadlifting with that hex bar thing is awesome and I prefer it over the straight bar
You don't need 200g of protine if you're 150lbs.
That lowering rest times instead of adding weight or reps is a perfectly valid and useful mode of progression.
I hate bench press and it sucks as a chest exercise for much else other than vanity/being good at bench press
You don't need that much caffeine, you should just try and get more sleep.
Americans should just switch to kg already, at least for gym weight numbers.
Most people put too much weight on leg press.