/BBG/ - BODYBUILDING GENERAL
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“You will hail the BBG.” - Marianne Williamson
A daily thread for discussions on routines, supplements, diet/recovery. Today is Mass Monday.
How are we getting bigger, boys?
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Just do what he did
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Thoughts on HIT? What's peat interpretation of Mentzer's theory?
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@TheWhiteMountain I find it to be accurate, in that intensity is the primary stimulus. Best evidenced in sprinting v. running v. jogging. When I see the types of routines though, I wince, as there is so much time off, so much rest. This would force me to spend time out of the gym, and even to socialize.
And that, I will not do.
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now i know boosting testosterone isn't what one would consider "peaty", that being said there is definitely a right way to do it. take a look at this ------------------------------->https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEyGKjpssqw
this is the first video I've seen that makes tongkat ali seem worth trying, any other contributions people know of how to boost testosterone would be great to hear
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@xyit If you're that worried about T, androsterone and pansterone. If you wanna go safe route, eat oysters and don't forget to be a winner.
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Paul Carter is the goat
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@The-New-Sun my understanding of pansterone is that it is a precursor to many hormones, does anyone have any experience with androsterone? oysters 100%, the feasibility, sourcing and cost on the otherhand is the drawback. main benefit from oysters is trace minerals which can be gained from supplementation.
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I see lots of Mike Mentzer HITcels posting, but never fizeek. Is there a Mentzerian Candidate out there?
I did Mentzer's program as described by the book Heavy Duty after coming back to lifting after a short hiatus and finding it very underwhelming in terms of results. Workouts felt good and left me gassed, but if anything I found myself shrinking, except maybe my chest getting a little bigger.
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@xyit I have taken androsterone through gonadal and sublingual application. Sublingual has stronger effects for me.
-Increase libido/energy
-More confrontational/defensive sentiment (I believe this decreases conflict)
-Slightly higher aggressionI only do 1-3mg sublingually with 1-2mg of pansterone at time of application.
Sometimes I will take a few days off and monitor my mood/attitudeI just started experiment with this so take it with grain of salt.
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I was a big fanboy for Mentzer for a few years. I have two books from him. There are a few issues with his theories. The big one is that the model of training adaptation he uses is severely outdated, even at the time of his HD1 book. The model it uses is the one-factor theory, which was created by a psychiatrist, if I recall correctly, and it basically suggests that you give a stimulus, recover, adapt, and repeat. This suggests a totally linear progression. This is inaccurate, and the actual one we use is a two-factor model that includes the "fitness and fatigue" variables that explain why the more you practice something, the better you get. We know this is true, and we know people are overtrained at the point of their peak performance, in any sport, really.
Two-factor model:
The relevance of this is that he uses the incorrect one-factor model as justification for his pretty hard-core rest periods, like hitting the chest once every 14 days. There's no evidence that suggests it takes this long to recover. He has no proof of this working either, as it was all "phone clients" claiming to make massive gains on that system. I'm not suggesting he's a liar though, as magazines showed him using earlier Heavy Duty methods on himself and clients with great success. Emphasis on "earlier" though as the only actual person I saw document their progress on the "consolidated" routine, got weaker and smaller by doing it.
The other thing is that slow reps make you weaker. The only study comparing the two found that maximal strength (1RM) was way higher for people training at normal rep speeds. The slow reps only made them slightly better at moving a weight slowly. There is also physiology (the size principle) that shows that you can't "trick" the body into thinking a weight is heavier than it is just by moving it slowly. Increasing stimulus is better done by increasing weight or reps. It could be good for people with injuries who are using perfectly greased machines with no sticking points, but that doesn't apply to most of the people following his work.
I do like him though; recovery is where growth occurs, and he's right about that. Genetics are also the prime determinant for your gains. People have gotten big doing every system under the sun. I've come to the conclusion the best routines are just the normal 1x a week split routine or a 2-3x full body routine. The routine should be what you want to do because it really won't make a difference down the road. The workouts being difficult is what matters.
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@Peatriot I like doing Arnold workouts, the first time I did his arm workout I had lots of positive results, this was after a hiatus as well.
https://www.bodybuilding.com/content/how-arnold-built-his-shoulders-and-arms.html
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@The-New-Sun fantastic where did you source?
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@BeanSprouts I did HIT style for my upper body for 6 months. Gained as much size as a regular routine but much less time at the gym. So I preferred it in that respect.
Do bodybuilding outside as much as possible. Compliment with pylometrics and sprints and sports.
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The three biggest factors in building muscle are mechanical tension, motor unit activation, and protein synthesis.
Mechanical Tension
-The faster a contraction, the less tension a given muscle cell experiences; the slower a contraction the more tension it experiences (force-velocity relationship)
-Slow concentric contractions produce the most tension, eccentrics produce relatively little
-Lighter resistance can induce similar tension to heavier resistance when done slowlyMotor Unit Activation (not metabolic fatigue)
-High intensity; 1-2 repetitions from failure
-Fewer repetitions with heaver resistance are easier at accomplishing this but higher reps can works as well (peripheral fatigue)
-Avoid excess lactate accumulation as this does not signal muscle growth
-Long periods of rest in between sets to replenish creatine phosphate and maximize motor unit recruitment while limiting glycolysisProtein Synthesis
-Limit excess muscle damage as it is counterproductive to muscle gain (junk volume, too many eccentric contractions, reliance of glycolysis)
-Optimize anabolic to catabolic ratio (lower stress, increase metabolism)
-Eat enough carbohydrates/protein -
@sphenoid Lovley write up. Last two sections emphasizes why bioenergetics are crucial. I’ve done online coaching for years and 80% of advice I have ever given in regards to diet ended up being “eat more.”
Muscle is a very, very high energy tissue to maintain and grow. Having metabolic inefficiencies is like putting out a net into a stream where the desired end result is having the highest possible number of fish at the end of the stream.
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@The-Good-Doctor Yes most people's metabolisms are too crippled to build muscle effectively, especially when they try to run a mainstream program that just adds fuel to the fire. Increases in glycolysis/lactate, stupid amounts of muscle damage, and plenty of CNS fatigue just drives them into the ground more.
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@The-New-Sun I have been on andro for a year now. It won’t really help a whole ton in building muscle since it is downstream of DHT. But the other effects you have described are accurate. It will also masculinze your face more over time too.
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Two-factor model:
Is this a merchant
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@xyit just an anecdote, I experimented with 200mg twice a day for two weeks for test boosting purposes and experienced no effects.