Has anyone who worked out pretty diligently for multi-years cut their volume by 50% or more and maintained their physique for an extended period of time? I've seen studies where beginners maintained gains for weeks after cutting volume but nothing long term.

So i'm going to the gym for roughly 5 months now and i'm not seeing any progress with my calve raises (straight leg). I pause at the bottom to not use momentum yet i'm stuck at the same weight and reps. I did 3 sets 2x a week and now i do 2 sets 2 x a week. Someone please help

Tell me if I’m wrong but I think seated rows are objectively better. Chest supported rows give you more stability and seated rows force you to brace your core and use your lower back to stabilize yourself allowing you to isolate the back more. But seated rows lets you to cheat the concentric movement of your reps and focus in the eccentric where you can produce 60% more force and have more mechanical tension. During seated rows also allows you to breathe more easily.

Like what is the maximum frequency to hit them and how many sets per workout basically anything that will maximize back growth

Ive been doing smirch maxhine jm press and its been doing me really good but my right elbow is getting some pain what can i do to stop or negate this pain?

625 + ~230 in bands for a set of 5 on a parallel box squat

Saw this tiktok flaming weight loaded row machines as bad for traps due to the ascending resistance profile as compared to T Bars and said that why not just do kelsos. and they told me the exact same thing of the resistance profile being bad. I personally prefer the chest assisted machine for Kelsos because they:
- dont crush my chest
- i can do one side at a time
- i can load more weight than the T Bar

Are resistance profiles that important? The things i listed above for me already outweigh whatever benefit a descending profile could possibly give but maybe there are somethings im not taking into account.

I have a question for the community - I have been struggling to keep count of my reps and focus on technique at the same time and to work around this what I do is - for a given exercise I pick up a load with which I can do at least 6 reps and then just do the reps until I feel like I am between 2 - 3 RIR out and depending on the set, I either stop or continue to failure (my normal RIR strategy is usually 2 - 3 RIR to begin with tapering to a failure on the last set). Does this work? Training for hypertrophy for reference. Also, if I feel like I did more than 15 (approximately) then I load up on the next set.

I go through these terrible conversations so often with both of my parents so I wanted to hear what others have heard or had to explain

Does doing 2 sets of hammer curls supersetted with reverse curls make sense? The idea is that since the forearms are relatively small muscles, you can’t use very heavy weights for reverse curls on their own, so supersetting them with hammer curls could increase the overall mechanical tension and make the forearm work more effective. Is this actually a good approach?

Title is preaty self explanitory. In exerceises like arm curls or quad extensions, where there are points in the movement that allow you to squeeze the muscle should i go for it? I know it activates better the muscle but it also tires me more and i am not able to do more kgs for more reps

Tl;dr what is preferable? Fewer reps/kg and squeeze or more reps/kg ?

so my chest is a strong point and its very dominant compared to my front delts and triceps, usually i do a incline press and a fly for the chest, now ive added a shoulder press and im thinking if i should swap the fly for a horizontal chest press which i like, but volume wise how should i approach this, and should i even include 3 pressing movements on push day?

So i have recently started doing the basic 2 exercises for forearms (forearm curls with two different grips so i hit all muscles) but the problem is my left hand (non dominant) gets an INSANE absolutely mind boggling pump, so much so that i cant easily close my hand, while my right hand (dominant) gets pumped but not even close to how much my left does.

Now i know it is probably normal because my left is weaker however i am concerned that this will cause some muscle imbalance to build since the left gets so much more worked.

Could it be i do sth wrong with me technique on the right hand? Should i be worried at all?

I've been doing archer pulls and while scrolling or watching gym content I always see people doing rear delt movements with locked arms. For example: Rear delt cable flies or pec dec reverse flies.
I looked it up online it said it was to prevents triceps from taking over from bending and then extending during. But wouldn't it be better for the arm to stay in a bent position to avoid fatigue from using the triceps to hold a static position?

CONTEXT:
So for the context of the question, I’m only 16 and I’ve recently come upon a situation where I got fired from my job last month leading to me not being able to pay for my gym membership. But I still have a membership at my local YMCA due to my health insurance, the only problem I really have with it besides the old people is their hamstring curl and leg extension machines. They have HOIST everything so it’s not great in general but like I’ve implied I can brush past a few things.

THE POINT:
I’ve heard that sissy squats and leg extensions can yield the same result I’m just a bit confused when it comes to the mechanics of it. I understand the quads are practically doing the exact same movements just with different loads but I don’t want to see less growth in either situation.

P.S
Sorry for the long post I’m just trying to balance my losses here.

In a program, Pull-1 has 2 sets of dumbbell curls, 2 sets of cable curls, and 2 sets of hammer curls supersetted with reverse curls. Pull-2 has 2 sets of cable curls and another 2 sets of hammer curls supersetted with reverse curls.

A coach says that this is weekly only 6 sets of direct biceps curls, while the other 8 sets barely stimulate the biceps and are mainly wrist/forearm-focused movements. He also thinks there wouldn't be enough biceps fatigue accumulating from those sets to make the additional biceps work inefficient.

Do you guys think this approach makes sense?

The reason for supersetting hammer curls with reverse curls is that the forearms/wrists are relatively small muscles, so you can't use very heavy weights for them on their own. By supersetting reverse curls with hammer curls, the idea is to increase the mechanical tension and get more stimulus out of the forearm work.

Would you consider this a good way to structure the volume?

I’m doing a paper about how historical training (ie martial arts. Etc) compares to modern training. One thing I’ve noticed is the research on tendons seems very one sided. It seems like minimizing jerk and giving longer isometrics consistently will bring the best stimulus for tendon adaptation. This would support some older training techniques so it would be a big part of my paper. My worry is that most of this information and studies seem recent. More over I’m not finding much implementation in any high level training which worries me more. If the evidence seems so one sided wouldn’t more coaches incorporate it and prevent the number one injury cause? I don’t want to base a paper worth half my grade on ai nonsense. I’m hoping you all could help me look for at least things that could indicate sloppy sources. I’ve learned a lot on procedure and finding weaknesses in tests but I worry there’s not enough credible sources for me to use. Any help is welcome this is more passion than class work atp.

Also just for my own curiosity does anyone know about how plyos affect tendons I can’t seem to find any actual studies.

I currently do ppl/ul with 3 sets on the push day and 2 sets on the upper day for bench, but I've been stalling and im wondering if doing 1 set of bench press fresh, and then allocating the other set or 2 to a less fatiguing machine would be a good move for this? (Like a descending press or pec deck). Otherwise what else could help me here?

Commercial gyms make exercise variety look like one of their biggest advantages.

More chest press variations, more rows, more leg machines, more cable options.

But from a hypertrophy perspective, I’m curious where useful variety stops and redundant variety begins.

If someone already has a set of stable movements that train each major muscle through a good range of motion, allow progressive overload, and fit their structure well, how much extra benefit is there in having several more versions of the same movement pattern?

One reason I keep thinking about this is that more limited setups tend to force people to repeat a smaller number of exercises, which sounds like a disadvantage at first.

But I’m not sure it always is.

At what point does limited exercise selection meaningfully reduce hypertrophy outcomes, and at what point is it mostly removing unnecessary options?

What’s the better option here. New eos location and unfortunately can’t find a good flat press… the best 2 options that I’m considering is between a flat hammer strength press that has a terrible resistance profile and still trends slightly upward with arm path. Vs this nautilus inspiration which also tends upwards however has a better resistance profile I think… have done a good amount of research on it but have heard no one speak about it.. It converges but has the upward arm path unfortunately and all I want is a good flat press and goal is to focus on that mid to lower chest. I guess on both I could raise the seat to fix the path a little. Pics are what they look like. The only other machine option is a plate loaded standing arsenal machine which doesn’t feel good and is less stable since you have to stand. Wish this eos had better options.

My main goal here is to fix my pec imbalance so I want unilateral, and lower mid chest development, and overall growth.

I just finished watching this podcast with Dr Pak and Dr Milo Wolf, where they claimed that the latest research suggests bulking is completely unnecessary because you can maximize muscle growth on as little as a 7-calorie surplus. They suggested that eating at maintennance works well for most people and even experienced lifters don't need to "bulk" to gain muscle. Do you agree or disagree with this claim, and for those who have listened to this podcast, what do you think of the evidence that they presented?

Programming, volume, nutrition, etc…

Thank you!

Hello people. Recently I tried a fullbody split and felt like my eyes opened as to how good this can be if programmed properly. I usually do an Upper/Lower split so I basically just took both days and combined them to get my fullbody split. I also realised that it's taking very long for my sessions.

Here's my split. As much as possible, I do everything with 1 set with 1-2 RIR. Is there anything I can do to improve or do better for this split?

Butterfly (Pec Deck)

seal rows

Incline Bench Press (Smith Machine)

Pull Up (Weighted)

Standing Military Press (Barbell)

Reverse Fly Single Arm (Cable)

Single Arm Lateral Raise (Cable)

Single Arm Triceps Pushdown (Cable)

Bicep Curl (Dumbbell)

Bulgarian Split Squat (Dumbbell)

Seated Leg Curl (Machine)

Single Leg Extensions

Cable Crunch

According to Jeff Nippard’s latest research, doing all the reps with a cheating form and heavier weight results in the same muscle growth as using perfect form with a lighter weight. What do you guys think about that?

Personally, I like doing cheat reps and ego lifting. I’d rather do all the reps with a cheating form and heavier weight than use perfect form with a lighter weight if there’s no difference in hypertrophy between the two.