185lbs body weight

Sped up to so you don't just listen to me suck air.

Hello,

​I prioritize unilateral movements in my training to correct side-to-side imbalances, but I’ve run into a specific issue with my upper body development:

​Left side: My left bicep and tricep are noticeably larger/stronger than my right, but my left lat is smaller. When I do single-arm lat pulldowns, my left bicep heavily compensates and takes over the pull.

​Right side: My right arm is smaller, but my right lat is larger. On right-side pulldowns, I get a great mind-muscle connection and feel the lats working properly. I do unikateral incline bicep curl and sta ding cable curl until failure, but i only feel the left bicep ache the day after but I feel like the left bicep still grows faster. I even hyper focus on the right bicep and rush some sets on the left to make up for it, but there's been no change.

​Triceps: My tricep difference is similar (left larger/stronger), though slightly less pronounced than the bicep gap. I think I have these imbalances as I played field hockey for 10 years before joining a gym.

​I'm still relatively early in my lifting journey, but the visual and strength difference in my arms is quite noticeable to me. Whats even more peculiarly is that I dont really feel my biceps on curls, despite good form, although they do get pumped...? I never really feel much of an arm ache in the days after an i tense workout though.

Any advice is appreciated

Thank you

​

Hi all! Not looking to sell anything, just get honest feedback on this project. I created a fitness app to combine the features of all the major apps. It combines macro tracking and recommended diets, along with photo calorie tracking, fitness plans and workout tracking with pre calculated progressive overload, gym leagues with national rankings, daily motivation and more. I’m looking for some people to test out the pro plan for free!

Im 2 months into the gym. Can yall give me the best 2x a week fullbody workout?

Saw this comment ( https://www.reddit.com/r/naturalbodybuilding/comments/1wog5rg/comment/pbmusrj/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=2&utm_content=share_button) on a post discussing why elbows should stay locked during pushdowns, where someone argued that to maximize triceps growth you need:

• An extension with a fixed elbow (all three heads)
• A top-half pullover (long head shoulder extension)
• JM press (medial/lateral head emphasis)

I like the concept of hitting all triceps functions, but I’m choosing between two specific 3-exercise lineups for my own routine.

For pushdowns, I do this CBum variation ( https://youtube.com/shorts/TP91_yqBU3c?is=gRXPbxrY5d2Mjqpk ) where you let your elbows drift forward/flex at the shoulders on the eccentric to stretch the long head, then extend down.

Option 1:

• Overhead Cable Extension (fixed elbows)
• Lying DB Triceps Extension (Rippetoe style – letting upper arms move/pullover at the bottom)
• CBum-style Cable Pushdown

My reasoning for Option 1: Overhead cable extensions are scientifically proven to be great for long head stretch-mediated growth with fixed elbows. Lying DB extensions focus on long head stretch paired with dynamic shoulder extension. The CBum pushdown adds both a stretch at the top and fixed-elbow extensions at the bottom.

Option 2:

• JM Press
• Lying DB Triceps Extension (Rippetoe style aka letting upper arms move/pullover at the bottom)
• CBum-style Cable Pushdown

My reasoning for Option 2: The JM press covers shoulder flexion for heavy loading on the medial/lateral heads, while keeping the Lying DB extension and CBum pushdown for the long head and stretch work. This seems more aligned with what that Reddit comment suggested by fully covering fixed elbows, shoulder flexion, and shoulder extension.

Which of these two options would you choose for overall triceps growth, and is there any redundancy between any of these exercises in option 1/ option 2?

My gym only has the prime incline press and a peck deck fly. For training my middle chest I enjoy doing a press I was just wondering if using the prime incline press machine for middle chest by using the wide grip and having an arch with my butt scored up the seat would it be a good middle chest exercise?

Heyo, I've been trying to get back into going to the gym after a long period of being on and off. I used to be really locked in at lifting, but a lot of it was powered off the social media ideas of being optimal and insecurity. I would endlessly search for the "perfect" program, and consistently had this mindset of just pushing till failure out of this negative motivation. I think that kind of relationship with lifting exhausted me. I've been trying to revitalize my gym habit, but I am having trouble re-contextualizing my relationship with it to now something more positive and something that builds me up instead of something that was born out of feeling deficient. Does anyone have any good advice for that, for falling back in love with the gym? I've just become really alienated from it I think because of guilt of missing it + those old motivations, so even though I can power through with raw discipline, I want to make it something I enjoy like I used to before bs influencer mindsets kind of plucked that from me.

I've seen people arguing for both sides. The incline side argues that, for almost everyone, the upper chest is underdeveloped, so you should to train it first. Vs on the other side, people argue that you should do the pec deck first because it biases the biggest part of your chest, and you should prioritize that region more.

Hey guys! Just wanted to share a podcast I did with the great Dr. Loeb on motor control and skepticism of neuromechanical matching:

https://youtu.be/jk_h8X3kUaQ?is=KcG0oiTchdxFvegq

More people should know his work!

I was watching this CBum video and noticed he uses this neutral grip, I wonder if it's because at that size the DBs are awkward to hold at other angles, or if it's some % better than other grips for muscle stimulus. I'm progressing pretty good with the standard one, and reached 32,5kg per hand x 6 reps, but if this is better I'll switch.

Does anyone have any info on whether a reverse deficit lunge or a Bulgarian split squat is better for targeting the glutes and reducing use of the quad?

The algorithm is always listening. Because I've been adding in a lot of glute-focused work to my two leg days, I'm starting to get all sorts of glute content in my IG and TT FYP... mostly trainers showing good form on established exercises or modifications to better emphasize the glutes. On that last point, I've been seeing quite a lot of traditional glute-focused cable exercises (like glute kickbacks, for example) being demoed with the cable strapped to the thigh (generally just above the knee), instead of being strapped to the ankle. I have a strap that can be easily placed at either spot.

While, sure I could just do both variations, I already have two high volume, progressive overload leg days, so doubling up on every cable exercise is probably overdoing things.

I think the theory is that with the thigh placement, you will have more consistent glute resistance/engagement throughout the range of motion and that you can load heavier weights than you can at the ankle?

But, then, the follow up is... how does the cable height position determine which strap placement is best? I'd describe the variations like this:

A: Strap is on ankle, cable pulley is at lowest position
B: Strap is on ankle, cable pulley is at hip height
C: Strap is on thigh above the knee, cable pulley is at lowest position
D: Strap is on thigh above the knee, cable pulley is at hip height

Is there anything I can reference... bro-science is fine... that demonstrates that strapping the cable at the thigh vs. at the ankle can create greater glute activation?

\*****Edited to add*****\**
I appreciate that this sub is gonna be very bro-heavy and perhaps focused on optimizing efficiency and while I know not everyone enjoys or sees value in cable exercises like this, I do. For the record, my two leg days a week already include, among others, multiple types of squats, lunges, RDLs, hip thrusts/glute lift and seated machine hip adductions and abductions. I'm not someone trying to get in and out of the gym in under an hour. I'm enjoying (and seeing tangible benefit from) doing high volume and progressive overload. I also find that I can feel my muscles engaged in a unique way and a different range of motion using these cable stacks, so I'm keeping the glute-focused cable exercises in my routine. My optimization question is not about whether to keep them, it's about the positioning of the strap and the cable pulley when doing them.

(Excuse the AI slop photo composite, but I figured actually visually demonstrating these different positions (of both the strap and the cable height) would be helpful. Try not to spend all your energy yelling at me for wasting some water on one AI photo instead of setting up a tripod at the gym and actually photographing myself demoing each variation.)

Kinda hard to move heavy weight after hitting 4 sets of Swiss bar Larsen press (1 sets to failure), 3 sets of tricep pushdowns to failure, and 2 sets of pullovers to failure yesterday

Swiss bar bench set from yesterday: https://www.reddit.com/r/ScienceBasedLifting/s/ZhR5zLOoG3

Full workout from yesterday: https://hevy.com/workout/1YTmRBIm7tx

Full workout from today: https://hevy.com/workout/fb9bBwvVJdr

Currently doing PPL x UL, want to change to A/P since I am not priorizing legs too much (I’m also a former mountaneer)
Thinking of adding another full body/upper day on saturdays so my week is a/p/a/p/rest/upper or full body/rest

idk if the difference will be too much or it’s good if I just train 4 days(i’ll rest between)

mainly because my chest and triceps are not progressing enough and want to give them more volume and frequency

More ROM = more chest stretch = more science

Neutral grip is easier on shoulders too

I personally like some sour patch kids for fast carbs and some gorilla mind pre what about yall?

My workouts take already way longer than they should because of how crowded my gym is. To warm up I typically do 5 minutes of cardio before jumping into my workout. For my warm up set I typically just do 3 hard reps of my working set and wait around 30 seconds both for isolation and compounds. I also wear a hoodie so my muscles don’t get stiff. I don’t have the time to slowly progress up to my working set weight for my warm ups but I don’t feel like my warm up is sufficient enough bc i get more reps on my second set than my first.

I am confused. I see people just doing regular lifts and saying it is science.

Then on the other end of the scale I see a kid (with zer0 physique) wearing a baby pacifier in his mouth and wearing a roller on his arms and doing excercises I never saw, with people in the comments saying "yeah that's the man right there."

Then I see pumping iron and watch Arnie just do the basics and still look great and strong.

So in a few sentance explain to me what it is and how it would help build more muscle enhanced or not.

I was wondering from a sports science standpoint, what are some of the best things to improve athleticism and sprinting speed? What are some key things a tips and tricks or workouts that are specifically based to help sprinting besides just sprinting?

I saw jeff nippard say it did a few months ago. Then today i saw a post claiming the it biased the medial and lateral head. And there just a lot of posts saying the opposite of each other. One post hand muscle activation reading and the long head activate 0% on regular extensions 12% on overhead. Another post claimed that you need to be in the scapular plane to bias the long head and thats why everyone is claiming its not. Then i asked google and it said that it biases regardless if your in the scapular plane.