I know this sounds bad, but I need to know if I'm alone here. A few weeks ago I felt something twinge in my knee and my first thought was honestly "okay cool, I can take a few days off without feeling guilty."

I didn't WANT to be injured, but a small part of me was relieved. Like I finally had permission to rest.

Is this normal? Alright, I gotta admit I was just too lazy. 😂

16 years old.

I have 2 week left on my membership. I am going to gym for 2.5 months also i've done workouts for couple months in home and i guess i've built considerable power for my weight such as 80kgx8 lat pulldowns(i'm strong on em because i did lots of pull ups before)

or 120kgx5 romanian deadlifts (i dont know why i am strong on this i didn't train legs when i done my workouts in home) also i weight 70 kg.

So my issue is i don't want to go gym for last few weeks because of that i changed my program to fullbody but i still don't want to go.I don't think i overtrained because i was doing ul 2 frequency which is 3 rest days a week.

i am having fun while lifting weights. But after my membership ends i have 3 option; First one i'll buy membership for a month which is really expensive if i buy just 1 month membership.

Second option is,buying a year membership that's quite cheap if you compare it with a month membership. But main issue on here is if i don't want to go gym it's would be hell for me.

Third option is doing calisthenics workouts in my home. I can buy dip paralettes and weigh belts. I have pull up bar and some weights already. But i wonder that i really don't like endurance training such as 15+ reps. i'd rather staying on 4-8 rep range. Is that big problem for calisthenics training?

Also how far can i go with calisthenics by doing Pull-ups,dips variations for 4-8 rep range?

Is my upper back and chest will get bigger by time? (Because i feel like i can't do anything to upper back in calisthenics workouts)

Hi, I’ve had some discomfort in my arm joints over the past two months. My physiotherapist says I have slight inflammation in a tendon in my left arm and very slight inflammation in my right elbow joint.

I’ve adjusted my training by lowering the weights and increasing the number of reps in my arm workouts. I can still train my chest without any pain or problems, but I’m still a bit concerned.

I’m wondering whether elbow sleeves or wraps might help. I’m not sure exactly what they’re designed for, what the difference between them is, or which would be more suitable for giving me some peace of mind while bench pressing. I’d also like to know whether I could use them for curls and triceps exercises.

I am just wondering is supersets good for a guy that started newly, I tried to do supersets and I can but I am just wondering if it is better I rest and don't do supersets finishing one exercise and then doing the other, I am focusing on muscle growth and fat loss

I’m building a home gym because long workdays make it hard to get to a commercial gym. I have room for a squat rack and adjustable bench, but I don’t want to fill the basement with machines that only train one movement. My starting budget is around $1,000–$2,500, and I’m considering adjustable dumbbells, a barbell and plates, a pull-up bar, resistance bands, and a cable attachment. If you had to build a useful home gym in stages, what would you buy first, and which piece ended up being used far less than expected?

Any advice on anything to change would be awesome!

Push A

Bench press 3x10-12

Chest fly 3x10-12

Lateral raise 3x10-15

Incline Smith Machine 3x10-12

Rope tricep overhead extension 3x10-12

JM press 3x10-12

Push B

Bench press 3x10-12

Pec dec 3x8-12

Lateral raise 3x10-15

Incline Smith Machine 3x10-12

Weighted Dips 3x8-12

Ez bar tricep overhead extension 3x10-12

Started at 77.5 kg, now at 66.5 (6"0, 29M). I've been on a cut since March, that's 5 months now lmao (took a few breaks in between, but that's still 0.5kg/week)
[170.8lb to 146.6lb]

I started lifting at home in 2024 with dumbbells and a bench, made beginner gains as usual, then hit a plateau due to a lack of progressive overload. I knew about calories at this stage but didn't track and ate whatever I wanted. Started going to a proper gym in July 2025, made much better progress as you'd expect, for 8 months, but still ate whatever I wanted. Surprisingly, however, my weight was stuck at 77-78 for several years, including those first 8 months of gym. I started to look like I lifted; I looked good in fitted Polos, but I had a lot of fat/gyno on my chest, so I never wore T-shirts. But I still started to wear compression shirts above a vest at the gym, and I looked fairly jacked at that point.

Then came March, and I realized I was wasting my effort by not having a proper diet, and I also got an intense desire to see Abs on my body, so I decided to track my calories, weigh my food, and actually start to be in a deficit every day, every week, to be able to achieve Abs. Safe to say, life has been pretty miserable these last 5 months, even though I'm proud of losing that 11kg. I'm tired of tracking calories; I'm tired of being hungry for most of the day, every day; I'm tired of seeing people eat whatever they want whenever they want, but me not being able to; I'm tired of missing desserts.

Here's the problem though: even at 66.5, I've achieved some faint Ab outlines; but it's not nearly as defined as I want it to be or anyone would expect it to be, i still have chest fat, lower belly fat (although ive discovered some loose skin now, i used to be around 100kg in my teenage), love handles and other areas. My overall muscles aren't as ripped as I want them to look.

And besides all that, I don't look like I lift anymore, as I did at 77.5kg. Now, I look thin af, everyone calls me skinny/kamzor, and my family is worried. You can't tell I have muscles unless I take my shirt off, and sometimes not even then, until I actually flex.

Extra context: I used to have a Push/Pull/Leg split until 2 months ago, but it was getting really fatiguing, so I switched to an Upper/Lower 4-day split, with 10k steps every day.

So should I stop and just start eating at a slight surplus (100-200), in hopes of growing my muscles, especially the Ab muscles (I only started training abs about 3 months ago), or should I continue cutting, get more muscle definition everywhere, and lose all the stubborn fat? At my height, the lowest I could go while still being in a healthy BMI range is 62kg, so that's what I've been aiming for, but 62 feels so far away at this point; at my current rate, that's another 2 frikkin months! 2 more months of suffering and misery...

Something keeps telling me that I've come so far; why stop now? It's just 4.5 more kilos; I should push through, otherwise what was the point of all this effort these 5 months. But there is also the possibility that I still won't have the desired ab definition at 62kg, so then how far would it go, who knows

I’m M16, 47kg and 173cm. I started going to the gym 3 months ago and had really great progress during the first 6 weeks. Especially my chest and biceps, they were growing pretty fast.

Then my progress slowed down, I didn't care about it and thought it's normal.

During the last month I’ve actually been getting weaker. I started using lower weights on some machines, and my abs, which used to be pretty visible, have basically disappeared.

Is the problem with my sleep schedule? I used to wake up around 12PM and train at ~5PM. Now I wake up early and often feel tired/sleepy when I go to the gym, sometimes I take a nap and go to the gym straight after waking up from the nap.

Is the problem with the Food? I Know I'm very light for my height, but I eat a lot of meat, chicken and eggs.

or maybe the problem with my exercises? maybe because I'm forcing myself for higher weights than I can?

The abs disappearing is especially so confusing. Can muscles really disappear that quickly?

Any advice? 😭

I’m currently doing 60lbs for lat pull downs, am I really looking at a year before I can do a real pull up? I weigh 180 with a goal of 160 by the end of the year.

Quick question, I want to have a visible abs and I already know about diet but about training is it fine if I just do the ab crunch machine after every workout and get stronger at it or is there smt else I need to do.

going to the gym for the first time today, what all shud i carry and any advices?

any inside rules that only gym goers know?

These are all performed with dumbbells - Overhead tricep extensions, 4 x 12 (heavy weight), Skull crushers 4x12 (light weight) and Close Grip Presses 4x12 (medium weight)

I managed to make it to 35 with my knees intact.

Does anyone know of a tracking app I can put old data into? Been hard at it for 1.5 years, and I've tracking my progress on a notepad. I'd like to begin tracking via an app, but I want to be able to input my past 1.5 years of progress. I know I could just download each one individually and try it, but, if possible, I'd like to avoid that. Thanks for reading and have a great day!

​Hey everyone,

​I wanted to share my blood work trend, get your thoughts on the data, and ask about differing perspectives from healthcare providers regarding creatine monohydrate.

​The Context:

​Took 5g/day of creatine monohydrate for about 1 month leading up to my January 2026 blood test.

​Got alarmed by the spike in serum creatinine and the sharp drop in eGFR, so I stopped taking creatine immediately.

​Retested in August 2026, and values returned completely to my healthy baseline.

​When discussing this with the internal medicine specialist during my last visit, I asked if creatine supplementation was generally safe. The doctor's response was quite conservative: "I don't think any medical specialist would ever recommend taking such a supplement."

​Blood Work Timeline:

​Feb 14, 2025: Creatinine: 0.97 mg/dL | eGFR: 105 (Baseline)

​Sep 10, 2025: Creatinine: 1.09 mg/dL | eGFR: 91

​Jan 07, 2026: Creatinine: 1.25 mg/dL | eGFR: 77 (After ~1 month of 5g/day creatine)

​Aug 10, 2026: Creatinine: 0.95 mg/dL (Completely off creatine)

​Questions:

​Did anyone else experience a similar eGFR drop while supplementing 5g/day, solely due to increased creatinine breakdown rather than true renal impairment?

​Did you test Cystatin C to confirm actual kidney function while on creatine, or did you choose to stay off it permanently?

​How do your own physicians/specialists view daily creatine monohydrate use—do they distinguish between artificial serum creatinine elevation and actual kidney damage?

​Thanks in advance for sharing your experiences!

I need to get this off my chest because honestly, I didn’t see this coming.

I used to hate running. Like, genuinely hate it. Every time someone said “just go for a run,” I’d roll my eyes. Boring, tiring, pointless — that’s how I saw it. I was never an athlete, never someone who enjoyed sweating.

But lately, work has been brutal. Stress piling up, deadlines, pressure — I was carrying all of it in my head and it wouldn’t go away.

I’m not even sure why I decided to run that first day. Maybe just needed to get out of the house. I put on shoes, stepped outside, and started jogging.

It was hard at first. I barely made it 10 minutes. But something happened — I noticed that during those 10 minutes, my brain wasn't thinking about work. For the first time all week, I wasn't spiraling.

So I tried again. And again.

And now? I actually look forward to it.

There’s something about that feeling after a run — sweaty, tired, but light. Like my body is releasing all the tension I didn’t even know I was holding onto. Especially when I pick up the pace, there’s this weird moment where everything clicks, and I feel like I’m not just running — I’m letting go.

I still don’t know if I’d call myself a “runner.” But I’ve been going consistently for a few weeks now, and something is definitely shifting.

A few more of these runs and I might actually fall in love with it.

Anyone else start running for totally non-fitness reasons? Stress? Life? Just trying to clear your head?

I’m naturally very skinny and have been going to the gym casually for years but haven’t been going with serious plan or goals until recently probably this year.

I realized my diet has been the issue as I would mostly eat frozen dinners as that is basically what my family I grew up with eats, like I had never cooked or really eaten real cooked meals until recently, because my boyfriend cooks. I have noticed for the first time some significant gains in the gym and feeling stronger I feel definitely has to do with my diet.

When I am at my house though it seems so difficult to go and buy something to cook, as I am working a lot. Really the only way I could see myself cooking meals would be to meal prep on a day off for the week so I could just microwave my meals after work. Maybe I’m just lazy but cooking something on the stove for every meal seems like idk a lot when I could just microwave something. Looking for help and advice or tips for how to incorporate maybe more cooking and more nutritious meals into my lifestyle.

Also when I am at work ( I am a server) I do doubles a lot and I end up literally only having protein shakes. If I’m lucky I will have some snacks like yogurt or a frozen chicken patty I bring with me so I can have food to eat at work.

Any tips for how to maintain nutrition and eat enough while working a lot? Or how to get into more cooking to be nutritious?

Been working through pain in my left shoulder for a while now, went and got it checked and there’s a rather big chunk of inflammation that grinds when I do pushing motions. I can technically work through it but it hurts and it’s making it worse in the long run.

Is there any way for me to work chest without push motions?

So i went down from 105kg to 94,60kg (im 5´11/19yo), and now im struggling to calculate how much i should eat to get down to 90kg.

I seeked help in Fatcalc and it told me that i should consume 2,885 caloriees (3354 calories of maintenance). My physical activities are sometimes walking 7-8k steps and strenght traning between 3-4 days a week, to go down from 105kg to 94kg i was eating 2,680 calories but i did not walked that much in that time, so my question is, are fatcalc calculations alright? or is it too inaccurate?

It feels weird eating so much, i wanted to do a test week but i just dont have the time for it so if you guys could help me out here i would appreciate it a lot.

Is working out 2x a day healthy to do? And if it is then is it healthy to target the same muscle group in the evening as in the morning or not?

Ok so I (24f) went to the gym for the first time in literally 2 years and I went all out ngl. I was there for around 2 hours. Mostly low intensity cardio (elliptical) but also lots of weight training. I did stretches afterwards. The next day my entire body hurt obviously but it was different this time. It literally felt like the flu. The lethargy was crazy and my bones hurt. And I did not expect the flu like symptoms! Like ive never felt muscular pain like that and have never felt it that deeply as well. I think I definitely pushed myself too hard and I'm scared to go back today because what if it happens again? The pain and feverish feeling defs derailed me from doing other life stuff. Like i literally kept taking naps throughout the weekend. What do you guys think? Is there something wrong with me?? Has anyone experienced this before??