You can’t work the same muscle every day and expect it to grow. You need to give it a rest day between workouts. This is why most people will do chest/back one day, and legs on another.
The fitness community is far less judgmental than most people expect. There’s a lot more toxicity among people that are proud of not going to the gym. Good gyms are a more positive space than discount gyms.
My buddy is a 3 to 4 set/8 to 10 rep guy. One muscle group a day with one rest day a week. He takes protein, creatine, and pre-workout – It works for him; he is big and progresses.
For me.
3 days a week, multiple muscle groups routine doing 1 set to failure at about 75 max weight. I have seen my biggest gains over the last year doing this way. I get my protein from food; no creatine and I have a quad espresso before workouts.
You need to learn your body and what it responds to. Including what foods fuel, you best.
You will find out how much the positive effect of the gym will bleed into all aspects of your life.
The “1 more rep” mind set. Whether you are in school and grinding through hours writing an essay and you give it that “1 more rep” mentality and persevere.
You become a better parent, you become a better friend. you become a better human being.
Things in life become a bit easier to cope with. If you are able to grind out reps in the squat rep pushing your self to the brink of exhaustion , pushing through that pain you build a stronger more fortified mind that can handle the hurdles that life throws out at you.
The “optimal” workout routine is useless if you don’t enjoy it. Pick something that gets you excited to get to the gym or going out and exercising. Whatever makes you personally look forward to being active is the optimal program.
If you pick the perfect, optimized, science based program that you hate, it’s not optimal.
How much it’s helped me mentally. It’s like taking an anxiety medication 5 min into the workout. It lasts for days and now I’m noticing my behavior actually trend in a healthy direction.
That if a machine that you want to use next is in use the probability of the one you were going to use after that one also being taken will be very high.
Posture and form are critical. Not even just to prevent injury, but to make sure you are actually challenging the muscle you want to. Second is to control the negative motion of your lift. If you curl your bicep, lower it slowly on the way down. Do that with everything and you will grow much faster. Oh, and whatever protein you are eating now, triple it. Took me too long to raise my protein to muscle-building amount.
Negative reps are just as important as positive reps. Speed is out of the question. Use your muscles to control the weight. If you use machines, it’ll only work on certain muscle groups. Where as if you do the same exercise with free weights, a lot more muscles are being used instead of a tiny specific group.
Free weights, controlled reps….oh and above all, breathe
Lifting lighter, focusing on tension and stretch, and adding more sets prevents injuries. Slowly rep 160lbs 25 times on bench and watch the growth happen.
Anybody I’ve talked to that’s sad, stressed, depressed have the same thing in common. They don’t exercise. It doesn’t take hours… short workouts each day work wonders to keep your mind out of the dumps.
Only about 25% of gymfluencers know what they are talking about.
Genetics matter. They aren’t everything, but they matter.
Sometimes showing up consistently is better than showing out a few times.
You need to find the right balance of variation and progressive overload that works for you. Sometimes hitting muscles 2-3 times a week is great, for other people once a week or every other week is better.
Prolonged diseases or illness can take away some or all muscle in your body.
it should not prevent you from going to the gym. It’s ok to not look like a pro athlete or muscular, a workout is still part of fight!
Low and slow. Use proper form low weight and slow reps. This will yield good tone and strength. I also prefer free weights and cables because they work more of the muscle group.
Don’t fall into the fanatical obsession or hustle culture around working out.
Being healthy is simpler than many want you to think.
Don’t push yourself too hard.
Consistency is more important than perceived work done.
Know proper form for exercises or you’ll hurt yourself.
Long Answer:
A lot of the fitness world, especially fitness content, is fixated on hustle culture. Especially when trying to sell you something. They play on insecurities and try to drive fanatical obsession. You don’t need to be obsessed with fitness to use fitness to better your life. If you get into it, so be it, but it shouldn’t be the main fixation in your life.
The core concepts of health are very old and very simple. Don’t get lost in the sea of new studies, diets, contradicting info, etc. Eat healthy foods, stay active, if you want to lose weight just eat fewer calories than you need.
Many believe you need to feel exhausted after activity, or sore after lifting. You do not need to make yourself sore or run down to be making gains at the gym. In fact, those things slow you down more than they help, and they open you up to long breaks due to injury. Of course, it isn’t bad to feel a little sore after lifting, but the goal is to know your limits well. That way you can go hard enough for gains but not hard enough to wreck yourself doing so.
Even if you only go and do 2 minutes on a treadmill, it is better than not going because you don’t feel like doing 20 minutes on the treadmill. This is the concept in the book Atomic Habits. Basically you just break down tasks to their smallest level (their “atom”) and that reduces the psychological barrier to starting. The making yourself start is the hard part, but once you start and you’re in it you are inclined to do more than the absolute minimum. For example, if the task is go to the gym, the atomic habit of that is literally just driving to and walking in the gym and then going home – but once you get there you’re unlikely to turn around and go home without working out. It also makes you feel less stress about goals.
You absolutely need to know proper form before exercising. If that means hiring a trainer 1-2 times, asking experienced lifters, etc so be it. You will never regret a handful of dollars to save yourself a sprain or a torn rotator cuff. This is especially important near failure point of lifting, as people who don’t know proper form tend to engage improper form to get the weights up, and they tend to hurt themselves that way.
How addicting it is, how much better I’d feel each day, proper form is always better than higher weight and that no one in the gym is looking at you and judging what you’re doing….they’re all too focused on their own workout to worry about yours
Nobody’s actually really watching & judging you. I used to be a paranoia when I went to gym initially, but everyone is just too busy looking at themselves in the mirror.
That bracing your core when you squat is fundamental to safety and getting the most out of it. I’d never even heard of it until I asked a gym employee to check my squat form.
ALL THAT MATTERS is showing up to the gym. That’s it.
To that end:
THE ROUTINE YOU WILL ENJOY THE MOST or at least NOT-ENJOY THE LEAST is the best routine. Full stop.
And THAT means:
STOP WORRYING ABOUT DETAILS. For real. You might barbell bench press. Or Dumbbell Bench press. Or machine. Or do a crapload of pushups. Are you doing it? That’s what counts. Is anyone on the face of the planet ever going to know or even care if you did full squats or leg presses or bulgarian split squats? No.
The ONLY WAY YOU WILL FAIL is by not showing up at the gym. And the best way not to fail is to keep your stream at all costs. This means you have LAZY, HALF-ASSED workouts sometimes. Or maybe you just sit on a bench and take a nap and then go home. So what. Good job. You made it to the gym. Half-assed workouts, performed over time, will produce great results. And one trip to the gym just so you could check your phone and go home will help you make it again tomorrow, which will in turn keep you from losing your streak and failing to return. And even if you come to the gym with the EXPRESS INTENT of not doing anything hard, every now and then you’ll surprise yourself and hit a PR. Believe me. It happens.
So don’t worry about optimization. There are a thousand alternate universe versions of you doing better routines and getting better results. So what? Good for them. If you’re improving over time, that’s good enough. Keep going.
i always see people say that no one’s looking at you or judging you and that’s just not true, but the distinction i always make is the people who are there to work out, whether it’s to get big, strong, or just healthier are the ones who aren’t judging you. i’ve been going to the gym for a decade now and i watch people all the time, but it’s never a negative thing (unless they give me a dirty look lol), it’s often me seeing someone moving a weight that looks heavy for them and me mentally thinking “good job” or something like that. but generally i think the advice that no one’s watching you is completely wrong
I have a good one i learned recently. It’s NOT about keeping your heartrate up for the entirety of your workout. That adds stress to your body and can inhibit weight loss. Now I do slow-n-steady workouts and keep an eye on my heartrate. It’s less mentally draining and seems to be getting results!
That it takes a long long time and a lot of discipline to see the results you want, and having to realize that you may not ever get there but you keep going anyway.
Hypertrophy training seems like the polar opposite of powerlifting. What correct form is defined differently. Less weight is more. What matters is time under tension. Eccentric contraction in the lengthened position is the goal. Over powerlifting is about moving the most weight from a to b.
That being in shape would save my life multiple times. It’s gotten me through six brain surgeries, pregnancy, cancer, disc replacements….all sorts of shit.
I’m 51(F) and can bench 200lbs and still rack out pull ups. (I’m 5’0” 106 lbs)
I’ll never quit, physical discipline gives you mental strength as well.
I don’t work out but saw a tiktok about mouthwash canceling out the effects of working out in terms of blood pressure.
After working out, your body goes into hypotension, which is good for lowering blood pressure. The mouthwash restricts blood vessels and kills nitrate production, which is believed to be an integral part of lowering pressure.
I dont know how much truth there is really in it, but maybe something to look into if you are an avid exerciser who deals with high blood pressure.
Resting and recovery are extremely important. Regardless how young you are or feel. You need to rest and give your body and muscles time to rebuild. Stretching before & after workouts is key as well.
Diet matters way more than ever stepping into a gym. Your TDEE is 90-95% based on activities done outside of the gym, besides the cardio aspect gyms don’t really have that much impact on body fat.
You should build your program around 4 Pillars of Improvement: Physical, Intellectual, Social, and Emotional.
Your physical improvement will be obvious. You will improve your brain by studying and researching. You improve socially as you learn to navigate the social space that is the gym. But the emotional improvement is not what I was expecting. I feel better about life and about myself. It makes me want to reach back and help others more. After 10+ years in the gym, I might not look like a bodybuilder, but my soul has become un-fragile.
how much time it takes to lose weight or gain muscle, and if you aren’t eating under or over a certain number of calories you’ll never really get anywhere. for years it was like 3 steps forward 2 steps back for me. still kinda is
I once took a weightlifting class to become more familiar with different exercises. The class was like an hour long, but after about 35 minutes I thought I was going to simultaneously vomit and pass out.
The coach told me to go to the gym juice bar and have them bring me an orange juice. I asked afterwards about the oj, and coach said that I worked out too hard and basically sweated out some necessary stuff, and that the oj was a quick sugar rush to bring me back to normal.
I still don’t know the exact scientific reason, but I know now that if I work out too strenuously I better have oj, or Skittles or something just in case.
Dynamic stretching before can help reduce chance of injury. Static stretching after can help reduce recovery time. I felt so much stronger so much sooner after stretching regularly post-workout.
I am extremely unhappy with my body, but people don’t care. Everybody at the gym is either really into their own training or extremely supportive of everybody else’s.
That you have to lift to 80% failure every set, lollygagging and breezing your way through a workout isn’t going to build muscle effectively after the noob gains are over. You should be tired after a workout and it shouldn’t be “pleasant” physically
Comments
Working out improves your life way more than just physique. It also improves brain functions.
You can’t work the same muscle every day and expect it to grow. You need to give it a rest day between workouts. This is why most people will do chest/back one day, and legs on another.
Form matters more than lifting heavy to avoid injuries.
Controlar a respiração ajuda na execução do exercício.
Good form and body mechanics will save you from injury. I see people lifting more weight but with improper form and it is not impressive.
No one knows after you get an 8 pack. Triple sex drive, endless appetite. No matter how strong you get you feel weak
It’s extremely addicting
The fitness community is far less judgmental than most people expect. There’s a lot more toxicity among people that are proud of not going to the gym. Good gyms are a more positive space than discount gyms.
Doesn’t take much to get the body you desire just consistency
No single workout routine is good for everyone.
My buddy is a 3 to 4 set/8 to 10 rep guy. One muscle group a day with one rest day a week. He takes protein, creatine, and pre-workout – It works for him; he is big and progresses.
For me.
3 days a week, multiple muscle groups routine doing 1 set to failure at about 75 max weight. I have seen my biggest gains over the last year doing this way. I get my protein from food; no creatine and I have a quad espresso before workouts.
You need to learn your body and what it responds to. Including what foods fuel, you best.
Half my workout would be re-racking other people’s weights
I am 37 and been lifting since I was 14.
You will find out how much the positive effect of the gym will bleed into all aspects of your life.
The “1 more rep” mind set. Whether you are in school and grinding through hours writing an essay and you give it that “1 more rep” mentality and persevere.
You become a better parent, you become a better friend. you become a better human being.
Things in life become a bit easier to cope with. If you are able to grind out reps in the squat rep pushing your self to the brink of exhaustion , pushing through that pain you build a stronger more fortified mind that can handle the hurdles that life throws out at you.
Make sure you exercise your entire body – either all at once per visit, or break it up over the week, just make sure you do it all.
Progress is actually really quick until it isn’t.
Form vs how much you can lift.
Also listen to your body and don’t push it. If you need to stop early or skip a day…do it
It’s a good idea to antibac wipe surfaces before using them.
The “optimal” workout routine is useless if you don’t enjoy it. Pick something that gets you excited to get to the gym or going out and exercising. Whatever makes you personally look forward to being active is the optimal program.
If you pick the perfect, optimized, science based program that you hate, it’s not optimal.
Just about everything involves your glutes and core if you’re doing it right.
It’s its own form of therapy.
How much it’s helped me mentally. It’s like taking an anxiety medication 5 min into the workout. It lasts for days and now I’m noticing my behavior actually trend in a healthy direction.
That the pursuit of strength would be a lifelong obsession.
Warm up and mobility work will help you tremendously.
That Gyms are GAY AF.
That some annoying tools think we need to hear their personal phone conversations while we and they work out.
That if a machine that you want to use next is in use the probability of the one you were going to use after that one also being taken will be very high.
It doesn’t matter what happens in the gym if your nutrition is bad
I wasted years of good lifts by going back home and eating some shitty cereal
Posture and form are critical. Not even just to prevent injury, but to make sure you are actually challenging the muscle you want to. Second is to control the negative motion of your lift. If you curl your bicep, lower it slowly on the way down. Do that with everything and you will grow much faster. Oh, and whatever protein you are eating now, triple it. Took me too long to raise my protein to muscle-building amount.
Negative reps are just as important as positive reps. Speed is out of the question. Use your muscles to control the weight. If you use machines, it’ll only work on certain muscle groups. Where as if you do the same exercise with free weights, a lot more muscles are being used instead of a tiny specific group.
Free weights, controlled reps….oh and above all, breathe
Protein intake makes a night and day difference.
I’m shocked at the number of people that go to the gym but sit on a machine looking at their phones instead of working out, why bother?
Just how much I needed it. Pretty sure weight lifting has saved my life.
Lifting lighter, focusing on tension and stretch, and adding more sets prevents injuries. Slowly rep 160lbs 25 times on bench and watch the growth happen.
Anybody I’ve talked to that’s sad, stressed, depressed have the same thing in common. They don’t exercise. It doesn’t take hours… short workouts each day work wonders to keep your mind out of the dumps.
Only about 25% of gymfluencers know what they are talking about.
Genetics matter. They aren’t everything, but they matter.
Sometimes showing up consistently is better than showing out a few times.
You need to find the right balance of variation and progressive overload that works for you. Sometimes hitting muscles 2-3 times a week is great, for other people once a week or every other week is better.
Prolonged diseases or illness can take away some or all muscle in your body.
it should not prevent you from going to the gym. It’s ok to not look like a pro athlete or muscular, a workout is still part of fight!
Everything hurts the next day
That it has totally eclipsed what alcohol used to do. And better too
I like lifting weights it was a lot of other factors that made me hate gym class in school. Also this can be really addictive
Low and slow. Use proper form low weight and slow reps. This will yield good tone and strength. I also prefer free weights and cables because they work more of the muscle group.
Short Answer:
Long Answer:
Even a sh%itty low effort workout is still a good thing because it is the process of keeping the habit of going to the gym that returns results.
How addicting it is, how much better I’d feel each day, proper form is always better than higher weight and that no one in the gym is looking at you and judging what you’re doing….they’re all too focused on their own workout to worry about yours
That it doesn’t get easier the stronger you get. It gets harder.
Nobody gives a damn what you’re doing there…..everyone is more concerned about trying to get their own gains.
Rest is as important, if not more important that lifting
Nobody’s actually really watching & judging you. I used to be a paranoia when I went to gym initially, but everyone is just too busy looking at themselves in the mirror.
Thank you all for your advic
That bracing your core when you squat is fundamental to safety and getting the most out of it. I’d never even heard of it until I asked a gym employee to check my squat form.
Lifting is a small part of the equation. Diet and sleep are the bigger percentages.
How much of a boost you get after an upper body workout. Its addictive
How my natural 💖💖💖 for it so easily became an unhealthy addiction that I base my entire self worth on
Here goes:
ALL THAT MATTERS is showing up to the gym. That’s it.
To that end:
THE ROUTINE YOU WILL ENJOY THE MOST or at least NOT-ENJOY THE LEAST is the best routine. Full stop.
And THAT means:
STOP WORRYING ABOUT DETAILS. For real. You might barbell bench press. Or Dumbbell Bench press. Or machine. Or do a crapload of pushups. Are you doing it? That’s what counts. Is anyone on the face of the planet ever going to know or even care if you did full squats or leg presses or bulgarian split squats? No.
The ONLY WAY YOU WILL FAIL is by not showing up at the gym. And the best way not to fail is to keep your stream at all costs. This means you have LAZY, HALF-ASSED workouts sometimes. Or maybe you just sit on a bench and take a nap and then go home. So what. Good job. You made it to the gym. Half-assed workouts, performed over time, will produce great results. And one trip to the gym just so you could check your phone and go home will help you make it again tomorrow, which will in turn keep you from losing your streak and failing to return. And even if you come to the gym with the EXPRESS INTENT of not doing anything hard, every now and then you’ll surprise yourself and hit a PR. Believe me. It happens.
So don’t worry about optimization. There are a thousand alternate universe versions of you doing better routines and getting better results. So what? Good for them. If you’re improving over time, that’s good enough. Keep going.
JUST. SHOW. UP.
The Gym is place to train your mind and grow as person as well as your body.
I find it’s as much for my mental health as physical health and I’m sure a lot of people at all levels of fitness would agree.
i always see people say that no one’s looking at you or judging you and that’s just not true, but the distinction i always make is the people who are there to work out, whether it’s to get big, strong, or just healthier are the ones who aren’t judging you. i’ve been going to the gym for a decade now and i watch people all the time, but it’s never a negative thing (unless they give me a dirty look lol), it’s often me seeing someone moving a weight that looks heavy for them and me mentally thinking “good job” or something like that. but generally i think the advice that no one’s watching you is completely wrong
I have a good one i learned recently. It’s NOT about keeping your heartrate up for the entirety of your workout. That adds stress to your body and can inhibit weight loss. Now I do slow-n-steady workouts and keep an eye on my heartrate. It’s less mentally draining and seems to be getting results!
That my wife thought I was too skinny when we were dating and got married. She appreciates the 20+ lbs of upper body muscle I’ve added.
A heart rate of 165+ before you’ve done anything is not normal
Consistency is king.
That it takes a long long time and a lot of discipline to see the results you want, and having to realize that you may not ever get there but you keep going anyway.
I learned that like 1 of 10 people don’t think a workout counts unless you bring a big obstructive tripod to instagram yourself.
That i fucking hate gyms, so i bought some home workout equipment and do a lot of running/cycling.
Hypertrophy training seems like the polar opposite of powerlifting. What correct form is defined differently. Less weight is more. What matters is time under tension. Eccentric contraction in the lengthened position is the goal. Over powerlifting is about moving the most weight from a to b.
Less is more when it comes to weight training. Slowwwwww it down
Working out can be fun.
An “”off” day is as important as an “on” day.
That being in shape would save my life multiple times. It’s gotten me through six brain surgeries, pregnancy, cancer, disc replacements….all sorts of shit.
I’m 51(F) and can bench 200lbs and still rack out pull ups. (I’m 5’0” 106 lbs)
I’ll never quit, physical discipline gives you mental strength as well.
Consistency is key. Build a habit. Even if you go to the gym and stare at the weights and then go home, it’s better than not going to the gym at all.
Calorie Deficiency is the key to weight loss and certain workouts prioritize the process of burning max calories doing it
That gyms expect payment to use their equipment and services.
I don’t work out but saw a tiktok about mouthwash canceling out the effects of working out in terms of blood pressure.
After working out, your body goes into hypotension, which is good for lowering blood pressure. The mouthwash restricts blood vessels and kills nitrate production, which is believed to be an integral part of lowering pressure.
I dont know how much truth there is really in it, but maybe something to look into if you are an avid exerciser who deals with high blood pressure.
Just like in other aspect of life, minority of loud mfs give gym bros a bad name (sexist,misogyny,pervert,etc).
Resting and recovery are extremely important. Regardless how young you are or feel. You need to rest and give your body and muscles time to rebuild. Stretching before & after workouts is key as well.
Our bodies were made to move.
That 90% of the gains comes from sleep, food, and not ego lifting… and the other 10% is just grunting loudly while trying not to cry during leg day 🤣😂
Working out and being in shape is an unspoken rule of career growth.
It will blow your mind how much farther in life you can go by being someone who values their own well being.
Having a strong core is the most important foundation for any type of exercise.
How important the connection is between muscle and mind. Good form and a good connection can give you good efficiency in your workouts.
Diet matters way more than ever stepping into a gym. Your TDEE is 90-95% based on activities done outside of the gym, besides the cardio aspect gyms don’t really have that much impact on body fat.
If you work out too late at night just before you sleep, sometimes you can’t fall asleep
It will inspire you to eat better. If I’m gonna take time out of my day to wake up early and go to the gym I’m not wrecking it with junk food at lunch
How beneficial it would be for my mental health & GAD
You should build your program around 4 Pillars of Improvement: Physical, Intellectual, Social, and Emotional.
Your physical improvement will be obvious. You will improve your brain by studying and researching. You improve socially as you learn to navigate the social space that is the gym. But the emotional improvement is not what I was expecting. I feel better about life and about myself. It makes me want to reach back and help others more. After 10+ years in the gym, I might not look like a bodybuilder, but my soul has become un-fragile.
Slow controlled movements, not pumping weights up and down as fast as possible.
how much time it takes to lose weight or gain muscle, and if you aren’t eating under or over a certain number of calories you’ll never really get anywhere. for years it was like 3 steps forward 2 steps back for me. still kinda is
Consistency. I don’t strive for perfection but I try to show up and do the work.
Take rest seriously. You don’t need to be sedentary on rest days but you need let your muscles recover.
Building muscle is a really slow process. Losing fat is easy but mentally taxing.
I once took a weightlifting class to become more familiar with different exercises. The class was like an hour long, but after about 35 minutes I thought I was going to simultaneously vomit and pass out.
The coach told me to go to the gym juice bar and have them bring me an orange juice. I asked afterwards about the oj, and coach said that I worked out too hard and basically sweated out some necessary stuff, and that the oj was a quick sugar rush to bring me back to normal.
I still don’t know the exact scientific reason, but I know now that if I work out too strenuously I better have oj, or Skittles or something just in case.
Dynamic stretching before can help reduce chance of injury. Static stretching after can help reduce recovery time. I felt so much stronger so much sooner after stretching regularly post-workout.
Mind & muscle connections is pretty hard to do properly.
Just took me like 10 years to realize i was not training properly.
If you’re going to make and sustain real progress, it really is about adopting an entire lifestyle shift.
It cant just be some shit you do for an hour a couple times a week
If you go on the days you don’t want to go, you’ll thank yourself anyway.
I am extremely unhappy with my body, but people don’t care. Everybody at the gym is either really into their own training or extremely supportive of everybody else’s.
That you have to lift to 80% failure every set, lollygagging and breezing your way through a workout isn’t going to build muscle effectively after the noob gains are over. You should be tired after a workout and it shouldn’t be “pleasant” physically
Consistency really is the trick.