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How to Build Muscle

julian.com

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Re: How to Build Muscle

#191

Post by drakonka »

This was largely a decent intro, but I would hesitate to trust this one article's statements without doing other research and reading other guides.

One thing that stood out to me was the author's idea that creatine is not beneficial for women to the point where we may as well skip it. There is research showing the opposite of what the author has stated. Example: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9390981

Creatine, as he says, is among the most widely researched supplements. Aside from providing potential cognitive benefits it has been shown to be effective for both men and women working toward strength gains. And as another user commented, creatine supplementation could very well explain part of the great weight gain the author claims to have experienced as it causes muscles to retain water and appear bigger (in both genders).

Re: How to Build Muscle

#192

Post by monort »

sridca wrote: post #188
monort wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've got a tendonitis in my right elbow, when I tried greasing the groove for pull ups, and spent several months recovering. Be careful :) Any sign of pain in an elbow means your tendons need a rest.

Thanks. Do you know what caused your tendonitis when greasing the groove for pull ups? Improper form? Over-training?

I think over training, though the main problem was my ignorance - I ignored a mild pain in the elbow during last sets. One day I've got the pain that wasn't subsiding and that day I learned about tendonitis.

Re: How to Build Muscle

#193

Post by dmitriid »

toasterlovin wrote: post #180
projektir wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These are not easy to follow. When you are already strong and have access to a personal trainer, maybe the are. When your starting point is difficulty lifting the lowest possible weight and you don't know how to configure your deadlift form properly because you actually /can't/ lift the lowest recommended weight, so your bar has a really low starting point, it gets a lot more complicated, not to mention dangerous.

I think you seriously over estimate the portion of the population who cannot squat or deadlift an empty barbell on day one.

You seriously overestimate the portion of population who can do anything, really, with proper form

Re: How to Build Muscle

#194

Post by dmitriid »

TurboHaskal wrote: post #67

I used to be a gym nerd too. My current approach: Screw common advice. Find what works for __you__. Take hints from algorithm design. Start small. Limit yourself to use variables you can influence, observe and measure. Come up with a system that embraces failure, try to make it anti-fragile. Experiment and enjoy the ride. I'm personally quite chaotic and hate planning. Some weeks I hit the gym five days, some seven,…

Oh how I hate such advices. "Fin what works for you, start small, limit, come up, experiment".

How exactly would a beginner do all that?

Re: How to Build Muscle

#195

Post by jacques_chester »

gaius wrote: post #190
jacques_chester wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Bloggers select small sized, underpowered studies to support their 'bro science' theories There's simply no money for large, high-powered studies. We have to rely on what observations are actually possible. However the quality of studies, especially in terms of study design, is steadily improving. > it's hard to differentiate what information applies to natural bodybuilding Actually, a lot of the worst studies are…

There's simply no money for large, high-powered studies. Yes there is, the deepest pockets of all are very, very interested in fitness: the military. You can download the Navy SEAL physical training guide for free! http://www.sealswcc.com/navy-seal-naval-special-warfare-phys... http://www.sealswcc.com/navy-seal-what-are-chances-hell-week... "A three year Naval Special Warfare study comprised of thousands of SEAL cand…

The study appears to show that cardiovascular adaptation dominates the outcomes once you get over a fairly moderate strength level.

You don't need a 500lb deadlift to lift a machine gun -- or swim with a 50lb pack.

I'm talking about hypertrophy, which is the purpose of the post here.

There's not much money for "hi we'd like to research how to make healthy adults as big as possible, thanks".

Re: How to Build Muscle

#196

Post by toasterlovin »

dmitriid wrote: post #193
toasterlovin wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you seriously over estimate the portion of the population who cannot squat or deadlift an empty barbell on day one.

You seriously overestimate the portion of population who can do anything, really, with proper form

Form can be learned. The parent was talking about people being too weak to do the lifts at minimum weight.

Re: How to Build Muscle

#197

Post by projektir »

toasterlovin wrote: post #180
projektir wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These are not easy to follow. When you are already strong and have access to a personal trainer, maybe the are. When your starting point is difficulty lifting the lowest possible weight and you don't know how to configure your deadlift form properly because you actually /can't/ lift the lowest recommended weight, so your bar has a really low starting point, it gets a lot more complicated, not to mention dangerous.

I think you seriously over estimate the portion of the population who cannot squat or deadlift an empty barbell on day one.

You can squat an empty barbell, but the starting height of the barbell will be incorrect. So you don't squat an empty barbell, you squat a barbell + weights that are tall enough to make the barbell be some height off the ground. If the barbell is really low on the floor, it's not the normal deadlift anymore, and for someone who has never done deadlifts before and is having issues figuring out the right form as it is, that's terrifying.

Also, none of the weight programs actually have a starting weight low enough to support that, anyway. No program I've seen starts deadlifts at empty barbell. So good luck aligning your deadlift weight with your other weight, like you're supposed to do to not get unbalanced. SL certainly didn't, maybe SS does but I don't recall that. So what are you talking about, anyway?

There's a similar and more significant problem with barbell rows, to the point that I ended up not doing them at all. But deadlift is considered more core.

Re: How to Build Muscle

#198

Post by toasterlovin »

projektir wrote: post #197
toasterlovin wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you seriously over estimate the portion of the population who cannot squat or deadlift an empty barbell on day one.

You can squat an empty barbell, but the starting height of the barbell will be incorrect. So you don't squat an empty barbell, you squat a barbell + weights that are tall enough to make the barbell be some height off the ground. If the barbell is really low on the floor, it's not the normal deadlift anymore, and for someone who has never done deadlifts before and is having issues figuring out the right form as it is,…

A few things:

1) Did you mean deadlift instead of squat in your first few sentences? Squat has the bar on your back, so distance off the ground is not an issue...

2) Speaking honestly, if this is the kind of thing that is going to keep somebody from getting stronger, then they're not gonna accomplish much in life. Working from first principles, there are two ways to get a less-than-135lb loaded bar at the right height for deadlifting:

a. Plates which are less dense than steel. You can buy or fabricate wooden starter plates which are the same diameter as a 45lb plate.

b. Rely on something other than the plates to get the bar in the correct starting position. Blocks, books, Tupperware bins, or (if you have one) the safety bars on a power rack all would work.

3) In Starting Strength, the starting weight for each lift is whatever you can lift on day one. If that is below the weight of an empty 45lb barbell, then you get a woman's (35lb), junior (25lb), or PVC (perhaps less than 2 lbs?) barbell. Your starting weight is not the important part, it's adding weight to the bar each workout.

The SS community believes pretty strongly that strength is for everyone. They train lots of people (women and older people) who don't fall into the traditional strength training target audience (men 16-40).

Re: How to Build Muscle

#199

Post by mter »

robomartin wrote: post #182

My biggest source of frustration is fat loss vs. strength/muscle gain. I started strength training a year ago. Didn't really get serious about it until march of this year. I'm 50+ and had to devote several months to work on flexibility and what I call "injury proofing" myself. This meant mostly working with machines to slowly get things ready for free weights. In March I quit machines and switched 100% to free weight…

Keep lifting, but your workouts will suffer. I just went from ~274 to ~258. I'm weak as hell.

You won't lose the strength permanently. I took off years while doing my degree + my first 2 years and in the past 12 months I regained 20 years of lifting strength.

Re: How to Build Muscle

#200

Post by prostoalex »

ljk wrote: post #129
wruza wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you please release "fat loss" program for free and inversely, charge for info on getting bigger? I mean, how would one notice an actual growth behind his varying fat levels?

isn't "fat loss" just: eat less, do more cardio?

For the most part no, as that would propel postal workers and warehouse employees to the fitness levels comparable only to Olympic athletes. Fat acquisition, absorption, retention and burn is a functional of the endocrine system (hormones) rather than cardiological system (heart and blood vessels). Gary Taubes' "Good Calories, Bad Calories" as well as his numerous articles is probably a good start.
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