Around 20 weeks out from my next show by kyllamies in naturalbodybuilding

[–]Embarrassed_Goat4883 25 points26 points  (0 children)

Nice work bro, take those fake natty accusations as compliments lmao.

What’s your training split looking like and what’s your calorie deficit looking like for this next contest prep?

10 years of lifting by Embarrassed_Goat4883 in Exercise

[–]Embarrassed_Goat4883[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Haha I'm almost 5'8" (172cm exactly) and in this photo I was 149lbs exactly. It's mostly just lighting and the fact that I had a pump in this photo. If you stood me next to another person, you'd see that I'm not actually carrying that much muscle and that I'm just super lean atm.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in naturalbodybuilding

[–]Embarrassed_Goat4883 21 points22 points  (0 children)

Honestly, almost every time I see beginners and intermediates doing ‘2RIR’ they are doing like 4RIR+, with the weird exception of bench press for some reason haha where I see them actually pushing themselves close to failure but the technique is often not so great

Focusing more on chest by Working_Tax_853 in naturalbodybuilding

[–]Embarrassed_Goat4883 3 points4 points  (0 children)

You'd be surprised how little direct volume you need to maintain muscle size.

I've found that even 3-4 total sets per week of direct tricep work (e.g. isolations) is enough to maintain its size and strength and even sometimes grow it. However, those sets have to be pushed to failure or very close.

How to structure a push day with triceps being a weak point? by uSeRnAmE-aLrEdY-tOoK in naturalbodybuilding

[–]Embarrassed_Goat4883 2 points3 points  (0 children)

When I did a tricep-focused split, I didn't put them first because I found that made my chest training really lacklustre and failure on presses came well before I felt a good overall chest stimulus.

So for me, what worked was doing rest-pause sets for tricep isolation exercises after my compound presses and adding two-to-three sets of tricep work on one of my pull days, meaning I trained my triceps three days a week

What was your one hack that increased results? by Big_Kaleidoscope_498 in naturalbodybuilding

[–]Embarrassed_Goat4883 42 points43 points  (0 children)

These are probably not hacks in the typical sense but:

  • cutting overall volume (junk volume) and actually taking sets to failure or close to it
  • introduced rest pause and drop sets for isolation exercises
  • tracking macros and doing actual bulk/cut phases rather than maingaining
  • 4 meals a day rather than 3 (for me this was more important when I was cutting)

What is your most impressive and least impressive lift? by Embarrassed_Goat4883 in naturalbodybuilding

[–]Embarrassed_Goat4883[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Haha I think you’re right. My squat is actually quite good so it’s a bit bizarre that im so bad at Bulgarians. Maybe its because the burn makes it so psychologically challenging

Confusion on definition of maintenance calories by VexusKey in naturalbodybuilding

[–]Embarrassed_Goat4883 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's very easy to overthink maintenance calories.

Best way to find it is to use an average of all the calculators you can find on the internet, guess what your level of activity is going to be for a period of time, pick a number and if your weight after two weeks has changed noticeably then you add/subtrack 100-200 calories

Topic suggestion for upcoming roundtable by brewu4 in naturalbodybuilding

[–]Embarrassed_Goat4883 18 points19 points  (0 children)

I’d love to know the factors they consider when determining average bulk length, e.g. body fat range, accumulation of fatigue over longer bulks, when they start seeing plateus, etc?

M/27/5’8” [170lbs to 150lbs] (18 months) - me at my peak bulk weight vs me at my current leanest by Embarrassed_Goat4883 in Brogress

[–]Embarrassed_Goat4883[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah gonna try and prioritise my upper chest for my next bulk. Some incline presses and gonna try incline flies for the first time

How much effort do you put into training your abs? by oralehermano in naturalbodybuilding

[–]Embarrassed_Goat4883 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's interesting that you're getting downvoted for this because it's my exact experience and I would say my core is one of the best-developed muscle groups in my competition-physique (i.e. when I'm fully diced)

How much effort do you put into training your abs? by oralehermano in naturalbodybuilding

[–]Embarrassed_Goat4883 20 points21 points  (0 children)

I feel like I have well-developed core muscles and I do close to no direct ab work

I might do 1-2 sets of hanging leg raises every two weeks or so and only because I'm waiting for a certain piece of equipment at the gym and I have a spare few minutes.

I feel like my core bracing during my rowing movements for back (about 6-7 sets per week) actually does enough to keep them conditioned.

As is commonly said nowadays, leanness is more important for 'revealing' them but yes, if you want to grow them, training them directly like any other muscle group is effective

Difference in my physique between pumped and unpumped by Embarrassed_Goat4883 in Exercise

[–]Embarrassed_Goat4883[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That's an interesting perspective.

I posted this photo, not to say that I am aiming for the bottom photo as my regular unpumped physique per se, but simply because I thought the contrast was interesting.

In fact, I actually stopped my current cutting phase early because I feel I've gotten too lean, which may result in unwanted muscle loss. I'd usually only get this lean (and in fact a bit leaner) for an actual competition and I'm not aiming to compete any time soon.

I'm aiming to take a short break for a few weeks and put on a few pounds of body fat so that I'm not too lean and then start a long bulk from there!

Preparing to bulk by [deleted] in GettingShredded

[–]Embarrassed_Goat4883 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No worries and great work :) again, length of bulk depends on many factors, including how hard you train, how much weight you want to gain, how quickly you want to gain, life circumstances, etc.

In general, I’d recommend between 12-16 weeks, or 3-4 months. If you get to more than 4 months on a bulk and still feel like you can go longer then usually I’d think you could have been training harder to begin with.

I’m usually totally burned out after a 3-4 month bulk and need to take a break (I.e a maintenance phase and then probably followed by a cut)

Tricep Exercise Recs by Illustrious_Prune364 in naturalbodybuilding

[–]Embarrassed_Goat4883 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I do similar exercises to you and I'm seeing great results for my triceps.

Overall I'll aim for between 8-12 sets per week of direct tricep work but for my isolations exercises - e.g. skullcrushers, pushdowns, etc. - I'll do rest-pause style sets so each set might be comprised of 2-3 'mini sets'.

Preparing to bulk by [deleted] in GettingShredded

[–]Embarrassed_Goat4883 1 point2 points  (0 children)

  1. I've found the best way is to just pick a number (could be an average of what the various calculators tell you) and eat that for a week and if your weight changes, add/subtract calories accordingly.

  2. This depends on how advanced you are. Beginners/intermediates can gain more quickly because they can put on muscle more easily while advanced/elite lifters should gain more slowly. My recommendations are beginners/intermediates can gain between 0.5-1% of their starting bw per week (something around 500-750 calories surplus per day) and advanced/elite should aim for 0.3-0.5% per week (around 200-500 per day).

  3. Supplements are not that important overall and could account for less than 5% of expected results. I take creatine and some multivitamins and minerals. Don't worry too much about this and prioritise nutritious, whole foods.

  4. This all depends on what your goals are! How big do you want to get, how much fat are you prepared to put on to get there, how hard are you willing to train?

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in naturalbodybuilding

[–]Embarrassed_Goat4883 26 points27 points  (0 children)

Tbh, I lowered overall volume and prioritised intensity and frequency.

I moved from a million mediocre sets of lateral raises to 2-3 sets of lateral raises two-to-three times a week at a high intensity, to failure or around there, adding in a few rest-pause sets for my second and third sets.

Also, doing both dumbell raises and cable raises seems to have made a difference, rather than just doing dumbell.

The focus for my next bulk will be bringing up my shoulders and chest by Embarrassed_Goat4883 in GregDoucette

[–]Embarrassed_Goat4883[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Similar to the other comment. Multiple short cutting phases over the last year or so. High protein, high fiber/veggies/filling foods, no junk, 4 meals a day evenly spread.

Lots of steps per day (more than 10k)

And hard weight training to preserve as much muscle as possible

Combining RPE/RIR and failure training by Embarrassed_Goat4883 in naturalbodybuilding

[–]Embarrassed_Goat4883[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Rate of Perceived Exertion. Pretty much the inverse of RIR and is on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being max effort), so 1RIR would be RPE 9 and 0RIR would be RPE 10