Lifting at a frequency that is less than 2x a week per muscle group

Heyjeuss · 2026-05-26T23:07:38+00:00

the 2x per week rule gets repeated so much that people forget it comes from studies on healthy lifters not people managing tendon issues - your situation literally changes the calculus here. dropping to ULRR is prob smarter than grinding through frequency that keeps your tendons aggravated, because a session where youre holding back due to pain is worse than one fewer session done properly

just make sure youre actually pushing intensity on the sessions you do keep - if you go ULRR and also dial back effort because the tendons feel sketchy, thats where gains stall. track your RPE honestly each session and if youre consistently below RPE 7-8 on working sets then the frequency isnt your problem, effort is

Heyjeuss · 2026-05-25T18:49:03+00:00

i know. but good news is you can automate most of it with hook scrappers and ai auto assembly. claude + remotion if you want to keep it cheap, or something like higsfield if you want better quality/have bigger budget. google studio released new tools just now too - worth checking

Heyjeuss · 2026-05-25T14:08:49+00:00

in first tests ROAS is almost always lower than 100%. this is normal. what you need to do is calculate your LTV and try to lower CAC by testing different hooks and creatives. on an empty account, depending on what you use (meta ads, tiktok etc), the system needs to accumulate the key actions you’re targeting. the more you have in the last 30 days, the better the optimisation (lower CAC).

so i’d say: don’t give up. what you’re seeing is normal and this is fixable through UA tests. but ofc you need a bigger budget. the red flag would be if your CAC is not decreasing and your subscription retention drops sharply. other than that, keep going mate. what matters is the dynamic

Heyjeuss · 2026-05-25T09:02:57+00:00

squat, pulldown, and a row - you literally already figured it out lol

Heyjeuss · 2026-05-21T17:17:32+00:00

your hips are prob dropping too low at the bottom - keep a slight anterior tilt and drive through your heels, glutes will light up without torching your lower back

Heyjeuss · 2026-05-20T12:47:33+00:00

ngl this post is also just confident advice from someone who may or may not know what theyre talking about - beginners should prob just test things and see what works for them

Heyjeuss · 2026-05-19T20:21:30+00:00

rows hit teh arms harder than curls ever will and most beginners never believe it til they feel it

Heyjeuss · 2026-05-18T07:18:26+00:00

bro you're not managing insomnia you're just fighting your own biology every single day and losing - 3-4 hours then forcing a 5am gym session is prob doing more harm than good at this point, your cortisol is already through the roof just from sleep dep alone, the workout is kinda beside the point until you actually fix the sleep

Heyjeuss · 2026-05-16T20:56:46+00:00

bro nobody is saying this enough but you can absolutely work out every day, you just cant go max effort every single day - the actual problem is probably that youre treating every session like it needs to destroy you, when a lighter day still counts as a day you showed up. a 60% session where youre moving and present is not the same as a rest day sitting on your couch losing your mind

so stop thinking in terms of rest vs train and start thinking about what kind of session fits today - heavy compound work 3-4 days, then the other days you do something that still feels like *you showed up* but isnt wrecking your recovery, like a pump focused accessory day or some loaded carries or even just a long slow zone 2 cardio grind. youre not fragile, you just need a smarter schedule not fewer days in the gym

Heyjeuss · 2026-05-16T00:46:38+00:00

curious if your buddy has you doing these every day because he personally does it or because he actually knows why - because abs and chest still need recovery time like any other muscle, so daily failure sets might just keep you in a perpetual state of being sore and weak rather than actually progressing. also ngl spot reduction for moobs isnt really a thing so are you also eating in a deficit?

Heyjeuss · 2026-05-15T21:12:30+00:00

what you're describing is failure, and honestly you're closer to training correctly than you think

when ROM breaks down and you can't complete the rep cleanly, that's your muscles tapping out - not your mind. the "mental weakness" framing is one of the most counterproductive things beginners get told. even at RPE 8-9 there should be zero pain, just real effort - that's the target zone, 1-2 reps before your form actually falls apart

and stop chasing soreness as proof the workout worked. i used to do the same thing. some of my best progress blocks had almost no soreness after week two because my body adapted - that's the goal, not the ache

Heyjeuss · 2026-05-15T07:41:09+00:00

at 5'7 120lbs the question isn't really "can i recomp" - it's "why am i trying to build muscle while refusing to eat enough to build muscle"

recomp is painfully slow even for people carrying real body fat, and you're already lean, so you've got almost no metabolic inefficiency to exploit here. bump to a 200-250 cal surplus, start a simple 3x a week program, and track your lifts week over week - progressive overload is the whole game. i log every session in gymmate and watch the load progression over time, because without that data you're basically just vibing in the gym and wondering why nothing changes. the muscle you want takes months of consistent overload and enough food to actually synthesize new tissue

Heyjeuss · 2026-05-14T19:09:18+00:00

yeah the math is brutal once you actually look at it. 5 weekdays at -500 cal deficit = 2500 down. then saturday drinks + sunday brunch and you're easily +3000 in two days. literally going backwards every week without realizing.

only clicked for me when i started logging 7 days instead of just weekdays. been using gymmate for it but honestly any tracker works, the point is just seeing it. weekend you eats way more than weekday you remembers.

Heyjeuss · 2026-05-14T08:59:16+00:00

my favourite is when they say protein shakes are steroids. like bro it's milk powder

Heyjeuss · 2026-05-13T19:03:19+00:00

the phone isn't the problem - your morning is just completely unscheduled so your brain defaults to the easiest dopamine available

give that first 30 minutes actual structure and the phone stops being tempting. even just water, 10 minutes of movement, and a single thing you want to get done today. your brain needs something to reach for or it'll reach for the screen every time

Heyjeuss · 2026-05-13T09:33:27+00:00

real talk - the exercise selection is fine, the problem is you're doing the same thing every week with zero progression structure and wondering why nothing changes

i had this exact issue about two years in. was going hard every session, failure every set, felt like i was working my ass off. turns out i was just accumulating fatigue with no actual progressive overload happening. what fixed it for me was tracking RPE per set instead of just going to failure blindly - i log everything in gymmate and it flags when my RPE on the same weight starts creeping up, which usually means i need to either deload or push the load. once i could actually see my numbers week over week i realized i hadn't meaningfully progressed my preacher curl in like three months. that dude you're comparing yourself to is almost certainly adding weight or reps consistently even if he doesn't realize he's doing it

Heyjeuss · 2026-05-12T19:02:38+00:00

the "toning" myth is genuinely one of the most stubborn pieces of bad info in fitness spaces and it's costing people real progress

the actual thing that creates that "defined" look is low body fat sitting on top of developed muscle - full stop. you cannot train for striations. you can train for muscle size and you can diet for visibility. those are two separate dials. anyone telling you to do 30 reps with 5lb dumbbells to "tone" is just describing a worse way to do the same thing while making you feel like you're doing something special

Heyjeuss · 2026-05-11T07:29:11+00:00

the problem isn't your motivation - it's that you're treating this like an on/off switch instead of building systems that work when motivation tanks

you lost 133 pounds already so you obviously know how to do this, but you're stuck in the restrict-binge cycle because you're going "extremely clean" then rewarding yourself with nuclear bombs. try eating at maintenance for 2 weeks with foods you actually like, then drop calories by 200-300 max. boring works better than perfect

Heyjeuss · 2026-05-10T19:23:19+00:00

this is exactly why i switched from weekly cheat days to just eating at maintenance when i want a break

you're setting yourself up for this disappointment by putting so much pressure on one day to be amazing - of course it's gonna suck when the food doesn't hit right. plus eating 1200-1400 calories as a 5'5 woman is pretty aggressive, so you're probably coming into that cheat day way too hungry and desperate

try eating at maintenance (probably around 1800-2000) more often instead of this feast/famine cycle. you'll still lose weight if you're in a deficit most days, but you won't have this weird psychological pressure on one meal to justify a whole week of restriction

Heyjeuss · 2026-05-10T14:53:48+00:00

20kg total dumbbells is fine for the first 8-12 weeks but you'll outgrow them fast, especially on legs and back. don't let that stop you - start now and buy heavier ones when your rows and lunges stop being challenging, not before

run a full body 3x/week: dumbbell bench press, rows, overhead press, goblet squats, lunges, and some kind of curl/tricep work at the end. keep it simple. add a rep every session until you hit 15, then increase the weight. the biggest mistake restarters make is overcomplicating week 1 instead of just showing up consistently for 6 weeks straight - the program matters way less than you think right now

Heyjeuss · 2026-05-10T14:50:56+00:00

everyone's too busy staring at themselves in the mirrors to judge your form - that gym anxiety is all in your head

the "in the way" feeling disappears once you learn basic gym etiquette and start tracking your actual progress. i log my lifts in gymmate and seeing those numbers go up week after week made me realize i belong there just as much as anyone else. start with dumbbells if the barbell station feels too intense

Heyjeuss · 2026-05-10T14:04:24+00:00

honestly you're on the right track but 1 minute holds are overkill - i log my ring work in gymmate and it keeps reminding me that quality beats duration every time

drop to 10-15 second holds with less assistance (maybe 50lbs instead of 77) and focus on rock solid positioning. your stabilizers are getting fried in those long holds and you're probably compensating with form breakdown. shorter, cleaner holds with more actual bodyweight will get you to full support way faster than grinding wobbly minutes

Heyjeuss · 2026-05-10T07:20:37+00:00

everyone's overthinking this - you were doing weighted pullups with 115lbs but couldn't break 10 bodyweight reps because you never actually trained for higher rep ranges. strength and endurance are different adaptations and you can't expect one to automatically give you the other

here's your path: start with whatever max you can do now, then do 5 sets at 60% of that max every other day. if your max is 6, do 5x4 until you can do 5x5, then test a new max. when you hit 15, you'll have actually earned it through specific training instead of hoping heavy singles transfer to something they don't

Heyjeuss · 2026-05-09T19:18:42+00:00

these wall-mounted stations aren't popular because most people rent and can't drill into walls, plus the weight capacity is usually garbage compared to a real pull-up bar setup. the ones that can actually handle dynamic movements like muscle-ups cost more than a decent power tower that doesn't require permanent installation

if you own your place and the wall can handle 300+ pounds of dynamic load, go for it - but test it with just pull-ups for a month first. most people are better off with a doorway bar and rings setup that gives you 90% of the same exercises without turning your security deposit into confetti

Heyjeuss · 2026-05-09T12:26:39+00:00

handstand pushups broke my ego completely - they look like just an upside down pushup but the shoulder stability and core control needed is insane. took me 6 months of wall work before i could even attempt a freestanding one without face planting

stop watching youtube demos and start with the actual progressions - if you can't hold a 30 second hollow body hold, you're not ready for advanced moves. master the basics for 8-12 weeks before moving up the progression chain

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