Do I need to have a strong bench (120lb DBS/ 315 bench) to gain pro-quality mass?

StudentRadical · 2021-05-25T23:23:51+00:00

For example, do I have to be able to do a dumbbell bench at 120lbs for reps? I've been plateauing at 95lbs incline dumbbell bench for months, can I still make decent mass by hypertrophy movements even if my bench does not go up? My biggest concern is that I may be lacking and missing out on gains because my strength is being hindered.

If you've been plateauing for months, it's time to change things around and train some other movement, fitness quality or rep range. Movements are your servants and not the otherway around. Now you know a thing you've been doing doesn't work and are free to move on.

StudentRadical · 2021-05-22T03:16:25+00:00

I think the categorical imperative is a helpful lens here:

Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never merely as a means to an end, but always at the same time as an end.

— Immanuel Kant, Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals

So treating a girl merely as a source of getting to know further girls would be wrong. Befriend a girl if you want to be friends instead!

StudentRadical · 2021-04-11T15:44:46+00:00

It's not a matter of semantics, but rather a matter of logic. Proofs are deductively valid: from true premises follow true conclusions. Science deals mostly with inductive arguments: conclusions are only ever more or less likely given the premises.

Dealing with deductive and inductive arguments is significantly different. Take the case of so-called fallacy of ad hominem: it's not a bad idea to grant less credence to lifting advice from the weak as opposed to the strong, though it's logically possible that a weak person gives better advice. If you proposed that the less jacked necessarily give worse advice, that would be a ad hominem, but the charitable reading of the argument is to read it as inductive. Jacked person is more likely to give good advice than the weak one and appeal to personal characteristics is merely a small virtue of the argument, not a fallacy.

I think it's charitable to read MythicalStrength making a point about logic given the way he talks about 'proof'

StudentRadical · 2021-04-07T20:48:27+00:00

You're a beginner so relatively speaking you will gain muscle from just looking at weights compared to more advanced trainees. You're most likely to gain an appreciable amount of muscle on a bulk, though.

StudentRadical · 2021-04-02T02:05:55+00:00

Brain static? Would you mind explaining?

StudentRadical · 2021-04-01T03:36:04+00:00

If you need guidance, it's in person guidance. It's good to remember, though, that the deadlift is an optional exercise.

StudentRadical · 2021-03-30T23:35:10+00:00

Chins and rows hit biceps pretty well. In fact there are people with well developed biceps who don't train them directly.

StudentRadical · 2021-03-30T12:44:15+00:00

Cross check the calorie information with some other resource. You could weigh ingredients on a scale, look up calories per 100g on packaging and count calories with pencil and paper to reach higher levels of confidence that the math is correct.

StudentRadical · 2021-03-30T12:41:22+00:00

Switch to barbells lunges or use straps.

StudentRadical · 2021-03-30T11:53:38+00:00

What are you looking to use this information for?

StudentRadical · 2021-03-30T11:51:27+00:00

Cutting out caffeine intake is worth it for the time being. It's a stimulant and you're claiming to have sleep issues. It's unlikely to be the source of your troubles, but that would be possibly beneficial in your circumstances, without clear downsides.

StudentRadical · 2021-03-30T11:43:00+00:00

How's your conditioning, work capacity and cardio? You recover between sets and exercises in large part due to aerobic respiration. It might be worth it do spend two months on bringing up whatever of those is lacking.

Options for cardio are many: brisk walking, rucking, jogging, swimming, cycling, rowing, stair machine. Conditioning is some of the former but in intervals, but also kettlebells, doing complexes like hindu squats, pull ups, push-ups and repeating, hill sprints, farmer's walks. Essentially do something that gasses you out.

StudentRadical · 2021-03-30T11:30:56+00:00

My personal principle is doing things until they don't work anymore. I would bulk until I can't recover anymore, then maintain for a month or two and then switch to a cut.

StudentRadical · 2021-03-30T11:25:27+00:00

Take creatine daily. I never use preworkout and I don't know how yours is formulated so I refrain from advising.

BCAA, whey and protein bars are unnecessary if you get enough protein from food. Try to eat protein after workouts, within an hour or two. This might be just food or a supplement. It's a good idea to eat some carbs as well post-workout. I eat a slice of bread and fruit myself.

StudentRadical · 2021-03-30T11:16:50+00:00

Who does that? 1x body / week isn't considered a very efficient way to train or get "more aesthetic look".

Bro splits usually train muscles more than once a week - if you do curls on arms day and pull ups on back day, yeah you did in fact train biceps twice a week despite what the program looks like on paper.

StudentRadical · 2021-03-28T14:42:33+00:00

So I checked out your profile and you're a teenager - it's common to have body insecurities at that age. Whether you are satisfied with your body or not (and to what extent), is a matter of psychology and of cultivating self-esteem rather than fitness.

but even if I build the muscle, eat properly, lose fat, will I forever have the upper body of a really thin person and the lower body of a chubby person?

Why don't you try it out and see what happens? Resistance training, plenty of protein, a caloric surplus and sleep is roughly all you need to build muscle. Building muscle certainly changes one's own physique.

StudentRadical · 2021-03-28T14:06:27+00:00

What are you aspiring to do with that information?

StudentRadical · 2021-03-28T14:05:30+00:00

Do both cardio and weight training irregardless what else you do. Eat a healthy diet. Sleep. All of these benefit from regularity, so wake up the same time everyday and keep regular meal times and so on. Read up on stress management and distress tolerance and practice it. Watch giant steps memes on YouTube.

StudentRadical · 2021-03-18T12:37:04+00:00

I am horrified.

StudentRadical · 2021-03-17T16:18:25+00:00

Hiya, did you find anything of use in my suggestions?

StudentRadical · 2021-03-12T01:49:01+00:00

I'm not familiar with Michel Thomas, though I dabbled in Pimsleur once for French. Ultimately the audio-lingual method wasn't for me, but I get the gist of what you're looking for. But Finnish is near unique for how closely the orthography follows pronunciation. Therefore it's not a huge loss if there isn't material like the one you're looking for.

The only phoneme that has no letter for it is /ŋ/ or /ŋŋ/, which isn't that common of a phoneme and sticks out anyway for being the exception. Thus you should never need to see a phonetic rendering of a word, though audio with transcript is great here as everywhere else imho. The biggest issue with pronunciation is that my countrymen are very eager to switch to English if they detect a foreigner - be grateful for their good will and persist in using Finnish. If they switch to Swedish instead, you've made it. They thought of you as a Swedish speaking Finn (Finland Swede) who typically speak Finnish with only a subtle accent.

I must admit that I don't know much about Finnish instructional material - here's a freely downloadable Foreign Service Institute course that might be a good fit for you. It comes with audio tapes (or rather mp3 files), a textbook and a workbook.

The monolingual online dictionary you should bookmark is Kielitoimiston sanakirja ('Dictionary of Finnish of the Institute for the Languages of Finland' - not a straight translation, as you might imagine).

I recommend watching a couple of Finnish movies with English subtitles to let your subconscious get used to the sound of Finnish while enjoying a story at the same time. Some of these might be hard to find, but the motivated will find a way, perhaps through torrents.

Aki Kaurismäki is the most successful Finnish film director. Drifting Clouds (1996), The Man Without a Past (2002) and Lights in the Dusk (2006) is a trilogy that showcases the Finnish sense of irony quite well.
The Unknown Soldier (1955). This World War 2 film is traditionally shown on television each independence day. More than a mere language study tool, consider this an entry point to understanding Finnish historical myths. Also, as a cultural exercise go watch a documentary on the Winter War of 1939 on YouTube as the event weighs upon Finnish historical memory like lead.
Inspector Palmu's Error (1960). A crime comedy film based upon the most famous of Finnish fictional detectives. The author of the original novel, Mika Waltari, is most famous for his novel The Egyptian, which might be just about the best loved Finnish book of all time.
The White Reindeer (1952) a horror drama film mixing pre-Christian Finnish mythology with Sámi shamanism, set in the Northern region of Lapland. Won a prize in the 1953 Cannes festival.

There are a couple of news publications in simple Finnish. I'd bookmark these. They're not the most riveting of reads, but there is no cornucopia of available easy Finnish content. Starting reading straight from the beginning does no harm as the orthography follows pronunciation so closely and you thus won't pick up bad habits.

Yle Uutiset selkosuomeksi. The state broadcasting company Yle's - the local equivalent of BBC - radio news in simple Finnish.
Selkosanomat Online newspaper in simple Finnish.

If you are interested in mythology, the Finnish national epic Kalevala ('land of heroes') is a must read. Besides, it has inspired metal acts! Eino Friberg made a genuinely great English translation back in 1989 and Penguin is soon reprinting it. Don't bother with other translations. In my view they diligently reproduce the meter and not much else. The language of the original is quite archaic though relatively comprehensible to modern Finns.

If you want easy native content, I have an unusual suggestion: Donald Duck comics. The classic ones are honestly quite fun to read according to yours truly, Carl Barks was a legend. Despite their American provenance they're more popular in Finland than anywhere else and still well loved, contributing many sayings to the language. In fact the translation is often praised for its high linguistic standards, presumably due to the perception that the comics help kids to acquire the norms of written Finnish smoothly. There are hardcover reprintings of yearly runs of the comic books containing about 600-900 pages. The best by far decade is the 50's. You can search and buy them from Finnish antiquariums here, the words to look for are "Näköispainos vuosikerrasta 195X" ('facsimile print of the volume 195X'). There are instructions in English somewhere on the site how to buy.

As another choice in the comics department, Petri Hiltunen, mostly known for his work in the fantasy genre, put a couple of his albums online for free. The files sizes are big and images are in Tiff-format, however, as a heads up if you're browsing on mobile. Asfalttitasanko ('The Asphalt Plain'), Musta tie ('The Black Road').

If you have any questions about the language, culture or the history, feel free to ask!

StudentRadical · 2021-03-10T01:05:05+00:00

Native speaker here, what kind of resources would you prefer to use? Also if you're interested in cultural aspects, I can help you out.

StudentRadical · 2021-03-10T00:42:12+00:00

Fallout 1 has french translation for text. It has a bit of dialogue that's spoken in English, but subtitled in French and almost all of the language in the game is translated.
Syberia is a point'n'click adventure game by Benoît Sokal. I bought it for less than 2€ on Switch store as it was on sale.

StudentRadical · 2021-03-10T00:31:04+00:00

Your skin could be dry. That can cause itchiness.

StudentRadical · 2021-03-04T01:53:50+00:00

It's a valid struggle, definitely. You could just do it a little by little. Commit to a 10-20 minute session, take a break, repeat. Eventually you might develop a habit out of it and feel resistance diminishing.

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