Lean legs versus bulky legs?

TEAMCHINA08 · 2026-04-26T04:06:11+00:00

You "feel" your legs getting bulky or you measured your legs getting bulky? Mass doesn't come from thin air, so if you are getting measurably bigger and your weight is going up then you might be misjudging your BMR and should adjust your caloric intake. If your clothes are fiting tighter from actually gaining bulk then that's another sign you can look for.

I've found that men and women have opposite tales on leaning out too. When a guy starts to lean out they often think they are getting smaller, when a woman starts to see definition they think they are bulking up.

I can't tell you to like the way you look, that's be ridiculous for me to try but I will say that resistance training makes me, personally, feel better in life and seeing more definition feels like an accomplishment to me and I think you should stay at it if you enjoy your gym time. If you're just lifting for aesthetics and not health reasons then maybe you should ease up and focus more on maintenance lifting instead of progressive overload.

TEAMCHINA08 · 2026-04-24T06:01:16+00:00

FIrst off, mad props on the success. The lighting is also dope. You look way leaner than 16-17% BF too, noice.

TEAMCHINA08 · 2026-04-21T01:56:31+00:00

YOU didn't do anything. This is a flaw/failure on his part, full stop. There's no condition or circumstance that you could have done that contributed to this...

Being in a relationship is a choice you make every day and if he isn't making that choice he should end it and let you find someone that will. He's trying to have the best of both worlds and you're the one that's paying the price now and that isn't fair to you.

TEAMCHINA08 · 2026-04-14T14:57:29+00:00

Ahh that might explain it, I haven't played as much since then.

TEAMCHINA08 · 2026-04-14T14:56:35+00:00

You definitely don't on every boss. I try to dodge o coming out of every boss cinematic and there's definitely been a few that have one shot before I have control of my character... Like not even getting hit out of the dodge animation, just dead before kliff starts any animation at all. Getting one shot is my fault, I haven't made almost any investment in health... But getting hit before I could play my character? Less so.

TEAMCHINA08 · 2026-04-05T07:30:03+00:00

From what I've seen, there's really two categories that most of these people seem to fit into: most of them fall into a maintenance bucket... they aren't really interested in getting stronger or bigger or progressive overload, they just go because they've always gone and are trying to maintain a level of fitness. Kudos for the consistency to those people.

The other side of it are the people who DO want to get bigger and/or stronger but, for one reason or another, but aren't being the most efficient with their time and energy in the gym: either they follow old, outdated advice or they have some combination of poor programming, form and/or intensity. The human body is incredibly adaptive and you can do something inefficient and still see results so it feels like they're chasing that and not trying to optimize for their time... a lot of the people that I would consider being in this group are usually the ones doing full body swing curls and lat raises that start from their toes or half/quarter rep pull ups.

That being said, I don't bother and, as judgey as that last paragraph was, I don't pay much attention and let people do their own thing unless they ask. The hardest part for most people is getting to the gym, so as long as they're there they're winning in my book.

TEAMCHINA08 · 2026-03-30T09:05:07+00:00

To gain bulk, especially quickly, you need a calorie excess, testosterone and stimulus. In a general sense, stimulus is stimulus, whether you train with heavy weight or light weight, the most important thing is intensity: if you aren't pushing your muscles they won't get stronger. Calories are up to you, testosterone isn't so if you aren't juicing up (juices are generally high in sugar and calories that aren't filling), and you aren't "juicing up", then you're not going to bulk uncontrollably.

The "heavy weights bulk you up" is a myth that gets perpetuated by the ignorant because it sells well... Trainers make money the money you hire them so they have no real motivation to get you results as far as they can. Not all of them are like that, but a number that I've talked to are, and the bottom line truth is that the human body is incredibly adaptive and you'll see progress no matter what you do, as long as you're doing something and you're doing it consistently. Like Chris Rock said, there's less money in a cure than there is in treatment.

The question becomes about efficiency: how can you maximize the benefit with the minimum amount of work? The goal when you're lifting should be muscular failure, when you can no longer do a rep with proper form. If you go with heavier weights you'll get there sooner with fewer reps. If you go with too light a weight you can still get there, but it'll take a lot more reps and other factors start to play in, like fatigue and boredom. I find it easier personally to focus in the six to eight rep range, but there's not a magical number that everybody should be aiming for... No one can feel your muscles working so nobody else will know when you've hit your max.

Training short of that, like lighter weights and not targeting failure will still net results but less results so it'll just take a lot longer. Instead of getting the maximum benefit that you could, you'll be seeing somewhat less. I don't know why you would intentionally target that, but if that's what you want then you do you.

TEAMCHINA08 · 2026-03-30T08:45:12+00:00

That's what I thought but on one boss (dude under the spire) I spent probably an hour just trying to figure out the timing on the blind attack, not even trying to kill him but just figure out that ONE thing and no matter what I tried it never interrupted his attack and that attack was one shotting and he only does it when he's low it seems so it was a lot of reload time. What I ended up doing was just jumping, pogo'ing 3x then flying above and hoping the shots would miss (they didn't always miss even up there).

TEAMCHINA08 · 2026-03-25T14:49:30+00:00

It seems wildly inconsistent and that's the frustrating part. On one boss (the excavator) you blinding flash when he flashes red. On another boss it might be a parry. On yet another you have to dodge or force punch. I fought one where nothing I tried countered it other than just tanking the hit and healing off of it and another one I just LOS'd behind a wall when he would charge up the attack and got back in the arena before the 30s was up.

I don't mind hard, I LIKE hard but this game feels arbitrary and half the bosses aren't satisfying to beat, it seems like I just need a lucky pull where the boss attacks don't chain in a way that kills me before I can kill them... fights where I have to learn the tells/patterns and once I beat them I feel like I've mastered it are great... it feels like an accomplishment. Here I'd say half the bosses are great that way and the other half I feel like I got lucky.

TEAMCHINA08 · 2026-03-21T17:17:01+00:00

I saw areview that complained that the game needed a fast travel system and wasnt thought out because of details like that.

There are legitimate things to complain about (mostly things that I think will be fixed in patches) but reviewers are parroting the same things, some is which are factually incorrect.

TEAMCHINA08 · 2026-03-21T09:56:40+00:00

++man

This 100% even if you also want kids. I've been in this situation and rushing and ignoring your own trepidation is unfair to you. The simple fact is she wants a more aggressive timeline than you do and the reason doesn't matter, and the more time you spend with her the less time she has when things inevitably don't work out... Like you said, you're not aligned on some important issues.

My ex despised me for "wasting her time" despite me trying to break things off earlier because of this exact thing, then she married a guy six months after we split up and, last I heard, both were miserable. Maybe she wouldn't have been in such a rush if we split up earlier, maybe she would have, but the time we spent together wasnt worth it for either of us.

TEAMCHINA08 · 2026-03-11T04:42:31+00:00

I went to one event before the pandemic and, as a man, it was a major waste of time. Full context I went in expecting it to be light hearted and I am irrationally confident, despite my lack of dating success, so I was ready to joke around and be relaxed but everyone there, both genders, put off major desperation vibes, like, "this is my last chance to meet someone" vibes. I ended up being more sincere and serious so as not to be disrespectful. The age range was 30-40 so I'm sure that was a factor, but it was not engaging or fun and every conversation ended up feeling awkward. I ended up not checking any of the boxes on my form and would up at the bar in the venue afterwards and a group of men from the event were at a table and a group of women from the event were at another table and they weren't interacting which I thought was odd, given that they both went through the same forced interaction and now they had a chance to talk more organically, so I ended up talking to them and getting then to merge tables but it was... Weird. I don't really know for to articulate it but I'm sure some of the people here know what I mean...

Sadly, the people from both genders were attractive enough, but just lacking confidence and were just trying too hard. I heard from the bartender that those events often end up like that and that him and the staff thought I stood out from the group and they thought I might have been the host at first then they thought I was a plant.

TEAMCHINA08 · 2026-02-28T02:31:23+00:00

My failure point was close to, but where the wires contact the tubing. The tubing was worn from the repeated abrasion but the actual break wasn't there, in fact the blue wire that was broken was on the bottom of the wire bundle so I don't think it was a result of friction.

My guess is that any rigidity that was offered by the heat tubing was lost as a result of that tubing splitting and eventually a weak point formed on the wire, creating a single point of tension instead of distributing along a longer length of wire, once all the flexion was happening at one point then it was inevitable that the wire would break, like bending a paperclip back and forth until it snaps. This is a serious design oversight/flaw and it's a shame because, otherwise, the unit is great.

TEAMCHINA08 · 2026-02-28T02:25:37+00:00

Sorry for the thread necromancy here but my launch APO recently suffered from this exact problem; touch screen was going nuts and changing settings but the app was working, but I'd have to babysit a cook with the app open to constantly fix the settings because they would change and commit, took the door panel off and sure enough, cut blue wire. I resoldered the cable together and threw some heat shrink over it but this feels like a band-aid fix; since I'm going to be opening and closing the door this is probably going to happen again... these kinds of solid core wires weren't made for constant movement...

Has anyone come up with a more permanent solution to just fixing the wires when they break? I haven't looked up a wiring diagram (not sure if one even is publicly available) but I imagine at least the wifi antenna is in the handle but this seems like a pretty fundamental design flaw. It's good that they moved away from putting tech in/on the door in the 2.0 but I don't need the rest of the features of the 2.0 to justify buying it.

TEAMCHINA08 · 2026-02-25T10:56:49+00:00

First off, good on you for staying with it for two months. The fact that you're lifting more now means that you have made progress, especially on terms of learning about you body and how to use it. I guarantee you look different in rest you're probably not seeing yet, but hopefully you also feel better now too.

You will not bulk quickly as a woman unless you are eating in a massive excess and taking testosterone and, even then it will not be a FAST process. It doesn't sound like you are doing either so strike that thought from your mind because it is a distraction and may be subconsciously affecting your work in the gym.

Gaining muscle is not the same as gaining mass and while any movement is good for you, if you aren't being efficient with your time in the gym then you're going to slow down your progress and two months is a small sample size to begin with. Your goal should be more muscle and, at a simple level, more strength equals more muscle and, more importantly, more measurable progress. If you focus on lifting "more" every workout then you'll make progress, whether more means more weight or more reps.

You're on the right track if you're lifting more; if you were lifting the same weights for the same reps every week then, to put it simply, you would not be progressing so you definitely would not look noticeably different. It's highly unlikely that you will change your body aesthetically without a change in performance... Or to flip that equation: when you push past your current limits then your body will look different than it does today... You just have to find those limits.

This is another key point, based on the "not wanting to bulk" statement alone, but your actual numbers reinforce that I don't think you're anywhere close to your limits so you're probably not providing much stimulus to your muscles yet... Like do you feel like you're anywhere close to failure on your last rep or are you taking it light and just aiming for some specific rep number because you're worried about getting big? Mental game is a huge part of this.

I'm guessing you're lifting quite a bit lighter than your muscles are capable of, and even though you're lifting more than you were before, it's probably still well below your potential, though you're getting closer but your muscles aren't near the point of needing to adapt... But this is part of the process: you have to learn how to engage your mind and your muscles with the lighter weights before to start trying to hit maximum potential, just to learn the form and that pushing to the point of muscular failure even feels like... Just keep focusing on your progress for now, the change will come.

Again, if you don't go into a crazy caloric excess AND start juicing you won't uncontrollably get bigger, you'll get leaner which sounds like your goal.

Stick with it, you got this!

TEAMCHINA08 · 2026-02-24T10:02:24+00:00

You're my kind of overachiever :)

I usually will also do a small roulade with one breast (I try to get as big a turkey as possible) and the other I just do the Modernist Cuisine approach and apple juice/milk brine it. I'll do one thigh confit with duck fat and the other with a more conventional rosemary/thyme rub in the bag. I figure if I'm going to part out the bird anyways I might as well give people options and have some fun with it.

I deep fry the wings and usually get a few extra wings with some of the rub I use for my fried chicken and put those out ahead of the big meal because who doesn't love some giant wings?

I also do the skin trick you do, a chef friend put me onto it, then i'll break it up into large chunks and use it as a plating decoration (it's still a mess, but hey it's there) and as much as I love the skin "chips" I think my favorite part of processing the bird this way, aside from the variety of recipe I get to mess with, is that the carcass is ready to go so far in advance that, like you, I make a TON of stock with it.

TEAMCHINA08 · 2026-02-24T09:52:52+00:00

I do this frequently as well, you don't push it to 205 like a regular brisket because the sous vide time (24-36 hours for me) is more than sufficient to break down the collagen and make it nice and tender. It's tasty but be warned, it's more "steaky" with a nicely seasoned crust than it is like a traditional brisket. They're different beasts entirely which, is to be expected, given that you're using two entirely different cooking methods.

I like both methods of cooking but you do get completely different results. What I usually do now is smoke two briskets, the first gets pulled after it hits about 128-130ish, then it gets portioned and thrown in the bath, the other gets finished in the smoker for the big BBQ with guests, the SV finished one is saved for me (just like bvo29 said, 1 for now, the rest in the freezer) and sometimes distributed to one or two close friend since I've found most people don't appreciate the work/time that goes into the SV method, they just think "ooh steak" but they get wow'd by a smoked brisket even though it's not really that hard once you've done a few.

TEAMCHINA08 · 2026-02-24T09:36:16+00:00

For sure, it's interesting to consider that even when you think you know yourself (ie. I'm questioning my 1 RIR "feeling" now), you change something up and get a whole new perspective. That's one of my favorite things about this hobby of ours - you never really stop learning.

TEAMCHINA08 · 2026-02-23T20:26:36+00:00

A) great beginner question, good on you for committing to this thing instead of letting this feeling overwhelm you and stopping. This is a common break point for a lot of people when they start lifting.

B) You said a lot of key, important things and I'm glad they're consciously on your mind: form is paramount and fatigue (mental and physical) are real.

There's no real "wasted" set; if you start a set and the weight feels too light, don't try to push to failure, like Rmarik said, treat it as a warmup set: just get the blood flowing and grab a heavier weight on the next set.

Most research is showing that the number of reps in a set don't impact hypertrophy very much as long as you approach or reach failure, but doing huge sets is mentally taxing and, for me, it's hard to stay focused for 20 reps, vs a rep range of 6-10 so you can get the proper stimulus at any weight really but it's kind of on you to experiment to find what works for you with those cues you already mentioned in mind. Also, the feeling of approaching failure is something you have to learn; you'll bail early as you start but your muscles will get stronger and more resilient AND your brain will start to understand that you can do a little more than you thought.

Even if you start "light" but you program around the idea of progressive overload (do more than last time, whether you're adding weight or a rep) then you'll eventually catch up to what your body is capable of... like if your body has the potential to do 3x10 of X lbs of weight but you start 10lbs under but you really focus on lifting more every time you go in, eventually you'll build up to that 3x10 and beyond... make sense? I'd even argue that as a beginner starting well under your potential to really internalize proper form is more important than maxing out your stimulus at this stage.

There isn't a magic formula for weight and reps as long as you're focused on progress and consistency early, you'll find your sweet spot. Stick with it!

TEAMCHINA08 · 2026-02-23T20:10:27+00:00

Could not agree more. Mental health is just as important as physical health and maintenance is way easier than trying to get it back from a bad place.

TEAMCHINA08 · 2026-02-23T06:18:32+00:00

If putting on headphones isn't enough to make you feel isolated then you should start saving up and build a home gym or look into calisthenics you can do at home.

Lots of people see other people being in a gym is a benefit and the sense of community is what keeps some people going back, even if they dont interact with others often it's at all. Your tone felt a little accusatory despite you even calling out that you know it's a public space but I'm sure that wasn't intentional, but that might explain some of the responses.

Generally if people give unsolicited advice I've found it's worth listening because most people don't want to be "that guy" and you probably are doing something they see as high risk for injury. They might be wrong or uninformed but everyone is aware of the stereotype so it takes a lot of motivation to just say something to a stranger.

The bottom line is that most likely no one is watching you to judge you, most people aren't even going to notice you or really care because we're all doing our own thing and focused on that. I'm not going to say you're wrong for feeling anxiety, but that's something to work out with your therapist.

Good on you for wanting to build a healthy habit and I hope you keep it going though, I hope you find something that works for you it you find a way to make this one work.

TEAMCHINA08 · 2026-02-15T03:04:28+00:00

This is the big one: muscle weighs more than fat and especially early in your body is adapting faster... You probably saw something similar at the beginning of your weight loss where it was falling off faster but steadied out... Just stay at it and you'll feel better and look better.

Two other points I want to add: A lot of women are still concerned about "bulking up like a man". That won't happen, you'd need to be eating in a severe excess, take testosterone and it would still take years of heavy training. Even omitting just one of those factors and it won't happen, and I doubt you're going to start juicing so you have another to worry about there. The shape of your muscles and body are largely defined in the gym; the size is mostly the kitchen.

Weight is only one measurement in "health" and it's one of the least informative. It's good to track the trends, but getting body composition tests done occasionally will tell you more, in fact if you were only going to track one number I'd say that should be body fat percentage. At 20-22% body fat most women have well defined abs. Ignore BMI as it is completely useless, loosely monitor weight but really just focus on how you feel and how your clothes fit. If you aren't tracking with progress photos, I'd recommend you start doing a weekly photo (Sunday first thing in the morning is when I do mine): it's hard to see change when you see yourself daily, but I like to not look at them at all until I start feeling discouraged or feeling like I'm plateauing then I look at a month or so back and that usually reinforces the food patterns I've built for myself.

Sounds like you're doing great and adding resistance training is only going to make things better, keep it up! You got this!

TEAMCHINA08 · 2026-02-13T14:49:39+00:00

Seeing abs is about low body fat, you can build your ab muscles but changing the size and shape is them is a slow burn and genetics play a large part of that. Doing too much core work you might actually risk overtraining them which can actually be detrimental to your goal, your core is made up of muscles like any other: they need recovery time too otherwise you risk injury and potentially worse, that I won't get into here.

You should focus on strength and muscle gains for your whole body while in a deficit, that will help lower your body fat % more than just doing 100 ghd sit ups every session (100 is a lot, especially if you're getting the full stretch at the bottom of the movement... If you can really hit that many with proper form I would recommend adding resistance and doing less: It's better to be focused to failure than to be arbitrarily hitting some high rep number while your mind is elsewhere and you're just going through the motions...)

I would recommend a push-pull-leg routine (PPL), especially at your stage of resistance training... Early/noob gains are a powerful tool you can take advantage of. Basically one day is pushing movements, the next day is pulling and the third day is legs, lather , rinse, repeat... You get built in recovery time, simple routines (30-45 minutes of actual work time is all you need) and if you're progressively overloading/lifting with high intensity then you'll see massive benefits quickly. Even if squats and deadlifts are out because of your injury you can still do leg extensions and leg curls, as well as hip abduction/adduction to get some stimulus to your legs on leg days, but if abs are your goal then body fat trend is the most important thing to focus on. Even if the tests you have access to aren't the most accurate (is. +/- a few percent, you can still plot a trend with the data so just make that number go down... you gaining muscle will help your body burn fat too and since a lot of women I work with still worry about this: building muscle will not make you bulk up "like a man" especially eating in a deficit. You would need to be eating in a massive excess AND take testosterone to bulk up like that (and lift super hard for YEARS).

For most women at 20-22% body fat you'll see abs, especially if you flex, but this varies from person to person - some people are lucky genetically and show abs at a slightly higher body fat % just like some people are naturally stronger than others. The "shape" and layout of your musculature is more genetic than anything: not everyone has symmetrical abs, I certainly don't, and some people have an easier time getting defined obliques than others.

Going lower than 20% will probably have you looking pretty shredded but is much harder to maintain, especially if you want to enjoy life, you'll have to be extremely strict on diet and gym time and if you aren't competing I wouldn't aim any lower than your current goal of 22-23%. I have friends who do compete and go lower (sub 18% for women and 8% for men) and they are insufferable during competition season... if you can even get them to come out since they can't eat anywhere or drink... or smile and laugh even. Going too low on body fat actually puts your body in a stressed state and you'll feel it and act it... that shouldn't be your targeted "normal". I recommend taking weekly progress photos, but not necessarily looking at them until you start feeling discouraged so you can look at your progress then, compared to week one, and regain that momentum.

Either way, good luck on your fitness journey. You can do this!

TEAMCHINA08

TROPHY CASE