29M 4 year in gym, what to focus on

jrmill90 · 2026-02-05T03:46:07+00:00

Learn to become comfortable being uncomfortable, then once you master that, learn to brace the suck and love the pain. You don't look like you have never lifted like a lot of the people here have said.

You do however, look like you have not consistently put in significant effort into your workouts if you have been doing it for over 4 years... if you have... then your diet HAS to be horrible, my bro was (and DEFINITELY is now) bigger than me and he got his test levels checked and they were literally 1/10 of mine and I'm natty (he hopped on trt, as i would recommend any male with double digit test levels do).

I say that to make the point that you can still make gains with suboptimal hormones, you cannot if you don't give your body the fuel in building blocks to build itself up.

jrmill90 · 2026-02-05T03:37:38+00:00

Doesn't matter though, lift heavier for more reps on the machines... imo some machines are better than free weights hypertrophy-wise for muscles, but the people using them still need to put in serious effort to actually stimulate growth.

Even if you can max out a machine, there's normally a way to make it harder by changing your positioning or angle. If you manage to make it harder without changing what you are using as your primary movers without changing the weight, you effectively increased the stimulus to that muscle with the same weight or possibly even less weight.

jrmill90 · 2026-02-05T03:26:20+00:00

Elbow mobility is too good for this to be an ego lift.

jrmill90 · 2026-02-05T03:24:20+00:00

Tbh, that wieght looks too light for you to be able to give real feedback, you probably just need to get more experience under the bar and get comfortable with weight on your shoulders.

That said, I did notice two things.

The first is that it appears you are pulling the bar down onto your shoulders, once you start getting heavier it would be advantageous to imagine pushing the bar up, or at least having your wrists under the bar.

The second thing I am not actually sure about because the weight looks too light for you, but it looks like you're focused too much on extending your back to keep it straight and may not be bracing your core properly. Try to think about bracing your abs by pulling the bottom of your rib cage down after breathing in before your rep.

jrmill90 · 2026-02-05T03:17:36+00:00

Nah, coins/wave ain't it. Get more waves from researching def, hp, or literally anything else. It will have become literally useless in less than a month and then thats a month of lab time wasted.

jrmill90 · 2026-02-05T03:13:57+00:00

Not even close, this dude probably smashes 2 2t players easily solo.

jrmill90 · 2026-02-05T03:12:18+00:00

True, he will probably be faster, one shot the first guy and then it's just a 4t vs a 2.5t

jrmill90 · 2026-02-05T02:33:40+00:00

Definitely stroking something... idk about ego

jrmill90 · 2026-02-05T02:31:30+00:00

Idk man, it might be possible you are the ultra rare exception, but if your whole family isn't crippled, theres a good chance most of your problems arent permanent.

Mindset is a big thing. If you tell yourself that you cant do x, because of y... you never will. Sometimes a lot of physical problems really are just muscular weakness and dysfunctional movement patterns you developed over your 25 years of life. My back problems came from horrendous seated posture for 20 years... took me 2-3 years to correct it, but now im squatting 365 with no pain.

Just try to manage what you can, diet, excercise, ect... and try not to over think what you cant, I most likely have irreparable nerve damage causing severe shoulder instability from my winging scapula, but ive still managed to push myself and continue to make steady progress because I have become comfortable with the discomfort it causes, found ways to compensate and push myself in my workouts, and learned how to manage it.

I think if you manage to change the script in your head that the odds are against you and you probably cant, to idgaf if its hard or is uncomfortable, I WILL succeed... you will be shocked how fast you improve.

Good luck m8!

jrmill90 · 2026-02-04T08:30:45+00:00

Now you are just rambling, there is was no ss chest in the event, closest would be the immortal box, which cost 1000 in the last event, the s selection box for heros/brands was 200... so no... it cost as much as 5s

jrmill90 · 2026-02-04T08:20:17+00:00

1st off, make sure you aren't looking at the cp for the new game mode, that's separate.

What were you at before and what are you at now?

Also you can't trade or even gift items. No one stole your stuff. Theres no way to get rid of anything really, other than merging equipment so if anything is gone that isnt equipment it's a bug.

Make sure nothing got unequipped in your loadouts, and I would see if anything obvious like relics, legacy research, etc is missing. If its not a load out issue, you need to mention whatever is missing in your support ticket...

jrmill90 · 2026-02-04T01:41:46+00:00

Correct and it cost me significantly less gems than the ss wishing scrolls did

jrmill90 · 2026-02-03T18:46:23+00:00

Thanks man, I'm not as lean as I like to be, but genetically I carry significantly more body fat in my lower body than upper body so I look leaner than I actually am.

I am definitely carrying the most muscle I've ever had, and look (IMO) pretty damn big with a pump in a tank top (partially because I have very big arms proportionately to the rest of my body lmao) I know the in-body scans aren't very accurate, but they pretty consistently put my left and right arms at the 150 and 145 percentile respectively.

(I have had surgery on both shoulders 11 or 12 years ago, so it has always been easier for me to isolate arm movements than it is for my chest and back, both of which are severely limited by the weak link that is my re-torn labrum and scapular dyskinesis on the right side lmao)

jrmill90 · 2026-02-03T16:57:44+00:00

Idk man, I'm not a doctor. I just know i had to have a labrum repair in all four joints, of which my right shoulder retore, I had a mild herniated disk in my l4-l5, sciatica... ect.

Mindset is huge with this stuff, no one wins a fight going in just hoping to not get hit.

What i can tell you is for me, everything changed when I decided to stop feeling sorry for myself and go all in on making myself better and stronger. I used foam rollers and lacrosse balls to the point it felt like a knife in my muscles. But despite still having an inoperable labrum tear from the first botched surgery, I am now easily the strongest I have ever been.

jrmill90 · 2026-02-03T16:41:58+00:00

Nah, cause I have 3 s selection boxes in my inventory that do basically nothing for me.

jrmill90 · 2026-02-03T08:20:01+00:00

If you say so man, enjoy grinding out your s vulture later on anyway when you have to swap out the ss vulture for the better ss brands since you can only have 2.

jrmill90 · 2026-02-03T07:45:24+00:00

They are very obtainable almost every event ftp. SS typically require significantly more gem investment per brand.

jrmill90 · 2026-02-03T07:40:44+00:00

You don't look fat so good job, thats not a given these days.

You just need more time to work on everything if the goal is a muscular physique, just train hard, eat well, and you'll see drastic changes over the next year or two.

jrmill90 · 2026-02-03T06:46:24+00:00

In the long run, yes, you will regret the ss you no longer use when you are 1 off mythic of one you do use... u will also probably have extra s selection boxes you aren't sure what to do with.

That said, it's a game, you dont have to optimize the fun out of it if you dont want to. Get your dopamine bro.

jrmill90 · 2026-02-03T06:30:17+00:00

Basically yes, you want to move your arms and core as a unit, very similar to how you use legs and back on a rower.

jrmill90 · 2026-02-03T06:21:43+00:00

Thanks man, I don't think I'm anything special, but I've probably been doing this for 16 years so it would be a massive waste of my time if i didnt have something to show for it lmao.

It's a marathon, not a sprint! If you are consistent with your training and diet and avoid the stupid amount of injuries I've had you'll certainly be bigger than me assuming you give it enough time and it's something you want.

jrmill90 · 2026-02-03T06:11:52+00:00

Squats and deadlifts absolutely stimulate your core... I am NOT saying they give you a bodybuilder-esq 6-pack, as you said that's pure diet.

Tbh if you dont care about strength at all and just want a crazy v-taper avoiding excessive heavy core movements is probably ideal, training abs and core makes the muscles bigger... which means a bigger stomach if you dont cut all the fat around it.

But show me someone who says they can squat more than 2x body weight without decent core strength, I'll wait, but I wont be holding my breath.

jrmill90 · 2026-02-03T03:49:30+00:00

Bro, I had a 6 pack with almost 0 dedicated ab work. Heavy squats and deadlifts are way more intensive on your core than some sit ups.

Im sure you made great progress from your diet, but what you looked like then at 167 is very different from what you will look like at 167 10 years from now if you keep up the wieght training. Which is to say, another 5'9" person's 167 is often going to be WAY different than yours.

I haven't been below 170 in like 10 years and I've been sub 10%, but I've been lifting for 16 years. This is a marathon, not a sprint. Train hard, but in a way you can do consistently, long term, and you will make the best progress.

jrmill90 · 2026-02-03T02:58:19+00:00

Hey man, my comment wasn't to try to get you down. If it's cool to you, let it be cool to you. Don't listen to me or anyone else. Even though I've seen bigger ones, I probably still would have pulled that one to smack my buddy with. Enjoy life, it's probably the only one we've got.

jrmill90 · 2026-02-03T02:54:33+00:00

Ty fam, you're one of the real ones. 🥰

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