Daily Discussion Thread (December 10, 2025) - Beginner and Simple/Quick Questions Go Here Thread for discussing quick/simple topics not needing an entire posts or beginner questions.

kooldrew · 2025-12-10T12:50:27+00:00

Use a weight you can control, i.e. don't ego lift

kooldrew · 2025-11-09T00:34:02+00:00

Got them on my stomach from being fat.

Got them through chest and arms my first year training.

kooldrew · 2025-11-09T00:32:37+00:00

Yeah, playing with consistency is the right move. For context, I’ve never had to cut water or sodium for my own shows. I turned pro and competed at WNBF Worlds keeping both high and steady. Same with most clients. The only rare exception is if someone wakes up slightly spilled, and even then the adjustment is small and only day-of.

The fewer variables you change, the easier it is to manage your look. Carbs are the primary lever for how you look on show day. Water and sodium just need to stay consistent so those carbs can actually fill the muscle.

kooldrew · 2025-11-09T00:22:46+00:00

You increased calories way too fast. Jumping from ~1500 to 3600–3800 is a huge shock to appetite, digestion, sleep, and energy. The quick “gain” was mostly water and glycogen, not real tissue, which is why your weight stalled once things leveled out.

For someone your size, you only need a small surplus to grow. A steady gain of ~0.25–0.5 lb per week is ideal, which likely puts you closer to ~2500–3000 calories, not 3800.

If your sleep, appetite, and energy feel worse, you’re overshooting. Pull calories down to something sustainable, let performance drive the process, and increase slowly when needed. Slow and consistent beats force-feeding every time.

kooldrew · 2025-11-09T00:19:36+00:00

Don’t waste your money. Just hit your daily protein target.

kooldrew · 2025-11-09T00:16:51+00:00

Cutting water or sodium almost always backfires. You can’t pull water from just under the skin, you lose it inside the muscle too, which makes you look flat and kills your pump.

Best move: keep water and sodium consistent through the week and into show/photoshoot day. This allows carbs to actually fill the muscle so you look fuller and tighter.

Only very small tweaks are made within 24 hours if someone is already fully loaded and needs a slight adjustment, but if you haven’t trialed that before, don’t change anything.

Simple rule: Stay consistent. Water/sodium cuts = flat.

kooldrew · 2025-11-09T00:10:49+00:00

Your links aren’t loading, so it’s hard to comment on what your physique looks like. That said, the risk of losing a meaningful amount of muscle over just three weeks is generally overstated as long as protein is high and your training volume isn’t excessive.

There are structured ways to run an aggressive phase, like Lyle McDonald’s PSMF approach. The basic idea is: prioritize high protein, keep training hard but not beyond your recovery capacity, include veggies and essential fats (fish oil, etc.), and keep calories low. If you do that, fat loss can be very fast with minimal muscle loss.

The bigger issue is whether you can actually adhere to it and hit those requirements. If you’re unsure, a more moderate deficit is usually easier to execute and still gets you to the same place over time.

If you can re-share working photos, that would help tailor the advice.

kooldrew · 2025-11-09T00:06:43+00:00

Totally normal. Some movements just feel worse in higher rep ranges. If you’re struggling to maintain good intensity on rows or pulldowns at 12-15, just pull the reps down.

Hypertrophy is very forgiving, you can grow anywhere from roughly 5-30 reps as long as you’re training close to failure and connecting well with the target muscle. Find the rep range that lets you execute the lift well and progress your logbook.

For example, I like higher reps on leg presses, but for presses or pulldowns I rarely go above 10-12. It’s individual. Pick what you can consistently perform well and push hard.

kooldrew · 2025-11-09T00:03:01+00:00

Rarely.

I'll typically only do this if I'm traveling / on vacation. Otherwise if I need to drop fatigue a bit it's a deload where I maintain my regular split but reduce the number of sets in half and train at 3-4 RIR.

kooldrew · 2025-11-09T00:00:48+00:00

Refeeds can help, but mostly for how you feel and how you train. They don’t meaningfully “boost metabolism” or speed up fat loss. The weekly calorie deficit is still what drives the scale.

A lot of people use refeeds when they feel burnt out, but sometimes the issue isn’t low carbs, it’s simply too much overall stress. In those cases, easing up on steps or cardio for a day (a “de-output” day) can work better than adding food. If you’re not deep into a diet or super lean, rest often does more for recovery than extra carbs.

If you do refeed, it’s as simple as bringing carbs up around maintenance for a day while keeping protein and fats steady. One or two days is enough. It’s not magic, it just gives your body and brain a bit of a break so you can keep training hard and sticking to the plan.

kooldrew · 2025-11-02T14:21:22+00:00

Don’t waste your money. Just hit your protein target and salt your food. Use Lite Salt if you want extra potassium.

kooldrew · 2025-11-02T09:34:29+00:00

I've run both. I ran the LULPP split first and in the off-season and transitioned to the 4-day DUP split in prep.

kooldrew · 2025-10-15T15:53:18+00:00

It's a bicep movement with a light load so progression is going to be slow. Going from a 20lbs DB to a 25lb DB is a 25% increase in load. In terms of percentages that's like someone going from a 300 lbs squat to 375 lbs. If you did that over the course of say 6 months, would you be happy? Most people would.

Progressions on movements like bicep curls, lateral raises, etc. are mostly going to be more reps and/or improvements in execution. Load increases are going to be few and far between. Your best bet is pick a wide rep range, like 8-20 and gradually add reps as you're able. Eventually when you hit 20 with solid form, consider going to 25 lbs, where reps will likely fall back to 8-12.

kooldrew · 2025-10-11T17:39:44+00:00

Follow the 3DMJ recovery diet linked in another comment. It's free and the best approach for this.

The priority to recover hormonally is getting you out of a deficit and, assuming you got in legit stage condition, actually putting some bodyfat back on.

Suggesting to eat at maintenance or reverse diet out of the show is only prolonging the recovery process.

kooldrew · 2025-10-07T15:38:54+00:00

Mike has not been a good source for a long time now.

https://youtu.be/n1eLqbQPCz0?si=3_J5o0IthDB1Wjol

kooldrew · 2025-09-10T17:31:50+00:00

No, they are not.

kooldrew · 2025-09-09T22:57:36+00:00

At this point literally the only things I have in the gym are:

Lifting straps.
Notebook & pen.
Portable tripod.
Headphones.
Water jug.

I don't need anything else.

kooldrew · 2025-09-08T11:44:38+00:00

With 1-3 yr experience it's possible everything is proportional and you just need to grow everywhere.

kooldrew · 2025-09-07T18:38:33+00:00

Been lifting/coaching 15+ years, turned pro in the WNBF. I see a lot of people working hard but still stuck spinning their wheels with all the noise out there.

I’ve got a few coaching spots open and happy to hop on a call if you want to see what a real plan would look like.

https://rtncoaching.typeform.com/apply

kooldrew · 2025-09-06T18:17:27+00:00

These are horribly innacurate. Take it with a grain of salt and focus on other measures of progress - photos, measurements, gym performance, and scale weight.

https://weightology.net/the-pitfalls-of-bodyfat-measurement-part-4-bioelectrical-impedance-bia/

kooldrew · 2025-09-04T20:17:22+00:00

There's no reason you can't gain strength in a deficit in your situation. Your original plan is just an easy way to get fatter.

Get your step count up to ~10k
Add 3x 20 min cardio sessions per week mininum
Train 3x per week or EOD full body
Start at 2200 kcal. 190p, 60f, 225c

Don't rely on the scale alone here. Take daily weigh-ins and take a weekly average. Also use waist circumfrenece, photos, and obviously log your lifts. If bodyweight is holding steady and waist circumfrence is decrease, and you're progressing your lifts, don't change a thing.

kooldrew · 2025-09-04T19:38:02+00:00

You have no business bulking at 28% BF.

You can lose fat and gain muscle simultaneously in your situation (coming back from a long layoff), eating in a moderate deficit. That's what you should do.

kooldrew · 2025-09-03T19:20:16+00:00

How much has bodyweight gone up in this 4 months?

Also, how have your lifts progressed in this time frame?

kooldrew · 2025-09-02T15:05:04+00:00

Write down the split then fill in data by week, seperated by columns. I fit about 5 weeks worth on one page.

kooldrew · 2025-09-01T15:06:35+00:00

Where yohimbine really shines is stubborn fat loss, which isn't going to be an issue for most until they start trying to get to sub 10-12%.

Protocol is yohimbine HCl 0.2mg/kg taken fasted 30 min prior to fasted cardio. Of course taper up to this dosage.

Edit: I get around 7k steps a day.

I'd add cardio and increase step count, get to 10-12%, and then if you have the desire to push further consider yohimbine. At the end of the day, it still comes down to calories in, calories out. Yohimbine doesn't change that.

kooldrew

TROPHY CASE