u/Greedy_Author3855

In the RS subs there’s plenty of people who acknowledge the importance of how you look or even fully lean into being vain & narcy. But on the flip side, any time there’s a discussion about fitness & working out in one of these subs there’s a subset of 🚬’s who say dumb shit like “I don’t care about how I look bro I just work out to be good at rock climbing!” Often in a way that comes off as virtue signaling. 

Comments like that always irked the shit out of me. The person saying it is usually under the impression that working out to look good is “useless” or morally inferior because it’s only for vanity’s sake whereas working out only to be better at a sport is “useful” & “serves a purpose.” You’re dumb as fuck if you think how your body looks doesn’t matter. This is coming from someone who’s been close to 300lbs & ugly as fuck, 160lbs & anatomy chart shredded, 230lbs & roided out, plus everywhere in between, all in the span of the last 3-4 years. I’m a blackpill Jedi bro. Your head would spin if you experienced the level of mutation that I have 

I’m not going to debate anyone on whether or not it matters how your body looks/if you’re visibly jacked/in shape. Other people’s first perception of you is your physical form. Having big muscles and being lean speaks positive things to your character without you having to say or demonstrate anything in the same way that being fat or poorly maintained speaks negatively to your character. The halo effect & the horn effect are scientifically proven to be real things, so this notion that working out to look good is useless & vain needs to go away. What is getting better at rock climbing going to do for you besides make you better at rock climbing

Being jacked & in shape opens doors for you in terms of business/careers, making friends, dating, etcetera. There’s also just a general quality of life improvement because other people speak to you with more respect. As a man, other men immediately respect you more when they see big ass muscles. Being jacked is kind of comparable to being 6’4 or something. Being physically large commands respect from men in a lizard brain way. Muscles obviously help with women too but not always in a way that’s as straightforward as they find being jacked sexually attractive. Some of them do, or they do up to a certain level of size & leanness. but even if big muscles don’t always turn women on, they get turned on when they see that other men respect you & want to be your friend. Thats a form of status. They like it when you have physical presence in a room & when you carry yourself confidently. Bodybuilding & getting big is a tried & true way to develop that swagger if you’re a young guy who struggles with confidence 

I was watching jay Cutler’s podcast with Milos Sarcev last night. Milos was talking about how he came to the US from Serbia broke as shit. Said he got an interview at a gym & got hired despite speaking no English & not having permission to work in America because he was jacked & aesthetic & the gym owner was gay lol. Went on to say that Joe Weider saw his pictures & let him compete in the IFBB even though he didn’t have legal residency. Again, all because he was jacked & looked good.  

There’s definitely an element of coping & excuse making to people saying “I don’t care about how I look I just train to be good at ______” because getting noticeably big, noticeably lean, or both is really hard. It’s way easier to be a rock climbing 🚬 who just eats whatever & tries to get stronger on wrist curls over time. If you want to get jacked & lean you have to make it your lifestyle because everything you do matters. 

I always wanted big shoulders & arms, so when I started lifting a few years ago I followed the “spam lateral raises” advice & always believed in getting in isolation sets for forearms & whatnot. The issue with that is that it becomes a pain in the ass to do a bunch of lateral raises, reverse curls/wrist curls, ab work, etc if you just got done training chest, shoulders, tris, back, with high volume and/or high intensity. This is why you implement bullshit day 

For the first 2/3 to 3/4 of this bulk I trained legs hard twice a week. Put on a good amount of size & strength. However I’m not fiending for bigger legs & feel like upper body size is more important. So instead of doing a full leg day, to finish this bulk off, leg volume has dropped down while intensity remains. Rather than doing the full leg day I use that workout as the chance to do the bullshit I don’t want to do on chest & back days, like forearms, shrugs, abs, plus even more sets of lateral raises & rear delt flies. So I’m maintaining the legs I built while being able to hit shoulders 4 times a week (lmao) plus getting in the tedious isolation work so I don’t get bogged down by it on push & pull day.

It takes much less volume to maintain size you’ve already built. Just make sure the intensity is there. You can use different techniques to ensure that. The first part of bullshit day sucks because it’s stuff like drop sets on Bulgarian split squats but I only have to do a little bit of that & then I still feel fresh for the isolation work. My legs haven’t lost size from doing this. 

Ive never seen a pro bodybuilder in real life. Trying to conceptualize how an Olympia type of physique would look in person. People always say that pictures don’t do that type of physique justice. I have no frame of reference for how a guy in the 250-300 lean range would look. Closest thing I’ve seen was a men’s physique competitor at my old gym. Dont know if he was even a pro or not but I remember thinking damn this dude looks wide as shit. A guy like nick walker would probably look crazy as fuck in person but again I have no frame of reference because I’ve never seen anyone that was even close to being that big.

That consideration being how much muscle damage you’re capable of creating to any given muscle group

For me, training arms is pretty simple at this point. I don’t need to do 50 sets because I know that if I bring some intensity to preacher curls, overhead extensions etc & go heavy I’m going to fuck my arms up & they’re going to get a sufficient stimulus. I’m very strong on arm isolations compared to most people & compared to what I’m lifting for other body parts

On the other hand, when it comes to my weak points (muscles that are less developed, worse mind muscle connection, lifts I’m not strong on) I saw good results from doing more sets because it was harder to annihilate those muscles properly

Low volume & doing less in the gym is the new social media trend. While low volume training can be super effective (Dorian Yates, Dave Palumbo) you should not automatically assume that’s going to work for you as a beginner/novice/whatever. I think people like it just because they think they can work out less/go less hard & get the same results.

If you’re Dorian Yates doing behind the neck press with 405lbs to absolute failure or some shit like that then sure you can get away with doing a couple sets per week. It doesn’t work the same way when you’re shoulder pressing 80lbs & you have small shoulders & you haven’t had enough experience to know how to train hard & you don’t mentally connect with your muscles well

If you have body parts that are strong points- lifts go up consistently, you can reliably make it sore, etc with low volume training then you don’t need to start spamming sets for no reason. but if you have other body parts that are lagging & you feel like you’re not training it effectively then don’t keep doing 6 sets a week & think they’re going to grow well

Posting sincerely as a young man with little valuable guidance in my life regarding building a career in 2026. I was listening to Dave Palumbo talk about his career path & it got me wondering what options I have. For reference he worked as an editor/writer for the most popular muscle magazine back in his day, & then created his own brand selling nutritional products & making content. Dave was like me in the sense that his physique wasn’t aesthetic enough to win shows even though he still got huge & competed a bunch of times. 

Fitness/bodybuilding/whatever is the only thing I’m passionate about & have put real effort into over the past few years. Went to college for bio for 1.5yrs, hated it, dropped out. No idea how to channel my passion into making actual money. It sucks because I know I don’t have a bad work ethic or low mental capacity but I’m still working these shit jobs dealing with ret@rds all day because I can’t apply myself enough to accomplish shit I don’t care about like getting a degree. I’ve excelled in areas where I did care & applied myself but unfortunately becoming a jacked chad doesn’t make you rich by default. As far as a temporary hustle I’m thinking about trying to get hired as a personal trainer as well as starting up YT/tiktok channels but I need ideas on what to do long term. I don’t want to be stuck personal training for decades making a 40k salary & I also don’t expect that I’m gonna be the next clavicular. 

In terms of content creation stuff my main selling point is knowledge & ability to give advice. As well as the drastic contrast between my looksmaxxing & gym before & after photos. IRL I’m good at helping people understand training, nutrition, & steroids/drugs/endocrinology in the same way that I give advice online. I also genuinely enjoy doing that. Also have a good wit/sense of humor & speak honestly IRL which could translate into entertaining content once I’m comfortable on camera. I have a handsome face & physique decent enough to give me some credibility but my body isn’t aesthetic enough to win competitions or blow up online from posing for a camera. It’s been visually marred by being fat & having to lose 100+lbs. 

I’m willing to put my nose to the grindstone & put my current goals aside temporarily in order to avoid being a poor ass fucker for my entire life. But like I said, I don’t have any real direction to channel that energy. Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated 

Over the next week Im going to be on the “McDonald’s diet” which includes 30 grams of sodium & 1000-1500 carbs daily (insulin with every meal) & potassium intake will be minimal. Step count will also be minimal I’m going to take the week off work & training to keep the steps below 2k

So I’ll gain 30lbs of water over the course of the week & look absolutely disgusting at which point I’ll take “before“ pictures

Then I’ll transition into the Kevin Levrone contest prep diet aka nothing but green vegetables & white fish for 3 weeks & will also be taking Lasix daily (blow your kidneys out of your back method) in order to lose the 30lbs of water & a sizeable chunk of fat

then my face will look sucked out & body will be ripped at which point I’ll take the “after” photos & make a course advertising my unheard of diet method for the Low price of $2000

Will be available on Klarna for you peons of course

My wingspan is 6’3-6’4 at 6’1. I never knew this before but it makes sense now why I’ve struggled more with developing chest and lats compared to other muscles. Measure your wingspan for fun if you’ve never done it

Obligatory “I know no one cares about what I’m doing.” It’s just beneficial/enjoyable for me to verbalize my plans like this

I’m coming to the end of my current bulk cycle & super excited for the next bulk after I take off the bodyfat. It feels like I’m finally getting the hang of things in terms of how to grow muscle at a consistent pace, what my training needs to look like, how to eat, & what works for me in terms of drug use. I’m hoping that after one or two more good bulking phases I’ll feel much happier with my physique & be ready to hang up my hat as far as blasting steroids & a bodybuilding lifestyle & all that shit. Then it’ll be on to investing more time into making money & building a career so I don’t have to be a poor ass fucker my entire life 

First of all I need a break from Tren & androgens in general. My nervous system primarily needs a break. But yeah I’m gonna drop the Tren and lower test to the 200-280 range, at least in the first phase of the cut where I’m not gonna be taking any stims/fat burners or in a deep deficit, therefore not worried about losing muscle

Secondly I’m going to buy some things like cerebrolysin, injectable glutathione & other antioxidants, just for the sake of helping repair any damage I’ve potentially done to my brain & to relieve some oxidative stress in general. Tren can get expensive to run (if you’re doing it right) because the nature of the drug (side effects) necessitates that you spend a lot on ancillaries & supplements. Add in buying lots of food/protein & yeah my wallets been on life support. But once both of those things are a non issue I’ll have some extra money. Ideally you’d run antioxidants for your whole cycle when you take 19nor compounds but I couldn’t afford that unfortunately 

Thirdly I’m going to invest in an incline walking pad for my room. Cardio has always been a struggle for me, not because I won’t put in the effort to do it, but because my CNS is sensitive & doing cardio at too high of an intensity while dieting and/or running androgens reliably puts my sleep & recovery ability into the toilet. The solution to that is getting a lot of steps, doing more cardio at a lower intensity, but it’s hard to fit long walks doing nothing into my schedule during the week. The solution to THAT is a walking pad inside to get steps whenever possible

Once I’ve actually started dieting the retatrutide dose will already be ramped up & then I’ll make the addition of cagrilintide or tirzepatide at a low dose. Stacking one of these with Reta is the most effective thing for people who struggle with the mental food noise aspect of cutting. Reta by itself doesn’t provide as much appetite suppression or mental food noise suppression as other GLP1 drugs. 

In the second half of the cut I’ll add clenbuterol & T3. Tried & true & cheap as fuck from IndiaMart. By this point the test will probably go to the 350-420 range. T3 is on hand already. When I buy the clen I’ll also grab nebivolol (to control heart rate/pulse) as well as make sure I’m stocked on taurine/electrolyte powders & telmisartan for any potential blood pressure issues. BP is typically a non issue with my potassium intake + cialis + cardio + estrogen control but it’ll be on hand anyways. 

By this point I should be properly lean & then of course Tren Ace will come back into the picture to finish things off. Probably something reasonable dose wise. Maybe 140-175mg. if you’re lean it doesn’t take much to get the cosmetic look that people want out of tren.

Assuming the cut was successful (I have a good feeling about this one) I’ll try to take full advantage of the diet rebound. Ramp carbs up slowly, control the food intake, keep the steps up, taper down the GLP1s etc you get the picture. For those who don’t know, the transition period from a cut to a bulk when you’re leanest is when your body is primed to grow the best. Nutrient partitioning is optimized 

Before I start bulking again I’m gonna make sure I have HGH on hand. Hitting the GH/IGF1 pathways is how you’re going to grow the best, rather than just pushing androgens higher. For the base, 600 test + 300 EQ / bold cyp is what I’ve had my mind set on. EQ/boldenone seems to fit my goals the best as far as side effect profile, cosmetic look, longevity of the bulk, etc- there’s also obviously the estrogen controlling effect of boldenone which I think will be really beneficial for me & less effort as opposed to popping arimidex. From what I’ve heard, controlling e2 with EQ/primo/mast is better than using aromatase inhibitors. 

From the drugs I’ve taken already it’s likely I’ll handle 600 test and 300 EQ fine but that’s gonna be the starting point anyways just to assess how I react. GH will start at 2iu & get titrated up to assess the side effect profile on that. I’ve read that starting too high can exaggerate sides like water retention, carpal tunnel symptoms, etc. It’s not like I’m gonna end up blasting 15ius of it anyways but if all goes well I’ll likely get to 4-6iu & stay there. 

Tren will get dropped for the first half of the bulk but there’s a high possibility I’ll add it back in eventually, again at a lowish dose like 140-175mg, for the cosmetic look (will mog with EQ) as well as more nutrient partitioning benefits when food is climbing higher.

In terms of diet, for the next bulk I want to put a bigger emphasis on making my digestion run as smoothly as possible. Want to start doing shit like making homemade sauerkraut & sourdough like I used to when I actually enjoyed life. Also want to start taking digestive enzymes when the food intake gets high enough, take fiber intake more seriously, and do more experimentation to figure out which foods digest the cleanest for me. Also going to work on cleaning my diet up even more. It’s not dirty as is, I just eat too many artificial sweeteners which I think I’ll be able to wean myself off of with some time. 

As far as training goes I’d like to try running some actual programs like the ones John Meadows wrote. Historically Ive always liked writing my own splits & stuff like that but if I stick to the plan properly & make the bulk last 16-20 weeks then it’s feasible to run some of his 4-6 week programs & see if I like it or not. 

1. Training intensity needs to be there always. You need to force the adaptation required to grow bigger muscles. Don’t be in the gym distracted & make your sets count. Every rep needs to be on point. most people aren’t training as hard as they think they are, push yourself into the discomfort zone
2. Anyone who says “muscles only get you more attention from men bro” is ret@rded & probably hasn’t ever developed a good physique or if they have they’re facially ugly, short or unattractive in some other way. Female attention from all ages spiked noticeably when I upped my test to 500, reached 200lbs, kept pushing higher, stopped being scared to eat. Keep in mind that I have a chad face (not actually but the closest thing you’ll get to it IRL) & I take a lot of measures to make sure I don’t hold water/look bloated. Clean diet, estrogen control, electrolyte control, food timing. But more muscle is pretty much always going to benefit you as far as mainstream female appeal goes, provided that you aren’t just getting fat/bloated & your face is decent. Thats what hurts your female appeal, the fat & bloated part, or when steroid use ruins your skin & hair quality in exchange for being bigger.

 

By the way I’m not debating that muscles draw a lot of male attention because that’s absolutely true. But people don’t realize that in and of itself benefits you a lot with women. Having a good physique will earn you instant respect from other men. It raises your status in male circles & status goes toe to toe with looks for being the most attractive thing to women. Since getting bigger the guys I work with treat me much differently. Guys in the gym treat me much differently. They trip over themselves to move out of the way when I’m reracking weights. I asked a guy in the gym for a spot yesterday & he looked starry eyed about that fact. Started unracking my weights when I was done lol I felt terrible. When you’re jacked, other guys want to be your friend & get to know you. Point of all this being that women NOTICE shit like that & it makes them want you more, physical/visual attraction aside.

3. Be ruthless about protecting your time from being wasted by bullshit. Cut stressors out of your life whether that’s people that stress you out, a living situation or job you dislike, etc. Like Jay Cutler said, I don’t pick up the phone. If your mentality towards diet, training, drug use & lifestyle is average (mOdErAtiOn, have that beer bro!” Then your results are going to be average. Sorry. Avoid cortisol spikes however possible. Little shit like driving the longer way to the grocery store because I know I’m gonna get irritated as fuck from traffic on the main roads.

4. You need both the sarcoplasmic hypertrophy training as well as the myofibrillar activation stuff. Meaning for every muscle incorporate heavy sets that are activating as many motor units as possible & straining your nervous system. You train your CNS as well as your muscles in the gym. just the act of putting a heavy load on your back or above your chest contributes to creating the stress response needed for building muscle.

Simultaneously you need the lighter sets where you get a pump, shove blood into the muscles, connect with the muscles & feel them working.

5. Preparation & consistency is key. When you’re already busy doing shit or when you have the energy to get shit done, think about how you can make life easier for yourself tomorrow or in the upcoming week when you’ll be tired & not feel like doing shit. small decisions add up. Each meal, each rep & set. I’m gonna pull up to a 10 hour shift at my new job tomorrow with 4 meals packed & everyone’s probably gonna think I’m fucking ret@rded but I don’t care because it matters more to me that external circumstances don’t force me to eat suboptimally 

6. Metabolic health is important in both cutting & bulking phases but especially on a bulk. Shoveling down food with shitty metabolic health = getting fat. Insulin sensitivity needs to be there for the calorie surplus to go to the right places. There was a post on this sub a while ago saying “is the insulin sensitivity stuff just bullshit?” and of course jackoffs in the comments were all saying “yeah it’s honestly cope I think lol.”

It’s not cope. Walking after meals is not cope. This becomes obvious when you use drugs like Trenbolone & retatrutide that make you very insulin sensitive. Eat a big meal, start walking around, a little while later I start going hypoglycemic. But yeah it’s all cope bro. I’ll go ahead & say metabolic health is actually more important for natties because you aren’t getting the nutrient partitioning benefits of PEDs/steroids.

Proper periworkout nutrition (diet around the workout period) is a good way to maintain metabolic health & get bigger muscles. Pre and post workout are the times when it’s actually beneficial to eat rapidly digesting carbs & get that insulin activity. High carb before & after the gym. moderate fat & protein pre workout for stable energy in the gym. Low fat & high protein post workout. Outside of the peri workout window try to avoid eating shit like cereal. keep carbs lower the rest of the day/when you don’t train or stick to complex carbs with protein. Get your steps & do cardio year round

7. One thing that great bodybuilders have in common is that they’re very attuned to their own bodies & they have their INDIVIDUAL training, nutrition & recovery down to a science. There’s principles like training hard & eating a lot of protein that apply to everyone trying to gain muscle but there’s also a ton of individual variation in what people need from training diet and recovery. Experiment, change it up if you aren’t getting the results you want, pay attention to what happens.

If an exercise that people say you “should be doing” feels like shit to you then stop doing it & do something that feels good. If you get indigestion from a food that everyone says is optimal & easy to digest then stop fucking eating that food. It can take a lot of time to figure out what YOU need to grow the best but experimentation is crucial. Over time you figure out weird shit about your own body, paying attention to that stuff then implementing it into your plan is how you get good results

8. Heavy training is crucial but only when done right. Unless you’re a powerlifter you’re not just trying to move weight from A to B. If you don’t feel the muscles & you aren’t growing then going as heavy as possible isn’t benefiting you. My chest started growing much faster when I started doing light activation sets of cable flies between sets of heavy pressing just to get the mind muscle connection. Develop the connection get your form on point & then go heavy. Same goes for my lats- in between sets of rows & pulldowns go to the cable stack, throw a D handle on & squeeze your lats with 25lbs or something