I'm writing this in sort of a looser, rambling style. I don't really have time to edit it like I normally would, so just pick whatever you want out of it.
About 75% of the people training on here are ultimately looking for bigger muscles. Even if they say they're cutting, when they get down to the size they want to be, they'll want bigger arms, chest, whatever. For every guy who says he just wants to be lean, there is a liar. He just may not know it yet.
So with that said, there are two pillars of growth. Without one or the other, you're pretty much going to stay where you are at, or just move very very slowly. Its not worth your time to train just to gain 1-2 lbs of muscle a year. If you gained 10 lbs of muscle in 3 years, you basically wasted 2 years. The worst part is, you probably only had to do 20% more work to get 80% more results.
The first pillar is the easy one, training. Your training has to be sufficient to cause a growth stimulus. Now understand that this changes over time. What you do as a guy lifting for the first time in his life won't cut the mustard later on when you're already 30lbs of muscle heavier and you overhead press 1.5x your bodyweight. It just wont. It all has to increase, weight, intensity, reps, ect. You're going to have to push yourself to a higher level. Now I'm going to say this, you may start squatting 100 lbs, and then a year later you squat 300 lbs and that 100 lbs feels like nothing. Well, when you can squat 550 lbs, that 300 lbs is still going to feel like a whole hell of a fucking lot.
There comes a point when its all going to feel very fucking heavy, and it becomes a mental game of you mentally adapting to that heavy as shit feeling, and pushing forward. The amount of effort you're going to put in to go from 180 to 220 is nothing compared to the work you'll put in to get from 220 to 235. Now say what you want about training styles, light weight vs heavy weight, blah blah blah, but you look at the guy in the IFBB who has made the most improvement in the past 5 years (Dallas Mccarver) and he's retardedly strong. He literally deadlifted more at 25 then Ronnie Coleman ever did. If you watch his videos you can see that hes moving shitheavy fucking weight for moderate reps, while style focusing on muscular contraction. Now you can say "Oh hes a genetic freak and hes on steroids" and you're 100% right, but if a guy who is on a different planet than you genetically and on a heavy dose of super supps needs to lift very heavy iron to grow, then wouldnt that apply to you as well? You have to constantly push yourself to get from point A to point B. If your legs are looking the same after 3 years of lifting, look at your squat numbers. Did they really improve that much? Going from 225 to 315 isnt that big of an improvement just FYI. Going from 225 for 10 to 405 for 20 is a big improvement, and you're going to have some massive fucking legs from that. If not, congratulations you're a world class powerlifter in your weight class. You let the strength gain dictate the food, sleep, drugs, supps, ect. When the strength gains stop, you need to evaluate where you're fucking up.
This ties in directly to the second pillar which is growth environment. This is the more complex one. Theres no cookie cutter approach to this, but essentially you need to get as close to optimum growth environment (both within yourself and outside of yourself) as possible. This means as much food as you NEED, as much water as you NEED, as much protein as you NEED, as much sleep as you NEED, and the right hormonal environment. You kind of have to evaluate this one on your own, but think about how a baby grows so fast. It sleeps all the time, eats, and has growth hormone surging through its body to trigger growth. Now for some of you, the hormone part is a big fucking issue. Your body can only grow so damn big and hold so much muscle with the hormones you have. This is where you make the choice to use some gear or stay natty. Your call. However, probably 90% of you will choose to go on a cycle way too early, before you've learned how to perfect your training and seen what your genetics can really do.
Its my experience that most people really perfect their training while on a cycle, because they are able to see the results of the tweaks and changes they make in their training routine. Regardless of all of that, you have to figure out how to create the optimum growth environment within yourself to progress, and thats the most challenging part. Training hard is simple, you just train really fucking hard. The hard part is identifying all the variables in your routine such as your hydration, food, drugs, rest, ect. All of these require a lot of heavy lifestyle management on your part, and to be honest this is where most people drop the ball. The growth environment you need to get yourself to level 1 is not the same one you need to get to the next level. Its going to take more food, more rest, possibly more androgens, ect. If you're not growing and you're just plateauing, you need to evaluate whats going on here. Its usually something obvious, like sleep or food. Why? Because they're actually the hardest to control. Its easy to take a needle in the ass, its hard to force feed 5000 cals a day when you're a 190lb guy with the metabolism of a cheetah on ephedra, and its hard to go to bed at a decent hour when your whole life is going on.
Anyway, absorb that shit.
About 75% of the people training on here are ultimately looking for bigger muscles. Even if they say they're cutting, when they get down to the size they want to be, they'll want bigger arms, chest, whatever. For every guy who says he just wants to be lean, there is a liar. He just may not know it yet.
So with that said, there are two pillars of growth. Without one or the other, you're pretty much going to stay where you are at, or just move very very slowly. Its not worth your time to train just to gain 1-2 lbs of muscle a year. If you gained 10 lbs of muscle in 3 years, you basically wasted 2 years. The worst part is, you probably only had to do 20% more work to get 80% more results.
The first pillar is the easy one, training. Your training has to be sufficient to cause a growth stimulus. Now understand that this changes over time. What you do as a guy lifting for the first time in his life won't cut the mustard later on when you're already 30lbs of muscle heavier and you overhead press 1.5x your bodyweight. It just wont. It all has to increase, weight, intensity, reps, ect. You're going to have to push yourself to a higher level. Now I'm going to say this, you may start squatting 100 lbs, and then a year later you squat 300 lbs and that 100 lbs feels like nothing. Well, when you can squat 550 lbs, that 300 lbs is still going to feel like a whole hell of a fucking lot.
There comes a point when its all going to feel very fucking heavy, and it becomes a mental game of you mentally adapting to that heavy as shit feeling, and pushing forward. The amount of effort you're going to put in to go from 180 to 220 is nothing compared to the work you'll put in to get from 220 to 235. Now say what you want about training styles, light weight vs heavy weight, blah blah blah, but you look at the guy in the IFBB who has made the most improvement in the past 5 years (Dallas Mccarver) and he's retardedly strong. He literally deadlifted more at 25 then Ronnie Coleman ever did. If you watch his videos you can see that hes moving shitheavy fucking weight for moderate reps, while style focusing on muscular contraction. Now you can say "Oh hes a genetic freak and hes on steroids" and you're 100% right, but if a guy who is on a different planet than you genetically and on a heavy dose of super supps needs to lift very heavy iron to grow, then wouldnt that apply to you as well? You have to constantly push yourself to get from point A to point B. If your legs are looking the same after 3 years of lifting, look at your squat numbers. Did they really improve that much? Going from 225 to 315 isnt that big of an improvement just FYI. Going from 225 for 10 to 405 for 20 is a big improvement, and you're going to have some massive fucking legs from that. If not, congratulations you're a world class powerlifter in your weight class. You let the strength gain dictate the food, sleep, drugs, supps, ect. When the strength gains stop, you need to evaluate where you're fucking up.
This ties in directly to the second pillar which is growth environment. This is the more complex one. Theres no cookie cutter approach to this, but essentially you need to get as close to optimum growth environment (both within yourself and outside of yourself) as possible. This means as much food as you NEED, as much water as you NEED, as much protein as you NEED, as much sleep as you NEED, and the right hormonal environment. You kind of have to evaluate this one on your own, but think about how a baby grows so fast. It sleeps all the time, eats, and has growth hormone surging through its body to trigger growth. Now for some of you, the hormone part is a big fucking issue. Your body can only grow so damn big and hold so much muscle with the hormones you have. This is where you make the choice to use some gear or stay natty. Your call. However, probably 90% of you will choose to go on a cycle way too early, before you've learned how to perfect your training and seen what your genetics can really do.
Its my experience that most people really perfect their training while on a cycle, because they are able to see the results of the tweaks and changes they make in their training routine. Regardless of all of that, you have to figure out how to create the optimum growth environment within yourself to progress, and thats the most challenging part. Training hard is simple, you just train really fucking hard. The hard part is identifying all the variables in your routine such as your hydration, food, drugs, rest, ect. All of these require a lot of heavy lifestyle management on your part, and to be honest this is where most people drop the ball. The growth environment you need to get yourself to level 1 is not the same one you need to get to the next level. Its going to take more food, more rest, possibly more androgens, ect. If you're not growing and you're just plateauing, you need to evaluate whats going on here. Its usually something obvious, like sleep or food. Why? Because they're actually the hardest to control. Its easy to take a needle in the ass, its hard to force feed 5000 cals a day when you're a 190lb guy with the metabolism of a cheetah on ephedra, and its hard to go to bed at a decent hour when your whole life is going on.
Anyway, absorb that shit.
