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Bodybuilding often feels like a dark art. There are thousands of clickbait articles out there promising the routine to give you the physique of a classical stat

Bodybuilding often feels like a dark art. There are thousands of clickbait articles out there promising the routine to give you the physique of a classical statue, but almost nothing seems proven. Perhaps it's because, ultimately we each have a unique biological makeup. I've been in the gym consistently for the better part of 12 years now. Bodybuilding was never a goal of mine, so I don't have the physique but over time my experience in the gym has shown me a few things: 1. If you really want to be a bodybuilder the best investment is a notebook. The people in the gym that I've seen that have the actual competition aesthetic pretty much always have one and track all of their workouts, meals, etc. Bodybuilding is for really disciplined, rigid structure loving people that can commit to a consistent routine and identify how to gradually, incrementally increase intensities over time. 2. Cardio matters too. Warming up with cardio generally doesn't seem to be a bad idea no matter what it is you're doing. 3. If you're like me and mostly just care about being fit and strong and less about the specific bodybuilding aesthetic, start doing a sport. I started bouldering at a climbing gym about 3 years ago, continuing to mix it in with the weight training I've always done and I've never been stronger. Seriously, it was like an extreme force multiplier. I highly recommend picking up a sport if you don't plan on competing in bodybuilding and just want to maintain a healthy body. It's fun too!

User23 3y ago
> If you really want to be a bodybuilder the best investment is a notebook This can’t be emphasized enough. Exercise, which you do because it feels good, doesn’t really require all that much attention to detail. Training, which you do to systematically improve your performance in some way, very much does. You want to record your intended program and actual movements performed at the very minimum, with notes on perceived effort and areas for improvement like form issues. It’s also important to track recovery, including sleep, since thats when adaptation actually happens. On the dietary side you need to rigorously track your macronutrients, especially dietary protein. Assuming you don’t have kidney disease, you want at least one gram of dietary protein per pound of body weight every day and more won’t hurt. That is a considerable amount of food to eat day in and day out. Eating becomes something of a chore. I believe it’s Dwayne Johnson who is famous for eating several pounds of cod a day. A while back some normalish guy publicly did a Rock diet challenge. Johnson poo-pooed it a bit, but the guy stuck with it and got far better results than anyone expected[1]. My takeaway is that many if not most people with a solid training regimen aren’t getting enough protein to fully realize their potential strength and mass gains. [1] https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-rock-dwayne-johnson-diet/ https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-rock-dwayne-johnson...
- yowzadave 3y ago
  > I believe it’s Dwayne Johnson who is famous for eating several pounds of cod a day. A while back some normalish guy publicly did a Rock diet challenge. Johnson poo-pooed it a bit, but the guy stuck with it and got far better results than anyone expected[1] Yikes, are people risking mercury poisoning by eating this much fish?

User23 3y ago

> If you really want to be a bodybuilder the best investment is a notebook This can’t be emphasized enough. Exercise, which you do because it feels good, doesn’t really require all that much attention to detail. Training, which you do to systematically improve your performance in some way, very much does. You want to record your intended program and actual movements performed at the very minimum, with notes on perceived effort and areas for improvement like form issues. It’s also important to track recovery, including sleep, since thats when adaptation actually happens. On the dietary side you need to rigorously track your macronutrients, especially dietary protein. Assuming you don’t have kidney disease, you want at least one gram of dietary protein per pound of body weight every day and more won’t hurt. That is a considerable amount of food to eat day in and day out. Eating becomes something of a chore. I believe it’s Dwayne Johnson who is famous for eating several pounds of cod a day. A while back some normalish guy publicly did a Rock diet challenge. Johnson poo-pooed it a bit, but the guy stuck with it and got far better results than anyone expected[1]. My takeaway is that many if not most people with a solid training regimen aren’t getting enough protein to fully realize their potential strength and mass gains. [1] https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-rock-dwayne-johnson-diet/ https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-rock-dwayne-johnson...

yowzadave 3y ago
> I believe it’s Dwayne Johnson who is famous for eating several pounds of cod a day. A while back some normalish guy publicly did a Rock diet challenge. Johnson poo-pooed it a bit, but the guy stuck with it and got far better results than anyone expected[1] Yikes, are people risking mercury poisoning by eating this much fish?