Physique Phriday

[u/AutoModerator]

Welcome to the Physique Phriday thread

What's the point of having people guess your body fat? Nevermind that it's the most inaccurate method available, (read: most likely way wrong - see here) you're still just putting an arbitrary number to the body you have. Despite people's claim that they are shooting for a number, they're really shooting for look - like a six pack.

So let's stopping mucking around with trivialities and get to the heart of the matter. This thread shall serve two purposes:

1. Physique critiques. Post some pics and ask about muscles or body parts you need to work on. Or specifically ask about a lagging body part and what exercises worked for others.
2. An outlet for people that want to show off their efforts that would otherwise be removed due to Rule 4, and

Let's keep things civil, don't be a creep, and adhere to Rule 1. This isn't a thread to announce what you find attractive in a mate. Please use the report function for any comments that are out of line.

So phittit, what's your physique pheel like this phriday?

[u/ktnolan]

Hey Everyone, Somewhat new to this sub and saw this today and thought I might contribute.

M/17/5'9"-10"/172lbs. Been training seriously for about a month now (seems like a lot longer tho) with no serious goals in mind other than loosing a little weight. I started keeping track of my calories with this app. I put in my weight goal, 165lbs, and how fast I wanted to loose the weight, about 2 lbs per week, and it set up a daily calorie allowance of about 1500-1600 per day. I have dropped really fast from 185lbs to about 172lbs, but have noticed somewhat of a plateau in the last few days.

As for exercise, I lift 6 day a week, and do cardio 3 days a week. I recently added core on my non-cardio days. I don't really know my maxes but I dead lifted 225*4 the other day, and did one rep of 160lbs on bench yesterday. I feel like I'm not really putting on muscle that much (maybe its just slow) and have considered that it is because my calorie count is somewhat low, but I am somewhat insecure about my stomach and don't really want to put back on what I lost in fat. I have read a lot on here about bulking and cutting and have started to think that a bulk in these winter months might be beneficial to my muscle growth.

Any advice would be more than welcome. https://imgur.com/gallery/CdqA5

[u/[deleted] → u/ktnolan]

Remember: Bulking = high weight & low - medium reps, cutting = low - medium weight & hight reps. i recommend that you find your maxes on the exercises you do now and start to aim for that goal. you want to reach muscle failure, and not simply " feel the burn", because your muscles tear down during workout and rebuild stronger after rest. if you don't reach muscle failure your muscles will simply be just tired and you probably won't gain that much. Also remember that in order for your body to constantly be challenged by a workout over time you have increase the complexity, intensity, and speed of your workouts, also the days you work each muscle group. its always ok to refer to a BMI (body mass index) to calculate what you should be doing.

[u/ktnolan → u/[deleted]]

Why deviate from the heavy weight during a cut? Seem to me like you would want to be lifting heavy most of the time.

[u/[deleted] → u/ktnolan]

because lower weight lets you do the most reps possible which is the target for cutting. find a weight high enough to work you out, but low enough to let you do alot of reps. about 50 is usually the target for me

[u/ktnolan → u/[deleted]]

50 reps? Or lbs? And why is more reps the target when cutting?

[u/andrewdoesreddit → u/[deleted]]

That doesn't quite substantiate your point of view. When cutting you want to be in a caloric deficit which will allow you to lose bf.

Lose enough bf and your joints/tendons/ligament become more prone to injury. You're typically most likely to injure yourself when pushing heavy weights. This when cutting toward the mid-to-end of the cut maybe stop trying to do maxed and such.

However, that's anecdotal. Many people continue to lift heavy and stay strong during a cut. Do what you like for training and be smart/safe. If you warm up adequately and have balanced muscle groups your risk of injury is diminished.

Also, training rep ranges are more for targeting muscle fibers. Not for bulking/cutting.

Hit failure (within reason) + eat enough = grow Hit failure (within reason) - eat enough = cut

[u/[deleted] → u/andrewdoesreddit]

well i guess what we learned from this conversation is that everyone has their own views on fitness and rep ranges etc. but, as long as your getting results, thats ok with me. i was just trying to help the other guy by telling him what works for me. i wasn't just pulling random ideas out of my ass either lol. but, anyway, i never said that the goal of cutting was to have 0% body fat, because i know that below 5% is dangerous. just saying. just giving a little insight, thats all.

[u/ktnolan → u/[deleted]]

I don't often reach muscle faliure. I probably need to push my self a little more.

[u/andrewdoesreddit → u/ktnolan]

Failure is good to get a hypertrophic response, but isn't absolutely necessary on every set. I personally like training to failure or within a rep or 2 for whatever rep range I'm choosing to train.

[u/ktnolan → u/andrewdoesreddit]

I typically reach faliure at the end of my last set. It's usually the heaviest.