/r/naturalbodybuilding

Photograph via snooOG

A place for for those who believe that proper diet and intense training are all you need to build an amazing physique.

Discuss NANBF/IPE, INBF/WNBF, OCB, ABA, INBA/PNBA, and IFPA bodybuilding, noncompetitive bodybuilding, diets for the natural lifters, exercise routines and more!

All are welcome here but this sub is intended for intermediate to advanced lifters, we ask that beginners utilize the weekly and daily discussion threads for your needs.

User flair is required to post.

A place for for those who believe that proper diet and intense training are all you need to build an amazing physique.

Discuss NANBF/IPE, INBF/WNBF, OCB, ABA, INBA/PNBA, and IFPA bodybuilding, noncompetitive bodybuilding, diets for the natural lifters, exercise routines and more!

All are welcome here but this sub is intended for intermediate to advanced lifters, we ask that beginners utilize the weekly and daily discussion threads for your needs.

User flair is required to post.
(select the edit box above the sidebar)

Rules:

Please use new reddit for the most up to date sub rules and sidebar info.

1) No Questioning Status or "Fake Natty" Accusations:

Doubts and speculations regarding the natural-status of another bodybuilder will never be enough to prove if that someone is truly "natural" or not, only drug testing and self admittance of using banned substances will.

If you see a post you suspect of lying REPORT IT. DO NOT COMMENT accusing them of such. YOU WILL RECEIVE A BAN. The mods will investigate to the best of our ability.

2) Picture Post Requirements:

All picture posts are required to be high quality images (no bathroom selfies) showing enough of your physique to get the feedback you want.

You MUST leave a comment on your post with details about your training, diet, age, etc.

If you are in your underwear please make as NSFW.

Failure to follow these guidelines will have your post removed.

3) No Beginner Posts or Simple Questions:

If you have a simple or easily answered question please check the FAQ first then post in the daily discussion thread if needed.

Beginner questions can be asked in the daily discussion thread. A question is determined to be a beginner question at moderator discretion. This stops us from becoming r/fitness or a beginner based sub.

4) No Self Promotion:

No posts from your own YouTube, Instagram, TicTok, blog, etc.

If you are making a high quality post / sharing your journey and want to include your instagram or similar that is usually ok.

5) No Memes:

No memes, gifs, etc of any kind. No spamming. No advertisements. No pictures of food or meals.

6) No Asking for Medical Advice or Injury Related Questions:

All injury or medical advice related threads will be removed, please seek a qualified medical professional for these types of inquires.

7) Bad Behavior Will Not be Tolerated:

Be respectful and polite. No trolling or insulting other members. No slurs of any kind. No inappropriate sexual comments (even in jest). Please report any instances of this asap.

8) Do not DM/chat individual mods for mod related issues

If you do your message will be ignored. Use the message the mods button on the bottom right of the sidebar

Discussion Thread Schedule

Monday - Contests/Competitions (Previous)
Tuesday - Beginners/Basics (Previous)
Wednesday - Training/Routines (Previous)
Thursday - Nutrition (Previous)
Friday - Anything Goes (Previous)
Saturday - Selfies/Progress Pics (Previous)
Sunday - Self Promotion (Previous)

Program Discussion

Other useful subreddits

/r/bodybuilding - All things bodybuilding

/r/fitness - Go here first if you're new

/r/powerbuilding - Look strong. Be strong

/r/advancedfitness

/r/EvidenceBasedTraining

/r/gainit

/r/loseit

/r/weightroom - Oly and Powerlifting discussion

/r/Supplements

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0

What's better

Is doing Arnold split 2x a week than hitting each muscle group individualy 5x a week

5 Comments
2024/10/16
18:18 UTC

0

How do you program your mesocycle

How do you program your mesocycle? Do you run the same workout for all the mesocycle (approccio 10-12 weeks) or do you build up to it by adding volume or intensifiers every week ?

2 Comments
2024/10/16
17:15 UTC

0

Thoughts on GLP-1s (e.g., Mounjaro / Ozempic) for cutting?

Not considering this at all but more of question to test how the community feels about it e.g., could be an effective tool to block cravings alongside a structured deficit with high-protein OR just another fad that will make you feel weak in the gym and despise your meal preps

49 Comments
2024/10/16
16:40 UTC

2

Macro tracking app that only looks at protein / doesn't show calories

Hi! I'm wondering if anybody knows of a macro tracking app that specifically hides calories (and maybe other macronutrients). I'm trying to help somebody close to me lose fat and they've dealt with mild eating disorders / cravings before from trying to restrict their food intake. I want them to focus on increasing their protein rather than restricting.

5 Comments
2024/10/16
16:04 UTC

2

weird phenomenon while dieting

so i do muy thai on the side and practice kicking punching bags before or after my workouts. usually im able to keep kicking until i get tired but i was in a heavy defecit for a while and i noticed my kicks hurt myslef a lot more during this time, to the point id stop practicing from pain instead of exhaustion. i just got off my defecit and immediately my kicks are painless again. does anyone have science-backed reasoning to explain this? are you more sensitive to pain while in a defecit?

3 Comments
2024/10/16
15:19 UTC

0

Anyone here train only once a week?

How does your program look like and how’s your results?

I recently moved back to twice a week (full body) as I get similar results than training more often and I have more energy to spare on other activities then. The workouts last around 30 minutes starting from the first set.

41 Comments
2024/10/16
15:16 UTC

1

Stable VS Decreasing RIR in a mesocycle

How do you guys prefer to run your meso? I think the disadvantage that a stable RIR has might be that it is difficult to adhere to and not push beyond, while the problem I’ve noticed when decreasing it throughout the weeks is in the last week of 0 RIR, the performance of the exercises that are later in the workout tend to be compromised, probably due to systemic and local muscle fatigue. What are your thoughts on this?

3 Comments
2024/10/16
14:01 UTC

4

How do you line up the bench on the smith machine?

I think it's a great piece of equipment but while doing any chest pressing movement I feel like if the bench is off angle by even a little it can mess up your joints over time.

How do you guys deal with this? Does it even matter as much or am I being paranoid?

9 Comments
2024/10/16
13:58 UTC

1

Recovery & sleep issue

Hi all.

I had to take close to a year off due to medical problems. Slowly I'm getting back to my old self and I've started going to the gym again.

I'm having sleep issues since and therefore my recovery is severely messed up. I've no problem falling asleep, but I wake up after 3 hours and then start tossing and turning. My deep sleep is 50min to and hour per night. Where as normally it would be between 1.5h to 2h. DOMS are lasting 4-5 days. Even if I don't go full ham in the gym.

I don't consume caffeine, and I workout in the mornings. I am supplementing with magnesium and zinc. My daily protein intake is around 1g per pound of bw. And I am not in a caloric deficit, nor losing weight. I am also not under a lot of stress or anything like that. I am in my 30s.

Does anyone have any similar experience, and how did you fix it?

6 Comments
2024/10/16
13:23 UTC

5

Lat pulldowns and rows,Two kinds of failure?

This might sound weird but when doing something like a lat pull down or cable row, I usually "pull with my elbows" and I feel that that really targets the lats. But when I do that until failure, basically I can't do another rep like that but, but I can just pull without thinking about that and do more reps.. Does that mean in that case I use my arms instead of my lats, and therefore I should just do until the failure where I use my lats. Hope someone understands. Thanks!

18 Comments
2024/10/16
13:10 UTC

15

Similar quad and hamstring muscle growth from constant vs varied exercises

A new study had 70 young women assigned to a 10-week training program with either constant or varied exercises.

The constant exercise group trained the leg press and stiff-legged deadlift every session, while the varied exercise group rotated between three different quad and hamstring exercises. (Hack squat and Smith-machine squat, and seated + lying leg curl). Both groups trained three times per week.

So the constant group did leg press + stiff-legged deadlift every session, while the varied group did three different workouts per week:

  1. Leg press + stiff-legged deadlift
  2. Hack squat + lying leg curl
  3. Smith machine squat + seated leg curl

They did 2 sets x 10-15 reps per exercise and session.

After ten weeks, there were no differences in quad or hamstring growth, or strength gains in the leg press (trained) and leg extension (non-trained).

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02701367.2024.2409961

6 Comments
2024/10/16
12:25 UTC

3

Daily Discussion Thread - (October 16, 2024) - Beginner and Simple Questions Go Here

Welcome to the r/naturalbodybuilding Daily Discussion Thread. All are welcome to post here but please keep in mind that this sub is intended for intermediate to advanced level lifters so beginner level questions may not get answered.

In order to minimize repetitive questions/topics please use the search function prior to posting to see if it has already been discussed or answered. Since the reddit search function isn't that good you can also use Google to search r/naturalbodybuilding by using the string "site:reddit.com/r/naturalbodybuildling" after your search topic.

Please include relevant details in your question like training age, weight etc...

36 Comments
2024/10/16
11:01 UTC

5

How to implement dumbbell pullovers?

I have seen natural hypertrophy and alex leionidas rave about these but I feel like I'm going to pull something if I go heavy on them. Any tips as to set/rep combination? Do they eventually feel less like you are going to pull something in your shoulder after doing them for awhile?

15 Comments
2024/10/16
10:59 UTC

16

Building muscle in a deficit as a fat advanced lifter?

What are people's take on this?

I'm advanced muscle/strength-wise but also high body fat, probably around 35-40%.

Share your experiences if you were ever high body fat, anecdotes, research etc.

108 Comments
2024/10/16
09:40 UTC

0

3-week holidays in a month and a half – what should I do to keep my gains?

Hey folks! So I've been following an hypertrophy routing for the last 5-6 months (I was in the gym prior to that, but focused on strength) where I made visible gains, and I'm proud of it. Now I'll be traveling for 3 weeks soon, 30nov-22dec, with little-to-no access to gym.

So my main doubts/fears:

  1. What's the best approach until I leave? My main goal is still hypertrophy, so I think keep on pushing until 30nov with no rest weeks to accumulate as much as possible. I'll have plenty of time to rest later on (insert sad face meme).

  2. What should I do to avoid losing too much while vacationing? From what I've read I could "maintain" somehow by working out even once a week, but I might be forced to use bodyweight exercises only. Is that realistic?

  3. What's my best nutrition strategy for those 3 weeks? Should I try to eat at maintenance? Or should I aim for a little surplus – even if that turns into fat in a larger % – to avoid losing muscle?

tyvm folks!

4 Comments
2024/10/16
09:23 UTC

1

Need help clarifying negative aspects of pushing to failure on every set

Still somewhat new to lifting and as the window of newbie gains closes, just rethinking how I train.

There’s a lot of conflicting info on pushing sets to absolute failure, or stopping short - my question is what specific reasons failure training could handicap hypertrophy training. The main one I see is that recovery times are longer and the mental taxation it takes. Besides that are there any others? Personally, I’m still young and I think I recover fairly quickly and I’m prepared to handle the mental load the extra training will entail, and if those are the really one two negative aspects of failure training then I’d want to try it.

Also feel free to drop personal opinions if you have trained every set (or majority of sets) to failure in workouts, some info suggests the most gains are made in those last few reps at or around failure, while other studies show it’s just doing nothing.

3 Comments
2024/10/16
06:11 UTC

39

What exercises get you sore every time?

Obviously if it's a new lift, you'll get sore. I'm talking about lifts that you keep for months and still get sore every time.

Obviously, you shouldn't chase soreness, but I personally believe repeated soreness for months on end is an indicator that you're providing a novel stimulus and at least something is happening. Also, if an exercise gets you sore consistently with a few sets, I would say it's probably a fairly good bang for your buck exercise.

From my experience, exercises that provide a lot of mechanical tension throughout a long range of motion, especially where a lot of force is produced in the stretched position, are most likely to cause soreness. I am curious to see if most people's answers with line up with my theory. It at least lines up for me anecdotally.

69 Comments
2024/10/16
01:35 UTC

0

Bone broth protein

Hey I know this has been asked years ago but I was wanting to ask again just incase there is anything new! I can't have whey protein and I have been having plant based protein as a substitute. A buddy of mine mentioned bone broth protein as a option but I never heard of it before. My main questions are is it worth it over plant protein and if so what are some recommendations yoy know of? (If you have a recommendation that actually takes like broth I wouldn't complain!) Thank you!

7 Comments
2024/10/16
01:00 UTC

48

What grows your quads best?

I love to squat. I squat often. I low bar back squat for strength and front squat for reps. I progress in reps or weights, but my quads don’t grow. My hamstrings are decent and extremely defined, big calves, I need quad gains.

142 Comments
2024/10/16
00:02 UTC

66

Going to the dark side

I don’t want to and probably won’t, but I’ve considered it. When I lean out I just look skinny( 6’3” 200 lbs) and feel weak. And when I eat more (healthy food) I feel strong and look big but I am fluffy. I can’t ever get big and lean. I heard a coach say once that naturals could either be big or lean but not both.

I’m middle aged so I’m not going anywhere with bodybuilding, I just want to look good and be strong. The temptation is always there to run a cycle and put on some lean mass, but at what cost. Anyone else struggle with this ?

106 Comments
2024/10/15
23:06 UTC

11

Side Delt Hypertrophy Questions

How often do you train side delts per week?

What is your weekly volume for side delts?

What exercises are you currently running?

Lastly, what is your own personal experience with side delt training/hypertrophy?

Any tips or tricks to maybe maximise or optimize side delt training?

43 Comments
2024/10/15
21:10 UTC

0

Starting going to the gym again

I've been on break for about a year but now I'm finally making money so I can go to the gym again. I had a few questions that I wanted to ask.

  1. How should I find my maintenance calories. Some websites give me 3k and some equations give me 2k.

I do plan on just eating 2k and seeing what happens by weighing myself out but anyone else have any Ideas?

  1. I don't eat a lot. I don't know how I gained weight but I only eat twice a day and very rarely eat snacks. But here I am trying to lose weight lol. Anyways, since I only eat like 2 times I need very high calorie meals or I would just start eating more meals; either/or. But since I am a student and don't have an actual part time job yet, l'm on a budget. I was wondering if anyone can help me meal plan but cheap. The meat I buy is also more expensive because I follow strict religious guidelines, so cheap Walmart/costco meat won't do it for me.

  2. Since I buy meat from certain stores, the packaging doesn't tell me the lean to fat ratio for ground beef.

What would should I do in this scenario.

  1. For my meal split, I have it as 50/30/20 (carb/protein/ fat). Is this fine?

  2. Since MyFitnessPals good features cost money, anyone have any other apps that do the premium features for free?

16 Comments
2024/10/15
18:27 UTC

664

Went from 254lbs to 193lbs in 4 months thanks to some really solid advice from this sub! Thank you all for your help!

Really turned my life around thanks to you guys

118 Comments
2024/10/15
14:36 UTC

7

Something weird happened with the leg press, it's hard to wrap my head around.

Hello everyone, in my gym, there is a Hammer Strength leg press machine. During my beginner phase, I was able to continuously break through and increase the weight, but a very strange thing happened. One day, as usual, I was training with the same weight. When I was about to start my regular set, for some reason, I felt like the same weight was 50 kilograms heavier than usual (I made sure I didn't load the wrong weight, and all settings were the same). I only did 3 reps before feeling incredibly heavy and stopped. Afterwards, I felt very strange and couldn't understand why this happened. At that time, I replaced the leg press with other exercises.

After a few months, I reintroduced the leg press into my training program. After a few weeks of training, the same situation happened again! When I loaded the weight and prepared to train, it felt like it was much heavier. Despite making good progress for several weeks, suddenly in one week, it felt like the weight was significantly heavier. This strange phenomenon only seems to happen with this exercise in my routine, and up to now, I still can't explain what is happening. Have any of you had similar experiences?

23 Comments
2024/10/15
14:43 UTC

1

Thoughts on my plan for the next X years (Bulking & Cutting)

I've been weight training for a couple / few years by this point. Had some good progress overall and despite still feeling small (i don't feel this is an uncommon thought?) , i'm not upset with where i'm at and my journey so far.

I'm at a position now where i am dialling in for the next few years with my routine, diet and training. I hit all my macros everyday, have a great relationship with food and have great control over my calories in, expenditure etc and my intensity in the gym is always pretty high and i am consistent and simply do not miss a workout unless hell opens up and swallows me.

My long term plan is to be at the sort of weight i am now (72kg) but i want to lean myself out at this weight and my current thought process is to take long, slow bulk cycles (4kg over 5 / 6 months) and then do a pretty intense cut to knock that 4kg off over 4-6 weeks depending how i'm feeling at the time. Rinse and repeat that cycle till i'm a much leaner 72kg and then consider following the same principle but bulking to say, 76kg and then cutting to 73kg, up to 77kg then cut to 74kg etc to actually start building some baseline size at a leaner body state.

I think this is a suitable approach but like most things, i second guess and question myself so wanted to soundboard some experienced people to get view and opinions on it, or possibly comments to improve my long term plan.

Overall, i am interested in building muscle. As much as being strong is always in the background, i'm going for the aesthetic side as opposed to the strength side being my core driver.

Not sure if this is considered a silly question but i am going to ask it anyway as curious on the responses.

13 Comments
2024/10/15
13:23 UTC

977

CONTEST PREP

Self coaching

I’m 22 weeks out from my second bodybuilding show - first OCB show. I’m planning to do wellness and bikini crossover and I’ve been coaching myself. I have a great depth of knowledge when it comes to macros and lifting.

Right now I’m about in a 300-400 calorie deficit and losing 2.5- 3lbs a week. Personally I think that’s kinda fast. 2lbs a week would be my ideal weight loss, so I’m considering adding more to my intake and or reducing cardio.

Current macros 140p/50f/200c

Right now I’m lifting 5x a week and LISS cardio 20mins 4x a week and get 10k steps a day.

I’ve lose over 50lbs in the last year and a half post partum and have been self coaching since February.

Just looking for a little advice or validation!

87 Comments
2024/10/15
11:32 UTC

17

Modification when you’re tired / not enough sleep

When you’re extremely fatigue due to work or sleepless nights (which is temporary), how would you modify your workout other than dropping the amount of sets?

When you didn’t have enough sleep, is Low rep Heavy weight or High rep Lighter weight more fatiguing for you? Heavy weight should fatigue the CNS more but I find it harder to push myself to grind through more reps when tired. What are your thoughts and how would you change temporarily?

39 Comments
2024/10/15
11:35 UTC

13

Survey on Training to Failure

Hi everyone,

I am a college student studying physical activity & health, for one of my research assignments I have chosen to investigate if training to failure is the most effective way to build muscle mass. For my primary source of information I have chosen an online survey.

If anyone could fill this out I would be extremely grateful, will only take 2 minutes and it’s mostly multiple choice questions surrounding your training history.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/gl88ldn

Sorry if this is not allowed mods I checked the rules and I’m unsure if this falls under self promotion

Edit: 11 responses in just over 2 hours is much more than I was expecting, thank you to everyone who responded!

39 Comments
2024/10/15
11:35 UTC

5

Daily Discussion Thread - (October 15, 2024) - Beginner and Simple Questions Go Here

Welcome to the r/naturalbodybuilding Daily Discussion Thread. All are welcome to post here but please keep in mind that this sub is intended for intermediate to advanced level lifters so beginner level questions may not get answered.

In order to minimize repetitive questions/topics please use the search function prior to posting to see if it has already been discussed or answered. Since the reddit search function isn't that good you can also use Google to search r/naturalbodybuilding by using the string "site:reddit.com/r/naturalbodybuildling" after your search topic.

Please include relevant details in your question like training age, weight etc...

53 Comments
2024/10/15
11:01 UTC

3

Patella tendonitis workarounds for quad growth?

Anyone had to deal with patella tendonitis and found quad exercises that provided some decent stimulus for growth while their patella was healing?

So far even warming up with bodyweight + empty bar hurts. I could cut range of motion short as I usually go ass to grass, but not sure if above parallel squats are all that stimulative, because I probably would have to cut quite a bit of ROM for a pain free movement.

22 Comments
2024/10/15
10:26 UTC

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