(Age 40, male, 260 pounds, lifting diligently for just under a year)

For background, here is my post 23 days ago where I struggled to find a single tricep exercise that successfully targeted my tricep muscles. Thankfully I got good answers and played around at ridiculously light weights at high volume focusing on form and "flexing" my tricep during every rep especially during lockout to help my brain learn how to recruit tricep motor units. As a result, the most successful tricep exercise that "works" for me and isn't constrained by my limitations is assisted dips while keeping the body upright.

This makes me feel very fortunate because many fitness youtubers (Jeff Nippard and 2-3 others) argue that dips are arguably the best single tricep exercise followed closely by overhead cable tricep extensions, which I still struggle with but is a top priority that I'm focusing on for the next 3-4 weeks incorporating into my push day. The only other tricep exercise I feel I'm able to perform correctly and with acceptable form and good tricep targeting is the Close-Grip (slightly Incline) Bench Press however I struggle immensely with my elbows wanting to flare out and I have difficulty keeping them tucked in, especially my ~5% weaker left side elbow which brings me to my next question.

##Question #2

If I can't do more than 6-7 good reps in clean form (with about 4-6 more in shoddy form) of the Close-Grip bench press, does this mean I need to lower the weight until I can do 12 reps in good form? Or does it mean I need to stop when my form gets bad after the 7th rep and compensate by doing more volume by doing more sets? My goal is functional tricep strength and/or hypertrophy but I would slightly prefer strength by a tiny margin. (as an aside, ai says 30-45 degree elbow flare is fine apparently?)

Primary question (in title): What does it mean if I can perform 25% more reps on my 2nd working set of tricep exercises than my 1st working set of the same weight? And does it mean I'm failing my warmup sets or something else? My typical warmup routine is 5 minutes on treadmill at 3mph or 4.8kmh, 2 minutes of "elbow circles" (due to some men having proclivity for elbow pain when working triceps), and 1 warmup set of 40% - 50% weight of my working set for about 10 reps.

A couple of months ago I switched to the big lifts: squats, deadlifts and bench presses (and OHPs, rows, and lat pull downs).

I am exhausted after the big three lifts. Breathing is the most difficult part when squatting. I am tired afterwards. How do you still find enough energy to do accessories?

I am also still learning the lifts. It's incredible how long it takes to master them.

Im 38 now, trying to get back into a 3 day a week routine. I work a high stress job, and i play hockey 2 times a week. Im also married and my weekends are usually full of housework. Lately i feel like I cant stay consistent because i just have no energy any more. I also dont feel like my body is recovering either.

I drink protein shakes, and try to pound energy drinks to keep myself going. Other than that, im out of ideas. Any got any advice on getting energy and recovery at my age?

I've just moved into an apartment with a built in gym.

Yay! I can save money on my gym membership

BUT! They dont have any barbell or squat rack. How will I ego deadlift now????

Wondering what dead loft alternatives I have on a cable machine?

Also willing to consider kettle bells or anything else I can buy / donate to the gym short of an entire barbell set and squat rack

There are very few downsides I've noticed to getting stronger, but I definitely miss the feeling when I first started and every dumbbell I would ever use for my working sets always felt "light" in the sense that I never felt fear of the dumbbell, I never had problems maneuvering it, racking or unracking it, walking it to the bench etc..

But now when I pick up the 55lb or 60lb dumbbells, I feel a significant and unsettling hint of angst/dread because they are noticeably too big to carry around effortlessly. I genuinely enjoy going to the gym and I'm always in a happy mood but the 55lb & heavier dumbbells act sorta like a buzz-kill, especially if I do fewer reps then expected or have an off-day, essentially creating a negative feedback loop where my angst/dread is "reinforced" as valid (which it's not valid, there should never be any dread/angst from selecting appropriate dumbbells from the rack).

Is there a mental form cue or reframing trick I can use to spin that apprehensive emotion into a positive one? If there are no shortcuts, then what muscles do I need to strengthen in order to make the 55lb & heavier dumbbells feel light/effortless like the 20lb dumbbells felt when I first began lifting? I improved my PR yesterday by 1 rep but I couldn't properly enjoy it because of the slightly unsettling vibe that larger dumbbells give me. Lastly, the problem is getting worse lately due to the self-reinforcing nature described earlier so I'd really prefer to nip this problem while it's still in the bud. 💪

(Age 40, male, 260 pounds, seated dumbbell shoulder press, lifting diligently for just under a year)

I am taking a rest day today because I have way too much systemic fatigue apparently. I have been doing seated shoulder presses almost daily for triples (sets of 3 reps) all year, typically for 1-2 sets but occasionally more. It's my favorite exercise and it's the only lift I actively work towards getting stronger at. (my other lifts have gone up some but less as a percentage) Here is my workout from yesterday and all previous workouts this month follow a similar volume:

Jun 5th 2pm

Shoulder Press DB

• 3 reps x 55lbs
• 3 reps x 55lbs

Close-Grip Incline Bench Press

• 5 reps x 115lbs
• 5 reps x 115lbs

(45 minute mcdo break)

Shoulder Press DB

• 3 reps x 55lbs

Close-Grip Cable Row

• 3 reps x 187lbs

EZ-Bar Curls

• 2 reps x 100lbs

10 minute rests, moderate glycogen levels estimated

6pm 2 sets of 45lb kettlebell swings for 15 seconds each

7pm 40 minutes of zone-2 cardio

My 1-rep max early last month was with the 60-pound dumbbells but I only achieved that once in my life, and I've failed to get 60 pounds twice since then, so I'm estimating that my true 1-rep max is closer to 58.8 pounds, of which taking 85% yields 50 pounds.

Yesterday I was able to successfully perform 2 triples (2 sets of 3 reps) with the 55-pound dumbbells with a 10 minute break in between, which was the first time I've been able to accomplish that. Prior to yesterday, I could only get 2 reps on my 2nd set following a 10 minute rest using the 55-pound dumbbells. I absolutely would not have been able to do a 3rd set of 3 reps with the same weight yesterday after another 10 minute break because it mentally crippled me and I felt useless all day yesterday after my morning gym session, which is why I'm taking a rest day today.

Tomorrow, my goal is to be able to get at least 10 triples (10 sets of 3 reps) using the 50 pound dumbbells but hoping for 20 or 30 sets of 3 reps since the 50 pound dumbbells feel very light/easy in comparison to the 55 pound dumbbells. However, I've never done more than 4 sets per day of the same exercise so my goal might be unrealistic. It's just what I want to do tomorrow, which is my reason for posting.

TL;DR: If tomorrow I do sets of 3 reps of 85% of my 1-rep max with 5 minute rests (as many sets as possible), what info will my number of sets tell me about my strength endurance or my conditioning or my physiology? Or is an entirely useless benchmark to track?

Quick update post for the new v1.0.0-rc.4 release.

LiftTrace is a self-hosted lifting tracker I posted here a few days ago. It's an open, AGPL-3.0 alternative to subscription apps like Strong ($5/mo), Hevy ($6/mo Pro), Jefit ($7/mo Pro), Fitbod (~$80/yr), and the coaching tier of Trainerize / Caliber. Single Docker container, PWA plus a signed Android APK.

Repo: https://github.com/TraceApps/lifttrace Image: ghcr.io/traceapps/lifttrace Latest release (with APK): https://github.com/TraceApps/lifttrace/releases/latest Full changelog: https://github.com/TraceApps/lifttrace/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md

What's new in v1.0.0-rc.4

• NutriTrace federation: if you also self-host my sister app (NutriTrace), each completed workout's estimated calories burned auto-logs to your NutriTrace diary. Wearable data (Fitbit / Garmin / Health Connect) still wins for overlap so you don't double-count. Set up in Settings → Integrations → NutriTrace with a personal access token.
• Editable workout duration on the completion summary: the Duration tile is now a button. Tap to pick from quick presets (30 / 45 / 60 / 75 / 90 / 120 min) or enter a custom value. Useful for the "forgot to start the timer" case, and the kcal estimate updates live.
• Fallback kcal estimate when no duration was tracked, derived from completed set count and badged "rough" so you know it's less precise than a timed session.
• Persistent "Connected" pill on the federation card so you can tell at a glance the integration is still healthy, plus a shared loading spinner across Diary, Programs, Coaching, Exercise detail, Statistics, and the Workout editor.
• Polish pass: stronger affordance on the editable Duration tile, title-case sweep across about 20 button and menu labels, better error surfacing for Settings → Backup and Radio when the upstream isn't reachable, and a small wizard celebration screen at the end of first-run setup.
• Fixed: workout-complete notification firing on every set toggle when re-opening a completed workout's summary (rc.3 caught the main flow; this patches the toggle edge case).

What's in it (full feature list)

• Diary with sets, reps, weights, RPE, persistent rest timer that survives navigation, supersets, warm-up generator, and natural-language Smart Add (e.g. "bench 3x5 @ 225, A1: curls 3x12 @ 30").
• Programs: build mesocycles, assign templates by day, progress through weeks.
• Exercises: full library from wger, free-exercise-db, and exercisedb, plus your own custom entries with images, GIFs, or YouTube links.
• Statistics: volume, PRs, frequency, body stats trends, RPE overlays, sparklines.
• Coaching: trainers can prescribe workouts to athletes, leave per-set feedback, two-way reply threads. Replaces a Trainerize or Caliber subscription for small training rosters.
• Trace AI: optional chat coach, multi-provider (Claude, OpenAI, Gemini, or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint like Ollama, LM Studio, DeepSeek, Groq). BYOK, opt-in, disabled by default.
• Radio: built-in music player for Subsonic, Jellyfin, Plex, and Emby libraries plus Icecast, Shoutcast, and HLS streaming stations. Lockscreen controls, now-playing metadata, frequency visualizer on the FAB.
• OIDC SSO: Authentik, Keycloak, Pocket ID, Authelia, Auth0, Google, anything OIDC 1.0. Multi-provider supported.
• Import from Strong, Hevy, FitNotes, and Jefit CSV exports so you can leave your existing app in about a minute.
• Android: local SQLite mirror with optional server sync, native ExoPlayer for radio, biometric sign-in, signed release APK on every release.

Deployment

services:
  lifttrace:
    image: ghcr.io/traceapps/lifttrace:latest
    ports:
      - "3002:3003"
    volumes:
      - ./data:/data
    environment:
      JWT_SECRET: ${JWT_SECRET}        # required in production
      INSECURE_COOKIES: "1"            # only if not terminating TLS

docker compose up -d, browse to http://localhost:3002/, finish the first-run wizard. Full env-var reference, reverse-proxy examples (Caddy, nginx), OIDC setup, SMTP setup, and the four supported "connecting from Android" paths are in DEPLOY.md.

Signed APK SHA-256 is published with each GitHub Release for verification. Debug APK (accepts HTTP and self-signed certs) is npm run android:debug for LAN-only setups.

No telemetry, no analytics, no anonymous usage pings. The app phones home only to your own server, or doesn't phone home at all in Android local mode.

Here are the tricep exercises I've experimented with this week:

• Close-Grip Incline Bench (done)
• Close-Grip Flat Bench
• Dips
• Overhead Rope Extension
• Single-Arm Overhead Cable Extension
• Reverse-Grip Pushdown
• Straight-Bar Pushdown
• Rope Pushdown

Before this month, I always struggled with elbow pain whenever attempting tricep exercises. But 2 weeks ago, I discovered "elbow circles" warmup exercise which has thankfully fixed that. But now, every tricep exercise feels extremely awkward in one of two ways:

1. It feels impossible to find a tricep exercise with a weight heavy enough to figure out my "6-rep max" (i.e. a weight which I can barely do 6 reps but not 7 even if my life depended on it). The limiting factor is always discomfort rather than the limiting factor being tricep strength (while keeping great form). This is less of a problem if I opt for more reps at lower weight, but I strongly wish to continue the "grease the groove protocol" method which has worked wonders for me the past 3 months and allowed me to move up in strength relatively quickly.
2. Even when the exercise feels "okay-ish", I rarely get that feeling of my triceps clearly doing the work. It often feels like my shoulders, elbows, joints, or just general awkwardness are the main thing I'm noticing instead. Despite tons of effort & exertion, I tend to notice that exertion everywhere else but not the triceps.

For someone in my situation, are there 2 or 3 beginner-friendly tricep exercises that feel natural, stable, and easy to progressively overload? I strongly believe that if I choose 1 or 2 tricep exercises to focus on daily (at low weight, low volume, just mastering the movement), that eventually it will feel comfortable and I can eventually grind my way up to higher weights once I practice letting my triceps familiarize with the movement pattern. I just want to skip the guesswork and only pursue the 1-2 most promising candidates.

Lastly, if you were teaching someone how to learn to feel their triceps working on a particular triceps exercise, what cues or form tips would be most helpful or educational?

Yesterday at the gym, I was feeling weak and sluggish thanks to my recent diet for the last 10 days (very low carb, 700-ish calorie deficit as 40yo male):

May 24th 11am

Shoulder Press DB

• 3 reps x 50lbs
• 10 reps x 35lbs

Zercher Squats

• 4 reps x 95lbs (SS⬆️)

Incline Bench Press

• 8 reps x 115lbs

(my full workout, ~10 minute rests between sets)

I did the Zercher Squats after my first set of seated dumbbell shoulder presses before starting my final set of seated DB shoulder presses. All year, I have NEVER done more than 3 repetitions of the shoulder press. It's been my go-to exercise and always my first set at the gym everyday as a beginner (while kinda/sorta emulating the "greasing the groove protocol" by famous strength coach Pavel).

Prior to my diet which started 10 days ago, I would always do my 2nd set of shoulder press as another triple (1 set of 3 reps) of 50 pounds but I honestly struggled to get 3 reps while fresh and didn't want to fail on getting 3 reps so I just grabbed what I believed to be an easy weight which I could blast out 10-20 reps because I wanted to know what my max rep-count could be for a very easy weight.

However, after my 3rd rep using the 35lb dumbbells, I felt an extremely unusual phenomenon in my brain where I felt as if my "autopilot" had shutoff and now I had been given full 100% control and responsibility for finishing the remaining reps "myself" as if that part of my brain which had been training 3 reps per set all year simply turned off and passed control back to my executive center of my prefrontal cortex. It was much more effortful and mentally draining, feeling as if I had to expend unfathomably more exertion on reps 4 thru 10 than 1 thru 3.

The feeling could best be described as similar to sci-fi movies or tv shows (specifically "Travelers") where your consciousness is sent inside a new person's body in the sense that I felt like I was doing something new and that I'd never done before. (i.e. the same feeling I had earlier this month on my very first rep of the hip thrust machine which I'd never done in my life) It was that same "fish out of water" feeling like I had no idea or familiarity with this exercise and every since motor unit recruitment in my delts had to be manually exerted by my consciousness rather than being done "automatically" while just sitting there.

Another way I could describe it is a feeling that my motor cortex simply "gave up" and passed control back to my executive center after 3 reps, similarly to in programming when a function call is executed and the callee sends back the return statement and/or control to the caller.

I'm a very curious person by nature and want to know if this phenomenon has a name so I can learn more about it? It was absolutely the weirdest feeling I think I may have ever experienced in my life. It was made more surprising in that it was completely unexpected and occurred at a random moment of an otherwise boring, uneventful day. I love listening to neurology podcasts (such as Huberman) and I love learning about neurology, specifically those split-brain experiments done by Dr. Perry where you cover one eye and are shown a picture (such as a red spoon) and each hemisphere of the brain confabulates a different reason or narrative as to why you chose the red spoon over the blue spoon.

My 2 questions today are if that phenomenon has a name where you only do sets of 3 for a really long time and your brain seemingly short-circuits and is unable to extend that "greased groove" past 3 reps? Lastly, have any of you experienced similar or otherwise interesting neurological phenomena unexpectedly at the gym? (and if so, please share it)

I've only been dieting for 6 days, but I already noticed a pretty dramatic drop in gym performance and I’m trying to figure out if there’s a smarter way to structure my diet.

For context, I’m lifting in a calorie deficit (about 700 calories/day as a 270 pound male) and eating very low carb (under 20g carbs/day). Earlier this month, I was able to reach my lifetime goal of seated shoulder press with 60 pound dumbbells, which is probably my favorite exercise and the only lift I care most about preserving.

All week, I felt noticeably weaker and so I took a rest day yesterday, got plenty of sleep, and repeated my same exact morning routine from earlier this month when I finally hit my shoulder press strength goal on May 8th. (protein shake and banana 30 minutes after getting out of bed then gym 90 minutes later)

If I maintain a weekly calorie deficit of 3500 calories, is it possible to strategically have 1 (or maybe 2) higher-calorie days per week? Something like:

• Friday thru Tuesday 1000 calorie deficit
• Wednesday 500 calories surplus
• Thursday 1000 calorie surplus
• Do my strength workout on Friday morning after protein shake and banana

Would something like this work? I just grabbed these numbers out of thin air and would appreciate any guidance today on how to maintain strength while losing 1 pound per week. 💪

I’m looking to start tracking food again. Between wanting to get healthier and it looking like I have gout it’d be good to start tracking this stuff again. Used to use MyFitnessPal 10 years ago but things change so much.

What’s everyone’s go to? I could just make a local spreadsheet but if there’s something that’s easier that’s great.

tl;dr of GtG below:

• "Greasing the Groove" (GtG) is a strength training technique popularized by Pavel Tsatsouline that involves performing high-frequency, submaximal sets of a specific exercise throughout the day to improve neural efficiency. By doing many easy sets (50–70% of max) with long rest periods, you build strength without fatigue.

I am mostly a beginner (male, 40, 250lbs, 6'4") and still have unfinished "newbie gains" that I've yet to achieve in most of my muscle groups. My side delts are very weak. I use the raised handle setup advocated by Jeff Nippard and many other youtubers but I struggle and consider it one of my weakest exercises. Here was my fully rested gym session a few hours ago where I mostly am attempting a GtG style because my goal is primarily weight loss and minimizing fatigue. I want to continue losing 30 pounds before I abandon a GtG style of splits.

• 8 reps x 15lbs (cable lateral raise, today)
• 3 reps x 20lbs (cable lateral raise, today)

In keeping good form, I estimate I can do 20lbs for a maximum of 6-7 reps (in good form) at cable-height "8" at my gym, so my question today is whether I'll gain strength if I do 3 reps of 20lbs daily for the next 3 months? To be more specific, am I likely to be able to achieve 6-7 reps (in good form) with 25 pounds, representing a 25% strength increase in my side delts? Or is 1 set of 3 reps daily a waste of time for side delts and I won't get 25% stronger side delts in the next 90 days using this protocol?

As an aside, my front delts responded extremely well to GtG training these past 3 months.

Question 1: I have changed my workout splits and volume 2 months ago because I was suffering too much mental fatigue (or possibly under-resting) or some other common beginner mistake. But I decided in March 2026 to try a "grease the groove" idea from Huberman's podcast episode with the famed kettlebell guy Pavel Tsatsouline.

The tl;dr of his GTG protocol is to do sets of 3 reps for whichever weight is your 6-rep-max. I tend to have a very slow eccentric phase of about 3-5 seconds in all my exercises with a faster, controlled concentric when possible. However, I don't want to create misleading strength gains by comparing 6-rep-max data if those exercises are not done exactly the same way. I want to be self-consistent in my note taking so I'm basically asking which way is better? Should I measure my 6-rep-max based on how I do my sets every day normally? Or should I have a faster eccentric phase (like most people at my gm) so that way I can do a slightly heavier weight? Both ways make sense as long as I'm internally consistent when taking my notes, but just wanted to ask how other people do it? (especially if they naturally have very slow eccentric phases like me)

Question 2: From an old gym book, the following is written:

• The first number after the weight refers to the reps and the second to the sets. Thus, 160kg x 10/8 means 8 sets of 10 reps with 160kg.

How common is this format/notation from this old gym book? In my own notes, I would just write all 8 sets as follows:

10 reps x 160kg
10 reps x 160kg
10 reps x 160kg
(etc...)

(I guess this is a 7mo update too? https://lemmy.ca/post/53008395)

Running and breathing control is a topic repeated ad nauseam on the interwebs, but is probably worth a rehash as new techniques are discovered or newer runners run into issues. (I still consider myself a new runner, as I still have not reached what I would consider to be an "acceptable" or consistent pace for anything over a casual 5k.)

My biggest limiter with my running is breathing. While nasal issues are absolutely in-play for me (severely deviated septum; surgery this week), I have been able to inch my way up to between 4-6 miles with a regular running schedule, strict recovery schedule and of course, pushing myself consistently and safely. My "running out of air" is always the hard wall I hit, head first.

The muscle burn has always been easy for me to push through, but if I start to hold my running/heartrate even a hair over 140bpm I will crash fairly quick (10-15mins), "run out of air" and have to stop before my current target time of 45 mins.

I suspect my blood pressure meds may be in play as well, capping my heart rate to a degree and limiting O2 uptake. I am going to talk with my Dr. about that as I may be to a point soon that I don't need them. I have already gone through two medication "downgrades" and have stopped one completely under supervision, of course.

Most of my running is treadmill, mostly because I love the consistency at a chill 10min/mi pace. Once a week, I will hit the track and practice at my target marathon pace of 8:30min/mi, but that is essentially just glorified sprints, as I can only handle .25 miles at a time as my heartrate peaks fairy quick, for obvious reasons. (Run faster, heart more beat faster.)

Casual track running will push my breathing harder, but does not seem to peak my heart rate as fast, which is super weird. When spring started and I hit the track again this year, I was gasping for air at an 11min pace and my heartrate wasn't a beat over 135. Talk about a demotivating experience. I am recovering my track pace again slowly and it's taking more time than I anticipated. (I can still run like a champ on the treadmill though, so it's a good morale boost.)

Do you specifically train for breathing in your exercise of choice? Do you go so far as to allocate an entire training day to just breathing or work it into your routine normally?

I know most of the basics like belly breathing, in one/out two and all the variations, coordinated breathing with pace, etc. I am still settling into, and experimenting with, different techniques as my pace and distance increases. However, feel free to rehash anything as getting different perspectives and starting discussion is the ultimate goal of this post.

How can I preserve my hard earned muscle mass on endurance days? How do you eat and refuel on those days?

I like going for multi day hikes, bike tours and raves. I do not know how to fuel my body properly. I am at the end of a cut and I am afraid I will lose muscles on those days. Hence, I'd like to be prepared for the future.

My naive approach is to roughly calculate the kcal it takes and eat that more on that day. E.g.

C = kph * hours

where C is the total calorie consumption and kph stands for kalories per hour.

I think this is too naive. I read that people eat gels during marathons. Is that also the way to go for this? Is there something comparable that is natural? I am not sure which source is good and trustworthy and which source is just pseudo-science.

E.g. this post from muscleandfitness which states

additional calories burned are replaced using a macronutrient ratio of 75% carbohydrates, 20% protein, and 5% fat

Or racecast writes

• Start fueling at 40–45 min — not when you feel tired.
• Target 60–90 g/hr of carbs for marathons (30 g/hr if you're new to fueling).
• 90 g/hr requires dual-transport fuels (glucose + fructose) + 4–6 weeks of gut training.
• Chase standard gels with water, never sports drink.
• Hydrate to thirst — 400–800 ml/hr is typical; heat raises this.
• Caffeine gel at 45–65% of race time for peak effect at miles 18–22.

I lost >40kg fat. How much more to go? 3~5kg? How to deal with the excess skin? Can I even do anything about it?

My question primarily stems from videos such as this one.

I'm trying to understand RIR (reps in reserve) and proximity-to-failure training. I’ve read that 1-3 RIR is the sweet spot for growth with taking only 10% of working sets to near-failure, but I’m confused about how external factors affect that number.

In the first 2 and a half months of this year, I suffered heavily from too much intensity at the gym resulting in nightmare levels of systemic fatigue. My first question is:

####Question #1 -- Can I manipulate my rest times to reach "effective reps" faster?

The longer I rest, the more reps-in-reserve I have at the initiation of my 2nd or 3rd set. Can I "gamify" my rest times and try to aim to start my 2nd & 3rd set as soon as I feel like I'll be able to do a max of 8 reps? That way my first or second rep is already close to failure and counts as an effective rep? Or have I completely lost the plot?

####Question #2 -- Relative verses absolute RIR math

Let’s say I get 4 hours of sleep, eat a 12-pack of Snickers bars for breakfast, get into a 3-hour pointless fight with my wife or girlfriend, and show up to the gym at my normal time. Is it possible that even if I push myself in working sets to near failure, that I won't have done any effective reps and simply performed a bunch of junk volume because I'm mentally unfit to gain strength or hypertrophy? My reason for asking is because I do a tremendous amount of effort getting mentally & physically ready for my gym sessions. It definitely helps me lift harder and put in more volume.

####Question #3 -- Does proximity to failure in earlier sets complicate the RIR math in sets done in the latter half of my workout?

From my own experiments, I'm able to perform about 40% more weight on the final 60% of my working sets if I "phone it in" on my first 2 compound lifts (3 sets each) at the beginning of my workout, after warming up with 10 warmup reps at 50% of 1RM. My reason for sharing the AST screenshot at beginning of this post is because it's a measure of liver/muscle damage and is my only testament that I tried to bring "David Goggins intensity" to the gym everyday for the first 2 and a half months of this year.

I ask these questions as a beginner because I'm new to weightlifting. I've been doing it less than a year. My knowledge primarily comes from youtubers such as Flow High Performance, Huberman, Andy Galpin, Jeff Nippard, and Mike Israetel.

It's sugar alcohol, erythritol.

My brother is an amazing person. Has a great job, wife, family, etc.. but he's 6 feet tall and 145 pounds and in his mid 30's. He just got back into weight-lifting by re-starting his adjustable dumbbell program and he texted me this pic earlier of his workout today.

I don't want to give him a firehose of information as I watch/listen to about 2 hours of fitness & hypertrophy videos per day. His motivation is also very fickle and I absolutely do not want for my advice to make him feel like he needs to push himself too hard (his burnout risk is high). He also has been thin his whole life and says he wants to put on more weight but he always goes back to his old eating habits after 2-3 weeks and loses any weight that he gained.

Muscle growth is metabolically expensive so should I just recommend that he train only 1-2 muscle groups (such as shoulders and biceps) if I'm 100% confident he won't eat more?

He is motivated enough to try but his effort is mostly wasted since he doesn't want to invest into a real gym membership because he had a nightmarish experience trying to cancel his old gym membership 5 years ago so that ship has metaphorically sailed. He also doesn't eat enough calories nor protein.

What am I missing? I feel like there's some helpful advice I could probably give him but I'm unable to figure out what to tell him that he should mostly focus on (since he's still a beginner). Any/all recommendations for how to traverse this situation/opportunity would be greatly appreciated. 💪

Hey all, hoping someone can chime in here. Ime closing in on my mid 50s, and have fallen far out of shape. The past decade has been a loss (physically) and covid made it worse. Post covid i have discovered that ive lost all willpower/discipline when it comes to dieting. I've lost considerable amounts of weight twice in my life, and both times slagged off and put it all back on for various reasons/excuses. My recent efforts have just all fallen flat.

Ongoing depression finally forced my hand, to do a couple of things I was previously very resistant to... I got my testosterone checked, and it was low, so I have gotten testopel treatment.. and that has made a definite difference in several ways. I always said I would not supplement testosterone... But I feel better today than I have in years. It hasn't been a cure all, but in general, it has made me feel better. The second thing, was finally getting on the standard GLP1. Again, something I never thought I would do, but again, desperate times...

For more background, I am a generally large framed man with a comfortably fit weight of around 260-280. Less than that I start to look sickly. However, I am well above that, and around 340, though I am losing. I am going to the gym and since I am doing solo workouts, mostly using machines, and still trying to figure out the weight ranges to use on them. It has been a slow process. I have always worked out with free weights, but I feel safer now on the machines, since I don't have a spotter. Right now I am just doing a push day, a pull day and a leg day. As I proceed I plan on adding reps to duplicate muscle groups in each of these.. but right now, I am just doing 3 sets of each exercise.

My primary focus is currently to keep moving and keep at it in the gym. I do not expect to get ripped, but I do want to build muscle.. I hope that getting some power back is possible. Anyhow, I felt like that was all a lot of background for my main question... Is a whey powder like Gold Standard something I should be taking to supplement my exercising? I used it when I was very regularly in the gym before, but I was also younger and much more fit. I didn't know if that owuld be considered flushing money down the toilet or not. I have already ordered some Creatine HCL, on the recommendation of a trainer at the gym. I have done some reading on it, and realize there is some debate on if it is better than Creatine monohydrate, worse, or generally undecided... But I figured something was better than nothing, and I didn't want to deal with possible side effects from the monohydrate.

At any rate, I appreciate any input that anyone more learned on the topic can offer.

Thanks!