(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.

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?

I got into beekeeping last year (after putting it off for 20 years) and part of my final impetus was that nearing 50 means my physical capability will eventually restrict the amount of hobbies I can meaningfully engage in since I'm not getting any younger. (unsurprisingly 🤦‍♂️)

As a result, I've started thinking more intentionally about developing hobbies that I can continue well into old age. Beekeeping has been a great addition because it gets me outdoors, gives me something to learn, and provides a tangible reward at the end. But what about making beef jerky? Is it similar to beekeeping in that it yields a tangible reward but only incidentally and not guaranteed to be pleasing/edible until you've mastered the flavor and safety techniques?

Part of me sees it as a hobby because there seems to be a lot to learn: selecting cuts of meat, experimenting with marinades and seasonings, mastering dehydration techniques, food safety, and constantly refining recipes. I can imagine spending years (possibly decades) trying different approaches and enjoying the process. I saw an old youtube account of mine recently that had a 15 year old video of me making Cuban sandwiches, which I've been honing/improving over the last 18 years and have never lost the obsession!

If beef jerky making is a hobby then I plan to pursue it. If it's more akin to a culinary skill, then I plan to go on a deep dive to the back bottom corners of my closet to find my rock wool cubes and plant 20 hydroponic tomato seeds before the end of this weekend. (I have a ton of hydroponic equipment but it's all been sitting in my closet unopened for the better part of 8-10 years)

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. 💪

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...)

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.

I believe knot-tying would be a great, life-long skill to have, especially being able to know which knots work best for different situations, like when the rope is thick and not very flexible or bendable.

I have lots of nylon rope and fishing line of various diameters, but don't know where to begin and/or the best way to get started. My goal is to make this a long-term hobby and spend 1-2 hours per week improving my knot-tying knowledge, skill, and speed.

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. 💪

I was trying to create my own seedling starter mix but got confused between perlite and vermiculite. Are they inter-changeable in gardening pots? Or is one better than the other?

Can someone leave a comment if my post is visible, please?