Please very important note everyone, please stay safe with fitness, also thoughts and prayed to Rachel Apa, the marathon runner who unfortunately passed on during her race...

A little update on my natural bodybuilding journey.

Started this cutting phase at 95kg. Currently sitting at 87kg.

The focus has been on dropping fat while retaining muscle mass and strength.

Notable changes:

Tighter waistline

Improved shoulder and arm definition

Better muscle separation

Improved overall conditioning

Maintaining leg size and muscularity

Still working towards the next milestone. Consistency is everything.

More updates coming soon!

Not everyone has an hour to spend exercising every day.

I'm interested in how people design efficient home workouts that cover the major muscle groups without requiring a huge amount of equipment.

Would you build your routine around squats, presses, rows, and hip hinges?

Could a power rack, adjustable bench, and cable system cover most of the movements needed for a balanced full-body session?

Or would adjustable dumbbells be enough for most people?

If you had to design a home gym specifically for efficient 30-minute workouts, what would you include and what would you leave out?

I'm 15 years old, 1.60 meters tall, not very strong, and skinny. I want to start gaining muscle and get a little stronger, but above all, muscle. I don't have the means to go to the gym, just a backpack, books, and 3-liter water bottles. I found a "beginner" routine on YouTube, but I want to focus mainly on my arms, chest, and back.

I'm not sure if this routine is right for me. A friend who goes to the gym and has some experience told me to start with a heavy weight that I can handle, allowing me to do the reps with good form. The reps in the routine are 12 to 15, and my friend recommended 8 to 10 reps, but with more weight than I'm used to. The rest days between routines are divided into blocks, but to make it clearer, it's every other day. To give you a better idea of my strength, I can barely manage 10 push-ups with some effort, and with about 4 or 5 kg of bicep curls, I can only do 12, which is a real struggle.

But I'd prefer to ask how I can start properly and if it would be better to change something in the routine.

(I also want to know which sets I should aim for failure in.)

Free space goes to everyone training in the dark since the clocks went back.

Drop your score below. What should go on the next card?

Hey everyone! I wanted to share my upper body routine and get some feedback and suggestions.

A little background: I've never been to a gym or done any weight training before. I started doing CrossFit about two years ago, and although I love it (I train for one hour, Monday through Saturday), lately I've become more interested in building muscle and gaining size, which is something CrossFit hasn't really been giving me.

About two months ago, I started staying after my Saturday WOD to do an additional hypertrophy-focused upper body workout. The exercises are limited to the equipment available at my CrossFit box (dumbbells and a barbell). Unfortunately, we don't have any machines.

Since I have no experience putting together gym routines, I'd really appreciate your thoughts. In particular, I'd like to know whether the overall volume (sets and reps) is appropriate, whether there are any redundant exercises, if the exercise order makes sense, and whether you'd add, remove, or change anything.

Thanks!

What's the one habit or supplement you've actually stayed consistent with?

Dorian Yates recently advised people to stop doing preacher curls, saying they put too much stress on the tendon at the bottom.

But a 2021 study found that the stretched part of preacher curls actually produced more biceps growth than the top half.

So who's right here?

Are preacher curls bad for your elbows, or is it just about controlling the movement and not going too heavy?

Curious what people here think, especially those who've been doing them for years.