bodybuilding for techbros

2025-02-07

"But, I lack the motivation!"

Shut up.

Lifting is fun.

Running becomes fun.

Just do it: you will get used to it, making it easier to force yourself to go.

It is one of the most rewarding things you will ever do.

Exercise

The only reason for our body to increase it's muscle mass, is when what we currently have, is not enough to do what we want - which is moving the weight.

Which means, in order to grow, you will have to go very close to failure - so that your body knows what you want.

I personally have a hard time stopping at exactly the magical barrier of 97.5% exhaustion - this is why I go all the way to failure.

It's easier that way.

In the beginning it helps to have someone who knows what failure looks like to spot you.

It's really easy to underestimate how many reps you still have left.

Just push until you physically can't, then imagine someone holding a gun to your head and push some more, then have your friend help you a little (or actually hold a gun to your head).

After a while you will start to love the pain and you won't want to train like a pussy anymore.

This is called masochism - it is also the reason gym-bros become highly attracted to Goth Girls (literally me).

Remember: Intensity is key, not volume.

Over time your sets will feel lighter - you will be able to do more reps.

This happenning means two things: you've build muscle and you've gotten stronger.

You can still train using that weight by going to failure, but after a while too many reps will become annoying and ineffective.

This is when you go up in weight - this is the holy grail: progressive overload.

Now repeat.

If I would start over, I would copy a plan from someone experience and then start adapting it, as I learn more about training and my own body.

Learn the biomechanics of each muscle.

For example: the triceps extends the arm, while the Bizeps retracts it.

Knowing what a muscle does, will save you from bullshit exercises like "pullups for chest".

You will have some overlap between muscles, especially if they both push/pull.

Benchpress for example also trains front-delts and triceps besides your chest.

Most plans are this: you split up all the muscles you want to train into three days and then add a rest-day on top.

There is two philosophies to this: Training overlapping muscles on the same day (like the famous Push-Pull-Legs) vs splitting those up (like the Arnold split).

I fall in the latter category

The amount of sets depends on the muscle.

Reps per set however is mostly a preference.

I like to go with higher weight but lower reps (6-10) on my main exercise of the muscle (like my dumbbell press), and then do a few lighter ones with the isolating ones (like my cable flies).

The set itself is pretty straightforward.

You go with the resistance (so f.e. bringing the bar down in benchpress) with full control - this means you should be able to stop moving whenevery, without much effort.

Once you reach the end of your ROM (Range of Motion) you do an explosive push against the resistance while exhaling - this is where most of the moans you hear come from.

I personally like to simply exhalte through my teeth which produces an aggressive "tss" sound.

Between reps I like to have a 2-5 minute break.

Harder exercices like squats I need more recovery from than something like lateral raises.

You and your muscles will have more energy for the next set.

Also, it really is not a pleasure having to hang over a window trying not to puke because your friend convinced you to HIT (High Interval Training) is amazing legpresses - thanks Alex 💖.

Also, please try to have good form.

You will hit the muscle more effectively while reducing injuries.

It's as simple as doing it right - correct execution, correct setup, correct weight for your strength.

Cardio is all the endurance stuff that you do.

It is healthy - which is why everyone should do it.

If you want to burn more calories (more on that in Nutrition), you will also have to run, cycle, swim, or whatever the fuck you prefer.

The harder something is, the more calories you will burn.

This also means that you will be exhausted quicker.

Just choose whatever you like / fits in your shedule.

I mostly run.

If my shedule is tight and I have less time for running, I run faster.

Nutrition

When thinking about what to eat we care about three things: calories, macronutrients, and micronutrients.

Calories is the energy our body gets from eating a food. It can be calculated using the (digestable) macronutrients.

Carbohydrates and Proteins have 4 calories per gram, while fats have 9.

There is one rule that (if followed) would solve all issues on planet earth.

If you eat more than you burn, the energy is stored as fat - If you eat less, your body burns fat to get the energy.

This is called cutting.

if you want to gain weight, you do the reverse: bulking.

Meaning to loose weight, you simply have to reduce your calories consumed and increase your calories burned till you flip the scale.

How much less should consume? Remember that a gram of fat has 9 calories?

This means that if we want to loose 100 grams of fat per day (which means about 3 kg per month), we have to burn 900 calories more than we eat every single day.

This is hard.

Start with 300, you will feel less like shit.

So how do I know how much less I am eating?

First calculate your maintance calories - this is how your body burns every single day without any additional movement (like exercise).

There are calculators online, where you enter biometric and lifestyle information, but from my experience those are very optimistic and will make you eat more than you should.

TODO: write about adjustments

You will also need to know how much you are eating. Use something like MyFitnessPal, where you enter the name of a food and how much you ate of it.

This means getting into the habbit of weighing your food. For some this will seem absurd, but you quickly get used to it - it is worth it.

So, when should I cut and when should I bulk?

It depends.

If you have an average build, you should bulk first, since it will make the cut after that easier.

By having more muscle mass, your maintanence calories go up - meaning you can eat more while loosing the same.

If you are already fat, maybe a cut is the place to start.

Especially as a beginner, you will still build some muscle.

The quicker you get out of obesity, the better.

Start by calculating how much you need to eat and start eating like that.

After a few weeks reflect.

Are you not hungry and trying to loose weight? Eat less, do more cardio.

Are you trying to gain weight but your strength is stagnant? Eat more! (given that your training is good)

Tracking will also tell you which macros (macronutrients) you are eating. This is as important, as the calories.

For your muscles to grow or at least not shrink, you will need Protein. Aim at getting 180g a day.

When doing an aggressive cut (so one with a high caloric deficit) I would increase the protein intake - I had times when I ate around 250.

This helps with retaining muscle mass, and will make your cut go faster, since protein takes more energy to digest. Most protein is also volumous, so it will fill you more.

I personally eat half a kilo of "Magerquark" every evening - it's 60 grams of Protein for about a Euro and makes me completely stuffed.

Also, it has a high Casein content, which is the protein with higher digestion time, meaning I have protein synthesis throughout the whole night.

Fats are interesting.

They are high in calories but we can't live without them.

At least not without the right kind.

There are less and more saturated fats.

We want the latter.

They are found in: fatty fish, nuts, avocadoes, olive oil.

The first we should avoid, it is found in: seed oil, processed foods.

Fats are important for hormone production, if you fail here, your Testosterone will be shit.

This means that you will loose muscle, feel tired and unmotivated, also your wife won't be happy that you start needing Viagra.

(This is an actual a risk, I once completely dunked my test by eating barely anything and had ✨problems✨)

Go for at least 45g a day, too much is not good either, because after a whileyou will see little benefit - in the contrary, being long to digest, it will make you feel sluggish.

The rest of your calories should be filled with carbohydrates.

It can be divided into short and long carbohydrates, and into low/high fibre

Ideally all your carbs should be long ones.

These take longer to digest, which keeps you full and doesn't fuck up your insulin.

Stuff like: oats, and brown rice for example.

Vegetables are also great, because they have high fiber, which fills you more.

Also, they have vitamins and a low caloric-density: a lot of volume for little calories.

That doesn't mean that quick carbs like sugar are inherintely evil - just that it should be avoided if possible.

An exception can be right before the workout - I personally love some chocolate.

If you have a very long training session, you might even go for an intra-workout snack.

In my gym you often see people fucking up some Haribos inbetween sets.

(Anecdotaly you only see this in the extremes for different reasons. Hardcore Bodybuilding Gyms for performance gains and PlanetFitness for stupidity.)

Fun fact: eating few carbs depletes the glycogen stores in your muscles, which hold water. At a certain size you can go down a size in clothing, if you simply fast for a few days.

Speaking of timing, I feel like this is an underrepresented topic, especially if you care about your work-performance at the same time.

The pre-workout meal, should be mostly carbs and some quick protein.

Staples are: chicken with rice, oats with protein.

Give it an hour or so to still be digested, and don't make the portions too big.

After the workout I like some quick protein with a shake.

If you have been talking to people, you might hear the word Anabolic Window.

It is bullshit - you don't have a magic time at which you HAVE to eat protein in order for your muscles to grow.

Instead you should have a steady supply of it throughout the day - it's just a coincidence that after a 2h+ session I should fill up my body again

What about micronutrients?

These are vitamins, minerals etc.

Just eat a lot of them I guess, I am not qualified to say more.

Recovery

Sleep well, lol.

The muscle damages you create during training are best fixed during sleep.

Also, you will have more energy to go harder

Supplements

These can broadly be divided into two categories.

Adding what's missing If you are not enough fats, you can supplement those. If you are not eating enough minerals, you can supplement those If you are not eating enough vitamins, you can supplement those
Extras 🌶️ Creatine makes you a bit stronger, also you look huge because more water is held in your muscles. Ashwaghanda is supposed to help you with recovery.

The forbidden Juice (Steroids)

coming soon

People to learn from

English:

Vigorous Steve: absolute genius on hormones and supplements
MorePlatesMoreDates: steroids and bodybuilding culture - more as entertainment
Sam Sulek: just a guy that trains hard and gives good advice on how to do so too
dr mike isreatel - famous science-based bodybuilding guy

German:

Patrick Teutsch: love his general philosphy on training and nutrition
Stefan Kienzl: one of the smartest coaches there are, absolute gold regarding biomechanics

☘