fwiw, I'd much rather see you do 10 sets of 4 reps than 4 sets of 10 reps on DLs using the same weight. I'd focus on strict form and pulling as fast as possible. 10 rep DL sets are mostly a waste of time at best and possibly harmful if your form breaks down.

This is correct. Strength was going to shiet today because the rest is shorter. 1st set I left two in the tank (so I can get 10) but last set was failure. Might take 10 weeks. Not sure.

I am leaning towards 4x6. But I have to film to see how they look.

5x10x165 was pretty hard for me when I was locotarding, but admittedly I was cutting and hadn't lifted heavy in forever. I still think 185 is going to be harder than you think it is (especially considering it's 15-20 lbs over your bodyweight). If you can do it, it would be pretty ridiculous though.

High volume DLs really seem pretty lol. Though I do see some swole-ish people at my gym doing 5-8 sets, it's usually 4-6 reps and not 10.

I've been rockin the BBBs (5x10) for a few weeks now and think they're pretty ***** awesome for DL and squats.

For both exercises doing low weight has really helped me with form. Since I'm doing the low weight reps with better form I'm using slightly different muscles than when I'm doing heavy weight with worse form. Makes sense. Using those new muscles has helped strengthen them and overall it's helped my form a lot on my heavy lifts. Again, makes sense.

I'm not saying that doing BBBs forever is a great gameplan, but I think it has it's merits.

The sad thing is I probably do need massive encouragement. My self-talk and internal mind is just all criticism and failure. Like over 2 years of essentially failure-related talk.

But, I carry on and am starting to enjoy lifting again more. I like the results to how I look and my life in general but I hate the "failing" all of my goals all the time and the massive time sink it's been. I still feel like I deserve better results...which is a very unhealthy approach but, it is what it is for now.

So now I just don't have any Fing goals. Right now it's just "do what DF2 and Cha suggest", continue to log everything, and cross my fingers for another month or two. Then rinse/repeat.

You're doing well, Yugo. Gg. But I also sympathize with you. Sometimes I feel like we are all just delaying T injections and will regret wasting ten years training when we could have been elite all along

. . . says the guy with the 29 inch waist.

But yeah, Yugo, you need to get out of your head and stop nitting yourself to death and just continually pick weights up and put them down as per cha and DFII until swoleness is achieved.

Also, T injections while on the 'pecia would be an interesting experiment.

Lol, probably a waste of my money on the 'pecia. But who knows, I'm not sure anyone does.

As I think I've mentioned, if anyone finds studies involving finasteride and muscle growth/strength related I'd be very interested (so would everyone else ldo).

I think something that would really help is if I could set smaller, achievable goals that set up hitting bigger ones. The problem is I already hit all the small achievable goals (hit macros/calories daily, do lifting plan daily/weekly). Doesn't make me feel too accomplished but maybe it should.

Medium goals?

Like..........?

Btw, the same issue with poker is solved more easily imo, if you are a winning player, you just play X hands per day/week/month or whatever as a goal and the rest follows.

But it's like I'm a breakeven lifter or just slightly winning lifter. So just getting the hands in doesn't seem too profitable until I up my liftrate.

Depends on what your bigger goals are. I'm sure you can find some medium-sized goals that fit in between the small and big ones.

I have a goal of hitting a 1,000 lb total in bench, squat, and deadlift. I'm not close right now, but I feel pretty good because I'm still setting prs and hit a medium-sized goal (although I didn't consciously think of as "medium" at the time) on Sunday. Pulled a 315x2 DL. Not a huge accomplishment for most non-tinybro swoledudes, but it's a significant marker on my journey.

Don't you feel great about how much better you look and feel compared to a few years ago? You're on your way to personal bests. Not much more you can ask of yourself, right?

Yeah maybe you're on to something. Maybe your current routine is lifting to maintenance and you need to really push yourself more. I have a good friend in what seems like a similar scenario. We lift together and he never improves. I feel like he doesn't try hard enough when we work out. He always has the mentality of like "I can't wait to get through this set so I can be done with working out today" whereas mine is always "I wanna get wrecked today so I can go home and slam a shake and get my swole on." I dunno which camp you're in, but I've made gains and my friend hasn't. From the tone of some of your posts it seems like you don't love going to the gym like a lot of us do but maybe that's from not seeing results so it's like a self-perpetuating cycle.

I dunno what kind of advice to give. Add another set, eat more food, take creatine (if you don't already), do something different.

I think Yugo's kind of been caught in between the current tinybro phase this forum has been going through and being rustled at his lifts stalling below where he thinks they should. Either commit to the cut and stop caring about how jellydick your weights are (obv still go all out as BtM suggests), or eat at a relatively significant surplus and try to get stronger. I think it's pretty clear that almost everyone, absent that magical six months saw had a while back, are capable of doing both at once.

Well, this is really derailing loco's log but idaf until he kicks me out, .

I once had a goal of 1k but not at the expense of aesthetics. I was at around an estimated 840 at the end of last year at ~188lbs. Right now my estimated total is 705 at 175lbs. I'm still astonished at how weak the last part of my cut and then that virus made me.

Climbing back to 840 seems like a grind and months away, 1k seems like a huge pipe dream. From what I understand these are relatively paltry totals that I should have already achieved rather "easily" given what I've done.

It's hard to be happy to set and achieve a medium goal of "pull 315x2" when in my mind I should be able to pull 350x2 by now.

I'm gonna go ask DF2 and try whatever he says. Or whatever you say probably, ldo.

As someone who recently came out of a looong cut, I have to recommend eating at a surplus and getting stronger and hyooj. We know we can cut again.

A bulk can really help psychologically. I def feel better right now compared to a couple months ago.

I am fat now, tho, so there's that.

For squats, I think there are good reasons to do 10 or even higher rep sets. For DLs, I think you're missing the point of DLing if you think 10 rep sets are good for anything.

BtM - started taking creatine a couple weeks ago.

Well I dno, I think I try hard in the gym. Cha is the only one who can actually confirm/deny this. For a long time he said I had to learn to push my body harder. So it maybe still is the issue. I certainly don't approach lifting like your friend. I concentrate on the lifts really hard almost every set. I visualize and/or constantly think about my form and the lift to the point where now I actively try not to think about it b/c it seems to get in the way. I try to pump myself up mentally to the point where there is probably too much pressure.

It just feels like I am pushing my will and mind against a brick wall - I want my body to do these things but it doesn't respond the way I expect/want.

Are you bulking now? If so, how closely are you tracking your food intake?

That's a no go at the moment. DF2 says no bulk for me until I'm used to the new programming I'm doing and my volume gains stall. No reason to waste bulking on making gains I should be able to make on maintenance anyway. Plus, imo, I am basically rebuilding my squat and DL technique anyway right now.

Although, I may be bulking anyway - it's hard to tell if my weight is stabilizing or going up really slowly.

As closely as when I was cutting. Although I stopped bulking. I'm back to the weight I was before deathmoon - although I assume a couple lbs of it is water weight.

But now I'm trying to maintain or vvvv slowly bulk for the next couple of months.

Have you considered paying for a consultation with someone respected as a coach? Maybe he'd have more experience with such a situation.

yeah, you obviously are trying, but I think you think too much and dont really ever get the adrenaline flowing. Maybe I should slap the **** out of you right before every set and see what happens

As far as the finasteride goes, the damage has probably already been done - you're screwed: http://mypropeciasideeffects.com/my-...nasteride.html

I kind of have but have no idea how to qualify who this magical person is. I guess you mean online? I assume an in-person coach is necessary but...maybe not.

Maybe. it's probably worth trying. I know you think you're kidding but I mean, I'm willing to try things although not really PEDs.

I'm not reading that again. It seems very likely bogus and I'm not sure how valuable it is to read any of the finasteride side effect websites - they all seem quite possibly bogus and all extremely negative. This is true for a bunch of other drugs too.....from what I can tell from opinions of actual doctors combined with anecdotal research on bb.com, well, I've gone over that already, lol.

Also, if that is true it's just a really really compelling reason I need to stay on finasteride forever, lol.

Lol. 705 total at 175. Beata crushes that.

I love how people bring jellydick weight conversations to my log. 700 totals? 315x2 deadlifts?