you're "addicted to lifting" yet still as dyel as a beginner. unreal

i wonder what you consider ''chit form'' on the bench, if you think having an arch is chit form, think again

I bench about 250 so hardly DYEL

your arm lacks definition though

This has been discussed in the thread though. Everyone knows people can get fat and put up heavy weight. It's whether or not a 180 lb guy can do this while remaining somewhat lean is the question.

nah, don't trust everything you see on the internet

im doing my first comp this year and I'll probably be able to hit those numbers. bench is the only one im not too sure about

i agree with this

lol, says mr OJ

lol!!!!...dude...welcome to the misc

I'm actually surprised you can't bench at least 275

what do you mean?


I probably could if I had a spotter and a proper comp style bench but I was able to hit 265 without a spotter.

Thanks bro - definitely proud of the achievement even though it's nothing in the powerlifting world lol
Believe what you want, I can't prove that I'm natty. I'm the only one that knows and you just have to take my word for it. I've been training just a little over 11 years now (6.5 bodybuilding and the rest is powerlifting.. Only last year got into strongman.) - I'm telling you though, it's not as hard as you make it out to be.
admitted what ? Lol ?
Lol. Depends what you mean lean ? I did all 3 of those weights for 8 reps at 165lbs...

Also when I got to 175-180lbs I did each one of them for a 10 sec pause - I've posted the vid of me repping, I can post a pic of what I looked like at the time and post the vid of the 10 sec pause ? You still wouldn't believe it though lol.
Lmao - again, believe what you want. Sad you got low standards... What do you expect though it's the misc.

180 lbs at 5'8 or 6'2 is a massive difference

Because you look like you can. If you got 265 without a spotter you could get 275 with a spotter. No doubt

Here's the pic of my physique in 2016 when I did

4 plate squat x 8
3 plate bench x 8
5 plate dead x 8

I also bulked dirty to try n be better at strongman and got to 194lbs - fat as fuark - I'm back down to 165lbs and trying to go lower

i was js, talk is cheap, and don't believe any wild claim on the internet, i'm not calling you a liar, you may very well be natty, good for you, but in general, it's best to remain skeptic, if they tell you man went to the moon, don't automatically believe it, if they tell you the Earth is round, don't automatically believe it, etc

i wish johnny ringo would gain some definition though

really? Here are my first 4 plate squat, 3 plate bench (not very first, didn't get that on film) and 5 plate dead:

squat:



bench:



dead:



got the first 3 plate bench after lifting for 25 months, squat and dead after 26 months. Body weight was around 200-205lbs (6' tall).

physique then:







not insanely lean, but still had visible abs

couple months later did my first powerlifting comp and hit 402/336/507 weighing in at 210 after bulking hard that last 1-2 months:








yes, I'm aware my form was chit


Edit: 25 and 26 months, not 15 and 16 months. I can't count.

I know what you're saying but that mentality leads to the mind set of "we shouldn't believe anything that is said on the internet " and there's plenty of valuable things that has been said on the internet - this website (and dare I say the misc)

I aspire to the IPF u74 class - some of their lifts It's like close to a 5 plate bench - do I question their status ? Kind of but not really. I'm more inspired by it.

Honeslty before I got into powerlifting back in 2014 - I was only squatting 2 plates for reps and I honestly htought anyone who squats 3 plates for reps was on it. (serious)

boy did my mentality change as I saw myself progress, learned about technique, programming etc

idc, I insist, you may not like it but i insist, don't simply believe words, and specially when it comes to bodybuilding/powerlifting, the problem is MANY claim natty status and they are frauds, unfortunately many people DO lie, you may be honest, but it is what it is, we are not children anymore

that big head though, lol, no wonder you are so strong, men with LARGE heads are known to be strong (myself included)

^why rep some random guy based on his looks? are you homo??

Who this?

lmfao, i see what you did there

I thought of a couple things since last post.
First 'full potential natural' is different for everybody. You can see mine, but that isn't the next guy's max natural body shape because of genes. I have a masters in bioengineering, undergrad biological science, mathematics, chemistry, and I have quite a bit of experience examining lengths of DNA and the proteome of various living creatures, to understand that anybody can grow anything, whether its an eyeball, a muscle, a tooth, doesn't matter; you can express those genes wherever you want. They have created fluorescent pigs with jellyfish DNA, there are flys with eyeballs growing in weird places. All kinds of weird **** is possible. So for any one random individual their 'genetics' as you guys like to throw around the term, is literally all that matters from beginning to end. The stress of lifting activates and re-organized genes, but it doesn't make new ones, and it doesn't generally delete old ones. You get what you get.


That said, lets take one more step in the 'muscle gains' line of thinking. Some people want just size, some want strength, some don't care. Personal preference. The unifying factor about weight gain/size however is always the same: if you want to 'grow' you need to grow everywhere. Bones. tendons. cartilage. whole body gets bigger. When cows take juices they don't lift any weights; yet their whole body responds to the hormones and growth occurs regardless, they get muscular, they get bigger. Working on muscle, just one muscle, never seems to work and there are warnings everywhere about doing only curls if you are trying to get large biceps. I've never done a single curl fwiw.

With that in mind about 'size' I want to switch now to 'strength'. This is something I learned when I first joined BB.com, that is:Do what works, as long as it works. "microloading" addingouncesinstead ofpoundsto make natural gains is a real thing in my experience. And also: Start with compounds and avoid machines, avoid uni-planar motions until the compounds stop working. the machines are more 'advanced', isolated movements are more 'advanced' techniques. That there wasn't any reason to do those things until the big compounds (S/B/D) Stopped working.

So guess what? S/B/D never stopped working for me. I am getting stronger and stronger every month. As long as it works, why stop? I add a little bit here and there, mostly from boredom, but overall extremely happy with the progress S/B/D is handing me. It allows me to:
1. avoid machines (and other people's sweat)
2. In and out of the gym in ~1 hour
3. Takes a whole week to recover (or longer), I get to eat whatever I want for a week or two in recovering and not worry about the gym

Once S/B/D stops working or I hit 38-40 years old~ whichever comes first. I will move on to some isolated movements to define specific points that are lacking in my genetic configuration (my looks). And start using... properly... the right stuff to maintain a healthy level of hormones in the blood stream (legal replacement therapy is a thing). This will kick start a whole new era of potential for gains, size, strength, etc... and my body will be ready for it by then thanks to lack of vanity/injury that has to do with some number of pounds on the bar. A high weight number is unimportant for the sake of growth or strength, which comes from the total amount and type of stress you are able to provide, as opposed to merely the most weight; For example I can load 225 instead of 200 on the squat and probably do it. But I know from experience I would do too few reps, it wouldn't 'work me out' the way it is supposed to, and I would probably not gain anything that way or even worse: lose progress.