How?

[Fruitbat]

At gym this morning. Waited for a dude to come off the row machine.

me = 40s 6’3 Natty, don’t look buff and arms and shoulders don’t pop out. Wearing crappy old shorts and top.

him = early 30s 5’9 all the gear, sleeveless top, spikey hair, tatted up, arms and shoulders look markedly muscular.

His row was 1 notch up than mine, like 7KG more . I could prob manage that but want to build up slowly and not get injured.

Now you might say roids and probably so, but surely that would mean he could lift more. He was a full gear wanker so obviously into his training!

I thought roids can make you lift more and that’s how you get bigger.

how come he looks muscular but I don’t, but we are about as strong as each other? It doesn’t make sense.

my form is good and my sets and reps were about the same.

 

[Money & Muscle]

tbh it really doesn't matter, but I'm bored so why not.

- I know a few people who take a good amount of steroids, and you'd never know. They look natty and their lifts are okay at best.
- I also know a few people who are confirmed natties, and you could assume they were on steroids. I was one of these people, until I started taking steroids too.

In my experience, steroids have not done much to improve my strength. Most certainly they have made an improvement there, I won't dispute it, but you'd think the numbers would have been significantly different - and frankly they aren't.
Steroids themselves don't do a whole lot; they amplify what you are doing in the gym, and amplify the effect of your food (better protein synthesis rates, arguably up to 2x the rate of natties).


I'm a fairly big dude, and while most of my lifts are pretty heavy - some of mine are still only okay at best. My bench is like 305x7 last I maxed out, and that was about a year ago. I mean, thats a good number compared to most, but I know a couple dudes who aren't much bigger than me and they're pushing 405 for reps. Maybe you just found this dude's weak lift, who knows.

I also sometimes use training methods where if you looked at my last set, you'd think I was weak AF, because it was the last of a series of drop sets to failure, or had a specific tweak to make it more brutal than it normally would be. This guy could have been doing something like that himself.

 

[BackInTheGame78]

At gym this morning. Waited for a dude to come off the row machine.

me = 40s 6’3 Natty, don’t look buff and arms and shoulders don’t pop out. Wearing crappy old shorts and top.

him = early 30s 5’9 all the gear, sleeveless top, spikey hair, tatted up, arms and shoulders look markedly muscular.

His row was 1 notch up than mine, like 7KG more . I could prob manage that but want to build up slowly and not get injured.

Now you might say roids and probably so, but surely that would mean he could lift more. He was a full gear wanker so obviously into his training!

I thought roids can make you lift more and that’s how you get bigger.

how come he looks muscular but I don’t, but we are about as strong as each other? It doesn’t make sense.

my form is good and my sets and reps were about the same.

He looks muscular because your body fat percentage is too high which is covering your muscles and making you look smooth rather than muscular while his is lower making his muscles stand out.

You are also assuming he is trying to lift as heavy as possible, which is not always a valid assumption. Perhaps he is on a deload day and training from reps instead of strength.

 

[AmsterdamAssassin]

He looks muscular because your body fat percentage is too high which is covering your muscles and making you look smooth rather than muscular while his is lower making his muscles stand out.

I never worked out, but I worked hard labour. Someone mentioned that I had a basic 'strongman' body, sturdy frame with muscles encased in a layer of fat just thick enough to hide the muscles working underneath.
If you look only at definition, muscular definition doesn't tell you much about how strong someone is. Most people were still surprised by my strength when lifting heavy machinery because they couldn't 'see' the muscles working.
Since I became diabetic after covid, I had to follow a diabetes diet that caused me to lose almost 25kg of body weight (from 115kg>90kg), which also caused my muscles to show more.
Didn't make me any stronger though.

 

[CAPSLOCK BANDIT]

Just because you two are doing similar things in the gym really doesn't mean that much because the gym doesn't mean that much to begin with in terms of muscle definition.

We all might have different bodies but all roads still lead to the same place; sounds like you need a new map.

 

[Fruitbat]

Just because you two are doing similar things in the gym really doesn't mean that much because the gym doesn't mean that much to begin with in terms of muscle definition.

We all might have different bodies but all roads still lead to the same place; sounds like you need a new map.

OK captain cryptic! What does? Diet?

 

[CAPSLOCK BANDIT]

OK captain cryptic! What does? Diet?

Im not being cryptic, I'm trying to avoid being verbose because the question has already been answered

 

[Vending Machine Veteran]

He looks muscular because your body fat percentage is too high which is covering your muscles and making you look smooth rather than muscular while his is lower making his muscles stand out.

You are also assuming he is trying to lift as heavy as possible, which is not always a valid assumption. Perhaps he is on a deload day and training from reps instead of strength.

This

But also genetics come into play. Some guys are going to have better biceps, shoulders, calves than you....

Squat and deadlift to make up for it. Make them your best friends

I have nice calves, though i've never done calf exercises. I have nice traps, though i've never focused on those.

Focus on getting stronger every week, that's all that matters. Fvck joe blow, you focus on you

You get stronger every month for 2 years, you're in beast mode territory. Focus on that

 

[All_Kindz_Of_Gainz]

At gym this morning. Waited for a dude to come off the row machine.

me = 40s 6’3 Natty, don’t look buff and arms and shoulders don’t pop out. Wearing crappy old shorts and top.

him = early 30s 5’9 all the gear, sleeveless top, spikey hair, tatted up, arms and shoulders look markedly muscular.

His row was 1 notch up than mine, like 7KG more . I could prob manage that but want to build up slowly and not get injured.

Now you might say roids and probably so, but surely that would mean he could lift more. He was a full gear wanker so obviously into his training!

I thought roids can make you lift more and that’s how you get bigger.

how come he looks muscular but I don’t, but we are about as strong as each other? It doesn’t make sense.

my form is good and my sets and reps were about the same.

Get on gear and you'll be even more muscular than him

 

[BackInTheGame78]

Get on gear and you'll be even more muscular than him

Nobody should think about taking gear until they've reached their genetic potential. To many people get on gear because it's a way to avoid hard work.

 

[All_Kindz_Of_Gainz]

Nobody should think about taking gear until they've reached their genetic potential. To many people get on gear because it's a way to avoid hard work.

At 40 that ship is gone without help from chemistry

 

[Vending Machine Veteran]

At 40 that ship is gone without help from chemistry

Nah brah. Just takes dedication

 

[Millard Fillmore]

At gym this morning. Waited for a dude to come off the row machine.

me = 40s 6’3 Natty, don’t look buff and arms and shoulders don’t pop out. Wearing crappy old shorts and top.

him = early 30s 5’9 all the gear, sleeveless top, spikey hair, tatted up, arms and shoulders look markedly muscular.

His row was 1 notch up than mine, like 7KG more . I could prob manage that but want to build up slowly and not get injured.

Now you might say roids and probably so, but surely that would mean he could lift more. He was a full gear wanker so obviously into his training!

I thought roids can make you lift more and that’s how you get bigger.

how come he looks muscular but I don’t, but we are about as strong as each other? It doesn’t make sense.

my form is good and my sets and reps were about the same.

Dude I saw a guy with an enormous Santa Claus belly bench more at the gym than I'd seen in years. Several 20kg/45 lb plates, can't remember how many. He stood up and his gut jutted out in al directions. He was also big and sorta tall, bottom line he was just a ball of mass.

Also as I gradually lost weight (fat) over the months I had to reduce my lifting. My mass diminished (including some muscle I'm sure). Now my muscle mass has gone up but belly has gone down and I'm able to lift more again. All to say who knows, lotsa variables at play.

 

[Fruitbat]

Dude I saw a guy with an enormous Santa Claus belly bench more at the gym than I'd seen in years. Several 20kg/45 lb plates, can't remember how many. He stood up and his gut jutted out in al directions. He was also big and sorta tall, bottom line he was just a ball of mass.

Also as I gradually lost weight (fat) over the months I had to reduce my lifting. My mass diminished (including some muscle I'm sure). Now my muscle mass has gone up but belly has gone down and I'm able to lift more again. All to say who knows, lotsa variables at play.

I agree. I am lifting more now than i did in 30s after a years training and I’m overweight. I have been lifting regularly.

It’s not so much more core lifts like squat and deads (although these are higher) but my overhead press is like almost 2x what I was doing in 30s when ripped and my barbel curls and lat raises are similar.

It might have something to do with the fact I sorted out form this time. My squat and dead are perfect form and all “connected” and this had a profound effect on my overall strength in other areas

I was half squatting less than my full squat now