You want to know why that people in the gym never change… they never get muscular… never losing body fat and never losing weight? Well maybe it’s because they’re lifting the same weight all the time and lifting light all the time. Nobody wants to lift weights that makes them feel comfortable with good form anymore. Also, there’s a lot of gym goers that seem desperate in lifting heavy. Lifting weight that you can’t handle and I see it all the time at my local gym.

If you’re a powerlifter, it’s fine if you want to lift heavy for bench, squat and deadlift but you still need to do that carefully and safely. You still need to lift the big three lifts in good form and I try!

People struggle to lose fat ’cause they’re nutrition sucks for the most part. Sorry but you’re not gonna build muscle and lose fat eating whatever you want. You gotta eat clean, cut out sugars a lot more often, stay away from fatty foods and avoid processed foods too. I do eat mostly clean during the week but I have my cheat meals on the weekends only.

I still get a lot of kind compliments on my lifting and physique ’cause why? I’m not trying to sound egotistical or arrogant or whatever but I kind of have a ripped and muscular body ’cause I know what I’m doing. I think it’s been like 15 – 20 years, somewhere around that I’ve been lifting in the gym now. I’ve learned a lot about lifting, bodybuilding through books, the internet and youtube fitness channels. I’m a self-taught lifter, I’ve never had anybody coach me. I know how to do this which is how I have a bodybuilder physique but I still have work to do, though. I still gotta drop bodyfat myself and I’m working on that. I’m always learning still so I don’t know everything.

It is funny though… that even though I’ve been lifting and doing this a long time there are still so many that want to act like I don’t know what I’m doing and that’s the dark side part of it. I want to eat better and more cleaner, that pisses people off it seems. It’s socially acceptable to eat junk food now. When you eat junk, people don’t care but when you want to clean your diet, people judge you and criticize. I deal with that crap all the time.

When you get a built body and ripped look, that’s when you get all the jealous people coming for ya. So keep it going.

My gym days are going good. Still doing the bodybuilding and powerlifting training. For deadlift, I’m gonna avoid the mixed grip from now on ’cause I need grip strength. My bench and squat going okay too but they could be better, though.

As far as my bodybuilding training goes, it’s going well on that too and I’m feeling strong again. Doing 35lb Dumbbell curls starting to feel pretty light now so now I’m just moving on up to 40 lb. Dumbbell curls for reps which I’ve never done before. It took me a long time to get there.

I’m still working on trying to get big naturally as possible. I want to get that bodybuilder freak look. I will never compete for the stage. Just want the jacked body that I’ve always dreamed of. Yeah, I want that muscle dude look. It’s why I got into this.

I look at all these muscle guys you see everywhere (I’m not gay, believe me) and I thought to myself, “That’s what I want. I want to look like that one day.”

Kev

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I think we had 10 year challenges trends that popped up in social media before and here we go again. I hardly ever do these dumb social media trends ’cause most of ’em are silly but I decided to participate in this one.

Trying not to sound egotistical, I’m even admittedly impressed with myself with these before and after photos. I haven’t changed much in 10 years at all except that I’ve gotten slightly bigger in ten years. That’s because of over 10 years of bodybuilding training and then I started doing powerlifting training a couple of years ago. I would have to say that powerlifting training definitely helped my physique.

My chest is finally shaping up and getting somewhere… probably ’cause of all the bench pressing that I’ve been doing for the past couple of years and all the dumbbell work that I’ve been doing for chest. I remember in the past, I was struggling to grow my chest more but now I’m starting to get the look I want. I’m starting to look like a bodybuilder I would say.

I liked my latest progress pic so I had to participate in “10 year challenge”. Enjoy.

I love what I do. Weightlifting is my second passion other than music. I’ll never give it up no matter what anyone says or thinks.

Kev

Ya know something, this has been getting on my mind lately and it needs to get off my chest. You’ve been working out in the gym for a long time. Your goals are to be muscular, strong or whatever but keep in mind that not everybody will be supportive of your goals and dreams. You will also get many criticizers and haters.

The thing that I love the most and it never ceases to amaze me is that people who don’t go to the gym at all, act like know it alls, giving you all kinds of lifting advice and teaching you how to do things. Yeah, you do know what you’re doing in the gym and you know how to take care of yourself but keep in mind that there will be people who will be coming around that won’t think that way about you. You got lifting experience, a lot of it but you’ll get know it alls telling you that you can’t lift heavy, telling you that you’re doing too much when you’re not, etc. You get the idea, you’re gonna get all kinds of misinformed people giving you “gym advice” which is a problem.

You want to improve your life by going to the gym and eating right. You want to change your eating habits for the better and get healthy but people will criticize that too. It’s crazy, ya know?

The reason people are like that is ’cause they are mad at you ’cause you are doing things that they can’t do so they do this out of jealousy really.

Really, though, you shouldn’t take any lifting advice and gym advice from anybody… well maybe you can take form advice from experienced lifters and pro trainers maybe okay but even they can be misinformed on a bunch of things so be careful there.

It’s funny that everyone wants to act like lifting experts and they always want to act like I’m a novice lifter. I’ve been doing bodybuilding for at least 15 years now and been doing powerlifting for a couple of years so you think I know what I’m doing by now… but nope, people want to continue to act like I don’t know anything.

I’ve always done things my own way and the way I want to do ’em. You should too. I know what I’m doing. I’ve researched lifting for years and if I need form advice, I’ll look it up in youtube or on bodybuilding.com or something, that’s what I usually do. I’m still learning bodybuilding and powerlifting.

Yeah, I do take good form seriously and I know enough that you shouldn’t be lifting weights that you can’t handle but man, people continue to act like I don’t know anything.

That’s the thing with the bodybuilding and gym world, people are gonna be weird and crazy for sure so that’s why you gotta ignore everybody and do your own thing only. Gym is freedom, that’s the beauty of it.

Kev

Powerlifting and strength training can be challenging and tricky… that’s why I love it so much. When you’re doing strength training that requires heavy lifting like 1 – 5 reps. Have you ever lifted a number that you thought you could successfully smash at one time but the next week you try that same number for some reason you can’t do it? It’s not that you’re losing strength and gains, no. What’s happening here is you’re CNS is getting worn out. You need to take a recovery week every now and then… known as something what they all call “de-load” week.

What I’m reading through powerlifting sites is that powerlifters usually train heavy for 3 weeks and then they either take a de-load week or a week off to recover. I’m trying to figure things out.

Ya know…. lifting heavy week after week very frequently isn’t good. The reason it isn’t good is ’cause it could lead to frying out your CNS, could lead to overtraining and worse could lead to multiple injuries. If you ever wonder why you’re getting injured so much then this is probably why… lifting heavy week after week. Yeah, you gotta leave your ego at the door and take your lighter weeks. Do like 2 or 3 weeks of heavy lifting and then take a de-load. I’m reading about this stuff now.

I was able to smash a 310 lb. deadlift a few weeks ago but can’t do that number again for a while. I know I’m capable of smashing over 300 lb. deadlifts now which was my goal.

Now I gotta start improving my squat and bench numbers, goal is to get over 150 lbs. for both of those lifts… maybe even try to get over 200 lbs for both of those if I can.

I love powerlifting training. I haven’t competed in a local powerlifting meet in a long time and I wanna do it again. I wasn’t able to ’cause of covid but hopefully Albany Strength does another one soon. They haven’t announced a new one yet.

Kev

While benching at the gym, I never agreed with lifting the butt off the bench just to push more weight. If others want to do it, that’s their prerogative. It’s bad ’cause it shortens the range of motion and it could lead to an accident or injury. Of course, they don’t give a shit.

You see almost every bencher doing it… lifting the butt off the bench when bench pressing. Even the most experienced bodybuilders and powerlifters do it. It’s just stupid, in my opinion… I never did it when I started benching for powerlifting.

On top of that, lifting butt off the bench is very much cheating.

You watch instagram and youtube videos of people benching and you can see them do that everywhere. Why has butt lifting off the bench become so popular and publicly accepted???

My guess as to why this has become publicly accepted are those weighlifting know it all youtube vloggers and weightlifting blog sites that defend “butt lifting” when benching and they explain why it helps. Well dumb and naive lifters actually believe that shit so they decided to try it and now everyone’s doing it.

It doesn’t look safe. They just do it as a way to get those big numbers. Butt lifting off the bench is definitely an “ego” thing for sure. I’ll never do it.

I’m sick of seeing it everywhere. If they want to kill themselves, that’s fine by me. It’s just silly and dumb. They’re just lifters who are impatient… in a rush to get the big numbers.

Kev

Don’t you just hate these articles and youtube videos in the bodybuilding/powerlifting world that tries to pick out which lift in the gym are the most dangerous??? These know it alls try to warn you about some lifts in the gym that could totally wreck you like the overhead barbell press, the bent over barbell row and the upright rows for shoulders as examples. Yeah, those three lifts aren’t the greatest and they could wreck you pretty bad but…

… truthfully, ALL workouts and lifts in the gym are very dangerous. You can get all kinds of injuries and get messed up no matter what workout and lift you do.

The thing is, even though the bench press is the most popular workout in the gym and the king of all lifts, no one will ever admit how dangerous that lift really is. Truthfully the bench is the only workout in the gym that can actually kill ya. Think about it, right? So many people nowadays bench without a spotter which isn’t good. Sure, maybe it’s alright if you can bench the easy ones and the lighter stuff but when you get the real heavy bench that’s when you’ll need a spotter. If you aren’t sure and if a number you pick makes you nervous, don’t be afraid to get a spotter.

The bench is so dangerous, if you bench a heavy rep without a spotter and if you miss that lift, you could be in deep trouble. Bar could land on your chest, it could land on your neck or even land on your face. Bench can mess you up pretty bad if you don’t lift responsibly and not lift carefully, ya know? You could get paralyzed from the neck down if a benching accident can get serious either that or the bench can even kill ya ’cause people have died doing heavy benching doing some research.

A lot of people love the bench press and they want to feel tough doing it but too many are horrible benchers… like benching with their ass off the bench, over excessive arching, etc…. blah blah blah.

If you don’t have a spotter with ya then you can either bench with the Smith Machine or the Squat rack.

If you’re gonna get a spotter, don’t just get any random spotter in the gym ’cause not everyone are good at spotting. Like, don’t get a spotter who knows nothing about benching or doesn’t look strong. You want to get a spotter that looks strong and looks like he/she has a lot of experience in benching. That’s how you get a spotter. Get someone who has a lot of spotting experience that knows what they’re doing.

The bench press is great, I love it myself but do it responsibly and carefully. If you don’t you’ll be sorry. You could end up in the hospital or worse… death.

It’s crazy to see that how many guys out there bench without spotters ’cause they think they know what they’re doing and don’t believe an accident will happen. Many guys don’t like having spotters ’cause it makes it looks like they don’t know what they’re doing. Benching accidents can happen to anybody really.

If you have a benching accident, truthfully it wasn’t an accident… you brought it all upon yourself ’cause you weren’t careful. So yeah, pretty much your fault.

The bench been around for decades and decades and it’s still a popular workout even to this day. I like it though ’cause it’s actually helping me grow a bodybuilder chest that I’ve been wanting and it’s definitely helping, yes.

Kev

While my powerlifting training getting better and better, feeling stronger and stronger week after week… I’m thinking it’s time to call it a deload for two weeks or three. Reason being is my body is starting to get beatup and worn out ’cause I’ve been doing so much heavy lifting on the big three since I returned to the gym.

I don’t think I’m injured or anything, I’m perfectly okay but do feel beatup a little so I think it’s time to settle down for a few weeks and go light.

I know I’m getting stronger and stronger on the big three lifts in powerlifting: squat, bench and deadlift.

For squats, I’m now able to do 115 lbs. for 4 reps.

For bench, I’m now able to bench 140 lbs. for like 4 or 5 reps.

For deadlift, I’m now able to deadlift 265 lbs. for 5 reps for one set which I was never able to do before until now.

I know I’m able to move on up in numbers on the big three lately. I’m careful on never missing a lift on bench but I seem to keep missing 130 lbs. on squat and miss 300 lbs. a few times on deadlift… that’s because I was doing heavy sets and not leaving enough in the tank in the previous sets. I know I’m getting stronger and getting close to getting a 300 lb. single on deadlift and I’m not quite there yet but getting there.

I got to calm down for a weeks, though. Sometimes I do that once in a blue moon in the gym. Go light on everything ’cause you gotta have those light weeks, ya know? Can’t lift heavy all the time. Heal up and recharge, that’s why you gotta do that. Lifting heavy all the time could lead to injuries and frying up your CNS (Central Nervous System) and all that stuff. Gotta calm down once in a while.

Feels great to get back into lifting finally though.

Kev