4 years in of hard work
....and I still look like an average untrained male with clothes on.
During bulks, I look/feel chubby/flabby
During cuts, I look/feel skinny/weak
It's such a slow and painful process. 4 years in, I have made substantial growth and improvement in my lifts, but 70%+ of it was in the first 15 months. I have refined my diet pretty well - of course it's not perfect and I'm not a professional, but for the most part I get in the amount of macros I want, keeping fat fairly low and high on carbs and protein. My lifts are still improving, but all my maxes go to shit once I start focusing on being a lower bodyfat. If I can do a 120kg bench press peak bulk, I'd be lucky to be able to do 100kg during the cut.
I do plenty of cardio (more so in the summers/cutting phases), and I lift 4-6 days a week depending on the split. I take a week-long break when I feel my body really needs it, which is usually once every two months. I get plenty of sleep, I stay hydrated, I take supplements, I do not drink alcohol ever.
It really makes me wonder - is all of it worth it just to stay natty? Is a cycle of gear going to do that much damage? Actual kids with no knowledge or experience are able to look infinitely better than me, while doing everything wrong, just from one stupid fuckin cycle.
How do you cope with this? How do you keep going? Personally, I have always been against the use of steroids because I felt that it was cheating and that it did too much health damage. But with my IG filled with non-natties, slowly my mind is changing and I don't know how to feel about it.
....and I still look like an average untrained male with clothes on.
During bulks, I look/feel chubby/flabby
During cuts, I look/feel skinny/weak
It's such a slow and painful process. 4 years in, I have made substantial growth and improvement in my lifts, but 70%+ of it was in the first 15 months. I have refined my diet pretty well - of course it's not perfect and I'm not a professional, but for the most part I get in the amount of macros I want, keeping fat fairly low and high on carbs and protein. My lifts are still improving, but all my maxes go to shit once I start focusing on being a lower bodyfat. If I can do a 120kg bench press peak bulk, I'd be lucky to be able to do 100kg during the cut.
I do plenty of cardio (more so in the summers/cutting phases), and I lift 4-6 days a week depending on the split. I take a week-long break when I feel my body really needs it, which is usually once every two months. I get plenty of sleep, I stay hydrated, I take supplements, I do not drink alcohol ever.
It really makes me wonder - is all of it worth it just to stay natty? Is a cycle of gear going to do that much damage? Actual kids with no knowledge or experience are able to look infinitely better than me, while doing everything wrong, just from one stupid fuckin cycle.
How do you cope with this? How do you keep going? Personally, I have always been against the use of steroids because I felt that it was cheating and that it did too much health damage. But with my IG filled with non-natties, slowly my mind is changing and I don't know how to feel about it.
