Mitcho_7

How long have you been lifting for now?

There is no such thing as toning up. Muscle tone is not under voluntary control, it is pre determined by higher brains centres and relies heavily on reflexive muscle spindle feedback to be kept in range. You either get more definition due to a drop in bf% or your muscles have grown.

With the rep ranges your training in you would still be focusing on hypertrophy moreso than anything else though. And if you modify your diet to prevent yourself from getting bigger, the strength gains are going to be harder to achieve as well. Having said that if you change to a more powerlifting/strength based workout thats not going to mean you wont get bigger. Look at the size of all the strong guys markos post videos of, they aren't small by any stretch...

I feel like you would have a long way to go before you were getting to big...Yes everyones perception of big is is different but getting big doesnt just happen overnight. But playing with your diet will stop you from getting bigger. Can also hurt strength gains though. ..

You look like you are carrying a pretty low bf% Makes your delts look bigger/more defined!

Lifting can be a good escape from everything I find. The only struggle is actually getting yourself there if you are feeling down. But once you get there and get some music going, for that 1.5 hours or so nothing else really matters.

The bar must have pressed against both his carotid arteries, thatll make you drop when theres 180kg of weight! Good to see hes ok though!

Did my first 4 plate deadlift today, not a lot in the grand scheme of things but im still happy with it

Id do a cycle if I could get a hold of gear of reputable quality including pct etc and it didnt cost the earth. Unfortunately thats probably not going to happen...

I think it depends on the federation you compete under as to whether steroids etc are tested for or not in powerlifting. Most would be natty though

I dont think it really matters whether its hypertrophy or hyperplasia to most people in the long run. What matters is weight training combined with proper nutrition and rest can increase strength and muscle mass.

Theres a few animal model studies that show hyperplasia occurs in skeletal muscle, but in humans I think its hard to actually prove hyperplasia has occured because its hard to count fibre numbers in people that are still alive. I think it probably does occur in humans to a certain extent but hypertrophy is definitely a bigger contributor to muscle size increases. Havent really done much on AAS but as far as I know they work by enhancing gene expression to make the body produce more contractile protein in skeletal muscle in response to stress ie weight training. Whether or not that is hyperplasia as well as hypertrophy I dont know. Itd depend on what they do to satellite cells in muscles as id say they are the cells that are going to be able to proliferate into new muscle cells.

This. When i feel like its something more sinister I go to the family doctor that I have gone to since I was young just because he is up on the family history and stuff.

Dont mean to sound like an ass, but since when has human skeletal muscle been capable of hyperplasia? Everything I have ever seen has shown evidence of hypertrophy only, so you get more sarcomeres (contractile units) within each muscle fibre but you dont get more muscle fibres.

Dat quad sweep! How long has martin been lifting for?

Quoted for truth

My thoughts exactly, I get into working sets ASAP.

What sort of thoracic spine injury and how did they diagnose it? I dont know about you but if I had a spinal injury, I probably wouldnt be going to a chiro because all they do is spinal manips which isnt necessarily going to beneficial. Besides, if you have a good physio they should be able to do everything a chiro can do

Is the increased testosterone from pcos or something else?

I dont know if there are any dealers in australia. Mark at gtpumps deals with FP a bit though so maybe flick him an email?

Lol that would be a terrible experience

Thats a solid improvement in 3 weeks!

Imagine benching 300kg, damn life would be sweet...

Ecu talk worked fine on my 33 with a consult display, not sure if you having a 32 ecu will affect it though...

More or or less a remedial massage therapist