Hello all, gonna start a self improvement/health thread. Keep it simple:>post what you want to fix or improve on>what you are doing to make it a reality>help others improveIts okay to be a downer just remember we are trying to improve not get worse.We also have a discord for health, fitness and general self improvment so come a join and get some support!https://discord.gg/JNaWJmvu9N
>>35097253My chest is smaller than id like it to be but benching heavy is difficult because I dont have a spotter (none of my friends lift). Id make friends at my gym but theyre mostly rednecks and im kind of hippy-ish (i workout stoned af). What do?
>>35097457You should bench in the power rack and set the safeties up so that its right at chest height BEFORE you do your arch. that way if you fail you can stop arching and the bar will lay on the safty and you can slide out. no spotter required.
>>35097457My experience is mostly in powerlifting and bodybuilding so take it with a grain of salt. I would say if chest size is our primary focus, you want to mostly do dumbbell work rather than barbell work. This will give you a larger range of motion and be better for overall muscle development.On days you do upper body, do dumbbell bench once a week, and dumbbell incline once a week. On those days also do a horizontal pull like chest supported rows, or pendlay rows. Someone with a big chest will ALWAYS have a developed back, you need it to support and stabilize your chest. Mix in a vertical pull once or twice a week too, pull ups help.For accessories make sure you are able to do one shoulder exercise per upper workout, as well as a tricep movement. Stronger triceps mean more weight on your bench, which will mean better chest hypertrophy.Your body works together not necessarily in isolation. Take a whole body approach and understanding that if you progress in these, your bench will go up and your chest will get bigger. I started benching 65lbs for reps years ago and can bench 350+ now. It takes a lot of time and consistency, but you can get there. Good luck, anon.P.s. I do not work out stoned as my pain tolerance goes down and I turn into a little bitch. Weight that's normally light seems heavy to me, which I fucking hate and it throws me off. Try some sober workouts when it comes to strength training and you could be surprised just how much more you think you can do.
>>35097457You only need to bench super heavy if your objective is to bench super heavy. If you want chest development without that, then add in more chest work, like dips, incline presses, chest flies, and/or pushup+ variations.
>>35097457General rule of thumb. High weight, low reps = strength gains. High reps till failure = hypertrophy = mass gains, they key here is mechanical failure. Strength is neuromuscular, you're literally teaching your nervous system how to contract your muscles harder than your brain normally allows you to. Which is why while bodybuilders look strong, you have those videos of the thin framed strongman outlifting them due to having higher neuromuscular ratios.
>>35097567>>35098051>>35098063>>35098339Thanks guys. Im about to go workout and try a few things. I already took an edible so i dont think ill be doing it sober kek will report back
Am down 40lbs from 315 lifts going up but strength sucks rnAMA
>>35098631What numbers mean 'strenght sucks' for you?
>>ASL - 25/M/USA(New England)Hello! I’m a horny and perverted lonely guy looking for long term invested friends! Specifically I am looking for the perfect Gooning/jerkoff partner to hopefully jerk off with very frequently. Please read the rest of my post if any of this sounds interesting!>>About MeI’m into all kinds of nerdy hobbies including vidya, shows, movies, tech, computers, coding, comics, cooking, and more! As far as porn, which I love more than anything, I love big booty women, as long as they have fat butt cheeks I’m obsessed. And Ofcourse I love bing poked fun at for my tiny 4 inch Peepee! So I’m definitely looking for a partner with a huge one! Other porn I’m into is definitely BBC (I’m addicted) and non nude which I want a daddy to help me get addicted to.>>YouPlease be my age or preferably older, and ideally hung (double mine would be perfect daddy) and the big thing is I’m looking for a buddy who wants to control my porn intake. Make me more addicted, make me only look at non nude women daddy knows best! And Ofcourse make me worship your cock!>>In conclusionThe big thing is I’m looking for long term, no ghosting, and a genuine friendship. Please be in the USA for time zone reasons and in case this ever turns very serious! If any of this interested you please reach out on discord, share your asl and a little about yourself! Please be interested and engaging!>>Discordlilbrim
any tips on quitting porn for good? i am m20 virgin addicted right now but i want to quit before i commit to a relationship, want to get married one day without this thing hovering above me
>>35100420are you really addicted? how much content hours do you put into it per day?
>>35100420If you get a single semi-attractive girlfriend it goes away for good. However you instead have to deal with an addiction that a screen alone won’t be able to fix, which is far worse. So honestly just stick to the porn.
>>35100604yes addicted to nasty stuff basically any time i can get on my nsfw account i do
>>35100663right and like stay addicted to trans dick and ruining my body just because i want to get pegged when i get horny by one sounds like a great idea thanks anon
>>35101214Unironically still more psychologically healthy than dating a human female bitch in 2026, yes
>>35101214You're being extremely black and white about your porn usage, there isn't anything inherently wrong with porn, it's impulsive consumption that is the issue. Addictions, are symptoms of an underlying cause, typically an avoidance mechanism, not the other way around. Many addictions have a trigger which lead to the feedback loop that fuels the addiction. So if you want a starting place, next time you get the urge to look at porn you can start with asking yourself why it is you wanted to look at porn. Initially when you've been consumed by a feedback loop for so long, you can't really even identify the actual genuine trigger since your brain is functioning in a limbic state. You'll see a trans girl or femboy, then wanna jack off, while that is a trigger, it's not the true underlying cause. Your brain is just impulsively consuming at this point to stave off something else. If I had to take a guess, for most people on this site, they're avoiding the feeling of loneliness or being alone with their thoughts. Mindfulness is a really hard ask of someone who is going through an addiction, but your acknowledgement of your addiction does show you have some self awareness, and therefore the capacity to sit down with yourself and identify the true driver for your addiction.
The modern internet, which porn is a part of, is a supernormal stimulus. It pumps way more dopamine into your brain than nature ever intended. While the habit starts as an avoidance mechanism for loneliness or stress, it eventually becomes its own physiological beast. This is why guys fix their social lives but still struggle to quit, your brain's neural pathways have literally been grooved to expect that massive chemical hit. It's a physical habit, not just an emotional one.The good news is neuroplasticity works both ways. Your brain isn't permanently broken, it's just wired a certain way right now. It takes time, but your brain can and will rewire itself if you starve those old pathways.Every time you get the urge, pause, recognize the actual feeling you're trying to escape (boredom, loneliness), and choose something else. You're basically building a new neural highway. It takes time, but the brain adapts. I know all of this is a hard ask of someone who is addicted, but that's why having someone who can help supportively keep you accountable without letting you slip into a shame spiral is very important for managing something like this. I'd recommend a therapist tbf.
>>35101294>It pumps way more dopamine into your brain than nature ever intendedMaybe if you’re female.
>>35101298Modern algos literally highjack your brain's limbic systems. It's exploitative psychology. The trickle feed of dopamine is literally and unironically programming people. If you want to get schizo about it, when in a limbic state, your mind far more susceptible to messaging, meaning short form content curated to you by algos is unironically one of the most powerful "mind control" devices ever created. MK Ultra never went away imo, it was just the precursor of a system, whether created with malicious intent or not, is being used maliciously to program all of us.
>>35101303Well it’s sure doing a shit job with my brain I can tell you that.
>>35101306I'm glad to hear you're a thinker anon, but beware your hubris, if you believe yourself immune you are the most at risk. Best of luck navigating the brave new world (heh) we live in
>>35098902Bench is under 225, always was, best I could do was ~187 for 5, probably could do close but not for reps.Squats are 260 and Deadlifts are ~320, being on a perma cut sucks but I gotta get my own weight down to under 225
>>35101308It’s very simple, I think your theory and everyone else’s thoughts on this is a matter of survivorship bias. You see on social media the people who are vibing with the system. talking enjoying things etc, but the people like me who once again, remain ignored, are invisible as always. All the internet has done is create new cliques and new norms, exacerbated our gynephilia, and created a more efficient means to include/exclude others. Otherwise it’s the same shit as always. The winners are winning and the losers are losing.
>>35101328I'm not sure how what you're saying changes what I stated about the mechanisms of the current modern internet and how they can be repurposed for ulterior motives. The internet has essentially become a meta society, so I agree with what you're saying, but you're talking about social dynamics whereas I am talking about the neurological architecture at play here. I think you're failing to recognize the part about algorithms continually optimizing themselves to exploit your limbic system, which is a trait pretty unique to the modern internet. Which I personally find disturbing when you consider that these algorithms are controlled by private entities, or in the case of TikTok, the US government and Oracle (cough). You can get so much deeper into how all of this ties together, but I don't wanna get into it.
>>35101354>but you're talking about social dynamics whereas I am talking about the neurological architecture at play hereThese are much more connected than you give credit. The amount of people I know who are genuinely happy to sit on the internet all day, not speak to a single soul and just watch reels or something, is very low. Social media is fundamentally a “social” experience. So when you talk about “dopamine” I’m trying to understand what exactly is generating it in your opinion.
>>35101381You don't need to be strapped into a chair watch short form video content all day to be "programmed". Mr. Epstein was pretty obsessed with memes for a reason. Memes are in concept and literal definition, a "mind virus" and algorithms, highly effective at infecting you with these if you're functioning in a limbic state of mind. It's why you see the whole Gen X is TOUGH and Gen Z are a bunch of pussies. Dichotomy that seemingly cropped up overnight a couple years ago. Another example of how algorithms are actively programming people are people developing algospeak to bypass algorithmic filters. The ultimate victory of algorithmic stealth is that it is no longer contained to the internet. Linguists have noted that younger generations who grew up under the watchful eye of these platforms are now using algospeak in offline, face-to-face conversations. People are saying "unalive" or "SA'd" out loud in casual, physical speech.This completes the Sapir-Whorf loop:The machine creates a constraint to protect corporate profits.The human alters their language to survive the constraint. The altered language changes how the human conceptualizes reality, even when the machine is turned off.The thing about cognitive warfare is that it is extremely hard to actually point to and can easily be dismissed as schizobabble unless you're zooming out and looking at thing in scale. There's a reason that within the next decade multiple countries will have completely closed off their internet borders in favor of a splinternet similar to China. It's simply one of the easiest vectors of attack for foreign entities. Rather than allow other countries to exert soft influence over your citizens, you seize control of the conversation and sow your own narratives.
>>35102046Once again how does this relate to dopamine. What you’re saying is that people are influencable. A person who experiences a profound lack of dopamine can also be led into various systems of thought like you’ve proposed.
Oh, dopamine in this instance is just the motivator that's exploited by algorithms. You're coming from the pov that dopamine is a pleasure chemical. Dopamine is the molecule of anticipation and seeking. It spikes during the chase, not the reward. Videos that target your limbic brain (anger, horniness, anxiety) induce a literal Limbic Hijack, throwing your brain into a state of high emotional arousal while your prefrontal cortex (your rational brake pedal) goes offline.You would think having anhedonia makes you immune to this, but that’s completely wrong. Anhedonia blocks satisfaction, not the urge to seek. An anhedonic brain still experiences the high stress and arousal of a limbic trigger, meaning you will actually scroll longer, trapped in a permanent state of seeking a stimulation spark or resolution that never comes.The algo loop is actually pretty simple:>curate content based on your demographic profile, cookies collected, etc>measure interaction time, precise dwell time, and scroll speed>iterate and give more of exactly what caught your eye>infinite scroll loop begins>sprinkle content that primes the limbic brain (anger, anxiety, horniness)>brain enters limbic state (hijack) and your rational brain shuts off>dopamine fires from the "chase," locking you into permanent seeking behavioranhedonics get hit the hardest because they keep scrolling to find a satisfaction hit they can't achieve>consecutive interaction = optimization of a profile built specifically to trap youTo reiterate, when your brain enters a limbic state is it highly susceptible to information presented to it and less likely to be critical of the information and take it at face value, making weaving propaganda into content curation a highly effective method of "mind control"
>>35102102
>>35102150So what say you, to someone who gave up entirely. Not out of any sort of enlightenment but just pure exhaustion and misery.
