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Originally Posted by Mahou
Couple of questions...
What line of work are you into? I remember you saying something about this the last you posted. Have you ever used gear? How long have you been lifting?
Thanks for the compliments. I have been just focusing on strength more than anything; however, I haven't made a set goals because I'm not sure what I should be able to expect as a drug free lifter. I have met most of my fitness goals within the first year I have been lifting - 295 lb bench, 225 incline, 405 squat (all maxes of course and I don't really deadlift). Those happened to be long-term goals for me when I first started lifting in the first place because everyone made it seem out to be so difficult. For the past 3-4 months, I've been maintaining (about 210 lbs) but still making strength progress at the same time. I'll use body weight exercises to keep myself in check when it comes to conditioning (overhand/underhand pull ups, dips).
The days I do lift heavy, I try to space it out as much as possible because of how much stress it has been putting on my body.
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I'm a Dentist and own my own practice. I'm rapidly expanding and investing a lot of money. I can't afford an injury, quite literally, so while I still workout 5 times a week I've cut down substantially on how much I lift.
I've been lifting for over 5 years now and am lifetime natural.
I guess comparatively, some of my best lifts ever were achieved when I was around 200lbs at the peak of a bulk I did about 1.5 years ago (I'm 5'11).
My best bench ever was 255 x 8 (317 max), Squat was 365 x 7 (438 max), and my best deadlift ever was 455 for one and I almost snapped my shit up.
Right now I do...205x8 Bench, 225x 8 deep pause squats and like a 225 deadlift lmao.
These are all extremely low RPE though, and I usually do high volume (6-10 sets) followed by accessory work.
Honestly, from my perspective, I got a LOT bigger in my first two years of lifting. BF caliper corrected in two years I gained almost 30 lbs of muscle, but then the gains fell off a cliff. In the following two years I gained maybe 5 to 10 lbs of muscle and strength progression got more difficult. Bulking in the last year yielded virtually no gains at all, and while I got a bit stronger I didn't put on any muscle.
I've since then stopped bulking, cut down to 175-180 which for me is maybe 9-10% BF (Calipers give 8% and BIA gives 11%), and I've slowly just been tapering my lifts down over the past 9 months. I don't really think I've lost more than 5 lbs of muscle and I don't think I've lost anything at all recently, so I am curious as to how low I can go while maintaining this weight and level of body fat lol.
As for natural maximums, honestly, a lot of it is genetics. I've always been kind of weak. I've never had problems putting on muscle but relative to my body weight, most of my training partners were always stronger than me even though we ran the same programs and I always looked bigger than them with a shirt off. It sounds like you're relatively gifted strength wise, so you'll probably be able to progress far. Just be wise and don't be reckless and avoid injury. Not worth it.
People with great genetics can often push into the 350-400 lb range for bench and 500-600 lbs on their squat without ever taking gear. 400+ benches and 600+ squats just don't happen without drugs unless you're got some freaky genetic lottery leverages, as most people I've known on the competitive national circuit that have pushed for it have snapped their shit up and are worse off having gone for it. Not worth it IMO. A lot of people are delusional about this too because a lot of youtube stars are juiced to the gills but claim natural lmao. There's no $ in natural powerlifting or bodybuilding anyway.
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Losing that weight I gained back... this time for good. I am recording a lot more data, also.
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Wicked progress. Keep us posted.