Usually in bodybuilding.com forums, i feel so weak compared to them for being able to bench 100 kg for one rep, now here, suddenly i feel so strong .

i don't quite understand, over western countries, a 80 kg guy benching 120 + for reps is common, here in malaysia most of gym rats i know can barely bench their own weight for more than 6 reps. is it climate? diet? or genetics?

i seriously do not have even the tiniest intention to belittle anyone here, i don't why you see it that way, i am not one bit proud of my bench weight. I'm just comparing the general weight trainers in US and Malaysia in relative to my level. Plus i didn't state out my body weight, height, age, number of years that I've trained, i can be a 25 year old 120 kg male, and 100 kg is definitely weak in that case. in fact, I'm 19 years old, 80 kgs, 6 feet tall, trained for about a year and a half, still think i'm belittling?

IMO even if there's people showing off, i don't see the problem with it, i think it's pretty functional in terms being a form of motivation, people showing what they've achieved, so people can understand more on where they stand in among general lifters, the limits to what they can achieve. Yeah it sucks, it might hurt your ego, but to me that's how things work, the strong oppresses so that the weak have to work harder to be strong.

i used to think that there's a need to touch your chest, but as long as you're engaging most of the chest muscle fibers, because different people have different leverage, people with long arms will be highly disadvantaged. it's bodybuilding, it's not really that much about the ROM and weight, as long as the muscles are stimulated sufficiently with the ideal range of time under tension, hypertrophy will occur. despite having long arms, i still let the weight touch my chest, getting my front delts and more triceps worked, killing 3 birds with one stone

When i just started lifting, i did guillotine presses for chest, but it worked my shoulders more than my chest.

i did a lot of research about lifting, i always end up getting more confused, there's always different theories advocated by different reputable trainees that has good results to show for, nearly all of them has good scientific basis in being the "best" way. HIT, GHVT, HST, 5x5, 3x5, high rep, different splits, full body, upper lower, push pull, different frequency 3 day, 5 day, 2 day a week. Too many factors like recovery rate, diet, rate of protein synthesis, hormonal response, different forms stimulating different muscles in different intensity.

that's why i think at the end, it's really up to self-experimenting and to find out what's best for you, there's no universal method in getting the most gains, only some basic principles like, progressive overloading, below 90 sec TOT for hypertrophy, weight gains = calories in vs calorie out. but even in those principles there's many variables, such as the poundage increase can be more of a neurological adaptation rather than a muscle growth.

regarding in lifting techniques and form, people are built differently, yeah there might be studies out there showing the best exercise for maximum muscular activation using EMS, but the population that participated in those studies aren't large enough to represent all of us, there is simply too many variables to draw any absolute conclusion about the human body. That's why like most bodybuilders, kai greene, jay cutler, their forms are sometimes weird, a lot of times we see them doing partial reps, bodybuilding isn't so much about the lifting technique, it's about muscular stimulation, mind muscle connection, if jerking only a few inches in the bench press allows you to feel like you have your chest muscles fully working, then to me it's fine, given that the form won't cause any injuries.

sorry it's a little long

i wish i can gain more fat around my legs, i have small calves no matter how hard i hit them, my mom has really really tiny calves. i don't know much about lower body training, i do squat, but i have a serious lower back injury, i can squat only for like 120 x 5 max is that bad? my legs can do more, but when my things reach around parallel, my lower back feels like squished jelly. And about deadlift, i only started deadlifting for about 1 month, once a week, i can do 150kg x 1. won't say it's good form but acceptable, full rom. is that good?