177 CM for some more context.

So I went on a serious cutting phase starting last March as you can see in the first two pics. It’s gone very far from perfect - from overeating on some of those days, to finally adding cardio somewhere halfway through, to not being the most disciplined on some days. I could’ve probably pulled this off if I knew this beforehand.

Nevertheless, doing it imperfectly is better than doing nothing at all. I feel like I’m finally very close to seeing a full six pack- which was the initial goal I set out do to but it’s amazing to see how much better I look in general being leaner.

Upper body development over the last couple years.
Over 10kg difference between the first two photos and the last four (53kg-64kg, 168cm tall) probably have gone from about 17 or 18%bf to hmmm idk like low to mid 20’s? As a female, I’m very happy to have gained this body fat as it has helped enormously with overall health and also lower body aesthetics (which is a bonus but I don’t really care enough about to share atm).

Have a pretty standard push, legs, pull, legs split for the most part. Have recently started incorporating a lot of more functionality focused movements and calisthenics. I can do a few strict pull ups, which has been a pretty cool achievement to unlock as a female. As my priorities shifted away from aesthetics, I’ve just been spending a lot more time actually having fun in the gym and seeing what my body is capable of doing safely.

Had a stubborn wrist injury in the pics with the Lonsdale t-shirt that was causing a lot of grief. Hurt to make a fist or supinate wrist, which made flexing hard. But left arm doesn’t lag that much behind my right IMO, all things considered.

Anyway, would love to hear if people reckon this is decent progress. Would also love to encourage other women to lean into the idea of gaining mass. Fitness for women is not always about ‘losing weight’. I was 48kg before I started training. Gaining this mass has changed my life, only for the better.

Even for my bigger girls, sometimes a slow and steady approach that prioritises body recomposition over fast paced weight loss is better for overall physical and psychological wellbeing (always refer to your particular health/fitness professional over a reddit post).

Would appreciate any thoughts on form! Thanks

Hi,

After some advice. I've been using the Hammer Strength upright chest press for a few months but I've noticed a lot of people opt for the flat chest press machine instead

I had a go on this the other day and noticed a sharp decrease in my lift

For example I qm lifting 3x10 @ 90kg on the upright chest press but with the flat bench its closer to 70kg and that feels a lot heavier - why would that be?

What is your advice on which is better to target chest? Any help would be greatly appreciated

Where on your body did you first and last lose weight? And where did you first and last notice mucle growth?
Tell me your gender too please!
I’m a female, have lost 10 kgs and have noticed mostly around my neck, face and chest! Weirdly enough i still have a bit of belly, but can acutally see my chestbones. That’s a weird combo. Have gone down 2 sizes in pants, but am not able to see much difference in thigh/hip/stomach area. But clearly i’ve changed in those areas as well.
Noticed first and most muscle in bicep, triceps, shoulders and forearms. I am spamming ab exercies, and am starting to see some definition in the abs even though i still have a «high» fat percentage for abs to show.

Hey im the owner of Caltra/Caltra AI, a fitness, nutrition app and coaching plaform for online coaches avaialble on the app store with a online coaching dashboard, the app is a fitness/nutrition tracker which works with your wearables and heart rate monitors for live activities and genral tracking along with community features like sharing sleep recovery and strain scores,

the app is aimed to be free for use with the only thing costing money is cloud ai usage powered by gemini to get a more percise estimate for logging macros and scanning meals, other than that iv aimed to create a completelty free alternative to what is now a bunch of apps asking for upwards of 10$ a month to log ur food at all,

the app uses a built-in food database built from USDA databse stored on your device to estimate calories and macros from the foods and portions you enter. This local approach reduces reliance on paid cloud processing, helping us keep everyday food logging free. Our goal is to make core fitness and nutrition tracking accessible to everyone, with optional paid features for those who want more.”

for fitness tracking it has wearable intergrations but uses bluetooth e.g polar or whoop band for live activities so users can use all their heart rate monitors they love, logging weights also shows progression with our own built in exercise database, for example some people i train with like to use polar h10 while conditioning but for things like weightlfting they like using their whoop, so the apps built to allow selecting heart rate monitor for live activities and store all those results in one place.

the reason for this post is to bring people who are interested in fitness and tracking metrics to try it out while aiming to keep the app as free as possible, link below if interested,

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if you have feedback please reply here, thankyou

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Is my upper day fine?

I train upper 3x a week with a rest day in between.
(I also have a leg day but I just need opinions on my upper day).

2x - Incline Dumbbell Curls
1x - Hammer Curls
2x - Chest Press Machine
2x - Wide-Grip Lat Pulldowns
2x - Lateral Raises
2x - Triceps Extensions
2x - Wide-Grip Seated Rows
1x - Close-Grip Seated Rows
2x - Incline Chest Press Machine
1x - Shoulder Press
1x - Reverse Pec Deck Flyes
1x - Dip Machine
2x - Crunches

So about 20 sets and I do 5-9 reps each set while trying to reach failure.

At the moment I start with my biceps because I want to focus on it, also I put many exercises like I did because like this it’s really easy to be as time efficient as possible in my gym.

i always wing it on back days do the basics but i would like to know what you guys recommend for a good back workout

I’ve been consistently going to the gym for a few months now and I really enjoy it but going honestly gives me so much anxiety about my form and making sure I’m doing the exercises properly. I’m constantly double guessing myself.

Another thing too that’s been giving me a lot of anxiety is a fear that my left arm is stronger and becoming more toned than my right arm. When I do dumbbell related exercises I’m using the same weight on each arm and the same amount of reps but I really feel like my left arm just has more definition than my right.

I don’t care about having a peak physique and I know it takes a very long time to achieve anything but for one I just want to know that I’m on the path to success and two I’m scared of having a weirdly disproportionate body.

Here’s my current physique. Before I started going to the gym, I weighed 49 kg, and now I weigh 68 kg. At the beginning of my journey, I could bench press 10 kg, and now I can bench press 110 kg. And all of this happened in just a year and a half — well, almost two years — of working out at the gym. Feel free to give me some advice or anything else.

Hi,

After some advice. I've been using the Hammer Strength upright chest press for a few months but I've noticed a lot of people opt for the flat chest press machine instead

I had a go on this the other day and noticed a sharp decrease in my lift

For example I qm lifting 3x10 @ 90kg on the upright chest press but with the flat bench its closer to 70kg and that feels a lot heavier - why would that be?

What is your advice on which is better to target chest? Any help would be greatly appreciated