I’m talking about endogenous and exogenous hormones. Peptides, steroids, sarms and the like. But with training, recovery is always the most important factor for muscle growth with synthesis, so unless you have perfect conditions all the time (impossible for a natural) it’s better to optimize around recovery than being in the gym. Starting Strength is great for beginners like OP.

I’ve been doing a volume Bench Squat 5x5 Dead 1x5/intensity (start by doing heavy weight for sets of 5, when that’s too heavy do sets of 3, then down to 5 sets of 1, 3 sets of 1, a single max, then reset) 2 day split with one light day with band work to improve ligaments and neck work to avoid another herniated disc. I honestly consider this the best for naturals in both recovery and time, but with more exercises added in. I’m restricting to the main lifts for powerlifting competition, but adding accessories to focus more on triceps, or rack pulls, etc would be good. Since starting this a few months ago my squat has gone from a 1x5 315 squat to a 415 max and 325 5x5 as a 6’2 natural powerlifter (I’ve only been lifting seriously for 3 years and powerlifting for a year and a half, my trainer has been training for 15 years and hit a 610 deadlift naturally but now in his 30s with low 300 free test he takes TRT)

5x5s are great, Practical Programming is a good book to follow Starting Strength, I recommend reading Alex Leonidas’ Naturally Enhanced for a more hypertrophy approach. The Texas Program is good. Most of these are designed around the same concept of a 2 day full body one volume heavy the other intensity.

Also helps that if you’re eating protein from a whole foods perspective, an 8oz chicken breast is a lot of food for only ~380 calories. Same goes for all lean proteins and even the fatty kind. You can fit a whole lot more in for equal calories going at whole foods than eating a 1200 calorie muffin.

That and fighting millions of years of evolutionary instinct screaming at you to eat everything you can when you start reducing calories in case you won’t eat again for a few days.

It’s only been MAYBE ~150 years that all classes of society had ready access to food.

Unless you take drugs, doing two or three full body workouts a week separated by 72 (for 2) or 48 (for 3) hours is far more optimal for protein synthesis operation. PPL and upper lower bro splits only work when you literally don’t have to worry about recovery (perfect T and other hormones).

But the rest of this is great advice and would recommend Starting Strength before 5x5.

I think it’s more that most of these issues would never actually reach the CEO if brought up through standard channels. Some bs middle management explanation of why it’s not possible, even though they never passed it up. CEOs are still people, and if they just randomly receive an actual personal email that wasn’t debated over by a board meeting or considered inconsequential by people they hired to micromanage, they’re likely to just say fuck it why not.

I’ve yet to see any return of investment from an entire foreign industrial collapse but sure. I guess the projections of global economic growth going from 5% down to 0.3% is just my imagination.

It was “shot down” because congress was not allocating the funds he wanted to spend to enact the relief. How dare the court actually uphold the constitution in respect to checks and balances and not let the president use executive power to supersede congressional debates and hearings.

It’s so disingenuous to fight for something because you find it morally right in idea without understanding every nuance of the path it follows. I’d like young adults relieved of the debt economy we’re building just as much as anyone else, but not at the expense of our institutional sanctity. Bad precedent is a slope.

E: meanwhile our dipshit congressmen that wouldn’t allow the funds allocated are allowing 40 billion to foreign aid and repeatedly fueling our debt economy. Unironically indict Congress on corruption charges.