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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   621 thread views

Wellness Wednesday for July 29, 2026

The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:

  • Requests for advice and / or encouragement. On basically any topic and for any scale of problem.

  • Updates to let us know how you are doing. This provides valuable feedback on past advice / encouragement and will hopefully make people feel a little more motivated to follow through. If you want to be reminded to post your update, see the post titled 'update reminders', below.

  • Advice. This can be in response to a request for advice or just something that you think could be generally useful for many people here.

  • Encouragement. Probably best directed at specific users, but if you feel like just encouraging people in general I don't think anyone is going to object. I don't think I really need to say this, but just to be clear; encouragement should have a generally positive tone and not shame people (if people feel that shame might be an effective tool for motivating people, please discuss this so we can form a group consensus on how to use it rather than just trying it).

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Congrats! That's a tremendous accomplishment. I don't have much to add but will note that I've heard Starting Strength's recommended set/rep count (5x5) is off and fewer sets is better. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable can chime in.

I think it's best to just do the Starting Strength program. It's fine for beginners (and even intermediate lifters), and introducing changes encourages more changes. In fact, after ~12 years of lifting, I would say that getting really good at a few compound lifts is the best way to gain strength and muscle. Most other programs that exist are really a waste of time and are meant primarily to give fitfluencers something to sell you. The only change I would tell my younger self is to do regular kettlebell work to get that all-over toned fat-burning look that everyone really wants.

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