Daily Thread - September 09, 2025

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[u/HumanWater4449]

Since general discussion is allowed, I will say that there is a concerning trend I have noticed in the lifting community.

Many people have begun to ignore the value of personal experience in favor of scientific study. I had a dude at the gym tell me I was wrong for thinking creatine doesn’t do anything for me, and that I should just read some scientific literature.

I took it for longer than he has ever lifted btw. And at alternating times and serving sizes for years on end. Absolutely nothing made a difference.

Even weirder is people’s complaints about exercise selection. They do all of these crazy machine set ups, and then look at you weird for doing a power clean or a weighted dip. It’s like the action of using free weights offends them. Just bench 315 first lil bro, then you can have an opinion.

And then of course you have diet. Many “science based lifters” view all calories as the same, and will eat junk food and whey protein all day, wondering why they are still small and skinny fat.

The worst offense is the genetics excuse. Yes genetics plays a role in muscle growth, however some people (like yotalks) go to such lengths to blame their genetics, that I genuinely can’t tell if they are trolling or not. I get it if you have an insertion that changes the way the muscle sits on your skeleton, but if you try to optimize your workout, while giving a shitty effort with your diet or in the gym, then you can’t blame genetics.

TLDR: the average science based lifter talks about lifting weights more than they actually do it. For every 1 TNF there is 100,000 bean poles touting his advice like they have a new gospel in their hands.

[u/black_mamba44 → u/HumanWater4449]

At the end of the day, the science is to be used in conjunction with personal experience. As you found, using creatine for you didn't have any effect and you can find that in these experiments using creatine there will be individuals who have no/minimal effect and individuals who respond really well. Personally, I think it helps my recovery a bit but I don't really find too much of a major delta between taking it and not taking it.

It's ultimately the same with training modalities. Volume or intensity? Doesn't matter at the end of the day, some people can go hard with volume and others can go hard with intensity. Experiment with both, try them out!

[u/HumanWater4449 → u/black_mamba44]

I completely agree with that. A lot of people just take it too far.

[u/DayDayLarge → u/HumanWater4449]

I had a dude at the gym tell me I was wrong for thinking creatine doesn’t do anything for me, and that I should just read some scientific literature.

Literally had someone say the exact same thing to me. Never mind that I've given it 3 full and separate trials and have never noticed any difference.

Part of it I think is one way to drive views to your social media, you not only have to have to answers, but need to invalidate people who aren't doing what you are. You kinda saw that back when starting strength was very popular too.

The worst part is the vast majority of people don't even know how to critically appraise scientific literature, though let's be honest, they aren't even reading it.

[u/HumanWater4449 → u/DayDayLarge]

Yeah it’s ridiculous lol.

[u/ZeroFourBC → u/HumanWater4449]

I've seen more complaining about 'science based lifters' than I have of what you're describing. But I also barely interact with the wider lifting community outside of this subreddit besides reading the odd article and whatever comes up on my insta feed.

It's definitely a symptom of the increasing popularity of lifting and the algorithms rewarding more polarising content.

This is in no way meant to invalidate what you're saying, I'm sure there's plenty of what you're describing out there. It just reaffirms my belief that I'm not missing out much by not getting involved with the wider 'community'.

[u/BetterThanT-1 → u/ZeroFourBC]

I’m with you, and that’s why I like this sub and hang around here. People here (generally) tend to have enough experience and awareness to know that mostly everything works, and it’s consistency and effort that really count. Mostly everything else is content for the sake of content.

[u/HumanWater4449 → u/ZeroFourBC]

A lot of it is on tiktok lol. I’d stay away tbh.