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BUILT DIFFERENT OPEN

659 members • Free

14 contributions to BUILT DIFFERENT OPEN
I want to talk about back training
Most men treating back day like a pulling contest. Yanking the weight down on lat pulldowns. Jerking the bar into their stomach on rows. Arms doing all the work while the back sits there doing nothing. Here's the issue. Your back is one of the hardest muscle groups to actually feel. It's behind you. You can't see it. And because you can't see it, most men never develop the mind-muscle connection to properly activate it. The fix is simple but it takes discipline to execute. Your hands are hooks. That's it. When you're pulling, whether it's a pulldown, a row, a cable pull, your hands are just hooks connecting you to the weight. The movement initiates from your elbows. Drive the elbows down and back. Lead with the elbow. Let the back do the pulling. The moment you start gripping and pulling with your hands, your biceps take over and your back shuts off. I see it time and time again. Lighten the weight. Slow the rep down. On every pull, pause at the contraction and actually squeeze. Hold it for a second. Feel what's working. If you can't feel your back contracting, the weight is too heavy and your form has already broken down. This is exactly why I use straps in my back training. They take the grip out of the equation so I can focus entirely on what I'm supposed to be training. Back is built through connection, not through load. Do you actually feel your back working during your sessions, or are your arms always taking over? Drop it below. 👇
4 likes • 14d
Yes sir. It is a different ball game making that connection with the back. I can feel it better with pull ups but have to use the assistance machine. Full body weight on my repaired shoulder is extremely painful
Protein
I wanted to ask our community here where you are finding high protein (preferably meat) items for a CHEAP price? Thank you!
4 likes • 18d
Eggs, salmon, grass fed ground beef and im a deer hunter so I keep deer in the freezer. Great source of low fat, organic protein
2 likes • 15d
@Bill Quistorf I live out in country where people sell from thier home basically. Plenty of farm area here pricing is better than grocery stores
Let's talk about creatine.
Because I see this question coming up constantly in the community and I want to give you a straight answer. Creatine is one of the most well-researched supplements on the planet. The science on it is not ambiguous. It supports strength, power output, muscle recovery, and, something a lot of men over 40 don't realise, cognitive function. Brain health. That alone makes it worth a conversation. For men in this community, I think it's worth considering. Not because it's a magic pill. Because it's one of the few supplements that actually has decades of research behind it and a clear mechanism for how it works. Here's what I'll tell you though. Creatine does not work in a vacuum. If your diet is garbage, if you're not training consistently, if you're sleeping four hours a night, creatine is not going to save any of that. It works in the context of a solid foundation. Five grams a day. Consistent. That's it. No loading phase needed. No complicated timing. Just take it daily and let it do its job over time. And as always, quality matters. Don't go cheap on this. Know what's in what you're putting in your body. Are you currently taking creatine, and have you noticed a difference since starting it? Drop it below. 👇
0 likes • 18d
@Robert Mescia try 1 table spoon of pure cocoa powder in 8 Oz of warm water every morning and a K 2 vitamin. Also stage 2 cardio shoot for 8 plus thousand steps per day. I quit drinking alcohol. Lost body fat and did this and corrected my BP in about a years time. Im no longer on BP meds
Sleep.
I want to talk about the thing most men in this community are not taking seriously enough. Sleep. Not your training. Not your diet. Sleep. I used to have sleep apnea. I was overweight, stressed, and running on fumes. I thought that was just what life felt like after 40. I was wrong. It was what poor recovery felt like, and I was doing it to myself. Here's what I do now. Eyes covered. Mouth taped. Phone down well before I get into bed. I look like a monster, and I wake up recovered. That's the trade I'll take every single time. After 40, your body does not recover the way it used to. That is not negotiable. What you can control is how seriously you protect the window where recovery actually happens. No supplement, no training program, no diet is going to outwork broken sleep. I don't care how perfect your sessions are. If you're sleeping five hours, waking up in the night, or going to bed with your brain still running, you are undermining everything else you're doing. Bad night's sleep? I still go to the gym. But I pull back on the gas. I don't beat myself up about it. I do what I can and I protect tomorrow's sleep even harder. That's the discipline most men ignore. And it's costing them more than they realise. How many hours are you actually sleeping, and is recovery something you're treating as seriously as your training? Drop it below. 👇
1 like • Jul 23
Around 7 hrs give or take. Im in bed in plenty of time normally just wake up several times a night
I want to hear from you directly.
Not about your program. Not about your numbers. About the moment things started to shift. There's always a moment. The morning you looked in the mirror and made a decision. The session where something clicked. The week you realised you were actually consistent for the first time in years. That moment is worth sharing, because somewhere in this community right now there's a man who hasn't had his yet. And reading yours might be the thing that gets him there. This brotherhood grows when we're honest with each other. The wins, the setbacks, the turning points. What was the moment things started to change for you, and what did it feel like when you knew you were back? Drop it below. 👇
4 likes • Jul 9
After retirement I ended up gaining up to 256. Really hit me hard so I started with hard clean eating diets even fasting and KETO. Once much of the weight came off muscle did to I was becoming skinny fat and did not like what I was becoming. I started with dumbells at home then one day I was getting out of the shower and had no shirt on my wife said you are starting to look like you did years ago. People noticing changes sparked a massive shift. I got my gym membership and started deep research into fitness. I have been locked in hard since the middle of January.
1 like • Jul 18
@John Cianti absolutely. My results from the 256 to 178 was big for me but to small. I wish I would have added more strength training during that time but simply did not know. Was looking to lean first. Now I up to 190 with noticeable muscle
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Rick Love
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18 points to level up
@rick-love-2548
I keep this picture as a reminder of where I let myself get to

Active 17h ago
Joined Jun 24, 2026
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