In this solo Q&A video, fitness YouTuber Rob Lipsett answers a series of fan‑submitted questions covering a wide range of topics. He opens with a light‑hearted marriage joke before diving into nutrition, explaining his pragmatic view on carb backloading and carb cycling, emphasizing total daily carbs and personal preference. He updates viewers on his upcoming website launch, noting a possible early release due to demand. Lipsett outlines his basic supplement stack (protein, creatine, occasional pre‑workout, magnesium, fish oil, vitamin D, multivitamin) and discusses his past small tattoo and future plans for a larger piece, using a car metaphor. He contrasts sports‑specific training with bodybuilding, highlighting differences in exercise selection, explosive power work, core stability, and glycogen replenishment timing. He shares why he started a YouTube channel—seeing a gap in Irish fitness creators—and his ambition to grow it. He critiques Tim Ferriss' The 4‑Hour Body and the Bulletproof coffee hype, calling them “horseshit” and urging critical thinking. On protein powders, he warns about amino‑spiking scandals and recommends reputable brands based on total protein content. He describes his hair‑care routine, preferred clays, and barber styles. He advises on cutting phases, urging a solid size/strength base, discouraging teen dieting, and suggesting a body‑fat target of 9‑10% for visible abs. Finally, he offers advice to his 16‑year‑old self: stick to main lifts, avoid bro‑splits, focus on progressive overload, and track macronutrients. The video ends with a call to like, share, subscribe, and a promise of a possible part 2.
Chapters
What's going on everyone? Haven't done a Q&A in an extremely long time, so I posted a thread on my Facebook page and you asked me tons of questions, so it is time to get to it. Question number 1: Will you marry me? If you lift, are able to cook, and look good in yoga pants, I'm all yours. #2: Opinions on carb cycling and carb backloading. Alright, first off, with carb backloading, there's nothing magical about eating your carbs at night. The main thing is your total daily carbohydrate intake. But that said, it can really help with hunger and satiety problems, and it can also reduce late-night cravings. So for that reason, I often save a lot of my carbs for nighttime too. But I'm not doing it for a special advantage. I'm mainly just doing it out of personal preference. The bottom line is eat your carbohydrates when it is personally best for you to do so. And then with carb cycling, as you probably know, I'm a big fan of refeed days, so they're essentially a form of carb cycling. So, um, yeah, I like them. Number 3: When is your site launching? It's pretty much good to go. I planned on waiting more towards the 1st of January to launch it because that's that's when everyone's gonna be on the old fitness hype. But too many people like yourself have been asking me, so I may just have to launch it sooner. What kind of supplements do you use at the moment? I keep things basic. Protein, creatine monohydrate, and a pre-workout on occasion. And then for vitamins, I take magnesium, fish oils, vitamin D, and a multivitamin. Do you have any tattoos or considering getting any in the future? I got this shitty one like right here on my leg when I was 15. I don't regret it or anything though because it's not visible and it reminds me of good times. But in terms of a proper tattoo, I'd love to spend upwards of €500 and get a proper piece on my back or maybe on my serratus or something. But then again, you know, why put a bumper sticker on a Ferrari? Do you recommend your gym and diet tips for sports players, or are they just for bodybuilding? This is a really good question, and no, not necessarily. Sports-specific training and bodybuilding-style training will be similar in a lot of areas, but sports-specific training will be more geared towards the chosen sport you play. You'll be focusing less on machines and more on training for explosive power that will make you faster and more powerful on the field, and training movements that will strengthen all your core and stabilizer muscles so when you make a hit or when you get hit, you'll be able to keep your balance and keep moving forward. That's what makes you athletic. Whereas bodybuilding style training still includes all your main compound strength-based movements but you'll be focusing more on certain isolation movements that will, that will not necessarily improve your performance on the field, but they will improve your overall aesthetics. An example of this would be rear delt flies. But the two types of training can certainly be combined. Then in terms of nutrition, this will be different too. Let's take a rugby player who has weights in the morning and then some pitch work a few hours later. After that weight session in the morning, the player will be looking to replenish his or her glycogen stores ASAP after that session to be ready for the session a few hours later. But then when we take someone who just hits the weights once every 24 hours, like myself, if I replenish my glycogen 2 hours after training, it's fine. It'll just be replenished then, and it'll be replenished in plenty of time for for my next training session, which isn't until the next day. I could do a whole video on this, but I better get on with the Q&A. Question 7: What way did you approach creating a YouTube channel? What motivated you to do it? I've watched other fitness YouTube channels for years. I've watched them just start out, and then I've watched them grow and grow and become more successful. Then I've noticed that in Ireland there's practically no fitness YouTubers. There's hardly any Irish fitness YouTubers, so I saw a gap there and I decided, hey, I may as well give it a go. A dream of mine would be to grow this channel into a very, very large one, but, um, who knows, who knows how it'll go. But if you're watching this, you're here from the start. Hey Rob— Question number 8: Hey Rob, have you ever read The 4-Hour Body by Tim Ferriss? What are your thoughts on it? This will be easy to answer because all we have to do is read the description on the back of the book. You will learn how to lose those last 5 to 10 pounds or 100+ pounds with odd combinations of food and safe chemical cocktails. How to increase fat loss 300% with a few bags of ice. How Tim gained 34 pounds of muscle in in 28 days without steroids and in 4 hours of total gym time. How to sleep 2 hours per day and feel fully rested. Do you really need me to tell you that that's a load of horseshit? I've no sympathy for anyone who buys into the whole Paleo/Bulletproof thing. If you're willing to pay €23 for a small packet of magical coffee beans, you need to take a step back and apply some critical thinking. Question number 9: Does protein brand matter in terms of absorption, or should just nutritional value of a brand be taken into account? Just the total protein on the nutritional value label, but That said, recently there has been this fiasco of amino spiking, where it's basically a company will claim X amount of protein is in each serving, and then when the protein gets independently lab tested, it comes out that there's not nearly as much protein as the company is claiming there is on the label. In some cases, It's— in one, in one case, the company was claiming 27 grams per serving and there was less than 12 grams per serving of protein in a scoop. So I would recommend going for a quality, well-known, well-respected brand. Question 10: What's your current hair routine? Do you alternate between different products and styles? The products I use are Blue Clayfish or Trevor Sorbet Matte Clay. When I go into the barber, I ask for a 1 blade high and tight, or I may also get a 0.5 faded into a 1, and then I just get a small bit taken off the top and I get it thinned out. And then for the next few weeks, I'll just cut my own hair. I'll just top up the sides myself. And the place I usually go to are Abner Brown's and Rob Lipsett's. But I also like to try out different barbers. Question 11: At what stage do you recommend to cut and for how long? I think everyone should build a solid foundation of size and strength before they ever consider going on a cut. I also don't think anyone in their teens should cut. Dieting at that age isn't healthy. You're still growing and this can cause an array of problems. In terms of how long you should cut for, um, just cut until you're happy with how you look. Look, but unless you're competing, there's really no point in going below 9 or 10%. You should have fully visible abs by then. Question 12: Considering what you've learned over the years, if you could go back and give advice to your 16-year-old self about starting the gym, etc., what would it be? Great question. For training, it would be stick to a program that focuses on the main lifts Instead of picking up Flex magazine and following some bro split that had me train one body part once a week, I would also tell myself to pay attention to the weight I'm lifting and look to gradually increase volume over time instead of just going into the gym and chasing a pump. In terms of nutrition, it would be to get a rough idea of how much protein, carbohydrates, and fat I'm eating instead of just eating aimlessly and hoping for the best. Okay, so that's all for today. I still got a load of questions that I didn't get to answer, some really good questions too. So comment below if you like these Q&A style videos and I can make a part 2 for this video. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed watching, and please like the video, share it, and subscribe. It really helps the channel grow. Anyways, until next time, keep it real.
