[Sticky] What does a great question look like?

GrowXXL is the premier hardcore fitness Internet forum. We have male and female professional and amateur bodybuilders and powerlifters (and Olympic lifters and Strongmen and…). No shortage of expertise here. But you knew that.

The question is: how can you best learn from them? Well, to get a great answer, it’s you need to ask a great question. A great question wants to be answered, and more importantly, a great question is embedded in the seeds of the answer.

What do our resident experts often do when they see a post like “What’s a good stack?” They move on, and become slightly irritated. They remain in the know and you remain in the dark. Furthermore, they often feel disrespected if they have to dig further, just to help you! Why should they spend more time answering than you are willing to spend asking?

And part of asking a great question involves researching to see if the question has been answered before. GrowXXL has literally thousands of posts in its search database, and it's likely your question (great or not) has been answered before. Your great answer may already exist!

So, what are some good seeds to plant around your question?

Basics

• Age
• Sex
• Height
• Weight
• Body fat %

History

• Lifting Experience (years, ability, etc.)
• AAS/Supplement Experience
• Medical/Drug history

Current

• What you are taking
• Lifting routine
• Nutrition/Diet
• What options you tried, and how they worked

I’d say these are a minimum. I’d also say that you should distrust anyone giving you advice without knowing these facts. It’s heartbreaking (and really angering) to hear someone spout out advice, only to later discover that the original poster is a female (or kid) who could God forbid suffer irreversible damage (or worse) if they took the advice.

So, in the spirit of respect and thanks, let’s try to provide these “basics” when we ask questions!