The Maxxing Glossary.

One-rep max. Used to set training percentages. Direct testing is stressful — most lifters estimate it from a heavier set with an RPE-based formula.

Based on the Trinity Study: a diversified portfolio can historically sustain 4% withdrawals per year, adjusted for inflation, for 30+ years. Rule of thumb, not a guarantee — sequence-of-returns risk still applies.

The opposite of scarcity/needy behavior. Removes desperation from negotiations, dates, and career moves — which is precisely what makes each go better.

US total market + international + bonds, rebalanced yearly. Beats the vast majority of retail strategies with 15 minutes of admin per year.

A clean bulk targets 200–500 kcal above maintenance, prioritizing whole foods and enough protein. Expect ~0.5–1 lb of gain per week; anything faster is mostly fat you'll cut off later.

Zone 2 sessions (60-70% max HR) 2-3 times a week. Improves recovery between sets, VO2 max, and long-term heart health. Lifters who skip it hit a strength ceiling early.

Olivia Fox Cabane frames charisma as three levers: presence (full attention), power (perceived ability to affect the world), and warmth (genuine goodwill). Each is trainable.

Named after a specific PSL archetype. Shorthand for the top of the male attractiveness distribution; the ceiling most users cannot reach without genetic luck.

The engine behind every long-term investing plan. $500/month at 8% for 40 years becomes ~$1.75M — 90% of it is compounding, not contributions.

Squat, bench, deadlift, overhead press, row, pull-up. They drive the majority of strength and hypertrophy per unit of time — the backbone of every serious program.

Creatine monohydrate, 3-5g daily, no loading needed. Adds reps to hard sets, buffers ATP, and mildly improves cognition. One of the only supplements with overwhelming evidence.

A smart cut runs 300–500 kcal below maintenance, keeps protein high, and retains heavy lifting to preserve muscle. Aim for 0.5–1% of body weight per week to avoid strength crashes.

Typically every 4-8 weeks. Cuts sets, weight, or both by 30-50% so joints, CNS, and connective tissue catch up. Skipping deloads is the fastest path to a stall or injury.

DCA smooths out volatility by buying more shares when prices are low and fewer when high. It's a behavioural hedge against trying (and usually failing) to time the market.

The first moneymaxxing move before any investing. Prevents a job loss or medical bill from forcing you to sell investments or take high-interest debt.

Prioritizes fit over brand: tailored shoulders, correct trouser break, quality basics in muted colors. A well-fitted outfit can add a point on the PSL scale without touching your face.

FIRE means saving and investing aggressively — often 50–70% of income — until passive returns cover your annual spend (usually 25× annual expenses). Variants include LeanFIRE, FatFIRE, and CoastFIRE.

Holding frame means staying grounded in your own reality instead of getting pulled into someone else's. Strong frame reads as confident and non-reactive; weak frame reads as needy.

Includes camera-angle tricks (high angle, chin-up), warm lighting, and posture. Useful for dating apps; a trap if you start believing your own frauded photos.

Gymmaxxing is disciplined resistance training combined with progressive overload, adequate protein (roughly 1g per pound of body weight), and enough sleep to actually recover. Aesthetics and strength are both fair game.

Hairmaxxing includes minoxidil, finasteride, ketoconazole shampoos, microneedling, and a haircut matched to your face shape. Early intervention is critical — hair follicles you keep are far easier to protect than hair to regrow.

The halo effect is a well-documented cognitive bias: people rated as more attractive are also assumed to be smarter, kinder, and more competent. It's the underlying reason looksmaxxing has outsized returns.

A cousin of the halo effect. Being obviously excellent at one thing (writing, sport, an instrument) makes strangers assume you are competent generally.

Your income and standards drift toward the average of your five closest contacts. Deliberately building a network of high-agency people is one of the highest-leverage moves in statusmaxxing.

Driven by mechanical tension, metabolic stress, and adequate protein (1.6-2.2 g/kg bodyweight). Best trained with 10-20 hard sets per muscle group per week.

Beats ~90% of active managers over 20 years, with expense ratios near 0.03%. VOO, VTI, and VT are the canonical choices for US, US-total, and world exposure.

Jawmaxxing bundles mewing, chewing hard gum (mastic, falim), lowering body fat, and — at the extreme — surgical genioplasty or filler. The goal is a sharper gonial angle and a more masculine or feminine jaw profile.

A lower body-fat percentage (usually 10-14% for men) sharpens the jaw, cheekbones, and eye area. Often the single biggest facial upgrade before considering any hardmaxxing.

The silent killer of moneymaxxing. Every raise absorbed into rent, cars, and subscriptions delays financial independence by years. Automate savings before spending.

Looksmaxxing is an umbrella term for any deliberate effort — grooming, skincare, style, fitness, or medical intervention — aimed at optimizing physical attractiveness. It ranges from low-effort 'softmaxxing' habits to intensive 'hardmaxxing' procedures.

Protein anchors muscle retention; carbs fuel performance; fat supports hormones. A typical lifter's split is 30/40/30 by calories, adjusted for the current phase.

The suffix '-maxxing' turns any domain into a project: looksmaxxing, gymmaxxing, moneymaxxing, statusmaxxing, sleepmaxxing, focusmaxxing. The underlying philosophy: your defaults are negotiable — pick the ones worth changing.

Mewing, popularized by orthodontist Mike Mew, involves resting the tongue flat against the roof of the mouth to encourage forward maxillary growth. Evidence for adults is limited, but it's a zero-cost habit many looksmaxxers swear by.

Improves activation on isolation work (curls, lateral raises, glutes). Less useful on max-effort compounds, where external cues and total force output matter more.

Moneymaxxing is a systems game: raise your earning ceiling, cut recurring expenses ruthlessly, invest the difference in low-cost index funds, and let compounding do the heavy lifting over decades.

The one number that tracks moneymaxxing progress. Income is a lever; net worth is the score. Update it monthly — it is the closest thing to a lift PR for finance.

Dividends, royalties, rental income, digital products. Rarely truly passive at first — most streams need heavy upfront work before they detach from your time.

PPL groups training days by movement pattern: push (chest, shoulders, triceps), pull (back, biceps), legs (quads, hams, glutes). Run 3–6 days per week, scaling volume to recovery.

A specific form of social proof in dating. Photos with friends (especially women), being seen at good venues, and warm introductions do more than any pickup line.

Progressive overload is the foundational principle of getting stronger: add weight, reps, sets, or better form each session. Without it, your body has no reason to adapt. With it, results compound for years.

Popularized on PSL (PUAHate/Sluthate/Lookism). 6+ is chadlite, 8+ is chad. Useful as vocabulary; unreliable as self-assessment without objective input.

Body recomposition is easiest for beginners, returning lifters, or the significantly overweight. Everyone else usually gets faster results by cycling bulks and cuts.

RPE 10 means zero reps left in the tank; RPE 8 means two. Used to autoregulate training when strict percentages are too rigid, especially on fatiguing weeks.

Freelancing, e-commerce, content, tutoring. The value isn't only the money — it's skill compounding and the option value of a second income.

Internet-coined counterpart to alpha. Signals independence and self-direction. Mostly a meme, but useful shorthand for the quietly high-agency archetype.

Everything you wear, drive, post, and share is a signal. Costly signals (things hard to fake) carry the most information — fitness, craftsmanship, specialized knowledge — while easily-faked signals decay fast.

Being top-1% at one thing is hard; being top-25% at three complementary skills is achievable and often more valuable. Popularized by Scott Adams as the pragmatic path to standout income.

Skinmaxxing means dialing in cleanser, actives (retinoids, exfoliating acids, vitamin C), moisturizer, and daily SPF. Consistency matters more than product count — most visible results come from six months of a boring routine.

Full restaurants fill faster; artists with followers get more followers. Building visible signals of demand (waitlists, testimonials, a full calendar) compounds attention and opportunity.

Socialmaxxing is deliberate practice in small talk, storytelling, eye contact, active listening, and holding frame. It's the skill with the highest ROI most men never train.

Softmaxxing covers everything you can do without a scalpel: skincare routines, haircuts, wardrobe upgrades, dental hygiene, posture work, and body composition. It's the recommended entry point for anyone new to the maxxing world.

Statusmaxxing means investing in the signals people use to rank you: your circle, your work, how you dress, where you're seen, and how you speak. Done right, it opens doors that money alone won't.

T1 careers reliably clear six figures within a few years and can compound to seven. They demand credentialing (elite school, licensure) or measurable elite skill (top-1% engineer, quant, surgeon).

Sum of BMR, activity, and thermic effect of food. The anchor for every bulk, cut, or recomp. Track intake for two weeks and adjust from real bodyweight trends.

Covers whitening strips, veneers, aligners, and gum contouring. A clean, aligned smile carries an outsized share of the halo effect — one of the cheapest, highest-ROI moves in looksmaxxing.