I recently made a site suggestion for a board, and like always, it got shot down by sb allen. However this board is really active, and I think it could be really fun if people encouraged others.
I dont have too many close friends IRL who are really interested in this, but (again) I figured this board being as active as it is we could get good discussion about it.
The only rule I would implement is that if you want to criticize somebody's advice or decision, do so in a rational and polite manner. I understand this could very quickly turn into one of those stupid alpha/beta topics due to the subject nature, but I would recommend everyone to either put a poster on ignore or just not respond to somebody who posts in a non constructive way.
Anyone? If not its cool.
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Pride. Passion. Excellence. Metal_DK Currently playing: Sengoku Rance, Starcraft II
I guess I'll do a quick introduction to who I am and some things about me, why I want to work out, other hobbies, etc. Anyone else please feel free to do so too, I feel if we have some backgrounds on each other we'll feel more connected and less likely to have insulting posts.
Name: Matt Age: 24 Born: Pittsburgh, PA Currently Resides: Atlanta, GA
Background: I've been working out pretty regularly since my sophomore year of high school. I've been a member of the same gym since 8th grade, but for the first 2ish years all I did was play basketball (played basketball in middle school/early high school). Sophomore year I started playing football, and a friend/teammate showed me the basics of working out. I was the first senior in my high school's history to be the backup QB to a junior (ya, I wasn't very good lol), but I did get to start 2 games when he broke his arm at the end of the season and finished with 1 career TD, 2 career INTs, 1 rushing TD.
After I graduated high school in 2005, I broke my knees and right ankle at a nearby lake. There was a semi-big drought going on in greater Atlanta, and I jumped off a cliff. However I didn't land in the water right away. Due to complications and a rebreak of the knees, I was bedridden from early August 05 to about Thanksgiving 05. The knees are pretty well repaired, the ankle however is pretty crappy still. On one of my old cell phones I have a picture of my legs after the atrophy, and it looked pretty bad.
I wasn't very big in high school (maybe about 6'0", 165 or so...below average weight for high school football tbh), but after I got out of being bedridden I grew about 2 inches and gained close to 40 pounds. My upper body strength saw big gains, but I gained a lot of body fat too that I'm still trying to lose.
Current weight: ~220 Goal weight: 205?
Other hobbies: Pittsburgh sports (Pirates mostly), Video Games (duh....my favorite game is either Starcraft or Morrowind), Playing trivia with my friends
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Pride. Passion. Excellence. Metal_DK Currently playing: Sengoku Rance, Starcraft II
I don't know if I'll go that in-depth but I've been lifting pretty regularly since sophomore year of high school and now seven year later I'm still at it. I played lacrosse in high school and a lot of rec league basketball. I've really gotten into running this past year and I'm now running almost three miles a day, five days a week. I've really noticed my increase in endurance when I play basketball now and it feels great.
However, I pretty much ate whatever up until a couple of weeks ago. But I did cut out soda and juices at the start of the year. I wasn't noticing too much physical improvement from running but now that I've started this new diet I am really starting to see it.
We should share are food schedules!
Breakfast: - Smoothie - water, blueberries, protein powder, oatmeal. Two fish oil pills.
Lunch: - Chicken breast and either broccoli or spinach. Two fish oil pills.
Snack: - Spoonful of peanut butter
After-workout Drink: -Water/Protein Power with some fruit
Dinner: - Ground turkey and either broccoli or spinach. Spoonful of peanut butter. Two fish oil pills.
Lots of water and Sunday is my cheat day where I eat whatever. It's a pretty great diet. The breakfast smoothie is great and keeps me full for a few hours unlike when I used to eat two bowls of cheerios and get hungry in one hour. The fish oil pills are twice the recommended amount and I'll probably cut back once I get down to the body fat I want to be at, they're supposed to help lose weight. It's a really high protein diet and I get close to 200g of it a day but I workout five times a week so this might be for you if you aren't trying to build muscle.
my food schedule is very very similar. Something along the lines of
Breakfast: Oatmeal, 3 eggs, a piece of fruit. Sometimes i put the eggs on an english muffin for a breakfast sandwich
Lunch: 3 to 4 oz of low sodium chicken breast. Greek yogurt (really good, has a tad bit of sugar in it, but other than that its a great source of protein), some veggies (asparagus lately)
Snacks: usually Almonds, sometimes peanut butter like you said, other times a small portion of chicken/beef/turkey
Pre workout: Whichever Pre-workout energy supplement i am currently using (i.e. noxplode, nos blast, etc)
After workout: Protein Shake (i use skim milk, water with protein doesn't flow with me lol), a piece of fruit,
Dinner: Lots of veggies and a fairly large portion of some chicken/beef/turkey. Lately its been beef.
Right before bed: Cottage cheese or Casein protein in a small amount of skim milk.
As for supplements, ya i down fish oil a lot too. For my knees and ankle I keep using osteo bi-flex, but I could be getting placebo'ed on that. I have a tub of Whey protein, Casein protein (slow digesting protein, good for pre bed), and a pre-workout energy mix. I also take a multi-vitamin (http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/opt/men.html)
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Pride. Passion. Excellence. Metal_DK Currently playing: Sengoku Rance, Starcraft II
I get almost all supplements from amazon. Or ill scout out bodybuilding.com for a potential buy 1 get 1 free type deal.
I was thinking about adding a fat burner to my supplements. Possibly green tea extract or l-carnitine.
As for whey/casein brands, I almost always stay away from stuff that seems plentiful at the targets, wallmarts, and supermarkets. Things like EAS Whey protein tend to get reviewed pretty low from many trustworthy websites and magazines, and usually have artifical flavorings and stuff like that. NOW foods has been my go to brand lately.
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Pride. Passion. Excellence. Metal_DK Currently playing: Sengoku Rance, Starcraft II
Awesome, I'll definitely start looking for NOW brands.
And what about your fish oil brand? I get mine from Costco, because the Kirkland brand is like $7 which is almost a third of what everyone else charges and I think you get more.
-- Menji - Thanks for supporting the Search By Username petition! Allen said it's possible it could be included in the next search update.
I wasn't very big in high school (maybe about 6'0"...
Nine months ago I wouldn't have understood this, but now that I've switched to a public gym I can say at 5'9" I'm routinely the smallest male present. Dat assortative selection.
I'm too cheap for supplements but my diet is pretty similar. Lots of lean meat and vegetables, usually leafy like collard / mustard greens and broccoli. Pasta for some added bulk. Post-workout meal is protein heavy, typically two eggs and meat / cheese from a sandwich.
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... as if rights are like muscles - the more you use it, the better it gets. Indeed he may be exercising his first amendment-- but he's an IDIOT! - A. Scalia
I've got this new exercise I really like. All you need to try it is a pull-up bar.
Step 1: Hang completely (no bend at the elbows) Step 2: Have your legs slightly bent backwards (so that your abs are stretched a bit) Step 3: Do a controlled leg raise so that your legs are about parallel with the floor Step 4: Repeat Step 3 four times (five leg raises total, each time bending your legs back so that your abs get stretched) Step 5: Do two controlled pull-ups Step 6: Maintain your grip while alternating between the five leg raises and two pull-ups
It's such a beastly exercise that works out just about everything in your upper body - abs, back, arms, shoulders, forearms, and grip strength. I'm building myself up to 10 pull-ups and 25 leg raises before breaking my grip. That would be a killer set.
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Yoblazer: http://i33.tinypic.com/ml36gl_th.gif Watch and you'll see... someday I'll be... part of your world!
The Martial Arts board actually doubles as a fitness/nutrition board here in GameFAQs. There are a couple of good posters there who know exactly what they're talking about and that's where I got my current workout routine. But hey, a fitness topic here on b8 is cool too.
So I've only started lifting weights again just last year of August after stopping way back in high school (graduated college and working now) and I didn't even last a whole year then. I was pretty much a stick before I started again and I wasn't very active besides doing some Arnis (a filipino martial art).
I'm barely 5'2" and I used to weigh just 90lbs back in college (i'm an Asian in a 3rd world country so i've got some sort of excuse!). Since I started lifting again and eating more, I'm now at 126lbs. But that's not all muscle since i've been on a dirty bulk for a month to gain more weight (i plateaued at 115 before).
Gonna keep eating dirty while lifting till I reach 130 to put on a little more muscle before I start cutting to 120 or lower and see my abs again!
My routine right now is Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe as suggested by the MA board and it has really worked wonders for me. I stopped getting much progress three months in with the first serious routine a trainer in my gym gave me back in October last year. That and the fact that I had to pay again to get a new routine made me decide to just look online for a free alternative.
Stumbled upon the MA board and I've been doing SS since the start of February. It's a 3 times a week routine.
Been struggling the most with the shoulder press and power clean but as long as there's progress, I'm good.
As for my diet, I have the three big meals and a couple of snacks but I don't have a fixed one. I've been getting about 2200-2300 calories and 120g of protein a day. I'm not in charge of what food gets bought at home so I just eat as much as I can which is usually eggs, chicken or fish, rice and vegetables. I bring fruit to work for snacks most of the time. I also drink a liter of low fat milk everyday. Only supplement I take is whey powder which I drink twice a day, with water immediately after working out and with milk before going to bed. The brand I get is Optimum Nutrition.
ya, i know the martial arts board is kinda the default board for this stuff, but Its kinda slow moving at times and lately has been much more MMA focused (which isnt a bad thing, since it is a martial arts board).
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Pride. Passion. Excellence. Metal_DK Currently playing: Sengoku Rance, Starcraft II
Oh certainly, I'm all over this. I participate in martial arts, eat pretty healthy and do a metric f***ton of cardio. I love hearing other users' variations of staying decently healthy.
bench 290 (reasonably current) squat 335 (stopped squatting heavy out of laziness but prob 300-315 currently) deadlift 435 (haven't maxed in a while but probably around 415-420 currently)
most recently have been trying out a variant of the westside powerlifting routine. however spotty gym access (only m-f at the company gym) and social life pressures (aka 'don't lift on friday, let's go out!) had interfered in recent weeks.
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Je suis toujours serieux. D'autrefois, personne ne me penserait serieusement.
So much that I can't seem to do squats without lifting my heels or bucking
what should I do
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You're messing with me! You're messing with me, aren't you!? You're making fun of me, aren't you!? Aren't you!? You definitely are! I'll murder you!
Do you guys have suggestions to get past a plateuing on bench? I've been stuck around 185 for awhile now (haven't checked my max) but that's the what I usually start and do about 8 reps. One guy at my gym said I should keep working on dips, I do a few sets of those with 55lbs hanging from my waist and I'm not sure if it's working.
I've got this new exercise I really like. All you need to try it is a pull-up bar.
Step 1: Hang completely (no bend at the elbows) Step 2: Have your legs slightly bent backwards (so that your abs are stretched a bit) Step 3: Do a controlled leg raise so that your legs are about parallel with the floor Step 4: Repeat Step 3 four times (five leg raises total, each time bending your legs back so that your abs get stretched) Step 5: Do two controlled pull-ups Step 6: Maintain your grip while alternating between the five leg raises and two pull-ups
It's such a beastly exercise that works out just about everything in your upper body - abs, back, arms, shoulders, forearms, and grip strength. I'm building myself up to 10 pull-ups and 25 leg raises before breaking my grip. That would be a killer set.
i'm gonna start doing this
-- XS2 is the only good Xenosaga game - Lady Ashe http://backloggery.com/cwistofu
@toukaoone - i have no idea... sounds pretty serious, like ask a physical therapist/MD serious
conventional wisdom says dynamic and static stretching but i assume you've tried the majority of conventional wisdom if the problem is as dramatic as you say
any fitness/strength training routine i'd recommend starts with squats and deadlifts which are certainly impossible the way you describe them
i suppose it's possible that you are using weird form when squatting (or trying to do unweighted squats where your trunk is upright) - have you tried doing barbell squats?
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Je suis toujours serieux. D'autrefois, personne ne me penserait serieusement.
Do you guys have suggestions to get past a plateuing on bench? I've been stuck around 185 for awhile now (haven't checked my max) but that's the what I usually start and do about 8 reps. One guy at my gym said I should keep working on dips, I do a few sets of those with 55lbs hanging from my waist and I'm not sure if it's working.
not really clear what your goal is here, is it to increase your 8RM? increase the # of reps at 185? increase your 1RM? build your chest/shoulders/triceps?
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Je suis toujours serieux. D'autrefois, personne ne me penserait serieusement.
alright, well if you're just trying to go for strength, i'd suggest cutting your rep count to 5, especially on big lifts like the flat bench press (from what i understand, higher reps are for more isolation type exercises)
what type of routine are you doing? i got all the way up to a 225 5RM just by doing 3-5 heavy sets of 5 about 1.5x a week, weighted dips at 5x5 (with significantly less weight than you use), and overhead barbell pressing 1x a week for 5x5.
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Je suis toujours serieux. D'autrefois, personne ne me penserait serieusement.
hmm, yeah i think you might benefit from just lowering the reps and going harder on bench - if you can do 185x8 then you can probably do at least 200x5 if not more. not only do you put a heavier stress on your bones that way to stimulate strength increase, but it's much easier to add weight to the bar when you're doing only 5 reps compared to 8.
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Je suis toujours serieux. D'autrefois, personne ne me penserait serieusement.
i'm in the camp of 'never cared about weightlifting and still don't.' however cardio and stretching are entirely different stories. pretty sure most of my future concerns will be in one if not both of those fields. so far the best advice i've figured cardio has is... basically, start running. then keep running. if there's something else in there i'm all ears.
and stretching is the one that's beyond me in figuring out what's 'best.'
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"Maybe it's a tentacle, molesting the planet itself. - Aschen Brodel.
for powercleans, one big thing that i still struggle with is using too much of your arms to pull up the barbell when it should be mostly the shoulders for your upper body and the lower body doing most of the work
Wang, what is it exactly that you wanna do? What are your goals? Weight loss? Improved athletic performance? Simple general wellness?
Just making running a habit and pushing yourself past your limit even by small increments should be good enough if you just wanna stay healthy. Swimming or cycling are more fun options with swimming being the most efficient since it works out your entire body. If you want more than just general fitness, simply running won't be as effective.
Don't know much about stretching but I guess pilates and yoga and other similar exercises work well enough from what I hear. Just don't know if you're willing to shell out the cash to go to classes like those.
Just wondering if there's any reason as to why you're not interested in weightlifting. It's got a lot of benefits besides putting on muscles (which look and feel awesome btw).
weightlifting just... never really was something i was all that interested in. blame part of it on my size (5'2 with shoes on) and part of it on lack of interest really.
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"Maybe it's a tentacle, molesting the planet itself. - Aschen Brodel.
yeah i think it's generally accepted that lifting weights is good for you - but if you're not interested then no point in forcing it
my goals have never been heavily skewed enough toward cardio/stretching to dedicate much to them... running is certainly one way to do it. for stretching - i've heard that pavel's 'relax into stretch' is good reading material.
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Je suis toujours serieux. D'autrefois, personne ne me penserait serieusement.
@toukaoone - i have no idea... sounds pretty serious, like ask a physical therapist/MD serious
conventional wisdom says dynamic and static stretching but i assume you've tried the majority of conventional wisdom if the problem is as dramatic as you say
any fitness/strength training routine i'd recommend starts with squats and deadlifts which are certainly impossible the way you describe them
i suppose it's possible that you are using weird form when squatting (or trying to do unweighted squats where your trunk is upright) - have you tried doing barbell squats?
I haven't tried what conventional wisdom said; partially because I'm unaware of what conventional wisdom says, partially because I don't know which stretches would be best for these purposes, mostly because I'm too lazy to incorporate only stretches into my routine.
I was trying to do the form with just the bar. Does this "naturally" fix itself if I'm forced to lift something of consequence? I've heard some claims that it does, but I'm not going to bet my knees on it.
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You're messing with me! You're messing with me, aren't you!? You're making fun of me, aren't you!? Aren't you!? You definitely are! I'll murder you!
i'm in the camp of 'never cared about weightlifting and still don't.' however cardio and stretching are entirely different stories. pretty sure most of my future concerns will be in one if not both of those fields. so far the best advice i've figured cardio has is... basically, start running. then keep running. if there's something else in there i'm all ears.
and stretching is the one that's beyond me in figuring out what's 'best.'
nothing wrong with cardio, hell running a lot will create the "base" you need to start gaining muscle in lower and upper body areas.
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Pride. Passion. Excellence. Metal_DK Currently playing: Sengoku Rance, Starcraft II
another late night bump, kinda had a crappy day with the food, as the family all decided to go to outback steakhouse for dinner. Couldn't resist a steak a bit too big portion wise, sweet potato, and a salad. The family ordered a bloomin onion, but I pretty much didn't cave in, only having about 3 little stems.
I hit the gym today, deadlifts and core. Did a 3x5 at 325/350/375, then did 1 rep of 385, and I think i coulda done more. Not a lot of weight for my size, I know (about 220lbs), but my hamstrings and legs in general are pretty damn weak due to my laziness of rehabbing my poor knees over the years. Whatever. Did more back and core afterward, so I'm feeling decent about my day, even with the horrible dinner choice.
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Pride. Passion. Excellence. Metal_DK Currently playing: Sengoku Rance, Starcraft II
damn that's a heavy deadlift set. don't think i've ever done 5s that high up
and i also wouldn't bet my knees on loading the bar either. stumped for answers there sorry. good dynamic stretches would basically be deep-knee-bends and leg swings i think, as well as lunges.
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Je suis toujours serieux. D'autrefois, personne ne me penserait serieusement.
weightlifting just... never really was something i was all that interested in. blame part of it on my size (5'2 with shoes on) and part of it on lack of interest really.
dude i am the same height as you and it hasn't been an impediment at all
most gym equipment can be used by anyone 5 feet flat and up and the most important ones (the free weights) are hassle free
weightlifting, besides muscle gain, also has the additional benefits of increasing bone density meaning lesser possibilities of bone injuries, more efficient weight loss if you need it with the post-workout burn and faster metabolism, correcting posture if your form is good, adding flexibility with the full range motion exercises, improves your immune system, and makes functional everyday stuff just much easier among other things!
and did i say it makes you look and feel awesome?
anyway, recorded myself doing squats earlier and i have corrected my upper back posture but i'm not going deep enough
thighs are just parallel when they need to go a bit below parallel
might have to deload by 20lbs but i'm OK enough with my squats that deloading isn't too big a deal
did have trouble with the bench as i barely racked the left side of the barbell on my very last rep
gonna keep it at 140 next week
shopping for whey led me to discover ON's Serious Mass gain powder which has a whopping 1250 calories, 50g of protein, and 250g of carbs per serving! pretty expensive for only 8 servings, though
i'm happy with my whey! but i might get some creatine if i land this part-time job for extra income
took a day off today with the gym, I went every weekday this week. I did break out my agility ladder and did about 20 mins worth of plyometric related stuff. Felt pretty good. I was considering trying air alert again to improve my vertical, but I'm a little antsy on doing the "burn yourself out" method that air alert is about. But a little bit here and there is something I definitely should include.
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Pride. Passion. Excellence. Metal_DK Currently playing: Sengoku Rance, Starcraft II
shopping for whey led me to discover ON's Serious Mass gain powder which has a whopping 1250 calories, 50g of protein, and 250g of carbs per serving! pretty expensive for only 8 servings, though
i'm happy with my whey! but i might get some creatine if i land this part-time job for extra income
I was considering trying ON's Serious Mass powder, if ya dont mind let me know if its a decent product.
Does anyone take BCAAs? The Whey protein i bought from now foods supposedly has bcaas in the whey protein powder (hence why its a tad more expensive), although I'm not sure if its a normal "serving" in a scoop.
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Pride. Passion. Excellence. Metal_DK Currently playing: Sengoku Rance, Starcraft II