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Fitness |OT| Pumpin' Iron and Spittin' Blood.

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hariseldon

Unconfirmed Member
couldn't agree more, you owe it to yourself at least once to get absolutely jacked

time and the decay of nature will do its thing but those moments in the fire last forever

In my mid-20s I rode rikshaws around a fairly hilly city with fat people in the back. I was NOT skipping leg day. My legs were a fucking work of art. The rest of me not so much.
 

Maiden Voyage

Gold™ Member
wQG6440.jpg


And done. Going to celebrate the w/o by going to my fav Mexican spot and eat a plate full of beans & rice, and either some enchiladas or tacos. About to ingest those calories back.

Timing works well, I'll be just over 24 hours on my fast too. Great way to break it, IMO
 

Kazza

Member
This week was miserable in the South-East UK - the worst kind of grey, drizzly weather. It was almost like 2021 was saying to me "So, you said this is the year you are going to get ripped, huh? Well, let's see how your motivation lasts under the British winter. Still fancy going out for a run now, HAHAHA!". Well, fuck you 2021, I went out for my daily runs anyway! GET ITTT!

I easily slipped back into my pre-Christmas routine - daily jogging/yoga and fasting every other day - but it's gonna take a couple of weeks to get back to where I was pre-Christmas. I'm not doing the weekly measurements/weigh-ins anymore, as I'm now confident that my routine has become a hard-set habit, so I don't need that pressure to keep myself on track. I will do a measurement at Eastertime and see where I am then. My goal is to get a waist size between 30-32 inches by that time (don't care about the weight). Assuming I meet that goal, I will then ease off the fasting and running a bit, buy some kettlebells, and start trying to pack on some muscle. That's the basic 2021 fitness plan for me.

Good to see everyone getting off to a flying start in 2021. At the end of the year we should all change our avatars to photos of our new, sexy abs - it's gonna look like Grindr on here :messenger_tears_of_joy:
 

Kazza

Member
best way to anchor yourself to reality is to watch the sun rise or set every single day

Even if you can't do it every day, I've found that even once or twice a week still has a positive effect. I tend to choose to go out running around midday (for maximum vitamin D), but make sure I switch to an early morning/evening jog at least once a week to I can catch the sunrise/sunset. It not only improves your mood in the moment, I also agree that it helps anchor you for the days after too.
 

Tesseract

Banned
reupped pre pump and protein, reorganized work environment, cleaned house, general maintenance and finance evaluation

now decompression, meditation and music and math



dealing with a few old injuries right now, nefarious scars and such things

nothing tens and ice baths cannot fix, it's all in the game
 
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Jasonadream

Member
Damn tricep pain was becoming severe over the past couple of months.

The pain started on my heavy training day where I paired off 365 for the front squat with 295 bench.

I naturally shrug off pain and work through it. After three months of ignoring the problem,
the acute sensation of my elbow pinching and flaring started to was affect push/pull motions.

I’d take Advil’s and rub on A535 to ignore the pain but it was way past that.
My output was decreasing and intensity was declining.
So I reached out to a friend and asked about elbow pain and he gave me the answer which was “myofascial release”

3 months of pain gone in 5 minutes lol.

Always a learning and improving!
Despite the 3 months of being a macho man.

 
It is our failure to become our perceived ideal that ultimately defines us and makes us unique. It's not easy, but if you accept your misfortune and handle it right, your perceived failure can become a catalyst for profound reinvention.



I hope everyone's progressive overloads are progressively overloading.
 

haxan7

Banned
Haven't checked in here lately but I'm still at it. I still go to Gold's and do chest/shoulders/triceps, rest day, back/biceps, rest day, leg day.

I started drinking again over the holidays which isn't good, but I'm making efforts to stop.

Yesterday I wanted to get out, so I went and hit the bike trail and rode for about 1.5 hours in the cold.
 

quickwhips

Member
I haven't posted in a few days. Dealing with work stuff. Not work out related but I'm in the running for director job of my team. I've been getting after it. I'm slowing down on weight loss but I feel pretty strong. Still looking for the powrrblocks to come back in stock. Fuck scalpers. I hope all are doing good and staying after it. teezzy teezzy Tesseract Tesseract

Started doing burpee and I just want to say fuck me. Lol.
 
Any thoughts on protein intake for those of you that intermittent fast and have one meal a day?
*raises hand*

I don't really count grams of protein, though. I know I'm getting between 60 and 100 grams per day, about half of that coming from the cacao+gelatin powder I mix into my hot tea. Similar to how a bodybuilder might eat protein all through the day, though I've never tried to max out those grams per day.

Digestibility is ignored, unfortunately. You can eat 200 grams of protein in a day, but it doesn't matter if you shit most of it back out, going unused. A neglected aspect of the "protein per day" conversation is how much of it is being digested, the quality of the protein, etc.

I've gone up in muscle mass and tone over the last year since I started working out in March. I've definitely gotten stronger. I've fasted consistently, and the loss appears to have been fat and skin tissue. I'm being pretty regimented about it, though, and I'm eating high quality food. If I was focused more on putting on a lot of muscle quickly (I'm not) I might move to the 6 small meals per day, but so far I have gone up in muscle mass and gone down in fat.

Will your body start to cannibalize muscle if it has to wait so long for protein?
This issue is sadly misunderstood. Your body has a type of tissue that it uses when it needs calories. It's called fat. If your body isn't pulling from fat stores, you have a metabolic issue (whether it's just high sugar intake, or diabetes, or something like that).

Your daily protein needs are fairly low to maintain homeostasis, but if your muscles are undergoing a lot of damage repair and/or growth, you will need more protein to keep that up. So I guess from that perspective, if you are abusing your muscles and pushing them into hypertrophy for days at a time without providing protein, your body will begin to re-shuffle protein from muscle groups to other muscle groups. This itself isn't even bad. "Autophagy" is a desirable process as long as you are aware of how it works and how to control it.

But to be fair, I want to limit how much "damage" I'm doing to my muscles each day. Damage = hypertrophy. That's a penalty to my protein intake. Protein that could've been used to build new muscle tissue is instead of repairing older damaged tissue. It is absolutely correct that with rigorous conditioning and structure, you can abuse hypertrophy to go up in muscle bulk as long as your protein intake is high enough.

Your muscles will still gradually grow larger even if you do not hit them with maximum hypertrophy. I can't remember the last time I woke up "sore", even though I workout every day. I avoid hypertrophy as much as I can. Yet, I'm getting stronger. There's nothing magic or formula-breaking, that's just how the body works. If I ate more and fasted less, I'd probably go up in more muscle mass. But like I said, I'm not in a hurry, and I'm interested in losing more bodyfat anyway. Less-than-maximum muscle gain but also some bodyfat and skin loss is an acceptable tradeoff to me.

Ya gotta constantly tweak though, and treat fasting with respect. Stay pudgy for a week longer instead of passing out on the floor, if you have to choose between the two. Binging and fasting is unhealthy, and the fitness lifestyle can encourage people to take tools like fasting to the extreme because there's encouragement to cut fat but also to put on muscle.

Anyway, I'm rambling. I've read various papers on hypertrophy, muscle repair, muscle loss, protein digestibility, how much protein-per-day can actually be used by the body, etc and I think there's a lotta bunk out there. There are no tricks, just patience and hard work. Fasting is the same way. it's a powerful tool but people need to learn how it works to avoid pitfalls.
 

TTOOLL

Member
At 35 you gotta train smart, right? Started this week by not going too hard with the snatches so my shoulder will be able to handle the rest of the week.

Some people at CrossFit have that mentality of going all out every day...it sucks and you may end up injuring yourself.
 

Maiden Voyage

Gold™ Member
At 35 you gotta train smart, right? Started this week by not going too hard with the snatches so my shoulder will be able to handle the rest of the week.

Some people at CrossFit have that mentality of going all out every day...it sucks and you may end up injuring yourself.

Crossfit and injuries go hand-in-hand from what I've read. Never been to one of their gyms myself.

I took my methodology from Joe Rogan's interview with Pavel Tsatsouline. I'm building for endurance though, so results may vary.



 
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I've always been on and off with fasting/binging for the past few years. 2020 was bad and I packed on serious weight.

Two weeks in so far this year, I'm on one meal a day, 20 mins or cardio and I'm doing some basic 5 minute intense dumbbell exercises and I've dropped 16lbs so far (obviously that will slow down now).

I'm starting to worry I'm not being very efficient with my exercise and the routine is becoming too samey and am looking for ideas. Overall though - feeling much more balanced doing omad over the 48 hour fasts I was doing before - no light headedness etc.

Forgot to say I'm looking for any advice on how to breakup my routine a bit and if I should consider other strength exercises etc.
 
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SCB3

Member
I finally got back into at home Bodyweight Crossfit, been a long time since I did, the options for a random WOD are really lacking ina non App way, I kinda want to build one now and put my React and DB skills to the test. Anyway the first workout:

Run 800m
Rest 2 mins

Repeat 3 times, I made it through one time before I felt bad, still its better than nothing, tomorrows is all about Tabata, which I've always enjoyed
 

haxan7

Banned
I've always been on and off with fasting/binging for the past few years. 2020 was bad and I packed on serious weight.

Two weeks in so far this year, I'm on one meal a day, 20 mins or cardio and I'm doing some basic 5 minute intense dumbbell exercises and I've dropped 16lbs so far (obviously that will slow down now).

I'm starting to worry I'm not being very efficient with my exercise and the routine is becoming too samey and am looking for ideas. Overall though - feeling much more balanced doing omad over the 48 hour fasts I was doing before - no light headedness etc.

Forgot to say I'm looking for any advice on how to breakup my routine a bit and if I should consider other strength exercises etc.
Have you looked into using a kettlebell? Sounds like that would break up the monotony a bit without being too much of a change from your current routine
 


Isometrics + Wim Hof breathing are potent. Feels like meditative / trance experience, when you are at it for 20 minutes or more. I am never more exhausted than after these iso + breathing sessions. Takes a lot outta me, even more than cold training does.

Method:
Hold out a weight (medicine ball, dumbell, whatever) that you can maintain for a minute or more. I started with 6 pounds a few months ago and now use a 15 pounder. Breathe in and out for 30 breaths, then exhale and hold out for 30 seconds (or longer), while still holding the weight in the isometric position. When you can't hold your breath out any longer, Inhale and hold for 15 seconds. Then switch arms and repeat the process of taking 30 breaths, exhale, etc. It works for any isometric, I suppose.

Some altered states shit.

c2db8415467e8dd002a3b822f4acc5cf.gif
 

Maiden Voyage

Gold™ Member
I've always been on and off with fasting/binging for the past few years. 2020 was bad and I packed on serious weight.

Two weeks in so far this year, I'm on one meal a day, 20 mins or cardio and I'm doing some basic 5 minute intense dumbbell exercises and I've dropped 16lbs so far (obviously that will slow down now).

I'm starting to worry I'm not being very efficient with my exercise and the routine is becoming too samey and am looking for ideas. Overall though - feeling much more balanced doing omad over the 48 hour fasts I was doing before - no light headedness etc.

Forgot to say I'm looking for any advice on how to breakup my routine a bit and if I should consider other strength exercises etc.

I think the first and most important is getting consistent. If you can show up for yourself every week, 2-3 times, that is the biggest thing. From there, add in anything you may be lacking. Know what it is that you want: rapid fat burn, strength building, muscle mass, etc.

From there, start adding in stuff based around those goals and see what sticks. I started with kettlebell swings and dumbbell/bicep curls. Added in bodyweight squats and pushups a few weeks later. Added in alternating chin-ups & pulls up later. Then added farmer walks and situps later. Planning to add in jumprope soon. Will likely do more in the future too.
 

quickwhips

Member
I didn't eat a peanut butter and tuna sandwich like teezzy teezzy but I did get after it today. I hit 2.6 miles in 20 minutes. Did 120 push ups. 5 minutes of stretches and lifted some weights but no PRs. I'm down 14 lbs and up 15 motivation. Keep it up everyone. Thanks for reading and keeping me accountable of taking care of myself. #getafterit
 
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Irobot82

Member
What is up FitGAF!

I've been running Starting Strength since the end of October. (I've done the program off/on throughout the years). It has been several years since I've worked out consistently like this. I workout at home in my garage.

I'm currently 6'1" 235LB. I got pretty heavy, big gut. I haven't lost any weight but I've slimmed down a lot. Currently purely focused on strength and I will worry about my weight sometime in the future.

Current State:

Squat 3x5
Start : 135
Current: 285

Press 3x5 (soon to be 3x3)
Start: 55
Current: 115

Bench 3x5
Start: 90
Current: 160

Deadlift 1x5
Start: 135
Current: 335

I've dropped my deadlift down to two days a week now. Monday and Friday to give myself more time for recovery. Wednesday's are currently just two exercises. I need to add Chins or something and stop being lazy.

What's everyone's recommendation post SS? I'm looking towards the Texas Method right now. I assume I should move to something else once I've stalled/failed on multiple lifts 2-3 times in a row.

My goal for 2021 is to bench my bodyweight. Which means I have 75lb to gain my bench so I'd like to focus more on it.
 

Irobot82

Member
Anyone got any advice on how to improve your pullups? I can almost do everything else to a level I'm happy with but pullups.. nope.

You'll get 2 out of me. No joke.

Is it the shoulders I need to work on?
I think it's just.....more pushups. Do your max reps unassisted then use a light band for assistance and crank them out to failure. Rest and repeat. I think volume over time is the way to go.
 
Anyone got any advice on how to improve your pullups? I can almost do everything else to a level I'm happy with but pullups.. nope.

You'll get 2 out of me. No joke.

Is it the shoulders I need to work on?
You can determine which muscle groups are weakest in the chain by doing the concentric and eccentric parts at quarter speed / 1/8th speed. Doing a few of these slow reps will make it very obvious which part of the pullup is hardest for you.

Then you can puzzle which muscles are most responsible for that portion of the pull. And after you can target those muscles with separate isolated exercises as you see fit.

You can work on similar pulls/holds that work the same muscle groups, like bodyweight rows, cable rows, battle ropes, certain kettlebell moves, and any long-muscle-length isometrics. Sometimes it's not a matter of strength but a matter of getting rid of a weakness.
 
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Maiden Voyage

Gold™ Member
Anyone got any advice on how to improve your pullups? I can almost do everything else to a level I'm happy with but pullups.. nope.

You'll get 2 out of me. No joke.

Is it the shoulders I need to work on?

Are you wrapping your thumb around the bar? You might get better leverage if you place your thumb over the bar, with your fingers.

2 is not terrible for a beginner. Keep at it and go for 3 after a month or two or whenever you feel ready. Your body weight & type will impact your ability to do pull-ups.
 
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