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[Dany]

debating whether or not it's time to post a picture yet!

Post!

 

[Man]

n all my before and after of starting strong lifts, one thing I noticed hasn't changed are my forearms. That's why I posted a couple pages back I'm doing my work to them. Those zottman curls are great.

Forearms/grip is something I really want to improve as well. Zottman looks cool.

edit: off-topic but just discovered that I have been mixing chin-ups and pull-ups. Chin-ups is when the palms are facing you. Means I've been working pull-ups all this time then (currently 4 sets, ten rep on first, four on last).

 

[Etrian Oddity]

I'd suggest doing it every other day. Rest days in between runs does wonders for my knees. And then I do other exercises during my off jog days.

Sounds like a plan. I haven't used free weights in a while but I know I need to get back into it.

 

[agrajag]

Post!

ok!

stats:
5'7"
160lbs.

lifts:

deadlift 210x5
squat 145 x5
bench press 120 x5
OHP 90 x 5

 

[kylej]

Squatting is expensive. Have to size up in all my pants and boxer briefs again.

 

[Man]

That BodyRock chick is just too hot. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=NFz64lB6usA&NR=1

 

[Minion101]

Yup that's some great A meat right there.

 

[despire]

Didn't that DragonKnight guy say that they didn't measure his gf's weight at the start and that he just made an estimate? And now he's comparing her current weight to a number that can't be very accurate and is panicking because of this?

 

[Kyaw]

http://www.jimwendler.com/2011/09/power-cleans-and-531/

That's where I read that he suggested doing them before squats/deadlifts. However, I would love to hear your routine as I don't know if I can handle them right now. I would like to have a dedicated day to Power Cleans but don't know if it is a good idea.

It's the starting strength routine from the OP.

Squatting is expensive. Have to size up in all my pants and boxer briefs again.

Yup, my jeans don't fit me any more.

 

[SeanR1221]

Didn't that DragonKnight guy say that they didn't measure his gf's weight at the start and that he just made an estimate? And now he's comparing her current weight to a number that can't be very accurate and is panicking because of this?

Yeah he ballparked her weight before she started dieting.

 

[Carbonox]

Squatting is expensive. Have to size up in all my pants and boxer briefs again.

Yeah it's such a pain in the ass.

 

[Visualante2]

Been doing lawnmowers and dumb bell shrugs, can anyone suggest some other good back stuff? I only have dumb bells to use. Seems like it mostly relies on bar balls.

 

[Fushin]

Squatting is expensive. Have to size up in all my pants and boxer briefs again.

I had to buy all new clothes for work because I've been getting big around my shoulders and thighs. $130 for new pants and shirts. Can't wait for the day when my thighs are the same size as my fiances waist!

 

[SeanR1221]

I had to buy all new clothes for work because I've been getting big around my shoulders and thighs. $130 for new pants and shirts. Can't wait for the day when my thighs are the same size as my fiances waist!

Yeah they had these great Levi's at CostCo for 25.00. Came home and they were way too tight in the thighs and butt. But hey it's a good problem to have!

 

[Fushin]

Yeah they had these great Levi's at CostCo for 25.00. Came home and they were way too tight in the thighs and butt. But hey it's a good problem to have!

I usually buy waist sizes two inches bigger and that seems to work. Everybody I know is trying to get smaller and here I am trying to get bigger. I tried to do a cut but I didn't want to lose my precious chest and shoulder size

 

[Khalifa Jayy]

Been doing lawnmowers and dumb bell shrugs, can anyone suggest some other good back stuff? I only have dumb bells to use. Seems like it mostly relies on bar balls.

Pull-ups my man.

 

[Dosia]

I was thinking about doing a 3 week cut over the winter break. If I take 3 weeks off the weights, but do the insanity workout should I expect to lose a lot of strength? Would it be best to continue doing weight lifting 3 days a week, and do the insanity workout on my 3 cardio days?

 

[Visualante2]

Pull-ups my man.

Thanks! I used to enjoy doing those as a teen. Gotta get a fixed bar, don't trust those door hanging things.

e. Just tried, can only do one. Damn I'm pathetic now, used to be able to do like a dozen.

 

[Dosia]

Also, how often should one cut? Like try and cut 5 lbs of fat for every 15 lbs gained?

 

[TheCrow]

I was thinking about doing a 3 week cut over the winter break. If I take 3 weeks off the weights, but do the insanity workout should I expect to lose a lot of strength? Would it be best to continue doing weight lifting 3 days a week, and do the insanity workout on my 3 cardio days?

Keep lifting to maintain as much muscle as possible.

 

[Bealost]

Edit:: I was way too late for the convo.

 

[Imm0rt4l]

I was thinking about doing a 3 week cut over the winter break. If I take 3 weeks off the weights, but do the insanity workout should I expect to lose a lot of strength? Would it be best to continue doing weight lifting 3 days a week, and do the insanity workout on my 3 cardio days?

if you're eating well, I wouldn't really worry too much about it. Are muscles take longer to atrophy than we sometimes think, and a 3 week layoff isn't that bad in itself that you wouldn't be able to get whatever strength was lost in a really short amount of time anyways. If it's possible for you to lift at all during that break it would probably be ideal.

 

[OG Kush]

Anyone got any advice on elbow pain? Couple weeks back my left elbow started paining after doing like 8 sets of pullups. I've stopped doing any exercise that gives me pain in the elbow, but I'm not what else to do.. As in should I just lay off it for a while? Reduce volume? Do any specific exercises to get it better?
Anything I should know on how to protect elbows while lifting?

 

[Imm0rt4l]

Anyone got any advice on elbow pain? Couple weeks back my left elbow started paining after doing like 8 sets of pullups. I've stopped doing any exercise that gives me pain in the elbow, but I'm not what else to do.. As in should I just lay off it for a while? Reduce volume? Do any specific exercises to get it better?
Anything I should know on how to protect elbows while lifting?

you should probably lay off it for a while, definitely reduce volume where you can and then get back at it later. To prevent it, may help if you make sure not to lock your elbows out when extending/contracting your arms in exercise. Hope some of that helps

 

[X-Frame]

Does anybody here know any good places to grab some powerlifting chains from?

I want to use them to add weight to my push-ups.

 

[I'm an expert]

Also, how often should one cut? Like try and cut 5 lbs of fat for every 15 lbs gained?

Read - http://www.t-nation.com/portal_includes/articles/2006/06-154-training.html

I feel like this should be linked on every page lol.. here's the important part:

So if you bulk for six months and cut for three months, three of those months won't be muscle-growth months. If you want to gain more muscle you have to avoid non-building months. If you don't gain a significant amount of fat while you're gaining muscle, you won't need to spend a lot of time dieting down, hence you'll have more muscle-growth months.

Since most people will add around 1.5 pounds of muscle per month under ideal circumstances, and you can't increase that amount by force-feeding yourself, which one of the following situations is better?

Situation A: Go on an all-out bulking phase, gain 25 pounds over a period of six months.

Around 5-10 of these pounds will be muscle (12 at the most) and the rest will be from glycogen storage (2-4 pounds) and fat (10-15 pounds). To shed the excess fat, you have to go on a severe diet. If you never cheat and are super strict, you can hope for one or two pounds of fat loss per week without losing muscle. So in the best case scenario, it'll take you anywhere from 6 to 12 weeks to lose the fat.

However, fat loss isn't linear. The body adapts to caloric restriction and ''falling off the wagon'' will happen to most. So in "real life," losing the gained fat (if you don't want to lose muscle) will actually require 12 to 20 weeks of dieting. So over a 9 to 11 month period you gained around seven pounds of muscle (if you didn't lose anything while dieting). That gives you an average of 0.6 to 0.75 pounds of muscle per month. Reported over a year, it comes up to a total of seven to nine pounds.

Situation B: Ingest a caloric excess, but just enough to give your body the required amount of nutrients for optimal muscle growth. You can still manage a gain of around 1.5 pounds of muscle per month, but the fat gain will be much lower.

So after the same initial six months, you also gained 5-10 pounds but only 3-5 pounds of fat. So you really have to diet only for around a month to lose what you gained. So you gain around seven pounds of muscle over a seven month period, or one pound per month for a total of around 12 pounds reported over 12 months.

The important thing to remember is even professional bodybuilders dream of putting on at most 10-20 lbs of muscle weight a year, and that's with the ideal diet/workout/rest situations. So where do you think that leaves us?

 

[mooooose]

I gained nearly 20 pounds last year I think 5 of it was muscle. Maybe less. People are stupid if they think they go up 10 pounds a month and half of it is muscle. You gained a ton of fat.

 

[I'm an expert]

I think the confusion often comes from..

''But I gained fifteen pounds in three months and I didn't gain fat.''

This is something I hear often. If it's not possible to gain more than a few pounds of muscle per month (or around six pounds over a three month period) how come you see so many people claiming to have gained heaps of muscle without getting fatter?

It's most likely due to what I call the ''lean threshold.'' You see, there's a point (a certain body fat percentage) where you start to look lean (around 10% for most men). There's also a point where you start to look fat (around 18-20% for most men). Then in between you have a certain zone where you basically look the same; you aren't lean enough to look defined so you don't really have any muscle separation.

At that point, even if you gain a few pounds of fat, you won't visually see the difference. This is compounded by the fact that you're seeing yourself every day, so you might not notice the small changes in appearance. Most men won't be able to see a visual difference in muscularity between 13 and 16%. But if you're 200 pounds, going from 13 to 16% body fat can mean a six pound gain in fat!

So a guy could very well have gained six pounds of muscle, six to seven pounds of fat, and two pounds of glycogen and water over the three month period, and he'll actually believe that he gained fifteen pounds of solid muscle because he looks to be about the same body fat percentage.

Now, repeat that over a few training cycles and you have a guy who could end up with a gain of fifteen to twenty pounds in body fat! One day he'll wake up and find a fat bastard looking back at him in the mirror, then he'll need to diet down to look remotely decent! Which brings me to my next point...

 

[Petrie]

I definitely regret overdoing it when I began SS and bulking. Sure I put on a lot of muscle, but got up to like 210-215, and it's taken me like 6 months to get down to 170, and I could sitll stand to be a few lbs lighter being only like 5'10ish. Once I begin to bulk again, it's going to be at like a 250-500 calorie a day excess I think. I may tweak things from there depending on the scale/bf monitor.

 

[Dosia]

Read - http://www.t-nation.com/portal_includes/articles/2006/06-154-training.html

I feel like this should be linked on every page lol.. here's the important part:



The important thing to remember is even professional bodybuilders dream of putting on at most 10-20 lbs of muscle weight a year, and that's with the ideal diet/workout/rest situations. So where do you think that leaves us?

Thanks for posting this article. I skimmed it, but will have to read it later. I am currently gaining about 2lbs per month so i guess that isn't too bad. I am around 10.5% body fat and would like to get down to 8, so eventually I will have to cut.

 

[Anton Sugar]

Fuck it. Posting pics online makes me paranoid, but these feel anonymous enough. 5'10", 11" on a good day, 195 lbs.

This is "lean" for me--I usually don't drop much lower than this. Hoping to balloon up to 225 in early 2013.

 

[mooooose]

Dude you look GREAT. Big and fucking STRONG. What are your lifts? If you lost some weight you'd look amazing.

 

[muntersaur]

Nice back Anton!

Here is where I am as of last month: 5'11" 75kg. I'm going to start training for triathlons so I am probably going to limit weight training to twice a week. I am still aiming to do my best to put on muscle and get stronger though!

 

[OG Kush]

you should probably lay off it for a while, definitely reduce volume where you can and then get back at it later. To prevent it, may help if you make sure not to lock your elbows out when extending/contracting your arms in exercise. Hope some of that helps

thanks mate

 

[tombur]

Nice back Anton!

Here is where I am as of last month: 5'11" 75kg. I'm going to start training for triathlons so I am probably going to limit weight training to twice a week. I am still aiming to do my best to put on muscle and get stronger though!

Have you done strength training whilst training for a triathlon before? Just signed up for a sprint tri with some friends but want to continue my strength training and i'm not sure how to program it. Thinking of the standard 2 days swim/bike/run per week, with two days in the gym... any experience?

 

[BeautifulMemory]

Fuck it. Posting pics online makes me paranoid, but these feel anonymous enough. 5'10", 11" on a good day, 195 lbs.

This is "lean" for me--I usually don't drop much lower than this. Hoping to balloon up to 225 in early 2013.

Looks great, Anton. Your front reminds me of Tom Hardy as Bane

 

[Jason's Ultimatum]

If anyone doubts protein supplemnts, then think again. I've been off it for personal reasons (humans shouldn't incorporate processed shit like supplements anway) for a few months now, and my strength has dropped only in a couple of areas. It's always my chest exercises that results to a drop. I can't do the 100s anymore, so I stick to the 80s. Incline BB I can't even do 185 for 10. I can't even do it for 4 reps. All other exercises I haven't dropped in strength.

I do think I'm losing a little muscle. I dunno.

 

[muntersaur]

Have you done strength training whilst training for a triathlon before? Just signed up for a sprint tri with some friends but want to continue my strength training and i'm not sure how to program it. Thinking of the standard 2 days swim/bike/run per week, with two days in the gym... any experience?

No, I haven't done it before. I'm going back to uni and want to do something social and competitive, and unfortunately strength training is too individual. I'm a natural endurance athlete and believe I will be good at triathlons when I learn how to swim fast (ie. learn proper front crawl technique).

Learning how to program strength training and endurance training will be new to me too. My strength training sessions will look something like this I think:

1. High Bar Squat
Hip Thrust
Upper body work

2. Front Squat
Deadlift
Upper body work

I'm not sure how i'll program the swim/bike /run yet - i'll have to ask the veteran triathletes how they train. I guess it will have two definite sessions of biking, and one or two of running and swimming a week.

 

[TheDarkStark]

5 weeks back after breaking my hand, my lifts are finally starting to look pretty good again. My grip on the hand I broke is terrible, my hand didn't heal 100% correctly (would've required surgery) I don't know if it will ever be close to 100%. I may eventually at some point have surgery on it, but that's gonna cost like $1,000 and require 6 weeks off.

5'11 193 lbs.

Bench: 185 x 5
Dumbell Shoulder Press: 120 x 5
Deadlift: 325 x 5
Squats: 225 x 5
Dips: 195 x 5
Assisted pullups: 165 x 5 :'(

Need to lose like 5ish more lbs then gonna start bulking again. My diet is extremely clean right now.

 

[Tashi]

Fuck it. Posting pics online makes me paranoid, but these feel anonymous enough. 5'10", 11" on a good day, 195 lbs.

This is "lean" for me--I usually don't drop much lower than this. Hoping to balloon up to 225 in early 2013.

Nice back thickness bro!

 

[Petrie]

Trying to make the decision between a more size based program for bulking this fall, or continuing a focus more on strength. I definitely want to get bigger, but goddamn do I enjoy pulling and pushing big weight. Somebody help me, this is the same reason I keep abandoning replays of Persona 3, it's too damn hard to do EVERYTHING!.

Not to mention I want to push my conditioning a bit more while I'm bulking to minimize my fat gains. Fuuuuuuuuuuck.

 

[Khalifa Jayy]

Anyone here supplemented with creatine? Did you feel like it actually made a noticeable difference?

 

[TheDarkStark]

If anyone doubts protein supplemnts, then think again. I've been off it for personal reasons (humans shouldn't incorporate processed shit like supplements anway) for a few months now, and my strength has dropped only in a couple of areas. It's always my chest exercises that results to a drop. I can't do the 100s anymore, so I stick to the 80s. Incline BB I can't even do 185 for 10. I can't even do it for 4 reps. All other exercises I haven't dropped in strength.

I do think I'm losing a little muscle. I dunno.

Your post is very confusing. It seems like you're implying that protein supps work, but then you say "humans shouldn't incorporate processed shit like supplements anyway"

??

Anyways, protein powder is just a way for you to get protein to your muscles as fast a possible. As well as to help you keep your protein levels high. Once you get big enough it would be nigh impossible to eat your recommended daily amount of protein without them. You'd be eating meat, poultry, and fish all day long.

There has been no evidence to suggest portein powders are bad for you, and tons of evidence that suggest they do exactly what they promise to do which is to supplement your body with protein and increase recovery time and help you gain weight.

 

[TheDarkStark]

Anyone here supplemented with creatine? Did you feel like it actually made a noticeable difference?

Creatine absolutely works. It's not a miracle product, but you will see 5-10% size/strength increases if you use it properly.

The one downside to it is that you have to drink a ton of water, and it will make you feel "puffy" at times due to all the extra water retention (that's why/how it works though).

 

[Khalifa Jayy]

Creatine absolutely works. It's not a miracle product, but you will see 5-10% size/strength increases if you use it properly.

The one downside to it is that you have to drink a ton of water, and it will make you feel "puffy" at times due to all the extra water retention (that's why/how it works though).

Yea that's what I've been seeing and hearing a lot (re: water retention), but it doesn't scare me at all. Looking forward to my sessions next week after taking it for a whole week.

 

[I'm an expert]

I'd honestly be shocked if any weightlifters here didn't take it.. It's wonderful and you feel the pump in a matter of days after loading.

Petrie 100%ing shit like P3 or for P4 is for kids, we don't have that kind of time anymore. Pick the social links most important to you and focus on those. If you like power over size go with that.

 

[Tashi]

Yea that's what I've been seeing and hearing a lot (re: water retention), but it doesn't scare me at all. Looking forward to my sessions next week after taking it for a whole week.

Yea man, I'm at the end my first week on Creatine and combined with the fact I just got off my keto diet I ballooned like 8lbs. All water so I don't care. I feel great and am doing well in the gym.

Tomorrow is chest shoulders and triceps. Gonna try to get 70's up on incline for 6 reps. Would be so thrilled.

 

[mooooose]

Does creatine promote the storage of fat? How long can you stay on it for?

 

[I'm an expert]

Does creatine promote the storage of fat? How long can you stay on it for?

Nothing to do with fat. You can be on it for as long as you want, cycling is honestly a myth. Once you get off it you'll see the power and weight drop in a matter of days.

 

[mooooose]

So basically it's training wheels.