Fitness |OT8| Dad Bods, Bulge Swelfies, and Wait...Do you even lift bro?

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mdsfx said:
Had anyone ever enter a fitness competition just as a motivator? The comp itself is not the most appealing idea for me (at all), but I'm sure it would make me push myself harder. Just curious.
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Roebear is probably lurking around if you have fitness comp questions. I'm sure he'd be glad to help.
 
Thanks everyone for the encouraging words. :)

sphinx said:
I remember we exchanged some posts a while back (but not that long ago) about this topic and I remember I suggested to you doing pyramid sets and I remember you once said you managed to go up to 3, but were you refering Pull-ups? or was that Chin-ups?
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The set of 3 was pull-ups (hands prone), but I moved to chin-ups since the pull-ups were too slow for me to progress, even with the pyramids. With the chin-ups, I was able to add about a rep a month. At this point, with my best sets I can get 8 chin-ups, 6 neutral grip pull-ups, or 4 prone pull-ups. The volume from the pyramids helps a lot, regardless of style. One of my goals for 2016 is to perform a set of 8 traditional pull-ups.
 
Pull up related, I'm not sure what happened to me since I took my 10 or so days off, but now for some reason I can do more pull-ups than I can do chin-ups.

It's not that pull-ups have become easier, for some reasons chin-ups have become harder.
 
Psychotext said:
Pull up related, I'm not sure what happened to me since I took my 10 or so days off, but now for some reason I can do more pull-ups than I can do chin-ups.

It's not that pull-ups have become easier, for some reasons chin-ups have become harder.
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Any way your recent cardio extravaganzas could have strengthened your back while your biceps got weaker from little to no use?
 
Question for married members of FitGAF:

Do you wear your ring while lifting? Leave it at home? Wear it around your neck? Wear a silicone ring instead? Something else?

I recently got hitched and am still getting used to wearing a band. It didn't feel right at the gym, not because I'm worried about scratching it, but mainly because it messes with my grip around the bar. I'm not sure a silicone replacement ring would work any better (I imagine it would have the same issues).
 
Cooper said:
The set of 3 was pull-ups (hands prone), but I moved to chin-ups since the pull-ups were too slow for me to progress, even with the pyramids. With the chin-ups, I was able to add about a rep a month. At this point, with my best sets I can get 8 chin-ups, 6 neutral grip pull-ups, or 4 prone pull-ups. The volume from the pyramids helps a lot, regardless of style. One of my goals for 2016 is to perform a set of 8 traditional pull-ups.
Click to expand...
I'm curious, since I know very little about pull-ups or chin-ups.

Would adding weight via weight belt help? Like, if you could do sets of 5 with added weight on you, would that help increase volume of non-weighted pull-ups/chin-ups?
404Ender said:
Question for married members of FitGAF:

Do you wear your ring while lifting? Leave it at home? Wear it around your neck? Wear a silicone ring instead? Something else?

I recently got hitched and am still getting used to wearing a band. It didn't feel right at the gym, not because I'm worried about scratching it, but mainly because it messes with my grip around the bar. I'm not sure a silicone replacement ring would work any better (I imagine it would have the same issues).
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Both my wife and I take them off when lifting.
 
BumRush said:
Any way your recent cardio extravaganzas could have strengthened your back while your biceps got weaker from little to no use?
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I guess it's theoretically possible. To be honest I almost never do arm work so I don't really have any benchmarks to test against.

Oh, and no ring here either. I hardly ever wear it these days between greasing the groove, weights, and mountain biking.
 
ILoveBish said:
And I'm now looking into surgery to remove excess skin. Once I hit my goal size, it will start to be a real consideration.
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Psychotext said:
There's a few of us here looking at that one in one way or another. Shame that there's no 100% natural way to recover from our past transgressions!
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I dropped from 280 at my heaviest to 160. It took me over a year afterwards to actually believe the scale. I've been lifting for two months now and have gained 10 lb and can definitely feel the muscle.

For those of you who have lost a lot of weight and have built muscle... does that help fill you out at all? Is surgery really the only way to go?
 
mkenyon said:
I'm curious, since I know very little about pull-ups or chin-ups.

Would adding weight via weight belt help? Like, if you could do sets of 5 with added weight on you, would that help increase volume of non-weighted pull-ups/chin-ups?
Click to expand...

I've wondered that too, and perhaps some of the pull-up experts here (paging Cooter!) could give their opinion. I know that in general for me with other lifts, doing fewer reps at a higher weight doesn't let me automatically add reps at lower weights. If I wanted to do, say, high-rep squats, I'd have to specifically work around the desired rep range.

My plan at this time is to progress through hand position. When I can regularly get 8 chin-ups, I'll switch to neutral grip pull-ups until I can do 8, and then prone pull-ups. I may change my plan, depending on what I learn along the way.

Also, another member of married GAF who takes off the ring when exercising.
 
fep said:
I dropped from 280 at my heaviest to 160. It took me over a year afterwards to actually believe the scale. I've been lifting for two months now and have gained 10 lb and can definitely feel the muscle.

For those of you who have lost a lot of weight and have built muscle... does that help fill you out at all? Is surgery really the only way to go?
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I've lost a similar amount (124 and counting), it's really nowhere as bad as it could be, but there is plenty of loose skin that will not tighten up anymore. It's mostly midsection. Arms, shoulders, pecs, etc all look normal.
 
ILoveBish said:
I've lost a similar amount (124 and counting), it's really nowhere as bad as it could be, but there is plenty of loose skin that will not tighten up anymore. It's mostly midsection. Arms, shoulders, pecs, etc all look normal.
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Same. I lost ~120, but put back a bit more on. Am at ~197-199 right now.
 
Rings - I take mine off basically on any pulling movement, otherwise I leave it on. This often results in me leaving it sitting in my weight room for days at a time. In fact it's there right now.
 
Cooper said:
I've wondered that too, and perhaps some of the pull-up experts here (paging Cooter!) could give their opinion. I know that in general for me with other lifts, doing fewer reps at a higher weight doesn't let me automatically add reps at lower weights. If I wanted to do, say, high-rep squats, I'd have to specifically work around the desired rep range.

My plan at this time is to progress through hand position. When I can regularly get 8 chin-ups, I'll switch to neutral grip pull-ups until I can do 8, and then prone pull-ups. I may change my plan, depending on what I learn along the way.

Also, another member of married GAF who takes off the ring when exercising.
Click to expand...
Typically the advice I give people asking if they should add weight is that if you can perform sets of 10 with ease and with good chest depth you should start adding weight. There's nothing wrong with adding weight at 8 but then it cuts down your sets to maybe 4 or 5 and I like to do pull-ups at a higher rep range excluding my last sets of weighted ones which are between 4-6.

I do pull-ups about twice a week.

Light bw day is 5x10-focus is speed and explosion
Heavy weighted day is:
30x10
40x10
50x8
75x6
95x4-5
 
Just set a new squat PR. Just about got the bar up, tried to get out from under it after racking it...

...and smashed the back of my head to shit on the bar. Blehhhhhh.
 
So I've decided to start back doing Insanity to start on the path to getting slimmed down for my wedding next year, and now my fiancee has decided she wants to do it with me. While she's been working out with me a lot (weight lifting, cardio circuit), she's never done anything like Insanity. However, even though her doctor has given her a green light for the workout, she has ankle issues that makes some workouts hard for her to do. Are there any exercises that can be incorporated into a HIIT routine that won't require much strain on ankles? And yes, she does wear an ankle brace.
 
Cooper said:
The set of 3 was pull-ups (hands prone), but I moved to chin-ups since the pull-ups were too slow for me to progress, even with the pyramids. With the chin-ups, I was able to add about a rep a month. At this point, with my best sets I can get 8 chin-ups, 6 neutral grip pull-ups, or 4 prone pull-ups. The volume from the pyramids helps a lot, regardless of style. One of my goals for 2016 is to perform a set of 8 traditional pull-ups.
Click to expand...

we are all rooting for you :) I believe you'll make it.

I remember back when I started, Pull-ups were too hard and decided to work on the Chin-ups but as soon as I got better at Chin.ups, the Pull-ups followed. I think that's what's going to happen here.

Psychotext said:
Pull up related, I'm not sure what happened to me since I took my 10 or so days off, but now for some reason I can do more pull-ups than I can do chin-ups.

It's not that pull-ups have become easier, for some reasons chin-ups have become harder.
Click to expand...

do you happen to do more Pull-ups than chin-ups on a regular basis?

I have been neglecting Chin-ups for a long time and I can do around... 7 or 8, Pull-ups I do 16 on my best set and up to 100 on a pyramid scheme.

I'll probably start switching between one and the other in the coming weeks.

mkenyon said:
I'm curious, since I know very little about pull-ups or chin-ups.

Would adding weight via weight belt help? Like, if you could do sets of 5 with added weight on you, would that help increase volume of non-weighted pull-ups/chin-ups?
.
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in my case, the weight vest I bought was great for exactly that.

I'd do 6 sets, the first three with the vest and the next 3 without it. The feeling I had when I'd take off the vest was incredible, on the sets without the added weight I felt like flying up and do... it really does wonders. There's of course the better option of chain+plate around your waste but I've got no chain so I'll keep using my vest.

it's basically a small schoolbag so if you guys don't want to buy a vest, you can use any schoolbag with books, and keep adding books as you progress :D

chaleco2015a_zpsm9turdtl.jpg
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Only slept 30 min today, no clue about calories other then low enough, but no excuse not to hit the gym. Great day with bench press, 5x190, 3x210 and 1x235. Finished off with a 10x165.

Good start to this 1s week. Should be more situated by tomorrow.
 
sphinx said:
do you happen to do more Pull-ups than chin-ups on a regular basis?

I have been neglecting Chin-ups for a long time and I can do around... 7 or 8, Pull-ups I do 16 on my best set and up to 100 on a pyramid scheme.
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The opposite, I was smashing out weighted chin-ups with no problems, have never even tried a weighted pull up as I wanted to get my numbers up first. Is very odd.

fep said:
For those of you who have lost a lot of weight and have built muscle... does that help fill you out at all? Is surgery really the only way to go?
Click to expand...

Depends where the skin is. For most it seems to be lower abdominals, and to put on enough muscle there to fill out the loose skin would be incredibly difficult for most people.
 
So, I have a problem with squats. When I try to go deep I get the dreaded butt wink, which puts my lower back at risk. If I try to do different things to counter that, I get other problems with my form. But when I do goblet squats I can get it right, mostly because the more upright posture with goblet squats makes it easier for me to maintain form. So I'm considering replacing normal squats with front squats to solve this problem. Would this be a good idea, or would I risk underdeveloping my hamstrings in relation to my quadriceps if I abandon back squats entirely?
 
fep said:
I dropped from 280 at my heaviest to 160. It took me over a year afterwards to actually believe the scale. I've been lifting for two months now and have gained 10 lb and can definitely feel the muscle.

For those of you who have lost a lot of weight and have built muscle... does that help fill you out at all? Is surgery really the only way to go?
Click to expand...

In my experience( M, 6'5", 430-227lbs) lifting helps. Mostly in that everyone has some underdeveloped area that can grow to fill out skin. For me that is upper torso.

To be totally frank given enough weight loss there is a point where you arent going to look normal(definition) without surgery. The important thing to realize is that your worth is not in your skin.

hydrophilic attack said:
So, I have a problem with squats...
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Butt Wink is essentially a sign your erectors are too weak for your working weight so you need to back off the plates.


Do a back squat set with lighter weight and sit in the hole for a few seconds each rep to feel the difference between leaning forward and back a bit and keeping your knees in line with your toes.

Front squats are more quad dominant and they stress your core differently(abs). I would say the backsquat is a bit more 'complete' of a motion but you do not need it to build your legs.
 
Azulsky said:
Butt Wink is essentially a sign your erectors are too weak for your working weight so you need to back off the plates.


Do a back squat set with lighter weight and sit in the hole for a few seconds each rep to feel the difference between leaning forward and back a bit and keeping your knees in line with your toes.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure that this is related to weak erectors. The weight I'm using is very low (less than two thirds of my bodyweight) and I have problems doing it with bodyweight, without even using any weight at all. I don't think my erectors are that weak. I can deadlift 50 % above my body weight for sets of eight with pretty good form. I think my squatting issues are due to a combination of some of the following factors: hamstring flexibility, mobility, balance, body proportions.

Front squats are more quad dominant and they stress your core differently(abs). I would say the backsquat is a bit more 'complete' of a motion but you do not need it to build your legs.
Click to expand...

That's good to know. I'll make an attempt with dropping the weight back to empty bar again while really focusing on form and keeping the weight on my heels, to see if I can sort my back squat form out, but if not, I may start doing front squats instead.

Thanks for the reply!
 
So I've been doing Romanian deadlifts for a while and I've noticed that as I go up in weight, I stop feeling it on my hamstrings completely, which makes me think my form has gone and other muscles are taking the strain. No matter what I try I can't seem to fix it, so I'm wondering, is it better to just dump the weight and go up the rep range?

I did 15 reps of a much lower weight a few weeks back and felt like my hamstrings were on fire. So I'm thinking, instead of say, 3x5x150lbs, I could do something like 3x12x75lbs or something along those lines.

Anyone got an opinion on this?
 
Psychotext said:
So I've been doing Romanian deadlifts for a while and I've noticed that as I go up in weight, I stop feeling it on my hamstrings completely, which makes me think my form has gone and other muscles are taking the strain. No matter what I try I can't seem to fix it, so I'm wondering, is it better to just dump the weight and go up the rep range?

I did 15 reps of a much lower weight a few weeks back and felt like my hamstrings were on fire. So I'm thinking, instead of say, 3x5x150lbs, I could do something like 3x12x75lbs or something along those lines.

Anyone got an opinion on this?
Click to expand...
Have the same issue with stiff legged deadlift. Not feeling anything in my hamstrings when doing the exercise. I keep doing it because I've definitely made gains with my hammies since incorporating the exercise. Maybe I would feel it more if I slowed the movement down.
 
Cooter said:
Typically the advice I give people asking if they should add weight is that if you can perform sets of 10 with ease and with good chest depth you should start adding weight. There's nothing wrong with adding weight at 8 but then it cuts down your sets to maybe 4 or 5 and I like to do pull-ups at a higher rep range excluding my last sets of weighted ones which are between 4-6.
Click to expand...

Makes sense. I don't think I'll need to add weight for a long time. Changing the grip style provides plenty of loading options for me at this point.

And wow at not just performing a pull-up with 95 external pounds, but getting five reps. Crazy!
 
5th day of my diet break. Decided to have one, even though I didn't want to really. I know I could use one so kinda forced myself. I've been dieting in one way or another for so long that my body could probably use two weeks of normal calories. First months of around maintenance with 2-3 fasting days every week and for the last two months a more normal caloric restriction. I'm not really run down or anything but I know this is good thing in the long run.

Got some water under my skin and gained maybe 5lbs but it's just water so I don't really care. Still five or nine days to go. Then back on the cut for those last few pounds :)
 
Well that settles it and I guess it makes a lot of sense. Healing happens so much quicker on a bulk. It would normally take me days if not almost a full week to recover from the run I had on Sunday. I was in pretty miserable shape yesterday. This morning I woke up and its like the run never even happened. I've never recovered this fast before. Kind of blown away.

Side note: kidney stones run in my family and my kidneys feel like they are working overtime and are a little sore. Noticed my urine isn't as clear now that I'm eating more, even drinking a full gallon per day. Will have to drink more. Dammit...
 
lol... after a year and a half of training, it appears I've finally hit the "untrained" standard for bench press for my weight.

Stupid broken body. :(
 
I can only assume it's related, but broke both my collar bones when I was young and was never really able to do any chest exercises like push-ups etc. Even when I do chest exercises now it feels like most of the power is coming from my shoulders and arms rather than my chest.

...and my actual shoulders are wrecked too because of dislocations due to hypermobility, so yeah, that aint helping either.
 
Psychotext said:
I can only assume it's related, but broke both my collar bones when I was young and was never really able to do any chest exercises like push-ups etc. Even when I do chest exercises now it feels like most of the power is coming from my shoulders and arms rather than my chest.

...and my actual shoulders are wrecked too because of dislocations due to hypermobility, so yeah, that aint helping either.
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Form check? If most of the pressure is on your shoulders your bar path might be too high.
 
BumRush said:
I didn't mean too high, height-wise. I meant too close to your neck. I feel like you're a big form guy though so I'm sure you're solid.
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Yeah, I figured what you meant, was just explaining where I feel the pressure on a bench press. It's definitely tricky getting my position right though.
 
SeanR1221 said:
Had an interesting birthday surprise.

I sent my wife a before and after photo of myself I liked. She put it on her fitness Instagram page last week. Then, the fitness company that she loves (tone it up) picked it up and featured me.

Here's the post.

https://instagram.com/p/9UZYiCv-LU/
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Wow, nice! All those comments are just flying at you. I can picture your wife batting away at some of the potential explicit ones.

Had to throw in some kind of baseball reference.

Go Mets!!!!
 
Lifting heavier lately and I've noticed some post-workout discomfort in the part of the hand that connects the thumb to the palm (back of non-dominant hand). I have large hands but they're mostly long, skinny fingers so I feel like a lot of pressure gets put on my thumb.

Anyone know what I'm talking about? Ideas on how to strengthen it?
 
Hmm gonna try upping my weight by ten today. I think I'm still fairly low since it's only my seventh workout I think

155 Squat
155 Bench
135 DL

I don't think I've lost weight either and I'm only a little sore after each work out... buuuut I haven't smoked any cigs in like 2 weeks so that's a plus
 
SeanR1221 said:
Had an interesting birthday surprise.

I sent my wife a before and after photo of myself I liked. She put it on her fitness Instagram page last week. Then, the fitness company that she loves (tone it up) picked it up and featured me.

Here's the post.

https://instagram.com/p/9UZYiCv-LU/
Click to expand...
Nice. Well deserved feature.
killertofu said:
Hmm gonna try upping my weight by ten today. I think I'm still fairly low since it's only my seventh workout I think

155 Squat
155 Bench
135 DL

I don't think I've lost weight either and I'm only a little sore after each work out... buuuut I haven't smoked any cigs in like 2 weeks so that's a plus
Click to expand...
Just keep adding 5lbs, unless you feel like you're barely working on some of them.
 
hydrophilic attack said:
I think my squatting issues are due to a combination of some of the following factors: hamstring flexibility, mobility, balance, body proportions.
Click to expand...

If you are tall or just long legged then you might be having issues like ankle flexibility(dorsiflexion). You might also need to address your stace width. Some of it is just up to how your hips are built.

As usual the Limber 11 video(see YT) is the best lower body stretch guide I can recommend.

At the very least Goblet/Front squat are more open hip and straight torso styles of squat and that might just be your mojo.
 
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