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

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P

Psychotext

Member
That's what I've been doing at the end of my workouts... sort of. I don't really do arm work (big arms are useless for me), but as sort of a warm down I've been curling the dumbbells that I used for my accessories... before putting them back on the rack.

So I might do say 8 reps with 15kg, then 9 reps with 13kg then 10 reps with 11kg.

Gets bloody hard by the end of it. :D
 
B

BumRush

Member
Psychotext said:
That's what I've been doing at the end of my workouts... sort of. I don't really do arm work (big arms are useless for me), but as sort of a warm down I've been curling the dumbbells that I used for my accessories... before putting them back on the rack.

So I might do say 8 reps with 15kg, then 9 reps with 13kg then 10 reps with 11kg.

Gets bloody hard by the end of it. :D
Click to expand...

It does. The blood pump can hurt if you do them enough lol
 
S

Subtle

Member
So my cut has been disastrous. I've been working out 5-6 days a week since the start of the year and everything I lose during the week I end up gaining during the weekends. My weight goes from 151-152lbs on Fridays to 156-157lbs on Monday mornings. And I haven't made any gains on any lifts, only made newbie gains on legs/shoulders because I never work them out very hard, so I've basically been doing nothing for two months now. I'm going to lay off the weed so I stop getting the munchies and hope that helps. Anyone else have this problem?

Edit: also is there any benefit to working out, but not seeing any improvement because your diet is lacking? These past few months haven't been in vain, right?
 
A

ACE 1991

Member
BumRush said:
Try biceps curls drop sets:

Pick a weight you can do 8 reps...then drop the weight and do until failure....then drop the weight and do until failure. That's one set. Do 3 sets. (Those pre-loaded BBs come in handy)
Click to expand...

Wow, that sounds intense. Might be a little hard to pull off since I'd need to use multiple barbells in quick succession during busy hours. How many sets of 8 do you usually end up doing?
 
S

Subtle

Member
ACE 1991 said:
Wow, that sounds intense. Might be a little hard to pull off since I'd need to use multiple barbells in quick succession during busy hours. How many sets of 8 do you usually end up doing?
Click to expand...

I've done these before with dumbells. I would start with 35, move down to 30, 25, 20, and then 15. Of course I would skip certain weight if the dumbells were being used by others. Do three sets.
 
B

BumRush

Member
ACE 1991 said:
Wow, that sounds intense. Might be a little hard to pull off since I'd need to use multiple barbells in quick succession during busy hours. How many sets of 8 do you usually end up doing?
Click to expand...

It's a really quick exercise and you can do it with DB or on the cables if they're free.

Usually something like 8-8-5 that's one set...
 
G

Granadier

Is currently on Stage 1: Denial regarding the service game future
I feel stronger at every single one of my lifts except bench. Last week I took the advice of doing 5x5 with lower weight. That seemed to help, yet this week I tried to put the weight back to my previous and felt just as weak.
 
R

Relentless 757

Member
So, it's been roughly 5 months since I started cutting, and so far I went from 211 lbs to 181 lbs. I will admit the first 3 months weren't the greatest because I didn't have a proper workout routine and it was difficult to hit my macro goals, but I managed to drop down from 33% body fat to 29% and lost 25 lbs during that time. My goal is to be 175 lbs, and in the last 5 weeks, I've lost 5 lbs, but went up to 30% body fat! Right now I could really use some advice.

Around the beginning of February, I completely changed my workout routine, and I began using whey protein to help me reach my macro goal. It's been much better than when I first started and 95% of the time I managed to reach reached my macros goal. My workout routine has been great, but it isn't the best because I only have dumbbells atm.

My macro goals currently are 157 g of protein, 180 g of carbs, and 50 g of fat, and my calorie goal is 1799.My goal is to be around 18% bf and 180-ish lbs by the end of the year, but right now I'm just trying to get my weight down to 175 lbs because I'm trying to join the Navy and I need to be at that weight, or be at 22% bf. My recruiter told me losing the lbs would be faster. While I want to lose weight, I really only want to lose body fat, and build muscle.

Hearing today that I've lost 5 lbs and gained 1% body fat despite doing a complete overhaul on my workout routine and meeting my macro goals more often really confused me, which is why I need advice. My recruiter told me that I should stop lifting weights and do more cardio because he says that will help me lose weight faster. I know that's wrong, because strength training burns body fat, and thus helps me lose weight while maintaining/gaining muscle. That's why I don't understand why I gained a %. I do 100 minutes of HIIT cardio, I lift 4 days a week which totals around 3 hours, not to mention that I'm in a calorie deficit.

So, any advice would help right now. I plan on getting a bench and a barbell so I can improve my routine, and I'm also reducing the amount of calories I eat down to 1633 to see if that changes anything. I'm hoping that will give me better results.
 
M

mkenyon

Banned
Relentless 757 said:
So, it's been roughly 5 months since I started cutting, and so far I went from 211 lbs to 181 lbs. I will admit the first 3 months weren't the greatest because I didn't have a proper workout routine and it was difficult to hit my macro goals, but I managed to drop down from 33% body fat to 29% and lost 25 lbs during that time. My goal is to be 175 lbs, and in the last 5 weeks, I've lost 5 lbs, but went up to 30% body fat! Right now I could really use some advice.

Around the beginning of February, I completely changed my workout routine, and I began using whey protein to help me reach my macro goal. It's been much better than when I first started and 95% of the time I managed to reach reached my macros goal. My workout routine has been great, but it isn't the best because I only have dumbbells atm.

My macro goals currently are 157 g of protein, 180 g of carbs, and 50 g of fat, and my calorie goal is 1799.My goal is to be around 18% bf and 180-ish lbs by the end of the year, but right now I'm just trying to get my weight down to 175 lbs because I'm trying to join the Navy and I need to be at that weight, or be at 22% bf. My recruiter told me losing the lbs would be faster. While I want to lose weight, I really only want to lose body fat, and build muscle.

Hearing today that I've lost 5 lbs and gained 1% body fat despite doing a complete overhaul on my workout routine and meeting my macro goals more often really confused me, which is why I need advice. My recruiter told me that I should stop lifting weights and do more cardio because he says that will help me lose weight faster. I know that's wrong, because strength training burns body fat, and thus helps me lose weight while maintaining/gaining muscle. That's why I don't understand why I gained a %. I do 100 minutes of HIIT cardio, I lift 4 days a week which totals around 3 hours, not to mention that I'm in a calorie deficit.

So, any advice would help right now. I plan on getting a bench and a barbell so I can improve my routine, and I'm also reducing the amount of calories I eat down to 1633 to see if that changes anything. I'm hoping that will give me better results.
Click to expand...
If you're trying to lose weight in a hurry, eat 1300-1500 calories a day and do cardio.

If you have more time, sounds like you need to go a bit lower on the calories every day, then maybe do a refeed/cheat day once a week to make sure your body is happy. The scientific name for this routine is the "Cooter Brotocol".

Try eating clean, rather than using supplements. The body composition stuff is all about diet. I don't know if you're able to live like a Monk or not, but the typical Chicken/Sweet Potato/Quinoa/Kale diet works.
 
P

Psychotext

Member
I'll post in more detail later, but just to say that you need to forget about your body fat for the moment. At those levels the numbers are completely irrelevant. For a start, none of the measurements you're likely to be using are accurate enough to worry about a few percent here or there. For instance, BIA (electronic scales and the like) can be off by +/- 8% body fat.

Drop your calories, get the scale trending down on a regular basis. Stick to the weight training, don't worry too much about the cardio (in reality, all it will do is enable you to eat more). Throw in a bit of HIIT if your fitness is poor though. (By the way, there's no way you do 100 minutes of HIIT, it would flat out kill you)

We all want to lose body fat and not muscle, but at the end of the day, you're clearly going to need to make changes to get to the right weight.
 
R

Relentless 757

Member
mkenyon said:
If you're trying to lose weight in a hurry, eat 1300-1500 calories a day and do cardio.

If you have more time, sounds like you need to go a bit lower on the calories every day, then maybe do a refeed/cheat day once a week to make sure your body is happy. The scientific name for this routine is the "Cooter Brotocol".

Try eating clean, rather than using supplements. The body composition stuff is all about diet. I don't know if you're able to live like a Monk or not, but the typical Chicken/Sweet Potato/Quinoa/Kale diet works.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice! Unfortunately, I still live with my parents and I usually eat whatever they make for dinner, but I would love it if I could eat Chicken, sweet potatoes and Kale on a daily basis. I'll drop down to 1500 calories and see how it goes from there.

Psychotext said:
I'll post in more detail later, but just to say that you need to forget about your body fat for the moment. At those levels the numbers are completely irrelevant. For a start, none of the measurements you're likely to be using are accurate enough to worry about a few percent here or there. For instance, BIA (electronic scales and the like) can be off by +/- 8% body fat.

Drop your calories, get the scale trending down on a regular basis. Stick to the weight training, don't worry too much about the cardio (in reality, all it will do is enable you to eat more). Throw in a bit of HIIT if your fitness is poor though. (By the way, there's no way you do 100 minutes of HIIT, it would flat out kill you)

We all want to lose body fat and not muscle, but at the end of the day, you're clearly going to need to make changes to get to the right weight.
Click to expand...

Alright cool I'll drop the calories and forget about my body fat and see how it goes. Oh, and when I meant 100 minutes of HIIT, I meant each week, separated into 4 25 minute sessions. Usually each session I do 4 30 second high intensity intervals, with 4-5 minutes of rest. Definitely plan on sticking to the weight training as well. Thanks for the advice!
 
P

Psychotext

Member
In reality, your short term goal is obviously to hit the target in one way or another... and yeah in this case it'll be a lot easier to hit the weight target than the fat target.

Chances are, you hit the weight target, you'll hit the fat target anyway, but as I said before, don't obsess about those fat percentages... they're largely bollocks on the whole unless you start getting dexa scans / using bodpods and the like. I wasted an entire year obsessing about trying to reduce my fat percentage without losing weight... and failed badly. Fuck all strength gains, and I didn't look much better either.

BTW - You didn't say how tall you are. It's hard to gauge your weight without that.
 
Chittagong

Chittagong

Gold Member
BumRush said:
Do a set of 15 with just the bar, going well below parallel. You really want to train the muscle memory to feel comfortable that low if youre not currently. Do this a couple times a week.
Click to expand...

AbsintheGames said:
I'll try posting a video later of my squat warm-up. Another thing to help with depth is just to chill and sit in a deep squat position while you watch TV. Another tip is just to walk back and forth in your living room or anywhere there's room in a squat position. Stretch. Do anything to help increase depth and muscle memory in-between sessions. I am always stretching and doing stuff when I'm not lifting to stay limber. Been studying martial arts since I was 11 so it's habit for me to randomly throw a stretch out somewhere when you've got 5 minutes. Gotta keep dem limbs limbering.
Click to expand...

Damn, FitGaf doesn't mess around when it comes to squatting! Really good advice, thanks. I'll start doing those squat sits and stretches. Empty bar I do as deep as poss every time. My hams used to be really tight but then I got a walking desk, world of difference. Buttwink is the main issue in super deep.
 
R

Relentless 757

Member
Psychotext said:
In reality, your short term goal is obviously to hit the target in one way or another... and yeah in this case it'll be a lot easier to hit the weight target than the fat target.

Chances are, you hit the weight target, you'll hit the fat target anyway, but as I said before, don't obsess about those fat percentages... they're largely bollocks on the whole unless you start getting dexa scans / using bodpods and the like. I wasted an entire year obsessing about trying to reduce my fat percentage without losing weight... and failed badly. Fuck all strength gains, and I didn't look much better either.

BTW - You didn't say how tall you are. It's hard to gauge your weight without that.
Click to expand...
I'm 5' 7".
 
O

Omok

Banned
Chittagong said:
Have been working on the squat again. Any thoughts on form?

1MZ9nRE.jpg
Click to expand...
Back needs to be straight as you can
 
D

despire

Member
Relentless 757 said:
So, it's been roughly 5 months since I started cutting, and so far I went from 211 lbs to 181 lbs. I will admit the first 3 months weren't the greatest because I didn't have a proper workout routine and it was difficult to hit my macro goals, but I managed to drop down from 33% body fat to 29% and lost 25 lbs during that time. My goal is to be 175 lbs, and in the last 5 weeks, I've lost 5 lbs, but went up to 30% body fat! Right now I could really use some advice.

Around the beginning of February, I completely changed my workout routine, and I began using whey protein to help me reach my macro goal. It's been much better than when I first started and 95% of the time I managed to reach reached my macros goal. My workout routine has been great, but it isn't the best because I only have dumbbells atm.

My macro goals currently are 157 g of protein, 180 g of carbs, and 50 g of fat, and my calorie goal is 1799.My goal is to be around 18% bf and 180-ish lbs by the end of the year, but right now I'm just trying to get my weight down to 175 lbs because I'm trying to join the Navy and I need to be at that weight, or be at 22% bf. My recruiter told me losing the lbs would be faster. While I want to lose weight, I really only want to lose body fat, and build muscle.

Hearing today that I've lost 5 lbs and gained 1% body fat despite doing a complete overhaul on my workout routine and meeting my macro goals more often really confused me, which is why I need advice. My recruiter told me that I should stop lifting weights and do more cardio because he says that will help me lose weight faster. I know that's wrong, because strength training burns body fat, and thus helps me lose weight while maintaining/gaining muscle. That's why I don't understand why I gained a %. I do 100 minutes of HIIT cardio, I lift 4 days a week which totals around 3 hours, not to mention that I'm in a calorie deficit.

So, any advice would help right now. I plan on getting a bench and a barbell so I can improve my routine, and I'm also reducing the amount of calories I eat down to 1633 to see if that changes anything. I'm hoping that will give me better results.
Click to expand...

How do you "know" you lost 5lbs but gained bodyfat? Sounds very unlikely and more probably the measurents are just wrong. Meaning you lost weight but the BF% measurement in useless. Anyway you are still at the range where measuring it is kinda hard and inaccurate.

I'm not so sure you need to drop your calories just yett since you've been losing a pound per week which is not bad. I'd keep lifting and eating, dropping calories when the weight loss halts. Depends on what your time limit is though.
 
R

Relentless 757

Member
despire said:
How do you "know" you lost 5lbs but gained bodyfat? Sounds very unlikely and more probably the measurents are just wrong. Meaning you lost weight but the BF% measurement in useless. Anyway you are still at the range where measuring it is kinda hard and inaccurate.

I'm not so sure you need to drop your calories just yett since you've been losing a pound per week which is not bad. I'd keep lifting and eating, dropping calories when the weight loss halts. Depends on what your time limit is though.
Click to expand...
I met with my recruiter today to get my weight and body fat checked. My guess is that the measurements he took were inaccurate. I'm going back in 24 days, so I should be aiming to lose 2 lbs per week.
 
D

despire

Member
Was turning off my PS4 last night when my GF commented on how wide my back was. I wanted to see myself so she took a photo.

http://imgur.com/tSVs0bA

Kinda pleased how you can start to see individual muscles a bit. Getting leaner.

Also dat optimal lighting :p
 
S

Sutton Dagger

Member
SeanR1221 said:
Was feeling good about progress today.



I definitely think I'll do a harder cut come summer. It's been a long ride but I could definitely be leaner.
Click to expand...

Jesus you've lost heaps of body fat there dude, good stuff.

Edit: weird question but do they have gyms in Japan all around the place? Going on a holiday next month for a couple of weeks and I don't want to skip weights for that long. Tokyo and Kyoto specifically.
 
J

Jintor

Member
Sutton Dagger said:
Edit: weird question but do they have gyms in Japan all around the place? Going on a holiday next month for a couple of weeks and I don't want to skip weights for that long. Tokyo and Kyoto specifically.
Click to expand...

You're probably okay. I don't know about facilities though, they might focus more on running machines and the like.
 
P

Psychotext

Member
They haven't given any sort of indication. Based on its current rate of progress I'd say probably Monday or Tuesday next week.

Edit - Ah, they updated it. Tuesday.
 
S

SeanR1221

Member
BumRush said:
Dude, all-around amaaaaaaaaaazing job. You should be incredibly proud.
Click to expand...

Sutton Dagger said:
Jesus you've lost heaps of body fat there dude, good stuff.

Edit: weird question but do they have gyms in Japan all around the place? Going on a holiday next month for a couple of weeks and I don't want to skip weights for that long. Tokyo and Kyoto specifically.
Click to expand...

Brolic Gaoler said:
Good job bud!
Click to expand...

Thanks guys. :D. 13 month difference there, keeping it slow and steady.
 
F

Faiz

Member
Sutton Dagger said:
Jesus you've lost heaps of body fat there dude, good stuff.

Edit: weird question but do they have gyms in Japan all around the place? Going on a holiday next month for a couple of weeks and I don't want to skip weights for that long. Tokyo and Kyoto specifically.
Click to expand...

I don't know about all-around, but something relevant for many westerners (especially western gym rats) is that visible tattoos are often banned. I've known a few people who lived in Japan a while that complained about this.

Just something to keep in mind if you have ink.
 
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