Oh, and if you have any questions about anything please feel free to ask us here. We like to help
Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
The official gym & weightlifting thread! rep #3
- Thread starter i_got_a_mohawk
- Start date
Oh, and if you have any questions about anything please feel free to ask us here. We like to help
It will help all that. I am a crossfit coach. We have many members who have specific goals and other sports they participate in. Crossfit has helped all of them improve their performance across the board. You can also get really strong doing crossfit. We have guys who have added well over 100-200 pounds to their squat and dead lift, myself included. The gyms can be very different from each other. Some focus on strength, some on endurance and others( like mine) offer general varied programming plus auxiliary workouts or skill classes like Olympic weightlifting and a crossfit football. We had a running club last summer too.
Now about the slop. Yes it is true that a lot of crossfit can get sloppy. This is more gym standard specific. Some are more lax in the form department and thus injuries are very common. Some ,like my gym, are known for being incredible technicians and hammer technique. We often force people to use less weight and focus on form. Egos just get you hurt.
I say go check it out for yourself. From what your goals sound like it should be a great fit for you.
I'm having a good week.
Just a recap, I'm a 40 year old male, and I hit the scales at 288 pounds at the first of January, heaviest and fattest I've ever been, and ever plan to be.
I've cut out the crap (fast food, most fried foods, chips, snack, junk food, soda, etc etc), primarily focusing on eating cleaner and being much more conscious and in control of calorie intake.
About two weeks ago I was down to 253 pounds.
That's the good part.
The bad part, I was not only losing fat, but losing strength, and I was starting to really obsess about food.
So doing research at some of my old online haunts, I read about "Leangains" and "IF" (intermittent fasting), and the theory and anectdotal ability of adherents to not only lose body fat, but reasonably retain or often increase muscle mass.
The philosophy has two components ,the "IF" (intermitteng fasting) component is to fast 16 hours a day, and eat only during the remaining 8 hour window.
The second component is a focus on lifting heavy weights, three days a week, focusing primarily on large, compound movements (primarily powerlifting exercises: squat, deadlift, bench, plus the addition of chin-ups).
Typically a practitioner will skip breakfast, eat their first meal at lunch, eat a smaller meal in the evening, and not eat again until lunch the next day.
On weightlifting days, the largest meal will be either right before or soon after the workout. On "off" days, the largest meal is ideally the first meal of the day.
Workout days calorie "Macros" are heavy on protein and carbohydrates, "off" days calories are heavy on protein and fat.
Workout days total calorie intake is + 20 percent of daily target calorie intake, "off" days total calorie intake is - 20 percent of daily target calorie intake.
The philosophy seems tailor made for someone like me, someone who likes to eat a lot of food at one sitting, someone who enjoys the powerlifting style of weightlifting, someone who doesn't like to think about food or eating all the time, someone who doesn't want to feel hungry all the time, and someone who wants to still be relatively strong while losing body fat.
In two weeks since starting this "Leangains" thing, I've put (back) on 15 pounds on my bench, and a solid 30 pounds (back) on both my squat and deadlift, all while losing 5 pounds of body weight - yes, today I hit the scale at 248 pounds!!!!!
(Full disclosure, for several years I've trained using amateur powerlifting techniques, and at my best had a bench 1 rep max of 220, squat 355, and deadlift at 415 pounds, so I at the very least I know my way around a squat rack and have some muscle already to work with, just too much fat to go along with it.
).
And the best part, I"ve eaten like a pig when I do eat, I go to bed full and satisfied, I don't seem to think about food all the time, and most importantly I feel so much better than when I was just cutting calories.
I really missed the heavy lifting and feeling of progress. It's no fun just losing weight.
Anyway, maybe not for everyone, but I'm going to keep doing the "leangains" thing for awhile and see how it goes.
I'm going to the Outer Banks of North Carolina in a few weeks, and for the first time in a long time I'm actually looking forward to taking my shirt off at the beach.
Just a recap, I'm a 40 year old male, and I hit the scales at 288 pounds at the first of January, heaviest and fattest I've ever been, and ever plan to be.
I've cut out the crap (fast food, most fried foods, chips, snack, junk food, soda, etc etc), primarily focusing on eating cleaner and being much more conscious and in control of calorie intake.
About two weeks ago I was down to 253 pounds.
That's the good part.
The bad part, I was not only losing fat, but losing strength, and I was starting to really obsess about food.
So doing research at some of my old online haunts, I read about "Leangains" and "IF" (intermittent fasting), and the theory and anectdotal ability of adherents to not only lose body fat, but reasonably retain or often increase muscle mass.
The philosophy has two components ,the "IF" (intermitteng fasting) component is to fast 16 hours a day, and eat only during the remaining 8 hour window.
The second component is a focus on lifting heavy weights, three days a week, focusing primarily on large, compound movements (primarily powerlifting exercises: squat, deadlift, bench, plus the addition of chin-ups).
Typically a practitioner will skip breakfast, eat their first meal at lunch, eat a smaller meal in the evening, and not eat again until lunch the next day.
On weightlifting days, the largest meal will be either right before or soon after the workout. On "off" days, the largest meal is ideally the first meal of the day.
Workout days calorie "Macros" are heavy on protein and carbohydrates, "off" days calories are heavy on protein and fat.
Workout days total calorie intake is + 20 percent of daily target calorie intake, "off" days total calorie intake is - 20 percent of daily target calorie intake.
The philosophy seems tailor made for someone like me, someone who likes to eat a lot of food at one sitting, someone who enjoys the powerlifting style of weightlifting, someone who doesn't like to think about food or eating all the time, someone who doesn't want to feel hungry all the time, and someone who wants to still be relatively strong while losing body fat.
In two weeks since starting this "Leangains" thing, I've put (back) on 15 pounds on my bench, and a solid 30 pounds (back) on both my squat and deadlift, all while losing 5 pounds of body weight - yes, today I hit the scale at 248 pounds!!!!!
(Full disclosure, for several years I've trained using amateur powerlifting techniques, and at my best had a bench 1 rep max of 220, squat 355, and deadlift at 415 pounds, so I at the very least I know my way around a squat rack and have some muscle already to work with, just too much fat to go along with it.
).And the best part, I"ve eaten like a pig when I do eat, I go to bed full and satisfied, I don't seem to think about food all the time, and most importantly I feel so much better than when I was just cutting calories.
I really missed the heavy lifting and feeling of progress. It's no fun just losing weight.
Anyway, maybe not for everyone, but I'm going to keep doing the "leangains" thing for awhile and see how it goes.
I'm going to the Outer Banks of North Carolina in a few weeks, and for the first time in a long time I'm actually looking forward to taking my shirt off at the beach.
The key is scaling appropriately. One number I've heard is that the weight you use in a WOD should never be more than 50% of a 1RM for a given exercise.
Not to rain on your parade, but it definitely wasn't 4.2lbs of muscle mass - most likely you're retaining extra water weight, which can be caused for any number of reasons.
Let me put it to you this way, unless you're under 21 years of age, or unless you have PERFECT nutrition, the best one can hope to gain in a year is around 15lbs of lean muscle mass. And even then that means that you're one of the few people with AMAZING genetics which will allow you to put on mass easily. Most people can expect to see something more between 8-10lbs in a year.
If you're putting on 1-1.5lbs of muscle a month you're doing well. Anything more than that is something else entirely - unless you're juicing
that could very well be, I was pretty depleted to begin with. I have a tendency to run just this side of being dehydrated anyway. Muscle bellies look fuller though, so that's a good thing. At least it wasn't deposited under the skin. I really think the extra carbs I added are helping keep my glycogen stores a little fuller. At the end of the day, the muscle looks bigger, and I'm no smoother. Win-win. Bodybuilding is all about creating an "illusion" anyway. I don't care if I can actually lift a house. I just want to look like I can
Scaling is appropriately is crucial. For the most part 50% is a good rule of thumb for the high rep WODs. There are some grueling heavy low rep and run WODs that we do too. 70% of 1 rep max deadlift for 5 reps, run 800m x 5 rounds for example. The lift must be with good form and controlled on the way down. No ballistic bouncing off the bottom.
Or this one is coming up next week in our programing. More of a strength WOD than met-con.
Five rounds for max reps of:
Body weight bench press
Pull-ups
Can't wait for this one personally.
I'm really digging the gym I joined since I moved. Much better variety, lots of functional training, I get a discount because of where I work, and it's only a 2 minute drive vs. the 30 minute one I was making in the Woodlands.
I'm having a good week.
Just a recap, I'm a 40 year old male, and I hit the scales at 288 pounds at the first of January, heaviest and fattest I've ever been, and ever plan to be.
I've cut out the crap (fast food, most fried foods, chips, snack, junk food, soda, etc etc), primarily focusing on eating cleaner and being much more conscious and in control of calorie intake.
About two weeks ago I was down to 253 pounds.
That's the good part.
The bad part, I was not only losing fat, but losing strength, and I was starting to really obsess about food.
So doing research at some of my old online haunts, I read about "Leangains" and "IF" (intermittent fasting), and the theory and anectdotal ability of adherents to not only lose body fat, but reasonably retain or often increase muscle mass.
The philosophy has two components ,the "IF" (intermitteng fasting) component is to fast 16 hours a day, and eat only during the remaining 8 hour window.
The second component is a focus on lifting heavy weights, three days a week, focusing primarily on large, compound movements (primarily powerlifting exercises: squat, deadlift, bench, plus the addition of chin-ups).
Typically a practitioner will skip breakfast, eat their first meal at lunch, eat a smaller meal in the evening, and not eat again until lunch the next day.
On weightlifting days, the largest meal will be either right before or soon after the workout. On "off" days, the largest meal is ideally the first meal of the day.
Workout days calorie "Macros" are heavy on protein and carbohydrates, "off" days calories are heavy on protein and fat.
Workout days total calorie intake is + 20 percent of daily target calorie intake, "off" days total calorie intake is - 20 percent of daily target calorie intake.
The philosophy seems tailor made for someone like me, someone who likes to eat a lot of food at one sitting, someone who enjoys the powerlifting style of weightlifting, someone who doesn't like to think about food or eating all the time, someone who doesn't want to feel hungry all the time, and someone who wants to still be relatively strong while losing body fat.
In two weeks since starting this "Leangains" thing, I've put (back) on 15 pounds on my bench, and a solid 30 pounds (back) on both my squat and deadlift, all while losing 5 pounds of body weight - yes, today I hit the scale at 248 pounds!!!!!
(Full disclosure, for several years I've trained using amateur powerlifting techniques, and at my best had a bench 1 rep max of 220, squat 355, and deadlift at 415 pounds, so I at the very least I know my way around a squat rack and have some muscle already to work with, just too much fat to go along with it.
And the best part, I"ve eaten like a pig when I do eat, I go to bed full and satisfied, I don't seem to think about food all the time, and most importantly I feel so much better than when I was just cutting calories.
I really missed the heavy lifting and feeling of progress. It's no fun just losing weight.
Anyway, maybe not for everyone, but I'm going to keep doing the "leangains" thing for awhile and see how it goes.
I'm going to the Outer Banks of North Carolina in a few weeks, and for the first time in a long time I'm actually looking forward to taking my shirt off at the beach.
Good job man. I had a similar problem when I was really cutting back on calories. I lost a lot weight and power. I'm 35 years old and 5'9". Over the last year I went from 250 down to 188. I was doing the Zone diet for first few months and it was effective but man did I look and feel dead. No gas in the tank and just bonked regularly at the gym and had crazy bad food cravings. Then I went to Paleo and Zone combined. Performance improved but not enough and weight got stagnant. Food craving got a little less too. Then I said hmmm I'm just going to go 100% Paleo. I started using the "Lose it" app to track my food intake. I played with my macro ratios a bit. Getting out of the zone 30/40/30 pro/carb/fat and started doing 45/20/35 and BAM! Performance shoot through the roof and fat, only, started coming off.
I guess I should mention I train 3-4 times a week for 1-2 hours. I mostly just do the crossfit WODs but sometimes I will stick around afterward to work on my Olympic or Power lifts. Sometimes I'll do extra gymnastics work too. Like ring work (muscle-ups,front and rear levers, handstand pushups etc..).
I definitely agree with going with heavy compound movements to keep your strength up but don't neglect to do some cardio work. I'm not talking boring elliptical for 45 minutes or anything like that. Do 200m,400m, or 800m sprints and mix in maybe some sit ups and push ups air squats in between runs. Or instead of running jump rope.
Maybe try this.
run 400m
50 sit ups
run 400m
50 push ups
run 400m
50 air squats
run 400m
Doing something like this 2 times a week and heavy strength train 2-3 times a week while eating lots of protein, good fat, veggies, nuts, seeds, little starch and no sugar will dramatically effect the way you look and feel. Stay hydrated and get enough sleep too. Oh how I love sleep.
I've dabble with IF before. Just not for me. I have low blood sugar so tend to get crazy head aches and want to stab things if don't eat. My wife and other trainers I work with have had great success with it.
Sorry for the long rambling. I hope I wasn't being imposing seeing as you didn't really ask for any advice. I just like to try to help people. It's hard not to want to help after losing all this weight.
Not imposing at all, thanks for sharing!
Yes, speaking of macros, I did significantly ramp up my protein percentage, to around 45 - 55 percent, depending on if I'm lifting that day or not.
I do work in a little cardio now and then, either on the treadmill, skipping rope (need to do more), and of course at work I'm fairly active anyway but I'm deliberately "jogging" up stairwells (large industrial facility with just a few elevators, I can easily climb up and down 300-400 steps a shift).
The best thing I'm discovering about "IF" and Leangains, for me anyway, is how easy it is now to control my hunger, and how long I can actually be hungry before I realize it's time to eat.
Not too long ago, that was simply unheard of, when I was hungry then the world needed to stop so I could eat.
We'll see. Down to 247 body weight, put two more reps on my bench this week, and it's deadlift day. Going to hit the gym after typing this.
Oh, and I just looked at the clock, time to eat!
Today was the first time I've been able to do a military press since injuring my shoulder last year. I used 45 lb dumbbells and my shoulder isn't sore like it used to be after doing them with half that weight during and post rehab. No more machine shoulder presses for me! 
I can't find the post, but to the one who said they drop their protein intake on their off days you're doing a disservice to yourself. It's on your off days that you're body is going to be doing the majority of its rebuilding, so it's important to get your protein in you.
Indeed! Keep that protein up there. I find that .7-.9 grams/pound of body weight is a good guide. This depends on how lean you are though. If you are on the chubby side go with .7 grams and high if you are leaner. From there I determine my other calorie ratios. Some athletes do well with higher protein levels (aka bodybuilders) but if you are training for fitness, power, and strength not large aesthetic muscles then a little less is more. Energy from good fat is where it's at. Don't get me wrong your muscles will grow but not like a bodybuidlers. They will be dense hard and have deep strength. Think "stealth strength". For years when I was into bodybuilding, back in my 20's, I was eating more like 1.1-1.5g /pound of body weight. I was 202 and lean and deadlifted 2x bodyweight and dumbbell benched 120's but my cardio, agility and speed sucked. So if that is your focus then go that route.
Yep. I fall more on the body builder end of things, and I get a lot of protein in me every day of the week - not just the ones where I'm lifting.
Last week, I couldn't work out, other than Monday and Sunday (about 1/2 hour) and I ate a lot during the weekend. I went in yesterday for an evaluation and found that I had lost a whole pound in the last 5 weeks, basically because of all I ate over the weekend. I wasn't very happy about this until they checked body fat ratio- I lost 6% in 5 weeks, so I'm down to 26.5%. I guess I can live with the fat loss.
that's good dude. % loss is much better than just raw lbs lost anyway. this is a marathon, not a sprint. keep at it, you'll get there
Congratulations on the fat loss, every victory is worthy of celebration!
Not sure what your gym routine is, but if you are lifting heavy weights and still eating decent, you will be building muscle.
And since muscle weighs more than fat, it's sometimes misleading to go only on total body weight alone.
Take my situation: I completely avoided any exercise from January through the first of March, and lost a crazy amount of weight in a short amount of time simply due to my rigorous calorie deficit, lost about 10 pounds a month for three months straight.
Like I already said though, I was losing muscle as well, and it showed in how I looked and how I felt.
Now I'm lifting heavy again, three days a week (squat/chins on Wed, bench/rows on Fri, deadlift/press on Sun).
Eating clean like I have been since January, but I've been ramping up my protein to between 1 gram to 1.5 grams per pound of my ideal bodyweight, in my case 170 grams of protein per day, sometimes significantly more (like after squats).
I hit more carbs on lifting days, and eat slightly more total calories overall (around 2200).
On off days I'll reduce carbs and throw in some unsaturated fats and an "occasional cheat" (natural ice cream, home made cheesecake, etc) on these days, but keeping my total calories below 1800, and many off days even below 1500.
My total "weight loss" has slowed to around 1-2 pounds a week, but I feel so much better and I'm seeing some solid gains in all my lifts.
Regardless of the "slower" total weight loss, my pants are still getting looser (was a size 44, now I can wear a 38) and I've gone from a 2XL t-shirt to a mere "Large".
So yeah, getting "leaner" is more important than just "weight loss".
Good luck and keep at it everyone!
Congratulations on the fat loss, every victory is worthy of celebration!
Not sure what your gym routine is, but if you are lifting heavy weights and still eating decent, you will be building muscle.
And since muscle weighs more than fat, it's sometimes misleading to go only on total body weight alone.
Take my situation: I completely avoided any exercise from January through the first of March, and lost a crazy amount of weight in a short amount of time simply due to my rigorous calorie deficit, lost about 10 pounds a month for three months straight.
Like I already said though, I was losing muscle as well, and it showed in how I looked and how I felt.
Now I'm lifting heavy again, three days a week (squat/chins on Wed, bench/rows on Fri, deadlift/press on Sun).
Eating clean like I have been since January, but I've been ramping up my protein to between 1 gram to 1.5 grams per pound of my ideal bodyweight, in my case 170 grams of protein per day, sometimes significantly more (like after squats).
I hit more carbs on lifting days, and eat slightly more total calories overall (around 2200).
On off days I'll reduce carbs and throw in some unsaturated fats and an "occasional cheat" (natural ice cream, home made cheesecake, etc) on these days, but keeping my total calories below 1800, and many off days even below 1500.
My total "weight loss" has slowed to around 1-2 pounds a week, but I feel so much better and I'm seeing some solid gains in all my lifts.
Regardless of the "slower" total weight loss, my pants are still getting looser (was a size 44, now I can wear a 38) and I've gone from a 2XL t-shirt to a mere "Large".
So yeah, getting "leaner" is more important than just "weight loss".
Good luck and keep at it everyone!
Part of the problem with not losing as fast as I wanted is the info on the internet is often plain wrong. A lot of the sites I went to, including some of the ones linked to here, stated that, to maintain weight, the person should multiply their weight by 12 to determine the daily caloric intake. First, it's 50% higher than the trainer told me and her info matches what their site shows. Might be toeing the company line, but I can't see any way I would possibly need 3700 calories, no matter what I do (and marathons, Tour de France, digging my way to China aren't gonna happen). I'd have to eat a tub of lard to get that much. They have a calorie tracker and I have used it since Monday- makes me really conscious of how much I eat and what's in it. I ate enough to not be hungry yesterday and I only hit 2/3 of the 2700 needed. I haven't come close to that pace today and I think I may drop a few by week's end. I lost more than 2 between Monday and yesterday, but that had to have been from eating like a pig over the weekend. I definitely did my chest fly exercises right, though- I'm done with the cable machine for that. My pecs are pretty sore today. It's about time! My endurance was very good and I cycled my butt off during cardio intervals. I'm thinking of doing the Ride for The Arts after Memorial Day, but I'll have to take my bike out to see if I can sit on it for that long beforehand.
I started low on the weights to avoid tearing/straining anything and my leg extensions/hammy pull-downs are up over 50%, to 110lb, my tricep pull-downs went from 60lb to 100lb, seated pull-downs went from 90lb to 135-160lb and I stopped using the machine for leg presses, going to body weight squats, instead. I'm still over 280, so it's a lot more than the 150 I had been using. Upright/bent over rowing with cable machine went from about 100lb to 140-150lb, same reps for each exercise as before and I'm not as tired as when I started, even though the weights have increased. I like the body fat loss but I know it's not good, structurally, to carry around too much weight regardless of the fact that I'm 6'-2".
I expect to be a total rock by the 4th of July.
