Weightlifting/Bodybuilding Thread V.7 - let's see if more people care about themselves - General

Knees have been feeling pretty shitty lately, I think its cause I switched from .5 inch heel shoe to a .75 inch and have been doing clean + jerks 3 days a week. What can I do to keep them healthy (apart from switch shoes)?

If its patella pain and you don't stretch, stretch your quads and hammies out, that usually fixes it for me

mobility work/stretching is great, used to have super tight quads/ham/hips, sucked ass.

What is the mainstream view on 24 Hour Fitness vs. LA Fitness? My 2-year $400 Costco membership for 24 is expiring and am interested in input from others before I renew my 24 hour membership in the event that LAF would be more appealing to me. For one, the 24 hour component factor is a huge appeal to me. There are times in the middle of the night where I would have an urge to workout very late at night or early in the morning which would not be something that LAF could accommodate me for.

I think that's the first mod post I've ever seen in one of these threads Also what's the price difference? I would kill for a 24 hour gym and I've heard a few bad things about LA fitness, but none bad enough to completely disregard it if the price difference is major

24 Hour is cheaper, see no incentive for LAF but I might as well ask. I will be a regular in this thread from hereon.

[QUOTE=cathal6606;50300877]Knees have been feeling pretty shitty lately, I think its cause I switched from .5 inch heel shoe to a .75 inch and have been doing clean + jerks 3 days a week. What can I do to keep them healthy (apart from switch shoes)?[/QUOTE] You are probably having pain either because of poor mobility in the muscles around the knee or more likely because of fatigue since you are doing clean + jerks 3 days a week. Do light static stretching for your leg muscles when you are warmed up (preferably after the workout) and don't do weighted exercises if your knees hurts when you do them. It takes at least 2 days for muscles and tissue to recover completely from hard exercise, sometimes it can even take weeks.

what do you guys do when you start failing, time after time, to keep the calories in check? ever since February, progress has been very slow. I'm not able to handle the temptation of food like I used to. I still need to lose another 5kg and ideally it should be gone already by next month. I have lost 5kg/month before so I know it's possible, but then again I was also a lot heavier back then. probably easier to shed. spent the first two months losing 10kg, and the last five months I've "only" managed to lose another 10kg. [t]http://pred.me/pics/chrome_2016-05-12_01-27-33.png[/t]

do you have a cheat meal/day?

[QUOTE=Waterpi;50302953]do you have a cheat meal/day?[/QUOTE] I had in the beginning but I ditched it at one point, didn't really sit right for me to eat so much in one day so it was forgotten. I should probably have one thinking of it. eat a lot one day instead of eating a tiny bit too much everyday.

It's more for a mental break than anything else. The only problem is if you have a cheat day, try to still track your calories roughly and don't super over-eat, just go lax for a bit on your diet and have some junk food w/e. If it's a cheat meal you have more freedom, eat whatever you want as long as it's in one sitting was what I did for my first cut [editline]12th May 2016[/editline] a cheat day, if you don't control it a little, can fuck up your whole week of dieting, but a cheat meal I very much doubt will.

Even on a cheat day ill go no more than 400-500 calories above my bmr

It could be a mobility thing, I dont stretch nearly as much as I used to, just 10 mins of foam rolling before I lift and thats it. Then again the pain isnt that kind of tendon pain I get in my shoulders and elbows and sometimes knees, its more of a deep dull pain inside the joint.

[QUOTE=PredGD;50302905]what do you guys do when you start failing, time after time, to keep the calories in check? ever since February, progress has been very slow. I'm not able to handle the temptation of food like I used to. I still need to lose another 5kg and ideally it should be gone already by next month. I have lost 5kg/month before so I know it's possible, but then again I was also a lot heavier back then. probably easier to shed. spent the first two months losing 10kg, and the last five months I've "only" managed to lose another 10kg. [/QUOTE] Just think through the food, what is the point of eating junk food? It's not nutritious, it doesn't bring you anything after you eat it, you're just gonna shit it out. You're going to feel like shit after eating it because you know you've let yourself down. So what do you want more? That food for a few seconds and the taste? Or the feeling of being comfortable with your own body, day in and day out? I read this and it's changed my whole mentality of food, at the end of the day there's no secret trick. It's all discipline. If you can structure your mind to think this way it will become easier. Another user in the thread used the term "Think through the snack." Which I think is honestly great, think about it before you eat it and the repercussions it will bring. [quote]tl;dr: junk food is temporary, it may taste good at first, but then it disappears forever, leaving nothing but depression in its wake. To conquer it, all you have to do is take a moment to think how depressed you will feel after eating it. From about the age of 7 to 14 I'd been self conscious. I was a pretty fat kid and it stayed like that until I was 15. After hitting around 80kg at 15 I attempted for maybe the hundredth time in 7 years to loose weight. I used an app (myfitnesspal) to count my calories and forced myself to exercise every week. I had a massive problem straight up. I couldn't stop eating. Being in a family that brings home deserts almost every day (my family were a lot skinnier then me, mainly because I didn't do any sport), it was difficult to stop eating bad food. Then I asked myself a question What is the point of desert? Why do we want to eat junk food? You could say the answer is because of pleasure. You eat a chocolate, it tastes good while your eating it. But then you get depressed because of breaking your diet. So how could it possibly be pleasurable? All you have done is made yourself feel guilty... that's not fun. Eating food is temporary. It may taste good or bad while it lasts but that brief moment when you are eating it doesn't impact your mood directly after eating it. All you are doing is making your current self happy and your future self depressed. If your future self was your best friend or your beloved wife you wouldn't ever eat junk food. It's like pressing a big red button that provides you with happiness but drains happiness from yourself in the future. Why on earth would you ever press that button? If you're feeling sad, yeah you might, but knowing that its going to make you sad later on? whats the point? its just prolonging the inevitable. Junk food is nothing but a drug that we are hardwired to eat. We see junk food, we lunge at it, gobble it down then hate our self afterwards. How pathetic is that? We crave food that makes us depressed, if there's a bowl of chips in front of us, we without knowing it, grab a handful, and eat it. We don't even register the pleasure, we're just doing it because we're programmed to think 'Oh look, a chip, chips taste good, lets eat the chip', without even considering how it may impact later on. I bet if you knew that poison tastes good you'll go 'Oh look poison, poison tastes good, lets drink the poison'. You're so hell bent on providing yourself with this background euphoria that you don't even consider how it affects you. It's utterly pathetic. So next time someone puts a bowl of chips on the table, and your mind does the thing 'Oh look, a chip, chips taste good, lets eat the chip', Stop, just for one second. Let your mind add in the extra detail that everyone completely ignores 'Oh look a chip, chips taste good, but chips are going to make me depressed, lets not eat the chip'[/quote] [URL]https://www.reddit.com/r/getdisciplined/comments/21i73d/how_i_learnt_to_conquer_food_and_lost_10kg/[/URL]

Do people really think that making healthy food taste good is that difficult?

It's less making healthy food taste good and more that some junk food tastes fucking incredible (to some people, I know people who just don't care for any of it), and if you want to eat it fine just make sure you can moderate yourself, you can still lose as much weight as you want really. Yeah junk food is instant gratification, but sometimes you can afford that if you want it

It's very difficult to get in the zone of not eating the bad stuff, and very easy to get out of it. Currently definitely out of it, oughta start doing something about it since I've climbed back to the over 100 kg mode despite all intentions being getting down to 85 kgs. At best I made it down to 97ish this year (with 89 kgs being the best I've ever been, a couple years back). Still a whole lotta better than the 123,3 kgs I started with back in 2010 but still.

[QUOTE=Biotoxsin;50306047]Do people really think that making healthy food taste good is that difficult?[/QUOTE] If they've never had it, they wouldn't know. I can't fault people for that.

[QUOTE=Lone Wolf807;50305959]Just think through the food, what is the point of eating junk food? It's not nutritious, it doesn't bring you anything after you eat it, you're just gonna shit it out. You're going to feel like shit after eating it because you know you've let yourself down. So what do you want more? That food for a few seconds and the taste? Or the feeling of being comfortable with your own body, day in and day out? I read this and it's changed my whole mentality of food, at the end of the day there's no secret trick. It's all discipline. If you can structure your mind to think this way it will become easier. Another user in the thread used the term "Think through the snack." Which I think is honestly great, think about it before you eat it and the repercussions it will bring. [URL]https://www.reddit.com/r/getdisciplined/comments/21i73d/how_i_learnt_to_conquer_food_and_lost_10kg/[/URL][/QUOTE] the way this guy worded it makes me look at food in a different way for sure. I never really give much thought to what I eat most of the time much like he describes, but actually putting thought into it seems to help a little. I know I'll feel like shit, but that thought is never present prior or when I'm eating food. decided to use this thinking when I was out earlier, saw some chocolate that tempted but gave it a second thought and I was able to get by. then again I've also smoked like crazy today so I imagine the temptation for food is much easier to handle. [QUOTE=Biotoxsin;50306047]Do people really think that making healthy food taste good is that difficult?[/QUOTE] not only that, but fun too! unfortunately it's also something that is tiring to do everyday, at least I find it to, so it's much easier to just order something, get a frozen pizza or microwave some microwave food. had a pretty sweet moment today as well! I was actually gonna go shop for some new summer clothes this morning but I wasn't able to wake up which was a bummer. luckily for me, I was meeting a friend and she just decided that we were going to town anyway so I got to do my shopping. I have had this thought for a while but I never actually did it, and that was to get medium sized clothes instead of large. and, it fits! no wonder I've had struggles finding clothes that fit in the past as I've always gone for large which I've bought my entire life. the thought that I, a person who has bought L and XL my entire life, is buying M? pretty nice!

Hey guys, I had some questions I hoped y'all could answer. Some info would probably help you out though, I plan on continuing the keto diet I've just decided to take it more seriously now. I'm 18 years old, 5'8" and 220lbs. I've lost 11lbs in the last month. Currently I do a 5 day "bro-split" (chest/back/shoulders/legs/arms) and I throw in 30 minutes of cardio after every workout. 1. I have none of the available options to measure my body fat so I estimated mine at around 29% using [URL="http://ketogains.com/2015/09/how-to-estimate-your-body-fat-percentage-bf/"]this[/URL]. Is this accurate? I know you can't see me, but I mean are the pictures accurate? I look a lot like the guy in the 25%-29% range but being paranoid I estimated the highest BF% out of the range given. I assume [URL="http://imgur.com/a/D8hWZ"]pictures of me[/URL] will help you guys with an answer to this! These are the most recent pictures I have. 2. When it comes to lifting regiments, according to a lot of people, my "brosplit" is not the most effective. However, I enjoy going to the gym more than just the three days asked for in most starting programs such as SS/SL and the works. On these three days splits can I add cardio on one of the three days? Finally, can I do cardio on off days during these programs? For example, does it have to be like this: Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday Lift-Cardio | Off day | Lift-Cardio | Off day | Lift-Cardio | Off day | Off day or can I do it like this: Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday Lift-Cardio | Cardio | Lift-Cardio | Cardio | Lift-Cardio | Off day | Off day If not, are there any beginner's programs that include more than 3 days? I'm interested in maximum fat loss and the moment but I definitely want to keep/build some muscle. 3. Regarding supplements I currently take a couple. I take 500mg of Niacin, along with a One-A-Day multivitamin every morning before breakfast. At night before bed I take three capsules of ZMA on-top of 15mg of Melatonin and another 500mg of Niacin. I've wanted to throw in a pre-workout. What would be some alternative pre-workouts? I was looking at ESP Pre-workout but now I'm weary. Someone also recommended creatine. 4. Is intermittent fasting worth it? I've heard good things, but does it actually do anything? 5. Last question, I promise. With my stats (200lbs, 29%BF, 5'8" and 18 years old) are the macros I set-up going to work and do what they're supposed to do? I have: 156g of protein a day, 25g of carbs a day, and 101g of fat a day. I'm doing keto so I'm keeping my carbs at or lower than 25g of carbs, but does everything else seem okay? Thanks in advance, and sorry for a lot of questions.

I eat tons of junk food, but I cardio every day. [editline]13th May 2016[/editline] I still make sure to balance my diet, the junk food is in addition to a balanced diet. [editline]13th May 2016[/editline] If you want to do lots of cardio don't go past where your core gives way, back often starts to hurt a little here. Call it a day at that point, strengthen your core if you want to do cardio for longer. If you go for more than an hour(probably won't unless you are cycling) eat some carbs for each hour, drink water throughout. If you don't have time, intervals burn way more calories in a shorter duration. But they're a lot harder and workout your muscles more, so a lack of recovery can be an issue.

[QUOTE=Exigent;50310124]Hey guys, I had some questions I hoped y'all could answer. Some info would probably help you out though, I plan on continuing the keto diet I've just decided to take it more seriously now. I'm 18 years old, 5'8" and 220lbs. I've lost 11lbs in the last month. Currently I do a 5 day "bro-split" (chest/back/shoulders/legs/arms) and I throw in 30 minutes of cardio after every workout. 1. I have none of the available options to measure my body fat so I estimated mine at around 29% using [URL="http://ketogains.com/2015/09/how-to-estimate-your-body-fat-percentage-bf/"]this[/URL]. Is this accurate? I know you can't see me, but I mean are the pictures accurate? I look a lot like the guy in the 25%-29% range but being paranoid I estimated the highest BF% out of the range given. I assume [URL="http://imgur.com/a/D8hWZ"]pictures of me[/URL] will help you guys with an answer to this! These are the most recent pictures I have. 2. When it comes to lifting regiments, according to a lot of people, my "brosplit" is not the most effective. However, I enjoy going to the gym more than just the three days asked for in most starting programs such as SS/SL and the works. On these three days splits can I add cardio on one of the three days? Finally, can I do cardio on off days during these programs? For example, does it have to be like this: Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday Lift-Cardio | Off day | Lift-Cardio | Off day | Lift-Cardio | Off day | Off day or can I do it like this: Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday Lift-Cardio | Cardio | Lift-Cardio | Cardio | Lift-Cardio | Off day | Off day If not, are there any beginner's programs that include more than 3 days? I'm interested in maximum fat loss and the moment but I definitely want to keep/build some muscle. 3. Regarding supplements I currently take a couple. I take 500mg of Niacin, along with a One-A-Day multivitamin every morning before breakfast. At night before bed I take three capsules of ZMA on-top of 15mg of Melatonin and another 500mg of Niacin. I've wanted to throw in a pre-workout. What would be some alternative pre-workouts? I was looking at ESP Pre-workout but now I'm weary. Someone also recommended creatine. 4. Is intermittent fasting worth it? I've heard good things, but does it actually do anything? 5. Last question, I promise. With my stats (200lbs, 29%BF, 5'8" and 18 years old) are the macros I set-up going to work and do what they're supposed to do? I have: 156g of protein a day, 25g of carbs a day, and 101g of fat a day. I'm doing keto so I'm keeping my carbs at or lower than 25g of carbs, but does everything else seem okay? Thanks in advance, and sorry for a lot of questions.[/QUOTE] I'll try to answer what I can: 2. Even though your brosplit might not be the most efficient to increase your lifting, it certainly works. Contrary to what people think you can train once a week for 30 minutes and still get results, it would just take longer. If you feel comfortable with your program I think you should stick to it, it's a good program. About the cardio on rest days thing, your rest day =//= doing nothing. You can still go for walks and stuff, the important thing is that you don't exert yourself like when you're training because your tissues need time to recover. A good mindset to have is that you shouldn't do anything that feels tough, just move around and enjoy what you are doing. If for example you are walking, don't feel the need to walk overly briskly, you will lose calories anyway if you keep it up for an extended period of time. I go for a 30 min walk on my rest days but you have to find what works for you. 3. I'm in no way an expert on supplements but it seems to me that you are taking an unnecessary amount of them, it can take it's toll on your liver and other organs. You probably don't need any supplements at all but don't take my word for it because I'm not sure what keto is. Creatine makes your muscles look a little bigger and improves performance a little bit but it seems to me that you should focus more on losing weight and less on lifting the heaviest stuff you can so in your case it would be redundant. You are in the golden age when it comes to changing your body so make sure you lose the excess weight now, it's easier to build muscle than to lose weight when you are older.

[QUOTE=Exigent;50310124]Hey guys, I had some questions I hoped y'all could answer. Some info would probably help you out though, I plan on continuing the keto diet I've just decided to take it more seriously now. I'm 18 years old, 5'8" and 220lbs. I've lost 11lbs in the last month. Currently I do a 5 day "bro-split" (chest/back/shoulders/legs/arms) and I throw in 30 minutes of cardio after every workout. 1. I have none of the available options to measure my body fat so I estimated mine at around 29% using [URL="http://ketogains.com/2015/09/how-to-estimate-your-body-fat-percentage-bf/"]this[/URL]. Is this accurate? I know you can't see me, but I mean are the pictures accurate? I look a lot like the guy in the 25%-29% range but being paranoid I estimated the highest BF% out of the range given. I assume [URL="http://imgur.com/a/D8hWZ"]pictures of me[/URL] will help you guys with an answer to this! These are the most recent pictures I have. 2. When it comes to lifting regiments, according to a lot of people, my "brosplit" is not the most effective. However, I enjoy going to the gym more than just the three days asked for in most starting programs such as SS/SL and the works. On these three days splits can I add cardio on one of the three days? Finally, can I do cardio on off days during these programs? For example, does it have to be like this: Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday Lift-Cardio | Off day | Lift-Cardio | Off day | Lift-Cardio | Off day | Off day or can I do it like this: Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday Lift-Cardio | Cardio | Lift-Cardio | Cardio | Lift-Cardio | Off day | Off day If not, are there any beginner's programs that include more than 3 days? I'm interested in maximum fat loss and the moment but I definitely want to keep/build some muscle. 3. Regarding supplements I currently take a couple. I take 500mg of Niacin, along with a One-A-Day multivitamin every morning before breakfast. At night before bed I take three capsules of ZMA on-top of 15mg of Melatonin and another 500mg of Niacin. I've wanted to throw in a pre-workout. What would be some alternative pre-workouts? I was looking at ESP Pre-workout but now I'm weary. Someone also recommended creatine. 4. Is intermittent fasting worth it? I've heard good things, but does it actually do anything? 5. Last question, I promise. With my stats (200lbs, 29%BF, 5'8" and 18 years old) are the macros I set-up going to work and do what they're supposed to do? I have: 156g of protein a day, 25g of carbs a day, and 101g of fat a day. I'm doing keto so I'm keeping my carbs at or lower than 25g of carbs, but does everything else seem okay? Thanks in advance, and sorry for a lot of questions.[/QUOTE] 1. We're very close in stats atm, I would put you around that range too. Good job on the weight loss btw 2. Eh brosplits are fine, just make sure you're doing the big 3 - squat on leg day, deadlift on back day and bench on chest day. If you really want it's not too hard to make a compound lift focused program that runs across 5 days, so just let me know. Also if you don't do the big 3 already make sure you get the form down first 3. How long have you been training for? I wouldn't recommend pre-workouts simply because you get resistant to them and after a while they start costing a decent amount of cash. If you still want one, most people I know take Mr Hyde, cellucor is pretty good I think and optimum nutrition never really fails in the supplement department. If you want something strong nigh everyone I know who has taken psychotic has said it's one of the strongest they've had, but wouldn't recommend it as your first. I wouldn't say bother with creatine, all it does is make you a little stronger maybe, not really worth it at all. I didn't see any difference when I used it so I just stopped. 4. Not sure if it does anything but just stick to counting your calories for now and you'll be fine, no need to worry about that stuff 5. Protein seems fine, I'm not one for managing macros besides protein much though so I can't comment on the fat and the carbs

Thinking of starting a cycle/blast and cruise after my 20th birthday (would mark around 3 years of proper training) which is coming up in a couple months, gonna research and ask for advice everywhere before I do but I'm kind of keen, just not fully set on it yet. Happy with how much I've done so far, but I'm getting bigger a LOT slower at my height atm, just need to get a little leaner. Want to reach ~140 kg at a slightly better condition than I am now and I'll be happy, though that's only my goal in the next 10-20 years, and only if I do hop on and gradually increase. I know Maverick you used to take, what was your experience? If anyone else used to/is on atm would appreciate any advice you could give. Going to read that one massive post soon too [editline]15th May 2016[/editline] Also I get that 20 is pretty young, just right now for the past year or so keeping the training up I've seen minimal size gains which is what I'm focused on (strength too of course). The strength gainage has been alright it's the size that has stagnated, have tried changing my diet and done different exercises/programs etc but it's kept at more or less the same. Plus I know 140 ""lean"" at my height is not achievable natty, and it'll be quite a goal of mine. Also as I said I can still easily be convinced against it, just want opinions and research atm

Why is it not achievable to be 140kg and lean without steroids?? That makes no sense.

I'm 5'8", 140 kg lean, even the level of lean I'm talking about which is not conventionally lean at all, is just simply not possible unless you're an unprecedented genetic freak, like those cows that have excess muscle growth and in which case would have showcased that growth by now. Your body just doesn't produce enough hormones to sustain that muscle mass. To be honest 140 is pushing it for lean even on gear at this height but it's some sort of a goal

140kg and anything other than morbidly obese is insane, even with roids/ freak genetics thats asking a lot.

[QUOTE=SpaceGhost;50326818]Why is it not achievable to be 140kg and lean without steroids?? That makes no sense.[/QUOTE] It might be possible if you are like 6.5 with perfect genetics for putting on lean mass but I don't think you realize how many of the big guys you see at gyms that are juicing, it's very common. [editline]15th May 2016[/editline] 6.5 is probably to short actually, maybe 6.8.

[QUOTE=cathal6606;50327576]140kg and anything other than morbidly obese is insane, even with roids/ freak genetics thats asking a lot.[/QUOTE] Yeah, was watching under construction 2 and he reached ~190 at 185cm on insane dosages and food, so I thought an ultimate goal (many years/decades into the future) if I do decide to use would be something around 140 at ~the same bf I'm at, due to the fact I'm about 10 cm shorter than him. Would recommend the two films btw, really cool to watch and the guy is a freak.

[QUOTE=cathal6606;50327576]140kg and anything other than morbidly obese is insane, even with roids/ freak genetics thats asking a lot.[/QUOTE] At around 6'0 you can push ~200lbs lean mass naturally. Anything else is going to be fat. Drugs can do some crazy things, but at 5'8" you'd look stupid big at 300lbs if that were possible. How lean do you guys consider to be lean?