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

It depends on how long you've been lifting too, if you've been at it a while you can get away with training the same movement patterns several days in a row. Also was too hungover to lift today, I've had a total of 2 days in the last week where I wasnt drinking. Gonna get up early tomorrow and go to they gym, then try go again in the evening to make up for it.

I think it was more because of lack of motivation from his description. There are times when I just dont feel like lifting, distracted and not really caring about making the whole workout. Id feel weak and unmotivated and drop after an exercise or so. Its just different, how you feel can impact your lifting too. I also remember getting a booty call from a new girl during resting time, I popped the next set like it was feathers when I was previously doing it slowly

I'm starting out going to a gym soon. My brother recommended it to me as a way to work out some serious anxiety issues I've been going through lately. It's more than about time, too. I can probably swing 2-3 days a week, and I'll be walking there and back (which is a 5km walk that I do basically every day). I'm wondering how I should plan this though - how should I balance cardio + strength training? I'm not looking to try and get myself to any crazy level of fitness, just reasonably healthy and physically capable. I'm in decent shape and reasonably strong to begin with, but I could probably stand to lose a little bit of weight and my stamina is trash. Suggestions?

[QUOTE=Mr. Bleak;47260810]When I lived in Washington, they were selling something like 10 pounds of unflavored whey protein powder for $80 at Costco. Shit was unreal, shame I didn't have a Costco card.[/QUOTE] Lol doesn't sound that amazing of a deal unless it was isolate I get 5lbs of flavored whey concentrate from vitamin shoppe for $40 and it doesn't have tax/shipping costs. Don't be fooled by the "17g of protein per serving" - it has 94 servings, they just made the scoop smaller to make their more expensive isolate a more attractive buy. AFAIK its the same price all around the country too [editline]6th March 2015[/editline] [QUOTE=Antdawg;47255375]I wish I could afford to have a chicken breast every day as part of my bulk but damn is that shit expensive. Like, $3 per chicken breast is the best I can get here. That doesn't sound [i]that[/i] bad, but I mean that's $21 per week, and living by myself and working a job where I pack shelves and collect trolleys it's kinda hard to fit it in there. I'm stepping up my bulking game anyways, adding two bowls of oats with full cream milk to my diet each day. Anyone have any tips on how to make plain oats taste better (would mixing protein shake in it be a good idea?) [editline]4th March 2015[/editline] Fuck it $21 doesn't sound that bad[/QUOTE] When I was bulking (fuck I do it on my cut too) I had one cup of oats in the morning, a scoop of protein powder that was chocolate flavor, and a big glob of peanut butter mixed in with water (I should try milk next time though). Paired it with 4 eggs cooked in olive oil The oats taste fucking delicious with PB+choco protein powder and as a bonus plenty of protein too (40-45g total for the oat bowl?).

[QUOTE=AtomicWaffle;47268517]I'm starting out going to a gym soon. My brother recommended it to me as a way to work out some serious anxiety issues I've been going through lately. It's more than about time, too. I can probably swing 2-3 days a week, and I'll be walking there and back (which is a 5km walk that I do basically every day). I'm wondering how I should plan this though - how should I balance cardio + strength training? I'm not looking to try and get myself to any crazy level of fitness, just reasonably healthy and physically capable. I'm in decent shape and reasonably strong to begin with, but I could probably stand to lose a little bit of weight and my stamina is trash. Suggestions?[/QUOTE] If you've not done any lifting before and just wanting to be stronger, I'd start with a bare basics strength programme like Starting Strength or Stronglifts. The main thing you'll improve is strength, you'll get some muscle but you won't get jacked. Takes about 40-60 mins, three times a week. I've only been doing Stronglifts about 2 weeks but I enjoy going to the gym and feel great after so I'm sure it'll help with your anxiety: [URL]http://stronglifts.com/5x5/[/URL] The writer does talk some shit from time to time but it's pretty solid for beginners. On your off days or afterwards you can always throw some cardio in for however long you wish. Just make sure to eat enough if you're going to do strength training.

[QUOTE=AtomicWaffle;47268517]I'm starting out going to a gym soon. My brother recommended it to me as a way to work out some serious anxiety issues I've been going through lately. It's more than about time, too. I can probably swing 2-3 days a week, and I'll be walking there and back (which is a 5km walk that I do basically every day). I'm wondering how I should plan this though - how should I balance cardio + strength training? I'm not looking to try and get myself to any crazy level of fitness, just reasonably healthy and physically capable. I'm in decent shape and reasonably strong to begin with, but I could probably stand to lose a little bit of weight and my stamina is trash. Suggestions?[/QUOTE] You should establish concrete goals. How heavy are you now? How defined are you? What would you estimate is your current BF% (look up guides on how to do this easily at home with a rough estimate)? If you don't have a lot of fat generally you'd want to go straight into bulking. This means focusing your workouts on strength training over cardio/athletic conditioning. Your figure will improve much more from muscle gain than it would from fat loss, especially if you are already gonna be walking 5km round trip to the gym which is already burning calories for you. Keep in mind if you bulk, you need to eat plenty. If you bulk and do cardio your endurance will improve but you need to eat even more to get over the calorie loss you got from cardio (the 5KM walk counts as a form of light cardio by the way - a great way to up the intensity is incorporate the walk back as a run). If you want to cut fat, then you still want to strength train some but you'll be concerned with doing cardio as well. Since you are concerned about endurance, look into athletic conditioning exercises and stuff like HIIT cardio which do a great job of building endurance. Keep in mind Cardio isn't necessary for building a figure at all - it is a common misconception that it "burns fat". It does not - it simply works out your cardiovascular system (the heart) and helps with burning calories. It doesn't even burn the most calories necessarily - an intense weight lifting session has been proven to burn just as much if not more calories than a cardio session. Cardio's benefit is that its a really easy and quick way to burn calories in short bursts of time, pretty much. The other obvious benefit is that if you want good endurance you need to do cardio and exercises like conditioning which are basically cardio-ified weight training. Cardio is excellent to do because everyone could use a strong heart and endurance. It also helps you get more "awake" and there is great benefit to having your blood pumping through your system (sweet sweet cardio highs mang). A lot of the "exercise helps with mood!" studies stem from cardio too. Just keep in mind you know what you do when you do cardio - you help your endurance/cardiovascular system, and you burn extra calories quickly/easily (requiring you to eat more when you bulk). [editline]6th March 2015[/editline] A good routine for someone who feel like they have a decent figure muscle wise and really wants to up their endurance and athleticism should look into West Side for Skinny Bastards (the latest one, I think it is part 3?). It incorporates weight training which builds strength, but also has a high focus on increasing your practical endurance. Its the kind of program you would do if you played a sport and wanted to train off season to keep your endurance up or build it up. [editline]6th March 2015[/editline] Also it should be mentioned 80% of your figure is your diet. You will never build muscle or lose fat if your diet is crap/not monitored.

Was able to sneak in a Friday afternoon lift today since work let me go around 11:30 instead of the usual 1pm. They didn't want to fuck up payroll since I took someone else's shift for tomorrow. First time in a while since I've been able to hit the gym on friday. Also been a while since I last snatched before today. I still got it down! This week has been pretty fun. Saw John 5 last night ([B][I]amazing[/I][/B]) and this cool hippie jamband Consider the Source (also amazing) up in Burlington, VT. Gonna get through class tonight like a boss since I'm all calm and shit from lifting and what not. Also nice not having to sit around at school for 3-4hrs waiting for class, only to sit another 4hrs in front of a computer.

i think i have been relying too much on the mixed grip for deadlifting. could barley get more than half of my max when i went back to the standard grip.

Do you guys deadlift Sumo or Conventional?

friend just texted me that he signed up for crossfit. Grilled him on it and it said he did it because he keeps skipping his own workouts to come to the gym enough, so if he's spending money serious money on a "real program" he feels obligated to go lol (currently he bums off his friends memebership to LA fitness for free) What is funny is that he's fucking got great form from videos he's showed me during him trying out a stronglifts routine. Dude is just so lazy and and sloppy with consistency that he never shows up or sees results then complains about it (while downing a huge amount of soda) :\ Hopefully crossfit will teach him discipline at least. I hear its not so bad if your trainer isn't shit, even if its just glorified expensive aerobics.

[QUOTE=NotMeh;47272393]Do you guys deadlift Sumo or Conventional?[/QUOTE] conventional, with legs just inside shoulder width [QUOTE=KorJax;47272903]I hear its not so bad if your trainer isn't shit, even if its just glorified expensive aerobics.[/QUOTE] it really isn't so bad. its just that the focus is much more on cardiovascular endurance than your regular lifting in the gym. it's really all about what your goals are; whether you are looking to build cardio or put on mass are two entirely different things. therefore you aren't going to find a lot of jacked dudes who do crossfit and havent done bodybuilding/powerlifting in the past.

Crossfit seems to have become bastardized now and people who run training businesses tend to use that term rather loosely.

I've heard [I]crosstraining[/I] is officially what you would call that type of workout, where as CrossFit is what the brand name is for the company that owns the gyms essentially. Also heard, despite its typical shittyness, it is one of the best things for olympic weightlifting in the US since it helps popularize the lifts and competing. I dunno if I really believe/agree with that, but I guess I don't know what else would make people here interested really.

Just learned that the same friend (who is on his last year of uni) turned down a job offer for $52k salary because he wanted to finish uni first :P.. really? I mean maybe it will pay off in the long run but you can always finish uni later. A solid job offer is ace, I'd take that in a heartbeat since work experience > uni

[QUOTE=KorJax;47273806]Just learned that the same friend (who is on his last year of uni) turned down a job offer for $52k salary because he wanted to finish uni first :P.. really? I mean maybe it will pay off in the long run but you can always finish uni later. A solid job offer is ace, I'd take that in a heartbeat since work experience > uni[/QUOTE] Who knows. He might get a job offer for $70k elsewhere because he does have a degree, straight after graduation. In today's labour market I think a degree is more important than ever before. But that might just be me justifying six years of study to get a double Bachelors degree, chartered accounting accredition and maybe even Honours. Work experience is good but everyone who's ever worked has work experience. Not everyone has a degree. Many professions, like in law, require you to have a degree.

[QUOTE=KorJax;47273806]Just learned that the same friend (who is on his last year of uni) turned down a job offer for $52k salary because he wanted to finish uni first :P.. really? I mean maybe it will pay off in the long run but you can always finish uni later. A solid job offer is ace, I'd take that in a heartbeat since work experience > uni[/QUOTE] Depending on what degree he's studying, he could be offered a much higher salary right off the bat. I'm doing Mechanical Engineering, and our job prospects are like 98% after graduating, and it comes with a decent starting salary of 28,000 GBP, and I can work my way up the career path of my choice. I'd prefer to do that then drop out of uni, take up a job, only to drop out of that to finish uni again and start at the bottom of the career ladder.

So here's something I've been wondering about Is there much harm in diet soft drink when on a bulk? It's just that I noticed with a 1.25L bottle of diet cola that it only had 20kJ/5 calories in total, and like only 2g of carbs (not even sugar though so no idea where the carbs come from). Now obviously I'm not proposing living off of the stuff, even if it was cheap, but is there any harm? Like in one of the ingredients fucking with the body in the wrong way? Because surely it can't just be soda water with added flavouring. [editline]8th March 2015[/editline] Will admit work made me heaps thirsty and so I kinda bought that bottle and drank half of it on the way home oops

I don't get the appeal of soda, I've never been a huge fan of it. It's just pointless crap being put into your body. I'd rather buy a smoothie or a juice or something (I know they can be just as bad but I don't get em that much). Nothing beats water imo Diet soda IIRC is worse for you than regular soda cause of all the chemicals they put in it to make it taste sweet. Having it every now and then won't hurt, but chugging almost 700ml of it ain't gonna do you any favours.

Yeah it was kinda impulsive. I couldn't help it. I work in retail and I pack the soft drink aisle at my work, was towards the end of my shift, after 9 hours, I guess I just got heaps thirsty and well you can imagine what being surrounded by soft drinks will do. Despite being surrounded by them every time I work, this was like a once per month thing if even that. I rarely buy soft drink and I despise of the idea of living off of it. I'm kinda like Ron Swanson about govt in parks and rec about it, without the attempt to sabotage it at every opportunity.

[QUOTE=Antdawg;47274945]So here's something I've been wondering about Is there much harm in diet soft drink when on a bulk? It's just that I noticed with a 1.25L bottle of diet cola that it only had 20kJ/5 calories in total, and like only 2g of carbs (not even sugar though so no idea where the carbs come from). Now obviously I'm not proposing living off of the stuff, even if it was cheap, but is there any harm? Like in one of the ingredients fucking with the body in the wrong way? Because surely it can't just be soda water with added flavouring. [editline]8th March 2015[/editline] Will admit work made me heaps thirsty and so I kinda bought that bottle and drank half of it on the way home oops[/QUOTE] Diet soda is totally fine Aspertame hasn't really been proven at all to have a huge problem, the best evidence out there against it is that it can theoretically trick your brain into thinking it is getting sugar but it isn't so you spike your insulin levels, leading to diabetes in the long term. But it turns out that it probably isn't true anyways, and you pretty much would have to do it in extreme excess to get that to theoretically happen. Like, you'd literally have to be binge drinking diet soda every day for that to be a concern (a bunch of 2L's a day in your regular diet for example). Normal soda by the way is "fine" too, it won't kill your gains. The worst thing about normal soda is that its a total garbage calorie and a lot of it. Its one of those things where if I want to hit my *ideal* macro goals for the day then there just isn't room for 200-300 calories of pure sugar [editline]7th March 2015[/editline] [QUOTE=loopoo;47274986]I don't get the appeal of soda, I've never been a huge fan of it. It's just pointless crap being put into your body. I'd rather buy a smoothie or a juice or something (I know they can be just as bad but I don't get em that much). Nothing beats water imo Diet soda IIRC is worse for you than regular soda cause of all the chemicals they put in it to make it taste sweet. Having it every now and then won't hurt, but chugging almost 700ml of it ain't gonna do you any favours.[/QUOTE] Diet soda gets the stigma that it is worse than regular soda from the same BS watchdog groups that is currently convincing parents that vaccines are bad because ~artificial~ [url]http://examine.com/faq/is-diet-soda-bad-for-you.html[/url] TL;DR all the correlations between diet soda being bad for you are because by and large the diet soda drinking audience aren't the kind of audience to eat a controlled diet, they are the kind of people who try and make a shitty diet slightly better with diet soda. Or they drink diet and then go "Oh I can afford to eat that cake now!!" If you have diet soda and you are also in control of your diet (you aren't drinking diet soda to make up for a shitty diet or thinking you now have a free pass at eating what you want because diet soda let you) its totally fine

Well I have found one side effect: the caffeine. 3AM almost and I can't sleep [editline]8th March 2015[/editline] Not even a wank could put me to sleep help

caffeine's the only real issue, and the withdrawl that comes when you decide you want to give it up

The struggle to quit smoking cigarettes again has been a pain and my lungs feel it when I'm doing heavy squats and shit, so I've decided to try e-cigarettes out. Hope they don't fuck me as much. Chest tris and shoulders today boyos, and since I go around 5 PM the gyms gonna be dead. Bench and cable crossovers for days tonight

[QUOTE=KorJax;47273806]Just learned that the same friend (who is on his last year of uni) turned down a job offer for $52k salary because he wanted to finish uni first :P.. really? I mean maybe it will pay off in the long run but you can always finish uni later. A solid job offer is ace, I'd take that in a heartbeat since work experience > uni[/QUOTE] The problem is that job experience has a soft cap of employment you can get, unless you're just fucking incredible at it. A uni degree expands your reaches and allows you to get upwards of 60-70k if you're in the STEM/Law/Business field(not sure about others though). I have a few friends who worked in the tech industry for 5-6 years but couldn't see their pay going above 60k, which is relatively small for the San Francisco area(1 bedroom rent is like 3k for fucks sake). Getting a degree opens your connections and options into the +90k bracket.

I have shit for education and no money to get any so I'll have to find a way to live on a minimum mcdonal wage job, umad. i anit gona make it

Feel bad for me I'm studying graphic design (cuz fuck you art is awesome) gunna be a starving [amazing] artist help me OH GOD

studying web design/computer science, so painful but so worth

Ok dudes need help here. I've been going about my calorie counting based off of my diet from when I was cutting. Not saying that I've stuck to that diet, but I made what I thought were sensible tweaks but I didn't calculate them. Until now. In short, I'm only ingesting 3000 calories per day (should probably try for 500-1000 more) but getting like >200 grams of protein per day, when I only really need to be at around 150-160 grams. So any ideas on foods or supplements that are cheap, with plenty of fats and complex carbs, and hella calorie dense? Preferably with little to no protein? [editline]8th March 2015[/editline] Maybe I spoke too soon. 3000 calories might be reasonable. It's just that work is effectively cardio I do 20-30 hours every week. Still, ideas would be sweet (just for the record I'm 72kg, 6 foot 4 and 20 years old).

Went to a new gym today! [url]http://www.pumphouseathleticclub.com/[/url] Nice facility, owner is a pro female physique or something competitor, smoking hot and serious about lifting. Whole gym is layed out really well, just enough of everything, getting use to the different layout is a fun change. Felt SOOOOO good to finally get "back in the saddle" felt like i was turning into a fat lazy sack of shit, hour in I was feeling tired and concerned about how much my health had deteriorated (this is 4 days for f-sakes!) and by the end I felt on top of the world! The 4 days was just so I could get settle in with work and adapt to sleeping 5-6 hours as apposed to my usual 10-12 and waking up late. Biggest thing right now is figuring out food, hard not having a stove/oven or even a toaster but im getting the hang of it slowly. /blogpunch [editline]7th March 2015[/editline] Man why the heck is everyone 6'4 in here. I'd love to help but I gotta go to bed!

bought tickets for a beach festival. guess im not gonna try and bulk up after all. worst part about tattoos is that they put me out of business for a week. fuck