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

I've been doing this routine for about 2 weeks, eating hefty amounts of chicken & carbs, but I thought i'd check with you guys if I should add/omit anything. I would be doing Rippetoe's starting strength, but I am a poor uni student with access only to 20KG Dumbells. I hope to get a Barbell & Bench soon but I think a bench is a long time coming. Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday/Friday 1x15, 3x10 Dumbell Squats (10kg each) 1x20, 3x10 Dumbell Curls (5kg each) 2 Minute Plank 20x3 Tricep Dips 3x20 Crunches 3x20 Pushups from bed (Close Grip) 1x20, 3x10 Overhead Press (5kg each) Thoughts? Retarded? Decent? I thought it'd help to see what you guys thought.

Ugh, I just started doing hill sprints on the hill near my house, and now I think I strained my hip flexor and now it hurts going up stairs or lifting my leg in general. It's making me skip leg day, too. :( Guess I gotta start warming up and foam rolling more.

[QUOTE=myalt22;47304057]I've been doing this routine for about 2 weeks, eating hefty amounts of chicken & carbs, but I thought i'd check with you guys if I should add/omit anything. I would be doing Rippetoe's starting strength, but I am a poor uni student with access only to 20KG Dumbells. I hope to get a Barbell & Bench soon but I think a bench is a long time coming. Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday/Friday 1x15, 3x10 Dumbell Squats (10kg each) 1x20, 3x10 Dumbell Curls (5kg each) 2 Minute Plank 20x3 Tricep Dips 3x20 Crunches 3x20 Pushups from bed (Close Grip) 1x20, 3x10 Overhead Press (5kg each) Thoughts? Retarded? Decent? I thought it'd help to see what you guys thought.[/QUOTE] How hard is it? Generally speaking assuming it is easy for you to do all that (which it looks like it is, except the fact that it is time consuming) you really aren't doing anything but light cardio essentially With exception to the bodyweight stuff, but the bodyweight stuff is only effective at building strength and size if its a decent challenge to do 15-20 or less for one set (and therefore push your limits on the third set). Most people stop progressing on the benefits of bodyweight exercises once they can do that, and lifting [I]actual[/I] weights available at the gym will get you there much quicker generally. You are in a uni, you should have access to a university gym Uni gyms suck because its swamped with people all the time but better that than wasting your time with dumbbell weights that are only good for aerobics or doing a hypertrophy exercise at the end of a workout

[QUOTE=KorJax;47302285]Think of it this way, you start tired in the morning and then wake up as the day progresses. When you workout in the morning it gets your blood pumping and you jumpstart your day, aka you will have plenty of energy once your body gets out of the wake up stage. Like some primal instinct to go out and hunt early morning to survive, except in this case you are a HUNTER OF GAINZ After a long work day, your body might have energy right at the start but it wants to wind down. Not a big deal a lot of the time unless your work goes late or you work extra hard making you exhausted. Same principle why cardio is always suggested to be done after your lifts. I'd love to work out early morning but my job has me come in at 4am :v: and even if I had a 24hr gym fuck getting up at 1-2am for a gym sesh. Bonus is though by the time I get off its still morning so my body has plenty of energy by lunch once I take it easy some. Perfect gym time if it wasn't for school..[/QUOTE] I've actually been tired all god damned day, probably because I woke up earlier than usual to get to the gym. I remember when I did it regularly it was pretty ok. I've always done cardio before lifting for that reason. Nothing too extreme, just a 10 minute jog and 3 minute cooldown, to get my blood pumping. That followed by some stretches really warms me up. Sometimes I'll walk for a few minutes after, but I don't like cardio post-lift.

[QUOTE=KorJax;47304141]How hard is it? Generally speaking assuming it is easy for you to do all that (which it looks like it is, except the fact that it is time consuming) you really aren't doing anything but light cardio essentially With exception to the bodyweight stuff, but the bodyweight stuff is only effective at building strength and size if its a decent challenge to do 15-20 or less for one set (and therefore push your limits on the third set). You are in a uni, you should have access to a university gym Uni gyms suck because its swamped with people all the time but better that than wasting your time with dumbbell weights that are only good for aerobics or doing a hypertrophy exercise at the end of a workout[/QUOTE] I used to workout a little but stopped outright, so i'm easing into it gently and have noticed some gains, but I know this workout won't last long at all and i'll likely plateau soon. Generally the last 5 reps of the last set will be somewhat tough but the rest is easier, I was hoping I could just add reps or weight to the 5kg exercises but looking back now I realize that i'm not really pushing myself at all, and that my gains are likely due to the fact that i'm eating somewhat healthier now. The bodyweight stuff I do find quite challenging except for the crunches which I find easy so i'm looking for something harder but i'm not sure what a good replacement is, needless to say 60 crunches is somewhat time consuming. I'll probably turn it into 2 sets of 30 to make it tougher. I'm happy with the bodyweight stuff since I do want to built strength. I'm looking to join the gym next semester when I get my next grant (April) so until making do with the dumbells. I'd rather get a decent bench and some cast iron weights/barbell though so may do that instead.

~45 inch box jump at 6'1 and 200lb, how does this rank? [editline]11th March 2015[/editline] Also might be starting linebacker in our next game this weekend, really hoping for that

Right after an awesome day of chest/arms/shoulders, I get a severe cold, no temperature tho. Still, fuck my life. My gainz Q_Q

I did incline cable flyes for the first time today (was leg day but last push day was 3 days away and next is in 2 days. I was curious) and god damn. I don't think I've ever felt my upper chest work out so hard ever in my life. I could lift more compared to dumbbell flyes and it actually felt like a really decent workout. Now I regret every time in the past I've done them with dumbbells instead of cables. [editline]12th March 2015[/editline] Also I know it's not gonna sound like much, most of you probably bench more than it, but I've finally been able to do 60kg squats with good form. Did a set of 5 at 60 (after warmup with the empty barbell for 15), felt I could do more so I did another set of 8 at 60, before dropping the weight a bit for sets of 10 and 12. I probably could have lifted even more if I had not done leg press before squats.

Cable flyes are the only chest workout where I actually feel it in my chest. I'm probably doing shit wrong though because I have a tiny chest compared to the rest of my body. My 1RM is maybe like 140 and I can squat and DL 2pl pretty easily.

Yeah I gotta say I can only feel my chest actually working when I do the cable flyes. Would anyone have any ideas on perhaps the extreme lower portion of the chest? Like I know bench press targets that lower area, but just wondering if there's an isolation movement that I can add alongside bench to focus on that. Dips perhaps? (I do them anyways and yes they aren't isolation). Would decline cable flyes perhaps do that?

Decline bench is supposed to be good but it's pretty goddamned awkward to get on a decline bench with heavy weights, they sort of slam down if you're not careful.

[QUOTE=cathal6606;47296429]no that seems normal [editline]10th March 2015[/editline] Did a lot of reading into supplements a while back and what I found was omega 3, zinc and vitamin D are probably the best as far as vitamins go. The latter 2 cant boost your testosterone if your not getting sufficient amounts in your diet. Creatine and whey are also pretty good, I cant take whey cause it makes me sick but I swear by creatine. I've heard talk of magnesium being good for testosterone too as part of zma but I never cared much for it because that shits expensive.[/QUOTE] Zinc is underrated, but its only real magic if you're deficient, which lol most athletes are! Little known secret is that zinc in very high dosages is a potent aromatase inhibitor, in fact i recently used zinc to destroy a little gyno lump that was growing under my nipple. Vitamin d deficiency is endemic in most urban populations but for some reason no health professionals or "gurus" ever talk much about it. I find this new wave bodybuilding culture in particular seems to see the word "vitamin" and immediately write it off as useless. Which is amusing because d3 is actually a steroid hormone, not a mineral metal or acid.... But I digress the majority of your vitamin d intake should come from the sun, supplemental d3 isnt processed as efficiently and the magic doesn't happen until you hit the really large doses, which again, your skin + sunlight can metabolize much more efficiently. Not to mention you will look 100% better not being pasty skinned. Its also worth noting, that vitamin D is crucial to the absorption of minerals like zinc, magnesium, phosphate, iron etc. So fixing vitamin d deficiency is one small change that can have a downstream of positive effects. dont buy brand name shit like zma or "formulas", all that shit will cost you an arm and a leg for something that can easily be sourced individually and cheaply.

[QUOTE=cathal6606;47297030]^huh, our maxes are pretty much the same, I havent tested a max squat in a while though but I reckon I could do 130, I can do 110x5 ass to grass and 120x5 box squats[/QUOTE] 110x5 ass to grass would put you a bit over 130 I rate, more into the 140 range. I do 100x5 just below parallel and on my best squat day I did 130x2. I always feel my deadlift is way too low though for some reason, I feel like I should be doing at least 4pl8

Is having a wingspan 8cm longer than your height, like, normal? Am I going to be eternally shit at bench because of this?

For myalt22, I've been doing jackknives for my ab workout. They're much harder than crunches. You can add weight to your legs/arms for easy extra difficulty. Just be careful about controlling your lower back.

[QUOTE=dilzinyomouth;47306578]Zinc is underrated, but its only real magic if you're deficient, which lol most athletes are! Little known secret is that zinc in very high dosages is a potent aromatase inhibitor, in fact i recently used zinc to destroy a little gyno lump that was growing under my nipple. Vitamin d deficiency is endemic in most urban populations but for some reason no health professionals or "gurus" ever talk much about it. I find this new wave bodybuilding culture in particular seems to see the word "vitamin" and immediately write it off as useless. Which is amusing because d3 is actually a steroid hormone, not a mineral metal or acid.... But I digress the majority of your vitamin d intake should come from the sun, supplemental d3 isnt processed as efficiently and the magic doesn't happen until you hit the really large doses, which again, your skin + sunlight can metabolize much more efficiently. Not to mention you will look 100% better not being pasty skinned. Its also worth noting, that vitamin D is crucial to the absorption of minerals like zinc, magnesium, phosphate, iron etc. So fixing vitamin d deficiency is one small change that can have a downstream of positive effects. dont buy brand name shit like zma or "formulas", all that shit will cost you an arm and a leg for something that can easily be sourced individually and cheaply.[/QUOTE] Getting it from the sun isnt really an option where I live, not until summer anyway. I get 25 times the RDA for it in pill form.

I consider today to be my first successful gym-day EVER. My shirt ripped and I sprained my left arm. :v:

New clean and jerk pr 87.5kg Had to stop my workout after that though because I hurt my back [editline]12th March 2015[/editline] Its ok now though

Oh man, I did dumbell flys yesterday for the first time in like 3 months and GOD DAMN my chest is sore! I don't really know why I haven't done them, since I used to hit them all the time, but agh it felt so good.

Any tips on increasing appetite for someone looking to gain weight? I'm at the gym 4 nights a week for 1.5-2 hours working till failure and my appetite is still nothing. Before I started working out I could pretty much go all day without feeling hungry, eat a light dinner and be done with it. Now I occasionally get hungry for lunch but even then I get full really quickly. For me, working out is enjoyable and relatively easy, but trying to eat enough calories and protein to see any gains is rough, mainly because I'm strapped for cash and time. I know it's very well possible to find the time and money to eat right and do it consistently but I would really appreciate some guidance.

Well for starters you can keep your workouts to under an hour each. There really isn't a need to be there any longer than that, I often finish before even 40 minutes. Lifting kinda acts like cardio, especially compound exercises, and unless you're there working out your jaw you're either not training hard enough (so as to reach failure after two hours) or overtraining. [editline]13th March 2015[/editline] Just make a mental note to eat something every three hours. Maybe integrate liquid calories like protein shakes.

[QUOTE=srobins;47314183]Any tips on increasing appetite for someone looking to gain weight? I'm at the gym 4 nights a week for 1.5-2 hours working till failure and my appetite is still nothing. Before I started working out I could pretty much go all day without feeling hungry, eat a light dinner and be done with it. Now I occasionally get hungry for lunch but even then I get full really quickly. For me, working out is enjoyable and relatively easy, but trying to eat enough calories and protein to see any gains is rough, mainly because I'm strapped for cash and time. I know it's very well possible to find the time and money to eat right and do it consistently but I would really appreciate some guidance.[/QUOTE] I've been here. Eating is the hardest part. -Eat more frequently. If you try to eat all 2000 or whatever calories in one sitting, you're gonna have a hard time. Spread it out over 3, 4, 5, or even 6 meals. Whatever works. Snack often, I make my own trail mix out of peanuts, raisins, and dark chocolate M&Ms and keep it on my desk and I grab a mouthful whenever. -Variety. If you attempt to eat the same food every day, it wears down your willpower and you will eventually relapse into your habit of not eating as much. Keep looking for new recipes or even invent some of your own. Get creative. Cooking is a great and rewarding hobby to pick up. You can do a lot with cheap staple foods such as rice, eggs, milk, cheese, etc. Build up a spice tray, if money is tight get one spice per shopping trip and build it up slowly over time. The key is to make eating enjoyable. -Alcohol. Try taking a drink or two before or with dinner if it's safe to. The drink will add to your calorie count, but alcohol will stimulate your appetite. You may not want to rely on this habit but it helps in a pinch, especially when you're starting out. Your appetite will increase soon enough. -Milk. I mentioned this before, but milk is pretty great stuff and deserves special mention. Instead of drinking water, take a glass of milk instead. Milkshakes make those calories add up. It's cheap, it's got plenty of protein and good fats, and it tastes good and is easy to drink down. If you're lactose intolerant, take a lactase pill. Get the whole kind, it's tastier and it has more calories. Fat won't kill you as you may have been led to believe. Also, you may want to reconsider training to failure every single workout. If you're starting out you're probably better off sticking to a more rigid program like Starting Strength which is 3x5. A really good beginner program shouldn't really take longer than an hour to complete.

Thanks for the advice. One of my biggest issues diet wise, aside from my appetite, is the fact that I'm either on campus or at work (12 hour shifts) 5 days a week with little time to eat throughout the day, which makes splitting meals difficult (because apparently snacking on trail mix or a bag of nuts is going to impact students around me and make me incapable of doing my job). Are there any specific foods or basic recipes you guys would recommend, including snacks? I'm not sure if I should start preparing meals in advance or just eat whatever seems best on campus / at work. Getting fresh, warm food is always nice but I always feel like a dick looking at my bank statement and seeing 13 consecutive Chick-Fil-A charges on my card :v:

Consider making meals in bulk ahead of time. You can spend an afternoon making like 40 burritos with eggs, sausage, cheese, etc., (you can find a number of recipes like this online,) for dirt cheap thanks to bulk pricing and freeze them. If you have access to a microwave, you can just nuke them up when you're ready. Soups and stews are also really good to make in bulk and just thaw out when you're ready. I'm a particular fan of traditional Hungarian goulashes myself. Chili is basically just throwing meat and shit in a pot and you're set for a week. Making your own sandwiches can also go a long way because you can choose what goes in it and doesn't require heating up. If you're strapped for time or don't have very much space to cook, see if you can get a slow cooker. You throw shit in the pot in the morning, turn it on, and you come home with dinner ready to eat and a house or apartment that smells phenomenal. Your apartment may have codes against slow cookers however, so make sure to check. As for snacks, consider shakes or yogurts or hummus dips and stuff like that. You want foods that are calorie dense but with decent nutrition. Loading up on junk food may get the calories in but might not always be what you need. Maybe get some instant breakfast packets or protein powder in a bottle and mix it up with some water or when you get the chance.

[QUOTE=Deadman123;47312962]Oh man, I did dumbell flys yesterday for the first time in like 3 months and GOD DAMN my chest is sore! I don't really know why I haven't done them, since I used to hit them all the time, but agh it felt so good.[/QUOTE] It's sweet. Love doing them on chestdays.

[QUOTE=SGTNAPALM;47314383]Consider making meals in bulk ahead of time. You can spend an afternoon making like 40 burritos with eggs, sausage, cheese, etc., (you can find a number of recipes like this online,) for dirt cheap thanks to bulk pricing and freeze them. If you have access to a microwave, you can just nuke them up when you're ready. Soups and stews are also really good to make in bulk and just thaw out when you're ready. I'm a particular fan of traditional Hungarian goulashes myself. Chili is basically just throwing meat and shit in a pot and you're set for a week. Making your own sandwiches can also go a long way because you can choose what goes in it and doesn't require heating up. If you're strapped for time or don't have very much space to cook, see if you can get a slow cooker. You throw shit in the pot in the morning, turn it on, and you come home with dinner ready to eat and a house or apartment that smells phenomenal. Your apartment may have codes against slow cookers however, so make sure to check. As for snacks, consider shakes or yogurts or hummus dips and stuff like that. You want foods that are calorie dense but with decent nutrition. Loading up on junk food may get the calories in but might not always be what you need. Maybe get some instant breakfast packets or protein powder in a bottle and mix it up with some water or when you get the chance.[/QUOTE] Thanks a ton, this has given me some great ideas.

So I started my 5th week of Stronglifts! It's pretty great when the first time you lift the bar it's a ton, and now it's so light it's like a feather on your back. But I hit 135 on my squats, and my left hip feels strange, like it wants to pop or something, I usually get the feeling in the morning in my back and I just crack it but since it's my hip, should I be concerned? My form is pretty much on point for the most part for squats.

been lying on my fucking floor at 1am doing stretches to try and correct my anterior pelvic tilt what is my life coming to

DL 245 for 4 reps today, which is loads better than my PR before my lifting hiatus. Fuark year man

My hands are getting really sweaty when I deadlift and causing me to almost drop it. Anyone here tried an Eco chalk ball? Do they work well? How messy are they?