The New Fitness thread

Darren870

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diet and exercising are very person-specific

i've developed a firm belief in needing to come to a mutual understanding with the physical and nutritional requirements our bodies need, and since we're all such drastically-varying individuals, it's in our best interest to learn our limits through introspection/understanding and not simply from provided advice

that's not to say you should ignore the advice of others, but just don't hold it as a universal truth

in short: if you feel you need to rest, then rest

i'd personally rather rest an extra day and get 100% production the next day then half-ass a workout while operating at a lower percentage

(again, that's just me, do your own thing)

I agree. Though diet wise it is body specific but for low BF% you usually have to follow the same rules and guidelines.
I know your goals have always been different then Spikes goals if I recall. You aimed for the Bruce Lee type body.

My goal is to be able to do this. My core isn't strong enough yet though, I would just flop down. That and I need to lose a bit more.

Jason-Statham-Pole5-670x350.jpg
 

RBjakeSpecial

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Awesome threat. I love the advice and I love the message from Spike about hard work.

Spike - Your body looks insane! Those shoulders are huge.

I did 5-3-1 for a while to learn how to do power lifting and improve my overall strength. http://www.muscleandstrength.com/wo...t-jim-wendlers-5-3-1-powerlifting-system.html I think systems/workout programs etc. are kind of just a stepping off point, I don't want to follow something day in and day out.

My usual exercise is a muay thai gym twice a week and some jogging / pull-ups once a week. When I have vacation from work (which is often) I do powerlifting at the gym, mostly dead lifts, mil. press, bench and a bunch of stuff with dumbells.

I feel like after a year of messing around with 5-3-1 and 5 years at a muay thai gym, this is my year to get in much better shape. My fitness goals are two fold:
1. Cut my beer intake by 75 percent. That sounds lame, but I was drinking A LOT of beer, and cutting back for the last two months has already helped me drop 4 pounds.
2. Get bigger arms and shoulders. My legs are pretty awesome from all the martial arts etc. but my arms need to be bigger.

I'm inspired by Spike's 7 day a week program - it's too intense for me, but I obviously need to step it up a notch.

I weight 170 pounds and am 5'11". I think it's a fine weight, just need to convert the beer love handles to muscle. Recently discovered the joy of skull crushers!
 

Darren870

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Beer is the hardest part to get rid of!

I am 5'11 and 178lbs. My legs use to be the strongest part of me but they have been lacking. I seemed to have messed up my left leg over the past few weeks. I used to be squatting 350+lbs for 6-8 reps (5 years ago). Now its about 240lbs. My bench has gone up as I was never really able to bench more then my body weight. I hit 245lbs the other day. Sad when your bench more then you squat, need to fix that.
 

Average Joe

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I agree. Though diet wise it is body specific but for low BF% you usually have to follow the same rules and guidelines.
I know your goals have always been different then Spikes goals if I recall. You aimed for the Bruce Lee type body.

My goal is to be able to do this. My core isn't strong enough yet though, I would just flop down. That and I need to lose a bit more.

Jason-Statham-Pole5-670x350.jpg

yeah, we're both very different

i'm not into bodybuilding, i'm all about functional fitness and primal movements

i'll do a write-up of my diet later as it has changed a bit

human flags are pretty badass

i really wish i had some place where i could work on them
 

theMot

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I realised recently i really have to get of my arse and do something when the other day i was laughing and my belly was moving as i laughed...
 

Spike Spiegel

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Spike, what does your diet look like? You go to the gym everyday but do you lift everyday? What does your routine look like?

Well, this will have to change with the individual, but yes. It's lifting every time. I split my days up in four, and then repeat:

Arms. I include delts in with biceps and triceps. This always confuses people, as some have a "shoulder day."
Legs. I then do legs. I try to give my arms a rest by not doing chest and arms back to back.
Chest. Doing chest hits a lot of tricep and shoulders. And because of that, I try to make half my day fly motions, and use JUST pectorals, if I can.
Back. Then I finish with back. You will get some bicep action on back day, but if your form is strict enough (and it better be), it will be mostly back

Well, wait a minute... where the hell is your ab day? I will only do abs as warm ups on some days that I get to the gym much sooner than my workout partner(s). If I feel like I'm still too sore to do a body part that is up next, then I will take a "day off" and do abs. But usually, I swear by the compound motions for taking care of the abs. That and my diet.

And yes, speaking of diet... it's odd. I eat about 3500-4k calories a day. I eat very often. And I try to get in at LEAST 200 grams of protein a day. I eat a ton of tuna and chicken, along with rice. I try to stay away from saturated fat and sugar. And when I say try... I do. I have a terrific amount of discipline with what I eat. I just ask myself, "will this help my body grow?" If the answer is no, I don't eat it. And I cut drinking out all together. It's just so damn counter productive.
 

Spike Spiegel

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I have to type this quick, because I am literally going to the gym in 20 minutes.

You may also notice I don't do cardio, and yet and pretty damn lean. It's not that I cannot or will not (I ran a 5k with the wife last weekend), but it's because I'm trying to GAIN weight.

THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT: Cardio alone doesn't help you lose fat as well as you think. If you want to lose fat, you better be doing weight training. When you run, your metabolism boosts for a few hours. When you train with weights, it's boosted for days after. The "damage" you do to your body from weight training takes a terrific amount of calories to fix itself, and rebuild the muscle. Your body is recovering for a much longer period of time... if you do squats the weight will fall off you (assuming the diet is in check).
 

Darren870

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Okay, my routine was similar when I was training more. I think I am very limited by my gym though. My work gym only has dumbells, where my weekend gym has proper olympics weights. So that's why I tend do heavy lifts on the weekends (and maybe a day if I work from home) where I do the other lifts during the week. I've been doing kettlebells just to switch it up at my work gym since I am so limited and it is a full body exercise.

You don't even take protein powder? That is the only supplement I take besides multi-vitamin. I'll post some pics up later tonight. I have been trying to keep my diet under control more and increase my calories but not with empty calories.

Do you do IF or anything like that?

Typical week day for me is :

Breakfast: 2 Eggs, Cottage Cheese with Fruit, Coffee
Gym: Light training, cardio or just stretching. Maybe some Kettlebells or HIIT if I am going to not lift heavy in the afternoon
Snack: Protein Shake (1-2 Scoops), some almonds
Lunch: Chicken Breast with Veggies and maybe quiona or sweet potatoes (the latter are recent additions)
Gym: Lifting with light jog to start
Post Gym: 2 scoops protein shake
Dinner: Salad, Soup, Chicken, Steak, Fish, something of that sort. With little to no carbs. Dinner is probably my weakest point.

The non work days I only go to the gym once but that's when I do heavier weights as I can use a barbell.
 

aria

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If anyone is looking to manage their diet in a convenient way, I highly recommend the free app MyFitnessPal--I regret not using it earlier (more on that below). I lost nearly 20 pounds in two months without exercise by just managing my calorie intake--I then started working out with it without any hiccup. I didn't change the types of food I was eating, just portion control. Don't get me wrong, while using it I ate a lot of healthy stuff because I like healthy stuff, but I was also throwing in dark chocolate (my favorite breakfast) and a slice cheese pizza so long as it met my daily calorie goal. The trick was to choose items that weren't as caloric but filling and I wasn't ever hungry (however I had to be certain to eat at certain times because then I would get really hungry since I was running close to empty most of the time). The good thing about the app is (1) it's free, (2) it lets users crowd-source and add items so the catalog of food and calories is pretty large and accurate--plus they added a convenient bar code reader with your camera to quickly identify foods (a lot of the freshly packaged meats and veggies at my local grocer were already included), (3) the website associated with it is also useful when you're at a computer, (4) you can calculate exercise (and the add'l calories you've burned/are allowed), and (5) it helps you set daily calorie goals. I eventually bought a decent food scale (I recommend Ozeri for price/quality) to calculate at home when I didn't buy pre-packaged items so I could make accurate calculations.

I actually downloaded the app two years ago at the recommendation of a friend who's really into fitness (coincidentally, ten years ago when I was serious about fitness I was the one who got him into fitness... then law school and other excuses), but then I sat on it. The catalog of food back then wasn't as robust and, more importantly, they didn't have the bar code scanning option. Finally I ran into a guy I know from my local alumni club and he'd somehow slimmed down a ton, I complimented him and he mentioned he was using the same app. So I decided to get serious about it and--boom--it worked. Let me also say that those 20 pounds, going from 245 to 225 were the easiest for me and my build, for me dropping down another twenty or so to ~210 would mean getting pretty lean (that was my weight when I was at my best) so that's harder and needs more commitment. Obviously, you have to be committed to using it every day and not take too many days of blowing over your daily goal (and if you do, still try to calculate it). But I must recommend it because it works and isn't some "get slim fast" bullshit.

Awesome threat. I love the advice and I love the message from Spike about hard work.

 

Spike Spiegel

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The things I eat are so various, it would be almost impossible for me to give an average day. Just lots of chicken, fish, red meat (ooooh, dreaded red meat), skim milk, water and rice. No sugar or excessive saturated fats.

Also, if anyone here actually has instagram, I am on there as stevemcdevitt
 

aria

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The things I eat are so various, it would be almost impossible for me to give an average day. Just lots of chicken, fish, red meat (ooooh, dreaded red meat), skim milk, water and rice. No sugar or excessive saturated fats.

Have you seen The Rock's twitter feed? His comments/photos on what he eats are easily my favorite part.

Here's a sampling (it was posted in the longest thread):
http://cavemancircus.com/2013/03/25/the-rocks-twitter-is-freaking-awesome-34-pics/
 

Average Joe

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i pretty much eat the same things (more or less) every day

i still do controlled-fasting via The Warrior Diet but i included fish into my diet and went Paleo (don't miss grains or dairy at all)

i've never sat down and calculated the exact caloric intake number, but i'd say 3000-3500 is the average but i know i've gotten close to 4000 on certain days

plenty of veggies (preference for brussel sprouts, broccoli, carrots, and peppers), kale every day, 4-5 eggs (with yolks), shrimp 2-3 times a week, tuna 2-3 times a week, avocados, unrefined coconut oil, nuts & seeds, nut butters (almond mostly), a mouthful of goji berries with 88% cocoa dark chocolate or a few raw cocao beans, i'll typically mix chia seeds into my almond butter as well, and i'll finish off with a couple bananas if i feel hungry still

also, i recently started taking a veggie-based general health supplement called Vega One that i add some powdered wheat grass to and is mixed with unsweetened almond-coconut milk

i do a bunch of herbals supplements too on top of multivitamins, but that's a new post entirely
 

Spike Spiegel

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krautcroissant

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Yes... the thread is up! Good work Bobak!

So, where to start... back when the old thread was up I was still lifting a lot and getting heavily into Yoga (don't laugh... a proper Bikram session will kick anyone's ass!).

Since I have moved to Turkey and have not found a proper Yoga teacher. I am teaching some people myself but have personally moved on from just Yoga to my own style (for want of a better word). I am heavily influenced by the Barstarzz movement (see youtube). I do insane pull-ups etc as in the youtube videos. I combine this with weight training every now and then and quite a bit of yoga to stay flexible, have a strong core and also keep my awesome Yoga breathing right (plus concentration and form/posture - concentration is very important in any lifting!). Yoga breathing kind of requires a whole new post I feel and I will try to get round to it.

Result: I am ripped. like Spike, but maybe not quite as big. I will post pix at some point. Someone posted a pic of a human flag further up... my flag isn't as perfect, but pretty decent nonetheless - again a pic will come once I am back at my work PC which has the pix.

What I am getting at is kind of what Spike said: mix it up. He is more of an expert and better at explaining, but I will say this: work hard for 45 to 60 mins. That is enough. And I mean work hard... no phone bullshit, no chatting. Your heart should be pumping, you should be sweating a lot! Super-sets all the way in my book!

As for Diet I agree with the above. The bonus of living in an agricultural area in Turkey is that a lot of awesome stuff is available cheap. I make my own peanut and almond butter (easy with a blender), I eat a shit load of various beans and lentils, lots of veggies and fish. Chicken and red meat I eat not too much of... out of personal choice. My caloric intake is huge... and like Spike, I grase...meaning I eat frequently... like something every hour and a half (the kids in school always make fun of me because I always pull out a carrot or a container with something else to keep me going).

I am just back from the gym... so a bit hyper and maybe not too fluid in what I say... apologies for that.

Overall, loving this thread and appreciate the info, especially by Spike and Joe!
 

krautcroissant

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Question to Spike: what do you mean by compounds? Maybe a stupid question... but please elaborate.

Working out is a lifelong learning process. I always love learning new methods and changing things. Not only does this help my muscles by shocking them with new stuff... it also keeps me entertained :)
 

Kazuki Dash

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Question to Spike: what do you mean by compounds? Maybe a stupid question... but please elaborate.
I'm pretty sure he was referring to compound exercises, which work several muscle groups, as opposed to isolation exercises, which only work one particular muscle group. For example:

Pull ups (Compound) vs bicep curls (Isolation)
 

Jibbajaba

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Back in mid-February, I started a ketogenic diet. Basically, 20g of carbs or less per day, 65/30/5% of calories every day from fat, protein, and carbs, respectively. (No, that is not a typo; 65% of my calories come from fat.) I'm 6' and have gone from 257lbs down to 207 so far. That's with zero exercise, eating about a 1000 calorie per day deficit. But when all you're eating is fat and protein, you fill up fast.

Now that the weather is nice and finals are over, I'm going to get back on the road bike. Not really interested in getting all muscley. Just didnt want to be fat anymore. Probably have another 25-30 pounds to go to really be trim, but I've gone from a tight 40" waist to a loose-and-need-a-belt 36" (really, I should buy some 34s but I'm cheap), and shirts went from XL to L.

Edit: And like Bobak said, MyFitnessPal is the shit. You can custom set your macros and see where you are at any point in the day, and it just helps you see what you're actually eating every day.
 
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Darren870

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Nice human flag! I need to try it really, I think I might be able to do it now. I'll have to try it around the streets of London.
 

cdamm

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rereading this thread while eating an egg sandwich is great.
 
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