-- Weightlifting & Nutrition Thread -- v9.0 Optimized

[CrouchingTiger]

*pokes head back in here*

Man, haven't been in this thread in a while. Didn't really intend to just post it and abandon it, but I didn't really stick to the weights. Quit from December to May. Started back around the end of May. Definately sticking to it this time though, and I'm making good progress. I'm benching the most I've ever benched and I've finally broke the 140 lb weight barrier. I'm 142. =p

As for the apple question Nokato, I'm not sure. I personally love Gala apples, and I doubt the nutritional differences are noteworthy anyway. I've got three fruits I try and keep in my daily diet. Simply Orange w/pulp (it's juice, but it's practically an orange in a bottle), apples, and bananas. Occasionally I'll buy something different for variety like a pineapple or some peaches or something. 'Tis good peach season right now.

[Taichi]

Okay, here's one.....

do you have any routines that cater to asthmatics?

I have an activity induced asthma, and while I've learned to work around it, my cardio is limited because of it (I bicycle, but any long amount of running is virtually impossible)...

my current routine does a good job of keeping me at the weight I'm at, but it does NOTHING for lowering it, it's basically just keeping me at my current weight....

I weigh 215 (slightly more in the Winter) with a little extra around the middle.....I'm not saying I wanna be ripped, but I wanna look good in expensive clothes....a little definition wouldn't be bad....

basically, I need some cardio routines that will get the heart going, but not take a toll on my lungs.....is it an impossible prospect?

[Lan Di]

Sup guys, Sorry i dont have time to read throught his thread again, i've read most of it one time or another but i forgot now.

Anyways, i got a quick question. I'm interrested in getting into armwrestling. Well, there are a couple of small problems. I'm not real strong. I mean I'm probably average/slightly above for people who dont lift, but i'm not particularly strong. To make this worse, I weight 300ish+, so not only will i be weaker than everyone, i will be facing the strongest guys!!

So, I need to get strong. I suppose the good news is that i have PLENTY of time to dedicate to lifting and also in dealing with arm-wrestling strength, it can be limited to certain exercises.

So, my question is not about exercises, but about how many times a week i should do them and also should i start taking protein or creatine? The exercises are bascially hamer curls, wrist curls, grip workouts, etc etc. Is 3 times a week ok? What about the supplements? I want to gain strength ASAP of course.

Thanks.

[MagnusMadness]

Sup guys, Sorry i dont have time to read throught his thread again, i've read most of it one time or another but i forgot now.

Anyways, i got a quick question. I'm interrested in getting into armwrestling. Well, there are a couple of small problems. I'm not real strong. I mean I'm probably average/slightly above for people who dont lift, but i'm not particularly strong. To make this worse, I weight 300ish+, so not only will i be weaker than everyone, i will be facing the strongest guys!!

So, I need to get strong. I suppose the good news is that i have PLENTY of time to dedicate to lifting and also in dealing with arm-wrestling strength, it can be limited to certain exercises.

So, my question is not about exercises, but about how many times a week i should do them and also should i start taking protein or creatine? The exercises are bascially hamer curls, wrist curls, grip workouts, etc etc. Is 3 times a week ok? What about the supplements? I want to gain strength ASAP of course.

Thanks.


The problem is those are small muscle groups (biceps, and forearms) They don't blow up over night no matter how many times a week you work em out.

If you want to be strong then do military press, bench press, squats and deadlifts...do em on four different days, do them first and build a routine around em. For strength training...keep the reps low and weight heavy as you can, going up in weight every set if at all possible and always have a spotter with you. Drink at least two protein shakes a day and take creatine and eat healthy meals high in protein as often as possible. Holla back in two years and you should be pretty strong.

And then there's always steroids......

[AHVB]

BUMP, top tier thread.

I'm working on losing my stomach and gaining some sexy abs, any suggestions? I don't fee like going through this whole thread. Anyway I'm out to the gym, Suggestions plz.

[Morphiend]

ive decided to try to lose my gut and stuff. so for the last week my diet consists of this. can someone advise on how to improve this. right now i just want to get skinny and lose about 30 pounds.

breakfast- pineapple wedges or baby carrots w/lofat ranch, yoplait yogurt, and a rockstar energy drink

lunch- some sort of sandwich, probably turkey or chicken breast

dinner- salad w/chicken breast and lofat ranch dressing.

the only time i might cheat is if my work buys us lunch or once a week i get a chicken fajita platter from the local taqueria. i do crunches every other day or so and am working on a little cardio as well. i'd like to join a gym or osmething but i just don't have the time right now. i've cut out fast/junk food and soda (which i miss the most). what sort of advice can gd give me?

[AHVB]

ive decided to try to lose my gut and stuff. so for the last week my diet consists of this. can someone advise on how to improve this. right now i just want to get skinny and lose about 30 pounds.

breakfast- pineapple wedges or baby carrots w/lofat ranch, yoplait yogurt, and a rockstar energy drink

lunch- some sort of sandwich, probably turkey or chicken breast

dinner- salad w/chicken breast and lofat ranch dressing.

the only time i might cheat is if my work buys us lunch or once a week i get a chicken fajita platter from the local taqueria. i do crunches every other day or so and am working on a little cardio as well. i'd like to join a gym or osmething but i just don't have the time right now. i've cut out fast/junk food and soda (which i miss the most). what sort of advice can gd give me?


what he said.

[Cletus Kasady]

I'm a huge noob, so bear with me;

Right now, I'm about 6'5 and I weigh 170. My goal is to get up to 190-200 (which I presume is a long-term goal that'd take at least a few months). I'm looking at splitting my full-body workouts into two sessions (likely "Pull" on Mondays, and "Push" on Wednesday) each week, while tweaking my diet (I only eat about 2-3 meals a day, but as long as I meet the recommended calorie distribution for about 3000-3100 cals/day, this should be fine, right?) and doing abdominal exercises seperately three times a week and playing basketball on days when I'm not working out to serve as cardio.

My other goal is to increase my non-existant vertical leap and overall quickness (again, probably for basketball); I assume that just building muscle should be sufficient in terms of increasing my vertical, and I've heard of plyometrics (or pylometrics or something of that nature) being the best way to increase quickness. What I'm wondering is if I should be focusing solely on putting on muscle until I reach my goal and then start plyometics, or if I should find a way to integrate it right now (I'm also going to have to read up on the matter)?

In addition, out of curiousity, is there a general interval over which I should be increasing resistance on my exercises (as a means of measuring how effective training is)?

Edit: Corrected that calorie amount; my mental math abilities aren't what they used to be. :P

[$|-|U(V)AYeL]

Could the pro's Anubis, Romie, etc. post up what their diet looks like? What they eat in breakfast, snack? I want to get a better idea of what I should be eating as i'm trying to gain mass/strength.

I'm also having problems training my side and rear delts. Side laterals (45 degree) and bent over low pulley don't seem to stimulate it enough..

Also, I'm trying to gain mass/strength but i'm considering doing interval training twice a week after working out my abs. Would this hinder my mass/strength gains a lot? I want to lose just a little bit of flab.

Edit: My forearms and calves having problems with growth too.

[mvsc2demon]

Just one quick question since it has never happen to me for more than half a day.

Ok i went to workout monday night and damn i really worked hard on the lifting. Almost an hour.

Anyways, got home, ate, and then went to sleep. Tuesday morning my arms were killing me, they were so f*ing sore. My left arm hurted more than my right arm. I taught to myself its normal bcz of the heavy workout and that it would go away by the end of the day. It still hurted and today when i woke up my arms are still sore.
So right now its being a day n a half.

So how long is normal for it to be sore.

[ShinAkumax]

I've been in pain for 5 days at a time. Everyone is different but make sure to sleep your 8 hours and to give your body protein and simple carbs inmediatly after a workout to speed recovering time.

[mvsc2demon]

I've been in pain for 5 days at a time. Everyone is different but make sure to sleep your 8 hours and to give your body protein and simple carbs inmediatly after a workout to speed recovering time.
Thx, i guess the sleeping is it. I've been sleeping about only 4 hours lately bcz of constant traveling.

[TOASTBest]

Optimally, can situps/abs be done everyday, or is that something you have to give time to build back up like the arms? If this has been covered, sorry, please point out the page it was discussed.

[X-Sapphire]

yooo guys!!
Okay i'm probably one of those kids with super metabolism, cuz I eat a shitload, and never gain any mass. Well I'm trying to gain some mass so that I can build after, but no matter how much I eat I just don't get it, and I eat alot for a 19 year old 120 pound guy. Right now I have an okay built for a small body, cut biceps and abs, but I'm trying to get big and I can't seem to gain any mass. wtf man.

Is taking stimulants the only way for me? Cuz I don't wanna do that. Btw not only do I eat alot for a small guy, but I eat like really unhealthy, so I dunno how I'm not gaining mass at all. And for eating really unhealthy, I'm still in good shape with no health problems at all. :pleased:

[MagnusMadness]

snip

QUOTE]

Losing 30 pounds isn't that bad, if you can STICK to that diet then you will lose weight prolly, don't know how healthy that diet is though...consistensy is key though, sticking to a hardcore diet like that is really hard and if you don't keep it up long enough then you'll just gain the weight back. I don't know how active you are but if ur trying to lose weight then you can't do too much cardio. Diet AND exercise is the key.

[QUOTE=Cletus Kasady]I'm a huge noob, so bear with me;

Right now, I'm about 6'5 and I weigh 170. My goal is to get up to 190-200 (which I presume is a long-term goal that'd take at least a few months). I'm looking at splitting my full-body workouts into two sessions (likely "Pull" on Mondays, and "Push" on Wednesday) each week, while tweaking my diet (I only eat about 2-3 meals a day, but as long as I meet the recommended calorie distribution for about 3000-3100 cals/day, this should be fine, right?) and doing abdominal exercises seperately three times a week and playing basketball on days when I'm not working out to serve as cardio.

My other goal is to increase my non-existant vertical leap and overall quickness (again, probably for basketball); I assume that just building muscle should be sufficient in terms of increasing my vertical, and I've heard of plyometrics (or pylometrics or something of that nature) being the best way to increase quickness. What I'm wondering is if I should be focusing solely on putting on muscle until I reach my goal and then start plyometics, or if I should find a way to integrate it right now (I'm also going to have to read up on the matter)?

In addition, out of curiousity, is there a general interval over which I should be increasing resistance on my exercises (as a means of measuring how effective training is)?

Edit: Corrected that calorie amount; my mental math abilities aren't what they used to be. :P


Gaining 20-30 pounds is prolly going to slow you down...secondly if you want to gain weight you need to cut the cardio down to a minimum. And about the 3000 calorie thing...ur 6 fucking 5 and only weigh 170...sounds like u have a high metabolism...u made to take in up to 5000 calories a day to gain ANY weight...if you don't gain any weight at all on a 3000 calorie diet then you should start upping the cals until you start to gain. And to gain 20-30 pounds of lean muscle naturally ur lookin at over a year.

[MagnusMadness]

Could the pro's Anubis, Romie, etc. post up what their diet looks like? What they eat in breakfast, snack? I want to get a better idea of what I should be eating as i'm trying to gain mass/strength.

I'm also having problems training my side and rear delts. Side laterals (45 degree) and bent over low pulley don't seem to stimulate it enough..

Also, I'm trying to gain mass/strength but i'm considering doing interval training twice a week after working out my abs. Would this hinder my mass/strength gains a lot? I want to lose just a little bit of flab.

Edit: My forearms and calves having problems with growth too.


romies gonna tell you he eats protein bars for snacks heh...I can't stomach that shit...if ur trying to gain weight and build muscle, then there are NO snacks. There are full meals high in protein and complex carbs and there are 6 of them a day. And ur gonna keep a lil flab when ur eating like that, but u'll build muscle and put on size and that's what's important. As far as specific meals are concerned, the hot shit nowadays are boiled egg whites (remove the yolks),meat, dairy,and protein shakes for protein.. oatmeal, cottage cheese, and rice (not fried)and other stuff for carbs (you can BUY complex carbs by the jugs to mix in with any drink now like carbo-gain, or carbo-hit)

For shoulders my routine as of late has been:

smith machine military press: 4 sets pyramiding up each set
rotating shoulder press: 3 sets going up in weight if necessary
upright rows: 3 sets
lateral raises: 3 sets
curl bar frontal raises lying on an incline bench: 3 sets
dumbell frontal raises: drop set
pec deck reverse flies: 3 sets
dumbell lying reverse flies: 3 sets

Is that enough stimulation for ya?

As far as forearms and calves go...you can try isolating them twice a week...but forearms don't blow up quick and neither do calves. I'd like to see my forearms bigger too but I'm not losing any sleep over it...just work out as hard and as heavy as you can and eat a lot and get enough sleep and u will get bigger, but over a long period of time. Don't fucking quit EVER.

[MagnusMadness]

yooo guys!!
Okay i'm probably one of those kids with super metabolism, cuz I eat a shitload, and never gain any mass. Well I'm trying to gain some mass so that I can build after, but no matter how much I eat I just don't get it, and I eat alot for a 19 year old 120 pound guy. Right now I have an okay built for a small body, cut biceps and abs, but I'm trying to get big and I can't seem to gain any mass. wtf man.

Is taking stimulants the only way for me? Cuz I don't wanna do that. Btw not only do I eat alot for a small guy, but I eat like really unhealthy, so I dunno how I'm not gaining mass at all. And for eating really unhealthy, I'm still in good shape with no health problems at all. :pleased:

120 pounds? how tall are you?

I don't know if ur lifting weights at all but that's a start...if ur doing any cardio at all...cut it out. You might even try ur hand at some weight gaining shakes. That's an easy way to add 2 to 3 thousand cals a day to ur diet...that's what I'm doing and it's working very well. But then again...It's not that difficult for me to gain weight...


Optimally, can situps/abs be done everyday, or is that something you have to give time to build back up like the arms? If this has been covered, sorry, please point out the page it was discussed.

You have to realize that muscles don't grow when ur working out/tearing them down...they grow when they're rebuilding/recovering...so tearing down the same muscle tissue everyday can't be good. I'd say work out abs every other day or 3 times a week. If you want ur abs to show then do CARDIO everyday and lose a few pounds, that will make a bigger difference.

[Chaos]

For shoulders my routine as of late has been:

smith machine military press: 4 sets pyramiding up each set
rotating shoulder press: 3 sets going up in weight if necessary
upright rows: 3 sets
lateral raises: 3 sets
curl bar frontal raises lying on an incline bench: 3 sets
dumbell frontal raises: drop set
pec deck reverse flies: 3 sets
dumbell lying reverse flies: 3 sets

Is that enough stimulation for ya?



One word for you. OVERKILL. WAY, WAY, WAY to many sets. Overtraining is as bad as not training at all remember, and shoulders get hit on chest and back days. I do maybe 4 sets of military presses and 2 or 3 of laterals. Your absolutely begging to blow out your rotator cuff with a routine like that. Double that if you bench heavy regularly.

[MagnusMadness]

One word for you. OVERKILL. WAY, WAY, WAY to many sets. Overtraining is as bad as not training at all remember, and shoulders get hit on chest and back days. I do maybe 4 sets of military presses and 2 or 3 of laterals. Your absolutely begging to blow out your rotator cuff with a routine like that. Double that if you bench heavy regularly.


I actually got my hands on ronnie colemans six day split, hitting everything twice a week....gonna try that out for the next month or so....

Good to hear from you btw clay, how's school goin?

[CrouchingTiger]

I've been in pain for 5 days at a time. Everyone is different but make sure to sleep your 8 hours and to give your body protein and simple carbs inmediatly after a workout to speed recovering time.
Good advice. Sleep is so important. I've been staying up til daylight for the past week now it seems. I need to break this habit ASAP. And to make matters worse, waking up so late means I usually miss breakfast, a very important meal. =\

[Chaos]

I actually got my hands on ronnie colemans six day split, hitting everything twice a week....gonna try that out for the next month or so....

Good to hear from you btw clay, how's school goin?

Great man I got about 9 months left. Will be in town this week starting on Wed. and will come by to try out the burger, what days you working? Problem with Ronnie's split is he takes Test, Insulin and HGH. And he's Ronnie Coleman genetically. I have his latest video, you should check it out just for kicks to see the weight he moves around. Its insane.

[MagnusMadness]

Great man I got about 9 months left. Will be in town this week starting on Wed. and will come by to try out the burger, what days you working? Problem with Ronnie's split is he takes Test, Insulin and HGH. And he's Ronnie Coleman genetically. I have his latest video, you should check it out just for kicks to see the weight he moves around. Its insane.


As of right now I'm not exactly "natural" either...but I'm not coleman that's tru. As far as the six day split is concerned I've finished the first week and the only things that are just killers are monday's and thursday's cuz those days you hit back, biceps, AND shoulders in the same day...even if ur not messin around u can't get done in less than an hour and a half. The only other thing that I don't like is the workout has you doin deadlifts on monday and then squats on tuesday...today my lower back was on FIRE. I'm thinkin about dropping one of the leg days, giving myself an extra day of rest in the middle of the week and just hit legs hard and heavy on friday.
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0KFY/is_2_22/ai_n5990718/pg_2
here's the url for the workout


tell me what you think of my idea and any advice you have or anybody else has for that matter would be greatly appreciated....

And just for the record...I have been training hard and heavy for almost 2 years now, I'm not an amatuer.

Oh and I work for sure sunday night, monday all day, tuesday morning, wednesday night, and saturday night...

[ParryAll]

I've only read up about 10 or so pages so far, but I wanted to ask a couple questions:

Romie, you seem like the expert so far. I am 21 years old, 5'11", between 180-190 pounds. I have been lifting for years, not really serious stuff, but I have decent muscle definition.

I am looking to increase size, lose fat around my waist and sides, and get a six pack.

My question is how many calories should I be consuming daily? Given that I work out 4 days a week (1 day for Bi's + back + shoulders, 1 day for Chest + Tri's, 1 day for legs and one day cardio).

Also what, if any , changes in routine should I do? Should I work out certain muscle groups more than once a week? Any help is appreciated.

[ShinAkumax]

Can I see some pics of the "beasts" of this tread? Not a flame, just curious.

[swerve]

What's goin on guys.

quick question. I'm currently 6'4" 260. I have really good stamina and play basketball nearly everyday for an hour. I'm looking to bulk up a bit more and get a bit more firm however I have access to NO weight equipment. Any suggestions? Last year I weighed about 290... then I dropped to 230... now I'm back to 260 and it's staying there since I'm most comfortable like this.

I'm thinking to build up a bit in my legs I should start jumping some rope possibly?

give me you .02.

-adam

[ParryAll]

Can I see some pics of the "beasts" of this tread? Not a flame, just curious.

Yeah same here. Not a gay request either. If I knew what you guys looked like I'd know who really knows there stuff and who doesn't.

[ParryAll]

Hey anyone know of a site that has calorie listings for various foods? I am starting a strict diet, and need to know how many calories are in say a banana, or an Egg or whatever.

-edit- another quick question. On bench press, how much does the bar itself weigh?

[TwelveInchPenis]

The bar usually weighs 45 lbs though I've been to gyms that have thicker bars so it does vary.

[MagnusMadness]

Hey anyone know of a site that has calorie listings for various foods? I am starting a strict diet, and need to know how many calories are in say a banana, or an Egg or whatever.

-edit- another quick question. On bench press, how much does the bar itself weigh?

Whenever you go buy this stuff u can check the nutrition facts for calories...cept for banana's and I don't know where you'd find the nutritional value of that...

[$|-|U(V)AYeL]

Allmax nutrition Isoflex, reviews on this product?

[MagnusMadness]

Allmax nutrition Isoflex, reviews on this product?


Never heard of it....what is it? A protein powder???

[ParryAll]

Whenever you go buy this stuff u can check the nutrition facts for calories...cept for banana's and I don't know where you'd find the nutritional value of that...

Lol no shit dude.... :rolleyes:

[MagnusMadness]

Lol no shit dude.... :rolleyes:


A dumb answer to a stupid fucking question...who asked that question again??? :rolleyes:

I guess I should've started with a smartass remark...that get's more respect around here...fuck if I try to help anybody in here again. U lazy fuckers can stay fat and/or stay small, I'm done in here.

[Nando]

Has anybody tried the RIp kit from GNC??

I want to buy that, and I thinkt their having a special on it.

[Soldier Zero]

I didn't want to make a thread for this, so I'm just gonna ask here.

I drink mainly orange juice lately (I quit soda), I drink probably a good 3 to 5 glasses a day, are there any negative effects of drinking it so much? I know OJ's pretty acidic so I'm curious if I should lessen the intake.

[opticallyinviz]

uh alot of orange juice will give you the shits.

[DaDesiCanadian]

I didn't want to make a thread for this, so I'm just gonna ask here.

I drink mainly orange juice lately (I quit soda), I drink probably a good 3 to 5 glasses a day, are there any negative effects of drinking it so much? I know OJ's pretty acidic so I'm curious if I should lessen the intake.

Yeah, it is acidic, due to the citrus. However, google tells us that it in fact raises the alkaline content of your google, which is weird. :xeye:
But still, i'm guessing it's not healthy for the stomach lining. It can also cause heartburn for some people, if drunk in excess. Stick to water.

[Soldier Zero]

Yeah, it is acidic, due to the citrus. However, google tells us that it in fact raises the alkaline content of your google, which is weird. :xeye:
But still, i'm guessing it's not healthy for the stomach lining. It can also cause heartburn for some people, if drunk in excess. Stick to water.

Alright, thanks.

[Soldier Zero]

Actually, would it be all that different if I switched to something such as Welcher's grape juice or another drink?

[Taito]

Why does everyone recommend mixing straight-up creatine with grape juice? What's wrong with mixing it with another soft drink, like Gatorade or something?

[MagnusMadness]

Why does everyone recommend mixing straight-up creatine with grape juice? What's wrong with mixing it with another soft drink, like Gatorade or something?


Actually, from what I've been told, recent studies have shown that the acids found in juices kill creatine and create a creatine byproduct that is harmful to ur body...If you get an unflavored creatine powder you could mix it with just about anything though for that matter.

[Chaos]

The reason why people suggest mixing creatine with grape juice is simple, Insulin. Insulin will enhance metabolic uptake of creatine into cells and simply put, sugar drives insulin spikes. The reason they suggest grape juice is its glycemic index rating is basically right on par for causing a short, quick spike in blood sugar levels causing insulin output. The reason why it is not advised to used other soft drinks is basically caloric, thats the reason so many people bloat on cell tech, it has assloads of sugar to drive creatine in the cells, but at the same time the empty calories promote fat storage.

[fishjie]

what are harmful effects to creatine? so far the only answer i got was from romie in the mens health thread - dehydration. is that it?

if so, why do the instructions recommend taking 4 weeks break from creatine after 8 weeks of use.

kthx

[Romie]

what are harmful effects to creatine? so far the only answer i got was from romie in the mens health thread - dehydration. is that it?

if so, why do the instructions recommend taking 4 weeks break from creatine after 8 weeks of use.

kthx

Cause after a certian point your body gets used to it. When you stop taking it it's like refreshing your body so it can accept it again.

[MagnusMadness]

Cause after a certian point your body gets used to it. When you stop taking it it's like refreshing your body so it can accept it again.

I've also heard that was apart of an old school of thought...cycling off and then loading up again...if you've noticed alot of the creatines don't necessarily recommend a loading phase anymore either...

[Romie]

Loading isn't necessary. Loading is just to sort of rush your muscles with creatine, but it happens within the first week or two with taking it normally anyway.But stopping after a couple of weeks is. Like with anything else you do, your body is gonna get used to it and try to balance itself out. That's why people hit plateu's in lifting and dieting, cause they keep doing the same thing for a long time.

[300 lb Eugene]

Cause after a certian point your body gets used to it. When you stop taking it it's like refreshing your body so it can accept it again.


NO!!:amazed: You're supposed to lay off for a certain period of time because its stressful on the kidneys. If you overdose you can damage them, especially if your not drinking enough water. If you have diabetes, kidney problems, have allergies, or taking medication,
you need to talk to a doctorbefore taking it.

[300 lb Eugene]

I didn't want to make a thread for this, so I'm just gonna ask here.

I drink mainly orange juice lately (I quit soda), I drink probably a good 3 to 5 glasses a day, are there any negative effects of drinking it so much? I know OJ's pretty acidic so I'm curious if I should lessen the intake.

-Processed orange juice tends to have a lot of sugar in it.
-Can cause malnutrition and tooth decay in little kids,cause of the acid and sugar.
-stomach problems like gas and cramping.
other than that.....

[Romie]

NO!!:amazed: You're supposed to lay off for a certain period of time because its stressful on the kidneys. If you overdose you can damage them, especially if your not drinking enough water. If you have diabetes, kidney problems, have allergies, or taking medication,
you need to talk to a doctorbefore taking it.

Doesn't really do much damage to a healthy person. It's not that much of a concern.

And yes, I don't know much about creatine, cause I never really took it.

[MagnusMadness]

BUMP

I changed my split up after doing that 6 day split for a month...and it's like my body is powering up from all the extra rest...I haven't gained any more weight necessarily but I've seen stupid gains in strength, my bench for one and just about every other exercise. I'm a big fan of making every single workout different in some way now too. For instance, if I did incline with a barbell last week, this week I'll incline with dumbells.

Romie didn't you have some kind of injury or something?? Have you started lifting again...if so what does ur split look like??

[Romie]

Fractured ribs. I'm not gonna start lifting until mid-September. I haven't really made a new split yet.

[Tekno Virus]

Can I see some pics of the "beasts" of this tread? Not a flame, just curious
www.fitflex.com/ultralab_sterobol_review.html

I think this's it. It's made by ultralab (i think) so if it's not try googling ultralab beast.

[Lan Di]

w00t! I'm past the 50 pounds of weight loss mark now. I started in May :clap: :tup: .

Trying to lose about another 30 for sure, and possibly another 25 after that.

This is a lot easier than most people make it out to be, IMO.

[Red-Impact]

w00t! I'm past the 50 pounds of weight loss mark now. I started in May :clap: :tup: .

Trying to lose about another 30 for sure, and possibly another 25 after that.

This is a lot easier than most people make it out to be, IMO.

What have you been doing?

I excersize but can't stop eating trash...seems it's in my blood.

[Lan Di]

What have you been doing?

I excersize but can't stop eating trash...seems it's in my blood.

< Warning this post is long>
More or less this is what i have done:

1. Changed what I drink: I used to drink ZERO water by itself, i did not like the taste of it at all and VERY rarely drank it by itself. I drank mostly sweet tea, but also some sodas etc. Now i drink probably 98% water. When i eat cereal i have milk with it if you want to count that, and sometimes i'll drink some apple juice. I haven't drank tea since May even once i think, and soda is very rare, only when i am at someone's house as a guest or something and they offer it to me basically.

2. Changed what i eat and how much i eat: I used to eat garbage, and lots of it. Dont get me wrong, i wasn't eating dorritos for dinner or anything but I'd eat frozen burritos for lunch every day with cheese, i'd have a sandwhich for a snack, maybe some pizza or a burger for lunch sometimes etc etc. Plus, i would eat way too much. I'd eat snacks when i didn't need anything etc.
NOW i eat a salad for lunch (about 140 calories + whatever the lettuce adds, only like 6 grams of fat, no cheese) and normal stuff for dinner. Like for dinner i might have some steak and potatoes or porkchop and beans or something, but i make sure not to add hurtfull stuff to it and i keep the portion sizes down. If i get hungry otherwise, like between the 2 meals or after supper, either some cereal or some fruit. I dont eat breakfast.

3. Exercise: I walk about 2.8 miles ever morning monday-friday. I dont even walk it that fast, takes me like 50 minutes. Other than that not much, i do some grip traning and one of my exercises is tossing a weight around some that is cardio but i dont even do that very often. Sometimes i'll jog down to get the mail (about 100yards round trip maybe) or something like that, but mostly just the daily walking.

That's pretty much it. I dont know for a fact how much i weighed when i started, but about a year before i started i went to the doctor cause my hand was acting wierd and i weighed 330lbs. I would imagine that during the year following that visit i certainly did not lose any weight. So i would say i weiged an easy 330 at the beginning of May, maybe more, but at least 330. I started the walking around May 15 i think, the better eating and drinking around the beginning of may.

This morning i weiged 276. Good luck :tup: Sorry this was
so long.

EDIT: p.s. Maybe the weight is coming off easy for me since i was so overweight to begin with....maybe? Also, yes i realize i'm still very overweight, but hey, i'm making progress! I want to get down to 250 ASAP (probably within 2-3 months) but overall i'd like to get down to 220 or so.

[$|-|U(V)AYeL]

snip

Good stuff man.. eat every 2-3 hours, and take omega 369 oil. You need that healthy fat! BTW, you should really try interval training it's supposed to increase your metabolism like mad and I didn't see you mention anywhere about lifting weights.. that REALLY helps you lose fat as well and builds muscle, in the beginning atleast.

[MagnusMadness]

What have you been doing?

I excersize but can't stop eating trash...seems it's in my blood.

If ur not watching what you eat, whether ur trying to gain or lose weight...ur wasting ur time in the gym....completely. Get fired up man...just tell yourself ur gonna FUCKING do it and DO IT. Once you see a lil results u'll get pumped and take it a step further...least that's what I did. I got fat...then lost 30 pounds...got pumped and gained 35 back in the way of muscle...

[Lan Di]

I didn't see you mention anywhere about lifting weights.. that REALLY helps you lose fat as well and builds muscle, in the beginning atleast.

I was going to start lifting but i thought i read somewhere that lifting weights is counterproductive when you're on a weight loss plan. I guess i misinterpretted that to mean it is counterproductive to a fat-loss plan. So, should i lift or not? The school i go to has free access to a weight facility and it's supposed to be pretty good. So, should i hit that up? It wont help me lose weight but will help me lose fat? I'm trying to understand it correctly...

[MagnusMadness]

I was going to start lifting but i thought i read somewhere that lifting weights is counterproductive when you're on a weight loss plan. I guess i misinterpretted that to mean it is counterproductive to a fat-loss plan. So, should i lift or not? The school i go to has free access to a weight facility and it's supposed to be pretty good. So, should i hit that up? It wont help me lose weight but will help me lose fat? I'm trying to understand it correctly...

That's actually backwards kinda...What you saw someone say is that's it's extremely hard if not impossible to build muscle while losing weight...I for one can only speak from experience...when I started lifting, eating right, and doing cardio I lost roughly 30 pounds and put on a bit of muscle.

From what I've been told muscle is metabolic tissue...and it's easier to lose a little weight and cut up when you have a solid muscular base to work with...at least I've found that true with myself.

I'd say keep dieting and exercising, and by exercise I mean cardio and WEIGHT TRAINING. When the weight starts melting off of you and unveils a solid athletically muscular individual, I think you will be more pleased than if you just lost a ton of weight and turned into this slightly overweight kid who counts carbs and wishes he had a six pack.

[Red-Impact]

If ur not watching what you eat, whether ur trying to gain or lose weight...ur wasting ur time in the gym....completely. Get fired up man...just tell yourself ur gonna FUCKING do it and DO IT. Once you see a lil results u'll get pumped and take it a step further...least that's what I did. I got fat...then lost 30 pounds...got pumped and gained 35 back in the way of muscle...

Well I don't go to the gym but do cardio. I try to do a few pushups with my cardio after I am done.

The above seems to balace my eating habits sicne I have not/lost any weight in the past couple of months....the push ups have bulked my arms a tiny bit...but still noticeable.

Thanks for the advice btw, One thing that I have been doing these past few months is getting into the habit of drinking water and almost ditched soda completely. If I do have the urge for a sweet drink I'll go for a gatorade, but nothing more.

The bolony and hot dogs are just too good :shake: :sad:

[Quicksilver3007]

I definitely went overkill at the gym this week. I lift and run Monday through Friday and give myself the weekend to rest. Right now my arms are still in shock from this week. I can't fully extend my arms without getting sharp pains in my elbows and triceps. I didn't even go this Friday because I wanted to give myself three solid days of rest. It's pretty great tho because I'm starting to see the prize at the end of the pain.

I'm one of the lucky few guys who happens to have the body somatotype of a fitness model. I've finally committed to keeping myself in shape. I go workout out everday after classes and I can feel the growth in my muscles. I eat a lot better than I used to as well. I mostly drink water, milk, and juice. I hardly have soda except on rare occassions.

I don't mean to come on here to try and brag or anything, it's just nice to know there are other people out there to help answer questions and provide some friendly support.:pleased:

I'm actually considering changing my cardio workout to swimming since I'm six feet even and I've heard that it's better in the long run on your joints and bones. Right now I'm taking protein but is there anything else that you guys use besides creatine? I've done some reading on creatine and I think the biggest problem is that most people simply don't know how to take it properly. I'm not interested in using it for my own reasons tho. What other supplement would you guys recommend?

[Ninja Pea]

Think about it, the more muscles you have the more calories you burn. The body uses more excess energy in keeping them going.

[Lan Di]

Alright then! I guess i'll start lifting. I dont really know anything about it though. I mean i've lifted before, played football in junior high, but I dont remember much of how to go about it and how much to do etc etc.

My school schedule allows me to lift Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, so that should be pretty good right? I can do cardio on saturday and tuesday, is that good? I guess i'll go back through this thread and read the tips, but if anyone wants to save me the trouble and shoot me a few general tips, that'd be great.

[MagnusMadness]

Alright then! I guess i'll start lifting. I dont really know anything about it though. I mean i've lifted before, played football in junior high, but I dont remember much of how to go about it and how much to do etc etc.

My school schedule allows me to lift Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, so that should be pretty good right? I can do cardio on saturday and tuesday, is that good? I guess i'll go back through this thread and read the tips, but if anyone wants to save me the trouble and shoot me a few general tips, that'd be great.

Well with what you're trying to do. I would recommend relatively light weight (by that I don't mean easy, I mean failure between the 12th and 15th rep) and try to be strict and keep the rest between sets to a minimum...maybe a minute and a half. U'll keep ur heart rate up that way and burn more calories just by lifting...which will help tremendously with ur ultimate goal of weight loss. Since ur lifting only 3 days a week I would recommend this split...

On monday do back and biceps...I'm not going to get into too much detail about reps/sets/exercises...but pull-ups(or any similar motion on a machine) and rows (barbell, t-bar, pulley, or dumbell rows doesn't matter) are the main emphasis on back day. After you've worked ur back out sufficiently do some curling exercises to finish off ur biceps and call it a day.

On wednesday u can hit chest and tri's. U played football so you know how to do this I'm sure...stick to pressing exercises of ALL angles and flyes, and finish off ur triceps with any kind of dumbell or barbell extensions or maybe close grip bench press.

On friday try to get legs and shoulders...start with legs, maybe some squats/leg extensions/leg press/leg curls/calf raises and for shoulders just a good military style pressing exercise with a barbell or dumbells or a machine, and if u feel up to it maybe some frontal dumbell raises and reverse flyes...

If you try lifting out and eat right and still do cardio, I think you will be pleased with the results, just be patient and stick to it...Oh yeah and when you work out ur legs u might get nausious, especially if ur not resting more than a minute and a half between sets, don't worry though it's completely normal...Hope I was of some help to you and if you have any more questions I would be happy to try and help some more.

[MagnusMadness]

bump muthafucka

[Lan Di]

Man i'm having a hard time motivating myself to go work out alone. Something about working out in a place with other people, but doing it without a friend, alone, makes me feel weird.

Anyone else have this problem? I mean if i was at my house working out alone wouldn't be a big deal...i'm not sure why it feels so weird in public.

School stinks, takes up my time in the mornings for walking. I'm having to try to like shoehorn it in here and there, in the afternoons, when it's rainy outside, whatever i can whenever i can. Must not quit though. I gotta get down to at LEAST 250 before i can even think about slacking (by which i mean not losing, but not gaining, i never ever want to gain again unless it's pure muscle).

[300 lb Eugene]

Usually when Im at the gym and I see a guy whos benching cars,running 40's in a short time or have really ripped abs ,that motivates me to workout harder , but you must have a conviction to do it.You have to want it.

More and people seem to be having sugery done to reduce fat .
They get critisized for doing it, but whatever takes the weight off I guess

[MagnusMadness]

Usually when Im at the gym and I see a guy whos benching cars,running 40's in a short time or have really ripped abs ,that motivates me to workout harder , but you must have a conviction to do it.You have to want it.

More and people seem to be having sugery done to reduce fat .
They get critisized for doing it, but whatever takes the weight off I guess

what's REALLY sad about the surgery thing is it doesn't make you lose anything, it just makes it impossible to gorge yourself...effectively removing willpower and conviction from the equation. That's why SOOOO many people gain ALOT if not all of it back...cuz they stretch their stomach back out after so long.

[DanSC]

anyone know what kind of food would gain flesh on your body?

[TehNewGuy]

Has anyone here used Myoplex meal replacements?

[Quicksilver3007]

what's REALLY sad about the surgery thing is it doesn't make you lose anything, it just makes it impossible to gorge yourself...effectively removing willpower and conviction from the equation. That's why SOOOO many people gain ALOT if not all of it back...cuz they stretch their stomach back out after so long.

GGPO right there. I've started doing some cross training as of right now. I run 5 days a weeks and lift 3 days a week. I like to workout Monday through Friday to give myself the whole weekend to rest. Here's a typical week for me.

Monday - Chest/Triceps/Run 1.5 miles
Tuesday - Core Workout(Lower back/abs)/Run 2 miles
Wednesday - Back/Biceps/Run 1.5 miles
Thursday - Core Workout/Run 2 miles
Friday - Forearms and Calves or Legs/Run 1.5 miles

I'm taking protein too. I really love that feeling after you work out when your arms just feel huge from all the blood still pumping.

Lan Di - You shouldn't feel weird about working out by yourself. I usually go and work out when all my friends are in classes, so it can't be helped. As far as motivating yourself just think about all the good that your doing for your body. You can also do what I do and just make it a part of your schedule. After I get done with classes everyday I simply go to the gym and get my workout done. It's just a part of my routine like brushing my teeth or showering in the morning. After doing something for 21 days straight it will become a habit.

Also a tip to anyone doing running or any kind of cardio workout. If you are running, swimming, cycling, or whatever that is strenuous on your heart you should do a cooldown after you get done with your workout. After I finish running I never stop moving completely. Nine laps is a mile on the indoor track that I run on so after I get finished with my 18 laps I always walk 2 more for my cooldown.

The whole reasons some runners throw up after a hard run is because they stop running completely and have their heart rate come crashing down from 200 beats per minute to resting heart rate which is what makes them sick.

[ShinAkumax]

Also, when I work out I like to feel the "burn" but I also like to get a bit of muscle to me. Maximum weight that I can move while keeping form - 5-6 reps. I could do the 3 rep thing but then I lose form or cheat. I believe in maintaintaing good form above all. then after those 6 reps I inmediatly go to the next low weight till exhaustion.

EG from 35 I go to 30 till exhaustion. I can usually do about 6-7 of those. I do this for my 3 sets and in the last set, I just keep going further and further down on weight gradually till the 10 pound barbell fells like the 35, this is when I get the "burn" If I was keeping count, the last set can go in to the 30th rep sometime. Also when I work, I always try to keep my rest periods under 1 minute. 30 seconds if I can. And when I'm done the set on say - Biceps, I hit the biceps again from another angle. Example.

Preacher Curl followed by Sitting Dumbell Curls, followed by standing bar curl followed by cable curl. I follow the "burn" method for all of there. The question is, what is this doing? I'm doing it because it feel good. My body feels like it has worked out.

So yeah, what is your imput on that?

PS: I always work out by myself La, I hate people.

[MagnusMadness]

Also, when I work out I like to feel the "burn" but I also like to get a bit of muscle to me. Maximum weight that I can move while keeping form - 5-6 reps. I could do the 3 rep thing but then I lose form or cheat. I believe in maintaintaing good form above all. then after those 6 reps I inmediatly go to the next low weight till exhaustion.

EG from 35 I go to 30 till exhaustion. I can usually do about 6-7 of those. I do this for my 3 sets and in the last set, I just keep going further and further down on weight gradually till the 10 pound barbell fells like the 35, this is when I get the "burn" If I was keeping count, the last set can go in to the 30th rep sometime. Also when I work, I always try to keep my rest periods under 1 minute. 30 seconds if I can. And when I'm done the set on say - Biceps, I hit the biceps again from another angle. Example.

Preacher Curl followed by Sitting Dumbell Curls, followed by standing bar curl followed by cable curl. I follow the "burn" method for all of there. The question is, what is this doing? I'm doing it because it feel good. My body feels like it has worked out.

So yeah, what is your imput on that?

PS: I always work out by myself La, I hate people.

I'm not as well versed in the physiology of lifting as chaos...but from what I've been told the burn is a build up of lactic acid and/or lack of oxygen to the muscle...if that's not correct then it wouldn't be the first time for me...I always feel a burning sensation when I'm in the rep range between 12 and 15 reps OR I'm supersetting/drop setting...as of right now I shy away from supersetting as much as possible and the highest amount of reps I do is between 8 and 10 reps, and I rest quite a bit between sets as I am more concerned with strength then size....I will slow a set down and concentrate on flawless form and an increased negative before I do more reps...so to each his own. What you are doing is great for muscular endurance IMHO and also great cardio. I would recommend changing the rep range every 6 to 8 weeks though and moving up in weight. E.G. phase 1 (hypertrophy) 12th rep being a failure rep..phase 2 (strength) 6 to 8 reps...phase 3 (power) 4-6 reps doing enough weight mind you that a 7th rep in good form isn't possible...then wash rinse repeat...if ur really into lifting then changing things up on a regular basis is not only good for shocking the body but it makes things alot more fun and interesting to me...Every time I work out a body part I change at least one thing, even if it's just doing incline with dumbells instead of a barbell...

On a side note, I got 255 today twice (flat bench) YaY.

[Panicked]

Can someone help me out? Anyone have any tips to make your skin look healthier?

[Romie]

Can someone help me out? Anyone have any tips to make your skin look healthier?

See a dermatologist.

[BrazilionBH]

Working out is the easy part of gaining weight and getting into shape.The hard part is making yourself eat right and to have the dedication and drive to goto the gym 5 days a week

[BrazilionBH]

Has anyone here used Myoplex meal replacements?
yeah they are great if you have the money for it and i mean alot of money.

[Rokusho]

yeah they are great if you have the money for it and i mean alot of money.


That's one scary ass avatar. I never really liked that guy.

[Romie]

yeah they are great if you have the money for it and i mean alot of money.

HAHA.

I don't know if it's sad or cool that I know where that avatar is from.

[MagnusMadness]

hey romie or whoever...where are some good weightlifting forums???

[Sexperienced.]

yeah they are great if you have the money for it and i mean alot of money.

is that that king kong chili guy (whatever his name is) in your av?

[opticallyinviz]

Guy up above, don't workout every set to failure, it's not good for you.

Honestly only go to failure like once a week on an exercise, it's a lot more beneficial.

[MagnusMadness]

Guy up above, don't workout every set to failure, it's not good for you.

Honestly only go to failure like once a week on an exercise, it's a lot more beneficial.

Are you kidding?? What makes you say that it's more beneficial?? And this better be good.

Cuz taking sets to failure is how you determine what amount of weight you should be lifting...and if you don't push yourself you are wasting ur time in the gym...I'm trying to tear down muscle tissue, not just get a pump and waste 30 minutes of my day. Everything I've ever read says if ur not taking ur sets to failure, you are failing to do ur sets. If I'm not taking a set to failure I at least push myself to the point that I can't do any more reps in flawless form. If you don't take sets to failure how could you ever gage ur own strength and track ur growth and progress??

[Chaos]

The current buzz around "the pump" is one of the dumbest trends that I can remember in recent years.

[opticallyinviz]

If you honestly think you should be tkaing every set to failure, you have no idea about anythinbg related tow eightlifting and you should just quit right now because you're overtraining.

The lactic acid build up caused by going to failure reduces growth if there's too much. Hence why any bodybuilder/strongman never ever goes to failure.

How the fuck does tkaing it to failure dtermine how much you should be lifting? are you fucking smoking crack? Jesus christ your idiocy makes me want to punch myself in the face.

Go read, please.

[300 lb Eugene]

hey romie or whoever...where are some good weightlifting forums???


IRONMAGAZINE.COM thats where Im at.

[MagnusMadness]

If you honestly think you should be tkaing every set to failure, you have no idea about anythinbg related tow eightlifting and you should just quit right now because you're overtraining.

The lactic acid build up caused by going to failure reduces growth if there's too much. Hence why any bodybuilder/strongman never ever goes to failure.

How the fuck does tkaing it to failure dtermine how much you should be lifting? are you fucking smoking crack? Jesus christ your idiocy makes me want to punch myself in the face.

Go read, please.

Right I should quit right now..because I've only gained 50 pounds since high school...and I'm about 5'9" and almost 200 pounds solid. I deadlift over 400 and squat close to 400...I've only doubled in strength since I started lifting 2 years ago. I should just quit cuz whatever I'm doing isn't working at all. That's how I've always trained and most people at my gym train....why else would you ever need a spotter?? Hell when I have a spotter I go PAST failure and tax the shit out of my muscles. Hell my brother used to do 5 sets of 5 going PAST failure and dude has hellacious stretch marks on his chest where he grew too fast...overtraining?? seriously doubt it...

[opticallyinviz]

Alright, so I only work at a supplement store and design weightlifting programs for bodybuilders. But really, what does that mean right?

It's great that this works for you. But it won't for 99% of people. It's not good for your muscles to go to failure every set, it's very plain and simple. gainging 50 lbs in all honesty has very, very little to do with this. Gaining weight is all about your diet.

ANd saying you deadlift 400 blah blah blah... you're not the only one. You're not going to impress me, sorry.

The point of a spotter, is so you don't crush yourself.

5 sets of 5 is a tried and tested way to get bigger yes, but you want 5 reps with good form. Not failing on every set. Cause that's just plain dumb.

[MagnusMadness]

Alright, so I only work at a supplement store and design weightlifting programs for bodybuilders. But really, what does that mean right?

It's great that this works for you. But it won't for 99% of people. It's not good for your muscles to go to failure every set, it's very plain and simple. gainging 50 lbs in all honesty has very, very little to do with this. Gaining weight is all about your diet.

ANd saying you deadlift 400 blah blah blah... you're not the only one. You're not going to impress me, sorry.

The point of a spotter, is so you don't crush yourself.

5 sets of 5 is a tried and tested way to get bigger yes, but you want 5 reps with good form. Not failing on every set. Cause that's just plain dumb.

You train bodybuilders huh?? Who are you certified through?? That's funny that my way of doing things only works for me when the last two people I've trained have both put on over 20 pounds and get accused of steroid use on an almost daily basis....

What exactly is your definition of a failure rep anyway?? My definition of a failure rep is the last rep you CAN do (alone) IN form.

Now don't get me wrong...not EVERY set is taken to failure...I do an adequate amount of stretching before I start and I also do a VERY light set to warm up with for instance...today I worked chest...I started with incline dumbell presses and grabbed 40's and did a very slow set resting at the bottom and squeezing at the top. Then I grabbed the 80's and did 10 reps without failing, then I go to 85's and fail at the 9th rep, again a very slow and controlled movement squeezing at the top...and then I
grab 90's and with a spot I fail around the 6th rep.

If you don't take ur sets to failure, how do you know if you are getting stronger?? How do you know if what you are doing on a weekly basis is working for you at all??

Can someone else please give me some input on this subject...I would very much like to know what everyone else thinks about this...

[opticallyinviz]

That's not a failure rep, read up on your jargon.

A failure rep is when you have ther drop the weight because you couldn't it, hence the name FAILURE.

Um, I know if I'm getting stronger because the weight I use increases?
Worst part is the highest dumb bells wehave are 120's so now I have to use the bar for bench.

and you should only be doing sets of 10,8,6 after your warm up. You're not failing at all. You're doing exactly what you should be.

[Romie]

Keep it civil guys.

I don't really go to failure myself because I workout alone. I don't see the point in going to failure if you're training with intensity. To each his own I guess.

[Deus]

can anybody recommend some good meal plans focused on reducing body fat

[akuma1340]

can anybody recommend some good meal plans focused on reducing body fatBefore I can post any suggestions post what kinda exercise/lifting routine your doing right now and go from there.

[Deus]

not lifting anything yet

crunches, leg lifts, push ups 3 times a week

interval runs and burpees 4-5 times a week

[MagnusMadness]

Keep it civil guys.

I don't really go to failure myself because I workout alone. I don't see the point in going to failure if you're training with intensity. To each his own I guess.

I work out alone too. That's why I use dumbells mostly...and when I want to bench there's usually somebody at the gym that I know who'll be happy to spot me.

[Red-Impact]

I finally joined the Gym (about 3 or two weeks ago) and been working pretty hard during weekdays. doing Cardio and Lifting 3 times a week.

I am a bit skeptical when it comes to the threadmill. I'm I really running 1 mile none stop? I remember I couldn't even last half a mile before....why would I do now after just ONE week of going?

I run for about 20 mins non stop (if I can make it) and burn about 350 calories (or so the machine says....). If this is true and I continue excersizing at this rate I'll lose the gut in no time :encore:

[GRITZ]

Laterals = Pulling weight down from above your head to work your back.

Actually Laterals are to lift weight laterally, meaning to bring it up sideways. The Lat pull is called the Lat pull because of the muscle it works out, the latissimus dorsi, which is part of your back. Lat pull isnt a lateral pull.

[DaDesiCanadian]

I finally joined the Gym (about 3 or two weeks ago) and been working pretty hard during weekdays. doing Cardio and Lifting 3 times a week.

I am a bit skeptical when it comes to the threadmill. I'm I really running 1 mile none stop? I remember I couldn't even last half a mile before....why would I do now after just ONE week of going?

I run for about 20 mins non stop (if I can make it) and burn about 350 calories (or so the machine says....). If this is true and I continue excersizing at this rate I'll lose the gut in no time :encore:

Yeah, treadmills make it easier because the ground is literally helping you run. Run outside. It's better for you. Stick to the weights in the gym.

[Nep2une]

So in about 6 weeks I'll be done and certified as a ISSA personal trainer and mabey after this I might try the Performance nutrition specialist certification. Has any one done this already ? If so how is it going for you? I already have a handful of people I write workouts and diets for just as a friend so I figured I may as well get payed for it. 35 some odd dollars a session isn't bad side money. Being a manager for Jelly Belly isn't exactly the big money lol. Im also planning to compete possibly three times in 2006 because you need to have competed in two shows to qualify for Team U.S.A which is where I plan to earn pro status. This is natural bodybuilding by the way ( basically taking things that are legal not exactly natural)

If anyone else is doing this w/o a associates degree lol let me know how it's going for you and some of the things you did to get new clients. Im in Nor Cal right now and i'll post some pics that i'll be taking in November, mabey I can get some clients from SRK ;-P Im definately open to giving free advice but somehow I doubt I'll be taken seriously until I post some professional pics so until then ;-)

My e-mail is Nep2une222@Yahoo.com Oh yeah IM 23 years old and when I graduated highschool i was 5"5 117, I was about 138 11% bf before I got serious. now after close to two years of natural bodybuilding ( actual bodybuilding not just lifting) Im 5"9 160-165 lbs BF -7 to 8% year round , I plan to compete at about 173 to 175 lbs ripped around 4% bf which may sound impossible to accomplish by next year but it isn't ;-)
Not when you get familiar with the ABC diet which is in my oppinion the best alternative to steroids known to man.

e-mail me about it or google it, the diet is incredible.

Nep2une222@yahoo.com

[$|-|U(V)AYeL]

How can I naturally increase my levels of testoserone? I mean in terms of diet and work out?

[Nep2une]

Throw bench dips into your workouts also.

facing away from a bench or seat or something elevated
put your hands behind you rested on the bench with your legs are extended forward, feet resting on the ground in a almost seated position. Closer you get to the ground with your butt the more strain is put on your triceps, so make it burn. Throw in like 4 sets of 8 to 15 of these or whatever you can challenge yourself with.

Meals plans targeted towards lowering fat intake.

I don't know your diet is like but here's some idea's.
Don't look at food intake so much as pleasure but more of a means of getting the body you want, with pleasure sometimes being a side bonus ;-P

Last time I saw you was at a Psm tourney about 2 years ago and you were about 5"10 - 5"11 and really skinny

Try multiple small meals

Don't eat to the point of being stuffed if you start to get full just stop eating and save/ throw the rest away. Im poor and I don't throw food away so sometimes i'll save food to be my next meal or part of my next meal.

Eat just to the point of where you feel satisfied but might be hungry in another hour.

Here's a sample day

Breakfast- bowl of oatmeal, 2 fruits, water

Snack- some mixed nuts, bagel ( or something small with some carbs) Water. ( basically just to take the edge off so your not starving like Marvin)

Lunch - chicken breast cut up and put in salad ( dressing is fine) 1 fruit ( apple, orange, bannana w/e) Water

Snack - pop open that can of nuts again lol mabey a couple small baked potatoes and a fruit. Water

Dinner - chicken breast, mabey cut up and put in some boxed pasta noodles or put the noodles on the side. Water

Make sure the Meal after your workout if a heavier meal like the
Lunch. And that you have some carbs in the meal before the exercise so you can actually get through the exercise. It's not helping you if you throw up during the exercise because your so hungry. Unless you've gained alot of weight in the last 2 years this should be good for you, you can tinker with it if your starving to bad lol add 2 a fruit or a baked potatoe or whatever.

Don't have anymore then 1 meal before you exercise meaning exercise in the morning because thats where you have your greatest potential for burning calories.

If your consistent with your exercising and eat something similiar to this you'll be guaranteed to burn fat
and mabey gain a little bit of muscular shape mabey lol
but for that you'll eventually get into some lifting.

E-mail me and let me know what your goals are so i can give you some advice that applies directly to you or next time your up in Norcal let me know and i'll hook you up with some goods.

[Tekno Virus]

Whenever i do heavy weights, i always get stuck in the middle and spend a lot of energy getting past the stuck point. If i go half-way, i can lift like 185lbs. for 8-10 reps on the bench. I don't think it's flexibility because i have always streched a lot and always have been flexible.

Can anyone help?

[Nep2une]

I personally believe that through a healthy life style in general
( normal sleep, semi healthy eating and being active)
Nothing special your body will produce the normal amounts of test that you need. But below is some info ( I didn't write)
on some natural ingredients that have the whole
( If you take this...........It "MAY" increase this ) correlation going on. I would say don't take any of those things and don't buy any " Legal test booster" Because they don't work and real test is illegal but hard to get. If you want increased Test it more then likely isn't going to be anything natural about it. buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut lol there was a study that showed that when monkeys were given 37 % or so more then the normal amount of soy reccomended for humans that they became something insane like 300% more aggressive LOL!

Long story short healthy living will bring your test levels up to standards and if you want more the what your body see's fit while living healthy then go buy some test, and don't take it by it's self no one does a steroid cycle with just test.
And then you increase you chances of being unhealthy and you have to use clomid to bring your balls back it it's just not a good look ........



How does the body know how much testosterone to make and release?
The testes receive chemical signals from the pituitary gland, which is located at the base of the brain. The pituitary gland receives signals from the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus secretes gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH). This signals the pituitary gland to produce and secrete follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH). LH orders the testes to produce testosterone. If the testes begin producing too much testosterone, the body sends signals to the pituitary telling it to make less LH. This, in turn, slows down the production of testosterone.





Saw Palmetto Extract: Saw Palmetto is a small, palm like North American plant. The Saw Palmetto extract comes from berries of small palm trees, and the extracts comprise of different fatty acids and sterols. Native Americans have used the Saw Palmetto berry to treat genital, urinary tract, and reproductive system problems. Saw Palmetto is widely researched and used in Europe, and is now gaining popularity in North America, and being used for its benefits for the urinary tract.

Saw Palmetto herb extract has been marketed as an aphrodisiac for men and women, and it's also anabolic (muscle building), and helps build muscle tissues. Saw Palmetto is made up of Fatty acids - Saw Palmetto contains a variety of fatty acids including lauric acid, oleic acid, myristic acid, and palmitic acid, Phytosterols (plant sterols), and polysaccharides.
Milk Thistle Extract: Athletes and bodybuilders may benefit from the use of milk thistle. Athletes and bodybuilders typically use many nutritional supplements at one time, in order to boost performance. The use of a number of supplements at one time may produce synergism that results in enormous stress being placed upon the liver.

After a cycle of anabolic steroids, pro-hormones, thermogenics, or any other supplement, athletes may find it helpful to allow the body to rest from supplementation, while taking milk thistle to promote liver health.

Cycling supplements in an on-again-off-again manner, while using milk thistle in between, will ensure liver health and successful performance.

Alpha Lipoic Acid: Basically, ALA helps us collect energy and nutrients from the food we eat. The body needs ALA to produce energy. It plays a crucial role in the mitochondria, the energy-producing structures in cells.

ALA is somewhat of a universal supplement for those training to improve their physiques as it has many roles which suit a variety of different goals. Here are the main uses:

- As a preventative or restorative aid for the liver
- As a dieting aid to increase fat loss
- As a bulking aid to decrease fat accumulation

Avena Sativa Extract: Avena Sativa is believed to free up testosterone in both men and women. One of the main effects of testosterone is a healthy libido.

Testosterone is often associated primarily with males, but women produce it naturally as well by way of their ovaries, while men manufacture it in their testes. Studies have shown that women who have low testosterone also suffer from a diminished libido.

Avena Sativa does not create more testosterone in the body, but is thought to free some that is in a “bound” state. Approximately 2% of the body’s testosterone is in a “free” state; the other 98% is bound to protein molecules. The free state testosterone is considered the active form; when it is low, not only does our libido diminish, but our bodies store fat more readily, and lean muscle decreases.

Pumpkin Seed Extract: Pumpkin seeds are also a good source of two unsaturated fatty acids oleic and linoleic acid which may account for claims that pumpkin seeds can relieve symptoms of enlarge prostate.

Eurycoma Longifolia: It has been used as a medicinal herb for centuries in Southeast Asia to promote well being, improve health, increase strength, and increase libido. Today it is increasingly being used as a natural, gentle and effective alternative to sex-enhancing drugs.

Chrysin: Chrysin is extracted from a fairly rare plant called the Passiflora Caerula. It is a natural extract yet more powerful than most anti-aromatase drugs you might be familiar with.

Today's bodybuilders and competitive athletes are always looking for ways to boost their natural testosterone levels. Our bodies naturally convert some amounts of testosterone into estrogen (aromatization), a process which accelerates as testosterone levels go up.

Chrysin is the chemical name for a type of isoflavone molecule that has been demonstrated to be a potent aromatazation blocker. In other words, Chrysin minimizes the conversion of testosterone to either estrogen or DHT (dihyrdotestosterone). This is great news for those who want to enhance their muscle building ability!

Athletes with high blood testosterone will train and recover better on Chrysin than without. They will get bigger and stronger faster and with less annoying side effects.

Dandelion Root: Dandelion Root (Taraxacum Officinale) is naturally rich in potassium has been used traditionally as a liver tonic, diuretic, and blood cleanser, helpful for treating water retention, inflammation, and congestion and disorders of the liver and gallbladder.

Dandelion Root is a herbal diuretic (excretes excess water through your kidneys). It is also used to help with any digestive and gastrointestinal complaints.

Do not use if you have obstruction of the bile ducts, gallstones, gallbladder infection.

Excellent for contest bodybuilders!!

Nettle Leaf: Nettles are one of the most widely applicable plants available. They can effect a wide range of problems and act as an excellent general detoxifying remedy and whole body tonic. Nettles are a rich source of trace elements, absorbing and accumulating them.

Because of their rich nutritional content, (this includes minerals, vitamins, iron and chlorophyll) they have traditionally been used for anemia, exhaustion, debility and to help people recuperate. The high content of silicon present has made nettles highly beneficial in stimulating hair growth and improving the condition of the hair and especially the skin.

Broccoli Extract (Indole-3): Indole-3-carbinol (I3C) is a secondary metabolite found in cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, kale, cabbage and brussels sprouts. A secondary metabolite is one not found preformed in vegetables, but formed after an enzyme in the vegetable (myrosinase) is exposed to a phytochemcial in the vegetable (glucobrassicin). This can occur only when vegetable cells are crushed or eaten, and is referred to as enzymatic hydrolysis.

In one study, men received I3C for one week; a profile of 13 estrogens was measured. The results were that I3C significantly increased the urinary excretion of C-2 estrogens. The urinary concentrations of nearly all other estrogen metabolites, including levels of estradiol, estrone, estriol and 16 alpha-hydroxyestrone, were lower after I3C treatment [J Natl Cancer Inst 1997 May 21;89

[Nep2une]

Your prob is simply you need to do less weight,

I used to curl 125lbs and i thought i was the shiet! I would do 5 sets of 8 to 10. I had some SERIOUS back action going on during this excercise lol and realized i wasn't getting results i wanted even if I could brag about curling so much.

So I changed up my form did it properly and i couldn't do 125 any more. Now I do around 115 lbs for 8 to 10 reps with strict form making sure its my biceps doing the work and squeezing at the top. I have gotten so much more bicep growth from this that i am embarrassed of what i was doing before.

basically make sure you can do at least 8 reps with strict form.
from the chest to extending the elbows out at the peak, while thinking hard about squeezing your pecs at the top.
Doing half the motion doesn't mean anything except your cheating yourself. Lower the weight and do the entire motion and don't worry about people thinking your weaker because your lifting properly and they can't say ish when you get your results.

Good Luck!

[GRITZ]

Virus,

Past the halfway point in benching when youre coming up is dependent more on the triceps than when you are touching your chest. You could try less weight like was suggested above with strict form but maybe in addition, you could try working a little harder on your triceps. For example doing some close-grip bench, french curls, or dips. What I have been doing recently is working on my weakness in bench, which is wide grip. My normal bench grip is really close compared to most ppl so I have added two more sets at the end where I get a very wide grip relative to my normal grip and do what I can with that. I have noticed an improvement overall in my benching, allowing me to keep my form a lot better with less of a struggle. Whatever you choose to do, good luck :tup:

[MagnusMadness]

FYI, clomid and nolvadex don't put mass back on the testes...HCG does. Both of those together will help someone bounce back quite well after a cycle...secondly, Lots of people cycle only test, it's one of the more common AS' used today...deca is what you see not getting run by itself too often. I put on 23 pounds in 8 weeks on test250 alone.

[BIG BEEF!]

well guys im slowly but sureley getting back on track with my trainging started running agin takeing my supplemst only thing relley missing me up is my eating habit i only eat once aday very bad for me but im going back to meal replacements what brand would yall guy reccomend

[MagnusMadness]

Whenever i do heavy weights, i always get stuck in the middle and spend a lot of energy getting past the stuck point. If i go half-way, i can lift like 185lbs. for 8-10 reps on the bench. I don't think it's flexibility because i have always streched a lot and always have been flexible.

Can anyone help?

you could just make sure to have a spotter on hand to help you get past the sticking point....this may in turn over time teach ur body how to push through those sticking points provided you are indeed strong enough to move "X" amount of weight... When I bench I bring the weight down somewhat slowly to just above, almost touching my chest, then drop and explode up, I slow down around the sticking point of course but I can push through it.

[merdoc]

Okay, I am In College Now, and i kind of want to lose some weight, i really wanted to gain more to try out and join the football team, however it seem's they dont have football teams in community college here, anyways I am 6'2 215 pounds, i really cant afford to buy weights or go to the gym, i was wondering what would be the best workout for me, likw do i do 100 situps a day or something? also with my food i need some help, what would be the best food for me to help me with my goal..i want go 185.

[TehNewGuy]

Have any of you tried Pure Protein bars? They tasted good as hell, but im sure thats no good indicator of how good they are for you.

Fat - 8g
Saturated fat - 4.5g
Trans fat - 0g
Cholesterol - 30mg
Sodium - 270mg
Total Carbs - 29g
Sugars - 1g
Sugar Alcohol (rar!) - 15g
Protein - 32g

Would it be best to use these bars as a quick post-workout meal replacement?

Im trying to get cut, so im going to do interval training on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday and ride my bike around town on the other days as well as hit the gym.

[DA GAME]

Can somebody recommend DA GAME some foods to "fatting up"?DG is trying to pack on some extra pounds but to no avail DG is still @ the 175lb mark even when lifting weights

[Mr Mort]

Have any of you tried Pure Protein bars? They tasted good as hell, but im sure thats no good indicator of how good they are for you.

Yeah, I'm all about their chocolate peanut butter bars. The only thing is that the ones around here must be smaller than yours, as mine only have 20g of protein. Still, I usually have one in place of breakfast and they taste pretty good compared to most other bars. If you're eating one in place of a meal, I don't think they're too bad for you. If you're eating a bunch of then it might be a slight problem.

[300 lb Eugene]

Just thought Id bring this up again..
Regular food is the best way to go, dont rely on supplements like food.
Eating the right foods and exersize is the only way to losing fat/ building muscle.

Riddle: I companys keep saying "This is the BEST product EVER! It WORKS!!!" then why do they keep comming out with 'better' "stuff"..... if the previous stuff works?

[Nando]

Any one want to help me figure out a routine?
I'm going for bulding muscle, and losing weight(cardio, I know)
I can go to the gym 5 days, possibly 6 a week.
If you guys can help me figure something out, like which exercises and how many sets, that would be really cool, or a website.

[300 lb Eugene]

Go to IronMagazine.com

[CrouchingTiger]

My current routine is:

Monday (Chest/Tris)
Barbell Bench: 3x8
Dumbell Incline: 3x8
Dips: 3x12+
Tricep Cable Pushdowns: 3x8

Tuesday (Back/Bis)
Widegrip Pullups: 3x10+
Cable rows: 3x8
Reverse Flies: 3x8
Barbell Curls: 3x8

Wednesday
Cardio

Thursday (Shoulders/Abs)
Overhead Dumbell Press: 3x8
Lateral Raises: 3x8
Shrugs: 3x8
Roman chair crunches: 3x15
Legraises: 3x15

Friday (Legs)
Squats: 3x8
Leg Curls: 3x8
Leg Extensions: 3x8
Calf Raises: 3x8

Saturday
Cardio

Sunday
Cardio


I'm tryin to change my ab routine a bit. I think I might drop the leg raises and do v-sit ups. I hear they're one of the best ab exercises to do.



I'm also definately trying to overhaul my diet. It sucks right now.

[ImagineVC]

i have an extremely hard time gaining weight
and it doesn't help that i do alot of cardio exercises 3 times a week at my boxing gym
can anyone recommend me ways to gain weight?
i don't want to do heavy weights because i want to maintain my speed
what can i eat? i don't really want to rely on weight gainers either.
i usually have a protein shake after every workout.

help meeee....... heeelllpp meee....................

[Romie]

i have an extremely hard time gaining weight
and it doesn't help that i do alot of cardio exercises 3 times a week at my boxing gym
can anyone recommend me ways to gain weight?
i don't want to do heavy weights because i want to maintain my speed
what can i eat? i don't really want to rely on weight gainers either.
i usually have a protein shake after every workout.

help meeee....... heeelllpp meee....................

Stop doing so much cardio. The only cardio you should be doing while bulking is your warmup.

[Lan Di]

Well I'm down to 253 as of today. I started at about 330 in mid-May. :tup: So, I'm losing at a rate of something like 16 or 17 pounds per month. What i'm wondering, though, is when can i expect my body to start slowing down? I mean, based on how much fat i have left i dont think It'll slow down before i hit 225 (which is my big goal), but let's say that i were to just keep going, where would it probably balance out/slow way down? My progress has been very consistant thus far though.

Only bad thing is I am un-growing my clothes that I just got this summer :sad: . My new jeans/shirts are getting too big. . .

[TwelveInchPenis]

Well I'm down to 253 as of today. I started at about 330 in mid-May. :tup: So, I'm losing at a rate of something like 16 or 17 pounds per month. What i'm wondering, though, is when can i expect my body to start slowing down? I mean, based on how much fat i have left i dont think It'll slow down before i hit 225 (which is my big goal), but let's say that i were to just keep going, where would it probably balance out/slow way down? My progress has been very consistant thus far though.

Only bad thing is I am un-growing my clothes that I just got this summer :sad: . My new jeans/shirts are getting too big. . .
I was 300 and got down to 185 (back up to 195 since I didnt want to get that slim). I found that you'll keep going down if you are on a good weight loss routine. The only way I found to slow down was to eat more. The weight I put back on is solid muscle since its from lifting and eating "good calories"so its all good. A lot of eggs and chicken and such.

[Stylistics]

All right, i was looking for a thread like this!

I have a passion for physical fitness, its damn near a religion for me.

i know most people are either or cardio or weight training, i try to balance both.

Five days a week, 3 days of carido, 2 days of weight training. then next week, i change it to days of carido and 3 days of weight training.

after i complete four weeks straight, i take a week off.

for carido, i run, run and run. thats about it. i might take up biking seeing lance armstrong having so much endurance for the tour de france.

weight training: i switch between Back and bi together, then chest and tris together. shoulders on my chest and tris day. But ABS are EVERYDAY. i never weight train my lower body (legs). just my upper body.

i think the hardest part of your body to develop are the ABS and forearms. i just can't get those forearm cuts nor the abs like bruce lee


the most important is nutrition more then physical fitness. i have three full meals a day with two snacks in between for a total of five meals a day. i do over eat (eating fatty foods) at the days i don't work out. but i keep the portions reasonable.


overall, i look and feel great and have a positive outlook in life with cofidence. and i owe it all to good health. its good to read your guy's post. i know how yall feel. its a good type of lifestyle.

[Lan Di]

Can someone suggest me a good walking shoe that doesn't cost a whole lot? I've been using the same kswiss shoes that i've also been wearing to school/everywhere else at the same time so far, and after putting a couple years of school and probably 200+ miles of walking over the summer on them, they're about to give out.

So, i'm looking to cop some shoes for walking in, i walk on pavement, might start on treadmill during the winter. I dont care if they're from wal-mart or payless, or foot locker, i just need them to be good shoes and a decent (<$70 preferable) price.

Thanks.

[ImagineVC]

it's probably been said before in one of these 63 pages but a good ab workout is....
get into the pushup position,
but instead of putting your hands on the floor, put your forearms on the floor
don't do any forearm pushups or anything, just remain in that position for as long as you can
it will start to burn.
my friend trained with Mr.Universe and he taught him that.
you can do the side version of this exercise as well to workout your side abs but i'm too lazy to explain it.

[Nep2une]

A filthy style of sit up that the track and field athletes do at the university of Baylor
( same school that produced Michael Johnson)

get an olympic bar ( 45lbs) lay it down under your head and hold it with your hands in a curl position basically holding it tight against the back of your head. Have your feet under something or held down by someone and do sit ups with your arm width at a position where you can touch your elbows to your knee's ............repeat. I tried it last night , it's beautifully painful ;-)

[MechZZ]

Just curious... but everytime I get prepped to go to the gym my body gets REALLY fatigued and when I get into the parking lot I feel like I hafta throw up at least 3 or 4 times... but once I start working out I feel fine.

This happen to anybody else?

[300 lb Eugene]

:confused: :confused: :confused: What?!

[Power Man Fox]

Is there anything wrong with working out the arms something like mon - friday, and then resting on the weekend?

[Zero]

Can anyone recommend a cheap, but effective cardio machine? Just something that'll get my heart rate up fast and burn calories. I'm not looking to be an marathon runner or anything...

[Hotsuma]

What's the more effective way to trim down? Weights or cardio?

[$|-|U(V)AYeL]

Hotsuma: combination of both, weight train 3 times a week, cardio 2-3 times a week

Zero: I cant think of a cheap cardi omachine personally.. best thing is running on a track and do interval training..

Power Man Fox: Working out same body part more then twice a week is WAY overdoing it... If your body part is sore do not work it out.. you have to let it recover, thats when it rebuilds and acutally builds muscle..

[opticallyinviz]

And then it even depends on the body part.

I wouldn't do legs or back more than once a week, but arms you could easily do twice.

But yeah more than twice is just stupid.

best way to lose weight is to get a good diet.

[MagnusMadness]

And then it even depends on the body part.

I wouldn't do legs or back more than once a week, but arms you could easily do twice.

But yeah more than twice is just stupid.

best way to lose weight is to get a good diet.

Personally, I disagree. It's really easy to overtrain such small muscles like the bi's and tri's and you have to keep in mind that they are already getting worked when you work out back/chest/shoulders. I've actually read that that's the reason SOOOO many people can't put size on their arms. But hey, not saying anyone is wrong cuz it's a matter of opinion and also a matter of whose body it is...cuz my old friend followed someone's advice and worked out his arms everytime they weren't sore and put 2 inches on his arms.

[CrouchingTiger]

I love the once a week per muscle group routine.

Monday for chest and tri
Tuesday for back and bi
Thursday for shoulders and abs
Friday for legs

That leaves three days of rest, during which you can do cardio or whatever.



Something I definately want to focus on is flexibility. I stretch lightly before a workout, but I want to start stretching a lot more and become limber. Any guides or whatever to stretching? I'm sure it's simple, but I'm also sure there are wrong ways to stretch and I wouldn't wanna do that.

[Hotsuma]

What's the best cardio work out?

Bike/treadmill/ellipical (crosstrainer)? I can't run for more than 10 minutes without my knees cramping up, so is the bike/elliptical a good alternative? I normally do 20 minutes.

Also, I don't necassarily work out so much that it sores my muscles, but I do have a set set of training I do.

10, 10, 6, 4, 3, 3. Increasing weight 5-10lb each set. Even doing so, I don't really feel myself that sore. Should I be increasing the weights I do? My goal isn't to gain muscle, it's to tone down and lose body fat. I don't care so much about body weight, but more about body composition. To do this, what'a good diet plan (based on experience?) I have 3 relatively light meals a day, and for snacks, I eat stuff like fat-free jello and/or fruits.

[CrouchingTiger]

What's the best cardio work out?

Bike/treadmill/ellipical (crosstrainer)? I can't run for more than 10 minutes without my knees cramping up, so is the bike/elliptical a good alternative? I normally do 20 minutes.
The best form of cardio is rowing. Since rowing machines aren't the most common thing, and I doubt you've got a kayak and a lake in your back yard, the next best cardio workout is swimming. However, if you don't want to swim, the third best option would probably be biking.

[coco_j]

So wait up.... I've been working out my arms three times a week, Mon Wed and Fri. Should I only work them twice a week? And my back the other two days, something liek Mon and Wed arms, Tues and Thurs back?

[Biggzy]

You guys should check out www.ironmagazine.com I think somoene on here, maybe 300lb eugene mentioned it. That website has an awesome forum for weight training and cardio questions, as well as supplements.

Coco_j: After doing some research, its recommended that each muscle group once a week. For example biceps, you should rest 5-7 days after training. But if you think about alot of other exercises will be working out bicep, especially when doing back. Rowing, lat pulldown, etc.

My routine has been back and forth. I used to do

Day 1 Chest and back
Day 2 legs and shoulders
Day 3 bis and tris
Then repeat this cycle and rest on day 7.

I wasn't getting nearly enough rest that I should've been.

Now my routine is something like this.

Day 1 Chest (cardio, abs)
Day 2 Back (cardio, abs)
Day 3 Cardio abs
Day 4 bis and tris (cardio, abs)
Day 5 legs and shoulders (cardio, abs)
Day 6 rest
Day 7 rest

I sometimes switch up rest whenever I need more. Eat a shit load of protein, bars, shakes, amino acids, L-glutamine, multi-vitamin.

Anyways, hope some of this info has been helpful.

[opticallyinviz]

Ah i moderate on a bodybuilding on the internet already.

Getting big arms has little to do with training arms, putting on weight and getting big shoulders willg et you big arms. Your body will want to be proportionate so they will grow.

[300 lb Eugene]

You guys should check out www.ironmagazine.com I think somoene on here, maybe 300lb eugene mentioned it. That website has an awesome forum for weight training and cardio questions, as well as supplements.
.

I mentioned it 3 times, but no one listens to me:sad::shake:

Im not 300 lb of FAT in case anyone is wondering:wonder:

[300 lb Eugene]

Can anyone recommend a cheap, but effective cardio machine? Just something that'll get my heart rate up fast and burn calories. ...

-Just run outside..........

-those new running machines at the gym,
( the one where you hold onto the handles and walk at the same time) are pretty good.

-Buy a bike and ride where there are moderate hills.

-spinning / areobics class ( its not just for women) .

- DDR / ITG2

- Mountain climbing / wall climbing.

-Canoe / Kyacking.

None of these is really expensive........ especially the 1st one, its free:clap:

[mr. newbie]

how do i get more flexible. maybe a bit off topic but somebody else mentioned i to.

[300 lb Eugene]

Dhalsim: "" YOGA!!""

[DaDesiCanadian]

how do i get more flexible. maybe a bit off topic but somebody else mentioned i to.

This is $|-|U(V)AYeL posting:

Stretch before and after you work out, keep stretching and pushing yourself and you'll gain flexibility..

[Chaos]

Ah i moderate on a bodybuilding on the internet already.

Getting big arms has little to do with training arms, putting on weight and getting big shoulders willg et you big arms. Your body will want to be proportionate so they will grow.


Wow, you couldn't be more wrong. Muscle hypertrophy without stress? Good one mr. "bodybuilding board mod". Your body does not "want" to be proportional, it responds to stress by laying down new muscle tissue. That quote above renders any advice you give from this point on completely worthless. Thanks for playing.

[Biggzy]

Ah i moderate on a bodybuilding on the internet already.

Getting big arms has little to do with training arms, putting on weight and getting big shoulders willg et you big arms. Your body will want to be proportionate so they will grow.

Yeah that doesn't really make sense. Getting big arms has everything to do with training your arms, and eating right, and most importantly rest (where your muscles grow the most).

[Romie]

So wait up.... I've been working out my arms three times a week, Mon Wed and Fri. Should I only work them twice a week? And my back the other two days, something liek Mon and Wed arms, Tues and Thurs back?

And where does that leave chest and legs? I hope you're not planning to train more than 4 days a week. Train each bodypart once a week. Training arms twice a week is not the smartest thing to do because your biceps and triceps are involved in other movements, you don't want sore triceps the same day you're doing chest Same for biceps and back. Be smart and safe and train each bodypart only once a week.

[Biggzy]

And where does that leave chest and legs? I hope you're not planning to train more than 4 days a week. Train each bodypart once a week. Training arms twice a week is not the smartest thing to do because your biceps and triceps are involved in other movements, you don't want sore triceps the same day you're doing chest Same for biceps and back. Be smart and safe and train each bodypart only once a week.

Hey Romie, I know you've been on this thread for as far back as I can remember, and I was just wondering what your routine is like. I figured you have alot of experience and I'm always looking for new ways to switch it up. I was thinking of changing my routine to having chest and tris on the same day, and back and bis on the same day.

[Red-Impact]

This is $|-|U(V)AYeL posting:

Stretch before and after you work out, keep stretching and pushing yourself and you'll gain flexibility..

after you are warmed up:

Go sit down next to a wall and spread your legs apart and slowy make you head touch the wall while spreading your legs. The pain is excruciating. My karate teacher told me this and I still haven't done it. But trust me after 2-6 months you legs will me as fast as your arms.

Now here's my question: I've started working out. I do weights every other day (MWF..I don't train at all on weekends). I work out my chest, abs, legs, arms. This too much? I do about 2-3 sets of 15 reps each, trying to add weight after every set. Will the above give me faster results? it seems to me that working one part of the body a week won't do any good (I'm still pretty new at this btw)

[DanSC]

i want my lower neck big, how do i do it?

[mr. newbie]

thx for the strecthing help.

[Mechanica]

i want my lower neck big, how do i do it?

Hahaha, what a funny sounding question. In all seriousness, well, work that muscle group especially? I don't know, if you mean the lat area, you could try... I forgot the name of it, but I work mine with a machine where your hands point up, you're sitting, and you push up against the weights... :confused:

[google]

i want my lower neck big, how do i do it?

Are you talking about your traps? (Trapezius)
That's the muscle the runs between your neck and your shoulder. If so, it's easy to stimulate them. Just do alot of heavy shrugs.

Grab two heavy dumbells, hold them at your sides, and raise your shoulders up. Try to touch your ears with your shoulders. Then lower your shoulders back down. Make sure the weight isn't too heavy on your gonna hurt yourself blah blah. But it is especially true with this excercise, because you can easily damage a nerve.

There are some other exercises that will do the trick (Upright Rows, Heavy Upright Rows), but shrugs should do the trick.

But you literally mean your neck, you could hang some weight around your neck and raise your head up and down slowly. Really old school. But your neck tends to grow as you grow in weight and mass.

[CrouchingTiger]

Now here's my question: I've started working out. I do weights every other day (MWF..I don't train at all on weekends). I work out my chest, abs, legs, arms. This too much? I do about 2-3 sets of 15 reps each, trying to add weight after every set. Will the above give me faster results? it seems to me that working one part of the body a week won't do any good (I'm still pretty new at this btw)
I'm a strong believer in the once a week per muscle group idea, but your mileage my vary. Have you tried a once a week? You should give it a shot for a month or two and see how you feel. Don't expect instant gains no matter what your routine is.

Do chest and triceps one day, back and biceps another, and legs another. You can do shoulders on leg day if you want, but some people do them on chest and tricep day. Others even give shoulders their own day, like me. I do them with abs on their own day.

The reason you do them in pairs like this is because they are complimentary muscle groups. When you do a bench press for example, you're using mainly your chest, but you are also using your triceps. So for example if you've done some bench presses and some incline dumble presses, your triceps will be warmed up and you can finish them off with some isolation exercises like cable push downs or overhead extensions.

Same for back and biceps. Pullups, rows, chin-ups, etc. all work your back, but also use your biceps. Once you're done with your back, your biceps are warmed up and ready to be finished off with barbell/dumbell curls or whatever.

You're using your shoulders on chest and tri day as well, that's why some people go ahead and do shoulders then. I like to do overhead presses for shoulders though, and that combined with my usual chest and tri workout just seems like too much tri for me. So I give shoulders their own day.


EDIT: And while I guess it's fine if you want to, a lot of people don't like to train opposing muscle groups on the same day. Biceps and triceps for example, are seldom trained on the same day. Not only does it feel weird (IMO, maybe not for you), but look at what this means. If you do biceps and triceps one day, and back and chest the next day, you're training your biceps and triceps twice as much. Because you use your bi with back and tri with chest.

[google]

Can anyone recommend a cheap, but effective cardio machine? Just something that'll get my heart rate up fast and burn calories. I'm not looking to be an marathon runner or anything...

Just like Eugene said..Running.
It's free. Plus you'll develop some great calves.
But..any cheap bike or treadmill would work. Check out the goodwill/salvation army.



So wait up.... I've been working out my arms three times a week, Mon Wed and Fri. Should I only work them twice a week? And my back the other two days, something liek Mon and Wed arms, Tues and Thurs back?

Do you work your entire arm on those work outs? As in Deltoids, Biceps, Triceps & Forearms? I tend to work my total arm two times a week. I used to work my Biceps 3 times a week, with tons of prioty principles. So they are kinda crushing my triceps, which is not good. My biceps and chest go up in weight and strength faster than anything. But now, I work out my arms twice a week.

It all depends on how fast you heal really. If you are too weak to do a chest routine the next day after your tricep routine, then you might want to hold off. Honestly, you just have to figure out how your body works, and what works for it. I work out 5 days a week.

MWF=Chest,Back,Legs (Calves included)
TT=DELTS,TRI,BI, Calves

I also try do a small forearm routine when I wake up, and before I go to sleep. Same for rear delts. But sometimes I forget to do it. From this work out, I see much faster results than training once a week. But I've seen guys become huge from training once a week also and in different ways as well. Some guys might hit a few sets, boom-boom-boom and they are out of the gym. Others who train once a week, will train one body part for an hour straight. It all depends on what works for you.

[coco_j]

And where does that leave chest and legs? I hope you're not planning to train more than 4 days a week. Train each bodypart once a week. Training arms twice a week is not the smartest thing to do because your biceps and triceps are involved in other movements, you don't want sore triceps the same day you're doing chest Same for biceps and back. Be smart and safe and train each bodypart only once a week.

I'm a poor ass motherfucker, I lift bricks tied to a stick and do elevated pushups with heavy books in a backpack. So yeah, I'm not sure of any way to work the chest or legs with what I've got.
If you have any ideas, please tell me.

[CrouchingTiger]

I'm a poor ass motherfucker, I lift bricks tied to a stick and do elevated pushups with heavy books in a backpack. So yeah, I'm not sure of any way to work the chest or legs with what I've got.
If you have any ideas, please tell me.
If you're that poor, do what my dad did when he was young and poor too. He dug a whole in the ground and poured some cement in it and stuck a bar in there. Dried, pulled it out, and repeated for the other end. He made a barbell for bench pressing. =p

Not the most effective thing, but better than nothing.

Also, about pushups. If you have a small piece of a 2x4 (say a foot long) and a dumbell, you can lay the board across the dumbell and with your hands on each end of the board, do pushups. The board will obviously want to "teeter" like a seesaw, but you should try and keep it level. This supposedly increases the effectiveness of pushups significantly by requiring you to use more muscles as stabilizers. Not as easy as just pushing on the steady ground.

[google]

I must be really bored.

Here is my "normal" routine if anyone is interested.

Chest
- Heavy Bench Press 4x3
-Bench Press 4x8-10
-Incline Press 4x8
-Flys 4x8

Back
-Pull ups 5x??
- Wide grip pulldowns 4x10
-T-Bar Rows 4x8
-Deadlifts 3x6

Legs
- Tippy Toe Squats 15x6-8
- Calve Raise 5x10 *Stripping Method

Biceps
-Cheat Curls 4x6
-Curls -4x6

Deltoids
-Arnold Press 4x6-8 * Stripping method
-Bent over laterals 5x10
-Shrugs-4x6

Triceps
- One arm Extensions 4x10
-Tricep pull downs 4x6
- French Press 4x8

I like to shock my body with new excersizes randomly, so sometimes I will do all fly type motions on one day for my chest. (flat, incline, decline) I work out my chest pretty weird, but it works. I like training with nothing but dumbells for weeks, until I hit a plateau of some sort, then switch to barbell, until I hit a plateau, then go back and forth. It works for me.
Sometimes, I get lazy on certain routines though, like my back. So when I go home and well rested up, I'll make sure I hit it before I go to bed, or any part that I get lazy on in the gym for that matter. Welp time to eat...

[coco_j]

Thanx for the tips CrouchingTiger, I'm gonna try that board thing. What exercises work the chest and back?

[Romie]

Thanx for the tips CrouchingTiger, I'm gonna try that board thing. What exercises work the chest and back?

Weighted pushups for chest and weighted pullups/chinups for back.

[MagnusMadness]

Weighted pushups for chest and weighted pullups/chinups for back.


the back is a large muscle...pullups only stimulate the lattisimus dorsi...don't forget about rows and hyperextensions/deadlifts. And weighted pushups? If you have access to weights then just bench press or dumbell press. I've never really found pushups to be very challenging.

[Romie]

the back is a large muscle...pullups only stimulate the lattisimus dorsi...don't forget about rows and hyperextensions/deadlifts. And weighted pushups? If you have access to weights then just bench press or dumbell press. I've never really found pushups to be very challenging.

He doesn't have access to weights. That was the whole point of my post.

[MagnusMadness]

He doesn't have access to weights. That was the whole point of my post.


You're right, my bad. I just saw what you quoted, I didn't go back and read the post he made before that.

I have a personal trainer now, (not that I needed one, but in the absence of a workout partner it's pretty nice) I finally got my diet down and am going to be able to put down 6 meals a day (3 of those being weightgainer shakes) and am shooting for 4500 cals a day with over 200 grams of protein. How does that sound to you guys...I weigh close to 200lbs and am 5 10" and between 11 and 13% Body fat. 4500 cals sounds like a lot but it's actually pretty easy...u think I should shoot for more?

[akuma1340]

You're right, my bad. I just saw what you quoted, I didn't go back and read the post he made before that.

I have a personal trainer now, (not that I needed one, but in the absence of a workout partner it's pretty nice) I finally got my diet down and am going to be able to put down 6 meals a day (3 of those being weightgainer shakes) and am shooting for 4500 cals a day with over 200 grams of protein. How does that sound to you guys...I weigh close to 200lbs and am 5 10" and between 11 and 13% Body fat. 4500 cals sounds like a lot but it's actually pretty easy...u think I should shoot for more?
Whats your total caloric intake currently?Look at those weightgainer labels closely also,alot of them tend to have a ton of sugar in them.Post your current daily and calories and the label info on the weightgainer also.These kind of ?are hard to answer as everyones metabolic rate are going to differ to a degree.If your shooting for high protein intake 200grams for 4500 cals is pretty low.Im cutting at the moment eating only 2158 a day and getting 280g protein out of that.

[doujinshi_2001]

Question for all you guys eating six meals a day.....how do you all find the time to eat that many meals in a day? My schedule consists of school at 7 am until 2 pm then work 4 pm to 10 pm....

I have a nice diet I found but eating that many times seems kinda tough due to my schedule...=/

[300 lb Eugene]

-Cook your food and bring it with you.......
-Buy can canned foods (tuna,Veggie,ETC.) and bring it with you.
-If you eat out ,eat someplace reasonable ,like Subway chicken subs,or buy protein drink.


I just entered the Trim spa contest this week, the challenge is to improve the way your body looks; lose fat, gain muscle, whatever...its a 3 month challenge.
Top winners get some really good prizes and such.

If anyone wants to sign on, go to [ trimspa.com ] and read further details.....

[Biggzy]

-Cook your food and bring it with you.......
-Buy can canned foods (tuna,Veggie,ETC.) and bring it with you.
-If you eat out ,eat someplace reasonable ,like Subway chicken subs,or buy protein drink.


I just entered the Trim spa contest this week, the challenge is to improve the way your body looks; lose fat, gain muscle, whatever...its a 3 month challenge.
Top winners get some really good prizes and such.

If anyone wants to sign on, go to [ trimspa.com ] and read further details.....

Man that sounds cool. Good luck with that shit Eugene.

I recently started taking CEE, haven't noticed anything drastic, but I definitely feel thicker. In a month or so I'll post some results if you guys are interested in it.

[kal el]

Chest
- Heavy Bench Press 4x3
-Bench Press 4x8-10
-Incline Press 4x8
-Flys 4x8

Back
-Pull ups 5x??
- Wide grip pulldowns 4x10
-T-Bar Rows 4x8
-Deadlifts 3x6

Legs
- Tippy Toe Squats 15x6-8
- Calve Raise 5x10 *Stripping Method

Biceps
-Cheat Curls 4x6
-Curls -4x6

Deltoids
-Arnold Press 4x6-8 * Stripping method
-Bent over laterals 5x10
-Shrugs-4x6

Triceps
- One arm Extensions 4x10
-Tricep pull downs 4x6
- French Press 4x8

I like to shock my body with new excersizes randomly, so sometimes I will do all fly type motions on one day for my chest. (flat, incline, decline) I work out my chest pretty weird, but it works. I like training with nothing but dumbells for weeks, until I hit a plateau of some sort, then switch to barbell, until I hit a plateau, then go back and forth. It works for me.
Sometimes, I get lazy on certain routines though, like my back. So when I go home and well rested up, I'll make sure I hit it before I go to bed, or any part that I get lazy on in the gym for that matter. Welp time to eat...

pretty good stuff.

for delts, i suggest starting with laterals (not the rear delt flyes, but the standing ones) to pre-exhaust your delts. after 3 sets of those, go for arnold presses.

here is my delt routine:

1) lateral raises - 1 side at a time, 2 warm up sets, 3-4 working sets of 10-15 reps (i'm not in bulking mode at the moment)
2) standing dumbbell press - 1 side at a time, 4 working sets of 10-12 reps. great for core stability
3) rear delt flyes - 3-4 working sets of 12-15
4) upright rows - 3 sets of 12

i used to begin with the presses. switching to pre-exhaust mode has worked wonders for my delts. btw, i do shrugs on back day 'cuz your traps are more a part of your back than they are your delts.

i sometimes use the pre-exhausting principle when training arms. start with the most concentrated focus (one arm press downs for tris and concentration curls for bis) and finishing with an excercise with the broadest focus (close grip bench presses or dips for tris and standing barbell curls for bis). pre-exhausting makes the target muscle work much harder towards the end.

i'm not a fan of flat bench pressing :lol:. gives you a droopy look. incline is the best. i do agree with your using dumbbells then switching to the bar with pressing though. the change in stress is very noticeable.

:rock:

[MagnusMadness]

I take in between 4 and 5 thousand calories a day. Cytogainer is my weight gainer...it's very clean. 54 gms of protein, 612 calories in water, over 900 in 2 cups milk, 80 gms of COMPLEX carbs, not sugar, 3 grams creatine, 2 grams glutamine in each serving. IMO it's a great shake right before you go to bed (not if ur cutting of course) and PWO...(ur body needs a lot more than just protein after a good workout) I also wake up between 6 and 7 to drink a shake, go back to bed, wake up at 9 get ready and eat breakfast at 10. I've put on another 7 or 8 lbs this past month with this kinda diet. And I'm actually taking in over 300 gms of protein a day.

To those people having a hard time eating 6 times a day here's what I do on days I work double's at the restaurant...

6 am: wake up drink shake go back to bed
10 am: breakfast, go to work
2-3 pm: lunch
6 pm: shake
9-10 pm: dinner
12-1 am: shake, bed......wash rinse repeat.

Now on days I'm not at the restaurant the second shake is PWO and I can sometimes squeeze in a few extra meals. Protein powders make for the most portable anytime snack ever.

As for pre-fatiguing muscles before heavy compound movements...I myself don't believe in it. Heavy compound movements require you to be fresh. I always warm up with isolated movements with light weight but always hit the heavy compound movements right away (bench press, squats, deadlifts, military press etc) By doing this you can get a better idea of the progress you've made in strength overall. And bench pressing is for the outter pectoralis and frontal delts and triceps...it's a strength and mass builder..not actually great at all for chest development and neither is incline barbell presses either...incline pressing puts more weight (stress on teh rotator)on ur shoulders, thus the lighter weight. For chest development crossovers and flying motions are a must, with pullovers to finish and tie everything together.

[kal el]

that's why you train in phases because you're not always on a strength building phase. if that were the case, you'd always be big without shape or definition and that's why pre-exhausting works. it puts a different kind of stress on your body. when i'm in my strength building phase, i do the same thing you do. warm up with an isolator using very light weight and then begin with compound lifts.

with incline pressing, i don't find that it stresses my shoulders all that much. i still stand by it being the best for overall chest growth/development due to the fact that most pecs develop on the lower end quicker so if you prioritize flat benching, you won't have great symmetry.

i agree with you that crossovers and flyes are definitely important. i myself do these in every chest workout, but you still need a pressing excercise to have the accompanying mass that makes it look better. if you look at the routines of most pro-bodybuilders and ask people in your gym who you think have great physiques, they'll tell you that incline pressing is just as integral to building a great chest as crossovers and flyes are.

btw. i read in Men's Health a couple of months ago that barbell presses (whether incline or flat) activate the most muscle fibers in your chest. more than flyes or any other pec excercise.

:rock:

[doujinshi_2001]

I take in between 4 and 5 thousand calories a day. Cytogainer is my weight gainer...it's very clean. 54 gms of protein, 612 calories in water, over 900 in 2 cups milk, 80 gms of COMPLEX carbs, not sugar, 3 grams creatine, 2 grams glutamine in each serving. IMO it's a great shake right before you go to bed (not if ur cutting of course) and PWO...(ur body needs a lot more than just protein after a good workout) I also wake up between 6 and 7 to drink a shake, go back to bed, wake up at 9 get ready and eat breakfast at 10. I've put on another 7 or 8 lbs this past month with this kinda diet. And I'm actually taking in over 300 gms of protein a day.

To those people having a hard time eating 6 times a day here's what I do on days I work double's at the restaurant...

6 am: wake up drink shake go back to bed
10 am: breakfast, go to work
2-3 pm: lunch
6 pm: shake
9-10 pm: dinner
12-1 am: shake, bed......wash rinse repeat.

Now on days I'm not at the restaurant the second shake is PWO and I can sometimes squeeze in a few extra meals. Protein powders make for the most portable anytime snack ever.

As for pre-fatiguing muscles before heavy compound movements...I myself don't believe in it. Heavy compound movements require you to be fresh. I always warm up with isolated movements with light weight but always hit the heavy compound movements right away (bench press, squats, deadlifts, military press etc) By doing this you can get a better idea of the progress you've made in strength overall. And bench pressing is for the outter pectoralis and frontal delts and triceps...it's a strength and mass builder..not actually great at all for chest development and neither is incline barbell presses either...incline pressing puts more weight (stress on teh rotator)on ur shoulders, thus the lighter weight. For chest development crossovers and flying motions are a must, with pullovers to finish and tie everything together.

With those shakes do you eat anything with them? The protein stuff I'm taking has 75g of protein and 378g of carbs. Do you think it would be necessary to eat anything with this?

Also that Cytogainer stuff...how does that taste and where do you go to buy it? I might consider going out to pick that up after I get finished with my current stuff.

[kal el]

i personally don't know how these weight gainers are supposed to work. now i don't need to gain weight 'cuz i was never skinny, but when i read articles and ask more experienced bodybuilders as well as nutrition/supplement store owners, they tell me that our bodies are only capable of digesting/absorbing up to 40g of protein every 3-4 hours. so really, why do they put 75g or even 80g of protein in a serving for these weight gainers?

one common rule regarding protein consumption is that you should have something along the lines of 1 lb and something of protein per pound of bodyweight. now if you're skinny, it's probably safe to assume you're under 200 lbs, yeah? now if you're to take that weight gainer with all that protein in it + the meals you have to eat during the day, you're gonna end up consuming more than that 1 lb of protein per pound of bodyweight and that's gonna be a waste of protein 'cuz your body will not digest it.

that's what logic leads me to state anyways :lol:. that's why i say i don't know how they're supposed to work. i'm confused :lol:. i'ma have to inquire.

:rock:

[Biggzy]

I've been doing some research on ways to gain mass and the three most important things seem to be training, eating, and resting. It was recommended to work out intensely no more than 4 days a week. Right now I lift weights roughly 6 days a week. So what do you guys think about just training 4 days with weights, and resting the others? Or doing a little bit of cardio or something. Oh I forgot to mention, I'm not trying to get cut, I just want to gain mass right now.

How many days a week do you guys weight train?

[Javi]

I've been doing some research on ways to gain mass and the three most important things seem to be training, eating, and resting. It was recommended to work out intensely no more than 4 days a week. Right now I lift weights roughly 6 days a week. So what do you guys think about just training 4 days with weights, and resting the others? Or doing a little bit of cardio or something. Oh I forgot to mention, I'm not trying to get cut, I just want to gain mass right now.

How many days a week do you guys weight train?

6 days is excessive for anyone. I'd move to a four day schedule, while concentrating on a specific body area (chest and tris, back and biceps, legs, etc.) once per week. That should give your body ample time to heal and grow.

As far as gaining weight goes, just eat. Eat and eat and eat. For people who tend to gain weight easily via fat, it's probably best to consume protein shakes to get your calories. For those who are hard pressed to gain weight - Protein works, but so does eating "dirty" (on your workout days)- Dirty is eating whatever as long as you get your calories. Many people can't eat dirty - they gain too much. But as long as you keep hitting the weights, you should be fine.

[VruS]

It's a bitch for me to weight gain. Partly because I don't have an appetite to eat a lot half the time. I also can't eat a lot because I have a small stomach. Any way to increase my appetite?

[MagnusMadness]

Don't get me wrong. My workouts include all of those as well. Here is my chest split right now as designed by my trainer:

Flat barbell press: 8, 6, 4 with 70, 80 and 90% of my max, then drop set to 70% for as many as I can get and 2 forced reps (as soon as i get 4 reps no spot at 90% we bump it up)
Crossovers: 3x15
hammer incline: 8, 6, 4
incline dumbell flies: 10, 15, failure
hammer wide chest press: 8, 6, 4
pullovers: 3x15

My recovery time is improving pretty rapidly as I've gotten pretty used to the split right now so we're going to four set two of those exercises next week.
This split will change of course every 6-8 weeks but we will keep flat first but change the rep range, mainly because my flat bench press is prolly my weakest point. It's just under 1.5x my body weight and I'm wanting a 1.75 or 2x BW by next summer.

Now pressing exercises are very important for chest development but if I was concerned moreso with shape and development and not strength, I would press with dumbells as you get a better range of motion (provided you use proper form, wide at the bottom, almost touching shoulders with weight and squeezing/bringing the weights together at the top)

As for weightgainers...most are pretty dirty so as to put ANY kind of weight on an individual. They usually have a ridiculous amount of calories and protein and sugar and everything else, they mix REALLY thick for an obscene amount (my first weight gainer had 2200 calories and mixed to a THICK 35 or 36 ounces) Cytogainer's not like that. It's like a healthy meal basically but with a ton of protein (54 gms) with good branching and 80 complex carbs and creatine and glutamine as well. I take 3 servings a day and have put on over 40 pounds this past year while maintaining a fairly average to low BF% (12-13%) So I swear by it, but to each his own. If I could eat more food I would have less need for it, but I am very busy and can't cook and refuse to eat canned tuna 3 times a day.

And to answer doujinshi's question, I like cytogainer cuz it mixes as easily as a regular protein shake and drinks easy too. I don't eat with the shakes cuz it usually fills me up and eating anything on top of that would just be excess calories/protein/carbs. THE TRICK IS drink them between meals. Drink a shake and then have a FULL MEAL 2-3 hours later.

Lifting for 6 days isn't excessive if you're juiced out of ur mind and maybe takin HGH too. But for the rest of us, 4-5 days is adequate. I lift 5 days so i can isolate shoulders a little better and have an entire day just for arms. I also do calves on monday and thursday and abs on wednesday and friday/saturday.

[bill_rizer]

It's a bitch for me to weight gain. Partly because I don't have an appetite to eat a lot half the time. I also can't eat a lot because I have a small stomach. Any way to increase my appetite?

Im guessing you eat perhaps 2 meals a day, you need to slowly increase this to about 6.

For one week try to eat 3 meals a day then the next week try eating 4 and so on untill you work you way upto 6.

You stomach actually grows to fit your demands, so at the moment you stomach is small and you will find it hard to eat alot, slowly build up your eating diet and eventually you will find that you get hungury more often.

I hope that works for you dude.

[Lan Di]

Well since the SRK Men's Health thread apparently died i figured I'd post the status of my weight loss endeavors here. I have currently lost about 90 pounds, i started this past May. I should be to the 100lb loss mark by the end of next week at the latest, and then I want to lose 5 more at least to make it an even 225.

Start Weight: Approximately 330Lbs
Current Weight: 237Lbs

:clap:

It's pretty crazy though, i need new clothes lol. I'm proud that i actually did it, and it hasn't even been hard. I could probably have done it at a quicker pace but i feel good about the pace i've done it at, and like i said it's been easy, i haven't had to kill myself to make the progress so it's been great the whole way. I mean I am by no means a small person now, but i'm so much smaller than i used to be at 330 that there are so many advantages, like fitting in school desks and stuff like that.

If anyone is contemplating making a serious effort to lose weight but you dont know if it will be worth the effort, trust me, it is worth it. Go for it!!!

"If i can change...and you can change....Anybody can change!!!" -Rocky IV LOL

[kal el]

my current chest workout has only 4 excercises. i'm not trying to add mass anymore. i just get depressed when i see nice blazers and it looks good 'til i try to close them :lol:.

1) incline barbell press or incline dumbbell press - 2 warm up sets, 4 working sets of 12-15 reps

2) incline or flat dumbbell flyes - 4 sets of 12-15 reps

3) hammer strength flat bench press (the one where you're upright as opposed to lying down) or hammer strength decline bench press - 3 sets of 15 reps

4) cable crossovers - 3 sets of 15 reps

my rest period in between sets is between 30 seconds to a minute max. more calories burned, higher heart rate and i really tax the pecs.

i work out 4-5 days a week.

sometimes i go 5 straight then 2 off.

sometimes it's 2 on, 1 off, 2 on. depends on what i have to do or how i'm feeling.

my current schedule is as follows:

day 1: chest
day 2: back
day 3: off
day 4: legs
day 5: shoulders
day 6: arms
day 7: off

if i have to combine body parts due to time constraints, this is what my plan looks like:

day 1: chest & biceps
day 2: back
day 3: off
day 4: legs
day 5: shoulders & triceps
day 6: off

i don't recommend putting chest and triceps together because you will either overtrain your triceps or you won't be able to maximize results due to some fatigue. i like to have opposing body parts together. that way you get more in terms of rest and recovery, and that's where your growth occurs.

reason i'd put shoulders and triceps together is because you only use your triceps in one shoulder excercise--that being military presses. or arnold presses if you wanna call them that. with chest workouts, depending on what you do for your chest, your triceps will act as a secondary muscle anywhere between 1-3 excercises. all that plus the actual tricep workout. yes, i talked about pre-exhaustion, but 3 excercises is a bit much for that :lol:.

i think something that hasn't really been touched on is the importance of getting to know your own body. everyone reacts differently so it's critical that you tailor your workouts according to how your body responds to the varying stimuli. as long as your technique and form are correct, experiment with different excercises, weights, number of reps, etc. there's still so much to learn.

:rock:

[MagnusMadness]

My five day split for now is this:

Monday: Back
Wednesday: Chest
Thursday: legs
Friday: shoulders/traps
Saturday: arms

One thing about ur second split that I see kal el, is that you do chest and biceps together and then back the very next day...a day in which the load is heavy on ur biceps again. Almost like u'd be working biceps two days in a row. And arnold presses and military presses are two completely different things and I do them both on shoulder day....arnolds are rotating shoulder presses.

As far as getting to know ur body. There's two kinda muscle fibers..red and white. Finding out which one you have more of can completely change ur way of lifting...I'll give you an example...my trainer benches 350lbs max..not THAT great considering he's 260 with years of training...but he CAN bench 225 almost 30 times. He's a different kinda strong. I'm completely the opposite...if I want to get my max bench up, I just about max every week for a month or two at a time and it will skyrocket...but if I don't max and do sets of 10 or 8, 6, 4 for too long, I stagnate.

[kal el]

cool.

i see what you're saying.

i think i'm more of a fast twitch fiber guy. i don't have as great a max as some people, but i can press a certain weight more than they can.

about doing chest/biceps then back the next day, again, it's also a matter of how your body responds. for some reason, when i work out my back, i don't feel it much in my biceps. i guess you can say that i've learned to zone in on the back muscles so that the majority of the work is done by them as opposed to putting additional stress on my biceps.

that said, i will change it up and maybe put legs in after chest/biceps to give my biceps some ample recovery time if i'm doing that split. maybe i'll get better results.

is the only difference between a military press and an arnold press the fact that you rotate when doing arnolds? if so, then don't you still primarily work out the same muscles, i.e., front delts and triceps (with a variation in the emphasis)?

i wanna get a trainer, but it's expensive :shake:. i really want to do lots of core work outs to condition my central nervous system to just blast the weights. i wanna try plyometric training as well.

:rock:

[MagnusMadness]

arnold presses have a broader range of motion and IMO incorporate more stabilizers and requires a degree of balance to use proper form. IMO arnolds effectively remove triceps from the lift, partly at least. I do military and arnold presses....IMO the best way to do both is get ur heavy military's out of the way first with barbell/dumbell/machines/whatever. Then grab fairly light dumbells and attempt the arnolds with an extremely slow and controlled motion. Upright rows and then ur raises and u should be pretty taxed.

There are more advantages to putting back and chest a day apart than just cuz you want to work biceps on chest day....I feel a lot stronger on chest day if my back feels good and strong too. If I really want to pound out the heavy weight on bench I squeeze my shoulder blades together trying to put as much of my rear delts on the bench as I can and slightly arching my back, bring it down slow and explode up putting some of my back into the lift....exploding, not squirming. Everybody's different' though. Friend of mine trains arms everytime they aren't sore and he put two inches on his arms with the quickness.

[Biggzy]

Have any of you guys taken Superdrol? Can you give me some feedback on it?

[kal el]

arnold presses have a broader range of motion and IMO incorporate more stabilizers and requires a degree of balance to use proper form. IMO arnolds effectively remove triceps from the lift, partly at least. I do military and arnold presses....IMO the best way to do both is get ur heavy military's out of the way first with barbell/dumbell/machines/whatever. Then grab fairly light dumbells and attempt the arnolds with an extremely slow and controlled motion. Upright rows and then ur raises and u should be pretty taxed.

There are more advantages to putting back and chest a day apart than just cuz you want to work biceps on chest day....I feel a lot stronger on chest day if my back feels good and strong too. If I really want to pound out the heavy weight on bench I squeeze my shoulder blades together trying to put as much of my rear delts on the bench as I can and slightly arching my back, bring it down slow and explode up putting some of my back into the lift....exploding, not squirming. Everybody's different' though. Friend of mine trains arms everytime they aren't sore and he put two inches on his arms with the quickness.

thanks very much for the info, man. i'm still learning, so every little bit helps.

right now though, i don't do chest/biceps on the same day. i do arms on a separate day, usually at the end of the week.

what's your preferred tricep mass builder?

i've been alternating with dips and close grip bench presses.

:rock:

[MagnusMadness]

thanks very much for the info, man. i'm still learning, so every little bit helps.

right now though, i don't do chest/biceps on the same day. i do arms on a separate day, usually at the end of the week.

what's your preferred tricep mass builder?

i've been alternating with dips and close grip bench presses.

:rock:


Close grip bench is a fav of mine...right now my tricep split as designed by my trainer is this:

warm up with 2 sets of 20 tricep pulldowns
3 sets of close grip bench
3 sets machine dips
3 sets rope pulldowns pulling out and apart at the bottom.

Honestly one of my fav mass builders for triceps are extensions!!! Lying cambered bar and overheard cambered bar extensions I LOVE. The split he's got for my tri's is a little lax but he told me before we got started that I could add in whatever I want....so I'm adding lying extensions (nosebreakers) this week. If that doesn't cut it then I'm getting rid of the rope pulldowns and making my warm up sets working sets of pulldowns and adding overhead extensions...The trick is with all tricep exercises is slow and controlled movements and on everything you do keep ur elbows inside.

As for superdrol...I'm quite certain that's an oral steroid yes?? Like anadrol? I'll tell you one thing....oral only cycles are stupid and extra harsh on the liver...believe it or not injectables are the safer route as long as u use clean sterile syringes every single time. One of the only good reasons to run an oral is to kickstart a cycle of dominantly long esters. Most BBers run orals with at least two types of injectable anabolics to optimize growth...oral only cycles will net you nothing but water weight and gains you will surely lose.

[kal el]

Close grip bench is a fav of mine...right now my tricep split as designed by my trainer is this:

warm up with 2 sets of 20 tricep pulldowns
3 sets of close grip bench
3 sets machine dips
3 sets rope pulldowns pulling out and apart at the bottom.

my routine is similar.

my warm up is the same as my first excercise though, just adding 2 extra sets (the actual warm up).

1) 1 arm pushdowns - 5 total sets (2 warm up)
2) lying triceps extensions - 3 sets
3) close grip bench or dips - 3 sets

that's the current one. a few weeks ago i was doing this:

1) pushdowns
2) close grip bench
3) reverse grip pushdowns


Honestly one of my fav mass builders for triceps are extensions!!! Lying cambered bar and overheard cambered bar extensions I LOVE. The split he's got for my tri's is a little lax but he told me before we got started that I could add in whatever I want....so I'm adding lying extensions (nosebreakers) this week.

:lol:. i've now heard 4 different names for the same excercise. the first is the one commonly used when looking at books or magazines: lying triceps extensions. other names i've heard around the gym are skullcrushers and headbangers. and now you introduce nosebreakers. good times!


The trick is with all tricep exercises is slow and controlled movements and on everything you do keep ur elbows inside.


for pushdowns, extensions and dips i keep my elbows inside. however, i read in a book that keeping your elbows in during close grip bench tends to shift the focus from your triceps to your inner chest and front delts whereas flaring them slightly prioritizes the triceps. i'm confused now. i'll do some more research.

:rock:

[Tekno Virus]

Holy crap i think i overtrained....kinda hard to believe

i was working for what seemed to be forever, i think i worked out unitl failure. The thing is is that i forgot to take my protein powder with me so i went to Wendy's instead and ate their triple cheeseburgers instead....

That was last week, now this week it seems everything is wrong. Whenever i go down on the bench (regardless of the weight) it seems like my chest is tearing apart and there is very acute pain in my right pec. I can't run or workout my lower body cuz' i got shinsplints somehow. I'm also stressed out cuz' of the workload college is giving me.

Damn it, will I get teh pwnage?

[MagnusMadness]

skullcrushers and headbangers are names for overhead extensions....if somebody referred to lying extensions by that name they're just confused. As for close grip yeah it does use ur front delts and inner pecs, but that's with most ANY pressing exercise...the fact that it hits the inner pecs is why I like it so much. I keep my elbows inside and touch the bottom of my chest for one because it's easy on my wrists, whereas flaring them out slightly causes an uncomfortable bend in my wrists...As far as which form is most effective, they are prolly almost the same, so do what's comfortable for you and what works for you....You may have longer arms or a closer grip than me too you never know.


Holy crap i think i overtrained....kinda hard to believe

i was working for what seemed to be forever, i think i worked out unitl failure. The thing is is that i forgot to take my protein powder with me so i went to Wendy's instead and ate their triple cheeseburgers instead....

That was last week, now this week it seems everything is wrong. Whenever i go down on the bench (regardless of the weight) it seems like my chest is tearing apart and there is very acute pain in my right pec. I can't run or workout my lower body cuz' i got shinsplints somehow. I'm also stressed out cuz' of the workload college is giving me.

Damn it, will I get teh pwnage?

Doesn't sound like typical overtraining, overtraining just inhibits growth...You may have pulled a muscle or something similar..sharp pain is bad. Is it in the muscle or in a joint? As for shinsplints, that's usually from running on hard surfaces for long periods of time and is usually typical in individuals who haven't run in some time...I WILL get them EVERYTIME I do really heavy calf raises. (were talkin close to 600lb donkey raises though) If you are training naturally then taking a week off to fully recover won't really set you back at all. Might be good for you...when's the last time you took a break anyway??

[kal el]

As for close grip yeah it does use ur front delts and inner pecs, but that's with most ANY pressing exercise...the fact that it hits the inner pecs is why I like it so much.

yeah, i know that any pressing excercise will involve your pecs, tris and front delts to varying degrees, but i was just concerened with the amount of focus my delts and inner pecs were getting when the target muscle when doing close grip bench is, in fact, the triceps.

whenever i do pressing excercises, i want the target muscle to be the focus, meaning that i don't want the secondary muscles feeling like they're getting tired or getting hit bad. that's why i like to work on having that mind-muscle connection.


I keep my elbows inside and touch the bottom of my chest for one because it's easy on my wrists, whereas flaring them out slightly causes an uncomfortable bend in my wrists...As far as which form is most effective, they are prolly almost the same, so do what's comfortable for you and what works for you....You may have longer arms or a closer grip than me too you never know.


good to know. i'll just continue to experiment.

:rock:

[MagnusMadness]

yeah, i know that any pressing excercise will involve your pecs, tris and front delts to varying degrees, but i was just concerened with the amount of focus my delts and inner pecs were getting when the target muscle when doing close grip bench is, in fact, the triceps.

whenever i do pressing excercises, i want the target muscle to be the focus, meaning that i don't want the secondary muscles feeling like they're getting tired or getting hit bad. that's why i like to work on having that mind-muscle connection.



good to know. i'll just continue to experiment.

:rock:


Yeah I feel you, I'm not that concerned with that exercise in particular because I do at least 2-3 more exercises for a relatively small muscle that isolate much better. And my inner chest is a concern of mine...

[Chaos]

Superdrol is just the latest in the long line of non catagorized "pro-steroids". Which means its legal, or at least will be until the bill that got M1T, 4AD and the likes is amended. People are getting around it now by basing these compounds on progesterone bases, but apparently the new version is going to outlaw these compounds and include a "all in like chemical groupings and effects" clause basically shutting the door forever on "legal steroids". Any way its basically Methasteron tweeked abit. Word on it is nice results, very harsh on liver (as are all methylated compounds and most orals as a blanket statement) and prone to causing extremely painful spasm of the lower back.

On to the second rung of my soapbox, I am extremely pissed at the heat alot of people are currently taking in the supplement industry. I fail to understand why the witch hunt continues when you can buy alcohol in any store, cigarettes (fucking cigarettes???) are legal and implants/plastic surgery are the NORM for our standards of female beauty. We live in one of the strangest societys in the world, for sure. Nudity and sterioids? BAD!!!!! Incredibly life like violence on prime time TV? GOOD!!!! There are rumblings that the Gov. might be after creatine and related substances, which would really push me over the edge. God forbid anyone want to improve their health, self esteem and attractiveness by hard work.

Rant over, back to the issue at hand. Please note that all the following is theoretical information and only for the purpose of conversation, not to be taken as serious. ALL (yes I do mean all) pro-steroid options are not only inferior, but also actually worse for your body than actual "gear". Throwing out the issue of legality, and most importantly for many people (I assume) fear of injection, they are vastly superior. They are compounds with much more scientific evidence and "brovidence". The orals available now legally (prosteroids) are all terrible on your liver, terrible on your cholesterol ration, and terrible on your blood pressure. Anyone planning on taking them would be better off with 250-500 mg suspension for 6 or 8 weeks. But of course thats illegal because our government is unconcerned with things like drug traffic and inner city crime but absolutely steadfast on guys trying to gain muscle.

[Lan Di]

Hey guys I'm really wanting to get a treadmill so that I can get some good indoor cardio done at home (I have an exercise bike but I dont like riding it, its so boring for some reason). It's about to start getting cold and I don't think i'll want to be going walking etc outside everyday so a treadmill would be great.

So here's the question: What sort of treadmill should i get? Are there any certain brands that are known to be junk or anything? I definitely want an motor powered one (the manual ones dont look so good to me) but i dont really care if it has incline and stuff like that. Are there any certain models that are preferred by most people or anything? I'll probably try to just find a used one after i decide what i want, because I dont think i can afford a new one, and the way i see it is if someone is selling a piece of exercise equipment that probably means they were too lazy to ever use it, and it should still be in good shape.

Any advise?

[300 lb Eugene]

So here's the question: What sort of treadmill should i get? Are there any certain brands that are known to be junk or anything? I definitely want an motor powered one (the manual ones dont look so good to me) but i dont really care if it has incline and stuff like that. Are there any certain models that are preferred by most people or anything? I'll probably try to just find a used one after i decide what i want, because I dont think i can afford a new one, and the way i see it is if someone is selling a piece of exercise equipment that probably means they were too lazy to ever use it, and it should still be in good shape.

Any advise? DDR / ITG2 :clap:

Treadmills are so big to deal with...your best bet is to just run outside. Youll get maximum
benifit from that. Treadmills are a little easier and has minimum benifit since the ground is moving with you.

[MagnusMadness]

Superdrol is just the latest in the long line of non catagorized "pro-steroids". Which means its legal, or at least will be until the bill that got M1T, 4AD and the likes is amended. People are getting around it now by basing these compounds on progesterone bases, but apparently the new version is going to outlaw these compounds and include a "all in like chemical groupings and effects" clause basically shutting the door forever on "legal steroids". Any way its basically Methasteron tweeked abit. Word on it is nice results, very harsh on liver (as are all methylated compounds and most orals as a blanket statement) and prone to causing extremely painful spasm of the lower back.

On to the second rung of my soapbox, I am extremely pissed at the heat alot of people are currently taking in the supplement industry. I fail to understand why the witch hunt continues when you can buy alcohol in any store, cigarettes (fucking cigarettes???) are legal and implants/plastic surgery are the NORM for our standards of female beauty. We live in one of the strangest societys in the world, for sure. Nudity and sterioids? BAD!!!!! Incredibly life like violence on prime time TV? GOOD!!!! There are rumblings that the Gov. might be after creatine and related substances, which would really push me over the edge. God forbid anyone want to improve their health, self esteem and attractiveness by hard work.

Rant over, back to the issue at hand. Please note that all the following is theoretical information and only for the purpose of conversation, not to be taken as serious. ALL (yes I do mean all) pro-steroid options are not only inferior, but also actually worse for your body than actual "gear". Throwing out the issue of legality, and most importantly for many people (I assume) fear of injection, they are vastly superior. They are compounds with much more scientific evidence and "brovidence". The orals available now legally (prosteroids) are all terrible on your liver, terrible on your cholesterol ration, and terrible on your blood pressure. Anyone planning on taking them would be better off with 250-500 mg suspension for 6 or 8 weeks. But of course thats illegal because our government is unconcerned with things like drug traffic and inner city crime but absolutely steadfast on guys trying to gain muscle.

I can't say anything about test suspension as I don't know anyone who's tried it...but I would recommend test250 (enanthate or cypionate) 2x a week for 8 to 10 weeks for a first timer...But to those thinking about using gear....you better have ur diet and ur training down before you attempt it...cuz u'll never see the gains u get ur first cycle again and you definitely want to make the most of it.

[Lan Di]

DDR / ITG2 :clap:

Treadmills are so big to deal with...your best bet is to just run outside. Youll get maximum
benifit from that. Treadmills are a little easier and has minimum benifit since the ground is moving with you.

Oh dont get me wrong, i do my main cardio outside on the road. I want the treadmill for extra cardio. For example, sometimes i'm sitting here in front of the computer at 9 o'clock at night and i think "Man i could be doing cardio right now, but it's dark outside and anyways i really want to wach this tv show that's about to come on.." In those situations it would just be nice for me to have a treadmill, know what i mean? Also it's about to start getting pretty cold outside and sometimes i might not need to go out in the weather. I have a really strong immune system when it comes to the Flu and random viruses etc, but for some reason i get sniffles and stuff from cold air really easily.

Thanks for the advise, i dont know if i could handle DDR haha but i've never tried it. I think my friend has a pad i could borrow if i really wanted to, i've never even played it on controller though.

Oh the good news is my buddy is hooking me up with a free treadmill!! Apparently his grandmother has one and she isn't using it so I can have it (thanks God!). Even if it isn't the latest and greatest this thing is free so that's cool. I think he's gonna bring it over this evening if it doesn't rain, just in time for Prison Break LOL.

[Ninja Pea]

Today I broke my chest record for dumbells!

I started in August with 45 lb dumbells when doing dumbell press and now, November 14th, Im doing 80lbs at 10 reps!

Huzzah for me!

[Chaos]

I can't say anything about test suspension as I don't know anyone who's tried it...but I would recommend test250 (enanthate or cypionate) 2x a week for 8 to 10 weeks for a first timer...But to those thinking about using gear....you better have ur diet and ur training down before you attempt it...cuz u'll never see the gains u get ur first cycle again and you definitely want to make the most of it.





Well there is a difference between 250 and enathate/cypionate. 250 (sustanon/testonon) is an oil based mixture of various esters (propriate, phenylpropriate etc.) with varying half lifes basically allowing for a time controlled release. Enathate/cypionate are indiviual esters with long half lifes (around 12 days if I recall?). So your having controlled breakdown at a constant pace. This isn't chemistry lab so I won't get into the specifics because I'm sure anyone who wants to discuss it is informed enough to not need basics. Suspension is a short half lifed test. product (24 hours or so) that is the basis of lots of cycles. If you want to discuss further, ask away. Anyway Magnus is dead on if your gonna do steriods, you need to have diet and program on point. And you need to have put in some time and plateaued.

[MagnusMadness]

Well there is a difference between 250 and enathate/cypionate. 250 (sustanon/testonon) is an oil based mixture of various esters (propriate, phenylpropriate etc.) with varying half lifes basically allowing for a time controlled release. Enathate/cypionate are indiviual esters with long half lifes (around 12 days if I recall?). So your having controlled breakdown at a constant pace. This isn't chemistry lab so I won't get into the specifics because I'm sure anyone who wants to discuss it is informed enough to not need basics. Suspension is a short half lifed test. product (24 hours or so) that is the basis of lots of cycles. If you want to discuss further, ask away. Anyway Magnus is dead on if your gonna do steriods, you need to have diet and program on point. And you need to have put in some time and plateaued.


Sustanon is overrated. The short and medium length esters start falling off too soon for good blood levels. It has a pretty bad rep among serious bodybuilders (or at least ones that know what they are doing) Only way to really make use of it is to take it every other day to every 3 days...and that gets very expensive fast. I wouldn't call any short ester a "base" for a cycle...but just a quick start, Like any oral (anadrol or dbol) to maximize growth. Long esters that provide good blood levels from week 4 out are the basis of most simple cycles. On the bodybuilding forums I belong to, if test E or cyp. aren't apart of a cycle that someone is talking about starting then it comes highly recommended. And first timers are recommended to do a test only cycle at 500mgs a week. I have however heard that for cutting cycles people like test prop. or tren acetate or a combination of the two, as they don't really put near the water weight that a long ester would on you.

[Chaos]

Sustanon is overrated. The short and medium length esters start falling off too soon for good blood levels. It has a pretty bad rep among serious bodybuilders (or at least ones that know what they are doing) Only way to really make use of it is to take it every other day to every 3 days...and that gets very expensive fast. I wouldn't call any short ester a "base" for a cycle...but just a quick start, Like any oral (anadrol or dbol) to maximize growth. Long esters that provide good blood levels from week 4 out are the basis of most simple cycles. On the bodybuilding forums I belong to, if test E or cyp. aren't apart of a cycle that someone is talking about starting then it comes highly recommended. And first timers are recommended to do a test only cycle at 500mgs a week. I have however heard that for cutting cycles people like test prop. or tren acetate or a combination of the two, as they don't really put near the water weight that a long ester would on you.

Depends on if your blitzing and if you have any reason to worry about clearing time among other issues. Best use is to jump start levels before your longer clearing esters show effect (talking suspension here). I would agree 250-500 test only is plenty for almost any first timer. Tren does seem to be popular for cutting and is easily accessed as you can make it, but its not something you should be centering a attack on. As for orals they certainly have their place but I'm not overly fond of some of the sides. Stacked with test though they are great for serious use (experienced lifters).

[50 SENT]

can someone please explain to me how that kobayashi guy eats like 50 hot dogs a day and is still ripped :rofl:

[MagnusMadness]

Depends on if your blitzing and if you have any reason to worry about clearing time among other issues. Best use is to jump start levels before your longer clearing esters show effect (talking suspension here). I would agree 250-500 test only is plenty for almost any first timer. Tren does seem to be popular for cutting and is easily accessed as you can make it, but its not something you should be centering a attack on. As for orals they certainly have their place but I'm not overly fond of some of the sides. Stacked with test though they are great for serious use (experienced lifters).

Tren is HIGHLY anabolic...but at the same time it's pretty hard on the body...it's like a damn cracked out expensive version of test prop....

What's the mg/ml ratio of suspension?? And isn't it water based?? And if it's half life is 24 hours are we talking every day to every other day injections to kick start levels?? And do you think that would be better than taking an oral like dbol or anadrol the first 2-4 weeks??

[Chaos]

Tren is HIGHLY anabolic...but at the same time it's pretty hard on the body...it's like a damn cracked out expensive version of test prop....

What's the mg/ml ratio of suspension?? And isn't it water based?? And if it's half life is 24 hours are we talking every day to every other day injections to kick start levels?? And do you think that would be better than taking an oral like dbol or anadrol the first 2-4 weeks??

Sides were why I said I wouldn't base a cycle on it, but some people and sources say those side issues are overblown. Its apparently hella easy to homebrew though, which greases the wheels quite a bit. Just read an article that said he couldn't find any evidence that it helps with fat loss but brovidence > science.

On to suspension, homebrew is gonna be water based but medical grade is oil based. For at home purposes obviously water is the easier compound to mess with. Typically 50 mg/ml. So what we're talking is is first two week usage or so, with injections everyday at 50-100 mgs along with whatever (say 500-600 enathate (that number is weekly)). Its gonna hit quick and strength gains come rapidly, 5 days in you should have noted strength gains. This sets a baseline for heavier training allowing your body to take advantage of its anabolic state by increasing workload. People love it though and say its hard to quit using with results you get. As for comparisons to the orals, its a better alternative IMO just on basis of sides. Anadrol is a 17aa compound and that shit is TOXIC to your liver. 30 days is the most I would ever go on that stuff.

[MagnusMadness]

Sides were why I said I wouldn't base a cycle on it, but some people and sources say those side issues are overblown. Its apparently hella easy to homebrew though, which greases the wheels quite a bit. Just read an article that said he couldn't find any evidence that it helps with fat loss but brovidence > science.

On to suspension, homebrew is gonna be water based but medical grade is oil based. For at home purposes obviously water is the easier compound to mess with. Typically 50 mg/ml. So what we're talking is is first two week usage or so, with injections everyday at 50-100 mgs along with whatever (say 500-600 enathate (that number is weekly)). Its gonna hit quick and strength gains come rapidly, 5 days in you should have noted strength gains. This sets a baseline for heavier training allowing your body to take advantage of its anabolic state by increasing workload. People love it though and say its hard to quit using with results you get. As for comparisons to the orals, its a better alternative IMO just on basis of sides. Anadrol is a 17aa compound and that shit is TOXIC to your liver. 30 days is the most I would ever go on that stuff.

A friend of mine's got this book anabolics 2005...it had ratings for all the popular A.S. an anabolic rating (guess what that means) and an androgenic rating (supposedly this rating was in terms of how hard it is on the body) Test E and Cyp. were in the middle having ratings of 100 and 100 and tren acetate was rated anabolically at 500!!! but androgenically the same too, which sounds pretty bad.

As for cutting cycles...if I really wanted to I could cut no matter what I was using so long as my diet was clean...lots of water, some cardio and maybe an AI like arimidex and/or nolvadex to fight water retention.

about suspension I might look into that...that's one thing I'd heard of but nobody really talks about it at the forums I frequent...

[Chaos]

A friend of mine's got this book anabolics 2005...it had ratings for all the popular A.S. an anabolic rating (guess what that means) and an androgenic rating (supposedly this rating was in terms of how hard it is on the body) Test E and Cyp. were in the middle having ratings of 100 and 100 and tren acetate was rated anabolically at 500!!! but androgenically the same too, which sounds pretty bad.

As for cutting cycles...if I really wanted to I could cut no matter what I was using so long as my diet was clean...lots of water, some cardio and maybe an AI like arimidex and/or nolvadex to fight water retention.

about suspension I might look into that...that's one thing I'd heard of but nobody really talks about it at the forums I frequent...

Well your close to right on the anabolic/androgen ratings. Basically testosterone can be converted by the body into androgen. Androgen being the female sex hormone (guys still have it, just like girls have test. but we're talking ratios). Anyway I would assume he means conversion ratio causing androgenic (IE unwanted) sides, chiefly gyno. I have heard tren is bad for hair loss and temper, but then again thats hearsay, whereas the conversion to androgen is something that is a fact. Thats why you want non-aromatizing compounds, they don't convert.

If your going to cut the standards are winstrol and clen, but if you can cut without I see no reason why not to. As always with cutting, diet and cardio are 80+% of the battle.

If the alternative is using orals I would at least give it a run once and see how you like it. Specially if anadrol is your oral of choice. Of course, all this is in theory.

[MagnusMadness]

Well your close to right on the anabolic/androgen ratings. Basically testosterone can be converted by the body into androgen. Androgen being the female sex hormone (guys still have it, just like girls have test. but we're talking ratios). Anyway I would assume he means conversion ratio causing androgenic (IE unwanted) sides, chiefly gyno. I have heard tren is bad for hair loss and temper, but then again thats hearsay, whereas the conversion to androgen is something that is a fact. Thats why you want non-aromatizing compounds, they don't convert.

If your going to cut the standards are winstrol and clen, but if you can cut without I see no reason why not to. As always with cutting, diet and cardio are 80+% of the battle.

If the alternative is using orals I would at least give it a run once and see how you like it. Specially if anadrol is your oral of choice. Of course, all this is in theory.

temper I can live with...but the hair loss thing is the biggest of my concerns...if some loss does come with a cycle..will it come back when ur hormone levels return to normal?? If I did try orals it would only be for 4 weeks or 30 days like you said...that's actually the rule of thumb among pros, yes the ones who never stop taking A.S. I've read about the superheavyweights never coming off the juice and cycling orals 4 weeks on and 4 off....getting blood work done every six weeks...they said that the only reason to cycle off is if ur blood work comes out bad or ur receptors are saturated...when you stop seeing gains...

What's bad though is...everybody I've heard of getting gyno....was from short, heavy, oral only cycles..and it wouldn't show up until way down the road..and they're like "it's been xx months since I finished it...."

Now even with a compound that is heavy in the aromization category an AI and/or nolvadex would keep that from ever becoming an issue correct? And if u are running an AI what does that do to ur test levels?? Would fighting the conversion of test make it stack even better for elevated blood levels? Or would the excess just be flushed out of ur system in a matter of weeks?

Just wanted to say that I did some more research and there is nothing that stops the aromitazation of test to androgen...AI's inhibit the conversion of androgen to estrogen (it's SUPER technical, that's the short version of what it does...which I'm sure chaos is familiar with the long version of what it does and prolly undertands it better than I)

[opticallyinviz]

Just wondering how old you are?

[MagnusMadness]

Just wondering how old you are?


I'm 22, why do you ask?

[Chaos]

temper I can live with...but the hair loss thing is the biggest of my concerns...if some loss does come with a cycle..will it come back when ur hormone levels return to normal?? If I did try orals it would only be for 4 weeks or 30 days like you said...that's actually the rule of thumb among pros, yes the ones who never stop taking A.S. I've read about the superheavyweights never coming off the juice and cycling orals 4 weeks on and 4 off....getting blood work done every six weeks...they said that the only reason to cycle off is if ur blood work comes out bad or ur receptors are saturated...when you stop seeing gains...

What's bad though is...everybody I've heard of getting gyno....was from short, heavy, oral only cycles..and it wouldn't show up until way down the road..and they're like "it's been xx months since I finished it...."

Now even with a compound that is heavy in the aromization category an AI and/or nolvadex would keep that from ever becoming an issue correct? And if u are running an AI what does that do to ur test levels?? Would fighting the conversion of test make it stack even better for elevated blood levels? Or would the excess just be flushed out of ur system in a matter of weeks?

Just wanted to say that I did some more research and there is nothing that stops the aromitazation of test to androgen...AI's inhibit the conversion of androgen to estrogen (it's SUPER technical, that's the short version of what it does...which I'm sure chaos is familiar with the long version of what it does and prolly undertands it better than I)

In order........ Hair loss is generally expected to be permanent, other than what rogaine and the like can regrow, which varies per person. Many combat the hair loss by starting the minoxidil before cycling for what its worth. Hair loss in general is a genetic thing though and your not going to lose it if your not predisposed no matter what you take (see Cutler, Jay or Priest, Lee). However if your at risk, this will speed the process.

The receptor saturation theory is kinda outdated, or at least out of favor now. In the mid-late 90's it was all the rage to take bizarre ass super expensive cycles because different esters and what-not hit different sites, but that is not currently held to be true. I'm not saying you won't see diminishing results just that tolerance is an overall matter, not to a particular ester. I don't know if you even remember or have heard of the old saturation theories, they aren't talked about today.

There are indeed people who never come off, but these are pro's who lack the genetics to do otherwise. They are normal (well above average but not godly) gened guys who have worked their way up and cannot afford to drop pounds. They do maintanence doses and then blitzes but I'm not to familiar with dosage patterns as it doesn't interest me (year round usage). When these guys come off they are screwed for sure though, because the whole point of coming off is to keep your endocrine system working in leiu of juice.

Now on to the biggie, which I hoped to avoid by over simplification (lol). Depends on your AI method. The only reason you would run nolva mid cycle is is you start feeling sensitive in the nipple to try and head off gyno or maybe reduce water retention. Since your not gonna stop rising androgen you can stop the problematic conversion to estrogen by choosing non-aromatizing juice. The problem comes when post cycle you have the elevated (remember you cannot avoid elevating androgen as a basic rule) androgen/estrogen and your dropping test input and cannot make any yourself. If you've properly structured a cycle you should run short acting esters on the tail end of your long acting ones so that you basically go right off cycle into PCT. You don't wanna inject something like 250 and start PCT the next day because you still have ester floating around so you really send your body screwy signals.

So this puts us at cycle end with elevated androgen and estrogen, and basically no test. This makes us very catabolic and unhappy because in this state our earlier gains are gonna be lost quickly. So our goal is to maximize the bodies recovery to making its own test and minimizing the impact of all that free floating andro/estro. What clomid/nolva does is trigger the body to release more LH (leutinizing hormone) and FSH (follicle stimulating hormone) via the hypothalamus and gonadotrophin. These kick start the bodies natural test production. They also act as estrogen-inhibitors by binding to receptor sites for estrogen, and occupying those sites so free floating estrogen cannot get in and do its evil work. Your choice is basically due to the fact that nolva selectively opperates in teh breast/bone and clomid hits the endocrine system. The nolva/clomid debate rages on.

As for aromatase inhibitors they would cut off the conversion of andro to estro by cutting off the enzyme (or one of the enzymes in the pathway). Give me the one you are wanting to know about and I'll check it out. Oh and to further clarify clomid and nolva do NOT inhibit conversion, they have no AI properties they only are receptor substrates.

If I had known you were this informed I wouldn't have tried to beat around the bush in the earlier post magnus, but most people want you to give nuts and bolts only. I personally find the subject fascinating.

[MagnusMadness]

heh, I too find it fascinating...I just frequent a few sites and try to pick up the lingo as I go and ask informed questions (not much different than what I'm doing here right now) when I can....

As for AI...it's funny you asked which one I am thinking about...cuz I just read an article about the different ones..particularly aromasin...aromasin was previously thought to be inferior to letro (?) and arimidex but in this article it was describing how differently they work as AI's (type 1 and type 2)and that they both have their place...for instance it was saying that aromasin and nolvadex is a great combo for PCT because 'sin allows for some androgen/estrogen conversion which is actually healthy for joints for one and a few other things and 'sin's effectiveness isn't inhibited by nolvadex and also helps in boosting natural test levels. It said that in order for type 2 AI's to continue to work you do have to KEEP taking them but they block roughly 98% of estro conversion....but when taking nolvadex it can render it only 60% effective at times.

So while ur checkin around on AI's....onto another big topic today....HCG. For those of you just tuning in...HCG is a compound that simply put...puts mass back on ur testes after a cycle....(or at the tail end of a cycle) supposedly this just makes it easier for the body to produce natural test levels sooner than with atrophied testes. One problem is hcg itself doesn't boost NATURAL test levels, it actually suppresses natural production because it mimics LH, correct me if I'm wrong chaos...So what are your thoughts man?? Some think it's counterproductive during pct and actually sets you back, some think it should be run during cycle to KEEP mass on ur testes and some think it to be completely unneccessary and choose to just do nolvadex 2 weeks out @60mg first week/40/40/20.

[Chaos]

Most conventional wisdom and availability favors arimidex, and I have no reason to disagree. You would run it thoughout the cycle and have the actual benefit of stopping formation of Estradiol/estrogen instead of just receptor site occupation as Nolva does. I also believe that nolva lowers IGF-1 levels while arimidex slightly boosts them, which is obviously another advantage. As far as AI superiority nome like proviron, some like aromasin, doesn't seem to be any consensus or real evidence supporting either. You need to remember there is no reason to run and AI inhibitor unless you need it, every compound you add stacks sides and strain on your body in a exponential, not linear fashion. Using helps estrogen fat deposit (female hormone, elevated levels in cycle can lead to increased fat deposits in "female" patterns), HPTA levels and bloat. But the loss of estrogen is not so good on joint health, so its a tossup. Big concern here is that AI compounds can really kick up blood pressure.

As far as HCG goes first of all I just wouldn't be jumping the gun to run it during a cycle, again stacking drugs does more than increase sides a little, its a multiplication thing. Additionally running it in cycle would actually lower the receptor sensitivity to the LH that it mimics, bad post cycle when we try to regain natural function. And sense it also converts to estrogen that is again pile on during cycles. I see the best (IMO only ) way to run it as post cycle in spurts, quitting well before you quit nolva/clomid. It should also be used post cycle on with nolva/clomid included, as it boosts estrogen via conversion.

[MagnusMadness]

Most conventional wisdom and availability favors arimidex, and I have no reason to disagree. You would run it thoughout the cycle and have the actual benefit of stopping formation of Estradiol/estrogen instead of just receptor site occupation as Nolva does. I also believe that nolva lowers IGF-1 levels while arimidex slightly boosts them, which is obviously another advantage. As far as AI superiority nome like proviron, some like aromasin, doesn't seem to be any consensus or real evidence supporting either. You need to remember there is no reason to run and AI inhibitor unless you need it, every compound you add stacks sides and strain on your body in a exponential, not linear fashion. Using helps estrogen fat deposit (female hormone, elevated levels in cycle can lead to increased fat deposits in "female" patterns), HPTA levels and bloat and BP. But the loss of estrogen is not so good on joint health, so its a tossup. Big concern here is that AI compounds can really kick up blood pressure.

As far as HCG goes first of all I just wouldn't be jumping the gun to run it during a cycle, again stacking drugs does more than increase sides a little, its a multiplication thing. Additionally running it in cycle would actually lower the receptor sensitivity to the LH that it mimics, bad post cycle when we try to regain natural function. And sense it also converts to estrogen that is again pile on during cycles. I see the best (IMO only ) way to run it as post cycle in spurts, quitting well before you quit nolva/clomid. It should also be used post cycle on with nolva/clomid included, as it boosts estrogen via conversion.


From what I've read HCG is suppressive and doesn't support HPTA recovery as it effectively removes it from the equation (it's not needed for the production of LH, IIRC) making it counterproductive to PCT...recently it's been stated that it's best to run toward the VERY end of a cycle...perhaps a day or two after last injection and running right into PCT....They say not to take large doses at one time but spread them out over the week...so as not to cause leudig (sp?)cell desensitization.

As for AI's and nolv...shit is really complicated...if you use it, it could be bad for you...if you don't...it could be bad for you....KEYWORD COULD. And since everyone's body is different to a certain degree..there's no one "right" way to do things...only the "safest" way...

[Chaos]

From what I've read HCG is suppressive and doesn't support HPTA recovery as it effectively removes it from the equation (it's not needed for the production of LH, IIRC) making it counterproductive to PCT...recently it's been stated that it's best to run toward the VERY end of a cycle...perhaps a day or two after last injection and running right into PCT....They say not to take large doses at one time but spread them out over the week...so as not to cause leudig (sp?)cell desensitization.

As for AI's and nolv...shit is really complicated...if you use it, it could be bad for you...if you don't...it could be bad for you....KEYWORD COULD. And since everyone's body is different to a certain degree..there's no one "right" way to do things...only the "safest" way...

I should clarify that when I said "quitting well before you come off clomid/nolva I was referring to usage of HCG mainly in the downtime between last injection and clearing of esters from the body, that time between last injection and the true start of post cycle. The cell destruction you are talking about is really just receptor downgrading to the effect of LH. These cells bind LH and HCG, so when you have an influx of HCG you would be making the cells naturally less receptive to LH when it becomes available again. The more prevelant a compound is the less the body needs to be ready to accept it as it presents, since more floating around means more chances later to bind. Since your LH is already down this further kills you if you stay on, which is why I suggested that you use it (HCG) in spurts so you get little boosts without receptor downgrade.

For this reason HCG is NOT inhibitive during a cycle, only following one. On cycle your not getting LH release because your not getting gonadotrophin releasing hormone release which would lead to LH and FSH release. Why? Because its on a feedback system with the andro/estrogens and on cycle you obviously have boatloads of both so it downregulates production. Since there is no way to overcome this feedback situation you are going to have testicle atrophy right? If you are on an HCG ON CYCLE it will bind to those LH cells in the testicles and act as if it was LH, keeping your mass and a little activity. So saying it is inhibitory is completely pendant on the status of your endocrine system as a whole.

As far as AI and nolva/clomid, its fairly safe post cycle if done correctly. However individuals present with vastly different reactions to hormone manipulation, much more so than to any other catagory of drug. Therefor its hit and miss to a great extent. For ease of mind, safeness, lack of stacking effects and cost I would not run and AI during a cycle. Nolva? Only in case of gyno. Its not worth saving a few pounds of water weight gain to stack endocrine agents. I mean you easily shed that water weight quickly as soon as you come off anyway so what are you really accomplishing?

[MagnusMadness]

I should clarify that when I said "quitting well before you come off clomid/nolva I was referring to usage of HCG mainly in the downtime between last injection and clearing of esters from the body, that time between last injection and the true start of post cycle. The cell destruction you are talking about is really just receptor downgrading to the effect of LH. These cells bind LH and HCG, so when you have an influx of HCG you would be making the cells naturally less receptive to LH when it becomes available again. The more prevelant a compound is the less the body needs to be ready to accept it as it presents, since more floating around means more chances later to bind. Since your LH is already down this further kills you if you stay on, which is why I suggested that you use it (HCG) in spurts so you get little boosts without receptor downgrade.

For this reason HCG is NOT inhibitive during a cycle, only following one. On cycle your not getting LH release because your not getting gonadotrophin releasing hormone release which would lead to LH and FSH release. Why? Because its on a feedback system with the andro/estrogens and on cycle you obviously have boatloads of both so it downregulates production. Since there is no way to overcome this feedback situation you are going to have testicle atrophy right? If you are on an HCG ON CYCLE it will bind to those LH cells in the testicles and act as if it was LH, keeping your mass and a little activity. So saying it is inhibitory is completely pendant on the status of your endocrine system as a whole.




By inhibiting, I meant it was counterproductive AFTER a cycle...because it doesn't help you recover ur natural test levels at this point, it delays it, as you said. But Very informative nonetheless, so if I understand you correctly you recommend multiple spurts of HCG on cycle??



As far as AI and nolva/clomid, its fairly safe post cycle if done correctly. However individuals present with vastly different reactions to hormone manipulation, much more so than to any other catagory of drug. Therefor its hit and miss to a great extent. For ease of mind, safeness, lack of stacking effects and cost I would not run and AI during a cycle. Nolva? Only in case of gyno. Its not worth saving a few pounds of water weight gain to stack endocrine agents. I mean you easily shed that water weight quickly as soon as you come off anyway so what are you really accomplishing?

Having it put that way....I totally agree....that's what I needed to hear...and you are right...I dropped the water immediately last time..I am doing nolva this time around in the pattern I posted earlier at 60mg first week then 40/40/20...starting 14 days out...I lost alot of strength last time and I can't afford to start over again...would you recommend anything else post cycle?? And from ur own experiences (I'm assuming you have prior use, excuse me if you've only researched) How much strength were you able to retain?

[JuiceM0nkey]

Who here on this forum actually compete in BodyBuliding? I just competed and ended up with 2nd place in the middle wt open division 3 weeks ago and then ended up getting 1st place a week later in the states for the 181 powerlifting division with a 400lbs bench at 178lbs. If there any bodybuilders here, drop me a line I have some specific question about sodium loading.
I'm the asian guy in the line up!

http://x12.putfile.com/11/32500085755.jpg (http://www.putfile.com)

http://x12.putfile.com/11/32500063726.jpg (http://www.putfile.com)

http://x12.putfile.com/11/32500091578.jpg (http://www.putfile.com)

http://x11.putfile.com/11/31910153178.jpg (http://www.putfile.com)

[MagnusMadness]

Who here on this forum actually compete in BodyBuliding? I just competed and ended up with 2nd place in the middle wt open division 3 weeks ago and then ended up getting 1st place a week later in the states for the 181 powerlifting division with a 400lbs bench at 178lbs. If there any bodybuilders here, drop me a line I have some specific question about sodium loading.
I'm the asian guy in the line up!

http://x12.putfile.com/11/32500085755.jpg (http://www.putfile.com)

http://x12.putfile.com/11/32500063726.jpg (http://www.putfile.com)

http://x12.putfile.com/11/32500091578.jpg (http://www.putfile.com)

http://x11.putfile.com/11/31910153178.jpg (http://www.putfile.com)

I haven't heard of it, but it sounds like you would just retain water...and to step on stage you want to lose water...usually by use of diuretics...but you know as much about that as I do, if not more....I plan to step on stage in late 2006-2007...I've got a long way to go and a lot to learn. I graduated high school @ 140lbs fully clothed...now I'm a naked 205 and barely 22.

[Mechanica]

^Your head looks photoshopped on. No offense meant with that, or this: Excessive bodybuilding like that is so gross looking. :sad: Looks so deformed.

[JuiceM0nkey]

^Your head looks photoshopped on. No offense meant with that, or this: Excessive bodybuilding like that is so gross looking. :sad: Looks so deformed.

No offence taken, you have to remember I dont keep that look for more then 2 or 3 days tops. If I had a sweatshirt on, you would'nt even know I'm a bodybuilder as I'm only around 190 lbs off season and compete at the 172lbs!

As far as excessive goes, I'm not sure what you mean, I'm a competitive bodybuilder, thats what the judges want to see! I'm not in the gym so I can get girls or look cool, I'm in there training for competition.

I think it's EXCESSIVE, when I see these freakin people camp out over night at BestBuy and wait 12 hours to buy the 360, freeze there ass's off so they can sit in front of a couch the next day and play videogames for 10 hours straight! But thats just my opinion.:razz:

[MagnusMadness]

.

I think it's EXCESSIVE, when I see these freakin people camp out over night at BestBuy and wait 12 hours to buy the 360, freeze there ass's off so they can sit in front of a couch the next day and play videogames for 10 hours straight! But thats just my opinion.:razz:

A-FUCKING-MEN to that brother...Hell I didn't think you looked that huge anyway...ur back looked like ur strongest point from what I saw of those pictures....are you a natural bodybuilder??

[JuiceM0nkey]

A-FUCKING-MEN to that brother...Hell I didn't think you looked that huge anyway...ur back looked like ur strongest point from what I saw of those pictures....are you a natural bodybuilder??

No I have been on 4 cycles now. Mostly for powerlifting then bodybuilding. The gear helps ALOT with my strength, but I don't like the water retention.
For bodybuilding it's 90% diet and I will somtimes mess with the duiretics before a show!

I usually will do two 10 week cycles a year.

I'm training for the march 06 nationals in northern kentucky next!

[MagnusMadness]

No I have been on 4 cycles now. Mostly for powerlifting then bodybuilding. The gear helps ALOT with my strength, but I don't like the water retention.
For bodybuilding it's 90% diet and I will somtimes mess with the duiretics before a show!

I usually will do two 10 week cycles a year.

I'm training for the march 06 nationals in northern kentucky next!

So what have you tried?? And what are you doing for PCT??

Me personally, I'm trying to bulk for real...not because I'm that small now (5'10" over 200lbs now@around12 13%BF, wanna be @210-215 10% in the oncoming 5-6 weeks) but I like the gains in strength I get EVERY week when I put on a pound here and there...I wanna get stupid massive now so when I diet down I will still be big and ripped...

I agree on the diet part.....and the water always falls right off me first thing after a cycle...

[Chaos]

What kinda help you need with sodium loading? You look great in those pictures just a bit smooth. A little better usage of water manipulation and you would have looked a good deal better. Still very impressive keep up the good work. And to say he looks huge and photoshopped is insane, that is a classic physique and not even close to being misproportioned.

Strength gains are gonna go, but if you come off and you should hold at 90% or so of the weight you end a cycle doing, so if you end up benching 400 you should be able to hit the same reps at about 360. And your correct about HCG use in spurts, I can go into further detail if you want I'll be home fri-sun this weekend.

As far as bulking goes your also right, if you wanna be big, and by big I mean real mass not just brad pitt in fight club, your gonna have to bulk up to 14-15% sooner or later. Try to keep the gains as clean as possible and remember your gonna drop that water so your not as fat as you look. Also key is structuring your cutting cycle to keep as much muscle mass as possible. I see no reason not to bulk for the next 3 months in your shoes, start losing in march and by may (late spring-early summer) you can drop an easy 15-20 pounds and have that be majority fat not muscle. 20 pounds clean losing at 215 pounds would put you in the neighborhood of 190-195 with 7-9% BF.

[Lan Di]

Well, based on my estimated start weight of 330 (which i feel is quite an accurate estimate. If anything i'm pretty sure it was a little low actually), as of yesterday I have lost 100 pounds!!:wow:

Feels great, but i'm gonna keep going on down below the 200 mark i guess, because i still have lots of fat to lose.

Triple Digit Clique represent :clap:

[Mechanica]

No offence taken, you have to remember I dont keep that look for more then 2 or 3 days tops. If I had a sweatshirt on, you would'nt even know I'm a bodybuilder as I'm only around 190 lbs off season and compete at the 172lbs!

As far as excessive goes, I'm not sure what you mean, I'm a competitive bodybuilder, thats what the judges want to see! I'm not in the gym so I can get girls or look cool, I'm in there training for competition.

I think it's EXCESSIVE, when I see these freakin people camp out over night at BestBuy and wait 12 hours to buy the 360, freeze there ass's off so they can sit in front of a couch the next day and play videogames for 10 hours straight! But thats just my opinion.:razz:
Yeah, that is excessive. :lol:

How do you only look like that for a few days? Steroids? o_O Sorry, I have no clues about bodybuilding. XD

[MagnusMadness]

check ur pm's clay

[opticallyinviz]

It makes little to no sense to be on gear if you're under like 28.

It will mess you up later in your life.

Train hard and eat well. Your diet is what makes you.
Your tests levels are as high as they'll ever be in your 20's. You don't need to throw it off.
PCT only helps so much.

[MagnusMadness]

It makes little to no sense to be on gear if you're under like 28.

It will mess you up later in your life.

Train hard and eat well. Your diet is what makes you.
Your tests levels are as high as they'll ever be in your 20's. You don't need to throw it off.
PCT only helps so much.

Yeah whatever dude, you REALLY don't know what ur talking about...I've researched AAS extensively so don't say shit like that unless you've got medical studies that you can cite right now....ur test levels are highest when going through puberty and the reason u wouldn't want to start AAS before the age of say 18 or 19 is because it can cause ur growth plates to fuse early permanently and irreversibly

[glass]

would anyone know some good bodyweight exercises, say something a gymnast might use to gain upper body strength? like different kinds of dips, chins, and whatnot.

i dunno.. but i've been preferring the gymnast physique for a while. maybe it's just me but i'd prefer to a gymnast's physique over Schwarzenegger's. you get the upper body strength, cardiovascular endurance, agility, etc. add that gymnasts don't even touch weights, but a decent one can bench/squat/deadlift more times their bodyweight than quite a few weightlifters can.

plus they look good. it's hard to not like the permanent bulk/definition balance they maintain, and you always hear comments about how a superhero's physique might look like a gymnast's.

http://www.skin-cgn.de/athen_2004/Gymnast%20008.jpg

[Agmaster]

Alright, I started a standing job (8 hours, atleast 5 days a week) and my ankles are sore as all hell. Are there any workouts to toughen them up faster or do I just have to get used to it.

[MagnusMadness]

Alright, I started a standing job (8 hours, atleast 5 days a week) and my ankles are sore as all hell. Are there any workouts to toughen them up faster or do I just have to get used to it.

It's not that ur not muscularly tough enough to handle the stress...ur just not used to it....it goes away fairly quickly depending on how often you work...now if ur really heavyset or really out of shape it could take alot longer or may even give you more problems over time...



would anyone know some good bodyweight exercises, say something a gymnast might use to gain upper body strength? like different kinds of dips, chins, and whatnot.

i dunno.. but i've been preferring the gymnast physique for a while. maybe it's just me but i'd prefer to a gymnast's physique over Schwarzenegger's. you get the upper body strength, cardiovascular endurance, agility, etc. add that gymnasts don't even touch weights, but a decent one can bench/squat/deadlift more times their bodyweight than quite a few weightlifters can.

plus they look good. it's hard to not like the permanent bulk/definition balance they maintain, and you always hear comments about how a superhero's physique might look like a gymnast's.

http://www.skin-cgn.de/athen_2004/Gymnast%20008.jpg

Gymnasts don't touch the weights?? I've heard of olympic gymnasts getting popped for steroid use in the past...find it hard to believe they would juice with no weight training regimen...

BTW....when you start working out with weights...you will look like the gymnast first after a couple years of hard training and dieting and cardio....then if you become a science experiment and do an insane amount of steroids over the next decade you will look like arnold....(I actually have a good formula for that but it's thousands of dollars a year and would require you to have bloodwork done every 6 weeks to monitor things like blood pressure, cholesterol, and of course liver values...)

[Agmaster]

So...while I am in the process of getting in shape there is nothing I can do to decrease the adjustment period?

[Nemesis00]

In all seriousness, anyone have any suggestions for getting a slightly overweight person as jacked as possible before next October?

[MagnusMadness]

So...while I am in the process of getting in shape there is nothing I can do to decrease the adjustment period?

When I started waiting tables a couple years ago my feet hurt but before I knew it I was used to it, I didn't have to do anything....MAYBE you could try running long distances outside on hard pavements to get used to a certain level of impact stress....or you could try getting insoles to reduce the stress


In all seriousness, anyone have any suggestions for getting a slightly overweight person as jacked as possible before next October?

Weighttraining, diet, and cardio...:confused:

[300 lb Eugene]

In all seriousness, anyone have any suggestions for getting a slightly overweight person as jacked as possible before next October?

Watch ;"The Longest Yard", and see what they do...:lol:

[Du Fugitive]

A bit off-topic, but Agmaster, try getting more comfortable shoes for starters....at worst, get some inserts to put into your shoes. You might actually over pronate when you walk which leads to all sorts of problems. Look up hyperpronation/overpronation somewhere to see if that's your problem as I don't believe ankle injuries can be fixed with lifting. I could be wrong.

In the lower body portion of your bodybuilding/weightlifting program, include squats/leg presses, deadlifts, calf raises, and leg curls and that should strengthen your legs somewhat to deal with standing around all day.

[Du Fugitive]

bump.

Anyone have thoughts on HST if you know about it?
http://www.hypertrophy-specific.com/hst_II.html

[300 lb Eugene]

Heres an example:
http://www.trimspa.com/testimonials/gallery/view_photo.php?full=1&set_albumName=mdm&id=MarcusSmith_FB

[MagnusMadness]

Heres an example:
http://www.trimspa.com/testimonials/gallery/view_photo.php?full=1&set_albumName=mdm&id=MarcusSmith_FB


3 months is what 12 weeks?? Lost 50lbs with virtually no muscle atrophy??? Looks like the juice to me or either those pictures were taken after a lot longer than 3 months....Not to say that the program doesn't work at all but almost EVERY single time those before and after picture ads are fake (flip through an issue of musclemag or flex and check out the creatine ads sometime, "I put on 20 pounds of Lean muscle in 8 weeks!!" BULLSHIT)...if it's too good to be true it probably is.

Du Fugitive:

Not everyone responds to certain routines especially that one...for one it's not enough sets from the example I saw and I don't respond at all to higher reps....also I don't change the rep ranges up until at least the 6 week mark...and if I'm still seeing gains and liking what I'm doing I keep going for a few more weeks...now I know some people who are seeing great results on a power/reprange/shock....u could find more details on that program on IronMagazine.com.....

And thx to u 300lbEugene for referring me to that site...it's awesome and I have learned SO much....

[Lan Di]

Anyone have much experience using ankle/wrist weights or those weighted vests? I was thinking about buying some ankle weights (10 pounds each i guess) to wear when i go for my walk/jog, but i was afraid that it might make my legs so much more tired that then i'd be unable to keep going hard enough to get the proper cardio workout. I'm afraid it will turn it more into a leg building exercise. So....will it? What about the weighted vests, are those pretty good to use to work out with or what?

[300 lb Eugene]

3 months is what 12 weeks?? Lost 50lbs with virtually no muscle atrophy??? Looks like the juice to me or either those pictures were taken after a lot longer than 3 months....Not to say that the program doesn't work at all but almost EVERY single time those before and after picture ads are fake (flip through an issue of musclemag or flex and check out the creatine ads sometime, "I put on 20 pounds of Lean muscle in 8 weeks!!" BULLSHIT)...if it's too good to be true it probably is.

....

No... this is really him after 3 months....I was watching the entries pics last year.

No muscle atrophy? The contest isnt really about how much muscle you build,
just the overall change in the persons body compared to how it looked 3 months ago...

And when you take the before picture you must be holding a newspaper that has THAT date on it, so if you started jan. 1st , then the paper will have what happened on that day and the date. This is how the judges are able to tell if your picture is current or previous.

[MagnusMadness]

No... this is really him after 3 months....I was watching the entries pics last year.

No muscle atrophy? The contest isnt really about how much muscle you build,
just the overall change in the persons body compared to how it looked 3 months ago...

And when you take the before picture you must be holding a newspaper that has THAT date on it, so if you started jan. 1st , then the paper will have what happened on that day and the date. This is how the judges are able to tell if your picture is current or previous.


I know the contest wasn't about building muscle...you completely missed my point. Unless you lose weight over a longer period of time...like 1-2 pounds a week....it's easy to lose muscle in the process. But to lose 50 fuckin pounds in 12 weeks and have virtually no loss in muscle mass...or even have gained muscle while losing a tremendous amount of fat....means he was on some "special" supps. On a side note....what's keeping someone from holding onto an old newspaper and holding it up when they take their picture??

[mightimao]

my friend gave me his bottle of muscletech's cell-tech creatine.
however, its a little old: best by 05/05.

obviously, its passed.
this might seem like a stupid question, but do you think its okay to still take the cell tech? does creatine even 'expire'?

thanks.

[The Mullah]

it's probably denatured a little but i bet it still works. i've taken mouldy suppliments loads of times.

[Biggzy]

my friend gave me his bottle of muscletech's cell-tech creatine.
however, its a little old: best by 05/05.

obviously, its passed.
this might seem like a stupid question, but do you think its okay to still take the cell tech? does creatine even 'expire'?

thanks.

I heard cell-tech is garbage, never actually tried it myself though.

I'm currently taking CEE from bulknutrition, its cheap and works pretty well.

www.bulknutrition.com

[MagnusMadness]

I heard cell-tech is garbage, never actually tried it myself though.

I'm currently taking CEE from bulknutrition, its cheap and works pretty well.

www.bulknutrition.com

it's just creatine with alpha lipoic acid and a ton of sugar to trigger an insulin spike...

Xpand is one of the best creatines on the market IMO, it's an ethyl ester for better absorption with arginine and all kinds of glutamine with a little caffeine for a preworkout boost....I haven't stopped buying it since it first came out.

[takgahxia]

http://www.mightysworld.com/articles/vplayerarticle.pdf

yo check out the link, it's pretty crucial.


http://www.abcbodybuilding.com/exercise1.htm <- good site to learn about how to do diff. exercises, they got some good articles/programs on their site to

[Biggzy]

http://www.mightysworld.com/articles/vplayerarticle.pdf

yo check out the link, it's pretty crucial.


http://www.abcbodybuilding.com/exercise1.htm <- good site to learn about how to do diff. exercises, they got some good articles/programs on their site to

Ehh I heard HGH gives you a gut. I definitely don't need that.

[MagnusMadness]

Ehh I heard HGH gives you a gut. I definitely don't need that.

Injecting HGH doesn't give you a gut, it cause internal organs to grow...and that is HGH gut. The article he linked you to is an artical about manipulating Growth hormone and insulin NATURALLY.

[300 lb Eugene]

....what's keeping someone from holding onto an old newspaper and holding it up when they take their picture??




Before pics are taken in Jan 06'.while holding up a paper from whatever day in Jan. you started and then you take your after pics on May 9
of your self while holding up a paper that says May 9 2006.


Go to- Trim Spa.com- for better explanation....

[MagnusMadness]

Hit 265 on the bench yesterday for a double....we were maxing out and I thought 265 would be it, but the first rep was cake...

[mvsc2demon]

my friend gave me his bottle of muscletech's cell-tech creatine.
however, its a little old: best by 05/05.

obviously, its passed.
this might seem like a stupid question, but do you think its okay to still take the cell tech? does creatine even 'expire'?

thanks.
All Muscletech products suck. For creatine, i suggest higher-power or no-xplode. For great deals, go to bodybuilding.com they have the best prices on anything, their forums are great also.

[Red-Impact]

Ok so I've finally gotten off my ass and going to the gym...I got my routine streight but always missing out on shoulder's...when should I work them out?

I currently do Chest/tricept, bicep/back, and legs. I don't know where to put my shoulder exercises

I've been going for about 5 months btw...seen some result. My chest has gotten a bit more defined and lost a lot of gut. Do I really need suplements? call me skeptical and misinformed but I think they are unhealthy