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Soul Splint

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Posts posted by Soul Splint

    Fit Club ahoy! Where men are bros and women are also bros!

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I finally saw a specialist about my back... turns out I have something called facet joint arthritis, otherwise known as facet syndrome. No bueno. My discs are fine but the joints in my lower back are inflamed. It explains a LOT about so many things, and I'm really happy we figured it out. Currently taking some very strong anti-inflammatories, after which I'll be on slightly weaker (but still prescription) stuff to get the inflammation under control, and then it's back to physical therapy. Definitely disruptive to my workouts too, but I'd rather heal up than be at 80% capacity for years.

    Glad you have an answer. Here's to getting well then getting swell (ed)!

    Rare Replay

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Although remakes and re-releases seem to be a pretty common theme these past few years, I'm excited about the Rare Replay collection, which seems like a fantastic deal for $30. It releases Aug. 4 for Xbox One, and contains the following games (list/descriptions pulled from IGN):

     

     

    1. Jetpac (released in 1983, 1-2 players) – Single-screen shooter where Jetman must reassemble and fuel his rocket while fending off alien hordes.

     

    2. Atic Atac (released in 1983, 1 player) – Top-down adventure with increased replayability thanks to randomized object locations and three different character classes.

     

    3. Lunar Jetman (released in 1983, 1-2 players) – A return to the Jetpac side-scrolling formula, but with a scrolling, randomly generated landscape and much more to do.

     

    4. Sabre Wulf (released in 1984, 1-2 players) – Classic jungle maze game and the first appearance of explorer Sabreman, tackling dangers including the vicious ’Wulf itself.

     

    5. Underwurlde (released in 1984, 1 player) – Rare’s first true platform game. Help Sabreman survive the perils of the Underwurlde and escape through one of three exits.

     

    6. Knight Lore (released in 1984, 1 player) – Introduction of Ultimate’s groundbreaking isometric Filmation engine. Sabreman must scour the castle for items to cure his werewolf curse.

     

    7. Gunfright (released in 1986, 1-2 players) – A Wild West spin on the isometric style, with an improved engine and new first-person target-shooting sections.

     

    8. Slalom (released in 1987, 1-2 players) – Rare’s first console game. Make it to the bottom of each course before time runs out while avoiding trees, sledders, snowmen and other skiers.

     

    9. R.C. Pro-Am (released in 1988, 1 player) – Responsive racing game that inspired elements of Rare’s future racers, including speed boosts, upgrades and collectible power-ups littered around the track.

     

    10. Cobra Triangle (released in 1989, 1 player) – Hop into a boat and power through a branching game world, completing challenges such as shooting targets, disposing of mines and defeating leviathans.

     

    11. Snake Rattle N Roll (released in 1990, 1-2 players) – A fast-paced isometric adventure. Rattle and Roll must eat Nibbley-Pibbleys until they’re heavy enough to ring a bell and open the exit.

     

    12. Digger T. Rock (released in 1990, 1-2 players) – 2D platformer in which Digger must find an exit switch, stand on it, then make it to the exit in 60 seconds.

     

    13. Solar Jetman (released in 1990, 1 player) – A game built around exploration and physics; Jetman has to tow fuel and other items to his mothership.

     

    14. Battletoads (released in 1991, 1-2 players) – Skill and perseverance required as the ’Toads take on multiple game styles to rescue Pimple and Princess Angelica from the Dark Queen.

     

    15. R.C. Pro-Am II (released in 1992, 1-4 players) – Sequel to R.C. Pro-Am with a wider variety of environments, more car customization options and bonus games.

     

    16. Battletoads Arcade (released in 1994) – First “Battletoads” game to allow all three ‘Toads to play simultaneously. Has never had a home release before “Rare Replay”!

     

    17. Killer Instinct Gold (released in 1996, 1-2 players) – Home version of Killer Instinct 2 with several multiplayer modes (including tournament mode) and a training dojo.

     

    18. Blast Corps (released in 1997, 1 player) – Cult classic with a fleet of destructive vehicles (from bulldozers to robots) used to clear the path for a runaway nuclear missile carrier.

     

    19. Banjo-Kazooie (released in 1998, 1 player) – 3D platformer adventure where Banjo and Kazooie must take on the evil witch Gruntilda, who’s kidnapped Banjo’s sister Tooty and plans to steal her beauty for herself.

     

    20. Jet Force Gemini (released in 1999, 1-4 players) – Interstellar action adventure that mixes third-person exploration and alien-blasting action as the last three JFG members go up against Mizar.

     

    21. Perfect Dark (relased in 2000, 1-4 players) – A stealth shooter set in the year 2023. Players lead secret agent Joanna Dark against the dataDyne corporation as they uncover an alien conspiracy that takes her around the world.

     

    22. Banjo-Tooie (released in 2000, 1-4 players) – Builds on Banjo-Kazooie with larger worlds, separately controllable characters, multiplayer modes and many more moves to learn.

     

    23. Conker’s Bad Fur Day (released in 2001, 1-4 players) – Beloved comedy adventure that mixes up genres (platformer, third-person shooting, racing) with mature humor, pop culture references and parodies.

     

    24. Grabbed by the Ghoulies (released in 2003, 1 player) – Rare’s first Xbox game. A comic book beat-’em-up set in a haunted house filled with breakable scenery and Ghoulies of all kinds.

     

    25. Perfect Dark Zero (released in 2005, 1-4 players locally, up to 32 players online) – A prequel to Perfect Dark that delves into Joanna’s origins and fuses first-person shooting with third-person, cover-based combat.

     

    26. Kameo: Elements of Power (released in 2005, 1-2 players locally or online) – A fantasy adventure focused on combat and exploration, with Kameo able to transform into ten different Elemental Warriors.

     

    27. Viva Piñata (released in 2006, 1-2 players locally) – A magical gardening/life sim in which the player can cultivate a garden paradise, attract different Piñatas and keep them safe from Professor Pester and his Ruffians.

     

    28. Jetpac Refuelled (released in 2007, 1-2 players locally or online) – A modern update to Jetpac. Assemble and fuel your rocket before blasting off to the next of 128 challenging stages.

     

    29. Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts (released in 2008, 1-2 players locally, up to 4 players online) – A more open-ended, customizable approach to the series with vehicle-based challenges set by L.O.G. (the Lord of Games).

     

    30. Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise (released in 2008, 1-2 players locally or online) – Features new species and Piñata Central challenges, plus desert and arctic regions to visit and catch native Piñatas.

     

     

    Very excited about several of these, but especially Jet Force Gemini, assuming that it will support dual-stick control. This will also be a chance for me to play some titles that I've never gotten around to but have heard good things about, such as Kameo and Grabbed by the Ghoulies. Rare, man. Rare IS my childhood.

    Mass Effect: Andromeda

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    As bummed as I am that we won't be playing as Shepard, and that there likely won't be any appearances by characters from the original trilogy, I am still super-hyped about this. This is one of the very few (if not the only) large-scale game franchises that I take the time to fully explore.

    Fit Club ahoy! Where men are bros and women are also bros!

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Soul Splint: how's Romanian deadlift for you? That's what I've been doing, and it seems like at least there's less action on the knees, if not necessarily less stress.

     

    Still though, I made all my new 1rms: 225 bench, 285 squat, 165 push press, 345 deadlift.  I got squashed a lot though, on my 5's and 3's.  That was mostly on my upper body stuff, so next mesocycle I'm going to keep the same targets for bench and push press.  I probably will make my goals for push press and squat for the year, but I'm really not too worried about it for bench and haven't set one for the deadlift.  405 lol? No idea there.

    Romanians are better as far as I can tell, but still pose the same problem to some degree. I'm going to go pure sumo for a month or two and see what happens.

     

    Nice progress on those PRs! I'm gonna have to up my game, you're catching up to me (especially on squats and deads). This week is all PR attempts for me on my main lifts (except deadlift day). Will be attempting 3-rep maxes: 255 on bench (without resorting to powerlifting technique), 275 on squat (want to go a bit deeper than I did last time, as I just went a hair below parallel), wide-grip pullups at +70 pounds, and Arnold Press with 75 pound dummies.

    Fit Club ahoy! Where men are bros and women are also bros!

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Well how nice that they caught the error themselves and notified you.

     

    Fellow deadlifters might have some feedback/advice here: I'm considering waving goodbye to conventional style and solely pulling in sumo stance. For whatever reason, the MCL in my left knee is just not tolerating conventional style very well anymore when I approach my three-rep max. I've had people watch to critique my form, and no one can spot anything that explains why this is happening.

     

    The clincher: I REALLY don't care for sumo stance deadlifts, I usually just do them as an accessory after conventional-style. But, this week and next week I'll be deadlifting around my five-rep max, so if I've got pain the next day after doing so, I might just be SOL.

    Giving away SteamWorld Dig codes (All gone!)

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Just snapped up the Humble Nindie Bundle! I was going to pay the average price ($9.20) to access the games I wanted (because I already own the $10 game that I would be interested in), but realized that for 80 cents more I could possibly make a couple of people on OCR smile. I already have SteamWorld Dig for 3DS, but as I understand it, the $10 bundle comes with codes for a Wii U version and 3DS version.

     

    So, first person to ask for a code gets it! Let me know which system and I will PM you the code.

    Fit Club ahoy! Where men are bros and women are also bros!

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    185x2 felt really really heavy, and I failed at 195. Tomorrow I am going to try 2 plates (225) for 1rm.

     

    Yeah, my incline is solid. But again that's on a machine and spotted...

    Anyway, here's a video of my last hack squat from wednesday. Have to say this really didn't feel great afterward on my back.. you can see the pain during the set. Plus I wasn't quite going deep enough. But damn if that isn't a lot of weight, lol.

    He just had to throw in video proof, lest any of us newbs doubt his godly leg strength. ;-)

    Fit Club ahoy! Where men are bros and women are also bros!

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Do you get gains from 1 rep at the highest possible you can handle, or is that a testing your ceiling type of thing? Congrats on breaking 200 Zirc.

    So.

    I have to make more adjustments to get my abs and chest to reveal/ define better. I was cutting to the point where my face was starting to look thin and gaunt, 0% lean arms, yet my stomach fat resisted, especially at the hip, it's not even close.

    Genetics? I don't know, but I read that dairy products may cause bloatiness and inhibit definition. So I'm cutting out dairy completely to see what happens. Big sacrifice for me, so I'm totally willing to be talked out of it :shock:

    When working in the 1-5 rep range, most of your gains will be in strength. For muscle size, 8-12 is preferable. Both have a little bit of crossover though, so don't train exclusively in one area. For example, if size is your biggest goal, you should work primarily in the 8-12 range, but throw in some low rep workouts here and there.

     

    And to answer your question about belly fat, genetics absolutely do make a difference, but generally speaking, most guys lose fat in their belly last. It's always the last place on me to firm up during a cut. Sucks donkey balls, but not much you can do about it.

    Fit Club ahoy! Where men are bros and women are also bros!

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I lost 6 lbs in a week and My Fitness Pal is freaking out. It bumped up my daily calorie intake to 2,750 calories in order to lose .5 lbs a week. It was at 2,100, and now it also says to aim for 210g of protein.

    Should I just remove my last reported weight? Something isn't right. I have a crazy metabolism and i don't know what my calories should be to lose just a little fat.

    My weight is 171.5 lbs at 5' 11" if that helps. Not sure if that's low when I'm trying to maintain muscle mass.

    Edit: Nevermind it just switched my goal to gaining .5 lbs and I put it back. Why would it automatically do that...

    This is one of several reasons why I only rely on MFP for tracking calories and macros, and not for goals and such.

    Fit Club ahoy! Where men are bros and women are also bros!

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Do either of you work from home? That's the hard part. I have constant access to food. Also a ridiculous appetite :/ It's like the more I eat, the hungrier I get. When I was on vacation last week I would eat 1500 calories for breakfast - easily - then go up to my room and eat more, and be ready to eat lunch 2 hours later.

    No, I don't work from home, but I can definitely be a voracious individual. I'm eating 2700 cals a day right now (within my 8-hour feeding window). I could easily do 4,000 or more, and if I were to expand my eating window or drop it altogether, 6,000-7,000 calories would be doable. But this is why I really enjoy intermittent fasting. Eating nearly 3k cals in eight hours keeps me pretty satiated, and my body (usually) just doesn't get very hungry outside of that eight-hour window.

    Fit Club ahoy! Where men are bros and women are also bros!

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I also figured you would appreciate I'm doing more back training now, too. :wink:

    Aww yeah. Something something bringing sexy back. I dunno. But you'll start noticing differences in your other lifts, I guarantee it.

    I'm really scared of IF since I seem to have such a constant appetite... what do you do to mitigate that? I'm always starving in the mornings. And is there really a strong benefit over traditional dieting? Martin's website always seemed so cult-ish.

    I was worried about this too, and for the first week or two, you might have a bit of a struggle with it. But my body picked up on the schedule really quickly. Your body will "learn" when it's okay to eat, and you'll get to where you aren't really hungry except during feeding windows. (Disclaimer: if someone walks by you with a plate of your favorite food before/after your window, you're just SOL. But, I know you're a pretty disciplined guy, so you'll be fine).

    As for the benefit over traditional dieting, IF has strengths in appetite control and in hormone optimization. But this is an area where I really recommend doing your own research, because it's certainly not for everyone, and I would hate to sell it as such.

    Fit Club ahoy! Where men are bros and women are also bros!

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Also MyFitnesPal app is a big help. I recently started using it, you guys probably know all about it, but it basically told me that 1. I'm not eating quite enough and 2. what I am eating, it distributes as too much fat.

    I also temporarily gave up running except for sprinting 1 mile two or three times a week. I really need to get back up 5+ miles without losing mass somehow. That's my next research goal after 2 weeks of cutting then 4 more weeks of gaining.

    Nice progress brah! Check out the vein poppin on that bicep ;-)

    Yeah, I use MFP also, but only to track my cals and macros as calculated by the calculator at iifym.com. I've heard that for many people, the calculators used by MFP aren't very accurate, though in my case it actually gave me pretty similar numbers to iifym. But, different enough that I used iifym (If It Fits Your Macros, in case anyone is wondering).

    Sprinting one mile? SPRINTING one mile? :dstrbd:

    Fit Club ahoy! Where men are bros and women are also bros!

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by Soul Splint

    By the end of 2015, I want to be able to perform three reps on these exercises for these weights:

    Bench Press: 275 pounds

    Squat: 315 pounds

    Pullups: bodyweight + 90 pounds

    Deadlift: 365 pounds

    Overhead Press: 185 pounds

    Alrighty, update time on the goals! Have made some good progress on some of these. Will include my three-rep maxes from the beginning of the year along with my current maxes.

    Bench Press: Previous 3RM was 235. Current 3RM = 255. Had to break form to get the last rep though. Am well on track to achieve 275 by the end of the year.

    Squat: Previous 3RM was 255. Current 3RM = 275. Depth could have been better, but wasn't bad. Not confident about reaching 315 this year, but I think it's doable, especially once I go back on a calorie surplus.

    Pullup: Previous 3RM was +65. Current 3RM = +75 pounds. Feel confident about achieving +90.

    Deadlift: Previous 3RM was 325. Current 3RM = 355. May have to move this goal up from 365, but I wasn't satisfied with my form on the 355 pulls.

    OHP: Previous 3RM was 155. Current 3RM = 165ish. Just barely missed my last attempt at three reps on 165. End of year goal is 185, which will be tough, but I love training shoulders. We'll see.

    Fit Club ahoy! Where men are bros and women are also bros!

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by Soul Splint

    Alright so I've been wanting to bulk up a bit for years now but I have no idea where to start, mostly because of my slim diet. Most food doesn't sit well with me in the sense that many textures will make me flat out vomit, causing me to really be wary and admittedly a little afraid to try new foods. I've always heard that changing your diet is the first step, more important than actually working out and stuff. Unfortunately, that's where I'm stuck. To give you an idea, a typical grocery trip (after cutting out all the REALLY unhealthy things) consists of me getting:

    Blueberry bagels and cream cheese

    cereal, usually rice Chex

    bananas

    a gallon of whole milk

    orange juice

    dry roasted peanuts

    sometimes bacon

    and...yeah, I practically survive on this aside from the rare stop at some fast food joint with friends (usually Chicken Express or Burger King) for some chicken strips. Anyone have any ideas?

    Yay, bulking! First off, Neblix is right that you are sorely lacking in protein, and based on what you posted above, you are probably also eating too many carbs and not enough fat. Because it appears that you need to build your diet from the ground up, I'd recommend two things:

    1) Do as Neblix suggested and find your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure). You may want to eat even higher than 200-300 calories above, but to help you gauge that, you can buy a set of calipers (couple of bucks) to help you track your bodyfat along with weighing yourself. Once the calipers start to show a consistent rise in bodyfat, you've likely hit the upper limit of your TDEE, so eating more calories above that will not speed up muscle growth, just fat gain.

    2) I highly recommend googling how to track your macronutrients, which is the number of carbs, protein and fat you are eating. This is NEARLY as important as TDEE, so please consider it. Eating the right ratios of these three macros will keep your hormones, energy levels and muscle building potential at optimal levels. A fairly standard ratio is to get 50% of your daily calories from carbs, 30% from protein and 20% from fat. I prefer to get about 30% from carbs, 40% from protein and 30% from fat, but that's because I am carb sensitive (carbs make me gain fat a bit faster than I like). There are apps that make tracking macros pretty easy. I use MyFitnessPal, but there are many others.

    Please feel free to ask us questions if you feel lost. Learning this stuff can feel like a lost cause at first, but it becomes second nature quickly.

    EDIT: Oh, and here's a great link to a breakdown of protein sources, to help you figure out what to buy at the grocery store in order to meet your macros: http://www.fitocracy.com/knowledge/the-best-protein-sources-in-america-period/.

    Fit Club ahoy! Where men are bros and women are also bros!

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Seeing belly fat come back on a bulk is the worst btw. I'm so sad :( At least I'm gaining strength, I guess.

    As someone who came from the opposite end of the spectrum, I have the reverse problem. I get so sad when my cut starts working and I start losing a little bit of size and strength. That's what the bro support group is for, though.

    Haven't been working out or dieting much recently... kinda hit a big wall of stress. School's finally over for 6 months though, so after next week (which is hibernation and recovery), I will be jumping back into it.

    School. Bleh. Feels.

    I totally failed the strength and conditioning portion of my parkour red band test yesterday. I feel like an ass. I did worse than I did the first time (I passed this portion the first time) but yesterday I was such a shit show. Ugh.

    Sorry to hear that. So it sounds like Clubber Lang got the best of you this time, but now you're about to find the Eye of the Tiger, amirite?

    I'll get it off just about as fast, probably, and plan to start my actual cut here in May, methinks. I'm a little bit out from then, still, but when it comes time to cut, how should I modify my lifting schedule, if at all? I don't think I would be able to effectively continue increasing my weights, so I'm wondering what ya'll recommend as far as that goes.

    I wouldn't plan to change your lifting schedule, but do be prepared for some of your lifts to stall or perhaps even regress a little. It's part of the process. If they start dropping significantly, you may want to re-evaluate your caloric deficit. Keep lifting heavy!

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