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

[Argle]

Not to imply you aren't already doing this, but make SURE you are going down to a complete dead-hang at the end of each rep. Those first few inches of the pull really help, especially on wide grip variations.

Ok. I've gotten kinda lazy with that.

[zircon]

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

[Nabeel Ansari]

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.

[XPRTNovice]

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.

[RealFolkBlues]

Oh man, it looks like a lot of us have had a tough go of it lately. For me, this past week's lifts have been good (3's week is not the worst,) but I got squashed on my 5's of bench and squat the week prior (5's week is the worst,) and have gained like 4 pounds of fat over the last couple of weeks. It's okay, I let my discipline slip and ate a bunch of nonsense that my girlfriend fed me. 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.

@zircon, Neblix, XPRT: Hang in there, fellow bros!

@Modus: are you fairly certain you haven't got fat anywhere else? Regardless, the stomach fat is the last to go, and you've got to do some serious caloric deficit to get it off. That's your body's starvation account, for when we can't get any mammoths and we still have to outrun the saber-toothed cats.

[Soul Splint]

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!

[Theory of N]

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?

[Nabeel Ansari]

Getting your protein up will let you build more muscle (making your bulk productive). I'm not seeing any meat in your diet except for bacon. Embrace meat! It's good for you! (and not bacon, because it's not very nutritionally efficient. Eggs > bacon)

-Chicken. #1 calorie to protein ratio in a real food. As zircon said, no frying; grill or bake it. Serving sizes can vary where you buy it from (or you can specify # pounds if you go to a real butcher), but the packaging should say roughly how much is in the pieces (or you can weigh it yourself and do the calorie math).

-I do sandwiches with lunch meat. 4 slices turkey, 2 slices cheese, 2 slices white bread, then add whatever healthy toppings like lettuce or spinach, tomato, mayo (not more than a teaspoon). Pan fry or in a toaster oven, pretty delicious lunch that clocks in at 30g protein. Depending on your toppings, should be around 400-500 calories. It's not even very filling, so you could do another one and have two for lunch. You can experiment with different "bread"s (or whatevers) to try and get more proteins. I'm sure others would have recommendations.

-Eggs are also good sources of protein. If you make a simple omelette with 3 eggs, that's like 18g of protein, around 250 cals if you put extra stuff in it to make it taste good.

-Peanuts/peanut butter are good, yeah. When I need a snack, I make a PB&J with a little extra PB. People do greek yogurt, but I personally do not advocate having a person subject themselves to eating what smells like sour cream.

As for bulking itself, if you don't know how that works, you need to calculate your TDEE and appropriately go 200-300 calories above per day. That's why the protein/calorie ratio is important. If you're eating so many calories, make sure it's a good amount of protein (.75g / lb of your body weight is his recommended number, OA does like 1.2 or something like that), or you're just putting on useless matter.

That being said, NONE OF THIS ACTUALLY MATTERS if it's the sole focus of your diet. Make sure you're still eating fruits (bananas, good, for potassium.), veggies (potatoes are fuckin' SOLID), staying hydrated, vitamins & minerals, all that jazz. Specifically building muscle doesn't really help if you're not really eating healthy (so don't just eat chicken all day every day).

Edited March 27, 2015 by Neblix

[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/.

Edited March 27, 2015 by Soul Splint

[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.

Edited March 27, 2015 by Soul Splint

[RealFolkBlues]

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.

Great work, bro! Lol, your 3RM's are the same weight or more than my 1RM's. You're a manster.

Seriously, though, everything here looks doable to me. That OHP might be hard, but like you say, you're always training shoulders, and there's a lot of year left still, so I wouldn't worry about it.

[Thin Crust]

I have a question. There are two circumstances.

1. take a break between activities - rest up and then do 15 pull ups.

2. take no break between activities - immediately do as many pull ups as you can and only do 10 before you tap out.

Which of these are more beneficial to muscle growth?

[zircon]

Err, I think you're leaving something out here. Taking a rest from what? Are you doing just 1 set of pullups total? What does the full routine look like?

For example, if you're talking about doing some unrelated exercise and then immediately doing option #1 or #2, then I would say resting first and doing 15 is preferable. If you don't rest, then you might be winded from your previous exercise and not able to push yourself as hard. That is not optimal for muscle growth. In general, resting between sets is ideal unless you're specifically trying to do some weird cardio stuff but then we're not talking about muscle growth anymore.

[OceansAndrew]

if you can do 15 reps with rest, you arent using enough weight to get solid muscle growth. For optimal muscle gain, you want to aim for what you can do 10 reps and have a few in the tank, and then do 10 sets.

for building strength, i like doing a pyramid of lower reps. Combine with some volume and you have a great program.

5 pull ups with 25lb

5 pull ups with 45lb

5 pull ups with 90lb

then 5 sets of 10 unweighted pull ups.

[Thin Crust]

Well I feel that if you are in the middle of a workout and you give it your all and are only able to get about 10 pull ups in before tapping out - in this case, you are straining your muscles more even though you are doing less work.

The other method of waiting makes you perform more pull ups, but you aren't going to the extreme end of your ability that way. I just don't know which is better.

The other question I have is why can I do 20 pull ups, but I can only hang from one hand for a second? That's just confusing.

Edited April 2, 2015 by Thin Crust

[OceansAndrew]

Well I feel that if you are in the middle of a workout and you give it your all and are only able to get about 10 pull ups in before tapping out - in this case, you are straining your muscles more even though you are doing less work.

The other method of waiting makes you perform more pull ups, but you aren't going to the extreme end of your ability that way.

The other question I have is why can I do 20 pull ups, but I can only hang from one hand for a second? That's just confusing.

that's fine, do that then

[zircon]

If you care about muscle growth, it makes sense to follow the techniques of pro weightlifters, powerlifters, and bodybuilders. The consensus is that you need to rest for a good minute between sets, maybe more if you're dealing with extremely heavy weight. The consensus is also that heavier weight at lower reps tends to be more effective than low weight at high reps. There are some studies backing up both these things but if you look at most any training guide you'll see the same thing.

[Nabeel Ansari]

Well I feel that if you are in the middle of a workout and you give it your all and are only able to get about 10 pull ups in before tapping out - in this case, you are straining your muscles more even though you are doing less work.

That's not how you physics, sir. More weight = more work, less reps = less work, balances out to same work overall.

But overall doesn't matter, what matters is how stressed a muscle will get in just one movement, and then doing that a bunch of times. Stressing it harder 10 times is more effective than stressing it lightly for 20 times. Doing something for a long time won't build strength, it'll build endurance. The muscle will be able to do the same task more times, but that isn't the same thing as it being able to handle harder tasks.

That's why push-ups fall off with how much they help you unless you start adding weight. If you do push-ups, adding more push-ups doesn't mean you're able to push more weight, it just means you can push the same weight more times.

[Thin Crust]

Look what I found on the floor in the gym the other day.

I think those were the 2.5lb weights. Seriously, who does this? What are they trying to accomplish? I don't know of a use for something this light.

[Nabeel Ansari]

I think those were the 2.5lb weights. Seriously, who does this? What are they trying to accomplish? I don't know of a use for something this light.

Knock it off, dude. You're taking pictures of a 5lb+bar and posting it to Fit Club saying "gee guys look at this weakling am i right"; what are you trying to accomplish? Just because the person is unnamed doesn't mean you aren't being an elitist. "Seriously, who does this?"

Once you get over yourself, here's an actual answer. Different workouts (because of, well, again, physics) will actually require more work out of your muscles with less weight (depending on balancing and lever types).

Try a shoulder press with a 50lb bar. "Easy", yeah? Now hold it straight in front of you. Arms fully extended. Not so easy, yeah? It's like vector algebra can actually fuck you when more than one variable is involved. That's why light bars exist. Not just for weaker people, but for harder exercises as well. Everyone has the same right to gym equipment. Everyone is also entitled to not have other people take pictures of their weight config and post it online to be laughed at. If you want to make fun of people, don't do it in a freakin' fit club.

Edited April 5, 2015 by Neblix

[Thin Crust]

Elitist? I know nothing about working out. Just last week was the first time I actually used a premade workout. Up until now my philosophy was to figure out what is difficult and do a lot of them. I see something like this and I'm confused. that's why I said "Seriously, who does this? What are they trying to accomplish? I don't know of a use for something this light." How is that being elitist? How is that being holier than thou? How is that me being a jerk? Stop being so judgmental.

[Nabeel Ansari]

Elitist? I know nothing about working out. Just last week was the first time I actually used a premade workout. Up until now my philosophy was to figure out what is difficult and do a lot of them. I see something like this and I'm confused. that's why I said "Seriously, who does this? What are they trying to accomplish? I don't know of a use for something this light." How is that being elitist? How is that being holier than thou? How is that me being a jerk? Stop being so judgmental.

My bad, misconstrued it as sarcasm. Try phrasing your questions earnestly instead of sarcastically. "I can't think of a use for this" usually correlates with "therefore it's useless". "Seriously, who does this?" is a giveaway rhetorical question with the implied given answer of "nobody." Similar with "What are they trying to accomplish?" (the answer to that is obvious: getting stronger...?)

A simple "hey guys, what kind of workouts are still difficult with low weight amounts?" is a much more productive question (and less provocative).

Edited April 5, 2015 by Neblix

[Modus]

Progress! I finally feel like wow, I'm getting to my goal!

My life is so messed up right now I have this though. Something earned, and I have to keep going.

http://i.imgur.com/HqO2mLN.jpg?1

http://i.imgur.com/DChAZZ9.jpg?1

It's also incredible just to feel healthy.

[Modus]

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.

[Soul Splint]

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?