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


OceansAndrew
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Yup. My wife came across a picture of me from a couple of years ago with my shirt off, and I was like "Where?! Where is it?! I need to see it!" Just so I can compare it with where I am, and have BRIEF satisfaction.

Yeah, Deia showed me a pic from 2011 and I look like a bobblehead, my body is so small compared to my skull. :P

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pretty awesome stuff; at first i thought the little guy was gonna throw down some moves, and then it was you! What is that sort of sequence called? Is it like a 'run' like in snowboarding, or what? How long would it take to learn something like that?

Well, normally you don't have the leisure of setting stuff up in a gym, since you're doing it outside and people take umbridge when you move buildings around so that you can kong-vault them better.

You know I have no idea what the term for it is. In rock climbing you'd call it a "problem." I might just call it a sequence. The sequence in this case was a dive vault (a kong) into a series of tic-tacs (bouncing off objects that are at an angle) ending in a cat hang.

I've been doing this for maybe a 8 months? But it's hard to tell how long it would take to learn, because I feel like I've been doing parkour-like stuff all my life playing around as a kid and stuff.

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You'll never guess what happened. I know weight fluctuates all the time, but I lost 10 lbs in 1 day. That's one heck of a difference.

One other thing that happened was that I went for a run for the first time in 8 months. I ran 3-4 miles a day for 2 years yet this run I did went easier then at my peak back then.

But in the meantime, I've been staying around the 205 mark for the last few months and I think it's about time I finished up and lost the rest of the weight I want to lose. To kick start this, I'm going to be making something I dub "José Jalapeño on a Stick" No carbs!

Bacon-Sausage-Cheese-Stuffed-Bacon-Wrapped-Jalape%C3%B1os-7-570x379.jpg

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stuff

Dayum, that looks tasty. Ten pounds in one day is pretty up there. Weight does fluctuate, yeah, but it's always awesome when you see a big increase/decrease in the direction you're looking for. Especially if it's been sitting stagnant for a week or two, then all of a sudden, BOOM. Nice work brah :nicework:

I'm officially* below 12% bf finally, I was hovering around 12.2 for a couple of weeks. Goal is to get below 10 by May; gonna have to up my sprints a bit more, methinks.

*According to my scale, which I still think has me a hair higher than I really am.

By the way, if any of you have a sweet tooth, I found a pretty awesome recipe for fudge that I'm still tweaking, but here's the gist of it: (Makes 10-12 servings)

4 tbsp coconut butter

4 tbsp butter

1 or 2 tbsp honey

Combine these in a small saucepan and melt them together, stir. Remove pot from heat and add:

A little less than half a cup of almond milk (I used unsweetened vanilla)

4 tsp. cocoa powder

3-4 scoops protein powder (I used vanilla ON Pro Complex).

Vanilla extract if you want.

Pinch of salt if you want.

Whisk together, should be fairly thick.

Spoon into greased muffin pan (or ice cube tray, or whatever you want)

Pop into freezer for at least 3-4 hours. Or eat with spoon, use as icing, put on strawberries, etc. Really thick, so you can use it several ways.

Here's the part I'm still trying to perfect; the fudge is a bit hard to chew when it comes out of the freezer, but it melts super-quick. So perhaps pop it out of the mold and let it sit for a few minutes, then enjoy. Lots of good fat and minimal sugar, and high protein. Booyah. I'm about to experiment with this and adding some natural peanut butter.

Edited by Soul Splint
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  • 3 weeks later...
so I finally got an MRI for my shoulder. picked up the results today. I have a partial tear in the subscapularis, and a posterior labral tear.

I'm going to get a box of wine, brb.

Aww, man :(. That sucks so hard. I hate to hear that. Does any of that require surgery? Were you given any idea of how long recovery will take?

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Aww, man :(. That sucks so hard. I hate to hear that. Does any of that require surgery? Were you given any idea of how long recovery will take?

No idea, I don't have a specialist yet. I just picked up the lab report and read it yesterday. I don't know anything about living with partial tears... will I be pain-free someday? Will I ever be able to resume normal exercising? Who knows. I don't want to make it worse. They don't seem to heal on their own from what I've read. By the same token I've read wildly varying stories of the efficacy of surgery. The labrum tear would explain why my shoulder pops and feels unstable. My right shoulder pops too, although no pain of any kind, and in a different direction. I wonder what an MRI would have found there.

Edited by Argle
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Hey all,

This is my first time posting in this thread and I have a question for you guys. I'm constantly busy and I tend to exercise around the evening. I'm trying to put on weight, as I'm a scrawny (but improving) 110+ lbs at 5'1". My question is, my hunger always seems to coincide with when I have time to exercise, and most times I'll just excercise through the hunger and wolf something down afterward. At times though (like now) I'll get so damn hungry, even after spacing my meals apart at lunch to try and distribute energy, but I have an incredibly fast metabolism and end up burning it all up by 7pm anyway. So I get pissed off that I can't have a strong workout because I'm running on partly empty.

So do you guys think working through the hunger is what I should continue doing? Would you say that eating a hearty dinner and working out after I've digested would be the best option? An additional point is that I excercise for about an hour maybe 3 times a week on average. If I'm going to make any appreciable gains, how much more would be recommended?

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Hey all,

This is my first time posting in this thread and I have a question for you guys. I'm constantly busy and I tend to exercise around the evening. I'm trying to put on weight, as I'm a scrawny (but improving) 110+ lbs at 5'1". My question is, my hunger always seems to coincide with when I have time to exercise, and most times I'll just excercise through the hunger and wolf something down afterward. At times though (like now) I'll get so damn hungry, even after spacing my meals apart at lunch to try and distribute energy, but I have an incredibly fast metabolism and end up burning it all up by 7pm anyway. So I get pissed off that I can't have a strong workout because I'm running on partly empty.

So do you guys think working through the hunger is what I should continue doing? Would you say that eating a hearty dinner and working out after I've digested would be the best option? An additional point is that I excercise for about an hour maybe 3 times a week on average. If I'm going to make any appreciable gains, how much more would be recommended?

Welcome! Don't forget your bro badge at the front entrance :)

Kidding aside, your question really comes down to how you're feeling during your workout. Are you hungry and just distracted by it, or are you flagging during the workout because your energy levels are low? If the former, it's absolutely fine to power through and chow down after; your gains are going to be most affected by the total number of calories you take in during the day.

However, if you're really struggling with the workout because you feel weak from lack of energy, then you should definitely eat beforehand. Training in a fasted state is perfectly fine as long as you have the energy to do so, but if you don't, it can easily be a wasted workout because you just can't move the metal the way you need to. I could also recommend that you give a pre-workout a shot, but because you train in the evening, that would probably be a bad idea (it would probably keep you awake the whole night).

You'll find lots of scrawny and former scrawny guys in here, so feel free to ask about anything.

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I've been talking to OA and Ecto about this, but about 5 weeks ago I decided to get my act together and make some real changes to my body. I'm doing personal training at the local gym two days a week (1 hour per session, one upper and one lowerbody workout) plus an extra day of upperbody, calves, and abs. No bodyweight stuff or cardio, just pure weight lifting. After every session I'm completely exhausted, and the next few days sore all over, but that's exactly how I want to feel. Working with a trainer has been a tremendous help.

It's very satisfying to increase my numbers continuously. The hardest thing for me though is still the bench press. Right now my numbers are basically:

* 10 reps at 95 pounds

* 10 reps at 130 pounds

* 8 reps at 180 pounds

* 4-5 very shaky, partially-assisted reps at about 230 pounds

With basically every other exercise, I can hit 8 reps at my max weight, but benching is just really hard for me (for some reason) even though I have a big chest. Maybe I shouldn't be hard on myself since I basically just started lifting not even 2 months ago, and was untrained before that, but I still feel like it's my weakest area.

On the other hand, I love seeing my improvements in other areas. For example when I started out, my bicep curls were 10x 30 lbs, 10x 40, 10x 50lbs, and I couldn't handle 60. Now, I do 10x 40, 10x 60, and about 8x 80. Big jumps.. feels good :)

Edited by zircon
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I've been talking to OA and Ecto about this, but about 5 weeks ago I decided to get my act together and make some real changes to my body. I'm doing personal training at the local gym two days a week (1 hour per session, one upper and one lowerbody workout) plus an extra day of upperbody, calves, and abs. No bodyweight stuff or cardio, just pure weight lifting. After every session I'm completely exhausted, and the next few days sore all over, but that's exactly how I want to feel. Working with a trainer has been a tremendous help.

It's very satisfying to increase my numbers continuously. The hardest thing for me though is still the bench press. Right now my numbers are basically:

* 10 reps at 95 pounds

* 10 reps at 130 pounds

* 8 reps at 180 pounds

* 4-5 very shaky, partially-assisted reps at about 230 pounds

With basically every other exercise, I can hit 8 reps at my max weight, but benching is just really hard for me (for some reason) even though I have a big chest. Maybe I shouldn't be hard on myself since I basically just started lifting not even 2 months ago, and was untrained before that, but I still feel like it's my weakest area.

On the other hand, I love seeing my improvements in other areas. For example when I started out, my bicep curls were 10x 30 lbs, 10x 40, 10x 50lbs, and I couldn't handle 60. Now, I do 10x 40, 10x 60, and about 8x 80. Big jumps.. feels good :)

Kickin' dat ass, man. Glad to see the numbers are still going up. That should keep on going pretty much without any hangups for another few months. Bench is by far my weakest lift, too, but I'm a lanky shit with a small frame. I've also kinda seen anecdotally while working out with lots of friends over the years that bench seems to have more variability than any other lift among different people. Sometimes it's due to obvious reasons (wide frame/short arms = easy benching; narrow frame/long arms = hard benching), but other times, it sorta defies explanation. A dude in my class has a really stocky frame with fairly short arms. He's super strong everywhere else, but he has a 5RM on bench of like 190, and that's pretty low for a guy who's been training for the better part of a decade, or even for a year or so.

If it's any consolation, bench is basically the least important major compound lift, at least in a functional sense. Not a whole lot of instances in which you're gonna need to push a heavy weight off your chest, haha.

I've also found that after a couple or three months of building up stabilizers and my upper back and abs, benching becomes much easier and has a "second wind" sort of effect with respect to gains. Whenever I start lifting again, I always go through a period of being really shaky with it, then once I regain stability with the bar after a while, I can focus on my pecs alone enough to build them up more quickly, and then the weight goes up.

Edited by ectogemia
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Holy balls. I had my bodyfat tested in a hydrostatic lab today. I was assuming that my scale was doing a mostly accurate job of measuring me, due the numbers seeming to match pretty closely with my appearance and what I though it should be. My scale measured me at 11.4% bodyfat this morning.

The hydrostatic test put me at 7.6%.

This means that my muscle volume is significantly lower than I thought, which is actually a good thing, as my appearance has been leading me to believe it was higher than it actually is. All of this boils down to the fact that I AM COMING OFF MY CUT AND EATING ALL THE THINGS. Well, all the good things anyway. My brain and my stomach instantly realized this when she told me the number, so it was all I could do not to sprint out of there partially-naked to the nearest Chipotle.

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Went to an ortho guy, I guess this is some kinda good news, he thinks my tears are minimal, maybe negligible. So that is good to know, but that means I've had pain for 5 months for some other reason. I'm going to do some physical therapy at an actual place for a month or so. I'm curious if they would ok me to do deadlifts. Of all the kinds of weightlifting that position is one that doesn't cause me any pain. Any overhead motion is a no go. But deadlifts, you're just pickin shit up and holding it for awhile. idk. I've been interested in doing those for awhile, and it doesn't look like I'll be going back to rings or pullups anytime soon.

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Soul Splint: epic numbers, man! I am getting a bod pod reading saturday morning, and I am pretty sure I am more along the lines of actually 11%, but i'll post results when I get them. :-)

Argle: There are a bunch of really good physical therapy exercises that work mainly the stabilization muscles that would be good for warmups. I do you you can get back to doing other exercises, but it'll take some time. Glad that the problem is not super serious, at least not that you know yet.

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I just had an urge to start up DDR again. I used to be able to do all but the most extreme songs on hardest difficulty. Man, this isn't as easy as I remember it. But it really is an incredible agility and cardio workout. Anyone got an idea on how I might track this workout?

DERP. There actually is a category for DDR. I can't believe it. I'm going to be doing this a lot more from now on.

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I got my bod pod reading on saturday, and I am at 177.5lb and 11.2% BF. Going to pick up my cut a little bit, since i'm behind schedule, but during it, I put on some lean mass and hit PR's in every lift, so I think I miscalculated my TDEE and was more at maintenance rather than a deficit.

The plan from here is trim 200 calories off my daily intake and start doing cardio, so that should get me moving again!

Soul Splint, what was your weight at for 7ish %? Did you find yourself losing much strength?

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Soul Splint, what was your weight at for 7ish %? Did you find yourself losing much strength?

My scale and the hydrostatic test both put me at 179.6 pounds during the day I was tested (at 7.6% bf). My strength changes were kind of weird during my cut; I continued to progress upward on several lifts such as pull-ups, chin-ups and dips (I didn't lose enough bodyweight to offset the weight I added on these exercises, so I definitely got stronger on these), but I lost strength on squats and bench. OHP and rows seemed to go up and down week to week. However, I definitely felt weaker on some days, even though my lifts may not have shown it. Getting through that is more of a mental thing for me.

I can't believe you're at 11.2% That just goes to show how different body types can be I guess, as I think we look pretty similar in terms of definition.

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My scale and the hydrostatic test both put me at 179.6 pounds during the day I was tested (at 7.6% bf). My strength changes were kind of weird during my cut; I continued to progress upward on several lifts such as pull-ups, chin-ups and dips (I didn't lose enough bodyweight to offset the weight I added on these exercises, so I definitely got stronger on these), but I lost strength on squats and bench. OHP and rows seemed to go up and down week to week. However, I definitely felt weaker on some days, even though my lifts may not have shown it. Getting through that is more of a mental thing for me.

I can't believe you're at 11.2% That just goes to show how different body types can be I guess, as I think we look pretty similar in terms of definition.

i've been blessed by Brodin with a super mesomorph build, and the bod pod guy was like "every percent of fat you clear out from here on out will make you look like a different person. It's good to hear that you managed to maintain a lot of lifts, I have a feeling i'll maintain bench and chins, as those are my best lifts, but the other stuff, who knows. I've reduced a but of volume while cutting, and just tried to maintain the weight, which seems to be working well.

This week i'm carb cycling so I can look at least a little shredded for the PAX east costume, and i'll be aiming for about 7-8% for the summer, and maintain that. Three days since starting the carb cycle, im down 2lb already, though my guess is it's all water. Anyways, when I hit 8% i'll post some pics. As I cut down, I can start to see what i need to work on, mainly rear delts, upper chest, and quads.

At this point, i've built a good enough strength foundation that I am transitioning into full Zyzzthetics mode, and my frame can support about 10-15lb more muscle before I hit my genetic max, so I have plenty to work for over the next few years.

I do like the idea of doing DDR for cardio as well, so I wonder if i can find my old pad and throwdown. Maybe teach james how to do it. :-)

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