Jump to content

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

OceansAndrew

By OceansAndrew,
in General Discussion

 Share

Recommended Posts

Soul Splint Newbie

Soul Splint

Posted
Posted

SMH moment today. Some guy's poor spotter got way more than he bargained for. Maybe it was because there was a girl in their group, but the guy on the bench loaded up 230 and tapped his friend to spot him. Not only did he not get the first rep on his own, he proceeded to try for a second, third, and fourth rep. I was wondering if I needed to go help when he finally racked it. His spotter was a wee bit flushed after having to teabag the guy to help him get the weight back up.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
ectogemia Newbie

ectogemia

Posted
Posted (edited)
SMH moment today. Some guy's poor spotter got way more than he bargained for. Maybe it was because there was a girl in their group, but the guy on the bench loaded up 230 and tapped his friend to spot him. Not only did he not get the first rep on his own, he proceeded to try for a second, third, and fourth rep. I was wondering if I needed to go help when he finally racked it. His spotter was a wee bit flushed after having to teabag the guy to help him get the weight back up.

At least someone got in a good set of barbell rows.

edit: In other news, I'm back in the gym after several months of injury time. And I'm up 10 lbs in 23 days, and my lifts are coming back way faster than expected! I'm pretty stoked about that momentum. Maybe I'll actually be at 175 for MAG like I was hoping...

Edited by ectogemia
Link to comment
Share on other sites
kitty Newbie

kitty

Posted
Posted

So I like the idea of doing sit-ups and have been doing them in my routine, but I'm unsure of how to keep the correct form. I've been noticing that I've been doing some of them wrong lately because I feel it more in my lower back than my abs. This mostly happens when I start getting really tired during my set. Does anyone have any tips for making sure that I keep correct form?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
ectogemia Newbie

ectogemia

Posted
Posted (edited)
So I like the idea of doing sit-ups and have been doing them in my routine, but I'm unsure of how to keep the correct form. I've been noticing that I've been doing some of them wrong lately because I feel it more in my lower back than my abs. This mostly happens when I start getting really tired during my set. Does anyone have any tips for making sure that I keep correct form?

This isn't exactly an answer to your question, but sit-ups -- in my opinion -- are sort of a lie. They don't do anything that heavy lifting requiring core strength doesn't do. Almost nothing strengthens the core like requiring it to support, say, your 5-rep-max while squatting or doing deadlifts.

The abdominal muscles are muscles of support, not really muscles intended to move loads from point A to point B. So if you treat them as such, they tend to grow better as a result. Exercises which require lots of core stability tend to grow the abs best, and I believe weighted exercises which require lots of core stability grow them best. Unweighted exercises, such as yoga, pilates, parkour, and planks/leg lifts, are solid ways to work on your abs because they make the abs function as intended. In my own experience, though, my abs have grown faster from squats and deadlifts.

If I do modest workouts 3 times a week rather than soul-draining ones, should I up the number of days? I know the common advice is to work out 3 times a week. But they don't specify the intensity of the workout.

3 workouts per week is what I do, and I've gotten awesome results from it without any symptoms of overtraining. My intensity is pretty high, though. I only do maybe 8-12 sets total at each workout which totals up to around 50 minutes apiece, but I'm working at an intensity where I take at least 3 minutes of rest between each set, and I NEED every second of those 3 minutes, sometimes more. 3 sets of 5 of everything (with warmup sets) does the trick for me.

Edited by ectogemia
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Argle Rookie

Argle

Posted
Posted
So I like the idea of doing sit-ups and have been doing them in my routine, but I'm unsure of how to keep the correct form. I've been noticing that I've been doing some of them wrong lately because I feel it more in my lower back than my abs. This mostly happens when I start getting really tired during my set. Does anyone have any tips for making sure that I keep correct form?

Honestly I think sit ups are a bit of a time waster. I've heard they can cause back problems, even though I've never experienced that personally. If you have a pull up bar you can do hanging L-sits, those will provide you at least as much benefit as sit ups. Or for a great compound exercise do L-sit pull ups! All the benefits of pull ups, with added core work. You can try a static push up hold as well, at the top of the movement. Slide your arms forward until the tension shifts to your core. Hold as long as you can. Just a couple ideas for sit up alternatives.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
ectogemia Newbie

ectogemia

Posted
Posted (edited)

Haha, I love this study.

Synopsis:

- High cheese consumption is related to low heart attack risk

- Cooking with lots of butter is unrelated to heart attack risk (found in fulltext, not in abstract)

- Eating butter on bread was shown to lead to a 34% higher heart attack risk compared to controls

Not sure I agree with the first sentence of the abstract, though :P

Dairy makes up a good 800-1000 Calories of my intake on off-days (mostly cheese) and just as much on my workout days (mostly butter). Good to know my arteries are enjoying it as much as my taste buds.

So pump your bodies full of cheese to speed along those gains AND clear those arteries! The CLA in grass-fed dairy has been shown many times to reverse atherosclerosis.

edit: and because one study is never sufficient evidence for anything, here's a review of studies stating that "...the majority of observational studies have failed to find an association between the intake of dairy products and increased risk of CVD, coronary heart disease, and stroke...

edit edit: I am eating a hunk of raw swiss right now, and this shit is so cash.

Edited by ectogemia
Link to comment
Share on other sites
kitty Newbie

kitty

Posted
Posted

I basically don't know anything about nutrition. I've kept up some vegetarian/vegan habits I picked up last year from my ex but I can't say that those habits are for sure the things that have been helping me, if at all. On the flip side of that though my health is probably better now than it has been in the past. I think I eat less greasy foods and I cut way back on processed stuff. Coupled with the small amount of exercise I think I'm on the right track, but again don't know for sure.

I'm basically under the impression that a lot of studies in nutrition often seemingly contradict each other because their focus is different or their controls and variables are different as well so confounding factors are an issue. But that's just an impression, since I've never read any nutrition studies.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
ectogemia Newbie

ectogemia

Posted
Posted (edited)
I basically don't know anything about nutrition. I've kept up some vegetarian/vegan habits I picked up last year from my ex but I can't say that those habits are for sure the things that have been helping me, if at all. On the flip side of that though my health is probably better now than it has been in the past. I think I eat less greasy foods and I cut way back on processed stuff. Coupled with the small amount of exercise I think I'm on the right track, but again don't know for sure.

I'm basically under the impression that a lot of studies in nutrition often seemingly contradict each other because their focus is different or their controls and variables are different as well so confounding factors are an issue. But that's just an impression, since I've never read any nutrition studies.

I'll get back to you on this later, but yes, there are lots of contradictory studies in nutrition, and in every scientific discipline as well. The easiest way to resolve these conflicts a priori is to apply the sort of "central dogma" of each discipline. Geology has plate tectonics. Chemistry has atomic theory. Physics has quantum theory (though this is constantly being revised), mechanics has relativity, etc. In the life sciences, the central dogma is evolution. If two studies contradict one another, then the one which makes evolutionary sense is the one which should probably be subscribed to more readily. Of course, this doesn't always lead to the correct conclusion, but usually if you're wrong, it's because your evolutionary reasoning was wrong or because the particular aspect of evolutionary theory you used to draw your conclusion is wrong.

Because evolution is a fact and it is the guiding principle of the development of human physiology and, by extension, nutritional requirements, interpreting nutritional studies in light of evolution should be common practice. In the biology labs I've worked in, evolution has always been a factor in the discussion of our results. My wife worked in nutrition science during undergrad, and evolution was never spoken of. That is the key flaw in the study of nutrition. As it is now, there's a lot of epidemiological studies going on in nutrition to find vague associations and correlations which tend not to be very trustworthy because the data generated relies so heavily on the study design and human memory and classifying the whole of foods available to humans into just a few study categories. A lot of nutritional studies set themselves up for failure in this way. Some don't.

So the tl;dr is this quote which showed up in basically every biology class I've ever taken (and then stopped showing up in my medical classes... hmmmm...): "Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution" - Theodosius Dobzhansky

edit: So how do you interpret nutritional studies in light of human evolution? This isn't always entirely accurate, but basically, if a caveman had access to it, you should eat it, and you should do so in a quantity which made sense for cavemen to eat it in. Studies of modern-day hunter-gatherers can be useful, too, to learn about how "natural" populations eat. Trying to replicate that in a reasonable way has been extremely successful for a lot of people, myself included. But this is a really loaded concept, and it's not always as simple as comparing yourself to a caveman, because a caveman you ain't. There's a lot of genetic variation across the human population, so your nutritional needs and foods you tolerate best may be a little different than the next guy's. To find the palette of foods best suited for your palate and your health, it takes a lot of self-experimentation. Here's a pretty decent primer which outlines some of the concepts I'm talking about, but don't take it all for absolute truth.

Edited by ectogemia
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
 Share
Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...