FC weight loss/life change/fitness challenge thread.

Awesome Andrew! Congrats on taking that first step.

Make sure you DO NOT weigh yourself everyday. It can really disrupt your progress when you stop seeing the "number results". You may get stuck at 200 for weeks, but when you look in the mirror you'll see you look like you weigh closer to 190.

Personally I recommend trying to stairclimber for cardio. Easy on the joints, and I've found it helps get me feeling better. Start off with 10 minutes at a low pace and adjuster from there weekly or how you feel.

 

Thanks Jason!

I've been weighing myself every Monday, as the app I'm using for my dietary diary needs my weight to calculate my calorie limits. I know that when I start putting on more muscle, the benefits won't be seen on the scale. In fact, I'm looking forward to the numbers on the scale plateauing.

I've not tried a stairclimber before. The gym I just joined has a few and they seem pretty popular. I'll give it a go and see if I like it.

All the best,
Andrew.

 

Andrew -

It has been about a year since my last post here. My weight is holding steady in the 142-146 range (coming from about 185), and I am also 5'9". Weight has been steady for nearly a year now. I continue to take skin-fold measurements weekly to measure my body fat, which is holding in the 8-10% range. Others say to not weigh yourself daily, and I agree with the mental recommendation. HOWEVER, I am indeed on the scale at least twice a day and can usually pinpoint my indicated weight within .5 pounds every time. I need to constant feedback to know how things are going -- but everyone is different.

I have largely stopped lifting, but am hyper-aware of diet and cardio/exercise. Being constantly hungry gets a little more "normal" after a while -- because really what you'll be feeling is "not stuffed", and we're conditioned in the western world to think that's equivalent to hunger.

On the exercise front, I am simply cycling a massive amount. I ride about 200 miles per week, using a HR monitor all the time to ensure I'm getting a decent workout. When the weather isn't cooperative, I ride at home on a resistance-based trainer that forces me into certain power-outputs (and thereby heart rate). I'm not cycling to be a racer, I do it because I have really grown to love the personal challenge, freedom from the "connected world", and to push myself harder and harder each time. The health benefits, I believe are very clear.

 

Good to hear. Yea, I'd say once a week on Monday is a great way to do it.

The stairclimber will kick your butt. Within the first 5 minutes your legs are going to kill you, but once you get passed it it goes away.

 

Hi Andrew - I've been following Mike Mentzer'***** training for years (if you are not familiar with it lots of info on Google) and can highly recommend it for the weight lifting part. The workouts take a bit getting used to but in terms of how much time I spend at the gym (very little) compared to the strength and muscle mass gains I couldn't be happier.
Very similar approach to what your doing: Once you reach a certain amount of reps, up the weight and repeat.

It sounds like you have changed your diet to work quite well for you. I use a bit of a different approach and use portion control while trying to eat as clean as possible. But again, you've already dropped some weight so I would recommend to stick with what has worked for you.

I prefer adjusting my diet as opposed to spending more time doing cardio, as I feel that the former is a lot easier - and don't think cardio is really needed to drop fat (obviously doing cardio is GREAT for overall cardiovascular health). If I have the choice of eating another slice of pizza but then having to spend an extra 25 minutes on a stationary bike......I'll skip the pizza ;-).

Keep up the good work!!

 

And when it comes to the diet part - nothing beats the egg white recipe our friend Jason has come up with........ever since he shared this with me I've been totally hooked.
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I have been trying the cycling on a stationary bike, but all I seem to be getting there is a bruised ass and squished testes. It might be the seats on these particular bikes. I transitioned all my cardio to the elliptical cross trainer and have been getting on quite well with it. I like that it does upper and lower body simultaneously.

I watched a few videos there, intense stuff! I've been giving it a go although his technique at times seems to rely on a workout partner, which I haven't got yet. It seems that, sight assistance at the point of failure, then holding maximum contraction before letting down slowly is core to the technique.

I talked to the weights trainer at the gym and he said the technique he teaches is that, at the point of failure he assists his client to the maximum contraction and has them hold it, then let them control it down just like Mike Mentzer, although he then takes the view that the client has only failed on the "up", so keeps assisting them to maximum contraction again and again until they reach a point where they cannot steadily control the "down".

If I had any money, I'd book a few personal training sessions with him. lol I'm trying to convince Nicky to let me spend some funds on a one-off session with him so I can get him to design a full exercise program for me to follow solo. I'm pretty good about adhering to strict form, it's very much in my nature to focus on exactly reproducing procedures.

I remember seeing that. Where was the full recipe posted again?

New weight 202 Ibs exactly. So 2½ pounds lost over the last 7 days.

All the best,
Andrew.

 

+1 on egg white recipe

 

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/health-fitness/446520-healthy-guy-recipies-4.html

It's in there Andrew. The best part is that you make up your own recipe. Add ingredients into muffin tins, bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes and voila!

I'd like Lukas to comment on his temp and time though since he does these weekly. The recipes I based mine on all said 20 minutes and I couldn't figure out how theirs were cooked in that amount of time at 350.

 

Aha, here we go, post #66 onwards:

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/health-fitness/446520-healthy-guy-recipies-2.html#post144460072​

Looks like Lukas cooked for 30 minutes at 350°F - see post #76.

All the best,
Andrew.

 

LOL! I didn't scroll down far enough.

 

Good points Beaks - I work out by myself and generally choose exercises where I can safely achieve the "complete failure" without the need of a spotter (Example: Concentration curls or pull downs).

However more important to me is:

- proper form
- extremely slow movement (3 - 4 seconds positive and 3 - 4 seconds negative). This eliminates any cheating with momentum, requires me to use less weight (avoiding injuries)
- holding and really squeezing at full contraction - this took me quite a while to get right. It's quite painful but it seems this is really where the best gains are made.

Been doing this for about 7 years now and wish I would have trained like this a lot earlier in my life. Feel free to PM if you need more details.

 

Common now Jason - you asking me about baking time is like the master asking the apprentice.......

30 minutes at 350 works perfect unless I add something with high water content (salsa) then it might take an extra 5 minutes.

My favorite way to make these is to just add some chives and peppers - and for my wife I put a few jalapenos in. Best thing ever - I so owe you for this bro.

 

It probably took me 4 or 5 years before I really understood and felt real contractions. You hear about it and think you're feeling it, but until you have experience you just aren't going to feel it.

Form is such a big key too. Thankfully it's the one thing I've always known and focused on. My health professor in college always talked a lot of **** about Trainers that have terrible form. Probably the one that makes me cringe the most is seeing people poorly execute Lat Pulldowns. They just let the arms fling up freely. Just waiting to see someones arms come out of socket.

LMAO!

I love chives and jalapenos. I need to make them again, I've just been on a basic egg whites with cheese omelet kick.

 

At full positive, are you squeezing the opposing muscles too? For example, squeazing both biceps and triceps in a concentration curl?

How many reps and sets are you aiming for with each exercise, and how many rest days do you give that particular muscle/group before hitting them again? Dietary wise, what macro percentages do you aim for: carbohydrates, fat, and protein?

Do feel free to PM if you'd rather be discreet.

I've got good form and determination when I exercise or play sports, I used to be a competitive gymnast (qualified for US nationals) and competitive figure skater (roller, bronze at US nationals). However, that was ever such a long time ago... a B.Sc., Ph.D., and supporting job at Domino's Pizza (with food perks as a manager) happened in the meantime, so I got terribly unfit.

My issue with lat pulldowns is that my grip weakens and forearms burn before my biceps or lats fail - so I have to stop before I lose the bar and send the weights crashing back down. I don't feel like I'm getting the most out of that exercise yet - I need to figure out how to rapidly improve grip strength. Back when I was a kid, just doing the gymnastics routines did it - we didn't really do a lot of training with weights. I dug out an old pair of Gold's Gym hand grips that I got free with some weights a whole neck, but they just hurt my knuckles and make me feel like my fingers are about to dislocate - I wonder if a better set of something like that would help. Any other suggestions?

All the best,
Andrew.

 

The only thing I've ever really done or tried for my grip is getting a 10lb dumbell, stand it upright and grip the end with your finger tips. Start with the 10lb and go up to the 15lb, and then 20lb. Just see how long you can hold it.

Sorry Andrew, I've never really had the problem so I can't really help with suggestions, but it may not necessarily be your grip but your forearms that are weak. I would just keep the weight light until your forearms are no longer burning after 10 reps. Then move up the weight from there as well as your rep range.

I would avoid using grip wraps that some people use. You will never gain grip strength using those. As time goes on you'll see it improve. My problem was weak wrists, but mostly when I did upright rows. I now rarely have any issues now.

 

Have you tried doing body weight exercises as you did as a gymnast? U had same problem until I started doing more bodyweight exercises

Search youtube .

 

I use gloves just to protect my palms and wedding ring (which I don't ever remove), but they're a stretchy fabric on the back so they don't offer support in the manner of a wrist brace.

I'll try the upturned weights with my fingertips and see if it helps.

I'm struggling to maintain grip on a 125 Ibs lat pulldown, so trying to use 202 Ibs of body weight for chin ups isn't going to help.

The issue at the gym appears to be that all their bars are a very thick diameter so, when gripping them, my finger tips and thumb tip can't quite make contact. So, with the lat pulldown, I'm using a reverse grip (to concentrate on biceps too) that's partially open, meaning a lot of grip force is required to hang on to the bar and it exhausts my forearms (6-8 reps) before anything else gives up. In gymnastics, the highbar is relatively narrow, making it easier to grip, and you're using "grips", leather hand/wrist protectors that have dowels near the fingers to help you hang on to the highbar or rings. Grips aren't used on the parallel bars, but you generally spent only brief moments needing elevated grip force on that event. I would rather not use aids in the gym when bulking, since then I might get imbalanced arms with built uppers and relatively stickly forearms. I think the equipment bars were probably sized deliberately to make sure forearms get a workout too.

Anyway, keeping at it my forearms will eventually get stronger and will catch up to start working the other muscles harder in this exercise, but I was just looking for other options to concentrate on grip strength and endurance to try to speed up the process.

All the best,
Andrew.
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I have a set similar to those that i use to lift . Also i uave small hands so I'm unable to grip bar so i became accustom to no thumb grip

 

Hi Beaks,

I generally just focus on the muscle I am working (i.e. in case of the concentration curls bicep).

Usually I just do one warm up set and then one actual working set. Keeping the reps below 10 for upper body and below 20 for lower.
Working out twice per week:

Workout 1: Legs/calves & Chest
Workout 2: Back, shoulders, bicep

Each workout takes about 30 minutes, so I lift weights for a grand total of 60 minutes / week - FWIW: I found that this is what has worked best for me. If working out every day for 2 hours would give me better strength/size gains, I would do that.

I don't really count calories or worry about macros too much, just generally trying to eat clean. Protein intake used to be a bit tricky as I'm basically vegetarian (will eat fish/seafood when traveling for work which is about 30 - 40%). At just below 6' I usually weigh between 225 - 240 lbs - If I want to be a bit leaner I simply reduce my portion sizes. Haven't measured in ages but would suspect by BF to be in the 6 - 9 % range at these weights.
I don't have anything scientific to back this up, but feel that the protein intake requirements we are bombarded with are highly overstated. What better way by the supplement industry to push product than recommending daily protein needs so high that it's impossible to achieve this with regular food intake.

Here's some GREAT info on Macros.......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wd8tZiHexPc

Maybe you could try lifting with straps such as these below? Generally the weakest part of the body involved in a lift (in the example you are using your hands/grip) will increase in strength the quickest and I'm sure in a few weeks you wouldn't have any issues gripping.

Harbinger Cotton Lifting Straps at Bodybuilding.com: Best Prices for Cotton Lifting Straps

 

Like I mentioned, I would first drop the weight, but if you're able to get 6-8 reps that's good. So keep working with that.

Whether you use a overhand or underhand grip, try not grasping the bar as it seems natural. Put your thumb over the bar next to the rest of your fingers. From what I've heard this is more of an "advanced" grip, but it's the way I've done it since day one because it feels way more comfortable to me. The same grip applies for seated lat pulls.

I can't imagine how thick this bar must be. I don't have big hands and have no issues gripping the bar anyway. It sounds insanely big.

 

Well, they don't allow cameras or mobile phones in the gym, so I can't snap a picture of it for you. However, here's me holding a kitchen roll, fingers just touching when gripping naturally - that's about 1¾ inches in diameter. And here's how my fingers would look on the lat pulldown bar, so I'm guessing it's probably around 2-2¼ inches in diameter.

All the best,
Andrew.
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Your bar is much bigger than mine

 

Holy crap man! I've never seen anything like that before.

I'll post a photo of the grip I'm talking about. Excuse the use of a bbq lighter, it's all I had.

Definitely try out the grip

That's what she said!
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