Arkk's Weight Lifting / Fitness Thread

Razzes · Apr 23, 2018

ubiquitrips said:
Nuts to that. That is why I got my own bloodwork. I was tired of seemingly arbitrary rules. A symptom is a symptom. My initial symptoms were primarily libido, energy, and fatigue. I didn't have ED, but I had absolutely no sex drive for around 2 years. It was declining as I got older, but I figured that was just par for the course. After doing some research I attributed depression and anxiety.

I also think it was causing me to be more injury prone (recovery) and I felt like my workouts weren't paying off as much as every other person purports from their training. Once I got over the "Just man up, chump" mentality and investigated it like a problem I found out what I was experiencing was not normal.

If you get panels done, just make sure to get all of the tests. My total Test was <200 so I did not have a problem justifying past that point. However, looking at LH / FSH (pituitary hormones), SHBG, Estradiol, and actual bioavailable testosterone seems pretty critical for plan of attack. You could have a decent Total Test, but because of high SHBG, it could manifest as low bio-available testosterone. Or, as in my case, my pituitary didn't seem to be releasing LH, which is what triggers testosterone production.

I would highly recommend getting cursory blood work if you think you are being affected. While I am not back to 100%, my life is tangibly better. My mood, outlook, energy, etc. all improved.

If your pituitary is not releasing LH, I would be worried about other hormones as well... HGH, cortisol etc. A deficit in any of these hormones is going to make you feel bad and slow recovery. HGH is hard to test though, need to do provocative testing.

Problems with pituitary can be due to concussion if that fits your history. Some populations of retired boxers for instance have prevalence of HGH deficiency above 50%. These deficiencies rarely come isolated.

I'm in a similar situation: I've been lifting 5X5 5 times a week for 6month with no progress since my concussion. I'm thinking of getting some tests done.

ubiquitrips · Apr 23, 2018

Razzes said:
If your pituitary is not releasing LH, I would be worried about other hormones as well... HGH, cortisol etc. A deficit in any of these hormones is going to make you feel bad and slow recovery. HGH is hard to test though, need to do provocative testing.

Problems with pituitary can be due to concussion if that fits your history. Some populations of retired boxers for instance have prevalence of HGH deficiency above 50%. These deficiencies rarely come isolated.

I'm in a similar situation: I've been lifting 5X5 5 times a week for 6month with no progress since my concussion. I'm thinking of getting some tests done.

Yeah, I am not sure what started this whole mess. I haven't had a concussion that I am aware of. I even had an MRI for a pituitary tumor which is apparently somewhat common. That was negative. I have no problem growing body hair / my FSH appears fine so the pituitary is 'working'.

My original doctor wouldn't believe me when I said I didn't take steroids. To be fair, similar results as mine show up after a cycle and, if I remember my MMA, Clomid is busted pretty regularly by people trying to cover steroid use. My hope is this kick starts my system and I don't have to move to TRT and be fully dependent forever.

Itlan · Apr 23, 2018

Well to be fair he asked me about my sex drive. If the girlfriend is around we have 2 to 3 rounds in about 4-5 hours so all signs point to my test levels being fine I guess.

Just feel like I should be further along in my development. Maybe I just got shit genetics tho. I am usually very tired, but to be fair I work 3 jobs, spend 2-3 hours 4x a week at the gym powerlifting, and currently am attending school for premed shit.

Well now I feel like I've come full circle. I'm probably 100% healthy lol.

Razzes · Apr 23, 2018

Itlan said:
Well to be fair he asked me about my sex drive. If the girlfriend is around we have 2 to 3 rounds in about 4-5 hours so all signs point to my test levels being fine I guess.

Just feel like I should be further along in my development. Maybe I just got shit genetics tho. I am usually very tired, but to be fair I work 3 jobs, spend 2-3 hours 4x a week at the gym powerlifting, and currently am attending school for premed shit.

Well now I feel like I've come full circle. I'm probably 100% healthy lol.

Having a good sex drive alone is not very predictive of bad or good TT. Need to look at the whole picture. First thing I would wonder is why would you have bad TT if you are young? Do you have varicoceles or some condition? You could ask your doc to at least play with your testes to see if they appear healthy if you can't get a bloodtest. Bonus points if your doc is a hot girl ( ton of them nowadays).

But as you say maybe you are just not getting enough rest.

Itlan · Apr 24, 2018

I'm just looking for an excuse to start abusing roids, honestly.

ZyyzYzzy · Apr 24, 2018

Itlan said:
I'm just looking for an excuse to start abusing roids, honestly.

Synj can hook you up with butt stuff

Tuco · Apr 24, 2018

Itlan said:
Well to be fair he asked me about my sex drive. If the girlfriend is around we have 2 to 3 rounds in about 4-5 hours so all signs point to my test levels being fine I guess.

Just feel like I should be further along in my development. Maybe I just got shit genetics tho. I am usually very tired, but to be fair I work 3 jobs, spend 2-3 hours 4x a week at the gym powerlifting, and currently am attending school for premed shit.

Well now I feel like I've come full circle. I'm probably 100% healthy lol.

No way someone with that schedule doesn't feel exhausted 100% of the time. If I had to work + school I'd immediately cut back exercise to like 2hrs a week instead of 10+.

Itlan · Apr 24, 2018

Tuco said:
No way someone with that schedule doesn't feel exhausted 100% of the time. If I had to work + school I'd immediately cut back exercise to like 2hrs a week instead of 10+.

Well good to know I'm not lazy or a bitch Wakandan, just exhausted.

In other news, really going to dial in my form. Seems like I may be locking my knees too soon on my deadlift, feet might be a little too open on squats, and I'm really working on my leg drive/lat tightness on bench. Just small improvements that hopefully lead to large improvements over time. I suppose that's the name of this game.

Tuco · May 5, 2018

So it's been a month of my weight lifting program and I'm pretty happy with it. I've been doing Phrak's Greyskull LP Variant, which is pretty simple.

I've tried a few different things to add more volume to it, but have settled on just doing 3x10 on lifts that match my three main lifts. Specifically:
Bench Press -> More Bench Press
Bent over rows -> DB Rows
Overhead Press -> DB overhead press
Chinups -> Pullups
Squats -> Bulgarian Split Squats
Deadlift -> More Deadlifts + Shrugs.

So today I did 3x5 on Bench press + bent over rows + squats, then did a lighter 3x10 bench press, dumbbell rows and bulgarian split squats.

I've made OK progress on all my lifts and haven't had any major setbacks from injuries. I use an app, https://play.google.com/store/apps/...tcoach.workouttrainer.workouttrainer&hl=en_US to drive my workouts. I also track the estimated 1 repetition max of the big three in a stacked area chart below:

My diet is pretty simple now. 3200 calories, 200g of protein. I've gained 4lbs since starting, which is right around 500 calories a day surplus which was roughly my goal.

The only lift I'm really trying to improve is my squats. I knew I wasn't getting good glute activation on them, and today in my workout I tried a handful of glute activation exercises that seemed to really help. What seemed to work the best was doing a hip bridge with a band.

Doing my squats today didn't feel like I was getting all my effort through my quads.

Focusing while watching most instructional videos on glute activation is pretty difficult, since I'm pretty sure every weight lifting chick is focused on only getting a big ass and wants to make a video about it when she does.

Anyway, things are going well and I'm still making linear gains, so I'll probably do this for another month. Working out only three days a week is nice, but I'm not sure if it'd help if I bumped it up to 4 or 5. I'm not sure if I should adjust my diet to drop my caloric intake on rest days or if it really matters.

Khane · May 5, 2018

As I understand it men and women have very different hip/pelvic structures and centers of gravity. Probably because of that whole child birth thing. Watch form videos for men, by men. Why are you watching videos for women?

Tuco · May 5, 2018

Khane said:
As I understand it men and women have very different hip/pelvic structures and centers of gravity. Probably because of that whole child birth thing. Watch form videos for men, by men. Why are you watching videos for women?

I mostly just wanted to make a youtube booty joke.

Here's the exercises I tried out and the vids I actually watched, to you raw from my notes.

prone glute ham raise
hip bridge with a band
ball bridge
banded leg lift
hip bridge with knee pull
hamstring rollouts
hip thrust
bulgarian split squat
russian dips

But I did have to sift through all the juicy booty to get them.

Khane · May 5, 2018

By the way all those glute activation exercises are likely going to increase your sexual stamina as well because you'll be strengthening your pelvic floor muscles which help you control that money shot moment.

Itlan · May 7, 2018

Tuco if you're looking for a solid youtube page I'd follow Brendan Tietz. If you're not into powerlifting you can skip those videos (lots of programming stuff), but he does have a number of videos regarding glute activation, t-spine mobility, etc. Helpful stuff if that's what you're looking for.

Also, I fuckin hate your graphs. Just for the record.

Itlan · May 7, 2018

Tuco said:
Anyway, things are going well and I'm still making linear gains, so I'll probably do this for another month. Working out only three days a week is nice, but I'm not sure if it'd help if I bumped it up to 4 or 5. I'm not sure if I should adjust my diet to drop my caloric intake on rest days or if it really matters.

No, no, and no.

Once you bottom out, then you can move on to a new program. Do not drop your caloric intake at this point (you didn't really suggest this, I'm just telling you not to lol), and having different caloric intake on rest/active days is pretty fuckin useless.

Tuco · May 7, 2018

Itlan said:
Tuco if you're looking for a solid youtube page I'd follow Brendan Tietz. If you're not into powerlifting you can skip those videos (lots of programming stuff), but he does have a number of videos regarding glute activation, t-spine mobility, etc. Helpful stuff if that's what you're looking for.

Also, I fuckin hate your graphs. Just for the record.

Thanks. I'll check him out. What do you hate about my graphs?

Tuco · May 7, 2018

Itlan said:
No, no, and no.

Once you bottom out, then you can move on to a new program. Do not drop your caloric intake at this point (you didn't really suggest this, I'm just telling you not to lol), and having different caloric intake on rest/active days is pretty fuckin useless.

Cool. I keep on with my current setup.

Why do you say having different caloric intake on rest vs active days is useless? I have no idea, just trying to learn.

ZyyzYzzy · May 7, 2018

First 3 weeks of 531 seemed easy. Got 8-11 reps on the first week for AMRAP set, 6-9 for second week and 4-6 for my third week.

Contemplating if I want to skip the deload week of my first cycle and just start a new one tonight.

Itlan · May 7, 2018

ZyyzYzzy said:
First 3 weeks of 531 seemed easy. Got 8-11 reps on the first week for AMRAP set, 6-9 for second week and 4-6 for my third week.

Contemplating if I want to skip the deload week of my first cycle and just start a new one tonight.

It's designed that way. You're building work capacity, my friend.

Yes, you can usually do 2 cycles, deload, 2 cycles, deload, etc. until you're really pulling shit you need time to recover from.

Itlan · May 7, 2018

Tuco said:
Cool. I keep on with my current setup.

Why do you say having different caloric intake on rest vs active days is useless? I have no idea, just trying to learn.

Mainly because the human body doesn't really recognize a huge difference on a day to day basis, and the differences you're talking about are negligible at best. The glycogen stores will depleted at the same rate, you'll gain/lose weight at the same rate, etc. It's really just going to cause more mental stress than performance gains imo.

And because the 3 lifts are all lumped together. I'd rather get them cleanly individually.

Tuco · May 7, 2018

Itlan said:
Mainly because the human body doesn't really recognize a huge difference on a day to day basis, and the differences you're talking about are negligible at best. The glycogen stores will depleted at the same rate, you'll gain/lose weight at the same rate, etc. It's really just going to cause more mental stress than performance gains imo.

And because the 3 lifts are all lumped together. I'd rather get them cleanly individually.

Makes sense.

Arkk's Weight Lifting / Fitness Thread

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