Arkk's Weight Lifting / Fitness Thread

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Gravel

Mr. Poopybutthole
39,587
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I was looking back at this year too, and I'm amazed that I'm currently stronger than I've ever been. I started lifting 10 years ago.

I've also been paying almost no attention to my diet, and am lighter than I've been in probably 7 years.

I'll be 35 here next month and I've gotta say I'm pretty happy with how I feel.
 

Asshat wormie

2023 Asshat Award Winner
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How the fuck do you guys eat enough? I switched from caring about heavier weights to giving more of a shit about my cardio vascular health so i switched to a full body workout with 30 second breaks between sets and no more than 2 minute breaks between exercises. I like it a lot but I burn like 600-700 calories per workout according to my fitbit. I have a tough time eating a lot to begin with so my calorie intake is nowhere near good enough to grow muscle. Are shakes my only option? Wat do?
 

Rezz

Mr. Poopybutthole
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Doing cardio to build muscle is doing it wrong.

Re-evaluate your goals and your workouts. Also, if you are burning 600-700 calories in a workout? You should be fucking ravenous unless you are in the 4k kcal range to maintain, which means you already know how to build muscles. Your tracker might be off by... a lot, if that isn't the case.

But, assuming all of the above is just completely wrong and you're really burning 600-700 calories in a cardio-specific workout and not feeling hungry? Add fats to things. Don't use Pam/extra virgin olive oil to cook your food; use butter. Don't drink fat-free milk; drink vitamin D. Skip heavy veggies because they will make you full with little caloric weight; stick with proteins and fats and load up on them. They also take longer to work through your system, so you won't feel hungry as often. But that doesn't matter as long as you have 1k+ calories in your stomach from a big ass steak and some butter smeared potatoes.

Smoke weed? It stimulates hunger feelings so if the physical eating aspect is the problem, go with getting right in the head and then approach it with a THC powered appetite. Works for a lot of cancer patients, who also don't feel a great deal of hunger as their body dissolves.

You have an oddly unique problem, and one that is really only answered (from a "what do I do" standpoint) by changing what you are doing. Going to more cardio workouts and still trying to build muscle is just approaching it from the wrong angle. Not an impossible angle, but you are making it incredibly difficult to achieve your goal (the muscle growth) by your activities (high cardio workouts). This is similar to people expecting fast weightloss while they are doing supersets and eating as I have described; you aren't going to make headway with the least effective approach easily, if at all.
 
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iannis

Musty Nester
31,351
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Yeah, you're not really going to grow muscle with a cardio intensive workout. The exercises are different, the burn is different, the muscle groups are even different. Big Muskles + Good Cardio is a fairly specific thing. There's a reason why you don't see it in the same body very often. It's not one OR the other, but it is usually one favored over the other in various degrees.

Cardio focused programs should give you a nice tight butt though. So there's that!
 

Ossoi

Potato del Grande
<Rickshaw Potatoes>
17,745
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How the fuck do you guys eat enough? I switched from caring about heavier weights to giving more of a shit about my cardio vascular health so i switched to a full body workout with 30 second breaks between sets and no more than 2 minute breaks between exercises. I like it a lot but I burn like 600-700 calories per workout according to my fitbit. I have a tough time eating a lot to begin with so my calorie intake is nowhere near good enough to grow muscle. Are shakes my only option? Wat do?

Setting Up a Diet for Muscle Growth | RNT Fitness

My current macros at 168lbs are 190g protein, 75g fat, 300/350g carbs rest/training days

Our Three Key Training Principles | RNT Fitness
 

Ossoi

Potato del Grande
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That shit says I need over 3k calories a day. That’s not happening for me. :(

It's really not that hard, not if you're tracking ever single item e.g. Cooking oil and supplementing with juice, cereal, shakes etc
 

Asshat wormie

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It's really not that hard, not if you're tracking ever single item e.g. Cooking oil and supplementing with juice, cereal, shakes etc

That's more than 1k calories a day over what I get now. Fml.
 

Ossoi

Potato del Grande
<Rickshaw Potatoes>
17,745
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That's more than 1k calories a day over what I get now. Fml.

You have to eat to grow, at least attempt it before deciding it's impossible

Have you ever been overweight? If so then you ate at a calorie surplus to gain that weight


I prep all my meals in advance with sous vide, typical day is steak rolls for breakfast, chicken and brown rice for lunch at work, chicken and white rice post training, 25g carb powder during a workout. Add some fruit to each meal for more calories/carbs. Maybe a protein bar as a snack and I easily eat enough

I don't restrict myself to "clean" foods and follow a more iifym approach at weekends. I also have one cheat meal a week
 
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Brahma

Obi-Bro Kenobi-X
12,536
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So in 6 weeks I have gone from 302 to 269 as of yesterday. I dropped the heavy weights, and work out with reps. Dropped the creatine and protein powders also. This is a huge change for me. I liked being the strongest guy in the gym! Especially at my age. Now I'm just another old guy hitting the gym to stay alive.

I have added 15 minutes of elliptical before and after every workout. I started out at 5 minutes max, and just slowly added a minute every now and then, until I got to 15. My goal will be 30/30.

I have been conscious of my sugar and carb intake for now. I'm not measuring...just being reasonable. Instead of the whole box of fruity pebbles...Just a bowl. Stopped the Hostess and Little Debbies. No tonic.

Turkey bacon instead of slabs of Canadian. I still put jelly on my toast, just a hella lot less.

I've also started snacking on trailmix instead of chips and tonic. Found a couple bags of mix that have some fruit in there that satisfies my sugar cravings.

My blazers are too big, and my wallet is lighter from buying healthier foods. I feel much better though! Less headaches. More energy.

I will start measuring my intake once I hit a wall, which will be happening soon. I think I can keep this lifestyle up as opposed to dieting.
 
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Vinjin

Lord Nagafen Raider
443
402
Lots of solid changes there so I'm not surprised by your results. Keep at it, especially with sugars. If you can eventually eliminate that shit (minus those in an occasional piece of fruit), that should go a long way in continuing to move the needle on the scale.
 

iannis

Musty Nester
31,351
17,657
Yep. Sustainability is the key. Sounds good.

Those little debbies will fuck you up. And actually, after youv'e been off of them for a while, they don't even taste that good anymore.

Fruity pebbles are health food though. Says so right on the box. Part of a balanced breakfast.
 
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Seananigans

Honorary Shit-PhD
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Fruity pebbles are health food though. Says so right on the box. Part of a balanced breakfast.

Oh thank god. I had a cereal craving a month ago and have since been getting Fruity Pebbles. Good to know the 3 bowls I eat as a snack are good for me.
 

ZyyzYzzy

RIP USA
<Banned>
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Itlan Itlan you ran infinite off season, right?

If you hit the 80% for 8+ on your AMRAP set on say a week where you sre doing 4 sets of 5, the next week did you deload (or test max) and start a new cycle back at 3 sets of 5 with new max (or 72.5%)?
 

schwyz

Golden Knight of the Realm
18
57
Haven't lifted in a year (5), and wanna get back into it. I was checking out some program by a guy named Ivysaur. Thoughts?

Program

TBH, I like it cuz it's light on squats, I fucking hate squats
 

ubiquitrips

Golden Knight of the Realm
623
89
Went in and did a DEXA this weekend marking the end of my bulk. I started bulking early July using a 4 day split. It took me a long time to really feel comfortable eating more calories so the first month or two are probably sub par. By the end I was eating around 3200 calories / day. I went from 184 lbs / 17.2% body fat to 205 lb / 20.8% body fat.

This moved me from 147.1 lbs lean mass to 155.9 lbs. I am starting a cut and am going to follow through until I drop around 25 lbs. Thankfully the fat loss should be the easy part. I think the bulk was too aggressive in the end and more fat came on than I would have liked.

My long term goal is getting to 165 lbs lean at ~15% body fat. After this cut I am going to start a more controlled bulk around Aug / Sep to see if I can get slightly over 165 lbs lean so I can cut one last time, lose a pound or so of muscle, and be right where I want to be.

At that point I think I will just be in the world of 'forever small' and want to start gaining again.
 

Springbok

Karen
<Gold Donor>
9,408
13,950
Anyone have a peloton?! I have a squat box in my garage and all of the weights I need and was just going to buy the rogue bike/rower for cardio but have a few friends who are like fucking peloton disciples and love the classes and competitive aspect of the system. Money not a huge deal but curious if anyone has any experience with it
 

Pops

Avatar of War Slayer
8,136
21,317
Doing cardio to build muscle is doing it wrong.

Re-evaluate your goals and your workouts. Also, if you are burning 600-700 calories in a workout? You should be fucking ravenous unless you are in the 4k kcal range to maintain, which means you already know how to build muscles. Your tracker might be off by... a lot, if that isn't the case.

But, assuming all of the above is just completely wrong and you're really burning 600-700 calories in a cardio-specific workout and not feeling hungry? Add fats to things. Don't use Pam/extra virgin olive oil to cook your food; use butter. Don't drink fat-free milk; drink vitamin D. Skip heavy veggies because they will make you full with little caloric weight; stick with proteins and fats and load up on them. They also take longer to work through your system, so you won't feel hungry as often. But that doesn't matter as long as you have 1k+ calories in your stomach from a big ass steak and some butter smeared potatoes.

Smoke weed? It stimulates hunger feelings so if the physical eating aspect is the problem, go with getting right in the head and then approach it with a THC powered appetite. Works for a lot of cancer patients, who also don't feel a great deal of hunger as their body dissolves.

You have an oddly unique problem, and one that is really only answered (from a "what do I do" standpoint) by changing what you are doing. Going to more cardio workouts and still trying to build muscle is just approaching it from the wrong angle. Not an impossible angle, but you are making it incredibly difficult to achieve your goal (the muscle growth) by your activities (high cardio workouts). This is similar to people expecting fast weightloss while they are doing supersets and eating as I have described; you aren't going to make headway with the least effective approach easily, if at all.

Hah. Just wait til you are a geezer. I am never hungry.
 

Itlan

Blackwing Lair Raider
4,994
744
Itlan Itlan you ran infinite off season, right?

If you hit the 80% for 8+ on your AMRAP set on say a week where you sre doing 4 sets of 5, the next week did you deload (or test max) and start a new cycle back at 3 sets of 5 with new max (or 72.5%)?
I think I deloaded once. You know your body, you know when you're starting to run into a brick wall. I think the protocol is once you can't get 8 reps on the AMRAP to reset right? Something like that. But yes, start a new cycle by at week 1. I don't think I attempted any new maxes on that program but it did a lot for conditioning and overall aesthetics. It was a good balance between strong & lean.

I've been running Sheiko since September. Hit a 425 squat, currently around 205 bw. Hoping to really push for that 315 bench but my upper body is just... meh.
 
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