Weight Loss Thread

Eidal_sl said:

What about with coconut oil?

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I think if you use it topically before attempting said lift it bolsters muscle activation, so you may have a point.

The pair of gymnast rings I ordered arrived yesterday. I had been debating getting a home weight set, another gym membership, or something to start a basic strength training program. I decided testing my willpower first was the best approach. So with $60 in equipment I am going to try a 90 day body weight routine. The primary goal is to do a strength training program for 90 days, 3 days a week, at 5am. If I can work myself into that habit I may reward myself with...more weights or something. I am going to follow a combination of the reddit / startbodyweight.com beginner routines. I like the progressions from startbodyweight better but the program from reddit seems more to my taste.

I am also curious the physical changes that will occur. I am planning on eating at a deficit of around 300 calories per day. The main goal is to get some basic strength increase and body control to supplement my BJJ. The wishful thinking part of this experiment is seeing if I experience any 'noob gains' and can put on 3 - 5 lbs of muscle, hopefully while still dropping some fat. I feel like I am high enough body fat (16%ish) for this to work. Still isn't as ideal as if I did it earlier in the process, but better late than never. If everything works out in my favor I could be in striking distance of 10% body fat which is my current long term goal.

Ubi, I'm not sure how old you are but at my age (30), I would tell my peers that their first 30 days ought to be focused almost exclusively on flexibility and general conditioning. Sedentary people shitstomp themselves on their first day in a gym; absolutely no reason to put a barbell on someone who lacks the flexibility to do any of the basic movements.

Re: building muscle through bodyweight routines... I'm sure it can be done but I think overall its much harder for a myriad of reasons. Some of those guys look pretty good but they seem to dance around the pertinent detail that they've been living a very very structured life for a long long time. Obviously, it's no race; I'm just pointing this out. I'd be skeptical of gaining 1lb of muscle a month on a bodyweight routine on a deficit. But the flexibility and conditioning will go a long way.

You read my mind with the idea for the first 30 days. I am 35, flexibility and general conditioning is the exact type of thing I want to improve. For instance, after trying some of the body weight exercises, I have a bit of mobility and flexibility work to do get comfortable and stable in the bottom 20% of a squat. Much less if a put a barbell on my back or hold pair of dumb bells. My overall weight loss journey is under 3 years and probably under 1.5 years of being 'active'. This was all 'doing things to be active' for weight loss rather than a different goal. This will be the first time I try something with specific fitness / strength goals so I have a lot to catch up on with form, reading, etc. On a more hippy note, I kind of dig the 'mastery over your body' type of vibe from Yoga / Body Weight so it may scratch that itch.

Cad_sl said:

Eidal, I lack the hip flexibility to really get deep in a squat - what stretches should I do to improve this? Like even with zero weight, I can't get that deep and keep my heels on the ground. As I try to go down in the squat my heels tend to come up and I feel it particularly on the outside of my hips. Like what sort of stretches would improve this?

Thanks

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I think the biggest culprit I see for this are taller men keeping their feet pointed straight ahead and knees relatively close together.


I'm 6'1 and I can't do more than a half-squat with that posture.

I stand like this.



I also do "low-bar squats" as recommended in the newbie programs. I'm happy with it and the compelling reasons to squat high-bar (competitions, high-level sports) don't apply to me. What matters is weight moved, ensuring my hips break parallel to save my knees and activate the glutes/hams, and keeping my core tight. I can drop far past parallel with my feet positioned as above -- but I can't do so while keeping my core safe (especially with weight)... so when I'm squatting my target depth is just slightly below parallel.



By placing the bar lower on your back, you need more of an angle to ensure the weight moves linearly above the center of your feet. This has you sitting "back" as opposed to straight down. Note that it requires less ankle flexibility -- your knees don't track as far forward. There are tons and tons of articles and videos debating the merits of both forms; but honestly what it comes down to is if you aren't competing in olympic lifts then do whatever feels the most comfortable and safe... and for most tall men it is going to be low-bar with a wider stance.

Cad_sl said:

Yea, I do turn my feet a little out and push my knees outwards. I'll try letting the bar go a bit lower and see if that changes things. I don't want to do half-squats.

Does low bar put more stress on your lower back?

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Try wider and knees more outward. You should be able to do correct (core straight, heels firmly on ground) air squats before putting any weight on. The next transition would be doing goblet squats; hold a 20lb dumbbell in front of you while doing it.

Here is a good video:High Bar Squat vs. Low Bar Squat - YouTube

Note, Alan Thrall is using weight lifting shoes in this video. It helps with ankle flexibility.

It's usually two things: shit ankle mobility, and an inactive ass. You need to learn how to activate your glutes and drive through your hips.

Low bar does put more stress on your lower back, yes. A more upright position reduces recruitment of your back. This is why you'll rarely see someone good morning a high bar squat, they'll simply get buried. You can absolutely good morning a low bar squat, and it's an easy way to shred your back.

Up to 150 today. I can't tell if it is actual growth or if I just weighed heavier today for whatever reason. But 205 on the press is starting to feel too light so I'm going back to 225. I usually repped 225 but I dropped it by 20 pounds to focus more on my form of the decline and the speed of the decline. But I think I need to bump it back up. My old strategy for muscle growth was usually rep weight where I can max out at around 6 reps and just do as many sets of 4 reps I could possibly do. I was easily doing 6-8 reps at 205 and I did maybe 6 sets of that. I also had pretty bad form and got into the habit of not touching the bar on my chest when going down so that has been cleaned up as well. I also had a genius invention idea of a bar that has a built in leveler so you could know if you're doing your negative at no angle without someone there to tell you if you are or aren't.

Tenks_sl said:

Up to 150 today. I can't tell if it is actual growth or if I just weighed heavier today for whatever reason. But 205 on the press is starting to feel too light so I'm going back to 225. I usually repped 225 but I dropped it by 20 pounds to focus more on my form of the decline and the speed of the decline. But I think I need to bump it back up. My old strategy for muscle growth was usually rep weight where I can max out at around 6 reps and just do as many sets of 4 reps I could possibly do. I was easily doing 6-8 reps at 205 and I did maybe 6 sets of that. I also had pretty bad form and got into the habit of not touching the bar on my chest when going down so that has been cleaned up as well. I also had a genius invention idea of a bar that has a built in leveler so you could know if you're doing your negative at no angle without someone there to tell you if you are or aren't.

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You shouldn't be touching the bar on your chest. Your elbows should never go past parallel when doing a bench press because once they do you're engaging your shoulders instead of your chest to do the initial move, which is bad. Really bad.

Not saying you're wrong but I don't feel anything in my shoulders going down to my chest. A quick google shows that touching the bar is a case-by-case basis. Some people have shoulder issues with it some don't.

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And it appears most say you should touch unless you have a shoulder injury and many shoulder problems are caused by poor form + touching

Cad_sl said:

You're doing sets of 6-8 at 225lbs on bench press and you weigh 150lbs? Props, thats more than I can do and I'm 180lbs. I can do 185lbs for 5 sets of 6, but thats getting very rickety by the end.

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I used to be able to do 6-8 at 225. I probably could right now if I really, really wanted to but I've lost some strength from when I was about 25 or 26. So I could do 6 pretty easy with proper form but 8 maybe rough in my current shape. I've also always been obsessed with bench press it is by far my favorite workout so I've been at this for like 10 years now. Funny to think I started back doing about 85 pounds when I first started out!

Tenks_sl said:

Not saying you're wrong but I don't feel anything in my shoulders going down to my chest. A quick google shows that touching the bar is a case-by-case basis. Some people have shoulder issues with it some don't.

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And it appears most say you should touch unless you have a shoulder injury and many shoulder problems are caused by poor form + touching

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Does that make any sense to you? Touch unless you have a shoulder injury, oh by the way many shoulder problems are caused by poor form +touching. Don't go past parallel, you're not even using your chest when you do for the initial move and it's a chest exercise.

If you can touch without going past parallel I guess that's fine (a lot of people arch their backs and lift off the bench when doing bench presses so I guess it's possible). But you really should never go past parallel.

Khane_sl said:

Does that make any sense to you? Touch unless you have a shoulder injury, oh by the way many shoulder problems are caused by poor form +touching. Don't go past parallel, you're not even using your chest when you do for the initial move and it's a chest exercise.

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Sorry but I'm going to err on the side of these fitness people saying you should touch. The bar will be going down on my chest, resting for half a second then going back up.

Still, though, just the logic of the statement you presented should probably make you dig a little deeper, unless you're explaining it poorly. "You should touch unless you have a shoulder injury that is partially caused by touching."

Possibly I phrased it poorly.

You shouldn't touch if you have a pre-existing shoulder injury. Often times shoulder injuries caused by touching the bar to chest are more a result of having poor form executing the rep than with touching to chest. If you execute proper form touching to chest should be generally safe for most people.

What makes more sense from a logic perspective. "Touch your chest regardless of grip width" or "Don't let your elbows get past parallel because you're engaging your shoulders for the initial move when you do, regardless of grip width"

Interesting way to look at it. I've never seen advice to not touch the chest, but shits always changing. Seems like it's worth looking into since so many people complain about shoulders and benching. Flat bench doesn't give me any problems but incline with a barbell, the "safe" for the shoulders way is painful on my shoulders so I have to use dumbells.