Weight Loss Thread

It really sounds like you've had some horrible PT's. If there are any large high school or college athletics programs in your area, it might help to find out where they send injured athletes.

Cad_sl said:

The LA fitness trainers are nothing more than desk monkeys in different shirts that walk around with you. One of my friends got hired as one and he has literally no qualifications. There might be trainers at other gyms that are actually helpful.

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That was also my impression of trainers at the LA Fitness I used to go to and the Gold's I go to now. I think the biggest thing I see that irks me is just how uninterested all the trainers seem to be in their clients. For example, just today I saw a trainer with a big fat dude taking him through various machines and dumbbell exercises. The trainer would very briefly demonstrate the exercise, tell the guy how many sets/reps to do and at what weight, then whip out his phone and fiddle on that for the next several minutes while his client worked out. At most he would occasionally glance up and ask something like "Was that 12 reps?" I've seen trainers standing around talking to each other while their clients are sitting and waiting, having finished an exercise and not knowing what to do next. It's ridiculous, and these poor saps are paying top dollar for that shit.

I did some personal training when I got tricked in to buying a package while joining a gym (high pressure sales for the win!). The dude I ended up with was actually really, really good at the PT aspect. He himself was a body builder that competed. He was really good at motivating me, and keeping the routines fresh. He was fun to shoot the shit with, as well, checking out chicks in the gym etc. But in the end he pissed me off because he started cancelling appointments on me, complaining that I worked out in the evenings and not the mornings despite me explicitly stating as such when he signed me up. Eventually he just stopped returning phone calls. I complained to the gym, and they offered to set me up with someone else for the last 3-4 sessions I was owed, but at that point I was so fed up with the process that I just cancelled my membership instead (which of course was a pain in the ass in and of itself).

So yeah, it's really dependent on who your PT is, and where you're doing it. There's a few local, private, PT places here that are supposedly amazing. But I'm not interested in paying hundreds of dollars a month for that kind of shit.

Most trainers are absolutely unqualified. Literally have no training or qualifications. I went to a half hour free session with this guy to pick his brain and see what he thought about what we might be able to do and he seemed at least knowledgeable so we will see how it goes. Then he had me sit down with another trainer to go over their fitness app and food plans and such. My god was that guy an idiot. In the span of about 5 minutes he talked about making sure to eat smaller meals more often throughout the day so your body doesn't go into starvation mode and start to store fat, muscle confusion, and eating a meal replacement bar instead of an actual meal once a day for the extra protein plus making sure to get a protein shake in too. This is all without even asking me what my goals were or if I would even be strength training. So I'm skeptical about the other guy now too naturally. But we shall see how it goes. I need to do something because I'm getting "soft".

This may be more for Arkk's thread, but has anyone had any success building strength with a body weight routine? I would like to add some strength training to my activities but my house isn't large enough for a bench set and I don't want to get a new gym membership as I already have one that is fairly expensive. I don't care about building muscle so much. I mainly want to even out the strength in my left vs. right side upper body. I feel like I am strong enough on my right side, but left side doing dumbbell bench, press, etc. I am noticeably behind.

I may be able to make a smallish incline bench and modular (/)dumbbell set work, but I have to run that by the wife.

I'm assuming your current "gym" membership is more like a dojo and not an actual gym with weights and such?

You could do resistance bands, they don't take much space and would accomplish what you're looking for.

Just going back to the debate about strength training for football. Saw this earlier today

https://amp.twimg.com/v/d8ef9122-f29...e-732adcabafa8

I bought a beginner dumbbell weight set on clearance from a sporting good store for a pretty good price (although I've over a couple months added bigger weights), with a semi vertical rack it only takes up a tiny amount of room. But I've never tried body weight exercises so I can't comment on that.

Khane_sl said:

I'm assuming your current "gym" membership is more like a dojo and not an actual gym with weights and such?

You could do resistance bands, they don't take much space and would accomplish what you're looking for.

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Current gym has weights, etc. The problem is that I trade work out days with my wife as one of us has to watch the dog. So I am trying to find something at home I can do as waking up early has never worked out for me.

Ubiquitrips_sl said:

Current gym has weights, etc. The problem is that I trade work out days with my wife as one of us has to watch the dog. So I am trying to find something at home I can do as waking up early has never worked out for me.

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What? Do you spend 7 frigan hours at the gym? Dogs are fine alone for the amount of time you'd both spend at the gym.

I work out exclusively at home, have dumbbells, bench press and another more mobile bench. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer.

Ubiquitrips_sl said:

This may be more for Arkk's thread, but has anyone had any success building strength with a body weight routine? I would like to add some strength training to my activities but my house isn't large enough for a bench set and I don't want to get a new gym membership as I already have one that is fairly expensive. I don't care about building muscle so much. I mainly want to even out the strength in my left vs. right side upper body. I feel like I am strong enough on my right side, but left side doing dumbbell bench, press, etc. I am noticeably behind.

I may be able to make a smallish incline bench and modular (/)dumbbell set work, but I have to run that by the wife.

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Reddit's Bodyweight Fitness Community

tldr; you can but odds are that you won't because its hard.

It's possible but it is substantially harder. A lot of these guys are just perversely anti-gym or anti-barbell; the convoluted methods they use to apply progressive overload are just retarded. Another huge factor is that many of the variations of bodyweight exercises require much more technique; so, instead of progressing, you're busy learning how to do some weird fucking half-planche or some shit.

Also. You aren't (probably) aren't building strength without also building muscle past your newb gains. Newb gains are primarily technique and CNS adaptation... but that lasts less than a year. There is no secret route to great strength gains while remaining the exact same composition. I'm not saying its totally impossible, I imagine people with perfect adherence to structured nutrition/rest plans can do a lot of really impressive shit... but... if you don't have the commitment to figure out how to pick something heavy up a few times a week then I really doubt you'll do any impressive shit on a bodyweight routine either.

Squats, push-ups and sit-ups, do each exercise until muscle exhaustion, do that series of exercises a couple times a day can actually get you pretty far for relatively minimal effort and zero equipment. It's not as good as weight training, but it's pretty much the type of exercise you'd do as a basic trainee in the military (plus cardio)

Instead of figuring out a home routine he should just figure out that his dog is fine if left alone for 2 hours.

At the top end body weight stuff is pretty impressive. If you can do pistol squats, muscle ups, hand stand pushups and shit like that you're doing really well and you've got to be strong as hell to do it.

Warmuth_sl said:

At the top end body weight stuff is pretty impressive. If you can do pistol squats, muscle ups, hand stand pushups and shit like that you're doing really well and you've got to be strong as hell to do it.

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Absolutely! However, what I was trying to address in my post was that it IS super hard. It's much easier to put 5lbs extra on a barbell every week and then a year later you're strong as fuck. Compared to learning how to progress from a knees-down pushup to a full planche.

Obviously, dedication will allow you to overcome anything... but my impression is that if a man isn't dedicated enough to structure his life enough to use weights then he very very likely is not dedicated enough to progress into a pistol squat, hand-stand pushup, or full planche. Like Khane said (kinda).

It's all about structure and using the same formulaic approach as you would a barbell. You start with a set and rep range of an exercise, do them until you don't feel it anymore, move onto the next. If you're stalling to complete a full set of a harder exercise, simply cut it in with your previous exercise. An example would be starting with normal push ups at 3x15; you are able to complete those sets without any issue, move onto diamond push ups at 3x15. If you fail set 1, go back to normal push ups and replace the first 7 reps of set 1 with diamond push ups. Repeat until you can do 3 sets of diamonds.

It can be "easier" to simply put 5lbs on a barbell if your weight training has been a linear progression for a year. However, most people will stall on a lift and will cause you to examine either your routine or nutrition. It's effectively, in my opinion, just the same between the two except you need to have a slightly different mind set when it comes to body weight training.

Eidal_sl said:

Absolutely! However, what I was trying to address in my post was that it IS super hard. It's much easier to put 5lbs extra on a barbell every week and then a year later you're strong as fuck. Compared to learning how to progress from a knees-down pushup to a full planche.

Obviously, dedication will allow you to overcome anything... but my impression is that if a man isn't dedicated enough to structure his life enough to use weights then he very very likely is not dedicated enough to progress into a pistol squat, hand-stand pushup, or full planche. Like Khane said (kinda).

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For sure. The probable best way to train for the really advanced body weight stuff is to train with weights anyway. I'm sure there are a million ways to progress to a pistol squat through bodyweight alone but I'd gamble that barbell squats are the fastest and easiest way to build that strength.

As far as home gyms, I work out in my garage. Have a bench/squat rack and one of those shitty pull-up/dip stations you'd see in sports authority and the like. Plus Dumbbells and a pull down machine. Probably have about 800-1k into it over the years. It's nice to get home, change, workout and be done in 40 mins total but I'd recommend just going to a gym. The equipment is better and planet fitness is like 10 a month. I've gotten my money's worth, most of it is 10 years old , but 99.99% of people never would.

I've lost 30 lbs in approximately six weeks. I really can't explain it. I have an incredibly unhealthy diet and I drink a lot. I've never had much of an appetite and have lived on one meal a day, most days, for the past two years or so. I'm 5'7" and last time I clocked in I was at 145. I'm down to 115 now.

I don't feel bad, and as far as I know there's nothing seriously wrong with me. I went through extensive medical tests back in March to investigate the possible genetic links of pulmonary fibrosis, since my dad and his identical twin died from it relatively young. I don't have cancer, no lung scarring, no liver problems, nothing major other than epilepsy, but I've had generalized epilepsy and taken the same medication since I was 17.

I'm kind of blown away. I guess I'll go to a doctor soon- I didn't realize how extreme this was until I stepped on a friend's scale while I was taking a piss. EDIT: I confirmed the weight on another scale to make sure it wasn't a fault in the machine.

Anyone ever experienced this?

It's probably mostly the frequency and amount you're eating. Try forcing yourself to eat a smaller meal, but eat twice a day and see how your body reacts. When I was a broke as fuck 22 year old I had something similar happen. I was eating once a day and lost 20-25 lbs. in a month or two.