Lifestyle physical health/fitness thread

[blarajan]

can't say i'm eating right or exercising really but am pretty proud of this so i'm going to post it

when i started college, i was ~180 lbs (i'm 5' 10''). honestly, i didn't look "fat" but i had a bunch of extra weight i didn't like. i started freshman year off going to the gym and eating salads and shit and dropped to like 173 but then winter happened, i stopped exercising, and started eating worse at my college's diner (that shit is like literally consuming deep fried cancerous lard balls). long story short at the end of my sophomore year i ballooned up to 197. i never actually hit 200 but that was what made me "i'm a fat shit" (how close i was to hitting 200).

now, i don't really know what happened, all i did was stop eating diner food (apartment with my own kitchen). i started watching what i ate more and at the moment, about a year since being at ~197, i'm down to 167, which is less than what i've weighed in quite a long while and the first time of recent where i wasn't classified "overweight" via BMI!

now, i'm currently in the process of fucking it up again (oh lord the amount of cookies i've consumed of late is ridiculous, like whole boxes at a time) but i'm working on it again, starting at the end of this weekend (i'm out of town) to stop being a fat fuck again. given my roommates permission to kick me in the testicles if i buy more than one box of cookies every two weeks, and just all in all trying to cut out all the junk food. if i do that, my diet's fine, i mean i eat subway like 5 times a week which isn't great (but i hollow out the bread, get chicken breast, most vegetables, no cheese, no sauce, no bacon) and have a lot of pasta / canned green beans and corn / chicken breasts etc. soda and junk food are the main source of my surpluses and i've finally gotten my sodastream going up again and am fucking with the junk food so that shouldn't really happen anymore

thinner than i've been in five years, at a "healthy weight," actually not mad at how fat i am (though i'm trying to drop another 10), and chilling atm just wanted to post

probably should note that i'm 20 and it's why just dropping these lbs literally was no effort

 

[DHR-107]

Man....

Cookies are so fucking bad for you. I was never what you would call fat (I'm like a rake now), but I was eating a bag of cookies/drinking coke everyday for like 6 months (plus a job where I am sat down most of the time) and I could *really* tell. I got chatting to MikeAU about Gym stuff (cause he's pretty much the reason I am going to the gym) and realised how bad my diet was.

Even just cutting out the majority of the absolute shit (I still treat myself every so often), has made a huge difference. On gym days I eat a chicken pasta mix which gives me plenty of energy. I am trying to go three times a week at the moment, which isn't so bad (day on/day off sort of thing). Just the little bit of work I do compared to most of the guys here is really changing what my body feels like.

I'm slowly chopping down my PB for a 5km Row (something which I actually enjoy doing, doesn't put too much stress on my joints and is a really good workout), and in the last 6 weeks its come down from 20:45 to 20:11. I'm hoping to get under 20 minutes before the end of Feb and keep that speed up for a bit. I add on to that a decent km ride (I'm looking to start doing 45 mins~1h on the bike, but finding the time is a pain). I'm not a huge fan of running due the damage it can do to your knees, my dads are fucked from Road Running for years.

 

[CPrime]

I went to the gym today for the first time in 3+ years! Finally got around to weighing myself as well. Turns out I'm nearly 10 lbs over what I thought I was, which is a surprise. I'm 154 lbs (~70 kg) and I definitely still have a runner's body. I'm lean so muscle definition is pretty good even though my upper body is small. I'm still not going to dirty bulk or anything; I feel comfortable with the direction I'll be going if I keep hitting the gym a few times a week.

 

[X5Dragon]

I have been running at least a daily 500 calories deficit to lower my body fat percentage along with the relevant cardio and body weight exercises, it shouldn't take long now..

 

[Stallion]

My week off is up, time to go back and do work!

 

[CPrime]

I haven't felt muscle soreness since the days of track/cross country!
Not gonna lie it feels pretty good. Feels like progress or something right?

 

[SOMALIA]

I haven't felt muscle soreness since the days of track/cross country!
Not gonna lie it feels pretty good. Feels like progress or something right?

Haha yeah man i wont lie i miss the days where id be sore for days after a squat session man, after a few more trips to the gym u wont be feeling that as much :(

Also how much is everyone deadlifting, I just want to compare myself to everyone as my gym sadly got few people who deadlift (everyone just bench presses and does random isolation movements). I'm 57kg atm (shitass i know) and deadlift 135kg/297lbs, I feel its pretty shit so I'm doing sessions of build up deadlifts then one set of 5 every week to basically jump weight everytime by intervals of 10kg. Anyone got any tips/tricks to go up quickly if you are a skinny cunt like myself loool

 

[Lee]

I have some tips maybe but I'd need to know whether you're doing Sumo or Conventional. And which area you feel you are failing on.

 

[SOMALIA]

I'm doing sumo for now and I just feel that I'm struggling with getting my core tight, hard to explain via words but I dont feel compact during the beginning of the lift

EDIT: Nah Stallion lately real life stresses got the better of me and I havent gained anything sadly man im so hopeless with food

 

[Stallion]

135 kg dead at 57 kg is actually really solid SOMALIA ... I thought you were mid 60s now though?

 

[jdarden]

Haven't posted in here in quite a while, but I've been hard at it over the past few months -

I bulked up from 180-185 to 200-205 pounds from about August to November - not a huge bulk but I'm only 5'9 so I didn't really want to go too much heavier. I maintained for a while then decided about a months ago to start a very gradual cut around January. I'm down to about 197 or so at the moment, so everything is progressing pretty nicely. The bulk treated me really well - I was able to meet a few lifting goals, starting to get my lower body filled out since I've always been a little disproportionate as far as having a larger upper body goes. I kept my bench at about a 370 1 RM, while I brought my deadlift 1RM up to about 515 and my front squats to around 5 x 315. Probably still a little top-heavy, but definitely not as much as I used to be!

When I started my cut, I switched my routine over from a pretty low-volume push-pull split over to Layne Norton's PHAT routine. I've never really done anything too high volume before, and man.. it really wears me out. I'm feeling really good, though, and haven't really seen any significant drops in my lifts over the last 8 or so pounds I've dropped, so I'm liking it a lot. I'm only worried that the volume might be a little hard on my knee/shoulder, both of which have had problems in the past (especially since I'm switching to a high-volume workout and also cutting, when you're more prone to injury). I've been feeling a little 'tightness' in my left knee lately - it sucks to know I'll probably have to cut back on the heavy leg stuff after making so much progress, but I know it's not worth it to risk injuring myself seriously.

SOMALIA glad to see you're still in the gym and making big progress! I remember you putting up that 5x5 thread a while ago - glad it's paying off for you, man. I know it's a great feeling to have so much improvement, and it's definitely motivating on everyone else's part!

 

[ShadowStriker99]

Hey gang, first post here =)

Any tips on how to bust a gut apart from running it off?

Running 4.75km daily along with limiting myself to 1950cals and doing crossfit atm

I just want the gut gone before I make my in-ring debut lol

 

[Lee]

I'm doing sumo for now and I just feel that I'm struggling with getting my core tight, hard to explain via words but I dont feel compact during the beginning of the lift

EDIT: Nah Stallion lately real life stresses got the better of me and I havent gained anything sadly man im so hopeless with food

That's more than heavy enough to justify the use of a belt if you're not already using one; that should sort out your tightness issues immediately. Another bit of advice would be to engage your lats. One of the best cues I ever received was to consider your lats to be the 'abs of your back' and to tighten them up in much the same way during deadlifting. As for breathing, take a deep breath in before the movement, and then breathe out steadily through a closed mouth as you lift the weight (or hold your breath entirely if you prefer, I know some people swear by that). Do those things and I can't imagine you'll have any issues with tightness.

Also, I find that conventional deadlifts are mandatory on a StrongLifts program as you're just not building up that lower back sufficiently otherwise. I have known people (and I count myself among these) who just did Sumo Deadlifts and when it came time to start squatting heavy, their form was shit/bordering on dangerous because their lower back was too weak. They end up coming up with their torsos almost parallel to their quads rather than the desirable 'upright' position. I can lift a lot heavier on Sumo but I made the move to take a drop in weight and switch to conventional in order to build what I considered more 'complete' bodily strength and I'm very glad I did as all my other lifts have been climbing ever since and they all feel 'safer' to boot. Have a think about it.

But yeah man, like Stallion said, it's a very solid lift. Double your body weight is a great platform to build from and you've already exceeded that. Just keep chipping away, deload when necessary and hammer the assistance work (Bent over Rows, pull-ups, hamstring work and grip work etc).

 

[DHR-107]

So I hit 19:56 last night, so I cracked my 20 minute target for 5km Row. I was absolutely hammered by the end and I could barely feel my hands, but it felt really good. I was almost sick (probably pushed a little too hard), but I kept it down. Does anyone else have that feeling of being sick when they do a long/hard session of cardio work? I've had it as long as I can remember. I used to vomit at school after PE sometimes because I would try so hard in Athletics/swimming :|

Did a lot of stretches before hand and after, and I don't feel achey today at all. I guess that's progress. More stretches tonight and I'll have to see if i can match the time tomorrow :)

 

[Stallion]

So I hit 19:56 last night, so I cracked my 20 minute target for 5km Row. I was absolutely hammered by the end and I could barely feel my hands, but it felt really good. I was almost sick (probably pushed a little too hard), but I kept it down. Does anyone else have that feeling of being sick when they do a long/hard session of cardio work? I've had it as long as I can remember. I used to vomit at school after PE sometimes because I would try so hard in Athletics/swimming :|

Did a lot of stretches before hand and after, and I don't feel achey today at all. I guess that's progress. More stretches tonight and I'll have to see if i can match the time tomorrow :)

Only time I've come close to vomitting was when I went through an hour training session with my semi pro MMA fighter friend. I have never done anything so fucked in my life

 

[Lee]

I've come close to vomiting/passing out but only in competitive races; never in training. I'd be a bit hesitant about regularly pushing yourself to those limits in the name of training...I'd do it very, very sparingly perhaps but no more. The way I think about it is, everytime you push yourself like that there's a certain chance that things will go wrong and you'll get hurt (lets arbitrarily say 10%). 10% is an acceptable risk once a month maybe, but the odds don't look as favourable when you roll that dice every single day if you get my drift?

 

[CPrime]

I've never thrown up after a race or anything. I've seen plenty of people do it or come close, but it's never happened to me personally. But I'm probably an outlier since I haven't thrown up since I was 10 years old, which is when I decided it was the worst thing ever!
After a hard run, especially a race, I often have messed up hearing. It kinda feels like when you get water in your ear after swimming or something. Must be something about heavy breathing that messes with my inner ear pressure.

I'm pissed off since I think I pulled my groin two weeks ago and it's not healed yet. Running is something I really like, playing football is something I really like, and skateboarding is something I love, but I can't do any of them right now. Keeping a positive attitude is hard when all I can do is schoolwork with no breaks for fun...

 

[uragg]

dang hadn't really seen this new thread, remember posting in the old one a long long time ago lol. from reading the last few pages I've basically gathered that Lee is a f*ckin tank

so I was pretty into lifting after starting back in high school (~4 years ago) but haven't been really feeling the motivation the past year or so I guess, still been going 3-4 times a week in this span but my lifts were pretty stagnant and I basically didn't squat for this entire time. recently for some reason got this itch in me to set a goal of being able to dunk a basketball and been kind of lifting/training for it after the new year. lifting 3x/week with sort of a modified SL/SS routine and doing a short plyometrics workout in my room 2x/week and playing basketball for fun 1-2x/week is basically my physical activity.

for lifting, I basically do one workout (squats 5x5, deadlift 1x8 moderate 1x5 heavier, bench 3x8) monday and friday and another (squats 5x5, shoulder press 3x10-12, whatever upper body accessory work I'm feeling) wednesday. I also have a pullup bar set up at home and do 3-4 sets of 10-15 throughout the day when I'm bored. my lifts are not the greatest, but with how much legs I'm training they're progressing decently. Back in high school I squatted up to 3x5 265 lbs with pretty incorrect form, doing high bar leaning forward on the balls of my feet hella so my quads were and are still overdeveloped compared to posterior chain. Started after new years back at 5x5 with 135 and been building it back up, currently at 220. deadlifts I've come to enjoy quite a bit after getting the form down, doing 245 for my set of 8 and 270 for the set of 5. bench is probably highest comparatively, hit 3x8 185 but now deloading a bit. my goals right now for lifting are basically to get my squat/dl up a lot higher to build strength, probably aim for repping out ~315 squat and ~405 dl eventually I guess. upper body is just to maintain strength and looks.

for plyo I do 3x10 rim (ceiling) jumps, 3x10 lunge jumps, 3x5 depth jumps (around 20 inch box) to build up some explosiveness.

so far results have been decent, I can touch rim with fingertips from a standing jump but so far am not coordinated enough to jump higher than that from a running start lol. I'm 5'7 and 155 lbs, so this is already around a 30" vertical which may mean that I don't have much more room to improve but I think because my lifts are not very strong and because I never really trained plyometrics there's a shot at getting a good amount higher.

so that's what I've been up to, hopefully going back and catching up in this thread to see the progress that you guys have been making will give me some motivation =]. will post video if I ever manage to dunk

 

[Stallion]

dang hadn't really seen this new thread, remember posting in the old one a long long time ago lol. from reading the last few pages I've basically gathered that Lee is a f*ckin tank

so I was pretty into lifting after starting back in high school (~4 years ago) but haven't been really feeling the motivation the past year or so I guess, still been going 3-4 times a week in this span but my lifts were pretty stagnant and I basically didn't squat for this entire time. recently for some reason got this itch in me to set a goal of being able to dunk a basketball and been kind of lifting/training for it after the new year. lifting 3x/week with sort of a modified SL/SS routine and doing a short plyometrics workout in my room 2x/week and playing basketball for fun 1-2x/week is basically my physical activity.

for lifting, I basically do one workout (squats 5x5, deadlift 1x8 moderate 1x5 heavier, bench 3x8) monday and friday and another (squats 5x5, shoulder press 3x10-12, whatever upper body accessory work I'm feeling) wednesday. I also have a pullup bar set up at home and do 3-4 sets of 10-15 throughout the day when I'm bored. my lifts are not the greatest, but with how much legs I'm training they're progressing decently. Back in high school I squatted up to 3x5 265 lbs with pretty incorrect form, doing high bar leaning forward on the balls of my feet hella so my quads were and are still overdeveloped compared to posterior chain. Started after new years back at 5x5 with 135 and been building it back up, currently at 220. deadlifts I've come to enjoy quite a bit after getting the form down, doing 245 for my set of 8 and 270 for the set of 5. bench is probably highest comparatively, hit 3x8 185 but now deloading a bit. my goals right now for lifting are basically to get my squat/dl up a lot higher to build strength, probably aim for repping out ~315 squat and ~405 dl eventually I guess. upper body is just to maintain strength and looks.

for plyo I do 3x10 rim (ceiling) jumps, 3x10 lunge jumps, 3x5 depth jumps (around 20 inch box) to build up some explosiveness.

so far results have been decent, I can touch rim with fingertips from a standing jump but so far am not coordinated enough to jump higher than that from a running start lol. I'm 5'7 and 155 lbs, so this is already around a 30" vertical which may mean that I don't have much more room to improve but I think because my lifts are not very strong and because I never really trained plyometrics there's a shot at getting a good amount higher.

so that's what I've been up to, hopefully going back and catching up in this thread to see the progress that you guys have been making will give me some motivation =]. will post video if I ever manage to dunk

I've always wanted to dunk too, maybe ill do your plyometric routine!

 

[Lee]

Saw your photo shoot Stallion, looking right at home as a fitness model bro...the vest sits especially well on your traps. [/flex emoji]

what sort of program are you on at the minute? you seem to do a lot of variation between bulking and cutting and HIIT stuff and sport-specific stuff and I've sorta lost track! ?_?

 

[Stallion]

Lee Thanks man, I was thinking of posting the photo here but I wasn't sure if a fitness modelling photo would be too pretentious for Smogon! Regarding my traps, I barely train them directly but they blow up super quickly compared to the rest of me just from shoulder compounds.

Pretty hardcore bulk, my eye is on the prize of being an absolute unit. I will force feed myself 3500-4000 calories a day to make sure I am constantly growing, even at the expense of really visible abs (although I'm not letting myself get fat). I am playing in a social football team once a week and down the track when I've fixed my hips issues, I want to combine functional training with my current regime so I can keep getting bigger and possibly make a return to the gridiron. My main goal is to get really big right now though (and then cut down the track), everything else is secondary.

 

[MikeAU]

Wow, how active is it getting here -- great to see everyone's working at it hard. Also, congratulations to the threads resident fitness model -- Stallion ! Congrats on getting there mate -- you should share a photo or 2 of your hard work and success!

I'm going crazy, no exercise for a week and about 2 more weeks to go due to post-op recovery from surgery. Nothing major and was just a day surgery thing but the recovery is worse than the actual procedure. Didn't feel any pain and was given local anaesthetic and IV valium (god that stuff is amazing... you can kinda like taste it in your mouth when they administer it). Whoever invented that deserves a beer or 2 -- I was insanely relaxed. But exercise and the like is off the cards for 3 weeks and its driving me crazy. Snacking is creeping back in and need to be more strict but i'm really lost with being able to do no exercise and it's depressing me. I reckon I could get away with some push-ups, arm/trap and core work but the risk is if i fall/trip and land on the sutures it will not be pleasant.

Best of lick everyone! Stallion -- fantastic work on reaching your goal -- you should share the pics for us all to see.

Peace out

 

[Stallion]

Alright, seeing as you asked for it here's one of the pics from the shoot MikeAU

 

[MikeAU]

Alright, seeing as you asked for it here's one of the pics from the shoot MikeAU/quote]


Great work! ALl the hard work you've put in paid off -- I remember you saying a few months back that you were wanting to do it and you did!

As Lee called out, nice traps! I've spent the day preparing meals for the week, prepare some healthy snacks etc -- I can't train atm, so i'll be damned if I fall in to bad eating habits. Gonna use this period to focus on my eating and all.

Although, a bit sad that leg-day Fridays are a few weeks back. But i'll be back down there with a vengeance in a week or 2. Need sutures to be out before I can consider exercise, and was advised to give it a week after they are done before engaging in any real exercise. I believe its more to do with the risk of impacting/injuring rather than it being a problem. Idk. Bit down about it, tbh.

 

[Lee]

That sucks Mike...we may as well rename this 'The Injury Thread' and be done with it! Wishing you a speedy recovery.

I posted a pic a few months ago where I highlighted how unhappy I was with my back. Have upped the volume and weight since then and it's starting to take shape now.

posting this from a phone so take no responsibility for how it may appear on a web browser

#BackToTheFuture #ItsATrap #ShoulderBoyTellEm #LatsDoThis