Lifestyle physical health/fitness thread

[Lee]

It honestly just comes down to priorities and goals. Sure Gebrselassie was amazing at 56kg, as were other elites, but is running a sub 26:30 10k your goal? Probably not. If it is, go ahead and start cranking out a fuckton of miles and give up heavy lifting. To be honest I wouldn't even worry about dropping from 80kg. I know plenty of people who run fast around 175 pounds. Just get to the strength you want, do the amount of cardio you think you'll need for your running goals, and let the weight take care of its self.

Worrying too much about racing weight is unfortunately a pitfall that a lot of runners fall into, especially females, and sadly ends up leading to rapid unhealthy weight loss or an eating disorder. (Not that I think you're in danger of this.)

Thank you for the post it's something I spend a lot of time pondering so I do appreciate the input. I suspect that these fast 175lb guys are not 5 foot and 6~ inches as I am though! The lack of speed isn't fully the issue - I feel that, even at my current weight, I still have a lot of untapped speed that will come if I continue my training. The issue is that with all this weight crashing down on my joints, I suspect I probably won't be able to continue training for too much longer as the injury risk is simply too high! That said, I have ended up sorta following your advice of letting the weight take care of itself and for now at least, that is getting me closer to where I want to be. I suspect there may come a time in the future where I need to be stricter though.

ANYWAY, some recent pictures of my fitness related activities.

Taking my glutes for an outing as I escort an international visitor around a local running trail. Note that I'm wearing a head-camera...there may be some cool videos in the near future!

Winning 30GBP (about 50USD) at a local race, not too bad for 20 minutes work!

 

[CPrime]

The headband thing is the best GoPro setup in my opinion! POV of running, football, skating, pretty much anything is awesome.

Update on summer workouts: my mom got me a local summer gym membership for my birthday lol
It happens to be a rock climbing gym so every workout gets supersetted with lots of pullups from strange positions. Today was a good day! I smashed some overhead press numbers which felt amazing. I've still been stalled at 70-75 lbs for the past month and a half but today I said screw it and hit reps at 80 lbs and got two singles of 90 lbs up! First time I've felt good about OHP in forever.

Current maxes in lbs:
Squat 180 for reps, haven't maxed out
Deadlift 200
Bench 125
OHP 90

I'm pressing three times a week to get my upper body more evened out with my runner legs...

 

[Heracr055]

Hi everyone!
One of my goals this summer is to lose fat, eat better and have fun! I'm doing better on the eating part, since my entire family is incorporating more salads and fruits into our diets, so I'm feeling better than I' have before. I don't have a gym membership, because I don't like being cooped up in a building for exercise. I'm a habitual long distance runner, but I also want to keep stress off of my joints to prevent aches. As a result, I'm going to drastically reduce my long distance running. So I'm exploring my alternatives. Here's what I'm doing or am planning to do:
-Walking on a treadmill for an hour or more. I watch television while doing this, but it gets boring.
-Sprinting. This is something I really want to work on because I get exhausted, and I need some anaerobic exercise too!
-Razor scootering. I used my scooter to get around my college campus. Now that I've graduated, I'm using it to explore places, run errands, etc. I tend to ride for over an hour on this. It's really fun, but is it a viable exercise?
-Biking. I like to ride the channel 10 miles to the beach and back. The only concerns are wind resistance (I can't stand this) and time commitment (around 1.5 hours or more depending on wind). Maybe it won't be as much an annoyance now that school's off?
-Swimming. I don't have access to a pool nearby, so I'm thinking about riding to the beach and swimming on the beach. I'll try this and evaluate if it's a fun option.
I'd love some feedback on whether these seem like good options. I'm also open to any suggestions or alternatives you all may have. Thanks for reading, and I hope you all achieve your lifestyle goals!

 

[idiotfrommars]

Just a quick update. The weightlifting has been going strong. I switched to a PPL workout at the start of the summer so my squats haven't seen much game and have just stayed pretty consistent. It has helped me improve my bench and deadlift a fair bit though. Currently my maxes are 255 bench, 405 squat, and 465 deadlift. Unfortunately my diet has been quite the best, but I have still been eating moderately healthy. I'm down to about 247 pounds give or take depending on water weight and I can definitely tell that I am gaining muscle and losing fat, though that isn't expressing itself too much on the scale. Starting my job has also helped me cut down on my drinking a fair bit and I am really only drinking one night a week now which is far off of my usual 3-4. I feel like cutting out all these calories have definitely helped despite me switching to more high fat proteins. Hopefully I will be ready to post some progress pics soon :)

 

[X5Dragon]

I think somewhere in the depths of this thread I wrote that I'd have a 6 pack 9 months later...lol. Anyway I got tired of seeing snail like progress and decided to go for a highly active (Min. 3Km cardio), 1000 calorie deficit thingy and no fast food, not even a cheat day. Ramadan is here so daytime fasting should also help I suppose as long as I break fast quickly and eat well before entering another.

Hopefully I'll have before and after pics at the end of the month...

 

[CPrime]

I think somewhere in the depths of this thread I wrote that I'd have a 6 pack 9 months later...lol. Anyway I got tired of seeing snail like progress and decided to go for a highly active (Min. 3Km cardio), 1000 calorie deficit thingy and no fast food, not even a cheat day. Ramadan is here so daytime fasting should also help I suppose as long as I break fast quickly and eat well before entering another.

Hopefully I'll have before and after pics at the end of the month...

Sounds like a way to lose weight but you're gonna end up burning tons of muscle as well as fat. You might end up with a skinny pack though if you count that as a six pack...

 

[Stathakis]

some updates:

finally gained back the weight i'd lost since getting sick. still not as strong as i was before but i'm putting up a respectable 60lbs DB bench / 195 squat / 245 deadlift (all for 5 reps). hope to be reaching my old PRs by the end of the summer, with muscle memory and all


your daily reminder to take care of your body. i burned the candle from both ends and got sick for a month + couldn't leave bed + lost >15 lbs as a result. push yourselves, but with moderation..... nobody in this thread is going to be a professional athlete or fitness model (excepting maybe stallion) so there's no reason to risk injury and burnout by pushing too hard too fast. we have our whole lives to be fit, not just the next 8 weeks or whenever your goal is.



in other news, I ran barefoot at 5pm in 100degree heat on a track today and completely scorched the bottoms of my feet. might post some more blister surgery pics like the ones i posted a few pages back. luckily this time i have access to scissors and a paring knife, so I won't need to cut them open with a steak knife... some lessons I just never learn :-)



finally, if you're heading to worlds this august, consider joining me, BKC , and idiotfrommars in a push-up competition! start training them now, boys

 

[Stallion]

some updates:

finally gained back the weight i'd lost since getting sick. still not as strong as i was before but i'm putting up a respectable 60lbs DB bench / 195 squat / 245 deadlift (all for 5 reps). hope to be reaching my old PRs by the end of the summer, with muscle memory and all


your daily reminder to take care of your body. i burned the candle from both ends and got sick for a month + couldn't leave bed + lost >15 lbs as a result. push yourselves, but with moderation..... nobody in this thread is going to be a professional athlete or fitness model (excepting maybe stallion) so there's no reason to risk injury and burnout by pushing too hard too fast. we have our whole lives to be fit, not just the next 8 weeks or whenever your goal is.



in other news, I ran barefoot at 5pm in 100degree heat on a track today and completely scorched the bottoms of my feet. might post some more blister surgery pics like the ones i posted a few pages back. luckily this time i have access to scissors and a paring knife, so I won't need to cut them open with a steak knife... some lessons I just never learn :-)



finally, if you're heading to worlds this august, consider joining me, BKC , and idiotfrommars in a push-up competition! start training them now, boys

Thanks for the fitness model plug ha. I'm not going to world's but I'm taking a push up video and sending it in

 

[CPrime]

Yesterday I finally hit one plate on benchpress! Next bench goal will be bodyweight, ~30 lbs/13.5 kgs more.
Also I did some non-heavy deadlifts to work on my form and I feel like something in my brain just clicked. I think my hips were always too low and I was basically squatting the weight up with lots of stress (and soreness) hitting my lower back. Today my hamstrings and glutes feel like they got a workout, which is great because that's what deadlifts hit and I haven't felt that before. I'll see if my new form will work for my heavy deadlifts on Monday.
Also climbed a couple of V3 difficulty climbs and one V4. I don't know if you guys have done any bouldering but it's fun and difficult. My hands are suffering but my grip strength is improving so that's a plus.

 

[X5Dragon]

So Ramadan is almost finished, and I dropped from 78.8 to 74.7-ish kgms which is nice but I still got some more lower belly fat to burn. Anyway I don't have time for gyms (10 hour working shift) so I mostly do body weight exercises and things like pull up bars.

 

[xtracross]

Hello everyone,
I just recently started SL 5x5 as a new workout over my old one. It's been working great so far, but I have a few questions about the diet. I'm currently 5'6 128 lbs or 58kg (correct me if i'm wrong). I've been trying to eat more recently maybe about 3k calories due to the fact that I research and found out I was underweight for my height. I was curious on what are some foods that are a good source of protein and will provide me enough calories. I usually eat 2-3 eggs, hashbrowns, bananas, yogurt, tuna, grilled chicken, rice, and a protein shake post workout. I tend to snack too throughout the day with fruit snacks or just regular fruit. I feel like i'm missing out on other foods that will provide me a better source of protein so I can reach my gains. Can anyone recommend me some meats? Thanks.

 

[tml]

Try to calculate what you eat to find out how many grams of protein you are having. You should get about 1g of protein for every pound of your weight. (it's actually something like 0.84 grams for pound but I do 1 myself). If you discover that you are already having that, don't worry much about upping your protein. You should up the carbs, if you are training and trying to bulk up you can have lots of carbs. I think my current diet is about 3000-3300 calories varying what my Mum cooks me for tea, but most of that intake is carbs. As long as you are training hard in the gym and eating the calories, you will make gains, it's not a super quick process but after about 6 months of training you will honestly see a very significant difference. It really is just a combination of training and eating correctly.

 

[xtracross]

Try to calculate what you eat to find out how many grams of protein you are having. You should get about 1g of protein for every pound of your weight. (it's actually something like 0.84 grams for pound but I do 1 myself). If you discover that you are already having that, don't worry much about upping your protein. You should up the carbs, if you are training and trying to bulk up you can have lots of carbs. I think my current diet is about 3000-3300 calories varying what my Mum cooks me for tea, but most of that intake is carbs. As long as you are training hard in the gym and eating the calories, you will make gains, it's not a super quick process but after about 6 months of training you will honestly see a very significant difference. It really is just a combination of training and eating correctly.

Awesome dude, I'll try that out. I guess my goal is really to eat 130g of protein. Thanks for the advice. I'll definitely put more carbs into my diet.

 

[Lee]

Just add a glass of milk to each of your meals. 4 half pints of milk a day is like an extra 600~ calories and 30g+ of protein without even noticing it.

 

[MikeAU]

Hello everyone,
I just recently started SL 5x5 as a new workout over my old one. It's been working great so far, but I have a few questions about the diet. I'm currently 5'6 128 lbs or 58kg (correct me if i'm wrong). I've been trying to eat more recently maybe about 3k calories due to the fact that I research and found out I was underweight for my height. I was curious on what are some foods that are a good source of protein and will provide me enough calories. I usually eat 2-3 eggs, hashbrowns, bananas, yogurt, tuna, grilled chicken, rice, and a protein shake post workout. I tend to snack too throughout the day with fruit snacks or just regular fruit. I feel like i'm missing out on other foods that will provide me a better source of protein so I can reach my gains. Can anyone recommend me some meats? Thanks.

As far as meats go, anything lean/grass fed will be good for you. I normally move between chicken, tuna, steak. If you want to look at some cheap and great ways to fill up; sweet potato, buckwheat (buy it raw and look up how to 'sprout' it, tastes great in salad). Brown rice/wild rice is nice. You could slow cook chuck or some cheap cut and shred it.

Don't be afraid of fat either -- macadamia oil, avocado oil, almond oil, coconout -- if you drink coffee, take a long black and put some MCT in it. Stay away from the bad fats though as if you're having a bit from healthy sources, you don't wanna go over with bad stuff.

As lee pointed out too, milk is great.

 

[Stallion]

5"11' and a touch over 201 pounds right now. I know that I'm holding a lot of water and my weight will drop quite a bit in the next few days, but I just wanted to share that I finally topped the 200 pound mark #thebulkisreal

 

[CPrime]

5"11' and a touch over 201 pounds right now. I know that I'm holding a lot of water and my weight will drop quite a bit in the next few days, but I just wanted to share that I finally topped the 200 pound mark #thebulkisreal

Damn dude I need to eat more. Work schedule is rough but excuses are just excuses.
I'm the same height but only 165 lbs, trying hard to hit 175 by Christmas...

 

[Stallion]

Damn dude I need to eat more. Work schedule is rough but excuses are just excuses.
I'm the same height but only 165 lbs, trying hard to hit 175 by Christmas...

You can get there easily. My advice at your weight is not to be afraid of a little extra fat, you need to build that foundation of muscle before you think about cutting. I don't have abs at the moment but I fill out shirts and that's just as good a look, plus I feel as strong as an ox. Abs can come later!!

 

[Soul Fly]

Hey guys, many of you regular fatherly ppl may or may not have wondered where'd I drop off after getting hyped up for my new workout routine focusing on muscle building et all. So here's what happened. So right after by holidays and getting settled in for the new semester, in February I started working towards my new goals and all, and I hoped that by mid-April/May I'd have some dope stuff to share.

But alas life sometimes throws you a nasty curveball. In March I got involved in a motor accident. Now don't worry! It wasn't even close to fatal, but I was in the backseat of my friend's car without a seatbelt and I took a rough tumble which triggered a lower back pain, which was pretty bad. Torn muscles and all. I had a similar thing once as a kid, so I was really frightened that it'd turn into some chronic shit like some sports stars face, but my doctor assured it'd heal well. BUT I'd need as much bed rest as possible for the next 3 weeks and avoid heavy lifting/exertion for the next 2 months+ as a precaution.

You all basically know what sitting around and eating shit will do to you. All of my exercise screeched to a full stop, but my appetite which was conditioned on a year+ of gymming (aided by the recent added intake for my lifting thing) was at the same high.
And despite me trying to cut/eat moderately, I put on a couple of KGs and am now at 75kgs. The extra weight really hit me when I started Fall and my jeans were a bit too snugg and my smaller t-shirts show my now-visible manboobs. :( :( :(. I just put on weight too damn easily.


I have avoided talking about it all this while because it was kind of frustrating sitting around not being able to do jack while kinda letting myself go. Plus it's been kind of annoying with people in college now pointing out how I've gained weight. Especially given my past history of morbid obesity.

The doctor cleared me 2 weeks back to go back to the gym, but I have been out of the city for the past 2 weeks. So I'm going in by sunday to start my routine afresh. Biggest bummer is I have no clue where to start. I'd probably have to diet+cardio for a month or 2 to cut the flab as moving straight to dirty bulking without having worked out for quite a while post this much inactivity may be too ambitious - even though on face value I conveniently have a repository of fat ready.

Doing this the slow rookie way will be hard and anoying. Any one with any ideas?

 

[Lee]

Yeah, just gotta bite the bullet, swallow your pride and accept that you're going to have to take a few steps backwards. You'll be back to where you were in no time, but only if you're patient.

Diet-wise, it really depends on what your long-term goals are but those few kgs will probably sort themselves out once you start training regularly again so don't factor them into your decision too much.

And welcome back, good to see you're still in the game. Setbacks are an inevitable part of this lifestyle, all we can do is try to learn from them and keep moving forward.

 

[Nosferalto]

getting my bcaas

 

[Stallion]

getting my bcaas

Damn son you've gotten way bigger. Natty or gear? Either way, solid!

 

[Nosferalto]

Damn son you've gotten way bigger. Natty or gear? Either way, solid!

Hey brah! I have genetically wide clavicles and I'm holding more fat than usual in this picture as you can tell by my moon face. Natty 4 lyfe ;)

 

[Lee]

When on a caloric defecit, how do you get enough nutrients to ensure you recover adequately? After pumping in today's exercise, MyFitnessPal tells me I need 283g of Protein today...that's like 15 pints of milk (or 6,000 calories). I'm supposed to be losing weight! (Calorically light protein sources that don't involve drinking too much whey+water?)

 

[Nosferalto]

When on a caloric defecit, how do you get enough nutrients to ensure you recover adequately? After pumping in today's exercise, MyFitnessPal tells me I need 283g of Protein today...that's like 15 pints of milk (or 6,000 calories). I'm supposed to be losing weight! (Calorically light protein sources that don't involve drinking too much whey+water?)

I always supplement with BCAAs when cutting because of their very low calorie content. They're supposedly zero calories but I think it's just a labelling technicality and they actually contain 4 kcal per gram, which is still pretty good. Anyway, make sure you get the ones without carbs or sugar.

In terms of foods with the highest protein to calories ratio, I'd say smoked turkey breast and chicken breast obviously. When I'm in a hurry I just drink liquid egg whites straight from the carton (make sure they're pasteurized though).

wtf @ 283 g of protein xD