I've peeled off 30lbs in about 2.5 months. I seem to have a pretty solid plan.
900-1400 calories during week of nights (1/3 wks)
1500-2200 calories during other weeks
350-700 calories on poker days
Workout every single day; bike everywhere
Question: My gains in strength have been disappointing, probably due to lack of calories. If I eat more calories this week, will it feed my muscles even if i'm not working out much? Like as a backlog of calories owed or something?
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I just learned of this thing called 50/20 lifting. You take your starting weight and try to do 50 reps in 20 minutes. When you accomplish this, move up in weight. I feel like this would be really good for burning calories. I'm gonna try it for Clean and Presses, dumbell tripod rows, goblet squats, and hammer curls.
That's a good 4. I'll go day by day, trying a 50/20 for each of them as the exercise of the day. That seems like the optimal order. Will do chest presses, face pulls, side laterals and triceps press downs daily, deadlift on hammer curl day.
Good morning workout today. Picked up a couple new deadlift pointers and they worked! 1) point your dick towards the ground. 2) make sure it's a push exercise and not a pull exercise (which i knew but was neglecting). Deadlifted 225 much easier today.
I'm kind of curious about the context that you pulled those cues from. In a vacuum, they dont sound very good to me. I'd like to put it in context of what else he said though. The Athlean-X site looks like you have to pay for info from a skinny bodybuilder. I would guess you'd rather look like that guy than someone like Andy Bolton, but taking DL cues from someone like Bolton (one of the best DLers in the world) is far superior. He has a lot of good free info out there. If you posted vids here, I could give you much better tips on DLing than most people that sell info online. Just because a guy looks lean doesnt mean he knows anything about good lifting form.
I'm kind of curious about the context that you pulled those cues from. In a vacuum, they dont sound very good to me. I'd like to put it in context of what else he said though. The Athlean-X site looks like you have to pay for info from a skinny bodybuilder. I would guess you'd rather look like that guy than someone like Andy Bolton, but taking DL cues from someone like Bolton (one of the best DLers in the world) is far superior. He has a lot of good free info out there. If you posted vids here, I could give you much better tips on DLing than most people that sell info online. Just because a guy looks lean doesnt mean he knows anything about good lifting form.
AthleanX dude's stuff is free on youtube. He's a physical therapist and comes at stuff from a technical anatomical angle which i like. The "point your dick down" advice is just talking about how to properly hinge your hips. Hip hinging is something that i suck at and that helps me think about what i want to make my body do. The (first half of the) deadlift needing to be a push exercise and not a pull exercise is obviously correct imo. If you're pulling the bar up, you're rounding your back by necessity.
Unable to lift today due to bike. It took me 2 hours to walk the 6 miles to the bike shop and then i had to work an evening. Gots my bike for tomorrow but i want to move something!
That means that in the two weeks since the last crash week I gained almost a pound. That sucks but it's not the end of the world. I guess it'll give my skin a chance to catch up so it doesn't get all saggy (a fear of mine).
I biked in, did an hour on the elliptical, then deadlifted and clean and pressed (plus tri push downs and facepulls). My heel is KILLING me now. Might not be any elliptical in my future for some time.
I really liked my outline in the mirror. I don't look like a fat tub of goo and kind of look like an olympic weighlifter imo. Still pretty fat, but with powerful looking shoulders and upper back and somewhat thick, undefined arms.
Still just love the power clean and press. So much fun, make me feel like a beast and i'm pretty sure it's what's behind my traps/shoulders/upper back being so pronounced. I think I'm going to not deadlift for awhile. I just don't enjoy it, it's hard to get platform time, and i'd rather C&P when I do get platform time. I'm also kind of frustrated as it's not getting easier for me. Rather than true deadlifting, i'll just do rack pulls with yielding isometric to strengthen my grip, midback, and core. I can do those in squat boxes.
Per Jim Schmitz (3x US Olympic Weightlifting coach):
Quote:
I know everyone probably has his favorite lift or several favorites, and not only could you probably not choose just one lift, but also you would probably think it impossible to narrow down your workout to just one lift. Let’s say for some reason you only have time for one lift. Which should it be? My recommendation would be power clean and military press/push press/power jerk.
With the PC & PP or PJ you are getting a pull, a quarter squat, and a push; plus if you do five reps or so, which I recommend, you are getting cardiovascular work as well. Since this lift isn’t as technical as the snatch or as stressful as squats, you don’t need to thoroughly stretch and warm up as you would for them, thus saving time...It develops your strength, your speed, your coordination, your balance, your explosiveness, and toughness.
a pound is just water weight fluctuation imo, the only weigh ins that matter for me are first in the morning after a healthy piss and those can vary 1 - 3 pounds per day.
AthleanX dude's stuff is free on youtube. He's a physical therapist and comes at stuff from a technical anatomical angle which i like. The "point your dick down" advice is just talking about how to properly hinge your hips. Hip hinging is something that i suck at and that helps me think about what i want to make my body do. The (first half of the) deadlift needing to be a push exercise and not a pull exercise is obviously correct imo. If you're pulling the bar up, you're rounding your back by necessity.
idk if you know much about me. Its all in my log, but I'll give you a brief summary. I had a terrible low back injury in 2011. I herniated a disc that caused me not to be able to straighten my hip or walk for five weeks. I was issued a one-year handicap parking pass by my chiropractor. I educated myself and rehabbed for about 11 months before I lifted in my first powerlifting meet in 2012 (before my handicap parking pass expired, lol), setting a state (and personal) record in my age/weight class with a 518 lb pull. This year I set three national DL records in my age/weight class, including a 705 lb pull in August at ~245 lb bw. The DL is my favorite lift. I've studied it, read several books on DLing and low back safety during DLing and worked on DLing a lot over the past several years.
This guy is right about some things and wrong about some things.
I set up my DL sort of like he suggests with setting up tight before I bend down. This is the safest type of setup for your low back.
If the cue about pointing your dick down helps you hinge your hips, that's good. Proper hip hinge is important for a healthy back while doing a lot of lifting and also for doing a lot of everyday things.
The bold cue makes no sense at all to me. Its stupid. I see the point he's trying to make about back position, but if you set up tight and stay tight, you wont lose good pulling position. The DL is 100% pulling. The key to avoid the bad positioning he's suggesting is to keep your core hard and tight during the whole movement. You want to be pulling the weight in as you pull it up. The way he demonstrates, the weight is getting too far out in front of him. That puts additional sheer force on the low back vs if your hips start farther back and your hamstrings are loaded. He is not very good at DLing.
That being said, he is partially right about setting up. He doesnt talk about getting into good position with your hips back and your hamstrings loaded once you grab the bar, but he's right about keeping your back flat and your head up. Also, his main point about DLs being good for your back when you do them right is good.
When you set up, as soon as you grab the bar hard, shift your hips back. When you do this correctly, your hamstrings will feel extremely tight and all the slack will come out of the bar. As you pull the weight off the floor, keep your core and lats tight and think about pulling the weight back. Keep the bar close to your body the whole time. Its fine to drag it up your legs. When you do it right, you'll feel your hamstrings doing a lot of the work, and your low back should feel almost nothing. Finish the lift by squeezing your glutes together hard, like you're trying to bend a nickle between them, and think about standing tall, not back. When you begin to lower the weight, hinge your hips and keep your knees straight until the bar passes your knees, then let your knees bend after the bar passes them.
My hamstrings and glutes feel almost nothing when i deadlift. I'm doing something way wrong.
I also can't catch the bar properly when i power clean. I generally just catch it with my hands, which is fine at my 95lb weight i'm doing now but won't work when i eventually move up in weight. I can't get my hips behind me and my torso leaning forward. The bar either doesn't sit on my shoulders and falls forward or it knocks me off balance backwards or both. I'm thinking about meeting with a certified weightlifting coach at a local crossfit place. Expensive, but it might be worth it to get my technique down for injury prevention and results.
Good food alert: I'm loving these Starkist Tuna Creations. The lemon pepper ones are really good. Whole thing has 80 cals and 18g of protein (90% of cals are protein)! Makes for an awesome 80cal legit meal; it keeps me full for hours.
760 calories today and i'm very full. Had 3 servings of this awesome roast onion+zucchini+squash+balsalmic thing from the cafeteria. 10 cals each!
My heel still hurts a ton today. Pretty sure it's plantar fasciitis. I didn't workout because i could barely stand but i brought my gym clothes to work and want to lift before driving back home. Plantar Fasciitis: you may have felled Wally Szczerbiak and ruined the Wolves 2002-03 season but you will not derail my weight loss thing!
Tried to deadlift with high hips like cha's avatar. Set up, grabbed the bar and pushed my hips back. Hamstrings felt tight but, damn, my back felt REALLY exposed no matter what I did.
