I find that my core is stronger when I don't blow my abs out fully but leave a bit in the tank for valsalva, I don't take a full breath but about 3/4 or so. Is this ok?

This should be standard. I don't think anyone has maximal core stability correlated with maximal belly size.

I thought part of the reason the valsalva is awesome is because it is something that humans have evolved the instinct to naturally do since it is the correct way to breath while moving heavy ass weight. Are we really supposed to be giving it much thought?

Well, no, but unfortunately many of us learned the wrong way to lift while breathing (breathing out on the way up for instance) so its about unlearning bad habits. Plus, most people put a lot more thought into a deadlift then they do pushing a car. When you start thinking about different parts of the lift its easy to forget how to breath properly.

Eating a lower carb diet, I'm eating a bunch of protein(300g+/day), but I find myself eating foods with a high protein+fat instead of high protein+carbs. I'm essentially replacing all the carbs with fat. Is this ok?

If your goal is ketosis then yes. Make sure you are getting enough fiber.

Hmmm had to google ketosis. Let's see if I have this right in a nutshell. It's consuming small amounts of carbs so your body changes to using fats for energy instead of carbs. Is that right? I want to get rid of a bunch of extra body fat, so that's what I want right?

Essentially, yes. It's slightly controversial (i.e. effects over normal dieting) but definitely effective. High protein+ some fat diet tends to be more filling for most people anyway, i.e. less cals.

jf,

Why are you eating a low carb diet (i.e. replacing "all carbs with fats")

I guess I'm not replacing all carbs with fats. I think I'm eating about 40p/40f/20c ratio right now.

I am doing this because I'm at about 28% body fat and want to get rid of body fat. I don't care about losing weight (which I'm sure will invariably happen) I just want to get rid of a lot of body fat and especially my over sized gut. My goal is to get down to 20% body fat over the next 4 months. Is that attainable? Am I doin it wrong?

Edit: While eating at ~maintanence.

You're going to have to do a cyclical diet of some sort if you want to lose that much fat (and gain muscle at the same time?). At 28% I would just diet, you won't lose much muscle anyway.

Ok, so as long as I get enough protein (300g/day about right?) and I eat at a deficit, I will lose body fat? So I should keep the calories under 3k, get enough protein, and I will see some good results?

200g/day is probably enough, but yea that will work. Make sure to monitor your recovery and lower volume if necessary.

Sure, but you can't expect much progress on your lifts at the same time, depending on deficit...

Isn't it better for Johnny to do a bigger deficit and lower volume if he wants to trim fat anyway?

Yes. Assuming you want to preserve strength while dropping body fat, lower the volume and keep the intensity (%1rm) high. In order to do this, (appropriate amounts of) carbs will likely be your friend.

To sum up.

1. Create a deficit. Keep protein high (not ridiculously high, and an amount that helps you create that deficit). Then work with the other stuff within that framework: EFAs, veggies, other carbohydrate sources.

2. Ramp down the volume on training, but keep the loads high (this is based on the above assumption of strength.) If the deficit is high that's good.

3. Experiment with things that allow you to do 1 & 2 consistently. This is where "individualization" comes in vs. blanket recommendations. eg. meal timing, meal frequency, pre-workout stuff, pwo etuff etc. As examples, you might find yourself having higher compliance on 3 meals a day vs 6, or might like to bracket your lifts with small P+C meals. These tweaks are fine in order to help achieve 1 & 2, not as substitutes for them

Ok.

1. Easy, no problem here. I'm super flexible at eating.

2. Less training? Right now I'm doing SS (with some added assistance work here and there) and adding in some light metcons and doing things like light swimming and running for active recovery on non-workout days.

Is that too much?

Let's see, and this is thinking as I'm typing, if I workout too much while at a deficit I won't be able to recover, thus losing strength. If I workout heavy weight, low volume I will retain strength while eating at a deficit. Do I have that right?

From an earlier post:

Look into carb cycling imo, but at 28% eating just eating better food, should do a lot.

Yes, JF is on the right path. I wouldn't worry too much about the macro breakdowns; 40/40/20 is likely to be enough carbohydrates to fuel your intense workouts.

i have two questions about beginner SS. figured this is as good a place as any to ask.

1) my arms and especially forearms are freakishly long and shoulders are not flexible. it's pretty much impossible for me to have wrists flat with the bar on my shoulders. is this a problem? can i fix it?

2) three weeks into SS i had stalled in my squat at 125 lbs. i didn't really understand why, but perhaps i was too conservative with my DL progression and wasn't doing enough weight. i decided to throw caution to the wind and added 20 pounds to my DL in each of the next two workouts, and lo and behold, i immediately started squating 145 lbs and progressing linearly once again.

now comes the question. i am experiencing the same sort of stall in my bench press (125 lbs), but i don't have a second exercise like the DL to provide a boost. what do i do?

1) No, not really. I have a similar problem. Try a wider grip.

2) How much do you weigh? It's probably a technique issue.

It depends. It can definitely affect your recovery and in my experience tired lats do decrease your press performance. That said, if you were like me and were trying to go from zero real chinups to being able to do a few, then in the beginning it will not affect you as much because you won't be able to do much work anyways. You can still manage the volume and scheduling so it doesn't affect you as much. Optimally you would do your chinning after a workout sometime, but not the day before a workout, imo. Every other workout sounds good too.

i weigh 155.

Chins are PART of SS. Improving your performance on them is just as important as improving your press bench or squat. So if you can't do more than 5, doing them a lot away from the gym can only help and won't affect your other workouts anyway.

eat people