yeah, I think you're on the right track


When you do the curls (and any other lifting), make sure to pack the neck, otherwise you are likely to get more radial nerve flare-ups. My guess is you were doing something bad with neck position that caused this. That's based on my own experience.

The best "packing the neck" cue is to get your head back, chin down and make a double chin.

Neck position affects the whole spine, so having your neck in a bad place can affect your thoracic pine and that can lead to lumbar problems.

While not ideal, you can do front squats with a cross handed grip.

If/when you go back to back squats (dont do this before your core is very strong and you can do them with no core movement at all), try a wider grip. I just started doing this the past couple weeks and I havent had any radial nerve flare-ups since.


This is my take on it. It is not necessarily fact, but stuff I've read and personal experience make me think its true.

I've read stuff that says soy protein can raise estrogen levels. It also makes digesting other types of protein harder. For example, if you ingest soy with beef, the bioavailabilty (not sure if I have that term correct) of the beef goes from ~90 to ~25. What that means is you dont digest most of the protein in the beef. In addition to all that, soy lacks many essential amino acids that complete protein sources like eggs, chicken, beef & whey all have.

damn, that sounds pretty bad haha. i guess i am going to have to confront my bizarre addiction to a certain brand of protein bar.

Clif builder bars are good aren't they.

Honestly I wouldn't worry about it too much. Most studies about the negatives of Soy deal with unusually larger quantities. Like if you drank soy milk 24/7 etc

It's hard to have enough Soy for it to matter.

Just count it.

This is my understanding as well. If you had no other source of protein or were consuming 50+% of your protein as soy, it might be a worry, but soy milk on your cereal or a bar with soy protein in it 1-2/day isn't going to derail you unless I'm wildly misunderstanding what's going on.

^^^^^ Agree with the three previous posts.

tyty i dropped leg raises and replaced it by L-chin ups

my weekly average of protein intake is usually broken down into 40% whey powder, 20% chicken, 20% egg whites, 10% paneer (indian cottage cheese made from full fat milk) 5% direct milk, and 5% turkey, salami, pepperoni type meat. Variations probably come from incidental protein intake as well from breads, pastas veggies etc etc.

I weigh 190lbs and average intake is about 180g.

found the book on the intertubes. Just started reading and I can already tell disgunbgud.

I just ordered 500g of creatine-monohydrate for the first time ever.
I eat a lot of red meat so I might be more likely to be a non-responder than most but the stuff is cheap and apparently there are no risky side-effects so no hurt in trying I guess.

A couple of questions:

1.) 5g/day is the recommended dosage, amirite?
2.) Load or not? If yes, 10g/day for the first 10 days or 20g/day for the first 5 days? (prolly whatevs, rite?)
3.) I think I read somewhere that it doesn't go well with coffee / caffeine-rich drinks. Is that solely because both dehydrate you or is there more to it?

1. Yup
2. Your choice. You can load or just take 5g/day. If loading, 20g is the 'standard' for the first 5 days.
3. A lot of this sort of stuff (like most info on Creatine) is just internet information overload imo. Just either take Creatine Mono 5g/day with whatever, or load then take 5g/day. If you don't feel so good taking it at X time with Y drink then vary X/Y and see if you feel better.

A'it, thanks.
I think I'll just take 20g/day for the first first 5 days and 5g/day from there on out and see what happens.

40% protein intake coming from a powder gives me sads.

I've always been really skinny my whole life, I try to eat as much as I can, but never gained any weight really.

Will muscle milk help at all with this? the flavor is ok, and they are easy to buy a lot and just drink whenever, and it doesn't fill me up at all. Is this a good way to go about adding a few extra calories to my diet?

Hi guys,

I want to get back in shape but I hate working out. I find it incredibly boring and, obviously, painful. "Hate" is a strong word to use but it's not far off. Lifting weights, keeping track of every little exercise, reps, what I eat, when I work out etc just seems like an enormous chore that makes it hard for me to muster up the enthusiasm to maintain focus.

So my noob question is this: do most people eventually get past this stage? Is it common? Do I need to power through the discomfort/boredom? I'm not sure if I'm just not a "workout person" and I should play sports or something to stay in shape instead or if this is fairly common and will go away once I start seeing results. I don't consider myself a generally undisciplined person fwiw and enjoy achieving things I put my mind to.

Thanks.

my 2 cents

You have to be motivated somehow to be consistent working out. Some people just enjoy it. Some are motivated by looking in the mirror. Some want to feel better. Lots of reasons. The point being, if you aren't motivated, you won't stick with it.

I doubt that the "seeing results" route will do it. You'll see results fairly quickly, then plateau. Once that happens, you'll need something else to keep motivated.

If you enjoy achieving things, that might be motivation. Probably something you need to figure out.

might only be worth 1 cent

thanks. guess ill just have to experiment and see what works for me.

Update on this item if you ever received it Cha? I saw something similar in a store but it was too soft

Then you're just not trying hard enough.

If you're going to drink it on top of your usual diet (which I assume is maintenance calories for you), sure it will help, just like any extra calories would.

It sounds like you need to educate yourself about nutrition in general tho, so I suggest that you go to Lyle McDonalds's BodyRecomposition website and read every article you can there.

Below is a random-ish quote from one of his muscle gain articles:
(should be relevant to your situation)

I'm having a minor issue with squats. While and after I do them, I feel a little wonky on my left side. My left lower back feels a tad tight, but not bad. Nothing to stop me or make me worry about anything. And, my left groin is a little tender when I do them as well. Again, nothing bad. But it tells me something needs to get stretched/rolled/loosened somewhere. I'm rolling like a fool and doing various mobility exercises that cha recommended. Anything I can do to target this specific issue?

Unfortunately variety of meats are not a luxury in India. There are a couple of meat shops near me and 90% of their product is chicken. The turkey is also a 'chicken turkey'. It gets tiring after a while. I'd have to haul back good meat from Delhi in bulk and then there is the problem of storage and power. Power cuts are too frequent in the summer. I can hardly keep a packet of cheese from going bad after it's open.

Even the restaurants (and fast food joints like McD) mostly only have chicken on their menu. I could frequent the hard rock cafe in the city everyday to get some red meat <3 but that's not a very realistic situaish.

Easily the most valid response I've gotten for that. Touche sir.

so i know jack**** about treadmills, but i want to get one so i can obv exercise ect in my own home. an old friend of mine posted one he had for sale on Facebook and i was wondering if any of you could tell me anything about this or if its worth it? he told me it was an "image" treadmill and that was about it he said he was selling due to "It's like new we just don't have room for it any more" he said 250 obo fwiw i dont think he is lying to me at all about any thing i just want to get a little input from someone that might have a little more knowledge on these things then i do
https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphot...09597581_n.jpg
link is picture of treadmill...thanks in advance for any feedback

Dunno anything about treadmills, but the reason he's selling it is the same reason as 99% of treadmill sales. He bought it with grand plans of using it every night. Used it 5 times in the first week, twice in the second week, then never again. Almost guaranteed same will happen to you. Save the money and run on the road. It's more rewarding and for that reason has more chance of compliance, especially if you follow a decent training program and have some goals such as entering a race. Plus, if you do give it up, you won't have a $250 heap of metal and rubber taking up space in your house.

Potentially true, but I personally prefer treadmill running to road running because of weather conditions (I hate running in the rain), and because I'm weak and prefer to have the TV on to get through my cardio sessions.

The goals more than anything I would agree help with compliance.