I'm 6ft, 170 and trying to put on muscle. My question is about what to eat before and after my workouts. I've read so much conflicting info. From what I've gathered, it's good to have a complex carb about an hour before the workout and soon after I'm done lifting, I should have protein and a fast-digesting sugar (refined carbs or added sugar?) Is this right?

Thanks for any replies.

It probably doesn't matter that much. Have some protein of some sort in the few hours before or within the hour after. And eat enough food and protein throughout the day.

It doesn't matter. And if it does matter, it's a really tiny rock.

Some things that do matter:

Appropriate caloric surplus for your goals
Learn proper form for the resistance work which is part of :
Appropriate programming for your goals
enough protein overall
creatine
enough sleep
...

Also understand that nutrition can be a very sensitive subject, just like religion. Everyone has their own idea or belief and many people feel like theirs is superior to others. Try some things and do whatever feels most succesful to you. Compliance is also a huge factor, choosing something that you can stick with.

As long as you're somehow aware of caloric intake and protein, there's not much that can go wrong.

My googling seems to confirm your view. How long time was "a while"? I'm asking because it was in November, and it's still a problem. Have taken periods without any training at all too, and that didn't seem to help.

I'm a pescatarian. I'm consistently low on fiber and iron. I'm cutting and trying to keep carbs to a minimum and it's been a struggle to find high fiber foods to fit into my diet without messing up my cals/macros.

Iron is a separate issue as I'm not even sure it's possible to hit my iron goal without eating red meat and poultry. There's only so much seafood I can eat.

Any ideas on how I can address this? I'll give the token answer to the iron question so you all don't have to--eat meat, idiot.

Don't remember exactly, but probably on the order of August/September to November/December. It got progressively better I would say over the time, especially wrt to everything but neck stiffness, went from sharp pain to dull pain to no pain.

Leafy vegetables? Aren't they pretty much nothing but water and fiber?

Vegetables really aren't the solution to fiber. If you use spinach's nutrition facts as all your vegetables, for 100 gramas you get 23 calories, 4 carbs, 2 of them fiber. At a pound of veggies/day, 454 grams of veggies (which is a lot for most people) that's like 9 grams.

It's really hard to get fiber if you're specifically restricting carbs IME. But I kinda think if you're eating healthy and lots of vegetables, it's really not a big deal if you only get 10-15 grams instead of 20-30.

Well spinach isn't a particularly fibrous veggie, but unless the only veggies you eat are broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and artichokes, and eat a lot of them, yeah it's tough to get a lot of fiber just from veggies.

Fruit helps. One banana and one apple will net you 8ish grams. Most berries are very fibrous.

Beans obv. Oatmeal. Potatoes.

Unless you're going no carb (which seems odd if you only eat fish), it's really not hard to hit decent fiber numbers even if you keep your total carb grams fairly limited (say under 125-150).

Or just have a bowl of Super Colon Blow or something.

Agree with what else has been said.

Imo It depends a lot on your goals and what lifting/workouts you're doing. If you're just lifting heavy, you're not going to need that much carbs. A lot of it is personal preference tho. I always feel better and stronger when I work out fasted in the am but my buddy who more jacked than most loves to eat like 1 hour before. I do think almost every protein supplement is sweet enough to spike insulin to get benefit so adding refined sugar post workout mostly unnecessary.

The fiber advice helped. Think I can solve that issue. Should I be concerned about iron anemia? I know it's incredibly common so it can't be THAT bad but how bad is it?

Iron supplement seems pretty reasonable in that situation. Blood test is pretty easy to figure it out if you go that route.

Cool, thanks.

hey guys, i just squatted 225 x 5 x 3 for the first time. i'm 6'0, 190 (not fat or anything--mostly muscle...big legs) and it took me a REALLY long time to get to that point. as i approached 225, each workout was nothing short of brutal, and i had to rest almost 10 minutes between sets. i probably wasnt eating enough, but i cant just constantly be eating my whole life.

my question is if i switch from SS to something like 5/3/1, will workouts continue to be so brutal each time i squat? i cant imagine keeping that up over an extended period of time.

also, if i'm decent sized and my form is pretty decent (i'll try to post videos later, but i'm quite confident) why did getting to 225 take so long and why was it so painful? i assume you guys are gonna say eat more...but i already weigh a lot to barely be able to squat 225. i guess maybe i should do assistance exercises too? i rarely do.

You havent really said how long it took you to get to 225x5, but there is a broad range of time it takes to get to any milestone (despite what Rip says). Other factors you didnt mention could include having suboptimal levers for squatting, or not enough protein. And your form could also be deficient.

I don't know who said it, but the quote is something like "It never gets easier, the bar just gets heavier".

Or there is the Ronnie Coleman gem: "Everybody wanna' be a bodybuilder; don't nobody wanna' lift no big-ass weights."

It's going to depend on your goals, but the people who have succeeded on 5/3/1 (halfslant, kidcolin for example) have always said it is hugely important that you go very hard on the AMRAP sets. So, yes, if you want to keep making progress then its always going to be somewhat difficult.

I mean, we'd need to see form vids, diet, etc. Some people just struggle with certain lifts.

Fwiw, if you do go say, the 531 route, or even the Greyskull LP route, though you do have to go HAM on the amrap set, overall it's less brutal than the grueling nature of the tail end of SS. Having one balls out set is a lot less soul-draining than heavy volume work, where you gave 3 or more sets of very heavy, hard work.

FYQ

you make a good point. i definitely dont mind one all-out set (at all). but doing one, and then having two more to go is torture.

this is my most recent form video (a few months old at 205). i cant push my elbows back any further because of multiple shoulder surgeries. i know my reps are a bit high, but otherwise how does it look? i have a weak core (esp my lower back) which also may hinder me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swgf...ature=youtu.be thoughts?

re eating, i just dont like how i feel when im constantly eating all day. i also have a desk job, so it makes it tough. finally, i HATE being sore every day, even when i foam roll a bunch. the pain may not be worth the gain.

I've always relatively spun my wheels on squat compared to my other lifts, so don't sweat it, it'll go up slow but who GAF if it takes 3 years to squat 3 plates. I do 5/3/1 now, and it's always tempting to stop after the minimum reps, you just have to power through it. I also would recommend doing some things to add a little more volume than just plain vanilla 5/3/1, since if you have any issues dialing in proper form, it'll break down even further. Personally, I do BBB (with the high rep squats on DL day and vice versa), and added in "first set last" with my worksets.

If your core is weak, you should probably try to do some direct core work at the end of every workout (planks and rollouts, eventually weighted, should help a lot). I always thought the idea that squats and DL will work your core enough was pretty much bull****.

I remember you used to post form checks all the time, weren't you diagnosed with hypermobility or something? Is that still hindering your progress?

wow, good memory. i do have hyper mobility, but i dont know how that affects my squats, if at all. it mostly prevents me from doing things like playing basketball.

i'll look into 5/3/1. i need to deadlift more frequently (weak grip tho!) and do more than just rollouts to strengthen my back. no GHM thing at my gym unfortunately.

i just cant imagine being so sore constantly either. my legs feel like jello constantly when i squat 3 days a week.

Forgot to ask--are you bulking/cutting/maintaining right now? If it's either of the latter two, it explains both the soreness and the slow progress. At 6'0"/190 it certainly wouldn't be the end of the world if you bulked to the tune of another 10lb, depends on personal preference.

i was closer to 195 two weeks ago when i finally did 225. for some reason, i didnt want to be > 200, although i dont really know why. i was maintaining mostly, though toward the end i ate a bit more to try to get over the 225 stall. it wasn't done methodically or anything--i just tried to eat more overall and protein, more often. i really have no idea how many cals i was eating. i didnt enjoy constnatly stuffing my face tbh

Honest question: why do you want to squat? Working on form, working on mobility, working on diet are all important, being a bit sore is a constant. If you don't enjoy it, why not find something you enjoy? Even within lifting there is plenty to focus on, crossfit, oly lifting, bro lifting, bodyweight skills... you might find that the little tribulations aren't as bad if you're working towards something that matters to you.