I am kinda fat. Smiley can verify. While I have not yet joined the elitist ranks of old Dids of gobbo-"I'm a freak and a very weird dude who is also quite young"-boy, I am fatter than I like. I have also given up on my journey to get hooge. Part of this is 1) I'm lazy 2) My knee is bogus 3) I'm lazy. But I digress. First to cover my knee troubles. I've been having pain in my right knee. It happens sometimes when I squat. Sometimes when I lock out a deadlift... other times when I just lean over and put weight on it awkwardly. Sometimes it feels just kind of unstable. I'm not really sure whats wrong with it or if I'm just paranoid, but I wouldn't like it to blow out on me during a heavy set of squats. So I've been spending the last few weeks (this is after spending 3 weeks in my car and walking around looking at stuff) trying to "rehab" it. This has mostly been BW exercises and some light gym work. Though it felt pretty bad the other day while I did some power cleans. It seems to be looking better as it just felt unstable instead of giving scintillating pain and "giving out".

Onward. So recently I've been trying to gain weight. While this has been a somewhat fruitful endeavor (I did get upto ~173-175 or so) it was not what I expected it to be. Granted I will never be really huge, and will never be even kinda be jacked given my current lifestyle (OMG fitness isn't your #1 priority?!? No. It is not. Ballerness is. Though it is an aspect and why I have not taken the durrrr diet on). After the road trip and my little excursion with my knee... I find myself at a somewhat palatable 169 without putting on some extra weight from creatine. Though given my consumption of fish and red meat. I'm unsure of whether the additional creatine does anymore than cost me 20c a day.

So, what I am doing about this. While I am not ready to commit myself to a strict Zone diet, I am making some rather large notable changes.

1) Less alcohol. Getting shammered is unballer. So the physical benefits are a side benefit. Cutting down from the 30+ drinks to a manageable 5 or less should be an easy change.
2) Some sort of activity 6-7 days a week. I've written posts about feeder workouts, but never seem to apply them myself. Alas, this must change. While I don't have to kill myself doing 60 pushups/100 squats/100 situps will do some wonders for my GPP and provide some nice active recovery.
3) Runaments. LOLZ. I wanna die. Maybe get back to a sub 6 min mile (not that I ever really ran timed miles past the age of like 13?)
4) I'm cutting down on the meals and calories. I'm moving to mostly "instinctual" eating with some healthy reminders thrown in. Not going to count calories atm. Going to see how changes 1-3 affect things with a diet I'm happy eating and make adjustments from there.

Speculation: I think I can "tighten up" and end up somewhere in the 166-170 range in early spring. My lifting goals will obv be on somewhat of hold though I do think I can continue to set PRs as I'm not so much in a "cutting" phase as a normal person would be. I have ~3-4 months to make some minor body comp changes which shouldn't be too hard given the general changes.

Yawn, this is long and I just got done "jogging" which is a pretty **** word. But I don't think anyone would pass off what I just did as "running".

Better not let PokerZomgLOL (he of the above-average 2p2 handle) see that, or else he may accuse you of sucking dick at sports! Cause we all know people's arguments are rendered useless when it's suggested that they suck at sports!

Haha. I'm probably the fattest I've ever been. I have discernible love handles. I've been sedentary and eaten everything I could get my hands on for 4 months to get like this. And it wasn't working very well. Maybe I'm imagining, but I'm like a week or so into this new deal I've started and feel like I'm noticeably more lean. Who knows though? Maybe I'll pose some sweet pose down shots for Ash_ketchum. Or maybe I'll retain my heterosexuality.

But really. Does anyone have ideas what could cause weird random knee pains? Doctor time? Get that bitch scoped?

Any inventive ideas for BW GPP? Sorry, my condo doesn't allow me to store tractor tires, wheelbarrows, and I'm not entirely sure I can do kettlebell stuff (or that I really want to). I'd prefer things that don't remind me too much of masochistic ROTC-ish activities.

getting a little worked up about the internet aren't we?


my screename has no Z in it, MuresanForMVP


tendinitis?

DOCTOR. Seriously, knee issues are pretty important. Well I guess all the joints are really important. Anyways. go to the doctor, but in the meantime try to diagnose yourself on the internet, and then find out the treatment. There may be rehab exercises you can do. Good luck.

I know,I just thought it added something to it

Let me describe this more fully. It happens somewhat randomly and as of late (though weights have been lower) with less severity. The first time it felt like this was when I was leaning over. It does occasionally happen when I do BW exercises with relatively poor form and crappy warm up. I'm not a huge doctor fan. Since most treatments are worse than the disease. I'm gonna stick with it and maybe give it a test run on squats when I wake up tomorrow with a more full warm up and see how it goes.

I'd give it a break for at least a month where you don't do anything that makes it hurt, then see where you go from there.

Pretty good advice for any injury really. If it hurts, you are damaging it, so stop doing stuff where it hurts and the body will heal itself.

Knee problems (same goes for back problems) should always mean doctor time. They're the joints you really don't want to screw up at a young age. Getting older will do that for you, so better get a healthy starting point.

being huge is so 10 years ago. haha

getting huge is over rated. I am 6 2 and got up to 225 last year just lifting and eating alot. I wasnt fat at all and still had decent abs, but I just felt like ****. Carrying around extra weight is just hard on your body and not fun. It's harder to move.

I am down to like 195 now and feel so much better.

Getting lean is so much better than being huge.

I'm confused, but I guess this means you want to bulk up, and the raw numbers aren't why you consider yourself "kind fat."

Anyway, about the knee, see a doctor. It's not necessarily a big deal, as I'll illustrate with my recent experience.

A few months ago (after ratcheting up my workoouts), I began experiencing some random pain in my knee, usually when I stood up, coupled with it locking up occasionally. X-rays were fine, leading the orthopedist to speculate it may have been a tear in the miniscus. He gave me a choice of doing an MRI, which would confirm it, or just getting some physical therapy. I opted for the latter. The end result is that the PT taught me some stretches and exercises which I have found helpful, not necessarily for the miniscus issue (which I believe would have cured itself eventually) but for more chronic pain and weakness I've had in that knee for as long as I can remember.

Ditto. And throw shoulders into that list. I hate doctors too, but they are just the gatekeepers to PT and specialists who know what they are doing. When I was having bad shoulder problems this summer, I tried to "rehab" it myself, which only made things worse. Although I believe my PCP misdiagnosed the problem(the orthopedic doc got it right though) , the treatments were the same: PT.

And yeah, get it treated while you are "younger." Pains only get worse as you get older.

dude i know you think i'm crazy but just try a paleo way of eating, so much better than zone.

I have been for a good bit of my meals. I have not been able to kick a couple pieces of toast with breakfast, brown rice, and oatmeal though. Though I do indulge myself quite frequently in dead animal + green vegetable + water for meals.

Wynton,

Yeah that stream of consciousness writing gets confusing. I just get confused and plow ahead. I am fatter than I ever have been? So I guess bulking was somewhat of a success, which ended ~Oct 30th. I weigh ~7 pounds more than when I started my second bulk IIRC. (For some reason 162 sticks out in my mind) So I've made some decent progress over the time allotted. But I'm gonna try to lean down and see what happens. Mostly see what happens with the lifestyle changes.

at the very least you'll get diagnosed by the doctor and sent off to PT most likely. They'll do joint tests on you that you are unable to do yourself.

This advice is not what I wanted. I wanted football coach "Don't be a pansy" advice. Sadly I think if it impairs me again I'll make the leap of faith to hit the doctor.

I gave it a test go today.

5x5x135

Got probably beyond my safe limits wrt squats since I'm fairly sure my hips roll under at the very bottom. But knee felt fine. Will see how it responds to actual weights in future.

Added 2x10x40 pressdowns with reverse grip to "get more in touch with my muscle fibers and build the mind/muscle connection". I feel it already. I can feel the long head flex more forcefully and fully when I reach for my coffee.

I strained my right bicep. I don't know if I did this with my first attempt at PNF or injured myself in my sleep or what. Its mostly better. Still somewhat sore. I did some light BW style feeder workouts the previous few days and took it mostly easy. Diet is still kinda a blend of paleo and zone. (I can't bring myself to eat that many vegetables paleo style... or give up oatmeal/toast in my breakfasts... Maybe one day when I'm baller I'll switch solely to milk and berries or berries and berries... But I digress)

I did a little jog tonight. Around 2 miles. I actually didn't try to pretend I was Steve Prefontaine for the first 200m and maintained a somewhat reasonable (read as: absurdly slow) pace the entire time.

I think I'm losing weight. My back is tight. I'm gonna follow this up with some nice PNF stretches and see if I feel better in the morning in time for some lifting.

Got into the gym. Felt flat. I'm trying to do a crossfit-esque warmup. Still playing around with what will work for me. Original surge tastes like nuts mixed with balls. Do not purchase.

Warm-up

Power Clean
2x3x135
3x155
1x155

Form was horrifically bad. I jacked myself in the throat once on the third pull and scraped the **** out of my collarbone. On the plus I got a triple with 84% of my previous 1RM. So I'm not withering away completely.

Front Squats

5x135
3x155

Hip made a weird sound at the bottom of 2nd rep of 155. I think I'm secretly 40 years old. These weird sounds annoy me. Possibly too much stress and not enough sleep? Maybe I just need a vacay. Who knows. But all this popping and grinding out of my joints seems to be a problem. A heavier warmup should help that. I'm trying to increase GPP as well with it. I don't wanna kill myself, but I'd like to get a decent amount of volume into it eventually.

DB Bench

5x30
5x55
3x6x55

Pathetic.

Weight: 171

All in all: terrible. I'm not really amused.

But to focus on something positive. I'm open to suggestions on thing to incorporate in my warmups. Today was:

1 min on bike
10 dips
6 pullups
15 OHS w/bar

I think back extensions, leg lifts, maybe some DB swings/snatches would be good to throw in. I want to keep intensity low since I'd prefer not to eff up my actual workout. I'm working on this kipping thing since it appears to be much better for what I want in a warm-up (lower intensity, more reps, more full body). I should probably roll back the OHS numbers as well until I become more flexible/better at them.

I just checked this out after reading your post and am quite intrigued. Oh how I love carbs, though I have started cutting out or severely reducing a lot of the stuff that I like such as pizza, bread, and potatoes. I'm at 180 pounds right now and have a decent sized gut. Any experience with losing fat using paleo? timeframes, etc?

so you ARE fat ?!?! LOL

Umm... This was a jopke. Maybe too high level for you.

This could help.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperbole

This too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarcasm

lol, dude I love how you have to make it clear that you aren't trying your hardest to get into awesome shape (cuz if you WERE trying youd be able to do it for sure right?)... Im very happy to know that your truest effort lies in becoming a baller. Good thing you cleared that up for us... otherwise, yknow... people might have thought badly about you for not reaching elite status in something. But you did make it clear that you arent trying your hardest, so we dont have to worry about that kinda thing.

Seriously, its probably far more likely I just suck at sports.

i dont get the correlation between sucking at sports and not being able to get in shape? i know some kids who are in sick shape who couldn't dribble a basketball or throw a baseball like johnny damon.