[Slow Ben]

Just started cycling in power cleans again.

I always forget how much these things kick your ass when i take a break from them.

[Sindriss]

Nothing wrong with protein powder, just buy good quality. And creatine is nice as well while you are gaining weight.

[JLV]

Feeling pretty good so far. And I think I'm eating enough. My stomach says so. Drinking lots of milk, too.

[Cougar]

The only things I've ever supplemented with:

Creatine, when I was still serious about my rugby. It was great cos I could train 4 days and play 2 and I recovered super fast. My gains were massive cos I could train the same muscles every 2-3 days. I wouldn't recommedn it though if you aren't doing contact sport or training 5 days a week!

Whey protein, does what it says on the tin, extra protein for fuel. Nothing fancy about it, only took it after training with a sports drink and in the morning in milk. Calorie intake, of course, has to be regulated/adjusted accordingly to account for the extra 200plus calories you're piling in.

I avoid soya protein, I've head it's not great for dudes.

[Sindriss]

Nothing wrong with creatine, it is a fine boost and so far there are no observable negative affects associated with it. And this is with +20 years of medicine on the stuff afaik. Also, as it is cheap, there is no reason not to use it if you want to do a little better.

Whey protein is great, used it myself for many years. After I got issues with lactose, I changed to Soya protein, which for some reason has a bad rep. Probably comes from the older forms of it in which the quality was definetely an issue. But if you buy it at a proper chain/store, you can easily find soya protein in same quality as Whey as just as good for building muscles.

[Aptorian]

The reason why Soy protein gets a bad rep is because there are concerns that it messes with your hormones. There are studies that suggests, but does not prove one way or another I believe, that Soy can lower your testosterone levels and subsequently raise your estrogen levels. Which is not an effect you want when weight lifting. A bit of googling tells me that the effects aren't really THAT dramatic but I'm going to stick to my cheap banana flavoured whey products.

Currently, on training days, I drink a shake before and after training and right before going to bed. On the off days I drink one shake with my breakfast. Oh yeah, and a glass of juice with +5g of creatine every day.

This post has been edited by Aptorius: 07 February 2012 - 08:12 PM

[JLV]

I'm eating 2 scoops of whey mixed with yogurt as I'm typing this.

[Aptorian]

2 scoops? How much protein is that?

Clever scientist people say you shouldn't eat too much protein in one go because your body can only absorb/digest so much protein at a time. That's why they call a scoop a serving size and why diets for weightlifters usually don't recommend eating more than 300 grams or so of lean meat per meal. Eating a kilo of meat instead of half a kilo will not make you stronger. The excess protein will just be turned into energy or fat.

Might be different with designer whey though but I reckon that is only in the window around your training hours.

EDIT: Good god, I just tried googling it to figure out if there were specific numbers. It is incredible how much nonsense people can write on meat and protein. It appears that one study suggests that you can only absorb 15 g of protein per hour. Which I think fits nicely with the formula of needing 1,5g of protein per pound of bodyweight per day.

The issue is not that you need to eat tons of protein to get bigger, the issue lies in constantly having some protein in your gut that the body can use to rebuild itself which is why lots of smaller meals with protein is recommended. Or if that is too much hassle, supplementing your diet with shakes.

This post has been edited by Aptorius: 08 February 2012 - 04:33 AM

[JLV]

52g of protein. 2 scoops is the recommended amount, according to the package. They aren't large scoops at all.

I have 2 scoops in my PWO shake (early morning, around 8:30am), and 2 at night with yogurt (anywhere from 7-9).

edit: I missed your edit. I suppose I could spread it out, it doesn't really matter. The Whey is mostly for right after workout, when I feel exhausted, and before bed, when I'll be doing a lot of rebuilding. I eat a lot of turkey and chicken all day, with (usually) some kind of beef product for dinner.

By the way, this eating a bunch is craziness. Sometimes I feel sick, but it's way better than being sore for 3 days ><

This post has been edited by JLV: 08 February 2012 - 04:45 AM

[Nicodimas]

I switched from a cutting routine after getting down to 167 and running 5 miles a day. 5'10.

I decided I lost to much muscle and am gaining mass now with Stronglifts 5x5. Best routine I have done. 167-->177 in 8 weeks kept my 32 inch waist so far so good. Though I Have a cold atm so im all pissed off atm. 4 more months and I should be in the low 190's and I will do one more cut to get down below 10-12% BF by year end. That should look sick I hope. We shall see haven't been like that since I was 21.

Also of importance is I do bikram yoga. Awesome for my lower back/ shoulder injuries thhere gone. I highly recommend it.I feel it compliments all my heavy lifting. I have heard it can mess with Max style lifting but I have zero interest in the really heavy stuff. 2x bodyweight ill be happy.

I started my cut at 230 and it took me a year and half to get to 167. A shit ton of failures and hardwork

This post has been edited by Nicodimas: 08 February 2012 - 05:06 AM

[amphibian]

Which is why I do Brazilian jiu jitsu - it's like yoga mixed with wrestling and rugby.

[Cougar]

I think, if anything, something like Jiujitsu is the way to go for just allround strength fitness - I mean, unless you are doing rugby or weightlifting competitively, you don't need to be able to lift more than your own body weight. That said, it's a great feeling to train and the last 4 months of training have brought some real structure to my time which is great.

So I train Monday, Wednesday, Friday. I'm short of time so I have about an hour and a half to do all this so I don't take my time.

All 3 X 8 unless otherwise stated.

Monday
Incline Bench Press 85kgs
Free Dips
Flat Dumbell Bench Press 24kgs per hand
Pulley Flys with an Incline Bench 15kgs per side
Chest Press (machine) 60kgs
The 'Kitten Press', must have a real name, but is essentially a 50kg bench press with the hands next to each other in the middle of the bar.

Sit ups, lots.


Wednesday
Deadlifts 70kgs
Wide arm pull ups (as many as possible in 3 sets)
Bent-over Dumbbell row 26kgs
Dumbell Shoulder Press 24kgs
Seated Row (on the Pulley) 50kgs
then a combination set with:
Standing Shoulder Flys 12kgs then, without a break onto
Benched Reverse Flys with 8kgs, rest and repeat to failure

Leg raises and Seated Oblique Twists holding a 20kg weight.

Friday
Squats 3X8 - 120kgs
Calf Raises (using the Smith and one of those Reebok Step things) 3X8 100kgs

Leg Extensions 3x8 60kg
Hamstring extensions 3 x8 60kg
(these are machines - because they are essentially the reverse of each other to try and maintain an equivalent strength in the opposing muscles I do the same weight on each. This is an attempt to avoid injury since I do a lot of dead sprinting from a standing start if I'm playing rugby)

Leg Press Machine (calves and quads in different sets) 100kgs 8 x 3

then:

Preacher Curls (single arm) 16kgs
free dips (on one of those machines that have a balance board that you can remove) I just do as many as possible of these in three sets last week I did 20, then 15, then failed at 13 on my last set. I'd like to build up to 3 sets of 30.
Close arm pull ups for biceps
Dips between two benches as many as I can (I fucking love dips)
Then curls, starting at 14kgs and doing as many sets as I can with minimal rest dropping a weight every time going all the way down to 4kgs, this is just fun really.

Sit ups till I want to die.

All in all, I do very little cardio, frankly I can't be botehring my arse, but in the last 4 months I've put on loads of muscle and gone down a couple of pounds, so I'm steadily losing fat and have taken an extra notch on the belt, which is great.

[amphibian]

Kitten press = close grip bench press. Your name fits though.

Also, sprinting can largely replace long distance running in terms of cardiovascular benefits and getting into shape. Plus the rugby will take care of endurance as well.

[Nicodimas]

Quote

you don't need to be able to lift more than your own body weight

WHAT!!!?

Ok sit down children we need to have a discussion. Gather around Nicodimas.

...patiently waits..

Ok any day now a Zombie Invasion can break out and you really need to prepared. I know in the shows they talk about guns and crowbars and stuff, but by the fifth days all of these will have been used up in the intensity of fighting. Think 40k.

So you really need to be able to you know fight them off with your sheer strength. I practice backhand punches in some armor, but at that point of the fighting around day 7 my armor will all be torn to shreds. So my mere muscles will have to hold off there teeth and stength. Think about it. Looking like this guy should be your MINIMUM freaking goal people figure it out:


Oh yea Zombies be prepared they don't tire, neither should you. Train like your preparing for the zombie apocalypse.

oh Firefighter's need strength too, that is all.

[Aptorian]

Problem is that when you get up into the range of Arnolds bodysize then your body is no longer suited for prolonged work or fighting. All those muscles will eat up all your energy and more importantly oxygen. You'd be dead on your feet after half an hours running and fighting.

[JLV]

The guys you see at the ironman competitions (is that what they're called?) are the truly strong people. They look fat, but arnold isn't even close.

Then again, I doubt those massive guys have a lot of running ability. Maybe find a happy medium in case of a zombie invasion?

[Aptorian]

Ironman is that triathlon type thing the Australians are into I think. Running, swimming, biking?

You're thinking of strongman contests. And yeah, these guys have great stamina for short, explosive feats of strength. But if you have a head start they'll never catch you if you steal their wallet. Wendler for example (popular internet powerlifter) has described how, when he was at his strongest (squatting around a 1000 pounds), he couldn't walk down a street without getting winded and sweating like a pig. Too much muscle mass will cripple you. Then again, you can also cripple anything that gets too close to you I guess.

[amphibian]

Aptorius, on 11 February 2012 - 05:30 AM, said:

Problem is that when you get up into the range of Arnolds bodysize then your body is no longer suited for prolonged work or fighting. All those muscles will eat up all your energy and more importantly oxygen. You'd be dead on your feet after half an hours running and fighting.

Half an hour fighting? Try three to four minutes. Look at Mariusz Pudzianowski's MMA fights. He's going purple at the five minute mark in most of them.

I gas at six or seven high paced minutes when in fairly decent shape (right now five or six). Fighting is really hard when you're up against someone who knows what they are doing as well. Makes me respect the athletes training for fifteen or twenty five minutes. Whoo... that's a brutal environment.

JLV, on 11 February 2012 - 07:48 AM, said:

The guys you see at the ironman competitions (is that what they're called?) are the truly strong people. They look fat, but arnold isn't even close.

Then again, I doubt those massive guys have a lot of running ability. Maybe find a happy medium in case of a zombie invasion?

The decathlon people are in great shape for almost everything. Basketball players are generally okay too and a good chunk of MMA people as well. Rugby too.

[JLV]

I envy Rugby people. They're massive and seem to have some serious functional strength, but they also seem to have endurance.

I'm no Rugby pro, would you say that's true? I'm trying to figure out who I need to recruit to my zombie Apocalypse team.

This post has been edited by JLV: 12 February 2012 - 06:20 AM

[Captain Petepants]

One of the MMA guys I train with is also a rugby player. He is a beast. It's like....team wrestling.