Nunya's Only Talking About Lifting Thread (even dumbasses can join)

TheCalculator

Active Member
I'm doing strength 6 days a week alternating between upper body and lower body. I'm also running 5 days a week. My speed is finally coming back slowly. I'm at 730 pace, bot sure I can get quicker without injury.


At what point is my running depleting my muscle gainz?

How much are you running (time wise)?

Sprints will enhance your gains. Limiting runs to 30 minutes will minimize the catabolic price.
 

TheCalculator

Active Member
My sunday runs are a couple of hours.
Most runs are 30-45 minutes, but not a sprint mode.

I would start doing 2-3 sprint days. You're VO2 max and running will improve as a result. You'll also look a lot better.

The Sunday run is certainly catabolic. Really aim to keep your body's carb reserves loaded (unless your goal is fat loss).
 

NunyaBidness

Active Member
Oddsb Poker Champ
I'm doing strength 6 days a week alternating between upper body and lower body. I'm also running 5 days a week. My speed is finally coming back slowly. I'm at 730 pace, bot sure I can get quicker without injury.


At what point is my running depleting my muscle gainz?

I think 6 days a week is WAY too much if you're starting out and if you're not eating a shit-ton. Pretty much any running is going to eat into your gains really. Assuming you're not fat like me since you're a runner, you need to be eating above maintenance level. What program are you using? I think Starting Strength or Ice Cream Fitness are probably best for starting out. You really don't need to do much volume to see gains early, and its likely detrimental.
 

Beelzebubzy

Active Member
I think 6 days a week is WAY too much if you're starting out and if you're not eating a shit-ton. Pretty much any running is going to eat into your gains really. Assuming you're not fat like me since you're a runner, you need to be eating above maintenance level. What program are you using? I think Starting Strength or Ice Cream Fitness are probably best for starting out. You really don't need to do much volume to see gains early, and its likely detrimental.

I'm doing Body Beast. Cause it was cheap and I NEED a regimented strength plan to follow or I will just make up shit and not do it consistently.

I am finishing week 3. I'm definitely stronger; just not getting bigger in the arms. My legs are already huge like D Trump penis huge, probably just due to the years of hockey and leg workouts.

I am also not eating enough. I ate 2200 calories yesterday. I did a spin class, and a leg workout and an easy run. For running, I just ate whenever I was hungry. Ate mostly eggs and a fiber bar in the morning. lots of coffee. Sandwich at lunch, cheese stick and yogurt for snack. Dinner was whatever was made by the mrs. Generally healthy. I never focused on nutrition too much for my running. During heavier running weeks, I ate more carbs, generally pasta.

Per this link, I need to be at 3200 calories.
https://www.muscleandstrength.com/tools/bmr-calculator
 
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NunyaBidness

Active Member
Oddsb Poker Champ
Ignore all online calorie calculators, they're stupid and vary like crazy.

Weigh yourself every time and compute your exact calories consumed. After a few weeks you should know EXACTLY what you burn every day. I posted a spreadsheet earlier in this thread that will do it automatically.

You will not gain size if you're not eating more than you're burning. Especially when you're starting out, its easy to get stronger without building muscle, its mostly about cns recruitment at this point. 500 calories a day over maintenance is usually whats recommended, probably a little high tho, tbh.
 

NunyaBidness

Active Member
Oddsb Poker Champ
From reading a little online, sounds like this Body Beast uses a lot of drop sets and whatnot. Seems strange for just starting out.
A 5x5 program with some accessory work is better imo, especially since focusing on proper technique is more important than anything else early on. Exhausted reps create poor habits later.

This is where I usually tell people to start:
https://www.muscleandstrength.com/workouts/jason-blaha-ice-cream-fitness-5x5-novice-workout

Honestly, Squats/Deads/Bench is probably all you need, but everybody wants to do a million sets of curls for some reason.
 

Beelzebubzy

Active Member
I've actually reincorporated carbs into my diet for this cut, which has helped out a lot. Not getting all the water loss you get from a 0 carb diet, or the daily swings. Just kind of a downward trend. Lots of oatmeal, mainly. Cut out all sugar completely and still not touching flour.

Before I was loading heavy on my lifting days and starving myself on off days. Much more consistent now. Eating at a deficit of 750 calories a day every day, trying to lose 1.5lb (.1 stone) a week.

I've been using these tools in tandem. Figuring out your real TDEE makes everything so much easier.

http://d16kc6rd0714uz.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/AccurateWeightCharting.xls
https://www.reddit.com/r/fitness/comments/3bx3rl/a_tool_i_made_to_help_find_your_actual_tdee_and/
here.
 

TheCalculator

Active Member
From reading a little online, sounds like this Body Beast uses a lot of drop sets and whatnot. Seems strange for just starting out.
A 5x5 program with some accessory work is better imo, especially since focusing on proper technique is more important than anything else early on. Exhausted reps create poor habits later.

This is where I usually tell people to start:
https://www.muscleandstrength.com/workouts/jason-blaha-ice-cream-fitness-5x5-novice-workout

Honestly, Squats/Deads/Bench is probably all you need, but everybody wants to do a million sets of curls for some reason.
Just checked those out. Very solid beginner routines.

One of the "secrets" to success: do MASSIVE VOLUME of the core exercises to expand your NS.

Slam 1 exercise per workout:

Workout A: I'm talking 10 sets of squats in a workout - plus a few other sets of other leg shit...
Workout B: 10 sets of bench -- plus a few other sets of other chest.
Workout C: 10 sets of deadlifts -- plus a few other sets of back.

This should only be done after a few months of training. It's very taxing on the NS.
 

Mirinquads

Active Member
Staff member

PSUMike

Active Member
His back was arched downward when he was doing that. If you all could only see my face right now. It's a mixture of horror and disgust.
 

BoxScout

Member
I have no real desire to be Vitor, but I'd like to stop being a slob and be able to open a jar of pickles.

A friend of mine who, I guess, competed in World's Strongest Man, recommended Super Slow work outs, where you take ten seconds for each up and down. Obviously, you wind up doing fewer reps, but they are much harder.

I did it with this dumb bell exorcise I do and the main thing I noticed was that I was sweating my balls off and breathing more heavily.

I then jumped into some push ups and I could only do sets of three, after which I felt like I'd just fought off an anaconda. Heart pounding, exhausted.

Any thoughts or info on this approach?
 

Mirinquads

Active Member
Staff member
No, it's completely pointless.

Are you able bodied? Just do a 5x5 program. (https://www.muscleandstrength.com/a...ds-5-fullbody-workouts-for-serious-gains.html, https://www.t-nation.com/training/reg-parks-5x5-program, http://startingstrength.com/get-started/programs) It will feel brutal at the start, but your body will quickly adapt to the workload, and you will see an incredible increase in energy, strength and general vitality. If you're slightly older, you don't need to progress with the speed that many of these programs dictate. You can literally be in the gym 3-4 hours a week and reap basically all the benefits.

And chances are if you see gains, you will be loving it, and you will be suprised how quickly you progress if you never really worked out regularly before, and ofcourse eat and sleep relatively well.

You should be doing some cardio as well, especially as you're getting older, but this can be thrown in before, after, or on off days, as LISS cardio can help you recover from the weights, which maybe harder if you're older.
 

Mirinquads

Active Member
Staff member
Obviously that shit is pretty daunting if you're starting from literally zero, but so was I. It's possible it would be a good idea to start out with some lighter, personal training type fluff workout to get your self going for the first couple of weeks. But the sooner you get into the compounds, the faster you will progress and the funner it will actually be. No shame in starting with the bar, I did. But like i said, if you eat +500/600 kcals above maintance, get the right amount of protein in, and PLENTY of carbs, you will be blown away by how quick you can progress. 3 hours a week is all it takes.

And please don't try to progress too fast on stuff like Bench / Squat /Dl, especially if you're on the older side. Get comfortable with it first. But you know your body at this point, so that should be less of a problem. I recommend Becoming a Supple Leopard by Kelly Starrett. I thought it was readily available, but I can't seem to find it right now for free.. I can email it to you if you're interested, teaches a very good understanding and general application of the lifts, with pictures and everything, and also provides good guidelines for every day life. My body is pretty fucked, and it has generally eased everyday life / training a lot. Rogan has been touting it as well, if you needed and even less credible reference !
 

mmaed

Member
I used to lift a bit. It's been a couple of years since I have done anything consistently. I've looked at this thread more than I have actually lifted weights. I am curious about 5x5 programs. Assuming you dieted and lifted correctly how fast do you think someone could progress? Could you provide an example, in terms of weight lifted? I know that is vague, sorry.
 

Mirinquads

Active Member
Staff member
Faster than you have ever seen it before. Literally go up in weight on every workout, if you haven't trained for a while and do other things correctly.
 

BoxScout

Member
I'm reading Supple Leopard. Thanks again, Mirin. Only in the beginning. I enjoyed his hypothesis about a new epoch in fitness, and self improvement generally. I have a lot of half baked theories about our culture, most of which are pessimistic, but I think he's right about that. It's so, so much easier to learn stuff like mental and physical fitness now, and to find out what works. I wonder if we'll see a wave of people who have been on a far better path than previous generations, starting in their teens or even earlier.

Anyway, at Mirinquads suggestion, I'm going to post some of my activity. I'm kind of in the middle. I started light breathing exorcises about 2 years ago, following the advice of Tommy Angelo. Speaking of free books, if anybody wants his, just ask. He gave them to me for free, so I'm sure he wouldn't mind. Now I try to do some pretty deep meditation. Still not great at it. Over 30 minutes is a good session. Meditation has been the most important element of all this for me, because it provides focus, concentration and objectivity, which leads to clarity and purpose in decision making. e.g. it's actually pretty easy for me to pass up dessert or to not do so much stupid stuff in general.

I also got a smoothie blender at around the same time. Initially, as 40 was closing in, I wanted to just have one really healthy meal a day to help prevent serious illnesses. Some time this year, I decided to kill my gut. I don't have a scale, but I'd guess I was around 230ish at worst. I'm six two. So, I started calorie cycling. Easiest thing for me is a 24 hour fast 1-3 times a week. My best guess is I'm 200 to 205 now. Only look about 2 months preggers.

Diet is now pretty strict, with some slacking off. I eat my biggest meal in the Diamond Lounge at a casino most days. They have tons of veggies, so I eat those and some hummus, and then usually a plate of whatever meat. Like chicken fajitas with no tortillas, or meatballs or something. Most days have a smoothie. Eat a lot of cheese and deli meat, which probably ain't perfect, but tastes good. Also a handful of nuts most days. If I go to a nice restaurant, or somewhere with great chili fries, I'll eat whatever I feel like and not worry about it.

Since rapid weightloss can lead to muscle loss, I've been doing some basic dumb bell stuff I saw on youtube. I've gradually ramped that up. Added squats, push ups and lunges (which hurt my toes, so I need to figure out what I'm doing wrong there). A little broader in the shoulders, a little more toned. As I said, I'm not trying to be Vitor. I'll be quite happy with Chuck. What I've been learning about lately are shorter, high intensity work outs, which suit my schedule and my disposition. I've been doing Super Slow. Only done it a little bit, and it certainly leaves me in tatters the next day, which must be good. Watched some videos on burst training, for more cardio and fat burning. Going to get some smaller dumb bells so I can do more stuff like that.

As I make way way through Supple Leopard, I'll adjust what I'm doing. I prefer to work out at home to a gym, because I like time and money and don't like being around other people too much. So that's going to be a factor.

Next goal: gut eradication. Then I'll worry a bit more about building some muscles.
 
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