BG Fitness Fanatics II: We Work Out

[Cream Soda]

Nah, furthest thing from it. You use up your water stores from and sweat out the salts (salts aid water retention which is why people want to avoid sodium when trying to lean out)

Either way, this diet can be considered a failure

[Guitarman]

Huh, good to know. Feel like I'll learn something new about lifting all my life, lol.

And that many miles is far from a failure. May not have been what you wanted but damn gotta give yourself the credit where it's due.

[Cream Soda]

Huh, good to know. Feel like I'll learn something new about lifting all my life, lol.

And that many miles is far from a failure. May not have been what you wanted but damn gotta give yourself the credit where it's due.

Complete failure, lol. Grinded harder than I did for the BG contest on less calories and look like complete ass, lol.

Would have been happier just saying fuck it, doing my regular lifting, and not torturing myself in the food department or having to do 2.5+ hours of cardio daily

That said, this isn't a terrible starting point for the next diet. Have 4 days at Metrocon starting tomorrow, and then just gonna go straight into the next diet for Dragoncon (labor day weekend). Only issue is I'll have some time I can't workout during the month due to getting a vasectomy. Will probably have me out for a bit.

[Gustave]

After 4-5 weeks of CrossFit I can safely say my starting point for strength is waaaaay behind compared to last time. I really need to focus on that and put on 10-15 lbs this off-season. I'm working on putting together a program. I can squeeze in 24 weeks before it's time to drop weight for summer again. Maybe start out with 12 weeks of strength and power focus then 12 weeks working on mostly Oly lifts.

Right now I'm not getting much rest and I'm at a caloric deficit. I'm ready to bump the Cal's up around 3500-4k and enjoy dem gains every workout. Add in going in feeling refreshed instead of beat up from the previous day.

I've been spending about 1.5 hrs in the gym 5-6 days a week. A lot of that is maintenance stuff like mobility work and targeting some weaknesses like rotator cuff and scapula movement.

@CS You flying into ATL for DragonCon or did you move to the area? I'm only an hour from Atlanta. Might have to make a trip up there.

[Cream Soda]

I have some friends driving up from Miami, who said they'd scoop me up on their way.

[Boyiee]

Can I lose 15-20lbs of body fat by lifting on a deficit relatively quickly and safely or should I just do cardio/calisthenics (I don't like hiit).

[Guitarman]

You can with lifting/deficit. It's how I lost my 26lbs. If you can handle fasting it helps quite a bit. What I do is try to have my last meal around 5 or 6pm, then don't eat until 10am the next day. Just don't eat like a pig the rest of your day and you're golden.

You can have green tea or black coffee in the morning without breaking your fast if you need a pick up. The caffeine helps cravings too.

[Boyiee]

Thanks. I am super fine fasting I used to do it and my last meal was always by 6pm and followed with either coffee or bulletproof coffee.

[Yabby]

It took a while, but i'm currently doing the 4/20 fasting and enjoy it a lot. Tricks me into thinking i'm eating a lot because of the calories you are taking in during a short time. Few times i did 1/23 just because I got busy at work and almost couldn't eat enough calories. It keeps me from grazing, which i'm really prone to do unless i'm fasting.

Stack that with the Keto diet and trying to eat that much fat is almost impossible.

[Darlantan]

@CS: Was going to say you were due posting some pictures but I guess we will wait till you kill it for next con. Sad to read you didnt get to the look you wanted even though you did some monster training & dieting. Wish I could help you with your confidence, man, because you are a fucking beast, if only you would realise it...

My problem (like most I guess) is my midsection. It's such a bitch. I don't have much of a "gut" left so to speak of, but it's the worst part of my physique... Halp?

Try to get somewhere "The Stubborn Fat Solution" by Lyle McDonald or at least his protocols. That shit is real and you can be at 10%BF or lower and have some fat in the gut that is nearly impossible to get rid off without the right approach. That said, if you were higher BF% there would be no point because you will first have to lose all other "easier" fat, but it looks like you are at the right point already, and starving yourself and hitting abs will do jack shit.

Friend pointed out I need to work out on my outter delts and sknce then all I see is my puny delts. Any recommendations for exercises??

I'd hit pulley delt raises and/or Lu raises (favourite of mine as serves for more than growth) for high reps with low weights after heavier standing shoulder presses. Also, face pulls, which will also help with their health. I actually should get to it because I have little muscle for what I lift and its due I get some mass because gains are nearly exhausted.

I was able to hit a 245 C&J with sore and exhausted triceps. I missed a 275 clean but I was pretty tired by that point and probably shouldn't have even attempted. Weight felt heavy and I was a little overzelous through the first and second pull throwing everything off giving me a bad rack. I was able to 3 second pause 315 front squat around this timr last year so I just need to get back there. I'm carb deprived and dropping weight right now. I think a 315 C&J is possible this winter when I change my programming to more strength focused with some extra calories. That's a PR for me mainly because I've never been that heavy. I need drill down my form with some complexes and singles in the 75% 1RM range.

Thats good stuff, man. I am sure you will get your numbers soon enough after you rework your programming and start eating for performance.

Ah gotcha. 3 1/2 years. Maybe I'll just focus on reincorporating compounds back into my routine. I keep skipping over doing squats because they're more uncomfortable than I think is "normal".

Candito routines are really good, very worth a try. That said, stronglifts has also been proved over and over and definitely works. You may be into 3 1/2 years of working out but if you are not squatting or have trouble with it, and your bench has issues, this program will actually have you doing those lifts a lot and if you read up and watch technique videos and focus on every rep, it could actually be a good idea as you could start with really low weights and increase them day to day as technique is improved. These "novice" programs are actually awesome for intermediates when they get back from a long time not doing these exercises. You can just jump to more advanced stuff once you are ready.

Just seemed very odd that I'm stalled out so badly. Willing to try anything at this point!

I also have a poverty bench. For the longest time tried traditional approaches and in the end I made little to no improvement. What has been given some admittedly small but still gains, is giving its training more frequency with ligther weights. At the moment I am hitting them 5x a week (crazy I know) but for only 3x5 with 70%RM for one day, 50% the next, then 65%, rest, 65%, 55% and rest. Every 3 weeks I check RM gains and adjust. Next thing I got to do which I already mentioned is just building some mass as my upper body is lacking and muscle cross-section is one of the single most important factors for strength.

[Darlantan]

Damn, I am sorry for the long post above, I just been inactive for a few weeks and there was so much stuff I wanted to try and help with hahah

[Cream Soda]

Can I lose 15-20lbs of body fat by lifting on a deficit relatively quickly and safely or should I just do cardio/calisthenics (I don't like hiit).

you CAN, but for general health purposes, some level of cardio is great for you and your heart. There's no reason to go out of your way to avoid doing cardio. Even if just 15-20 minutes, twice a week or something it's still way better than nothing

[Boyiee]

you CAN, but for general health purposes, some level of cardio is great for you and your heart. There's no reason to go out of your way to avoid doing cardio. Even if just 15-20 minutes, twice a week or something it's still way better than nothing

If my legs aren't rubber I try to run a few times a week.

[Guitarman]

HIIT is great if you're a whiny bitch about cardio like me. Get it over with in 15 - 20 min.

I took up hiking small hikes on the weekends to add to my cardio. Much more fun to be actively engaged in nature than working a treadmill, imo.

[Boyiee]

Yeah I am exclusive to outdoors. I live on the water so the only excuse not to is mosquitoes which means I just go to the resivoure which has bat houses.

[Gustave]

Try to get somewhere "The Stubborn Fat Solution" by Lyle McDonald or at least his protocols. That shit is real and you can be at 10%BF or lower and have some fat in the gut that is nearly impossible to get rid off without the right approach. That said, if you were higher BF% there would be no point because you will first have to lose all other "easier" fat, but it looks like you are at the right point already, and starving yourself and hitting abs will do jack shit.

I'll second this.

After the initial weight loss during a cut my body will hold onto water and weight until I refeed. Then it'll let it go and I'll drop like 4-5 lbs after plateau. I almost always have to go back to eating maintenance slightly above every few weeks if I'm cutting hard. I revert back to Lyle's advice whenever I get stuck.

[Tymon]

I'm having problems retaining what I at least think is fluid weight. Like, I like my weight, I'm dramatically in better shape than I have been in years, but a lot of days even when I'm eating well I feel massive. I've tried all kinds of different things to varying levels of success.

Yeah, I drink on the weekends.. but that shouldn't be enough for me to feel like I've got a 15 lb beer baby until Thursday of the following week.

This is also kind of affecting my workout because I get cramps when doing cardio if I feel like this.

Any suggestions?

[Cream Soda]

I'm having problems retaining what I at least think is fluid weight. Like, I like my weight, I'm dramatically in better shape than I have been in years, but a lot of days even when I'm eating well I feel massive. I've tried all kinds of different things to varying levels of success.

Yeah, I drink on the weekends.. but that shouldn't be enough for me to feel like I've got a 15 lb beer baby until Thursday of the following week.

This is also kind of affecting my workout because I get cramps when doing cardio if I feel like this.

Any suggestions?

You'd think that's the case but you really have to look at how many calories alcohol has.

10 shots of liquor straight is generally 1k-1.1k calories.

Put that in the form of beer, wine, mixed drinks rather than straight alcohol? 1 night of drinking per week is gonna be 1k-2k calories generally. 2 nights of drinking is gonna be 2-4k calories.

Dividing them out over 7 days in the week and that's generally 150-600 it's the equivalent of adding 150-600 calories to every day in your diet; and that's excluding any actual food you eat on the days you drink.

It adds up quick.

[Gryffes]

Revisted a climb today that made me walk up it 6 months ago, didn't have to stop today. 500ft of climbing in 2 miles, hits 25% in the worst spot.

Feelsgoodman.

[Gustave]

So I did some research and talked to a some people from the area. The gym I've been going to program has an endurance bias programming. There is another box down the road that shares space with an Oly weightlifting club that does competitions and stuff. I'll either move to the gym or do my own programming.