BG Fitness Fanatics II: We Work Out

[Gustave]

Back over 405 squat so the journey to 5 plates has started. I bought a pair of oly shoes last week. Only two leg sessions but I can really tell on front squats. I have a weak spot in my squat about 1/2 up. I think I'm not pulling my hips under the bar soon enough. I'll get a video. It's either that or I'm not keeping tight once I bottom out and start coming back up. I can probably pick up 30-40lbs by correcting some form/leverage and not going atg. I'd rather hit a 5 plate full squat

Had anyone tried pin squats set right below sticking point? Just wondering they are worth it or should I just squat more and work exploding through the sticking point?

[Wulfgang]

Not an authority on squats and you're way ahead of me, but when I was at ~3.5 plates (~360 lbs) max in my Crossfit heyday a couple years ago, the biggest improvements leading up to that weight came from exploding more on the upswing. I had a tendency to largely go slow and steady throughout the entire motion (akin to how most people do curls, not quite as pronounced); correcting that alone added close to a plate for me. If you still fail on the explosion, you bail, and either try again or deload ~5% or so.

And doing heavy bench and squats on the same day is brutal. After I finished the bench last night, I just laid on the ground for 5 minutes dying.

[Zealot]

Jesus, my squat is terrible. I didn't even realize until I started reading this.

I've got two questions though, not squat-related. First, I've been trying to lose weight for ages now and it's just not sticking. I'm not fat (no gut, visible abs) but I've got love handles from my pre-workout days and I'm dying to get rid of them. My diet is very high in protein and low in carbs. I could cut out more sugar, I suppose, but it's already down to pretty much about 20g a day or less. I'm at about 190 now, my goal is to get to 180 and see if it makes a difference. More cardio? Less cardio?

Second, what does BG recommend for increasing my deadlift? I capped out at a 1RM of 350, I'm trying to build up to 400.

[Hushigoshi]

Jesus, my squat is terrible. I didn't even realize until I started reading this.

I've got two questions though, not squat-related. First, I've been trying to lose weight for ages now and it's just not sticking. I'm not fat (no gut, visible abs) but I've got love handles from my pre-workout days and I'm dying to get rid of them. My diet is very high in protein and low in carbs. I could cut out more sugar, I suppose, but it's already down to pretty much about 20g a day or less. I'm at about 190 now, my goal is to get to 180 and see if it makes a difference. More cardio? Less cardio?

Second, what does BG recommend for increasing my deadlift? I capped out at a 1RM of 350, I'm trying to build up to 400.

When in doubt, squat more.

[Wulfgang]

re: love handles, just operate at a caloric deficit at a high level. There is no way to target fat loss by body part/region. Cardio is not necessary to achieve it (most bodybuilders do zero cardio and obviously have no love handles). They should dissipate on a roughly proportionate basis as your body fat percentage falls (you should look pretty good at around 15%-17% BF). Invest in some calipers or a BF scale; I got a decent scale off Amazon for like $50.

There's a million diets out there, but something like the Anabolic Diet on Stronglifts may accelerate the process. A normal diet with sufficient protein for your lifting program / mass will work though.

[Gustave]

I've always had more success staying over 3000 calories and upping my activity level rather than creating the deficit by diet. HiiT does wonders as does tabata and barbell complexes. Something to push you past cardio into lactid acid threshold. Honestly lookup some of the CrossFit words. The lowest bf I've ever been was from the amraps and metcons.

[Zealot]

Counting calories has worked! I've already seen a difference.

A new question. I need to build up my stamina, specifically recovery time. I have a physical fitness test coming up for work and five weeks to get myself ready for it. I get 5 minutes between each event to catch my breath, and on my first self-administered attempt it just wasn't enough. Thoughts?

[Hushigoshi]

Counting calories has worked! I've already seen a difference.

A new question. I need to build up my stamina, specifically recovery time. I have a physical fitness test coming up for work and five weeks to get myself ready for it. I get 5 minutes between each event to catch my breath, and on my first self-administered attempt it just wasn't enough. Thoughts?

Do more HIIT training.


More specifically, what kind of "events" are these?

[Cream Soda]

Recovery time is really going to be a matter of letting your body adjust (so sticking to your workouts and not skipping days), nutrition, and getting enough sleep (as your recovery happens during your sleep)

Stamina in general will basically just be practicing. Like running. The more often you go running, the longer you'll last, etc. With obvious rest days when needed

[Zetanio]

Counting calories has worked! I've already seen a difference.

A new question. I need to build up my stamina, specifically recovery time. I have a physical fitness test coming up for work and five weeks to get myself ready for it. I get 5 minutes between each event to catch my breath, and on my first self-administered attempt it just wasn't enough. Thoughts?

I sound like a broken record with this usually but maintaining hydration helps me IMMENSELY during workouts. Faster recovery and higher level of energy through the whole thing. Couple that with CS's advice.

[Zealot]

If I remember the order correctly, it's as many sit ups as I can do in 60 seconds, a 300 meter sprint, max push ups, and a 1 1/2 mile run. 5 minutes between each. Minimums are 36, 50 seconds, 56, and 12:28, respectively. No sweat individually, having problems putting it all together. Plus I'm still in competition at this phase, so the higher I score the better my odds of moving on.

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[Hushigoshi]

If I remember the order correctly, it's as many sit ups as I can do in 60 seconds, a 300 meter sprint, max push ups, and a 1 1/2 mile run. 5 minutes between each. Minimums are 36, 50 seconds, 56, and 12:28, respectively. No sweat individually, having problems putting it all together. Plus I'm still in competition at this phase, so the higher I score the better my odds of moving on.

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Coast Guard?

[Zealot]

FBI.

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[dasva]

Sounds pretty similar to Navy fitness tests except no sprint and both situps and pushups are max in 2 min but with similar amounts/ratios. We just kind of go to the next event when done though no real set rest time.

Something I've found helpful is to figure out what overall amounts you want to/can shoot for and pace yourself for that. Personally for me that meant just do all the sit ups since doing so didn't effect the other exercises much for me. Then make sure I get a decent score on pushups but stop before I kill my arms since would make significant differences on the run. Though obviously you will have to find out how exactly one event affects the other and how to balance it for you. And of course there is the obvious practice like you test while pushing yourself. Though in this case it has the added benefit of helping you figure out figure out how to balance your scores.

[Cream Soda]

Time to grind out my 4 weeks of sub 1400 calories. I have 1 week longer than I did when prepping for the BG contest, so I'm sure if I can stick to the diet we'll be good.

Basically eating this daily.

1lb ground turkey: 36g fat/80g protein (I don't drain it, but do drink the leftover juices)

1 protein bar (serves as my candy): 10g fat, 24g carb, 30g protein

1 cup oatmeal: 6g fat, 54g carbs, 10g protein
-Flavored with 1 scoop quest protein powder: 3g carb, 22g protein

Fat: 52g = 468 calories
Carb: 78g = 312 calories
Protein: 142g = 568 calories
Total 272g: 19.1% Fat, 28.7% Carb, 52.2% Protein

= 1348 calories

For comparison purposes, I was doing the 1200-1400 range for the BG competition for the final 3 weeks without any cheat days

[Hushigoshi]

Have you done an official test/score yet?

I have a client training to get into the NOAA Corps and they use the same standards as the Coast Guard. The push up test is actually done in cadence (one second up one second down) and once you break cadence your test is over for that section. That's something to look into and consider.

But seriously, if your recovery needs work, interval training (HIIT) is the way to go. Just make sure it's done at a minimum of a 2:1 work:rest ratio. Tabata training is my go to for clients. Do one exercise (at max effort) for 20 seconds, rest for 10 seconds, repeat for eight sets (total time is 4 minutes). Take a full minute rest and do it again for another exercise.

Example tabata circuit that applies for you would be...

Sprints (8 sets)
1 minute rest
Push Ups (8 sets)
1 minute rest
Body Weight Squats (8 sets)
1 minute rest
Curl Ups/Sit Ups (8 sets)
1 minute rest

Takes 20 minutes to complete.

[Hushigoshi]

YMMV but putting my client through that tabata (along with 40 minutes of other strength training) 3x/week, her run time drastically went down, and push ups and curl ups went up.

IIRC, her first time doing the 1.5 mile run took 15:47, after a month of training she finished it in 12:18. Push ups went from 13 (in cadence) to 27. Sit ups went from 45 to 63. We took a two minute recovery between each exercise test.

[Koul]

gimme shoulder exercises plox. preferably ones I can do with dumbbells

[FNH]

gimme shoulder exercises plox. preferably ones I can do with dumbbells

press, row, lateral raises. Pushups, pullups, dips




bodybuilding.com has a workout thing that you can put in what area you want to workout and it will give exercises for those body parts.

[Boyiee]

After vacation I'm going to be at the gym a ton more. I was thinking about doing PPL or something. Stronglifts/ICF were fun but not a lot of things going on and the workouts start to take up a lot of time. It's a bitch going to the gym after work at 730, lifting, then getting home cooking and preparing lunch for work at 7am.