Exercise/lifting tips?

[BamYouHaveAids]

You can have my morning glass of OJ when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers. 

hear, hear!

[Cyanista]

Nuts and eggs and lean meats.  But....there's no CARBS in that.

Also, if you are srsly overweight, isn't it expected to lose fat faster than 1-2 pounds a week?  I think that's for moderate weight loss.

[Ellrick]

Corma, a few questions:
Best amount of push-ups?
How often?
or How long?

Om no third person talking nutrition/fitness guru, but Id imagine that would be different for everyone.

What I did was just pound out as many as I could till my arms were consumed with angry fire and called that a "set". I do 4 sets in the morning and 4 at night.

ps you get some carbs from fruits and veggies woman! I am still always tired though, bleh.

[Boogie]

You can lose a couple of pounds of nothing but water during a big workout.

Ya, back I was training hardcore with professional MMA fighters, I'd down over 3 litres of water over the course of a 2 hour workout, and still have lost 3-4 lbs by the end of the session.

[Ellrick]

You can lose a couple of pounds of nothing but water during a big workout.

Ya, back I was training hardcore with professional MMA fighters, I'd down over 3 litres of water over the course of a 2 hour workout, and still have lost 3-4 lbs by the end of the session.

Cool, who with?

I got to get punched in the head by Marcus Davis once.

[Cormacaroni]

Corma, a few questions:
Best amount of push-ups?
How often?
or How long?

Do you just want to get good at doing push-ups? If so, tabata push-ups work very well. Just like tabata squats: 8rds of 20 secs max push-ups, 10 secs rest. (4 mins total). I guarantee that even if you can do 20 or so in the first 20 secs, you'll be down to 3 or 4 in the last 20 secs. That'll improve fast as you get stronger and get used to recovering in shorter periods.

Another simple approach is "one more than yesterday". Just do as many as you can, then try to do one more than that the next day. It'll add up fast.

There comes a point of diminishing returns with any one exercise though. If you can do 50-100, it's time to stop working on them every day and spend more time working with weights, because the push-ups aren't making you much stronger. Once something gets easy, it's time to move on. Push-ups are an essential Crossfit exercise but you won't see them come up in the workouts more than once a week or so (same with most things).

[Boogie]

You can lose a couple of pounds of nothing but water during a big workout.

Ya, back I was training hardcore with professional MMA fighters, I'd down over 3 litres of water over the course of a 2 hour workout, and still have lost 3-4 lbs by the end of the session.

Cool, who with?

I got to get punched in the head by Marcus Davis once.

lol, nice.

I trained with Shawn Tompkins, Sam Stout, Mark Hominick, Chris Horodecki, that whole crew, before Shawn went to run Couture's gym.

[Cormacaroni]

You can have my morning glass of OJ when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers. 

You're not the one asking for diet advice. If you have no weight problems, you have no OJ problems.

[pollo]

I realize I'm more irritable and aggressive when I've been lifting heavy for a long period of time..see my GAF perma  , but when I stop for maybe 3-5 days I'm calm again and little things don't piss me off as much. What is it? Testosterone? My protein diet? I'm not taking any supplements.

[muckhole]

I was in the same boat a few years back, high protein plus the heavy lifting made me quite grouchy when I'd miss a workout. I just presumed it's a case of too much energy, and not expending it.

[Tauntaun]

I was in the same boat a few years back, high protein plus the heavy lifting made me quite grouchy when I'd miss a workout. I just presumed it's a case of too much energy, and not expending it.

Is that why you went around beating babies?

spoiler (click to show/hide)

[close]

[muckhole]

Those were some mean babies.

[Tauntaun]

Those were some mean babies.

They deserved it. 

[Himu]

How healthy is celery compared to other vegetables if eaten as a simple snack?

[Reb]

It's basically water you can chew.

[Cormacaroni]

How healthy is celery compared to other vegetables if eaten as a simple snack?

Lots of sodium, apparently. Although I only know this from cooking (i've read that you should go easy on salt if you use celery instead of onions, for example). Nutritionists don't seem to hate on it much.

[brawndolicious]

Something I googled shows it as .1% sodium, which doesn't sound huge but you never have to worry about not getting enough sodium in your diet so it's always good to avoid it.  I heard that you can actually lower how much sodium you absorb by drinking mineral water or (more wisely) tap water instead of distilled/filtered waters because "hard" water with calcium or magnesium ions in it apparently lowers sodium intake.

Celery is just pure crap fuel though so it's good at keeping you full while your snacking.

[Cormacaroni]

It's awesome that we have Himu scared to eat fucking CELERY without asking first tho

[Himu]

That's why I like celery. It keeps your stomach from growlin' and it's a hell of a lot more healthy than chips.

[duckman2000]

It's awesome that we have Himu scared to eat fucking CELERY without asking first tho

I'm more troubled by the deep fear of food that seems to be so hip these days. There are some things that are blatantly suspect and that should be avoided (processed food, concentrated juices, and other products that leave brightly, unnaturally colored stains or powders), but unless you're training for the Olympics or similar athletic events, some common sense will go a long way.

Slightly higher than normal values of less desirable components are not big deals unless you have a specific ailment. Cutting things you like simply because they are marginally less beneficial for your body than another product doesn't seem worth the price of a pleasant eat. There's something to be said for being thoroughly satisfied with a meal.

[Cormacaroni]

Common sense is not as common as you think though. It's not so much that people are ignorant about nutrition, it's that they're bombarded with so much conflicting information/opinion that they just stop listening. I know one thing for sure though: Leave folks to their own devices and they will NOT gravitate to what I consider healthy and nutrititious food. So if a little scaremongering is needed to change attitudes, I'm ok with that.

[duckman2000]

I agree to an extent, and nothing makes this more clear than people who switch from drinkings liters of soda to drinking liters of soda with whatever artificial sweetener that is currently in style. But still, if you are getting to the point where you're trying to separate vegetables from one another, then you may just be making things needlessly difficult for yourself. But maybe that's part of the exercise fun to some, I don't know.

[Cormacaroni]

I agree to an extent, and nothing makes this more clear than people who switch from drinkings liters of soda to drinking liters of soda with whatever artificial sweetener that is currently in style. But still, if you are getting to the point where you're trying to separate vegetables from one another, then you may just be making things needlessly difficult for yourself. But maybe that's part of the exercise fun to some, I don't know.

Like anything, eating right is a skill. When you get better at it, you have to start looking at smaller and smaller details in order to keep improving. At the beginning, yeah, switching to diet soda is a useful move. After you get it more dialled in, you start thinking about things like which is more nutritious, a potato or a pumpkin.

It may look crazy to the guy who is still drinking regular soda, but rest assured that to the guy pondering mashed pumpkin instead of mashed potatoes, it's a natural next step.

This is perfectly analogous to squatting, say. To Himuro, air squats alone are debilitating. You might spend months trying to add 5lbs to your back squat. You might look at each other and shake your heads, but you're just on different places on the same road.

[CHOW CHOW]

if you're just beginning, focus on compound exercises that hit much of your body such as:

- deadlifts
- squats
- bench press
- pull-ups

for cardio, look into HIIT (high intensity interval training): link

nutritionally, eat several small meals per day.   no starchy foods like white bread, white pasta, potatoes (yams are an excellent substitute).  the latest you should eat carbs is 2-3 hours before you sleep.  limit your sweets.  drink lots of water

mentally, just try to stick with it.  if you can get past the first couple of weeks, it'll become a part of your daily routine like taking a shower, brushing your teeth, rubbing one out, etc.

it's never too late to start.  good luck

[Kestastrophe]

for cardio, look into HIIT (high intensity interval training): link

I have seen this before and always brushed it off, but I am interested now. I go on 3 mile jogs 3-4 times a week, plus go to the gym, but it is not producing the results that I want. How would I go about starting HIIT training and what are some good resources (literature, workout schedules, etc.)

for example, how is this as a cardio workout
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/richb3.htm
15 minutes at a moderate pace, followed by 5 sets of 60 seconds alternating high/low intensity

[Cormacaroni]

Typical HIIT workout:

run 400m (all out)
then
rest exactly 2 mins

repeat another 3 times.

Make a note of your split times for the runs, and try to keep within 5 seconds of your first runs all the way. You can adjust this with different distances and rest periods. 3 x800m with 2 mins rest, say. Or 10 x100m resting 1 minute between. This will help you hold a faster pace on longer runs very quickly indeed. I chopped about 6.5 mins off my 5k time just by doing occasional intervals (without actually running more than 1 5k a year), plus the cumulative effect of crossfit.

Any of the Tabata stuff I talked about earlier also constitutes HIIT. Many Crossfit workouts incorporate intervals, but almost all are 'high intensity' whether they have rest periods or not.

www.crossfit.com

The workout you posted seems backwards to me. You don't need the 15mins moderate pace first IMHO. The whole notion of workouts for 'cardio' is also a bit prehistoric as well IMHO. Your heart and lungs don't exist outside the rest of your body, why train them that way.

[Cormacaroni]

CHOW CHOW - i agree with most of what you said, but bench press is NOT a compound lift. Shoulder press is preferable, since you're not having the bench do much of the work for you.

[Kestastrophe]

Alright, I just got back from my hiit jog/run. I started off with 5 minutes of jogging at my normal pace (about 6mph) and then I sprinted for a minute followed by a minute of rest. I alternated this, although not precisely as I was very winded after a few sets, for about 6 or 7 sets. I finished the 3 miles in about the same amount of time that I usually finish, but I am much more fatigued and sweaty

 I am going to try your 400 meter sprint, 2 minute rest later this week Cormac as it seems to be more precise than my makeshift workout. Those are some crazy endurance gains. I have been steady-state jogging pretty consistently for the past 2 years and I haven't really had any significant progress, other than shin splints and an increased threshold for pain 

[Cormacaroni]

Yeah, jogging will never help you run faster (after you get the basic gains you'd expect from going from a totally detrained state to a slightly trained state).

At some point, you actually need to RUN FASTER to force your body to adapt in a way that will yield extra speed in future. Just like the need to lift heavy weights if you want to get stronger. Most people don't want to face up to this hard fact, I'm afraid. The good news is that you don't necessarily have to run lots of long distances at the extra speed in order to see good gains in your longer distance times.

Try benchmarking yourself at a few standard distances before you get too far into it: 400m, 800m, 2.5k, 5k etc. You should always know what kind of pace you can do at those distances before you start pushing the intervals hard. If you're a regular dude with a healthy fear of maximal effort, you'll probably pace yourself too much. When it comes to running, the stopwatch is key. Never run unless you're timing it (unless you just like jogging of course - i don't and can't understand those who do )

[Cormacaroni]

btw, note what I said about my own gains - I'm doing a ton of stuff. It's impossible to tell without a control group, but i'd say a lot of my gains in running are not related to any running I've been doing at all. To run fast, you need to be more powerful, which I get from all the other Crossfit stuff I do (olympic weightlifting, powerlifting, calisthenics, blah blah blah). Endurance is developed by doing long workouts at high speed with minimal rest. 20 minutes of hard work doing pull-ups and power cleans seems to translate pretty well into 20 mins of hard work on a treadmill.

It's really hard to separate out the results in any meaningful way. So while I've done very little running in the grand scheme of things, I've done a ton of other stuff. I have no real idea what you'd get out of JUST doing HIIT-style running training.

[Kestastrophe]

I started this 5x5 program this week:
http://stronglifts.com/stronglifts-5x5-beginner-strength-training-program/

Workout A               Workout B
Squat 5x5              Squat 5x5
Bench Press 5x5      Overhead Press 5x5
Inverted Rows 3xF      Deadlift 1x5
Push-ups 3xF              Pull-ups/Chin-ups 3xF
Reverse Crunch 3x12   Prone Bridges 3x30sec

It has been years since I have done squats, so I was extremely sore after the first day. I started light, hoping to really focus on technique on squats, deadlift, and overhead press. As expected, my benchpress is by far the easiest and strongest lift 

[duckman2000]

Just picked up a bar and some weights. This shit is more challenging than I had thought it would be.

[Cormacaroni]

kestastrophe -

You should always start a new program really light. Don't rush the ramp-up either. Add 5lbs or less each workout. It'll still add up really fast. And for recovery - Don't forget to eat like a motherfucker! Lots of protein and fat, and take fish oil (if you don't already eat oily fish). The 5x5 program is a killer - the more you eat and the better you recover, the more you'll get out of it. Are you doing sets across?

[Powerslave]

I really need to get back to the gym. I'm starting to get fat.

[duckman2000]

I've gotten fatter and more muscular over the summer, mission accomplished. Pork diet + physical work is fucking win.

[Kestastrophe]

Cormac, I started with really light weights:

Squat=150
Bench=150
Press=70
Deadlift=150
Pushups=about 30 to fail now
Pullups=only 5 to fail
Inverse Rows=10 to fail

I'm on my 4th week now, so the weights are significantly heavier since I've added 5 lbs on every lift each workout. In addition, my wife has been dropping me off at the gym on the way to work, so I have a 4 mile jog back to my apartment after most workouts.

The first week was a hard adjustment for my diet, simply because I was not a huge meat eater. Now I eat at least 2 eggs a day, 1 chicken breast, 1 can of tuna, 1 protein shake, cottage cheese, and then some kind of protein with dinner. I've been eating like crazy and I have put on several pounds of muscle, especially on my back, legs, and triceps. Given that its only been 3 weeks so far, I can definitely see myself getting huge off of this

[Cormacaroni]

Sounds like you're doing it right! Awesome. Weird how different people are on the lifts...it's crazy that you can bench as much as you can deadlift. I've only benched a handful of times so my deadlift is about 4x my bench press

The 4 mile jog is probably hurting your recovery actually, but if you enjoy it, by all means continue.

[Kestastrophe]

i have familiarity with bench press and the form is not a problem for me (I easily could have started at 200lbs). I wanted to start really low on squats and deadlift in order to really get the form down, since those seem to be the most important lifts. 

And truth be told about my jog, I typically end up walking at least half of the distance. And I will only jog 2 days a week. So it works out to be about 2 miles jogging 2x a week, with walking the rest.

[Cormacaroni]

Kestastrophe - you could probably skip the BP for a while to give you more recovery for the big lifts (as you say, squat and deadlift > all). Shoulder press is also a good bit more important than BP, even though you won't put up the same poundage, you're doing more work with more muscles. I, on the other hand, need to press more. I've been held back for a while by a shoulder injury but am finally starting to make some headway with it again.

Sounds like the jog isn't a problem. If you were running 4 miles HARD, it definitely would be. But jogging is pretty good for active recovery (keeps the blood flowing). If it gets to the point where it's causing inflammation and soreness, I would drop it though - you're on a pure strength program so that should be the focus. You can gain or regain conditioning pretty quickly after you're done with the 5x5.

[Cormacaroni]

kosma - that's about 2.5km so it's ok, certainly not great. I run very infrequently and I can hold that pace for 5k. Jogging longer distances does you no good if you want to get fast. As I said above, speed comes from running short distances really fast.

[Boogie]

Man I have to start working out too, you guys are doing good.

Btw is doing 1.6 miles in 12 minutes ok? Thats what I ran like a week ago.

It's okay.

My best time in Mountie-training was 1.5 miles in 9:45.

[duckman2000]

So how exactly do I integrate this deadlift stuff into the whole routine I have going? Or, am I even supposed to integrate it, or is it a whole new thing? From the lifts I've done so far, it feels like a full exercise in itself.

[Cormacaroni]

I dunno, what's your routine?

I typically don't do much else on a heavy deadlift day. If you're doing maximal weights, a light warmup set and one or two heavy sets of 5 is all you need to see progress. You definitely don't want to be doing 5x5 DLs at a heavy weight (i.e. 'sets across'). 5 sets starting at a very light weight (like 50% of your max) and gradually ramping up would be ok, and is probably a good idea if you're still working on technique. It's unlikely your technique will be consistent inside a couple of months unless you have good coaching or do a lot of reading, watching and form practice.

As a random example, yesterday, I did 5x5 shoulder press (ramping), then a couple of warm-up sets of 5 DLs, 2 work sets and a couple of heavy singles. Today i'm not doing a damn thing

[duckman2000]

I tried simply turning some of my earlier routine (mostly calisthenics and pull ups) into a warm up phase for the deadlift bit, which seems to have worked for now. I'm working on getting a bench, but that's a couple of weeks away. About the deadlift, though, that's a hell of a lot more exercise than I thought it would be. I've been pretty serious about checking up on the right form, now it's just a matter of finding the proper starting weight.

[BlueTsunami]

I'm not a runner but I've been doing the Couch to 5K regimen and its working like a charm so far (3rd week in). Even at the end of the 20 minute cycle, I felt like I could keep the intervals going. Feels good man, again.

[Cormacaroni]

There is quite simply no harder exercise than the deadlift. The back squat comes close but most people can handle heavier loads with the DL.

I do some variation of the standard Crossfit warm-up before pretty much every workout. 2 or 3rds of 10-15 pull-ups, push-ups, sit-ups, samson stretches, air squats. I don't rush through it like a Crossfit workout - it's just to get the blood flowing and to keep strength up for those exercises. I mix up the actual exercises on occasion (adding dips or a 400m run, say) but that's the basic format. It'll help the lifting unless you go overboard on the pull-ups and mess up your grip. The samson stretches are the only stretch i'd recommend BEFORE lifting btw...they help activate the hips in some way I don't understand fully (phsyiology is hard).

Deadlifts don't have to be super-heavy all the time btw...I do a ton of workouts with higher reps for a conditioning effect. Try doing 21 reps at 100kg for time (yes, use a stopwatch)...your heart will come close to exploding. Scale the weight up or down as appropriate - that's just a guideline. Or something like 21 DLs at 100kg, run 800m, 15 DLs, run 800m, 9 DLs, run 800m. Your legs will never feel so heavy. You really won't need to do much else on any day you do a workout like that. Just do enough to get your heart rate up and your blood moving. A light sweat is all you're going for before heavy lifting.

[BlueTsunami]

Deadlifts are one of the few workouts that really gives me that high after I've done a set. I love the feeling, same thing you get from squats but breath control is easier for me with Deadlifts.

[Cormacaroni]

my deadlift PR

i was about 71kg at the time I think.

edit *fuck*

how do you embed from vimeo here?

well, here's the link. bah.
http://www.vimeo.com/4747242

[BlueTsunami]

You can embed Hulu and Youtube but not Vimeo, just link it up I guess

[Kestastrophe]

I do some variation of the standard Crossfit warm-up before pretty much every workout. 2 or 3rds of 10-15 pull-ups, push-ups, sit-ups, samson stretches, air squats. I don't rush through it like a Crossfit workout - it's just to get the blood flowing and to keep strength up for those exercises. I mix up the actual exercises on occasion (adding dips or a 400m run, say) but that's the basic format. It'll help the lifting unless you go overboard on the pull-ups and mess up your grip. The samson stretches are the only stretch i'd recommend BEFORE lifting btw...they help activate the hips in some way I don't understand fully (phsyiology is hard).

Per stronglifts, I have been warming up with an empty bar and adding weights 40 lbs at a time. Has worked pretty well for me thus far. I looked up a youtube video of those Samson stretches, and I think I'll incorporate those as well. My hips still aren't that flexible, as my squats still feel a little stiff and I can't go as low as I would like without rounding my back.

I may be adding a video in the next couple of days of my squat, press, and deadlift. Hoping to get some good critique on my form, since I lift by myself.

[Kestastrophe]

[youtube=560,345][/youtube]

[youtube=560,345][/youtube]

[youtube=560,345][/youtube]

Alright Cormac, be gentle  . This is from my workout this morning, thanks to my wife for recording. I think my form on squats and press is pretty good. There is a little bit too much rounding in my back on a couple of the reps, but for the most part I think its decent. My deadlift on the other hand  . It feels and looks awkward. It needs alot of work

these are my current working weight:

-195 squat (about my body weight)
-105 press
-190 deadlift

[Draft]

Your squat is a mess, man.

The bar is too high on your back.

You are at least 2-3 inches above parallel.

Your knees slide forward at the bottom.

There's no hip drive.

You're in a damn smith machine.

Get in a cage, bar across your shoulders, knees out as far as you can get them, push your ass straight up like you're getting paid for it.

edit:

DL: feet closer together, bar over midfoot (stand over the bar and look down, the bar should obscure the knot in your shoe laces.) Bend over without bending your knees, grip the bar. Hands like literally right next to your legs. Let your knees bend forward just enough that your shins touch the bar (this should be like one inch forward for your shins.) Tense your upper back real hard, push your chest up. Pretend there is something written on your t-shirt, and you want to read it in a mirror in front of you. Push your ass way up in the air (sensing a pattern?) Stand up, dragging the bar across your shins then your thighs.

Press looks fine to me.

[Draft]

my deadlift PR

i was about 71kg at the time I think.

edit *fuck*

how do you embed from vimeo here?

well, here's the link. bah.
http://www.vimeo.com/4747242

Damn, do you ever fuck up the floor there? Looks like hard tile.

[Veidt]

Going to go to  gym starting this week. I feel anxious, I look very weak. I'm scared of people staring at me while I have trouble lifting 10 kilo's or something.


Am I overreacting?

[Draft]

Yes.

No one looks at you. They look at themselves or they look at the girls.

Now, imagine: what kind of person laughs or mocks someone struggling to lift weight? Do you really care what that person thinks of you?

[Veidt]

That's actually true.
Also, what kind of food should I be eating? Tuna?

[BlueTsunami]

Anything that's high in protein is good, since you may find yourself struggling to get enough of it. Tuna, drink milk, eat peanut butter, lots of chicken.

[Veidt]

Nice. Thanks. I'll start my daily report starting next week. I'm lactose intolerant so milk isn't going to help me
But I'll try everything else though!

[duckman2000]

Mackerel is better than tuna

[Kestastrophe]

thanks for the assessment Draft. When doing squats, my primary concern has been keeping my back as straight as possible. I try to dip as deep as possible, but I think that my stance is too narrow and I am not pointing my toes out enough, and hence some of the stiffness in my hips. Plus I am generally inflexible in my hamstrings and hips.

Also, there is no squat rack at my gym.