GaryRuns Member

I would say take what you learned by going to failure and apply it to subsequent workouts, because now you know what RPE 10+ feels like. Honestly, I think it's almost impossible to do the whole RPE thing until you have some experience, including, possibly, occasionally going to failure. As Chief said, it takes practice and…

The day before, home-cooked chicken breasts with egg noodles and butter washed down with some carb powder mixed with water. I pretty much just eat that whenever I can the day before, but at least breakfast, lunch and dinner. I was too paranoid about food poisoning to eat out the day before so I always either cooked in my…

If I were in your shoes I'd start with a TDEE calculation with sedentary then take about 50% of the calories my device(s) told me I was burning during cardio and use that as a starting point. I wouldn't bother using estimates of calories burned for strength training. I'd eat the level of calories calculated from that…

Have you been running well-established, progressive, lifting plans for that six year time period? Have you been tracking your nutrition for that time period, particularly your protein intake?

If it's any consolation the few studies I've seen say that you can take up to 2-3 weeks off strength training before you experience any muscle atrophy from "detraining". Prior to that most of the appearance that your muscles are shrinking is just due to glycogen depletion and dehydration, which comes back quickly when you…

It's your scale or where you're placing your scale. Make sure you're putting it on a hard, flat surface before weighing yourself. Yes, our weight varies significantly over time due to water retention and variations in food digestion. However, it is impossible to get heavier overnight if you're not drinking or eating…

Try examining this:

^^Exactly this. Blisters are caused by friction. That list helps minimize things that contribute to the cause* Shoes that don't fit properly cause the skin on your feet to rub in areas where it's not used to rubbing. Either against other places on your feet or against the shoe material itself. * Moisture washes body oils…

I'm no expert so I'll leave most of the specifics to those that are. But, there's no timing issue with creatine. It has to build up in your system over time and then it's just a matter of maintaining the level. General recommendation is 5g per day. Taking it immediately after your workout isn't necessary. As long as you…

You have to be careful with this though. So many idiots on YouTube, and IG, that don't know the first thing about form, lifting, nutrition, etc., despite claiming that they're experts and having huge followings. My go-tos are Jeff Nippard, Mark Rippetoe, Omar Isuf, Alan Thrall and Bret Contreras. Hopefully someone will…

I did my first marathon at 50. Finished my fourth at 52. All but the first marathon with sub 4 hour times. Barely sub 4, but still... lol I started running when I was about 240lbs, 45-50lbs overweight. At my leanest I was 172lbs. I've since switched my focus over to strength training, but the point is to pick something and…

I have to admit to having some nerd shame but I'm gonna own it anyway. I've been cutting for a while so I created a spreadsheet that figures out my average rate of weight loss over that time period, how many calories in deficit that corresponds to, and then uses that to estimate my maintenance level. It's got me at about…

It's hard to say without context, eg., what a person's maintenance level is, but for most folks 700-1000 calories is a pretty large surplus/deficit. I haven't heard of anyone doing that, except perhaps to experiment with "dirty" bulking. Most people subscribe to the idea that keeping their surplus/deficit within 10-15% of…

If you've got knee problems you're going to be limited as far as what leg exercises you can do. Pretty much every muscle in your leg, above the knee, functions to support knee flexion. The only thing you're left with are muscles below the knee, basically calf muscles, and maybe some hip flexion exercises, like hip thrusts.

I'd recommend finding a good, well put together, progressive program to start with instead of just winging it with something like an ad/ab-ductor machine. A lot of people like the "Strong ..." programs, like Strong lift 5x5 or StrongCurves, but there are a lot of choices. Here's a thread mentioning a lot of them:…

It is tricky adjusting based on weight, but I know you're fully aware of all the pitfalls there so I'll just tell you you look great and I'm pretty sure you're going to recomp like a boss. (My teenager would be SO embarrassed I used that phrase. lol).

Another disadvantage of being an atheist, there's nobody to blame for my mediocrity! :D

Unless you have health issues, or you're lifting like a beast and on gear, there's only one reason you're not losing weight, you're eating the same number of calories that you're burning. Eat less or burn more. What do you mean by not losing weight though? Has your weight not moved in a week or more? You can't base…

I'm sure I miss lots of relevant research publications, especially since I'm not in the fitness business, but I try to keep up and I haven't seen any definitive research that shows that an amount of protein above about 0.8 grams per pound of lean body mass per day is beneficial for muscle growth. There are other reasons…

It's absolutely NOT ok! You will cause huge rift in space and time if you do that! Just kidding. :D It's your fitness, do what you want. Personally, I've been eating fewer calories than I burn for months in an effort to lose fat, but there ain't NO way I'm missing my waffle-Sundays! I eat waffles with syrup every Sunday…

People can give you an idea, but the reason you see so many conflicting answers is because it depends on you. It depends on your metabolism, how much you move during the day, what exercise you do and how intsense you perform it, and probably a bunch of other variables I'm forgetting to mention. What you do is find a…

Read the thread psuLemon references above for ideas on what to eat. As to eating more, it's not really rocket science. If you're not gaining weight, or not gaining weight as fast as you'd like, eat more of the foods referenced in the hard-gainers thread. Make sure you're looking at time periods of at least a week or two,…

Easy enough to fix that here. Look at the 5% dude, he looks like an alien! No way a normal person can sustain that for any significant amount of time.

Not really. You are taking a skin fold at a specific location. It's measuring how thick the skin and fat attached to the skin are at that location. Think about a piece of paper. If you want to measure how thick it is folded it doesn't matter how long or wide the paper is, only how thick it is folded. In fact, it seems like…

You might gain some muscle while in a deficit, but nothing you'd see on a scale over a short time scale like a week or two. Either what you're seeing is water weight or you're not logging your food as accurately as you think you are and aren't actually in a deficit.

I bought a lulu tank on sale and it has turned into my favorite cardio shirt. Having gone through all kinds of running tanks, from Nike to Target, the lulu is, by far, the best at wicking moisture and amazingly comfortable. However, I would never pay $70 for one, which is what it goes for full price. The $50 I paid for it…

Wow! You reduced your calories by 63% practically overnight? And you kept that up for a week? Do you have a giant "S" on your shirt, as in "S" for Superwoman? :D I think it's pretty amazing you were able to do that for a week. I know I couldn't. It'll be a lot easier if you gradually reduce your calories, maybe 15% a week.…

What was your calorie intake while you were bulking? It's going to suck if you're reducing your calories beyond about 15% below maintenance. That's just the way it is for most of us. You can try things like intermittent fasting, and playing with macros to get more protein and fat and fewer carbs, maybe increase fiber. All…

For the most part I think there's a consensus in the scientific literature that 10-20 sets per week per muscle group is optimal. There's some research that says more volume always gives more gains, but then you are more likely to get injured or insufficient recovery if you go over the 10-20 recommendation. Again, in…

Those aren't totally unreasonable. You typically want 0.8-1 gram of protein per pound of body weight, and you want that regardless of rest day or training day because muscle protein synthesis can happen any time up to about 72 hours after you lift. 126g is right there. The fat might be a bit low. I think generally folks…