bokodasu Member

Man, I tried those Fat Gripz things for the first time last week and they are EVIL. Four days later and I couldn't even squeeze a lime into my G&T. Seriously, though, yes, they're great for grip strength but unless you're a horseshoe-bender/phonebook-ripper/Popeye, you shouldn't be using them all the time. You're going to…

Snerf. It is true, though. You know how on bodybuilding forums there's always a guy who starts working his chest but still has a layer of fat over top and is complaining that now it looks like he has boobs? It works the same way for women, except that we're happy about it. A couple of pushups isn't going to do it, though,…

What are you doing for your back now? You might want to look into pre-exhaustion techniques. Basically, the idea is that you do your isolation work first and then your compound moves for the same area, so that when your assisting muscles fail, your main muscle is failing too instead of still being kind of fresh. Anyway,…

Wow, yeah, someone gave you either some bad or seriously unclear advice. If you're going on a bulk, you're going to gain weight - that's what a bulk *is*. And around half-ish of it will be fat, which your body will store wherever it likes to store fat. The good news is that hey, you're stronger! So the next part is sort of…

Depends on your weight/age, but I'm thinking no, you didn't burn 400+ calories in half an hour at Curves. A really loose rule of thumb (for averageish-weight generally healthy people) is that you can burn 10 calories/minute working as hard as you can.

It's funny, I'm reading this and going, hm, where have I seen this before? It's just a variation of a protein-sparing modified fast. If you look at the Velocity Diet on T-Nation, it's pretty much the same (both the diet and the exercise program) except theirs is all dressed up in manly-man language like "extreme!" and…

Your HRM won't give you a good answer, but you can still estimate it. So much is going to depend on what you're lifting and how, and then you've got the whole post-EPOC argument... basically I use MFP's estimate because it's easy, low, and will remind me to eat some extra protein.

Yep, that's totally what happens - if I don't see someone for a couple of weeks I spend that time gossiping with all the other regulars about how they must be totally slacking, and then we all point and giggle behind their back if they ever do come back. Oh, wait, no, nobody does that. Just go and get it over with and…

Doing some light exercise will help you get over the soreness faster, so yes, do that. And you probably will be at least a little sore for the first couple of weeks, but you'll be surprised how quickly your body adapts. If you do total rest every time you feel soreness, you won't get over that first adjustment period, so…

Less silly I can't help too much with. Sillier, though, I've got that covered: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/health/workout-at-work/ (They're actually rated by difficulty, sweatiness, and humiliation factor.)

I don't worry about what other people think when I'm at the gym, unless I've just done something dumb like trip over my own feet. But lifting things? That's not dumb. It helps to interpret things in the best possible light. He could have meant doing more lifts, or heavier weight, or more reps, or just misspoke, and meant…

A lot of people think they know what a squat is but don't; it's hard to know if you or your friend is That Guy there. Check out the "So You Think You Can Squat" series of videos on YouTube, it covers pretty much everything you need to know, the rest is just practice.

That's pretty much what I did, and I only had a stress fracture and a pulled tendon. I did keep up with all my upper body lifts and core stuff - anything I could do not standing - and you can do medicine ball stuff and rope climbs. I'm still rehabbing 4 months later. I'm doing the May Warrior Dash and I'm not going to be…

Yep, it goes anywhere you'd put oil. But... I started eating it straight because I needed some quick energy in the morning. And it was really gross, until it wasn't. Now it's kind of like starting the day with a piece of chocolate. (I know! It's still gross! And yet strangely compelling...)

Do you do a warmup before you start lifting? I've been trying a few different things lately and what's turned out to work best is a tsp of coconut oil, a scoop of BCAAs, and 100mg of caffeine (not mixed together, ew). It takes about 10 minutes to get to my gym and then I do 10-15 minutes on a cardio machine, and by then…

In what world is that embarassing? That was one of the first songs I put on my gym playlist. My friends would be too awed by my fantastic taste to make fun of anything on my iPod. (What I sing along to in the car, though, that's another story. Oh Big 80s on 8...)

I'd definitely get a HRM. You don't need a super fancy one, just the basic model with a chest strap should have everything you need. The scales aren't really that accurate - calipers will be better for tracking BF changes.

Yep. If SL looks good to you, then do it. And put down the other books! Different programs are tuned slightly differently, and if you try randomly throwing a few elements together from a bunch of different systems you're not going to get the full benefits of any of them. But any of them will give you good results,…

Tempeh is really good - sort of a dense umami flavor, but only if you cook it right - look for advice on Post Punk Kitchen. (Steam then fry or grill, generally, but they'll have better tips.) If you don't it can be kind of bitter or musty tasting. Nutritional yeast is kind of a nutty cheesy flavor - PPK will have a ton of…

VitaMix. Although I think BlendTec is just as good, I just don't have first-hand experience with one. There is a huge difference between the high-end blenders and the $50 ones. On the plus side, my VitaMix is 10 years old, I use it multiple times daily, and it is still awesome. It's an investment, but it's worth it.

It's unlikely that you'll be able to eat whole food and hit those macros. Your options are pretty much either a) eat only foods that are higher in protein than carbs (which, as you've seen, are limited on a vegan diet and make you cut out a lot of good stuff) or b) use protein supplements. Or adjust your macros. I did a…

That TDEE is what you need, on average, every day for the activity level you picked. So you'd either eat 1770 every day, or something like 1550 on rest days and 2000 on workout days (aiming to average 1770/day over the week). Also vegetarian, so I sympthize about the protein thing. I supplement, but I can do 100 without…

Well, sure, any exercise is dangerous if you do it with improper form. I know someone who tore a bicep doing yoga. But driving to go visit her is way more dangerous than deadlifts, and she doesn't seem to mind me doing that. I'd never heard "running makes your uterus fall out" before. And I used to say nothing would make…

What? No! Always do resistance training. Your options are building, maintaining, or losing muscle. You don't want that last one, but that's what you get when you constantly eat at a deficit and cardio it up. Gaining strength is another good thing, and you can do that with either of the first two options. (This is why…

Thoughts: 1400 is probably too little, which could contribute to your "surplus" days. How much are you eating over when you eat over? Best thing to do is figure out your TDEE (like here: http://www.fitnessfrog.com/calculators/tdee-calculator.html), subtract 20%, and then either * eat that same amount every day, or * set…

As long as you're eating enough to support your workouts, it's not going to make much difference when you eat it, so you should do whatever keeps you feeling best. If you're not sure where to start, the simplest thing is to have a piece of fruit 30-60 minutes before and some protein and carbs 30-60 minutes after. Or if you…

People do tend to get overexcited about things. It's not like if you skip a meal all your muscles will dissolve and you'll go from Pumpy McSwole to Sir Noodlearms overnight. But yeah. Your body can get energy from any of the macronutrients. If you're repeatedly injuring your muscles (resistance training), your body will…

A book I found really helpful for breaking bad mental ruts (and I apologize for the really stupid title, it really is better than it sounds) is "10 Days to Self Esteem" by David Burns. It's basically a workbook for doing CBT on yourself. And it's surprisingly way more effective than it is difficult. Good luck.

Gotta disagree on that one. I've seen doctors say some crazy, crazy stuff - this doesn't even make the top 10%. As far as I can tell, they make up for the lack of nutritional/sports training in med school by reading a couple of articles in USA Today and figure they're experts, since they're doctors, after all.

I used to have two older ladies who were my gym buddies. They were convinced that I was going to get fat because I lifted more than 5 *lb* weights. My mom is worried that I'm going to hurt myself because "deadlifts are dangerous". And on the opposite end, I had an old guy tell me I wasn't going to get anywhere lifting as…