kirabob Member

Like Bumblebums, I'm in the do-it-if-you-like-it camp. I didn't do any for a long time, because I needed to save all my energy for lifting. Now that I'm eating enough food, I've started wanting to do more cardio - but I only do stuff I love, because otherwise I resent it. If I am doing any, it's in 15 minute HIIT after my…

I eat ALL the foodz! I'm actually in the process of 'diet recovery', and eating at my maintenance (around 2700 calories a day). Lifting at maintenance is SUPER AWESOME! And although I've got some fluid retention while my body replenishes its cells, my arms and legs are doing super fast recomposition, and look completely…

In general, aiming for 1g per pound of bodyweight is a good idea - you might not get there, of course. I pretty much never hit my protein macros - but I do try to get at least 75% on average over the week. Your body needs the protein to help maintain your muscle mass.

Great article - thanks!

I always vote for eating more. Gotta feed the muscles! :smile: And if you are trying to get lean, definitely read through the posts that Molly Galbraith did on that subject: http://mollygalbraith.com/2013/07/is-being-really-lean-really-worth-it/ Ripping it up, ladies! I lurve me some Fridays on the Texas method. Despite my…

BAMF!

Cleo - Me too. I think it's those 200lb+ deadlifts talking. :smile: Dani - Try your concoction with whole milk ricotta. Soooooo goooooooood.

You guys are going too fast for me! But I love reading about how everybody is ripping it up! And Dani, you cracked me up with your fish picture. :smile: To those of you who are new and feeling the lifting - acquaint yourself with the foam roller. It will hurt like nobody's business, but it's a good kind of hurt. And it…

I have a question - what does your rest/food intake look like? Sometimes stalls happen simply because we aren't rested/nourished enough.

Howdy! Sounds like you've had a rough time of it - here's to lots of healing and lifting!

LOL. Normally I don't do anything after volume days - but I'd had a four day break, and was repeating weights I had done before, so I had a little extra in the tank. But most volume days, I want someone to take me to the car in a wheelbarrow. :smile:

Been a little MIA - trying to soak up the last of the summer. I tweaked my back doing something stupid on Thursday, so I skipped the last workout of the week and rested until today. Now I'm repeating last week, with no bumps except for deadlifts (since I only do it 1x a week anyhow). Squats 5x5 @170 OHP 5x5@70 Deadlifts…

Bee, your squat and deadlift numbers are crazy for only 10 weeks of lifting! First - I'm assuming you are taking a rest/deload week? Your muscles probably need it! I would also suggest switching to SL 3x5, and do this as until you start stalling out. This would have been my preference after finishing SL, but I tried it for…

Don't stress. You are probably building some lovely muscle. As you continue lifting, you may find that you go in cycles where you get a little bigger, than much smaller, then a little bigger, etc. etc. Just keep eating and lifting and resting and it will all be fine!

Yesterday's workout: After pulling the poor unloved squat rack out of the corner at the gym (I'm visiting my parents): Squats 5x5 @ 170 OHP 5x5 @70 Deadlift 1x5 @195 Pushups 3x15 Vertical leg lifts 3x12 Then I helped my folks weed their almost vertical hillsides. And this morning I am discovering little tiny muscles in my…

Yes! Be aware that as you up your calories you will have a period of time where you are retaining water and glycose - that's your cells thanking you for the much-needed nutrients they have been missing. :smile: It will go away. And your lifting will get super duper awesome. And you HAVE to stand/walk more than 10 minutes a…

^^ THat's great progress, and when I started in March, I could maybe do 2 pushups in a row - lifting for the win!

Hollywood - what are your knees doing at the bottom of your squats? Make sure that they are tracking out over your toes. You want your hips, knees and ankles all in a line - turning your toes out a bit helps make this happen. You can also try to visualize ripping the floor apart with your heels as you come up out of the…

It's good that you've had a lifting break - I hadn't realized that. BMI is only useful as a comparison to the population as a whole - it is pretty much useless as an indicator of health. I know you know that, but it bears repeating. The stronger indicators of health are do you feel good? Do you do things you enjoy? Do you…

Absolutely - I meant to mention the tricky nature of the whole thing, but since I was already headed towards a small book, I left it out. For me, the only way to know **for sure** that I was undereating/overtraining was to see if the 'binging' calmed down once I gave my body more food. And for me, it did. At 1900 calories,…

I may be the sole voice of disagreement here, but so be it. Lydia - how long has it been since you have taken an honest-to-goodness diet and lifting break? Not 2-3 days, but a solid week of eating to satiation and resting your muscles? Because not being able to control yourself around food sounds to me like your body is…

Always good to have goals! 1. Find my true TDEE, then go down about 200 calories from that. Focusing on eating the food to support what I love and body recomposition, not so much on weight loss. Fat loss, I have no problems with. Weight loss, meh, not so worried. 2. Keep working the Texas method, and listening to my body.…

Girlie - if it's deadlift day, I would strongly suggest that you not lift! Donating blood and then deadlifting is a recipe for nothing good!

Oh man. Oh man. Breathe, Kira, breathe. :smile:

Yesterday on the ranch: Squats 5x5 165 I had the hubs video me for a quick form check - relieved to see I'm still solid. And looking gooooooood. :smile: Seriously - if I hadn't known it was me, I would have wondered who that hot chick was. A good reminder that much of what I still see in the mirror is not what other people…

Definitely try it with a little more weight on the bar - not your max, but something a little challenging. Then it will make more sense - you stick your hips forward, then snap them back to drive the bar up - it's super hard to figure out with an empty bar if you've been working with anything above 55 pounds. . .I'm not…

I vote for bodyweight stuff, too - and the nerdfitness link is great. You can use bodyweight stuff to maintain your muscle mass - and when you find cash/time for a gym or home setup, you will have a great foundation to start from.

Interesting. I'll process all this and see how things go next Friday. SS and Sara - I figured I'd hit the biggest bulk of the lifters here, so that's why I posted in the ETP forum - hope that's okay!

I started doing the power cleans a few weeks ago when I switched to the Texas method. My current 3RM on Bench is 112.5 and my 3RM on Press is 77.5. I started with the Oly bar, but it felt too light - I used it to get comfortable with the motion, but over the last two weeks, I've worked up to 67.5. I'm doing 5 sets of 3 at…

Yes, your hips should be breaking backwards to initiate the movement. Don't think about your knees too much and when they should bend - they just will naturally as part of the movement. You might also try a somewhat wider, toes out stance - my leg/torso proportions are similar to yours, and the wider stance seems to help…