ovidnine Member

I.....wow. That's a new one by me.

Thanks for the input! Some of this is strength related, but a lot of it is mental when it comes to my bench. The purpose of doing this is to force myself to hit it daily for a few weeks to change my mindset about it. Instead of dreading bench day, every day is bench day, so its either suck it up and go for it or dread…

Resurrecting this for anyone who might care to see how it goes for me. After skipping last week, er I mean, taking a rest week, finally got to the meat of the program. Since I'm going on vacation in 6 weeks I've decided I'm going to start doing this for my squats too. We'll see how it goes. Day 1: warmed up, worked up to…

I'm cheap so I'm currently using knockoff chucks from Wally World. They're about dead so after I kill the other pair of knockoff Chucks I have I might actually buy lifting shoes. Or I might continue to be cheap. I see I'm not the only one with wallyworld chucks. lol

Creatine pulls water into the muscles and helps your body recover faster (it helps your body make ATP). Essentially, it helps you do more work and while it doesn't in and of itself make you stronger if you can do more work, you're probably going to get stronger. That said, you're at such a low calorie amount I'm not sure…

This! It was hard for me at first because I'm pretty damn insecure. It took some time to get over the insecurities, but its totally worth it. And like I reminded my wife, everyone has an equal right to the equipment whether you're squatting the bar or squatting 500lbs, you just have to go in and do it!

Bench. Though every day at the gym is bench day right now. Also did a 5k on the treadmill. Very slowly because I'm slow, but I persevered even though my mp3 player died right as I switched from warm up walking to jogging. That was sad.

Well said.

I need to read the book. I'm doing something similar for my benching right now and am liking it so far. If it keeps going good I'm considering doing it for my squats too. So basically, I have nothing useful to contribute on the topic, but I'm interested as well so here I am.

At this point in my life I'm steroid agnostic. I have no interest in using them personally, but I don't care if people do (unless you're competing in a theoretically clean sport). I think some gyms/areas probably have far higher percentages of users than others, but its nothing to feel discouraged about. There are plenty…

Ow! I've caught my chin going up and my forehead going down when I was first getting the motion down, but thankfully not my face. Yet. lol

I do strength first because I want to be freshest for that. I only do cardio at the gym in the winter when its crappy outside anyway. Like now. I hate it. :(

Bench press. Frustrates me to no end. So I started a program where I'm benching 5-6x a week. May as well face the demon right? Second place goes to Lunges.

Awesome job guys!

6 minute mile is not elite and elite is usually where genetics factor in. Its fast. Far faster than I can do at this moment, but its not anywhere near elite. Its a number many* people without other underlying health issues that aren't middle aged or beyond can attain with enough training. (Plenty of middle aged people can…

This thread brought a much needed smile to my face this morning. lol

85% or so down and back up. Started feeling it in my back that I didn't have the ab strength to go full out like you. lol

I just tried this at lunch. I got probably 85% of the way. Brutal. I got more work to do. lol Just gotta say again, awesome job Frank.

Check your local Craigslist daily. 99.9% of the time it'll be utter trash people think is gold, but every so often you'll run across a great deal. This isn't a quick process though. lol This works especially good for dumbbells as they're expensive no matter where you buy them in my checking around anyway.

WOW! Super impressive man! Good work!

This is important! Without knowing that I'll suggest what I'm doing: * The Journey- strengtheory.com/complete-strength-training-guide/

Muscle size doesn't necessarily equal stronger but more muscle size typically means the potential for more strength. But yeah, totally check out the stuff Greg wrote on it like DopeItUp suggested. Really interesting stuff and was pretty accurate for me too. I love Greg's site. He's always writing honestly about something…

Between 4-4:15 m, t, th, f. Wednesday I sleep in until 5:20 or so (except I think I'm going to start going to the gym on wednesdays too.) Saturday & sunday usually up by 7:30ish. I'm asleep by 9:15 most nights, sometimes earlier, try to never be asleep later. Been doing it long enough now I typically wake up a couple…

Week 1 finished and while my chest is wondering WTF I'm doing a little bit, barely sore at all and it wasn't interfering with my other lifting or anything else. Week 1 totals: 5 days of 4x5 @ 60% 1RM (125lbs.... LOL ) 1 day of close grip bench as that was my auxiliary lift for the day. Monday starts at least 5 days of 3x4…

A weight belt will not prevent injury. Please get in to the PT first before you try to lift heavier. Have you actually had a doctor, an MD, check you out? If you're experiencing pain, you really need to fix that before you try to lift heavier, or possibly at all. Your back isn't something to mess around on. Yeah, I know I…

I do the gym before work. I shower there head to work and don't worry about it the rest of the day. My job isn't sedentary, but its indoors so I'm not sweating like mad throughout the day. During the summer if I cycle after work I'll shower a second time. My skin doesn't dry out during the summer. lol Two showers a day in…

Day 3 and feeling good. Obviously I'm only at 60% of my 1RM, but its still been a lot of reps. I might do 5 days this week and next while the weight still isn't all that much and then for week 3 on go 4 days and see how it feels.

400 seems like a lot for weightlifting, even for a 90 minute workout. I don't track my lifting calories but if you really want to, I'd cut the number in half. Better to underestimate calories burned than over IMO.

I was going to suggest something like Smolov, but if you have an injured back that's really going to limit what you can or should do. I'm actually trying to think of what sort of leg workout you could even do where the back doesn't come into play and except for stuff like hamstring curls, leg extensions, calf raises and…

Pro level athletes usually fall into two categories: Those in the top .5-1% of ability and those in the top 5-10% of ability who through sheer hard work, mental toughness and luck (avoiding injury, getting hooked up with a good coach who maximizes their ability). Even those who are in that top percentile can lose out due…