Mayor_West Member

What kind of pain are you experiencing? Is it soreness in the muscle, which is common for people new to lifting (google DOMS) or is it more acute in the hip joint? Ultimately, you'll probably need to get checked out by a medical professional to get a proper diagnosis for your injury. Squats are and incredibly effective…

Actually, taking a wide grip can make the bar more unstable, since it'll be resting more on your traps. Try squeezing your shoulder blades together to create a "shelf" on which you can rest the bar. This will also have the advantage of putting your spine in a neutral position, which will allow you to use maximum leverage…

In this case, as long as you eat at a defect, you should lose weight. As for fasted vs. non-fasted, it shouldn't matter as long as your diet is on point. If you can fit in a pre-workout meal into your macros, then that's fine. If you'd rather eat those macros at another point in the day, that's fine too. I've done both…

One thing to keep in mind is that while beginners typically experience "newbie gains" when they start lifting, they also may develop bad motor patterns which can lead to injury in the future. It could be that your trainer is keeping the weight static not to keep you from getting stronger, but to enable you to learn the…

In this case OP, you should focus more on your diet and less on your training.

The only thing I would suggest is to not bounce the weight off the floor- this creates momentum which obviously helps to get the weight off the floor for the next rep. If you look closely at your form, the first rep is by far the best. Your back is flat, your hips are engaged and you drive the weight up through your heels.…

Yup.

I've seen some people do squats this way and even though I'd never dream of doing it, more power to them. I don't see any benefit at all, especially with heavier weights.

The volume on these workouts seems entirely excessive and a proven recipe for tendonitis. Do these programs have a proven goal such as increased strength, hypertrophy, muscular endurance, etc.? Or are they trying to cater to the bro-science crowd with super-specific terms like "Swole"? FYI- the guy in those ads is former…

True, but they slot you in to the limited categories based on age and gender.

BMI is so popular for one reason and one reason only- it's insanely easy to measure. All you need is a person's height, age, weight and gender- that's it. Doctors can calculate it with little time and less money and you don't even need to be in same hemisphere for them to do so. Conversely,stats like body fat percentage,…

I think there's a number of factors that are contributing to your problem. The first is that this undertaking is HUGE and shouldn't be underestimated. To do almost 20 miles a day for 5 days straight is putting your body under a tremendous amount of stress and the wear and tear is significant. I can't imagine anyone doing…

That depends on: a) your goals b) your diet

Any plan of theirs that neglects their free pizza needs to be disregarded completely.

This is chiropractor-speak for "Keep coming back to see me indefinitely" Go see a real doctor, preferably one with a background in sports medicine.

The main thing I would add is that your diet is going to be paramount to your success or failure. As long as that is on point and you're consistently losing, then the type and amount of activity isn't nearly as important (e.g. cardio vs. strength). The big thing to remember is that as you lose, your ability to do physical…

You're rounding your back on your deadlifts. Try bringing your hips down a little more and bringing your chest out before starting your pull- this should put your spine in a more neutral position and take more stress off of it in the process.

If it's working, keep doing it. If it's not, then change it up. No need to over-think things.

Your shoes are definitely the problem. I had a similar problem years ago with a pair of hiking boots and would get blisters and hot spots anytime I hiked more than a few miles in them, and it was even worse on backpacking excursions. I used these, which helped somewhat, but they were kinda pricey and every so often they'd…

Diet > Rep range

It looks like you're creating a bounce at the bottom of the squat in order to come out of the hole. Pause work should be more strict- squat down into the hole, pause, stand up. You're creating momentum to help yourself out, which minimizes the benefits of pause work in the first place. I also noticed that your depth is a…

A lot of it has to do with hormone production. Teenagers are still going through puberty until about 18 or so and between 18-25, testosterone production is at its highest levels. So, more test = more muscle, which is why college-age football players are generally bigger, stronger and faster than their high school…

That's probably a bad idea- the last thing you want with heavy weight on your back is to be standing on a potentially unstable surface. Especially since you're going to be walking the weight back out of the rack in order to give yourself adequate room to squat without hitting the rack. As to the original question, never,…

This is by far the best ab exercise I've found. Unlike crunches, it's much less taxing on your lower back and neck, and the movement itself is very helpful in developing overall core strength. One thing to note, though- while it's incredibly effective, this movement can be difficult at first. Don't worry if you can only do…

Since there are different supplments, there will be different purposes. I'll be the first to admit that most of them are overpriced crap that are over-marketed to the uninformed. But, that being said, there are several out there that do in fact provide serious value. Myself, I take a whey protein as a supplement to my…

The answer to both questions depends entirely on your goals. As for doing SL or any similar program, that would depend on what exercises those programs require and which equipment your gym has.

When it comes to measuring bodyfat, I prefer the military body fat method- all you need is a scale and tape measure. http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/mbf/

I ran it this past year, and second the recommendation to run it earlier if possible. I ran it at 11AM and by then, the course was a mess, partially because it rained the night before and because of the sheer volume of runners. Also, I found that most, if not all, of the obstacles had incredibly long lines, so hopefully…

I assume you mean that you're trying to buy into the whole "muscle confusion" thing, which for the most part is a myth. If you want to get a stronger bench, then bench. Same for your squat, deadlift, etc. There are TONS of programs out there for increasing strength and almost none of them require you to "change things up".…

I'm a peanut butter junkie and there's a great product called PB2, which is a powdered form of peanut butter that has all the oils and fats removed. 2TBSP is only 45 calories and I typically use half of that in my whey shakes and they taste fantastic.