charlesmauch Member

If my salt/potassium intake gets hugely imbalanced, I gain water weight like crazy. If I eat a bunch of extra carbs on top of a salt imbalance, I'll sometimes see a change of more than 10lbs over a 24 to 48 hour period. If I get my diet back in line, I'll see the weight return to "normal" over a few days. Ignore the…

Actually, I'd say animal organs like liver are probably more nutrient dense than just "meat". But liver tastes awful, otherwise I'd probably eat lots of it.

Bodyweight in lbs* .6 = ounces of fluid to consume daily. That or keep drinking until you pee mostly clear 5x a day.

You could carb-backload (I think that's what it's called). I noticed a while ago when I would have a huge cheat-meal for dinner before an AM training session the next day my performance would skyrocket. Now I typically just eat a bunch of rice/oats/etc before I go to sleep. In the morning before hitting the gym I'll…

Even with a large calorie deficit, if you keep your protein intake high (at least above 1 to 1.25g/lb of lean mass) and lift heavy you probably won't loose much muscle if any. I've run with a 20 to 25% deficit with no problems. I only run into health problems when I let my overall calorie intake edge close to or under BMR.…

Coffee or a Caffeine Pill and half a bottle of whey protein pre-workout. Creatine Hydrocloride (and the other half bottle of whey protein) post-workout because creatine monohydrate gives me digestion problems. Otherwise I'd go with the monohydrate version (it's cheaper).

See this wikipedia article.

I train in the AM, and eat very lightly on all days with the exception of the night before a training session. I noticed a long time ago when I would "cheat" / chow down on pizza / hamburgers the evening before lifting, my performance would skyrocket the next morning. So I recently started doing that intentionally (sort…

Power Cleans. There's just something inherently awesome about picking up a heavily loaded barbell and racking it on your shoulders. I like Deadlifts and Squats too.

Skipping is a lot of fun, I tend to use it as a general warmup tool. I also show up at the gym at least once a week and do some rope work as a conditioning tool. When I go all out with the rope, I can usually "sprint" for about 100 swings, rest and repeat several times. By the time I hit 1000 to 1200 swings I'm pretty much…

I like to take a bunch of sliced turkey, spread some fat-free or low-fat cream cheese on it, and then wrap the "meat sandwich" around a dill pickle. I think it's yum.

I've fooled with online calculators to try and figure this stuff out, and was never convinced that I should be eating as much as they indicated. Eventually I just started tracking what I ate and calculated my own TDEE, which is pretty simple to do. Log what you eat for 2 weeks, which you should be doing already here. Add…

The only thing I can think of (hormone-wise) is that when you exercise for an extended period of time (especially long-duration cardio without proper fueling) your adrenaline gland starts producing cortisol, which is the "stress" hormone. Cortisol's job is to increase blood sugar through gluconeogenesis, to suppress the…

I got tired of the online calculators too. You can do this instead (since your tracking calories anyway). Add up all the calories you ate for the past two weeks. Now add 3500 to that number for every pound you lost (or subtract 3500 for every pound you gained). Now divide the total 14 (two weeks). This is your TDEE based…

I have never noticed that eating in the morning would affect my training sessions one way or the other. Well, there's the obvious stuff like eating a huge meal prior (makes me sluggish) or chugging coffee. :) My best morning workouts always tend to be when I pig out the night before. When I chow down on hamburgers or pizza…

I just started doing this last cycle. It has really helped me get through the first-set-last work while feeling fresh. This is an awesome variation to the programming.

I added up all the calories I ate for 15 days. Then I added 3500 calories for every pound I lost during that time (about 2lbs, so I added 6000 to that figure). If you gain weight, subtract 3500 calories for every pound you gain. Divide the total by the number of days tracked (15) and you have your TDEE which includes your…

I like to jump rope when I walk into the gym cold. Takes me about 5 minutes. If it's 85 degrees outside or I've been walking around for more than a couple of blocks, I'll sometimes just skip a general warmup. But I never never skip warmup reps for compound lifts. That's just asking to get hurt. Running through warmup sets…

I do the same thing. Small breakfast usually consisting of oatmeal mixed with protein powder, and maybe a donut, or a banana, or some other quick carbs (and coffee). 30 minutes later I hit the gym. I'll usually slam a shake after working out, and then absolutely pig out for lunch. I probably eat 50 to 60% of my calories…

I alternate sprint distances (I sprint twice a week after squatting & deadlifting). 40yds and 100yds has worked for me. I don't bother timing it. But if your going to time intervals, 7 seconds for 40yards, and maybe 15-18 seconds for 100 yards seem like reasonable goals at those distances. Getting under those numbers will…

Just slowly work up to it. Start with a jog up the hill/walk back down for a few weeks, then run up/walk down, and slowly increase your tempo. Eventually you'll be going up that hill as fast as you can. STOP sprinting when you no longer feel explosive and fluid. If your look like gumby and wobble all over the place as you…

5/3/1 for main compound movements, 4 days a week. I try and keep it simple. Every Day: Walking at a minimum for 2 miles, I usually get more in. All Workouts: 500 reps Speed Rope for General Warmup Tuesday: Overhead Press + DB Bench + Chins + Jump Rope Conditioning (at least 1000 reps) Wednesday: Power Cleans + Deadlifts +…

I always thought that too. But they're usually not off by more than a couple of percentage points if your putting the correct values in. My (calculated) TDEE is for example is currently 3733 calories, and the scooby tdee calculator has me at 3725. I still like calculating my own numbers. :)

Run the program for 2 weeks or so, add up all the calories you ate in that time, add 3500 lbs for every lb you loose (or subtract 3500 for every lb you gain), divide that number total by the days you've tracked, and you'll have your TDEE for those 2 weeks, which includes your workouts.

I used to do a lot of cardio. I eventually got really bored with it and now I just do some hard conditioning at least 3x a week (hill sprints/stadium stairs/speed rope) and made it a point to simply walk at least 2 miles a day for my cardio and to help with recovery. I've learned to love lifting. It's incredible stress…

I take a programmed deload week every 7th week. If I go longer than that I start to feel beat-up and my joints/tendons don't seem to recover well from the beating they take from 6 weeks of squatting and hill sprints/speed rope work.

This is incredibly simple (I love it).

Lower Body Days: I wear ratty cotton T's or muscle shirts. I get pretty sweaty and the fancy wicking fabric tends to cause the barbell to slide around a bit on my back when there is a lot of weight there. Switching to cotton helped a bit. Sweat shorts are super cheap and stretchy and don't get in the way when I'm…

I started out like probably everybody else by walking... a lot. It helped strip fat off like crazy in the beginning. I lost enough weight that a few months ago that I decided to add running to my weekly routine. It was a mistake. I continued to loose weight as I was still eating at a caloric deficit, but running (or any…

If your not consuming a decent amount of omega-3 fatty acids, (I pop a couple of 1200mg fish oil pills a day), try adding them to your diet. I couldn't believe the difference those little pills helped with recovery. They won't eliminate DOMS much, but they'll reduce the amount of time you have to deal with it. There are…