Getting fit with SwordsMaster

[SwordsMaster]

Those are the main issues - healthy eating is the hardest one.

[Kagemusha]

One tip for snacks if you eat such.Try having different kinds of nuts as snacks. Very good nutrition value, lots of protein and good fat, low carb. Excellent stuff for small fillers.

[SwordsMaster]

Replaced the morning routine with a steady every day 50 pushups, 50 kettlebell swings (found my 16kg at home) and 50 situps of different varieties. Any more than that I don't have time for before work.

Continuing with my 3 day split - doing 3 days in a row - legs, push, pull, then take a break for a day or use it to do smaller stuff (arms or shoulders, or specific moves) Had a couple of shoulder injuries in the past 2 years, so range of motion still a bit limited, so trying to do some stretching, and specific holds to restore functionality. Started rock climbing again last week, so doing that on thursdays.

Starting to feel the difference - strength is improving, and cardio recovery time is also, so my sprinting is starting to pay off somewhat. Let's see if I can start reducing the belt size!

[naut]

How regularly do any of you get injured? I know I have some muscular imbalances, that I've been working to correct, which cause me injury. In the past I've had a grade three groin strain (most painful thing I've ever done to myself), and presently I've damaged the lateral meniscus of my left knee.

I was wondering if I was alone in getting wear and tear?

[SwordsMaster]

Not alone - had a bad couple of years for my shoulders in 2011, and 2012 - still haven't recovered the full range of motion, and the scapula is very weak which affects a range of things including posture during lifts, etc. Had some serious hamstring injuries a few years back - had to stop playing rugby, and only recovered full flexibility last year with lots of stretching... Let it heal, don't rush into things, get a good physio's advice, and be gentle. Stretching, balancing and postural exercises are key to recovering. What sport are you in? Whatever you do it's good to watch bodybuilders train, they have incredibly developed feeling for what muscle is being contracted and works in any possible exercise and have some good advice on overcoming injuries. At the end of the day if you're squatting 360 kg you can get injured quite easily.

If you're interested, Kai Greene has a series of videos on youtube called 'Train with Kai' that are very interesting to watch to observe both his technique and mental process. He's one of the world's top 5 bodybuilders.

[SwordsMaster]

90 Kg /198 lb yesterday. Feeling stronger, squat is 120kg already, deadlift at 140 kg, and went from sets of 8 on the pullup to sets of 12. Also recovery time has improved significantly with HIIT.

So naturally I celebrate by binging... Took a cheat day yesterday, had 5 pints of Guinness while watching Ireland win their 6 Nations game, and stuffed myself with all sorts of things bad for me. Had a hamburger for breakfast, so you can imagine. About half way from my April target and 4-5 more kg to go, but finally feeling like this might actually happen.

Anyway, just thought I'd share.

[Myth]

I've been working out with a personal trainer for close to 3 years now. I have gains and he is really doing his best - he is giving me weights and crossfit (gymnastic) and a good amount of cardio, but I have trouble losing excess pounds due to my sub-par eating habits (especially in winter) and also due to the fact that I did not exercise during my early teenage years and was quite chubby back then.

Some of the things I do I was surprised to see in the videos here: http://popworkouts.com/gerard-butler-300-workout/ though obviously the results these guys got were due to the 4 hours a day/6 days a week training for 4 months.

How much do you train per week? How do you manage it if you have a day job? What are your eating habits?

[Myth]

Oh, now i saw SwordsMaster's thread. Please merge.

[Vuk]

I work out by lifting deep dish pizzas to my mouth three times a day.

[rvg]

Weights + cardio + starvation.

Works like a charm.

[SwordsMaster]

....aaaaand so I celebrated too early. Back to 92 kg/201 today... Not sure if muscle or fat, but considering my awful eating over the weekend i'd say it's not muscle. Did well on the deadlifts today, but had a half-session yesterday at best, the gym was so busy i couldn't get to the bars at all. Legs are starting to feel injureable, specially the hamstrings, so I will take a day off on thursday to aid recovery. Chest day tomorrow, so legs should be fine. Kicking myself a bit for no having kept up the diet over the weekend. Felt like a break was deserved, but the weight gain over a day or two of weakness is definitely not worth it. Stepped up the cardio and intervals today.

A bit more on my 'cardio':

I do two things, one per day, as if you do it properly you wouldn't be able to do another one.
The Lane of Pain: This consists of sets of 6x30 yard sprints (literally running the length of a basketball court, touching the wall, and sprinting back without stopping). I rest 20 sec between sets, and plan to go down to 10 sec as I get fitter. And I repeat this 6 times, so it works out like 6x(6x30m + 20 sec) total time works out at under 5 min of total exercsise. If you can't taste blood in your lungs after you're not really trying. this I do when the basketball court at the gym is free, or the weather is nice enough to do this outside in the parking lot.

The Pyramid of Doom: This is a treadmill exercise for the days when the Lane of Pain conditions aren't met in terms of available running space. Usually I end up doing 2-3 of each of each every week. In this one you get on a treadmill and set a nice jogging pace. I usually go for 11kph or about 7-8mph. Set the inclination to 0. After 1 minute, change in inclination to 2. After another minute, to 4. Then 6, then 8. Hold on at 8 for a minute, then descend to 6 for another minute, 4 for another one, then 2, then 0 until you recover your breath. the whole thing takes 5 min going up and 4 coming down so 9 min. Feel free to increase the speed as you want.

The HARDCORE Ironman HEAVY METAL Pyramid of Doom: This is more of an aspiration at the moment, but I used to manage it in my rugby days. Basically, as above, set a jogging speed on the treadmill, then spend 2 min on each level of inclination, and go from 0 to 10 instead of from 0 to 8. The burn is quite significant.

[Strike For The South]

Weights + cardio + starvation.

Works like a charm.

No

No it doesn't

[Strike For The South]

I used to get injured all the time. The only thing that sticks with me is a nasty jumpers knee (left). Although thats probably due to the excess weight

[SwordsMaster]

So lock up your children, pregnant women, servants, and people of nervous dispositions. Its time for BEFORE and AFTER pics

[Fragony]

I fight bare-knuckle full contact. Not a good way to get into shape but gawd it's fun. Current status, wounded.

[Sigurd]

Working out doesn't really help you losing weight. If that is your goal: consumption > intake. Working out gives you better health, stamina and strength. But will only account for around 20% of a weight loss.
Watching what you eat accounts for 80%.
So... If your goal is to simply lose weight - stop snacking. Eat healthy small meals often.
If you want fast results - eat smaller portions of breakfast, lunch and dinner and start your fast at around 8 pm and don't eat snacks in between meals. (you don't even need to exercise). This method reduces my weight with around 1 kg a week.

The body burns around 2000 cal a day (give or take depending on the individual).
Tests has shown that burning calories during exercise is quite different from person to person and female vs male. Testing a male on a treadmill he only burned 70 cal after 30 min of hard running.
(working with the largest muscles usually gives the best energy consumption - we have the largest muscles below our waist)

Snacking between meals on e.g. a few chocolate bars could add as much as 3500 cal a day to your intake.

[Raz]

Why does Myth ask to merge the thread when he's a moderator that could merge it himself? Unless I'm missing something.

[rvg]

Starving yourself will blah bla blah....

It works for me. In fact it works great for me. Your mileage may vary.

[SwordsMaster]

Starving yourself will slow up your metabolism. Combine that with weights and cardio and you're going to hurt yourself and then gain a ton of weight while you're recovering from your injury.

However, if you're eating a bunch of small healthy meals throughout the day (An apple and a bowl of not-too-sugary oatmeal, for example; or a bowl of steamed veggies and rice without a bunch of super sweet sauces and junk) can sometimes feel like you're starving if you're used to gorging on restaurant portions.

*And if you already have a bad or moderately bad diet and you think just working out is going to make you lose weight, think again. Its easy to pack on 10 pounds of muscle from working out and 10 pounds of fat from eating big high protein and high fat meals every day. Sure, at some point the muscles might pop through the fat, but not before you've put on a lot more weight than you wanted and started eating better anyway.

That being said, there seems to be some evidence that periodic starvation does seem to work. I've experimented before with 16:8 intervals where you are only allowed water for 16 hours a day, and eat all your meals (still aiming at 2000-2400 cal) within an 8 hour window. Unfortunately it's hard to keep that going with frequent travelling... But it does make you feel lighter - this is purely subjective. I reckon a 3-4 week trial period should give you answers. But, as GC says, eat clean. No refined sugars, processed meat, processed bread, glucose syrups etc.

[Myth]

I'm a moderator for my assigned fora. For everything else I'm more or less a regular member (minus the infractions and ban options), thus I can't merge threads in someone else's turf.

I don't eat bad stuff and I don't have mini-meals between major ones, but I do take in more carbs than I should (some baked products and some sweets). I also eat late in the evening, as I finish work at 6 PM, i go to the gym and am home at around 9. So I eat at 9:30 PM the earliest.

Also, let's differentiate between intermittent fasting and starvation. The former means starting your meals at 7 AM and finishing at around 4 PM with a fruit. You do get all the necessary calories from quality foods however. The latter is random and it just places stress on your organism and might make you weaker and cause you to lose muscle mass.

The best success I've had is with an intermittent fasting regime where my calories came from oatmeal, green leafy veggies, boiled eggs, chicken fillet and tuna, and washed down with grapefruit/orange fresh (not boxed juice crap). That almost popped my abs out in 2 months but then I quit the program like a weakling.

I train 2-3 times a week. Sometimes more if I don't travel on the weekend. I'm thinking that improving my diet once the fresh spring veggies come out here (glasshouse plants taste awful) and striving for 4-5 training sessions per week (averaging at around 1 and a half hours)

The sleep deprivation issue I read in the other thing is also a problem for me, because I regularly sleep around 6 hours per day or even less, due to the stupid addicting PC. I'll have to improve that as well, as it turns out it really affects performance and weight gain.

[naut]

When I'm not injured and/or travelling. Football (UK edition). Sandbags. Endless calories.

[rvg]

Starvation works, its just a really bad choice is all...

It's a great choice. I've been starving for a little over a year now, it's awesome.

[Crazed Rabbit]

I've been working out with a personal trainer for close to 3 years now. I have gains and he is really doing his best - he is giving me weights and crossfit (gymnastic) and a good amount of cardio, but I have trouble losing excess pounds due to my sub-par eating habits (especially in winter) and also due to the fact that I did not exercise during my early teenage years and was quite chubby back then.

Some of the things I do I was surprised to see in the videos here: http://popworkouts.com/gerard-butler-300-workout/ though obviously the results these guys got were due to the 4 hours a day/6 days a week training for 4 months.

How much do you train per week? How do you manage it if you have a day job? What are your eating habits?

I have a straightforward way to lose weight:

Determine your total daily energy expenditure; Google or search for "TDEE calculator". This will give you multiple results where you can enter your weight/height/age/activity level and it will give an educated guess as to the calories you burn per day. For the modern office worker sort of position, where you maybe walk around a little, the activity level will be sedentary. Exercise will increase this but not by as much as you think. Jogging three miles may only burn ~350 calories. You can calculate your sedentary TDEE and then add calories burnt in specific exercises. You can look up more calculators to determine what specific exercises burn.

Count calories of absolutely everything; You should within 5% how many calories you're eating. Look at the package, measure and weight things. If you eat five skittles, count that. If you don't know exactly then estimate the calories liberally by checking skittle nutritional info online.

Eat 500 calories under your TDEE every day to lose a pound/week. A pound of fat is roughly 3500 calories. 7x500=3500. Get there by not snacking, eating stuff like vegetables that are filling but not high calorie, and not drinking your calories.

Weight is lost mainly through your diet, not by exercising more.

The total amount of calories means much more than what type of calories or where they come from. Do try to balance carbs, fats, and protein generally, but the total amount is key.

CR

[SwordsMaster]

...aaand the gym membership expired! Damn! need to find a new gym now!

[Jarmam]

Greatest thread ever. Especially the first page.

[SwordsMaster]

Thanks Jarmam!

Found new gym. And started doing intermittent fasting - 16 hours fast every day except Saturdays, so i only eat between lunch and 8pm. So I'm 89 kg now. Running 2 miles every day.

[naut]

SwordsMaster I'm beginning to feel your pain. Travelling and staying in shape do not go together!

[SwordsMaster]

True! But, you can definitely mitigate the effects with a little preparation and discipline.

[drakey]

Currently just started. Watching those mike chang videos on youtube :p

[SwordsMaster]

Currently just started. Watching those mike chang videos on youtube :p

Bah, man's a poser. If you want to see strength, eyeball C.T. Fletcher.Or Bill Kazmaier