Today's WOD for me is a similar deal. (1/4 mile in 2 min, walk 2 min) x 6.

I'll be increasing the # of intervals each week until I get to 16. Are you increasing the # of intervals each week?

Explain proper technique of deadlift and bent-over row please! And 5x5?

Warmup is important. Stretching, not so much. Now doing specific exercises to promote and enhance flexibility (not the same thing as bending down and touching your toes to supposedly prevent an injury during workout) is worthwhile. Most people, though, waste their time with their stretching, imo.

I am about 6 feet and 160 pounds, down from 195 about a year and a half ago! All I did was just eat better and infrequently do cardio exercise. I am not overweight anymore according to the 'body mass index', however, I have a high amount of body fat and not much muscle! I am a skinny fat person!

I have heard that what serious bodybuilders and lifters will do is 'cut down' to around 10% body fat, then eat a ton of (healthy) calories every day while performing intense strength training. The calorie excess ensures the most muscle growth possible! After doing this 'bulk up', they cut back again and try to lose a lot of the fat they gained.

My plan is to follow something like what I just described! I will try to stay at approximately the same weight or lose maybe 10 more pounds while doing moderate strength training until I am more lean. Then, when I reach that goal I will eat like a crazy person while hitting the gym every day!

My problem right now though is my left shoulder. I feel a sharp spike of pain in my shoulder when I use it for almost any kind of gym activity. I also sometimes feel it when I reach or carry something in daily life! In fact, my whole left arm is weaker than my right, maybe because I have been favoring the other arm.

A doctor told me that my rotator cuff has some inflammation and told me to take Aleve every day for two weeks. It's been almost two weeks and I haven't done anything with that shoulder, except sometimes move my arm around to see how it feels. It doesn't feel much different!

Should I go back to the doctor? Try some kind of rehabilitation exercise? Just pretend I only have one arm?

Type in "Madcow 5x5" to google man, you should find the exact written out routine. bodybuilding.com has an exercise page that show you the form on most lifts.

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

http://www.bodybuilding.com/exercises/

So, would be a healthier lunch be tuna in a tortilla with jalapenos?!

Sorry for the questions.. just wondering.

Sitting at 340 calories so far today.

I'm a big guy, so proportions are going to be the bane of me.

Again, if you are in your 20s or 30s you may not understand the importance of stretching. As we age though flexibility becomes much more important as our muscles lose their range of motion and become weaker. Strength training and flexibility/stretch training should go hand in hand.

I think physical therapists, yoga teachers, pilates instructors, etc. would disagree with your assertion of stretching being worthless. Of course, this attitude does guarantee a boom of future business for all of the aforementioned. Not to mention big pharma.

Tuna on a daily basis is a little questionable due to mercury content. And healthier than what? If your main goal is just to lose weight, it's calories in vs. calories out. That's it. Now you'll get more "bang for your buck" out of certain foods as far as the way you feel.

Nutrition is extremely industry and trend driven, so it's a pretty huge debate when you start talking about healthy eating.

Dieselcrew.com has great technique videos.

For 5x5, look at first post.

Stretching is good. I do it before every workout, after my warmup. However, you don't need to go overboard with it. For most muscle groups, 15-30 seconds per day is all that is needed. However, a lot of lifters still need a lot of mobility work, especially in the shoulder and hip areas, so they need to stretch there a lot more and concentrate on that as much as their lifting. It will improve form and prevent injury.

Some foam rolling helps, too.

Scientific studies show that they do not gain a ton of muscle while doing this. Some muscle, absolutely. But for advanced lifters, it's not any more than they could build while following a diet that provides enough energy to build muscle but not so much that they store fat. It eliminates the need to yo yo in weight all the time.

Don't do that. Start your serious strength training NOW. You WILL lose weight. Get about 120g of protein, 1800-2000 cals per day, and you'll lose fat and build muscle. After you have done that, THEN you can start eating like a horse and trying to build a lot more muscle. Start your Starting Strength program immediately. No need to hit the gym every day, either. 3 times per week is optimal on a good program like the 5x5.

YES.

I had two tortillas, with grilled chicken, jalapenos on it. With a green tea, plus an orange. According to my math I'm at 840 calories, not including dinner and my workout later.

I have been working on Praying and fasting. I am down 40 pounds from a couple years ago. I have been walking to help cope with life. I am averaging 45 minutes approx walking per day 5:15 to 6:00 feeling really good. I try to listen to or read about how excersize and eating correctly help you. Really focus on the "high" you get after you work out. Overall I am happier than ever, and look around at heavier people and I thank God I am not there anymore.

I think he meant stretching prior to a workout as a warm up. I agree with your post. I do yoga and consider it a workout on its own. I thought he was saying that static stretching prior to lifting is worthless as a warm up.

Got some Tommy Kono knee sleeves today. Damn these are tight as shit. Hopefully they will help stabilize everything for me and possibly even be better for my hips. I am willing to try anything for my hips as nothing so far has really helped much.

Probably should have asked this before I bought it.

But today bought "White Flood." Need a good pump, but I'm not a big fan of creatine. Anyone try this before?

I've tried it before, I felt like I got a good pump from it and equally compared energy wise to other preworkouts.

The "pump" is useless and does nothing for muscle building.

Creatine does.

There's no other alternative? Because creatine tends to give me headaches.

Creatine is one of the only supplements that does what it says it will -- help you build muscle. But it's not a deal breaker. I wouldn't worry about it.

That's what I use for a pre-workout since I'm not a fan of the 1,3 dimeth stims in stuff like Jack3d. I don't know if it gives me much of a pump, but it's a nice clean pick me up before hitting the gym. I like that taste as well.

L-Arginine and Beta Alainine are the main things that will give you that pump in the gym so you can just buy them individually and give it a try. It doesn't last long, but it's still fun to swoll up for a bit.

You probably need to up your water consumption.

Finally able to do full pistols to the floor and back up. Yay for hip mobility, balance, and strength.

Used no2 which I think is basically that. That did help me but you're right, it sort of wore off halfway through.

White flood and any pre-workouts are just designed to provide you stimulants for increased "energy" and maximize blood flow to the muscles. Likely no real muscle building effects, unless this stimulants helps you do more work in the gym. I definitely use pre-workouts a few times a week when I feel sluggish before hitting the gym.

Add some cheap creatine-monohydrate to that White Flood. How much water were you drinking when you were taking that creatine? Anything else you would take that would have diuretic properties that could cause those headaches?

There is proof that caffeine does increase strength slightly while lifting weights. But like TG said and what I was trying to say earlier "You guys sweat some small shit". If WF or a stim gets your ass to the gym and you like it (like I do) then go for it. Over analyzing everything will turn counter productive most of the time for the casual person.

It should last a little after the workout. It's not going to make you bigger or stronger in the long run, but if you liked looking a little more pumped up for a short time do it. Whatever motivates you to workout.

Couldn't agree more. Do what it takes to get to the gym and bust ass, whatever that may be.

I'm loaded up on pre-workout for awhile, I got 50 servings of no-xplode in with an extra 10 serving container of it. Then bodybuilding.com threw in 5 packs of c4 extreme each 2servings apiece.

UP

Cool. Thanks. It was probably the water. Good idea on adding some cheap creatine.

^

I screwed up my back doing deadlifts & now I'm doing physical therapy. I really hate being hurt. On the bright side, physical therapy has been going well.

I changed up to just doing 1 leg deadlifts with a dumbbell. It just isn't worth the risk anymore.

That's what the back doc suggested, but I've been having a lot of fun doing crossfit & deadlift is a big part of it.

So, I've found an alternative for pop.

I've been buying the flavored water from walmart. It's 64 cents. No calories, sugars, fat. But, it has Aspartame - which I've heard isn't the best for my body.

Thoughts?

Concerns about aspartame are overblown. Have at it.

So, obviously no calories, sugars, fat --- this a great alternative to poop and juice?

I would think anything would be a great alternative to poop and juice.

Concerns about poop and juice are overblown. Have at it. :LOL:

LMAO it's apart of the new Shitkins diet.

My daily workouts are in the morning. Usually I'll start my (mostly cardio) workout about an hour after a small breakfast. Would I be better workout first, then eat breakfast? If I workout after a meal, how long should i wait before I start?

Between last night and this morning I downed a whole box of BTN Chocolate Chunk cookies, i feel great.

So a lot of the time, after doing an elliptical or treadmill for 30 minutes, my legs will feel tired! This even will last into the next day. If I do the treadmill sometime I will feel muscle soreness...This is fine and doesn't really bother me. But what if I wanted to do real leg exercises with weights? I guess it's not a problem? Or should I just wait a while until I am better adapted to the cardio training?

I switched to fasted training this past summer and love it. I sometimes don't even eat anything all day, train at 4 pm, then eat all my calories between 6-11 pm. If I have a morning workout I don't eat anything until after I am done.

Ditto. I feel really bloated and sluggish when I've eaten that day. When I'm in a fasted state, I feel lean, mean and (to go paleo with it)... hungry. Like, I'm training and my body is saying, "Hunt hunt hunt."

I had a horrifying thought earlier today. That I would be found dead on my living room floor after attempting to do more than 50 consecutive mountain climbers, and after thorough investigation, the forensics guy determined that before suffering cardiac arrest, I was "Tebowing".

It doesn't matter when you eat, really. If you want to wait and eat after your workout, that's fine. If you don't, as long as you're not having stomach cramps from eating and exercising too soon, you're good to go. As long as you are controlling total calorie intake, meal timing isn't important.

Fasted training kicks ass.

Physical therapy sucks. I am sooooo frustrated with this shit!

started back up after a week off tonight I hit chest/tris. I'm going to start hitting a more structured workout though.
main lifts: bench, squat, overhead press, barbell rows

sunday: legs/abs
monday: off
tuesday: off
wednesday: shoulders/triceps
thursday: back
friday: off
satruday: chest/biceps

Because of my soccer schedule, I can't do squats as much as I'd like. My knees just don't have the recovery time for them.

So, I just switched out squats and deads in Madcow's 5x5. Deads are much easier on the knees for me.

M/F: Deads, Bench, Clean
W: Squat, Military Press, Weighted Pull-ups

What would you use a $50 gift card from bobybuilding.com for?

I just missed the 405 incline last monday but I was tired as ****. Will do it tonight and I think it's money in the bank.

That's a lot of ****ing weight. Good luck.

Depends on your goals.

Same as everyone else. To look like Arnold when he was winning all those Mr Olympia titles.

you need some dbol and winny then

Gonna have to search different site than bb.com to achieve that.

Sorry, BB.Com got raided for selling hormones a year or two ago.

:) Just can not decide if I want to go with protein powder or something else.

Hit the 405 incline tonight. Then did 315x9 and 7 afterwards. Now to cruise for a few weeks until I start prepping for the meet in April.

Can I neg rep you in jealousy?

I can do 315x5















deadlift.

I think you mentioned it before, but how old are you? I was thinking late 30's.

Beast.

I hit 405 incline the other night in my sleep. /average CP stud

I don't even dream that high in my sleep :huh:

Well when you have a 9 inch cock and **** super models on the daily you learn to dream big. /still an average CP stud

Only 9"? I feel sorry for those lacking in that area.

Oh thanks BCD. I will be 37 this coming weekend. Not looking forward to it.

Though I will say everything that has ever been said about strength and age is true. You hit your strength prime in your late 30's and early 40's.

That's one of the beautys of getting old is you get that "old man" strength. The guy in my gym that one the NPC Missouri overall is probably around 45. It's pretty inspiring as you do get older to see somone 13 years old in that kind of shape.

I have another PT appointment today. I want to be done with this crap!

Yup. The strongest raw guy walking the face of the earth right now is Stan Efferding and he's 44 I believe.

****. Dislocated my shoulder last night after a hard tackle in soccer. The other guy hit me (he got the worst of the actual collision), but we both hit the ground. I landed awkwardly on my shoulder and it popped out and right back in. Not too bad, but it's stretched out the ligaments so that I won't be able to lift other than squats for about a week or two.

Really ****ing sucks, as I was just getting into the meat of my training schedule.

Man you've really been catching it the last year or so.

Guardian, 36-40 was my strongest years, didn't get 405 bench on my 40th birthday, so I backed off. Now at 44 I do Crossfit mainly, but still go to the other gym once a week to work on some things we don't do a CF.

I should hit 500 close grip in the next year. My guess is by 42 or so I have a 700 raw squat, 525 bench and 750 deadlift.

It's my own damn fault. Playing 5 days a week with college kids while I'm at 31 years old is bound to catch up with me sometime!

Awesome numbers! I'm living through my 16 year old now, got him going in the right direction and he is doing awesome. He did 405 squat, 475 DL, 275 clean and 275 bench about a month ago!