*.* 2014 General Fitness Thread *.*

[penguinz]

Welcome to 2014! Now get your ass in top physical condition!

No one else started it so here it is!

**From the 2013 Thread**

If you want to get back into lifting, or need a new lifting routine, START HERE:

http://startingstrength.wikia.com/wi...inner_Programs

If you have questions about the SS programs, look here:

http://startingstrength.wikia.com/wiki/FAQ

Keep in mind that you're a novice lifter for a longer period of time than you think you are. Novice lifting can last anywhere from a few months to a year or two, depending on how hard you hit the weights and where you started.

Once you've reached the point where you don't make regular progress on the SS program, you are ready to move on to the intermediate stage, which can last you for a good number of years. Find it HERE:

http://madcow.hostzi.com/5x5_Program/Linear_5x5.htm

If you're a very advanced lifter (many, many years of CONSISTENT weight training), then there are lot of programs out there, and which one you pick is simply a matter of preference. If you're really that advanced, you should know what works for you and what doesn't by this point.

[el borracho]

Originally Posted by jiveturkey

Did a 1.5 hour chest/tri workout Sunday.

How did you manage to spend 1.5 hours on just chest and triceps?

[Aspengc8]

Originally Posted by el borracho

How did you manage to spend 1.5 hours on just chest and triceps?

My guess is he is 'winging' it, or just didn't tell us he spent the first 30 mins warming up, stretching and foam rolling.

[penguinz]

Originally Posted by jiveturkey

Did a 1.5 hour chest/tri workout Sunday morning followed by two rounds of disc golf, which included 6.7 miles of walking.

My shoulder is ready for a nap.

The wife talked me into disc golf a couple of weeks back and I'm loving it. It gets us outside and is something that we can do together. And you meet a lot of weirdos, which is probably what everyone says when they meet us.

You are doing it wrong.

[1moreTRich]

I've been doing intermittent fasting for over a year now and just wanted to give an update for other people thinking about trying it.

Initial post from July 2013:

Originally Posted by 1moreTRich

I'm a major lurker for this thread and just wanted to give my results after 13 weeks of intermittent fasting. Wasn't really getting into it to lose weight per say, but wanted to see if it would be sustainable program for me instead of daily calorie counting. Also, I am a chick.

My process:
24 hour fast from Sunday night approx 7pm to Monday night approx 7pm.
24 hour fast from Tuesday night approx 7pm to Wednesday night approx 7pm.
I work out approx three to four days a week with around 500 calories a day burned from that activity (running, elliptical, and/or swimming depending on my mood).
Only drank tea, water, diet soda, and diet sweet tea on my fast days.
Non fasting days I have no limits as far as overall and type of calories.

Personal Stats: I am about 5'5'' and started out around 142lbs. I have maintained my weight (142lb is 6lbs heavier than my strong high school weight when I was playing sports and in fantastic shape) throughout my adult life by working out and watching my calories.

Results: I am now at 134lbs with a noticeable difference around my waist. I have no trouble not eating on my fast days and enjoy working out on those days, right before I eat, the most. I don't feel as strong as I did previously, but I'm not sure if it a noticeable difference or if I just have a mindset that going below 136 makes me weaker. Since I do very little weight training and am not focused on strength at this time, I can't stipulate more on how it affects that. On my non-fast days I drink more soda and eat more sweets than I ever would have before fasting, but as far as weight gain goes, it does not seem to be negatively affecting me. (I would approximate I drank regular soda once a month and ate sweets twice a week before fasting, now I probably have regular soda once a week and sweets 4 times a week). I would approximate on my non fast days I am probably eating around 1.5K-2.5K calories, but that is a huge guess as I am not paying that close of attention. I do think my overall appetite has decreased from when I started and even on some of my non-fast days I find myself not really being that hungry.

This is the lowest I have weighed since I was in high school (I am 31) and I feel the overall effort has been lower than what I had to do in the past to maintain my weight. There have been weeks where I only work out 2 days and do not see huge issues or large weight gains. I feel good overall and feel that this program is a fairly simple one to maintain. I'm going to continue on with my current plan and see when my weight will start to stabilize as its been a pretty consistent .5-1lb per week loss right now.

Just thought I would share my results with those thinking about trying it and get anybody's opinion on my current plan. Again, my goal is just about maintaining a healthy weight in a relatively easy way.

Update: Right now I am back to 142 after ballooning a bit during tax season due to having to chose sleep or exercise (sleep won a lot) and not having the best eating habits. There have probably been around 4 weeks in the year+ that I did not do two days of fasting. There have also been a handful of weeks where I did 3 days of fasting. I have found that as the year went on that I couldn't just eat anything on my non-fast days without gaining back weight. I still don't necessarily count calories, but I'm not able to go completely crazy and eat anything and everything on my non-fast days. On my fast days, I have to be careful to drink water and fluids or I get a headache by 3pm. This started happening around 6 months ago and I'm not sure if there is a better way to counter act it. My exercise routine right now is two days of 1hr cycle class+a couple miles of running and two days running and lifting; some swimming will soon replace one of the lifting running days. My fast day is usually closer to 22hrs instead of 24hrs and I sometimes will switch days depending on my schedule.

My expectations are to be back in the 130s in the next couple weeks. I'm not sure I want to be back all the way to 134, but hopefully now that I am back on a good routine, both diet and exercise, I am able to get back down close within a couple months.

Anyway, just thought I would throw an update up if anyone was thinking about doing something similar.

[jiveturkey]

10 minute warm up.

Bench - 5x3 - 3 min between sets

Dips - 4x8 - 2 min

Tricep dumbbell pullovers - 4x8 - 2 min

Tri pulldown - 4x10 - 2 min

Front delt raise - 4x10 - 2 min

Side delt raise - 4x10 - 2 min

Machine chest fly 4x10 - 2 min

It always seems weird to me that it's taking 1.5 hours.

[penguinz]

Originally Posted by jiveturkey

10 minute warm up.

Bench - 5x3 - 3 min between sets

Dips - 4x8 - 2 min

Tricep dumbbell pullovers - 4x8 - 2 min

Tri pulldown - 4x10 - 2 min

Front delt raise - 4x10 - 2 min

Side delt raise - 4x10 - 2 min

Machine chest fly 4x10 - 2 min

It always seems weird to me that it's taking 1.5 hours.

You are taking way too much time in between sets. No reason to take 3 min between bench sets unless you are maxing out. 46-60 seconds and you are good.

[el borracho]

That is a lot of work for one day. And you went and threw frisbees after that? No wonder your shoulders are pissed.

[el borracho]

Originally Posted by penguinz

You are taking way too much time in between sets. No reason to take 3 min between bench sets unless you are maxing out. 46-60 seconds and you are good.

Yes, you might want to cut the rest between sets a bit... not on the sets where you are going heavy, but on the sets where you are doing higher reps you can cut the rest.

[el borracho]

And you might benefit from changing the routine a bit. Trade out some of the isolation movements (like laterals, pullovers and pushdowns) for compound movements (like overhead presses and close grip bench presses).

[luv]

If he's only doing 3 reps per set, my guess would be that he's getting up there weight-wise.

[jiveturkey]

Originally Posted by el borracho

And you might benefit from changing the routine a bit. Trade out some of the isolation movements (like laterals, pullovers and pushdowns) for compound movements (like overhead presses and close grip bench presses).

The breaks between sets were part of the 3 month program I went through. Not every week is like this and on the less complicated exercises I can definitely shorten the breaks. There's a couple of raw power weeks in there that have 5 minute breaks but there's only 4 or so exercises that week. This was just one of those weird weeks were it takes 1.5 hours.

Every week is a little different. This is what chest day looked like last week.

Bench Press negatives - 4x2 - 3 min

Dumbell bench - 4x6 - 2 min

Tricep wall dips - 4x6 - 2 min

DB shoulder press - 4x6 2 min

DB Chest flies - 4x8 - 2 min

Front shoulder raise - 4x10 - 1 min

[penguinz]

Originally Posted by jiveturkey

The breaks between sets were part of the 3 month program I went through. Not every week is like this and on the less complicated exercises I can definitely shorten the breaks. There's a couple of raw power weeks in there that have 5 minute breaks but there's only 4 or so exercises that week. This was just one of those weird weeks were it takes 1.5 hours.

Every week is a little different. This is what chest day looked like last week.

Bench Press negatives - 4x2 - 3 min

Dumbell bench - 4x6 - 2 min

Tricep wall dips - 4x6 - 2 min

DB shoulder press - 4x6 2 min

DB Chest flies - 4x8 - 2 min

Front shoulder raise - 4x10 - 1 min

Unless you are going to PR each time there is no reason to have this much rest between sets.

[el borracho]

Ah, it is a prescribed program. Which program are you doing? And how is it going?

[jiveturkey]

Originally Posted by el borracho

Ah, it is a prescribed program. Which program are you doing? And how is it going?

It was built by a trainer at my gym. The only reason I let him sell me on it is because he's a monster. There's a lot of soft ass trainers and I would pay them to hand me a towel.

I was stalled out for a long ass time following the Rippetoe Starting Strength program. It was good because I got my form down on the big lifts but after 6 months I was stuck and their resets didn't help.

I've been following this program for close to 6 months and I've had great success. I'm bigger, strong and faster and I'll be continuing with this program fo the foreseeable future.

It's basically 4 weeks of hypertrophy, 2 weeks of endurance, 4 weeks of power, 2 weeks of endurance, max out week and then you start it over.

[jiveturkey]

Originally Posted by penguinz

Unless you are going to PR each time there is no reason to have this much rest between sets.

Since I'm on my own and done the trainer led program I can certainly experiment with different times and see what happens.

For something like tricep pull downs 2 minutes isn't required. 1 minutes is plenty. For bench I do a lot better if I wait 3 minutes though. I'm trying to add weight on each set.