Workout tips/advice?

[zaneyard]

[quote author=Duck link=topic=4342.msg160131#msg160131 date=1277314859]
ellipticals and stairmasters can be great, but if you're doing a 5k you're absolutely right in practicing on a track. You could use them for intervals before or after a run though

How do you make "stitch" or whatever go away? I'm not sure if that is what it is really called, that is what Google came up with.

When I have a better pace (more run then jog) it feels like some organ in my right side is going to tear out of my side. I have been jogging for about two weeks now, and my last run was actually a little less painful then before. Does it just get better after a point?
[/quote]
learn to control your breathing
unless you're flat out dead sprinting you don't need to be panting like a dying animal
longer deep breathes will help prevent this pain

[Totla]

[quote author=Duck link=topic=4342.msg160131#msg160131 date=1277314859]
ellipticals and stairmasters can be great, but if you're doing a 5k you're absolutely right in practicing on a track. You could use them for intervals before or after a run though

How do you make "stitch" or whatever go away? I'm not sure if that is what it is really called, that is what Google came up with.

When I have a better pace (more run then jog) it feels like some organ in my right side is going to tear out of my side. I have been jogging for about two weeks now, and my last run was actually a little less painful then before. Does it just get better after a point?
[/quote]Eventually it goes away. Just keep running. Same thing with shin splints.
It also helps if you're fully hydrated.

[zaneyard]

[quote author=Trick link=topic=4342.msg161195#msg161195 date=1277821108]
[quote author=Duck link=topic=4342.msg160131#msg160131 date=1277314859]
ellipticals and stairmasters can be great, but if you're doing a 5k you're absolutely right in practicing on a track. You could use them for intervals before or after a run though

How do you make "stitch" or whatever go away? I'm not sure if that is what it is really called, that is what Google came up with.

When I have a better pace (more run then jog) it feels like some organ in my right side is going to tear out of my side. I have been jogging for about two weeks now, and my last run was actually a little less painful then before. Does it just get better after a point?
[/quote]Eventually it goes away. Just keep running. Same thing with shin splints.
It also helps if you're fully hydrated.
[/quote]
yeah stretching and hydration help as well

[Tricks]

Encouraging to read...thank you all.

[copulatingduck]

So I've come to the conclusion that a lot of what I've been getting and attributing to shin splints is really just incredibly underdeveloped calves. I guess that's the same thing? idk. I found this which will hopefully help (only been going a week with it so who knows). Not gonna lie, I defenitely feel a burn after squatting in place for a minute or so. VFF's also leave my calves feeling demoralized, hopefully that means they're helping. Walking more than a couple miles in them can be absolutely miserable. As for the stitch: I don't get it very often at all, but I don't really push myself when I'm running. I usually just grin and bear it and eventually you can ignore it.

[copulatingduck]

i did not realize what all i needed to do to work on my broceps...


Curling

[Geoff]

i did not realize what all i needed to do to work on my broceps...


Curling

that guy has really small shoulders unless his head is huge

[matter11]

bump from the bottom of brbu.

The routine I've decided to use includes power cleans but I feel like I'd mess up the form if I didn't take a few weeks to strengthen the muscles used. would upright rows and deadlifts adequately hit all the muscles needed for power cleans?

[copulatingduck]

Deadlifts and squats would probably help you more than rows. Afaik you're not really supposed to do much at all with your arms. You're not supposed to pull the weight into the air so much as you're just supposed to just keep the barbell in position while you're legs and glutes do all the 'explosive' (oh gg buzzwords) lifting and then you vaguely tug yourself under the bar after you've humped the whole thing skyward.

Power cleans aren't as tough as you would think they are, just start light and start asap, they're an incredibly good workout.

Note: not a trainer, you could probably find people that can explain it much better than myself. I just know if done correctly, there's not supposed to be any shrugging or rowing motion to a power clean.

[zaneyard]

Deadlifts and squats would probably help you more than rows. Afaik you're not really supposed to do much at all with your arms. You're not supposed to pull the weight into the air so much as you're just supposed to just keep the barbell in position while you're legs and glutes do all the 'explosive' (oh gg buzzwords) lifting and then you vaguely tug yourself under the bar after you've humped the whole thing skyward.

Power cleans aren't as tough as you would think they are, just start light and start asap, they're an incredibly good workout.

Note: not a trainer, you could probably find people that can explain it much better than myself. I just know if done correctly, there's not supposed to be any shrugging or rowing motion to a power clean.

Ducks right. The best thing you can do to get better at cleans are by doing cleans. Just start low if you think you can't do it with proper form.

[matter11]

I've been working out for a year now. I can now (with hit or miss success) do a double clap pushup! Not easy when you're an ultra-lanky six foot 

[Eightball]

Necro, since there's no sense in using the "questions" thread if this exists.

I have a question regarding my summer workout routine. Currently I lift MWF (Chest/Tricep > Back/Bicep/Forearm > Legs/Shoulders, usually 3x6-8) and run TuThSa (usually about 2 miles, goal is 3mi/5km without resting by September), and I keep my caloric intake below 1800/day. It has been suggested that my routine is suboptimal because I am combining "strength" and "endurance" in the same routine. I'm definitely familiar with the idea of separating "bulking" and "cutting", but can someone convince me that I'm either shortchanging my muscle growth or cardiovascular conditioning by combining them?

My goals have been to decrease my body fat percentage while increasing net lean mass. So far my body weight has stayed more or less constant as I am making (gradual) increases in my lifting. I am mostly curious about if expending more energy than I take in will interfere with protein anabolism (as dietary amino acids get "directed" towards catabolism rather than building tissue), or if the body can "designate" fats for energy while preserving muscle hypertrophy.

[CaffeinePowered]

I do something similar to you, but I don't think too much into things....eat less, exercise more, get the body fat percentage down, then slowly and carefully build muscle and definition through increased caloric intake.

Ill do a stationary bike 3-4 days a week for 10-15 miles at a moderately high resistance level, then two days I'll lift, focused on either upper or lower body. Combined with walking a bare minimum of 1 mile per day has worked out rather well for me.

Ive not been focused on mass, but rather on being lean with a low body fat %. While I don't really have any evidence to back it, I think bulking routines can put you into bad habits if for whatever reason you stop working out later in life.

[Eightball]

Science to the rescue!

This review paper from a sports med journal suggests that "with respect to weight loss with exercise, higher protein and higher dairy protein in particular provide a protective effect for muscle, even allowing its accrual in certain circumstances", citing a couple of studies that looked at overweight subjects in weight loss regimes with varying protein levels. This suggests that energy deficit normally does have the effect of increasing muscle protein breakdown (MPB), which is intuitive. The body will use amino acids (including those yielded from skeletal muscle catabolism) for energy. However, both resistance and endurance exercise yields a stimulus that increases the opposing process, muscle protein synthesis (MPS). So, it's likely that the bulk of exercise-induced energy deficit cuts into fat stores rather than blocking muscle growth.

A couple other neat takeaways from that paper: MPS is stimulated by hyperaminoacidemia, especially post-workout, but this effect saturates at about 20g of protein in teenagers, and 40g in adults. Also, leucine is a known trigger for this process, which explains why whey protein is preferable to soy, and why so many protein supplements love to advertise their leucine content (not sure about glutamine though, still).

[zaneyard]

Personally, I would up your caloric intake a little bit. I'm not sure how long you've been doing this for, but I would think that you'd start to feel a little drained with that routine and intake. But, I don't know how much you weigh, etc. so 1800 might be fine for you. That said, on 1800 calories you're not going to build much. Again, I don't know your situation so if you feel like you're going in the direction that you want, keep doing what's working for you. Just keep your protein intake up.


There's some real fancy shit that you can do to try to mitigate it, but when you're cutting you're going to lose a little bit on the musculature side, and when you're bulking, you're going to gain a little bit of fat. It's up to you to find out what balance is right for you.

As someone that's read a lot about Leangains, I highly advocate it for cutting. Learning to be the master of your appetite through IF is very important if one is trying to lose weight.

As far as the combined training thing, Greg Nuckols wrote a few articles about that.

http://gregnuckols.com/2014/03/03/cardio...-long-run/
http://gregnuckols.com/2014/03/10/practi...d-lifting/
http://gregnuckols.com/2014/04/01/cardio-hypertrophy/

tl;dr: what you're doing is absolutely fine but don't burn yourself up. Glycogen isn't infinite and you're not going to do shit without it.

[Eightball]

Personally, I would up your caloric intake a little bit. I'm not sure how long you've been doing this for, but I would think that you'd start to feel a little drained with that routine and intake. But, I don't know how much you weigh, etc. so 1800 might be fine for you. That said, on 1800 calories you're not going to build much. Again, I don't know your situation so if you feel like you're going in the direction that you want, keep doing what's working for you. Just keep your protein intake up.


There's some real fancy shit that you can do to try to mitigate it, but when you're cutting you're going to lose a little bit on the musculature side, and when you're bulking, you're going to gain a little bit of fat. It's up to you to find out what balance is right for you.

Nice links, I can appreciate him citing physio studies. 1800kcal is just barely above my BMR. I will probably increase the restriction following next week and move to a more traditional bulking routine then. Hopefully I'll see more rapid increases in my weights lifted, it's getting frustrating being only able improve by a single extra rep or 2.5lb increment weekly.

I wonder what's a good way to quantify my BF%, since I don't know where to find calipers. Aiming for 10%. EDIT: nvm, found some good reference images. I'm probably sitting around 15% now.

[zaneyard]

The thing is: maybe your BMR is around 1800 but when you factor in all the exercise you're doing, you're on a huge deficit.

I'm a big fan of slow bulking. Find out what your TDEE is and eat maybe 5-10 percent above that. As long as you keep resistance training basically what will happen is you will slowly convert bodyfat into muscle (I know, it doesn't exactly work like that)

The "traditional bulk" is some bullshit people keep spewing because some steroid filled bodybuilders used to do it. There's absolutely no reason to go on a huge surplus unless you absolutely need to gain weight as fast as possible.

Hopefully I'll see more rapid increases in my weights lifted, it's getting frustrating being only able improve by a single extra rep or 2.5lb increment weekly.

That's really all on diet, recovery time, programming, and ability level. Intermediate strength programs are usually based around a 5 pound weekly increment, while beginner routines are 5 pounds per workout (if 3 times a week). I dunno much about hypertrophy progression, usually it's just 5 pounds a week but it's programmed a little differently depending on what you're trying to do.
Eat all you like, when you start hitting intermediate levels of lifts, you're going to start stalling and then it's time to think about moving to a weekly progression. When that happens is all dependent on all that shit up at the beginning of this paragraph.

[Eightball]

The thing is: maybe your BMR is around 1800 but when you factor in all the exercise you're doing, you're on a huge deficit.

I'm a big fan of slow bulking. Find out what your TDEE is and eat maybe 10 percent above that. As long as you keep resistance training basically what will happen is you will slowly convert bodyfat into muscle (I know, it doesn't exactly work like that)

The "traditional bulk" is some bullshit people keep spewing because some steroid filled bodybuilders used to do it. There's absolutely no reason to go on a huge surplus unless you absolutely need to gain weight as fast as possible.

Yeah, my estimated TDEE from just walking to/from lab and class is around 2000-2100. But after a few days of misery, I've been feeling pretty content on the amount that I'm eating. Maybe I'm just massively miscalculating my intake. I like your idea of shooting for 1.1xTDEE. Probably when I switch over I'll do about that much (will probably end up overshooting from nights out drinking). I probably misspoke when I said traditional bulk, even when I'm being a slob the idea of blendering a half dozen eggs and eating them Rocky style never crosses my mind.

And yup, so far as I know triglycerides and sterols aren't appreciably nitrogenous enough for protein synthesis.

[zaneyard]

as for calculating your intake, it gets a lot easier after a while. I used to weigh everything I made for a while but now I can just kinda estimate.

will probably end up overshooting from nights out drinking

Let's be honest here, I think we all do.
Mr. Berhkan has an article about that sort of thing, although some of it pertains specifically to LG
http://www.leangains.com/2010/07/truth-a...uscle.html

a half dozen eggs

well don't get me wrong, I eat 6 scrambled eggs a day, but it's the only good way to get protein IMO unless I find a cheap source of freshwater fish at the store.