Health & Fitness, I think this is a first...... Options

[Robert]

This may be the 1st Health and fitness type post in MOBclan's 5+ year history.
Which is kind of interesting all by itself seeing as how varied the topics tend to be.

A person at the gym recommended a fitness site to me a few month ago.
So now I'm passing on the suggestion.
If anyone is interested in general fitness/weight lifting.
You should give this site a look
http://stronglifts.com/page/2/
It's a fitness/weight lifting blog with tons of great information.

The whole site is built surrounding whats called
StrongLifts 5×5 ( 5 sets of 5 reps )
http://stronglifts.com/stronglifts-5x5-beg...aining-program/
While this is contradictory to most lifting routines, a lot of people have had great results following this guide.

My history.
40 years old.
A little over 2 years ago I decided to get serious about my health.
The 1st thing I did was stop smoking.
Which always tends to put on some weight.
Right about that same time I switched jobs, going form a labor intensive production job to a desk job.
So within a few months after I quit smoking, I had the predictable 15 lbs spare tire around my midsection.
A few months after that I started jogging and hitting the gym to get the weight off
Not real seriously but I was trying.
After about 3 months of working out, my endurance level was up but I still had my spare tire.
So I took the next step, signed up for a mini triathlon to help get me motivated.
5 mile run, 1 mile swim. 20 mile bike.
Needless to say, I thought I was going to die.
It was a real humbling experience, seeing a 65 year old pass me by without breaking a sweat.
Not to mention the overweight soccer mom who did the swim in half my time.

So I turned up the intensity of my workouts but I still wasn't happy with the results.
Just as I was about to get rid of my spare time, lighting strikes.
I developed small tears in my Achilles tendon.
Something which still hasn't healed all the way.
It forced me to switch from mostly cardio to more weight lifting.
I spent the next 5-6 months hitting the weights pretty steady.
With very small gains and the tire started to come back
One day I just happen to mention to the person who was using the squat rack right before me that my goal was to NOT need to remove weights after he used it.
He was a average size guy but was squatting 80lbs more than my norm.
He laughed, said that was never going to happen because I was doing it wrong.
He was real nice about it, gave me some tips and recommended I start over using the
StrongLifts 5×5 guide.
Long story short.
In 14 weeks after switching to this and using the information available on the site, I easily passed my initial gains which took me close to 6 months to do the 1st way..
In the same period I haven't lost a single pound but have dropped 3 inches from my waist.
So I'm slowly converting any excess fat to muscle.

Doing 5x5 has shown great results for me.
Not claiming to be a body builder by any means. In fact, size wise I can't really tell any difference except I'm missing my spare tire.
The real change is I'm definitely stronger than I have probably ever been.
I'm on pace to hit the magic number of squatting 2x my weight in the next few weeks.

Sorry for the long read, just thought I should offer some background.
BTW if anyone does this, post back with your results.
Or for that matter, share any fitness/lifting info you have.

[Blitz]

Back in my youth (13 to 20) I spent time with some older family and friends building weight lifting equipment for a gym we had setup... I mean a lot of equiment
Cable crossover, lat machine, pec-deck, hack racks, row machines and a ton of benches.

Being a younger member of the "gym" I learned a lot from the serious body builders.
One of the things we would do would be to stagger our workouts and lift light weights with a lot of reps for a couple of months, then heavier weights for a couple of months.

It seemed to help break up that wall that we would hit were progress was not being made. The other thing that seemed to help was that if we were doing a specific excercise for a body part we would switch the routine out.
Ex. If we were doing flys withfree weights for the pecs on the light schedule, the next time we were on the light schedule we would use the pec deck or cable crossover machine.

For what it's worth that's what I remember, it worked for me and the change of pace maybe just what you needed.

Those were te good old days without the stress of work, home improvements, bills and life in general.

I really need to start working out to burn off these beers I keep drinking, the eating less plan is just not working.

[realdeal]

Congrats Druid! Keep up the good work!

[Robert]

You only say that because you think I'm trying to get buff for you,
but I told you it's over, it's time to move on.....

[realdeal]

You only say that because you think I'm trying to get buff for you,
but I told you it's over, it's time to move on.....

For you...

http://www.clamlips.com/pointto/you.wav

[Bargod]

Druid, I haven't looked at the5x5 yet, but I will and I look forward to it.
It looks to me that we hit the same conclusion at about the same time. I quit smoking about 2 1/2 years ago and changed my diet and started working out.
The biggest difference came from taking out as much trans fat and as much high fructose corn syrup from my diet as I could. when I started this I was pushing 230. I didn't start because of my weight, really. I started for a couple of reasons, one being my health. I've got crohn's disease, which is an intestinal disease. I had an abscess in my intestines about 6 months after I started "getting in shape". Everything had been going well health-wise, but I figured my wife goes to the YMCA to work out, I should too.
Anyway, I get the abcess and the Doc gives me news that things are taking a turn for the worse and that happens at the same time I find out how bad trans fats and HFCS are for you. So, the whole family does it's best to change it's diet. Not really change what we eat, but get the slightly more expensive, but healthier versions.
The difference is that I'm now 180 lbs. at 6'1".
I plan on adding mass. If it weren't for the Crohn's I'd probably be a beast. The way I was eating and working out in highschool nobody understood why I wasn't getting bigger muscle-wise. We had trainers from Ohio State come and consult with us on our workout programs. These guys saw me get stronger and ovesaw my eating and didn't get why I wasn't gaining mass. It was because I was malnurished. The food I ate passed through me without giving off the essential bits.
Anyway, I'm healthy now and gaining a bit in size based mostly on my old highschool routine. It's not as intense as highschool, but I don't have the patience or time (well, just the patience, probably) to do the full routine I really need to do.
I know several professional trainers and have gotten varied advice about what I should be doing.
A guy I met most recently (about 6 months) tells me that the protien powder drinks I'm taking after the workout are just helping me lose weight, not gain mass.
He recommends Creatine, which I've been hesitant to try. I'm not trying to get huge, but like I said, I was malnurished when I was a teen, so I'd like to fill out and not be as skinny as I am (not the skinniest guy, but if you look at my dad you know I could be bigger muscle wise).
So, that's my story for now.
I'll give the 5x5 a look over and maybe tomorrow give my general routine info. For now I'm going to just look over the 5x5 routine.

Thanks.

[Canadian Viper]

I have been working out for several years now mostally just to keep fit. The one thing I have seen is that there are all kinds of programs and tips. You have to try and see what works best for yourself. Curently, I have hit a plateau and the 5x5 is a program that will be good to break it.



This is also a very good site for information http://www.bodybuilding.com/index.html



Bargod, I also have Crohn's, 22 years now, and with two operations it is now in returning is two places. It is very hard some days to do anything, but the diet is important to stick too.



Thanks

[Robert]

BG take this info with a grain of salt but this is what I've educated myself about so far.
Creatine - unless your doing any sport at a competitive level, creatine has little or NO use
The ONLY two benefits from creatine are speed and power.
For example....
It gives a tiny fractional increase to muscle twitch. So if your running/cycling/swimming in a race and .001 of a second may make the difference between winning and losing. Then creatine would not only be useful, it would be a requirement.
It also adds to your muscle's explosive power potential, alloying you to swing that bat/golf club/whatever a little harder
We're talking tiny increases in ability, the kind everyone needs in competitive level sports.
The idea it will help increase muscles mass is a myth.
This myth probably comes from people who used creatine as a mental crutch. They started taking it as they got serious about lifting.
So they tend to think what a big difference taking creatine made.
Not really, it was because they were probably hitting the gym more an at a higher intensity.
The other reason people misbelieve creatine helps muscle mass is if they have a low body fat level to start with.
Then they may see increased muscle definition, which ISN'T from more muscle. Slight water retention inside the muscles is a known side effect of creatine.
This is one of the reasons, professional athletes who take creatine, also take a diuretic before competing.
Every supplement place selling creatine makes the statement "creatine is needed for muscle growth."
Which is true, what they leave out is the creatine levels required for muscle building is very low compared to the dosage they recommend
Low enough anyone except vegetarians get it from their diet.
The other big benefit is it tends to reduce recovery time, the other reason pro-athletes use it.
If you do decide to use it as a supplement, just remember it a naturally occurring compound already in your body and in any meat or fish you eat.
There is no need to get the more expensive "designer" brands.
It doesn't matter what form, it's all the same after you ingest it.

That was actually one of the reason I like the stronglifts site.
He didn't recommend a dozen different supplements, all of which the other places just HAPPEN to advertise for.

As far as the protein shakes.
There are 2 types.
1) Straight protein ( usually whey protein ), adding protein while limiting fat and crabs.
2) Mass Gainers, Same as the protein shakes but they also include built in fats and calories.

In my opinion gainers are more for actual body builders, people who may easily need 4000-5000 cal's/day.
This is actually one of points I disagree with from stronglifts.
Stronglifts recommends 1g/lb of protein per day, To me that's unreasonably high except for a pro body builder
BTW this is all based off of LBM ( lean body mass ) not actual weight. Your weight minus any fat.
My aim right now it .75g/lb. Which is a total I couldn't reach without a protein shake or sometimes 2.
Just remember, while every place sings the great success of using protein shakes.
Excessive or unused protein gets tored as fat.
To much protein via a shake or protein bar is no better for you than drinking a milkshake at Mcdonalds or eating a candy bar.
Figure out how much protein you regularly take in from your diet, then start adding to it if needed.
Another useful site is
http://fitday.com/
Lots of great nutrition information is available there.
Including the nutrition info for all the foods you eat and
calories burned for just about anythig you can do.
http://fitday.com/WebFit/burned/calories_burned.html


Again, this is all just my opinions form what I've looked into for myself.





Viper.
I'll be very curious to hear what kind of results you get after 8-12 weeks.
For me I think the biggest advantage of 5x5 is I'm more likely to work to fatigue.
The 1st set is a strain but with only doing 5 reps, I can push and struggle my way through the next 4 set.
My other biggest mistakes was I previously relied to much on machines.
It was easy to sit down in a machine an do leg presses. Squats by comparison sucked ass.
Now I realize the squats were so much harder because they really were harder.
Which explains the increased results from doing them.


FYI
The stronglifts site is going to be up and down a lot for the next few days as they transition to a new host.
You may also see a lot of talk about paid subscriptions. The pay side is only going to be the forum when the author & founder
will act as a virtual trainer for those interested in paying the money.
Personalized instruction about lifting/fitness/nutrition.
The other 90% of the site will remain free as always.

[realdeal]

1) Straight protein ( usually whey protein ), adding protein while limiting fat and crabs.

Why limit crabs? I heard that they are an excellent source of protein.

[Robert]

Crabs......
LOL

See thats what sucks about spell check.
It only corrects spelling not someone being to lazy to not proof read their post.

Normally I would go back an edit my post but that's just to funny.

[UNDEAD 1]

creatine only adds water weight imo,when you stop you lose all your gains right away.i stick to protien ,aminos (l-arginine is awesome and cheap-safe) and alot of veggies and fruit,i try to eat smaller portions every two hours.i myself am 37 and originally started to work out about 5 years ago,until i got married . having a child, 2 jobs and trying to have any kind of time with the wife and house chores etc.. limited me to only 1 or 2 times a week,so i can say i have that tire going again myself .ive always eaten right but as druid said ,working in an office you seem to stray sometimes.ive been going again 3 times a week for the last 3 weeks and feeling great .after reading this work out ,it makes sense that it seems to have you work your core ,mastering your body weight is the most important.they are stressing squats and if you google workouts,most of the old school body builders in the 60s and 70s say the same thing "you aint squat if you dont squat".

[Bargod]

Squats are hard. I usually rationalize a reason I shouldn't do them, like my achey knees.

I use the whey protein and thanks for the info about creatine. Since he was the only guy advocating it I was a little hesitant to spend the money on it.
I do drink several ensure or boost a week to make sure I'm getting everything I need (do to the Crohn's) and I think that helps a lot as well.

What I need to work on, I think, is the timing of my meals before going to the gym. Since we do this as a family thing and my wife works during the day the kids and I will meet her at the gym. They play in the child care area with the other kids and we work out. Unfortunately that usually means I'm hungry by the time I get to the gym. Sometimes I'll drink an ensure or boost to help me through it or sometimes I'll eat some chocolate for quick energy, but it would be nice to have some kind of easy carb to eat a couple of hours before going to the gym.

[UNDEAD 1]

wow! this is really a cool work out,probably would take less than the hour i already use right now .think im gonna roll with it starting next week.one of my only downfalls is chin ups,cant do em,hate em too.i dont really like squats either but when you get use to them ,they re not that bad.

[Robert]

Just done some reading over the last hour as I didn't know much about Crohn's besides the basics.
I found out most of what I thought I knew was wrong.

I read several people who sufferer from Crohn's, end up taking a prescription NSAID
( Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs)
If you do, you should probably stay away from creatine because there are documented drug reactions between creatine and NSAID's.
Something else I would have to wonder about if I suffered from the disease.
You already mentioned one of the side effect is poor absorption of vitamins and minerals.
Well, that includes protien, in fact its high up on the list.
I would talk to my Dr. and see if increased protein intake is even possible via supplements ( shakes/bars ) or recommended for that matter.
There is a chance your protein intake is going to be limited regardless of how much you try to consume.
If so, all you may be doing is putting unneeded stress on your kidneys as they will have the job of removing the unused protein.
Definately something I would research if in your place.




From a nutrition stand point
All I take is
Daily Multi-Vitamin
Fish Oil for the Omega-3
Extra Protein.
Another reason why I liked the stronglifts site.
It doesn't hype a lot of B.S. Supplements

[Robert]

I'm an idiot, strike what I just said about possible stress on your kidney's from to much protein.
I was thinking about it wrong.
Crohn's causes problems with Absorbtion not Metabolization,
I guess that means you can look on the bright side.
While a healthy person can stress his kidney's if they take in more protein than their body can metabolize
A person with Crohn's doesn't have that problem as they never even absorbed the excess protein, it gets poo'ed out.

Can I say Poo'ed?
Last thing I want to do is offend anyone.