thread of getting sw0le

eat right, that is the only trick, everything else will fall into place. don't worry about the insane amounts recommended by gomad bros

Maybe so, but I find it very hard to eat enough to gain while losing fat. IIRC we are different body types and I'm starting out from a tendency to have a gut, whereas I think you're a naturally thinner dude.

you can eat a lot it just needs to be good real food iirc

i may not be the best guide though because i have kind of given up "gains" as a goal and am just working on lifting more weight.. the two are not unrelated obv and my progress is slow but i'd rather go a bit slower and not have to worry about some weirdo bulking regimen. i do eat more than i did before but it's p much all good food, no shakes, no calories for their own sake

Met a trainer today and he basically said I could gain strength and lose fat, but not gain muscle mass and lose fat. I figure that's a good goal for a while, since I feel like my body fat has gone a little too far, not to mention the whole "slippery slope" of fat gain. I have room to improve in my lifts without needing more muscle mass. He also said I should be eating like 200g protein (I weigh 195) and I'm just not sure how to achieve that except multiple servings of whey powder per day. Guess I need to keep some at the office.

He also checked my overhead press, squat and deadlift. Squat he had me switch to low bar and it was a revelation, so much more comfortable for me. Deadlift he got me to fix my form pretty much instantly -- brought my feet closer together and the bar closer to my legs and was able to convey how I could tighten my back more and lock out better at the top. The whole thing about "dragging the bar up your legs" is right.

My overhead press is pretty much fine according to him, and that's also my best lift, the only one where I'm getting pretty close to "intermediate" standards.

FWIW yesterday I accidentally bench pressed 10 over my prior best by accidentally adding 35s on the set where I meant to add 25s. I had previously done 195, hit 205.

yay!
i have a cold
i was in line at the fancy costco today and a guy (older) told a kid (~22?) who had whey protein in his cart about how milk is a KNOWN CARCINOGEN and it's DOCUMENTED and he would never do that to himself or his family. i didn't hear how this conversation started but i know the kid did not ask him. what an asshole. i hate that costco because i keep going there because it's bigger but they never have what i want somehow. like this one replaces the conventional things with organic. howard county, md. so special.

sorry abt yr cold harbz

kid at work tried lecturing me abt milk too (he overheard me saying i drink 1gal of milk a week which doesnt seem like a lot to me anyway)

then im like

dude you fucking smoke cigarettes on your breaks

what a dickweed

forgot to update on my sw0leness

had a failed attempt a week and a bit ago so just kept stretching

then this last weekend i lifted (legs) and felt good. no pain while lifting and felt a little 'tickle' once the day after around the groin area

will start back on the rest of my body next weekend. definitely feel weaker and lost muscle mass bc i cut down on foods

which talking about that

man alive

200g of protein seems like a ridiculous amt

ime its very easy to overeat

ive heard guys skipping a meal once a week but eating whatever on the weekend

i dont skip meals but when im not lifting i definitely eat way less, i also dont eat simple carbs mon-thurs, but fri,sat,sun i eat whatever i want

removing simple carbs (breads, pastas, potatoes, white rice) from my weekdays has reduced my gut by a lot

if im lifting and i feel tired during the week ill have one day where ill have simple carbs of my choice and just the right amt

u kinda have to kno yr body to kno how much simple carbs to eat and preferably eat it earlier in the day or a few hours before a workout

i also dont drink sugary stuff, unless its a beer (1 if its a weekday, on weekends i might have 2 or even 3 but thats rare). i eat lots of fruits though

losing fat and building muscle mass is very hard so i say that aligns w my experience

muscle building is a slow process anyway though

good luck

i don't believe that 1 lb per gram thing is true. i believe you should eat a lot of protein and it makes me feel better about life when i do but see how much you are regularly eating before you go nutz on it. i'm not a professional just some idiot on the internet. if i have 2 scoops of protein powder, 50 g (about 40 g of protein i think?) it's easy for me to get 150g though.

at the most i was consuming 125g and eatings eggs like a mf'er

honestly my body felt weird and i had weird pain around my pelvis i wanna say?

protein is very harsh on your pancreas so just be aware of how your body feels i say?

but ya im no expert, just kno what feels right for my body

1.25-1.5g per kg imo

what are kg

I had read (a long time ago) it’s usually kg (kilograms) of actual muscle mass not total body mass

That was kinda my guide til 125+ grams of protein started making me feel like crap

FWIW I’ve lost like 3lbs this week with no effort to actually reduce the total amount I ate and just focusing more on lean protein and vegetables/fruits and cutting back on simple carbs. I ate three or four eggs each morning instead of two but no cheese and had roast chicken breast with vegetables each time I had to eat fast food lunches.

i just did a sw0le dab in your honour

it's like a normal dab but stiffer because of the big guns

Kiss them guns hun

best of luck to all of you going to a gym in early january!!

lol yeah i decided to take a few weeks off from lifting for the occasion. might hit up a yoga studio a couple times though just to stay loose

i moved cross country and we had a baby in october so i popped my first squat in ... almost a year? last week. i was holding the baby (16b) in a goblet squat config. i think i would have got down below horizontal but i heard the rip in my jeans growing so turned around. that's my exercise story for 2017. have to wait until march to get back in the gym though.

caek had baby omg congrats!

also lol at baby goblet squat

lol caek

i went today. it was not bad at all. i was surprised. most people were going to classes. i went upstairs to the "cardio deck" to use one non-cardio thing and i was like oh that's where you all are.
in january harbl's homemade plan is i will focus on squatting good then i am allowed to do 3 other things that i want to do in no particular order then i must leave.

lol, just today I performed the "toddler lunge," which is where you have to hold your crying toddler while also getting down to the ground to pick up her blanket. Lifting has really made me a better parent.

hoping to get better at lifting and pulling heavy things this year

post-xmas hips so tight :/

I have a crowdsourcing request: I need an (unintentionally) ridiculous inspirational lifting meme/poster image, plz make suggestions

Man, switching to low-bar squat definitely set me back a little on weight while I get used to the form, but OTOH the movement is so much smoother and more natural for me now.

One issue I'm having is that it seems less easy/natural for me to keep the bar pinned to my back, like it's going to fall if I don't hold it tightly against me, which takes more energy at higher weights. Should I be leaning forward slightly at the top to create a "shelf" for it?

yeah there is a definite lean forward. try to keep your head looking straight-(ish) ahead and chest big. it's totally okay for your elbows to be flying backward. they sort of have to. something i still struggle with is trying to keep my wrists straight with my arms instead of bent back supporting the bar. they should be pinning the bar to the little shelf you've created by pushing your shoulders back. it took a long time for me to get flexible enough to bring my hands in enough (to help create the shelf) but still keep my wrists straight. my hands are still maybe a little wider than i'd like but it's nbd.

see the little lean forward here - https://squatuniversitydotcom.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/low-bar-position.jpg

u+k: did you ever find your meme??

that guy's wrists are wrong tho

honestly just watch the rippetoe videos on youtube (on the cringingly named/conceived "art of manliness" channel, but w/e)

you can see rippetoe quietly judging and hating that dude's stupid mustache

good videos tho, the grip he uses on the OHP i stole for bench and it works really well (kinda coming in at a 30 degree angle across your palm to align wrists under the bar). for OHP it's suicide grip all the way imo

Just started reading about StrongLifts 5x5 and idgi - five working sets (plus several warmup sets)of three different major lifts in the same session? I’d think that’s a minimum of 30-40 mins per lift, seems like a long workout for most people.

hi everyone my pull-ups are looking super hot lately

i have kind of stopped working on my chin-ups. yesterday i was doing curls and noticed a big decrease in 'cep strength because of it. but this gym has nothing i can stand on to do my negatives and the bar on top of the racks is super rough. i'm going to get back into it next week though. i will just have to stack up like 6 45 lb bumpers. lol also last time i did it, i stood on a bench, which was too low and resulted in me swinging too much and almost kicking the mirror. which has a sign on it that says "these mirrors will break." why do we need mirrors again?

can i just complain about someone else. these people do no harm to me i just hate them. this one guy i have seen there twice and he does a lot of calf raises. he is very skinny. i am the person in the world most in need of calf raises but i don't do them because i don't care. he was on the phone like the entire time he was there yesterday. the only other sign in the gym is everywhere and it says "please restrict cell phone conversations to the lobby." honestly i don't know why that is the only other warning (like how about put your weights back where they were?) but i really respect it. maybe i'll do some calf raises next week, too, while i'm thinking about it.

calf raises are super popular in this gym. everyone loves them.

i am a baby giraffe

i don't really understand calf raises. there has to be a better way.

jumping rope with a weighted vest or something? god

these days my palms are actually wrapping OVER the bar on low-bar squats, which feels comfortable and my wrists are straight so..? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

gonna try squatting 2-3 times a week for a while. Now that I'm getting the hang of low bar my form is so much more natural and leaves my hips less tight after. Also, Rippetoe says that the bar "should be uncomfortable" on your back, not painful, but tight.

haha don't worry there's still plenty of weird tightness going on w me

keep us up to date on SQUAT MONTH

My first couple times low bar I had to lower the weight, less because of my ability to get down/up then because of difficulty with getting and maintaining the right bar position. So I just did working sets at like 165.

Got my low bar squat up to 205 x 5 now which is where my high bar squat was. Def still haven’t perfected the bar hold though, gets pretty uncomfortable at that weight.

Have you tried the thumbless grip? I found the low bar squat a fair bit more comfortable once I adopted it.

I've gone back to goblet squats. Screw it, they're hard enough and once I get some flat-heeled trainers I can try out on the bar bell stuff again. Yesterday was the first day back at the gym since Christmas where I didn't feel exhausted after 20 minutes. Feeling good!

One-leg squats are pretty awesome too partic for stability, get a heavy dumbell in each hand, try to keep perfect form and it's hard as shit