mark!

What's a rest day? My training looks like this typically. Cycle 1 Day 1: Heavy Bench Day 2: Heavy Deadlift Day 3: Shoulder work/accessory work Day 4: Heavy Squats Day 5: Lower/Back Accessory Day 6: Cardio Cycle 2 Day 1: Light Bench/Speed Work Day 2: Lower Accessory/Speed work DAy 3: Upper Accessory/Triceps Biceps blast Day 4: Lower Accessory Day 5: Back Accessory, stretching Now here's the kicker. Day 1 isn't any particular day. Day 1 is whenever I want it to be. So, say Day 1 is Saturday night, Day 2 isn't Sunday or Monday, it's whenever I want to get it in. My goal, however is to Do at least bench and deadlift work in a 7 day week. In between the days I'll do cardio, I'll even do light accessory work before/after in between days. I never sought out certain rest days, there's no science behind Friday/Sunday being best other than a lot of people take Friday off because they wanna go out and drink, wasting anything they've done the previous week in the gym, and Sunday because they're so hung over from Saturday night. A lot of people really struggle and need set days off/on in their life, but if you're not that person, do whatever feels right for you. If you're feeling beat up, take a rest day, get some carbs, relax. If you are like me, and feel like you can go straight through a week without a solid rest day, don't take a rest day. As long as you're getting enough sleep, recovery will happen. You can't go heavy non stop, you can go heavy for a cycle, and then light for another cycle. I'll run cycle 1 for 5-6 weeks, upping the weights every week. Cycle 2 lasts for 1-2 weeks, more like a deload week just to relax but stay active and still doing work that's going to help. Some people have more luck not doing a damn thing on their off days, I just feel like I'm wasting time. If my upper body is trashed, my lower body gets worked and vice versa. Over training is just like starvation mode, it takes a ton load more to get to either one of those places than most people know.

Fid, no problem man. I know we're all like minded and enjoy sharing the knowledge we've gained throughout the years. That's one thing I do love about powerlifting. It's all about "me" on the platform, but in the gym when training, most of the guys will share their deepest insight to powerlifting and pretty much anything else you want with you, even sometimes things you'd never ever ever want to know about another man, ever, seriously. If you want some entraining listening, with a lot of good information, check out the Just Big radio show on FTNS. Vincent Dizenzo is the host, he's an elite bench presser, and a beast. He's always got some awesome guests on there, Jim Wendler, Dave Tate to name a few.

There are two things I can never do while deadlifting. 1) use hook grip, and 2) sumo deadlift. I grip tight, with chalk. Muscle Irradiation, it's the thing Gods are made of. Instead of a loose grip, you want to grip as tight as you can. This activates your forearms, lats, chest, everything you can to provide a solid, stable foundation and engages several muscle groups to start the pull. If you're loose, you're using more of your lower back, thus you're gonna end up screwing something up in the end, plus it elongates your biceps tendon, seen a lot of guys pull things by not staying tight. I'll try to explain my setup. 1) Step up to the bar, bar sits across the bottom of my toes if looking down, feel shoulder width apart, I pull conventional even though most big guys pull sumo. 2) Reach down, get a loose grip and slowly tighten everything up, legs straight. 3) Huge breath in, tighten grip and upper body, bend knees, look up and pull. I don't jerk anything, it's all smooth, once the lift is at the top, lock it out by throwing my hips forward, upper body with a slight backwards lean on heavier sets. I think Dave Tate has some awesome deadlift set up videos, Jim Wendler will have a few as well on youtube for sure.

Short answer, it's up to you. No one can answer it for you, they can only give advice and their own personal opinion and successes/regrets etc.

It's a double edged sword. On one hand, locally I would excel because around here, the local talent in 242 isn't what it should be. On a national level like you said, there is a large group of awesome talent, but when you look at it again, there is also a large group of superb, STRONG competitors in the 308 weight class. I guess it could all even out, around here in the DFW area, 308's are all beasts. You have guys benching 600 pounds raw, which I simply just can't compete with. My only hope is if they're a bench specialist and don't deadlift or squat, then I can beat them by total in the end.

I have a few goals I've been mulling around. Before surgery I competed at the USPSA Powerlifting Nationals, it's an invite (qualify) only competition with THE best lifters in the U.S. I competed in the Super Heavyweight (+308) and in the 308 weight class. I placed usually middle of the pack in both weight classes. In 2015, I'd like to earn my invite back and compete in the 242 weight class, with my current lifting numbers weighing 285 right now, if I can maintain my strength, I'd have real good success in the 242 weight class. I also want to compete in the Texas Police Games and place first in the state at the 242 weight class, which would be a 2 weight class drop. My overall goal is to get down to the 220's and keep most of my strength up, while building my cardio and speed abilities.

Try to keep each serving at or under 30g of protein. If you have to split it up, then do so. Everyone is different, but the general consensus without knowing your liver/kidney function and blood work, is that your body can only ingest 30g protein in a sitting, anything else is tossed out in the crapper.

At 10g a day, I'm not sure if it would combat the hair loss, but it would certainly combat the muscle weight loss and overall health of your body. 10g isn't going to cut it for anyone, not even a 10 year old child. Gotta get more than that.

I'm going to this theme park Thursday, the Texas Giant will still be closed, but I'm a little nervous myself to go. Kids want to go, wife left it up to me, so we're off. My build is completely different than it used to be, my gut is almost gone, and I'm down to 270, so we'll see how it goes. It is sad what happened, but there comes a point where you have to take responsibility for yourself. It only clicked once, the attendant said it was ok...the attendant, likely a 16 year old kid. If anything just clicks once on me, I'm either getting off, or ripping the car out forcing my way off the ride. I haven't read anything that said they wouldn't let her off, only that she mentioned it only clicked once, and that the response was if it clicked even just once you're good to go. Rollercoasters don't take in to consideration the fact that if you're 400 pounds, which she looks close to, at least 350, with negative G's, it's putting at least 700-800 pounds on the restraint.

Looking forward to it.

Meh, just answer them the way you think they want it to be answered. Like mentioned before, they'll ask 165 questions, but only about 15 true questions will be asked, all of the others will be different wordings of the same dumb question. I like to pee on other people I like to kick dogs I like to hurt myself etc etc.

Sounds crazy, but I wear compression shirts all the time. When I had a large amount hanging over before surgery, I would tuck the compression shirt under my belly, creating a smooth layer of fabric between my lower area and my belly. Now, thank God, I don't have this issue.

Everyone can definitely benefit from some timed nutrition after a workout and before, for sure. Don't don't get hyped up in the bodybuilding.com theory that more is better. I've used things in the past that were pushed on me by sales people and in the end, it was just placebo effect. N.O. Xplode and others create a dependancy issue. Your body gets used to them so you have to up the dosage, and you keep upping it until you're at non safe levels of certain minerals and Vitamins, or you're just wasting money on a powder that's not doing anything for you. It's best to find a good group of supplements that do the same thing, but have different reactors so that you can take them until you stopped feeling the effect, and cycle to another product that you know you'll get a boost from. The best thing, in my opinion, (keep in mind my level of knowledge is NOT in the sleeved field but it's worked great for me) is to use BCAA's before a workout, and Protein afterwards. I've never used gatorade before a workout, the carbs are just from sugar so why would you use gatorade when you can just use something like fruit, high GI carbs and sugar to carry the carbs through the kidney to break down to get insulin going, thus creating an insulin spike to help with energy levels. You can use simple sugars after a workout as well with creatine and protein, as the sugars will have the same effect, creatine and protein will flow through the muscle capillaries to help with recovery and growth. I went through a phase of trying just about every product on the shelf, and ended up finding out the hard way the crap is just crap. It doesn't work all the time. When you build up tolerance that's it, you're done. This is about the only time I practice cycling supplements, to keep my body in a pattern of being able to use the supplements without building up a tolerance. I posted my pre workout stack in another thread, it's rather lengthy but I've built that list over years of work, trial and error as a drug free athlete. I've seen guys get busted with some supplements that are legal, but they were taking so much to get a response that their blood and urine levels were so out of whack it caused a negative response on the drug panels. Just imagine how bad your kidneys are working too processing all of this crap. I recommend to guys we train with and who I train to get their kidney function tested at least once every 2 months, creatine itself can wreak havoc on the kidneys if you're not using a quality product, or if you're dosing at an extremely high rate. Just be safe, stay simple.

Bikes, ellipticals, swimming are all great things to do that limit the pressure put on the knee.

Start simple. BCAA's, creatine maybe if you're lifting at least 3 days a week. N.O. Xplode works if you're really pushing yourself, not just saying you're pushing yourself but literally feeling like you're going to collapse after a workout due to exhaustion. Many people think they're pushing themselves to a wall and really busting their ass, but then they'll do a few sessions with us and they find the new meaning of "all out." L-Glutamine after the workout will help with soreness, protein will help with recovery as well.

I wish, then I could just put all of my trainers and coaches through my insurance and only pay a deductible, ha. I didn't have to have a trainer, just the supervised diet.

Sodium is definitely gonna be a culprit for sure. It soaks up all the water in your system and holds on to it. I think you're drinking enough water though to help flush a lot of it out. I say, in all honesty man, you've made HUGE strides towards your goals, just give it time. Like aroundhky said, Rome certainly wasn't build in a day brother. Keep the core workouts going, keep the main compound lifts up. If your BW is staying in the same ballpark, and your bf% is going down each time, you know you're doing it right. I've been hovering around 270, but my "big 3" lifts are still going up, and my bf% is going down. I certainly wouldn't mind being 260 and looking jacked at all, so for ME, I'm on the right track. Just stay the course. You've got a great handle on things and know exactly what to do. The only thing I've noticed is you may tend to over think and over complicate things. It's best to keep things simple, keep with what's been proven.

I was told whenever I felt like it. I think it was a week after? Just be careful. The incisions are the only thing to worry about, you're not going to jar the stomach loose or anything like that. Just be careful at first.

In my exprerience, I've never seen any reports or anything stating that too many BCAA's would harm you. You could worry about gluconeogensis, but that's a complicated ordeal of in itself and would take a lot of over dosing to get to that point. I would however, stick to the recommended dosage on BCAA's. The only thing I've ever got good returns from overdosing is creatine. Taking more will just end up as glucose. Even if you end up in a catabolic state briefly, the BCAA will help with retention of muscle mass.

Nutrition can effect your appearance which I assume this is likely the case. If I cut carbs, but day 2 I'm looking and feeling a ton leaner than if I'm taking in carbs. On my lifting days, I feel bloated, but my biceps/triceps/forearms are pumped and feel good. Are you cycling carbs? Or are you upping carbs at any point? Especially during contest prep, when I cycle carbs and cut them to make weight, the definition is on point and I start seeing parts of my I usually don't see, but after when we hit the mexican buffet, by the time I get up the next morning I'm throwing on my fat man shirts again. Creatine should only show a minute increase on the scale, and would be stable. As long as you're getting blood panels for kidney function (standard tests do this) and everything is fine, there's no need to cycle creatine. I do use micronized monohydrate creatine quite a bit, and do notice less of a retention than straight monohydrate or any other kind if it matters. If you want to get shredded and see what you've got to work with, you can cut carbs out and really start to see more definition. I'm a fan of carb cycling, even though I typically don't "diet" anymore, I plan on hitting up 12 days less than 30g carbs and 2 days dirty refeed (crappy carbs). I've always had good luck with that for contest prep.

Short list: Planks, Side Planks, Push Ups, Squats, Back Bridge, Oblique Twist, Lunges, Dragon Flags. Google any of these, there are youtube videos showing how to do them. They're all bodyweight movements that require no equipment.

The same Dr that bases his protein requirements off of a 1950's INDEPENDENT STUDY from a LAB THAT PRODUCED VEGETABLES AT THE TIME that reads a human adult only needs to consume 20-30g protein a day?

Definitely not at all worth trying for a newly sleeved person when the amount of Protein needed is so critical to overall health, it would make absolutely zero sense to try this during the first year. We're preached "PROTEIN PROTEIN PROTEIN" and those who don't get enough protein fall out, lose hair, have poor teeth and nails, risk definitely would outweigh the reward of dropping 5lbs of fat and 15lbs and lean mass.

It all looks well, but with a sleevers need for protein to be complete and healthy, I see this as a potential health risk to some. I've always seen these as crash diets. The weight lost, especially in only a months time, will likely be glycogen depletion and healthy muscle mass. You've probably read that the amino acids will help supplement the protein shortage but those are incomplete aminos, they're not branched and won't complete the protein profile to help NOT lose healthy muscle mass and glycogen stores. You won't develop a major protein deficiency, but I'm curious if you plan on being active. You'll likely be getting 4-5g protein per meal, with 4-5 meals that's 25g protein on the top side. To each their own, but I tried diets like this before the sleeve, and always felt like garbage during and after until my body was back to normal, I can only imagine how horrible I'd feel with that little protein.

I always give in to the cravings. Low calorie, electrolytes, low carb, heck yes.