Fiddleman

Started on my February challenge yesterday: 10 hand stand push ups . These are against the wall. I have been doing box hand stand push-ups until now. I got 2 wall hspu, but decided to try an intermediate step of wearing a band upside down like a backpack under a pullup bar until I can support my 180# body weight better ( a lot has to do with strengthening my shoulders). So this next week I will try the banded hspu and see if I can string 10 reps together. Doing these hspus will also help my shoulder to overhead push press strength (my biggest lifting weakness).

Clearly you are not short of dedication, drive and willingness to succeed. Your exercise program is impressive. I am no expert when it comes to the fine anatomical details that contribute to a highly functional metabolism. However, I can succinctly enumerate some ideas that might help you as they have worked for me in achieving and maintaining an athletic build at my ideal weight. 1. Nutrition and diet: They say 80% or more success of weight loss comes from the kitchen, outside of the gym. Eating at the right time, the right types of food in the right quantities to match your body type are going to make a difference. Let us break those items down: 1. The right time: The body needs a constant source of the macros every 2-3 hours to keep the insulin response consistent in the blood stream. Ideally, one should eat a small meal of 200-300 calories when waking up, every 3 hours, until going to bed. This is especially important if you are very active to prevent the body from going into starvation mode due to a net negative of calories from working out the amount you do. The first meal at rise will " wake up your metabolism" and the last meal at bedtime will keep the metabolism burning throughout the night. However, it is important that these two meals be of the right food. I do not fast. Period. I have read a lot of good things about IF and 5:2, but it is just something I have no practical experience with for maintaining a healthy body weight with an athletic body fat percentage. For this reason, I cannot offer any advice on it. 2. The right food: the first meal should.be a fast digesting Protein such as whey because your body has gone all night without food. The last meal should be a slow digesting protein such as casein (shake, pudding, etc). The casein molecule are larger than whey molecules and take longer to absorb. This will keep your metabolism burning during the night. The meals during the day should be protein first. Try and target about 30 g of protein every meal. All meals should be low carbohydrate except for before and after working out. Before working out, your meal should target a 2:1 ratio of carbohydrate to protein. Keep the carbohydrate one that is low on the glycemic index so it does not burn up too quickly. The carbohydrates consumed after a workout should be the faster burning variety in order to assist in transporting nutrients to your muscles faster. 3. The right quantities: each meal should be about 200-300 calories. It is enough to satisfy hunger and fill you up, but not too much. We want to prevent insulin spikes that result in storage of fat. 4. Body type: Each body type is going to respond differently to food types. This is true if you are a pear, an apple or a box body type. Look up what foods are best for your body type. Now that we have stressed the importance of nutrition, let us look at exercise. 2: Exercise: you have quite a comprehensive exercise program, but I cannot help but wonder if your body has become too efficient at it. Your body needs a constantly changing set of intensity in order to respond. For me, cross fit workouts fit the bill because every workout is different and very intense. They are short too. Most workouts fall between 10-20 minutes with some on the shorter side and some on the longer side. However, I am not in a workout for longer than 30 minutes. All the lifts are compound (both power and Olympic lifts) and all the cardio falls under what is called metabolic conditioning. Metabolic conditioning is designed to push you every single time. Here are some example workouts I did this last week: 95/65 lb Thrusters x 20 reps 5 Muscle-Ups Thrusters x 15 reps 4 Muscle-Ups Thrusters x 10 reps 3 Muscle-Ups Thrusters x 5 reps 2 Muscle-Ups Thursday February 6th, 2014: (Compare Results to January 3rd WOD) EMOM for 12 Minutes: Full Squat Snatch x 1 with 3 second hold at bottom of OH squat then Seven sets of (total of 28 minutes): 30 seconds of Rowing (for max meters) Rest 30 seconds 30 seconds of Handstand Push-Ups Rest 30 seconds 30 seconds of 24″/20″ Box Jump Rest 30 seconds 30 seconds of Push-ups Rest 30 seconds Wednesday February 5th, 2014: EMOM for 8 minutes: 3 Front Squats @ 75-80% then For Time: 1000m Row 50 Wall Balls 20#/14# 30 Thrusters 95#/65# Tuesday February 3rd, 2014: "Open WOD 11.1" 10 min AMRAP: 30 Double Unders 15 Power Snatches 75#/55# The Power snatch loads are as follows: Men and Masters Men 45-49, 50-54: 75lbs/35kg Women and Masters Women 45-54: 55lbs/25kg Masters Men 55-59, 60+: 65lbs/30kg Masters Women 55-59, 60+: 45lbs/20kg Rest Exactly 5 Minutes then... "Open WOD 12.1" 7 min AMRAP of: Burpees This workout begins from the standing position. The Athlete will move from flat on the ground to touching an object with both hands that is 6 inches above their max reach. Score is total reps completed in 7 minutes. Monday February 2nd, 2014: 15 minutes to find heavy Push Press then 7 Minute AMRAP: 10 Chest to Bar Pull-Ups 10 Alternating Pistols 10 Handstand Push-Ups Rest exactly 2 minutes, and then… 7 Minute AMRAP: 10 Burpee Box Jumps 24"/20" 10 Shoulder to Overhead 115#/75# The lifting portions of the workouts are done at a weight that makes sense for me. Consider moving away from the machines for your weight lifting and into free weights where more emphasis uis placed on correct for and correct muscle activation. Free weights also require a bigger emphasis on balance and agility then machines. I know this is a big step and may not be right for you at this time, but I offer it for your consideration.

Really? I thought no explode had caffeine in it. http://foodfastfit.com/130/how-much-caffeine-is-in-advanced-strength-n-o-xplode-2-0/ Regardless, would you not agree no explode is more for training than cardio? I took that stuff before a workout that had fast 800 m sprints in it and my legs felt super heavy and would not respond like they were supposed to when running.

Great question. You might look into the scivation xtend product: http://www.amazon.com/Scivation-Intra-Workout-Catalyst-Watermelon-Servings/dp/B005CH0DT4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1391793703&sr=8-1&keywords=xtend Overall good pre and intra workout drink to give you the extra energy without the caffeine. It is also good for recovery because it contains good portions of leucine and glutamine. Another amino product I like without caffeine is called catalyst: http://www.amazon.com/AdvoCare-Catalyst-Dietary-Supplement-Capsules/dp/B007SUWQXY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1391793922&sr=8-1&keywords=catalyst It is not a drink per say and has quite a few more aminos when compared with the xtend product. Personally I like caffeine before working out because it helps with energy, focus and delays muscle fatigue during a hard workout, but everyone to their own. If you want a good product with aminos and caffeine, you can try amino energy: http://www.amazon.com/Optimum-Nutrition-Essential-Energy-Watermelon/dp/B00COQUN9Q/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1391794148&sr=8-2&keywords=Amino+energy

I am spending a few days fending for myself so needed to come up with something shamelessly easy, yet tasty. 1/4-1/2 cup canned chicken 1/4-1/3 cup light mayo 1/4 teaspoon sweet curry powder Sliced almonds. Pulverize it in a bowl with a spoon or fork and you have a high Protein meal with a slight Indian flavor. Pretty good if I do say so myself and ready in 1 minute.

Salad is one of those "free" foods given it is a healthy salad (your salad sounds healthy). There really should be no guilt towards eating larger quantities of salad. Eat away.

If it helps you, I am 18 months out and 3-4 ounces of dense protein makes me full. Yup- still working. However, anything that is not dense protein I can eat a lot of. It is at these times I wish 3 ounces of oatmeal filled me up. Start now, while you are a young sleever, and learn how to eat the right portion size even when the sleeve does not help you. The power of good habits will help you with hunger related decisions down the road.

We make a good pair then. You with your inflexible knees and I with my inflexible shoulders. Lol. My squats are actually pretty good as we get a chance to do them in some variation or another almost every y day. Key is to keep weight in heels and drive with the butt, not the knees. Flexibility in a deep squat actually comes from two places of motion: hip and ankle dorsiflexion. I am getting pretty good hip dorsiflexion from squat practice as well as certain stretches and rolling. However, sitting in a chair all day works against me so it is a constant resetting every day so I can maintain the hip mobility. My ankle dorsiflexion is still a bit stiff and prevents perfect vertical stacking. I am close though.

No, no isolation lifts. All my lifts are cf and compound.

Yes, quite normal. For some, they experience this lack of hunger for years and for others not at all. And then there are most of us who start to get the hungers again after month 5 or 6. Everyone is different. Enjoy the ride!

That is pretty cool!! Why turn down the offer to model?

The noise could be from how dated the technology is in the machine. When I first got mine in 2012, the medical device experts told me there had been a lot of improvements to the technology to make it quieter. If the noise is coming from the tubing or mask and not from the machine directly, you may want to look into replacing those.

I am thinking it is either a rotator cuff issue, or a bursitis tendinitis issue. Planning on going in to xray it very soon so I can get the ball rolling so to speak. Hope it is something that can be fixed with out surgery. It has been going on for what seems like forever and it is kind of embarrassing to be this strong guy and fumbling around with such low weights on the overhead lifts when all these smaller girls are lifting so much more. Well maybe it is not so much about that. It is more about the insanity of making zero progress in this area of lifting after months and months and months.

I was just Looking at this page : http://nemsi.uchc.edu/clinical_services/orthopaedic/shoulder/rotatorcuff_tendinitis.html I have all the symptoms described in my left shoulder: Aching pain Trouble sleeping Pain worsened by overhead activity Weakness (secondary to pain) Clicking or popping

If you did not have any issues with the chicken salad at 7 weeks, good for you! That is past the usual 5-6 week criteria that most doctors prescribe before one can start in on solids. I remember my first chicken salad at around 3 months. It was hard to eat. Today, no issue whatsoever. You will want to watch out for problem symptoms like sliming, uncomfortable fullness or, worse, throwing up. If any of those happen when you are trying new found dishes then do yourself a favor and wait a few weeks or a few months until eating the food item is comfortable. There is no shame in trying new things, but do pay attention to how your body reacts.

Hey wcn - what kind of dosing pattern do you do on the assault? What do you think of it for a leg day?

42->30 in 4 months? That's smoking fast progress!!

ditto!

You both are right and my comments are not backed by enough research (only one you tube video). Keep up the great work.

Looks fun, but the weights look on the light side. Also, based on a you tube video I watched, the instructors are not paying the close to body form of individuals as they lift. Flat back, shoulders pulled back, that sort of thing. However, this looks like a good approach for someone new to lifting and wanting toning benefits without the cost of a personal trainer or the confusion of a free weights area in the gym. I am curious though. What kind of weights are they expected to lift in these classes. In the video, it looked like 35# or something around that. It would be hard to build strength or change your body composition with that load.

Tried taking the modern after working out yesterday and feel great this morning. Very little soreness remains that I felt yesterday evening. I also took some this am on rising. From my understanding, it is best to take at those two times for recovery purposes. I will use the xtend per and intra workout as well as on rest days. I think the modern does a better job at recovery than xtend, but I have only one day of experience.

I think meijer is more of a general product retail type store of products in the midwest. At least that is what I gather from looking at their website.

3 gym memberships and a home gym! You are dedicated.

Great job stef! Now let's have a cpap garage sale.

For February, I want to do 10 hand stand push-ups completely against the wall. No more box hand stand push-ups for me. I am unable to do 1 wall hspu right now because my shoulder strength is weak. For January, my challenge was to do 50 unassisted pull-ups, and, I did it today! Better late than never. They were actually 50 chest to bar pull-ups, which requires chest to hit bar instead of chin.