Fiddleman

How is the HMB and betaine supplement experiment going? Any progress that you would like to share? I just started a new PWO (for me) called Legion Pulse. I really like it because of the clean energy and ingredient list. Very high quality ingredients in the right doses, including betaine. I have been using assault and 1mr vortex in the last month while working on p90x, assault for lift days (works awesome for leg day or chest and back day) and 1 mr for cardio days (works great on plyo). Overall, I think assault is good, but it has a little too much beast mode enabler in it. After taking it, I am ready to punch a hole in the wall with the rawness of it. Well, not really, but I am muttering about how I am going to kill my workout on the way up there. How it is going to die at my mercy. Bhwaaahahaha... Legion pulse is more like a constant reservoir of energy to dip into and it helped me get some really decent weights on my arm day today. Really felt pumped and it felt good doing the heavy curls. Look at the ingredients online. You will see it has betaine. Surprisingly, it does not have creatine, but I can always add in 5 g.

Hi all - For those of you that faithfully completed insanity, p90x or a program like that can you please give your opinions of both the good and the not so good. What did you like most and what did you like least? Is it going to challenge someone who has been doing daily cross fit for a while ? One thing I do not want is to spend more than 90 minutes a day working out. 45 minutes would be ideal. And I cannot spend a ton of money, but can invest in something that costs as much as p90x if it is truly going to help me achieve my fitness goals. I have also been looking closely at this MMA fighter inspired program: http://www.amazon.com/Rushfit-Georges-St-Pierre-Ultimate-Training/dp/B005OL8NHW/ref=sr_1_cc_2?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1393285226&sr=1-2-catcorr&keywords=Crossfit+dvd Looks pretty decent and costs much less than insanity or p90x. Who knows, maybe I will enjoy mma type exercises and mma will be my new passion. I am looking into a structured program that will push and challenge me to achieve even greater fitness in terms of cardio and strength, but not cripple me. That is important and must hold true when working out 6 days a week. Cross fit kept crippling me when doing it 6 days in a row for months, but got me in absolutely fantastic fitness shape. Sort of a love hate relationship with it so I decided I need to break up with it for awhile. And it was super expensive not only in terms of monthly dues, but also in terms of equipment, clothing, etc. The last structured DVD set I did before cross fit was called "you are you own gym" and I enjoyed doing that. It was pure body weight exercises, but done in a Tabata manner. This last week, I have been doing bob harpers "inside out " method (pure burn, super strength, and bobs workout) and it has been great. I get an excellent strength based conditioning program of 60 m and feel alive afterwards. Really alive. And i did it every day with nothing but strength gains and an excellent fat burn. No soreness. No aches. No pains. The problem is that it is the same DVD every day. No sense of progression except if I increase the weights which I can not do often enough. I want to try something new that I can do out of my home with limited strength equipment. I have a few dumbbells (up to 55#) and a few kettle bells (20, 30 and 45#), but that is about it. It looks like most of these programs can be done with that. I could make up my own program of cross fit type conditioning and isolation lifts (have the knowledge), but I would rather leverage structure from a DVD program that is known to be effective. I would hope the DVD program takes no more than 12 weeks. Thanks for taking the time to respond.

5 days here, but only because I had a VO2 issue. I also had a "going" issue and they wouldn't let me go until I could prove self responsibility in this area. If there were no issues, I should have gone home afternoon of the next day after surgery.

About the only thing that happens out of your horror list is some loss of hair. It is usually just for a few months and then it grows back. This is true for a majority of people given they follow the basics as instructed by their doctor after discharge. Now it is time for you to give your family a list of all the blessings and NSV after NSV that occur as a result of having the procedure done. I think they will have your attention and you will have their support after doing this.

Sorry if I am asking the obvious and I have not been paying attention, but what was the root cause before the antibiotics? What have you c diff? Just curious. Sounds like a real serious condition and I hope you get the treatment covered from insurance without obnoxiously high deductibles.

I've been having fun with p90x so far 6 days a week starting march 1st. My favorite workouts are "chest and back" and "plyo metrics". My least favorite is "kenpo", well, because it is boring (for me). One question I have is how to make plyo harder. It is a good workout, but it is no way as hard as a good 15 minute cross fit AMRAP. I wear a heart monitor on my wrist an averaged 135 for most of the workout when the guys in the video were getting 150-160. And I am bringing it, not dogging it. I pay attention to keep my movements clean. Should I wear some arm and leg weights to make it harder, jump even higher (hit the ceiling, lol)? The kenpo was worse. Hardly got a workout at all. I may switch out the kenpo for more cardiox or plyo action in order to get in a decent cardio on that day. Love all the push-ups and pull-ups on chest and back day. The ab ripper is hard! And it burns!! Thank goodness it is only 15 min after a long workout. I've got nutrition dialed in at 1800 calories a day at 50, 30 and 20 macro ratios for Protein, carb and fat. MFP is really helping me be exact about it. I never used it before now, but think MFP is indeed of fun to use every day. My eating habits were actually not that far off from what p90x requires, just a small tweak to increase carbs a few percentile.

I think you should take them for the time your physician requires and then take them as needed. There will be times when you will want to have them on hands, even when a mature post op. If you do not have them on hand when acid becomes a problem after you have stopped taking them then a couple tums will provide some quick temporary relief.

I am a strong person and do not usually quit something unless there is a good reason. A couple days ago I quit cross fit. There I said it. My conscious just won't let go of the guilt. There is nothing wrong with the concept of cross fit nor the people I worked out with daily for a year. We sweat, cursed, bled a little, got sore and collapses on the mat in a heap together. As a team. I never did sports in high school and this was a close to a team as I have been. I loved every moment of it. Except when I got injured. And I got injured often, almost chronically in my back and my shoulders. It was to the point I had trouble making progress in strength and, well, it was just not as much fun. I did not look forward to certain workouts because I knew it would either lead to disappointment or to unnecessary body ache. And not the good ache like sore muscles, but structural ache. However in the back of my mind, I knew if I stuck with something long enough, I would eventually get good at it. I didn't improve on certain Olympic lifts nor did my pain diminish. I got tired of constantly hurting so I made a decision to walk away from it. It was partly my fault as I went to long without taking adequate rest (would run 10k on my 1 non cross fit day while doing a highh intensity met con 6 days a week). I focused a lot on form and spent countless hours practicing good mobility, but I still struggled to have good form on some of the more technically challenging things like Olympic lifts. Just was not mobile enough in my hips and shoulders. However, I kicked ass at the things I could do like running, rowing, pull ups, pushups, double unders, box jumps, squats, etc. I feel so guilty. I am not a quitter in anything I put my mind to. It is hard breaking up with cross fit, with the coaches with my friends there. I had to walk away even though cross fit has done so much for me in terms of overall fitness. Sigh. I feel so guilty. I hope to return to it again someday when the fun is back in it for me. And I am better about not injuring myself. Now I am going to try something else that will help me go after my fitness goals, but not be so prone to injury. This last week I did something completely different. It was strength workout, but off a DVD. Not only did I feel better after each workout, I got stronger day by day. The DVD is designed to do on a daily basis without leading to overtraining and / or burn out. I am going to start a new program at home (p90x) and see where that takes me. There is certainly a lot that can be done with this program and programs like it. In the meanwhile, if you have any suggestions to ease this guilt, please share. Sorry for the long post, but I had to get it out. Part of the grieving process I suppose. I feel like part of me has died.

Fitness is definitely easier post sleeve, but with all things you wish to master, build on your successes one layer at a time. Start out really easy. Walking, biking, kayaking,etc. As you lose weight and keep at your current level of fitness, you will desire more and will, hence, challenge your self more. Your body is capable of truly awesome things, but you do need to train it properly in order to prevent injury and encourage progression. I've done a lot of different exercise things post sleeve from walking to hiking to biking to elliptical to @ home challenging DVDs to running to cross fit to p90x. Pretty much in that order. And it got me in amazingly fit shape. Who knew I could run for 20 miles or sprint a 4:45 mile or knock out 50 pull-ups in a row....I have more to get done and more to discover. The journey is never over. Keep setting new fitness goals. Keep it interesting. Try many things.

Actually, a topical nsaid might help you in this case. You probably know about voltaren gel (diclofenac) that can be obtained by prescription. It really does help. While a small amount does enter the blood stream, none of it goes through the digestive tract. I used it as needed. The relief is temporary, just like an nsaid taken orally, but it can provide relief in targeted areas.

Interesting. Is it your opinion that there are more people getting their workouts done then not? That would certainly lower the value proposition of participating if no one is messing up. As long as it does not cost anything in money or time to play the game and you know you are going to do your workout every week, then I guess there is no harm in participating. I originally thought you would be rewarded the same amount as you are punished, but clearly that is not the case. Thanks for the update.

CGJ- You nailed it with that last comment. Thank you, thank you, thank you! It is so true and something I fought in my cross fit training for a long, long, long time. My big muscles were always bullying the small muscles, creating an imbalance which led to injury. I didn't know this until I stopped doing heavy lifts (300# deadlifts, 280# back squats, etc) a couple weeks ago. Cross fit was my first exposure to weight training, ever, so my mind got used to training this way and it led to a lot of injuries and tightness in the shoulders and upper back. My lats got way overworked and were tight at rest leading to constant back pain. It was not until I moved to lighter weights, focusing on more traditional isolation strength training, that my mind finally is getting the message to relax those big muscles a bit. So glad I did this. Feel 1000x better and am making progress now instead of regression in the strength area. And I no longer feel achy and tight all the time. Let that be a lesson to others to not neglect the small muscles when training no matter how sexy heavy compound lifts are, especially if you are new to lifting. I will be returning back to to heavy Olympic lifts in the future, but for now, it is about balancing out my strength for overall body composition and general well being.

good advice! For a free way to strengthen those quads, try lunges and air squats. If you feel particularly motivated, try jumping squats and lunges for a little plyo action. For jumping, try and land like a cat on your toes, rolling back to the heel to keep impact minimum.

Oh I get this condition also (although haven't attempted to get a diagnosis). I didn't know it was formerly classified as a medical condition. Mine came after running for long distances on my tread mill and doing cross fit. I found rolling and lacross ball mashing helps temporarily and is required almost every day. What really helps though is when I purchased the following reactivator shorts from Intelliskin: http://www.intelliskin.net/products-men.php I do not know if there are woman versions of these, but I think they might be unisex. It is designed to align and correct hip alignment and other flexor issues. The difference in how I feel when sitting all day or after working out where hips reflectors are used (eg running, squats, wall ball throws, Olympic lifts, kettle bell swings, etc) is night and day. As a bonus, my athletic agility and explosive performance is also way up because I am not constantly dealing with SI or psoa pain. Instead the hips function as they are supposed to. They are great. Kind of pricy though. Doing air squats with these on is awesome and they allow me to go really deep. Doing the deep air squats actually helps a lot in managing the symptoms. Plus they feel really good to do in a sensual way (endorphin release).

Another day of p90x and eating according to nutritional goals required by the program . It is working and a lot of fun! Tony Horton is a hoot!! I am also adding 500 deep air squats a day to my challenge. Not all at once. Every time I get up from my chair (every hour or so), I want to get in 50. It only takes a minute or so to do 50 deep squats and it helps elevate my pulse for a little bit, makes it easier to go sit some more, aligns the back, builds muscle and gives the whole body a mini work out. Not bad for a minute of time.

The thing about p90x or insanity is that you have to eat a certain number of calories in a certain ratio of macros at a certain time of the day for your body to cooperate. Very important. Nutrition is actually 80% of effort where the workouts are 20%. It is not only enough to eat clean, but also to eat low glycemic carbs and high quality whey for Breakfast and high glycemic carbs and whey Protein after working out (4:1 carb to protein ratio). None or very little carbs for the rest of the day, except from veggies. Casein protein at night before bed (muscles need it to repair at night). Eat protein 2 hours after working out to begin the muscle building phase that lasts until the next day. It is best to eat 500 calories below a set calorie amount to lose 2-3 # a week and 500 calories above that amount to gain. Eat every 2-3 hours to facilitate building muscle and keeping insulin levels stable. The macros should be 50% protein, 30% carb and 20% fat during the fat burning phase of the program. For each workout, you do really have to bring it, challenge your muscles with heavier weights when time is right and keep at it for the long term. And put the scale away. They (beach body) recommend to not use a scale because it is going to drive you nuts. Scale weight is only one facet of progress, a very small one. For my height of 5'11" and activity of 650 calories per workout, I have calculated my daily caloric count to be 1800 (there are a number of formulas to come to a calorie amount). I am ideal body weight right now, but want to get shredded beyond what I have already achieved with cross fit. When following a high intensity program like p90x or insanity, your body needs a certain amount of calories to burn and not store in combination with working out. Always eat before working out so you have the energy to bring it hard for the whole workout every day. I have been tracking calories in MFP in order to track the timing and the type of macros every day. I have never tracked up until now. However, to achieve a specific goal (me: get shredded starting with p90x), you have to be exact on what you are doing. 650 calories per workout assumes I am focused and bring it to every workout 6 days a week. The workouts range between 60 and 90 minutes and alternate between lifting days and cardio days. I eat a lot of chicken variations, brocolli, steel oats, Fiber one, premier Protein shakes, ON casein and whey gold standard shakes for protein and carb sources. Very little dairy, no extra sugar not in specific foods I am eating, no extra salt, no bread foods, etc. the program is fairly easy to follow and my weight is dropping some, but more importantly, my fat percentage is dropping and muscle definition is coming out. Try to evaluate what you did in light of these comments during your insanity program. Again, nutrition is way more important than the actual workouts, but do bring it on every workout 6x a week. Be consistent and I know you will achieve your goals.

Still follow the rules, but In a more general sense to help fitness goals. I follow the things you listed above, but my calories are probably higher than most at 1800 and my macros are currently 50, 30 and 20 with regards to Protein, carb and fat. I make clean food choices in order to "get shredded." Diet is 80% of effort where exercise is 20% of effort. I drink 1-2 gallons Water a day. Feel a little bad your cousin is digging a hole with the food choices. No desires here to eat bad food just because I can. I enjoy eating clean and healthy every day. It feels right and the results do speak for themselves in terms of normal BMI, athletic body fat percentage and strong body. Why would I want to sabotage a healthy active life by making bad food choices? Does not compute. My one bad choice may be consumption of caffeine. I drink too much of it I think, but hard to break the habit. Someday I will as I would love to be caffeine free and still be able to function at a high energy level. Another small point; I have not tracked except in a general sense until a couple days ago (about 20 months post op). Just kept it in my head and did fine because of making general sound choices like eat 7-8 x a day, 4 oz of protein and a couple oz veggies a meal, good carbs for Breakfast (1st meal) and before working out, 25-40 G protein a meal, low to med glycemic foods and as much water as possible. It has worked fine to follow these general rules and not track. I do not get hungry, I maintain easily and food is about fueling. However, I wanted to actually see where my macros fall with my choices so I started using MFP to track everything 2 days ago. To my surprise, these rules are giving me exactly the macros I need at this time. And is is kind of fun to see how the food choices make the percentiles go up and down.

P90x chest and back today with 25# dumbbells. Enjoyed all the push-up and pull up variations without weight too. Strict strength and no cardio at all. Different for me after doing cross fit and other @ home DVDs because no cardio at all and what seems like really long breaks between sets. I am used to no breaks within a workout, but then again, was probably doing less strength training as it is traditionally defined Felt moderate (not too hard), but after 1.5 hour, got light headed and shakey. I will need to eat a little more afterwards than just the p90x recovery drink. 89 days to go....

I started the p90x today with back and chest using 25# dumbbells. This felt too easy and I was doing high reps (20+) without too much trouble so think I will try 35 or 40# next time. For those that have gone through the program, what weight did you start out with or end up using after a couple weeks? My select techs only go up to 52.5# so think I might have to invest in the 90# set. I say invest because those are really expensive. I enjoyed doing all the pushup and pull up variations.

I have been cross fitting for about one year. For me, the price does not justify my involvement unless I am committed 5 days a week. It is fairly expensive compared to traditional gyms. I am going to do some @home fitness for a while and will come back to crossfit once my body is ready for it. It is not going anywhere.

I am like Lynda and will find myself drinking up until eating. Most of the time, I wait 10-15 minutes after eating, but sometimes it is 1 minute and sometimes it is 45 minutes. It depends on how I am feeling based on what was eaten.

In some gyms, there is a machine known as the arm ergo meter that allows you to get a workout with just your arms. Typically you can sit down while using one and basically peddle with your arms. They aren't standard everywhere like a bike, treadmill or elliptical but some of the larger chains (eg LAFitness) have one or two in the corner.

I am starting the p90x program tomorrow. My march goal is to do it 6 days a week for the whole month (3 month program). It will be a challenge. part of this challenge is also following the nutrition plan ythat is 1800 calories and 50, 30, 20 (percentiles for protein, carb and fat, respectively) for me height and gender.

Are you sure? Every article I read indicates carbs are necessary to inject the protein into the muscles for better / faster repair, which result in bigger muscles. Without the carbs, protein synthesis is not as effective after consuming protein / bcaa post workout. Just got "Nutrient Timing" today so will read it and get to the bottom of this point over the weekend.

Yes, I am fairly lean with an athletic build. Good muscular definition like you would expect on a cross fitter. Toned, but not really that buff. I am very fit athletically. My athleticism is up there thanks to so much cross fit training. I want to build up the muscles more and will adhere to the nutritional timing points we discussed above. P90x just came in the mail today, so will be starting on Monday. Really excited about it. Besides, I feel like it is a good idea to advance through the programs and not take short cuts in order to build solid fitness and strength foundations. Just an opinion. Are there any online resources that you guys advise in order to maximize the program for myself. Tried the R&R drink today after doing a really intense circuit strength workout (1 hour). Taste is a bit like Tang and not really creamsicle like many reviews claim. Needs some more vanilla so I think I will add some extract tomorrow and see if the taste ramps up. Looking forward to seeing increased muscle growth with the 4:1 carb to Protein ratios. Up until now I have not been eating carbs after a workout, only before. I think the lack of post workout carbs has hampered my prior attempts to buff up. It is all going to change now.