Fitness And Nutrition General

Usually I drink BCAA's during and post work out.
Whey protein Post Work out as well.

I just do creatine pre work out, don't want my whey to go too fast you know?

Kind of taking it easy though, I overworked my rotator cuff doing too much weight. My joints and ligaments don't want me to rep 300lbs on bench press( Was doing 5X5)... 2 weeks to go.. sucks waiting 12 weeks. I think I hit my peak and my limits though as far as reps go. I guess I'm happy with a 345lb one rep max, the stress is just too much for my body I suppose.

I only need to do my body weight once for the police power test so it's not an issue.

1. What you eat is #1 Use a cal calculator asap - if you dont know how much your body needs to maintain/grow/lose size - you is ***.

2. you talk a lot about protein - yes you body needs it but please dont do an Atkins diet .. the guy Atkins died and was crazy overweight ...and your body shouldn't and isn't built to run on it as the primary source! its Carbs!

i aim for 50 % Carbs 30 % Protein 20 % Fat

3. i personally do a MAX of 40 mins on Weights - keep it HEAVY, if you want some GAINS lol (i do 6 reps and 3 sets) - and remember keep good form (dont be snapping plates and your ***up!) take it slow - feel that burn - and like it lol

Also i split my 3 days into Pull day > Push day > Bend day

ALWAYS do any Cardio AFTER your weights - if you cant hold a conversation your going to fast and may be burning muscle not fat (may also want to try add some Intervals)

Then i norm finish off with Abs (note you need less than 8-10 % BF to see your pack! - please see point 1 xD)

damn sounds to me to many reps to much weight - and your forms good still on the 5th set? Incidentally my joins give up before the rest of me ... i recently found starting doing my push ups on my knuckles my wrists are the weak point and give out before im ready right now

Yeah I know about that part of it,which is why I was so concerned about the idea of leaving out the shake once I finish.That if I didnt have the shake,by the time I cooldown,get home and get eating and my body gets to work that it'll have already turned on my fresh muscle to get what it needs (or so I hear thats how it works)


1 + 2.I'm aware of the carbs/protein/fat requirements varying based on your goals and all that,I'm just not 100% up to date on what -I- need for my goals and all that.But thats where this thread and the programs I'm looking into over the remainder of the year come in.So I can fine tune what I need to my body and my goals.Isnt organic brown rice loaded in carbs for almost that exact reason as one of the recommended food types for healthy eating?

3.Heavy is the way to go for what I was after (as far as I know),increasing the weight whenever possible.High weight,low-medium number of reps for building size and strength right?
Keeping everything slow and controlled.

And om nom nom,dat burn :Q I miss it lol

Once I got my stride a few months after I first joined (since I was starting from scratch in both knowledge and the physical side of it) I ended up doing isolation sets of 1 a day (except legs)

My average week would look something like this:

Mon: Biceps
Tue: Triceps
Wed: Chest
Thurs: Shoulders and legs
Friday: Back

It wouldnt be the same day every week,but I'd always mix it up to try keep my body guessing.I have a hard time with leg excercises using free weights because I broke my knee EXTREMELY badly 4 years ago and it has a big effect on free weight leg excercises,so I mix in shoulders those days too.

Weekends were always my resting periods.

P.S.

To everyone replying here,I'm loving all the info and ALL of it is helpful.I've been told I can sometimes poorly communicate myself alot,so if I do,then its accidental and my bad lol I dont know too much about all this so I'm trying to get as much info as I can,feel free to cover your versions of the obvious stuff or basics though,in case I can learn from it to my benefit! :D

I am underweight by a small amount (not enough to be worried about) and don't wish to lose much fat, if any at all. I'm doing workouts currently through exercise DVDs at home with Jillian Michaels, doing 3-2-1 system in which we do 3 minutes of strength followed by 2 minutes of cardio followed by 1 minute of abs, and repeat the same steps (with different exercises) for three circuits. (There's a warmup included beforehand and some stretches afterwards.)

I'm not trying to build bulky muscle, and seeing as I am female and don't have high levels of testosterone, it's unlikely that I would be able to build bulky muscles anyways. I'm not trying to lose weight. I'm trying mainly to build lean muscle and abs, and get rid of a bit of pesky cellulite.

Anyways, I'm enjoying the workout but I'm quite sore afterwards. I've tried stretching afterwards and holding each stretch for at least 20 seconds, I've tried a hot Epsom salt bath, I've tried massaging the muscles afterwards, I bought some bananas (although from checking up on that it seems that bananas help mostly with cramps, which I don't have. It's just soreness, not cramps) and most of the pain has gone away except for in my calves. My calves have been sore for five days now, and since none of my other muscles were sore for that long afterwards, I'm mildly concerned.

What do you guys think? Is it to be expected to be sore in just one area for five days following a workout? (Keeping in mind that the pain wasn't so bad that I could not continue-- I repeated the exercise four out of those five days. It was so bad the first day that I was refusing to even stand on tippy-toes to get things out of cupboards since my house is built for giants, but it's far more easy to ignore the soreness now.) Is it weird that all the other soreness went away in a day or two but is lingering in this one area? Is there something I should be doing to help ease soreness, besides stretches?

I was going to suggest protein shakes but I'm sure the more experienced guys here know something better/cheaper/more accurate to your needs.Only reasoning I had being it was alot of them have recovery enhancement in them to help your body replace whats needed to get you back on track.

But wait for the real deal guys that've been helping me out to give you a better reply!

Need to post pics in bra/underwear to get an idea of what your issues may be.

How may I put this gently? Ah here we go.

Well there are different muscle groups...it's possible that the particular exercises you might have done targeted certain abductor/extensor muscle groups which you aren't used to using and thus aren't as built up or used to the exercises.

For my own example, I can do push-ups and pull-ups well but whenever I do other types of upper-body exercises that use different muscle sets (such as climbing up ropes) it would kick my @$$ and I'd be sore for days after in those groups that weren't used to that kind of exercise. LOL

Maybe just let your muscles in that area fully recover before doing the exercises again. After a while I would think that those lingering sore spots will eventually be built up by those actions also. Either way, working out while sore (and not giving your body enough time to recover if it does require recovery) isn't a good idea.

Oh :o I'll give it a rest until the calves feel better then. Thanks Schutz! And I have some protein granola bars hanging around somewhere, I'll try that too. Thanks Quiznor!

that Jillian Michaels dvd sounds pretty bad from the little bit you've written here.

buy/read this, it's only 11 bucks:
The New Rules of Lifting for Women
it's a very practical, easily-readable book with tons of great info and the authors all have excellent reputation. (the only caveat is that their future work, as well as the work of most folks across the rest of the field, has largely de-emphasized any sort of ab exercises due to Stuart's McGill's research on this topic.)

also read this to dispel myths about soreness:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delayed_onset_muscle_soreness
unless you actually injured yourself, which is unlikely based on what you've said, the pain will go away and will do so more rapidly if you do what you were doing more (see: Repeated-bout Effect). due to the repeated-bout effect, it's totally reasonable to get blasted in one area more so than another (due to lack of use).

look for the word wholegrain in any rice - bread - cereals is a start .. its going to taste like ***for 1st 1-2 weeks past that you find it's hard going back to non wholegrain

handy site to help plan meals http://www.eatthismuch.com/

Cal Calculator (bottom of page) = http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/issa64.htm

100 % go buy yourself some food scales if you don't own any and a tape measure.


Your body is fine with the same exercises for at least a month or two when starting back


Do compound exercises - not isolation, and you can also put back and bicep day and then chest and tricep days together in 2 days not 4 ! Nice you just gave yourself 2 more free days a week !

Some of the best ***in the WORLD .. is press ups and Dips..i try do those everyday on days off


Use strapping for your knee - Listen to your body and and never take pain killers to push past crap with it - Also what about fish oil tablets as part of your diet? they could help toward your daily fat intake and perhaps aid with looking after the knee

Interesting read

http://www.oilofpisces.com/fishoilsanddisease.html


EDIT !!

DRINK LOADS OF WATER - I MEAN LOADS 3-4 GALLONS a DAY

Assuming access to free weights, that would be a very good idea.

@Lilea

1. you drinking enough water?
2. Girls need protein as much as guys! are you getting enough ? It helps MASSIVELY with rebuilding muscle and helping with muscle sores - Protein shakes are a good way to go (Ensure at least 1 shake is taken within an hour after your workout)


yeh dont worry it's very hard for girls to build "bulk" due to hormones - you will just tone, sounds like you need to look at what your eating and make sure its adequate for your body needs

so look at how many cals you take in a day and whats the split on carbs/protien/fats - you may find your in a daily cal deficit

I wouldn't recommend a blend protein for Liela if you do decide to try a post workout protein. I would say either whey or soy. Whey gets absorbed quicker, but soy tends to help with the soreness more from my understanding because it moves slower.

Girls dont even need free weights - push ups - sit ups - dips - chin ups - walk/run - swim or bike.

Basically its most the ***you hate doing and the best stuff for you in the world xD

My diet could honestly be better. :-( I have a glass of Instant Breakfast in the mornings, leftovers or frozen burritos or a can of spaghetti-os for lunch, and usually some form of meat for dinner, most often chicken. I drink a glass of fruit juice every couple days, or V8 juice if I have it on hand, and try to drink a full Nalgene water bottle of water every day (but I don't always get the whole thing down. :-( Unless it's scorching hot outside.) I have a prenatal vitamin before bed every night (I'm not pregnant and not planning to become pregnant anytime soon, but if I have any accidents, I want them to be healthy accidents.) I also take a Lutein supplement before bed every night to help treat a pigment deficiency.

So.. most of my vitamins come from my vitamin and my instant breakfast, and most of my protein happens at dinner. Most of my calories happen at lunchtime and with snacks throughout the day. I'm very snacky. :-(

I'll try for small changes, maybe like forcing at least one complete bottle of water down every day, and try to work up to a better diet from there, by getting my vitamins through food instead of primarily through supplements. And I will start eating those protein granola bars. My husband bought them just for me, and they are peanut butter and dark chocolate flavored. They are probably good, if I'd open the package and eat one!

I use Whey however im currently looking at trying a switch to plant based proteins from the sun-warrior range. As we are not really built to digest and ABSORB dairy products all that well!

check this Doctor he is like 55 years old 3 % body fat - ignore the hippy love stuff he knows his stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfdYfdENzdM&feature=related

Laying off through injury is the worst time ever :(

doctor of chiropractic and no one should consider 3% bodyfat healthy. just sayin' Edit: it's also highly improbable that he's 3% bf

it's pretty hard to sort through *** on this subject since everybody who knows anything is an expert

Yes you need a MINIMUM of a liter a day .. that's with NO exercise - its best to think of Water Like Oil in a Super High Performance Race Car ... going at full speed all the time ..

The Oil needs to be topped up and changed VERY regular (Humans are made up of 55% - 75 % water)

Vitamins are great i take a multivitamin ever day.

3 meals a day is fine but you STILL need to hit daily cal needs in those 3 meals then - check out the cal calculator at the bottom of the page and input some details so you know what you need to at least maintain your current body weight - then if your trying to put on a little try adding 200 cals on top a day for a week and see how that goes.


http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/issa64.htm


Also if Possible eat most your Cals/carbs for Bfast - and at lunch extra protein and fat (could look at fish oil tablets) will help keep your blood sugar / energy levels dipping off - try to not eat largest meal for dinner and no latter than 4 hours before sleep

and drink loads water ! i swear i piss 15 times a day.

Isnt 3% the minimum you can have without freezing to death? Aside from it not being healthy

That's dangerously low for anyone. Elite endurance athletes can be expected to be around 5-8% and even they don't stay that low all year round.

Yes Very true lol - and He is most prob not 3 % but he has to have below 10 % as you can see his abs. But it does seem logical that a plant has has done the hard work and broken up the protein for the human and lets not forget its no secret or mystery we dont manage dairy products "well"

Bad advice.

White rice is greatly superior to whole grain varieties (brown).

Most good whey powders have BCAA's in them I think now. But yah I do the same BCAA's during the workout (Scivation and Compete my personal faves). BCAA's have definitely helped me gain size really fast and helped with recovery during workouts.

On a side note. I tried the new Jack3d Micro. Ughh RAGE! Notiable difference. Longer for the focus/energy to kick in & there is no throbbing/swollen muscle feeling on the particular muscle group you work. So I'm really dissapointed.

It was to my understand it doesn't really matter when you take creatine so long as you take it daily. I know most guys take it post workout, but I always thought it was more for convenience.

for what?

perhaps more Carbs/Cals that's about it - its faster digesting as well which you dont want - Also lets not forget about 20 million Americans who have type 2 diabetes which whole grain lowers the risk of iirc.

I see/hear everywhere that wholegrain rice is much better and.actually healthy. Where as white is jusy not"as bad" as other stuff

This guy is really good, knows his stuff and has endless workouts and nutritional advice designed for beginners.

https://www.youtube.com/user/sixpackshortcuts

The rice thing as far as I know is the only exception to the wholegrain rule, certain types of white rice (such as basmati) actually has a lower sugar count than wholegrain.