The Official Gym & Fitness Thread

@zacharypaul89 Mt. Juliet Tn. I'll be at the one in Farragut Tn in about a month when I go back to school.

 

Pure taste wise, the HPI best bcaas in any flavor I tried was glorious but like many supps it contains a bunch of crap that's not good for you. I'm currently taking Myprotein green apple flavor. It only contains the three primary bcaas and tests very high in lab testing for content purity and strength. Tastes ok. I just put a scoop in my fruit smoothy in the morning and in my smoothy at night after a workout. Also contains 0 macros so it won't effect that at all if you keep up with it.

 

I prefer evening because I have most energy at night and if I've had a good day then my gym goes well. If I had a shitty day then it goes great.

 

Good you can get my wheel for me

 

Huh?

 

I can't lift late in the day bc I get too amp'd up and can't sleep that night. I used to play an indoor soccer league that had games at 10 and I would just forget about sleep those nights. I need to be in chill-mode by like 6:30-7ish if I want a good night sleep. I am also the furthest thing from a morning person so it's hard for me to lift in the a.m. I started lifting with my neighbor and he had me going around 8:30am and I could deal with it but I didn't love it. I also didn't love lifting with him because he was a talker and killed my rep/rest timing. Prime time for me is to go between 11-1 but some days work won't allow it so I just have to fit it in when I can...

On that note, I haven't gone yet today but I think I'll get there in the next hour or so. Shoulder day!

 

You don't have some kind of code-word I can use to get 50% off?

 

Also, what is you bros' reasoning behind being balls deep in the BCAA/amino acids train? My thinking is that if you're not eating a shitty diet, you're getting what you need. Foods high in BCAAs are basically all meats. Eat meats = eat BCCAs. Same reasoning behind my thinking multi's are stupid. Eat vegetables and friut = eat vitamins and minerals. Problem solved.

I've tried them and they didn't do shit for me but make my bank account lighter. Also, there's tons of evidence (not from bb.com, of course.... a supplement superstore isn't gonna tell you BCAAs are useless!) that shows it's mostly all bullshit.

 

For me, the caffeine boost is the reason. Much healthier way overall to get that instead of coffee, soda, or energy drinks.

 

I thought BCAAs were used to (allegedly) promote protein synthesis? I don't know how they increase energy...

Edit: I'm not a user or believer in them. Last time I took them I got a nose bleed and threw the rest away. Just another money pit...

 

Mine is because I am in such an aggressive cut and I feel I benefit from it.(lack of certain things in my diet) Which is about 60% of my reasoning. The other 40% is is pure genius marketing.

 

So, I started iifym last week. Having a hard time getting 1800 calories in a day with healthy meals but I am dropping weight faster now.

What's the word on calorie trackers. I am having a hard time tracking my calories burned because I am constantly working in the field, and its difficult to determine how much I burn there. I track calories burned on equipment like the Stairmaster, but I know that's not exactly accurate.

Looking for something to get a ballpark, maybe not deadly accurate, and certainly not something that will break the bank.

 

Heart rate monitor, I use my Apple Watch. I don't eat back my workout calories though.

 

Don't fall for a wrist tracker like a Fitbit.

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/05/23/study-shows-fitbit-trackers-highly-inaccurate.html

 

Whoa..

 

A lot of abs are also genetics. Don't forgot that if you are having a hard time. You can't magically grow an 8 pack if it just doesn't exist. But for your belly fat, carbs are an important part of a diet but you need to make sure to eat the right ones and at the right times.

There are 3 types of carbs: simple, complex and complex fibrous.

Simple carbs is basically sugar. Table sugar, fruit (fructose) and dairy (lactose) are examples of simple sugars. Some sugars arent bad for you (natural sugar) but an excess is. Most people's problem is that an excess of sugars is already a very small amount. Fruit contains vitamins and minerals so that's healthy for you but it also contains a lot of fructose so eating a lot of fruit can be bad for you. The best way around that is to eat fruit before or after physical activity as it helps spike your bodies insulin and produce instant energy and help your body recover or eat it in the morning when you can use that energy throughout the day. Same with milk. But once again, just drinking a bunch of milk just adds excess body fat.

The second is complex carbs. These are things like beans, whole grains (brown rice, whole wheat bread, whole wheat pasta), yams, potatoes, sweet potatoes, peas and oatmeal. These carbs are packed with fiber and great for making you feel full and providing you with minerals and nutrients. They are also best eaten early on in the day or when you want to sustain energy for a long duration of time. Stay away from refined complex carbs though. Basically anything white: white bread, white rice, white flour, pasta, etc ..... These carbs are a form of simple carbs and mainly contain sugars while providing little vitamins and minerals.

The third is complex fibrous carbs which is basically green vegatables: broccoli, spinach, kale, green beans, asparagus, carrots, celery, etc ...... I highly recommend eating a lot of vegetables if you are trying to lose weight as they contain a high quantity of fiber, minerals and vitamins. Because of the fiber content, a lot of a vegatable is passed straight through your stomach and help cleanse the inside of your digestive system but while still absorbing the minerals and vitamins. Most vegatables also contain very low calories so you can consume the crap out of them while sticking to a strict macro count. You can eat these carbs all day at any time and reap the benefits.

In short, stay away from sugar and eat a lot of vegatables. If you consume sugar, try and do it earlier in the day or do it right before and/or right after an intense workout. This advice alone will give you better abs. Then combine that with other things mentioned: compound movements, heavy leg and core exercises and a wide variety of ab workouts to target obliques and lower abs more.

 

I don't think anyone expressed themselves as being balls deep in it. Just a few folks right here gave great reasons. As I've mentioned before supps are very important if they are a part of your diet. You get bcaas from eating meats, others may not want the calorie intake or the protein intake or have a high iron count and can't eat red meat or are vegetarians or are working a long day at work and cant cook a steak today ...... Taking a bcaa supp fixes that problem for them in the moment whether that be short term or long term. Same with the mulitvitamin. If you eat the "right" foods and obtain all your vitamins and minerals through food alone then you may not need one. But if you are on a calorie deficient diet or allergic to greeny vegatables or are stuck at work and can't get any food but a candy bar out of the snack machine, then a multivitamin is a fantastic option.

You have a very acute mind set sometimes. Expand your vision and realize different things work for different people. I could incur the same thing about you drinking a supplemented protein shake as I see it as a waste of money because I eat so much protein and take in so many calories in a day without one but I completely understand why you chose to have one. Main reason, because you aren't me.

 

I use them because I get tired of water. And I usually don't/can't eat within 3-4 hours of training and I feel like they make me feel a little better as far as not training on an empty stomach. They are the building blocks of protein and all...so i feel like they have to help something if I'm training without eating for a few hours.

 

I bought a civic for real cheap to use as a daily and it has this sticker on it. I don't think I've ran more than 4 miles at a time in my life

I'm a half marathon poser

 

Easy there, cowgirl. I simply stated that it's my opinion that real food > supplements. I wasn't referring to people in extreme circumstances. I'm talking about a guy standing with BCAAs in his left hand and a bag of chicken in his right. It's my opinion that he should put the BCAAs down and eat real food.

I understand that there's different strokes for different folks, but I also understand that supplement companies prey on people to buy their products when most of those products don't do shit but drain your bank account.

I did that with Scivation Xtend to flavor my water like a year ago. Shit tasted so good, but was so expensive that I ended up going and buying those Mio water enhancer things. After a while, I reverted back to regular ol water.

See @allmotorrex, this is one of those extreme circumstances I said I wasn't referring to. I realize that not everyone is like me and can go home 5 mins after a workout and pound a shake or a huge plate of food, so they need to pursue other options. I'm simply referring to the guy who has a counter full of $500 worth of shit and they don't even know what it does...the guy who needs to put down the handful of 14 pills he chokes on every morning and go eat a fucking salad.