The Official Gym & Fitness Thread

Bahaha

WTF Dad?!

 

@ThunderCookies @Supra TT @tacopaulo what headphones do y’all use? In or over ear? When I sweat and train, mine have a tendency to slip out which kills mood and focus. Any recommendations?

 

exactly what he was thinking, he kept jumping up on us.

 

I’m cheap so I have a couple pair I’ve gotten off Amazon. The only requirement I have is wireless so I don’t snag my cord on something or have to have my phone in my pocket...

I like in the ear. Over the ear makes my head sweat too much.

they don’t have the last pair I ordered but similar to this...

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07SG2YRCT/ref=dp_ob_neva_mobile?th=1&psc=1

 

I'm not any of them, but I also sweat quite a bit and do a fair amount of cardio so I have specific requirements for headsets. What I have settled on are in-ear BT earbuds. I've also moved to the cordless earbuds as I get tired of "cord thumping" when doing higher impact cardio. Last, I need an earbud that fits fairly tight in the ear to keep it from falling out or bouncing around and I like the isolation that a tight fitting bud gives. My most recent buds were a set from Jaybird, and currently a Jabra set. Neither are on the cheap side.

 

@Supra TT , you seem to be the diet guru here, so I have a question.

I had a major "hey look, squirrel" moment and have signed up to compete in PL in 5 weeks, so I'm going to put this cut on hold for a bit. I don't want to be in deficit while I start pushing the weights. I want to move back toward maintenance between now and then. How should I go about adding the cals back? 10-15% initial increase?

Currently sitting in the low 170s at 175P 195C 65F or 2065 calories/day.

 

I currently have the jay bird ones but they fall out during workout. I’m okay with spending $50-$100 for em as they last a while and you can’t workout without em. But don’t want to buy another bad set. Want a set for a while lol

 

Which Jaybirds? I never had that problem, but cord thump was a pain during cardio. The Jabra 65t that I have now are the best fitting, stay put (for me) and no cord to thump.

 

Sumo??? Damn, I'm out

 

BYE!

 

I’d ask the strongman for his diet advice.

Reverse dieting is typically for people who are deep in contest prep and very lean. Their body is in a delicate window for wanting to pack on fat (or so the theory goes).

I don’t think that concept applies to you. I don’t think you’ve been dieting long enough and consistently enough for that to factor. Example, you said you recently had a radical cheat day... if that didn’t derail you probably don’t need to worry about upping cals.

I’d probably add 500 cals per day the first 7-10 days. Scale check and add in 200 per day till you dial in. (I’m kind of going on the assumption you’ve been around 1,000 cal a day deficit for losing)

Adding 10-15% every several days is potentially leaving you in deficit most of your 5 week prep time. I would just go for it.

@Travish325 can probably advise you on diet content or provide some good insight.

I have never ballooned up post diet by upping my cals right away. That comes from more sustained over eating.

 

You may be right. I have no experience successfully coming out of deficit. I've successfully cut several times, but I've always immediately fucked it up and gained a bunch of weight back. Plan to continue this little cutting venture after the meet, so I don't want to mess up. I'm down 12lbs over the last two months as of right now.

 

In my opinion.

Bump that shit up to 2500 and then 3000 cals for 5 weeks… You wont build anything at a maintenance level. More carbs, protein isn't bad for your weight but might try for around 200g. You will gain some water weight with this but you can cut carbs afterwards and lose it.

Also since you asked earlier: train hard on a 5 week 5-3-1, no cardio, rest aka NO gym at all for 2-3 days prior to the comp, like below:

Week one: find 1RM on each lift
Week two: S,B,D 5 reps each at 65%, 75%, 85% last set AMRAP
Week three: S,B,D 3 reps each at 70%, 80%, 90% last set AMRAP
Week four: S,B,D 5 reps at 75%, 3 reps at 85%, 1+ at 95% (+ meaning AMRAP)
Week five: deload and rest 2-3 days prior to comp. EAT THE SAME AMOUNT AS IF TRAINING

Do accessories each day. I like doing Squat Monday (lunges, and lots of paused squats with explosions up from the bottom), Bench Tuesday (lots of tricep work as well), off Wednesday, deadlift Thursday (rows and lat work, as well as RDLs and maybe some deficit DL), off Friday, Saturday would be another training day of my worst/weakest lift as well as lifting cues. Off Sunday.

I'd come in at 85% for your opening lifts, something you know you can hit that will get your confidence up. Guarantee it'll feel a lot easier after resting a few days plus the added adrenaline. Also, and I cannot stress this enough, bring food! After you weigh in, start eating. PB&Js, rice, potatoes, anything with good quick carbs and protein. I have seen so many people fail at powerlifting and strongman because they don't eat or hydrate during the comp.

At least for me this has worked great in the past. For strongman comps I usually rest the whole week prior as the comp is a lot longer and more intense than a powerlifting meet. Either way, with that rest period I always feel like its a nice reset and have PR'd every time.

 

Thank you! Appreciate the insight. Making lots of notes. I'll probably have lots of comp specific questions for you as well later on.


Also, holyshit 3000cals/day seems like a lot right off the bat. Honestly, I'm a little scared to make that big of a jump.

 

You don't have to jump that much right away. Bump it to 2500 for a few days and see how that feels, then try for around 2800-3000. Just get a jar of peanut butter and go to town lol A couple spoonfuls between meals really adds up.

I'm sure others will disagree on 3000 but I think its a solid goal to shoot for, especially if you only have 5 weeks and are trying to get stronger in that short amount of time.

EDIT: if you are hitting it hard in the gym I guarantee that many cals wont feel bad. I eat close to 6k on hard days and still feel hungry at night.

 

I use on the ear wireless. Over the ear were a bit too hot for me. When I have more of a headache I just wireless earbuds. Cannot stand cords - absolute buzz kill

 

3000 calories isn’t that many. I used to eat 4200 when I was trying to go from 165 to 185. The heaviest I ever got was 181 for the meets though...

honestly, If you are just focusing on the meet I wouldn’t worry about diet. Just eat and make sure you are going to make weight. I’d shoot for maintaining within 2-4 lbs of meet weight (on the over) and then you can do a water cut to make weight and then eat a big ass meal before the competition.

I don’t know how USAPL does it but the federation I was under weighed in 24hrs before. So I’d fast Thursday afternoon-Friday morning’s weigh in, make weight, and then eat everything I could before the meet on Saturday. I’d just limit the fats as the day goes on so it wouldn’t make me sluggish. Day of nutrition is probably the most important. Lots of carbs and fluids. I drink an entire bottle of pedialyte throughout the meet.

 

Eh... Obviously I want to be as strong as I can be, but I have very realistic goals for this meet. Mainly, I want to learn what the hell I'm doing in a meet so that when the next one comes around (Feb) I can push it a little more.

 

I'd have to agree with both PC and Trav. No need to go straight to 3k, give it a week to build up. It's hard to make that jump.

I personally don't think protein even needs to be at 200g at your weight. I eat 200g protein roughly.. Protein doesn't aid to strength like carbs do. 1g/#BW is good enough. Keep your fats up too, I'd suggest minimum 100g and fill the rest with carbs.

Don't want to repeat much of what they said and just funnel more of the same info so I kept it short and sweet.

Stick to whole foods - oatmeal, sweet pots, red pots, white rices, nuts / pb for fats ( I rather do nuts - pb in insane to measure)

 

This is a morning of weigh in. I'm not worried at all about making weight. I have 10 lbs of wiggle room to work with. As long as I'm not stupid, there shouldn't be any issue.