The Official Gym & Fitness Thread

Hahaha. Yea man. He was there

 

Very cool! That was on the House side. I'm on the Senate side. I wish I could've met him!

 

Haha yeah, I had a deedadee moment this morning...I usually get in hour in 5-6 days a week...so I guess I'm doing all I can haha

 

Not sure how much you wanna lower carbs, but I've read a lot of articles saying that the most effective diet for putting on muscle during a bulk and for losing fat and preserving muscle on a cut is the 45/35/20 diet; that is, 45% carbs, 35% pro, and 20% fat. That just so happens to be the recommended macro ratio of IIFYM, as well. This article goes into all the details of it. It's from 2009, but it's still cited a lot because it's correct and it's still one of the (if not the most) widely used macro breakdown percentage.

Basically, it's saying that, yes, low/no carb does work; it helps you lose tons of fat, but at the expense of also losing a lot of muscle; I've done it and it's true. I did keto (less than 30g carbs a day) for a month or two and I lost a shit-ton of fat, but also a shit-ton of muscle. I was tired all the time. Our bodies aren't built to run on no carbs. So, yes it works, but it's not efficient.

Conversely, extremely low fat has been proven over and over again to be counter-productive to both fat-loss and muscle-building; they produce and form hormones and help the body absorb vitamins and minerals.


For best results: high protein, higher carbs, medium-low fat

Don't knock carbs, man; they're your friend.

 

I really hate people at the gym sometimes. This guy decided to use the only squat machine for 45 minutes today. He would do a set of 8 only going down 4-5 inches each rep, then sit on his phone for 5 minutes while he rested. Only to switch it up to calf raises for 5 sets of 8 with a 5 min break between each. After he was finally done and I was out of time to use it, he leaves the plates on it and doesn't wipe it down. Only to move the the leg extension and proceed to go on his phone before even doing a rep. What a waste of time and probably takes him 2-3 hours to get through a workout.

Sorry had to vent, I wake up at 6 am just so I can go to the gym and not deal with people like this.

 

2 days ago I was doing dumbbell lateral raises and some kid pulls a bench up right next to me so I could no longer do them.. I was in the only spot with enough room to do them and he pulled the bench up right next to me.

 

I'd just go over and work in with him next time. If he doesn't get the hint, he's an idiot. I try not to use something for more than 5-10 mins. We've got the same idiots at our gym, too.

 

+1..They are at every gym.

 

Shweet, downloading it now. Gonna start HIIT next week for cutting.

What is a "full body weight workout" in a sense of how many sets/reps for each muscle group?

 

HIIT is great for heart health and if you want to burn calories, but the easiest way to cut is to eat below maintenance (if you eat 3000 calories a day and don't gain or lose weight, start eating 2500 calories a day). Cardio isn't necessary for cutting. People who understand this do cardio to burn calories from going over the maintenance caloric intake (Ex: If I drank 2-3 beers at dinner, I'd go run to burn them off and get me back below maintenance). Most people think cardio=fat-loss and weight-training=muscle-gain, which is wrong. Cardio does nothing but burn calories and strengthen your heart. I'd much rather kill 2 birds with one stone and weight-train and gain muscle AND burn calories. Thsat being said, HIIT is great for heart-health, though!

You mean full-body workouts? Those are where you workout 3 times a week and only hit each muscle group once per workout.

Ex:

Mon - Thur - Sat:

chest: 3-4 sets of 6-15
back: 3-4 sets of 6-15
legs: 3-4 sets of 6-15
tri's: 3-4 sets of 6-15
bi's: 3-4 sets of 6-15
shoulders: 3-4 sets of 6-15

Of course, you'll want to change the workouts out each time, so you're not just doing the same crap over and over.

 

Yeah, that explains it better, on the HIIT thing on bodybuilding.com it just said full body workout.

I don't care about losing weight, just want to lose fat, thats why I chose the cutting phase then I'd switch later.

 

Basically, you can do cardio to cheat a little on your diet. Say, you want to eat some chicken wings, but you know it's not going to aid in weight-loss: you can go to the gym later that day and just run until you burned off all the calories you consumed from the chicken wings. I hate cardio, so I'd rather just eat right and not have to worry about it. I do HIIT 2-3 times a week, just to keep my heart healthy

 

Yeah, that makes sense.

But HIIT and watching what I eat will help with fat loss, right?

 

Oh yeah, it definitely won't hurt it! You just don't want to be at too low a caloric deficit because then you'll start burning muscle along with fat, which, for anyone who lifts weights, is cardinal sin #1.

Nobody wants to be this guy:

 

That's exactly what I was thinking hahaha. I'll watch my calories intake, but also take in more of an appropriate amount of carbs/proteins/fats than I have been.

 

I dont gota worry about anyone i get a whole 2,500 square foot room to myself with surround sound when i workout i can curl in the squat racks all i want

 

He probably says, "yeah i hit the gym a few hours each day"

 

I named my dog "5 miles" so I can say I walked 5 miles today.

 

Yeah, but you're still doing Crossfit....

Ha!

 

It just amazes me how much people don't pay attention or care at the gym.

I would have, but I was going to do reps to failure starting with 4 plates, so it would have been annoying adding/taking off plates each time and I work out at a fast past, which this guy obviously doesn't. I'm cool working in with someone, but I would have had to do 8 different lifts just to use up enough time between his sets.

He was on that pace. No joke 45 min to finish squats.