Eats sound plentiful, just low carbs. Probably why you’re tired often. If there’s no particular reason you don’t eat carbs, have some peri-workout. Some carbs before and after your workout will help tremendously, and if you really do want muscle like you said before, muscles also need glycogen.
for realz… do you eat any potatoes or rice?
best post-workout foodz: scallops, sweet potato w/ butter, salad
[quote]PB Andy wrote:
best post-workout foodz: scallops, sweet potato w/ butter, salad[/quote]
Also best served by Andy 
looks at Andy, looks at empty plate, looks back at Andy
looks at andy too…
next time i’ll get some sweet potato…
to tell you the truth i wasn’t sure what to do about carbs… before my efforts to be healthy (before I joined the gym) I practically lived off potato. Variety consisted in cold or hot, sliced thick or thin, roasted or mashed or fried. i LOVE potato. i simply avoid them now because if i have one i lose my self-control. i do eat quite a lot of fruit and trying to get more veges down me. i used to (in my efforts to be healthy) eat about 4-8 slices of this per day:
http://www.burgen.com.au/range/pumpkin_seeds.aspx
but then i worried because people keep on about ‘bread - bad’ so I got some ‘mountain bread’:
http://www.mountainbread.com.au/cgi-bin/index.pl?menu_id=248
which is probably worse but smaller… i don’t know. it is basically a container for my salad / fish that i’m after.
i eat 3/4-1 cup of oats (with the bran still on) with yoghurt and fruit before the gym. and / or get bacon and egg in a white bread roll with coffee on the way to the gym. try and take protein after. try and snack on fruit / nuts during the session… have been worried because people are ‘grains - bad’ too…
i could cook some brown rice, cous-cous (want to experiment with that 2 minute noodle preparation-style). but i do need something, yeah, because i can’t afford to load up on protein and carbs are much much cheaper… i need to look into counting calories, i think. so i have some idea of how much food i should be consuming on a daily basis.
now that people mention it… my gym training does go a lot better when i manage both oats and bacon and egg roll before the gym… so… carbs are ok? i really don’t know much about nutrition…
TRAINING:
sucked. after bacon and egg roll, even. no oats admittedly…
usual EVA warm-up 1x5 15kg goblet squats.
SNATCH:
bar warm-up, doubles at 15, 20, 25kg
30kg 2x3
32.5kg double attempt: 1, 0, 0, 0 damn.
30kg 0, 0
27.5kg double
got coffee.
27.5kg triple.
think i’m not extending properly so losing it forwards. maybe i’m starting with my hips too low. not sure. feels like i have no energy and making the pull harder (aka doing it properly) is a bit slow… so not much momentum and not extending properly. will do some snatch pulls, i think. see if i can get the movement down then speeding it up might help.
FRONT SQUAT. max day.
20kg 1x5
25kg 1x3
30kg 1x3
35kg 1x3
37.5kg 1
40kg 1
42.5kg 1
45kg 0, 0. felt heavy on my delts. PB attempt anyway. maybe a little psyched out thinking ‘this is the yellow bumpers! this is my best powerclean!’
35kg 1x2
37.5kg 1
40kg 1
42.5kg 0
40kg 0
exhausted. does look like a lot now i’ve written it out :-/
ABS: 3x 60 sec planks 15kg
BACK EXTENSION: 4x10 10kg
LEG EXTENSION: one leg at a time 5kg 15 reps (volume?!)
10kg 4 sets 10 reps.
yes, i know, pitiful weights, but that is a lot of reps for me. not feeling the burn exactly, but movement starting to feel comfortable on my knee. this will give me on of those tear-drop things - right???
Great workout! That’s a lot of stuff! Look how close your snatch weights are to your squats. It’ll be awesome as they come up in weight together.
I used to eat nothing but potatoes and rice but now I eat neither. Only on rare occasion do I indulge in fries. I get a lot of carbs but I won’t admit to my sources 
The problem with rice and potatoes is I can’t stop eating them and then I get so tired for hours after. Not saying Alexus shouldn’t eat them, but it was also something I changed when I got into shape.
Some potatoes about an hour before working out would be great. Or after. Alexus if you give it a try let me know how you feel with them. It’s amazing the garbage I do seem to be able to eat without consequences but those two things…
But yes carbs are definitely ok!
The issue you’re having with your snatches sounds a lot like it does for me when I move up in weight. I haven’t figured it out yet.
[quote]Mascherano wrote:
[quote]PB Andy wrote:
best post-workout foodz: scallops, sweet potato w/ butter, salad[/quote]
Also best served by Andy looks at Andy, looks at empty plate, looks back at Andy[/quote]
Please Opa more Andykopeta!
damn girls… I was about to take a picture of my dinner effort, but I was like… too lazy to grab camera. If only I read this earlier!
regardless, I over-salted the fucking scallops. Shit.
haha.
alexus, here’s what I eat… mainly because I just want to tell you what I eat.
(I do pseudo intermittent-fasting before meal 1, 12 hours instead of 16)
Meal 1 - meat and nuts, low glycemic fruit (today was 12 oz. sirloin burger, handful walnuts, an apple)
^ meat and nuts vary… this is basically what Poliquin recommends, and I freaking love it. I don’t like eggs in the morning, probably have an allergen to them, and I don’t need carbs. I have love handles for a reason, thus, no more carbs in the morning. No more oats, no more Ezekiel bread.
Meal 2 - Peri-workout stuff… 1 Finibar, 1 scoop each of Anaconda/MAG-10/SWF in 900ml water
Meal 3 - 12 oz. scallops recipe, 1 big sweet potato, cherry tomatoes recipe
Meal 4 - 10-12 oz. turkey breast, green vegetable w/ butter
Meal 5 - 1-1.5 cup cottage cheese (depending on how hungry I am), mixed w/ 1 scoop of chocolate casein powder and a big dollop of peanut butter)
If I get hungry for some reason between meals and need a snack, I’ll have a cup of mixed nuts/dried fruit (another Poliquin thing). 2/3 is mixed nuts, 1/3 is dried fruit (no sugar added).
Andy, that’s similar to the Insulin Advantage thingy I’m following. Interesting.
Alexus, I’ll definetely recommend that kind of eating, especially that I see your Oly pal Andy eats that way. I mainly eat this way because of the muscle/fat theory. I don’t know how much body comp is a goal for you, but energy wise, I noticed a main difference between my old diet and this one so I still think you should try it. With a good amount of carbs, I really can’t see you needing a deload as frequently.
hmm. thanks very much for the food advice, people 
sounds like i’m doing right to mostly try and avoid carbs - except as fuel for training. they used to put me to sleep, thats for sure.
i should lay off a bit on fruit, too, especially dried. maybe try stopping with the oats… but i think training goes better with the oats… and they help keep me regular :-/ i only ever eat them for breakfast.
need to try and get a magic bullet or something to coax cottage cheese into a palatable texture… and figure out what a serving size of meat (and nuts etc) looks like. i don’t know how many portions of things i need for my calorie requirements, too - whatever my calorie requirements may be… freaking math…
TRAINING
really didn’t feel like it today. had a lot of work shifts this week and feeling a bit wreaked from that. went okay once i was there, though.
EVA / softball rolling.
Snatch.
bar warm-up
20kg knee paused. trying to work on EXTENSION from power position. trying to work on from EXTENSION to FAST drop. trying to run the bar along the inside of my legs (froggy stance). seemed to help it clear my knees. trying to work on vertical torso and keeping my butt down. lots to work on, basically :-/
25kg ditto
30kg 4 singles. felt okayish. felt like a lot more effort required doing it like this. but felt… more solid, i think. maybe faster catch if not pull (slow from the floor trying to keep my butt down and get to power position by running the bar up my legs).
no earthly idea… will take vids tomorrow.
PRESS
20kg 1x5 warm up
25kg x3 push-press x2 push-jerk. hmm. never push-jerked before.
25kg x3 push-jerk. felt easy
30kg x3 little bit pressing it out. not quite so easy…
30kg x3 crappy. lots of pressing it out.
worked mobility for squat jerk. shoulder mobility mostly. some trouble overhead squatting with hands clean grip width apart. broomstick. bar. some falling on my ass, but not too bad. practice will loosen me up and it will get smoother, i think. not smooth enough for me to drop quickly, yet.
GHR (assisted)
2x5 stick assisted
2x5 fall / push up assisted
1x5 blend of assistance.
if i stick my butt out i can almost do a negative without falling / taking tension off. guess i thought you weren’t supposed to push your butt back (were supposed to aim for plank position) but felt like work so whatever.
ABS: 15kg 60 second plank x3.
ooh. i learned something yesterday. Greg Everett article and he said that back extensions were different from hip extensions - but that you can run them together. hip extensions are basically about holding lumbar curve and using hip extension to move your torso up and down. that you can weight these up. back extensions are more about starting with your spine in flexion (rather than with lumbar curve) and then rolling your spine up so your lumbar curve is set with your torso up. that these typically aren’t weighted (since the spine is in flexion for part of the exercise). hrm… i think i’ve been doing hip extensions rather than back extensions. don’t know if this makes much sense…
^well…does your ass hurt or your back hurt when you’re done?
ALexus: with your goals, I don’t think you need to cut oats from your diet. They are a “good” clean carb. And in your experience, you train better with them. If you want to get stronger and you want to recover faster, you can’t short your body on calories. Eat.
grumble This site is so damn annoying at times. I hate repeating myself.
Basically I said great workout despite not wanting to train at first and there’s a lot of self-discovery in your posts.
Sorry it wasn’t as special as I initially wrote out =(
I think you should only start worrying about the carbs if you are feeling bad effects or are gaining fat, especially if you are finding yourself low on energy.
If you time them right (which I don’t do all the time and regret it) then you should be able to avoid the crash. I don’t think you need to eliminate them around workouts at all, unless you’re gaining unwanted fat.
Posted over on the Oly forum, too (hope it is okay to do that).
Trying to keep my hips lower, keep them lower, then extend properly. Think the bar path is better when I do do that but feels like so much hard work to do that. My legs are feeling a bit incredulous about it all…
Damn random dude grunter 
Still… Nobody complains about me, I suppose
I’ve definitely been doing hip extensions, Bre. Feel it in my glutes and hammies. When I was shown how to use the machine I was shown back extensions, though, so I’d been wondering if I was doing it right. I might do a bit of both.
Yeah, think I’ll keep the oats for now. Want my squat to get stronger and want my legs to grow. Would of course love to have less bodyfat - but not at the expense of my squat getting stronger and my legs growing. Might re-assess things down the track and I’ll monitor how I go with them…
Sorry you lost your post, Nikki. I hate it when that happens Thanks for repeating it
I think that’s totally fine to do that. I’ve posted in my log and the oly log too.
I wish I could critique better but all I can say, other than what you’ve already said is you look really fast and powerful with those. I think you’re doing great. I need to learn to make some noise like you are. I think it gives you a lot of extra rawr!
Hopefully you’ll get some good technical feedback.
thanks debra. i think they weight flies up faster and the whole process looks a bit easier when my hips aren’t so low… but the bar path does seem to be better when i keep them low. feels like i’m making a bunch of extra work for myself, but guess that is what i’m supposed to aim to do…
i think i need to work on lowering my pitch. i’m sure the bar would move better if i had more RAWR! and less rrrrrrrp!
Froggy stance!! HAHA! Perfect nomenclature. That’s what I need to practice too. From what I’ve seen, it def does help clear the knees.
Push press jerk huh? what’s the difference between that and the reg push press? I use leg drive with my push presses, such that i mimic the throw in the split jerk. Is that what you do?
I’m a quiet lifter - nary a peep - just like when I make love…haha! just kidding. But really, I am a quiet lifter - but I do a lot of big breathes and stuff, which can sound a bit ridiculous.
Actually, Lex, those snatches looked good! They looked super smooth and pretty. I can def see more hips in the 2nd extension and your set up looks good too (maybe get the shoulders more over the bar?). I’ll go check out the Oly log and see what they say there. What I might recommend though, is now that you got your hips more into it, when you hit the bar with your hips, extend your torso backwards, like literally imagine extending back such that you almost look up to the ceiling. Does that make sense?
Great work girlie!
Thanks Doll, you’re worth it lol
That vid is awesome, love the warrior “Arrgh!”
And you have such a nice smile, it just made that miss worth it for me <3
push press - drive with legs, press out with arms.
push jerk - drive with legs, catch with arms locked out (no pressing it out with arms). you can dip / squat yourself a bit lower in order to catch it with arms locked out.
squat jerk - once you break parallel you have done a squat jerk
basically… while my toes / feet have improved immensely because of all the rehab work i’ve done (and will continue to do!) it is starting to emerge that i do have some bone alignment issues in my toes. i’m not sure i’ll ever be able to split jerk comfortably - or if i can the process is going to take much longer than i had supposed.
it takes some crazy shoulder flexibility to overhead squat with a clean grip (in preparation for squat jerking). i don’t have it at present. i’m working on bringing my grip in with shoulder dislocates, though, and finally understand what they mean by ‘opening up the shoulder girdle’. damn. shoulder flexibility will come, though, in a way that ankle flexibility won’t. squat jerking isn’t a wise choice with my levers but looks like the only option i’ve sensibly got at this stage. it annoys me a bit because i can split jerk 40kg but can only push jerk 25kg. need to work on getting myself down under it and… as always… bringing up my squat.
I’m sick!!! i’m so happy that i’m sick!!! that explains why i haven’t been looking forward to training and why the weights have been feeling really heavy and while i’ve been feeling slow and reluctant. feels like i’m fighting it off… bit feverish and achy… sinuses don’t feel right… but none of the usual waterworks i get when things go full-blown. took today off work. light gym (sickness is no excuse unless the waterworks start up). rest up. eat up. glad to discover that i’m not getting tired of the gym
aw. thanks nikki