ok guys, let me explain my situation and everything here.
The reason I have under 15" arms, an under developed chest and all that is because Ive been away from weights for the past month due to no access to a gym. Sure I could have improvised something, but then again, I was worried about rest and I did more worrying than doing…of anything. However, during this time, I had just gotten down with a 12 week massing period in which I did just about everything by the book and saw MASSIVE gains. I dont know if I kept a lot of them because I stopped lifting for a while (2 week break turned into about a 6 week one). Also, at this point I was about 14% bodyfat, and for the past 2 months Ive dropped it to its current 9.5% (probably the leanest Ive ever been). Im also fighting fat genes, and I used to be 275 lbs 2 years ago before working out and all of that.
So right now Im on fatloss, and I have to cook all the time, plan things, and it just seems like too much of a hassle. I know that Ive got just under 2 months left of it, so Im basically gonna suck it up and deal with it. For fat loss, Im actually doing Tom Venuto’s Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle program, and its working wonders. Its just that sometimes all this dedication seems a bit too much.
Ive made progress just about everywhere with my physique though, and Im very proud of that. All of a suddent being “hot” to all these girls is definitely awesome, especially when Im an ex-fatty. All this change in my lifting and stuff has taken place over the past year or so too…so as you can see…Ive made progress, but Im no going for size until I can see my abs…because go damnit…I dont ever wanna do fatloss for more than a month at a time ever again. Its too much time and effort.
So anyways, thats where Im at. And BTW, I lived in Japan when I started this and didnt have anything better to do, so thats how I got involved in all of it. Hell, all I had to do there was study the language. And while Im not fluent per se, Ive definitely made strides there too. Im back in America now, so I have to get back to normal life now…and its not easy. All of these things put together seem to be having quite a toll on me I suppose eh?
When I’m neither bulking nor cutting, but just training for strength and performance, I find that I don’t have to be nazi-strict about my diet. I just eat 5 meals a day, eat a little more when the scale gets too light, and walk on my hands a little more when I feel like I’ve eaten a little too much.
The body is not just a calculating machine that equably converts calories into fat or muscle. It has ‘set points,’ right? Changing your set point by dieting down or bulking up is HARD, but once you’re there, you don’t have to view life as the battle of the bulge.
seriously, by being so strict and rigid, you are getting a better, healthier life, IN THE LONG RUN as well as “the now”.
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“Healthy” is a relative term and what good is that “healthy” life if he isn’t using it to live at all? There is a large difference between “health training” and training to make physical progress. Most studies show that those who eat the least number of times couild actually live longer. There needs to be a balance and no one should look at this in terms of “I only eat vegetables and chicken breasts therefore I am healthier than everyone else” because that isn’t true.
[quote]Totoroski wrote:
ok guys, let me explain my situation and everything here.
The reason I have under 15" arms, an under developed chest and all that is because Ive been away from weights for the past month due to no access to a gym. Sure I could have improvised something, but then again, I was worried about rest and I did more worrying than doing…of anything. However, during this time, I had just gotten down with a 12 week massing period in which I did just about everything by the book and saw MASSIVE gains. I dont know if I kept a lot of them because I stopped lifting for a while (2 week break turned into about a 6 week one). Also, at this point I was about 14% bodyfat, and for the past 2 months Ive dropped it to its current 9.5% (probably the leanest Ive ever been). Im also fighting fat genes, and I used to be 275 lbs 2 years ago before working out and all of that.
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My point was, your arms are only 15". There is no way they shrunk that much in a month and a half which means you really aren’t all that developed to warrant acting as if this should take up every aspect of your life like that. I could see if you were about to compete or were making money off of your physique, but you aren’t. You are just another guy who lifts weights and who needs more overall balance in his life. Thinking of it in terms more complexed than that just doesn’t make much sense.
I also have the same problem before. i think the articles in this website : “Big Muscles, Busy Schedules” by Ian King can help you solve this problem by training 2 days per week only. that gives you more time out of the gym to have your social life, partys…etc.
for your diet problem, if cooking make you busy all day, then i’ll recommend you to try the "the MRP diet"by Chris Shugart and TC in this website.
i’m a university student. i’m extremely busy on studying and training. for the past 8 years. i always use Meal-Replacement-Powder to help me gain muscles/loss fat.
i bring my bodyweight from 140lbs to 200lbs.
Prof X,
The measurement of my arms is by no means a measurement of how dedicated and how much time my program takes. Ive only been lifting for under a year, so there you have it, thats the reason I dont have 17" pipes like a lot of the guys out there. I also have 9.5% BF, so thats another reason, my arms arent all fat. Also, thats just a frame of reference. Ive made lots of progress, way more than Ive seen a lot of other people make in a year, but Im just saying it sometimes seems like a little too much. I suppose I’m coupling my own work with helping my friends out who are starting, but in the end…Im gonna have a body thats way better (because of my health program) for life, and people are going to be envious of it.
[quote]Totoroski wrote:
Prof X,
Im gonna have a body thats way better (because of my health program) for life, and people are going to be envious of it.
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You also wrote earlier,
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it takes away from a lot of my time to do something productive like study a foreign language (what I really wanna do), or just go out with your friends for a few hours. I dont know what to do…and yes…Im asking for all of your help.[/quote]
It seems your priorities are a little screwed up. If you REALLY want to study a foreign language, then do so. You don’t fit your education around your training unless you get paid to do so. You fit your training around your education. You say you are asking for help, but when it is provided, all you do is form more excuses for why you are this way. None of those excuses yet explain why you are depressed or why you are letting other opportunites slip by all because of your training.
That is what was meant by balance. I didn’t go to school around my training. It simply became a regular part of my life along WITH my education. If I had a test to study for, I was often in the gym the night befre. However, if I had the choice of training and failing or staying home and passing a test, I would have stayed home. You seem to be one who would have been in the gym regardless. I pointed out your stats for a reason…BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT THAT SUBSTANTIAL FOR THIS TO TAKE UP YOUR WHOLE EXISTANCE. I am amazed that you were able to lose that much body fat, however, you need to realize that you can not exchange the body you were born with. You instead work with it. Many of the guys you see who are very muscular started out with arms as big as yours. That isn’t a knock on you, just an attempt to get you to understand that more time in the gym does not equate to more progress.
Genetics play the largest role. My arms were 15" before I started training. You need to take a step back and realize that you could spend the rest of your life training night and day, however, you still will have to deal with your own body’s responses to training. By all means, work on bettering yourself and be proud of it, but stop believing that you need to measure up to anyone else but you alone. If you get your arms up to 15.5", be happy and proud of that. Don’t destroy every aspect of your life for it though because many of the people you see with that potential were simply born with it. They worked hard as well and but the starting point was different.
Jeebus - just do things in moderation…eat mostly healthy, drink moderately, stay up late once and a while and RELAX…jeeeeeebus!!![/quote]
I agree. I love lifting weights. I like the changes my body goes through as a result. If lifting made me that unhappy, I would stop doing it. I look forward to working out, eating, and everything else.
stressing is going to be more damaging than most anything you are talking about. Also look to short gamses of basketball as cardio and active recovery. The strongest athletes are not always the ones who live and die by the weightroom. Get MRP’s too.
Dude, unless you are an actual IFBB pro bodybuilder, then you need to relax! Bodybuilding is a HOBBY. It’s not something that you should revolve your entire life aroud. Granted it is an amazing feeling to push your body so hard and reep the awards, but is it worth it to sacrifice everything else for? Absolutely not! Chances are, that someone like yourself who actually has done even the slightest amount of research and knows how to train and diet is going to have a better body than 90% of the world, even still by training and eating right during the day and then partying and doing whatever at night.
If you are really insistant, then make up a bunch of your own protein bars (the brand name ones are crap) by using some grow and a good recipe and keep one or two on you all the time for after basketball or at nights. This is a lifesaver for me at school.
But unless you intend to do what it takes to do this for a living, its not worth sacrificing your life for. I think i read somewhere on this site something like “if i live the rest of my life as healthy as i possibly can, i will eventually get very sick and die.” That puts it all in perspective.
To GFH (Get Fucking Hyooge for those who don’t know) while trying to stay all toned tanned and sexy is hard - really hard. Decide what you want to be - stop falling into the ‘why cant I bench 500? My abs are ripped!’ mentality and relax. A lot. I always lose weight under stress (new job locations) and you sound like a ball of it. Lighten up - what are you acheiving if it makes you miserable?
[quote]fedorov91 wrote:
I can’t go have fun with friends
I can’t go play street Basketball
I can’t go to the bar
I can’t stay up late
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First, remove the word “can’t” from your vocabulary. Whenever you want to say “I can’t”, start saying “how can I”. This will get you thinking about solutions instead of problems.
Then start saying “why” about the things you “have” to do. WHY do I need to do this thing? What is my purpose in doing it? How else can I accomplish that?
In short, develop options. Rigid, inflexible thinking will destroy your life by leaving you few if any options. Start looking for solutions to your problems, and you’ll be surprised by how good you become at finding them.
You better figure out some way to balance your life now - it doesn’t get any easier. The best advice I can give is take a step back and relax. You need to view your body as a long-term project and recognize that you can deviate from time to time as long as your long-term goals are still intact. For example, if you were supposed to work out Monday, but you were too tired, bfd, work out Tuesday. If you’ve got a hot date and want to have a bottle of wine with some French cuisine - do it. Give yourself a mental break and realize that you still have x,000 days ahead of you and that putting off a day isn’t that big in the scheme of things. Same thing with the diet and partying. If you can do this, the guilt won’t be there (a little bit of guilt isn’t bad though). Just don’t be too soft on yourself and get into bad habits by extending your downtime by more than a couple of days. I’ve found that I can take a week off and be right back to where I was within a week of picking back up. If I plan on living for 50 more years, I’ve lost one week out of 2,600 weeks I have left. If you had $2,600 cash in your pocket and lost $1, would you feel bad?
If you can’t stop obsessing like this it sounds to me that you either have some mental health issues (OCD or trying to compensate for a lack of something else in your life) or you are just being a baby about this and are looking for excuses to give up BB because it’s too hard. Only you can figure out the real answers, but only if you really want to know the answer. Sometimes the truth isn’t what we want it to be and you need to be a man about this - make a decision and move on. You are spending too much time on this and making me write such a long response.