Ok, so I have been reading this site forever and never posted. First timer. I am a posting virgin…
So I have been lifting and doing cardio for about 2 yrs. And I have come to a point where with my body type i recognize it would take and ungodly clean diet for an extended period of time to get abs. I am a tiny guy, but built wide. “Stocky” if you will. I am currently 5’5’ about 160 at about 8.8% body fat.
I lift twice a week doing all that i can do by myself, dead lifts, no squats as i have no cage and no spotter (substitute in lunges holding 2 45lbs dumbbells and a book bag with 2x25lbs plates in it) etc. etc. around 3 times a week i run 2-4 miles.
Typically i eat about 2000 calories a day. And now that i am no longer overly concerned about “abs” i think i am going to go for pure strength. I know i am not huge and i know i will never be an enormous dude, but i am shooting for as fit as i can be and as suprisingly strong as i can be for my size.
So my question is this, how is pizza in the scope of a weight gain type diet keeping in mind i do a reasonable amount of cardio? i am also going to start back in with whey protein shakes and peanut butter, etc. etc.
But seeing as how i am addicted to pizza, i am wondering if it can actually have a place in my diet…
The general consensus on this board is that pizza classifies as junk food and should be avoided, generally speaking. Won’t kill you once in awhile though.
If you only eat 2000 kcal a day AND you eat a lot of pizza, something tells me you are not getting enough quality protein or fat in your diet. Pizza is a pretty nutritionally devoid food and making it a staple in your diet is something I do not recommended.
Also, you don’t need a spotter for squats ALL the time. Work your way up and if you go really heavy, just call someone over for about 30 seconds. They don’t need to watch you all day man. You should squat!
I had been squatting pretty regularly and did exactly what you said worked my way up. I don’t know if its a lot or not but it was for me, i was doing 265 one night which was around the top of my range at the time and got stuck at the bottom, had to literaly duck my head and throw the weight over my shoulders to get out from under it.
After that i was like, “fuck it” i won’t be doing those alone again. I used to bench on my own too, but quit after a similar situation.
So now i do what i can on my own and move on. I don’t have anyone near me who is remotely interested in training so spots are hard to come by.
P.S. i will not integrate pizza in regularly… Although i am victim to loving it so i will have to eat it every once and a while. . .
What do you guys think about the following weights, keeping in mind my weight and size…
Military press 135 lbs. 3x4
Pull ups 3x5 with 50 lbs. additional on dip belt.
3x8 dips with 60 lbs. on dip belt.
I am trying to get an idea if i am moving in the right direction. I have some goals of being able to do a true 1 armed pullup and being able to do planche pushups as well… Gotta get the planche down first though! Lol…
No insult taken. I would like to know how you draw that conclusion though…
I am going on what a bio impedence scale says so could be totally off i don’t know. I know i am not a lard ass, but at the same time have never really gone a gym and had the fat measure with calipers either…
I am a young father of 3 who gets in as much exercise as i can, I am humble before those who are able to get more work in than me and who have more knowledge than me. I am here to learn man…
For one, if you were at 8% you would have abs. Also, you look too smooth to be in the single digits. That being said, you seem to be doing something right, as you definitely look like you lift.
If there’s anyway to get more frequent lifting sessions in I think you’d see even better results. And as far as the pizza goes, try and make some homemade pizza without all of the shit, some low-fat cheese, and some meat for post-workout.
Superman, trust me. I have damn near crushed myself on a squat or bench press as well. Do you work out in a gym or in your home? If the latter, then I am understand why doing BB bench and squats is not appealing.
Also, I am 8-9% BF and I am 5’10 and 156 lbs. So 5 inches taller and the same weight. You clearly are more muscular but my smaller muscles tend to show more. Those electronic things suck, it said I was at 3.8% the first (and consequently, the last) time I used it … thats gotta be BS.
For squats, try switching things up a little. If you can military press 135 for reps then get that barbell up on your shoulders and do barbell lunges.
You’ll get more bang for your buck than you would from dumbbell lunges. Also, if you have a BB that you can deadlift with, then you have one that you can use for hack squats as well.
I get the impression that you are working out at home, is this true? If so, you really should start saving and/or trolling craigslist for a good squat rack/cage.
For bulking, it’s OK to consume some junk food every now and then to meet your Kcal goals. Just make sure that you maintain an overall diet that is rich in nutrients, includes lots of veggies, and is high in quality protein.
Oh BTW, for a bulk get some good “before” pictures to compare your results to. It will make determining your progress much less subjective.
Thanks for all the advice guys i appreciate it all. I will try to get a squat cage somehow. My basement gym has a basic olympic bench with capability to do incline and decline. Then i have a homemade dip station with a weight machine.
I will probably try the barbel shoulder lunges cause that makes a lot of sense. Don’t know why my dumbass hadn’t thought of that.
What would you guys suggest in place of the bench for the chest area? What weight would you guys try for on my frame?
As far as bf percentages, ya’ll are are right i really don’t know what i am. I guess that machine is a piece…
I retain fat around the waist pretty bad, so cutting is tough. I think i can live in the bf % of teens as long as a look reasonably strong and i am making some kinds of gains…
Just don’t want to get back to where i was in that picture…
You’ve made great progress. pizzas are fine to eat. They are balanced. There’s carb, protein, and fat. Hell it’s food, better than most so-called meals people claim to eat. Go for it!
Bio-impedance is known to be inaccurate. I’m with b-mac13, there’s no way possible you are 8.8%. Especially since you retain fat around your belly. You actually look somewhere in the neighborhood of 12-14%.
Can you see any abs at all? The top row shows up around 15%.
As mentioned above, pizza is fine if you watch the ingredients. I hear Shugart’s recipe is great, but I haven’t tried it myself.
Have you tried sprints or some other type of high intensity training? Jogging is a great cardio workout, but your body may be too well adapted to it. I think it would benefit you to try a HIIT program to go along with your lifting.
