Like you, I’m going to begin trying to lose some fluff, just starting a bit sooner.
Last weekend, I read a book by Jade Teta which reinforced Thib’s idea of neurotypes. Both suggest that us natural endurance athlete types, the naturally skinny/skinny fat type, benefit from higher carb diets as a means to control cortisol.
For the past few weeks, I’ve been eating significantly more carbs. I’ve dropped 3-4 pounds without trying and feel noticeably better. (I still look pretty much the same).
As an aside, eating, say, 2500 cals of clean carbs and low-fat protein requires an absurd volume of food.
I saw a John Meadows video where he talked about just this, the idea of food being only fuel. He said something to the effect of, “Food is more than that. Sharing food is how we spend time with friends and family. It’s how we relax; it’s how we make occasions special.”
Giving yourself some grace seems perfectly reasonable. Life, after all, is for living.
Isn’t it crazy how individual this is? I never manage well with the higher fat diets, which seem to be the only way some people can get their weight moving at all.
Yup! That’s the huge win. Throw in a gallon of water, and you’re not looking to cheat on your diet.
I think that’s why I always really connected with everything he put out - John lived in the real world and put these things into a rational perspective.
I like it. I’ve noticed lately people love hearing that you’re doing something with a title. So if I say I’m following a strict meal plan and training twice a day, I’m a weirdo who is probably failing at both work and home. If I say I’m doing “75 Hard,” I’m heroic, a titan of industry, and a role model to my family and community.
I wonder if there’s a generational gap in perceptions of fitness.
Among my friends, I’m held up as an example.
When we’re in a group and someone complains going to the gym or reaches for a snack, another one usually says something along the lines of “look at Anna”
I don’t think it’s generational, more situational. I’m that person in my friend group, but these are my friends and chosen for a reason. Even if they don’t train, they get it and they get me. I don’t have control over all of the groups in which I hold membership. My husband’s family, for instance. I’ve never heard a single one of them mention workouts of any sort. For them a diet = salad with something along the lines of Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing on it, or simply trying not to eat.
The folks at Biotest captured this well with a meme I am struggling to find, but it boiled down to the fact that eating junk has become so normalized that when you eat in a sensible manner people immediately want to know what diet you’re on.
I haven’t been on a scale in probably a month, but I feel like I’m looking huge-er when I look in the mirror, more full by the week, so things are definitely moving in the right direction!
Disclaimer I don’t know much, I’m just an older lifter (I started seriously lifting in 1998), but I will share my experience. I don’t know about ROM specifically. Once I found out I had a frozen should, and what that meant, I took a broom stick and just forced it out of the adhesion.
Then when I started I could barely get my hands back even to a high bar squat. And basically whenever I did a squat session, in warmups I’d work to as low a position as a could with an empty bar and do some reps.
For pressing I lowered the weights all the way down to something I could handle without pain (even if it was just the bar), added some stability and things like 10 second negatives for a challenge and slowly worked up in weight over months and months. Starting I was moving and doing some very very light loading basically daily. As the weights have gotten more challenging I started taking more and more rest between significant loading. I’m only pressing weights once a week now, bench every other week, and only training 3 times a week for like 45 minutes a session. Which is a big deal for a guy that once squatted 6 days a week for almost 2 years.
You have to be very patient. Initially I just wanted to press without pain, but there are more degrees and levels and progress. There is pain while training, pain/soreness/inflammation in the days after training. All the way to it moving smoothly and finally actually feeling good not just in the movement but in the days/weeks following. I did a 315 double a while back, and the movement wasn’t painful, but the joint didn’t move well and it was sore, stiff and inflamed for a week or more afterward. You have to pay attention to all that and progress OR NOT accordingly. If you are getting woken up by pain the following night, you failed and did to much.
IMO, Generally, don’t worry about ROM you don’t need. You can stretch if you can’t get to a joint angle you need, but once you can get in positions you want, you just need to use it and get as strong there as possible.
And remember that there are limits to what your body will do and work within your limits. I’ve had to totally drop the idea of ever preforming a full snatch (I’ve always had some notion of doing 1 weightlifting competition just to have done one). My shoulders are mechanically incapable of getting into a good position and trying it is only ever going to cause problems for me. Sometimes you can’t just fix it, you have to alter course a few points and plan on the destination not being exactly where you intended.
The bulk is on. I’ve added in nightly protein shakes, and am being contentious to get ~300 grams protein daily, I’ve also relaxed eating habits and gone heavier on the carbs than I usually would etc. I’m up about 3lbs since beginning of year. I haven’t done an inbody in a week but I’d be curious to know where I am.
Had a good arm workout today, excited for back tomorrow… then off to Disney world for 4 days with the kids which will be the longest break from training I’ve taken for about a year
Thanks! Got a good lats pump today at new gym, back has been harder for me to build as I undertrained it when younger so don’t have the muscle memory to fall back on. Shape is coming in decently though now… I still don’t understand how to flex it for size for a picture though
Hah. Thanks. I overly competitive and if I don’t win all I think about is what I could have done better, so I haven’t talked about it a ton. Still worth it FTR, it was an amazing experience. Plan is to get back there.
You mentioned qualifying for it last year. I had been wondering how it went. Bad timing for the shoulder! It’s good to hear that this hasn’t derailed you.
After a spike and plunge in the first half of January, body weight has been exceptionally stable. Hoping to make another push lower (i.e., below 150 lbs) in March.
I love you guys that make charts and graphs because it’s just so real to how you’re wired. I like how many roads to Rome there are in terms of making this click for our own psyche.
You just cannot get a good pic of your back with you holding the “camera.”
The problem with a flexed pic of your back is that to display back you need to spread your lats. When you spread your lats you will be relaxing many muscles in your back. With plenty of thickness, as you have, this isn’t really a problem. Your back muscles will reveal themselves regardless what you do with your back. In other words, you cannot make your back look weak.
