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For any fitness fanatics on this message board


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For anyone on this board who loves to work out, lift weights, body build, etc.

 

I thought it would be interesting to start a thread that lets us share our success stories, secrets, nutrition tricks, lifting routines--really anything that would be cool to share. You can even post progress pictures for all I care. I'm just interested to hear what other people are doing and what works for you. Share as much or as little as you want.

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I'll go first. I started lifting a little over a year ago, and I started more of a bodybuilding program in May. A year and a half ago, I weighed in at 260 pounds, and now I am happy to say that I weigh around 195. Over the course of the next month, I would like to lose about 10 pounds of fat, so I recently started a fairly strict diet and am working on putting more emphasis on cardio by playing basketball more often than I have been able to since I started my body building program in order to try and break through my plateau that I seem to be stuck on.

 

I usually have a rotation of workouts. I do abs every day since abs are the quickest healing muscles in the body. Usually my ab routine isn't real rigorous, but I do a rigorous ab routine once a week. My rotation isn't clockwork, so I just lift the segment of my body that I feel needs worked the most when I get to the gym.

 

Here is how I break up my lifting days:

-biceps, triceps

-chest, back, abs, shoulders

-legs

 

That's pretty much the jist of my fitness routine that I can pull off the top of my head at the moment. Hopefully there are others on this site that are also fitness fanatics so that making this thread wasn't a waste :dunno

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Hshark...

 

I'm curious what your ab workout consists of.

 

I started lifting again to combat problems with my lower lumbar (back) and found the most bennefit from doing forward crunches while sitting up in the chair thing using the whole stack (50 reps with 150#?) with a pulley system.

 

It seemed to isolate the pain and therefore heal on the front of my spine (closest to my belly button) but it also gave me "Keg abs"

 

I wish I had abs like my older brother who weighs about half what I do and did 500 situps every night when he was a teen (about 40 years ago)

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I do abs every day since abs are the quickest healing muscles in the body. Usually my ab routine isn't real rigorous, but I do a rigorous ab routine once a week.

 

I did not know that! It's always nice to learn stuff like this, so I appreciate you sharing. Hopefully you and others will chime in with some good tips and help noobs like me out ; ) Would also like to hear what the workout consists of.

 

I don't know how much I can contribute to this thread though. I run a decent amount, but my discipline isn't that good. I think running is one of the most accessible health habits to have, everybody should do it! But it isn't necessarily easy if you want to get down to proper form. Every time I read something about running form, the next time I go, I feel like I don't even know how to run anymore.

 

I am a bit of a stickler with nutrition. Limit the simple carbs, avoid unnecessary sugar intake - drinks, juices, etc. Fiber is a critical part of the diet, but it's been systematically eliminated by the sheer prevalence of processed foods. Hence, why even 100% orange juice isn't that good for you.

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Hshark...

 

I'm curious what your ab workout consists of.

 

I started lifting again to combat problems with my lower lumbar (back) and found the most bennefit from doing forward crunches while sitting up in the chair thing using the whole stack (50 reps with 150#?) with a pulley system.

 

It seemed to isolate the pain and therefore heal on the front of my spine (closest to my belly button) but it also gave me "Keg abs"

 

I wish I had abs like my older brother who weighs about half what I do and did 500 situps every night when he was a teen (about 40 years ago)

 

I won't pretend to be an expert on lifting by any means, but I have definitely learned a lot since I began. As far as ab workouts go, a lot of people laugh at me when I do them because my ab routine looks a little bit goofy. The things that I do routinely are things that me and my buddy have either run across or have come up with. I'll give a list of things that I like to do on ab days that always work for me:

 

-incline situps

I usually do this as a warm-up set for my ab workout. I tend to do 20-25 situps on an incline ab bench

 

-incline bench with medicine ball

This is something that me and my buddy have come up with. Usually you see people doing situps and a partner throwing them a medicine ball in order to put tension on the person's abs. Our version of this is that you sit on the incline ab bench with the medicine ball, go half way up and hold so that your shoulder blades are off of the bench to about where your body is parallel with the ground. Then you proceed to throw the medicine ball straight up and catch it while holding your position. Every time that you catch the ball, you should feel it rip your abs, and it feels amazing. Really good for lower abs especially. I usually do this with a 14 pound medicine ball.

When doing this, the higher you throw the ball, the more it will pull on your abs. Also, if you toss the ball to where you are catching it in front of your face instead of down by your belly or at your chest, it will pull harder on your abs (which is good), especially on your lower abs. I usually do about 10-15 reps. The last thing I would say is to make sure you are tossing the ball straight up so that it lands in the center of your body and not off to the side. If you catch it to the side too much, you could develop a twist in your abs.

 

-Standing free weight swing

Once again, this is something that me and my buddy either came up with or ran across that I do just about every day. I would use either a 25 lb or 35 lb free weight like you would put on a barbell. Stand (usually in front of a mirror) with your feet slightly more than shoulder width apart, with knees bent so that you are almost leaning back. Then hold the weight out in front of you and move it straight up and down, while you concentrate on squeezing your abs. The motion should be kind of like you have a girl riding you, and you are "guiding her" up and down :D (sorry for that, but it's the only way I know how to describe it without videos). Do 10-15 reps.

The next sequence of this exercise, you swing the weight diagonally at a 45 degree angle to the ground and swing it up above your shoulder. It should feel similar to as if you are chopping wood. Swing the weight back and forth, concentrating on catching the force of the weight with your obliques. Do about 10 reps per side. Much like the medicine ball toss, the harder that you swing the weight, the more it will rip on your abs. This exercise is all about balance.

 

-Flat bench ab workouts

For this workout, I simply sit on a flat bench sideways. You could also sit on the edge of a table. I begin by extending my legs and then bringing them into my body. Once again, this is about muscle concentration. Work on squeezing your abs as you pull your legs into your body. Do about 15-20 reps. Do not hold onto the bench while you do this, and do not let your legs hit the floor. Balancing helps work your abs.

Next, work your obliques by bringing your left knee to your right elbow, and vice versa. Do as many as you can do. The faster you do it, and the more you exaggerate the motion, the more it works your core.

For the next motion on the flat bench, you can allow your hands to hold you in place. Simply extend your legs parallel to the ground and just do scissor kicks as quickly as you can do them. Once again, concentration on ab muscles is what makes this workout effective.

 

-cable crunches

This one is really easy on your back. On the cable system, attach the rope handle if you have one. I usually set the weight at anywhere from 150-200 lbs. Grab the rope handles and go down to your knees. All you are going to do is squeeze your abs and do a crunch, pulling the weight down to the floor. It's a really simple exercise and depending on how much you concentrate your abs, it could be the best one of all of them.

 

-Ab ball flex

For this, simply grab an ab ball or yoga ball (preferrably a small to medium sized one) and sit on it with feet anchored against the wall. You will want to sit up pretty high on the ball and just squeeze your abs as hard as you can for a few seconds at a time. The harder you squeeze, the better it will work. Really simple and really easy.

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I do abs every day since abs are the quickest healing muscles in the body. Usually my ab routine isn't real rigorous, but I do a rigorous ab routine once a week.

 

I did not know that! It's always nice to learn stuff like this, so I appreciate you sharing. Hopefully you and others will chime in with some good tips and help noobs like me out ; ) Would also like to hear what the workout consists of.

 

I don't know how much I can contribute to this thread though. I run a decent amount, but my discipline isn't that good. I think running is one of the most accessible health habits to have, everybody should do it! But it isn't necessarily easy if you want to get down to proper form. Every time I read something about running form, the next time I go, I feel like I don't even know how to run anymore.

 

I am a bit of a stickler with nutrition. Limit the simple carbs, avoid unnecessary sugar intake - drinks, juices, etc. Fiber is a critical part of the diet, but it's been systematically eliminated by the sheer prevalence of processed foods. Hence, why even 100% orange juice isn't that good for you.

 

As far as nutrition, I am trying to learn as I go. There is a formula that you can use to figure out what your caloric maintenance amount is (the amount of calories you need to eat daily to stay the same weight). If I can track it down and translate the verbiage, I will share it when I get some time. If you want to gain weight, you up your intake by 500 calories. If you want to lose weight, lower your intake by 500 calories.

 

You can also find your body fat percentage and take the amount of weight from fat off of your total body weight, and that is your lean body mass. You should try to consume around 1 gram of protein daily for each pound of lean body mass.

-For example, I am about 200 lbs with an estimated body fat of 20%, making my lean body mass 160 lbs. Therefore, I try to consume at least 160 grams of protein daily.

 

As far as fat intake, nuts are a good source of healthy fats and oils. You should only consume 1 gram of fat per kilogram of lean body mass.

-example: my lean body mass is ~160 lbs, convert to kg by dividing by 2.2, and my LBM is 72-73 kg. Therefore, I should only consume around 70 g of fats each day.

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As far as fat intake, nuts are a good source of healthy fats and oils. You should only consume 1 gram of fat per kilogram of lean body mass.

 

The crummy thing about nuts is, you're supposed to eat them raw, and they're far better roasted. But roasting them takes away the vast majority of health benefits.

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Hell yeah! Finally someone posts something like this. I am an avid lifter, have a Bachelors of Science in Education with a Major in Exercise, also in PTA (Physical Therapy) school. I am a huge functional anatomy, kinesiology, and physiology fan. I am actually cutting right now. I have dieted down to 7% bodyfat before utilizing an underwater weigh system (which is highly accurate, +- .5%). If anyone needs any help with diet, exercise, whatever..... go ahead and ask away. I don't have all the answers, but I am willing to do what I can and I hope I provide useful information that is valuable.

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I ahve been working since I was probably about 16. My routine varies from week to week, one week will be upper body then the next will be lower body and cardio.

 

Upper Body usually consists of bench, incline bench, tricep workouts, bicep workouts, chest, back, and some lat work throwin in there. I do abs everyday though, as shark said they are always the ones to heal first.

 

Lower body usually consists of using leg machines, and maybe one day of squatting depending on how my legs feel after running and using machines.

 

Right now i'm at 5'10" and 180 pounds, but I would like to get up around 185-190 sometime this year.

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Some of the best bodybuidling/powerlifting/sports specific websites you can visit for interesting articles and info are: www.t-nation.com & www.elitefts.com. Those are the top two I recommend.

 

My current stats (actually weaker b/c of the the motorcycle accident and slight long-head bicep tendon tear in my left arm):

 

Bench: 215lbs x 8-10 reps

Barbell Row: 215 x 10-12 reps

Dip: BW + 45lb plate: 14 reps

Pull-ups: BW (220lbs): 10-12

 

*Legs are typically done with two quality movements, DB lunges and lying HS curls with a DB. I am really trying to focus on hamstring development and glute development. I need to start introducing deads back into my routine and I'm a bit skeptical on doing good-mornings because I need to work on my form (good mornings are great for glute and hamstring development)

 

I am 5'7" and weigh about 220lbs. I am trying to drop to around 180 or so....whatever it takes for me to get lean. I am trying to keep a solid amount of carbs in my diet (stil low however) so I don't risk losing too much muscle.

 

Best Stats weighing at 185lbs

 

Bench: 315x 7 reps

Squat: 405x 10 reps

Dead-lift: 405x 1 rep

 

There's just a bit of info...some stats are left out b/c I can't remember lol.

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Hell yeah! Finally someone posts something like this. I am an avid lifter, have a Bachelors of Science in Education with a Major in Exercise, also in PTA (Physical Therapy) school. I am a huge functional anatomy, kinesiology, and physiology fan. I am actually cutting right now. I have dieted down to 7% bodyfat before utilizing an underwater weigh system (which is highly accurate, +- .5%). If anyone needs any help with diet, exercise, whatever..... go ahead and ask away. I don't have all the answers, but I am willing to do what I can and I hope I provide useful information that is valuable.

 

I've been on a diet of strict pasta and wine, most every night, for the past year. I get plenty of cardio, but I don't lose weight. Do I need to increase my wine intake?

  • Fire 1
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Hell yeah! Finally someone posts something like this. I am an avid lifter, have a Bachelors of Science in Education with a Major in Exercise, also in PTA (Physical Therapy) school. I am a huge functional anatomy, kinesiology, and physiology fan. I am actually cutting right now. I have dieted down to 7% bodyfat before utilizing an underwater weigh system (which is highly accurate, +- .5%). If anyone needs any help with diet, exercise, whatever..... go ahead and ask away. I don't have all the answers, but I am willing to do what I can and I hope I provide useful information that is valuable.

 

I've been on a diet of strict pasta and wine, most every night, for the past year. I get plenty of cardio, but I don't lose weight. Do I need to increase my wine intake?

Yes....lots of wine lol haha

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