medman

Great work! Everyone's entitled to their "off" days now and then. Looks like you've been working on a very well-balanced fitness plan.

Rob, that is some pretty impressive stuff! Glad to see your back isn't holding you back (no pun intended) lately!

Sounds like it could be costochondritis but a simple visit to a sports med doc could figure that out and potentially save a lot of time and pain.

Wow, you have been KILLING it! Amazing work on your squats & deadlifts. Glad to see you haven't been slacking off

Spoken like a true powerlifter! Those are all I've ever done for back...keeps life simple.

Thanks guys! The injury sucked, but it was a nice little reminder for me to work on my flexibility (I'm very, VERY inflexible naturally, in almost every joint, but my shoulders are probably the worst). I'm now working on write flexibility for clean grip front squats, shoulder flexibility for my overhead presses, and hip flexibility for my squats (this has improved the most over the last year...I couldn't hit parallel on a bodyweight squat a year ago, but can squat heavy below parallel now!). I can't wait until I have a chance to go through all your threads and see how everyone has been doing over the last few months. I have already seen how far Chewy and Adena have come - I need to get back to work!!

Thanks everyone! Chewy - good memory! I got my P1 in Krav Maga over the summer but had to give up the classes in September when I started my clinical rotations. Just couldn't do the early evenings anymore. I still hit the heavy bag when I can because it's so much fun though!

Wow, Chewy - you've done so much since I was last on the board! Congrats on the comp, and congrats on making such fantastic overall progress (even if you're feeling slightly frustrated recently).

Not sure if you've ever seen a photo or workout log of Jimi's, but for 99% of people, reaching "his level" is damn near impossible! He's a beast and an inspiration. Glad to see he's still posting! One of the most "hardcore" guys around these parts, and proof that disciplined training and eating can produce fantastic results on a vegan diet.

Hi guys, It's been a while since I've been on the forum so I figured I'd make a little re-introduction thread. For those who don't know me, I'm now a 3rd year med student up in Ottawa, Canada. Been vegan for maybe 8 years now, vegetarian for 11 years total. Used to be into half-marathons and duathlons but hit a mental breaking point when I realized I was 22 years old and weighed 112 lbs. I started stronglifts around a year ago and put on roughly 25 lbs with it. So what have I been up to lately? A shoulder injury in October kept me from doing too much in the gym for 2-3 months, but from January-March I eased back into full-intensity workouts and regained the ground I had lost from my time off. Still, throughout this whole ordeal I have gone roughly 6 months without being able to break 140lbs, and knew that now was the time to change my workout routine up. Yesterday, I officially began following the Texas Method, and look forward to having really structured workouts again. I'll be posting a progress log and things like that - probably a photo update as well. I see a lot of familiar names are still around, and plenty of new ones. So, hello again to you all!

Haha I didn't realize I had put my birthday into the VBBF system...just turned 24! Was on call for the first part of it (worked 9 am the day before my birthday until 9 am on my birthday), so I was too tired to do much partying, hehe.

Thanks guys!! I'm closing in on 140, which was something I never thought I could achieve before I found this forum. Chewy, your SL log was what inspired me to start the program 6 months ago, and it's hard to believe how far I've come with it! 260 lb 1x5 deadlift and 210 lb 5x5 squat at 140 lbs, and I was 110 lbs not so long ago when I first found this forum!

Thanks guys! Chewy - I just recently deloaded to 135 on bench because I was becoming displeased with my form. At 135 I am able to actually touch my chest on all 25 reps so I plan to build back up from there. I was doing 150 before that, but the depth wasn't something I was happy with. As for the OH presses, I was doing 95 lbs with no problems at the gym I was using until mid August. Then I switched gyms (back at the school one), and 95 lbs became impossible. Part of it might be that the rack is a bit lower (so it takes more to get that first rep up), but otherwise I'm stumped. I deloaded to 85 lbs last time, which still felt so much harder than it did at the previous gym. I'm not sure if maybe the bar I was using was a few pounds light or something...but it's the only exercise that seemed to take a real hit when I switched back to the uni gym.

Took these a week or two ago and forgot to post them - this is me at around 137 lbs. Over the summer, I wasn't able to squat or deadlift much due to a hip injury, so I focused on my upper body lifts, and worked on improving my body composition while maintaining a stable weight. Because my weight wasn't changing much, I figured there would be much of a change...but comparing them to my last set, I definitely see some improvements, like in the width of my back. http://i346.photobucket.com/albums/p437/mbene085/StrongLifts/Photoon2010-08-15at1325.jpg http://i346.photobucket.com/albums/p437/mbene085/StrongLifts/Photoon2010-08-15at1324.jpg Now I'm off to the gym! Got some more PRs I need to crush...

I'd like to venture a guess that it was the anorexia and depression that was making her feel fatigued...

Congrats on the new milestone on DLs - hopefully it won't be too long before I join you in the 300 club!

Thanks guys! Yesterday I nailed 200 lbs (PR) on the squat for my 5x5 with good depth! Felt super strong, I wasn't even close to failure. I'm so psyched to finally be back to upping my weights on squats after my frustrating summer piriformis syndrome crap. I also nailed my deadlift 1x5 at 250 lbs (another PR). Both the squat and the deadlift felt heavy but easily doable with no form concerns. I'm hoping to get to that 2XBW deadlift (280 lbs) and 1.5XBW squat (210 lbs) soon!

Glad to hear this...I start doing call in September, so there will definitely be days I need to lift on little/no sleep!

I disagree. While many vegans will naturally seek to replace animal products other than food, there is absolutely NO consensus when it comes to "how far is far enough to be considered vegan". To some people, wearing a wool sweater makes you "non-vegan". To others, not checking your toothpaste ingredients makes you "non-vegan". To others, putting out diatomaceous earth to kill the ants in your kitchen makes you "non-vegan". Or that buying a car that has a leather steering wheel as a standard (can't opt-out) feature makes you "non-vegan". So to me, someone who puts in effort to eat a vegan diet is vegan unless they're going out of their way to add animal products to their life (like buying a fur coat, hehe). I say this mostly because of frustrating conversations I've had with zealous veggie converts. They ask me a million questions until they find something I own or do that involves some sort of animal product and then proclaim that I'm "not a real vegan." Hell, I've been at this sh*t for 11 years...I don't need someone who's been veggie for 2 months telling me that the wool sweater I got as a gift makes me non-vegan!

Anyone know the dosing for CEE? I know you're not supposed to need to load - but I'm wondering if it's necessary to take 5g/day. I've been doing 3g every 2nd day, mostly because I keep forgetting to take it on non-workout days, lol.

Was this a dedicated disc or one of those covers you put over your rear wheel? It looks badass either way

There's a bit of a sliding scale. Do you have any symptoms to complain of? There's a danger in medicine of treating lab values instead of patients. If you're not feeling cold, legthargic, gaining weight, or experiencing skin/nail/hair problems, then you're probably fine. ESPECIALLY if your thyroxin was fine (if it was measured - might show up as T4 or thryroxin on the paperwork).

That is SO awesome!!

If you're on a real budget, and aren't cutting (i.e. aren't looking for low-carb everything), NOTHING can beat soy milk powder/"soy flour" from a bulk food store (like Bulk Barn here in Canada). The stuff is something like 60/40 protein/carbs or something like that, but it's around $2/lb here. My brother wasn't able to afford protein supplements for a while and he relied on this stuff. It's just a less purified (higher carb), unflavoured Soy Protein Concentrate

One pitfall girls can encounter is that they often think of "weight" being a measure of "fatness". When working out, you can put on 15 pounds, but it's healthy, lean body mass. It's completely different from gaining 15 pounds of fat. But the simple truth is that you will not see any significant improvement in terms of muscle whatsoever if you are not willing to go above 100 pounds.