cubby2112

You are right about copying and pasting: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiprotein_complex I am not Johan, but what this guy is saying about needing complex proteins is complete bullshit. That block of text he copied and pasted is just talking about the protein structure of neurons. Your body doesn't use proteins, it uses amino acids, and it makes proteins out of them. Any complex protein will be broken down by pepsin, acids, etc. and its level of complexity will have no bearing on how your body uses it. The amino acid profile is all that is important, and it is well-established that the amino acid profile of a vegan diet is adequate. Given the right mix of essential amino acids, your body can make any protein it needs.

I think the lack of results in this study is due to subjects receiving the EAAs an hour before exercising, but I wanted Johan's (or anyone else's) take on it. The EAA+CHO subjects' FSR would have probably been increased pre and post exercise had they consumed the drink right before beginning, rather than an hour before, which using EAAs and simple CHO, was probably enough time for their bodies to pretty much eliminate them, before their exercise session was even finished. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18535123?ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum J Appl Physiol. 2009 May;106(5):1730-9. Epub 2008 Jun 5. Essential amino acid and carbohydrate ingestion before resistance exercise does not enhance postexercise muscle protein synthesis.

I do plan on cycling regular deadlifts in there, but I want to keep sumos around, because I want to pull PBs with it for my ego. I pull much higher with sumos.

Post some As usual not pumped but whatever. Ladies and Gentlemen, Bruce Lee lives!!!! That IF and diet arer working for you. +1 Awesome, Johan! I hope my body fat gets somewhere near yours from IF. Here is me this morning. Serratus is coming out a bit more and I almost have a "five pack." The bottom ab bump on my right side is starting to come out, haha. Stupid left one is being shy. http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b32/cubby2112/102_0063.jpg

Yep, my diet is definitely clean. Probably too clean. Damned fiber. I weight 175, maybe even 179, not sure, because I am up from 170 due to going back on creatine a few weeks ago. I am 5'10''. I actually just took a new photo for "Your Shape Today" and will be posting it shortly.

Agreed. So, I worked out a workout plan based on this article and on Westside Barbell principles. The volume, ~50 sets per week, is about half of the volume of a Westside program, ~90 sets, but there is a bit more compound focus. The speed days are going to be done at about 60% 1RM. My idea for the speed chins is something similar to clapping chins, but I am not sure if I can do clappers, so I just put down speed chins. The heavy sets aren't necessarily done at RMs, but are just meant to be really heavy. The singles are meant to be all I can handle at that point, though. If the volume still seems too high, I could knock out the speed days, I suppose. Week 1 Monday: Sumo Deadlift 3x3, 2x1; RDL 2x7; Straight Leg Calf Raise 2x7 Tuesday: Bench 3x3, 2x1; Military 4x3; Dips 4x3 Wednesday: Chins 3x5, 2x1; BB Bent Over Rows 3x5; Pull-ups 3x5 Thursday: Speed Squats 4x2; Straight Leg Calf Raise 4x3 Friday: Off Saturday: Speed Bench 4x2; Speed Chins 4x2; Upright Rows 2x7 Sunday: Off Week 2 Monday: Speed Deficit Sumo Deadlift 4x2; RDL 2x7; Straight Leg Calf Raise 2x7 Tuesday: Bench 3x5, 2x1; Military 3x5; Dips 3x5 Wednesday: Chins 3x3, 2x1; BB Bent Over Rows 4x3; Pull-ups 4x3 Thursday: Squats 3x3, 2x1; Straight Leg Calf Press 3x5 Friday: Off Saturday: Speed Bench 4x2; Speed Chins 4x2; Upright Rows 2x7 Sunday: Off

Yes, and if your LDL is low, your HDL is almost irrelevant.

Heavy is definitely working best for me. I hate high reps and isolation exercises anyway.

Yep, I have the same issues all around.

I've been looking at a few articles on this blog lately. http://extremehumanperformance.com/blog/ I found it when I was looking up stuff on beta alanine. He posts lots of cool studies and analyzes them. Good, scientific stuff. Of course, there are recommendations for animal products, but you'll usually have that in fitness blogs.

They are fun, aren't they? I think part of my aptitude for them is due to two things - first, I can train upper back all day long hard and heavy and still recover easily, and also, I'm still prone to doing well with heavier, low-rep stuff like this on some lifts. I find it harder for me to do a set of 12 pull-ups at bodyweight than a half dozen with 45 lbs. added on, which seems a bit odd but that's just how my body works. I'll be trying for a single with a PR of 90 lbs. done clean in the next few weeks, hoping for 100 lbs. before spring! My body is the exact same way with them. I find it hard to progress on body weight chins and pull-ups, but have no issues increasing the weight or reps on weighted ones.

I didn't realize it was the same study. I forget a lot in one month. Oh well, now we have a perspective on the study from two Swedes.

http://www.leangains.com/ has a new post. It is about fasted state workouts and how a recent study showed an increase in certain factors post workout that assist in muscle building. There is a link to the study right at the top of the post. Interesting stuff, but obviously not enough evidence to go and make all your workouts fasted from now on. It really makes me want to start taking some BCAAs pre-workout as my first "food" for the day.

No problem. If you want to see more, Tipton and Wolfe has done most of the and the best research on eaa it seems. So just check their names on pubmed. I will do that. I am probably going to snag some EAAs and beta alanine when I have some extra cash. Thanks for all the info.

You are awesome, Johan. Thanks for listing these.

So, at the encouragement of xphilx, I looked into Hatfield's system. I had no idea he was Dr. Squat. Anyway, according to this article I am a "fast gainer" type: http://drsquat.com/content/knowledge-base/finding-ideal-training-split. I did my 1RM, 3RM and 5RM on many lifts a couple months ago. From the results, I can see I definitely land in his "fast gainer" category, in all muscle groups. Except maybe calves, which are the only group not tested. Until recently, I had never trained each body part in a heavy rep range, save for legs, which might explain why my legs always did better than my upper body. A couple months ago, I started training my whole body at heavy weights, and experienced unprecedented gains in my upper body, but my lower body didn't get nearly as much of a boost. In every exercise, my number of reps performable has always fallen dramatically when I increase weight a tiny amount, more than it should. This theory explains that. So, what does anyone think of this article. Any idea what category you mostly fall into? Any idea on what he means by "light," "medium" and "heavy" days? To many, this would mean percentage of 1RM load used, to others, it may mean volume, and still to others, it may mean perceived exertion. Using the principles for easy gainers, it would make sense that he means volume mostly. If my muscles grow best using high weight and low reps, it doesn't make much sense to decrease the weight, to a range where the proper fibers won't be enervated, on "light" or "medium" days. It makes more sense to me to keep the weight heavy, but reduce the volume, going for around five or six sets per muscle group on "heavy days," three to four on "medium" days, and two on "light" days.

Not if you have a big white Ghandi right next to you.

You can't do a proper raw bench without raw spotters.

Forgot about caffeine. That too. I agree, I've looked into a few studies on EAAs or BCAAs, and they seem to actually have some backing.

I always say that expecting to see a number of large vegan bodybuilders is like expecting Liechtenstein to dominate the Olympics.

Hmm I never considered using them for anything other than a curl or reverse curl (including skullcrushers, etc.) I've never used them for deadlifts, but have seen others use them that way. Those who do are 'fitness enthusiasts,' not people serious about lifting. I don't do upright rows that often, but I've found them to be the best use for EZ bars for myself. Using a straight bar for them always put more strain on my wrists than curling or doing skull crushers did.

Would working sets like this seem more reasonable? That is ten total heavy sets for the lower body (down from 14), which is equal in stress to performing a 5x5 of squats, then a 5x5 of deadlifts. There are fifteen heavy sets for the upper body (down from 18), which is similar to doing a 5x5 of bench, then chins, then dips. Would you guys consider that too much volume? The total number of sets performed is lower (substantially) than most hypertrophy programs, and about in line with most strength programs. As a reference, I compared this workout to one in the NSCA-CSCS book. The total number of sets came out lower in my workout, while there were more heavy lower body sets in the one from the book, but more heavy upper body sets in my workout. The workout from the book is a full body one, performed three times per week, with one heavy day, then a medium day, followed by a light one. The fact that the hypertrophy days feel like I am just playing around with weights should make them no problem. I knocked through my Tuesday workout in 40 minutes, easily, and that was with some messing around since it was a new program. So, to recap, each lift is done maximally only once per week, then performed again later in the week at a light load to prevent deconditioning. I am not deadlifting hard twice per week, because one of the times is merely there for volume. I think with these changes, the volume should look more reasonable. Monday Maximal sets, 3-5 minute rest between sets 3x3 sumo deadlifts 3x3 squats 2x3 Zerchers 2x3 RDLs Tuesday Descending reps: 8, 7, 6, 6 at 70% 1RM, 1 minute rest between sets Bench Chins Military Bent over rows Dips Pull-ups Thursday Descending reps 8, 7, 6, 6 at 70% 1RM, 1 minute rest between sets Sumo deadlift Squats Zerchers RDLs Friday Maximal sets, 3-5 minute rest between sets 3x3 Bench 3x3 Chins 3x3 Military 2x3 Bent over rows 2x3 Pull-ups 2x3 Dips

Cool. Next to creatine, it seems to be the only product supported by science. I can't find a study that doesn't show benefits. The fact that it tingles kind of freaks me out, though.

I saw Johan mention this a couple of times, and saw that John Berardi recommends it, so I decided to look into the research. It looks like some fairly substantiated stuff. Many studies combine it with creatine in the experimental group, but even so, it has shown better results than one of the controls, which only used creatine. So, does anyone use it for lifting? I know it is also an endurance/cardio supplement, but I am most curious about it in regards to lifting. I did a search, and found several users who said they were about to try it, but now one who had yet. I bet some have tried it by now.

damn, this is pretty good! It's getting there For a guy who could barely get 3 band-assisted pull-ups a few years back, I'd say that there's been a lot of improvement. Pull-ups are just like anything else, I guess - when I realized how much I sucked at doing them, I just kept making sure to do them until they weren't so bad. When the day comes that I can do a clean single with 100 lbs. strapped on, it'll be a day to celebrate! I agree, awesome stuff! I have been working on weighted chins and pull-ups myself quite a bit.