coroho

I've always thought the reverse crunches were quite effective, I get a major burn off them. I'm still using a 5kg plate. I find they're as hard as you make them. The slower you do them the better, so you're not using momentum. And concentrate on your core pulling your legs rather than using the counterweight. Something that completely changed these for me was putting something inbetween my thighs and calves to ensure my legs were in a closed position all the time. Made them much harder - no cheating! You know, you may be right. Looking back I think I was using the counterweight to cheat some.. I go slow on the down movement but not so much on the crunch movement. I'll try doing them slower next time and add a counterweight if I need to. I also find staying tensed at the bottom makes 'em harder, ie legs not past parallel. I do agree they burn when done right. Let's see. I pretty much have some meals basically the same each day Oatmeal - Oats, peanut butter, banana, bread, orange juice Smoothie: Various fruits, usually some frozen, soy milk, oats, 15g protein powder Salad: Spinach, beans, seeds, avocado, sprouts, etc w/ olive oil, salt (good salt) Shake: Multigrains (oats, wheat, barley, rye), soy/almond milk, other 15g protein, wheat germ, granola, banana Then the other couple meals I actually cook like black bean burgers, pasta, stir fry or I might eat out (tho rarely). Throw in some more fruits and nuts and peanut butter sandwiches/whatever and that's about it. I can eat more on days when I get a lot in early on. I'll have hit 4k and about to go to bed but still be hungry. Lots of oats and carbs I know Hopefully it does. I've been thinking about doing some front squats in the meantime, but I think those are supposed to use your quads more so we'll see. Did you change anything besides the bar position to start going deeper?

Food yesterday: 3733 cals, 173.4g prot, 59/24/17 c/f/p ____ Workout today: Bench Press: 5x5 52.5kg Elevated Rows: 3xF 10,7,5 Dips: 3xF 11,10,7 Reverse Crunches: 12,8,9 My leg started hurting again while I was warming up so I didn't do squats. Figure I should let it heal completely so it's not lurking everytime. Rest of the workout went good. I was supposed to deload on bench press but I was feeling good and did them without much trouble. Highs on elevated rows & dips. I might switch to something else from the crunches soon, I don't know how much they're benefitting me and I haven't advanced since I dropped the counter weight. I'm steady eating about 4k cals a day but gaining at a snail's pace. I don't know if I'm not working hard enough cause I've been out on squats or if I need to start eating even more soon. I guess I'll wait till I can squat again to see but waiting sucks, you know. On the one hand, it's kind of impressive how much I can eat and not gain weight. I dunno. Am I being a pussy about the squats?

Awesome that yr back on squats! My workouts feel so much more complete when I can do 'em. Question: since you've deloaded, have you noticed if you've gotten any better at pushing yr knees out? I'm trying hard but not sure I'm doing it right/it doesnt feel natural. By the way, it looks like you may about be ready to move on to dips/harder rows. I waited until I got 3x15 or close to it, but later I noticed SL says to switch when you can get 15 on the first set.

Weekend foods went alright: Friday: 3862 cals Saturday: 3499 cals Sunday: 2790 cals (oops ) ___ Today's session: Squat: 60kg 2x5 Press: 35kg 5,5,5,3,4 Deadlift: 85kg 1x5 Chinups: 3xF 9,8,8 Prone Bridges: 3x30s w/ feet on medicine ball Squats started out fine but that pain started to inch in midway thru my 2nd set. I don't know if that meant I wasn't quite healed or my form was still bad but I quit before it hurt any more. Also I wanted to be sure I could get in the deads XD. Gonna have to deload on the press again, I know that's the first one a lot of people stall on but it's frustrating nonetheless. Food today: 4,064 cals, 182.5g protein, 64/20/16 c/f/p ___ Chewybaws: I generally wait about 3 minutes between sets if it's hard and/or there's a chance I might not complete the next set. With heavy squats I might take another minute. On easier exercises (rare now) or if I'm just feeling particularly pumped I'll go at like 2 minutes. Most things I've seen say 3-5 mins is fine but not more. I think if you only take 60-90s it will make you a better endurance athlete or something, but it's probably more important to complete the reps for strength.

food yesterday: 3790 cals, 171.2g protein, 64/20/16 c/f/p _____ weight today: 134.3 lbs (gaining, maybe) workout: Bench Press: 52.5kg 5,5,5,4,3 Ft Elv Inv Row: 6,7,5 Dips: 9,8,8 Reverse Crunches: 6 w/ no weight, 2x8 w/ 5 lbs Still couldn't squat but the pain wasn't as bad. Read up on stronglifts and I think it's cause I'm not pushing my knees out enough. Will need to deload a bit and work on that Monday. Rest of the workout was pretty shit except dips. Had to workout after my first meal of the day and I felt really hungry by the time I got thru the benches. Next week will be better. I'm going out of town with my family for the weekend. Hopefully I can keep my cals up.

CollegeB - yeah I do and I love it. seems old school, mostly free weights and no frills. ever been there/where do you go? Vegan Joe - haha, would that we were. I just like using kilos with weights cause it seems more official, ie. olympics. That, and the program I'm following is in kilos. ____ Workout today: Overhead press: 35kg 5,5,5,3,4 Pullups: 7,8,5 Prone Bridges: 3x30s w/ feet on medicine ball As for the squats and deads, well, I went in ready to pump out a new PR but I was stopped short by a pain in one of my right quads. I couldn't even get thru my warmup sets--by the time I got to 55kg I couldn't do one without definite pain. I've had a problem with this same area before after a hard workout with poor form, but this time I didn't pull anything while working out (or at least didn't feel it) and my form's a lot better. I think I need to look into better stretching exercises and hopefully I'll be better on Friday, tho I'll probably take it relatively light if I am. Sucks! ____ food: 4013 (!) cals, 192g protein, 64/19/17 c/f/p unfortunately it's probably not doing me much good with the light workout

Chewybaws - yeah looks like we started at the exact same time, i'm on my 13th week too. I even had a reset on my squats cause I strained my quads at around 65kg. Learned to use my hips more and it's been coming along a lot better since. I might be kicking yr ass on the bodyweight exercises because I still don't weigh anything lol. I could barely do one pullup at the start tho, so I can't say I'm not happy about my progress there. Haven't gained mass, but then I've only started aiming for 4k cals in the past couple weeks so I'm trying to be patient/get closer to hitting it each day. If I'm still not gaining after a month looks like I'll have to kick it up more or mess with my ratios. btw, i'd seen yr log before but couldn't remember the name, so i'll be following it now too. CollegeB - I live in Hyde Park area, you? __ today: 3888 cals, 181.8g protein, 61/21/17 c/f/p

yeah i can't grind them up for shit with a pestle & mortar

ha, what do you know, first log entry and it was a not so good day at the gym. here's how it went: Squats: 77.5kg - 5,5,4,2 Bench Press: 52.5kg 5,5,5,5,3 Feet Elevated Inverted Rows: 3xF 9,8,7 Dips: 3xF 10,8,5 Reverse Crunches: 12,10,6 The bodyweight exercises went pretty well, but I let myself cop out on the barbell exercises. I had my most intense squat workout last Friday (5x5 75kg), and while it felt GREAT to do it, I had a bit of anxiety at the thought of pushing that out again. I have yet to physically fail a squat and I'll just quit at the top thinking I don't have another one in me. I didn't even go for a 5th set today cause I wanted to be done with them, but I've done that before and it's just a mental block I'll have to get over. I did worse this time on bench press than last time with the same weight (I went 5,5,5,4,5 last time). I think the squats just kind of set the tone. ___ I ate good today though. 3,937 cals, 601.3g carbs, 109.8g fat, 178.5g protein for a 60/24/17% c/f/p breakdown. However I woke up weighing slightly less than I did yesterday at 132.4 lbs. I did let my eating lag some over the weekend but I still beat the low end of my goals so I don't know what's up with that. Unrelenting, my body's needs are. Well, must press on..

Hi. Now that I see my name in the third person it looks kind of dumb, you can just call me Cory if you want. I started the Stronglifts program 12 weeks ago in June with the goals of getting bigger and stronger. For the first 8 weeks I was reluctant to count cals and keep track of my diet. When I finally did (around the time I joined this site and went vegan--was just veg before) I found I wasn't eating enough which explains why while I did make some pretty good strength gains I didn't really gain any mass. It took me another couple weeks to get consistent and I only bought a scale last week. So in an effort to further motivate myself I'm going to start keeping a log here. Here are my starting stats: 5'10" / 60kg (130 lbs) / 24 years old Here what I'm doing and my current maxs: Squat: 5x5 75kg Bench: 5x5 50kg (Overhead) Press: 5x5 32.5kg Deadlift: 1x5 90kg Pullups: 3xF 9,9,8 Chinups: 3xF 10,10,8 Dips: 3xF 10,8,7 Feet Elevated Inverted Rows: 3xF 9,7,6 As for diet, my basic goals are to get 1.5xBW lbs/g in protein, about 100g fat, and the rest in carbs for a total of 3500 cals, but the more the merrier. I even made a little spreadsheet to keep track: http://shup.com/Shup/208779/cals.png I don't usually hit my mark on protein but I at least get more than 1g/lb. So I've gained almost 2 lbs in the 5 days I've been tracking it. I understand weight can fluxuate but I've been weighing myself each morning at the same time and I just hope to see the trend continue. If it doesn't, well I guess that's why you folks are here to help me out! So anyway, I hit the gym again tomorrow and will start updating my log. Any and all advice welcome!

^It's also a tolerance thing. When I was heavier into my coffee drinking days I could have an espresso or something before bed no problem. It'll give you some crazy dreams too.

Yeah my local HEB has the Red Star stuff in bulk, I get it for about $9/lb. Not sure how much of a discount it is cause they don't have the bottles, but I figure you can't go wrong in bulk. I still think it's kind of funky but I've figured out a pasta sauce where I can use 6-8 Tbsp and have it taste decent.. 30g protein right there

underrated post!

How bout some black metal? Good, fast, driving stuff you can really get into. Don't really listen to music at the gym but these get me pumped anywhere: Absu Cobalt Krallice Ulver (nattens madrigal) Weakling Burzum/Drudkh/Wolves in the Throne Room -these are kind of slower but got some killer lose yourself riffs enjoy!

Thanks Pegasus. I guess this is where I get confused, since if I'm aiming for 4k calories myself then if I kept those %s I'd end up eating way more than 1.5 g/kg protein. Is this just how it goes when you're bulking? I feel like I'm a hard gainer so thats why I'm aiming higher for so high calories. On workout days I'll generally have a smoothie beforehand, some soymilk and a banana right when I get home, and then some black bean burgers and a sweet potato shortly after. I do have some protein powder but I cut it out as I was getting plenty of protein without it I thought. I like the oats idea, btw, I'll start doing that. So I guess basically my question is, should I aim for similar percentages as yourself whether I'm maintaining or bulking, and if it's when I'm bulking then should I not worry about taking in more than recommended carbs/fats/proteins?

Hi all, I've been lifting for about a couple months now, following the Stronglifts program, but I haven't seen much gain at all as far as putting on weight goes. I started tracking my food intake on Fitday a couple weeks ago and I'm thinking maybe I need to be getting more calories. I was getting around 2500 when I started tracking and since I've been aiming higher I can't seem to get past 3250 on any one day. I'm quite skinny, ectomorph build (24yo / 135lbs / 5'10" ). Here's what I'll eat on an average day: Meal 1: Oatmeal, peanut butter, toast, banana, orange juice Meal 2: Smoothie (couple frozen fruits, soy milk, spinach) Meal 3: Salad w/ veggies, beans, seeds, avocado, olive oil Meal 4: A few fruits and some nuts Meal 5: Stirfry vegetables with tofu over brown rice Then I usually run out of steam save for maybe some more fruit and nuts when I've already had 2 similar meals. This breaks down to about 64% carbs / 23% fat / 13% protein. I also can't find any numbers to aim for really, so I don't know if protein is too low and carbs are too high or what, but that's already at like 2:1 g:kg ratio for protein. Internet researching hasn't turned me up any solid advice, so I thought I'd check in with you folks directly to see if you had any suggestions for me (short of drinking a gallon of milk a day, ie stronglifts ). Thanks a lot and nice forum here (: