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Justin Morgan

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Everything posted by Justin Morgan

  1. Edensdemise, you know that the deAdlift is supposed to increase in 10 pound increments on that program though, right? So the squats won't get ahead because they are only increasing by 5 pounds and will stall before deads.
  2. Actually, after rereading what I said, I only partially agree with myself. The way i applied it was relevant, but it almost sounds like you could infinitely keep doing more sets and still continue to get better results with the more sets by increasing work load and I don't think that is accurate either.
  3. According to eric Helms from 3DMJ whom I strongly agree with on this point the only thing that really matter is total work load. So someone doing 5x5 @ 120 ibs is doing a total tonage of 3000 ibs. someone doing 3x10 at only 100 ibs is also totaling 3000 ibs of tonage so they are going to get the same over all muscular development. There may be other benefits in terms of sports specific training to doing one or the other, but if you're only goal is muscular development then it really is't making a difference.
  4. Think Machine, I think you're overthinking it.... Seriously though 1. all of the "blue zone" areas that are the longest lived people on the planet follow diets based primarily around starches, legumes, fruits and vegetables which are inherently high carb diets. The china study, John McDougall, Caldwell Esselsytne and most other lifestyle treatment physicians utilize high carb diets for their patients. Their programs may not be necessary to follow to the "T" for a healthy person, but I think its same to say that they are not going to harm your health. 2. I've wondered about excess weight in the form of muscle decreasing your over all lifespan as well. But my dietetics professors have unanimously said that is not the case. Of course, they could be wrong. But I will say that it seems unlikely that without the assistance of drugs you are going to gain the extreme amounts of muscle that it would take to put enough stress on your heart to decrease your over all quality or life span too any measurable amount. And if you do, then Caldwell Esselstyne whom I quoted in "1" has written a great book based on a highly effective program called "Reversing Heart Disease" in which he puts patients on a low fat whole foods vegan diet and they get better. 3. If you lift weights you could potentially get an injury, that's true. But if you don't lift then your chances of osteoporosis (mostly for women, but men too), sarcopenia (muscle wasting/atrophy), hip fractures in old age, and even cancer increases. So make practical incremental increases in your training and not crazy psychotic jumps that you're body can't handle and your chances of getting injured will greatly decrease. Learn how to squat with lighter weights and you will find that the squat is used more in daily life than probably any other motion apart from walking (and possibly using a remote depending on if you are a gamer).
  5. There are already great programs out there that have become gold standards for novice and intermediate strength athletes. I don't see any reason to reinvent the wheel. But the biggest question is where is your strength level at right now. guy's have told me that they have been working out for 30 years, but they can't even deadlift 400 pounds for one rep. In my book, they are still beginner or novice lifters. If you can deadlift 400 pounds, squat (below parallel w/good form) 300 pounds, and bench press at least 225 then you'll make slower progress and won't be able to progress as fast, so you would be better suited to an intermediate program like madcow 5x5, 531, the cube, shieko, whatever... they all work. If you can't perform the above mentioned lifts, then you should use a program that progresses faster to get you there (starting strength, or stronglifts 5x5 are good). Either way, your program should emphasize progressive over load, or regularly adding weight to the bar. Also, if you just stick to the program you wrote above, your body should adapt in 2-4 weeks to the added volume and you'll be fine. By "PT" are you referring to a personal trainer, or a physical therapist?
  6. I don't know a lot about kettle bells, but if all that I had was a barbell (and weights I'm assuming?) I'd start learning the Olympic lifts. There have been some Olympic lifters show up with incredible bodies like Dmitry Klokov and Pyros Dimas. Not sure how much drugs played a role in that, but that's true of everyone that has every gotten big off of any type of lifting/periodization.
  7. First question is how much weight can you lift for your squat (below parallel), dead lift, bench press, Bent over Row, and Military Press? Dorian Yates was only putting on 5-6 pounds per year and he was on more drugs than the South side of Chicago. If you've never lifted before, or are (de)trained then you might be able to put on 3-4 pounds/month for a month or two. But more than likely you are going to be in a calorie surplus and are going to be putting on fat as well. If you are counting fat you could probably put on 20 pounds in 2 months, or at least I could. Supplements like creatine and powdered proteins will help you retain water and gain weight that way, but apart from water retention and bloating, no there is no magic pill that makes you grow muscle faster. Supplements help if your diet is deficient. Diet would be the best option though.
  8. The first thing I had to fix was the depth. I had to learn to squat well below parallel. I was good for a long time, and then when I got up to around 275x5 my knees were kind of buckling in, and that wasn't that long ago. So I asked some of the guy's in the powerlifting/strongman forum section for some tips and I posted a video and they pretty much took care of me. So now I'm squatting over 300x5. As far as the carbs, I like 80/10/10 personally. But if that's not really your thing then you could do kind of a 60/20/20 type thing. That was what Steve Reeves (classic bodybuilder, and probably natural) followed. The American college of sports medicine recommends athletes follow something like 65/20/15 (carb/fat/pro). So something within those ranges seems to be pretty standard.
  9. I'm training 3 times a week. I take a week off after a month. Why do you take a week off? Scratch my comment on "deloading". If you are feeling really fatigued, achey joints, or anything go down to 50% or something, but if not then there's no need to just take an entire week off.
  10. I followed stronglifts 5x5 and then mad cow 5x5 and got my squat up to 300 ibs x 5, dead lift up to 395x5, and my bench press to 245x5 in just a little over a year. And I had to do stuff to fix my squat several times during that year. So maybe it's a biomechanics issue, maybe you just aren't putting the right types of fuel in your body. Maybe you just need to deload like the SL5x5 program recommends. You don't really know though what kind of diet you thrive on in terms of training if those are your lifts. I don't say that to be mean or anything, but you just haven't put your body under enough stress to make the kind of demands that will make you play with your diet that way. I'm not saying you have to follow 80/10/10, but if you are training hard enough to really elicit muscular growth and strength increases then you'll need to increase your body's glycogen levels. Even if you don't "thrive" (what does that mean anyway?) on a higher carb diet you have to consider that if you aren't giving your body the glycogen necessary to perform that your results are just going to be limited. That's my guess/opinion anyway.
  11. I very strongly agree with Deb. Also, movements like the squat, Deadlift, and standing overhead press are great movements because they not only work your core/abs, but large portions of your body otherwise too. Building muscle only in your abs in an effort to get a 6 pack will take much longer than building muscle everywhere while also building abdominal muscle tissue. Hanging leg raises, weighted sit ups, and cable crunches are pretty good exercises for directly working the abs. I always recommend starting strength and stronglifts 5x5 for lifters that haven't yet built a ton of strength. They are the fastest programs to use to make progress (on all levels), they are very simple, and they usually will take someone through their first year or more of lifting. They only require 3 days a week of lifting, and there are only 2 workouts, but they are the most physically demanding lifts apart from olympic lifts. (starting strength, stronglifts 5x5 is also a very fine program) Workout A 3x5 Squat 3x5 Press (over head, standing) 1x5 Deadlift alt/or 5x3 Power Cleans Workout B 3x5 Squat 3x5 Bench Press 3x5 Rows (Pendlay rows, off the ground)
  12. Hey Nathan, Really the training is probably the most important issue here for adding muscle to your body (assuming you eat enough calories). 3500 seems like a very reasonable number for a healthy active adult male. You can use cronometer.com (it's free, just plug your food in) to get a good feel for what you are currently eating and then you can really just eat the foods you like in the quantities you want and just shift their ratio's around some. You sound like you are eating whole unprocessed foods for the most part, and apart from getting a feel for things I don't think it necessary to count and delegate every macro/calorie if you just want to look good and get strong. If at some point you want to compete in bodybuilding or strength athletics then it may become more significant. With the squats I'm somewhat timid about giving you direct advice because I don't know the extent of your injury or pain. But in my experience people with lower back injuries at the very least are able to perform box squats without great pain. And as the lower back muscles become stronger they usually find that they have less pain over time. 2 pretty good resources of information that you might try is messaging "veganessentials" at this site. There are other people here that have great information, but he has personally given me some pretty good tips on fixing my squat when I've posted small issues. And Kelley Starrett is a physical therapist that has written a great deal about biomechanics in weight lifting. He seems like a little bit of a douche, and he's really into "Paleo" dieting, but all that aside he seems nice and he's a wealth of information in biomechanics, so reviewing information at his site http://www.mobilitywod.com/ (just search "lower back pain") might help you trouble shoot why you might be experiencing pain and provide you with tips and ideas on how to progress and improve. Hope that's helpful, and yes please keep us posted on your progress.
  13. P.S. I would keep my caloric intake the same, so increase carbs. If you follow the program outlined above you'll need the additional glycogen to make it through the workouts. And the dietary changes would have you at about 65% carb, 20% fat, and 15% protein. That is the standard recommendation by ACSM (American college of Sports Medicine). Also, after you fast you colon was almost completely empty. Suddenly you start filling it and your stomach up with fiber and yea, your stomach will stick out some. In fact any time you eat your stomach will push out some if you eat enough. It should go away after a couple hours.
  14. Your dietary fat intake seems on the high side for someone trying to minimize fat gains. That is 35% of your diet coming from fat. If you are at around 70kg I don't see why your fat intake would need to go above 70g of fat for optimal hormone production. Your protein intake is probably higher than necessary for someone at your weight, but it's not outrageous at all. Though that probably is why you're experiencing so much gas. In terms of training, there are some really great training programs out there that have become gold standards because they work. Beginning or novice lifters are best served by doing a program like starting strength by Mark Rippetoe, or stronglifts 5x5 (both have websites) or something where you are taking major compound lifts and doing them 3x's per week. 5 day a week body part splits in my opinion do not work as well unless you are already pushing weights that majorly turn heads in the gym. They work, but if a beginning lifter can squat 3x's a week and add 2kg's to the bar all 3 day's they are going to make majorly quick gains. If you are squatting once a week, your gains are going to be much slower. Same principal applies to other lifts, though squatting is the only one that's usually recommended to do 3x's/week. Below I've pasted the basic starting strength program, but you would be well served by getting the book, and setting out on a long term goal of improving technique in each lift. They all require attention. *Alternate the workouts 3x's/week ABA, BAB, ABA A lot of people don't do power cleans because they think it's too hard to learn the form. There is more technical skill involved, but they are also effective muscle builders. This program has built a lot of total body muscle for a lot of people. You can mess with it, or add exercises, but chances are if it's worked for 1000's of other people as it is, it will work for you too. (starting strength, stronglifts 5x5 is also a very fine program) Workout A 3x5 Squat 3x5 Press (over head, standing) 1x5 Deadlift / 5x3 Power Cleans (Alternating) Workout B 3x5 Squat 3x5 Bench Press 3x5 Rows (Pendlay rows, off the ground)
  15. Before I attempt to answer your question I will say from my own experience that if you were pushing your body to the limit with large compound movements (squats 3x's/week, pressing movements 3x's/week, rows or pull ups 3x's/week, and either dead lifts 1x/week, or Olympic lifts a few days/week) that I doubt you would care about push ups on your off days. What you should do at this point in your lifting career depends on how quickly you are able to progress. The weekly routine posted above by esqinchi doesn't look bad, but if I were training someone I probably would only put a somewhat advanced athlete on that program because novice and even intermediate lifters can make quicker gains by performing the lifts more often and progressing the weight a lot faster. I'm of the opinion that hypertrophy specific routines work much better when the lifter is able to push a considerable amount of weight and its more productive to get their strength to that point before focusing on hypertrophy (so I'm biased). But I think you would still make good progress doing what is posted above. To directly give my opinion on your question though I would say that pushups are probably safe because either you aren't able to push enough weight to prevent you from being able to recover from day to day, or you are so strong that push ups aren't going to provide enough stimulus to really prevent you from being able to recover. That's my limited understanding of human physiology as it applies to weight lifting anyway.
  16. Hey, I search around some of the Olympic lifting forums some times just to kind of follow the sport as I'm somewhat of a fan even though I don't compete in it myself. Someone at Glenn Pendlay's website back some months ago posed a question about "If the vegan diet is so great, where are all the vegan lifters?" And the thought occurred to me that I don't really know of any competitive Olympic lifters on the national (or above) level. Does anyone know any? I'm not really a believer that vegans should only listen to other vegans on training advice or anything like that, but it is nice to see other vegans tearing the world up sometimes.
  17. Thanks guys, I squatted Wednesday and today and I focused on 3 things that I think helped a TON. 1. I did indeed focus on my knees tracking out in the decent and reducing the angle that my feet were pointed out helped some with that. And with that is #2 2. I did take a narrower stance. I had been taking a wider stance to try and fix the problem and my rational was that I see a lot of Olympic lifters with the same problem I've been having where there knees cave in eve ones that are lifting considerable weight. That's nothing against OL, because I'm a fan, but it's rare that you see a power lifter that takes a wide stance have that problem, so I thought maybe there was something to the stance. And maybe there is, but I don't think it was helping me much by taking a wider stance at this point in my progression. Maybe when I'm a little more advanced a wider stance may come into play, but a more narrow stance here helped me out a lot with implementing some of these other concepts (*The stance itself didn't necessarily help, but it helped me practice some of these other ideas). 3. Hips, I think for the first time I really got my hips and glutes involved in the squat. And James, I did slow down the movement and I consciously eliminated that upward motion that I was beginning with. All in all I really appreciate your guy's advice. I'm far from perfecting the squat, but this week I really feel like I've made some progress, thanks.
  18. Having said what I did above, I don't really eat much soy, or any food in a powder food. Not that never would, but I just think it's better to stick with real food.
  19. Based on what research does he make these claims? I'm currently several years into a dietetics degree, and I also finished an exercise science program, and I can only find two pieces of peer reviewed documented research that speak negatively of the use of soy (actual research, not some "Dr" that claims it's bad because he said so). one was a study conducted at Ohio State where twenty men had their testosterone levels measured for a period of time while consuming soy protein. 19 men saw no difference. 1 man in the study had his test levels drop from 200% above the normal range down into the normal range and when the study was published it said something to the effect of "Soy lowers mens testosterone levels." Unless you were a med student of some kind and had access to viewing the entire study though you would have never had all the details that I just described above. The other study I mentioned looked at a 15 year old boy that lost his sex drive and had other complications that I don't remember. But during the study he consumed like 12-15 servings of soy per day for a really long period of time and nothing else was described about his diet other than that. From a researchers stand point that would be thrown out because it didn't offer enough information to be of use and my guess would be that he wasn't consuming enough total calories for his age on such a rigid diet program. There have also been many field and clinical studies that showed soy to be a fine food. If you are a college student you probably have access to libsearch or something where you can search "peer reviewed" documents on soy and read the research for yourself.
  20. Hey Andi, I've gotten some advice from Mark Bell on his youtube channel, here is one of his video's where he indirectly touches on the subject of knees caving in, but that same channel has a lot of info on squatting that I'm going back and reviewing now. The youtube series "so you think you can squat" is another one that someone posted as a thread, but it didn't really help specifically with the issue I'm having. I've seen people say that back rounding had a lot to do with your lower back being weak, not sure though of how true it is, but I think I heard that from Mark Bell as well and he's a pretty good resource. I've also seen a lot of people recommend recommend looking up (not straight up or anything, but not down) while squatting to help prevent you upper back from caving. I know I didn't really "answer" your question, but I've been looking through a lot of information on the topic and have come across a few good resources for info. I'm sure more people will chime in eventually with even better info.
  21. Are you continuing to get stronger?
  22. Ok, I've actually flared them out thinking that it might help fix the problem, but I'll bring them back in some as well as the slower negative. Appreciate the advice. As my lifts have gotten heavier I see more and more area's that need improvement.
  23. I don't think this is a repeat question, forgive me if it is. I recorded a video of my squat below, but some of you may have some pretty good idea's without watching the video. My knees cave in some while I'm squatting. It's not dramatic, and I've read quite a bit of material on "why" this happens. Even Matt Winning in the "so you think you can squat" video someone posted touches on the subject, but doesn't really say much about ho to fix it. Quite a few people have recommended some accessory band work which I might try, but if anyone here has any good suggestions I'd love to hear them as well.
  24. Hey man, I'm 31 too, or at least I will be until August 18th. I think pretty much everyone on the planet would be an "ectomorph" at 1800-2000 cals/day. That's probably the lowest caloric intake I've seen a man say that they kept up on a regular basis. You might try slowly increasing it by a couple hundred calories every few months. I personally am not anti fruit at all, I think it's an ideal food source. I agree with your sentiments about junk food though. You will get better muscle growth from excess calories from junk food than you will from 2000 cals of ultra healthy foods like fruit/veg. Of course eating really healthy foods would be best though. If you are following a good training program though, you are naturally going to be more hungry. Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe is a really great program, and stronglifts.com has pretty much the same program and both of them have a web-site you might check out.
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