Marcina

If you're trying to bulk up you want to eat more food, so how is working out on an empty stomach going to be beneficial? When you're working out, your body recruits carbohydrates for fuel. I find that if I do not eat enough before a weight training session, I get shaky and I fatigue much faster. Protein plays an important role as well, but complex carbs are just as important! After a workout, it's important to immediately replenish those depleted glycogen stores by consuming some simple carbs accompanied by protein for the recovery of muscle tissue. A big part of your success in building muscle has to do with your diet! If you don't eat, your muscle has no food to grow! Remember this. I used to think my diet was fine until someone told me "hey, your diet sucks. Eat more." So I did, and it worked. Best advice I ever got.

Ladders help too. Ladders and negatives. A ladder goes like this: Do one pull-up. Rest. Do 2. Rest. Do 3.. Etc. until failure. I did the negative thing and that seemed to help. I also used to just pull myself up and stay there as long as I could. I can now do 5 ^^

I got at about 45 degrees. You can always lay forward on a bench adjusted so the seat has you at a 45 degree angle. Or even lie face down on a regular bench. Edit: Unless you have really long arms, the latter won't work

I wonder if you're talking about muscle density.. Which takes years to achieve. If you've been inactive for awhile, your muscles become less dense.

Yes, because vegans have such high cholesterol..

People tell you a vegan diet is bad for you because they are either A: Misinformed, like a majority of people out there or B: They just simply wanna bash veganism. Usually people do this because they secretly feel bad, or threatened by you because they eat meat. A vegan diet, like any diet, can cause health problems if you don't eat right. The part where you said you feel bloated and crave sugar after eating grains worries me. I think you should consult a doctor to see if you have a gluten intolerance or even celiac disease. Also, I think you should use more than beans for a protein source. Try brown rice, soy, quinoa, lentils, and hemp to add more variety to your diet. Also, don't forget to eat lots of vegetables. A low carb-high protein diet will help you lose bodyfat, but you must still weight train! Otherwise you risk losing muscle mass, especially if you're in a calorie deficit.

The Doctor has spoken!!!

I lift about 3 times a week at the most. The body does most of its muscle building while you're resting. That's why if you're working out that often, it's important to split up the body parts. If you're primary goal is muscle growth, I would skip the cardio, or only do like.. 30 minutes a week at the most. I use both hemp and soy protein and quite honestly, I haven't noticed if one works better than the other. The hemp is more filling than the soy, as it's a whole food. I can cram more soy protein into a shake though. It mixes better, tastes better, and I get about 20g per serving whereas with hemp I'll get like 15g. Chocolate hemp protein tastes really good though!!

I'm allergic to casein. Makes me very ill if I eat food tainted with it.

But, but, don't you want long, lean muscles as a woman?! Ew muscles are gross, I just want to "tone" LOOL! I used to follow the workouts in Oxygen religiously but I never gained anything because they tell you to do so much cardio! I just kept getting skinnier and skinnier and going "WTF!!??" Hahaha! Not to mention to stupid diets they have in there.. The Eat Clean diet and crap. I mean, it's good if you're trying to lose weight, but they never ever have anything in that magazine for women who are trying to gain weight (probably cuz most women dont' want to gain weight!) I've gained more muscle from eating high carb/high protein and skipping the cardio. I also lift heavier in the 6-8 rep range.

It was most likely an intolerance to it, or mild allergy. Alanis lives in Canada doesn't she? There's no antibiotics or growth hormones in Canadian dairy products. It's banned.

A lot of fitness magazines are BS. I was reading this one women's fitness magazine and a woman was pictured doing dumbbell squats. Her form was so bad it actually made me angry that they would sell this to people!!

That's black tea, my friend. They did a study in Britain (where else? Lol!)

And it still only takes 45 minutes? Hmm.. Well that's the beauty of compound exercises. You're not wasting a lot of time doing isolation workouts. You do squats: There's your lower body and core. You do bench-press: Triceps, chest, and shoulders all in one go. Pull-ups: Super move for the back. However you'll have to rest a minute or 2 between each sets of these moves because they're quite tiring. I've gotten very close to puking after a set of squats.

wow that's some pricy stuff. I make about $9.00 an hour where I work, and I'm struggling just trying to save up enough money for Christmas. My bills just cost too much. I work 5 days a week and bring in about $1000 a month. I've been trying to save for some more ink too but that probably won't happen until the new year. When I got my job last June I thought "Hey, now I finally have some extra cash so I can get some decent clothes and a haircut!". I still shop at secondhand stores and cut my own hair.. LOL!

If you're doing that much in so little time, you aren't challenging your muscles enough! For me to do a decent full body routine it would take 2 hours because I like to do about three sets of each exercise. The benefit of split training is that you're able to fatigue your muscles better, without wiping yourself out. I can easily spend an hour in the gym just doing my legs. Btw, how tall are you? I noticed you only have 5 pounds on me. I'm 5'4" and still pretty lean at 120

LOOL!!

^ What he said. Obviously, if you're not gaining the weight you want, you need to eat more. Obviously, the low protein diet isn't doing it for you. If you keep doing what you're doing, you'll continue along your plateau, and not make any gains. When a person's body plateaus, it's a sign that it needs to be challenged. as far as the soy estrogen thing goes.. I don't believe all that hoopla. Soy isoflavones bind weakly to estrogen receptors, so it's not going to raise your blood estrogen levels in any way that it'll be noticeable. (a.k.a no "manboobs" ) Since I started consuming more soy protein, I've actually gotten more muscle growth. I eat lots of other kinds of proteins too. About 1 gram per pound of body weight AT LEAST! I also eat a lot of carbs. Oats and rice are my favorites. I would listen to sosso's advice cuz I've seen his physique. Very impressive.

I don't think she was trying to be rude or insult anybody. Sometimes words just slip out. People just give celebrities a harder time because they're always in the spotlight.

Eew my calves suck.. Lol!

You're doing too much at once, my friend. Try doing a split routine, and lifting for about 40-45 minutes each session. Have a leg day, a chest, triceps, and shoulders day, and then a back, biceps, and core day. Try to focus on compound exercises like squats, dead-lifts, bench presses, shoulder presses, pull-ups, etc. Ditch the isolation crap. The only isolation move I ever use is bicep curls, which I do once a week in addition to compounds. I'll do hammer curls and concentration curls mostly. Google the K.I.S.S routine. It's pretty much what I do and it rocks. As far as your diet, it stinks. Not nearly enough calories an active body needs. You also need more protein. Eat every 2-4 hours if you can and eat large portions. Replace the Cheerios with Oatmeal. It's a whole food and it's rich in protein. Cheerios are for kids. This is bodybuilding. Serious lifting needs serious food! Make your lunch bigger. With your almond butter sandwich, have a protein shake to wash it down with. Have a handful of nuts while you're at it too.. And a bowl of soup! Make some easy veggie soup and throw some tofu in there for added protein. Seitan and veggies looks like a good meal for dinner.. Load up your plate. Have seconds if you want. Last but not least, drink lots of water every day, and always always always have a protein shake or high protein/simple carb meal immediately after your workouts. Also look into getting some vegan creatine. It's easy to find, since it's synthesized anyways. Get the micronized stuff. Also, focus on one goal at a time. You can't gain muscle and lose bodyfat at the same time.. Easily anyways.. Not many people can do it. Focus on gaining muscle right now during the winter months. Then when spring comes along, focus on bodyfat loss. Then you'll be ripped for the summer!

i've been hanging around people with swine flu for weeks and I haven't gotten it yet. 10 people at my office have gotten it so far. I've never gotten a flu shot in my life to be honest. I rarely get sick. If I do it's usually a cold or a stomach virus that lasts no more than a couple days. The last time I was really sick in bed for a week with a fever and everything was back in 2007 I believe.. Maybe 2006.

Tim Hortons!! You must be Canadian! Personally I don't like Timmy's for the sole reason that they have no dairy alternatives.. But their coffee is pretty good black.

I think we've trailed off topic just a little bit..

I think what she meant was that she's not "crazy OCD" as in, she's not full-blown OCD. She has some obsessive traits, but wouldn't classify herself as someone who has the disorder. Yeah, she could have picked her words better, but some people just have verbal diarrhea and let anything slip out! It sounds bad, but they don't mean it to. Like that joke "What's long and hard and full of seamen?" What do most people think of? Lol!