S.I.R.'s Weightlifting / Weight Loss & Gain Aid Thread

Hey guys.

So, I've been lifting regularly for about five years now, and daily for three. Usually I work out 6-7 days a week, including running, sprinting, lifting, plyometric lifting, and boxing.

In that time I've learned much about the intricacies of lifting (frequency, volume, intensity, TUT, et al) as well as of diet (protein intake, carb-vs-fats, ratios, insulin sensitivity, etc.). I see many of you posting threads asking for specific lifting advice, specific weight-loss or weight-gain advice, and I would love to aid you in setting and reaching your goals. That feeling of accomplishment is unbeatable in my book.

I thought I would try my hand as a helper. I have done so for many friends & acquaintances in the past, and considered a move into the field of personal training before realizing that having people pay me large amounts for information that I would give to them for free to see them meet their goals would be unrewarding.

As a FFB (former fatty), I can say from experience that almost anything you put your mind to and keep towards strongly, you can accomplish. At sixteen, I was 185lbs of pure body fat. I had a stomach like a pregnant teen and the stamina of a sixty-year-old man. Within 90-100 days of hard work and heavy dietary modification, I dropped down to 145lbs. At that time, I was skinny, but had little muscle to speak of. Since then, I've been steadily gaining weight, and about four years later I sit here at 195lbs of muscle and going strong. It's all about focus and execution.

I generally keep my posts relegated to the "How Did You Exercise Today?" thread (you can see my regular regimen therein) but I created this thread to help those with questions in two fields that I have much experience in.

To show my credentials in the standard lifts...nothing outstanding here, but I do what I can to keep it pushin':

So yeah. Have questions? Need answers, maybe just some advice to push you in the right direction? This thread is here to help you; I am here to help you.

 

Thanks for being the first to reply. Glad to help out.

The powder is totally okay to consume unless it's drastically (like multiple years) past the expiration date. It might be less effective because of the deteriorated quality but it's still worth eating if you have no other powder available and whey is still just about the purest protein you can get into your system. I just recently got some new creatine after having used a jar of creatine that was expired for over a year. Definitely not the best way to ingest creatine, but sometimes you gotta make due with what you have.

Ah yes, the hard-gainers. Sometimes I envy you lil' guys. My best friend is a hardgainer. He might be smaller than me by a good amount (same height, 70-80lbs lighter) but he's definitely more defined and I envy you guys for that.

25 minutes is a solid time depending on what you're doing. What's most important is the effort you're putting in and the TUT you're getting from it. TUT, or Time Under Tension, is the amount of time your body's muscles are maxed out in efficiency on a lift (when they're under maximum tension). This is usually a handful of seconds per workout, but it's the most crucial for muscular hypertrophy. The fastest way of gaining muscle is to exploit this; work for lower reps with higher weights that are closer to your 1RM (65-90% 1RM is a good area).

Workout times...honestly, I tend to not follow all that advice. I often find myself in the gym for more than two hours a day, even though statistically after an hour your body's ability to work at optimum capacity shoots down in a very drastic manner. Then again, I'm also incorporating other non-lifting exercises in these days too (sprints, running, boxing, what have you).

Working "quickly" isn't the key in that sense of the word...you don't want to be frantic, but you don't want to slack off either. It should be a fluid movement of reps, smooth transitions between sets and exercises. Think of yourself as being in a canoe on a river, trying to navigate yourself smoothly down the river to land (land being the end of the workout and your goal).

You know you're slacking if you have time to write texts, browse your music for an extended period of time, talk on the phone, etc. Your workout should captivate your attention; it should demand it because you should be expending a lot of oxygen on the exercises themselves.

Assuming you're trying to put on muscle while minimizing fat gain (if you aren't, specify that for me, because that changes things up), 30-90sec rest in between sets would be best. I usually only go 30-60sec rest between sets, and sometimes superset (one set, no rest, followed immediately by another set) though you don't necessarily have to do that.

If you're looking to put on muscle, high reps aren't going to do anything. This is the one thing that drives me kind of crazy...two of my roommates have started going back to the gym on occasion, but they won't let me help them and they don't understand how lifting works. They are in that group of people who believe that if you take a light rep and lift it 10-15 times, you're going to "tone the muscles". To put it succinctly, that's complete bullshit. Don't buy that myth for a second. There is no such thing as simply "toning" a muscle; lifting a light weight for that many reps is just going to make you good at lifting for a large volume of reps. To get strong, you gotta work in a lower rep plane; 2-5 for the heavy compound lifts (your deadlifts, squats, benching, dumbbell rows) and 4-8 for isolation work (curls, leg presses, etc.). Do this for higher sets; that is, when you're lifting, instead of doing 3x10 or 3x12, do 6x4 or 7x4 or 8x3 at a significantly higher weight (again, something you're capable of lifting, but heavier).

There's a lot of ways of going about sets-reps and that's one of the most argued areas, because again, different things work for different people, but that's what I find works best.

While you should be a little concerned with caloric burn, it shouldn't be a major focus because you should be able to recoup a large majority, if not the entirety, of what you burned by downing some post-workout nutrition like a post-workout shake or protein shake with milk and all that good stuff. That's why the 30-40 minutes after a workout are the most important time to be downing calories, and especially carbs; your body takes them back most rapidly at that point.

For muscle gain you should be focusing primarily on compound lifts because they tax the body the most; that should be the cornerstone of your workout. For example, on day one of lower-body work in a given week, your main exercise should be a squat (maybe with some leg presses thrown in, as leg pressing is great for hypertrophy), then on the second day of lower-body work, it should be a deadlift. On the first day of an upper-body workout, focus on your bench (standard bench, but you should also do some work on incline benching as it's great for the shoulders too, and decline benching as well); on the second day, focus on rows (dumbbell, barbell, t-bar, cable).

When lifting, also don't worry about getting a good "pump"; that's not really a factor in a quality workout. Sometimes you get it, sometimes you don't, but you shouldn't be going in with the goal of getting that pump because it's not necessarily an indicator of progress or good work performed. Focus on getting the most out of your lift and training in a range that's nearly as heavy as you can go for a low amount of reps. That builds the most muscle and strength.

If you're in a sport or use your legs often, I would also suggest working in sprints into your routine; they're great for the quads and on a day with squats will kill you in a good way. Works a lot of fast-twitch muscle fibers (the kind needed for quick-response actions, like sprinting).

Lastly, since you're in the gym for a short period of time, you want to make the big lifts your main area because those will allow you to put in the most effort in the shortest possible time.

You're not going to like this, but a lot of the foods you have to eat are calorically-dense but not all that tasty. Luckily, you're a hardgainer, so you have to worry less about fat gain because your metabolism is naturally inclined towards minimizing that, whereas someone like myself has to keep a close watch on that all the time.

First and foremost, lots of protein. I don't know what your bodyweight is, but the general rule of thumb is to eat 1.5g of protein per pound of bodyweight per day (1.5g/lb bw/day). I go for 1.5-2.0g, some people do more, but 1.5g is the place to start.

You want to look big? You gotta eat big. 3000kcal a day is a minimum. Depending on your size, you might need 4000-5000kcal per day. I would start at 3500, go with that for a while, and see how it works. If you're tired or it seems to not be enough, up it gradually, a couple hundred kcal more per day until you're up in the 4000-5000kcal range. I won't bother getting into the fats vs. carbs debate for this; suffice it to say certain ways of eating work for certain people. Some people are better with a protein/carb split, some with protein/fat, some people do 40/30/30 of protein/carbs/fat.

Muscle-building foods (that is, things you gotta be eatin'):

- Eggs (preferably cage-free/free-range, omega-3 added totally cool)
- Milk (for you, go with 2% and whole milk for the most calories [140-150kcal per serving]) (you should drink plenty of milk, a half-gallon a day or more, as caloric supplementation)
- Poultry (chicken, chicken, and more chicken; breast/thigh the best cuts for pure protein)
- Fish (tuna, salmon, great source of omega-3s and omega-6s)
- Turkey (just as good as chicken)
- Meat (lean cuts; london broil is a quality cut to start on)
- Vegetables (preferably cruciferous; lettuces, broccoli spinach, peppers, onions, mushrooms, really whatever you like, but get a big amount of them as they should be a primary source for carbs)
- Protein powder (get a nice whey isolate powder, ideally with a low amount of carbs/sugar per serving, in a flavor that you'll like drinking [chocolate is usually your best bet]; use it as a snack, mix some milk in, maybe some fruits or ice if you like it like that, and drink up!)
- Healthy fats (mono- and polyunsaturated fats are your friends; get yourself a nice bottle of extra virgin olive oil [EVOO] and use it in your cooking)
- Nuts (great for healthy fats & additional protein, generally pretty low to moderate in carbs; most nuts are gonna be good; peanuts, cashews, pistachios, etc.)

Hope that helps; feel free to ask any more questions that you've got.

 

I feel you. I drink almost all skim and 1%, but I've become more acclimated to 2%. Whole is tough to stomach. I can drink skim like water though.

Your wife is right to call them superfoods...that's what they are. I actually used to have a powder made of various fruits and vegetables that you'd put into drinks called superfood. super expensive for a minor amount and tasted like shit but got the job done. imo, broccoli is best steamed, maybe with some garlic or crushed red pepper and olive oil, but if you cook with say a black bean sauce or something similarly spicy but less heavy, that broccoli is golden.

the way i eased myself into more regular servings of vegetables was by putting them in omelettes. that way, you get vegetables and additionally you get protein from the eggs.

Dunno what breaded cucumber or ants on a log are...if you're gonna eat PB make sure it's the natural kind (oil should be sitting on top in the jar); far less sugar than a Skippy or JIF brand pb. Drastically different taste, but once you get used to it you won't want to go back to the "regular" peanut butter. Protein bars wouldn't be a bad addition (CLIF bars are aight; they have a subdivision called Builder's that sells dope protein bars...I cut back however because it's soy and soy protein is fairly weak, but you could use the calories regardless and it tastes like candy). Fruit is always a good choice; blueberries, strawberries, apples, bananas, oranges. Salads make a good snack too, maybe work some chicken in.

Don't mean to offend you but if you're already married, you're an adult...just cut out the candy. Kids' stuff, na mean? I understand it's mad hard and you've prolly developed a serious sweet tooth, but cutting it out is only gonna enhance your body and help out your teeth. I chew gum instead but whatever works for you.

Coconut oil =/= olive oil, just sayin'. How does that taste btw? Like coconuts or just oil? I'm curious.

For the bold, yes. Barbells and dumbbells > Bowflex. Machines are more or less the same as a Bowflex. Focus on the BBs and DBs and don't buy into the hype machine that tells you 30 MINUTES A DAY FOR A BODY LIKE THIS BODYBUILDER WHO CLEARLY IS ON SOMETHING! Bowflex might add muscle, sure, but in all likelihood if you're getting a Bowflex (renting, w/e) you're fairly new to lifting and any type of stimulus to the muscles will cause them to grow, especially if you're fairly young, but even if you're over 25.

You might feel like kind of a bitch for starting with such low weights, but keep in mind that to get to high weights you gotta put in the time and the effort at low weights. I started curling 15lb DBs when I first got into lifting, now I curl 45s and 50s and aiming for 60s by the end of the calendar year. It's a gradual progression.

 

I can give you general tips or I could give you more specific ones if you tell me your weight loss goal(s).

 

I feel you dude. That's what I've been up on for a little over a week; tryna get the body fat into the single digits over the next five weeks. 16 weeks is plenty more time so you can do things more gradually in that manner.

A fat burner helps if you want to go that route, but I totally understand not wanting to because it'd be :\ to take one for four months on end.

Keep the caloric intake at 2300kcal a day tops. 2500kcal per day is the amount a regular guy needs to maintain weight.

Do your cardio. Running, biking, sprinting, swimming, whatever you do, make sure you do it regularly and with a lot of intensity. Cardio is only good for fat burning when you're doing it when it's intense, whereas lifting with intensity will burn fat both during and up to six hours after the lifting sesh.

Eat plenty of protein to keep yourself in good shape. Cut the carbs low. Try and avoid fructose (fruits, fruit juices) which spike insulin levels.

 

Skinny fat is the easiest thing to fix imo. I have a friend who is tall and lanky but chubby; he has about 30 pounds on you however. He's too much of a baby to want to improve his look though.

How is your diet? The quickest way to improving the body is through nutrition, so eating clean would be helpful.

Exercise...if you like to bike, definitely get your bike on. It's a great form of cardio when done for several miles. If not biking, then sprints or running. Soccer and basketball are really good for cardio as well.

Lifting...the midsection is generally the area where guys store most of their fat so that's nothing surprising that this is the area needed to be fixed. I would do some total-body lifts (compound lifts). I'm going to assume that you don't know how to do a clean or a snatch, so I will go ahead and recommend against doing those despite them being fantastic total-body exercises. Do your squats, bench press, and do deadlifts as well; these are The Big Three of lifts and they work the body most effectively.

You'll also want to strengthen the midsection with isolation lifts; muscle burns more energy/calories than fat, so you want more muscle in the midsection than fat, ideally. Weight-based exercises like bent-knee good-mornings (Barbell Bent Knee Good-morning), weighted sit-ups on a decline bench, and cable pulldowns will add some good muscle in a pretty fast amount of time. Plyometric exercises like planks, sit-ups, swiss ball crunches, v-ups, and leg raises are effective when done in high volumes.

For chest, bench pressing at different angles (flat bench, incline bench, decline bench) with both barbells and dumbbells will be major aides. Dumbbell and cable flyes are also great for the pectoral muscles. Last but not least, dips, "the upper body squat". Do 'em on the regular; to hit the chest you ideally want a set of bars that are wide, and with a forward lean to focus the eccentric load on the pectoral muscles instead of on your triceps.

 

Try and cut back entirely on the pizza and fries if you can...I understand that they're fucking delicious but if your goal is to lose fat, eating fatty foods isn't going to do anything but set you further back and that's not chill.

Cereal is fine depending on what type it is...shredded wheat and most kinds of Cheerios and Cheerio-like brands (Toasted Oats, etc.) are fine, as are most Kashi breakfast cereals. The high-sugar stuff, however, back off of. No need to plug yourself full of refined sugar first thing in the morning.