I'm doing Slow Carb so protein at every meal. 3 Eggs, 3 pieces of bacon, beans, mushrooms, and spinach for breakfast. Lunch is usually a salad with tuna or smoked salmon with balsamic and other veg. Dinner is usually chicken and veggies or pork and veggies. Stretching is probably not as good as it could be. I'll give that a shot and pay better attention to it. Here is the odd thing - I had class last night. Brutal and awesome. I came home ate half a pork loin, green peas, brussels and broccoli. Had a glass of wine and thought for sure I was going to be out like a light. When sleep finally did come it was light for most of the night. Maybe some melatonin? Thanks for the suggestions guys. I appreciate it.
Maybe throw in a starch (I like sweet potato here) post workout, which is allowed on Slow Carb. Muy Thai is pretty intense and probably destroys your glycogen stores. Just make sure to eat as soon after the workout as possible so the glycogen goes to your muscles. As for sleep, goddamn I could write a book on my sleep issues, but what's working best for now is: - Acupuncture every two weeks - Intense workout before a high starch dinner (the carbohydrates at dinner really seem to do a good job at triggering sleep). - No blue light an hour before bed (no TV, computer, ipad etc...) just read a book. - No action movies/shows two hours before bed. - Sleepy Time tea with honey before bed. Obviously this is off diet, but I think anyone would agree that an extra hour or two of quality sleep is well worth the cheat. - 5-HTP a few minutes before bed.
You guys are some bad motherfuckers. Friday after my workout I did as suggested and had some startch with dinner, some sleepy time tea, installed that application and I was lights out, woke up feeling like a million bucks on Saturday. Still sore but less so. That application on my PC and the low light works wonders on my brain for some reason. Thanks a ton guys. If I can find an acupuncturist on the island I'll go as well. I appreciate it all.
So far so good, but I've gotten to that point where I'm like "welllll I've made good progress, I can relax a little." Even though I'm sure nobody would have noticed if I didn't post my after pictures on April 3rd, putting my before pictures up has been a great motivational tool. So, I'm going to post my (slightly past) mid-way picture to help myself finish strong. Swimming has been going great (59.5 km so far, aiming for 100 km), eating has been quite well, running meh, and the stairs thing never happened. That was a dumb idea though. I've also been drinking a little too much. I want to eat just a little better, run more, and drink a little less. Overall though, I feel great and am loving getting back in shape. Before and mid-way: Spoiler I don't remember doing this, but apparently I was slouching to make myself look as bad as possible in the first picture. What a dirt bag. EDIT: Oh right, weight. Just stepped on the scale... 157.4. Holy shit, I didn't think it would be that much of a difference.
I'm off the CF train. Lost too much size and my strength stayed pretty much the same. Going to do the Starting Strength program. Has anyone had good success with that? (I did the MBP for quite a while before I tried CF and just want to do something new)
So you lost weight but maintained your strength and see it as a failure? I totally get that you didn't want to lose muscle, but you can build that back up easily along with some extra strength, I would definitely view that as a success. I can't say anything good or bad about SS since I've never tried it, but did you change your diet drastically when you were doing Crossfit? If you went paleo did you find ways to keep high enough levels of calories and carbohydrates? I'm asking this because if you do SS on a more calorie/carbohydrate restricted diet you're still going to have issues with putting on muscle mass.
No, I lost a lot of muscle size. Shirts that use to be form fitting (think a long sleeve thermal) are now loose. I've been doing MBP for the past 3 weeks and have already had a few people note a difference. No diet changes from MBP to CF, back to MBP and now to SS
I did SS for 2 months, saw good gains but I started the program at too high a BF%. Cut down and now I'm doing Reg Park, which has a similar focus on compound lifts, plus curls for da gurls. Anything with compounds and a lot of protein will do you right.
Losing muscle size due to doing a gazillion reps? Pfft, that's crazy talk. In other news, just lift the fucking weight.
I'm sensing sarcasm here, but I was under the impression that high reps lead to bigger muscles. Don't most bodybuilding routines consist of high volume?
Yeah, bodybuilders usually stay in the 8-15 rep range but Crossfit has you doing stuff like 25 burpees in a row followed by 25 air squats and so on with no break in between. It's hard to build a lot of muscle under that scenario and can be counterproductive for a strength athlete/bodybuilder. Still though I would think someone who is still in their beginner gains would put on some muscle since you should be doing some strength work in Crossfit. GTE, are you sure you're not beyond a program like Starting Strength at this point? You said you're already bored of MBP so it might be possible that you're ready for an intermediate program.
I want to use SS to put some size back on* but if you know of a good intermediate program, let me know. * I'm 6'2" and when I started CF I was around 220lbs, dropped down to 210-ish and while I did lose a little pinch below the belly button, I lost a lot of size in my shoulders/traps. Pics are in the TiBer thread if you want to check it out. /no homo
I'm a big fan of Wendler's 5-3-1. It focuses on the big 4 compound lifts and you can program the assistance to fit whatever your goals might be. If you start it properly and stick to it, it should be a good while before you hit a plateau.
How did you guys find your gym? I just moved, and can't seem to find one that suits me. They're either chain gyms, crossfit or one with more of a class oriented focus. I just want a decent free weight area and a solid power rack. The power rack at the last place I checked out looked like it would collapse if I racked the weight to aggressively. This all really makes me miss my gym in Reno. It even had platforms and bumper weights to do snatch and cleans!
I just got lucky, really. I chose my gym based on the fact that it was on the way home from work, and lucked out in that it has a large free weight area, two squat racks plus a power rack, a couple of sets of bumbers, and a lifting-friendly training staff.
Get away from the main site workouts. Look at Crossfit Football, Crossfit Outlaw and Rob Shaul's sites - military athlete and mountain athlete. You'll see a very prevalent strength bias in all those sites. And in general, you won't be cleaning 325 pounds without a little meat on your bones.
If you want to find a serious lifting gym, do a search on powerlifting and/or strongman competitions in your area. It will either give the name of a gym in your area that is hosting a contest or it will give you a contact name. If it is being held at a gym, there's a 95% chance that gym is going to welcome serious lifters. If the contest is being held at a place other than a gym (church, school, fair, etc), call the promoter. Tell him you're new to the area and would like to know of any gyms in the area that will suit your needs.
Don't immediately write off chains, its a gym by gym basis. I belong to an Xsport here in Chicago, and there are a couple guys who powerlift all the time. About a year ago, at the request of a couple members, they brought in bumper plates as well. Sure you have idiots doing curls on the squat rack from time to time, but other than that, its solid, if a bit crowded at times. Except Ballys, cause fuck Ballys.