[JP10]

Originally Posted by floridaorange

Speak of the devil - I changed protein powders recently - wow what a difference that can make!

I was buying cheap stuff - Cellucor Whey Protein, and it wasn't bad, it just wasn't great.

Yesterday my order arrived, this: https://www.amazon.com/Vanilla-Daily.../dp/B00G7HABUY

Sheesh! That is too rich for my blood haha. I don't know if I have ever really sat down and compared whether one protein worked better or not for me. I like MyProtein because it is just basic as it gets not to mention cheap!

[floridaorange]

Originally Posted by JP10

Sheesh! That is too rich for my blood haha. I don't know if I have ever really sat down and compared whether one protein worked better or not for me. I like MyProtein because it is just basic as it gets not to mention cheap!

Originally Posted by JP10

Sheesh! That is too rich for my blood haha. I don't know if I have ever really sat down and compared whether one protein worked better or not for me. I like MyProtein because it is just basic as it gets not to mention cheap!

I found it for $20 - this is just the link I used. Its a cleaner protein prob with more bcaa's is my guess. If you can find it for less definitely try it!

[JP10]

Originally Posted by floridaorange

I found it for $20 - this is just the link I used. Its a cleaner protein prob with more bcaa's is my guess. If you can find it for less definitely try it!

$20 isn't bad at all, I'll keep my eye out for it. Usually browse Amazon every so often, so might find it on sale.

Lifted Legs this morning. Had some tightness in my left hip, so it was a lighter day, with that said it was fast paced and still a solid workout. I typically finish my leg days with 15 mins on the stair master, after that my legs are like jello lol.

[zx10guy]

So that AirPHX thing I mentioned my gym is using....well....it's not working now. The other day I saw one of the status lights on it indicating red. Which of course isn't good. Now the box is totally shut off. I guess they're waiting for it to be fixed.

[JP10]

Originally Posted by zx10guy

So that AirPHX thing I mentioned my gym is using....well....it's not working now. The other day I saw one of the status lights on it indicating red. Which of course isn't good. Now the box is totally shut off. I guess they're waiting for it to be fixed.

Well that was short lived... Notice any difference in air quality lol?

[zx10guy]

Originally Posted by JP10

Well that was short lived... Notice any difference in air quality lol?

Yeah. At least that ozone smell is gone in the area it was running.

[JP10]

Started back in Creatine Saturday. Feel like I am holding a ton of water right now and have been eating like a horse. Planning on a little vacation next month, so now I have something to shoot for so thats good. Will probably keep the calories moderate for the next week or so then start to drop them down as the vacation nears.

Lifted legs this morning. Back & abs Saturday, and Shoulders/triceps yesterday. Body feels overall solid rather then being pretty wore across the board.

[UncleWede]

Hit back/tri last night, felt GOOD and strong. Left a wet mess. Pulling weight that was pretty close to a "heavy" set, yet still getting 12 reps for 6 sets.

Woke up this morning all tingly, thinking it was the result of the lift: blood was 76

[1MOREMOD]

Worked out with hot chick from gym last night I'm sore today must have went harder than normal trying to impress

[ga9213]

Are you guys actually seeing benefits from supplements? I'm built a bit different from most, naturally build muscle easily...I've tried months of creatine which did nothing but added water weight and made me look soft...then months of protein...did nothing at all...and then I've gone entire months with absolutely nothing aside from my normal diet and build significant strength while overall mass/weight has improved. BCAA's...maybe help recovery? I dunno...my back hurts all the time so the only thing that helps there I've found is Celebrex (Don't laugh it actually works!)

Aside from preworkout which is a must for my 430am workouts, I've found everything else to be a waste of money.

[JP10]

Originally Posted by ga9213

Are you guys actually seeing benefits from supplements? I'm built a bit different from most, naturally build muscle easily...I've tried months of creatine which did nothing but added water weight and made me look soft...then months of protein...did nothing at all...and then I've gone entire months with absolutely nothing aside from my normal diet and build significant strength while overall mass/weight has improved. BCAA's...maybe help recovery? I dunno...my back hurts all the time so the only thing that helps there I've found is Celebrex (Don't laugh it actually works!)

Aside from preworkout which is a must for my 430am workouts, I've found everything else to be a waste of money.

I agree with you. Supplements are over hyped and I don't think they play a major role in building strength and muscle. I was off all supplements for a good few months there, and made some pretty solid strides. The fitness industry in general is basically a scam, supplements that are proven to work are banned. All about having a solid diet in place and getting in the gym enough. I get up around the same time for the gym as you, just coffee for me though.

With that said, I did get back on protein and creatine on Saturday. Holding so much water, I'm dying lol.

[zx10guy]

Originally Posted by ga9213

Are you guys actually seeing benefits from supplements? I'm built a bit different from most, naturally build muscle easily...I've tried months of creatine which did nothing but added water weight and made me look soft...then months of protein...did nothing at all...and then I've gone entire months with absolutely nothing aside from my normal diet and build significant strength while overall mass/weight has improved. BCAA's...maybe help recovery? I dunno...my back hurts all the time so the only thing that helps there I've found is Celebrex (Don't laugh it actually works!)

Aside from preworkout which is a must for my 430am workouts, I've found everything else to be a waste of money.

Are you under the constant care of a physician? Did your doctor prescribed Celebrex explicitly for your back pain? Are you having blood work done to monitor things?

Why I'm bringing this up is because I was using Celebrex. Not for arthritic or pain issues. There have been some discussion for cancer treatment that aspirin has benefits. Celebrex falls into a similar category as aspirin in how it works on tumor cell receptors making chemo more effective. Well that's the theory. There was a clinical trial where patients were studied using Celebrex along with FOLFOX6 to see if there was any benefit.

I got onto Celebrex when I went on chemo. Because I was having my blood drawn frequently for testing, my doc was able to see my liver enzymes shoot up. I had to be pulled off of Celebrex because of the potential liver damage. I was only on it for 2 weeks or so. It sucked because my insurance wouldn't cover my use of Celebrex for cancer treatment so I had to pay $368 for a month and half supply of the drug; ending up flushing that $368 down the toilet. Plus who knows what the long term benefits would have been had I was able to stay on it.

Just giving this as a friendly warning as your situation is different than mine along with your dosage is probably different. But make sure you check into having a liver function test done if one hasn't been done for you yet.

[ga9213]

Originally Posted by zx10guy

Are you under the constant care of a physician? Did your doctor prescribed Celebrex explicitly for your back pain? Are you having blood work done to monitor things?

Why I'm bringing this up is because I was using Celebrex. Not for arthritic or pain issues. There have been some discussion for cancer treatment that aspirin has benefits. Celebrex falls into a similar category as aspirin in how it works on tumor cell receptors making chemo more effective. Well that's the theory. There was a clinical trial where patients were studied using Celebrex along with FOLFOX6 to see if there was any benefit.

I got onto Celebrex when I went on chemo. Because I was having my blood drawn frequently for testing, my doc was able to see my liver enzymes shoot up. I had to be pulled off of Celebrex because of the potential liver damage. I was only on it for 2 weeks or so. It sucked because my insurance wouldn't cover my use of Celebrex for cancer treatment so I had to pay $368 for a month and half supply of the drug; ending up flushing that $368 down the toilet. Plus who knows what the long term benefits would have been had I was able to stay on it.

Just giving this as a friendly warning as your situation is different than mine along with your dosage is probably different. But make sure you check into having a liver function test done if one hasn't been done for you yet.

Thank you for the warning! Yes I am taking it under observation with an NP and we took blood before starting with the expectation I'll be back in 6 months for follow up (4 months from now).

However, I did voluntarily discontinue Celebrex two weeks ago because I learned of an interaction with another medication I'm taking which increases the risk of stomach ulcers. I only found this out because I developed one...which was not fun.

I didn't mention this because it was specifically a drug interaction risk which may not be the case for others.

I have arthritis in my lower back and significantly injured it a couple of years ago dead lifting. It did truly help with that pain but unfortunately a day after stopping Celebrex it's back.

If safe to take based on blood results, I would still highly recommend it for the relief it provided. I would certainly honor this advice though on making sure blood work validates if safe for you.

[King Rudi]

I did the newb thing in the beginning and bought all kinds of supplements. I learned the hard and expensive way. The only supplements I take now are whey protein (mostly just to ensure that I get enough protein each day, my eating schedule and caloric restriction is not for the faint of heart), caffeine (mostly pre-workout) and creatine and I'm considering stopping the creatine for a while.

I don't notice that I'm holding much water weight, but it does make me wonder how much of my weight is water weight due to creatine usage.

Narrowing down on my 12 week cut. Technically I'm supposed to end this cycle on the 15th but I may go another 2 -4 weeks beyond to get super lean before I start my bulk.

I feel like I have a pretty good mind set going in to this bulk. This will be the 3rd bulk cycle for me and honestly I feel like the first one doesn't count. Technically still a newb at all this; it's only been 1 1/2 years since I started going to gym. My game plan is to increase my calories by 50-75 kcal/day and reduce cardio to 2 days/week, (most likely my days off from lifting) until the scales stop moving, then add another 50-75 kcal/day until the scales stop moving.....rinse and repeat until I'm at my 2500 kcal/day. Aside from lowering protein and increasing carbs in my macros, what other advice do you gents have on bulking?

[JP10]

Originally Posted by King Rudi

I did the newb thing in the beginning and bought all kinds of supplements. I learned the hard and expensive way. The only supplements I take now are whey protein (mostly just to ensure that I get enough protein each day, my eating schedule and caloric restriction is not for the faint of heart), caffeine (mostly pre-workout) and creatine and I'm considering stopping the creatine for a while.

I don't notice that I'm holding much water weight, but it does make me wonder how much of my weight is water weight due to creatine usage.

Narrowing down on my 12 week cut. Technically I'm supposed to end this cycle on the 15th but I may go another 2 -4 weeks beyond to get super lean before I start my bulk.

I feel like I have a pretty good mind set going in to this bulk. This will be the 3rd bulk cycle for me and honestly I feel like the first one doesn't count. Technically still a newb at all this; it's only been 1 1/2 years since I started going to gym. My game plan is to increase my calories by 50-75 kcal/day and reduce cardio to 2 days/week, (most likely my days off from lifting) until the scales stop moving, then add another 50-75 kcal/day until the scales stop moving.....rinse and repeat until I'm at my 2500 kcal/day. Aside from lowering protein and increasing carbs in my macros, what other advice do you gents have on bulking?

Any reasoning behind lowering protein? Increasing carbs is good, but make sure your fat macros go up as well. Just don't get cold feet through your bulk. A lot of times people will start to grow, and sometimes in areas they don't want, then immediately go back into dropping calories. Gotta attack it at full speed.

[zx10guy]

Originally Posted by ga9213

Thank you for the warning! Yes I am taking it under observation with an NP and we took blood before starting with the expectation I'll be back in 6 months for follow up (4 months from now).

However, I did voluntarily discontinue Celebrex two weeks ago because I learned of an interaction with another medication I'm taking which increases the risk of stomach ulcers. I only found this out because I developed one...which was not fun.

I didn't mention this because it was specifically a drug interaction risk which may not be the case for others.

I have arthritis in my lower back and significantly injured it a couple of years ago dead lifting. It did truly help with that pain but unfortunately a day after stopping Celebrex it's back.

If safe to take based on blood results, I would still highly recommend it for the relief it provided. I would certainly honor this advice though on making sure blood work validates if safe for you.

Ok. Great you're being monitored. But I would ask for another blood test as my liver enzymes shot up over a span of a couple of weeks. Don't know when the last time you had taken Celebrex. If you've been off of it for a while, I would hold off on the blood test. Because my liver enzymes pretty much dropped back to normal rather quickly after stopping.

The stomach ulcers make sense as that's also an issue with taking high doses of aspirin.

[ga9213]

Originally Posted by zx10guy

Ok. Great you're being monitored. But I would ask for another blood test as my liver enzymes shot up over a span of a couple of weeks. Don't know when the last time you had taken Celebrex. If you've been off of it for a while, I would hold off on the blood test. Because my liver enzymes pretty much dropped back to normal rather quickly after stopping.

The stomach ulcers make sense as that's also an issue with taking high doses of aspirin.

Well I'm glad you mentioned this as my Bilirubin was high before starting (2.1, ref range 0-1.2)...granted it's always been high for me but sounds like a risk I may not want to take without closer monitoring.

[yahh]

Just getting into the gym for the first time in my life (for lifting) at age 28 . I've always had a slim build (grew up playing soccer) and maintained a pretty good weight 6'3" ~180. Since moving away from my apartment in the city near the river a few years ago, I've stopped running, but still drinking and eating carelessly. I hit 220 lbs during covid and I've decided to start going to the gym regularly. I'm about 5 weeks in and I got at least 4 days a week focusing pretty much solely on lifting vs cardio. Starting to see some real results has been motivating. However, I am having trouble with deadlifts, any of you taller guys out there have similar issues? I just can't get the motions down and I feel like my legs are always in the way.

[JP10]

Originally Posted by yahh

Just getting into the gym for the first time in my life (for lifting) at age 28 . I've always had a slim build (grew up playing soccer) and maintained a pretty good weight 6'3" ~180. Since moving away from my apartment in the city near the river a few years ago, I've stopped running, but still drinking and eating carelessly. I hit 220 lbs during covid and I've decided to start going to the gym regularly. I'm about 5 weeks in and I got at least 4 days a week focusing pretty much solely on lifting vs cardio. Starting to see some real results has been motivating. However, I am having trouble with deadlifts, any of you taller guys out there have similar issues? I just can't get the motions down and I feel like my legs are always in the way.

Can't comment too much on the deadlifts for taller people as I'm only 5' 10". 1MOREMOD may be able to comment, I believe he is taller and deadlifts frequently.

Good that you're getting into the gym though, set yourself a goal and keep after it!

[ga9213]

Originally Posted by yahh

Just getting into the gym for the first time in my life (for lifting) at age 28 . I've always had a slim build (grew up playing soccer) and maintained a pretty good weight 6'3" ~180. Since moving away from my apartment in the city near the river a few years ago, I've stopped running, but still drinking and eating carelessly. I hit 220 lbs during covid and I've decided to start going to the gym regularly. I'm about 5 weeks in and I got at least 4 days a week focusing pretty much solely on lifting vs cardio. Starting to see some real results has been motivating. However, I am having trouble with deadlifts, any of you taller guys out there have similar issues? I just can't get the motions down and I feel like my legs are always in the way.

I'm 38 so I have a bit slower metabolism than you likely so take that into account. I've been going about 4 years 5 days a week. When I started I was 236 at my peak (5'10") and incorporated cardio and lifting and built strength and muscle but couldn't cut the fat. Intermittent fasting worked for me...but only in intervals of 2-3 weeks at a time. I'd quit eating by 7pm, and wouldn't eat lunch until 11am, skipping breakfast (and protein). I'm hovering around 208 right now...as I recall it took roughly 3 months to cut that weight once I started IF.

It's slow going but I never lost strength this way...and it was fairly effortless as mornings are pretty easy to stay busy and keep your mind off food. After 2-3 weeks though your weight loss tapers off and should go back to normal routine. You'll gain a few lbs back but then stabilize...or at least I did.

As for deadlifts...like you I never could get my form down. I would make micro corrections as I constantly was trying to get it to feel natural. In the end those micro corrections caused a muscle spasm which tweaked my lower back, pulled my left hip up and took me out of the game for 3 months, with pain that I still have 2 years later.

My advice would be if you're struggling with your form, keep the weight VERY light where you're not struggling. Focus more on the form where it feels natural at that weight..then start increasing...SLOWLY.

I was doing 405 when I threw my back. Now I'm at 225 and absolutely refuse to go heavier.

[King Rudi]

Originally Posted by JP10

Any reasoning behind lowering protein? Increasing carbs is good, but make sure your fat macros go up as well. Just don't get cold feet through your bulk. A lot of times people will start to grow, and sometimes in areas they don't want, then immediately go back into dropping calories. Gotta attack it at full speed.

I'm lowering protein back down to 1 - 1.25 grams/lb of body weight. During my cut, I lowered carbs and upped protein. On my bulk, I plan to lower the protein back down to where it should be and bring my carbs back up to where they need to be to maximize growth. Now that I'm getting close to the end of the cut and most likely plateauing, I can really feel my lack of carbs. Had a difficult time powering through my workout last night. When I started this, i had no idea what macros were or how much they can affect how a person feels day to day. I tend to operate very well in a cut until the last couple of weeks. Once my BF% gets low, all I want to do is sleep.....that's pretty much where I'm at now. I'm going to struggle and push through the next couple of weeks to hopefully, get rid of these last few pounds around the belly button and lower back. I should have a flat stomach for the first time in my adult life within the next few weeks. As of this morning I have lost 86 pounds since I started. I'm really low as far as weight goes right now, but on my frame (with what muscle I've managed to build in the past 1.5 years) I look f'n shredded at the moment.....aside from about maybe 2-3 pounds of fluffy jiggle around my belly button. The 6 pack, chest and shoulders.....let's just say, I'm starting to get dirty looks from younger guys in the locker room when I take my shirt off.

[zx10guy]

Originally Posted by yahh

Just getting into the gym for the first time in my life (for lifting) at age 28 . I've always had a slim build (grew up playing soccer) and maintained a pretty good weight 6'3" ~180. Since moving away from my apartment in the city near the river a few years ago, I've stopped running, but still drinking and eating carelessly. I hit 220 lbs during covid and I've decided to start going to the gym regularly. I'm about 5 weeks in and I got at least 4 days a week focusing pretty much solely on lifting vs cardio. Starting to see some real results has been motivating. However, I am having trouble with deadlifts, any of you taller guys out there have similar issues? I just can't get the motions down and I feel like my legs are always in the way.

I'd video record yourself to see how your form is while doing a lighter weight. Many of the guys at the gym do this for explicit reasons to check their form and not for vanity purposes.

I can't remember what I was doing when I did do dead lifts when I was younger. I don't do them now as I have lower back issues. Oh and I'm 6'5".