Chives the Conquerer

Thanks! This is super helpful!

Right, I do it for fun when playing basketball and backyard football. Do you increase your caloric intake on those days?

Is it necessary to cut out cardio when bulking?

I am, but I wasn't sure if you aimed at cutting down certain areas in particular (like carbs) or simply ate a caloric deficit. Also, what's your opinion on doing cardio (like basketball) while bulking? Should I be eating something calorie-heavy before to counteract the exercise, or simply avoid regular cardio?

Awesome, thank you guys so much. I'm going to start utilizing your advice today and go with the 8/2/1 week schedule you laid out. I won't have to worry about cutting for two months, but I know very little about it (other than the general idea of "cutting" down caloric intake). What are your methods?

Nice. How long do you bulk/cut for? I'm also concerned about bulking and then losing muscle while cutting, and ending up back to my original fitness level. How do you guys pull it off?

So you guys can personally vouch for using foods like ice cream, rice, and cereal to bulk? Also, how long do you usually "bulk" and how long do you spend cutting afterwards?

For those of you who have successfully bulked, what are some good healthy high-calorie foods to eat on a budget? I currently eat a good number of eggs, drink a lot of milk, and frequently eat walnuts in addition to fruits and vegetables (which, of course, don't contain many calories). PS How about peanut butter? It's high-calorie but it's not considered paleo, so I don't know if it would have an adverse effect.

Go ps4 if only for Uncharted 4

I currently do diamond push-ups for presses, but I don't feel like I'm getting much out of them. Are there any good BW presses that come to mind? Thanks Chives

Recently started using coconut oil, it changes everything! Delicious!

That's an awesome story! One of those cool life-changing adventures. I'm staying around two months though, so I wouldn't be looking for a job.

Yeah maybe like a month and a half. And he does have money saved, but I'm not sure how much. What do you suggest I do to make this happen? Do you have experience with this?

Yeah maybe like a month and a half. And he does have money saved, but I'm not sure how much. What do you suggest I do to make this happen? Do you have experience with this?

Sorry it posted 3 of these.

I definitely understand the feeling. You go to the computer or sit down on the couch with your phone/tablet/laptop and check Facebook, the box score of the basketball game, or watch a YouTube video and suddenly you find yourself reading some obscure blog post or on the 19th page of some meme site and you've just wasted four hours of your day. It's like the Hotel California; it's an addicting loop and you become a prisoner--Yet, thankfully, there's a way out. Set yourself time to be on the internet. I know that sounds like a crappy bit of advice you'd hear from some "fitness expert" on Yahoo News, but hear me out. If you wanna browse espn, look at the clock and give yourself ten minutes before you go do something productive. These "productive things" can be exercising, reading a book, reading a magazine (go with TIME or Nat Geo instead of 'People' or other tabloid stuff), hanging out with friends, meeting up with family, or any other eventful things. Not all of these actions are necessarily productive in the traditional sense, but they are all productive in that they are improving, or, "leveling you up" either physically, mentally, or socially. So don't go cold turkey and smash your iPhone, because I'm not asking you to. I'm asking you to realize the countless life-improving moments that the Internet is distracting you from. Don't let the internet control your life. Internet addiction is a hell of a lot more common than you think. It's an revolving door I realized I needed to get out of sometime last year. I realized that staying up late and watching funny YouTube videos on my iPod wasn't making me any happier-- I'd occasionally chuckle at the videos, but I wasn't doing anything beneficial. A year from now, you'll remember the time you drilled a three pointer during that game of one-on-one, you'll remember going to the Midnight premiere of the new Avengers movie, you'll remember the gratifying feeling after reaching a milestone in your workout, and you'll remember the jubilant family cookouts you attended; but I guarantee that you won't look back and remember the night you spent four hours looking at memes and scrolling through a newsfeed of people you don't actually know all that well. You can take control of the internet, and stop it from being the other way around-- so let me know how great it feels once you do!

I definitely understand the feeling. You go to the computer or sit down on the couch with your phone/tablet/laptop and check Facebook, the box score of the basketball game, or watch a YouTube video and suddenly you find yourself reading some obscure blog post or on the 19th page of some meme site and you've just wasted four hours of your day. It's like the Hotel California; it's an addicting loop and you become a prisoner--Yet, thankfully, there's a way out. Set yourself time to be on the internet. I know that sounds like a crappy bit of advice you'd hear from some "fitness expert" on Yahoo News, but hear me out. If you wanna browse espn, look at the clock and give yourself ten minutes before you go do something productive. These "productive things" can be exercising, reading a book, reading a magazine (go with TIME or Nat Geo instead of 'People' or other tabloid stuff), hanging out with friends, meeting up with family, or any other eventful things. Not all of these actions are necessarily productive in the traditional sense, but they are all productive in that they are improving, or, "leveling you up" either physically, mentally, or socially. So don't go cold turkey and smash your iPhone, because I'm not asking you to. I'm asking you to realize the countless life-improving moments that the Internet is distracting you from. Don't let the internet control your life. Internet addiction is a hell of a lot more common than you think. It's an revolving door I realized I needed to get out of sometime last year. I realized that staying up late and watching funny YouTube videos on my iPod wasn't making me any happier-- I'd occasionally chuckle at the videos, but I wasn't doing anything beneficial. A year from now, you'll remember the time you drilled a three pointer during that game of one-on-one, you'll remember going to the Midnight premiere of the new Avengers movie, you'll remember the gratifying feeling after reaching a milestone in your workout, and you'll remember the jubilant family cookouts you attended; but I guarantee that you won't look back and remember the night you spent four hours looking at memes and scrolling through a newsfeed of people you don't actually know all that well. You can take control of the internet, and stop it from being the other way around-- so let me know how great it feels once you do!

Wait, I thought trans fat was banned. But I mean, are those necessarily "empty" calories like potato chips?

Hey guys, I know I'm kind of digging this thread out of the boneyard, but I recently posted a topic about my goal of traveling to Australia next Summer (2015). If you guys could check it out, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

I'm a high school senior with about 2500 dollars saved up. My goal is to travel with my cousin to, and spend the latter half of the 2015 summer (after my freshman year of college) in Australia possibly using couchsurfing. So I've got about a year and a half. I've heard of the travel hacking, but don't really know where to start, especially without a credit card. I want to create a game plan to help me do this, and your help would be greatly appreciated.

This is a great article for you, it certainly helped me. Remember, diet is the most important part of bulking. http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2013/07/17/a-skinny-guys-guide-to-building-muscle-and-bulking-up/ Personally, I do a Bodyweight workout using increasingly difficult exercises to increment up as opposed to a weighted workout that simply adds weight. I've already seen results using the pyramid pullup routine in my workout (which goes against steve's general "12+ reps only get you muscular endurance" rule, since you disallow a buildup of lactic acid). Let me know if you have any questions. Good luck

I'm a big fan of movie theatre, butter popcorn. It's relatively low-carb (4 to 5 carbs a cup), but how good is it really for you?

I think it's good to have just a ziplock bag of either carrots or pea shoots on you. You can really enjoy them when, as stated above, they're not sitting in contrast to something like delicious pot roast.

Okay, great. I was worried that I wouldn't see any gains in such a routine.

Yeah I'm doing full body Bodyweight workouts that are pretty wide-grip pullup and squat intensive. I'm especially looking to add mass right now, and I heard that rest is vital for this. Would 3 days a week be good only fir a beginner or us this a method to stick with for continued mass gain.