aj_rock

While I still IF in general, I abandoned the whole macro cycling thing a ways back in favour of weekly refeeds and overall cutting vs bulking macrocycles. I see way too many spinning wheels on the recomp stuff.

It's really not as terrible as it sounds for most women! You have to do one or more of several things before hormones become an issue: - Possess existing hormonal problems or imbalances (natural or BC related) - Depth of cut (obviously totally starving yourself has a much greater impact than simply lowering intake by 10%) - Length of cut (interacts STRONGLY with depth: you can fast for a day as long as you eat later, and a 10% reduction can be maintained for great lengths of time, especially if you start at a higher body fat level) - Excessive exercise amounts (female athletes get this problem, not someone hittng the gym 3-4 times a week) - Quality of food intake (fiber, vitamins, and sufficient fat intake play the largest roles here) - Pregnancy (it'd be questionable to start a diet when pregnant anyways) I'm probably missing a few, and don't know your particular situation, but a well designed exercise and diet plan with periodic updates will avoid these problems.

Personally, it took me about 6 years, a PT course, a perfectionistic obsession, FFB syndrome, and far too much time on my hands

Relevant to the male sex drive thing, girls can have periodic problems when hormone levels start to crash due to under-eating. You are going on five weeks of dieting too. Six weeks is the recommended amount before you refeed at maintenance for a week or two anyways. Seems like you're on schedule really. The fact that it's not a 'hard' cut also means that you're likely dealing with leptin issues, which hands down calls for a lengthy refeed.

I love me some sprints too, but another really good functional measure for legs is agility, so like t-drill, cornering, etc. Very few people seem to think about that stuff outside of sport, but the man (or woman... or whoever) that can reach top speed, take a 90 deg turn and make somebody standing in your way look a damn fool, is a man (or whatever) worth their salt in leg strength.

I've always thoerized that this happens. You'll definitely see backslide on too deep or too long a cut, but I've seen it happen to myself a few times where cut cut cut then as soon as you increase calories the pounds just fly onto the lifts.

Yissssss the cutttttt join the cuttttttttttt

... So you're getting PAID to attend CONVENTIONS. I sit in a lab and watch a machine tug at a string of guck. ... I chose the wrong profession V.V

That's hilarious and probably a bajillion times more interesting than my thesis. Kinda wondering now how you go aboot studying cosplay though.

All in favor of Waldo being NF's version of Chuck Norris say Aye. AYE.

Su-weeeeet. Never did get to hear what YOUR thesis is about

Neutral spine is healthy spine. I've never seen anything in any literature that says otherwise. I'll admit, your upper back will round... when you're lifting 95% + on a deadlift, or similar. But that's just what happens naturally when you lift teh heavy things. Maybe my back cries more than your av-ver-rage bear because I have mild scoliosis, but I'm curious to hear why you think purposeful rounding is a good idea.

Spez, the way you pick the bar up from the floor makes my back cry. Please don't round it anymore

If that's when catspaw-like women visit the gym, sounds like a plan.

As best I can tell, you have lost maybe a pound of fat in that time. I hope you've made good progress on your lifts, because that's almost negligible over 7 weeks. Sorry man.

Sorry, so that's since the start of February? Seven weeks?

I like how its called flank.png. Very niiiiice.

Exactly, which is why I was just saying; not really lamenting the lack of belt. I think it's funny that your wife turned out to be a chest kinda gal. Just like everything else, each person's got their own boat to float.

Like Waldo said, some people are also just gifted with very visible abs. I can get a semi-six pack flexed now, but I highly doubt I'll ever have a prominent Adonis belt. It's funny, because one thing I HAVE noticed is that as my core lifts go up (squats, deadlifts), the abs have become much more visible at similar waist measurements.

That reminds me of instructions for drawing owls:

Yeah, it's usually highly repetitive motion that hurts, as it's also what caused the problem in the first place. It's gonna have to be one of those 'listen to your body' things. If what you're doing hurts, stop doing it

Hubba hubba! You can definitely see the difference looking at your hip:waist ratio.

When you start, the former. I highly doubt anyone can concentrically get into a dragon flag their first time. You work negatives first, the static hold, then reps.

I always feel a little out of place reading your insanely nice comments but then ANGRY KITTEH on the side. It's like 'Oh don't you worry everything will work out AFTER I RIP YOUR FACE OFF'

Dragon Flag! Tried those a couple times but my shoulders always yell at me and call me mean names