Roghish

I now have a fairly stable workout routine I do 3 times every week on average, and I'd love some criticism on it. I usually work out after a 15+ hour fast, which seems to have increased my performance compared to before. Here's the workout routine: I always do 5 repetitions per set. 1: 5 sets overhead press, 3 minutes rest, some form of squat between sets (split squat at the moment for example), since my gym has no rack. 2: 5 sets pullups, 3 minutes rest, dips between sets 3: 5 sets thigh abductor machine (I'm convinced they'll help my triangle choke in jujitsu!),2 minutes rest, 10 second planks (very high tension) between sets. 4: hangs on the pullup bar for 10-20 long breaths, sets and duration depend on how long I can hold on. Once a week I do deadlifts and on off-days I use a gripper with only my left, weaker hand whenever I feel like it. I just started doing the left-hand only thing because my left hand's grip is significantly weaker than my right, and I hurt myself a bit doing deadlifts and almost dropped the weight. Be ruthless with the criticism! I'm trying to make this as optimal as possible since I have plenty of time for once on vacation.

I'm intermittent fasting 16 hours per day. My daily diet usually consists of: -1 lettuce with olive oil 1-2kg of mixed veggies, usually 1 eggplant, 1 brocolli stalk, 1 cucumber, 1-2 tomatoes, 1 bulb of garlic, and (sometimes) an onion cooked with a generous amount of olive oil. -1 protein source, either 10 eggs, 6 chicken legs with skin (not drumsticks, the whole leg, I don't know the word for this in English!) and once/week 1kg of ground beef. -1 scoop of whey protein with creatine I would really appreciate any criticism, my goals are to lose fat while gaining strength and muscle.

Will a program like this allow me (not in a month obviously, but eventually) to become flexible enough to touch my toes and do the splits?

I find that I really enjoy them, assuming the rest of my diet covers my calory and macro needs can I munch on celery sticks all day?

Thanks, I will do! Here's the update for this week, with my eating and workouts: http://puu.sh/hU3s8/aa4cd2014b.png Quest 1: karate Only one karate workout and no HIIT the whole week, even with the exams that's pretty bad!. --- C --- Quest 2: workouts 3 days at the gym and I found a new ab workout I like, even though I can't quite complete it yet, here it is:http://www.menshealth.co.uk/building-muscle/abs-workout/10-minute-six-pack-workout --- A+ --- Quest 3: stretching 5 days leg raises, 4 days stretching, I missed the leg raises twice which isn't great but the extra stretching session somewhat compensates! --- B+ --- Quest 4: Exams! I've completed all 5 exams, so now all I have to do is wait for the results, they should be coming in in the next few weeks.

Thanks, I'll try it out, it makes sense! I'll test it for the next 2-3 weeks and let you know how many I can do then. On a side note I saw you were talking about a DND game, how weird would it be to ask to listen in on the skype call without participating? I'm interested in the game but I'd rather not commit without knowing a bit more about it, I'm looking up some youtube videos on it right now but I can't find a full one.

4 sets of 4-5, but I don't have perfect form, I'd have to film it to check on that. I didn't expect to be able to do a single one on my first attempt, they're really not easy, but I want to be able to do a lot more.

To be honest at the moment I'm not very impressed with the results, my pullups haven't increased in quite a while. This might be because I have a calorie deficit, but I'm not losing weight any more, I'm around 70-71kg every morning but I've been there for the past few weeks. I'm not really sure how to deal with this, maybe it's because I haven't updated my daily caloric intake to my new weight, considering I lost 25kg that wouldn't be surprising. In stretching on the other hand I've seen a huge improvement, as well as all chest exercises. It's good to see your challenge seems to be going well also, keep it up! It's really impressive you write that much, I always have trouble with volume.

Time for the week 4 update, here's my program from this week: http://puu.sh/hInDn/8662425496.png As usual, any comments, questions, and criticism of my diet and workout routine are very welcome! Quest 1: karate I only did one karate workout and some HIIT. --- B --- Quest 2: workouts Same as last week, I went to the gym 3 times and worked out hard. --- A+ --- Quest 3: stretching Leg raises every day, but I didn't stretch as much as I should have (even though it was definitely more than I wrote down on the calendar, since I do it at night I keep missing it!) --- B- --- Quest 4: exams First 3 exams are done, microeconomics, math and English, all went well but I'll have to wait for the result before reacting positively or negatively.

Alright, week 3 update, here's my program from this week: http://puu.sh/hA6OE/c41987c7a8.png My arm was a lot better this week, today I did a workout at the gym and it didn't act up at all, so I think I'm done with that. Quest 1: karate I fell off a bit on the karate, but I did continue the HIIT. --- C --- Quest 2: workouts I went to the gym 3 times this week and did a lot of home workouts too, that exceeds my objective. --- A+ --- Quest 3: stretching Leg raises 6 days, I did stretching more than once but I forgot to write it down, --- B- --- Quest 4: exams Exams are starting tomorrow at 2pm. Here's my full exam program: 04/05/2015 14:00 02H00 Centre Pierre Mendès France Amphithéâtre N 255 Microéconomie 06/05/2015 08:00 02H00 Centre Pierre Mendès France Amphithéâtre N 255 Mathématiques 07/05/2015 08:00 02H00 Centre Pierre Mendès France Amphithéâtre N 213 Anglais 12/05/2015 11:30 02H00 Centre Pierre Mendès France Amphithéâtre N 215 Initiation au droit privé 19/05/2015 08:00 02H00 Centre Pierre Mendès France Amphithéâtre N 219 Organisation et management Obviously I'm a little stressed, I'm relaxing a bit on my diet and workouts especially for the next three days with by *far* the most difficult exams. Once I'm done with those I'll switch this objective to my driver's licence, which I'm definitely allowed to do.

Hi all, What I find most difficult by far in doing dumbbell presses is getting the weights into position, I feel like I have to settle with lighter weights than I could because of this. Are there any tricks that can make this easier? Thanks in advance!

I completely agree on Berserk, along with Gantz and History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi it's my favorite manga... Yes, my taste is a little dark! Can you recommend anything based on those? If you like Berserk I think Gantz is a must. The logging is a matter of habit, my Fitbit tracks my sleep and I remember what I ate and my workouts and record it at the end of the day. I'm not really sure what the problem is with my arm, it's been coming back repeatedly for a few months now, mostly when I try to do pullups. I can still complete the sets and I'm still making progress but it usually hurts for a few days after, I'm not sure if I'm being wise here.

Hi all! Time for a second update: Here's my complete diet and workout calendar from last week: http://puu.sh/hrnyQ/12d4fe8f85.png Again, I appreciate and invite any criticism of anything I'm doing or not doing. Quest 1: Karate I completed my objective. I've been doing jump rope for the HIIT training, I'm feeling a definite improvement even though at the moment I'm extremely bad at it, I can barely hold on for a minute before having to stop and restart. I think that's mostly because I'm not used to the movement, my calves get tired very fast. --- A --- Quest 2: Workouts I did gym workouts twice this week, I went a third time but ended up not being able to do much because my arm was hurting, I think I've been working my left arm too hard since it's a bit weaker than my right, especially on the pullups, I guess it'll catch up eventually. --- A --- Quest 3: Stretching I did the leg raises every day, but not always in the morning. --- A- ---

Hi everyone! Here's the first update: http://puu.sh/hisGd/1a208809ab.png This is a screenshot of my calendar for the week, including how long I slept every night, everything I ate and all workouts I did intentionally, and more importantly my favorites on google chrome! What's not included is walking up and down stairs on the way to university, walking about 30 minutes to an hour/day outside to buy food and generally go to places and I just noticed I forgot to type in the leg raises on Friday, I'll also be doing some tonight as well as a stretching routine. I'd appreciate any comments anyone can make on my diet or workout routines! Quest 1: Karate One excellent karate class with a very positive comment from the teacher at the end, and one HIIT workout. --- A --- Quest 2: Workouts Two very intensive gym workouts this week with visible progress, I went from two to four sets of 18kg dumbbell presses and I felt a similar difficulty the second time. --- A --- Quest 3: Stretching Leg raises X7, less than half in the morning which leaves me with, three stretching routines this week which meets the objectives. --- A- --- Quest 4: Exams Nothing much to add here, I'll update this once I get the results, they should come in near the end of the challenge. Sorry for the slow response Risen Phoenix, but I was definitely overweight, now I'm 23kg lighter and I'm far from being unhealthily thin! I've got quite a thin body type, if I wrap my fingers around my wrist my thumb overlaps on my middle finger by a full joint. I did a test online to see (which didn't seem very accurate) and it told me I was between "athletic" and "thin". I should probably add that I had no muscle at all, I was never moving. In August I only walked to go get food!

Actually I just had the problem for the first time of simply not being able to complete a third set (I had set out for 4), after two sets of 8 dumbbell presses done without too much difficulty I physically couldn't get into position for a third. The next day I knew I had actually pushed myself to the limit because it was quite painful. Is there any disadvantage to just going to the limit in fewer sets?

I haven't started studying for the exams yet because I still have tests this week (last week of school followed by two weeks prep time and then two weeks exams) but pretty much as much as I wanted to, I'm kind of in competition with a friend of mine at the moment in math so we'll see how it goes!

I've heard this a lot so I'm applying it, but why is this? Why can't vitamins replace a varied diet as long as your macro nutriment and calorie balances are ok?

Hi everyone! The vitamins I'm using are "opti-men", I have two questions: -Should I take them one per meal or is it ok to have them all at the same meal? The daily dose is 3. -Should I swallow them whole with water, or is it better to cut them in two or even crush them? I assume the same would apply to all brands of multivitamins. On a side note is opti-men a good brand? If not, what's a better alternative?

How can I decide how many sets of each exercise I should do? I've read all about how many repetitions and the wait time, but I've seen people recommend different numbers of sets for different exercises. How do I decide? For example, at the moment I can do about 3-4 (not perfect form) pullups, how many sets should I do of these?

Hi everyone, I've been following a paleo diet all the time except for one meal per week, since I was convinced by some of the carb cycling videos I saw. Is this a good diet plan? Is it better or not to take a very high carb meal once every week?

Is there a workout which works the same muscles as pullups and bench presses if I don't have a pullup bar or any equivalent (including for rows) and the heaviest dumbbells I have weigh only 10kg? I have access to either two 10kg dumbbells or 1 16kg one. I have access to walls and a mat, nothing else. It might be a stupid question but I had an operation I on my face which doesn't hurt in the slightest but makes me look a bit like I stuck my head into a fire for a few minutes, it won't be visible within a week but I'm far too shy to actually go to the gym for the next few days.

Great! Good luck with your exams, don't hesitate to contact me if you want an accountabilibuddy or start a group.

You're probably right about elf, I wasn't really sure because it looked like it was more for very thin people, even though I'm far from overweight now I'm definitely not too thin! For the grades it's pretty much because I'm studying (among other subjects) English as a foreign language, so I get a "free" top grade (it's a mandatory subject). Since the program isn't very selective, only about 30-40% of the students make it through the first year, so it's not very difficult to be one of the best, university works very differently in France from English speaking countries in that the university selection happens from entry until graduation rather than before entry. I appreciate all the input, tips and followup, let me know if I can help you with anything.

Before I could feel my muscles after every workout, sometimes for 3-4 days or more, but now even with much heavier weights with an equal amount of repetitions and an equal effort I don't feel it at all. What does this mean? Is it because the muscles react differently to increased stress after practice? Has my recuperation improved? Could it be related to increased protein intake with the Paleo diet? Or am I just not pushing myself as hard (even though I think I am)?

Hi everyone, I'm starting my second challenge now, the first was a reasonable success, even though I'm always harsh on myself. http://rebellion.nerdfitness.com/index.php?/topic/62304-better-very-very-late-than-never/ A little background, I decided to start worrying about fitness at the start of August 2014, since I was quite significantly overweight weighing about 95kg (210 pounds). I'm 6'3 tall, so that was quite overweight. In the next six weeks, I lost 10kg by eating less (but very badly) and working out almost every day doing relatively low intensity cardio workouts. From mid-September until Christmas, I worked out about twice every week on average, and lost 10kg again, bringing me to 75kg now (165 pounds). I went from not being able to do a single knee pushup in August to now being able to do over 20 incline pushups. In March, I discovered Nerd Fitness, which relaunched my motivation. I took my before picture after losing 20kg, which I find quite ironic. Since I've gone on a Paleo diet, except for Saturdays for carb cycling and social occasions. I also signed up for a karate class for the first time in a few years, I loved doing karate but when I tried a class in September I found it too physically challenging, since i was in very bad shape at the time. Bonus: what "race" do you think I am if I'm 6'3 with "normal" weight and somewhere between a thin and athletic build? Quest 1: Karate - After the last karate class of the school year, start doing 2 karate training sessions alone per week, including technical training and drilling combat techniques and katas OR an HIIT workout. A - 12 + total B - 10-11 total C - 8-9 total D - 6-7 total F - less than 6 total STA Quest 2: Workouts - I'll be doing an internship in Belfast this summer, I need to find a gym there and workout at least 3 times/ week while I'm there and twice/week before and until I'm there at home or in the local gym (I'm too lazy to check if I'll be there before the challenge ends) A - 12 workouts B - 11 workouts C - 10 workouts F - Less than 10 workouts STR Quest 3: Stretching - Do leg raises every morning, 20 on each side per leg, and a complete stretching routine at least once every 2 days. A - 21+ stretching routines and leg raises every morning A- - 20-21 stretching routines and leg raises every day, sometimes not in the morning B - 16-19 stretching routines and 30+ leg raises C - 12-15 stretching routines and 25+ leg raises F - Less than 12 stretching routines and less than 25 leg raises If there's a different grade between leg raises and stretching routines I'll average them and round down. DEX Quest 4: Life goal - My exams are in a few weeks from now, there are about 650 students in my university class, but so far I've gotten a good start this semester. A - Rank top 10 in my university B - Rank top 15 in my university C - Rank top 25 in my university F - Rank below top 25 in my university WIS