Bean

Awesome goals. How many pull-ups can you do consecutively now?

Awesome goals for this challenge - I made the pushups in my last challenge, my record is 51 in 60 seconds. Any idea on the weights you intend to start at on the free weights and the improvements you hope to see? Budget - remember the mantra that "my expenses may not exceed my income" *grin* One little word of advice on the budget - don't forget to budget for the 1% beer and the other once-off costs that always come up. Hope the cord keeps transmitting power to the end of the challenge.

Name: Bean Class: Warrior Race: Half-elf Age: 36 Weight: 90kg Current Statistics: Strength 3 Dexterity 2 Stamina 3 Constitution 2 Wisdom 3 Charisma 2 Goals: Deadlift 135kg x 5 Strength (Max 5 points) Train Mon, Wed, Frid - heavy on MW, DE on Fri - Strength (1 point), Stamina (1 point), Constitution (1 point) Lose BF : Target 15%, stay below 18% - Constitution (3 points) Finish and submit assignments for Postgraduate Diploma - Wisdom (4 points) See you on the forums. Looking forward to this one. Basic history: Once was a gymnast - in a previous lifetime. Being doing free weight lifting since Jan. Definitely levelled up in the last challenge - 5x5 95 kg squats, 10 consecutive pullups, 50 consecutive pushups, BF down to 18%. Getting tougher to add weight at every session. Decided on one focus for this challenge for strength, deadlift. Will keep doing the other SS exercises - Squat. Bench, Press, Row and working on learning a power clean.

No worries. Biokineticist was not that expensive. The reason is that my medical scheme encourages these tests and even gives us discounts on gym fees if we train more than 10 times a month and havea rating in terms of health of either good or excellent. My discount is now 80% of the total monthly fee, so totally worth it. I make back the cost of the biokineticist in about 2 months and have to be tested every six months to keep the discount going - so basically for discounted fee months.

Shame - there is nothing worse than a serious case of DOMS. I had the same after my first SS workout and it lasted almost a week. A couple of things worked for me - a long soak in a seriously hot bath, foam rolling and doing some basic strength exercises (mine was legs not arms, so I did bodyweight squats and I swam). The squats hurt like hell, but I felt better afterwards. The swimming was amazing - really soothed the muscles - don't quite know why.

I promise - it is all there in his book!

DE was popularised as part of the Westside method. The basic idea is to generate the force quickly and explosively, so you take a lighter weight (50-75% of 1RM) and push the bar as fast as possible. One of the more common methods is to do about 10 sets of 2 or 3 reps with a short, controlled rest between sets, moving the bar as quickly as possible between each load. The lifter must do each repetition with maximum effort and try and do each set faster than the previous one. You don't increase the weight from week to week, but rather the time it takes to complete the set.

Hey Snake I am pretty new to all this and so others will probably have much more valuable advice. I am busy working my way through Mark Rippetoes Practical Programming and it immediately struck me that maybe you are at risk of overtraining and that is why you are not seeing improvements. Mark has lots of suggestions for the intermediate trainer (which he says is where most people spend the majority of their time) in terms of programming weekly and doing things like Dynamic Effort sets, mixing the training up with heavy, medium and light days etc. In this way, you will still see steady gains, but at a much slower pace than as a novice doing starting strength where you go up every session. Although I have only been doing free weights for around 4 months, I did gymnastics for many years and so my muscle memory was pretty good and I have seen pretty awesome gains. As a result, I think I am nearing that intermediate phase already and am finding a need to change my programme. I tried a dynamic effort set this morning after reading about it and it really kicked my butt. Not sure about the longer term benefits yet (obviously) but I am trusting that Mark is right. Hope you find a good solution.

Welcome Rebel. Pretty impressive to have gone down from 110kg to 89kg - certainly nothing to sneeze at. Look forward to reading about your progress.

The really good news about DOMS, in my experience, is that the more regularly you work out, the less often they come to visit. The first few times I did free weights, I wondered if I would ever be able to walk again without pain, but these days, I only get a mild case of DOMS and it just feels pleasantly sore. Having done gymnastics in your past, you may be overdoing the exercises because of muscle memory. As a result, because your muscles "recognise" the exercise they automatically do it, but their strength is not the same as it was and your body composition is different, so the muscle fibres can't keep up, hence giving you even worse DOMS. Because of this, you need to take it much easier than you think when you start off, although you will be able to ramp up faster than a complete novice. Give it time, do the negatives suggested above, and build up at a steady rate. Soon you will be able to do all those amazing things you used to be able to do in your gymnastics days. (Maybe not the splits ...)

Thanks for all the advice. Looks like farmer walks and mixed grip for me. Based on the other related post, I like feeling in my thumbs so hook grip may not be an option - will try it though.

No - it was done by the biokenticist. Hopefully she is well enough trained to do it right.

Sorry - that one is all you ... but maybe when you see the strength gain this will act as motivation to improve the eating. Even if you get the eating right for 5 out of 7 days, that is already progress. Also, to offset weekends, have you looked at the threads and posts on intermittent fasting? Not sure if this will help?

This morning I did my 1x5 DL at 130kg (a new PB). I have been doing them with overhand grip only and today it felt like I was reaching the limit of my grip strength. For the record, bodyweight is 90kg if that is relevant here. Is this about right, that it is now time to use a mixed grip or should I be doing something to improve my grip strength? Thanks

I am sad to have missed this thread last night - I was sleeping while all the debate was going on. Being a Christian and married to a methodist minister, it has been very interesting to read and I would love to have contributed some thoughts - particularly on why the bible is so man-centred and the difference between faith and religion. Reluctantly however, I have to agree that the thread should be shut-down. This is a fitness forum and although this thread is in the off topic lobby, I still think it is a little too off topic.

The SL programme is awesome and you did good. Just a thought on the extra elliptical stuff - if this impacts on your recovery for the next work out, don't do it. You will see massive gains from the programme. If you do want to do some extra "cardio" stuff, I would recommend rather going for a shorter (10 or 20 minute) duration and doing intervals. This will kick your butt big time but recovery will be somewhat faster. Mark Rippetoe recommends rowing as the most effective of these exercises as it is a whole body mutliple joint exercise. Keep up the good work!

Parents tend to be very supportive of anything their children want to do. Talk to them and tell them what you are trying to achieve and how you would like them to help you. I recently viisted my parents for a vacation and my mother also loves to cook and make yummy things - her fudge is to die for! My dad loves his chocolate and so there were many temptations in the fridge every day. But, when I told them how I am trying to it and what I want to accomplish, they were very supportive. My mom just refocussed her amazing cooking skills into the healthy foods and my Dad kept his chocolate in a non-transparent container in the fridge. As long as the right foods are available at home, you don't have to partake in the consumption of th delicious food. Your mental attitude and stength will be tested, but it really will be up to you.

I posted a similar query on losing the love handles. The good news is that they do eventually go away - but they will probably be the last things to go. Do the photo test and see if the rest of you looks better - if so, you know you are doing it right and you will just need to be patient. Unfortunately, there is no way to tell your body where to lose its fat - and the last place it goes away is generally the one you want to lose first. I can't comment on your diet - I will leave that to the Paleo experts - but make sure you are getting enough calories for the amount of energy you are consuming in your workouts. If you are getting too little, your body will go into preservation mode and store everything you feed it which may significantly hinder your ability to weight loss. My thoughts on running - if you don't like it, rather find something you do like. No point beating yourself up about it - some people are runners, others are cyclists and others like to lift weights (hence the need for the different guilds in NF!) I personally don't enjoy running either, but I love swimming, so I do that instead. Maybe try something else to see if you enjoy it more. Most importantly - stick with the eating plan and the exercise and you will see the benefits and the weightloss. I have gone from 24% BF down to 18% BF and I can finally see an outline of my abs - it does happen.

Good luck. Most people seem to use either Stronglifts or Starting Strength when they begin. You won't regret it. I have seen fantastic gains in the last four months - now squatting my own bodyweight and deadlift is approaching 1.5x bodyweight.

I would not worry about burning out on a plank. Although pretty hard, you are not stressing any muscles through flexion or extension and so it is highly unlikely you will ever do yourself an injury. For the inverted rows - do you have a table/desk or fairly solid chair that you can suspend yourself from to do the inverted rows? If not, maybe try find something heavy to hold for the normal rows - a bag full of books perhaps? You might also want to try running through the routine in a circuit - do each set once and then start from the beginning. Most important thing - listen to your body. It will tell you when it wants a break.

Plyo one arm push-ups - now there is a serious challenge. Maybe hop from one hand to the other? I can only dream at this stage - maybe the December challenge?

I take my two boys (8 and 10) swimming at the gym every Sunday. It was tough at first, and I realised from the start that it would never constitute a good workout for me, but I try to make it fun for them by having little contests and keeping a record of their achievements. It is getting to the point now where my eldest can have a race against me (of course I don't go all out - wouldn't be fair) but it sure does keep them motivated. The good thing about going to the gym is that I also show them one exercise that I do in the gym every time we go. Last week I showed them the pull-up bar and then hung them from it and said they should give it a try. We have also started a daily routine now before shower time in the evening where they do a little bodyweight exercise session. Nothing too complex - 20 bodyweight squats, 10 push-ups (or knee push ups), 10 leg raises, 10 supermans and 20 jumps up onto a step. They are pretty tired after this, but they do love it. My eldest asked this morning when he could join me in the gym so he can also lift heavy things. I guess the example and the encouragement is paying off.

I have been getting up at 4:45am and hitting the gym at five for a couple of year now. It was really tough at first, but now I quite often find myself waking up about a minute before my alarm goes off. I think there are a couple of things that keep me going: Firstly, this is the only practical time to workout that doesn't interfere with family and home life and doesn't leave me sweating away in my office all afternoon. Secondly, I want to be fit and healthy (and look good naked) and I use this mantra whenver I don't feel like getting up. Finally, it is the routine. As Lachy says, get up every day at the same time (although I do confess to sleeping in a little on a Sunday). I read somewhere that it takes 42 repeats to create a routine, and once in the routine, it becomes much easier. So, my suggestion - make this a goal for the next six-week challenge. Set the alarm clock, get out of bed and do the exercise. I personally don't have anything other than a glass of cold water before hitting the gym and it doesn't seem to have affected me. When I get back from the gym I make myself a protein shake and then reward myself with a nice cup of coffee (freshly ground beans and all) before waking the kids to get ready for school. Works well for me, but you have to find those motivators that work best for you otherwise you will resent the exercise and probably lose motivation.

My two cents worth: We have been married for close to 15 years now and have only ever had a single bank account. I would not do this if we were not married - partly because our laws in this country provide absolutely no protection to the other party - but it has never been a problem for us being married. All income goes into the same account as "what's mine is hers and what's her is hers too." In reality, today we are in the extremely fortunate position where we are reliant on a single income and my wife is able to pursue her lifelong calling as a volunteer. We haven't fought about money in memory - other than about how much she needs to support her volunteer work ... However, one precaution. Make sure your partner knows everything that goes on with the account, what expenses etc. go through and how to operate the account. If something happens to you and your partner hasn't been involved with the finances, they will be stuffed. (Seen this happen on two occassions now of people close to me). Presents - never much of a problem. Either cash from an ATM (bigm!) or pay on credit card if it is suitably anonymous. It is all about trust and respect for one another.

See under rebellion headquarters. Starts 30 April. You still have a week to rest!