thunderseed

Well, think about how your muscles work and build up. When you lift a heavy weight until overload for 8-12 reps, it creates tiny muscle tears, and after you eat protien and rest, those muscle tears repair and that is what makes the muscle bigger. When you continously use the muscle for more reps, you don't give it a chance to build up, you are training its endurance instead of making it bigger. You use lighter weights for toning/muscular endurane training because you wouldn't be able to do it continously with really heavy weights. This is why bodybuilders and heavy weight lifters who are bulkier lift heavy weights for less reps, and why endurance athletes are not bulky. A muay thai fighter is an endurance athlete and isn't going to be huge like a bodybuilder, but he can do over hundreds of body weight training reps, because of that his physique is generally leaner than a bodybuilder.

Keep it up! Injuries always suck, just do what you can.

Well said, it's always best to follow your intuition over anything else. I retained all the physiology from my fitness physiology classes. Not that anyone cares, but the body has 3 energy systems, which means calories that you burn are not all equal. When you move really fast for a short amount of time the body supplies a brief amount of energy and calories to burn in the form of ATP (andesonine triphosphate) which is basically a bunch of calories that are created by the body just to supply it for short bursts, or until the other energy system kicks in. When you do really long cardio you are burning fat, and that energy system is called the Aerobic System, which is why aerobics are said to be good for burning fat. Aerobic activity requires oxygen to burn fat. The aerobic system also burns carbs, but the longer you do cardio for, the more fat it will burn and the less carbs it will burn. When you do weight lifting or any short or intense activity, it burns carbs, not fat. This energy system is the Anaerobic Energy system, it only burns carbs. You CAN be using 2 energy systems during 1 workout, but the body stores a lot of fat for calories to burn so that's why people don't need to eat tons and tons of fat. It does NOT store a lot of carbs, so a very short activity can deplete your carb stores. That's why low carb diets make people very sick, especially once you consider carbs are the main fuel the body survives on and the ONLY thing the brain uses. Low carb diets are great for weight loss, but it doesn't actually burn fat, what people lose is water weight and muscle and a lot of it in a very short time frame because the body goes into ketosis. Ketosis is basically the process of the body being forced to use protien as a fuel, because you've run out of carbs for fuel. The body is not supposed to use protien as a fuel, and when it is forced to, it creates toxic ketones. In huge amounts, this can make people very ill, cause kidney damage and ultimately liver failure. You can smell the ketones leeching out of the skin and in your sweat, its common to smell it at the gym, or around other athletes who haven't eaten enough carbs, it smells very strong, like amonia/cat piss/vinegar.

If I don't eat enough long lasting carbs (grains) in a day, I get very ill, and also start smelling like amonia/cat piss/vinegar, and then my muscles start breaking down, it's really gross. I am all for carbs and am especially against low carb diets, which are really dangerous and unhealthy. Carbs are the most important food group for athletes. I have an ulcer on the part of my intestine that digests all carbohydrates, so I literally cannot digest any carbs very well. On top of that I am allergic to gluten and wheat! I found out a long time ago that I am deathly allergic to morphine and opiates, I had a near death experience when they gave me morphine during a surgery. Anyway, I recently found out that wheat actually turns into morphine in your system after you eat it. That's why a lot of people feel great after they eat breads or pastries or anything with wheat flour, but for me it's not a pleasant experience. Oatmeal and sweet potatoes/yams are safe carbs for me, but every other starchy carb is off limits, even gluten free products, which sucks, because I love pasta. That's okay, I've been making amazing casseroles with yams lately. And I can digest dairy and meat no problem.

Hi Styx, Just experiment. If you feel like you can do more, you probably can. Here's how to tell if you are overtraining and need more rest days: - You aren't making strength gains every time you lift. If you are getting enough rest, you should be able to lift a bit more than last time. - You aren't increasing your endurance every time you do a cardio/endurance activity, again, if you get enough rest you should be able to increase your time each time you work out. - You are getting weaker. - Prone to injuries and aches. - Your muscles are sore and/or aren't recovering fast enough. - Increased heart rate and blood pressure on rest days - Tiredness and muscle fatigue when you are not working out It's not like the 5x5 is really intense heavy lifting, so you should be able to get away with doing more in a week, whereas if you were lifting really heavy and truly isolating your muscles for 8-12 reps and 2 sets you would feel like you needed the rest the next day. When I was into endurance sports only, I was able to overtrain all the time because I was underweight and had practically no muscle. Despite that fact, I was very fast and had enough explosive strength from tons of plyometrics and muay thai training, but you'd never see me able to do full pushups or lifting more than 10 pounds or anything that required true strength. When you don't have a lot of muscle, you don't have to rest as much. Now I have tons of muscle and I can only get away with overtraining for about 2 days in a row before I end up paralyzed - literally, with terrible muscle fatigue. It's very dehabilitating, but it happens so often simply because I tend to forget to rest on my rest days. Muscular people need more rest, food and water compared to people who don't have as much muscle, because muscle is a crazy calorie burning machine, it forces your metabolism to be super fast. It is incredibly difficult maintaining a lot of muscle. I'm not being overdramatic either, I swear. The stronger and bigger I get, the more I have to eat and rest. When I just got into lifting heavy, I was able to do it 3 times a week. Now I can only do it 1 time a week and sometimes once every two weeks, although I still cross train and do a lot of other things. You can easily do other things, like Rebel mentioned, just make sure you aren't working the same muscles you worked the day before. If you are training as heavy as me, you are probably going to be bedridden the next day, but you can still fit in lots during the rest of the week. Also, people that heavy weight lift or bodybuild often take 2-3 weeks off to rest every once in awhile. It's recommended and whenever I do it, I'm always ten times stronger once I go back to it. Taking a few weeks off always improves my performance.

Natalie, you might prefer doing a general strength training program for overal strength, working on muscular endurance (toning) and not muscular strength (gaining mass). It's not true that women can't get bigger - we certainly can if we want to. I have. But that's probably not what you want for your sport specific training, most runners prefer to be skinny with great muscular endurance, which requires toning your muscles for endurance strength. You will also benefit from plyometric training and HIIT training on the side. To get a bigger butt, squats will work, but remember squats will also target your quads and make them bigger, so if you already think your quads are too big, you should do glute bridges or glute squeezes or another kind of exercise instead that targets mainly the glutes and leaves out the thighs. If you have naturally muscular legs, even running might make them more pronounced so honestly the only way to slim down muscles is atrophy, which requires not using them, which is not what you want to do to be fit. Muscular Endurance / Toning requires resistance for 12 or more reps for 3 or more sets. If you are using dumbells, you will be lifting lighter weights for higher repetitions. If you are doing body weight training you will be striving for as many reps as possible. Tone every muscle to make sure it remains strong and to prevent muscle imbalances. It is better to lift dumbells than use machines, because you will get superior isolation of each muscle. It is excellent to work each muscle at a time to make sure it is being worked properly and you are not getting imbalances. For example, you could do a deadlift because it works more than one muscle at a time, but a dead lift does NOT work every single muscle in your body, especially if you are using improper form, which is why most people who do nothing but deadlift have out of proportion bodies and get muscle imbalances. For example, it's common to see people with really tiny calf muscles and huge quads, or tiny hamstrings and huge quads, or whatever, because they are not working every muscle in the body equally. It looks bad, but most importantly muscle imbalances cause a lot of skeletal, muscular and postural problems and pain in general. So anyway, even if you do decide to do deadlifts and other exercises like pushups that work more than 1 muscle in the body, you NEED to make sure to also strength train every muscle in your body separately once in awhile. Here's a good workout routine that targets EVERY important muscle: (Legs) Squats, lunges - to make them harder add resistance or do walking lunges or jumping squats and lunges - Any squat and lunge only works the glutes, quads and one muscle in the calves. You should still do calf raises and hamstring swiss ball curls. Also do lateral leg raises with weights on your hips (abductors - outer thigh/hip muscle) You can work the adductors - inner thigh muscle - by straddling a swiss ball and squeezing it inwards with your legs, if you don't want to use adductor machines. Most people neglect the hip muscles, but it's important to have some good muscle on the side of your legs and over your hip bones. (arms) Bicep Curls Tricep Kickbacks (shoulders) Lateral Dumbbell Raises (medial deltoid) Front Dumbbell Raises (anterior deltoid) Bent over reverse flyes (posterior deltoid) Rotator Cuff exercise with dumbbells Never use heavy weights while working the shoulders. Even heavy weight lifters don't lift heavy for the shoulders because the rotator cuff is a VERY TINY muscle that is easily injured, and it's one of the most painful injuries in the world and takes a long time to heal. (Chest) Push ups (Pectoralis major, but also works the core, triceps and shoulders) (Back) Bent over row (trapezius) Pull ups, rock climbing or lat pull down (lattisimus dorsi) Supermans (erector spinae aka the muscle along your spine that does extension) Side Planks (works the quadratus lumborum aka the lower back muscle - and also the obliques) (Abdominals) Crunches - not full sit ups, actual crunches, full sit ups work the illiopsoas which you don't need to strengthen at all. (Crunches work the Rectus Abdominus - the 6 pack muscle) Rotations/twists/oblique crunches (obliques) Planks or dead bugs or stomach vaccums (transverse abdominus, the muscle that acts like a girdle and keeps all your intestines inside, this is the muscle you need to work to get a flat stomach, to hold everything in) If you haven't already, do side planks and supermans to strengthen the full core including the back Always work abs last, you need them tight and engaged during the workout.

Honestly I don't have this problem, because common logic points to the fact that cravings are actually a message from your body telling you that you are missing a nutrient that your body needs. I eat as well balanced as I can so I don't get a lot of cravings, and when I do, I always give my body what it craves and I end up feeling a lot better afterwards, and because of that I am super healthy. If you are having cravings all the time, it probably means you aren't eating properly or aren't eating enough. When you restrict your body of food, you are going to crave food and set yourself up for binges. I once had a craving for peanut butter flavoured ice cream. I ate it because I know my body is perfectly capable of telling me what it needs. But it turns out, my body was really lacking in amino acids and protien and both milk and peanut butter had the nutrients I needed at the time. Besides, it's perfectly fine to treat yourself once in awhile. I'm not a fan of sweets, so when my body does crave something sweet, I know it's because something vital is missing, just the same as when I crave salt, it's because I have not replaced my electrolytes, or when I crave carbs, it's because I've worked out and have depleted my carb stores for the day. It's not rocket science, just listen to your body and you will lose weight in a healthy way. Your body can show you how to eat healthy and lose weight without restricting/starving or binging, that's what hunger pangs and cravings are for, great signals that show you how and what to eat. And also, I don't think your soul mate should have to change their eating habits to match yours if they don't want to. It might take more will power on your part, but it is your goal after all, your body, not theirs.

Awe, don't be uninspired, remember your body has just gone through the wringer, be easy on yourself and give yourself some more credit. You may have had to take time off, but it was for a really important reason. You aren't lazy. I'm not sure what's wrong with your heart exactly but it's definitely not something most people go through, so at least you can call yourself a survivor. I rather enjoy losing my fitness levels purposefully, because I enjoy training to gain results, do you know why? Because the only point to being fit is getting there. Once you are fit and no longer have anything to work towards, it's boring. The fun is getting there, not actually being there. It's always funner when you are a bit out of shape, because you feel the burn, you feel your body working hard, and at least to me that is what makes me feel good during a workout. I love the adrenaline rush, I love when my lungs feel like they are about to burst, I love pushing my body to the limit and I love constantly mastering new things because THAT is what is fun about being fit! The end goal might seem all glittery and all, but it's boring. When I am as fit as can be, there is no more limit. Once my body has mastered endurance and body weight training it literally can go on and on and I will never notice any new progress, because I've hit what we used to call in muay thai, a fitness plateau. This is why I regularily stopped going to Muay Thai for a few months just to lose my fitness levels, and then I would start all over again, because it was fun. I love the training period, that's the whole reason I train. That's also why I regularily switch things up. I love starting new things, because to me, it's fun to make accomplishments, not just get to the end destination. After awhile of being strictly an endurance althete, I decided to take up heavy weight lifting and gain a lot of muscle mass instead. For about 2 years heavy weight lifting has been enough to keep me satisfied, because I can always add on more weights to get more results, but now I'm changing my direction once again, because like usual, I get bored once I master something. Besides muscle memory is amazing, if you've worked out before, your body is going to pick it up super fast. You'll be fit again before you know it.

I'm sure you will persevere this time around. I like how your goals aren't extremely specific or unrealistic (except for the constant training of pen spinning skills - I'm not sure if you can do that constantly), so it allows for more progress. By the way, I absolutely love the Dark Tower series, I have the novels and the comic book collection!

Allow me to introduce myself with a very brief summary: I am a 27 year old bachellorette and I am also a passionate thrill seeker, minimalist, spiritualist, survivalist, athlete (I play badminton), heavy weight lifter, outdoor explorer, professional polar bear swimmer, artist (all kinds of art/my profile picture is a painting of mine), dancer, singer and self published author. I guess I should also add that I have tons of fitness experience and I also took fitness instructor courses but only for personal use because I recovered from an eating disorder and wanted to learn how to be healthy and fit. I'm not a nerd; I'm just different and rarely fit in anywhere. The only category I truly fit in is Heyoka, if you want to know what that is, it's on wikipedia. I joined because the guilds and challenges look very motivating and exciting! I have some goals I need to motivate myself to complete. Also, if anyone actually reads this, can you tell me if it's possible for me to join more than 1 guild? I am a girl who lifts HEAVY weights so I'd like to be part of the Warrior Guild for sure, but I also exceed in endurance sports, am trying to master body weight training and am focusing on increasing flexibility and trying to remember to do more yoga. I don't have any problems heavy weight lifting and I can lift heavier than most guys at the gym, but I can't even do 1 pull up, so that is a goal of mine . I should also add that I'm trying to master pull ups on gymnastic rings, not pull up bars. Thanks, I look forward to meeting you all.