Search the Community

I am following the 5x5 stronglifts program. Liking the results so far. But ran into something over the last two weeks that I am a bit baffled by and really am just looking to see if I am the only one that has run into this. So far this only happens on my Squats. At 225# I lift 5 sets of 5 reps no problem and form is fine. At 230# I start to struggle with form. The moving of the weight doesn't seem to strain my major movers. I just find form slipping. I backed off to 225# and again no problem, went up to 230# today and same issues. I will stay at the 230# until I can do it without the form struggle. What I am assuming is that the major muscle movers are plenty strong to move the weight, but I need to get the axillary muscle groups caught up to a point where form isn't a struggle. Any ideas? Any experience with something like this?

Hey guys! I swear, I didn't crap out or get sick or anything. I just got bogged down in seven classes and a broken cell phone so stopped posting. Last Challenge Recap: Eating: Phone broke. Forgot MFP could be accessed via web browser for a while. I was averaging a B before, so I'll give myself a C because my eating slips a bit when I'm not looking at MFP every few hours. I mean, my weight's up a bit from challenge start, so I haven't had any negative progress. +1.75 CON, +1.25 STR Workouts: Nailed them all. 24/24. A+. +5 STR Resting: Pft. Like I'd fail this. A.+2 CHA, +3 DEX Side Quests: I got +3 for all of them, except for 2 of them where I got +4 because I came in first. That's like, +14 to whatever. So I'm going to split them as +6 STR +6 STA +2 CON. Strength, endurance and the ability to handle "pain". The Levels and such Rob, level 3 Elven Warrior-Mage STR 10 | DEX 6.5 | STA 7.5 | CON 8.5 | WIS 13.75 | CHA 5 to Rob, level 4 Elven Warrior-Mage STR 22.25 | DEX 9.5 | STA 13.5 | CON 12.25 | WIS 13.75 | CHA 7 MOVING FORWARD! Old goals are old. July's almost out and the heat wave appears to be over. This means I'm going to put together a couple points for a challenge. This challenge ends in cake. Not as a reward, but as punishment. I turn 30 (pronounced twenty-nine) on the 7th. Soooooooooo, since I'm not running, we're changing things up as mentioned. In fact, we're already on workout 2 of week 2 of the new lifting plan. I've tweaked it slightly since I wrote it midway through last challenge. Monday 5x5+5 "cluster sets" - I complete 5 consecutive reps, and then 5 singles, ~10s apart. Oly Wednesday - this is self-explanatory. Friday 4x5, 1x3+ sets - the 4x5 weights are the same weights as the first 4 sets from Monday. The 3+ set is 5/10 lbs on top of Monday's top set. So as an example: Monday I squatted: 5+5(170, 190, 210, 230, 250) Friday I will squat: 5(170, 190, 210, 230) 3+(260) Accessory work will be done on an as-energied basis. You said something about goals? Main Goal Become an adult male. The Challenge For Gallifrey - So let's call it 6 weeks of hitting my Friday for an A. 5 weeks of hitting my Friday for a B. I'm sure you get the picture. Basically - don't miss a lift. Let's call this a +5 STR For victory - The food. I've got my MFP bullshit sorted. So I'll be able to track again, so track I will. I'm going to try the "points method" again because when I actually look at MFP, it works relatively well for keeping the black hole under control. We're going to slice it a little differently though and require a weekly target to be hit. 3250 baseline daily, 4000 points+ 6/6 weeks for an A, 5/6 for a B. This'll earn me +3 CON +1 STR For the end of time itself - If I was trying to be funny, I'd call this goal "snatch clean, you jerk" or something like that. 95/135 is ~max what I feel comfortable with the snatch/c&j respectively. Sometimes I can snatch more than 95 once, but more often than not, it's a fail. The last Wednesday workout of the challenge, I'm going to try for more. If I hit it, I get the points. If not, no points. Simple, yes? +1 STR, +1 DEX Gallifrey rises! - And so must I. But fuck that morning bullshit, that's not what I'm talking about here. The mid-point of the challenge marks the end of school, so the back half of the challenge is going to have some fitness book learning. There's going to be 3 books on the list that I haven't made yet. Each book I make it through will grant me +1 WIS, +0.25 CHA. If I finish all 3 books, that's the extra +0.25 STA that's left over. The Pictures The first pictures under each were taken June 03. The second pictures under each were taken July 30. For both, I stand 6'0, 170lbs.

Hello everyone - this is a shoutout to see if there are any other females out there getting into powerlifting. I'd love to have an accountabilibuddy or two if there are any out there, and also for some friendly competition and goal setting. I've started heavy weights in the past but had to rack them up about 4 months ago due to an overseas move, so I'm basically starting from scratch again. Just wondered if anyone else out there is doing a 5x5 program or something similar to include: squat, deadlift, benchpress and the like.

Some inaugural post thoughts: So I started the Stronglifts program about a week ago. Let me just say for anyone starting a lifting program from scratch (i.e. the rest of you is not fit, either), you will be hurrrrrrting for the first three days or so. I mean, it's not like I'm not sore today from my workout yesterday, but I can walk without grunting every step. Also... this is fun. Like, really fun. It's not something you're likely going to be able to just walk up an be excellent at it, but even the soreness and the crummy beginner technique struggles are just... fun! I would most definitely encourage every woman I've ever encountered to squat with a bar at least once in their life. It fosters a sense of empowerment that not many things can provide. I felt more like a badass after lifting for the first time than after I've sung a whole opera. Alsoalso, the amount of people trying to give me their insightful fitness advice is astounding!! I have been on a vast multitude of different workout programs and diets in the past and at no point ever has EVERYONE seemed to have an opinion on how best to configure my workouts and how my body is going to respond. NO, people, I am not going to get bulky. I am not eating anywhere close to enough to "bulk up." And NO, dumb gym guy, using the Smith machine will NOT improve my form so I can use the bar after I "get used to it." Jeez. Anyway, that's some of my most basic thoughts on the matter starting out. For some stats, I have done three Stronglifts workouts so far and I'm excited for next week's 6 week challenge. My first ever! Squat: 50lb Bench: 50lb Barbell Row: 50lb Overhead Press: 45lb Deadlift: 95lb I'm going to head out and enjoy my recovery day now.

Woooooo first challenge!! I'm really excited to get in on this challenge thing for several reasons: 1) Accountability - Everyone's friend when faced with junk food or skipping workouts. 2) Motivation - Woots and Huzzahs are to be freely given and received and that contributes to Reason 1. 3) Community - I haven't been entrenched in an online community in several years, and I miss it! The shared goals and trials are the best of things that bind us together! Soooo…. I got engaged yesterday!! Hooray!! See? That white dress is, from what everyone tells me, one of the strongest motivators that you'll ever encounter. I'm going to take that and run with it. New Workout Program + Wedding in 8 months = GREAT time for a Nerd Fitness Challenge! Main Quest: Get into a (street) size 8 by my wedding (currently) slated for late March 2014 Goal #1: Workout Keep going with Stronglifts (which I love) and not go more than two days in a row without lifting. The progression through the nature of the workout itself should take care of making adding weight a part of the goal. It'll just happen because I'm lifting. Cool. I'll take measurements and starting weight Monday and track that weekly. Goal #2: Diet Eat a combination of Whole30 and Paleo 100% for 6 days a week. The remaining day will be still mostly Paleo, but I can have a candy bar or something. No going crazy, but hopefully that "cheat" day will help me not have dreams of eating a four foot tall pretzel (that really happened last time I did Whole30). Goal #3: Diet (sort of) Cut almost all fluid intake that isn't water. I.e. No sodas, sweet teas, boozes, etc. I will possibly make an exception for chocolate milk, which is apparently a great recovery food for after a workout? (Anyone else heard this? I mean, I'll definitely take it…) I'll allow one glass of something else per day MAX. Life Quest: SAVE! This wedding isn't going to fund itself, so I am going to commit to putting $75 per paycheck into savings for the wedding. If I do that every paycheck until the wedding, I'll have contributed $1,200. This is good, given my father's predetermined budget and my less than frugal nature. Zoiks. It would appear that I have my work cut out for me. See you on the boards and here we go!!

"Long time reader, first time writer, blah blah blah..." Ever since my friend introduced me to Nerd Fitness and Paleo several years ago, I have had an on again, off again interest in and/or focus on fitness. The only thing I played in high school was the clarinet, so as you can imagine, I am unfamiliar with the concept of being "in shape" with regard to endurance and stamina of physical activity. All that said, after I read Staci's story, it has been in the back of my brain that I wanted to lift heavy. It percolated in my mind for quite a while, and then a few weeks ago, I verbailzed it. That just pushed me to finally get serious and give it an honest go. I got a 14 day pass to the gym closest to me, and when I went in to get the low down on how everything worked, the guy in charge asked me if I'd ever been a member of a gym before. I told him no and he said, "So what brings you in?" I told him that I needed access to the rack and the olympic bar. He is caught off guard to say the least, and says, "Uh... um... well, were you involved in sports in school?" Nope. "Then... what are you wanting to do?" "Lift heavy." He can't even process this. He basically just shakes off the whole encounter and is like, "Let me show you around..." It was hilarious and awesome and about twenty minutes later, I did my first squat with the bar. I am loving the simplicity of Stronglifts and its no nonesense approach to getting stronger and living better. I am totally in on the next 6 week challenge, and I'm excited to have a dedicated place I can geek out about my squat form and people geek out with me instead of telling me that I'm going to get "too bulky." HA. Jokes on you, suckers.

Hey guys, I was keeping a battle log on tumblr, but the only people who viewed and liked my page were those awful tumblr blogs with photos of anorexic girls that have links to fat-burner supplements (lame). So, I decided to return to NF to post my daily work-outs and food logs. I'm currently trying to eat mostly primal, although I'm also counting calories at the same time (about 3000 a day). Here's my current training schedule: MONDAY - Strength and Conditioning w/ Heavy Bag work (Noon) TUESDAY - Stronglifts 5x5 (NOON) and then Technique and Light Cardio(PM) WEDNESDAY - Strength and Conditioning w/ Heavy Bag work (Noon) THURSDAY - Stronglifts 5x5 (NOON) and then Technique and Light Cardio (PM) FRIDAY - Strength and Conditioning w/ Heavy Bag work (Noon) WEEKENDS - OFF By "light cardio" I mean, it's mostly pad work, which is pretty aerobic in nature, and then skipping rope, a little heavy bag, and then a bodyweight cardio finisher. I just started 5x5 and I'm ending week 2. I've never done barbell work before, so it's fun and new. Although, I'm probably strong enough to be using most of the week 10-12 weights, I'm really trying to be diligent with my form and safety and keeping it light. TUESDAY -- TECHNIQUE Man, my right hand was landing so hard on the padwork last night. Every punch was snapping and popping. You could hear it throughout the whole gym. One of the boxers who was hanging out after sparring asked, "Jimmy, when'd you learn how to punch?" "My name is Joey," I said, "And, I don't know." Once and a while, I have no idea why, my punches are just so much harder and have way more pop. It'll go away. It's like borrowed punching power. I don't know if it has something to do with relaxed muscles or my technique is just good for some reason. I even lifted weights that day, which generally makes you stiff. I dunno! Also, yesterday I ate primally the whole day. I ate about 3000 calories. 3077, actually. My macros were: 200gs of protein, 203gs fat and 134gs of carbs. The best meal of the day was post-boxing when I had a chicken breast, sweet potatoes with coconut oil and a baby spinach and Bosc pear salad topped with feta! I'm surprised I got in so much protein, I usually find it hard to get more than 130-140 in a day. I'm still considering adding a protein supplement, like hemp seed or something. Any advice on protein isolates? 180-200gs of protein is my daily macro goal, so I managed to get it yesterday. At any rate, I weighed myself yesterday morning and I was 248 (but a lot of that was sodium from a bad dinner at my aunt's -- I'm usually closer to 238-240). So, if my weight in a few days is like 235, I know I didn't lose 10-12 pounds of fat at all, just water. Anyway, enough rambling! This entries will be more short in the future. Thanks for reading, Joey.

Whoops, I originally posted in the wrong challenge sub forum... I decided to migrate over to the Rangers side of the house as I think it’ll be good fit for this challenge! I am very excited about this one; the last one really motivated me and kept me focused (I’m an instant gratification kind of person, so that’s a big deal). Love this community! So, for a quick overview… I am active duty Navy and have been in South Carolina for several weeks for school and it’s been sort of a “vacationâ€, if you will, from my life and work(ship). It has been very easy to fit in workouts because my schedule is very cut and dry and I have no other distractions (i.e. boyfriend, dogs, roommate, beer. ..Skyrim doesn’t count.) . The overall idea here is, upon my return, to adapt working out to my constantly fluctuating ship schedule and to, in general, make better use of my time. I am the type of person who always wishes they had more hours in the day as I lay on the floor daydreaming for 2 hours after work. Enough of that! Here are my goals… 1. Pass the Navy Physical Readiness Test with an overall Excellent! The test is coming up May 20th. In order to pass with an Excellent I need to accomplish the following: Curl-ups- 87 w/in 2 minutes (Not my strong point…) Push-ups- 39 w/in 2 minutes (Definitely not my strong point but they set the bar pretty low…) 1.5 mile run- 13:15 (My strong point, hurray!) I will accomplish this by: A. Adding the “100 push-ups†sets at the beginning of my lift days (M,W,F). I will have to deal with the loss of gains I may have in OHP and Bench. B. On rest days (T, Th), I will time myself for 2 minutes and do sit-ups till failure and the P90X Ab Ripper X video. I would like to do the timed curl-ups every day, maybe every morning, but twice a week will suffice for now. C. At least one day every weekend I will run 1.5 miles. 2. Continue the SL 5x5 program! As I will be returning to my ship, I simply want to maintain consistency here. I will go to the gym even if it’s packed with giant meatheads that intimidate me. I will go to the gym even if I’m at work till its dark outside and I’ll get stuck in traffic. I will go to the gym even if I’ve been invited over to a friends house after work/have something “better†to do. Also, I will maintain proper form and ask for help if I feel like I’m slacking! 3. Fuel my body the right way! I will maintain a healthy weight by eating a balanced, clean diet full of variety! Specifics: A. Define “cleanâ€: Keep the majority of meals simple and with at least one meat/protein and one veggie/fruit per meal. I will stray away from anything frozen or boxed. B. Meal plan! I will make a flexible plan for meals for the entire week every Sunday, and buy groceries according to that. I’m going to set myself up for success by pre-marinating and freezing meats, pre-slicing frequently-used veggies, and divvying up snacks into baggies for grab-and-go. C. Juice during the weekdays! I am going to convince my bf to let me adopt his juicer and then make one green concoction every morning! I should pre-assort veggies and fruits according to recipe so I can do this quickly in the mornings. Also, I’d like to primarily use veggies/fruits that I don’t care to eat raw…i.e. ginger, pears, grapes, beets, kale. Since it’s his juicer, I should expect to be making 2 green concoctions every morning… 4. Less procrastination…more domination! A. Get my damn motorcycle license! Call and make the appt, get it approved through my command, go to said appt, pass…That’s all there is to it!! B. Make one piece of art per week. This can include drawing, painting or completing some kind of craft. Get those creative juices flowing! I’d like to post what I do here maybe for accountability…we’ll see. Overall: Juice each morning. Eat clean. Craft once a week. Get my bike license. M-Pushups/ Lift T-Curl-ups/Abs (along with divisional PT) W-Pushups/ Lift Th-Curl-ups/Abs (along with command PT) Fri-Pushups/ Lift Sa-Active rest (or run) Sun-Active rest/(or run)/ Meal planning & grocery shopping (Excluding duty days) Wish me luck and I am open to feedback!

Loren Wade's Routine Challenge My last challenge was minimalism: I redesigned my living space, switched to a standing desk, sold 90% of my belongings, and sold my car in favor of biking. I currently lack overall discipline in healthy habits and a routine. This challenge will be focused on leveling up my life by following a loose schedule, eating right more often, writing again, and learning self defense.The Life Habit3 Hours Distraction-Free Writing WeeklyThe Fitness HabitsStronglifts 3x WeeklyKrav Maga 2x WeeklyThe Nutrition HabitPaleoLean Gains.Clean Paleo + Whey and Rice.Weekly Cookups.Nightly: Fish oil, Vitamin D, Natural Calm.​​​UpdatesMinimalism Room Before/After​Day 0Day 1Day 2Day 3Day 4Day 5Day 6Day 7Day 8Day 9Day 10Day 11Day 12Day 13Day 14Day 15Day 16Day 17Day 18Day 19Day 20Day 21Day 22Day 23Day 24Day 25Day 26Day 27Day 28Day 29Day 30

OK challenge number 3 - here we go! In order to do my job well, and because I have up coming National champs for IRB racing in March I’m on a mission to find some me some gold (see what I did there te he he). So in order to do well I need to be strong and in prime condition, so I have the following goals: 1) Muscle Quest STR 5 Continuation of last challenge, which didn’t really work so keen to master this and make getting to the gym 3 times a week a good habit. My friend is going to help me with a 5x5 weights workout which is going to be fun, also Im going to count hard IRB training sessions with this as lifting and moving a heavy boat is hard muscle work. Grade – part grade lost for every missed workout. 2) Scout Quest STA 4 DEX 1 Continuation of last challenge - barefoot beach running. Loved this so much last time I’m upping to 3 runs a week aim! Grade – part grade lost every missed run. I managed a B last time (I think) so pretty keen to get an A this time. Also planning to include some sprints once a week. 3) Diet Quest CON 2 I have really not been taking care of my diet lately and since Abs are made in the kitchen and I would quite like to find mine again I’m going back to more paleo/lower carb eating. I will remove one food a week from my current diet (already gluten and corn free). Grade each week based on how successful I am at eliminating the item (eg A= never ate, B= ate <5 times etc). 4) Organization Quest WIS 3 I need to spend a few hours a week sorting myself out, and with Tax time coming up I plan on spending 2 hours a week sorting my income taxes out. Grading – reduce full grade for each 30 min missed. Yuck yuck this will suck but feel so good once taxes sorted. Bonus Extras! Surf IRB Champs nationals – EEEKKKKKK so excitedI am due to drop down to 1/4 dose of my meds (running is my new happy juice) –should be meds free on next challenge which is super exciting!I plan on sending a letter a week to someone I haven’t caught up with in a while, snail mail makes me happy.I will achieve something master thesis related each week.Starting Stats LEVEL 2 Wood Elf Scout STR 4.6 DEX 2.8 STA 4.9 CON 3.0 WIS 3 CHA 4.2 Height 161cm Weight 52 kg Chest 86 cm Waist 68.5cm Waist Breathing in 63.5 cm Muffin top 79.5 cm Hips 93.5 cm Right Thigh 52.5 cm