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Messages - entropy

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1171
News, Announcements, & Suggestions / Re: THE FORUM IS DIFFERENT
« on: October 12, 2012, 02:04:51 am »
appreciate that.. well, they are 'gray' to indicate that we havn't voted for that post.. once we vote, it changes it permanently to green (up) or red (down).. so, having them colored by default might be a little confusing.. ill change it up right now though for the other stuff.

Grey when you haven't voted makes sense. But it makes sense if you're not logged in either (because you haven't  yet or cannot vote). And it makes sense when looking at your own posts too (because you haven't and cannot vote for them).

So basically the only change i'm suggesting is showing the grey arrows around the counter -
a) when not logged in
b) when logged in but looking at your own posts

It just gives a visual indication of what the number means. And for consistency I think it should be the same appearance whether you're logged in or not, or whether its your own post or not.

the following cases are already fine, no change needed:
c) grey arrows when logged in when you haven't voted a post yet

Thanks again :)

1172
News, Announcements, & Suggestions / Re: THE FORUM IS DIFFERENT
« on: October 12, 2012, 01:56:30 am »
Yup works beautifully on the tablet now. cheers!

1173
News, Announcements, & Suggestions / Re: THE FORUM IS DIFFERENT
« on: October 12, 2012, 01:34:05 am »
Yeah, i mean it doesn't seem 'together' lol

+10

this visually bundles them together into one 'widget'

And when looking at my own posts it's just one single number, no context around it like above. The same thing happens for EVERY post when not logged in, which I don't like.

TLDR: Whether you are looking at your own posts, someone elses, whether you are logged in or not, it should show the same thing always:

+10

And yea you can't upvote your own posts, so maybe the colours of the arrows should stay grey in that case. If not logged in they should be grey too. They get coloured when you're logged in and looking at someone elses posts, which is what happens already.


 .. not sure if i'm explaining very well

1174
News, Announcements, & Suggestions / Re: THE FORUM IS DIFFERENT
« on: October 12, 2012, 01:18:37 am »
So like Flander I find the scrollbar breaks on my tablet (Android) and I can't scroll or view any of the forum. Doh. It works fine on my android phone though, cos i'm presuming that retrieves the mobile site but my tab retrieves the desktop one? Dunno.

I love the new top bar, the colours and look is perfect.

I just have a tiny complaint about the upvote/downvote counter, it's just a number atm, but before it was more prominent and felt more whole, because it integrated with the up and down arrows. The three things (up, down and counter) should go together imho.

1175
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / Re: chasing athleticism
« on: October 12, 2012, 01:10:47 am »


Back on track!

BW: 80.3kg / 177 lb

New soreness: quads. But im not too excited about that, sprinting after a while always does that. Have also got sore lower back. Glutes and hams too. Basically everything except calves lol.

1176
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / Re: chasing athleticism
« on: October 11, 2012, 02:28:45 pm »
 :-*

Excited for my next squat session. Get to try out adarqui's idea of throwing in a set of parallel (FRONT!!) squats. I'm gonna put 121kg (1.5xBW) on the bar and get a FS PR for a max single. It won't be deep but it will be below parallel.

:headbang:  :personal-record:

Damn, how am I am gonna get thru the next 48 hours til I can squat again :(

1177
ya i notoriously under-hydrate.. i used to underhydrate on purpose too, for dunking.. lose an easy ~5lb water or so, one more inch.

but ya, when im underhydrated, i'm much more achy.. since you're doing fasted walks, down 8-16oz of some propel-like liquids.. it's basically 0 kcal so that's not a problem.

Truth. Okay, i'll try fasted walking again but on the provision that i have plenty of water before hand. And you're right it's zero calorie, so there is no reason to avoid it. I just am not used to drinking a lot of water on an empty stomach but it's dumb to train fasted while underhydrated. Thanks for that, makes sense.

Quote
ssbar is great.. i no longer have to worry about my shoulders while squatting & it feels more like a front squat, which i've always loved but hated racking the weight, especially when i was really lean/skinny, would kill my bony shoulders lul.. ssbar seems to hit "core" pretty hard too, it's definitely a great investment.

Haha! i have the bruises on my collar bone and shoulders to prove it but thankfully Wolfs law kicked in at some point, and even tho i'm pretty bony, it doesn't hurt anymore and I never think twice about the rack. Bones adapt pretty quickly which is good! When I started i used to complain about wrists too but now they're plenty flexible and i'm happier for it. THe only complaint I had against front squats was my knees hurting. But I think I have that fixed now, i just have to go into the hole a certain way, and then it doesn't hurt knees. It's brilliant.

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can you swim good? i've never used swimming as a form to improve fitness, but it makes sense.. probably would be a great tool for people like us who have to be careful with join inflam/various aches+injuries.. i doubt i could swim good enough to get a decent workout.. i can swim fine but i've never felt tired when trying to swim 'fast+long'.
Funny you should mention swimming. I learnt to swim last summer and i was thinking of getting back into it now that it's warm again. But the only problem is for me swimming is an anerobic activity lol, im not a great swimmer (probably worse now that im less of a whale than I was last summer!). But i'll get back into it, and if I adapt and it becomes aerobic, i agree its a great way to get some extra conditioning in. Good suggestion. I'll ask my homies if they wanna join me again this summer.

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one thing that always made me uber-achy was performing jumps after squatting, unless my volume was very low (such as with the crazy high frequency ltmp/rested max stuff).

Yep i dont jump more than a few times on concrete, it's just a bad idea. So i did about 5 SVJS and stopped.

Quote
nice on that SVJ.. good sign after not jumping or 2 months.

cheers! can't wait to get to cut to 10% bf and take my front squat up another 5-15kg hopefully by then, and I'm hoping it will give me some nice improvements in vert.

Quote
ya that's why I always half'd.. saved my hips/knees & hit my quads hard.

Well. I don't have any probs with hips, and now i've improved my technique at the bottom, knees are ok. But the problem is i'm not a natural squatter. A natural squatter will go deep into the hole and come out strong and then eventually quads kick in which are perfectly placed at the right leverage to finish the lift. I come out of the hole strong but my positions are wrong for the best leverage for quads, so while they work hard, if my position was better i'd be able to lift more weight and with better form. But we work with what cards we've been dealt. I just see myself using a piecemeal approach to improving my athleticism now. Deep squats for glutes, hams, adductors etc. And then parellel squats to give quads the best leverage and hit them hard that way. A natural squatter would do one squat that covers all those bases, but i'm not one of those. I hate you LBSS.

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one other possibility is eventually investing in chains or LIGHT bands.. I used to hit quads pretty hard by going deep (light) and then really loading up the weight on those chains.. so quads would really have to work once I got above parallel.. accommodating resistance is definitely effective for improving 'the best of both worlds'.

i have bands but not a pair of the same band. i could try to get another one though? And i never thought of using chains that way but wow that makes so much sense. At the bottom of the lift half of the chain is on the ground, and as you go higher, they yank up, giving the quads more work. Brilliant! I never knew how that all worked lol.  Thanks for the idea, esp with using a lighter weight to have perfect position coming out of the bottom, and then using extra resistance to make the latter half of the lift more challenging. That might just be what I need hmmmm.

Quote
otherwise, you could just do your deep sets and then just do one progressive workup above parallel.
Will try this next time I squat. Thank you.

Quote
PEaCE!

thanks bro. appreciate it.

Another thing that hit me, if I was using a higher heeled shoe, it wouldn't magically solve my problems I think. If anything it would make it worse. Why do you ask? I'd be leaning over more out of the bottom of the hole. Which would put me at even more disadvantageous position at the 1/2-1/3 squat position which is where quads are most active. But. If I were using the higher heel and doing parallel squats, then I could lift more weight and quads would be at a better leverage. I could be completely wrong about this since im just theorising though.

1178
I figured out how to make my squats more quad dominant. Paradoxically it means cutting depth to just around parallel. This is what I was doing earlier with my front squats when I set my old PRs. Back then, I always felt the lift in the quads. That's no longer the case now that I go a lot deeper, it's all glutes, they power me out of the bottom. Now at this point if I was perfectly setup, quads would be in a good position to contribute and finish the lift. That's not happening, I think because the bar has moved fwd, so quads cant contribute from that disadvantageous position. But cut depth and the quads can be perfectly positioned to drive the bar up since there is no fwd movement. I think I will experiment with depth. I like deep squats. And I will keep doing them. But I will also look at cutting depth when wishing to make the movement more quad dominant, perhaps as an assistance.

Videos on the way to illustrate the above.

Then:
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTYIc9uNVxU" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTYIc9uNVxU</a>

Now:
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_qDT0j638I" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_qDT0j638I</a>


1179
Training
FS 3Fx102.5, 1Fx102, 2x97.5, 3x95, 4x92.5, 4x92
BS 2x90, 3x95, 5x90, 6x85, 8x80 (PR), 10x75 (PR)
Sprint 5x30m (best attempt was inside 1m away from finish line at 4 seconds)
SVJx5 (best attempt hit the rim at my wrist, that might be a new PR? dunno - doesn't matter)

FS notes:
I wanted that 4x102.5 but it wasn't to be. It's defied me the last 3 attempts but one day i'll get it. Actually, next time go for 4x102. I might have a better chance of getting that than 102.5.

Form was great. YES YES. Did not hurt my knees once, i've got this shit mastered now. I'll upload a vid after coming back from sprints but things are going well for me now. No there are no PRs but they will come eventually - be patient - for now just know I have progressed in technique and depth and if I keep working hard PRs will come.

BS notes:
High rep sets are a revelation. Im using a high bar placement but without fwd knee travel of HBBS squats. So basically it's a hybrid of sitting back and high bar placement. Net result is no squat mornings, and no knee discomfort. It's the holy grail. And I go plenty deep to stimulate glutes and hams while giving adductors plenty of work as well.

For the first time I am on top of squatting. I am not going to bother with any half deadlifts (so called RDLs) or full deadlifts (so called back-snap-shit-uppers). Just plain old PC dominant backsquats and glute dominant front squats. I still don't know how to make my quads big and strong - but for now i'm nudging them along ever so gently.

brb sprinting

Sprinting & Jumping notes:
Keep in mind my running and jumping was done straight after ~40-50 reps of squatting but ..

I started off rusty but my last sprint felt great, i was quick off the ground and finished strong. Came close to hitting my 30m in under 4s goal but not yet. Maybe once i'm closer to 10% i'll crack it. Yes i will and then i'll be athletic!

Jumping, i haven't jumped in like 2 months? Feels like ages. Anyway i was surprised that even after not having jumped for so long, I could easily hit the rim at the wrist off a SVJ. That was cool. When i'm a legit under 80kg - then i'll go to the gym and test my leap properly. I'm loath to jump maximally on concrete because it bothers my ankle every time so I didn't try any max attempt RVJs or any RVJs for that matter. That makes a 30" SVJ? Cool but I want more.

So good training today. I saved the best for last, made a judgement call not to do conditioning (HIIT or SSA) today. I'll do it on teh weekend that way I wont beat up my CNS/joints too much today.

1180
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / Re: ADARQ's journal
« on: October 11, 2012, 10:06:02 am »
Awesome that you're training again!

R.I.P. ReverseHypertrophy...

Never. I've taken up that baton now. Watch me come off this creatine and i'll be the low 160s. Trust.

1181
Nice ideas there adarqui. Reminds me of batman -

Quote from: Alfred Pennyworth
Why do we fall sir? So we might learn to pick ourselves up

Of course it explains why after a day of falling off the diet, you sometimes re-double the efforts the following days in trying to get back on track. Nice.

You're right about mind playing games - my thinking was I had stalled out, that to go further in my cut i'd have to cut more calories (scary) or train more (my poor knees) or worse take supplements (while still a long way from when i should need them ~10%).

RE: fasted walking, yeah. I think it might be partially because i'm not hydrated enough and my joints aren't well lubricated or whatever? I should try walking while hydrated see if that helps but I tend to just jump into it while hungry/thirsty.

One day i'll join a gym and then i'll have a bunch of different ways to train without beating up my knees. I'd use a SSB to hit my quads hard without breaking my knees with too much high bar/front squats. I'd use a bike or rower and get my fitness levels up without the knee beatup. I might even do it over nov-dec if i'm dangerously close to being lean and strong as a reward for my hard work lol.


1182
Bodyweight: 80.6kg / 177.69lb (PR)



The thing that kills me if I saw this progress yesterday I would never have broken my diet lol. The whole reason I lost motivation was out of frustration at the lack of progress on the scale. Anyway i'll start from scratch today, lets finish this thing.

1183
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / Re: chasing athleticism
« on: October 10, 2012, 10:57:21 am »
Food log

Meal 1:
3 eggs, 2 slice wholemeal toast, 400mL lowfat milk, 1.5 scoop whey, strawberries and banana (total cal ~700)


Meal 2:
Have run out of will power now when it comes to dieting. I just ate to satiety the following

3x masala dosa (loads of carbs, low fat, ~ 500g of potato..)
400mL lowfat milk, 1.5 scoop whey
5 snack size mars bars (~500 kcal)
1 bowl icecream  (~200 cal)

Hope my fat ass gets some PRs tomorrow, i'm itching to squat. The upside of waiting 2-3 days between squatting makes me look fwd to squatting rather than seeing it as a chore

I'm ashamed to admit I couldn't finish the last week of my diet properly, I just can't string together 2 days of compliance anymore. I doubt i'll hit my goal of <80kg either

1184
Nutrition & Supplementation / same bodyfat for different bodyweights
« on: October 10, 2012, 09:53:02 am »


The gist of the table above is that a person who weighs 10 pounds more but is at the same bodyfat percentage will carry only 1lb more of fat. I haven't seen this discussed or emphasised anywhere else but I think a table like this is most illuminating in establishing a realistic idea of bodyfat.

Lets look at some examples. A striking comparison can be made of two people with the same bodyfat, one 160 and the other 190. There is 30 pounds of difference in bodyweight and the heavier guy only carries an extra 3lb of fat. A lean 200 pounder would only carry one more pound of bodyfat than his 190 brah.

For our kilogram brothers it's instructive to compare bodyfats for 60-70-80-90-100kg at 10% bodyfat. They are respectively 6,7,8,9,10kg. So guys 10kg heavier only carrry an extra kilo of bodyweight.

A lean 220 pounder or 100kg brah is carrying only a few kilo or pounds of bodyfat than a ripped 70kg guy.
 
If you can pinch a good amount of fat on your gut or back than would be the difference between a lean 170 and 200 then you are probably too heavy for your amount of lean mass. Most people underestimate their bodyfat (and thus overestimate lean mass). A reality check is a good idea by cutting to 10% to shed the extra fat and get an accurate idea of how much lean mass you have. Subsequent bulks go more efficiently starting from a low bodyfat too which is a nice bonus.


1185
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / Re: chasing athleticism
« on: October 10, 2012, 03:00:53 am »
Knees now feel great. I've given them rest by cutting out the fasted walking stuff and I think the last time I ran was on 4 days ago on a treadmill which made them feel terrible. Hard to say whether it's because of rest or whether doing PC dominant squats has helped. Maybe both? I'm glad either way. Strictly speaking, I don't even need fasted training yet, I should just save it for when i'm into the stubborn fat stage around 10% bodyfat and I still have that weapon in my armoury.

I think once i've finished cutting, i'll come off the creatine. It will take off a few kilo of bodyweight and water bloat, and hopefully make me more athletic. Then i'll save creatine for later when i really need it, eg chasing a 3 plate bench press, 40" vert or a 4 plate squat not for my current modest goals. I know it helps with recovery which is why i'm staying on while cutting but later i'll stop using it.

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