Lifter's Lounge

[GoodShepherd]

I love beer as much as the next person, but calories from alcohol are awful. And it has the ability to mess with your REM sleep and drop your T levels. Both would be a setback.

Really? I only have 1 and its with my food at supper time, I dont drink any softs drinks, is dry red wine better then? The beer I drink is not a very heavy beer only 4% and only has like 2 ingredients, its pure. Another good beer I like is guiness, I dont drink beer every day, wednesday and fridays we dont have alcohol according to the Orthodox calendar plus 80 days of the year its lent and also the Theotokos fast another 15 days, so almost half the year no alcohol

 

[FrancisK]

Well Im not a power lifter not that Im against it but I dont have all the equipment at the moment and cant really get any equipment right now as Im preparing to move house so probably only next year.

My workouts consist of running after dropping the kids off at school I take the long way home, this is just as a warm up, sometime I do skipping as a warm up, the only "gym" equipment I have is some homemade cement and steel equipment I made some time back so its limited, I have dumbells and some really big dumbells that are too heavy to use as dumbells so I use it like a bench press, I dont have a bench so I lay on the concrete floor, with the dumbells I can do manu different kind of workouts and with the heavy ones I even do deadlifts but I just do more repetitions as I cant really increase the weight right now, I have to make do with what I have.

I also hàve chin up bar and can do 3 different kinds of chin ups, and I have a push up bar too and can also be used for triceps, I used to do kickboxing many years ago so I also do some of the kickboxing exercises, Im getting a bag again soon as I had to sell mine so just getting a second hand one for while Im waiting to move. Originally I was a soccer player and was playing clib soccer since the age of 4 and also did cycling on weekends during the soccer off season, I dont do that any more.

My goals are to protect my family and make them feel secure and safe when Im with them and to be ready at all times to be able to fight or face a war at any given moment.

Regarding Orthodox lent, there is a 40 Christmas lent now, the nativity fast, its not as strict as great lent but no meat, no milk, no dairy, no oil, no wine, on some weekends wine and oil allowed, and throughout the year every wednesday and friday we follow great lent fasting standardd just for those days then saturday midnight until Sunday after liturgy no food or water allowed, after holy communion then you eat and drink.

That's a very worthwhile goal and it's also the main reason why I try to keep myself in shape and build strength, God Bless you and yours brother. You have to be ready in this world to protect what you love, you don't know what is coming your way and it has nothing to do with societal collapse or conspiracy theory weird crap it's just daily life now.

You don't need to be a power lifter to do resistance training and you don't need special equipment either. Don't get me wrong the more strength the better but there is also a lot of value in simply being in shape and agile.....simply working out in general means you have a leg up on 95% of the population at least.

The best protection for the ones you love is deterrence and that is attained by not looking like a target, by looking like you're in shape and can handle yourself. I've said this before but so many times I've heard guys on here say "I want to look like brad pitt in fight club", brad pitt in fight club would get his ass handed to him by middle school kids I would laugh my ass off if that guy tried to challenge me. Wide shoulders, arms that fill your sleeves and a chest that sticks out.....that is deterrence not looking like a 12 year old boy with abs. I can't remember the last time someone tried to challenge me probably ten or fifteen years ago before I decided to get back in shape and I live in metro detroit where everyone is a hardened alpha male.

If you're on a caloric or protein deficit such as during lent you may want to forego some of the cardio for more resistance training. But don't get me wrong the whole losing muscle because of less protein thing is WAY overblown, you don't need massive amounts of protein to retain and build muscle a good diet is more than enough. Pushups and dips for chest and tri's, pullups overhand and underhand for back and bi's and sprints for legs.....shoulders get hit by everything. It's not 100% ideal you're not going to completely mimic a weights workout but it will more than suffice, do multiple sets back to back until you're burned out. But that being a said a basic weights set, it will be garbage but it will work, is no longer cost prohibitive you can pick one up off of Amazon pretty cheap and if you do you can show me what you decided to purchase and I can tailor a routine based on it if you would like.

For lent I would say get used to boiled potatoes with salt/seasoning, definitely beans, get some basmatee rice and learn the art of making rice, lentil soup, burgled wheat, chickpeas, veggie and bean based stews and soups and a good tip is romaine lettuce. Romaine lettuce surprisingly has a lot of protein, for lettuce anyway, just buy a bag of romaine hearts wash it and munch on it throughout the day it's actually pretty good in my culture it's a appetizer/snack food. Lent is a massive thing in my culture and has been since the beginning of time so we have a pretty diverse and delicious recipe set which excludes any meat products, I could share some if you would like. I'm not the biggest fan of pea protein powder and things like that but it's widely used I wouldn't be scared of it. But honestly I wouldn't be too worried about it, your body is not going to drop muscle like you think and once you start eating training normally again you'll get back whatever you lost very fast.

 

[GoodShepherd]

That's a very worthwhile goal and it's also the main reason why I try to keep myself in shape and build strength, God Bless you and yours brother. You have to be ready in this world to protect what you love, you don't know what is coming your way and it has nothing to do with societal collapse or conspiracy theory weird crap it's just daily life now.

You don't need to be a power lifter to do resistance training and you don't need special equipment either. Don't get me wrong the more strength the better but there is also a lot of value in simply being in shape and agile.....simply working out in general means you have a leg up on 95% of the population at least.

The best protection for the ones you love is deterrence and that is attained by not looking like a target, by looking like you're in shape and can handle yourself. I've said this before but so many times I've heard guys on here say "I want to look like brad pitt in fight club", brad pitt in fight club would get his ass handed to him by middle school kids I would laugh my ass off if that guy tried to challenge me. Wide shoulders, arms that fill your sleeves and a chest that sticks out.....that is deterrence not looking like a 12 year old boy with abs. I can't remember the last time someone tried to challenge me probably ten or fifteen years ago before I decided to get back in shape and I live in metro detroit where everyone is a hardened alpha male.

If you're on a caloric or protein deficit such as during lent you may want to forego some of the cardio for more resistance training. But don't get me wrong the whole losing muscle because of less protein thing is WAY overblown, you don't need massive amounts of protein to retain and build muscle a good diet is more than enough. Pushups and dips for chest and tri's, pullups overhand and underhand for back and bi's and sprints for legs.....shoulders get hit by everything. It's not 100% ideal you're not going to completely mimic a weights workout but it will more than suffice, do multiple sets back to back until you're burned out. But that being a said a basic weights set, it will be garbage but it will work, is no longer cost prohibitive you can pick one up off of Amazon pretty cheap and if you do you can show me what you decided to purchase and I can tailor a routine based on it if you would like.

For lent I would say get used to boiled potatoes with salt/seasoning, definitely beans, get some basmatee rice and learn the art of making rice, lentil soup, burgled wheat, chickpeas, veggie and bean based stews and soups and a good tip is romaine lettuce. Romaine lettuce surprisingly has a lot of protein, for lettuce anyway, just buy a bag of romaine hearts wash it and munch on it throughout the day it's actually pretty good in my culture it's a appetizer/snack food. Lent is a massive thing in my culture and has been since the beginning of time so we have a pretty diverse and delicious recipe set which excludes any meat products, I could share some if you would like. I'm not the biggest fan of pea protein powder and things like that but it's widely used I wouldn't be scared of it. But honestly I wouldn't be too worried about it, your body is not going to drop muscle like you think and once you start eating training normally again you'll get back whatever you lost very fast.

Although some of the brad pitt looking guys might not look as intimidating, when I did kickboxing the guys who were like pro's they looked like brad pit they were not huge but when big gym guys who looked intimidating got in the ring they got their asses kicked by the smaller brad pitt looking guys during our spaaring sessions. The attitude is also important and being brave in tough situations.

I like what Daniel H said that we should also look intimidating so I do value that, he is right,

I didnt know about the romaine lettuce, are you Italian? For lent I do have a good system in place for food, like you said I have my basmatti rice and bags of various legumes to add to it, chick peas, lentils, various beans (try the black ones), green and yellow peas, barley, sump (a kind of corn) this time around I already bought coconut milk to cook them in, avocados also a life saver, there are certain peanut butters without any oil that will be ok for lent, dates, honey, chia seeds also high in protein.

Good advice I will stay away from cardio and stick to resistance training during lent.

One thing I also need to do more is try sometimes train infront of my kids to model an example for them, I do it sometimes and get them to join but need to do it more.

 

[FrancisK]

Although some of the brad pitt looking guys might not look as intimidating, when I did kickboxing the guys who were like pro's they looked like brad pit they were not huge but when big gym guys who looked intimidating got in the ring they got their asses kicked by the smaller brad pitt looking guys during our spaaring sessions. The attitude is also important and being brave in tough situations.

I like what Daniel H said that we should also look intimidating so I do value that, he is right,

I didnt know about the romaine lettuce, are you Italian? For lent I do have a good system in place for food, like you said I have my basmatti rice and bags of various legumes to add to it, chick peas, lentils, various beans (try the black ones), green and yellow peas, barley, sump (a kind of corn) this time around I already bought coconut milk to cook them in, avocados also a life saver, there are certain peanut butters without any oil that will be ok for lent, dates, honey, chia seeds also high in protein.

Good advice I will stay away from cardio and stick to resistance training during lent.

One thing I also need to do more is try sometimes train infront of my kids to model an example for them, I do it sometimes and get them to join but need to do it more.

Well if you've had training then all bets are off, size becomes much less important I do agree with that but the goal is always to make is so it never gets to that in the first place.

I'm Chaldean, try some burgled wheat in place of rice you'll thank me! We often eat that for lent with a white bean tomato based stew, i would eat it even if it wasnt lent it's so damn good! Also mushrooms do a good job of substituting for meat texture wise in a lot of dishes, stews, lasagna, chili....etc etc.

Love the concept of the kids watching Pops take care of himself for them and trying to get them involved I think there is a lot of value in that in many levels!

 

[Hannibal]

I need some advice on creatine, although Iv done sports and exercised my whole life Iv never really taken creatine or any kind of gym supplements nor was I really educated on diet.

Do you guys all take creatine? What is the negative side of creatine? I almost bought myself some today but I need to find out more about it. I dont want to take some short term product that might give me a long term problem. I recently heard the father Moses interview young penitent did that Samseau shared, it was really good, he recommended creatine its something he takes.

Father Moses also gave me a very simple revelation in this interview that for some odd reason I havent been doing. He said a person just needs to eat more to make sure we have a calory surplus, for the last 2 weeks Iv been buying myself beef short rib to add to my breakfast and lunch meals and in just 2 weeks Im already seeing results.

Creatine is one of the few supplements that actually works. It increases ATP which lets you perform more reps.

There are no negatives to it really. With that said, I tried taking creatine and I was so dehydrated by day 3 that I stopped. You get creatine from red meat and I eat enough of that, so that might have had something to do with it. Perhaps I did not consume enough salt at the time. I had bought creatine monohydrate in powder form and as close as I could tell, I was within dose.

 

[scary_robot_music]

Creatine is one of the few supplements that actually works. It increases ATP which lets you perform more reps.

There are no negatives to it really. With that said, I tried taking creatine and I was so dehydrated by day 3 that I stopped. You get creatine from red meat and I eat enough of that, so that might have had something to do with it. Perhaps I did not consume enough salt at the time. I had bought creatine monohydrate in powder form and as close as I could tell, I was within dose.

I recently switched to a preworkout that doesn't have creatine and I haven't noticed a difference. I'm a little stronger now, if anything. I'm not saying creatine doesn't work, I just can't explain why I don't notice a difference myself with or without it. As far as supplements that I'm sure really work, it's pretty much just caffeine, as far as I can tell.

Like you say, diet should come first. I'm a middle aged natty so gains don't come easily but every time I've gotten results that are kind of impressive it's been mainly through eating clean for a long period of time.

 

[Brewer]

I recently switched to a preworkout that doesn't have creatine and I haven't noticed a difference. I'm a little stronger now, if anything. I'm not saying creatine doesn't work, I just can't explain why I don't notice a difference myself with or without it. As far as supplements that I'm sure really work, it's pretty much just caffeine, as far as I can tell.

Like you say, diet should come first. I'm a middle aged natty so gains don't come easily but every time I've gotten results that are kind of impressive it's been mainly through eating clean for a long period of time.

The "washout" period for creatine is between 2 and 4 weeks, so depending on how recently you stopped you may not have noticed the effects yet. Creatine won't double your bench or anything like that, but if you are supplementing with it consistently, it should give you something like 10% more reps which is about as good as it gets for a non-AAS supplement.

 

[GoodShepherd]

Creatine is one of the few supplements that actually works. It increases ATP which lets you perform more reps.

There are no negatives to it really. With that said, I tried taking creatine and I was so dehydrated by day 3 that I stopped. You get creatine from red meat and I eat enough of that, so that might have had something to do with it. Perhaps I did not consume enough salt at the time. I had bought creatine monohydrate in powder form and as close as I could tell, I was within dose.

I did notice that I was also a little more thirsty than usual this past week while I was on the loading phase of creatine plus I was eating extra meat and raw milk, I didnt take the max of 5 teaspoons per day I stayed on 4 during the loading phase, but I made sure to drink extra water so it worked out fine, Im now on the maintenance phase of creatine so only 2 teaspoons per day.

I have noticed some gains during this short period so Im glad about that.

 

[GoodShepherd]

I recently switched to a preworkout that doesn't have creatine and I haven't noticed a difference. I'm a little stronger now, if anything. I'm not saying creatine doesn't work, I just can't explain why I don't notice a difference myself with or without it. As far as supplements that I'm sure really work, it's pretty much just caffeine, as far as I can tell.

Like you say, diet should come first. I'm a middle aged natty so gains don't come easily but every time I've gotten results that are kind of impressive it's been mainly through eating clean for a long period of time.

What is the purpose of taking caffeine what benefits do you get? I drink filter coffee in the mornings and green tea in the afternoon, there should be a little caffeine in these beverages, is that enough or am I supposed to be taking extra?

 

[scary_robot_music]

What is the purpose of taking caffeine what benefits do you get? I drink filter coffee in the mornings and green tea in the afternoon, there should be a little caffeine in these beverages, is that enough or am I supposed to be taking extra?

Just energy. I don't like the taste of coffee, but my preworkout has coffee extract in it. It's the only caffeine I ever have so the energy boost before I get in the weight room is noticeable.

 

[Blade Runner]

Does anyone here do sprints?

 

[Douglas Quaid]

Not a runner but have been thinking about getting into it. I've heard great things about sprinting.

I ride my bike a lot, and like doing bike sprints uphill. It makes my legs a lot stronger.

Nordic skiing looks like another good one if you have access to it.

 

[Northern Pilgrim]

Does anyone here do sprints?

Haven't been lately but in general they are a part of my routine. There is something primal about short, sudden bursts of maximal effort. Great way to condition in a short time, both in hours spent and over a short timeframe like 1 to 2 weeks.

 

[FrancisK]

Does anyone here do sprints?

I do, it makes cardio tolerable and feels great but its hard on your body. Shoes make a difference on minimizing the impact on your body, never thought that would be a thing but I notice a huge difference with different shoes.

 

[Hannibal]

Does anyone here do sprints?

My preferred form of cardio is rucking, just load up a good backpack with 20 or 30 water bottles and some towels or old clothes in the bottom to put the weight higher up. Hike about 3 mph in the woods for an hour or two, once or twice a week. It is good medium zone cardio and makes any exertion easier. In the winter I'll just do 25 to 30 lbs and focus on increasing the incline on the treadmill, as that is both safer and more strenuous than simply adding weight and walking flat.

Sprinting is definitely more intense and hits everything very hard, very quickly. A great way to acquire rapid gains in health and fitness. I recommend hillsprinting generally, its easier on the knees to go uphill and do not full send it downhill, just do a light jog or a fast walk to lower the impact on the joints. Regular sprints are just fine too, but I am always trying to be aware about joint damage. No sense in exercising if you gain bad knees and ankles from it.

In the past, I have tried to make hillsprinting a part of my regular routine, but rucking is so much more enjoyable and I already go for long walks and hikes as it is.

 

[Batman]

I wanted to chime in here. I've been on TRT since April. And by TRT, I mean bioidentical Test + HCG to maintain testicular function. I am taking 250mg a week, which is admittedly a lot, so much you could consider it a "cycle" but it's seemingly not too much for me because despite taking zero estrogen/aromitzation blockers, I've had 0 signs of high-E like gyno or anything else like that.

Now, I've heard my whole life that even if you're on straight gear (ie synthetic androgen receptor modulators) you still have to work out hard to see gains. Well, now I'm in a completely different camp. Simply by taking TRT and doing inconsistent/unstructured/infrequent lifting, I've still managed to increase ALL of my PRs by quite a lot. If I was sticking to this with the same adherence to lifting routines and diet, the PRs would have probably increased by over 50%.

This just proves to me that genetics (especailly hormones) plays a much, much larger role in any of this.

 

[Blade Runner]

This just proves to me that genetics (especailly hormones) plays a much, much larger role in any of this.

I think a lot of people found this out, in that most of the earlier adopters who weren't bodybuilder abuser types were guys with average to bad genes in a modern world of rat race stress. That means that they'd get fat (if not training properly), since their receptor levels and gene transcription were suboptimal, and may always be.

What age range are you, Batman?

 

[Batman]

I think a lot of people found this out, in that most of the earlier adopters who weren't bodybuilder abuser types were guys with average to bad genes in a modern world of rat race stress. That means that they'd get fat (if not training properly), since their receptor levels and gene transcription were suboptimal, and may always be.

What age range are you, Batman?

mid 30s, my total T levels were fairly high, but my prolactin, albumin, and SHBG in particular were quite high also which offset it; my free/bioavailable T were on the low end since my T was bound up in SHBG and the prolactin was counteracting it, too. So instead of messing with SHBG/prolactin (which is risky) i figured my free/bioavailable was too low which means I simply need higher total Test. Every "professional" i've been to completely glossed over this insight, so, I took it upon myself to experiment, and I've never felt better, and to be honest I'm not sure if I ever want to come off now.

 

[scary_robot_music]

I wanted to chime in here. I've been on TRT since April. And by TRT, I mean bioidentical Test + HCG to maintain testicular function. I am taking 250mg a week, which is admittedly a lot, so much you could consider it a "cycle" but it's seemingly not too much for me because despite taking zero estrogen/aromitzation blockers, I've had 0 signs of high-E like gyno or anything else like that.

Now, I've heard my whole life that even if you're on straight gear (ie synthetic androgen receptor modulators) you still have to work out hard to see gains. Well, now I'm in a completely different camp. Simply by taking TRT and doing inconsistent/unstructured/infrequent lifting, I've still managed to increase ALL of my PRs by quite a lot. If I was sticking to this with the same adherence to lifting routines and diet, the PRs would have probably increased by over 50%.

This just proves to me that genetics (especailly hormones) plays a much, much larger role in any of this.

I've never been on TRT or any kind of test supplements but the most believable accounts I've heard say what you're saying here, that you gain quite a lot of muscle and strength even if you don't work very hard. If you work hard plus taking the drugs like you say, gains are massive. Yet still guys who are injecting will claim it doesn't make much difference, which is a very odd claim. Why would you consistently inject something if it didn't make a difference.

 

[Get2choppaaa]

I wanted to chime in here. I've been on TRT since April. And by TRT, I mean bioidentical Test + HCG to maintain testicular function. I am taking 250mg a week, which is admittedly a lot, so much you could consider it a "cycle" but it's seemingly not too much for me because despite taking zero estrogen/aromitzation blockers, I've had 0 signs of high-E like gyno or anything else like that.

Now, I've heard my whole life that even if you're on straight gear (ie synthetic androgen receptor modulators) you still have to work out hard to see gains. Well, now I'm in a completely different camp. Simply by taking TRT and doing inconsistent/unstructured/infrequent lifting, I've still managed to increase ALL of my PRs by quite a lot. If I was sticking to this with the same adherence to lifting routines and diet, the PRs would have probably increased by over 50%.

This just proves to me that genetics (especailly hormones) plays a much, much larger role in any of this.

It's pretty relative to your overall strength level. What sort of numbers are we talking about here?


If your bench was 225 and all the sudden you take 250 of test a week (which is like 2.5x what your body produces naturally) and you lift, you'll make gains... probably get to 255 lbs with lifting 1 x a week if you're eating. But if you were already benching 405 and then take test and don't work out it's not the same ball park.

relatively novice numbers (in terms of absolutely strength display ) are easily increased by gear. Once you're in the intermediate club, it's a little harder.

But yeah the only guaranteed side effect of test.... Is that it works.