ITT: You ask Kaze questions concerning bodybuilding and general fitness.

[Winged_One]

First off, I’m 5’7" and I weigh 160…So I’m borderline overweight.

Kaze, you said red meat and chicken was good…What about carbs?

Also, what about push-ups, pull-ups, and the like. Are they really all that worthless?

Am I gonna totally jump past my target muscle look and get the guise of the hulk? Cause I’m really not looking to get like you…That’s just too much.

Finally, if a lot of these muscles are simply hidden by fat, and you advocate beasting out on your eating (which I realize is necessary), can’t that end up working against you especially if one of your aims is to lose weight

[MaxTheLimit]

@Kaze

Concerning your problem about eating ‘too much’ food, try aiming for foods that are not very filling, but very high in calories. Peanut butter (natural peanut butter, mind you, regular processed shit is the devil with hydrogenated oils) is a classic example of this. 2 tablespoons of natty peanut butter is usually anywhere from 190-210 calories, and you can eat a couple of jars of that shit before you’re full (granted, you shouldn’t and don’t need to). Don’t be afraid to eat a bit of junk food to meet your calories as long as you can fit it into your macros. Junk food almost always has high calories and is not very filling. You don’t have to eat clean when you bulk, but I and many others prefer to. You can do just as fine by not restricting yourself, although you may be at risk for getting fatter, sooner. Also, try to avoid eating too many breads and wheat products. The complex carbs are good, but they will bloat you like no other.

I’m not a huge fan of sweets like peanut butter and junk food. But I guess that is better than feeling like I’m going to be sick most of the time. I guess I’ll cut back on the sandwiches…though I love my sandwiches. Is eating the large quantities of turkey and tuna an okay substitute for not being able to eat large enough quantities of red meats?

@Kaze

Concerning sleep, you need sleep. If you cannot get at the very minimum 8 hours of sleep every night, you should look into a prescription for a sleep aid if you absolutely cannot do it. Sleep is your body’s way of recovering from the beating you put it through in the gym and on the treadmill/track. Nearly all of your physical growing and replenishment takes place during sleep, and 8 hours is the magical number. More than 8 is even better if you can manage it. But, to be short and sweet, you need 8 hours of sleep or your gains are going to suffer. Noticeably.

Well, that…sucks.
I get about 3-4 hours sleep every other night. Medication doesn’t help either. I am kinda screwed on that front. Is there anything I can do to help counteract this? Frequent baths or something to help my body recover what it would normally in sleep?

@Kaze

And yes, you will gain fat while bulking, it happens to everyone (except the faggy exctomorphs who got lucky in the gene pool). You do not need to be worrying about your beach body physique when bulking, but rather how massive you are getting. You worry about how lean you are once you’ve gotten some mass packed on your body. You can cut after you bulk, don’t worry about the fat. If it really bothers you for some reason, start doing some HIIT cardio on your off days. You are going to have to eat more to keep up with the calories you burn, but it helps keep fat gains to a minimum.

I have no problem with a little bit of any kind of meat on my middle. I’m reasonably satisfied with how the legs, shoulders and back go. But chest and mid section is too lean. Still a little bit to stingy there. What I’m most interested in is building up my mid section first. Still want to get more in the shoulders and back, but mid section is a priority for me. Mainly the obliques I guess, to help protect against knees. It seems there is so little muscle there and I need to get some muscle mass over the lower rib cage area.

@suggestive leg: Being female doesn’t prevent you from wanking. I dunno, for me I use that term for what both women and men do. Despite the implications of the word itself. On examination the term doesn’t make sense, but the idea still applies.

@WO: you are 5 foot 7 and 160lbs, and overweight? I’m 5 foot 9 and just over 160 right now and lean as fuck. Granted I’ve got a reasonable amount of muscle on there, but you surely can’t be overweight, probably just thinfat as Kaze said right?

[Winged_One]

I’ve got some muscle, too. But when I went to the doctor, he took my weight, went “oh,” and left the room. He came back with an obesity packet.

[TheeGoatPig]

Heh, I remember when I was just out of high school, 6’-4" and 140 pounds. I was so gangly thin…

Now I’m 33, the same height, and 100 pounds heavier. I know my problems though. Too much fat, not enough protein, and my strength training is as irregular as fuck. I need to leave my desk job and work in a warehouse somewhere moving crates around.

[NesKwik]

Kaze just quadra-mega-triple-double-deluxe posted.

[raw_bean]

I’m not going to enforce that rule in this thread, because everyone’s asking him questions and if he didn’t double post his posts would end up ginormous.

[Winged_One]

But that just goes for him, right?

[raw_bean]

In this thread, yes.

[OldDirtyBastard]

@Kaze

Without railings? You mean you squat in the smith machine?

Do not do that.

If you cannot do a proper free-weight squat, your form is shit and you need to work on it. The smith machine is a waste of time for anyone looking to get serious about adding muscle and strength to their body. As I said, squats are a man’s lift, and if you aren’t willing to do them, well, you know where that puts you.

Btw, as you mentioned smith machine, I realised that I mixed stuff up. I did use smith machine for quite a long time - the first three months I think, but then I just seen what my buddies were doing and switched to free weight - first bench press (incline/decline/flat), then squatting. Smith machines seem to restrict your movement a lot - which is more of a bad thing.

Your rotations are interesting, I think i would try to free up some time to try some of them. The problem is that I don’t have as much free time as I had before: I only become free at 6 pm after 8 hours of heavy lifting on my job, 5 days in a row.

A question. Are dumbbells any good for military press? Or should it be strictly the pole?

Second question. Is it true that deadlift helps greatly in improving your chin ups / pull ups?

And what do you think of gradually removing some weight in a single set?
let’s take bench press for example, with two spotters on the both sides removing dishes immediately after you’ve do a certain amount of reps:
70 kilos 4 reps > 60 kilos 6 reps > 50 kilos 8 reps> … > empty pole rep until you feel you cannot lift any more

[NesKwik]

@raw_bean

In this thread, yes.

So…we can do what we want in our own threads? :retard:

[Ramirezoid]

The baddest assest dude on the internet just convinced me I’m a little pussy peanut worm.

I’m not a weakling, but I’m only 6’3" and I’d like to wait about a year or so before I start hulking out big time, because I want to get just a few inches taller just in case this doesn’t work out (tee hee).

I can only squat about 90 lbs. and I gave up playing football, even though I was good at takin’ people down, I’m a faggoty cartoonist at heart. But I still want to be a bad enough dude.

I also can’t manage more than two conventional pull-ups.

I’m just glad I’m not a sort-of-tall twig/neck-bearded nerd. That would be fucking terrible.

[OldDirtyBastard]

I’m not a weakling, but I’m only 6’3" and I’d like to wait about a year or so before I start hulking out big time

That would be the dumbest thing to make.
You won’t start hulking out miraculously on some great day without putting some effort, believe me. Don’t hope on “hormones” and other bullshit. Leave it for the lames

[Ramirezoid]

You’re misinterpreting my statement. I work out regularly and I run. I’m just saying that I don’t want to be a total beefcake just yet. I never said I wanted miraculous mega-growth to happen suddenly.

[OldDirtyBastard]

it was not clear in your previous post, not by a long shot.

[Ramirezoid]

I was under the impression that one does not attempt football or strenuous exercise if one just expects to go David Banner a few months later.

[Rossman]

Good thread.

In the future I’ll probably use this if I get a membership at the local Golds Gym, but for now I’ll just use my Bowflex with the common workout. I also dive for 3 hours every morning with an hour and a halfs worth of laps at the pool also.

So for the time being I’ll just stick with my average but slowly growing body :mono:

[Imonfire]

@Kaze

This number is now your enemy. Your goal is to eat at least 500-800 calories over your maintenance levels every day. Maintenance levels are the amount of calories you burn total the entire day. This includes anything strenuous; running, lifting, doing yard work, anything that burns calories is factored into this. Say one day you are resting and don’t do shit that entire day. You only need to eat 500-800 calories over your actual BMR. Simple. But, the next day you lift, help your grandma do some gardening, move furniture for a neighbor, and do 30 minutes of cardio jogging around the block. Say all that burned a total of 1000 extra calories. You now need to eat 1500-1800 calories over your BMR to compensate. Your body only produces muscle from excess calories.

Bulk diets are a lot simpler than most teenagers want to make them. Your best friends are going to be items such as peanut butter, eggs, tuna, any lean meats such as chicken, turkey, and lean cuts of beef. Healthy fats such as olive oil and the fats in peanut butter are also good for you. As I said, I can only generalize so much before I have to start being ignorant, so you have to ask questions for me to keep narrowing this down for you.

Sorry for the later reply, but I was gone all day. So okay I must eat about 500 to 800 calories more than my Maintenance level, but do you have some kind of chart to see how many calories x activity burns? I remember I had a sheet like this last year in my science class. It was like: Cycling for one hour burns x calories, swimming for 1 hour burns x calories etc…

For example I did 20 kilometers of cycling today (it took me about an hour, I went to look for a job). How many calories did I burn by doing this?

[Kaze]

@raw_bean

I’ve seen you say that before, and I really can’t believe it means what it looks like it means. I weigh around 84 Kg, which is 185 lbs. It looks like you’re suggesting I eat 185 lbs of protein every day, which equates to eating well over a thousand eggs a day, for example. :what:

Could you clarify this phrase?

I suppose I should clarify a bit, I’m too used to talking about this with people who are familiar on the subject :3.

By getting your bodyweight in protein every day, I mean your bodyweight number (in pounds) in grams. For example, say Joe Blow weighs 200 pounds. He should be ingesting at least 200 grams of protein every day in his diet, preferably more.

[Kaze]

@Winged One

First off, I’m 5’7" and I weigh 160…So I’m borderline overweight.

Kaze, you said red meat and chicken was good…What about carbs?

Also, what about push-ups, pull-ups, and the like. Are they really all that worthless?

Am I gonna totally jump past my target muscle look and get the guise of the hulk? Cause I’m really not looking to get like you…That’s just too much.

Finally, if a lot of these muscles are simply hidden by fat, and you advocate beasting out on your eating (which I realize is necessary), can’t that end up working against you especially if one of your aims is to lose weight

Firstly, “borderline overweight” by some internet chart’s standards is bullshit. If you put me on one of those charts during the offseason when I’m bulking, it would tell you I’m morbidly obese.

Do I look obese?

You judge being overweight by your appearance and what you can see, and even more-so by using a body fat measuring process such as hydrostatic bodyfat measurement or bodyfat calipers (cheap and easy to find). BMI charts and other such shit are a waste of time if you’re looking to get big and get serious.

Also, I believe in one of my posts to Max I briefly explained carbs. Nothing in-depth, but a general idea:

Your carbs should be healthy, complex carbs such as whole wheat bread, baked potatoes, oatmeal, vegetables, etc. Any carbs that are made primarily of sugar are simple carbs, and they break down into fat and do your body much less use.

A good list of complex carb-filled foods can be found here: https://www.weightlossforall.com/complex-carbs.htm

Concerning bodyweight exercises, yes, they are useful, but no, you won’t get big on them. They are more useful for conditioning and overall athletics than they are for putting muscle on your frame. Useless? Not at all. But they aren’t made for what you’re likely aiming for.

Getting as big as professional bodybuilders, real pros, is pretty much genetically and physically impossible without prohormones and AAS. Bodybuilding is not a sprint, it is a marathon. You aren’t going to get huge fast, nothing happens quickly in this sport. Truthfully, I’m not all that big and certainly not as big as I’d like to be. The fact I’m bigger than your average everyday slob is what gives everyone the impression I am some huge AAS-abusing meathead.

Concerning eating, you have to eat to build muscle. There is no arguement, no counter to this. Plain and simple, if you want to get big, you have to eat big. My personal philosophy, and the philosophy of many other big guys you’ll talk to will tell you there is absolutely no point in cutting fat if you have nothing to show underneath it. You know what people like myself think when we see some guy who is at a low body fat in the gym flexing in the mirror doing 100 sets of curls? We think of how pathetic and ignorant he is. How weak and undedicated he is. You can’t have the perfect beach body while you’re getting big. It doesn’t work at all like that. You are going to have a higher body fat percentage than usual and you are going to lose some definition. However, all of that pays off when you cut post-bulk for a couple of months and then see how swole you’ve gotten. If you seriously believe you are far enough overweight to the point where you need to cut before you bulk, then do it. At the end of the day, you do what you want, I cannot force you, I can only guide you. Honestly, if you want me to give you a definitive answer, post a general physique picture (hell, PM it to me if you aren’t comfortable with putting it out to public). Chances are you aren’t actually overweight, you just think you are. Lots of guys get caught up in being skinnyfat.

[Kaze]

@MaxTheLimit

I’m not a huge fan of sweets like peanut butter and junk food. But I guess that is better than feeling like I’m going to be sick most of the time. I guess I’ll cut back on the sandwiches…though I love my sandwiches. Is eating the large quantities of turkey and tuna an okay substitute for not being able to eat large enough quantities of red meats?

Turkey and tuna are fine. Lean meat is lean meat. Try to stop eating sandwiches and just eat the meat instead (no homo). Too much bread will fill you up extremely fast, just eat what counts and leave the bread out of it.

Well, that…sucks.
I get about 3-4 hours sleep every other night. Medication doesn’t help either. I am kinda screwed on that front. Is there anything I can do to help counteract this? Frequent baths or something to help my body recover what it would normally in sleep?

There is absolutely, positively, never any substitute for sleep. Deep tissue massage, warm baths, all these things aid in recovery. But, if you do not sleep, you will suffer.

I have no problem with a little bit of any kind of meat on my middle. I’m reasonably satisfied with how the legs, shoulders and back go. But chest and mid section is too lean. Still a little bit to stingy there. What I’m most interested in is building up my mid section first. Still want to get more in the shoulders and back, but mid section is a priority for me. Mainly the obliques I guess, to help protect against knees. It seems there is so little muscle there and I need to get some muscle mass over the lower rib cage area.

Chances are you have no weak points. Too many beginners start talking about how this is their weak point and that is their weak point. Bullshit. Everything is your weak point. You don’t need to focus on any one muscle, you need to have a balanced, spread out full body routine that facilitates proper form and strength gain. The 5x5 program I posted is a strength program. Why? Because hypertrophy programs, more easily described as a program focused around building mass rather than strength, require you to already be strong enough to bench at LEAST your bodyweight, squat 1.5x your bodyweight (at least), and deadlift twice your bodyweight. If you are just reaching that stage or aren’t even at it yet, you aren’t ready for some sort of overthought, fine tuned program.