The 2011-2012 "Let's Get Fit before OMM Class" Thread

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Most of the professional bodybuilders and amateur bodybuilders I have spoke with tend to be of the philosophy that long steady-state cardio does burn fat, but at the expense of a lot of muscle. However, in the past I used to run 8 miles a day and still maintained a very toned physique, but in order for me to pack on another 15 pounds of muscle I had to adjust my cardio and diet.

I have seen studies that have shown support for both of our arguments, so in the end I digress. If running is your favorite type of cardio, then by all means continue. (I still have to run at least 3 times a week because I am in the Navy...:rolleyes:)

By the way, what show are you going to do?

Whey protein after a workout has been the best supplement for me by far, and it's good for you. I'll also take multivitamins with my lunch. I don't really like muscle milk, because it has a lot of fat in it, and creatine and creatine-like stuff aren't healthy long-term. Go natural with veggies, fruits, soy, and whey protein. Trust me, I'm a premed. :p
 
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Whey protein after a workout has been the best supplement for me by far, and it's good for you. I'll also take multivitamins with my lunch. I don't really like muscle milk, because it has a lot of fat in it, and creatine and creatine-like stuff aren't healthy long-term. Go natural with veggies, fruits, soy, and whey protein. Trust me, I'm a premed. :p

Whey protein is amazing... and tastes great too. Mixing it in skim milk fills you up, gives you calcium, and makes you feel like you can lift a car.
 
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Whey protein is amazing... and tastes great too. Mixing it in skim milk fills you up, gives you calcium, and makes you feel like you can lift a car.

Yeah, making a drink before a workout is also a good idea, especially on days you pound the weights. I'll have it with milk on occasion, but I always have whey protein with water after a workout. Tastes just as good, and you won't feel filled up after a good workout.
 
Whey protein is amazing... and tastes great too. Mixing it in skim milk fills you up, gives you calcium, and makes you feel like you can lift a car.


Not all whey proteins taste the same. Iv'e tried about 70-80 different brands myself. Some taste absolutley amazing, like a milk shake. Others taste absolutely disturbing, like clumpy mounds of dirt.

But whey protein is great, not because it is superior to whole food protein sources, but because it delivers a complete amino acid profile very quickly, which is essential immediately before and after workouts. If you eat a whole food source (like chicken) then it takes 1-3 hours before your body ever begins to absorb any usable amino acids. However, if you down a whey protein shake, then your body is able to use those amino acids within 20 minutes.
 
I am the Command Fitness Leader at the Naval Base I work at. We alternate insanity, P90X, Cross-Fit, and Heavy Weight Training every day (its awesome!). I would love to bring this to DCOM (see you there CopToEM)

CrossFit gives you "farm boy strength," which hard to explain unless you're from this area or a similar one. There seems to be a noticeable difference in strength gained from targeted lifting in a gym and strength gained from full body workouts. There are some guys I know who grew up on farms and their muscle fiber must be as dense as DNA - some of those guys aren't big but they're brutes for sure.

Anyway, CrossFit is an awesome way to do that. Unfortunately, there's hardly any place that has the facilities to do CrossFit appropriately around here. Even law enforcement has a hell of a time trying to keep up with it.
 
I'm watching the Starting Strength DVD right now. I'll be starting that in the next few days.
 
CrossFit gives you "farm boy strength," which hard to explain unless you're from this area or a similar one. There seems to be a noticeable difference in strength gained from targeted lifting in a gym and strength gained from full body workouts. There are some guys I know who grew up on farms and their muscle fiber must be as dense as DNA - some of those guys aren't big but they're brutes for sure.

Anyway, CrossFit is an awesome way to do that. Unfortunately, there's hardly any place that has the facilities to do CrossFit appropriately around here. Even law enforcement has a hell of a time trying to keep up with it.


CF is a lil too expensive! :(

Good luck on the BB comp drgio!
 
I'm watching the Starting Strength DVD right now. I'll be starting that in the next few days.

I did SS a number of years ago - excellent program. Believe every word that man says! The biggest thing I learned out of that was how important form and body mechanics really is.
 
Leangains.com, I'm on day 2. I'm getting my fitness on for a vacation to the beach in a couple weeks. I like the guy cuz he backs his stuff up with pubmed articles. And his stuff goes against what a lot of broscience and popular opinion tells you.

Basically, it's intermittent fasting (IF), which is kinda new on the scene. Different ways of doing it, like alternate day fasting, or, in a much more compliance-friendly Version that he makes, 16 hour fasts and the same 8-hr feeding window daily.

It makes sense to me because as studies have shown, eating 3 big meals staves of hunger better than 6 small meals daily. And it feels better to actually have a big portioned meal and feel full.

He presents a compelling argument backed with studies and impressive client results.

Here's the guide, check out the other top posts as well as the main page for client photos. It's unreal.

http://www.leangains.com/2010/04/leangains-guide.html
 
Leangains.com, I'm on day 2. I'm getting my fitness on for a vacation to the beach in a couple weeks. I like the guy cuz he backs his stuff up with pubmed articles. And his stuff goes against what a lot of broscience and popular opinion tells you.

Basically, it's intermittent fasting (IF), which is kinda new on the scene. Different ways of doing it, like alternate day fasting, or, in a much more compliance-friendly Version that he makes, 16 hour fasts and the same 8-hr feeding window daily.

It makes sense to me because as studies have shown, eating 3 big meals staves of hunger better than 6 small meals daily. And it feels better to actually have a big portioned meal and feel full.

He presents a compelling argument backed with studies and impressive client results.

Here's the guide, check out the other top posts as well as the main page for client photos. It's unreal.

http://www.leangains.com/2010/04/leangains-guide.html

Interesting...this definintely opposses what I always tell my trainees, but I like that he backs uo his stuff with peer reviewed research. Well from personal experience I know that what I do works, but I cant argue with his results either.
 
Well, you guys inspired to get in shape before school. I'm signed up for my first marathon on July 28th. Started training a couple weeks ago. I figured that ought to get me in shape.
 
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Good on ya, mate! Make sure you stick to a schedule in order to progress in a manner than minimizes chances for injury.
 
Certified sport nutritionist/CSCS

Bored at outpatient clinic and will take any fitness Q and A between MCAT ing
 
Perfect. Read through this whole website and tell me if it's a crock of lies.

http://www.leangains.com/2010/04/leangains-guide.html

Not lies at all. Although counter intuitive to biochemistry its a much less popularized method of fat loss, fasting is basically manipulation of glucagon. Notice how prior to exercise metabolism a large quantity of amino acids are ingested immediately prior to training to prevent catabolism of muscle.

Success with a nutritional schematic like this would largely be a function of genetics, that is to say, what is your body type endomorph, ectomorph, mesomorph? This would not be a great thing for a person who has a great deal of difficulty putting on muscle. A hard gainer body needs to be fed frequently to maintain proper metabolic pathways. For someone like myself, that is, genetically I have a poor metabolism for disposing of carbohydrates but conversely gain muscle with ease, this would work and has proven to work well in the past.

In fact evolution has hard wired this type of lipolysis in to humans. One change I might make to this is the addition of a complex carbohydrate drink to be consumed during the workout to further mitigate catabolism. So access body type and goal orientation before pursuit but there are no fallacious methods that I can see.
 
How about those of us who are naturally thin but turned 28 this year? I should just get on a test booster, huh? (please say yes)
 
How about those of us who are naturally thin but turned 28 this year? I should just get on a test booster, huh? (please say yes)

Depends on the "test booster". What did you have in mind? If you are thinking tribulus .... great on paper but chemistry is not there.
 
Week 1 of IF. Love it. I was doing the traditional 5-meal split with my nutritional consultant and with 4 part-time jobs eating became an absolute CHORE, which is weird to me because I've never gotten to the point in my life where food simply became nothing more than fuel.

Pulled a 225 DL this week at a lower weight than ever.

And pop-tarts and rice krispy treats are awesome.

Looking to do a PL meet next summer / xo,
c
 
I haven't read through this entire thread but I have a long history of trying to get muscular AND lean. It's pretty easy to gain muscle if you're willing to gain a lot of fat, and it's very easy to get lean if you don't mind losing muscle. The hard part is acheiving a state of lean muscularity. I've tried the bulk and cut strategy and I ended up losing all of the muscle I gained. While "bulking", you can certainly add a good deal of muscle pretty rapidly, but it will mess with your insulin sensitivity (making it harder and harder to gain muscle after a certain point) and it'll be very hard to maintain the muscle you've gained as you diet down. I've found the best approach to be the following: first, work on getting strong and fit. Eat healthy, balanced, moderately high protein meals when hungry and don't eat when you're not hungry. In other words, eat only what your body asks for. Workout as much as possible by squeezing in pushups and pullups whenever possible and going for brisk walks. It really adds up. When you are able to make it to the gym, try to increase your strength on the basic lifts (bench, military press, rows, deadlifts and squats). If you stick to this, after a few months, you'll find that you've gotten leaner without sacrificing muscle (If you're a beginner, it's possible that you'll have gained muslce, perhaps a lot, without gaining fat). Once you get down to 8 to 10% bodyfat you can begin ADDING muscle (or adding muscle at a faster pace, if you were a begginer to start with) by CLEAN bulking. I'll post about clean bulking soon.
 
I've been doing well with the IF also. My feeding window is between 3p to 11p, allowing me to have dinner (aka not socially awkard) and not interering when I'm working overnight shifts. I always thought working out without eating was a sure-fire way to start vomiting in the locker room. I've been using a BCAA intra-workout supplement called Xtend by scivation on my morning workouts to great results. I was able to kill it on legs with nary a hurl. When I get hungry, caffeine and gum do the trick really well, but I'm slowly adjusting.
 
Wow, so many of you have so many rules and numbers on your fitness/health regimen!

I've always stuck with what I like doing and what I like eating, in terms of wellness. I strongly feel that if you do what you enjoy doing, you'll make it a lifelong habit. For me, that's distance running, often on trails. I don't count calories, drink fancy protein shakes, or weigh myself. I work in the wellness section of Whole Foods, so I see a lot of people who put a lot of faith in quick solutions for maximum results.

What I do fitness-wise is for my mental well-being, but has the physical benefits too. Not only do I get time to myself, but I also get to be moving my body and enjoying nature. I choose to eat a vegetarian diet and don't drink frequently. It's really a matter of choosing to allign your lifestyle with your physical fitness goals, whatever those may be. And not being so hard on yourself! :)
 
I'm getting paid this Friday, and then I'll be signing up for my first half-marathon.:) Very excited. It's something that's been on my bucket list for some time now, aaaand I'll be getting back into shape, so woo! Two birds!
 
Week 1 of IF. Love it. I was doing the traditional 5-meal split with my nutritional consultant and with 4 part-time jobs eating became an absolute CHORE, which is weird to me because I've never gotten to the point in my life where food simply became nothing more than fuel.

Pulled a 225 DL this week at a lower weight than ever.

And pop-tarts and rice krispy treats are awesome.

Looking to do a PL meet next summer / xo,
c


Make that a 250 DL.

:D

-c
 
I would recommend "The Abs Diet" by David Zinczenko. My downfall is sugar. By day three, I weaned myself off of it. Built muscle and lost 15 pounds in 4 weeks. Ladies- don't buy the version for women...I found the plan to be ineffective and focusing too much on water weight. And, no, I did not work out regularly before this regimen.

Cheers and best of luck!
 
I'm glad to see that this thread (created by ME!) is still alive ;)

Anyway, I was in the process of moving and I'm now settled into a new spot until I go off to medical school this July/August. Best of all, I have a dedicated spot for lifting! No more having to pull the bench out of the corner of the garage!

Now, if only I could give up soda.....
 
admittedly, i've only scanned this thread..but.. any girls in here??
 
admittedly, i've only scanned this thread..but.. any girls in here??


dunno. wondering the same thing
where dem ladies at?
and what are you guys doing to lose some of that belly fat?
 
admittedly, i've only scanned this thread..but.. any girls in here??

Ha, I was thinking the same thing when I read through this. I am a girl, and I teach group fitness classes about 6-7 times a week to stay in shape (sculpt, bootcamp, and Pilates). It's the best!

I also don't eat processed carbs before noon- this curbs my appetite for them later in the day. I use vanilla whey protein powder in almost every breakfast I make, and don't eat red meat or pork.
 
Ha, I was thinking the same thing when I read through this. I am a girl, and I teach group fitness classes about 6-7 times a week to stay in shape (sculpt, bootcamp, and Pilates). It's the best!

I also don't eat processed carbs before noon- this curbs my appetite for them later in the day. I use vanilla whey protein powder in almost every breakfast I make, and don't eat red meat or pork.


sweet, glad to know I'm not the only one lurking here!

i rock climb and take the occasional yoga class. but definitely need to step it up!
 
Very glad someone linked me to this thread. Gotta get in shape!
 
well i'm applying this cycle and i need to start working out. not in bad shape- 5'9 145. only concern is that im a bit hairy lol. hairy back and chest....so im a bit self conscious.
 
well i'm applying this cycle and i need to start working out. not in bad shape- 5'9 145. only concern is that im a bit hairy lol. hairy back and chest....so im a bit self conscious.

Flaunt dat chest hair bro. Shiet. The curlier the better. :laugh::thumbup:
 
not too worried about the chest hair. easy to maintain. back hair is what i dont like. guess i need to find some wax place near the school or something
 
I've been doing p90x. Well I acutally did it for about 30 days and then stopped, but I lost 10 pounds and could actually start to do some pull-ups lol
Didn't do the food plan they have, just worked out everyday. Even more than the 10 pounds I lost I really enjoyed how much better I felt. I think I'm going to start from day 1 again next week!
 
ill play! im 6'1 220 athletic build. but i do want to get more definition as well as getting down to about 195. i was 280 and lost down to about 175 4 years ago but its hard to keep off. 205-210 is where i naturally stay at. diet is my main thing. i run about 3 miles/day and lift (put on 10 pounds of muscle since december) but eating right is just so hard to do in college
 
I've been doing p90x. Well I acutally did it for about 30 days and then stopped, but I lost 10 pounds and could actually start to do some pull-ups lol
Didn't do the food plan they have, just worked out everyday. Even more than the 10 pounds I lost I really enjoyed how much better I felt. I think I'm going to start from day 1 again next week!

Bring it! Don't let Tony catch you doggin it!
 
There are three main "fitness gurus" whose advice I value more than other authors. Rusty Moore of fitnessblackbook.com, Martin Berkan of leangains.com, and Brad Pilon of Eat Stop Eat. They're not your average meathead bodybuilders, and their advice is taken from research, not broscience.

Rusty Moore has a workout ebook for sale that contains info on his workout routine, the routine charts themselves, and exercise demos. Can be found at http://visualimpactmusclebuilding.com/

Martin Berkhan and Brad Pilon focus more on the diet part of the equation. Both revolve around intermittent fasting.


Seriously, this is all you need. :thumbup:
 
I've been doing p90x. Well I acutally did it for about 30 days and then stopped, but I lost 10 pounds and could actually start to do some pull-ups lol
Didn't do the food plan they have, just worked out everyday. Even more than the 10 pounds I lost I really enjoyed how much better I felt. I think I'm going to start from day 1 again next week!


Nice! I started earlier this week. I've done this before (start and not keep up with it past the first week) but this time I'm extremely motivated. With the start of OMM being 2.5 months away... Gotta get fit!
 
Hey everyone I wanna get fit for med school which is 2.5 months away.

I'm a really weak guy 5'11 160. I play basketball a lot so cardio isn't a prob for me. I just hate lifting weights but I wanna get stronger and want to have a good balanced work out routine going before I start med school. I don't have any buddies to go to the gym with so is it okay to ask the gym desk clerk for a spot??

Also should I do this ripptoe's starting strength program? I'm a newb at benching deadlifts, squats etc. btw Is it only benching and squats tht I need a spot to be safe?

I also found this at bodybuilding.com

3 Day Workout For Beginners | Muscle & Strength

Should I do that one instead of ripptoe's program? Thanks for the advice.
 
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I'd do Ripptoe's program as I like it a lot for a beginner. I've gotten my newb gains and pretty happy with my current performance. I used to do it solo too, so I wouldn't worry about needing a spotter. Just follow the program to the T and don't lift more weight than you think you can handle. Start slow and small and build it up. Also, eat like a sumo wrestler.
 
I'd do Ripptoe's program as I like it a lot for a beginner. I've gotten my newb gains and pretty happy with my current performance. I used to do it solo too, so I wouldn't worry about needing a spotter. Just follow the program to the T and don't lift more weight than you think you can handle. Start slow and small and build it up. Also, eat like a sumo wrestler.


I'm using a public gym so i'm afraid i'm gonna get yelled at for not using a spot lol. Is it alright without a spot? I guess ill just be careful. I think right now i can only bench the bar..pretty embarrassing. Thanks for the tips Wily.
 
I'm using a public gym so i'm afraid i'm gonna get yelled at for not using a spot lol. Is it alright without a spot? I guess ill just be careful. I think right now i can only bench the bar..pretty embarrassing. Thanks for the tips Wily.

You don't need a spotter for any exercise. It's more of a safety precaution than anything. Also, if the people at your gym aren't *******s, I'm sure they wouldn't mind lending you a spot if you need it. Good luck!
 
You don't need a spotter for any exercise. It's more of a safety precaution than anything. Also, if the people at your gym aren't *******s, I'm sure they wouldn't mind lending you a spot if you need it. Good luck!


Haha thanks mate, i'm using a small weightroom at a local college. Alright i'm gonna start this week and hopefully be determined enough to keep going for these 2.5 months.
 
I'm using a public gym so i'm afraid i'm gonna get yelled at for not using a spot lol. Is it alright without a spot? I guess ill just be careful. I think right now i can only bench the bar..pretty embarrassing. Thanks for the tips Wily.

yea man, i started with the bar + 15 (75 lb total) on each side and felt pretty goofy. Everybody has to start somewhere. But if you follow the program, you'll be putting up respectable weight in no-time.
 
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