Blonde will make you STRONG

[GreekStein]

I used to be able to do 6 reps of 180kg on on squats. Now I my legs feel like jelly after 6 reps of half that.

That is incredibly strong, like crazy crazy strong.

Time to jump in on the thread?

Not yet for me.

I am very fucking fat at the moment so I'm firmly placed on losing weight first.

I'm running every day and eating carefully. I'm doing some other exercises too but I want to get to around 90 kilos in bodyweight before I start lifting weights again.

The eventual goal is to be in the best shape I've ever gotten into, both strength wise and in terms of cardio. Will post here when I get into the weights but will be following the thread in the meantime.

I was at my strongest, when I was at my fattest. Although over the next few weeks I will be beating those PR's. But for fat loss, you can still incorporate strength cycles. I was doing 6x3 until then end of my diet, albeit at a much lower KG. But I wanted to maintain (or lose strength the slowest) throughout my diet. I am a HUGE advocate of getting as strong as you can during a diet.

What are your reasonings for not doing strength training on a diet?

In short because I don't want to fall out of a routine. The things I am doing at the moment, I can do anywhere.

I'm moving around a fair bit (within 6 months I'll have 'lived' in 4 different places Vegas, Bangkok, Sukhothai, Macau and Phuket) and gyms aren't always available/nearby/very good (delete as appropriate) but I'm still on a decent program to be able to reach my goal in a few months if I keep the discipline.

It's a little disheartening at the moment, only being able to run a kilometer or so before having to walk a little and then start running again. (It's more like a lame jog than a run btw).

I much prefer to do weights than all this cardio stuff or do them together but once new year hits I'll set myself up at a base somewhere til the summer and then train hard with weights for 6 months and see what happens.

Will be following this diary keenly.

[vegaslover]

I dropped 20lbs from lifting and not much cardio and it has stayed off for over a year and previously it was up and down like a yoyo.

To play devils advocate slightly. I am sure you must have paid more attention to food to keep it off, or your food has now aligned in your energy balance. It not as simple as lift a weight and your fat will melt, hence strongmen. You energy balance has to be in a deficit to lose fat. Muscle obv has a higher metabolic requirement. So that increase expenditure. But if you are knocking back 6000kcal you gotta be pretty dam big to be on a diet. Enter the Mr Olypmia's.

Absolutely. After 15+ years of yoyo dieting, I've come to realise that diet is way more important than exercise for weight management. However, in previous times when I have lost weight it was cardio+low calories, this time its weights+good mix of macronutrients, high protein (and low calories).

Yeah from talking to you, was pretty sure tht was the case. But didn't want someone to skim read this and go, oh its that easy. Few bicep curls a day and I've cracked it, kinda thing. When Sean said shall we put the thread up, I really wanted it to be useful to people. Some of the stuff/advice I see in the other weight loss thread just makes me cry. I just think, you are destined to go round in circles. So I want to try and make sure this thread is a positive to everyone that reads it. Hopefully it will carry on to next year when me and Sean will look to diet down and we can show the other side to things.

What are your current macros?

Think you are trying to over-complicate it iraise and tbh them posts come across like a lot of the 'stuff' you see posted on training websites from so called experts who believe everybody should train like a pro strongman.

Most people overlook the simplicity that lifting heavy weights burns a shed load of calories and in itself provides a decent cardio work-out

[iRaise]

I dropped 20lbs from lifting and not much cardio and it has stayed off for over a year and previously it was up and down like a yoyo.

To play devils advocate slightly. I am sure you must have paid more attention to food to keep it off, or your food has now aligned in your energy balance. It not as simple as lift a weight and your fat will melt, hence strongmen. You energy balance has to be in a deficit to lose fat. Muscle obv has a higher metabolic requirement. So that increase expenditure. But if you are knocking back 6000kcal you gotta be pretty dam big to be on a diet. Enter the Mr Olypmia's.

Absolutely. After 15+ years of yoyo dieting, I've come to realise that diet is way more important than exercise for weight management. However, in previous times when I have lost weight it was cardio+low calories, this time its weights+good mix of macronutrients, high protein (and low calories).

Yeah from talking to you, was pretty sure tht was the case. But didn't want someone to skim read this and go, oh its that easy. Few bicep curls a day and I've cracked it, kinda thing. When Sean said shall we put the thread up, I really wanted it to be useful to people. Some of the stuff/advice I see in the other weight loss thread just makes me cry. I just think, you are destined to go round in circles. So I want to try and make sure this thread is a positive to everyone that reads it. Hopefully it will carry on to next year when me and Sean will look to diet down and we can show the other side to things.

What are your current macros?

Think you are trying to over-complicate it iraise and tbh them posts come across like a lot of the 'stuff' you see posted on training websites from so called experts who believe everybody should train like a pro strongman.

Most people overlook the simplicity that lifting heavy weights burns a shed load of calories and in itself provides a decent cardio work-out

People don't have to train like a strongman at all.

It's a good varied way to do it. But there are loads of options. I have no strongman equipment at work, so I just use the normal stuff. I mean lifting heavy weights. I use strongman as an example to how important nutrition it is.

How many calories do you think you burn in resistance workout?

(Simple is always the best way, but simple A isn't always easy and B isn't always straightforward).

[iRaise]

I used to be able to do 6 reps of 180kg on on squats. Now I my legs feel like jelly after 6 reps of half that.

That is incredibly strong, like crazy crazy strong.

Time to jump in on the thread?

Not yet for me.

I am very fucking fat at the moment so I'm firmly placed on losing weight first.

I'm running every day and eating carefully. I'm doing some other exercises too but I want to get to around 90 kilos in bodyweight before I start lifting weights again.

The eventual goal is to be in the best shape I've ever gotten into, both strength wise and in terms of cardio. Will post here when I get into the weights but will be following the thread in the meantime.

I was at my strongest, when I was at my fattest. Although over the next few weeks I will be beating those PR's. But for fat loss, you can still incorporate strength cycles. I was doing 6x3 until then end of my diet, albeit at a much lower KG. But I wanted to maintain (or lose strength the slowest) throughout my diet. I am a HUGE advocate of getting as strong as you can during a diet.

What are your reasonings for not doing strength training on a diet?

In short because I don't want to fall out of a routine. The things I am doing at the moment, I can do anywhere.

I'm moving around a fair bit (within 6 months I'll have 'lived' in 4 different places Vegas, Bangkok, Sukhothai, Macau and Phuket) and gyms aren't always available/nearby/very good (delete as appropriate) but I'm still on a decent program to be able to reach my goal in a few months if I keep the discipline.

It's a little disheartening at the moment, only being able to run a kilometer or so before having to walk a little and then start running again. (It's more like a lame jog than a run btw).

I much prefer to do weights than all this cardio stuff or do them together but once new year hits I'll set myself up at a base somewhere til the summer and then train hard with weights for 6 months and see what happens.

Will be following this diary keenly.

Yeah that's sound reasoning. Nothin worse than being out of routine. And if you're enjoying it, and it's working you're winning. Keep it up.

[EvilPie]

Did a few squats today for the first time in ages. This thread has me hooked so I'm getting prepared for after I smash you boys at the dumbbells and we move on to legs.

Did 4 sets..... 2 x 8 @ 20kg and 2 x 8 @ 40kg

Beast moding it!!!!

[iRaise]

Did a few squats today for the first time in ages. This thread has me hooked so I'm getting prepared for after I smash you boys at the dumbbells and we move on to legs.

Did 4 sets..... 2 x 8 @ 20kg and 2 x 8 @ 40kg

Beast moding it!!!!

Hahaha, I was thinking this Tuesday on that last set. 'If I am going to lose the 50kg, I have to be prepared for when we move onto legs'.

Will be so interesting seeing your squat progress, cos I think that is THE confidence one. Fear messes us up the most with squats, for me at least.

For muckthenuts, incredibly stiff today. Not quite eating enough post diet yet, so nothing to be shocked about, but it is meant to be deads today, so we shall see.

[iRaise]

I am going to post about vegaslovers point, because I think it is so relevant, and where a lot of people go really wrong. Before I do I just want to clarify I don't even look at training websites. I've never seen a good one, for free at least. I am very lucky to have found a fitness mentoring group where we get webinars/seminars from a huge range of coaches/nutritionists. So I don't have 'a' way. But going to go into a bit of detail about calories/exercise/strength/fatloss later.

[EvilPie]

As a total aside, Matt do you use pre workout/coffee/stimulants?

August I am trying to go caffeine free, and noticed a huge drop in motivation/strength/buzz in the gym.

I've never used caffeine or other stimulants for a pre workout buzz. I've been on fat burners before which are obviously full of caffeine and they didn't seem to affect my training or motivation one bit.

To be honest caffeine has never really had an affect on me apart from the time I was falling asleep on the M1 and stopped for a triple espresso......

I could drink a strong coffee 5 minutes before bed and still get to sleep. Strange but that's just how it seems to be for me.

[EvilPie]

Did a few squats today for the first time in ages. This thread has me hooked so I'm getting prepared for after I smash you boys at the dumbbells and we move on to legs.

Did 4 sets..... 2 x 8 @ 20kg and 2 x 8 @ 40kg

Beast moding it!!!!

Hahaha, I was thinking this Tuesday on that last set. 'If I am going to lose the 50kg, I have to be prepared for when we move onto legs'.

Will be so interesting seeing your squat progress, cos I think that is THE confidence one. Fear messes us up the most with squats, for me at least.

For muckthenuts, incredibly stiff today. Not quite eating enough post diet yet, so nothing to be shocked about, but it is meant to be deads today, so we shall see.

Same here without doubt. It's the knees that worry me the most but I'm hoping I have a solution. I spoke to my physio about my knees last week and he had a bit of a check on them. Apparently there's nothing wrong at all, it's just tight quads and hamstrings pulling on them making them hurt. The fix is plenty of stretching and then they shouldn't hurt.

I made sure that I stretched after each set of squats this morning and then had a really good cool down stretch afterwards. Going to stick with this and see how things progress.

[iRaise]

So many back/knee twinges are ham/quad/glute related. As much as stretching sucks, it is really important in the long run. If you haven't seen 'Limber 11' I couldn't recommend it highly enough. Joe DeFranco does a lot of work with NFL athletes and the WWE guys. So he is in tune to size and performance. I try and do it daily.

I always thought caffeine didn't affect me, until these last few weeks. Maybe it is just coming out of a diet and the change in everything.

What is your current training split Matt?

[iRaise]

I was going to go big on this one, but I am going to try and keep it brief.

Changing your body is basically playing on the rules of thermodynamics. To lose fat/muscle you need to be in a kcal deficit, to gain muscle/fat you need to be in a surplus.

Most people train 3-5 times a week. Most people burn around 20-25% of their DAILY expenditure in the gym.

So for me, I burn around around 6-800kcal per session. Lets say that is 3-4000kcal per week I burn in terms of training. I burn 24,500kcals per week. Only 3-4000 of that is from actual training.

Now I know I train to build more muscle, which increases my daily expenditure, but I hope you see how small training is in terms of expenditure.

And this is seen in daily life. How many people do you see exercise and don't change. Because there nutrition just isn't aligning. So whatever you want to do, you HAVE to align nutrition. This is simple, as simple as it gets (energy in. vs. energy out.).

But it isn't easy, and it isn't straightforward.

If people are serious about changing their body, which I assume everyone on this thread will be, then we have to be thinking better than lets lift this, and not eat that. Because that just isn't applicable over a broad range. Energy balance is very individual.

Disclaimer, obviously lifting stuff is optimal. It creates good movement patters, strong joints, increases muscle mass and a heap of other health benefits. And it makes you (or me at least) feel incredibly happy. But lazy/bro science isn't helping anyone. And too many people struggle with it, because of lazy science. Eat less, move more isn;t always applicable. In fact, in my experience, it is often taken in the extreme and therefore becomes unsustainable.

I hope that makes sense, and Sean has a much better online persona than me, so hopefully when we sees this he may be able to translate it.

[EvilPie]

So many back/knee twinges are ham/quad/glute related. As much as stretching sucks, it is really important in the long run. If you haven't seen 'Limber 11' I couldn't recommend it highly enough. Joe DeFranco does a lot of work with NFL athletes and the WWE guys. So he is in tune to size and performance. I try and do it daily.

I always thought caffeine didn't affect me, until these last few weeks. Maybe it is just coming out of a diet and the change in everything.

What is your current training split Matt?

Will have a look at that and let you know what I think.

Currently doing shoulders Monday, back Tuesday , chest Wednesday and legs Thursday. Arms are tiny and they pretty much take care of themselves so I don't worry about them too much.

I'm doing the Shaun T Focus T25 stuff 7 evenings a week as well although whilst in recovery 4 of those evenings are the stretching workout.

[EvilPie]

I was going to go big on this one, but I am going to try and keep it brief.

Changing your body is basically playing on the rules of thermodynamics. To lose fat/muscle you need to be in a kcal deficit, to gain muscle/fat you need to be in a surplus.

Most people train 3-5 times a week. Most people burn around 20-25% of their DAILY expenditure in the gym.

So for me, I burn around around 6-800kcal per session. Lets say that is 3-4000kcal per week I burn in terms of training. I burn 24,500kcals per week. Only 3-4000 of that is from actual training.

Now I know I train to build more muscle, which increases my daily expenditure, but I hope you see how small training is in terms of expenditure.

And this is seen in daily life. How many people do you see exercise and don't change. Because there nutrition just isn't aligning. So whatever you want to do, you HAVE to align nutrition. This is simple, as simple as it gets (energy in. vs. energy out.).

But it isn't easy, and it isn't straightforward.

If people are serious about changing their body, which I assume everyone on this thread will be, then we have to be thinking better than lets lift this, and not eat that. Because that just isn't applicable over a broad range. Energy balance is very individual.

Disclaimer, obviously lifting stuff is optimal. It creates good movement patters, strong joints, increases muscle mass and a heap of other health benefits. And it makes you (or me at least) feel incredibly happy. But lazy/bro science isn't helping anyone. And too many people struggle with it, because of lazy science. Eat less, move more isn;t always applicable. In fact, in my experience, it is often taken in the extreme and therefore becomes unsustainable.

I hope that makes sense, and Sean has a much better online persona than me, so hopefully when we sees this he may be able to translate it.

Makes perfect sense. I love helping people with diet, training etc. but you spend so much time explaining the intricate details to people who for some reason think they know better you end up just saying "eat less, train more" rather than waste your time.

For you and Sean it's great to discuss in detail because you're both fascinated by the subject. When you start telling other people who seem to take it all in and then go and do something completely different you revert to the lazy responses because that's all a lot of people deserve.

For newcomers I think you should always start with the basics, once they show a genuine interest then put some real time and effort because hopefully it will be appreciated.

For this thread then I agree we should look for better content. I can certainly help with the experience side of it. I was really strong in my younger days and it was all through training with a guy who could bench 565lb, chatting to guys 10+ years older than me who were huge and also from several magazine articles.  My first proper diet was just a copy of a Dorian Yates one that I found in Flex magazine. Dorian told me to eat 1.5g of protein per lb of body weight so that was good enough for me.

I can't offer any science based input but I can tell you what works. I can't tell you why so maybe you could enlighten me

[iRaise]

Thanks Matt, means a lot. I think experience will ALWAYS play its roll. And your opinions will always offer something here. I think the perfect blend is a mix of both. You have gone to places me and Sean haven't, so we will naturally be looking at you for advice and tips. We may not use them all, we may use variations of them but one thing is for certain you have done it. Which I think is so important. So please keep contributing, we may have a difference of opinion at times, but we will get to the same place.

Dorian Yates for example would be the last person I would go to as a coach, because his philosophies are ridiculous, but they undeniably get results. I use some of his training methods, but not to the extremes he did. But we want very different things.

I also thinks Sean knowledge is incredible, and his views/values/beliefs are in my opinion spot on. For a guy not yet in the industry, he will be a welcomed addition because he really does get it. He speaks alot of sense.

I do want this thread to be much more sensible and rounded. No outrageous claims, no cult behaviour, no illogical comments. But experience and science must play a role. And please lets not leave out logic!

On that note, off to deadlift, pretty poor last week 4x4 at 160kg. Hoping for much more today!

[iRaise]

Decent ish deadlift session today.

1x4 160
1x4 165
1x3 167.5
1x2 170

Absolutely bailed on the third 170 which was really annoying, said before the set if I get two I will be happy, and essentially just gave up after two which isn't what I'm after.

Added DB 4x6 in today to see where I am at. 40kg for all sets, shoulder not too painful. Not sure how quick I will progress back up to 44/46 and onwards, but will keep them in until my shoulder says otherwise.