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Fitness |OT8| Dad Bods, Bulge Swelfies, and Wait...Do you even lift bro?

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Seems like everyone in here is huge into lifting, so maybe this isn't the best place to ask about Planet Fitness, but I'm going to anyway.

I'm a big dude. 270lbs down from 311 in March, and this is mostly due to dedication at the gym... mostly cardio, but weight-lifting on off days.

I'm a member at my local Snap Fitness, but they're charging me $45 a month (I think they snuck a $10/month surcharge on me at some point) and now I have a Planet Fitness opening up very close by with a $1 to join, $10/month (with a $30 annual fee), with the promise of staying at that fee as long as I stay an active member. This is supposedly an early-join fee, and the offer will end before they actually open so I have to make the decision sight unseen. Everything they say sounds great, and this will save me more than $30 a month, so I want to jump right in, but I thought I'd get some feedback here first.

Any thoughts on Planet Fitness for a cardio guy like me? I know about their 'lunk' alarm, but I don't need to worry about that at my level.
 

ILoveBish

Member
Long weekend is over. My god, I got home at 3-6am everyday basically. Got some decent sleep last night, feel good but it's deload week. And glad for it. Body feels really beat up.

No dates till Thursday, then Friday we're going to big bear for the weekend. I'm be drinking and eating like a beast. Also, back down to 220.8 this morning. Still doing really well on that front.
 
For some reason I was feeling bummed about lack of gains (Seriously, switching gym was really bad for my self esteem)

Then I realized I've only been doing this for about 5 weeks.

I've only been doing Squats, Bench and Deadlift. I think it's time to start adding some more.

Add a shoulder exercise like OHP and maybe an ab exercise like leg raises - but that should be it for now. You really should've seen some improvement by 5 weeks out - are you going 3 days a week?
 

lenovox1

Member
Seems like everyone in here is huge into lifting, so maybe this isn't the best place to ask about Planet Fitness, but I'm going to anyway.

I'm a big dude. 270lbs down from 311 in March, and this is mostly due to dedication at the gym... mostly cardio, but weight-lifting on off days.

I'm a member at my local Snap Fitness, but they're charging me $45 a month (I think they snuck a $10/month surcharge on me at some point) and now I have a Planet Fitness opening up very close by with a $1 to join, $10/month (with a $30 annual fee), with the promise of staying at that fee as long as I stay an active member. This is supposedly an early-join fee, and the offer will end before they actually open so I have to make the decision sight unseen. Everything they say sounds great, and this will save me more than $30 a month, so I want to jump right in, but I thought I'd get some feedback here first.

Any thoughts on Planet Fitness for a cardio guy like me? I know about their 'lunk' alarm, but I don't need to worry about that at my level.

Go for it. It'll have the equipment you need, and most Snap's are tiny anyways, so I'm assuming you'll have far more machines accessible during the days you workout at the PF than at Snap. I guarantee the PF will have an entire floor dedicated to cardio equipment, too, plus a spin class and a Zumba class.

They're both likely 24 hrs, but from the sounds of it the PF will actually be closer, giving the Planet Fitness a higher convenience factor. And it's also going to be cheaper month to month. You got little to lose.
 
Go for it. It'll have the equipment you need, and most Snap's are tiny anyways, so I'm assuming you'll have far more machines accessible during the days you workout at the PF than at Snap. I guarantee the PF will have an entire floor dedicated to cardio equipment, too, plus a spin class and a Zumba class.

They're both likely 24 hrs, but from the sounds of it the PF will actually be closer, giving the Planet Fitness a higher convenience factor. And it's also going to be cheaper month to month. You got little to lose.

Your definitely right about the size difference. My Snap is tiny, and the space that PF is moving into is easily twice as large. I should give Snap a chance to meet the price, but I highly doubt they'll be able to.
 

BumRush

Member
Seems like everyone in here is huge into lifting, so maybe this isn't the best place to ask about Planet Fitness, but I'm going to anyway.

I'm a big dude. 270lbs down from 311 in March, and this is mostly due to dedication at the gym... mostly cardio, but weight-lifting on off days.

I'm a member at my local Snap Fitness, but they're charging me $45 a month (I think they snuck a $10/month surcharge on me at some point) and now I have a Planet Fitness opening up very close by with a $1 to join, $10/month (with a $30 annual fee), with the promise of staying at that fee as long as I stay an active member. This is supposedly an early-join fee, and the offer will end before they actually open so I have to make the decision sight unseen. Everything they say sounds great, and this will save me more than $30 a month, so I want to jump right in, but I thought I'd get some feedback here first.

Any thoughts on Planet Fitness for a cardio guy like me? I know about their 'lunk' alarm, but I don't need to worry about that at my level.

There is nothing wrong with PF for you. If you're on a budget it's better than not going for sure. They have a ton of cardio machines, DB, cables, etc. and after a while if you want to get more serious about a weightlifting program you can explore a home gym, membership at a weightlifting-oriented gym, etc.
 
Filing my hands has to be the strangest thing to come of doing a ton of lifting. Still, if it keeps me from ripping my calluses then it's worth the hassle.
 
When it comes down to it dedication for the gym has to come from within but I agree with you about this place making it easier to channel that motivation. I credit this place and all the positivity for making health and weightlifting an easy lifestyle to follow. This place is a hidden gem! Who would have thought a sub forum of a videogame community would have such a superb fitness group? Pretty cool.
A good place it is!

Great to hear!! Keep it up...you'll knock this goal down then it's on to the next one.
Thanks, Bum!
 

pixelation

Member
English is not my native language so please be patient with me, i want to ask you guys about the effectiveness of those things you wrap around your waist to burn fat in that particular region... do those things work?, i ask because i seem to have a bit of stubborn fat in that area and the fucker won't go away no matter how hard i try and i am contemplating the thought of getting one of those, anyone here ever used one of those?
 
My calluses are terrible and I always end up ripping them. Whats the benefit of filing?

Smoother, smaller and flatter. They wont catch on things, and they wont rip. Funnily enough, I was just reading about people using dremels to file them... a little hardcore for my tastes.

I might try this method at some point: http://www.beastskills.com/removing-calluses/

English is not my native language so please be patient with me, i want to ask you guys about the effectiveness of those things you wrap around your waist to burn fat in that particular region... do those things work?,
No, they don't. Sorry. Short of liposuction or cryolipolysis, there are no shortcuts.
 

Matugi

Member
What are y'alls rep schemes like when you max out? I was shooting for 300 paused on bench and decided to do a rep at 290, and it went up like butter, but I rolled back at the sticking point on 300 and failed the rep and was thinking that I may have simply exhausted myself with that unnecessary rep at 290. I was supposed to make the jump from 280x2x2 to 300x1x1 today so I'm just going to treat it like 290x1x1 was an intermediary step and shoot for it again next week.
 

sphinx

the piano man
boo,

I go do my pull-ups and on my second set I start having a weird feeling on my inner right pec.... I guess I didn't warm up like I should have and DOMS from last chest day weren't completely gone. So I think I have a small tear, it's small but it caused me to stop right there and on my tracks.

fuck, a chest injury on a back day -_- I thought I had been through it all but I guess I was wrong.
 

ILoveBish

Member
Deload week going well, I feel really zapped but hit everything easy. I'm liking the 5 forward, 3 back setup for 531, so I might do that.
 

Lashley

Why does he wear the mask!?
English is not my native language so please be patient with me, i want to ask you guys about the effectiveness of those things you wrap around your waist to burn fat in that particular region... do those things work?, i ask because i seem to have a bit of stubborn fat in that area and the fucker won't go away no matter how hard i try and i am contemplating the thought of getting one of those, anyone here ever used one of those?

Cut your calories and be patient. Can't fat spot, stubborn fat will go eventually.
 

Extollere

Sucks at poetry
I just joined a gym and have no idea what the fuck I'm doing. I've been inactive for years, and haven't worked out in a very long time. I'm not overweight (160lbs, 6ft), but feel hideously out of shape and weak. I've been using the machines with a low setting, and even that feels hard. After that, I switch to cardio and run or whatever for half an hour (is that bad to do, I don't even know...)

I'm not really trying to bulk up, or put on muscle necessarily... I just want to feel healthy and not sit at home all day. I feel like if I don't start exercising now, eventually my health will plummet. I read some of the OP, but don't full understand everything. Tips, pointers, on where a guy like me should start, or what I should be focusing on?
 

BumRush

Member
I just joined a gym and have no idea what the fuck I'm doing. I've been inactive for years, and haven't worked out in a very long time. I'm not overweight (160lbs, 6ft), but feel hideously out of shape and weak. I've been using the machines with a low setting, and even that feels hard. After that, I switch to cardio and run or whatever for half an hour (is that bad to do, I don't even know...)

I'm not really trying to bulk up, or put on muscle necessarily... I just want to feel healthy and not sit at home all day. I feel like if I don't start exercising now, eventually my health will plummet. I read some of the OP, but don't full understand everything. Tips, pointers, on where a guy like me should start, or what I should be focusing on?

A little bit of advice...think about your goals first. Do you want to put on weight? Maintain? Etc. That will dictate the most important thing...your diet. As for cardio, you're wasting your time "running or whatever for 30 minutes". Try 15 minutes of HIIT to start (high intensity interval training...basically, you alternate between sprinting and jogging). As for lifting, start with a program in the OP such as SS or 5X5. We'll be here to help along the way.
 

Extollere

Sucks at poetry
A little bit of advice...think about your goals first. Do you want to put on weight? Maintain? Etc. That will dictate the most important thing...your diet. As for cardio, you're wasting your time "running or whatever for 30 minutes". Try 15 minutes of HIIT to start (high intensity interval training...basically, you alternate between sprinting and jogging). As for lifting, start with a program in the OP such as SS or 5X5. We'll be here to help along the way.

I don't know if I have any goals (I don't even know if I should have any goals)... maybe that's part of the problem. I want to get into a routine where I'm putting some good exercise into my schedule maybe 3 or 4 times a week, but I'm entirely new to this. Seriously. I sit on my ass and work on the computer all day. I'm up for anything (if I can do it), that will make me feel more fit and healthy basically.

When I was a bit younger, I used to run a few miles every day. I've heard that cardio isn't really the best way to stay fit, but I still enjoy running. I like the idea of lifting too, but I really dislike the idea of wasting time doing something that isn't really beneficial to me - or less beneficial than something else.

Starting out is rough... because I feel like I should be able to lift more than what I can, but even a small amount of weight feels ridiculously heavy.
 

Wulfric

Member
Yippie! So today marks the completion of week 4 of SL for me. It feels great to lift 50-60 lbs more than I started with and weigh only 5 lbs more. I'm a little nervous about the campus gym closing on the 23rd, don't really have a plan for that one.

Week 0 --> Week 4
Squats: 100 lbs --> 150 lbs
Overhead Press: 45 lbs --> 70 lbs
Deadlift: 95 lbs --> 145 lbs
Bench Press: 85 lbs --> 120 lbs
Barbell Row: 60 lbs --> 75 lbs
My Weight: 156 lbs --> 161 lbs

The starting weights might be off since I didn't take into account the bar weight back then, and my barbell row is not where it should be since I skipped it twice in the first week according to my spreadsheet, smh. Still happy to see everything trending upwards.
 

Chocobro

Member
Tore a callus for the first time despite taking care of my hands. It happened after I finished my snatch pulls :( At least most of the skin ripped off clean and there was no bleeding. Coach gave me a small roll of athletic tape to use for the rest of this week's weightlifting.

I didn't lift for close to a month, unfortunately. Went to South Korea, Japan, and Hong Kong for a total of two weeks, had jet lag for a week, and my coach was out for Thanksgiving week. Feels good to be lifting again.

Also started a new meal plan. Greek yogurt by itself is pretty bad...
 

Wulfric

Member
Jeez Chocobro, sounds like you've got a killer schedule. What do you do, if you don't mind me asking?

I like to throw raspberries in my greek yogurt. Either that, or a teaspoon of natural honey.
 

Chocobro

Member
Jeez Chocobro, sounds like you've got a killer schedule. What do you do, if you don't mind me asking?

I like to throw raspberries in my greek yogurt. Either that, or a teaspoon of natural honey.

I've been job searching since the end of August, so currently unemployed. Was in Idaho for eight months doing a process engineering internship, which took a few months of job searching after graduating from university. My parents figured it would be a good time to go on a vacation while I'm not working yet and we decided on those places in Asia.

I would imagine I will need quite a bit of berries to eat 227g of green yogurt a day haha. I might just throw it into my smoothie since it's a bit on the runny side. Those Chobani and other greek yogurts with fruits are so much easier to eat but they don't exactly fit into my macros.
 

BumRush

Member
I don't know if I have any goals (I don't even know if I should have any goals)... maybe that's part of the problem. I want to get into a routine where I'm putting some good exercise into my schedule maybe 3 or 4 times a week, but I'm entirely new to this. Seriously. I sit on my ass and work on the computer all day. I'm up for anything (if I can do it), that will make me feel more fit and healthy basically.

When I was a bit younger, I used to run a few miles every day. I've heard that cardio isn't really the best way to stay fit, but I still enjoy running. I like the idea of lifting too, but I really dislike the idea of wasting time doing something that isn't really beneficial to me - or less beneficial than something else.

Starting out is rough... because I feel like I should be able to lift more than what I can, but even a small amount of weight feels ridiculously heavy.

You should make a goal to maintain weight, which means you'll have to eat more (clean, but more) to get there with your new workout schedule. There's a calorie counting site in the OP that's great and will help with your diet.

As to your point about lifting not doing much for you, it's entirely not true (as I'm sure you know). If you do starting strength and start with the bar only, you'll VERY QUICKLY be increasing the weight. Add in some super set work and HIIT and your workouts will kick your ass. Trust me.
 

Extollere

Sucks at poetry
You should make a goal to maintain weight, which means you'll have to eat more (clean, but more) to get there with your new workout schedule. There's a calorie counting site in the OP that's great and will help with your diet.

As to your point about lifting not doing much for you, it's entirely not true (as I'm sure you know). If you do starting strength and start with the bar only, you'll VERY QUICKLY be increasing the weight. Add in some super set work and HIIT and your workouts will kick your ass. Trust me.

I didn't mean to say lifting wouldn't benefit me - I was speaking about exercise generally. Uhg I put it in the same sentence... not what I meant.

Anyways, what do you mean when you say maintain weight?
 

BumRush

Member
I didn't mean to say lifting wouldn't benefit me - I was speaking about exercise generally. Uhg I put it in the same sentence... not what I meant.

Anyways, what do you mean when you say maintain weight?

Not lose weight. You've been sedentary for a while and you're at 160. If you lift / HIIT 4x a week and eat the same amount you'll lose weight (which wouldn't be good at your height).

Just dive in...try Starting Strength. Give it a couple months before you even consider giving up. Pop back in and we'll help with supplemental lifts, etc. Be excited...if you stick with it you'll see a TON of progress.
 

Extollere

Sucks at poetry
Not lose weight. You've been sedentary for a while and you're at 160. If you lift / HIIT 4x a week and eat the same amount you'll lose weight (which wouldn't be good at your height).

Just dive in...try Starting Strength. Give it a couple months before you even consider giving up. Pop back in and we'll help with supplemental lifts, etc. Be excited...if you stick with it you'll see a TON of progress.

Lifting will cause you to lose weight?? Gawd... this is all so new to me, I don't know any of this shit. Okay. I will look at the starting strength stuff and come back if needed. Thanks for your replies!
 

lenovox1

Member
Lifting will cause you to lose weight?? Gawd... this is all so new to me, I don't know any of this shit. Okay. I will look at the starting strength stuff and come back if needed. Thanks for your replies!

Simply put, anything that increases the amount of calories required for your body to function, your expedinture, while your taking in the exact same amount of calories would cause you to lose weight. Walking half an hour every day would cause you to lose (very, very modest) amounts of weight.
 

Extollere

Sucks at poetry
Simply put, anything that increases the amount of calories required for your body to function, your expedinture, while your taking in the exact same amount of calories would cause you to lose weight. Walking half an hour every day would cause you to lose (very, very modest) amounts of weight.

So you could technically lift weights and not put on any muscle mass? Is it possible for someone to lift weights with the express purpose of losing weight? That's so weird. I always associated weight lifting with gaining weight, and like, doing cardio with losing weight.
 

Fox318

Member
So you could technically lift weights and not put on any muscle mass? Is it possible for someone to lift weights with the express purpose of losing weight? That's so weird. I always associated weight lifting with gaining weight, and like, doing cardio with losing weight.
Actually by building muscle you will be able to raise your resting metabolic rate and burn more calories.

This making it easier to lose weight.
 

JoeNut

Member
I've got to the point where I barely consider weight change to be of any importance. In a year I have lost 14lbs, then put 14 back on, then lost 7lbs again to make my 7lbs lighter than when I started. The biggest thing for me is how different I look, weight is just a number like age is.
 

despire

Member
Has anyone here heard or use Legion's supplements?

https://legionathletics.com/

I know they are legit but I just wanted to bring this stuff to your attention since it's not that well known yet.

Basically it's a supplement company founded by the Muscle for Life guy Mike Matthews that doesn't try to bullshit you. They want to change the supplement industry by actually doing things the way they should be done.

From their site:
-All ingredients backed by published scientific literature
-All dosages at clinically effective levels
-No artificial sweeteners, dyes, or unnecessary fillers

If I were living in the US I'd probably use their stuff mostly but the postages are sooo expensive to Europe. Though they are supposed to start selling their stuff from Europe at some point too. Would love to get my hands on that multivitamin or fat burner they have..




Dumb question. Looking at the amount of protein on the first post... Is that cooked or uncooked?

I'm trying to weigh my chicken lol

Not sure which part you refer to, but generally protein numbers in meat are always from uncooked unless stated otherwise.
 

ILoveBish

Member
I don't use any supps other then creatine. I upped it to 10g a day and feel good there. I'm even taking it with me to big bear this weekend lol. Otherwise, just eat right and lift. Done.

I got a 128gb microsd for my note 4, and so I'm transferring all my old pics to it. I'm glad I took pics of so many of my meals and selfies, I now have a documented timeline of where I was diet wise throughout the journey.

Things with my girl are escalating at a rapid pace. Ring in January is extremely likely. We're just batshit insane for each other. I just could not be more happy. If any of you have given up. Don't. I went 16 years without anyone by choice. And I ended up with my exact match to the T. It does happen. Keep up hope.

We all can't be cooters, but we can be the best versions of ourselves when you put in the time and work.
 

despire

Member
I don't use any supps other then creatine. I upped it to 10g a day and feel good there. I'm even taking it with me to big bear this weekend lol. Otherwise, just eat right and lift. Done.

I just take creatine and the occasional whey shake and BCAA because I train fasted. Then multivitamin, magnesium, vitamin D are my staples (just to be sure).

I don't generally take or endorse taking too many supplements because most of them don't work anyway and you don't know what's inside them.

That said, if I could get my hands on Legion's stuff, I would be interested in some of them products because apparently they are really good. I've been following Mike Matthews' work for a while now and trust in what he does.

I would use their multivitamin instead of the generic I use now, because it has more of the stuff we actually need and less of the stuff we don't need that much. Also since I'm still cutting, I would definitely take their fat burner(s) since it actually works pretty well apparently. Too bad that yohimbine and some of the other stuff is banned in EU for some reason, so I can't ever get my hands on it.. I think Mike says that it should give you around half a pound of more fat loss per week. Would definitely take that lol


Things with my girl are escalating at a rapid pace. Ring in January is extremely likely. We're just batshit insane for each other. I just could not be more happy. If any of you have given up. Don't. I went 16 years without anyone by choice. And I ended up with my exact match to the T. It does happen. Keep up hope.

We all can't be cooters, but we can be the best versions of ourselves when you put in the time and work.

That's nice to hear man. I remember when you started talking about arranged marriage the first time a few months ago and people were kinda surprised for that. Good to hear that things are going so well and your parents made such a good choice :)
 

Mask

Member
Haven't been in here for a while, but I just hit under 190lbs!

I'm actually noticing the difference now, and I'm still dropping pounds pretty fast tbh. I was considering buying an exercise bike because I'm really not motivated enough to keep hitting my local gym right now, good idea?

Also, things have been stepping up with an online friend. I may have a boyfriend. It's a weird feeling, because I really didn't expect to be Bisexual, but that's the way it goes!
 
Lifting will cause you to lose weight??

Well, it can, if you've got a lot of fat to lose. You will gain muscle weight, lose fat. How that changes the number on the scale can vary.

I'm not sure where I started out in terms of muscle mass, but I was 245 when I started lifting. After eight months, I was 35 pounds lighter, but I had actually lost more than 35 lbs of fat, and put on some muscle. I just didn't know how much. So I got a baseline body fat test (called a hydrostatic weighing) and after the next 12 months I got another and saw that I had 10 more pounds of lean mass, but lost 29 lbs. of fat. I went from 245 to 190 on the scale, but I had also been gaining weight throughout. Does that make sense?
 
I generally don't see the point in things like that. They don't magically target fat per se, all they really do is increase your metabolism, allowing you to eat a bit more than you could otherwise.

Useful if you struggle with diet adherence I guess.
 

despire

Member
I generally don't see the point in things like that. They don't magically target fat per se, all they really do is increase your metabolism, allowing you to eat a bit more than you could otherwise.

Useful if you struggle with diet adherence I guess.

Well it helps you burn fat which in turn makes your cuts shorter. Not necessary by any means but it helps.

Also Europe is fucked since ephedrine is banned as well. We still have synephrine though..
 
Yes, but my point is that it helps you burn fat in much the same way that dropping 100 calories would, not through any specific mechanism that targets fat cells.
 
Has anyone here heard or use Legion's supplements?

https://legionathletics.com/

I know they are legit but I just wanted to bring this stuff to your attention since it's not that well known yet.

Basically it's a supplement company founded by the Muscle for Life guy Mike Matthews that doesn't try to bullshit you. They want to change the supplement industry by actually doing things the way they should be done.

From their site:
-All ingredients backed by published scientific literature
-All dosages at clinically effective levels
-No artificial sweeteners, dyes, or unnecessary fillers

If I were living in the US I'd probably use their stuff mostly but the postages are sooo expensive to Europe. Though they are supposed to start selling their stuff from Europe at some point too. Would love to get my hands on that multivitamin or fat burner they have...

Naw, they're just trying to stand out with fancy buzzwords. Don't buy into the hype.
 

BumRush

Member
Lifting will cause you to lose weight?? Gawd... this is all so new to me, I don't know any of this shit. Okay. I will look at the starting strength stuff and come back if needed. Thanks for your replies!

As lenovox said, if you don't change your caloric intake and you're burning more calories, you'll put on muscle mass but most likely lose weight. When you go from sedentary to active, it doesn't matter what you're doing, your caloric balance will have shifted.
 
Naw, they're just trying to stand out with fancy buzzwords. Don't buy into the hype.

I just checked the ingredients... I make my own pre-workout (funnily enough, also based on scientifically backed numbers), and I wouldn't be comfortable with the amount of beta alanine that they use. At 3g I found the pins and needless to be fairly unpleasant, so I'd hate to think what 4.8g would feel like (obviously this varies on body weight etc)... and that's just a single serving, they reckon two servings for 45mins +... which would melt my face.

All of their numbers look a touch on the high side to me. I'm guessing the broscience "more is better" approach rather than really basing it on the studies. Possibly because they've taken the daily doses and crammed them into a single serving (many of the studies had people taking the supplements multiple times a day).

The only one I've seen that comes particularly close to the scientifically backed dosages is Pre JYM.
 
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