Anybody here with experience with both P90X and Insanity? I know they're a little bit different since Insanity I know is more cardio-based with no weights but any preference as to which provides a better program to lose weight and get lean?
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Fitness |OT| A New Era Begins
- Thread starter EssBeeVee
- Start date
I'd personally pick P90X of the two, especially if you don't exercise a lot already (and would like to avoid injury). Most of the people I know that have done insanity have ended up with injuries at some point.
That said, as always, getting lean is a function of what you eat more than what you do.
That said, as always, getting lean is a function of what you eat more than what you do.
The main thing i'm actually trying to do is have a low sugar diet. It's kinda my first step on the road to health and fitness.
its a living hell. I've tried it a few times. At some point i always cave and just get back on the sugar train.
I've given up beating my self up for having bad period where i eat shit full of sugar but i should remind my self that when i decide to get back in to the low sugar way of life, the initial period of getting off it is fucking awful.
From a mental strength point of view and just the tiredness as a result of not having the sugar, its hard.
I limit my "treats" now, and god damn do i look forward to them.
Here's some low sugar protein bars that i think taste really good. They help me keep my desert craving down.
https://www.amazon.com/thinkThin-Pr...=8-3&keywords=think+thin+protein+bars+brownie
https://www.amazon.com/Pure-Protein...ds=pure+protein+chocolate+peanut+caramel&th=1
For the compound movements with barbell just start with the empty bar and add 5kg/10Lb each day for a month; then keep the same progress with deadlifts and squats in the second month and halve the progression in the bench, press and cleans. After those two months you should be good on track to rebuild your better lifts. For pull ups and dips just start doing negatives and gradually replace the negatives; when you reach the amount of reps you aim for with a good form start to add weight. Another good way to rebuild strength in calisthenics/bodyweight exercises is to follow this progression for a month:
https://www.strongfirst.com/the-fighter-pullup-program-revisited/
Don't let that the loss of previous shape (in trems of strenght and/or endurance) put you on bad mood or in a feeling of defeat: at the start most of the recovery is neuromuscular and you'll improve extremely fast. You don't even need to train with max loads to enhance your 1RM.
Oh, i hadn't even thought about something like that. I'll defo check those out.
Cheers for the input. :)
I just need to get my power rack set up again now, but that should be tonight... then back on the train.
OP
OP
ate it all last night. 1980cal. not to mention im not suppose to be consuming dairy but i had some lactaid pills which worked this time. worth it? yes. totallyomg. in LOVE with Target's Unicorn Magic Ice Cream.
Pink Fruity Ice Cream With A Sour Blue Raspberry Swirl, Frosting Swirl and Glitter Candy Bit.
So I was working out today
Did a new Personal Best on both squats and deadlfts, not one rep max but a set of 5.
I went on to try my power cleans and failed miserably to the chagrin of my trainer. I only wanted to try one clean but couldn't get it done. My trainer was pretty annoyed with me and told me to drop the weight by 20 pounds and practice. Which I did and I still wasn't feeling it.
Just a bad end to what was shaping up to be one of my best sessions, but I think I was just tired. Trainer said I wasn't using my legs as much as I should have. Damning thing is I know I could get that weight cleaned but today was just off.
Anyone got any ideas as to what happened?
Did a new Personal Best on both squats and deadlfts, not one rep max but a set of 5.
I went on to try my power cleans and failed miserably to the chagrin of my trainer. I only wanted to try one clean but couldn't get it done. My trainer was pretty annoyed with me and told me to drop the weight by 20 pounds and practice. Which I did and I still wasn't feeling it.
Just a bad end to what was shaping up to be one of my best sessions, but I think I was just tired. Trainer said I wasn't using my legs as much as I should have. Damning thing is I know I could get that weight cleaned but today was just off.
Anyone got any ideas as to what happened?
What happened was most likely you already set PRs for squats and deadlifts which utilize your legs. Your trainer should be ashamed of himself/herself. That's too much heavy compound lifting in one day.
I agree.
That and Power Cleans should be done before Squats and Deadlifts.
Thanks to both of you.
I had no idea that cleans after squats and deadlifts was too much. Albeit we never tried that combination before.
Slight error in my original post, we dropped the weight by 40 pounds not 20. I was so out of it that I only managed to do one rep per set and that was at the lower weight.
I just hope that this doesn't create a mental block for me as I'm usually pretty good on cleans and when something goes bad for me (like say scoring an own goal in a soccer match) it usually takes me a while to get my head back in the game
Power cleans + Squat + Deadlift at the same day while trying to break records... just the idea make me wanna run away from the gym, you are suppose to improve your body not annihilate it, your trainer is clueless and that much work was totally unnecessary, either split the power cleans to other day or the volume suppose to be much less for all exercises, if you go all out trying to break record with your squats your deadliftt and power cleans will suffer
As long as your strength and form improving (or less time needed for rest) you are doing good.
Explosive movements and movements that require the greatest amount of technique to complete properly should be done first. Cleans & Jerks, and Snatches and their derivatives such as Power Cleans or Power Snatches are both. Require explosiveness and good technique to complete; you can muscle through bad technique on Squat or Deadlift but is significantly harder and more dangerous to do so with say Power Cleans. By doing Heavy Squats and Heavy Deadlifts before your Power Cleans a lot of power potential is taken away because of pre exhaustion.
Your trainer sounds pretty incompetent. This is basic stuff.
From a competent trainer unless you have a good sense of your body and can learn from just watching people.
In that case, YouTube is a great resource. And you're involved in a community where you can upload video of you doing the movement and we can give you feedback and cueing.
And do cleans with the smallest bar in the gym to start, just to get the movement down.
For Cleans before you even get started on the lift make sure you have the requisite mobility to do the Front Rack position. Wrists, Long Head of Triceps, Shoulders, and Lats. You might need to mobilize before each session. This isn't as big of deal for Power Cleans because of the height of the catch but for Full Cleans having good hip and ankle mobility is important. Focus on proper technique before adding weight, for Cleans use the empty bar
USA Weightlifting uses a top/down approach of teaching the Clean:
Power From the Hips
Power From the Knees
Power From Floor
If you want to progress to Full Cleans then add:
Power from Floor + Front Squat
Full Clean
Breaking it down like this allows to you learn/feel how to do each pull of the lift how its supposed to done instead of some bastardized version. Also for citation purposes I learned this from my USAW LV1 Sports Performance Coaching course and is straight out of the manual we were all given.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bc-0lFV1KWQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EC3-JY8Ojq4
This what a Power Clean with poor mobility and technique looks like but you have enough brute strength to launch the weight up. Do not do this. You will hurt something very quickly.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BWCO92FAdFO/?taken-by=beast_in_i
I couldn't bring my elbows up so all that force goes into your wrists, it should land on your shoulders with your hands merely guiding it into place. You can also see I catch it on my tip toes instead of flatfooted which causes insane pressure on your ankle and knee with enough weight. This can be partially reconciled by fixing my front rack which would put the center of gravity further back, but also weightlifting shoes or increased ankle mobility would help a lot too.
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Man, sometimes the notifications just don't work on this site. Anyway, I'm thinking pizza, chips, and maybe jellybeans for dinner tonight. I'm dangerously underweight for my size after all.
Decided to change things up with pull ups and take a break from weighted. Just did 150 in 44 minutes in 14 sets. I'm exhausted.
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I mostly lurk on this forum, but I figured I should start posting here since I frequent it quite often. I've been doing the T Nation Boring But Big Challenge for the past two months (Almost done with the third one). Do you guys have any suggestions on what should I move on to? I have been thinking of running NSuns for a bit and then swapping to Building The Monolith.
Any advice on how to balance both calesthenics and free weight workouts. I'm currently on Starting Strength and am gonna take a little break from it and do mostly calesthenics for a week with some of free weight barbell exercises in there (squat, deadlift, press, bench press... Pretty much my SS workout but spread out lol).
Just gonna try it out and see how I like it.
Just gonna try it out and see how I like it.
I would just drop back 3-4 weeks of progression on your Squat Bench, Press, Dead, and add in what you want to add, and then continue on like normal
My rack is back up, but to be honest I'm really not happy with how the room is laid out. I can work with it for now, but it's really oppressive in there as everything is right on top of everything (and the lighting is shit).
I'm back to doing my 20 mins of yoga + pushups in the morning, so I'm hoping I can stick to that for a while and work back into my old routine. Baby steps.
I'm back to doing my 20 mins of yoga + pushups in the morning, so I'm hoping I can stick to that for a while and work back into my old routine. Baby steps.
Doing a full circuit today. This should be nice since it has been a while since the last time I got to do one since my schedule has been all over the place.
Also the fasting thing has been working out fine for most of the part. Had a weak moment the other day when my family bought Nutella shakes one day but other than that Im keeping strong and my eating habits have lowered considerably. Sugar intake has been lowered and Im pretty happy that im starting to see some body progress in a month even if no one will notice the details
Also the fasting thing has been working out fine for most of the part. Had a weak moment the other day when my family bought Nutella shakes one day but other than that Im keeping strong and my eating habits have lowered considerably. Sugar intake has been lowered and Im pretty happy that im starting to see some body progress in a month even if no one will notice the details
Dude, getting 385 without training legs in 2 months is pretty amazing.
OP
OP
im okay about it. my focus then and now is still weightless. so i went in not expecting the same strength lol. but it's still good overall.
You can hold into muscles for a while if your diet (protein) is high enough
Went 3 weeks with 0 training day while traveling and lost 0 power
Got sick real hard for 3 days and barely ate anything and lost too much power that it took me almost a whole month to get where I was
Went 3 weeks with 0 training day while traveling and lost 0 power
Got sick real hard for 3 days and barely ate anything and lost too much power that it took me almost a whole month to get where I was
I was going to do heavier weight for sets of 3, but the first set made my knee feel not-right and I dropped down to do a high rep set. Which ended up being my only set of squats yesterday because it stole my soul.
Speaking of, I'm remembering why I stopped lifting heavy all those years ago. Joints and muscles just ache all the time, plus I feel like I'm lifting at the edge of my limit on squats, deadlifts, and the like (I know intellectually I'm not, but it can feel like it; a week ago I was pulling 475 and one of the reps I felt myself rocking back on my heels, and is that ever an oh shit moment).
Maybe this will be when I get serious about lifting lighter and cutting my bodyweight down. We'll see.
I started a new program and on week 6 it has an optional deload week, how do you guys approach deload? Should i only do it if i feel like i need the rest? Or should i take the deload week because my body might need it more than i think i do?
Were you timing the sets off just doing them when you felt your body was ready?
Agreed. I've done similar. The firat 50 fly. The next 50 not so much. The last 50-ish are terrible
Exactly. Those last 50 were a struggle. My forearms felt like they were gonna pop
It was the 14 sets that pushed me over. Was planning on doing 15 sets of 10 but decided midway through to push to get 150 in 14.
Hey fitera, I can't do a pull-up. I'm losing weight but what lifts should I do so I can get that going?
Pull ups are mostly back, so I'd say barbell rows, deadlifts. Also, you can cheat your way to the top of the pullup and lower yourself as slow as possible. It's quite effective.
You can do hammer curls for your biceps and forearms too.
Ok thanks, I'm assuming it's because I'm really overweight 6'2 235. But it can't help to be proactive while I lose.
I take a complete week off myself. For backstory, I started hitting the weights right around a year ago. Did a few things that lead to finding a full body program that was recommended for beginners. So three days a week, I did a full body workout with the other four days off and everything went great. I intentionally started off pretty light but even going up by 5, I still racked up weight pretty quickly. At some point, I started feeling beat to hell. So instead of Monday, Wednesday, Friday, I tried taking two days rest between full body workouts. So Monday, Thursday, Sunday, then Wednesday, etc. Which worked for a brief time.
Looking at my old sheets, it looks like I did about nine weeks solid of the first iteration of my three day a week full body workout. Then I did four weeks of the two days between workouts. The problem was I kept feeling beat to hell. I'd pretty much gone thirteen weeks solid. There were some skipped days here and there, but not many and I did note them, skipped, not feeling well.
I took a few days off and worked up a four day a week split that spread the volume out and started doing that in four week chunks, with the fifth week off. I've since gone to five week runs with the sixth off. Typically, I can tell my rest week is coming up because I get odd joint pains, feel tired more than usual, start dreading my lifting days, and sleep worse. This wasn't bad at lighter weights, but as I get heavier, it all takes its toll.
When I start my rest week, I'm usually pretty beat up feeling and by midweek am back to feeling good. By weeks end I'm ready to get back to it and go hard. My mental focus is back and my body feels really good. I'm also mid forties and pretty much just starting out so my situation may be a bit different.
So full week off vs deload. Initially, when I was trying to figure out why I was so beat up, I ran across various youtubers advocating either a deload or a week off. Some even did a deload week followed by a reload but they were far more advanced than I am and needed it. Anyway, I chose a full week off just to take the occasional break mentally and physically. The thought of even half weight just isn't fun sometimes.
The idea of the extra rest\lighter weight is to refill your recovery bucket and keep from feeling beat up. In theory anyway. I'm definitely not as young as I used to be and that week off helps me. Ymmv...
Certainly the lighter you are, the easier pull-ups will be. But you can do pull-ups at 235. I'm 5'9 250 right now (I do want to drop down) and Saturday I did pull-ups for 8 sets of 8, 5 sets of 5, and 3 sets of 3. And then I came in on Sunday and deadlifted.
My point is that you don't want to just tell yourself you can't do something. Most likely, yes you can.
I've been on this middleground for so long lol I need to step it up and drop the final 10-15 lbs