on one spectrum u are complaining about not getting soreness, on the other end u complaining the exercise is "very hard" ???

Now. When it comes to being weak in pullups, there’s two common things that always stand out: the person is weak for his/her bodyweight, and the person never does them. Sometimes they never do them because they suck at them. Sometimes it’s because they’re too focused on chest and biceps to bother.

I have no idea how do u look, if you are overweight in a bad way, losing some weight helps immensely. Unlike most exercises (both db or barbell or kettlebell) you start with a low-end resistance but when it comes to pullup, you’re stuck with your body weight as the low-end of resistance

At least twice a week, work on the skill with unloading or negatives. Follow that up with back, bicep/forearm, and grip training, since bigger and stronger muscles will give you a base to develop the skill of a pullup. You’d benefit from practicing pullups as often as is possible, even if it’s just one rep every time you get near a bar. it's okay to start with a closer grip and get stronger progressively and move to a wider grip, but how wide it is is really subjective

the so called side effects of thermogenic fat burners vary with individuals. and Animal cuts has a Diuretic Complex - diuretics are something taken for a brief period for time (maybe prior to a show day at the beach or whatever) but not something that is suggested on a daily basis.

the most important thing is your diet and caloric expenditure/caloric deficit. You experience weight loss because of the increased amount of work/caloric expenditure in your case (more cardio) or you can achiieve further caloric deficit by cleaning up your diet and calculating your baseline caloric maintenance and subtracting 300 from it or maybe more if you are overweight in a bad way.

You are sweating a lot and feeling more amped up due to the caffeine, these is what 99% of the fat burners on the shelf to convince u that what u r buying is working.

Cardio timing - The best time for cardio is first thing in the morning on an empty stomach. The next best time is after training. PLEASE keep in mind that the differences between the times you performyour cardio is negligible at best. Do it when it best fits your schedule.

and doing it in first thing in the morning almost 100% of the time prevents u from missing it. but at the end of the day, it's all about making less excuses and just doing it.

lastly these are supplements, to supplement a good diet and training regime. not magic.

the six-pack is vital to life huh.

I just recover (it's been 4 weeks and I feel pain free again and squatting and DL again) from a very similar situation to what happened to u, I had a slipped disc @ L4/L5. It happened when I was hitting a Personal Best in Deads and Box Squats and decided to a dumb ass crossfit WOD 2 days after.

"DT"

Five rounds for time of:
155 pound Deadlift, 12 reps
155 pound Hang power clean, 9 reps
155 pound Push jerk, 6 reps

not very smart and in fact very dangerous but I thought I was bulletproof .. sort of. I was in immense pain and I took 2x 400mg ibuprofen to ease of the pain initially.

I started my rehab phase which lasted 14 weeks where I was going through all of stuart McGills materials - low back disorders, THe ultimate back DVD , Ultimate back - assessment and therapeutic exercise DVD and ultimate back fitness and performance book.

For the 1st 4 weeks - I avoided all extension exercises that place the pelvis in an excessive anterior tilt (for e.g. military presses). I change to full body 3 days - take out squats and deads and focus one what I can do like heavy lunges, bulgarian split squat

I do foam roll everyday (full body) and warm up dynamically and static stretch whenever I am free

Foam Rolling:

IT Band/Tensor Fascia Latae
Quads
Hip Flexors
Hamstrings
Adductors
Thoracic Extension
Lats
Piriformis/Glutes (tennis ball)
Calves/Peroneals (tennis ball)
Infraspinatus/Posterior Capsule (tennis ball)

Dynamic Warm-Up:

Supine Bridge
Quadruped Extension-Rotation
Split Stance Adductor Mobilizations
Prone Hips Flexed Rocking
Wall Hip Flexor Mobilization
High Knee Walks
Reverse Lunge w/ Posterolateral Reach
Walking Spiderman
Scapular Wall Slides

Static Stretching:

Wall Hip Flexor Stretch
Lying Knee-to-Knee


Phase 2 (4 Weeks)

I do add more static stretches and advance my dynamic stretches for e.g. supine bridge to one leg supine bridge. At this point I contacted eric cressey and did a one-off one hour phone consultation. It was very expensive but It was one of the best phone call I've ever made in my life.

I still train 3 days a week and 2 GPP/recovery days

Phase 3 (6 weeks)

I do add more static stretches and advance my dynamic stretches even further.

I train 4 days a week (ME Upper, DE lower, DE upper, ME lower). @ this point the pain has subsided a lot. and I do start my john bott's squat rehab program done every other day

A few key points I learnt from Eric and Stuart McGill was
1) Stretch and focus on hip flexors and hamstring
2) More core stability work - planks , mcGill situps, McGill Big 4, single arm DB/KB Carry.
3) Visit a chiropractor that performs a technique called flexion distraction. This technique will distract/stretch the area of dysfunction and relieve the pain tremendously
4) Strengthen ur glutes and lower back by doing reverse hyper and GHR. Of course the accesibility to a reverse hyper is virtually impossible here. I do use ankle weights and lie myself on my high table and do the exercise accordingly.
5) Focus on what U can do, I do focus on getting awesome at the pullups, dips, bench, single leg work.

Hope it helps. And you need to be very very patient, I had to forgo playing basketballs with my mates for the entire period. I had my MRI two weeks ago and everything is finally in full swing again.

This post has been edited by ken86: Aug 28 2010, 12:40 PM

I m curious which chiropractor do u go to ? The one in plaza damas ?

I m sure pullups, dips and bench without the leg drive is okay for now. U need to focus on rehabbing it to prevent it from turning into a chronic type of injury, you have a very long lifting career ahead of you.

Something I do add, I do eat a more caveman like approach/paleo to reduce inflammation. It may be hard for some but I m used to packing all meals like my life depends on it lol. I took off the grains and rely on tubers eg. potato and yams for carb source.

I also started adding 10 - 15g of fish oil capsules plus 3g of glucosamine a day. Keep me posted, I am training a person that suffer the same injury L4/L5 Slippage (stress fracture). It's been 8 weeks now and for leg work, we rely heavily on sleds drag and prowler pushes and his legs looks amazing now and his back is almost gone now.

This post has been edited by ken86: Aug 28 2010, 06:02 PM

The paleo approach varies wildly depending on which sources u refer to, but the basic principles remains

I do eat anything that has a face or is going to have a face (eggs *going to have a face if it's fertile*, horse meat, rabbit, kangaroo, bison, chicken, beef)

Frequent small meals: 4-5 throughout the day

Protein: Palm-sized portion at every meal. Buy a food scale & find out how little 4-8 oz really is.

Keep carbohydrate consumption to vegetables, fruits and tubers: Choose in season and local where possible.

Eliminate processed foods: Although obvious when considering the food exclusions for a Paleo diet, it merits mention if only for eradicating confusion. Processed foods contain trans fats, high fructose corn syrup, and refined carbohydrates. They do not promote health and in no way enhance performance.

Of course stuffs like protein powder, BCAA and creatine is not excluded.

And I do keep dairy away but some would say dairy is fine as milk is very calorie dense perfect for the skinnies. I do make my own Almond Milk to replace Milk and there are no difference in terms of thickness and taste.

Sample PWO shake mmmm

Banana-Berry Smoothie

Ingredients
1 cup almond milk
½ cup frozen blueberries
⅓ cup frozen raspberries
1 small banana
2 scoops of Vanilla Flavoured WHey

Place ingredients into a blender and bend for 1min

Did u start benching right after your right side healed ?

rotator cuff = SITS (blah, infraspinatus, blah and blah)

12 Shoulder Health Factors

Overuse
Rotator Cuff Weakness
Scapular Stability
Poor Glenohumeral ROM
Soft Tissue Restrictions
Poor Thoracic Spine Mobility
Type 3 Acromion
Poor Exercise Technique
Poor Cervical Spine Function
Opposite Hip/Ankle Restrictions
Poor Structural Balance in Programming
Faulty Breathing Patterns

We need to look at all of them to be comprehensive. and I m sure your physiotherapist knows what's best for your situation and muscle atrophy is normal due to under-used. U need to be very patient with injuries, imagine the many more years to come and how important staying healthy and pain free is.

but generally there are two kinds of impingement

External Impingement

Shoulder Problem
• Pain with:
– Overhead motion
– Approximation
– Periods of inactivity
(night, morning)
– Internal Rotation
– Scapular Protraction

If that's the case then
• Eliminate overhead activities
• Modify/Eliminate Horizontal Pressing
• More horizontal pulling, asymptomatic cuff
exercises, scapular stabilization exercises
(improve upward rotation function)
• Gentle stretching for the internal rotators
and pec minor
• Optimize thoracic spine mobility
• Soft tissue work: pec minor/major, upper
traps, levator scap, scalenes, rhomboids,
RTC, lats
• Thoracic Extension and Rotation
• Avoid “at-risk” position: front squat in
place of back squat

and we would progress the exercise in sequence pushups isometric holds->body weightpush up-> yada yada

if it's internal impingement, it encompasses a broad spectrum of more specific diagnoses and pain presentation patterns.

Again this is the interwebz, consult a qualified person and stop benching right away at the first sign of recovery.

why not just buy it and start consuming it ? are u gonna wait till u find some place that offers the same price??

flaxseed can be bought in any supermarket, just look at the organic section. Make sure u grind them if u are adding it in your shake and that stuff don't taste very palatable.

I like to mill my flaxseed and make flax seed flourless bread or focaccia. will post soon.

was it at true fitness jaya 33 yesterday? I pretty sure that was us and that was my friend or maybe me ? I am pretty sure I went up to BW + 90lbs @ the pulllups and dips though , I am in the red shirt btw, to his defence he did bout 80 pullups the day b4 but heh.

yea it was me ! u should have say hi buddy ! I don't train there but both of my gym are closed for 4 freaking days, I've been gym hopping for free trials @ true fitness jaya 33 and celebrity fitness, life's tough being a nomad.

jamis : U mentioned in the morning and I was sure as hell I was the only person carrying the dip belt around. But the amount of cockstares I got while ramping up towards a 105lbs DB bench was just insane. but the gym is so well equipped and beautiful, I wish I could train there but the fees are rather hefty.

This post has been edited by ken86: Sep 13 2010, 12:19 AM

were u the one guiding ur friend and training with him ? Skinny ? nahh .. being in there and showing dedication is a big step man. Just keep it up, lift with some serious effort, don't miss sessions and make better food choices. I am still constantly battling to hit my goal.


likimikuku - Seriously train what is trainable for now, I read something lately that really reflects your current situation and my situation a few months back

"Here's the deal: there's a difference between being hurt and being injured. You sound like you're injured. Boo hoo. I'm injured too, but I wish I had your monthly menstrual-like injury problems: I have a shoulder that's so messed up it hurts to even think about jerking off, and as of yesterday, a gimp hamstring. So I'm limping around with a dead arm to boot; I feel like I've been playing football again.

Now it's easy for you and me to sit around and feel sorry for ourselves; it seems that this is very common amongst people of the world. But since I live and breathe training, I can't imagine sitting on my ass for months and just wait for it to get better. Nope. And I'm not going to resort to some ***** workouts, either. I may be injured, but I'm not hurt.

So what's a man to do? Grow a proper set of nuts and train what is trainable. I learned this from the nomadic strength coach, Buddy Morris (now at the University of Pittsburgh) and it's stuck with me to this day. So instead of completely ignoring my upper body (or now, my lower body), I put myself through some tests to see what I possibly COULD do. This allowed me to focus on something positive, as opposed to the usual pissing and moaning.

Whatever the case, you have to find and experiment with exercises that you CAN do without aggravating the existing injury, and then do them with the same intensity and balls that you approach the "big ones" with. In other words, you have to keep the motivation and the importance in the training. Being injured is not an excuse to trade in your training log for a sweater vest and a walker. There are guys training in the gym who are missing limbs or don't have the use of their legs; what the hell was your excuse again? Your shoulder bothers you?" Jim Wendler

and the body fat scale is highly unreliable, if ur lower back fat or abdominal fat is spilling over your pants line, maybe it's time to choose your food, do some cardio(not total reliance) and train what is trainable. contrary to popular belief, weightlifting can be used for energy systems training/cardio for example barbell complexes, and technique practice of exercises @ 30-50% load, etc

This post has been edited by ken86: Sep 13 2010, 05:17 PM

When dealing with knee pain, we must be very specific about exactly where the pain is.

U should really consult a qualified sports doc or physiotherapist or chiropactor b4 going for orthopaedics (95% of the time they recommend surgery)

After getting some proper assessment then you can correct/attack on those weaknesses.

For instance
1.
patella tendonitis (pain radiating from the middle portion) - Icing it helps alleviate the pain, foam rolling the source of inflammation (u will know the muscle knot upon rolling it and sometimes it could be a tight rectus femoris that is causing the quadriceps to shorten and balled up and placing a lot of tension on the patellar tendon. if that's the case, stretching the rectus femoris both static and dynamically will help strengthen and reduce the pain immensely.

2. pain radiating from the upper portion of the patallear - commonly caused by the IT band balling up and the VMO shuts down. A few things that u can do, foam rolling the IT + Tensor Fascia Latae , strengthening the VMOs using TKE (terminal knee extension - google this on youtube where dave tate conducted an interview with buddy morris), stretching and strengthening the psoas (i.e lifting ur legs beyond 90 degrees stretches the psoas)

as you can see the cause of knee pain is endless, get it assessed and treat it accordingly. I was reading a sciatic nerve injury thread over here and most of the time it's not sciatica, it's mostly referred pain and this was confirm upon the TS consulting a qualified professional.

start treating it before it becomes chronic, avoiding altogether is gonna make it even worse.

The question to cut or bulk is easily one of the most common conundrum. The Answer is surprisingly SIMPLE

Most agonizing over these tend to share some very common characteristics:
- don't have a vagina
- Under 30 Y/o, definitely high teens/early 20s
- Less than 2 years of consistent training
- Obsessed with unrealistic target physique
- A tendency to jump from program to program to program

The answer is very simple -> Go with personal preference. The threshold bodyfat percentage varies greatly for most. Some say bulking should stop at a certain %BF and vice versa.

One surefire way to overcomplicate to get an outsider's opinion (that probably look like crap himself aka mindless folks pitching their two cents). They project their personal preferences and biases including their own personal agendas. Realize this is PERSONAL DECISION and at the end of day, it's you who are dealing with the consequences.

A quick solution to your ultimate question of cut or bulk ?
Get naked and look into the mirror. depending upon the reaction of EWWW or AHHH determines your ultimate cut or bulk decision.


When it comes to muscle gain or fat loss, it makes life much easier to pick a single focus, you can't serve two masters at once. This brings to an important point about beginners worried about cutting or bulking. MOST of them have the luxury merely training progressively and eating sensibly (making better food choices) can see both goals (gain muscle while losing fat) simultaneously. The solution for the pick a program and focus on it and eating to support it.

The term culking which is an alternate to body recomp is possible for beginners and to a certain degree intermediate. Can advanced trainee the magical culking? Of course but it's typically possible after an extended layoff (like u see in the ads OR KEVIN LEVRONE !) or drastic changes in habitual training and nutritional protocol.

Confused beginner should KISS , eat right, train smart and enjoy the results. More advanced trainees, the decision is ultimately your own personal preference and being brutally honest with yourself (the fat 19 inch guns ain;t working)

The end

not a mentor here, just a avid gym goer, hope it helps

typical trainee (over emphasis on building the barrel chest) experience postural changes (i.e. rounded shoulders, forward head posture) caused primarily by overdevelopment (shortening) of the pecs and lats in relation to their antagonist (scapular, upper back muscles and the rhomboids (mid back) to a certain extent)

this can happen also when most bench with a flat back without retracting the shoulder blades

one of the solutions

Strive to keep your push and pull exercises close to a 1:1 ratio (e.g. A1 Bench Press A2 Chest supported Rows/Barbell Rows etc.) Place a great emphasis on rowing motions and also chins/pullups. Balance is the key to shoulder health, if one can perform 3RM Chins (add your body weight and weight added together). If that equals at least 80 percent of your bench 3RM, you’re in good shape. If it's the same, virtual high 5.

some awesome exercise that can help immensely

inverted rows



To do these correctly, you must get your chest to the bar. 75 percent of the shoulder problems can be solved by improving scapular stability. By pulling the bar to your sternum, you will force your scapulas into a retracted position and activate your middle and lower traps—two big, scapular stabilizers. These also teaches on how to retract shoulder blades during the bench press.


scapular wall slides - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXcRFBFuo-c

feel free in incorporate these exercises

---

Added on September 27, 2010, 10:26 pmthe Bigger man wins again .. but heath and ronny rockel (my personal favourite) looks like comic heroes

This post has been edited by ken86: Sep 27 2010, 10:26 PM

true I think I've seen him and you are definitely not seasoned enough for such insane training volume. The answers lies in your pre-lunch super small meal and most subsequent inadequate meal sizes



some nice pre-lunch meal i m eating mmmmmmmmm avocados, 4oz of eye of round, 2 eggs and sauteed mushrooms. mmmmmmmmm

I heard u left and the latest newsletter tomfoolery. I want a refund.

This post has been edited by ken86: Oct 4 2010, 12:24 PM

your bowel issues has zero correlation with whey protein intake, is more like your zero vegetable/plants intake. And soy is alright occasionally but on a daily basis ? too little good fats, animal flesh and zero vege consumption.

it's been proven in many credible research and makes perfect sense that there are no significant association between total fat intake and myriad of diseases associated with it. Dietary fat will be stored as adipose tissue mostly because
prompted by the high amount of carbs ingested but this does not really apply to the postworkout time when your body is like a sponge and is prime for nutrients

I have no idea what are the contents of cod liver oil is but essentially the consumption of fish oil is the DHA and EPA (the good stuff). A good start dosage would be 1-2 grams of DHA and EPA combined. 1 fish oil capsules = 180mg EPA & 120mg DHA

it's not too hard to incorporate more veggies to your diet\

-If you have a juicer, use it to focus on juicing veggies, rather than just fruit. (Keep in mind, I'm NOT suggesting to juice ALL your veggies, as that would result in missing out on all the fiber that vegetables have to offer. This is just something to use as 'food for thought.' You'll find that a juice made predominantly of green veggies and with a hint of fruit, like apple for sweetness, will create a tasty juice that even picky eaters enjoy. It's a great alternative to sugary orange juice!
-Shred Zucchini and carrots and add it to any meal. You won't even noticed
- or these green buns made of spinach , eggs etc with no grains no oats no flour whatsoever. been eating a lot of these with shredded chicken, actually m eating a few now for lunch



This post has been edited by ken86: Oct 6 2010, 01:28 PM

how is it overdose i said a good start would be AT LEAST 1-2g EPA and DHA combined. and u can seldom overdo these kinda of stuffs.

I made the green buns myself using eggs, spinach , almonds and shredded coconut. It can be a great morning bfast with some maple syrup and splenda for those with a sweet tooth.

This post has been edited by ken86: Oct 7 2010, 11:47 AM