The UnionVGF Weightlifting/Workout Thread

I started dieting in August 2014 and working out in September 2014. Was doing hardcore strength and conditioning training. I wanted to puke and pass out every single class but you know what? It was worth it! Sh!t was so tough I didn't register again but i Joined the gym in November (Dieted in October with moderate physical activities). I went down from 110-108 kg's to 90 kg's (6'2"). Seems too much weight for such a short time but I'm not starving myself or anything. I'm just taking in around 1600 - 1700 calories a day with a cheat meal once a week and I feel excellent. I have been working on my muscles at the gym and I am making great progress towards the physique I'm shooting for.

The hardest part for was to just start. For somebody that has absolutely no clue about calorie counting and healthy food it was really difficult cus I just didn't know where to start. I was never really an athletic person as well so that first month of exercise was killing me! My advise is for people in the same shoe to just jump in, even if you feel blind as a bat. Just do it and you'll pick up on it in no time. Motivation is extremely important as well!

Now I'm really feeling better in general and my old clothes are huge on me. I think I will be sticking to this clean eating for the rest of my life. I still have ways to go but at the progress I'm making I'm not that worried.

PS. Would be nice to have a health/nutrition thread so peeps can discuss and ask questions. I'm still pretty green when it comes to this sh!t so I'd love some advice from members!
 
Today will be the first time back in the gym in a little over a week. I need it. The past week and a half I've barely moved.
 
I started dieting in August 2014 and working out in September 2014. Was doing hardcore strength and conditioning training. I wanted to puke and pass out every single class but you know what? It was worth it! Sh!t was so tough I didn't register again but i Joined the gym in November (Dieted in October with moderate physical activities). I went down from 110-108 kg's to 90 kg's (6'2"). Seems too much weight for such a short time but I'm not starving myself or anything. I'm just taking in around 1600 - 1700 calories a day with a cheat meal once a week and I feel excellent. I have been working on my muscles at the gym and I am making great progress towards the physique I'm shooting for.

The hardest part for was to just start. For somebody that has absolutely no clue about calorie counting and healthy food it was really difficult cus I just didn't know where to start. I was never really an athletic person as well so that first month of exercise was killing me! My advise is for people in the same shoe to just jump in, even if you feel blind as a bat. Just do it and you'll pick up on it in no time. Motivation is extremely important as well!

Now I'm really feeling better in general and my old clothes are huge on me. I think I will be sticking to this clean eating for the rest of my life. I still have ways to go but at the progress I'm making I'm not that worried.

PS. Would be nice to have a health/nutrition thread so peeps can discuss and ask questions. I'm still pretty green when it comes to this sh!t so I'd love some advice from members!

I'm actually a retired R.D. (moved on to other things), b/c I had issues with the RDAs and other recommendations, so I let it lapse. But I still work with people regularly, so if you have any questions I'd be glad to help. And I'd like to hear input from others here as well.

That being said, I've been working with the Wim Hof method (http://wimhofmethod.com/) for about 5 weeks now, in addition to my normal training. He's a pretty amazing dude and has about 20 world records. He is especially known for his cold tolerance, so I figured I'd try out some of his methods. It's mostly breathing/meditation techniques, along with cold water training....cold showers specifically.

I'm into the 5th week and so far it's been pretty cool: More energy, better focus, better sleep, decreased bodyfat, and quicker injury recovery times to name a few. I started with 30 seconds (then back to warm), and now I'm up to a 10 min cold shower daily. It actually makes me kinda euphoric now! I even look forward to it :) Here is a good article on cold shower therapy: http://gettingstronger.org/2010/03/cold-showers/. If anyone else has tried it, let me know.
 
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I'm finally getting my body adjusted to the workouts. It's mostly workouts with weight bars and then there is a lot of planking. Planking is not as easy as it looks.
 
My gym should be interesting on Monday. That's the day all the new years resolution folks show up. By Thursday they are usually gone though.
 
My gym should be interesting on Monday. That's the day all the new years resolution folks show up. By Thursday they are usually gone though.

That is the worst. While I appreciate everyone there trying to get into shape, the first 1-2 months of the New Year usually mean I have to expect and extra 20-30 minutes at the gym, even in off-peak hours.

That being said, here is a 2 minute cardio motivation video for those trying to get a fresh start ;)

 
I don't work out. I train. Daily. Each morning 30-45 minutes. I don't puke. Don't even try to puke. I use programs from smarter folks than me like the people at www.strongfirst.com. Changed my life about 7 years ago taking up Karate. I was 294lbs @6' tall with 42" pants.

Now I am still 6' tall weighing in at 179lbs and a 32" waist. I also feel a hell of a lot better. ;)

This is what I plan to do this year, start taking Tae Kwon Do. Another thing, I started this morning (after about 4 months of nearly no exercise) was follow some 20 min yoga videos. I read somewhere recently that yoga canbe every bit as good for your cardio as aerobic exercise, so I figure I'll give it a shot.

Sick to death (almost literally) of being overweight and lethargic, time to work that out, so to speak.

Vanilla Coke is where it seems to be at.

That's my one last truly bad habit, I can't seem to kick that morning 20oz of vanilla coke. I don't drink coffee so coke is how I wake up in the morning.
 
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That's my one last truly bad habit, I can't seem to kick that morning 20oz of vanilla coke. I don't drink coffee so coke is how I wake up in the morning.
That sounds like a delicious habit.
 
Yeah, I've kicked worse habits in 2014 but I don't see the Coke going away anytime soon.

Just so long as I keep it to that amount and never a drop more.
 
Gym was actually a lot less packed today than I expected.
 
I used to hate that time at the gym, then I had a kid and now I can't even get to the gym anymore.

Started doing T25 on Sunday...motivated myself to do them in the morning before I left for work the last two days. Have had 1 alcoholic drink since new years and no smokes since December 20th.
 
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Gym was super packed today. Hate standing there, waiting for a bench to open up.
 
That's my one last truly bad habit, I can't seem to kick that morning 20oz of vanilla coke. I don't drink coffee so coke is how I wake up in the morning.

Do they have a sugar-free version? 240 Calories a pop, my good man.....that's over 1500 Calories a week if you're drinking it every day. 1500 x 52 weeks = 78,000 Calories per year....3500 Cal in a pound of bodyfat.....so if you cut that out you're looking at dropping over 20 lbs this year without doing anything else.
 
Do they have a sugar-free version? 240 Calories a pop, my good man.....that's over 1500 Calories a week if you're drinking it every day. 1500 x 52 weeks = 78,000 Calories per year....3500 Cal in a pound of bodyfat.....so if you cut that out you're looking at dropping over 20 lbs this year without doing anything else.

Not that I'm aware of. However, when I'm at home on the weekends I tend to drink one of the 10 calorie sodas, if at all. On the weekends I don't really care if I'm awake in the mornings.

And your math is a little off as VCoke is 260 calories per bottle. You point still stands, even stronger with the new math.

But I'm trying, I really am. I've been drinking less these last two weeks, usually drinking only about 75% of a bottle.

I'll kick it eventually, probably before summer, but ATM it's my sole source of caffeine.
 
I've been working out consistently but my lifts haven't really improved. I'm not pushing myself very hard, just in a rut of no motivation. I'm counting on one of these upcoming superhero movies to have a ripped protagonist to encourage me to stuff my face eating what it takes to put on size.

My lifts are still basically what they were at TeamXbox.

My records for the end of last year -

Bench - 250 x 3
Squat - 405 x 5
Deadlift - 405 x 3
Curls - 135 x 4
Military Press - 165 x 5

Nothing amazing... I keep up the routine but it's mainly maintenance. I usually lift by myself now and the motivation to improve is gone. :(
 
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I've been working out consistently but my lifts haven't really improved. I'm not pushing myself very hard, just in a rut of no motivation. I'm counting on one of these upcoming superhero movies to have a ripped protagonist to encourage me to stuff my face eating what it takes to put on size.

My lifts are still basically what they were at TeamXbox.

My records for the end of last year -

Bench - 250 x 3
Squat - 405 x 5
Deadlift - 405 x 3
Curls - 135 x 4
Military Press - 165 x 5

Nothing amazing... I keep up the routine but it's mainly maintenance. I usually lift by myself now and the motivation to improve is gone. :(
Nice Squat.
 
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This f***ing s*** while I'm lifting.
(source) · a day ago


I have to agree. This nonsense plays at my gym at least twice when I'm there always before I put my buds in and when I'm stretching with my buds out.
 
I've been working out consistently but my lifts haven't really improved. I'm not pushing myself very hard, just in a rut of no motivation. I'm counting on one of these upcoming superhero movies to have a ripped protagonist to encourage me to stuff my face eating what it takes to put on size.

My lifts are still basically what they were at TeamXbox.

My records for the end of last year -

Bench - 250 x 3
Squat - 405 x 5
Deadlift - 405 x 3
Curls - 135 x 4
Military Press - 165 x 5

Nothing amazing... I keep up the routine but it's mainly maintenance. I usually lift by myself now and the motivation to improve is gone. :(
Man if i could lift that amount I probably wouldn't be motivated to lift any more either. I would be satisfied and just maintain, because at that point unless you are trying to break records or turn coal into diamonds why does one lift or need to lift more than that?
What I don't understand is your squatting as much as your deadlift. i would think if you can squat 405 than you would be able to deadliftt at least 50 lbs more.
 
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I've been working out consistently but my lifts haven't really improved. I'm not pushing myself very hard, just in a rut of no motivation. I'm counting on one of these upcoming superhero movies to have a ripped protagonist to encourage me to stuff my face eating what it takes to put on size.

My lifts are still basically what they were at TeamXbox.

My records for the end of last year -

Bench - 250 x 3
Squat - 405 x 5
Deadlift - 405 x 3
Curls - 135 x 4
Military Press - 165 x 5

Nothing amazing... I keep up the routine but it's mainly maintenance. I usually lift by myself now and the motivation to improve is gone. :(

Could be your programming? Powerlifting style or Bodybuilder style? You should check out Power to the People Professional or 5/3/1. Another option is the Easy Strength or Mass Made Simple routines from Dan John.
 
I've been a big proponent of 5/3/1 for years. This year I've been doing it exclusively. It's great for injury prevention which was my main reason to use it exclusively. I've had bad nagging injuries for the past few years. Last year was tough. I have a vertebrae issue, don't know what it is as I haven't had it looked at, and it sucks. 5/3/1 is what I recommend for anyone looking for a longevity program. Wendler came out with version 2 of it as well that adds more lifts per day.

As I've gotten older my numbers have reduced. I don't eat, nor can my body support, big numbers anymore. At a weight of 175 I've deadlifted 450+ and squatted 425+. Not super numbers but pretty strong numbers for my weight, raw. My bench has always been a week point as 285 has been my max forever. With knee injuries and multiple back injuries I don't see the need anymore. I'm content with having 350 be my ceiling. It took a long time, ego wise, to be comfortable with this mindset. Also, nobody knows how much a shoulder injury affects a squat. I had that two years ago. I couldn't bench or squat for about two months because of a rotator cuff injury.
 
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Went for 300 Bench today and missed it. Next time.
 
I'm actually a retired R.D. (moved on to other things), b/c I had issues with the RDAs and other recommendations, so I let it lapse. But I still work with people regularly, so if you have any questions I'd be glad to help. And I'd like to hear input from others here as well.

That being said, I've been working with the Wim Hof method (http://wimhofmethod.com/) for about 5 weeks now, in addition to my normal training. He's a pretty amazing dude and has about 20 world records. He is especially known for his cold tolerance, so I figured I'd try out some of his methods. It's mostly breathing/meditation techniques, along with cold water training....cold showers specifically.

I'm into the 5th week and so far it's been pretty cool: More energy, better focus, better sleep, decreased bodyfat, and quicker injury recovery times to name a few. I started with 30 seconds (then back to warm), and now I'm up to a 10 min cold shower daily. It actually makes me kinda euphoric now! I even look forward to it :) Here is a good article on cold shower therapy: http://gettingstronger.org/2010/03/cold-showers/. If anyone else has tried it, let me know.
Gives me the goosebumps just thinking about it.... But i knew cold showers are beneficial for you. Think it may be s little too advance for someone like me but it's definitely rattling around in my head now. Maybe I'll start in the summer! :D

I lost 2 kg's since that last post. At 88 right now and happy with my progress.

BUT i need to switch things up pretty soon cus i don't want to look skinny which I'm currently close to. I do have muscle progress but I'm still doing high reps and low weight. Is it ok to stick with it or should i do some drastic changes?
I just don't want to look boney as sh1t and no muscles.

I'm thinking it's best to drop down to 82-83 then change from caloric deficit to caloric surplus. People keep telling me that's harder to do and i should start right now instead but I still got fat around my waist primarily. Some expert advice would be awesome!