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Super Ape

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So when I was moving house, I tore my rotator cuff a bit, and I didn't really lift much while it was healing, for like a year and a half. Once I noticed my shoulder was totally pain free throughout the full range of motion, I eased myself back in to the weights.

Now when I wasn't lifting, if I stretched my arms high overhead, my fingertips would brush the ceiling. Now I'm jacked up again, I stretch my arms and and I can touch the ceiling with my knuckles. And I'm not on my tiptoes or wearing thicker socks or anything... I'm guessing it's unlikely my arms are any longer, so is it just broader shoulders translating vertically, or have I somehow straightened my spine or spaced out my vertebrae enough to gain actual height? Because I didn't think that was possible in your 40s.

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10 hours ago, AxB said:

So when I was moving house, I tore my rotator cuff a bit, and I didn't really lift much while it was healing, for like a year and a half. Once I noticed my shoulder was totally pain free throughout the full range of motion, I eased myself back in to the weights.

Now when I wasn't lifting, if I stretched my arms high overhead, my fingertips would brush the ceiling. Now I'm jacked up again, I stretch my arms and and I can touch the ceiling with my knuckles. And I'm not on my tiptoes or wearing thicker socks or anything... I'm guessing it's unlikely my arms are any longer, so is it just broader shoulders translating vertically, or have I somehow straightened my spine or spaced out my vertebrae enough to gain actual height? Because I didn't think that was possible in your 40s.

Your growth plates are long since fused, so your bones aren't gonna lengthen or anything, but some sort of height increase is possible.  I stopped growing at 14.  Then my body decided to put on an inch and a half of height at 37.  We get yearly physicals at work, so I know it didn't change before then.  I've asked several doctors but never did get an explanation.

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25 minutes ago, Robert C said:

I stopped growing at 14.  Then my body decided to put on an inch and a half of height at 37.  

I stopped growing at 14, and this is the most hopeful I've felt in years.  I'm about to turn 36, and am eagerly awaiting my late 30s growth spurt.

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  • 1 month later...

I weighed myself after running 4 miles this morning and my weight was up a pound or two from last week.  I took off my running shoes (really light Sauconys) and my weight dropped by 5 pounds.  I just looked up the shoes and they weight 9.7oz.  So WTF?  

I just accepted my non-shoe-but-wearing-sweaty-running-gear weight as official. :)

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Friends, looking for some diet and nutrition advice.

I lift three times a week in a combo of strength (5x5 compound) and isolation (3x8) exercises.

Stupidly I was eating a high protein/low-ish carbs diet to be in a calorie deficit so not much was happening size-wise and I wasn't exactly cutting either. 

Then after doing some reading I found out I needed to be in excess calories instead of below as my body was just eating muscle in lieu of carb and fat fuel.

I figured out I needed to be taking in 2800 calories, with 175 grams of that being protein and the rest made up any way I can. I've been using FatSecret (which is an awful name for an app) to track what I'm taking in but, I'll be honest with you, I'm struggling to eat that much as well as afford to pay for the food.

TLDR: Can I just consume 2800 calories on lifting days rather than every day to give me that energy?

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@CreativeControl, can't help you there, though I admit that I'd find eating 2800 calories a breeze. Shit, there's like 100 calories in a tablespoon of peanut butter, and you can easily fit six tablespoons in a sandwich. 

Unrelated: it has recently come to my attention (not for the first time) that I am awful at push ups. Like, I've been doing them for thirty years but I still can't do many. While my chest probably isn't as strong as it could be, it seems less like it's this particular muscle group and more like it's just this particular exercise. Any ideas?

 

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On 6/22/2017 at 5:31 AM, CreativeControl said:

Friends, looking for some diet and nutrition advice.

I lift three times a week in a combo of strength (5x5 compound) and isolation (3x8) exercises.

Stupidly I was eating a high protein/low-ish carbs diet to be in a calorie deficit so not much was happening size-wise and I wasn't exactly cutting either. 

Then after doing some reading I found out I needed to be in excess calories instead of below as my body was just eating muscle in lieu of carb and fat fuel.

I figured out I needed to be taking in 2800 calories, with 175 grams of that being protein and the rest made up any way I can. I've been using FatSecret (which is an awful name for an app) to track what I'm taking in but, I'll be honest with you, I'm struggling to eat that much as well as afford to pay for the food.

TLDR: Can I just consume 2800 calories on lifting days rather than every day to give me that energy?

Plenty of folks eat a surplus on weight training days and a deficit on days off/cardio days, but problem is, you're gonna have to up your intake on weightlifting days to make up for the deficit on cardio days or you're wheel spinning. Don't think of it as 2,800 calories a day, think of it as 19,600 a week.

This is assuming you're bulking. If you're trying to gain muscle, you do need to eat at a surplus. You will gain some fat. You can take it off later. Like Control said, you should have no problem putting down 2,800 calories a day. If you do have problems, try protein shakes (though not the weight-gainer ones - they're just protein drinks packed with sugar). As far as affordability, don't know what to tell you there. Chicken breasts are fairly cheap, and so is rice and potatoes. 

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On 5/5/2017 at 10:05 AM, supremebve said:

I stopped growing at 14, and this is the most hopeful I've felt in years.  I'm about to turn 36, and am eagerly awaiting my late 30s growth spurt.

As someone who turns 30 in just under 2 weeks and is 5'7 on their best day, I'm also looking forward to a late 30s growth spurt.

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  • 1 month later...

At my lowest weight(208) since '96. Five years into this odyssey and I keep losing weight even though I'm not trying to. I've been to the doctor and had blood work and a bunch of tests done and it's all good. If I can maintain the weight where I am at then I will be happy.

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  • 5 months later...

Officially 10 weeks into the first real diet plan I've ever been on that didn't just include eating less pizza and walking all over the place and the results are pretty encouraging. 

Down 43.5 pounds, 30.5% body fat down from 39%, waste size has decreased over 6 inches (RIP so many pairs of perfectly good pants).  According to "metrics", I'm still only 40% of the way to my goal - but it's nice to start seeing some real visible progress and now have the numbers to back that up. 

DV72RRxVMAExeSC.jpg:large27751495_1808412079169229_70451387107237

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On 2017-06-24 at 11:10 PM, Control said:

 

Unrelated: it has recently come to my attention (not for the first time) that I am awful at push ups. Like, I've been doing them for thirty years but I still can't do many. While my chest probably isn't as strong as it could be, it seems less like it's this particular muscle group and more like it's just this particular exercise. Any ideas?

 

Update: I am still bad at pushups bit getting better.

I'm currently weighing in at 165 lbs, which is by far the smallest I’ve been as an adult (and I’m turning 37 soon). I’m 6’2” for reference. Looking at MyFitnessPal, over the last five years I’ve tended to regress to a mean of 200 lbs, but I’m hoping the changes I’ve made over the last seven months will stop that from happening.

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  • 3 months later...

Blah blah new job, check the stuff thread for the history.

So, with the new job, I am now a commuter, with all that entails. Walking. Lots and lots of walking.

Quick local geography and transport lesson for the 1776 crew.

1 mile from front door to local train station. 15 minutes walk.

I then got off the train (up until a fortnight ago, anyways) at London Blackfriars and walk to the office just by the shard. For those who have never been to London village, that's just south of the river, and a mile and a bit from the office. Fantastic walk, going past the Tate modern (modern art), the globe theatre (some bloke called Bill was a writer), the anchor pub (one of the oldest in London) the old clink (london dungeon for the poor) and the fabulous borough market (foodie heaven, 16 wings for under 5 dollars). 

Downside - my 19 stone / 270 pound ass is sweating like Lebron in game 7 by the time i get to the office. and THEN i had to do the walk back at the end of the day. Deep unbridled joy. And a new pair of sneakers.

Upside - london bridge station is now open so i can get a direct train which stops pissing distance from the office. AND, I may have just said goodbye to the 19 stone bit. I can feel the muscles in my thighs more - whether due to the loss of fat around there, or increase in muscle through walking, who knows - good feeling though. Clothes fit slightly better, and feel better. The sweating still hasnt stopped, but I've adapted Big E's big wool nickname - chunky jumper - always going to be a heavy sweater.

 

so yeah - tl:dr, new job, lots of walking to and from, instead of driving. red has got his first milestone.

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I love walking to work but am not a fan of sweating so much by the time I get there.  It's about a 3.5 mile walk and it's a generally nice path to walk down.  But even if I took showers at night there's still the fact that I'm sitting for 8 hours in sweat.  And with it being humid I'll just find other options.  Thankfully taking the bus isn't the nightmare my mom fears it is.  I have a bike at my parents' house but with our tiny apartment don't know yet where to store it that won't get in the way of what we currently have.  Once I find a spot then biking to work could definitely be worth doing.

But until I get that sorted out I've gone a bit more to Planet Fitness.  While I loathe the idea of Pizza Monday and Bagel Tuesday (what's the fucking point?) going early and on weekends is working quite nicely for me.  I used to avoid the 30 minute express circuit thinking it's a joke, then I tried it.  With the right intensity that shit works like a charm, and time permitting I focus on a body part afterwards.  The clothes feel maybe the tiniest bit looser but I have a long-ass ways to go.  With me going to Greece in mid July I'd like to at least be in slightly better shape.  One thing I'm definitely looking forward to is the constant walking and cycling we'll be doing.  Which is great because we're going to eat a shitton of awesome pastries.  Last time I was there I gained so much damn weight, so I'm hoping this time around to lose instead of gain.

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When I interned in NYC and used to commute via train, I did enjoy walking to and from but as someone who can sweat pretty much anywhere, that was always a risk unless it was winter. And at the time, I was pretty thin/average... I just sweat. I blame it on being half Italian and the Mediterranean blood because it seems like everyone on the Italian side of the family is constantly warm/sweating. Yayyyy grossness.

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  • 1 month later...

Month and a half after that last update.

18lbs lost. said goodbye to 270 lbs, 260 lbs forever.

FOREVER.

Now to start a bit of weight/resistance training as the cardio is good for a 250lb dude, but the definition is lacking a lil bit. Never going to hit sub 200lbs wihtout years and years of work. But If i can hit 210 with a bit of a gut, but upper body muscle and leg muscle, I'll be alright, i reckon.

 

 

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Guest Stefanie Without Stefanie

I got tired of doing yoga and cardio, especially after I strained my thigh a couple of months ago, so now that I'm healed up I decided to finally take up weightlifting like most of my friends have been doing for a few months now. I've only been at it for a week but I feel good compared to the body weight exercises I was doing. I just wish people would 1) understand that if my headphones are on that means I don't want to talk and 2) try to understand the different variations of an exercise before trying to tell me I'm doing it wrong (random dude tried to tell me I was doing regular squats wrong when I was doing sumos).

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I tend to go to the gym early in the morning on weekdays, so a lot of the folks there are usually just there to workout before going to work or are retirees who are early risers, so it's usually not too bad in terms of people just using the gym to socialize/lecture. I have gone at night though and it's awful. I once had a scarring experience in the locker room with a Super Bro.

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Guest Stefanie Without Stefanie
11 hours ago, Petey said:

I tend to go to the gym early in the morning on weekdays, so a lot of the folks there are usually just there to workout before going to work or are retirees who are early risers, so it's usually not too bad in terms of people just using the gym to socialize/lecture. I have gone at night though and it's awful. I once had a scarring experience in the locker room with a Super Bro.

Try being a woman. They tend to leave you alone in the yoga/body weight exercise area, or the cardio section, but pick up a free weight and suddenly everyone gets all chatty.

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Guest Stefanie Without Stefanie

Well, me personally, I'm really tall (I'm 6'1") and look kind of mean. So that rules out most dudes, because I guess I intimidate them. But the ones who have an unhealthy amount of confidence like trying anyway.

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