New guy with a few P90x questions

• Raw Dawgin' it

  

  OneBuckeye;1219753 wrote:I've gone the gold bond route. Works well betwen washes, but a wash doesn't even get the stench out. I still wear them to the gym and hiking, but not to dinner or other social settings. I like the Merrell's because i can easily wear socks.

  lol props for having zero shame
• BR1986FB

  OneBuckeye;1219753 wrote:I've gone the gold bond route. Works well betwen washes, but a wash doesn't even get the stench out. I still wear them to the gym and hiking, but not to dinner or other social settings. I like the Merrell's because i can easily wear socks.

  I can't wear a regular shoe on my left foot anymore. The top of my foot gets hot and the shoe gets annoying. Vibrams are pretty much all I can wear.
• Automatik

  

  Got my bf% calculated today, caliper method.
  
  6'0
  172 lbs
  10.4%
  17.9 lbs of fat.
  
  Conclusion?
  
  Leangains works. Fact.
• OneBuckeye

  

  http://www.marksdailyapple.com/dear-mark-training-edition/#axzz21XuzOurL
  

  [URL="http://www.marksdailyapple.com/dear-mark-training-edition/#axzz21XuzOurL"][INDENT]Dear Mark,
  [/INDENT][INDENT]Training for strength versus training for hypertrophy — does one have to come at the expense of the other?
  Ever since adopting the ancestral health lifestyle in September of 2010, I’ve made substantial strength gains and put on a good 20 pounds of lean muscle mass — from 5-foot-10, 155 pounds to 175 pounds.
  My delts, upper back and chest have responded favorably to the compound movements I’ve adopted into my training routine — bench press, overhead press, deadlift, weighted pull-ups, weighted dips. In other words, none of that sissy isolation stuff that seemingly every gym-goer performs religiously. I’m a fan of the Stronglifts 5X5 protocol. That is, five sets of five reps with the heaviest load I can lift.
  The squat rack at my local (insert big-name gym franchise here) is hardly ever used. Very rarely does anyone attempt to bench press more than 185 pounds. The bros tend to congregate around the EZ Bar rack, performing triceps extensions and bicep curls to their hearts’ content.
  What troubles me is that while I’m pound-for-pound stronger than any other gym-goer I’ve encountered, most of the regulars are, to put it one way, far more jacked. Their arms are flat-out bigger. Yet they throw around a lot less weight, preferring higher reps and a lighter load.
  These observations seem to run counter to your suggestions, which I’ve based my training philosophy on. Could there be some truth to the widely-held Broscience notions that favor volume lifting for muscle-building? Does that even make sense from an evolutionary perspective? Or am I just doing something wrong?
  Thanks!
  
  Max
  [/INDENT][LEFT]There actually is some truth to the “broscience.” A 2007 meta-analysis of the available literature found that lifting 60%-85% of your 1RM max for reps is probably the most effective way to stimulate hypertrophy. Reps-wise, that translates to about 6-12 reps per set. Since you’re currently doing 5 sets of 5, try reducing the weight and increasing the reps to between 6-8, which is a nice sweet spot for strength and size. To focus more on size, move the reps up to between 8-10. You may not even have to drop the weight as much as someone coming from a 3×5 program, because 5×5 has prepared you for a good amount of volume.Another option is to vary your reps and sets over the week. Do a heavy day of lower reps one day, maybe sets of three, then do a day of high reps, maybe sets of eight or ten. Play around with it to find what works.It sounds like you’re mainly concerned with the size of your arms. 5’10 and 175 is pretty solid, but heavy squats and deadlifts can famously steer weight toward the lower body while leaving the upper body somewhat T-rex-esque. Am I right? Don’t worry, and just throw in some barbell curls, weighted pullups/chinups, lying tricep extensions, and weighted dips once or twice a week. Most of these are compound exercises, so you won’t be giving up Primal cred. You may not even have to vary your rep scheme if you relent and throw in some arm-centric stuff.The good news is that you’ve built an excellent base of strength, a foundation upon which you can begin adding volume and hypertrophy-centric training. By starting with strength and then worrying about hypertrophy, you’re doing things the right way, and I’d bet a large sum of money that, in a year’s time, you’ll be in a better spot – strengthwise and sizewise – than the guys at the gym who neglect the compound lifts.As mentioned in the previous answer, hypertrophy also comes down to diet. What I find is that lifting heavy for moderate reps puts a person at their baseline hypertrophy. To put on more muscle than you already have lifting heavy, you’re going to have to eat a lot. Protein is important, of course, and fat provides energy, fat-soluble vitamins, and hormonal precursors for important anabolics, but you’ll probably need to incorporate some carbs. The carbs will allow you to get more calories in, and they’ll support a shift toward higher reps and more volume by replenishing glycogen.I think it makes sense, evolutionarily. If you look at photos of hunter-gatherers (perhaps our likeliest Grok analogues), they can be lean, “cut,” and strong, but not bodybuilder big. Strong arms are useful, but eventually you reach a point of diminishing returns. Would having bigger arms really help this guy do what he needs to do – bag game, support his family, gather food? Walking around with a perma-pump and 18-inch biceps simply doesn’t make sense in his situation.Whatever you do, don’t limit yourself based on ideology. If you want big muscles, get big muscles. Just realize that you may have hit your “limit,” and you’ll probably have to adopt some evolutionarily “novel” strategies, like stuffing yourself with food and lifting heavy things over and over again for more reps than you otherwise would.
  
  Read more: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/dear-mark-training-edition/#ixzz21XvvrFWm[/LEFT]

  [/URL]
• Raw Dawgin' it

  

  This shit is crazy - check out Baristi Workouts, they only use parks and play grounds and pretty much do all pull ups and dips.
  
  [video=youtube;qheu3hDkSV4][/video]
• BR1986FB

  I'm familiar with Kavadlo. Dude is pretty intense.
  
  As far as the MDA article OneBuckeye posted, I'm kinda surprised Mark is advocating a bit "higher" reps as everything I've read points to "higher reps = higher inflammation."
• OneBuckeye

  

  My .02.
  
  My gym experience is the opposite. There are guys that are jacked and they are squatting and deadlifting their way there. They also do a lot of high rep supporting workouts. Random shit with cables, using the rowing machine to do some shit they saw on bodybuilding.com etc etc. It does two things 1. burns more calories 2. Helps build the definition. Some people define being jacked as being cut. When I was doing P90x I was not bigger or stronger, but I was more cut in the arms/shoulders than I am now. However after 2 months of deadlifts and weighted pulls my biceps are bigger than ever. I didn't do any shoulders until a month and I am starting to get that cut look back. All this while working out 3x for 40 minutes a week compared to 6 times for 50 minutes a week. Mark is right at one point, you need to eat protien to grow. I think this is more important if you are going high rep and this might be where Mark (the reader) fails.
• Sonofanump

  Did chest and back today. Maybe it's just me, but when Tony asks Maren if the chair is a good distance for her during a pull up, does she say "fuhrer"?
  
  
• Sonofanump

  Sprint triathalon this morning. 5K tonight, then back to the P90insanity hybrid next week.
• Sonofanump

  C&B warm up, last neck stretch:
  
  Marane: It's hurts
  Tony: In a good way, she meant in a good way, get that stretch.
• Sonofanump

  TapoutXT:
  
  I think I've seen this before.
• Sonofanump

  Sometimes I ask myself as a fitness professional why I workout so much, cuz I wanta look gooood.</SPAN>
• Sonofanump

  Deal on Groupon: $20 for Shaun T&#8217;s Rockin&#8217; Body Workouts
• Sonofanump

  Not trying to hurt you, only trying to make you better.
• Sonofanump

  I'm a 35 kinda guy.
• Sonofanump

  This thread has died down.
• Raw Dawgin' it

  

  Kinda gets looped in with the paleo thread
• Raw Dawgin' it

  

  Just ordered a new pull up bar for the house, left the old one when i moved. Going to start these workouts up again. Might substitute squats, leg press, dead lifts, and pull ups for back and legs day.
• Devils Advocate

  

  
• Sonofanump

  Shoulders and arms today. Rocked the chair dips.
• BR1986FB

  Man...this is a blast from the past.
• vdubb96

  

  No doubt!!! Don't let it hit your face!
• Sonofanump

  vdubb96;1508467 wrote:No doubt!!! Don't let it hit your face!

  
  Let someone else do that.
  
  
  Don't forget to breathe. You forget, you die!
• Sonofanump

  Lone Noras. I might start that workout.
• vdubb96

  

  I might buy T25 this week. Need something fresh