Dappered Weight Loss Club Anyone?

[DocDave]

I've been holding steady at 171 ~ 174 lbs. I'm happy with that. The real challenge will be keeping that weight during the winter months.

[armedferret]

Bump. 174.4 this morning.

Still just the one ab showing.

[DocDave]

I haven't gone to the gym yet. But I am starting to run and cycle with small groups of friends again.

Still not returning the office, and that likely won't happen until September at the earliest.

[J2K66]

I've held pretty steady during this time, but I've also been going into the office every day and my "routine" hasn't been effected as much as many.

Anyone go back to the gym yet? I'm curious to see which gyms put in strict cleaning protocols and how it all shakes out moving forward.

[DocDave]

I am fluctuating between 171 and 175 and I am ok with that. I've hit my equilibrium and I am exactly where I want to be. A combination of:

- Daily exercise
- Moderating sugar intake
- Greatly reducing alcohol intake
- Drinking lots of water

All the above have helped me reach my goal. Even with all of this work from home stuff, I am holding steady.

[APinNC]

I'm still down 15 pounds since the first week of January, from 245 to 230. Maintaining while I add some muscle. Will try and lose five more after a couple more weeks of heavy lifting, then back to heavy lifting and maintenance through the summer.

[JBarwick]

Over a month without a post in here. Maybe it was to forum move? Anyhow, how is everyone doing? There were some things with work that made me stress out and just eat a bunch of sweets for a few weeks. Add to this that I was just starting doing weight work at the gym and that ended.

Still running and enjoying that but somehow I feel like something is missing. I joked with my wife that I have been wearing workout clothes for 2 months and I do not have my actual work clothes to hold my weight accountable.

[stuffedsuperdud]

My 2020 goals were 400lbs squat, 300 bench, and 400 deadlifts. I've been so close before injuries, so the rebuilding process I've been through and is so tough mentally. When I broke my elbow I went down to benching 25lbs dumbbells sweating and cursing like sailor. But I appreciate your advice. I went and had the best bodyweight/light dumbbell workout during this quarantine. I appreciate the reality check.

If you are already squatting 365 and pulling 330, a 400 squat and dead probably aren't too far away anyway (depending on your bodyweight and the health of your knees, hips, and ankles). For reference, I closed that gap over the course of about four months, when I took a break from the Olympic lifts due to a repetitive injury in my shoulder, and it wasn't the worst experience. Doing lots and lots of bodyweight squats to grease the groove and to rack up some TUT points, and bodyweight hamstring curls to keep the hammies strongish, will probably go a long way in keeping you from atrophying too hard, and in general, like you said, re-gains are much easier than new gains, so all hope is not lost.

The 300lb bench is probably trickier though. Upper body strength seems relatively hard to earn and easy to lose, and I don't know what kind of strange issues your injury will present. I suffer from a bad elbow myself, which lacks range of motion in both flexion and extension and hurts all the time for no reason, and have found that all the pushups I'm doing have been helpful in regaining some mobility and decreasing some of the nagging chronic pain. YMMV.


BTW you're in a special club of guys who can squat more than they can deadlift, which also includes the great Kirk Karwoski. (2RM squat was 1000lb but he could "only" dead into the 800s). We're weirdos.

[Alex.C]

Been doing a lot more cardio as I have my entire rack but the j-hooks to hold the bar ... ugh Rogue says still hasn't shipped. I think my weight is going down (pants test) but also I know it's got to be a lot of muscle lost during this time. That is very frustrating on me mentally. My 2020 goals are going to be very hard to tackle if this keeps up. One thing I think seeing a problem though is my drinking of a beer is almost every night now. There are so many virtual happy hours for my teams etc. I gotta get on top of that.

Hope everyone is staying safe and healthy (as possible).

I hear you on the virtual happy hour. I feel like my wife and I get together with her family more now over Zoom than pre quarantine, and we live two streets over... Maybe try a non alcoholic beer? The craft NA game is super strong these days. Joe has featured a few on the main site. Off hand, I can think of multiple breweries worth looking into, all of whom are able to ship to any state, given they aren't restricted by various alcohol shipping limitations. For full on NA breweries try: Athletic BrewingCo., Bravus (their Raspberry Gose is amazing,) Wellbeing Brewing, and Hairless Dog. For NA beers brewed by traditional breweries, try: Brooklyn Special Effects, BrewDog Punk NA, BrewDog Nanny State, BrewDog Stout AF.

One benefit of buying from the purely NA breweries, is that you're supporting what is almost certainly a small business.

Another benefit? They're great, low calorie social options, that will allow you to sleep better, feel better, and be better. At least, that's been my experience since I stopped drinking.

[hockeysc23]

Yep. You make valid points. If you're targeting 365 squat and 265 press, tempo body weight work will only go so far. My 1RM bench is 215 but I'm only 160 and my goals are lean, not big, so I can easily forget that I'm seeing life only through my own lens and other folks have completely different goals. Good point!

I would say that it's still a decent substitute when weights aren't around, and can help to keep the cardio from catabolizing your past gains, if you push to the max. But I don't disagree that there will be some rebuilding required to get those numbers back after a certain amount of time.

My 2020 goals were 400lbs squat, 300 bench, and 400 deadlifts. I've been so close before injuries, so the rebuilding process I've been through and is so tough mentally. When I broke my elbow I went down to benching 25lbs dumbbells sweating and cursing like sailor. But I appreciate your advice. I went and had the best bodyweight/light dumbbell workout during this quarantine. I appreciate the reality check.

[JohnR]

I think you're right to a certain degree. It depends a lot on where an individual was with weight training and their goals though whether that assumption works. Ultimately the muscle will need progressive overload to grow. That becomes harder and harder to achieve with reps of the same lighter weight ("joints" may fail before muscle) and time under tension. I've been doing a lot of high reps 40-30-20 with the dumbbells and TUT. Trying to break-up muscle groups, so I hit them more often in a week than the traditional split. I think it's worked in maintaining an aesthetic and some muscle gains, but not the muscle I had.

For example, and not to brag (if they are even brag numbers ... a lot of stronger people than I). I was at 365 squats, 265 bench, and 330-ish deadlift for reps. Given my genetics (aka out of shape non athletic family with heart disease issues), it took me a long time to get to those numbers and quality of workout. My guess is that once I am back under a bar it will take a month+ or so to get back to where I was. Hopefully the endurance work you mentioned will help me be able to speed that up. But you're right that equipment alone isn't a limiter for most ... it's just the style of training I always did, aspired to (watched a lot of Ronnie Coleman and Phil Heath) growing up. Problem is time isn't on my side but I do like the challenge once I get out of my own head

Yep. You make valid points. If you're targeting 365 squat and 265 press, tempo body weight work will only go so far. My 1RM bench is 215 but I'm only 160 and my goals are lean, not big, so I can easily forget that I'm seeing life only through my own lens and other folks have completely different goals. Good point!

I would say that it's still a decent substitute when weights aren't around, and can help to keep the cardio from catabolizing your past gains, if you push to the max. But I don't disagree that there will be some rebuilding required to get those numbers back after a certain amount of time.

[hockeysc23]

It's possible to maintain (even build) muscle without the weights, if it's the lack of the weight equipment that's holding you back. Obviously you can always do high-volume but you can also do body weight movements at tempo. You can range from slow tempo, like 5 or 6 seconds, all the way to super slo-mo; literally minutes for a single rep. If you've never done 2-minute squats, you're in for a treat! Constant movement, no pause, but you have to spend a full minute getting into a squat and then another full minute coming back up. OH MOMMY!!! Anyway, there are plenty of body weight moves you can do at tempo to maintain the muscle while you're waiting for the weights if you like. Push-ups, squats, lunges, pull-ups, l-sits, planks, etc... It's just time and tension - if you don't have the loading, increase the duration.

I think you're right to a certain degree. It depends a lot on where an individual was with weight training and their goals though whether that assumption works. Ultimately the muscle will need progressive overload to grow. That becomes harder and harder to achieve with reps of the same lighter weight ("joints" may fail before muscle) and time under tension. I've been doing a lot of high reps 40-30-20 with the dumbbells and TUT. Trying to break-up muscle groups, so I hit them more often in a week than the traditional split. I think it's worked in maintaining an aesthetic and some muscle gains, but not the muscle I had.

For example, and not to brag (if they are even brag numbers ... a lot of stronger people than I). I was at 365 squats, 265 bench, and 330-ish deadlift for reps. Given my genetics (aka out of shape non athletic family with heart disease issues), it took me a long time to get to those numbers and quality of workout. My guess is that once I am back under a bar it will take a month+ or so to get back to where I was. Hopefully the endurance work you mentioned will help me be able to speed that up. But you're right that equipment alone isn't a limiter for most ... it's just the style of training I always did, aspired to (watched a lot of Ronnie Coleman and Phil Heath) growing up. Problem is time isn't on my side but I do like the challenge once I get out of my own head

[JohnR]

It's possible to maintain (even build) muscle without the weights, if it's the lack of the weight equipment that's holding you back. Obviously you can always do high-volume but you can also do body weight movements at tempo. You can range from slow tempo, like 5 or 6 seconds, all the way to super slo-mo; literally minutes for a single rep. If you've never done 2-minute squats, you're in for a treat! Constant movement, no pause, but you have to spend a full minute getting into a squat and then another full minute coming back up. OH MOMMY!!! Anyway, there are plenty of body weight moves you can do at tempo to maintain the muscle while you're waiting for the weights if you like. Push-ups, squats, lunges, pull-ups, l-sits, planks, etc... It's just time and tension - if you don't have the loading, increase the duration.

[hockeysc23]

Been doing a lot more cardio as I have my entire rack but the j-hooks to hold the bar ... ugh Rogue says still hasn't shipped. I think my weight is going down (pants test) but also I know it's got to be a lot of muscle lost during this time. That is very frustrating on me mentally. My 2020 goals are going to be very hard to tackle if this keeps up. One thing I think seeing a problem though is my drinking of a beer is almost every night now. There are so many virtual happy hours for my teams etc. I gotta get on top of that.

Hope everyone is staying safe and healthy (as possible).

[DocDave]

175lbs this morning. No complaints. Anything under 180 I'm happy with.