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FIT.Y.E.R.O. (Meathead, wellness, fitness, diet, exercise) Thread

The ab fatigue I get mid-way through the day now is BONKERS. I haven't unlearned the long-ingrained habit of sitting up straight, which means keeps core tight, so I start getting mega uncomfy at like 3 pm until I realize oh, duh, abs are holding WAY more back now than usual. Let those things relax lol
 
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I have this $30 scale from Amazon and it measures almost exactly the same as the fancy one at the gym.

Wyze scale/body fat %
Wildcat Sloot and I have the Weight Watchers version of essentially the same thing. But they only measure from the feet by induction, which isn’t quite as accurate (but still can be useful for purposes of tracking by comparison).

I told Tony at the ballpark last night I went ahead and took the plunge on that Hume; $270 after the lifetime warranty 🥴, but it’s said to be within 98% accuracy when compared to a DEXA.
 
My wife and I just looked at a house and in the garage someone had stenciled "BE A BAD ASS WITH A GOOD ASS".

Did I put in an offer at asking? Yes. Yes, I did.
 
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Woke up this morning and weighed in at 199lbs. Have not been under 200lbs since early 2000's. Now, as the day progresses with meals, I will be over it but, it is a good point to be at as you are supposed to weigh in first thing in the morning to get actual weight (I believe). Target weight 185-190.
 
Woke up this morning and weighed in at 199lbs. Have not been under 200lbs since early 2000's. Now, as the day progresses with meals, I will be over it but, it is a good point to be at as you are supposed to weigh in first thing in the morning to get actual weight (I believe). Target weight 185-190.
Congrats. I know the fight with the Mendoza line. Keep grinding.
 
Been really hammering the legs. Belt squats and pendulum squats are a godsend. Just easier to load up than the barbell squat, but I’m sure I’ll come back around. Thats the beauty of strength training for me — can always switch things up to keep it interesting.

I’ve also been ending the leg day with 3 sets of sissy squats bodyweight to failure. Hits the middle part of the quad (intermedius?) like no other. Always cool when a new exercise stimulates something new like that.
 
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Woke up this morning and weighed in at 199lbs. Have not been under 200lbs since early 2000's. Now, as the day progresses with meals, I will be over it but, it is a good point to be at as you are supposed to weigh in first thing in the morning to get actual weight (I believe). Target weight 185-190.
Yep. Weigh after using the bathroom in the morning. I've been 5-8 pounds heavier weighing at night compared to waking up. Food, water, human waste. All bogs your weight down.
 
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-Turns out Pretzel in her infinite Muscle Mommy wisdom was dead on. After a poor(in my warped mind) weigh in Friday. Was 3#'s down 2 days later on Sunday. Didn't have a BF scan on that scale. Regardless, that weight is more like what I felt than the previous Friday weigh in. Put me with a little better chance to get there.

-Leg day. The necessary love - hate - evil - glorious bastard. Belts, reverse hyper, split squat, pull throughs. So hungry after. Somehow I hate and crave 6a Wed Leg Days.

-14 days until goal date. I've eaten enough chicken and broccoli for a lifetime.

-One more thing for the posters looking to jump in the strength training program for the first time. If you are just hitting a box gym without a trainer, just use the machines. They're great, limit risk of injury, typically organized by muscle group.
 
-Turns out Pretzel in her infinite Muscle Mommy wisdom was dead on. After a poor(in my warped mind) weigh in Friday. Was 3#'s down 2 days later on Sunday. Didn't have a BF scan on that scale. Regardless, that weight is more like what I felt than the previous Friday weigh in. Put me with a little better chance to get there.
...and down a total 5.5 from last Friday. Which I don't think I was actually down that much WoW, fairly certain I was holding water or something. I felt like I should've been right b/w the previous weigh in and today. I actually increased calories a bit and added in some carbs. Weird.

Anyway, 17.1% BF with an outside shot at goal. Regardless should be able to be lower than last year at a higher weight.

-Hard to tell but strength feels pretty good considering I had a really tough 1:30 ride last night in 90 degree heat.

BP Today (all to failure) Bleh
225 x 15
225 x 14
225 x 11
225 x 8

By the time I got to shoulders I was fried.
 
I got up today with plans to do a heavy day at the gym and then run 5 miles.

Instead I made some French bread.


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Made it to 16% BF for final weigh in. Most likely less considering I was really dehydrated from a 31 mile bike ride yesterday afternoon and I weighed in before having any fluids/food. Sacrificed a little muscle these last couple weeks for final aggressive push to the end.

Overall on 12 week cut:
Down 18lbs
Down 7% BF
Lost 2lbs muscle (maybe, again dehydration seems like an issue)
Belt loop is very loose

2 weeks off cut/reload, then back at it with a more sustainable cal count + carbs until we hit the goal.

Went a little too far in the winter. Goal is to set some trigger points for weight/bf during the fall/winter. If I get to those then a brief 4 week deficit.

DB Press
95 x 21 failure
95 x 17
95 x 13
95 x 11

Been doing these partial bench flys. Killer.

 
Here's my thoughts on the 8 Sleep after three weeks.
  1. This thing is very, very well designed. As a rule, I don't mix electric and water but they've done it and it works very, very well. Heats up and cools down fast.
  2. It has certainly improved our sleep. Surprisingly enough, my wife has gotten more benefit out of it than I have. She's been sleeping like a baby since getting her settings dialed in. My sleep has improved since we got it but nothing crazy -- likely because I do a ton of family law and during this hot ass summer, my work life is just a constant pressure cooker. I wish we had gotten it when things were calmer so I could get a fairer test.
  3. It takes some getting used to. Even if you think you sleep hot or cold, I'd encourage anyone to start with it at zero for a few nights before adjusting too much. At zero, it wicks away heat and sweat so it provides a surprisingly large benefit. We always felt slightly clammy for the first two weeks or so because we didn't really know how to process the feeling of body temperature and sweat being wicked away by a heat sink.
  4. The AI is blah. I despise AI, so I'm a harsh critic but it doesn't really do much after you get your temperatures dialed in. If that's big to you, do not take my word for it since I was frankly looking for a reason to not use the AI unless it was just a dramatic improvement and it certainly is not that.
  5. The best thing for couples may be that it creates conversations about how each other is sleeping and let's you be creative about how to accommodate your partner's habits. For instance, we learned that I tend to snore early in the night and my wife does really late. That appears to because she does great for REM sleep and bad for SMS sleep and I'm the opposite. We've been able to do little things that have helped us both improve.
I certainly would not say it is an absolute gamechanger or a must have. However, I'm keeping it and we just had an offer accepted on a house so an extra $3k in my pocket would be nice right about now. It really comes down to how much that much cash means to you.

I would not even consider buying one unless I had everything else squared away, including my finances. Anyone who finances one of these probably donated to La Familia, too.
 
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Mom had to go to ICU on Memorial day for bad Pneumonia and still dealing with the fall out of all that.. so the gym took a back seat. Had to stop the creatine because at that point I was just turning into a beef cake without the lifting (But plan to go back on it now that things are easing up).

Hoping to really get some workouts in the next few weeks before going to Newport, RI for family vacation. But haven't been able to get our walks in because of this unbearable heat/humidity here in the Northeast.

Been getting into my Aviron Rower lately.. and holy shit, what a different type of "cardio workout" that is compared to just doing the elliptical. Great piece of equipment.
 
Been getting into my Aviron Rower lately.. and holy shit, what a different type of "cardio workout" that is compared to just doing the elliptical. Great piece of equipment.
Word. Rowing -- especially for us poor whites in Kentucky -- is just a different sort of thing. Sort of like brawny man swimming or something.

I'm way too light in the ass to do it well but I enjoy getting the concept2 out for about 3 months per year in the doldrums of winter. I could see a similar benefit during the summer when it is too hot to get do tons of cardio outside.
 
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Here's my thoughts on the 8 Sleep after three weeks.
  1. This thing is very, very well designed. As a rule, I don't mix electric and water but they've done it and it works very, very well. Heats up and cools down fast.
  2. It has certainly improved our sleep. Surprisingly enough, my wife has gotten more benefit out of it than I have. She's been sleeping like a baby since getting her settings dialed in. My sleep has improved since we got it but nothing crazy -- likely because I do a ton of family law and during this hot ass summer, my work life is just a constant pressure cooker. I wish we had gotten it when things were calmer so I could get a fairer test.
  3. It takes some getting used to. Even if you think you sleep hot or cold, I'd encourage anyone to start with it at zero for a few nights before adjusting too much. At zero, it wicks away heat and sweat so it provides a surprisingly large benefit. We always felt slightly clammy for the first two weeks or so because we didn't really know how to process the feeling of body temperature and sweat being wicked away by a heat sink.
  4. The AI is blah. I despise AI, so I'm a harsh critic but it doesn't really do much after you get your temperatures dialed in. If that's big to you, do not take my word for it since I was frankly looking for a reason to not use the AI unless it was just a dramatic improvement and it certainly is not that.
  5. The best thing for couples may be that it creates conversations about how each other is sleeping and let's you be creative about how to accommodate your partner's habits. For instance, we learned that I tend to snore early in the night and my wife does really late. That appears to because she does great for REM sleep and bad for SMS sleep and I'm the opposite. We've been able to do little things that have helped us both improve.
I certainly would not say it is an absolute gamechanger or a must have. However, I'm keeping it and we just had an offer accepted on a house so an extra $3k in my pocket would be nice right about now. It really comes down to how much that much cash means to you.

I would not even consider buying one unless I had everything else squared away, including my finances. Anyone who finances one of these probably donated to La Familia, too.
Great review. I'm at like 75%. Now need to know if I want the bed or cover.
 
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POD 4 ultra. Anything else seems like a half measure.

We spend 30% of our lives asleep.

If two people sleep in it then it is really like getting a 2 for 1
 
Anth, way late, but that's impressive as hell. Great work and way to push through.

The best thing about the second trimester is I finally have an appetite and I'm finally putting on some weight. I lost weight during the first tri because I felt so sick all the time. Now I have to be very real with myself about "just because you can, doesn't mean you should" about the number of heavy reps and weight jumps I'm taking. Deadlifting off blocks has been much more comfortable with growing bump (versus from the floor) and I feel like I've gotten the deep core breathing and bracing locked in. Pulled a very easy 315x2 last week and felt like I could have thrown on another 40 lbs, but called it there. I had no idea what the ceiling would be lifting during pregnancy, so pulling three plates easily was a really fun surprise. Plus, pretty sure that makes my son the strongest baby in human history. Probably.
 
Word. Rowing -- especially for us poor whites in Kentucky -- is just a different sort of thing. Sort of like brawny man swimming or something.

I'm way too light in the ass to do it well but I enjoy getting the concept2 out for about 3 months per year in the doldrums of winter. I could see a similar benefit during the summer when it is too hot to get do tons of cardio outside.

Yeah thats kind of my thought.. using it during winter months when it's below freezing up by me.. but also it will be nice for the summer months, being in the basement, when it's too hot for walks.

Love the piece of equipment so far. It was expensive, and it in no way has paid for itself (yet). But I love the various games on the rower. I've been playing Brickbreaker, and even that simple game makes time go by much quicker as you try to break your highscore. I haven't even touched 90% of the other content.

And yeah, what a workout.. 15 minutes on there, at the lowest intensity, and i'm absolutely drenched (in a basement thats probably never above 60 degrees)... meanwhile I can do an elliptical at the gym on a fairly high resistance, and it takes me probably 20-30 minutes before I even really start to sweat
 
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You all are inspiring to me to use the rower I bought during Covid. I think the Nordic track annual fee for it has hit my credit card more times than I’ve used it.

The Xmark crossover and Nuobells were much better purchases.
 
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* Belt squats have quickly become my favorite piece of equipment. Can load up heavy and no concern about tweaking the spine or lower back. Enjoy it so much, the fact my primary gym doesn’t have one but my goomar does, has me contemplating dropping the primary.

* Final weigh-in this morning to complete a cut that started in April:

4.1 - 193.2#, 15.5% fat, 155.2# muscle mass.

6.25 - 181.2#, 10.6% fat, 154.0# muscle mass.

The last figure I’m most pleased with, cut 12 pounds and only lost 1.2 in muscle mass.

* I hit 200 earlier in the year post holidays, but during this cut realized I can shed it quickly. Want to make a concerted effort to surpass that and hopefully top out at 210. Bulk will start right after Labor Day, as opposed to December last year to try and put on more mass.

Also, that 16 week cut was done with very minimal cardio. Would walk about a mile on the treadmill before lifting days (4x/wk) to get the blood flowing. On active rest days, would do 2-3 miles in the neighborhood.​

Gives a lot of credence to diet being most important. #1 priority if you’re wanting to drop pounds should be sleep. Diet #2, weight training #3 and cardio way down the list.​
 
You all are inspiring to me to use the rower I bought during Covid. I think the Nordic track annual fee for it has hit my credit card more times than I’ve used it.

The Xmark crossover and Nuobells were much better purchases.
Nuobell designer says a commercial version is coming.
 
Anyone have a good recommendation for a versatile swim trunk that does a good job doubling as shorts you can wear out? I know there's some of those board shorts you can buy, but I feel a little too old for that look. Most of my swim trunks have liners and are meant just for swim.
 
Anyone have a good recommendation for a versatile swim trunk that does a good job doubling as shorts you can wear out? I know there's some of those board shorts you can buy, but I feel a little too old for that look. Most of my swim trunks have liners and are meant just for swim.
Lots of athleisure shorts have liners now.
CRZ Yoga is pretty much a 1:1 lululemon clone at much better pricing.
Lined shorts

They also have liner less ones.
 
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Lots of athleisure shorts have liners now.
CRZ Yoga is pretty much a 1:1 lululemon clone at much better pricing.
Lined shorts

They also have liner less ones.

Ooo I like those. My only question is, are those really designed for swim? I guess what I'm more looking for is a swim trunk/short 1st, that doubles as shorts.

This is actually a good one from a company I like: FreeFly Reverb Short . So Might grab a pair of these, but they are a little pricey.
 
Ooo I like those. My only question is, are those really designed for swim? I guess what I'm more looking for is a swim trunk/short 1st, that doubles as shorts.

This is actually a good one from a company I like: FreeFly Reverb Short . So Might grab a pair of these, but they are a little pricey.
Chubbies has gym/swim combo shorts.
Chubbies

Don’t know your budget tolerance but Outerknown is a brand I like, but they are pricey. The Volley shorts are hybrids.
OK
Meant to add OK is Kelly Slater, the surfer’s brand.
 
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Got a real wakeup call on why you need to train abs like any other body part (and that lifting other body parts doesn't count as training core).

Had a good week of weight lifting and cardio at the gym for about 6 days straight. So I figure "well I guess I should hit abs".. started out with a set of 12 reps of reverse crunches, then 10.. and then it felt like my intestines just ruptured.. serious ab cramping, basically because my core couldn't handly measly 2 sets of ab work it's so under utilized. Probably could have used a bit lighter warm up to start, but damn, thats never happened before. I was keeled over. Thought at first it might have been a hernia.

Definitely need to stop neglecting the core so much. Now I know.
 
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.. but the real victim is whichever gym worker just had to clean 270 degrees worth of explosive diarrhea off the gym walls.
 
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