No Crust Racing

Hah, kind of. What's your main source of protein or do you not think that much about it and just eat everything you can get your hands on? Are you doing any specific cooking/prep?

lol why would you announce that?

Nice work Birds!

I'm curious then, and I like lively discussion, If we're talking about eating only whole foods to get enough protein (without excess carbs/sugar/fat), what does a typical diet look like for some of you guys who do not use any supplements? Some of you might recall I raised this very question earlier in the thread, about using supplements instead of just eating what's needed and at that time (If I remember rightly) a few people said don't be scared of supplements, when I was talking about not wanting to live on them.

Rev suggested what you could do to fix it, but you're happy in your ways. So you did what you criticised others for doing. Honestly I couldn't care less though, I'm very pro do what you like, so long as you're not criticising others for doing the same. Markos: who said PLers were fat? If that's a generally held view I don't share it. Birds summed it up well enough for me. Happy enough to be average, if I can even get there I have a world of respect for guys who want and go beyond that, but its not what I want. I've never considered training at a gym but if I was nearby I'd happily train at PTC. I'm contemplating seeing Matt again in a month or so for a progress check up, knowing hes there is a great as I can get a form check and pointers as I run into new problems while learning and progressing. Tested dip belt, cool.

I'll have you know it's 90kg now thank you very much Cut me some slack, in the time I've had I'm making progress despite the leg. I get what you're saying, and don't disagree, and you know I always value your input. TTT: Kind of like the responses you give about your crap shoulders and average bench? You're giving the exact same, I'm happy in my ways. (Which is totally fine) just don't preach like you're above it. Now have fun ladies, I'm off for another x-ray. I'm assuming they will tell me my squats have been too powerful and I'm forcing the screws out of the bone

Great numbers for no supps, hell great numbers with supps, no supps just makes it more impressive. I think my point is being missed. I (and many others here) am not a power lifter, do not have aspirations of being a power lifter, do not have desires to lift what's considered heavy weight. Purely because I know I can get my goals, basic strength and looks improvements, without going that heavy. If $100 worth of supps every 6 months allows me to do it easier/faster/with less risk of injury then I'll go for that. Is it a necessity? Nope. Does it help me recover better between sessions and for an absolute minimal time investment? Yes. So I'm onboard. I want to say though, I do not have any issue what so ever with how anyone else gets their dietary requirements, I'm only saying that I have no issue with a basic supplementation for myself.

Same, I do not have the desire, dedication, balls, etc, to be a good lifter of any sort. If I can lift something semi respectable for an amateur and look semi decent I'm happy. NP I know around these parts the line between a laugh and actual criticism can be fairly blurred for some of the people here. Assume that the vast majority of what I say is said in jest and you'll be on the money for the most part.

So your guys don't use any supps at all? Purely raw lifting in every sense of the word?

I agree with that for the most part Marcos and eat a fairly balanced diet. I like a shake post workout as it's the quickest, easiest, mess and hassle free way to get a dose in at that time.

In terms of how often? Maybe, I have no idea what your regime is like. I do 5x5s 3 times a week. In terms of total time spent training the motion, not sure either. I can say I've spent less than 3-4mths so far and of that only 5-6weeks of "proper form" after seeing Matt so I'm pretty happy with my progress so far, despite the leg and subsequent back issues I've been dealing with along the way. Oh side bar, If it wasn't obvious, previous comment was simply baiting to get a rise out of you. Because Birds. I assume you know this, but wanted to clarify because forum.

I'd better change now then, I've seen how you're languishing on lifts despite the time spent training =\ I hope that wasn't the cause.

LOL Good call, but no. Honestly, when my grip is a serious problem, which it wont be for a while at these light weights, I'll look at what needs doing, if that' no gloves, so be it. I'm only just on the cusp of having to alternate the grip so there's still a long way to go before I run into any real issues.

Thanks man, I feel beautiful I have enough scars and callouses on my hands already from working on cars, I don't need any more. Not that any of those posts are deadlift progress related.

Bingo.

New toy arrived, looking forward to trying this out as I've maxed out my tracksuit pants and jacket pockets. Also went to the physio, may need to go under the knife again (not as bad as it sounds and explains why I've been tender), won't clog this thread up though, details in my build thread.

Just had a a visit with the physio and I might be off to surgery again. I've had some noticeably different swelling at the very top of the scar in my leg and some discomfort around that area, she thinks that I may be getting migration in the metal work, that is, at least one of the screws is starting to come out. I asked straight up if that would be due to squats/deadlifts and load going through it, she said not at all and that it's more to do with how your body reacts to the intrusion, how quickly bones heal etc etc. I've also been told that I've had good bone strength based on no breaks through some of the injuries I've had so we'll just assume that my bones no longer need the assistance and are too awesome to rely on metal work so they're now spitting the metal out. She normally this process takes quite a while so to get it at this point implies that the rate my bones heal at is quite good. I'll hear this arvo about when my x-ray is then go from there. If surgery is required she said there's a good chance everything will come out but that I would not need to take any time off gym and just to be mindful of pain in the first few days tops so that's good news.

I'll wade into this to rep the amateurs After starting a few months ago at around 30kg with a still heavily fuxored ankle (which still is very average) and then doing a session with Matt Mat Middleton who showed me how to do it properly/better, I'm at 98kg for reps at the moment. I'm not sure what my goal is as that's dictated to some extent my my ankle. Initially the goal was BW and now the short term goal will be to get the DL and Squat above my bench for reps (a month or two I'd say). With Matt I pulled 8 reps at 120 so there's more there but at the moment, with a 5x5 routine 3 times a week, I take the weight increments very slowly and by the time I get to set 4-5 I've already burned up some of the little power I have. I'm not out to set any 1RMs so couldn't tell you what they actually are. As for grip, I'm starting to find in the last 2 sets that I need to use mixed grip, I also wear gloves because girly man. I notice grip more so on the bent row which I do straight after deads so my grip gets a good work out during that portion of the session. I do weighted chins afterwards too so again grip is tested.

Does anyone have a good vid of a bent row, I video'd myself last night sand want to compare how far over others are bending. I dropped off some weight to play with angle and can bend over further when it's lighter of course but can't, maintain that as the sets get heavier. In my vid I would say I'm getting around 45 degrees. I see a lot of vids of people horizontal, but I thought that was a pendlay row?

Didn't feel as good as I thought I would after 4 days off, the light strain in my right forearm is sorted bu the strain my left hammy isn't yet. Anyway, last night went OK. Squat high bar (All low bar this time for shits and giggles, also upped the last set which was originally the only low bar set, I'm not sure I'd have been able to do another set at 90.5 so the short term goal is to get the final set above the set preceding it. 75.5 80.5 85.5 90.5 85.5 Bench 95.5 99.5 104 106.5 109 Dropped the first 73kg set and added a 98kg set at the end, played with mixed grip. DL barefoot 78 83 88 93 98 Row: the extra low weight set was playing with depth. 67 73 75.5 78 54 80.5 I should be able to add some weight on these shortly when my dipping belt arrives. Chins 2.5 4.6 6.5 9 11.5 Dips 9 11.5 14 16.5 19

Well I set myself a reminder to take a break a month ago and I stuck to it tonight and took it off so I get a 4 day break (Thurs-Sun). I'm trying not to feel guilty...

Nice squat and DL. Do you have bad shoulders or something or just not into bench? I dunno what my 1RM is but I can rep 110 now so you'd have to think 1 rep would be a bit better. How long did it take you to get to those squat and DL numbers and how tall are you?

TTT: No comment on how you last went or numbers? Lashed out and bought myself a dipping belt. My tracksuit pants and jacket topped out at 20kg of pocket space lol Good job Troy!

Have been managing to consolidate those weights this week, added a few extra KG on the low bar squat (78), I'm starting to like the way that feels and where the weight sits as opposed to high bar. Tomorrow I'll look to add some weight to a few things, I may just sit bench where it is, by the 5th rep of the 5th set I'm starting to feel like I need a spotter just in case and the bench is only rated at 200kg including user so I'm only 5kg off that. Squat already feels hard for me, ankle protests and and I have to concentrate very hard to ensure the smaller ROM there doesn't make me kink in weird spots etc as I go down. DL feels good though, there;s definitely room to improve on that one. Row I constantly feel like I'm not bending over far enough. Dips I'm starting to worry about the strength of the bars and definitely have room to grow there, just looking for a dipping belt as the I'm all out of pocket space.

Wow Markos great info and thanks for taking the time to share it. I will now go home and put all of my gym gear on eBay and take up video games for my hobbies, I am clearly not cut out for any of this 0_0 Very impressive stuff. (I am joking, I'll keep struggling along! )