bozodos

It depends Markos - most people these days just want to look like Zyzz clones for example, regardless of strength or how much they can lift. sad but true. Going to start with your program as of Issue 39 next week, still unsure on what to do on the cardio days though due to the gym not having kettlebells or the room to do things like the Farmer's Walk. Will have to devise something. Got one gym partner on board, the other is full of excuses such as not enough rest time, boring etc etc, what would "some guy in Melbourne" know bla bla bla. Can only lead a horse to water I guess. BTW what is the difference between the IPF and GPC?

Correct Dan, and that's precisely what I was getting at Birds, It's vain, but I want to look strong as well as be strong, not interested in getting to single digit bodyfat or competing (at least at this point in my life). Markos' trainees and methods seem to work well for this from what I have seen, hence my interest in that particular method. Given that I'm still obese (6ft /120kg /~28%bf) and relatively new to lifting still, I figured that getting strong and then having the aesthetic look as a side effect of eating correctly to be the best method for my goals rather than trying to do whatever celebrity workout or train like Ronnie Coleman.

Well I was initially interested in the more powerlifting side (because to be honest what's the point of being big and/or shredded without having the strength to back it up), however the relative unaesthetic look of most powerlifters I'd seen had put me off. Markos' methods have me interested because his lifters get serious results (well in excess of anyone I have seen locally whether they be 70kg or 100kg+) yet most of them look pretty good to boot, which says to me that he might have a pretty good idea of what he's doing for what I want to achieve. I already know that curling like a bro isn't the answer, nor is Crossfit. I've done the 5 day split type training for a while now, but feel like a lot of the machine work and cable stuff was just a waste of time.It could be flawed logic as well, but I figure that my compound lifts are going to get better, faster, if I'm doing them more than once a week. The question mark I have about training alone is yes having a spotter or someone to check my form if I'm still doing it wrong (as I have a tendency to have one foot behind the other when squatting for example). Easier to train alone in that you get through it a lot faster, and only have to rest until you are capable of the next set or exercise.

training for myself, and because recently i'd started to really wonder if trying to train like bodybuilders really suits normal people. It is easier to train with other people than alone though.

cardio using weights - he makes his hatred of treadmills and the like fairly clear

haha that's about right. At least I've been able to steer clear of the machines, curl variations and cables for the most part.

no I probably wouldn't - I've been training and cleaned up my diet for 6 months now, but after reading your newsletters, the thought occurred to me that I might be under eating instead of eating more to build muscle, and therefore increase my BMR. Possibly even to the point of just eating more meat and having less protein shakes. It's unfortunate that I can't find anyone in my friend group who is interested in trying the PTC style of training (3 x a week compounds, 2x of cardio with weights), everyone is still dogmatic about the bodypart split thing!

do you still stand by your statement of gain muscle before trying to lose fat? that one had gotten me thinking.

yeah I've been finding them quite amusing and informative and have inspired me to really start busting my arse at the gym again instead of being scared to keep going heavier - I hope you do collate it all into a book and make some real money out of it! Why would you title it 'where do you live', or is that a joke? Do you also have published somewhere the kinds of stuff you do for your cardio routines?

BN is actually selling kits to test proteins yourself now interestingly enough (though only in a colour change to detect carb content vs protein). Reading through Markos' newsletters - you should write a book if you're not already!

nice story, quite inspirational (and I can relate to a very similar starting point and progress so far) Thing is though Markos, what's the key with what looks like a 'small' amount of exercises / reps? Do you just go as hard as you possibly can for the lot?

from all the science I've read, they generally agree on around 1g / lb body weight.

Check out Dosbox, or if you're lazy you can get X-Wing from gog.com. Fairly sure the older NFS games can be made to work with Windows 7, as I got my original copy of NFS:SE to work after some fiddling.

Yeah I could Birds, our gym only has one set of fixed barbells though, so I leave them for the curlbros

It's a kent of an exercise - I usually do it with 2x 15kg plates due to our gym not having kettlebells. supersetting that and squats made me feel quite nauseous lol.

I did squats and deads the other day, supersetting the squats with walking lunges, my glutes and hams were sore for the following 3 days (did not think to stretch either silly me!) It's doable. I even started doing sets of 20x100kg squats after reading Markos's mention it in one of the threads around here. It's hard to get out of the mentality of doing bodypart splits though, especially when you're training with someone else. I agree with the mental thing too - my bench went up 20kg tonight on incline and decline just because I thought 'f**k it ill see how much I can lift for reps', and I reckon I might have even had a bit more in me.

I usually go with 2-4g of GABA, started it on 2

wasn't there a point of difference between the Arnold Classic and the regular Strongman competition though? <3 Derek Poundstone!

yeah it's a tad embarassing having to do them assisted since I'm one of the few fat guys who uses the weights room and not a hungry skeleton, but the assistance weight is going down, and given that when I started I could not even do 5, I've come a long way.

looking forward to the day when I can do pullups unassisted tbh.

if not just buy a WD Scorpio Blue or Black 7200rpm drive or a $99 128gb SSD if you feel like it

I found Myo Blitz to literally do nothing lol. Tasted like utter shit though! I do agree on the not consuming caffeine at night thing though.

dem Islander genetics! I was especially impressed by the 400kg deadlift, what a tank!

whatever your engine builder tells you to do, because they are the one who is guaranteeing the engine will work properly