February 1st to May 1st Transformation Motivation Thread.

[Striation]

How was everyone been lately?

I've been gyming as often as I can lately (didn't do as much cardio today as before, my quads started to cramp up so I went home)

My weight hasn't been going down

But I think I'm getting a bit more definition in my back and arms, so I'm not sure how to feel at the moment. I want to get down to 170 lol

Don't worry about the weight, I stalled for weeks at around 200 despite a large deficit. The mirror showed a lot of progress. Keep it up!

[kureransu]

Morning Peeps!

First things first, I need to congratulate Miss Lady J! Job well done!

Last night I did a whole lot of nothing! pretty lazy, but after 2 games of soccer Monday and Tuesaday night. I deserved it.

I forgot to tell you guys how i save a guy's life yesterday. He decided to squat 275 outside the rack and went all the way down and was stuck. Was leaned a bit to forward to dump the weight without it rolling down his back.. I cam over and guided it up for him, being the stand up guy I am and such. The worst part? His workout partner had no idea what to do. He was just staring at him.....

Today is legs. Not too bad. Going to take it a bit easy. Not too easy, but a bit. I remember joking about having 80 days left on this program... Now I have 38. Time sure does fly!


How is everyone doing today? If anyone wants to chat it up, let me know. I live for the chat!

[loseitall90210]

Morning Peeps!

First things first, I need to congratulate Miss Lady J! Job well done!

Last night I did a whole lot of nothing! pretty lazy, but after 2 games of soccer Monday and Tuesaday night. I deserved it.

I forgot to tell you guys how i save a guy's life yesterday. He decided to squat 275 outside the rack and went all the way down and was stuck. Was leaned a bit to forward to dump the weight without it rolling down his back.. I cam over and guided it up for him, being the stand up guy I am and such. The worst part? His workout partner had no idea what to do. He was just staring at him.....

Today is legs. Not too bad. Going to take it a bit easy. Not too easy, but a bit. I remember joking about having 80 days left on this program... Now I have 38. Time sure does fly!


How is everyone doing today? If anyone wants to chat it up, let me know. I live for the chat!

nice catch!

[loseitall90210]

6 miles and a grueling core workout today......

9 pounds lost since Feb 1.... 1 semi-cheat day so far.. and only 3 rest days since Feb 1..

doing GREAT and waiting for the warm weather!

[Frontman44]

Morning Peeps!

First things first, I need to congratulate Miss Lady J! Job well done!

Last night I did a whole lot of nothing! pretty lazy, but after 2 games of soccer Monday and Tuesaday night. I deserved it.

I forgot to tell you guys how i save a guy's life yesterday. He decided to squat 275 outside the rack and went all the way down and was stuck. Was leaned a bit to forward to dump the weight without it rolling down his back.. I cam over and guided it up for him, being the stand up guy I am and such. The worst part? His workout partner had no idea what to do. He was just staring at him.....

Today is legs. Not too bad. Going to take it a bit easy. Not too easy, but a bit. I remember joking about having 80 days left on this program... Now I have 38. Time sure does fly!


How is everyone doing today? If anyone wants to chat it up, let me know. I live for the chat!

Nice job on the save...I'm sure the guy was extremely grateful you were there.

Tired this morning. Last night I was out at a meeting for a youth group that is set up to provide young men (ages 12 - 20) with practical business experience. The young man who is currently serving his 6 month term as the groups leader stood up and put forth a request to undertake special fundraising efforts for a 3 year old girl. The little girl is on a ventilator and currently commuicates by pointing to pictures in a book. The request was to purchase an Ipad with specialized software recommended by her speach therapist to aid her in communicating and accellerate her learning. I was very impressed that this request came from a 15 year old boy. I am also happy to say that after the collection basket went around the room, the little girl will be recieving her Ipad in the very near future.

Ended up getting home and subsequently to bed later than normal followed by a rough nights sleep and an earlier than usual start to my work day. Hopefully my cardio & abs session later today will get me out of the slump I'm in this morning.

[Asguroth]

Nice save kureransu! Pretty messed up that his friend didnt do anything. The guy was lucky you were there!

Thats reallly nice of the young man. Its always nice to see selflessness and caring in humans especially in young kids. Thanks for the share frontman!
Hope you feel better! I know after my workouts I feel better!

Good morning guys lol. Think I woke up 5 times to pee through out the night which I am not sure if it sucked or not because I feel pretty fine. I probably shouldn't have been chugging water down yesterday like it was holy water haha. Think I drank close to maybe 1-2 gallons of water.

[NitrogenWidget]

Felt like chit last night.
Ate a giant bowl of shredded wheat with the blueberry frosting & went to bed super early.

Woke at 5 am.
Gave birth. LOL!
Then did chest/shoulders/tri's.

Strength wasn't where it usually is for my evening lifts but I'm thinking i'm going to try & shift more workouts to the morning.

[Asguroth]

Felt like chit last night.
Ate a giant bowl of shredded wheat with the blueberry frosting & went to bed super early.

Woke at 5 am.
Gave birth. LOL!
Then did chest/shoulders/tri's.

Strength wasn't where it usually is for my evening lifts but I'm thinking i'm going to try & shift more workouts to the morning.

Congratulations! Was it a boy or a girl? Roflmao.

[caprica6]

I forgot to tell you guys how i save a guy's life yesterday.

Nice job on the save...I'm sure the guy was extremely grateful you were there.

I was very impressed that this request came from a 15 year old boy. I am also happy to say that after the collection basket went around the room, the little girl will be recieving her Ipad in the very near future.

>this! i'm glad you were there, Kureransu.

>great story, Frontman! and one day that'll be a 3 dollar app. fingers crossed

...

ok, here's the video that i posted yesterday morning. i had some problems uploading a set of comparison pics so i posted them this way. the vid is almost a minute in length because i rambled. i only shared two pics. :P



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmzsPyLFN4o

[NitrogenWidget]

Congratulations! Was it a boy or a girl? Roflmao.

Fiber is no joke. lol!

[Asguroth]

ok, here's the video that i posted yesterday morning. i had some problems uploading a set of comparison pics so i posted them this way. the vid is almost a minute in length because i rambled. i only shared two pics. :P

Thats really impressive. You put on good 10 lb of muscle it seems and even lost some fat. Your stomach for sure is flatter with more definition. Think your waist looks smaller as well but hard to tell for sure since its one picture. Great progress nonetheless. I am sure your lifts are alot better as well. If you lose a couple more pounds I think you can try out for modeling :P and be better than Kim Kardashian.

[Donsell]

Tired this morning. Last night I was out at a meeting for a youth group that is set up to provide young men (ages 12 - 20) with practical business experience. The young man who is currently serving his 6 month term as the groups leader stood up and put forth a request to undertake special fundraising efforts for a 3 year old girl. The little girl is on a ventilator and currently commuicates by pointing to pictures in a book. The request was to purchase an Ipad with specialized software recommended by her speach therapist to aid her in communicating and accellerate her learning. I was very impressed that this request came from a 15 year old boy. I am also happy to say that after the collection basket went around the room, the little girl will be recieving her Ipad in the very near future.

Ended up getting home and subsequently to bed later than normal followed by a rough nights sleep and an earlier than usual start to my work day. Hopefully my cardio & abs session later today will get me out of the slump I'm in this morning.

That is a good thing that young man did (and you too!) I'm seeing more examples of the younger generations being charitable and handling money well. I hope it continues.

Today was Stronglifts 5x5 workout A. I'm just starting the program, so the weights are very light and I'm not feeling like I'm pushing myself. I've thought about upping the weight to something more challenging and just doing that until I'd normally hit that weight in the program and move up from there.

Is that a good idea or should I just stick the program and be patient?

[Asguroth]

Fiber is no joke. lol!

Isn't fiber supposed to make giving birth easier? Rofl. Its like lube just gotta take water with it I heard. xD

[MEwooding]

Lookin great cap!!

Thank you all for your encouragement and kind words. Some of my measurements are down too, which is good. It's really motivating to keep at it. Worked out last night, went to the big gym, (box gym) that has a lot of cardio equipment and tanning. I did some deadlifts, ohp, and 3 sets of (lighter) squats first because I wanted to do some lifting, but man it was PACKED. Also there's this leak in the ceiling that's been going on for like a week and a half now. I'm getting fed up with that place. Starting to consider going to my lifting gym, then driving over to club24 to do cardio and tan on a couple days. It disturbs my calm when it's that busy.

Not sure if it's just because I had a break of a few days for lifting (thurs-sun i didn't lift due to random life stuff) but my lifts are feeling a little weaker. could have just been my focus was off too. Will try again tonight, but not going to the madhouse gym. >_>

[MEwooding]

Morning Peeps!

First things first, I need to congratulate Miss Lady J! Job well done!

Last night I did a whole lot of nothing! pretty lazy, but after 2 games of soccer Monday and Tuesaday night. I deserved it.

I forgot to tell you guys how i save a guy's life yesterday. He decided to squat 275 outside the rack and went all the way down and was stuck. Was leaned a bit to forward to dump the weight without it rolling down his back.. I cam over and guided it up for him, being the stand up guy I am and such. The worst part? His workout partner had no idea what to do. He was just staring at him.....

Today is legs. Not too bad. Going to take it a bit easy. Not too easy, but a bit. I remember joking about having 80 days left on this program... Now I have 38. Time sure does fly!


How is everyone doing today? If anyone wants to chat it up, let me know. I live for the chat!

Good catch! I don't like squatting in the squat rack usually because i'm so damn short, the rack would catch the bar before I get below parallel. >_> I only squat outside the rack with tested weight though.

Where do you chat? i have a desk job and spend half my day on gmail chat. :P you can message me if you want my handle, don't really wanna post it in a public forum. (that goes for anyone here actually)

[missladyj]

and lastly GRATZ LADYJ damn!

Thanks again missladyj and congrats on winning the best overall transformation. Keep up the good work!

First things first, I need to congratulate Miss Lady J! Job well done!

Thank you guys!

Today was Stronglifts 5x5 workout A. I'm just starting the program, so the weights are very light and I'm not feeling like I'm pushing myself. I've thought about upping the weight to something more challenging and just doing that until I'd normally hit that weight in the program and move up from there.

Is that a good idea or should I just stick the program and be patient?

Def a bad idea. It's purposefully supposed to be easy at first. It's common to feel that the programs starts too easy and many are tempted to increase the weight, but this is strongly advised against! Use this time to focus on form and technique. If you try to increase the weight quickly, you'll end up burning out faster. Slow, steady progression means that you can go a longer time adding on weight before your body craps out. If you want to get the maximum benefit of the program, follow it as written and you won't be disappointed .

[morrikj777]

I'm jealous of the people here able to squat effectively. For me, it's just not possible. Having three pins in left ankle because of breaking my left Tibia back in August 2010. Ugh, what a horrible accident that was and by horrible I mean completely embarrassing (long story). There's approximately 75% range of motion within my left ankle versus my right and going parallel doesn't work out too well.

I may experiment with the bar lower on the back so my torso is forced to lean forward a bit more and have a wide stance. For the time being, deads are supplementing the workout for hamstrings and glutes.

Obligatory congratulations to missladyj as well. Nah, not obligatory. It's genuine. I read over the thread and it's very impressive you took the overall winner. Very nice!

[kureransu]

Felt like chit last night.
Ate a giant bowl of shredded wheat with the blueberry frosting & went to bed super early.

Woke at 5 am.
Gave birth. LOL!
Then did chest/shoulders/tri's.

Strength wasn't where it usually is for my evening lifts but I'm thinking i'm going to try & shift more workouts to the morning.

[Donsell]

Thank you guys!



Def a bad idea. It's purposefully supposed to be easy at first. It's common to feel that the programs starts too easy and many are tempted to increase the weight, but this is strongly advised against! Use this time to focus on form and technique. If you try to increase the weight quickly, you'll end up burning out faster. Slow, steady progression means that you can go a longer time adding on weight before your body craps out. If you want to get the maximum benefit of the program, follow it as written and you won't be disappointed .

Thanks Missladyj. I'm not inexperienced lifting, but getting back into it and this is the first time I've tried to use a program rather than go on my own. I'll try to be patient.

[live4gs]

So far been pretty good with staying active. Sunday, Monday & Tuesday active with grandsons. Then Tuesday night started weights. Wednesday night went to see my mom at her nursing home. Usually pretty emotionally drained by the time I leave and am not wanting to do anything. After I get home it was either do nothing or get busy. So hit the stair stepper for 15min & treadmill for 25min. Glad I choose to do something instead of nothing or eat & drink something I would regret.

[MEwooding]

I'm jealous of the people here able to squat effectively. For me, it's just not possible. Having three pins in left ankle because of breaking my left Tibia back in August 2010. Ugh, what a horrible accident that was and by horrible I mean completely embarrassing (long story). There's approximately 75% range of motion within my left ankle versus my right and going parallel doesn't work out too well.

I may experiment with the bar lower on the back so my torso is forced to lean forward a bit more and have a wide stance. For the time being, deads are supplementing the workout for hamstrings and glutes.

Obligatory congratulations to missladyj as well. Nah, not obligatory. It's genuine. I read over the thread and it's very impressive you took the overall winner. Very nice!

Personally I feel SO much more stable with this general stance. (wide stance and low bar on the back) I feel it more in my hamstrings and it seems to take pressure off my knees. The one thing someone who critiqued my stance noticed that I tend to do when do this is look down. I watch myself in the mirror for depth, but when your chest is forward from having the bar on your back its easy to end up with your head down. I have started picking a spot above me (top of the mirror, sweat spot on the mirror, whatever, haha) and that seems to be correcting my issue. But be careful!! You can always talk to your doc about it too.

Also I love squats. They were the first lift I ever felt remotely badass at. :P

[morrikj777]

Personally I feel SO much more stable with this general stance. (wide stance and low bar on the back) I feel it more in my hamstrings and it seems to take pressure off my knees. The one thing someone who critiqued my stance noticed that I tend to do when do this is look down. I watch myself in the mirror for depth, but when your chest is forward from having the bar on your back its easy to end up with your head down. I have started picking a spot above me (top of the mirror, sweat spot on the mirror, whatever, haha) and that seems to be correcting my issue. But be careful!! You can always talk to your doc about it too.

Also I love squats. They were the first lift I ever felt remotely badass at. :P

Thanks for the tip.

My doctor who performed the surgery is a no-nonsense kind of doctor. He basically said, "want to get some range of motion back? Stretch, that's it." So my workout routine has an emphasis on warm-up and stretching before performing the lifts. It has helped a little bit every time, it's just that my mindset can be particularly impatient at times. The small constant nagging pain can get irritating at times, but I'm so used to it by now that it's possible to just block out the pain for greater healthy physique good.

[Nottoway]

Thanks for the tip.

My doctor who performed the surgery is a no-nonsense kind of doctor. He basically said, "want to get some range of motion back? Stretch, that's it." So my workout routine has an emphasis on warm-up and stretching before performing the lifts. It has helped a little bit every time, it's just that my mindset can be particularly impatient at times. The small constant nagging pain can get irritating at times, but I'm so used to it by now that it's possible to just block out the pain for greater healthy physique good.

Know the pain Bro... 1 years and 2 weeks from surgery, complete Achilles tendon rupture. Doc had to use, tendon that moves my toes, and half of another from the side of my ankle, everything held together by screws, pin and luck. I started my recovery in April, and have to work it/stretch everyday, just no easy way around it....Threw away the cane in July, pushing everyday. Hell, Doc told me I would be lucky if I could ever walk without a limp... 15 miles, walking/jogging/rowing a week, limp is gone... Starting squatting just the bar, hurt like hell, today I did 200 lbs, 4x10.....

[WuchiCasey]

Yeah. My thread with the last few progress pictures here. Str hardly went down across the board. http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...ng+low+protein

My before and after shots. http://my.bodybuilding.com/photos/view/type/progress


An update that I posted about 3/4 of the way through that particular cut:

"Fun facts.
1. Main protein source= Pizza
2. Weight lost 34lbs.
3. Bench pressing about twice my body weight
4. Averaged ~90g of protein for 142 days
5. Went from getting winded jogging 3 blocks to running 8-10 miles without stopping.
6. Stretched out my size 36's now I have to pull my size 32's up. Need to go shopping again.
7. Waist has gone from 43" to a little over 33"
8. Can do about 45 pullups in a row.

Averages for the month of May:
Daily Average: Exercise: 3178kcal Food: 2916kcal (Fat: 112.93g, Protein: 96.51g, Carbs: 388.01g)
Monthly Total: Exercise: 98521kcal Food: 90405kcal (Fat: 3500.90g, Protein: 2991.95g, Carbs: 12028.46g)


Calorie Breakdown:
Carbohydrate (53%)
Fat (35%)
Protein (12%)"

Yeah man I read thru all your thread awhile back. Great job! Do you think you lost any muscle doing this?

[morrikj777]

Know the pain Bro... 1 years and 2 weeks from surgery, complete Achilles tendon rupture. Doc had to use, tendon that moves my toes, and half of another from the side of my ankle, everything held together by screws, pin and luck. I started my recovery in April, and have to work it/stretch everyday, just no easy way around it....Threw away the cane in July, pushing everyday. Hell, Doc told me I would be lucky if I could ever walk with a limp... 15 miles, walking/jogging/rowing a week, limp is gone... Starting squatting just the bar, hurt like hell, today I did 200 lbs, 4x10.....

Ouch... *shudder.* I know the pain, but that seems much worse. If you can accomplish squatting then it should be no problem for me eventually. Just have to be patient and the results will eventually come.

[morrikj777]

The drawer of self-temptation. I use this drawer to test my resolve in avoiding nutritionally deficient foods. Behold!



This would be located at my work place. So far, haven't touched a piece in two months.

[Nulllogik]

The drawer of self-temptation. I use this drawer to test my resolve in avoiding nutritionally deficient foods. Behold!

[IMG]http://www.infireandshadow.com/pictures/dat_candy.JPG[IMG]

This would be located at my work place. So far, haven't touched a piece in two months.

Damn man, talk about willpower...

[MEwooding]

The drawer of self-temptation. I use this drawer to test my resolve in avoiding nutritionally deficient foods. Behold!



This would be located at my work place. So far, haven't touched a piece in two months.

\

We have these, except i don't stock it, the other office mates do. I just like pretending it doesn't exist. It's the exact same mix though. lol.

[Hanger]

Felt like chit last night.
Ate a giant bowl of shredded wheat with the blueberry frosting & went to bed super early.

Woke at 5 am.
Gave birth. LOL!
Then did chest/shoulders/tri's.

Strength wasn't where it usually is for my evening lifts but I'm thinking i'm going to try & shift more workouts to the morning.

My birthing has been delayed...might need it cut out....hurts......so...bad

[Asguroth]

Meh pretty sad with myself today. Went to Gym was leg day and after doing 7 sets of squating just with 135lb to work on getting real deep squat with 10 reps. I think I just ran out of energy by the 7th set got to only 6 reps . Only did 4 sets on leg extension and leg curl machines. Then did 5 sets of calve raises on leg press machine with some deep leg presses. Then did on the seated leg press machine sorta deep presses almost as deep as squat past 45 degrees for 4 sets with light weight.

After that I just left instead of doing my usually ab workout of 3-4 exercises done as a super-set. Hopefully didn't miss out on any possible gains I could have pushed my body to gain. I just felt mentally weak today in no other words to describe it. Maybe should make a new playlist to listen to at the Gym.

-sigh-