Multivitamins are very important for many things. There is little chance that you actually get all of your micronutrients from eating regular meals.

As a result, I'd highly recommend NOW! Adam - excellent multivitamin, taken twice a day with food.

Stats: 24/M/5'9 185lbs 15%-18% BF

1RM
Bench: 185
Squat: 230
DL: 395

I'm currently doing PHAT( Upper Body Strength, Lower Body Strength, Back/Shoulders, Lower Body Hypertrophy, Chest/Arms )

I've been lifting seriously for about 4-6 months. In July I weighed 250 lbs and had close to 30% BF.
I started by dieting until I was about 220 and then hit the weights.
I'm currently at 185 and have hit a plateau.

Mon-Fri my diet is almost 99% clean consisting of 900-1000 calories with IF. (8oz chicken, 1 cup broccoli, 1tbsp peanut butter, 1tbsp coconut oil, 1 cup of milk, 2 scoops whey protein)
I don't eat clean probably 2 days a week, mainly because I only see my girlfriend on weekends. For the past 2-3 weeks I've weighed in constantly at 185.

Now my question, could my "cheat" days really be holding me back when I'm eating at such a huge deficit during the week? I'm almost certain I don't go over 3k-4k calories twice a week.

The other thing that could be affecting me is that the past 2 weeks my girlfriend has come to see me on a Thursday and we ate out and I weighed in on Friday. So I could be retaining water and weigh in on a full stomach.

I'm going to go back to keto and up my calories to 1500 to try and break this plateau as well as crack down on my cheat days and turn it into a single cheat meal.

Is blood clotting a thing to worry about if 25 years old and no real family history of them?

I lead an "active" lifestyle as far as america is concerned. I workout regularly and play ice hockey twice a week.
I am in good shape but I feel like even someone with a six pack can be at risk if they sit enough.

I figured I am stagnant for most of the day.
Sleep
Drive to work
Office desk job sit
drive home
workout
video games/tv/girlfriend
Sleep

That is most days. So basically I am working out for 2 hours and then sitting for 22 hours a day.

I got a pain in my left calf the other day. It was on and off and I got the sensation as if I tied off my leg with a rope and then untied it on and off.
A few days later, I got out of bed and noticed it was slightly tender to walk but really not too bad at all.

I. Hate. Office. Desk. Job. Sitting.
I would do anything for a new career that I can make a retirement off of lol
Yes I can get up and walk every hour but thats beside the point if I already have a clot

Over-reacting maybe...

hey SKCR

Just wanted your feedback on something.
Ive been working out now for a few years, seen very great progress, but i wanted to change my workout routine to a little more powerlifting based.
I found this workout program on bodybuilding site, its basically a hybrid of powerlifting + hypertrophy.
Can you have a quick look at the program and let me know what you think, should i change anything? add anything?



GOOGLE THIS SINCE I DONT THINK IM ALLOWED TO POST LINKS
mega-feature-layne-norton-training-series-full-powerhypertrophy-routine

This post was edited by iBrent on May 13 2014 06:05am

First things first, congratulations of making such good progress so far.

Let's get to business.

IF at 900-1000 cals, especially for your height/weight and activity level is ABSOLUTELY too low. You are literally causing muscle catabolism if you weight train with such few calories while on IF. If you are 185 lbs, and 5'9 - with your activity level - you should be in the area of 2,000 cals per day on workout days with IF. On non-workout days, you should hover around the 1,600-1,800 cal area. Getting too little in terms of calories will cause metabolic shutdown, which can result in reduced fatloss, and muscle catabolism. The 2x cheat days per week, assuming they are around 3K-4K calories per day, ARE HELPING at this point rather than hurting. The real good thing you need to be doing is splitting up the calories throughout the week. If you have absolute need for splurging 2x per week, you can do a cheat meal rather than a cheat day. This will keep your calories around 2-2.5K on those days.

Secondly, if you are going to do KETO, you need to be in the 2,000-2,100 calorie area during keto, and will have to carb up once a week (6 days keto, 1 day carbs, then deplete and repeat)

I think the best thing you can do right now is take a full 1-2 week deload. Don't lift, don't train, eat whatever you want (keep the calories to no more than 3K per day). After the 2 week deload, you can begin keto. I think at this point, your body needs to recover from starvation mode, and needs some time to recuperate.

Hey there.

I highly doubt you have a blood clot or pulmonary embolism for the sake of your current diet, routine, medical history, and general lifestyle. However, your odds are around 1:500 given your current stats.

The solution to the problem? Just periodicially get up and move around. When sitting, keep your legs moving as much as possible. Also reposition yourself in the chair as often as possible. The basic idea here is to keep your body moving, even if you are in a seated position. The human body isn't meant to be sedentary, and of course, bad things can happen if you defy the purpose of our bodies.

That being said, with added motion, periods of standing up and walking around, as well as conscious effort to keep yourself, especially your legs, free from restricted blood flow, you'll be fine.

Make sure to drink enough water!! at least 1-1.5 gals per day as well.

Hey there. It's a pretty good training routine, however it can be made much better. Are you interested in doing STRICT powerlifting? If so, I have a plan:

http://forums.d2jsp.org/topic.php?t=21269614&f=60&p=344036735#p344036735

This is a modified powerlifting guide for volume and power. True powerlifters don't spend much time doing 5x5 or other "rep" activities, however, I have found in my personal experiences that adding some volume greatly helped me improve my numbers.

The philosophy of the plan you told me to look up is about the same. You can try either one, and report your results to me.

Thanks man, appreciate the advice. I've moved up to 1600 calories (1,608 157p/105f/23c) to be exact on keto. I'm going to give this a try for two weeks and see how it plays out. If I don't notice anything changing, then I'll deload the third week since it lines up well with my schedule and my lifting partner is going out of town for a week.

I'll check up back then and let you know the results!

Thanks boss. Do you suggest any supplements I should be taking? Vitamins, Weightloss, etc.

Hey there,
I am currently a beginner in the whole fitness scene.
I started I'd say 2nd weekend in April.
Looking to actually start having a plan leading into the next couple of months/years.
So currently I am going 4 times a week (MTWF) and focusing alot on arm volume/chest/back.
Since I started I noticed a big imbalanced muscle in my biceps, kinda curious on what the "best" way to re-balance is.

Another thing, I am going blind on a diet..
I am 18 coming up on 19, weigh about 210-220 last I checked and eat about 1 meal a day.
I haven't found out my %BF yet I plan on doing so soonish, but my goal is somewhere in 8-14%
I feel like my diet is pretty awful kinda looking for help in that.

TL:DR:
1.) What is the "best" way to rebalance biceps?
2.) What is a good 5day/week routine I can transition into in the coming weeks
3.) If you can any help on diet/meal plan?