Who is on a cut?

[FredM]

@JohnHelton, regrettably I am not bulky despite my efforts. My cut is leaving me looking like a crossfitter. I'd fit right in at the office.

That isn’t a terrible thing. I am a bit of a freak. I just wish I had started lifting earlier. Being thin and strong though is a good thing. Especially as we get older

A bit??? Lol. I expect it to take me 3-5 years of perfect discipline to achieve your current stats. At 5’ 11”. And I’m 30. And you said you’re still seeing muscle gains while cutting? I’ve probably lost 10% lbm on my cuts and from what I can tell that’s pretty good even for a lifter. And I’m half as strong as you. You’re probably in the top 1-3% of men for gaining muscle genetics. I’m glad you’re competing.

[dcw]

I'm down 11 kg ( 24 lbs ) so far. Have a ways to go yet, but I'm not in a hurry.

I have started thinking about making more holes in my Best belt, tho. Have anyone got any suggestions?
I have been thinking about threating the belt as a piece of wood, and use a wood drill bit at slow speed.

Wood drill works if you don't have a leather punch.

I had to do this with one of my best belts and it worked just fine.

[dcw]

Have any of you guys targeted abs (situps, rollouts etc) with assistance work?

2-3x per week.
1 x 5-8min density block of ab wheel
1 x 5-8min density block of knee/leg raises
1 x various planks for a few sets each

Always done at the end of conditioning/gpp days. I hate training abs; the density block thing makes it tolerable. I have no idea to what extent it has actually helped my ab development, but i'm sure it's more than zero.

[JohnHelton]

Have any of you guys targeted abs (situps, rollouts etc) with assistance work?

2-3x per week.
1 x 5-8min density block of ab wheel
1 x 5-8min density block of knee/leg raises
1 x various planks for a few sets each

Always done at the end of conditioning/gpp days. I hate training abs; the density block thing makes it tolerable. I have no idea to what extent it has actually helped my ab development, but i'm sure it's more than zero.

Dexter, you have to be getting as close to abs as anyone.

[iamsmu]

Incidentally, I find it crazy that professional males seem to be so concern with having a runner/triathlete body. I guess they associate bulk with being a laborer. Really stupid, but I do think it is a bit of classism.

Is this a real thing?

My wife and I are convinced that it is. When we go out to dinner, we see so many men that seem to be competing with their wives as to which one can be the skinniest. They all want to look something like Jordan Spieth. Long and lean. That works well in a suit. And looking good in a suit while having "great hair" signals that you are successful. Obviously, I don't buy into that world view.

Oh, and the wives trying to be as tiny as models...that doesn't workout so well when they are in their late 40s and losing all musculature.

People should try to avoid being fat. That isn't healthy. However, I wish it was more common for people to want to be strong AF. I literally don't know anyone else outside of this forum and Instagram that is doing that.

I just remembered this story: After my first powerlifting meet, my wife wanted to show off videos of me lifting in competition to her family at Christmas. My sister-in-law (a runner) was so disgusted that she couldn't watch any of the videos. Literally, none of her family can understand why I do what I do. It seems very strange to me. One could ask the very same question of the runner. Why run? However, that practice is very widely accepted.

https://psmag.com/social-justice/half-l ... lass-85221

[slowmotion]

I'm down 11 kg ( 24 lbs ) so far. Have a ways to go yet, but I'm not in a hurry.

I have started thinking about making more holes in my Best belt, tho. Have anyone got any suggestions?
I have been thinking about threating the belt as a piece of wood, and use a wood drill bit at slow speed.

Wood drill works if you don't have a leather punch.

I had to do this with one of my best belts and it worked just fine.

I'll probable make a sandwich clamping the belt between two pieces of wood and drill slowly through. Should work all right.

[JohnHelton]

Incidentally, I find it crazy that professional males seem to be so concern with having a runner/triathlete body. I guess they associate bulk with being a laborer. Really stupid, but I do think it is a bit of classism.

Is this a real thing?

My wife and I are convinced that it is. When we go out to dinner, we see so many men that seem to be competing with their wives as to which one can be the skinniest. They all want to look something like Jordan Spieth. Long and lean. That works well in a suit. And looking good in a suit while having "great hair" signals that you are successful. Obviously, I don't buy into that world view.

Oh, and the wives trying to be as tiny as models...that doesn't workout so well when they are in their late 40s and losing all musculature.

People should try to avoid being fat. That isn't healthy. However, I wish it was more common for people to want to be strong AF. I literally don't know anyone else outside of this forum and Instagram that is doing that.

I just remembered this story: After my first powerlifting meet, my wife wanted to show off videos of me lifting in competition to her family at Christmas. My sister-in-law (a runner) was so disgusted that she couldn't watch any of the videos. Literally, none of her family can understand why I do what I do. It seems very strange to me. One could ask the very same question of the runner. Why run? However, that practice is very widely accepted.

https://psmag.com/social-justice/half-l ... lass-85221

That article pretty much captures it. However, you won't catch me going back to endurance sports. I've done enough of that stuff for a lifetime. Thankfully, my wife likes her man a bit more masculine. I also don't have an interest being around people that would look down on people for being strong. Their heads aren't screwed on right.

[Wilhelm]

People don't generally recognize the role of muscle mass in overall health.
It's basically the frontline against disease.


I guess i am on a cut of sorts.
Just checked my food log, and i've done 15 days at around 2,500 calories.
had been eating around 3,000

Watching deadlifts from the front shirtless was all the impetus i needed.
I was never over my weight class (93kg) but i was waking up at 200lbs.
I am able to use one hole tighter on my belt now. It's tight, but i have cinched it up for heavy singles.
Not too hard to undo it either.

Protein has stayed the same, 1 g per lb bw.
I'll bump cals up if needed as i monitor things for my meet.

Not wanting/trying to start a keto discussion, but I'm coming up on two years keto, and it seems like it's pretty easy for my body to drop fat just by adjusting my dietary fat intake.
It's the only macro i can adjust anyway, so it's good it seems to work.

It will be nice to not have to worry about water and food intake the day of meet, as i am driving 1 1/2 hours to the venue.
It's going to be a long day.

[slowmotion]

Hah, I'll be happy when ( if ) I get down to 93 kg. ok, realistically that will never happen. I'll stop at 95-97 kg, no matter what. That will be a year from now.

You are going to do great at the meat, @Wilhelm !

[iamsmu]

That article pretty much captures it. However, you won't catch me going back to endurance sports. I've done enough of that stuff for a lifetime. Thankfully, my wife likes her man a bit more masculine. I also don't have an interest being around people that would look down on people for being strong. Their heads aren't screwed on right.

It's unfortunate that the article blurs together lifting weights and SS's ridiculous idea about weight gain. The guy went from 190 to 215 and Pharaoh told him to go to 275. WTF! I doubt that more than 5 pounds of that 25 was muscle. People might have been reacting more to his body fat than his weight training. I dunno.

Rippetoe visited my gym one day. I liked him immensely—funny, eccentric, a brilliant technique coach. He told me that to become competitive, I would have to get vastly bigger—to something like 275 pounds. But I didn’t want to be 275 pounds. I love my wife dearly. I didn’t want to become less attractive to her, and I was already too heavy for the running, biking, and swimming that I’d long enjoyed and now missed. For a short time I tried to have it both ways: I signed up for the Escape From Alcatraz Triathlon; bought a visor, fancy sunglasses, and a GPS watch; and told myself I would somehow maintain my hard-won muscular strength throughout triathlon training.

I thought that the popularity of Crossfit had changed things. But I pretty sure I over-estimated the impact. . . . One of my friends thought that I was posting some things on an anonymous forum in my profession because the poster mentioned lifting weights. He could only think of 2 people in my entire profession that lift weights. I guess there might be 3, since it wasn't me posting.

[slowmotion]

It's more or less the same over here. You lift weights? Blue collar.

[ch]

I believe people think the end goal of any barbell training is to become a roided out monster walking around in Affliction shirts (is that still a thing?) and flat-brim hats.

There’s a cultural stigma to it. Unfortunately the culture and politics of places like the other forum and the dregs of bodybuilding.com don’t do much to dispel this.

People must realize that most pro and Olympic athletes (even the ones who aren’t huge hulking beasts) train with barbells, right?

And FWIW, there are a few guys I work with that definitely don’t fit the “lifter” stereotype who have started lifting.

[quark]

I have a bunch of elderly relatives who would be much better off with more strength and muscle mass. It would help with things like getting out of a chair, walking with more confidence or transferring from a wheelchair to a bed. I can't see how better aerobic conditioning would be a significant benefit to any of them, certainly not as significant a benefit as more strength and less frailty.

[JohnHelton]

People must realize that most pro and Olympic athletes (even the ones who aren’t huge hulking beasts) train with barbells, right?

They do, but I don't think most people know that. The best distance runners in the US use barbell training. All of Alberto Salazar's athletes do.

[ch]

This is getting off-topic, but...

On a personal note, my wife (who was never really an athlete) started a competitive sport five or so years ago, and is very good for someone who picked it up in her 30s. She’s been seeing a personal trainer to help with the fencing, and he started her (slowly) training with barbells and dumbbells of the non-colorful variety. A few years ago she told me she had no interest in it. I’m happy she’s weight training now and sees the benefits.

There’s a middle ground between whatever Rip preaches (which is not powerlifting, amirite?) and endurance training that most people should find. (This is the fundamental idea behind CrossFit, right?) You don’t need to weigh 275 and have a 600+ squat to be “a more useful human being” and ward off the effects of aging.

[TimK]

After my first powerlifting meet, my wife wanted to show off videos of me lifting in competition to her family at Christmas. My sister-in-law (a runner) was so disgusted that she couldn't watch any of the videos. Literally, none of her family can understand why I do what I do. It seems very strange to me. One could ask the very same question of the runner. Why run? However, that practice is very widely accepted.

Jesus, your sister in law sounds like an awful person. I mean, I don't think you should have expected her to bow down in awe of your awesome strength or anything, but expressing disgust and refusing to watch is straight up rude. Let's be honest, I think long distance running is a pretty dumb way to spend your time and I have no interest in doing it myself, but if I had a friend or relative who ran a marathon and wanted to tell me about it or show me a video of them crossing the finish line I would at the very least congratulate them and maintain a positive demeanor.

[JohnHelton]

After my first powerlifting meet, my wife wanted to show off videos of me lifting in competition to her family at Christmas. My sister-in-law (a runner) was so disgusted that she couldn't watch any of the videos. Literally, none of her family can understand why I do what I do. It seems very strange to me. One could ask the very same question of the runner. Why run? However, that practice is very widely accepted.

Jesus, your sister in law sounds like an awful person. I mean, I don't think you should have expected her to bow down in awe of your awesome strength or anything, but expressing disgust and refusing to watch is straight up rude. Let's be honest, I think long distance running is a pretty dumb way to spend your time and I have no interest in doing it myself, but if I had a friend or relative who ran a marathon and wanted to tell me about it or show me a video of them crossing the finish line I would at the very least congratulate them and maintain a positive demeanor.

I haven't had any experiences with her that were that negative. I was so surprised that I didn't even know what to say. Later as I reflected on it, I had the same thoughts as you and was pretty pissed. I've let it pass at this point. Whatever. I just don't talk about what I do unless someone asks.

[TimK]

https://psmag.com/social-justice/half-l ... lass-85221

Sociologists, it turns out, have studied these covert athletic biases. Carl Stempel, for example, writing in the International Review for the Sociology of Sport, argues that upper middle class Americans avoid “excessive displays of strength,” viewing the bodybuilder look as vulgar overcompensation for wounded manhood. The so-called dominant classes, Stempel writes—especially those like my friends and myself, richer in fancy degrees than in actual dollars—tend to express dominance through strenuous aerobic sports that display moral character, self-control, and self-development, rather than physical dominance. By chasing pure strength, in other words, packing on all that muscle, I had violated the unspoken prejudices—and dearly held self-definitions—of my social group.

Sounds like voluntary hardship.

[dcw]

Have any of you guys targeted abs (situps, rollouts etc) with assistance work?

2-3x per week.
1 x 5-8min density block of ab wheel
1 x 5-8min density block of knee/leg raises
1 x various planks for a few sets each

Always done at the end of conditioning/gpp days. I hate training abs; the density block thing makes it tolerable. I have no idea to what extent it has actually helped my ab development, but i'm sure it's more than zero.

Dexter, you have to be getting as close to abs as anyone.

In the right light on the right day with the correct amount of water being retained in the right place, I can see them prominently. I'm at that point where the way I look fluctuates wildly depending on the time of day, carb intake, water, blah blah blah (this is a thing, right?). My hope is to lose just a bit more (5lb?) and then with the expected slight bump in weight transitioning back to maintenance I'll fill out and look even leaner. Jesus, do I sound like as big of a tool to you all as I do to myself saying this garbage?

[JohnHelton]

Have any of you guys targeted abs (situps, rollouts etc) with assistance work?

2-3x per week.
1 x 5-8min density block of ab wheel
1 x 5-8min density block of knee/leg raises
1 x various planks for a few sets each

Always done at the end of conditioning/gpp days. I hate training abs; the density block thing makes it tolerable. I have no idea to what extent it has actually helped my ab development, but i'm sure it's more than zero.

Dexter, you have to be getting as close to abs as anyone.

In the right light on the right day with the correct amount of water being retained in the right place, I can see them prominently. I'm at that point where the way I look fluctuates wildly depending on the time of day, carb intake, water, blah blah blah (this is a thing, right?). My hope is to lose just a bit more (5lb?) and then with the expected slight bump in weight transitioning back to maintenance I'll fill out and look even leaner. Jesus, do I sound like as big of a tool to you all as I do to myself saying this garbage?

Welcome to the tool box. Glad you could join our party.