[_nick_]

Hey guys,
Starting a new chapter in life, just started college and have decided that I should focus more on the gym. I have been on and off lifting for the past two years but every time I get any progress I injure myself or a sport starts and I loose time to go to the gym. Now even as busy as I am in college I want to focus on getting my weight to 190 pounds. Right now I am 6'1 and a 174 pounds. I started going to the gym again about a month and a half ago and have gained about 5 pounds so far. Cant wait to start focusing on my progress more. Any tips are appreciated!

[_nick_]

10/22/17

Off day from gym

Diet:
Breakfast
2 dip eggs:12 grams protein/ 140 calories
Lunch: Protein shake, turkey sandwich
Second Lunch: Buffalo chicken
Dinner: Ham with white rice and carrots (Dining hall food kinda sucks)
Snacks: Beef jerkey
Also drank about 3/4 gallon of water

[_nick_]

10/23/17

Chest and triceps
Bench: 12 reps of 135/ 8 reps of 155/ 6 reps of 165 (Up two reps since last time)
Incline bench: 8 reps of 125/ 8 reps of 125/ 8 reps of 115
Incline dumbbell fly: 10 reps of 35 for 3 sets
Push ups: 20 for 3 sets
Scull crusher and close grip bench (12 and 12 reps) super set 65 pounds for 3 sets
Pull down cables super set with over the head (12 and 12 reps)
Meals:
Breakfast:Oatmeal
Lunch: Cheeseburger and salad
Dinner: Chicken fingers
Snacks: protein pack, protein shake, granola bar, walnuts, almonds

[The Man w/ the Golden Gun]

What's your injury history?

[Steelex]

You need more protein homie.

[TravelerKai]

(10-25-2017 10:51 AM)Steelex Wrote:  

You need more protein homie.

This.

Steelix is wise as ever.

Your calories are too low and your protein is too low. You are eating like a lean lifter would. You need protein in the morning. Leave the oatmeal for when it is time to cut down or something else. You can have oatmeal in the morning, but get some protein in there. You could at least get some whey in the morning for that protein.

Either way you won't get bigger and keep your gains eating like that or it will just take a very long time and you might get frustrated with plateau issues.

[Steelex]

I edited your diet to give you a better idea of what it should look like.


Breakfast:Oatmeal, 4 eggs, 16 ounces milk
Snack: 1 scoop shake, 1 tbsp peanut butter
Lunch: Cheeseburger and fries, 16 ounces of milk
Snack: 1 Scoop shake, 1 tbsp peanut butter.
Dinner: atleast 10 ounces of chicken fingers, mashed potatoes and gravy, or macaroni,
Pre bed: 1 cup egg whites with cheese, half an avocado

[_nick_]

I could start making eggs in microwave the school eggs are disgusting, today I ate
breakfast: gatorade protein bar, oatmeal
Snack: Chicken with salad
Lunch: Turkey and ham, muscle milk 40g protein
Snack: protein shake
Dinner: Brown rice, pasta
Its hard to eat good foods at college there isn't a lot of food available, I have been trying to drink a lot of milk. I also am taking bcaas and zinc at night plus pre work out twice a week

[_nick_]

Workout
10/25
Arnold shoulder press: 40 pounds for 8 reps and 3 sets
Shoulder press machine: 140 pounds 10 reps 3 sets
Squat machine: 200 pounds/ 10 reps/ 3 sets
Other leg stuff (don't know name of them all they just hurt)

I have dislocated my right shoulder 3 times, they were all within two weeks of each other. I was told to get surgery but it was bad timing because of school starting. I have completed physical therapy and continue to work on the workouts they gave me daily. So far I dont have much pain but I mainly avoid doing a lot of shoulders in fear of hurting myself.

Work out: 10/26

Chest and triceps
Bench: 12 reps of 135/ 8 reps of 155/ 5 reps of 175 (Up 4 reps since last)
Incline bench: 8 reps of 125/ 8 reps of 125/ 8 reps of 125
Incline dumbbell fly: 10 reps of 40 for 3 sets
dips: 12 reps 3 sets
Scull crusher: 45 pounds for 10 reps and 8 sets
Pull down cables: 60 pounds/ 12 reps 10 sets
Dumbbell bench: 55s for 6 reps 3 sets
45 pound plate bench for 12 reps 3 sets

[Steelex]

Yeah honestly your diet sucks you need to be getting protein in every meal. The fact you ate pasta and brown rice for dinner tells me everything.

Diet trump's everything. It is literally what you use to grow you can't grow bigger without the food bro it's totally impossible.

I hate to be so brutal but you are fucking around right now. You gotta make the decision to flip the switch and do it.

People used to make fun of me cause I never left the house without a cooler full of food and I took it every where I went I'd literally be sitting in a movie theatre just chowing down the whole time, but now those same people are like Holy fuck boy what happened who did you eat!?

Try is a synonym for can't or won't. It's as simple as just looking yourself in the mirror, saying goodbye to the old you, and committing yourself to doing what it takes.

[_nick_]

What are some good things I can eat/make in a dorm room? I only have access to a microwave and a fridge. I could probably microwave eggs.

[Steelex]

You may have to buy some stuff to make a little ghetto kitchen.

You can microwave eggs just fine, I do it every morning.

You can buy an electric skillet or George foreman grill and a microwave and make plenty of things. Just basic stuff like chicken, rice, eggs, ramen, protein powder, milk, will go a long way. Prison style.

Little 1 dollar totinos frozen party pizzas are cheap and have like 750 calories. You throw down one of those with 2 scoops of whey, 2 scoops of peanut butter and 16 ounces of milk and you've got like 1700 calories with like 100 grams of protein and guess what
that doesn't cost hardly anything.

2 packs of ramen with 8 ounces of grilled or canned chicken and a 2 scoop shake in milk will get you like 1500 calories with 100 grams of protein and cost you like 2-3 dollars.

Here is the magic combo....

Greasy high calorie junk food + chicken + protein powder with milk + peanut butter = big on a budget.

I promise you can grow on fifty a week.

[realologist]

(10-27-2017 12:36 AM)Steelex Wrote:  

You may have to buy some stuff to make a little ghetto kitchen.

You can microwave eggs just fine, I do it every morning.

You can buy an electric skillet or George foreman grill and a microwave and make plenty of things. Just basic stuff like chicken, rice, eggs, ramen, protein powder, milk, will go a long way. Prison style.

Little 1 dollar totinos frozen party pizzas are cheap and have like 750 calories. You throw down one of those with 2 scoops of whey, 2 scoops of peanut butter and 16 ounces of milk and you've got like 1700 calories with like 100 grams of protein and guess what
that doesn't cost hardly anything.

2 packs of ramen with 8 ounces of grilled or canned chicken and a 2 scoop shake in milk will get you like 1500 calories with 100 grams of protein and cost you like 2-3 dollars.

Here is the magic combo....

Greasy high calorie junk food + chicken + protein powder with milk + peanut butter = big on a budget.

I promise you can grow on fifty a week.

Agreed. OP. If you know anyone that's been to jail more than a few days ask them how to make a cook up with meat in it. That should give you a cheap and decent tasting recipe.

[_nick_]

10/27

Biceps/ Back/ Shoulder

Curl barbell: 65 pounds/ 10 reps 3 sets
Concentrated curls: 25s for 10 reps 7 sets
Pull down back exercise: 160 pounds 12 reps 3 sets
Planks: one minute 3 sets
Hammer curls: 35s for 8 reps 3 sets
Pull ups: 10 for 3 sets
Curls seated: 25s 12 reps 3 sets
Plate rises: 45s and 35s for superest 20 rps/ 3 sets
Shoulder press dumbbells: 40s 10 reps 3 sets

Food so far (will update later)
Breakfast:
Orange juice
3 eggs
potato
ham

Lunch:
double bacon cheese burger
Yogurt
Muscle milk pro series
Fries

[_nick_]

Meals continued for 10/27
Snack:
Chicken fingers and fries
14 ounces of milk

Dinner:
Pulled pork, brown rice, milk, carrots

[_nick_]

Meals 10/29
Breakfast: sausage egg and cheese on plain bagel
Coffee roll
Hashbrowns
14 oz milk

Lunch: Chicken, lettuce cheese ranch wrap
Brown lental soup
14 oz milk

[TravelerKai]

OP, when I was in college I had the exact same problem you had. In fact lots of scholarship athletes do and only when they go pro get into even better shape from eating at team cafeterias and getting access to trainers, etc.

I was a beginner MMA athlete, but I was back in the day 125lbs when I started. I needed to get to 155lbs ASAP because there was no bantamweight divisions back then.

What I did was I bought a tub of Weight gainer (Like Optimum Nutrition brand), then ate tuna fish sandwiches with mayo (only do that twice a week), then I ate cheeseburgers wherever I could find them cheap on campus. Took me about 3 months but I got there. It's hard to eat 6 times a day when you are a broke student but you can get pretty close to what you need, until you get more money after school. After school you can get bigger and love it. In college I probably took in around 50g of protein on average days and when I left college I probably was around 100-125g+ per day. Yeah you will end up pooping out good amounts of that, but that's where your absorption and other things, like timing, can make up for the excess to avoid that.

Professional look requires professional grade eating. There just isn't any way around that. Watch an Evan Centopani video on youtube on what he eats to gain some insight. I recommend watching the whole thing just to get an idea of the work required.
Here's one:

[Highpool]

Why only 2 tuna sandwiches a week?

[TravelerKai]

(10-31-2017 10:10 AM)Highpool Wrote:  

Why only 2 tuna sandwiches a week?

You do not potentially want too much mercury in your bloodstream, if in case the tuna you are eating has any amount of it to begin with. It's safe to eat, but for deep sea fish you have to be careful about eating that everyday.

A rocked up dude I took one of my first classes taught me that, as I got older I dug around and he was right about that for the most part.

Check out this article from a bodybuilding doctor:

https://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/mroussell5.htm

Quote:

Mercury And Tuna - Setting The Record Straight!
Mike Roussell, Ph.D.
Mike Roussell, Ph.D.
April 12, 2016 • 6 min read
You have a right to know about the facts with regard to Tuna and Mercury. Do bodybuilders need to be concerned about their consumption of Tuna?

Tuna fish and mercury: this is a marriage uglier than Ike and Tina. How much tuna can you eat without suffering from mercury poisoning? Is one kind of tuna better than the other? What about Tuna Steaks? Lots of questions but nobody has any real answers - it's all hearsay... until now. So sit back, grab a can, and enjoy!

TURNING AWAY FROM TUNA
As an undergraduate working towards a B.S. in chemistry, I spent 2 years working in a lab doing organic synthesis. The combination of being in college and working in a lab meant that both money and time were tight. So like many powerbuilders before me, I turned to canned tuna and MRP's to provide the bulk of my protein intake.

With a long shelf life and at $0.50 a can for chunk lite tuna how could I go wrong? I use to keep my lab desk drawers stock full of chunk light tuna (who needs file folders? - I needed protein). What could be better?

I would regularly eat 3 cans a day; but then some of my fellow researchers started giving me a hard time saying that I was poisoning myself because tuna was loaded with mercury.

They printed off charts and diagrams saying how I should only eat 1-2 cans of tuna per week. At first I blew them off. What did they know; they thought the USDA Food Pyramid was the way to good health! But then I got scared. Mercury poisoning could lead to brain damage!

I had no way of proving them wrong and if they were right the thoughts of mercury poisoning were not very pleasant. So I swore off tuna. Other than the occasional can when I'm in a pinch I hadn't eaten tuna in about 3 years.

HEAVY METAL
Before we dive into the mercury/tuna debate, a little background on mercury is necessary. Mercury, like zinc, iron, and Lead, is a heavy metal. But unlike zinc and iron, lead and mercury have no useful function in the human body.

The only functions that mercury has are adverse; negatively affecting the brain and kidneys. Once in the body mercury has a half-life of ~3 days in the blood stream and a 90 day half life in other tissues (e.g. brain, kidneys, etc).

WHERE DOES IT GO?
When you ingest mercury (via your daily can of tuna) it gets readily absorbed by the small intestine and shipped to the liver where it forms a complex with glutathione.

From there the mercury has two fates - bile or blood. It can get incorporated in bile and excreted back into the intestines where it can be either reabsorbed or excreted in your feces.

The other fate for the mercury-glutatione complex is the blood stream. Once in the blood stream mercury readily travels to the kidneys or the brain. In the kidneys it can get filtered and excreted in the urine or stored. The kidneys contain a protein called metallothionein that binds mercury and stores it in a nontoxic form.

As long as the dosage of mercury does not overwhelm the system the kidneys will do a good job of synthesizing metallothionein and binding mercury as needed.

If it finds a way to the brain it gets transferred across the blood brain barrier (more on this later) and stored. The storage option is the one that leads to mercury toxicity causing damage to the brain or kidneys.

MERCURY MESSES WITH YOUR MIND
Remember how I said I had been eating 3 cans of tuna a day with no problems? Well... looking back on that summer a couple strange things did happen - like my training partner refusing to workout with me only 3 weeks into our training cycle.

He said that I was "going mad" and that he was embarrassed by my antics as I got psyched for big lifts (like slamming my head against the power rack).

Sure I wasn't my usual self and I did feel a little crazy but my lifts were great... little did I know it was the tuna that was making me crazy! Really... no I didn't go crazy like that in the gym but neurological problems and "symptoms of madness" are classic signs of methylmercury toxicity.

The brain is pretty picky about what it lets across the blood brain barrier but mercury has found a loophole to get through and drive you nuts (literally).

Methylmercury can bind to cysteine and to the brain this methylmercury-cysteine looks via methionine (essentially methylated cysteine).

So methylmercury sneaks across the blood brain barrier disguised as an amino acid. Luckily the transport of this methylmercury-cysteine complex is inhibited by, methionine, phenylalanine, leucine, and other large neutral amino acids1.

Having this transport inhibited by certain amino acids could possibly mean that high protein diet (and the protein found in tuna fish) will help prevent the transport of methylmercury into the brain.

LET'S TALK TUNA
Now that we've laid the foundation for understanding mercury (and methylmercury) let's look at its relationship to tuna and tuna consumption.

Fortunately for us canned tuna fish has less mercury than tuna steaks and chunk light canned tuna has less mercury than chunk white canned tuna. This works out for the financially conscious because at $0.50 a can, chunk light is the cheapest form of tuna around.

Unfortunately there is a lot of contradictory information floating around about tuna consumption. In their report entitled "Toxicological Profile for Mercury", the CDC states the following:

TOXICOLOGICAL PROFILE FOR MERCURY
"No consumption advice is necessary for the top ten seafood species that make up about 80% of the seafood sold in the United States: canned tuna, shrimp, pollock, salmon, cod, catfish, clams, flatfish, crabs, and scallops.

The methylmercury in these species is generally less than 0.2 ppm, and few people eat more than the suggested weekly limit of fish (i.e., 2.2 pounds)." -CDC

*2.2 pound of fish is almost 6 can of tuna.

Later on in the report, the CDC states that a person can chronically (for >365 days) ingest .0003mg/kg of mercury per day with "no observed adverse effect."

For a 200 lb. man, this would be a little over 1 can of chunk light tuna each day. But the Environmental Working Group has a "Tuna Calculator" where you enter your weight and they tell you (according to the FDA) how many cans of tuna you can eat each week.

Their calculations state that a 200 lb. man can eat 3 cans of chunk light tuna a week. That's 3-5 cans less that the CDC says you can eat.

There is one more study that is important for answering the mercury/tuna question. Sherlock et al found that after 1 year of consuming fish containing mercury the subjects bodies reached a steady state (mercury saturation). Chronic exposure of mercury after that point did not lead to any great accumulation of mercury.2

This study suggests that chronic ingestion of fish containing mercury will not lead to an overabundance of mercury in the body. The body has a fixed capacity for mercury storage that is typically maxed out after one year (anything after that will just get excreted).

This is supported by two other studies that have shown during chronic mercury exposure, the urinary excretion of mercury can be increased by up to 53%.3,4

In the end I think that we should side with the CDC. There report on mercury was over 650 pages and impressive. The FDA has spent a lot of time monitoring the levels of mercury in foods but they have failed (in my opinion) to look at the data and research on the effects of chronic consumption of fish contain mercury.

After you read the book Food Politics by Marion Nestle, you won't be too quick to trust the FDA (or the USDA, for that matter).

PREVENTING MERCURY TOXICITY
Even with the science in our favor I think it is important to look at some ways that we can help our bodies deal with chronic consumption of mercury.

Despite what countless detoxifying toxic ads would like to have you believe, EDTA is not a very good chelator of mercury (mercury is about the only heavy metal EDTA won't chelate) and thus won't due much for the excess mercury in your system.

Selenium has been shown in various animals' models to prevent against the toxic effects of methylmercury5,6 and even increase the inorganic-to-methyl mercury ratio in tissues.7,8

But unfortunately, selenium also has been shown to increase the methylmercury concentration in the brain - which is just about the worst thing it could do.9,8

Since methylmercury binds and potentially depletes glutathione stores in the liver it would be a good idea for heavy tuna eaters to supplement with N-acetylcystine (a glutathione precursor) to insure that the liver maintains optimal antioxidant ability. The suggested recommended dosage for someone looking to supplement with NAC is 1500mg a day.

THIS SHOULD BE FOLLOWED BY HEAVY TUNA EATERS
As stated at the beginning of the article the kidneys can do a good job of removing toxic mercury from the body and storing it in a safer form. The key is not to overwhelm your system. Don't decide one day that you are going to add tuna to your diet and start eating 1-2 cans a day.

Increase you tuna intake over the course of several weeks so that your kidneys can adjust and produce metallonthionein accordingly.

TAKE HOME MESSAGES
The science shows that there is no reason bodybuilders should cut tuna out of their diets due to the current mercury scare.
One can of chunk lite a day is a reasonable and safe intake for a 200lbs man without the risks of any health problems.
If you want to eat more tuna now make sure to increase your consumption over the course of several weeks so your kidneys can adjust.
Adding 1.5 gram of NAC to your diet is a good idea so you can keep your glutathione stores full and your liver healthy.
REFERENCES
Clarkson, 1990.
Sherlock et al., 1984.
Cherian et al., 1978.
Hursh et al., 1976.
Ganther et al., 1972.
Iwata et al., 1973.
Komsta-Szumska & Miller, 1984.
Brzeznicka & Chmielnicka, 1985.
Magos & Webb, 1977.

TLDR: According to this doctor eat the tuna and follow the guidlines he listed on which ones have low to no mercury, and you will be fine. Keep it at a reasonable limit so you do not overwhelm your body or get bad effects (eg. 5 to 6 cans a day, instead do 2 a week like I suggested)

Tuna is full of good protein and best of all, it's super super cheap and can help you build muscle on a budget. Most guys should have it at least once a week anyway or another fish in general just because of other benefits.

[_nick_]

Tuna would be easy, burgers are easy to get on campus I ate two today.

[TravelerKai]

Canned tuna and salmon is good to always keep on hand. Not just if you live in a hurricane zone, but just in general if something fucks up your schedule or you feel too sick to go out for food, you can always eat some in your room/apartment and keep your protein intake up. At 2 bucks a can, if that, that is a good deal.

[_nick_]

Any one have any good biceps workouts? I feel like mine lack a little

[Steelex]

Sure.

Working biceps is somewhat of a challenge for us taller guys. We have a range of motion where we are rather weak and a long range where there is very little tension on the biceps.

It's important to stay in the range of motion where you do have significant amounts of tension on the muscle, and take a long time on the negative portion of the lift.

Because of this I reccomend a few different lifts...

Seated curls and hammer curls with super slow and super strict form.

Preacher cable curls.

Some sort of machine based preacher curl that does a good job on keeping tension on the biceps.

Do some work in the 8-10 range followed by some in the 15-20 range. The key here is keeping tension on it and using a slow negative.

5-8 sets on an arm specific day and 3-5 on a back/biceps day is plenty. It's a 3 inch muscle, growth potential is slow and limited.

[_nick_]

It had always been a struggle for me to build on biceps. I did some reading on biceps how does 7 sets of 10 reps of 10 pounds lighter weights then you usually use sound?

[TravelerKai]

(11-01-2017 10:54 PM)Steelex Wrote:  

Sure.

Working biceps is somewhat of a challenge for us taller guys. We have a range of motion where we are rather weak and a long range where there is very little tension on the biceps.

It's important to stay in the range of motion where you do have significant amounts of tension on the muscle, and take a long time on the negative portion of the lift.

Because of this I reccomend a few different lifts...

Seated curls and hammer curls with super slow and super strict form.

Preacher cable curls.

Some sort of machine based preacher curl that does a good job on keeping tension on the biceps.

Do some work in the 8-10 range followed by some in the 15-20 range. The key here is keeping tension on it and using a slow negative.

5-8 sets on an arm specific day and 3-5 on a back/biceps day is plenty. It's a 3 inch muscle, growth potential is slow and limited.

Great advice.

Only thing I would add to this is that you can do pyramids on those deep preacher curls. 10 reps on 35lbs(just an example), then increase by 5 pounds until you get to your max. Then half reps (5) and take off 5 pounds after you do five reps.

The objective is to destroy those arms. They better be noodle dead when you are done. Let them heal all the way and you will get those lumps you are looking for. Even if you are tired, finish your reps. Walk around the gym until you get your second wind to kill those arms.

You also need to do this for your triceps on those pull downs and chainsaw rips.

In order to build you must first destroy.