Re: The Dirty Dozen Challenge - Please post your fitness questions for Anthony here

Anthony, what are your thoughts on low carb diets? I have an under active thyroid gland and a book I'm reading at the moment recommends that this is a good choice for somebody with my condition.
Reading up on low carb theory and ketosis, it does seem to make sense and most of the health reasons for avoiding these types of diets seem to have been dismissed.
A lot of Dr. Eades stuff seems to make sense

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Afternoon all

Let's do one more before the weekend.

Sorry mate, missed that one.

You're fine as you are. I'd stick with a 2000-1700 calorie cycle for now.

Shrugs are a great exercise that's often overlooked. Ironically the two main bodyparts people struggle to develop the most are forearms and traps. I say ironicaly, because if you ask any of the bodybuilders from the dumd neanderthal camp, they'll complain about those bodyparts (and normally throw calves in there too) and in the same breath tell you to avoid direct work for those areas.

All the exercises you've mentioned will all work the traps, much in the same way bicep curls will work your abs. On top of that, the amount of weight your traps can lift comfortabley will vastly outweigh how much you can shrug, so they'll fall foul of the 'weakest link' syndrome.

So for all round aesthetics and injury prevention to the neck, do throw in some shrugs.

And when you do, don't move your head around, keep looking straight ahead. Put your traps under load and then turn your head, and you will hurt yourself!

Yep, you could put those in to. It's always god to work on your weaknesses, that's how we prevent injury.

LOL!

Personally I've found that most people that fall into the middle of the bell shaped curve in terms of genetics wont get any better fat loss from a low carb diet than a high carb one, and in most cases (myself included) will drop muscle mass rapidly and hold onto fat as a survival mechanism (that's why we store fat). People more on the outer edge of the genetic spectrum can do quite well, e.g. those with the genetics for bodybuilding often do. But similarly, those with those types of genetics do just as well on a more sensible eating plan.

WRT ketosis, although it was the main goal of low carb diets in the past, you'll notice in later years as the dangers have been highlighted it's been played down more. For example, look at the difference in Atkins earlier books to the later ones in terms of the reliance of ketosis as a goal.

Without complicating matters, ketosis is what your body does when it thinks you're starving to death, which is why it's been glossed over more and more as we went into the 90's, etc.

For people with an underactive thyroid, I've also found a calorie controlled, high carb, moderate protein, moderate fat diet combined with progressive and intense weight training to work very well.

Keep it up!

Anthony

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Righto, so shrugs are good, but moving the head is a habsolute no no!

Think I may have turned to look at the girl on reciption in the mirror as I noticed she was watching. So I'll rest till they are 100% and then get going again! I hate injuries!

You say I can put those in too, but surely I shouldnt be doing shrugs as well as high rows and reverse flys ???

So should I just pick one and stick with it. I thought maybe the high row or reverse flys (lying face down on an incline bench) would be best as that would hit 2 birds with one stone; giving me some trap work and work on bringing my shoulders back.

Would that fit well in my current routine as a shrug replacement do you think?

Current routine is....

DB Squat
BB Pullover
Chinup
Dip
Machine Row
Machine Shoulder Press
DB Shrug
DB Curl / Lying Tricep Pushdown
Weighted Ab Crunch

Richy

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As long as you were eyeing up a receptionist, then it's all in the name of 'research'! :)

Both the high row and reverse flys work different parts of your traps. None of them work the same part as the shrugs.

Similarly, you're not going to have enough weight on either of them to stimulate any significant growth in the area. However they're both great rear delt exercises, and most people have an imbalance pulling their shoulders forward, so it's a good thing to add in to work on the imbalance and keep your shoulders injury free.

Not as a replacement, but you could use the High Row as an alternate to the Machine Row as it has a certain amount of crossover, and the Reverse Flye you could alternate with either the Shoulder Press or Shrug.

Keep it up!

Anthony

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Anthony what do you think would be an achievable goal for me to improve my upper body strength in 12 weeks for this DD challenge?

I’d like to improve my shoulder strength and my chin ups, possibly my triceps too because I don’t feel like I’m making much headway doing it the way I’m doing it now.

Is an unassisted chin up at all possible for me? Current weight is between 132-133lbs and I want to keep it stable!

My last workout was:

Leg press – 12 reps @ 115kg
Calf raise – 13 reps @ 105kg
Chest press – 9 reps @ 9kg (dumbbells)
Seated row – 11 reps @ 30kg
Shoulder press – 9 reps @ 9kg (dumbbells) – have been on 9 for aaaaages!!
Assisted chin ups – 8 reps set to 19kg
Tricep – 8 reps @ 4kg dumbbells
Abs – the plank – 56secs
Back extension on floor – 10 reps (11 sec pause at top).

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Anthony...

Shrugs... I do them and love em.

I hold the weights to my side with straight arm and look straight ahead. I then lift both shoulders up hanging the weights on my arms and hold for two seconds then return.

Is this the correct way?

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Hi Ant,

Cheers for your reply in my thread. Is the 3% difference between the bf% you suggested I was (14%) and what the tools on your site said I was (10.9%), a reasonable difference?

Should I take less average results (I currently use all 3 tape measure and the top calliper) or do something else to try close the gap or is it fine for my needs to track changes?

Cheers

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Morning all

An unnassisted chin up may be a bit out of reach based on where you are now, however, I'd suggest a goal of doing 5 negative chin ups, taking a strict 10 seconds to lower youself on each one.

Shoulder press I'd suggest you'll be able to do 10 reps with 15k if you really focus on increasing the weight over the next 12 weeks. That's an average gain of 1 kg every fortnight.

If you don't already, but have apparatus to, I'd suggest adding Dips in there to and making 5 negatives in the same style as the chin up as your goal too. That will help your tricep strength considerabley, aswell as help increase your chest and shoulder strength.

Sound ok or do you want to try something else?

That's fine. Lift straight up and down. Don't rotate your shoulders forwards or backwards at any time, and absolutely do not turn your head no matter how attractive the receptionist is! (I'm talking to you Richy! :-p )

Don't forget I suggested you were no more than 14%, I didn't say you were 14%. But WRT your question of accuracy, most different forms of measurement are compared for accuracy against underwater weighing, and generally (special populations aside, such as discussed in lardass's thread a while back) most methods carry a discrepency of +/-3-5% depending on the method.

Some have gone into more comparison detail than others when putting together formulas (for example, for men the US Navy circumference method was also tested against about 4 caliper equations if I remember rightly and had a discrepency of around 3-4%, so still within the reasonable margin of error), but whichever you use, provided it's not a bodyfat scale which even for comparison purposes is next to useless, stick to it. Don't go chopping and changing.

Keep it up!

Anthony

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Hi Anthony,

Thought I'd run this by you regarding the Leg Press. I'd not Leg Pressed for 10 days or so before yesterday, so I'm left with nice ache today.

In the past any ache I'd get from the Leg Press would be in my glutes, but today I'm feeling in the front of my thighs. Also when I'm reaching muscular failure it's this area where I feel it. The only thing that I've changed from how I used to perform them is my cadence, now it's a strict 5/5 before it was 2-3/2-3. Is this normal, or am I some how hampering building up some buns of steel?

Edit: Form wise, I'm spot on (I hope!)

Cheers mate

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Hi Anthony,

Sorry i hadnt previously noticed this thread and subsequently have left you a post in my thread!

Just wondered if you could have a look at thread as i think its time i came off the weight loss plan and worked a little harder!

Cheers, Matt.

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