FoH Body Improvement Competition #3.5 - July 1st

[Tuco]

Pretty sure it's not shin splints.


Shin splints

Pain over the inside lower half of the shin.
Pain at the start of exercise which often eases as the session continues
Pain often returns after activity and may be at its worse the next morning.
Sometimes some swelling.
Lumps and bumps may be felt when feeling the inside of the shin bone.
Pain when the toes or foot are bent downwards.
A redness over the inside of the shin (not always present).

I don't have any of these symptoms. The muscle pain localized on the Pereneous Longus very distinctly and is never sore in the morning, no swelling or any pain after the exercise.

[Zennin]

edit: I moved it to weight lifting thread thinking it might be more appropriate there.

[tikkus]

Tuco, I get the same shit running. Maybe try ellipticals? Thats what I do, it only happens with impact running.

[Snugglebear]

Originally Posted by Tuco

Seems like I've plateau'd at about 197-202lbs with my current "work out/exercise every day and eat whatever I want in moderate quantities". I think I'm fine with that. Maybe in mid august I'll try losing weight to see how ripped I can get by the end of the competition hehe.

My raw performance is definitely going up, though my issue with my leg (http://www.fohguild.org/forums/sport...ml#post1445350

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Here's a question for you all. I started working out a few weeks ago, and had lived a pretty sedentary lifestyle (software programmer, high five Aphex!). I'm making progress in my performance and all that jazz, but one thing that is really being a bottleneck is my calf muscles. If I do my jog/walking I usually feel pretty good, not breathing hard, full of energy and most of my legs feel fine, but my calf muscles get fucked, especially a certain part of it. The long somewhat thin muscle that runs on side of the lower leg, on the outside, gets really sore really fast. I believe it's the Pereneous Longus:





When I jog it hurts and feels tight. If I stretch the calf muscle by pushing my ball/toes up and then pushing them down it relaxes it a little and lets me jog some more.

I know it's improving and it's getting sore then repairing like any other muscle, but it seems really unnecessary for it to be such a pain in my ass and a bottleneck.

1. Is this a common thing?
2. Is it possible I'm running incorrectly? (I've watched videos on proper form and I think I'm doing everything ok)
3. Are there any non-standard stretches / exercises I can do to speed up the process of that not being a bottleneck to my running?

) is still really giving my problems. I'm thinking about going to a shoe store and getting a better pair of shoes to run in, or maybe even seeing a foot doctor or something...

I've been getting really sore on the sides of my calves too. I'll run up a hill then run down the other side of the hill, and the sides are hurting like a bitch. I assume it's because the downside of the hill has a road that is like an arch, so I run in a weird fucking way.

[Alcestis]

Running up and down hills really messes up the length of your stride, which makes your foot more prone to turning inward or outward. If your calf and shin muscles are weak (or you're scared of gravity and try to put on the brakes) you get a lot of that slapping foot nonsense when you run downhill, which just makes the whole thing worse.



Tuco: Is that pain bothering you on both legs or just one? Honestly, it sounds like running excessively, considering you were sedentary a few weeks ago. But if you deem that isn't the case, at best guess you're probably running/impacting on the sides of your feet like above. It's pretty common, even if there's not something wrong with the foot/muscles/leg itself (slightly uneven terrain, etc.) That, or you're being naughty and wearing old T-shirts stuffed with the remains of discarded plush toys strapped to your feet. In either case, get some nice shoes or orthotics to correct it. There's no cheap way around those, heh. Barring the shoes, try the elliptical. I can't see how a foot misstep is possible to do on that - which might explain tikkus' experience. I'd even go as far to say you don't need supportive shoes at all if you're using that machine.

[tikkus]

Yeah Alcestis, its like 0 impact so supportive shoes aren't really needed. When I run I wear my $100 shoes. When I do the elliptical I wear New Balance.

Anyway, I just talked to my buddy thats seriously into weight training about diet. I started working out at 209.8 pounds and upon weighing yesterday was 210.6, so I haven't lost any weight. Gained a fair amount of muscle considering what kind of base I had (read: none).

Anyway, for those who are interested these were his suggestions:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

you want to cut the fast food as much as possible and fix your own food at home. If your on the go, salads with fat free dressing are a good option, or grilled chicken sandwiches and throw away the bun. Any lean beef is good for burgers, steaks, etc, I reccomend lauras lean beef from kroger, its organic and low fat, grilled chicken, and tuna although i dont eat it because i dont like it. Veggies with your food meals if you can, salads, broccoli (really good steamed, you can buy steam fresh bags at the store, throw it in there, put it in the microwave for 3 min and your done, baked or sweet potatoes). Eggs or oatmeal in the mornings, every morning if you can. I reccomend All Whites, they are liquid egg whites, just measure out a cup, put them on the stove, and their ready in 10 min. To get a complex carb in the morning, i put oats in my egg whites and they fry up to a pancake consistency and i put sugar free syrup on it and its really good, sounds disgusting but, its good. No more than 2 protein shakes a day unless you get into a food bind, then its alright, but you want as much real food goin in as possible. You should start out on 20 min of cardio per day, except leg days, i reccomend elliptical machine, treadmill, rowing machine, anything that will keep your heart rate up for the whole 20 min. Try 20 min for a couple weeks, see how your doing, then you can up it or down it accordingly. Thats about all I can think of for now, im actually training for a show and dieting hard right now so thats pretty much what im lookin at right there. Just stay at it, youll eventually get used to the food. since your not dieting for a show and eating all that kinda sucks, one day a week you can make a cheat day or something and eat whatever. thats what i do anyways, i try and eat clean all year round, just makes me feel better.

[arkk123]

Honestly, for any diet anyone is doing, nothing matters unless you know how much you are eating per day. You can be eating organic barley and chicken as your only food sources but if you don't know how much of that you are eating, none of it makes any difference.

On weightwatchers women lose weight because they have a soft cap on their food intake in the form of points. If you have 20pts per day, and you choose to make that 20pts pizza, you should lose weight until the points need to be dropped. But if you eat 30pts of eggs, fish, brown rice and bananas, ur gonna gain. Period.

If someone doesn't know what they are eating every day there's no way to adjust. Know your calorie intake, It is the most important part of losing weight.

[taebin]

Wouldn't you also need to know the other part of the equation? That is, how much you are burning a day. A typical 30 minute cardio session might burn 300-400 calories. Lifting weights might burn an additional 200 depending on how long you stay. The rest of the day, it's just your metabolism and what your day consists of. Are you sitting at a desk punching numbers into a computer? Are you driving a UPS truck and delivering packages? Are you loading bails of hay into a fucking barn? Your caloric burn rate depends on how sedentary you are throughout your day. Having muscle is suppose to burn calories at a higher rate, so people that lift weights have that going for them. There are also things like HIIT which supposedly increase your oxygen intake for the rest of the day which in turn speeds up the rate in which your burn calories. Anyways, Ark what would you say the average person who does an average workout and has an average job with an average lifestyle burns a day?

[tikkus]

Its more complicated than just eating below what you burn. What you eat plays a huge part of it.

Thats why people on Atkins can burn loads of fat and eat as much meat and shit as they want.

[ChewieTobbacca]

It also depends on your age, weight, height, metabolism, etc.

The best method is relaqly just trial and error while you monitor and then adjust up or down after a few weeks

[arkk123]

None of that takes away from the fact that you still need to know how many calories you are eating every day.

Why do people repost shit that everyone knows and act like they are teaching the forum something?

90% of the people posting couldn't tell you how many kcals they were eating per day if I added it up for them and wrote it on their face, and thaaaaaaaaat is why we have these threads that go no where, cause everyones a know it allllll.

Brainiacs

[Tallyn]

Originally Posted by tikkus

Its more complicated than just eating below what you burn. What you eat plays a huge part of it.

Thats why people on Atkins can burn loads of fat and eat as much meat and shit as they want.

What you eat can have some effect on your appetite and performance, but the basic math is really simple:

(kcal in - kcal out) / 3500 kcal per lb of fat = change in weight (lbs)

Period. There is no free pass for calories from meat vs anything else.

[Tuco]

What Tikkus' friend said was good, but yeah, it's pretty common knowledge for people here.

Ark is right, you should track your shit if you want consistent results.

[Vatoreus]

Life has gotten fairly unbalanced recently and I haven't gotten to get a hold of myself so the past week has been shit when it comes to my diet. Hopefully next week or the week after I'll be able to get a handle on my shit again. I move in 2 weeks and at that point I'll be near a gym and have some friends to work out with, so August is really when I get my shit into full gear and start working my ass off.

[Grooverider]

Originally Posted by arkk123

None of that takes away from the fact that you still need to know how many calories you are eating every day.

Why do people repost shit that everyone knows and act like they are teaching the forum something?

90% of the people posting couldn't tell you how many kcals they were eating per day if I added it up for them and wrote it on their face, and thaaaaaaaaat is why we have these threads that go no where, cause everyones a know it allllll.

Brainiacs

You need to get over yourself mate.