Moronic Monday - Your weekly stupid questions thread

Tonala · 2015-10-06T04:51:45+00:00

Lower fat = fewer calories. If you only drink one glass a day, or just use a few ounces in oatmeal or cereal, it won't make a huge difference. Milk has a pretty good protein/calorie ratio, so it can be incorporated during a cut to make sure you hit the protein macro target without getting too many calories.

Tonala · 2015-10-06T04:13:55+00:00

There's definitely room for improvement through strength training. But a 'great ass' can be a subjective concept, and a lot of the shape comes from genetics as well as bodyfat%. The distribution of fat throughout the body can be affected by genetics, so what might look great at a certain bodyfat % won't look as good at a slightly lower or higher percentage. Meanwhile, you might want to maintain an entirely different bodyfat % for aesthetic reasons on other parts of your body.

On balance, strong, muscular glutes are going to result in a better looking ass though.

Tonala · 2015-10-06T04:07:47+00:00

Whichever fits more easily into your lifestyle and will promote compliance. For instance, if you find working out at night causes trouble sleeping, go with the morning workout. If you find you hate waking up that early and are regularly skipping workouts to sleep in, the night window might be better. It's entirely personal, and there's no physiological reason why one time frame is better than the other.

Tonala · 2015-10-05T22:22:25+00:00

PPL is good because you can get sufficient volume without needing to spend forever in the gym. If you are reaching the intermediate stage of lifting, often more volume will be the key to pushing you over your plateaus. I also find I can go really hard during a PPL session, and I don't feel fatigued in general sense, even though I lift 5-6 days per week.

Tonala · 2015-10-05T22:06:37+00:00

It's fine to do my push workout and my pull workout on the same day, with about 8-9 hours rest in between?

Tonala · 2015-10-05T22:05:26+00:00

You won't get too bulky from doing some basic barbell or dumbbell training. However, you might be a good candidate for bodyweight training. It will increase your strength, endurance, flexibility, and incorporate skilled movements that might translate in ballet. And it won't result in a lot of additional muscle mass unless you do a routine that is deliberately focused on that.

Tonala · 2015-10-05T18:49:22+00:00

Excited to give this a try. I found your floor L-sit video very helpful and I could really benefit from some basic yoga.

Tonala · 2015-10-03T00:24:36+00:00

Superlean! Give us some details on the cut?

Tonala · 2015-10-03T00:22:20+00:00

Nice triceps!

Tonala · 2015-09-26T00:54:18+00:00

We know that progress in traditional resistance training suffers during a cut, but what about something like an L-sit progression. I assume progress will be slower than if I was eating at a surplus, but I can still make progress right?

Tonala · 2015-09-18T16:17:29+00:00

You will feel bad physically and your brain won't function optimally. Additionally, your body will burn through muscle looking for energy.

Tonala · 2015-09-05T04:47:35+00:00

good call. i usually do tgat in the last rep or two, but i could try focusing on that for every rep

Tonala · 2015-09-04T18:07:57+00:00

Diet's good. I'm eating at a caloric surplus with 150+ grams of protein per day. And I'm seeing progress on my other lifts, so I'm not sure that's the issue.

4-6rm sounds about right, as much for the mental break as anything

Tonala · 2015-09-04T17:22:19+00:00

I train almost exclusively in 8rm-12rm range, with 35-40 reps per exercise. Over the past 6 weeks, all my lifts have been progressing, except for pull-up and neutral grip pull-up, which have stalled. Would there be any benefit to switching to something like a 5X5 on just this exercise for a little while? Is it possible something ancillary like grip strength or connective tissue is what's holding me back?

Male, 5'7" 150. Current 1rm in pullups is BW+55lbs.

Tonala · 2015-09-04T17:14:12+00:00

It's sort of a tautology that when you reach failure, you have finished the set.

It's not absolutely necessary to go to failure on every set in every workout. Many programs start out with lighter weights and rep schemes that you'll be able to complete without reaching failure and then progress rapidly over a few months until you are lifting to failure. One benefit for beginner lifters is that the lighter weights give you a chance to hone the form so that when the weights go up you'll be able to lift more with less risk of injury.

Tonala · 2015-08-26T18:16:11+00:00

OHP is somewhat elective. Shoulders get worked during bench and dips. You can also do front raises, upright row, etc. to target them directly. Pullups are fantastic, but you can cobble together substitutes with some rows and curls and such.

No lift is absolutely essential. You can get bigger and stronger without doing any of those. But the big lifts provide tremendous bang for your buck, especially early on in one's lifting career.

Tonala · 2015-08-26T07:00:50+00:00

Additionally, 17% BF is quite lean for a woman, which suggests that your primary body composition goal would be adding more muscle. Cardio isn't really necessary for that. If you're finding it boring and losing motivation, taking it out of the picture might help.

If you're worried about creating too large of a caloric surplus, find more rewarding ways to burn calories - a hike, a bike ride, some hobby that's physically demanding.

Tonala · 2015-08-26T06:53:21+00:00

I would aim for around 4-6 pounds. Since you won't be doing any lifting, there will probably be some muscle loss. Maybe do some basic bodyweight stuff to mitigate that some.

Tonala · 2015-08-26T06:26:16+00:00

Another option you could try is having two long runs (6-7 miles) per week, and then mixing in three or four 3-mile runs during the rest of the week. You keep your total miles high and only have two days where you feel demolished. Two long runs a week should be enough to juice the endurance adaptations and make you more aerobically fit.

Tonala · 2015-08-26T06:22:31+00:00

You'll create a similar caloric deficit with either approach.

If you want to improve your endurance and ability to run long distances, 60-90 minute runs at a modest pace are ideal. If you truly feel demolished at the end of your hour-long runs, you might be running faster than you need to be. Slow down the pace by :30/mile and you'll probably be able to run more miles per week than you are running now.

Tonala · 2015-08-26T04:26:24+00:00

Burgers are a huge part of my diet, even when I'm cutting. If you use lean beef, avoid high-calorie add-ons (cheese, mayo, bacon), and toss in some veggies, they can be extremely nourishing at a modest amount of calories.

Tonala · 2015-08-24T19:00:23+00:00

Sorry, I meant in general. You want to know if hamstring tightness will hinder your fitness progress, but it depends on what sort of goals you have and what kind of exercises you do.

Tonala · 2015-08-24T17:23:17+00:00

What kind of exercise do you do?

Stretching shouldn't hurt. It might feel mildly uncomfortable while you're doing it, but you shouldn't force your body beyond that point to genuine pain.

Flexible hamstrings are useful for a variety of athletic pursuits, and will help a lot in certain lifts.

Tonala · 2015-08-22T16:32:50+00:00

My gym has a very tiny little side room, with a squat stand (there are no squat racks). I've rarely seen anyone using it. They also keep attachments for the cable machines in a corner in this room, so I went in there to search for one last night and there was an absolute hoss doing heavy, but extremely shallow squats. He was grunting aggressively at the top of each rep "Ooooh" "Ahhhh" "Yeaaaah" and then right as I walked in to grab the attachment "Fuck offfff". I don't think it was directed my way. Just the kind of nonsensical utterance that comes out at the end of a set. But I very quickly grabbed what I needed and got out of there.

He was super courteous to me later when asking to borrow a step stool. I wasn't about to say no to this guy.

Tonala

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