Grassroots Strength Training - Bodybuilding, Power Lifting, Etc.

New bench PR today - 335 lbs...that's literally all the weight plates I have. No more will fit my standard bar and also allow the clamps room to grab the bar. I felt like maybe I had a second rep in me, but didn't want to push things.

I suppose it's time to start shopping for Olympic upgrades on the marketplace or garage sales.

Thanks to this group for the various suggestions everyone contributes. Ive taken several ideas directly from this thread and incorporated them into my routines. Thanks to you all!

335lbs is a ton of weight and you should be proud. Very, very few people are capable of that. Most I ever got was 275, although I think I might try to push back up there.

Been feeling a lot of 1980s Arnold movies lately, so I think I'm going to give one last push and try to get my body weight up to 200 lbs. I know carrying all that weight around, even muscle, isn't always the greatest thing for health, so I'll have to keep up on my cardio. Biggest thing is it'll take a ton of food, and I'm not a big eater. But I'm determined to hit that weight before I get too old!

Anyone have any recommendations for high protein breakfast meal-prep?  I've got lunch, snacks, and dinner figured out, but breakfast I struggle to prep in advance.  And its usually the most rushed meal of the day.  I'd love to be able to prep a week's worth in advance so I can grab, heat, & eat.

 

In reply to TravisTheHuman :

Breakfast smoothie: fruits, greek yogurt, a little milk, whey protein powder, creatine and collagen peptides. Takes 5 minutes and is super tasty. My friend also adds egg whites, but somehow that grosses me out.

I already food prep smoothies but they are more of a mid morning snack.  Was hoping for something I could heat up as due to digestion issues as HOT breakfast is important for me.

I'm thinking egg + lean turkey burritos of some sort?

In reply to TravisTheHuman :

Maybe Kodiak high protein pancakes. Prep a big batch in advance. Then morning of, zap them in the microwave. Make them into breakfast sandwiches with some lean meat, peanut butter and banana, etc.

What's your definition of high protein? Calorie limit?

Egg and turkey on an English muffin or in a tortilla is easy, freezes well, and edible.

A pre-made solution that may work:

https://www.costco.com/kirkland-signature-breakfast-sandwich-482-oz-8-count.product.4000214872.html

In general, if it has less than 1g protein for every 10 cals, it's not high protein.

I can try pre making and refrigerating pancakes.  I have a recipe I like instead of Kodiak cakes.  They aren't the highest protein (11g protein/133 cal), but I can supplement them with something else. 

40% protein for a non-meat and non-specialty item seems quite ambitious. 

brandonsmash said:

40% protein for a non-meat and non-specialty item seems quite ambitious. 

Yeah. And almost certainly unnecessarily limiting.

Assuming you're trying to eat 1g protein / 1lb body weight. Very simple math - if you weigh 200lbs (you probably weigh less) and eat a 2,000 kcal diet (probably more), 10 grams of protein per 100 calories. 180 grams in a 2,500 kcal diet would be just over 7grams of protein per 100 calories.

Either way - protein pancakes, fruit, lean meat and/or hard boiled eggs will more than get you to that target.

In reply to brandonsmash :

Yeah, for sure.  I fully expect anything "high protein" to involve some meat, animal products, or refined protein from another source (I prefer pea based in a lot of my recipes)  It's only a rule of thumb I use.

My ideal high protein breakfast target if I could meal prep it would be ~40-50g protein and 400-500cals.

There are lots of ideas out there, but most of them are some form of quiche which I find doesn't always work well for me, and doesn't reheat well.  Burritos I have done in the past and they were... ok but not great.  I suspect there was a lot of user error there though.

My breakfast go to burrito:

Applegate farms turkey breakfast sausage link (11g protein for 90 cals), with a scrambled large egg (6g protein 70 cals),  sprinkle of cheddar cheese, and a few spinach leaves, and a splash of green tobacco (trust me) into a Egglife southwest egg white wrap (11g protein for 60 cals).  They're nice with sour cream  on top.

Nearly 30g of protein and around 240 cals in a single burrito. Make a bunch one day and freeze em. They microwave pretty well and are easy to eat while driving (minus the sour cream lol)

Beer Baron 🍺 said:

 

Assuming you're trying to eat 1g protein / 1lb body weight. Very simple math - if you weigh 200lbs (you probably weigh less) and eat a 2,000 kcal diet (probably more), 10 grams of protein per 100 calories. 180 grams in a 2,500 kcal diet would be just over 7grams of protein per 100 calories.

Right. I think that's why that rule works.  10g/100cal = high protein.  Its inevitably going to be offset by low protein or no-protein things. 

Add a single banana to a 40/400 meal and you are down to 8/100.

Behave yourself at breakfast and lunch and grab some pizza for dinner, same thing will happen.

In reply to TravisTheHuman :

Realistically, the 1g/1lbs is excessive unless you're doing serious hypertrophic bodybuilding. Like strength competition level.

For me, realistically 150 grams (at ~180lbs) is almost certainly plenty. A protein shake is like 40 grams by itself. That means I really need 100-120 additional grams of protein. So really 30-40g / meal. A regular chicken breast is around 55.

In reply to Beer Baron 🍺 :

Agreed. There's also a limit to how much protein is useful, and how much and what kinds are bioavailable.

When I was competing pro in PL at 300lb. I was eating over 300g of protein per day. It was a lot - I mean, a LOT. It was also potentially unnecessary, but at my level of performance I didn't want to risk putting my diet off-balance.

These days I'm not competing but am still training hard. I weigh about 275 and get roughly 200g/day, though I don't monitor it closely at all. I'm still performing at probably 90% of my competition totals without focusing directly on PL, as these days I also do more rock climbing and strongman stuff. (For reference, my best 3-lift meet total was tested and over 1900lb.)

All of this is to say that probably you can relax a touch on extreme protein intake unless you're at the pointy end of the spear or aiming to be there. You'd also have to be training hard enough to need all the protein for recovery. 

One thing I don't miss is the whey protein farts. I was half-worried that if I expired early they'd put "Brandon the Flatulent" on my tombstone. 

Beer Baron 🍺 said:

In reply to TravisTheHuman :

Realistically, the 1g/1lbs is excessive unless you're doing serious hypertrophic bodybuilding. Like strength competition level.

For me, realistically 150 grams (at ~180lbs) is almost certainly plenty. A protein shake is like 40 grams by itself. That means I really need 100-120 additional grams of protein. So really 30-40g / meal. A regular chicken breast is around 55.

I'm not disagreeing.  

Again, I call 10/100 "high protein".  Not everything is high protein.  I'll grab a meal on the fly, snack at work, indulge in something, etc. (I have a self control issue with food) and all of those things bring the total toward lower protein.

When I meal prep, I target high protein.  Planning for "ideal" helps me comfortably hit "almost certainly plenty".
 

Idk how much truth there is to this, but a Men's Health smart guy once did the math based on blood testing and some other sciencey stuff, and basically, you don't want to consume much more than about 60g of protein at a time because your body probably won't do anything with the excess. You DO want to consume it every 2ish hours {maybe closer to 2.5, the findings weren't super consistent) to maximize the utilization of available protein in a 24 hour period.

You also really need to be lifting 2x a day at moderate exertion for about 1.5-2 hours each to NEED that much that often for recovery.

I read this something like a decade ago, so my recall could be off. And I certainly don't meet most of that criteria, but it's a good basis I've tried to incorporate into my routine 

In reply to 4cylndrfury :

Here's a good breakdown analysis of things:

Summary:

It depends on how big you are (muscle mass) and if you are doing strength training.

The 1g of protein / 1lbs body weight is actually about the upper limit of what your body can use to build muscle if you are training.

You need to eat at least 4 "meals" per day to maximize protein usage.

For a 150lbs male, you can use roughly 37grams / meal
For a 200lbs male, you can use roughly 50grams / meal

Your body can use that protein better if it's part of a big meal with carbs and fats, rather than just a protein shake.

If you get less protein in one meal, you can usually make up at least part of that difference by eating more in later meals.

TravisTheHuman said:

Anyone have any recommendations for high protein breakfast meal-prep?  I've got lunch, snacks, and dinner figured out, but breakfast I struggle to prep in advance.  And its usually the most rushed meal of the day.  I'd love to be able to prep a week's worth in advance so I can grab, heat, & eat.

 

If you have a pressure cooker, you can do sous vide egg bites - pretty customizable, lots of recipes online, quick to freeze,reheat and eat. If no pressure cooker, you can do a similar baked egg bite food unit using a muffin pan.

There is also support for >1g/lb of body weight

 

I'm not an elite lifter by any means.  I shoot for 1g.  Frequently I hit it, frequently I dont (but I'm close ish).

My main issue is if I dont target 1g, or start the day or meals off on the wrong foot, its easy to fall short, if I am not running a huge calorie surplus.  

 

While we are on the protein discussion I'm wondering what the total recommended amount would be for your average recovery and maintain phase?

While I wouldn't mind adding a little more lean mass, I'm in my 40s, so that's gonna start to be tougher and quite frankly not really much of a consideration. Currently I just want to stay fit to do all of my normal activities which include gravel/road bike rides and sport climbing/bouldering. I weigh ~170 and get NOWHERE near the protein intake of 1g per pound. I need to track macros again with my current diet for a week or two to be sure where I'm at on average, but my guess is I consume around 60-80 grams a day. Maybe more but I bet that's a normal average. I only eat two meals but am considering adding a high protein breakfast like mentioned to make it easier.

So I guess my real question is, what's a recommendation for someone who's not trying to add lean mass? I've seen .36g per pound tossed around somewhere which is .8g per kilo but they never mention if that's for an active person or someone sedentary.

Spring of 2023 I put up my biggest lifting numbers. Did a combined 1,100 lbs (415 squat, 270 bench, 415 deadlift). Then I had a bunch of health things that set me back.

I am *finally* getting back up to a similar level of strength. I'm on track to get back into the 1,000lbs club easily before doing a deload week and resetting things.

Currently sitting at:

Squat - 355 for an easy 4 (could have been 5... maybe 6)
Bench - 230 for 3, and 235 for an easy 2
Deadlift - 375 for a comfortable 5

Going by 1 rm calculators, I'm theoretically looking at around an equivalent of S- 405, B- 250, D- 435.

I'm going to keep with a linear progression for the next couple weeks of every week add 10lbs on Squat and Dead and add 5lbs on Bench, and drop one rep. Following that progression, I'm targeting to hit easy heavy singles of: S- 385, B- 245, D- 405 for a combined total of 1,035. Then deload and reset.

I'm getting excited about this and will report again when I put up the singles that will live on my record board for a few months.

(On Deadlift, I *have* switched from a conventional barbell deadlift to a trap bar for the sake of comfort and easier body mechanics. But I'm using handles the height of a barbell for the same ROM, not the higher handles. Theoretically this is easier, but I don't think it's cheating. And mostly is about not having the discomfort of scraping the crap out of my shins.)

captainawesome said:

So I guess my real question is, what's a recommendation for someone who's not trying to add lean mass? I've seen .36g per pound tossed around somewhere which is .8g per kilo but they never mention if that's for an active person or someone sedentary.

Who even knows. There are soooo many variables.

The main thing I've found that works best for me is - if I find I'm still hungry even when I've gotten what *should* have had enough calories, my body is probably asking for more protein.

Fortunately, it's safe to err on the side of having too much protein. Much the same way as having too many vitamins.

I just got a Sauna, should I use it before or after I lift weights?

trigun7469 said:

I just got a Sauna, should I use it before or after I lift weights?

Probably neither. Saunas are generally going to be dehydrating. They also mess with your blood pressure. I believe they usually lower it temporarily.

Definitely don't want to be dehydrated *before* lifting weights. After... it could potentially be decent for relaxation and recovery, but I wouldn't want to jump in too soon after. I'd want to give it enough time for heartrate and blood pressure to stabilize before subjecting them to something like that.

I would absolutely use it to help recover the day *after* lifting weights.

But I'm not a doctor. This is the sort of thing you're better off talking to an exercise oriented physician about.