Body By Science, Fasting and BFR Training Results (with pics!)

(PJ) #181

Well this is just… just… WEIRD. :crazy_face: Is there some nutrient in fish but not beef that your body might be craving, somehow triggered by the novel and/or more intense effects of BFR training?!

(PJ) #182

In the lit on whole body vibration, connective tissue as well as muscle is part of the repair focus the tech is used for, due to its increase in blood flow and lymph flow. So it seems likely.

(PJ) #183

Thank you, I had not seen that. I’m a huge liposomal C and collagen fan, but I hadn’t even read anything about connective tissue recovery for this. That I recall.

(Windmill Tilter) #184

I don’t have a clue. All I know is that the only time I ever eat fish is after weightlifting. When I stopped doing BBS in April this year, I had 20 cans of herring and salmon in the pantry; when I started lifting again six months later, they were all still there on the shelf with a bit of dust.

Now I’m plowing through nearly 1lb a day and it’s getting expensive. I’m actually starting to rotate some mackerel into the mix to keep costs down!

(Windmill Tilter) #185

@CaptainKirk, I glossed over this when I first read the post, but I remembered it yesterday while I was doing my BBS workout. This is a really great idea. I usually just log time under tension (TUT), but this fails to capture the true picture of when failure occured or how many reps were actually achieved.

For example if last week was 90 seconds time under tension, but the initial rep failure occurred after 8 reps at 60 seconds, with 30 seconds of inroading (mini-rep, static hold, and slow eccentric), that’s a hell of a lot different than doing 85 seconds TUT with 12 reps with failure at 80 seconds, and 5 seconds of inroading. If you just looked at TUT, it would seem like no progress was made, but the reality is that the second workout represents tremendous progress.

Now I’ve just got to figure out the best way to log the data google sheets. I think I’ll probably just do what you do and log in a single cell. I’m going to start tracking Total_Reps, Time_Under_Tension, and Time_To_Failure. So each cell would be in the format TR,TUT,TTF.

The only reason I think it’s necessary to measure total reps is that I don’t have much confidence in my ability to count the seconds consistently. I’m doing a 3:3:1 rep count these days (3 up, 3 down, with a 1 second pause at either end). I catch myself counting faster on the concentric portions of lifts and slower on the eccentric and pause portions. I have zero confidence that 60 seconds before rep failure on one week is the same number of reps as 60 seconds to rep failure the next week. If I had some kind of metronome I could listen to it would surely help.

Anybody got a programmable audible metronome app for Android such that when the stopwatch is initiated it counts off the specified pattern (eg. one, two, three, pause, one, two, three, pause).

(Eric - The patient needs to be patient!) #186

@Don_Q Today’s BFR was significantly tighter. I can still see my pulse in my upper arm inside just above the elbow but it seemed weaker.

3 lb wts

No soreness 3 hours post BFR. I need to just experiment with making the bands even tighter and seeing what the pulse looks like and the palm press release test. 2 to 3 seconds to fill in with color.

I’ll try again likely on Monday morning.

Thanks for letting me document my gradual entrance into BFR.

(Kirk Wolak) #187

Yes, google store, lookup the app called Metronome. You can literally program it in multiple ways to find what you are looking for.

I use it (not as a metronome, but to give me the buzzer to start, then to count down the time with me, then the buzzer to stop (at 2 minutes)… I did find that “hearing” the 60 second timer caused my brain to go “okay… Got there” It’s free to play with, but you cannot re-use one of your timers in the free mode (one setup, one usage). So once it works, you shell out the $5… Give it a try.

Happy New Year!

(Windmill Tilter) #188

I did a bit of googling, and found something that works pretty well for my purposes (Android phone). I use my phone as a stopwatch and workout journal anyway, so the only extra thing I’ll need to bring is a pair of headphones. Basically, what this does is count off the seconds in whatever intervals you like, and it runs a stopwatch to track total time.

I set the metronome to 12 beats per minute, the beats per bar to 2, and clicks per beat to 5. This makes it make an audible tick every second, and on the last second of each 5 it makes a distinctive “Tock” to indicate the switch of directions. It sounds this in practice:

(tick, tick, tick, tick, Tock)
(tick, tick, tick, tick, Tock)

It also have the virtue of running in split screen mode, so half of my phone screen displays the metronome timer, and the other half displays my workout journal in google sheets.

Here is what it looks like.

JEUWLBKh.jpg576×1024

(Windmill Tilter) #189

Lol. Beat me to it.

I’ll to check that one out as well. The one I found is pretty good, but I’d like to figure out how to program one to count reps for me too. The math isn’t that hard, but after a brutal set of leg presses, my brain doesn’t work particularly well lol.

(Kirk Wolak) #190

LOL. Those are more expensive.
The cheap ones are training partners, but they don’t always show up, and usually slow you down.
The expensive ones are CPTs (Certified Personal Trainers). They cost A LOT, but MOST can count to at least 8. ROTFLMAO…

Happy New Year

(PJ) #191

I know this is … like the analog version of reality tools LOL… but you could easily just use Voice Recorder to record yourself SAYING (while watching your clock) (or clicking with your tongue, banging with a drum, whatever) any kind of countdown or unique sequence/loop you wanted. You could even make a few and then play the one you wanted for the move in question.

This would prevent you needing to look at something during the workout, it would allow infinite patterns custom to your needs, it could be set to play prior to whatever you’re doing so then if you’re using other software on the phone (like heart rate tracking etc.) it wouldn’t be interfering nor would it be screen competition…

Just a thought. :slight_smile:

PJ

(Windmill Tilter) #192

Unfortunately, this is too practical, and it lacks unnecessary complexity. Worst of all, it’s free. I’d never go for it. :yum:

Lol. That’s a really great idea. I tried to figure out how to add this functionality into tracking spreadsheet that I use to track my workouts, calories, and fasting. I was hoping to save an audio file of me counting seconds/reps and have that launch from the stopwatch. Turns out that’s a bit over my head.

I’m going to poke around the Android app store a little more because it’s hard to believe nobody has coded an app for rep pacing and counting.

(Windmill Tilter) #193

Just as a reality check, I’m not sure it’s actually true that counting reps is useful or meaningful. I think McGuff was pretty explicit that reps don’t matter. :thinking:

I’m going to try tracking it for a couple of weeks just for the heck of it using the metronome beats app. I figured out a simple way to get the metronome to count off the seconds and to count the reps. That said, it’s probably unnecessary and possibly counterproductive.

(PJ) #194

removed, I read something wrong.

If the ‘click link from here’ is a big deal, then:

What you could do is post the MP3 you make to the web and then in your spreadsheet you’d have a link. If you click the link it should play/stream. At least I have done something like that (using amazon S3 for storage and Cloudfront for streaming the link). Local backup in music on phone for offline.

(Windmill Tilter) #195

That part seemed feasible, it was the stopwatch functionality that seemed to pose more of an issue surprisingly. I’ve built one in python from scratch, but javascript is a different beast. The stack overflow posts I was seeing about it made it seem daunting if not impossible.

I figured out how to add a “rep counter” in Metronome Beats that’s pretty serviceable. I’ll try it out to see if it adds any value. Worst case scenario, it still has a stopwatch to capture TUT. If the metronome is just an annoyance, it’ll be easy to revert to my trusty old stopwatch.

#196

My BFR bands arrived on Monday, so I’m all set for new regimes in 2020!
We’re off to Croatia for a few days, so I will have some time to hit the book(s) and Dr.Mercola’s videos.

I wish all of you health, joy, laughter and success on your BBS and BFR paths in 2020! :slight_smile:

(Windmill Tilter) #197

It’s great to hear you didn’t have much soreness. I’d take that as a sign that your approach to easing into BFR was the right way to do it!

Lol. I should be the one thanking you for documenting your approach and showing the rest of us the smart way to ease into BFR training. I totally underestimated it when I started a couple weeks ago and paid “soreness toll”. :yum:

(Windmill Tilter) #198

This is super exciting! Keep us in the loop. Which one’s did you wind up buying?

I think @daddyoh’s approach of really taking it easy for the first couple sessions makes a ton of sense. I definitely wish I had done it that way! :+1:

(Windmill Tilter) #199

Take a look what Santa brought! They’re pneumatic bands like those used in much of the current BFR research. They make it possible to use exactly the same occlusion pressure with each session. They’re completely unnecessary, and total overkill obviously, because the research has shown that a wide range of pressures achieve pretty much the same results.

Almost all of the early BFR research was done with simple knee wraps, and they achieved the exact same benefits back then as they do now with $10,000 Kaatsu machines with integrated ultrasound. I’m just a gadget geek and I was super curious to try these out. They went on sale and I couldn’t resist. :roll_eyes:

I’m going to be trying them out for the first time tomorrow.

OycZEHi.jpg4032×2268

(Bunny) #200

Here is an innovative gadget:

Just give me a cat-o-nine tails with Tesla coil metal tips and I’m ready to go…lol