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

(Windmill Tilter) #301

Makes sense. On my eating days, I’ve got things pretty well covered with 143g of protein. Most of that is coming from 550g of daily hamburger, which is full of collagen to begin with. I do a lot of extended fasting though. It wouldn’t surprise me if fasting slows down healing. I may have to back off on the extended fasting for a little bit until my Achilles feels 100%. Frustrating.

(Windmill Tilter) #302

TLDR: err on the side of using a weight that’s too heavy. In reality, it’s probably still not heavy enough.

My"fatigue not failure" mantra is really only for the first couple BFR sessions where the risk of DOMS is highest. Now that you’ve got a few workouts under your belt, you’ll be fine going to failure. In fact, you should start pushing the each exercise to the first failed rep on the final set. It feels very uncomfortable, but I guess that’s how you know it’s working. :yum:

Don’t worry about not finishing the 4th set. Using too much weight to finish the 4th set is actually erring on the side of caution. When interweb articles talk about BFR, they say that you can get the same results using as little 20% of 1 rep max. That’s true, but only if you’re using 80% occlusion pressure. If you don’t have pneumatic bands and doppler ultrasound; you have no idea what pressure you’re using or what your arterial occlusion pressure threshold is.

Alternatively, you can use 40% of 1 rep max, and using an occlusion pressure of 40% to get the same results. This is probably much closer to the occlusion pressure that we actually use with our elastic bands. For example, if you’re maximum bicep curl is 10lbs, 1kg will only work if you are right at the edge of arterial occlusion. Since you’re probably only getting to 40% arterial occlusion pressure, using 2kg will yield much better results even if that means you finish fewer sets and repetitions.

That’s my 2 cents anyway…

https://www.owensrecoveryscience.com/campaigns/blood-flow-restriction-intensity-and-occlusion/

(Windmill Tilter) #303

Wow. 15lbs is a ton of weight for occluded bicep curls. Are you talking 15lbs total or 15lbs in each hand (30lb total)? If the latter, you are an absolute beast my friend!

Have you considered a second career in professional arm wrestling? Lot’s of travel and great dental benefits… :yum:

#304

It just may be worth to try…as you know, there are so many different and conflicting debates on fasting.

Thanks for the tip on weights and reps, I will try to do just that the next time :slight_smile:

(Eric - The patient needs to be patient!) #305

I do one arm at a time. 15 lbs.

(Windmill Tilter) #306

Wowza. I’m still struggling with 10lbs. I’m gonna have to start eating my Wheaties. Well, I’m going to have to start eating whatever the keto equivalent of Wheaties is. Bacon? :bacon::bacon::bacon:

#307

Good morning :slight_smile:

Leg day this morning, I had a 30-min-Fitness-Blender-leg-workout warm-up followed by leg BFR. I tried placing the bands around the 1/3 of the way from my hip towards my knee and that position really wasn’t any better. I think my muscles hurt from the placement more than actual exercise. These leg bands are driving me nuts! :joy: I will go back to the original placement and try tightening them more.
My BFR workout consisted of squats (15/10/10/10), calf raises (30/15/15/15) and pilates lying-down side raises (each leg 30/15/15/15).

I can feel my arms a little, as I was washing and drying my hair, but nothing painful and/or unpleasant. The first time I did BFR arms, I could feel soreness in my inner arm, but now it’s more uniform, from my shoulders to my elbows.

This may be completely unrelated, but did you guys notice that you pee more frequently after a BFR workout?

(Eric - The patient needs to be patient!) #308

I take a diuretic and I drink water all day. So I pee a lot anyway. But after BBS and BFR my pee is significantly darker for a few hours.

Apparently after a few BFR sessions the soreness is not supposed to happen or be intense. I eased into my arm routine over 5 sessions and I get just a little sore. Hardly noticeable. But I can feel my biceps and forearm muscles with my other hand and they seem firmer and bigger.

(Bunny) #309

I think he is entering beast mode…lol

(Eric - The patient needs to be patient!) #310

I did my weekly BBS today and have some observations.

I do 7 (I added wrist curls last week) in this order

  • Pull down
  • Overhead
  • Seated Chest
  • Seated Pull
  • Leg Extension
  • Leg Curl
  • Wrist Curl

I improved on 5 either by a rep or 2 or 5 lbs.

For the pull down I don’t have good range of motion so I’m going to drop the weight and get better form and range and work back up. For wrist curls my first time since adding it back my TUT was way too low so I dropped from 40 lbs to 35 and got the TUT to 51 seconds for both left and right.

Reminder I did BFR for arms Wednesday (2 days ago) and it did not seem to hamper my improvements. I will probably do BFR 3 days before and not 2 when it won’t impact start of week fasting.

I’m trying to be mentally intentional with going slow and thinking about engaging type 1, 2 and 2b fibers as Dr McGuff recommends.

I could feel it today and my forearms are a little week even now an hour after being done. Even in the hot tub my left hand was shaking a little when I held it a certain way.

I do have one problem. The seated pull requires me to plant my feet firmly for the 150 lbs I’m doing. This is aggravating my bad ankle connective tissue. I might stop the seated pull for several weeks and see if that makes a difference. But I hate to do that because just knowing I can pull 150 lbs when I have been a weakling most of my life is a bit of a kick that I don’t want to miss.

I hope you all don’t mind these updates. I’m assuming someone is learning from this.

Carry on. Happy strength training.

#311

We are all learning from this, please continue sharing. :slight_smile: We may be of different gender and check a different tick age group, but you can still offer good advice with your workout routine and observations. It is also a place where you can share your thoughts and improvements for later. :slight_smile:

I’m starting with BBS next month. :slight_smile:

(Windmill Tilter) #312

Nope, but I drink so much water that I’m not sure I would know the difference (4-5 quarts/day).

(Windmill Tilter) #313

This pretty much sums up my experience as well.

(Windmill Tilter) #314

I reluctantly spent $25 on grass-fed collagen yesterday and had it with some green tea. Not particularly appetizing, but it was drinkable.

I also tried some achilles tendon massages and stretches that I’ve seen recommended on a few videos on youtube. I did the massage/stretch about 90 mins after a 140g dose of protein, and 30 minutes after a 20g dose of collagen powder. Its been less than 24hrs, but it seems like it worked!

When I woke up this morning I had significantly less soreness, and within 15 minutes of waking I had no pain or soreness whatsoever. My daughter (9) had a presentation this morning and I had to park way out in the williwacks and hoof quite a ways over some snowy/icy sidewalks but I had no discomfort even when navigating uneven terrain. In short, it feels a heck of a lot better.

As usual, I changed two variables so i’s impossible to determine whether it was the collagen or the massage/stretches, but the important thing is that it seemed to work. I’m guessing it was the massage/stretches, but I’ll be doing both the massage & collagen nightly to cover my bases. If I feel this good tomorrow morning, I’m hitting the gym! :smile:

Here is the massage/stretch video I used:

(Windmill Tilter) #315

I for one appreciate your posts. I’ve been learning a lot on this thread. The “shaking” sensation is something I experience as well, particularly my arms.

This is really smart. I’ve been experiencing shoulder pain and I don’t know whether it’s from the lat pull down, row, OH press, or pec fly. I’m going to be watching some videos on athlean-x before my next workout and really concentrate on form. I suspect I get into trouble when I approach failure and form starts to degenerate as I try to push out 1 more rep. I’m going to be more conscious of that.

Consider changing the exercise until your ankle is feeling better. A one arm dumbbell row will give you pretty similar muscle activation in a position where your back is well supported. A standing cable row is also a good option. Here is a demo (ignore the Pendlay row):

(Eric - The patient needs to be patient!) #316

Gosh thanks so much. I will change the pull. More later busy now at work.

(Eric - The patient needs to be patient!) #317

I’ve been waiting for this. The ability to see arterial pulses in my wrist. A sign of arterial health. Chalk this up to BBS and maybe BFR training:

Watch the video on twitter post above. I have no idea how to post a video on this forum.

This is what Sean OMara, MD, JD says about it:

#318

Wow, that’s great @daddyoh :slight_smile:
I have to get my butt to the gym and start BBS-ing :slight_smile:

(Eric - The patient needs to be patient!) #319

I’m going to try the 1 arm overhead row. I have access to two pieces of eqpt that I can do this with and with 1/2 wt approx any forces on my feet are less. I’m going to try just a couple reps today with light weights to get used to it.

Thanks for the suggestions.

#320

I woke up at 3 am this morning, so I was antsy by 6 and decided to make it an arm day.
I did an upper body strength and abs warm-up, followed by arm BFR.
I’m getting better at banding my arms and I think I have the method down, I just have to learn to tune out the “abort, abort, abort” message my arms are sending to my brain. :slight_smile:
I tried Don’s recommendation and did the following:
Bicep curls, 2kg, 16/5/5/5
Overhead press, 1kg, 30/15/15/15
Chest press with the exercise band 30/15/15/15.

I think my arms died during the bicep curl, a new and weird feeling, I know how it works for next time. I tried doing lateral arm raises but it felt weird, I’ll try next time. After the chest press, my left pinky started to tingle, so I took the bands off and did 10 slow countertop pushups.
After I removed the bands, I could feel how much bigger and firmer my biceps were, so I definitely did smth right this time. That pressure sensation continued for about an hour - I’ll see how I’ll feel tomorrow.