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

[Don_Q]

Funny thing is I don’t think I’m that strong because I have very little bulk. I have elongated muscles for the most part.

150lbs on the seated row is unusually strong. You’ve got to be close to pulling the full stack. The one at my gym only goes to 180lbs.

[daddyoh]

Most of my strength gains happened through years of resistance training that was volumetric. Many days a week but the metabolic changes and more muscle has happened with BBS. I credit my lowering BP to BBS mostly.

I’m smiling today. I guess I’m stronger than I think. I’m a BBS fan for life.

[Stephen_Judd]

Cool! Are you student or a prof? I miss college…

This is the paper I’m talking about:

I’m an IT guy now, long ago a graduate student.

Looks like that study had each group perform 2-3 sets of 15 reps.

[Don_Q]

Yup. They’re volume equated with vastly different weights. Of course the group who didn’t even broke a sweat didn’t have the same hypertrophy!

As George Carvill would say: “It’s the intensity stupid!”

[daddyoh]

I’m an IT guy at the U of Richmond in Richmond VA.

[Stephen_Judd]

I’m an IT guy at the U of Richmond in Richmond VA.

I’m at the University of New Hampshire. Did my doctorate here in 1997 in Animal and Nutritional Sciences, but somehow wandered into IT 20+ years ago…

[daddyoh]

Did a masters at clemson U in env engr many decades ago. Was more interested in computers then env engr.

[SomeGuy]

As George Carvill would say: “It’s the intensity stupid!”

Perhaps you meant James Carville? … Unless you meant George Carlin, who would’ve said something we couldn’t repeat here

[Don_Q]

Perhaps you meant James Carville?

Lol. Yup. James Carville.

[daddyoh]

If I can arrange this with my wife’s schedule I am going to do BBS

• Yesterday did BBS Wed
• Monday 5 day recovery BBS
• Friday 4 day recovery BBS

If I progress through the 4 day recovery I can then start a
Wed -> Monday -> Friday -> Wed rotation and get a little more BBS in

If the 5 day recovery or especially the 4 day recovery Is too short I will go back to once a week. With recent experiments in 6 day recovery I know that works.

[Stephen_Judd]

I’m trying a four day recovery now, with a couple BFR sessions thrown in between - will tweak as needed.

[Meerkatsandy]

Thanks for all the reading material

I was so lazy and bleh last week, I finally had my leg day…I couldn’t do as many reps as the week before, but at least I got my butt moving

Edit: my soul sister last week…

[daddyoh]

BBS Recovery Period Experiment - 5 days

Okay I did my 5 day recovery BBS workout this morning and will proceed with a 4 day recovery period on Friday. If that works I’ll do Wed - Monday - Friday repeat which gets me a 50% increase in workouts at 3/2 weeks instead of 2/2 weeks.

I do 7 routines. I improved weight or reps on 5 of 7. My first routine is underhanded pull down and I did 8 reps at 60 lbs instead of 9 or better. But my warm up routine changed.

On leg curl my normal eqpt is broken so I had a different piece of eqpt and can’t relate the weight of one to another.

I’m most excited about wrist curls going from 40 lbs to 45 lbs (one arm at a time) and 17/14 reps left/right. (My left arm is stronger than my right). Also the one arm cable pull down and back (don’t have a name for this one) is advancing very quickly. I think because I don’t have much lat strength and am starting to build in that area.

Prior experiments showed 6 days+ to be the best recovery. My working theory is that because my strength and metabolic state are so much improved, my body can recover faster now.

EDIT: Also I am more deliberate about what I eat and how I eat the workout day and day after. Bone broth on training days with 11g of collagen supplement added, and then sufficient protein and fat. This morning 6 oz of pot roast and 2 over easy fried eggs, a few pork rinds. Lunch will be 8 oz of cooked ground beef and a can of sardines packed in water.

Happy workouts to all of you this week.

[Don_Q]

Another day, another ratchet along the roller coaster: one-armed preacher curls under BFR using a 14lb dumbell. Did 30/15/15/50… and then stopped voluntarily. Hands got cold as usual; lots of veins a’ popping. Palm capillary refresh @ roughly 2 seconds.

I shall fail. I must fail!

Have you succeeded in failing yet?

[Stephen_Judd]

Did HIRT this morning - improvements on all. Here’s my current strategy which will be adapted if I find I need increased recovery time:

1. • HIRT - Feast
2. • BFR / Abs - 2MAD or Feast
3. • BFR / Abs - 2MAD
4. • Abs - OMAD or FAST
5. • HIRT - Feast
     …

Additionally, I walk 2-6 miles a day, depending on weather. BFR walking 1-2 times per week.

[SomeGuy]

Have you succeeded in failing yet?

@Don_Q Thanks for checking in!

…Nope, not quite yet. I’m now at 15-1/4 lbs, still 30/15/15/50, and still lacking failure.

Apparently for me - as far as failure goes - I remain a failure. Hope springs eternal.

[Meerkatsandy]

I had my arm day yesterday… I realized that leg day before arm day isn’t a smart idea, since you need legs for your arms, as well. well, after my arm day yesterday…oh the soreness
I decreased the bicep weight to 2kg and I couldn’t finish as many reps as before, chest presses had a 10-rep wrist curl finish…my delts and outer upper arms are killing me!!
I will see how my workouts feel over the weekend

[Meerkatsandy]

I’ve been thinking a little today…Ilana Rose’s words are frequently on my mind, especially when it comes to Phinney weight and Taubes’s “our appetite increases because we are fattening…”

I had two rounds of BFR without increased hunger and I think that I can “blame” nuts for this. I finally stopped eating nuts 10 days ago and I am happily eating my daily OMAD of beef, eggs, and some veggies. What if those nuts were adding on the weight and I felt hungrier since my body was actually fattening? I also remember one user (a well-known user, I forgot his name ) saying that with muscle gains we also have some fat gains… Who knows what the heck is going on…

[Don_Q]

Peanuts and cashews definitely make me more hungry. I could easily put away 500 calories of either and still want more. I avoid them unless I’m looking for a big calorie day prior to an extended fast. I’ve been avoiding them for a couple weeks.

Taubes’s “our appetite increases because we are fattening…”

Interesting. I’ve never really heard that before. Is Taubes saying that our appetite increases in order to make us fat with gherelin or something @Ilana_Rose? What does he say causes it to do this?

[Don_Q]

I did an abbreviated BBS workout today with just leg press and bicep curls. My shoulder is bothering me so I’m giving it shoulder/traps are bothering me so I’m giving them a break. I’ll restart presses and pulls with BFR. It’s nice having my own rehab kit, but I’ll probably get some funny looks using them in the gym!

The good news is that my bicep curls jumped all the way up to 70lbs for 40 seconds (from 50lbs for 65 seconds a month ago). My new 1 rep max is 75lbs (calculated). I used to do them last, but doing them as the first arm exercise definitely made a difference. Exercise order matters!