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

(Windmill Tilter) #101

Post BFR workout day 2. Soreness is greatly reduced with almost none in the biceps. Quads are still sore but I haven’t done squats in years, so that’s to be expected and doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with the BFR.

The really interesting thing was when I look at my biceps in the mirror after getting out of the shower this morning. The vascularity was nuts. The side of my bicep looks like a blue spiderweb of veins where none were visible before. I’ve seen some of them the day after a particularly brutal BBS workout with added bicep curls, but never anything like this.

This is 2 days after 15 minutes of training with a tiny little 5lb weight! I don’t have any idea whats going on in there, but the fact that I was ravenously hungry and ate 2lbs of fish and 1lb of beef yesterday makes me think there’s a construction project going on in there… :grinning:

I’ve never been that hungry for fish before in my life. I would have traded a $50 wagyu ribeye for a herring all day long yesterday. :heart_eyes: When it comes to eating, I follow my appetite/cravings like it was google maps. :yum:

(Windmill Tilter) #102

It just occurred to me that there are two other explanatory variables that might explain why I’ve been more prone to soreness and DOMS from lifting this time around. Earlier this year I was fasting a ton, so I was constantly drinking Brenda Zorn’s ketoaide, which has a lot of magnesium in it. That’s could do it. The other is that I was supplementing with creatine then and I’m not doing so now. I think I might reintroduce both one by one to see if either one appears to have an effect. If not, it’s straight to the curcumin. :yum:

@CaptainKirk, @daddyoh, @cervyn, @goldwingnut, do any of you guys supplement with creatine or magnesium? How would you characterize your DOMS after a BBS workout?

(Kirk Wolak) #103

Also, you could be simply be “trained up”, and now overtraining. Take 1 week off, and see how you feel.

I actually got to the point that twice a week, I was losing performance. When I cut down to once a week, I did much better.

And I take a good amount of magnesium every night. A friend, she takes salted water all day, and she sees a huge difference in ketosis. Especially when she fasts.

I get some DOMS, not nearly as much. But if I really inroad, then I can be miserable. I don’t do it because it tends to make me Nutrient Seeking, and I just eat too much!

==

Jan 2020 will be a PKD Month! (Paleo Ketogenic Diet). I am curious to see how that impacts it. Still MWF eating schedule. Friday BFR, Monday SlowSlow/BBS… Wednesday will be HIIT of some sort.

PKD is really strict. But I have a source on excess beef fat!

(Kirk Wolak) #104

I have notice the increased vascularity myself.
Give it 3 - 5 sessions. The fullness in my forearms and biceps and CHEST is quite noticeable.

My calves are almost AMAZING. Honestly. In 6 months I could donate my body to Science… Instead of Science Fiction! :grinning:

In a very few workouts, I have noticed a massive change in my body. More so from BFR than SS/BBS… Although that was pretty amazing. Best explanation. BBS is Keto… BFR Is Carnivore! :rofl::rofl::rofl:

(Eric - The patient needs to be patient!) #105

I do Mg water daily. Very small DOMS. Just enough to notice.

(Windmill Tilter) #106

What is your BFR day workout? It’s obviously working for you. My calves were the only part of legs that had no soreness, so i maybe I’ve got to hit those with an isolation exercise of some sort in addition to the squats?

(Kirk Wolak) #107

My BFR Day workout (there are 2).

Walking 2.5 Miles banded up, Just walking, and some squats for the legs. Slow Slow style on the squats. Baye gives a great description!
I will walk another 2.5 miles to loosen up if time permits. And my arms are, weightless,
some level isometric resistance, and POSITIONAL resistance:

  1. Bicep Curls (40)
  2. Tricep Extensions (40) (Start by putting hands on your hips, elbows back, THAT tightens the bands for ya!). then keep the elbows still, and press backwards. It’s kinda like walking and chewing gum at first!
  3. Overhead Presses (40) (this actually lets some of the blood drain out, which feels good)
  4. Wrist Flexion (40) (I alternate flexion vs extension, as I remember)
    ==
    Then I cycle through this again, and again, until I can’t… Usually 3-4 sets. (Fewer in the beginning, trust me).
    ==

Gym version, I don’t do the legs! I do upper body banded:

  • Chest Pull, Decline Press OR Pec Deck, Bicep Machine, Tricep Machine, Curl Bar for forearm rollups [barbell,arms at 20 degrees, let the barbell open the hands, roll the hands closed, and keep rolling the hands up, slowly unroll. Weighted, I just go until exhaustion. Usually one set.

Then the sauna for a LONG break… LOL

I have been alternating between real BFR at the gym, and a combo of BFR/Slow-Slow (heavier weight, but not the heaviest. A heavier weight will wipe me out much faster)
Just the arms. I don’t want to overbuild my thighs (My old max was just over 800lbs),
and my thighs will too grow quickly!

(Windmill Tilter) #108

This is really great info. Super helpful! I’ve read a bit of the research on just walking with the bands as a BFR workout and it’s definitely intriguing.

(Windmill Tilter) #109

Day 3 after first BFR workout.

I woke up sore, and as I head off to bed I’m still pretty sore. It’s the level of soreness I would expect the day after a heavy lifting day, but it’s been 3 days! It’s pretty remarkable considering how little I did on Wednesday (4 sets of: bodyweight squats, push-ups, bicep curls). I owe the soreness in my legs to exercise selection more than anything else though. I never should have done air squats, since I never do squatting (I do leg press).

My schedule has me doing a BBS workout tomorrow but if I’m anywhere near this sore in the morning, I’m going to postpone it for another day. It’s mostly my legs that are sore, and brought that on myself. I never do squats; I always do leg press when I train. It just didn’t occur to me that a bodyweight squat would be able to do much after weeks of 500lb leg presses. It did! No sense doing BBS if I’m not 100% recovered.

To that end, I got my turmeric curcumin in this afternoon and mixed in a dose of 1000mg of 95% curcuminoids with a whole bunch of pepper and fresh ginger into 1lb of hamburger. I’ve been amazed in the past who well turmeric lowered inflammation related arthritis pain; maybe it’ll do some good. A teaspoon of turmeric has around 100mg of curcuminoids, so this is about 10x what I’m used to. I think they used 2500mg in the DOMS research, but 1000mg seems like a good starting point. :slightly_smiling_face:

My advice to anybody doing a first BFR workout is to go really easy. Maybe just 3 sets instead of 4. Don’t do an exercise that you’re not unfamiliar like I did with the air squats. IEven if you’ve been weight lifting for a while, treat it like it’s your first workout. Don’t do what I did and go to total muscle failure like it’s a BBS workout!

I’m really pretty stunned by the workout I got from such a light BFR training session. It definitely did something!

(Kirk Wolak) #110

The lack of DOMS has been a key element in our training, with BFR…

Double check that you are NOT overtightening.

If you push your thumb into your palm, and let go, it will be white. But it should recolor within 7 seconds. If not, the bands are too tight.

Bands that were too lose gave 50%-80% of the benefits. No reason you should be this sore, unless you used the Slow-Slow definition of Fatigued… (you inroaded, while you were there, maybe?)

Definitely would hold off if you are sore…

(Windmill Tilter) #111

Definitely not over-tightening. If anything I may have been a little on the loose side. I was taking my pulse between sets to be extra cautious. Additionally, I have the elastic cuffs which make arterial occlusion basically impossible, especially on the legs. It’s definitely not that. I did the palm “color” test between sets and I was back in around 2 seconds. I attribute the soreness to exercise selection and intensity level more than the bands.

I did an unfamiliar exercise, “air squats”, to total muscle failure, so I was basically asking for it. I really just didn’t think air squats could do much of anything compared to the loads that I’m accustomed to working with on the leg press. I attribute the soreness way more to this than I do to the bands.

Yup. This is exactly what I did. :roll_eyes:

I’ve been training to total muscle failure all year, so I figured I may as well do that with this as well. It was only a tiny little 5lb barbell after all. As my old shop teacher would have said “if you’re gonna be dumb, you better be tough…”. :yum:

My guess is that the bands contributed to the soreness by being a new stimulus and more lactic acid than my muscles are accustomed to, but I’m guessing the soreness is more a consequence of my exercise selection and level of intensity mostly.

Definitely not a big deal, it’s not like I’m so sore that it interferes with my day or anything. Worst case scenario I’ll just squeeze in an extra day of fasting tomorrow. I’m pretty happy that I’m a little sore. I wasn’t really sure whether or not such a light BFR workout could do anything, but it definitely did. I do bicep curls every week with 5x the weight, but this was the hardest my biceps have ever been hit. I’m thrilled! :+1::+1::+1:

(Windmill Tilter) #112

Day 4 after first BFR training:

I woke up with soreness greatly improved. Yesterday my biceps were at 75% and today I’d say they’re at 95%. Yesterday my quads were at around 50% recovered with a great deal of soreness, this morning I’d say they’re at 80% with very little soreness. They’re in good enough shape that I was able to run up the steps this morning, taking 2 steps at a time (we were running late for swim practice). I wasn’t doing it intentionally, I was just in a rush, but it felt fine, so I’m pretty close to being fully recovered. Who knows if the curcumin helped. I did up my dose with an extra 1000mg with 6oz of smoked herring and lots of fresh pepper just before bedtime. Impossible to say if it helped, but it probably didn’t hurt.

I feel good enough that I considered doing a BBS workout this morning but I decided against it. I still have a little residual soreness in the quads, so I’m going to wait until I feel 100% before I head back to the gym. I suspect they’re still some muscle building going on, and there is no point interrupting it. Additionally, I’m curious to see what if any impact my BFR training has on my BBS workout. I track TUT and weights carefully, and I’d like to see what the changes are to TUT (time under tension).

I’m still deciding whether or not to feast or fast today. I prefer lifting with at least 48 hrs of fasting under my belt.

(Eric - The patient needs to be patient!) #113

@Don_Q @CaptainKirk

Very interesting posts. I’m considering doing BFR training in the new year. I’m very interested in how to integrate BFR into BBS training.

I’m looking forward to your practical experience with recovery and the subtle tweaks of BFR.

(Eric - The patient needs to be patient!) #114

Dr. Mercola talks about the metabolic effects of BFR. Some of the effects mentioned line up with BBS training. Very exciting.

(Kirk Wolak) #115

Yeah, the first time I heard of BFR was a podcast with him and Dr. Saladino.
I went searching and was blown away…

So, my suggestion is this:

  1. Play with BFR. If you don’t INROAD like @Don_Q you wont even need recovery. But you will produce a lot of signally. I kinda like the Friday BFR followed by Monday BBS.

  2. Don’t worry about getting the most out of your first BFR. Remember that with BBS, you probably recall your first 2-3 sessions as a JOKE compared to what you do now, right? Same will happen here. It’s experiential

  3. Share back your results, and how you are using it! That will get others going.

If I were a dictator in a SIM World, I would make them all do Keto/Carnivore, Fasting, HIIT, and BBS/BFR for their health.

I find it interesting that the ONE set of SIMS we don’t have are WOE/WOL… Makes you wonder…

(Eric - The patient needs to be patient!) #116

What is a SIMS?

(Kirk Wolak) #117

Simulations.
Like Game of Thrones. It’s a computer gaming concept where you can plan (SimCity was one of the first) a society, and choose certain variables (How much resources on education vs crops vs technology vs war, etc). Then the system can Simulate the results as time is applied. It is usually programmed with certain assumptions.

But some real life is usually applied… Like a warring neighbor, etc. things outside your control test your simulation.

We don’t simulate critical things. Like what would happen if the USA decided to go Full On Socialist. (As people lose incentives, future generations try fewer things, work less hard, etc. And what happens by the 3rd generation). Of course, there are assumptions that are built in. But if they build a simulator, it is usually tested against something real to determine how it measures up. Once it can mimic the real world experiences (Past/History), you know you are good enough to experiment.

We simulate Airplanes and Wing designs all the time.

Sorry for tech… HTH

(Windmill Tilter) #118

Great video. Thanks for sharing this. I’m a fan of Dr. Mercola. He really helped Dr. Fung and many others get on the map. I didn’t realize he was doing BFR training as well. :+1:

(Windmill Tilter) #119

Yup. My tips would be to take it easy on the first BFR session. Do 3 sets not 4. When they say use 20% of 1RM, they aren’t kidding. Don’t go to total muscle failure (inroading). Do not do a 10 second static hold upon failure (inroading). Do not do exercises that you have not been doing on a weekly basis.

Basically, don’t do what I did… :yum:

(Eric - The patient needs to be patient!) #120

@CaptainKirk @Don_Q

Thanks for the tips. I will start in January sometime. I need to get bands and am looking for 1-inch arm bands. My arms are small and don’t need the 2-inch bands.