Eating after a workout

The most amazing thing happened. I jogged for 10 minutes without passing out! Mwahahah! (two months ago I could jog for one, man I'm outta shape!)

And typically women lack the amounts of testosterone and upper body muscle tissue to get really big. I have no idea what role steroids, "good" genetics, and insane levels of weight training play with freakishly large female bodybuilders, but it is likely significant.

As a sidebar, muscle tissue burns significantly more calories, even resting. So not only do you burn calories by exercising and you burn calories recovering from exercise, the larger your muscles are the less you have to watch your diet.

Its very obvious that very large women bodybuilders use some kind of enhancement to get that big, but if you workout long enough the right way you can get pretty ripped as a girl.

But it will still be more like a toned, firm look with well defined, but smaller muscle mass and not the big bulky look guys get.

That's right, I lost my fitness center, possibly the best one in a 50 mile radius, because of an issue with a lease.
I cried. I loved that place.
The worst part is, they didn't have the decency to tell the staff until YESTERDAY, so they've been signing up members and doing fitness evaluations and going on with life as usual, and are fired from their jobs in less than two weeks.

I fucking hate the world right now.

That sucks.

It may be one big advantage to working out in a big chain like 24 Hour Fitness, like I do. At the moment I have a negotiated contract of about $30 a month that grants me access to any of their gyms in Omaha.

Joined the YMCA.

Ok so I'm gonna compare how I started with what I'm doing now. I like to see progress.
Weights:
I've gone from 1 to 3 sets of 10 on everything. I've also increased the weight I'm doing on just about everything, and added a few new things:

Chest press I've gone from 20 to 25 lbs.
Seated row from 30 to 40 lbs.
Lateral raises 5 lbs as always.
Tricep extensions from 30 to 40 lbs.
Bicep curls from 20 to 30 lbs.
Leg press from 40 to 55 lbs.

New:
Lateral pulldown 50lbs.
Leg extension: 35 lbs.
Seated leg curls: 40 lbs.
New stuff is on two sets at a time, going up to three next week.

As far as cardio, I can't get my heart rate to 160 on bikes now even if I try. Basically now my legs aren't strong enough to do the kind of workout I need for my heart to reach 160+ bpm. Because of that, I've started going for longer bike workouts, 40+ minutes or so.
On ellipticals I'm now doing great with 12 minutes of intervals, so I'm gonna get that to 15 or so soon.
I can jog for 10 straight minutes, which is really awesome since two months ago I could jog for one.

Water retention is a bitch.

Back home, I finally started drinking all the water you're SUPPOSED to drink in a day, and what do ya know, I drop 3 pounds - most of that was probably water I had held up IN MAH BELLEH.

I come to Honduras where you can't drink all that much water because you buy it in tubs once a week, and what do ya know, my belleh comes back and I gain 3 pounds.

Or your ate more sodium which increases your level of water retention.

Usually lowering it will help you drop the lbs.

Sodium and carbs bloat you.

This is actually complete bunk, fabricated by fitness magazines and the like. Lifting weights builds muscle. There is no distinction between "toned" and "bulky" to your body. If you lift weights and get to the point where you've built as much muscle as you want and don't want to build any more, stop increasing the weight. But for most people (especially women) it's a long journey to get to that point.

http://www.stumptuous.com/strength-without-size-how-to-get-stronger-without-getting-bulky

Don't forget menstruating.

Oh carbs, I had plenty. Probably 5 thick hand-made tortillas per day, and as for salt, all the cheese in that town comes from little dairy farms where they don't pasteurize, they just throw salt on it.

That's interesting. Sodium is basically salt, right?

I slightly disagree.

I think there is a point to high rep, low weight work. I think it can help build endurance, and to a 'point' build strength as well.

I think 'bulking' has everything to do with how much you eat. If you get enough calories, you'll get big. If you don't, you won't get big.

Simple as that.

In other words, if you're doing heavy, heavy work, and you eat slim pickings everyday, you won't gain much muscle in terms of bulk. Your body composition might change slightly, but you're never going to get big. You might lose the fat, simply because you're burning more calories, maybe even more than you usually are....but you won't get 'big.'

Its pretty much the same for men and women. Just that women obviously can't build muscle like men can.

Well there you go.

I don't know how much carbs will make you retain water, but you DO bloat.

It takes me 2-3 days to recover from a binge weekend where I consume a hellish amount of alcohol and pizza.

Its not as simple as drop the sodium content in your food, and you'll drop weight. There are a lot of other things to consider. Like for an example how if you don't drink enough water as is, your body will retain more of it automatically. Drink around 6-8 cups per day, and your body will learn to drop more water because it knows it'll get more.

But yes, in a very basic sense, lowering sodium will help you prevent so much water retention.

Did weights after 2 weeks of nothing. Owww...

After I got back home, I went to the gym and threw 5-10 more lbs on everything. I wanted to get a hardcore workout cause I was sick of being a slob for two weeks due to lack of a gym. It hurt, but it turns out I actually can handle more weight and was just afraid to, so

Not sure how hardcore you are, TKO, but when doing weights you should train until failure - that is, until you can't lift anymore.

e.g. Lift X until you can't lift any more.
Then reduce to X-20% - go again.
Then x-40%
Etc.

Today I decided to be hardcore and run til my lungs were on fire. Well, they didn't catch fire after all, but I did manage to jog for 22 minutes. Which is like... 21 more than when I started to work out a few months back.

The new YMCA in Nashville is apparently as nice as my old gym was, so I'm heading there tomorrow to give it a go. Hopefully it's fun.

I don't know if I mentioned it in this thread, but my ideal regimen is an upper body/ab workout three days a week and a 30 minute run 3 days a week, with a day to recover.

Because I'm old and week, I'm lucky if I fit in 3 days a week, but it's still better than nothing. (And since I was in pretty good shape when I was your age it comes back pretty quick. )

Bottom line, a 22 minute jog is pretty good--although most girls I know are pretty damned slow.

I must be sick or something. Even after all this cardio, it took me 15 minutes to recover from sprinting a mere 100 meters. Sure, I gave it everything I had. I wanted to win. But I felt sick and it was just a quick sprint. My sister didn't react that way and she was as fast as me.

If you're feeling sick, maybe you're eating too much (or the wrong thing) BEFORE excercise.

You should eat nothing up to an hour before you workout.

Two reasons. One is your food needs to be broken down into fuel so your body can utilize it, and two, if you work out right after you eat, your body is expending energy digesting the food instead of expending energy on your workout.

Hmm, well, I did eat about an hour before working out, so I'll give it more of a gap next time.

Was that 22 minutes straight or was that with walk breaks?

22 minutes traight, I got distracted by a soccer game and the next thing I knew, I was feeling exhausted and 20 minutes had gone by. The last two were to see how far I could go.

Could also be what you ate.

Some foods you can get away with eating like right before working out, but others you need more than an hour to let it break down.

I eventually realized that if I ate yogurt before a run, it would wipe me out. An orange, on the other hand, I can get away with. A burger and fries would probably make my performance with yogurt look good.