the "cycles" Debunk

**championofnight** · April 4th, 2007, 09:22 PM

Ok well. I have been through the bulking and cutting cycles, and neither work. Im sorry, but according to my personal experiance, with bulking i put on too much fat, and with cutting i cut too much muscle. lol.
So, i went ahead and devised my own plan, which has been working phenomenally better. It is based off a spartan's mindset, very basic: "Ready your breakfast men, and eat hearty, for tonight we dine in hell!!"
Secondly, I thought about the marines.I have heard that a marine's training gets them ripped, but then i asked myself why. Is the answer in the diet? But after seeing and hearing that they mostly eat cafeteria food, i knew it was not the food. Obviously, a marine has to go through tons of grueling exercise, and this appealed to me greatly, because i knew this was why they get ripped.
So i sat down after being dissatisfied for so long, and finally broke free of the stupid cycles, and said look, the cycles may work for some people, but i want something more intense. I dont give a crap about what i eat. Its not about being smart, its about sharing your passion with the world. Gerard Butler(Actor who played leonidus in 300) said, "Your eyes record every weight you lift, and every ounce of effort you pour into something.(Something like that)
And i was like, well shoot, i am tired of doing what is scientifically "Correct" Or even what is considered mentally "healthy". I burn for something more, i burn for pain. Time to go radical.
So, i started working out 6 days a week, my only resting day sunday.
I do cardio three days a week,(tues. Thurs. Sat.) And then i lift three days a week, (Mon. Wed. Friday.) I have been eating "hearty" with around 220 grams of prot. a day. On my cardio days, i do 6- 9 mile jogs, and on my lifting days, i usually stay in the gym for about an hour and a half to two hours.
After going on a jog or to the gym, i normally come home and devour small animals, if i can stomach it, that is. The amount of cardio that i am doing makes me alittle queasy even when i am not doing it.
Though all of this is hard, and sometimes i feel like i am overtraining, i would not have it any other way. I have seen enormous results in all areas of my body. 5lbs later, i still have my 4 pack from before, and some days it looks like a six pack.
Though my ways are uncooth, I feel this has been a major success for me.
But at the moment i feel crappy, this is due to a lack of sleep though, not from the routine.
So, the moral of the story is :Salvation from body fat and lethargy comes not in one rigid way, but each individual invents his own way, as follows with his own unique, created person. But one thing has to be consistent with all persons:

.....The sincere desire to work like Hell.

**Insex** · April 4th, 2007, 09:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by championofnight

.....The sincere desire to work like Hell.

That just about sums it up right there. That's what separates the noobs from the pros. A tailored diet won't do much good if you don't have the desire to work hard in or out of the gym and the dedication to do it consistantly.

That's good that you have a fire in your belly right now. However, listen to your body. It's during times like these where people tend to outdo themselves and end up getting injured.

**Mr. Stone** · April 4th, 2007, 10:43 PM

You need Crossfit. (www.crossfit.com)

You are perfect for this type of training. (Actually, most everyone is, they just listen to idiots before professionals.)

www.crossfit.com

Trust me. Your attitude is designed for it.

Here is a great vid:

http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/C...tOfFitness.wmv

**championofnight** · April 5th, 2007, 12:28 AM

Ya Mr. Stone the vid. pretty good. But do they ever do anything more than pull ups, pushups, and squats? IThanks for posting.

**Insex** · April 5th, 2007, 01:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by championofnight

Ya Mr. Stone the vid. pretty good. But do they ever do anything more than pull ups, pushups, and squats? IThanks for posting.

Take a look at Mr. Stone's CrossFit Log. There more exercises listed there:

Mr. Stone's Crossfit Log

juggalotus · April 5th, 2007, 07:30 AM

good stuff champ. I think your getting into something referred to as
instinctive training. Although its mainly applied to day to day gym workouts and excercises. It can also be applied to devising ones own program based on what ones body needs. All of our bodies instinctively know how to get to where our minds want our bodies to be. Success comes when our minds stop being lazy and realize what the body needs to do, and then consistently put the body into those situations where over time the body will change.

Your program looks great. 3 1 1/2- 2 hrs weights 3x a week and 3 cardio sessions. OVertraining shouldnt be a problem with this. Unless your working alot of hours on a physical job in which case a few days rest here and there from training is good.

**Adonis** · April 5th, 2007, 08:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr. Stone

You are perfect for this type of training. (Actually, most everyone is, they just listen to idiots before professionals.)

Crossfit disciples will always say their system is best. Likewise a HIT guy will alwayas say one set balls to the wall is best. Both groupd believe in what they are doing, and promote it exclusively.

It is not the best thing for everyone; not even close.

**JarheadRI** · April 6th, 2007, 09:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by championofnight

Secondly, I thought about the marines.I have heard that a marine's training gets them ripped, but then i asked myself why. Is the answer in the diet? But after seeing and hearing that they mostly eat cafeteria food, i knew it was not the food. Obviously, a marine has to go through tons of grueling exercise, and this appealed to me greatly, because i knew this was why they get ripped.

Um ok I was a Marine and not all of em are 'ripped' trust me! It is like a lot of people say, you look as good as how much you work. I was ripped early on and toward the end but there were times I was certainly not. I also got ripped because I ran, ran and then ran some more. The Marine Corps PFT (Physical Fitness Test) consists of a situps(now crunches I think), pull ups, and a 3 mile run. They have/had various points attributed to each. There are minium you have to reach in each category and maxiums too. The max was 300 pts. I hit 298 when I was in btw.. You got 100 points if you ran 3 miles in 18:00 or less. I never got below that. My best was 18:06

but I diggress....

So what does this mean? Basically you could 'train' yourself just to do this stuff. The Corps was all about endurance and never really about 'raw' strength and they certainly didn't care if you were ripped. If you were overweight then you would be forced on a diet and an exercise program, this was for the TRUE LOSERS! Anyway that is how it was and I suspect it hasn't changed much. You could do the weight lifting stuff on your own but after running and calestenicts most could care less, I didn't really do it until the end of my tour when I knew I was getting out and didn't care about how fast I could run a 3mile course. Boy do I hate friggin running now.

As a note I was 133 pounds 5'10" when I went to Boot Camp. I was 133 when I came out. Now MCT which is a month long AFTER Boot Camp I put on about 20 pounds (most in my shoulders) because all we did was hump(forced marches) with 40-90lb packs on our back, and eat those crappy MRE's.

Sorry for the long post but I am home from work and pretty bored today!

**championofnight** · April 6th, 2007, 11:54 AM

Thank you for clarifying,
As i was typing it out, i knew i was not entirely sure what the marines did, so i appreciate you sharing your experiance. I was trying to refer to an extreme way of exercising to convey what i wanted to do, but maybe the marines werent a good example?

**JarheadRI** · April 6th, 2007, 12:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by championofnight

Thank you for clarifying,
As i was typing it out, i knew i was not entirely sure what the marines did, so i appreciate you sharing your experiance. I was trying to refer to an extreme way of exercising to convey what i wanted to do, but maybe the marines werent a good example?

I think you have to look at what you want to acheive. If you want to be lean and have great endurance than the any type of intense military training (Marines, Navy Seals, Army Green Beret) would be good. This would include intense exercising with a bunch of different exercies and lots of running. Again you aren't going to be BIG but you will be lean, strong and in excellent cardio shape. You also will probably have pretty low bf%. Mine was in the single digits when I was in my prime. I also used to swim about a mile every other day too.

**justaguy87337** · April 6th, 2007, 02:15 PM

X2 , I will add, when I was in, most of the weight lifting we did aboard ship, when you couldn't do much else. on a 6 month pump of the Med, I spent roughly 3 hours a day in the gym and went from 160 to 215, and ya I was ripped.

lionelzeus · April 6th, 2007, 02:33 PM

I watched the cross fit video and one thing stood out to me.
There was only one person who had decent definition everyone else was skinny with know body definition to speak of. I think most men in this forum want some muscle mass and that cross fit stuff isnt going to cut it.
It nothing but a high powered aerobics work out to me.

**championofnight** · April 6th, 2007, 08:50 PM

ya thats what i noticed too.
You see, i want both. I want to be in the single digits as far as bf% goes, and still be like 220. That is why im jogging roughly 20 miles a week, spread out over three cardio sessions. My plans are to keep on doing this, then just drop the cals after a certain period of time. Haha, this thread was about the negating the effectiveness of cycles. Did i just reinforce it there?

Madflabby · April 6th, 2007, 11:08 PM

I couldn't agree w/the original poster more. I'm naturally around 20% BF. High I know but I'm strong as hell. My last cycle got me up to 240lbs and i was benching 485 lbs. Anywayz yeah being a monster was great i was down to about 16% BF but never got where I wanted.

I currently run about 20 miles a week and still lift like I always have INTENESLY. I 'm moderately cutting calories and I'm really leaning out w/out losing too much strength.