What do you think the following workout does to hormone levels

Field Reports & Anecdotal Experience Men's Pheromone Advice & Field Reports
21

It’ll get you a little tone, but not that much. Not what you’re wanting, I suspect. Although if you keep the cardio up so that the abs show through, that may be enough.

I have two suggestions for you.

  1. Reverse crunches. These may be done lying on the floor or hanging from shoulder harnesses. You draw your knees to your chest instead of bringing your chest to your knees. No neck strain.

  2. Ball crunches. Sit on one of those big inflated balance balls (no, it will not pop under you :wink: ) several feet in front of a wall. (You’re going to have to play around to see how far in front of the wall.) Now slide down the ball, letting it roll under you, until your lower back and butt are on the ball and your toes are resting against the wall. Your butt will just barely be hanging on. Lean back and rest your entire back on the ball, for a good stretch, then resume the position you were in when you first got your toes on the wall, and do crunches from here. The ball will help support your spine, you will get a KILLER ab workout, and I find little neck strain here because you’re already in a partly sitting up position.

Why do ball crunches give a killer ab workout? Because you’re using ALL core muscles to balance yourself ON the ball while doing crunches. You can also do oblique crunches after the regular crunches and pound 'em. DO NOT overdo this technique at first because your abs WILL feel it the next day!

22

Thanks for the advice ! I will try it! If these two exercises work for me without neck strain I will be very happy and grateful for your help in alleviating my pain!

dsouza

23

Not a problem, and glad to help. :slight_smile:

FWIW I’m recovering from major surgery myself - the linnea alba between my abs (the valley down the middle of the “six-pack”) was sliced about from top to bottom, to get as big an opening into my abdominal cavity as they could. Wasn’t allowed to lift more than 10lb (e.g. 1 gal milk) for the first 2 mo. then it went up to 20lb for 4 more mo. (Risk of herniation; the linnea alba isn’t muscle OR tendon, it’s just connective tissue.) You don’t wanna know what-all they did to stitch it back together, or how much it hurt when I woke up. Suffice it to say that having every muscle from the bottom of the rib cage to the groin suddenly lock up in full spasm, with that much stitching and stapling in it, was not fun. (Staff don’t like for patients to scream in the recovery room either.) :eek::rolleyes: Anyway.

Trying hard to get my abs back into some sort of shape now, and I’m using the very exercises I’m telling you to do. For one, I used to play polo and I had a horse stand me on my head once when she fell out from under me, so I have a tweaked cervical spine. For two, not having any abs for 6mo means my back is seriously, SERIOUSLY, pissed :mad::mad::mad: at me. Having spinal support when I’m doing ab work is essential or the whole mess’ll go on me.

I’m now up to doing crunches holding a 10lb plate, which ain’t too shabby for 3 month’s work. MY problem is that I have to do some serious cardio to peel away the fat that accumulated - it was a kind of faux pregnancy - over several years’ time from the hormones. Body wants to hold onto that, and it’s being stubborn. I keep telling myself patience, patience: It took me 3 years+ to get into this shape, it’s gonna take more than 3.5 months to get out of it.

But dangit, I WANT IT NOW! :wink::stuck_out_tongue::rolleyes:

24

If you want to train with heavy weigh, i would suggest you use stronglifts 5x5 system. You can get it for free at: StrongLifts.com: Gain Strength And Muscle While Losing Fat

You train 3 days a week, starting with low weigts, adding 5 pounds every workout, so, in a couple of monts, you start lifting pretty heavy.

You only need to learn 5 exercises: squat, deadlift, bench press, overhead press and bent over rows. It´s a simple system, very down to earth.

I´ve been using a bodybuilding system this year, with good results, but after summer holidays, i´m for sure starting stronglifts 5x5, as i want to work on my strength. I gave it a try last year, but my training partner was not strong enough for keeping my rithm, so we only used it for about two monts. After all the heavy workouts we have been doing this year, he will be ready, and we are planning to be really consistent with it, at least for 4 monts in a row.

Go take a look.:slight_smile:

Talk to you soon.

25

Squat - eliminated for someone with bad neck, bad back, or bad knees. Use leg press instead.

Deadlift - eliminated for someone with bad back or bad shoulders. Use back extensions instead. (Can hold weight plate if body weight is too easy.)

Bench press - should be okay. Use a spotter for heavy weights. Dumbbells are good to start because of the need to coordinate working extra muscles.

Overhead press - be careful if you have bad shoulders or a bad neck.

Bent rows - eliminated for someone with bad back or bad shoulders. Use seated rows on a machine instead.

This program may be modified so that dsouza could use it, as I pointed out. However, it sounds like he’s not looking to lift heavy every day. Or even, possibly, that he should. I can’t say more than that without having met him and evaluated him. I don’t know if the program includes supplements; don’t have time to check right now due to leaving for the gym myself in a few. There used to be a program called Cybergenics, which had supplements along with a killer workout program. I personally ended up severely overtraining on the Cybergenics program, and I don’t know if dsouza needs further supplementation; sounds like he’s close to where he wants to be already and just needs to fine-tune his workout to add heavier weights once or twice a week.

26

Ouch. A couple of weeks ago I started doing overhead press with the dumbells, 17.5kg (about 35lbs) each without any warm-up. I couldn’t turn my head for next 4 days.

27

I find heavy shoulder workouts screw up my damaged neck too, aggravating the muscles around it. It seems I’m working with an injured body for years of weight training, mma, and other injuries. Top that off with the fact that I had a job as a computer programmer sitting at a desk 8 hrs a day for 20 years ( you know what that does to posture) , and in recent years developed acute bipolar syndrome and its a tough call all this weight training. Seems my body has to recover from weights, get enough rest to recover daily from stresses of acute bipolar, and also the joints have to recover.

Which leads me to believe heavy weights is out of the picture for me completely.

So here’s the scoop with my current change of workout habits. I do weight training as I spoke of before, I get horny now, I pop boners, and that all seems good EXCEPT:
a) I am exhausted all the time and all I want to do is sleep
b) I am irritable, tired, and not sociable because my MIND is exhausted too (this doesn’t help bipolar)
c) The sleep at night that is supposed to help my illness recover is being used to build muscle tissue instead. This doesn’t help my mind.
d) I’m eating more, making me more tired as my digestion is working more and I’m having a harder time losing my fat stores.
e) I am having less social interaction with women than before, even though I am hornier now. This reminds me of my 20’s. the horny guy who could pop boners all the time, and was built like a bodybuilder but didn’t score much but when I did I almost always got laid pretty fast. The boy toy in my 20’s.

I am thinking the workout above reminds me of TUTH if we use an analogy. It is sexual but has limited scope. Kinda like a male whore or strippers workout.

When I was doing kettlebell training I was full of energy, has tons of interactions with women, all kinds of mones worked on me without OD, I eat less, had a toned and chiselled physique and as an analogy passed as a sexy guy something along the likes of a celebrity or musician instead of a fucker – like the AMMO signature which appeals to many women. I also needed less sleep. My mood was better. My posture greater. My enthusiam and abillity to reason and think even clearer.

I think this is an aging issue. If i was 20 and doing the latter kettlebell workouts I would still have high enough test to fasciliate erections. Is there anything wrong with being a cardio machine and just resorting to drugs like viagra or cialis when the time is right? What happens when your test is low aside from not walking around horny?

For some reason I have a stigma associated with drugs like viagra. I feel a man should not need those things (I’ve gotten laid on 1st and 2nd dates when I was younger) but as I am 41 I am beginning to question whether I need to reevaluate what comes with this decade of life.

Do most of you guys in your 40’s use drugs like these when it comes to sex? I guess there is no harm in popping a cialis with dinner – how hard could that be? Gets expensive though.

Also since mones attracts women in their 20’s for me, the problem is I can pass as a 30 year old, and if I was in shape and lost 20 lbs I would pass as a 25 year old. I wonder if telling them I am 41 is a smart idea or If I should say I’m younger? Is there anything wrong with lying about ones age? ANy way to deal with the question without resorting to lying, and also without stating my real age?

I was thinking as responses to the age question: “I’m legal, how about you?” LOL
Or “I’m old enough to know better than to tell you my age” LOL
or “I’m old enough to be your daddy, but then again, that may just work for us…” (kick in the nuts after this one). LOL!

dsouza

28

don’t tell them how old you are. If they ask, make them guess :smiley:

29

I was in a car accident that skewed my hips (and subsequently my spine) and resulted in some minor surgery on my L. wrist two years later (the surgeon was an ass), and I dislocated my R. shoulder when I was 15. I’ve been lifting weights in some form or another since I was 11 (for PE, soccer, track & field, etc.).

The best ever program I got into was 2x/week: 310, 38, 36, 44 for two weeks each, always increasing weights. (Each day had alternates of the similar exercises, e.g., romanian deadlift and incline dumbell overhead press one day, deadlift and bench press the other.) Then the next series would be 310,8,6, 38,6,4, 3*6,4,3 for two weeks each. Then back to the beginning. When I started I could barely manage a few reps with the bar (15kg); after a year, I was pushing 45kg on bench, deadlifts, squats, etc. – free weights, btw. (This might be my plateau due to my injuries). All of these I did in superset/circuit style that worked as low-impact cardio too. (I also have exercise-induced asthma.)

I lucked into this as it was a community class on campus. (Rarely more than 3 people would show up. :smiley:) It was taught by a certified personal trainer who was the Weight Coach for campus teams (school of 40,000; idk what “class” that is). He was also a Kinesiology grad student specializing in Sports Rehabilitation. He modified exercises to minimize aggravating my injuries, but strengthen them as well, and developed a unique workout for me. The other lady in that class was a Kinesiology grad student specializing in diagnostics and Injury Rehabilitation (the early stages, like post-surgery). All that for $3/hour.

What I’m saying is, find a specialist, not just a “certified” trainer, if you have injuries, and work with them. Maybe you need a couple times a week to start, but after that once every week or two should be enough. I know women don’t “bulk up” but I was definitely rebuilding my arms and shoulders (I already had issues with tight sleeves on shirts thanks to my biceps) and I lost inches according to my clothes.

During this time I was able to give up the bi-weekly rehab massages as well as physical therapy, so my costs went down. My energy and umm, “drive” skyrocketed. I started biking 9 miles RT to school 3 days a week, and needed less sleep but could do more. And I was always happy.

30

Also, the “bodybuilder” physique/mindset can be off-putting. Some guys are like inverse-anorexics, always thinking they’re too skinny. And they lose flexibility both in body and in schedule – can only eat certain things at certain times, must go workout for hours. Bulky is not sexy. :stuck_out_tongue:

31

I agree with ScienceStudent. I only EVER work out 3 days/week at MOST, or I overtrain and have the symptoms dsouza talks about, with the addition of my immune system going into the toilet. Which means I catch whatever bug is currently going around, but good.

My current diet is heavy on protein and veggies, low to nonexistent on carbs. I’m getting stronger post-op, and slowly - SLOWLY - losing body fat. (I have a problem you don’t: I’m in surgical menopause, and body fat produces estrogen, and a menopausal body LOOOOVES estrogen, so it hangs onto fat for all it’s worth.)

At this point I would strongly recommend you see your physician to see what’s up with your testosterone production. I can only tell you so much at a distance and without an evaluation, and I’m not a physician in any event, just a certified trainer.

32

Thanks to all who replied. People are so helpful on this forum.

dsouza

33

Boudicca,

I gave your workout routine a try and its working well except for my last day. I did shoulders and I stayed away from presses because of my bad neck. I just did rear deltoid machine, and side laterals with weights I could handle for 10 reps.

I noticed by nighttime my neck is stiff as glue. I have very little mobility in it and its making my face tense too.

Any tips on how to get around this? I really like to work shoulders to some degree and avoid trap engaging exercises like shrugs etc but still to no avail.

It seems like I can’t turn my head very well at all and its the next morning now. Is this just stiffness? How can I get past this. A stiff and immobile neck doesn’t make for a Don Huan know what I mean?

dsouza

34

Let me think about this one for a bit and I will get back to you. But let me ask, just to verify - are you SURE you’re using good form? Sounds like you could be “cheating” and tensing your neck to help raise the weights, in which case you’re working TOO heavy. Just my first thought. I’ll give the matter some more thought too.

35

Ok side laterals - if we’re talking about the same exercise (which isn’t always the case as some people call them different names) - are still gonna engage the traps. (I assume you’re talking about dumbbell flies to the side, to work the medial delts. If not, please advise.)

That’s where the neck stiffness and soreness is coming in. If all it is is muscle soreness, and you’re getting even distribution on both sides, it should not affect the spine. It does say you need to back off on intensity, which correlates to either speed and/or weight.

Just because you can “handle” a weight at 10 reps doesn’t mean you need to be doing so.

See if you can find a machine to do the same as the side laterals, and use it at the same weight. A machine isolates the muscles more than free weights, and will keep you from injuring adjacent muscles, or from “cheating” the weights up. If you still get a sore, stiff neck, then it is indeed the exercise. If you don’t, then there’s something about your form in executing the move that is causing the problem.

Bench presses and incline benches should be ok, btw. Your head and neck are supported there. Just no overhead aka military presses.

Re: neck problems in situps and crunches, most people get that because they’re not supporting their heads properly. I spread my hands out into a cradle for head and neck, point my elbows out as far as I can, and lead with my chin. That makes for good form and no neck problems. If I get lazy on it, my neck gets sore too. Still and all, those other variants are probably best for you right now.

As to getting past general stiffness, that’s usually caused by a buildup of lactic acid in the muscle. I always found that using either Alka-Seltzer or just straight baking soda and water provided a nice chemical buffering of the lactic acid, and minimized soreness. It can (because of the sodium) also cause some water retention. This can be minimized by, e.g. using 1/2 of 1 tablet of Alka-Seltzer; drinking plenty of water for the following 24 hrs, etc.

These days I LIKE the soreness. It tells me I’ve worked my body, and it feels sort of good in a way to be sore, because I was forced to be an invalid for so long.