I am very grateful for all your help John and for you being so patient with a lot of my questions. Hopefully one day I can gain just as much knowledge as you. With me I believe the heart palpations came from scenes in my life recently I have been seeing. My uncle recently dying of Congestive Heart Failure, Grandpa now dying of Alzheimers, and my Grandma and Grandpa having strokes in there life. All this has happened in such a short amount of time of me living here in Georgia taking care of them that I guess after seeing so much sad events in a short amount of timeI just couldn't take it anymore and pretended to be strong. I kinda just kept seeing myself in there positions for my future and thats most likely what triggered my stress.

 

1) I see what you are coming from John about all the heavy metals being injected into the blood stream due to tattoos. Me personally I always viewed Tattoos as something that looked cool on a personal level for that one person. Sometimes in my life I think about getting a Tattoo but then I remember all the side effects that comes with tattoos and I just always choose to go the other route. Thanks for your input John!

 

2) Right now for my Fat loss I am starting my mini cut this upcoming Sunday and only planning on being on it for a month the longest because my current body fat percentage is 16.8% and I would like to bring it down to about 11-12% before starting my mini cut. See me personally I know my body is very sensative to carbs and what I want to try is lower my carb intake pretty low and see how that works for me. Currently starting Sunday I am planning on keeping my carbs at 100g and keeping my protein high and fat moderate and see how it works. After a couple of weeks if I start to feel pretty weak I will probably take one day out of the week for a refeed.

 

The calorie cycling really sounds like it may work but I am just a bit nervous that it may not suite my body type well. I am not a naturally skinny guy to begin with and I know my body is prone to holding onto to fat easier than many people which is why I have to watch real close how my intake is and what foods I am choosing for myself. Also the amount of water weight that must come with carb cycling seems like it might cause me to think its not working as well.

 

3) I will for sure keep this in mind John once I get this blood test. Hopefully everything turns out good but who knows I may very well need to supplement the Vitamin D3 and if thats the case then no big deal.

 

Once again John thank you for all the information and your kind informative insight on this matter! Appreciate it

1) My uncle has a lot of tattoo's. See with me when it comes to the tattoo's I honestly really enjoy how they look and the reason why I wanted one was because my family members who died recently. I would of gotten a tattoo resembling who they where and what they did for this family. The reason why though I never went and got a tattoo is due to what you said contracting hepatitis C and my fear of contracting HIV. EVen though those risks are very low I just do not like the idea of there being a risk and thats why I never got one. Well contracting Hepatitis C will suck but paying that much for a cure is just way too much. Jeez ill be in debt for ever.

 

2) See with me I am not sure what works for me just yet. Of course its only been three days on this mini cut so far and I havent see much change but I'm hoping this will help. My body struggles to lose the body fat compared to some people which sucks. THis is why I am not sure which way is best suited for me just yet. I've seen some people lose tons of body fat on a high carb plan while me I doubt that would work. I think what I am going to do is start adding in some HIIT training three days a week to see if that helps with the body fat percentage. The Keto diet seems like it may work for me when it coems to cutting and I will look into it, I'm just nervous about going that low on carbs because I know thats our fuel source. Like you said the first couple of works will be teaching our bodies a different way and our bodies relearning to use fat as fuel.

 

3) I will for sure remember this John and always let you know what my levels come out to be.

 

4) John I been really trying to squat lately and the only way for me to get into a squat is to put 45lbs bumper plates under my heels but see I do not want to keep doing this for rest of my weightlifting career. My lower body has always been really tight and no one in my family has ever been flexiable and I am not sure if it is possible for me to become flexible but I would like to try. My biggest issue is my ankle dorsiflexion. When I try to push my knees forward I get a bad pinching/blocking pains right in front of my ankle and in the middle of my foot. Basically feels like a metal wall preventing me from moving my knees forward. I tried banded resistance training for about a week know and nothing really has changed. Just was wondering if you had any advice for me how to really increase my flexiability if it is possible and how to sustain it because it seems like after I get done strecthing about 30 minutes later I get super tight again.

 

Thanks John

https://cdn.consumerlab.com/images/products/WHC-BoneHealth-Small-2017.jpg

 

WHat are your thoughts on this supplement for Vitamin D3?

Yes sir Okay no problem.

 

This is actually a look at my new current meal plan starting Monday with a Push/Pull/Leg routine

 

 

Meal One                                               Protein             Carbs            Fat

- 1 Ezekiel 4:9 Tortilla:                                 6g                   24g              3.5g

- 3 Large Kroger Eggs:                               18g                   0g               15g

- 6 Tbsp Egg Whites:                                  10g                   0g                0g

- 1 Cup Cooked Kale:                                   2g                   7g                0g

- 3/4 Cup Diced Peppers & Onions:             0g                   5g                0g

- 148g Fresh Onions:                                   1g                   11g               0g

- 124g Fresh Banana:                                  1g                   30g               0g

                              Total:                              38g                 77g             18.5g

Meal Two

- 4oz Jennie-O Turkey Breast:                     26g                  0g                1.5g

- 2oz Dececco Linguine Spaghetti:               8g                  40g               1.5g

- 3/4 Cup Diced Peppers & Onions:              0g                   5g                  0g

- 2/3 Cup Mixed Veggies:                              2g                  11g                  0g

- 30g Almonds:                                              6g                    6g                 15g

                                          Total:                   42g                  62g                18g

Meal Three

- 4oz Kroger Chicken Breast:                       21g                   0g                 2.5g

- 1/2 Cup Cooked Black Beans:                    9g                   23g                  0g

- 1/2 Cup Cooked Brown Rice:                      4g                   35g                1.5g

- 2/3 Cup Mixed Veggies:                              2g                   11g                   0g

- 78g Fresh Carrots:                                      1g                    7g                    0g

- 30g Almonds:                                              6g                    6g                   15g

                               Total:                              43g                  82g                  19g

Meal Four

- 4oz Kroger Peeled Shrimp:                        23g                  1g                     2g

- 1/2 Cup Cooked Brown Rice:                      4g                  35g                   1.5g

- 138g Sweet Potato:                                     2g                  23g                    0g

- 2/3 Cup Mixed Veggies:                               2g                  11g                    0g

- 93g Asparagus:                                            2g                   4g                    0g

- 30g Almonds:                                               6g                   6g                    15g

                             Total:                                39g                  80g                  18.5g

 

Protein: 162g

Carbs: 301g

Fat: 74g

Total Calories: 2,518 Calories

Sodium: 794mg

Potassium: 2,580mg

Calcium: 65%

Iron: 94%

Vitamin A: 530%

Vitamin E: 75%

Vitamin K: 37%

Vitamin C: 24%

Zinc: 5%

Dietary Fiber: 43g

Sugars: 25g

Magnesium: 60%

Cholesterol: 670mg

Saturated Fat: 8.5g

 

I really hope my sugar levels, Cholestrol levels, and saturated fat levels are not too high. I will also be supplementing with a multivitamin and a Vitamin D3.

 

Thanks John and I believe this will be the last post so I will stop annoying you.

 

 

Im glad to hear sir,

 

My plan is to stick with this meal plan during my whole six month lean bulk and see where my body is at that point and then I will check my blood panels. I feel like this will be a good start and at the six month mark I can figure out what to twerk and what not too. The pasta is actually spinach pasta and its thin. It is certainly not white pasta that I am eating and I know bodybuilding.com recommended this form of pasta but it seems to not be working for me then I will switch over to the whole wheat pasta.

 

John this may sound crazy but I was actually wanting to start up my own peronal training business on the side and was wondering if you had any ideas on how to start? I wated to make a website for myself but see I never started a business before so I am not really sure where to start. I know a lot of people at my gym always asked me if I ever did personal training and I said no but now I am really considering it.

Okay I will try and get in contact with Scott. Thanks John.

 

This crossed my mind the other day. Freezing foods and cooking foods that day. I know a lot of people like to cook there foods the day of where with me I cook it all Sunday and freeze them for the week. I would take out the meals the day of that I am eating.

 

What I wanted to ask you is will this help preserve the nutritional value of my foods if I freeze them or is this slightly harming the foods? I've just noticed that recently as I have been freezing and unfreezing my foods some of the spaghetti has been getting kinda stall and wont break up. Just wondering if this is a bad idea to keep freezing. Thanks John and hope you had a great holiday.

Thanks John,

 

I was just worried because it seemed like everytime I finished microwaving my food it came out spongy and just didnt seem as good as it should of been but I'm going to try and decrease the amount of time it requires to heat up.

 

I did want to ask you about a new training plan I am trying to figure out if it can workout. What I mean is currently I am in a lean bulk phase trying to build up my chest, traps, legs, and shoulders but I also want to complete three marathons in my lifetime mainly before I turn 30. The three marathons I want to complete are the Boston, New York, and Honolulu marathon.

 

What I am trying to figure out is how I should structure a running plan with a workout plan. I talked to a guy who is a runner and he was telling me in a nicer way that I am way to big to be a runner and I would need to lose weight to really complete a marathon and it was honestly making me mad but I let it go. I don't see why I would need to have to choose one over the other in order to complete three things off my bucket list. Like yesterday I tested my running just for the heck of it. I wanted to see how fast I could run a mile and I tested this after years of not really running. I completed a mile in 6:01. Now I know thats not something to brag about or freak out about but I thought that was something to be proud of as a starter point and the fact that I didnt push myself to an extreme with it because if I really did push myself I felt like I could of hit 5:30.

 

My question is would it be possible to do both? Can I make a structured plan to do both? I was planning on running three miles every other day three days a week. Every two weeks if I feel like the 3 miles are getting easier then I increase it another 1/2 mile until I am able to complete 15 miles. What are your thoughts John? My goals before I turn 30 is to complete an Ironman, 3 Marathons, a Sparatan Race, and a Tough Mudder.

Hey John,

 

1) What do you mean by cooking defrosted food the old fashion way? I am not sure exactly how this is done and I apologize if this is just dumb. What I do is I meal prep all my food Sunday for the week and put them in containers. I then proceed to put them in the freezer and only take out the meals I am eating that day. For example on Monday I will take out the three containers I will eat for that day in the morning. I always cook my breakfest though.

 

2) That was my biggest concern with wanting to start marathon training. I was worried that I would need to dismiss my muscle mass. See with me what I have noticed with my body is I do not gain muscle at a rate I like. It took me a couple years to bring up my chest and I am still no where near what I would like my chest to be and I do not like the idea of having to basically rid all my hardwork for a one day accomplishment if that makes sense. I feel like after my marathon training I would need to start all over at square one with my muscle building and I just personally would perfer not to do that. What I did notice from my MyfitnessGenes test is I had more red twitch muscle fibers and according to the test I do not have a lot of white muscle fibers for the strength which i have noticed. For example my bench press is considerablly weak for what I look like but no matter how hard I try to increase it I just cant get pass 3 reps at 225lbs. Does not really phase me though due to I focus on muscle building and not trying to lift as heavy as possible.

 

Everything you said made sense and of course me being a natural lifter will be very counter productive and how you wrote it out makes loads of sense. With me I personally want to put on muscle mass rather than train for a mararthon. I'll be honest when I say that the marathon for me was for my own satistfaction and a bit of bragging rights but I just dont want to throw away my muscle in order to accomplish a one day thing if that makes sense. What I personally am switching too is riding those off my bucket list but keeping my sparatan races. I plan on competeing in a sparatan race this year and I am actually really excited for it. I feel like I can still gain lean muscle mass and train for the sparatan race and tough mudder.

 

You did mention though when we choose for the muscle building routes we lose benefit of cardiovascular health. When doing this how can I keep my heart health up to par with minimal cardio? SHould I still do cardio about 2-3 times a week?

 

3) I did want to ask you about your supplements sir because I know from what you told me you only take Vitamin D from what I understand. Currently I have been doing a lot of research on fish oil and how taking too much can cause a decrease in blood pressure. The reason I bring this up is because a few months ago I was noticing at certain points of the day my blood pressure would decrease like 80-40 or 90-60 and I never once felt any symptoms of it but now I personally think that is due to my fish oil intake. I take that pill once a day. The reason I am posing this qustion is due to my supplementaion. I want to get rid of my fish oil and start adding regular fish to my diet like salmon or cod for one of my meals. The only thing I am nervous about is that when I cook the fish and freeze it for the week and reheat it, the fish wont work that way. I may have to cook the fish that day. I read that regular consumption of fish is better for hear health.

 

I wanted your view on this. Is taking a regular 1,000 IU of Vitamin D daily along with a multivitamin more than an enough for supplementation? I just want to focus on my heart health and gut health as much as possible. I know on consumer labs they recommended staying between 15-20ng for Vitamin D but I know you said more. Whats your view on this John?

1) I understand. I would just like to clarify this, you recommend not using the oven really for anything? Example would be chicken, recommend cooking chicken on a stove too? If so I am most likely going to cook all my meals that day and only meal prep my meals for the two days I go to work. I feel like this would be a bit better for me to an extent. I might do a trail and arror with it for the week and see how it goes. I am not really sure. I just want to really bring my meal prepping and food planning to the next level.

 

I did want to ask you HotLogic mini microwaves. They are mainly used for ambulance drivers where it allows the employee to plug the it in like a car charger and it heats up the meals. Do you think this is a safe way to heat up food when riding an ambulance? Its really hard to eat my meals any other way and it kinda forces me to have to eat out those two days a week and I hate it. Just wondering if you had any input on it. Here is a link to the site if this would help understanding what I am talking about sir.

 

https://hotlogicmini.com

 

3) This is my current supplement that I am taking. https://labdoor.com/review/whc-unocardio-1000-vitamin-d-1000

 

I know when I used to take this back in the day along with a very well balanced meal plan, thats when my cholestrol levels where really good like I shared with you. I never really tested my cholestrol after that and I know I need too. I ben trying to find the best supplements for me and what I need in order to feel what I used to feel like. For over a year now I been getting like a mid level pain in my stomach all the time that would come a go but whats really been bothering me is every little movement I do would cause my heart to go into palpations and beat pretty hard. Its never happened to me and I just do not know if this is a sign of a future problem or what. It just concerns me is all seeing that heart disease runs in the family. Like I can just been sitting down and get random palpations, basically like a throbbing beat that accompanies stomach minor pain and nausea. This is always bad in the morning but slowely gets better as the days go on. I've had holter monitors done and an echocardiogram and then only thing they found was sinus tachycardia and a very mildly dilated right ventricle. Other than that I was told its fine and my lower stomach has a very strong pulse if I push in on it which makes me nervous about my aorta too. Thats why I guess I try and find what I am doing wrong.

 

This is the multivitamin I take as well. https://labdoor.com/review/kirkland-signature-daily-multi

 

I personally am considering of getting rid that WHC pill and just find a nice Vitamin D pill and will focus on including one fish meal daily. I do not think shrimp is as high as regular fish.

 

Thanks John and I really appreciate you being so nice and informative with me. Really do appreciate you.

I also forgot to mention sir that I do all my research with ConsumerLabs and a lot of the stuff they recommend with Vitamin D3 is staying between 15-20ng. I know you do not recommend this and to stay higher. Why does consumerlabs recommend these levels?

Thank you again sir for replying back to my post.

 

1. Yes sir I never once ever prepared my food alone by just microwaving it. When I first stated meal planning and prepping I’ve always every Sunday bought my food in the morning and once I got home started cooking it either via oven or pan. Sometimes even both. I would always boil my vegetables, potatoes, black beans, and potatoes. I used to always cook my chicken in the oven but recently started to switch on and off from the pan to the oven and my fish dish is always my last dish of the day so I cook that the same day in the pain with olive oil. In the upcoming weeks I’m considering buying the heater for the ambulance to try it out and hopefully it works out well because that would save so much time. I appreciate you taking a look at it sir.
 
2. It’s been a struggle honestly because when I first started working out it was never a problem. I never felt it or dealt with it so it never crossed my mind honestly until about a year ago I started getting constant heart palpations from the slightest movement and it really started making me worry because I was nervous that I might of damaged my heart somehow from working out (crazy I know). That’s when my doctor wanted to do a holter monitor on me for 48 hours. What the cardiologist found was that I had sinus tachycardia but only when working out or from what he can see from the results because he did ask me if I worked out with it on which I did and I did a leg workout.

 

With my leg days it is usually the worse for some reason. Always on leg days I’m always breathing really heavy and fast trying to catch my breathe while getting the heart palpations and a fast heart rate. I always worried that I might be coming down with something or damaging my heart but I was diagnosed with sinus tachycardia and was told that’s a normal rhythm, just a fast one. Till this day every leg day is always the worse out of all my workout days. My heart seems to really get taxed on these days and I’m worried that I am making my “mildly dilated RV” worse or maybe even putting to much strain on my aorta because a Triple AAA and heart disease or my two worse fears of getting sadly.
 
3. Yes sir I will and I appreciate you making me aware of this. I did want to ask you about enzyme supplementation. I heard that rejuvenzyme is a great supplement to take for these reasons.
-Lower blood pressure

-Slows aging
-Decrease allergy symptoms
-Creates antibodies that attack autoimmune disease
-Improves circulation
-Takes strain away from liver by assisting in body cleansing
-Helps lower LDL
-Reduces inflammation

 

More specific just systemic and digestive enzyme supplementation. What are youth thoughts on this?

 

Hello John,

 

First I would like to apologize for me not responding back in quite a few days. I got side tracked with college classes starting up and me actually slowely starting to put together a personal training business. I did want to ask you a question regarding programming and creating one when becoming a personal trainer.

 

When it comes to creating a workout program I always use Excel. Anyways I wanted to ask you regarding RPE, precentage based programs. See I am somewhat a little new to this but I have been studying it a bit for the past day and half. From what I understand with it Intensity of a workout would be classified under the RPE scale and volume of a workout can be regarded as a precentage.

 

RPE standing for rating of perceived exertion. Basically what I understand from it is lets say on a program it says Deadlifts for 1x1 at a precentage 100% and a RPE of 10. This is a perfect example of going for a PR or testing out a max.

 

RPE 10 is maximal effort and 6.5 is almost effortless. As the scale goes down it becomes easier while the higher it requires more effort. Example would be an RPE of 8 which simply means finishing off the exercise knowing you had atleast 2 more reps in you.

 

Anyways I know you are a very smart man and I gurantee you understand these very well. What I wanted to ask you is my programming because I am a bit worried that it is impossible to make or I may be overdoing it.

 

I want to make either a 12 week or 24 weeks program consisting of gaining strength and hypertrophy. Its basically a hybird of powerlifting and bodybuilding to an extent.

 

The way I am laying this program out is as follows

 

Heavy Lower

Heavy Upper

Rest

Light Lower

Light Push

Pull

 

It basically is a upper/lower body split mixed with a push and pull day because I could not figure out how to make a push, pull, leg strength and hypertrophy routine without it going 8 days instead of 7. I personally did not like that.

 

Let me right down how I am kinda looking to do with it and its not by any means concrete. This is all sample and just trying to wrap my head around how I would like to do this.

 

Heavy Lower Day

Squat 5x5 80% 1 Rep Max RPE 8

Deadlift 5x5 80% 1 Rep Max RPE 8

Exercise 3

Exercise 4

Exercise 5

 

Heavy Upper

Flat Barbell Bench Press 5x5 80% 1 Rep Max RPE 8

Standing OHP 5x5 80% 1 Rep Max RPE 8

Exercise 3

Exercise 4

Exercise 5

Exercise 6

 

Rest

 

Light Lower

Squat 3x10 65% 1 Rep Max RPE 7

Deadlift 3x10 65% 1 Rep Max RPE 7

Exercise 3

Exercise 4

Exercise 5

Exercise 6

 

Light Push

Flat Barbell Bench Press 3x10 65% 1 Rep Max RPE 7

Standing OHP 3x10 65% 1 Rep Max RPE 7

Exercise 3

Exercise 4

Exercise 5

Exercise 6

 

Pull

Row Exercise

Pulldown Exercise

Row Exercise

Pulldown Exercise

Bicep Exercise

Bicep Exercise

Rear Delt Exericse

 

Then I would repeat the same thing for week 2 and 3 but for week 2 4x3 and the % would be 86.3 at an RPE 8

and week three 5x2 and would be 93.90% at an RPE of 9. Then week four would consist of a deload week and then you repeat the same thing and deload again the fourth week.

 

WHat do you think of this? Is this too much or am I overthinking this? I am really nervous because this is my first legit program and I am putting my heart into it and really want to put out something great. This of course would be considered an intermediate/Advance program.

 

Please John let me know if you would change anything or any advice. Thank you so much sir.

Thanks John for the kind words. While I do agree competely with you that each workout program will need tweaking for each individual this program believe it or not will not be for "clients." I actually have a seperate excel sheet that is specific for my clients. This program I am currently working on actually consist of those four compound exercises. Flat Bench Press, OHP, Squats, and Deadlifts and then for the accessory work is up to the people who bought my program to choose what exercises they prefer to do. What I mean by this is on the very first page I will have a whole list of muscle groups that are incoorapted into the workouts and all the person needs to do its click on the arrow and choose what exercise they would like to do. Example is for the chest flyes. You have the choices of a cable chest fly, pec dec fly, dumbbell chest fly, low cable crossover, and incline dumbbell flyes. All the person needs to do is choose one that would like to perform for the routine. The reason behind this is because I understand that certain people prefer dumbbells over cables and like wise.

 

The only thing that I am currently a bit stuck on with compeleting my routine is how I want to set up the progession schemes. Meaning how do I want to do mesocycles, macrocycles, and microcycles.

 

From my fitness genes test they did not exactly tell me my muscle fiber but did say that my body responds best to low volume higher intensity training which leads me to believe I am more white fiber then red fiber because if I understand this correctly. My body seems to respond better to strength training. More specifically rep ranges 1-5 with higher intensity (weight).

 

I really appreciate you John and see with me I think it comes down to me looking for the "perfect" set up which causes so mcub stress on my part. I always understood the strength and hypertrophy with the different muscle fibers but it was creating a routine in trying to incoorprate both types of training that led me into a but of confusion if that makes sense. I am just not sure if I want to make 3 seperate blocks. Example is on the first block it would be a hypertrophy phase and then block two a strength phase and then block three a mix of both.

 

 

Hey STEMJeff,

 

Appreciate the kind words sir and im glad all the information from this thread has been helpful and fascinating for you. Hopefully you took what I took from this whole thread which is simply there is no size fits all to cure anything or prevent anything. If you had any questions don't hesitate to ask because me and I am pretty sure I can speak for John as well on this, we both would have no problem and would be glad to answer any questions you may of had regrading our past posts on any of the subjects.

Well let me first off by saying I feel like a complete idiot for misreading that the first time because I was training majority of the time like I was red fiber dominant and now I can only imagine what my progress would of been for the year if I had read it right the first time and tweaked my routine to that standard.
 
For the training program I am actually currently setting up the training with the start of a hypertrophy phase followed by a strength phase. I’m personally thinking about setting up as a 3 month hypertrophy phase with the compound movements ranging between 8-12 reps and then the last three months a strength phase with the compound movements ranging 3-5 reps or lower.

 

John I think I was misunderstanding the Mediterranean lifestyle when we were originally talking about all this at the beginning. I was reading online about this lifestyle and it’s not a vegan lifestyle but it’s pretty close to it. What I mean by this is the pyramid is setup basically with majority of our foods coming from vegetables, fruits, beans and really anything plant based. Then the second part is fish and seafood followed by almonds, walnuts or any form of nuts. After that it says poultry and dairy but in moderation. The way they described the moderation is simply by intaking eggs no more than 4x a week and chicken less than 2x a week. This standard to me seems a bit like a vegan diet but I want your take on this sir. I usually have chicken once a day In one of my meals along with one fish meal everyday and then lunch is plant based and my breakfast always consist of eggs. What’s your thoughts sir?