Took my body to the limit today

[The Annoyed Man]

I have heard of bodybuilders working out so hard that the lactic acid buildup makes them throw up.

I had never actually experienced it until today.  At first I thought I was going to pass-out, then I felt chills, then I started trembling, and then I vomited about 6 times over the course of a minute.  Then 45 seconds later, I felt fine.

That is the weirdest thing I've ever experienced, and having been on a lot of medications and through a lot of surgeries, I know a fair amount about weird feelings! 

Anybody else ever have this happen?  I guess the best thing to do is when you start feeling the buildup, stop for a couple minutes and let it get absorbed before continuing.

I'm not a bodybuilder, but I have been working very hard since January to lose all excess weight and get "ripped" as my new years resolution was to look awesome by the years end.... "awesome" as in Chuck Norris himself would be proud.

So far I've followed through as I'm about half way there.

[Iain]

Dunno whether it is the lactic acid build-up that does it. Heard people say that as blood flows away from the muscles that have working and returns to the stomach, the stomach will sometimes vacate its contents. Never looked into it, other than to make sure that food is consumed an adequate period before heavy squat sessions, and it will usually be protein and carbs with little fat content.

And yes, I've thrown up more than a few times. Most frequently after a lay off, or after something obscene like breathing squats. Agreed that sometimes you feel a lot better after the vomiting, sometimes good enough to go back and finish. The real fun comes with heavy deadlifts/rack pulls and controlling the imminent passing out.

Now, I have the glories of punishment shuttle runs at rugby training to look forward to. They have a high degree of puke factor.

[alex_trebek]

Man I thought my lifting schedule was tough.  I have ran until I was fighting back vomit before, but not from lifting....

How much do you guys lift?

[Scout26]

Ned Hamford to the White Courtesy Phone please, Ned Hamford......

[BridgeRunner]

Yeah, that happened to me at judo a couple times, so general heavy workout.  Didn't think it was a lactic acid thing, but then I never really thought it through, was just focused on getting back into what I was doing. 

[The Annoyed Man]

How much do you guys lift?

Really not that much.  My legs are the only ones doing respectable amounts of weight.  So far I can do 1040 lbs on them (incline leg press - 10 reps), but this Friday I'm going to try 1125.  I don't do all my sets at that weight.  I usually will do under 900 lbs for the first 3 sets of 15 or 20 depending on how much energy I have, and then for the last/fourth set I'll take the reps down to 10 or 8 and do max weight.

The rest is relatively tame with the most I can do otherwise being only 245 lbs (straight military press).  Concentrated curls is 150 lbs max.... etc etc. (you get the idea).  I'm not doing as much weight yet as I'd like on upper body stuff.  My legs are just a fluke.  My upper body and lower body are for some reason not proportional strength wise.  For the record btw - all the max weights I listed are the same situation as above with the leg press.  For example for concentrated curls using a curved bar, I'll usually start at 90 lbs for the first set of 15, then 110 for 15, then 130 for 10 reps, and then 150 for 8 reps or something.  So, you get the idea.  I still have a lot of work to do, but I consider myself about half way to where I want to be.

I think today I just went straight through too fast and didn't take enough breaks.

The idea is to build muscle and do cardio so that the cardio will burn the fat, and the muscle will increase the weight of burning the fat, as well as just make me look a bit more.... manly I guess?  Wrong word maybe.

[Iain]

This is the internet, everyone can lift tons.

Cheese - you want to look more uh, manly? I'll put it like this - everyone I know who can actually military press 245lbs looks 'manly'. Most capable of a bodyweight military press look pretty manly. The guys who can actually curl 130lbs for 10 reps - well one of them was a Mr Britain several years back.

[Fjolnirsson]

I've done it a few times when I was actively doing Muay Thai and Jiu-Jitsu. Happened to quite a few of us, actually. Probably not very good for the body, but it happens...

[The Annoyed Man]

This is the internet, everyone can lift tons.

Cheese - you want to look more uh, manly? I'll put it like this - everyone I know who can actually military press 245lbs looks 'manly'. Most capable of a bodyweight military press look pretty manly. The guys who can actually curl 130lbs for 10 reps - well one of them was a Mr Britain several years back.

Not when they still have enough body fat on them to make the muscles not quite visible.  I can feel the muscle, but I still need to lose more weight for them to be visible.  btw - I weigh considerably more than 245 lbs. 

[Iain]

So how much do you weigh?

[AZRedhawk44]

This is a function of depleting the energy stores of your muscles.  Happened to me in college.

A friend of mine and I used to to martial arts, but we were both black belts out of practice.  We signed up together for a class and attended, pushing ourselves to the limit and beyond because neither of us wanted to be the first to give up.

We were both very ill that day and night.  His girlfriend took him to the hospital in the middle of the night from convulsions and vomiting.  I ached for 3 days straight... it felt like my muscles were torn apart.

There's a substance in your muscles called ATP (adenicine triphosphate) that reacts when flooded with calcium from neural stimulation.  This causes muscle contraction, resulting in heat and ATP oxidizing to ADP (adenicine diphosphate) and some other stuff I can't remember.

But the ADP is mildly toxic.  Also, when you use up all the ATP resources in your muscles, the neural stimulation results in protein breakdown, which is really bad.

Add to that the fact that he took ibuprophin for pain, and he was in terrible shape.  Ibuprophin has negative reactions with that form of muscle pain, I can't remember exactly, but the doctor said that acetaminophen was the correct drug to take for that particular situation if pain management was necessary.  I ended up taking no drugs, and he took a bunch of Advil which is ibuprophin.

[The Annoyed Man]

So how much do you weigh?

Depends on the scale.  I have one scale that says I weigh 277, and another that says I weigh 286.  One of them is wrong, and I don't know which.  The one that says 286 is a scale I bought recently by Tanita (I think is the brand).  It's digital and I bought it because it also calculates body fat percentage and water percentage.  It's weird, because when I started, I was 325 lbs back in early January, and then I got down to 260 lbs around the end of March, but now somehow I'm back up even though I'm still dieting.

The trainer says it's muscle weight, but that seems like a lot of muscle weight.  I think it may have something to do with water retention, because I started drinking diet soda again early June.

[BridgeRunner]

Add to that the fact that he took ibuprophin for pain, and he was in terrible shape.  Ibuprophin has negative reactions with that form of muscle pain, I can't remember exactly, but the doctor said that acetaminophen was the correct drug to take for that particular situation if pain management was necessary.  I ended up taking no drugs, and he took a bunch of Advil which is ibuprophin.

Something about the anti-inflammatory properties reducing the abilities of tissue damaged by overuse to heal.  It's recommended that runners avoid the stuff when dealing with pain from increasing one's workout.  I'm a newb runner atm, and I've been sticking with ice for shinsplints.

[The Annoyed Man]

The guys who can actually curl 130lbs for 10 reps - well one of them was a Mr Britain several years back.

Really?  Well, I guess that's kind of encouraging.

ETA: Was that isolated or not?  Keep in mind I do concentrated curls standing up, so usually when I get up towards my max weight, I'm putting probably more back into it than I should be.

[The Annoyed Man]

just checked.  Scale says I'm 37.9% body fat.  Maybe that's more helpful than my weight?

[Iain]

Our military press to bodyweight ratio is pretty much identical. You weigh a bit less than a 100lbs more than me though. Good luck with the goals, it's a big deal to drop that sort of weight, although my natural sympathies lie with those who have to gain good weight, I'm 45lbs heavier than I was when I started out.

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=TYfJuYQyyvo - that's the guy, owns my gym. 290kg is 639lbs.

Make sure you know the difference between a curl and a reverse grip powerclean eh?

[The Annoyed Man]

whoa.... that's impressive.  Maybe one day I'll be able to do that, but I doubt it.

Honestly though, when it comes to the different exercises, I know some, but I mainly rely on the trainer to tell me what to do.  It's kind of expensive at $45 an hour and I use him 4 or 5 times a week (depending on his schedule).  However, if I accomplish my new years resolution, it will have been worth it.

You weigh a bit less than a 100lbs more than me though.

That's why I say I don't look manly.  I look more or less like an massively overweight club bouncer at this point, if I shaved my head the look would be complete.

On the pro side, people don't try to start fights with me (I think because if I sat on them that would end the fight).  On the con side, I don't think I'll be appearing in GQ any time soon.

When I started college, I was thin - 165 lbs.  I looked pretty good, but I hadn't built up any muscle at all.  Around 2006, I weighed about 260 lbs or so.  The doctor pretty much told me that if I didn't lose weight, I was going to get type 2 diabetes.  So I joined a gym, but didn't know what the heck I was doing.  So, I hired a trainer back then and did the gym thing for about 6 months, but school got in the way.  I had built up a little bit of strength, but hadn't lost hardly any weight.  Then in mid 2007 when I weighed in at over 300 lbs, I realized I had to do something.  So I started doing bike rides and that's when I got into bicycling really.  However, I wasn't really dieting, so I continued to gain weight.  I made a new years resolution to lose weight as well as get "ripped" and went and saw a nutritionist in early January.  That's when I weighed in at 325 lbs.  The doctors had maxed out the meds they could give me to keep me from getting type 2 diabetes.... so I knew I had to get cracking ASAP.  Quite literally, my primary focus since then has been getting in shape.  That's pretty much what I've been spending all of my time doing since then.

I start a new internship with a large government law office soon (don't want to name which one so they don't find out that I am a firearms enthusiast).  However, I only plan to do 20 hours a week and will spend the rest of my time working out.  Other than that, putting together law school apps for this second round of applications is the only other thing I'm doing, and that only started 5 days ago when they started going online.

[Ben]

Obama has you guys all beat.

[French G.]

Yeah, he can lift weights with just hope!

[Ben]

Actually there was a bunch of blog stuff going around recently about how while he was in Germany a reporter claimed she saw him lifting 32kg dumbells, "curling them first 10 times with the right arm, then 10 times with the left -- what a man!" Nothing to do with him being President or not, but the whole "he can do anything" part was kinda funny. Curling a 70lb dumbell is usually reserved for guys who really work out. Seems a bit much for Obama's build.

[roo_ster]

Back when I had time to hit the gym regularly, I would always confiscate a wastebasket for when I did squats.  About 10-15% of the time I would push too hard and end up calling for help from "Ralph" & "Earl" into the wastebasket.  I would always feel better and get back to afterwards.

I lifted for power, mostly, and loved squats, deads, bench, power cleans, etc.  I hope to get back at it after the kids are in school and I can reclaim some of my time.

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

I've cycled to the point of retching and vomiting before.  Not sure if it happens to cyclists for the same reasons it happens to weightlifters. 

I've never done any weightlifting or strength training.  I should probably start, I have the exact opposite body type from Cheese.  I'm 6'3", 150 pounds, built like a flagpole.  No fat, but no muscle either.  Problem is, I absolutely hate gyms.  If I'm going to exercise and sweat, I want to do it outside in the clean air, in the open.

[The Annoyed Man]

Problem is, I absolutely hate gyms.

same.  I've built a gym in the garage, and am trying to transition over to using it with the same trainer.  There's some things I can't do at home though, like incline leg press, etc.

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

Problem is, I absolutely hate gyms.

same.  I've built a gym in the garage, and am trying to transition over to using it with the same trainer.  There's some things I can't do at home though, like incline leg press, etc.

That's an idea.  What's it take to build a usable gym in one's garage?

[Ben]

What's it take to build a usable gym in one's garage?

Willpower. I've tried avoiding the gym by working out at home, but truthfully, the gym motivates me to do gym types of exercises more often and more intensively than I've ever done at home. I'll choose running at the beach over running on the treadmill, but  Ican't get into weightlifting in my living room. Don't know whether it's for showing off for the girls or because I had to make the effort to actually go to a place, but I definitely get more motivated at the gym.