On my trips to visit family, the only Primanti Bros. I've ever had was at PNC Park. One of these days, I'll hopefully get a chance to try the real thing.

Pokey how about hitting a boxing bag? Quick upper body movements. Even just swinging in the air with few pound dumbbells. Bending up and down/side to side (with your torso not knees), you know the way boxers spar. That wouldn't be too hard on the knees I think. Your heart rate will go up nicely. Swing the shit out of them fists man. Coupled with the stationary biking that you are able to do and sit ups, you should be on your way.



ps post number 666

This post has been edited by Sonic Tonic: Jul 8 2010, 3:11 pm

indeed... a friend of mine recently gave up soda.. he was drink 4 - 20 ounce Cokes a day- he lost 9 lbs in 2 weeks!!

The ones at the ballpark & Heinz Field don't quite cut it like the 2 downtown stores.

I stopped drinking beer. I drink vodka now, mainly Grey Goose. Much healthier.

Whiskey is much better. Try Famous Grouse or Clan Mc Greggor. They are my fave mid-class drinks

Well, I'm not sure what kind of exercise you can do with your injuries and I'm not really sure what your goals are. I don't mean to offend you, but in your pictures from the TGF shirt thread you have the body habitus of someone with Marfan's Disease. It is unlikely that you have it, but especially given the propensity for a sudden ruptured aortic aneurysm, you want to get that checked out before you embark on any vigorous exercise.

I suspect you want to gain muscle since you don't really have extra weight to lose. Get in the gym and start doing the work. For upper body, do bench press, shoulder press, curls, rows, lat pull downs and shrugs. For lower body, do squats, leg press, calf raises and lunges with weights. Workout each half of the body twice a week with at least 2 days off in between working out the same body parts and with at least 2 days per week completely off. You will do this all for not if you don't eat to build muscle. You must eat a high protein diet, you must eat a decent amount of carbs an hour or two before you lift, and you must eat a sufficient number of calories each day. For someone your height which I'm guessing is around 6'6", you will probably need to eat 3,000 calories a day to even begin thinking about building muscle.

There's really not much more to it than that. You will have to get in the gym and figure out what works for you and you'll have to figure out what diet works best. Everyone is different and trial and error is necessary, but for the most part following the above routine will be a great place to start. Good luck!

I can't really comment on the knee pain without seeing you and even then I am not great at orthopaedic cases. To lose the belly fat, you have to lose weight overall. You can't "spot reduce" without lipo and unfortunately in people who concentrate fat storage in their abdomen, to lose the belly means to look like a stick everywhere else. However, you can get it down to a reasonable level following a low calorie diet that is well balanced and sticking to the exercise. There is no one diet that is better than another.

That said, if the goal is to lose as much belly fat as possible in a short amount of time, without regard to the long term goals, there is a best diet and that is Atkins without question. I have done the diet and seen lots of others do it, and if done right, a man under 40 can lose as much as 15 pounds in 2 weeks. If you do it right, which is hard to do, you will notice a very dramatic difference in those 2 weeks. Unfortunately, for reasons that are too difficult to explain here, this weight will eventually return, even without overeating, unless you continue to diet off and on.

To do Atkins right, you have to keep under 20 net carbs per day. This is a must. The diet is not calorie restricting and relies solely on putting your body in ketoacidosis to lose the weight. If you fuck up and eat more than the 20 net carbs, you will not go into ketoacidosis and you will not be calorie restricting, and could easily gain weight. It's a fine line. For reasons I don't know, stay away from products that contain artificial sweeteners because even though these are technically low or zero carbs, they fuck up the process. If it tastes sweet, do not eat it. Stick only to green leafy vegetables, eggs, and meat of any variety. No sauces except mustard or blue cheese dressing. No drinks except water. This is extremely hard to keep up for more than a few days, as you will inevitably start craving sweets even if you don't normally. However, if you do it right and can maintain it for 14 days, as I said above, you will see a dramatic difference quickly before your trip.

Atkins looks like the deal in the short term ... under 20 net carbs a day is hard. Been looking through shit that I have pantry and never realised how many carbs are in certain things. Do you know of any good links to places that have a good example of an atkins type diet over the course of a week or so? When you say no drink except water, would that exclude tea as well? I usually like tea with a drop of milk, don't drink coffee drinks, beer I can cut out easy enough, gonna cut the soft drinks too.

I'm also a bit of a retard when it comes to this stuff, with the fact that my metabolisim has been so good for all my life and I've been able to eat whatever I want and still look fine I've never really had need to pay attention to any kind of nutrional lables, which is stupid I know. When I see the lable and you have:

Energy, Protein, fat total, fat saturated, carbohydrates, sugars and sodium .. I think that's what most have. What are the ideal ones I should be looking at and how much of each would be my goal per day? Obviously you mentioned carbs and that's got to be under 20 a day ... still not sure how anyone does that without eating a solid diet of lettuce (andthe ? )

Also with the exercise I've been thinking I'll stick to the gym with a treadmill + bike combo. Hoping that 4-5 days a week in the gym with a 30-45min cardio work out will help too ... got a good tip that training yourself to run more using the balls of your feet can be better for impact/pain with your knees .. apparently a little difficult to get used to but once you get the hang of it you notice the difference.

First, about your knees: Typically, knees hurt either due to inflammation caused by arthritis, which is often a cartilage issue. Unfortunately, there is no way to get the cartilage back. Otherwise, if they say it is coming from another part of the body, they could mean that these other parts of the body are not taking impact and it subsequently gets put on your knees, or it could be a nerve issue where the hip or feet are not providing sufficient circulation.

As far as your knees go, there are many things you should try. I'll start with exercises. To give your knees more support, you are going to want to strengthen the muscles around it. Use exercise equipment/machines that target quads, hamstrings, and calves. Always keep in mind that when you are new to exercising any muscle, that you want to start out very light for a while, increasing your reps, long before you increase weight. You must keep the light weight for a while, because your tendons take much longer to strengthen and repair then your muscles. If your knees can handle it, use the machine that mimics squats as well.

Another gigantic factor is targeting your core. It is amazing how much knees can hurt even with 5 extra pounds around the core. Core is just as important, if not more important than strengthening muscles around the knees. You would want to as much abs and lower back exercises that you can do, it would be just fine to do this every workout, every day. Definitely do situps everyday, properly supporting and not straining the neck.

Cardio is also definitely needed to help burn calories and keep a healthy weight. The half hour of biking definitely helps, I'm sure it takes off at least a couple hundred calories. One good non-impact machine that will help with cardio and lower body is the Erg, or rowing machine. If your gym has a "Concept 2" use that shit every time. If you can manage to swim this is also great non impact cardio. If you do your light weights and many reps with your machines at a good pace, limiting breaks in between reps, this is also cardio in general, keep the heart working.

Always drink plenty of water throughout the day, if you are dehydrated, all workouts will cause you to digress. Wear knee braces. Always ice your knees after exhausting them. Perhaps take an anti-inflammatory, ask your doctor.

Always stretch after warming up. You should manage to stretch or loosen up everything from your ankles, calves, hamstrings, quads, groin, and hips.

Outside the gym, you need to think of your entire lifestyle. It is massively helpful to your cause if you provide yourself with the proper nutrition and sleep. Nutrition wise, you're going to want protein, when your muscles are healing, protein is the main repair. I am very skeptical about whey protein, and as of now believe there is nothing wrong with making protein shakes. Use protein in the morning, and 30 mins after your workout. Eat your veggies man. Eat your bananas for potassium, and other fruits. Aside from protein shakes, always eat real food, not processed food. Don't listen to a word about Atikins it is a terrible. Quality non empty carbs are essential for repair and energy, but don't let carbs run the show, keep protein in mind way more. Stay away from all soda and sugary juices. No smoking period. Very little alcohol if any. Stay away from excessive salt, which is in all cheese and so many other things. Drink water.

Get sleep, repair only happens while sleeping.

Lastly, your general disposition and attitude is a great factor in helping your cause. So much of trying to help yourself physically requires patience and self motivation. I can't express how it difficult can be to keep good habits, and to stay stress free. Stress produces all sorts of chemicals and hormones that do a great amount to prevent your body from processing protein, which will also create fat. It can be very hard to find the time and energy to accomplish your goal.

However, if you can manage to get into a good routine, the benefits are endless. Not only will your knees feel much better, but the quality of life can improve greatly, all metabolic processes will improve, you'll have more energy, more confidence.

Keep an eye on yourself and learn your rhythm, don't be discouraged if you get tired or upset, you will bounce back, just do what you can when you can. In the end its not about losing weight or getting jacked, just about being healthy overall and helping your joints through less inflammation and impact.

This post has been edited by Bremang: Jul 10 2010, 3:25 pm

Ex, thank you VERY much for your advice, I will for sure try it sometime very soon. About the Marfan you mentioned, for sure it is not me though.

Funny that is brought up, my friend has Marfan syndrome, weird affliction that I must say. It's funny how you can either go one way or the other, the sunken chest or the pidgeon chest .. he's got the pidgeon chest which coupled with near 7 foot height makes the guy look like an absolute scary beast haha

I myself got a pretty sunken chest, about 2 years ago I'd say my build was very much like yours Dimi, just don't put on weight the way I have

the treadmill will crush your knees. try the elliptical, i didn't mention it before because i personally don't like it, but others really like it. no impact.

Cheers for this dude, appreciated.

It's strange because I actually have quite a lot of strength in my legs. For someone so skinny (and yet fat) and haven't done much exercising my legs have always been really strong. But I have those horrible nobley knees ... the pain in them is hard to describe, it feels like it's not muscle, it's not a grinding pain and doesn't hurt unless there is impact. However from time to time, very rarely I'll get pretty crippling pain .. about 6 months ago I went to the cinema and was going up the steps to my seat at the back and my knee just fucked up mid step, I literally just couldn't put any weight on it .. then never had a problem with it since in that "out of the blue" kind of way.

So you think Atkins is a bit of a crock and Ex thinks it can work well .. would you agree with Ex that in the short term as far as getting results in an ASAP way that it's a good result getter?

I think once I do lose the weight i'll keep it off easier, it crept up on me over time without me really realising it, so now I want to keep a better eye on it. It's just been depressing looking at reccomended intakes of certain things in these diets then looking at things I have in my pantry (and I don't mean just junk food) and realising I can barely have any of it, if any at all... it's hard to know exactly what I should be eating. According to the milk I drink, one glass of it will be more than I should have for a whole day for carbs on the atkins diet unless I'm reading that wrong.

Thanks for the protein tip though, maybe some sort of protein shake or something is something I should get. Normally I do eat a lot of meat so I think I have quite a bit of protein in my diet.

As for cardio, "this couch to 5km" plan seems to be quite popular .. thoughts?

http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_3/181.shtml

Yeah that thing looks like the air walker thing I was talking about .. it actually hurts my knees more on that than on the treadmill strangely, which no one else I talk to seems to think. But whatever the motion is on that thing I get a lot more knee pain .. I'm not sure why this is as it's biggest point is that it takes pressure off knees.