Squat rack. There are bumper plates I could use. I put the safety rails on super low (otherwise I hit them on the way down haha) so that made me feel a bit better. I've never practiced dumping the weight.

@livetodiscover I've known lots of lifters who practice dumping weight while squatting on purpose so they know what to do when they fail during a working set. If you're more upright in the hole just throw it back. If you're leaning forward try the nose dive. More dangerous but better than blowing out your back, knees or hips. I'd put those rails as high as I can; just short of where your 'hole' is.

@kmdskit3 yeah I put the bars right below my hole. It's just I go really low haha. I guess I do it more like a powerlifting style squat, if that gives a good visual.

Edit: the immature part of me is laughing at the phrasing of my first sentence. Lol

@livetodiscover Yeah I know. The 15 year old boy in me wouldn't stop laughing about the 'racks' and 'holes' too.?? I did eventually get him to shut up. By powelifting stance do you mean wider foot placement, hips farther back with your upper body leaning forward? If you have pictures from the side and behind that would be great.

@kmdskit3 hahaha. I should probably get pics and video next time I try anyways for form check. I do a bit of a wider stance, feet pointed out. High bar. I used to do low bar squats but went back to high bar cuz...I duno actually lol. I go down below parallel.

@livetodiscover Yeah I'd like to see a picture of your squat form.

Yeah, part of my cutting now is doing intermittent fasting. Or time restricted eating. Whichever it technically is. I eat after noon and don't eat after 8 or sometimes earlier. I actually tend to do it even when not cutting but it really makes cutting easier for me lol

@livetodiscover Well I know you can get away with training and nutrition strategies most can't but you might want to rethink your cutting strategies. If you go longer than about 2-3hrs without food, especially protein, your body switches over into catabolism. In other words it tries to store bodyfat and not use it while giving up muscle tissue for fuel. This was a great survival strategy for our ancestors to make it through periods of famine but doesn't work well if you have ready access to food, are trying to increase or at least maintain muscle mass and get lean. What works better is macronutrient manipulation. Less carbs or less fats or just less calories overall. More frequent, small, protein packed meals is what pretty much every strength or physique athlete follows; especially cutting for a contest.

@kmdskit3 I am doing the fasting for more than just exercise reasoning. I also take BCAA during that time to help with the catabolism issue. I will absolutely not lower carbs specifically unless in the sense that my calories are lower so they will be lower too as a result. I have been keeping fat as minimal as possible. Fat is good since it's necessary for things such as hormone production, but I keep it very minimal and only from whole food sources if possible. Basically I'm shooting for 60% carbs, 20% fat and 20% protein. Trying out these percentages and seeing how they work for me. I don't believe in cutting completely any macronutrient strictly from a health standpoint since they are part of the body's 6 essential nutrients (Fat, carbohydrates, protein, minerals, vitamins, water). I care more about my health than getting a competition ready physique (especially since I'm not actually competing and just want to get some muscle definition for a vacation lol). Im also very anal about micronutient consumption also for health reasons. A lot of those come in the form of "carbs" so more reason that I love "carbs" (I hate that word probably like u hate "core" haha)

I am also, when I have free time (haha) trying to understand from the molecular level what is going on in various metabolic processes. For instance, the different metabolic pathways and such. I need to up my biology game before grad school because I'll be doing biological physics but am just getting a physics bacelours. So....thats kinda my side hobby now. It's tough because there is so much info out there and I'm trying to find it from the mechanistic level and really get the science behind it. I think a lot of stuff that works for physique people has been this guess and check game but there isn't like a solid science to it yet. I wonder if some things that people think are necessary really are, or if everyone keeps doing them, like the macro cutting thing. Maybe it seems to work because everyone does it but maybe they would have got cut anyways just because of the calorie cutting alone. I wish I could find harder science on all this. I guess that's why right now I am experimenting with myself a little bit. A one person experiment is crap. And so is a two person one, but my partner with vastly different genetics than me, is also using my methods. We shall see....hahaha

@livetodiscover That is so cool. The best articles in my mucle mags were always the ones written by folks with the degees who were also serious lifters/physique athletes. You will have a much better perspective than just an academic. This is one field were the science is frequently behind the experiential knowledge of the community. Anabolic steroids, lo-carb diets, carb loading were all things the academic researchers got wrong at first. I'm not saying science was wrong; I'm saying the scientists got it wrong. By the way there is a pile of research showing how efficacious lo-carb and even ketogenic diets are for fat loss with most people. BCAA''s are an incredible supplement but expensive as hell. How many grams are you taking during these 'fasting' periods (by the way you're really not fasting if you're taking BCAA's) . You'd probably get more bang for your buck having a decently high protein meal during these 'fasting' periods. George Farah is an ex-bodybuilder who currently coaches bodybuilders and has pretty good success with BCAA supplementation. Us muscleheads usually focus on grams of protein per day ( .75-2 grams of protein per lb of bodyweight per day) and then manipulate carbs and fats to maximize muscle mass and strength and minimize bodyfat. There's also a lot of research supporting that too. Your macronutrient ratio would be more common for an aerobic athlete but there is a lot of variability among people.

@livetodiscover Also you talk about one and two people experiments and that is an accurate categorization. However these one and two people experiments have been replicated and going on for decades. Like I said, sometimes the scientists have to play catch up. I really hope we keep this conversation going while you're in school. I would love to hear what they're teaching you.

@kmdskit3 I think you're right about my fast not being a true fast because of the BCAAs. I'm using the term pretty losely right now. I normally do intermittent fasting (with actual fasting lol) when I'm not trying to cut weight, but I do it for other reasons. Right now I'm loosely doing it out of habit and because it makes it easier to eat less calories haha. I have been thinking about doing a 3 or 4 day fast (water fast) with my partner but am nervous as I haven't done one before lol.

Unfortunately, physics doesn't help with biology (yet lol). So lately I've been going back to the fundamentals and seeing if I can get the basics down before I have to take a crash course from hell in grad school. I was studying up on metabolism today (anabolism, catabolism, ATP, Krebs cycle- which they used a fancier name for that I have since forgotten lol). I mean it when I said fundamental.

@kmdskit3 this is how basic I'm going:

@livetodiscover Being the mesomorphic freak that you are you'll probably do great with all this fasting. Me and most others would fall into a catabolic chasm. You've talked about needing to know the science behind some of the things I've said, well what does the science say about the health benefits of fasting?

@kmdskit3 (sorry in advance for length lol)

Here is some information about the type of intermittent fasting or “time restricted feeding” as it is called in this research, that I follow. Yes, one of the links is youtube but it is an interview between two actual researchers (whom are awesome!) and if you watch it you will see it’s not just some pseudoscientific internet ‘doctors’ talking out their behinds. Yes, it’s long but it’s well worth it, I put the youtube video to start where they talk about time restricted feeding.

A big note about eating within a certain time interval is that any non water food source that is ingested will start metabolic processes, so yes, that includes any “xenobiotics” like plain coffee, herbal tea, etc. A lot of intermittent fasters think that black coffee will not break their fast….this is why earlier you were right that taking aminos during my ‘fast’ was not fasting. Nope I was not technically following a true fasting schedule. Now I’ve gone back to a more strict time restricted feeding schedule which is first sip of coffee (black) at 8 am and I try not to eat past 4 or 5 to give me an 8 or 9 hour window.

This is why I did my 60 hour water fast recently (was supposed to be 72 hours but had to break early because of work situation).

[news.usc.edu]

To be honest, I am still trying to understand if there is truth behind the whole anabolic vs. catabolic states as described by bodybuilders. I mean this as how it is claimed that you can be in a catabolic state where your body will eat your muscles to a significant amount. Here is my take on this: It would not make much evolutionary sense for our bodies to have developed this system of energy storage (fat) just to in a period of famine, eat our muscles which would be useful in us being able to find or hunt for food. Granted, sometimes science is counter intuitive...but why would our body do this? Yes, muscle tissue can get broken down for energy, I'm not saying it doesn't, but I question if the amount is significant. "Gluconeogenesis" I think is the process I think where this can happen. (need to check on that). From the little bit of studying I’ve been doing on metabolism lately, our bodies seem to be constantly switching between catabolism and anabolism. Catabolism is what happens everytime the body needs to break things down. So when you eat, this is catabolism because your body is breaking down nutrients. So, I don’t know if I agree anymore with the idea that I used to be told in the fitness world that our bodies can be in a strictly “anabolic state” or strictly “catabolic state.” Especially, since it seems through this time restricted feeding research that there was an increase in lean muscle mass. I am still trying to learn about this and understand it further as losing muscle is a concern of mine since I’m a lifter too lol.

Thank you!