This topic contains 19 replies,has 8 voices,and was last updated by 
Bryan (LIUP) 4 months, 3 weeks ago.
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What’s up everyone! I’m so pumped to announce that we’ve finally launched a full-blown Lean It UP message board + social support community.
Jump in and introduce yourself. I’d love to get to know you, learn a little bit more about your personal story, and where you’re headed.
I’ll be active regularly. Hope you’ll continue to swing by. From now on, I’m using this thread to answer any and all questions you have for or about me.
Start a topic and fire away. Have fun with it.
Bryan
YAAAY, IT HAPPENED, IT HAPPENED! I’ve been waiting for this ever since I found your site a year (ish) ago!
Guess I’ll be the first to introduce myself then. I’m Sylvi and I come from across the pond, aka Europe. I’d like to think of myself as nationless, since I travel plenty and tend to identify with a lot of European cultures. My passport says I hail from a tiny country called Bulgaria (we don’t bite, despite what people might tell you about us).
I started with weight loss after a pretty tough couple years and a total weight gain of 20+ kg (that’s ~44 lbs). One and a half years ago I moved from the popular trendy promising workouts to the gym and weights and since then I’ve went down 15 kg (33 lbs), build strength and burned fat. I’m still nowhere near where I’d like to be physically, but I’m getting there one workout at a time.
I mix in a dash of yoga and boxing here and there, as well as the occasional kettlebell workout or power plate one. My current goal is to build the strength and balance for a handstand and burn the last few pounds of fat that cover my abs.
Carnivorous and no way I could be persuaded otherwise, but I’m respectful of each and every person’s choices. I’m open to doing new workouts and trying new foods. Firm believer in doing this the natural way and currently taking a few essential supplements and trying to stay afloat with the busy schedule and healthy eating.I can attribute a few of my goals to Lean It UP and I can’t thank you enough for being so friendly every time I’ve asked a question on facebook or twitter. You’re my go-to for everything fitness.
If any of you feel like messaging me, go ahead and do so, I’m generally friendly and I’d like to have more friends (also Internet ones) with whom I can share my fitness victories and pains. Looking forward to making this a nice friendly forum place!
What’s up Sylvi! I’m so psyched you joined up (I recognize your forum pic from Insta). I absolutely love your story and your mindset about everything, it’s so similar to my own. Where’s your current home base?
As for the handstand, it honestly isn’t as hard as you might think. It’s much more about balance and technique than it is brute strength. Do it against a wall for practice and eventually you’ll get there (it’s a really cool accomplishment).
You got it! I’ll see ya around — this is just the beginning of something very exciting.
Bryan
Seems like others are kinda shy, though. Hope we don’t end up just you and me exchanging posts, haha. And yes, I have pestered you quite a bit, though not on Insta. Perhaps twitter, since I recently tweeted you.
I’m currently mostly in Austria, but I travel between Czech Republic, Austria and Germany quite a bit.
One of the trainers at my gym made me do a hand stand just like that, telling me exactly the same thing. I know it’s not as hard as it seems, but I lacked the strength to support myself (upper body was pretty weak) and my balance is still a little shaky every now and then. Thanks for the support though. Ever since I saw one guy doing a hand stand outside the gym, I wanted to do it to show off at summer outings (shallow goals are still goals)
It’ll grow, these things take time!
Three quick training tips — prioritize your shoulders, triceps, and core stability (think standing shoulder presses, military presses, and standing triceps extensions; planks for your core). If you can press weight above your head, you’ll eventually be able to support yourself. Strong triceps help immensely, too.
It’s not easy, but you’ll get it.
Working on those. I’m at about 40kg (that would be about a 108 lbs I think) when doing the military press, but my hands are shaky by rep 10. My triceps are kinda weak, but getting better and I’m also going for a lot of push ups, pull ups, walking planks and the lot. It’s just a matter of time before I get to the handstand.
Wow 40kg, that’s seriously impressive. You’re closer than you think, keep it up.
*Awkward third person to join the convo but hey that’s cool*
Hey I’m Jess, a 21 year old presently living in New Zealand/Middle Earth/probably the most picturesque countries in the world. I’m a full time student at my local university, as well as working in the hospitality industry as a receptionist/bartender/barista part time.
My journey started out about three years ago after returning from a 5 month OE in London and Europe and naturally kinda got fat from drinking way too much. Adjusting back to life in NZ I joined the local gym to not only find a way to channel a lot of mental problems I was going through but to obviously start loosing a lot of my fat that I had magically gained. Spent quite a while doing a lot of cardio and some resistance training trying to find a body I liked again - and it sort of worked - I shrunk a dress size within a few months. From there I was on and off at the gym but not making any real progress. Then I got motivated again and several months ago I somehow stumbled across Lean it UP and the “newbies workout plan” and found a love for free weights. I suppose the rest is history from there on. I have always struggled to loose a lot of weight around my middle and needed something that was going to do it - building muscle has become the most logical answer for me.
Strength training has given me a new outlook on life and a way to push myself in so many new ways. The last four months have been pretty big training-wise really getting back into it (its become an addiction now) and also cleaning up my diet BIG TIME. Currently on Novembers WOTM combined with boxing 1-2 times a week and watching a lot of fat slowly shrink away - lost about 1-2cm each week over the last three weeks and just getting started
I have dropped down from a 90kg size 16/18 (US 14/16) to a 77kg loose size 12 (US 10) which is smaller than I was even in my teenage years, and I won’t lie my weight has been closer to 85kg even in the last year (stress eating four blocks of a chocolate in a week is not ideal). I may not be as small or as strong as I’d like to be yet but everyday is a new chance to prove it to myself and work a little bit harder. Once upon a time I couldn’t even do a full pushup, now I can do 8 in a row on a good day, and 30 sec plank-struggle has now turned into a 1min 20sec average.So my goals? I want to see myself under the 20% body fat range one day, sitting at around 27% at the moment. I’d love to be able to show the boys up on the weights floor, but also prove to women that fitness isn’t just cardio, there’s so much more than that,and you don’t need supps and all that jazz to do it, just some motivation, a preparedness to get sweaty, and no hesitation to break a few walls down in the process.
Hope to see you guys round
Hello Jess ^^ I hear you on the 20% body fat, I’m at 23 and aiming to go down to 20. It’s not easy, but we’ll get there!
I’m Andrew - A graphic designer / art director / fitness lover.
I’ve been working full time since college graduation for 8 years, lost my way and time for fitness… now I’m back in the saddle.
I found this site about 6 months ago. I visit a few times a week and read all articles. Lot’s of good information.
My questions are…
Should I be comfortable buying All Max Hexapro powder? Is it good stuff?
I’m don’t eat a good breakfast. Usually 1 serving of yogurt. What should I add to it to keep my protein intake high?
I’m looking to stay lean, build muscle - get cut.
My thoughts…
In terms of User Experience of the profile. It would be cool to post picture of progress as we follow your WOTM’s. I been following November to a T. Not skipping leg day!
Best, and Happy Thanksgiving.
Andrew
*joining as the fifth wheel.
I currently am living in Okinawa Japan, originally from the U. S of A. and found this site I want to say three or four months ago and have been impressed with the work outs I’ve been able to pull from here and the nutritional knowledge. My questions are, and all are free to answer:
I am incredibly active for my job and because most of our down time is spent doing something active or getting hammered because of the lack of activities on the island. I lift every single day, with the basic isometric splits i.e back and bi, chest and tris, leg day is twice a week. I log anywhere between 15-35 miles a week running (I keep my miles to a sub 7 pace) and swim in either the pool or ocean two or three times a week. I know what you’re thinking, that this is too much to see positive results or that my body doesn’t have time to heal, but just for discussions sake I need help figuring out what my caloric consumption needs to be to continue to burn fat without causing my body to go catabolic and start burning muscles as a energy source.
All input would be awesome, thanks!
Hey Gabriel — thanks for joining, awesome to have you. To make this more manageable, I addressed your question in a separate topic in the General section. It’s up here.
Hey Andrew — really glad you found LIUP, as always, thanks for stopping by. Look forward to seeing you around! I followed up with both of your questions in this thread, just to separate things out.
Awesome idea with the images for the UX. We’ll add that to the “build list.”
Hope you had a great Thanksgiving!
Jess — HOLY SHIT, that’s amazing progress in such a short amount of time. Above all else, I’m really happy that you found a passion and drive for strength training. It’s really empowering (and the results are pretty kickass).
Should I be worried that you’re going to show me up soon?
Keep kicking ass girl, I’m so impressed, your attitude is totally on point. You’ll hit that 20% soon enough. Push yourself to get a few pull ups, too.
Hey, hows everybody?
I’m Miguel, I’m currently living in Spain.
I need some help on organising my workouts, cause I workout Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, and I’m thinking on doing leg day on Fridays, however, I don’t know how to plan a leg day (which exercises should I do, and how many sets and reps…), so it would be great if you could help me.
I would appreciate if you could give me some tips on how to organise my Saturday and Sunday, I was thinking on Saturday doing upper body (Abs, Chest, Back, Triceps, Serratus, Biceps, Triceps, Delts, Obliques…), and then on Sundays doing a some squats or leg press, then abs, push-ups and finally some back exercises.
What do you think?
P.S. Thank you very much for creating such a wonderful blog, really motivates me
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