I have recently added Creatine and am wondering, from those that have been on it, does the GI upset improve with time? I'm currently taking 5g daily for 1 week.

Same. I'd say try it for another week or two and see if it continues. If not I'd say the benefit isn't worth that.

How many grams are you taking? I've never taken more than 5g at a time and have never had issues. Been on it for about 15 years now and is essentially the only supplement (outside of vitamins and whey) I take and think is worth taking. The data absolutely validates that too.

Ditto - take a tsp every morning, mix with a little water, and down it everyday for about a year - zero issues.

Maybe try cutting what you are taking in half?

I'm kind of half assing the loading right now, and doing 2 servings of 5 grams. But I've just taken a heaping teaspoon (approx 5 grams) for years.

I really don't notice it helping all that much until I get to the point where I'm really pushing myself with the weights. I'm coming off a layoff of like 7 years, and I didn't start back on it until I had "warmed up" on all my lifts. Really, there's no reason to not take it while strength training.

5 grams. Never any issues but I've always tolerated everything well as far as GI goes.

Back in the late 90's I was cycling it and doing the big 20/25 g loading phases each cycle since I didn't know any better back then. Never had issues with that dose either.

Thanks! I push through for a week or so and if it persists may try 2.5 g split morning and evening.

wtanner said:

---

Thanks! I push through for a week or so and if it persists may try 2.5 g split morning and evening.

---

I had taken creatine for years with no problems. Awhile back I started taking 5g/day and it gave me horrible indigestion that lasted for a full day. I started to cut it up to 2.5g 2X per day and that seems to work. So weird why it now gave me horrible indigestion.

To my older lifting buddies whose joints are hurting a little more than they dogs when we were in our early 20s: what are you all doing to stay healthy and avoid injuries? I always warm up with light weights and stretching, but it seems like some injury is always nagging. Anybody got an off day yoga routine or anything like that?

I haven't had anything linger too much lately. Most of my issues are related to my lower back, which usually tells me my form is off/I'm lifting too heavy and need to deload to a point where my form is more locked in.

I usually start with the bar and work up to my working sets on my compound lifts and that warms me up enough for any secondary lifts I'm going to do.

Honestly, I'm to the point where this is a marathon and not a sprint and if I feel like I don't have it one day, I just go for a walk. I'd rather wait and get in a good workout than feel lethargic and get in a halfass one.

I am 43. I just really try to warm up and never try to do too much too fast.

In my late 30's (up until I gave up the commercial gym for my garage gym during the Covid BS) I was doing a couple of yoga classes per week. Enjoyed it but also felt like my own stretching routines were just as effective.

My wife (same age) actually does way more intense lifting than I do. She does a lot of CrossFit and competes very regularly. She is super dedicated to doing daily stretching and "physical therapy". Most evening I'm on Texags and she's on the floor doing some recovery routine.

I'm 51 and broke down because of my own devices... Now I just do strong man stuff - functional training and never lift anything over my head.

Life get's weird when you get old. I feel like I tore my achiles at the upper most part. I have no idea what happened. I think you just get to a point where you know you are going to hurt and try to avoid it.

I'm also in my early 40s, and my warmups are surprisingly short- and I think it has a lot to do with doing full range of motion resistance training. I'm able to remain pretty flexible simply by doing that.

I also spread out my volume of training over the week

Like others mentioned, it's a marathon- I want to have a routine I'm able to keep up with for decades more, even if the volume of training starts to dip. I've been able to maintain a good degree of muscularity from my 20s and still keep adding onto it now in my 40s

I'm 42, and 2 months back into the lifting game. Got a shoulder that's bothering me on barbell bench,and tore my meniscus in April. So as far as avoiding injury...lol.

Anyway, the biggest difference I have from youth is that I don't do a lot of volume with my squats and deadlifts, and I do my deadlifts on a trap bar instead of sumo now. I try to do 2 warmup sets on squats, and then do 3x8 or 3x5 and that's it. 3 warmups on deads, and then 3x5. I rest a good bit more than I did in my 20's and don't do a brazillion auxiliary exercises. I know from past experience where I can use auxillary stuff to strengthen my key compounds, so I stick to 2 or so per workout.

In my 20's I'd prolly be doing bench anyway, but now in my 40's, I'm ok doing bench+flys on a cable machine (DB's would be awesome, but I'm working out at home and DB's over 50 lbs get stupid $ in a hurry) instead of being stubborn with it like I would have been.

Other than that, I prolly just take a little more time between sets than I used to, and never do a key lift when I'm sucking wind.

I've been lifting for about 20 years now (I am mid 30's) and have made quite a few changes since I hit 30.

• Form - Almost everyone has bad form on a lot of their exercises but don't know it. Learn proper form
• Sleep - this is more about recovery than anything but 7-8 hrs of sleep has helped me get stronger than I ever have been
• Stretching - not just going through the motions but understanding what, how, and why you're stretching. I follow squat university stuff on YouTube and its really informative! Especially when things aren't always what they seem, i.e., shoulder pain might be caused by tight lats
• Less is sometimes more - I don't bench heavy every week anymore and am about to stop squatting heavy every week. I alternate between bench variations and volume being high one week and low the next.
• Make a plan/Follow a program - figure out what your goals are and plan accordingly
• Listen to your body - if something hurts, you're doing something incorrectly, you have an injury, or you're not physically prepared to be doing it at that point in time. The whole "grind through it" mentality of my 20's is over...
• Diet - eat better and limit how much you drink. Alcohol starts to have a bigger impact on your body and recovery as you get older.
• Research/Study - never get complacent. Look for new ways to workout, new programs, and read more about new techniques. Complacency kills growth and its really easy to get complacent with your workouts

I am sure I am missing a couple of things but that's about it for now.

I'm about to get into lifting at home for the first time. I'm planning on rolling with Starting Strength for now, so I'll have a half rack, barbell and weights, and a flat bench. The one thing I don't think I have covered is flooring. I'll be in the garage on concrete, and rack is a Rogue HR-2 that doesn't need to be secured to the floor. Do I need a platform for the whole thing? Something that's just a platform and extends into the rack for the bench? Just a deadlift platform or mats? I can't seem to find one good/best answer on that piece.

I have tractor supply horse mats in my garage gym and they work great

Agree with horse mats, but if you don't want that $ commitment just yet, you can pick up some pretty cheap foam flooring that should cover enough for doing deadlifts if that's your concern.

I started with bumper plates so was able to do it on concrete floors in the garage till the weight got heavy.

Do you have enough that everything sits on top, or do you only use them where you're putting weights on the ground?

I have my entire two car garage covered in mats from tractor supply. I could not be happier with it. It wasn't cheap, but the flooring is perfect for a home gym. I have my rack secured and bolted to the concrete through the mats. A platform would be awesome, but I just did not want to have that in my garage. I thought it would be a tripping hazard and get in the way of moving large items into an out of the house through the garage.

I have 6 in my garage. Covers about half the garage and they're under squat rack and also under machine I have in garage. I'll snap a pick about to start workout in there.

For what you want to start off with a simple DIY Deadlift platform would be my suggestion. I used 3 sheets of plywood and one stall mat. It's super simple and cheap

2 sheet of 4x8 plywood laid down to make 8x8 square with third sheet on top in the middle. Make sure the seam in the bottom is perpendicular to the top board. Then cut stall mat in half and lay on either side of the top board. Metal mending plates can be used to secure the stall mats to the plywood. There is a 2x2 hole since stall mat is only 6ft. I just put a 2x2 section of ply there by the rack. Don't need rubber there. Keep the mats on the front of the platform away from the rack for deadlifts.

I have been doing a hypertrophy style workout for about a month now, taking a little break from Stronglifts/Madcow style lifting. Using this as a chance to lose some weight as well.

Is anyone else just ridiculously irritable when trying to drop weight while still training? I find that just about every morning I'm already grouchy and I'm not much better during the day. My sleep hasn't changed much. I am trying to lose about 2 pounds a week.

I have never experienced that. I tend to train in 12 week cycles. I didn't really consciously intend to do it that way, but I find I kind of hit a plateau, either mental or physical after about three months. I actually always feel really good when I change. Does it matter whether I go from hypertrophy to strength or to just more HIIT.

Could be something else?

Been lifting off and on for probably ten years or so. Messed around with different protocols in that time but mostly sticking to strength-focused compound movements.

Just started back up after a few months of laziness. Doing the Leangains reverse pyramid training. Most of what I've done over the years is kinda like this. Been back at it for about five weeks and ramping up into the right weights.

I've found my proper weight on overhead press and chin ups. Still probably a few weeks away on bench, deadlift, and squat. Just no need to go too high too fast. So right now I'm adding weight every single week to most lifts.

Diet has been very good but the scale isn't moving much at the moment. I've also never been eating this much protein before so I'm confident I'm losing fat but adding muscle. Lifts are going up every week so there's evidence to support this theory. I just bought a suit that does body measurements so I can watch that and see if I'm dropping inches in the right spots.

I'm tracking everything. Biggest indicator I'm watching on lifts is what I'm calling demonstrated relative strength. It's my 1RM equivalent from my first set divided by my body weight. Imperfect but easy to measure. And the Leangains site has some good benchmarks for key lifts so I have something to work towards. Squat is lagging (but rapidly improving) but everything else is at a decent spot.

CC09LawAg said:

---

I have been doing a hypertrophy style workout for about a month now, taking a little break from Stronglifts/Madcow style lifting. Using this as a chance to lose some weight as well.

Is anyone else just ridiculously irritable when trying to drop weight while still training? I find that just about every morning I'm already grouchy and I'm not much better during the day. My sleep hasn't changed much. I am trying to lose about 2 pounds a week.

---

Most definitely when I was cutting my calories severely while still trying to add volume to my lifting

I solved it by increasing my calories so I was only in a slight deficit, and just prolonged the time that I was eating in a deficit so I lost the weight slower.

It might also be worth trying to eat at maintenance and focus on your increased lifting volume- you should be able to recomp a bit and will visibly lose fat even if you're hovering around the same weight. But if you're > 20% BF at the moment, then yeah eating in a deficit is probably gonna help the fat loss as well

I had been holding steady on weight for awhile doing strength training, I felt like I was in a pretty good groove - I just know from experience that if I am trying to lose weight and still do 5x5 style workouts, I make zero progress.

So I figured I could do some hypertrophy while cutting about 20 pounds...I guess I've just been surprised with how consistently it has affected my mood. I also started doing some running, so I think my body just may be fatigued. May need to play around with the volume and rest I am giving myself.

Deputy Travis Junior said:

---

To my older lifting buddies whose joints are hurting a little more than they dogs when we were in our early 20s: what are you all doing to stay healthy and avoid injuries? I always warm up with light weights and stretching, but it seems like some injury is always nagging. Anybody got an off day yoga routine or anything like that?

---

I turned 59 a couple months ago. I always walk at least 1/4 mile, lift MWF (bad L4-L5 joint) - Nothing that puts my back in compression and chest/ back always supported ( bench/ floor).. Tuesday and Thursdays I stretch, especially my hamstrings. Started riding a Peloton bike a few months ago. Up to 10 miles. I learned to listen to my body more now. If something hurts, I may decrease the weight or change it up some the next work out.

Deadlifts used to mess with my back a little, but recently switched to doing one at a time and haven't had problems since. I'd always pause between each one, but now I literally step away between reps and completely reset.

I also agree on walking. I feel like I can tell a huge difference when I walk my dog after I get home vs when I shower and go straight to work.

I have very limited experience with yoga. Once upon a time I was doing it for about two months and then stopped. I immediately noticed a dropoff in performance across the board when I stopped. I've never gotten back into it, but I think it has to be SUPER good for you.

Starting back up today. I got a vasectomy about 5 weeks ago and decided to take a break from lifting after that. I was able to get back to pretty intense exercise soon after the procedure but I was doing mostly body weight stuff and HIIT on the Assault Bike along with some rucking with a weighted vest.

I'll be doing a version of Max-OT in my home gym with continued HIIT and rucking. I may sacrifice some gains because of that but I'm ok with that.

I'm getting back on my strength routine after a month and some change off for Hypertrophy/deload/having a baby.

I was actually surprised by how quickly my body felt like it lost strength but then it seems like it bounced back just as quickly. I'm hoping the time off from strictly lifting heavy will be a good springboard to some gains.

Finally able to join this thread. I'm 3 weeks into Starting Strength. The super easy improvements on squat and deadlift are about to slow down, and I really have a long way to go on my upper body, but I love the simple approach to gaining strength with movements that utilize multiple muscle groups.