Muscle-mass, working out, testosterone and acne

[fictor]

Just to update on my training routine:
I did the 10x10 isolating exercises up until recently. I maintained my weight and experienced some increase in strength and some
muscle growth (mainly the smallest muscles, like biceps and triceps). I maintained a muscular body, but seemed to lack "posture"
and supporting musculature around my waistline. Also, my chest muscles was lagging behind.

Just recently I upped my prtein intake a little, with no adverse effects on my skin. A few weeks after increasing protein intake, I
changed all my iusolating exercises for compund execises and larger movements. I continued to work out every day, one exercise
per day, and ten sets of ten reps. My exercises are; squats, deadlifts, push ups, overhead press, pull down and seated rows. I have
done this for almost a month now. My skin has been very good, and I have experienced increased muscle growth and at better posture
and symetri.

Yay!

[dime]

I'm doing pretty much the same exercises for the past month (3x a week): squats, deadlifts, overhead press, bench press, rows, chin ups, dips. Confirming it works very well!
Tip to newbies in compound barbell exercises like these: start with small weights until you learn to do them with proper form. It's easy to injure yourself with some more weight and bad form in these exercises.

[fictor]

Still no bad reaction in my skin! Just the usual odd pimple and a few blackheads now and then. Same as with isolating exercises.

One warning though: 10x10 squatts gave me an inflamation in the achilles tendon after a feew weeks. I am going to do 10 reps for
this exercise, but ju 4 sets, once the inflamation goes away. Same for deadlifts.

I will report back if this gives me any negative ractions, skin-wise or other.

[dime]

Uh, 10x10 sounds like too much volume for squat! No wonder you got inflamation.

What I do is start with higher volume with lower weights (to warm up basically), and slowly increase intensity (add weight) while decreasing volume, until I finish with a max weight for 1 rep. In total it's around 50-60 reps.
For deadlift you should do much less than this, 10-15 reps max, because you can do heavier weights than squat and so it's much more taxing.

Btw, 50x2 will build you endurance but not much muscle. But doing 50 reps in one set is really something, I doubt I'd be ever able to endure that pain :)

[fictor]

Yeah, I figured 10x10 was too much

I will stick to the Wai rule of not lifting too heavy (too close to 1 RM) too not boost testosterone levels so much that it causes water retention and increased sebum production, leading to acne.
Also, I am pretty new to execises like deadlifts and squats (never really used them before), so I will start out with very low weights and gradually increase, week by week. I think I will aim for
10 reps and 4 sets of each of these two exercises.

[RRM]

If you are new to deadlifts and squats, you may want to start carefully.
Initially, you can also do squats without any added weights,
by squatting up and down without totally getting up.

[fictor]

If you are new to deadlifts and squats, you may want to start carefully.
Initially, you can also do squats without any added weights,
by squatting up and down without totally getting up.

Yep, I started carefully, with no weights in the beginning, but 10x10 was just too many reps all over, it seems.
Now I do 10 reps for 4 sets, and it works very well

Deadlifts: 45 kg.
Squats: 40 kg.

This is per this week, and I plan to put on 5 kg. more per week or every second week until I hit a wall

[fictor]

Update:
Still doing squats, deads, chin ups, bench press and standing overhead press. Less acne than ever However, progress is kind of slow, probably due to the fact that I eat
just 105-115 grams og egg yolk per day (and fruits and some veggies). My skin cant seem to tolerate more than that. I have recently started doing reverse pyramid training
(3 sets of 2-4, 6-8 and 10-12 repetitions, starting with the heaviest weights). I will update on my progress.

[RRM]

At least some day your protein tolerance will increase, as it did in me (at 45).

[fictor]

At least some day your protein tolerance will increase, as it did in me (at 45).

I hope so, RRM

I have been thinking about one thing, though. It seems that only a small increase in yolk intake (i tried going from about 8 yolks per day, to nine) triggers a bad response in my skin (lots of small pimples in my forehead, and some in the rest of my face) after a few days/weeks. However, a few months ago I was in a sushi resturant with some family, and I ate something like 2-300 grams of sashimi in one sitting. No visible change in the skin, no more acne than the usual odd pimple and a few non-infected clogged pores here and there. I was thinking that maybe it is safe for me to stay on my level of protein intake for now, but to add 1-2 days per week of higher intake? I think I will try this in a while, after testing the new training regmine for a few weeks. Maybe adding 100 grams of meat or fish once a week, in addition to my regular yolk-intake?

[RRM]

a few months ago I was in a sushi resturant with some family, and I ate something like 2-300 grams of sashimi in one sitting. No visible change in the skin

I had the same experience. Experimented with it a lot.
It means that you are just a little bit below your tolerance level, so that overdoing it one time may have no influence.
If you repeat that every week, it may be just too much though, so be prepared...
2 days is probably too much.

Maybe adding 100 grams of meat or fish once a week, in addition to my regular yolk-intake?

Sure, you can try.
Its all about discovering what your exact tolerance level is.

[fictor]

If you repeat that every week, it may be just too much though, so be prepared...

Yes, we will see.

2 days is probably too much.

Might be. I will report after trying one day. If that works fine for 2-3 weeks, I will try two days.

Maybe adding 100 grams of meat or fish once a week, in addition to my regular yolk-intake?

Sure, you can try.
Its all about discovering what your exact tolerance level is.

Yep, or rather finding ways to "trick" that tolerance level

[Emeira]

every morning i wake up with swollen face, it seems that my body loves to retain water, can't understand why. I workout a lot, so i try to eat enough protein to prevent muscle mass (~60-80g per day) I usualy eat slow cooked chicken + pinch salt, raw yolks.
Don't understand, could it be, that only 60-80g of protein is to much for active female?
Maybe i eat too much salt or fiber... or i should stop use slow cooker ? feel overwhelmed

Now i'm tninking to go back and start acne sample diet again and eliminate all foods that cause water retation, just I am afraid that only 2 yolks is not enought to maintain muscle mass.

[RRM]

Many things can cause water retention, so that makes it tricky.
Yes, going back to the sample diet is a good idea.
You don't need to take just 2 egg yolks. You can also take 6 or 8 per day.
Or you can opt for eating raw salmon every day.
Do that for 2 weeks and see how that works out for you.

[Emeira]

Is it possible for female to have body like fitness models (get ripped and build lean muscle mass) and maintain it all year round with Wai diet?
And why there is no bodybuilder, who eats only fruits and meat? They usually eats lean protein with starchy carbs and veggies, occasionally some fruits.