It's not the digestion, but eating it even though I feel full. I tried eating a whole chicken breast and couldn't do it. But cutting it into slices and portioning the pieces to 6oz was enough for me to eat it. So based on myfitnesspal, I get 52g of protein from those 6 oz. I already consume ginger and turmeric for anti-inflammatory and energy purposes. Kiwifruits also work as a tenderizer and could help, but there's supply issues for them lately.
In general, my favorite abdominal exercises are Roman Chair Twists with no added weight, Hanging Leg or Knee Raises, anything in Hollow Body positions like Dragon Flags or those ab wheels, and a variety of kettlebell movements.
Doing a normal plank and lifting up and changing it per set really makes it harder.
The notion that situps are somehow bad for you because you move your spine is utter bollocks. It's pure nocebo, and the people who push it are nocebo-peddlers. No range of motion is inherently injurious, unless you're literally pulling bones out of sockets, and even then contortionists do that all the time. The man with the healthiest lower back is the man who can jefferson curl 500 pounds.
Harvard said "They push your curved spine against the floor and work your hip flexors, the muscles that run from the thighs to the lumbar vertebrae in the lower back. When the hip flexors are too strong or too tight, they tug on the lower spine, which can create lower back discomfort." Situps forces the back into extreme spinal flexion. When repeated over and over you can get bulging/herniated discs (which is not worth the risk of doing situps). The army eliminated it from their required PT. Jefferson curls scare tf out of me. It puts so much pressure on your spinal discs.... I'll stick to Romanian dead lifts. I'll ask my weightlifter friend about it tho.
I'm sure if you develop some muscular imbalance you could experience issues, but there is absolutely no reason to fear situps if you don't already feel any discomfort doing them. They don't "force" your spine into an "extreme" ROM. It's a perfectly normal foreward motion you are likely to go into every day. If anything, the largest problem with the situp is that the lack of ROM is somewhat inferior for hypertrophy, as the floor stop you from getting a good stretch on your abs. The reason the army removed them, per the article, was because it's not really that effective of a movement and it's not specific to military activity. There has been a lot of fearmongering over spinal flextion over the years based on old shoddy research on dead pig cadavers being crunched that still persists in your mum's fitness toning magazines and instagram grifters' posts, but it's just not true. If you take things slowly, and work up towards it, there is nothing preventing you from building strength and mobility in any range of motion and it will make you more robust and injury-resistant for it. If what you said was true, all these strength athletes who repeated flex their spines under extremely heavy load would be absolutely crippled by now. But they're not. Their spines are in fact much healthier than yours or mine.
absolutely.
the moment when your hands are on the bar or you're securing the straps and almost ready to start can feel neverending sometimes.
First, I for one am pleased to see actual discussion rather than gay drama in the lifting sphere.
I just want big muscles man
Same tbh.
Yeah, same to this one too, it is good to see proper discussions taking place.
Yeah, basically it's about lift prioritization. You put that first best part of your time and energy on strength development on the big three then supplement with higher reps and sets on secondary and tertiary work. In my current powerbuilding program from jeffy nipps, you start the week off, day 1 is heavy squat (singles - triples at most, with backoff sets approaching the top set as the weeks progress), paired with overhead press and good mornings. Day 2 is heavy bench, paired with a few other movements. Then a weakpoint developer for squat and bench on day 3 (pin squats or pin press, close grip or pause press, box squats and pause squats, et cetera). Then day 4 you do deadlift and bodybuilding movements for shoulders, abs, and back. Then you do a more simple volume accumulation day on day 5 on squat, bench, and rows. The biggest shortcoming for powerbuilding for me is the emphasis on the big 3. They aren't bodybuilding-centric movements, and are irrelevant for a lot of people's physique goals. Getting strong on SBD will probably have you looking house as fuck and all but it will probably not give you the physique of your dreams. Your training will constantly be built around supplementing and overcoming the limitations of these motions for tailored hypertrophy, and it will always have a problem where in a strength block you are cutting your volume way down to get the big 3 up.