John Stone's Picture Gallery and Video Archive

[John Stone]

Originally Posted by Devery

Attachment 18285
Question: For the chefs out there...How many days can you keep grilled chicken in the fridge without risking possible illness? For example, I cook a breast today, when must I eat it? Thanks.

5 days maximum is the most I feel comfortable with under ideal conditions (sealed in a zip-lock or similar, < 40 degrees constant temp).

Originally Posted by New_personality_05

May I ask what the size of your home gym is?

Sure. Roughly 12' 9" x 13' 2"

Originally Posted by New_personality_05

Why did you rip out the carpeting?

Imagine how the carpet will look and smell after constantly sweating on it. Also, carpet does not provide any protection to the foundation from dropped plates and so forth.

Originally Posted by New_personality_05

Is it possible for me to put rubber flooring directly on the carpet and at the same time feel comfortable that I won't lose some stability during my workouts? Thanks a lot.

Maybe if you used very heavy horse stall mats, but I couldn't say for sure. You could try it and then if it doesn't work start bribing your housemates to let you rip up the carpet.

Originally Posted by Devery

I'm just trying to understand this formula and its validity.

BMI is a worthless formula. Think about it: how can a formula that only takes into account height and weight tell you anything about a person's body composition? Ronnie Coleman is morbidly obese according to the BMI. I am obese. It's simply a formula that allows for a very rough "mass" classification for the average, untrained individual. It is not possible to tell body fat percentage, lean mass percentage, fitness level or anything else meaningful from the BMI. Forget about the BMI!

[Devery]

Originally Posted by John Stone

BMI is a worthless formula. Think about it: how can a formula that only takes into account height and weight tell you anything about a person's body composition? Ronnie Coleman is morbidly obese according to the BMI. I am obese. It's simply a formula that allows for a very rough "mass" classification for the average, untrained individual. It is not possible to tell body fat percentage, lean mass percentage, fitness level or anything else meaningful from the BMI. Forget about the BMI!

John,

The Centers for Disease Control tends to agree with you, at least when it comes to highly trained athletes...

"BMI is not a direct measure of body fatness. BMI is calculated from an individual’s weight which includes both muscle and fat. As a result, some individuals may have a high BMI but not have a high percentage of body fat. For example, highly trained athletes may have a high BMI because of increased muscularity rather than increased body fatness. Although some people with a BMI in the overweight range (from 25.0 to 29.9) may not have excess body fatness, most people with a BMI in the obese range (equal to or greater than 30) will have increased levels of body fatness."

For my own use, I was trying to figure out if this formula can be of any benefit to calculate lean body mass. I think I'll stick to the tape measure and mirror.

[Andrew M]

BMI is a population tool.
Looking at everyone with a BMI of 35, about 99% will be overweight, with only a very few people at low BF%.

BMI is an excellent tool, but would you use a spade to brush your teeth?

Andrew.

[kbag]

Hi John and everyone!
I´m writing from Spain. I don´t remember how I found your site, but I´ve been reading it for a long time, and you´ve been the inspiration for me to start doing some exercise.
Firstly, I would like to loose fat, muscles are for later . I´m not very fat, but I´d like to loose about 6-8 kg. Two years ago I lost 15, but I relaxed and couldn´t loose more.

Thanks for creating and keeping a site like this. You all guys make me want to sweat every day on my ellyptical bike (do you call it like this in English?).

I´ll go on reading and try to post about my progress. Greatings from Europe!!!

[Akutsito]

Originally Posted by kbag

Hi John and everyone!
I´m writing from Spain. I don´t remember how I found your site, but I´ve been reading it for a long time, and you´ve been the inspiration for me to start doing some exercise.
Firstly, I would like to loose fat, muscles are for later . I´m not very fat, but I´d like to loose about 6-8 kg. Two years ago I lost 15, but I relaxed and couldn´t loose more.

Thanks for creating and keeping a site like this. You all guys make me want to sweat every day on my ellyptical bike (do you call it like this in English?).

I´ll go on reading and try to post about my progress. Greatings from Europe!!!

I think its elliptical... :P, yeah i would also like to thanks John for the site, and the mean pics with the mean look of "sweat your ass!!", they always motivate me when i remind the pics :P

[Green_Burrito]

John, I'm courious. You said you are only eating whole foods now. What kind of processed food were you eating before. Anything you really miss?

[John Stone]

Originally Posted by Green_Burrito

John, I'm courious. You said you are only eating whole foods now. What kind of processed food were you eating before. Anything you really miss?

Take a gander at my old food logs you'll see that I was eating things like whole wheat pretzels, whole grain breads, low carb "syrup", Morning Star Farms "Breakfast Patties", beef jerky and, of course, lots of processed stuff once per week with my cheat meal (I'm not eating cheat meals on this cut).

While I was bulking you can add to the above list: fat-free tortillas, hamburger buns, BBQ sauce, fat-free salad dressings, etc.

Do I miss some of these things? Sure, of course! But reaching my goal is more important to me than satisfying fleeting cravings.

[jcdv]

John, I noticed that on today's news update that you're doing 20 minutes of LISS. I don't believe I've ever heard of someone doing under 30 minutes of LISS per session. Are you just being cautious to preserve the hard earned muscle? I'm only weight training currently but 20 minutes of LISS sounds really attractive for my days off. lol

[John Stone]

Originally Posted by jcdv

John, I noticed that on today's news update that you're doing 20 minutes of LISS. I don't believe I've ever heard of someone doing under 30 minutes of LISS per session. Are you just being cautious to preserve the hard earned muscle? I'm only weight training currently but 20 minutes of LISS sounds really attractive for my days off. lol

Indeed the 20 minutes of LISS just 4 times per week is less cardio than I've ever done before, especially while cutting. The amount of cardio will be increased as I reduce my body fat, and I expect I'll also be doing a combination of LISS and HIIT.

Right now I'm able to drop fat mostly with very strict dieting and intense weight training. I suppose the logic is twofold: Being very cautious about muscle loss and, when an extra push is needed, I'll have a lot of room to increase cardio. At least that's how I interpret what Mastover is having me do--he may want to chime in here with his own thoughts.

[mastover]

Originally Posted by John Stone

Indeed the 20 minutes of LISS just 4 times per week is less cardio than I've ever done before, especially while cutting. The amount of cardio will be increased as I reduce my body fat, and I expect I'll also be doing a combination of LISS and HIIT.

Right now I'm able to drop fat mostly with very strict dieting and intense weight training. I suppose the logic is twofold: Being very cautious about muscle loss and, when an extra push is needed, I'll have a lot of room to increase cardio. At least that's how I interpret what Mastover is having me do--he may want to chime in here with his own thoughts.

I believe, thru my experience, that too much cardio too soon has the potential to create muscle loss especially as one gets deeper into the diet. Do too much in the beginning, and you will need to do more and more towards the end. The body can also recognize patterns, and once it does fat loss will stagnate. So, I like staggering and alternating cardio sessions, times, HIIT, LISS, and I've also seen great results with HIIT done 2-3x per day. However, my war cry with cardio has always been - LESS IS BEST. Allow the diet to burn the fat, then seed in the cardio as needed.

All this is coming from a guy (me ) who has NEVER done cardio. And I know of many natural pro's who don't do cardio...all with different bodytypes. Not even for shows. Ideally I'd have John doing no cardio, but I like to be flexible.

The most detrimental trend I've seen in natural bodybuilding competitions (notice I said NATURAL) is the abuse of cardio during the initial stages of contest prep.

But as I said, I'm very openminded and can eat my words if need be....If John needs to do 2 hours of cardio a day to get shredded, so be it. But he doesn't need to do so now

[TarSeal]

I've got a feeling this new Mastover program is going to have you reach new heights, John. Can't wait to see the next few weeks.

[New_personality_05]

A slight correction to my post above. The basement size is actually 11x18. My estimate was way off!

[Timbermiko]

Originally Posted by mastover

I believe, thru my experience, that too much cardio too soon has the potential to create muscle loss especially as one gets deeper into the diet. Do too much in the beginning, and you will need to do more and more towards the end. The body can also recognize patterns, and once it does fat loss will stagnate. So, I like staggering and alternating cardio sessions, times, HIIT, LISS, and I've also seen great results with HIIT done 2-3x per day. However, my war cry with cardio has always been - LESS IS BEST. Allow the diet to burn the fat, then seed in the cardio as needed.

All this is coming from a guy (me ) who has NEVER done cardio. And I know of many natural pro's who don't do cardio...all with different bodytypes. Not even for shows. Ideally I'd have John doing no cardio, but I like to be flexible.

The most detrimental trend I've seen in natural bodybuilding competitions (notice I said NATURAL) is the abuse of cardio during the initial stages of contest prep.

But as I said, I'm very openminded and can eat my words if need be....If John needs to do 2 hours of cardio a day to get shredded, so be it. But he doesn't need to do so now

Hey Mast, What about a guy who is interested in getting lean and implementing cardio for the cardio respiritory effect, heart lungs etc?.....I know myself I feel a mess better doing a couple of mid level sessions a week than doing none at all.

[Bobby88]

John, I was wondering when do you do your 20-min cardio sessions on training and on non-training days?
In the morning on empty stomach?

[mastover]

Originally Posted by Timbermiko

Hey Mast, What about a guy who is interested in getting lean and implementing cardio for the cardio respiritory effect, heart lungs etc?.....I know myself I feel a mess better doing a couple of mid level sessions a week than doing none at all.

I would say go for it T! It all depends on someone's current goals. When John initially approached me and layed out his goals and what he wanted to achieve, respiritory, heart, and lung health was not my concern. Our goal was to get him ripped and shredded and absolutely sick and crazy looking. (in a good way )

Otherwise, I'd suggest that he go rollerblading, take a couple of cardio-kickboxing classes, go in-line skating, do a couple of triathlons, and play a couple of games of full court hoops every week.

His intense balls to the wall training combined with a very clean and healthful diet should keep our good friend very healthy.

So you see, John....I really DO care about you buddy

[John Stone]

Originally Posted by Bobby88

John, I was wondering when do you do your 20-min cardio sessions on training and on non-training days?
In the morning on empty stomach?

I do my cardio on my 3 non-training days first thing in the morning, fasted. I also do one session per week in the evening, immediately after my leg workout.

BTW, complete information (past and present) on my training schedules, splits, exercise routines, etc. can always be found on my training page.

[TarSeal]

Love the update today John. Good call on the (gulp)... Egg Beaters.

[John Stone]

Originally Posted by TarSeal

Good call on the (gulp)... Egg Beaters.

I expect to see some amazing changes in both my health and in my physique from this ground-shaking change to my diet.

Next I may switch my brand of bottled water.

[KT Monahan]

I like the Egg Beaters because they look like real eggs, where egg whites are, well, white. Just seems funny to me eating a big batch of white stuff.

EDIT: I just realized that Beavis & Butthead would have a field day with my last comment.

[John Stone]

In this morning's update to the main site I took stock of my cutting progress thus far. If you don't feel like reading it, the one line synopsis is as follows: my body weight is down to 226.5 pounds from my bulking end weight of 236 pounds; 9.5 pounds lost (4.5 pounds fat/5 pounds water); I'm about 12.5% body fat down from 14%; my strength is up and my energy levels are up.

Tonight was back and biceps night. My deadlifts were first, and they went extremely well. The deads set the tone for the remainder of the workout. It was brutal, but very satisfying.

I haven't taken many pictures this month because cutting progress is, of course, slow going. I feel like I've made some visual improvement now: my vascularity has improved, my face is far less puffy, and I'm slowly becoming more defined and cut.

Of course I've got many months to go--this is just the start of a long road, but I'm very happy with how things are going thus far.

It's interesting to me that the cutting diet Mastover has me doing is drastically different from the SGX diet and my own cutting diets of days past. This just further demonstrates that there is no one "right way" to do things in this game. Willingness to experiment and keep an open mind will take you much further than being arrogant and dogmatic.

So here are a couple of new pictures from tonight.

First an ~ACTION~ shot!
(this is not a real action shot. I was playing around after my workout was over).




I decided to get a picture of my quads tonight. As you can see, I still have a fair amount of body fat to lose before I'll get that nice quad separation, but I think it's clear that I've got some healthy mass under there. I'd better, because I put a hell of a lot of hard work in the squat rack over the past 5 months.

My legs are not pumped in this picture, and are a little over 27 inches.