JB

I thought This is the End was the funniest comedy I've seen in quite some time. And I don't like Seth Rogen. Kenny Powers stole the show.

Not long dragged my ass out of bed following the annual super Saturday Cardiff all dayer, the highlight of which was having a girl stolen off me by Dan Lydiate! Nice guy though . Well done to Ireland, although I think it's fair to say that the second best team won. I can't believe the French guy missed that kick. How much must he have been paid to do that?! Can't begrudge BOD a win in his final tournament, though. It's going to be strange watching it without him next year. What a player. Delighted with England's progress and performances. Stuart Lancaster is doing an absolutely wonderful job.

I don't really get the protein bar thing. Sure, they taste relatively nice but they're most often full of crap. I got a selection box of protein bars free from Myprotein around Christmas time and looking at the macros, they were mainly carbs (and sugar at that). There's no doubting the convenience but is it much more convenient than a small, pre-prepared whole food meal out of some tupperware? As my mid-morning snack, I had some chicken thighs with advocado, cherry tomatoes, cucumber and peppers. Took me about 25 minutes to prepare and about 3 to eat! Loads more nutrients in that than a mass produced protein bar!

After nine painful and frustrating months following a non-training related injury, I've finally had the all clear from the physio to start squatting and dead lifting again . To say I'm excited is an understatement! First lower body session tonight. I'm pretty much having to teach myself the movements again - grooving the hip hinge etc. Started with lots of hip mobility and glute activation work before some light goblet squats, dumbbell SLDLs and hip thrusts, finishing off with some light prowler pushes. Feels good at the moment (touch wood). It's going to be a long, long road back to my previous weights but I'm optimistically aiming for a 215kg deadlift and 180kg front squat by August .

Absolutely chuffed with that . Wales were awful and their over-hyped team and no plan B game plan have been well and truly found out. Their players are a sly bunch as well... If I was nitpicking I'd say that we butchered a few opportunities again and gave away far too many penalties. What a try Burrell's would've been though! It's great to see England playing with some ambition. Fair play to Marler and Wilson as well - pretty much smashed the much vaunted Welsh front row.

Yep fair play, they didn't mess about and racked the points up in the second half. I'm hoping France turn up against the Scots so they've got something to play for against Ireland next weekend.

. Cheers dude, will check it out.

Cheers mate. I did look at one site but the templates were really crap. I don't think it was this one, though so I check it out when I get home. Thanks again.

Thanks again for all the input and advice - much appreciated. I must admit, I don't entirely understand some of it as my knowledge of design theory is non-existent! All I did was download some fonts I liked off a graphic design website and then used wordart to put it together! I agree with pretty much all of what you've said, though. Although I didn't italicise the font - that's just how it is. I was reluctant to post them in some ways as they're so crap. I was hoping that my graphic designer friend would sort them out and give me some creative input, maybe even design me a new one but she just kept them the same but made them worse if anything! I guess I find it hard to explain what I'm looking for... Any input from those with more expertise would be greatly appreciated. I really like a lot of the NFL team logos if that helps... Particularly the 49ers and Giants. Something like that would be very cool. Cheers again.

No chance, that dead lift form is shocking.

Pretty basic but here are a few different colour variations. I just chose a font that I quite liked and went with it. I'm open to any ideas from others who know much better than me. I just want to avoid the usual cheesy PT logos. The name comes from a few of my mates who call me Johnny Bravo because I apparently look a bit like him (minus the skinny legs and slick hair, obviously ) and have the same first name. I was hoping to get some sort of crest (with a slogan) done as well that could be used both with and independently of the name as required. As I said, if anyone fancies having a go, I can give you more details or if anyone has a designer they've used and would recommend, let me know, along with details of how much I should expect to pay. Cheers again.

That's a pretty much perfect explanation I think. Totally agree. Rugby just isn't the religion in England that it is in other countries.

Ha as I typed that I thought about the double meaning! Didn't think anyone would actually go there though...

Haha a Lego logo would be ace! Not sure how appropriate for my line of business though . I'm at work on my phone at the moment but will try and upload my designs when I get home this evening (if I can stand the embarrassment!). If it helps in the mean time, it's a personal training/strength and conditioning business. Cheers for the replies.

Morning all. I'm starting up a small business and need to get some promotional materials sorted. With this in mind, a logo would be a good place to start. A graphic designer friend offered to do one for me for free but her designs were, shall we say, not the best. I have a pretty good idea of what I'm looking for and have even done a couple of very crude designs of my own that could do with a professional's touch (to say the least). I was wondering if anyone on here fancied having a go or could recommend someone good who might? Any idea how much I should expect to pay? Any suggestions/ideas gratefully received! Cheers.

Bad news. Never, ever flex the lumbar spine in a dead lift. It's all about the hip-hinge.

Agree with both of those. Would add Eric Cressey into the mix as well - if I recall correctly there's a pretty good free dead lift tutorial when you sign up to his email newsletter. Sorry to overload you with names but Jim Smith at Diesel SC has pretty thorough "how-tos" and progressions on all the major lifts on his website.

Very true. Although that gives the coaches an easily identifiable target to work at. I'd be more worried if we weren't creating the chances at all. I think Farrell has arguably been at fault for a couple of those botches but if you look at how much he's progressed over the past couple of seasons in an attacking sense, to the point where he's actually made a few decent breaks this year, I'd back him to get it right soon. And he's still only 22! Very, very excited to see how the Sam Burgess move pans out as well. What a player he is.

Agree as well. Lancaster has done really well to develop such depth in the squad. Our injury list is pretty extensive: both first choice props, Parling, Manu, Wade, Yarde, Croft, Foden and maybe others that I've forgotten. And then there are some really quality players that can't even get on the bench such as Eastmond and Joseph. Exciting times.

What. A. Game. Thought England shaded it. Was wondering if we actually wanted to score a try at one point with the amount of opportunities we butchered!

I like this bit. I used to read a forum called Muscletalk. One of the posters used to say that the best advice he could give someone is: "eat, train, monitor, adjust accordingly". I agree; it's one of the most sensible things I've ever read about bodybuilding. Totally agree. It's essentially what I was trying to say. I got the impression that Nigel was arguing in support of limiting protein to 30g per meal - which would be a massive constraint and a pretty restrictive "rule". I certainly wasn't saying "you have to eat x amount of y macronutrient z times per day" - quite the opposite - eat when suits/works for you. Don't be constrained by theories that have been disproven.

If I understand you correctly then I agree. I was just using an example of myself - 600g protein is a massive amount (that would be very difficult to eat) but it would only provide 2400 calories - way below my maintenance level (I'm 6ft5 and 111kg) - so it stands to reason that there would be no excess for me to store as fat? The calories would be used up by me just 'functioning'.

Exactly. Although there is some stuff that is just plain wrong, like the not being able to absorb more than 30g of protein per meal. However, if you want to only eat 30g per meal then that's cool .

Is it though? Surely you have to be in a caloric surplus to gain weight? If I happened to only eat one or two meals in a day that had, for arguments sake, as much 200g of protein each, I'd still be in a deficit. So where would this excess energy/fat come from? If I ate enough protein to put myself in a surplus, then sure, depending on training (calories used etc.) I can understand how we might store fat. I really need to learn more about nutrition. I feel like an idiot when I read a lot of scientific stuff about it. I don't think I'd ever claim to know anything for a fact with nutrition. I just generally base my opinions on what I read from select few sources I trust.

I guess it begs the question, though: in the case of a surplus, does the body prioritise the utilisation of one or two macronutrients over another or does it somehow take an equal proportion of each to be stored as adipose tissue? Seems unlikely and I bet the answer is out there. I'm getting very geeky now haha. Time for bed! Something rang a bell about the protein question - vaguely remembered reading a related article so after searching through my bookmarks I found this: Protein will not make you fat which is pretty good read.