All-Purpose Health and Fitness Thread

[Shartnado]

Slowly starting the actual gym workouts after the vacation. Two upper body days back to back, but both have been under one hour so it's been OK. Dumbells and resistance bands mostly.

Tomorrow I could do legs, but I doubt I'll do trapbar yet this week.

[The Natural]

Swimming was harder yesterday. Had to stop twice as water went down wrong. First time that's happened since starting swimming again. One bugger got in my way when doing a length just leaning against the wall. I like the wall lane as something to grab onto. Being hard on myself considering where I was to where I am now, didn't use floats, been in bed past few days so I wasn't sure if I was going to go. Probably my least favourite swimming session for those reasons. Hope next time it goes better. Always been hard on myself.

Edited August 9, 2023 by The Natural

[Log]

On 8/9/2023 at 5:43 AM, The Natural said:

Swimming was harder yesterday. Had to stop twice as water went down wrong. First time that's happened since starting swimming again. One bugger got in my way when doing a length just leaning against the wall. I like the wall lane as something to grab onto. Being hard on myself considering where I was to where I am now, didn't use floats, been in bed past few days so I wasn't sure if I was going to go. Probably my least favourite swimming session for those reasons. Hope next time it goes better. Always been hard on myself.

It's an unfortunate fact that you'll have some shitty workouts here and there. Don't let it derail you. Just put that one behind you and focus on making the next one better.

[The Natural]

24 minutes ago, Log said:

It's an unfortunate fact that you'll have some shitty workouts here and there. Don't let it derail you. Just put that one behind you and focus on making the next one better.

Cheers, mate xxx.

[JLSigman]

Flu shots are starting to be available. Go get one! (got mine today)

[The Natural]

18 hours ago, JLSigman said:

Flu shots are starting to be available. Go get one! (got mine today)

Yeah, I got a text this week that you can book in. I have my free flu jab next month. September is always the start here. Had flu twice and it sucks, especially what it does to my CP.

Edited August 18, 2023 by The Natural

[Shartnado]

I've had four workouts on both weeks, it's been fine, but nothing special. I did get the bench back to 264-272lb range for a rep or two for a few sets both weeks, so that was nice.

This week I was able to do a set of 6 or 7 with a pair of 88lb dumbells on the incline bench, but it was steeper than the usual 45 degrees, though not quite at 90 degrees, so that is an improvement. Last week I couldn't even get them into position. Yeah, and hammer curls afterwards, too!

I did a shrug dropset with dumbells too, this week starting with the pair of 88' and going down to 48,5's in a few minutes. For a first time in a long time, my traps had DOMs the next day.

The first trapbar since the summer break was yesterday. I guess I was about the same level as I was at my lightest, but with worse endurance. I got the 494,5lbs up once without Versas, but not the second time.

Tried the 778,5 from the shortest distance, but failed it three times. I did get 727 up once, but that was up and straight back down. I did 4 or 5 different singles with 684 from the same shitty distance, so that was pretty cool. Then one with 622 and 588 from a bit better height and then 14 reps from just a bit harder level with 505, using rest-pause. After that, more shrugs.

I was thinking I need to add some extra weights on my abdominal exercises, I mean the ones that don't have them already.

The going from your best shape of the year to the worst inside 3 weeks has hit me as hard as it always does, but I kept making more inspirational synthwave playlists and it has had a positive effect on my mood. The fact that my bench has rebounded a bit just by putting on some weight was a nice bonus, too!

I should be getting the high-resolution versions of my photos next week, so maybe I will change my avatar pic once again?

[The Natural]

Look forward to seeing them xxx.

[Contentious C]

Managed to fry my hamstrings last Sunday with the first sets of deficit RDLs I've really ever tried doing.  Normally I go pretty heavy on RDLs - bodyweight or a little over, as compared to my squats, where bodyweight is kind of where I've capped out recently to avoid totally wrecking my hips and low back (and when I say "low back" like this, I don't mean "spinal erectors territory" like most of you would; I mean that the arthritis I have is tailbone area-specific and I don't want to break it worse).  But then I'd only do 6 or 7 reps at most.  Here, I dropped back to 145, used only the 25s to create even more space to lower the bar, took a closer grip so the bar would travel lower (and take some pressure off my shoulders), and then ended up with hammy DOMS until today, pretty much.  I was thinking of doing deadlifts yesterday for Pull day, but it just wasn't going to be in the cards with how I felt. 

But Pull day went fine anyway.  My upper back has gone from one of my weakest parts to one of my strongest.  I did 155 on bent-over rows I think for the first time ever; I certainly could have tried it before, but 145 for sets of ~12 usually resulted in cheating the weight up on the last 2-3 reps anyway, so I wasn't *really* strong enough to move up and still tell myself that I got something good out of it.  Yesterday, I did 155 for 14/14/13 and the last 2-3 reps of each set were shitty, but it's still quite an improvement (and I think a PR).  I credit T-bar rows for much of that. 

Did Kroc rows as well, which I almost never do, because I see so many people do such a shit job with them (yanking the weight in a straight line, setting themselves up for hernias by doing them with one leg on a bench), but they were...actually sort of great, especially when I let my shoulder blade dip my arm as low as I could stretch.  So that's 3 separate horizontal pulling movements that I feel like I'm kicking the shit out of, and I don't really have enough space in my program to do them all!  That's especially true when I feel like my pull-ups still suck, so I'm trying to bring up my vertical pulling to something like competence (I'm also closer to 190 than 180 these days, so they're just harder).

On that note, after this coming week's deload, I'm going to go back to deadlifting twice a week.  Once will be the Lower day deficit RDLs I already mentioned, and then I'll do regulars on my Pull day.  Hopefully they won't completely fuck my hips, which are forever going to be the stalling point, thanks to my arthritis, which is...not really that much better, but definitely better than fully flaring up whenever it wants.  I think I hit 335 for 2 maybe 16 months ago when I was trying to 5/3/1 that shit, but it was clear the constant "adding weight to the bar every week" thing was just wrecking my body, because my joints, skeletal structure, and nervous system need more recovery than doing that.  I'm better off with the lower weight/higher reps for the bulk of my work and then occasionally building towards PRs when I feel like they're reasonable goals.

On the other hand, maybe in a couple of weeks, I'll be fucking dead, because my platelets kind of tanked during my last round of bloodwork; the low end of what you should have is 150k, and I had under 80k!  Maybe the Humira is fucking killing me!  Yay!

Edited August 24, 2023 by Contentious C

[StretchMediatedHypertrophy]

So end of another mini-cycle as I fly tomorrow - I will be in the gym Sunday with my gf, but won't be back at my main gym for 10 days.

This doesn't provide a lot of time to 'make things happen' and the first two workouts really didn't go great, and tbh it put me off proper squatting. I did a 120kg deep squat with a nice pause, but everything >90kg felt heavy and I couldn't face backoff work and indeed retreated to the the hack squat as my main quad movement. And tbh, whilst I will definitely do a heavy SSB squat in the next minicycle I may put more focus on the hack squat and see if it carries over.

Anyway, I got on with things best I could and fast-fwd until today I had two goals. 92.5kg for 3 on bench, and 200kg on high-handle trap bar from a 15kg plate. I decided to superset this work so that it wouldn't take all day. Now tbh the bench was great once I got warmed up, and I got my target reps plus 3 backoff sets of 10 at 80kg which I was very happy with. So basically I will try for 92.5kg for 3 in 3 weeks though I may leave the backoff sets at 80kg and maybe just chase sets of 11. Additional: weak area at this point is in middle, which probably means front delt and tbh I have done no overhead-style pressing in weeks so that needs to change, though that was the plan anyway.

Trap-bar....well a qualified success as I did lift 200kg for the first time ever, but I decided after 195kg to do the 200kg without a deficit...which also allowed a wider stance. In retrospect, I probably should have left this one for another time as if I was going to switch stance etc I should have done this a couple of attempts previously......this is actually a tried-&-tested Boogs/Bugenhagen technique. Basically I wanted the 200kg and that's it. Definitely a proper grinder....hard off the floor, hard above the knee. Tbh I suspect I would have got it up with the deficit but I made the right call not finding out. I hadn't done trap bar in 3 weeks and I am sure if I wanted to go higher frequency on it I could probably add a bit more. But it's time-consuming setting up the plates so I think we're done with this lift for a while. I may actually mess with the low-handles next.

As a bonus, on Friday, I actually set up the sled with a weight belt and managed to do something like the pulls the kneesovertoes dude recommends. They were definitely something. Was planning to do them today as well, but tbh I couldn't face it lol. But I will be coming back to them for sure.

 

 

 

 

Edited August 28, 2023 by StretchMediatedHypertrophy
added bit about front delts

[The Natural]

Had my first swim for the first time in three weeks as my legs have been bad. Wasn't sure about going for that reason. I just stuck to my shallower section alternating between swimming and resting. As I finished my stroke, I looked round and saw Julie from the Hope team I go with talking to the snide cow I've spoken about before. I swam back to Julie. Turned out the snide cow said: "I see he's not using floats now". Julie told her what I've got, the woman said "Oh" and Julie said "You should feel bad." Hopefully she'll learn a lesson to encourage than cast scorn. Everyone else is supportive. Pay more attention to those than the minimal minority.

[The Natural]

Had my first Pilates session for four weeks and I'm feeling it, man. The class has told me I'm the only male who has stuck it out. This was my ninth class and only once has another male gone. It's run by a male instructor, Marvin. The class nearly always sells out so it's a bugger to book into.

[Log]

33 minutes ago, The Natural said:

Had my first swim for the first time in three weeks as my legs have been bad. Wasn't sure about going for that reason.

IMHO, that's one of the biggest things about getting into/staying in shape. You've got to push through those days where you don't really feel like doing it. Not when you're injured, but when you're just not feeling it.

So glad to see you're able to stick with your plan!

[The Natural]

What I need to work on is moving more and eating better. I'm undoing the exercise and calories burned by takeaways and fizzy drinks. From swimming, I go to Italiano's to order a 12" pizza to take home with me and while waiting for it to be made, have the one pint at the pub two shops downs. Fizzy pop is the biggie as when I lost over 4 stone. I cut that right out. Losing weight would help mentally as well as physically.

[StretchMediatedHypertrophy]

Tbh that is the problem with swimming right there. It makes you super hungry like nothing else. Back in the day, my local leisure centre had a Wimpy lol.

The best thing probably is to bring food to eat afterwards if you can. Protein shake can work, though a sandwich is certainly not a bad idea. The second best thing is to have prepped food ready at home to stick in the microwave (or eat cold).

[The Natural]

30 minutes ago, StretchMediatedHypertrophy said:

Tbh that is the problem with swimming right there. It makes you super hungry like nothing else. Back in the day, my local leisure centre had a Wimpy lol.

The best thing probably is to bring food to eat afterwards if you can. Protein shake can work, though a sandwich is certainly not a bad idea. The second best thing is to have prepped food ready at home to stick in the microwave (or eat cold).

Yeah, you work up quite the appetite after swimming. More than the gym. Thanks for the food advice too.

Edited August 31, 2023 by The Natural

[Shartnado]

Last couple of weeks have been a mixed bag. Did some impressive stuff on the incline dumbell bench press with a set or two with 88's again at a rough angle, but the trapbar was not going well. I used only half of the blocks last week, so it felt super hard. The worst part was that I couldn't lift anything worthwhile off the floor level. "Damn you, consequences of my own actions!!! Damn you to hell!!" I need to scale back and get the full range lifts back to something respectable again. I need to mention the one lift I did manage to do, which was 444 from a deficit without Versas.

I'm slowly getting back to a regular Autumn time-shape, with the bloating gradually subsiding. I noticed my scale also shows lbs if I press a button, and I was 190 lbs last weekend. It's less now. I also tweaked something on my right side (oblique area, ribcage) at work (not in the gym) and it only started bothering me now, a week later. I doubt it's anything serious, but it's still annoying. It was enough to bother me yesterday during bench, though! Was going for 286, but got nowhere near full range of motion, but did do a few partials with it. Need to rest it for a bit. It's totally possible I aggrivated it while doing my ab/oblique work with extra weights.

The high definition photos have not arrived yet, although I did get two samples. One of them is my favorite back shot and the other one is a color version of my current profile pic, so I'm not changing it just yet.

[Contentious C]

Yeah, so the Great Platelet Panic of 2023 was overhyped.  The bruises on my arms and my minor PTSD from having blood drawn (which I hate more than the burning fire of a thousand suns) are not as overhyped.

Turns out I have really clumpy platelets.  I mean, that's their job, but in a collection tube, they evidently do that, too.  And if you're a phlebotomist and you let one of my samples sit around for hours before working with it, it looks way off in terms of concentration, because not much is left free in solution.  On the other hand, if you run it right away, I have a very healthy number of platelets, so it looks like neither my autoimmune issues or my Humira are trying to kill me!

Well, not in that way!  They'll find something I bet!

Edited September 7, 2023 by Contentious C

[Shartnado]

Just to be on the safe side with my, well right side, I gave it some extra days to get back to normal, so only one workout this week. Trying to get much out of it, it was big dumbell- time again! Started with the incline bench 90 degree angle and did 3 sets of overhead presses with pairs of 53's, 70,5's and 75's, respectively. The 75's had to have been a record at that angle. Then I took the angle down a couple of notches and did one set of 7 with a pair of 88's. Then close to 45 degrees two more sets of 6 and 7 with the 88's. After each set from the beginning, I did a set of hammer curls, as I've been doing for a while now! Rest of the stuff consisted of the usual lat-pulldown, pushdown and chest flies, bodyweight reverse shrugs and bodyweight ab work so not to aggrivate the right side. It did not bother me during the workout, but I do feel it when getting out of bed in the morning. Well, this was all the time I was going to give it, so get better or be that way, I don't give a shit!

As far as the pics go, yeah, there's really nothing in the collection that compares to the one I used previously, so I am going back to that one, only  in a higher resolution form.

[StretchMediatedHypertrophy]

Yeah, so in the last few days I've actually rattled off 1 lifetime rep PR and 1 rep PR since injury.

The actual PR was leg press - 220kg for 12 pretty damn deep reps. I think I did 170kg for 20 reps 8ish weeks ago on the same machine, but put in a calc 220 for 12 is better. I've had more weight on a leg press, I found an old facebook post where I did 250kg almost 5 years ago - but I doubt my depth was any goodor that I did more than 6 reps. I only do leg press once every 3-4 weeks because of a particular gym I've been going to..well every 3-4 weeks....so I imagine I could peak it up for a bit more but I doubt I'll do that.

PR for the year was bench press 90kg for 8.

This is particularly good as I hadn't benched for a week and a half, and I don't normally do well in such circumstances. However a couple of things in my favour were that 1) I actually set up in a power rack as the two bench press stations were busy, an 2) I was wearing a compression shirt, not an actual bench shirt just some rando UA piece - but maybe it helped a bit. The set also took a lot out of me quite frankly.

I technically got another PR because I did backoff sets at 15 degrees - a very rare angle for barbell work but 30 degrees still doesn't feel great to me. Anyway, sets of 60kg for 10 isn't that impressive given what I was fly-pressing at 15 degrees a couple of months ago, but as I say murdered by the topset so what can you do?

Right now I have a soft target of matching my 100kg for 10 reps PR by the end of the year. I've still got almost 4 months...it feels doable. But let's see.

[Technico Support]

Gym win of the day: just wrapped up a long workout, finishing with cable curls, when an old Sikh dude told me, “your muscles are huge!”  Loooool I’ll never catch up with @Shartnado but I’ll be happy with halfway and compliments from randos.

Edited September 11, 2023 by Technico Support

[StretchMediatedHypertrophy]

Compliments from randos are nice.

SHOCK COMPLETELY UNPLANNED PR: Semi-Sumo Deadlift 185kg. Woohoo!

(Also REP PRs 130x6, & 16- x 3 in the ramp-up.)

Tbh I think I could have pulled 5kg more. What's hilarious is that not only did I hit 2 rep PRs first, hadn't done this lift seriously in *ages*, and I had done bunch of sets on the prone leg curl and the leg extension. But I also did a lot of deep slow bodysquats between the leg curls, and I've been doing those deep Platz squats and as a result my hips are more mobile and I am extremely fast off the floor. And I think the high-handle trap bar work carried over to the later parts of the lift.

So yeah, have felt like I've been spinning my wheels a bit this year but I feel like things are starting to happen. Hope it continues. I want to see if I can pull the 200kg semi-sumo, though I did hit a 160kg conventional after the PR to walk the weight on the rack and I want to get that up to 185kg as well. Woohoo!

 

[Shartnado]

First week since summer that I actually got 5 workouts in. Nothing was great, but everything had its moments. Seated dumbell press at 90 degree angle was the same as last week. Did a set with 75's and got 79's into the position, but couldn't get them up. Set the angle lower and did a set with the 79's. Hammer curls after each set, as well. Next day I did a few sets on the incline bench with 88's, 83,5's and 79's, followed by hammer curls.

On Wednesday I figured I'll work my back, but wanted something different. I don't really know the proper name of this barbell row, but I'll try to describe it. I lay face down on an elevated bench with the barbell on the floor, below the bench. I then row the barbell by lifting it until it hits the bottom of the bench and slowly put it down. And repeat. I have done this before, but it was years ago and with less weight than I was using now in the top set, anyway. I did a set with 88, 132, 154, 176, 154 and 132. I then put the barbell back in the squat rack with 88 still on and did 2 sets of standing barbell curls, for 8 reps. Why yes, I did standing barbell curls on the squat rack, because fuck you, that's why. Well, I was alone, as usual. Some usual resistance band stuff and plenty of ab work throughout the week.

Thursday's Trapbar did not go well. As I found out the last time, anything off the floor level feels heavy as shit! Oddly enough, I was able to do a single rep of 464 from a decifit without Versas. But after that, I needed to put 5lb plates beneath even 493, because the take off just didn't work off the floor. Kept putting bigger plates beneath and did 506 and 530 that way, but it stopped dead at 550-something and I said fuck this shit! I put the soft blocks beneath the weights and did 5x493 and 5x392. Then some shrugs with 305 and 195.

Today was regular bench and a bunch of regular standing bicep curls. Went quickly up to 263 (after 10x164 and 5x252) and did 3 sets that got worse and shorter as they went along. Then couple more sets of questionable reps with 242 and 208. Then a bunch of stuff with 164 and 154. Bicep curls started from a pair of 35's and went up to 53's getting 8 ugly reps with each arm. Then some lighter, cleaner stuff with 31's, 26,5's and 22's.

Overall, a good week, but I hope I will see some actual progress, soon.

Edited September 15, 2023 by Shartnado
Typo

[Contentious C]

I switched over to Legs/Push/Pull/Off day a few weeks ago and I think it's helping me get a little bit more volume in for my legs especially, since I don't have any excuses now to avoid deadlifts entirely with built-in breaks on either side of my Leg or Pull days.  Managed 275 for sets of 4 & 3 last time I did them, although I'm very much in the camp now that there's no value to doing more than 2 working sets of them due to the fatigue.  Gonna try for 285 tonight.

I feel sometimes like I'm regressing on my Leg days, but it's hard to argue with how my muscles feel.  My quads have gotten way harder since incorporating belt squats, and my glutes are starting to make my pants too tight again from the front foot-elevated lunges, even though I've barely progressed in weight (and have gone lower in weight on the squats, but for 12+ reps and usually 4 sets these days).  The workouts themselves feel like 10 sets of straight death, but hey, they seem to work.

[Shartnado]

A decent start to the week, as I went for a short workout on Sunday evening, before the nightshift with the intention of getting the 79's up this time around on the sitting dumbell overhead press (with the bench at a 90 degree angle). After a brief warm-up, I did a set of 5 with a pair of 66's and jumped straight to 79's after doing a set of lat pulldowns with a resistance band in between. That actually worked! I was able to struggle through a set of 5, followed by hammer curls (as with the 66's, earlier). Ended up also doing 5x75's, 5x70,5's and 9x61,5's plus the hammer curls. Between each of those set combos, I did either a set of lat pulldowns, push downs or reverse shrugs. I did one longer set of regular bicep curls with a pair of 26,5's followed by a set of sitting dumbell overhead press going for a long and slow set, but didn't have all that much left in me, so it ended up being a set of 12. The usual ab work followed. Short, but intense, I was out of there in 45 mins.

I don't want to ruin this progress by trying to go forward too fast, but I set the goal at completing a set with a pair of 88's at a 90 degree angle before there will be snow on the ground over here. Next week, I'll try to get 2 sets with the 79's.