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Super Ape

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I've still been doing my thing. It's been a bit different, because my girlfriend has decided she needs a break from the gym and whilst we are still talking about that (given then she has pretty much admitted she isn't going to do exercise any other way) - but also I've also had a lot of stress in my life, which has often reduced my sleep quality and the knock-on effect is that my ability to recover from training is somewhat compromised.

I've also still got an aggrevated/strained/inflamed/idk left lower left trap. I probably need to visit a physio or something. Whilst this is the case basically I can't do standing curls, RDLs, or Barbell Rows unless they're off the floor. Shrugs seem to be out too, and tbh even cable tricep pushdowns can be a problem (overhead is ok, and so are the bands). None of this is a disaster (though RDLs are quite useful), but even with laterals I need to be careful. I think there is also some imbalance between my left front delt and my right front delt.

I promised bench rep work this cycle. I've been doing a Boring But Strong template from 531 Forever for Bench only, albeit with a very conservative training max. What this basically means is doing your 531 work (or 5sPRO, a variation, in my case) and then doing 10 sets of 5 at 70% of your training max. Because bar speed remains a heavy focus, this can be more taxing then it might sound - also because you're not taking that long between sets because you don't want to be there all day. Tbh the first week was super hard, last week was much easier, but this week coming (Saturday) might be tricky as the 5sPRO work will peak. Second week I also tweaked slightly, by throwing in some bodyweight reverse-hypers as a superset - extending the rest time a little bit without wasting time.

I decided last week to do a heavy single on a squat variation - because I wanted to get through it fairly quickly, I actually put my wraps on for the second time every and did a SSB box squat with 1s pause - at 130kg my upper erectors were definitely the weak point but tbh that's not a bad lift on a fairly tough variation, especially given I really didn't pause between attempts except to unwrap-add weight to bar-rewrap. I definitely need to work on my good mornings that have definitely regressed, but it's not my absolute priority right now if I'm honest. 

Today was just a quick 'lightish' day mostly for upper body. I was going to do speed work, but my bench wasn't available so I decided to do neutral chins and some light but slow and deep assisted dips. Then the bench became available so I actually did do some speed work, just to grease the groove on the bench. Then I supersetted lateral raises and hanging leg raises, before doing some band work for triceps and biceps as well as leg extensions (bench accessory!) and a quick hang to take it home. I was supposed to do some cardio, but stress of the day + coffee meant by heart was racing and I felt like it would do more harm than good haiya.

Friday will probably be speed pulls, and then Saturday will as I say be 3of3 for the BBS cycle. If things go well, life may actually get in the way of my training a bit in the rest of the month so any PR attempts might have to wait - we'll have to see where life takes me.

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Yesterday I was just getting a breezy upper body pump in with EZ bar curls and OHP's but with much less weight than last time. I did a few sets with reverse grip so I could work the forearms better. More lateral raises and resistance band work as well. Due to the relocation of my workplace the gym will be packed up and moved to the new place shortly. This may lead to some time off.

Over here, winter is indeed coming. Up until recently, there hasn't been any snow which has been quite a blessing as far as biking is concerned. Now it has been snowing a little bit for a couple of days, at quite reasonable pace, but it still made the rides a lot more tasking. I need to buy new winter tires for the bike after next week.

If I want to go today, I need to get going soon, we'll see if that happens.

Edit. Yeah, ended up going but only did calves and shrugs along with light resistance band stuff. Was this the last time before the holidays? I'll do stuff at home, but the gym may be loaded into a truck before I get the chance to go again.

Edited by Shartnado
one more time
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Monday I was very beat and headed home straight after work. I also assumed people had already started packing up the gym. Today I actually went to see if that was the case and since everything was still in place, I decided to get the bench workout in. Warming up with 5x132, 3x220, 3x242, 2x264, 1x275, then 6 "sets" with 286, which meant 1 good rep and 2-3 sad partials on 3 sets, one set with almost two decent reps and one partial and two sets of basically trash nevermind the number. Then 3 not good reps with 275, 2 good and 2 bad reps with 264, an ugly 7 with 242 (5 more like) and the same with 220, then 25x132.

Between reps there were lat pull downs in many different angles, shrugs, lateral raises to the side and some light curls. It was snowing so I didn't do anything involving legs and that was good, since the roads were a mess heading home. Also some real snow plowing waiting for me there, not the leasurely practice I had on Sunday. I hope the roads are cleared by tomorrow morning. Can't promise any more workouts, bur if I do get the chance, I'll try to get the trapbar in one more time before the two week Holiday break.

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Well after a few days off due to the flu I went back into the Ringfit game.  The actual "adventure game" part is odd and honestly not something I care to check out.  But the exercises themselves are worth it when doing custom mode.  It's not meant to really have you do any particular exercise for long though I might check settings to see what can be adjusted.  But it does introduce movements for those non-athletic schmucks like me which could translate to workouts that are longer in length.  I like the idea of making your own sets and will say the one for abs did make things sore for a bit.

And @Shartnado I'm not sure if you're familiar with the game I'm referring to.  But if not then here's Braun and others having a go at it.  

 

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5dUDs3uBBU

(I seem to have embedding issues, but maybe it will work later?)

What's interesting in this video is we get the reveal that Kross is working with a separated AC, and benching a plate a side is hard for him.

Whilst I suspect I'm not in as bad shape as that, I do have something going on on the right side. I hit a 115kg bench on Saturday, which I was able to lock out due to muh strong triceps - but it definitely didn't make my shoulder feel good.

I tried some close-grip yesterday and it was a bit better, but then I tried doing some wide (for me, pinkies in the rings) bench and I definitely felt it.

Could be my bench technique, could be a few things....but realistically I'm going to be best served by cutting out all heavy benching a while and probably keeping the grip close. I might mess around with floor press. But no Bench PRs will be happening this year. Kind of sad, but gotta stay healthy and noone cares how much I bench really.

Squat day today though - not sure what I'm going to do yet buy maybe I am in the mood for something heavy.

 

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Had a visit with my heart doctor, first time seeing him since I was in the hospital for the blood clots. My heart looks good on EKG and doppler, sound good through a stethoscope, my blood pressure was 116/75, and my lungs sound good. He understands the frustration of not knowing why they happened again after 16 years, but does not see the need to order a bunch of tests I can't afford because they wouldn't change what he and the internal medicine doctor are doing right now - Eliquis, 5mg, twice a day for the rest of my life.

 

(adds it to the pile of already existing chronic conditions and shrugs)

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Did a 120kg SSB squat as a heavy single couple of days ago, started to put another 5kg on each side but I decided nah...I was but short on time for assistance/accessory work and it was enough to get the desired effect. I think I get a bit hesitant with depth on the squat rack rather than the power rack, so I was probably not quite as deep as I would like. Adductors were singing the next day, probably thanks to the Good Mornings and Goblet Squats afterwards. Might have to do 'good girls' again lol.

Today I tried some floor press for the first time in a while. My shoulder feels it at first but it seems to get used to it better than it does the bench. 80kg x 5, 90kg x 5 and then 100kg x 4, as the 4th rep stuck a bit near the top and tbh I was originally planning on just trying to so a single so it was all gravy really. 

Couple of other random movements I am enjoying: 

a) Powell Raises - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxK60HYw760&t=11s&ab_channel=InvictusFitness (I am using a bench fwiw), I like the bonus oblique work you get here - it's not a lot but it's something.

b) One-armed Viking Press using a random plate loaded incline chest press machine. The way the lever moves forward is so much nicer on my shoulders than a vertical press, annoyed I didn't discover this sooner!

The way things are looking, I will be joining a workplace with a very nice gym so it will be interesting to see to what extent this changes my training. Having access to an assault bike will be *chef's kiss* but also looking forward to regular access to a deadlift platform - assuming it all happens of course, in this market one doesn't feel too comfortable counting one's chickens.

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Ok, so I came down with a flu, that so far hasn't turned out to be covid. So obviously, no workouts for now. Fever only lasted for an evening, but the sore throat is F'n killing me for the third day now. I obviously have been pushing myself way too hard for too long, as I have been sick twice now inside a month, I guess? Well, now I won't be back to work until January 2nd so I have ample time to recover, but this sort of ends the otherwise pretty badass workout year on a sour note. I will try to get some home workouts in, once I feel normal again, but unless I do some ridiculous amount of push-ups, or something, it will hardly be anything worthwhile to post here.

Ok, so how did the year go, overall? The trapbar stuff went well. That one time I got 601 off the platforms, may go down as my heaviest lift ever. I'm also glad I was able do 568 off the floor which was a record, but I doubt I'll be doing 3x550 again, like I did back in 2018. Getting finally past 200kg (all the way up to 3x460) without the aid of Versa Grips was also a milestone.

Bench hasn't progressed in anything worthwhile, but it hasn't really gone down either, so I guess that's good.

I did some nice stuff on the squat machine a few times, with free squats, I don't know where I stand at the moment.

Against all odds, I think the summer diet went off about as perfectly as I could have hoped. But it certainly took a toll on me. The odds of being able to repeat that performance in the upcoming years are not great, but anything close to it would still be awesome.

On the plus side, I have never looked as lean as I do now, this close to the end of the year. That's not completely positive thing, but it does mean that I can eat pretty much everything in sight for the rest of the year.

Also, overall, it is completely possible that I have consumed less alcohol this year than I have in any of the previous 25, at least. The last 3 years have been heading into that direction. And still, there was enough that the whole year did just suck. Hey, I refuse to limit the amount, but I'm certainly willing to seriously restrict the times, which therefore seriously lowers the overall consumption, which is obviously only positive.

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I'm almost curious to know what I could high-handle trap bar thesedays, but I'll wait for the platform before I even think about finding out. Not 601 for sure lol.

I technically hit PRs on squat, deadlift (with straps) and bench - actually the bench was on a machine that makes it easier to unrack so bit of an asterisk. 

Definitely felt like I was working against age this year in a way I haven't really felt previously.

But I think I learnt a lot about training, both from self-coaching and working with my partner.

My strength goals next year are going to be to add 5kg to bench, squat and deadlift. I'll take more if it's coming, but I'll settle for that happily.
 

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I forgot my shorts yesterday when I went to the gym.

I had two choices, go back and get them or try to do the workout in my borderline ath-leisure trousers.

I chose the former, kind of, but decided to do heavy good mornings as a result. Did 70kg, 80kg, 90kg x 5.

I then found a spot in the group room and did 20inch box step-ups in my boxer-shorts lol. A bit naughty, but I figured people would understand if I was spotted. When I put my pants back on, I had a massive quad pump and they were tight af - I would definitely have broken my trousers trying to do anything with significant knee flexion in them.

The funny thing was is that the workout absolutely kicked my ass, and I even had to take a nap today. I guess we'll call it a Xmas mini-bulk.

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Morning jog and a walk during the day along with some swimming in a spa. Plenty of eating and drinking too, but guys, I'm pulling off the most ridiculous body building physique for this time of year, ever. This is pretty cool. Well, I've still got another week off, to gain some bloat, but so far, this is pretty wicked!

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Shit! The bloating didn't take even a few days to begin, but I did do a bunch of push-ups and some resistance band stuff and the pump at 187 lbs was pretty ridiculous, even if the cut has most definitely taken a hit in just a couple of days!

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I actually skipped a workout! On the 23rd, it was fine because I could do full-body the next day and indeed that is what I did.

I'm on deload now, probably won't see the inside of a gym until January unless I really, really get the itch.

Tbh I pushed my right shoulder way more than I should have and on the 24th I tried some flood db presses and it did not feel good at all. A few days later and it seems to be recovering but benching will be heavily deprioritised for a while. 

I actually hit a 160kg ssb bench squat i.e. it was probably about 2.5 inches higher than parallel, but it's the most weight I've ever had on my back and 20kg more than I've ever had with that bar. Tbh it felt ok, and I could probably have ground out 5-10kg more. Given a belt would probably add 100kg (I meant 10kg lol) with practice using it again, plus it being a safety bar...this tells me that I could potentially hit a big squat this year.  Right now though, I'm not sure how well my shoulder would cope with the barbell.

Edited by SprintingFromAmerica
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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm attempting to pull off dry January for the month (Made it to day 5 so far) and be a lot more consistent about my exercise. Between depression and the pandemic, I went from never thinking I'd get over 200 lbs (hovering a little over an uncomfortable 190 lbs) to I'm consistently around the 225+ mark. I doubt I'll ever get down to a more comfortable 175ish, but I wouldn't mind dropping the bulk of my weight gain over the next few months.

With my schedule, my challenges are the usual culprits.

  • Consistency (I'm kind of pushing to get at minimum 10 miles in a week through running).
  • Getting a healthy amount of weight training in while getting my body back into distance running shape until I can clear 26.2 off my bucket list and focus on weights.
  • My living situation is different at the moment, so blending in diet while cohabitating is something I'm still learning to navigate.
Edited by Chaos
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The new gym is still a work in progress, so many excercises were still a no-go this week. But I managed to get two workouts in but it was a rough start. Bench and EZ Bar curls on Wednesday and Squat machine, shrugs and lat pull downs sitting on the machine, but only using resistance bands instead of weights (since the machine isn't bolted down yet) on Thursday. My chest and triceps were fine after Wednesday, since I did do the push-ups during my time off, but the DOMS on my biceps and elbow joints (but only on the bicep side, not the actual elbow) were (are) ridiculous. It is still very hard to extend either arm fully straight. Well, I guess it must have been effective, then.

@Chaos Good luck with the dry January! I already know mine won't be, but coming off of dry September, (one day shy of) a dry October, a dry November extending close to the halfway point of December, I'll take what I can get and continue with that afterwards.

The Holiday season gave me some new mass (every single gram of it in the gut, apparently), but I don't think I cleared the 190 lbs at any point. Given my own standards, though, I look pretty bad at the moment, so I need to tighten up a bit. It will take more than a few weeks to get there, though.

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  • 2 weeks later...

We got a bunch of new (used) stuff for our gym this week. Last week was 4 workouts, I'll update some highlights if I have the time. (Ok, one highlight, which was 286 on the bench for a clean rep, so it's coming back).

This week has been a mess because it has only been about carrying the new stuff INTO the gym. Today, I did trapbar from the new, higher platforms, and got 1x630 and a few other nice things. That was cool. 

Editing in: the other nice things yesterday were sets of 3x469 without Versas, then 2x586, then the aforementioned 1x630, 3x564 and 7x469. Then plenty of shrugs. Not so nice stuff is that I've been short on time, so no warm-up resistance band work, foamrolling or finishing ab work at all.

We got a large set of dumbells that go from 4,4 lbs up to 88 lbs, so stuff like heavy hammer curls will be consistently back on the menu this year.

The new gym is cramped right now, so we're going to have to weed out some of the less essential stuff, but it should end up OK, eventually.

Edited by Shartnado
Some light editing
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I wrote an update a week ago and lost it. 

Right shoulder still not amazing, I can usually feel it in the morning. Benching pretty light once a week (8,8,8,8,10 on a pause cg bench a few days ago). An kind of front or lateral raise is pushing my luck. OHP seems to be mostly ok though, and I think it is recovering.

New work gym has lots of nice stuff. Good plate-loaded back machines - getting a lot of upper back volume right now. I've used the sled a bit but the TRX they put on it for pulling I haven't really figured out. Attack bike is hard. Glute Ham Device is hard. The hack squat machine has a bit of a kooky strength curve and I think really needs to be used with bands. They have some 'Bulgarian bags' which I will play with soon.

What's also nice is the work has been giving out free pots of stew/casserole and rice at lunchtime which are absolutely perfect for the pre-gym meal.

Squatted 131kg ATG Narrow(ish) stance squat with their SSB - it wasn't super grindy but I suspect I would fail 141kg. Nonetheless I think this compares pretty favourably to the 155kg back squat I hit a few months ago. The SSB looks pretty much identical to the one I'd been using but has thicker padding which changes the positioning slightly. Erectors are definitely limiting factor rn, need to thicken them up. Need to be patient with the right shoulder, there are lots of other things I can focus on.

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Friday I did an intense arm workout with an EZ Bar for behind the neck OHP 3 sets with 106 (20, 15, 15) then 3 more with 85 (20, 20, 12) and between each of these sets I did of pushdowns with a resistance bands a set of standing double bicep curls with the dumbells starting from a pair of 17,5's and finishing with 48,5's getting some 10-12 reps each. Then moving on to heavy hammer curls as promised starting with the pair of 88's and got 8 ugly partial reps each hand. Then the same with 84's, 79's, 75's getting a little bit better reps as the weight decreased. I'm not where I once was with these, but I'll get there or at least close to it, in due time.

Weekend has been heavy eating and resting, so hopefully next week's workouts will be good.

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I've started doing a lot more stability work and I feel great.

I started following Squat University on Instagram, and he posts some nice videos that give you exercises to hit if you're having issues with certain areas.

I have ongoing lower back issues, so I've started doing the McGill Big 3 before every workout. I've also started concentrating on bracing my core more during all lifts. There's also some great shoulder and hip mobility things in there that help with everything else.

Basically, I'm feeling pretty damn good especially since I'm coming off a month+ layoff.

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Couple of weeks ago I realized that I have been slightly overestemating the weight of the squat-machine's bar. I figured it would be around 20 kg, but It's only sligthly over 10 kg. So, I was bummed out about this, so I today I just added more weight to off set that and didn't count the resistance bands at all. So I did 8 reps with 401 lbs and 7 with 423 lbs.

Yesterday, I did bench, but the new bench felt quite different, so I didn't go too heavy. But I did get 5x267 (and 5's with 234, 258), but then I decided to drop down to 139 and see how many sets it would take to reach 100 reps. Well, it took 7. I got 32 on the first and then around 10-14 with each following set, with the last one being 13, ending up with 101 reps.

Monday was arm massacre, both tricep and bicep plus forearms, I'll save the trapbar for Friday, but I need to figure out what could I possibly do, what I haven't already exhausted this week? I guess it's resistance band-city!

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Yeah, Thursday was resistance band city, indeed. Today, however, was one of the craziest trapbar workouts in quite a while.

Starting with the platforms, as last week, but placing another lower platform between them so the elevation was just an inch or so. A couple of 5's with 196, then 5x290, 5x385, 4x480, 3x491 all without Versas. Then with Versas 1x575 and removing the middle platform, 3x619, 1x630, 3x575, 5x524 and 10x480 and then shrugs with 385, 290 and 196 after which was some ab work. This has been one hell of a week. I have eaten way more than usual and sleep has been surprisingly good for once. I shall keep eating huge amounts of stuff to hopefully recover enough to keep this going.

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I ran a hair under 44 miles for the month, which I'm happy with. I just need to make more time to get some weight training in as well as dialing in the diet to start seeing some fruits of my labor. Aiming to break 50 this month, which means by early march I will have hit 100 miles probably the earliest I ever have in a year. 

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So yeah, yesterday I found out that all of my bench records and sets and reps have been off by some 6,6 lbs for years now, as the bar we have been using has been 17kg (37,5lbs) instead of 20kg (44 lbs). Ok, now we do have a 44 lb bar, but I'm thinking of quitting this bullshit altogether. Who the fuck sells weightlifting bars that weigh under 20 kg, unless very clearly specified?!? It never even crossed my mind! Fuck this shit!

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Overall, 3 workouts this week, all of them upperbody. Yeah, there was bench, but I'd rather not talk about it.

I was able to incorporate the one armed dumbell curl on the Scott bench into my workout for the first time in years. It's not exactly a preacher curl, nor a concentration curl, but this used to be my favorite moves ever. I used a 53, 57 and 61,5 lbs for this one, ten reps per set per arm. It's ugly, probably not all that safe, but it soothes my ego soooo good. I do have some sense though and started way more reasonable than a few years ago, easing back into it.

Heavy hammer curls are also back and boy, did I miss those. The dumbell rack has really turned back the time into the mid- to late 2010's for me, and that could be fun.

However, I'm starting to lose patience over the fact that the gym is still a work in progress and this week, there was not that much progress aside from what we were able to do by ourselves. You can really tell it's not any kind of priority for anyone else but the 3-4 people who consistently use it.

I plan to rest a lot and eat everything in sight over the weekend and start next week with the trapbar due to skipping it this week.

Edited by Shartnado
I don't know what kind of curl it is...
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