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Super Ape

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Just checking in. So I started the treadmill thread on 8/29/2020. I am a short guy. I'm 5'5". I had been fairly overweight for my height, a little over 175 at my highest. I primarily wanted to get healthier for the kids as I am turning 40 this year and didn't have nearly the energy I did five or ten years earlier. Through using the treadmill and portion/snack control, I'm now down to around to 140 or so. I'd like to drop another five pounds just to make it a clear 40 and to make it easier to keep off without doing the religious every other night. I'd like to go down to 2-3 days a week that I run instead of 3-4 and just maintain. I have gained a lot of speed/stamina to the point where I can generally get 2.5 miles on 3.5 height within 30 minutes. Relative to where I was at the beginning that's a lot better, but the gains are slighter than they were. Recently, I had a few set backs, including a weird thing with my heel, but nothing too bad. 

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Today's workout sucked, too.  Granted, it's only been a week-plus, but there is a part of me questioning if maybe I'm just too fucking old to be doing 5 workouts a week.  I'll quit being a baby soon, hopefully.

Whatever I did to my ankle/Achilles area last week is still troublesome, but lifting today didn't make it worse, necessarily.  My shoulder, on the other hand, is stiff as Hell.  Glad for the day off tomorrow.  Did a lot better with the half-assed Nordic curls this time - closer to 3x10, though I wonder if that's because I made them easier by ducking my head more and changing the moment arm of the exercise.  Regardless, between those and the leg curls (and the rest of my leg/lower body workout), I'm looking forward to getting my stronger hamstrings back that I had this time last year.

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20 hours ago, Contentious C said:

Today's workout sucked, too.  Granted, it's only been a week-plus, but there is a part of me questioning if maybe I'm just too fucking old to be doing 5 workouts a week.  I'll quit being a baby soon, hopefully.

What's your age, exactly? The possibility that you may not be ready yet (at the moment), to have 5 workouts a week (every week) does not, fortunately, HAVE to equal you being just too old for it. Hey, it also COULD be the case, but most likely, you just need to rest and recover more. You add more workouts to your week once you feel like you are up to it. You're not too old for something, until The Law, or your own children, tell you so!

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I just turned 42, so, like I said, big baby.  But I'm also a type 1 diabetic, and that complicates a lot of what I do.  I think it was mostly the lack of good sleep the prior two nights.  I'm not feeling particularly leg-sore from yesterday, and I usually use that as a gauge of how things went.  But I also know I only went at about 60-70% yesterday due to being tired, and leg/lower days are ones where I have to absolutely commit self-murder to feel like it goes somewhere.

I've also only been back in the gym for 5-6 weeks now; I'm probably still firmly in the neurological adaptation phase and likely will be for about another month. 

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17 minutes ago, Contentious C said:

I just turned 42, so, like I said, big baby.  But I'm also a type 1 diabetic, and that complicates a lot of what I do.  I think it was mostly the lack of good sleep the prior two nights.  I'm not feeling particularly leg-sore from yesterday, and I usually use that as a gauge of how things went.  But I also know I only went at about 60-70% yesterday due to being tired, and leg/lower days are ones where I have to absolutely commit self-murder to feel like it goes somewhere.

I've also only been back in the gym for 5-6 weeks now; I'm probably still firmly in the neurological adaptation phase and likely will be for about another month. 

Yeah, this sounds like you don't really have to worry about it just yet. De-load weeks, more rest, better sleep, healthy diet and all the things you probably all ready know at this point, should do the trick. You'll bounce back in due time.

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18 hours ago, Control said:

I usually work out six days a week, and have been for a long time. Went on vacation and took a four-day break for the first first time in months. Ate and drank like a pig.  No regrets.

Another good Push day for me.  Thursdays are quickly becoming my favorite day - good dead-hamster feeling in the shoulders, tris, and chest.  Could barely lift the weights to re-rack them after my shoulder giant sets.  Went up in weight on nearly everything from last week.

Still really struggling with DB presses, mostly due to my wrists and my grip.  Can't really go up in weight there at all, so I've been stuck doing 30-35 and more reps, or heaving up 40-45 and fighting through 6-8 reps.  I have ganglion cysts in both wrists, so any kind of backwards pressure for any length of time becomes rather un-fun (one reason I don't do push-ups if I can avoid them), but I also just don't feel strong enough to hold the DBs in a neutral enough position for long enough, either.  Something will have to improve, or I may need to do more forearm strengthening things on Pull day - probably some hangs at the end tomorrow. 

Otherwise I'm finding my biggest issue is joint stability overall.  I'm trying to find ways to get some pressure out of my elbows and shoulders - using more assistance and more careful reps on dips, for example - so they don't feel like garbage.  Maybe I should double up my glucosamine supplement, for that matter.  I should probably shorten ROM on some of the triceps stuff, too, since there's no need whatsoever to lock out on a triceps exercise.

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I took Monday off, as I missed my warm meal at work due to things being hectic and shitty. So, on Tuesday I went in well rested and did the usual Monday workout. Kept the extra weight on pull-ups at 55 lbs, but increased dip and reverse shrug to 88 lbs. Did 4 sets of pull-ups and 3 sets of dips and reverse shrugs with those weights, then took 11 lbs off each round until only bodyweight. This took more than 30 minutes, with the only rest between sets was the taking off and putting on the extra weights to the chain. For the first time, reverse shrugs went to an actual failure at the end when using only bodyweight.

Chest flies, the lat pull-down combo and push downs with the resistance bands followed, as usual.

Wednesday was a pretty heavy leg day. Very similar to last week. Squat machine with first 10x 154 with full stop at the bottom with each rep, extension when standing up. Similar 10 with 264. 3 sets of 12 with 352, trying to go deeper and deeper but with no extension on top. Then 3 sets of calf raises with 352, then one more set with each of the lighter weights for both squats and calves.

Today was bench. 5x176, 3×242, 3x264, 1×275, 1x286 (did two more partials, but they don't count), 3×264, 5×253, 8x242, 12×220, 18×176, 23x132. The usual small stuff between sets and 3 sets on the lat machine.

If I get the trapbar tomorrow, then this has been a pretty heavy week, despite only 4 workouts!

...And yes, Friday was indeed a Trapbar day and it was pretty bad-ass! Did a warm-up with 12x140, 12×242, 10x352 (without Versa Grips), 6x430 and then 8, 6, 7 and 6x451. So that's 33 reps with 430 or more and also over 20 reps within 3 sets with 451, so I'm more than fine with it. A few sets of shrugs for the finish plus the mandatory ab work. Good week over all, to counteract the shitty week at work.

Edited by Shartnado
I humbled the trapbar!
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Pull day is one step - or maybe two - closer to being less like garbage.

I skipped deadlifts altogether, and that's probably a good thing - it would have wrecked me to the point of non-functionality.  This was more of a back-centric workout, so naturally I started it with biceps.

I think I ascribe to the notion that it's actually better to do isolation first when that isolation muscle has a chance of jumping in when it's not supposed to, so pre-exhausting my biceps kept back things in my back as intended.  I was able to feel a lot more "squeezing my shoulder blades" to initiate Pendlays, for example.  I committed biceps murder - biceppuku? - by compounding incline DB curls with iso alternating DB curls, then 3 sets of single-arm cable curls with my arm starting behind my body, then 3 sets of curls with the rope (effectively starting as a hammer then trying to pull it apart at the top), then a tri-fucta set of reverse grip curls/narrow grip curls/wide drag curls with the EZ bar.  Biceps = toast.

Then I went to Pendlays, then I did Meadows rows, which are basically just single-arm landmine rows with your elbow as far back in your stance as it needs to be to light up your lats and mid-back (both during the rep and on the stretch).  These were a lot more intense than I expected, and I'm definitely keeping them in the rotation from now on.

Pull-ups remain garbage.  The assisted pull-up is probably getting in the way now, if anything, as I'm hunching forward too much too early.  I think I'm going to either do inverted rows in a squat rack, or I'm going to do them with the gymnastics rings set-up.  It should be a lot easier to keep my chest more open with those until I get some real vertical pulling strength.

Pullovers were also still a mix of good and garbage, as my shoulders still hate it, and doing 2 DBs instead of 1 didn't improve things.  I think what I'm going to have to do is drag a bench over to the cable machine and do these with the cable EZ bar - probably the only good way I can get my arms to travel back safely and consistently on each rep without doing more damage to my joints.

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I won't quote the entire block of text by @Contentious C , but would want to comment firstly, that biceppuku is most definitely a thing, a serious thing and should never be entered lightly. It has been quite a while I've committed one, but I have come close on a few occasions in recent times. To me, it's usually the combinaton of triceppuku and biceppuku (I know, I know, I totally just made up triceppuku, that's not a real thing).

The "Squeezing my shoulderblades" on a lot of things was a thing that took me a good while to pay any attention to. Now I try to do that even in things in which it wouldn't be necessary.

I've been meaning to try that Scott bench EZ bar cable curls for a long time, but we don't have an EZ bar for the cable. I'm sure I could try it with a straight bar to get that full sloooooowwww extension on each rep. Sounds yummy!

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I had a deload last week, though truth is I really only skipped 2 workouts as I had stuck two workout in at the end of the cycle a day early and there was literally 7 days between workouts.

Unfortunately though I've not been feeling great this week (2 bob bits basically), so having done my upper-lower on Sunday and Monday I didn't go back until Thursday and the Upper workout was slightly reduced intensity. I had that slightly cold sweat in the gym which lets me know I'm not really feeling it, but I had drank 2L of Slovakian cola and managed to push through feeling like the workout was still helpful - some might say better to stay home, but I don't like letting my body getting to determine whether I work out or not, which is not to say I won't listen to it either - it just doesn't get the final say, if that makes sense.

I decided I'd try a Wendler 5-3-1 cycle for bench and alternate it between speed days rather than do any Max Effort days. I actually chose a quite aggressive formulation, basing calcs on a true max rather than a training max. So my top (5+) set was 90kg using a pretty close grip for a set of 8, 1-2 reps in reserve. I then went with pinkies just inside the rings 70kg for 12 - I'm actually quite weak that wide, partly due to lack of practice - so I get a good chest pump that way. Then I actually tried a supinated pull down, for a change, and I actually quite liked it though I think it's probably better suited to a secondary pull as a hybrid back and bicep exercise. I did some of the usual fluff and pump after, but only the 1 set for biceps - which was infact a hammer curl.

I'd say I'm 95% well this morning and I will go do Lower Body day this morning, but won't try to kill it. Will stick with speed work on the squat, but will probably drop the speed pulls and instead do both GMs and Hip Thrust Machine as my main accessories. I'll probably do a 5-3-1 cycle on Squat and Deadlift at some point but I don't feel like it's quite the time. 

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I did my heavy upper body day last night.

4x8 Dumbbell Incline Bench Press with 80 lb. dumbbells,  It is time for me to raise the weight, but getting the weights from the floor to my lap in order to lift them is a struggle.  I've done 85s on a flat bench, but that's probably my limit at this point.  

I skipped the barbell bench press and will be doing it today.  I feel like lifting heavy on both a flat and a decline is limiting my ability to really load up on both.  We'll see how it goes.

3x8x180 and 1x6x180 on the lat pulldown.  It's about time for me to go up to 200, but 180 was a pretty big challenge.  

I'm looking for a new alternative to the cable seated close grip row.  I'm able to do 180, but it puts a huge strain on my lower back just to hold myself in position.  I tried the chest supported row machine at my gym, but it put even more strain on my back than the seated row.  I tried a machine, but it didn't feel like I was hitting the rhomboids like I wanted.  The back issue stops me from doing pendlay rows, but I need to find something.  

I had to go down with on the arnold press this week because someone was using the 65 lbs., but I was able to get a strong 4x8x60.  Last week I did 1x8x65, 1x6x65, 2x6x60.  

After all of this, I went to tricep pushdowns, and was able to do 2x10x70, 1x8x70, and then tried to go down to 60 and could only do 4  reps.  My triceps just couldn't push any more.

Then I went to the bane of my existence, the incline hammer curls.  I'm a pretty strong guy, I do 80 lb. curls on a EZ bar pretty easily.  When my elbows get behind my back, that weight goes down pretty fast.  After about a month of struggling, I was able to do 4x8x30 lbs. and I felt like Superman for about 3 seconds before I realized that next week I'm going to have to go up in weight.  These kill me...like more than any other exercise I do.  These suck the worst by far.  It feels like my arms are going to fall off by the end of the last set and nothing else make me feel that way.

I weighed in today at a strong 202.9 lbs. I've been somewhere between 202-205 for about 3 months and while it's frustrating that my weight hasn't moved much, I'm consistently moving more weight in the gym so it evens out.  Honestly, I think I'd be even further along with progression if I didn't have the back problem.  With that said, the back problem does force me to lift with much better technique, because I can't use my back to compensate.  I just wish I could do more complex lower body movements.  The only complex lower body exercise I can do are dumbbell lunges, which were one of my worst exercises until fairly recently.  I always felt off balance and had trouble keeping my posture straight, but now I can probably balance a cup of water on my head while doing lunges.  

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22 hours ago, RunningFromAmerica said:

I'd say I'm 95% well this morning and I will go do Lower Body day this morning, but won't try to kill it. Will stick with speed work on the squat, but will probably drop the speed pulls and instead do both GMs and Hip Thrust Machine as my main accessories. I'll probably do a 5-3-1 cycle on Squat and Deadlift at some point but I don't feel like it's quite the time. 

Right, so in the end I did do a week 1 of 5-3-1 for Squat, as when warming up I realised I had no explosiveness in me whatsoever despite pre-gym and Amenra and so speed squats probably would be a waste of time. My max on a 12ish inch box squat with SSB Bar totally Raw is 130kg, probably wasn't a true balls out max - but given my non-100% condition I took 10% off it to convert it to a training max for calcs. I went with the Heavier early sets though, so 85kg for 5, 92.5kg for 5 and then 100kg for 5+....which ended up being 8, though I had to take a sneaky extra breath on the last one. I noticed my lower quads on these, which is really not something I'm used to. I guess I'll have to work the leg extensions again.

My main accessories were SSB Good Mornings (fairly close stance, 3 x 12, 50kg, 55kg, 60kg) and neutral grip machine row (3 x 12, 70 kg). Yes rows are a squat accessory.

I then did DB RDLs - wasn't used to the exercise, and kept it really light with the intention of building them up. I think these are going to be a good accessory with decent stimulus-to-fatigue.

Finishers were 2 sets 12-15 of leg curl, seated calf press, heel raised goblet squats, and fat-grip hammer curls, then 1 set of leg extensions because I see them as a necessary evil but don't want to do a lot of volume on them.

I have a little leg stiffness this morning, where you know you did a workout yesterday - but no DOMS per se. This is generally what I aim for. DOMS will happen from time to time, but I definitely don't chase that feeling. Though I've worked my triceps pretty hard with pushdowns at times admittedly.

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*Not a Doctor* but I somewhat simulate a reverse-hyper machine by attaching a band or bands to a door anchor and then lying down underneath and putting my ankles inside. You can obviously just lie there and enjoy the elevation, but you can then play with trying to lower your legs to the ground - and with heavier bands over time. This might help the back issue a bit.

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Some plans fell through and I was a bit pissed off.....so I actually got my Upper Body workout in a day earlier than planned, and I was able to do speed work on bench at 77.5kg..which is as high as I've gone on speed work...reasonably well. I have realised that the key is using the stretch reflex to create the speed and although I'm still working on nailing that every time...it felt like a breakthrough of sorts.

I went back to a widish grip for my hypertrophy work, but I brought the grip in so I'm a cm inside the rings and this feels like a much more comfortable position for me, and I seem to be able to lift more weight.

Having done quite heavy machine rows yesterday, I went to the assisted machine for the first time in a while and did 2 sets of 12 with a weight that I'm frankly ashamed of. And it was hard, but I was doing them absolute full ROM and they will be progressed.

Further assistance work was JM Presses/Wide Grip Upright Rows supersets, a couple of farmer walks with kettlebells, and then a superset of standing ab cable crunches and seated deadstop barbell curls - I chose this because it enables me to use a grip width similar to benching in a way that doesn't murder my elbows, and because the upright rows were causing me leg cramps as I'd done legs the day before so I needed a seated technique (as opposed to say a standing wide-grip EZ curl). I had a good bicep pump afterwards, and I think my method of doing some pulling and then doing a couple of sets for biceps/brachialis every workout is leading to gains.

 

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Last couple of workouts have been a mixed bag.  I think I'll have to structure Upper day the way I did Lower day today: pick a muscle and shred that before moving on to something that targets another muscle.  The only exception there would be biceps/triceps, which superset well together.  It's probably the only way to feel like I pushed something as far as it will go in that workout.

Didn't do deadlifts either day, though I did glute-focused sumo deads today.  Those went into my lower back a little, but not a lot; I probably needed the work regardless, and I count lower back as lower-body work anyhow.  Will have to put the regular deads on Pull day just so they get done this week. 

Can't do the hangs for working my grip, either, as my shoulders fucking hate me for it.  My right one is usually worse, but after doing 30+ seconds of a hang yesterday, my left arm felt like Chewbacca was pissed at me.  Farmer carry is going to have to get the job done on Upper/Pull days, too. 

Also can't do single-leg hip thrusts, as I'd forgotten what my attempts at those during the Home Workout Days were like: for whatever reason, the muscles in my hip contract so hard that, for the next few days, my hips will randomly lock up and cramp so severely that it threatens to throw me to the ground.  Some of the worst pain I've ever felt, too.  Don't get that with barbell hip thrusts, but damn if it isn't annoying as fuck to get into position for those - maybe the only drawback there is to being tall.  I wonder if I can just do them on the Smith machine to make the set-up easier.

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It's a bit girly lol, but sometimes hip thrusts can be done on the leg extension machine. I used to do it sometimes but my gym actually has a hip thrust machine now.

But yeah, I don't think there's any real issue doing them on the Smith Machine really (and I'm not generally a fan of the Smith Machine).

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Push day continues to be my favorite.

I basically did this workout in something close to entirety, with a few additional things thrown in:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJtmffaT4wc

I tossed in seated landmine presses between the cable fly and the rest-pause incline DB, and I compunded the incline DBs with coffin presses.  Shoulders were even crazier, as I put the front raises towards the end and did some single-arm DB OHPs to start off that Set of Misery and an extra light-weight lateral raise in there after the heavy DB partial to just nuke the muscle.  My right shoulder was just fucking shot at the end of doing 5(!) exercises in a row, but they feel pretty good now (roughly 75-90 minutes later).  For triceps, I compounded French presses and lying extensions like I had in the past, then I did 3 sets of 21s at 40 lbs (these were disgusting and I will keep doing them), and then I decided to be a real dick to myself and just finish the whole thing off with 3 sets of close-grip bench (only 65 lbs, but at that point, that's all I had in me anyway). 

Abs were just as masochistic.  Decided to do decline situps for once, which I typically don't like since your hip flexors jump in so easily.  So, I just cut the ROM and curled my torso up, forcing all of it into one disgusting contraction for my abs.  Went back and forth between those and the leg raise station until my abs just said, "Nah, we're good".  Something like 15/11/7/1 for the declines and 10/8/7/5 on the leg raises.

Only big annoyance was Incline DB presses, which went STRAIGHT down my left radius and into my elbow.  It was like I had 5x as much weight on that arm because it was so focused right in that spot.  I have a family history of carpal tunnel syndrome, and I'm definitely suspecting that this is how mine may be manifesting itself, what with all my other grip-related issues.  I think I'm going to have to switch to the barbell, or I'm going to see if I can use the Jammer press machine instead at an incline.

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I'm doing the cycle of 5-3-1 for Squat and Close Grip Bench in lieu of Max Effort. So yesterday was '3' day for Bench.

My CG is not as close as some, I'm not quite at the edge of the grip - but it's still distinct enough from my medium bench that it feels a bit different. Despite eating a load of protein and rice beforehand, I didn't quite find my groove somehow - my plus set was 95kg and my fifth rep just stuck...I managed to lock it and rerack but I was disappointed, expecting at least a couple more reps. It may have been because I chose the heavier option for the first two worksets (85 and 90, as opposed to 75 and 85), maybe I should have rested a minute or two extra. Maybe a little more caffeine would have helped. I dunno.

I decided I would take the 'Joker' option and try 100kg, and I got 5 again - which was fine, but when we go for 100kg again next as our main plus-set I do hope to add a rep...6 reps would give me a calculated 1RM of circa 120kg, which would indicate circa 127.5kg on normal bench....about 8 kg off what I would like to try to hit this year. But there's a difference between a calculated 1RM and an actual 1RM of course.

Once I complete my 5-3-1 waves, I'll have a pivot week where I actually do some heavy barbell curls as I think they're a weak link in my bench eccentric phase. Then we'll start doing some more maxes to see where I'm really at, and where my other weakness are.

SSB Box Squats for a '3' day today. Let's see how it goes.

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Work totally kicked my ass this week, so yesterday was the only workout of the week.

Went for bench and lat pull ddown to the front on the machine with short resistance bands for extra resistance when closing in on the chest.

Bench went like this 5x176, 5x242, 3x264, 1x286, 2x297 (not all the way to the chest, but good enough), 3x275, 3x264, 7x253, 7x242, 11x220 and 35x132.

In between sets  (aside from the 5 sets of the lat pull downs) , I did curls, side delts and shrugs.

I hope next few weeks will be better. The workout itself was better than I expected, but the week has been terrible.

 

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12 hours ago, RunningFromAmerica said:

SSB Box Squats for a '3' day today. Let's see how it goes.

So I did my sets at 85, 95 and 105kg - and I got 8 reps on the topset. I felt like I had 1, maybe 2, in the tank on the last set and I didn't need an extra breath this time. Didn't feel like I wanted to do a Joker set to be quite honest. I felt my left knee a bit, but it seemed to go away. Generally happy with the performance given I had mild hamstring DOMs yesterday. But I did drink a Monster Punch energy drink (Bang isn't really a thing in Europe yet) so was a bit more caffeinated than yesterday.

To be clear, I'm going without a belt or sleeves/wraps...so I like to think that's equivalent to about 130-135 kg on a straight bar free squat with a belt. I do have a set of wraps and I may use them for a max at some point. 

My throwing in some 531 work isn't really in the spirit of 531, for reasons I may talk about....it's just about getting a bit of volume in at a heavy weight as I continue to get back in the swing of things at the gym.  I'm still a Conjugate guy at heart.

I ramped up to a set of 8 on the power stance GM - 80kg felt good, probably could have made another jump but GMs are not to be trifled with.

I'm throwing in some heel elevated ATG goblet squats and dumbbell RDLs for a bit of extra volume, and to prepare for ultimately maxing without the box as well as slowly but surely bullet-proofing the knees. Also continuing to do back every workout, just 3 sets of low row because I felt my backwork didn't really hit the lats much yesterday. 1 set each of leg curls, extensions, seated calf and, yes, EZ bar bicep curls sealed the deal.

Looking forward to the weekend off ?

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