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15 hours ago, Shartnado said:

You just about halved your weight in that time? That's an amazing feat. Hope the shoulder will be OK, too! Great job!

That is May of 2012, not May 12th of this year. Sorry if there was any confusion.

 

Also Thank you.

Edited by driver
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12 hours ago, driver said:

That is May of 2012, not May 12th of this year. Sorry if there was any confusion.

 

Also Thank you.

Nevertheless, that's still great, and also a lot more sustainable time frame for such a weight loss.

Also, I read that as December 5th (and assuming of 2021), obviously I would not think someone could or should halve their weight in a couple of months, because that would probably be fatal or at least very dangerous. Dropping 10-15% in that time is rough enough business.

Edited by Shartnado
days and months mixed-up
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15 hours ago, Shartnado said:

Belgium has done a number on my diet, but that was the plan. 

I took a contract job in Mechelen (the old capital, a 20m train ride from Brussels Centraal, a few years back, it started in December. It was snowy and cold af, and I was staying in Airbnbs. In the 3 weeks before Xmas, I don't even want to think about the amount of weight I put on.

In the new year, I moved to an apartment in Brussels and I went on the slow carb diet - this meant I could have a fairly epic cheat day on Saturdays but had to rein it in rest of the week quite hard. I dropped about a kilo a week for 12 weeks, which was great, though I'm not sure I could face those early morning tuna, bean and broccoli bowls ever again. The alternative was more weight gain though, I can see this very clearly.

 

 

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I finished up a contract a couple of weeks ago, and do need some R&R. But it has meant a bit more time and energy for going to the gym. Upshot is I've done 8 workouts in the last 9 days, and am toying with doing a bit of back work & cardio today.

At the moment, I'm not really focussing on directly working on big lifts - aside some speed pulls. It's all about hypertrophy and finding weak spots. I tried front squats the other day...my wrists can't handle the rack position and I really find the cross-arm form unstable so I tried it with straps, onto a box - omg, that was all kinds of nasty. I worked up to 1 plate for 6 reps and IT WAS HARD! Both on the quads, spinal extensions, and biceps. I definitely want to progress on this, and I suspect I'll get pretty good carryover to other squats.

I'm also enjoying the opportunity to put certain exercises at the front-end of the workout - it's pretty difficult to progress a leg curl when it's the last exercise of the day. My left front delt, obviously a weak point, is also getting all kinds of destruction. So generally I think it's going well.

I am not 100% sure whether I'll push for a 140kg bench, 180kg squat and 200kg deadlift this year - or whether I'll try to cut. Tbh I suspect I could cut and still get the 200kg deadlift, but it will also depend on what my life ends up being like the rest of the year as I may have to do a lot more flying around.

 

 

 

 

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15 hours ago, Shartnado said:

Nevertheless, that's still great, and also a lot more sustainable time frame for such a weight loss.

Also, I read that as December 5th (and assuming of 2021), obviously I would not think someone could or should halve their weight in a couple of months, because that would probably be fatal or at least very dangerous. Dropping 10-15% in that time is rough enough business.

Thanks. It's been a great journey and keeping it off is a great feeling.

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After a couple weeks of eating like shit and just generally being a slug, I'm back at it.

So, to ease my knee into lifting heavy again, I've come up with a plan.  On MWF, I'm doing the standard Starting Strength program. I'm starting with very very low weight. I figure then I can at least be doing the motions of the major lifts without too much strain. Plus, it gives me a chance to really get back to concentrating on form. I kind of feel like my form (especially on squats) had not been the best lately.

On Tuesday and Thursday, I'm doing my knee PT exercises and some other mobility work. I realized that the exercises I was doing each week in PT were things that I had the equipment and space to do at home (for free). In addition to that, I found this video with some nice mobility work.

I finally realized that I was trying to jump back in too soon with the weight. I need to take a slow, steady path back to where I was. It feels nice to get moving again.

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I've now been in the gym 11 days out of 12, and I will be there with my gf tomorrow. It's been crazy, and I am looking forward to not going to the gym Friday.

After some supported chins & dips, then some plate raises and plate triceps extensions (gf elected for us to do them seated, which lol she regretted), we finished with prone reverse flys and prone 'y's (see video) . They were killer. I did the first set with 2kg dumbbells but just went with nothing on the second set. Key to a high frequency approach is definitely 'more with less weight' - there's definitely a time and a place for throwing weight around, but I am really liking this block of trainings although the fatigue is nonetheless catching up. Trap pump was definitely there.

(From 5m20s - N.B. Friends don't allow friends to do above-the-knee rackpulls)

 

 

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I'm kind of toying with a PPL split at the moment that I actually kind of like; I just haven't really hit upon a frequency that's going to work.  I could just break it as an 8-day cycle, but I almost kinda want to push it to 9 for the extra rest, and just do two days on/one day off for whatever I need to do to complete the cycle.  But I still really haven't worked up to either of those, yet.  Just a few weeks in a row of going at least 3x and going about as hard as I was before I broke myself.

I really needed that trap video; mine are...to put it politely, trash that a trash panda would avoid.  I went with the 5-lbs and the Y-raises were straight murder.  I need more of that.  Mostly I was just happy to almost get 4 rounds of farmer carries with 70 in each hand at the end of Pull day.  Once I can actually finish 4, I'll finally bump that up to 75 and go back to 3 walks.  My right elbow had been fucking screaming with tendonitis for months, but since I got back to doing the carries more regularly, I think it's finally responding with less pain.

Now I get to enjoy the recipe listed below.  I don't make it exactly - I skip the milk, potatoes, and the ketchup, and I use beef broth via Better Than Bullion - but with those changes, it's kind of a little too good.

 

Edited by Contentious C
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Health-related (the monkey pox outbreak) but also REALLY fucking funny. There's "when you see it" and then there's THIS.

To his eternal credit, Ryan is laughing it off and owning the shit out of his most unfortunate typo.

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2 hours ago, Pete said:

Health-related (the monkey pox outbreak) but also REALLY fucking funny. There's "when you see it" and then there's THIS.

To his eternal credit, Ryan is laughing it off and owning the shit out of his most unfortunate typo.

They need to detain this man for the time being, and convince men to find men OTHER than him to have sex with, so this monkeypox-crap can be stopped before it ruins everything once again!

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I have been doing some resistance band/push-up workouts this week (and last week) but that's about it. Well, this should be the obligatory recovery part of my yearly grind, so I may as well enjoy it.

I did find out just now that it takes some 300+ push-ups to get my chest into a similar pump I get from a decent bench workout. First set had to be 100 or more, I lost count, second was 50, third and everything afterwards was 30. Overall less than 10 but definitely more than 5 sets inside maybe 10 minutes, but definitely within 15. Now I'm chowing down dark rice, quinoa, multigrain mix with chicken tenders and vegetables in cream and white cheese sauce. I'm giving Takeshita a run for his money. You should see the junk I have shoved down my throat these past couple of weeks. Now, I can't do that and still stay as lean, obviously, but I know how this goes by now.

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On 7/21/2022 at 3:36 AM, Contentious C said:

I'm kind of toying with a PPL split at the moment that I actually kind of like; I just haven't really hit upon a frequency that's going to work.  I could just break it as an 8-day cycle, but I almost kinda want to push it to 9 for the extra rest, and just do two days on/one day off for whatever I need to do to complete the cycle.  But I still really haven't worked up to either of those, yet.  Just a few weeks in a row of going at least 3x and going about as hard as I was before I broke myself.

I really needed that trap video; mine are...to put it politely, trash that a trash panda would avoid.  I went with the 5-lbs and the Y-raises were straight murder.  I need more of that.  Mostly I was just happy to almost get 4 rounds of farmer carries with 70 in each hand at the end of Pull day.  Once I can actually finish 4, I'll finally bump that up to 75 and go back to 3 walks.  My right elbow had been fucking screaming with tendonitis for months, but since I got back to doing the carries more regularly, I think it's finally responding with less pain.

Now I get to enjoy the recipe listed below.  I don't make it exactly - I skip the milk, potatoes, and the ketchup, and I use beef broth via Better Than Bullion - but with those changes, it's kind of a little too good.

 

The problem with the PPL split is indeed that 6 workouts isn't really doable in a week, at least it's not sustainable. I think you also lose the opportunity to move between exercises antagonistically i.e. Do a push, then a pull, then a push, then a pull etc - I generally think that's more efficient. I also think doing legs the day after murdering the back is quite likely to keep you away from some of the better leg exercises. That being said, I think Upper-Lower splits do tend to put more emphasis on pushes (particularly the Bench Press) and I think the back does need some special attention sometimes. So I think a ULPPL, or some variation of that might be a solid compromise and some people do indeed do something like this - there's a Fierce 5 routine based on that, and Bald Omni-Man on YouTube does something similar (whilst also stretching his training cycle over 8/9 days).

 

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3 minutes ago, SprintingFromAmerica said:

The problem with the PPL split is indeed that 6 workouts isn't really doable in a week, at least it's not sustainable. I think you also lose the opportunity to move between exercises antagonistically i.e. Do a push, then a pull, then a push, then a pull etc - I generally think that's more efficient. I also think doing legs the day after murdering the back is quite likely to keep you away from some of the better leg exercises. That being said, I think Upper-Lower splits do tend to put more emphasis on pushes (particularly the Bench Press) and I think the back does need some special attention sometimes. So I think a ULPPL, or some variation of that might be a solid compromise and some people do indeed do something like this - there's a Fierce 5 routine based on that, and Bald Omni-Man on YouTube does something similar (whilst also stretching his training cycle over 8/9 days).

 

Since this sounds hard af, I'm holding on to my wing it 'til you die program and say to fuck with all y'all!

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I did upper/lower/PPL across the week for the first 10 months I was posting in this thread.  See where it got me.

I just don't have the energy to keep that up, and frankly, I'm close enough to a lot of my aesthetic goals that I could probably just get away with doing one PPL split per week for pure maintenance and I actually wouldn't care.  In fact, I did Push on Sunday and I still haven't done the Pull/Legs since!  Probably going today. MAXIMUM EFFORT! (tm Deadpool)

Clearly the bulk of my plateaus are mental, but I have no willpower to deal with them right now.

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15 minutes ago, CSC said:

So I joined the Peloton cult this week.  

I've only done a couple of rides so far, but I can totally see how people become obsessed with this thing.  

We've had a bike for about a year now, and I'm finally going to start. Like, I'm literally finishing this post and heading to Amazon to order shoes.

I found this workout that I feel like I can use to fit in training on the Peloton with my strength training.  It's for running and lifting, but I believe that I can just replace the running parts with cycling, and it'll be good.

https://www.elitefts.com/education/5-3-1-and-run/

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2 hours ago, Log said:

We've had a bike for about a year now, and I'm finally going to start. Like, I'm literally finishing this post and heading to Amazon to order shoes.

I found this workout that I feel like I can use to fit in training on the Peloton with my strength training.  It's for running and lifting, but I believe that I can just replace the running parts with cycling, and it'll be good.

https://www.elitefts.com/education/5-3-1-and-run/

Cycling's a lot more likely to fuck with leg days, though.  Hard enough rides are leg days unto themselves, but I'd guess you already knew that.

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On 7/29/2022 at 4:59 PM, Contentious C said:

Cycling's a lot more likely to fuck with leg days, though.  Hard enough rides are leg days unto themselves, but I'd guess you already knew that.

I'll be hitting squats before my first ride of the week.

Also, right now, I'm keeping my weight really light for squats due to some knee issues.  I'll probably top out at like 200x5, so I won't be working too hard for a while. Plus, I'm not going to push it too intensely on the bike. I just need to do more than the zero cardio I currently do.

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I tried doing front squats not onto a box like 11 days ago and it was super hurty at like 40kg and I haven't squatted since to be honest. The room with the power rack is one of the hotter rooms in the gym. I have been leg pressing (carefully I might add), and tbh my legs look great as a result but I guess I'll get back under the SSB soon enough.

I actually did the meme lift of 2022 today, by which I mean the Larsen Press. I was definitely able to get good pec activation with it, using a relatively low weight. I think I'll probably use it more for dumbell work though.

 

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On 7/29/2022 at 6:50 PM, Contentious C said:

I'm close enough to a lot of my aesthetic goals that I could probably just get away with doing one PPL split per week

Tbh I think ppl can make gains on PPL once a week. If someone can only train Tu-We-Th for some reason, then probably they should do that.

My problem with such specialisation is that the muscles are probably going to be pretty tired going back-to-back-to-back on a muscle group, and we can probably get slightly better work in mixing it up a bit e.g.

1. (Squat):

- Squat
- Hamstring Movement
- Squat Accessory 1
- Upper Back Movement (Shrugs?)
- Squat Accessory 2
- Optional Bicep Movement 


2.  (Bench Press):

- Bench
- Vertical Pull
- Bench Accessory 1
- Calves
- Bench Accessory 2 or Shoulder Accessory
- Triceps/Biceps

3.  (Deadlift):

- Deadlift or Deadlift variant
- Rows
- Leg Extensions/Squat Variation
- Back Accessory 1
- Optional Hamstring Accessory
- Optional Calves
- Optional Back Accessory 2 or Shoulder Accessory
- Optional Triceps/Biceps
 

I put this together in 10 minutes, but it gives a general shape of how 3 days a week can be programmed with a basic PPL framework. If someone was doing this 3 days a week consecutively, I'd probably remove or at least dial-down the hamstring movement on Squat Day and make the Friday one non-optional and I'd probably dial-down the Vertical Pull a bit as well. But I'd gently suggest this is better programming than a strict PPL/LPP split.

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My last Push day was something like:

  1. Iso-lateral bench press (best replacement I can manage to do for straight bench - easier to overload than dumbbells without snapping my fucking ribcage again)
  2. Flys (2 sets of both arms at once, 1 set of single-arm at the same weight - 140 lb - and crossing over the midline)
  3. Ring pike push-ups
  4. Cable side lateral raises (focusing on keeping tension in a stretched position and controlling the negative)
  5. Single arm overhead cable tricep extensions
  6. Ab stuff, since nothing is a strong enough isometric anyway

Yesterday was Pull and went:

  1. Bent-over rows (wide grip to chest) super-set with bent-over rows to stomach (lighter weight, about 20 reps per set)
  2. Single arm lat pulldowns
  3. Single arm high-to-low cable rows
  4. Rack pulls
  5. Seated curls @ 45 degrees
  6. Cable hammer curls with rope, mechanical drop into pinwheel/cross-body curls

Tonight's supposed to be Leg.  Probably something like:

  1. Deficit RDLs or sumos
  2. Bulgarians
  3. Reverse sprinter lunges at landmine station
  4. Nordics
  5. Leg press myo-reps
  6. Calves if I'm not dead (I may be dead after the myos, I wanted to be dead after I did them last week)

Repeating that, or something like it, 2x across a 9-day cycle feels like enough volume.  Relatively few of the things get repeated every single workout.  The Nordics, the ring Pikes, and the rack pulls are all things that are tough as Hell for me but I fucking love doing them, so they stay.  I kind of make up the rest as I go depending on what I want to focus on that day over something else.  Like, this last Push day was a bit more shoulder, so next time I'm probably going to bias upper chest, or do more vertical pulling the next Pull day.

But considering how my lame attempt at a 5/3/1 nearly broke me, I think I'm just kind of done with bench and probably barbell squats, too.  I don't know if they're really good enough at getting bang-for-buck.  They work for others, but they wipe me out.  Especially with squats: all the accessory muscles, or my core, or my CNS are the things that get zapped way, way, way before my legs. 

 

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