All-Purpose Health and Fitness Thread

[Shartnado]

Ok, I took Monday off but the sitting overhead press and incline dumbell bench seem to be progressing nicely. Got 8, 8 and 5 with the 88's on ohp on Tuesday, with 8 sets overall plus 9 sets of hammer curls with corresponding weights from 66's to 88's and one slow full range of motion set with 44's. Today, I did 5 sets of incline dumbell bench with 88's with 58 reps in total (from 14 to 10 per set), 5 sets of shrugs with 88's and one set with 53's holding the weights at the bottom of each rep for three seconds before pushing back up. I got close to 10 reps, but wasn't counting. There were also some curls done with 26,5's to 39,5's. And a decent bit of abs on both days. So that leaves something for the legs for tomorrow.

[Contentious C]

Finally able to do leg presses again.  I don't know if that's at least in part because of the time off or what.  But I'm only doing 1 leg at at time, and that's probably the biggest help.  Both legs at once - and the amount of weight needed to load that - would punish my still-recovering lungs right now anyway, but it felt like Hell on my lower back where my arthritis is the worst anytime I even tried them prior to getting sick, so I just stopped leg pressing months ago.  Doing single-leg seems to alleviate that.  But my left knee was/is still pretty balky, so instead I did what amounted to tempo work with sets of 6 and focused more on controlling the negative and then making sure my leg path wasn't entirely shitty.  Today I feel pretty good, when normally I feel like something is stabbing both ends of my patellar tendon, so probably onto something with this.

Of course I still have whatever weird pain/stress fracture thing in the back of my right leg that has been there for almost 6 months now, so, hooray.  I feel that a lot more when I'm more axially loaded; it's where the belt squats are the worst offender, so I don't mind skipping them for a bit, thus the need to do leg presses at all (god knows I'm terrible enough at squats that they wouldn't be sufficient for quad development).

[Shartnado]

The work week is at an end, so today I had to put in everything I had into one trapbar workout. The only lift under 200kg was 2x393lbs (178,5kg) without gloves standing on two blocks for a big deficit. Then with gloves 1x466 off the same deficit. Then off the small deficit (one smaller block) 1x494,5 and with Versas (which stayed on from that point on), 1x494,5 off a larger deficit (one larger block). Then 1x516,5 off the floor level, and after that everything was off blocks. 2x560,5 and 1x611,5 off half blocks, 1x684 off 2/3 blocks and 1x727 off 3/4 blocks. Then, off the full blocks 1x790 (after that one, I even took my shoes off) 1x833, 1x833, 1x790, 1x738,5, 3x738,5 (at this point the shoes went back on) 3x695, 4x611,5, 4x674. I opted NOT to do the long rest-pause sets with under 300kg stuff (as there had already been rest-pause stuff in anything more than one rep). I did do 3 sets of shrugs with 400, 305 and 195.

If I counted correctly, I did 21 reps overall with more than 305kg within 10 "sets", half of which were just singles and almost 10 of those reps were 330kg+, plus 7 reps between 211-277kg. And I still walked away from that in one piece and rode the bike home, as usual. I'd say that I did alright. Now four days of rest and a lot of calories.

[StretchMediatedHypertrophy]

We have a small cinema where I work, and they were showing Killers of the Flower Moon on Wednesday. I was considering the gym afterwards, but would have involved too much caffeine too late so I decided to sneak in beforehand - luckily my 16:00 got cancelled (actually I cancelled it, but it was a team decision and it was actually a coincidence I swear lol). I was in a bit of a hurry, but 3 & 4 sets respectively of 12 on the chest press and low row actually gave me doms the next day - I am definitely trying to try harder on these kinds of movements, more of a bodybuilder mentality. I actually then popped back into the office to deal with something that came up on Slack, then came back to the gym for some arm & shoulder work. Caffeine intake was useful for 3.5 hours of movie - excellent movie of course! 

Tbh Monday and Wednesday's workouts were very fatiguing, so I decided not to reattempt my 'focus' lifts (SLDL, Feet back hack squat, OHP) and instead do a volume day. This was the right decision; I'll just list it:

5x5  2" deficit speed pulls

3x8-10 wide-ish grip upright rows

3x16 flat bench flyes / 3x16 TRX inverted rows (Smith was unavailable for planned inverted rows so I improvised)

3x12 feet-fwd wide stance hack squat / 2x15 Kelso Shrugs / 2x20 Hammer Curls

2x16 Plate pullovers / 1x20 GHR

1x25 plate lateral raises (because I had a minute and couldn't face more GHRs)

-----------------------

Obviously, this is a bit of a full-body split - kind of 3 day heavy-light-medium. If I was to stay in this job I'd probably stick with this, but it is a contract and it may end early next year, and then tbh I'd probably try to split the volume between days if I wasn't working.

I am pretty fatigued this morning, but just had a load of coffee & am about to go for a roast dinner buffet so yay!

Generally this year I think I have worked hard & made some gains, but (getting into the recent controversy on Youtube Fitness) I think at my age even vaguely 'power-building' on SBD no longer feels like the way to go. I still like doing lifts, & will still do them - but in a more compartmentalized & specialised way...so no bench (I even dropped Incline) or barbell squats atm, bc I am doing SLDLs and OHP. 

[Shartnado]

Monday evening workout was 10 sets of sitting overhead dumbell press on the incline bench as well as 10 sets of hammer curls. 3 ohp sets with 88's getting 10, 8 and 6 reps, so an improvement from last week. Weights ranged from 61,5 to 88 and reps from 5 to 10.

During the weekend, I managed to get my evening weight up to 201lbs, but it was back down mid 190's by the morning. Also, I had trouble fitting into my suit, but fortunately from all the correct places. Seems like some of the weight gain may actually have been muscle this time, or at least not just fat around the waist.

Let's see how the week progresses from here?

[Contentious C]

Finally had one of those "RAHHHHGHGH I'M THE WOLVERINE" kind of Pull days today.  Did some behind-the-back cable laterals to make sure my shoulders didn't start from nothing.  Started with deadlifts and only did 3x5x255, (3 warmups with bar/135/205) but that was 100% the right setup.  The good kind of struggle where you know you have 0-1 RIR but not to the point where you're certain something in your brain is going to burst.  When the last rep goes down and your response lands somewhere between "YES" and "Oh fuck why did I do that?" it's a good place.  4 sets of rear delt flys with the Freemotion dual cable while I waited for some kid to quit dicking around with the seated row (wanted to tell him, "Hey buddy, you can't *really* focus on your lats that way!  Pull vertical!"), 3x9-10x100 on the rows with a lot of stretch, and my recent go-to with biceps has been to load up the preacher curl (relative for me anyway) and do my top set and just keep dropping.  So today was 5-6 of 65/55/45, then 9 @35, then 20 with just the bar.  That was up from something like 6 of 35 and 13 of the bar from 8 days ago.  I think once I can crack 8 reps at 65, I'll punch it up to 70.  Then some suitcase carries with the heaviest kettlebell until I tapped.

[Shartnado]

As usual, I continued with incline dumbell bench tonight and was able to get more reps overall with the pair of 88's than last week, but it took one more set at least. More than 60 reps if did 6 sets and if I actually did 7, then it would be more than 70, but I'm not sure which one it was. First set was 12 and the last was 7, but I got one or two 13's there in the middle. Did shrugs after each set and maybe 5ish sets of standing double dumbell curls with weights between 26,5 and 44 lbs. Relatively good ab work at the end, better than yesterday, anyway. This afternoon, I weighed 192,5 lbs, but I will do my best not to let it slip under 190 at any point this week.

Tomorrow, it's either Trapbar or the 4-move combo from last week, so rough times ahead, either way.

[Shartnado]

Opted for seal-row, squat-machine, regular bench and pushdowns (with resistance band and the actual machine) for tonight's workout. Granted, I only went heavy on the seal row and a couple of reps with both 264 and 286 went pretty well before starting to lag, badly. Still, improvement from last week.

The squat machine I wussed out on and kept the weight at 284. Did something like 6 sets, first being 5 reps and the last one being 10. I went deep and stopped at the bottom for most of the reps, and once I pulled the safety pin in place the final half a rep was always super slow.

The pushdowns were just something to do between sets.

Bench topped out at 3x263,5, doing more sets with 252 and 230, reps around 3-5, maybe 7 sets overall. I was feeling the first two nights of workouts on my shoulders still.

I may have to and do some hanging upside-down after the night shift is done, as I didn't have the time to do that at the end of the workout. I also have a feeling that the Trapbar tomorrow won't be too spectacular!

[Contentious C]

Leg day and this really fucked me up good.  Started with seated leg curls and really exploded through the concentric.  I was doing 130 before and doing sets of 10-12, but they got pretty sloppy by the last 2-3 reps pretty much always (even the first set).  Did 110 instead and got 3x12-13 with better form throughout.  Then I went for leg presses, and my left knee is finally paying the price for it again.  3x9x135 per leg with slow control on the negative.  From there to belt squats so my quads had nothing left to give.   It didn't take much.  Even more slow control on the negative for 3x10x140 and they were just pain.  Did some calves in the leg press machine again, 3x16x185 with 3-second holds at the bottom of every rep, think I only got 14 on the last set because the pain was a lot.  Then front-foot-elevated lunges in the Smith machine, 3x8x50 with 1 riser in addition to the step (it's one of those plastic dealies where you can pile up however many pairs of risers under the step itself).  My quads had nothing left to give at that point anyway, so my glutes were fuuuuuuuuuuuuuucked.  Which of course is also the point.  I still don't know why lunges absolutely wreck my whole system so much, but they do.

I don't think I'm going to move again for a season.

Oh no, wait, the gym is only open till 3 PM tomorrow.  Gotta do Push day, and some abs.  On Thanksgiving.  Fuck.

Edited November 23, 2023 by Contentious C

[Shartnado]

Yeah, Trapbar! My legs felt stiff as hell despite all the stretching I did last night and this afternoon, but it ended up going better than I figured.

Started with 2x405 off the large deficit without gloves. Then 499 off the one block deficit with Versas and from the smallest deficit without them. 521 off the floor level and then it was off to the blocks. Getting 616,5 off the half blocks and 644 off same. Then 695 off 2/3 blocks. 738 off the 3/4 blocks and then off the full blocks 789,5. After that, I took the shoes off and did 3 separate singles with 833. Then 789,5 again, then 738, 3x695 and 5x600. After that I was running out of time, so just one set of shrugs with 295 and that was it.

So, not as many reps with the big weights as last week, but the 3 singles with 833 was the best so far. Also, the early lifts had some progression from last week.

That's it for this week, the eating of ton of calories shall commence at the earliest convenience.

 

[The Natural]

Went swimming today for the first time since 16th October. The absence down to the abscess and one of the worst depressive episodes since the middle of October till now. Wasn't sure whether to go but glad I did. I went back and forth in my little section then swam the entire length of the pool twice. Did well considering I've hardly done much due to the aforementioned depression plus feeling sick while my body gets used to the increased dosage of my antidepressant. Looking to do Pilates for the first time since the beginning of October this week as well touch wood. The saying that is not the...you know ;).

Edited November 27, 2023 by The Natural

[Shartnado]

Going through my first-ever (proven) bout with Covid-19. Started showing ever so slight symptoms on Sunday, not feeling great on Monday and now it's on. The test showed up positive within seconds, so there was no doubt. I kinda knew this or a regular flu would knock me off at some point, as my workouts have been so rough it can't do good for my immune system. So, this means staying in bed and/or the couch for as many days it takes, trying to get my calories and vitamins in as much as possible. I have to say that my appetite isn't great today, but didn't have any problems with it prior to this.

Edited November 28, 2023 by Shartnado
Typo

[The Natural]

1 minute ago, Shartnado said:

Going through my first-ever (proven) bout with Covid-19. Started showing ever so slight symptoms on Sunday, not feeling great on Monday and now it's on. The test showed up positive within seconds, so there was no doubt. I kinda knew this or a regular flu would knock me off at some point, as my workouts have been so rough it can't do good for my immune system. So, this means staying in bed and/or the couch for as many days it takes, trying to get my calories and vitamins in as much as possible. I have to say that my appetite isn't great today, but didn't have any problems with it prior to this.

Get well soon, pal xxx.

[The Natural]

11 minutes ago, Shartnado said:

Going through my first-ever (proven) bout with Covid-19. Started showing ever so slight symptoms on Sunday, not feeling great on Monday and now it's on. The test showed up positive within seconds, so there was no doubt. I kinda knew this or a regular flu would knock me off at some point, as my workouts have been so rough it can't do good for my immune system. So, this means staying in bed and/or the couch for as many days it takes, trying to get my calories and vitamins in as much as possible. I have to say that my appetite isn't great today, but didn't have any problems with it prior to this.

Hope you have some AEW on the go.

[Shartnado]

3 minutes ago, The Natural said:

Hope you have some AEW on the go.

You bet! Did Rampage +Collision today, although slept through some of it. Plenty of ROH and Impact to go as well, while waiting for Dynamite.

[Contentious C]

Another self-murderous Pull day (not suicidal, because that would imply I want to kill myself in the gym...well...hmm...well.........never mind, moving on).

4x13x145 of bent-over rows to start.  My form has gotten a ton better on these, but I still have room to move up in weight.  I'm probably going to deload starting on the 5th, but that means the next Pull day (Saturday) is going to be a balls-to-the-wall T-bar row day.

Then my drop set of curls, programmed a little earlier to see if I could eke out more reps.  I mostly didn't; considering where I program them otherwise, I did about what I expected: one more rep of everything 45-65, then a whole bunch of reps at 35 & 25.  I think I'll probably throw another bicep exercise in on the next Pull day, or maybe do a set of stuff at the beginning of my Leg day on Thursday.

3x7-9x120 on Lat pulldowns, which are better than they used to be as well.  Much better control on the negative, but I still kinda suck at pausing at the bottom; they tend to be herky-jerky there.

3x10-12x12.5 (maybe more like 25) on rear delt flys.  The Freemotion machine is levered differently than a lot of the other cable machines in the gym, which means it's actually heavier than the weight it says it is.  But pushed these about as hard as I could.  My left shoulder still sounds like a gun going off on half the reps.

3x8x225 on deadlifts to finish self-murdering.  My back is still blown TF up as I sit here, a good 100+ minutes after I finished the last set.  Good shit.

[Shartnado]

Feeling better now. But can't smell anything, at all. The last two days sucked, mostly due to this constant headache. It wasn't headsplitting or anything, but enough to keep me awake despite trying my best to sleep. I've spent 3 of the last four days basically just lying down (did go to work on Monday, as the symptoms weren't too bad at that time yet, and no "fever" in general sense, since my body temperature is freakishly low).  Tested positive on Tuesday morning, by the way. I have been able to eat, despite having no appetite, so the weight hasn't gone down and I'll try to keep it that way.

Man, it feels good to be back, despite not really being back yet. The thing about the headache was that it just didn't let up. I kept taking paracetamol and ibuprofen, while icing my forehead and massaging my temples and that only worked a little bit, until you stopped. The thing about constant (mild) pain is that a lot of times, there IS a way to get rid of it, but that involves a short period of much more intense pain. This didn't seem to work in this case. It did work, however, on Saturday as my lower back was feeling very stiff from the trapbar etc. but lying on a hard rubber ball and working on my glutes for a good while made all of that go away. So the continuous temple massaging (that was also painful) having little to no effect was very frustrating. I'm glad that's over for now.

Edited November 30, 2023 by Shartnado
Added info

[Technico Support]

The title of my gym memoir shall be “THERE’S ALWAYS SOMEBODY ON THE FUCKING PEC DECK”

[Shartnado]

I was hoping to announce that for this evening, Shartnado has entered the Light Heavyweight division, but the scale showed 203,1 lbs, so still missing a couple in order to get there. I wish the 13-year old me could see me now! "You'll be over 200 lbs eventually, kid, but you won't be a wrestler and you will be very thankful for that!"

[Contentious C]

6 hours ago, Technico Support said:

The title of my gym memoir shall be “THERE’S ALWAYS SOMEBODY ON THE FUCKING PEC DECK”

Frankly, I feel my pecs a LOT LOT LOT more since I switched to free weights on the flat bench.  Granted, I'm a big gangly MF with long arms, so I can really customize the level of deep stretch I get at the bottom, to the point that I think a fair number of beginner-to-intermediates would cry if they tried to get as close to the floor.  But, the proof is in the gains; my chest is starting to really respond in the last month+ of finally going back.

If I did the pec deck, it was usually one arm at a time, again with as much stretch as I could do.  But I had to load it up so much (120 lbs on that is about as hard as a 25-30 lb. dumbbell, so take that for what it's worth) that it wasn't feasible with respect to my biceps and elbows.  I don't really care for the reverse flys on them, the range of motion being the big issue; I feel like doing rear delt stuff is better with the Freemotion/cables if you get your arm angle grooved in correctly. 

Tonight is Push day, in fact, and I'm not sure what I'm going to do.  Probably 60s on incline DB for whatever I can manage, and some Smith OHPs, along with the usual assortment of lateral raises.  Maybe I should just say "fuck chest" other than the inclines and blast my shoulders into total submission tonight.  Y raises, cables with the pin set at about medium so the beginning of the motion is the hardest part, and some heavy DB partials supersetted with whatever fucking weight I can still lift.  Yeah.  That sounds like painfun.

[Log]

About a month ago, I pinched a nerve in my upper back/neck. Damn thing would NOT go away. Finally, in the last week or so, it's gotten better. I still have some residual pain in the back of my right shoulder/tricep. I suppose it may be from favoring it so long.

This week, I'm going to attempt to get moving again. Going to do some light dumbell/kettlebell stuff just to do the movements. Maybe work in a Peloton ride or two as well.

The good news is, my son has gotten super into working out. So, he said he'd work out with my as I get back into it this week. It'll be a good chance for me to work with him on proper form. He does a great job with that, but like most boys, he wants to push the weight a little too soon. I've really been drilling into his head that you can't get stronger or bigger being hurt and not working out, so it's best to do it right.

He saw Santa yesterday. Asked him for a "real bar" to workout with. I found a 5lb barbell for kids. It's just like a full-size one, but scaled down. Also got him some 5lb bumper plates. He's going to love it. He told me his dumbbells are just getting too light for him. He "needs" more weight. This bar will be a nice way to get him doing squats, deadlifts, etc. early on in the right way.

[Technico Support]

On 12/1/2023 at 4:45 PM, Contentious C said:

Frankly, I feel my pecs a LOT LOT LOT more since I switched to free weights on the flat bench.  Granted, I'm a big gangly MF with long arms, so I can really customize the level of deep stretch I get at the bottom, to the point that I think a fair number of beginner-to-intermediates would cry if they tried to get as close to the floor.  But, the proof is in the gains; my chest is starting to really respond in the last month+ of finally going back.

 

Thanks!  I should try getting back into dumbbell flys.  That's one exercise I never really liked the feel of while doing them.  I am lucky that the pec deck at my gym, when it is available, is adjustable all the way back (because you can also do rear delts on it), so I can go really deep with it.  Typically, if I can't get on the pec deck, I'm doing cable flys instead.

[Technico Support]

Just now, Log said:

He does a great job with that, but like most boys, he wants to push the weight a little too soon. I've really been drilling into his head that you can't get stronger or bigger being hurt and not working out, so it's best to do it right.

To paraphrase Smokey Bear, only you can prevent kids from ego lifting.

[Shartnado]

Back to the gym today. It was rough. 4 sets of incline dumbell bench 2 sets with 79's and 2 with 88's. Hammer curls with same weights. 4 sets of regular bench with 230, rep range 5-8, 2 sets with 164, reps 12 and 20. 6 sets of incline seal row. Only went up to 264 and it was very hard. 242 and 220 went a little bit better. Some light and somewhat heavy side delt work, push downs with a resistance band and a couple sets of seated curls on the incline bench. Limited ab work at the end. Pump was decent, but this was not a great return. And I only have two work days this week, so tomorrow is the only other gym day. Rest of the possible workouts have to be done at home.

The 205 lbs on the scale ended up not happening. 203.9 was the best I could do. I'll probably get there this week, however!

[Contentious C]

1 hour ago, Technico Support said:

To paraphrase Smokey Bear, only you can prevent kids from ego lifting.

And lifting any real weights before their growth plates fuse, so they don't turn into short kings.