All-Purpose Health and Fitness Thread

[The Natural]

8 hours ago, The Natural said:

Can relate to the knees. I wear a left knee brace whenever I'm outside. It's like the Kenta Kobashi Velcro knee brace with metal hinges and the open knee hole. Picking my new one up today.

Well I was supposed to be. My new orthotic fitter is useless getting the knee brace and insoles wrong. It was supposed to be a simple pick up today. I've had orthotics since the age of 3, I'm 39 and he's the worst I've had in that time.

[Shartnado]

Heavy Tuesday. I did Meadows Row pyramid from 139 to 266,5 to 139, with 4 sets per arm with over 220 lbs, 8 sets overall, then some squat machine, warming up with 3x220 with stopping at the bottom, and the same with 3x315. Then 5x410 and 6x454, going nice and deep with both of them. My best showing so far, as far as range of motion goes. Then 5 sets of standing calf raises, starting with 2 sets with 454. Then one set per leg of sitting calf raises, with an 88 lb dumbell on my knee. Just a little bit of abs at the end, no grippers today.

[Contentious C]

I feel like I'm finally starting to progress...somewhere...again, if slowly.  Today was Back, so I did bent-over rows off a step, 3 sets at 145 for 10/10/8 and those were pretty brutal.  Not as brutal as watching the guy next to me doing slop rows with lifting straps and a belt with awful ROM for 165 at the top end (can't blame your potentially bad back for your form, buddy: I've got arthritis and I still do them close to parallel!), but bad enough.  Did some assisted pull-ups for sets of 10.  I don't know what I weigh these days, but I used 65 lbs of assistance, so probably something in the 120-125 range.  Good control, good stretch, pause at the bottom.  Then I did some lat prayers that did a fair job of lighting up my rear delts too: 50 lbs for 3 sets of 15.  Finished off with 2 sets of deadlifts at 235 for 10 reps. 

Pro-tip on your deadlifts: the bottom is the hardest part!  Quit doing those touch-and-go reps, especially if you're doing higher(ish) rep counts, because you probably need to get better at that initial pull anyway!  That and the "hear the bar click inside the weight plates so you know you're engaging your lats" are probably the two best cues I've had for it.

The rows and the DLs were a little bit of weight progression, so that felt good.  Tomorrow is Chest, we'll see how that goes.

[Shartnado]

Chest-based day today, with regular bench and resistance band chest fly variations. Once again, a litte bit of recovery progress, as the bench went from 154 to 208 and back down to 154, but I had to skip a few weights on the way down. Went from 187 straight down to 154, as the resistance band variations between each set started to take its toll. Some light dumbell curls  in there somewhere and hanging knee and leg raises at the very end.

As I checked the Studio app for making some workout clips, I noticed that I could use music from my phone as the soundtrack, if I had any (aside from my Lego Movie ring tone). Well, that's fixed now, as I started by copying some of my favorite Judas Priest tracks from my laptop. We'll see if I get good enough at making them, so I could maybe upload some of them on Youtube for a short period of time next year? And link them here, obviously, but I won't guarantee anything.

[Technico Support]

It's been too cold and/or rainy to run outside lately and I HATE doing long runs on the treadmill at the gym.  So lately I've been doing a hard 35 minutes on the treadmill (2.75 - 3 miles), then 35 lifting (two day split).  This week I did that Sunday and Monday, but then ran six miles Tuesday since it was actually warm outside.  My legs were tapping out this morning so I just did about 70 minutes of chest/tri/shoulders today.  Probably returning to the run/lift split to finish off the week.  Bodyweight is slightly up due to various issues (couldn't work out for two weeks after oral surgery, missed most of last week due to work trip, assorted other shit) but I'm happy enough.

[Contentious C]

Chest was pretty good. 11/11/9 on inclines at 115, think I'm going to wait until I get all sets to 12 before punching up to 125 (my dumb fuck gym doesn't have 2.5 lb plates, I don't know why they're too lazy or stupid to get them). Some relatively light DB shoulder presses, then flys 1 arm at a time for 2 sets before 3 sets of DB Larsen presses with the 50s.  Pecs felt pretty stretched out with all that.  Closed with a couple sets of Y raises.

[Shartnado]

Another set of Trapbar singles from 386,5 to 868 but with basically every step that I could possibly take for every different height. Started with 3(!!!) blocks on top of each other, so triple deficit. Ended up doing 4 records from those particular heights. 459 off the double deficit was very close to a record, but 525 off the high deficit, 547 off the small deficit and 565 off the padded, smallest deficit definitely were!

I did 581,5 off the floor, 603,5 off the padded blocks, 665 off the half blocks (I'm not sure if that has ever happened before?), 715 off the 3/4 blocks, 765,5 off the 4/5 blocks, 849 off the full blocks and 868 off the full blocks with shoes off.

Then 4x753 off the 4/5 blocks and 6x648,5 off the 3/4 blocks, then 3 sets of shrugs with 447, 352 and 242.

That was the last real workout this year. Nice to end it with some new personal bests.

The video I made turned out neat. I chose the mostly forgotten but totally kick ass Judas Priest track One on One for that and it really fits the atmosphere!

[Shartnado]

One hour, 8+ kilometer run/jog this morning. Luckily, no ice or snow in the southern tip of Finland. Still, it felt pretty rough, especially the one sprint up a hill with a watertower.

We will go to a spa later on today. I heard there's a gym. I'm not sure if I will try it on, or not?

Yeah, I did try it. 27-minute upper body pump workout followed by very modest swimming, sauna and 1 minute in the cold water pool.

Now back to consuming mad calories!

Edited December 24, 2024 by Shartnado
yes to the gym

[Shartnado]

A two hour hike to the southernmost peak of Finland, just like last few Christmases, a 30-minute pump workout at the gym before some mild swimming and resistance water training by using floater as training equipment. Then sauna, steam room, cold water pool and some massage with water cannons in the therapy pool.

Considering the amount of drinks was very modest for it being Christmas eve last night, there has been way more activity than debauchery on this Holiday Get Away.

[RazorbladeKiss87]

I've been working on cutting pop out of my diet, along with walking everywhere and doing some simple body weight exercises. It's helping because the other day I weighed in at the doctor and had lost 15 pounds from October. 

[Shartnado]

Cutting back on the calories that you drink is a simple and effective way to clean up your diet, which should result in pounds lost. Every little bit of more activity also helps in the long run. Consistency is the key, like it is in so many things. Starting with the easiest stuff and working your way up once you get used to it, just like in anything else. Keep up the good work!

[Shartnado]

Traveling back home today, so basically no activity whatsoever, besides sitting in a car. But my weight is at 203 lbs and two pizzas are in the oven as I write this, so I am pretty confident that tomorrow evening I no longer qualify as a cruiserweight for a little bit!

Yup, it's tomorrow and I'm up to 207, but that's straight after dinner of turkey and potatoes!

Edited December 27, 2024 by Shartnado
No more cruiserweight for me!

[Technico Support]

The gym after new year's.  You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.

• Crowded as fuck
• Weights left on bars and machines
• Weights left in weird-ass places (someone took a 25lb plate from the weight room all the way across the building to the other room, which has no plates, and left it next to the dip rack)
• Dumbbells re-racked in the wrong spot (what are these 25s doing in the 20 spot?)
• If they are re-racked, the weights are re-racked asymmetrically (a 2.5, a 5, a 35, a 10, a 45 all next to each other)
• 3-4 high school boys just hanging out on a machine

Gym Gods, give me strength

[Contentious C]

Never been happier to be in a deload.

[Shartnado]

8 hours ago, Contentious C said:

Never been happier to be in a deload.

I've been in deload for more than a week now with only minimal maintenance work here and there. It feels good! Yesterday evening, I was at 208lbs, so I decided to measure some of my strategic places.

Arms haven't really grown, but are still as big as they have ever been. My left arm is now at 42,2 cm flexed, not pumped and the dominant right arm is at 41,5 cm, funnily enough. Glutes and thighs have have grown by several or a couple of cm, respectively. Chest was at 120 cm, so bigger than ever, but that's probably more about my lats actually growing than anything to do with my pecs.

Forearms and calves haven't grown but haven't shrunk, either. I don't remember what my foreams used to be, but probably about the same. Calves are about 0,5-1,2 cm smaller than my arms so I should try to get a little bit more size into them for the "optimal" symmetry. Arms to calves-ratio or whatever the fuck it is? Waist is out of control, obviously, but still a few cm under 100 cm, so phew!

I could really use a good arm pump workout now in order to see if I can get both arms above 45 cm pumped and flexed?

[Shartnado]

Cold weather today, but we had a 1 hour 40 minute walk (about 9 kilometers overall) around the frozen beaches close to the city centre. Yesterday, I had a couple of resistance band sessions, now I just came out of sauna and ready to throw in some more calories.

[Technico Support]

Snow coming tomorrow.  Tomorrow's working is going to be sledding, Tuesday is going to be shoveling and maybe a trip to the gym.

[Shartnado]

4 workouts this week with 2 upper body days that were not particularly heavy, just easing back into things. Then 2 leg days (squat machine and Trapbar, respectively). The things worth mentioning were the sets of 5x344 (with 3 pairs of resistance bands) stopping at the very bottom at each rep, then 5x438 that went relatively deep and 5x482 that felt like it was crushing me, but I got through it and the reps were below safety bar, so I'm fine with that. I did calf raises with each of the weights plus one set with 388.

The Trapbar day was apparently too soon after the squats, but I was able to do a few things I haven't done before. I noticed that the lower half of the wooden blocks that I use, also fits in the middle of the Trapbar so I have some new deficits to work with.

I used the combo of 3 blocks on top of each other, foregoing the padded one, so this was the highest deficit I have ever lifted from. I did a single with 254 to try it out and then one with 397,5. Then 2 of the smaller blocks (that are still higher combined than the previous high deficit) for a single with 503. After that I failed every attempt at deficit lifting 554, until finally getting it up from the floor level. After that I was finally able to do 666 off the actual half blocks, not full blocks with bunch of stuff beneath my feet. Then I failed 774 with everything until I got 2 reps off the full blocks.

After that I felt like it was no use to continue and called it a week.

[AxB]

I saw an article online saying "This is how many Press-Ups you should be able to do without stopping, based on your age".

For my age group (48-51), it said you should be able to do 16 in a row.

I was so offended at that being so low, I immediately dropped and did 48 in a row, to prove I was three times as fit as a healthy person my age. Hadn't done a single press up in like 5 years before that.

[Death From Above]

I managed to get through the holidays without doing any real weight damage. Some slight gains, already dealt with. We going to a low number this year.

[Shartnado]

7 hours ago, AxB said:

I saw an article online saying "This is how many Press-Ups you should be able to do without stopping, based on your age".

For my age group (48-51), it said you should be able to do 16 in a row.

I was so offended at that being so low, I immediately dropped and did 48 in a row, to prove I was three times as fit as a healthy person my age. Hadn't done a single press up in like 5 years before that.

You still got it!  *clap clap clapclapclap* You still got it!

[Shartnado]

Night shift week starts with a pretty regular upper body stuff. One set of hammer curls with 88's and incline dumbell bench with 66's for 20 reps and 75's for 18 reps were the only things that could be considered heavy but I was pretty pumped by the end of it. Plenty of resistance band stuff, some grippers and proper ab stuff in the end.

My left arm was at 46 cm and the right one at 44,5 cm, so I got the pump I was hoping for. When I left for the gym, my evening weight was at 208 again, so this pretty much matches the last time I measured my arms but without the pump. I was hoping for 45cm pumped, this met me in the middle.

[The Natural]

On 12/14/2024 at 11:43 AM, The Natural said:

Did a Gym Rig Circuit class last night for the first time. You do 10 exercises for 40 seconds then switch stations for three rounds. It includes to name a few: mountain planks, squat thrusts I hate, a bar attached to the ground with a weight plate attached to it you lift up, bouncing a medicine ball off a trampoline, catching it and throwing it to the ground. When Joe was showing the exercises, I thought I'm fucked as I've never done anything like this, the Cerebral Palsy making my body work five times harder than those without doing the same thing and I'm fat. I stuck it out completing the whole thing. Really enjoyed it. Treated myself to a Shimla Spice curry afterwards as I've always had one in December long before losing Mum and every year after plus I'd gone over a 24 hours fast. It's expensive at Shimla Spice but it's worth it as a treat every few months. Tired as fuck today as I haven't slept the diazepam off and I ache like hell too.

Did Gym Rig Circuit, 3rd January. Only my second. It still used the rig but in different ways, running up and down on a block which is how I lost a lot of weight once, doing that bar with a weighted plate lifting it between your legs and staying in a sit up position while bouncing a ball off a trampoline. I enjoy it. Wasn't able to go last week with ice and snow and my Spirals class was cancelled as well.

[The Natural]

On 12/25/2024 at 2:49 PM, RazorbladeKiss87 said:

I've been working on cutting pop out of my diet, along with walking everywhere and doing some simple body weight exercises. It's helping because the other day I weighed in at the doctor and had lost 15 pounds from October. 

Congratulations. This is what I need to do particularly the pop.

Edited January 12 by The Natural

[Shartnado]

Last week, the squat day and Trapbar were way too close to each other so this week, I got the squats out of the way early. The first set that wasn't completely warm-up, was 7x249, then 3x344 with stopping at the bottom. Then 5x388 to the bottom, but without stopping. Then 7x466. These were decent but definitely not to the bottom. Then 2 sets of calf raises with 438 and one each with 388, 344, 249 and 155. Abs and grippers at the end, as well.