All-Purpose Health and Fitness Thread

[Curt McGirt]

Oh, no. The CM Punk Special. You got lucky.

[Shartnado]

@Brian Fowler I hope you will be back on your feet as soon as possible. In a show of board solidarity,  I made a small donation just now, but I'd suggest you post the link on one of the more general threads as well (eventhough this IS the correct thread for it), since almost nobody checks this out with any regularity. I hope this gets as much traction as possible, so posting elsewhere may be the way to go. Get well soon!

[Brian Fowler]

@RIPPAis there a spot on the board you think this would be a better fit?

[Shartnado]

Ended up being a pretty good week, workout-wise. A false fire-alarm at work cut my Monday workout a bit short, but I got 6 sets of dumbell incline bench and hammer curls in before that. Two sets of 7 with 88's no less.

Some pretty good sets on the Scott bench curls. I managed one rep with 141 from the easy setting. Needed help with 152 this week as well . 

Went to the technical limit of the squat machine, too! 5x551, along with a better set of 4x474, but I will go beyond the limit in the upcoming weeks.

Did a decent regular bench and Seal Row pyramids on Thursday and a half decent Trapbar on Friday. Did 2x488 off the single high deficit and 7 reps within 5 "sets" off the padded blocks with 582,5.

Now enjoying a day off with some wrestling on Netflix and dry white wine. 

[Shartnado]

Decided that my life is also worth taking a few actual days off from gym and this evening was the first (and only) workout of the week and I even had 3 days without the weight vest. Started feeling pretty rejuvenated this afternoon once I woke up.

I did 5 sets of dumbell incline bench and 6 or 7 sets of EZ Bar curls on the Scott bench. Grippers, push downs and some ab work. Seems like my delts got really pumped for a change. I did use slightly lighter weights than usual so I could get a good ROM on each rep for the incline bench.

The bulk isn't really getting started for real, but I'm enjoying looking relatively ripped for the time of year, so I don't mind it so bad.

[Shartnado]

Well, we know now that the squat machine holds at least 584 lbs! 3 pretty laughable reps that went just barely below the safety bar but it was mostly for science. The set of 3x489 actually went pretty deep before that one.

Other workouts have been an EZ Bar Curl pyramid and incline dumbell bench / hammer curl pyramids, on Monday and Tuesday, respectively. 

[Technico Support]

It’s been a good run but I think I’ve hit that age when lifting heavy (for me, minimum 5 reps, max 8 ) isn’t an option anymore.  I had bad shoulder pain after lifting Sunday and Tuesday this week.  Not regular lifting soreness, actual injury type pain.  Same thing happened last time I went back to lifting heavy…shoulder pain after a few months.  I don’t have this issue when lifting lighter (8-12) and it goes away after switching to light.  I think it’s from sacrificing form and going faster.  It sucks because lifting heavy burns more calories (still working on losing a little more weight) and I have a better feeling of accomplishment lifting heavy.  Ah well, just need to work on the mindset.  I’d rather burn 50-70 fewer calories and not feel as powerful vs injuring myself.

Edited October 23, 2025 by Technico Support

[Shartnado]

1 hour ago, Technico Support said:

It’s been a good run but I think I’ve hit that age when lifting heavy (for me, minimum 5 reps, max 8 ) isn’t an option anymore.  I had bad shoulder pain after lifting Sunday and Tuesday this week.  Not regular lifting soreness, actual injury type pain.  Same thing happened last time I went back to lifting heavy…shoulder pain after a few months.  I don’t have this issue when lifting lighter (8-12) and it goes away after switching to light.  I think it’s from sacrificing form and going faster.  It sucks because lifting heavy burns more calories (still working on losing a little more weight) and  have a better feeling of accomplishment lifting heavy.  Ah well, just need to work on the mindset.  I’d rather burn 50-70 fewer calories and not feel as powerful vs injuring myself.

You know yourself. Probably the right call. In fact,  the only possible call, since nothing is worth injuring yourself over. Just enjoy the pump that comes from the longer sets!

[Shartnado]

Week's fourth and last workout was a regular bench pyramid with light lat pull downs with a shovel grip between each set. I went up to 252 for 3 bad reps, but got 3 good and 2 bad ones with 241 prior to that one. The rest were around 4-7 reps of varying quality.

Did some extra side delt work and resistance band chest flies and push downs here and there increasing those towards the end aiming for a maximum pump.

Not a bad week overall but it was missing Trapbar. I wasn't really missing it, however!

[Shartnado]

Fun week so far. All the usual stuff (as far as recent weeks go), but I threw a Seal Row session in there and tried hammer curls with a pair of 132's. Got 5 bad reps with each arm, but the right one felt like it was gonna slip off already at rep number two. I think I have a better set in me with those, but I switched them up into a pair of 121's, which I'll try out next week, maybe? Today I did a ten set squat machine pyramid. 4 reps per set, starting from 110 up to 555 and back down to 110. The two sets of 489 went pretty well, once again. The 555 was definitely better than the attempt at 584 last week. Oh, and after the Seal Row, I also did 5 bad reps of reverse grip barbell curls with 264, 8 slightly better ones with 176 and then 5 regular barbell curls with 110. I don't really see myself doing Trapbar tomorrow, but Stranger Things is a series on Netflix!

[Technico Support]

Lifting lighter is going really well!  My shoulder is slowly getting less sore.  I was worried about burning fewer calories than lifting heavy, but if I’m strict about short rests, and keep the intensity up, I’m actually burning more calories lifting lighter with higher reps.  Niiiice.  

[Shartnado]

I actually did the Trapbar today, but the results were so not impressive that I might as well not have. A few decent lifts but the squat pyramid definitely took it out of me. Well, I did get some good shrugs in the end. Also, this week I started adding extra weights (for the first time in years) on my reverse shrugs that I do during warm-up. Up to 55 lbs at the moment. One thing I haven't added extra weight on is me. Still around 185 and inching downwards rather than up.

[Shartnado]

Took the first two nights off from gym and definitely felt like needing that. Tuesday night it was incline dumbell bench (but very low incline this time, close to flat, actually, but not quite) and EZ bar curls on the Scott bench plus a bunch of side delt action and chest flies added. Wednesday night I did another upper body circuit with 4 moves with pairs of dumbells, moving onto bigger ones each round (but nothing too heavy). Standing curls, rows on an incline bench (chest on the bench), standing OHP and lat pull downs. After 4 rounds of those, I did a set of hammer curls with those 121's from last week and got a half decent 8 reps each. This was followed by another set with 88's, propably 15 or so reps each.

Last night was squat machine time. Went upwards with sets of 5, up to 495 which went quite nicely, but definitely took it right out of me. The top set was 3x562, but that did not go too well. After that I did do 5x467 and 5x372 before moving on to calf raises with the smaller weights.

I'm enjoying the fact that upper body pushing movements are slowly getting back to something decent and that squatting is going along nicely, but the work side of things have been a bit of a mess recently, so that is taking its toll, motivation-wise. Also, this slow bulk has definitely been slow. I'm not sure if I'm getting enough calories during the week, although I damn sure get enough over the weekend. If that is enough to stay on an ever-so-slight surplus, is anyone's guess, but definition is still on a very good level this late in the year. That may indicate that I'm not eating quite enough at the moment, but my large bag of Mutant Mass Extreme Gainer is ready for pick up, so that ought to take care of it for the rest of the year, at least.

[Shartnado]

Some good shit this week. Bench went back up to clean 2x252 for the first time in a long while. Then 4 shitty reps with 263.

Did a record of regular deadlift off the full blocks with 2x539,5lbs. 

EZ Bar Curls was pretty cool with 7x141lbs from the down position  I mean nothing but the first was full ROM, but still that was really bad ass, nonetheless!

Did shrugs with 462,5 and reverse shrugs with 121 and squat machine 4x511 so it was all F'n good!

[Technico Support]

I was out for a run last week and some dude slowed down, leaned on the horn, and flicked his tongue at me.

It was weird but I'll take any compliment I can get.

[Shartnado]

On 11/18/2025 at 5:27 PM, Technico Support said:

I was out for a run last week and some dude slowed down, leaned on the horn, and flicked his tongue at me.

It was weird but I'll take any compliment I can get.

He was totally into you! That's the spirit, take every compliment available! I know I do!

[Technico Support]

8 hours ago, Shartnado said:

He was totally into you! That's the spirit, take every compliment available! I know I do!

Hell yeah, man.  As a guy who grew up fat and will always have body image issues, I take every compliment I can get and probably remember them forever.

[Technico Support]

Quick workout log for this week because why not:

Sunday: about 35-40 minutes full body workout in the gym

Monday: busy at work and cold outside, 4 mile run on the treadmill

Tuesday: about an hour full body workout in the gym

Wednesday: 7 mile run outside

Thursday: see Tuesday

Today: going to run outside later, probably 5  miles or so

[Shartnado]

Yeah, full 5 workouts over here, as well.

Monday: Steep angle dumbell incline bench and hammer curls plus lat pull downs.

Tuesday: EZ Bar curls on the Scott Bench sets of 7 for the heaviest weights of 141, 135,5, 130, 124, 119 and 113.

Wednesday: Squat Machine top sets 4x489 and 4x533 plus 3x394 and 3x438 on the way up and another 4x394 on the way down before switching to calf raises.

Thursday: Regular bench, light standing double bicep curls, lat pull downs and chest flies with resistance bands. Once again very bad reps with 263 getting about 6 partials. Two sets of 4 with 252 of half decent quality, 5x230, two sets of 9x208 (or 8 and 10) and 3 lighter sets of 162 and 154. The pump on the chest and arms was intense afterwards. I also tried lifting 285 and 307 and just keeping them up off the rack for a few seconds before putting it back down just to remember what those feel like, and they were both brutal.

Friday: Trapbar, for a change. 2x488 off the high single deficit, 1x532 off the middle single deficit, 1x582,5 off the floor and 1 and then 3x627 off the half blocks then a few sets of shrugs (472,5 was the heaviest, then 382 and lighter). I think this was a very slight improvement from previous go, but not by much.

[zendragon]

[Shartnado]

Only two workouts this week since I thought I was coming down with a flu or something, but apparently I dodged it by resting for a few days like I actually was sick. 

Combined Incline Dumbell bench, hammer curls and EZ Bar Curls on the Scott bench for Wednesday and went batshit on lat pull downs, push downs and chest flies, along with some light Arnold presses on the incline bench on Thursday. 

Very beat from work this week. There's a christmas party for our company tonight but I'm not going.

Looking forward to some calories over the weekend, though . 

[Technico Support]

@Shartnado same here re: workouts this week.  Between holidays and trying to rest up due to a rough cold, I only lifted Sunday and ran Monday.  Gonna get back into the groove this Sunday and probably go way too hard.

[Shartnado]

One more workout to go this week, but I have made some nice new PR's and near PR's in some areas.

EZ Bar Curl went up to 145,5 for 7 reps and the grip strength lift went up to 200lbs for 1 and 2 reps with the right arm (0 for left, though).

Meadows Row went  281 lbs for 4+5 reps, which isn't a record but among the biggest lifts I have done.

During the bench I once again tried just lifting 329 off the rack and holding it in the starting position for a few seconds on 3 separate occasions. Also did 7x230 and 10x220 and a few shitty (partial) reps with 263.

Incline bench dumbell presses 12 reps with a pair of 88's is pretty close to a record. 

Today, I should do either regular deadlift or Trapbar , we'll see how that goes. I've been pretty beat earlier in the week but now I'm feeling relatively ok. 

Trapbar wasn't anything special. Used the padded blocks for the most part. Top single was 609, also did 3x554 and some more singles above and below 550, then 4x480 before switching to shrugs. Good week, although this particular day could have gone better. 

I agreed to do another evening shift next week so my rhythm stays the same. Not sure if a can muster up 5 workouts next week, but obviously I'm gonna try.

Edited December 5, 2025 by Shartnado
Today wasn't that great...

[Shartnado]

Ended up being a pretty decent workout week and an OK-ish work week.

No improvement in bench but the pump was at least intense. 

On EZ Bar Curl I finally broke my record and got 152 up by myself for 6 reps. 10 reps with 130, too.

Incline bench and hammer curls were pretty much the same as before. 

Trapbar was once again not too good, but I did make a slight improvement on a single high deficit lift with 493,5. Then 548,5 off the floor and 581,5 off the padded blocks. 

I did Trapbar on Thursday and thought that would be it for the week, but had to go to work for a half a shift on Friday so I got one more workout in. So I decided to do all the fun stuff.

Single arm dumbell overhead press up to 3x79 with both arms. Also tried the single arm dumbell curls on the Scott bench for the first time in a while and got 5x79 with each arm with I think better ROM than previously, due to the EZ Bar Curls that start from the down position. 

At the end I tried the hammer curls with a pair of 121's and got 8 reps with each arm but they were getting pretty sad by the end there. 

My weight is still around the same, 188 and thereabouts (so 3lb increase over maybe 1,5 months, so pretty conservative) but I haven't looked this ripped in December in a long ass time. This may be somewhat due to the price of Christmas Chocolates surging while they have messed with the taste of a few of my favorites, so I have had way less of those than I usually would have at this point of the year. 

[Technico Support]

Every time I look in the mirror while doing cable flys, I see the UFC Just Bleed Guy.