Speaking of commiserating, injury fairy came to visit during floor paused deads, on the last rep of a session that was going really well. Pop right in my lower spine and I had to drop the rep. I won’t know how bad it is until I wake up tomorrow, but looks like I’m lifting off blocks for a month.
On the plus side, maybe I can use this to convince my wife I need a trap bar to mitigate these injuries as I get older…
Trap bars can be pretty cheap, I got a CAP bar from Amazon for like $150 and it's held up just fine. Granted I'm only pulling up to 500ish lbs on it and the welds are ugly as sin but it's been a champ.
I am lusting after an open trap bar, I don't need one but I want one real bad.
I’ve been looking at the Bells of Steel Open Trap Bar. It’s pretty reasonably priced, I think, at $275.
But also sometimes covetously sneaking glances at the Kabuki HD Open Bar. Not happening.
We just filled out an application for a place tonight and I really hope this is the one because looking at apartments has been all of my gym time except one day the past two weeks. I could use both the little bit of stability and the exercise
With the garage thermometer reading 92-96 the last few days I have found the perfect intra-and-post workout snack is watermelon. I think I may just blend a whole one and drink it.
diablo III - beardsnbeer#1508 Mechwarrior Online - Rusty Bock
Good news lads and lassies, I've hit a (1) new PR for overhead press (these are lbs)
I've been working on upper-back tightness; I think not having the strength and/or mental connection to maintain that has been a weird limiter on my OHP and bench. Hopeful I can improve a little more over the next month before I do some cutting!
Xrays showed I have the spine of a 27 year old, so no obvious issues. Doc wants me to go to physical therapy to at least get assessed and go from there.
So I still don't super know what's going on but it sounds like it's because there maybe isn't anything actually going on at all at this point.
After a day or two of not being able to bend over, I’ve regained all normal, outside the gym functionality, which is great. Inside the gym, I’m switching from conventional to sumo for awhile, to let my back fully heal and not challenge my spine as much.
Unfortunately, it’s the beginning of the testing block in my program and my sumo is dinky. I’ve never really been able to feel comfortable doing sumo as a tall guy. Oh well. Hopefully there’s some carryover to my squat. And all the super strong Gen Z lifters on Instagram do sumo, so now I am also cool and strong and young, by extension.
I am a large man, last year the wife and I started doing at home cardio. Just Dance and YouTube videos.
This year we are hitting the gym. I usually do about a half hour on the elliptical and then we lift weights for a half hour. My question for all you well in shape folks is, is there a certain rep/number I should go for? Right now I'm doing 3 reps of 10 but I notice everyone else in the gym doing like 5/15 or 10/4
I am a large man, last year the wife and I started doing at home cardio. Just Dance and YouTube videos.
This year we are hitting the gym. I usually do about a half hour on the elliptical and then we lift weights for a half hour. My question for all you well in shape folks is, is there a certain rep/number I should go for? Right now I'm doing 3 reps of 10 but I notice everyone else in the gym doing like 5/15 or 10/4
It's entirely up to your comfort levels. There's no wrong # of reps and sets, but obviously as weights get heavier you may want to do fewer reps especially if things start to get shaky and your form suffers.
Decided to try 25 360s each left/right hand top with my heaviest mace, 7.5 kilos (16.5 lbs).
It was my first mace when I was pretty clueless about the whole thing. Turns out that the physics involved are completely different from kettlebells when you effectively put a kettlebell on a stick and swing it around, and I could not in fact easily handle it like I could the equivalent KB weight.
When I got it I tried one swing, almost dropped it behind my back, and promptly went and ordered a 4 kilo (8.8 lbs) mace instead to learn the ropes with.
Anyway, now I can actually handle the 7.5 kilo mace for two-handed swings, but I feel the form isn't there, so I'll stick to the 5 kilo mace for a while longer. Could also do one-handed circles with my right hand with the heavy mace, but way too wobbly with the left. Wee, unbalanced strength.
I am a large man, last year the wife and I started doing at home cardio. Just Dance and YouTube videos.
This year we are hitting the gym. I usually do about a half hour on the elliptical and then we lift weights for a half hour. My question for all you well in shape folks is, is there a certain rep/number I should go for? Right now I'm doing 3 reps of 10 but I notice everyone else in the gym doing like 5/15 or 10/4
Different rep ranges target different muscle fibers more effectively. This is important for bodybuilders, people looking to solely increase strength like powerlifters, or for people looking to improve in their competitive sport.
For someone who is just generally looking to get healthier and is just starting out, no, it does not matter. Keep it simple, because consistency is way more important. Pick a range you like, stick with it and just try to increase your weight for the same number of reps every week.
I haven't been able to get a consistent workout in in two weeks and it's starting to absolutely piss me off.
The gyms are all back in full swing and when I'm third shift the soonest I can get to it and still get at least 7 hours of sleep is 5:30pm. So basically rush hour and I can't get to anything I need to get to.
I'm gonna get the paperwork filled out and start using the gym at work. Nobody uses that one and the building is basically in the parking lot so I can just walk into work when I'm done. Cuts down on my commute time and maybe I'll actually be able to start working out again.
I have been training for a few weeks now. The spinal issues must be going around, because I aggravated my slipped disk via nearby inflammation, so that was a pleasant lesson on taking it slow.
There's a USAPL meet at my gym in November. It's less than a mile from my house and the timing is perfect, so I registered! Now I just have to get strong; that's easy, right?
Beasted myself yesterday and shredded some skin, which is bad times. Hoping that it recovers within the next 48 hours so I can get another session in tomorrow evening, some travelling to Wales and Scotland recently have meant that I've missed a couple of sessions so wanting to build back into it hard but we shall see.
Here is how the switch to sumo is going. I just kneeled down, new deadlift technique related scrape first onto one my daughter’s duplo blocks and bled all over the playroom carpet. Also, two second floor pause sumos make my glutes feel like they got kicked by a horse. Good times.
Made it through the 1st 3 weeks of this new training cycle. Made some adjustments but it’s really more of the same. Weight is low 260’s. Averaging 5 miles a day walking. Eating a ton of eggs in the morning with an appropriate amount of dead animal. Lunch is usually dinner leftovers or a sandwich. Still snacking on chips and shit but haven’t had the money or the time to eat out hardly at all. Feels pretty fucking good.
Edit: and when I say a ton of eggs I mean my wife and I clear 54 a week. Grilling steaks and some lamb chops tonight, got some lamb meatballs in the air fryer.
Dead Legend on
diablo III - beardsnbeer#1508 Mechwarrior Online - Rusty Bock
On the topic of meat, I got some skewers for the purpose and grilled up some kefta (bison, it was on sale) and I can't recommend it enough. It's delicious, dead easy, and a nice change from normal burgers.
Yeah, Tim Lambesis, who also fronted As I Lay Dying apparently did a lot of roids and got wacky paranoid or something and hired an undercover cop hit man to kill his wife.
So not a great photo here but I'm seeing some small but noticeable improvements in my general yokedness despite my setbacks. Since I can't go as hard on my lower body I'm trying to up my game around my delts, traps, lats, and mid back. I've been adding in 3 sets of higher rep isolation moves on my upper body split days focused around shrugs and rear delt moves. Lower body splits I usually throw in a loaded barbell back hyperextension or glute/ham raises since I think that's my weakest spot there.
My OHP is still pretty cheese and has actually decreased from my hard fought 135lbs down to about 115. I think some of that may be mental, because my posterior chain is still weak and I'm worried about the load on my lower lumbar. But I'm still knocking them out alright.
Gonna spoiler for phone posts cause I have no idea how these show up on a web browser.
I'm one rep away from 10,000lbs of volume on bench press days, which is only interesting because it's a round number but I still feel pretty good about it.
I started a Hepburn* rep scheme on bench a few weeks ago with 205, which is 20 lbs heavier than the last time I did it, which is cool and will hopefully lead to a cool PR in seven weeks.
*what is that?
you start with 8 sets of two, 205 in my case, and make one set into a triple each week until you end with 8x3. You also do a lighter weight, 155 for me, starting with 3x6 and adding a rep to a set each week until you end up with 3x8. I time the main sets so I have 30 seconds per set and a minute of rest in between, it's a nice brisk pace and gives me practice working through a little bit of fatigue. The whole thing is by far my favorite program for the big three lifts.
Weighted pullup progressive overloading has improved my form and stability and also my reps and weight. I should hopefully be on track to hit my target of five reps at 30kgs added weight (so about 107kgs in total right now) and then I'll drop back and work up again.
Once I can do five reps at 37-38kgs I should be able to do band assisted one armed pullups in sets of 5 so then I can start really focusing on those. Feels ace though I'm a few months away from getting to that training point but it's serious improvement in that area.
I'm still ass at pull-ups. Tried working up to one single rep with a 45lb plate and a 3 or 4 second eccentric lowering phase to try and really activate and overload my lats. I feel like I get one or two good reps and then ly forearms and elbows start taking over to try and heave my stupid bulk up and I don't want that.
I'm still ass at pull-ups. Tried working up to one single rep with a 45lb plate and a 3 or 4 second eccentric lowering phase to try and really activate and overload my lats. I feel like I get one or two good reps and then ly forearms and elbows start taking over to try and heave my stupid bulk up and I don't want that.
Reduce your weight until you can do five nice solid reps and then add weight slowly. But if you really want lat activation, then do wide grip ones. They really work the lats way more.
We finally locked down a new apt at the end of last week so I really need to get back to the gym. It's been since late may so uh, yeah I'm expecting a lot of reduced weights tomorrow
Did some fingerstrength benchmarking last night and after slapping on 30% of my bodyweight hung off the 9mm edge for 10 seconds repeatedly, which is where I was a few months ago. I haven't been actively training it though, so it's fair to say that I'm at least as strong as I was when I was training my fingers, which is very pleasing. I might do a new six month cycle throughout the grit season from september/october.
After about five weeks of sumo to let my back heal, I got antsy and went back to conventional in the last workout of my peaking block. Pulled a very smooth 445lbs for a single and some nice backoffs sets. Very happy sumo didn’t drain my powers.
After about five weeks of sumo to let my back heal, I got antsy and went back to conventional in the last workout of my peaking block. Pulled a very smooth 445lbs for a single and some nice backoffs sets. Very happy sumo didn’t drain my powers.
I have observed the same thing, seems like consistently loading your spine with heavy weights is enough to maintain strength through short gaps like that.
I am transitioning to 'advanced novice' programming as I continue to climb back up before my meet. Right now I am in 'Phase 1' of meet prep, which is eight weeks of linear progression. 'Phase 2' is going to be eight weeks of volume acclimation, with an emphasis on frequent benching and deadlifting. 'Phase 3' is going to be a basic linear periodization peak leading into the meet. We'll see if I get a PR total out of it.
After about five weeks of sumo to let my back heal, I got antsy and went back to conventional in the last workout of my peaking block. Pulled a very smooth 445lbs for a single and some nice backoffs sets. Very happy sumo didn’t drain my powers.
I have observed the same thing, seems like consistently loading your spine with heavy weights is enough to maintain strength through short gaps like that.
I am transitioning to 'advanced novice' programming as I continue to climb back up before my meet. Right now I am in 'Phase 1' of meet prep, which is eight weeks of linear progression. 'Phase 2' is going to be eight weeks of volume acclimation, with an emphasis on frequent benching and deadlifting. 'Phase 3' is going to be a basic linear periodization peak leading into the meet. We'll see if I get a PR total out of it.
I should also note I was pretty on top of hitting the reverse hyper once a week for rehab sets. Whether that did anything is open to debate, unless you’re Louie Simmons.
Solid day with some heavy widowmakers (2 second pause deads). I feel confident in chalking up the previous injury to not holding my brace hard enough through the lift. It’s an absolute shame it took me this long in my lifting career to really learn how important bracing through breathing is.
It’s also kind of astounding how the shift in available information from powerlifters has emphasized just that. Jim Wendler, who I read a lot of when I started getting serious, versus Joe Sullivan now, for instance. If you got injured, Wendler would probably chalk it up to you not working hard enough. Joe Sullivan, on the other hand, would probably punch you if he saw you touch a barbell before breathing into your diaphragm.
I appreciate the brutal simplicity of the Wendler/early Paul Carter/Jamie Lewis school of "stop thinking so much and just lift the goddamn weight" but you're right that there's a much better level of information available now.
The issue is that early on Wendler and those guys expected people to have some form of common sense whereas now you have to do ten hours of prehab before you’re allowed to touch a weight.
diablo III - beardsnbeer#1508 Mechwarrior Online - Rusty Bock
It irks me a little when I see a grown person saying shit like "I was squatting 65 but my body felt funny so I deloaded down to an empty bar again" (this is an exaggeration) because fuckin dude you're an adult and your body is fine and if it isn't it's because you fucked it up with inactivity, doing less probably isn't the answer.
Posts
I’ve been looking at the Bells of Steel Open Trap Bar. It’s pretty reasonably priced, I think, at $275.
But also sometimes covetously sneaking glances at the Kabuki HD Open Bar. Not happening.
I've been working on upper-back tightness; I think not having the strength and/or mental connection to maintain that has been a weird limiter on my OHP and bench. Hopeful I can improve a little more over the next month before I do some cutting!
So I still don't super know what's going on but it sounds like it's because there maybe isn't anything actually going on at all at this point.
Unfortunately, it’s the beginning of the testing block in my program and my sumo is dinky. I’ve never really been able to feel comfortable doing sumo as a tall guy. Oh well. Hopefully there’s some carryover to my squat. And all the super strong Gen Z lifters on Instagram do sumo, so now I am also cool and strong and young, by extension.
It's been more comfortable for me to do as I've been getting over my back exacerbation from back in March at least. It's worth a try.
This year we are hitting the gym. I usually do about a half hour on the elliptical and then we lift weights for a half hour. My question for all you well in shape folks is, is there a certain rep/number I should go for? Right now I'm doing 3 reps of 10 but I notice everyone else in the gym doing like 5/15 or 10/4
It's entirely up to your comfort levels. There's no wrong # of reps and sets, but obviously as weights get heavier you may want to do fewer reps especially if things start to get shaky and your form suffers.
It was my first mace when I was pretty clueless about the whole thing. Turns out that the physics involved are completely different from kettlebells when you effectively put a kettlebell on a stick and swing it around, and I could not in fact easily handle it like I could the equivalent KB weight.
When I got it I tried one swing, almost dropped it behind my back, and promptly went and ordered a 4 kilo (8.8 lbs) mace instead to learn the ropes with.
Anyway, now I can actually handle the 7.5 kilo mace for two-handed swings, but I feel the form isn't there, so I'll stick to the 5 kilo mace for a while longer. Could also do one-handed circles with my right hand with the heavy mace, but way too wobbly with the left. Wee, unbalanced strength.
Just for reference, this is a 360 swing.
For someone who is just generally looking to get healthier and is just starting out, no, it does not matter. Keep it simple, because consistency is way more important. Pick a range you like, stick with it and just try to increase your weight for the same number of reps every week.
Crossposted from the health and fitness thread
Happy with that. That's an improvement and that can be worked on. The road to one-armers is being walked.
The gyms are all back in full swing and when I'm third shift the soonest I can get to it and still get at least 7 hours of sleep is 5:30pm. So basically rush hour and I can't get to anything I need to get to.
I'm gonna get the paperwork filled out and start using the gym at work. Nobody uses that one and the building is basically in the parking lot so I can just walk into work when I'm done. Cuts down on my commute time and maybe I'll actually be able to start working out again.
There's a USAPL meet at my gym in November. It's less than a mile from my house and the timing is perfect, so I registered! Now I just have to get strong; that's easy, right?
The instability activates your core and really fires off the tris. Everything has to work together to keep you from eating shit.
Edit: and when I say a ton of eggs I mean my wife and I clear 54 a week. Grilling steaks and some lamb chops tonight, got some lamb meatballs in the air fryer.
They are mad though. I think the lead singer went to prison for hiring an assassin to kill his girlfriend? or some shit? wild
My OHP is still pretty cheese and has actually decreased from my hard fought 135lbs down to about 115. I think some of that may be mental, because my posterior chain is still weak and I'm worried about the load on my lower lumbar. But I'm still knocking them out alright.
Gonna spoiler for phone posts cause I have no idea how these show up on a web browser.
I started a Hepburn* rep scheme on bench a few weeks ago with 205, which is 20 lbs heavier than the last time I did it, which is cool and will hopefully lead to a cool PR in seven weeks.
*what is that?
Once I can do five reps at 37-38kgs I should be able to do band assisted one armed pullups in sets of 5 so then I can start really focusing on those. Feels ace though I'm a few months away from getting to that training point but it's serious improvement in that area.
Spoiled because I don't know if phone posting will make it huge.
Reduce your weight until you can do five nice solid reps and then add weight slowly. But if you really want lat activation, then do wide grip ones. They really work the lats way more.
I have observed the same thing, seems like consistently loading your spine with heavy weights is enough to maintain strength through short gaps like that.
I am transitioning to 'advanced novice' programming as I continue to climb back up before my meet. Right now I am in 'Phase 1' of meet prep, which is eight weeks of linear progression. 'Phase 2' is going to be eight weeks of volume acclimation, with an emphasis on frequent benching and deadlifting. 'Phase 3' is going to be a basic linear periodization peak leading into the meet. We'll see if I get a PR total out of it.
I should also note I was pretty on top of hitting the reverse hyper once a week for rehab sets. Whether that did anything is open to debate, unless you’re Louie Simmons.
It’s also kind of astounding how the shift in available information from powerlifters has emphasized just that. Jim Wendler, who I read a lot of when I started getting serious, versus Joe Sullivan now, for instance. If you got injured, Wendler would probably chalk it up to you not working hard enough. Joe Sullivan, on the other hand, would probably punch you if he saw you touch a barbell before breathing into your diaphragm.