Gonna see a sports medicine doctor today; in doing incline bench I pushed myself to 165lbs some months ago but that gave me some kind of left shoulder injury, and ever since I've never been able to push myself on chest or grow my bench.
Gonna see a sports medicine doctor today; in doing incline bench I pushed myself to 165lbs some months ago but that gave me some kind of left shoulder injury, and ever since I've never been able to push myself on chest or grow my bench.
In reply to brandonsmash :
Yeah I was def not under any impression that creatine is magic/a steroid/a hormone, I started taking it because it seemed like a useful tool to help me recover faster from workouts and thus be able to handle more workouts per week. It was, indeed, very good at that.
In reply to Nicole Suddard :
Absolutely! There is also a growing body of research indicating that creatine may be quite useful in assisting in memory, particularly among vegetarians.
I've pointed this out to my notoriously forgetful, vegetarian wife. She still forgets to supplement with creatine, so, well, QED?
I saw 169.9 on the scale today. Pretty disappointing for someone who is usually in the upper 180s. At least I have a visible 6 pack? lol
I have had months of digestive and other lower abdominal issues culminating (I think) with a colonoscopy yesterday. I think I'm in the clear now to start eating like I mean it again and get back to a regular gym schedule. I have to be sensitive to a few dietary changes but otherwise should be good to go.
One thing I learned during this is: wow, pea protein has really come down in price to the point where it's comparable or even cheaper than whey. That's a win in my book. Heck at Sprouts near me you can buy it by the lb and it's like half the price of whey.
one thing I've been working on during my limited workout time is: nose breathing. I've never been good at it when under any sort of output demand. I'm still bad at it, but after some practice I can sustain a slow run (like 14 min miles) for quite a long time only breathing through my nose. If anyone has any tips for this or any thoughts on it. I am interested. There is lots of speculation on this subject but little data. I did find some data indicating a not insignificant performance difference one you train yourself to do it though.
In reply to prodarwin :
I was an atrociously slow runner for most of my life. It was only in my late 30s that I finally got coaching and discovered I had been breathing wrong the entire time.
Basically I had been breathing in through my mouth and then exhaling through my nose. Do the opposite, and do it in a 3:1 ratio. I literally count 1,2, 3 in my head while inhaling, then a short, forceful exhale.
I tried that. That ratio is crazy difficult for me. I can't exhale quick enough!
After practicing, did that performance translate to other areas of cardio, or was it pretty much just running?
how long did it take you to adapt?
Does anyone have a reasonable 3 day split that still hits all muscle groups 2x/week they can recommend?
I've been doing Push Pull Legs for a while and its good, but I'm really only consistently hitting hard workouts 3x a week, sometimes 4, so I'd like to alter than plan so I am able to get to each muscle group 2x.
In for above or a good app/website for some variety/workout of the day
I'm gently sore all over today. Started working out twice a week about when I turned 50. 50.5 now and feeling great, put on some visible muscle, lost some fat with no change in weight.
Just noticed this thread, I'll get caught up and see what I missed in the GRM strength training thread
I've been working with a personal trainer for most of a year now, and it's been a huge positive in my life. But there's a paradox. I've been gaining 2 lbs/yr for 40 years. Before I began working out, I felt physically pretty bad. Now I easily hump the extra 80 lbs around and it's easy to forget how fat I really am. I need to bear in mind how good it will feel to be this strong without 60 lbs of jiggly excess and get serious about dieting!
prodarwin said:Does anyone have a reasonable 3 day split that still hits all muscle groups 2x/week they can recommend?
I've been doing Push Pull Legs for a while and its good, but I'm really only consistently hitting hard workouts 3x a week, sometimes 4, so I'd like to alter than plan so I am able to get to each muscle group 2x.
There are multiple ways to skin that cat. Do you have a particular focus or goals or anything?
I prefer setting things up to get effectively full body every session, 3x week. Shifting up specific exercises for different focus.
My go to system is:
2 days of, 1 heavy compound lower body (squat or deadlift), with 1 heavy compound upper body (bench or overhead press), and supplemental exercises opposing the main upper lift (i.e. pull ups with OHP, and rows with bench). Then 1 day of light weight hypertrophy stuff, frequently bodyweight variations.
Currently that's:
A while back I laid out a plan for someone else where the model is:
1 Heavy, 2 Medium (different muscle group), 2 Supplemental (any muscle group).
"Heavy" is one of your big-3 compounds - Squat, Bench, Deadlift - done for lower reps.
"Medium" is a variation of big-3, or other compound movements. Performed for volume or speed. E.g. Overhead Press, RDL, Lunges, dumbell presses, pull ups, box jumps, etc.
"Supplemental" are light exercises targeting single muscles or low fatigue: curls, leg extensions, tricep raises, etc.
So it might be:
I get the feeling that some of you are also on /r/StrongerByScience because there is a lot of crossover topics happening.
I haven't posted in a while.
I have accidentally started a new routine. I was doing burpees with three pushups at the bottom in sets of ten. One day last week I was angry, and pushed myself off the ground. Something clicked, so now I do leaps from the floor such that my hands and feet come off the ground. Two of those then the pushup to finish the burpee, also in sets of ten. It's way more intense. So I was in between sets, and two ladies walk by, watching my swing my legs back and forth just stretching, and one says "That's about the only thing you do which I can also do!" and shares a fist bump. Then in the locker room later a guy says "hey I saw those things you were doing, I don't think I can even do one!", I encouraged him to try, he's pretty fit and I think he was just being nice. Either way it's made my upper body sore for the first time in a while.
I've switched things up as well.
5 days a week. 3 sets of Pull Push Legs.
Nothing fancy at all, just 10 slow wide grip pull ups on a hangboard, 5 minutes rest then 25 slow pushups, 5 minutes rest and back to pull ups as a circuit. I probably could do less rest around the 3 minute mark but with it being a 5 day schedule I figure I'll slowly trim that back. The legs I've just been doing walking lunges about 60 steps per set with a 5 minute rest between. I also could add some variety but for now I like this because I can do it anywhere for the most part and it doesn't feel like work. I feel like every time I try to make an "ideal" workout it starts to become a chore. No goals in mind currently other than to just feel good and fit.
In reply to Beer Baron 🍺 :
Goals right now are general body building. Would like to get back into the ~12% body fat, 185lb range (200 if I'm being honest)
I'm heavily equipment limited right now (50lb dumbbells), so some of the heavy compounds aren't really feasible. I do have some machine options at my apartment gym, but most are crap. Deadlifts are pretty much not happening. Going to hit cardio fatigue or grip failure way before muscle fatigue.
Wild stab at it:
1 Leg Press, OH Press, Lunges, Pullups, Dumbbell Curls, Tricep Push Down
2 Bench/Incline, Dumbbell Pullover, RDLs, Calves, Abs, Side raises
3 Rows, Dumbbell Fly, Split Squat, Reverse Fly, Bench Dips, Incline Curls
I need to think on it some more.
Who has a doorway pullup bar they can recommend? I want one for my apartment. Seems like I am missing my gym workout window at least once a week and I need an option to do stuff at home.
There seem to be a few options. This is the most common and least expensive:
However, the bar hangs down below the top... Ideally I want something higher than this. Also I hate how the bar you grab is also what contacts the door frame, restricting hand placement.
There is this style, which gets the handles a little higher, but the backside that grips the top of the jamb is only 2 small spots, not a length of bar - is that more likely to break the door jamb?
Then this style which is maybe a combination of the two?
Thoughts?
Interestingly, you can edit the picture size when composing a post, but it wont persist once you hit post.
Bumping this thread with an end of the year wrap up.
2 berkeleying years straight of health issues. Doctors appointments left and right. Sometimes I'm in a good place and working out well, and sometimes unable to. I feel like I'm finally able to understand the situation and mitigate symptoms (tortuous colon, possible loss of gut bacteria, extreme constipation/abdominal pain). My last doc appt regarding this was the last week of September. Since I have been able to control my digestive system I've been able to consume semi-appropriate amounts of calories and protein (140g/day minimum) and actually hit the gym regularly, and surprise, my progress since then has been decent:
Here's an example, but many of the graphs mirror this. My calculated 1rm jumped by ~31% for Incline Bench. Note, this is all really rep increases as the apt. gym has a max of 50lb dumbbells. So the bottom of this curve is 68lb or 11reps@50, the top is 90lbs or 24reps@50.
I'm also back up to a semi lean 180lbs now. Im betting a lot of this is just muscle memory, but its just nice to once again feel like I'm on the right track. I'm going to do another ~6 week program with this same routine focusing on upping protein intake. After that my goal will be to take a closer look at the routine to see if I can optimize to get more sets in/improve the home workout days.
TravisTheHuman said:2 berkeleying years straight of health issues.
Ugh same. Since March of 2023. It's been health issues or injuries.
Something happens. I need to pause or stop exercising. I get better. I start building back up gradually. Just when I get back to doing real working weights, I get injured or have another health issue.
I'm now back in the build up phase after a minor knee injury. Very gradually building up my squats and deadlifts, focusing on doing very controlled excentric movements with as close to perfect form as I can manage.
I'm forcing myself to take a rest week every 6 weeks of training, even if I'm still rebuilding up to my peak strength numbers. I'm in the low 200's and know my muscles can handle well into the mid 300's. But I'm pretty certain the previous injury was connective tissue taking longer to rebuild what it could handle than what my muscles were doing.
A preamble with fitness stuff and then a request for bicycle advice:
In late 2023 I gave up most refined sugar and cut desserts and sweet treats out of my diet. (Mostly. I'll still have sugar on special occasions. There's no way that, when I visit my mom, I'm not having a piece of pie.) Despite my weight I also started climbing again.
The last 18 months have been interesting. I'm in good shape, though climbing has caused some finger discomfort and I've torn a couple muscles. I'm not feeling quite as amazing as when I carried the Húsafell stone in 2019 but I'm doing pretty well. While I don't deadlift or squat on conventional bars much these days, last week I managed a (handles up) 800lb deadlift and did an 850lb safety squat (free, not in a Smith rack) yesterday and kicked myself that I didn't do at least 900.
It's really not bad.
In 2025, though, I'd like to improve my cardiovascular health. I have a ton of cardio capacity for short bursts as is expected for strongman training, but longer-duration cardio isn't great. Climbing routes longer than 60' gets my heart going, and that's not even a long route. Running sucks and I hate it.
I've been wanting to get back into bicycling. Some folks have recommended a hybrid road bike like a Trek FX; I went to a bike shop the other day and test-sat some bikes, though, and it seemed like a Specialized Roll 3.0 (XL) was most comfortable. I know the ergonomics are very different but I don't like riding hunched over. What would I be giving up by going from a hybrid road bike to more of an upright bike? Any recommendations, given that I'm ~275lb these days?
In reply to brandonsmash :
Looks like chain drop is a common issue on that model. There's a possibility it just needs a narrow wide front chainring to fix that, but for a $900 bike it shouldn't have the problem to begin with. Have you looked at the Kona Dew Plus?
In reply to captainawesome :
I haven't: I'll call around to bike shops and see if someone locally has one. Would that one have similar (read: comfortable but functional) ergonomics to the Specialized, do you think?
In reply to brandonsmash :
They appear similar but I haven't compared the geometry. There's quite a few geometry comparison sites that have tons of models to choose from if you're curious. I would recommend some test rides at minimum maybe a rental if possible before buying though. What seems comfortable just sitting may not be over a long distance. Saddle type, position of saddle, tire size, tire type, tire volume, bars, grips, crank length can make massive impacts on comfort. Get something with large volume and supple tires and you'll be golden.
brandonsmash said:I've been wanting to get back into bicycling. Some folks have recommended a hybrid road bike like a Trek FX; I went to a bike shop the other day and test-sat some bikes, though, and it seemed like a Specialized Roll 3.0 (XL) was most comfortable. I know the ergonomics are very different but I don't like riding hunched over. What would I be giving up by going from a hybrid road bike to more of an upright bike?
Whats your goal with biking? What type of roads will you be biking on? Competition, fitness focused, or more casual?
In general the reason road bikes are not upright is for aero. But if you aren't competing, it just means you'll be slower than you would otherwise. If you are just trying to "get back out there" so to speak, I would do whatever is comfortable and most likely to keep you coming back.
In reply to TravisTheHuman :
I am absolutely not competing, and I don't like the forward-leaning position that requires me to crane my neck. I want to be able to comfortably ride to my warehouse occasionally (a couple miles with one smallish hill) and take advantage of the weather when it's nice here.
Outright speed is not my focus, not at all. It sounds like I should really go for that "comfort cruiser" style.
Also I don't want a seat that is punishing to my tender taint.
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