Current Events > Oh man the fitness topic died so here's another one

(+) Yeah! (+)

7.93 on the bike today

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I always get envious of other people I see online who work out for like 6 months or even a year and they have abs and guns and stuff but I just gotta remind myself at how far below average I started at

literally all flab and no muscle, i looked like jack skellington when i cut down


I'm really pretty satisfied with my appearance but it would be nice to have abs one time before i die

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Your traps look a bit better from earlier in the year and overall less body fat percentage from what I can tell. Recomp is fun!

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yeah... the pics are over a year apart tho :(

I appreciate you though bro man my motivation is in the dirt these days

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Balrog0 posted...

yeah... the pics are over a year apart tho :(

In the first set? Still, progress is progress. I've had years that I've gone backwards

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yeah, 2020 vs 2021
I didnt necessarily anticipate still going this far out, I guess I should put a year on these now

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think im gonna push through this 3 week cycle then start a cut
maybe spend a week or two maintaining

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184.4 this morning
today is the first day of a new 3 week cycle of 5/3/1

today: OHP
85x5
100x5
112.5x5+

chinups
dumbbell rows
facepulls
concentration curls

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Before and after. I've made a little progress in my chest, at least. Left wasn't a true before because I'd already been working out for at least a couple weeks, but back then I was kinda skinnyfat and breathed hard after barely any exertion. I feel like my progress is so slow (these pictures are literally years apart now), but at least I'm better than I was.

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Lookin good to me brother!

Didn't have the plates to make 112.5 work so I had to do 115. Well I guess I could have done 110. Anyway I got 115x5 again so that's frustrating.

Tried to do some weighed chinups but I couldn't really do a productive volume so I dropped it

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Hit a PR of a 540 squat after taking a shot. Then did some drop-down sets. My upper-body strength is wavering as I drop down to under 200 lbs but at least my lower-body keeps progressing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lavu2h00e0E

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The video looks like it freezes at the 2 plate portion, but by how easily you did 3 im assuming you just moved so fast that the camera didn't register any movement.

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Shit, oh well, guess it's an Easter egg if anyone bothers to try and watch the whole thing.

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Damn nice, look at this strong guy.
For myself, squatted 257.5x7 then did hip thrusts and step ups

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Pow Pow Punishment posted...

Shit, oh well, guess it's an Easter egg if anyone bothers to try and watch the whole thing.

nice work my man

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Thanks my dudes.

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is it just me or isn't the risk/reward of PR attempt with 1 rep really terrible?

Well I compete in powerlifting and that's literally what the sport is. But to others, I think there's a lot of merit in it as long as it's not a regular part of your training. In 19 years of lifting none of my injuries have come from a 1-rep max attempt. I feel much more wary of injury when undergoing fatigue while repping heavy weight, whereas on a max attempt, I'm not tired enough for my form to get away from me and cause an injury; I either make the lift or fail it.

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Today's bench day

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Balrog0 posted...

Today's bench day

Same for me. Go kill it!

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Anyone have any idea how resistance bands translate to free weights? I've been using them for the last 6 months, since all the gyms are closed and I'm too lazy to use the gym anyways

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1.25 miles at 12 mins today without being that tired afterwards (ie no hands on knees nonsense or inability to speak normally). I usually run outside for a week then see what my comfort level is at on treadmill. My prime was 5 miles 7 min pace from 2 years ago so itll be a while before I hit that again since Ive been pretty casual the last few years. 1.5 miles at 12 mins is a full grades military run mark so I should be pretty much there by next week, 2 at the latest. Pretty excited about this recapturing of my youth, weekly progress pic tomorrow!

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lemondrop7 posted...

recapturing of my youth

It's okay to let this motivate you as long as you know it's not actually true.

This damn meat castle is hurtling towards collapse either way brother.

Man it would be nice to dunk just one time before it goes though

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Balrog0 posted...

It's okay to let this motivate you as long as you know it's not actually true.

This damn meat castle is hurtling towards collapse either way brother.

Man it would be nice to dunk just one time before it goes though

the male body reaches its prime in the 30s if you live a fairly athletic lifestyle young. its misinformed to think your twenties is your actual peak...it is if you didnt take care of your body much because then by your 30s youre going to constantly be aching / sore trying to work out way out of it.

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lemondrop7 posted...

the male body reaches its prime in the 30s if you live a fairly athletic lifestyle young. its misinformed to think your twenties is your actual peak...it is if you didnt take care of your body much because then by your 30s youre going to constantly be aching / sore trying to work out way out of it.

Yeah, that's true. Though it depends on what you're talking about. Different systems degrade at different rates, your speed goes before your strength or endurance

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Tc how do you have space for full weights in an apartment? I have a 1700 sq ft house and I feel like I don't have any space to spare.

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Drpooplol posted...

Tc how do you have space for full weights in an apartment? I have a 1700 sq ft house and I feel like I don't have any space to spare.

Aren't you a dad though? It's just me and my gf.

It does take up pretty much a whole room. I still have room for my computer and a small desk area. We were just using the room as a storage area, basically, so I just did a lot of cleaning and organizing to make space

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yeah true dat, playa. I guess I could get a simple setup for my garage and just use it in march - November. Which to be fair I guess is a large chunk of the year

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I'm in dramatically better shape than my 20s simply because I didn't lift then. I'm pushing 40 at this point and by far in the best shape of my life. My older brother had similar experiences and he was nearly 40 when he started lifting.

As for keeping weights in an apartment, I've got a similar situation as Balrog. It's all in an extra room that doubles as an office. I use piles of blankets/pillows as mats. Balrog actually puts his equipment nicely away though. I leave mine sprawled all over the floor. I think I only have ~300lbs in weight total. It gets the job done for my strength level.

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bench complete

125x5
145x5
162.5x8
then 5 sets of 120x10
3x6 pendlay rows@130
3x13 laterals raises@10
3x9 ez bar curls@35
3x9 DB lat pullover@25

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That should be 3x10 at 45 on the ez bar curls actually. Though that was probably heavier than I needed for those reps

Oh yeah and I decided to get more weights and better equipment because in the past I've always just used my equipment as an excuse to stop progressing. I'm actually getting pretty close to 300 on my squats for the first time ever now

@Pow_Pow_Punishment did you kill it yet bro? I keep refreshing your blog for updates


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Aggravated my shoulder (torn labrum from two years ago) on db military press tonight. Felt the muscle just go wiggly going halfway up. Luckily i was using very low weights, and I have full range of motion atm it just feels a lil numb and weak. I hurt this thing once every two months or so just cant afford surgery, already iced and used my theracane tonight so we will see how it feels tomorrow but Im pretty hopeful. Worst case I might be just running and doing abs/leg/back for the next week

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Balrog0 posted...

That should be 3x10 at 45 on the ez bar curls actually. Though that was probably heavier than I needed for those reps

Oh yeah and I decided to get more weights and better equipment because in the past I've always just used my equipment as an excuse to stop progressing. I'm actually getting pretty close to 300 on my squats for the first time ever now

@Pow_Pow_Punishment did you kill it yet bro? I keep refreshing your blog for updates

Lol that's flattering to hear, it was a good session. My bench press has been regressing so I did partials for the first time in over a decade. The set-up took experimentation but I worked up to 2 sets of 315x4 with the bar's plates resting on beer kegs and stopping several inches above my chest. Moved on to log pressing 175x8 and lots of T-bar rows, some chest-flyes, and curls.

I hit a 350 bench and then failed 370 last week when that's normally a smooth weight for me, I'm going to test 365 after 3 weeks of partial training. I'm almost under 200 lbs and upper-body strength has been a real fight.

Good to hear you expanded your weight collection, I need some lighter dumbbells. I only have a single 100, two 115s, and two 125s. I'm looking to get 80s and another 100.

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What kind of routine are you doing atm PPP? Iirc at some point you were considering 5/3/1 vs something lighter with higher volume?

Man those are insane dumbbell weights to me. I wonder if I'll ever be that strong

Today's deadlift day where I'll be pulling like 100 lbs less than PPP benches lol

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Ended my week 3 lbs up from last week. Everyone in my life felt the need to feed me this week so my diet went out the window.

On the upside, my heavy lift day I cranked out the most reps per set on my dumbell bench that I've done with 85s. Getting to the point where I would normally gear up to increase the weight. Unfortunately, this was not the direction I was intending to go. At least it's positive though so I cant complain too much.

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Balrog0 posted...

What kind of routine are you doing atm PPP? Iirc at some point you were considering 5/3/1 vs something lighter with higher volume?

Man those are insane dumbbell weights to me. I wonder if I'll ever be that strong

Today's deadlift day where I'll be pulling like 100 lbs less than PPP benches lol

I've done variants of 5/3/1 for 10 years now but I change up a lot of things, especially doing ROM progression training for certain lifts at periods of time.

I'm not that strong considering how long I've been lifting for, my overhead press is less than it was in 2009 (although I'm 20 lbs lighter now).

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Sunday photo update (yes Im blessing yall with the whitie tighties every week)




biked 2 miles ran for 1.5 miles today the shoulder definitely hurts but it didnt restrict cardio...did affect my ability to do some ab work (not all I can still do planks fine for example) so Ill rest today and just go back to 1db squats tomorrow.

having eaten the same diet with no cheat meals for last 3 weeks really got me back into shape quick. My strength seemed to be returning quick before this lame injury occurred yesterday so Im hoping It wont impede me for long. Im back down to 135-140 lbs now so its just a matter of defining the core

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Pow Pow Punishment posted...

I've done variants of 5/3/1 for 10 years now but I change up a lot of things, especially doing ROM progression training for certain lifts at periods of time.

I'm not that strong considering how long I've been lifting for, my overhead press is less than it was in 2009 (although I'm 20 lbs lighter now).

Ah my bad dude, for some reason I thought I recalled seeing you doing or talking about doing like 4x8 top sets.

Yeah, I started making much better progress just concentrating on doing better than I did last week/month than obsessing over how strong I am compared to other dudes. Still though just kind of wild to think about being that strong, I can barely pick up my 55 lb bumper plates lol

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Oh and I got 262.5x10 on my top set of deadlifts today

Then GHR/nordic curl sets and belt squats

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I ran at the lake after work today. I wore shorts and a t-shirt. It felt great. I feel like I'm improving and feel a lot better than before I had surgery. Maybe I should try to train for a half-marathon. I think a full marathon is too long. I was told the things I was experiencing when I tried were signs of dehydration.

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TerraSeeker posted...

I ran at the lake after work today. I wore shorts and a t-shirt. It felt great. I feel like I'm improving and feel a lot better than before I had surgery. Maybe I should try to train for a half-marathon. I think a full marathon is too long. I was told the things I was experiencing when I tried were signs of dehydration.

Heck yeah dude. I hate running but I've been thinking about looking into powerlifting competition in my area. But that I feel like doing it in the near future but it's something to train towards.

Forgot to weigh myself this morning, no sweat though. First day I've missed in March it looks like

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Did 15 miles on my bike today but took it really easy. Didn't go for speed at all, just trying to get some cardio in for my heart health

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184 on the dot this morning

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This isn't the one I have but it's the exact same as the one I have:

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Weider-XRS-20-Olympic-Squat-Rack-with-300-Lb-Weight-Limit/358128528

My squat is about to exceed this capacity. I'm kind of stuck about what to do.

On the one hand, I'm tempted to just get a real squat rack. The cheapest one on Amazon is less than $250, has a 800 pound capacity, comes with safety bars, and I do have the room for it.

But I'd have to really move some stuff around. My current setup wouldn't work because I think the pull-up bar at the top of the rack would hit my ceiling fan. My exercise equipment already eats up the room and we're hoping to move within the next year or so. So that makes me feel like I could do something like replace back squats with front squats for my top exercise on squat day

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Ohp today

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120x4 again gosh darnit

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Oh geez. Yesterday was a return to normal after a deload week. I haven't had DOMS like this in ages.
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My gym is getting crowded again

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