Board 8 > Fitness/Exercise/Health topic

(+) Yeah! (+)

Feel free to post here on progress, I am admittedly making this to mostly track my upcoming bulk up for the winter.

I fell out of the gym when I moved, then the pandemic happened, and my trips to the gym over the past 3 to 4 years have been very, very sparse. Been consistent with it the past 2 months though while trying to cut down weight, and gain some of my muscle mass back.

Currently at 153 pounds, my goal is 150. Lost about 18 pounds over the past 2 months, and the good news is my lifts have been improving, not stalling, or getting worse, while losing that weight. Which in my mind means I should have a fantastic bulk up session and should be at or around where I previously was in regards to strength.

My PR's from the past were;
Bench-275
Squat-395
Deadlift-450

I was around 190 pounds at those numbers. Right now at my 153 weight, squats and deadlifts are definitely taking a bit longer to get back into it. Current PR's are;
Bench-195
Squat-205
Deadlift-275

I fully expect to be at 150 or less in the next couple of weeks and will be posting progress as I go along.

Feel free to post advice on lifts, how your fitness journey is going. I'm always willing to put my meager 2 cents in! Losing weight, gaining weight, exercising, lifting, yoga, running, all this shit is hard! It always will be hard. Keep in mind that motivation is fleeting so you can't always rely on that and at the end of the day it will always come down to discipline. Keep it up! and don't let bad days discourage you, get your shit in and done. You'll feel better in the long run.

I need one of these so I can actually be accountable. After a week of sitting around the house, I finally went to the gym this evening and...used the elliptical. Woo~ (Not knocking cardio. Just that I can do that outside the gym. I have a treadmill at home.) I have errands to run tomorrow morning. Hopefully I will stop again and do something more gym-oriented.

Glad this is back.

Got down to 200 and maintained that through summer. Best physqiue I've ever had but want to do more next summer. Starting a bulk for the rest of the year today.

I've also always had thick thighs/calves so never could see good definition but was pretty pumped to get my first ever compliment on my legs the other week.

Started taking a preworkout but doesn't seem like a good bang for my buck, so I switched to Ghost energy drinks and man do those slap. What's everyone's go to preworkout/drink?

Pre-workout always seemed so hit and miss with me-I personally use this: https://us.myprotein.com/sports-nutrition/the-pre-workout/11351665.html

Recently though, and I don't recommend it, I've straight up just been chugging a cup of black coffee before workouts lol. I definitely wakes me up, but I'll get a mid workout need to shit now mood.

i don't really understand how but i've lost strength on the bench even this year when i've been going a reasonable amount. managed 275x4 today but it was a big struggle.

haven't deadlifted in years and my 5-rep squat is somewhere in the low 2 plates

trying to build consistency again but it's difficult and my stamina is miserable, and probably made worse by going in the mornings

I started trying to do deadlifts again at the start of the year. Set one I did an easy dozen at 225 without a belt, so figured fuck it why not add another 50 pounds. I threw out my back somewhere around 5 or 6 reps. So that was a fun day of lifting legs.

I've actually encouraged myself to be more forgiving on cardio. Last year I was an absolute slave to 30 minutes on the spinning bike or a substitute daily. I've started letting myself take a couple days off a week depending on life, just making sure that the time I do spend is quality.

Bench wise I'm doing really well. Got 225x19 a few times, can do 18 with extreme consistency. Finally decided a few weeks ago to stop just benching 225 for reps, which since I don't have a spotter normally was a bit scary. Been mostly just doing 255 so far, with 13 being my best so far. 275 I've done a few sets on, but I just don't have the confidence there yet to really push it to beyond 8 to the 9-10 reps I feel like I've got in me.

Arms wise I'm still not where I want to be size wise. I'm at like 15.25 cold flexed, at 6 foot 205. Really wanting to get that to 16, but it takes time and I doubt I'll actually be happy with it when I'm there.

Still, actually starting to feel confident in not just being some skinny guy anymore, which is nice. I've been trying to be kinder to myself, which honestly is a lot harder work than the weight lifting part.

imthestuntman posted...

Still, actually starting to feel confident in not just being some skinny guy anymore, which is nice. I've been trying to be kinder to myself, which honestly is a lot harder work than the weight lifting part.

This is a good point. Regardless if your skinny, fat, obese, normal, or fucking jacked. I'm trying not to get so disappointed at times when I don't hit a certain rep amount/weight, or if I don't see any progress in one, two, three weeks, or even looking in the mirror and thinking that since I'm not visibly seeing the progress being made that I'm not actually making any progress. It's all a process and it's important to remember that. It's actually quite relieving for me personally that I am seeing such quick progress in getting back into it while simultaneously losing fat at a decent rate. Granted I recently learned that fat cells, and muscle cells never technically go away, they go dormant. So if you ever take long breaks you should be able to get back to where you were previously, but that's also a vice-versa situation and it's why people who are overweight can also gain all that weight back so quickly after losing it.

All about discipline. Just gotta get shit done. It's what I tell myself anyway, even if I'm not feeling the workout.

Still working on getting my lifts back to where they should be after swim season. All the swimming really fucks with my lifts, especially the lower body, though some of that is simply the weight loss from the cardio. I bottomed out at 143ish and though I try to keep it under 150, I feel like 147-148 is a better stable weight for myself. I know it seems crazy that such a small difference is noticeable but, well, it is.

Ive thought about starting to wear a belt for squats and deads to help protect my lower back. Theres one at my gym and I could tell the difference in the set or two that I was experimenting with it.

imthestuntman posted...

I started trying to do deadlifts again at the start of the year. Set one I did an easy dozen at 225 without a belt, so figured fuck it why not add another 50 pounds. I threw out my back somewhere around 5 or 6 reps. So that was a fun day of lifting legs.

i'm pretty sure it was right at 275 when i first threw my back out doing deadlifts, and it took me almost a week to feel normal again. that has put me off so, so hard from deadlifts, even though i was able to do so much more "back in the day"

Ive learned the hard way to keep strict form with deadlifts. Never bounce the weight. Make sure to reset and get my mind right after each rep. If Im trying to do a set of 5, its not really a set of 5 its 1 rep 5 times.

Thats how I approach every lift. Granted its not a full reset on stuff like biceps and bench press, squat, ext but I pause, reset my focus for half a second, take it slow on the push.

Completely anecdotally but the focus on form makes it feel like I progress at a much faster rate compared to some people who just go go go, bouncing 300 pounds off their chest with every rep.

I saw a personal trainer yesterday who told me I was in "very good shape." That was definitely validating to hear. It's one thing to hear it from people who knew me when I was nearly morbidly obese but to hear it from someone who has never seen me before is much different.

Anyway, he helped me with stuff that is really going to help me reach the next level for me. I told him my goal is not The Rock, but maybe a bit of a beach bod and he said that that's a very realistic goal for me.

Got to the gym. Bit of a token visit, but I got there despite the cruddy weather over the last five days. Maybe this will help me continue going back.

225x16 and 255x11 today. Just didn't have it for a bunch of reasons. At least they were quality reps, and I matched my personal best on Friday.

My shoulders and elbows were both crying pretty much immediately. Should have been a sign to just take the day off, especially because my pre-work out was already burned through at that point.

I need to lose 15 pounds. Last year has been rough and I'm back up to 190. Still down from my high a few years ago of 220 but need to get back to 175

Update:

Tue - gym
Wed - nothing
Thu - long run
Fri - gym
Sat - no formal exercise, but I walked across town
Sun - ???

Focusing more on hack squats for my leg days. I have long legs so have always done a wide stance with my feet up higher. But I understand that to be more glute focused. I've tried to keep them lower but it puts more strain on my knees. Trying to figure out if the soreness the next day is good or if I could injure my knee still doing it this way. Which naturally makes me nervous to up the weight/intensity.

Where is the soreness? Is it in your muscles or joints? Does it feel more like a cramp or arthritis? The latter is going to be a more hollow feeling.

If the former pair it's probably fine, your body just isn't used to the exercise. If you can safely push more without sacrificing form, go for it.

If it's the latter, which it sounds like it is, it's almost certainly a result of poor form unless you have a history of knee issues. I would focus on trying to improve form first, because if you push it too much you're going to hurt yourself.

Trust me I do this shit with bench press constantly. Have to refocus my form periodically because I start getting greedy and start straining my joints. If you keep pushing forward you're not only going to risk injury, but you'll be reinforcing and exaggerating those poor habits as you struggle with the weight.

I'll lower the weight and work on the form then. The soreness feels like it's right above the knee. Wouldn't say it's a cramp or arthritis based on how you described it.

Oh, never posted in here. Actually just started changing things up a couple weeks ago!

Dumbbell workouts: 4 (9/29, 10/3, 10/6, 10/9)
Current dumbbell exercises: Bicep curls 3x15, Tri-dips 3x15, Shoulder press 3x15, Bench 2x15
Current dumbbell weight: 12 lb.
Semi-fasting days: 1 (10/9) - did not quite get as low as 800 calories like I wanna but whatever, it's progress toward that
Elliptical repair progress: Still annoying

Still getting 80,000+ steps a week (have been since May; will revert to 77K come winter once again) even with that thing broken but I will -HOPEFULLY- fix the damn thing tomorrow (the old belt snapped). Wish me luck.

Masahiro Sakurai's newest video is actually relevant here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysaNUatLMn0

Lol I actually play my switch while on the spinning bike all the time. Just sit back and make sure the tempo stays up.

Some games I've found to just be no goes, but it's great for things like Danganronpa or ace attorney that are a ton of reading.

Last week I was playing overwatch on my switch on the bike. Quality of play varied wildly on the bike depending on the character. Any character that required aiming was a complete no-go, but actually did really well with ones that didn't.

Back when among us was big I had a blast playing it on my phone while riding.

I've also read quite a few books while riding it. Though that is a bit less recommended. I've gotten very dizzy doing that before and almost fell off. The switch it is much easier to brace your hands against the grips on the bike while sitting back and playing than a book.

Overall if it helps you get your exercise in it's a huge positive in my opinion. Sure your quality of time while on the bike might not be quite as good, but especially with cardio just finding the time for it is like 2/3rds of the battle.

That's the real secret to fitness, consistency. Whatever will help you get there is the most important. I know so many people that have started going to the gym and bragged about spending hours there starting out. 2 months later I ask and they haven't gone in weeks. Can't find the time, they made it too big a commitment in their head.

Meanwhile I'm just chugging away at home 30 minutes of cardio a day, 30-45 minutes more time on the days I lift. I rarely change it up, just rotating in and out a few exercises like skull crushers that stress joints periodically. I've gotten consistently stronger doing this and never really feel I'm hitting plateaus because I keep pushing myself.

Been trying to both lose weight and get some basic level of cardio fitness going.

I was someone who would be out of breath if i had to walk a mile. Been doing walks 5+ times a week and can go for an hour fairly easily now. Trying to pick up the pace now a bit.

Weight wise at ~240 trying to get down to 200. My highest ever was 290 so I can definitely make it, I just do this gradually rather than trying to lose 3 pounds a week or w.e. I typically aim for 1-2 pounds a week but really as long as i'm making progress and eating better i'm happy.

Do you have a dog? That's the only way I've ever found myself able to consistently go for those long walks daily. The minute they get in the habit they start demanding it.

If I had a nickel for every time I had a 20 lb Bichon wake me up by sitting on my chest and smacking me in the face for his morning walk....

imthestuntman posted...

Do you have a dog? That's the only way I've ever found myself able to consistently go for those long walks daily. The minute they get in the habit they start demanding it.

If I had a nickel for every time I had a 20 lb Bichon wake me up by sitting on my chest and smacking me in the face for his morning walk....

Nah I don't. I do live right next to a super long walking/biking trail though. I'm going to eventually mix in biking once I get my bike fixed as well. I've just been going right after work and using it as a chance to catch up on my podcasts that I am literal years behind on

It drives my spouse crazy going when we go for walk because that's what I want to do while they want to talk. It's just uniquely relaxing, can completely turn off and enjoy.

My weight has ballooned over the past few years and decided enough was enough when I reached 290 (I was 220 three years ago which was the lowest I had been in adulthood - I would say I have averaged around 250 for most of my adult life)

Haven't started exercising or anything yet, it's more about watching what I eat at the moment. Started Monday before last and lost 8lbs in my first work so I'm happy with that. My goal is to at least get back down to 220 but I'll be setting interim goals so it doesn't seem like such a big slog

Did arms today, very satisfying to see the vein bulges in my forearms and biceps. Gonna give it a couple more weeks before I weight myself again but I should be hitting my goal soon. Right now I'm hovering around 12% body fat based on an eye test. Feels good.

Benched today, 255 lbs for 14 mother fucking reps. Max bench calc says thats approximately 368 lbs. That's a new personal best! Relative to weight that would be 1.795x weight. First time cleanly passing 1.75x!

Music listening to while hitting that - Unconditionally by Katy Perry. Because lol.

imthestuntman posted...

Benched today, 255 lbs for 14 mother fucking reps. Max bench calc says thats approximately 368 lbs. That's a new personal best! Relative to weight that would be 1.795x weight. First time cleanly passing 1.75x!

Music listening to while hitting that - Unconditionally by Katy Perry. Because lol.

Good on you man!

My bench ratio was 1.58 earlier in the year when the weight was lower. But as I've increased the weight and gotten closer to my limit that's gone down to 1.44

Weighed in at 155 yesterday, probably gained a couple pounds from the wedding/vacation I was on. I am look pretty lean overall though. Decided to change my routine up a bit to grind out these last few pounds. Going for more high intensity, high rep, low weight and finishing off with a couple reps at my current maxes.

Did chest today and I'm definitely feeling the change in the routine. I am tired.

Down to 153.4 pounds now. Should be hitting my goal in about 3 weeks! Just in time to start the bulk around Thanksgiving.

Did 275x10 today on bench, feels good. I think I've overturned my body for reps to the point that the first 7 or 8 are literally nothing. 9 was the first real working rep there, and 10 was easy enough I might've been able to go for more. Just wasn't expecting it at all though, so didn't have the mental state to push for 11.

Ive found that the mental rhythm to benching is super important for me, and the last 2 reps especially I need to really be ready to focus through, so it's not an audible I want to make on the fly because my brain just farts through the extra rep.

Also I am currently over-examing my hand placement to the point of stressing over a half inch or so narrower than I had been doing. I'm finding that perfect range between overworking shoulders and elbows is getting real tight as I really push my limits.

Also out of curiosity, is there a reason you're cutting into a bulk? I personally am fine just having little in the way of visible abs outside of light shadows when flexing, so it's not something I really do. I guess it seems counterintuitive to me to worry about those few pounds when they'll give you a bit more strength in your bulk to exert your muscles and will come off when you cut down the road anyways.

150 is just my goal. Would like to hit that weight is all. You are right though, cutting an extra 2 to 3 pounds then going straight into bulking up again isnt that big of a deal but its just a goal I would like to hit.

Plus Im also trying some stretching goals. I have never in my life been able to touch my toes from stretching, and Im pretty damn close to hitting that goal. Bulking up could potentially hinder that progress too.

TLDR: I set myself a goal weight. Would like to hit that goal.

Ah makes sense, I can totally get that, I've been a bit listless goal wise of late but when having such a clearly defined goal sticking to it is a good idea.

I feel the need to preface that this next comment is totally sincere, because it might sound sarcastic.

Touching your toes sounds like a crazy cool fitness goal to pursue, and now I totally want to do that. How long have you had to work at it to make that progress? What kind of bowing of your knees and back are you permitting there?

Been keeping up with the dumbbell exercises. Haven't added any new ones.
Still at 10K+ steps a day.
Fasting days are rare but I got one in this week.
My stepper still isn't properly fixed and I'm still trying to get that resistance working right. FAT BURN please!

imthestuntman posted...

Ah makes sense, I can totally get that, I've been a bit listless goal wise of late but when having such a clearly defined goal sticking to it is a good idea.

I feel the need to preface that this next comment is totally sincere, because it might sound sarcastic.

Touching your toes sounds like a crazy cool fitness goal to pursue, and now I totally want to do that. How long have you had to work at it to make that progress? What kind of bowing of your knees and back are you permitting there?

Growing up, those fitness tests we had to take in gym periodically I always dominated the pushups, situps, rope climb ect, but I always failed miserably at the stretching ones. (The one where you had to put your feet against the thing and measure how many inches you could get). Like my flexibility in my hamstrings/back and glutes are terrible. I would hope you are sincere lol, stretching and flexibility is still a fitness goal!

Anyway I stretch a good amount before my workout, I usually warmup -> stretch whatever muscles I will be using -> workout. Normally this would take me 5 minutes to do my normal stretch's. Usually a set of 3 to 5 different stretches, where I attempt to hold the stretches from 3 to 8 seconds. With my leg workouts though I stretch a good 15-25 minutes, this includes a variety of hamstring, quad, glute, hip and calve stretches. I push my self to the point where I can barely go beyond my tipping point(the 'burning' point) and try to hold for about 6-8 seconds. Been doing this for about 3-4 months with every workout and been slowly gaining inches in my stretches. I was roughly barely able to get past my knees caps, it was that bad. Now I can reach the balls of my ankles. I'm pretty stoked about the progress and honestly I will be elated the first time I will be able to touch my toes. It's been a goal of mine for so long.

I do 15-20 minutes of stretching every morning. Its astonishing how much of a difference it makes. Not just in terms of waking yourself up and feeling good for the day. But also my longer term flexibility is just so much better.

Worse day today on bench with 280x8. Feel like this happens normally if I hit near a calculated max then do 1 day rest. Luckily the worse day normally can do the 1 rest day, so Tuesday when I bench again I will be much fresher.

Worst part is those first 2-3 reps. My muscles will be still sore, so those reps just won't be 100% clean. That extra stabilizing effort kills me on the back end.

Theoretically a proper warm up should reduce this, but I don't know that you're ever fully warmed up to rep 135% of body weight lol.

Fitness tests in school were kind of funny. When I was a kid, I was virtually always overweight or obese and failed the pull-up and mile run tests but was great with the sit-ups and always got excellent flexibility scores.

I've had a normal BMI ever since 2014 and now I'd excel on any of the tests. Feels good.

Anyway, I have no specific fitness objectives at the moment. I'm sure I'll think of some. I do need to improve my sleep and recently I've decided that watching videos in bed is one of the worst habits I've ever picked up so I'm keeping my phone away from the bed now. Last night was pretty restful and I woke up on my own after just over 6 hours of sleep.

I have bad sleeping habits too. However, weed is legal in my area so if I'm having trouble sleeping I just get super high and pass out lol. Best solution? Probably not, but it works.

Probably the biggest reason I don't do that is I know THC does weird stuff to REM sleep and basically blocks dreams. I actively maintain a dream journal and try to do lucid dreaming so I don't want anything that's going to disrupt that because I'm weirdly attached to my dreams.

I'm technically overweight by BMI at this point. Basically I was at the top of my normal BMI before I spent like 3 years obsessively weight lifting. Figure I'm 20 lbs "overweight" now, but give the amount of green veggies and cardio I do I'm mostly fine with it.

I feel that phone in bed comment. I'll go to bed at 11, then not fall asleep until 12:30 dicking around on my phone. Of course if I go to bed at 12 I don't sleep till 1, so same thing. My spouse has taken to asking why I'm on my phone, which I can never justify and put it down lol.

I don't smoke weed, but alcohol does the same thing for me since I'm on an anti-depressant that when mixed with alcohol might as well be a sleeping pill. Which is probably the least healthy way to sleep I can imagine lol.

Hit 225 on squat today, while still losing weight. Very good news for me. Ive been able to improve my strength while losing almost 15 pounds. Kinda nuts. Very excited for my bulk. I think Ill be able to hit some PRs on everything within a year.

Been extremely sore past few workouts, which is a good thing, but the cold isn't helping. I feel so goddam tense throughout the day.

Did back today, felt good. No PR on deadlift, but I tried. Everything else is still maintaining and haven't seen any dips in strength. Gonna weigh myself this upcoming Monday. Hoping to be at 151/150.

Gained back up to 155. Oops! Probably shouldn't have had a bunch of Mexican food last night. (A lot of it is probably just water retention).

Got my squat up to 250 now though. Looking to have a great week this week.

Did a personal best 327.5 lbs for 2 reps on deadlift today. Might have even had a chance at 3 reps but my grip was giving out.

Wearing a belt has made a huge difference. Obviously it helps physically but the mental confidence it gives cannot be understated.

Belts rule if you have a prior injury that is making you worried about reaggravating it. Really any extra support for something you injured is a must for a heavy load/set.

I fucked up my hip abductors a few years back(I don't honestly know how), and I couldn't do any lower body exercises for months. It fucking sucked. Tripping over something super small would just put to he ground because my hips couldn't support the forward momentum. Definitely made me hesitant to ever squat again because I went from 335 to barely pushing 120 it was that bad. So I totally get the confidence thing.

I personally don't use any extra support equipment unless I'm maxing out, but still, coming from an injury really fucks with you until you really get back into again.

Did some chest today, no PR's. I went a bit hard on my arms yesterday, probably shouldn't have done chest today but whatever. Got a good workout in.