Board 8 > Fitness/Exercise/Health topic

(+) Yeah! (+)

Menji posted...

just got back from vacation without lifting and got COVID, so now no lifting for another week at least.

Damn, that sucks.

I somehow still have not gotten Covid yet.

Good squat day today. First time in a while I didn't actually get any improvements on. Hit most of my sets except the last one, legs definitely feeling pumped though.

Strained a ligament in my arm getting tripped at soccer so no arm day this week, but feeling good about my progress. The coaches at my gym are so good at correcting my form, I definitely get what people mean when they say form takes a long time and a lot of work.

Had "one of those days" today. Got to the gym and reached into my backpack to discover my water bottle had popped open. Thankfully it only had my belts in it so not the worst. But I did have a nice wet ring around my shirt when I used the belt...

I can't imagine that had much impact but I had nothing today on my heavy squat set. Had to bail out without getting a rep at a weight I should have been able to get 3-5 reps.

I'm going to blame my usual summer swimming season. From Memorial Day to Labor Day I'll swim 1+ miles 4-5 times a week and it really does take it out of you, especially in the lower body. And it's not like I swim hard or anything, it's just the quantity that catches up to you.

Had probably my worst bench day in a while. I just was not feeling it at all. I knew from the moment I woke up that I wasn't feeling it, but bench is my favorite day so I figured I'd kill it today. Nope. Struggled on my first set, and everything after. So after that disaster I just spent the rest of the workout taking it slow, working on form. Chest feels pretty good!

I think I'm just worn out from work.

Failed to hit my reps on deadlift today. I've officially reached "swimming is killing my strength training" season. Time to reset the numbers a bit and hopefully put myself in a position to hit some personal bests in the fall.

Had a good arm day, specifically my delts. They haven't felt this good in a while. Aiming to get some boulder shoulder territory.

No new progress on squats, but it was still a very good leg day. I knew my insane progress wouldn't go on forever. I'll actually have a couple days off work coming up next weekend so I can finally do my controlled weigh ins. Hoping to be around 176-177, I'm thinking I'll be around 179-180.

Yeah my progress has completely halted. Bad bench day, but I toughed it out, went back to chest dips. I love chest dips.

Hit 165 on OHP. Feeling good about my delt progress so far!

Over and over again, my best OHP is basically 1x bodyweight. Maybe once or twice I was able to get a single rep +5lbs more but that's about it. I think to do any better than that would take some serious dedication and specific training, at least for me.

Seanchan posted...

Over and over again, my best OHP is basically 1x bodyweight. Maybe once or twice I was able to get a single rep +5lbs more but that's about it. I think to do any better than that would take some serious dedication and specific training, at least for me.

The fact that you can do bw Ohp means youve been doing this for a while and know your shit, so forgive me if Im asking a stupid question here, but do you feel that your Tricep work is enough? Thats typically the #1 staller for Ohp and upping the lifts on them can help bust through it

I dont do much isolation work anymore. I mostly concentrate on the big compound lifts, since I figure those are working the smaller muscles a bit anyway. Also, just time; I try to get out in 30-40 minutes.

On bench day Ill throw in a set or two of weighted dips. On OHP day Ill do some pushdowns or extensions. But I try to keep to a high 8-12 rep range.

I have done more strenuous isolation work in the past. No idea if I had more success with OHP and Bench at those times.

I've decided to throw out deadlifts on my back day, and just make a day of deadlifts by itself. Starting today! Did a bunch of max 1-3 reps until I couldn't do them anymore, and started lowering the weight until 5 reps were reaching my limit, then decrease again.

Hoping this kickstarts my deadlift, because it's still lagging badly behind everything else.

My deadlift day definitely worked, haven't been that sore in my back and hamstrings in a while, so I'll keep up with that.

Overall update, weighed in at 176.6. I'm pleased to be at this weight right now, but I had a lot of salt and water before bed last night so I still had a decent amount of water weight on me, which ultimately means my weight gains have slowed down. So I either need to eat more, or get better quality reps in to increase muscle stimuli/growth.

With that in mind I decided to slow things down a bit, and go with heavier weights at a slower pace(and smaller rep range), especially pausing at the eccentric motion to really get a deep stretch in there. I did that today with my squats/leg day and holy shit I feel a difference already, not looking forward to some potential DOMS. I know I'm eating enough, in fact some days I feel like I'm over eating, so I think it just has to do with the fact I'm not getting quality reps in anymore because I was so hyper focused and excited about my strength exploding over the course of a month lol.

Also my hip mobility has improved as shit ton since implementing some mobility and normal stretches every day. Hooray for no more ackward hip pain! Still can't touch my toes, but making some progress.

Nice squats today. Ive started over on them months ago and did all of them ass to grass and with a pause at the bottom. Just adding 5 pounds each times. Has been fun doing deadlifts over 400lbs then switching over to 70 pound squats has to confuse to people. But weve officially reached adult weight again at 2 plates and honestly its been one of the best decisions Ive made. I feel fully in command of the weight and the gains from it have been great. Plus the lack of injuries that happen with the heavier weight have not been an issue

Jumping in at the end of this topic, so sorry if this has been talked about before, but has anyone here tried Macrofactor? Im a big Jeff Nippard fan and obviously hes been promoting this app recently

Sorozone posted...

I did that today with my squats/leg day and holy shit I feel a difference already, not looking forward to some potential DOMS.

Definitely got some soreness two days later, but it's not terrible-first leg day back after a long break-type of soreness.

So I did the same exact approach on chest today, slow on the way down, pause, and slow on the way back up, back down, pause, ect. Got some deep eccentric stretches in the chest and feeling mighty good.

GANON1025 posted...

but has anyone here tried Macrofactor? Im a big Jeff Nippard fan and obviously hes been promoting this app recently

Jeff is one of the more real fitness dudes out there, I don't personally follow him or anything so I'm always weary when anyone promotes anything because it's money at the end of the day for that person.

Doing a quick glance at the app it seems like it could be useful, but it's also stuff you could very easily track yourself if you are willing to put in the work to do so.

My new favorite delt workout is standing dumbell press, one arm at a time. Makes such a difference being able to tuck my elbow in and get a full stretch of the delt on the way down.

I think I'm gonna start cutting. I'm hovering around 15 to 20 percent body fat(barely visible abs), I'm at a size that I like currently, strength while not ideal I don't think is gonna drop a ton if I keep up with my current sets, and I think losing 15-20 pounds would put me right around 155-160, and based on my estimations with limited muscle loss(hard I know) would put me around 9-8% body fat. Ideal.

I've always lost weight fast. Lost 30 pounds in two months before, so I think a solid 8 week plan should do the trick.

I also actually looked at my calorie consumption and while I was eating enough, I definitely could have eaten more. So I actually don't have to cut a whole lot out. Probably just need to cut out my high munchies tbh, haha

Sorozone posted...

My new favorite delt workout is standing dumbell press, one arm at a time. Makes such a difference being able to tuck my elbow in and get a full stretch of the delt on the way down.

Trying to picture this... Isn't gravity making this inefficient?

Sorozone posted...

I also actually looked at my calorie consumption and while I was eating enough, I definitely could have eaten more. So I actually don't have to cut a whole lot out. Probably just need to cut out my high munchies tbh, haha

Love to see what your daily meals look like. Always looking to try something new in mine as I'll probably cut here soon.

Menji posted...

Trying to picture this... Isn't gravity making this inefficient?

https://youtu.be/Fqk4r6tuF5s?t=153

Here is a good example I found

Menji posted...

Love to see what your daily meals look like. Always looking to try something new in mine as I'll probably cut here soon.

In the mornings I eat two bags dino egg oatmeal haha-380 calories, 3 eggs 180 to 210 depending on the size of the eggs

My lunch is insanely simple-Protein bar-260 calories, and nuts(peanuts usually)-300-400 calories, I usually eat 2 to two and half servings.

I have two protein shakes, one pre and one after, a serving of chocolate milk/1 scoop of protein, sometimes a scoop and a half, with creatine-So each shake is about 270-330 depending on much whey I put in. This puts me at around 1800, I try to hit 2600+ so my dinner is usually like a hamburger with a potato/fries, and I'll eat some ice cream later to get over whatever I need to.

Not super clean, but realistically to cut I just need to not have ice cream, and have a smaller dinner, or cut out the nuts, or a proteins shake. All easy stuff.

Oh lol, for some reason I pictured you pressing straight in front of you, not up.

Made a topic on here about how I've become too fat and I think it was my B8 topic that had people encouraging me to post follow up just to keep myself accountable. Well, from the time of that topic to now my only sugar has been carbs from supper in the evening until I bought a slurpee today. I'm not too concerned about it because I'm not trying to completely deny myself any and all joy. I'm also not expecting the dropping of sugar to drop the weight over night either. So I figured it is super hot I've done pretty good for about a week one slurpee isn't going to do much damage(bought a large and usually get myself an extra large.)

Dude that's awesome. And yeah, you gotta treat yourself every now and then. I actually found that absolutely vital to maintaining a better diet.

Anyway, lately I've been having a lot of difficulty engaging my pecs and back when lifting and find my arms doing most of the work when doing lifts intended for those muscles. I'm feeling it, and it's visible on my body. Any pointers?

Underleveled posted...

Anyway, lately I've been having a lot of difficulty engaging my pecs and back when lifting and find my arms doing most of the work when doing lifts intended for those muscles. I'm feeling it, and it's visible on my body. Any pointers?

Comes down to form. Pecs are...hard to get right? I mean not really, but a lot of the times people have their arms in the wrong spot. So for bench press, or dumbell bench press, you want you arms at ideally at 45 to 60 degrees. Any higher than that it's going to be your shoulders doing the work, any less than that your triceps are going to be doing more of the work. Also make sure you are going down at an angle to the bottom of your chest, not just straight up and straight down, and most importantly once you are doing all of that, pause at the bottom when you hit your chest for a half sec or a full second then push back up. It really helps the eccentric stretch when going down. Always be in control, if your form is teetering you are doing too much weight.

Other tidbits is don't let gravity push you down on chest exercises, your chest and back work in tandem. It may seem awkward at first, but try to pull the weight down instead of it falling down, if that makes sense.

All else fails, just go ham on cable crossovers at different angles. Hard to screw those up. You can always do my favorite if you have the equipment which is a weighted chest dips. It's like a regular dip except you are leaning forward a bit instead of being just upright.

TLDR; It's all about correct form, and going slow and steady.

With bench, Ive heard one way to think about it is to imagine that youre pushing yourself into the bench. Also, to feel like youre squeezing your pecs together near/at the top.

Started my cut today. Going from 2600-2800 calories and cutting to 2000-2200 for a week or so, then I'll drop another 100 calories or so after that, and eventually, hopefully around week 4 I can just do a consistent 1600-1700.

Sorozone posted...

Comes down to form. Pecs are...hard to get right? I mean not really, but a lot of the times people have their arms in the wrong spot. So for bench press, or dumbell bench press, you want you arms at ideally at 45 to 60 degrees. Any higher than that it's going to be your shoulders doing the work, any less than that your triceps are going to be doing more of the work. Also make sure you are going down at an angle to the bottom of your chest, not just straight up and straight down, and most importantly once you are doing all of that, pause at the bottom when you hit your chest for a half sec or a full second then push back up. It really helps the eccentric stretch when going down. Always be in control, if your form is teetering you are doing too much weight.

Other tidbits is don't let gravity push you down on chest exercises, your chest and back work in tandem. It may seem awkward at first, but try to pull the weight down instead of it falling down, if that makes sense.

All else fails, just go ham on cable crossovers at different angles. Hard to screw those up. You can always do my favorite if you have the equipment which is a weighted chest dips. It's like a regular dip except you are leaning forward a bit instead of being just upright.

TLDR; It's all about correct form, and going slow and steady.

Seanchan posted...

With bench, Ive heard one way to think about it is to imagine that youre pushing yourself into the bench. Also, to feel like youre squeezing your pecs together near/at the top.

These sound helpful. Thank you.

One more tip for a better chest/better form. Retract your scapula!(pinch you shoulder blades). Easy way to to get this 'correct' is shrug your shoulders up, push you shoulders back, then drop and hold. Viola! you have retracted your scapula.

Up to 170 on OHP, tried 175- which is my current body weight, and got about half way.
I can probably do 175 even 180, but I was finishing out on OHP today and my delts were pretty worn out by then. By worn out I mean I only did two sets of 2(160, 170 , DNF on the 175).

Been close to two weeks since cutting sugar. I wish I had a scale where I am staying to I could see if I am making any sort of progress, but I've been staying strong regardless. The real test I think is going to be when I have a chance to go home for some days off because it's a lot easier to access sugary junk foods and fall back into those habits I made when being home every night lol

IfGodCouldDie posted...

Been close to two weeks since cutting sugar. I wish I had a scale where I am staying to I could see if I am making any sort of progress, but I've been staying strong regardless. The real test I think is going to be when I have a chance to go home for some days off because it's a lot easier to access sugary junk foods and fall back into those habits I made when being home every night lol

Keep it up big dawg!

Biggest advice, be patient, the scale isn't always the best indicator of progress. So if you step on it, and the scale isn't where you want, remember about indicators, like you just you actually look, looser fitting clothes, ect.

Oh yea of course. It funny because I had actually started doing this inadvertently when I originally took the job with my current company(it was a different project and camp accommodations) by just taking flavored water(bubly i think its called) and by the time I was finished on the project I had actually noticed physically how much thinner I was looking. Then I had like 2 months off sitting at home getting really really bad with the sugar and boom it got worse than I was originally.

Had one last cheat meal last night before I start cutting down weight. Weighed in at 176 this morning. Taking it easy this week, gonna do a deload/rest week. So did a full body workout with light weight and low reps. Feels pretty good. Hoping this will rejuvenate my fatigue levels and get me ready for a good 4 week period of hard lifting to hopefully maintain my strength to the best of my ability while losing weight. Hoping to be 165-160 by the end of August, and maybe 155 by September. That would be a massive success for me. Shit load of tuna meals coming up.

So money has been difficult lately for a lot of reasons. Not in a life ruining kind of way but certainly in a way thats caused me to be smart about what Im spending on.

one of those things has been protein. Ive always got your standard powder which is typically a good deal, but when I would go lift I would often find myself buying one of those protein drinks out of the vending machine at my gym which were 4 dollars for one with 40g of protein. With the amount I lift this was usually 100 dollars or so a month.

with eggs being piss cheap again, Ive been going ham on them for the protein. Its 1.40 for 18 of them at the place I go. I love raw eggs so its an insanely quick source with no prep or clean up. Ill have 6 pre workout, 6 post workout, and 6 before bed. Its around 110g of protein and 1300 calories for a little over a dollar which is absurd. And I gotta say, my muscles have been popping and full as fuck lately and I havent been doing anything extra to make it that way. Its such a hilariously cheap source of protein and calories that Im going to ride this wave until the prices jack up again

Today was a very good arm day which I havent had in a while. Got 5 reps at 115 on the barbell curl for the first time ever. Made some adjustments on my spider curl and skull crusher form with the help of a gym sis that made some real difference. I thought I was hitting a wall weight wise with them but the advice really makes me feel like Ive got a lot more in the tank.

i have also made a priority to focus a lot more of forearms instead of just a few sets of hammer curls, which has also made a big difference on virtually every lift. I have been very happy with how things have been going the past lifts

Continuing with my deload/rest week, today was my second workout full body of just light weights, low reps. Decided to just see how many 135 reps I could do at the end on bench press, ended up with 32 reps. I think that's the most I've ever done, granted it's not something I ever do, and the last time I recall doing it was years ago and I think I hit around the mid 20's in reps. Gonna rest the next couple of days, do another workout on Friday, take the weekend off and start going hard again on Monday.

Huh...I'm not sure I've tried to go all out at 135 bench before. I'll have to give that a try in a few weeks when I've got a light week. I suspect mid 20s would be about my limit but who knows.

A few months back I tried to max out body weight pullups on a light week to see if it differed a lot from doing the same thing at the end of a normal, heavy workout. Surprisingly, didn't seem to make much difference (1-2 reps) but maybe I just wasn't feeling it that day. Think the number was around 16-17, which was a bit disappointing as I expected to be able to get to 20.

My rest week is paying off. Still took it easy today, but ended on some 225 bench press reps, obviously not easy, but it's the best I felt on it in a couple months. Excited to start lifting heavy again!

Just been an awful last few weeks for lifting.

Took a vacation, came back and had some sort of sinus/congestion type of thing. My lifts have continued to be down across the board, even factoring in the small reset I did for squats and deadlifts.

Today I go to the gym for heavy squats and there's some little stick inside the squat rack that looks like he has no clue. I do a bit of stretching and easy cardio and I'm looking to see when he's done. What's he doing, you might ask? Oh, just biceps curls with 10lb weights and some weird shit where he picks up the bar and....fuck I don't even know. But nothing you should be in the rack for! I finally go over and ask how much longer and it's "one more minute". Fucking jackass with no gym etiquette. I don't care how much weight you're using if you're squatting, benching, or whatever, but don't hog a resource if you don't actually need it.

And then my squats go terribly, as the right back/hip pain from a few months ago just came back with a vengeance. For my heaviest set, I struggled my way to 1 shit ass, half-ish rep but it basically a no-go. Not something I could push through, at least at heavy weight. Lower weights I could feel the issue but could power through, being careful.

It honestly feels like something is just slightly out of place/alignment. Like I want to just be able to "crack" my hip like you other joints and BAM everything would be better. Should probably see a chiropractor or something...

Anyway, just super frustrated. I'll try to see how deadlifts feel in a few days but I should probably just do the smart thing and severely drop the weights down and build it back up again over time. It's likely that area just needs extended time to heal and my continued insistence on lifting is not helping.

Sorozone posted...

but ended on some 225 bench press reps, obviously not easy, but it's the best I felt on it in a couple months.

This was an understatement, to say the least.

For the first time ever, since starting up this topic again a little under a year ago, I have officially hit an actual real PR. Not only did I hit 225 x 8 for the first time ever, I surpassed my previous record of 275, and hit 280!

A deload/rest week is just what I needed apparently. Made some new adjustments moving forward, mostly going to do less sets, and more heavier lifts/lower reps. I feel amazing!

Wow, 225x8 and 280x1 are impressive, especially given you're what, 175ish, pounds?

Yep! last weigh in was 176(Saturday). I mean I'm also not bulking up anymore, hence why I'm doing less sets, and just focusing in on trying my best to maintain strength while I lose weight, but hell, if I can hover under 250/260 x 1 by the end of my goal I'll be very, very pleased.

Seanchan posted...

Anyway, just super frustrated. I'll try to see how deadlifts feel in a few days but I should probably just do the smart thing and severely drop the weights down and build it back up again over time. It's likely that area just needs extended time to heal and my continued insistence on lifting is not helping.

Yeah, deadlifts went as I expected given I've felt the same type of soreness in the right hip/glute/lower back area that I did a few months ago. I fought through/ignored the issue at lower weight, but with the heaviest set I basically got the bar under tension and my body said "no fucking way".

Sigh...it's time to take it easy on the squats and deadlifts until after Labor Day. Give the issue time to heal. I still want to do light weights just to maintain form and muscle memory but that's about it. There's just no other way and I need to get past this problem already as it's continued to be a hindrance for most of the year.

If I'm gonna go off my normal routine, I'll probably add a little more upper body work to compensate. Maybe do a bit more swimming as well. See if I can't get my weight down a few more pounds.

Seanchan posted...

Sigh...it's time to take it easy on the squats and deadlifts until after Labor Day. Give the issue time to heal. I still want to do light weights just to maintain form and muscle memory but that's about it. There's just no other way and I need to get past this problem already as it's continued to be a hindrance for most of the year.

Yep, reminds me when I had my hip issues. I tried to fight through it, but it just kept getting worse, and my lifts were going from 300+ pounds, to 200, to 180, to 150 and it was just clearly not getting better. I rested 2 months before I jumped back on squats and deadlifts, and did a lot of low rep, low weight supplemental exercises (extensions, hamstring curls, hip abductor exercises) in the mean time to keep my lower body at least active. Shit sucks not being able to do a core lift, but you'll feel a lot better once you can build your strength back up and start hitting it hard.

Did my back day today, started with deadlifts. Went good! Straight up ripped the entire piece of skin(callous) on the bottom of my ring finger, so that was fun. haven't done that in a while.

Creatine and coffee do not mix hahaha.

Took them separately. I didnt put it my actual coffee but man this has caused some absolute chaos shits.

Solid squat and leg day today, no improvements, but maintained well, and kept my form in check even on heavier lifts. They don't have a lot of supplemental equipment here, especially for legs, so I started doing some Nordic hamstring curls, those things are killer.

Pulled back the weight big time on squats. Could feel the hip issue a bit on some bar only warm up sets. Didn't do anything heavy at all and just did 5 sets of 10 @ 115, being very slow, form focused, and going a little deeper than I usually do. I have a feeling that perhaps my form hasn't been good, in terms of setting my heels too wide and foot angle. Maybe. I feel like my left foot naturally flares out more than my right (right side being the one with trouble), so maybe that's causing an imbalance. Might be a mobility/flexibility thing. I tried to focus a bit more on getting my alignment balanced.

Normally I don't do any supplemental work, but I did add on 3 sets of 10 @ 70 lbs for leg curl and extension. Again, nice and slow and controlled. Definitely an easy weight but I was stressing form.

It's so hard not to want to do more weight! But I've got to stay the path!

Feeling okay lately. Starting a new bench cycle and hit 165 for 18 reps on my first day, which Im not sure if thats good or bad at this point. I feel like I should be able to get more but at the same time its been a while since Ive tried for amraps at low weight so who knows

starting to make the climb back to 185 for Ohp post shoulder injury from the spring. Got 150 for 6 and could probably max around 170-175 at the moment. That 10-15 pounds is going to be an absolute grind though

squats still havent gotten anywhere close to what they were. Struggling with the 240s for a few reps. My knees may just not have it in me anymore.

deadlift has been great

decent Pull day today

weighted pull ups for 50x5 and then some volume work at 12lbs

bb rows for 200x5 200x3 190x7 140x10. Im having to belt up for the heavy sets which is lame but I was struggling to do over 185 at all for a while there so Ill take it

bb curls for 50x37/27/17

lat raises 25x3x14

lat pull downs 185x10 200x8 205x5 210x3. I asked a guy to help me pull the bar down on the last set as getting it into position is probably more difficult than the lift itself. He got way to close though so when I tried to get into position I basically thrusted my ass straight into his dick. You could say Ive taken a male lover it was that emphatic

seated cable rows 120x9 130x7 140x5 150x3, fuck these

Db hammer curls 25x3x14

hammer strength pull-down 180x8 200x6 220x3

bar hammer curls 50x4x16

reverse pec deck: 110x18 120x12 130x8 140x4