Board 8 > Fitness/Exercise/Health topic 2

(+) Yeah! (+)

Lower back was feeling basically feeling normal yesterday but I didn't want to go super heavy. So I went back to lower bar back squats and the results weren't great. Once I got around 200 pounds I was feeling the right hip/glute issue again. I also mixed it up a bit on the accessory machine work. Woke up this morning feeling more sore in the glutes and legs than I have in a long while, so maybe there was a certain amount of good.

Today's workout I just had no energy for heavy OHP. Absolutely no chance at 150 because I could barely get 135 up for 1 rep. I wouldn't have even bothered trying heavy again if I wasn't going to be taking next week off. The rest of the accessory work actually went pretty damn well though, which was surprising.

Sorozone posted...

So I tracked my usual run/walk for the first time. It's right under 6 miles, and my pace was just under 12 minutes at 11.58. Better than expected, but I'm gonna try to get that pace under 10 minutes. Said my best pace was 6.45 which is right around when I was at my best cardio level as a teenager lol.

So after a few days my pace has gone from 11:58 to 10:59, already lowered it by a minute lol.

So my doctor told me I have high cholesterol and that I need to start diet and exercising. He said me I should start with short walks and try expanding to long walks then eventually try doing actual cardio stuff and weight lifting.

I was triggered af. This mf... That's exactly what I started doing exactly 1 year ago and I've been doing regular treadmill/elliptical/weightlifting for months. You can't tell? You think I can barely handle a short walk? I've lost 35 points and I'm way fitter and more muscular than a year ago. A random person meeting me for the first time would probably think I'm an obese mother fucker who never leaves his computer chair. But people in my life often comment out of nowhere how much fitter I look. To think my own doctor can't tell... I guess I haven't made as much progress as I thought

Anyways, it's about time I start on the diet side of things. I eat fast food a lot and most of the meals I cook are very starch heavy and low on veggies. So there's a lot to improve. It's time to fix that. I've started ordering hello fresh meals to grind out my skills cooking with veggies, it seems really exceptional for this. Gives all the ingredients I need that I might not be sure about finding in the grocery store and gives me good instructions on how to put all this stuff together.

Ground turkey is a cheat code. I've never even used it before but damn this is good stuff and seems to be way healthier than ground beef. Is this really the case? The last week included the Smart Turkey Crunch Salad and Cal Smart Southwest Turkey Skillet meals and they were delicious. Both included big stacks of vegetables placed with them, the salad had a coleslaw cabbage mix with onions and green peppers and the skillet had a pile of diced onions and tomatoes, and I thought they were gonna be a bit unpleasant texture wise eating mouthfuls of veggies but it mixed with the turkey perfectly with each spoonful, it didn't feel like I was eating veggies at all. Damn that's some cooking magic. I guess I need to learn how to recreate that.

I had another recipe that that had a bunch of leafy spinach and sliced radishes tossed in a bowl with some red wine vinegar and it was just on my plate on the side. I didn't really mind eating the spinach and radishes but it all just tasted like pure vinegar. wtf. Is this what people do when they eat salads? is this what vinaigrettes are? Why would anybody do this to themselves???

Anyways, one question for you guys. I've gathered that I should be avoiding saturated fats and trans fats. I've actually been under the impression for a long time that really, you should have zero tolerance policy for trans fats and not have it under any circumstances. It's banned from being added to food in both the US and Canada. But I see that it's very common that a lot of things have a little bit of it. 0g to 0.5 g usually. Apparently animal products often will always just have a little bit of it. So how should it be approached? Should it always be avoided? Should it be minimized to just a few meals a week that have that amount?

We bought a package of costco hot dogs before I visited the doctor and each dog has 1g of trans fat, that seems nuts. These things gonna kill me!!

CoolCly posted...

nyways, one question for you guys. I've gathered that I should be avoiding saturated fats and trans fats. I've actually been under the impression for a long time that really, you should have zero tolerance policy for trans fats and not have it under any circumstances. It's banned from being added to food in both the US and Canada. But I see that it's very common that a lot of things have a little bit of it. 0g to 0.5 g usually. Apparently animal products often will always just have a little bit of it. So how should it be approached? Should it always be avoided? Should it be minimized to just a few meals a week that have that amount?

Saturated fats have differing opinions on it, but as far as I know most studies show that it does not have any significant link to disease. so imo it's not really the devil. Of course unsaturated fats are the ones you are going to want, but just like anything in life, too much of it is still not a good thing.

Trans fats are the ones you should avoid, but I don't think it has to be at all costs no matter what. Is a couple hot dogs gonna kill you? Nah, but obviously fats in Avocado's, nuts, certain oils that are heavier in the unsaturated fats are always going to be the best bet for fat intake.

Great job on your progress btw!

I'm gonna do a mini-cut through June. Debating how low I want to go, my goal is to try to get under 160. In anycase I'm going to go further than my previous cut, and start a new routine that incorporates more rest days(lol).

I've mentioned it a ton, but my job wears me down because I just walk so much, and my watch now lets me know how much I'm walking(25,000+ steps). Which is basically a workout in itself, and I'm constantly on my feet for those 8 hours outside of my lunch break. So I'm basically doing 2 workouts a day for the past couple of years.

Gonna change up my routine a bit, and hopefully get over the hump on some of my sticking points starting in July. Ideally I'd like to get to 155. Gonna weight myself on Monday morning and see where I'm at because I haven't weighed myself since the beginning of the month where I was at 171.

Sorozone posted...

I haven't weighed myself since the beginning of the month where I was at 171.

Still 171 lol. I think a good chunk is water weight tho.

I think 11 pounds in 6 weeks is reasonable. Time to grind it out.

Swimming season is here! Nothing makes me ravenously hungry like swimming for 40 minutes.

Also started on a new lifting routine, which is really just more periodization than the "increase every week until that doesn't work" approach I was taking earlier in the year. I know the swimming kills my lifts, so better to just keep things on an even keel for the next few months.

ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED!

Ugh...That's A New One... - Get a new injury while lifting.

Doing light Zerchers and felt something go in my mid back on the left side. Immediately, was like "oh...that's different". 99% sure it's an oblique strain. Standing up straight, twisting side to side, even lifting my arms overhead and wiggling from side to side all feel awful. The small piece of good news was that I was still able to do leg press, extensions, and curls, with no seeming ill effect.

So I've changed up my workout routines. For the past few weeks, rather than doing specific muscle groups for a day (ie back day, arm day, etc), I've been doing the following one day each week:

-Full-body sculpt/tone with light-moderate weights
-Abs/core
-Upper body strength/resistance with heavier (relatively for me, anyway) weights
-Leg strength/resistance
-The last spot varies from week to week. Sometimes I made it an all-out cardio day, other times I do miscellaneous lifts/exercises with particular focus on ones that are not currently part of my typical routines and try to get commonly missed muscles
-On days that I don't go to the gym and to a full workout, I try to either go for a walk (usually about 2 miles) and/or do a 15-25 minute at-home workout on Youtube (usually focusing on flexibility and mobility).

The results have been astounding. I feel like it's been a while since I've seen this kind of progress, visibly anyway.

Inching closer to a 10 minute pace for 6 miles.

My first split is always the worst because the higher elevation makes it harder for my lungs to adjust, so if I can just steadily improve that I should be golden. My splits tend to go; ~13 minutes, 10 minutes, 9 minutes, 9 minutes, 11 minutes, 11 minutes.

I get a really good runners high between miles 2 and 4 and then it kind of just peters out till the end which is why the end tends to slow down.

I think if I keep it up I can definitely get it done by July.

I'm maintaining my strength really well this time around, despite the increase in cardio. I still have a bad habit of taking edibles, getting the munchies, and absolutely devouring yogurt, but I guess it's better than sugar and cereal lol.

Got my pace to 10 minutes and 24 seconds! Big 23 second cut, oh yeah.

Also had a best pace of 5 minutes and 41 seconds, which would obliterate any mile run I've ever done lol. Granted that pace didn't last long, but happy to see improvements.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4xrMkl5yJs

I love Dr.Mike, and this is probably one of the best videos he has ever put out. From just an entertainment standpoint, with some education.

So outside of a run(and walking at work), the past 4 days I've been pretty much just resting(playing Elden Ring), but today I started getting really intense groin pains. Never had this before. This shit sucks lol

And it was after resting!

I'm hoping it's just a day-to-day thing and I tweaked something by walking around. So with that said, not so great leg day, but I was able to get a few things in. Just hoping this isn't anything serious.

The oblique strain ended up not being so bad overall. I was able to continue lifting as normal and it took about 2 weeks for it to feel back to 100%.

As ever, the swimming really has killed my lifts. Even dropping 10-15% to try to compensate, it's been a struggle. Less so on higher rep sets but at higher weight I'm just missing a gear. I failed my heavy set on both bench and deadlift the past week, which I kind of expected going in because I just feel very worn out. Swimming 1.5 miles a day will do that to you, and yet I continue to do it every day because I'm a crazy person.

Had my best run yet, got my 6 mile average down to 10:10.

It's gonna take a non-stop jog to get under 10 minutes. Which I did for the first 4 and half miles but I just couldn't muster out the endurance for the last leg. This started out as a walk, kinda crazy I cut 30 minutes off my initial walking times.

Sorozone posted...

but today I started getting really intense groin pains. Never had this before. This shit sucks lol

Luckily this turned out to be nothing. Wonder what was causing it tho.

Anyway solid leg day. Really just trying to get rid of this last bit of belly fat. Depending on soreness, I plan on doing my run tomorrow and trying to get under the 10:00 pace mark.

I hear that last bit of belly/hip fat is super tough to get rid of without being super lean everywhere. I know a few guys that are in serious shape that still have that little swim ring

I started walking a couple weeks ago and I've been doing pretty consistent with it. It's a start at least. Baby steps

5tarscream posted...

I hear that last bit of belly/hip fat is super tough to get rid of without being super lean everywhere.

Well, yeah. lol.

Which is my goal, because once I know it's minimized my fat every else well be well, gone. So I should be super ripped once I hit that goal. But you really gotta hammer your eating and exercise habits in. And I'm bad at the eating part.

Waluigi1 posted...

I started walking a couple weeks ago and I've been doing pretty consistent with it. It's a start at least. Baby steps

Consistency is key. Take responsibility over it, and it'll never be inconsistent. Keep it up!

Sorozone posted...

I plan on doing my run tomorrow and trying to get under the 10:00 pace mark.

Goal achieved! Got it down to 9:55! Pretty solid pace for 6 miles. All it took was non-stop jogging. Now, getting it under 9 minutes would be awesome, but that's a grind I'm not ready for. Gonna keep this run in my workouts moving forward tho.

Alright, gonna hunker down here for the next few weeks. I know for a fact I can stop binge eating, even when I'm super baked lol(and it's just a shitton of greek yogurt most of the time, but sometimes cereal is very alluring). I've done it before, and I'm gonna do it now. Gonna weigh myself on Saturday, and hopefully be at my goal by the end of the month.

So outside of running, I've been really focusing on hip hinges and hamstrings. Really paying off because my deadlift is maintaining a lot better than my squat and bench during this mini-cut. Been really focusing and narrowing down on being more explosive with my hip thrust at the end. Hopefully leads to some serious gains later.

Took a week(ish) off, and I swear it took me like 3-4 days just to feel back to normal from being just drained from the swimming. I'm realizing that I really do need to do some load management for that as well, and not just swim 60 minutes every single day. Even something as simple as short(er) swim, long(er) swim, day off, would probably do wonders.

Got back to the lifting today (squat/leg day) after that break and my legs felt like jelly at the end. I can't even say it was a super crazy day; I was just feeling it after the time off in a way I haven't before.

God, getting old(er) sucks. I really do have to pay a lot more attention to rest, recovery, and injury management than I used to. I can still go at it pretty hard but there's consequences for that.

I got bloodwork done recently and the results were some expected, some not so expected. Apparently I've got really high cholesterol, like off the chart <_< but as assumed, I've got pretty low testosterone levels which I'm looking to do something about. But they'll probably need me to get my cholesterol under control first...

Ive recently started playing a bit of volleyball again and am going to join the gay league in my city. Excited to have two gay sports leagues (soccer and volleyball) instead of feeling like I need to go to the gym. I hate the gym.

Tripped and ate shit on my run today, so that's embarrassing. Pretty sure it was gopher hole I tripped on.

Started incorporating more core stuff into my routine. Dragonfly situps are insane, I've never felt such a burn in my abs before.

Human flag in no time.

Started working on more volume with my deadlifts to hopefully get that jump started. So I did 5 sets of 10 of 225. I am tired.

Sorozone posted...

Started working on more volume with my deadlifts to hopefully get that jump started. So I did 5 sets of 10 of 225. I am tired.

There was a time when I would do 3 heavy sets with deadlifts and then drop down to 50-60% of the weight and do 5 sets of 10. Those 5x10 were killer, and I certainly wasn't doing 225!

I don't know, I feel like it's a bit of a dangerous thing with deads because you start to get tired, the form breaks down, and then you might be in trouble. I know I would find myself losing focus sometimes on set 3 and 4 because I was just trying to get through it. Trying to keep the rest time to only 1-2 minutes also didn't help.

Yeah my rest between sets was 2 to 3 minutes, and I'm really focusing on form(especially deadlift), and this was also at the end of a back day(body weight pullups, nordic curls, hip hinges, hex bar shoulder shrugs, calf raises, and rows). If my form was going to shit I would just stop and finish the set. Which didn't happen luckily.

I've really felt my lower back getting stretched(in a good muscle way) the past couple of weeks, and I know that's my biggest weakness when it comes to my overall strength in my back so I've been very diligent on my form to not fuck that up.

Doing heavy squats after the day of doing a ton of deadlifts...may have not been the best idea. So next time I'll take a rest day after going crazy. My lower back is destroyed and I felt like I had no power.

Had a great chest day. Feeling confident that at the very least 315 will be obtainable by the end of the year.

Sorozone posted...

Had a great chest day. Feeling confident that at the very least 315 will be obtainable by the end of the year.

Wow, that's would be quite the number for someone who's 170ish pounds!

Meanwhile I'm over here unable to get up 210 because all the swimming the last 1.5 months has worn me out.

Yeah I've mentioned before that my goal is to bench 2x my body weight because that's elite level strength, beyond that who knows. I'll still obviously push myself because I'm never really satisfied lol

But yeah I was looking at my chest from a slight side profile and they are definitely hefty. I mean you can see how well they are defined even through baggy big sweatshirts. My pecs and triceps are definitely my most well developed muscles. Need my biceps to catch up.

So I was thinking to myself in the shower last night. I don't really do much before bed outside of watching maybe a couple youtube videos before I sleep. So I figured I can watch those, while also stretching my hamstrings to an absolute crazy degree for 20 to 30 minutes. So I'm going to do that every night for the next month and finally get the mobility(and added strength) to finally get flexible enough to touch my toes. I'm going to will it to happen.

Sorozone posted...

So I was thinking to myself in the shower last night. I don't really do much before bed outside of watching maybe a couple youtube videos before I sleep. So I figured I can watch those, while also stretching my hamstrings to an absolute crazy degree for 20 to 30 minutes. So I'm going to do that every night for the next month and finally get the mobility(and added strength) to finally get flexible enough to touch my toes. I'm going to will it to happen.

Haha, oh I remember that sentiment well!

I do a very quick 5 minute full body stretch routine within a few minutes of waking up. Then I do a more intensive 20 minutes of stretching a little later in the morning.

Certainly is nice to be able to touch ones toes. Gets the blood flowing in the morning and helps mentally come into the day.

Yeah admittedly. While one of my goals(lifetime goal because I've never been able to do it haha) is to touch my toes, there are actually some studies coming out that if you do very intensive stretching, it can actually lead to strength gains(granted, it's only been shown in the calves, and it was a deep stretch for extremely long periods of time).

And I've mentioned it before my gym literally has no hamstring curl machines. Granted I've gotten into Nordic curls now, which are awesome, but they are so fucking hard haha.

The endgoal is just so I can PR on deadlift tho lol

I've completely fallen off my walking routine

Waluigi1 posted...

I've completely fallen off my walking routine

You can get back on it big dog!

Much better leg day today after deciding to rest yesterday(day before was my 50 rep deadlift day).

Also already seeing monster improvements on my hamstring flexibility. If I knew it was this easy to get results I would have started it a long time ago! At this rate I might be able to touch toes within a week!

I think I might just focus on compound lifts for the next month to really just go crazy on bench/incline/OHP, squat/deadlift, and ignore all other auxiliary workouts. Just to see how much improvement I can get on strength.

I'm definitely in a situation where I don't necessarily need to get any bigger, though I'd like to get my quads and hammy's a bit bigger. So I don't need the extra work for size. I think I'll try it out for a couple weeks here starting today see how much of a strength boost I can get by just increasing volume, and lowering my overall fatigue.

So I just did an ascending-descending pyramid set.

Squats: 145(x10) 225(x8) 265(x5) 285(x5) 300(x3) 305(x3) 325(x1) 325(x1) 295(x3) 265(x5) 250(x5) 215(x8) 145(x10)

Bench Press: 145(x10) 190(x8) 210(x5) 220(x5) 230(x3) 235(x3) 250(x1) 255(x1) 215(x3) 205(x5) 190(x5) 175(x8) 145(x10)

For reference on squats. My previous volume on my strength set was a total 4430LBS. This set of sets is 15,095lbs.

Thats sounds like a recipe for major doms! Maybe not tomorrow but if it was me Id not be looking forward to Tuesday morning.

Surprisingly DOMS not that bad at all!

So I tried it again after resting yesterday, didn't get the same results. Think I'll take the next couple days off and then do that pyramid set with deadlifts and incline bench. Was thinking of doing deadlift and OHP, but that sounds like a recipe to destroy my lower back so I'll do that a different day.

Didn't do deadlifts, went back to squats. 1 rep max's went up 20 pounds after 5 days lol.

Granted, some of it is muscle memory as I'm working back up to 385, but I really think I'll be able to hit both my bench and squat goals.

Glad to see yall are still killing it

ive been ravaged by a Lyme relapse. Lift when I can, but its been hard strength and energy wise.

I've been persevering through my "cardio hell" summer. My swimming goal is in sight to reach by the end of the month. Got 3 days off recently because of rain and it was so nice to have a swim afterwards where I was feeling fresh and engaged.

Weight is down 3-5 pounds from the spring from all the cardio. Honestly, it's a good weight to be at if I could maintain it without the effort. But history has shown that's doesn't really happen long term.

As a result of A and B above, the lifting has been pretty ass lately. The energy and drive just hasn't been there, so I do the best I can.

iiaattgg posted...

ive been ravaged by a Lyme relapse. Lift when I can, but its been hard strength and energy wise.

Sorry to hear this! Hope you get a quick recovery. Sounds awful.

Probably had one of my best chest days in a long time. Felt like I was actually pushed to my limits on each set. Good feeling. 1 rep bench is back up to 275, I'm leaner than ever and hopefully will get a PR here in a couple weeks!

I'm debating if I want to just keep working on my squats and bench until I hit my goals, and continue with light work on my arms and back. I've been getting crazy gains and I don't want the momentum to stop. Basically I destroy my legs, then the next day is chest, then rest, then repeat. Seems to be working.

I think it's worth compromising on some aspects if it helps to reach your goal in other areas.

Seanchan posted...

I think it's worth compromising on some aspects if it helps to reach your goal in other areas.

Yeah. I'm gonna stick to these two goals, then move onto my deadlift and OHP goals.

Because my bench just jumped from 265 to 285(my current PR) in 5 days lol, and I'm 4 pounds lighter the last time I hit 285. Going on a week long vacation next week so with some extra R&R I'm thinking there's a chance to get up to 315 in the next 10 weeks.