Weightlifting/exercise thread

[DDDP]

Hope everyone is keepin at it! Not much to report on my end, just steadily losing skin and fat while I put on some core muscle (mainly seeing it in the upper legs and lower trunk). The daily gymnastic work on the rings / floor has a lot to do with the increase in core strength; stuff like leg lifts on the rings (hanging or top hold) or v sits on the floor have made a tremendous difference in flexibility and STR in my stomach/lower back.

Also started doing daily sets of bodyweight lifts beginning in January, nothing extreme. I knock out sets of 15-20 pushups, or 20-30 chair dips, or 30-40 squats / leg-lunges (stuff like that) several times a day, never doing a consecutive # that makes me break a sweat, always flying below that level. Even though these exercises are not "cardio", I've noticed my endurance during cardio exercises benefitting the most. Seems like a good way to condition those joints and muscle chains, if nothing else.

Also jump rope. Still one of the best tools I own for some compact exercise. I can handle about 15m of weighted jumprope with 30s breaks but then my wrists really begin to ache. I guess I'll take it as a good sign that my wrists give out before my ankles, calves, or cardio endurance.

[BryanM]

Last time I hurt myself there a break did fuck all -- only strengthening the muscles around it (forearms, etc.) helped.

Rest does indeed do virtually nothing for fixing tendonitis. It falls back into my pants-shittingly-angry vendetta against tendons: they are all too happy to stay withered away without the presence of stress. But with just a little too much stress, they also happily wither away in protest, the little shits. It's still a needle I'm trying to understand how to thread, when it comes to serious progress.

If your back issue is with your spinae erectors, maybe give my good morning recommendation a try for a week. A set of 10 reps with an empty bar every other day. You'll know super quick if it's a good or very bad idea.

[Randorama]

...I am starting again tomorrow.
Two "pure cardio" days, then long week-end (Monday, rest), then 4 days of cardio.
March, it's back to the full regime.
I need to lose some weight first (unavoidable - stopping means getting 2-3 kgs for me, at this age), and some volume of exercise before adding again calisthenics.
Next break should then be August - hopefully, the new semester will prove fruitful and without injuries.

[Randorama]

+1, and tomorrow I may start again with calisthenics...or maybe do one extra week of all-cardio.
There is something about monotonous cardio that simply makes me calmer, and I am mulling over the idea of simply doing more if only for this reason.
I feel that I should however be careful with those-guys-whose-name-starts-with-T, as my experience with extended rowing/cycling periods is that the "T-guys" tend to act up and create tons of problems.
BryanM, thou art a courageous fellow to call them by their name...
Seriously though, I have planned a 23-weeks training schedule with 21 weeks of calisthenics+cardio, and 2 weeks of pure cardio (to be used as "improvised variation").
I feel that reducing calisthenics ("less is more") might be a good option, and arguments supporting the change are welcome.

That, and add good mornings as per suggestions from BryanM.

[Stevens]

This week is a traditional rest week for me.

Anything of note? I discovered I can do a hanging L sit which is kind of cool. It wasn't a skill I ever specifically practiced, but hanging leg raises got me there: ).

Archer Push Ups - I'm up to 15 on each side. Just going to keep going for now.

Everything else is solid. Stay strong guys.

[MJR]

I have been making steady progress, the latest set has been the most effective one so far. I think it was good that I started with all those devices and only later moved to free weights. My body looks already different, and for the first time in 15+ years my fat percentage has dropped below 21%, which is a huge win for me.

For comparison, in 2012 I weighed 89kg and my fat % was over 26, now I am 102kg and fat% is 20.9

Also, it has helped me to keep my head in one piece among all of this turmoil. I go to gym feeling like s*it, and come back feeling okay. And I enjoy having jacked body

[GaijinPunch]

I've been in Oaxaca, Mexico for 5 weeks and did a decent job of getting to the gym. Just trying to maintain at this point and doing okay. I'll do a month in Japan without a gym though so going to have to do a lot of body weight and straps in the park. Maybe up the cardio. I'm sure I'll lose a bit but hopefully not too much.

Back pain has been a 3-4 on average, sadly. Got a deep tissue massage the other day in Mexico City and it took it down to a 2 I can say, so pretty stoked. Going to get it looked at for the long term but this helps a fuck ton.

[Randorama]

2/21 weeks done, with 21=the number of weeks I will be doing calisthenics this semester (2 weeks of "cardio only", afterwards).

I tried out 1-hand push-ups. The position is imperfect, I bend the ankles a bit, etc. etc. but I could complete 4 on the right side and 3 on the left side.
I am weak left-handed, but I injured left hand and shoulder a few times, so I am not surprised to see that the left side is slightly weaker.
I will keep working on technique, but I feel that I am getting somewhere.

I also added good mornings, twice per week, 3x10 reps, low weight bar (8/10 kg?).
Let me absorb the movement and the exercise, but this was a good idea, Bryan.

[BryanM]

They are pretty great as a therapeutic, especially considering the average person's use case of the lower back is months of absolutely nothing followed by five hours of digging a hole or something. It's a big differential to take.

In terms of just "feeling good", a daily light set of bench and squats worked like crazy. The couple months I ran that experiment, I felt like I was in my 20's again. (Pity "feeling good" isn't my terminal goal.) I can't understand old people who let themselves degenerate into a blob; I feel like a lifeless corpse just a few weeks into doing nothing. Doing that for decades is like stabbing yourself with a knife imo.

[Randorama]

3/21, and it seems that I may add 1-hand push-ups to the mix, if only to work (a lot) on the actual movement.
I believe that the "wife push-ups" are helping a lot, in this regard.

BryanM: I have been doing exercise for decades, now, and I have seen acquaintances going from teens with awesomely gifted bodies to bald, fat blobs with serious health problems already in their '40s.
Any of their complaints act as timely reminders that doing something, instead of nothing, can solve a lot of physical and mental problems.
I have a few wrinkles but I can confidently say that I still feel like I am in my early '20s...actually, slimmer and with a completely clean liver (no booze in ages, now).

My father still throws people around the tatami a lot and my uncle still grinds hundreds of kmts on the bicycle, so I have a good example at home.

[Stevens]

Apparently I'm up to 190lbs. Who knew?

Started pull ups and leg raises using a thicker bar.

I feel great. Stay strong.

[Randorama]

4/21, easy-peasy.

Steve: weight increase, but same body fat percentage? Power of the muscle?

[Randorama]

5/21.

Slowly increasing weight and decreasing body fat. Asymmetry exercises seem to be the real deal, uh!

[Randorama]

6/21.

Time flies, uh. And everyone is becoming a fat slob, I guess, hence no training progress

[Stevens]

Haha. Still working. Progress is so slow - Ill keep at it though cause its what I do.

Nothing new to report..depth and reps on hspu is increasing. Plateaued with archers - was up to 15, took a week off and kind if hit reset. Think I did seven this week.

Need to stick with the bike. Started strong and got away from it. Got back on it yesterday after a month and going to do it today.

[Specineff]

Since I started working from home, I've been slowly but steadily gaining weight. My plan was to start going on walks around the neighborhood, even though crippling shin pain would stop me in my tracks for some reason and would break my stride, forcing me to rest at some point.

Today, I managed to walk 1.5 miles without pain, and without having to stop to catch my breath. I even went past my home on the way back and added another quarter mile to my trek. Perhaps I won't ever become muscular or toned before the day I die, but I'll be damned if I let myself look like my father in law.

[Stevens]

You can do it Specineff. Here to help you if you need it.

[drauch]

Getting physical therapy next month boys for my now 6 months of sciatica. Being the pessimist I am, I assume it will do nothing and I will be uncomfortable the rest of my life. I assume this will be lots of core exercises. Any experience here with this sort of fun?

[Stevens]

Not per say Drauch, if I had to guess - then yes.

Figure things to strengthen your core/abdominals and various types of bridge progressions for your back.

I'm curious as to what they'll prescribe, but if you want I can point you towards some light bridge progressions to get you started.

[drauch]

My doc gave me a few things to get started. Basically a plant of sorts, pelvic raise, hold my knee to my chest, and another (don't have the sheet on me, so excuse the idiotic descriptions) where I put one arm out and the opposite leg and hold that, then repeat that with the respective other. My sessions are going to be an hour, so I'm interested what all we'll be doing. All I know is my trainer's name is Tanya, so I'm hoping it's the same one from Red Alert.

[Blinge]

Hangs are good for you! They said.
Dead hangs, active hangs.

well i don't like the dead hangs cause it feels like my armpits are being torn out of my body.

thursday I did some hangs, and some pullups. hit 9, a personal best.. because I was half-adrenaline'd after being fucking furious with some girl i'm seeing (she's a bull in a china shop).

Anyway yesterday and today my body is broken. Doesn't feel like muscle, my back and chest are both complaining.
God i'm old but not that old.

[GaijinPunch]

Getting physical therapy next month boys for my now 6 months of sciatica. Being the pessimist I am, I assume it will do nothing and I will be uncomfortable the rest of my life. I assume this will be lots of core exercises. Any experience here with this sort of fun?

Okay, so I jumped in here at the right time I guess. I haven't posted in here a while because... guess what... I fucked my back!

I'll explore more if you want, but I was doing some travelling after I had tweaked my back a couple of times in the gym. It was livable. Mexico? Not bad. I knew I needed to take it easy and not upset it but I was able to swim and even lift quite a bit. Went to Japan for a month and things went absolutely pear-shaped. Very stiff and old bed, and futon underscored how bad of shape my back was. I woke up in tears a few times - stabbing pain between pelvis and thigh. Fucking nuts.

Anywho, a few pages back, this topic came up and long time member lawnspic mentioned he had been seen by Dr. Stuart McGill and eventually made a breakthru with his pain. He and I took the conversation offline and he graciously shared videos and knowledge he gained from his meeting with the man himself. I read Back Mechanic TWICE. There's some great info in there even if the exercises and routine don't work for you. I highly recommend reading this book. You can get through it in days. It's not super cheap - if you're broke I can mail you mine as a loner.

The vote isn't in if it's going to rid me of my pain, but to be fair, I have not really given myself a great environment. I'm just now back from travelling, and I don't even have a real bed. I've been in shitty hotels, and now in my new place on an air mattress for days, and finally a decent 6" foam fold out but it's not amazing. My bed gets here Tuesday. I have a fuck ton of boxes to unload and that's not great on the back either.

So... what's in the book? Tons of shit, but the take home points are below. Some are at odds with the "community" and common knowledge. For example:

hold my knee to my chest,

This is specifically called out (with pictures!) as horrible for a damaged back. Doing that and twisting maybe the worst thing you can do.

hangs

Pain relief. Inversion table probably a bit overkill but I have talked to people that have sworn by them. The book promotes slight traction as pain relief... like holding yourself up on a counter.

Anyway, key points:

0: Your back needs to heal, and the only way to do that is to let it rest. Obviously a proper bed that gives you the right position is key, but you need to keep the spine in a neutral position as much as possible while you get on with your life. Ideally always. The book teaches you ways to get up and down off the ground, tie your shoes, make sweet love, etc., all in spine-sparing ways.
1: Good posture - what is it? How do you maintain it, etc?
2: Core endurance (not strength) is paramount to your recovery. Endurance first, then worry about strength. Achieved with the McGill Big 3 to start.
3: Don't fucking stretch and injured back. Any relief you get is temporary. It doesn't fix anything, and might make it worse.
4: Walk. Walk some more. Then walk some more again. Walking is good and will probably relieve your pain.

Now having said that, I actually forked up for an assessment from a McGill Master Clinician. It wasn't cheap but I wanted 100% confidence I was doing everything right. Well guess what, I wasn't! So, really read those instructions and realize how easy it is to cheat them. I wasn't doing terrible, but not great. Most people won't have the dough to do that (it's expensive) but the book will indeed help.

As for your PT: Many internet posts, even dear friends, and lawnspic confirmed in the theory that finding a good PT in America that will actually help you is difficult. I've heard from at least 3 people that they've gone to many (like 10) with no relief. So, keep that in mind. It's by and large a "by the numbers" practice and the book argues that each back and back injury is it's own snowflake.

Sorry that got a bit long.

[Stevens]

well i don't like the dead hangs cause it feels like my armpits are being torn out of my body.

Are you retracting your scapula's while hanging?

Meaning are you pulling them towards the center of your back or are your armpits up by your ears? If it's the latter you need to work on your retraction.

Retraction will add stability to your shoulder girdle and make the act of hanging much safer.

[drauch]

Getting physical therapy next month boys for my now 6 months of sciatica. Being the pessimist I am, I assume it will do nothing and I will be uncomfortable the rest of my life. I assume this will be lots of core exercises. Any experience here with this sort of fun?

Okay, so I jumped in here at the right time I guess. I haven't posted in here a while because... guess what... I fucked my back!

Ah shit, dunno how I missed this! Thanks for the pm reminder.

Actually just started my PT yesterday. The lady seems to really know her stuff. I mean, I'm not hopeful it'll do much, but I'm trying. Did a lot of stretches and massages of sorts trying to get blood flowing through the nerves and giving it space. She used some roller thing and a cup and something else that hurt like bloody hell, that afterwards felt surprisingly decent.

I've been doing core exercises every day before this, and was given a list of six different stretches on top of that from the PT:
Child's pose
Seated sciatic tensioner
Supine hamstring stretch
Supine posterior pelvic tilt
Supine lower trunk rotation
Supine piriformis stretch with foot on the ground

Trying all sorts of different chairs and shit (stool, saddle, various office chairs), but don't think anything really works other than keeping my leg up or sitting on my side, which is impossible to do on anything but a couch. It really just depends on the day. Sometimes my car ride home is uneventful, other times it's a struggle.

Appreciate the book advise. I'll see if I can find it and give it a shot. Thankfully my back in all of this is in pretty good shape. I've tweaked it a few times in the past and couldn't do anything for days, so I understand the struggle. I feel a little pain here and there on the same side, but it's manageable, and actually came after the sciatica leg pain. I asked the PT about this and that's usually not the case, but she suspected I'm feeling occasional back pain from the new ways I'm sitting around with my leg up, which makes sense. Sciatica definitely comes from a few different things, including hernia and other back issues, but I definitely got mine from being a lazy piece of shit. I've got high arches on my feet, and that finally started bothering me big time last year and I developed sesamoiditis, which kept me off walking for two weeks, which is when the sciatica set in. Once that was back to normal-ish I just sit all work in a garbage chair, then come up and piss away my life on the computer as well, so I was basically sitting 24/7 and only exercising maybe a few times a week after a couple year dry spell. 100% to blame here.

Makes me really bitter, working with this obese guy with zero health problems and doesn't move at all, yet here I am, still of a decent weight and don't eat like complete shit, yet my entire bottom half is failing. Bah, oh well. I'm hoping to Crom that if I ever get over this it'll just be the ultimate wake-up call ever to keep more active like I used to and not succumb to the full sedentary life I've created for myself. I'm trying to get up every thirty minutes if I'm not already standing, playing games on a bike now for at least 5 miles a night, and doing those stretches on top of trying to hit the gym a few times a week.

Sorry, I know I'm bitching. This shit has really been a blight on my already crippling mental state, lol. I could have it worse, I'm completely aware of that. Some people have just crippling sciatica that's a sharp pain; mine is just an uncomfortable burning, like someone holding a heater right up to your leg non-stop when sitting. Like back pain, that's no joke at all. Really hope that gets better for you. At least it sounds like it's getting better?

[Blinge]

Meaning are you pulling them towards the center of your back or are your armpits up by your ears? If it's the latter you need to work on your retraction.

Retraction will add stability to your shoulder girdle and make the act of hanging much safer.

Well I found once I pulled them towards the centre of my back it all became much more manageable and my armpits stopped hurting.
This is the correct way, then?

[Stevens]

You got it.

[Blinge]

Man there's a lot of BS videos out there..
a claim i've seen is that this hanging lark can fix my nerdy rounded-shoulder gamer posture.

(i fucking hate seeing my posture in the mirror, it kills me)

what do we think, can hangs actually do that?

[BryanM]

I wanted to joke about good mornings being the cure for that as "they're the cure for all things", but seriously I don't understand the problem. Slouching is from leaning forward with your upper spine (a very un-good morning-like area) and not slouching just requires getting in the habit of standing straighter. (I recommend pretending you're a smug douchey king.)

This subject reminded me of those P90X ads on TV back in the 200X's. The before/after photos consisting of basically the same exact bodies. Just the befores have bad lighting, the people ate a few sandwiches an hour before to load up their intestines, and slouch. While the afters have good lighting, low amount of food in their digestional tract, and stand up straight. Emulating these photos in the mirror is fun sometimes; before: "Ew he's gross no one can ever love him." Stand up straight: "Oh my god, I want to have his baby, and I'm a dude!" The silly, magical world of infomercials.

Of course, you're not me and your experience may differ. I can theorize many reasons standing up straight could be uncomfortable - obesity, being a giraffe, having a fucked up vertebrae that doesn't want to seat itself correctly. None of them have to do with shoulders (trapezius = weak neck, maybe?), and that does sound like a gimmicky "throw everything at these ADD-ridden monkeys and they'll buy something" kind of thing. Developing some general torso strength, from barbell squats or, yes, maybe even good mornings if such equipment is inaccessible, seems like it'd be more pertinent. Even bodyweight squats seem more relevant.

The trapezius is stimulated by basically any exercise involving the arms. The neck connection, well... don't do any neck specific exercises. In the insane world of for-profit fitness where everything is pitched, there's a good reason neck stuff is in the domain of the fringe maniacs. The only neck exercise I recommend is standing up straighter.

[Blinge]

dude my shoulders/head/neck simply don't sit in the right place when I stand up straight.

[GaijinPunch]

Getting physical therapy next month boys for my now 6 months of sciatica. Being the pessimist I am, I assume it will do nothing and I will be uncomfortable the rest of my life. I assume this will be lots of core exercises. Any experience here with this sort of fun?

Okay, so I jumped in here at the right time I guess. I haven't posted in here a while because... guess what... I fucked my back!

Ah shit, dunno how I missed this! Thanks for the pm reminder.

Actually just started my PT yesterday. The lady seems to really know her stuff. I mean, I'm not hopeful it'll do much, but I'm trying. Did a lot of stretches and massages of sorts trying to get blood flowing through the nerves and giving it space. She used some roller thing and a cup and something else that hurt like bloody hell, that afterwards felt surprisingly decent.

I've been doing core exercises every day before this, and was given a list of six different stretches on top of that from the PT:
Child's pose
Seated sciatic tensioner
Supine hamstring stretch
Supine posterior pelvic tilt
Supine lower trunk rotation
Supine piriformis stretch with foot on the ground

Trying all sorts of different chairs and shit (stool, saddle, various office chairs), but don't think anything really works other than keeping my leg up or sitting on my side, which is impossible to do on anything but a couch. It really just depends on the day. Sometimes my car ride home is uneventful, other times it's a struggle.

Man, that sucks. I don't have Sciatica but some other issues I'm working through. I know how semi-random pain can be debilitating...especially when you take care of yourself. I was doing well about going to the gym and then this happened, so know how that feels.

I don't know all the causes of sciatica. I know it can originated in the back, and figured that was originally the case. But, it's a long ass nerve, so not sure. I will tell you this - if your sciatica originates from a disc and you can determine that w/ the evaluation in the book, most of the above is gonna be thrown out the door. In fact, literally all of it. So, keep that in mind if you are digging your PT. Basically the crux is you never stretch a damaged back (or your hamstrings). They do give temporary relief but long term they can actually fuck your nerves up more.

Anyway, for me, it's been beds. I'm finally back home w/ my new bed after sleeping on what I can only describe as a medieval torture device in my mother's guest room. She's talking about getting a new one b/c she knows it causes me pain. I told her to not bother for a while. Maybe I'll split one with her. It really is a piece of shit.