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Fitness Weekly Discussion
What have you been doing lately for your own fitness? Try out any new programs or exercises? Have any questions for others about your training? Want to vent about poor behavior in the gym? Started a new diet or have a new recipe you want to share? Anything else health and wellness related?
My tildes fitness pals!! I went on a run last Sunday and am aiming to get back to a run a week. It was a little awful, but mostly because my lungs weren't completely recovered from whatever sickness I had lol. But I still did it! Barely over a mile but it felt great to do. I've been letting my business get ahead of my fitness this week so I need to make sure I'm a little more active the next few days.
This peaking block is going well. I'm pretty excited most days to get done with work and get into the gym.
Met with my PT last week. It was mostly to check-in on my back, but that has been great so instead we spent the time working on shoulder mobility and prehab. She identified a couple smaller muscle weaknesses and prescribed some general mobility as well as a couple light accessories to strengthen my middle trap and muscles around my rotator cuff. They're easy to mix in and feel like they'll be beneficial.
Highlights this week:
Over all, feeling great. It's only week 2 of the peaking protocol but joints aren't complaining yet!
Not necessarily about exercise, but I am getting tired of feeling bloated and sluggish while bulking.
I'm eating 2600 calories and it is 100% clean most days. It is a lot of food for me.
Lunch and dinner is OK because I can eat white rice like no tomorrow, but my afternoon shake which includes whole milk, whey, avocado and banana is messing me up. I feel extremely bloated after it.
I don't know if it's the change from skim milk to whole milk plus the avocado, but I feel like a blob. Sometimes my throat gets that feeling of fullness like I need to puke. And it's barely 500 calories.
And even with 2600 calories my weight is barely moving. It is fine because I want a slow bulk, but dear lord eating clean like that is hard.
I'm 37 so i don't want to eat dirty because I finally got to a point where I'm lean enough to have abs.
Is it possible to use 2% or skim and skip the avocado in the shake? Then make it up with a scoop of peanut butter when you get home or more butter on your rice.
I've never been in the position to intentionally bulk. Beer and burgers did it for me when I wasn't tracking or training. But I don't envy having to hit those types of intake goals.
Beer and burguers did for me in the past while training, but I just got fat with some muscle.
I will change milk to soy milk for some days and see if it makes a difference. There is avocado here yet, but I'm not buying more.
I would suggest if you could stomach it to try full fat coconut milk out of a tin can to see if it doesn't bloat you. I think you're on to milk being the likely culprit.
I'm almost done with week 3 of my new fitness kick. I'm trying to make it a lifelong thing, so I should probably eventually stop tracking how long I've been doing it, but for now "you haven't quit yet" is my most obvious Success Marker, so I'm not ready to drop it.
In the past my only goal has been aesthetic, and I've only used the mirror, the fit of my clothes, and the scale to measure progress. This time around I'm trying to only focus on building strength, stamina, and flexibility. For those of you with more experience in fitness, how long does it tend to take to see results in these areas? I've been doing yoga and some light bodyweight exercises every day, and I've seen significant progress in my flexibility which was already pretty good, but nothing yet for strength. It's a bit hard to measure since I'm not using any weights, but I don't find myself having an easier time with any of the bodyweight exercises or the poses that require more strength. I don't find myself able to hold the poses for any longer than usual. Is this normal at three weeks? Do I need to just give it more time or am I likely doing something wrong?
I'm not tracking my food intake at all this time, because I tend to get obsessive and unhealthy about that, but it also means I'm not tracking my protein intake. I'm worried that may be affecting my strength. I am making sure to have at least one source of protein with each meal, and I've been drinking protein shakes if it feels like I haven't gotten much that day.
Last question, does anyone have any advice for preventing slipping on a yoga mat? It's hard to ground myself in a lot of the more strength focused poses because the body part that I'm grounding through ends up slipping around. I tried using the other side of the mat and it just slipped around on the wood floor, so that was even worse. When it gets warmer I can do it on my concrete patio, that should be rough enough to get some traction, but right now it's too cold for that.
You're probably gonna have to start lifting heavier weights if you wanna build muscle, or strength as you're calling it. It took me maybe two or three months of lifting weights to notice a significant difference in my strength.
Two or three months sounds reasonable, thank you.
I don't understand why weights would be required if the weight of my body isn't getting any easier? For example, I can't do a push-up because my arms give out, and when I try I'm not getting any further than I was on day one. Shouldn't doing the same thing over and over again mean that thing eventually gets easier? You're clearly more experienced than I am and you're probably right, I just don't understand.
Calisthenics/yoga 100% will build strength. Rest assured, despite how it might feel you are already stronger.
What part of your arm gives out preventing you from another push up?
There are two kind of broad reasons you might feel stalled:
While I'm biased because I love barbells, I don't think using weights is necessary. I would recommend some resistance bands. You can do a lot with them to add resistance to some bodyweight movements. They're also very helpful for "prehab" type stuff. There are lots of simple quick movements you can do with them that will target some of the smaller muscles that larger movements don't hit as well but can hold you back.
Thank you! This is great advice.
Usually it's my bicep that gives out, but sometimes my elbows buckle.
I want to grab some dumbbells, but the fitness store near me didn't have any, so I need to go to the one a town over to grab them and I haven't had time. I don't have room in my apartment for a more sophisticated set-up.
Very little is necessary to get stronger. I made progress during covid lock down just using resistance bands and a dumbell.
You're doing great. I think bodyweight stuff is harder to assess growth in the short term because it's much easier for our body to subconsciously make it harder. I'd bet you're progressing in how well you control your movement and how clean your poses are. But that makes it harder so while you might be doing it the same amount of time you are doing it better.
Thank you, that makes me feel a lot better. I'm going to take your advice on varying things and making sure I'm factoring in rest days. Hopefully my progress will be noticeable soon!
Well I'm no expert either. There's a chance your form isn't good and isn't working the muscles properly.
I will say though that lifting weights is easier than doing push ups, at least for me as I was quite a big guy. Slowly increasing the weights that way will make it easier to do push ups, I have no problems doing push ups now.