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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?
Further update: Retatrutide is going well. I’m not experiencing negative side effects, my appetite seems to have been suppressed. I don’t really crave sweets as much as I used to and I get fuller faster. I had to stop Ipamorelin and CJC completely. Even with lowering the dose I still experienced negative side effects, it would make me super sleepy but when I would actually start to fall asleep I would wake up in a panic like if my brain thought I was going to die and/or stop breathing.
NSFW: Looks like I’ve finally made progress on fat loss even if it’s somewhat minor. You can see my midsection has shrunk and the fat on my chest has also gone down. Clothes I hadn’t worn in a bit finally fit comfortably again. Looking forward to losing more fat.
I see you decided to go down the illicit peptide and weight loss drug rabbit hole. :/ Please be very very careful with that, especially without any medical supervision. At the very least I hope you have informed your doctor that you're taking them, and are getting regular checkups and blood tests to make sure they're not negatively effecting you in ways you can't immediately detect yourself. Losing some weight at the potential expense of your overall health and longevity is really not worth it, IMO.
Yeah I’m pretty current with doctor appointments so I know I was fine when I started and I plan on going back in a couple of weeks to see where I am. Years ago when I was morbidly obese and had borderline HBP I was given a blood pressure monitor and I use that consistently. I’m trying to be as safe as I can as sterile as I can with the injections. Although, I realize using this is probably part of my neurosis and/or body dysmorphia.
👍 It's still a pretty risky endevour, IMO, because you never know exactly what you're actually getting with black market substances (if they are what they say they are, how pure they are if so, if they're contaminated with anything, etc...) but I'm glad to hear that you're at least trying to be as careful as you can be, under the circumstances.
I've been doing Hybrid Calisthenics' Workout of the Day with my wife for a while now, and it's been working well for us because we don't have to be on the same level for a given exercise. As an example: Thursday's workout is sets of pushups and leg raises. But what kind of pushups and what kinds of leg raises depend on how strong you are at that exercise. I may be doing incline pushups while my wife is doing knee pushups, and the number of them is based on what we're capable of. That way we can exercise a given muscle group together without needing to be challenged by the same routine so we can both complain about how sore our pecs are tomorrow. The companionship really helps.
That's a pretty cool approach and nice that you can do it together and easily adjust for each person's level and preference. My wife and I have done some Apple Fitness+ workouts together and it's kind of fun. She just uses lighter dumbbells (forces me to use the heavier ones, which has been interesting). I end up modifying some of the exercises as I find the way they do some of them kind of weird and know better ways from other workouts.
That's a really awesome way to work out, and something I never even considered about calisthenics. I've also seen Hybrid Calisthenics' YouTube videos occasionally pop up on my feed, and even watched quite a few of them over the last year. He seems like a pretty nice guy, and despite his baby-face the dude is strong AF, so good choice! :P
Unfortunately due to a mix of mollycoddling parents and depression, I haven't found the energy to go back to the gym. Part of the problem is that I don't have a lot of control over my diet.
But I have thought about doing an experiment where I'd do arm and leg exercises in my room with dumbbells and drink a protein shake maybe 2 or 3 times a day.
It's similar in concept to the 8 Hour Arms workout that Rich Piana came up with, but of course I'm not gonna do sixteen sets of this with super heavy weights.
I started out by just using adjustable dumbbells at home and made pretty good progress in that time by following Dr. Mike Israetel's The Most Effective Full Body Workout You Can Do Without A Gym video. The only thing I changed was adding 3 sets of standing, elevated calf raises at the end.
I haven't done any intentional fitness activities other than semi-regular 1-4 mile walks in several years, but I bought an adjustable weight kettlebell some months ago and have since been letting it hold down the floor in my spare room. I've been wanting to start doing kettlebell swings as an easy, multi-purpose exercise to start building my cardio up, as I get winded just carrying a moderately heavy box a short distance or even jogging a few meters.
Well, I had a (not so) near-death experience last week, wherein I thought I was having a stroke or a heart attack and thus came face to face with my own mortality. Thankfully I wasn't actually in danger, it turns out.
What actually happened, if you care:
I stood up from an uncomfortable bench seat and felt a sharp pain in my leg, which I took for a simple cramp. But while I was stretching it out I suddenly started feeling very poorly: ringing ears, swimming vision, nausea, cold sweat, sluggish thoughts, general malaise. So naturally I figured it was a stroke or heart attack, especially given my family history.
I sat back down and it mostly passed, but then I started looking up the symptoms I just had (I know, falling right into the webmed trap) and noticed I was also having chest pains and feeling lightheaded again.
So I Zoom called a doctor through my insurance and described all of what happened...
Turns out I actually had a very painful leg cramp, which triggered a vasovagal response (the thing that makes people faint at the sight of blood, which I'd never experienced before) that almost made me pass out. The later chest pain was almost certainly a panic attack (also a new thing for me). So I was fine.
But it's been making me think more about being proactive about my health and trying to get in better shape.
So when I unexpectedly woke up early a couple days ago, I decided to go ahead and try out the kettlebell for real. My goal (misguided as it may be) is to do kettlebell swing ladders from 1-20 reps and back down to 1. For now, I'm starting slower and doing 5 to 10 then back down to 1, which ends up being 100 reps total. I'm also starting at the lightest weight the bell I have goes down to (12kg).
I did this the past two days so far, but realized at the end of yesterday's set that my form was probably wrong. I'm doing too little to tighten my core and squatting too much during the swing, which probably explains how sore my quads and lower back have been.
But I don't feel injured and it feels good to be doing something, so I am taking a rest day today to try and let the soreness go away a bit and I'll try again tomorrow with better form I hope.
If my goal or method is dangerously stupid feel free to let me know. I do have to say that the swings feel like they do a good job of getting my heart rate up in a way that isn't nearly as uncomfortable for me as other exercises have been in the past, so that's nice even if I end up adjusting my goals or methods.
Just kind of excited to be doing something for once.
For something potentially a little less injury prone than kettlebell swings, but just as taxing cardio-wise you should try kettlebell squats. I did goblet squats with an adjustable dumbell when I first started lifting, which is essentially the same thing, and it was genuinely surprising how winded they made me even though I was also doing 35min HIIT cardio sessions 2-3x week with relatively ease. And if you want a more complete lower body workout, just add in some kettlebell stiff-legged deadlifts/Romanian deadlifts, walking lunges, hip thrusts, and calf raises too, and you will be all set. ;)
p.s. YouTube is an amazing resource for learning the proper form for exercises. I would highly recommend watching a few videos before you try an exercise yourself, so you don't hurt yourself or waste your time doing them improperly.
Thanks! I definitely did some research first... then waited months to act and tried to go from memory lol.
Since you seem to have a great deal more experience than I do, I'll ask this: are kettlebell swings a particularly likely source of injury? I'd seen them highly recommended as a beginner exercise unlikely to cause issues, though I was admittedly looking in places that seemed to over-hype kettlebells in general.
The only reason I ask is that - and I know this sounds silly - I find kettlebell swings interesting to do. Most exercises are boring or painful to me (or both), and I have historically lost interest too soon for habits to form. But I actually like swinging the silly be-handled cannonball around, and want to lean into one of the very few exercises that my brain isn't fighting me on, assuming it won't hurt me of course.
I know I should probably just buckle down and do the hard work, but the wisdom I've gained with age is to know myself a little better, and I know of me that I can get so much more done if I'm not fighting my dumb brain's arbitrary "this is boooooring" alarm.
I'm probably a bit biased since I'm over 40, have a bad lower back, an injury prone right elbow and wrist, and bum knees (one of which had to be reconstructed after a complete LCL tear). So kettlebell swings, especially at the weight or volume I would need to actually see any results, sounds like a recipe for absolute disaster for me. But it could be totally different for you. And as my favorite fitness saying goes, "the best exercises are the ones you will actually keep doing"... so even if they're not the the most effective or low impact, if you enjoy kettlebell swings and you feel like you can do them safely, then by all means keep doing them!
But if you do keep doing them for long, I strongly suspect that you will eventually get to a point where in order to keep making gains (in work capacity and strength) you're going to need to increase the weight and/or volume to the point where they become untenable. So IMO it's worth keeping that in mind and experimenting with some other, potentially more effective exercises, especially ones where you can even start doing single-leg variants so your kettlebell is still enough weight to keep making progress. And who knows, maybe you will end up enjoying some of those other exercises just as much. You won't know until you try them. :)
Thanks for that, I really appreciate the encouragement!
Honestly, that would be amazing for me. I don't think I've ever gotten to a fitness level where I had the post-workout thought, "that was too easy, I need to step it up." I always just got to the point of hating it, then quitting a week after convincing myself that it was a habit that would definitely stick this time.
Very true. My hidden, "good ending" goal is to get my cardio back to a point that I can go rollerblading without getting winded. I bought a pair a few years back, remembering that when I was younger I loved it and that it's good exercise, but when I tried them out a couple months ago I got out of breath putting them on. Then I got fully winded after a very short session, and could barely get them back off. So I'm trying to build up to that and any other exercises more intense than walking while talking.
Heh, I know how you feel since I've been there too. If you had told me 5 years ago that I would eventually turn into a bit of a fitness nut who consistently works out almost every day (twice daily lately; morning cardio + evening lifting 4 days a week) I genuinely wouldn't have believed you! I was 300lbs in my 20s, and it took me over a decade to get down to 210ish primarily just from eating slightly better. It wasn't until 5 years ago that I bought myself an exercise bike and started using that consistently. And it wasn't until about 8 months ago that I started lifting weights consistently, and finally got down to 160lbs as of a few weeks ago. Before all that I tried getting fit countless times over the years too though, but it never stuck until now. I thought I hated working out, and I genuinely did at the time... but for whatever reason I've caught the bug and I'm kind of addicted to it now.
In any case, I wish you luck, and fingers crossed you can find some exercises you enjoy enough to stick with it too. :)
I've been sticking to Apple Fitness for the most part these days. Sometimes it syncs up with what my wife does, and we end up doing the same workout, which has been a pleasant surprise. In the past she didn't do much strength workouts, but she finally started trying some out and loves the results. I have been waking up earlier so it feels less of a rush and I have more time to stretch and cool down, and still make it to work in time without rushing breakfast. Nutrition has been good. I have been eating a lot more veggies and fruit thanks to the apple tree in my yard that yielded a ton of apples this season. I was starting to feel not so great buying food at work and eating more meat than I like. I prefer to eat less meat, and more veggies / whole foods plan based diet. Been better at it last 2 weeks or so, and my digestive system feels better, overall. I also continued to drink green tea in the morning instead of coffee, but still have a small coffee (like an espresso or cappucino with oat milk) in the afternoon most days. This seems to be better for me than regular coffee and I am glad I don't crave it or feel like a zombie without it in the morning. So overall holding pattern, I do work up a sweat and feel sore from the workouts, but not for too long or excessively so. I think it's fairly well balanced. Last week I mixed in some other workouts, but kind of got annoyed with the app. My plan is to eventually just build my fully custom plan without apps or gadgets. I just need to sit down and put in the time. There are exercises I do not see in Apple Fitness that are very good, and I miss them.