4
votes
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?
Getting back into lifting after mostly just running. Hit 70kg for 3 reps on the bench, which is close to my body weight (73kg)
Every day without sports feels weird nowadays.
Really enjoying my progress, and feeling much better mentally and physically
Monday was fun; the entire class had been to these mobility-focused workouts a few times now so the coach ramped it up a bit in difficulty/intensity. As usual the warmup was a bit of jogging, Frankenstein walking, lateral band walks (these still kill me).
We were introduced to Copenhagen planks - in fact we progressed through them in three stages! Started with knee on the bench, then foot, then foot with resistance band row. Was another point in favor of me possibly picking up a workout bench for my apartment (I don't have any other solid household item at the right height to use for these).
I have a few online obligations petering out soon so I might be talking to the coaches on coming in for more days (whether that's for trying a muay thai session or two every week on top of the strength training). My mental health has been really up and down lately and while the gym days are not a perfect panacea, they do help a lot.
Went in today for the usual strength training class:
Warmups, 2 sets of the following:
Workout:
And then I added on 4 sets of 5x resistance band assisted pull ups. I am still very very very far from being able to do one unassisted.
So I did end up talking to the usual Monday coach about adding the muay thai to my plan. Pleasantly surprised to realize that making time for it is actually not bad (stamina willing) because I can go straight from the strength training to the MT class, and in fact recognized some regulars at the strength classes who seemingly do the same thing. It'll give me something to do on Saturday morning too!
The other day I tried the stair climber for the first time. It wasn’t really that bad, I thought. Yeah, just 15 minutes was hard, and even then I had to take a break in the middle of it. I’d been sick for a while so I was out of my prime. But I felt like it was a good cardio workout that was also pretty strength-forward. I’m not really sure why people make fun of the people who do it. I imagine they must be insecure.
The gym is full of people with bad takes. Firefighters use the stair machine. Firefighters are badass.
Got back into lifting after 7 years after doing it for 4 years and peaked at intermediate numbers in my younger days. Combination of muscle memory and noob gains are unreal, picking the barbell and knowing the form like they're yesterday. Last time I held a barbell was when Reddit indiscriminately force-fed Starting Strength into anyone who asked.
Biggest mistake this time was going online for too long getting sucked into the holy grail of "optimal" programming to an inch of its life like it's an MMORPG leveling guide. So. Much. Noise. I won't blame anyone who is permanently put off going to the gym because of this.
Nippard this, Israetel that, study says this rep scheme, other study says this rep scheme, meta-analysis says they're all wrong because they only did the study on 5 stick figure teenagers, no you should train submaximally and run 5/3/1, that other routine is not in the Wendler's holy texts, your routine is suboptimal bro and nSuns is the only current answer. This Youtuber has the ultimate routine bro, just sub to my Patreon bro.
At some point I was spending so much time reading all these studies when I'm not even paid as a researcher compared to actually putting the work in the gym and outside. Had to tune out all the noise and went back to basics. A high volume 6-day PPL routine I liked doing (biggest factor) over the usual 3-day a week full body routines, 500 calorie surplus for now so lifts go up (still doable but brutal on a deficit), controlled reps especially eccentrics (but not Flash from Zootopia slow). Still have some noob gains to squeeze out with linear progression before moving the compounds to double progression.
Lift in the morning before work, 3 days a week of 30min+ jogging (sorry, "zone 2 training") in the afternoon, wear a Garmin watch 24/7 for all the metrics (mostly tracking HRV). Work from home and gym is walking distance, hence all the time in the world to do this. Still building an aerobic base, once I can run a 5K straight (currently 34min) then will add speed work.
Never felt better getting into the groove, my shoulders feel balanced again because of high rep face pulls. And growing the traps means I don't get random headaches as much anymore (likely also helped by all the water being drank as well). Resting heart rate dropped off a cliff from 70+ bpm to below 50 within a few weeks starting out.
And to top all this off, to this day I still don't know how much protein I need among the online noise (mostly because it's a mess of people posting both in lb and kg). I've settled on 120-140g a day for my body weight (85kg), numbers are doing up, so I'll stick to that until it doesn't work.
I got my ass handed to me at an off-ice exercise class on the weekend with my figure skating club. Lottttt of rhythm training, keeping feet moving to a beat, while doing figure skating postures, but on dry land. Harder than it sounds. Anyway, I had pretty intense DOMS for three days after, but at least today I was finally able to get back to running. I will definitely be doing a proper warmup/cool down next time. And also add some calf/ankle exercises to my weekly calisthenic routine!
Still recovering from a handful of injuries, specifically my finger so no new climbing PR's unfortunately. I did beat my fastest 5k which was neat! Im now sub 25 minutes which is crazy.
Been focusing on pullups and strength training in general so that im ready for new climbs when im back fully. Goal is 100 pullups every session but i can do about 50+ of several varieties before im completely pumped. All this to be able to do some one handed pullups without a resistance band.