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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?
It's really surprising what a healthy diet and a little bit of exercise can do for someone. There's a good reason that's the first things doctors recommend for, basically any problem, and ask you about it every time you come in.
I'm really happy for you that you've managed to turn around so much of your life with a few small, easy to make changes that are good for you in the long run.
Two days ago I told myself that I need to start lifting light again. I've given the shoulder enough time to heal. I need to stop using 'no energy' and 'being tired' as excuses why I didn't lift.
Then the next day I got sick 😂😂. Guess I will be waiting just a tad bit longer.
woa, are you me? I, too, experienced a shoulder injury which really threw a wrench in my routine. Haven't lifted in a bit and now I'm just feeling damn lazy!
I still feel a tinge of pain through some of my shoulder's range of motion, but I guess it's good enough to lift with?
Only if you've had on and off shoulder injuries for the last decade lmao
I'm probably not the best person to ask this, because I seem to still manage to injure myself fairly consistently. Is the pain at a specific point in the range of motion or all throughout?
Yeah, if I take the bench press starting form and rotate my forearm down I feel the onset of pain near the end of the rotation.
I'm pretty sure I was just compensating for my left arm weakness with my right arm during my bench press... guess it caught up to me. Rotator cuff or labrum issue.
I'm not sure I follow... rotation of the forearm can be internal or external (also known as supination and pronation). What do you mean when you say 'rotate my forearm down'?
I knew I was gonna get the technical description wrong...
Uh, the way the kid moves his arm in this scene.
internal horizontal rotation of the shoulder?
Yup! Also, if I raise my arms above my head. Mind you, the pain isn't extreme, but it's present and doesn't exist in my left arm... which kinda makes it stand out in my right arm more.
I can't say the injury happened in the gym as I didn't feel it then. It was the next day when I woke up that I could barely move my arm past parallel to the ground. It's a lot better now, of course, but that tinge of pain is still there.
Definitely sounds like a rotator cuff issue. You can invert your palms (facing you, rather than facing away) during bench press to externally rotate the shoulders instead of internally rotating them. It's a bit easier with dumbbells than a barbell but you can do it with either. You might want to give it a try and see if it causes you any pain - if not, that's a good alternative for at least a few months while you let it heal.
If you're interested in talking, I would love to help you improve your form and make sure you're doing everything to minimize injury and getting the most out of your lifts. I feel weird posting this part, but to give you a bit of my background so you know what my knowledge base and not some rando online:
I'm far from an expert. When things get too serious I always suggest talking to a doctor. But as far as form checks and helping tweak lifting plans, that's my bread and butter.
If you can, see a physiotherapist. They should be able to assist you with diagnosing your problem areas and assisting to fix them.
I've been working out with my wife doing PiYo (part of Beach Body, which I just found out was a MLM, so we're open to other options), but I started biking to work this week too! It's about 3.3 miles, which isn't super far, but is far enough that I get my heart rate up and it makes me feel good. I really want some panniers to get the weight off my back, and I think I'll be in business.
I started Brazilian Jiu Jitsu a few weeks ago, and it's an incredible workout. I feel like I can barely walk after every session, but it's fun enough to bring me back the next day. I chose BJJ because I'm not a competitive person, so I wanted to strengthen that "muscle".
Unfortunately, I've been sick for the last week and a half so I've been itching to get back to the gym. But I won't risk getting everyone else sick.
Been wanting to get into BJJ, myself, but unfortunately can't afford it at the moment. Gyms are around $120-160 a month, here.
BJJ seems like a physical chess match. I imagine rolling with someone more skilled than you will put you in a state of helplessness right quick, too! I think it'd be good exercise to learn how to calm those panic signals entering your brain.
The cost was totally prohibitive for me for years, and even now it's just uncomfortable enough to make me feel like I need to "earn" the privilege of spending so much on a sport. I pay $160/mo for reference. There are some gyms for closer to $100 on the coast (CA), but the drive to my gym is 10 minutes which really makes a difference.
BJJ is so much more technical than I expected. As soon as I feel like I have a grasp (pun intended) on the fundamentals of passing one type of guard, my partner switches it up and twists me into a pretzel before I can process what just happened. It's a ton of fun and is just as much a mental workout as physical.
If you can find a way to budget for it, I highly highly recommend giving it a shot.
I'm struggling a bit with what program to follow now that I finally have regular gym access. I did Stronglifts 5x5 for a couple of years back in 2011-2013 and was in the best shape of my life... should I just start that again? My goals are basically to stay at my current weight but do a re-composition of sorts to have more muscle and less bodyfat. I don't like to bulk and cut as it makes me feel like crap. My primary lift goal is to be able to do overhead press for my bodyweight, though even back when I did SL5x5 for 2 years, I never got there (was 20% below my weight at the time for my max). I wouldn't mind doing the same for benchpress (my worst lift), and getting back to my maxes at the time for squat and deadlift.
I just re-downloaded the SL5x5 app and I hate what they put behind the paywall (as well as the fact that they lost all my data ...). Does anyone pay for it and is it worth your while?
My recommendation is to build your routine into JEFIT. They've been slowly moving some things behind a paywall, unfortunately, but it has been in my own opinion one of the best apps for lifting tracking for some time.
Nice! I hadn't heard of that app before. Will compare it to Strong as recommended by another poster. Not a fan of downloading an app where it's not super clear what's behind a paywall and what isn't, but it seems to have way more functionality than SL5x5.
Let me know your thoughts on Strong. I've never used it so curious how it compares.
I'd say restart SL5x5 as your reintroduction program. Run it's course for 8-12 weeks, then move on to a more intermediate program.
What's an example of a more intermediate program?
That I don't know. I've not partaken in one yet. I never finish out any starter programs lol
I used and recommend the 'Strong' app. You can create custom workout routines and track your PRs there. I just created 2 when I did Stronglifts 5x5: Workout A and Workout B. It's pretty easy to track your progression that way.
Nice! I hadn't seen that app before. Will compare it to JEFIT as recommended by another poster.
Edit: Already I like it more since it doesn't require you to create an account just to see the damn app like JEFIT. The fact that it has a paywall wasn't clear before I downloaded it though, and they obscure the pricing in several ways. Plus, I can't open the privacy policy on my home network since it's blocked by my PiHole. That's not a good sign on the privacy front... maybe I just need to go to pen and paper :)
After a very rough few months i finally have a preliminary diagnosis about what was wrong with my "stomach problems". Turn out i have coeliacs disease. I have an endoscopy next week for the official diagnosis but in the 2 weeks since the preliminary one i have been gluten free and my "stomach problems" have mostly cleared up and my weightloss has stalled, I ended up losing a bout 20kg/44lb in 2 months, thankfully i had it to lose (1/5th of my bodyweight) but i was getting worried especially with how weak and tired i was getting.
Eating gluten free has been a thing. Turns out gluten is a sneaky fucker and is nearly impossible to predict what foods it is in. So i have been reading labels and learning what "cultural cuisines" to avoid. I've also been avoiding glutenfree foods that should contain gluten because outside of some cookies they have been universally crap. I've been eating a lot of rice, rice crackers and rice noodles. None are a replacement for bread, pasta or wheatbased noodles but there is some variety in texture and it makes snacking and meals easier.
I gave myself a 2 week eating grace period to simply recharge and now i'm cleaning up my diet again to lose a little bit more weight to be more securely in the healthy bmi range.
I have been lifting once a week since @Gaywallet encouraged me to in a December edition of this post. Still haven't hurt myself, but going once a week I am starting to find my limits. I've been doing 3x5s, adding 5-20 lbs per set depending on the lift. Then the next week I'll use my middle weight as the starting weight. I think I'm going to 'rewind' four weeks and go light again but really focus on form.
I have been kind of lazy about climbing since I met this really awesome lady and I've been spending a lot of free time with her, gotta get back into it. I'll officially have been climbing for a year come the 14th and it is really cool to reflect on how much stronger and more graceful I am now.
That's fairly aggressive for a progression pattern. A fairly standard progression pattern is to do all 3 sets at the same weight, and then if you hit all your reps, increase. So if for a particular lift, like deadlifts, you do 3x5, then if you hit 5,5,5 you'd up the weight next week. Typically 5lbs for major/compound/heavy lifts, and 2.5lbs for other lifts. Even if you feel like it's too easy or slow, it will take years to perfect a motion and it's better to get your early practice in when it's light (to avoid injury and build the foundation of movement).
Are you doing 3x5 for all lifts? You may want to slowly increase volume for everything, especially if you're only hitting the gym once a week. A general rule of thumb is to never increase volume more than 20% per week, so you might want to do 3x6 next week, then 3x7, etc. or 3x5 followed by a set of 3, which becomes 5 the following week, etc. and work up to 5x5 at least. General rep ranges vary depending on the motion, but in general the heavier compound lifts tend to respond better to the 5-10 rep range and the isolated or lighter/focused compounds moreso in the 8-20 range.
Fantastic advice, thank you so much!
Finally starting to get back into the swing of lifting. Went back and re-benchmarked my strength, flexibility, and range of motion tests. Made a new lifting schedule and weights based on the results. I'm sure it'll need tweaking once I get in and see how things feel and how some of those secondary/tertiary muscle feel. Revamped my diet based on the new nutritional requirements. This one is going to be very interesting because I've started working my way towards a meatless diet, and the last time I was consistently working out I was eating meat every meal. It'll be fine, but I am definitely going to need to put a lot of thought into my diet for the next few days and be careful about what I am putting into my body.
My gut started coming back and I have extreme difficulty with regular exercise because it's just so boring, so now I'm hopping into Skyrim VR on a regular basis, using Natural Locomotion for walk-in-place movement. That's 14 square miles of landscape I now have to physically "walk" across!
Instead of having to force myself to keep going, I'm having so much fun that I only stop when I'm literally too exhausted to continue. Great way to burn calories!
Out of curiosity is natural locomotion based on swinging arms or do you have one of those platforms that allows you to walk in place?
With just my two controllers, it's arm-swinging, but if you lift your legs at the same time and walk in place it's ridiculously immersive -- far more than I ever would have expected before I tried it. I now consider it the baseline locomotion for any large world, and it's tons better than sliding and teleport models.
NL does support foot-attached controllers if you get an extra VR controller hub (which I don't have yet). Then lifting your feet drives locomotion and you use the touchpad / joystick of the secondary hand to control which direction you go.
With the standard arm-swing locomotion, the direction the controllers are facing controls movement direction and it's just silly how intuitive it is. With these new Index controllers I just got for my Vive, I set NL to activate for both arms when my left thumb touches the touchpad thingy, and drop down to regular sliding locomotion with the joystick when I'm in combat (since I need to move my arms separately in that case).
NL is only $10 so if you have VR, it is worth every penny. You haven't really VR-lived until you've physically sprinted away from a dragon in the middle of your living room. :D
Unfortunately, not much. My gout has been so bad since we got hit with a cold snap a few weeks ago, and even though the temperatures have evened out, I'm incredibly achey. On top of that, I had a flu and sinus infection last week that lasted, first day of symptoms to last day, about 8 or 9 days.
I'm hoping for gymtime soonish again, but I'm also looking into starting Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, to try something new.