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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?
Followed @crdpa's advice and picked up a kettlebell. After being out of the gym for six months just doing suspension training, this was so refreshing. Working against some actual iron was so mentally satisfying compared to easy-breezy calisthenics. I've only done three days of it so far, but I'm really into it.
Kettlebell movements themselves seem fine, might be a bit too much emphasis on the posterior chain and quads for me (before shelter-at-home, my squat 1RM was 435 lbs at 189 lbs bodyweight, I don't really need more work there as an amateur). But I would say the muscle group that absolutely got blown up for me so far is hamstrings. Even with doing some single leg deadlifts in suspension training, I apparently wasn't ready for how much hamstring work was coming.
It was definitely useful for me to watch Pavel Tsatsouline's intro to kettlebell movements. A friend recommended that when I mentioned I was going to try kettlebells. I know there's some dispute over Tsatsouline's credentials, but he definitely seems to know about kettlebells anyway.
And here I am, procrastinating on my pull-ups and push-ups for the day... 😔
Though, I have been meaning to incorporate some kettlebell work, as well.
Just started watching the kettlebell training video...the super extra Soviet production values are a hoot. Good and straight-forward demonstrations, though. Bookmarked!
lol yes, Tsatsouline definitely has an aesthetic and he goes whole hog on it. He claims to have trained Soviet Special forces. But the timeline says he would have been teenager when he did, which makes it a bit unlikely.
Check out Dan John 10,000 swing challenge.
For quads i do 5x12 Bulgarian split squat, but it gets old. I hate single leg exercises. I just do it for maintenance. I'm running a lot now.
Pavel is cool, but Turkish getups are kind of a meme exercise and he insists on it. Too much work for too little benefit.
Is the kettlebell still feeling weird for you? I find it so strange because of it's center of mass. It's really tiresome holding in the rack position.
I'm still fighting to press the 24kg kettlebell.
Anyway... Glad you are liking it!
I am thinking Dan John's 10,000 swing challenge is probably next on my list after I get used to kettlebell movements a bit. Want to make sure my form is OK before I just swing for hundreds of times a day!
I'm not running any of Pavel's programs. But his video was very helpful for getting form down. The snatch was definitely a little rough at first, but today I tried them again and didn't bang up my arm at all, so just needed some more practice of his technique.
The bell definitely feels weird. Especially doing bottoms up cleans, I have a hard time with those. Even doing regular cleans messes up my palms a bit. It's a little bit of getting the form right and a little bit of just growing new, proper, calluses, I think.
I'm running mostly 35 and 45 lb bells right now for most of what I'm doing. Will go heavier once I think I have form down.
Since the last time I posted in here I had to take down the gym on account of getting house mates. I moved the adjustable dumbbells and bench into my room but have hardly used them. I'm trying to get myself into a regular pattern for at least working on my core, but I just feel drained every time I think about doing any exercise. I have managed to do a few shorter workouts and I usually feel pretty darn good after doing them. I think I just need to set a schedule and stick to it.
In my experience, the earlier I do a workout, the better I feel about it. If it's something that happens later in the day, the idea of working out kinda looms over me throughout the day until I get to it. Usually, I try not to overthink it and try to move on autpilot mode. Once I start, I finish. "Starting" being the hard part, of course. But, yea... post-workout feels really good! Almost feels like you're starting a new day once the workout is complete.
I am very jealous of you having adjustable dumbbells. People are still price gouging on them like crazy by me.
Yea I bought them well before the pandemic, so I lucked out in that regard. They are expensive though. I chose powerblocks and including the stands were something like $400 after taxes. I can only imagine how bad they've gotten since.
I've occasionally seen the $400 power blocks dip all the way down to $550 on Craigslist. But that's a deal, more common to see $600, $650.
Two wins over the weekend:
I’ve also gotten into paddling! We have a two-person canoe that a friend left here, which I’ve taken out twice in the past two weeks, and a friend of mine brought two kayaks so we could go together last Wednesday.
BodyWHAT
I stumbled upon this tool that'll analyze a picture of you and give an estimate of your body-fat percentage based on machine learning. If you're not concerned with the privacy-aspect of it all, I'd say give it a go! Gives some interesting numbers and lets you mess around with the picture. For example, I got a hulked-out preview of what I'd look like with ~45lbs of extra muscle. It's a pretty convincing manipulation, too!
possible overshare (before&after pics)
2020 Apr 21 : Me after taking about 4 months off from lifting, but eating as if I still were.
2020 Aug 31 : Me after deciding to nip that shit in the bud, cut calories, and focus on body-weight training.
My phone changed, hence the color being off between the two pics. I'm probably quite a bit more tan now than I was at the start.
Anyway, going back and forth between pictures and seeing the difference is intense! Definitely motivates me to keep it up. I can only hope gyms open soon so that I can start moving some damn weight, though.
Haven't been able to get back into the gym as I am based in a major city in the US, but I got a quietpunch not too long ago and have been trying that out. Its pretty decent. its certainly not ideal, but given my nearly non-existent space for a gym having a punching bag that fits in the door frame has been really helpful. There are definitely technique shifts you have to make since you're punching a bag in a door frame and I don't want to miss and throw a hook into a doorframe and fuck up my hand. I'm not the biggest fan of the workout videos that come with it, but there's nothing that says you have to use those :) its been great to be able to train fighting again a bit. Sadly I can only train punches on it, so my Muy Thai isn't going to be getting much practice but its better than the nothing I was doing before I got it.
That thing is pretty neat. Definitely a good solution in limited space, which is what I've been looking at for a lot of my stuff as well.
Whoa! Been looking for something to punch that’d be apartment-friendly! Looks like thos fits the bill.
Still doing Tactical Barbell Base building.
Yesterday I ran for 45 minutes. 6km.
Today I did 3 circuits of 40 reps with little to no rest between these exercises:
I am fried. Ate like a beast and can't wait to sleep.
I'm filled with fear because in two weeks I'll have to do 3 sets of 50 reps of these.
Kill me.