thread of getting sw0le

Yes im always super deliberate on my lifts for fear of messing up my back xp

I'm just lurking here bc I'm somewhat interested, though I can barely lift my groceries

also bc cheering on harbl :)

i knew i'd hit some kind of beginner threshold for sw0leness when i found myself enjoying mark rippetoe youtubes for an hour at a time

haha otm

I recently hired a personal trainer on a contract for a tremendous number of sessions to ensure my commitment to working out, and despite certain small wrenches in the works, it's starting off nicely and making me feel good about the mid-term future of my physical and mental health. Last time I had a trainer I was only half-assing it (drinking tons (not drinking at all now) skipping sessions, not really 100% in the game) but the cosmetic results still blew me away. That's not what I'm in it for, and body definition is gravy that will make the other benefits extra good.

honestly part of the mental game with this for me was finally admitting to myself that yes, a strong minority motivation was 'cosmetic'

goole congrats on being sw0le :)

oh man i'm nowhere near my sw0le g0ls

learning to do olympic/power lifts *correctly* (or so i hope) in the past year or so has been really mind-blowing. sort of a light turning on: "so THIS is what it's supposed to feel like." I actually enjoy squatting, dead-lifting, and all that now. and i pretty much gave up any exercise that doesn't work at least a few muscle groups at a time.

i go to the gym every 4th day (doing yoga on the 3 days in between) and try to pack in the protein and i've never felt better in my life.

i think a big part of the mental game for me was that I realized for the longest time i'd actually do whatever I could to make things *easier* rather than build the foundations to really improve.

honestly part of the mental game with this for me was finally admitting to myself that yes, a strong minority motivation was 'cosmetic'

― goole, Thursday, October 25, 2012 11:01 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm

people doing curls make me literally vomit

yeah. those kinds of things are such a total waste of time. you drop all that and all of a sudden your workout takes a 1/3 of the time and is 10x more effective.

i've cut the weight in half or more on every major lift over the past year or two just to connect or reconnect with form / what i'm actually doing / why i'm doing it and it's made such a huge difference. also yoga 4 core 4 life.

xp i don't get curl hate. done right they're amazing. cable press-downs on the other hand....

i am kind of doughy at the moment because my gym is 10 yards away from ground zero in this video and was shut for all of september http://vimeo.com/48399328. it's really nice at the moment because a lot of the guys seem to have quit or moved to another gym.

one thing i like about gyms in germany is the squat racks are always free because people are either doing curls (lol) or doing serious calisthenics (some of these dudes are amazing).

going in a couple of hours actually. iirc tonight i will squat 5x5 175lb (i.e. 1xBW), bench 5x5 100, row 5x5 100.

seriously, everyone on earth should squat. this is key to universal consciousness.

squat. eat broccoli, quinoa and sardines. live forever.

and if i see you using the foam pad on your barbell during the squat then i hope you poop accidentally during your first set.

I go 2 gym and do not squat, I have had back problems in my life and am worried about technique

start by doing 'air squats' ie no weight

when those get ok start with an empty bar. that's 45 lb, you could even start by holding up a couple of small dumbbells

i have bad knees (poss hereditary) and fear doing any leg-related lifts

yeah I do air squats already

when squatting to proper depth your knees are not being taxed so much xp

unless you have disk problems, i think squat is pretty a low risk exercise for your back. all the weight goes straight down your spine. there's not much torque. maybe give it a try with an unloaded bar to see how it feels.

saw a calisthenics guy do a one-handed chin-up last week btw. wanted to cry.

yeah make sure you don't stop your squat half-way, that is bad for your knees

i have 'bad knees' and they've never felt better after a year of this

i have turned around halfway when i've had to on a weight. it was agony. i have no idea what those guys who go to like 30 degrees above horizontal think they are doing.

xp otm. squats are good for strength but they are #1 for knees, groin and lower back stability

when i've had to bail on a weight, i mean.

lol i totally use the foam pad. i used to be so anti-foam pad but now i'm more anti-sores on my back.

xp goole caek carne asada otm, keep the weight off/low, keep tight form go low and back/knees should be ok.

what were you lifting to get sores?

it's spine/neck contact, guess this means i should take off the pad and get the bar where it's supposed to be.

low-bar position will fix that but it does take some getting used to

yeah i had the same issue until i figured out the right place to rest the bar

yeah i think part of the problem with the pad is it means the bar is less stable. it's kind of like people who wear gloves and running shoes. the barbell is the size it is for a reason, and unless your body is unusual proportioned, you're screwing that up.

i've had the benefit of some good coaching that has help me a bunch, otherwise i'd probably being doing a bunch of stuff wrong

if you've spent most of your life doing it wrong like me it really takes some time/dedication to turns things around. but eventually your body just starts to "set" better, even in daily life.

totally.

goole i got semi-sw0le for like 9 months before i had a babby and got un-sw0le

but if you are looking for sw0le central in mpls, get a membership at Los Campeones gym on Franklin, dudes are serious! it's the best gym, super cheap, never crowded and all free weights and lots of space, barely any bullshit like eliptical trainers etc

ha! i have been to that gym. i was staying round the corner and they sold me a week pass. it was 100x better than my gym here.

i was kinda intimidated at first because there were these crazy big dudes lifting for serious, but i ended up finding out that they were always really helpful and encouraging if you asked them to spot or for help

though i did become pretty much certain that certain dudes there were heavily into r0ids

huh wow that is a pretty good deal. but i kind of love my busted-ass Y, and it's right around the corner from me

yeah, i guess the most important thing is having a gym you'll actually go to, so around the corner probably trump whatever advantages los campeones has.

which Y do you go to? blaisdell?

midway, dog! apart from people's kids i feel like i'm on the low end of the age curve there

haha what's the midway scene? drunks from the Trend Bar?

ha maybe in a couple cases. it's kind of everybody except your uptown young single white people. kids playing ball, moms on treadmills, old dudes benching in the smith machine, guys who hang out and watch cable in the locker room for hours, etc

i am working pretty hard on having a nice squat. i feel that barbell squat is currently pretty bad but improves every time. now my thing is i do goblet squats to get the heaviness in (i am up to 50 lbs for 5 reps!) and a number of low-bar back squats at a lighter weight to work on technique. at first i was so so bad at it and couldn't figure out where the bar went and my shoulders hurt. but i found the "shelf" on my back and moved my hands wider. front squats i need much more work on because my wrists hurt.
everyone should do this a million times before using the bar imo http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/goblet_squats_101
i can't believe i have turned into a person who reads articles on T NATION

i don't work hard enough on hamstring flexibility is part of the problem

i also have very long femurs and long everything so stuff might be less natural and i probably look like a daddy longlegs doing lifting

The mental and social aspects of martial arts training make it a lot more fun for me than solitary running or lifting. There are always new demands on attention, judgment, and communication skills.

If you stay with it, you can continue to make progress for a long time. I'm in my 60s, my physician is in his 50s, we've both been active in different martial arts for decades. I asked him yesterday if he believes they are good for longevity. He said, "I think so, as long as you don't get hit in the head too much."

The advice I give to people who are considering training is to watch a club practice and see how it feels. If everyone is working diligently, there are smiles and laughter, and more experienced people are patient with less skillful people, all is well. If some people are slacking off and being ignored, while others are bullying or being bullied, go somewhere else.

Putting yourself in situations where you're trusting training partners not to injure you can teach you a lot about fear and aggression. Over the long term that kind of practice tends to make people more empathetic and less violent.

ah thanks for your input brad! i noticed something about the way some of the people in the class looked at me - with open, gentle, penetrating, encouraging eyes. it felt good! i was back at my gym this morning, and after the experience yesterday, i'm starting to really see why i get so annoyed at my gym. there are a lot of image-oriented people there. i am a little image-oriented myself. but not super proud of it, and being around just that day in and day out gets alienating and depressing.

Putting yourself in situations where you're trusting training partners not to injure you can teach you a lot about fear and aggression. Over the long term that kind of practice tends to make people more empathetic and less violent.

I was picking up on this a little bit! It rings true for me. I feel like not exercising aggressive energy in any way would ultimately make me more dangerous to myself and others.

Been switching it up and going to the gym more in the late afternoons and early evenings, which means I get the after school crowd, which I thought would annoy me, but is instead wonderful— makes me want to be a climbing coach tbh!

I do that at the fitness center where I work more lately and what I’ve noticed are a surprising number of inconsiderate people taking the entire space as if it’s still their private office and holding Zoom/Teams calls loudly while using the equipment.

Just like a real office

tell me about creatine

my 15-y-o is obsessed with getting swole and he says it’s fine. lotta information out there but not sure what to trust. what say the sw0lemind of ilx

Tracer, it’s more about the amount of creatine, and a lot of the packaging and stuff is deceptive.

For a first month, 5g a day is optimal.

Ever after, 2g a day is optimal.

Loading and unloading cycles with creatine have been proven to not help with strength or building muscle. It is better to maintain a small, 1-2g/day schedule than to load heavy and unload.

Creatine is fine but you have to make sure one of his friends doesn’t introduce him to the Liver King.

There's vague warnings of creatine possibly exacerbating hair loss but creatine is generally regarded as about as good as it gets in terms of effective and safe supplements, and it's cheap, with potential benefits in reducing the ravages of alzheimers as well.

At the same time, about 25% of people don't respond to it, possibly because they're already getting sufficient amounts through their diet? It might be more worth taking for a vegetarian/vegan adult than a kid in the throes of adolescence who is already plowing through a rotisserie chicken per day (or various organ meats if he's already been indoctrinated into the Liver Kingdom).

table otm