thread of getting sw0le

I just learned how to do lifting stuff honestly I'm p...*pumped* about it

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vf3Hr09ea1Y/TkbOx8VupOI/AAAAAAAACS8/2x8bUOadEJc/s1600/fist-bump.jpg

i have been enjoying doing body weight-only stuff at home but i rly wanna get some kettlebells

i wd need to get a gym buddy to go to a (free) gym

planet fitness is wildly inexpensive morbs fwiw, and if u show up early enough theres free coffee/bagels (dunkin donuts brand)

haha bagels at the gym, what's the point of that?

the whole concept of "gym buddy" makes me shudder, i imagine dudes with fingerless gloves hitting each other on the arm and barking at each other like seals then going back home to pound protein shakes and browse expensive watches online

its good to have someone to spot u, also protein shakes are a must, not that i ever go to the gym or workout w anyone lol

haha bagels at the gym, what's the point of that?

― things lose meaning over time (Dr Morbius), Friday, November 14, 2014 11:56 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

idk just food i guess lol

eat yr carbs

TH, that is total hotness except for the expensive watches

haha whoops

lol

and the gloves *proud of calluses*

oh I just found out the extra 30 prescribed steroid tablets I was sent can't be returned... hmm, what to do

u can become the gym drug dealer

quick update. been working on dem legs. looking so much better. upper legs (thighs/quads/etc) are looking decent, but i kind of left my calves behind..UH OH.

Will start hill intervals after I finish unpacking (just moved, which threw my schedule off course).

I'm learning that I used to overtrain. By doing less days, I'm getting better results, especially since I don't have the time to eat 3000 calories a day.

although the whole gym bro culture still exist, I see a lot of regular people getting into the free weights, squatting heavy and getting sw0le . it's cool

how many days are you doing? xp yes always great to see a variety of people getting into it

xxp yes ! i had to dial stuff back too and take some real recovery time between heavy lift days and it's been good. I'm making gains but not feeling so beat down.

recovery is so important, also eating

although the whole gym bro culture still exist, I see a lot of regular people getting into the free weights, squatting heavy and getting sw0le . it's cool

― (•̪●) (carne asada), Friday, November 14, 2014 1:06 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

feel like the gym bro culture has changed so much too like hardcore bros these day tend to be so low key and supportive and they just want to like jump up on to boxes with their friends

and the gloves *proud of calluses*

― mattresslessness, Friday, November 14, 2014 11:23 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

proper grip should minimize calluses *stares at u paternally*

hm i thought i had a hook grip but my thumb needs to go in between fingers and bar. every time i post in this thread i figure something out. thanks all you hot dads!

and dadettes

Whoa! Just discovered this thread, so excuse the long intro post, but I could use some advice from y'all.

I'm decidedly not a gym bro. I'm a scrawny guy who just started hitting the gym well into adulthood two years ago, and I discovered that I really like it. For the last two years I've worked out about four times a week, usually doing basic push/pull exercises, trying to vary my routines, occasionally mixing in other exercise (yoga, kickboxing for awhile, biking, swimming, even Crossfit for a bit, none of which I stuck to too long). I haven't bulked up the way a guy with a bigger bone structure would have working out so much, but I've felt pretty good about myself all things considered. My arms are no longer disturbing little sticks, and for a while I even had defined pecs.

So here's the problem: Five months ago I suddenly experienced moderate shoulder pain. Nothing debilitating or motion-limiting, but it never went away. After visits to two orthopedists, it was diagnosed as an AC joint injury—commonly called weightlifter's shoulder. It's an injury brought on by too many presses, push-ups, planks and dips, which, as cruel fate would have it, were some of my very favorite exercises to do. SO yeah, I brought it on myself without knowing it.

So now after acquiring a taste for working out, I'm be told I can't do it. For the last month I cut all those offending exercises out of my routine (replacing presses with flies, at my orthopedist's suggestion), but that hasn't really improved things. So this week I have committed myself to taking a full week off from the gym completely, and a second if need be. It's hard, and I'm obsessed with how rapidly I am losing the muscle I worked very, very hard to gain.

Does anybody have any advice, or has anybody experienced a similar injury? I don't know how long I should stay out of the gym for. The cruel thing is there's very little direct correlation between when and how I work out and how I experience the pain. Some days my shoulder feels perfect after a hard workout. Some days it's sore after doing nothing. The pain is mild enough that I could easily push through it, but it's been lingering for so long I just want it over with.

hmmm well, not a doctor of course, but maybe heavier lifts and less repetition would help? i say this as fully bought-in member of the cult of heavy.

the key lifts of a heavy full body program are squat and deadlift, and those only involve the shoulder in a secondary way. you could do those without any arm work and still be ok maybe? great for gaining weight too.

fyi my pulled back muscle from this summer (!) is p much back to normal. finally. still feels a little tight a lot of the time tho, i guess that's the new normal for a guy my age.

and i've never done hook grip! i should probably give it a try now while my DL is still at a low weight from rehabbing my back. does it help?

I've decreased my weights quite a bit, out of fear that I might pull or aggravate something or do a lift or press wrong. But since AC joint injuries are repetitive stress injuries, maybe it would make more sense to do less lifts with more weight. I really have no idea but I could try it.

i have a janky shoulder too. never quite heals.

you can try: neutral grip presses with dumbbells (palms facing each other), make sure your elbows are tucked in and not out wide.

Oh that sounds like a good grip idea. It'll be nice doing something that's not a fly.

What's wrong with your shoulder?

who knows! tends to be aggravated most by bench press though. especially if I try to go too heavy.

lots and lots of reps with tiny little dumbbells helped heal my cranky shoulders

search "shoulder joint stabilization" for rehab exercises

I have 2 tiny little dumbbells at home, but I haven't touched em in two years bcz after myeloma knocked the shit out of my bones, I'm afraid my arms will fall off. I know I should just ask the doctors or one of my health plan's available "consultants."

i have done this routine in the past and it's helped with lingering shoulder issues

http://www.rawstrengthandconditioning.com/raw-home/overhead-stability-and-mobility-bulletproof-shoulders.html

yes but have u actually fired bullets at them

Have any of you ever had to take a significant amount of time off from the gym because of an injury? If so, how'd you cope? How bad were the losses, and how long did it take you to rebuild?

just my opinion but my feeling has always been that taking time off, even a month or so, doesn't have that big an impact on muscle growth. it's more psychological than anything, and after a few sessions I tend to be back where I was after I left off. I'm sure I'm wrong about this but us in the swole brigade tend to be more anxious about taking time off than we need to be.

it's a marathon not a sprint, etc.

yeah wld think itd take quite a bit longer than that to get srsly out of shape

i was mostly off this summer and haven't lost much progress. i never make much progress anyway though :)

That is very encouraging; pretty much exactly what I needed to hear right now

Much better to take time off than to aggravate injuries to the point where you don't have a choice

I'm looking into some articles on the Internet and they say that taking a break from the gym for a few weeks can help your muscles rebuild stronger in the short term. So that is comforting, the idea that at least some good could come of this.

Arg I am on day 11 of no gym and my shoulder feels no better. I'm going to give it a few days and return to the gym. At this point I'm not convinced working out has a huge impact on how my shoulder feels one way or the other. If it's gonna feel the way it's gonna feel I might as well work out.

how many days are you doing? xp yes always great to see a variety of people getting into it

― mattresslessness, Friday, November 14, 2014 6:08 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

leg days are one to two, depending on how well/poorly i do and how much i eat (i get busy with work sometimes)

then one other lifting day, but i keep the exercises simple. i'm kind of focusing more on my legs and abs, then do some type of light upper body

also, i'm not sure where people are at in their exercising life, but after training for a half marathon, i was very thin and stopped doing everything and ate anything i wanted. it took about two months of not doing anything to actually start gaining a few pounds, though i did do the occasional running. i started losing muscle definition after the first month. but i wasn't huge at all.

the only thing i'd be careful of is trying to pick up where you left off, weights-wise. i heard that's how many injuries occur. you try to lift as heavy as you did a month or two ago. you have to build up to it, even though you can build up to it quicker if you only stopped for a month or two

that is also true of my stopping and starting experience, which i guess i'm pretty good at since i do it so much.

I actually haven't lost as much muscle as I thought I would. I feared I'd revert to square-one scrawny after just a few weeks, because that really is my default.

Where I've lost the most mass is my pecs, and particularly my upper pecs. Those are going to be the hardest to rebuild, since so many presses are off the table for me. Not sure if I can build good upper pecs on flies and cross cables alone.

fell into a sedentary lifestyle for a bit because of busyness. back on the wagon tomorrow morning. downloaded an app to track my macronutrient intake and, for today at least, it was bad. 4 pop ems donuts and a bag of trail mix (cashews, dried cranberries, and chocolate) given to me by my octogenarian grad school adviser was actually wayyyyy too much saturated fat for a single day. this is a problem because she gives me a huge bag of this trail mix a few times a week. i also ate a whole avocado but that's "good" fat. basically i foud out that i need to eat more calories of better stuff, which i knew.

tomorrow i am doing compound barbell exercises and running 3 miles. this weekend i am going to do yoga, so i am thinking 3 days a week lifting and running whenever i feel like it and also yoga. this seems balanced. my goal is to adjust body composition.