thread of getting sw0le

https://storify.com/PierreMenard/workouts

― lag∞n, Wednesday, February 4, 2015 6:23 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

:)

aha, ya, just the bar.

got some rubber plates and these collars as well

― F♯ A♯ (∞), Wednesday, February 4, 2015 5:56 PM (Yesterday)

so youre doing OLY lifts ? it is fun ime

― (•̪●) (carne asada), Thursday, February 5, 2015 4:09 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

nah, i have a rack and a bench. the rest of the stuff is cheapo stuff, except the lock jaw collars

my local gym sucks ass and i can't take it anymore. i'm not looking to even do more than 500lbs ever. so this suits me fine for now

moar gym tales~

i assume it's part of it's community engagement mission but my Y occasionally host to groups of dudes who i am reasonably certain are in one of the last steps of incarceration. they usually have one dude in charge of them, both getting in and out of the space and helping them with working out. it's kind of fun honestly because they're louder and funnier and generally just more psyched to be doing whatever than your average citizen. some of these guys were around last night. (this partic set of dudes was way more shameless and gross about ogling the women in the building tho)

i legit heard one guy try out the "do you guys want some tickets? TO THE GUN SHOW?" joke. one older guy said the first time he was in prison he was young and hit a bench of 405. i couldn't tell if any of them believed him. i don't think i do.

we're in a temporary space due to renovation so things were more cramped than usual. with an extra 8 or so dudes in there it got to be a little cramped. so of course their arguments about how to do the different lifts right were basically inescapable. i started doing deadlifts, and suddenly i'm getting running commentary on what i'm doing, kind of half encouragement, half commentary, like "yeah now that's real shit. you can't cheat that. you just gotta muscle it up. that's just weight right there. ain't nothing else." i only hit 7 out of 8 :/

this was a couple months ago:

there's a really corny and overly-loud and too-personal dude whose name is iirc joe (jim maybe?) who i had a few conversations with when i first started (p sure he tried to give me the nickname "squat guy" cos he saw me doing them more than once) but now i just pretend i don't know him at all. i do remember he's divorced, he told me about that, as much as he could get away with. he loudly breathe-counts each rep, he sings along to the radio. basically the worst.

i was doing something with earshot (which is far) when he struck up a conversation with an east african guy at the water fountain. i think they were mostly shooting the shit about working out, how joe learned to lift, what the guy could do to get started, etc. joe introduces himself, HI I'M JOE. the guy says, "hi, i'm abdulkaldir" (iirc). ABDULKALDIR, DO I HAVE THAT RIGHT? "yes, yes." NICE TO MEET YOU.

then there's a beat and joe just says cheefully I HAVE A SOMALI GIRLFRIEND.

the other guy, super cool, just says "ahh, you could be my brother in law"

New employee at the gym started shouting words of encouragement while I was squatting. Argh. I'd like to take me own sweet time without someone going "c'mon! You got it!" at my back and stressing me out.
Then on the last rep he went in for a full spot. Dammit, dude, don't just do shit like that without warning me.
He mentioned he'd hang around and spot me, but after a bit of awkward conversation I got him to go help someone else. (I have safety bars, so I don't worry about failing a rep. And I absolutely hate it when people try to encourage me.)

Then I went to do Pendlay rows and farted on someone.
:/

awesome

had some annoying hypertension issues the last few days, which i remedied quickly by changing my diet

if anyone is taking note, i posted on the coffee thread that i'd been drinking lots of it. plus wanted to put a few more pounds so i figured hey a few weekends of eating junk won't hurt me. well i was wrong. that and i need to start running, probably a few miles every two weeks, just to keep my blood pressure at a healthy level. i've never had heart/blood pressure problems (or any health problems), as i've always been pretty fit, but i think weight lifting is pushing my body to its limits

just as a heads up --- hypertension isn't really all that related to "being fit"

like, you can run hell of marathons and deadlift three other deadlifters and it wont ~necessarily~ do shit to lower your BP

i'm sure for many people that is the case.

but there is also a handful of people where the causes of it were probably bad eating habits. luckily i have no serious health issues and this happened just as i was eating really poorly. but more importantly, i think it's a good indication that the symptoms have gone away as a result of changing my eating habits and the fact that i was eating poorly at times while running (up until a year ago) and nothing of this sort had happened.

i do understand for other people BP was caused by other things, though.

good reminder, nonetheless

HBP

hey squat guy

hey dude (:

lol

(sorry just had to) haha

There's a guy at my gym who twice now has come into the locker room when I'm the only other person there, ripped a loud fart while peeing, then walked out without washing his hands. The first time I thought it was rude and gross; by the second time I took it as a personal insult.

Is there a thread somewhere for bad locker room behavior?

oh man, I've seen some things. By far the funniest is the large, naked old guy who airs down his genitals using the hand driers

super-hairy 30s-ish dude was doing the hair dryer nutfluff last night. weirds me out but i'm not super hairy so what do i know i guess.

eeep! someone should reverse the wiring on that thing just for a laugh

i started this thread because i love being sw0le but i struggle so much with consistency. i got the flu a few weeks ago, after i had been going to the gym regularly for a couple weeks (this now qualifies as an accomplishment). so today again after i dig out my car i am going to start my cycle of *go to gym --> get too sore to move for a few days --> go regularly for 2 weeks --> get too tired/busy from work & commuting to keep going --> stop --> repeat from *

Haven't been to the gym in over a week now thanks to the cold. Should've been doing at least yoga or something, but apparently if rather atrophy.

just did some pull ups and planks in the park post run, sw0le

I reduced my gym days from 4 to 3 a week because of an AC joint shoulder injury, which doesn't sound like a bit drop but definitely is. I've been back up to 4 days for the last few weeks and it's crazy how much of a difference that extra day makes. I feel so much better when I can make that fourth day—it's the difference between feeling like a stick figure and a normal guy.

It's just so hard to find 4 days worth of exercises that keep me engaged though, especially since so much (including planks and pushups) is off limits to me.

Worked out too hard and too fast today and now I am all shakey :/

i sympathize harbl, i've never been consistent past 8-9 weeks top. i'm back on after two weeks of being a slug. it takes so much energy to start. then i get sw0le for a few weeks, feel kinda weird and high, spring in my step, etc. then the tedium / tiredness / distaste for the gym settles in. then i crawl in my hole and eat safety blanket food for x weeks until i snap out of it. not sure how to break it really.

i didn't even go on sunday. i'm gonna go tomorrow afternoon though bc i gotta do something for work closer to home so i'll get home earlier. i'll just stop going in two weeks though!

Have you guys tried mixing it up? I'm a part time member of a couple different gyms (each with different equipment and things to do to keep it interesting), and I used to take whatever side classes I could find for cheap on Groupon: yoga, kickboxing, Crossfit, etc. Variety is everything.

fuck man i got the "surprise spotter" yesterday. it totally wigged me out, headphones on, just racking the weights from a squat and suddenly the right side of the bar weighs nothing, i look over and there's muscle dude #6, fingerless gloves gently levering the end of the bar onto the rack. i literally said "WHOA WHOA WHOA" and he's smiling at me, and i say "you just scared the shit out of me" and he was like "looked like you could use some help!" and i faked an "aight bro!" response but jesus frito christ. i mean fair enough if he thought i was going to drop the weight. i am lifting heavy and the last rep gets tough so maybe it looks that way to someone else? but.... it seems really unsafe to fuck with that much weight on somebody else's back??

i think i'm back on the wagon now. i'm eating bread AND pasta for dinner.

just call it "carbo loading"

now u have to run a marathon today sorry

single sided spotter bro sounds like a nightmare, i would have probably told him off.

yesterday the grunters were out in full force. i'm supposed to run tonight but atm i just want to fuck off, and that is ok.

xp never ever touch one side of someone's loaded be-backed bar imo that is like p basic. otoh once someone scolded me for unracking 70 lbs off one side of a racked bar first which i definitely rolled my internal eyes at a little.

i suppose i should look it up, but by nature there has to be an exact amount of weight that, if left on one side of a standard bar on a standard rack, will cause it to tip. but it's heavier than 90 lbs, i know that! i've left two 45s on one side and it won't move. maybe it's a bad habit; i suppose if someone bumped into the empty end it could bounce badly, idk

i once had a dude ask me to help him unrack a bar with 45s on either side from a bench. i asked him, "are you putting this on the floor?" and he said, no, i'm taking the weights off. and i must have looked at him kind of funny cos he said, won't it flip? and i said something like, "i promise it won't." lo and behold... i helped him anyway.

i think some people might be used to the old american (not olympic) style sets with a lighter bar and the screw pin clips? those were pretty tippy unless perfectly balanced. i knocked one off a friend's bench in his house when we were trying to sneak out at like 2am once, lol just remembered that

aand the answer appears to be

http://fitness.stackexchange.com/questions/18105/what-weight-difference-will-tip-an-olympic-bar-on-a-rack

3 plates!

plates of 3, a fool are ye

i knocked one off a friend's bench in his house when we were trying to sneak out at like 2am once, lol just remembered that

― goole, Monday, March 9, 2015 5:12 PM (16 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol

Actually I think just about anything greater than 90 lbs will tip it (and probably even some combos less than 90 lbs where you are moving the distribution of weight too far to one side).

yeah you're right. 2 plates + anything is dangerous

Obv it depends on the bar & the width of the rack it's on. Maybe the guy has had a bad experience with unloading an ez-curl bar or something and wasn't aware of the difference. Those things will tip pretty easily, as I found out once when I was scrounging for leftover plates from the rerack-fearing jerkbros.

I've not been the gym in a week, and now I'm starting to dread the next session. The running season is upon me and it's just so much fun right now. Goodbye gainz ;_;

I'm also having trouble keeping up momentum. I'll go to the gym two or three times in as many days and feel good about it, but then my shoulder will ache and I'll take a few days off to rest it. By the time I return I'm not excited to be back. This same basic cycle plays out every week or two... short periods of feeling it, followed by trying lulls.

don't go two days in a row imo

Ideally I'd just go every other day, but my schedule doesn't really allow that, so I gotta go when I'm free. Also I feel like I see much better results when I go a few days in a row... two days on, two days off somehow seems more effective than one on, one off

a cycle of chest/back, legs, and bis/tris/shoulders is alright if you wanna go daily

i am lifting for the first time in nearly 2 years next week

i am having 1-on-1 form training for a couple of sessions too

looking forward to welcoming back my enormous arse

i've been going to a nicer Y near my office in the burbs while my neighborhood Y is under renovation

i've had my first piece of unsolicited advice. it wasn't totally bad advice but still. i was polite about it.

i've noticed that lifting is a little easier with the nicer equipment at this place? i thought it was purely psychological. but now i think it's because the plates are uniform and have a smaller hole so they fit the bar more closely. there's way less bouncing at rattling when unracking, and at the bottom of a squat or overhead. and for stuff coming off the floor you don't have that 1/2 inch gap to jerk though.

also there's a guy with pretty intense demeanor, does a lot of upper body isolation work, who's been there every time i have. he's a dead ringer for PUA kingpin "r00sh" and i've already decided i hate him.

past few weeks i have discovered the power of the rest pause and i am nvr going back

you mean between reps?

hating people at the gym is the best thing

Loving them is recommended.

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