thread of getting sw0le

Eh, I guess it varies. Now that I think about it, I guess the exchange I'm actually used to it something like
-"Hey, do you have a lot of sets left?"
-"Yeah, I have four more, but you're free to work in, if you want."
-"Alright, thanks", or "Nah, that's ok, thanks"

But I live in Norway where even sw0lebros are introverted dorkos, so YMMV.

(euuuh, xp)

fucking Northern Europeans and their goddamn sense of decency and civility.

xp if you're in a gym for 45 minutes and you've already done bis/tris, chest/back, squats/sled and you just want to finish with chest fly or whatever and you're tired and done and riding what adrenaline you have left to finish up and get back to work, i totally get you might not want to go do some extra squats. i'm always happy to let anyone work in. when i was doing this. which has been awhile.

"Am I the only one here who would never in a million years ask somebody if I could "work in"? That seems like such a dick move, and the only people who do it at my gym are massive, hulking dudes who seem to be using their size to intimidate smaller guys off of machines"

People frequently camp out on squat racks and benches for 20-30 minutes. Not asking if you can "work in" is basically resigning yourself to not using those pieces of equipment.

Eh, I guess it varies. Now that I think about it, I guess the exchange I'm actually used to it something like
-"Hey, do you have a lot of sets left?"

This is a much more civil, less presumptuous exchange. "How many sets do you have left" implies "hey, I'm trying to plan the rest of my workout; should I camp out here or will it be a few minutes?" vs "lemme work in bro," which ime has always been code for "get the fuck off the machine, it's mine now."

i usually just say "are you gonna be forever, or...?" and totally just mad dog them until they move

Just ask them how long they're gonna be and work on one of the million other machines or do squats or something until they're done

The person you're booting from the machine that they patiently waited for is probably on a specific program, too. Why is your specific program more important than theirs?

Anyway, I recognize I'm in the minority on this one. Established gym etiquette is that you allow somebody to work in, so I always do. But that system is shitty and unfair, since it promotes a pecking order where the biggest, rudest, most intimidating guys get free run of whatever machine they want. You almost never see a smaller guy or a newcomer at the gym "work in." It's always a power play whenever anybody asks.

seems to me you're a lot higher on the aggro scale than any of these intimidating guys

maybe with a 'passive' thrown in there too

anyway, whatever, if that's your experience i'm sorry, that sucks. i rarely ask to work in, only when it makes sense based on what someone's doing / relative ease etc.

passgro

one thing that is always ok to ask to work in on is the pull-up bar imo

I never asked to work in, ftr, when I was lifting at a big gym but that's because I was doing Starting Strength-style lifting where you need 3-4 minutes between sets to recover fully. You can't just say "go do something else" if someone's only doing certain compound lifts or machines or w/e.If you think they should wait, fine, but not everyone has time to do that.

Also a big difference on machines vs freeweights - on most machines you change a pin so who's terribly inconvenienced by trading off?

"The person you're booting from the machine that they patiently waited for is probably on a specific program, too. Why is your specific program more important than theirs?"

You aren't booting anyone. You are staggering your workouts so you work while they rest and vice-versa.

But I live in Norway where even sw0lebros are introverted dorkos, so YMMV.

ime usa swolebros most definitely == introverted dorkos

Anyway, I recognize I'm in the minority on this one. Established gym etiquette is that you allow somebody to work in, so I always do. But that system is shitty and unfair, since it promotes a pecking order where the biggest, rudest, most intimidating guys get free run of whatever machine they want. You almost never see a smaller guy or a newcomer at the gym "work in." It's always a power play whenever anybody asks.

― Evan R, Monday, June 15, 2015 4:10 PM (34 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

hmm really?? as a not that big guy i successfully lodge work in requests all the time!

tiny, hot little pain in lower left abdomen when doing a deadlift today. i stopped immediately :(

oh no!

prob a strained muscle but that shit always makes me hella nervous about hernias; give it a week and see if it passes? then see a doctor if it doesn't? and take a rest week in any case.

yeah it went away after 1-2 minutes and i haven't felt it since. going to give everything a break until monday.

but yeah i was fucking petrified

On the squat rack, I always offer to let men and women work in when I see that they are waiting. I mostly see the same people at the gym, so most of them know I am super generous with the rack and share when they see me.

On bench, I'll offer if they ask how much longer I have and it's a while, but there are a few benches at my gym and most bros tend to do their bench routines quickly with no warm-ups. Pull-up bars is a no-brainer. I've made some "friends" at the gym due to working in. I've been refused a few times when I asked, but that's OK. FWIW I am a really unintimidating thin older guy, so hardly some hulking gymbro intimidating people out of the squat rack.

there's a guy named mickey who likes to unload, with some note of hope, about all his medical issues. first time i talked to him he said he'd had kidney and liver transplants. don't drink or do drugs, was the message there. he asked me if i knew what kept him young, so i mimed doing curls (he does a lot of curls) and he said, yup.

yesterday i was getting set up and he was the only other guy there so i said hi and we small-talked about the weather. i said it was going to stay nice all the way through the 4th. he said something like "yeah, and the 3rd, too, i always think about the 3rd. you know, july 3rd, that's the day i got hit by that jet ski."

he told me the story; i couldn't really make sense of it. the conversation moved to the medical system generally, and he testified that the new Hep-C drug works really well. "i was on it before it was out, experimental. it works like magic. it just went through me like pac-man, eating it all up, mowmowmowmowmowmow"

"yeah, and the 3rd, too, i always think about the 3rd. you know, july 3rd, that's the day i got hit by that jet ski."

lmaooo

i rowed my bodyweight ffs. 5x3!

the last few were a little raggedy i must admit

damn you must have arms & back like tree trunk

arms and back like a tree

my arms don't look like anything special and my DL isn't great either! idk you just get your hips and back locked and hoik it up there.

Hey so I have a potential medical issue and I'm kind of freaking out about it, could anyone here offer any advice?

Some background first - I am totally not about getting sw0le, I only recently started attending the gym regularly, going 4 or 5 times a week for about 7 or 8 weeks so consecutively. Definitely not doing anything overwhelmingly strenuous, usually maybe half an hour of not-very-strenuous cardio and a couple of muscle groups using Nautilus machines (never free-weights bcuz I am a pussy).

Anyway, I recently took a break from the gym for 9/10 days, only starting again this week. I went on Monday and then again yesterday, not really overdoing it at all on either occasion. But yesterday evening I also went for a long walk with a friend of mine around town, walking for maybe 3 hours in total, lots of going up and down stairs and hills, and tbh it was pretty strenuous, I was exhausted when I got home. I should also note that I didn't eat much yesterday due to timing issues but I did drink quite a lot of water.

SO - this morning I woke up and all the muscles in the upper-half of my body had completely seized up, worst after-gym soreness I'd ever experienced. I got up and went for a piss and passed dark brown urine. Googled it, read a bit about Rhabdomyolysis and thoroughly freaked myself out. Thing is, the muscle pain subsided very soon after I went to the toilet and now they're barely twinging. Aside from being pretty nervous I actually feel fine.

Basically all the information I can find about this shit is pretty alarming, but I just wanted to see if anyone here had any insight or experience here.

I should note that if I was home I would have just taken myself off to the doctor straight away, but I'm living abroad at the moment and my language isn't anywhere near up to the level to deal with doctors trying to explain shit to me.

i think you need to go to a doctor regardless!

i doubt it has anything to do with light exercise and walking but who knows.

yeah if youre that concerned just go to the doctor they will prob speak english anyway

Go to a doctor. Doubt it is workout related but passing weird urine seems worth getting checked.

there was an exceptionally huge muscleman in my gym yesterday wldve figured hed go to a special muscleman gym but no

weights is weights bro

tracer otm x2

disagree

belt update: i have a belt. whether it's the belt or the confidence that comes with it i've instantly added 2.5 kgs my squat and am reeeeeally close to my goal of 100kg. not sure what i'll do after that tbh cause my genetics do not dictate much more

go to the doctor

I have bursitis in my elbow! It is not super-painful, more kinda uncomfortable and annoying (can't rest my elbow on things like BARS--and I don't mean the swole-getting kind--or a car armrest). It's been this way for a couple of weeks with no change, and I was thinking about "go to the doctor" for it, but then a friend related his experience having a greasy sports medicine dude stick a needle in it, which hurt like bloody hell, only to draw out a few drops of fluid. Much pain, no gain. It took a year for it to go away!

Am I going to have ugly popeye elbow for a whole year???

so i want to shape up a bit (tho i don't really want to be too sw0le, just a bit less sw0le in the wrong way) - i've been working a lot and doing a play and had no time for exercise. now i have time again but i want to do something that's efficient. there are tons of things on google that suggest fairly heavy high intensity stuff over short periods can be really good for this. i have a kettle bell which i've used before. i used to go running a bit. is a combo of these a good way to go?

any simple basic advice i can use? dietary stuff might be useful too. i'm not looking for a miracle quickfix or whatever, more like a set of routines that will be efficient and that i can incorporate into my life.

my honest advice: do whatever you like to do and do it a lot.

I think you have to make certain concessions to reality when you're not a professional athlete/bodybuilder. mine is that i dont like long runs and i dont like working out for more than 45 mins. so i tend to do high intensity lifting and focus on compound exercises (ie, i will never do curls, etc.).

running, kettlebell, and maybe pullups strikes me as a pretty balanced workout though.

I'm only just easing back into the idea of going gym regularly (3 or more times a week). I'd say get a program worked out with one of the trainers there or just try a bunch of machines and freeweights etc and see what works. More recently I've been trying to do more things I'm not very good at (running machine, shoulder press) and finding after a few goes I'm not so bad at it.

i've never used a gym - in the past when i was fitter i would just run and do kettle bell myself - i've toyed with the idea of talking to a trainer but mainly i feel like a gym would be just another place of tedium with irritating interpersonal interactions, like the supermarket or the post office or something. like as opposed to the feeling of freedom from running in the park or whatever.

it's not for everyone. i try to avoid any sort of human contact in the gym and manage it okay. in fact i find it's quite a good place to gather thoughts and contemplate. it's probably been as good for inspiration and mental health as it has for my fitness and physique so far.

ah fitness is amazing for mental health, that's the other reason i want to go back. though i find if i am exercising too much i lose any ability to do anything creative - #chronicillness

if you actually own a kettlebell you could do

- goblet squats
- kettlebell deadlift

and find a park with basic bars where you can do

- (weighted) pullups
- (weighted) dips

and run or whatever for however long you want

intervals are better than long steady runs, right? i always heard this but tended to do a nice plodding run of 5-10k two or three times a week

also diet is p important? last time i toned up a good bit, i am sure that the biggest reason was eating less refined carb/sugar.

cut-out sugar and white bread etc and you'll notice the difference in less than a week ime