thread of getting sw0le

holidays such a pain imo. good luck.

yes totaly! i have been eating like complete crap but at least have managed to keep my lifting routine somewhat intact.

While I'm not mattresslessness level big yet, my deadlift is up to 215 for sets of 5 today, felt pretty good about that. It's still mainly my grip and soft hands holding me back from lifting more. My squats are at 155 for sets of 10. My bench has not really been progressing as much as I hoped but I think I need to change where chest day is in my cycle because I usually do it following back day and probably some of my arm muscles are tired.

mattresslessness those numbers are wild

my big problem has always been low back & hamstring flexibility. no real idea how to improve that other than "stretch moar"

im at abt mattressesless numbers except i dont really bench press big will it give me boobs

Every time I'm at the gym there is this gang of tall handsome ridiculously jacked british dudes working out together, probably all from the same British investment bank or something. I resent the shit out of them but I use the resentment to motivate me to push myself.

goole u shd do yoga its so good, feel like its such a perfect compliment to lifting, like it works yr whole body activates all the little muscles u r habituated to never using improves flexibility then u can go lift heavy things, ive been doing a yoga class then lifting after

i'm sure your right, time is a problem tho :(

*you're

yeah its a lot def does yr gym have classes tho cause might be worth a shot

also one of the teachers at my gym plays the flute during the end of class chill out sesh which is p tite

that actually sounds p awful

wow feel like just breathe out all yr negativity maybe

considering venturing into yoga bcz i was hanging out a few nights ago with a queer hippie yoga instructor and damn, his hips were otherworldly.

haha

I am not aiming for sw0leness, just trying to claw my way back from a hystericalrectomy. Turns out that losing an organ and moving very little for three weeks is an extremely effective path to anti-sw0leness.

I never thought I would be a workout-at-home-with-video person, but I'm liking Fitness Blender. Not doing very much beyond gentle stretching, mind you, but I plan to up my game when I can.

good stretching to you, quinc!

yeah and congrats on your successful loss of organ, we are here for you :D

seconding yoga. i did classes for a long time but after getting burned out on the culty personality of one instructor i just do some basics in the a.m. when i can.

Thanks dudes (and harbl, and any other sw0le chixors I am missing).

I scored a perfectly clean pathology report, so I'm all good. Except that I just checked my FitBit and it informs me that I have taken a grand total of 683 steps today ahahahah.

For a while this non-activity was balanced with having zero appetite and subsisting mainly on lol bone broth, but I'm recently back to doing my usual eat-like-a-horse thing, so I'll need to be getting on the swooooooooooole traaaaaaaaaaaaaaain pretty soon.

i gained a couple pounds and going nuts deciding if it's muscles or fat???? like it's typical for me and everyone to fluctuate but i am above the normal threshold. oh well.

also telephone thing you are gonna struggle doing starting strength on a very low carb diet. like i cannot keep up with heavy lifting if i don't eat enough carbs. trying to bench press on too little food is ime like trying to drop a barbell on my face. sorry friend.

carbs are good 4 u

yeah dude don't do ketogenic diet, it is stupid and gives you horrible breath!!! Also why do something unsustainable I mean sorry but don't do that.

And ya'll may beat me with your squats and deadlifts and such, but I swear to god I can out Kegel all of you.

Dudes should do Kegels to fyi

one time we did the biggest loser at work and i came in 5th by just eating chili all the time. i mean i lost like 2 lbs.

I'm not going straight into it, for one thing; if nothing else, I have plenty of carb-heavy foods that I'm not throwing away. But I've done a less rigorous low-carb diet before (around 50g a day, though admittedly while just doing machines, not compound lifts) and it worked really well for me. I'm thinking I might taper carb consumption down over the course of a month, or after however long it takes for me to feel OK with the program. And of course if I'm struggling, I'll step back and reassess what I'm doing- I'm willing to put up with a lot of unpleasantness, but I'm not going to get myself hurt.

And if nothing else I'll have a fun story about that month where I stirred bacon fat into my coffee and my piss smelled like ammonia, so hey, win win right

right

:D

Also why do something unsustainable I mean sorry but don't do that.

― mom tossed in kimchee (quincie), Tuesday, December 1, 2015 6:53 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

not trying to tell anyone how to lead their lives but i def try to live by this dictum

is anyone still eating sardines or should I revive the nutrition nazi thread

sardines are always the greatest, i have even been turned on to big ass fresh sardines you can put on the grill

I am about to travel to the Land of the Canned Sardines and wonder if I should give it a go again after my failed attempt back however many years ago it was when ILX was obsessed with them

i love sardines but i also just got a $14 handmixer when i learned on the web that you can shred chicken with it bc i love shredded chicken hate shredding

i have even been turned on to big ass fresh sardines you can put on the grill

― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, December 1, 2015 8:24 PM (52 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

hell yes that spainish life

are those pretty cheap? i've never seen them around though

OK so earlier this week I did this little mini physical fitness test thingie (except for the timed mile run part) as sort of a baseline for where I am four weeks after the aforementioned hystericalectomy. My stats look something like:

squats (unweighted, to fail): yeah whatever I can do some of the

static plank (on toes and elbows--I dunno what is considered a "full" plan, maybe straight arms, like top of a push-up): sure uh huh I can hold this for over a minute whatevs fine

seated sit and reach: blah blah blah I can get past my toes yeah me where's my flexibility award

push-up: WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK?

Dudes (and harbl), I cannot do even a single full pushup, and struggled to do like SEVEN half (knees down) pushups. This seems way weirdly weak compared to what I was able to do on the other tests. What is up with that? Am I doing pushups wrong? It seems weird that I have a decent static plank/squat time but can't get my damn torso (never mind legs) off the ground in a pushup?

Anyhow, it kinda cracked me up that I can't even do ten knees-down pushups. Nowhere to go but up, I guess.

Is there some way to blame the physics of being tall for this. Like a lever arm formula or something

thats why u take the test i guess lol, we are all unbalanced in some way, feel like balance is a good goal in fitness

Just keep doing the knee pushups and building up your number and every so often try to do one full pushup. You'll get there. There was a time when I couldn't do a single proper pullup, which is pretty poor for a guy. Then I built myself up to 5. Then I both gained weight and stopped working out regularly and I was back down to a couple. Now I think I can probably do 5 again but haven't tried in a while.

When it comes to fitness, you're only competing against yourself, so you only have your own numbers to improve on, IMO.

some nba teams have had great results preventing injury via testing and training for balance btw

Meanwhile pushups have never been a problem for me at all, probably in part because they're easy to do at home/in the office/etc so I was always randomly doing them even when I wasn't doing full workouts.

yeah i think the progress will be swift! (ish!)

it only took me a few months to go from not being able to do a single dip (similar muscles to a pushup) to doing a ton of them, with weight

Plank and push-ups aren't all that related even though they feel similar - the plank is about keeping your core (abs/lower back) stable, push-ups are about chest strength and IIRC your biceps and triceps to a lesser extent.

Proper push up position (elbows in tight to the body, not flailing out to the side) is important. All you can do beyond that is a lot of push-ups in easier configuration - some people say don't do knees, find an angled surface and do them on that because you'll learn to keep your body in good form, progressing in difficulty (for instance start on a countertop, then a table then a coffee table, etc.)

thanking u sw0le ppl. I just watched some videos and I think I need to tweak my form on the half pushup. I was being obsessive about straight line from neck to knees, but I think I may need to bring my butt up just a tad to get my arms lined up in the right place--otherwise the angles just don't seem to work at all.

Been thinking about ways I might change up my workouts a bit, any suggestions? This is what I'm doing right now (with slight variations), usually 3 sets of 8-10 reps. Been on some version of this program for like 5 months.

I do a chest day a leg day and a back day each week and try to follow the weights with some abs and/or cardio.

CHEST DAY:
Bench Press (or Incline Bench Press)
Dips (bodyweight)
Cable Crossover
Alternating Incline Dumbbell Press

LEG DAY:
High Back Squats
Kettlebell Lunges (I do the kind where you maintain the lunge foot position and lower and raise rather than moving your feet)
Some third exercise -- often the "supersquat" machine in front squat position
Calf raises

BACK DAY:
Deadlifts
Pulldowns or assisted pullups
Cable Rows
A modified delt raise that I came up with -- basically you post yourself on one of those incline things you normally use to do lower back exercises and do delt raises at an angle -- seems to work both lower back and delts

OH WAIT important consideration in my push-up challenges: BOOBS. I have some. Two, actually. They are not small. They weigh something. More than the jettisoned uterus for sure. Extra weight to push up!

Try just doing bodyweight pushups and add the boobs back in when you get your form down.

firing u as personal trainer