thread of getting sw0le

the routine I have worked out is 8 different exercises each day, 3 sets of 10, with 45 sec in between each set.

Impressive. This is a super disciplined routine; I don't have the discipline to time my rests. And nobody's gonna think twice about somebody catching their breath for 45 seconds. I see people get lost on their phone for minutes all the time

That's good to know. I'm still feeling it out and figuring how much weight I need to be doing for each exercise but "challenging to complete the set" is a great place to work from and will prob make the 45-60 second rest feel less awk and more necessary

Yeah basically you need to find a sweet spot in between easy to finish and can't finish, keeping in mind that doing a circuit of that many different exercises requires some energy conservation.

I see people get lost on their phone for minutes all the time

― Evan R, Monday, March 21, 2016 11:19 AM (53 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I do some serious annoyed hovering when this happens

45-60 doesn't feel weird to me, but 3-4 minutes sure can. That was what ultimately killed my one attempt at strict Starting Strength in a big chain gym. Even when it wasn't interfering with anyone, I felt like a tool.

Yeah, I generally abhor the gym pecking order—where the biggest, pushiest guy gets to butt in and use any machine he wants when he wants—but I'm all for machine hogs being hovered over if they aren't actually using the machine.

45-60 doesn't feel weird to me, but 3-4 minutes sure can. That was what ultimately killed my one attempt at strict Starting Strength in a big chain gym. Even when it wasn't interfering with anyone, I felt like a tool.

― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Monday, March 21, 2016 11:48 AM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah i def felt self-conscious about the SS-prescribed "wait forever between sets". that said, my gym has a lot of squat racks/bars/etc so unless there's a crossfit class going on, i'm not likely to be bothering anyone

idk nobody in my gym ever does anything in a timely fashion, a lot of people refuse to break their shit down when they're done so you can't really tell, and a certain number of dudes will hog two stations doing some kind of circuit thing

i don't have a problem pacing around for 2-3 mins between sets.

crowded gyms are the worst

i love the circuit dudes, like 'i'm gonna use every device in the place for the next 20-25 minutes that ok?' no that's not ok

245 x 5 on my deadlift today for the first time.

it's up there with curls in the squat rack yeah

the type that really set off my manias are the guys that, when you ask if they're done with equipment they've wandered away from, give you some vague answer like, maybe i was gonna go do some more, but it's ok. oh you didn't have a STRICT PLAN for yourself when you walked in here fucker???

xp nice

btw do you guys keep logs/journals or

that's exactly where i'm at too, man alive :D

i could maybe go more but honestly it's my grip failing at this point

Yes it's called ilx

Trace same true for me, in fact it's mostly hand pain. I wonder if I should do it more than 1x per week to build up better callouses.

i have a spreadsheet. it doesn't go back further than a month (i just cycle back to the beginning after 4 wks). it's really just to compute my warmup amounts, keep track of last workout and next workout.

xp uh oh, have you watched some videos on grip placement? you shdn't be getting very serious callus

245 x 5 on my deadlift today for the first time.

― human life won't become a cat (man alive), Monday, March 21, 2016 12:12 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

that's where i was at in the fall! and then i stopped lifting :(

also felt like i was getting limited by grip strength

Hmm. Good tip, will look into that

no pain in hands for me just literally bar slipping a bit on the last pull. just need to sw0le out a little more obv

Can also now do lol 3 proper pull-ups. My weight is up to 188 though which must mean something to that.

hey is this calf machine gon fuck my knees up? i did 60lbs on it and my knees feel a lil weird/sore and that seems not good

http://ak1.ostkcdn.com/images/products/L11076244.jpg

it's not gonna fuck your knees up if it's properly positioned but there are def better things you could do with your gym time

I don't think I've ever seen a machine like that tbh. All I can think is that it might hurt your knees if you're pushing off your toes (like a squat or leg press will feel funny hurt) and you should be pushing with your heel?

You're supposed to push off your toes. Not sure why it would hurt knees other than from pressing directly into them -- are you positioning the pads right on your knees instead of slightly above on your thighs?

Agree though that it's not the most useful machine in the gym.

xxp don't listen to these dudes, calf machines are kewl. don't push with your heels, push from the balls of your feet. make sure your feet are going down past parallel. concentate on your calf muscles flexing. keep your back straight. breathe deep. do more reps like 12-20. you'll be sporting hot canteloupes below your cut-off jorts in no time. god be with you on your journey to bigger calves.

Where can I find one of those rowing machines Kevin Spacey uses in House of Cards? None of the gyms I've gone to have had anything like that

http://www.waterrower.com/

I've never seen one in a gym.

http://www.instyle.com/news/found-it-frank-underwoods-rowing-machine-house-cards

i've used them in gyms... less consistent than the good old Concept 2 but the sloshing sound is really nice and if i could get a rower for home use and wasn't super-obsessed with comparing my performance to other people around the world that's probably what i would get, just for the sloshing

xp I'm putting it on my thighs instead of right above the knee and yeah I am pushing w the ball of my foot. I'm thinking of just adjusting my bike pedal stance too and riding more w the ball of my foot instead of my arch or heel

yeah you prob don't need to do that thing if you ride a bike, or even if you don't

ime far more likely to experience injury to feet than knees w/ any calf machines

what harbl said

that machine is a good example of what I was talking about upthread ... it can help you get big calves, but the motion it trains you to perform has zero transference to anything you'd do with your body in the real world

looks like some shit Ivan Drago trained on in rock IV

i'm trying to come back from a hip flexor strain atm. Going to squat tonight for the first time in a few weeks.

that machine is a good example of what I was talking about upthread ... it can help you get big calves, but the motion it trains you to perform has zero transference to anything you'd do with your body in the real world

― Brad C., Tuesday, March 22, 2016 10:55 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

what about pranking the meeting by making the conference table "levitate"?

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UfHAAb-aip0/VYs_jSGFdYI/AAAAAAAAEvg/uIxpKflFZOQ/s640/Professor-X.png

I can't get my lower back to not round at the bottom of a squat. Even low weight.

I cut 65 pounds off my squat to focus on my form, because I noticed rounding my back and rocking forward. A few weeks of lower weight, and I'm working my way back up to where I was.

I've managed to net lose around 40 pounds in the last 10 months, and likely more like 60 pounds of fat, because I've put on a bunch muscle - especially in my legs. The last month or so has been been really tough to keep up any consistent gains, as work and life have gotten in the way, but I'm pretty much where I was two months ago.

Really want to get make some gains on squats and deadlifts. Any thoughts?

xp - flexibility issue, maybe? I think that's related to the hip flexors.

could be tight hamstrings, trying to go too far below parallel, or not holding your breath in to stabilize your ~core~

Xxp start mixing up weights and reps and/or start working on squat/DL variations.

good advice from previous posters

the only other thing i can think of is maybe your legs are too close to each other? feet should point to same the direction your knees are pointing to

reduce weights until you can comfortably do a set and be conscious of your form/posture/breathing as you add weights bit by bit

I can't even do a bar squat without my lower back rounding a little, so I don't think it's only the weight. I don't feel my back caving from the weight, it just naturally goes into that rounding when I get low enough. I don't think it's only the weight, I think I have some real flexibility problems or else it's just the way I'm built -- short legs compared to torso, short calf muscles (tend to toe walk), etc.

don't bar squat then

just squat using your body weight til you figure out the issue

work on lower ab exercises using your body weight maybe? would you say you have strong legs and abs? (the main muscle groups squats hit) if not, you can work on strengthening those muscle groups first -- olympic barbell weights ~44lbs, regular barbell i think is around half of that?

if hip mobility is an issue, try yoga moves that reduce tension and that allow for better hip reflexor mobility (eg google yoga poses hip reflexor)

I don't think leg strength is an issue -- I do weighted lunges with two 50lb kettlebells, I do front squats with a 100lb dumbbell, etc. I also don't think ab strength is, e.g. I have no problem deadlifting with good form, and a lot of that is leg and ab strength. Hip mobility definitely may be an issue, and possibly hamstring flexibility and even shoulder mobility -- I have persistent tightness behind my shoulder blade and I feel like that interferes with me getting my spine right. Again it's not like I feel my back curving from stress, it's more like it naturally curves when I'm in that position and I can't get it to do otherwise.

oh i see

yoga loosens you up, so maybe that might help?

other than that i'm out of ideas

Yeah thinking maybe yoga is the answer. Just have to find a way to work that in.

If I want to try an A/B split, is it possible to get in all of the following exercises, and if so, how would you split them:

Bench Press
Deadlift
Overhead Press
Squat
Pull-up