thread of getting sw0le

i don't really music because where do you put your phone? in some kind of belt or sleeve thing?

anyway i've been doing great the past 5 weeks. i made myself commit to going twice a week, which means leaving early from work one afternoon. i usually work on sundays so i make up for it. i do dumbbell bench press now and i'm getting so good at it. takes away the stress of getting mad at the dude who hogs the one bench for barbell bench press. also sleeping more and drinking less wine. i'm strong now. but only because my workload suddenly declined. when it goes back up to where it was i don't know.

your gym only has one bench?

oh nm you mean only one bench with a rack for bench press

yeah it has other benches with no racks but it has one flat bench w/ rack, 1 incline and 1 decline. i'd rather just have 3 flat benches.

I used to try to listen to hard and fast music doing cardio but it seems to just make the time feel longer so now I don't really listen to music doing that. Weights in the gym, no music because it always felt funny to have headphones + where does the phone go issue.

Lifting at home now I have a Bluetooth speaker and it's almost always golden age rap. Death Certificate is pretty much ideal.

weirdly content-free article

http://www.vice.com/read/the-incredible-falsehood-of-the-muscle-man

thanks, vice

ugh i hate that shit

i have one of those armbands, it took me a long time to find one i could use. it's weird how many of them suck.

i mean that article, however "real" your workout routine is, it's always going to be highly artificial, you know? your goal is always fabricated to a degree. there is no authentic fitness absolute zero and the masculinity olympics is a lie and the fitness model strawman/woman is so convenient to that bullshit. just keep trying new shit and be joyful in your body imo :) :)

Pretty lol at that guy's "beastly brawn" or whatever they said - he looks like a young guy who works out to get laid. Who confuses that with being an athletic demigod?

Very few people work out in a way that is conducive either to pure "non-functional" bodybuilding or to serious "fitness" so this just kind of feels like a way for insecure people to make themselves feel better about not looking like the muscle guys. That said, I definitely find that the results I get from focusing on strength show more in my posture and the way I feel and carry myself than in muscle definition, which has improved but relatively modestly.

I mean I look better but it's almost more like I'm shaped differently than I actually look "ripped".

i switched gyms to the new fitness center at the university where i work and it's crazy how different the vibe is, lots of "real athletes" and frat boys, much younger median age obviously, less barely-there shirts and side-pec, more uh team wear i guess. some guy was squatting 315 for sets of 4? 5? today then doing lots of power stuff, like deadlifts with a jump. it motivated me to try some box jumps for the first time in forever. that was a sorry sight but i deeed it.

just keep trying new shit and be joyful in your body imo :) :)

otm

sports themselves are contrived, as is "fitness," given that very few of us do hard physical labor, hunt with spears, run from predators, etc.

someone should invent a true paleo sport that combines steer roping, lumberjack skills, strongman and endurance dancing

Grappling (wrestling, judo, Brazilian jiu-jitsu) really seems to be the ideal sport on the fitness front - you combine long aerobic practice with short bursts of all-out energy usage, you develop a great deal of strength and if you combine it with a good stretching routine/yoga a lot of flexibility.

It's also high-risk for injury and very time intensive.

and i would have to hang out with other grapplers

Grappling is great for fitness. Striking arts and sports are also great. Doing both grappling and striking is even better.

Injury risk depends a lot on what kind of activity you are doing, the coaching and instruction you're receiving, and how invested you are in competition. People tend to age out of MMA pretty young because of accumulated injuries and slower healing times. Traditional martial arts can be different -- there are plenty of karate, judo, and aikido lifers who stay active into their 70s and beyond. Talk about time intensive.

someone should invent a true paleo sport that combines steer roping, lumberjack skills, strongman and endurance dancing

― goole, Wednesday, May 18, 2016 11:13 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

steer roping is agricultural man! That's not paleo!

Replace with chasing bison off cliffs

One of the big paleo guys was on TV a couple of years ago doing paleo hunting where you chase a deer until it dies of exhaustion.

loooooooooool

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlT7kEXXaZk

I think this was it but it's not what I thought, they used weapons.

http://www.runnersworld.com/general-interest/watch-new-film-inspired-by-born-to-run-debuts-online

this is probably the other half of my memory - persistence hunting but no paleo guru

latter doc is on Netflix

christ, these people are psychotic.

i'm basically approximating a paleo diet but i refuse to call it that. "i'm on a low-carb diet / bread doesn't agree with me."

anyone have any good tips/vids about how to know your limit/avoid failure when bench pressing alone? I mean I'm never literally alone because I'm in a gym with people around and could call for a spot, but I'm still perhaps unreasonably afraid of failure, and as a result I don't think I'm pushing myself quite as hard as I should. But I kind of don't feel like I know how to tell when I'm walking the line.

I have no idea how to responsibly spot someone, so maybe ask someone nearby to be your buddy first, and make sure you know they're versed in lifting? I use some free weights but if I was nearby and tried spotting you I would likely accidentally drop it on your windpipe :(

this is really where having a few personal trainer sessions would be very useful

If you're not lifting a ton of weight, you can fail safely by yourself - look up the "roll of shame." Basically you lower it to your chest and roll it toward your legs until you can do a situp and roll it onto the floor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEUvI8Q6JDk

i've done that before. drag a flat bench into the rack and set the bars above your nose? smith machine bench? heavy db press? otherwise just ask those fucks to spot you. i've never asked for a spot and gotten anything but enthusiasm or at worst a grunt and nod. they're into it. good way to get into the gym crew and always helps to have some stranger shouting at you to keep the bar moving upwards.

i see tons of ppl do presses in the rack. i do the roll of shame, i wonder if there's a wriggle of shame where you're trying to do a pullover but you're at failure and so you're arms just stay down behind you and then your legs rise and you look like a baby getting it's diaper changed cuz i've done that too. i wonder how much of a difference there is really between doing presses w/ dumbbells vs barbells.

i'm switching to heavy db benches for a while because i have run into that same problem, plus lingering fear of lower back strain.

one rule of thumb i've read on an equivalence between barbell and dumbbell bench is: subtract the bar, and the remainder should feel about the same.

I saw a big difference in results when I started doing bar bench press and not just dumbbells, and it was apparent in how much more I could dumbbell press when I tried it after a few months of bar pressing. I'm not sure why -- maybe because with dumbbell press you have to focus more of your energy on just stabilizing the weights and can't focus it all into pressing?

maybe cos u got stronger man who knows!!

I know, just saying that I got stronger a lot faster in a few months of bench pressing then in doing dumbbell presses for much longer.

interesting

I feel like a dumbass because I've been having upper back pain on the reg that disappears with cracking and foam rolling, was on the verge of buying some of those crazy devices like the table/chair where you hang upside down and shit. (tbh I might find one on Craigslist anyway, that just looks fun if I can get it for $25)

Then I remembered that when I had shoulder/deltoid/bicep pain I fixed it doing one arm doorway stretches for my chest... tried them with both arms (elbows parallel to shoulders, forearms vertical on door frame, push in). Hurt like hell doing it for 60 seconds a few times a day for the last couple of days but I haven't had to crack my back at all. Should have thought harder about this weeks ago.

Have worked my way past the last sticking point on my squat (175)- my last two workouts were 180 and 185, though I feel like I tweaked the tendon or whatever it is just above my right kneecap today, so I'm going to slow down and do 2.5 lb jumps for a bit instead of 5. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little disappointed in the results after deloading and eating more, but on the plus side, tracking my weight, I've found that I can almost certainly eat a little more without suffering for it (my weight gain over the last ~20 days with a weigh-in every other day has been pretty much within the margin of error; there is an upward trend but it's barely over a pound), without class I'm able to get back on a Monday/Wednesday/Friday schedule conducive to doing my local gym's beginner yoga classes twice a week, and while I haven't made as much progress as I'd like with it, I think I'm on the right track by doing light front squats as a supplemental exercise. If I can get to a non-awkward rack position, I'm going to try and switch to power cleans, but for now I think it's helping me stabilize higher weights on the back squat.

Up to 195! Upper back started to round toward the end, though, and that seems like the express train to Injurytown, so I might need to put a temporary hold on the 5-pound jumps until I have that under control :(

the battle against back rounding is my biggest lifting issue, both for squats and, lately, deadlifts. I mildly strained my lower back at deadlifts of 285 last time bc of bad form, was ok after a couple days but need to be careful.

tweaked my back a little yesterday deadlifting :(

i really need to commit to some kind of off-day flexibility routine for hamstrings. it's been my biggest problem forever.

The standard advice for back rounding in squats seems to be narrowing your grip to force the shoulders in and chest up. Going to try that on Wednesday and see how it goes.

Oof. Yeah, it did not go well. I went against my own advice and went up five pounds, and experienced two things- tightness in the lower back, even during the warmup sets, and my first truly heavy squat failure. I'm glad I remembered to bring the safety bars up, because I fell over forwards on the upward portion of a squat, taking an extra 200 pounds with me.

I think most of the back tightness and some of the failure can be attributed to walking four miles, half of it with a backpack full of library books, but even then, it's depressing. Took the rest of the workout off, going to get a full night's sleep, a big meal or two and try again early in the morning at the same weight before any heavy activity.

ugh that sucks!

one thing about working out at the university student center is it's full of fucking kids. oh well, pros and cons.

i'm back to doing this full-on bodybuilder split 5 days a week chest/back/shoulders/legs/arms thing instead of 3 days a week squats/bench/row, deads/pull-ups/shoulder press, cleans/lunges/romanian deads. still doing all those but adding bodybuilder-y pump-em-up lifts, drop sets, isolation exercises, even *shudder* cable exercises. stuff that doesn't feel like you're doing anything until suddenly you hit failure. then the next day it's like wow this particular muscle is very sore. i wonder how long i can keep it up / not get bored / tired this time.

Seems like last week's "back" tweak was more of a hip-flexor thing -- started to get some pain again in that area when I squatted yesterday and it's been bothering me a bit since then, not excruciating but getting pain in certain positions. Hip flexors have always been tight for me, so obviously need to work on mobility.

hope you all take care of yourselves and get back to lifting safely / well soon! warrior poses, happy baby pose are v. good to my hips fwiw.

The worst thing actually for me is sitting -- I can really feel it doing wrong to my hips (not just now but even before the tweak) but i haven't found a way to sit that avoids the problem. May be time to get that standing desk.