thread of getting sw0le

Monday thru Thursday people get a look at what i eat and think i must be the most boring/health obsessed fuck but they don’t know that when friday night comes around I’m devouring pizzas, burgers, fries, enjoying a brewskie, eating all sorts of weird/asian shit

I only fuck with indian every few months but everything else is open season

It’s a weird balance but it works for me, though there have been weekend nights when I’ve overdone it

I have gotten 3 excruciating calf cramps (both legs) in the middle of the night this last month. What is my problem??? Do I need to eat a bowl of cooked spinach a day or something?

Blech, I just googled this. I am going to blame it on muscle fatigue and sleeping on a crappy bed right now.

massage your calves. it feels good!

my squats were good today. that is all.

Hell yeah good squats map

A dude actually complemented me on my squats the other day. I still feel a bit one step forward, one step back with them though. Squatting heavy makes my hips tighter and then my mobility declines next session. I think I'm still doing something wrong. Starting to do more posture work and also try to fix the imbalance between my inner and outer thigh.

Separately, had my first "fuck, getting old" moment benching last night, shoulder cramped up like crazy, thought I had torn something at first. Thank god for myofascial release and advil.

hey sw0le bros

i was still going to the gym the last third of the year but felt like so meh. had such a bad year with work stress. this caused me to eat a lot more starches and i gained 5 lbs. time to get back to the gym, i guesssssss

also a couple weeks ago a trainer was working with some lady near me and later he came up to me and said my front squats are beautiful. i have been working on them, not much weight but that's ok. i was like oh thanks i hate them. then he said well why do you do them, and i said because i hate them and he high fived me.

the thing I hate the most about front squats is that the bar presses my windpipe and I find myself getting these painful head rushes/exertion headaches after doing a certain amount.

Due to a really bad bug, I haven’t been to the the gym since early December. I’m looking forward to getting back, but not looking forward to the muscle soreness.

starting to feel a little burnt out on pure strength lifting (endless cycle of back squats, deadlifts, bench and OHP). Also not liking the belly fat I continue to have. Any thoughts on a program to change things up a bit while still keeping some heavy lifting in there?

I've been feeling that way, too. To top it off, I'm pretty sure that I've been lifting with a hernia for a while, and it's gotten bad enough lately where I can't really do heavy squats anymore without aggravating it.

I'm working out a program that involves doing heavy (up to 90% of 1RM) upper body 2x/week, legs/back for higher reps at maybe 60% of max 1x/week, and a few days of straight up running. For assistance I'd be doing a lot of bodyweight stuff that I've been pretty allergic to since I started going to the gym years ago: Push-ups, pull-ups, burpees, jump rope, whatever. It seems like a lot of the other older (more fit than me) guys at the gym do a lot of that stuff and very little heavy low rep strength style.

I always rep for rowing. If your gym has a well maintained concept2 rower, you can watch some videos online for form ( I cringe when I see people rowing all wacky on the machine). And it's nice that people put in their time/distance for age groups online so you can motivate yourself.

also It's the only piece of exercise equipment I have ever bought because I don't ever get tired of rowing, whereas biking, running, elliptical get soooo boring for me.

I use the rowing machine. It’s the only machine I like.

I am trying to convince my spouse that if we get a ps4 or switch I will row 5k for every 3 hours of play.

The rower is the only machine I'd ever consider owning.

run 3-4 miles of this regularly u will lose fat:

https://bendtrails.org/wp-content/uploads/Climbing-the-Slickrock-Trail-in-Moab.jpg

We actually own a rower -- Costco had an amazing deal on them a few years ago (the ones they offer now look better but pricier). I find rowing boring though. But maybe it would be good for me because that kind of movement is exactly where my mobility is a little stiff.

When I go to hotel gyms I sometimes just do a total body thing with various dumbbell exercises and I usually feel good after from the change-up.

Oh, I have mine set up in front of the tv so if I want to finish a show I sometimes end up doing a large distance without really noticing. I really like the concept2s but I am kind of picky about the smoothness. They had some at the last gym I was visiting for a month and they were so poorly maintained that it was annoying to row. Footstraps came loose every 3 minutes, rail was always dirty and lumpy, chain needed to be greased and cleaned. I also like paddling on water anyway so it makes sense for me.

Squatted 275 x 4. Boom.

Focusing on bracing hard in my core and finding the center of my foot has helped a lot. Also arching my foot.

i'm kicking into a (ugh i hate saying this) cutting phase as part of an 8 week fight camp plan i made myself over the holidays -- hopefully in the service of making me a worthier speedier sparring partner by the first day of spring. i feel a little insane today, day 1, doing fasting til lunch. the tingly hunger pangs make me feel hyperactive.

yikes

good luck, slugger

dieting is such a head trip. good luck. always wanted to try boxing. maybe 2019 is the year. my gym has bags, i guess u just punch them???????

in other news my pull-ups were good today

i guess u just punch them???????

― macropuente (map), Wednesday, January 2, 2019 7:14 PM (six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

basically but fast

boxing is so great. I took kickboxing (after karate) for 5 years when I was younger. It's a great workout for the gym. I would ask someone to go over punches with you, shadowboxing/footwork, and how to wrap your hands.

^ yes forgive my glib

if you're gonna hit the heavy bag good wraps + well applied gloves are important to avoid wrist soreness especially

'good wraps' meaning 'wraps applied well,' the brand of wraps is about as immaterial as your brand of socks

My eating and drinking has all been messed up since the election. I used to stick pretty much to what I found out was the Tom Brady diet with 1-2 days of fasting a week. It sounds crazy but I had loads of energy and my skin was so nice.

Yerac OTM, it's good to understand how punches are supposed to work with an opponent and how to do them with good posture and body movement before spending much time on the bag.

Go get 'em, Hoos! I hope your weight cutting is mostly post-holiday reduction ... you know this already, but it is rough on the body to try to stay below normal lean weight for any length of time or to yo-yo frequently.

thx! i was deliberately 'bulking' aug-dec so i just kinda trusted my macros & aimed for their neighborhood daily and avoided the scale for the season, and finally took a look last week to discover that i'd gained 20 pounds!

you are swole, sir

i could not exercise at all during any of the days i just had off, because i hurt myself SLEEPING. just immobilized for most of a day, then stiff for a few. still stiff.

How did that happen!!

i dunno, somehow held a wrong position while sleeping, woke up in a panic because i couldn't move my neck it hurt so bad. some sort of strain deep within my trap. i was thinking i'd go to gym today but i just want all the pain to be gone first. maybe tomorrow.

some olds spouting racist bullshit at the gym this morning. this is why i wear headphones.

i went to a sports masseuse and she gave me a talking-to about my posture; said i needed to do more "pulling" exercises to balance out my pushing exercises (i.e. squats, presses etc) otherwise the muscles in the front of my shoulders and chest will be tight and pull my shoulders forward. i think she has a point but this does mean abandoning my "do squats in every workout" mantra. i guess it's time!

i'm no masseuse but i would definitely recommend adding some chest openers to your routine. upward-facing dog, shoulder wall slides, etc. even just standing straight watching yourself in a mirror, roll your shoulders down and back, don't stick your ass out, keep your spine stacked, lower abs engaged, breathe into and expand up through your chest cavity.

one stretch that gives me immediate relief if my front shoulders are hot and sore and tight from benching is lying on my stomach with one arm folded underneath me at the collar bone, sticking straight out the other side. other arm straight forward. then switch sides.

i got advice from an iyengar yoga teacher that when a particular muscle is tight, stretching the opposing muscle will help heal / relieve it. i.e. if your hamstrings are tight, stretch your quads, with hero pose (legs folded back underneath you, spine straight) or the like.

wow. wall slides are.. hard

I do a lot of the things map recommends but my shoulder is chronically tight (under/next to my right shoulder blade) -- problem started well before I lifted but lifting doesn't do it any favors.

Anyone ever get a cortizone shot?

I had a cortisone shot in November and it was helpful -- my shoulder stopped hurting for the first time in weeks, I got something like normal mobility back, and I was able to start doing intensive shoulder rehab almost immediately.

The shot simply reduced my pain and inflammation; the subsequent rehab work is what fixed my shoulder (more or less). Prior to the shot, I was already doing quite a bit of mobility and strength work for my shoulders, so I was somewhat skeptical that a rehab program would help, but I didn't realize the sheer volume of work I needed or the number of different stretches and different exercises required. I've scaled back how many of those I'm doing now, but if my shoulder flares up again, I'll resume the full rehab routine for a while before I think about getting another shot.

I've had em in my SI joint, they work a treat but then wear off and then you can't get another one for like six more months and you feel sad.

would the reduced inflamation at least aid me in doing some kind of rehab routine? Maybe seeing a physical therapist is more the right approach.

I mean it's weird, it's not really rehab since I've p much always had it, but I'd really love to do something about it as it's bothering me more as I age. And it interferes with my deadlifts at times to the point that I'm wondering if it's dangerous for me to keep doing them (can cause me to twist slightly or lift slightly asymmetrically if tight).

Maybe, ime it has gotten me over acute exacerbations where I can't sit, walk, or lie down without pain.

how long did it last?

About a month?

My squat form/mobility started to get worse again -- I videoed myself and I was both losing form and not hitting parallel.

I tried a different trainer, recommended by a friend who trains and owns a gym.

This guy p much ran a battery of mobility tests on me and said that it's more of an issue of muscle activation than flexibility for me -- apparently I have an unusually hard time activating my glutes for someone otherwise in decent physical shape and experienced at lifting. He did all kinds of weird exercises with me that got me to really feel the connection between my foot, hamstring, glutes and core in a way I never had before. He also suggested I goblet squat for a while and lay off the bar which is fine with me, as bar squatting had not been feeling right lately.

According to this guy, stretches and muscle release will just temporarily relieve the tension in my hips and ankles but never fix it, bc the tension is really a result of compensating for muscle imbalances and of neuromuscular connection issues (i.e. failure to activate certain muscles in connection with one another).

Also think I may finally get squat shoes on his advice.