thread of getting sw0le

ballbearings in a milk jug reinforced with duct tape for maximum dirtbag look?

three milk jugs each side, rope, and an old chinese man shouting at you

it's the marvel way

obsessed with this photo of my grandmother with her weightlifting class from a few years ago (finally, facebook memories shows me something good!) pic.twitter.com/bMiImanysA

— Claire “kick the cops out of the AFL-CIO” Lower (@clairelizzie) February 26, 2021

<3

thought: crossfit and "functional" fitness is more removed from daily usefulness than bodybuilding.

i watched a group of twenty somethings do shit like pull a fake sled with fake weight on it with a fake rope across a fake astroturf "field" and then do some complicated love-making maneuver with a heavy beanbag all while they were cheering each other on. they seemed to be cosplaying starship troopers. the "coach" had on a black t-shirt advertising a gun store. "still not legal in california" the back said.

at least bodybuilding is more honest about its ueslessness. it's somewhat more clued-in that it's decorative in nature. the decoration is the point, and the usefulness. the utility is in the aesthetics. it's fun to look buff. the only exercise that's "useful" to what i do all day in the sense of making sitting at a desk in front of a computer easier, or like doing the dishes, is yoga.

i’m appalled you would question the utility of my perfectly sculpted triceps

i agree wholeheartedly. most people don't have the endurance to keep properly doing an exercise for as long as those circuits require. i would rather do something at a reasonable pace like 6-12 times and stop for a while.

Does anybody have a good lead on affordable adjustable dumbbells? The last year has been utterly disastrous for me between depression and my gym being a very early casualty of the COVID rent squeeze, and while I've tried, I find I kind of hate Ring Fit. I desperately want to lift again but the adjustable db's I'm seeing are either staggeringly expensive or out of stock everywhere :(

ugh i'm sorry. they're pretty much all expensive as hell afaict. can you look into another gym?

Is yoga really more beneficial than basic weight lifting? both can strengthen your core, help with balance, improve brain function etc

although, sure, what you're referring to as weight lifting is more likely to result in an injury

you're missing two things i said. i didn't say yoga is more beneficial overall but that it's absolutely more beneficial than weightlifting when it comes to sitting at a computer or doing dishes. for instance, spinal extensions and spinal twists--both exercises that help with lower back pain. it's hard to do an effective spinal extension or twist with weights. maybe if you're doing explosive movements but i'm not an olympic weightlifter, are you? strength is important and it's related to range of motion, but weightlifting almost always ends up over-emphasizing the strength over a limited range of motion, which creates problems over time.

also, the weightlifting i was referring to wasn't crossfit, which is bad. it's squats, deadlifts, bench press, etc.

i lift nearly every day and have for years. i do yoga nearly every day and have for years. the more i lift the more i realize that it really tends to exacerbate alignment problems that doing lots of yoga has made me realize i have. the more i see of aging people (mostly dudes) who lift a lot the more it confirms my experience, that unless they've discovered extensive active stretching to go along with it, their bodies are jacked up and their lifting ability is suffering.

the mind-muscle connection that yoga tends to reveal to oneself is monumental, in my opinion, and one that mindful lifting only scratches the surface of.

lifting weights feels great, is great for my mental health, is a great way to focus and redirect aggressive energy, plus looking sw0le is fun. yoga is what i do to tie my body together and keep it mobile.

I am feeling super excited for getting back to the gym and geting sw0le again

😎

ME TOO

i am gonna keep cycling on the menu, largely because i bought this stupid bike, but pushing cardio/endurance barriers doesnt have anywhere near the same mental health benefit as squatting heavy. also i like being swole.

map i suspect you are familiar with kathy acker's writing on bodybuilding which is kind of the only good writing on the subject

yeah!!!!!!

and it really is like the only good writing on the subject and i looked around there for a few years lol.

interesting, map. i'm in rough shape due to having two kids (1,4) and packing up my home gym for construction. all this led to me herniating a disk in my lower back while lifting a kid and having crippling sciatica for about two months straight. i've only been doing moderate walking and stretching so far but i think i'm ready for some weights. gotta be careful though

and yeah, i agree that lifting without stretching is not a good combo, but i would say i find some of the mind-muscle connections you were referring to in weight lifting as well. i gave up pushing my max with weights a long time ago

ooo yeah i'm sorry to hear about your herniated disc. have you seen a pt specialist? if you can afford it i would recommend looking into it. cat-cow might also be good to try? https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=cat+cow+pose.

yeah i was referred to a pt specialist. a little hesitant due to the vid, but it's probably still worth it. my wife's pretty hardcore into yoga so been doing cat-cow and some other poses for a bit. it's a lot better but i really can't afford a setback at this point

good luck!

feel like i've really opened up my lower back and hips lately. there's something about increasing my range of motion that feels like encountering a void and creating something there. i get the same feeling when reaching failure .. like i'm crossing over a threshold into a black hole where there's nothing at all, and by doing so i'm claiming it for myself. it's very gratifying.

it's hard to do an effective spinal extension or twist with weights

hard and also dangerous ... if somebody really wants to do spinal extensions/twists with more than their own bodyweight, cable machines or resistance bands are much safer than hand-held weights

map otm on several points ... part of the problem is the "functional" label becoming a selling point without much clarity or consensus about what it means ... if a baseline is something like "ability to do normal human tasks across the lifespan," yoga is more functional than either CrossFit or bodybuilding

haha that's what i was trying to say but much more concisely.

Exercised by Daniel Lieberman was a semi interesting read. Evolutionary anthropology perspective on exercise.

I am looking forward to a long-delayed return to running and lifting after a repeat knee surgery in two weeks. Rehab will be either 10 days or 6 weeks lol

anyone have any experience with periodization? i don't really follow a strict timeline with it but it's something like 2 heavy weeks, 1 light week. i just finished a light week and it was pretty necessary, i was getting ragged. definitely starting to notice some mechanical wear and tear these days. skullcrushers give me tennis elbow. my runs are starting to do things like make a small muscle above one inner ankle tender and upset. going back on the manual treadmill last week made my hamstrings angry. went running in the park yesterday, it was warm and sunny, adrenaline got me through some sprints. but today is a much needed rest day. think i'm ordering thai food for dinner tonight. i have been doing things like cutting out dairy milk and cutting down to one yolk instead of two for my eggs every morning in order to trim up a little bit. going to roleplay being a poolside palm springs daddy king in three weeks.

i had the best results of my life using variations of the 5/3/1 program. i am hesitant to recommend it or its creator or any website about it because something about lifting programs really brings out the intellectual gym bros and man they have lots of opinions. not just about lifting but their thoughts on life, or political correctness, or all lives mattering.

i had my second best results with the 1.0 version of greg nuckols' unfortunately named "average to savage" program. idk if its freely available but i enjoyed it. dude seems ok as a human being so i am more comfortable recommending.

nb i fucking love spreadsheets, making them and tracking stuff and adding formulae and tweaking stuff so i respond well to those kinds of programs. others may not find their joy in the same place as me.

haha that's cool. i always go more by feel but that's probably not great for seeing the forest from the trees and giving me the benefits of forced variety.

i make my own plan and rotate it every 4-6 weeks. make one that has all things that don't make your joints angry. i like walking lunges or bulgarian split squats (even with no weight these are brutal but don't hurt me), and swiss ball hamstring curls, any butt exercise of course. walking instead of running, whatever. after a month you will feel super fresh.

back to the big box gym after working out in a crossfit gym for the last year. it's a lot closer. i was sick of driving 7 miles on a really shitty stretch of the freeway.

of course i commit a major sw0le pas on my first morning. the calf machine. i overloaded it a bit and on my second set, couldn't get it back up to the little platform it rests on. could not pull it back up and the machine is so designed that you can't slide plates off of it when it's down off its little platform. eventually i just sauntered away shamefully. :(

my cheap big box gym is kinda skanky but i love 1) the 5 hammer power racks with personal mirrors and 2) the fact that from 7-8 am on weekday mornings the huge group fitness room is empty, meaning i have it all to myself for yoga.

it's kind of funny how when i was younger i used to be a little intimidated by gym bros but now that 1) i'm 38 and 2) lifting heavier than almost all of them, i could not give one fuck and i stare past them all vacantly in between sets. helps to have huge-ass headphones on at all times. i do not understand the people who are just like yammering away constantly.

this is a little embarrasing but i have been steroid-curious a few times over the last couple of years. that has come to an end after i ran across a series of excellent videos by a doctor who treats steroid users who are now sick to varying degrees. i'm posting one of the videos here just in case anyone else has thought about it. for a man my age it's basically asking to shut down my hypothalmic-pituitary-gonadal axis for life and take on a particularly sad addiction situation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tmbhz-L9mLY

I'm getting into the gym now. Found it intimidating a couple times but my gym is small, not busy, and quiet and nobody cares about what I'm doing.

Just using the machines except for some curls with the dumb-bells because I don't want to worry about form too much and it seems easier with the machines. I understand free-weights are better but I'm starting from nothing so anything will be useful.

good luck, have fun!

remember to add creatine to literally everything you eat from here on out

enjoy

I've made some not-very-positive posts about machines on this thread, but I think using them to get started is

a good idea!

22 months and two surgeries after blowing up my knee, I had my final PT appointment yesterday! Cleared to lift and run and get swole for my pony! Who also needs to get more swole.

Checking out a potential gym today. I hope it works out OK because it is the most convenient option.

congrats and good luck!

remember to add creatine to literally everything you eat from here on out

― adam, Thursday, July 29, 2021 6:10 AM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

im looking at all the protein and calories i should be consuming on days when i lift and im just like :/

guess im going to be drinking lots of cartons of eggwhites

don't worry about it too much. you can just eat like one extra thing for now if you want.

I don’t want to join a gym again yet so I’ve started doing something I found called the “vertical lift,” it’s an alternating dumbbell curl to overhead press. I don’t know if it’s a good exercise but it’s nice and meditative, kind of like doing kettlebell swings minus the fear of throwing a bell through my wall.

don't worry about it too much. you can just eat like one extra thing for now if you want.

― criminally negligible (harbl), Thursday, July 29, 2021 7:33 PM (fifty-two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

otm

ok nice

considering how unswole I am, it's funny how much advice I've posted on this thread over the years

controversial opinion: almost everyone can get all the protein they need to become as swole as they want by eating normal amounts of normal food

consuming more than 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight per day is more likely to add fat than muscle

there are cases where bulk protein supplementation can help (e.g., for elite athletes who are bigger and leaner than the average NFL player, or for elderly people) but for most people who go to the gym a few times a week, a balance of macronutrients in the form of non-processed foods is a better way to go

https://www.acsm.org/docs/default-source/files-for-resource-library/protein-intake-for-optimal-muscle-maintenance.pdf

that's good info, though it does recommend an amount that is still quite a lot of protein that i wouldn't necessarily consume on a day of regular eating (for my weight the low end they recommend is around 108 grams of protein)

really don't worry about it. it will make you crazy. if you are eating enough carbohydrates you need even less. 108 grams isn't that much but if you can't get there like i said just eat one more thing. i like turkey slices or yogurt. or don't change anything! it's fine! if you have gone from 0 to doing something you are going to magically gain muscles unless you are literally starving.