In reply to newold_m (Forum Supporter) :
That video was well worth the time to watch. Thanks for posting it.
In reply to newold_m (Forum Supporter) :
That video was well worth the time to watch. Thanks for posting it.
In reply to Beer Baron :
While I have a cambered bar at my gym, I'll be honest: I literally never use it, and I don't think I've seen anyone use it in at least 8 years. It's intensely uncomfortable for me for pressing, and it feels awkward for squatting. I know some people must like them (because apparently they keep buying them), but it's not really for me. (Note: My gym is atypical; it is a very old-school powerlifting gym, and the clientele does not reflect the normal gym-going public.)
The scenarios you mention for the open-frame trap bar are valid, but for at least a plurality (if not a majority) of them a set of carry implements would possibly serve you better. I'd be hesitant to use a closed-back device for lunges or farmer's carries, for instance, because of the potential for mobility impingement. There's also the issue that the handles are in a fixed position, which would affect your cadence and shoulder position.
If it's possible (which is to say, if you have the tools and abilities), why not make yourself a set of carry implements? I use mine pretty regularly and they're not hard to make. If you weren't a thousand miles away I'd offer to make a set for you. Or, y'know, do both the trap bar and a set of carry implements. More stuff is more gooder.
Got the living room set up in my new apartment.
Regarding resolutions:
I really like using them, but I make sure to keep them small so there are no excuses. And I've also been building on them. Many years ago I started with:
Year 1. 5 pushups at end of day for every alcoholic beverage consumed that day
Year 2. 50 pushups every other day and 50 squats on the off days.
Year 3. Kept up the 50/day but added a third day of 15 pullups and 35 v-ups.
Year 4. Added a weight vest to pull ups.
I've had a few years of just keeping these up while having a resolution about something else (like not using my phone at night - doh).
This year I'm trying to add a 1 mile run every weekday. It's short enough that there are no excuses, but a big enough stretch for me that I think it will be demanding. 10/10 so far. We will see how it goes.
I'm still plugging away, trying to fight off father time.
Beginning in December and through January I switched to Jeff Nippard's total body five-days-per-week program and stopped tracking what I was eating. I guess you could call it a "loss of discipline and motivation" bulk. In my quest for revenge on the guy who tied to forcefully modify my shoulder joint with a Kimura I wound up rolling a bit too intensely with everyone and I hurt a different guy who I actually consider a very close friend. This was shortly before I started eating garbage and lifting like a bodybuilder.
Two weeks ago I started cleaning my diet back up and this week I'm getting back on the GRM program with a little more kettlebells thrown in.
I'm going to start working on getting in shape. Been procrastinating too much. Eating better. Working out 3 times a week. Treadmill and some bodyweight exercises. No more excuses.
Been meaning to do this since before my kid was born, they'll turn 7 in June. Pathetic.
I just took stevia and sugar alcohols out of my diet completely. I've had about 6 months of tummy drama and it's all boiled down to that stuff. It was a crutch to get sugar out of my diet but it's not worth it. I'll take the cold turkey before I try that again.
Found a new gym to roll at, so it'll be nice to get back into that again. They also do kickboxing, added bonus. Trying to figure out of I want to do work gym, home gym, or gym gym but it'll probably be a hybrid of work and home.
Turbo_Rev said:I just took stevia and sugar alcohols out of my diet completely. I've had about 6 months of tummy drama and it's all boiled down to that stuff. It was a crutch to get sugar out of my diet but it's not worth it. I'll take the cold turkey before I try that again.
Found a new gym to roll at, so it'll be nice to get back into that again. They also do kickboxing, added bonus. Trying to figure out of I want to do work gym, home gym, or gym gym but it'll probably be a hybrid of work and home.
Stevia just always left a weird aftertaste that I could not abide. Lots of sugar alcohol intake can act as a laxative. I learned this the hard way when "sugar free" chocolates came to market years ago and I ate a whole bag at once. Protein bars with lots of sugar alcs can still make my tumby wumby.
I also just started taking creatine again, and got a little unpleasant during the loading phase.
Do you do Splenda? I don't seem to have any adverse effects to that.
In reply to fatallightning :
I'm pretty much on a zero sweets diet. The only thing I'll eat nowadays with any "real" sugar in it is fruit. All the substitutes just made want the real thing.
After pulling a hamstring on Thanksgiving, I've been rebuilding my squats. Started low, 3x8, add 10 lbs every session. As I got up above 200 where it began to feel like more than a warmup, I've been getting pains in my quad and t-band on the injured leg.
Pretty sure it's the hip stabilizer muscles just not doing their jobs, and so the t-band and quads picking up way more work than they should be.
So, I'm laying off squats for a week or two (*sigh*) and going to be doing a bunch of hip stabilizer exercises pretty much every day. Those kicked my butt more than I expected them to.
My shoulder is still messed up from my motorcycle oopsy. I don't have the shoulder mobility to back squat right now, which is frustrating. I've been front squatting, but core has been limiting the weight when I'm 3x9'ing. I've started using the leg press so I can actually get some heavy loads going. Started taking creatine too, can't hurt.
I'm still exercising frequently. When some milestone happens I'll probably post about it, but until then it's just been me grinding away at things.
I somehow hit an all-time personal best on the dead lift today. I've been using a very slow pyramid scheme for the weight and, during my "ramp up" sets I use a double over hand grip with no hook, only some chalk. It looks something like this:
Bar x 10 (all the way to the floor, big stretch)
95 x 10 (again, beyond full ROM)
135 x 10
155 x 10
185 x 5
205 x 5
225 x 5
245 x 3
275 x 3
295 x 3
315 x 3
At this point it was rolling out of my hands by rep number three so I switched to a mixed grip and went for an all out AMRAP set. And I mean all out; I collapsed on a bench and wheezed for a solid minute at the end of it.
315 x 18 (AMRAP)
The rest of the workout suffered a bit since dead lifts were only my third exercise but, I was pleasantly surprised.
That is a massive ass-ton of warmups. Good grief!
I'm old. LOL
Sufficiently recovered and rehabbed to be making progress again. Feels good.
Pulled hamstring back on Thanksgiving. That took a while recovering and limited lower body lifts. I was easing back into squats, and they were kicking my ass with much lower weight than they should have been.
My right (side I injured) quad and IT-band were getting roasted with burning pain just with warmup sets leading up to 3x8 at 225. I knew I'd backslid, but it shouldn't have been *that* much.
Figured out that the problem was my hip stabilizing muscles had gotten weak, weren't keeping things controlled with my knee in proper alignment, and it was shifting excessive strain to my quad and IT.
Started doing regular hip strengthening exercises. The real winner turned out to be 1-legged RDL's with a hip twis at the bottom to really work the glute medius. A week of those, and things are feeling a LOT better.
Squatted yesterday, just 245 for 3x6 (intentionally easy). Both right and left side quads are feeling comparable levels of fatigue today. Still going to work the hip stabilizers, but things are working!
My deadlifts are also jumping up. No more hamstring pain.
Going to keep rebuilding, but should be back into 3 plates for squats and deadlifts pretty soon!
Back in the gym, doing my BJJ and kickboxing. Here's me, in the gray t-shirt, being an amateur:
I'm looking at getting a flat bar cable attachment like this (below) as I'm now using an apt. gym and they dont have one.
Anyone have any suggestions? Its really hard to tell online if the spacing is going to be good, if the bearing(s) will pivot smoothly, if the rubber grips are sloppy or will degrade (I'd prefer some really rugged metal knurled gribs), etc. If anyone has a recommendation, I'll start there.
If not, I'll probably try them one at a time and play the Amazon return game.
prodarwin said:I'm looking at getting a flat bar cable attachment like this (below) as I'm now using an apt. gym and they dont have one. Anyone have any suggestions?
My gym has all metal attachments in two diameters. One is the same diameter as an Olympic barbell, and the other is a bit slimmer. I use these instead of anything with grips on the end.
Link to the product: https://sportsmith.com/20-revolving-straight-bar-cable-attachment-with-contoured-knurled-grips-rubber-safety-ends/product/p16005/
I've been carb cycling and restricting calories for what feels like a long time and I finally dropped back down into the 170s a few days ago. So now I'll start eating like InfiniteNexus again, but with fewer total calories. I've been running the KB Rite of Passage and Aleksandr Karelin workout quite a bit (I incorporated them into my GRM-b workout) and boxing a few days per week.
Then today I decided to do some ego lifting:
Abs, stretching, etc.
One mile on an elliptical
Leg curls x 100
Leg extensions x 100
Dead lifts
Dips + bent laterals
Face pulls
Dumbbell press + pushups
Curls
With the deadlifts I did my usual old man, double over hand workout but, this time, on my AMRAP set I hit 20 reps.
Dafuq?!
The last three were ugly but, there were 20 of them! Lol
That felt amazing. I think I'd prefer to go for rep records rather than 1rm poundages. It seems safer even though I used to be vehemently opposed to high-rep deadlifts.
In reply to Turbo_Rev :
Did you wrestle in high school or college? The forward pressure, high base, and using your head as a fifth appendage are telling me yes. 😊
I wish I had wrestled. It is HIGHLY effective in many situations.
In reply to The_Jed :
That is a lovely compliment but no, I was a marching band geek in high school. 😄 Just very, very good coaches.
Never too late to start, though. BJJ is popular these days and I've met and seen all types between the two gyms I've trained at.
The_Jed said:That felt amazing. I think I'd prefer to go for rep records rather than 1rm poundages. It seems safer even though I used to be vehemently opposed to high-rep deadlifts.
My experience is otherwise. Not necessarily more hazardous, but not really safer.
I find injury happens when technique falls apart. That *can* be from grunting through a 1rm, but I find it's just as likely to happen getting those last 2-3 reps of volume. After technique has fallen apart but, "I said I was getting[15], so I'm getting [15]!" Especially for deadlifts. Easy to let your back round to much or the bar to move forward and add extra lever on the low back.
Higher reps, it's tougher for me to maintain focus on the good form that I need.
A year ago I put up my biggest lifting numbers in advance of my vasectomy. ~413 Squat, 270 Bench, ~413 Deadlift. (4 plates on squat and dead, but not all a neat 45lbs.) I weighed about 187.
Today was my first day attempting heavy singles since then. I had a rough recovery from that and a pulled hamstring in the interim.
I feel accomplished and moving in the right direction. A bit disheartened by how much my strength has fallen. I'd really like to be in the 1,000lbs club. I figure I'm probably about 50 lbs off of that. I think... that's probably doable this year, even with splitting my focus with climbing.
I'm jealous of people who have squat and DL numbers close like that. I'm like 525 on dl, and 100 lbs on my squat. I usually lose my back. I need to work on lat engagement.
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