Weightlifting & Fitness - Everything old is new again!

[MWil23]

2 minutes ago, ET80 said:

This is why I’m in the gym at 4am on the dot every day (save weekends). I can get in a thorough pre-post stretch, ab routine, lift routine and cardio… and be back in the house by 6:30am to wake everyone up. 

I’ve killed the weights and bike this summer and will continue to after that. My chest, back, arms, and legs look as good as they have since college. I just need to address the love handles and gut. It’s nothing terrible, I just need to flatten it down. 

[ET80]

7 minutes ago, MWil23 said:

I’ve killed the weights and bike this summer and will continue to after that. My chest, back, arms, and legs look as good as they have since college. I just need to address the love handles and gut. It’s nothing terrible, I just need to flatten it down. 

Bingo, same here - I'm incorporating swimming and yoga to help with those things. My thoughts are that torao elongation will help the muscles gain flexibility and improve the muscle fascia in the process.
 

I've also eliminated crunches and sit-ups in my ab routine - it isolates the glamour muscles in the abs, but does not really improve core strength. In addition, it causes unnecessary stress on the lower back. Instead, I'm focusing on hanging knee/leg raises, hanging/lying windshield wipers, dead bugs, Russian twists, leg flutters, mountain climbers, superman/bananas, etc.

It's probably been more impactful in a leaner, stronger and tighter core than my previous efforts with sit ups.

[titansNvolsR#1]

Was bored with my weight lifting routine and have an unhealthy obsession with Jeff Cavaliere's videos on YouTube so I paid for the AX-1 workout program. So far a big fan but that could just be because I'm doing something different. I have no desire to get bigger muscle-wise than I am and have no sights set to PRs for weight lifting so mostly looking to tone and drop a few BF%. 

Also like his meal planning. Can't do it right now as I'm on vacation for 2 more weeks, but I'm excited to get home and start cooking and meal prepping. 

[Hunter2_1]

On 6/26/2022 at 1:27 AM, JonStark said:

Mainly because if you're buying the good stuff, red meat hits the bank account a little too hard but I'd like to have a good balance between the three anyway because I don't eat near as much fish as I'd like to.

Isn't overeating red meat linked to high cholesterol too? I know most of the other concerns were disproven but I thought that one was still accurate. 

Well, it puts me in knots on the throne....

I've cut it right back and feel better. But that's just me.

[minutemancl]

On 6/26/2022 at 11:46 AM, ET80 said:

I would also add - measure your portions.

Right now, I get in a max of 6oz of lean protein (except for breakfast, where I go 6oz along with two eggs/one egg white only) and 1.5 to two cups of veggies (I prefer spinach, but there’s a really good Del Monte cauliflower/broccoli rice available in frozen bags - one bag has about four cups worth, so it’s two meals worth or two people per bag). Don’t eyeball it - buy a food scale, get some measuring cups with various cup sizes and really understand your quantities. (I think you’d be surprised how much 4oz of ground turkey or crumbled turkey sausage actually is - it’s a lot).

Seasoning is important - I’ve went away from actual salt and only use light/low sodium salt now. I also use pepper (black, white or cayenne) garlic powder, paprika, red pepper flakes and Italian seasoning for my food (I’ll cheat a bit when I use Chinese Five Spice or Taco Seasoning, but it’s never over a teaspoon). Whenever possible, get em in the grinder bottles - it helps with freshness of flavor. On this note, I’ll sometimes use a few teaspoons of vinegarette dressing or dijon mustard to provide additional flavor profiles - eating healthy doesn’t mean you sacrifice taste, y’know?

When you eat certain foods is key as well - fruits are nice, but I personally don’t eat fruit after 9am. (I’ll eat a few strawberries and a piece of dry wheat toast before I work out in the morning, and that’s about it). Any red meat is consumed for lunch at most (and even then, it’s 1-2x a week at most). The ideal is that those foods are actually used as fuel for your body in those windows - eating six ounces of ribeye and going to bed in four hours doesn’t really benefit your body.

Water and green tea are my beverages of choice - I could drink coffee, but that much caffeine just sends me into a bad spin.

I had put on some weight during the holidays last year, after the progress I made during the pandemic, despite my workouts and intensity getting better. Some of it was muscle, sure - but pictures of me shows a lot of weight gain in my face and belly, my two problem spots. So I started meeting with a dietician who reviewed my “specs” and created a baseline for me and my diet.

This was a GAMECHANGER for me. Since I started working with my dietician, I dropped from 229 to 188 - about 41 lbs - and it wasn’t just losing weight, my body just started to tighten up in ways it hasn’t done since I was in college. I actually have the beginnings of a six pack, my arms are toned up and veins are visible, I’m looking the best I’ve ever looked.

Man, I am so not looking forward to having to do all this. I'm in pretty great shape right now health wise, and every professional I talk to just says "keep doing what you're doing". Eventually that will change obviously, but right now I get to eat and drink whatever I want. Gonna be tough to have to start measuring the amount of salt I put in my food.

[RaidersAreOne]

Anyone ever have any issues with nerve entrapment? I have had to heavily modify all of my upper body workouts over the past year + due to some sort of "snapping elbow" and shoulder pain.

[MWil23]

19 hours ago, RaidersAreOne said:

Anyone ever have any issues with nerve entrapment? I have had to heavily modify all of my upper body workouts over the past year + due to some sort of "snapping elbow" and shoulder pain.

Are you getting a pull to push ratio of 2:1 to avoid impingement? Too much push movement can do that if you don’t get the pull movement in.

Edited July 10, 2022 by MWil23

[RaidersAreOne]

20 hours ago, MWil23 said:

Are you getting a pull to push ratio of 2:1 to avoid impingement? Too much push movement can do that if you don’t get the pull movement in.

Now I do, yes. Before I likely was doing too much chest/shoulders, but nowadays I can't even do shoulders comfortably. I do chest/back each once a week so maybe I should double down on the back?

[MWil23]

28 minutes ago, RaidersAreOne said:

Now I do, yes. Before I likely was doing too much chest/shoulders, but nowadays I can't even do shoulders comfortably. I do chest/back each once a week so maybe I should double down on the back?

If you are feeling pain in your inner shoulder/upper chest area, you will need to do some impingement rehab stretches to rebuild and rework those muscles before you can lift comfortably on those lifts. Doubling up on back is a great start, but you're going to need to get back that range of motion and strength in the joint before you're going to see those gains again.

Not to worry! I went through that a few years ago. Lots of stretching, bands, and a lacrosse ball on the upper pec/shoulder region to work it out (That one really hurts). Look up some stretches on line and start there.

[Mesa_Titan]

Picked up a set of bowflex 1090's and a bench to start my little garage gym a couple weeks ago. Last Friday I went to someone house to check out a little garage sale, apparently I was the first person there because I got a Bowflex extreme 2 for 150 bucks. Thing is basically brand new. Such a steal.

[jetsfan4life51]

21 hours ago, RaidersAreOne said:

Now I do, yes. Before I likely was doing too much chest/shoulders, but nowadays I can't even do shoulders comfortably. I do chest/back each once a week so maybe I should double down on the back?

Do you vary overhead, incline, flat, decline and dips? Or do you do the same presses?  

Do these two exercises and take a break from Bench to work on Overhead press. And all DB pressing movements should be done with a neutral grip.

 

 

Edited July 12, 2022 by jetsfan4life51

[RaidersAreOne]

16 minutes ago, jetsfan4life51 said:

Do you vary overhead, incline, flat, decline and dips? Or do you do the same presses?  

Do these two exercises and take a break from Bench to work on Overhead press. And all DB pressing movements should be done with a neutral grip.

Thanks for the vids, I'll definitely try these out.

Mostly the same presses honestly. I was all about dumbbell flat and incline, with very little to no decline or dips. Then over covid I transitioned to a home gym where I did more flat bench press, incline dumbells, etc. I started noticing that elbow pain/snapping elbow/nerve entrapment crap and pain in my shoulders after a number of months, but I was working out pretty damn hard so figured it was just that. However now it's been over a year and still same issues.

The discomfort from it all makes it impossible to do the likes of skullcrushers or anything where the elbow is in a flared out position. Good tip about neutral grip too, 99% of my workouts are all pronated. 

Same with the good advice from @MWil23 of more back, stretching and the ball roll (This does kick my ***).

 

[MWil23]

14 minutes ago, RaidersAreOne said:

40 minutes ago, jetsfan4life51 said:

Do you vary overhead, incline, flat, decline and dips? Or do you do the same presses?  

Do these two exercises and take a break from Bench to work on Overhead press. And all DB pressing movements should be done with a neutral grip.

Thanks for the vids, I'll definitely try these out.

Mostly the same presses honestly. I was all about dumbbell flat and incline, with very little to no decline or dips. Then over covid I transitioned to a home gym where I did more flat bench press, incline dumbells, etc. I started noticing that elbow pain/snapping elbow/nerve entrapment crap and pain in my shoulders after a number of months, but I was working out pretty damn hard so figured it was just that. However now it's been over a year and still same issues.

The discomfort from it all makes it impossible to do the likes of skullcrushers or anything where the elbow is in a flared out position. Good tip about neutral grip too, 99% of my workouts are all pronated. 

Same with the good advice from @MWil23 of more back, stretching and the ball roll (This does kick my ***).

 

Echo this. All dips, pull ups, tricep work, and chest auxiliary I do is mostly neutral grip. It really helps pull together those back/upper/lower chest muscles that the other lifts often neglect.

[jetsfan4life51]

On 7/12/2022 at 10:15 AM, RaidersAreOne said:

Thanks for the vids, I'll definitely try these out.

Mostly the same presses honestly. I was all about dumbbell flat and incline, with very little to no decline or dips. Then over covid I transitioned to a home gym where I did more flat bench press, incline dumbells, etc. I started noticing that elbow pain/snapping elbow/nerve entrapment crap and pain in my shoulders after a number of months, but I was working out pretty damn hard so figured it was just that. However now it's been over a year and still same issues.

The discomfort from it all makes it impossible to do the likes of skullcrushers or anything where the elbow is in a flared out position. Good tip about neutral grip too, 99% of my workouts are all pronated. 

Same with the good advice from @MWil23 of more back, stretching and the ball roll (This does kick my ***).

 

You definitely need single arm DB overhead and seated DB overhead.  Need to get stronger overhead to help balance out the shoulder.  

The other thing you can do is rotate grip on rows/pulldowns/chins to neutral, supinated and pronated.

[titansNvolsR#1]

Needed to find a cardio that I enjoy that isn’t biking as it’s feels like of 40+ Degrees in Beijing most days. Figured I’d give jump rope a go since it’s small and doable in my apartment. Watched the Goal Guys on YouTube and their jump rope video which sold me. Holy hell it’s difficult. I’ve got a “speed rope” and the 1/4, 1/2, and 1 pound ropes. Been doing 30 minutes of 3 minutes on and 1 minute off. Have found I have zero coordination and very little carry over from the endurance cardio I get from distance biking. But I’m on day 3 and up to 65 seconds without whacking myself with the 1/2 pound rope.