Fitness Catch-All

Indeed!

That's why I want to break down what he is doing. If he is doing what you're saying, then yeah, he's gotta hit those body parts more. Assuming sufficient volume, a body part should be trained at least twice a week. More than that may not be necessary depending on whether your volume is sufficient, but there is an upper limit to it as well. You want sufficient rest for your muscles as well, Iso.

Less is more.
Your body needs rest.
Compound lifts a few times a week (3 or 4).
Time to start taking nutrition notes too.

Its 33F outside and raining, I am a weak man and do not like to run in this weather.
Been doing a lot of pushups.

Any of you guys in or near Vegas? I'll be out there for a week next month and need a gym recommendation, preferably a power lifting type place. The one I received from multiple people (Broz or something like that) takes drop ins but doesn't open till 9 am. I need something open at 5 or 6.

After I hurt my back playing with my son, I've been struggling to get back to where I was with my squats. It took me about 6 months to get back to 315lb. A lot of it goes to a month of PT, 4 chiropractic sessions, stretching and a lot of core workouts.

I didn't walk into the gym today thinking I was going to "max out" but I noticed as I went up in weight during my squat reps, it just felt pretty easy. So not only did I make it back, I exceeded my max and made it to 325lb. I'm starting to think that having a dedicated "max day" just doesn't work for me anymore and sets me up for failure. I think just doing it when I feel I'm at my best is much more effective. Who knows what can happen in the days leading up to or the day of the "max day". I'll still do my 4-week routine blocks but rather than maxing on the 5th week, I'll do it whenever I feel good.

Warning: Squat booty

Great work, Tempest!

mindset: No clue! Sorry.

@Tempest, you're right about the dedicated max day...it isn't really needed. Mix in accessory work and squat variants (pause, tempo, front, sandbag etc etc) along with higher volume on your regular back squat and you'll see strength continue to improve. I can't remember the last time we did a 1RM for anything.

@Boogteh, no worries thanks!

Less can be more when it comes to training. The best gains I ever had were with 3 day a week barbell programs Stronglifts 5x5 and Wendler's 5/3/1.

Those are great programs, but just switching programs doesn't help. You are going to stall out hard if you just keep trying to switch up your routine to induce results. You need to know why you are not progressing. And it often comes down to the fact that you're not progressively overloading. You have to keep pushing yourself in the gym. And as progress slows down, you have to be more methodical in your approach to it.

Let's say you've been adding 5 lbs to the bar every week, but now you can't do that. You've hit a wall. You are not going anywhere. You've been doing 5 sets of 5 reps at 325 lbs and you just can't push yourself up 330 for that amount. Well, now you need to make changes incrementally at the set and rep level.

So to break past this new plateau, you might do this:

1x5x330
4x5x325

If you can't manage a set of 330, then you might break it down further by doing this:

4x5x325
1x4x325
1x1330

There's a lot of variation in there for doing what you need to do to hit higher numbers.

Suffice to say, the lifts work. The bench press, deadlift, squat, whatever will always be good. It is your approach to them that has to change.

Re: progression and sustainability

Barbell Medicine seems to have this dialed in to a far greater degree than the "name" programs.

https://www.barbellmedicine.com

My bench has been on a plateau for 4 months and I need to shake things up. I decided that I am going to use the Smovolov squat routine for the next 14 weeks and apply it to my bench press. Squats are definitely going to be reduced by this but right now I just want to break this plateau more than anything.

It should also pair well with my cut macro routine starting this week. Summer is coming.

I've been thinking of competing in weightlifting competitions. I'd only be competitive on the squat since I do not train the deadlift nor the bench, but it intrigues me to do so. And I'd compete against men. If I tried to compete women, any victory I'd have would be questioned. I feel like I could give a bunch of men a run for their money with the strength of my legs.

BoogtehWoog wrote:

I've been thinking of competing in weightlifting competitions. I'd only be competitive on the squat since I do not train the deadlift nor the bench, but it intrigues me to do so. And I'd compete against men. If I tried to compete women, any victory I'd have would be questioned. I feel like I could give a bunch of men a run for their money with the strength of my legs.

Do it!!!!!!!!

It is annoying when being friendly at the gym is taken as romantic interest. I just wanna bro it out with people, but the guys at the one gym I go to are raging hormone beasts that want to screw anything remotely feminine. They're nice, but f*ck, can we just keep it cool?

In other news, weight lifting continues to go well. I am not where I want to be, but I make progress all the same. And I doubt I'll ever be satisfied with myself. I'm almost 180 lbs right now, which is crazy when you consider my body composition now compared to a few years ago at the same weight. I've been all over the spectrum body wise. I daresay there are few people that can claim to have transformed their body in as many ways as I have. I've been 115 lbs of skin and bone to 200 lbs of raw masculine power to 133 lbs of boobs on a stick figure to now about 180 lbs of verging on snu snu levels of physicality.

Some guys are just slightly more evolved than animals. Most will be fine if you hit them on the nose with a rolled up newspaper and give a sharp, "NO." Of course some of them will view that as an invitation. Not all men are like that, though.

Not even Christian Bale has transformed as much. I don't think many people are satisfied with themselves. I don't think they should be. Wanting more from yourself helps you to grow. As long as it doesn't go too far, it's healthy and normal. I'm certainly not. Other than my hair. Pretty happy with that right now (mostly because I have a ton of it at an age where many men have none). As long as you are happy with where you are headed and you are still working to improve I think you're in good shape.

Edit: Homie said it better

One of the things I've liked about my local gym is that it just doesn't seem to have all that garbage (I say that as a dude, so I recognize I may be missing stuff; but I definitely don't see the kinds of things I saw in globo gyms). Some of that is because it has lots of families, and even in the black iron part of the gym it's lots of dads or other adults just looking to seriously work out. Most of the members have been there for years if not decades (am personally approaching year 15 there).

It also helps that there is a serious group of weight lifters that is gender inclusive and no one is there to find dates. They're there to lift.

Every once in a while, a ladytypeperson will wait until my set is over (usually squats) and compliment me on my form. I scratch my beard with my left hand, thank her for the compliment, let her know if she ever needs to work in to let me know, and get back under the bar. That's always the right response, but sometimes - it is a confusing response. I see it out of the corner of my eye in the mirror.

(Edit: but I really like the attention!)

Thanks for the replies!

How's everyone doing in their fitness journey? I'm still doing my weightlifting stuff, but I've also started doing a lot of stretching lately. I've went from not being anywhere close to being able to touch my toes to being close to putting my palms on the ground.

What about you all?

wickbroke: Always feels good when that happens.

Woohoo! I joined a gym again! It's a bit extra on top of our budget that I wasn't totally comfortable with, but nothing beats the feeling of being back in the weight room. I feel like myself again. It's been a month, and my lifts are going up, while my weight is going down. I'm finally back down 10kg (hiking and bodyweight exercises only got me so far, the weights pulled me past my plateau and I'm getting leaner each week).

I'm amazed just how quickly my lifts are progressing back to "normal". E.g. my deadlift 1RM was 155kg (340lbs), and I'm already back to 140kg (310lbs). I thought I'd lost a lot more strength from 15 months off. Yay!

However, since I'm back to study, I'm sitting a lot of the time and have developed awful patellofemoral pain. My kneecap doesn't track correctly since some muscles in my leg aren't balanced. It means I can't squat at all. Hell, I can barely get out of a chair without wincing. I have a referral to a physiotherapist, but it's $70 per visit, and that's a week's worth of groceries for us (I missed many things about study, but being a poor student again was not one of them).

TL;DR I'm back, baby! But I have awful knees and hobble around like an old man. At least I can still deadlift.

Congrats on getting back at it!

I finished my first race yesterday! It was supposed to be a 10-miler, but I downgraded to the 5K after two weeks of illness and a couple weeks of heavy work prevented me from keeping up with the training. First time I have ever run in any kind of race, and it was a beautiful day, cool and cloudy. This was the Cherry Blossom Festival race in DC, and the 5K track had us run along the Tidal Basin, then up past the Lincoln Memorial, around the Kennedy Center, and back.

(For those who haven’t been to DC, the festival is a celebration of the gift of a bunch of cherry trees from Japan to the US early in the 20th century. These trees are all around DC, especially including in the Tidal Basin area, and bloom right around now).

Posted a time of 31:10, which feels great — and I totally think I can beat that if I run again.

Great work the both of you! Keep it up.

I hope they can sort your knee issues out, Unicycle.

LastSurprise: Not only will you beat it, you'll crush it!

I've been on the HIIT type classes at the gym the last couple of months but I had a day off so I went in and tried a couple of lifts.

Grip strength is *gone*. The rest of the body was cruising at 110kg deadlifts, but the grip was not up to more than 7 reps. Weird, but something to work on.

BoogtehWoog wrote:

Thanks for the replies!

How's everyone doing in their fitness journey? I'm still doing my weightlifting stuff, but I've also started doing a lot of stretching lately. I've went from not being anywhere close to being able to touch my toes to being close to putting my palms on the ground.

What about you all?

wickbroke: Always feels good when that happens.

Today I went to my town's community center and signed up for an entire year of membership, and then using the indoor track, started Couch to 5K from the beginning after months/years since I last did it. Previously, I used the (free) outdoor track, but I know how I am. Once either the intense heat of summer or freezing cold of winter hits, I have trouble maintaining my wish to go and swelter or freeze to death while trying to do a fitness program. The indoor track should alleviate this issue once the heat of summer hits, so I should have no weather excuse to keep me from being motivated. I also now have access to the weight room and to the various fitness classes they offer, but my primary "mission" right now is C25K.

My food issues are still rampant, but if I can get back into a real habit of exercise, then I'll be more motivated to deal with food. One step at a time. Everything fitness has really fallen apart the past year plus months due to so much (primarily good) life transition. It also doesn't help that I'm in a situation now where I have obligations to attend a lot of "fellowship dinners". Still...one step at a time and I've made at least one good step today.

Bruce: Yeah, Bruce, grip strength is one of those things that can be awfully finnicky some times. Don't sweat it! Just keep it up.

Bekkilyn: Good job on getting the year membership! One step at a time. It is easier to get things squared away focusing on one issue before tackling the next.

So I met my goal for this week of going to the community center at least three times for C25K. I did "Day 1" all three days and will probably do it next week as well since I'm REALLY bad at running (people can walk faster than I can run) and it's been forever since I've done any running, and I listened to podcasts in the background. Then while spending about 15 to 30 minutes stretching afterwards, I did some catching up on my YouTube "Watch Later" list. The whole thing felt very meditative so I'm looking forward to going back next week. It's really nice that there is a locker room and everything there too.

The whole thing felt very meditative

I struggle with attention a lot of the time and have been told to meditate. That doesn't work for me, but gym does. It's just you, some tunes, and seeing what your body can do. Nothing else clears my head in the same way gym does. It very much is meditation.

Though lately, I've been introducing a younger friend (18) to lifting. It's great having a gym buddy, and I'm so proud with how quickly he's learned all the big lifts. But gosh I miss the "me time"! I'm sneaking to the gym right now, though, to have a bit of heavy-weights-and-loud-music meditation. See you on the other side!

A_Unicycle wrote:
The whole thing felt very meditative

I struggle with attention a lot of the time and have been told to meditate. That doesn't work for me, but gym does. It's just you, some tunes, and seeing what your body can do. Nothing else clears my head in the same way gym does. It very much is meditation.

Though lately, I've been introducing a younger friend (18) to lifting. It's great having a gym buddy, and I'm so proud with how quickly he's learned all the big lifts. But gosh I miss the "me time"! I'm sneaking to the gym right now, though, to have a bit of heavy-weights-and-loud-music meditation. See you on the other side!

That's why even though people say to have a workout buddy, I've never seriously tried to find one because I really don't want to be social when I'm doing fitness related things unless it's when I'm taking a class. Wednesday was pretty annoying with two men (at two separate times) making comments at me (which I pretended not to hear as I had headphones on and was listening to stuff) and a woman who was walking faster than me, and when she walked up behind me and passed, she suddenly said "hello" in a loud voice and nearly scared the dickens out of me because I was focused on what I was doing. I just hate that! It isn't meet-and-greet time!

A_Unicycle wrote:
The whole thing felt very meditative

I struggle with attention a lot of the time and have been told to meditate. That doesn't work for me, but gym does. It's just you, some tunes, and seeing what your body can do. Nothing else clears my head in the same way gym does. It very much is meditation.

Yup! If I go into the gym in a bad mood, I generally leave in a better one.

bekkilyn wrote:

So I met my goal for this week of going to the community center at least three times for C25K. I did "Day 1" all three days and will probably do it next week as well since I'm REALLY bad at running (people can walk faster than I can run) and it's been forever since I've done any running, and I listened to podcasts in the background. Then while spending about 15 to 30 minutes stretching afterwards, I did some catching up on my YouTube "Watch Later" list. The whole thing felt very meditative so I'm looking forward to going back next week. It's really nice that there is a locker room and everything there too.

Congratulations!! How's this week going?