thread of getting sw0le

do your squats and deadlifts yo

i do something pretty much like what carne asada posted there

i drink a lot of whole milk but that "gallon a day" business is crazy

i hit a PR last week! overhead press 100lb 3x5

did 2x2x2x2x2 of heavy box squats yesterday

Milo z. to thread he knows what's up

if you get annoyed by old dudes with wack form and young dudes doing curls, this thread is for you

if you get annoyed by people who don't squat past horizontal and put that foam roller thing on the bar, this thread is for you

my squat is good, my overhead press is feeble.

also my row form is pretty awful (via hilarious flexibility)

strict OHP always makes me feel so weak because i want to dip at the knees and get a little jump in.

about 6 months ago i could not even do an air squat to depth without falling over but my squat is pretty good now

are u guys gonna beat someone up

too old to get swole, but I support this thread

watch that lower back position, y'all

i am not getting sw0le, but i am getting fat. maybe i can get fat and sw0le.

Yes im always super deliberate on my lifts for fear of messing up my back xp

I'm just lurking here bc I'm somewhat interested, though I can barely lift my groceries

also bc cheering on harbl :)

i knew i'd hit some kind of beginner threshold for sw0leness when i found myself enjoying mark rippetoe youtubes for an hour at a time

haha otm

I recently hired a personal trainer on a contract for a tremendous number of sessions to ensure my commitment to working out, and despite certain small wrenches in the works, it's starting off nicely and making me feel good about the mid-term future of my physical and mental health. Last time I had a trainer I was only half-assing it (drinking tons (not drinking at all now) skipping sessions, not really 100% in the game) but the cosmetic results still blew me away. That's not what I'm in it for, and body definition is gravy that will make the other benefits extra good.

honestly part of the mental game with this for me was finally admitting to myself that yes, a strong minority motivation was 'cosmetic'

goole congrats on being sw0le :)

oh man i'm nowhere near my sw0le g0ls

learning to do olympic/power lifts *correctly* (or so i hope) in the past year or so has been really mind-blowing. sort of a light turning on: "so THIS is what it's supposed to feel like." I actually enjoy squatting, dead-lifting, and all that now. and i pretty much gave up any exercise that doesn't work at least a few muscle groups at a time.

i go to the gym every 4th day (doing yoga on the 3 days in between) and try to pack in the protein and i've never felt better in my life.

i think a big part of the mental game for me was that I realized for the longest time i'd actually do whatever I could to make things *easier* rather than build the foundations to really improve.

honestly part of the mental game with this for me was finally admitting to myself that yes, a strong minority motivation was 'cosmetic'

― goole, Thursday, October 25, 2012 11:01 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm

people doing curls make me literally vomit

yeah. those kinds of things are such a total waste of time. you drop all that and all of a sudden your workout takes a 1/3 of the time and is 10x more effective.

i've cut the weight in half or more on every major lift over the past year or two just to connect or reconnect with form / what i'm actually doing / why i'm doing it and it's made such a huge difference. also yoga 4 core 4 life.

xp i don't get curl hate. done right they're amazing. cable press-downs on the other hand....

i am kind of doughy at the moment because my gym is 10 yards away from ground zero in this video and was shut for all of september http://vimeo.com/48399328. it's really nice at the moment because a lot of the guys seem to have quit or moved to another gym.

one thing i like about gyms in germany is the squat racks are always free because people are either doing curls (lol) or doing serious calisthenics (some of these dudes are amazing).

going in a couple of hours actually. iirc tonight i will squat 5x5 175lb (i.e. 1xBW), bench 5x5 100, row 5x5 100.

seriously, everyone on earth should squat. this is key to universal consciousness.

squat. eat broccoli, quinoa and sardines. live forever.

and if i see you using the foam pad on your barbell during the squat then i hope you poop accidentally during your first set.

I go 2 gym and do not squat, I have had back problems in my life and am worried about technique

start by doing 'air squats' ie no weight

when those get ok start with an empty bar. that's 45 lb, you could even start by holding up a couple of small dumbbells

i have bad knees (poss hereditary) and fear doing any leg-related lifts

yeah I do air squats already

when squatting to proper depth your knees are not being taxed so much xp

unless you have disk problems, i think squat is pretty a low risk exercise for your back. all the weight goes straight down your spine. there's not much torque. maybe give it a try with an unloaded bar to see how it feels.

saw a calisthenics guy do a one-handed chin-up last week btw. wanted to cry.

yeah make sure you don't stop your squat half-way, that is bad for your knees

i have 'bad knees' and they've never felt better after a year of this

i have turned around halfway when i've had to on a weight. it was agony. i have no idea what those guys who go to like 30 degrees above horizontal think they are doing.

xp otm. squats are good for strength but they are #1 for knees, groin and lower back stability

when i've had to bail on a weight, i mean.

lol i totally use the foam pad. i used to be so anti-foam pad but now i'm more anti-sores on my back.

xp goole caek carne asada otm, keep the weight off/low, keep tight form go low and back/knees should be ok.

what were you lifting to get sores?

it's spine/neck contact, guess this means i should take off the pad and get the bar where it's supposed to be.

low-bar position will fix that but it does take some getting used to

yeah i had the same issue until i figured out the right place to rest the bar

yeah i think part of the problem with the pad is it means the bar is less stable. it's kind of like people who wear gloves and running shoes. the barbell is the size it is for a reason, and unless your body is unusual proportioned, you're screwing that up.

congrats on your PR too, map!

thank you! i had a recent pr on my squat, 355, and finally did a 500 pull on the deadlift. now to get back to a 315+ bench.

you know you're winning the arms race when you're putting dumbbells back on the rack and you overhear someone make a comment about your "overdeveloped arms". oh is that jerk-speak for "huge?" thanks loser! but for real never ever make comments about other people's bodies when you're at the gym, just a psa that i highly doubt anyone here needs to hear. a lotta wild bullshit at any gym! as much as i love lifting and as good as i am at ignoring everyone, sometimes the feeling of "god i don't wanna go in there today" is legit and needs to be honored. the gym circus is real and it mostly sucks.

oh shit i did 505 in july? how did i forget that. none of these exercises are making my memory any stronger lol.

do you keep a log?

i do.

my big one atm is doing sets of lock-offs with my arms at 90 and 120, all with weighted belt…. i am up to 60 lbs additional.

trying to teach myself to muscle up this year, know i am strong enough to do it but need to get the technique and motion correct.

Anyone every strained an oblique? I think that's what I did, trying to do a 10 RM on deadlift a week ago, I felt a little pop right in the left exterior oblique. And it happened on the 10th rep, I was so pissed and now I've lost a week of working out.

Jeff, I did that once about a decade ago. Can’t really remember how I came back from it but I did, and don’t remember it being a long recovery

like a week or two

2nd place in my bracket at the climbing competition last night :-)

also loved this article:

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/30/well/move/dead-hang-world-record-longevity.html?smid=url-share

Had my annual physical today and weighed in at the heaviest I have been since I was a fat kid in high school. Undoubtedly a lot of this weight is muscle, but it’s a little crazy to me to think about, and also indicative of how dumb the BMI scale is.

a few months into regular gym attendance and i've been knocked out for the last 2 days with what i assume is overtraining in yesterday morning's session. had no idea this was possible ffs

chills, fever dreams, the lot

careful. recovery needs are real.

lack of recovery has a cumulative effect that can hit hard; it also lowers your resistance to colds and other ailments that can make you feel even worse

tabes: i had a non-physical dr appt the other day and had a similar experience. my visit summary form even says “adult with obesity.” BMI is undoubtedly stupid/flawed but it still really threw me for a loop that i’ve somehow gained 50 lbs in the span of 5-6 years (only some of which is muscle)

it also lowers your resistance to colds

yep. this has been an issue for me. doing much better finding my recovery groove lately.

It's funny. I just started easing myself into lifting again a few months ago. I thought I was splitting up my workouts in a pretty safe pattern: upper body, lower body, a day or two of active recovery, repeat. It's been fantastic - I've actually been going to a fully-equiped gym rather than just using dumbbells at home or in the office gym, so I've been discovering muscles I never knew I had.

About 8 weeks into it, I got absolutely knocked sideways by a cold. Later than week, I was doing some reading, and came across the concept of "deload" weeks for recovery, where you continue lifting, but dial back the weight and intensity. How often to do these? Oh, roughly 4-8 weeks, depending. I'm thinking if I'd added one of those in, the cold might not have affected me as much as it did.

deload weeks are a great idea. am i ever successful at doing them? no haha.

i've started doing a thing that is really helping my lifting lately. imaginging myself as water. it might sound kind of weird but it's really making my movements smoother and making it easier to lift heavy weight? basically i'm a big blob of water and i'm directing the flow of it to different parts of my body. i gave it as a cue today to my client and i really liked what i saw. might be worth a try.

Map and his client:

https://media.tenor.com/9PvXbACkuX0AAAAC/the-abyss-abyss.gif

ngl, I'll give this a try though. We are mostly water, when you think about it, so why not?

this is probably one for the migraine thread, or the thread for ilxors in their 50s, but i've discovered that lifting heavy now really makes my shoulders tense, particularly shoulder presses. i get neck stiffness and migraines pretty regularly the next day. it's to the point where i've actually cancelled my gym membership and am doing mainly body weight stuff now. would really like to get back to it though, so i'm reading up and trying to figure out how i can keep everything limber and stretched out and pain-free.

I have had similar issues with climbing and such, I started doing regular neck stretches and exercises and it eased it quite a bit, maybe worth investigating

yeah i've started some stuff. a bit too early to tell but let's see.

did deadlifts for the first time in a while today and man, when done right it really feels like unlocking something in your body, dunno how to explain it but i always feel incredible after doing them

yeah it’s good