thread of getting sw0le

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.

that seems wise. im lucky to never have had any food issues and it would be a poor move to start hyper-fixating and nutrient-counting

just need to register that i can't believe i made it through leg day today, and it was a really solid one at that. fuckin colds can eat shit.

my squats are the best they ever have been. i feel like i'm finally using my quads properly, like they are popping into place and engaging through the full movement, extending to parallel, wrapping up in a teardrop, and the rest of my body is just following along. hip mobility and just the entire structure of my low back and hips feels like it has range of motion to spare. it's good. 5x4 @ 275.

what a feelingggggg

when you're squatting on the ceiling

i am going to get a session with a trainer to teach me good form for squats and deadlifts. still just using machines and dumbbells. mad that my gym is still on limited covid hours and i can't get in as often as id like. going about twice a week currently

need to do more core stuff.

i think there's some mystification around form.

"starting strength" is a silly book written by a silly man but there's extensive form discussion in there that i found very helpful. a little googling would probably dig up a pdf right quick

a lot of form is about mobility, and i hear that another really good reference / how-to on that + stretching and rehabilitation is Becoming A Supple Leopard. n.b. i've only flipped through it. i've never looked at starting strength.

i looked at becoming a supple leopard once to check its two-page section on squat form and it looked legit.

supple leopard is also a silly book/silly man combo but i got similarly useful information from it.

becoming a supple leopard is a funny name for a book. i might pick up both of those books from the library.

i could use some more suppleness

Oh man, I haven't read the name Kelly Starrett since the peak-Crossfit era. I wonder how many of those people have drifted into the defeat COVID with supplements grift...

His couch stretch is super useful if you drive a lot (or sit at a desk a lot, presumably)

I still watch his vids. He seems ok.

big strong muscle guys putting like 3x 20kg plates on each end of the barbell plus a couple of 5s and just leaving them all on there when they’re done.

yeah it's impossible for them to put away, too heavy. this is one of my biggest gym complaints. well the other day a guy was photographing a girl using an actual camera, during peak hours. so no one could use the turf area unless they wanted to be on her instagram i guess. no way you could have done this at 5 am or even 10 am, or just not done it at all.

i haven't seen anyone leave weights on in a while, thank god.

i was deadlifting a few weeks ago. there was a guy next to me, also deadlifting. i was doing sets of 5 at a weight, with straps. he got up to that weight and could not pull it up, without straps. i did one more set of 5. he came up to me, was very polite and said, "you're crazy strong, i was just wondering if you have any pointers." i told him to use straps. anyway, it felt good. the end.

💪

I've been consistently gyming it for the first time ever since early August. Feels good. I go 4 times a week, sometimes 5 but only do cardio stuff if I do that. Noticeable physical gains but no noticeable improvement in performance that I can tell. It'll be a long road I suppose, started from nothing (naturally slightly built skinny-fat dude in his late 30s is not a great base to begin from)

what do you mean by performance?

he means intercourse

lol

lol

lifting things hasn't gotten easier, I can lift more, was what I meant.

I have noticed a slight uptick in the last week mind you

im also totally slacking on core workouts.

jim you still doing your thing?

i've never really done hyperextensions regularly before but i've recently started doing bow pose and holy crap my lower back was / is underdeveloped.

i'm having some breakthroughs lately with opening my chest, engaging my mid back and tightening my lower core, all of which is to say .. having a more upright posture? feels good

is anyone still busy gettin jacked this winter?

I've had a shitty cold for two weeks which has kept me away but I'm really keen to get back at it.

i know machines are supposed to be bad but i have discovered the dip machine and i love it

nothing necessarily wrong with machines in particular for training triceps