thread of getting sw0le

I do 12/10/8/6, increasing 5kg per set, and if I get the last set clean I do a final set to failure and increase the starting weight next time. It works extremely well for me. I'd rather get stronger and bigger than know "how much can you deadlift, dudebro?!?" but that's just me.

i think i need some suggestions on how to get rid of fanny pack. i can't take it anymore. tried to go even earlier yesterday so he wouldn't be there but i was wrong again. he immediately approached me to talk about the weather and ask if i am on a different "program" (no, go away). then he was telling some kids that "at a different gym" he used to row the 110 lb dumbbell but they only go up to 100 here so "this is just a warmup for me." the way he does rows i am surprised he has any elbows. he is too small to be doing that, too. he then comes up to me again and says that he is inspired to do some squatting after i'm done but he needs to do some running too, it's ok because he's used to it. he used the bar pad and rapidly quarter squatted 95 lbs, the same amount he was rowing, fanny pack bobbing up and down all the while. i was cringing too hard to look at him and didn't want him to see me in the mirror. i just know it was bad. something is wrong with this guy, in his brain.

i wish i had advice but i don't. boundary-free weirdos are the worst and they often seem to like me :/

i feel like i should learn cleans but i'd really like to be coached through that

Man, I was feeling all happy for having dropped 5 lbs just from adding a 7 minute walk into my work commute and virtually halting my beer consumption but y'all are several levels beyond that

Maybe by 2019 I will feel not-gross enough to go back into a gym

not trying to get all self-help on the thread but this is a thing i have learned: if i wait until i "feel like it" or feel not-gross, i will never go, because i will never feel like it and i am always gross. i have the worst procrastinator brain of anyone i know but i have managed to train it to ignore most excuses not to go. also i reminded my brain enough times that calendars and weeks are fake, so that i will not say "i will start over on monday" (this may be why the gym is the worst on mondays?), *now* is a suitable time to start over always, and levels are fake. there is always someone 900 levels past me but i am also 1 billion levels ahead of my former self, because my levels are miniscule. YOU CAN DO IT! i mean even once a week is several levels up from 0 times.

i had the best time at the gym today

^^^extremely valuable post

Sure is. Also, starting this stuff makes you feel better before you look better, which makes you look better, which makes you feel etc.

good post harbl

welp i've got plantar fascitis :/

ugh so much suck, sorry man. Takes forever to heal. What's your game plan?

lots of stretching my calf and heel. elevating my foot when i can. laying off the squats :( :( :(

there seem to be equally vociferous schools of thought about arch support. one side says you need srs orthotics and never walk barefoot; the other side says barefoot all the time or those vibram toe-sock things (i'd rather just go ahead and die)

sorry about the squats :(

i did not accomplish a chin-up by my birthday but i did do 3 sets of 3 45 lb db bench presses. the last rep of the last two sets was a bit ehh but still solid.

damn sorry tracer :(

yeah it's pretty maj!

i'm choosing to see it as my body telling me to focus on something else besides lifts for awhile. and stretch more. and learn better posture. it's all connected. what's bumming me out the most is i basically can't run. which is a problem for playing tennis, or football w my kids. when i was little my dad was best friends with a guy who wouldn't play b-ball with us because he had "bad feet". i wonder if that was this. i am just going to be diligent with the stretching and rolling (a baseball under the sole is perfect) for the next couple of weeks and see where i get to. i don't have a lot of the other stuff that can exacerbate it like being overweight, having a bad diet, fallen arches etc, so i'm optimistic.

harbl sounds like you unlocked BEAST MODE

i did HOT YOGA yesterday w my gf and got owned pretty thoroughly

one of the things that was the hardest and hurt the most was what it did to my feet -- weak feet are a thing

anyway point is do yoga i guess

tracer all you have to do is skip leg day

i'll be the guy with massive pecs hobbling after my young son

https://thumbs.gfycat.com/InstructiveAdvancedCicada-size_restricted.gifhttps://thumbs.gfycat.com/InstructiveAdvancedCicada-size_restricted.gifhttps://thumbs.gfycat.com/InstructiveAdvancedCicada-size_restricted.gif

it me

(the dog, obv)

tracer foot

I also have the plantar fasciitis and aside from spikey balling the foot, which is your number one friend, I also use the double balls on the back of the leg to release the tendons. Something like this:

https://m.ebay.com.au/itm/Double-Lacrosse-Ball-Mobility-Myofascial-Trigger-Point-Massage-Ball-Gym-Physio-/131774181321

I’ve pretty much given up on wearing any shoes without arch suppport and any shoes that aren’t ASICS/onitsuka tiger, which seems to have a arch support that fits my feet quite nicely. I’ve put arch supports in my dress shoes but I’d rather just wear purple sneakers with a suit and not risk my feet flaring up.

i want to play tennis again :/

I’m playing ultimate frisbee with no ill effect, although if I’d done this when I first got the PF I’d have been on crutches. Lots can be done to strengthen the feet - my osteoporosis recommended some good exercises but I think Pilates has done more for me because I’ve done more of that.

I’ve had people say good things about Barre and dry needling but haven’t tried either.

hips aching like crazy again. been running more (on the treadmill), probably about 5km at a time for about 25 minutes, once or twice a week but the joints in my hips at the front are basically screaming when i walk around the next day. is this common? and can i do anything to ameliorate it?

does it hurt when you run not on the treadmill? i hate treadmill.

I find i can do a few runs and feel slightly sore, then one day I'll wake up the next day and I'm aching like crazy and it takes a long time to go away. not sure if it's muscle pain or joint ache but it's at the front of my hip where the top of my leg connects. it happened a few months ago so i stopped running. it took weeks to go away and never fully disappeared but after a while i felt like i was ready to start again. small discomfort for a couple of runs and then boom, full blown aching again. I feel like there should be an exercise i can do to strengthen that part of my hip, or wonder if i'm running funny or doing something weird in the day that's making it happen.

i'm not a doctor but the solution to all problems is to get a bigger butt

today a young gym employee told me i should not lean so forward when i squat. i said i cannot squat upright bc i have long legs also i am low-bar squatting. later he was like so when's the next time you're gonna be here? lol i think he may be in college? i feel like a cougar. how do i tell him, i'm old

I had a great moment bench-pressing today. I was on my last set/highest weight, and I've been working on trying to get over the fear that the bar will fall on me, so I'm pushing it, and I give it one more rep, and one more rep, and I just make myself really fucking mad and get really determined and push through my last rep like crazy. I get up from the bench and this dude looks and me and goes "Yeah." And I'm like "huh?" And he goes, "Yeah. I thought you were gonna need help on that one, but you pushed the hell out of it."

that's a moonwalk-out-of-the-gym for sure

men explain deadlifts to me

no

did that happen

cuz ugggggghhhghg

i was quietly deadlifting and this guy doing that incline press thing that is on a hinge? plate-loaded, i'm blanking on the name, was like "bend down a little more. use your legs. you're doing great." this is again due to (1) i'm a girl and men are naturally more knowledgable about these things because ???? (2) i bend down exactly the right amount but because i am legs my back will be nearly horizontal unless i am squatting the weight up which is rong, and is what most men do when they deadlift but they are right bc they are men. i was like "um. ok." and kept doing what i was doing.

✊

it really bothers me sometimes. i am really smart, why would you assume of an entire class of humans that they don't know anything bc they are not a man

i have been liftsplained to as well fwiw but i have no doubt it happens much more w/in the particular dynamic you are describing :(

they are currently playing "boogie in your butt" at my work gym and i actually do consider this a health and safety issue. i literally cannot lift rn because i am laughing too much

such bullshit. no liftsplaining. i'm only tempted to do it when i see some dude bench thumbless. i don't want to see that shit.

my squat is still in the toilet and i have 0 insight why. maybe running is shredding my recovery? but my DL is still ok. maybe it's largely mental (i think this is the most probable). i just feel tired, stiff and a little freaked out under the bar, after like 2 reps. my plan is just keep struggling. if i get really frustrated i might try finding a good instructor, idk.

the only uhh socialization problem i have at my Y is unsupervised kids bopping around in the weight area.

also i think i saw a fight nearly break out, between two guys i didn't recognize. all of a sudden i hear a middle-aged guy on a cable machine say "yeah just walk away, after talking smart!" and the other guy, with headphones in, was indeed just walking away oblivious.

Suicide-grip is the best grip, though.

I've been brosplained a couple of times, but it was of the "you shouldn't squat so low" sort from half-squat Harolds.

One thing is giving unwanted advice. Topping it off with "you're doing great" is what would make me throw a dumbbell at them.

xpost: Taking a break from running always makes my squat numbers go up, fwiw.

squatting takes a lot out of me or needs a lot of stored energy to do. i can't bring myself to do it after a long day of work so i only do it on saturdays now. it's fine. i can't do as much as i should be able to at this stage but whatever

lol @ half-squat harolds

I've been doing a lot of my workouts in a little office gym that doesn't have proper lifting setups or bars, so I've been doing more dumbell and bodyweight and machines and trying to get as much out of it as I can. When I'm back lifting I actually notice it helps, e.g. I try to do at least 100 pushups total plus several sets of dumbbell presses when I do chest, and I find I now have more endurance for bench pressing.

i work out at lunch time. the times i tried after work i found the same thing you did, harbl, just nothing left in the tank.

my plantar is.... getting better! i reckon another month and it'll basically be gone.

sw0le friends

i pulled a groin and was out of commission for like 2 months, and will probably not get back to sw0le goodness til another few weeks

i feel almost recovered but i don't want to risk it because the internet, i've read horror stories on it

probably the most intense pain i've ever felt after getting my wisdom teeth removed and refusing to take pain medicine for it

I can get myself going in an after work or even night-time session...if I can actually get to the gym. The problem is more losing the motivation to even go.

i saw a centipede in the gym. he was working on his legs.