thread of getting sw0le

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.

i signed up online for new gym closer to my house and hopefully free of fanny packs but i'm scared to go for the first time :)

Going to the gym in the winter is so hard. It's so cold and dark and snowy outside and just gross, and everything takes so much more effort.

After about five years of going consistently at least 3 times a week, I feel like I'm in a limbo now. I can't muster the energy to go four times a week the way I used to, or to push as hard as I used to, so I'm not seeing the same returns. I don't want to stop going, because I don't want to fall completely out of shape, but I'm also not getting the satisfaction of looking and feeling fit, of having accomplished something. The gym is just sort of a chore now, something I need to do but take no satisfaction in.

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

― assawoman bay (harbl), Saturday, November 11, 2017 6:16 PM (one week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol btw

that's a bummer, evan. maybe time for a month off? like a big deload? or try something totally different for a while. swim, try the olympic movements, idk. winter does suck.

Yeah swimming isn't a bad idea. Maybe springing for a pricey membership at a gym with fun amenities (classes, b-ball courts, etc) will spur me to go more. Or just the sheer guilt trip of having a very pricey gym membership might.

I'm terrified to think of what would happen if I took a full month off. I feel like I'd lose all the gains I made (which already feel so fleeting as it is). But just going to maintain isn't very satisfying.

you won't. maybe you're doing too much or not eating enough. try to do less. i've been feeling especially brain-fogged in the gym lately and my brain isn't connecting to my muscles. i resolve to try to do less in december.

anyway the new gym was pretty awesome. 4 squat rack/platform set ups so i don't have to wait, hopefully, and maybe my squat will get better. they have 2 prowlers and 2 new rowing machines and step mills which have always been intriguing to me because i love any kind of conditioning torture but don't do it enough. i feel un-demoralized. the y was bringing me down. i think i'll buy some new gym clothes. the only thing they didn't have (and some stuff was still in progress bc brand new gym) is those plyo-box things i was using to get up on the bar to do negative chin-ups. i'll probably just stand on the safety arms of the rack like a monkey.

prowlers! that makes me feel like this gym is on the right track.

thank you Ed for the onitsuka tiger rec, they are very comfortable. i can lift again but tennis is still some way off. post xmas probably in all honesty.

i should correct myself i believe they are technically sleds. they have poles sticking up though, might be these https://www.roguefitness.com/rogue-echo-dog-sled

fuck i want to use one of those

status update: my pullups are up to 20kg between my feet @ 3x5

so if anybody needs small dog rescued from a pond you know who to call

re: conditioning torture it's still hard to beat the ol' versaclimber aka that one machine that's always available for a reason

Having tried out the squat rack a couple of times, I realised I've been having trouble balancing on the squat - I keep feeling like I'm going to rock backwards. Could this be because I'm wearing running trainers?

maybe, but probably your form isn't quite right

can you do bodyweight squats without feeling that way?

no, not really. I still rock back

either that, or i get told i'm sticking my knees out too far forward

that's a flexibility thing i think. keeping your knees behind or just at the level of your toes, keeping your feet flat on the floor, stomach and back tight, driving down through your heels, feeling solid and not tippy. is what you're going for.

it's what they tell me! but i just find myself rocking back on my heels. possibly a flexibility thing as i've had painful hips for a while now that's exasperated by something i do at the gym. i just can't keep my feet flat

not everyone can keep their knees behind their toes due to skeleton. can you goblet squat? it will work on your flexibility and having the weight in front will keep you from rocking back.

yes that is a good idea!

really think about spreading your knees as wide as possible too -- narrow knees will push your butt back (try squatting with your feet/knees planted together for illustration)

my gym relocated to a different part of the building in order to expand and hoowee

there are eleven (11!) squat racks now

this morning was the first time i'd been back in yonks and i've lost like 40# on my squat :((((

it'll come back quick, do not stress

it was a lil demoralizing though i gotta say

Dog Latin: first of all, be patient and persistent. Squat form can take a lot of time and practice to get, even on a basic level. Second, using flat shoes (chucks) and eventually switching to socks only made a huge difference in my stability, although I fall forward rather than rock back.

It snowed therefore only like 3 people in the gym. I’ve been doing my best squats ever. Squats without frontiers, rows without tears

lol

I bench pressed 100 lbs finally. Sad!

Thanks for the tips guys. Every time I think I've mailed the squat, someone seems to come along and say 'no no you're doing it all wrong, here let me help's and it just puts me off. I'll be persistent and keep trying. Yes goblet squats seem a bit easier

hold the kettlebell/dumbbell right against your chest and it's almost impossible to have the wrong form

105 lbs. i have been getting so stronger this month. new gym has helped immensely. 3 flat benches and 4 squat racks = i have never ever had to wait or been rushed. let's see how it goes after january 1.

while i was benching two dudes came to squat and one was talking about how his knee is fucked up so he can't really squat. it was just posturing. these were the worst squats ever. i thought they would both snap their spines in half. i keep thinking about how males are given this veil of expertise about lifting and how women are harmed by always being taught they can't do it, ask a man. one of them brought his gf and she was trying things and he was giving her the worst advice. every time i see a girl trying to learn from her boyfriend i feel sad. yesterday a scrawny guy was helping his girl leg press and he told her "i can do like 600 pounds." i want to whisper in their ears "don't listen to him, he doesn't know shit."

Yeah, any dude impressed with himself for his leg press numbers has no fucking idea. FWIW I see a lot of women at my gym who are beast at lifting.

The other day I saw a dude doing these weird half-squats where he went up on his toes at the top of the squat. No idea whether that's a real thing or not but it looked kind of funny.

I recently (sorry to be gross) had a cyst drained that was next to my shoulder blade. It had become quite large and inflamed. Ever since that huge lump is gone my lifting is much better, hadn't realized how much it was impacting my mobility. Today got my deadlift back up to 305 x 3.

sometimes i browse ilx and get nostalgic for fannypack stories?

i kno harbl is better off in this other place but still

the women in my gym who do lift are better at it too. there was another girl in the corner after them and i was like wow perfect.

i often daydream about seeing fanny pack on the street and him asking me, "where did you go?" and i say "oh, i switched gyms, too many people were talking to me at the y all the time" and he'd be too un-self-aware to get it.

ha classic fanny pack

Overhead press is back to 135 x 3, and I got my squat to 205 x 5.

So I’ve been torn for a while between strength gains and fat loss. Since I started lifting I’m up from about 170 to 193, and while a lot of that is muscle I haven’t lost fat and may have even gained some. It seems like it’s prerty hard for a guy in his late 30s to lose fat and build muscle at the same time. One thing I’m thinking is just to get my lifting numbers up out of the “novice” range and to respectable “intermediate” numbers, then just focus on maintaining my numbers and losing fat — more HIIT or whatever, less lifting.

eat right, that is the only trick, everything else will fall into place. don't worry about the insane amounts recommended by gomad bros

Maybe so, but I find it very hard to eat enough to gain while losing fat. IIRC we are different body types and I'm starting out from a tendency to have a gut, whereas I think you're a naturally thinner dude.

you can eat a lot it just needs to be good real food iirc

i may not be the best guide though because i have kind of given up "gains" as a goal and am just working on lifting more weight.. the two are not unrelated obv and my progress is slow but i'd rather go a bit slower and not have to worry about some weirdo bulking regimen. i do eat more than i did before but it's p much all good food, no shakes, no calories for their own sake

Met a trainer today and he basically said I could gain strength and lose fat, but not gain muscle mass and lose fat. I figure that's a good goal for a while, since I feel like my body fat has gone a little too far, not to mention the whole "slippery slope" of fat gain. I have room to improve in my lifts without needing more muscle mass. He also said I should be eating like 200g protein (I weigh 195) and I'm just not sure how to achieve that except multiple servings of whey powder per day. Guess I need to keep some at the office.

He also checked my overhead press, squat and deadlift. Squat he had me switch to low bar and it was a revelation, so much more comfortable for me. Deadlift he got me to fix my form pretty much instantly -- brought my feet closer together and the bar closer to my legs and was able to convey how I could tighten my back more and lock out better at the top. The whole thing about "dragging the bar up your legs" is right.

My overhead press is pretty much fine according to him, and that's also my best lift, the only one where I'm getting pretty close to "intermediate" standards.

FWIW yesterday I accidentally bench pressed 10 over my prior best by accidentally adding 35s on the set where I meant to add 25s. I had previously done 195, hit 205.

yay!
i have a cold
i was in line at the fancy costco today and a guy (older) told a kid (~22?) who had whey protein in his cart about how milk is a KNOWN CARCINOGEN and it's DOCUMENTED and he would never do that to himself or his family. i didn't hear how this conversation started but i know the kid did not ask him. what an asshole. i hate that costco because i keep going there because it's bigger but they never have what i want somehow. like this one replaces the conventional things with organic. howard county, md. so special.

sorry abt yr cold harbz

kid at work tried lecturing me abt milk too (he overheard me saying i drink 1gal of milk a week which doesnt seem like a lot to me anyway)

then im like

dude you fucking smoke cigarettes on your breaks

what a dickweed