thread of getting sw0le

I actually have a whole bunch of tips on developing a gym habit, which I adapted in part from reading The Power of Habit. The principal is to eliminate as many "barriers" to going each time as possible so that it becomes more automatic.

1) The closer and more accessible to your home the gym is, the better. Ideally a few block walk if you're in a walkable area. The easier it is to get to the gym, the lower the mental barrier of leaving the house.

2) Find an activity you actually enjoy or at least don't hate, whether it's circuit training, spin, yoga, lifting, etc.

3) In the beginning, just making it to the gym and doing SOMETHING there is most important. If you're out of shape, the first couple weeks of workouts may be a little painful no matter what and you just have to get through them. But eventually you will develop more comfort with the exertion and be more able to get the endorphin rush of working out.

4) If you change at the gym, always have a gym bag packed and ready to go, like a go bag. If you change at home, always have a gym outfit readily accessible and laid out in view, socks, shoes and all.

5) If possible, put the gym on your calendar. Figure out in advance set times when you have no other commitment and it's easy to go -- could be early morning, could be work lunch. I personally do late night, although I don't recommend that if you can avoid it, since it's easier to cop out of a late night workout (for me it's the only time I can go and I relish it).

6) Set an alarm for those times on your phone, preferably with a separate alarm tone that you ONLY use for the gym. Immediately on hearing the tone, you grab your gym stuff and go. Pavlov. This will start to stick.

7) Immediately after your workout, eat something with a little bit of sugar in it. Not a donut, but maybe a piece of fruit. This creates a "reward" in your mind after the workout that you will come to associate with working out. Pavlov again.

i vote for a donut

man alive, those are great tips!

(boo-BOOO) It's the Seven Gym Commandments

another thing i don't really do anymore but that has worked is you might establish a modest goal such as 10 or 12 times in a month and keep a tally somewhere. leave room for another goal for the next month. if only i could do as well with cleaning my house or other necessary tasks.

this is good shit everyone

As a weird side effect of my habits, there's a certain iPhone ringtone that to this day makes me crave teryaki from the teryaki truck that was in between my old gym and my old office, even though I haven't worked there in nearly two years

This might not work for everyone

8) if you forget your gym stuff - go and buy a new set rather than miss the workout.

I’ve done this enough that pretty much all my gym stuff comes from the 2XU outlet by my old work. Luckily I haven’t done it too many times.

Yeah I agree with that -- especially if it's just one thing like socks or your locker lock.

i know everyone knows this but it bears repeating in the gym "motivation" conversation. for me, this is why the "i will do 3 things" is really effective if i have taken a week off and am suffering from no-gym inertia. i only choose basic things i find useful. it makes me hate it more if i do 7 things and one of them is calf raises. i will never have calves. i feel stressed and annoyed when i watch these moms working with the trainers at my gym (except the one guy who talked to me who does appear to do a good job). they have them all doing these boring unbalanced band exercises and planking forever. there's no way she's going to feel like she improved next time she comes back and you're doing another random thing. like, do some dumbbell benches and walking lunges and stuff that you will be better at next time you try it.

Finding it extremely difficult to not give up entirely after making no headway on flexibility, falling back into the same patterns of plateauing after getting back into the gym, and now having to take at least two full weeks off to recover from septum surgery. Starting to feel like at 35 and with the mobility issues I didn't fix in time I'm never going to get past beginner numbers for my compound lifts and that feels like absolute dogshit

whaaat you will do it if you lift and stretch. you will! i mean, probably. and even if you don't you'll feel better then not doing it at all, so..

took a break for about two weeks, lifted maybe 4 times therein. this week i'm going back at it with a daily split and last night i slept like 10 hours. i feel like 2 lbs heavier lol

https://lithub.com/on-oliver-sacks-obsession-with-weightlifting/

nice!

man, lifting just makes me so damn HUNGRY, no wonder I've gained this much weight -- I had 12 days away from it and my diet was just naturally so different. Day after first night back to lifting and I feel insatiable.

homina

Yayyyy, I've managed to injure my shoulder again! Impingement or tendonitis probably. Hopefully I can DIY some PT off of youtube.

hey everyone, some exciting updates

I've switched from curl ups to pull ups, I can do more pull ups than I thought I could (that is, more than 0) and it's really tearing up my back muscles in a good way, i guess it is the lat muscles? like my lats have been sore from I assume the pull ups in a way that they have never been sore and it feels good to work them

also took everyone's advice and switched from 3x10 barbell benches to that reverse pyramid jawn where I do 12, 10, 8, and 6 and add 10lbs after each set. I also spent a LOT of time yday reading about regular bench and incline bench form, and feel like I'm "connecting" better and have a better understanding of some things (like how the angle of the incline bench is a matter of preference depending on how much you want to work the chest and how much you want to work the shoulders). also keep reading tons of conflicting reports abt regular grip vs suicide grip, and my conclusion is that suicide grip prob hits some muscles a little better and is very slightly more "optimal" but the gains aren't worth the risk of a 100+ lb bar falling on your sternum from a height of a few feet? yes? I admit it feels better to do barbell benches w suicide grip but it also just like.... scares me

I was also doing both cable tricep extensions and skullcrushers but have nixed the skullcrushers and replaced them w chest dips which also is hitting my chest in ways that feel good

next week I'm going to reincorporate deadlifts after several months off which I am also stoked about, I tried to do it this week but after waiting like 20 minutes for the bar to be free I just gave up

working out is fun

i love that feeling you get when things just click

i have taken 3 weeks off just because i want to. i've done some running.

very exciting Steve!

im fully obsessed w the clean n jerk

and lasha is my god

http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=vLooIbVjGnE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLooIbVjGnE

he breaks his own world records here in both lifts and he does it by winning the competition w his first lift in both then breaks the record w the second and forfeits his third, gangster

and u can tell hes not that near maxing out even, insane

one interesting thing abt olympic lifting is the speed and how that relates to yr form, like im decently flexible in the squat i have good form and can get well below horizontal but what i realized is w an olympic lift because u have to get into yr squat almost immediately that yr effective flexibility only extends to where u start to feel any tension in yr form at all its where u start to stretch which is a wildly different spot than where u can get to slowly w some weight on yr back, so i have to be doing yoga to get more limber i feel, i did yoga today

also i wld like to say that i think power cleans are a disgrace not even trying to get under the bar its disrespectful

lifting makes me too hungry its a crisis

Back into physical therapy, taking it seriously and doing every damn exercise every damn day, and switching from an all-heavy all the time powerlifting approach to a bodybuilding program that has higher volume (4x week vs 3, which works better for me motivation-wise) and more room for adaptability to specifically target my issues. Switched from low bar squat to high bar to exactly parallel with knee sleeves and it felt like the best/most correct sets I have ever done in multiple years of frustrating squatting (side note: Mark Rippetoe can eat my entire ass), Romanian deadlifts to work on my weak posterior chain, and chest-supported rows to avoid overtaxing my lower back. I'm feeling good about this for the first time in a while; it also helps that I have a date to work toward (a beach wedding in September).

giving you creepy high fives through the internet as we speak

Rippetoe has his uses but ultimately I have been moving away from him too. It seems like he’s oriented toward the only goal in life being to lift the maximum weight possible while developing a body that looks like a walking beanbag.

i guffawed

Oh man, so much more too:
He's a shitty teacher, incapable of making a point succinctly
He routinely insults people on his forums (back when I still thought of them as a potential resource, whenever I searched for people with similar questions he would either ask "have you read the book" or say shit like "maybe you have ovarian cancer"- this is one of his favorites)
He's a right-wing creep

Fuck that guy.

im fully obsessed w the clean n jerk

― lag∞n, Friday, May 17, 2019 10:59 PM (six days ago)

love this lift ! when i was lifting a lot a few years back i put up #235 a few times

dang thats a lot a yoink

yeah man i was putting in a lot of time on technique and shit for whatever reason but i enjoyed it. Had my snatch lift up to almost body weight too .

sick! yeah im totally into the technique of it its fascinating, prob try to f w the snatch once i get some familiarity w the c&j

also i like that its lifting something off the floor over yr head its so fundamental, the technique is complicated and weird but its also actually a natural motion like u can figure out a lot just by feeling out what the best way to jump is which is just something u naturally can feel, just put yr feet in the best spot for jumping

its really interesting what a full body motion it is too i can feel it hitting weakness/imbalances in my body which is informative

also from a youtube video perspective the power lifting guys are so wack compared to the olympians, having a bar released from hooks w 20 guys spotting u how embarrassing

training footage is oddly mesmerizing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OL79TztUK-g

ts really interesting what a full body motion it is too i can feel it hitting weakness/imbalances in my body which is informative

― lag∞n, Thursday, May 23, 2019 3:18 PM (forty-nine minutes ago)

yeah also the effects practicing those explosive movements really had me feeling in great shape for sports and activities . the stresses on the nervous system are crazy too but you're body is better for it and obviously the flexibility aspect which is huge

pro tip - proper lifting shoes really make a difference

i dont think im ready psychologically for lifting shoes but if i keep it up maybe ill get there

re sports etc yeah it kinda feels like its the best exercise there is

as someone who dabbles in many types of exercise ive been of the opinion for a while that lifting is all things considered generally the best exercise which is not to say its the one i do or like the most and i think olympic lifting might be the best lifting

I just ordered some Adidas Powerlifts on account of my persistent ankle mobility issues with squatting fwiw, they arrive tomorrow. Lately I've been using plates under my heels but I feel like that creates its own problems and may be fucking with my lower back.

as someone who dabbles in many types of exercise ive been of the opinion for a while that lifting is all things considered generally the best exercise which is not to say its the one i do or like the most and i think olympic lifting might be the best lifting

Lifting is great but it takes a toll on the body.

kinda meant lifting the best bang for yr buck exercise fwiw tho maybe not exactly that or only that, ashtanga is great too i was doing a lil bit of it recently, feel like yoga is something ive told myself i shd get more into for like 15 years