thread of getting sw0le

lol look it up it's a great exercise and you only use the bench to stabilize your foot

but bench press is for lames . when do i ever need to press something away from my body like that with such force, idk?

i might start doing a lift that involves throwing the bench out the window

I lying-down-press my kids all the time, they love it

the true functional strength

for real like 90% of the functional strength in my life is some form of throwing/swinging/lifting my kids.

Saw a guy benching 405 for reps at my gym. He looked like absolute shit. A good reminder that I’d be fooling myself to say I only work out for strength.

treat lifting like yoga imho

on a more keeping it positive note, on thursday i went during the day and found a 45-ish woman trying to rearrange the entire dumbbell rack. i am always going NUTS over people who put their dumbbells in odd spots, which results in others putting theirs away separately. she said "i can't be the only woman who hates this!" lol. i am not a neat person but putting weights back incorrectly really grinds my gears. but by today it was all messed up again. they did get a bunch of 2.5 increment dumbbells though.

― forensic plumber (harbl), Saturday, February 23, 2019 7:20 PM (three months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

a short time after this, perhaps because she or someone else complained, they put labels on the rack. i believe this may have made things worse. or more accurately, my perception of the dumbbell chaos is worse. you literally cannot put a dumbbell back in the correct place because it took no time at all for the chain reaction of wrong placement to fuck everything up. this includes people who decide to put, for example, one 60 lb db where a second 25 should go, and the next in the adjacent place for a 30. every time i try to put something back in the correct place i need to move on average 3 sets of dumbbells, and sometimes i just quit because i can't find the original wrong in that chain, if that makes sense. today for fun i moved around 55s, 65s, 85s, 20s, 25s, and 30s, just to put away the 40s i had used. people may think i am insane but i think this is RUDE. why would you put an 80lb dumbbell in the top rack where like a 15 belongs!?!?!?!?

that cld be yr workout

intensely relatable

I'm down 4 lbs and .7% bodyfat, woot

I've kind of had it with the powerlifting approach to lifting weights. I love powerlifting, but I just don't know if it's for me anymore. It's been a long erosion of my enthusiasm stemming from setbacks caused tby injuries - mostly suffered while doing heavy (close to max) lower body movements. I started lifting when I was in my late 30s, made great progress with Starting Strength, Texas Method, and 5/3/1. I think after the first 18th months or so, I suffered my first back injury. That put me out of business for two months or so, and set back my progress, but I went back even more determined to defy age and all of the people telling me I shouldn't be subjecting my body to that kind of punishment. I'd get back up to where I was before, pushing new 1RMs, get hurt, go back, and repeat. My lifting log is a chronicle of coming back from injuries. My form is good. I've always been a student of form - the beauty of a precise movement is one of the things I enjoy most about lifting. I'm an experienced lifter who has been lifting consistently for 8 years. I've had experienced lifters and coaches evaluate my form and and give glowing feedback.

In the last eight months or so, I've noticed nerve discomfort down my leg. I'm pretty sure it's sciatica, probably caused by a herniated disc which would explain a lot. I've scaled back - almost entirely gotten rid of - squats and deadlifts. Have been doing a lot of hill running, some sled pulling stuff as well.

Anyway, yesterday while at the gym getting read to bench press, I threw out my back putting on my fucking shoe. When you can deadlift 2x your bodyweight and throw your back out tying a shoe, the universe is telling you to take up yoga.

That was a good post for me to read right now. I've been having persistent mild pain in my lower back and right thigh lately (sort of down the side), and I've had more trouble bending. Deadlift has also taken a huge hit lately -- starts to get uncomfortable after I hit two plates and I've been doing a lot less weight as a result and doing it less frequently. I'm turning 40 this year and I'm not sure whether the combo of my sedentary lifestyle and powerlifting is going to be a good one well into my 40s. But I would really want to find something to replace it with. Maybe yoga ain't a bad idea.

yoga and weightlifting are very complimentary imo/ime, im glad were talking about this because it allows me to introduce one of my pet exercise theories, i think powerlifting is great it uses natural physical motions and by putting them under the stress of a lot of weights really gives you a good workout BUT using those same natural motions over and over again only strengthening along those axes introduces imbalances that can lead to injury ie making some aspects of yr body strong while others remain weak, yoga really makes a point of using yr muscles/connective tissues in all sorts of different ways twisting stretching contracting expanding and so forth, yoga is really effective at neutralizing imbalances / activating muscles that you havent been using due to those imbalances

also the experiences of yoga and lifting are very similar, if u like working on lifting form youll prob like working on yoga form

they both have the similar pitfalls of getting too ambitious leading to injury, imo theres no real point in trying to max out how much weight u can lift or getting super flexible in yoga, think its better to regard more as an opportunity to activate yr body and work on alinement/slowly work yr way through physical imbalances

they both have pretty ridiculous prob not totally healthy cultures around them tooooo

ive prob said this here before but imo injury prevention shd be the #1 goal of any exercise because if youre injured you cant exercise

be especially careful w the neck stuff that often comes towards then end of yoga class, thats where everyone gets bad injuries, lot of those poses straight up maybe just shdnt be practiced even tho theyre often considered the whole point of the practice

https://i.imgur.com/AYRd656.png

and then why not do a lil running, just run 3 miles, running form is fun to work on too

yeah, ideally I'd really like to both lift and do yoga. Hard to schedule.

Also def getting to the point where I feel like maxing out weight is diminishing returns. If I can lift 155 lbs over my head, what is the value add of getting that up to 165?

if u want to get into yoga best bet is prob just focus on it and drop lifting for a while, try to go to as many classes as u can, once u get some familiarity u dont have to goto a class to practice all the time cld even like do 30mins of yoga before u lift etc, tho its still good to check in w classes from time to time, also u dont need to do a ton of either to still see benefit, just need to be consistent 3 times a week or whatever, especially if youre not concerned w sick gains/becoming a human pretzel

i want to start doing yoga again but all the places near me have downright insulting schedules that seem predicated on the notion that no one has a normal job schedule. like, classes at 830, 1100, 3pm and 5pm? fuck you

joining a gym that has yoga classes is convenient

+think abt quitting yr job to focus on this stuff, work part time at a health food store

ive prob said this here before but imo injury prevention shd be the #1 goal of any exercise because if youre injured you cant exercise

this can't be said too often

making progress is always fun and motivating, but the compulsion to continuously progress toward some always-to-be-determined personal best/max is more dangerous than beneficial ... in the absence of other goals or ways to think about the activity, what else is there to stop the process except injury?

+think abt quitting yr job to focus on this stuff, work part time at a health food store

― lag∞n, Thursday, June 13, 2019 9:42 AM (two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

u might be on to something

personally i regard all exercise as an opportunity to work on form which isnt to say i dont like to go big but thats secondary and i try to work my way there slowly so when i do run 15 miles or w/e its not some epic strain

think of the health food job as preventative medicine

I've been having persistent mild pain in my lower back and right thigh lately (sort of down the side), and I've had more trouble bending.

Yeah, this sounds like where I was before the latest blow-out. I've been given some muscle relaxers and physical therapy exercises to try once the pain subsides a little. Simple mild stretches of the hamstrings and lumbar areas. Sciatica can be caused by anything that presses on that nerve, I think. One doctor I had a few years ago wanted me to get x-rays to check for spinal spurs, but I never did. The brutal thing about this is that it's painful to walk. This morning while walking to work, I re-aggravated it. I can't be missing work over this stuff.

Glad to read all of the advice and praise concerning Yoga. I've always been impressed by the form of lifters who do the olympic style lifts coupled with yoga. There's a limberness about their bodies that I want. If I have to stop focusing on 1RMs, I need something more than how many curls I can do before my arms fall off to keep me engaged in the gym. I've also considered adopting paused lifts as my main lifts and tracking things like rep maxes for volume and taking shorter breaks between sets. We'll see, though. Right now, I'm pretty sour on the whole thing and may just focus on running, yoga, and bodyweight stuff.

btw re obsession w form ive been watching sprinter training videos and these guys are so amazing just to watch do their thing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKsOBDthS9I

i love how the one guy an actual olympic medalist is a total space cadet but then when hes in his zone everything is perfectly coordinated

i was successful at rearranging all of the dumbbells tonight. very proud. found that a 30 was missing, probably left upstairs by a disgusting savage.

'Strong' app is great, but it's crazy expensive now. Can anyone recommend a good iOS weightlifting-oriented workout tracking app that is not subscription based?

just want to echo lag00n's recent posts about yoga itt.. all of what he is saying lines up with my experience doing both yoga and weightlifting... allowing your deeper body / connective tissue to catch up with the mass activated by weightlifting, going to classes for a few months then not having to go to a class except occasionally and designing your own routine, doing a series of poses for 20-30 minutes before you lift. other thoughts - yoga is fantastic with twisting motions, not something emphasized in most lifts - i'm lifting heavier than i ever have at the moment and my back feels like solid gold and it's totally due to the yoga i do nearly every day - if you're into how your body looks or muscle definition or bodybuilding or whatever yoga can be extremely effective at that kind of "sculpting" - practicing ujayyi breathing has given me a stronger core / better abs than literally all the cable crunches i have ever done - yoga can be very intense and difficult and it's really not "fluffy" or "relaxing" at all if practiced a certain way, it's very silly that it still gets "gendered" "female" and associated with "wholeness" and "spirituality" because the poses can have very precise effects ime.

yoga emphasizes creating space in your body, lifting tends to compress your body, another reason why they are made for each other.

hell yeah integrative strength training cru

hey guys, i'm thinking of joining my Crunch. i'm a p slim guy and i wanna tone up. wondering if this is even possible given that i'm a 30 something ex stoner and i eat like shit, but i might as well give it a try. will someone show me around the machines when i sign up? i'm totally clueless.

watch youtube video of how to do free weights start light until u have a feel for it f the machines theyre unhealthy, weights will help u tone up eating bad is not a huge impediment

thrusters are a nice lift

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

ah i didn't realize that about the machines. but benching is good right? i do pushups now and that's it.
is there anything specific you would advise i say when i sign up?

machines have their place just do not rely on them.

start light

This, for sure. Getting form correct so you can avoid injury is super-important. I fucked up on this a couple months ago and now I'm struggling with tendonitis PT and not lifting much of anything.

ok great to know. thanks guys.

the gym isnt gonna help u unless u hire a trainer but most trainers are pretty bad they just have u do a million different exercises and u never develop mastery over any of them, id say concentrate on a few lifts and try to get good at the form, compound lifts (aka full body) are better than isolation (targeting specific muscles), bench press squat deadlift overhead press are all good u can start out w light dumbbells and maybe work yr way up to working w the barbell if u get into it, youtube is the greatest learning resource in history, dont forget to warm up stretch do a lil running whatever take it slow try to be consistent etc and good luck, yoga will also get u ripped if yr gym has classes

yeah they do. ugh i'm so self conscious about this. i'm gonna look like a total goof, seriously scary lol. i think i'll probably enlist a friend to go with me the first time.

at any time like 80% of the ppl at the gym are in the same boat as u no one cares its not a big deal

and in fact watching ppl who are good at the gym can be very informative, so its a cool sitch/opportunity to learn

in that sense if youre self conscious going to a regular general purpose gym is good rather than a yoga studio or crossfit or weight lifting gym where the real experts hang out

but benching is good right?

no one exercise is right for everyone. you want to work each of the main muscle groups but there are many exercises for them. experiment, find what feels right for your body and what you enjoy doing.

i started lifting in my 30s and felt totally self-conscious about going so i know how you feel.

and yes, learn how to do compound lifts.

benching is good, but overhead press might be even better..........

also pullups