thread of getting sw0le

Saw this at the gym today and... idek pic.twitter.com/3jOrgGm5uO

— . (@labakasura) June 23, 2019

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

― lag∞n, Thursday, June 20, 2019 4:23 PM (five days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah, in addition to youtube videos of how to lift things correctly, watching compilations of gym fails (like the one lagoon posted above) can be instructive in their own way. You can say to yourself: "here is what it looks like to not know at all what you're doing at the gym. I have at least watched a few videos about proper form and technique and will not be pulling any of this weirdo shit."

careful tho some of those are pretty gnarly lol

here's the times article on corepower:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/06/style/corepower-yoga-teacher-training.html

there's also this:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/corepower-yoga-instructors-sue-americas-largest-chain-of-yoga-studios-for-underpaying/

oooh

i've been having some trouble with gym in 2019. more sitting (for some reason idk yet) at my new job location has made me stiff and i feel weaker. could be getting old. i had not gone in several days and went last night, just made myself do 5 things and leave. i did feel better but decided i'll just go do whatever i feel like for a while. don't push it, grandma. blehhhhh

I am too impatient for yoga but when I do it regularly my posture becomes so good I feel like I am two inches taller. Also it's so much easier to sit with my legs completely together that I wonder if men manspread not because of a big ball problem but because they lack the flexibility and strength in those muscles.

― Yerac, Monday, 24 June 2019 8:47 AM (three days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The answer to this is my own cult - Pilates. I'm just back into doing it after 6 months recovering from my snapped tibialis anterior tendon. I am less degraded than I though I would be and muscle memory appears to be strong. The challenge is persuading the instructors at my new studio to ramp things up more quickly. One, at least listens. They also seem to be members of a sub-cult, called Basi, which is much more hands on and breathing oriented but I'll stick with this studio till I move out.

There's a lot of work on hip flexors and abductors which (for me at least) are neglected and undiscovered muscles. You may be right about the man spreading thing.

Finally broke my old best/bad form squat (180, I know, not great) with good form for 3x5- if I can keep up linear progression next week I'll finally squat more than my body weight for the first time ever

that’s awesome. don’t get too hung up on exact weight- it’s different for everyone. ones own body weight is a good benchmark.

c&jed a plate today, went up p easy, my form is still trash when i lift heavy tho just get no depth total power clean

its interesting when i started doing the lift it was blowing up my mid back and now its more hitting my shoulders, works i guess

Just missed the body weight squat- managed two decent sets of 190x5 at 192.5 and a third set of 3. Keeping the load the same for next week, but soon

though of course the yoga world is just as rife with creeps and scammers as the rest of fitness, isn't corepower basically a pyramid scheme?? how did you all navigate that world and learn what you needed?

i started going to a studio where i knew one of the teachers already and it turned out to be a great place, my method was to just show up to level 1 classes (some of the instructors w/iyengar background were really helpful) and accept that i was going to be terrible at it and frustrated for awhile. but also i wish i had realized that if twisting or folding a certain way hurts your back, don't force it - used to manage to injure myself approx every 4 months when i first started. and now i just don't practice shoulder stand or any of the neck stuff at the end of class, i don't even work on headstand because of the neck strain - i don't care if the teacher says they're important poses, i will def hurt myself doing these.

been reading this thread thinking i should start lifting weights a little bit, my building has a gym but i avoid because i have no idea what i should be doing there and it's really intimidating! i take some pretty difficult vinyasa yoga classes multiple times a week & run occasionally, so it's like.. i don't really NEED to for general fitness but from just yoga i'm never going to get enough upper body strength to be able to do arm balances.

yeah do it youll pick up lifting quick if youve done a lot of yoga, watch youtubes on high bar squat, overhead press and deadlift imo

yes, it is nothing to be afraid of. do overhead presses and my favorite dumbbell bench press and one arm dumbbell row. the more often you do it the more your body just tells you what is the right thing, imo.

i wonder what exercises you'd want to do to make arm balances easier though? push-ups, dips & pull-ups?

I committed the cardinal sin of staying in the gym too close to closing time, on a holiday no less! Looking at the TV between sets of dips I overhear someone saying "He's just fucking sitting there, watching Spongebob"--wait, I'm watching Spongebob! Panicked look around the room, it's deserted and 3 minutes to closing time and I've never hustled out faster or avoided eye contact with the staff more studiously.

lmao

Yeah, there's no crime in going to the late shift, but you are definitely going to be judged on the efficiency and intensity of your workout by tired staff.

getting yoked u guys, think im eating like 2x ad much as i was before i started lifting again

It's a neat feeling to add some weight to your deadlifts and realize during the first rep thereafter that right then, at that exact moment, you are certainly lifting more weight than you ever have in your life.

so liiiiiiiiiike i did it
i joined a gym
and i'm kind of going
it's terrifying a man came up to me yesterday and asked if we could share the incline bench press
i was like just take it

lol I've been on both sides of that type of exchange.

i'm near or past my peak with deadlifts, squats, bench press, shoulder press. this week my energy's been down though and i barely scraped through leg day today. it's time for a light week.

i been there, hoss

get sleep, listen to the bod

I did my first deadlifts and back squats after taking a few months off to let my back recover. Only went up to 245 x5 on the DL and focused like crazy on form, same with squat (185 x 5). Was able to squat to parallel with (afaict from my iphone video) no lower back rounding, which is a big deal for me since I've struggled for years.

Honestly just nothing else motivates me to go to the gym like lifting and nothing else is satisfying.

ha, I really want a video to check my form, but I don't know how best to go about it. Some guy actually brought a tripod in and set it up to the squat rack and it just seemed a little much

I've been out of things for a few months myself and it's been absolute misery. I had been trying to do my own PT at home for what I thought was a deltoid injury. Finally, the pain and lack of mobility got too much to bear so I went to see my PCP. He's like "that injury is more in your bicep." So I'd been stretching all the wrong goddamn muscles this whole time (for the most part). Immediately switched to some exercises recommended for biceps and feel 80% better. Hope to start lifting again soon, because not doing it has been the worst.

ha, I really want a video to check my form, but I don't know how best to go about it. Some guy actually brought a tripod in and set it up to the squat rack and it just seemed a little much

― Dan I., Friday, August 16, 2019 9:49 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Yeah, it's hard to find a way to do it, I usually just lean my phone against something. Tripods in the gym are like rolling backpacks -- they deserve to be clowned even if they serve some legitimate practical purpose.

yeah lean it against something, i took (slomo) video of my c&j just yesterday, lot to work on lol

hmmm i should really do the video thing. i see a lot of people doing it lately. seems like a good idea.

Took the summer off of weights due to injury and have been running + yoga and man, do I miss the weight room. My PT said I am squatting too low, and doing the butt wink past a certain point and that I need to come up at about parallel even though I do high bar squats, so I guess when I do go back to it I'll have to sort of re-learn the movement. I got used to a sort of hamstring bounce out of the hole which allowed me to probably lift heavier than I should have been, I guess. I'm still going to try to work in a day of yoga every week as I really like it and feel it has been very beneficial.

i've tried just doing yoga and running and i last like a week, can't not lift tbh. but lifting without the other two mixed in regularly though is.. like cooking without salt and pepper, or something.

my gym has a copy of 'becoming a supple leopard' which i should really look into more, it seems good. the squat diagram suggests spreading your knees a bit, which i've been doing lately and liking - my knees feel better protected, base is more stable and i've bumped up a few lbs.

is the 'butt wink' like a downward dip in your tailbone?

no its just when a butt winks at you

Yeah @ the downward dip. The PT said it doesn’t automatically result in back problems but I guess it puts you lower spine in a vulnerable position. She told me to warm up for squats by doing this thing where you tie a taut band around a pole (or squat rack) and then around your thigh where it creases at the hip and do this almost child pose thing.

Lol I felt "young again" the day I squatted but the two following days I've been so fucking tight. Still, no lower back pain so I think I'm good. I may just need to strengthen my hip flexors.

hip ilxors got your back

My PT said I am squatting too low, and doing the butt wink past a certain point and that I need to come up at about parallel

ok, so I know that I butt wink when I squat. So stopping at parallel is a recommended fix for that or something?

She pressed a broom stick against my back, had me do a squat, and said I should be stopping at the point where my lower back doesn’t touch the stick anymore - if that makes any sense. For me that’s just lower than parallel.

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ya'll pigeon pose is the best

Man, I love the particular soreness that comes after a heavy barbell workout -- it feels like rippling hulk muscles are growing just under the surface and are going to bust out any moment

it's fun but deep soreness you know? time for another light week.

Been trying a wider squat stance with some success, also focusing a lot on bracing and tightening my upper back. Form looks better in the videos I take of myself. I also feel my inner thigh muscles a lot more after -- I think I probably have a little imbalance and this may be helping to correct it.

Suddenly the squat changes I’ve made gave me a breakthrough today (in combination with greater frequency and more sleep) and I was able to do 245 x 5. Generally going to the gym more frequently has been helping me and I feel less sore rather than more as my body seems to be adjusting.

nice

Two weeks ago I got a new-to-me ACL and this point it is hard to imagine that I will ever bear weight again, much less squat. BUT I SHALL. OH I SHALL.

In the meantime my PT is leg raises, which I do while imagining I am 1980s Jane Fonda.

Deadlifted 325 today and was also able to do my best match grip set ever - 255 x 5