I think that mowing the lawn for a good hour and a half should be considered a workout. I move at a good pace and when I get done I feel lighter and feel hungry even though I try to eat near the time I mow.
I am making my roommate lift with me today. I am going to take advantage of his company by going really heavy on chest. It's very rare these days that I have a spotter.
I'm jealous. I've gotten buddies w/ a dude who works at my gym so if he's around he'll spot for me but most strangers don't really exude "I'm up for helping out for 30 seconds" so it's not always possible to get a spot.
I've been resting for 2 days. 2 days is the most I have rested in a row in several months, and I'm considering going 3 because I've written a new workout that I'm going to try and it's brutal, I'm going to need to be 100% to even try it. I posted this as a note on FB. Nevermind the motivational intro, I wrote it right after the news broke I'll stick it in quotes...
New max yesterday, leg press: 460, cable curl: 185. Did over/under straight leg deadlift for the first time today in awhile. I'm thinking of transitioning from leg press as a lower body workout to dead lift. Managed a set of 6 at 210 after 3 or 4 sets of building up, hadn't done it in awhile. And in an obsessive drive for arm strength and ab definition, I expectedly lost some mass in my chest. I've dropped 2-3 lbs and correspondingly lost about 20 lbs on my benchmax.
Yeah, I have been putting a lot more effort into my shoulders, arm, and legs lately, and as a result my chest has definitely suffered.
Yeah, between an hour on the bike and deadlift and 2 or 3 rounds of tabata abs, my lower body is an achy mass of spasm... I think it's arms only time, today.
My dad is about to put his Bowflex back into the garage, so I can use it. Problem is that the DVD and poster is no longer with us and its an old model. How should I exercise day to day. Legs and back. Shoulders and arm Torso. Is there a better system?
Muscle rotation is one of those things people tend to over complicate - 90% of the importance is simply in the act of consistent rotation and avoiding overworking a muscle. Some fitness guides/programs have worked out these sophisticated models as far as "it makes sense to work your glutes THEN your hamstrings, or your hamgstrings and then your quads", so on and so forth. But all of those hyper specific programs are working on the last 10 or 5% gains when it comes to circuiting and rotation of muscle groups. The main things to remember are that the larger a muscle is the longer it takes to heal - and there are no hard and fast time periods. I think in Arnold's Bodybuilding Encyclopedia he cites 48 hours for big muscles (back, chest, quads) and 24 hours for small muscles (biceps, calves, traps) etc. Of course, some of this is kind of an academic distinction because many lifts are compound anyway and work a couple different muscles - in fact some of the BEST lifts are compound lifts, like power clean, snatch & press, etc. In general you should give big muscles at least 2 days rest and small ones a day; but that is assuming a certain level of exertion. Some people do a ridiculous amount of lifting only 1 or 2 or 3 days a week, whereas others (like me) will do a moderate or light amount of lifting 5 or 6 days a week. Once you get going you sort of start to develop your own metric for how much you've torn up the muscle and how much rest it needs +/- that 2 day/1 day guideline. On the subject of compound lifts (like olympic lifts like powerclean, snatch & press, etc), one of the things that I do to diversify my workout (and I mention it because it represents an exception to this rest rule) is that some days I will do a couple sets of an olympic lift but for weight that I don't consider super difficult; because in essence it becomes a high intensity cardio circuit; so I don't consider it a 'lift' in terms of whether I'm 'counting' those muscles as used that day, because I'm not pushing them to exhaustion, I'm pushing my BODY to exhaustion simply because they're fast, difficult lifts that use 80% of your muscles. I'll do em in the cardio regime of like 3 sets, 10-12 reps. Today on the other hand, I did them 'as lifts' - I did 3 sets of snatch & press for weight, something like 5-8 reps each. Saw a study recently that found that the calorie-burning effects of resistance training are something like 30 or 40% higher if a person works at least 1 upper and lower body muscle group in the same session; as in, people who worked 1 upper body muscle and 1 lower body muscle were found to have a metabolic rate 30-40% higher the next day than those who just did an upper body muscle; all assuming similar levels of exertion, dietary intake, age, other control factors. Thing I love about fitness is a lot of it's common sense - makes perfect sense if you think about this. If you've got muscles all over the body that are burning, demanding nutrients from the bloodstream, then you can imagine that your overall metabolic rate's going to be higher. Had a great workout today - finished up finals and papers and things so I really had all evening to just push and enjoy and relax, I love that feeling. I didn't even nail down muscle groups, I just did it all - biceps, chest, shoulders, abs, quads, snatch & press and 60m on the elliptical. New leg press max of 510! I was pumped about that. And snatched & pressed 100 lbs, barely. Came the closest to losing a weight as I ever have I think. Didn't mention a few other maxes recently - DB Flies with 60's yesterday, incline bench at 160 (my incline's always weak), and a decline bench of 230 a few days ago, that was awesome. Had a spotter, tho. Managed 200 today on my own. I only recently started doing deadlift - did 210 a few nights ago and 230 tonight and it was very hard, I think I will make very slow gains on that front. It's strange my musculature must've changed quite a bit since HS - I'm 26, but 10 years ago I could barely bench 120/130 (bodyweight), yet I could squat 275 and deadlift damn near 300. These days the upper/lower body strength thing has totally reversed on me. Got some new weight gloves too - with the built in wrist straps, bout $26 on Amazon. They're nice but they're very hot and very tight. I got mediums bc my Harbinger gloves were Medium but I think I should've gotten a large, and I do NOT have very big hands.
I stepped on the scale yesterday and got really confused. Apparently, I have gained 15 pounds since the last time I weighed myself on that same scale, which maybe a month or two ago. I'm not really sure where the weight is, though. I want to say that it's muscle, but I honestly have no idea.
That's cool, I just started a new goal today of gaining 15 lbs in the next 3 weeks. Sounds extreme but I'm eating like a horse and lifting like crazy. Lots of milk, eggs, pizza, ice cream, pasta, bacon, beef, chicken, fish, whey, that sort of thing. Even fast food is fair game - just no candy. The whole 'eat anything just lift like crazy' seemed to work for Christian Bale for Batman Begins, so... I was off my normal routine for about 2 weeks from having gone to visit the family after finals and then to the GF's for 10 days. Went to her gym but that was just to prevent complete atrophy, didn't accomplish anything major. My decline bench max dropped from 230 to about 200... but overhand pullup max up from 30 to 31 (marginal) and decline row up to 110 from 100. So back somehow stayed strong. Legs got stronger... leg press to 560 from 510. Did a shitload of walking through DC, probably why. But I'm at 140... down from 145 a few weeks ago when my bench and curls were highest. So I'm hoping to hit 155 in 3 weeks - at least 150. The eventual goal is 160 but GF is coming and that'll screw up my routine. Any major lifestyle changes and I just can't keep a crazy routine going. Taking some new stuff... bought some hydrolyzed whey formula and some more casein... so gold medal whey before workout, hydro whey after workout, casein and hydro at night... jacked, gatorade prime and creatine before workout... T-accelerant and Opti-Men vitamins at breakfast and dinner. Animal Pak after workout but before dinner. Eating every 2 hours (4-6 times depending on when I get up). Might pick up some more Nitrix, I always liked that. Counteracts the vasoconstriction in Jack3d and caffeine.
I stretch my muscles and do my leg raises and stomach crunches; and that's just the days when I don't work out.
I'm bored with my current routine and want something new; I'm going with German Volume Training, that sounds intense. Any one of you tried that before?
No but I think I've heard of it. So this is week 2 of my "Christian Bale" training - heavy lifting about 2 hrs a day - 3 days on, 2 days off - focusing on the big muscle groups: chest, shoulders, back, quads, hamstrings; and secondarily on biceps, triceps and traps. Also been taking "Activate Extreme" (supposed to be a test-stimulant), preowrkout cocktail with "Jack3d" + gatorade prime and gatorade perform; post-workout Optimum Nutrition Hydrowhey + Casein; and eating every 2-3 hours for about 5-6 meals on a given day, between noon and midnight - that's about my day. So far it's working out. Weight's up from 137 2 weeks ago to 145; leg press is up from 510 to 650; bench is up from 170 to 220; deadlift is up from about 160 to about 250; and DB bench is up from 60's to 75's.
Trying to jump-start my fitness routine. I've always enjoyed hiking, but I tend to go on one extra-long hike and completely wear myself out, then not go back for months. So now I'm trying something different. I got maps to several nearby forest preserves and marked out specific trails. Today, I went to the first one on my list and did about 1 mile at a brisk walk for about 20 minutes. On Wednesday, I'll do 20 minutes on the next trail on my list, and on Friday, I'll hit the 3rd one. I want to keep this up over the next month to make it a regular habit, not something that happens only when I need to get away from everything.
that's an EXTREMELY common challenge, it's so hard not to go overboard at first! Esp outdoors where you can lose track of time and distance so easily and then ache the next day.
I'm attempting to shift to a 'more eating/ less lifting' routine to put on weight. I'm going to the gym 3 days on, 2 days off... but sometimes i cheat and that 2 days off becomes 1 day on, 1 day off... and I'm usually there about 2 hours. I think it's a little too much bc no matter how much I eat I just can't gain weight. Hovering around 145 and the goal was 160 by June 15 but there's no way that's gonna happen. If this new routine pans out I might hit 150 though. I think I was just burning too many calories. It's kind of counterintuitive to go to the gym less to pack on more muscle but I"m starting to think that the whole 'powerlifting' regime is fundamentally more about recovery than about breakdown; unlike a cardio-resistance hybrid type regimen where you just convert basic levels of fat weight into muscle weight and then plateau. Have some new maxes to report though... been steadily climbing even though I haven't reported all of them. Leg pressed 710 but failed on 3rd rep. Managed 685 to 5 reps. Straight bench 230 to 2 reps and failed cuz I tripped the peg... had a spotter who caught it. Tried again and managed 4 pretty shallow reps. Also incline DB press 55's to failure, stopped and did 50s to about 6 reps. Also maxed on something I Just started doing - using the actual 'leg press machine' that doesn't use free weight plates, doing them single leg. Hit 200 on each leg, only recently started trying that - I think it's going to be good. I think when you two-leg press you get a lot of stability and balance from your pelvis, hips and lower back... doing it single leg probably isolates the quad and hamstring more for stability. Should be a good way to break through any plateau walls.
I have been riding my bike every day for the past month or so. Not very far, just to and from the railway station. I might do half an hour of riding each way. When I started out I was quite slow and unfit but I have managed to increase my fitness and get some proper speed and power into my legs. I've started doing longer rides on the weekend - hoping to crack a 50km ride soon. Up until last week everything was super. But now I am getting sluggish. It's more of an effort to do the same ride and the same speeds that I have been doing even a week ago. The quaddies are burning more than they 'should' be, and while I am better at pushing through the 'pain' I don't think that I should be feeling it in the first place. They also aren't delivering as much power as they used to. It is taking longer for me to accellerate and it is harder to hold a high speed. Is it possible that I am pushing my quads too far? Are they crying out for a break? A part of me is thinking that I should take a few days off the bike to recover. But it's not like I'm doing massive workouts. ???
Yes! Back in March, I hit the trails on a whim because I was stressed out and needed a break. I picked a trail that went about 1 mile along the river. At the end of the trail, I needed to cross a bridge to get back to the lot where I parked my car. The bridge had washed out a few months earlier during a heavy flood on the river. There were signs, but I mis-read them and thought it applied to a different trail. I decided to go around the other way to get back the parking lot, but that took me another 2 miles in the opposite direction. At the time, it didn't seem so bad, but I was sore for a week afterward from pushing too hard. Speaking of overdoing it, I brought a watch with a timer so I could make sure I stuck to my limit. However, I felt guilty about only doing about 20 minutes (maybe it's not enough!) so I reset it to 30 minutes.