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[DunDunDunpachi]

Nicely done God Enel

Sounds like you're practicing all the right things and paying attention to all the potential injuries / shortfalls. Like I mentioned earlier, try not to push yourself / exert yourself too hard until you've mastered the technique. Train for sets per day / sets per week and perfect the technique. Slamming a kb down on your shoulder might put you out for days (uhhh... not saying that happened to me or anything... ) or inflict a worse injury. Take your time.

However, if you are gentle with your weak spots, the kettlebells will build up stability, circulation, etc and those areas will heal up and strengthen. I can't stress the daily habit enough: never make yourself too sore to kettlebell tomorrow. The payoff is in the consistent habit, not the twice-per-week body crushing set.

I'm not one to suggest buying gym equipment for the sake of it. Everything should be built upon a foundation of calisthenics imo, adding one tool at a time.

But..... I am loving this access to several kb sizes (20, 35, 60, 80 lbs). When I only had a 35lb I would do a set of swings and then keep my heart rate up for a few more minutes by hopping or doing some calisthenics. This would give me about 1 to 3 minutes of sustained kettlebelling. I could switch to other exercises too but there's a limit to how much you can do with a single weight before you tire out. Don't get me wrong, 35 lb is a home gym all by itself.

However, with more weights I can "regress" into lighter forms to keep going instead of stopping entirely. This seems like a safe pathway to building up longer / harder kb sets.

Example: perform 60 lb 2h swings until I start tiring, then switch to 35 lb 1h American swings until I start tiring, then switch to a cooldown with the 20 lb weight (more swings, or cleans, or front raise snatches). Currently I can only do the 60 lb for a minute or two until I begin to tire, but I can also tack on an additional 5-7 minutes of kbs by regressing to the lighter weight, and then regressing again.

A 60 second set becomes a 7m set. I expect this will improve my 2h 60 lb swing capacity more quickly compared to focusing on 60 lb swings alone.

Definitely not a familiar paradigm to me. I would've never gone from bicep curls to lighter bicep curls or from heavy squats to lighter squats. The concept was never a part of my sports fitness learning as a kid/teen. But it's very easy to do this kbs and if you're the type who likes to tire yourself out (I'm not that way tbh) then multiple kbs are amazing for these regressed sets.

The point, as it pertains to you God Enel , is that two kettlebells from the start will probably put you ahead of me quickly. Switching between the 8kg and 16kg is the way to go. Definitely make use of that 8 kg and mix it into your sets. Probably don't go up in weight until you're tossing the 16 kg around like a ragdoll. I believe there are muscle development / stamina / hypertrophy / muscle confusion alchemies involved with mixing up weights like that, too.

Another rip and tear song.

 

[VlaudTheImpaler]

fuck me you both are inspiring as hell. I have to check this thread out more often. especially when I dont feel like working out/ I'm in a slump

btw. VlaudTheImpaler love your "blog" and insights Always great to see "new" exercises that are "out of the box" and not as usual as the regular curls and stuff you do in the gym. Would love to try the arm-workouts you're doing with the ball lol

Seems you're now in this game? I remember a post of you where you have been... well.. more or less "sceptical" about this whole thing.

I'm always cautious when entering any new arena. Especially if it's something that wasn't even on my planned path. I'm very aware that in order to reach the heights these top athletes do, some of them make large sacrifices in areas that I'm not willing to. Tearing my muscles to shreds to "get there quick" isn't a sacrifice I'm willing to make. I've seen many of these people later on in life. That's not what I want. My philosophy shies away from lifting heavy weights to get stronger and focuses on bands, complex bodyweight movements as well as things that simulate actual work that man would have been doing for thousands of years, if I cant just do that work myself (like hangs and the carries and other movements that DunDunDunpachi ,aka Dundunpavel, is always going on about). In fact, I don't own any traditional weights or plates atm. I want to keep my muscle pathways as scar free as possible so that I can activate more of it when I need it, etc, etc, and for as long as I live so that I can feel as young as possible even when I'm old. Wrestling and some of the training I do will be tearing my tissues, I'm aware and that's a sacrifice I've decided to make right now. But I didn't want to be tearing into them a lot during the majority of my training as well. I will always be all natural. I don't even do protein shakes very much. Just on days I have wrestling practice. So once a week right now I do a plant based shake after practice and a collagen shake at least 30 mins before. Everything else is through food. Wife said she's even going to start making collagen gummy bears for me.

Anyway, when I found that Mr. Stapleton was band centric like me it really alleviated much of my fears. Especially after seeing him at his age. He is a wonder. So strong, healthy and active. Crazy endurance and he takes on the heavyweights and regenerates like he's in his 20's. Exactly how I want to be. It was also nice to have many of my personal methods and theories confirmed. I don't read very much at all about this stuff. Most of it is just me feeling out my body and paying attention. And most of all, just falling in love with overcoming and getting stronger.

Plus, it feels so good to be competitive again. It's in my blood. I was competitive with my bro to the point of measuring turds. Then basketball, then online shooters, martial arts. I was even competitive with my dad and my step dad working for them in construction. Being physically competitive was the best. After my back injury I thought I'd never be able to do anything physical again. It gutted me. So this opportunity means a lot.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

I dunno what it is but fasting makes me restless. Late to bed and waking up early, but not really feeling sleepy, just restless. Guess I'll work out some in the summer night heat. Getting closer.

 

[notseqi]

Hello FitGAF, back to the gym since yesterday, biking and hiking wasn't enough.

Enjoyed the 'One more rep mentality...'-vid posted pages earlier, will watch the other one aswell.
Coming from powerlifting and reflecting on how and why I injured myself it became evident that those last reps tend to be at the highest weight and lowest point of concentration for that exercise, the point where I would need that concentration the most to keep form.
I am not going for PRs anymore and do 4-5 sets instead, 6 if I feel like it, for every exercise.

112kg/246lbs, leggo.

 

[Cutty Flam]

I dunno what it is but fasting makes me restless. Late to bed and waking up early, but not really feeling sleepy, just restless. Guess I'll work out some in the summer night heat. Getting closer.

If I don't do these things when I'm fasting for extended periods of time then I get wrecked

1) Take pink salt for the sodium and other minerals
2) Supplement with minerals
3) Tons and tons of water talking over a gallon closer to 24 cups. If you train seriously, drinking water has to be like your job in my experience, no excuses but to constantly drink and drink

Potassium, Magnesium, Sodium are crucial to the utmost degree. I'm actually not sure if it's good to supplement with Calcium or not during a fast...I'll have to look into that. I've never taken a multivitamin during a fast I'll have to try that too and report back with result one day

 

[Cutty Flam]

I wonder what makes someone like that. That winner, never give up attitude. Wish I had it! #spokenlikealoser

It's a simple as belief in yourself. Full belief in yourself

 

[VlaudTheImpaler]

DunDunDunpachi How you liking the rings breh? You get a muscle up in yet? I think you said once that you're a bigger dude so I can understand if you haven't. Just wanted to show you something else as well that I think you might like that would be a good counter exercise to all the pulling when training for the muscle up, or even just the pull up progression that I posted a while back. And anyone else with rings for that matter. I'm starting to do these now for biceps. Apologies if you've already mentioned them.

The pelican curl.





Then there's the more advanced movement that I do, pelican pushups.




Note, ThenX doesn't lock out his elbow. I don't know if this is because of pain or he thinks it's safer. I can lock mine out with no pain at all. Probably due to how much time I've spent over the past months focusing on my elbows. Anyway, I would try to go for full lockout with muscles constantly under tension/activated as shown in the second video I posted as well as get the form down, none of the other vids actually explain that and I wish they did. If you can't get a curl after a full lockout then just focus on the eccentric movement as seen in the 3rd vid for a while then try the curl. If you can't then you can't. Stay safe and do the best you can.

I like these a lot because they're a great full bicep, upper back and chest workout. I especially like that during the curl your arm rotates inward like you are top rolling during arm wrestling, which is my specialty. It also feels like it will help with side pressure. I could only do 3 in a row locking all the way out my first try. But I had also just wrecked my arms the previous day.

Gonna go stick my arms in the rice buckets. Keep chasing those goals, champions.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

If I don't do these things when I'm fasting for extended periods of time then I get wrecked

1) Take pink salt for the sodium and other minerals
2) Supplement with minerals
3) Tons and tons of water talking over a gallon closer to 24 cups. If you train seriously, drinking water has to be like your job in my experience, no excuses but to constantly drink and drink

Potassium, Magnesium, Sodium are crucial to the utmost degree. I'm actually not sure if it's good to supplement with Calcium or not during a fast...I'll have to look into that. I've never taken a multivitamin during a fast I'll have to try that too and report back with result one day

Thank you for the tips. i agree that taking a bit of something during a stretch of fasting + exercise is essential. The only pill I take on the daily is magnesium. No multivitamin for me. I prefer food-based.

The DunDun Morning Mix™ is as follows: mug of loose leaf tea, hot, mixed with raw cacao, ashwaganda root, flavorless vitamin c crystals (sodium ascorbate), lion's mane mushroom powder (or home-grown oyster powder), and scoop of flavorless gelatin powder.

If i am suffering from joint issues / inflammation that day, 1 tablespoon of turmeric + black pepper will take care of that.

If I am feeling particularly sore or wiped out, I will take a zinc pill or maybe B12. The cacao, ashwaganda, and mushroom powder give a huge spectrum of trace elements and minerals and the drink is only 30 or 40 calories in sum, not nearly enough to shatter a fast.

I sometimes put apple cider vinegar in my water, which I drink a lot during the day (valid advice). I just add it because it quenches thirst better than plain water, but it is also a soothing digestif. I've heard there are health benefits as well.

I don't believe calcium for a workout is necessary as long as you have enough C, D, and magnesium. Your body regularly adds and pulls calcium from the bones for metabolic functions. Most people don't suffer from a calcium deficiency but rather they lack one or more of the essential minerals used in the transportation of calcium around the body.

DunDunDunpachi How you liking the rings breh? You get a muscle up in yet? I think you said once that you're a bigger dude so I can understand if you haven't. Just wanted to show you something else as well that I think you might like that would be a good counter exercise to all the pulling when training for the muscle up, or even just the pull up progression that I posted a while back. And anyone else with rings for that matter. I'm starting to do these now for biceps. Apologies if you've already mentioned them

Nope! Still too weak for muscle ups. I love my rings, though, and I use them every day. Not sure if there is a "gym rat" term for it, but gym rings are my current "project". I use them all the time but progress is very slow, so I am not basing my weekly progress on my weekly ring progress, if that makes sense.

My daily routine is support holds and hanging,. I also do dips, false grips, various iso holds, pushups, and inverted rows. My focus is support holds (adding more seconds each week) and improving grip strength and hang time, that's it, and I continue making improvements in those two areas, so I'm happy. I will continue focusing on those for the next several weeks/months before I invest more attention into rings.

I wanna make this 60 pound kb my new best friend before shifting focus to the rings. I will watch these vids and save the knowledge for a rainy day.

 

[Cutty Flam]

DunDunDunpachi I never even thought to put any of that stuff in tea lol, I'm glad you mentioned the morning routine. Might try the raw cacao and ashwaganda next time. I usually just add them in my protein shake. That's a great idea because now I have one more way to get some additional nutrition. Good look man, that's going to help a lot going forward

 

[notseqi]

Went to the gym for the second time, almost fell down the stairs on my way out. Forgot how bad this goes when restarting a routine.

Last exercise I was shaking with my full body, weird but interesting. Did 4-5 sets on each exercise with low weight, but as slow as possible. Out with my dog right now, she's looking at me as if I wasn't right. Sitting down is a problem, extending the arms fully is a bit of work, getting my backpack on takes way too long.

Fun times getting back in.

 

[entremet]

Been running (jogging) nearly 50 miles per wk with the wife and dog

Almost 300 miles since mid may. It's been really hot
Slow pace, About 11min/mile

Is this Strava?

 

[EverydayBeast]

Highly recommend

 

[God Enel]

I love Fitness gaf. Thanks for the pelican curls.

 

[VlaudTheImpaler]

I love Fitness gaf. Thanks for the pelican curls.

Found a really good video that breaks down the progression. It's hard finding videos of this when people don't put it's name in the title haha. Also, this guy is pretty cool. Love his homemade gym. Would love to have something like that.

 

[VlaudTheImpaler]

Working on biceps. Going to do the pelican curl progression and some tabletop curls with resistance bands.

Slow burn into the night.



My new favorite genre btw. I get lost in this. Takes me to a place where I'm in a cyberpunk garage, tinkering and chilling with the big door open at night. Fresh air pouring in with the cool breeze mixing with the smell of rain, saw dust and oil. The faint glow of neon reflecting in puddles outside. The sound of the rain muffling the drone of the city and the humming of electricity.

 

[12Goblins]

Is this Strava?

Yes sir.

 

[God Enel]

Found a really good video that breaks down the progression. It's hard finding videos of this when people don't put it's name in the title haha. Also, this guy is pretty cool. Love his homemade gym. Would love to have something like that.

That’s what I needed. Wanted to do a research for progressions and you did it for me.

Btw my handstand is improving. My holds are still inconsistent but They’re clearly getting better. Be it on the floor or on parallettes.

 

[Cutty Flam]

I agree with God Enel , love this thread as well, it’s been a lifesaver. It’s been the most helpful resource to me. Can use it as a training journal to track and take mental note, plenty of great ideas circulating, motivation, different insights revolving around fitness and health in general; this thread is a very positive place to learn

I took three days off, a full 3 days too. Mainly to recover fully and make sure the muscles, joints and ligaments are good to go for a solid month straight of work. All I did was maybe two walks, about 20 min each in those days off. I actually think a “day off” can be detrimental if you do too little. At least in my case, I feel. Sitting down too many hours of the day as opposed to moving around most of the day, can make you so stiff. Didn’t get the greatest workout because of that reason, I believe. So I think from now on, I’m going practice a bit more conscious activity on rest days; any little thing to get the body moving even if it’s just cleaning a bit, some yoga movements, full dynamic stretching routine after a walk and some light stretches, maybe some shadowboxing and practicing striking form. Anything to keep circulation strong

I plan to amp it up a notch this month and get my strength close to where it need to be for jogging. So I’ll be upping the cycles I do during my walks gradually. As well as marching again for as part of warmup circuit to introduce some force, which I’ll need to adjust to and get used to if I want to jog and then run again. Everything needs to be a small progression and in time if you play it smart you can almost guarantee you’ll be strong for life. But it’s all about doing things the right way, I have learned through hundreds and hundreds upon hundreds of mistakes that—until you learn the correct way to train, and take care of your body, you can’t expect to advance. This is an all in lifestyle

That’s why I’ve been investing more into this. Researched and bought the best pre-workout I could find (most are of very low quality, sketchy, and even potentially dangerous. Even with this choice there are no guarantees) to help with providing additional focus. DunDunDunpachi thanks to your post I’m going to buy some gelatin and start drinking that more often, maybe even twice a day. Taking care of the integrity of connective tissue. I should also get some high quality vitamin C for that matter but I have been eating raw broccoli with ACV, will add pink salt sometimes into the ACV

Multivitamin too

Have been staying away from sugar, very strongly, for the past three weeks too so that’s been good too

Thanks for all the tips bros, i’m going to be doing things every day going forward like David Goggins approach according to my specific fitness level atm. Going to hone my craft and sharpen my approach some in this month

And cold showers are like clockwork now. I think I could go into one upon just opening my eyes and walking to the shower and it wouldn’t faze me. The hot and then cold transition has allowed me to make it a habit and now it’s like

 

[Tesseract]

took a week off, rest and recovery

mix of ice and hot baths, tens, few cheat meals, lab work, finances and sports, maintenance, organization, ...

back at it, fasting 24 hours (water and juice), hella cardio, crunches, squats, sit ups, push ups, pull ups

 

[bronk]

Today is 30 days in a row at the gym since they re opened. I feel great! I hope everyday they don't close again. Just about at strength I was when they shut everything down. Good to see everyone getting after it. Everyone seems so smart while I'm over here like durrrr throw weights get big lol. I'll definitely be reading lots of your guys info.

 

[Cutty Flam]

God Enel , VlaudTheImpaler , Tesseract I remember distinctly you three practice this as well so I thought this info would be especially relevent to your interests. Everybody should read and consider these insights though, given to us by this doctor. It makes sense to me, these are points we can all look into and see if he's right or wrong and get the full details on in time



I was taking notes from this one doctor's video about cold therapy and contrast therapy with cold water showers. I copied what he said maybe like 60% of the video, all the benefits. There was more to what he said about fertility in the later part of the video but I just wrote that it helps fertility through nitric oxide if you want to go there and listen in it's at 9 minutes 11 seconds in the video. These are all the benefits and such:

-When we turn the temperature to cold, your entire vascular system (your blood vessels) contract, and they do that to force blood into the core of your body to keep your core organs warm and to stop your body from radiating heat so all that blood rushes from your arms and legs to your core

-If you turn that water tap back up to hot, all your vascular tissue is going t get relaxed again. And all that blood is going to come back out into to your limbs, your hands and feet again so that your body can regulate its inner temperature by releasing outwards

-Your body has about 120k kilometers or about 75k miles of blood vessels. A lot of that is internal at the core but a lot of that is in your hands, feet, arms, and legs, and also your skin. So when you're implementing contrast therapy hot to cold, hot to cold--what your body has to do is contract/relax, contract and relax many, many thousands of miles of vascular vessels and capillaries

-When your body has to contract and relax it creates nitric oxide. Nitric oxide has a lot of jobs: it works with your immune system, it works in your brain, and it actually helps your cells mobilize oxygen and metabolize oxygen so every system in your body, your metabolism is more supportive and more activated

-Brain Benefits of Hot/Cold Contrast Therapy: If you keep up with contrast therapy consistently over time, that actually helps your brain secrete and regulate a hormone called BDNF, which stands for Brain Derived Neurotropic Factor. Neurotropic basically means growing neurons. So as amazing as that actuall sounds, it is true that by doing cold showers you can actually regulate your brain chemistry making you a bit smarter, a bit of a better memory, a bit better at organizing your thoughts

-Your cells' ability to utilize oxygen is raised somewhere between 10-25%

-More efficient at burning fats

-Cold showers are known to reduce the inflammatory cascades in the body. Your body can actually reduce its stress physiology and you can say the memory of distress through a mechanism called catecholamine dispersal. He basically goes on to say that you hold certain stress hormones in areas of your body in which you hold tension and when you take a cold shower or whatnot, an ice bath, your body must disperse those catecholamines that you would be holding in perhaps your shoulders, your back, your stomach area anywhere where you are holding catecholamines or stress hormones, your body has to mobilize all those catecholamines to basically help those muscles all over your body help react to that change in temperature. So your body will disperse all those catecholamines in your stressed muscles throughout the body just in case you started to shake or shiver, a normal response to the cold temperature. Cold showers will allow you to manipulate catecholamines aka stress hormones and force them to leave and disperse from out of the stressed muscles; you are essentially helping yourself alleviate the embodiment of stress with cold therapy in this way

-Fertility: going back to nitric oxide. It helps women and men. Helps with your endothelial system as well or the inner lining of your vascular tissue. Also, this sentence right here is me adding my two cents here: Covid-19 damages the endothelial system and attacks there scientists have found so there's another reason to practice cold showers imo.Cold showers and ice baths etc will help you strengthen your endothelial system and your vascular system

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

Don't limit yourselves to cold showers/ ice baths. Regular exposure to sub-zero weather is where things get bonkers.

 

[God Enel]

I watched the whole thing. Is he basically recommending that we should change from hot to cold to hot to cold and so on?
Because like after a while I felt like he is putting more emphasis on the cold part and cold therapy in general.

btw yesterday was one of the better cold shower days. Was under the the cold shower for 5 minutes and the breathingears certainly better than the days before. Two days prior though I had trouble with the cold. Dunno why.

Yesterday I was doing a lot of back work and my back is feeling sore. From wide pull ups to a lot of lower back work to rows and in the end dead lifts (60kg x 12, 80kg x 12, 100kg x 6, then back Down 100kg x 4, 80kg x 10 AND 60kg x 12). After that I did 3 rounds of three minutes for my
The core - leg raises, bicycle crunches and dunno what the last exercise is called. You’re basically laying on your back with with your legs in the air and just lift your hip a millimeter or two).

today is gonna be a leg Day. Have to work on proper shrimp squats and weighted pistol squats.

 

[teezzy]

Depression is fucked. I completely fell out of my normal workout routine. Sucks that your mind state can fog your judgement in regards to proper diet and exercise, yet it's that exact diet and exercise which your body needs to clear your head and feel better. Shit is the devil. Feels like I'm starting from square one.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

Depression is fucked. I completely fell out of my normal workout routine. Sucks that your mind state can fog your judgement in regards to proper diet and exercise, yet it's that exact diet and exercise which your body needs to clear your head and feel better. Shit is the devil. Feels like I'm starting from square one.

Sucks to hear, but glad that you're already picking yourself back up.

 

[VlaudTheImpaler]

Depression is fucked. I completely fell out of my normal workout routine. Sucks that your mind state can fog your judgement in regards to proper diet and exercise, yet it's that exact diet and exercise which your body needs to clear your head and feel better. Shit is the devil. Feels like I'm starting from square one.

As long as you've been paying attention and doing the proper things to reach your goals, you'll never be at square one ever again. Even if you take a break. Your body will remember everything you put it through. You know what to expect and how to overcome. You've learned what to do and what not to do and you are constantly learning how to do better. You've gained tons of knowledge and experience on proper routine, diet and recovery.

You have a certain set of instructions that you've crafted through trial and error on how to reach your goals that you didn't have when you started. If you think those instructions are worthy, then all you need to do is follow them and you'll be back at it in no time.

And remember, true champions are always at the tippity top, but still only half way up. We're all always climbing.

 

[Tesseract]

all systems normal

elliptical, push ups, pull ups, sit ups, crunches, dips, squats, jump rope, dbells

 

[God Enel]

I don’t know why I suck at bench press. To lift my body weight is a shitload of work it seems. I’m about 80kg - more like 78. And I can only bench press 70kg like 6-8x depending on how I feel today. And I’m kinda stuck. Should I just go for the 80 and lift them 2-3 times if possible? Do you think that’s gonna help?

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

I don’t know why I suck at bench press. To lift my body weight is a shitload of work it seems. I’m about 80kg - more like 78. And I can only bench press 70kg like 6-8x depending on how I feel today. And I’m kinda stuck. Should I just go for the 80 and lift them 2-3 times if possible? Do you think that’s gonna help?

Why can't you push more? Do you feel like you literally don't have the strength, or do your arms get too wobbly?

Possibly a tendon / stabilizer muscle issue. If you want to do benchpress specifically, drop down to 50-70% your normal weight and focus on volume and control.

 

[VlaudTheImpaler]

Had arm wrestling practice today. I'll write about it later.

The time has come.

This is the event we're shooting for if it doesn't get canceled by Michigan's dictator.

Will be entering both arms into the amateur division. Pretty sure I'll be at the top of my weight class as well so that's cool. Not sure yet if they will separate by age as well? We are still getting details.

That came up faster than I expected. Butterflies in my stomach. That's something I haven't felt in a long time. Good to feel it again.

Anyway, went really hard today. Gonna rest up a bit and let the wife do her thing with the repairs before I give a report.

Godspeed champions.

 

[teezzy]

Whaddaup big Lansing fam

Greetings from the 313 VlaudTheImpaler

 

[VlaudTheImpaler]

I actually live in northern Indiana. So it'll be about a 4 hour drive for me. Nice little road trip. Haven't had one of those in years.

 

[Tesseract]

banged out a few sets of 100 burpees and jump rope, declined push ups and sit ups inbetween

 

[Tesseract]

pumping, coding, music, hyper scape

planche push ups, adequate test of chest, back, stabilizers

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

Tesseract you're a calisthenics beast.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

 

[Cutty Flam]

I watched the whole thing. Is he basically recommending that we should change from hot to cold to hot to cold and so on?
Because like after a while I felt like he is putting more emphasis on the cold part and cold therapy in general.

btw yesterday was one of the better cold shower days. Was under the the cold shower for 5 minutes and the breathingears certainly better than the days before. Two days prior though I had trouble with the cold. Dunno why.

Yesterday I was doing a lot of back work and my back is feeling sore. From wide pull ups to a lot of lower back work to rows and in the end dead lifts (60kg x 12, 80kg x 12, 100kg x 6, then back Down 100kg x 4, 80kg x 10 AND 60kg x 12). After that I did 3 rounds of three minutes for my
The core - leg raises, bicycle crunches and dunno what the last exercise is called. You’re basically laying on your back with with your legs in the air and just lift your hip a millimeter or two).

today is gonna be a leg Day. Have to work on proper shrimp squats and weighted pistol squats.

He's the second doctor I've listened to hat has recommended contrast therapy of hot then cold and both have recommended multiple rounds or sets of the hot then cold. One doctor and his wife would go into their Jacuzzi and then into the shower cold water several times. I think he was recommending 3 minutes hot to maybe 2 minutes cold and then basically 1 min each if I remember correctly. This other doctor in the video I posted is only saying to stay in for 15 seconds of each for your sets of hot+cold temperature showers or whatever method you have available to you (personally, I'd use Jacuzzi at the gym then shower for a few sets or more. One thing I have noticed, is that it's kind of taxing to be in the shower for all that time switching back and forth when I do 3-4 sets of hot and cold for 3 minutes each. Maybe it's just my body though and how I respond, so I think I might try the 15 second each strategy. I should experiment a bit and see how things feel / any differences and find a sweet spot. Something tells me though, 30-45 seconds each might be a bit better. I'll test it in time and see

You're probably adapting to it. The cold isn't much to you anymore. Before it was a shock, maybe even a daunting task to even go through but now it's something you've embraced and are fairly comfortable with performing routinely

Solid work with the training God Enel I've been thinking about investing in a trap bar or hex bar for deadlifing. I want to buy the one with the standard grip and then the larger grip to train grip / forearms a bit more

 

[Cutty Flam]

I don’t know why I suck at bench press. To lift my body weight is a shitload of work it seems. I’m about 80kg - more like 78. And I can only bench press 70kg like 6-8x depending on how I feel today. And I’m kinda stuck. Should I just go for the 80 and lift them 2-3 times if possible? Do you think that’s gonna help?

Nothing to worry about, you'll be able to push more weight if you stick to progressive overload and just add a couple pounds to the bar each session. Takes a lot of technique too. The arched back, squeezing the traps and rhomboids to the bench to create a base and activating the lats, pushing through the floor with your feet planted firmly at 20-30 degrees to allow your glutes to fire and help some; the movement is extremely complex. All the compound lifts are when it comes down to it. There are so many things taking place so much of the body is working to allow you to perform the movement pattern correctly hopefully

I noticed I became way stronger when I started working on warming up and strengthening my rotator cuff muscles a bit. It doesn't take more than grabbing some 2lb dumbells and performing some Ws, Ys, Is, Ts, and As for a small circuit maybe 10-12 reps each exercise. Maybe work a little bit on external rotation, throw in some internal rotation work with some bands. That helped my bench improve a lot

I know it takes weeks sometimes months of consistency to move up just number of reps in pullups. Not even sets, but just reps--it would take weeks and several sessions before my body felt like it could do perform a few more perfect form reps. Sometimes it's just a matter of doing the work and doing a little bit more each workout and being patient until you find yourself ready to increase the weights. And it's always advisable to work on your weak points and any sticking points you can find

Could be a ton of things really. Sometimes it's just a matter of simply eating a bit more than you usually would...could be a ton of things but normally if you add to your routine and really try to improve your weaknesses it should improve little by little as long as you know all your numbers

 

[notseqi]

After my session on saturday and the major DOMS I had to endure I went back to the gym on tuesday and yesterday. Felt lightweight babyyyy, the body did not forget the old times.
Went hard and long with short breaks, still spent 1h15 there, biked back home, short hot bath to relax the legs and a fuckton of protein to rebuild. Feeling great.

Want to go back today but I got my brothers Labrador to take care of (in addition to my own dog) and I don't know how he copes with me dropping in a fair bit after lunchtime. Guess we're gonna give it a try, having a long walk when I get back. Saw a smoking hot redhead with blue eyes in the gym yesterday, that might have added to my decision of going again.

 

[EviLore]

Upping the intensity a bit.

 

[Cutty Flam]

Trained earlier:

-10 minutes on exercycle bike, 2 minutes of very light marching to re-introduce bit of force back into routine. Going to be increasing that by 30-60 seconds each session hopefully until I feel I've reached the right amount

Legs

Glute/Hamstring bridges
Squats
Donkey Kicks
Hamstring isometric holds at 30,45,90,120 degrees
Bosu ball tilts side to side (balance, core activation)
Glute med raises on ground
(skipped core work to allow for additional rest)

Next upper body training session going to put in a bit more work with the Lats. Going to hopefully use a band or two and get back to regular assisted pullups. And then in a few months, regular pullups. I've only been doing band work but honestly, band lat pull downs are third place for me. I think pullups (assisted or regular if strong enough) and even the lat pulldown is better. Or at least, I'm more efficient with the movement... Big step up to take for me ever since I destroyed my elbow and upper forearm region about six months back from doing pullups wrong, doing shrugs wrong, overall handling dumbbells like a fucking imbecile to be fully honest. Used to grab them and shake them a bit to "pump myself up and psyche myself up/out" a bit for extended sets and high repetitions; not considering how much sheer stress and damage it would cause the joints and muscles. But doing any type of pullup will be a huge plus for my regimen. It's important to get that tensile strength back and to begin to build the back with pullups again since I don't do deadlifts atm. Overall, pullups are just a crazy nice exercise in my opinion. I could ramble on and on about pullups, but I'll save it and just say that I think it's a top 5 exercise. Can't wait to test it out with the bands for assistance and get the ball rolling again

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

You guys are meticulous with your training / stat-tracking, it's intimidating.

Cutty Flam good luck on the pull-up goals. You're also training to start jogging / running again if I'm not mistaken? Those are definitely good exercises for those with the joint strength, but sounds like you are taking it slow and building up your joints / tendons. Try to focus on volume / low shock exercises to build up the tendons as a "foundation" for your muscle growth.

Red muscle tissue grows much faster than tendon muscle tissue, so you can bulk up and actually tear / stress / improperly "build" up your muscles if you are neglecting those tendons. And then injury follows, predictably. Isometric holds and "impossible isometrics" (where you push against something immovable, like a large tree or concrete wall) will encourage more capillary growth and tendon growth without stimulating too much hypertrophy. VlaudTheImpaler has added a lot of info on this sort of training as well which was a springboard for my own learnings. I think the standard American powerlifting / bodybuilding paradigm is backwards. Tendon strength, stabilizing strength, and flexibility should all come before red muscle growth, but the proliferation of machines in the gym allows us to target isolated muscles and ignore the "foundation". Bulk and strength without the tendons and flexibility is the foolish man who builds his house on sand. Bruce Lee scoffed at muscle size.

I think hypertrophy (in the sense of, hypertrophy for the purpose of increasing size) is one of the most dangerous dragons to chase in fitness. I understand the science behind it, but fundamentally, pushing your muscles into excess hypertrophy is only triggered by an emergency, last-resort extreme stress. It has a cost, and slower tendon growth in comparison to muscle growth is where a lot of folks stumble. The muscles "pull" themselves apart. Lifting a weight is more than just the strength to lift it up. Tendon strength helps with the shock of certain activities (like jogging), so it's especially important if you're pursuing that.

My dad played football as a teen and told me (when I was a young kid) that he messed up his shoulders by doing too many benchpresses. The muscle growth actually pulled his shoulder posture forward because he wasn't working on his back as much, and it took a season to correct it. This lesson always stuck in my head and made me leery of training too hard, too fast, or with too much focus on specific isolated muscles. I've never been the highest-performing athlete, but I always had top endurance / reliability during a game, and I've never been injured except for a broken index finger (*snap*).

My personal focus lately is improving isometric holds. The ballistic nature of kettlebells provides tendon stimulation, but I want more passive, stabilizing strength. Every day now I work on my seated posture, 1 footed balancing for long periods of time (yoga poses come in handy here), pushing impossible weights, hanging on the rings with arms / legs in various 90degree holds (simple stuff, because I'm still quite weak on the rings), turkish getups, and generally just ignoring the weight aspect. Isos require breathing control, so it's a nice puzzle-piece to fit with my existing Wim Hof practice.

Slow, lengthy songs for burning, lengthy horse stances:

 

[notseqi]

I'm listening to podcasts at the moment but I think I'll need to switch it up to some pretty shwifty metal soon. No running without blasting psytrance, no lifting without fast metal riffs.

 

[God Enel]

Why can't you push more? Do you feel like you literally don't have the strength, or do your arms get too wobbly?

Possibly a tendon / stabilizer muscle issue. If you want to do benchpress specifically, drop down to 50-70% your normal weight and focus on volume and control.

not sure why I have problems getting my reps up. Like after 4/5/6 good form reps the strength suddenly drops.

control isn’t the point nor are getting myarms wobly. It’s just the power is lost to push it up. 60 kg 12 res are no problem whatsoever. The 70 though.next time I’ll try 65 for 12 reps and see how it goes.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

not sure why I have problems getting my reps up. Like after 4/5/6 good form reps the strength suddenly drops.

control isn’t the point nor are getting myarms wobly. It’s just the power is lost to push it up. 60 kg 12 res are no problem whatsoever. The 70 though.next time I’ll try 65 for 12 reps and see how it goes.

If you suddenly lose power, then your body has been pushed to a point where it thinks the weight is too much to bear. Ganglion organ something something injury avoidance mechanism.

 

[notseqi]

not sure why I have problems getting my reps up. Like after 4/5/6 good form reps the strength suddenly drops.

control isn’t the point nor are getting myarms wobly. It’s just the power is lost to push it up. 60 kg 12 res are no problem whatsoever. The 70 though.next time I’ll try 65 for 12 reps and see how it goes.

Did you try negatives already? Lower weight but almost painfully slow speed on the way down.
If you only do bench you might need to work on your pecs in general, and hit them from every possible side. Only benching isn't enough.

 

[God Enel]

Did you try negatives already? Lower weight but almost painfully slow speed on the way down.
If you only do bench you might need to work on your pecs in general, and hit them from every possible side. Only benching isn't enough.

Well I’m more or less doing bench press always slow and controlled.

tbh when I did chest the last time.. my routine is quite a lot imho:
1. Inclined bench press 4 sets - 12 reps - 20,40,50kg (or 60kg on the last set not sure)
2. Regular bench press 3 sets 40-60-70kg (12x,12x, 6x?)
4. We just 4 fun did 3 sets of bench pressing with a reverse grip 12x 40, 50, 50kg
5. a superset:
3 rounds of:
Straight arm (ie locked out elbows) (lying on bench) butterfly’s with 10kg x 12
Followed by bench press dunno what the name is. You press the dumbbells together. So they’re targeting the inner chest 3x 22.5kg/each dumbbell.
Followed by reverse hand push ups (12).

And i think that’s it. If I didn’t forget anything.
Not always doing the same exercises. We change it quite a lot so I think I always have a good and diverse chest training. Basically I’m never doing the same routine. This was just the last time I did my chest workout. of course I’m repeating some exercises more often than others but I’m pretty much always “rotating”.

From all sorts of push ups to bench pressing to machine work to some trx/ring exercises.

 

[notseqi]

From all sorts of push ups to bench pressing to machine work to some trx/ring exercises.

That sounds rather complete, apart from something that hits the upper part of the pecs. That might not be the solution but its a bit more than most people do and will probably help you out:
I don't know who this guy is but he does the exercise until 5:40, albeit in a bodybuilder-y type of way.
I myself go back to zero on the negative for a tiny amount of time and then do another rep, similar to deadlifts: touching, not bouncing. On the positive I go further than the guy in the vid and push far to cross my arms until the wrists overlap, which for me is the point where I deftly notice the point of this exercise in my upper pecs.
Apparently that's called Cable Crossover, not much crossover to be seen in this one though. The actual crossover I mentioned is something you would immediately feel if you had not done it before, I tend to start with a very low weight (14-18kgs/30.8-39.6lbs).

Another one would be standing in neutral (2nd vid at 0:30), staying there and in a straightforward motion join your hands around your groin area, pulling down slowly.

If you already know all that, disregards this, I suck cocks.

 

[Tesseract]

i think people focus on tracks and logs too much, technical aspects

that stuff is nice, i read arnold's bible and a few others in my twenties, but for the most part you should be clanging and banging until your body tells you to quit

eat good, rest well, repeat until you are dead

 

[notseqi]

Thanks for reminding me to go to bed early, need those 7.5 hours.