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Fitness |OT| Pumpin' Iron and Spittin' Blood.

Got in a couple good workouts today. It was light active recovery. Even though I felt good enough to go harder. So I decided to throw in some extra stuff at the end of day workout. A set of 100 leverage lifts, couple sets of 100 kettle bell... Uh, halos? Some sloow, kettle bell bounce curls and negatives till failure. Some other wrist work that I'll be explaining shortly. I'll be hitting it harder tomorrow. Can't wait.

Night time shoulder cap/trap burnouts. 3 sets of 100. Back 2 back 2 back baby. Different angles each time. Spreadin mah wings.

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Ca-caaaw!
 


The second aquabag arrived, the 15 lb slip bag. Hanging it on a 7' chain + swivel. It can really get swinging, like a nightmare tether-ball.

I tried my two main exercises and they work fine: alternating teeps on either side as the bag swings in an arc, and doing straight leads on the bag as it swings on the same arc. It's fun to keep this up until a missed or badly-aimed hit disrupts the steady swinging. I'll have to look up drills for this thing because I don't know what else I'd use it for that I wouldn't prefer to do on the 190lb
 
these nsd spinners are good and p. cheap, goes well with vlaud's rice bucket
I looked into em since you guys have mentioned them several times. I'm already taxing my wrists a ton. What benefit do I goet from undifferentiated, semi-random muscle stress? Seems good for maxing out hypertrophy and time under tension but bad for sports conditioning (which I am trying to get better at) where the aim is performing an exertion along a specified chain of muscles.

Not asking to be a pissant, just curious what it's aimed at since I like new tools but I am specifically trying to avoid new tools.
 

Tesseract

Banned
I looked into em since you guys have mentioned them several times. I'm already taxing my wrists a ton. What benefit do I goet from undifferentiated, semi-random muscle stress? Seems good for maxing out hypertrophy and time under tension but bad for sports conditioning (which I am trying to get better at) where the aim is performing an exertion along a specified chain of muscles.

Not asking to be a pissant, just curious what it's aimed at since I like new tools but I am specifically trying to avoid new tools.
i'd have to deep dive specifics (it's been a while)

i use it between sets to improve stamina for hiit rowing or elliptical, farmer walks, plate pulls ...

sports conditioning seems to be its aim, especially if you play tennis or basketball
 
i'd have to deep dive specifics (it's been a while)

i use it between sets to improve stamina for hiit rowing or elliptical, farmer walks, plate pulls ...

sports conditioning seems to be its aim, especially if you play tennis or basketball
Good info. I don't necessarily need a deep dive, just wondering what it is supposed to help. My in-betweens are stretches, ring isos, medicine ball stuff, plus rice bucket so I'll sleep on it for now. It's remarkable how many tools are available, for what it's worth. It's a cool contraption.
 

Tesseract

Banned
Good info. I don't necessarily need a deep dive, just wondering what it is supposed to help. My in-betweens are stretches, ring isos, medicine ball stuff, plus rice bucket so I'll sleep on it for now. It's remarkable how many tools are available, for what it's worth. It's a cool contraption.
it gets the job done in a hurry, lactic burns up quick with complementary sets of walks, hangs and such

great way to improve forearm strength and stamina in short order
 
it gets the job done in a hurry, lactic burns up quick with complementary sets of walks, hangs and such

great way to improve forearm strength and stamina in short order
Do they make em for feet? This sounds like something I'm already covering from multiple angles on my wrists/forearms but would be great to strap to the arch of my foot while holding the leg at 90* or something. Maybe I'll get one to see if this is feasible and at worst I have another forearm tool. 🤷‍♀️
 

Tesseract

Banned
Okay I got a metal one 'cause they said it was heavier and generated more torque which seems appropriate for a larger limb.

EDIT: uhh



Tesseract Tesseract this sounds like a wagie cagie torture device. Is this fidget spinner 2.0 going to give me coomer arms?
had to google that, laughed

i dunno about the led flash garbage and vibration, focus on rpms and torque
 
The long road to robotic wrists.
There are no shortcuts here, only good practices and planning ahead.

Most of these are things I've learned from a world class Arm Wrestler. They say arm wrestling is %60 wrist, %40 bicep. Now, your fingers, hand and forearms all directly affect your wrist strength. Note, I'm not really talking about wrist size. Size and strength are two very different things. As seen here with the first match after the intro.



Lot's of people, body builders especially, neglect their tendons in general during exercise. I can't find the article right now, but there was a study on long distance runners vs power lifters. Scientists did cross sections on cadavers and found the tendons in the legs of the runners to be FAR more impressive (and healthy) all around than those found in the power lifters. This should tell us that tendons really respond to repetition and time under stress. Here is a good video explaining just what I mean.



People generally also do exercises that do a lot of quick ripping and tearing that build up more red muscle tissue than tendons. This then covers up their tendons and takes over during strain. People who do low reps and a lot of weight don't really activate their tendons very much, as the weight they use is too much for what little tendon strength they have, causing them to just stop after their larger red muscle fiber is fatigued. This is not good for tendon growth.

It's understood in the arm wrestling world (Eddies and many others at the very least.) that in order to develop good tendon strength, you really need to be doing lots of reps and lots of time under tension. About 80% of time lightweight and 20% going heavy. Tendons, especially in your wrists, where red muscle tissue is sparse to begin with, are where the vast majority of your lasting real strength is going to come from in your wrists. Then there's all of the other connective tissues and cartilage that will be built up and become stronger over quite a long time as well. Remember, Tendons lag behind muscles by approx 2-5 years. So it's just going to take some time. But with good planning, nutrition and making certain things part of your routine, when you get there, you'll be friggin robotic.

So, this is how I train my wrists. Note, some of these are for fingers and forearms as well, these all come together as part of the formula for strong wrists. I try to incorporate as many of these principles as I can into everything I do. Sorry there aren't vids for everything. Wife got a little impatient and needed to work on other projects that actually make us money lol. I'd like to thank her a lot for helping though.

Bounce and pronation Curls.

Been doing a lot of these lately. Not only are they great for my bicep, but also my wrist and pronation. which is my specialty. They are also great for growing your thumb muscle. Can't get enough of these honestly.



If you look closely you can see that the band is not wrapped around my hand. It's wrapped around my thumb. I put the knot right on top of my thumb muscle (You don't need a knot there, I just do it.). When I pronate in and curl up I slowly tuck my thumb into my fist as far as I can.

I do the same with bounce curls...



These are brutal if done right. Beware first timers. You will definitely feel it afterwards.

I do these very slow and methodical. I can't do nearly as many of these as I can normal but I'll still do them till failure whenever I do them.

Leverage lifts.

You can do these with all sorts of things. I do mine with a heavy portable doorway pullup bar. It's the one I put between my rings whenever I want to do standard pull ups and hangs. I like using the bar because I can extend it and the further I do, the harder it gets.




Pro/supination.

This is a movement I use to simulate top rolling and hooking in. I am far more of a top roller so I do pronation a lot, but I'll do some supination as well whenever I use the kettle bell.





Static holds.

These are crucial. You can do these in every angle of your wrist and arm and varying points of pressure from the angle/direction of the weight on the other end and you can add more points of pressure by adding more bands anchored in different directions. Right now when I add more bands, I just grip it directly in my hand and if it's really heavy I'll tuck it under one of the strands of the wrap. Later on I'll probably get more belts and add them that way. They are great because you can just set up and stand there while you watch something. I do them till failure but I'll at least hit 5 minutes, then I'll forget about keeping track of the time and go till failure. At the very end, I do a very slow negative. I try to hit a minute on the negative. I also have a towel tied onto one of my resistance band handles that I wrap around my hand in much the same way as the belt seen here.

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Here is how I wrap my hand. It feels just like being in an arm wrestling strap to me except one side of my wrist is free.



The part of the strap coming across my wrist is so that I know I'm raising my knuckles enough and giving constant pressure. I'll feel the strap tighten against my wrist when I bring the top of my knuckles towards my head enough without moving my arm. This pressure also creates a link in my brain where I can actually give more pressure because I'm struggling against something. Now, you don't want it too tight though, else you'll be cutting off too much circulation.

The goal is to keep your knuckles up as long as possible and to not let your wrist bend away from you. Basically imagine you're trying to poor a drink into your lap. I also have mine set up for pronation as it's trying to peel my wrist to my right as well. You can shift the strap to pull more from the top of your hand by arranging the strap to come more off the top. All up to where you want to feel the burn.

Wrist curls.

For me, I never let my wrist go past straight on the reset. This is for arm wrestling purposes so that I don't have muscle memory letting me give my wrist backwards. You never want to let it get to that point because this is a very weak and dangerous position to be in where you can break your wrist. but I think it might be unhealthy regardless to train there. I'll have to look into it.

Anyway, I come up with all kinds of clever ways to get the job done. For this, I've used an insert for my foam roller and looped it through two doubled up very hefty shopping bags. Inside the bags I've got 20 pounds of weight. My kettle bell and my toning ball.

 
Part 2.

Towel work.

This is something that I've done for a while for martial arts purposes. Aikido wrist locks where a specialty of mine. Made many eyes pop back in the day. Anyway, this is actually something that people like John Brookfield do as part of their routines.

(Shoot. Forgot to record this one. Will insert it later.)

I basically bundle up and twist the towel to simulate someone else's wrist. It's got just enough resistance and give I think. And you can make it as big or small as you want, working diff muscle groups. - I practice wrist locks with this. I'll do one type of lock 5 times in a row on one wrist, then I'll switch to the other and do 5 there. I'll do this till failure.

Rice bucket.

Already made a post on this so I'll just link it. This is really, really something I'll never ever give up. For overall health and blood flow, endurance and finger dexterity and strength in all directions this is so hard to be beat. If you had to do just one of these exercises, I'd recommend this one for sure.


Plier curls.

I made a post about these a while back, I'll link it again. You can maybe see some of the progress I've made... Maybe.




Cupping rings/weights.

I hang from the rings horizontally with my feet up on a chair or elevated surface. Below is how I walk around cupping weights. I use the same bag and weight as the wrist curls.

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For both, the form is the same. It's important that your wrists are bent/cupped in as far as you can. This is what makes this different than normal carries where all the weight is only going to your fingers. This is a big reason many weight lifters wrists are big, yet relatively weak.

I'll do this till failure. So several minutes.

False gripping rings.

I will stand straight with the rings at my elbows but about a foot in front of me. Then I will grab the rings in a false grip position, lean back and slowly let myself fall, controlling my weight with my false grip on the way down till I'm at about a 30 degree angle. Then I'll pull myself back up with the false grip. This range and weight allows me to do this for many many reps all while watching a show or movie. This is probably another one I'll never stop doing. It's very comfortable and actually fun. Works the biceps too and I can also get some good scapula activation in as well.

Card tearing.

Here we go. This went way better than I was expecting honestly. First time I've tried to lower the amount of cards. I'm at 40 that I can rip through, but it ain't pretty. I dropped it down to 20 for this and wow. It was incredibly easy. I remember vividly when that wasn't the case not so long ago. I feel like I could have done 10 more without too much struggle and it would be more impressive for the vid but I reminded myself that this is for instructional purposes and I think the vid I did actually does a good job. But you guys will have to let me know on that one.



In the vid, I show the proper grip I learned. When I break my grip and bend the cards a bit into an S shape, I'm only doing it to show you the exact shape you are going to be bending the cards when you finally go to put pressure on and rip them. This puts all the pressure right in the middle of the deck, right at the edge. Just keep a very tight grip on the cards and as you rotate keep applying constant peak pressure.

Again, my recommendation for anyone wanting to attempt this would be to find your max and then add two a week from there. Boxes of used casino cards are really cheap.


I'll have to ask Eddie where he buys his in bulk from.

Finger pressure curls.

This is basically a leverage lift but also for your fingers. I keep my fingers and wrist as straight as I can all the way through the motion. I know it looks goofy. But I use what I have lol.



Griper Technique.

A lot of people only grip their grippers with a straight wrist. Try bending your wrist in and doing it this way for a set or two. Will hit a whole new muscle group. Great for me for top rolling.




Wrist Spinner.

Last but certainly not least, the wrist spinner. I wrote a post about mine a while back so I'll link it here as well. I can't say enough about how great these are. Perfect for warmup and cooldown let alone recovery. Amazing tool.


Whoo boy. That was a long project. Hope this helps anyone interested. Looking at you God Enel God Enel .

Keep hitting it warriors. I'm so proud of all of you who are clangin and bangin away, experimenting and formulating. Best thread on GAF IMO.

 
Mega brain-download VlaudTheImpaler VlaudTheImpaler :lollipop_flores:

Personally, rice bucket and false grip practice (I do 'em during ring rows) alone have improved my finger, wrist, forearm, and upper arm connection with one another. I can affirm that the patient, long-term construction of your wrists will start to snowball into other exercises. Grip strength = purchase on an object = brain "unlocks" your strength limiters. Looks like haxan7 haxan7 and I are joining the nsd cult too.

To add to your "cupping weights", something I've been doing is putting a medicine ball in my hand, palm up and holding like a 90* shelf. Arm is extended straight down. From this position, slowly corkscrew up with a bicep curl, , bringing the ball on to your fingertips, and pressing straight above your head. Then bring it back down to the "hold" position at your waist. It probably has a name but it's like a one-arm turkish getup and includes that "cupping" hold for wrist building.

Thank you for sharing your knowledge with the rest of us, as usual.
 

diffusionx

Gold Member
Gyms reopened in my state a few weeks ago and before I could decide whether or not I wanted to go with the dumbass mask bullshit, mine charged my credit card, so there we go. It has felt good to get back in there and most people are scared babies (they could get... a cough and fever!), so it's empty most of the time. Things are not even at 10% of where they should be but any little bit helps.
 
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haxan7

Banned
My NSD spinner came earlier (Amazon 1 day shipping). That thing is no joke. I used it for ~10 mins earlier and when I hold my phone with one hand, I still feel a slight wobbling sensation.

I am planning to get set up to start Vlaud’s rice bucket technique as soon as I can get my hands on a gallon bucket with lid without paying Amazon’s exorbitant prices ($20-30 for a bucket ... come on)
 
My NSD spinner came earlier (Amazon 1 day shipping). That thing is no joke. I used it for ~10 mins earlier and when I hold my phone with one hand, I still feel a slight wobbling sensation.

I am planning to get set up to start Vlaud’s rice bucket technique as soon as I can get my hands on a gallon bucket with lid without paying Amazon’s exorbitant prices ($20-30 for a bucket ... come on)
Buy a Home Depot / Lowe's work bucket and fill* w rice. They come with snap-on lids, too.

*not fill, maybe 1/3rd or 1/2 full
 
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Late weekly update.

Homeschooling my kid as the state refuses to open minimum class sizes so my exercises have been modified to outdoor activities focused on gardening and landscaping. This past week went back up to above 100 temps and outside has been brutal. I would do a lot to have even a small fraction of the energy my kid has as she was out there with me installing new water lines and transforming a large section of yard for experimental gardening in insane weather and still has the energy to swim for a few hours and ride a bike/ping off walls. Since I started this journey I have noticed that greatly limiting food intake and comfort eating is a pain in the ass but I find after three weeks the desires of just snaking on whatever is around are starting to go away. I read every post here and it really is a boost to my desire to better everything I do and focus on a healthier lifestyle. Keep up the wicked posts everyone as you are all inspirational.

Especially VlaudTheImpaler VlaudTheImpaler your posts and thoughts are great reads.
 
I set up my home gym this weekend. I’m still waiting on some plates, but I think I have a good start. I need to clean up a little and get to work.
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Sorry for the bad quality pics. I don’t know how to upload them from my iPhone without the images being huge or compressed to hell.
 
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haxan7

Banned
I liked the NSD spinner so much I sent one to my 69 year old dad, who coincidentally complained about his wrists getting smaller recently.

Yesterday I did my first kettlebell workout. Nothing crazy, just tried to get comfortable with two handed swings, deadlifts, getups, and a few warmups/stretches from the Simple & Sinister book. Had a decent amount of soreness today, mostly around places in my hamstrings / thighs that I don't remember feeling sore at before. Also feeling it in the shoulders / lats a little. Going to keep easing into it with functional exercises and 1 or 2 trips to the gym a week.

Wrist pain is also clearing up in a major way. I think it was from letting my wrists bend during exercises. Been making an effort to keep my wrists straight for the last few days. Even with using the NSD spinner a ton yesterday, not feeling much of the wrist joint pain that I was.
 
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jufonuk

not tag worthy
Went for a jog. Able to run that much further now without stopping. Hell it’s not even half a K nonstop but hell it’s progress.
I’m also counting calories etc trying to get a deficit going. I’m not doing anything crazy. I decided I’ll eat healthy mostly then have a two cheat days and enjoy.
Have a great day everyone.
 

jufonuk

not tag worthy
Listening to this


it's a podcast talking about home Gyms and he talks about how working out from Home you can spend time with your kids get them into it.

This is one of the reasons I would like one is to get my kids into exercising, but rather than wait to build a home gym, etc I'm gonna do working out, in the garden with the bands, maybe ask if they want to go running with meand even if the young ones don't show an interest they will have the imbedded thing in their head that oh Dad works out. (even though I am a fat git still but working on bringing it down) I could still be a role model in that sense.

I came from a really unathletic family and my Dad would always go on about me losing weight etc and I would look at him and think, you don't work out I am not listening to you. etc

then anytime they get into they will feel like I know what I am talking about kind of lol. plus I don't want them to learn about being fit too late like me (42) I'd rather they get the habit. - shit that is what my Dad must have thought. but rather than exercise he didn't, he just did the Dad classic of do as I say not as I do.
 
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Had my first workout today, did chest and tris. For some reason, always preferred doing complimentary muscle splits.

All 3 x 8

Incline bench
Flat bench
Dumbbell flat bench
Cable crossovers

Skull crushers
Tricep extension rope
Tricep extension v shape handle (double sets)

I just got my dip bar set up. Will add that to the routine and possibly close grip bench next time.
 

haxan7

Banned
Went to the gym:

bench presses
Decline dumbbell bench presses
OHP
2 handed tricep push downs
1 handed triceps push downs

4 sets of each close to failure, the OHP was the biggest struggle

Still taking it easy with the weight but went a bit harder. I’m expecting some muscle soreness tomorrow.
 
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Cutty Flam

Banned
Trained today legs, just a bit of back some shoulders, tris. Forced myself really, wasn’t feeling all that great upper respiratory system kinda feeling off for some reason but got a 20 min walk in, legs, a little upper body, then stretched, tissue work after stretching w/ lacross ball for HS, foamroller for upper back and adductors

Tesseract Tesseract good look with the TENs unit. Finally came through today. I tested it out on my left hamstring and quad as well w/ all 8 pads after the workout and it needed it. It really does seem to take away some pain, and maybe even deliver some blood flow. I can tell the difference between the left and the right leg, which I didn’t treat. Definitely feels like some bloodflow or something might have been delivered to the site bc left leg feels a small amount lighter and treated than the right leg in which I opted to ignore / leave untreated

aide note: might have to stretch twice a day going forward, hamstrings and hip flexibility is kinda far from normal ROM, will have to take much more seriously each day; lack of flexibility is just asking for problems every time imo
 

Kazza

Member
Ok, after being stuck abroad due to Covid (long story), I'm finally back home and ready to start my new fitness journey.

Here are my starting stats:

86.9kg/191.4 pounds/13.9 stone

I'm a little over 6 foot tall, so it's not too bad, but my body composition isn't looking too good at the moment. I've definitely lost muscle and gained fat this year. I kicked things off yesterday with a 24 hour fast and a jog. I'm going to try a one day fasting/one day eating routine plus daily jogging and yoga until I get to 80kg/176lb. That should be enough to get rid of the little belly I've been growing. After that I'll be looking to start packing on some muscle and will adjust my diet and routine accordingly.

With the covid situation ongoing, I don't really want to apply for a gym membership as they could be closed at a minute's notice, for who knows how long. As such, I want to create a covid-proof fitness plan. I've been interested in kettlebells and calisthenics for a while now, and now seems the perfect time to start. If anyone has beginners plan or video they can link to, that would be much appreciated.
 


About 3 weeks of consistent 40-50F mornings and I am beginning to feel the bite of the cold without the sting.

Ok, after being stuck abroad due to Covid (long story), I'm finally back home and ready to start my new fitness journey.

Here are my starting stats:

86.9kg/191.4 pounds/13.9 stone

I'm a little over 6 foot tall, so it's not too bad, but my body composition isn't looking too good at the moment. I've definitely lost muscle and gained fat this year. I kicked things off yesterday with a 24 hour fast and a jog. I'm going to try a one day fasting/one day eating routine plus daily jogging and yoga until I get to 80kg/176lb. That should be enough to get rid of the little belly I've been growing. After that I'll be looking to start packing on some muscle and will adjust my diet and routine accordingly.

With the covid situation ongoing, I don't really want to apply for a gym membership as they could be closed at a minute's notice, for who knows how long. As such, I want to create a covid-proof fitness plan. I've been interested in kettlebells and calisthenics for a while now, and now seems the perfect time to start. If anyone has beginners plan or video they can link to, that would be much appreciated.

Good to see you're back in the game! A summary post of mine from earlier in the thread that lists my four must-have home gym pieces of equipment.

My four best pieces of equipment are my 35lb kettlebell, my gym rings, my heavy resistance bands, and my 12 lb medicine ball. Each tool has quite a lot of utility and will be used until they wear out or I do.

One handed farmer walks are an easy way to get rock-solid core, as long as you do them consistently, every day. Walk a mile with a 35lb kettlebell held to your side in one hand, switching hands as you go. Then work up to 2 miles. Overhead 1 handed farmer walks will build you wrist to ankle. Generally, you should focus on full-body exercises like these that build up your transverse muscle chain (the "X" across your back). Turkish getups are excellent full-body builders. Kettlebell swings build the much-neglected lower back in a spine-safe way.

Hope you make more progress so that you can brag about your impressive results.

EDIT: oh yeah and do VlaudTheImpaler VlaudTheImpaler 's rice bucket thing. I still do it several hours each day.


Good kettlebell vid below. I think EviLore EviLore linked to me earlier in the thread. I've watched it multiple times and I've rec'd it to ppl in this thread mulitple times.


Here's my cold training / breathing thread which I consider to be absolute pillars of my fitness. Fasting is another pillar, so I'm thrilled to see you diving right into that.


Consistency is everything, so keep posting in the thread diary-style if it helps keep you honest.
 
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