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[HappyHunting]

Incredible progress pics. Happy to see everyone still going strong. I admit I have been avoiding this thread for the last 2 months. Sprained my knee (volleyball, someone landed on it and it gave way) Haven't stepped foot in the gym since. First time back is tonight.

Catching up on this thread has made me feel right at home.

 

[ILoveBish]

Went in and just did bench pyramids, worked up to 235 easy and likely could have hit a new record for myself. But I just didn't want to risk anything. Won't be making it home after work today, picking up my girl directly after, so I got 2 quest bars to hold me over. One is the pumpkin pie one and it's a huge disappointment. The other is the fudge one which is usually good. Saving that for a little later.

 

[Fox318]

A good pair of running shoes really are worth the money.

Also the Bodybuilding.com duffle is perfect for me.

 

[BumRush]

Man. I can finally go back to benching relatively pain free and my strength has plummeted off a cliff, broke into a thousand pieces and a bear walked by and pissed on the remains.

Time to rebuilt this shit.

To be honest, building bench strength is fun as hell. I'm jealous

 

[Cooter]

Yeah, bulking during these holiday months is the best thing ever. Pretty sure this is going to be an annual thing for me from here on out.

Your (mental) growth these past few months brings a huge smile to my face. I remember having a difficult time convincing you to bulk more than 4 weeks.

 

[Teggy]

There's a guy doing curls in the squat rack right now. I always thought it was just a joke. Even worse the heaviest he did was 85 lbs.

 

[BumRush]

There's a guy doing curls in the squat rack right now. I always thought it was just a joke. Even worse the heaviest he did was 85 lbs.

I'm each hand???

 

[Fox318]

There's a guy doing curls in the squat rack right now. I always thought it was just a joke. Even worse the heaviest he did was 85 lbs.

I think you can call the police

 

[mdsfx]

Your (mental) growth these past few months brings a huge smile to my face. I remember having a difficult time convincing you to bulk more than 4 weeks.

The funny thing is now that I look back at my summer pics, I realize how blind I was thinking I needed to lose more fat. What a waste of time and effort. I think I wasn't happy simply because I didn't have enough muscle.
This time I will be much more content at 8-9%. F*** going crazy trying to get any lower.

Side note: Legs are getting stronger and pants are fitting tighter. YAAAASSSSSS.

 

[Teggy]

I'm each hand???

bar + 4 10s

I think you can call the police

Man, that was some bad advice.

 

[BumRush]

bar + 4 10s

Lol...yeah, call the cops.

 

[Fox318]

bar + 4 10s



Man, that was some bad advice.

"Sir, this man was indeed in the squat rack and not squatting"

 

[Teggy]

Does anyone have a pair of Bluetooth headphones they'd recommend for the gym?


Also, I was watching some gym fail compilations - is there anything more frightening than someone losing a snatch behind their head and then falling forward with the bar on the back of their neck? Yikes.

 

[buy teh haloz]

So I decided to graph my lift progress... my OHP might as well be a straight line :<

 

[ILoveBish]

The weekend has started early for bad eating. My girls family made me Indian food, followed up with deep fried french fries, dipped in jalapeño nacho cheese sauce. I'll be honest, I'm so in love with her, I did not hesitate even once. We all ate together, had a great time, lots of laughs. I know this is going to slow down my progress. But it's OK. These times are to be enjoyed, and for everyone to bond.

There will be plenty of days to be strict. Going to be strict when I can. But when it's time to enjoy with loved ones, I'm going to be there with them. Tomorrow we head out to big bear 19 people strong, with tons of food and alky, going to be an adventure.

 

[Jacksinthe]

So I decided to graph my lift progress... my OHP might as well be a straight line :<

Welcome to my squats

 

[JoeNut]

over how long though?

 

[Psychotext]

I know this is going to slow down my progress.

Ehh, just more calories to get strong with. Your body will happily lose them again when it needs to.

Edit - On the OHP thing, mine hasn't increased in 6 months, even though I'm bulking now. Beat that, lol. Stupid useless fucking upper body. Oddly enough, in the same period, my OHP accessories have actually gone up quite a bit.

 

[BumRush]

Ehh, just more calories to get strong with. Your body will happily lose them again when it needs to.

Edit - On the OHP thing, mine hasn't increased in 6 months, even though I'm bulking now. Beat that, lol. Stupid useless fucking upper body. Oddly enough, in the same period, my OHP accessories have actually gone up quite a bit.

You think maybe it's part mental? It's odd that you'very got more weight to work with, your shoulders are stronger, yet you can't press more. Do you have any mental cues before your lift? Starting the bar at the right height? Put a video up.

The weekend has started early for bad eating. My girls family made me Indian food, followed up with deep fried french fries, dipped in jalapeño nacho cheese sauce. I'll be honest, I'm so in love with her, I did not hesitate even once. We all ate together, had a great time, lots of laughs. I know this is going to slow down my progress. But it's OK. These times are to be enjoyed, and for everyone to bond.

There will be plenty of days to be strict. Going to be strict when I can. But when it's time to enjoy with loved ones, I'm going to be there with them. Tomorrow we head out to big bear 19 people strong, with tons of food and alky, going to be an adventure.

You've made so much progress and now you get to be happy with a great girl. You're taking a great approach putting her over the strict fasting / keto you've been doing. Keep it up brother.

 

[Psychotext]

You think maybe it's part mental? It's odd that you'very got more weight to work with, your shoulders are stronger, yet you can't press more. Do you have any mental cues before your lift? Starting the bar at the right height? Put a video up.

I don't think so. I nearly put out my eyeballs trying to match my best last week so I don't think I'm giving it any less than 100%. Looking at my weight now vs, then, I'm still about 5kg (11lbs) lighter, so I'm not going to get too upset about it.

...and no, I'm not comfortable with sticking a video up for any number of reasons. But thanks for the offer.

 

[buy teh haloz]

over how long though?

About four months.

 

[JoeNut]

About four months.

i think as per above maybe a lot of it is a mental thing, i guess with OHP you could try some accessories to help strengthen whatever it is that's letting you down?

 

[BumRush]

About four months.

Are you comfortable uploading a video?

 

[buy teh haloz]

Are you comfortable uploading a video?

Yeah, maybe sometime next week

 

[BumRush]

Yeah, maybe sometime next week

Until then, I'd say REALLY focus on your form. Brolic posts some amazing OHP videos (among other lifts). In his videos, you see that there are no moving or flaring pieces...everything is solid and fluid. I highly recommend watching them as they've improved my OHP a ton.

When you post the video it'll be much easier for us to help out.

Otherwise, what accessories have you been doing?

 

[Spiritreaver]

Have you all ever pulled an abdominal muscle? I'm not sure if that's what I did, but my lower abs are sore after stretching them funny the other day. Didn't hurt, just felt really weird and comfortable.

Its just mild soreness, but never experienced it before.

 

[BumRush]

Have you all ever pulled an abdominal muscle? I'm not sure if that's what I did, but my lower abs are sore after stretching them funny the other day. Didn't hurt, just felt really weird and comfortable.

Its just mild soreness, but never experienced it before.

Hey bud, I think if you did anything significant, you'd be in a ton of pain. Laughing, moving, etc. would all be extremely difficult. Maybe a strain?

 

[Psychotext]

Man, I've been spending the day reorganising / changing the weights on my dumbbells and it feels like my ass has had the best workout ever. Have lost count of the times I've lifted the weight onto some scales then lifted it back off again (there's a surprising amount of variance on plates). No idea how I'm going to do my proper workout later!

 

[FallingEdge]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LvdPuDhewY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8o4Zj98FeX4

these songs been on repeat for me while at the gym, get me hype hype hype

Have you all ever pulled an abdominal muscle? I'm not sure if that's what I did, but my lower abs are sore after stretching them funny the other day. Didn't hurt, just felt really weird and comfortable.

Its just mild soreness, but never experienced it before.

I never pulled it but I have experienced crazy ab cramps. Those hurt.

 

[mkenyon]

I'm back!

So while I was away, I decided to further expand my fitness horizons, and decided to join my local Crossfit Box.

It's incredible! Just after two weeks, I've managed to go from a 1-3-4-3-1 pull up pyramid to doing reps of 20-30 as fast as humanly possible! Once they told me that form doesn't matter, it becomes way easier.

That's especially true on deadlifts too, we did speed deadlifts and once you don't worry about resetting grip and footing for proper form, you can just blow through tons of reps no problem.

I can't believe people are stuck in gyms doing low reps on similar lifts multiple times a week! Gawd.

Spoiler

hahahahahah

In all seriousness though, I've been sticking to my previous routine, with some slight changes here and there. Rather than a 5/3/1, more like a 10/5/5/3 type routine, which my body seems to really appreciate. Thanks to all the grip/form advice from you guys, I'm now deadlifting 3 plates for 5 reps. Also got my squat up to 295 for 5 reps.

post-deadlift progress pic:

 

[BumRush]

Arms lookin' swole, MK!!!!

Welcome back. How's the missus *wink*?

 

[mkenyon]

P'good actually.

We figured out her tweaking her back was most likely related to moving the plates up and down. She's back to squats/press/bp (no DL or bent over rows), doing lower weight at reps of 10.

She also wants to steal my 10mm belt, so I have to buy her one now.

 

[BumRush]

I lifted for the first time since my cousin passed today. I felt like a velociraptor methodically testing the fence for weaknesses, unwilling to go all in but biding my time to let loose and eat something.

 

[ILoveBish]

You've made so much progress and now you get to be happy with a great girl. You're taking a great approach putting her over the strict fasting / keto you've been doing. Keep it up brother.

It's been a long road with a lot of maturing and wising up along the way. I learned a lot from you and many others in that regard.

That said, after last night's carb fest, I feel tired, hungry and groggy. How do you guys do it.

 

[SilentSoldier]

Ehh, just more calories to get strong with. Your body will happily lose them again when it needs to.

Edit - On the OHP thing, mine hasn't increased in 6 months, even though I'm bulking now. Beat that, lol. Stupid useless fucking upper body. Oddly enough, in the same period, my OHP accessories have actually gone up quite a bit.

The OHP has been the hardest lift to improve. What makes things worse is that my body composition is changing based on the lifting, so something's going right but it just frustrating that I'm not improving on the lifts in a proportion that seems fitting for how my body is changing. Does that make sense?

I'm also starting to hit a wall in bench press too, feels bad

 

[BumRush]

It's been a long road with a lot of maturing and wising up along the way. I learned a lot from you and many others in that regard.

That said, after last night's carb fest, I feel tired, hungry and groggy. How do you guys do it.

For starters, we don't always eat deep fried french fries dipped in jalapeño cheese sauce, lol. But I absolutely have those days where carbs go top far and you feel sluggish as shit.

 

[Psychotext]

Set a new bench PR today, and then proceeded to pull something in my groin doing squats. =/

What's odd is that I was on a deload with the squats, yet it still felt like a hell of a lot of weight.

 

[Jacksinthe]

Set a new bench PR today, and then proceeded to pull something in my groin doing squats. =/

What's odd is that I was on a deload with the squats, yet it still felt like a hell of a lot of weight.

Ouch. You doing OK? Any major impingement to movement or ROM?

 

[Psychotext]

It's not too bad, only seems to be painful when I'm walking up stairs or making a squatting motion.

Vaguely related, dislocated my shoulder whilst warming up (hypermobility). Aaaaages since I've had that happen.

 

[Charles Foster Kane]

been getting shit from people close to me for doing IF. My frined asked me what I was doing, but thinks I'm crazy for doing this. And others do too.

She goes to a nutricionist who recommends her to eat like 6 times a day, and her husband is a doctor, and he thinks this is crazy too.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

been getting shit from people close to me for doing IF. My frined asked me what I was doing, but thinks I'm crazy for doing this. And others do too.

She goes to a nutricionist who recommends her to eat like 6 times a day, and her husband is a doctor, and he thinks this is crazy too.

Let me guess, the argument is that you need to "stoke the metabolic fire" or some nonsense like that?

 

[ILoveBish]

I don't tell anyone about fasting anymore. People are mental when it comes to the subject.

 

[Fox318]

ultimately you do what works for you.

If you can get the gains you want eating nothing but Ice Cream and ketchup then power to you.

 

[mkenyon]

I lifted for the first time since my cousin passed today. I felt like a velociraptor methodically testing the fence for weaknesses, unwilling to go all in but biding my time to let loose and eat something.

Damn, sorry man

Hang in there, it gets better over time.

 

[Charles Foster Kane]

Let me guess, the argument is that you need to "stoke the metabolic fire" or some nonsense like that?

Yeah, kind of.

I don't tell anyone about fasting anymore. People are mental when it comes to the subject.

It was a mistake.

 

[GrizzNKev]

Yeah, kind of.



It was a mistake.

People give me shit for my diet choices too. Ignore them.

 

[BumRush]

Damn, sorry man

Hang in there, it gets better over time.

Thanks man. I really appreciate it.

 

[Lashley]

been getting shit from people close to me for doing IF. My frined asked me what I was doing, but thinks I'm crazy for doing this. And others do too.

She goes to a nutricionist who recommends her to eat like 6 times a day, and her husband is a doctor, and he thinks this is crazy too.

Best not to tell anyone, my family are supportive but I can imagine others wouldn't be. I don't tell anyone else though, because I couldn't care less what they think, really.

 

[Psychotext]

I don't tell anyone about fasting anymore. People are mental when it comes to the subject.

I tell everyone. I love demolishing stupid arguments.

...and if they wont listen to reason, I just end the conversation with an ab off. BAM.

 

[Charles Foster Kane]

What bothered me a bit was that she brushed off my comments on IF by firstly stating "he's a doctor"