Feast like a sultan, I do, on treasures of flesh never few.
But I… I would wish it all away… if I thought I’d lose the squat rack just for 1 day.
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is that a pug in your avatar?
thought of that after the repugnant lyric from right in two lol
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Yep. Save the WIM for changes in your routine etc when you need to maintain/restart the habits.
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Well, the orange theory classes are working for me. It’s easier to commit with a coach or a trainer. Also, their system of sign-ups for classes has been good, as non-lazy me signs up, causing lazy me to go.
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My brother has 4 kids and is a computer programmer on advanced systems. He also has a long commute. He bikes during lunch or after work before driving home. This works for him, as it clears his mind and gives him some time to himself.
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Indeed it is. Perhaps a pug was the inspiration for Maynard to use that word in the song?
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My fitness goals at the moment simply involve improving mobility and core strength, and dropping weight.
Many years of weightlifting has made me pretty strong, but I never addressed long-standing flexibility and core strength issues. I always just compensated with my bigger muscle groups, which naturally has led to injury. I spent a lot of time over the last 12 months in physiotherapy working to build up my core strength in particular, and I’ve come a long way, but it is still too soon for me to get back to anything like deadlifts.
Essentially, nothing is going to serve me better at this point than just losing weight. I’m going to work on a plan over the next week for a basic fitness routine, and of course diet is going to have more impact on the weight than anything else.
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This is good.
My version is simply that I work out everyday before work. No options. On the rare occasion I can’t, I try and do a Saturday workout so i still get my 5 sessions.
Despite this I’m still 118kg (260 pounds) so it’s not all smooth sailing.
Yup, I think that’s really the best way to do it. It takes motivation and decision fatigue completely out of the equation. I’ve also found in the past that working out first thing sets me up better for the rest of the day. I feel a bit more incentivized to eat well the rest of the day after kicking my arse in the gym that morning.
I’m in the exact same boat. I’d love to know what you decide on for a core routine.
How tall are you?
Hahaha. I’m 6’4"
What do you mean by core strength? What do you want to do /feel/look like that you don’t now?
One thing about core strength, there’s some pretentiousness/cavalierness about it that can be dangerous, at least it was to me, I’m reasonably sure I tore up something important 10 years ago doing some utterly pointless set of leg lifts. I don’t have anything to compare it to but it was at best a painful spasm that had me curled up on a mat for 20 minutes not being sure if I needed to go to the doctor (I probably did). Like literally since I’ve not done any direct ab work because if I strain too hard it starts to feel suspect.
Yeah.
The reason I ask. Lots of people have specific pains, weakness, etc that they are lumping together under “core”.
If there’s a specific problem, it probably comes with a specific solution, that may be about core strength, but could just as likely be about movement, hip issues, etc.
260 lbs is fairly hodor like. Now you’re making me feel small.
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I have a specific lower back issue that I’m struggling with, but also trying to strengthen my trunk muscles in general to make it easier for cycling.
This is a good observation, and probably one of the most important things to understand is that your core is not your abs. As per usual, commercial fitness enterprises present a horrendous misconception on this because they sell “core” workouts as a way to obtain a six pack because they know that ignorant people will pay for that. In my mind a strong “core” is an effective system of getting your abs, back, and hips working together.
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Give some thought to improving hip mobility and glute strength. Cycling can create a lot of quad-dominance in your legs which could possibly get around to causing lower back issues.
I was going to post advice about your lower Back, but since today I had a breakthrough on my own issue, I thought I would try to put to words my approach to understanding and fixing pains and aches.
About 2 months ago, I started getting pain on the inside of my right elbow.
Step 1. Identify problem.
Based on the fact I had recently restarted doing a lot of power cleans. I figured it was something to do with that. I also workout at home in my condo. So I can’t drop the weights. And it hurts most while I’m catching the weight at my hips on the way down.
Step 2. Working hypothesis.
Step 3. Experiment with movement.
I tried a bunch of things here. Trying to catch the weight on my legs. Rotating my elbow out, in, etc. Nothing worked and pain was getting worse.
Step 4. Research.
I spent a lot of time googling how the elbow works, what causes pain, etc.
I learned a few things
- The elbow is way more complex than I realised. It’s not just a hinge.
- There’s a lots of twisting and sheering pressures on the elbow.
- On the inside of your elbow is where a lot of these forces come together in some of the soft tissue/muscle groups.
- The wrist and elbow are significantly interconnected. With some muscle groups running across both.
Based on this. I went back to
Step 2 (again). Second working hypothesis
- it’s about tension in the soft tissue
Step 3. Experiment
Here I massaged the soft tissue a lot and hard, before and after workouts.
It helped a little, but didn’t fix the problem.
Step 2 again. New working hypothesis
- it IS something to do with the soft tissue, but the pain is probabley caused by a movement issue.
- based on my research . It might be something to do with twisting of the wrist.
Step 3.
I experimented with my wrist position on the power clean, on the catch, throughout the lifts.
Still nothing.
Here I was stuck. Until yesterday/today.
Yesterday . On the rowing machine. I had the elbow pain, So I tried a few different grips. I realised that disengaging my little and ring finger made the pain a little less.
Boom. We have some kind of result.
Today. Starting my warmup. I tried lifting the bar without using those two fingers at all.
Boom. Pain disappeared. Rest of my workout went great.
There’s still a lot more to do. I need to understand WHY this is causing the pain, And what else I can do to fix it. Because this isn’t a great workaround. But im making significant progress.
Going back to your lower back problem. I could give advice, but its likely highly personal to you and how you move. So you need to put in the work to figure this stuff out.
I would emphasise especially that you can’t just think about this. You need to move, repeatedly. You need to train your body to understand and recognize the razor fine distinctions between different movements. That can only come with repetition.
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