Got it. A mirror could help, but you’ve got to be very careful to keep a neutral spine if you are looking forward while at the bottom of the deadlift. If you’re looking at a mirror you’ll want your gaze to be directed at the bottom of the mirror.
“Dangle” is also kind of a scary word! IMO things should feel tight and stable, even if you’re letting to bar descend relatively fast.
The puzzle mats cover the whole floor and so my feet are on them. The big mats get moved around as needed and are just at the ends for deadlifting.
It definitely shortens the movement a bit. The big mats are maybe 2 inches. But in the big scheme of things I don’t think it matters. I’m still doing a big, full body, high quality lift.
They make a lot more difference to the impacts than just the puzzle mats do.
Just how good are those Bowflex dumbbells? I know a place where I can get the 90lb ones for $900. Are they are solid $900 value. I would mainly use them for bench, goblet squat, and deadlifts. Are they well suited to those exercises?
One significant concern I have is that they will be hard to move to bench position because the narrow ends would be bad for resting on thighs when setting up. Also concerned about whether they would be good for goblet squats. Think I’ll try to find some youtoob reviews.
I don’t have an issue setting the 52.5 lbers on my thighs.
Found a place with 75lb hex so I picked those up. Should last me at least 3 months and will see where to go from there.
Workout with the 75 lb dumbells went surprisingly well. Did 1x7, 1x6, 1x5 for bench. Also used for deadlift and goblet squats. Goal is 3x12 bench with 75s in the next couple of months. Still chunky, but strongish chunky. I now own 530 lbs of dumbells, lol.
The dumbbells are your retirement savings now.
Could probably sell them on craigslist for what i paid lol. $2/lb. Have now bought from 4 different places based on availability. The 75s were a 40 minute drive.
I have been experiencing tennis elbow the last few years on and off and it was getting worse when I’d try and get those 72 lb kettlebells into goblet squat position even though I could easily do 6x20 sets of them once there. I was putting them on my kitchen bar top height table and just loading them into position from that height. That’s when I started really wanting a barbell.
I can’t believe the volume you do. It’s more than I’ve seen recommended from anyone. Probably quite good for overall fitness but certainly not easy.
It was burning out my ligaments and shit I think. I wrote up a drunk post one night about how eating as much as I could on Starting Strength seemed to be helping my feeling of being worn down and tennis elbow relief and less soreness in general but I didn’t post it. I was also walking 10 miles a day or more then when I was doing that volume with 100 burpees everyday and 30-45 minutes of jumping rope on cardio days. I went off on exercising after Trump won.
I have gotten tennis elbow in my left and golfer’s elbow in my right. Each time it got bad to the point where I really couldn’t do any upper body stuff for a while, which sucked.
This time around I’m trying these things to avoid both:
First 3 are to strengthen the forearms. The rest are just being cautious. When you get to 50 you have to be really methodical on this stuff or something gets tweaked.
So far so good and I’m still going up in weight. Cold weather definitely makes it more sore, but I can push through that.
Since I’ve only been dong Starting Strength stuff it’s really gotten way better. I don’t know if that is less workout contributing or the diet but it’s been better.
Your comment about cold weather workouts or pushing through in CA is hilarious where I’m at. It was a high of 24 today,.
It’s weird in CA though because we mostly live with whatever the outside temp is. So if it’s 50, cold and wet - you definitely feel it - at least at my age now.
I went for a walk today and considered putting on a long sleeve shirt.
I wore a hoodie outside. And I just turned off my fan in the living room for the first time since June.
I’m still typing this in shorts, shirtless, with all my windows open though. So it’s not quite winter yet.
I have had friends from here move to Vegas and the SW. Every time it’s 35 everyone makes fun of them for only wearing a long sleeve t shirt.
I saw locals in Banff walking around at 0 in a light sweater. It’s all relative.
I’d see people on campus at Arizona State, midsummer, wearing hoodies. It’s freaking 110 F, man. With hoods on their heads! It might be relative but I have no idea where those people are from.
They do that with beanies in LA in July. Pisses me off.