Im doing one leg squats onto a chair for my legs. Thats veen working pretty well and i can load it up until its pretty tough.
I take protein every morning, and occasionally omega oil and glucosamine whenever i can remember.
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That might be nice. I was doing lunges at the end of my workout with my chimp bells and one leg on the couch when I was in shape actually. Never thought of or knew about 1 leg squats. Thx.
I do protein and glucosamine and fish oil also always along with a multivitamin and various other things even when I wasn’t working out at all. Instead of buying preworkout I just bought straight beta alanine powder and taurine powder and mix it in water or a protein shake.
I was doing Bulgarian squats I guess with kettlebells, not lunges. Is that what you are doing or different?
This:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T--Sg-g0vnw
or something like this?
The second looks challenging. I linked wrong video first time.
I’ve never seen a pistol squat before either lol. Cool. I’m dumb for not realizing that on my own but will challenge myself without having to insulate the garage.
I do a multivitamin, fish oil, and ashwagandha, along with protein stuff. Except for protein, I doubt the efficacy of these, but what the hell.
I strained my left bicep/forearm muscles several weeks ago and stopped doing curls and cut back on pull-ups for now because it wasn’t getting better. I’m thinking of trying an elbow compression sleeve. Any opinions on that?
Ugh, a week or so after being able to row again after pulling something in my calf I got little feisty and set a PB split time and did something to my back. Started out just being a bit tight and over the next few days turned into something that’s keeping me up. Spent a fountain pen on the last mystery chest pain I had and it got better on it’s own. Annoying not being able to do anything while it’s mending, time to stop over doing it on the rower…
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wat
Twinged my back, I have a sad.
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I had a back issue during my high school golf years but I didn’t play the next year or two after and never had a back issue again. I know how bad that was getting then even at high school age. I feel fortunate I don’t have back issues. Every movement basically hurts at that point.
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Working at home isn’t helping where I’m sitting all day, it’s not tightening up as much as it was, but sitting down all day working from home isn’t helping. Hopefully I can back to doing something next week.
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Basically the second one. I started with a weight out front, but after 20kg the arms are getting a lot of the workout.
Im now up to a barbell on my shoulders in high bar position with 31kg.
I can get that weight up onto my back from the floor, which is the limiting factor with no squat rack/stand.
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Based on a review of the literature I’m taking only basic creatine. I’m also trying to get 200+ g/day protein, sometimes with protein shakes or whey, and I naturally have like 4 cup coffee/tea. I’m semi reluctantly also taking a multivitamin (costco, with 500 in the bottle). Vitamins are a scam, but I’m eating less and putting more strain on body and there’s some stuff about vitimine D (which is probably BS) so i gave in. The other stuff you list is probably for suckers. Glucosamine is definitely a scam. Any supplement that claims to be good for joints or brain is a lie. Best supplement is 8-9 hrs of sleep per night.
I’ve not seen more than 5 sets of anything recommend by anyone. 5 is considered aggressive by many. I do 3 but feel like I should maybe do 4, but I do full body and hit some muscles with multiple sets.
Here’s a 40 page 2018 review of supplement research from the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition (free download). ISSN exercise & sports nutrition review update: research & recommendations | Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition | Full Text I read it in like Feb. 2020 but everything I’ve read since is consistent.
My conclusion: get enough protein and take creatine, with the former being significantly more important.
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Was a bit bad with workouts the last 2 weeks (4 total) due to being lazy and playing Cyberpunk 2077, which I’ve now finished and put aside. If I get a workout in today, which I should, will be 3rd since Monday, which is the pace I’m going for. I need to do more on off days, like a half hour of VR fitness. A positive over the last month is that I’ve cut down on caloric intake some more and am at 305 with a downward slope.
I need to lose 15 more lbs to be below where I was in March, pre-lockdown (though I probably currently have lower fat % than March due to muscle gain). Some lessons: 90% of people eat more calories than they think, even people who track are off by like 20%. I’ve tried to incorporate this into my consumption. Also, I think my total daily energy expenditure is less than most models assume, mainly from lack of activity on off days, so like 2600 instead of 3000.
I had a cheat meal yesterday as I was out and craving Del Taco. Had a 1800 cal meal there at 1pm. I chalked it up to a Friday “cheat” meal and figured I’d exceed my daily goal of 2400. However, that kept me full until like 9pm and I was tired so I was able to get to sleep at 10:30 without eating anything else (well, like 6 pickles around 7pm). Had a 600 cal breakfast so managed to hit my goal even with the Del Taco feast. More generally, I’m trying to view food as a needed fuel rather than a pleasure or reward. We live in a culture of food and consumption, but one has to take a different point of view if trying to lose weight. I’ve ordered food once in the last three months (pizza).
On the workout front, I did 3x10 dumbbell bench with 75 lbs (150lb total) on Thurs. This gives me a 1 rep max of 200 according to standard estimates (my all time max was like 285 20 years ago). This is the first time I’ve really thought about moving up to more weight (should be to 80, but 90 would be preferable from an economic and storage standpoint). However, I think I should do 3x12 before I blow $400 on two more dumbbells, and 75 are already a bit unwieldy.
I started working out with fitness classes on Oct. 30, 2019 after 10 years of sitting on my ass. I was in poor shape and becoming actually unhealthy. I took 2 months off at the start of covid, so Dec. 30, 2020 will be my one year anniversary. I’ve only lost about 10 lbs but have had substantial recomposition and am feeling quite healthy (have solid stamina and overall fitness). I am looking forward to the end of lockdown in a few months, where (ideally) I’ll try to do a 3-4 month “cut” and workout 5 days/wk.
Someone else posted a reddit clip in another thread of a 90 y/o guy doing 405x3 deadlifts. Found that pretty inspirational. Reddit - Dive into anything
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Originally it’s supposed to be 12-10-8-6-12 of one muscle focused exercise with more weight each set and then 12 reps of a different exercise that focuses that muscle group. So for upper body I do 5 sets of bench and then 12 flys. With legs I didn’t have machines to use and didn’t get creative so just ended up doing another set of lunges/squats or deadlifts instead. I’m sure the science behind the program is outdated, it’s the Body for Life workout from like early 2000s.
“Science” around strength and hypertrophy is pretty blah, was in 2000 and is in 2020, because there are so many exogenous factors and it’s hard to design definitive studies. Reading and listening to many podcasts and youtubes, mostly with researchers and phds who lift, the best advice seems to be to regularly increase load and lift smart. The Starting Strength program probably isn’t optimal, but it’s well tested and has a lot of experience and results behind it. It’s “scientific” in that it has been shown to work, but many things could probably be tweaked and it would still work. Much of the theory, to the extent there is theory, is backfilled from that. (Also, it’s focused on pure strength, which is hardly everyone’s primary goal.)
The dirty secret of strength “science” is that if you lift heavy things 2-3x a week, 5-12 reps, you’ll get appreciably bigger and stronger. Beyond that is diet (eat enough protein), sleep, genetics, consistency, and avoid injury. “Advanced” lifters have fancy training programs, and they probably work to some extent, but there are very few actual advanced lifters who need a fancy program (think 5 years of training).
There is a plus side to all this. Any reasonable program of lifting stuff and avoiding injury will likely work, and even if it doesn’t make you the next Arnold or an olympic champ, the overall health benefits are major compared to not exercising.
(For example, they “theory” behind crossfit is almost certainly 90% BS, but if you do crossfit regularly you are lifting heavy things, using many muscles, getting your heart rate up, and sweating, so you’ll get fit, theory be damned. Hell, the “theory” behind Orange Theory is paper thin, but the practice of Orange Theory–go to classes and exercise, not to hard, but kinda hard, works great.)
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I think I’m doing the opposite of starting strength. I’m not getting any stronger, but my muscles are getting bigger. I’m ok with that I guess.
That would be called lifting for hypertrophy. That’s fine and anywhere up to 20 reps (or more, there is debate) can be effective. Bodybuilders often do different stuff than power lifters, but their methods are much harder to evaluate because there’s no independent variable like being able to lift x weight. And that means the door for bro science is wide open. Still, if you lift stuff untill you’re weak and/or sweaty it’s really hard not to make progress.
I mean the real science to massive gains is keep doing exactly the same workout, this time with steroids.