What did you do today?

[stevepole]

Was doing some deadlifts today and nearly pulled my back as I was dropped my weights. I was pretty bummed, had to go easy on the rest of my workout, but at least I got the weekend to recover.

[muggiwhplar]

Holy shit-- just pulled myself up half way with one arm! GETTING CLOSE!!!

 

Might've helped that I was taking performance-enhancing substances when I did it. And by "performance-enhancing substances," I mean that I was listening to this in the background >_>

 

[obfuscator]

Muggi, another thing you can try doing is (and I'm not sure of the proper name for it) but "half-one arm chinups"). Basically hold the bar with your right hand, and with your left hand, instead of holding the bar, hold onto the wrist of your right hand. That way your right arm has to do much more work, but your left can still help to the point that you can pull yourself up. And of course reverse for the left...

[muggiwhplar]

Ya I tried doing those, but I have dainty wrists so my "pulling" hand gets sore pretty quickly from being squeezed, and having the hair on my forearm getting pulled lol

 

I've just been doing random exercises depending on my mood. Sometimes I'll wrap a towel around the bar and hold on to that with my free hand, grabbing it lower as I get stronger. Other times I'll try and do a normal pullup, but with my "supporting" arm, I'll slowly remove one finger from the bar and try to lower myself down with one finger helping me, or no fingers at all, depending on how exhausted I am. But the weighted normal pull-ups seem to be helping the most right now.

 

BTW... Anyone ever heard of "greasing the groove?" Basically you do your workout for like 10-15 minutes, several times a day, every day; as opposed to 60-90 mins once per week. Been doing that and it seems to be better than the old "traditional" method. When I'd train back/biceps 1-2 a week in the past, my elbow joints would be killing me by the end of the workout. But nowadays since I'm only working out for like 10-15 minutes at a time, my elbows haven't really been bothering me. Now I've just gotta hope I don't get arthritis down the road >_>

[Duff]

16.8 mile bike ride today. Been huffin it, though. I think I average around 13 mph through the whole trip. My knees feel better since I'm not going 40+ miles, lol. But I think tomorrow I'll add maybe 8 miles to the trip by taking a certain loop that the river bike path has.

 

Feeling good. I know I really didn't want ride a bike because I don't want my legs to get big, but I didn't have any other options for cardio because I have no pool and I can't run. And I definitely wasn't going to spend the rest of the summer sitting on my ass doing nothing.

[muggiwhplar]

Here's a more in-depth explanation of "greasing the groove" training that I've been doing recently without a gym membership: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oIB-V4m26GwYkbyw_tSKsQlbxs3uy60IrcRSteJBcqA/edit?hl=en_US&pli=1#

[Jeffwilson99]

Now that footy's finished I might start hitting up the gym. Also gonna get some new runners, Asics Blurr 33's in blue are looking niiiice, like a more cushioned pair of Frees.

[stevepole]

Not a bad looking shoe. I want a pair of those new Nike Flyknit but they're pretty pricy and hard to come by.

[fastortoise]

As far as running shoes go, its quite a nice pair Jeff! I was also looking at the flyknits but since running isn't part of my workout I didn't feel like I had the right to spend so much on a pair of running shoes. They're really, really cool though.

 

Speaking of shoes, today is leg day for me. I'm really happy with the core exercises I've been doing lately as I can actually feel myself hold myself upright properly with ease. I've also realized the term "felt every muscle in my body" is relative because nowadays I notice more and more muscles that were hidden away in my core.

[muggiwhplar]

Just did a 73.7lb (33.4kg) weighted pull-up :)

 

Edit: Just did 82.3lbs (37.3kg) :)

[Jeffwilson99]

Yeha I don't do a huge amount of running, but they'll still look nice in the gym ;)

[muggiwhplar]

You should run in these shoes :D

[Jeffwilson99]

You should run in these shoes

 

Hah nty.

[stevepole]

There is a guy at my gym that wears those shoes. All of the respect I had for the man went out the window as soon as I saw them.

[jimmy_jim]

Just did a 73.7lb (33.4kg) weighted pull-up

 

Edit: Just did 82.3lbs (37.3kg)

Just wondering, was that wide grip, or a chin up? (insert rhyming name here)

[muggiwhplar]

My bad, Chad-- it'd technically be a chin-up since I had palms facing me.

[jimmy_jim]

Ah, right. Still very impressive

[obfuscator]

Wide grip that shit!

[Duff]

I'll wide grip your shit!

[muggiwhplar]

Just did a 71.7lb (32.5kg) weighted wide-grip pull-up. LIKE A BAWS.

 

EDIT: and 8 reps of 40lb (18.1kg) wide-grips :P

[Guest Rob]

I want to ask a question about fitness but couldn't find a specific thread for questions, and rather than start an entirely new thread about it I figured I'd post it here.

 

I've been working out for about 2 weeks now and I'm mostly noticing improvements. But sometimes (like today) I'm not able to workout for very long before I start to feel very tired and cannot continue. Usually I can row on a rowing machine (erg) for about 20 minutes at a certain speed/resistance level but today I had to stop just before the 8 minute mark. This is after taking a 2 day rest (because I was away and was unable to workout - however, yesterday I was on my feet pretty much all day, so I wasn't just doing nothing at all).

 

Is this sort of thing normal, or does it mean that somehow over those 2 days I somehow became much weaker?

[stevepole]

Yes it's normal, it happens to my body too, but I couldn't tell you the exact science behind it though.

 

Usually my first day back after a couple of days off I take it pretty easy to get my body back into rhythm.

[muggiwhplar]

Depends on a lot of variables... how much you slept before lifting; what you ate before exercising; how motivated you are while exercising; how much you've recovered since you last exercised; etc.

[jimmy_jim]

Yeah, sleep is a HUGE part of it, and eating. If you haven't eaten enough during the day or not had enough sleep you'll generally not be able to put as much effort into a workout. You need to give your body fuel, otherwise it won't run.

 

For example, on Tuesday I had a good nights sleep (around 8-9 hours) had been eating every 2-3 hours through the day and I managed to run 5km in 23 minutes. Today, I did the 5km run in 34 minutes and felt horrible through most of it, I only got 6-7 hours sleep last night and wasn't able to eat/drink regularly because of assignments/classes.

[Duff]

I went on a camping trip that involved a 7 mile hike. We hiked 6 miles the first day and rose 2000 feet in elevation. Day two we hiked the last mile which rose 1000 feet in elevation. Day three we hiked back down a mile, and then day four we hiked the rest of the way down. The last two and a half miles wasn't a constructed trail; it was used by firemen, so it was pretty dangerous and the footing was sketchy the whole time.

 

Definitely a good workout, tbh. Going up was tough on the thighs since we were carrying pretty heavy packs. The way down was really tough on the knees and the ankles. I can feel a soreness in both from basically hiking straight down a mountain. My friends and I lost our footing many times and my foot started to hurt again because of some parts of the trail that required awkward placement of it.