In Fitness and in Health
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Spent 52 minutes of my evening yesterday sitting on the rowing erg.
10,000m down. Can't say I enjoyed it, but it felt good to just move for a long period of time. I've been focusing on my "top end" conditioning power, so working some long slow distance training I to the mix was a must.
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The only thing creatine did for ME was add water weight. The pushup/pullup/burpie workout sounds good. I try to do a day of body weight exercises a week to mix up my regular routine.
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After four weeks of working my program there are hilariously large noobie gains when it comes to weight being shifted; the absolute best thing about coming back to weight lifting after a looooong break. No body weight lost yet so I've started calorie/macro tracking (which I fucking hate doing) to get wise.
Other than that I'm enjoying myself so much I have to stop myself from:
1. throwing in dropsets while deadlifting/squatting/bench pressing,
and
2. "tweaking" my program (read: adding more exercises),as I'm pretty sure that's a short cut to causing my weird/ruined shoulders to start causing me problems. Speaking of which, @Appfaff can you recommend an alternative exercise to lat pulldowns? My shoulders hate lat pulldowns… Also how is your creatine usage going? @Anesthetist I'm not using creatine it because of the water weight thing, but I'm considering it for when my metabolism kicks in and the lbs start falling.
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@neph93 - my gym only ones two "machines" - some rowing ergs and some assault bikes. Everything else is free weights and barbells/KBs. I hate machines (especially lat pull down and pec fly machines) because they are not designed to fit every body type - only the "average" body type. I would focus on Barbell bent over rows and single arm DB/KB rows as opposed to lat pull downs. Also, strict supinated grip pull ups (chin ups) are the best "self scaling" option for lat pull downs. I torn my shoulder doing lat pull downs years ago, and vowed to my ortho to never touch one again haha.
So i've used my creatine after every workout for 1 week now and I have not seen any weight gain, or real loss (stayed about the same, although I have been lifting heavier loads lately). However, I have felt pretty good between workouts. My plan is to cycle 3 weeks on, 1 week on and see if I drop any weight during my "off" week. Cycling any shorter periods (1 week on, 1 week off) does not work because the whole idea is to have elevated amounts of creatine in your body at all times (you body make some naturally) so additional power output and recovery demands.
My routine has stayed about the same for the past few weeks:
4-5 workouts per week - 2-3 with about 20 minutes of dedicated strength work and then 2 or 3 12-20 minute conditioning pieces (some, like the 10K row, obviously take longer).
Still have given up drinking beer (and now pretty much any alcohol) during the week, and very rarely on the weekends even now. Once I have up the regular consumption, I didn't want it anymore - I even had a beer after about 8 hours of yardwork yesterday and didn't even care for it… switched back to my seltzer + lime. Overall i'm down about 3+ inches in the waist, about 10-12 lbs down and i'm cutting up a bit more in my upper body. Good thing is I can wear some of my old gear again. Bad news, pretty much everything I bought in the last 8 months is too big, including all my pants haha.
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I would focus on Barbell bent over rows and single arm DB/KB rows as opposed to lat pull downs. Also, strict supinated grip pull ups (chin ups) are the best "self scaling" option for lat pull downs. I torn my shoulder doing lat pull downs years ago, and vowed to my ortho to never touch one again haha.
Thanks very much for this and the rest of your post. Great to hear from the pro's. (Supinated grip is palms facing inwards, right)? [emoji16][emoji1]
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Yes - palms facing your face is supine grip
Start light on bent over rows keeping natural extension intact in your lower lumbar and mid thoracics a focus on elbows tight into the body and no "bouncing" the weight Ito your chest - focus on pulling the bicep tight as your bring the bar to your lower chest.
Let me know how it goes!
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Yes - palms facing your face is supine grip
Start light on bent over rows keeping natural extension intact in your lower lumbar and mid thoracics a focus on elbows tight into the body and no "bouncing" the weight Ito your chest - focus on pulling the bicep tight as your bring the bar to your lower chest.
Let me know how it goes!
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I've done these before. Good excersise for me I think. That point about starting light is a good one. I seem to remember starting them around 60-70lbs, then bounding up 20lbs a week to around 180lbs only to find my form had gone completely to shit. I'll be more careful this time. They're going in the routine on Friday.
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sounds like a good plan @neph93 !!
Today I had another good "bodyweight" workout:
3 Rounds of:
30 Box Jumps onto a 24" box
25 Calories on the Concept 2 Rowing Erg
20 Burpees jumping over the rower on each rep.22 minutes of SUCK, but it felt good when it was over!
If you do it, post up your time!
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Time for an update, seeing as I'm of to Spain for some R&R in a week and it's precisely 2 months since I started looking harder at myself in the mirror.
I've being going through the programme more or less as stated. Some weeks I've had to drop a gym workout or a hike but by and large I've kept it up. I've been tracking calories for a month now and taking 10g Creatine every day for the same period.
Results are a little slow to happen but noticeable. I've lost four or five of the 8-10kg I want to get rid of. On the negative side I'd like that to be more; on the positive side, I'm managing to lose weight while still enjoying some of the finer things in life, and I'm building muscle. I guess it's hard to do both at the same time, so making strength gains and losing only a little weight is probably an ok combo. I can get into all my jeans again, as well as my shirts and I feel well in them. So while it's only 4kg it's made a difference.
As for those strength gains I'm still a long way off my personal bests of two years ago, but that's no surprise. They took me over a year to achieve. That being said progress has been good, squats are up to a 120kg max rep (145kg is my best), deadlifts are the same. Bench press is my weakest exercise as it refers pain to my shoulders for some reason. I'm only max-ing 90kg there. But again, I feel better and stronger. I have no evidence other than anecdotal that creatine works, but I feel like there is a boost. Certainly I'm more able to throw in a drop set, or a couple of extra reps as I feel there's more power there.
So now it's two weeks family holiday in Spain. I'll do some maintenance work while I'm there but I'm not going to worry unduly about what I put in my mouth. When I get back I'll change up my routine, maybe to a upper/lower split. Certainly I'll add some exercises, so @Appfaff you can expect some probing questions then
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Cross post from Runners - no apologies as it's for a great cause;
Me and Jules (den1mhead & Black Orchid on the IH forum) are taking part in the Frome Half and 10k which is in 6 days on 17/7/2016. We are running to raise money for the Ronald McDonald House Bristol charity. For anyone wanting to donate I list below the web addresses for both mine (Barcley) and Jules' Virgin Money Giving donation pages. Just click on either link below and follow the instructions . . . . .
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Me and Jules (Black Orchid) completed the Frome half marathon and 10km on Sunday 17th September 2016, raising over £700 for the Rmh Bristol charity. I ran the first 10km (6.2 miles) with Jules which we completed in 1 hour 3 minutes and then I completed the remainder of the half marathon (6.9 miles) in 56 minutes. See before and after shot below . . .
