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Exercise and Fitness: sticking to resolutions


Iskaral Pust

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My wife was at the gym on Monday and stumbled*, fell and banged the top of her head against the dumbbell rack.  She has a mild concussion and has slept for around 40 of the 48 hours since we got back from the ER.  She wins the prize for weirdest gym injury yet. But thankfully she’s less dazed today so I can be nonchalant about it now  

My workouts are going well still but I’m exhausted now from working at home this week while also taking care of my wife and son.  And I have a nasty suspicion that I caught the flu during our 3 hours in the ER waiting room.  If I don’t get a fever in the next 24 hours then I think I can safely call it just a cold   What a fucking week.

* she said she was doing step-lunges onto a step-up platform while holding dumbbells, and just caught her toe against the step one time and pitched forward.  

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Sad to hear your wife got injured, glad to hear she's feeling better.

That is without a doubt a pretty weird injury but I think I have a weirder on. Last summer, in my crossfit box locker room I saw this guy who was in an earlier group, with bandages around his shoulder and his arm bandaged to his torso. He was doing a bear crawl in warmup, his hand slipped and he fell in such a way that he dislocated his shoulder.

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Got two good 2.5 hr workouts in on Tuesday and yesterday this week, with another tomorrow and a 3 hr one on Sunday morning.  Down 2 more pounds and feel pretty good about my workout regimen.  My diet still needs a bit of work since I've had quite a few cheat days over the last couple weeks due to some parties and going to the last Vikings game.  I still think I'll hit sub 200 before the end of the month though, which has been my goal since Halloween.

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6 minutes ago, Triskele said:

Thanks for the feedback, everyone.  It's a digital scale that, up until this incident, I had no reason to disbelieve. And this one did seem to be something of an outlier.  I am over 200 lbs, ~220 right now possible with some creatine-induced fluid retention.*  I guess it still surprises me that even half this amount of fluctuation occurs.

*Is this supposed to happen with just a regular daily dose of creatine or only if one does the so-called loading phase?  I've just been taking the daily 5 mg scoop for a few weeks now.

I’ve heard about Creatine fluid retention before but never experienced it.  The early myth was that creatine caused your muscles to store more water and therefore made them look bigger without being stronger, and risked dehydration damage to your kidneys. 

Everything I’ve read in recent years says that Creatine is just a couple of amino acids that allow second stage cellular fuel (by combining with waste product from burning glycogen) when exercising to exhaustion, therefore allowing you to work your muscles harder for longer.  And you need to drink more water to help your kidneys process the additional metabolic waste, but you shouldn’t retain water particularly. 

IDK.  I’ve never noticed any particular effect of either type.  I stopped taking Creatine throughout 2017 just to see, and noticed no difference.

 

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I haven't been weighing myself every day for a while now, but when I did my day to day weight loss has never been more than around 1kg. To increase the chance of an accurate measurement I'd always weigh myself in the morning, in my underwear only, after coming out of the toilet and before taking a shower and having my breakfast.

Must say that I don't and never have taken creatine or anything similar. Being a recreational athlete, I think that a post-workout protein shake is enough for me.

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All right... I am morbidly obese (my BMI is slightly above 40). I started going to the gym last June, and so far it is great, but the holidays and my unhealthy relationship with food kicked in again. So, it's a struggle. I know everything about physiology and even psychology of obesity, but I can't overcome my pathological need for food. It's the endless fight...

To all of you who do get me... Thanks for listening.

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  • 2 weeks later...

You might have just very weak hamstrings so they are getting hit a lot harder than the rest of your legs in comparison.

For the record I don't use any weight other than my body weight so you may be using too much. Maybe get a video of you doing them if possible.

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5 hours ago, Triskele said:

But here's the thing:  I think it's all due to lunges, specifically.  I took one week off of lunges on legs day and still did squats and deadlifts that day and was nowhere nearly as sore after that week.  Then I did lunges again this week and am totally and utterly hobbled.  

I guess my questions are these:

-am I doing something terribly wrong with my form on lunges or going with way too much weight?

-is there anything particularly difficult about lunges I"m not aware of and everyone has this problem?  It's particularly bad in my upper hamstring

It is not unusual to have quads that are (a lot) stronger than hamstrings, especially when you're just getting back into lifting. It's been a problem for me as well. It wasn't as bad as the situation you described, but I did use to joke that I get sore just watching people do lunges.

I try not to give advice on the form, but from my experience form on the lunges is not that difficult - just try to keep your front leg at a 90º angle (do not push your knee further out than the middle of your foot) and not lift your front leg heel when you are getting back into the upright position. Everyone, correct me if I'm wrong. I wouldn't want to give a wrong advice. :thumbsup: 

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@Triskele I almost always get DOMS in the second day after leg weights, and severely so when my routine gets patchy.

From your description, you might have bad lunge form, but usually bad form shows up in pain where there shouldn’t be any, not extra pain where there should be.  It’s also possible that the extra sets from lunges are just an over-exertion.  Which is great if you want to train hard, but has some consequences the next day. 

You might want to do some hamstring weights to avoid too much asymmetry in your muscles: when your quads get over-developed relative to hamstrings it pulls your pelvis into a tilt that makes your hamstring over-extend and feel really tight.  So you need to do a lot of stretches for your quads, glutes, IT band, etc, not just your hamstrings even if that’s what feels stiff. 

And try using a foam roller on your legs, glutes and lower back after your leg weights session, or get a deep tissue massage.  It’s supposed to help reduce DOMS.

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16 hours ago, Triskele said:

 

Pardon my ignorance, but what are the best ways to do hamstrings?  I am doing squats and deadlifts and also the romanian deadlift. 

I use a leg curl machine, in addition to squats and deadlifts.  I’d like to hear if there are better options. 

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On 2/1/2018 at 5:15 PM, Iskaral Pust said:

I use a leg curl machine, in addition to squats and deadlifts.  I’d like to hear if there are better options. 

Box Squatting, sprinting, walking uphill, walking lunges are all pretty decent options.

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Just completed a running study for a local university which was an interesting experience.

2 sessions with 5mins treadmill running at 8, 10, 12km/hr each. Followed by 2x3km time trials all out. And then a repeat of the 3x5min at increasing speed. Purpose was something to do with gait analysis before and after exhaustion. First session I went out way too hard in the first time trial (tried to run an 11min 3km), blew up in the first 2km and came in just below 12mins. Did not have a great time after that.

Second session I went into dreading, but paced myself much better in the first time trial (12:20) and had a much better time of it, reaching the limit at the end of the second 3k. Got a free pair of shoes (last years ASICS kayanos) +$100 for my trouble, and was a good way to kick start my training for the year. Don't think I've lost too much speed with my milage reduction over December / Jan which is good.

Otherwise have signed up for my first marathon (Melbourne Marathon), and now I have until October to get into shape for it. Target time is 3:30, which I hope is realistic given how I progressed last year. Meantime there's a bunch of local half marathons starting in April to slowly ease myself back into the longer distances.

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2017 had a lot of inconsistency because of work but I’m trying to focus on keeping to a rhythm of at least three sessions per week.  I’ve sustained 2-3 workouts per week so far since Christmas, although I did skip legs for the past two weeks.

Thursday was shoulder press, pull-ups, lat raises and then some arms and core to finish.  Pull-ups were 14, 13, 12, 12, 11 & 10, which left me sore the next day. 

Saturday was the return to legs: squats (220lbs, slightly easy), deadlifts (250lbs, easy), leg curls (220lbs), leg extension (240lbs, far too easy but that’s the max available), and calf press (400lbs, easy but that’s the max).  So I was glad not to lose any ground after my two week gap, but I need to push on again. 

Today was bench/chest press, cable rows, shrugs, flies, and then some arms and core to finish.  Although bench press went really well, with no spotter I did not do a second set at the heaviest weight.  I used the seated chest press machine at max weight, but I don’t like the strain that motion puts on the shoulder joint. 

I’ll try to exercise on Wednesday morning before I fly out for business travel Wednesday afternoon through Friday evening. 

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10 minutes ago, BigFatCoward said:

Rotator cuff injury back with a vengeance, had it for 2 months now, i can train arms and back, but not shoulders and chest. 

i'm going to be a very bizzare shape if this continues for much longer.

Quasimodo!

(Sorry about the injury)

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6 hours ago, BigFatCoward said:

Rotator cuff injury back with a vengeance, had it for 2 months now, i can train arms and back, but not shoulders and chest. 

i'm going to be a very bizzare shape if this continues for much longer.

I am in the same boat. Left rotator cuff is buggered but gained about 10kg so my lower body has grown and upper has shrunk. 

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I was wondering if any of you folks could help me out on a squatting issue.

I squat in every leg work out, whether that be barbell back squats or hack squats; usually I do both. I've been aware that the DOMS I get in my quads following a leg work out are never as strong as the ones I get in my glutes and hamstrings. I noticed the pump I get in my quads during the session and the DOMS in my quads after the workout only noticeably occur if I prioritise leg extensions and leg press. If I were to leave those two exercises to after I squatted and hack squatted, when I am more fatigued and use less weight / train with less intensity, the pump in my quads during the work out and DOMS after the work out are considerably less.

This problem never occurs in my glutes or hamstrings, though, despite focusing less on these muscles. After squatting, my glutes are always pumped and always sore days later; I don't do any glute isolation exercises, either. For hamstrings, I usually do hamstring curls on the machine, stiff leg dead lifts or dumbbell hamstring curls.

I know that DOMS are caused by micro tears in the muscles, which occurs most prominently during exercises that put your muscles under increased tension on the eccentric part of the exercise. I know, say, because of this that my hamstrings are always going to be sore after stiff leg dead lifts, because I feel real resistance on the negative and I can properly feel my hamstrings stretch fully on the way down. I don't deadlift from the floor, but my hamstrings are nearly always pumped and sore after rack pulls, too.

I mention the above because I notice that during squats, I never feel tension in my quads during the eccentric phase of the lift, nor do I feel like the muscles are being stretched. In fact, I only notice a stretch in my quads when I do leg press or leg extension.

In a way, I know why my squats aren't really causing a pump or muscle soreness, but I want to know how to fix that.

In terms of my form for squatting, I don't get much depth - parallel is struggle enough for me, even if I were to do a fresh air squat. My training partner, though, back squats only slightly deeper than me, and hack squats to the same depth, yet after a set of squats he is sitting down somewhere, rubbing his quads and complaining about the burn. I, on the other hand, feel wrecked after a set of squats but rarely feel a burn in my quads - nothing to the extent he does, for sure.

I have tried squatting with lighter weight and slowing down the reps, but that only makes me push through my heels even more, which seems to increase the tension I feel in my hamstrings and glutes when I squat.

Has anyone else experienced similar quad related issues when they squat, and know any tips?

I read online where people had suggested front squatting would put more emphasis on quads. Another tip was to put your feet closer together and imagine trying to 'spread the floor with your feet' as you push upwards, which sounds like an interesting idea.

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@JordanJH1993

If you struggle with parallel position for squats, you should do some mobility work. Hip mobility in case of squats, but you shouldn't stop only at that. Look up some exercises online but do try to do them. It has helped me a lot with squats (and cleans, thrusters etc.).

Regarding DOMS, I would suggest lighter loads and working on your technique while slowly building up strength.

Other than that, I can't offer much advice.

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