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Exercise and Fitness: Keep On Keepin' On


Xray the Enforcer

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Sugar isn't precisely addictive the same way other drugs are - physically at least. Rather, what it does to the body and the brain's chemistry both result in very similar addictive qualities to drugs, with highs and lows at a similar pace. 

That said, most dietitians I've talked with say that there's nothing specifically wrong with having sugar, it's the massive amounts of sugar that are really problematic, and the lack of fiber/protein/fat that tend to go with the sugar to balance out blood sugar levels and keep satiety at something resembling sanity. 

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3 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

caffeine is more dangerous than the white lady if it was crushed up and snorted. Granted, this is reading from the internet, but it was done by a professor which makes it a smig more reliable. 

This... doesn't sound right. A quick look at a few papers indicates caffeine toxicity indicates you'd need about 5g at one time for a fatal overdose as an adult, cocaine is apparently around 1.2g (sounds about right based on my limited exposure when I was young and stupid).

This is backed up in animal studies which report an LD50 (average lethal dose) of ~95mg/kg for cocaine, and ~370mg/kg for caffeine in mice.

It's all a pretty stupid comparison in any case. People drink cups of coffee with ~100mg of caffeine in them. It isn't commonly snorted. Otoh people stick very large quantities of cocaine up their noses all the time.

TLDR version: Professors talk crap as much as anyone.

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On 4/20/2018 at 4:11 AM, lessthanluke said:

I'll try. Looks like I have damaged my right knee and left ankle in the same incident. Time to become bench press king. (I fucking hate bench pressing)

shit dude -- I had seen the video but I didn't know your injuries were that bad. :(:(:( fingers crossed for a drama-free recovery!

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So I'm 6 weeks out from my tear and I'm just starting to do some aggressive overhead pulls - muscle ups, etc.  I started with just a single pull up, and on Thursday wanted to test a pull on rings.  Found out I can do strict muscle ups and hadn't been able to do those pre-injury.  Pretty happy with that - still taking it easy with volume and aggressive movements, but very happy with the progress.

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No weight lifting yet for me after that strained back muscle, but I’m on the cusp now.  I thought I would be back last weekend but when I finally returned from days of business travel I could still feel some tightness there.  I decided it was better to play safe and miss one more week than possibly aggravate it and miss several more weeks. 

So I just did some stretching and some light table tennis.  No more tightness today, no reaction.  I’ll think about perhaps doing some rowing as a warm up before hitting weights. 

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Am I getting old? I feel like I am, and I got another sign of it today. I was biking for about four hours yesterday (with a short break for tacos and a beer) and forgot to stretch before and after. The wind was horrible making a normally easy trek really difficult. I am in so much pain today. I was about to go to the gym for shoulders and calves, but screw that, I'm going home to do some yoga.

ugh

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19 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

Am I getting old? I feel like I am, and I got another sign of it today. I was biking for about four hours yesterday (with a short break for tacos and a beer) and forgot to stretch before and after. The wind was horrible making a normally easy trek really difficult. I am in so much pain today. I was about to go to the gym for shoulders and calves, but screw that, I'm going home to do some yoga.

ugh

Probably less of you getting old and more of you doing work that you're not used to doing. Stretching would have helped, of course, but even small changes can make small muscles work that you don't normally focus on, and that'll make you way sore. This happens to me whenever I do a new variation on an old exercise - different rows, shoulder work, even elliptical changes from jogging to interval. 

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On 25/04/2018 at 11:05 AM, Xray the Enforcer said:

shit dude -- I had seen the video but I didn't know your injuries were that bad. :(:(:( fingers crossed for a drama-free recovery!

My knees are already pretty fucked so whats a few more injuries to add to the list :P

 

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I'm back!  After some table tennis again on Friday evening, I was back in the gym for weights at the weekend.

Saturday was shoulder press, pull-ups, etc.  Sunday was squats, dead lifts, etc.  Amazingly, all my heavy lifts were still at pre-injury levels (PB levels) and I felt really strong.  The only drop-off was in bicep curls and ab crunchs on Saturday after pull-ups had heavily fatigued those muscles.

I have lots of stiffness and soreness today, but no particular strain in the back muscle that was injured.

Tuesday-Wednesday this week will have business travel so I'll have to see if I can get a midweek session too.

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Took a week off of barre and had my first class over the weekend.  Mistakes were made.  I'm still sore 3 days later, and on top of that I had my first round of batting practice on Sunday and now my obliques are on fire.  It hurts to laugh.  Did some yoga yesterday which really worked things out well, but I'm still pretty sore.  Today I'm back at barre and taking a very easy hot hatha (stretching in 105 degree heat) class afterward which should help loosen everything before my first set of games tomorrow.  On a side note, I'm hovering between 187 and 189 right now and feel pretty great about how well I've been able to stay with a reasonable diet since doing whole30.  I haven't counted calories in months and am still shedding fat.  Feels really good.

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I played three on three basketball yesterday for the first time in almost three years. It was fun but every muscle in my body is a bit sore right now.

@Tywin et al. You seem to have eaten a lot during that hour. :lol: 

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7 hours ago, baxus said:

I played three on three basketball yesterday for the first time in almost three years. It was fun but every muscle in my body is a bit sore right now.

@Tywin et al. You seem to have eaten a lot during that hour. :lol: 

All I had was three tacos and a few brews at Chipotle. It was the porterhouse steak after the ride that did me in. And the additional brews…

Funny you should mention playing basketball after a three year break. A couple of years ago at my last job a dozen or so of us wanted to go play pickup basketball after work at a near by park. We were all in our mid to late twenties and were athletes in high school.

We got a good five minutes into it before everyone was dying. Lesson of the day: Don’t skip your cardio.

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@Tywin et al.

Actually, I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of the basketball we played, all things considered. I mean, a bunch of software developers playing basketball for the first time in ages, the bar was pretty low to begin with. :lol: Still, it was a decent effort. Sure, we were all rusty and it showed. After we were done, I said that I missed more open shots from the paint during those two hours (almost) than I did throughout four years of high school. :D Still, all six of us were much better at rebounding, movement and passing than I expected*.

All things considered, I love it that guys at work are pretty psyched about basketball and it just might become a regular thing. Then, when we get a little bit less rusty it will be much better.

*Of course, it was still pretty embarrassing. :D 

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After travel on Tuesday and Wednesday, including 5am wake times both days, I made the Herculean effort to get out of bed early this morning to get to the gym. 

With only a banana consumed prior, I was unsurprisingly short of energy.  For bench press I lost a rep or two on all the heaviest sets, but cable rows went well and the peripheral exercises were pretty good.  I’m just really glad I did it. 

And then this evening was table tennis too.  Good fun but I think I need to take a lesson to improve my backhand topspin technique, which got lost somewhere in the past twenty years.  I’m not brushing the ball right. 

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Hovering around 185 now and am feeling great.  Have had 4 games of softball and at 35 I've gained a step or two defensively, diving after balls I didn't even go after 3-4 years ago, getting to popups I never would have had, and stretching singles to doubles pretty easily just on a slightly bobbled ball.  Wish I was hitting better, but it's still early in the season.  Tonight it's barre class and some good stretching after.

I know this isn't entirely exercise related, but I found out that my bowling team ended up taking 15th out of ~400 teams in state last month.  Will get a bit of money for that, but I feel pretty proud about how well we did. 

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I got some good sessions over the weekend.  Legs day on Saturday was very good except the top of my hamstring felt slightly tight during heavy squats so I limited deadlifts to 250lbs instead of 300lbs so as not to risk a tear.  Sunday was shoulder press, pull-ups, etc.  My pecs still felt sore from Thursday — this was my third session of weights, plus table tennis, in four days — which inhibited pull-ups slightly but otherwise a very good day. 

Unfortunately I have a lot of travel this week.  Today was hellish already and I’ll be even more tired after Wednesday and Thursday.  I doubt I’ll get a midweek session this week. 

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As expected, no opportunity for gym sessions during the midweek.  That travel was tough.  No table tennis either.

Friday night taught a dietary lesson.  Our son was allowed a night of video games and pizza.  I joined him in eating pizza for my dinner (I ate a medium pizza, excluding sauce-less crust edges), and then spent the night and next morning with stomach cramps.  Not a good time to run out of alkaseltzer.  I just can't digest a large volume of refined carbs any longer.  I can have some naan or even a slice of pizza, but a large serving of bread or sugar leaves me with hours of painful indigestion.

By late afternoon on Saturday I finally felt able to hit the gym.  It helped that I took a short nap to make up for a terrible night of sleep.  Shoulder press and pull-ups went very well, but I had very little time for any lat raises or arms at the end.  For pull-ups I have changed in recent weeks from doing 70-75 reps over 6 sets to instead doing 6x10 with slower reps.  Just a variation to challenge the muscle.

Then Sunday was legs day.  Squats went very well but once again I could feel a sore tightness at the top of my left hamstring (at the attachment point) at the deepest point of the heaviest squats (250lbs).  The squats themselves are going great but the tightness is building.  So again I limited my deadlifts to 250lbs rather than 300lbs to avoid risking a tear.  And it was noticeably tight afterward during a light cool-down jog and again today just walking.  I think I'll need to take a couple of weeks off leg weights to let this heal.

I also did sets of press ups alternating with squats because I missed my bench press session during the midweek.  Nothing extravagant but good to do something.  

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As announced by my wife earlier, I hit a couple milestones:

  • I was able to comfortably wear my wedding tux for the first time in 10 years, and on my 11th anniversary. 
  • I lost 80 lbs since February.

I am not remotely done - I need to lose at least 30 more pounds and would ideally like to lose 50-60 - but it was pretty cool to be able to get in that tux again. 

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3 hours ago, Kalbear said:

As announced by my wife earlier, I hit a couple milestones:

  • I was able to comfortably wear my wedding tux for the first time in 10 years, and on my 11th anniversary. 
  • I lost 80 lbs since February.

I am not remotely done - I need to lose at least 30 more pounds and would ideally like to lose 50-60 - but it was pretty cool to be able to get in that tux again. 

Congrats man. I've almost at my ideal weight, which is a bit lighter than I was when I played football (so in the 160-170 range). However, I keep getting set back by trying to mix some muscle imbalance.

Getting old sucks! 

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