Exercise and Fitness: Keep On Keepin' On

[KingintheNorth4]

50 minutes on the Pro-Form XP today. I burned 384 calories while riding a distance of 22 kilometers.

[Kalbear]

Broke my rib doing bench presses. 

This sucks. 

[Iskaral Pust]

1 hour ago, Kalbear said:

Broke my rib doing bench presses. 

This sucks. 

Ouch.  Did you drop the bar?  If you didn't have a big impact to crack a rib, you might just have costochondritis rib pain from over straining the cartilage between the ribs without breaking/cracking anything.  My wife did that once with Pilates exercises on one of those huge balls.

[baxus]

16 hours ago, Leap said:

Wow, congrats Luke and (paternity leave?) Baxus, nice going.

Thanks, Leap!

P.S. I'm joking about taking paternity leave but yeah, I did become a father a month ago and my new set of duties has so far killed the workout routine I previously had.

14 hours ago, Kalbear said:

Broke my rib doing bench presses. 

This sucks. 

Man, I hate injuring ribs.

Happened to me twice - once snowboarding (fell in a most moronic way and in the most moronic place imaginable), the other time while playing basketball (got nicked by the opponents elbow, it wasn't a hard hit but hit at a weird angle).

When you break an arm or twist an ankle or whatever, you can put a cast on it or something like that and wait it out. Injured ribs hurt when you take a deep breath, when you lay in bed awkwardly and all kinds of situations where you'd least expect.

I hope your recovery goes more quickly than mine.

[Kalbear]

21 hours ago, Iskaral Pust said:

Ouch.  Did you drop the bar? 

Yep. It sucked. Note: when doing PRs, have a spotter and make sure the safety bars are in the right place. 

 

[ljkeane]

23 minutes ago, Kalbear said:

Yep. It sucked. Note: when doing PRs, have a spotter and make sure the safety bars are in the right place. 

 

Ouch.

Sorry to hear that injured ribs are a nightmare. Something to keep in mind; apparently not breathing deeply can lead to a chest infection, which is especially fun with a cracked rib.

[Iskaral Pust]

1 hour ago, Kalbear said:

Yep. It sucked. Note: when doing PRs, have a spotter and make sure the safety bars are in the right place. 

 

Sorry to hear it.  Rib injuries are miserable because it’s so hard to get any sleep. 

This is why I’m careful to limit my bench press.  With a Smith machine, I cannot even roll the bar off me if I cannot complete the rep.  It’s a sobering thought but there is a good chance I could die suffocating under the barbell.  Twice it happened to me (that I could not finish out a final rep) when there were people in the gym and I called for help.  Since then, I’m careful to check who’s nearby before I start a heavy set and I just never go for a risky rep.  Better to end the set too early than too late. 

Which unfortunately makes it very difficult to progress my bench press. 

[Iskaral Pust]

Good workouts this weekend.  Really surprisingly good.  I'm a bit surprised that my weights suddenly took a big jump forward.

For example, three weeks ago I was still doing 8 & 6 reps at 180lbs as my heaviest bench press, then dropping back to 160lbs for 2-3 more sets of 8 -- which is more or less what I had been doing for two to three years.  Then two weeks ago I did 8, 7, 6 at 180lbs and then dropped to 160lbs.  Last week I did 8, 8, 8 at 180lbs and dropped to 170lbs.  This weekend I did 8, 8, 8, 7, 7 at 180lbs and didn't drop any lower.  I've been cautious about jumping to 200lbs without a spotter (I've only been able to do 2-3 reps at that weight so far) but it seems like I need to aim for 190lbs next time even without a spotter.

Similarly my heaviest shoulder press was 160lbs for 8 & 7 for quite a while, only slowly improved from 7 & 6 last year. (That's after I do some long sets with 2x50lbs dumbells).  But last week I did 3x8 at 160lbs.  This weekend I did 4x8 at 160lbs.  Unfortunately 160lbs is the maximum available on the shoulder press machine.

For pull-ups, I was doing 6x10 slow & strict for a long time.  Last week I bumped it up to 7x10 slow & strict.  This weekend I increased again to 8x10 slow & strict.  I could have done a ninth set but my hands were getting ripped open (I don't use gloves) and I need to move on to other exercises.  Next time I'll aim for longer sets instead of more sets.

It did help that this weekend I had no time pressure and had the freedom to add more sets.  But I'm still surprised that it suddenly improved so much.  Especially since I have been three months without squats or deadlifts -- I would have expected that to work against my general strength.  And my sleep is still not at all good.  I was traveling a lot for work the last two weeks, with a very disrupted sleep schedule.

Frustratingly, I still weigh 183lbs (perhaps the few extra lbs is part of the additional strength).  I'm still pretty lean but would like to lose 1-2% body fat.  The weight I added from stress eating a few months ago has not shed after I cleaned up my diet, although at least I have not gained any more.  I was hoping that just getting rid of all the desserts would be enough to drop a few pounds without having to go into a noticeable calorie deficit and feel hungry all the time.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

On 8/29/2018 at 1:11 PM, Kalbear said:

Yep. It sucked. Note: when doing PRs, have a spotter and make sure the safety bars are in the right place. 

 

My advice is to bring a friend who lifts if you're doing PRs. Sometimes there isn't a qualified person around. Anyways, feel better, you dirty, dirty Bears fan!

 

In my news, I think I finally figured out what's been plaguing me as of late: my hip flexors are really uneven. One is soooo much strong than the other despite no visible difference. This will be fun to undo.....

[ljkeane]

Rugby season started last week; unfortunately I haven’t had the best start, played 2 lost 2, and I think I might regret playing today as I’ve got a flight tomorrow morning. You can’t miss the second game of the season after spending all summer doing preseason training though.

[Kalbear]

Between my hurt rib and depression I've gained 8 pounds, worked out less and ate like shit. 

Today that stops. 

[Iskaral Pust]

I’ll have a mixed bag this week.  We’re on vacation in Spain for my brother’s wedding.  We departed on Saturday and won’t get back until next Sunday.  So two weekends with no gym, and restaurant food every meal of every day for nine days. And jet lag to ruin my sleep.

But I do have some time available during the midweek to get to the very limited gyms at our hotels. 

[aceluby]

Think I might try a Keto diet for the next little while.  Reading up on it it seems like that's probably what happened to my body when I did Whole30 anyway, just get to add cheese and vodka sodas.

[BigFatCoward]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-45497348

Not sure if those outside the UK can read this. Mark Wahlbergs day, why not just go to bed at 2230 and get up at 0530? Fucking fruitcake. 

 

[john]

Half an hour of golf?  I don’t play but I can’t imagine you’re getting many holes in that time.  Conversely you can fit a lot of prayers in to that 30 minute period.

[BigFatCoward]

39 minutes ago, john said:

Half an hour of golf?  I don’t play but I can’t imagine you’re getting many holes in that time.  Conversely you can fit a lot of prayers in to that 30 minute period.

Code for wanking?

[john]

I dunno, he’s also scheduled himself a 90 minute shower so ...

[aceluby]

On 9/12/2018 at 5:38 PM, john said:

I dunno, he’s also scheduled himself a 90 minute shower so ...

so much wanking.....

On day 4 of the Keto diet and everything seems to be in motion.  Eat a tablespoon of coconut oil in the morning with a lot of water, small salad with chicken/fish and oil dressing for lunch, another tablespoon of coconut oil and some cheese before I workout, then chicken/ribs/steak for dinner.  One thing that's been weird is I've been tracking everything for this first bit and I've actually found it hard to get enough calories, despite all the fat I'm eating.  I've actually had to look for higher calorie foods to make sure I'm not starving myself and losing muscle mass.  Workouts have been surprisingly stronger as well as long as I properly hydrate.  Plan now is to do this for two months and then probably do it in two month cycles.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

7 hours ago, aceluby said:

so much wanking.....

On day 4 of the Keto diet and everything seems to be in motion.  Eat a tablespoon of coconut oil in the morning with a lot of water, small salad with chicken/fish and oil dressing for lunch, another tablespoon of coconut oil and some cheese before I workout, then chicken/ribs/steak for dinner.  One thing that's been weird is I've been tracking everything for this first bit and I've actually found it hard to get enough calories, despite all the fat I'm eating.  I've actually had to look for higher calorie foods to make sure I'm not starving myself and losing muscle mass.  Workouts have been surprisingly stronger as well as long as I properly hydrate.  Plan now is to do this for two months and then probably do it in two month cycles.

I'm impressed by all the dietary things you've been doing in the last few years. I wish I had that will power lol. 

On 9/7/2018 at 9:48 PM, Triskjavikson said:

Tywin with the last post in five straight topics in GenChat front page.  That's some good exercise. 

I could have done it today too, but there is a lack of stuff to talk about.

[aceluby]

On 9/14/2018 at 6:17 PM, SpaceForce Tywin et al. said:

I'm impressed by all the dietary things you've been doing in the last few years. I wish I had that will power lol. 

Thanks man!  Keto is not so different from Whole30, just swap a few options for others.  So far I'm liking it a lot.  Today was a tablespoon of coconut oil for breakfast, tuna & mayo for lunch, coconut oil and some cheese for a snack, then ribs and some vodka sodas for dinner (did a TON of house remodeling today, and it was football  ).   A couple more pieces of cheese and that about does it.  I love beer, so that's a tough one to drop, but at least I can still have a cocktail on this diet.  Will see how this goes after a month or two.