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Exercise and Fitness: bro science debunked


Iskaral Pust

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Luke crushed the old thread with the video of that record deadlift.  Nothing could follow that. 

Autumn is here and that wonderful window when the gym attendance drops back to the true regulars.  It’s after the bikini-body anxiety but before the New Year’s guilt.  

Our hotel in San Francisco over the weekend did not have the usual paltry gym; instead they gave us access to the Equinox gym in the lower floors of the building.  That had some pros and cons: a greater variety and much heavier weights, but much more crowded. 

Saturday I did shoulder press and pull-ups. I just used dumbbells for the former and took advantage of having 2x60lbs available.  But I did not go heavier than that because I could not generate as much power as with my usual barbell shoulder press (160lbs) — the incline bench was so low to the floor that I could not generate a good bracing of heels as a foundation, plus dumbbells require more stabilization than a shoulder press machine where you are free to put all of the effort into an explosive (uncontrolled) lift.  Pull-ups went well but I don’t like having to over-extend my reach to grip tha handles and start the motion, which leads to a cold start.  I much prefer to grab the bar/handles comfortably and lower myself into the first negative with my lats absorbing the strain and preparing for the contraction.  So the variation in equipment posed a new challenge on both, but that’s good for exercise.  (I was doing a LOT more pull-ups and shoulder press than anyone else there; arm curls are obviously still in fashion though)

Sunday was legs.  Without my squat collar I just did leg press for an hour.  600lbs was my heaviest, but I assume I could do more if I had not just taken a 4-5 month break from leg weights.  It went very well.  Plenty of stiffness today, but not at that specific point on the hamstring.  Perhaps it’s the squat motion causing that. 

Overall, the experience did not make me want to join a commercial gym.  The heavier weights were great, and I wanted to try more stuff, but it was so crowded.  That made it hotter, made you wait to use anything and made it impossible to alternate between different exercises.  So my small gym in our building may lack the heavier weights I want, but I can generally do as many sets as I want in whatever order I like, and watch football between sets. 

Back home now.  I was looking forward to a midweek session of bench press and cable rows but I acquired the common cold on the flight back.  I’m guessing I won’t exercise all this week.  That’s unfortunate when my exercise has been feeling good. 

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Had my surgery follow up and got my big dressing removed. Still have to wear a splint for a few weeks and not supposed to lift anything heavier than 5 lbs with my left hand. It's frustrating to workout but I can use the weight machines for now. Also went for a run yesterday without any pain so I can at least stay mostly active. I'm extra fluffy right now but trying not to get discouraged and just appreciate myself for where I'm at.

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Good lord Luke. I thought I was strong when I could OMR 500 on the squat rack in high school, and I weighed 30-40 pounds more than your GF.

 

I’m kind of laughing at work right now. I’ve always bought into the notion that fitness is 30% training, 70% diet. I’m eating carrots and broccoli with a V8 at my desk right now while everyone is celebrating free donuts.

Must. Stay. Strong!

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I've been struggling with my knee a bit recently so I was quite glad to have no game of rugby last week. I was telling one the guys at training last night that I was feeling miles better having rested for a week. This morning my knee had stiffened back up and I've got a bit of a quad strain in my other leg so I've been hobbling round at work like I'm an oap. I think I might be getting too old for exercise.  :lol:

 

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Yesterday marked a month of doing the keto diet and I lost 7 lbs overall and ate more bacon cheeseburgers and went through more mayo than I ever thought possible.  I leave for Dublin on Saturday, so I will probably introduce a few carbs (who am I kidding... it's probably going to be a shit ton) while I'm on vacation, but I think once I get back I'll go back on it until Thanksgiving.  I wish I had more snacking options, but I think it's a pretty small price to pay.  Took some classes last week, but haven't worked out since last Thursday due to remodeling my basement 12 hours a day over the weekend and trying to install a new floor this week before I leave.

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Melbourne Marathon tomorrow. I'm coming off a solid 6 months training, a good season and a bunch of pbs, and I feel like crap. Hoping it's just a mix of nerves and hayfever. Either way, I'm taking antihistamines and planning to head out with the 3:20 pace group (4:44min/km) and will reassess as I go.

Just praying I'm not coming down with a cold.

 

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That did not go according to plan.

HR was right up from the start, about 10bpm above where it was at target pace during training. I stupidly decided to suck it up and push through for far too long.

At the halfway mark I fell off pace and decided to take it easy. Headed for a 3:30.

At the 30k mark the cramps started. Both leg quads, right calf and hamstring. Pretty much limped it home in 3:45.

Oh well. Many lessons learned for next time.

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I have not really proceeded very much with the pull-ups and similar stuff (although I still do a little bit of hanging and a few pull-ups almost every day) but used the great weather (more like summer than mid-october) for running almost every day. I still keep it to comparably short distances (5-7km) and have a rest day every 3-4 days and so far nothing hurts which is good. And the scale scratched almost 70kg, admittedly still from the wrong side. If I go below 70, this will probably be the first time since the last millenium. BMI below 24, still not ideal for running but I don't really plan to go down much further. Otherwise I would have to buy lots of new clothes which I cannot afford...

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No exercise this weekend either.  I’m mostly over this cold but still some chest congestion I need to clear first.  Frustrating, but I’m trying to be sensible about it. 

I don’t know if this was an unusually potent virus, or if I was more depleted than I knew, or if working uninterrupted (mostly from home) throughout just didn’t allow enough rest, but I’ve been pretty wiped out for the past week or more.  At least I recovered enough to fulfill my travel for client meetings on Thursday and Friday, even if they left me exhausted again.

My wife sent me to get a strep test Friday a week ago, because at that point I had only a sore throat for three days (and she is a germaphobe), which confirmed I had a virus rather than strep, but I had unusually low blood pressure (I’m always 110/80, but this time 100/50).  And then from that evening the full array of symptoms kicked in and left me wiped out.

I’ll be back to normal soon.  

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  • 2 weeks later...

Finally back to the gym this past weekend.  That cold/virus has not quite cleared and it noticeably sapped my energy, but I was determined to get some exercise anyway.

Saturday was shoulder press and pull-ups.  I'm trying some variation to form and sets to avoid stagnation.  A good workout, even if I ran out of energy much earlier than usual.

Sunday was leg press, hamstring curl and deadlifts.  I'm going to omit barbell squats until I see how my hamstring is handling other heavy lifts.  I may use Bulgarian half squats instead.  I am using a platform under my feet for deadlifts (on a Smith machine) to get the bar to an appropriate mid-shin starting point.  This session went well too and my energy lasted slightly longer than Saturday.

I did notice that the gym was very busy both days, mostly with people on cardio machines.  I may have misjudged the autumn as a quiet period for the gym.  We may have a migration of outside runners back to treadmills, and possibly some people just doing less outdoor social stuff without the nice weather.  

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Been sticking to my diet pretty easily and getting the results I want, but have had a hard time finding time to work out.  After completely remodeling my basement I'm now in the process of repainting a room for the baby and getting it ready.  Once that's done it's just one last room to finish up before I can start going to the gym like I want to.  So, tonight is the last coat of paint, teach a class tomorrow (going to teach in my awesome spiderman costume), and hopefully get a real workout in on Thursday (maybe sneak one in on Friday too).

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On 10/30/2018 at 12:06 PM, aceluby said:

Been sticking to my diet pretty easily and getting the results I want, but have had a hard time finding time to work out.  After completely remodeling my basement I'm now in the process of repainting a room for the baby and getting it ready.  Once that's done it's just one last room to finish up before I can start going to the gym like I want to.  So, tonight is the last coat of paint, teach a class tomorrow (going to teach in my awesome spiderman costume), and hopefully get a real workout in on Thursday (maybe sneak one in on Friday too).

Pictures or it didn't happen!

Speaking of Halloween, it begins the season of overeating, and I can already see my hand wandering with a mind of it's own to the bowl of Reese's. 

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11 hours ago, SpaceForce Tywin et al. said:

Speaking of Halloween, it begins the season of overeating, and I can already see my hand wandering with a mind of it's own to the bowl of Reese's. 

Ah, the sweet summer child...

Season of overeating started in Serbia a month ago and will last until early May. New Year, Christmas and Easter are the worst but all throughout autumn and winter there's these smaller, more frequent events. As Serbian Orthodox Christians, each family has a patron saint whose day is traditionally celebrated with family, friends and neighbors and there's always insane amount of food and drink involved. Not only do you celebrate your own family's patron saint day (my family's is St. George, celebrated on May 5th), but you visit all your friends and relatives and neighbors on their patron saint days, eating and drinking along the way.

I can see my hand wandering to a whole ton of food with a mind of my own. :lol:

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14 hours ago, SpaceForce Tywin et al. said:

Pictures or it didn't happen!

Speaking of Halloween, it begins the season of overeating, and I can already see my hand wandering with a mind of it's own to the bowl of Reese's. 

 

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3 minutes ago, SpaceForce Tywin et al. said:

That’s a double LOL.

Also, Ace, that had to be hot. I can’t imagine wearing that for a hour long yoga class.

It was just a barre class, so not heated and I only do about 1/3 of the class when I teach, but it wasn't exactly 'fresh' after :) . 

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Lol. I’m sure the wife told you to take a shower at the end of the night.

Also, I was going to buy a similar styled Deadpool costume, but it was a bit pricey and it looked like it would be a nightmare to get off if the damn broke from drinking too much beer.

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