ActivitiesGuy Intro and Log

[quote]twojarslave wrote:
I am going to try to make it to the Yoga class on Tuesday, but it is entirely possible I will be having a few beers and cooking on the grill if it is nice outside. It has been an especially long winter and it is time to enjoy not freezing and make contact with our neighbors for the first time since October.
[/quote]

Nothing wrong with that. You can probably glean from the above introduction that I love to work out, but it’s part of an overall approach to a healthy life and happiness. Even the most fitness-crazed of us ought to give ourselves a little space to live; exactly how we define that “little space to live” is up to the individual. Some days, it’s nice to cook out and have a cold one with a big steak or burger. You just hit the gym the next day.

[quote]twojarslave wrote:
As for anxiety, I wasnt worried what anyone thought about the fat man learning his way around a barbell, I sure as hell wont be bothered about sucking at yoga in front of the bendy women.
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Good to hear. Didn’t really expect anything else from you, but this is by far the most common complaint/stonewalling I get from people reluctant to try a yoga class (either “I’m not flexible enough for yoga” - well, that’s WHY you go! - or “I don’t want to look stupid” - well, no one else really cares how you look!).

I’ve been neglecting my stretching lately, but I don’t feel like it is hampering my progress. Whether or not it is putting me at an increased risk for injury is something I’m not sure of. I’d like to err on the side of caution and find a stretching routine that I enjoy, hence my general interest in yoga. I have a foam roller that I use about once per week, mostly on my back and legs.

Foam rolling is not exactly easy or comfortable for a man my size, but holy hell my back loves it. I also do some stretching in front of the TV, but the grunts and heavy breathing that goes along with that annoy the hell out of my girlfriend. Regardless of whether I take up yoga or not, I feel like I need to incorporate a consistent stretching program into my life.

Speaking of my girlfriend, she works as an office manager type at a high-end massage therapy place. The owner lets me get the “salvage rate” at the last minute when a therapist is unbooked, which means the insanely low rate of $24.95 per hour (although I always tip them $20 or more, gotta pay it forward). Regular rate is $80 for an hour there. Having a skilled and sturdy gal work me over head-to-toe once or twice a month has been a big help, and at $45 total per session it is definitely worth it to me.

Just one more piece that has fallen into place in my quest for a healthier life.

It sounds like you have identified a general need - some kind of mobility work - and you’re sorting through what the options are (yoga classes, foam rolling, you could also check out mobilitywod.com or Joe DeFranco’s Agile 8 and Limber 11 for some other at-home options).

I know that foam rolling and yoga are really two different things, but they both sorta fall under the broad umbrella of “preventive and/or rehabilitative work” in my book. I’ve never been a massage guy myself, but I know some people love them (my mother, who was mostly a “walker” for exercise but has become an avid hot-yoga practitioner in the last two-plus years, gets a massage every few weeks from a woman at their hometown yoga studio and loves it) and if you feel like it’s doing you some good, by all means keep grabbing those value slots whenever possible.

At this stage, I don’t think the EXACT choice is crucial so much as picking one or two things you can/will do and sticking to them. Maybe that means foam rolling and stretching for a dedicated 15 minutes after every lifting workout, or maybe having a separate “day” (i.e. yoga class) devoted to mobility works better.

I’ve always been lazy about mobility stuff, so I think going to a yoga class and devoting an entire session to it works best for me. If I tell myself “I’ll just foam roll and stretch after lifting” - it is too easy to finish my lift and decide “Nah, I’m hungry now, I’ll stretch later” - but if I’m at a yoga class, that’s not really an option!

One other angle worth discussing here (and it’s fine if you’d prefer not to discuss this in a public forum) is the effect that family, friends, and a significant other can have on training and a healthy lifestyle.

As I’ve alluded to in this thread, my mother and father both have taken up hot yoga since I started (it was 4 years ago for me; a studio opened in my hometown about 2 years ago, where my parents still reside, and they immediately became regulars once they tried it out). Any time that I visit home for a weekend, I know that they’ll be game to join me for at least one class.

I met my girlfriend at the yoga studio, so that’s been part of our ‘relationship’ since before we were dating…but it is still really nice to know that we can go to class and work out “together” several times each week, although we do have our “unique” fitness interests (lifting for me, Zumba for her, and we both like to run).

Point of all that being, it’s great that your GF has found a way to support your healthy habits by “sneaking” you into those open massage slots when possible, and while she may not care to join you in the powerlifting arena, there may be ways in which you can share some of your interests in “wellness” too.

Far be it from me to tell you and/or your GF how to live, but perhaps since you’ve identified this desire for some healing & flexibility on top of your PLing, if she expresses any interest in yoga as well, you might consider going to an occasional yoga class together.

I do like yoga would likely go at least once every week or so regardless, but I will say that having family and my GF also practicing yoga motivates me to stay “on my game” and go at least 2-3 times per week, or find a way to incorporate a class into family vacations, etc.

As far as massage goes, the light-touch relaxing sort of thing is nice, but not really useful for training. The therapists I see put me through an hour of pain and discomfort, but I walk out of there floating on air and ready to tackle my next PR. I wouldn’t do it if I had to pay full price, but the salvage rate is too good to pass up.

My GF, also obese (we basically got fat together, how romantic!), actually got me the yoga DVD from her work, as there is quite a bit of clientele overlap with the yoga and massage crowd. Her reaction to the changes I’ve been making has been a mixed bag, but I am hoping yoga is something we could enjoy together. She definitely is sick of hearing me talk about lifting and diet, tried to talk me out of buying a food scale and has even started a few meaningless arguments that revolve around my lifting. She’s starting to settle in to how my evolving lifestyle affects her, and even agreed to come to the gym with me tonight to film my squat and bench press form (to be posted for critique later, assuming I can master the technology).

I’ve stopped pressuring her to change anything about her lifestyle, stopped talking to her about the changes I am making and especially stopped talking to her about how awesome it is. She does NOT like hearing about that at all. At this point I just hope that she’ll come around on her own, as her mother passed away at age 57 from a heart attack and was also diabetic. As it stands now she has a LOT of misguided ideas about health, fitness and diet that she clings to. Of particular note is the notion that her repeated yo-yo dieting in the past constitutes success (“I’ve lost over 30 lbs three times - I KNOW what I’m talking about!”), thus validating her misguided ideas even though she gained the weight back and now has less LBM to show for it.

In short, she’ll try anything to lose weight as long as it doesn’t involve consistent hard work over a long period of time. I am really hoping that she gets the same spark out of yoga that I did from the barbell. If not, I’ll at least have another tool in my toolbox for healthy living.

I suppose this is just another one of the many rough patches on the road from obesity to good health.

In a nutshell, you’re doing exactly the right thing: take care of yourself, make your own changes, and set a good example, but don’t talk about it too much. Forced changes never work anyway; everyone has to come around on their own terms.

I don’t want to get negative about your girlfriend, and this is a topic which can be explored in GREAT detail, but the upshot is that sometimes people are uncomfortable when you decide to make a change because it reflects poorly on them (sort of what Shugart describes in this brief post from a few months back: Action Offends The Inactive ) or makes them face their own unwillingness to work hard for a goal. As you said: “she’ll try anything to lose weight as long as it doesn’t involve consistent hard work over a long period of time.” Now, we both know that consistent hard work over a long period of time is the only real way that this gets done, and furthermore, that it can become an ENJOYABLE way of life, not just some self-inflicted torture (how many people unfortunately view fitness and the gym).

Keep setting that good example. If she eventually becomes interested, that’s terrific. Don’t let her un-enthusiasm get you down; eventually, if she loves you, she will see the happiness that this has brought you and whether she buys into it herself or not, she will support your newfound enthusiasm for pumping iron. The wonderful endgame, of course, would be her taking up some new pursuit of her own in response to your example, but you just have to “let” that happen.

I read that article a while ago, and it pretty well sums up some of the unanticipated consequences that go along with making dramatic lifestyle changes, especially when you are surrounded by friends and family who are nearly all in need of such a change. It definitely gives me a different perspective on life, and taking up serious lifting definitely introduces some subtle (and some not-so-subtle) changes to just about every relationship I have.

I actually got a written note from my doctor to give to my mother explaining that heavy lifting was perfectly safe and healthy. She freaked out when she saw the video of my 495 DL that a guy from my gym posted to my facebook wall. That scared her quite a bit, but she was never worried about the dangers of letting me drink 6 or 7 sodas per day to wash my Little Debbies down after eating an entire box of macaroni and cheese for dinner. No cause for alarm there, but moving some iron around was a dance with death. But that’s behind me now and she is really happy for me. She even reluctantly accepts my new interest in lifting, but still wishes I would just get on a treadmill or do a Richard Simmons dvd. Nobody ever gets hurt doing that.

Another source of amusement is my very good friend who used to lift. He asks me about my lifts when I see him, and I let him know what sort of weights I’m working with. He’s a strong guy and I have no doubt that he could move some iron around, but he’s also full of shit! He claims to have had a 675 lb squat but was never able to deadlift or bench over 300. Something’s not adding up to me, but I don’t let that sort of thing bother me. Its just some routine chest-thumping. I just smile and nod, tell him that 675 is incredible and that I am still working toward my first real milestone of 405 on the squat and change the subject to tits or trucks or something like that.

What a strange world we live in…

Did a bit of an odd workout this morning that requires a little explanation. I’m a mild neatness-snob and like it when people put the dumbbells back on the rack in a logical order (at least keep the damn PAIRS of weights together!) and put the plates back where they belong. I typically work out at 7 AM in the smallest of three gyms available to University of Pittsburgh students and faculty (the largest is students-only, the other two are available to both students and faculty). Often I am the only person in the room, occasionally 1-2 other people are there at 7 AM. The dumbbell rack goes from 10’s-85’s and often it’s left in complete chaos.

Thus, occasionally on a day that’s not a planned “heavy” day, I’ll do a “workout” where I systematically remove the dumbbells from the rack, perform a set of “something” with each pair, and replace them in a logical order (starting with the 10’s, ending with the 85’s). The exercises will be light shoulder raises with the 10’s-20’s, switching to curl variations for the 25’s-45’s, then shoulder presses for the 50’s-65’s, then bench presses with 70’s-85’s.

So, today I did the “dumbbell rearranging workout” plus 5 sets of dips and 5x5x95 EZ-Bar Curls to finish off. Rest of the week’s plan includes another lifting day tomorrow, yoga class Thursday morning, lifting Friday, yoga classes on Saturday and Sunday.

Dude. I once did – word-for-word – the same workout when I used to work out at my university gym. Not the dips, but everything with the dumbbells. You even work out at the same time as I did. Crazy.

I think people call that “industrious”.

[quote]kgildner wrote:
Dude. I once did – word-for-word – the same workout when I used to work out at my university gym. Not the dips, but everything with the dumbbells. You even work out at the same time as I did. Crazy.
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LOL. That’s great. I love it!

Seriously, it’s just a nice thing to do every couple weeks when I go to the gym and don’t have a structured plan for the day or feel quite recovered enough to really push it on a core lift. It’s a good way to move some weight around and pump some blood through my body without trashing one specific bodypart or joint. I do believe in the power of a program and structured training for those with serious goals, but sometimes a little “unstructured” workout like this, playing a little “game” of sorts within the workout, is nice to break up the monotony.

A friendly cousin of this workout that I do every few days in the summer: I’ll take a kettlebell outside & “just keep moving it” for about 30 minutes to get a workout while enjoying the outdoors. I’ll do some amalgamation of swings, clean-and-presses, snatches, squats, lunges, carries in various positions…just “move the thing around for 30 minutes” with breaks between sets just long enough for my HR to come down a bit. My avatar photo is from one of those workouts, come to think of it.

Incline Bench
5x135
5x145
5x155
5x165
5x175

Bench Press
5x135
5x155
5x185
5x205
5x225
5x225

Pull-ups
5x5xBW

Lat Raises
2x10

Front Raises
2x10

DB Hammer Curls
2x10

Bench Rep-Out
20x155

Cool log man. Outside the box training is great. I love going to parks and banging out dips and muscle ups or what ever can be done on the structures. I think a shit tonne of people on this site lack mobillity and some form of capacity for endurance training.

[quote]Jlabs wrote:
Cool log man. Outside the box training is great. I love going to parks and banging out dips and muscle ups or what ever can be done on the structures. I think a shit tonne of people on this site lack mobillity and some form of capacity for endurance training. [/quote]

I agree re: the general lack of mobility/endurance on this site, but it is a bodybuilding site, after all. Whether those things (endurance training and mobility) have any benefit for an athlete really depends on the individual’s goals. Someone training to be a competitive powerlifter or bodybuilder is better off with more specificity, but as my name says, I’m an “activities guy” and thus I like doing “outside the box” stuff, as you said here.

Re: the lack of endurance/mobility, one comment here. I spent several years after college doing some pretty serious distance running, and I’ll admit that I used to chuckle when I’d see someone post a running goal like “I want to be able to run 2 miles in 16 minutes” because that seems so easy to me now - but then I remind myself that my current strength would not make a dent in any lifting competitions, so I’m really just as “mediocre” myself. I’m okay with being “decent” at a lot of stuff but acknowledge that isn’t everyone’s goal.

I ought to look for a playground nearby where I could do what you described. Carnegie Mellon University (my alma mater, and about a mile from my current residence) used to have a couple of freestanding pull-up bars on campus, but they were knocked down when CMU installed a turf field. Used to jog over there in the evenings with my roommate & knock out a dozen or so sets of pull-ups and push-ups, then jog home. I still like my “take the kettlebell outside and do stuff with it” workout but that’d be a nice addition.

Today’s flavor:

Bikram Yoga Class (90 Minutes)

On tap tomorrow: medium-heavy bench day.

Incline Bench
5x135
5x145
5x155
5x165
5x175
5x185
3x205

Bench Press
5x135
5x155
3x185
3x225
3x245
2x275 (no spotter, erring on safe side)
3x275 (grinder but finished it)

I’m not really thrilled with the execution of 3x275, but happy I got it. It went up evenly and would have passed in a PL meet, no question, I just had to grind the third rep a lot more than I would have liked. Nevertheless, progress continues apace, and this may set the stage for a cleanly-nailed triple with 275 next week.

Dumbbell Raises
2x10

Dumbbell Curls
2x10

Dumbbell Flies
4x10

Bikram Yoga Class (90 Minutes)

Nice and limber. Feeling relatively lean, too. Good week all around.

So I know you mentioned that you train intuitively as opposed to following a set program, but it seems as though you also track your (linear) progression. How do you decide upon when to ramp up the effort and/or intensity?

A decent question.

I do track progression, but I’m not wedded to a strict “on day X, I will do Y reps with Z weight” approach (although I’ll grant that a strict approach to progression has it’s place and can be beneficial for novices or those with minds that tend to wander).

I prefer having a “template” of sorts (right now, until my leg is fully healed, the basic outline is three bench days and three Bikram classes per week, usually distributed as MWF for the bench days, Bikram on Sat & Sun plus one 6 AM class during the week, filling in the cracks with an extra light “pump” workout or two if I’m feeling good).

I’m very loosely following a Texas Method approach with my bench. Monday is sort of a volume day, a couple of heavy sets of 3-5 reps. Wednesday will be a lighter day with 2-3 sets of 5 reps. Friday is a “work up to a 3RM” day, but here’s where the “intuition” comes in: I’m not worried about making it a true all-time 3RM, but sort of a “this is the heaviest triple I’ve got in me TODAY” set. Look at Friday’s bench workout: I did 3x225, 3x245 as warmup sets, put 275 on the bar and did a double that felt pretty good, decided to ask another guy to spot me and go for a hard triple with 275. If the 2x275 had felt too hard, I probably would have just bagged it and moved on to my assistance work.

So I guess that’s what I mean by training intuitively. Maybe “flexibly” would be a better word. But the point is, I’ll adjust my plans for a given workout based on how I feel within the workout. I’ve lifted for long enough to know the difference between “stopping just because it’s hard” and “stopping because my body is genuinely fatigued and/or risking injury.”

One other thing worth mentioning is that I’ll adjust on the fly if the equipment I want isn’t readily available. The gym I train in is tiny (one bench, one incline bench, one squat rack) although there are plenty of plates (and the bars and plates are fantastic - I love benching in this gym). Suppose I just finished benching and I want to do some pull-ups, but I can’t because someone is using the squat rack. Well, fine. I’ll do something else and come back to the pull-ups later. Or if someone is on the bench when I arrive, I’ll do incline instead if I feel like it. Stuff that’s not ideal for every workout, but in the big picture is OK. My chest won’t spontaneously combust if I do incline when I planned to do flat bench, or if I do dumbbell curls instead of barbell because someone is using the bar.

Bikram Yoga Class (90 Minutes)

Im in.

I like your style of training and I used to do a bit of Bikram, although I no longer do as the town I live in does not have a Bikram studio.

tweet

Bench Press
5x135
5x145
5x155
5x165
3x185
3x195
3x205
3x215
3x225
3x235
3x245
3x225
5x225

Pullups
5x5xBW

EZ-Bar Curl
5x5x95

Incline Bench
5x135
5x155
5x185
3x205
3x225