Samul's Training and Nutrition Log

So I finally gave these wraps a try. I watched the video they have on elitefts about using them correctly; I wrapped them very tightly as per the instructions (had to take them off as soon as my set was over as they were borderline hurting me) and up so they would keep my hands from bending backwards.

My wrists did indeed feel more stable, but the presses weren’t completely pain free. However, since the backward bend was now out of the equation, I could actually tell what kind of tension was causing the pain.

What’s bothering my wrists isn’t the backward bend, as much as it is the pressure applied in such a way that makes my wrists bend “sideways.” To get exactly what I’m talking about, imagine holding dumbbells in the bottom position of a bench press, and have the bells slightly tilt inwards. I had that on some reps and it hurt like hell. This isn’t as pronounced with barbell bench presses, in fact it’s almost absent. I did feel it at the beginning of the last few sets where I was pretty fatigued: as I unracked the bar, I felt like I was pushing unevenly throughout my wrist, which causes the same kind of inward sideway tilting under the weight of the barbell.

So the good news is the wraps do kinda help. The bad news is I don’t know how to prevent what I just described, as it seems to just end up happening when the weight gets heavy for me and I’m fatigued.

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Do you use a thumbless grip?

Nope.

I would give it a try. I find it puts the bar in a good position in my hand to avoid that.

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Will do. I never used it because I thought it could potentially be unsafe, but the power rack I’m currently using has safeties, so it shouldn’t be a concern now.

I don’t think it will help much my issue with dumbbells though. I tried the thumbless grip on dumbbells a few times and it felt incredibly weird.

Oh yeah, for dumbbells I don’t see it doing much. Fat gripz might help.

Gyms closed again…

I bought three different bands from decathlon at different resistances, and I’m trying to see if the owner of my gym can lend me a pair of dumbbells or two… I guess it’s time to lean down a bit like I did during the lockdown.

My father got a couple construction guys he’s friends with to build this for me

Looks good, but it’s only 50 lb. Better than nothing I guess.

The upsetting thing is I have a spare 10 lb and a 22 lb plate. If I had a pair the same weight I could at least add those.

Edit: I guess I can use this to do stuff like banded barbell curls or banded presses though. Interesting.

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Actually if you guys have any suggestions on what I could do with this light weight, I am all ears. There is a lot that can be done with a bit of creativity. The first thing I thought is doing very high rep sets with the barbell + a band, then get rid of the band and keep going with the barbell only.

Or 100 rep sets. Whatever. I’m curious to hear what comes to your mind.

You only have one band of each type?

Well this week I tried 30-10-30, makes light weight very hard lol. Then stato dynamic with 3 sec pause on concentric at weak point. Just good old 5 secs eccentric. Then high reps sets.

Pre-fatigue is also a good thing. like you do 4 sets of Sissy squats, then you do 30-10-30 on BSS, it will hurt lol

Also, plyos are a very good way of training

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I would definitely use lots of pre-fatigue or pre-exhaust work.

Maybe;

Hamstrings
3 sets of band hamstring curls, laying on the ground. High reps, or slow lowering, whatever it takes to rideout your hamstrings.

3 sets of single leg RDLs or kickstand RDLs.

3 sets of band Good Mornings or GMs with your barbell held zercher style.

Lats

3 sets Chin-ups

3 sets of band straight arm pulldowns

3 sets of high rep rows, pull to belly button and hold at top

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Do those plates that are on in the photo come off? You could really lean into doing landmine exercises if so.

They do, but given that the bar weighs approximately 5 lbs, I’m not sure how stable that would be. I’ll give it a try and report back

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Haha yeah that could increase the sketchy factor a bit. Good luck dude!

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this post might be a repeat of one I made a couple months ago because, well, pretty much the same happened again.

for the past two days, I’ve had to cope with insane gut pain that just wouldn’t leave me alone. I couldn’t pinpoint a specific area, the pain was (still is) all over the place starting just below my stomach. I have taken rociverine (Rilaten), which is supposed to have similar effects to the more known buscopan, and it didn’t really help. after the first day of being in pain, I drove to the ER at 5am because the pain was so bad it woke me up in the middle of the night, and I got some more rociverine injected.

The doctor who visited me told me it looks like it’s gas, which made sense because sometimes the pain goes away when I sit in a position for long enough, and comes back as soon as I move. He told me to take Mylicon and charcoal. I took them, and at the end of the day I was still hurting. This is nuts: I can’t concentrate on anything, I can’t do anything, the pain is desrupting me 100%.

At 2am last night I drove to the ER again to follow up because the pain just wouldn’t leave me alone and lying down seemed to make it worse rather than help. the doctor visited me again and told me she didn’t find anything worth of note, and again it’s probably just gas that has built up. she told me to take paracetamol and I did. I managed to fall asleep, although I woke up a few times due to pain.

here we are in the morning. I’m still hurting. I’m trying to go about my day and attend online class because sitting down is one of the positions in which it hurts the least. I barely had food over the past 2 days. I am so sick of this.

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How are you friend?

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hey thanks for asking buddy!

I’m better now. On Friday, I headed to the ER after realizing that the pain had, if anything, gotten worse and it was the fourth day, I just couldn’t stand it anymore.

They took my blood and x-rayed my abdomen. Everything came out normal, and they concluded that it was gas buildup that was casing pain.

They put me on paracetamol + iboprofene for pain, which helped me through the rest of the day and the next one. I slowly started feeling better and now I’m pretty much pain free. Today I even did a workout, and I’m slowly getting back to eating normally.

The pain was really getting the best of me mentally. I had lost all will to do anything at all. Laying down, which usually is comfortable and helps you rest, was the most painful position, so I had to choose between sitting all the time, being uncomfortable with a little less pain, or being “comfortable” with more pain. The pain just came and went every few hours. I would settle in a position and after maybe 30 minutes it’d go away almost completely, but it eventually came back every time.

I think I’ll drop diet soda altogether (I used to drink 500 ml of Monster Zero a day) because maybe that could have something to do with it. Other than that, I really hope this won’t happen anymore, or at least won’t be as painful as this time, because these 4 days really did take some life out of me.

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I have a bunch of gut issues, nothing quite like you describe but alcohol sugars (found in a ton of low carb stuff, like energy drinks) are definitely a trigger for me. Hopefully that helps resolve it a bit

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Damn! I really hope it was just the one thing. Well Monster isn’t really good but who am I to talk, I drink way too much diet soda…

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The FODMAP diet, created to ameliorate the symptoms of IBS (irritable bowel syndrome), actually doesn’t have a problem with aspartame (found in most diet sodas) but does with many other alcohol sugars usually ending in “ol”. Too much carbonation is generally not recommended though. Might be worth checking out @samul if problems keep persisting.

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