So, yesterday I got back into the gym after 3 months. It’s not like gyms have re-opened, but they’re letting people train in the parking lot for € 5. I find that acceptable (much more than the € 20 they were asking up to last month), so I went in with a friend and trained. It felt so weird yet so good! Squatting, rowing, deadlifting and benching after such a long time. Needless to say today I’m wrecked and I can’t walk or move my arms. But I’m happy haha.
Here’s a few videos from yesterday
Deadlift and squat felt ungodly heavy. The bench was actually decent, aside from the fact that the barbell we used kept rotating during reps (you can kinda see my wrists and forearms in the video trying to stabilize the thing).
Fun fact. There was this girl (she was so juiced up that if you only heard her voice, you would think it was a male – no judgment, just giving a description) that, while I was squatting, said to me, “don’t bounce as much.” I just ignored her and kept going, and another girl with her said, “think he didn’t hear you.”
So as my set was over, I just said “I did. I know how to squat,” and went back to my business. The “girl” said something along the lines of “don’t need to take it that way, I’m just doing my job (note: she doesn’t work for the gym)”.
I kinda always wonder why people don’t mind their business. I have no issue with constructive criticism: people on here must’ve lost count of how many times I asked for feedback. It’s with unsolicited (and shitty) advice that I have a problem.
So, as things don’t necessarily seem to be improving here, it’s looking like gyms will stay closed possibly until June.
Anyhow, my gym is letting us train in the parking lot and pretty much all the equipment is available. As of now, I’m feeling very unmotivated but I’m not going to quit training. In fact, my schedule currently allows me to get to the gym twice per week. Is is optimal? No. Do I care? Nop, the alternative is not training at all.
One of the few things that drives me to the gym is benching, currently. I haven’t seen a strength decrease in my bench, despite all the months away from it, and in fact yesterday I hit a couple solid sets as a weight I used to struggle with. Mind you, my bench is and always has been very weak. But right now it really motivates me to train.
So, for the time being, I’m thinking of making it a goal to get to a 220 lb bench. I can currently bench 192 for 5 reps, so I’m not close but I’m not light years away either.
What I’d like to ask you guys for is some input as to how I could structure a two-days-a-week routine, focused on bringing up my bench while maintaining everything else (although after so much time away from the weights I imagine even working out at all means progressing, rather than just maintaining). It’s definitely not rocket science, and even just winging it would likely result in progress for the time being, but any advice from you guys is, as always, appreciated.
IIRC you have some joint pain with benching right? That may be the overhead press I’m thinking of.
I’d say do the bench one day with your program of choice, then the next day just make the muscles involved in benching bigger and stronger. You’re probably a lot closer to that 220lb bench than you think with a 192x5 rep set.
you recall correctly, yeah. both my shoulders and my wrists tend to get beat up pretty easily. in fact, my left wrists has been hurting a bit all day in the background, and case in point yesterday I benched.
the ohp bothers my wrists even more, but overall my joints just seem to be on the fragile side.
do you not like the idea of benching 2x week? I was initially considering doing some heavier benching one day, and then higher rep sets the other day, but maybe it’d be better to just work with dumbbells and other movements.
Only because if it’s beating your joints up at 1x per week a second session might do more harm than good when things like DBs might accomplish the same goal without the pain.
You’ve had it diagnosed? To me, stronger forearms become more stable. It’s like wearing wraps on the inside.
A1. Wrist Flexion: 10–20 per side, then
A2. Wrist Extension: 10–20 per side, then repeat for 3 sets of A1/A2
extension weight 50% of your flexion weight
Rest 60 seconds
3 sets
B1. Ulnar Flexion (also known as deviation): 10–20 per hand
B2. Radial Flexion: 10–20 per hand
Same weight for each
Rest 60 seconds
3 sets
C1. Supination: 10–20 per hand,
C2. Pronation: 10–20 per hand
Same weight for each. Imagine holding a the neck of wine bottle (or the handle of a frying pan) and letting it tip in towards your torso (pronation) and away from your body (supination). Go as deep as you can while maintaining tension in your forearm muscles. Don’t “relax” and let the joint eat all the torque.
I found ulnar deviation to be markedly weak, and supination/pronation.
It doesn’t take a lot of time and can be done while watching lectures or Netflix. Try it 3x/wk.
Most of Italy is in partial lock down, i.e. similar restrictions to the ones that were imposed last year. My region is in a less severe situation, therefore we are allowed to go out arbitrarily, although most businesses are closed.
Overall, I think we, as a country, really deserve the stereotype all around the world that Italians are clowns. We have earned that.
Once again, we are lagging behind other countries as far as how many people have been vaccinated, and day after day hundreds of people are dying whose death could have been prevented by properly arranging for administering vaccines. It’s a shame and I’m not proud to be Italian.
Doing fine man, thanks for asking. Haven’t posted much on here lately as I’ve been training with minimal effort as the whole situation has kinda gotten the best of me.
Hit 208 on the bench for a couple of reps the other day, which means that at least I’m progressing on the bench, but that’s about it. I hope when things get back to normal I’ll eventually get back to the motivation and discipline I used to have.
Overall though, I can’t complain. I’ve been focusing a lot on school and working towards my other goals.
We are lagging behind with vaccinations. We are starting to catch up, but we’re still vaccinating people over 60, so it’s still a long shot before we can call it over with. Since this week, businesses are starting to open again though, so they’re basically taking a shot in the dark hoping this won’t cause a bump in the curve.
