Our Physical Fitness

[TiQuinn]

This year I've managed to drop down to around 170 while mostly recovering my previous strength peaks, or slightly exceeding them for a few lifts. My cheap digital scale estimates me around 18% body fat, and I keep waffling on whether I want to do an actual strict and structured cut to try to get genuinely lean, or plan a mild calorie surplus to actively bulk. It also doesn't help that I feel relatively exhausted and take what seems like a lot of time doing a fraction of the sets some of you guys do. Lately I've been pondering whether I need to add regular cardio not just for heart health, but to increase my stamina for and reduce my rest/recovery time for lifting!

I'll say that dedicating a couple of days a week for cardio has done wonders for my recovery between lifting sessions.

 

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

Walking just 15 minutes a day has made a hell of a lot of difference in my life.

 

[Mannahnin]

I'll say that dedicating a couple of days a week for cardio has done wonders for my recovery between lifting sessions.

I recover pretty well between sessions. For me it's the intra-workout rest breaks which seem to eat up more time than "normal". Some of that may be that I'm almost always going to failure and often pushing that with drop sets, of course.

How long were you in the gym for that lower body/core session yesterday?

 

[TiQuinn]

I recover pretty well between sessions. For me it's the intra-workout rest breaks which seem to eat up more time than "normal". Some of that may be that I'm almost always going to failure and often pushing that with drop sets, of course.

Yeah, that'll torch you in a hurry. I try to go to failure on one or two exercises only and only on the second or last set; never all of them. Just as a data point, I'm shooting for 45 minutes to 1 hour tops in the gym. If I go over, it's only because I was feeling really good that day and wanted to get in a few smaller exercises in like some stability work or maybe extra stretching afterwards.

 

[Mannahnin]

Yeah, that'll torch you in a hurry. I try to go to failure on one or two exercises only and only on the second or last set; never all of them. Just as a data point, I'm shooting for 45 minutes to 1 hour tops in the gym. If I go over, it's only because I was feeling really good that day and wanted to get in a few smaller exercises in like some stability work or maybe extra stretching afterwards.

Yup. I suspected as much. I usually wind up getting in 3-4 exercises in around an hour (like yesterday), as compared to you having six in yesterday's session. Sometimes more like 3 in 45min if I'm hurrying. When my strength peaked in 2022 before the injury I was usually doing an hour after work 2 times a week (4-5 exercises) and 2+ hours on Sunday (7-8 exercises including leg press and deadlift which take longer to recover).

 

[Mannahnin]

Got back in last night for three sets of lat pulldowns (narrow grip) with drop sets on the latter two, three sets of machine triceps extensions with drop sets on the latter two, and three of machine shoulder press with a drop set on the last one.

And this morning I managed to motivate to do a slightly abbreviated version of my previous morning routine, with some body weight squats and split squats, and some single leg hip hinges.

My right shoulder is still complaining; I need to do better about not sleeping on it. But overall feeling pretty good.