Our Physical Fitness

[Scribe]

178.4 this morning, slept horrible, any time I focus upper back/traps I sleep bad so thats a shame lol.

Feeling like my shoulders have really started to come together though.

 

[VashVet]

Take you garden variety cardio workout.

Do it on the beach instead.

Why is it a bajillion times harder?!

 

[Scribe]

Take you garden variety cardio workout.

Do it on the beach instead.

Why is it a bajillion times harder?!

Extra work stabilizing in the sand, the lack of or lower resistance as well, probably makes it vastly more difficult.

 

[VashVet]

Extra work stabilizing in the sand, the lack of or lower resistance as well, probably makes it vastly more difficult.

Just doing planks was so much harder. Loved it.

 

[Scribe]

178.8 - Didn't do anything remotely stressful physically, and its not hot enough to make me lose weight over night. I think I'm going to tighten up the diet and start walking again as I need a bit more calorie burn going on during my day to day if I'm not working out 5 days a week. I dont think this is good weight gain.

Today, I may be making a small road trip looking at some property, or if the wife is not up for that, I'm going to get some cleaning done and do a hike instead since it looks like the weather is pretty perfect currently.

 

[Mannahnin]

Got back into the gym Friday morning June 19, since I was off for Juneteenth and didn't have any commitments until the afternoon.

• Smith inclined barbell bench 105x11 +100x5, 105x10 +100x3 +95x2, 95x8.

Unfortunately I tweaked my trap doing this, and that limited the session a bit. I cut a whole set here not wanting to make it worse. My traps shouldn't engage on this one, but in practice, the pegs I hook the bar onto at the end of a set are just a little bit of an extra reach beyond my full extension in proper form, so I have to roll my shoulders up to stretch upwards to rack, and that engages the traps. I think going forward I'm going to try to rack on the next lower set of pegs to avoid this, though that will mean needing to push up more to start the set when I initially un-rack.

• Dumbbell seated inclined curls 30x10 +25x4, 30x6 +25x2, 30x4 +25x2

My right arm could have gotten a few more reps but I wanted to keep it symmetrical, and my left was definitely failing. I haven't done these in months, but they used to be a mainstay and the benches happened to be open, so I felt like trying them out. When I was at peak strength I used to do more like 30x12-14 +25x5 to start, then didn't have nearly so severe a drop off. I know I'm substantially lighter now, but it still feels bad being weaker. OTOH the actual work felt good and I felt some DOMS in my biceps for two days afterward, so that was mildly satisfying. Maybe I should consider trying to incorporate this along with the machine biceps curls and so increase the volume a bit by doing both exercises.

• Machine triceps pushdowns 130x8 +110x5, 110x13, then switched to the other one of these machines and banged out 110x20. Overall this was a LOT worse than the last time I did this exercise (June 8), but it seems like this first machine is set to or due to some mechanical issue has significantly higher base resistance. So I really need to use the same one (of these two in this gym) machine to get an apples-to-apples comparison. The trap injury also factored in here and limited me a little.

178.8 - Didn't do anything remotely stressful physically, and its not hot enough to make me lose weight over night. I think I'm going to tighten up the diet and start walking again as I need a bit more calorie burn going on during my day to day if I'm not working out 5 days a week. I dont think this is good weight gain.

Today, I may be making a small road trip looking at some property, or if the wife is not up for that, I'm going to get some cleaning done and do a hike instead since it looks like the weather is pretty perfect currently.

Getting those few to ten thousand steps a day is a great addition.

With you here. I both want to make time for some hikes this Summer AND I really want to add some regular walking and/or cardio on the elliptical at the gym between lifting days. I KNOW I need to add some cardio for stamina and heart health; it's just been challenging to make happen. Especially when I'm struggling to even keep up a 3x/week lifting schedule, which I have historically found easier and more fun than the elliptical.

 

[Evaniel]

Got back into the gym Friday morning June 19, since I was off for Juneteenth and didn't have any commitments until the afternoon.

• Dumbbell seated inclined curls 30x10 +25x4, 30x6 +25x2, 30x4 +25x2

My right arm could have gotten a few more reps but I wanted to keep it symmetrical, and my left was definitely failing. I haven't done these in months, but they used to be a mainstay and the benches happened to be open, so I felt like trying them out. When I was at peak strength I used to do more like 30x12-14 +25x5 to start, then didn't have nearly so severe a drop off. I know I'm substantially lighter now, but it still feels bad being weaker. OTOH the actual work felt good and I felt some DOMS in my biceps for two days afterward, so that was mildly satisfying. Maybe I should consider trying to incorporate this along with the machine biceps curls and so increase the volume a bit by doing both exercises.

This, in part, is why I've been trying to incorporate more dumbell and unilateral work in my routine. When I got my knee checked out by physical therapists this past spring, they remarked on how...asymmetircal...my leg muscles were. Humbling.

Now I try to get at least one dumbell or unilateral movement in per body part. I hate it! But I think it's probably helping.

 

[Scribe]

This, in part, is why I've been trying to incorporate more dumbell and unilateral work in my routine. When I got my knee checked out by physical therapists this past spring, they remarked on how...asymmetircal...my leg muscles were. Humbling.

Yes, as if we dont already have enough dysmorphia creeping in, when I had the fact my right leg has more muscle mass than my left pointed out to me, I couldn't unsee it for weeks!

177.4 this morning, hiked for a few hours yesterday with my son for Fathers Day, lead to a late/weak dinner, so there's that.

Upper after work, ready to smash. I'm going to skip on the neck/traps work myself, I'd rather get through the week with a bit of sleep so I will leave that to Friday.

 

[Scribe]

Pushed everything, back up to 9 reps on Bench, added a rep to every chest exercise, and on Friday I'll add weight to a few. Back continues to be good, arms getting hit with everything else.

Clearly overtraining when I added in those arms/shoulders workouts.

 

[Mannahnin]

Gym was mobbed on a mildly rainy Monday evening after work. All the Smiths and both the fly machines taken up basically the whole time I was there, and other equipment I wanted at different times, so had to switch it up a bit.

• Machine seated row 120x20, 120x8, 120x16 (added a few reps)
• Triceps pushdown machine (the left, easier one): 120x35, 130x30, 130x30
• Machine chest press 110x7 +100x3 +90x2, 100x11 +90x2, 100x10 +90x2.

Still felt pretty good. I kind of felt like I had energy to add in a fourth exercise, but I decided better to keep the session more time efficient, not exhaust myself and leave myself with any reluctance to come back next time.