General Workout Routines and Questions

[Luminis]

http://[domain blocked due to malware]/instances/400x/34641045.jpg

That's how I feel at the moment. If you guys want to get your abs to really hurt, try a few (hundred) swiss ball crunches. I hate working my abs. I hate it when breathing hurts.

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

Pushed 185 on the bench today like nothing. Didn't push my luck going heavier since no spotters available. I still want to press 225. One of these days I'll get around to it.

Instead, I was inspired by Dean Somerset and did some overhead presses.

http://www.t-nation.com/free_online...smart_overhead_pressing#.URPxb1MWOWE.facebook

Did all the exercises in that article. It was amazing how hard it was when I kept my back from assuming the load. You have a tendency to lean back into a press when your shoulders can't get it up. It's a workout just to stabilize yourself. The dumbell get-ups and overhead lunges were a treat.

Between my chest and shoulders/back progress, my mass is slowly but surely lifting upwards. Neck bloat is gone, manboobs diminishing, and shoulders/traps gettin' swole.

Celebrated afterwards by going to the Mack House for 3 of their new batch beers, then had to go walk to eat some nearby Mexican because I was too wasted.

Wow you must have been drunk because you ate an entire Mexican!!?? **thats racist!** haha jk
Well I have finally decided to go to the doctor about my shoulder. I have an appointment for tomorrow because it is only getting worse. Havent been able to workout in a few weeks.

 

[Pako]

I'm nursing a hurt shoulder at the moment as well. I am also healing up from being laid up almost all weekend from a subscapula entrapment. Honestly the most pain I have been in. On a scale of 1-10 this was a 10 and ripping my bicep tendon off the bone was a 5 in comparison. Anyhow, I think I pulled it doing 7 plate a side shrugs. I awoke Saturday kind of sore, woke up Sunday and I couldn't move.

Had a couple Chirophractic sessions yesterday and today and am feeling 80% better. One more session tomorrow should do it.

Did arms and hams today at noon and felt pretty good. I went in tonight and did chest and cardio since I missed chest on Monday. No spotter so I warmed up to 225 where I rep'd 2 sets at 12 reps each, then 15 reps on my final set. A good place to be is to hit 3 sets of 10 at 225. I got a pretty good margin on that.

Anyways, hope you get that shoulder feeling better. I had a MRI done on my a few years ago. It hurt so bad I had a difficult time even putting on my coat. MRI showed nothing. 3 months of Chiropractic sessions is the only thing that helped it. It turned out to be upper bicep tendon, it wasn't even shoulder although it sure felt like shoulder to me.

Anyways, good luck with it, and hopefully the docs can tell you something. They will probably just say stay away from activities that strain it and take your 2400mg of Ibuprofen daily.

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

Pako,
Sorry to hear about the subscapula entrapment. Sounds terrible! Glad the chiropractic sessions helped resolve most of the issue.

My shoulder results from the doctor were pretty much what you described in your last sentence. I have been getting better since this happened so when I went in, it wasnt anywhere near as bad as it was a couple weeks ago. So the doctors recommendation was ice and to take it easy. They recommended that if it gets worse to start with physical therapy. Other options were a cordisone shot. They did not take an MRI yet. If it gets worse and the physical therapy doesnt help then that will be the next step. So for now I will give it another week off without working out. Then try getting back into it again next week.

I also want to really consider which tricep exercises I am going to stick with. Currently I rotate between Dips, bench dips, close grip bench, skull crushers, Jm press. Close grip bench press has been iffy but I have been trying to get into it lately with light weight. Might just give up on it again. I already got rid of overhead 2 handed tricep extensions. That alwas caused pain.

Having to physically pull the handle for the plow with my left arm on the quad every pass does not help. I might have to invest in a winch for the plow.

I mentioned in a few posts back about figuring out my maintenance calories. After keeping track the last week or so it seems my "maintenance" calories are right around 2,500 when I am not working out. If I go under this by even 100 calories I will lose weight. So when I am working out I know its going to be closer to at least 3,000 calories to maintain. But I will keep messing with this over the next few weeks to dial it in as close as possible.

 

[Pako]

^ Neck and back are just about healed up I think. 85% better. As far as your shoulder, is it in the front, kind of in between were the upper/outer peck joins into the shoulder. I only ask because that is where I am hurting. I was told this morning it was upper bicep tendon. His suggestion was to get my fingers in there and work it every other day, Ice after massage, and to keep the inflammation down. I find I can really activate the pain when I bench press. The only way to bench without pain is to make sure my arms are at 90 degrees to my torso, making sure my elbows are at at neck level when benching. I am not as strong, but it does isolate the peck better and it doesn't engage the bicep, thereby allowing me to bench pretty much pain free. I'll let you know how my self treatment goes. In the past, I have had this injury for months at a time. It just takes time to heal.

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

^
Mine is behind the shoulder at the socket behind the area where the rear deltoid and socket meet. Most of my pain comes when I put my left arm above my head. Which reminds me. I got rid of Military press a long time ago just to prevent dropping over 100lbs on my head. This exercise was also always a bit iffy with my left shoulder. So to play it safe, I dont do them anymore.

I forgot to mention I have been trying incline bench lately. Just the first notch (15 degrees) and I wonder if thats also making it worse. Since incline bench is something I never do, I just figured it would take a bit to work past the pain. I will just have to keep experimenting to see what does and does not effect my shoulder. I know for sure that putting my arm above my head can be quite painful. Its like it pinches a nerve or pinches something. So to play it safe, I have been avoiding anything above the head. Even just washing my hair with shampoo can create that painful pinch feeling. Especially after a chest / tricep workout.

I also got rid of flyes about a month ago and substitued that with dumbell bench. That seemed to help. You bring up another great point. I do think I have been going a bit lower than I should with barbell press press. Your elbows really should be no lower than 90 degrees so I need to keep an eye on that again too.

Like this so my elbows are not going lower than my body. I need to QUIT bringing the bar to my chest. I need to keep it just above the chest to keep my elbows from dropping lower than my body.
I think this might be exactly why my shoulder has been messed up. The lower the bar, the more it will pinch the rear delt and rear socket area.

 

[Omnis]

If you really don't want to go lower than your torso, just do floor presses.

Anyway, I finally benched 225x2 on Tuesday with spotter help. Actually, the 2nd press was a lot of spotter help since my hamstring cramped HARD after I finished the first rep. It was awful. Probably would've dropped the weight if I didn't have the spotter.

 

[Bopop4]

That's how I feel at the moment. If you guys want to get your abs to really hurt, try a few (hundred) swiss ball crunches. I hate working my abs. I hate it when breathing hurts.

I know how you feel, just got back into the gym after a few weeks and after 2 days my arms are still fried.

 

[Omnis]

http://[domain blocked due to malware]/instances/400x/34641045.jpg

That's how I feel at the moment. If you guys want to get your abs to really hurt, try a few (hundred) swiss ball crunches. I hate working my abs. I hate it when breathing hurts.

Don't do those. They jack up your spine. Try stirring the pot instead. Try not to herniate yourself.

 

[shmogt]

If you really don't want to go lower than your torso, just do floor presses.

Anyway, I finally benched 225x2 on Tuesday with spotter help. Actually, the 2nd press was a lot of spotter help since my hamstring cramped HARD after I finished the first rep. It was awful. Probably would've dropped the weight if I didn't have the spotter.

Nice man. Lol at the cramping hamstring. That used to happen with me on the bench all the time. It was so weird since no one else ever had that happen. I guess we press real hard into the ground.

 

[Omnis]

No one else ever has that happen because no one else knows how to bench. They bench with jiggle feet instead of being solid like a real man.



Language warning.

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

Omnis congrats on the 225 x 1.5 lol At least you had a spotter to prevent any injury.

My follow up on left shoulder issue.

Good news. I started working out again this week and took it easy. For my bench I have only been going 90 degrees with my elbow as I showed above in post #966 and it helped relieve the pain a LOT. I completed barbell bench and dumbell bench with little to no pain as long as I didnt go too low. I even worked on side lateral raises and front raises for shoulders this week. Triceps didnt get hit hard enough but I will work them harder next week. Kinda hard to work tricepts without irritating the shoulder. Rope pulldowns and reverse 1 arm cable pull downs were all I could do this week for triceps. I will experiement next week to see what other tricep exercises I can do without hurting my shoulder.

I can pretty much do my entire workout as long as I am not putting my arms above my head. So this was a good workout for me this week. Went light and safe and I feel great. Nice and sore too in a good way. I also avoided plowing snow because pulling that blade up over and over again caused a lot of damage. So overall a great week for me. Finally hitting the weights again so now hopefully I can start gaining back some of the weight I lost. 👍

 

[shmogt]

I been doing a fun and effective routine lately. If you are at home or a hotel etc and need to workout or just workout at home this is a good one. Basically two workouts a week that consists of pull ups and pushups. It is all based on drop sets and body mechanics. You want to go almost to failure on eat set. To the point where that last rep was tough and full range. If your range isn't perfect the set is over.

You start with pull ups where you grab the widest grip and go almost failure. Face over the bar every rep, if it doesn't or you know your gonna have trouble on the next rep the set is over. After this count to 15 and grab a under grip (I personally do a medium underhand grip) again doing as many as you can. Once again count to 15 but this time grab a natural grip and do as many as you can. That is classified as one set.

After the pull up set just chill for a minute or two than get to the pushups. Same style as the pull ups. Normal width to as many as you can. Count to 15 than do a diamond style pushup as many as you can. Again count to 15 than do dips on a couple of chairs or something. I personally do the first set with my feet on the chair to replicate and incline pushup than diamond than dips.

Than wait one or two minutes and do the pull ups set again. You do a total of 3 sets for each, remember one set is counted when you do all the grip changes. You could do just the pull ups part in the gym if you suck at pull ups. Great way to add a higher rep range per set.

 

[Pako]

Omnis congrats on the 225 x 1.5 lol At least you had a spotter to prevent any injury.

My follow up on left shoulder issue.

Good news. I started working out again this week and took it easy. For my bench I have only been going 90 degrees with my elbow as I showed above in post #966 and it helped relieve the pain a LOT. I completed barbell bench and dumbell bench with little to no pain as long as I didnt go too low. I even worked on side lateral raises and front raises for shoulders this week. Triceps didnt get hit hard enough but I will work them harder next week. Kinda hard to work tricepts without irritating the shoulder. Rope pulldowns and reverse 1 arm cable pull downs were all I could do this week for triceps. I will experiement next week to see what other tricep exercises I can do without hurting my shoulder.

I can pretty much do my entire workout as long as I am not putting my arms above my head. So this was a good workout for me this week. Went light and safe and I feel great. Nice and sore too in a good way. I also avoided plowing snow because pulling that blade up over and over again caused a lot of damage. So overall a great week for me. Finally hitting the weights again so now hopefully I can start gaining back some of the weight I lost. 👍

Good news! Way to go!

Well, today I hit some new weights. On leg press I opted to try a few more plates on the rack.

265x20
465x20
665x20
865x20
1045x20
1225x20
1405x20
1585x15

Do I have a 1 Ton leg press in my future? Hummm...

 

[Bopop4]

...

I can only do a single leg press rep of 600.

How much angle do you have to have with your legs to make it count? I've always just gone to 90 at the knees.

 

[Pako]

Singles are hard man. 600 for singles is good! 👍 I go until my lower back is just about ready to curl off the pad. It's not that deep, but it's all quad. I get plenty of glutes involved on squat day.

 

[Bopop4]

Oh lol. I meant a single rep.
If I did it with one leg I would be crushed into a little ball.

Ok thanks, I'll have to try that and go further next time I'm on the leg press.

I really want to do squats, but everytime I try, the bar murders my spine.
I've had the pad, plus a workcoat around my back, and it still doesn't do the trick.
Any tips for that?

 

[Pako]

Oh. I got yeah, single rep. Going 90 degs is good. Really no need to go much deeper than that. Just watch your lower back that it is always braced up and this it's not curling off the pad. As far as squats, it gets better with time and technique. Make sure you are looking up. Find a spot at the top of the rack or a spot on the wall to focus on, as long as you are looking up. If the bar is sitting correctly, it should not feel like it is going to crush your spine. Make sure your form is good and keep it lighter until you get the technique down. Building your shoulders and traps will help pad the bar also. 👍

 

[Bopop4]

Ok, thanks for the tips.

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

Good news! Way to go!

Well, today I hit some new weights. On leg press I opted to try a few more plates on the rack.

265x20
465x20
665x20
865x20
1045x20
1225x20
1405x20
1585x15

Do I have a 1 Ton leg press in my future? Hummm...

Ty and Congrats!! Holy crap you will have to start lifting vehicles in the parking lot soon.

 

[Pako]

LOL Well, I figured I would introduce that new weight into the routine until I am comfortable with it before I step it up to a new weight. It is exciting to see new growth and continued gains even if they are slower coming. I really attribute it to my new diet. I am finally getting the good complex carbs and enough protein that I hope to continue to see some good results. 👍

 

[Pagey279]

Jesus, I think I over did it on the sit ups. I ache so god damn much, and now my abs are starting to cramp. Very painful to say the least.

But it's all part of a plan to get fit, I tend to lack the will power to keep to these plans but I'm the un fittest I have ever been and really need to do something about it. For health reasons and partly for confidence.
I'm going to get out on the bike, do a bit of running and if I get the job I'm hunting for I shall join the gym. If not then I have a set of dumb bells that I can do the basics with.

Wish me luck!

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

I had an awesome and very successful workout this week. Sore muscles everywhere in a good way. Triceps, chest, biceps, quads, calves, forearms, glutes, shoulders, traps, hams, everything! I would say my shoulder is maybe 90% healed now. I was able to do almost my entire full workout this week and superset each set. Still not ready to start doing Military press yet and I am not comfortable enough to lift anything above my head in in a vertical position. But I was able to get in some close grip bench for triceps and even some skull crushers! Which was a HUGE step forward since I injured my shoulder almost a month ago. I also have not plowed at all the last couple weeks. So my shoulder is doing much better. Using that plow clearly did the most damage for sure. I need to do something different with it next year. Maybe even a winch.

Currently taking in about 2,800-3,000 calories per day in attempt to gain back some of the weight I lost during this injury. I usually weigh myself every Saturday morning so I will weigh myself tomorrow morning and hopefully I put on some lbs this week. 👍

 

[Yukon]

Jesus, I think I over did it on the sit ups. I ache so god damn much, and now my abs are starting to cramp. Very painful to say the least.

I'll say it. No pain, no gain.

So today, instead of doing sets of five in most of the different workouts I do, I upped it to sets of eight - which I'm really pleased with as I managed everything, albiet rather strenuous. I also added a power rowing session at the end for 10 minutes, trying to row as far as I could using the highest resistance. I did just under 2700 meters.

I'll try and beat that the next time I'm at the gym.

 

[Pako]

I had an awesome and very successful workout this week. Sore muscles everywhere in a good way. Triceps, chest, biceps, quads, calves, forearms, glutes, shoulders, traps, hams, everything! I would say my shoulder is maybe 90% healed now. I was able to do almost my entire full workout this week and superset each set. Still not ready to start doing Military press yet and I am not comfortable enough to lift anything above my head in in a vertical position. But I was able to get in some close grip bench for triceps and even some skull crushers! Which was a HUGE step forward since I injured my shoulder almost a month ago. I also have not plowed at all the last couple weeks. So my shoulder is doing much better. Using that plow clearly did the most damage for sure. I need to do something different with it next year. Maybe even a winch.

Currently taking in about 2,800-3,000 calories per day in attempt to gain back some of the weight I lost during this injury. I usually weigh myself every Saturday morning so I will weigh myself tomorrow morning and hopefully I put on some lbs this week. 👍

Awesome man! 👍 Of all those calories, how many grams of protein are you consuming?

 

[cgr-10]

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[MarinaDiamandis]

You're 140lb and trying to drop weight? Will there be anything left?

Running those distances with that frequency is fine, so long as you are comfortable with them. Warm up, cool down, stay hydrated and there will be no issues.

Heel-striking on hard surfaces is very, very bad for you. Landing mid-foot is much, much better. It's not so much what you're running on, but how you're using your body to absorb the impact.

I run barefoot (in socks) on tarmac with a forefoot landing and I have less injuries than when I was running on tarmac in cushioned trainers and landing on my heel. All about technique.

If it's all about dropping weight, you might want to try H.I.I.T. High effort, short duration and great for cutting away fat.

 

[cgr-10]

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[MarinaDiamandis]

Well, I am pretty short so I'm not exactly stick thin; plus I have been working on this for a couple of months so I did weigh more when I decided to drop some pounds. Just trying to get fitter in general; cardio fitness, good diet etc.

It's great that someone so young is taking responsibility for their own health - it no doubt shows a high level of maturity considering that most adults fail to do the same. Unless you are under 5'8 I would suggest not losing too much more weight. If I remember correctly, the suggested weight at 5'8 is (by B.M.I) 130lbs - a little low in my opinion.

Thanks for the information, I've had lots of people warn me that tarmac running can cause a lot of problems but nobody actually suggested how to combat them.

Sadly a lot of runners ignore the warnings that their body gives them and follow the definition of insanity - they run, get injured, recover and then carry on doing what they did before, expecting a different outcome and treating injury as something that comes with the territory. Some get fitted with orthotics and see a big improvement, but this is covering up the cause, not fixing it. Strong, self-supporting feet are healthy feet.

I've probably been striking my heel without even realizing considering I'm not clued up on good running form so I'll make a conscious effort to try forefoot/midfoot landing next time I head out.

I'd say it's pretty likely considering almost all running shoes in the past 30-40 years, or longer, have been designed for heelstriking. This goes against every clue that nature gives us - small children will, almost certainly, run on their forefeet - they haven't been exposed to overly-supportive footwear and so run as we have evolved to. Our lower legs are beautifully suited to absorbing shock - by heelstriking you completely bypass this.

I'll make a conscious effort to try forefoot/midfoot landing next time I head out. I may even look into some more minimalist running shoes because the heels on my current ones are pretty thick which won't help me trying to change landing style.

As a (fairly) experienced minimalist runner, I can give you one massively important piece of advice - take it slow. I'm talking building up by 10% each week - starting from half a kilometre every other day. This may sound like a backward step distance-wise, but it will help with another important aspect of minimalist running - cadence, the number of times your feet touch the ground in one minute - the shorter the stride, the less likely you are to accidentally heelstrike and the less impact you put through your legs.

The optimum cadence is said to be around 180 strides per minute (spm) which is a killer pace, you'll be thankful you built up from 0.5km when you start hitting 5km+ runs! An awesome side effect of such a high cadence is a high average speed, especially once your body is more used to how demanding it can be.

Of course, always be sure to warmup well and stretch! (especially your Achilles) and listen to what you body is telling you.

If you want to make the change, what I would advise is waiting until the warmer weather arrives, and then running barefoot (wearing socks is good too - just be careful about where and on what you might be placing your feet!) on a soft surface such as grass.

Since the human body is incredible, it will begin strengthening the new-found muscles that you're using and retuning your running form into an effective forefoot/midfoot strike. Without rubber soles and other materials in the way, you can find and learn a very natural and healthy way to run (and develop insanely strong foot and calf muscles).

Run like this for as long as you can (several months, or even the whole of the summer would be great, the new running form needs to become something you do without even thinking about it) and then look into buying some minimalist (but not too minimal) running shoes. The idea is that you can carry your new-found form over to the shoes without losing any of your hard work, and then begin running on hard surfaces again.

Hope this helps, feel free to ask me more if you want to.

 

[cgr-10]

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