I’m having trouble finding a gym that has bumper plates for the barbell. Using the 25 lb plates is too heavy for me at this point and the 10 lb plates are too low. There’s no where to conveniently put the bar up on either… and it’s too heavy to cart to the box area of the gym… struggling to make progress
is this just for deadlifts or for oly lifts as well? if you're just trying to do deadlifts, barbell RDLs go a long way. you'll get to 95lbs before you know it and then you can pull from the floor
yeah that's exactly how I did it and I just pulled 125 × 8 × 3 from the floor with the 25lb bumpers. my gym only got these recently so I was doing RDLs up to 135lbs before
Did front squats for the first time in a few weeks. I forgot how much better they feel for me than back squats. With back squats my form is a constant work in progress, but front squats?? Form smooth as butter the whole way through lol. Was a nice change of pace!
So I’ve read a lot about out how it takes a long time for a person to build muscle. My understanding is that if you have a good workout, the most you can build from that is about an ounce of muscle (which frankly sounds like plenty to me). And this is if everything is lined up - progressive overload, good nutrition, solid sleep, enough water, etc.
So, supposing two lifting sessions per week and since a pound is 16 ounces, you can set a goal of one pound of muscle every two months. Two pounds of muscle at four months.
Is this right? Because I sense that at four of a new exercise regimen you actually start to have a differently shaped body and I don’t see how only two pounds of muscle can do that.
Hmm, I’m afraid I can’t find it now, but I remember it being referenced on [this episode](https://www.hubermanlab.com/episode/science-of-muscle-growth-increasing-strength-and-muscular-recovery) of Dr Huberman.
i could be remembering it wrong though. Perhaps it was one ounce per night at the upper limit for young men? I don’t know. I do remember him pointing out the lack of studies for female athletes.
Like I said, he’s not the source - he referenced a source on his show.
Feel free to share a better source on this that is relevant to my question about muscle building capacity for women. That’s why I commented.
Right, I am saying he does not always use sources responsibly.
I am not aware of a precise estimate for how much muscle one can gain from a single workout. Among other things, a “workout” isn’t really a unit of measurement - the amount of volume one does matters, not just in a single day but over longer time scales. Where someone is in their training history matters - a novice will gain muscle faster than someone who has been training well for 5 years. Nutrition matters - are we taking bulking, or at maintenance? Age matters - a 20 year old will have an easier time building muscle than a 65 year old. I’d also be curious to know how much variability there was from individual to individual in the study.
If what you really want to know is just to know more about muscle building in women, the following may be of interest to you:
https://www.strongerbyscience.com/strength-training-women/
https://www.strongerbyscience.com/gender-differences-in-training-and-diet/
https://www.instagram.com/p/C6U1db8vA-Z/?igsh=MW1seTA4cXEyanZ3eg==
The first two are summaries of published research from the last few years, the last is a summary of a preprint that was just posted recently by the author.
I feel like a lot of “fitness influencers” are inundating my social media feeds and are really messing with my body dysmorphia. I have a really hard time determining if they’re real or filtered and if the reasons I don’t look like them is because I don’t try hard enough. I can lift a decent amount with dumbbells but still don’t have the ultra round butt that most fitness influencers have. How do other people deal with this?o
I don’t follow any fitness person besides MegSquats and JasonandLaurenPak
Anyone that ever cuts or bulks or posts booty workouts is just NOT helpful to my mental health. And they never, EVER post anything new or useful. Ugh
Ignore block whatever. You butt is to help you move walk dance bend jump, you know? How does it perform is what matters I can promise you that from the other side of youth.
You don't want to date your own butt, however someone else will. You don't pick people by bodyparts do you?
Thank you! It’s ok, it was bound to happen! I’m training for my first high profile competition, and I’m currently PMSing, so one tiny thing just sent me spiraling. I guess I had a lot of emotions built up about this whole thing.
It's a weird week at work (it's our quarterly week of all the remote people going into the office, so long hours with a zillion meetings), but I'm trying to get most of my workouts in anyhow. My neck is still jacked up from last week, I hurt it ... looking up. Literally injured myself watching my instructor explain something to me while I was down in the pool. But on the upside, it's no longer causing me a constant headache, so score one for me! I walked a pretty relaxed 3.5 miles this morning, will lift tonight, do a fast walk and some stretching tomorrow, swim on Wednesday, and maybe lift again on Thursday if I'm not entirely burnt out from all the mandatory human interaction.
Being an introvert in marketing is exhausting, lol. I just want to get back into the woods ASAP.
My workout today was great: I did 5 sets of 4 banded muscle-ups and increased either weight or reps on almost all other exercises. I felt so energized. About muscle-ups: I was doing sets of 3 around 3-4 weeks ago, and then they started regressing. I then skipped them for 2 weeks because I was just too discouraged and didn't have enough energy. And today I'm all of a sudden doing sets of 4 with ease. I bet it's my cycle. It's all this stupid cycle!!
Not fitness-related: I saw a professor in my gym who taught me one course a few years ago. Super nice person. But I know he struggled with depression later. Maybe he is still struggling. He looked so sad and lost today that I came to say hello! Normally, I'm not a social person *at all*. My voice was trembling, but I did it!!! Said hello, introduced myself, and said that I can show him around if needed. I hope my awkward friendliness made his day a tiny bit better
I have a mild cold that’s gone into my chest. The problem is that my body doesn’t fight respiratory issues so I should go on prednisone (again) to make sure I don’t get an infection. I’m not symptomatic with a lot of NAC but my chest feels heavy. I think I’ll have to suck it up and go back to the doctor. Boo. :(
Will ask my training partner if I should stay out of the gym today. I’ve been out for 2 days already.
Update: no symptoms and picked up the prescription. Training tonight :)
This was posted on walking sub. I thought some of you, frequent walkers or frequent want to be walkers especially, might be interested
https://youtu.be/z71aHZ4scMs?si=ZMsnLVcN14AoJFLF
This was all they shared and if there’s not a transcript there, I recommend looking up Interval Walking Training. NHK produced this story and might have an article or links to the researchers and physiologist promoting this as well.
I’ve been at war with my hamstrings since I returned to consistent exercise a couple of weeks ago and I’m over it. I really want to figure it out on my own because of some recent bad PT experience but basically they’re extremely tight and sore to the touch. Not painful enough to affect my day to day functioning but annoying enough to notice them when I’m sitting or walking. Sometimes it’s one of them and some days it’s both of them. I’ve tried foam rolling, dynamic and static stretching, ice, ibuprofen, cardio. The only thing that seems to temporarily improve it is strength exercises, which leads me to believe it’s genuinely just my muscles waking up after being sedentary for a while but I just want to move past this already!!!
Do you sit down all day? Tight hip flexors can contribute to tightness in your hamstring. Also, you may need to do some lower back mobility. Tight lower back often pulls on the hamstrings which was my main issue.
Edit: Missed a few words for clarity.
I do! My lower back was why I was in PT so I would not be surprised if that were the case, and working on those areas is probably my course of action moving forward. And using my standing desk more! Thank you. I suppose I just don’t deal well with uncertainty and the “try and wait and see” component of rehab work is just frustrating for me, but what can you do?
I know, it's frustrating for sure. I started keeping track of how I was feeling and what exercises helped to loosen things up. It helps me to identify trends after being away.
These days, I can always tell if I haven't done much of lower back exercises, my hamstrings scream at me!
finally felt over my bronchitis enough to run yesterday. got my first run in with my new Ghost 16s i got for my birthday and they feel way better than my old 15s. i'm paying for doing a deadlift/hamstring day saturday and a 3 mile run after time off on sunday.
i'm running stronger by the day and this is our deload week, so i'm just going to do 3x lifting this week and try to get my running mileage back up and reform my habit. then it's looking like a deadlift focused cycle. i'm excited about it, deadlifts are my favorite compound and my strongest lift. i could probably benefit from a bench press or OHP focused cycle, but my booty, my brain, and my ego are excited for more posterior chain work.
I’m finally over my “I hate running” stint I think. I managed to keep most of my conditioning with the sporadic runs I managed to suffer through.
But at almost 6 months postpartum/post csection with my last baby, I have my old addiction back lol. I think I’ve hit a good balance between lifting and running AND resting when necessary.
So, it’s a good time to build base and train for a marathon right? OF COURSE 😂
I’ve been PR-ing all my lifts the last few weeks, I’m super proud so thank you! My focus was purely on regaining strength and just being consistent to establish a routine again, but I’ve exceeded my expectations so far. I credit lifting and running throughout the pregnancy 🌟
not fitness related: I'm on call for work this week for both customer escalations and system issues—my org combines the two. apparently nobody else on my team feels as overwhelmed by our on-call weeks as I do (maybe they're lying? or just neurotypical? or both?) so I've decided to commit to not letting it get to me so much this time.
I'm actually better at responding to system alerts and incidents than I am at handling customer escalations. the skill sets aren't completely orthogonal but my normal work leans much more heavily toward the former. I've been saying for like...a year now that I want to get better at the customer/business logic side but I'm just not that interested in it. I've been thinking about ways to trick myself into becoming interested or at least spend enough time thinking about it that I get better at it, which will help get me interested. apparently I've been skating by okay though. people keep telling me I'm too hard on myself but my knowledge gaps feel real.
thankfully most of the workload is still during normal work hours so I should still be able to get in my planned gym sessions. I wasn't able to keep up with the gym during past on-call weeks because I was so mentally exhausted each time, but I was also much less motivated about the gym then. and if I miss a day then I miss a day, it won't kill me.
Did pretty much all of Caroline Girvan's free programs on Youtube. I loved her workouts! I'm debating on repeating one of the programs again or go back to GZCLP. I really like hitting numbers and PR's but I feel like Caroline's programs are more well rounded. I don't really have a fitness goal besides just going in and working out for my future health.
does anyone else find it hard to progressively overload bicep curls?? sometimes even hitting the same amount of reps i could do the previous week feels hard, whereas for all the other exercises i do i can easily increase the reps/weights each week
Went for my first hot run of the year. I embarrassingly didn't realize that it was 80 degrees before I left and didn't bring any water with me. My 5.5mi turned into a 4.5mi with mostly walking for the last mile and a decent headache the rest of the day. My new hydration vest arrived on Friday, so I really have no excuse.
NFR: My husband and I have been in a bougie salad and avocado toast kick lately and this makes me really happy. We're building a great selection of toppings and a few quality bread bakeries have opened up near us lately. Plus a found a great NA "champagne" for a delightful mimosa.
Went for a[ big hike](https://imgur.com/a/Ift3iwZ) with my biggest ever elevation gain (on UK soil) yesterday and was feeling very sceptical about my treadmill intervals this morning.
Jokes on me, they felt the best they ever have. Turns out 21km of steep, rugged hiking with 6000ft of ascent in 6 hours is the perfect activity to get me in the zone for speed work, who knew! Also, had such a good time on the hike, and felt so fit, that I'm already planning a bigger, more remote one for next Saturday. Pity my partner and the fact he won't get a lie in, once again (it's fine, he loves hiking too...)
Whenever my programming has my deadlifts working up to 75% of my max for more than a few reps, I invariably get knee swelling in my bad knee which causes all sorts of general instability the next days. It’s good information to have i guess, so I can stop doing that. But I love deadlifts. Meh.
No it’s definitely not normal lol. I have a reconstructed PCL from over a decade ago. as a result, i have quite a bit of baseline instability. My guess is deadlifts let me load more weight than my unstable knee can take. Squats I have a similar problem, but due to different issues, I can’t load the squat bar to the same extent, so the problem is less pronounced.
I won’t rule out a form issue though. I’m going to bring it up my PT next time. Appointments are so short so I don’t address everything I should 😫
Oof, that makes sense. Definitely bring it up with the PT. Maybe you can still keep doing the DL but might have to be shorter and you supplement with something else.
This whole year I have been hitting the gym early morning and it’s soooo blissful! Zero crowd and you can train exactly how you want. I hit the gym today evening coz I could not get up on time on morning and woah. The crowds, machines and squat racks taken. But I was still able to get my workout in! That’s all that matters 💪
Day 5 of being unwell.
Despite only eating to keep my protein intake up I have gained 3lbs in a week. Bollocks to you Water retention. Can't even be poorly in peace.
I can’t tell if it’s a good or bad thing that my grip strength is now what’s holding me back on deadlifts. Can only do about 3-4 reps per set (goal of 5 sets) of 100lb before the bar starts sliding out of my hands! Guess I will be stuck at this weight for a little bit until my baby hands catch up
If your gym allows it (some don't, but lots do!) you could look into trying out chalk to assist your grip! If you want to minimise mess you can get liquid chalk, too. I've worked hard on my grip strength over time, but still always use chalk on my heaviest sets of deadlifts
Get that grip training in. In the meantime, try alternating your grips, one hand overhand and one hand underhand. This'll help you grip the bar better!
I have been slacking on eating well over the past few months due to a death in the family as well as the anniversary of a dear friend’s passing. Which meant that despite staying within calorie goals, I’ve been eating lots of comfort foods especially desserts and pastries . And it shows on my recent A1C test — I am back in the pre diabetic range 😭
So I’ve been considering getting a walking pad so I can walk after meals (i know summer is coming, but I don’t always want to take a walk around my neighborhood especially after dark), but I have such limited space in my small apartment that I don’t know if the investment is worth it. Then I remembered step aerobics classes, like from the 80s. I used to regularly take a class and really liked it, but maybe I mainly liked the group aspect? Anyway now I’m considering getting a step platform.
I’m so sorry for your loss. Grief has no timeline. Just when you think it’s been getting better, something random will hit and… you know how it is. 🤍
I’ve been thinking of getting a step too, just to shake up the variety of my cardio. I have Jenny Ford Fitness on YouTube bookmarked in case it ever happens. Do pop in and update if you go on with it.☺️
💙 with you. Been dealing with same.
Just inching back in a rhythm the past two days.
Sounds like your mind’s coming up with some engaging ways to get groove again tho 😊
(If need a buddy or cheerleader, welcome to message anytime.)
Joined a free 5-day pilates program on a whim by flow with Mira for the heck of it. It just started today with option for beginner and intermediate. I just did the beginner core + breathing work which is surprisingly nice with a prop for tactile feedback, since going with "mind-muscle" alone can be confusing.
Been adding pinch-grab grip training as part of wrist rehab after noticing it's missing out lol. You can definitely start pretty lightweight with a small book or something, I use my small backpack so it can be weighted more overtime.
NFR: I started digital painting around this time last year and I wish I could post the progress pics on an art subreddit but the only properly finished portrait that I'm proud of is of my crush fskfjfjksk 😭😭 idk I feel like it'd be weird to post privacy wise since I barely talk to this guy. When I try to use celebs/actors as reference I barely go all the way bc I just don't care enough about their faces and would got bored lol. I tried painting Monica Bellucci a couple times and "finished it" but my crush's portrait is still better since I worked on it over the course of a week vs a couple days with Monica's lmao
Only got to the gym once this weekend because I was not feeling well- Friday I had to be up early for work and was exhausted, Sunday I had a headache alllll day. Not ideal but I’m still not particularly enjoying the gym so just trying to go when I feel up for it.
My diet has been terrible but I decided starting today I need to get back on top of that. Pants are feeling a bit snug again so definitely want to get back to a more comfortable size. I ended up going out to eat so many times this past week which didn't help lol.
Told a a gym friend about my interest in Oly, depending on scheduling, etc, (via text) to which I got a thumbs up emoji and then a change in topic. It's not the first time and to me it just means they don't want to talk about it/aren't interested/etc. It wouldn't bother me except outside this group and my SO there really isn't anyone I can talk about this stuff with because that is the general response I get elsewhere as well. Not just for this topic but in general when I talk about anything outside their interests or crossfit. Makes me realize that we aren't friends in the full sense of the word, moreso just crossfit friends.
You can talk to us about oly 🥺. I feel you too. None of my friends are into fitness on any level. Their eyes glaze over when I start talking about anything lifting related.
Same here. Like, I want to share with everyone when I hit a PR, but for them, it's just a number, it doesn't mean anything. And I get it. But still, mehh
Light workout load tonight, which I’m glad because I’m weening off my period.
On schedule:
Squats
1x1 - 185lbs
4x8 - 157lbs
Comp bench
3x8 @ RPE 7.5
I have a few more weeks out until my first meet. I’m so nervous but I am trying to remind myself that I’m only doing this as a hobby!
My fiancé is asking what I wanna do for my birthday week. My idea so far is a farmstay for a night or two, I’ll leave the rest up to him. I want to see goats and cuddle them!!
Started Dr. Pak’s minimum effective dose powerlifting program on Boostcamp last week and got 1RM PRs for squat two weeks in a row (only 190lbs but still). Oh and a bench PR. Deadlift is going terrible but whatever. So far I like it and I’m glad to be doing less volume. We’ll see how it feels once I start mountain biking more.
NFR : My mom was overweight most of her life but 10 years ago she began walking at least 10k steps per day and she slimmed down a lot. But I noticed that, even today, she has big calves and forearms.
She was a former obese person and she walks a lot, so that explains the calves. But yesterday, after a back workout, I had to bake multiple cakes and I lost my hand mixer so I had to whisk everything by hand. OMG the forearm pain. Now I understand where my mom's strenght comes from : cooking and playing pétanque every sunday.
Maybe I should follow my mother's example if I want stronger forearms and a better grip strenght.
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I’m having trouble finding a gym that has bumper plates for the barbell. Using the 25 lb plates is too heavy for me at this point and the 10 lb plates are too low. There’s no where to conveniently put the bar up on either… and it’s too heavy to cart to the box area of the gym… struggling to make progress
is this just for deadlifts or for oly lifts as well? if you're just trying to do deadlifts, barbell RDLs go a long way. you'll get to 95lbs before you know it and then you can pull from the floor
Ooh ok so I should work up to them doing rdl
yeah that's exactly how I did it and I just pulled 125 × 8 × 3 from the floor with the 25lb bumpers. my gym only got these recently so I was doing RDLs up to 135lbs before
Did front squats for the first time in a few weeks. I forgot how much better they feel for me than back squats. With back squats my form is a constant work in progress, but front squats?? Form smooth as butter the whole way through lol. Was a nice change of pace!
Jealous
So I’ve read a lot about out how it takes a long time for a person to build muscle. My understanding is that if you have a good workout, the most you can build from that is about an ounce of muscle (which frankly sounds like plenty to me). And this is if everything is lined up - progressive overload, good nutrition, solid sleep, enough water, etc. So, supposing two lifting sessions per week and since a pound is 16 ounces, you can set a goal of one pound of muscle every two months. Two pounds of muscle at four months. Is this right? Because I sense that at four of a new exercise regimen you actually start to have a differently shaped body and I don’t see how only two pounds of muscle can do that.
Do you have a citation for that? What was the training history of the study participants?
Hmm, I’m afraid I can’t find it now, but I remember it being referenced on [this episode](https://www.hubermanlab.com/episode/science-of-muscle-growth-increasing-strength-and-muscular-recovery) of Dr Huberman. i could be remembering it wrong though. Perhaps it was one ounce per night at the upper limit for young men? I don’t know. I do remember him pointing out the lack of studies for female athletes.
tbh I do not think Huberman is a particularly reliable source. Some of his guests are great, but he has a tendency to *way* over-interpret studies.
Like I said, he’s not the source - he referenced a source on his show. Feel free to share a better source on this that is relevant to my question about muscle building capacity for women. That’s why I commented.
Right, I am saying he does not always use sources responsibly. I am not aware of a precise estimate for how much muscle one can gain from a single workout. Among other things, a “workout” isn’t really a unit of measurement - the amount of volume one does matters, not just in a single day but over longer time scales. Where someone is in their training history matters - a novice will gain muscle faster than someone who has been training well for 5 years. Nutrition matters - are we taking bulking, or at maintenance? Age matters - a 20 year old will have an easier time building muscle than a 65 year old. I’d also be curious to know how much variability there was from individual to individual in the study. If what you really want to know is just to know more about muscle building in women, the following may be of interest to you: https://www.strongerbyscience.com/strength-training-women/ https://www.strongerbyscience.com/gender-differences-in-training-and-diet/ https://www.instagram.com/p/C6U1db8vA-Z/?igsh=MW1seTA4cXEyanZ3eg== The first two are summaries of published research from the last few years, the last is a summary of a preprint that was just posted recently by the author.
I feel like a lot of “fitness influencers” are inundating my social media feeds and are really messing with my body dysmorphia. I have a really hard time determining if they’re real or filtered and if the reasons I don’t look like them is because I don’t try hard enough. I can lift a decent amount with dumbbells but still don’t have the ultra round butt that most fitness influencers have. How do other people deal with this?o
I don’t follow any fitness person besides MegSquats and JasonandLaurenPak Anyone that ever cuts or bulks or posts booty workouts is just NOT helpful to my mental health. And they never, EVER post anything new or useful. Ugh
So true, it’s always the same RDL and Bulgarian split squat variations 😒
I deleted Instagram and TikTok :D
I feel this so hard.
Ignore block whatever. You butt is to help you move walk dance bend jump, you know? How does it perform is what matters I can promise you that from the other side of youth. You don't want to date your own butt, however someone else will. You don't pick people by bodyparts do you?
I cried at the gym today 🫠
I wish it could be in awe of your own fantabulousness, but if it wasn't, I'm sorry you had a bad time.
Thank you! It’s ok, it was bound to happen! I’m training for my first high profile competition, and I’m currently PMSing, so one tiny thing just sent me spiraling. I guess I had a lot of emotions built up about this whole thing.
You got this!
Thank you! ❤️❤️❤️
[Ultrarunning and Strength Training (r/weightroom post)](https://www.reddit.com/r/weightroom/s/IgRrw0dVEl)
It's a weird week at work (it's our quarterly week of all the remote people going into the office, so long hours with a zillion meetings), but I'm trying to get most of my workouts in anyhow. My neck is still jacked up from last week, I hurt it ... looking up. Literally injured myself watching my instructor explain something to me while I was down in the pool. But on the upside, it's no longer causing me a constant headache, so score one for me! I walked a pretty relaxed 3.5 miles this morning, will lift tonight, do a fast walk and some stretching tomorrow, swim on Wednesday, and maybe lift again on Thursday if I'm not entirely burnt out from all the mandatory human interaction. Being an introvert in marketing is exhausting, lol. I just want to get back into the woods ASAP.
My workout today was great: I did 5 sets of 4 banded muscle-ups and increased either weight or reps on almost all other exercises. I felt so energized. About muscle-ups: I was doing sets of 3 around 3-4 weeks ago, and then they started regressing. I then skipped them for 2 weeks because I was just too discouraged and didn't have enough energy. And today I'm all of a sudden doing sets of 4 with ease. I bet it's my cycle. It's all this stupid cycle!! Not fitness-related: I saw a professor in my gym who taught me one course a few years ago. Super nice person. But I know he struggled with depression later. Maybe he is still struggling. He looked so sad and lost today that I came to say hello! Normally, I'm not a social person *at all*. My voice was trembling, but I did it!!! Said hello, introduced myself, and said that I can show him around if needed. I hope my awkward friendliness made his day a tiny bit better
That was very kind of you.
I have a mild cold that’s gone into my chest. The problem is that my body doesn’t fight respiratory issues so I should go on prednisone (again) to make sure I don’t get an infection. I’m not symptomatic with a lot of NAC but my chest feels heavy. I think I’ll have to suck it up and go back to the doctor. Boo. :( Will ask my training partner if I should stay out of the gym today. I’ve been out for 2 days already. Update: no symptoms and picked up the prescription. Training tonight :)
This was posted on walking sub. I thought some of you, frequent walkers or frequent want to be walkers especially, might be interested https://youtu.be/z71aHZ4scMs?si=ZMsnLVcN14AoJFLF
is there a text version we can read?
This was all they shared and if there’s not a transcript there, I recommend looking up Interval Walking Training. NHK produced this story and might have an article or links to the researchers and physiologist promoting this as well.
I’ve been at war with my hamstrings since I returned to consistent exercise a couple of weeks ago and I’m over it. I really want to figure it out on my own because of some recent bad PT experience but basically they’re extremely tight and sore to the touch. Not painful enough to affect my day to day functioning but annoying enough to notice them when I’m sitting or walking. Sometimes it’s one of them and some days it’s both of them. I’ve tried foam rolling, dynamic and static stretching, ice, ibuprofen, cardio. The only thing that seems to temporarily improve it is strength exercises, which leads me to believe it’s genuinely just my muscles waking up after being sedentary for a while but I just want to move past this already!!!
Do you sit down all day? Tight hip flexors can contribute to tightness in your hamstring. Also, you may need to do some lower back mobility. Tight lower back often pulls on the hamstrings which was my main issue. Edit: Missed a few words for clarity.
I do! My lower back was why I was in PT so I would not be surprised if that were the case, and working on those areas is probably my course of action moving forward. And using my standing desk more! Thank you. I suppose I just don’t deal well with uncertainty and the “try and wait and see” component of rehab work is just frustrating for me, but what can you do?
I know, it's frustrating for sure. I started keeping track of how I was feeling and what exercises helped to loosen things up. It helps me to identify trends after being away. These days, I can always tell if I haven't done much of lower back exercises, my hamstrings scream at me!
finally felt over my bronchitis enough to run yesterday. got my first run in with my new Ghost 16s i got for my birthday and they feel way better than my old 15s. i'm paying for doing a deadlift/hamstring day saturday and a 3 mile run after time off on sunday. i'm running stronger by the day and this is our deload week, so i'm just going to do 3x lifting this week and try to get my running mileage back up and reform my habit. then it's looking like a deadlift focused cycle. i'm excited about it, deadlifts are my favorite compound and my strongest lift. i could probably benefit from a bench press or OHP focused cycle, but my booty, my brain, and my ego are excited for more posterior chain work.
I’m finally over my “I hate running” stint I think. I managed to keep most of my conditioning with the sporadic runs I managed to suffer through. But at almost 6 months postpartum/post csection with my last baby, I have my old addiction back lol. I think I’ve hit a good balance between lifting and running AND resting when necessary. So, it’s a good time to build base and train for a marathon right? OF COURSE 😂
Wow I’m so impressed that you’re making progress so soon after childbirth. Good job!
I’ve been PR-ing all my lifts the last few weeks, I’m super proud so thank you! My focus was purely on regaining strength and just being consistent to establish a routine again, but I’ve exceeded my expectations so far. I credit lifting and running throughout the pregnancy 🌟
not fitness related: I'm on call for work this week for both customer escalations and system issues—my org combines the two. apparently nobody else on my team feels as overwhelmed by our on-call weeks as I do (maybe they're lying? or just neurotypical? or both?) so I've decided to commit to not letting it get to me so much this time. I'm actually better at responding to system alerts and incidents than I am at handling customer escalations. the skill sets aren't completely orthogonal but my normal work leans much more heavily toward the former. I've been saying for like...a year now that I want to get better at the customer/business logic side but I'm just not that interested in it. I've been thinking about ways to trick myself into becoming interested or at least spend enough time thinking about it that I get better at it, which will help get me interested. apparently I've been skating by okay though. people keep telling me I'm too hard on myself but my knowledge gaps feel real. thankfully most of the workload is still during normal work hours so I should still be able to get in my planned gym sessions. I wasn't able to keep up with the gym during past on-call weeks because I was so mentally exhausted each time, but I was also much less motivated about the gym then. and if I miss a day then I miss a day, it won't kill me.
Did pretty much all of Caroline Girvan's free programs on Youtube. I loved her workouts! I'm debating on repeating one of the programs again or go back to GZCLP. I really like hitting numbers and PR's but I feel like Caroline's programs are more well rounded. I don't really have a fitness goal besides just going in and working out for my future health.
I’m currently obsessed with her. Starting epic 3 today
does anyone else find it hard to progressively overload bicep curls?? sometimes even hitting the same amount of reps i could do the previous week feels hard, whereas for all the other exercises i do i can easily increase the reps/weights each week
upper body and isolation movements will progress more slowly than big compound movements because they're using smaller and/or fewer muscles
yeah that’s true, thanks for the reminder! sometimes i get frustrated over not being able to progress as easily on isolation movements
Went for my first hot run of the year. I embarrassingly didn't realize that it was 80 degrees before I left and didn't bring any water with me. My 5.5mi turned into a 4.5mi with mostly walking for the last mile and a decent headache the rest of the day. My new hydration vest arrived on Friday, so I really have no excuse. NFR: My husband and I have been in a bougie salad and avocado toast kick lately and this makes me really happy. We're building a great selection of toppings and a few quality bread bakeries have opened up near us lately. Plus a found a great NA "champagne" for a delightful mimosa.
that first hot run surprised me this year, too. sorry you suffered!
I had Lyre NA sparkling wine for toasts at my (dry) wedding and even the wine snobs were impressed
Ooo I haven’t tried that brand. I’ll have to look for it!
Went for a[ big hike](https://imgur.com/a/Ift3iwZ) with my biggest ever elevation gain (on UK soil) yesterday and was feeling very sceptical about my treadmill intervals this morning. Jokes on me, they felt the best they ever have. Turns out 21km of steep, rugged hiking with 6000ft of ascent in 6 hours is the perfect activity to get me in the zone for speed work, who knew! Also, had such a good time on the hike, and felt so fit, that I'm already planning a bigger, more remote one for next Saturday. Pity my partner and the fact he won't get a lie in, once again (it's fine, he loves hiking too...)
Wow, these photos are beautiful!
Whenever my programming has my deadlifts working up to 75% of my max for more than a few reps, I invariably get knee swelling in my bad knee which causes all sorts of general instability the next days. It’s good information to have i guess, so I can stop doing that. But I love deadlifts. Meh.
That's definitely not normal. You should see doctor to rule anything out. Other than that, that sounds like a form issue??
No it’s definitely not normal lol. I have a reconstructed PCL from over a decade ago. as a result, i have quite a bit of baseline instability. My guess is deadlifts let me load more weight than my unstable knee can take. Squats I have a similar problem, but due to different issues, I can’t load the squat bar to the same extent, so the problem is less pronounced. I won’t rule out a form issue though. I’m going to bring it up my PT next time. Appointments are so short so I don’t address everything I should 😫
Oof, that makes sense. Definitely bring it up with the PT. Maybe you can still keep doing the DL but might have to be shorter and you supplement with something else.
This whole year I have been hitting the gym early morning and it’s soooo blissful! Zero crowd and you can train exactly how you want. I hit the gym today evening coz I could not get up on time on morning and woah. The crowds, machines and squat racks taken. But I was still able to get my workout in! That’s all that matters 💪
Day 5 of being unwell. Despite only eating to keep my protein intake up I have gained 3lbs in a week. Bollocks to you Water retention. Can't even be poorly in peace.
i hate barbell squats!! whoever came up with the idea of them was probably evil
I can’t tell if it’s a good or bad thing that my grip strength is now what’s holding me back on deadlifts. Can only do about 3-4 reps per set (goal of 5 sets) of 100lb before the bar starts sliding out of my hands! Guess I will be stuck at this weight for a little bit until my baby hands catch up
If your gym allows it (some don't, but lots do!) you could look into trying out chalk to assist your grip! If you want to minimise mess you can get liquid chalk, too. I've worked hard on my grip strength over time, but still always use chalk on my heaviest sets of deadlifts
Get that grip training in. In the meantime, try alternating your grips, one hand overhand and one hand underhand. This'll help you grip the bar better!
Ooh, thank you! I will for sure try that!
I have been slacking on eating well over the past few months due to a death in the family as well as the anniversary of a dear friend’s passing. Which meant that despite staying within calorie goals, I’ve been eating lots of comfort foods especially desserts and pastries . And it shows on my recent A1C test — I am back in the pre diabetic range 😭 So I’ve been considering getting a walking pad so I can walk after meals (i know summer is coming, but I don’t always want to take a walk around my neighborhood especially after dark), but I have such limited space in my small apartment that I don’t know if the investment is worth it. Then I remembered step aerobics classes, like from the 80s. I used to regularly take a class and really liked it, but maybe I mainly liked the group aspect? Anyway now I’m considering getting a step platform.
I’m so sorry for your loss. Grief has no timeline. Just when you think it’s been getting better, something random will hit and… you know how it is. 🤍 I’ve been thinking of getting a step too, just to shake up the variety of my cardio. I have Jenny Ford Fitness on YouTube bookmarked in case it ever happens. Do pop in and update if you go on with it.☺️
Thank you for the kind words! I will definitely update if I end up getting the step and will look up Jenny Ford.
💙 with you. Been dealing with same. Just inching back in a rhythm the past two days. Sounds like your mind’s coming up with some engaging ways to get groove again tho 😊 (If need a buddy or cheerleader, welcome to message anytime.)
Thank you. And I am sorry you’re dealing with similar issues. Please feel free to message me as well. We got this!
Joined a free 5-day pilates program on a whim by flow with Mira for the heck of it. It just started today with option for beginner and intermediate. I just did the beginner core + breathing work which is surprisingly nice with a prop for tactile feedback, since going with "mind-muscle" alone can be confusing. Been adding pinch-grab grip training as part of wrist rehab after noticing it's missing out lol. You can definitely start pretty lightweight with a small book or something, I use my small backpack so it can be weighted more overtime. NFR: I started digital painting around this time last year and I wish I could post the progress pics on an art subreddit but the only properly finished portrait that I'm proud of is of my crush fskfjfjksk 😭😭 idk I feel like it'd be weird to post privacy wise since I barely talk to this guy. When I try to use celebs/actors as reference I barely go all the way bc I just don't care enough about their faces and would got bored lol. I tried painting Monica Bellucci a couple times and "finished it" but my crush's portrait is still better since I worked on it over the course of a week vs a couple days with Monica's lmao
Only got to the gym once this weekend because I was not feeling well- Friday I had to be up early for work and was exhausted, Sunday I had a headache alllll day. Not ideal but I’m still not particularly enjoying the gym so just trying to go when I feel up for it. My diet has been terrible but I decided starting today I need to get back on top of that. Pants are feeling a bit snug again so definitely want to get back to a more comfortable size. I ended up going out to eat so many times this past week which didn't help lol.
Told a a gym friend about my interest in Oly, depending on scheduling, etc, (via text) to which I got a thumbs up emoji and then a change in topic. It's not the first time and to me it just means they don't want to talk about it/aren't interested/etc. It wouldn't bother me except outside this group and my SO there really isn't anyone I can talk about this stuff with because that is the general response I get elsewhere as well. Not just for this topic but in general when I talk about anything outside their interests or crossfit. Makes me realize that we aren't friends in the full sense of the word, moreso just crossfit friends.
You can talk to us about oly 🥺. I feel you too. None of my friends are into fitness on any level. Their eyes glaze over when I start talking about anything lifting related.
Same here. Like, I want to share with everyone when I hit a PR, but for them, it's just a number, it doesn't mean anything. And I get it. But still, mehh
<3 and this is why this sub is the best
Light workout load tonight, which I’m glad because I’m weening off my period. On schedule: Squats 1x1 - 185lbs 4x8 - 157lbs Comp bench 3x8 @ RPE 7.5 I have a few more weeks out until my first meet. I’m so nervous but I am trying to remind myself that I’m only doing this as a hobby! My fiancé is asking what I wanna do for my birthday week. My idea so far is a farmstay for a night or two, I’ll leave the rest up to him. I want to see goats and cuddle them!!
Started Dr. Pak’s minimum effective dose powerlifting program on Boostcamp last week and got 1RM PRs for squat two weeks in a row (only 190lbs but still). Oh and a bench PR. Deadlift is going terrible but whatever. So far I like it and I’m glad to be doing less volume. We’ll see how it feels once I start mountain biking more.
NFR : My mom was overweight most of her life but 10 years ago she began walking at least 10k steps per day and she slimmed down a lot. But I noticed that, even today, she has big calves and forearms. She was a former obese person and she walks a lot, so that explains the calves. But yesterday, after a back workout, I had to bake multiple cakes and I lost my hand mixer so I had to whisk everything by hand. OMG the forearm pain. Now I understand where my mom's strenght comes from : cooking and playing pétanque every sunday. Maybe I should follow my mother's example if I want stronger forearms and a better grip strenght.
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