Workout: What did you do today?

[DJChameleon]

Nice, @DJChameleon 🙂 those sound like strong numbers! 💪

Yeah I surprised myself. I didn't know I was up that high since I rarely just bench. Maybe I should bench more often.

[jimmy jazz]

Deej mate how tall are you?

[DJChameleon]

Deej mate how tall are you?

170 cm or 5' 7"

[jimmy jazz]

170 cm or 5' 7"

Nice.

Very good lift.

Keep going and very soon you will join the 100kg club 💪

[DJChameleon]

Nice.

Very good lift.

Keep going and very soon you will join the 100kg club 💪

I would love that or even slightly more since I weigh 130kg

[jimmy jazz]

I would love that or even slightly more since I weigh 130kg

You're not far off atm. 3 x 86kg, you could get very close with 1rm imo.

Maybe add it to your 2024 fitness goal on that thread. Bench 100kg.

[jimmy jazz]

Recently I have been doing 2 exercises max per muscle group.

So for chest I will do:

Benchpress then dumbbell flies

Tris will be pushups then extensions

Etc

Compound then an isolation to finish.

Helps me to train with more intensity.

Thoughts on this?

I see plenty of lifters posting their workouts and there are 5/6/7 exercises per muscle group. For me that's too much fucking about. There's more than one way to skin a cat.

[Lisnaholic]

@ grindy, Guybrush and DJ: I really appreciate your comments and advice from last week, and have put them here in a spoiler - bringing them back to the front of the thread, but not obliging everyone to reread them:

Spoiler

Take youtube recs with a huge grain of salt. The vast majority of fitness advice is either complete bullshit or wildly ineffective.
Most people are looking for novelty and shortcuts, so most vids focus on unusual and vaguely tiring but not actually hard stuff, instead of explaining the basics of exercises and programming. Feel free to post stuff you watch here, to get some perspective.

I get not wanting to spend a lot of money on equipment, but I'd recommend acquiring some very basic equip.

I regularly use these things:

• Adjustable bench, can be set to incline/decline
• A couple of dumbbells
• A barbell
• Three resistance bands of varying resistance
• Pullup bar
• Gymnastics / suspended rings
• Pushup bars

Not saying you need all this, of course. Maybe start with dumbbells?

I especially appreciate my bench and dumbbells. Dumbbells is the most essential, I think. A lot of the exercises you might do with a barbell, you can also do with dumbbells. And they can probably double as pushup bars too.

Stuff I have, but don't use much:

• Ab-wheel
• EZ bar
• Jump rope
• Hand gripper

The hand gripper seems stupid, but otherwise these are also good things to have, I think.. yes, also the ab-wheel.

Some of this I bought second hand, so I don't feel like it was too huge of an investment.

Jump rope is good for cardio but I was keeping Lisnaholic's age in mind and jumping would be rough on the knees. He would need something lower impact.

[close]

I had a bit of work/health stress, so I got distracted from doing much exercise, but now I am back on track.
I'm continuing with the dead-hangs as they are so quick do to in any spare 5 mins that I have (though dead-hang time is still only 20 secs max).

Very thoughtful of you to consider the state of my knees, DJ ! ... and thanks for the warnings about YouTube videos, grindy; it sounds like you are an expert in the science of exercise and might check back in this thread for more of your, and others', advice.
My next step will be to look at buying dumb-bells, as per Guybrush's advice, plus a dictionary of Workout Words so I can understand more of the posts from jimmyjazz and others

Does this thread have its own sign-off phrase yet ? I'm going to go with this for the moment:-

Keep Liftin' Guys!

[FETCHER.]

My steps have really been suffering lately  and I've been struggling to meet my goals on non-run days.

Does anyone have any tips for motivation? May help to resonate if you also live in a freezing cold, shitty, damp corner of the world as well 😆.

I am hoping it's weather based but it's really affecting my weight loss goals and that has practically came to a standstill. I haven't gained any which is good but still...

[Lisnaholic]

Ran my 4th ever 5km today and I set a PB of 33 mins 27 seconds. It's not the quickest but one of my goals for this year was to run a 5km in under 35 minutes and with how inconsistent I've been throughout February I didn't think I'd be ticking it off my list any time soon. I'm delighted!!

My best 5 km has only ever been about 45 mins - and that was pre-pandemic, so I'd be a lot slower today.

[DJChameleon]

My steps have really been suffering lately  and I've been struggling to meet my goals on non-run days.

Does anyone have any tips for motivation? May help to resonate if you also live in a freezing cold, shitty, damp corner of the world as well 😆.

I am hoping it's weather based but it's really affecting my weight loss goals and that has practically came to a standstill. I haven't gained any which is good but still...

Idk if you want to get into Pokémon Go but it's a great motivation thing to help walk for 20 to 30 mins daily. They have a daily incense that you activate and it populates more Pokémon to you while you are walking for 15 mins. So I used to pop one and walk in one direction for 15 mins then return home. The only shitty part is that when it is colder and you are wearing gloves. It is hard to interact with the screen. Spring is a few weeks a way. I feel like warmer nicer weather will help encourage you to go for daily walks again.

[jimmy jazz]

My steps have really been suffering lately  and I've been struggling to meet my goals on non-run days.

Does anyone have any tips for motivation? May help to resonate if you also live in a freezing cold, shitty, damp corner of the world as well 😆.

I am hoping it's weather based but it's really affecting my weight loss goals and that has practically came to a standstill. I haven't gained any which is good but still...

I posted a long one a while back from Stan Collymore. The main thing he said is just go out the door. When I'm not feeling up to it I break it down into little tasks, have my pre-workout meal, get dressed, go to the shed, set everything up. By the time I've done that and done the first set I may as well finish. The shed can get as cold as -5c in winter so getting in and starting is the hardest thing.

Basically the same thing Collymore said. Nobody goes into the gym and does a few reps then leaves. The difficult part is starting. So just go out the door. Keep your bag or whatever you need by the door and go.

[grindy]

Push day today. Overhead barbell press, dumbbell bench press and push downs. First two supersetted with neck extensions/curls. Used to do neck extensions with a band but it looks like I'll permanently switch to using cables. Feels really good.
Also checked in on my girlfriend's training, since our schedules usually don't allow it during the week. She does an upper/lower split and did upper body today. Overhead press, barbell bench press and lat prayers. She also wants to learn pull ups and tried some band assisted ones.
I'm really proud of her, her form and relative effort are amazing.

[grindy]

Recently I have been doing 2 exercises max per muscle group.

So for chest I will do:

Benchpress then dumbbell flies

Tris will be pushups then extensions

Etc

Compound then an isolation to finish.

Helps me to train with more intensity.

Thoughts on this?

I see plenty of lifters posting their workouts and there are 5/6/7 exercises per muscle group. For me that's too much fucking about. There's more than one way to skin a cat.

Seems very reasonable to me.
I'd probably do all compounds first and then do all isolations, but that's just down to personal preference and goals.

[DJChameleon]

I'm resting since it's the weekend. I'm slightly sore from back and shoulders yesterday. I have done back and shoulders in ages it seems.