Anyone interested in a group fitness challenge?

[Som-Pong]

I like the idea of bench 1x bodyweight, squat 1.5x deadlift 2.0x

[Vutulaki]

So last Friday I took the day off work and slept all day, and today is a public holiday. This is important because it means for my bench session yesterday I was very well rested and didnt have to worry about the time pressure of getting to bed on time. So I nailed it. Hepburn program called for 2 sets of 3 reps and the other 6 sets at two reps. I ended up inverting this with 6 sets of 3 reps and 2 sets of 2 reps, and then some bonus stuff for volume. Next session I will go for all sets being 3 reps. I ate my allotted calories and was still hungry and had a glass of milk and some candy. I take it as a sign my body is rebuilding and Im happy about that. Speaking of rebuilding, the best part was my left bicep tendon felt totally fine. Going into the session I felt zero injury except the slight tweak in my left shoulder. During the session my right bicep got roughed up a bit as did both my shoulders. But as of today, I pretty much feel fine. I can feel it a bit in both tendons and shoulders but not really that bad at all.

Looking at my log I noticed I am only a bit over 2 months from the one year mark from when I started the log. By that point I will have certainly added over 100 lbs to my squat(already at 94 lbs and it goes up every session barring injury) and will probably have added 50 lbs to my bench(was already at 41 lbs a few weeks ago, hard to measure exactly because of my program). I will be very happy if I hit those goals.

I cant remember who but someone high level and on roids so probably a PLer or crossfit dick said "If sleep wasnt a normal human function it would be banned in the olympics"

Ive tried it all besides juice, ffrom expensive massages, cold/hot therapy, that foam rolling bullshit (good for mobility imo) and none of it comes close to a few consequative nights of good sleep. The bar feels like air, my ccock is hard most of the day and I look better in the mirror after I get a few nights good deep sleep in.Try getting a few in back to back, let us know how you go

[Anastasios]

I kept forgetting to post these, they are more useful than my barbell row technique.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/dmNQIyZbPLk

This is how I do pulldowns and I transfer this technique to pullups.

Feet back, legs back, chest arched up. If you have the feet in front and legs under the pads, you crunch - I do the opposite, I arch. When the legs are under the pads you use this as leverage to pull the bar down, and do a crunch, which is an impediment to pulling with your scapula, and also, with the feet planted in front, you can push your feet down and use your spinal erectors to help create momentum to pull the bar down..

With your feet back, you can't make use of these leverages at all. The downside is you cant use as much weight, the upside is you are forced to use your back muscles excluding your erectors to pull. I pull my elbows down, not my hands. I also extend my back a bit throughout the rep to make for a better bottom position, and I don't touch the bar on my chest as that is excessive ROM which only forces your shoulder joint in a difficult position.

[Anastasios]

One more of my golden nuggets, the legendary Seal Row.



Not much to explain here and this setup does not let you do much technical error. Just set the height so that you have to extend your arms and hands as far as you can to get a grip of the bar and try to touch the bar on the bench on every repetition.

This exercise induces less total fatigue but strains the upper back muscles a lot, since your feet are no longer planted and it is not like an almost full body movement like barbell rows.

The reason I do these compounds and not e.g. isolating lats with pulley on my upper arm is because the more you isolate, the less damage you can incur. Compound movements can help you damage more muscle fibers by letting you do more work despite reaching higher levels of fatigue. This also makes you accumulate more total fatigue, or systemic fatigue, beyond just the muscles you target, which is not necessarily a bad trade-off. The high level of fatigue from these big exercises (squat, bench, deadlift, rows, presses, dips, pullups) triggers a greater response than just pumping a single muscle with light weight, because the stressor is obviously greater and the body needs to adapt to greater demands.

While isolating muscles gives more opportunities to be creative and gives you unique leverages to target different spots, these are only auxiliary in the gains they can produce compared to the big compound movements.

The compound movements allow for an astronomically greater degree of technical proficiency to be gained over the years. This means you keep progressing pretty much eternally. Your ability to strain also increases, and your ability to recruit more muscle fibers, adding to the total fatigue and stress you can induce.

[Anastasios]

15 feb
pullups 14,16,16
stock press, triples up to 65kg in 10kg increments

18 feb
single leg deadlift 60kg x 3,3
70kg x 3,3

20 feb

red band side kick x 36, 30*, 30*
* = very slow negatives

bench press 140 x 6
seal row 100kg x 5,5

Shoulder is getting much better and I can press overhead again

bench is coming back up and shoulder feels great there too, sixth rep was at 0.2m/s which is better than last weeks 0.14m/s at 5th rep.

[Diet Butcher]

Ziggy is one of us.

*edit. Maybe not. He's vegan.

[Vutulaki]

I kept forgetting to post these, they are more useful than my barbell row technique.



This is how I do pulldowns and I transfer this technique to pullups.

Vid doesnt work malaka

[Som-Pong]

Just did squats, when the weight gets heavy I have a tendency to roll the bar down my back when getting out of the hole. Anyone else do this?

[Vutulaki]

Just did squats, when the weight gets heavy I have a tendency to roll the bar down my back when getting out of the hole. Anyone else do this?

Roll or slide? do you use a bar with a center knurling? my gym only has one so in the event I cant bully it off whoever uses it which is seldom obviously I do have an issue with it sliding down my back.
Also do you high or low bar squat? shouldnt be an issue with low bar so i imagine youre high baring it, try to place it in the grove between your upper traps and delts and try to push it into you with a very slight but hard external rotation of your elbows meaning elbows go back and hands/bar forward into the grovee I mentioned

ohh and build biggger lower traps lol

[Anastasios]

Just did squats, when the weight gets heavy I have a tendency to roll the bar down my back when getting out of the hole. Anyone else do this?

Find a new position for the bar and do so by contracting scapulas first, to create a cushion and pockets with your trapezius muscles and the bones for the bar to latch on to. I don't mean shrugging up vertically, and not pulling shoulders back down, but back up, like opposite direction of a decline bench, and lean forward just enough that the bar is resting in these pockets without gliding down.