mdv6

I wish I had gotten a video last night, since I don't really want to do bench again for a couple weeks at least. I try to keep my elbows close to my sides when I bench. But, it's been a while since I've reviewed good form for a bench press, so there could be a lot of room for improvement. I'll take a bit of time off and then do a form check and see how it feels. Any suggestions on the best way to rehab (or should I just rest), and are there any good alternative chest exercises to do in the meantime?

I've been doing doing SL 5x5 for about 4 months now, and increasingly I've been experiencing shoulder discomfort (top front of the shoulder), which I think is due to bench presses (I'm currently benching 145 lbs 3x5, having progressed starting with just the bar). I'd say I have a dull ache (and not all the time) rather than "pain." My question is, what is the best exercise to substitute for the bench press (I was doing bench press along with squats and weighted pullups for one workout, then squats, OH press, and deadlifts for the alternate workout)? Are push ups safer for shoulders than bench press, and if so, how much volume would i need to approximate the workout from my bench press? Also, assuming bench press is the cause of the discomfort, is this likely due to bad form, or just the need for more rest and/or shoulder rehab exercises? Is there a shoulder rehab/prehab program that I can do to get me (safely) back on the bench press? Thanks!

I've been doing Stronglifts 5X5 for a little over 2 months, and the weight is getting heavy (for me), so I wanted to ask for a form check. This is 1X5@ 225lbs: https://youtu.be/6WxhMlA7b_A It certainly looks to me like my back is rounding a bit, but I'd love to hear what else I can improve. As far as the rounding goes, I was already trying NOT to round my back, so any tips on how to improve my form to prevent this (i.e., "don't round your back" might not be enough to help me) would be great. For comparison, here I am a couple weeks ago doing 1X5@185, and my form looked a lot better to me: https://youtu.be/mJUnyka4dLY Also, to improve form, am I better off going back down in weight to work on form, should I stay at the current weight until my form is good, or should I just stick to the linear progression program (5 lbs increments now)? Thanks for any help!

Goals for this challenge: Run a sub-6:00 mile I did not get anywhere close to achieving this--I never even got to the point where I could really time myself for a fast mile. I've been having calf problems all challenge long, and rest, stretching, and icing has not seemed to help. I'm actually pleased that I was able to be persistent despite the setbacks, even if I've not actually gotten past the setback yet. The next step is an appointment with a physical therapist to see if I can figure out what is going on. Do 3 sets of 10 pull-ups (with less than 2:00 rest between sets) I also battled injury on this front, but here I feel like I was able to more or less come off conqueror. Last week I was able to do 10, 10, and 7, and were it not for the injuries I'm confident I would have achieved my goal. I'm more pleased that I actually stuck with it despite the frustration than with the results themselves. At least 36 meals must be of the "clean" variety I can't quite figure out the math I was going for on this one. I think I was trying to allow myself a couple of cheat meals per week, and overall I think I did very well on this goal. I went on a vacation/business trip in the middle of the challenge, and during that time I ate things that are not consistent with my eating plan, but even then I passed up a lot of junk food. Other than while I was on vacation, I had ice cream once during the challenge, and otherwise did not have any sugary/junk food. I've got pounds of halloween candy sitting in the house (my kids are making slow progress), and while in years past I would happily assist them in snarfing it down, I've not had a single piece this year. I'm quite pleased with how my eating has been going, dating back to a couple weeks before the start of the challenge. Life quest: To get my dissertation for my PhD completed and signed off, my application for graduation submitted, and have my job market paper submitted to a top-tier academic journal. I finally got my dissertation completed and graduation all taken care of! This is a huge accomplishment for me, and I guess this is my big success for the challenge. I'm still struggling to get a few items polished up so I can submit the paper to a journal, so I guess that will carry over into the next challenge. Overall I'm pleased with the challenge. I was far from perfect, but my real goal this time around is to just stick with it regardless of setbacks, and I feel like I'm in a good rhythm and settling into a lifestyle that is both sustainable and will allow me to accomplish some ambitious fitness goals.

This is an awesome challenge thread--thanks for doing this! I have two questions: 1) What shoulder prehab routine would you recommend to prevent soreness from pull-ups? 2) The general sense I get around here (NF, not from you specifically) is that to get a flat stomach you need to lower body fat %, and ab exercises won't do much for you. I've lost some weight and am starting to see some definition in the abs, but I'm wondering about the "flat" part: are there exercises that help to pull back the lower abdomen so it does not hang forward as much? If so, what do you recommend?

Yikes! I it's been almost two weeks since I last checked in here. I've taken a little over a week off from my eating regime while I was out of town for a conference/visiting family. I don't think I ate horribly (especially not compared to the same trip earlier this year), but I had my share of ice cream and other non-approved foods. I'm not going to let this setback derail me, though, and I feel pretty refreshed and ready to get back to my eating plan. Yesterday was 100%, and so far today I've had some delicious eggs and a ton of sautéed veggies. After my last run two weeks ago my calf again bothered me a bit, so I took two more weeks off from running. Today I did a very easy 1.5 mile jog (more of a shuffle, really), and so far my calves feel good. I've been doing pullups 2-3 times per week and my shoulders are feeling OK. Last night I did pullups for sets of 10, 9, and 7, so I feel like I'm making progress there despite the shoulder setbacks I've had.

I don't follow a particular plan or philosophy, but my meals don't vary much from day to day--I feel like I've found a handful of meals that are simple and taste good, so I try to stick to those. Breakfast has been either eggs and sautéed vegetables (spinach, mushrooms, and tomatoes, with garlic) or oatmeal (with milk, and until this morning, a tablespoon of honey). Lunch is usually a huge salad with grilled chicken, 2 tablespoons of sunflower seeds and two tablespoons of salad dressing. Dinner is 4ish ounces of meat (usually from the crock pot made once or twice per week), sautéed veggies, 3/4 cup quinoa or brown rice, and sometimes some sort of "sauce" (e.g., cream of chicken soup, tomato soup, or trader joe's curry sauce). I also snack on a handful or two of nuts during the day, as well as a couple green olives a day (with jalapeno and garlic!), and will often have a bowl of frozen fruit with plain yogurt. As mentioned above, I'm starting to cut out the extra honey I put in my oatmeal and/or yogurt, up to two tablespoons per day. Also, I've been using the sauces less in favor of an extra tablespoon of olive oil while sautéing the garlic and veggies. The next thing I would probably like to adjust is the salad dressing. I'm not concerned with the calories (100-150 per lunch), but I'd like to switch to something homemade that has fewer mysterious ingredients added. On the other hand, if two tablespoons of processed salad dressing is what it takes to make a huge bowlful of salad palatable, then I'm ok with it. Any suggestions for good homemade salad dressings (I'm not a big fan of vinaigrettes)?

Monday I went for a short hike with my kids, and yesterday I did shoulder mobility stuff, 3 sets of 8 pullups, and some BW squats. I think I'm getting past my shoulder issues! I'm going to stick with 3 sets of pullups per workout this week, then do 4 sets next week, and then probably try to level off at 5 sets the following week. One thing I have been doing is trying to go as high as possible on my pullups. I have one of those "perfect pullup" apparatus that hangs in the doorway. I try to hit my shoulders on the neutral grip bars (i.e., shoulders come even with the pullup bar). However, the neutral grip bars also prevent me from going any higher than that. I took an entire week off of running, and had been doing some occasional icing. I went for a very easy jog this morning, probably a mile or so. I'm going to try to ease back into this, but hopefully my calf problems are behind me. Eating is still on target. Only one non-regime meal so far this challenge, and I've had not had any junk food. Lately I've really been enjoying eating frozen fruit mixed with plain whole fat yogurt. Initially I was adding a tablespoon or so of honey to make it sweeter, but the last few days I've cut out the honey and I find I still enjoy it almost as much.

That's awesome you ran a 6:06 mile while trying to pace yourself. What's your fastest mile time? Sorry about the sick baby. My 8-month old sleeps in our room, and the last several nights he's been waking up a lot (maybe due to teething), so I know how tough it can be to not get uninterrupted sleep. Good luck with the bodyweight work.

Even if the first two weeks have not been perfect, I think it's awesome that you are being mindful of the shortfall and you're back on the wagon. Even if you end up with straight C's for the challenge, if you keep from falling off the wagon and make it to the end of the challenge I think you'll still have achieved a major victory. From that perspective, your grading scale might be a bit too harsh--keep up the good work!

Thursday I did some shoulder mobility stuff, and then since my shoulders felt good I did 3 sets of 7 pullups. Critical Mass was on Friday, so my workout consisted of a 29-mile, 3.5-hour bikeride through LA. Saturday I did shoulder mobility stuff, and 3 more sets of 7 pullups. Sunday was a Rest day. Eating is still going well. Since I'm making conscientious choices about what I'm eating, I've really been noticing how much junk food I would otherwise be eating (i.e., were it not for my food regime). For example, yesterday I turned down cupcakes, lemonade, freshly baked cookies, and skittles. Saturday I turned down cake, chips, and soda. Last month after Critical Mass I orderd carne asada fries from a food truck (easily 1500 calories)--this time I passed. Typically we think of calorie deficits in terms of what we eat compared to what our body burns. However, I think an interesting comparison would be the "net deficit," the calories we eat compared to what we otherwise would be eating (or what the people around us are eating).

Tuesday I did stretching and shoulder rehab stuff with an elastic band. Yesterday I ran 3 miles at an 8:10/mile pace, but I actually ran the 2nd half at a fast pace than the first. I tried to do extra warm up, and also I tried using a rolling pin to warm up my legs prior to the run (I saw that recommended on youtube--no idea how legit that is), as well as using a tennis ball on my calf specifically. The calf felt OK while running, but it's been sore ever since. This is the first time I can definitively say the calf has gotten worse, which suggests to me that the problem is likely a strain rather than a knot, and I'll need to take more time off. Boo! My two fitness goals are to run a mile faster and do more pullups, and currently I'm on the shelf for both exercises. Although I can't currently directly work on those exercises, I'm still intent on improving, so I'll focus my efforts on stretching and doing shoulder mobility stuff. Also, one of the biggest keys to improving will be do drop more weight, and I can continue to stick to my eating regime to move along on that front. I've still only had one non-regime meal since the challenge started (dinner at a thai restaurant on my birthday), so that's a positive. For whatever reason I have not been very hungry in the evenings, which makes it harder for me to cook up a full meal. As it is, I'm having a hard time getting all the calories I think I need (I'm shooting for 1800-2000 per day, which should give me a deficit of about 500/day), but I'm finding that at the end of many days I need to drink some more milk and/or eat a peanut butter and honey sandwich to get my calories to a decent level.

I'm with you on putting away the scale. I weighed myself 3 weeks ago, and I've committed myself to not weigh again until January 1. I tend to rest on my laurels too easily, so once I drop 10 pounds I feel like the jobs done and I can go back to eating crap. My current goals are based on achieving a certain level of physical activity, and my motivation to lose weight is because it's a lot easier to run a fast mile without carrying a spare tire. Also, that quinoa salad looked great. I love quinoa!

It's been a few days since an update...I did not work out last Friday, but I did a 2-hour mountain bike ride on Saturday. Sunday was a planned rest day. Yesterday I ran 3 miles at an 8:04 pace. The first 1.5 miles was at a 7:40 pace, so I'm getting faster. My calf still does not feel quite right, but I'm going to start stretching at night and see if that helps things. Strangely, during my run my right trapezius muscle really started hurting...anyone know what might be causing that? My shoulders are still sore, so I'm going to put the pullups on the shelf a bit longer and instead focus on doing rehab exercises to beef up my rotator cuffs. Eating has all been clean--so far this challenge only one meal has been off the plan.

On Thursday did another 1.5-mile run in my neighborhood. I felt like I was running at a pretty good clip, but I came in at 8:04/mile, which is not much faster than I did last time (even though I felt like I expended a lot more effort). The good news is that my calf felt fine. Eating: all my meals were "clean"

I really like your goal for not using electronics after 8PM. My wife and I have been doing this since last week. Or, more accurately, we've been intending to do this, but failing miserably. I'm going to recommit, and hopefully get my wife more fully on board as well.

I think naps are totally underrated. I think I'll include a daily nap goal for my next challenge. Congrats on making great progress on your debt!

Great work with the biking. I really liked Steve's post earlier this week about finding exercise you enjoy (so it does not feel like exercise), and it sounds like biking does that for you. Here in Los Angeles they do this thing once a month called "Critical Mass" where 2000+ people get together and ride through the city until almost midnight (there's a huge contingent of motorcycle cops who stop traffic and otherwise make it safe to ride around parts of LA you'd not normally bike through). I did it last month for the first time, and I think we ended up doing 35 miles or so. That's the first time I've ever done any sort of distance on a bike, but it was a ton of fun. When you say it's the football finals, are you referring to footie or soccer? I lived in Melbourne for a couple years and it seemed like footie was the only sport people really cared about (go Richmond!).

Yesterday I did 50 minutes of mountain biking (one of my favorite things in the world), then spent several hours at the beach (one of my other favorite things!) boogey boarding, running around the sand with my kids, and frolicking in the waves and surf. Also, the beach I went to had a pullup bar, and while I had planned to take a week off pullups I couldn't resist and did 3 sets of 7. My shoulders felt pretty good. I have no idea how many calories I burned from all that activity, but I was exhausted at the end of the day. For breakfast I had eggs, bacon, and sweet potato hash browns. Lunch was peanut butter and honey sandwich and fruit. For dinner, my wife and I went to a Thai restaurant, which was the first "non-clean" meal of the challenge so far. No sweets, though! Not the best day of eating, but compared to last year and birthdays past, was a major win. Typical birthday fare for me includes at least half a carton of ice cream, candy, pizza, and cake. As a reward for completing another trip around the sun, my wife gave me an enormous Ewok Village Lego set. Great day!

Thanks for the tip--I couldn't figure out how to do that.

Thanks everyone for the replies and helpful information. I took an extra day off (three days of rest in-between workouts), and I did just 3 sets of 7-- everything felt pretty good, so I'm guessing it just needed a bit more rest. Slow and steady!

I did another run this morning, the same route as yesterday. I jogged for a few minutes to warm up and stretched. According to Runkeeper, this time I ran 1.51 miles at a 8:16 pace. My calf felt a bit off, so I'm going to wait until Thursday to run again. Eating: Oatmeal for breakfast, grilled chicken, quinoa, tomato and avocado for lunch, almonds for snack, and shredded beef, quinoa, and squash for dinner.

That's what I thought at first, but it does not feel like the muscles are tired, so I'm thinking it's more than just a recovery issue. I've been giving myself 48 hours in-between workouts.

1) No, I try to lean back a little so that I'm bringing my chest towards the bar. 2) Yes, I think I am relaxing my shoulders at the bottom of the movement--am I supposed to keep them tight at the bottom? I've pretty much only been doing pullups, with a few sets of pushups some nights. I'm going to take a week off from pullups to see how I feel, but I think I'll try some shoulder mobility stuff tonight.

I've been doing pull-ups 3x/week for the last 3 weeks, but my shoulders have been feeling sore/tired and don't seem to be recovering along with my muscles. My spider sense is tingling, telling me that I'm headed for injury, so I'm going to lay off the pullups for a week before easing back into a routine (in hindsight, going from not doing any pullups regularly to 11 sets at a time (about 50-70 pullups total) was probably a bit rash). I've found a couple rehab/prehab routines from looking over these boards and elsewhere online. My question: Currently my shoulders feel "tired" but I don't feel any acute pain. Should I start doing rehab/prehab exercises right away, or should I wait a bit to see if my shoulders feel better first? Also, how often should I do rehab/prehab? Any other tips for easing into a pullup routine safely? Thanks!