stepping_out

I hope you mean eLIFTical.

I'm still in, my partner is now probably not coming along, but that just means I'm available for more funz because I don't have to co-ordinate with him!

Sorry to everyone who was planning to go there at some point - I'm afraid we ate the place!!! Second bit of holiday was a bit more difficult, the food was really terrible for some reason. Even the local fish, which you would think should be amazing??? But not when you leave it standing under a grill until it's all dry and gross. So probably had a bit of involuntary weight loss as was skipping meals (belt down a notch), I was substituting Huel because I just didn't want to eat it. That literally never happens, and I'm not a picky eater!!! Just to give you a taste (ha, ha) of how bad things were. Anyhow, back from various hols and soooooo glad to be home. I used to be really keen to travel, now I kinda just want to veg at home and stick to my routine. Speaking of, got back very late last night (or rather, early this morning), got a little bit of sleep and headed straight to the gym. Aaaaand 160 squat totally went down Probably a bit more there as well. Quite pleased. Now if bench shows me some love on Thursday, I'll be an all round happy camper.

Following along for cleaning advice.

So, the chains were just to let you get in a pause at the bottom of the good morning, I actually really liked it! Probably means I was doing it wrong! Have not updated because we went on an impromptu trip to Paris. This involved a LOT of food and wine - last hooray before I get all sensible before The Big One. But we had a sensible breakfast (I even brought my huel!), skipped lunch and then had a big dinner, combined with lots of walking, so I'm fairly happy with that. Meant I missed a training session - not ideal. Now I am on my ACTUAL holiday, dragged my gear all this way and hoping to get at least 2 sessions in. Next year, I'm not saying yes to holidays just before the British!!! It's freaking me out a bit to interrupt my training like this, I've been really consistent all year and it almost feels like self sabotage. At the same time, I don't want lifting to take over my life. This was my first chance in a loooong time to spend some quality time with my partner, and now I'm chilling with a friend I haven't seen in ages. So I don't know, maybe it was a mistake, maybe I'm being silly. I guess we'll see in a few weeks! Will score this later, but not looking good, heh!

Oh, looky looky, guess who's competing Sept 18th (hint: it's ME!)

I swear that BroScience video is a documentary!!! My PhD doesn't realise I'm working on it, either. Not yet! The gym has a bunch of different chains, the ones we're using for deadlifts are quite short, so if you're normally tall, I think you get a fair percentage of their total weight at the top. Other than that, I feel like it's just another way of making deadlifts suck even more because it's noisy and you have to drag them across the gym and did I mention the noise.

I seriously hope so! It was funny though, the first few times we used them for deadlifts, I got away with it - I'm quite short, so they actually didn't do much at the top of the lift, because most of them was still on the floor

I've added ze stuffs! Deadlift experiment came to an end today because both of us were too knackered to make our lifts. Programme changes next week, all I know is that there will be good mornings with chains!!! Gahhhhhh. For some reasons, everybody's doing stuff with chains right now. My calluses have calluses and my blisters have blisters. But my arms and back definitely feel more buff. Happy with my squats, did 165x3 to a box the other day, and 130x4 paused is now totally fine - 130 was my opener last comp, will need to go up! (Which is scary still.) In other news, we're both off now and are starting to get to work on the house. For me, that means folding a bunch of clothes, which is incredibly boring! No wonder I normally don't do this!!! It's motivating me to get serious about the KonMarie thing, because the fewer clothes I have the less time I have to spend folding them. Also, I've spent several hours on Amazon trying to find the perfect bin for the kitchen. Reading this, I feel a tiny bit sad for my life right now! Other than that, pretty much trucking along. Will try to catch up with other people's challenges, but y'all started rocking out early in zero week!!!

In for this naughty 'naut!

I sometimes feel like I'm going craycray because you say people are making negative comments, but I never see them!! Did they delete them? Or do you have another, secret social media account that I am not yet following Are we talking about the last squat video? Why are people commenting on depth anyway??? So much confuse.

Yay, you're back!! Following, obvs.

I'mmona add some stuffs here later! Edit to add stuffs! Number 1: Lift everything. I've never training this consistently for this long, need to keep it up for a few more weeks. 3x per week (3 points), until we taper for nationals. Number 2: Eat everything. As long as it's a vegetable! Vegetables with every meal except breakfast. I want to get into a new routine where I have a Huel meal replacement for breakfast. Starting with 3x per week (Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday - before training; 3 points) and will see how it goes. I want to make sure I get a good bit of nutrition in, but find it difficult to lift with food in my stomach. Number 3: Move everything. Not just the muscle bones, but also the cardio bones and the stretchy bones. So, I'm going to go for a walk in the mornings, on non-lifting days - 3x per week (3 points). Stretching / Romwod on lifting days (3 points). Number 4: Finish everything. Or at least, start to finish. PhD time: 2 hours per day, 4 times per week (4 points). NOT looking forward to this one. So I may do points this time, because it seems easy enough. Weekly max is 3+3+3+3+4=13 points which makes me very happy. The last few weeks have been pretty intense with several projects at work coming to an end, plus our crazy deadlift experiment. I'm now off work until September 5th, so I'm going to focus on my fitness and life goals. There will be a week where I take a break and go to the beach, where this all will turn into relaxation goals!

Cheers dude! So erm yeah, challenge seems to have passed me by a little bit! 1) Train. Lift all the things. 3 sessions a week, accessories not optional! Did this. The good news: I'm still alive, despite our coach's best efforts. Deathlifts 3x per week, it's an "experiment", apparently. But, I have to say, my training buddy and I both are feeling a lot more confident. Plus, if our central nervous systems haven't given up on us yet, that probably means we're a fair bit below our true max. On Saturday, I did 3x150*, which is my current competition max, after 3x130 and 3x140, feeling pretty good about that (*2.75x really, because I couldn't quite get my shoulders back at the top of the lift. Think I messed up the set up because I was able to hold it there for a good bit while trying to straighten up, so it wasn't a strength issue necessarily.). BENCH is making me happy, I've been creeping up from struggling with 52.5x4 to not struggling that much with 58.5x4. Incremental progress is progress, even when the increments are tiny! Squats going great, did box squats with 160 for 3x3 (5kg above current gym max), and they didn't feel as heavy on the shoulders as I thought they would. Happy days. So, yes, I've been training and sleeping and trying not to die!!! 2) Eat vegetables. A lot of them. Every meal, unless they make me gag at breakfast. Did not do this. I still have some of last week's salad in the fridge. I need to get on this! A pickled cucumber does not count as a vegetable!!! 3) Stretch. Romwod 3x per week minimum. More is more. I'm not sure I did romwod 3x per week, but I did stretch romwod-style after each training session, plus a few additional romwods. I definitely want to pick this up again, though. Not super successful really, but I'm okay with that. Things have been very busy, plus the Olympics were on - someone had to watch all that! I'm off work from Thursday, looking forward to that and will use the time to get some good habits going again. Onwards & upwards, as per usual!

Hey hey,,, Doing what's right for you is never losing. Sending virtual hugs and positive thoughts, and looking forward to following the next part of your journey.

Mindless & unproductive... penis... Makes sense to me!

I also have a lot of trouble with my grip. Think your experiments are providing interesting data! One thing my coach recently told me to do, that I wasn't doing before, is to make sure the bar is really in the palm of my hand rather than at the base of the fingers (if that makes sense). So the hand position is a little bit different, makes a huge difference to (perceived) grip, though. Great job on dem goalz!

@Hellda here is the info on the meetup! (Hope this works!)

I've never sumo'd! Maybe you can teach us at the meetup??? I feel like @Hellda also needs to know this. Assuming she's coming. Are you coming?

Ohhhh, hope you report back on the coaching, it does sound amaze. Re Oly, if you're able to watch, some badass ladies lifting right this second. Got a girl crush on the one from Cuba!

Ohhh, you're coming!! I shall be asking you a lot of questions about Tscherman powerlifting ;-)

Hope sh*zz gets to be a little bit lighter for you dude. We gots ya, though!

Another warrior here to say "Hay!", welcome to the dark side!!! Oh, sorry, dark side is sumo!

Less than 6 weeks waaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

Well excited.