MPK

As mentioned, MobilityWOD is the place to go, but specifically try bodyweight squats to get a feel for where the limits of your flexibility are, then try this technique, then retest your flexibility on the bodyweight squat again and see if it helps.

I'm in! And it's nicely timed to coincide with the next challenge.

Those Versagripps do come in pink though I see I'll take a look.

A couple of months ago, I managed to hurt my right wrist playing catch with my son. He was in lacrosse, and I wanted to help him practice, but trying to put a lacrosse stick in my hands would just mean my running after a lot of missed balls, so I thought I could just use a baseball glove. Well, a lacrosse ball is quite a bit denser and heavier than a baseball, and I managed to hurt my wrist. The pain is right above where the ulna meets the wrist, and bothers me most when I rotate my hand fully either direction. It's not bad or anything, it just feels like a slight strain with some tenderness, I'm 39 now, so these things don't heal as fast as they used to. This has been bothering me for like two months, and now it's becoming a limiting factor in my deadlifts, as it does really hurt when I'm pulling that much weight (well, not THAT much weight, I was trying for 5 reps of 265 when I had to stop at 3 because of the wrist pain). It particularly hurts when I supinate the hand, so it just gets worse as the weights gets heavy enough for me to need to supinate my right hand. Would using straps help? I've always thought that guys using straps on a DL less than 350 should make sure that they match their purse (I kid! I kid!), but if it would get me back to making progress I'll be more than happy to order a matching ensemble.

I've been playing The Secret World, which is a MMO with a modern-day horror/supernatural theme that was a surprisingly fun switch from WoW. It's not been as successful as Funcom might have hoped, so I'm not sure how much of a future it has, but I'm enjoying playing through the PvE content, and the storylines and writing are really well done. Then my boss has recruited me back into WoW again...not sure how long I'll stick around this time, but for now, PANDA BOOT TO THE HEAD!

Hey all, I've been reading NF for about a year now. And after getting diverticulitis and hypertension in my mid-30s, I knew that I had to make a change. I started hitting the gym in earnest about 7 months ago, starting with Steve's Barbell Battalion, and then shifting to SL5x5. I used to think that my aspiration was to be a Ranger, but my eyes have been opened to the way of the iron. At 6'2" and 290 when I started, doing back squats for the first time with just the bar (!) had me barely able to walk normally for days. 6 months later (after a few setbacks due to bad form that I've worked out since), I'm squatting 210 5x5, and loving getting under the bar 3 times a week. Warrior's guild it is for me. Looks like the next challenge is coming up shortly, so I'll dive in then.

Just because you aren't sore doesn't mean that you haven't accomplished anything. There are a lot of factors that determine muscle soreness. For instance, weightlifting for bodybuilding (lots of reps, lower weights, lots of time with the muscles under load) tends to produce more DOMS than lifting to increase strength (low reps, high weights, high intensity). The eccentric part of a movement (the part of the movement where the muscle lengthens under tension) produces more soreness then the concentric part of the movement (the part where the muscle contracts against the load). So for instance, if you were bench pressing, and only had to lift it (concentric), and someone else lowered it for you (eccentric), you wouldn't get nearly as sore. So it's more complicated than working hard = sore. Anyways, lots of ways to say, don't worry too much about measuring your progress by your soreness. Focus on measuring your increases in performance as the true gauge of your progress.

Anytime you push yourself way beyond what you are used to, you are going to cause the muscle damage that causes DOMS (it's good damage, though!). When I first squatted, I couldn't walk comfortably for a week, and had to hold on tight to stair railings for 4 days. More than 2 days of soreness is totally normal if that hike was way beyond what you usually do. The only way to keep it from happening that badly again is to keep up the activity level! Once you get past that horrible first time DOMS, your body quickly acclimates, and in general, you won't get it again to nearly the same extent as long as you keep up the level of activity and don't bump up the intensity of your exercise more than ~10% a week.

Even if they don't have an Olympic lifting platform, you might want to ask if they have any bumper plates. My gym has them in 5, 10, or 25 pounds, specifically for this kind of occasion, spread around the regular free weight area.

As someone that just started lifting a couple months ago at age 38, I hear you, that first day I could barely make it down the stairs. But don't worry, it gets better quickly, and soon your next day soreness will be more manageable (and almost enjoyable!). Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

My personal favorite was "No Gummi Bears in the humidifier!".