[Salinger]

Well done on the gym

 

45 blocks sounds good, did that work ok? 

 

I just made a lovely milky cup of tea mmmmmm x

[Harriet]

I did two blocks of art, two of writing, and half an hour of German listening. In addition, journalling outside, gym, reading, groceries, and a short walk.

 

At the gym I did squats. Worked up to 45kg then failed because I was a bit wobbly and light headed and just sat down at the bottom of a rep. Was very tempted to try again, but I was reasonableness itself and did some leg presses instead. (I suspect squats of being especially bad for the POTS—a blood rate/pressure regulation problem dependent on body position that may cause at least some of my fatigue) Leg press is much less tiring and I can work one leg at a time, which is good because I have some asymmetry.

[Harriet]

On 9/25/2022 at 6:18 PM, Salinger said:

Well done on the gym

 

Thank you possum. I'm on a roll! A gym roll. It's like a yoga mat, but not.

 

On 9/25/2022 at 6:18 PM, Salinger said:

45 blocks sounds good, did that work ok? 

 

Yeah, it allows me to make tea, etc. I'm letting the important things (art) run over a little into the less important things (reading, chores)

 

On 9/25/2022 at 6:18 PM, Salinger said:

I just made a lovely milky cup of tea mmmmmm x

 

It's good for what ails you!

[KB Girl]

On 9/25/2022 at 5:26 PM, Harriet said:

 

I suppose you're right. It's just annoying to be at a starting point five years after I discovered lifting. My own fault, of course, but still.

 

Well not exactly... it's really not your fault you're dealing with all this crap!

[Mistr]

On 9/25/2022 at 10:26 AM, Harriet said:

It's just annoying to be at a starting point five years after I discovered lifting. My own fault, of course, but still.

 

I understand that feeling. I have not gone back in my log books to see what I was lifting before the last long break. I know my bent-over rows were at a higher weight, because I remember my physical therapist said I should back off on that weight until my shoulder recovered from an injury. I am just glad that I am making progress now.

 

FWIW, I found I was much shakier on bodyweight squats than I was before. This has nothing to do with strength. I think it is more stiffness. My third set feels much smoother than the first set. I am just about ready to add weight. I decided I had better work on form first this time around.

[Harriet]

18 hours ago, KB Girl said:

Well not exactly... it's really not your fault you're dealing with all this crap!

 

Sort of. I could definitely have done some lifting during the great covid void.

 

17 hours ago, Mistr said:

I understand that feeling. I have not gone back in my log books to see what I was lifting before the last long break. I know my bent-over rows were at a higher weight, because I remember my physical therapist said I should back off on that weight until my shoulder recovered from an injury. I am just glad that I am making progress now.

 

Progress is pleasing. Is your shoulder better now?

 

17 hours ago, Mistr said:

FWIW, I found I was much shakier on bodyweight squats than I was before. This has nothing to do with strength. I think it is more stiffness. My third set feels much smoother than the first set. I am just about ready to add weight. I decided I had better work on form first this time around.

Interesting. I have adequate mobility but I get the same unpleasant sensations from squatting that I do from standing up quickly or getting out of the bath--palpitations, dizziness, feelings of pressure etc--pretty sure it's a blood pressure thing. But form is so important for squats. I think I've improved mine with some single leg and lighter weight stuff, fixing the good morning tendency. How's your form?

[Harriet]

I woke up early and shifted my art earlier, too. Did that from 8-10, then hit the gym from 10-11. Just flyes.

 

Then my brother came over for lunch. We also spent quite a while going over his German translation of my essay. He did a great job but a few things needed clarification or rephrasing—you can’t always translate one to one. And sometimes you can but then you’ll regret the sheer awkwardness. Apparently German works better with nouns where in English one would use verbs. Unless you like long sentences where the verb is held at maximum distance by multiple subordinate clauses.

Anyway, he only left at 5 so I didn’t really have time for anything else, but I got the important bits in: art/lift. And surely our work counts as both writing and German practice.

[Mistr]

37 minutes ago, Harriet said:

Progress is pleasing. Is your shoulder better now?

 

Substantially better but not 100%. I have to watch my habits for leaning on my left elbow or having my arm too far forwards when I am using a mouse. Driving for several hours on Sunday aggravated it, but it is feeling better after some massage and exercise.

 

37 minutes ago, Harriet said:

Interesting. I have adequate mobility but I get the same unpleasant sensations from squatting that I do from standing up quickly or getting out of the bath--palpitations, dizziness, feelings of pressure etc--pretty sure it's a blood pressure thing. But form is so important for squats. I think I've improved mine with some single leg and lighter weight stuff, fixing the good morning tendency. How's your form?

 

I don't have the blood pressure issues you mention. I get unpleasant sensations of tendons and muscles moving in my quads and around my knees. It feels like my muscles are lumpy and not quite warmed up, even though I do warmups first. I can get into a lower squat when my hands are in front (empty or for goblet squats). Putting a pole on my shoulders and putting my hands on the ends to work on form for a bar changes my posture. I can't get as low and have to work harder to keep my balance. My shoulders are right at the limit of their mobility to get the pole into low-bar position. I can get slightly below parallel (tops of thighs to ground) in a goblet squat, but not in a bar squat.

 

Happily, my knees no longer complain when I squat. It took several years of PT and exercise to get to where I could do squats at all.

[Mad Hatter]

2 hours ago, Harriet said:

Unless you like long sentences where the verb is held at maximum distance by multiple subordinate clauses.

The worst part about German!  I always had to start at the end of the sentence to make sense of things.

[KB Girl]

5 hours ago, Harriet said:

And surely our work counts as both writing and German practice.

Absolutely  

[Harriet]

On 9/27/2022 at 6:30 PM, Mistr said:

I don't have the blood pressure issues you mention. I get unpleasant sensations of tendons and muscles moving in my quads and around my knees. It feels like my muscles are lumpy and not quite warmed up, even though I do warmups first.

That sounds uncomfortable, though I can't imagine what would help.

[Harriet]

Slept terribly and took yesterday off. Have also been having stomach pain and nausea for the last few days. Not exactly motivating. But I did a half day today: just two blocks of art and the gym. Did lat pull downs.

[Silmarilliane]

22 hours ago, Harriet said:

Slept terribly and took yesterday off. Have also been having stomach pain and nausea for the last few days. Not exactly motivating. But I did a half day today: just two blocks of art and the gym. Did lat pull downs.

 

Ugh that sounds horrible  Glad you managed to get a bit of art and gymming in despite the rubbishness.

[Harriet]

On 9/30/2022 at 5:25 PM, Silmarilliane said:

Ugh that sounds horrible  Glad you managed to get a bit of art and gymming in despite the rubbishness.

 

Thanks! I am surprising myself with how much I'm managing despite not feeling my best.

 

So I fasted for 48 hours which is the longest I've done yet. It did alleviate the stomach pain but caused, er other gut problems. Don't go ham on the salt, children.

 

I felt pretty good on the first day of fasting, but really tired on the second day. Not sure I love fasting as much as I love eating. I noticed the hunger wasn't too bad but the psychological fixation on food became quite bad toward the end. I overate today and made myself sick. You'd think I were a golden retriever and not a dignified and logical humanoid.

Anyway, I was feeling pretty horribly tired when I got up, but I said to myself let's just start the art and see how it goes, and I managed a half day with two blocks of art, gym, and groceries. Guts still upset.

Deadlifts at the gym. Very low capacity--couldn't even manage a full set of 65kg, and felt really off--out of breath despite the low reps (5) and unable to shake the unpleasant POTS sensations. Realised I couldn't do any more sets and finished off with some glute machine thingy but it didn't feel like anything. Anyway, I'm exhausted and my lower back is complaining.

[sarakingdom]

4 hours ago, Harriet said:

You'd think I were a golden retriever and not a dignified and logical humanoid.

 

 

One of these is you.

[Harriet]

14 hours ago, sarakingdom said:

 

 

One of these is you.

Is it not said that in each of us there are two, uh, beings battling for dominance? A pointy eared space elf and a golden einhorn space terrier? And that our character depends on which one we feed? No? It isn't? Well we need to correct that, then.

[KB Girl]

19 hours ago, Harriet said:

Deadlifts at the gym. Very low capacity--couldn't even manage a full set of 65kg, and felt really off--out of breath despite the low reps (5) and unable to shake the unpleasant POTS sensations. Realised I couldn't do any more sets and finished off with some glute machine thingy but it didn't feel like anything. Anyway, I'm exhausted and my lower back is complaining.

5x65kg is quite a lot of weight you know. Not something the average lady could pick up after not going to the gym for a while. Certainly not the smaller ladies. A lot won’t even be picking that up 5 times after going to the gym regularly for a while. 

[Harriet]

7 hours ago, KB Girl said:

5x65kg is quite a lot of weight you know. Not something the average lady could pick up after not going to the gym for a while. Certainly not the smaller ladies. A lot won’t even be picking that up 5 times after going to the gym regularly for a while. 

Well, you might be right yet again. But it's a downgrade from 70, which is a downgrade from 90. I want to go up, not down. But for that I need to lift consistently, so that'll be my focus from now on.

 

Tired today but I started with 2 blocks of art and gym before, um, taking the entire rest of the day off. Bench at the gym. Still have stomach pain.

[Harriet]

Stomach pain remains. Cannot decide if appendicitis, ulcers, hepatitis, salmonella, muscle hernia, cancer, or adult onset lactose intolerance*. Skipped gym because lifting has exacerbated it quite badly the few times I went recently. DAMNIT

*More serious than it sounds, as I will likely starve to death.

 

Did two blocks of art then spent the rest of the day distracting myself from pain and nausea by researching weight plates for future dream home gym. (Since I can't go to the actual gym. DAMNIT)

Most of the nice plates people are recommending (classic iron, steel, bumper) have no grip in them (unlike the crappy coated iron ones at the gym). Are they hard to pick up? Like, where do you grip it? What if you're not a big strong barbarian with huge meaty forearms and giant hands with pillowy heapings of muscles? What if you're a small, sickly, sun-deprived mage who got the fat free, muscle free, mostly-bone version of the hand and forearms, and you couldn't crumble a firm biscuit between your fingertips? (But who has surprisingly fat legs and a squishy lower back. Like Hel, I am half skeleton, half woman. But with the difference on the transverse rather than saggital plane).

 

The calibrated steel look pretty groovy (see red plate in spoiler) but also the worst for grip (and they're expensive): they scarcely even have a ridge. But what about the classic iron ones with a bit of a ridge (2nd plate in spoiler)... could I learn to pick those up easily? Or is it always going to suck and should I be looking at the ugly coated ones with grips (3rd in spoiler). Is there a way to store plates to make everything easier, like at mid height? This question is so stupid that even google cannot answer, but how are you meant to pick up and carry large plates?

 

Spoiler

 

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Those standard barbell ones (lower left) do have enough of a lip on the 45s and 35s (lbs not kg) to grab on to.

 

With the red ones, the trick is not to use grip strength. It's to squat down and grip it a little below the middle (say right below where the kg is on the left of the pic and the 25 is on the right) lean the plate slightly back onto your chest and use your legs for lift so your grip can go into stabilizing it. Not ideal, but if that's all you have in a given moment, perhaps you can make it work.

[Harriet]

12 minutes ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Those standard barbell ones (lower left) do have enough of a lip on the 45s and 35s (lbs not kg) to grab on to.

 

With the red ones, the trick is not to use grip strength. It's to squat down and grip it a little below the middle (say right below where the kg is on the left of the pic and the 25 is on the right) lean the plate slightly back onto your chest and use your legs for lift so your grip can go into stabilizing it. Not ideal, but if that's all you have in a given moment, perhaps you can make it work.

I'm so glad someone has some experience with different plates! I Thought we might all be using the same standard gym plates. Yes, the technique you mention is how I sometimes pick up heavy plates, even when they have grips. I cheat them up to chest height to put them on for the squat or back on the storage (no 60kg squats recently ). But how about getting it on the deadlift? Do you have to squat all the way down to place it on? And  Do the thinner metal plates dig in to your hands painfully?

[Salinger]

So sorry you are not feeling well. 

 

Ive had appendix out, it was horrendous xx

[Harriet]

16 minutes ago, Salinger said:

So sorry you are not feeling well. 

 

Ive had appendix out, it was horrendous xx

You poor thing. My father's appendix burst and he nearly died because his hateful negligent parents didn't take him to the hospital promptly, but let him wait.

[Salinger]

35 minutes ago, Harriet said:

You poor thing. My father's appendix burst and he nearly died because his hateful negligent parents didn't take him to the hospital promptly, but let him wait.

 

Oh bloody hell. 

 

I was a kid and remember my dad driving to the hospital like a man possessed hahaha i was in there for 10 days tho as was complications x

[Harriet]

38 minutes ago, Salinger said:

 

Oh bloody hell. 

 

I was a kid and remember my dad driving to the hospital like a man possessed hahaha i was in there for 10 days tho as was complications x

That sounds rough! I'm glad you came out of it okay!