guild Warrior Meadhall

[Sovalis]

[Scaly Freak]

9 hours ago, Harriet said:

Okay something cool happened. I went to do my jump-to-negative for the pull-ups (I am so far away from being able to do a full pull up) and I was able to pull myself up a couple of cm (after the jump) to the top of my ROM. That has never happened before--the direction has always been jump to straight down. Every other rep was the same as usual, only the first rep involved a tiny bit of upward pull. Still, it was a pleasant surprise.

 

[Jarric]

On 2/29/2024 at 4:43 PM, Harriet said:

Interesting... I thought the only correct way to do a heavy lift is with the valsalva manoeuvre? I mean, I could breathe during a squat or deadlift, but I'd have to go a lot lighter and it would destabilise my back. I was more thinking about how I breathe during the rest. I don't breathe during an actual lift. 

 

Isn't the valsalva manoeuvre the thing where you hold your nose and breathe out to equalise pressure when swiming?

 

And no, I don't breathe during a squat/deadlift rep either, I was just talking about taking in air to brace your core before the start of the lift.

[Harriet]

20 hours ago, Jarric said:

Isn't the valsalva manoeuvre the thing where you hold your nose and breathe out to equalise pressure when swiming?

 

And no, I don't breathe during a squat/deadlift rep either, I was just talking about taking in air to brace your core before the start of the lift.

 

Ah, gotcha. The woman who trained me (just a couple of sessions, then covid 😔) wanted me to breathe in through my nose first, then finish with a bit of extra air through my mouth. 

Valsalva is what we do for the big lifts: breathe in, then "exhale" against a closed glottis to create abdominal pressure. You don't really exhale because the air cannot escape, but you let it push outward/upward. 

[Harriet]

Pull up jump-to-negatives continue to improve in quality, despite my improbably low workload. Yay! 

[Jarric]

19 hours ago, Harriet said:

Pull up jump-to-negatives continue to improve in quality, despite my improbably low workload. Yay! 

 

Congratulations! Keep it up!

 

Also reminded me of an article I read recently:

 

What’s the least amount of training you need to make solid strength gains?

 

In particular, this paragraph caught my eye at the super low volume end:

 

Quote

Lastly, we also found that powerlifters can potentially perform as little as 1-3 singles per powerlift per week and still make some strength gains, albeit less likely to be meaningful.

 

[Harriet]

3 hours ago, Jarric said:

 

Congratulations! Keep it up!

 

Thank you!

 

3 hours ago, Jarric said:

Also reminded me of an article I read recently:

 

What’s the least amount of training you need to make solid strength gains?

 

In particular, this paragraph caught my eye at the super low volume end:

 

That's incredible! It seems the minimum is really considerably lower than the maximum we can do. They say: 

 

"If you are not really fussed about maximizing strength gains, you could, in theory, train for the rest of your life using the above guidelines while adding an extra set or exercise whenever things start to feel way too easy or monotonous."

This is kind of what I'm doing now: trying to slow down a lot and add a rep first, and then only add to the load if I get outside my rep range. It's not that I don't care about strength gains, it's just that I am sick of crashing and setting myself back. If I only add reps, then sets, as needed, I can lift happily ever after, I hope.

[ViperN7]

On 3/21/2024 at 1:04 PM, Harriet said:

Pull up jump-to-negatives continue to improve in quality, despite my improbably low workload. Yay! 

Huzzah! Well done! 

It's nice to know that our bodies are still capable of things even when we don't have the workload we desire/think we should/think we need, isn't it? 

 

5 hours ago, Jarric said:

Also reminded me of an article I read recently:

 

What’s the least amount of training you need to make solid strength gains?

Oooo I'll be checking that out!  

[Jarric]

On 3/22/2024 at 4:10 PM, Harriet said:

This is kind of what I'm doing now: trying to slow down a lot and add a rep first, and then only add to the load if I get outside my rep range. It's not that I don't care about strength gains, it's just that I am sick of crashing and setting myself back. If I only add reps, then sets, as needed, I can lift happily ever after, I hope.

 

Sounds like a good plan to avoid injury and burnout to me. There were some bodyweight workout progressions that I was doing for a while which started at 3 sets of 3, and you kept adding reps until you got to 3 sets of 8 before before going on to a more difficult variation. That kind of programming is probably more necessary for bodyweight stuff because you can't increase the load by 1lb at a time like you can with a barbell, but there's no reason why it shouldn't also work for weight training.

[Harriet]

22 hours ago, ViperN7 said:

Huzzah! Well done! 

It's nice to know that our bodies are still capable of things even when we don't have the workload we desire/think we should/think we need, isn't it? 

 

Thank you, and yes, it is very nice. 

[Artemis Prime]

Was starting to get a bit bored with the Stronger by Science free programming, so I decided to bite the bullet and pay for it, only to discover that the whole bundle is only $10. About a half hour of messing with spreadsheets means I now have my training planned out until September, with convenient tweaking options if I change my mind about anything between now and then.

[Harriet]

12 minutes ago, Artemis Prime said:

Was starting to get a bit bored with the Stronger by Science free programming, so I decided to bite the bullet and pay for it, only to discover that the whole bundle is only $10. About a half hour of messing with spreadsheets means I now have my training planned out until September, with convenient tweaking options if I change my mind about anything between now and then.

 

Noice! It looks like the bundle has options for different scenarios. Can you customise for your own circumstances?

[Artemis Prime]

14 minutes ago, Harriet said:

 

Noice! It looks like the bundle has options for different scenarios. Can you customise for your own circumstances?

The spreadsheet is fairly overwhelming, but there is a document full of instructions that walks you through customizing programs. You input your 1RM, select which primary exercises you want to do, which auxiliary ones you want, the intensity of your workouts, and how much you want to increase or decrease weight from workout to workout. And then it gives you options for working out for everything from twice to six times per week. I still have to play with it a lot more, but I think it might be one of those things that looks confusing at first, but if you just follow it one step at a time, it makes sense.

[Artemis Prime]

Guys! Guys! Guys!

I joined a gym!

 

 

 

It is tiny and cheap and 5 minutes away from my office, so I can walk there on my lunch break and get some lifting done in the middle of my day. I'm very excited about this!

[Scaly Freak]

Very nice! Convenient location is one of the most important factors when picking a gym. I hope you enjoy every moment you spend there!

[Artemis Prime]

15 hours ago, Scaly Freak said:

Very nice! Convenient location is one of the most important factors when picking a gym. I hope you enjoy every moment you spend there!

Thanks! Convenience definitely won out here. There's another gym just a tiny bit more per month that has more and better equipment, but it's just enough farther away that I think I'd feel rushed on my break, which I could see leading to me skipping it a lot of days. Added bonus - because it is so small and limited, it's not a very popular gym. I had the place all to myself yesterday and think that will be the case more often than not.

[Sovalis]

@Artemis Prime How's the new gym treating you?

[Artemis Prime]

8 hours ago, Sovalis said:

@Artemis Prime How's the new gym treating you?

Really well! It's working great to run over on my lunch break. It does mean I have to keep an eye on the time, but I'm finding a good routine where I have time to do 2 main lifts and an accessory circuit. Still figuring out what my preferred exercises are now that I have many more options, but that's part of the fun. Today's workout is squats, cable fly, db press, and shrugs. (Might do scapular retractions instead, but I think the pull up grip might be too wide for me.) Thus far that has been my biggest problem with the gym: the machines appear to have been built for much bigger people, but I'm finding ways to make it work.

 

Thanks for asking!

[Harriet]

On 5/16/2024 at 3:05 PM, Artemis Prime said:

Really well! It's working great to run over on my lunch break. It does mean I have to keep an eye on the time, but I'm finding a good routine where I have time to do 2 main lifts and an accessory circuit. Still figuring out what my preferred exercises are now that I have many more options, but that's part of the fun. Today's workout is squats, cable fly, db press, and shrugs. (Might do scapular retractions instead, but I think the pull up grip might be too wide for me.) Thus far that has been my biggest problem with the gym: the machines appear to have been built for much bigger people, but I'm finding ways to make it work.

 

Thanks for asking!

 

Very nice that you have something nearby and convenient. I also find the machines are too big It's worst for upper body machines.