ixaera keeps on going~

[Jord]

I hate that thing where the same exercise machine and two different gyms feels totally different. I have this problem with the lat pull AND with the leg machines. It makes it a lot harder to keep track, I just have to adjust the weight until it seems appropriate. But it is still frustrating. 

 

Also, my local gym got a dual pulley lat pull down and I figured two pulleys it would be easier NOPE NOPE NOPE it is twice as hard. - _ - 

[Urgan]

32 minutes ago, Taddea Zhaan said:

I hate that thing where the same exercise machine and two different gyms feels totally different. I have this problem with the lat pull AND with the leg machines. It makes it a lot harder to keep track, I just have to adjust the weight until it seems appropriate. But it is still frustrating. 

 

Also, my local gym got a dual pulley lat pull down and I figured two pulleys it would be easier NOPE NOPE NOPE it is twice as hard. - _ - 

 

Different barbells have this issue, too. Very frustrating. I refuse to lift heavy at certain gyms because can't effectively gauge my "handicap"...

[ixaera]

36 minutes ago, Taddea Zhaan said:

I hate that thing where the same exercise machine and two different gyms feels totally different. I have this problem with the lat pull AND with the leg machines. It makes it a lot harder to keep track, I just have to adjust the weight until it seems appropriate. But it is still frustrating. 

 

Also, my local gym got a dual pulley lat pull down and I figured two pulleys it would be easier NOPE NOPE NOPE it is twice as hard. - _ - 

 

Is that what does it? the work gym one definitely has 2 while the gym one has 1 pulley. I can do like 12 reps at 60 at the gym, work one goes from 50 to 65 and 65 feels like freakin' 75 to me. Not quite 80, because I can only pull maybe 3 or 4 at the gym on that. blerejblkjgh Oh well, it's the effort that counts, it's just messing up my fitnotes, and I might start just making a new exercise for each different machine to keep better track.

 

7 minutes ago, Urgan said:

 

Different barbells have this issue, too. Very frustrating. I refuse to lift heavy at certain gyms because can't effectively gauge my "handicap"...

 

THANKFULLY almost all the bars at gym are Texas Power Bars and not varying brands. We do have the Squat Bar (55 lbs) and the Deadlift Bar (just longer, but a different feel still), and a few crap bars I never use, except SOMETIMES the shiny silver unbranded one that weighs 37 lbs for OHP.

[Urgan]

10 minutes ago, ixaera said:

THANKFULLY almost all the bars at gym are Texas Power Bars and not varying brands. We do have the Squat Bar (55 lbs) and the Deadlift Bar (just longer, but a different feel still), and a few crap bars I never use, except SOMETIMES the shiny silver unbranded one that weighs 37 lbs for OHP.

 

The offending gym's bars are all fat bars except for ONE and it goes for a walk from time to time. Thank God I don't even go there anymore now. 

[Hazard]

1 hour ago, Urgan said:

 

The offending gym's bars are all fat bars except for ONE and it goes for a walk from time to time.

 

This is the Pixar movie I want.

 

[Urgan]

10 minutes ago, Hazard said:

 

This is the Pixar movie I want.

 

 

The Secret Life of Barbells. GO.

[Jord]

29 minutes ago, Hazard said:

 

This is the Pixar movie I want.

 

 

21 minutes ago, Urgan said:

 

The Secret Life of Barbells. GO.

 

* insert eating popcorn gif here

[ixaera]

WOULD watch!

[ixaera]

Ugh why am I so bad at this now. My goals are so simple. How hard is it to follow an easy calorie cap? the hell

 

Anyway, my goal was to cap at 1400 average for the week and more or less stay on track protein-wise. I got the protein, and on top of that kept unsaturated fat low (remember how that's a thing I do!) and overall fat was under 40 most of the week too. But I hit 1500 cals on average. It's not the end of the world, that's still a bit under maintenance but geeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeez

Also I drank too much, and I keep justifying it with shit like "work is dramatic and stressful" and "life is hard" and I don't want to be that person.

 

On the plus side, at least lifting is easy with all these calories? I even hit an OHP rep PR today.

 

Let's re-cap those Sunday lifts and then talk about positive things!

OHP

1x3 45 lbs

1x3 45 lbs 

This was kind of the warm-up

 

1x5 45 lbs

1x5 45 lbs

1x8 50 lbs <-- hello to you, rep PR

5 reps week and I AMRAP'd the last work set because historically volume has treated me well with shoulders. Why fix what is not broken

 

1x4 52.5 lbs

1x3 55.5 lbs

1x1 58.5 lbs

Some jokers, repeated my 1RM from last week

 

3x7 45 lbs

Back off sets

 

Lots of volume, ok shoulders now get big. USE THEM CHIPS AND SALSA

 

"That's a deadlift bar" guy showed up toward the end of my long OHP session and was kind of just standing there. I figured he was just warming up or something, though it was strange because LAST time he warmed up in the rack after setting up, but I didn't think anything of it because there's literally an open rack 3 racks down with the same kind of bar sitting on it. So I'm not in the way or anything. Also, given last time, I showed up with headphones and was listening to loud dance music to avoid "that's a deadlift bar" people. Anyway, I finish up and go to find a bench or box to do split squats on (my normal box is real heavy and hard to move due to back things--awkward center of gravity that hits me RIGHT in the lumbar--and it was super far away from any rack, so I just decided to do dumbbells instead of finagling, random cool story bro story). Deadlift bar guy immediately jumps in the rack I just vacated. Um, ok. I look at the empty rack to see what I missed, it's the exact same kind of rack, I don't know, maybe there was something up with the floor cover vOv whatever (cool story bro)

 

Bulgarian Split Squats (DB)

3x8 50 lbs (25 each hand)

Weird balance b/c was using a higher up box

 

Barbell Bench Press

1x5 45 lbs

1x3 55 lbs

1x1 65 lbs

5x5 76.5 lbs

Challenging after the split squats. I was starting to get ragged with the heat and work.

 

Shoulder Circuit x3

10 lbs 15 reps lat db raises

10 lbs 10 reps front db raises

10 lbs 8 reps rear delt flies

 

Positive things:
I finished chapter 4 at freakin' LAST. Now I gotta figure out chapter 5 I guess and stop worrying about all the problems in 1-4 and just make a list and move on. I've got Mr Ix helping with Sunday Cleaning Adventures, where we take an hour out before GoT and clean a room. It's helping a lot. New chair is doing alright. It's not quite as good as work chair, but miles, MILES better than old home chair.

 

Neutral thing that doesn't quite fit there:

I bought the early access of Dark & Light. Neither of my machines (which are similarly powered, but my laptop is SLIGHTLY better) run it very well. It's literally unplayable on my desktop, which is mostly from 2008 with a 2010 mid-line video card (GeForce GT 460). My laptop will play it well enough that I can do things but if I get in a remotely tough fight, I'm screwed because the lag is bad enough that I can barely aim. I can barely aim when my computer cooperates, folks, so it's hugely not good lol

 

So, it's probably time to pull the trigger on a new gaming rig. I've got a working list of parts, still mulling it over before I pull the trigger. Sigh, $$$ fly my sweet green nothings fly

 

[CourtnieMarie]

don't beat yourself up too much on not meeting your calorie goals! it's definitely NOT an easy thing and is exactly something i struggled with this past week. also due to more drinking than strictly necessary. you still tracked all the things and know exactly where you stand.

[ixaera]

1 hour ago, CourtnieMarie said:

don't beat yourself up too much on not meeting your calorie goals! it's definitely NOT an easy thing and is exactly something i struggled with this past week. also due to more drinking than strictly necessary. you still tracked all the things and know exactly where you stand.

 

I will just beat myself up a LITTLE bit then, and then move on

 

Sigh, it's another craptastic Monday. I just can't anymore, guys. I think it might be time.

[Urgan]

If you're still in a deficit AND not feeling like crap (due to the cut), then you're not so deserving of a self-beating. I get you, it's a self-control thing. It'll become a greater priority than the temporary reward of consuming that tiny surplus of your goal.

 

 

Another one for the Bros Are Weird file.

[shaar]

I read your updates and just like, nod to myself, like, "this is also me".  Why are all the 'easy' things SO HARD??

 

That guy can frick off.

 

Just Googled Dark & Light and hoooo.  We rebuilt our PC's strictly to play HW at top settings, and the money surely flew out the window, but years later it's still a v. worthwhile investment.  I remember when I did the Stormblood benchmark and my results were pretty much "hey you can play 4 Stormbloods at once" and I thought to myself, ok, worth it.

[ixaera]

8 minutes ago, Urgan said:

If you're still in a deficit AND not feeling like crap (due to the cut), then you're not so deserving of a self-beating. I get you, it's a self-control thing. It'll become a greater priority than the temporary reward of consuming that tiny surplus of your goal.

 

 

Another one for the Bros Are Weird file.

 

EVERYTHING IS OK I AM OK *Breathe* 

It's still a small deficit. I have sodiumed up the things so I am 2 lbs bloated which helps my mind in no way nope

I am stressed which hurts my perspective on things, too.

 

I was so good at this 2 years ago y'all

 

5 minutes ago, shaar said:

That guy can frick off.

 

I got confused for a sec b/c I forgot about talking about deadlift guy, who more than likely just has a favorite rack (I don't understand, they are all the same, but maybe they are not to him and he likes that longitude and latitude idk) and I was like "how does shaar know about the awful sexist-apologist guy at work I haven't even talked about that"

 

Oh right, deadlift bar guy. 

 

6 minutes ago, shaar said:

Just Googled Dark & Light and hoooo.  We rebuilt our PC's strictly to play HW at top settings, and the money surely flew out the window, but years later it's still a v. worthwhile investment.  I remember when I did the Stormblood benchmark and my results were pretty much "hey you can play 4 Stormbloods at once" and I thought to myself, ok, worth it.

 

YES. YES. Part of my motivation is that currently I run FF on like, medium or high with a bunch of things turned off. It's fine in 4-man dungeons and gets worse and worse, and 24-man raids I die to the lagmonster a lot. Being able to turn everything on will be WONDERFUL

 

Plus I can look at sims in more detail :3 Cities: Skylines will be prettier! More assets!

[Urgan]

7 minutes ago, ixaera said:

EVERYTHING IS OK I AM OK *Breathe* 

It's still a small deficit. I have sodiumed up the things so I am 2 lbs bloated which helps my mind in no way nope

I am stressed which hurts my perspective on things, too.

 

I was so good at this 2 years ago y'all

 

You aren't in Kansas anymore, Ix. Simply not eating as much and eating precisely the right amount of things to balance the Force are very different things. Not downplaying how tough losing weight is, just saying you are asking MORE if yourself now than ever before.

[ixaera]

The stress is huge, you guys.

 

Spoiler

Work is just HARD lately. I'm the only tier 2 person who works on these projects. Sometimes it's pretty slow, sure, but lately it's been SLAMMED and I'm basically an enormous bottleneck. This results in client-facing reps coming at me with barbed clubs. "What's the status? What are we waiting on? Why was this sent back without ____?" etc.

Meanwhile, my trainee, he learns, he learns slowly. I mean, it's to be expected. But I can't survive the two years it'll take to train him up like this. I'm glad I have a vacation coming up, but I'm 99% sure work will try to ruin it.

Yes, I am working on fixing this problem. This does not solve the stress of today, however.

 

Anyway, so yesterday. I did the things

 

Bench Press

1x5 45 lbs

1x5 55 lbs

1x3 65 lbs

1x3 67 lbs

1x3 72 lbs

1x8 81 lbs <-- new 8RM

1x4 85.5 lbs

1x3 90 lbs

1x1 94.5 lbs

 

Hammer Strength Pulldown

4x12 60 lbs

 

Went to work, went home a touch early b/c some of my new PC parts arrived and I was nervous leaving them out by the front door while I worked out at the work gym. So I did the rest at home with my dumbbells.

 

Pulse Lunges

3x10 20 lbs (each side)

 

KB Deadlifts

3x8 55 lbs 

WUT A DEADLIFT? yep. Super light, just dipping a toe in them waters. Went okay, and when I cleaned the cat litter, my back was SUPER tired (but not painful).

 

One-arm Shoulder Presses

3x10 20 lbs (each side)

 

Circuit x5

Ab roll outs 8 reps <-- I am bad at these

DB Pullovers 9 reps @ 25 lbs

Seated DB Curls 15 reps @ 10 lbs each hand

Plain ole push ups 7 reps

 

Slept like a baby.

[Urgan]

8 minutes ago, ixaera said:

 

Slept like a baby.

 

Liked for this part. Work can go DIAF.

[shaar]

1 hour ago, Urgan said:

 

Liked for this part. Work can go DIAF.

 

Seconded, thirded, etc.  Hang in there~ <3

[Sloth the Enduring]

Following. 

[CourtnieMarie]

Glad you were able to get in a great workout (nice PR!) and that your PC parts came! work. ugh. i hope something with that situation gets resolved soon.

[ixaera]

I am less stressed now~

Antsy for vacation for sure. Did my elliptical yesterday, have shed some bloat. Been combining BCAA's with my pre-workout in the morning to good results. One issue with early mornings is that nothing wants to move as much as I want it to, but that is helping that situation. I am lucky that the two flavors go together and don't die a gross death of flavor in my mouth.

 

Did half my workout this morning already, will report on that probably tomorrow once I have the other half to talk about.

[Jord]

46 minutes ago, ixaera said:

I am less stressed now~

Antsy for vacation for sure. Did my elliptical yesterday, have shed some bloat. Been combining BCAA's with my pre-workout in the morning to good results. One issue with early mornings is that nothing wants to move as much as I want it to, but that is helping that situation. I am lucky that the two flavors go together and don't die a gross death of flavor in my mouth.

 

you mean your BCAA's and preworkout are not orange juice and toothpaste? for shame. 

[ixaera]

43 minutes ago, Taddea Zhaan said:

 

you mean your BCAA's and preworkout are not orange juice and toothpaste? for shame. 

 

Toothpaste & toothpaste instead, so it works perfectly~

 

(j/k, they are both some form of berry flavor)

[Urgan]

18 minutes ago, ixaera said:

 

Toothpaste & toothpaste instead, so it works perfectly~

 

(j/k, they are both some form of berry flavor)

 

So combined you have Berry berry, then. Very good.

[ixaera]

Still here doin' stuff.

 

PC parts been arriving, which kinda messes with scheduled afternoon stuff, but I ended up splitting leg & back day over thurs & fri, and doing elliptical yesterday.

 

The PC IS BUILT. I have tested it on Dark & Light, which now plays like a dream on Epic settings. FFXIV has more draw distance than a Giant Artist.

 

Was going to elliptical today, too, but I'm taking the car in in a bit, so no time really (or, just barely time and I do not want to deal with the crunch). Should have gone earlier but NEW SHINY!