AndyJ's Body Enhancement Thread

Now that I’ve stretched my scrotum enough to get some working room, I can usually tug my balls down a bit. I’m nine months (?) into the ball pumping and stretching program, and I still don’t have the hang I had in my 20s.

This is the "fork" I use to keep my balls down once I get them low enough to slide the fork in above them. It’s two 8mm rods from a salvaged inkjet printer and a piece of scrap steel. They were supposed to be 11mm apart, like on some of the commercially-made scrotum weights, but I made a mistake and they’re only 9.5mm apart. The fork is about six inches long.

I mentioned before that my balls vary tremendously in size during the day, from firm and +2 by +1", to squishy and the size of a grape. When one (can be either one, but not both, at least not yet) decides to go squishy, it will pull through the 9.5mm gap. And it’s entirely painless; I feel the fork flopping around, reach down, and verify only one testicle is trapped.

I had originally intended to make a steel end piece with a set screw, but the rubber band works OK.

My scrotum takes about 5" of the 6" length; just enough to wind the rubber band around the extra bit. There are a lot of narrow weights; I’ve bought most of them. My scrotum won’t fit in any of them. I’m pretty sure the problem is due to lack of space between my balls and the top of the scrotum. Once I get more hang, there’ll be less scrotum to deal with. Right now, the fork rides right up against my body.

I was concerned about blood flow, and started off at ten minutes, twenty, etc. Last week I did a full 24 hours.
No problems.

While it looks long and awkward, it usually twists fore/aft while moving about. It hasn’t been any problem sitting, walking, or even driving a manual transmission car.

PE measuring tools. The ruler has an aluminum angle that slides up and down, held by the binder clip. It’s still at this morning’s 7.25" reading.

The slider eliminates parallax error and wishful thinking; the tip of the glans either touches the slider or it doesn’t. It’s very accurate and repeatable.

This particular ruler has two ridges on the back, that the slider sits between, which keeps it from getting cocked as it moves. The ridges were to reduce friction on the paper, probably.

The calipers and the buret are for measuring my balls and output. Once I get more data collected I’ll report on that. I’m pretty sure the bizarre funnel is actually an inflator adapter for an air bed. The opening is just the right size for my glans and doesn’t have any sharp edges. The buret was $10 from eBay. I got a glass one because the plastic ones are a milky translucent color and I thought it might be hard to see how much was in them. With lube and fumble-fingeredness, I’m sure I’ll drop the thing eventually.

I use the calipers for measuring my balls. They’re "carbon fiber" cheapies off eBay. A whole $5.

The ends of the jaws were rather stabby on the delicate skin, so I rounded them off with a fingernail file.

I do as well as it puts my arms into this really weird and uncomfortable, sometimes even painful, position when lifting using a curl bar. This is where me following Teo came in clutch, basically saw one of his vids and switched to single arm curls on stable downward angle surface alongside another exercise he displayed in his 2 best bicep exercises video that uses a cable machine high point which eliminated me ever needing to use a bar for bicep growth.

Also make sure the elbow pain isn’t stemming from a muscle imbalance like the forearms being a bit on the weaker side as well. I had the same issue and had to correct that expeditiously 😂. That’s it for my unsolicited advice, hope things start picking up with the body enhancement journey.

I found the regular bar to be painful for my right elbow. When I looked up elbow pain on the web, I found suggestions that a dedicated "wiggly shape" curl bar could help. I bought one, and it did.

They make two different kinds; the original "wiggly shape", and one with a more extreme shape, with the grip area at close to 90 degrees, almost like where your hands would go on a trap bar. I have the original kind.

Sounds like a "preacher curl."

I’ve been alternating the curl bar with the low cable on my exercise machine while sitting on a stool. At the moment I’m using the same weight either way, but I can adjust the weight of the curl bar in smaller steps since I have some 2.5# plates. The machine selectors go in 20# jumps.

Interestingly, while I get some slight discomfort from the elbow with the curl bar, I don’t get any at all from the low cable. But I’m using a yoke on the low cable; two vertical handgrips, while the curl bar is closer to 30 degrees.

Hmm. That would indicate that one of the more extremely-bent curl bars might work better for me. But I’m going keep working with the one I have in the hopes I can work out/toughen the ligament at that point. I’ve had pretty good luck with working problems out of that elbow and shoulder so far.

I’m still amazed that I can do squats. And a few days ago I realized that the Romanian Deadlift is actually a type of squat. A regular deadlift is not, since your position doesn’t change during the lift. I’m doing well with the RDLs; I added another five pounds today.

The spinal curvature keeps me from putting a barbell on top of my shoulders for a normal weighted squat. I’m still doing the exercises for that.

I wasn’t able to do a bench press until I got my spine straightened up enough to lay flat on the bench. I still can’t put my head on the bench; I use some plywood whims for support. Hopefully I can remove a shim at a time as my spine straightens.

Some of the bench press "instability" I reported earlier was due to not having my shoulders properly against the bench. That was easy to fix.

The spinal curvature means I still can’t put my feet on the floor when laying on the bench. I have to put my calves over the quad lever attachment to straighten out. That means my legs aren’t contributing to stability. I was going to cobble together something to put my feet on when I remembered I had built some wooden blocks for working under the car. They’re made from 2x6s, glued and screwed together; I slide one under each wheel. Way more stable than jackstands, if you don’t need to remove a wheel, at least. I went out to the workshop and carried two of them back over to the project house where the equipment is. They’re just barely tall enough, but they work. I still have a bunch of curvature to work on.

The blocks helped, but they didn’t stabilize things as much as I expected. It could be due to some kind of angularity issue. I’m still a bit wobbly, but I don’t think I’m in danger of losing control of the bar.

I have a small yellow bruise where I’ve been resting the bar against my sternum. Well, at least I’m hitting the same spot each time.

The three-layer MDF Olympic-diameter plates are all glued and screwed up. They were going to be two one-thickness and two two-thickness, but the 1/2" MDF looked awfully thin once the circles were cut, and the discs aren’t very heavy, so I just made two triples.

On the exercise machine, on the high cable for lateral pulldowns, I was getting some pain in the right elbow. I went to a V-bar instead of the straight bar, which helped, and then to a rope. The rope did the trick; my elbow doesn’t hurt at all with the rope. But I’m having a hard time keeping a grip on the rope. Not my grip strength per se; it’s just that it’s polypropylene rope, and slippery. My hands slide down to the big knobs at the ends, and then my little fingers get crushed. Wrapping the ropes with shop rags helped, but there has to be a better solution.

I was ready to cut out the centers with a 2" hole saw when I realized it would be a good idea to put some bushings in there. 2" PVC pipe works fine, but the OD is 2-3/8". I have 2" and 2-1/2" saws, but not a 2-3/8". It seems to be one of the few sizes I’m missing. Hopefully the local hardware store will have one. I need to pick up some epoxy to hole the bushings in place as well.

Correction: a regular ROW is not. A regular deadlift has the same motion as the Romanian deadlift, except you’re coming up off the floor.

"We now resume your normal programming."

If you’re not using your legs for the bench press, no wonder you’ve hit problems. The legs add a lot of stability and keep the shoulders on the bench and you’re missing a lot of the abdominal and back work.

One of the things people new to weights do (I did this) is to increase the weight too quickly. It seems great until you hit the weakest part of your motion a few reps in and you don’t have good form. That’s the point in time you might drop the bar. Feel free to take your time and not attempt things you don’t have the capability of doing with the proper form. It’s good when you are lifting solo to think through how you can dump the weight safely. For example, it’s often good to leave the clamps that hold the weight onto the barbell off, so that you can dump the weight one side. If your knees are in the way of dumping weights, you can roll the barbell down your leg. That kind of thing. Have a plan for when it goes wrong. Prepare your floor for weights being dumped, if necessary.

My benching is probably going to be limited by my back for a while. Lifting with my legs straight out gave me some minor discomfort in my lower back. I thought using the blocks to put my feet on so I could stabilize things was a gonzo idea, but I got some sharp twinges while lifting. I guess the angle of the pelvic bone wasn’t optimal. I finished the last set, discomfort abated, and then an hour later when I was walking in the hardware store and my back gave out. I’ve been hobbling around the rest of the day.

Blocks aren’t a stupid idea but you need to be stable enough that if the bar heads a bit more toward your feet or your head you can compensate with the weight you are using. You probably don’t want to be going for increases the weight as quickly as possible but rather on working on stability and slowly getting yourself into a more standard position. You need to know you’re stable before you unrack the weight.

This guy talks about using blocks and the areas you might be tight that would prevent a normal position. Blocks might work for you with low weights.

I watched the video and found a couple more.

My back seemed okay this morning. Of course, it felt okay after the full 3x10 yesterday, until I was walking around the store. But recovered enough for another try.

The wooden blocks might simply be too low. My bench is too short to get my feet up on it. Now I know why some of the fancy benches are so much longer. I tried a couple of plastic buckets as foot rests. Stability was much better. No sharp twinges, but some discomfort; more of a dull ache above the pelvis than real pain. Much better. I stopped at one set.

I suspect the buckets aren’t tall enough either. I’ll try setting them on some plates next time.

Improved form and an elbow sleeve took care of the shoulder and elbow pain I had when I started. With shoulders back and my feet on the buckets, I’m having no trouble controlling the bar. I’m having no trouble moving the bar up and down, but 69 pounds is still below "beginner" in most charts. Which sounds terrible, except six months ago I was barely able to shift 22 pounds. (cheesy 1" tubing bar that weighs 5.5 pounds, and some cheap sand-filled plastic weights.)

I’m not in big hurry to increase the weight; I’m more interested in avoiding any joint damage.

The feet up on the bench thing seems too close to me. Easy to topple. Whatever you use there’s got to be zero chance of movement.

Hopefully you’ll get your back to a state where you can put feet on the floor but at least engaging the feet will give you a proper feel for how a bench press is supposed to be. It’s probably worth looking at some detailed form videos to understand what should be under tension and what relaxed. The one I posted a few pages back covers everything but not in a lot of detail.

You can still damage yourself with 69 lbs and the higher you go the chance of greater damage. I guess it’s all about letting all the muscles you need to employ, not just to lift the bar but to keep it stable, to develop. One thing that helps a lot is actually doing very slow lifts, 3 seconds or more in each direction with a pause at the top. That’ll show you where you are lacking. You can develop muscle with lower weight by making a meal of each rep or by doing lots of reps it’s all about lifting to that point where it’s just before you can’t do another rep, the rest of it is warmup. That’s why strength training uses fewer reps at greater weight and body building uses greater reps at a lower weight. Body building is about bulk, strength training is what is says on the can. I feel like I’m repeating myself. If so, I apologize.

Good point. Calves-across-the-leg-lever has the same width as feet-on-the-bench, and legs-up isn’t particularly stable.

The general opinion seems to be that it will take about a year to correct spinal curvature. I get the impression the success rate is close to 100% for those who trudge through the whole thing, but most people bail long before there’s much improvement. I’ve been able to go the distance for PE and general rehab, and I expect I can do that with my back as well. I have some crusty calcium deposits between the lower vertebrae, but that’s normal for my age group, and apparently not a barrier to curvature correction. I don’t have any bad discs or other back problems that might be an issue. It will just take time.

My main problem, as I see it, is that I have more upper body strength (even as low as it is) than my lower back can handle. I don’t think it is back strength per se; I’m not having any problems with Romanian or regular dead lifts or with rows on the low cable. I could slap a lot more weight on the bar without risking a failed lift, but my back wouldn’t like that at all.

Less weight, slower lifts or more lifts to reduce lower back issues? I can do that.

It took me a while to understand that. It’s not always obvious which group a particular instructor or coach is aiming for. But at the stage I’m at now, probably doesn’t matter.

You’re not repeating yourself yet. It would be welcome if you’re trying to make a point. Your advice has always been good, but sometimes it takes me a while to catch on to what you’re trying to tell me.

I mean less weight slower lifts, rather than increasing the weight. It’s incredible how much difference doing things super slowly can make. You’re still engaging your fast twitch fibers but there’s probably a greater reliance on slow twitch than when you snatch a lift.

OK, I’ll carry on. Bear in mind that there are people here with a lot more experience than me. I’ve only been lifting about 6 years now and I take extended hiati if I start to bulk too much. That means I’ve got a lot of it but I don’t have the depth of experience of someone who’s been doing this for 20 years.

All these compound exercise engage the muscles differently. The reason people use squat, deadlift, bench press, overhead press and pull-ups as the most common combination is because it covers most bases. So investigate the pull chain and push chain and the muscle groups that are supposed to be engaged by the various exercises you’re doing. It’s useful to know this anatomy because it you’ll know you’re doing something wrong if a muscle group that is supposed to be exerting isn’t or vice versa. There’s a book called Muscle Control by Maxick (which was recommended to me by another member here) which discusses the point that a lot of people will put effort into antagonistic muscle groups when lifting, so that they aren’t just lifting the weight, they are working against their own muscles as well. The kindle version is cheap and contains all the pictures.

I got injuries from lifting heavy for years. I am on a good diet got big muscles 6 packs and everything now that I switched to calisthenics. I’ve never looked so good while doing fitness: plus its all compound movements and all my injuries have faded away

Push ups / Dips / Pull ups / Muscle ups / Hanging knee raises for abs.

Only dumbell exercises I might do will be bicep curls or shoulder exercises but I hardly ever do these as I train them with push ups and dips and so on.

Bodyweight exercises are always better unless you want to be really bulky. Just google fitness guys and google calisthenics guys and see the difference in body. The calisthenics guys all look way healthier and better.

Instead of benching do push ups. Fuck benching. I feel a way better pump doing push ups. Also correct form push ups don’t do ego push ups where you do 50 with bad form. Same goes for dips in the gym I never see a single person doing a proper dip / push ups. Its always these half quick nonsense things.

Chest day:
5x push ups
5x dips
5x push ups
5x dips

Back day:
5x pull ups
5x rows
5x pull ups
5x rows.

I sometimes do another session in the morning or evening where I wall stairs or go jogging to keep my legs in shape, never heavy weights.