AndyJ's Body Enhancement Thread

If you have spinal injuries just like I do its even more reason to skip fitness. I think you will straighten it out more just by hanging on a pull up bar. It also does miracles for shoulder injuries. Another reason to skip fitness completely. Having done both for years I can tell you that fitness is pure bullshit when compared to calisthenics in terms of what’s better for your body and staying fit.

I see your point, but I’m doing more "rehab" than "fitness." I started with an exercise machine because it let me work some muscles without loading the joints too much, then moved to free weights when I was able to. I’m going to continue with what I’m doing. There might well be better methods, but it seems to be working and I haven’t wrecked myself yet.

I came across an interesting article yesterday, on the subject of "how long should you pause between sets." The stuff I looked at earlier had mostly come down to "wipe the sweat off your face, take a couple of breaths, and go back to it." The article described a study where a control group of beginning lifters did that, and test groups paused for varying lengths of time. The optimum pause, determined by muscle gain, was between two and five minutes, depending on the muscles worked. Interestingly, while longer pauses - even much longer - didn’t help, they didn’t hurt, either.

It looks like the guys who do the "circuit", moving from station to station, have the right idea.

Unfortunately, while I thought I had bookmarked the page, I apparently didn’t. Maybe I’ll come across it again.

Anyway, I thought I’d give it a try. I started by alternating overhead presses, RDLs, and lateral pulldowns, which use different muscle groups.

I would have liked a bench to be on a circuit, but getting positioned on the bench and getting my back flattened out takes time and is moderately painful, so I just stayed on the bench and counted off four or five minute pauses. The position is one of the spinal curvature exercises anyway, so it wasn’t wasted time. I dropped the weight to 44# and did 5 sets of 20 instead 69# with 3 sets of 10. I stopped at 100 lifts because, frankly, I got bored. I’m pretty sure I could have handled another set or two.

I raised the buckets up a bit and tried not to arch my back. Today is grocery shopping day, so I’ll see if my back gives out again.

Well, enough procrastinating at the keyboard. The next circuit will be on the machine, doing rows, stiff arm and tricep pushdowns, and upper cable stuff.

A 3-5 minute pause is not unusual especially when you are working near your limits. Maybe 30 seconds is enough if you are working with lower weights. You want time to recover to allow for more reps and when you are working nearer your limits the rep count is low anyway.

Bodyweight training is great. It has advantages and disadvantages. For example I can squat bodyweight for about 20 minutes, even slow speed. Pushups can be made harder with variations like diamonds and so on but you pretty quickly hit 30 reps. The big advantage is lack of equipment. People have varying body weights as well. If you were doing push ups, Andy, you might need to start on your knees rather than your feet and not do full range.

I had an incline platform I made out of 1x10s, and after I got the cage I just set the dip bars up at whatever height gave me an appropriate angIe. I stopped doing push-ups when my shoulder and elbow gave me so much trouble earlier this year. I should probably try them again.

You’re doing a very similar thing with a bench press.

True, for the upper body part. But the push-ups involve the abs and the benches involve the lower back.

At this point it’s a big difference; as I get in better shape, the difference will be insignificant. At least I assume so.

Push ups also involve the lower back. A bench press should involve the abs, you’re torso has to connect to the floor (or floor substitute) through the feet, you can’t do that without the abs and back muscles.

In other news, the heavy bag finally got full enough to hang. Not completely full, but enough I had to unload some of it to wrestle it up to the hook.

I tried a few sets of rabbit punches, basically just using the bag to keep from overextending my arms. My wrists were a bit sore afterward. I was using the cheap gloves that same with the speed bag. I ordered some proper wrist wraps and boxing gloves.

You’ll be opening a gym soon.

It seems I’m collecting enough equipment. I’ve always been a tool junkie.

The exercise machine has served its purpose and will go as soon as I finish modifying the cage, which will double as a cable machine when I’m done.

I’m expecting advancements in exercise tech.

Nothing spectacular, but I think I came up with a useful variant. Actual work won’t start for a few months since I have a bunch of projects ahead of it.

Overheads, Romanians, and curls this morning. My hands are raw. The knurls on the bars aren’t sharp, but my hands are very soft. Well, a few years of PE with shea butter and hyaluronic acid will do that.

My knees were nearly pain-free before I started doing the squats and Romanians. Now they sting a bit sometimes when walking, generally if I’ve been sitting or laying down for a while first. I’ve been careful with the load and angles when doing the exercises; I’m guessing the stinging is more of a generalized complaint than a sign of further damage occurring. It just started a few days ago. Unless it gets suddenly worse I’ll just keep on going.

For your hands, pay attention to how you take your grip. If you take hold of the bar in your palm and it rolls out toward your fingers the skin scrunches at the base of your fingers and causes more irritation. If you pay attention to how this works and grip the bar more with your fingers and roll back into your hand, there will be less of a skin pinch and less irritation/calluses.

I have to warm up reasonably well to avoid knee issues, much more so now that I’m older. Generally, I try to walk for 10 minutes or so to get the blood moving, then ideally do some rolling and stretching. Sitting in a paleo squat (hold on to a rack or whatever if needed) for a couple minutes before squatting seemed to help considerably when a knee was acting up a few years ago. I start with bodyweight squats for 15 reps (usually while wearing a hip circle). Then only the bar for 10 reps. Move on up from there. My knees don’t like squatting without some foreplay, but with it they are presently doing ok.

Pay attention to your feet, which are very important. You want to establish and hold a good foot arch (this requires focus and effort). Knees should track out over your toes without arches collapsing. Don’t squat in squishy shoes. Also, how deeply you squat matters. Video yourself squatting. Ideally you want to go about parallel, but you don’t want excessive buttwink, shifting or other issues, and you mostly can’t tell what is happening without video of what is going on. I don’t "box squat," but I’ve been using a box to squat to as a depth gauge as I’m working out an uneven hip issue. I just barely touch the box. Really, video all of your exercises. What you see might surprise you. It did me. Is the bar level? How is the bar path? Anything else funky?

Regularly doing a lower body stretching routine helps. My adductors are tight on both sides. So are my hamstrings. I also have tightness in my left quadratus lumborum, piriformis and other things on that side. My left ankle/calf is more limited than my right. Everyone has weak gluteus medius muscles, so do some specific strengthening exercises for them. Knee issues are often from muscles well above the knee.

Rest time between sets depends on what you are doing. For muscle gain, a little longer than you are probably inclined to think is better according to studies. For strength, much longer is better. Power lifters doing heavy, low reps spend a lot of time resting between sets. But we aren’t power lifters. IMO, rest enough to feel recovered enough to do the next set. One alternative, which I’d often do to speed things along is alternate exercises. Alternate sets of bench presses with rows, or OHP with chin ups. Or whatever combos you like. You can also do "giant sets" of more exercises.

You mentioned shoulder and elbow problems from bench pressing. Be careful with benching and push ups. They are easy to do wrong in a way that screws you. You want good form with the lats engaged. It’s safer to shorten the range of motion, as in stop the bar a few inches above your chest instead of touching (similar for push ups). You won’t lose much effect from that and potentially stave off shoulder problems.

I’ve only read back a few pages of this thread. You are working on correcting back curvature. In your shoes I’d probably avoid bench pressing entirely for now and focus on push ups, again with good form - very important. Slow, good reps. Work up to say 30 or more good reps of push ups, then consider bench pressing if it’s what you really want to do. Also work on core exercises. Planks are good. When you get stronger at basic planks, add some side ones.

I don’t know what equipment you have. A power cage is very useful and IMO the best for a home setup. A modified cage is what I use. Don’t bench press or squat without a safety mechanism that you can trust.

I think you said you’re doing Romanian deadlifts (RDL). If/when you start doing regular deadlifts, you probably don’t want to start completely from the ground. I don’t have enough flexibility to lift properly from the ground with standard size plates. Many people don’t. It depends on body proportions and mobility. Use a low setting of safety pins in your power cage or, as I do, jack stands to raise the bar.

For RDL and squatting instruction, Alan Thrall is good. You can’t dislike the guy. Alan Thrall - YouTube I don’t know if you are squatting high or low bar, probably high. There is a difference, so choose instruction accordingly. There is also squat university: Squat University - YouTube