AndyJ's Body Enhancement Thread

A bit over 100 pounds, yeah.

I think I was showing about 6.5 when I was able to do a bone-pressed measurement. Too much fat for one before.

Back in the mid-90s I bone-pressed 5.5", got it up to 6" with aggressive pumping (I didn’t know any better), and kept about half of it, 5.75", several years later when I checked.

I still have another 60 or so pounds to go.

Congrats man, that’s great. Keep up the good work. So you’ve gone from 5.5 to 7.5 with PE, between then and now?

Yes. I never expected that. I was hoping to cement 6" and felt anything past that would be a bonus, but I didn’t really expect to get more.

I wish there was some "one simple trick" I could share, but I think I just got lucky. Granted I put more time into PE than most guys, but it has been mostly low-intensity pumping and vacuum hanging. I’ve documented my work in tedious detail in my two progress threads.

Assuming I was still somewhere between 5.5 and 5.75" when I started pumping in July of 2020, I got 1.75 to 2" in a bit over three years.

I feel a bit funny talking about it, considering there are guys here who have been working hard for years and got nothing to show for it.

Barbell day again. Managed to add 5 pounds to overhead presses, Romanian deadlifts, and squats. Misfigured the bench press, meant to go from 90# to 95#, did 100# instead. Failed on the first lift, and had to work my way out from under the bar. The next hole up on the rack, and I hit the side bars before I hit my chest. I have an annular cutter to fix that, but haven’t gotten around to it yet.

I backed it down to 95#, failed again, and had to work my way out from under the bar again. Okay, the last lift was 90#. I managed one rep, then failed on the second. That was starting to be annoying.

I backed off to 80#, but only made it to 13 lifts out of 25.

I do overheads first, then RDLs or deadlifts, then squats, then bench press, then curls. I only managed 5x4 on the curl bar, same load as last time.

I don’t know what the problem is. Normally I might be a bit tired after the barbells, but today I’m wrecked.

Looking at my notes, I did 10 reps with the bare 45# bar as the warmup for the bench. Last time, I did 20 reps for warmup. I’d be surprised if that was the difference, but I’ll go back to 20x and see what happens next time

Today’s bench press: did 1x5x 45#, 55#, 65#, and 75# sets, then a set at 85#, and 2x5 at 90#. I was getting tired in the last set, and I was glad I didn’t try bumping it to 95#, as I was getting pretty shaky trying to rack the bar. I didn’t feel like testing the support arms again.

That’s still five pounds short of what I managed last week, even though I started off with the bench instead of the overheads this time.

Yesterday I built a proper platform for my feet, a 20x32 inch 2x4 frame with a 1/2" plywood top and a notch for the front of the bench. I still had to space it up on some 2x4 feet. I can just barely get my feet flat on it, though it took a few minutes before I could. I could really feel some tension in my lower abdomen. It helped with stabilizing the lift, at least until I got tired.

I’ll swap the 2x4 feet for 1x4s once I get used to the 2x4s.

A few months ago was the first time I was able to lay back on the bench without agony from my back. I had to use a rope thrown over a ceiling joist to lower my upper body down. Now I’m able to lay back on the bench without needing the rope. Progress!

Nice progress! Time seems to dribble by when you’re lifting weights then you look back at what you were doing a year ago.

I don’t *feel* weak, though the charts say I am. Though I spent so long in a severely debilitated state that I feel like Hercules by comparison.

Just keep going. Then look back a year from now.

How are you feeling generally and how’s your body temperature?

Oh, yeah.

A few aches and pains now that fall allergy season is rolling in, but trivial compared to what it used to be. Today is 455 days since the 2-week keto break last year.

Body temp… I haven’t been rigorous tracking that, but the recent monthly averages are:

97.2 September
no checks August
96.8 July
97.3 June
97.4 May

I had always wanted to do a 3-gun match, but they were either hundreds of miles away, or I didn’t find out about them until afterward, or they were at one of the asshole gun clubs that wanted $300 or more as an entry fee. Massad Ayoob showed up at one of those, but I bet he didn’t have to pay $300.

Anyway those things, and declining health, I gave up on the idea.

Since I’ve been doing better physically, and I don’t need the crutches or cane any more, the possibility of doing a 3-gun match is back on the table. I found a range two hours away that does them, and allows non-members to shoot for $10. There’s a closer club, but their rules for non-members weren’t very clear. I emailed them for clarification; we’ll see if they bother to respond.

I’m doing better-enough that I could probably gimp through an event right now, but I’m going to set the goal for early next year. It gives me something to shoot for (arr, arr) besides body and barbell weight.

With one thing or another, I have several shotguns, but the only one I’ve actually shot is an NFA piece that isn’t really appropriate for a 3-gun. There are two shotgun-only ranges close to me, but they only advertise trap and skeet. I’ll drive to the closest one Wednesday (they’re closed Monday and Tuesday) and see if they offer any thing that might be useful for shooting at fixed targets. Otherwise, I guess I’ll try not to make a fool of myself at the match.

If it’s a go for one of the clubs, I can assemble a battery of appropriate guns. AR in .223, 1911 in .45, and a Mossberg 500 in 12-gauge. A few 10-round gangbanger extended mags for the 1911 and an 8-round tube for the Mossberg and I should be good to go.

Are you doing some kind of rowing exercises and pulldowns? You should have some back exercises and be focusing on them, particularly since you’re trying to correct kyphosis.

Good luck with the 3 gun match. I’ve never shot one either. It would be fun to someday.

I have a generic exercise machine I’ve done some modifications to. It’s more of a ‘cable machine’ now. I do lateral pulldowns and cable rows on that. I alternate barbell days and cable days.

Day before yesterday was barbell day. I mixed it up a bit instead of my usual order. I made it to deadlifts, bumped up an extra five pounds, and did a set, but I had forgotten my knee braces, and my knees were very unhappy. I stopped at 1x5 and left the loaded bar on the floor, quitting for the day.

Today was barbell day again. The barbell was where I left it. I’ve been doing good with the deadlift progression, so I didn’t bother to unload the bar. Yeah, there’s a difference lifting cold, without some lighter warmups. After checking to make sure no extra plates had mysteriously climbed onto the bar since I’d left it, I managed the first set. And the sets got progressively easier. Amazing what a difference the knee braces make.

I had worked up to 70 pounds for the overhead press. Today should have been 75#. I did warmups at 1x5 with the bare bar, 1x5 with 65#, which was a right bastard, added two 2.5# plates for 70#, and failed hard. I took them back off for 65# and made two shaky reps. After a 20-minute break, I tried again… got it off the hooks, stepped back, couldn’t manage any upward movement, and managed to get the bar back on the hooks. After another short rest I said "fuck it" and finished 3x5 with the bare bar.

It took me a bit to realize my problem. The overhead press is my weakest lift, so I’ve been doing that first. Except this morning I started with the dead lifts, and I didn’t have enough oomph for the overheads after that.

Have you found your 1 rep max yet? It can be easier to lift for however many reps you do if you overload and do 1 rep at a higher weight before doing your normal reps. After winding up to the weight…..

Not yet. I’ve been primarily working on the arthritis issues. It’s actually about time to find the one-rep max, though. The lower back, knees, right shoulder, and right elbow still complain, along with some popping in the shoulder, but from what I’ve read I should be within the normal range of "discomfort" that lifters generally put up with.

I’m pretty much maxed in overhead and bench presses, I think. I still have a way to go for the deadlifts and squats.

I didn’t have the range of motion to do power cleans when I started. I’ve improved enough that it’s about time to give it a try. I’ve been mostly following the Starting Strength program; while looking at power clean instructions, I found that the Stronglifts program uses bent-over rows instead. Those, I can do without any problem.

I’m still going to work on the power cleans, though I expect it will take a while before I can come close to proper form. The knee action would have been an absolute "no way" a few months ago; now, I’m pretty sure I can do it. As of this morning I still don’t have enough shoulder mobility to "front rack" the bar, but that’s secondary to actually getting the bar up there. Same thing with squats, but I’ve managed to get the bar down off my neck even if it’s not down where it’s supposed to be, and I can use the recommended hand positions instead of "fly like an eagle" which was the only way I could grip the bar before.