What Was Your Work Out Today?

herringboxes wrote: »

Continuing beginner level Stronglifts.

Creatine - I didn’t take this because I’m not going to be an elite weightlifter so didn’t feel any need to supplement. But I read a brief mention that it helps with ATP function and I got to thinking. I have some kind of chronic fatigue, post viral syndrome, and I get post exertion malaise. It can be pretty bad. I decided to give creatine a try.

In about five days I feel like there is a noticeable, significant difference in my fatigue. Not necessarily noticeable workout gains (yet?), but on Saturday I had a day that should have left me completely toasted on Sunday. All the boxes were checked for a fatigue setback - physical exertion, pushing endurance, overheated, no control over when I could eat or rest, dehydrated, travel, all day.

So the next day, I should have curled into a ball and read a book all day, and taken ibuprofen for myalgic pain.

Instead, I did the 5x5 workout I was forced to miss the day before.

And later, was going crazy being cooped up and made arrangements (disability requires such) to take a 2 mile walk.

Damn.

As you say, creatine seems to have the potential to do quite a few interesting things, including possible neurologic/cognitive benefits. Examine.com has a pretty good article:

https://examine.com/supplements/creatine/

(NB: They don't sell supplements.)

For example, a friend of mine in her mid-40s has early-onset dementia, though she's still high functioning now. Her neurologist told her to supplement creatine.

Since it also has relatively few potential negative side effects, I supplement it, too. Subjectively, I do seem to recover better than I used to. (If it's a placebo effect, I don't care. If something is safe, and works, I'm not going to agonize about placebo effect.)

Hello, lats - I’ve been doing fine with my rows, almost at novice level weights (I realize deeply unimpressive but will be a real win for my wimpy self). But I don’t feel my lats engaging. I worried I was Doin It Rong and read more about the form. Did some suggested stretches to find the lats… maaaybe? Weirdly, rows hit me in the abs more than anything.

Anyway, while in the car to do the big day exertion Saturday, I suddenly realized out of nowhere I can flex my lats. There they are! Whoo hoo! Mind-muscle connection established!

Squats - I continue to be greviously behind on squats, yet still making progress. My level is “Remedial.” Plan on doing some accessory glute work as I believe I may have the weakest glutes in the history of humankind.

I don't know about you, but for me that area can be a mind-muscle recruitment challenge, too. (I also do squat holds during household wait times, BTW.)

Still, progress is being made, and I’ve started the habit of sitting on my heels while brushing teeth or waiting for my tea water to boil or whatever, and popping up feels easy as pie now. I think this habit also helps stretch hips and ankles a bit.

The weight on the bar is kind of irrelevant right now, not ready for anything heavy until I can recruit everything the right way. Not there yet, but getting there.

Your progress sounds great: Kudos!

Upper Hypertrophy

Incline Bench Press 4x12
Machine Fly 3x12
BB Row 4x10
Pulldown 3x10
Machine Lateral Raise 4x12
Machine Curl <superset> Machine Pushdown 3x10
Perloff Press 3x15sec

Out of touch over the weekend, out of town visiting a friend. At their request, I brought along some bicycles and spent an afternoon riding with the friend's grandchildren. Some large hills and a skate park were on the route. Afterward, I switched bikes and brought out an old tandem. The kids seemed to have an unending appetite for riding on the back and a couple of the moms tried too. The two biggest kids were able to ride the tandem up front but only one was eventually confident enough to take a passenger. Lots of weight work later as well, picking up kids and being climbed on.

Had to test my left shoulder today. Been working around it bothering me at the bottom of some pressing movements.

first time doing bench in like 3 months (I had been doing a chest press off a machine instead). One working set of each to failure:

Barbell Bench
Flys
One arm cable reverse fly
Cable side raise
cable front raise
Seated skullcrusher to failure supersetted with an immediate set of dips to failure.

The dips felt good; got 12 with my triceps wasted and still being like 25 lbs overweight...those had bothered my shoulder as well. I've done these with 90 lbs of extra weight (for 10+ reps) in past, so still humbling a bit as I regain former strength.

AnnPT77 wrote: »

With apologies for going off-topic: @Djproulx, I'm surprised that you're allowed to take firewood to Maine. Here in Michigan, it's illegal to bring it in from some areas out-state, and we're encouraged as private citizens not to transport it over 10 miles from its origin. There's federal law prohibiting transport from Michigan to other states. It has to do with quarantines for some major invasive pests that are devastating certain tree species as they spread. (Commercial producers heat treat to kill the pests . . . at least in theory.)

Burn it where you buy it....

Bark beetles. Emerald ash borers. Long-horned beetles. Oh my!

When I stopped at the Agricultural Inspection Station entering California from Nevada in 2015, 2017, and this year on the way home from rafting the Grand Canyon, they asked if we had any firewood. They didn't ask about fruits or vegetables like they do on the way in from Oregon.

@AnnPT77 , @mtaratoot : Glad I saw your comments, as it prompted me to research further. I had checked on the campsite's webpage when I booked in the spring (Hermit Island is a private campground on the mid maine coast) and there is no mention of firewood restrictions. I've also had friends advise that while Baxter State Park has posted messages prohibiting imported firewood, other campgrounds made no mention of restriction. But I searched a bit and as you both mentioned, untreated wood is banned. Only acceptable if heat treated. So, thanks for mentioning it.

I've also learned that open water swimming is also discouraged due to a number of white shark sightings and tracker chip pings recorded in the area recently. So I"m leaving the wetsuit at home, too.

Djproulx wrote: »

@AnnPT77 , @mtaratoot : Glad I saw your comments, as it prompted me to research further. I had checked on the campsite's webpage when I booked in the spring (Hermit Island is a private campground on the mid maine coast) and there is no mention of firewood restrictions. I've also had friends advise that while Baxter State Park has posted messages prohibiting imported firewood, other campgrounds made no mention of restriction. But I searched a bit and as you both mentioned, untreated wood is banned. Only acceptable if heat treated. So, thanks for mentioning it.

I've also learned that open water swimming is also discouraged due to a number of white shark sightings and tracker chip pings recorded in the area recently. So I"m leaving the wetsuit at home, too.

Glad to hear you checked further. You didn't seem to be the kind of guy who would move firewood when there was major ecological danger. As far as sharks . . . don't those Maine people have some inland lakes?

As a parochial thing, can I recommend a future vacation in Michigan? Thousands of lakes including those, um, "Great" ones - all fresh water and shark free. That, beautiful scenery, and lots of fun outdoor (and indoor) activities. Yeah, those Maine people have better mountains, and ocean tidepools are much more diverse and interesting: I'll give you that.

AnnPT77 wrote: »

Djproulx wrote: »

As a parochial thing, can I recommend a future vacation in Michigan? Thousands of lakes including those, um, "Great" ones - all fresh water and shark free. That, beautiful scenery, and lots of fun outdoor (and indoor) activities. Yeah, those Maine people have better mountains, and ocean tidepools are much more diverse and interesting: I'll give you that.

So many places, so little time, lol. We are pulled in so many directions for travel by family and friends. I'd love to visit Michigan and hope to do that one day.

mtaratoot wrote: »

Djproulx wrote: »

mtaratoot wrote: »

@Djproulx

I don't know if I'd worry about shark sightings. Sharks are always there. We're not really on the menu.

If you ever get a chance to read Shark Attack by H. David Baldridge, you'll feel safer in the water.

I'm not an alarmist, but I know something about these fish. The white shark population has increased in response to growing seal populations in several areas, such as Chatham, Mass (Cape Cod) and mid coast Maine. We are going to Hermit Island in Phippsburg, Me. Hermit Island and nearby Popham Beach State Park have healthy seal populations and are used as release sites for rehabbed marine mammals. Recently (2/3years ago) an open water swimmer was killed by a white shark off Bailey Island, 2 miles from our site. So even knowing that the intended prey are seals (not humans) I still choose not to put on a black wetsuit and swim in open water during August and September in mid coast Maine. I have several friends who are ultra long distance swimmers (Gibraltar to Morocco, Around Key West, etc) but none of them are swimming off Cape Cod or in Maine this time of year.

With that said, I appreciate the Baldridge book suggestion, I'll look for it.

For sure if you don't go in the water you drastically reduce your risk of a shark bite.

We have fatalities from boats every year. Most involve not wearing a PFD, but not all. I still paddle. We have motor vehicle deaths nearly every day in my state - I get alerts from the state police. I still drive. I am potentially exposed to Aflatoxin any time I eat peanuts or peanut butter, and that could kill me. I get a dose of ionizing radiation any time I get on an airplane. Funny - I still do all these things even though there is some risk involved. You really should look up the Baldridge book. It might help you put the risk of shark bite in perspective. Just because there are lots of sharks, even ones that can kill people, doesn't mean there's much chance of you as one individual from being bitten. I'd be more scared of getting a disease from a tick bite in that part of the country.

As a boater who hunts waterfowl in winter both from a canoe and on the open ocean, I understand the risks inherent in specific activities. I still do many of them, including hunting in upland terrain that results in exposure to hundreds of ticks on some days. I choose to take those risks.

Peanut Butter: eat it almost daily. Paddling: Yes, summer and winter. I simply choose not to swim in a black wetsuit in midcoast Maine during September.

Will read Baldridge book.

I was in the pool this morning for 1850 scm, and then got on a treadmill this evening for 20 minutes easy running.

I've been swimming in the ocean off of some of the Hawaiian islands and the west coast of Mexico, but not at dawn or dusk. As I understood it, that was when the sharks were most likely to hunt. For Hawaii I also looked up jellyfish. If I'm remembering correctly, they were more of a concern during certain parts of the lunar cycle.

Back day. All done HIT style with 1 working set

Overhand pull-ups
Bent over rows
Superset of standing cable pullovers+seated cable rows
Machine Bicep curls with a drop set at the end.

I’ve always had trouble feeling my lats on back, and that superset of pullovers to rows just kills me. Definitely know where they are after that one.

(background on me..always been an overweight athlete, but got lean in my mid 20's, let it go, got lean again in my 30's, and am about 7 months back into it after a 9 year layoff. I'm a BIG guy for 5'10". Currently 237 lbs, but I get visible abs at like 210-220 lbs. Years of experience strength training)

I actually do that for a lot of muscles...same issue with training my chest sometimes. But I always feel other muscles tiring on stuff that "should" be for lats.

Like for example, my pull-ups. They kill my forearms and where my bicep attaches on my lower arm. That's where I feel failure coming from when I do those. With rows, again, my biceps are what fails. Machine rows...same thing. Doing pull-overs (essentially a lat isolation) is the only exercise I really feel them burn, but even doing those, I either get too much recruitment from other muscles close to failure when I do them with an ez curl bar laying, or I get too much tricep help when I do them standing. However, combining the 2 exercises, and it makes my lat what fails, which I guess is what I need to make sure I know I'm working my lats.

Hot humid weather here today, so I got the chance to do an open water swim at my favorite lake. I was alone and had no time or distance goal in mind. Ended after 2250 yds at a leisurely 2:15/100 pace. Quite a few SUP folks out on the lake today as well.

I did a short elliptical session early this morning and intended to run later. Busy day though and it was late evening before I got on the treadmill. Last week I tried the 4/1 run/walk intervals but it didn't bring the peak heart rate at the end of the run down by much so I tried 3 minutes running to 1 minute walking. There was less fatigue tonight so I kept going longer, finishing a full hour on the machine. By the end of the hour, the HR was starting to get up there but still short of the previous peaks that occurred quicker. Average HR for the full hour was still in the 140s so probably a sufficient level of effort. Experiments continue.

Lower Hypertrophy

Squats 4x15
BB Step-Ups 3x12
BB RDL 4x10
Leg Extension 3x12
Seated Leg Curl 3x12
Calves Extend 4x12
Suitcase Carry 3x40s