What Was Your Work Out Today?
Replies
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(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.
@_John_ , I've been through multiple rounds of physical therapy for various things. Usually, one key focus has been recruiting muscle groups that I tend to under-utilize. The methods include relatively low-intensity exercises that recruit those muscle groups, with a focus on the recruitment rather than on generating power or achieving fatigue.
For example, my last round of PT for shoulder impingement included some exercises that were quite easy from a strength perspective, but that forced me to better recruit the muscles around the scapulae. This creates an adaptation - better mind-body connection, reinforcing the relevant neural pathways - that allows those muscle groups to engage more effectively and more automatically during more demanding activities.
That's the point of the steering wheel thing, for lats. These things aren't strictly muscle exercises - they're more like brain exercises. A plus is that they can be done in "wasted" time.
On the machine rows, assuming we're talking about the normal horizontal pull: Are you thinking about engaging the lats as the first part of the loaded movement, then squeezing the shoulder blades together and down as the last phase, before the brief between-rep hold?
It's conceivable to me that lats could be slower to fatigue in a lot of movements just because they're pretty big and used in lots of movements, whereas some of the smaller or more specialized muscles may be quicker to fatigue. But recruitment can be a problem, too.
As context: Me, I'm a late-bloomer aging active woman, now 67, wasn't routinely active until my late 40s. As a consequence, I see physical therapists more than the average person, maybe.
I'm not expert about strength training, but have quite a bit of formal education and experience in biomechanics of rowing motions. 
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@nossmf I'll definitely give that a shot when I do lat pulls/pullups next.
@AnnPT77 yeah, I'm definitely thinking of trying to feel the exercises where I want them to target. I under trained my mid back and lats for years in my training.
All through HS our workouts were essentially: Bench, Squat, Cleans, OHP/high incline press, Lat pulls. No horizontal pulling (that wasn't explosive like what you do for cleans). And that's what I went back to in my 20's. It wasn't until my next stint in my 30's that I really trained my mid back hard with the rest. Now in my 40's it's one of my better body parts from a muscle development point of view even though I struggle to feel it. And I think part of my issue is that I keep up my upper arm and forearm development during layoffs and lose some of the big weightlifting type muscle development that doesn't have to be that big for daily life when I'm off strength training for 5+ years.2 -
Cycled to the pool, about 10 minutes each way, for 1250 m swimming. Donated plasma this afternoon so I'm taking it easy this evening so as not to spring a leak where they poked.3
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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.
Something which helped me was to stop focusing on moving the bar/handle, and start focusing on moving my elbows. As in I grip the pulldown bar, then focus upon moving my elbows down; the bar just sort of follows on its own, like magic. If I focus on moving the bar, I feel it in my biceps; if I focus on moving my elbows, I feel it in my lats.
Yeah- I think the best cue is "Bring your elbows to the bottom and back of your ribs". When you do this, you get a lot of lat engagement. If you then control the eccentric and start the pull from the absolute bottom, they go crazy- I feel them shivering on the way down.
I watch guys doing chinups in the gym and I see that the angle of their upper arm doesn't change that much relative to their torso through their lift. So the lats are mostly functioning isometrically to maitain that arm position, and a lot of the movement is coming from their biceps.1 -
About 7500m row in bow of the double (trying to stay out of the way of the water ski team, but getting big-waked by them repeatedly (sigh - do they really want to drown their granny?)). My Garmin decided to delete the workout. (I assume I accidentally hit the buttons somehow.)
Later, about a 3 mile walk, but mostly at meandering pace through the local university's annual trials garden, perennial garden, children's garden, arboretum and landscape architecture demo area, reflexology path, and radiology garden (the latter built for patient respite around treatments).3 -
Upper Power
Bench Press 5x5
Cable Row 5x5
DB Press <superset> DB Row 5x5
Seated Smith OHP <superset> BB Shrugs 3x8
Cable Pushdown <superset> Preacher Curl 3x83 -
Push session.
OHP. 1 working set to failure
Tried a new variation of flys on my Hoist V4. Did 2x12, 1x failure. Pretty light weight to make sure I felt it properly.
Dips 2xFailure (and in a totally reverse problem from what I feel with my lats, dips are almost 100% chest for me. I had been doing these after I pre-exhausted my triceps, and I got just a couple more reps with fresh tris today. I do these with legs crossed behind me and leaned forward as much as I can (which still is sometimes a tricep limiting position for some). I’m WAY behind some old strength on these, and I added like 5 reps since last week at just body weight.
Seated skullcrushers 1xfailure.2 -
A short early morning elliptical session, and an afternoon treadmill run. I tried the 3/1 minutes run/walk intervals again but cut it off at 50 minutes. That kept the HR from peaking as high as the previous 1 hour run and hopefully saved a bit more to run better again tomorrow.2
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Gym day yesterday, focused more on arms and core and continuing with my increased weights along with trying some newer exercises like dumbbell flies and seated rows. Tended to avoid things like that when I had tennis elbow but not causing any issues atm.
Today I went to boxing class, first time since July I think. Super hot and the air con wasn't great so really sweated it out but glad I went.2 -
Lifting today! Full body plus arms & chest bodybuilding-style accessory
- Warmup
- Front squats- 5 sets of 5
- Bench press- 5 sets of 3
- Strict chin-ups- 5 sets of 6
- EZ-bar preacher curls- 5 sets of 10-11
- Cable tricep pushdowns- 5 sets of 13-15
- Incline DB bench press- 3 sets of 10
- Chest-supported lateral raises- 3 sets of 10
- Bonus barbell face pulls
- Side planks- two sets, 20 seconds each side
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About 16 miles of paddling.
I like to go visit Waldo Lake at least once per year. At about ten square miles, it's the second largest natural lake in Oregon behind Crater Lake (nearly 21 square miles). Waldo is also the second deepest at 420 feet compared to Crater Lake at 1949 feet deep. It's one of the clearest and purest lakes in the world. On a clear, calm day you can see over 100 feet down. The water is nearly invisible, but when it's deep and calm, it's an impossible color of cerulean.
I always wait until at least early September when the mosquitoes settle down. I made the mistake of going in August one time. Camping in the forest was brutal. We got in the canoe the next morning; it was full to the gunwales with insects. It's a little less than two miles to cross from that campground to Klovdahl Bay; we were about half that distance, a mile from shore, before all the insects were gone. Awful.
We couldn't go last year because of the fires. It was sad to see all the damage from those most recent fires. The two campgrounds on the north end of the lake were closed, so visitation was way down.
We paddled about 16 miles skipping the very far south portion of the lake. There were very few other boats on the north end since it takes a while to get there and back, and the wind can come up any time. We were fairly lucky with the wind except at the very beginning of the day and then at the end. At the end we had some wind chop, about a foot swell, but we were basically in the trough going south. That's when I realized how much I like this boat; it was pretty seaworthy. It's a We No Nah Voyager, a 17.5 foot long solo canoe.
We stopped for lunch in the very northwest corner where the North Fork Willamette starts to flow. It's a very special place to me, and it was so sad to see the devastation from the fires. It won't be safe to camp there for a while as those burned trees start falling apart. Maybe the next year or two it will be OK, but after that we'll have to wait for years before it's truly safe.
Even with the damage from the latest fires, it's still an amazing place to visit. I may go back later this month or early next month and maybe even carry my camp across the lake instead of car camping. Or car-camp and spend two nights camping and two days paddling.
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I ran a 5k today.
I don't normally post on the forums, but I kind of feel like bragging into the ether.
My dad turned 75 in July, had a hip replacement the day after his birthday, and then started a new cancer treatment last month. And he was determined to run the 5k at our city's big race weekend. He's run the half marathon a handful of times at this event, and then the 10k for a few years (once his hip became too bad to train for the half). Finally he was relegated to the 5k. Last year he wasn't able to participate at all.
Two weeks ago he sent me a photo of his feet in his running shoes and told me it's the first time in a year and a half that he's been able to tie them. (He couldn't bend down because of his hip.) He'd just done a test run of 4k, said it felt good, and that there was still time to register for the event. He asked if I'd do it with him, and I agreed.
Our goal was to finish in under an hour. Although once we got there, he decided that his goal was to win his age group. (He had scoped out the runners at the start line and it was clear that he was the only "old guy" there, so I guess he won.) My goal was just to keep up with my superhuman dad.
We finished in 48:30, and I'm incredibly proud of him. So that was my workout today and it felt pretty darn good.9 -
sampson2010 wrote: »I ran a 5k today.
I don't normally post on the forums, but I kind of feel like bragging into the ether.
My dad turned 75 in July, had a hip replacement the day after his birthday, and then started a new cancer treatment last month. And he was determined to run the 5k at our city's big race weekend. He's run the half marathon a handful of times at this event, and then the 10k for a few years (once his hip became too bad to train for the half). Finally he was relegated to the 5k. Last year he wasn't able to participate at all.
Two weeks ago he sent me a photo of his feet in his running shoes and told me it's the first time in a year and a half that he's been able to tie them. (He couldn't bend down because of his hip.) He'd just done a test run of 4k, said it felt good, and that there was still time to register for the event. He asked if I'd do it with him, and I agreed.
Our goal was to finish in under an hour. Although once we got there, he decided that his goal was to win his age group. (He had scoped out the runners at the start line and it was clear that he was the only "old guy" there, so I guess he won.) My goal was just to keep up with my superhuman dad.
We finished in 48:30, and I'm incredibly proud of him. So that was my workout today and it felt pretty darn good.
@sampson2010, that post has so many dimensions of wonderful to it: Thanks for sharing the story, so uplifting!3 -
Probably rowed, probably around 6800m, most likely in bow of the double, eh?
We had a farewell row then pizza outing for a club member who's returning to Australia after being here for a bit over a year.
Bunches of rowing shells out on the water: Only 4 from our club, a quad, double, 2 singles. But the university club team are back in force, and so are the varsity women (with reinvigorated spirit under their new coach). Both of those groups had multiple 8s and some coaching launches out on the water. I didn't get a good count because there were multiple eights rowing different patterns with different coaches, but there were at least 8-10 eights in total. Probably 100+ rowers on the water overall? That's quite a lot, for here.2 -
@sampson2010 your father is incredibly inspiring!0
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Got up early this morning and went for a short horse ride, we're still on the grip of this weird heatwave so I didn't go far but just wanted to get out there.2
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45 minutes incline treadmill walk this morning. Same again tomorrow, and then lifting on Tuesday.4
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Officially rest day, but I've joined a team for a community dragon boat racing event next week. We don't have a boat (the organization brings boats), so we had a practice on the rowing club's dock to get some experience synchronizing paddling (using canoe paddles). 2
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Pendlay Rows x Standing Pullovers x Neutral Grip Machine rows done in a superset. 2 sets, reps to failure each time on each exercise.
Next did warmups on squats followed by one superset of Leg extensions immediately followed by squats until I felt my form about to break.
In and out in 30 mins…3 -
Lower Power
Rack Pull 5x5
BB Hip Thrust 5x5
One-Leg Press 3x8
Seated Leg Curl 3x8
Seated Calf Extension 4x12
Cable Crunch 4x103 -
Tired and hungry today so I just walked on the treadmill for 25 minutes. I always say the key is to try to do at least something when you don't feel like it. So that's what I did.5
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Cool and overcast today, plus as a bonus I had one of my most technically compatible rowing buddies in stroke of the double while I sat bow, so we did an interval workout: Warm-up to the upstream bridge, series of 3 to build/10 power/10-ish moderate strokes to the downstream bridge (around 3400m), cool-down back to the boathouse, adding up to the usual 6800m-ish.
We were clearly rusty on the power pieces (after a period of hot weather and poor air quality leading us to keep it more moderate), but improved along the way. Felt good to do it.3 -
🏋🏼♀️ - Random Glutes/Legs Dumbell RDL
- 3x12 Dumbell Sumo Squat
- 3x12 Kickbacks
- 3x12 Side Lunge (each)
- 3x10 Leg Press
- 3x10 Calf Raises
- 3x12 Dumbell Hip Thrust - 3x12
🏃🏼♀️ - Indoor Walk Dreadmill - 3.0 speed, 5.0 incline
😵💫- Med Ball Throws (each side) - 3x10, Knee Pushup 3x73 -
Cycled to the pool on Saturday for 1500m but mostly just rested Sunday. 50 minutes on a treadmill this morning, running 4 minutes then 1 minute walking and repeat. Sort of a drill with a slow belt speed but I used a metronome app to maintain 180 steps per minute; almost running in place. Once I get back into better shape, the belt can run faster but for now this kept the HR from peaking too high. Average HR was 126 with some peaks into the mid 140s. To compare, the watch usually records a resting heart rate of 46 or 47 in the mornings lately.5
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They say Lance Armstrong's resting heart rate was in the mid-30's at one point.0
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Lifting!
- Warmup
- Front squats- 5 sets of 3
- Bench press- 5 sets of 10 (okay the last one was 8)
- DB row- 5 sets of 9
- Barbell split squats- 3 sets of 8
- Knee extensions- 4 sets of 10
- Hamstring curls- 4 sets of 10
- Curl Ups- 3 sets
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Changed up my chest routine so did a more “volume” day.
3x10 incline barbell press. Newly reintroduced, so took it fairly easy. Did the last set -20 lbs and with a 2 sec pause at the bottom.
3x12 dips. I’m probably around 20ish for a max if I did a set fresh, and I’m pretty happy with that. I’ve been working around a bad shoulder for months and this is probably the first day I’ve been able to do these 6 sets without any pain.
3x15 cable machine flys
3x12 seated skullcrushers x bicep curl supersets.
Got a good beach muscle bro workout in 😂.
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Mine was a leg day! Glute focused...
- good mornings 95lb
-single leg rdl 90lb (dumbbell)
-def deadlift 90lb (dumbbell)
- goblet squat 70lb
- 5 rounds then 30 min hitt cardio3 -
30 minute treadmill, alternating 3.0-5.0 mph4
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Great rowing conditions this morning, almost no wind and low 50s F. We took out a quad, me in bow.
One of our group has signed up for a local head** race in a couple of weeks and was feeling kind of tentative about the endurance/intensity, so we between that and the nice cool morning, we did a substantially more intense and somewhat longer interval workout. It was warm up; repeats of 3 to build, 10 power (strokes), 10-ish moderate; ending with one run of 20 power; then cool down. About 9.5k, so about 2.5k more than usual distance. Everyone in the boat over age 60, up to 78.
I felt pretty good about the workout: The boat as a whole mostly felt good (good synchronization, minimal slide-rushing, etc.; I didn't have any major steering issues; and I felt like I was getting good suspension during the power intervals. Over 10 minutes (intermittent) in Z4, which is decent for me on water in this format, given a reasonable HR drop during the moderate intervals. It was just what I needed physically, today.
** Head races are a mostly-Fall racing format. Moving staggered start of seeded boats, 10-15 seconds apart, then a long-ish total distance (as compared to Summer sprints' typical 1-2k), timed for competitive rankings within any given boat class. Masters (over age 21) boats usually get an age-based handicap based on average age of the rowers in the boat. This course is about 3.5k long.4
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