Sweat Saga, a training log

[Clearwater47]

My guess would be that the way you're doing them is probably marginally better. I don't give much credence to studies, but they've generally found that working a muscle in the stretched position is better than working it in the shortened position, and this makes good sense to me. The way you're doing them will be hardest in the stretched position and easiest in the shortened position, plus allows for more of a stretch - all good things. I've done them that way, but not in many years. No doubt I'll try them again at some point, but will probably stick with what I'm doing now as long as I'm progressing with it.

[SaviorSelf]

My guess would be that the way you're doing them is probably marginally better. I don't give much credence to studies, but they've generally found that working a muscle in the stretched position is better than working it in the shortened position, and this makes good sense to me. The way you're doing them will be hardest in the stretched position and easiest in the shortened position, plus allows for more of a stretch - all good things. I've done them that way, but not in many years. No doubt I'll try them again at some point, but will probably stick with what I'm doing now as long as I'm progressing with it.

Stretching position thing sounds right to me based on experience with other exercises

Maybe there's a hybrid approach. Start the wrist curl sitting down, and breaking the laws of topology, as the weight is halfway up, you stand up and switch over to the other form (just kidding of course)

Dude, what do you weigh? These are pretty crazy sets (to me).

Thanks, 5'7 and 206.4 lbs soaking wet before going to bed. I wouldn't hate the idea of bulking up to like 220 or something but I don't think I have the willpower to eat the amount of food required to do that lol

Plus I'm already in denial about how bad my bodyfat percentage is

[DanCR]

Dude, what do you weigh? These are pretty crazy sets (to me).

Thanks, 5'7 and 206.4 lbs soaking wet before going to bed. I wouldn't hate the idea of bulking up to like 220 or something but I don't think I have the willpower to eat the amount of food required to do that lol

Plus I'm already in denial about how bad my bodyfat percentage is

I was hoping you were gonna say 220. I’m currently floating around 209 and as you know, I’ve never put more than 180 overhead for a single (standing, no less). 200x6 is fantasy shit for me.

[SaviorSelf]

Maybe I'll weigh 220 eventually, I've been eating a lot of food lately. If I do get up to 220 hopefully I'm doing seated OHP with like 275 or something badass lol

-------


Squat:
warm ups:
310x5
310x5
310x5

Bench:
warm ups:
290x5
290x5 (last rep paused)
290x5 (what the hell; all reps paused)

I could feel my shoulder wanting to act up again during the warm up sets, but it went away. If my shoulder puts me out of commission before I get to try 315x5 I'm gonna be so pissed

Not sure if I should back off of benching for a bit

Deadlift:
warm ups
405x5

Grip was rock solid, not a chance the bar was gonna roll out. Some stomach acid came up midway into the set which sucked

1 arm hangs;
right arm: 15 secds (let go cause I felt a tearing feeling in my elbow, grip wasn't the limit)
left arm: 14 secs (grip was the limit)
+25 lb weight: 5 secs both arms

Rev grip curls for top of forearm muscles:
45x8
95x12

Vid of deadlifts:

[SaviorSelf]

I could feel my shoulder being a little cranky, like when I was putting on my seat belt. I think it might just be tendonitis in my shoulder. 2 reasons I think that:
- There's a spot on my shoulder that's physically sore to the touch, the other shoulder doesn't have that. I think its the tendon that's sore
- Last time benching, it was worse on warmups and the discomfort disappeared for the working sets.

Yesterday:
Behind the neck press:
45x20, 3 sets

Today:
BTN press:
55x12, 3 sets


These do feel good

[SaviorSelf]

Today:

palms down front raises with the bar: 12 reps
pals up front raises with the bar: 12 reps

BTN press: 65lbs x 8 (or 12 can't remember)

Have no idea what I'm doing but maybe the front raises can help


Yeah I don't think I'm gonna be benching soon. srs

@DanCR We're in similar but opposite boats

[DanCR]

Yeah I don't think I'm gonna be benching soon. srs

@DanCR We're in similar but opposite boats

This fucking hobby.

[Clearwater47]

Sorry the shoulder is acting up again @SaviorSelf (and the adducter @DanCR). I think the most frustrating part of lifting is being hurt and not knowing what caused it or how to get it better. It seems like it's something just about everyone deals with at some point if they stick with this thing for long enough.

[SaviorSelf]

Yeah it is frustrating, and I can't help but feel a little demotivated/put off by it. I kind of felt like taking an easy week or so cause I''m feeling exhausted lately, so I'm gonna cash in on that. Just focus on rest/rehab my shoulder for maybe another 4 days and let my caffeine tolerance go back down

Today:
More palms up and down front raises
And BTN press: 75x8, 3 sets (adding +10 lbs each time)

I'm reading so many mixed things about BTN press. But the actual anecdotes seem to overwhelmingly favor the exercise. And the "cautions" against it seem to be very theoretical based. Either way, they feel pretty dang good on my shoulders, and I really doubt something that was tearing my shoulders to shreds would feel good


@SeeMac - I might try a homemade swinging thing like you were showing. I've got 190lbs in 1 inch dumbbell plates. Even just some rope or steel cord looped around a handle with a stop at the end would work I think, and would allow for easy loading/unloading. The part going through the plates just needs to handle tension, not compression

[Bolder]

Sorry about your shoulder.

Anyway, I wonder. How many times a week were you benching?

[SaviorSelf]

I was doing working out usually every other day, sometimes 2 days rest between workouts. I was alternating workouts between bench and some kind of OHP. So about 1.5x per week on week

This isn't the first time I've dealt with this. Maybe like 6 months ago or something it got real bad out of nowhere and I soon couldn't bench 95lbs without it hurting too much. I took a break from benching, but was doing OHP cause that didn't bother it at all. Back then the pain was mostly when I was unracking the weight to start the set. Now, unracking the weight doesn't bother it, just the actual bench.

OHP still doesn't bother it, it seems purely isolated to bench press. And wide grip bench seems to feel better, I guess because it reduces ROM although wide grip is supposed to put more stress on shoulders

[SaviorSelf]

I'm gonna try a collagen supplement and see if that helps. I looked at the BCP stuff, but it would cost a few hundred dollars to even try it

Noticed that there's still a bit of tenderness that's sore to the touch, but its in a different place. It was in the bony part near the top of the shoulder joint, its moved south and in the soft tissue near the bottom. Weird

Played some board games with some friends, vary rarely do I drink, but stopped by the store and picked up some beers. Old Rasputin and Founder's Breakfast Stout (founders was the clear winner of the two for me. Crazy good but kinda wish it was a lower ABV - can't drink much of it before your toasted)

Today and yesterday: Shoulder exercises again, slightly bumped up weights

[cgeorg]

Old Rasputin and Founder's Breakfast Stout (founders was the clear winner of the two for me. Crazy good but kinda wish it was a lower ABV - can't drink much of it before your toasted)

Agree on all points here.

[DanCR]

Old Rasputin and Founder's Breakfast Stout (founders was the clear winner of the two for me. Crazy good but kinda wish it was a lower ABV - can't drink much of it before your toasted)

Agree on all points here.

+1

Love both of those but lately I’m more into lower ABV brews. I want to enjoy my pint. I don’t need it to punch me in the face.

[SaviorSelf]

Surprisingly there's no symbol on the forum for two smilies clinking two beer mugs together so here's one with unicode:

I wish the collagen drink tasted that good. This shit is nasty


-------------------


200x8 seated OHP coming at you

Squat:
warm ups:
315x5
315x5
315x5

Seated OHP:
warm ups:
200x8 (vid below)

BTN press: (each rep starting at the upper back/neck)
105x20

Deadlift:
warm ups:
415x4
Didn't try a 5th rep. My left hand was unrolled on the 4th and it felt like my back was rounding more and more and felt excessive. Watching the video, I should have went for the 5th rep

Rotator cuff exercises with 15lb dumbbell:
2 sets of 8 reps, per each direction, per each arm

Various wrist curls, top and bottom, but also the sides by holding the end of the dumbell like a ski-pole and raising it up and down

Later did some band pull aparts for rear delts

[DanCR]

That’s some session, @SaviorSelf.

[SaviorSelf]

That’s some session, @SaviorSelf.

Thanks, taking it easy for a little bit really helps

Yesterday evening I really was curious about the KB swings, so I tried some with my dumbell and it seemed to work good. I'm not doing them by holding the DB handle, but by the plates on one end and holding it "tall ways up"

Today: I went to my very overcrowded Crunch cause they have a farmers walk machine (like an incline treadmill with handles you can put plates on). 2 minutes at 1 plate per side, 40 seconds at 2 plates per side, then 20 seconds at 2 plates per side. Then I tried KB swings with real KBs, I can't say I can tell a difference between that and a dumbbell. Then someone left the prone hamstring curl machine right as I walked by so I took it and did a couple sets

It's virtually impossible to get a real workout done at this place because of how crowded it is, but may be worth keeping the membership just to use oddball equipment like farmers walk and jacobs ladder that nobody ever seems to use. Also very close to just closing my membership

[SaviorSelf]

Boyos I might be back in business (shoulder). Rotator cuff exercises might be the ticket

Today:

Wide grip OHP:
45x10
95x8
115x8
135x8
155x8
155x8

Rotator cuffs:
15x8 each side

Close grip bench press:
45x10
135x8
185x5
225x5
275x5

More rotator cuffs:
17.5x8 each side

Incline fly press:
45s x8

Partial rear delts:
45s x8 (too lazy to change the dbs tbh lmao)

Hammers:
45s x12

DB Swings:
45 x15

[Clearwater47]

You can never go wrong with rotator cuff and rear delt work.
Glad the shoulder's feeling better.

[SaviorSelf]

Yup, I don't think I've ever done RC exercises before


----------

Pretty decent workout, tried a couple brand new exercises

Zercher squats (brand new exercise):
45x5
95x5
135x5
185x5

Idk about these. Seems like you'd never be able to use enough weight to stimulate your leg muscles, but maybe your elbows will toughen up. I did really feel these in my mid back muscles, they were working hard to keep my torso from falling forward

DB swings:
45x15

Deadlift:
warm up sets
415x5

Grip almost gave out, but I was able to complete the set. Bar in my fingertips in my left hand by the end. It's always my left hand failing, I wonder if its common to have an imbalance like that with grip strength? Maybe its because of mixed grip, its inherently imbalanced

More DB swings:
45x15
45x15

Rotator cuff exercises:
15lbs

1 hand deadweight:
BW+45lbs: 3s right, 1s left (too heavy)
BW+25lbs: 2s right, 2s left
BW+25lbs: 2s right, 2s left

1 arm DB OHP (brand new exercise):
45x5
65x5
85x5

Kinda like this exercise. It's easy to get the weight up which is a huge plus cause I kinda struggle with that for seated DB pressing

Vids: