lifting_heavy_things | So, who's been up to what lately?

Lurking shyly in the comm?
IT ME.

*waves at you but gently so as not to scare you away*

*waves back*

*scoots closer*

Do you have any recs for no-equipment strength training? I want to get wider shoulders, but I have this weird thing where swimming is the only exercise I can do when people are watching me.

Do you have any recs for no-equipment strength training?

Absolutely! Off the top of my head, for shoulders I'd recommend trying push-up progressions and handstand push-up progressions. The important word here is progressions.

Doesn't matter if you can't do a push-up (let alone a handstand push-up!); you find the appropriate stage in the progression and start there.

Stumptuous has a great guide to push-up progressions, starting with wall push-ups:

https://stumptuous.com/mistressing-the-pushup

Handstand push-up progressions are very similar, except that the direction of push is in a straight line above your head, rather than outwards from your chest.

http://www.startbodyweight.com/p/handstand-push-up-progression.html

If you have a sturdy table you can lie under, you can also do inverted rows:

https://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/inverted-row-are-you-missing-out-on-this-great-exercise/

These will all work your arms and chest (or back for the inverted rows) as well as your shoulders, but that's not a bad thing. *g*

Exrx recommend incline side bridges for the lateral deltoids:

http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/Obliques/BWAngledSideBridge.html

If you have any cans of food or water bottles at home, there are lots more shoulder exercises you can do -- the deltoid muscles themselves are quite small, so you can get a lot out of relatively little weight. Let me know if that's of interest and I'll start listing more things!

(Warning: I'll probably start talking about Turkish get-ups.)

Important note: if you want your shoulders to get bigger (hypertrophy) as well as stronger, you have to be getting enough calories, and especially more than enough protein. Your body won't build new muscle mass unless it's got plenty of fuel and building supplies.

You can also tweak the sets and reps range to focus your training on hypertrophy: as a very rough rule of thumb, you probably want to aim for at least 3 sets of 8-12 reps.

This is also the perfect set/rep range for anyone who's starting with strength training, because it means you'll get stronger and build up some muscle mass, while not doing anything super-heavy (e.g. things where you can barely do 3 reps) where you might be more likely to injure yourself because you're still figuring out what you're doing and your connective tissues and joints are just getting used to the extra stresses.

Does this sound useful/appropriate? I don't want to bombard you with too much stuff!

This is super useful, thank you!

I've been doing some push-ups this past week. I can just about manage ten in a row -- today I tried to push myself and did two sets of ten and now everything hurts :(

If you have more info on any of this, I'll gladly listen.

I've been doing the /r/bodyweightfitness beginning bodyweight strength routine. Off-and-on; currently off, currently really should be getting back on, if I can find a way to do that that's kind to myself. I really appreciate that there's a phone app (Bodyweight Fitness iirc) that goes with it so it's easy to track and to time planks etc. while I'm doing it.

I also live at the top of the stairs and carry my bike up and down every time I take it out, and up and down the stairs to the light rail.

I am continually confused by how easy it is to gain strength and muscle mass now that I'm running on testosterone. Like, I knew it was going to be easierer but this is ridiculous. Very welcome, though. I have shoulders now. My internal body image has not caught up.

I am continually confused by how easy it is to gain strength and muscle mass now that I'm running on testosterone. Like, I knew it was going to be easierer but this is ridiculous.

That must be fascinating! Mental Meatheads did a really interesting interview with Mace Clinkenbeard (coiner of the term "fitness-industrial complex" where he talks about the differences in his training experiences after he started on testosterone:

http://agogefit.com/mace-clinkenbeard/

Yay shoulders!

Ooo, interesting. Ty for the link!

Okay, that motivated me to join so I can participate in the bodyweight group. Well done you!

I have been looking at Turkish Get Ups. I have been working on clearing space in my house (which is weird, there's lots of space but it's full of not-my-stuff) for working on bodyweight stuff.

There's room in the living room, but it's concrete and that's slippery and sort of painful on bones. So I'm clearing space in one of the carpeted areas. (Obviously I'm going to need rugs in whatever room I work in later. Something, anyway.)

I have been looking at Turkish Get Ups.

They are the awesomest. But yes, somewhat painful on elbows and knees if done on concrete, in my experience.

Hi!

I used to lift a lot more bars and go for HIIT, but as you know, I am now two people, and my body is different every week. So I let the gym membership go, and i currently walk a lot (though I have a back support/under belly brace now for when I am really moving) and do some short kettlebell or dumbbell or bodyweight stuff followed by a pregnancy yoga flow a few times a week. If I'm up to it and there's activity on the weekend I do whatever feels good then too!

Example workout: 1-3 rounds
* One Handed Swing x 30 sec each side
* Clean x 30 sec each side
* Reverse Lunges x 30 sec each side
* Squat and Press x 30 sec each side

Yoga flow: Mountain, Warrior 1, Warrior 2, Goddess, Wide leg forward fold, half lift (repeat, switching sides) deep wide squat, downward dog, cat cow, wide knee child's pose, legs up a wall.

but as you know, I am now two people, and my body is different every week.

As someone not reproductively-inclined, I can only imagine that this must be very weird but also fascinating. What month are you at?

Edited (Tags.) 2017-03-04 09:31 (UTC)

I had generally been open to reproducing, but not driven about it. Like getting married, it was my partner who eventually expressed that he would really like to do that. So, it's been a very surprising adventure!

I am, and always have been, a scientist, though, so being my own experiment has been really fun! I have also had a very easy pregnancy, by most standards, but I (and my husband and my schedule) have adapted very well any time it's needed. I'm in month 7 now, due May 13 (third trimester, OMG).

Three current fun observations: Cat has always loved the bump, and has kneaded and snuggled it devotedly since before the pregnancy test showed positive. However, the belly kneads back at him now, which leads to some very funny reaction faces.

The Relaxin enzyme that is loosening up my joints in preparation for birthday (and will eventually cause me to waddle) has relieved some chronic tightness in my right hip for the first time in EVER. It's grand!

I suspect this is because I'm an athlete, but I'm not pregnant the way anyone else in my family has been pregnant. I am carrying the baby high and in front, with minimal changes to the rest on my proportions besides the breasts (which are scheming to take over the world). Everyone else in my family has gotten pregnant all over, from face to feet-- but I just appear to have a beach ball in my shirt (and some softballs in my bra). Then again, I still have 2.5 months to go if we're on time, so maybe?

I'm still in recovery from the torn ligaments in my ankle and my badly bruised knee from the bicycle accident in December. It is hardly ever hurting now, but I have to protect the knee from contact with hard surfaces.

But I have progressed from 8" step-ups 18" step-ups, and from "attempting to stand on one leg without falling" to single-leg romanian deadlifts (with little weight, for now).

I'm still with the Shuler/Cosgrove books as they work for me and I enjoy the weirdish exercises.

I have also *finally* (well, a few weeks befor my accident in August) talked to a trainer and found out why I haven't progressed at push-ups for something like forever, and what my issue with the starter position for the overhead lifts (it's the same one, actually -- wrong shoulder position).

Back strength is something I really need, pretty much the reason I started lifting heavy things in a controlled environment. If I stop, the back aches come back. However, my shoulder, which was pain-free when I did not lift, is causing me sleepless nights again. Damned if you don't, damned if you do.

I have been considering personal training, as it seems to me after 5 years of lifting, that I just can't seem to progress. I get to a certain point, and life happens, or accidents happen, or some weak area (grip, shoulders, coordination) blocks my progress. However I brought this up in another forum (asking for experiences) and was throughoutly discouraged, and gave up the idea until I could decide if everyone on that forum was full of it...

However, as I'm not yet back to bouldering again, I manage to go to the gym three times most weeks. Which is good and makes me happy. And my back is fine again.

To add: I fail at bodyweight training. It's not sufficiently scalable. There is "too easy" (yeah, I can do 50 air squats and work up to 100. It's very, very boring) and "way to heavy, no way I'll get anything close to a single rep" (push-ups, I'm looking at you). Also, much higher probability of accidents.

Edited 2017-03-04 18:30 (UTC)

"way to heavy, no way I'll get anything close to a single rep" (push-ups, I'm looking at you).

I'm guessing you've already tried wall and counter push-ups and all those progressions, right?

Yes. I hope with the hint about shoulder position, I have a chance to get lower than 2' at best (and that in very bad form).

Words fail me at how frustrating it is to completely fail at such basic exercises.

Tomorrow I am determined to get up and dance. We're counting my body as a heavy thing. (It's certainly heavier than it used to be and I would like it to not, please.) But I may decide to dance with a 15oz can of food in either hand, so my arms have a little more heft at the ends for strengthening purposes. Good idea y/n?

Better certainly than buying 1lb weights! Especially as a glance over Amazon search results tells me the bleedin' things only seem to come in pink! And, hey, turns out broth comes in 2lb boxes. And a half gallon of water is a bit over 4lb, so I'd have to purchase and then save a couple screw-top milk bottles. After that, actually buying weights becomes reasonable, if it's desirable. Probably will be, if I can motivate myself that far—I want muscle mass. (I don't think I'd mind the scale reading what it currently does if I knew the bulk of that weight was muscle.)

Hey, you know what I should do to make it more likely that "get up and dance" happens tomorrow morning? Make a playlist tonight. 15 or 20 min bouncy music. Which I suppose will be a Kindle Fire playlist instead of VLC Player on computer, because a VLC playlist necessarily involves getting out of my nice cozy warm bed on the grounds that my laptop has no music on! (Whatever. Kindle Fire is a perfectly good mp3 player.)

But I may decide to dance with a 15oz can of food in either hand, so my arms have a little more heft at the ends for strengthening purposes. Good idea y/n?

In terms of muscle physiology, probably not the most effective way of strengthening, because that generally happens at the "low reps heavy weight" end of the spectrum (whatever "heavy" is for you, but we'd be talking something you can only lift for 1 to 10 reps in a row, not, say, 30-40 reps). If you can dance with it doing the same sort of arm moves for 15 minutes straight, it'll be working muscular endurance, not strength.

However, that endurance might still be a useful goal for you!

And personally, I am all in favour of including random physical experiments in my dancing time. You could play with lots of different moves and see what the cans feel like. Just don't be afraid to dump them if it feels too much, gets boring, or your shoulders/any other joints feel tweaky, etc..

Endurance is good, yes, but I take your point. :)

I grabbed the broth boxes and hit play on the playlist...

Three minutes in it occurred to me I ought to be singing along, or trying to, to check where I am on the aerobic-ness of the activity (answer: pushing towards the anaerobic end pretty hard; either that or lung capacity is just that shit), and thirty seconds later I flopped. That first song is only four minutes long!

I think I need to make a new playlist with lower-energy songs.

The rule of thumb for aerobic-ness I've heard is that you should be able carry on a conversation but not sing -- don't know if that helps at all? (And if you can't speak in sentences, you're out of the aerobic training zone.)

I think I need to make a new playlist with lower-energy songs.

Sounds like it! *g* And/or build up the time more gradually.

If you naturally tend to go all-out, one option would be to treat it as interval training (which can be very effective at improving aerobic endurance), and make a playlist of alternating bouncy and low-energy songs. So you're deliberately pushing yourself for a few minutes, then recovering gently for a few minutes, then pushing youself again.

I was misremembering, then. Couldn't talk either, though, so my analysis was still fine.

Hmm. :)

Recently returned to the gym after years off with job and ankle injury issues, and now very slowly working my back squat and deadlift back to where they were in 2013. I've been given ear'ole about rising blood glucose and bp and would really rather pick up barbells and get my ankles working again than stress over weight loss

Yay barbells!

Continuing (2+ years) of aerial circus, which kinda counts as lifting heavy things. I mean, it's lifting myself, and then, uh, dropping myself in decorative ways.

For related off-apparatus strength training, I've been doing a lot of core and upper back/shoulder/rotator cuff work. And periodically having a coach try to kill me in handstands class.

For core, I've found variations on tuck-ups, v-ups, and hollow body rolls to be good. I also like doing this thing from plank where I slide my feet up into a tuck, and then back (requires a slippery floor and socks or a piece of cloth for the feet to slide with). Also, side abs with side plank/hip lifts.

For shoulders, one of the things I like is squeezing/separating shoulder blades from a plank.

Continuing (2+ years) of aerial circus, which kinda counts as lifting heavy things.

Definitely counts! It is a strength-type activity! Also that sounds terrifying and amazing.

I also like doing this thing from plank where I slide my feet up into a tuck, and then back (requires a slippery floor and socks or a piece of cloth for the feet to slide with).

You can do this with rings or a TRX-type system too, with your feet in the rings/footloops.

Just stumbled into this comm.
Life has been kicking my butt lately for reasons unclear to me --it's spring! why the depression symptoms now??-- and I've been unmotivated, so I've been just maintaining a minimum of running, yoga, and a little bodyweight strength training (pushups come standard with my daily jog, tricep dips when my route goes past this one piece of sidewalk with a low guard rail, one yoga class a week is mostly bodyweight core work--planks, V-ups etc.)

I just took a trail run through a nice local park last weekend (lost my car key somewhere in the trailside poison ivy, dammit) and there were "fitness stations" at intervals, so I did some pullup negatives (shouldn't they be called letdowns? or is that too much of a bummer?)off the higher bars and inverted rows off the lower ones. And discovered it's been too long since I did any and I need to do more. ::sigh::

Life has been kicking my butt lately for reasons unclear to me --it's spring! why the depression symptoms now??

It seems like a bunch of people (me included) made it through winter then crashed in the spring -- no idea WTF's up with that, but you are not alone.

I've been just maintaining a minimum of running, yoga, and a little bodyweight strength training

That's a pretty nice minimum to maintain -- go you! And the "fitness stations" could be fun to play with.

So, who's been up to what lately?

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cn: discussion of desirability of weight loss

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that was fun but Re: cn: discussion of desirability of weight loss

Re: that was fun but Re: cn: discussion of desirability of weight loss

Re: that was fun but Re: cn: discussion of desirability of weight loss

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