So, who's been up to what lately?

[rydra_wong]

In the last few weeks, I've been going to the gym for the first time in ages.

In the past few years, I've generally been doing bodyweight and kettlebell stuff at home as strength training, and now I've decided to get some barbell work done again, and in particular get back to deadlifting -- partly because I've been having a run of back aches and would like to build up my back strength again, partly because I'd forgotten just how much I enjoy deadlifting.

So I thought I'd check in here and see how everyone else is doing: getting into anything new lately? Learning some new things? Switching training plans? Buying, making or enjoying any new heavy things? Re-starting after time off, or looking to get started? Lurking shyly in the comm?

Comments

[dhampyresa]

Lurking shyly in the comm?
IT ME.

[quartzpebble]

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.

[sporky_rat]

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.)

[minxy]

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.

[lyorn]

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.

cn: discussion of desirability of weight loss

[alexseanchai]

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.)

[buddleia]

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

[xenacryst]

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.

[indywind]

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::