So. P90X anyone? (Misery loves company)

[Cyrrex]

Oh, and I had my final appointment with my therapist/doctor guy yesterday.  He said that I was well enough to start exercising like a human being again, so I get to incorporate all kinds of lifting back into my routine as long as I am smart about it.  In the beginning you kind of have no choice...an injury like that makes you very gun-shy, so you don't dare push anything.  Not to mention whatever atrophy has happened.

Whatever, I'm fine with that.  I have already more or less convinced myself that the powerlifting type stuff is off limits for now on.

[DraconianOne]

Good luck. 

[MrHat]

Oh, and I had my final appointment with my therapist/doctor guy yesterday.  He said that I was well enough to start exercising like a human being again, so I get to incorporate all kinds of lifting back into my routine as long as I am smart about it.  In the beginning you kind of have no choice...an injury like that makes you very gun-shy, so you don't dare push anything.  Not to mention whatever atrophy has happened.

Whatever, I'm fine with that.  I have already more or less convinced myself that the powerlifting type stuff is off limits for now on.

Take it very slow.

[Chimpy]

I have been getting slowly back into exercising. Did 12.5 miles on the bike last night and actually shifted onto the big ring on the front for 3-4 mikes in the middle. Even 8 weeks out from surgery I am still not 100% but I am glad to find my cardio fitness has not dropped off too much as I was able to keep in a fairly low heart rate zone for the whole 45 minutes.

The Crazy-K is next Saturday, not sure how well I am going to manage that but I have decided that I will skip obstacles if I feel I can't do them.

[climbjtree]

I recently started getting the "I'm-going-to-puke-or-perhaps-shit-myself" feeling when I was doing snatches.

I've had an inguinal hernia for about 6 years that I've just sort of monitored but never really had an issue with. I also recently noticed a bump in the center of my abs while doing some flutter kicks one morning, so after my workout I busted out the ultrasound at work. I saw what looked like an epigastric hernia, so I took it as a sign that maybe I should go and see the PA. He confirmed it, and now I'm looking at surgery in October and a 2 month-ish recovery time.

I guess it's good to take care of yourself, but I'm bummed to put training aside when I was so close to so many goals.

For weightlifting content, here's a wobbly 100kg overhead squat:

http://www.coachseye.com/v/bl3J

[Cyrrex]

Had your surgery yet?  I don't know what recovery is like for a hernia, but sounds like a giant bummer in any case.  I can sure as hell relate.

Nerve damage on my left side (the whole leg basically) has improved to a decent extent.  I do not have a limp anymore, and a good part of normal strength has returned, though there is still a pretty noticable gap comparing the right to the left.  I still have a pretty obvious (to me) loss of power/speed in my lower body in general, but some of that comes from fear, which is probaby a good thing for now.  I am generally keeping squatting to a minimum, and when I do them I am trying to keep it relatively light.  I am also keeping my deadlifts light, and limiting it almost exclusively to the trap bar (which improves the angle enough that I feel safer).  I think my top end for now is around 140kg and I probably shouldn't exceed it for a loooooong time, or possibly never.  At the same time, I am foregoing doing a lot of rep work with the deads, and adding Farmers Walks.  Trap bar is great for that, and I can get a lot out of these fairly light loads. 

The strangest thing about all of this injury recovery time is that I am getting swole.  Probably because I naturally do more sensible hypertrophy work, am not killing my nervous system, and I get way more rest.  I am trying to embrace this idea.

[climbjtree]

No sir, it'll be on Nov 13th.

In regards to your progression, I think you're a prime example of this saying: "You don't get big in the gym, you get big recovering from what you did in the gym."

[jakonovski]

Two months of biking and I've already lost lots of weight (haven't bothered to buy a scale) and my legs are actually starting to look like something. I'm completely hooked to the whole thing, right down to getting a runners high every time I head out.

[Merusk]

Good on ya!  Coworker's husband lost over 100# between diet and biking.  He started 3 years ago and has done a 450 mile race (Pan-Ohio cancer ride) for the last two years.  Seems to be something that just gets in your blood.

Meanwhile I fixed up my bike, went out twice and then and panicked at the notion of getting killed on the road after another long-time biker was killed this spring. I need an endless pool.

[Sky]

If I had a pool, I'd be goddamned Namor.

By that I mean I'd be in such good shape I'd just wear little speedos and prosthetic ears and ankle wings.

[Nebu]

If I had a pool, I'd be goddamned Namor.

By that I mean I'd be in such good shape I'd just wear little speedos and prosthetic ears and ankle wings.

Line your wood piles with plastic and add water.  Instant pool.

[Sky]

The tarps I use to cover my cordwood I cut from the neighbor's old pool liner. If you ever need tarps and they don't need to be a square, go for old pool liners.

I have to buy new tarps every year or two, but those pool liner strips are as good as the day I put them out and they take full upstate ny weather all year (five years now).

[Cyrrex]

Or one could just spend the five dollars for a new tarp.

(standing by for huge paragraph as to how good tarps cost way, way more than that)

[Sky]

Yeah, I could see how spending money on inferior products that constantly need replacing is a better idea than a free, durable solution.

[climbjtree]

Get your tarp talk off my lawn! 

[climbjtree]

Got cut this morning. Was supposed to be a laproscopic right sided hernia repair. They got in there and saw that thereally was a hernia on the left side as well.

6 week recovery, longer than I planned but I'm absolutely not going to push it.

I'm on phone and can't figure out Dropbox links, but here's a picture:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/pvpbr5gr6teiy1g/20141113_132411.jpg?dl=0

[Cyrrex]

Bummer, but best to get it out of the way and move on.  I am not sure how it is with hernias - I mean, maybe you are prone to getting them now? - but with my back injury I have to pretty much convince myself that it is okay that I will probably never be able to get back to where I was.  And that it is okay that way.

[jakonovski]

Project get in shape is proceeding pretty well. Bicycling has given me actual stamina, which is a novel experience. I'll be riding through the winter on studded tires (29er Schwalbe Ice Spiker Pro Evolution for the nerds), but I kinda feel lopsided having leg muscles and flabby everything else. Perhaps swimming would help.
 

[Cyrrex]

I finally managed to overhead press the 90 pound dumbbells, roughly my bodyweight in total.  I had long ago given up thinking of it as a goal, more or less admitting to myself that it was never going to happen (and also that it wasn't really a very important goal anyway, honestly, it was just one of those things).  Of all things, I did it at a hotel gym on a morning where I was feeling tired as shit and totally unmotivated.  Managed 5 reps - the first is always the hardest, due to the extreme ROM.  Funny how things work sometimes.

[NowhereMan]

Well I feel my worries about not really hitting my triceps hard enough when doing tricep extensions has been put to rest as I've managed to tear my right tricep. Went into the hospital with an arm that was about 150% its normal size and spent 4 days on an IV and icepack, the swelling is almost gone now and I've got some physio sessions booked.

This is pretty much the first big injury I've had (as in ever, not just from working out/lifting) so I'm kind of wondering about how to go about dealing with it. I'm aware that it's a month or so healing process so obviously I shouldn't be trying to work out my arms or upper body in that time but what would be a realistic timeframe for going into the gym for lower body exercises? How about compound lifts like squats (not too much arm work) or deadlifts (definitely more even if they're not a focus)? I understand that any answers given here are going to be general guidelines but I'd like to get some ideas of general healing lengths or interim exercises that I can do without putting pressure on my injured muscles.

[Chimpy]

Have you seen the physical therapist yet?

Just ask them, they will have a plan of how to rehab your injury and will be able to tell you what you should do and when.

It sucks to follow their advice sometimes as you want to do more, but believe me, just letting the healing process finish will be better in the long run.

[Cyrrex]

Obvious question, but did you actually injure it while doing triceps extensions?  Unless you are a pretty advanced bodybuilder, triceps extensions are at best a waste of time.

You can probably do squats.  I would not do deadlifts though, you actually put a great deal of stress on your triceps even if it is only isometrically.  Your physio is going to tell you to avoid all upper body stuff probably, and that is probably the safest advice, even if I personally would take a physio's advice with a huge grain of salt (they rarely know anything at all about weightlifting).

[NowhereMan]

Honest answer to that: I'm not totally sure what caused the injury. Basically Wednesday before last was the last day I did tricep work and it was a few EZ bar tricep extension sets. Nothing radically more than I've done before but being super strict about hitting my triceps. Did a deadlift day Thursday (since I was going away for the weekend so couldn't hit the gym Friday) I had wicked DOMS up till Sunday after that, did squat day Monday with some curls at the end. Tuesday morning my right arm had swollen a bit and by the afternoon it was pretty fucking huge. At which point I figured I hadn't just gotten some weird, delayed, pump in one arm.

tl;dr So I'm guessing that I damaged the muscle on Wednesday just because I didn't have any other day I did exercises to that area and had super bad DOMS after that. Not sure why it would have been almost a week before it started swelling though.

Yeah I understand it's going to be a while before I can start working them out, it's just frustrating as I have previously lost motivation to hit the gym but had been really good about it for over a year now. I'm really kind of worried that if I stop I'm going to find it very, very hard to start back again. It's even more frustrating because there hasn't really been any pain or sign that it's injured apart from the swelling and very slight stiffness. While my head knows that I've done something bad and need to be careful it's harder when there's no physical signs present telling me not to.

[Cyrrex]

Could be the you tore it a little doing the extensions, then ripped it more doing deads.

If I were you, flip this thing into a positive.  Go to the gym as often as before, doing whatever the physio allows you to do.  And then squat every day.  Squat until you want to puke your face off.  Squat until you can do a widowmaker on your own body weight, or maybe a 1.5 squat for a double.  You could do amazing things in 4 or 5 weeks of squats, and it could be the best and most worthwhile month of training you ever had. 

[NowhereMan]

Hah, good point. I think I'll stay away entirely for another week and then make it a lower body push. Time to start looking up new and exciting lower body workouts! Thanks.

[CmdrSlack]

So, my stupid fitness goal for this year is to be able to go as Deadpool for Halloween. I don't want to wear padding.

I'm doing 2 mos of adding mass and then focusing on endurance sports and still some strength work after that (I have a triathlon and a couple of other races this year).

On the lifting front, I generally lift at home. I have  300lb barbell set and then dumbbells up to 25 lbs.

I'm not looking to squat 300 lbs here. I'm mostly going for adding lean mass now, because once it warms up/safely de-ices, I'm back to an AM bike/run with a PM weights/swim session. I figure that'll help me burn the fat I need to lose and also get the added mass a bit more toned.

Does anyone have any tips for reaching my stupid goal? Right now, I'm doing a few different weight/core circuits, ten reps per lift/side, depending, and then going through them three times.

For example:

bench, squat, deadlift, offset squat, single leg deadlift, single arm planks, plate carry up/down stairs.

bench, squat, incline press, chest press w/ dumbbell, dumbbell rows, shrugs

I seem to be adding mass, but I'm also using creatine on days that I work out, so I know that a bit is water and some is added mass. The goal isn't to get huge, I just need to add mass in a few places (arms, shoulders, chest).

[Cyrrex]

If you have the raw gumption to actually dedicate yourself to it, there is a way.  You have....roughly...9 months.  Divide that into three chunks.  First chunk, get stronger than fuck (or just stronger than you are now).  Second chunk, go from pure strength training to a bodybuilding focused program.  Third chunk....cut fat.  The exercises you do, and how many reps you do them for, depend entirely on which phase you are in.

Let's get this out of the way straight off:  There is no such thing as "adding lean mass".  You either add mass, or you do not.  The only way to sorta change that equation is through steroids.  But even so, the most efficient way to do this is always to add mass, add mass, add mass....and then stop adding mass to cut fat.  Attempting to do both at the same time is inefficient.  A lot of people do things like LeanGains (or whatever), because they do not like the idea of bloating up and then cutting fat.  That's fine and dandy as a general lifestyle, and probably more healthy overall, but it is not efficient for reaching shorter term goals.

The equipment you have is probably generally good enough to get you there.  The dumbbells are not heavy enough for most purposes, however.  You would outgrow them in a manner of a couple weeks for all exercises in your strength chunk, and by the time you got to bodybuilding you would only be able to use them for some light biceps work or maybe some reverse delt work.  Also, some of those exercises are generally just not very good from an efficiency point of view...that doesn't mean you can't do them at all, you just shouldn't do them at the expense of more important lifts.

If I were you, I would start off by doing 3 months of Starting Strength.  Follow it to the absolute letter, and avoid adding anything that jeopardizes your ability to follow the minimum plan.

Last but not least, some food for thought:  Squatting 300 (or other random high amount) in and of itself might not seem like a goal worth pursuing.  Here's the thing, however....if you can work yourself up do doing, for example, a single at 300, you will find that you will probably also be able to do 10 reps at 225.  The brilliance of neural adaptation is that there is a huge correlation between these things.  You get very little out of the 300 pound squat, but if getting there means you can squat 225 for 10, then that is HUGE.  Also, learn the power of backoff sets.  Work your way up to heavy singles or doubles, and then the weights at 80-90% of your max suddenly become easier when you do them right afterwards.

[Nebu]

Smart stuff

Excellent stuff in this post.  My only addition would be to focus on intensity.  If you want to gain mass, you'll need to REALLY push yourself.  Make workouts that are high in weight, high in intensity, and with enough time to repair between days.  I tend to work opposing groups on sequential days for greatest repair time (i.e. Mon would be chest/back/quads, Wed would be shoulders, gluts, abs, and calves).  I do very little focus on triceps and biceps as a good chest/back workout will destroy them anyway.

[climbjtree]

I'll second Starting Strength. Additionally, working large muscle groups first (i.e. squatting at the start of every workout as prescribed in the Texas Method) produces better gains in the long run. Some studies have shown that you end up with a greater GH response this way. I made huge gains on squat, deadlift, and bench using the Texas Method and I'll attribute it to squatting as my opener.

Regardless of what you do, squatting is an incredible exercise that will only do good things for you... unless you have terrible form.
 

[CmdrSlack]

There's no reason to avoid my cardio/endurance work during the mass gain phase, right?

I am running an 8k at the end of March, a triathlon in August, and most likely some gimmick run. I am also doing one of two distance bike races depending on the team that I can muster.

What will be interesting about all of this is adding mass (and then toning it) without getting too big for the endurance stuff. Most of the Tri guides that I have read indicate that strength work is good, but not too much.

[NowhereMan]

Light cardio won't but intensive cardio, like say training for a good performance in a triathlon, will impact your recovery and muscle growth. If you're looking to complete them rather than do your absolute best it'll probably be doable as long as you make sure you're making up the burnt calories. Also just because Cyrrex didn't really emphasise it, of your going for three supper hero look them it's going to be like 80 diet as well. Adding and losing mass is easy, losing fat and keeping muscle requires eating high protein and keeping your calories strict while continuing to work out. Good news is if you've added good mass you won't need to get down to six pack leanness to look good in the costume

Also just as an update my Tricep seems to be healing well, no stiffness or loss of mobility so I think I managed a pretty minor tear. Physio has told me I can go back to weights but to  keep things light and work back up. Still a bit scared to try dead lifts at enough weight to really work but I've started light squats and bench press again.

[CmdrSlack]

Now that I think about it, Deadpool isn't always drawn as ripped as like a Wolverine-type character. I am not planning to dominate in my age bracket this year in any races (I turn 39 in May; I'm at the top of my current age bracket.) NEXT year, however, I plan to train to be competitive and crush the fogies in my new bracket.

Diet-wise, I am already on a good path...doing this thing called Zero Belly. It focuses on fiber, good fats, and protein. You cut out dairy and wheat, but keep rice and other "superfood" grains. Loads of lean proteins. Lots of greens. Lots of berry fruits and bananas. So far, I'm still losing weight while building strength and some mass. I need to look into a better body fat/muscle mass scale so I can better track progress.

Thanks all for the good advice. I've already been prioritizing squats, but now going heavier. I really don't want to drop cash on a squat rack right now....I wonder how totally unsafe it is to just put the brackets on my bench as high as they'll go and then stand behind the bench.

[jakonovski]

Since I'm looking a bit (a lot?) dumb with big muscly legs and flabby upper body, I decided to buy a kettlebell. Started out with 10kg because that's what the local supermarket had.

[Goreschach]

Since I'm looking a bit (a lot?) dumb with big muscly legs and flabby upper body, I decided to buy a kettlebell. Started out with 10kg because that's what the local supermarket had.

Assuming you have a basic level of upper body strength and you want to stay cheap, you'd be better off buying a set of gymnastic rings and hanging them off a tree branch or whatever. Do pullups and dips on them. You can get a pair on amazon for around $30.

Also, keep in mind spot reduction is a myth. Upper body workouts don't reduce upper body fat. That's purely calories in/out.

[Cyrrex]

That's probably true, but it may be hard to work up to ring exercises unless you are already pretty good at other bodyweight stuff.  Also, a 10kg kettlebell is going to get you two things: jack and squat.  What is your imbalance caused by, Jakonovski?  Are you a hardcore cyclist?  Former fatty?

For my own little update, I have been working at shifting things over to more body building principles than what I am used to.  I find this hard, because the strength stuff is so addictive.  I am good at being strong, and I am less good at getting myself all swole.  My age probably isn't helping me either, but there ya go.

Also, I have really been trying to work in a lot of Farmers Walks into my routine.  The way I go about it is by doing most of my deadlifting via the Trap Bar, because this is definitely better for my poor old back.  I work up to some moderate weights with singles, and then I transition into the FWs using the Trap Bar, and it works well.  Start with max weight, walk with it for 20 meters.  Drop it down a bit, walk for 50 meters.  Then maybe 50% of the max weight for 100 meters.  This is really challenging, and man do you feel it in your traps and in your grip, holy cow.  My problem is that, despite the serious back injury I have only just recovered from, I am still naturally good at pulling weight off the floor.  So I end up actually walking around with what would probably be considered a shitload of weight for most people, and I am probably playing with fire a little bit.  I need to make sure I don't get greedy, but fuck me an my stupid ego.  I should probably never go past 170kg with these, but damn it if I don't really, really want to.

Set a record a few weeks back with a barely passable set of seated OHPs for 190lbs, which was a full 20 pounds better than my previous best from a sitting position.  For a triple, I think it was.  My overhead pressing has oddly improved since my back injury, maybe because I am focusing more on the seated variations.