Big J
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Everything posted by Big J
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Not good at all. It's a chicken and the egg situation I think. I have no appetite because I've barely moved for a week, so I've no energy. I'll only get an appetite if I go to the gym, but that requires energy which I won't have until I build an appetite by going to the gym
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Hoping to get back into the gym tomorrow. Still a long way from 100%, but need to get back to try to feel human again. 9 days off with flu. Daren't weigh myself but feel seriously deflated physically. Going to do the first session at 50% weight and see how I feel.
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Not any more. Used to be able to do 140kg for a single on narrow grip, but I gained virtually nothing on the bench for years. I did 137.5kg wide grip aged about 20 and then switched to narrow to focus on tricep strength and only put 2.5kg on it in 3 years. Overhead went right up though, and I was able to do 115kg push press on both the bar and log.
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Where in Scotland are you planning to move to and where are you presently? House rents vary wildly according to where you are. We're around Edinburgh and it's really expensive here, and the wages don't match the cost of living. The reason why Dumfries and Galloway is so cheap is because no one wants to live there. Keep in mind that the weather is usually somewhere between unpleasant and awful, and that will mean more lost days to weather and the associated loss of income. If you don't want to be eaten alive my midges and soaked constantly, keep east.
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Does anyone have any tips for recovering from (proper) flu? The fever has gone now but I feel incredibly weak and I'm struggling to get even 2500kcal down in a day. I'm barely hungry and I'm taking a long time to digest what I do eat. I need to get back to normality as I feel about 85 years old at the moment. Even getting a barrow of firewood in this evening wiped me out.
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Reverse hyper extension and glute ham raises are best, but not too many gyms have them. Wider stance squatting will take the focus off your quads and switch it to hips, glutes and hamstrings.
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Excellent! Welcome to the fold Richard Form is the key thing. Learning to squat correctly means that you will build muscle and strength most efficiently whilst minimising the risk of injury. Move onto squatting with the empty barbell (20kg) for a session and go from there. Keep the rep range high, and work with a weight that you can easily do 15 at. You don't want to be challenging yourself too much at this stage as without the basis of good form, you'll quickly end up getting the weight up whichever way your body can, which can sometimes be ugly. Importantly, get someone with experience to watch your reps. Or take a video and post it here.
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There comes a point though where you burn out. I'm wondering a little whether me getting flu for the first time in 6-7 years has anything to do with squatting every other day for 3 weeks. Maybe not. Either way, you can still achieve valuable training results without going very heavy. 20 rep squat sets, speed work, the all important form work, paused squats etc etc etc.
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If you are able to squat every day as a beginner, you're not working hard enough. I use the term beginner to describe your experience with squatting. Seasoned profession weighlifters will squat near enough every day, but they've got years and years of experience under their belt. By all means squat regularly, but if you maintain a high volume throughout your cycle then make sure to have regular deload weeks. Otherwise, squat regularly, but don't go heavy too often.
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That parcel was sold, so still looking.
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Well the fever lasted all weekend, peaking at just over 40c. I've eaten virtually nothing since Saturday afternoon and if I'm able to do a bodyweight squat next time I'm at the gym, I'll be impressed!
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It couldn't really be further away though, on the Gower peninsula!
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Well found Steve. I'll call them on Monday. Thanks for that.
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It was just enough to take me to morning!
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Glad you're enjoying them! I'm having an enforced day of rest on account of a random fever and severe headache last night causing me to get perhaps an hours sleep. Can't remember the last time I had a fever, and what's odd is it only lasted about 8 hours.
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We are in need of western red cedar again. Our specification is super simple. Any size down to 18cm under bark top end. One length (3.8m is ideal) and reasonably forgiving on quality provided butt rot isn't too prevalent. Any quantity considered and (within reason) no upper limit on tonnage (as in could be 500 tonnes). We'll consider uplifting from anywhere in the country. Please message me if you can help. Jonathan
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That was a tough session. A little sleep deprived and had volume squat (and leg) day today. 5x8x85kg, and the first set was tough enough. Strength on upper body was better, and 3x10x24s on dumbell shoulder press was easy enough. Been at that gym for 3 weeks now and I've only seen 3 other people squatting and one of them was my wife! Silly people.
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Awesome! Nice flat back, and if I were to constructively critique (hard to tell from that angle) I would say your knees are perhaps just a touch too far forward over your toes, and it looks like your knees could do with being pushed out slightly to the sides. I'd suggest trying a slightly wider stance, as it would possibly fix both those things. It takes years to learn to squat properly and your form as a beginner is excellent
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I have one bottle of ale every night (3.5 to 6% ABV depending on which one it is) and the occasional dram of whisky, usually from Islay. That puts me just a touch over the recommended amount, but I figure at my size, the recommended amount doesn't quite apply. I've abstained from alcohol in the past, and haven't found any difference between that and sensible consumption apart from that I'm more miserable!
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Very good. As I said though, form is key and getting instruction from someone who knows what they are doing will be the difference between reaping the benefits of a great exercise and potential injury. Squatting is easy when you know how, but there is a learning curve!
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Don't think of squatting as powerlifting but rather the core of any gym routine. Like deadlift, it utilises all major muscle groups, but deadlift can be more problematic for the lower back (I only really do trap bar deadlift at this time as I can keep my back flatter throughout the lift). The key thing with squatting is form. Watch videos on Youtube on squat form and try to find someone in the gym who knows how to squat who you can work with to learn the ropes. Once you've got it, you'll never go back to the machines. There just isn't any comparison.
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If you've not tried squatting Silky, you've not lived! I spent about 10 week building up leg strength a bit on the leg press, extension and curl. All good, but only when I started squatting again did I get the full body workout. Your core gets a hammering - obliques especially. It has been said that if you were to do only one lift then it should be squats. The anabolic effect for the whole body is huge.
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Is that on squats? Have you considered increasing the volume on legs? After about 2.5 weeks mine have finally adapted to squatting every 48 hours and it's getting much easier. Rupe, nice to hear that you open water swim. The problem for me is that by comparison, a pool is the awful. Swimming across a loch is bliss for me, but the chlorinated pool is hard to get excited about.
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I enjoy swimming Rupe, but find pools to be dreadfully dull. Open water where I'm most at home, but getting a comfortable temperature in the UK is tricky! My wife fairly recently joined the gym. She used to lift casually when I was last lifting. We've since had two kids, the second 5 months ago so she's hoping to address a few 'lugging baby around' back issues and generally tone up. We created a mostly machines based routine that was OK, but was a bit time consuming and didn't lead to much in the way of DOMS. So went in today with her and did squats, push press, leg press, bench, horizontal row and lat pulldown. Just six lifts with the focus being on the first two. She's been complaining all evening about lore legs! Ha!
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Am glad u are a fan the man is a genius I think some days are body is just not as Hungary as others no matter what u do physically I get days when I could literally eat the fridge and all that's inside of it but others when I have to force my my six meals I consistency is the key with eating Off the back of Stan's videos, I've started watching the super training gym vids from mike bell and those are great too. Makes me hungry to up my numbers!
