Gym/workouts

Best thing I’ve done besides a home gym is getting a dog. Walking 2 miles a day does wonders for recovery. Especially after squats. Besides, everyone needs a gym dog…

 

2 mile walk, 3 1/2 mile bike ride, feel good, but I want a fat juicy burger

 

My wife and younger son workout regularly. I live vicariously through them.

 

Slow negatives are great. I have been practicing those and holding for a few seconds at depth. Great way to not kill yourself and still blow up the muscle.

 

What a great thread.
Worked out today for the first time in 6 months. We have two under three at home (that don’t sleep well), recently moved into a poorly maintained house so have been swamped with projects.
Hoping to start using my adjustable dumbbells more and at least get in some 30 mins quick workouts.

Debated about setting up a garage gym but only have a two car garage and with wife’s car and kids toys in there, not enough space.

 

I've got young kids as most people around here that know me (I seem to have achieved a reputation ) with 4 kids 6 and under. I squeeze in my workouts on my lunch breaks at a gym close to me. I also play basketball at a park not far from me on my lunch breaks on Thursdays to break it up and get some good cardio in. I've surprisingly recruited about 10 guys to play!
But utilizing time wisely and of course diet is a big help.

 

I hear that. 4 kids that love working out with me. I had to start working out at 430 am. It was hard at first but now it's normal. Find

 

The added bonus is negatives always overload the target muscle (at least for me). Unlike when I used to go heavy and not mind the negative and push the weight as fast as possible, eventually the muscle feels like it adapts, so I'd have to switch to another exercise until eventually that muscle adapts, etc., etc.

 

I remember those days. Although I only have 2 kids, it was still a struggle to exercise, but I still found ways to train regularly. But I've been blessed that after my first 6 years of marriage, I was given the option to telecommute part time, and then eventually the last 10 years I've been a full-time telecommuter. I have a 2-car garage where my Tundra and wife's car live, and a detached 3rd car garage which is a dedicated gym space with a power rack, dumbbells, and a leg press. I invested in olympic weights years ago before everything got ridiculously expensive, especially during covid. I miss the gym, but the convenience of training at home is a godsend.

 

I go 5 days per week there at 4:15 a.m.when Annette lets a couple of us in early. I ride the stationary bike 20 miles each morning ( boring AF) and then use a number of different machines and wrap it up with a trip to the sauna where I make sure it's hot hot hot. I had a bad mountain bike accident last year and destroyed my left rotator cuff. It's still not back to normal and at 69 y/o it probably will never be normal again. I also had a mountain bike accident this year and did something to my r. rotator cuff but I decided no more surgeries for me. I love mountain biking, but the nice bike that I waited my whole life to get has to go. I just can't afford any more accidents. At least I still have the gym.......P.S. I was at 294 way too fat and now I'm down to 262 and still dropping I'm 6'2" so I needed to do something. also I had 5 surgeries in 2 years so that's why no more under the knife for me.

 

Beast mode.

 

Sorry to hear about the injuries, and also the having to give up the MTB! I have a passion for mountain biking too, but I've dialed it back since part of the reason why I do it is for cardio. But it sucks that as you get older, the ability to maintain or even add mass gets tougher and tougher. I'm starting to get leaner than I want to be and I've lost some of that hard-earned muscle I put on over the years, so I cut back the heavier trails to limit calorie burning, which I also hate to admit I bought an eMTB to help with that. But the other reason too for the eMTB is I had a water-skiing accident in my 20s that twisted my knee, and it's causing me issues now on the down-stroke when I pedal. I can walk and run fine, but something about that rotation on the down-stroke shoots up pain in my knee, especially when I'm bearing weight on it while in the up stance off the saddle. Almost went down a few times because of it. The eMTB has helped significantly.

I'm gonna fight this age thing any way I can, and while I'm not quite there yet, stories from guys like you still training inspire me! Thanks for sharing!

 

You guys are making me feel old at almost 60. But I’m still at it the best I can. Mostly paddle boarding now. I have a stand up paddle board and a long distance prone paddle board. I’ll log in around 20 miles a week. There’s just something about being out in the water that makes exercising not feel like work.

 

So I'm gonna be that guy...have a burger. Too many people think of a burger as basically meat loaf on a bun with a ton of add ons. Make it a pure burger (beef, salt, pepper, garlic powder) and don't load it down with processed cheese, bacon, butter fried onions and other toppings and condiments. If you want to keep the calories down, skip the cheese entirely and go with a whole wheat bun. If you really want to get carried away, use a lettuce leaf instead of a bun.

I once counted the calories of my average burger and it came out well under 500, closer to 400 iirc. That leaves plenty of calories left for a side salad with a bit of dressing or some sweet potato wedges.

 

I go with the lettuce wrap or open face these days, and if available sometimes I'll request rye bread or sourdough instead of the traditional bun. I actually prefer the In-N-Out protein style over the regular burger with a bun. But nothing beats the home cooked burger. I have a recipe for an open-faced parmesan-crusted patty melt on sourdough with "cleaner" ingredients (I limit things like salt, dressings, etc.). That's on the menu for tonight.

 

I don't know if it's a Texas thing but I've been in In-N-Out about 5 times and it's not been good. We recently discovered "P. Terrys" - an Austin-based burger chain and it's pretty damn good. Not too expensive and you can buy banana bread and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies there... I have yet to do that though.

 

It ABSOLUTELY is a Texas thing. The beef there (outside of In-N-Out) is freakin' AMAZING. I was out there for a client a few years ago, huge facility that had 9 or 10 restaurants on campus. They weren't any kind of big name restaurants or anything. I had a burger at one of the joints that destroyed any burger I've had here in California, even those that claim Texas-style.

 

I worked out pretty regularly this year in my little screened in side porch gym, only taking breaks if I was injured (seemed to be the year of pulling back muscles) or working on a patio. I turned 50 a few weeks back and took a break while my parents were visiting. I think I caught RSV right after their visit so I haven't worked out in about 4 weeks and I'm going nuts. I plan on getting back out there next week.



I have a Titan Leg curl/extension set up out there too and a Concept 2 Rower in the house that I hope to really hit hard this next year.

 

That might be it. If you are back out here and get the chance, try a P. Terrys. https://pterrys.com

 

When my kids were born I found it difficult to make it to the gym. I bought a squat rack, bench, incline bench, Olympic barbell set, lat machine, and fixed dumbbells 25 lbs to 100 lbs in five pound increments..... that was 37 years ago. I still workout with that same equipment. I am currently on a upper/lower split three days a week. I can say from experience the older you get the harder it is to recover and your work out must be adjusted accordingly.

 

This is sound advice. I'd even go a step further and say throw an egg on it. Cooked in real butter. Grass-fed beef. Use real cheese (not American) and real butchered cured bacon (not the microwavable kind). Lettuce, slice of tomato. Enjoy. Obviously this isn't an every meal thing, but when you "crave a burger" - eat a burger.

 

Can't believe I never thought of that! I lost my dedicated gym space (detached single-car garage) about 6 years ago when my wife need it for her business, so I moved my stuff into the main 2-car garage and made it work for us to still be able to park in there. But it was tight. I never thought of doing what you did there, and I was looking for options in the back yard at one point, too. But she recently leased office space so I got the single-car garage back. Still in process of setting it up or I'd post pics.

Noted. We're planning a trip in April. Definitely will give it a try

 

I just "moved back in" to my ol' gym space last week after my wife exited and moved her business to leased office space. It's still in progress as I still have to remove a few things from her business, and also mount the sprinkler control panel/re-run wiring that's sitting on the floor at the moment. I also have storage hangers to install for the lever/jammer arms and cable accessories, and also reconnect the the cable crossover attachment itself to the rack. And also there's a landmine attachment somewhere in there that I need to reconnect lol. Hopefully I can get it all done this weekend. I'm also considering replacing the vertical leg press with a 45-degree leg press.

 

I really wish I had an enclosed space that I could heat/ac. It gets pretty damn hot and pretty damn cold out on my side porch. I wish I had space for a leg press. I may build one, one of these days: https://garagegymexperiment.com/diy-leg-press-machine-rack-attachment/

Also, this weight tree from Titan is something I love. Doesn't take up much space and gets my weights off of my rack.

$90 Titan Fitness Weight Plate Wall Mounted Storage Rack, Angled 4-Peg Design, Olympic Sized Weight Plate Organizer, Rated 800 LB, Anchored Wall Mounted Storage

https://www.amazon.com/Titan-Fitnes...=1670532927&sprefix=titan+weig,aps,133&sr=8-3

 

I actually have the Titan Fitness leg press that attaches to lever/jammer arms, which is similar to the youtube link, which I also considered building before buying the attachment. I used it in place of my vertical leg press that I didn't have space for when I had the rack in the other garage. But now that I have the space back, I put the my ol' leg press back into use from storage.

I'd been eyeballing that same Titan Fitness weight tree storage for a while. I was short on space when I had the rack backed up against the wall in the other garage and didn't have enough clearance from the wall to use the rack plate storage for 45 lb plates. Obviously not an issue now, but I still do love that design on the Titan Fitness weight tree. It's really clean looking.

 

I built most of my stuff. Power rack out of wood 4x4s and concrete weights. Since gyms opened up I have been slowly growing my stuff and getting rid of the concrete weights. I have a decently steep hill in my backyard, it's about 40 yards up and have been carrying the weight up and down. The neighbors think I am insane but it's been a game changer for my shoulders,traps and forearms. I noticed it's also been working my abs and back muscles depending on how I carry the weight.

 

Yep, that's what I like about the weight tree. It worked out for me to tuck it to the rear of the power rack since it has some space back there because of the lat pulldown attachment.

So is that the same as their Stealth Leg Press? I've heard that thing (stealth leg press) is heavy as hell.

 

It's different from the the Stealth leg press. The Stealth has is its own component and doesn't require anything but the rack itself, whereas the one I got is basically just a foot plate/platform that requires lever/jammer arms to attach to.

Edit: I was actually considering the Stealth and was gonna save for it, but then I saw the one that I got for roughly 1/4 the cost (I got it on sale), and since I already had lever/jammer arms, it was the obvious choice. But that said, the Stealth looks like a better design overall.

 

I would be the neighbor asking if I could borrow your back yard once or twice a week for 10 mins at a time.

But eff the neighbors. My neighbors thought I was nuts for buying olympic weights and my first rack 20+ years ago (well, my parents' neighbors anyway as I was still in college at the time living with my folks). I think I paid $150 for a standard 350 lb set with the bar back then. Last I saw after covid hit, they were selling for over $1k.

 

Gym today, cardio 1 1/2 hrs, arms n chest
Dinner chicken breast n salad, tons of water today, restroom like every 20 minutes lol