Gym/workouts

I made it work, and changing gyms helps me. It forces me to change my workout, and when doing that I mix everything up. Otherwise I get into a routine, and static. If that makes any sense.

 

Makes sense. Doesn’t work for me, but it still makes sense LOL
Different strokes for different folks brother!

I mean, your injuries do limit you, so you absolutely have to work around those and address the problems (imbalances, functionality, etc) and lifting hard and heavy won’t usually fix those.

 

Well damn, got tennis elbow, been having it for a few months. Thought it would go away on its own....no such luck. I’ve been self releasing and strengthening for a week, still there. Better, but still amazingly aggravating.

Moral of the story, do NOT neglect your forearm muscles!

 

Just hit a 15# PR on my front squat! Tried for 20# but that didnt go as planned

 

Damn bro ! Did you get rid of bread ? just curious.

 

roger that

 

I completely fell off the wagon the last two weeks. Lots of family bullshit led to little time, poor diet etc. Excuses excuses.

Getting back on board this week. Meal planning again, no more eating out, reducing carb intake amd tweaking my workout program.

I was doing Starting Strength but two things were happening. I remembered how much I hate weight lifting and although I saw solid gains in my numbers, my cardio was shit along with my joints aching all the time.

I care less about deadlifting 400lbs than I do passing a PT test involving a 10% grade at 6.5mph for 20min wearing a 60lb vest.

I'll keep strength training since its important but without the SS focus on numbers. Lower weight, higher reps. I'll be back on the treadmill, bike and in the pool too. I burn fat doing those more than I do weight lifting.

 

Hahahahahaha

 

Hey everybody got to start somewhere lol. As long as that dude came back and improved.

What I've been doing the past 3 weeks or so is lifting moderate weight. but pausing at the bottom of the squat for a count of 7 or 8, lifting moderate for bent over row, taking 5-6 seconds on the way down. Do that for 10 reps each, then go right again for 10 reps each, then take a break. Really gets your heart rate up. Similar idea for bench press and deadlifts on alternating days. Then I go do some cardio and maybe some other various strength stuff. If you have the weight just heavy enough its a real bitch.

 

The size you have is my ultimate goal, but here is me last November(before i even thought about the Marines):

And then this November(about 6 months after i decided to pursue the Marines and start bulking, dont roast me too hard):

 

I know it's been a while since your post, but FWIW...
For something you can do at the office, any of these you listed will work.
For overall grip strength:
If you get the spring grips, flip them around and try different cadence.
i.e., turn the spring loop down (so that the widest part is between your thumb and index finger). Try not to use your index finger as much and do 20 quick reps. Then do 10 slow (squeeze and hold for a 2-count). Turn the grip over. Do another 10 slow reps, followed by 20 quick reps.

For finger strength:
Use the Gripmaster or an Eagle-catcher


If you really want to blow your grip and forearms at home, get a 5-gal bucket and fill it with rice.
Bury your hands up to your wrists. Rotate in for 20 reps and out for 20, or 20 clockwise and 20 CCW. Then jam your hands in like you're trying to grab a handful; 20 reps per hand.
In a couple weeks you'll be able to turn and apple into juice.

 

Classic hardgainer. Same here!

Here’s some tips I wish I would’ve known the first ten or so years of spinning my wheels doing pointless exercises.

Focus on the foundation first (squat, dead, bench, OH press, pull-ups) lift for strength (reg park 5x5 is great and tailor for your needs, or just hit a classic 3x. 5-10. Lift same weight until you reach 10 reps then increase weight)

You have a fast metabolism already so conserve energy and do a full body workout three days a week.

Drink a ton of water a day (I carry around a gallon of water everyday LOL)

Eat a ton, then eat some more (get quality proteins and carbs in (my main staple is chicken breasts and sweet potatoes and broccoli for lunch along with a nice helping of overnight oats ( https://wholefully.com/8-classic-overnight-oats-recipes-you-should-try/ and 6 eggs (3 eggs 3 egg whites) in the morning.

Post workout should consist of some serious fast absorbing carbs (I alternate between raisins and brown sugar pop tarts with 50 g of protein powder and 1 heaping TB of creatine) pre workout consists of a banana and 20 g of protein powder

Follow the KISS principle (keep it simple stupid)

Once I focused on those tips, I gained more mass than I’ve ever gained. Sadly, the past 5 months have been a setback due to moving/holidays and rehab for a helluva tight psoas muscle that prevented me from doing squats properly. Good thing about being a hardgainer is you don’t get fat when you take off from the gym, you just lose muscle and after a few weeks, muscle memory takes over and you’re back where you left off in no time! People hate people like us LOL

 

Fat gripz work like crazy also.

 

When do you ship? What’s your strict pull-up number? You will most likely loose anything you try to do before boot camp. Just some things to consider. It might be good to just focus on the things that are going to matter for now. Once boot camp is behind you then focus on gaining. There will be plenty of time for that especially when for the most part you can control your diet(minus deployments).

 

hmm. i might have to give that a go. currently use these grips. i have 5, 7, 9 and 11lb versions. i lost a lot after my hand surgeries over the summer and had to start back at 5 but, i'm back now to doing most of the exercises with the 11lb version. i need to pick up the 13.

monday was the beginning of a 12wk winter maintenance program. i started this season with a 20min power rating of 162 watts. a few weeks ago, i took a power test and came out at 187 with a top end sprint just shy of 900. considering the mess this year has been for us, and putting on 10lbs, i was stoked to have gone up 25 watts especially since i barely rode this summer due to the surgeries. next spring, i'm hoping to come out of the gate around 200.

this week has me on the bike 9.5hrs in my endurance power range which is about 1.8 watts/kg. yesterday was a lot of high cadence work (130+ rpms), today is an off day (yoga), friday is a 2.5 hr steady endurance ride and saturday is 3 hours but with a 600w 8sec sprint every 15 min. that one is going to hurt.

currently down 5lbs from the 10 i added but hoping to drop another 10. that'll put me around 170 which was my racing weight 20 years ago.

 

I will take notes of this, thank you. And lol yeah im a hard gainer, sucks but also doesnt

I do not know my ship out date just yet, but im betting on in about 10-11 months. I believe the pull up number is just over 20, i can currently do about 16 wide, then 2 or 3 with a closer grip and wrist flip. I actually like the idea on focusing on what i need, and currently i have been focusing on those, but need to more.

 

Early in my career, I was a strength & conditioning coach primarily working w/ baseball. Learned about the rice bucket at my last team. The shit works.
Another one I thought about;
Get a 18" piece of 2' PVC pipe. Drill a hole in the middle. Run a piece of rope through it and tie a knot in the end so the rope can't pull out. Hold the pipe/rope out in front of your chest. Cut the rope at floor level. Tie a 5-10 weight to bottom of rope.
Hold the pipe out in front of you. Roll the rope up one side of the pipe...let it down, then roll it up on the other side and let it down.
'Popeye forearms!

 

I can attest to this! Did that in high school, forearms grew like crazy! But I also propped my forearms across a chest high barbell (take the shoulders and momentum out of the equation) and never let the weights drop, just focused on slow concentric and eccentric movements.

Even now my forearms rarely need work. Maybe once a month I’ll hit 3 sets of 10-15.

 

Almost forgot @csuviper .....don’t focus solely on wrist flexion, (bringing palm towards wrist) include plenty of wrist extension (knuckles move towards wrist)

Overactive flexion leads to lateral epicondylitis (tennis elbow) and the flip side of that (overactive extensions) lead to golfers elbow (medial epicondylitis) both SUCK if/when it hits. All lifts involving gripping become almost unbearable. That’s part of why I’ve been MIA in the gym the past few months (came on because of tapping on a keyboard 40 hours a week of all things). Just now getting back to equilibrium.

Try to keep the strength ratio in a good balance, your consistency and progress will thank you!

 

post surgery, my PT had me doing these

 

I do not know my ship out date just yet, but im betting on in about 10-11 months. I believe the pull up number is just over 20, i can currently do about 16 wide, then 2 or 3 with a closer grip and wrist flip. I actually like the idea on focusing on what i need, and currently i have been focusing on those, but need to more.[/QUOTE]

Well that’s definitely a great start! Hopefully you have a good recruiter that can let you know what to work on. Obviously you will have to run your initial PFT and I’m sure you will do a few of those with your recruiter in the next 10-11 months. Maybe you can get a chance to do a CFT too. Those are fun. With that much prep time you should be able to run high first class when the time comes. Remember 20 pull-ups is a perfect score... but work on making that the minimum you can do. Everyone gets 100 crunches...unless you don’t have any friends lol and the run will be what locks in your first class... or if your super fast a perfect 300.


Edit. I was typing a response yesterday and forgot to erase it before reposting.