Just got back from the gym. Did 3 sets of 6 reps at 100kg doing box squats (squatting and sitting on a low box) Then benched 15 reps of my own body weight I feel like the Hulk
tried the nanovapor preworkout supplement again today but bumped it up to 1.5 servings and didnt even get as much out of it as the first time. i felt a little focus, a little increase in body temp and not much else. nitric acid's aim is to vasodilate which would decrease blood pressure and i did witness some of that so maybe it did do what it was supposed to and maybe i was expecting too much. at this point i dont think i would recommend this product. first time lifting in 2 weeks and it felt good lets see how i feel tomorrow. lol hopefully i can throw a bowling ball.
Also, I'm a few days behind, its been hard as fuck for me to stay on schedule, but I knew that would be the case going in. Besides the job and family, I have 2 construction projects I'm working on right now, hockey practice 4 days a week, and some outdoor projects to wrap up before the snow flies. I also have some vehicle upkeep to take care of before then. I've also got a growing list of people waiting for some ink, and I'm also working on development of a prototype trimmer machine that I hope will end up going into production next year.
Yo Gnomez, need help, figured you're the best to ask since you're a Powerlifter and know your shit wit the Big 3.
As far as Squats, my form as far as upper body is perfect, as I've completely eliminated back pain, and I squat wit an empty bar in the mirror all the time to check myself. Now, my issue is my knees. My left knee has always been kinda "Faulty", so to speak. Never any real pain, but it constantly cracks pretty loudly any time I stand up, and it's the first to feel any kind of pain, even it's real minor, from standing too long, walking all day, etc., and it seems that squats are finally getting to it. Now, first thing, is I need clarification on feet stance, I was reading that they're 'sposed to be straight and parallel, but now I'm reading that they're 'sposed to be at a 45 degree angle, and straight is terrible for the knees. Second thing is, I read that you're 'sposed to push back on your heels, and keep the weight off your toes, as that fucks wit your knees, thing is, I'm not exactly understanding how to pull off the physical motion of "pushing back on my heels", I read to curl your toes up a bit, and I did that, but it makes my legs feel stiff and makes the squat feel unnatural. Last thing, is I also read that you're 'sposed to push the hips forward on the ascension from the squat position, now, is this basically the same motion as the hip push/glute lock that you do wit a deadlift, just from a deeper position? It was described as "Suddenly being pulled by a rope from the waist.".
I think the left side of my body is cursed. All my little injuries have been completely restricted to my left side, the Tendonitis I had in my left Bicep, my shoulder injury that seemed like a rotator cuff problem in my left shoulder, which is still a bit ongoing, that muscle knot on the left side of my back, my left knee, hurt my left wrist a little bit a few weeks back, etc. Fuck son.
Hey Popsicle With squats your feet should be about shoulder width apart, and with your toes splayed outward slightly. Not dead straight. 45 degrees is possibly too much but if it feels "right" then do it. I turn my toes ever so slightly outward.
Your feet should be flat to the floor, with the weight more on your heels. I haven't heard or curling your toes. For the best posture and stance your feet are better off flat. You dont want to be rocking forward or backward and lifting your heels or toes off the ground.
Hand width on the bar is important too. I have mine about where my shoulders are but I believe the closer you can them to your neck the better.
The two difficulties I have with squats are:- * when the weight gets heavy one or both of my knees buckle in which makes it hard to lift and puts nasty pressure on your knees. Make sure you flare your knees outward throughout the lift * when the weight gets heavy I tend to lean forward and bend over and my arse comes up and puts pressure on your back. Make sure you keep your chest up and your head up. I look at the ceiling and push my shoulder blades together to get my chest up to prevent this
I think it's time to take a week off, as much as I hate the thought, but I'm showing almost every sign of overtraining. Let's go through 'em first, and I'll explain:
Disrupted sleep patterns. Depression. Mood swings. Loss of strength. Loss of energy. More frequent injuries/aches/pains. Sudden lack of motivation to work out. Stuck at a plateau.
Let's go in order. My sleep pattern has been all kinds of fucked up. For over a month now, I haven't slept all the way through the night, I wake up every 4-5 hours on cue, and never sleep past 10, even if I go to bed at 4-5. When I used to sleep like a rock where nothing would wake me up, and I'd constantly get a good 10-12 hours of sleep.
Depression. This hasn't been as consistent, but I've been finding myself down over any little thing, just yesterday, I got depressed as fuck that my engineer said he might not be able to do a session on Saturday, and I mentally blew it up into "Why do I even try, this mixtape is never getting finished, I might as well give up, etc.", when normally, it wouldn't bother me, it'd just be "Aight cool, just let me know when's the soonest you can do it."." And then last week, I suddenly got extremely depressed and broke down crying.......over absolutely nothing. There was no explanation for the sudden depression. I felt like a hormonal bitch on her period.
Mood swings. Recently, I've found myself randomly up tight and pissed off for no reason, just being down in spirit. Been snapping at my Mom and being an asshole just 'cause she asks me a question and shit.
Loss of strength. Big time. Struggled to get 3 fucking reps of Bicep Curls wit 30 fucking pounds on last week's arms. Shit was pathetic.
Loss of energy. This is a big one. It hit me today how bad this is. I was literally pulling the very last fibers of strength and energy out of me to even manage finishing Legs today. Worst workout I've ever had, it was inexcusable. I was taking breaks every 3-4 reps. I was struggling to even stand up after a while, not 'cause of soreness, but because I was literally that low on energy to where I could barely even fucking stand myself up. That's never happened before.
More frequent injuries/aches/pains. Explained this earlier in my previous post. Feels like I'm completely breaking and shutting down. Now have my knee hurting me to even stand up, my left shoulder fucked, seemingly a rotator cuff issue, and echos of my Tendonitis coming back in my left Bicep, then today, while doing the Hip flexor stretch at the end of Legs, I felt what literally felt like a strong electrical shock right above my right knee, in my Quad. Don't know what the fuck it was. Then I'm still dealing wit my back issue.
Sudden lack of motivation to work out. This is the one that hurts me the most. Normally, lifting is one of the biggest highlights of my day, and I get so fired up right before I do so, but for the past week, it's just been "Ugh let's get this over wit.", and finding myself anxious and antsy for the workout to be finished.
Stuck at a plateau. Yep. For the first 4 weeks of Body Beast, I was upping my weights weekly, and I've been stuck at Week 4's weights ever since, save for making gains in a few moves.
I don't know man, this fucking blows. This shit has me seriously down. But, I guess, especially wit all these small injuries piling up, and my body being a ticking time bomb to get seriously injured, that it's for the best. Hopefully I come back after this week and I'm just an absolute monster and see actual strength gains.
Went through a full week, paying very close attention to my shoulder. The only time I really had any issue with it was on chest day, during the last set incline dumbell presses, I had upper the weight again, and half way through my form went bad on the left, and my shoulder popped a couple of times. I think if I switch to using a bar for them, it will help keep both arms in line. My other option is to drop the weight just a bit. On back day, I had one lat pullover that went down a bit too far (I swayed try to max out the ROM) and tweaked it just a little. I kept the weight down a bit on shoulder day, had some "clicking" in my shoulder, but no pain or pops. My problem seems to be that I push things to hard and I'm trying to progress quicker than can be reasonably expected. I'm pretty much trying to sprint through a marathon.
I think it's time to take a week off, as much as I hate the thought, but I'm showing almost every sign of overtraining. Let's go through 'em first, and I'll explain:
Disrupted sleep patterns. Depression. Mood swings. Loss of strength. Loss of energy. More frequent injuries/aches/pains. Sudden lack of motivation to work out. Stuck at a plateau.
Let's go in order. My sleep pattern has been all kinds of fucked up. For over a month now, I haven't slept all the way through the night, I wake up every 4-5 hours on cue, and never sleep past 10, even if I go to bed at 4-5. When I used to sleep like a rock where nothing would wake me up, and I'd constantly get a good 10-12 hours of sleep.
Depression. This hasn't been as consistent, but I've been finding myself down over any little thing, just yesterday, I got depressed as fuck that my engineer said he might not be able to do a session on Saturday, and I mentally blew it up into "Why do I even try, this mixtape is never getting finished, I might as well give up, etc.", when normally, it wouldn't bother me, it'd just be "Aight cool, just let me know when's the soonest you can do it."." And then last week, I suddenly got extremely depressed and broke down crying.......over absolutely nothing. There was no explanation for the sudden depression. I felt like a hormonal bitch on her period.
Mood swings. Recently, I've found myself randomly up tight and pissed off for no reason, just being down in spirit. Been snapping at my Mom and being an asshole just 'cause she asks me a question and shit.
Loss of strength. Big time. Struggled to get 3 fucking reps of Bicep Curls wit 30 fucking pounds on last week's arms. Shit was pathetic.
Loss of energy. This is a big one. It hit me today how bad this is. I was literally pulling the very last fibers of strength and energy out of me to even manage finishing Legs today. Worst workout I've ever had, it was inexcusable. I was taking breaks every 3-4 reps. I was struggling to even stand up after a while, not 'cause of soreness, but because I was literally that low on energy to where I could barely even fucking stand myself up. That's never happened before.
More frequent injuries/aches/pains. Explained this earlier in my previous post. Feels like I'm completely breaking and shutting down. Now have my knee hurting me to even stand up, my left shoulder fucked, seemingly a rotator cuff issue, and echos of my Tendonitis coming back in my left Bicep, then today, while doing the Hip flexor stretch at the end of Legs, I felt what literally felt like a strong electrical shock right above my right knee, in my Quad. Don't know what the fuck it was. Then I'm still dealing wit my back issue.
Sudden lack of motivation to work out. This is the one that hurts me the most. Normally, lifting is one of the biggest highlights of my day, and I get so fired up right before I do so, but for the past week, it's just been "Ugh let's get this over wit.", and finding myself anxious and antsy for the workout to be finished.
Stuck at a plateau. Yep. For the first 4 weeks of Body Beast, I was upping my weights weekly, and I've been stuck at Week 4's weights ever since, save for making gains in a few moves.
I don't know man, this fucking blows. This shit has me seriously down. But, I guess, especially wit all these small injuries piling up, and my body being a ticking time bomb to get seriously injured, that it's for the best. Hopefully I come back after this week and I'm just an absolute monster and see actual strength gains.
Have you considered that A. You're menstruating B. Youre pregnant?
I'm really feeling the benefits of this rest week. I slept all fucking day today like a baby. Finally catching up on sleep after a month of not sleeping through the night, all my little injuries are feeling relieved, only thing that still has some pain is my knee. Just overall feeling better, not drained like I have been, and been in a better mood all around. On top of all that, I'm not losing any motivation, I'm counting down the days 'til Saturday to just go fucking nuts when I get back to my routine, so stoked. Hopefully I see some strength and energy gains, which I was reading is the case most of the time after taking a week off. As much as I didn't wanna do this, I'm definitely glad that I did, it's also showing me how big of a part of my life lifting is, I'm going nuts not being able to lift, it's all I been thinking about, been watching lifting videos and reading about supplements to hold myself over lol.
Comments
Did 3 sets of 6 reps at 100kg doing box squats (squatting and sitting on a low box)
Then benched 15 reps of my own body weight
I feel like the Hulk
Also, I'm a few days behind, its been hard as fuck for me to stay on schedule, but I knew that would be the case going in. Besides the job and family, I have 2 construction projects I'm working on right now, hockey practice 4 days a week, and some outdoor projects to wrap up before the snow flies. I also have some vehicle upkeep to take care of before then. I've also got a growing list of people waiting for some ink, and I'm also working on development of a prototype trimmer machine that I hope will end up going into production next year.
/excuses.
1/4 sleeve still in progress on a close family friend, whose little brother lost his battle with cancer.
As far as Squats, my form as far as upper body is perfect, as I've completely eliminated back pain, and I squat wit an empty bar in the mirror all the time to check myself. Now, my issue is my knees. My left knee has always been kinda "Faulty", so to speak. Never any real pain, but it constantly cracks pretty loudly any time I stand up, and it's the first to feel any kind of pain, even it's real minor, from standing too long, walking all day, etc., and it seems that squats are finally getting to it. Now, first thing, is I need clarification on feet stance, I was reading that they're 'sposed to be straight and parallel, but now I'm reading that they're 'sposed to be at a 45 degree angle, and straight is terrible for the knees. Second thing is, I read that you're 'sposed to push back on your heels, and keep the weight off your toes, as that fucks wit your knees, thing is, I'm not exactly understanding how to pull off the physical motion of "pushing back on my heels", I read to curl your toes up a bit, and I did that, but it makes my legs feel stiff and makes the squat feel unnatural. Last thing, is I also read that you're 'sposed to push the hips forward on the ascension from the squat position, now, is this basically the same motion as the hip push/glute lock that you do wit a deadlift, just from a deeper position? It was described as "Suddenly being pulled by a rope from the waist.".
With squats your feet should be about shoulder width apart, and with your toes splayed outward slightly. Not dead straight. 45 degrees is possibly too much but if it feels "right" then do it. I turn my toes ever so slightly outward.
Your feet should be flat to the floor, with the weight more on your heels. I haven't heard or curling your toes. For the best posture and stance your feet are better off flat. You dont want to be rocking forward or backward and lifting your heels or toes off the ground.
I have mine about where my shoulders are but I believe the closer you can them to your neck the better.
The two difficulties I have with squats are:-
* when the weight gets heavy one or both of my knees buckle in which makes it hard to lift and puts nasty pressure on your knees.
Make sure you flare your knees outward throughout the lift
* when the weight gets heavy I tend to lean forward and bend over and my arse comes up and puts pressure on your back.
Make sure you keep your chest up and your head up.
I look at the ceiling and push my shoulder blades together to get my chest up to prevent this
Disrupted sleep patterns.
Depression.
Mood swings.
Loss of strength.
Loss of energy.
More frequent injuries/aches/pains.
Sudden lack of motivation to work out.
Stuck at a plateau.
Let's go in order. My sleep pattern has been all kinds of fucked up. For over a month now, I haven't slept all the way through the night, I wake up every 4-5 hours on cue, and never sleep past 10, even if I go to bed at 4-5. When I used to sleep like a rock where nothing would wake me up, and I'd constantly get a good 10-12 hours of sleep.
Depression. This hasn't been as consistent, but I've been finding myself down over any little thing, just yesterday, I got depressed as fuck that my engineer said he might not be able to do a session on Saturday, and I mentally blew it up into "Why do I even try, this mixtape is never getting finished, I might as well give up, etc.", when normally, it wouldn't bother me, it'd just be "Aight cool, just let me know when's the soonest you can do it."." And then last week, I suddenly got extremely depressed and broke down crying.......over absolutely nothing. There was no explanation for the sudden depression. I felt like a hormonal bitch on her period.
Mood swings. Recently, I've found myself randomly up tight and pissed off for no reason, just being down in spirit. Been snapping at my Mom and being an asshole just 'cause she asks me a question and shit.
Loss of strength. Big time. Struggled to get 3 fucking reps of Bicep Curls wit 30 fucking pounds on last week's arms. Shit was pathetic.
Loss of energy. This is a big one. It hit me today how bad this is. I was literally pulling the very last fibers of strength and energy out of me to even manage finishing Legs today. Worst workout I've ever had, it was inexcusable. I was taking breaks every 3-4 reps. I was struggling to even stand up after a while, not 'cause of soreness, but because I was literally that low on energy to where I could barely even fucking stand myself up. That's never happened before.
More frequent injuries/aches/pains. Explained this earlier in my previous post. Feels like I'm completely breaking and shutting down. Now have my knee hurting me to even stand up, my left shoulder fucked, seemingly a rotator cuff issue, and echos of my Tendonitis coming back in my left Bicep, then today, while doing the Hip flexor stretch at the end of Legs, I felt what literally felt like a strong electrical shock right above my right knee, in my Quad. Don't know what the fuck it was. Then I'm still dealing wit my back issue.
Sudden lack of motivation to work out. This is the one that hurts me the most. Normally, lifting is one of the biggest highlights of my day, and I get so fired up right before I do so, but for the past week, it's just been "Ugh let's get this over wit.", and finding myself anxious and antsy for the workout to be finished.
Stuck at a plateau. Yep. For the first 4 weeks of Body Beast, I was upping my weights weekly, and I've been stuck at Week 4's weights ever since, save for making gains in a few moves.
I don't know man, this fucking blows. This shit has me seriously down. But, I guess, especially wit all these small injuries piling up, and my body being a ticking time bomb to get seriously injured, that it's for the best. Hopefully I come back after this week and I'm just an absolute monster and see actual strength gains.
A. You're menstruating
B. Youre pregnant?