I hate this so much. Most of my friends are male, overweight and unfit, it fucks me up so bad that despite all of that they could still ice me on bench/upper body exercises. Probably most leg exercises too outside of a hip thrust. The only thing I have going for me against them is that I can outrun them and not want to kill myself walking up stairs, lol.
Yeah, it's disheartening at first, but here's another side-effect they don't tell you about:
You start seeing weak/fat men differently, because you now know how much work it takes for a man to be strong compared to a woman, and they're just not doing it.
They start out twice as strong and build muscle twice as fast and they just aren't doing it.
WAGMI, but you gotta put in some effort.
Reading this thread got me out to the gym today. I've had a membership, that I've been sadly sitting on for a while. Many such cases, I'm sure. I was out for a couple of hours, walking on the treadmill a lot and also doing strength training. It felt really good to get out.
Is it okay to mix cardio and strength training? My trainer said if I'm doing HIIT I should save the strength stuff for the day after and alternate to give my body rest on some days and then another?
Yeah, it's disheartening at first, but here's another side-effect they don't tell you about:
You start seeing weak/fat men differently, because you now know how much work it takes for a man to be strong compared to a woman, and they're just not doing it.
They start out twice as strong and build muscle twice as fast and they just aren't doing it.
WAGMI, but you gotta put in some effort.
I have never been able to put it into words but this is so god damn true it is not funny, and the entire reason there is legitimately only one man in my life that I actually have respect for.
Not to say I don't love my friends and family, but I certainly do not respect them or...look at them the same way.
Is it okay to mix cardio and strength training? My trainer said if I'm doing HIIT I should save the strength stuff for the day after and alternate to give my body rest on some days and then another?
Really depends on where you are fitness wise. Once you plateau on the HIIT, you should be able to recover within 5-10 minutes and hit the weights. Early on, doing too much in the same session can compromise your form/technique and lead to injury.
General tip: Always remember how you feel when your starting out - that's the good kind of soreness/stiffness. Anything else is really bad. If you've never done sports, it's hard to tell the difference between good pain/bad pain. It can be hard to tell when you've aggravated a little tiny vestigial back muscle and the beginnings of tendonitis. If you've got doubts, play it safe and change up your routine for a week or so.
So every time I did a bicep workout, I always ended up with super sore arms and I cannot extend my arms for 2-3 days.
Is there a way that I can avoid this?
So every time I did a bicep workout, I always ended up with super sore arms and I cannot extend my arms for 2-3 days.
Is there a way that I can avoid this?
Keep doing bicep curls, the soreness goes away eventually.
Not being able to move them at all is a little odd, but when I first started out my DOMS (soreness) was pretty bad. I don't really get it at all now after almost 2 years of weight training.
So every time I did a bicep workout, I always ended up with super sore arms and I cannot extend my arms for 2-3 days.
Is there a way that I can avoid this?
So every time I did a bicep workout, I always ended up with super sore arms and I cannot extend my arms for 2-3 days.
Is there a way that I can avoid this?
Do you lock out your elbows at the bottom of the rep/movement? That might be putting unnecessary stress on the tendon instead of the muscle. Try a slight bend at the bottom of the rep so you keep tension on the bicep and don't start from scratch/lock out on each rep.
I had a bum shoulder, and it would pop when I would do bench, and certain shoulder things. I spent a while doing shoulder rehab exercises to try and strengthen the supporting muscles in the joint area (what a baseball pitcher might do, silly looking exercises with cans of soup). You could look into what people do for knee rehab, and incorporate some of those exercises into your routine. I know an old teacher of mine would sit at her desk and take a towel, put it on the ground, and push it from one side to the other side with her foot, and this was supposed to help whatever small muscles needed help in the knee. The exercises seem light, and inconsequential, but if you stick with it long term it can help. My shoulder doesn't sound as bad as it once did, I can bench without the stupid popping.
Ultimately figuring out whats the real cause would be worth it just to know what's going on. Knees are important, maybe even to have a physiotherapist look at it, they can give you exercises to correct it (that's where I got mine for the shoulder). At least then you know if your knee cartilage is degenerating, or its just gas bubbles.
*I actually tested this, it does work*
You need two light resistance bands, the ones that are like a giant elastic band. Get into a squat rack, and position the bar about shoulder height, loop both bands around said bar about shoulder width apart. now get down below the bar and cross the two bands, making an 'X' and put them onto your shoulders like backpack straps. The idea is when you are at the lowest point of the pushup the resistance bands give you the most assistance. This should assist you in working towards a normal pushup. You can vary the height of the bar to add/subtract the pull force of the resistance band. The higher the bar the more assistance you get. Over time you can lower the bar, and eventually get to that perfect unassisted pushup. This should help ease the transition between knee based pushup and regular pushup.
You can see the blurry squat rack, and the bar, the red is the resistance bands, hopefully you can make out the person.
Keep doing bicep curls, the soreness goes away eventually.
Not being able to move them at all is a little odd, but when I first started out my DOMS (soreness) was pretty bad. I don't really get it at all now after almost 2 years of weight training.
Do you lock out your elbows at the bottom of the rep/movement? That might be putting unnecessary stress on the tendon instead of the muscle. Try a slight bend at the bottom of the rep so you keep tension on the bicep and don't start from scratch/lock out on each rep.
I noticed that I felt sore on the forearms at first, then my arms feel stiff the next day.
I think I'm going to try a lighter weight and then slowly go heavy.
You'd be surprised how many people are on gear (steroids) at some point. One of the guys I used to work with had some good arms, big but not gigantic, bigger shoulders, and he eventually told me he does a cycle from time to time. I'd think to myself "he just works really hard!" Nope, gear. Another guy I know who's above average in strength, but you wouldn't know it if you looked at him, used a lot of gear when he was younger. Not to discourage anyone, however some of those "big" women are probably using gear. If you hold one of these women as your goal physique well...
Yea, she's on a few things lol. Not to say they don't work hard, but there's a little bit of special sauce required to develop like this (lol those lats aren't suspect AT all). The guy I used to work with would tell me that when he was on a cycle, his sex drive would go into overdrive, but then afterwards, it was never the same. It would be even lower than what it was before he started using gear. Personally, I respect the natty (natural) lifters more. Definitely changed my perspective at the gym.
Fit girls and slightly thick and fit girls are the reason why it should be a motivator to get to the gym. If fit women can have much to say about guys looking at them, or trying their hardest not to lurk, one can only imagine what those same fit women are thinking about when they look at themselves in the mirror.
Even my favorite anime could agree with this thread.
Using the exercise bicycle has its good benefits as well. I might actually use it more in the next few months, since it does wonders for my sitting position.
Does anyone else use the deathfat board for inspo. Everytime I read the fat acceptance thread I just think to myself how I was probably 10kgs away from that being me at one point.
Does anyone else use the deathfat board for inspo. Everytime I read the fat acceptance thread I just think to myself how I was probably 10kgs away from that being me at one point
Oh yes: April Lauren has been my #1 inspiration (which is her mission, so good for her.) I can't outrun a bad diet, I have to follow through a workout plan, be mindful of preventing injury, so I'll reach my goals.
Does anyone else use the deathfat board for inspo. Everytime I read the fat acceptance thread I just think to myself how I was probably 10kgs away from that being me at one point.
So today, I did a pull day with seated rows, Pulldown Bicep curls with the lat machine, some bicep curls and Hammer curl.
I figure out why I felt some pain in my wrist and forearm.
it's my grip strength and heavy weights.
Hopefully tomorrow, it won't be too bad.
Has anyone ever had success shifting to a morning workout from an afternoon one and sticking with it long term? I keep trying and keep failing.
My gym's an absolute zoo after work, but very relaxed in the mornings so I can get my routine done much quicker. But I end up so tired during the day afterwards.
A couple times per year I'll give mornings a shot, but I always can only stick to it for ~2 weeks max before I sleep in and start the afternoon routine again instead.
I’m trying to get back into powerlifting after a long winter of having no motivation and am pretty excited to try a 12 week diy GZCLP program. so far I’ve done 3/4 days of week 1 and am having a lot of fun with it. I like that it’s fairly intense but doesn’t take as long each day as some programs I’ve tried.
If you’re a woman interested in getting more into strength training, personally I had a great experience withBret Contreras’s “strong curves” program when I was starting. this program focuses on growing the butt but is just a great way to build a solid base of strength. there isn’t a lot of upper body work in this program. This site has a google sheets template and more info. You can do body weight workouts or dumbbells or whatever works for you. I used dumbbells until I had built a lot of strength and then progressed to doing complex lifts with the barbell.
Another suggestion that helped me was apps like Work-It which has strong curves and other popular programs like starting strength pre-loaded in so you can easily log and follow a strength program, whether a dumbbell or machine program or barbell. They also have diagrams of how to do each workout which was helpful for me.
Don’t be too worried about becoming big and manly. You aren’t going to build that kind of muscle without actually trying to bulk. You’ll become toned before anything.
if they dont hop off it and keep competing, then pretty much this. This is spanish ifbb pro Paloma Parra. She actually seems like a super nice lady on Tiktok, but yeah she looks rough.
