Are you really Asian?
Why do you ask? I’m even on track to graduate with a math minor ![]()
Update: I didn’t end up feeling any better yesterday so I took the day off.
I feel a lot better today- should I keep resting?
@dagill2 @Voxel @garagerocker13
@vision1 I’m a bit concerned that my lower body volume isn’t enough to make progress. Also, where should I fit in cardio/conditioning to keep up cardio capacity- walks and 1 “easy day” cardio session isn’t cutting it
Yeah, continuing to rest will not have any long lasting negative impacts. You have more to recoup from than what you’ll do in a single day off. Or two.
I don’t want to step on @vision1 s toes, but my 2c @anna_5588 is that you shouldn’t worry about if the volume is adequate or not right now when it’s so clear what you need to be able to accurately gauge that is dial everything back for a while.
And I think you can maintain your cardio capacity, but what you’re feeling is that there’s an itch not being scratched. Not genuine regression.
However, much like with chess you can only move one piece at a time. If you’re actively progressing with strength, conditioning should be at best perhaps maintained. Allowing it to lapse a bit is normal.
But right now, progress in the health dimension should be all that matters. Everything else will come much easier later when you’re better.
This.
Your low hanging fruit that will positively impact every other area of your life is getting healthy. There’s a reason Maslans (sp?) Hierarchy shows your health/physical safety as a foundational attribute.
Why are you concerned that the volume is too low? What did you use to determine that?
What are your conditioning goals? Conditioning comes easily, there is no need to maintain a high level year round and you don’t compete in any sport that I know of so I’m not sure what you’re looking for. I’d say you could add LISS sessions but I don’t trust your judgement of low intensity.
And my opinion is you should stop walking so much and take this entire week off.
I love counseling. It helped me get through a lot and I actually enjoyed it once I found the right one.
People who want to get better at baseball, practice and have a coach. Mental health should be looked at the same way. You seem to enjoy challenging yourself, you should see how much change you can make mentally. Find a good coach and put that same physical training mentality you have into brain training.
Week 5: day 1
Sprints: 2x60m, 1x30m, 2x20m
Cossack squats: 4x8/side-45lbs
1arm push-up: 2x7/side, 1x9/side!!! @Pinkylifting
Core: 2x(1min leg drops- focus on eccentric+45sec plank+15sec rest)
- feeling pretty good, legs a bit stiff so pistols weren’t really going to happen- good glute and hamstring pump from sprints and Cossack squats, quads worked too, a bit crunches for time so made a deal with myself on the pushups- PR!!! Core work still sucks
@vision1 @Voxel I’ve noticed that when I’m doing lifts that involve bracing, my heart rate spikes and I feel like it’s cardio that’s limiting me, but I’m fairly sure I’m not that out of shape. What’s going on?
You’re managing to brace well ![]()
Slightly longer reply. A really good brace, to me, demands a lot of effort. That pressure cannot be sustained for very many reps. As the ability to brace improves, the weight on the bar goes up and you’ll be fine to lift lighter weights with less of a brace but a brace that’s adequate for you to express your limit strength will always take something out of you.
I have a friend, fantastic bracer. He rarely does more than four reps because he’s not adept at bracing “enough”. He just braces to the maximum. If he kept at it, he’d pass out.
Bracing involves holding your breath and creating a maximum of intra abdominal pressure. That results in a lack of oxygen, a blood pressure spike and lack of blood circulation. It’s not uncommon to feel dizzy and breath heavy after. Although I personally think that like “correct” breathing should be safed for when it’s called for. What @Voxel meant with “bracing enough”. No reason to burst blood vessels on curls, haha.
I have another friend that braces better on curls than squats… That’s actually my coaching cue for him a lot, I want you to bring the same level of effort you do to your curls to the thing you are doing now. Especially in the climbing gym, I have a hard time getting him to commit to a movement without pointing out he uses more fervour to pull on a fucking cable machine.
I have definitely felt a little light headed after a 1RM overhead press on occasion haha. As above, something to do with the pressure created by the bracing. Also, not sure how true this is, but I’ve heard that people have been known to pass out under such circumstances, so it’s probably worth keeping an eye on.
Week 5: day2
Jumps: 4x5-25lbs
Pistols: 2x2-45lbs
Shrimp squats: 2x8-25lbs
Push Press: 3x2, 1x1,45lbs
Lower body accessory stuff: 1x(10cossack squats+10 rdls)/side, 5xlunge matrix/side, all w/25lbs
- mentally felt pretty good but physically not up to it, nothing sore- everything just felt heavy, jumps went surprisingly well- then downhill, still got in a decent effort though, I’ll try pistols again on Friday and see if I can do better
Sorry have I missed this, you’re on HRT? I’ve not been in this log since the beginning, but how long have you been on?
It’s called femosten- for post menopausal women
Unfortunately female HRT does not have the performance benefits of male HRT. Because I’m not actually in menopause and didn’t suffer nasty side effects ie night sweats, all the hrt does for me is the nasty parts of actually having a cycle ie pms, bleeding
I’ve never seen you mention it before (might have missed it sorry) - I’m aware it doesn’t boost performance (I have some low level awareness of female hormone manipulation - my wife went through 2 cycles of IVF).
I was mostly surprised with all your previous fretting over weight fluctuations you haven’t mentioned it as a highly probable cause, instead you’ve agonised over other potential sources of weight fluctuation, which would have all had significantly less impact than HRT. Again sorry if you’ve mentioned it before and I’ve missed it.
I’ll ask the question and feel free to ignore it, is the reason for HRT because you’ve stopped producing adequate levels of hormones due to being underweight? (Again for reference my wife was around 105lbs @ 5’6 and those two cycles of IVF failed, she then left her ex and we got together and she went up to around 130 and conceived naturally twice - so I’m not talking from a position of ignorance or judgement, I’m asking out of concern).
