Hard time not feeling your back working more than your abs?
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Not exactly, I just typically cut these sets once I cant contract my abs hard enough to not feel it in my back. I’m no great shakes on ab wheel but today I got to that point much sooner than usual.
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Went to gym at inlaws town today
Warmup mob jumps.
Trap bar DL. Work up to single at 275, then 5x5@185 SS with 5 chins and 5 dips for first four sets, then with 2 sets of hammer curls+lateral raises. Then 50 walking lunges
Warmup mobs jumps.
Incline BB. Work up to 1@105. Then, 10x5@75 SS with DB rows (10@30, 10@40, 10@50, 8@50, 12@40).
SS. 3 sets of hanging leg raises, 3 sets of lateral raises. 10ish reps each.
Stairmill. 800 steps, around 70 steps per minute.
Warmups. Mobs. Jumps.
Work up to squat single at 185, SS’d some plate raises.
Then, squat 5x5@135 SS with 5x10 situps and 5x10 hammer curls.
Also should note, tried some front squats first time with the bar on the way out. Felt amazing except the bar crushing my throat (but I assume that’s unavoidable?)
Warmup mobs jumps.
OHP. Work up to 1@95, then 5@75, then realized I was supposed to do 5x5@65 and did that.
SS with ab wheel, then SS with rows.
Then, rower. 2000m@2.02.5/500m. Hadn’t rowed in a while, wasn’t really in the groove and this wasnt easy after the first minute and was pretty miserable the last two mins.
Savaged my hand like an idiot trying to fix the vacuum, its cut up pretty nicely. The injury is much less than i deserved, and I dont think it will take much more than a week to heal…but I’m not going to be holding much in it for a few days. Still wanted to go today so had to come up with something a little different.
Leg press. Worked up to heavy-ish set of 10 (240), then 5x10@180. I think I could have gone heavier but was leery of burying myself on some exercise I basically never do.
Chest press machine. Worked up to something like 2x10@70,2x10@80. Could not get this to feel efficient or smooth at all.
Back raises. Worked up to 8@45(tried to hold a single dumbbell which was manageable if I mostly held with good hand).
If anything it became apparent that I should try to think a little harder ahead of time about what to do before next time I go to the gym.
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I could imagine after doing almost entirely free-weights for so long, any machine like that would feel awkward
Hope you heal up quick.
How do you feel about the leg press? I’ve only used one once and I was on the fence about it.
I have liked the 45 degree plate loaded one when I angled the seat back sufficiently. This was a weird machine one where the feet plate didnt move after adjustment, because the plate loaded one was occupied by a paying trainee in PT session.
I did not really like it, as the weight went up it didnt seem to concentrate the pressure in one spot on the back of my hips, I’ve used it maybe two or three times in the past and it was fine so either user error, or the padding is going too flimsy.
Man. So bored from being at home all day every day. I can work from home but my wife works at hospital (and is suitably freaked out there) so I’m just completely alone a lot more than I’m used to.
Good news, my hand is pretty much healed.
Anyway I’ve done pretty much no exercise for the past week. CV’d out of the gym like probably everyone else who doesn’t train at home. Though to be fair, I was a hard no on going to the Y for like a week before the closure.
That being said I do have some training equipment available at home. I have adjustable DBs that go up to 75lb/each. A 16kg kettlebell. Some bands. Some furniture sliders. No bench/barbell, no real availability for chins either, closest alternatives are if I’m able to rig something for inverted rows (under our dinner table is not wife approved as it’s a little shaky now), or some kind of lat pulldown-y setup with bands.
So yeah just wanted to do something, anything today. Took a break from work to do this:
SS
Goblet squats. Did sets of 8 at something like 35, 50, 60, 70, 75.
DB rows. Increasing sets up to 8@50.
SS.
Pushups 3x15
DB curls 3x10-15
Honestly my equipment should be enough for a reasonable program. Just need to figure something out. Surely I’ll have too much time on my hands this weekend.
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Haha maybe, that being said the few times I’ve been at a gym with the hack squat that slides up and down at an angle, it felt amazing. I’d find a way to jam that in for sure if I had access to one regularly.
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Search Dan John lacking weights.
He also goes onto more ob this subject. If I could find it I’d link it. But he goes into how he got very strong using 1 75lb weight
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Thank you. I found an article called “one dumbbell workout” by Dan John. Not sure if that’s the same as what you were thinking but pretty interesting.
I think I’ll set some new performance goals to do this with a good frame of mind. Interested to eventually go toward the db clean and press challenge mentioned in some old tn article (10@85s or something) but that’s too far off to be a near term goal.
That’s the one. Any good to you?
Yeah, I dont have the same restrictions he does (fixed weight db, busted up arm) but convinced to work in some single dumbbell things that are a little more “dynamic” like clean/push press/jerk/snatch.
Today I did.
Single DB clean and press. 5 R, 5 L. Increasing weight by 5lb.
20/25/30/35.
At 40, wasnt fully confident in L, so I did 1+2+2 reps alternating arms.
At 45, could not finish with strict presses so used push press the last few sets.
Sliding lunges. 50 each leg, alternating 10R+10L.
SS. 4x (25 BPA + 8 ab wheel - forgot I had one I bought from Five Below a while back !)
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Some socially distant performance goals
Goblet squat. 25reps@75
Single db clean and push press. 75.
DB row. 20reps@75
Sit cross leg on floor comfortably.
If I make progress on those, interested in the Sig Klein 2db clean and press challenge which is apparently 12 reps with 75s. @Chris_Colucci wrote an article about it like a million years ago.
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Yep. It’s a monster challenge.
Fun Fact: Sig Klein’s Gym was a old school classic in NY from the 1920s to the 1970s. Sig Klein’s Fat Men’s Shop, also in NY, was owned by a different Sig Klein and was around from the 1890s to 1960s.
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Nice. I bet Old Sig Klein was furious at this muscleman imposter and people of his ilk causing all those wars too.
In other news, my wife wanted to brave the outside world and go to a local distillery today. Turns out they were selling hand sanitizer made from ethanol from their gin stills, and we also got a big bottle of gin for her to watch me drink while we’re shut-in.
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