I just feel kind of off all week, not really sick just something doesn’t feel right. Energy is lower than normal, strength is down, and my appetite is down too. I’m sure I will be back to normal soon, it’s just fucked up because I still have to work. Right now if you have been in contact with someone who is confirmed to have the virus you are supposed to stay home for 2 weeks, but if you work in a hospital or nursing home you are still supposed to work unless you have symptoms, and I don’t. I should call in, “I think I’m sick, my squat and bench are down”.
At first I was kind of skeptical as to whether I made the right decision, but after about a week I realized it was the right choice. I was fed up with fighting over equipment in a commercial gym, and to make it worse that gym only had one power rack so I had to take it over every time I came to the gym. The only thing is that it might feel weird training alone at first, but you also won’t get caught up in any conversations between sets.
I have a rack, 2 benches now (I bought a comp. spec. bench because I was fed up with my wobbly old incline bench), rubber mats, olympic dumbbell handles, power bar, DL bar, transformer bar, and some bands. That’s pretty much it.
I bought some ammonia from them once, and I’m pretty sure I bought something else too but I can’t remember what. I don’t hear anything bad about them, sounds like their equipment is good quality. It’s a long way from Australia, but if they will ship then go for it.
There’s a lot of pros to the home gym. Being in a social environment is nice but I can do just as well without I think. If I’m not working my mouth between sets I’m working my fingers on my phone lol
I’ve already picked up a sumo deadlift bar from StrongArm Sport which is pretty cool. Worked out cheaper than a rogue bar from Australia (if any were in stock) and a Texas bar is like a 1000 bucks. Gonna get a power bar from em next because my first experience was really good. It’s like budget prices but quality to match the big boys.
I do love the barbells. When u spend a fair bit on em and they go along with you for the lifelong journey of gains u love em like your they your babies.
U have rogue bars yourself?
Just the basics is $$$ enough. I don’t really use specialty bars too much but plenty of little pieces that I’d buy if I wanted a home gym I was happy with. Maybe after this when the market goes back to normal I can pick something up
Socializing is good of course, but the problem is that some people at the gym are more into talking than training and it can mess up your focus.
Only the deadlift bar. The power bar is from CAP barbell, I think I got it off Amazon (it was 5 years ago, it’s been a while) but the thing is that it’s actually a little thicker than a normal power bar by maybe 2mm and the rings and knurling are off by a cm or two. It does the job but if I had known I wouldn’t have bought it, I thought it was a standard power bar. It’s actually stiffer than most power bars too, it’s almost like a squat bar. It doesn’t start to bend in the rack until I have over 500 on it.
The main reason I like the transformer bar was because squatting used to kill my arms and shoulders, but now I cut back volume and frequency and it’s not an issue anymore.
Actually, I had another SSB that I don’t use, I bought it the same time as my rack. It was $99, which seemed too good to be true, and it sort of was because the design is fucked up, it’s too narrow and the bend part before the sleeves is what sits on the hooks. I was pissed off when I realized that, but I still ended up using it for a long time, I just had to straighten it out in the rack before unracking. I used to call it the Danger Squat Bar, because nothing about it seemed too safe. Just be careful not to buy any questionable shit like that.
I wouldn’t bother buying a squat bar anytime soon, I have used one in a couple meets and it felt just like a regular power bar to me. I don’t think it makes a difference until you have about 800lbs on it, then it’s less whippy. If anything I would buy a new power bar.
Not squatting in EliteFTS Super Heavy wraps helps me hit depth consistently, just with less weight.
Deadlift up to 525x1 - I would have been going for 600 but I still don’t feel right, I just feel a little bit drowsy and spaced out and everything feels heavy. I’m sure I could have pulled another 30-40lbs but that’s still not close to a PR so there is no point in wasting my energy.
I’m pretty sure at this point that I have coronavirus, I just don’t have any real symptoms. Slightly decreased energy, strength, and appetite? I don’t know. One of my co-workers tested positive, plus a couple of the residents, so it’s highly likely.
Only squat bar I’ve used is the Goliath Squat Bar like once it is pretty beast 35mm diameter, 30kg, aggressive knurling along the whole shaft. Felt really strange to squat with like it was built for a guy twice my size which kinda makes sense because it’s the one used at big dogs.
Belkin was saying that the bar was way thicker than anything he ever used before and awkward to grip, that’s not a normal squat bar. I can’t remember the usual diameter off the top of my head, but normally they are not that much thicker than power bars.
I’m just going to take it one day at a time, I feel better this evening than I did the last couple days. Like I keep saying, the fucked up thing is that I don’t actually have the symptoms, I just have this vague lazy feeling and my lifts all went down. I wanted to at least pull 600 and bench 405 with my ass unquestionably on the bench before going back to more normal training, but depending on how I feel in the next week or two that might not be an option. Then again, in a couple months I could be repping 600 if all goes well.
I don’t think this virus is as serious as the media makes it sound. Right now we have 10 people sick and nobody is hospitalized, nobody is dying, and they are all getting better. A few years ago we had a flu outbreak and 10 people died. When was the last time they shut down the world for the flu?
In Oz I think the numbers are something like 50 ded. Couple of thousand infected.
Can’t say with any degree of certainty if these measures are an over reaction or not. The numbers if your country has them good are because of the measures it has taken and other mitigating factors. I dunno what the alternative looks like without less strict measures or none because I think every country at this point has something going and while I vaguely know what exponential growth is I don’t know much about the modelling that is being used. We could look to some the worst affected countries for some idea like Italy and Spain.
Governments have chosen to be extra safe. May or may not have been the right call in terms of degrees of strictness. They’ve weighed up potential damage using modelling and voodoo magic vs getting economically buttfucked for a decade. Governments love to be rich so I’m thinking there would’ve been a very real cost to less strict measures.
We’ll see how we pull up on the other end of this. I think Australia has done too much in controlling the virus but like I said it’s hard to find measures that are just safe enough. Countries that pull thru will be able to see how other counties have gone with less/more strict measures and hopefully we can all learn from this.
What I have been saying is that they should isolate the elderly and people with health conditions that put them at risk and everything else can go on more or less as normal. The way things are being done, the sick and elderly are still at risk because they have to go grocery shopping and other people are needlessly stuck at home. It would be much cheaper for the government to make a food delivery service for those who are isolated than to put half the country on welfare/unemployment benefits. Interestingly, I have seen several recent articles recommending the same thing, like it’s basically common sense.
Bench press up to 365x1 - minimal arch
I could have done another rep or two but I’m still feeling lazy so I’m not pushing it, just call it a deload. It feels awkward with the different setup but strength is still there and I should get used to it soon. I think I’m going to bench like this from now on to prevent my ass coming up off the bench, arching never did much for me anyway.
UK and Netherlands planned to but switched up IIRC because they reckoned it’d still over burden their health care system because relatively healthy people still get sick and die just gets more likely the older you go and more existing conditions you have.
Sweden’s approach makes sense to keep the country running, keep the people happy and for healthcare systems that can take it (Sweden’s ICU bed % is pretty low). Their death rate / number of cases is high but nothing too crazy.
Swedish culture values interpersonal distance already, relatively few inter generational households and large proportion of the population living solo in their homes so in that way Sweden may be best placed to do well with a chillaxed approach.
It relies upon effective herd immunity which like many things for covid is still ???. If a vaccine comes around sooner rather than later than the conventional approach will probably turn out to be the best. If it takes towards the longer end of the spectrum like 12-18 months then countries are gonna be so wrecked it’ll be hard to justify it even with the lives saved.
Sweden is considering increasing restrictions at this point I believe. The best approach or mix of approaches is yet to be determined because it’s probably a retrospective thing.
I read an interview with one of the doctors in Sweden who helped come up with their plan, he was saying that he considers the economy to be extremely relevant to public health. Also being locked inside for months will cause a lot of depression and other issues, leading to suicides, violence, drug use, etc. This virus kills maybe 1% of the people it infects at most, it might be a bit worse than a regular flu and more contagious but causing a complete economic collapse to reduce cases seems very short sighted.
I don’t know what’s wrong with me, for a few days I was thirsty as hell, drinking water and pissing constantly, and since Saturday night everytime I try to eat I feel like puking. I was off Monday and today, I was suppose to work yesterday but I called sick because I felt like absolute shit. Somehow I managed to eat a bunch of pizza yesterday and I feel a bit better today, but I can still barely eat. Either I have some weird coronavirus symptoms or I ate some bad food, but at work a whole bunch of people, employes and residents, have tested positive so if it’s that I wouldn’t be surprised.
Monday’s training
Tried to squat, didn’t get far. I barely ate anything in the 2 days before this and I think i was dehydrated too. I was thinking maybe do a few reps with 505 in wraps, I squatted 385 and my left leg started cramping up. I tried to sort that out and I loaded 445 but when I unracked it, it was like 650 on my back. I racked it, tried again, but it just wasn’t happening. I couldn’t believe it, but barely eating and being dehydrated can do that.
Wednesday
This was much better, although I still don’t feel right
Bench press - less arch
365x1 - moved real fast, so I had to put some more weight on the bar
385x1 - not as fast but still good, no ass raising either. Heavy enough for today
335x3 - I guess I fatigued real fast, I was expecting at least 5 reps. Maybe could have done one more.
I’m not going to do assistance work until I feel normal again, no use in putting extra stress on my body. I don’t even know if I will be able to eat this afternoon.
Body weight is down too, I was around 258-260 before and this morning I was 253.4. That’s not exactly good since it’s probably all water and muscle that I’m losing, I’m going on 2 weeks of basically deload training and pretty much starving myself since the weekend. It might take a few weeks to get back to normal.
