Depends on the farmer, I suppose
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LOL!
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What is your stance with deltoids ? Pretty sure I would say training shoulders or delts or deltoids if I was doing bro training
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So if I’m training delts then I’d use an s, but if I have a delt workout, then no s. Going to the gym for a “delts workout” sounds silly, right? RIGHT?!
Same with abs. I’m going to train abs using the leg raise. But I’m not going to do an “abs” workout. It sounds absolutely wrong, like a hairscut.
Maybe I need to specify the part of speech, like noun, verb, adjective, or adverb.
So when the musculature is modifying the exercise or workout it shouldn’t end with an s. If it’s a noun, it ought to.
But that’s just me, and if you disagree with me, you’re in good company, because apparently everyone else sees it way differently…
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It is an interesting thought either way. I think I would use the s on the end when talking about the muscles, delts, lats, quads etc. but not when talking about a body area. Like I say back workout not backs but in that workout I train lats and rhomboids 
. Argh now my head hurts
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I think that means we agree! 
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I do think some of this comes down to region.
I live in socal and to talk about our freeways we always say “the freeway-number”, as in “take the I-10 to the 215 to the 605”
But I had a buddy move to NorCal and everyone knew he was from SoCal because they don’t add “the” on to it. They would say “take I-10 to 215 to 605”
So it’s probably just the way you and those around you talk which one sounds right or better
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That’s really interesting! Chris and I recently watched an SNL skit where most of the conversation was Californians talking about interstates. So, not only is there a regional component to it, there may be a state-wide factor going on as well.
Arizonans, Texans, and Coloradans (to my knowledge) don’t seem to include interstates in their discourse nearly as much.
Now imagine if you’d said, the freeways-number.
That level of wrongness is basically what my brain hears when someone says, the biceps exercise.
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I posted a poll on T Nation’s X (formerly Twitter) account, so if you see this within the next 23 hours and you’re on there, swing by and participate:
Social media has an inflammatory effect. People haaaaaaate to see others living in a way that’s different from them, and social media just amplifies that divisiveness.
I’ll be the first to admit though, it’s a hard trap to avoid. Anger and negativity are contagious. But if you can step outside yourself and just observe people’s behaviors, it’s actually pretty interesting!
The latest hot topic in fitness is seed oils. And if you’re seeing the biggest accounts bicker, you’ll notice two different debate styles: one is relatively respectful, the other seems unhinged.
At this point I’m more concerned with the mental state of those debating (and some of the followers who’ve also lost their marbles) than I am about the dang seed oils.
Seed oils, sugar, trans fats, and meth are all probably healthier than social media.
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It’s speaks to the constant need for reassurance and validation that exists within humanity. We need the assurance that we made the “right” decision, and rather than doing this by constantly affirming those that are aligned with us, we do it by seeking out and destroying those that are different than us. As a video game nerd, we did this as kids talking about how the Sega Genesis was trash compared to the Super Nintendo, because you HAD to pick one unless you were rich. Breastfeed vs Formula gets downright vicious among moms, even though we’re all just people trying to feed our kids and keep them healthy and safe. Diet is practically a religion, so you gotta make sure those of the “wrong” faith are destroyed as infidels, etc.
The “trick” is misanthropy. Once you no longer value the opinion of others, you are free.
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Wow. This explains it perfectly. Thank you for putting it like this.
And when thinking about it in these terms, we can probably take our own defensiveness and ask, “am I wanting to act like a turd because I need reassurance and validation about something?”
This is a cool mental trick that I’m going to have to use in the future.
People will find anything to squabble over, but you’ve opened my eyes to why they (we – I’ve been guilty too) do that.
Ok I had to look up misanthropy (the hatred or mistrust of humankind) and oh my goodness I can’t go that far. LOL!! But that Val Kilmer meme is awesome.
Chris read and recommended Mark Manson’s “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F-ck” but the F-bomb was so distracting I couldn’t get through it. When people cuss in unnatural ways it comes off as performative rather than authentic, which means, ironically, Manson definitely gave some f-cks.
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I’ll echo @Chris_Shugart. It was a super helpful book for both my wife and I. It was kind of my natural tendency, but the book kind of helped me put things in words/ better explain neutral thinking to my kids. My wife does care, but it kind of helped her separate not stressing about everything from malintention.
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Love to hear that! Mark Manson has tons of great ideas. I even enjoy his tweets and interviews on various podcasts.
But I remember when his book made a big splash in the fitness industry. Probably sometime around 2016 or 2017. You could tell when an online coach or influencer had read it because their blogs (that was a big thing back then) and captions were nothing but “F–this F–that. I don’t care about any effing thing blah blah blah.”
It was a whole production. There was this pervasive idea that cursing made your thoughts edgier and more powerful, but I found it grating.
Even if MM subbed out the word for a euphemism, it’d still be tough for me to get through.
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Lower Body
When you go to the gym and everything you wanted to start with is taken, you have to improvise. And sometimes that means beginning with a dumb isolation lift.
Leg Extension
Hip Thrust
Leg Press
Booty Machine
Swiss Ball Ham Curl
Workout ended up better than expected.
If you’re having a weird day, watch this.
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Or you’re a bodybuilder and it was all part of the plan
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ok true. I was just really salty sitting on that leg extension. 
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I’m currently listening to bursts of aggravated cussing and power tools coming from downstairs.
We’ve got a contractor in the kitchen tiling our backsplash, and it’s a tricky job for a couple reasons that nobody in internet-land cares about. But this means Chris and I have been getting up earlier, walking the dogs before sunrise, hitting the gym, and preparing for work before Jack gets here.
It’s a little hectic, but I’m feeling chatty right now, so here’s my last two workouts: the sets, reps, and reasoning behind what I did.
Tuesday Upper Body
Dip: 4 x 5-7
Unilateral Banded Straight Arm Pulldown: 4 x 10-15 each side
It’s pretty weird to hear fit pros bash band work. If I can do an exercise (it’s more of an activation drill) to stimulate the musculature surrounding an easily-irritated joint, there’s a good chance it’ll prevent that joint from hurting throughout the workout and afterward.
So yeah, little exercises like this may not build much muscle, but they contribute to the pursuit of muscle growth and consistency. Tossing it between sets of dips won’t diminish performance here since these aren’t competing exercises, and the band pulldowns are not creating fatigue.
Rear Delt Flye: 3 x Failure
No drop set here. The heavier load didn’t feel right. I couldn’t get a good mind-muscle connection with it, and there was a little shoulder irritation using what’s normally my heavier working weight.
Situations like this are why I question progressive overload. I trust my body to tell me what weight to use, and that lighter load can still challenge the heck out of it.
T-Bar Row: 4 x 6-8
Lateral Raise: 4 x 15
Coupling a heavy compound lift with a lighter isolation lift just feels right to me. Is it the perfect thing to do according to the research? Yeah, probably not. Luckily, the muscle I’ve built hasn’t fallen off yet. Could I build more lifting differently? Sure, most people could. But by normal standards, I’m doing okay in the muscularity department.
Seated Cable Row 4 x 10-12
This was definitely not heavy, but I was feeling it in the lats, even lower than usual.
So I had to look up how far down the back the lats actually go. Somehow I forgot that they do this!
Today’s Lower Body Session
The elderly are precious. Sometimes when you’re in the middle of a set, they’ll stand nearby and watch you lift until you stop to talk to them. And I was expecting to see my friend who does that because of the texts she sent me this morning. So I tried to abbreviate the rest periods and superset in an effort to get as much done as possible before she came.
But regardless, this wasn’t too bad a workout.
Loaded Walking Lunge: 4 x out and back
Booty Machine: 4 x 15
The abductor machine is underrated and I just learned a new tip on making it light up the glutes even more. What’s the tip? Lean forward. (Vid posted below.) And actually hunching over with the upper back seems to help here too for some reason. Maybe because of my long torso.
The thing women do when they kinda stand up while using the machine never worked for me. So if you use this thing, play around till you find what does the trick for your anthropometry.
Leg Press: 4 x 10
This was ok. I tried to protect that high ham by placing more tension in the quads, but it still started to ache, so I ended lower body day there.
Then did a few sets of neutral grip pull-ups to end the workout.
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Nothing against Gareth, but I was hoping for the blonde girl in the thumbnail to talk to me about butts n stuff.
TNation getting clickbaity
EDIT:
The leaning forward trick actually worked pretty well for my wife too. I think there was an article a few years ago from Brett Contreras that mentioned it? I don’t remember, but whenever we’re talking butt stuff, Brett is my automatic assumption.
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HA! Well, if it were a pic of Gareth’s glutes it’d likely get more clicks than the fitness model. So we actually missed an opportunity and made it less baity.
The thumbnail images are tough though! You have to find a high quality photo of a person doing that exact exercise, and taking a screenshot of Gareth in the video would’ve been lower quality unfortunately.
How the heck are you!?
That sounds familiar, now that you mention it! What’s weird is I never felt it in the right place without rounding at the upper back for some reason. It looks pretty weird but made an immediate difference.
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Pretty good actually. I’ve been kind of coasting/program hopping at the gym for a bit, trying to lean out casually. Most of my effort has been geared towards self-improvement socially, which is an area I’m admittedly a bit stunted in. Focusing on career and gym stuff tend to do that unfortunately.
The social skills thing is kind of a nuisance to be totally honest, but it’s been rewarding in both friendships and the relationship I have with my wife/daughter. It’s not quite the growth plan that most people would envision when they think of social skills, but it’s been effective. Just trying to fill in the gaps.
I wish I had more to say, but I don’t; things have been trying, but good so I’ll leave it at that. Thanks for asking =)
When my wife was following Paul Carter’s Valkyrie Training 2.0, he mentioned a specific change to seated hamstring curls where you lean pretty far forward as well (the intent is to further stretch the hams) and that had a noticeable difference from what my wife said. I tried it but had to reduce weight too much for it to be effective anymore… sometimes Weight > ROM (to an extent).
Anyways, it might be worth trying the modification, if you haven’t done so already.
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