BG Fitness Fanatics II: We Work Out

[Gabai]

My fitness pal app is good. Has a good database of items, lets you scan barcodes, and you can enter in exercise to determine net intake.

[Astylla]

Picked up a Fitbit Charge HR and I have to say this thing is pretty awesome; I love it so far. I don't really give two craps about steps, floors, or miles but the heart rate monitor, calorie tracking, and sleep tracking is great.

I was ready to feel bad about skipping the gym for the third day in a row, but then I checked my stats for the past day:


Was pretty shocked. In hindsight, seems accurate... spent a solid 15 hours on hard demo work/cleaning/errands for the home.

I'm really wanting the Fitbit charge HR so thank you for this. I walk to work from the train station so about 3 miles round-trip 5 days a week. I have a separate HRM but it's a pain unless I'm headed to the gym. I use myfitnesspal currently too.

[Celeras]

If you just got the Fitbit make sure to check out the web dashboard. Pretty cool and much more comprehensive than the app.

PM if ya wanna friend up, but I'm usually only in the 5-10k range on weekdays so won't be much competish. Challenges can be fun tho

[Patriarch]

DILF

lol thanks

[Talint]

I'm on an immunosuppressant, so when I catch something, I'm sick longer than most and it takes a harder toll on my body.

Anyone have any suggestions/recommendations to stay fit while sick? Saw I had gained four pounds; went to the gym this morning and I felt like absolute death.

[Hushigoshi]

I'm on an immunosuppressant, so when I catch something, I'm sick longer than most and it takes a harder toll on my body.

Anyone have any suggestions/recommendations to stay fit while sick? Saw I had gained four pounds; went to the gym this morning and I felt like absolute death.

Generally you want to avoid going to the gym while sick to begin with. Compromised immune system due to the immunosuppressant, overstressed/overworked immune system due to be sick, and an environment with lots of people? Sounds like a horrible idea to begin with and you'll only slow down your recovery even more. If it's just the sniffles, then it's fine. Anything else is usually in your best interest to not go, stay at home, and focus on recovery. If you're gaining weight because you're chugging water to replace fluids you've lost while being sick, your weight will stabilize once your body excretes the excess fluids (sweat, urination, bowel movements). If the 4 pounds is from overeating, or mindless eating while sick; stop it.

[Koul]

Well, I fucked up my wrist on bench press. Too much weight/shuffled form too much on final reps. Took two weeks off, was feeling better-ish. Went back again today and fucked it over again. Besides running there pretty much isn't anything I can do at the gym, huh? lol shit sucks :/ last two weeks I've been so depressed because I havn't been able to go and now I gotta take more time off...

[Hushigoshi]

there pretty much isn't anything I can do at the gym, huh?

Squat

[thetruepandagod]

Well, I fucked up my wrist on bench press. Too much weight/shuffled form too much on final reps. Took two weeks off, was feeling better-ish. Went back again today and fucked it over again. Besides running there pretty much isn't anything I can do at the gym, huh? lol shit sucks :/ last two weeks I've been so depressed because I havn't been able to go and now I gotta take more time off...

I feel like you can probably still do most pulling motions and not agitate your wrist.

[Jefe]

Fucked up my knee about 3 weeks ago, haven't done any squats, dl, etc. any exercise that would potentially fuck it up even more. Prolly gonna wait 2 more weeks before I even attempt anything. Sucks.

[Hushigoshi]

Fucked up my knee about 3 weeks ago, haven't done any squats, dl, etc. any exercise that would potentially fuck it up even more. Prolly gonna wait 2 more weeks before I even attempt anything. Sucks.

You could probably do Romanian deadlifts to hit your hamstrings and not agitate your knee. A proper RDL has almost zero knee flexion/extension. Just start with the barbell from a rack position rather than the floor like a conventional deadlift.

Or just wait it out two more weeks.

[thetruepandagod]

Was talking to gym bro last night and he convinced me to do DL for first time in 2 months since i re-fucked my back. Got to my old PR easily, what a glorious time to be alive.

[RKenshin]

So the weekly report of one full week of demo work on the house... was pretty insane.


Scale didn't update properly, but I ended up losing 10lbs lol...

[FNH]

Does that say you wake up 13 times a night on average?

[Guitarman]

You're a beast, RK. Definitely one of my inspirations around here.

Quick question; I see a lot of advice mentioning to contract the muscle when doing a workout; Say I'm working biceps, when you reach the top of the movement, do you guys actively flex the muscle at the top? Or is this contraction I'm reading about just the byproduct of full range of motion? I want to be sure I'm not misinterpreting what I'm reading.

[Koul]

pretty sure on every exercise, you want to flex the muscle. So for like a curl, you'll flex the muscle when you squeeze in the weight, not when you're extended. It'll happen naturally but for GAINZ you want to really squeeze and focus on the muscle. It'll take a bit to get used to

[RKenshin]

Does that say you wake up 13 times a night on average?

Yeah, though that counts "restless" periods.

Any major movement/shifts while asleep triggers a restless period, signifying I was disturbed from a deep sleep pattern. I usually ping about 10-15 periods of restlessness a night, each only lasting a minute or two... which I guess is about average? I usually don't remember them, but it seems reasonably accurate the few times I do remember them and happen to see the time, and then correspond it with what the fitbit tracked.

Continuous movement over a couple of minutes and a change in heart rate counts as being awakened, which usually only happens if I'm woken up by something significant and/or going to the bathroom. I only see that 0-2 times a night.

You're a beast, RK. Definitely one of my inspirations around here.

Quick question; I see a lot of advice mentioning to contract the muscle when doing a workout; Say I'm working biceps, when you reach the top of the movement, do you guys actively flex the muscle at the top? Or is this contraction I'm reading about just the byproduct of full range of motion? I want to be sure I'm not misinterpreting what I'm reading.

Thanks man, happy to help!

I think the point is more as Koul said, in that you want to actively make sure you're primarily engaging the target muscle. That might sound a bit odd/silly, as the default thought is "well I'm doing a bicep curl, of course I'm engaging my bicep!"; but in most exercises it's not that simple. It's very easy to 'zone out' and end up using too much momentum or of other muscle groups, with focus shifting away from form and towards simply getting the reps done.

Form and focus on the muscles you engage can mean the difference between curls that focus hard on biceps and curls that instead distribute between biceps, shoulders, upper back, and assistance from momentum. It can all add up to a pretty big difference, and you're also more likely to hurt something.

There's an old video of an asian youtube guy that CS liked to follow (iirc, don't remember the name), with a great example of the above. One clip showed him doing rows with focus on the target muscles, and another showed him doing rows without it. Visually, overall, his form and composure looked almost exactly the same - but there was a very clear difference between the strain of his back muscles in one vs the other.

[gt_killa]

You're a beast, RK. Definitely one of my inspirations around here.

Quick question; I see a lot of advice mentioning to contract the muscle when doing a workout; Say I'm working biceps, when you reach the top of the movement, do you guys actively flex the muscle at the top? Or is this contraction I'm reading about just the byproduct of full range of motion? I want to be sure I'm not misinterpreting what I'm reading.

You'll want to flex the muscle group that you want to work on for that specific exercise.
eg: on Bicep Curl, You flex while moving the dumbbell from starting position to end position (shoulder height)...It's sort of a mind-muscle connection. Try doing bicep curl without weight in the following manner:

1. Moving from starting position to end position, without flexing..sort of like you bending your elbow (You'll notice that you'll be able to do this really fast, it is still FULL RANGE OF MOTION, but no flexing involve) --- I see people do this way toooooooooo often at the gym.

2. Same as above, but try to flex your bicep while moving from starting to end. You'll see that you WILL NOT be able to move/curl as fast as above. THIS is what you want to do with bicep curl. ALSO try to flex your tricep while moving back to starting position (lowering).

Both are FULL RANGE OF MOTION, but you can see the difference.

Another thing you want to keep in mind while doing bicep curl is find a mirror and look at yourself sideway. See if your elbow is moving or not. You want to make sure your elbow stays STATIONARY, and the only thing that's moving up and down is your FOREARM along with the weight. (Do this till you feel comfortable to do it without the help of the mirror) Too often people picked up the weight they can't handle and start swinging while doing bicep curl...which result in zero bicep work. All you really doing when you swing is just moving your shoulder/deltoid.

There this older white guy at my gym who always do that with a barbell and he always drop that shit from high ground on his last rep. One time it bounces and almost hit my foot. I was THIS close to smash his face into the mirror.

[Moss]

Yeah, though that counts "restless" periods.

Any major movement/shifts while asleep triggers a restless period, signifying I was disturbed from a deep sleep pattern. I usually ping about 10-15 periods of restlessness a night, each only lasting a minute or two... which I guess is about average? I usually don't remember them, but it seems reasonably accurate the few times I do remember them and happen to see the time, and then correspond it with what the fitbit tracked.

Continuous movement over a couple of minutes and a change in heart rate counts as being awakened, which usually only happens if I'm woken up by something significant and/or going to the bathroom. I only see that 0-2 times a night.

Thanks man, happy to help!

I think the point is more as Koul said, in that you want to actively make sure you're primarily engaging the target muscle. That might sound a bit odd/silly, as the default thought is "well I'm doing a bicep curl, of course I'm engaging my bicep!"; but in most exercises it's not that simple. It's very easy to 'zone out' and end up using too much momentum or of other muscle groups, with focus shifting away from form and towards simply getting the reps done.

Form and focus on the muscles you engage can mean the difference between curls that focus hard on biceps and curls that instead distribute between biceps, shoulders, upper back, and assistance from momentum. It can all add up to a pretty big difference, and you're also more likely to hurt something.

There's an old video of an asian youtube guy that CS liked to follow (iirc, don't remember the name), with a great example of the above. One clip showed him doing rows with focus on the target muscles, and another showed him doing rows without it. Visually, overall, his form and composure looked almost exactly the same - but there was a very clear difference between the strain of his back muscles in one vs the other.

rows are one of the best examples of this too, since it is easy to do the movement without engaging the lats if you aren't concentrating

[Guitarman]

You'll want to flex the muscle group that you want to work on for that specific exercise.
eg: on Bicep Curl, You flex while moving the dumbbell from starting position to end position (shoulder height)...It's sort of a mind-muscle connection. Try doing bicep curl without weight in the following manner:

1. Moving from starting position to end position, without flexing..sort of like you bending your elbow (You'll notice that you'll be able to do this really fast, it is still FULL RANGE OF MOTION, but no flexing involve) --- I see people do this way toooooooooo often at the gym.

2. Same as above, but try to flex your bicep while moving from starting to end. You'll see that you WILL NOT be able to move/curl as fast as above. THIS is what you want to do with bicep curl. ALSO try to flex your tricep while moving back to starting position (lowering).

Both are FULL RANGE OF MOTION, but you can see the difference.

Another thing you want to keep in mind while doing bicep curl is find a mirror and look at yourself sideway. See if your elbow is moving or not. You want to make sure your elbow stays STATIONARY, and the only thing that's moving up and down is your FOREARM along with the weight. (Do this till you feel comfortable to do it without the help of the mirror) Too often people picked up the weight they can't handle and start swinging while doing bicep curl...which result in zero bicep work. All you really doing when you swing is just moving your shoulder/deltoid.

There this older white guy at my gym who always do that with a barbell and he always drop that shit from high ground on his last rep. One time it bounces and almost hit my foot. I was THIS close to smash his face into the mirror.

Thank you. You really should consider writing articles. You wouldn't believe how many pieces I've read that just COULD NOT explain that that simply.

And I fully understand your last line. There's this younger (early 20s) kid that shows up every now and again. He's fairly ripped, but he drops the stack at the height of the movement and you just hear this eardrum-shattering crash every time. He grunts like a rhino in heat while he works out too. Drives me insane. I want to shove a foam roller down his fucking throat.