Burning Bright 🔥

[Flash_Fire]

Welcome to my thread! It's been a very long time.

Two and a half weeks ago I started to train again after almost a year of just the odd casual workout. It weighed heavy on my shoulders and this year I felt that I aged more than the last 6 combined. First and foremost health is the driving factor to balance out the factory work and to keep a functional body for as long as possible. BUT! I want to compete again next year in endurance races. I have to say, even while I was competing in the past, I never managed to train consistently, I would make EXTREME progress in 3 months only to hit a brick wall. Drawing from these many experiences but also following exercise research I believe I'm able to plan better than ever!

I have fond memories of the hive from almost a decade ago and I'm checking in again to connect to like minded people but also discuss sports in search of optimization. I'll probably only do weekly updates and fill the room in between with discussion.


Right now I'm on the first training block and my focus is to just get back into it, strengthen weak points and build a little initial muscle mass. In these two and a half weeks I already gained 4kg and went down 1% in bodyfat. I'll only write down the working sets, not the warmups, nor the specific stretches. I go literal LENGTHS to do every exercise at full range of motion. From squatting ass to grass, to benching the dumbbells real slow, as deep as to feel the different fibers of the chest getting sowly pulled taut. I try to stop at the earliest 2 reps before failure, but on safe exercises I'll go as far as possible and have a super slowed last negative rep.

So, for the last 7 Days:
Thursday: Gym
Front Squat:
60kg*6
60kg*7
50kg*10
50kg*9
Deadlift
100kg*7
90kg*10
90kg*7
Barbell Overhead Press(-> Push Press)
40kg*4(+2)
35kg*6(+2)
30kg*7(+2)
Pull Ups
regular*2 (at this point my energy level got so low, I was unable to tell the muscles to work anymore)
chin-up*4

Friday: Swim
1km

Monday: Gym
Front Squat
70kg*6
60kg*8
50kg*11
Single Leg Romanian Deadlift
12kg*12/side
12kg*9/side
Barbell Overhead Press(-> Jerk)
40kg*5(+2)
35kg*7(+2)
30kg*9(+2)
Dumbbell Bench Press
17,5kg/hand*9
17,5kg/hand*10
Decline Push Ups
8 reps
Pull Ups
regular*3
chin-up*4,5
Around the World
15kg*14
Hanging Knee Raises
10 reps

Thursday: Gym
Cossack Squats
20kg*14
15kg*17
Cable Side Leg Raises (from inside to out)
12kg*10/side
Cable Side Leg (...uh the opposite way, pulling the foot in and across)
12kg*20/side
Kettlebell Tibialis Curl
8kg*12/side
Single Leg Calf Raises
12kg*12/side
Pull Ups
Rings*5
Dips (on a box, I couldn't get stable floating on rings and it hurt the tricep a little)
6 reps

I'm planning to stay on two times of gym and a swim per week and adding two runs, hopefully I'll find a group for a wednesday run and I want a solo long run on the weekends. On rest days I do nothing or if I'm stiff 10 minutes of stretching.

 

[JohnStrong]

Welcome back

 

[MadamMeow]

Nice to meet you!

 

[Flash_Fire]

Thank you for the welcomes @JohnStrong @MadamMeow !


To learn to do tricep dips on rings (my gym is tiny, and altough it has some very good implements it lacks grips for these) I think of changing the decline push ups of the Monday session to some push ups on the rings, close to the ground. Additionally I'll continue with the dips on a box, with the feet on the ground on Thursdays. I'd love to get a suggestion to progress that!

There are some more weakpoints that I need to address, for the sport specifically I need to train the feet/ankles to take impacts with them flexed the other way round as in cossack squats. I have no idea how to train that except for aggressively sprinting curves or running on very uneven ground, which doesn't exist here.
Then I should do more for the hands and wrists as well as the neck/I don't think swimming once a week quite cuts it. The metal concert tonight will do, but that doesn't happen every week Headbanging, jumping and shoving people around!
I'm thinking of maybe planning a cute mobilization home workout where these things are also lightly strengthened. To be performed on a "rest" day.

 

[Fremen]

Welcome

 

[aku-chan]

 

[Anek]

Hello and welcome!

 

[FlowersandPetals]

 

[Flash_Fire]

Thank you for welcoming me @Fremen @aku-chan @Anek @FlowersandPetals !

The lesson of today is not to be too mechanical about stuff. I shouldn't have gone for a swim, and I shouldn't wait with updates until the weekend when I write something earlier. To be adaptive.
Is there a policy for "difficult" topics? As some would call trigger warnings? Beause when I will talk about todays concert it'll cover WW1 and its associated brutality.


Sooo after a nap I did actually go for a swim, but it was wayyyyyyyy too short and late. On Fridays a lot of kids and youths come and there is no real space to do lengths at your own pace. Sometimes you have to chill in someones backwater, but if you decide to overtake you have to be very quick as to not bump into anybody coming the opposite way, then you have to calm down the cardio and as that happens way better swimmers rush past you and it just isn't a good feeling. Can't concentrate on the sport. I did do a few lengths, got a small chest pump and left.


The concert was absolutely brutal and more than enough sport for today! They did cover WW1 in the same artistic manner as "All quiet on the western front", but musically.
The first band was more athmospheric but the sound wasn't very clear. The drummer was labouring away, blasting beats to push the eardrums into the brain and shake the bones, bassist and guitarrist went methodically about their work for a good melody and the singer stood over them as a statue and sometime would let his gutteral growls rip through the crowd and vibrate the muscles and hairs on the arms. Pretty good.

Now for the second one, OH MY, MADNESS!
They put fake artillery on the stage and build trenches with sandbags, barbed wire etc... and the whole concert was as if the masses in front of them would be sloughtered as soldiers being ground down for the gains of a few rulers. They blasted the crowd with a fake flamethrower, and with bubbles and cold fog they simulated winter trench warfare, they used a combination of blast beats, strobe lights and absolute darkness as machinegun fire, later they fired an actual flamethrower horizontally over the heads of the masses and between songs there were subtle costume changes to fit the mood. The standard was a german soldiers uniform but with a completely black face mask, no breathing holes, no peeping holes. They changed for example into moles, tasked with digging under the enemy, took out their carbide lamps and at the end their designated mole suffering from the stress of cave-ins, suffocation and encounters with the enemy underground "shot his brains out". For an other song, they were sailors of a U-Boot which was their steel coffin and so on...
The crowd went crazy, there was basically a moshpit from start to end. Most people took time-outs, but I challenged myself to stay in the middle the whole time, get a few dancing moves in. I "only" fell down three times, the first, by myself on the slippery floor, the second time backwards over someone already lying on the ground and the third time as a mass crash with a (probably) 120kg dude landing on my chest. Only during the first song I already got someones teeth knocking on the back of my skull and got doused in beer! Later elbows to chin, lip, nose, push-punch to the solar plexus. Almost sprained the wrist twice, lifted people up for crowdsurfing! Good times! There were a bunch of machines taking part, probably 30-50kg heavier than I am and a lot of it muscle. Pushing against them would make me go backwards! Needed momentum or a very good stance to get these mountains out of my way. Like three wall of deaths, one of which I managed to push through three ranks of people charging at us and come out the other side. Let me tell you, today was a HARD day of training!

 

[Flash_Fire]

Hello Everyone!

I was physically all used up from that concert, but on Saturday I still forced myself to go for a run. I had to go slower than I wanted to and also take a teeny tiny shortcut. Still just over an hour, but with that I reached my (temporary) limit of what I could do on and to my knees. I will have to postpone the next run because of another concert, but for now that's fine, there's no urgency in building mileage.

On Monday I didn't feel alright, so I postponed the gym workout to today and with a caffeine overdose and scared of the weights on the bar I did amazing progress! Most notably on Deadlifts: I added +20kg AND 3 reps to my max!!! I can lift the 100kg now with a conventional grip, whereas I needed an alternating one before! Here's the working sets:
Front Squats
75*4
70*5
Deadlifts
120*10
100*9
Barbell Overhead Press -> Jerk
40*6(+2)
35*7(+2)
Dumbbell Bench Press
20/side*8
17,5/side*7
Ring Push Ups
3 reps
Pull Ups
regular*5
chin-up*3
Around the world
15kg*14
Hanging side knee raises
8 reps

Reducing the volume to at most 2 sets per exercise is much better! And a single warm-up set per exercise, EXCEPT front squats, since it is the first exercise and I need to "dive into the technique" (if that makes sense). I get the heaviest sets in, which already provide a great training stimulus but I have less trouble to recover before I need to perform again. Still am somewhat cooked at the end of training. Today I had a warm-up set of deadlifts too many, because I couldn't gauge where was at, so I warmed up with 70 & 100kg, next time only 100.

The way I structure my gym training seems to be in accordance with the female course record setter at UTMB: https://trainright.com/how-she-did-it-katie-schides-western-states-winning-formula/
She lifts twice a week, goes relatively heavy (she says 2 reps in reserve) and has a high protein diet. All things that I do as well.

Looking at the elite men, especially the weight and fat percentage tells me I should re-adjust my goals: I should lose AT LEAST 7kg for next summer without losing (or barely) any muscle. that would put me at or lower than 11 or 10% bf which would be a great number! I just have to get used to the idea of becoming a shredded stick No more bulking!

 

[Flash_Fire]

This post marks the end of the first ~4 weeks of training and it is time to look back for a second before going forward. They mark a turning point in life and laid a base, I mostly established my routine and quickly made strength gains. In daily life it's gotten easier to ride the trams without holding onto anything, in some moments I feel taller (from better posture), the only pain in my back now isn't it being stiff anymore but just muscle soreness. This week we got delivered a new grinding stone at work and boss-man was like "How do we get it to stand up? (in order to attach it to a crane) The both of us aren't strong enough!". I didn't say anything, but wedged my fingers underneath and could just lift it to his surprise!

Looking forward, I feel like I could just continue making linear progress, but I planned for a recovery week now, not totally without exercise but with wayyyy reduced volume. Only next Sunday there will be gym Christmas, so a workout and then going to the market together. Will have to see how I will handle that, if I'm just starting the next week early and add a run or if I'm just going for some heavy back squats and bench pressing to see where I'm at and not add the second run quite yet. Afterwards I think of doing blocks of 3 weeks plus 1 week of recovery in between. Planning it instead of being forced to is always preferable! There will be small evolutions in schedule, but mostly the same of what I established the last two weeks.

Sooooo I finished this week and the end of this training block on a high note!

Thursday: Gym
Cossack Squats:
20kg*18
20kg*10
Cable Hip Extension
12kg*13/side
Cable Hip Flexion
18kg*16/side
Kettlebell Tibialis Curl
12kg*5/side
Calf Raises
16kg*13/side
Ring Pull Ups
5 reps
Dips
7 reps
Especially for the Tib Curl the limitation wasn't the muscle, but the pain the tension put on the back of the foot and also how the area where the calf becomes the achilles tendon was squished against the bench I was sitting on. To a minor degree this also happened on the calf raises where the bottom of the foot hurt on the edge of the step. I do all my gym raining barefooted and will have to condition them better (by doing more of the same)

Friday: Swim
1km+100m
At first I thought, "oh this will be soooo easy, maybe I should do 1,5km" but around the 2/3rd mark I started suffering and was happy to get the full km. Telling myself I wanted to finish this block on a high note, I took a moment to recover, then did another 100 meters faster. I'm unsure how to evolve my swimming, the main reason I'm doing it is to improve my cardio without impacting the legs. Sooo maybe I should focus on intervals? Or do a little more distance at a relatively hard pace? I don't know as of now.

Saturday: Concert
This time around it was wayyyyyy bigger and also in a neigbouring city. I didn't manage to get to the front during the first bands (Testament) playtime, but for the second one (Anthrax) I spent 100% of the time in the moshpit, got a solid core workout in, have one side of my jaw swollen from recieving a hard shoulder in there and repaid the favour to someone else haha (unintentionally, I excused myself straight away). I went home early, because I didn't see anything good coming from exerting myself more, not eating well and going to bed wayyy late, so Kreator had to play without me being there. It was the right call I'd say

Sunday: Run
Today I went for a run, it was much better than last time, no real pains, no shortcuts and a faster pace, not pushing it, for most of the time breathing only through the nostrils was enough. Mostly the sore quads held me back. Left the watch at home, I have no idea about the time, but probably a bit over an hour.