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[nenjin]

Honestly felt pretty easy. I'm sure I could do 255 or so for at least 1 rep, but I'm going to continue gauging things based on doing a 5x5. I'm in no hurry to set PRs, but I'm pleased that 235 didn't feel like a thing.

[nenjin]

Well my apartment just shut down the Fitness Center for the foreseeable future.

It's personal now. Coronavirus is wrecking my path to swoleness. Where is this coronavirus, I'll beat it up.

Guess it's back to pushups and a lot of bench work for now. Blargh. Without a squat rack and actual weights I'm going to regress quite a bit. I'd say now is the time for a de-load week, I was coming up on it already. But chances are this is going to go on loner than a week.....

[Ulfarr]

Nenjin you've probably already seen this video but in any case here it is. Corona-time home workout by Athlean-X.


edit: I'm not very confident about the safety of that chair+bar pull up set up. It seems to me that it's very easy to make the bar slip.

[nenjin]

Yeah, I really appreciate Jeff but sometimes his "by any means necessary" method of working out doesn't work for me. Putting a bar across two chairs (he says a broom handle when he's using a metal pipe) and hoping it supports my body weight seems like a bigger risk than it's worth.

I've just decided to take the week off. Plenty of reasons to do so. I doubt things will reopen next week but I might as well take my break now.

[Iduno]

Yeah, I really appreciate Jeff but sometimes his "by any means necessary" method of working out doesn't work for me. Putting a bar across two chairs (he says a broom handle when he's using a metal pipe) and hoping it supports my body weight seems like a bigger risk than it's worth.

It always works.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[TD1]

My morning routine (barring the weekend):

50 press-ups (25, two minute break, 25), 100 sit ups, 300 6kg weights on each arm, then a jog-and-walk session of at least 10,000 steps.

I was doing more a while back, and more types of exercise, but this is the first time I've seen any significant gain. I'm wondering if it's because I've changed my diet. Used to take a salad as one of my daily meals, but I don't any more. Just take whatever my mum serves up.

[nenjin]

Took last week off, and combined with the general anxiousness of the global situation, and yet more medical issues with my mother....wow what a downer week. It's like a curse of late, every time I take a break, there's SOMETHING going on so it feels less restful than it should.

Anyways, back to it this week. Trying to do 2 days at home, upper/lower, 2 days at my work gym upper/lower (the building is generally deserted right now and less than 8 people actively use the gym there anyways.)

Did sorta my old at home routine for legs on Tuesday. Side lunges (sides of my quads felt like they were gonna cramp), Bulgarian split squats with 15 pounds in each hand (please kill me now), Single Leg Glute bridges (my hamstrings felt like they were gonna cramp, they always do) about 40 Otis ups with a 15 pound weight and the ab mat (10 was tough already but I don't have a 10 on hand so.......)

The shocker was the body weight squats. 25x3. By rep 25, my legs were burning and hoooooooooo boy the DOMS the next few days was more intense than I expected, easily as intense or more intense than doing actual squats with weight on my back. Between the body weight squads and the single leg glute bridges....my ass was so sore the next day sitting down was actually a little uncomfortable.

I know that this is largely the week off talking. It takes that little time for my adaptation to the DOMs reset. I literally do nothing on my off week, no stretching, no long walks generally, no nothing. Maybe I should. Never fails to surprise me though, it's like having to start all over again and go through the most difficult workout and recovery for a week before I catch up to where I was before. I'll know more next week I suppose.

But yeah, the general point of the ramble is: getting back to bodyweight stuff has been good. Reconnected to when I started, but now I can apply the stuff I've learned and how I've grown to the things I started with. Fuckin pushups still pretty rough for me but I think I've learned to actually use my chest instead of making it all shoulder. Bizarrely it lit my lats up too like it never has before. They were quite sore the next day and I didn't do anything really back related. That I can recall.

Getting back to barbells is gonna be murder, no matter how long this general shutdown lasts.

[Yoink]

I've been thinking of investing in a rowing machine, but it's such a pain trying to use Google to find one that's decent and affordable - especially considering I know bugger-all about rowing machines. Also, most of them are delivery only, and it's anyone's guess how unreliable delivery services will be during this whole Corona crisis.   

Plus, you have to basically take the word of whoever writes reviews for the machines. I don't want to shell out for some piece of crap that's only good for light cardio. Sturdiness is one thing, since most such items tend to come with warranties, but what if it just doesn't do much good to begin with?   

[TD1]

I took a break of three or four days from the jogging/walking/running. My knees had begun to hurt.

[nenjin]

On rowing machines, I believe I've heard that ones with chain linkages are the best. The ones with nylon w/e cords aren't as good. Something to do with power transfer.

Rowing machines are a great workout though. Somewhere beyond cardio but not quite full resistance training. Cranked up to the max resistance setting, I think I can go about a half mile before I'm worn out.

For me, I've taken a few weeks off of training. Between my mom's health issues, covid-induced work stress and one of my coworkers dying a couple weeks ago from a brain aneurysm, I've just not felt the drive to work out hard, or at all. I'm ok with this, I've been pretty consistent for a couple years now and it's been good to remember that life ain't all about working out.

But this week I'm back to it. Gotta get back to it. I'm starting to feel soft and mushy.

[Uthimienure]

2 years ago I bought these:

eFitment rowing machine
eFitment elliptical

Both are flywheel & magnet style
Total for both was $300 so I didn't expect a whole lot.
I've been using them 3 times a week for 2 years and they both work great with no problems.

Honestly, the elliptical is a much better workout (if rated by the amount of effort and sweat produced). I started on setting 3 of 8 originally for 10 minutes each which was about all I could do and gradually worked up to max setting 8 on both of them over about 1 year's time. Now I can do 45 minutes on the elliptical at a moderate pace and 600 reps on the rowing machine (fast) at setting 8. These are good calorie burners and they don't make you sore on your feet or butt or anywhere... they're comfortable to use and if you push yourself too hard you'll just not be able to continue.

If anybody cares, I can look up the model numbers.

{edit}  Forgot to mention, they are quiet because you're not spinning a fan and they don't blow air.  One downside is that a couple of fitness friends said the calorie readouts on both of them are about 1/3 the actual calories I'm burning. They both have digital readouts that are decent, but I can't compare to others because these are the only machines I've bought.

[nenjin]

I don't think you can generally trust any sort of calorie meters. People's metabolisms are different, how they exert effort is different....it's always going to be in the ballpark at best. (Also it's often pretty demoralizing anyways to see how many calories you're burning versus how much effort you feel you're putting out.)

[Ulfarr]

Does anyone know what the "inner diameter" in disk weights refers to?

I 'm looking to buy some extra weights and I'd like to use the handles that I already have. My handles have a diameter of ~28-29mm (I don't have an accurate value but it's certainly less than 30mm) and the disks that I already have (they came as a set with said handles) have an inner diameter of ~31mm. Now most stores sort their disks according to their inner diameter but I don't know if that number refers to their actual diameter or that of the handle/bar they are supposed to fit.

[nenjin]

I'd guess it's the inner diameter measure of the plate itself they're stating.

[Ulfarr]

Thanks nenjin