The Official Gym & Fitness Thread

Anyone else have rotator cuff surgery? I had mine last year and have been having a hard time getting back to working out. My front delt gets so sore/weak and has such limited range now its been making doing chest/shoulder exercise's really difficult and the recovery time is unreal. I'd like to try crossfit when I move to AZ in a few weeks but I noticed its a lot of compound exercise's that would likely engage my shoulder pretty hard.. Any advise?

 

I think my next dog will be a blue heeler. There colors are sick and from what I've heard it's the same temperament so I'm down for that. They need training for sure though

 

We had the highway not too far then. This was 1993 and the vet guessed her at 3-4. Little 6 pound furball and she beat the piss out of my Maine coon who was 20 plus pounds routinely. Used to chase foxes all the time. Died in my arms May 2011 after 7 yrs of bad kidneys

 

Stoked to go hit the gym today after work so I can pound down 1 to 2 racks of ribs guilt free tonight

 

I've had a few friends have rotator cuff surgery and it's been hit or miss for them. My best friend pitched in high school and college and has had it on both shoulders and he continued to pitch afterwards and his shoulders are fucked. The owner of my gym (mid-50's) had it a few years ago and was back lifting in 3-4 months. Another gym buddy (early 40's) had it and was back benching 315+ in 6 months. I think it's all about how you do your rehab. If you do your stretching and stuff the way you're supposed to and you have a competent doctor, you should be good.

The best advice I can give you is to stay as far away from Crossfit as possible. Fast, jerky movements is the last thing you want for your joints, whether they're healthy or not.

 

My wife did a few yrs ago, AC joint cleanup. She did well for awhile and got the frozen shoulder..eventually it worked out.

She used a rope and pulley system to loosen it up..and swimming.

 

http://youtu.be/pqb9pBJweVU

 

Pain is your friend INJURE YOURSELF!!

 

Check out some of the band systems offered to help strengthen it? I think most of those come with different weighted bands so you can build up

 

What do you gym brahs like better, upper/lower splits, body part splits, or full-body splits?

I alternate between the first two. I'll do upper/lower for a few weeks and then switch to body part for a few weeks. Here's my typical workout of each:

Upper/lower example:

Mon: upper
Tue: lower
Wed: off
Thu: upper
Fri: lower
Sat: off
Sun: off

Each looks like this:

Upper Ex:
chest: 3 sets of 8-15
chest: 2 sets of 8-15
back: 3 sets of 8-15
back: 2 sets of 8-15
shoulders: 3 sets of 8-15
shoulders: 2 sets of 8-15
traps: 3 sets of 8-15
biceps: 3 sets of 8-15
biceps: 2 sets of 8-15
triceps: 3 sets of 8-15
triceps: 2 sets of 8-15

Lower Ex:
quads: 3 sets of 8-25
quads: 2 sets of 8-25
hams: 3 sets of 8-25
hams: 2 sets of 8-25
calves: 4 sets of 8-25
calves: 4 sets of 8-25
abs: I do an ab exercise between each set of calve exercises

Body part example:

Mon: shoulders
Tue: back & bi's
Wed: off
Thu: legs, calves, abs
Fri: chest & tri's
Sat: off
Sun: off

Each exercise, I do 4 sets of 8-15.

Both programs take about the same amount of time and both have their pros and cons. With the upper/lower, I'm getting to hit everything twice, so when my muscles are healed after a few days, they get hit again. The downside is they don't get broken down like they do on a body part split. The downside to the body part split is there's 7 days between hitting each muscle, which is kind of a waste of time, but when you do hit that muscle group, you hit it hard. To get the best of both worlds, I just do both.

Also, I try to do a different workout for each muscle group each time I workout. I see guys that use the same machines each week, but I like to keep my muscles guessing by changing it up as often as possible. I'll always stick to the staple lifts (bench, squat, dl, pullups), but I try to do as many variations as possible of each and to alternate between dumbbells, barbells, machines, too.

Thoughts? Preferences?

 

I do body parts.

Something similar to you, just over 5 days instead of 4. Usually get 2 legs days in and tack anything else on that I feel like I missed on that extra day.

I do the same thing trying to switch it up instead of doing the same workouts each time too. That's why I get burnt out on all those bodybuilding.com workouts. They are 8 or 12 week programs that are just 12 of the same weeks over and over.

One week I'll hit barbell stuff hard and then the next week do a lot of dumbbell stuff or cable/machine work

 

Exactly. Those bb.com workouts are good to get someone acclimated with the gym, but who the hell wants to do the same 3-4 lifts for each muscle for 3 months?! I have this from bb.com bookmarked on my phone that lists all the highest rated exercises by body part and I go through and do ones that I've never done or haven't done in a long time. I try to keep from doing the same exercises on consecutive weeks. Just be sure to make sure they're sorted by rating from highest to lowest or else you'll get a list of shitty workouts lol. I usually don't go below any workout rated below an 8.5

 

Have you tried the ct fletcher convict arms. I do that one. Often

 

Is that similar to the rich Piana arm routine? It's like 5 hours long

 

It's not 5 hours long. I usually can finish it in an hour if I go straight to it.

 

Nice! What's it like? Also, does it involve an audio of CT fletcher yelling at you and motivating you?

 

You can find it on YouTube or bb.com

 

I like doing body part splits hitting each group twice a week: chest/back, legs, arms/shoulders

 

Question(s) for the Crossfit haters. If you don't mind, take a minute and humor me. I'm very interested to understand why people love to hate crossfit. For example, I am not interested in body building. Therefore, I do not body build, but I also don't bash the sport. I want to understand why people who are not interested in crossfit's method of training care enough to carry on about it. So...if you love to hate on CF, answer the questions below. No holds barred. I'm looking for some honest feedback.

What is it that you hate about CF?

What experience do you have with CF? (I watched a youtube video. I tried it once. I heard a friend talk about it. etc etc.)


I should also add that I am a crossfitter of 6 years. I love the methods, but have some serious gripes with the culture surrounding it. I'll expand on that later.
And go...

 

Sounds like you and I need to meet up. I've been really wanting to get into.