The Official Gym & Fitness Thread

Don't forget about also being -15% body fat.

 

I got a running analysis done last night from one of the PTs in the group I go to.

I am pretty much a solid heel striker. My previous analysis done several years ago showed I was more mid-foot.
I was told though, I'm really good at heel striking lol I don't stomp when I run, I make a very smooth and efficient transition to my mid-foot. Since I just had knee surgery and I'm running a crap ton with no pain the heel strike likely isn't an issue.

My pelvic drop is bad and my knees cave in toward one another (which is new for me post-surgery, I didn't do that before).

I'm going to try to make more of an effort to increase my cadence a bit and I may try to incorporate the Escalantes in my short recovery runs. My complaint with those shoes though, they are hot, they aren't vented super well... may be an excuse to grab a different model LOL.

@DirtyTerp You said you are a fan of the Saucony Kinvaras. Have you been wearing those for awhile?
I was checking out the mm drop of Saucony's shoes and The Guides and Rides I'm in are an 8mm drop. The Kinvaras are 4mm drop. I'm thinking my replacement shoes are going to be a pair of Kinvaras (neutral) and a pair of Libertys (mod stability).

Curious if you noticed a difference going to that model with a lower drop. People make it seem like you have to be ultra careful switching shoes, and you do if you are running a shit ton of miles, but I think they over exaggerate really how long it takes to transition.






Some spouses get mad because they catch you looking at porn, I get in trouble for looking at running shoes.

 

I'm gonna disagree. Why not push both until you find your maximum recoverable volume (MRV)? A deload is there to prevent injury and allow your recovery system to catch up.

Your squat example is flawed. You are starting too close to your MRV on week 1. RPE 8 is similar in theory to RIR 2 (reps in reserve or reps from failure). Start closer to 3-4. So Lets say your squat 1RM is 225 (you need to do alot more strength work to begin with) Then:
Week 1: 135 for 8-12 feeling like you left 3-4 reps in the tank. 2-3 sets
Week 2: BEFORE you can progress ask yourself how did you recover. Are you still sore in the muscle you worked? Then just repeat the work. Are you recovered but a tiny bit from 100%; lets add 5 lbs or 1 more set at the previous weight. Are you fully recovered? Add 5 lbs and a set and see how you feel next week/next leg session.
Week 3: Answer same questions. If you are recovering and progressing then you should be adding small increments of weight and sets over the meso.
How long is your meso? You should've decided that before you started. Lets say its 7 weeks (my personal favorite). By week 3, if you started at 3 RIR, you've added sets and weight your probably closer to a 2 RIR. This pattern will continue until week 6 or 7 were your are 0-1 RIR, or basically that last week youre taking it to failure. At this point your body is broken down, systemic fatigue is high, and youre ready to deload. Cut the volume and weight in half. Let your body catch up, pick it back up for meso 2. maybe you keep the same movements maybe you change them.

Back to your example. Why can you NOT progress in the logical pattern you layed out. 10 more lbs than the week previous (a little much but ok) adding 1 rep per set, seems solid. You can't do this week after week? Are you sure? In the example, how close is the 135 to your 1RM, if youre gonna start at a 2RIR than your meso will only be around 4 weeks since you'll be at a theoretical 0 reps from failure pretty fast.

For personal reference, this last meso, by week 7 i'm doing 14 working sets of quads. I hate going in, its heavier than any of the other weeks. its a grind to keep technique solid, you better be eating, sleeping, and consider intraworkout carbs. In the end, my legs are growing.

TL;DR: science

 

Yup I run pretty goofy, heel strike and my feet barely leave the ground when I run. The kinvaras got me through a lot of running in the police academy and I’m a bigger dude at 6’1” 225. No knee pain or anything really. I’ve been doing a lot of 400m repeats on them and they’ve been fine for those short runs as well. The endorphins interest me as well for another shoe to try.

 

I agree with you folks here. The dogma approach isn't sustainable in the long run. I'm in my 30's now and I miss competition fiercely. I'm constantly considering something to compete in. Training 6x a week with no other goal than to look good naked is fine, but for me the "weakness" creeps in my mind. Its easier to think do this or do that. Luckily my Mon-Fri life is very routine, i set it up so. I don't go out for dinner, have a pretty standard bed time, etc. I'll never stop training, its the cheapest therapy i've ever found, plus my job is to encourage health so my appearance helps sell the message, but having a goal at the end does help.

I've been considering these Tactical Games. One bc i like shooting and two the competiton aspect, but also bc I'm not gonna do Crossfit and this is about as close as I'm willing to get lol.

 

stoked you are getting no pain. I’m having issues with patella pain above my knee from lack of strength. I skipped running last week and focused on strength.

I’ve got the knee thing too! Ha! My PT keeps getting after me about keeping my knees out!

 

I saw Nick Bare started using the Endorphins. I saw they were $160 for the current model pair full price. Racing lights don't last as long as the regular shoes. I just get caught up on spending more for less.
It also blew me away when he said he gets 200 miles out of his Hoka Rincons. Holy shit, $180 a pair and you get 200 miles? Yeah no. Almost $1/mile for moon shoes!

 

Same here. Any pain I get is mostly patellofemoral just because I lost so much quad strength/mass that patella doesn't like to track right.
*knock on wood* I have not struggled with that too much in my running, but I do have to keep up on my lifting. That break I took last week was really noticeable. That's part of the reason I don't want to neglect my leg strength work during this upcoming training cycle.

My knee caving in is likely hip flexor, glute related (same shit on why it happens to people on squats). So I'm working hard on those areas and I am seeing improvement.

How quickly are you making mass gains back?
I'm disappointed how slowly my strength is coming back in that leg, but on the other hand it's been 6 months since surgery so I really can't complain too much. I just thought it would be faster than this.

 

same as you! I’m 9 months out and my quad is still super small. I’ve stared focusing more on single leg stuff, adding my second leg in toward the end of my workout. For how quickly the muscle is lost, it sure does take a long time to get it back. I’m reading up to a year and a half or so

 

18 months don’t tell me that

My PT is pushing more single leg stuff and I need to do that more.

I wanna get like an Estim machine and hook it up to m quad while I sleep to get my mass back lol

 

I have a pretty lean build naturally. Before I got hurt, I actually had a good size quad for the first time in my life.

if I need to impress the ladies, I’ll just have to pull up my left side of my shorts and show off my half decent quad

 

I need to get a pair of workout bottoms that are a pant leg on my right side and shorts on my left. LOL

 

If you have to take a deload week to prevent injury and recover, it’s not MRV is it!

So, you say to start at 3-4 RIR then, that gives you 3-4 weeks of adding a rep each week, (hell I’ll give you an added week to account for possible beginner gains) before you’re at a rep max every set, we all know you can’t keep that up for long. We havnt even talked about adding weight yet! You can’t increase intensity and volume at the same time successfully.

lets have some more fun.
4RIR at 10 reps equals about 63% of your 1rm.
This is your suggested starting point of your “meso”, which is basically a deload without the name.
You have your deload every 7 weeks at the end of the meso (meso cycle is way to short) that’s 7.4 weeks per year where you’re not progressing/trying to recover. Add in another 7.4 weeks per year to include the beginning week of every meso that starts out as 63% of your 1rm with half of your ending volume, another deload. Now you wasted 14.8 weeks out of a whole year. That’s almost 4 months of fucking off. I can’t do that!
You can’t increase intensity and volume at the same time.
TL;DR grade school math

 

Can I be that guy and ask what everyone here takes supplement wise? Curious if I could benefit from adding some stuff to my stack.

My stack is as follows:
--------------- Inflammation Reduction--------------
2400mg Flax Seed Oil
6,000mg Fish Oil
------------ Thyroid/Hormone Support-----------------
Selenium
Vit A, B, C, D and E
DHA
--------------Workout Supplements/Gainz Juice-------------------
Vit C
BCAAs
Sodium
Potassium

I've been experimenting with collagen, not sure its really worth it.

I think @Travish325 I'm going to take you up on the GABA and L-theanine. Does it have any side effects like the shit people claim on ZMA? lol

 

Vit. D
Fish oil
Magnesium
Multi vitamin

 

No sides for me.

This is my main vitamin/supplements:

I also take beet root extract pre-workout, EAA intra workout, 3g NAC, 250mg tudca, and Cosamin ASU for joints.

Oh yeah and 50,000iu vitamin D on Thursdays

 

I think Vit D and Fish Oil is a minimum.

5g of fish oils
6,000 iu Vitamin D

After that, i think it's really about where you want to spend your money to get bang for the buck. I have previously had good experiences with D-Aspartic Acid and Leucine...

I was also taking milk thistle for liver support until recently. you know, uh...because it's good for you.

 

I miss sports...but for me the therapy of the weights (or bands lol) is enough these days. That and I am secretly competing with everyone I meet...and I am almost always winning.

 

It's not a Intra-workout, it's Gainz Juice/elixir, and I love after all that and then... a pinch of salt

I am also surprised by the lack of Hendricks in your intra-workout. Did you forget to add it?

 

Multi, 6000iu vitamin D, B12, fish oil, glucosamine, creatine, myprotein, and usually total war preworkout.