The Official Gym & Fitness Thread

So what’s with the pain? Sounds like something isn’t right

 

ROOT YOUR FEET!

Fuck, why do I have to keep saying this? Quad activation on squats and deadlifts, ROOT YOUR FEET, turn your heels in, toes out.

Every lift you do. Overhead, squat, deadlift, ROOT YOUR FEET.

 

For some people, the active pressure of trying to twist feet outwards causes pain. It’s also easy to think of grabbing the ground with your feet and pulling your big toe into your foot to creat a tripod between the pad of your foot, the knuckle behind your pinky toe, and your heel.

 

I like to imagine I'm building a mound of sand between my heels.
Same thing I sent to @weldertaco

 

Which bumper do y’all think looks best? Gonna root my feet when picking it up to install it. But for real. It’s going on my Runner.

 

Andddd it makes sense and works.

 

I like #2 if the bull bar was bigger


Edit: or stinger, whatever it's called

 

Changed my life. Joe Sullivan preaches it and Terry explained it in person. Every lift shot up significantly for me after starting this, and it helped my stability a lot.

 

C4 hybrid with full height hoop. No questions.

 

Sounds a bit like you are on a timeline that is different than the one your knee is on. I know it’s frustrating but really, don’t rush progress. I notice you hate the gym because of one joint. This is what I mean by liking the process...what about every other lift/body part? I feel like you are getting overwhelmed by one negative but which is understandable...but there is likely lots of positives to focus on.

take a break if you need it...health is the focus at the end of the day. The metrics and looks make it a bit more fun but without health it’s not really worth much.

 

It has to do with knee cap tracking wrong due to the difference in muscle activation between inner quad and outer when bending/lifting.

Its a pain you can work through it just sucks that mentally you have to keep doing that.

This is a bit helpful and I will make sure I’m doing it. Especially toes out slightly. My issue is with lack of VMO contraction specifically (outer quad does just fine). Toes out helps with the VMO.

Other lifts?

Lately I’ve been dealing with panic attacks and anxiety. Many of which can be exercise induced, unfortunately.

Quite litteraly being under a heavy load and straining isn’t an enjoyable experience. So I don’t lift to a really challenging point any more.

And I guess thats the issue, working out used to be a source of recharge and destress for me and now its turned into something that adds stress and becomes emotionally draining.

Running is easy and requires no mental effort so that I still enjoy. I’ve backed off speed work temporarily.

It helps to talk and think through it though.

A break would probably help dissociate those negative feelings from lifting.

 

You're over-analyzing everything, including lifting, which is causing your panic attacks and overall displeasure with whatever activity you are in at the moment. We can find joy and/or pain in literally everything we do if we dissect it enough. Occam's razor tells us not to.

Take a break from the gym. If you miss it, go back. If you don't miss it, then I don't see why you would want to continue doing it. Think about why you lift. If the answer is anything other than "I like it," then why would you do something you don't like?

Also, is weed legal in your state? You may need to try some of that.

 

Life is too short to do things you don't enjoy. Which is why I wanted to take a break. I know whenever I'm over what ever the hell is going on in my life I will be myself again, but at this moment its not something I get any joy out of. Just wanted to think through if taking away something that #1 is healthy and #2 I used to like would potentially make things worse. But if it does, hey just go back right?

No weed isn't legal in my state, I'd lose my job. Plus no desire to do that shit.

 

What he said. And just to be clear, no one said you have to push big weights all the time. Hypertrophy can be accomplished with lighter weights and different intensification techniques and more reps.

But that’s neither here nor there. There are things you likely need to work out before you work out and that is totally ok. Find the thing that helps calm your mind and do that thing because it helps. Leave all the other shit behind. Life is too short man.

 

I agree with this and that's what I'm going to do.

 

All the best man.

 

second and third pics
like hybrid bumpers. plate bumpers look too bulky to me

 

as a thread intro of sorts: I go to the gym 4 days/week. generally rotate lift focus week to week based on recovery rate. Im 47 and have never really recovered quickly but now I screw things up if I overdo it or use shit form.
ive discovered in the last two months that cold exposure/immersion does wonders for recovery. I spend the last 2-4 minutes of my shower every night with it all the way to cold. like hurts-my-teeth cold. I 1. sleep like a baby and , 2. recover much quicker.
those interested in learning more should look up a guy named Wim Hof.

 

I used to do ice baths after rugby games...worked amazing but man did it suck.

 

im telling you, if you do it EVERY DAY it doesn't. its weird. I first started using ice baths after bike races when there was more than one in a day/weekend and it was night and day diff.