The Official Gym & Fitness Thread

My shoulders are stupid weak, I’ve been hitting cardio pretty good the last few weeks (biking 6-10 miles a day) and occasionally I’ll hit the PF 30 minute circuit, the shoulder press (the machine pictured) I’m struggling to do 12 reps at 60lbs and I’m not sure why, the seated row I’m doing 15 reps at 135lbs and my shoulders feel good. I’m not sure why the overhead is so much more difficult.

Edit: picture because I’m an idiot.

 

Overhead is weak for 97% of people in the gym.

Also training 12-15 reps is part of why.

 

Good to know.
I figured as much, I just don’t want to give up my cardio time to spend more time with weights before work, and I’m too lazy to get up before 5 to get more gym time.

Out of curiosity what should my reps/sets look like if I wanted to drop one or two days of cardio for strength?

 

Simple answer is lower reps (3-5), more weight, and also progressive overloading.

 

Not that I’m the strongest bro in the world but if you want to get better at pressing, press. To include bench press and ideally all barbell and freeweight.

The more you can develop all your muscles together the better you’ll be.

The shoulder press machines IMO are hard because of the position they force you in. Could be just me though.

 

Looking big as usual... What's up with the normal schedule?

 

Meh just slacking

 

Sweet, thanks gentlemen.
I don’t really have specific goals in mind, I was just doing the circuit 2-3x/week to maintain strength and work different muscle groups.

 

Fellas.


Graduated swat school Friday, no more cardio and body weight bullshit. Back to lifting finally after not touching a barbell for 3 months.

Eased back in with 3x3 squats, ghd, split squats, and hip thrusts. Gunna be walking like a baby deer for a week.

feels good to be back.

 

Congratulations!

Welcome back

 

Just curious- If you were doing that "bullshit" in order to pass/graduate wouldn't it stand to reason you'd keep some of that in your training rotation to be optimal at the job? Disclaimer: I, as usual, don't know what I'm talking about and am genuinely curious. Thanks for your LEO service. Take care.

 

I have GOT to stop drinking.

Some friends took me out to a kick ass bourbon bar last night. After my second glass I found myself agreeing to do a sprint triathlon

I don't even own a bike ya'll...



@St. Swervus

How much does one need to train for a 0.5 mi swim? Is this something I can just suffer through the day of?

CORRECTION: 500m swim

Any training advices is appreciated. I think we are aiming for an Aug event.

 

I gotta start doing body weight/boot camp stuff again, Monday night was my first BJJ class and my cardio and core strength were my two largest weaknesses. It was a lot of fun though and I’m excited to keep training there.

 

500m? That's 10 laps in a pool....not an ass kicker but you should go see what you're getting yourself in to. I know some running badasses that struggle stringing together 3 laps. I always found it easier but then again I love it.

Also I was always told the bike is the "rest portion" of Tri. Then I started riding. The bike is no joke. Maybe because it was my last of those three disciplines to "master". I ride a fair amount now and am in the process of getting back in cycling shape. 20-30 mile rides a couple of mornings a week for a few weeks has already gotten me back on track. Feel free to message me if you need/want some pointers. And oh yeah....HELL YEAH Triathlon!!!!

 

Yes I’ll keep cardio in the rotation, but Leo will never be running a 6 mile foot chase. Most law enforcement/ military pt standards and tests need to be scalable to get the most amount of people in shape with the least amount of equipment. That’s where body weight and running come into play.

 

My gym has a pool so I will give it a go. I really struggle with swimming because its so much core work.

I have been told that 4 miles on a bike is about equivalent in time and effort as running a a mile. If that's the case a 10 mile bike shouldn't be too bad. Obviously thats very course dependent.

I think you told me you had a Coros, do you have a power meter for your bike to track activity? What about any swimming assessors or does the watch on its own do a good job of tracking all that?

For a second I thought you were talking about yourself in the 3rd person.

 

I think you're going to end up like me when I did a Sprint Tri. Got all trained up, a bit nervous, then showed up and cruised it. Just as my buddies had told me when it was over I was thinking "What am I going to do with the rest of the day". In hindsight I should've just signed up for the next tier. I think it's Olympic distance. Swim a mile, ride 25, run a 10k.

You've got a cardio/endurance background and have run some long ass stuff. Just get familiar with the pool and bike, don't get too hung up on your times and it'll all be good. I don't track my metrics that closely. I look at my swim times either old school by looking at the clock in the pool or my watch and I look at my mph numbers on the bike. But just the overall. I'm also not training for speed at this point. As long as my #s stay pretty consistent then I know I'm ok.

For me this stuff is about fitness, enjoying myself, mental health and keeping myself in shape for fast hiking. On Monday I went out and fast hiked/ran a 25 miler. 6500 feet of elevation gain. I try to get time to go do that once a week or so. That stuff is my favorite and I want to be able to do it and not be sore later. As the snow melts here the mountains are where it's at.

I'm excited for you. This'll be fun and get you cross training a bit. Unless you end up in the small percentage of people who can run their entire lives you might want to get some other stuff in your rotation early. In my case the hardcore running is pretty much over but the other stuff is GAME ON.

 

One of my friends is wanting to do one and she's like "hey you should do it with me", and I usually just agree if it's shit I feel I can do relatively easily (I'm lazy). I feel I could survive it on minimal effort, and maybe actually have fun and enjoy it because I'm not all that interested in swimming and biking. The less seriously you take it the more fun it is.

If she said "hey lets do an Ironman!" I'm be like "ORRRRRRRR, you do it and I crew you" LOL.

I will be honest I don't know what my fitness future looks like. I can trail run all day long but you should watch me climb a flight of stairs. Basically I've already been limited at work to primarily just serving downstairs now. It's like Forest Gump. I can run all day, but in all honesty I could use a cane for stairs.

So as long as I can be doing it, I'm going to be doing it all. Who knows I may like it.

When I recently threatened to quit my day job my husband asked if I did quit what would I do with my time (apparently being a bum supported by him isn't an option?). Honestly, I'd love to serve and bartend part time, home brew part time, and then basically just train for different events.
I'd love to be a part time athlete. Who knows maybe I'd consider an Ironman if I no longer worked full time.

 

re: part time athlete. I feel you there.
This year my gf was 400ish in the Crossfit Open out of 100k. When they moved on to the semi finals she got 11th in a front squat workout. It blew my mind, she never mentioned her progress or status. I just figured she enjoyed her training and all was good. Once i realized she was in the running, I hired my nutritionist buddy to work out her food.
I'm trying to get her to consider making a run at a games appearance next year. She got a top score during Covid just sorta fucking around half the year.
We want to start a family in the next few years, and she loves her career so its a bit of a struggle on how to approach it. She agrees but isn't quite sure she wants to make the push.

 

I deeply fantasize about partial retirement right now. I would really like to take some time to travel a little bit, but just focus on training for some races and just enjoy training and not constantly having to worry about how to balance everything in life so delicately.

Healthcare coverage is kind of the biggest issue. Being younger, ACA coverage really isn't that bad. It's more of an issue if you wanted to retire early at 50 something or have a family. Those premiums can get pretty scary. I think my premiums would be $250/mo (its just the deductibles of $10k that are scary).

The way I look at it is, I can always go back to work. It's not like you leave and no one ever lets you go back. You just need to know how to approach the conversation about the time off. I know a lot of millennials that are doing things totally unconventionally right now. They are heavily investing to basically retire from full time work, some folks are taking multi year sabbaticals in the middle of their working years, and thanks to COVID some people have been able to be working nomads the last year because they can work remotely anywhere so they just travel around anywhere they want to vacation and still work. I feel like a lot of folks who are in their 30s if they were hiring someone one who took a break, it wouldn't be any red flag or bad thing to them at all. I think only older folks would think that shit is bizarre.

I would eventually like to start my own business that, if successful, will probably keep me working until I die or I'm not able to keep doing it. So will I ever really have a conventional retirement? Probably not.

Why not take time now while I'm young and able bodied to have fun and do some adventurous and physical things? Then later on start a business that takes some of that freedom away from me when I've gotten that wanderlust out of my system.

I want to give my investments another 3 years but the plan is at 33 to walk away from the full time work. Because at that point I could walk away and never come back, just in case it's addicting not working .

I would encourage her to do it if she can afford it. YOLO!! Take the opportunity while you have it!