The Health and Fitness Thread

[WeeAl]

1 hour ago, Mr_Danger said:

Anyone ever dabbled in power lifting? I restarted training in the gym in November after a good  5+ years off when walking up the stairs after work involved more crawling than walking. So I took a month off on the sick and started about getting in to shape to ease the pain I had from plantar fasciitis.  Things kind of snowballed and I’m now a 6 days a week probably doing more harm than good obsessive gym goer. I’ve got a good base knowledge of weight lifting and am pretty competent at training my self, nutrition and making and changing my workouts but I’d quite like to delve a bit deeper in to power lifting. My gym is holding a novice charity event in June and I think I’ll put my name down for it. I’ve no expectations other than beating my own personal bests and having a goal to train toward other than “A round triangular shape and a nice Eddie Hall fat pack” when I go to Greece in October. Any tips and advice would be welcome. 
 

I’ll be back in 6 months to ask for advice on setting up a buff bear only fans page.

Congratulations on the consistency you're putting in Danger! Motivation is a quack, but building consistent habits is how shit gets done. If this is of any help to you:

Jim Wendler's 5/3/1 programme is as easy a transition to make from generally lifting, to getting into powerlifting training programmes. There are several versions that spurt off from the original as well. He has a couple of e-book's out that are easy to find online. 

T-Nation.com will be a very useful resource. Christian Thibaudeau and Dave Tate on there, and Tate on his website EliteFTS will be pretty valuable. 

The master Eddy Coan, will have plenty videos on technique, especially for Squat, that you'll want to see. 

The headcases at Westside Barbell, led by the late Louie Simmons, produced some incredible lifters - you wouldn't have survived otherwise. It was hardcore volume, and there's enough juice being taken to cope with that. There's a lot of great stuff to learn from looking at their programmes and listening to Louie, but remember it's by no means an entry level to Powerlifting. But others can take training ideas and teachings from it and scale back the volume to suitable levels when trying to programme for a clean, beginner to intermediate level lifter. 

With Powerlifting specifically, it's technique, technique, technique. Learn the cues, bring the lifts down into stages and learn what constitutes a completed lift in Powerlifting as opposed to generally in the gym, weightlifting or strongman. It's very strict. A local charity event may not be, but if you're interested trying to get further into it down the line - start as you may mean to go on and learn to do the lifts within the rules of what a referee will pass on meet day - which with Bench Press is also different depending on the governing body (how much of you needs to stay in contact with the bench and ground for example) and with squat, where the green light is going to be on your depth. 

There'll be weight classes so you'll have to figure out if you want to cut weight or not at some point in order to make a class. If not, you'll want to be able to keep your weight stable for periods of time while getting stronger, and not accidentally end up 100g into a higher weight class. 

Gear requirements differ - there are Equipped/Geared categories which mean using a bench shirt or squat suit for example and knee wraps. Then you have you Raw/classic/unequipped section which is just you, your weight belt and your singlet. Though some of these, again depending on the federation may allow the use of knee sleeves. 

I'd start by finding who your local competitions are run by (possibly GBPF or the IPF) having a look at their rules and then learning the lift technique that they find acceptable for competition (if they have any differences they'll be minor differences, but differences none the less) - then implementing a programme from there. 

Enjoy and best of luck with looking into things, trying some new stuff out and setting new PB's - then consistently setting and breaking new targets again after that in the future. It's a rewarding pursuit to follow as at the end of the day, the iron is a great leveller. It doesn't lie. If you put in the work, you'll see it. 

[Mr_Danger]

That’s great and exactly what I was looking for thanks. As a 39 year old postie with bad feet and knees I’m not sure how much longevity I’ll have in getting in to it but I know how my brain works and if I have a training goal that involves some form of competition I know I’ll stay motivated. I’m going to treat it as a white collar boxing event one off deal for now but there’s always the chance my obsessive brain takes to it and I’ll get to break the old spandex back out.

[SuperBacon]

7 hours ago, WeeAl said:

Gear requirements differ - there are Equipped/Geared categories which mean using a bench shirt or squat suit for example and knee wraps. Then you have you Raw/classic/unequipped section which is just you, your weight belt and your singlet. Though some of these, again depending on the federation may allow the use of knee sleeves. 

My brother in law lifts equipped. 

The few times I've been to watch him, once he puts his knee wraps on I've had to help him up out of his chair, as he's like one of thos weeble-wobbles with them on. Hilarious looking to be honest.

[Lorne Malvo]

4 hours ago, Mr_Danger said:

 if I have a training goal that involves some form of competition I know I’ll stay motivated.

This works for me too.

I've done a lot of running on and off the past 5 years. But during lockdown I really began to improve. I would do 6 miles as a minimum run but often stretching to 18 miles or putting together my own marathon routes on weekends. Since the start of 2022 I lost motivation due to a combination of burnout from work and pesky life stuff getting in the way. I wasn't running as often and like most physical exercises, it only takes a month off to lose the progress you've made over the course of a 6 months.

I have been trying to get back to my 2020 level the past 6 months but have lacked the motivation. But now I've signed up for a marathon later this year and put together a weekly training/running plan on the run-up to it. And just having that goal in mind and a weekly plan which charts my progress has helped massively with the motivation. I don't feel like I'm dragging myself to the treadmill anymore, I'm actively looking forward to it and trying to beat my previous runs.

Hopefully after the marathon my motivation stays. Or it might just be a case of immediately signing up for another one to keep me going!

[Mr_Danger]

Got within a gnats dick of getting 230kg up on my deadlift tonight for a Danger world record and taught a couple of pencil necked geeks to ask before taking plates off the rack I’m using(by passive aggressively telling them to take all the weights if they like followed by forced laughter from all).  I know I can beat my 1RM of 220kg on the deadlift but my girlfriend made a real point of showing me a video of a fellow gym goer doing 230kg so I wanna skip 222.5kg and 225kg and shove it in her mocking face!

[Keith Houchen]

On 3/1/2023 at 10:47 AM, Browser Brady said:

Fantastic lads, i’ll give it a go so.

 

Thank you very much for the detailed responses.

 

I’ll check back in a few weeks and let you know how i am going. 

Started back on the DDPY train today. Fucking hell! It was stark how I couldn’t even do the moves I did as second nature previously!  Had to pause, sit out a few, and adjust for some of it. Still, the first step is the hardest and hopefully I can stick at it without overdoing it!

Did you make a start?

[Browser Brady]

On 4/3/2023 at 5:40 PM, Keith Houchen said:

Started back on the DDPY train today. Fucking hell! It was stark how I couldn’t even do the moves I did as second nature previously!  Had to pause, sit out a few, and adjust for some of it. Still, the first step is the hardest and hopefully I can stick at it without overdoing it!

Did you make a start?

To my shame, i did not. I have a newborn, my dad has stage 4 cancer and I returned to work …….. all excuses mind. I probably never need it more. 
 

What program do you start on or how does it work exactly?

[Keith Houchen]

24 minutes ago, Browser Brady said:

To my shame, i did not. I have a newborn, my dad has stage 4 cancer and I returned to work …….. all excuses mind. I probably never need it more. 
 

What program do you start on or how does it work exactly?

Shit man, sorry to hear about that. I started with beginner and you can tailor it to what you like. The first two programs were an intro to the moves, that lasts for about 40 minutes with a fair bit of that being just listening, then in the third day it was the first session proper, that is for 25 minutes. There are days off and the same program for two weeks, then different workouts get added. 

[Fatty Facesitter]

Any Parkrunners present on these pages? I haven't ever done it myself but I've been looking into it - seems like a fun, free activity to take part in although I hate running and I'll never set any records with my little legs. Is it a fairly easy sign up process and just a case of turning up?

[Statto]

You don't have to sign up at all if you're not bothered about getting an "official" time - just turn up and run!

But yeah, quick sign up on the website, get a barcode and you're sorted. There'll always be a first timers briefing if you make sure you're there 10 mins before off time.

[mim731]

Generally Parkrun communities seem to be really friendly too in my experience. Yes there will be some "serious" runners going for a PB but mostly it's people wanting to run outside in a nice setting. 

[Joe Blog]

I regularly go to Parkruns, I started going as a novice and found them fun and welcoming. Just remember it’s fun and not a race. 
 

In other running news I went out for a 10k today and ended up running a half marathon in 1:54 (bloody chuffed I was) dying of thirst for the last few miles though.