22.5kg x 4
17.5kg x 5
Followed by 11.25kg x 7 and bodyweight x 8. I am chasing that 25kg plate for reps next.
Then the goal is 32.5kg x anything because that's half my body weight. Arbitrary number but it means a lot to me.
If I can pull that when I was in a position a couple of years ago where I could barely move my neck and I was unbelievably fragile then I am stoked.
It's not easy, but it's also not that hard when you start to believe you can do it ❤️
I'm just using this page as a journal so now that I am in a place mentally where I feel like I can train again, I can look back on the content as a reminder to keep going and to see my progress.
Haven't deadlifted in years, and was never good at them. Everything felt clunky, weird and unstable.
100kg x 2 x 3 sets
I was tired, it was 2:30am, I'd already done 3 sets of weighted ring pull ups, but they felt better than they used to and I didn't wake up with back pain.
And I am grateful for that.
To the untrained eye it looks like a deliberate pause at the bottom of your reps is a weakness but it's not a rest, it makes it 2x harder.
I'm not qualified to talk about lifting or fitness. I am just playing, exploring and learning through experience. Testing what works, what doesn't work and ignoring the rest.
But the pause at the bottom with fully elevated shoulder blades feels like a neurological reset. You start again, you don't give yourself any help. You're as long as you can be, and then you're as short as you can be at the top.
But I realise I don't know anything and I am always learning what my body needs and what it can do.
Pull ups feel much stronger now after I stopped doing them a long time ago and just focused on the chin up.
The pull up is such a difficult movement and so much harder to me than a chin up, I let them go and worked up from my baseline.
When I started training I couldn't do a single chin up but I worked my way back from that. One shoulder higher than the other, constant chronic neck pain, frozen shoulder, frozen neck, numb hands and numb fingers. All gone.
Slow is smooth, smooth is fast, that's what @_attuned told me a long time ago and it took me a long time to internalise all of the knowledge he gave me, even in such a brief period of advice but thank you brother. Appreciate the wisdom.
I'm not remotely strong and it's not my goal to be the strongest because I will always fall short, but I definitely feel more confident in moving and I feel more freedom in my body than I ever have
Had a throat infection that I couldn't shift for almost 6 weeks so training has been hit and miss. But I don't mind, makes me appreciate coming back to it more than anything really.
20kg x 3
15kg x 4
There were 30 reps in total, alot of which weren't recorded. This was my first intentional block of weighted chin ups in around 3-4 years after persistent and recurring spine and neck issues which forced me to stop.
But it's pretty interesting to see that these felt relatively comfortable after a prolonged period without any additional weight, just by focusing on making the bodyweight fundamentals stronger for a long time.
Looking forward to adding in weighted hangs soon and picking holes in the other aspects of the movement that are holding me back and causing pain. Goal is 3 reps of my bodyweight 💪
Never had a strong chest, always been weak with dips or any pushing movement, always had shoulder problems. Frozen shoulder, scapula pain, they never moved the same way and felt disconnected from my body.
But we work on our weaknesses and turn them into strengths. Day by day 💪
#yoga #pain #gain
I’m 30 now. If you’re 30 you should probably be able to do a set of 30 consecutive chin ups. Reflective of your age. I can’t anymore, but that’s what we’re aiming for.
I am behind. I can do 12. But it’s all good. Just keep showing up day in, day out.
#gym #gains #purpose
Dull, real training. Weak af now, used to rep these out at this pace for 10 with a 25kg plate on the belt. Doesn’t matter, let go of the past. It does you no good to fixate on past achievements.
If you’re doing pull ups, you should tuck your ribs down towards your abdomen. It connects your shoulder blades to your back. Try it and tell me how you feel.
#introspection #training #yoga
I am not flexible, strong, athletic or agile. I was never genetically gifted with a propensity for sports. And it sounds disrespectful to tarnish those who get good at things from an early age as ‘gifted’ when in reality they just worked hard and figured it out.
Good for them, it makes me happy to know that some become exceptionally skilled and learn how to express themselves with their body in a way that I never experienced. But again, I was never that person.
I became chronically tight, anxious, depressed and developed chronic pain from a young age. I had a twisted cervical spine, one shoulder that was 3 inches higher than the other, chronic persistent neck, shoulder, forearm and hand pain and had no idea what to do to fix it.
Until I just accepted where I was, started to peel back the layers of my personality and try to understand why I was afflicted with these things. And slowly but gradually things started to change, but it took 10 years. Of researching, studying, experiencing, experimenting and just playing in my body to realise which things worked, and which things weren’t worth my time.
I’m not an expert, but I have learned things. I have learned pathways out of chronic pain and that even if you do feel like giving up because your body is failing you, there is always another day to try again and try harder.
And so this is what I will use this page for. To document my experiences of moving my body and my persistence to achieve specific attributes.
My goal this year is to achieve a freestanding handstand and develop the ability to maintain it for an extended period of time. I’m nowhere near achieving it.
But I will achieve it. One day or another.
#yoga #pain #prevention #play #death
The most potent way I know of improving overall hip health and function. Horse stance.
Spoiler, it’s horrible. It hurts.
But your ability to hold a constant state of hip flexion and actively control the position of your femoral head in the hip socket, relative to all of the other moving parts, will make a huge difference to the way your hips function. Trust me.
Cues like tucking the front of the ribs down and creating abdominal pressure help you to find the zone of apposition, improve the effectiveness of the horse stance and helps breathing mechanics.
Put a timer on and try it. I promise it sucks.
#yoga #pain #prevention #play #death
