My Unbuild Thread. Or, becoming less of a man.

I'm looking at getting a new bicycle soonish to try and get lower body & general aerobic work in.  You've got plenty of equipment already but it might be yet another way to burn some cals, work some muscles, and generally get outside.  Low impact as well.

I should go start a thread in the bikes forum...

In reply to pres589 (djronnebaum) :

Back when everyone was buying bikes in 2020, I bought one too. Ended up with an "Adventure Hybrid" bike, which is good for the street and hard pack fire roads. It showed up in August. By October, I was down 20lbs basically just from riding. Of course, I gained it all back since, mainly because I stopped exercising/riding and eating terribly, but it's a great way to get off your butt and do something. I look forward to getting back on mine this spring. 

In reply to Tony Sestito :

I think knowing the effect steady work like that can have should make it helpful in getting back on it.  I just had leg surgery and can't see myself running much this year so I'm going for low impact ways to get some work in.  One thing that might happen if I put the effort in is the social things that can be done with bicycles via riding groups.  Although they've usually been a turn-off in the past, so we'll see how that goes.

In reply to Toyman! :

Be really really REALLY careful doing bench press with a Smith machine. Or just don't.

The natural range of motion for bench is actually an arc, not a strait vertical line. Smith machines don't let you do this, and can trap you under the bar.

Overhead press and squat the bar should theoretically follow a strait vertical line.

I'd say do those bodyweight squats, just build them up gradually. Stretch out. Go as low as you can. Build there. Gradually get deaper. Step up onto gradually higher boxes.

In reply to Beer Baron :

Not much chance of getting trapped. It has bottom crash stops to keep the bar off of you. It's safer than using a free bar without a spotter. 

In reply to Toyman! :

If those can be adjusted to the right height for you, cool. Just be careful. Those look like they've got a lot of distance between the various stop heights. Which can work for squats. For bench, I've got 1" spacing between heights for my safety pins.

Or are you doing pin presses? (Lowering the bar onto a safety that is above the level of your chest.)

Also be aware that being locked into a strait range of motion can put undo strain on your shoulders. Usual advice of: if it doesn't feel right, don't do it.

With a free bar and no spotter or rack, you can tilt it to one side or roll it down your body to your hips. Proper form is to leave the end clips off. The plates just slide off. Even with them on, you get one end on the floor, and roll-scootch out the other side.

You can always just ask one of the kids to spot you if you're going to failure.

Or alternatively, I typically use dumbells when benching alone. This prevents me from being trapped under anything, and has the added benefit of training both sides of my body separately so that my dominant side cannot compensate for the weaker one. Perhaps you could incorporate similar concepts with your cable system?

Another day, another workout. It must have been a good one because I'm feeling it this morning. I worked on the core yesterday.

I tried the squats again. My knees just aren't going to take that at my current weight. I get about halfway down and it feels like someone stabs me in the knee with an icepick. So, I did some resistance band exercises with my legs instead. Lower impact but still gets some movement into the legs. 

I'll keep on keeping on. 

Would chair squats be an option? It might be less strain on your knees (note I am not a trainer or physical therapist but I do work out a lot).

I haven't lost weight this week, but that doesn't mean I have failed. I can still feel the difference in energy, and I can feel my body adjusting to eating less and moving around more.

And the drumming has been helping; I played for about 1.5 hrs yesterday and with some of the heavier songs I was playing, my fitness tracker picked up on me "running" when I was doing long/fast double bass patterns. I ended up (quite literally) banging out the equivalent of 3 MILES sitting down. I'm going to start looking into creating a playlist that will allow for fast playing and "cool down" songs to try and get the most out of these sessions. 

dyintorace said:

Would chair squats be an option? It might be less strain on your knees (note I am not a trainer or physical therapist but I do work out a lot).

a GREAT modification to this exercise is to tie a resistance band to something above eye level, and use that to pull on for varying degrees of 'assistance' in the squat  motion, dependent upon your discomfort points.   It takes the knees a long while to wake up, so any range of motion you can add in is great progress.  

Chair/box squats with upper body assistance is the best lower body training exercise you can do IMHO.  and it's infinitely scaleable to your needs as you get stronger (lower box height, less arm assistance, more reps, etc) 

In reply to dyintorace :

I tried an assisted squat yesterday using the cables but it didn't go very well. I like the looks of those. That may be exactly what I need. 

Thanks!

Just a reminder that flexibility is critical for proper weight lifting form and injury prevention. What seems like pain for weight may also be a lack of flexibility impacting range of motion.

It seems like you're doing a great job of "showing up". An injury can stop that pattern in it's tracks. So while you're learning new stuff, adopting new habits and improving diet and strength, make sure that you're devoting some attention to flexibility as well. It's especially important to remaining active as we age.

In reply to STM317 :

I bought a couple of wall charts for exercises. One of them is all about stretching and that is where I have been starting. I have been in the field all my life. I'm used to going home and relaxing. That changed in 2020. Being parked at a desk for the past 2+ years without the habit of exercising has cost me a fair amount of flexibility and strength. It's going to be a process to regain that. 

Yeah. Stretching and range of motion.

Footwear can also have a surprisingly bigger impact than you'd expect. Try different options: barefoot, shoes with harder soles, insoles or risers that bring your heels up 1/4". Stuff like that.

Also have someone watch your form. You want your knees to move in line with your toes. It's very common for knees to sort of "fall in" towards each other at the bottom, taking them out of line. This could put a lot of sideways strain on your knees and cause pain.

Experiment with different foot widths and pointing your toes more out vs. more strait forward.

You're doing a good job though. If you think about it, it's tuning the mechanical components of your body. Figuring out where the tolerances are too tight or too sloppy and making corrections.

Find one problem. Make adjustments to clear it up. Find the next one.

Keep finding ways to add 1 more horsepower...

Toyman! said:

In reply to dyintorace :

I tried an assisted squat yesterday using the cables but it didn't go very well. I like the looks of those. That may be exactly what I need. 

Thanks!

 

1/2, 1/3 squat or do whatever you can for now. 

Well, this wasn't a good weekend. Friday-Monday on the road. Mostly sitting in a car and eating out with family. No time or place to work out beyond a fair amount of walking Sunday afternoon and Monday morning.  

Weight loss? Zero. As of this AM, actually up a pound and a little. Not a huge deal but still slowed down the process some.  

Back on the program today. 

What's the good word?

In reply to OHSCrifle :

I'm glad you asked. Bringing this back up was on my list of things to do today and now I don't have to look for it. 

I'm still stuck at just under 248. I've been less than strict about my eating and pushing the limits more than I should. Not to the point of gaining but the weight loss has slowed significantly. I'm going to try to shoot for 2000 calories instead of 2600 for a few days and see if I can push myself off the plateau. 

The exercise is still happening. It's a bit sporadic due to travel and such. I also managed to pull a muscle in my mid back and shoulder blade working in the shop which stopped the workouts for most of a week. Apparently, your entire body is attached to your shoulder blades. If I don't make it to the machine I'm at least trying to do some walking while out of town. 

So, making some effort to keep this up. More to come sooner than later I hope. 

Toyman! said:

In reply to Beer Baron :

I need to add some leg exercises. I need to use the big muscles to burn some big energy and get my heart rate up. I tried a few body-weight squats yesterday and I don't think my knees are going to stand that until I shed some weight. I'm going to have to come up with something to exercise those muscles without abusing my knees. Maybe some from and back leg extensions. 

Regarding your knees, I just went thru a bunch of PT for a knee injury from ultimate (end of last year into beginning of this). These are exercises that my physical therapist gave me to strengthen muscles around the knees and help to stabilize them. They have helped massively and highly recommend to help with knee issues. Several of them require resistance bands so if you don't have any I recommend grabbing some of Amazon.

Side steps with resistance bands- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Mda-LOoCXw My PT had me doing 10 steps each way and repeating 4 times

Side kicks with resistance bands- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouaU8aG8owA (also forward kicks. Like this video but going forward) 20 times

Banded clamshell exercise- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHjBwnfpcQs (20 times)

Quad stretch (20 secs each leg)

Straight leg raises- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvi8aM02_GY (20 times)

Monster walk with band- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snbNxUIUQPc (same as pattern as side step)

Hip bridges- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiVHq0EM234 (20 times)

Chair squats as mentioned before if you knees can handle but tbh you may want to start doing a routine of some of the others first and then add those later. I wasn't able to do them early in my PT without pain.

Hope this helps. Doing these exercises have worked absolute wonders for my knees. If you start feeling knee pain while doing any, stop. The other nice thing about these workout is resistance bands are tiny so you can travel with them and do them in a hotel room. There are some others but they require a bit of equipment.

In reply to 93EXCivic :

I've done some of the chair squats. They aren't too bad. For some reason, my knees don't bother me as much on the upstroke as they do on the down. Having the chair helps. 

I have a set of bands. I'll add some of those exercises to the mix. They should help. 

Thanks!

Update time. Be it good, bad, or ugly I plan to update this at least once a month. 

Well, I apparently suck at losing weight. I'm still stuck at 347. I guess that's better than being back at 360 but I would like to continue the downward trend. Exercise is up, but eating is not down enough to bring the weight down. I think I'm just moving it from one place to another. Hopefully less fat and more muscle. I'm not sure. My pants seem to be a little looser than they were when I started and I'm back to wearing suspenders to keep my pants up. I'm also having a lot less heartburn so that's a plus if nothing else. 

I'll keep plugging away at it and keep posting here as thing change, or don't. 

I'm going to go back to fasting until lunch 3-5 days a week and see if that helps. 

Sometimes maintaining the same weight is a victory.  You've got me beat - I'm up 7 lbs from when this thread started, and that's reflecting  4lbs lost since my peak. For me, if I don't track calories, I can't lose weight.

There are definitely times when the scale won't tell the full picture.  If you're feeling better than when you started and are getting more exercise, then you're on the right track.  Weight can fluctuate a lot - you can hit a plateau for a bit and then start dropping again.

Toyman! said:

My pants seem to be a little looser than they were when I started and I'm back to wearing suspenders to keep my pants up. I'm also having a lot less heartburn so that's a plus if nothing else. 

Those are subjective measures of progress, but they sound like pretty clear signs of progress.

You know what you're doing. You know what you need to do. You're still making progress.

Just keep swimming.

This is not a linear process. You'll plateau at times and that's not only fine, it's expected. That doesn't mean that your efforts aren't benefiting you in other areas even if the number on the scale isn't changing. Don't be discouraged. Just stick with it.