View All Posts: BeastWithin
| » Need advice on some exercises (Go to post) | 01-11-2012 @ 11:44 | ||
| I've been training since I was in my mid-teens. Some of it was useless. Spent a good amount of time injured too. Such is life. I'm now 23. I train at home. Could go to a gym, but honestly don't think I could find the time; if I have to, I will, but I'd rather the convenience of training at home. I work a lot of hours and study a lot of hours, time is f**king valuable commodity. I have a crapload of dumbbells. That's about it. I live in a shoebox sized apartment, so space for large equipment is limited, hence the dumbbells. My goal is to get really f**king good in the following areas: Dumbbell overhead press. One legged squats. - Just started doing them instead of squats, and am still getting used to the balance. Rows. And I want my forearms to be ridiculous. Currently I'm doing heavy wrist curls for a lot of sets, and also loading up a dumbbell on one side and doing what I can only describe as forearm rotations with it. Over the past year the biggest limitation in my forearm training has been my fingers (pretty sure it's the tendons), they just can't take as much punishment as my forearms can, although I suppose that is to be expected. I already take between 7.5g-15g of fish oil, and 1.5g of glucosamine per day in order to help with this, but with no success. There's a lot of other stuff too that I'm either already doing well at, or just don't care about enough for it to be a priority. The above is what I want to work on. I know that the obvious answer is to just do more of what I want to get better at, but I've been training for a long time and am not getting the results I would like. If you could elaborate as much as you'd care to, in explaining how to get better at the above, I'd appreciate it. | |||
| » How many people here (Go to post) | 22-10-2012 @ 02:29 | ||
| Sleep supplements help a fair bit, anything with valerian root in it seems to work for me, and a friend of mine swears by GABA (gamma-aminobutryic acid), but I've never tried it. 6 hours of sleep after having taken a supplement seems to feel better than 8 hours without. | |||
| » How many of us made the most out of education? (Go to post) | 28-09-2012 @ 17:05 | ||
| I find it odd that when the topic of education is discussed, people jump to talking about school. There are different types of education, and I'm betting that very few of you would say that you ever turned your brain off and stopped learning, out of disinterest. But rather that you resisted learning specific, formalised lessons. Everything you do teaches you; if you spent a whole bunch of years focused on a sport that you've since given up, I bet it still taught you a lot. To be honest, my track record with education is sporadic and ultimately amounted in a mix of spectacular failures and just not turning up, and I'm just now going back and studying something I actually care about. Even given that this is something I've dedicated a large portion of my time to, I think it's important to draw a distinction between learning something because you want to, and learning something because you should. One of the most destructive things people can do to themselves is to succeed in areas that do not inspire them. It will draw you into a career, baited with money and security. I regret a lot of things, but being disinterested in things that didn't really matter to me, isn't one of them. Do what you love, and there's plenty of time to build your relevant education - and you'll do it incredibly fast, because it'll consume all of the time you'd otherwise waste on things like t.v. or excessive sleep (or even adequate sleep). | |||
| » Torn Rotator Cuff? (Go to post) | 27-09-2012 @ 18:49 | ||
| OP, you're a dumbass. Get it checked out. Don't try and use your own intellect on this - you're neither qualified nor experienced enough for that to be useful, and don't try and get it diagnosed by athletes or doctors (or both) online, if they can't see you in person then the best they can do is make an educated guess. They'd have a hard enough time with a shoulder injury if they could see you in person. See a professional who isn't completely retarded, ASAP. Some other random dude who already posted in this thread said he'd done similar and had aggravated it before looking after it; this will be a common and regretful story, in due time. It is for most of us. I'm not saying be a pussy. I'm not saying don't man up and do whatever the f**k it is you've got to do, I am saying don't be an immature dumbass who makes themselves useless for more time than they have to be by not getting injuries looked at. Get it checked out. In this country that'd cost you $50, in yours it's probably in the ballpark of that too. A morning/afternoon off work to get it looked at can be organised for a work-related injury. Neither of which is anywhere near the inconvenience of f**king it up worse. It's probably nothing, and you'll probably be fine (and better off) for working with it in a slightly reduced capacity; but it is really good practice to get a diagnosis for injuries that are enough to scare you a bit, it'll save your ass one day. | |||
| » Advice for young lifters (Go to post) | 29-08-2012 @ 14:09 | ||
Wayne_Cowdrey said:Don't rush things. This, but I'm going to rephrase it to: don't be a dickhead. Honestly, most of us have been at this for a f**king long time. I still consider myself a young lifter at 23, I'm starting out and building a base... and I've been doing this for 8 years. What I realise at this point is that over that much time it doesn't matter how you train. It takes maybe three years of dedicated training to go from being average to reaching a near-elite level of strength/size/whatever, the difference between near-elite, and elite, is dedication. At 15, at 23, or at 45, it doesn't matter, you're going to be doing this for a long time. You have all of the time you need to get where you want to. Don't use more weight than you can handle. Don't lose your motivation if you don't progress far in a week, or a month. Don't get injured, but don't let it f**k with you when you do - because it will happen, but there is still plenty of time. Progress slowly. Lift weights that you're embarrassed to lift, if that's what you need to be doing - today will pass, and for the thousands of days after it, you'll benefit a lot more from training intelligently today. Don't let people tell you that your routine won't work, because I can guarantee that if you stick with the same routine for a year, the way you're doing this is going to go out of fashion, and people will argue against it, but it still works, all that's required is consistency. | |||
| » Invent a new 'Big 3'... (Go to post) | 22-08-2012 @ 05:23 | ||
| Squat Weighted pull up Overhead press I'd include some form of weighted carry, but I've never trained them consistently. | |||
| » What Hold'S You Back ? (Go to post) | 02-08-2012 @ 04:30 | ||
| To be honest, I have a few dozens reasons why it's all so difficult. I work long hours, and when I'm not working I'm usually studying. I'm tired. Really tired. With that being said, my circumstances are way easier than most people's. My circumstances are way easier than they have been before. A couple of years ago I'd have given nearly anything to have my now modest level of strength, and be injury free. Those two things provide enormous opportunity. But... I have no fire in my belly, as it pertains to strength training. A few years ago, everything was injured and I was on comeback trail and as modest as my training had to be to accommodate that, I lived and breathed training; I'd push myself to my limits and a little bit past them and use a wide array of bizarre methods to patch myself up, bandaging, massaging, alternating ice/heat were daily occurrences, I stretched all the time, I was constantly visiting physios, my diet was closer to perfect than it'll likely ever be again. Now... f**k... I train 3x per week, plus there are a few exercises I do every day (overhead press, push ups, rows), and I train hard and I genuinely want to improve and really do work my ass off... but there's no fire. It's not the same. My attention is elsewhere; women and work. My training suffers because of that. Part of me is okay with that, but another part of me isn't satisfied with a lackluster effort in any aspect of my life. | |||
| » tendonitis need HELP!!! (Go to post) | 16-07-2012 @ 16:26 | ||
bruce said: would u recomend just 1 set of 50, and is that every day, i am at the point that its turned to a tendonsis in both my knees and its really pissing me off That's what I was doing, but really just do as much as you can do without making it worse. | |||
| » When you're past it (Go to post) | 16-07-2012 @ 16:22 | ||
| I don't do strongman, I'm not a bodybuilder or powerlifter either... just some dude bent of self-improvement who hates the idea of being only human. With that being said, I've been training for a long time and have always thought I'd never stop. Why would I? Training is enjoyable and the rewards of it so far outweigh the time expenditure. But, I have to admit over the past six months or so training is harder and more mentally draining. I want to train, but... it's hard and I'm sore, and I'm happy with my strength and no one else in my life will notice any difference between me now and me after another year of dedicated training - why go through all of the hard yards? But life is too soft and luxurious, I can't expose my mind to ease - or it will rot. I need the challenge, I need the fight with iron, I need the constant questioning of whether I'm just sore or injured, I need the doubting if I can do something and fighting an uphill battle to get there and prove to myself what's possible. I don't think I can stop. I think one day I may reach a point where training is a chore, but it's part of being me, and as long as I'm breathing I think I'll still be doing the same key exercises and trying to set PB's. | |||
| » tendonitis need HELP!!! (Go to post) | 16-07-2012 @ 02:35 | ||
Post Edited: 16.07.2012 @ 02:37 AM by BeastWithin Obscene quantities of fish oil (20-30g/day)Stretching for absolutely everything in your arms, and any stretch where you find noteworthy tension you should be holding the stretch until the tension goes away (can take less than 10 seconds when there's not much tension, can take several minutes when there's a lot of tension to work out). Build up to doing this several times per day. High rep isolation exercises for your forearms. Think 50 reps. Go very light, the goal here in the beginning is not strength, it's blood flow. Build up SLOWLY, until the exercise becomes heavy enough to be considered strength training, then keep going. Keep in mind here that the weight your muscles can handle is significantly more than what your damaged tendons can handle, and it's the strength of your tendon that you're trying to build. Ice post-workout. Alternate ice/heat on the area as much as possible in the rest of your time. And above all, keep your head about you. Tendonitis can take a long time to get rid of, and it can be a real mind-f**k after you've had it for a couple of years and doubt whether it will ever go away; and you start realising that it's gone from tendonitis to tendonosis and you're pretty much f**ked. Or at least, that's what was going through my head a few years ago. I have 0 pain now; I train my forearms extremely hard and they take it in stride without any sign of tendonitis; but it's been an extremely long road to rehab to that point. | |||
| » Rounded back lifting (Go to post) | 14-07-2012 @ 03:01 | ||
Post Edited: 14.07.2012 @ 03:04 AM by BeastWithin slimsim said:AKBC that is probably the best post I have seen on this site. Bravo! Seriously? f**king low expectations around here. http://whygirlsarejustsomuchbetter.files.wordpress.com/2011/11... Edit: Obligatory smiley  to show I'm not having a go at AKBC, merely pointing out the absence of half naked women. | |||
| » Anyone on here got flat feet (overpronators)? I need help. (Go to post) | 05-07-2012 @ 04:56 | ||
| I had a lot of trouble with flat feet for years. Just walking caused shin splints, so I lived with shin splints for a very long time. Didn't train my legs much because they were already injured. Coughed up $600 for some custom orthotics. Made a big difference. They made it manageable, to the point where if I did some maintenance stuff every day, I could be relatively pain-free. Maintenance stuff, was basically heaps of stretches for everything in my legs (with particular emphasis on calves), and I got an empty coke bottle, filled it with water and froze it, then I'd stand on it and roll it around in the arch of my foot (or what should have been an arch) to loosen everything up. Physio said to only put 30% of my weight on the coke bottle, or all I'd manage to do would be bruise the ligaments; but after a couple of months I was putting at least 100% on it, and getting better results. I did that twice a day and was able to function normally. Hating being dependent on the orthotics, and being in enough pain to justify using my masochist physio's self-massage recommendation, I resolved to fix the problem, rather than just abate it. Started religiously doing 20 rep squats, ATG and barefoot. I know I started absurdly light, I think it may even have been just bodyweight squats at first. About a year later, I'm pretty sure I'm cured. Only reason I'm not certain is because I still use the orthotics a lot, but I can train, run, and have no pain. This doesn't answer your question at all. But maybe there's something of use in my ramblings. | |||
| » low calorie alcholic beverages ? (Go to post) | 11-06-2012 @ 14:21 | ||
| A couple shots of a straight spirit won't be too high in calories. Besides, I'm 80kg (at most) and 100 odd calories from a beer isn't even worth paying attention to. Surely at 100kg+ you're consuming a few thousand more calories than I am, and can afford to have something worth drinking. There are way bigger factors on your diet, than your drink of choice, unless you're guzzling it by the liter. Sorry that all of my posts seem to be berating people for not drinking enough (or the right things), but I'm a barman and this is a topic near and dear to my heart. Get yourself a nice glass of scotch, and chill the f**k out for a little while, then go and do some extra warm up sets or something in your next workout, if you're that concerned with calories. | |||
| » Anybody arsed about flexibility ? (Go to post) | 04-06-2012 @ 14:51 | ||
| Flexibility, no. Tightness, yes. Looking after one inherently helps the other. If my muscles tighten up, I'll develop aches and pains and have to alter or reduce my training. Stretching is a really quick fix (and a good one) as a preventative for injuries, and to speed up their recovery. It's just a matter of laziness to not at least stretch the areas that give you problems. | |||
| » Alcohol and training (Go to post) | 02-06-2012 @ 17:34 | ||
| Alcohol is good for you. f**k science and reason. Drinking good scotch, prior to or after training, is good for you; slightly detrimental to be drinking it during training, but so be it, it'll put hair on your chest. Shots of vodka or tequila will add kg's to your lifts. Fact. Moderation is good, and makes perfect sense, in just about all aspects of life, but adherence to this sensibility is the oppression of the borderline insanity that is a testosterone fueled outlook on life - which, is one of your primary tools in achieving anything noteworthy. If alcohol is detrimental to your health, it's not the drink that's the problem, it's your use of it. The problem is your mind. | |||