Massive brawn to go with our massive brains

[JasonL]

Too much forward fold at the bottom with the bar. Also maybe think about squeezing your butt forward. It's less stand uppy and more butt squeezy

[Ellie]

Too much forward fold at the bottom with the bar. Also maybe think about squeezing your butt forward. It's less stand uppy and more butt squeezy

Thank you!


Unrelated:
I am taking a few days off from dieting to practice eating at maintenance. Holy hell, real cream in my coffee again. I'm not sure I'll have the willpower to return to the diet.

[Ellie]

I treated myself to a body composition test via BodPod today. I am actually closer to my body fat goal than expected. Pretty cool! Hopefully it can fuel a push to the dieting finish line over the next couple months. Remind me of how close I am in a week when I'm whining about missing peanut butter and coffee with real cream.

[Ellie]

Last week at the Y, I joined an exercise class on a whim. The only other participant was an older woman with some mobility problems, and even though I am able bodied and half her age, I felt kind of cocky being the fittest person in a class and being able to do a lot of jumping-around stuff that she couldn't.

Well, pride goeth, etc etc. This week instead of jumping it was a lot of upper-body lifts, and she SMOKED me. She was plowing through sets with 10# dumbbells while I had to go swap out for.3# Barbie weights.

[Ellie]

I've been stalled on weight loss for three weeks. I know I am not a medical marvel, and I am losing fat even though water retention and constipation and whatnot mean the overall number on the scale does not change. But it is hard to stay motivated when I see the same results (or lack thereof) on both the days I stick to plan and weigh all my food, and the days when I say fuck it and eat peanut butter out of the jar using a chocolate bar as a spoon (yes I did this and omg it was so good, don't ever leave me, peanut butter).

ALSO, I entered three Diet Bets this month, because I was feeling so confident, and I am going to be really mad if I lose over $100 just because I'm bloated.

Sorry, just had to whine about it somewhere.

[Sandy]

That sucks. Biology is complicated and rarely is a perfectly smooth function. Just know you're doing the right thing long term and maybe look into some soluble fiber (that does the trick for me better than the insoluble type).

[JD]

I'm making another effort to get back into the gym. I actually kind of like working out, it's just hard to make it a habit when it's so much easier to lie around the house. And of course I have that habit of getting back into the gym and then doing that stupid RAWR MUST WORK OUT SUPER HARD thing and wearing myself out.

But hopefully this time we can make it stick: the wife and I have agreed to go every day this week, because what happens if we agree to go, say, three times a week is that on Tuesday it's really easy to say "well, I don't have to go today", and then on Wednesday to say "well, I still have Thursday and Friday", and then on Thursday there's some other excuse and it's all downhill from there. Saying you'll go every day doesn't give you the latitude for excuses.

[JasonL]

My body is falling apart at the joints and I can't handle any of the exercises I've always enjoyed. Minimal to no weights, shoulder can't handle my boxing workout. Hips can't handle kb swings or sprints or anything much other than walking and elliptical. It is constant boredom to workout and a constant feeling of incapacity. It is hard to keep it up. I probably need to shift gears and become a swimmer, but that comes with a bunch of other issues like scheduling around real lap time and wet clothes and showers and blah blah.

[Ellie]

Signed up for a 5K in four weeks! I can currently run, uh, 2K. So there's a little training to be done

[nicole]

Yassssss you can do it

[JasonL]

Do it!

[Andrew]

The amount of flexibility and strength I lost during the 30-day hike is very frustrating. I'm basically starting over (at best) for both weight training and yoga.

[Ellie]

Whoa, has it already been four months since my last squat video? Feels like four weeks.

Current State of the Squat:

I think I might still be leaning forward too much at the bottom?


And an attempt with the full 45# barbell. Too heavy for proper form. Someday.

[Andrew]

I'm not sure it ever occurred to me that it was physically possible to drop that low. This is not a commentary on your form, but on the apparent stiffness of my hips and hamstrings (and many guys, I think).

[Jadagul]

It took me a few months of regular work to get the flexibility to squat properly.

I find that that stretch makes a lot of things better and takes pressure off my back if I do it regularly.

[Warren]

Wait. Back up.
Ellie has a YouTube channel?
Why was this information withheld from me?

[Ellie]

I'm not sure it ever occurred to me that it was physically possible to drop that low. This is not a commentary on your form, but on the apparent stiffness of my hips and hamstrings (and many guys, I think).

From what I've read, a lot of it is based on your overall body structure as well. Long legs, especially short torso + long legs, make squatting more difficult and just physically limit your depth. Whereas I have stumpy legs and a long torso, so squatting should be easier for me. The depth I have -- the power needs work!

Wait. Back up.
Ellie has a YouTube channel?
Why was this information withheld from me?

Haha! It's like two squat videos and a goofy fake commercial I made with my siblings when I had first moved back to the Midwest.

[Andrew]

1. Apparently, yoga can only be done while playing really shitty music using vaguely eastern-sounding scales. This includes incredibly terrible covers of Dylan, Neil Young, and the Beatles done to sound "eastern."

2. It's very annoying to have to try to get to one of the gym's 2 squat racks in the morning before the steroid bro and his harem monopolize both for 45 minutes.

[Mo]

1. Apparently, yoga can only be done while playing really shitty music using vaguely eastern-sounding scales. This includes incredibly terrible covers of Dylan, Neil Young, and the Beatles done to sound "eastern."

Couldn't they just play the parts of Beatles songs where Harrison plays the sitar?

[JasonL]

Yoga music and yoga voice are the reasons I don’t take yoga classes.

And yoga woo. Can’t we just say we are strength stretching? No? Karma up in the yoni? ok then.

[nicole]

I've only been to one yoga class EVER with music. It wasn't good.

[Warren]

Yoga music and yoga voice are the reasons I don’t take yoga classes.

And yoga woo. Can’t we just say we are strength stretching? No? Karma up in the yoni? ok then.

If you haven't seen this, you'll enjoy it. 4 min. of the best bits.

[Sandy]

I've only been to one yoga class EVER with music. It wasn't good.

I don't know what to say to this, Jadacole.

[nicole]

I've only been to one yoga class EVER with music. It wasn't good.

I don't know what to say to this, Jadacole.

I'm pretty sure with-music is weirder. I mean I've done a lot of yoga, in a bunch of different places, and the only one that did have music specified it was a music class.

[Fin Fang Foom]

I don't think I could ever do yoga cause of the spirituality. I avoided martial arts with "qi" for the same reasons.

Lol: my phone autotranslated qi to will.