The Health, Wellness, weight loss, and fitness thread

[gunslinger_burrito]

Fuck my elbow tendons. Seriously. Fuck. Them.

Ok, venting done. I just need to break this cycle of : not getting stronger>train harder>get injured>take time to heal>start over again, but be careful>not getting stronger>train harder>get injured>etc etc etc



It really feels like the universe doesn't want me to be any sort of a strength athlete sometimes. Maybe I should take out a loan and get a stem cell injection.

[Faldoe]

Joined a gym with a pool - the latter was really important to me cause I love to swim. I've been leaving feeling really good. A nice change from feeling lots of anxiety and depression.

[gunslinger_burrito]

Elbow problem (medial epicondylitis) update.... I've been doing this exercise for the past couple-few days and am already seeing improvements. Thought I would share. Hope it continues to help ***knock on fucking wood***

http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=3614
https://vimeo.com/110276040

[JonnyAngle]

Well, I switched from smoking to vaping because I am lame (and also because there will be no good place to smoke at my new apartment), but it is definitely less shitty feeling.

Yeah but smoking.

[D.o.S.]

Oh I know dude. Trust me. I know.

[Jwar]

So a little update on me. My injury is now a 100% free of pain. I went and got an epidural shot in my neck right between the discs. I was scared like crazy because of the location, but it wasn't a big deal at all. The week after I felt horrible and the pain increased and I actually had to take pain killers to get through it, plus the steroid that was in the epidural was brutal. My skin got all red and shit and I felt horrible from it. Now the pain is completely gone. It's fucking GONE!!! I'm back to lifting like normal! I'm not as strong as I was because of having to go half intensity basically for 6 months, but I'm getting it finally. Fuck. I thought I was going to go crazy.

I've also made a big decision in regards to bodybuilding. I'm done. I decided after dealing with this injury that it's simply not worth it. All you are doing is putting your body in harms way when you get down in weight like that. Then you are more prone to injury, constantly pissed off and most people have to do fucking drugs to even get a good placing. So what's the point? You don't make money doing it. I'm still paying my last show off! It cost me like 1500 bucks!! Seriously fuck that. I'd rather be in good shape and not have to worry about bullshit restrictions and making myself miserable for a stupid trophy. I did it, and I did it well and now it's time to move the fuck on.

I will never stop with fitness though, unless I get crippled up. However I'm sticking to my guns on this shit. I want to be healthy and happy. Being a bodybuilder, it's impossible to do that. You are lying to yourself if you think you can be.

So the last month, I've really cleaned up my body. I'm taking vegan protein (Garden of Life brand), which btw works just as well or better than whey, I've stopped taking pre-workout because that shit is bad for your heart and does nothing I don't care what anyone says, I started taking very specific herbs to cleanse my body and I've been just killing it in the gym.

I feel so much better. I'm happier and healthier than I've been in a long time. I'm still pretty low in bodyfat but not super low. I think I'm at probably 12%. I fluctuate between 210-215, so not bad! I don't have a six pack, but have veins everywhere still (LOL). I'm happy. I don't give a fuck about looking like a model.

So my point is, fuck all this superficial bullshit. It's about being healthy. That's it. Love you fuzz bros.

[SteveAlysis]

Any Brazilian Jiu Jitsu or grapplers on here? I've been doing it about 9 years now... i do it 3-4 days a week and mix some kettlebell workouts in between. Hands down the most fun way to work out.

[popvulture]

I haven't done it personally, but I have a couple of friends who've gotten into it over the years. They were both pretty overweight when they started, and I was shocked at how much they slimmed down after practicing. I've definitely considered picking it up (or another martial art) in recent months... your bringing it up has rekindled my interesd

Also Jwar—that's rad, man! Glad you're feeling better. I've had a shitty cold for the past week and a half and haven't been able to go to the gym, and even that short of an amount drove me crazy. You must be stoked as balls to get back at it!

[Faldoe]

Any Brazilian Jiu Jitsu or grapplers on here? I've been doing it about 9 years now... i do it 3-4 days a week and mix some kettlebell workouts in between. Hands down the most fun way to work out.

I've been looking into BJJ and want to get into it.

What does it cost you to practice/train? I see you're in CA as well. I'm in the Bay Area.

[SteveAlysis]

Any Brazilian Jiu Jitsu or grapplers on here? I've been doing it about 9 years now... i do it 3-4 days a week and mix some kettlebell workouts in between. Hands down the most fun way to work out.

I've been looking into BJJ and want to get into it.

What does it cost you to practice/train? I see you're in CA as well. I'm in the Bay Area.

I highly recommend it. You may get your ass kicked for a while, but if you stick with it you'll be hooked.

I'm in Ventura, right between LA and Santa Barbara... Unfortunately , the rates are crazy high here in California. Anywhere from $80-$250 a month. Luckily I've been doing it a while, and have good relationships with the instructors so I don't have to pay. I'd check out a few gyms and take some free classes to see if you might like it. Some gyms will even do a free week.

Let me know if you have any more questions

[gunslinger_burrito]

Jwar:
I'm basically there with you! I've been chasing strength gains so hard the last few months that all I've managed to do is give myself some weird forearm/elbow issue that I cannot seem to figure out. I'm focusing on joint and connective tissue health, mobility, and the like before absolute strength now. I'm starting to get old enough that workout longevity is a bigger priority for me now. Glad you're feeling better man!

On the note of my arm..... I cannot seem to find an answer online and doctors seem only to take my money and tell me not to work out, so... here's what happens with it: Whenever I do any bent-arm pushing movements on the floor (push ups, handstand push ups, etc) my tricep/pronator teres gets fucked up. I say pronator teres because the pain is on the back of the elbow, over the medial epicondyle, and when it's at its worse I feel it in the center of the forearm as well. Any clues as to why the hell pushing movements would aggravate that area? If I stick to using handles (parallettes or p bars) it's much much better. Not 100% discomfort free, but there's no pain, really. I can just sort of feel that something is not quite right.

As I posted before, eccentric exercises have helped the medial epicondylitis, I can do pull ups just fine now, but this ....

[Iommic Pope]

GB, that sucks man.

I got back into weights last week.
Doing sets at half my body weight which is enough to feel like I've done some work butnot enough to fuck my back out when I get the bar over my head to do squats (no, I don't have a squat rack because I'm poor. I lift everything from the floor, ghetto styles).
I'm gonna need a whole routine of shit to replace overhead shoulder presses. The clicking in my left shoulder is getting worse (even with no weight, just practicing the movement), and while not painful cannot be a good thing.

Thinking of trying landmines and variations, what say you all buff types?

[gunslinger_burrito]

GB, that sucks man.

I got back into weights last week.
Doing sets at half my body weight which is enough to feel like I've done some work butnot enough to fuck my back out when I get the bar over my head to do squats (no, I don't have a squat rack because I'm poor. I lift everything from the floor, ghetto styles).
I'm gonna need a whole routine of shit to replace overhead shoulder presses. The clicking in my left shoulder is getting worse (even with no weight, just practicing the movement), and while not painful cannot be a good thing.

Thinking of trying landmines and variations, what say you all buff types?

Thanks dude. Do you do much shoulder mobility work? Shoulder dislocates and stiff legged windmills, when done properly, can help a lot with shoulder issues. The key points are doing them in a range of motion and using an amount of weight that doesn't produce pain but still stretches the area.

This dude actually hits some of the key points that weren't in the other videos I checked out, mainly shoulder rotation and scaling the weight down to an appropriate level:
http://strongswiftdurable.com/exercises ... -windmill/

Dislocates are fairly straightforward. I posted about them a bit back in this thread.

If either/both of those are out of the question, stretch! A lot of "buff types" get fucked up shoulders because they hit the chest and shoulders really hard but neglect flexibility and mobility.

[Iommic Pope]

Thanks man! I'll check that out.

I've always had some issues with shoulders and knees popping weirdly since I was a kid, but I think my job is taking its toll on my body finally.
I do need to invest more time into stretching.
I am a very inflexible person.
Stretching feels good after the point, but it's painful as fuck to me trying to do it properly.

[D.o.S.]

Have you tried looking into Yoga? Lots of hippie bullshit there, ofc, but it does wonders as far as stretching/flexibility.