Appreciate you all mfs aren't as hyped as me, but I hit another squat pr (145x5) so that's 4 prs over 3 lifts over the past 1-2 weeks.

I'm supposed to be dieting too, so not sure where this has all come from.

Edit: it's because I'm using a belt now... Not sure why that didn't immediately spring to mind, though that would just be squats.

Following a month in Italy and a nasty illness on return I am down to 73kg which is the lightest I've been since reaching adulthood and I have lost a remarkable amount of strength and conditioning, visibly. I am very thin, chest basically gone (was always the first thing to diminish, the flake) and my first gym session in five weeks merely aggravated each of the five injuries I currently have and I feel pretty defeated by it all.

Oh shit man. Just rest up and take it slow. Sounds like you need to slowly build strength up and nurse those injuries.

Yes thank you Haak

MoesTavern wrote:

Maybe it's time to think about jacking it in altogether? Or at least lifting for volume rather than heavy weights.

There comes a time when you have to consider the impact on your body and how it's going to affect your quality of life as you get older.

Never. I have been mixing it up for a while with volume and am limiting the compound movements, but this is for life and fucked if I'm going to be weedy and skinny fat like a dweeb. I was in top nick not two months ago and I will be again.

So I want to start tomorrow on a good kick , going back to work a week early for results and so on. I know that the basics of diet are fewer calories in than out, but I've also given up my gym membership because money. I am also kicking booze into the can for August except my birthday.
I do have access to the school gym which has the basics, and as far as I thought it was told you do the exercises that use more muscles first (eg running) then move onto more focused ones. Anything there wrong or that I should change?

@reg compound exercises best, yes.

Wrong? Is running all you're doing? What are you trying to achieve?

I got up early and ran* to the gym today for a brief workout before work. This is something I've been trying to get myself to do for...ooo about 2 years (I think that's how long it's been).
the aim is to try to do this every day for a couple of weeks and see if i can get into a routine, but we shall see about that!

*well, loped at an average speed slightly quicker than my normal stroll.

My brain-tumoured mate is running a half-marathon next year, for a cancer charity (obv). I’d love to train up and join him. Maybe for a different cancer charity. But I don’t wanna lose my strength and muscle mass.

Sweet, I’ll give creatine another go. Maybe a more soluble version rather than monohydrate which occasionally gave me gut issues.

I was reading about comparing strengths and who is the best powerlifter etc etc. There’s obviously absolute strength and guys like Eddie Hall are big monsters. But there are formulas and shit that do relative strength scores. One of them devised by some guy somewhere uses allometric scaling priniciples rather than being based on historic best lifts etc. Seems like a better more scientific way to do it. (In short, it’s a relationship between your weight and how much you lift and when used on historic records, seems to give a streamlined consistent result across weight classes.)

So I’ve gone back through my lifting history for past 3 years (since I started using my current iOS app) and checked my allometric scores for my best lifts on the 3 powerlifts. I did this cos I’ve lost weight recently and been pushing lighter weights. Just wanted to see how I was comparing to my best from last year or before. 

I was surprised to find that my bench and deadlift were almost better but squat was lagging. I thought it was the other way round!

If I hadn’t gone on holiday (and put on a bit of weight), I may have set new personal relative strength bests recently!

So which ant won the relative strength contest? Was it Dwayne?

That's a long article. It should have stopped at the picture of the little chap squatting because that kind of makes the point.

Stronger means you lift more weight. I think Wilks etc. is good for comparing different lifters, but in terms of your own progress I think it is less/not relevant. 

Plus, unless you're absolutely pushing your genetic limits, gaining back the strength you've lost during weight loss without gaining the fat that came with it is probably easier than losing the weight in the first place.

Ha good god, really. There's a skinny blast from the chubby past.