I'm back motherfuckers! (Sorry NRDL)
I was out for nearly two years after my broken arm. On top of that, a whole bunch of life and work drama, and throwing my back out AGAIN last summer really sapped my motivation. But my body probably needed the break. I'm fuckin' 41! I managed to keep most of the weight off but feel like I lost about 50% of my gains.
Well, it's time to set a rhythm again. I've spent the last month working out in my apartment, just getting myself reconditioned to hard work. Simple free weight exercises, some band work, the usual battery of ab work on the floor. My apartment complex demolished the club house with the crappy gym, and is wasting my time in getting me access to the sister property's gym across the street. So for now I'll graduate back to the work gym.
I'm dramatically weaker, which isn't surprising, just disappointing. Pushups are a struggle again. I can barely do 10 before I'm totally gassed out. I've been doing them from my knees instead. My pecs feel it, but so do my triceps and weirdly my lats. I've lost a lot of ability to talk to my muscles. It's still there, as is the knowledge, but it's a connection I have to reforge.
I'm also going to focus on slightly different things. Like windshield wipers for obliques, a lot more leg raises, in addition to my butterfly situps which I'm slowly rebuilding my way back to doing weight again. I think I've found a strategy that spares my back a little. Sadly I don't think any gym I have access to will have a real barbell or squat rack and that's pretty disappointing. No deadlifts or squats or OHP. Starting to think it's time to buy a real gym membership, despite how much I don't want to drop ~$600/year on a good one with a sauna.
It feels great to be working out again though. Shit's awake, my mood is improving. My motivation isn't 100% there for some unrelated reasons and I'm only working out 2 to 3 times a week. But the intensity is still there and I can still do HIT workouts like I never really left. So that's encouraging. My knees and joints are feeling pretty good (lower back still a little sketch at times) but I'm doing some sitting and laying on pressure points using racquet balls to try and address some of that. My friend cracked my back the other day when things were super stiff and it was like 7 of them. I immediately felt better. I've generally scoffed at chiropractic work but I think I got some spinal compression issues I need to get worked out before I do any serious barbell work. Really I just need to find a bar to hang from for a good minute consistently. That'd do me a world of good.
-snippity doo da-
Tried the butterfly situps, they seemed less productive to me than normal situps? Entirely possible I'm doing them wrong, of course.
Hmm, I didn't mean soft as in flabby, more the muscles weren't... tense? Present? Heheh. I'm naturally slim, it would take a miracle for me to add weight.
Besides which, the aesthetics aren't 100% the reason. More like... 55%. 
Let me reply.....2 years later!
The point of butterfly situps is that they disable your hip flexors, which most people engage to complete situps to take the pressure off their abs. The buttefly situp is supposed to force your abs to do more work. If you're breezing through butterfly situps and say your abs don't feel engaged.....what does feel engaged? Because that's the thing that's doing the work. But if you can successfully do butterfly situps considering most people can't do them without their feet braced by something.....your ab strength to weight ratio is probably pretty high. Which tracks if you're slim and you work out.
You can try this though. Take the butterfly position, do the situp until you're vertical. Then breath out, clench your abs and lock them down, the slowly lower yourself to flat again while keeping the tension. Do you feel it then?
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Topic: The Fitness Thread - THE RE-SWOLLENING (Read 46962 times)