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KLEEN - STRONG BODY STRONG MIND!

I have been on a bad kick of eating poorly at night the last week, and it has started to take a toll on my physique. I am gaining a bit of weight, also the testosterone being back I am filling up too. So going to have to be a bit more careful about that right now. The filling up part I am not upset about but the abs softening over a bit is an issue. I would guess I am up a couple lbs of fat over the last 2 weeks. Not complaining to much because I enjoyed myself but I need to reign it in.

The house is in complete disarray again with the sheetrock work being done so the workout was really basic. I was lazy and just went out and brought the 20lbs DB's inside then did a bunch of rounds of curls, OH DB Triceps Extensions, side and rear DB Raises up to about an RPE8 for 6 quick rounds. Was nice and pumped up by the end of it.
 
I saw they have Hazelnut Creme -filled M&Ms now and thought of you with your M&M love affair

I think it’s funny you did 4 high rep work sets on legpress and were surprised it made you sore - I can get sore from a single brutal set to failure!
 
Hyde said:
I saw they have Hazelnut Creme -filled M&Ms now and thought of you with your M&M love affair

I think it’s funny you did 4 high rep work sets on legpress and were surprised it made you sore - I can get sore from a single brutal set to failure!
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WHAT?! How did I not know about those m&m's!!! (im a collector of all limited ones... and by collect I mean eat ha)
 
and by collect I mean eat

Love itQQ
 
Hyde said:
I saw they have Hazelnut Creme -filled M&Ms now and thought of you with your M&M love affair

I think it’s funny you did 4 high rep work sets on legpress and were surprised it made you sore - I can get sore from a single brutal set to failure!
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Now see what you did. I didn't know that until now... :D

Yeah no doubt but during the workout it was so light and didn't feel hard for my legs so much as my medial glute on my right side. I left knowing I would have a little doms it just surprised me how much. I don't typically get sore but haven't done much of any squatting or even leg pressing in so long it got me good.
booneman77 said:
WHAT?! How did I not know about those m&m's!!! (im a collector of all limited ones... and by collect I mean eat ha)
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Hellz Yeah!
Rocket3015 said:
and by collect I mean eat

Love itQQ
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I know right. He said it perfectly!
 
Honestly I think I generally always have gotten the most thigh growth and DOMS from legpress over any other lower movement.
 
Squat's still kill me every time !!
 
Hyde said:
Honestly I think I generally always have gotten the most thigh growth and DOMS from legpress over any other lower movement.
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For me it’s hack squats. Something about not having to focus on the weight and not overdoing it like I can on leg press. Harder to cheat a hack. Too far forward and you knees hurt, too far back and it’s just an awkward half squat mess.
 
Hyde said:
Honestly I think I generally always have gotten the most thigh growth and DOMS from legpress over any other lower movement.
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Absolutely the case with me! At least 90% of my leg growth, especially quad growth came from leg press work. As a matter of fact the time my legs were the absolute biggest I hadn't been squatting much at all for a couple of years because my posterior chain was way out of whack to my quads and whatnot. Squats were so hip dominant for me that my hams, glutes, and adductors were pretty much all that grew from them.
Rocket3015 said:
Squat's still kill me every time !!
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I love squats, the challenge is somewhat cathartic with all the stress, and battle through them leaving me feeling almost high. When it comes to growth the leg press has always been superior for me.
booneman77 said:
For me it’s hack squats. Something about not having to focus on the weight and not overdoing it like I can on leg press. Harder to cheat a hack. Too far forward and you knees hurt, too far back and it’s just an awkward half squat mess.
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For me the leg press is one of the most easily varied and adjusted leg exercises. I can modify it to pretty much target any part of my lower body VERY EFFECTIVELY! Anything from high and wide foot stance for glutes and hams down to a toes only on the bottom end of the platform aka "Sissy Leg Press" to directly target the quads. Of course like you said if you tend to get into ego lifting and put weight above rep quality you won't get as good of results.

I have the day off tomorrow and plan to go do some lifting later tonight. Looking forward to it too!
 
booneman77 said:
For me it’s hack squats. Something about not having to focus on the weight and not overdoing it like I can on leg press. Harder to cheat a hack. Too far forward and you knees hurt, too far back and it’s just an awkward half squat mess.
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Hack Squats always hurt my knee's
 
Rocket3015 said:
Hack Squats always hurt my knee's
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Hyde said:
Same! Never can stay with them
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that's the problem I always have too but if i really tinker with very exact foot positioning I can usually find a good groove... though some days more than others but that very detailed focus seems to also make for more good pain from really working to protect my knees
 
One of these days I am going to break done and buy a pair of really good knee sleeves and see it they help.
 
Rocket3015 said:
One of these days I am going to break done and buy a pair of really good knee sleeves and see it they help.
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Be careful, you will never go back! They are so instrumental to my comfort I would throw out every piece of gym gear I have except my powerbelt over them. I have been using them religiously for 7-8 years now. They really help prevent injury & decrease pain by keeping the joints warmed. Putting a bit of warming liniment on first will absolutely scorch them, if you needed that (arthritis, etc).

The old blue Rehband knee sleeves I have are great, and the black Cerberus elbow sleeves are terrific as well. The Cerberus are a bit more stout, the Rehbands a little softer.
 
Hyde said:
Be careful, you will never go back! They are so instrumental to my comfort I would throw out every piece of gym gear I have except my powerbelt over them. I have been using them religiously for 7-8 years now. They really help prevent injury & decrease pain by keeping the joints warmed. Putting a bit of warming liniment on first will absolutely scorch them, if you needed that (arthritis, etc).

The old blue Rehband knee sleeves I have are great, and the black Cerberus elbow sleeves are terrific as well. The Cerberus are a bit more stout, the Rehbands a little softer.
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So true. I have been using knee sleeves for almost 2yrs now and they provide an extra comfort to the knees. I don’t feel comfortable without them. From an accessory it has turned into a necessity.
 
That's it Monday I am ordering Knee Sleeves !!
 
That's it Monday I am ordering Knee Sleeves !!
 
MrKleen73 said:
Absolutely the case with me! At least 90% of my leg growth, especially quad growth came from leg press work. As a matter of fact the time my legs were the absolute biggest I hadn't been squatting much at all for a couple of years because my posterior chain was way out of whack to my quads and whatnot. Squats were so hip dominant for me that my hams, glutes, and adductors were pretty much all that grew from them.
I love squats, the challenge is somewhat cathartic with all the stress, and battle through them leaving me feeling almost high. When it comes to growth the leg press has always been superior for me.

For me the leg press is one of the most easily varied and adjusted leg exercises. I can modify it to pretty much target any part of my lower body VERY EFFECTIVELY! Anything from high and wide foot stance for glutes and hams down to a toes only on the bottom end of the platform aka "Sissy Leg Press" to directly target the quads. Of course like you said if you tend to get into ego lifting and put weight above rep quality you won't get as good of results.

I have the day off tomorrow and plan to go do some lifting later tonight. Looking forward to it too!
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For me high rep, moderate lunges give the greatest doms in my glutes and hack squat for quads. Generally I find variety to be key for me with legs, they seem to respond best to a quicker turnover of accessory lifts than my upper body.

Good to see your still getting it done whilst over stuff going on kleen
 
The last week has been a bit of a whirlwind. Jo ended up in the hospital, she wasn't able to walk. SO we spent 2 days at the hospital running tests and coming up with nothing... We did find out that she indeed does not have MS which is awesome news all by itself. However getting closer to what might be causing the problems would have been much better.

Training and diet both took a hit this last week also. I just had a lot of physical stuff to do around the house and was too tired to lift after. Plus I just crapped out on diet. No excuses could have done a better job there but I chose not too, and that is that. Has just been a very off week so far. No sleep at the hospital either, we didn't get a private room but she wanted me to stay with her so I am at my desk at work eyes already trying to close. So I am seriously doubting I make it to lift tonight. I just want to get caught up on sleep.

I did 2 days worth of manual labor in the yard this past weekend. Trimmed all the trees and cut them into small enough pieces to get picked up. Tried to level some of what we are going to need leveled to lay the grass down in back... Just basically did the have to's instead of the want to's for the week.
 
bleh sounds like a crap week. Hope Jo is hanging in there alright. Time spent in hospitals when you don't know is just the worst.
 
booneman77 said:
bleh sounds like a crap week. Hope Jo is hanging in there alright. Time spent in hospitals when you don't know is just the worst.
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I agree completely! Still very happy to find out that MS is off of the table. We have tried to get the brain MRI approved twice before and the insurance refused so this at least got that done, and got us in the door with a neurologist. She at least gave us some hope regarding other things we can test for but and that she had a plan to go forward with. That alone is huge.
 
So glad it’s not MS! Hope they get it figured out soon and you get some much needed rest!!
 
Hyde said:
Get some sleep big guy
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Got some sleep last night, but only 6 hours. Still a bit tired but much better. Did not want to get out of bed this morning though.
love2liftkat said:
So glad it’s not MS! Hope they get it figured out soon and you get some much needed rest!!
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Yeah me too, on both accounts. I am hoping that tomorrow is a super easy and restful day at work. Not sure how much rest I will be getting over the weekend though. Doing some prep work for painting and whatnot. Trying to push through some of the final projects. Once the sheet rock is prepped everything else is pretty much cosmetic like painting and little final touches, replacing floor boards, a few light fixtures and other stuff I can do on my own. Ugh we still have to pick the paint and get to painting too... So close to having a really nice place... I get a glimpse of it every once in a while when we can clear out the rooms and get to get an idea of what it will look like when everything is in it's place.

It will actually look a little empty at first since we are getting rid of so much of the older furniture. Like we are getting rid of the couch and chair in the formal living room to put a pool table in so that will be empty until we get the pool table. I am honestly considering putting my commercial grade universal gym system up for trade for someone who has a really nice pool table. Been thinking about getting a lever gym to replace it which would free up a lot of room in my garage.

As for the gym, I am more than likely going to take tonight off too. I just have stuff I need to take care of at home and getting through this crap at home has become my priority over fitness right now.
 
MrKleen73 said:
Got some sleep last night, but only 6 hours. Still a bit tired but much better. Did not want to get out of bed this morning though.

Yeah me too, on both accounts. I am hoping that tomorrow is a super easy and restful day at work. Not sure how much rest I will be getting over the weekend though. Doing some prep work for painting and whatnot. Trying to push through some of the final projects. Once the sheet rock is prepped everything else is pretty much cosmetic like painting and little final touches, replacing floor boards, a few light fixtures and other stuff I can do on my own. Ugh we still have to pick the paint and get to painting too... So close to having a really nice place... I get a glimpse of it every once in a while when we can clear out the rooms and get to get an idea of what it will look like when everything is in it's place.

It will actually look a little empty at first since we are getting rid of so much of the older furniture. Like we are getting rid of the couch and chair in the formal living room to put a pool table in so that will be empty until we get the pool table. I am honestly considering putting my commercial grade universal gym system up for trade for someone who has a really nice pool table. Been thinking about getting a lever gym to replace it which would free up a lot of room in my garage.

As for the gym, I am more than likely going to take tonight off too. I just have stuff I need to take care of at home and getting through this crap at home has become my priority over fitness right now.
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I would recommend you skip training, but make yourself squeak out into the garage for 10 minutes for conditioning. Set of pushups to fail, then do pyramidding sets of chins with 10 sec rests (1 rep, 10 sec rest, 2 reps, 10 sec rest, 3 reps, 10 sec rest...to fail, then back down), then 50 bodyweight squats & done.

Gets blood into everything, loosening up hips and shoulders, retaining some GPP. Not fun, but worth 8 minutes easily!
 
Trying to run everyone down on this new format. I go away for a few and presto new design to the forum. Im sure I will figure out how to use it.
Bro sorry to hear about the wife. Glad its not MS!
Hang in there!
 
Studhorse said:
Trying to run everyone down on this new format. I go away for a few and presto new design to the forum. Im sure I will figure out how to use it.
Bro sorry to hear about the wife. Glad its not MS!
Hang in there!
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I am with you. My time here has become very limited and now learning this new format is really messing with me.

Plus, @MrKleen73 and I are screwed, the posts are now limited to 10,000 characters. So much for our debates, haha.

Mrkleen - Your wife couldn't walk? D@mn, what did you do to her the night before!!??

Seriously, I hope your wife is getting better and I hope it turns out to be something crazy and minor.

I know this sounds stupid, but I had a friend who they thought was having strokes or TIAs. He got through 5 doctors who couldn't figure it out before a neuroligist finally saw him and said, "I am sorry it took 5 of us to see this, it is easy to miss, but you have pernicious anemia, here is a B12 shot."

Apparently he is having an issue absorbing B12 and now needs shots so they have to figire that out. He had been using a lot of ibuprofen for an injury before this and that can impair B12 absorption so it may have been that.

My point is, I hope it is just a silly vitamin deficiency or something like that and is easy to fix.
 
Hyde said:
I would recommend you skip training, but make yourself squeak out into the garage for 10 minutes for conditioning. Set of pushups to fail, then do pyramidding sets of chins with 10 sec rests (1 rep, 10 sec rest, 2 reps, 10 sec rest, 3 reps, 10 sec rest...to fail, then back down), then 50 bodyweight squats & done.

Gets blood into everything, loosening up hips and shoulders, retaining some GPP. Not fun, but worth 8 minutes easily!
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Great idea, unfortunately I didn't see this. However, I was up and down a ladder and cleaning out all of the gutters from the trees budding. That way I can put some gutter guard in them this weekend. So definitely got some blood into the muscle but that would have been much better.
Studhorse said:
Trying to run everyone down on this new format. I go away for a few and presto new design to the forum. Im sure I will figure out how to use it.
Bro sorry to hear about the wife. Glad its not MS!
Hang in there!
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Thanks! Me too, that one is no fun!!!
HIT4ME said:
I am with you. My time here has become very limited and now learning this new format is really messing with me.

Plus, @MrKleen73 and I are screwed, the posts are now limited to 10,000 characters. So much for our debates, haha.

Mrkleen - Your wife couldn't walk? D@mn, what did you do to her the night before!!??

Seriously, I hope your wife is getting better and I hope it turns out to be something crazy and minor.

I know this sounds stupid, but I had a friend who they thought was having strokes or TIAs. He got through 5 doctors who couldn't figure it out before a neuroligist finally saw him and said, "I am sorry it took 5 of us to see this, it is easy to miss, but you have pernicious anemia, here is a B12 shot."

Apparently he is having an issue absorbing B12 and now needs shots so they have to figire that out. He had been using a lot of ibuprofen for an injury before this and that can impair B12 absorption so it may have been that.

My point is, I hope it is just a silly vitamin deficiency or something like that and is easy to fix.
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Haha, when that is the reason she can't walk I gloat and pat myself on the back, not take her to the ER! ;)

I would be very happy if that were the case. It has been a rough several years of strange health issues no one can figure out. Would almost welcome even a hard to hear diagnosis over not knowing what is wrong. Still very happy to have eliminated the possibility of MS. That is a major weight off of our shoulders.

Going to fire up the pit this weekend it is supposed to be beautiful out. Will more than likely take advantage of some of the holiday BBQ meat sales and get a bunch of meat to prep for the week, may even prep some and freeze a little.
 
Hope you had a great Easter spent with the family my brother KLEEN! How's everything been for you brother?
 
LiveToLift said:
Hope you had a great Easter spent with the family my brother KLEEN! How's everything been for you brother?
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Doing well, honestly just taking a bit of downtime for myself right now. Stress of the house being in disarray, JoAnn's health issues, and everything else. Have been working out less and less, due to other activities around the house consuming my time, and this honestly not being a priority in my life right now. So I am actually and surprisingly guilt free about not training much at all right now. I get up in the morning, and spend about 10 minutes to center my hips, try to stretch my ankle back out, and do some glute activation stuff but other than that have not really been motivated to lift at all. I have a few things out of balance like the right glute, and ankle flexibility and am focusing a bit on those before start pushing more. With the limited ROM in the ankle I don't want to create an improper movement pattern trying to force things while the mobility is not there. I am still actually having a hell of a time correcting my stride from being the boot so long so confidence in lifting heavier with lower body is just not there. So letting my whole body shrink a bit to keep some aesthetic balance. Don't want to have a big ol upper body and smaller legs. I worked too long to make sure that was not the case.

I am maintaining a pretty good composition for as lax as I have been. Hovering just above 200, and just a tiny bit softer around the waistline. No sooner than I get back on weights, I will lean up and add some LBM back on. So I am in a great position so long as I can maintain it. Which has been relatively effortless. Eating as I please, still mostly "healthy", having some fun food choices, and adjusting daily intake by what I see in the mirror.

Had my physical today, BP was 114/72, so that is good. Expect my HCT to be elevated a bit judging by how easily I get flushed now. I am curious to see what my bloods look like after a few months off of my cholesterol meds, and TRT then getting back on them 3.5 weeks ago.

On another note, house is getting closer... once I have my garage available to me again I will start pushing my training again. Kind of odd I have gotten to the point I would rather take some time off instead of deal with the crowds at the gym. That and I am simply not motivated to get up @ 3:45AM to go lift right now which is the only way to avoid the crowds.

Anyway, the answer is actually doing well, just lowered some of the pressure I was putting on myself to do everything at once, and training was the one place I could easily free up time. Like I mentioned before this is the season of home repair, when it is over the focus will be back on training more. My goal is to have all of this done before July when my Mom and Pop are coming to visit from Florida. Ideally the garage will be at a point I can lift in it within the next week or two.
 
Do you know how you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

You can’t do it all at once, but it sounds like you have a plan based on the order of your priorities - you will get exactly where you want to be as long as you follow that!

Obviously staying hydrated number one, then donating blood number two, but grapefruit can be big to lower hematocrit apparently. DC & ThebigT have noticed some results from taking grapefruit seed extract, but actually just routinely eating grapefruit can make even bigger differences if you enjoy citrus.
 
Hyde said:
Do you know how you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

You can’t do it all at once, but it sounds like you have a plan based on the order of your priorities - you will get exactly where you want to be as long as you follow that!

Obviously staying hydrated number one, then donating blood number two, but grapefruit can be big to lower hematocrit apparently. DC & ThebigT have noticed some results from taking grapefruit seed extract, but actually just routinely eating grapefruit can make even bigger differences if you enjoy citrus.
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Hyde said:
Do you know how you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

You can’t do it all at once, but it sounds like you have a plan based on the order of your priorities - you will get exactly where you want to be as long as you follow that!

Obviously staying hydrated number one, then donating blood number two, but grapefruit can be big to lower hematocrit apparently. DC & ThebigT have noticed some results from taking grapefruit seed extract, but actually just routinely eating grapefruit can make even bigger differences if you enjoy citrus.
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Agreed, and thanks for the suggestions and reality check so I don't beat myself up!
 
Life happens. You can handle a lot, but you have limited time and resources. With my dad's stroke 6 months ago, at first I was pretty amped about the gym, maybe out of anger, fear and sadness, but also out of a desire to walk the walk and lead by example because I couldn't imagine the fight he had in store.

But soon, things piled up and I had to make decisions and deal with whatever was at hand. You just can't do it all. The good thing was that all the time I spent in the gym previously gave me discipline and some space to use to accomplish what had to be done. I didn't have to take on an extra hour of work, I just had to change it from working out to something else. If I had not alrwady been prepared for that work, it would have been extra and even more overwhelming.

You have money in the bank for hard work. Now you need to spend it.You will put more in the bank later.
 
HIT4ME said:
Life happens. You can handle a lot, but you have limited time and resources. With my dad's stroke 6 months ago, at first I was pretty amped about the gym, maybe out of anger, fear and sadness, but also out of a desire to walk the walk and lead by example because I couldn't imagine the fight he had in store.

But soon, things piled up and I had to make decisions and deal with whatever was at hand. You just can't do it all. The good thing was that all the time I spent in the gym previously gave me discipline and some space to use to accomplish what had to be done. I didn't have to take on an extra hour of work, I just had to change it from working out to something else. If I had not alrwady been prepared for that work, it would have been extra and even more overwhelming.

You have money in the bank for hard work. Now you need to spend it.You will put more in the bank later.
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Thanks, and agreed. Normally I would be beating myself up for letting some things slide but I am actually feeling good about the decision. Plus, I am doing extremely well at maintaining at a great place too. Normally when I let training take a back seat my nutrition goes to crap too and I start to swell back up to my natty fatty self. I am maintaining at a 32 pant waist size right now because my 33's are a little loose around the waist and 34's hang down on my hips.

On another note, I can't believe how conscious I have to be to maintain a decent stride. All that time in the boot and my foot always wants to turn toe out when walking. Walking with it straight still makes my glute med sore when I have to walk a lot. I get a little stinging on the tendon near the bone on the side of my foot every once in a while, but it does not last and I can only assume that is from it being pushed then adapting to it since it is happening less and less now.
 
MrKleen73 said:
Thanks, and agreed. Normally I would be beating myself up for letting some things slide but I am actually feeling good about the decision. Plus, I am doing extremely well at maintaining at a great place too. Normally when I let training take a back seat my nutrition goes to crap too and I start to swell back up to my natty fatty self. I am maintaining at a 32 pant waist size right now because my 33's are a little loose around the waist and 34's hang down on my hips.

On another note, I can't believe how conscious I have to be to maintain a decent stride. All that time in the boot and my foot always wants to turn toe out when walking. Walking with it straight still makes my glute med sore when I have to walk a lot. I get a little stinging on the tendon near the bone on the side of my foot every once in a while, but it does not last and I can only assume that is from it being pushed then adapting to it since it is happening less and less now.
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Keep it up! The soreness in your foot could be some fasciitis from being in the boot, it will hurt when you walk, but exercise will make it better. Get a baseball and roll it.
 
HIT4ME said:
Keep it up! The soreness in your foot could be some fasciitis from being in the boot, it will hurt when you walk, but exercise will make it better. Get a baseball and roll it.
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Oh no doubt getting a little PF, actually on both feet because without the boot my left foot is now making contact with the ground differently too. Where this pain is can't really be rolled, more of graston technique type of situation since no real meat there just skin and tendon attaching to a bone. However the I do have a mobility ball for my feet. I just need to get it out of my gym bag. Hadn't even thought about using it for the PF recently...
 
Hyde said:
Ball is great for the bottom of the foot. Loosens up the hammy & calf actually a bit too.
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Hmmmm... now I am really gonna dig it out. My calf and and ankle being tight is a major source of my stride being off and getting the glute firing without concentrating on it. I didn't think about how it might loosen things above the foot.
 
As I have been told and personally found, rolling the foot bottom can yield up to a 1/2” more mobility if you reach for your toes.

Everything effects everything, as they say.
 
Hyde said:
As I have been told and personally found, rolling the foot bottom can yield up to a 1/2” more mobility if you reach for your toes.

Everything effects everything, as they say.
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I need to try this!
 
Quick update then I am back off of here for a little bit.

Bloodwork came back and it looks better than I expected for my situation. My Total Cholesterol was a little high as expected. Just 221 so no big deal. The big improvement there was that my HDL was all the way up at 59, so my HDL/LDL ratio was in normal ranges for the first time in a couple years.

Kidney tests were all PERFECT! My creatinine was actually lower than it has been in a couple years down at 1.27 and it has been in between 1.45-1.7 for several years.

As I expected my HCT was a bit high @ 52.1 so I will go donate some time next week and probably go every other week until I am in the 40-45 range.

Only other values out of whack were that estrogen was a bit high, which is to be expected 3 weeks into starting TRT again. Tossing in a little Formadrol to help bring that down.

As for workouts, I am not even going to lie or waste time trying to make things sound rosie... The last few weeks I fell of the rails with food choices and it is showing on my waist line. I fell into a bit of stress eating and on top of that, have not actually lifted weights since whenever the last time I posted up a workout in here.

Not making any excuses, I could have made the workouts happen if it were a priority. I just haven't been motivated to do so. Always busy with something to do with the house and when I am not, the last thing I want to do is leave the house to go to the gym and deal with the crowds. A crowded gym is actually a source of stress to me more than the workout being a release. So with that being the case, it is like if I can have some downtime at home in the evenings I am going to take it.

We are looking at maybe 3 weeks left on all of this home renovation tops. Rather than get all lofty about what I want to do and all that jazz, I am just going to say that I am not likely to do any real lifting until we get all of this over with. I am getting in plenty enough activity with everything I am doing. To be honest I am finding myself starting to look at workout programs and making some plans for when I get back on the ball with it. So whatever burnout I am going through with all the construction, and my dislike for the crowds at the big gyms is starting to get overpowered by my love of lifting and the desire to get back in it is returning. For a while it had started to become something I was forcing myself to do to maintain, but was stressing me out having to go to the gym. Now I am starting to actually miss it which is excellent and tells me that some great progress is just around the corner.
 
Sometimes life gets in the way of lifting. I wouldn't sweat it. Actually, the time off and the surplus in calories may help curing your foot and other smaller issues. Glad to have you back on here -and that all labs values are in range.
 
hairygrandpa said:
Sometimes life gets in the way of lifting. I wouldn't sweat it. Actually, the time off and the surplus in calories may help curing your foot and other smaller issues. Glad to have you back on here -and that all labs values are in range.
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Liked!

Yeah, not sweating it too much and now I know what I look like when I haven't lifted seriously in months. Not the best reminder but not exactly happy where I am at. I have lost a noticeable amount of LBM from being in a decent deficit most of the time and not training my body has just naturally decided it didn't need to support everything. So I am a little bit softer but also lighter at about 197. Not worried about that at all. I will regain that so fast it will be silly once I am back at it. Probably so fast that people will wonder what I am on... They will more than likely be right to wonder!

Got hit with the inevitable major issues on every renovation, big storm yesterday and they were putting down the floor board and noticed puddling in Trinity's closet... need about 8 deck boards replaced on the roof, then on top of that the main electrical board for the house is too old and failing. It has been popping fuses a lot more lately and the electrician looked at it and said the whole thing needs replaced. I was told about 5 years ago that I could get a few more years out of it before it was forced on me by someone called out to work on it. So this is that time...

Instantly shifted thousands of dollars away from the cosmetic portion of the renovation... Losing the granite counters in all the restrooms. BOO!!!! Oh well I will just have to play with some epoxy counter kits and see what I can make on my own. I am getting excited even with this new situation slapping me in the face. So close to a major change. I will upload a few pictures of the project so you all can see the bare bones and then what it looks like when completed.
 
Okay guys, here are some of the pics, later I will actually look for pictures of what it looked like before we started it all but this will give an idea. Plus you will see some of the state of mess my house has been in for 6 months...

The first picture is the bar wall, thats a real wet bar there. Replacing the 2 lower doors and having painted to match the room color, black slate stacked tile on the bottom of the bar and greyish granite for the top. Back wall of bar area will be a gunmetal color with a light gray on the rest of the walls except the other 2 accent areas...

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These next 4 pics are of the wall that I had cut out over the kitchen counter and how much it opens up the floor. I was going to remove the door frame but there is a pocket door there and keeping it will allow me to shut the dogs in there when needed. I love how much this opened up the house. Major transformation!!!! Oh yeah already have the granite on the kitchen counters, and it will go on both bars too. They are putting a bar on the other side of this counter by where the pool table will go in the room right in front of the kitchen. They are installing an Island Range Hood over the cook top the vent portion is 11x12 wide then has a glass 36 inch canopy to collect the smoke. Got a really strong but quiet fan for it too! Also the 24 inch double oven in this pic is being replaced by a 30 inch double oven with one of them being full convection. So food prep will be good to go. The current oven has been malfunctioning and we have been cooking off of a $100 used oven in the garage. So that is going to be a game changer.

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This is the TV wall, to give you an idea of the size of this room that TV is a 10 year old 65 inch with a big bezel... here again the back wall of the inset shelving nook will be gunmetal.

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These 2 are of the "Window Wall & Fireplace, the bottom one is before any sheet rock but after the windows were replaced, and the top one is with the sheet rock in. The fireplace will have the same stacked slate as the bottom of the bar. We are going to paint the wood over the fireplace in the same gunmetal like color and if we don't end up liking it will go back later and remove the wood and then paint. All trim will be in pure white, and the walls a light gray.

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These last two are for lovers of Wraith, look how well he matches the tile... Oh yeah, you can also see the tile in the pictures...
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As you can see the clutter is pretty bad and this isn't the worst of it. Basically all of our living areas are hosed and we are stuck in the master bedroom to hang out as a family... Not ideal... but it is almost over and we are going to LOVE the changes once completed!!!!
 
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Looks like quite The Project !!
 
Rocket3015 said:
Looks like quite The Project !!
Click to expand...
No doubt the entire interior and exterior of the house will be painted. Having a walk in steam shower built with a 4 foot L shaped bench built on the wall for seating. Holding off on the actual steam unit right now but the glass will go to the ceiling, and the water gets plenty hot to generate a lot of steam. Won't quite be a sauna until I can buy the actual steamer but will still be great for relaxing or clearing up the respiratory system of yuckiness. Had them install a light with an extractor fan inside the shower and just outside it to make sure I don't end up with any moisture issues.

So lots of stuff going on with the project...
 
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