Strength / Weight Training

multiple choice questions allow only one answer - need to fix to allow multiple responses per question

I tried you survey. It is not working correctly.
Thought you should know.

You need to fix the 'tick all that apply' questions
You've put a 1 choice only radio button instead of tickboxes...

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Ah, yes. New page fail.

Form completed.

I would say that the way that I use supplements, it just offer a cheap and convenient way of hitting my desired macro split but I only supplement protein and use creatine.

If you've never tracked macronutrient and calorie intake before, I'd suggest giving it a go. You don't necessarily need to do it for more than a few weeks but it should give you a good idea of what makes up what you're consuming and why you might want to supplement. Try an online TDEE calculator for a general idea of what you should aim for and try myfitnesspal for tracking.

I've been doing nsuns531 4 day for just over a year now, alongside commuting just over 50km a day 3 or 4 days a week and a club ride on Sunday, hitting around 300km weekly.

It's certainly a lot to do and I find recovery difficult, it's always going to take a few days to recover from a double bodyweight squat (#boastpost), but I think the cycling helps. I didn't cycle for a week a while back and DOMs were worse than ever. Here are a few tips to get both the best out of gym work and weekend riding:

Try moving the program around - I do the squat day on Monday and move the rest day to Friday to allow my legs to recover for my Sunday club ride.

When you don't feel fresh, treat commutes as recovery rides..

Get a foam roller and stretch, 5 mins in the evenings work wonders.

Get plenty of sleep.

Ah... bloody google forms. I thought I'd checked that box. Will do it now. Seems that there was a couple that had gone through as single answer only.

I got a bit more interested when I got so fed up of shit lunches that I started using a kind of supplement enhanced smoothie rather than buying crap sandwiched or something else I had no desire to eat. It may not be exciting but it takes me no time to prep, costs me little and gets more reasonable things in than whatever else I used to bring or buy.

It's usually some combo of oats, fruit, greens, protein, seeds etc. It's no science but it did have an unexpected effect of dumping a load of fat. I assume it's fat as I'm 5kg lighter and no weaker. I know about Huel but this feels a bit less astro-penitentiary.

2.5 weeks on nsuns and low volume cycling. Bench is progressing very well, so is overhead press. Squat and dead I'm taking easy. Don't want to re fracture my brittle bones.
Went from 83kg to 85.5kg and from 36 to 32 in waist.
I don't feel like deload yet. Do I do it now or wait another week?

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Sounds like great progress.

If you don't feel like a deload, don't bother, as long as you feel fresh and the lifts are safe. I only tend to deload when I miss a lift more 2 weeks running, feel my form is slipping or am really run down and I just drop the weight by ~10% for the week. This maybe happens once in 6-8 weeks.

I have screwed my back (sciatic nerve or something else) on a deadlift sans belt and then aggravated carrying a suitcase. Any top tips for healing?

Ridiculous pain in butt and down to my left ankle. A physio has given me some exercises and they may be helping a bit but not that much.

Internet wisdom varies wildly; train through the pain (Starr method, Alan thrall) to ‘your spine is f*cked you need surgery and will never lift again.’

Thoughts?

Rest + time will fix most things.

Foam roll your glute , or go to a professional sports injury masseuse.

I have a similar schedule.

• 54km commute three-days-a-week.
  
• Three runs per week (tempo, intervals, long)
  
• Three gym sessions (semi-full body in that I only do legs once a week.)
  
  

Recovery was my biggest problem so I decided to take the somewhat extreme measure of splitting everything over three days meaning I have full rest/recovery days.

Example:
Monday
AM - Tempo Run
Commute to/from work
PM - Gym

Tuesday - Nothing

Wednesday
AM - Interval runs
Commute to/from work
PM - Gym

Regarding nutrition. Eat, a lot! I average 3000 calories-a-day whilst trying to keep roughly to my macros. I'm a vegetarian so I found really getting nutrition sorted aided massively in both performance and recovery.

As someone mentioned above you will struggle to make massive gains in any field but I like being an all-rounder. I have simple health and fitness goals I aim to maintain:

Sub 1:45 half marathon
Sub 20min 5k
Deadlift/Squat 2 x bodyweight
10 x strict pull ups
30 x push ups

Not crazy achievements but being 38, being able to do them means I feel in good health.

Sub 1:45 half marathon
Sub 20min 5k
10 x strict pull ups
30 x push ups

My stats from pre injury. I'm almost 37 and I've been a vegan for over 20 years.
Right now my main focus is strength. I really want to get back to 1.5xbw squat and 2xbw dead (I just got to 1xbw bench so that's done).

My nutrition is 95% on point now. I'm gaining weight and shrinking at the same time.
The last piece of the puzzle, sleep, is out of my control at the moment and I think that that has the biggest impact on my progress and recovery. I'll just have to grind it out for few more weeks.

Had this happen to me two years ago. I trained through the pain. One day while doing heavy deadlifts something clicked in my back and pain just disappeared.
No one should take any advice from me tho.

My thought is that you should see a doctor. Apparently they can offer assistance and, perhaps, medication.

I hurt my back on Monday playing squash. I have rested since then. No squash. I have done some walking as a test and taken anti-inflammation tablets. Pain is reduced but it does not seem as bad as yours.

If you're in a lot of pain I'd suggest going to see an osteo or chiro with a specialism in soft tissue. They'll be able to diagnose and give you a suggested treatment plan. You'll be better off doing this as your healing will be quicker with fewer compensation problems. A sports massage therapist won't be able to help at this stage unless you have a diagnosis.

It will be worth the outlay. PM me if you want a recommendation.

I am thinking about a light training session. I’ve been out for 6 weeks and miss it loads.

Thanks. Chiro with mri is my next step if physio doesn’t work. Good tip on the soft tissue specialisation. It doesn’t feel like my spine so that’s good but I am no expert.

I’ve bought a knobbly roller to try out too.

Have you seen an actual doctor? Like a medical professional?

This should be your first step. What am I missing here?

The Dr referred me to the PT. To be fair the Physio was as thorough as you can be without a X-ray or a scan.

Fair enough. I didn’t read that above.

Personally, and I am not a medical professional, I would not be lifting weights until I knew it was safe. A back injury is not something to mess with. I have a couple of friends who would verify that. Long term is much more important than now.

@jv get a scan if you can. If you've had nerve pain for 6 weeks (given you say you've not trained for that long), it could be a bulging or prolapsed disc. Was with me 2 years back.... Saw multiple doctors and physios , didn't get diagnosed until I had a scan. My spine itself didn't hurt, but had mega nerve pain in a single limb.

Not saying that's what's happened to you , but worth exploring if it's not going away. And worth bearing in mind if you're thinking about training. A fully prolapsed lumbar disc is not a fun thing...

I posted this in the try thread a few days ago but no luck so figured I'd try in here. I used to do quite a bit of gym work but that was probably 10 years ago now and I don't really have the opportunity to get to a gym on a regular basis so I'm hoping for ideas based around body weights and resistance bands that I can do anywhere.

Does anyone have any recommendations for a strength and conditioning program I can play with this winter.

I might end up doing a few tris again next year so I’m after stuff to build a foundation for s/b/r. Ideally I’d do about 60mins a couple of times a week and am after something focussed around body weights and a maybe resistance bands. I’ll be traveling quite a bit so weights isn’t really an option.

Mark Lauren. Nuff said 😁

Cheers. I have another appointment with the physio on Friday so I’ll ask for a scan then. How did you treat your bulging disc? Is it better now?