Strength / Weight Training

Ha! I'm on 4x5 of 80kg at the moment. First time we've ever been level? 😂

I'd need a spotter at that weight, and I don't have one so I'm not going to try.

You can all make chicken noises now.

My first day back 😑

No chicken noises... We are all built differently.

Just say weasel man dan

Don't be down dude. @hatbeard saw the writing on the wall years ago

Right, try this one- if you can do it straight through you beat me hands down. I flood with lactic acid and have to take breaks:

Leg extension machine, 6/8/10/12 reps with no break, start at 68kg for the first set, then 59/50/41.

I can do the first two (6/8) then I’m down to 3/4 reps and a rest to let the burn die off.

This is the last exercise in an hour of heavy legs, so fit it in when you next do that and report back.

Do the whole thing three times btw.

Are heavy leg extensions good for knees?
Isn’t the shearing effect inside the joint harmful?

Edit :misread

I'm not sure if they're frowned upon altogether but my knee surgeon told me to avoid them permanently after my ACL injury.

My knee sounds more like a bag of rock after doing leg extensions last week

My knees refuse to extend after doing knee extensions so I switched to split squats.

I also had knee issues when I started upping my leg ext to try and assist squat numbers. Wasn't the squat because when I stopped doing the ext and my squat was still increasing my knees felt better. I just use light weight for warmup now.

How old past best before is too old for protein powder? Found a bag (it’s been opened) in a cupboard I forgot about

Smell test is step one. You’ll definitely know if it’s really past it. If it smells fine, I’d probably try a bit, although I’m not particularly squirmish about that kinda stuff.

I've had stuff from MyProtein over a year past best date with no ill effect.

Like Nef says, try a bit first and give it a day or so before cracking on with the rest of the bag.

Following ideas on here I’ve started strong lifts to re invigorate my lifts after skipping a bit over hot summer (too hot in garage gym) and xc race season. So far so good but weights are still fairly easy.
Also using WOD generator to make me a little conditioning circuit each session.

Best thing about strong lifts is if you go away for the weekend etc and miss a session it doesn’t guilt you, it just moves the dates back one day, two days etc

Don’t worry about the ‘fairly easy weights’ - that will change and then the fun starts. Best of luck with it, I hope to resume Stronglifts from day one reasonably soon following knee issues not related to lifting.

Presumably the intention is you use the time while the weights are easy to work on form, injury rehab etc with the hope that when you get back to proper weight you’re able to push on quickly?

That’s the plan. My knee may disagree though! Form is vital - follow the vids or look for Mark Rippetoe for the best guidance.
The weights get heavy quite quickly if you have time to devote to it.

How do people make sure they are eating enough protien? 2g per kg of lean mass for me is about 135g for me. Without drinking a couple of protien shakes I find it hard to eat enough.

5 meals a day is 27g per meal. If one of those "meals" is a proton shake that's 4 meals you need to factor for a day. When I first started upping the protein I found Cottage cheese before bed to make up any deficit during the day an easy fix.

Have you worked out your carbs/fats macros and how many calories you're aiming for?

FWIW, I was definitely able to add mass without going anywhere near 2g/kg.

But I guess the main ones would be: protein instead of carbs for breakfast, snack on protein instead of carbs (nuts, boiled eggs, tins of fish), and realistically - use protein shakes.

Its doable without having to eat huge volumes . quark/ cottage cheese/ SKYR is good bang for buck. Seitan has an awful lot of protein in it, though is pretty salty stuff. 4/5 meals will cover 135g easily. Also possible to get a few extra grams in meals across the day with judicious choices of legumes and veg that you eat. Are you adverse to shakes/ supplements ?

My guess is this really. 1g per lb or 2 per kg is so neat that you can smell the bro science.

I think protien shakes may be the best solution for me. Also may just aim to have over 100g.

I'm not actually training at the moment as I'm fixing my knee after full time child care has fucked it up. I'm nearly there now and soon I'll have time to train 3 time a week again. Think I'll put in a concreted effort to build some muscle for 3 or so months then look to maintain as I do other things I like such as running.