Evilpie's get off your lazy arse and get back to the gym diaries

[EvilPie]

WARNING - POKER CONTENT!!!

Played the £75 turbo at DTD yesterday.

Lost.

/poker content

[EvilPie]

I'm pleased to say that training is still going really well and I'm definitely now in the swing of the early mornings.

Today was the start of week 3 and I think I'm now past the stage of crazy aches and pains for the next few days. That means I can start to push things a bit harder and try to set a few goals.

I've decided that a good place to start would be the 50kg dumbell challenge again. I really enjoyed it a couple of years ago and I know that it's achievable.

Chest is always on a Monday so I guess the challenge started today. We had a nice steady warm up with a couple of sets of incline bench press then did 4 sets of incline bench press up to a decent weight of 50kg (+bar). Quite happy with that.

I moved on to dumbells after that and managed the following

31st Mar 2014 26kg x 10, 30kg x 8, 30kg x 8, 30kg x 6

Very respectable start and certainly higher than expected. I'm not sure how long it might take to get up to 50kg but I'm going to set a difficult target and go for June 5th which is when I go away to Spain for a long weekend.

That only gives 9 chest sessions to get there which is going to be very tough but I think manageable if I avoid injuries.

For the first few weeks I'm just going to try to lift as much as possible during all sessions and see how it goes. Pretty sure I can get to 40kg in a couple of weeks but then it'll be difficult. I think it all depends on muscle memory from when I last trained properly. I guess it's been over a year but with a bit of luck my body won't have completely forgotten how to lift that sort of weight.

Psychologically I feel good, I genuinely think I can lift 50kg by the target date and that always helps. If you expect to fail then there's little doubt that you will.

Could be in for an interesting few weeks.......

[sovietsong]

I will be following with interest, just moved from the machines to the free weights & enjoying it so far.  Today was our second chest session, the first we used the bar but today we used dumbbells, can't believe how much harder it is!

[EvilPie]

I will be following with interest, just moved from the machines to the free weights & enjoying it so far.  Today was our second chest session, the first we used the bar but today we used dumbbells, can't believe how much harder it is!

It makes a big difference if you're not used to it that's for sure. Dumbells require the use of more stabilising muscles than a barbell. A barbell will show if you have a weak left or right side but dumbells break it down in to many more parts such as chest, forearms, triceps, wrist, grip..... which is why you often see people wobbling about quite a lot. Don't worry though it'll get a lot better very quickly as those muscles start to develop.

Biggest piece of advice I could give for someone just starting with dumbells is to keep it nice and light. I'd be targeting minimum 10 reps per set with good form preferably 15 reps really. Once you've developed your form so that you don't feel awkward you can start to work towards higher weight and lower reps.

If you're only pressing 10kg dumbells don't worry about it. It might seem ridiculously light but you'll benefit in the long run as everything develops proportionally.

Good luck!!

[sovietsong]

I will be following with interest, just moved from the machines to the free weights & enjoying it so far.  Today was our second chest session, the first we used the bar but today we used dumbbells, can't believe how much harder it is!

It makes a big difference if you're not used to it that's for sure. Dumbells require the use of more stabilising muscles than a barbell. A barbell will show if you have a weak left or right side but dumbells break it down in to many more parts such as chest, forearms, triceps, wrist, grip..... which is why you often see people wobbling about quite a lot. Don't worry though it'll get a lot better very quickly as those muscles start to develop.

Biggest piece of advice I could give for someone just starting with dumbells is to keep it nice and light. I'd be targeting minimum 10 reps per set with good form preferably 15 reps really. Once you've developed your form so that you don't feel awkward you can start to work towards higher weight and lower reps.

If you're only pressing 10kg dumbells don't worry about it. It might seem ridiculously light but you'll benefit in the long run as everything develops proportionally.

Good luck!!

Me & a friend have been going for a while but it's been like the blind leading the blind. We used machines as it was safer & neither of us dared to enter the big boys section (free weights). However a couple of lads from work go on a regular basis & one is quite experienced so took us under his wing!!

You've echoed what he said about going light, he is always talking about form & doing things properly. Enjoying the change & feeling very different after a session than when we just used machines, in a good way!

I will try to post a few updates as we go.

[EvilPie]

Had to skip training yesterday due to a hungover training partner who'd pre-booked a day off. We're going to do Saturday and Sunday to make up for it so no lost days.

Chest day today. Started with incline press then on to dumbells for day 2 of the challenge........

31st Mar 2014 26kg x 10, 30kg x 8, 30kg x 8, 30kg x 6

8th Apr 2014 30kg x 8, 34kg x 6, 34kg x 5, 26kg x 8

Very happy to get on to 34kg and it really didn't feel overly heavy. Only problem I'm having is actually picking the weights up then putting them down again. I've had a persistent lower back pain for 6 months or so and it's really becoming a problem getting the bigger weights off the floor. Once I'm in position everything's fine but it's just getting there. Not sure how that's going to be when I get to 40 and above but I'll just have to take it as it comes.

8 more sessions to go. No idea whether I'll get there or not but should be interesting finding out. I'm giving myself every opportunity possible. Training hard, eating well, loads of extra protein and also a few other supplements. Should be fun

[Horus]

why did the blog stop?

how's training now?

[EvilPie]

Wow!! Can't believe I haven't posted on here for 9 months!!

So where have I been? Well if you look back to my previous post I mention something about a "persistent lower back problem".....

Unfortunately I've always had the attitude of training through injuries and that's what I tried with this one even training some mornings when I could barely climb in to my car!! With hindsight that was pretty f**king stupid!!

So anyway, eventually the inevitable happened and the back well and truly popped. I never got as far as a scan so it wasn't confirmed but my doctor and physio said the symptoms were similar to those of a slipped disc so that's how the treatment went.

Now apparently if you catch a slipped disc quickly enough and get adequate rest it can fix fairly quickly. If you're an idiot though what can happen is it migrates itself somehow in to the nerve running from your neck to your foot and develops in to what I can only describe as absolute agony!! The pain is in the sciatic nerve and apparently is similar to that of sciatica for anybody who's had that.

The only way to fix this was complete rest for the damaged nerve which meant not putting it under any stress by bending in any way at all. You can lie flat or you can stand but you can't sit. Unfortunately standing for any more than about 30 seconds was impossible despite dosing up on tramadol and some anti-inflammatories. Not exactly a fun way to spend 3 weeks........

[EvilPie]

So the agony went on for about 4 to 5 weeks, the nasty pain plus occasional relapses for a further 2 or 3 months, the recovery exercise program for a further 4 to 5 months and the full recovery around a month or so ago.

I've been cautious in convincing myself that I'm fully recovered but I genuinely believe that I am and I will never be stupid enough to fall in to the same trap again that's for sure.

I've had around 25 physio sessions in total plus lots of sports massage once the damage of inflicting any damage was low enough. Thankfully I have BUPA cover so it was mostly paid for. I'm still having the sports massage now and that seems to really help keep things on track.

I'm under strict instruction to warm up before training and then stretch afterwards. The warm up is only a few minutes on the cross trainer but the stretching is far more involved and takes about 15 minutes. This stretching really seems to be making a difference though and I feel as good as I ever have.

[EvilPie]

I've been doing some very steady training for about 6 to 8 weeks and then about a month ago I finally felt like I was back to pretty much 100%

As I said the stretching really seems to be making a difference and I'm now very confident that I can start to push myself hard again.

I couldn't decide whether or not to resurrect this diary but having spent a couple of hours reading back through it I think it would be a great shame not to so I guess I'm back!!!

[tikay]

Glad you are feeling better now Matt.

Tell me. When you had the bad back, did it prevent you sitting down for long periods? Like, you know, at poker tables.

[Ironside]

Wb always look after your spine, often neglected but just as important as your head or heart

[EvilPie]

Wb always look after your spine, often neglected but just as important as your head or heart

Agreed. Very much taken for granted and I have to say the whole experience has made me incredibly thankful for being fit and healthy 99.9% of the time.

For a short spell I was completely dependant on others as I couldn't get to the shops or even stand up long enough to cook myself dinner. I had to shower sitting down, couldn't wash my feet properly, couldn't even put my socks on so had to just wear slippers. It's only been the last few weeks that I've stopped going to a podiatrist just to have my toenails cut!!

One morning it took around 90 minutes to get downstairs to feed the dog. After that he had to go in to kennels for 3 weeks as I just couldn't take care of him.

All in all a very humbling experience.

[EvilPie]

Glad you are feeling better now Matt.

Tell me. When you had the bad back, did it prevent you sitting down for long periods? Like, you know, at poker tables.

Thankyou Tikay.

Fortunately when I play poker I only have to sit down for an average of 14 minutes so it wasn't too bad.

In all seriousness there was no way at all I could have sat for the duration of a poker tournament for the first 4 months or so following it happening.

When I started back to work I had to sit for no more than 20 minutes before taking a break to lie flat on my stomach for 10 minutes. Crazy!!

[EvilPie]

So at some point I need to sort out some kind of goal to help keep this thread interesting...

The obvious one is the old favourite 50kg dumbells so I guess I'll just start there.

It's chest day tomorrow, I'll be there at 6am bright and breezy ready for day 1 of the challenge. I felt pretty good today doing arms so I think I should manage something at least half decent.