Heheh, yeah, there's a lot in what you say
@OutcastedPhilosopher! While lots of lifters (including ex pro natural bodybuilders) train with weights for life in excellent health, I also admit I've hurt myself a number of times lifting, and it was pretty much always due to me being a dumbass with isolation exercises with too much weight on a barbell or dumbbells and getting carried away.
OutcastedPhilosopher wrote: ↑May 21st, 2022, 8:37 am
Due to a number of injuries including two herniated discs in my back I no longer train with any kind of weights.
Prior to my injury I reached 196 pounds at 6'1.5 height which for me was the heaviest I ever attained but I also felt very slow/lethargic especially with the weight training. I also had many small injuries that built up over time. After my injury I am weighing somewhere between 175-180lbs.
Currently, I started a simple bodyweight exercise program and I supplement it with yoga. Other than some weird nagging pain in my right knee that I think is some kind of partial tear of something, I feel really good. I cannot recommend yoga enough. I like to do a basic sun salutation combined with bridging and various lateral stretches.
The best part about doing bodyweight exercises and yoga is that you can do them anywhere. The only equipment you need are a pull up bar and I also a TRX training system which helps me do one leg squats, rows, elevated pushups, etc.
Just my own thoughts here.
The great thing about one of the "compound" lifts like squats or the deadlift (maybe the best one) is that they produce a huge blast of all-natural testosterone and activate the big muscle groups so you even get a lot of "bonus" growth elsewhere by building your foundation, in much less time than if you do lots of lighter exercises. I think any beginner should know that, because even if you're using a weight or kettlebell that's light enough to get made fun of by big meats at a gym, it adds a lot of satisfaction + results to a basic squat or sumo deadlift, etc in your home workouts.
However, I've been won over to the "everything in moderation" school of thought when it comes to lifting:
The more extreme a bodybuilder's lifting, often the worse they hurt themselves. That was also the story of the guy who developed the "Founder" exercise that he demonstrated with Mercola that I posted a few posts back, which is an interesting variation on bodyweight exercises that they found helps heal chronic injuries.
I've also started learning bodyweight exercises lately, and need to do more stretches for martial arts as an actual training routine. Thanks for the recommendation on yoga. (I'll hold off on the temptation to try to activate kundalini anymore than it already is per
@Lucas88's warning in another thread, but I always wanted to be flexible. Who wouldn't, watching Van Damme do the splits and having the babes freak out (in a good way) over him? LOL
In the past I was frankly just too lazy because I wanted to lift instead of doing stretching exercises, and I was free-riding off my 20-year-old physiology until pushing into the 30s where it won't let you get away with the same heavy !@#$, LOL. Now I'd better get on developing a good flexibility routine too.
The kettlebells seem interesting for activating a lot of different muscle groups with comparatively natural movements and an interesting range of motion, but I'm only starting my own journey with those...
One other interesting thing to add here: I have been reading lately that doing a lot lighter reps to still shock your muscles into growth can actually get good results comparable to a shorter set of heavy lifts.
In these times of peak biological perversion being promoted, we have to be skeptical about "girlyman" claims with political motives behind them, since there's so much red propaganda basically telling us the more of a gender confused weakling a man is, the better.
However, I'll be testing it out since I've also started being a little cautious about really heavy lifts.
Arnold actually talked about doing this in his training (in Education of a Bodybuilder), but on top of extreme heavy lifting. But he said he'd spend hours in the woods doing many reps continuously, but with less weight, to shock his muscles into growth, and it still works.
My guess is shocking the muscles with lots of lighter reps wouldn't cut it for competitors, but might have some interesting potential for those of us who just want muscles for practical strength + impressing the babes but without risking injury/re-injury. I'll experiment and find out.