Polyglot Fitness Challenge 2021

Ongoing language-learning challenges, and team challenge logs (but not individual logs)
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IronMike
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Italian, 1L/2R (DLPT IV, 2019)
Esperanto, C1 (KER skriba ekzameno, 2017)
Slovene, 2+L/3R (DLPT II in, yes, 1999)
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Re: Polyglot Fitness Challenge 2021

Postby IronMike » Sat Aug 21, 2021 10:52 pm

So excited. Today the wife and I bought some equipment to build our home gym. We got a trap bar and barbell, 2 x 45lbs, 2 x 25lbs, and 2 x 10lbs bumper plates, a bench, 2 x 24kg kettlebells and 1 x 20kg kettlebell. We're still on the lookout for a squat rack, as well as some 5lb plates and 35lbs plates. Can't wait. Nice to have this equipment at home in case of any future lockdowns.

Back to swimming tomorrow morning, weather permitting. Been out of the pool/open water for about two weeks due to this move. Will be nice to get wet again. No one's gonna swim that 10-mile race for me!
6 x
You're not a C1 (or B1 or whatever) if you haven't tested.
CEFR --> ILR/DLPT equivalencies
My swimming life.
My reading life.

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IronMike
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German, 2L/1+R (DLPT5, 2021)
Italian, 1L/2R (DLPT IV, 2019)
Esperanto, C1 (KER skriba ekzameno, 2017)
Slovene, 2+L/3R (DLPT II in, yes, 1999)
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Re: Polyglot Fitness Challenge 2021

Postby IronMike » Mon Aug 23, 2021 1:03 am

Holy crap that hurt! Been too long. When I was done with my 2710m I went to my log and realized it had been 2.5 weeks since I last swam. Yikes! The first lap (of 5) my shoulders were screaming. By lap 4 my lower back was complaining. Did just a bit over an hour. Enough to start. Will swim again tomorrow night, this time in a pool.

Image

Wednesday is sked for weight-lifting. First time in 3+ weeks. Will start with low weights. Just bought more weights to complete our home gym. Just need a squat rack and I think we'll be complete. Home gym will "pay for itself" in one year.
3 x
You're not a C1 (or B1 or whatever) if you haven't tested.
CEFR --> ILR/DLPT equivalencies
My swimming life.
My reading life.

Ug_Caveman
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Re: Polyglot Fitness Challenge 2021

Postby Ug_Caveman » Wed Aug 25, 2021 3:39 pm

IronMike wrote:How's everyone's challenge going?


OK, so might be about 7 weeks late to reply...

Passed the language side of my challenge at least.

The physical side has been more bizarre for me - my legs still aren't up to scratch while my upper body has stagnated pretty badly. I think I'll hit some decent numbers before the first indoor competitions start in November.

140kg x 3 back squat/120kg x 3 bench/90kg x 2 hang power clean/70kg x 2 hang power snatch are the targets.

Re Tokyo - had to stay up very late and into the early hours of the morning to catch stuff. Was well worth it - seeing somebody I know medal (and several other people make semi-finals) and watching the men's shot (giving an Olympic first of three medallists being exactly the same two Olympics in a row) with the second furthest throw in history winning the competition.
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coldrainwater
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Re: Polyglot Fitness Challenge 2021

Postby coldrainwater » Wed Aug 25, 2021 6:34 pm

IronMike wrote:How's everyone's challenge going?

From what I can tell, yours is going swimmingly. Likewise, I am 7 weeks behind on replying.

From a weight training perspective, I have been under the bar consistently for the last eight months and am overall satisfied with both learning and progress. Perhaps most surprising has been the process around building chin-up strength. Namely, that I bothered to do it consistently. I can at least claim to pull my own weight in something now. Today I managed bodyweight (ever and a day 195 lbs) + 35 lbs x 4 reps from a neutral grip chin. Last month, I rubbed up against an elbow issue that was caused by squatting, so I am in the process of adjusting my squatting technique (bar position and handgrip) as well as switching to rowing movements and will let that improve slowly over the next six months or so.

I also reincorporated deadlifting and [unsurprisingly] noticed that I had neither gained nor lost pulling power. My squat is always weaker than my deadlift, and I have noticed that a pound of strength gained on the squat nearly always adds a pound of pull to deadlift (and that the inverse is not true). The elbow discomfort may have stalled progress on squatting, deadlifting and chins. That is my excuse anyhow. The chin-up improvement came mainly by doing one set a day on a door bar, then throwing a 25 lb vest on when that got easy (8+reps per set) and a backpack after that. I wasn't sure how well that would go doing it every day, but it worked, so I think it is worth sharing with the group. Frequent practice like that works better for some lifts than others. What finally drove bench/squat up a bit was a similar routine of alternating days without taking much time off at all. Another case of more frequent practice.

The trickiest thing about weight training for me has always been remaining as injury-free as possible and knowing how to carefully adapt to maintain strength when invariably something does happen. The most useful thing about the bodyweight movements is that I can hedge a bit and not tank all my efforts when I train on vacation. I had to replace pushups with barbell bench press after I noticed that I just wasn't making any additional progress. Now I am getting stronger again, but it is still my weakest lift (205 lbs x 6 reps today). For rowing, I had to move from dumbbells to barbells and noticed good strength transfer from a chin-up to a barbell row (vertical pull to horizontal pull).

On the language side of things, I figured out how to do L2->L2 LR while in motion. My main cardio is walking stairs in a 10-story office building and I got Whispersync to work well enough that I can read and follow the audio while walking stairs. We have a major delta variant problem at the moment, so an inclined treadmill and/or gym elliptical are not wise ideas. I can't seem to street-jogging or even walking well with LR but I can manage the stairs. Mainly I think that is due to having one hand on the railing and an environment without any interruptions. Every now and then someone walks down the stairs, but I don't believe I have ever seen somebody else trying to go up them. Haven't been able to shake the feeling that I often wander about in the wrong direction.
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jmar257
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Re: Polyglot Fitness Challenge 2021

Postby jmar257 » Wed Aug 25, 2021 10:07 pm

coldrainwater wrote:I also reincorporated deadlifting and [unsurprisingly] noticed that I had neither gained nor lost pulling power. My squat is always weaker than my deadlift, and I have noticed that a pound of strength gained on the squat nearly always adds a pound of pull to deadlift (and that the inverse is not true). The elbow discomfort may have stalled progress on squatting, deadlifting and chins.
I have the same issue, FWIW. I can stop deadlifting for months and come back and be back to my previous work weights relatively quickly, but my squat falls off quicker and comes back more slowly. Unfortunately, I like deadlifting way more than squatting. Some unsolicited advice re: the elbow issue: make sure when you squat you're not holding the weight with your arms/wrists, that pressure can cause elbow pain. Use a thumbless grip when squatting to help get that position right.

coldrainwater wrote:Frequent practice like that works better for some lifts than others. What finally drove bench/squat up a bit was a similar routine of alternating days without taking much time off at all. Another case of more frequent practice.
Totally agree, the highest my squat has ever been was when I was squatting most days of the week (some days heavier, some lighter and with alternating volume).
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IronMike
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Russian, 3/3 (DLPT5, 2022) 2+ (OPI, 2022)
German, 2L/1+R (DLPT5, 2021)
Italian, 1L/2R (DLPT IV, 2019)
Esperanto, C1 (KER skriba ekzameno, 2017)
Slovene, 2+L/3R (DLPT II in, yes, 1999)
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Re: Polyglot Fitness Challenge 2021

Postby IronMike » Wed Aug 25, 2021 10:16 pm

coldrainwater wrote:On the language side of things, I figured out how to do L2->L2 LR while in motion. My main cardio is walking stairs in a 10-story office building and I got Whispersync to work well enough that I can read and follow the audio while walking stairs. We have a major delta variant problem at the moment, so an inclined treadmill and/or gym elliptical are not wise ideas. I can't seem to street-jogging or even walking well with LR but I can manage the stairs. Mainly I think that is due to having one hand on the railing and an environment without any interruptions. Every now and then someone walks down the stairs, but I don't believe I have ever seen somebody else trying to go up them. Haven't been able to shake the feeling that I often wander about in the wrong direction.

I did this same method last year before deploying. I'd listen and read HP in Croatian while walking up 12 flights of stairs. I had to hold the railing though, that was the only way to make it work, safely.
1 x
You're not a C1 (or B1 or whatever) if you haven't tested.
CEFR --> ILR/DLPT equivalencies
My swimming life.
My reading life.

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IronMike
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2554
Joined: Thu May 12, 2016 6:13 am
Location: Northern Virginia
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Tested:
BCS, 1+L/1+R (DLPT5, 2022)
Russian, 3/3 (DLPT5, 2022) 2+ (OPI, 2022)
German, 2L/1+R (DLPT5, 2021)
Italian, 1L/2R (DLPT IV, 2019)
Esperanto, C1 (KER skriba ekzameno, 2017)
Slovene, 2+L/3R (DLPT II in, yes, 1999)
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Re: Polyglot Fitness Challenge 2021

Postby IronMike » Wed Aug 25, 2021 10:19 pm

jmar257 wrote:
coldrainwater wrote:I also reincorporated deadlifting and [unsurprisingly] noticed that I had neither gained nor lost pulling power. My squat is always weaker than my deadlift, and I have noticed that a pound of strength gained on the squat nearly always adds a pound of pull to deadlift (and that the inverse is not true). The elbow discomfort may have stalled progress on squatting, deadlifting and chins.
I have the same issue, FWIW. I can stop deadlifting for months and come back and be back to my previous work weights relatively quickly, but my squat falls off quicker and comes back more slowly.

Ditto. And my squat sucks.

Best I ever did with DL was 325lbs. Best for squat, 225lbs. And I'm coming back quickly (after the lockdown) in DL. Squat, not so much. Can't believe how much 115lbs in squat hurts.
5 x
You're not a C1 (or B1 or whatever) if you haven't tested.
CEFR --> ILR/DLPT equivalencies
My swimming life.
My reading life.

Ug_Caveman
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Re: Polyglot Fitness Challenge 2021

Postby Ug_Caveman » Wed Aug 25, 2021 11:13 pm

IronMike wrote:
jmar257 wrote:
coldrainwater wrote:I also reincorporated deadlifting and [unsurprisingly] noticed that I had neither gained nor lost pulling power. My squat is always weaker than my deadlift, and I have noticed that a pound of strength gained on the squat nearly always adds a pound of pull to deadlift (and that the inverse is not true). The elbow discomfort may have stalled progress on squatting, deadlifting and chins.
I have the same issue, FWIW. I can stop deadlifting for months and come back and be back to my previous work weights relatively quickly, but my squat falls off quicker and comes back more slowly.

Ditto. And my squat sucks.

Best I ever did with DL was 325lbs. Best for squat, 225lbs. And I'm coming back quickly (after the lockdown) in DL. Squat, not so much. Can't believe how much 115lbs in squat hurts.


Ditto ditto.

I don't train deadlifts at all as part of my programming and haven't for over ten years, yet can still pull 180kg/~400lbs when I'm in good shape (although need straps.) I often wonder how high I could go if I took some time to focus on it, but it has very limited carryover to my sport compared to cleans and snatches - and given how taxing it all is on the muscles and CNS, I prioritise.

Doesn't bother me too much as I never personally took to deadlifting as an exercise, deffo a squatter/presser (having short limbs on a fairly long torso probably contributed to that - most gym-people I know hate squatting, and ESPECIALLY front squatting, which I love :) )

I assume deadlifts staying fairly strong in periods of not training them comes from kind of asymmetrical carryover - lots of things carry over better one way than the other - along with the fact the deadlift is remarkably simple as an exercise.
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coldrainwater
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Re: Polyglot Fitness Challenge 2021

Postby coldrainwater » Wed Aug 25, 2021 11:26 pm

jmar257 wrote:I have the same issue, FWIW. I can stop deadlifting for months and come back and be back to my previous work weights relatively quickly, but my squat falls off quicker and comes back more slowly. Unfortunately, I like deadlifting way more than squatting. Some unsolicited advice re: the elbow issue: make sure when you squat you're not holding the weight with your arms/wrists, that pressure can cause elbow pain. Use a thumbless grip when squatting to help get that position right.

Thanks for the advice on the handgrip position. I will likely try the thumbless grip (I am familiar with using it on other lifts). For the moment I am using a very gentle hybrid that takes almost 100% of the pressure off the entire arm, elbow and all and am balancing the weight almost purely in a natural trap groove. Once I correctly identified the issue, it was an easy modification to make. It will be slow to heal, however. I am still sticking with the power squat since I like how it takes nearly all the pressure off the knees and focuses on the posterior chain. That squat variation also seems easiest to balance.

IronMike wrote:Ditto. And my squat sucks.

Best I ever did with DL was 325lbs. Best for squat, 225lbs. And I'm coming back quickly (after the lockdown) in DL. Squat, not so much. Can't believe how much 115lbs in squat hurts.

I have a very similar strength profile. When I was younger, with some work I could consistently workout with over 315 on the DL (conventional). I have always wanted do get a trap bar but have never done so. Glad you are building the home gym. I am also much weaker on the squat and typically would not work out with more than 195 lbs or 205 lbs. Interestingly enough I have been training stairs for nearly five years straight now and it seems to keep my baseline squatting strength at about 185x5 even after taking a year or two off. I would also use 115lb I think had it not been for the stairs (similar to doing a lightweight, low ROM lunge I expect from a movement perspective). I also haven't sustained a single hiking-related leg injury in that time and I do attribute it to that extra leg power. In my early thirties, I did end up with quite a bit more soreness and even minor pulls/injuries after a week of summiting.

Another possibly interesting point around squatting for me is that when I switched from a high-bar (in trap groove but highish) to a low bar position, I'd like to say I immediately added maybe 35-50 lbs of strength to the same depth (not quite parallel but in the ballpark) doing a power squat. I am currently working on adding depth before weight, but due to an older leg-press related lower back injury, I don't squat or deadlift quite as heavy as I used to, nor do I go to the same depth (not at first anyhow).

IronMike wrote:I did this same method last year before deploying. I'd listen and read HP in Croatian while walking up 12 flights of stairs. I had to hold the railing though, that was the only way to make it work, safely.

Glad to find others that have done the same/similar. Without the hand on the rail, the only other way I could do it would be to use the side of the exterior wall as a hedge to help balance, but that would be unsafe. It is that second to last step that is tricky at each landing and it is easy to misjudge and make a double step down when you think you are taking a single. I use my smartphone neck holder to angle the actual text off the right, giving me good frontal visibility, much better than I would get by waving my hand about without it. I wear five fingers shoes which help both with knee tracking and give extra sensitivity on foot placement (plus lots of hiking in tougher terrain than an indoor concrete stairwell).

When I was younger, I used a Yukon Powerrack (I think from NewYorkBarbells) and loved it. At the time it set me back around $325 and I sold it for not much less. Due to space considerations and the realization that I am not likely to ever squat massive weights, I just have connected uprights that elevate to a free-standing squat rack. I like the freedom they give, but it is annoying to constantly have to switch between bench, squat, and OH press positions.
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coldrainwater
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Re: Polyglot Fitness Challenge 2021

Postby coldrainwater » Thu Aug 26, 2021 12:08 am

Ug_Caveman wrote:I don't train deadlifts at all as part of my programming and haven't for over ten years, yet can still pull 180kg/~400lbs when I'm in good shape (although need straps.) I often wonder how high I could go if I took some time to focus on it, but it has very limited carryover to my sport compared to cleans and snatches - and given how taxing it all is on the muscles and CNS, I prioritise.

Doesn't bother me too much as I never personally took to deadlifting as an exercise, deffo a squatter/presser (having short limbs on a fairly long torso probably contributed to that - most gym-people I know hate squatting, and ESPECIALLY front squatting, which I love :) )

I assume deadlifts staying fairly strong in periods of not training them comes from kind of asymmetrical carryover - lots of things carry over better one way than the other - along with the fact the deadlift is remarkably simple as an exercise.

One of my biggest weaknesses has always been a lack of focus on technique. Since I learned to lift the same way I learn languages (highly independent and almost completely self-taught), I end up with obvious gaps. One of those has to do with an avoidance of any momentum-based movement. That basically means that even though I value and have an interest in Olympic lifts, I don't do them. There is some prudence to it however, in the sense that I always like to start my lifts with tension already applied (normal bench press instead of pin press, stiff-legged deadlift sometimes instead of straight off the floor for every rep). From experience, I rarely get injured if I start with tension already applied.

For comical effect, lazy shoulder/arm-based cleans with 135 are about the only thing I do involving momentum...mainly to load the squat rack without having to dislodge the 45's. I will also confess to still not having a decent technique for a front-squat and therefore never doing them. I do like doing Zercher squats though and for me, those are a squatting variety that are manageable.

For me, it is a case where if I had been willing to hire a good personal trainer when I was younger, it would have been invaluable. The few pieces of in-gym advice I was given have paid huge dividends. On a farmer's walk, a guy told me to bend my knees a lot more and walk low. I moved faster and covered a ton more distance safely that way. Huge and immediate improvement. The only time I ever pulled over 400 lbs on a deadlift happened after a powerlifter gave me a few hints (give the damn thing an absolute death grip and come up with lots of momentum). I am sure I had reached a moment of excess personal greed in my 20's and was likely struggling with 375 or 395 thereabouts, no doubt wanting to lift four plates. Had I wanted to go higher on the DL I think I still would have been back to training squats since my legs were shaking like a leaf on a tree and were basically unsafe during the lift. I could have identified that weak point without even maxing out. The DL is basically a simple lift and many people consider it mostly just a brute strength movement (noting how so many pros end up rounding the back after a certain weight threshold).
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