I noticed that the cake, chocolate, seafood and turkey threads were all ahead of this one and sensed a change was in order.
Time for me to get back on the horse, I think. I lost ~50 pounds between March and June last year while working from home, and kept it off through November, when I went back to work in person. I think I've gained most of it back now (can't confirm as I haven't stepped on a scale in a while), so it's time to get back into a running/healthy eating routine before I am totally back to square one. Nice day for it, at least! The challenge will be figuring out how to consistently replicate the healthy lifestyle I cultivated working from home now that I'm back in the office.
I went through the same cycle, stepping back on the scale some time in November or December to confirm the diagnosis. I committed to three things: weighing myself regularly, roughly counting calories and getting at least 30 minutes of cardio a week, with hopefully regular daily moderate exercise. I’ve definitely felt positive results.
Carolina delenda est
IMO, the reason you can't build significant muscle mass is because you are emphasizing (at least for the last month or so) bodyweight circuit workouts instead of lifting heavy, compound movements.
If your squats and rows feel unstable be sure to train your core too: GHDs, reverse hypers, if you have access to them.
If the starting position for a deadlift is unnatural to you, you may have an ankle mobility issue, but I truly believe anyone can build muscle if they really want to. Lift heavy, eat big and clean, and the gains have to come.
Hard at work making beautiful things.
Oh, I definitely add muscle; I just have consistently reached a place where certain levels of weight begin to feel dangerous and so I don't try to push it beyond that. I'm sure consistent training and loading would result in incremental gains but they just don't feel safe to me, particularly since I've had occasional back issues over the years. Certain body types are clearly more conducive to different types of sports and athletic pursuits --- I'm a strong, natural swimmer, for instance, but just have the long, reedy build that's not great for lifting.
I do feel like I learned proper technique. I grew up in Texas and was one of the ISD's nationally known for its sports program so went through some of the standard MS and HS regimes, even got pumped full of creatine in off-season performance improvement programs that guaranteed to add X, Y, and Z amounts of weight and vertical leap, etc.
It's been pre-COVID since I've been in a gym with access to weights other than what I have in my basement so I've been doing a lot of circuit work and general fitness, which is my goal. When I go back to the gym, I'll try to get back to my pre-COVID heavy, compound lifts 1-2X week.
Have been beefing up the pushup routine. Trying to get to 500 in the fewest number of sets possible. When I ramped all the way up to 500 about 6 or 8 weeks ago it took me 12-13 sets to get to 500. I got there in 6 sets today for an average of 83/set.
I am looking forward to rejoining the gym after my second jab.
my understanding continues to be that there are few calories in melted cheese.