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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   3773 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 9, 2022

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I joined a gym 2 months ago when I quit smoking. I find the endorphin rush helps replace whatever cigarettes were doing in terms of stress relief. Also I am overweight and borderline obese. I have a few symptoms of pre diabetes and a family history of diabetes.

So far so good but, the honeymoon phase is coming to a close and I am stuck in a rut- arm day, curls, benchpress, tricep pushes. Alternate days with legs back and stomach. I generally workout 5 days a week, (about 45 minutes to an hour,) and run at least one mile each time I work out. 2 miles max so far.

My question is, how do I take it to the next level? I have lost roughly 10 pounds so far but I am starting to hit a wall. I don't need to become a body builder but I fear if I cannot get past this wall that I will see diminishing returns and slowly stop being consistent. (This has happened to me in the past.) What are new exercises, weight lifting exercises to try etc? I would live to try free squats but dont have a partner and dont want to hurt myself. Does anyone have an interesting program that works for them?

You're not likely to hurt yourself doing squats.

There's an infinite number of exercises out there and you should try any that sound interesting. Back squats, front squats, deadlifts, romanian deadlifts, trap bar deadlifts, overhead press, the three hundred varieties of rows, incline bench press, etc etc.

As a newbie just about any program will work. Keep a lot of your workouts and try to beat the weight you did last time or the number of reps at the same weight.

You're not likely to hurt yourself doing squats.

This is very, very much not true. Bad form in heavy squats will print you a one-way ticket to pain city real quick.

A rank newbie is not performing heavy squats and has much more to fear from fear of injuries than bad form.

A few minutes of reading about technique is enough to begin squatting.

All squats are heavy when you're weak.

You can't even fully recruit your muscles as a rank novice.

Be more antifragile.

I personally know several people who have injured themselves at a "can't lift for 2-3 weeks" level squatting less than 250 lbs. I don't know what to tell you, there isn't some threshold under which it's impossible to hurt yourself.

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