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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   1381 thread views

Wellness Wednesday for August 26, 2026

The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:

  • Requests for advice and / or encouragement. On basically any topic and for any scale of problem.

  • Updates to let us know how you are doing. This provides valuable feedback on past advice / encouragement and will hopefully make people feel a little more motivated to follow through. If you want to be reminded to post your update, see the post titled 'update reminders', below.

  • Advice. This can be in response to a request for advice or just something that you think could be generally useful for many people here.

  • Encouragement. Probably best directed at specific users, but if you feel like just encouraging people in general I don't think anyone is going to object. I don't think I really need to say this, but just to be clear; encouragement should have a generally positive tone and not shame people (if people feel that shame might be an effective tool for motivating people, please discuss this so we can form a group consensus on how to use it rather than just trying it).

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New Year's resolution check-in:

  • Went to the gym three times last week and again yesterday evening. There's obviously something wrong with my squat form: the last two times I did squats, my lower back gave me hell that night. Last night was no exception, and it's still quite stiff this morning. Will have to drop down to a lower weight to correct my form. I can deadlift 1.82x my bodyweight, squat 1.33x and bench press 0.77x.
  • Have not consumed any pornography since waking up on January 1st.

How goes it @self_made_human, @thejdizzler, @birb_cromble, @ThomasdelVasto and @falling-star?

Why not take a break from legs and focus on some bro circuits for a few weeks? Much better for aesthetics and your bench press numbers could use some work.

I think I'll probably have to do that until I'm recovered.

The last two times I did squats, my lower back gave me hell that night.

Do you use a belt? Don't forget the third rule of strength training:

  • If something hurts from what you are doing, don't question your form; hold your body together with bits of supportive equipment.

I see @ratherblather already suggested hack squats. Belt squats can also be good, especially if you have back pain. As long as you can find one where the range of motion is not ass.

Yes, I use a belt. Maybe it's too loose for me.

Could be, or you're not breathing "under it" enough. Or you're wearing it too low and it's acting like a hinge. Or it's a mobility problem, and you have excessive butt wink in the hole. Hard to say without looking at it in person.

I hate to endorse it because I think the term is poorly defined, but training "core" really can help your squat and deadlift. I know the force curve is backward, and some people hate it, but I like the reverse hyper. GHD or Roman chair isn't bad. Dragon flags and hanging leg raises are my preferred options for the other side.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm wondering if maybe the belt is too loose and it's not providing enough support. I think I should probably ask one of the personal trainers for advice.

A week that's oscillated between manageable and hellish. I'm bone tired and it's only a Wednesday. No exercise that isn't my glutes getting a hell of a workout.

There's very cheery signage by the hospital stairs stating: "taking the stairs is free exercise!". When I've gone up and down multiple levels half a dozen times in a day, I've never been more motivated to engage in vandalism.

The good news is that I've gone from unbearably stressed to only mildly stressed but very harassed and put upon. I've been stuck late multiple days to clean up other people's messes, and my juniors have sometimes overenthusiastically multiplied our workload. I have refrained from yelling at them, I've just sighed bitterly and cast a mildly disappointed glance before telling them what they should have done. The fact that all of us ended up stuck over an hour late to fix things was all the punishment anyone needed.

On a meta note I am impressed that we are continuing to do these nearly 8 months into the year!

  1. Work: Quantifying images this week which I find to be extremely tedious. Accepted the position to start in May, so have a firm deadline to graduate, which is nice.
  2. Fitness. Another week another 63 miles. Weight is dropping slight (at 166 again) which is good. Feeling prepared for the marathon. Hours: 8.1 running, 1 swimming.
  3. Intellectual stuff: Started reading Lenin, finished Feast and two of my Spanish books. Hoping to get one more good blog post in this month. Spanish Immersion hours last week: 6.** Blog posts this month**: 2
  4. Finances: No ZIM divvy, but will definitely be below 4k for this month. Beginning to house hunt in Baltimore. Monthly spending so far: 3657.
  5. Dating. Second date sunday, have a third date coming up with the same girl on Thursday at my house! Really want to completely quit porn and masturbation and I think this potential relationship is giving the motivation to actually do so.
  6. Tarot. Discussed my old roommates romantic life, and how I should wrap up my PhD.
  7. Socializing: Long run with my friend Jeff on saturday, potluck later that day, and helping new roommate move in last week.
  8. Screen time: 1.9 hours. Too much scrolling.
  9. Meditation: 5 minutes 3x last week. Would like to make this more of a priority.

Sorry if you answered this already but what's your deadlift progression like? I'm at 1.6x body weight and had to really fight to get it off the ground for the last workout. I do 3 sets of 5, once a week. Should I back off to 85% and climb back up? Should I add a high rep lower weight workout mid week?

I used to do a fixed number of reps, but now I just do five sets and rep til failure each time. (There have absolutely been days where I couldn't do all five sets.) My progress has been much faster using this method. I only do five strength training exercises (deadlift, bench press, squat, overhead press, pullup) and aim to do three each time I go to the gym, meaning I should be doing each of those exercises twice a week.

There's no point deloading and doing the same thing again. You need to do more to push past a plateau, whether that's more reps and sets at lower weight, more accessory work, or more sets at higher weight. Periodization is the typical approach once trainees can't increase the weight every workout.

Out of curiosity, does your gym have a hack squat machine? I know they get some flack because they're less of a "compound" lift, but they are substantially more gentle on the back from my experience.

My old gym did, but I don't think my current gym does.

Spending is $1,806.68 lower than the same day last year. I had to visit the urgent care yesterday and that put a dent in my savings.

Some urgent care needs can be treated very cheaply with telemedicine, but only if you have a sporadic need that you are aware of so you can explain it to the physician. Like a course of antibiotics for a UTI. This is good cost savings when you have a high deductible health plan paired with an HSA.

Unfortunately this was a brand new and extremely weird issue, so I had to show up in person for X-rays.

My condolences. New issues + X-rays is probably stressful even if only benign things show up.

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