eLPedro87's Journal, 08 Mar 21

I’m just curious - what sort of weights are we talking about here - for instance your biceps curls? I’m still not lifting more than 10 kg (dumbbell, single arm) and twenty (barbell) but I intend to ramp it up on Wednesday when I do my next upper body workout. I’m in my final week of a twelve week program - ends on Wednesday, and have already started another one (it wasn’t hard to align the two, only a few basic differences) 

And I’d love to be skinny as hell with big muscles 💪🏼 !!!! 

I lowered my curls to 12.5kg to give my shoulder a rest (didn't work, I need another injection already). Mind you I have like 3-4 different shoulder exercises. Because I've always protected my left shoulder subconsciously the bicep is noticeably smaller so lately I've been doing 10kg with my right and 15kg with my left and have noticed a difference in just two weeks. I've also added Russian twists and weighted sit ups into my work outs so my abs are building all the way up and on my sides (felt like I got punched several times). My lumber is strengthening as well which I'm happy about. Rear delts are progressing too and I find I'm using them with weights more so they are sore the next day even if I didn't specifically work them. Doing low squats really makes you appreciate the muscles in your legs that don't get worked out enough by the machines. I'm gaining weight again my noticing my stomach flattening out. Stomach fat is ****ing stubborn man.  

I’m doing squats, also sumo squats but I’m not upright enough, so I’m practicing the horse stance (from ninjutsu). Wow do your legs feel that! I haven’t been able to get down very far, balance issues, even with one hand on a rail. As for the abs, I have a really strong core and nothing much challenges those muscles, so I started doing weighted hanging knee raises today - but my right shoulder got really painful - if my upper body could be supported better, I don’t know how many I could do. You have a supraspinatus tear? I did mine at my first gym workout when it opened in December. It’s only small, and I’m doing all the exercises to rehab it but it does get a little painful in some circumstances. I wish I’d had the foresight to do extensive preconditioning on my shoulders before I tried a full weights program. It was the ‘iron cross’ that got me. Lateral raises. 

Second week in last year I tore both my arms to shreds and couldn't straighten them for 3-4 days. Would take at least 20kg to do that to me now. Strained a muscle in my forearm doing 15kg last week but only hurt for half a day. If you want to push your core just do weighted sit ups. Use 6-8kg weights, hold them against your chest so you aren't lifting them with your arms too much and do sit ups. I do them on the bench with the leg stops. The more horizontal you go the further up your abs and back you will train. I usually two sets of 2x6kg and a final set of 2x8 with about 20-30 reps. If you have a bad back do lighter weights. Using a plate or medicine ball works too.  

My shoulder problem isn't a tear it's chronic bursitis 

Oh and lateral raises are the most common exercise people do wrong so it doesn't surprise me that you Injured yourself. You should never raise the weights parallel to your body. Always do lateral raises on an angle and in front of your shoulders where the joint and tendons are the strongest. I see alot of people do it at the gym wrong and I always want to tell them to stop but people can be defensive at the gym so I don't bother. I do it with no more than 8-10 kg. The reason for the lat pull down machine pulling in front of your body is for the same reason. I made the same mistake when I first started because I didn't do enough research but luckily I didn't hurt myself. Squats take so long to get used to haha my legs still hurt the next day everytime.  

Lateral raises can be bad if not doing it properly, I use to follow a workout program years ago that had them doing it parallel so I wasn't doing it properly until I went to the gym and they showed me how to do it properly. I have bursitis in my knee so I know that doesn't help out a lot. Hopefully one day I'll be curling as much as you lol