Selling my Voodoo Eden Rage F:50

Best of luck, blur.

No travelling is a big plus. I do not really travel as such, just drive over 100 miles a day, and I might be willing to take a cut to spend less time in a car.

I did some travelling this past week and a bit. Because I don't do it too often, it didn't bother me. However, if it was a constant, I could see how it would become tiring. So much time is wasted at the airport, travelling to and from the hotel, and it's difficult to maintain a regular lifestyle. Generally speaking, hotel gyms suck!

Yes, when Eve and I travel I always hope for a Snap Fitness nearby. We had a new gym open up at the local Hospital that has much more to offer than our Snap, but I am sticking with the latter because my membership at the latter is good at any other Snap.

I don't have many Snap Fitness gyms near me. Are they well equipped?

That's what she said.

It all depends on the size of the Snap. Some are better than others.

That's what she said.

Indeed.


I have also heard that the new gym is very busy right now. I like the fact that there is only one other lifter who shows up early in the morning at our Snap, and he gets there later than I do when I am winding things up. And when we do overlap on machines or weights, we do a pretty good job of working around each other. I would hate to have the momentum of my workouts killed by constantly running into someone else.

I also work out at odd hours and generally have the gym to myself, which is nice. There are times when others get in my way and that is a royal pain.

The biggest problem is when you are supersetting.

Especially if it's a machine you have planned into your circuit, and the other person decides to alter the configuration on the machine.

Exactly.


I gave everyone at Snap this morning a thrill. I was doing heavy squats (six reps) and after finishing my second set, I failed to latch the hooks properly before starting to step out from under the bar. I felt it slide off and overcame the first thought (the stupid one) to try to catch it, and instead jumped forward and let it go. All that weight dropping a few feet onto the safeties made for rather a tremendous crash.

Good job! Nothing like ringing steel to wake up the morning crowd.

Woke up this morning with a definite minor strain in my lower back. While I got out of the way just fine, my muscles probably tensed up when I felt it slip.

Yeah, that's more than likely. Just avoid heavy weights for compound movements for the next few days and you'll be fine.

Did shoulders today, and stuck with seated presses. The only thing that seemed iffy was heavy shrugs, since even on a smith machine with impeccable form it is impossible not to feel some pressure on the lower back, but I got through them. The big question will be tomorrow morning, when i do back & biceps, kicking off with heavy deadlifts. It will all depend how I feel when I get up in the morning -- I may just have to let it go for a day.

If your lower back is at all twitchy, avoid deadlifts. That is one exercise you don't mess around with. It's not worth it. Take the week off and do back extensions instead.

Regarding shrugs: Have you tried dumbbell shrugs? I find that allows your hands to hang by your side, which relieves most of the pressure on the lower back. If you use a two-second concentric count followed by a one-second pause at the top and four-second eccentric count, you won't even need to use that much weight.

Well, like I said it all depends on how I feel tomorrow morning. If it is not gone, plans will change.

I am not sure why, but dumbbell shrugs never seem to work as well for me as barbell shrugs. I still incorporate them, though.

I used to struggle with dumbbell shrugs because I'd cheat and allow my arms to do some of the work. Once I got more disciplined, I found they worked quite well. But everyone is different.

Well, I will play with my form next time and see if I can get them to work better. In the meantime, I did skip deadlifts yesterday, though I did everything else (including barbell rows and T-bar rows, which were a bit dicey, but I kept my knees well bent and made sure that my back was not arched.)

On rows, I actually arch my back a bit, but inwards (pelvis pushed out slightly).

Most of that type of exercise I tend to squeeze my stomach towards my spine, which seems to keep from arching.

Really, it's all about keeping the strain off the lower back. So, whatever works.

Especially right now. It is improving, but there is enough discomfort still there that I want to be extra, extra careful.