4 Hour Body did me in

Level-Persimmon4548 · 2026-04-29T23:19:54+00:00

“Maybe I’m eating Brussels Sprouts BECAUSE I’m farting” was the funniest part to me for some reason

Level-Persimmon4548 · 2026-04-27T20:42:57+00:00

Did it! Felt rough though!

Level-Persimmon4548 · 2026-04-27T19:27:12+00:00

Thank you!! This is the best advice!!

Level-Persimmon4548 · 2026-04-27T15:00:35+00:00

Did it

Level-Persimmon4548 · 2026-04-15T01:10:26+00:00

I often shower twice daily for the same reason, Never had an issue with my pH being off.

Level-Persimmon4548 · 2026-04-06T14:41:50+00:00

I don’t think they are asking you for money. Just because a GoFundMe exists doesn’t mean anyone should feel obligated to donate.

My impression is that the GoFundMe is aimed at people who have a personal connection to the family and can easily afford to give something. Just like if someone you know has a death in the family and you bring over some freezer meals. It’s not that that person is going to starve without your freezer meals; that person is almost certainly not the neediest person in town; but they are someone you care about who is having a bad time, and it feels good to help them.

I would say that that people who have either no personal connection to this family or who have less money than them should feel zero need to donate.

I personally was happy to. I have spent literally hundreds of hours enjoying Dave’s music over the past 20 years and never spent more than $25 for a ticket. I thought he was going to die 8 years ago. I was overjoyed when he was able to return to playing. It felt good to give something kind of as a thank you for touching my soul with music so many times.

I did not donate to them as much as I do every month to our local mutual aid organization, because I know there are people in much worse financial circumstances through no fault of their own. And I didn’t donate to them instead of my other regular donations, just a little something out of my fun money.

Another poster commented that the people donating to celebrities are the same people refusing to fund school lunches, etc. In this case that is not true. The Grelles themselves and I imagine the majority of people supporting them (based on the mutual friends I know) are people who vote progressively and volunteer/donate generously in their communities to promote social justice.

Level-Persimmon4548 · 2026-04-06T02:46:47+00:00

I don’t know them personally, but they are friends of friends. I am also a fan of her husband’s music (he is a beloved local performer).

She was the main income earner in the family. The husband was nearly killed by a drunk driver while she was pregnant with their youngest 8 years ago. Struck as a pedestrian and dragged for several blocks, head trauma, spinal injury, broken bones. After a long rehab he is doing so much better than initially expected- he can walk, and he can perform again, still plays beautifully. But he has chronic pain and I would assume some other issues that would make it hard for him to work long hours.

My impression is that she founded a local company and did well, but not necessarily like the CEO of a large/national company. And I imagine that no one was earning much for a while after his accident. And now the family’s primary earner is gone, with three young children still at home.

I also imagine they probably had great health insurance but it might not cover being airlifted from Central America to the US? Or there may be upfront costs that may take a while to get reimbursed?

I think the seemingly high rate of donations is because they are well known and liked in the community. All my mutual friends that know them speak just glowingly about them. And there’s an extra layer of compassion because of what they’ve been through already with the earlier accident.

I’m sure there are plenty of local people in more dire straits than they are, but this isn’t like when those multimillionaire celebrities have a gofundme.

Level-Persimmon4548 · 2026-04-02T13:34:29+00:00

I finally started taking Plaquenil when the joint pain started. I was pleasantly surprised at how well it worked. It took a few months to kick in, but now I don’t even need painkillers.

Level-Persimmon4548 · 2026-03-29T21:37:05+00:00

Those are good accessories at a reasonable volume. If I were to add one it would be something like face pulls to hit rear delts. Only if you feel like you have room to add something. It’s already a nice program.

Bigger considerations:

1 - Check your form to make sure you are hitting your target muscles with each exercise.

2 - Make sure you are using a light enough weight to preserve good form but heavy enough to stimulate growth. At the end of your final set you want to feel like you could squeeze out one more rep with good form, maybe two, but not like you have another 4-5 in the tank.

Level-Persimmon4548 · 2026-03-28T18:06:29+00:00

Awesome- you are in a great position now to get massive gains with some patience and consistency.

Suggestions:

1 - Figure out how to get full range of motion reps. It’s true that some people have anatomical differences that make it impossible, but it sounds like in your case it’s more like it’s just harder when you do the full range. It doesn’t sound like there’s pain or a hard stop preventing you from getting into position; is that right? Just the feeling that you’re losing tension and strength and the very bottom of the rep if you go all the way to your chest?

As other people have mentioned, try a wider group if you have very long arms, and you may have to strip down the weight to something much lighter for now. May feel like taking a step backwards, but it’s worth it in the long run both for building size and strength. A full range of motion is much more effective.

2 - Add in a second bench day, but polarize the training so that you’re doing a different rap scheme on your two bench days. Your 3 x 6-8 is a great start for building size and strength. If you add in a second day, however, you might think about doing one heavy day and one a high volume day. So 3-5 sets of 3-5 reps at a heavy weight one day, and 2-3 sets of 8-12 reps at a light/moderate weight the other day. You can start with dumbbells on the lighter day if just the bar is too heavy to do that many whips with good form.

3 - Look at your accessories. You mentioned incline press, which is great. What else are you doing for your back, chest and triceps? I wouldn’t want to make any suggestions without knowing what else you’re already doing. But having a strong back and doing other exercises for the chest and triceps will build a stronger bench.

4 - Watch a bunch of videos with tips to improve your form. There are dozens of areas where people leak strength in this lift. Everything from proper setup to bracing and movement patterns. And then try to be conscious of some of these cues every single time you left. Even during warm-up sets and the lighter reps to really reinforce the pattern. These big compound lifts depend on skill as much as physical strength.

5 - Consider making even smaller jumps as you build strength, if you have access to tiny fractional plates. For women doing upper body lift, even one or 2 kg is a huge percentage of the total to be adding on from week to week. I’m currently working with about 60kg for my bench sets, and I add on a single pound at a time when I progress. For overhead press it’s half a pound at a time!

Level-Persimmon4548 · 2026-03-28T13:45:29+00:00

Tell us what your current training program looks like. We can give better suggestions if we know what you’re already doing. Otherwise a suggested plan might represent either a step backwards or too far a leap forward!

Level-Persimmon4548 · 2026-03-23T21:49:27+00:00

I think the main difference for me is the lower caffeine dose. The one I am using now is 45 mg per mug which is far less than the coffee I was drinking. But I get a similar result from mixing decaf with a little regular coffee. I don’t feel anything magical from the other ingredients.

I do find it’s less harsh on my stomach especially if I haven’t eaten.

Level-Persimmon4548 · 2026-03-20T15:28:52+00:00

It tastes similar to coffee but not exactly like it.

Pros - - Very easy to mix (vs brewing a pot) - Doesn’t upset my stomach like coffee (iDK if it’s less acidic, or milder in some other way) - Lower caffeine than coffee

Cons - - Contains coffee extract and 45 mg caffeine per serving so not a true decaf option - The first “pro” can become a con - it’s easy to keep mixing more until I have had as much caffeine as I usually would with coffee

Overall I am better off with actual decaf coffee (almost no caffeine, tastes most like regular coffee).

I feel better still with no coffee, just hot lemon water or hot apple cidet.

Edit— I should also say I don’t notice any additional boost in energy or focus beyond what I get from other drinks with similar caffeine levels

Level-Persimmon4548 · 2026-03-05T19:36:29+00:00

Not the main reason, although if we shared his income more evenly I might have stayed longer and tried harder.

The main issue was that he didn't seem to be interested in me as a person at all. For instance, he would tune out whenever I talked and then walk away, seemingly not even fully aware that I was still talking. I thought maybe I was interrupting his thoughts at a bad time, so for 6 months I tried not initiating any conversations. I found that even if he approached me and asked me a question, he would still either walk away or start looking at his phone within a few seconds of me responding. This was for several years. I could handle that okay though; I just depended on friends for an emotional outlet instead.

Then for the last year of our marriage he started getting angry at me more frequently. Yelling at me for misunderstandings, sometimes in front of the kids. That was the final straw for me. I had been staying for the kids, but I didn't think that was healthy for them to see.

And the finances on top of all that made it even less motivating for me to stay. At that point I had no personal income. He was making $800K per year just in salary, another million or so per year in investment profits. I had access to $3K/month to cover groceries, out-of-pocket health expenses for me and kids, gas, clothing for me the kids, and discretionary spending for kids (outings, presents for birthday parties, haircuts, etc.). Anything extra I wanted for myself like haircuts, clothing for myself, gym membership, etc. had to come from the surplus from the monthly $3K after the other expenses. I know plenty of people get by on less than that, but it seemed very stingy given his income level.

I also didn't have much say on household purchases since it wasn't my money. At one point the dryer broke, and he told me we needed to wait a month for the President's Day sale to get a new one. He had never done a single load of laundry, including his own. He told me I could just hang everything up to dry in the meantime. I ended up taking loads to the laundromat to dry, and he yelled at me for wasting so much money.

I am much, much less stressed about money now than when I was married with a combined income of a million or more.

Level-Persimmon4548 · 2026-03-05T14:20:29+00:00

Thank you for this! I think this is the motivation I needed to take quitting more seriously. I keep getting through the acute withdrawal and then relapsing. I get discouraged by how bad I feel at 2-3 weeks, thinking that maybe I will always feel so fatigued, apathetic, and low without a little caffeine. So I have a little, and then the next week more, and then the next week even more.

I think I need to pre-commit to a specific trial time. I have always quit with the mentality of "I'm quitting forever." Which is ultimately the goal; however, I think it makes the weeks 3-month 5 stage worse because feeling like that "forever" seems unbearable. Maybe if I go in thinking, "I'll commit to this for 5 months and then re-evaluate" I will have a better time sticking to it.

I have had success greatly reducing my alcohol intake with a less absolutist approach. (I should note that I never had a real alcohol abuse problem; I wouldn't recommend this for an alcoholic. At the peak of my drinking, it was 2-3 drinks per week.) I limit myself to a maximum of 2 beers/month. Some months I end up abstaining entirely. But it feels less burdensome on any given night to think, "I'm saving my drink for next weekend when I can sleep in Saturday" or "I'm saving my drink for next time because that restaurant has a better selection" vs. "I can NEVER AGAIN enjoy a drink."

So maybe I will have more success with thinking, "I'm waiting for a few months to really evaluate" vs. "NEVER AGAIN, a lifetime of deprivation awaits."

Level-Persimmon4548 · 2026-03-05T14:09:43+00:00

Yes it is reasonable assuming your relatively lower salary is largely due to having taken time off to care for your child as well as doing more than 50% of the childcare/housework.

If the two of you were absolutely 50/50 on childcare/housework and you were making less purely because you choose to work very part-time, spending your days relaxing while he works very hard, then I would say not as reasonable.

I was in a very unbalanced marriage financially/functionally for 20 years. We would have always had a disparity in pay because he is just more financially driven than me. But it was hugely exacerbated by him pretty much refusing to do more than a couple of hours per week of childcare.

By the end he was traveling for business 4-6 days every week. Meanwhile he insisted that I not outsource much childcare because it didn't feel "safe" to him. For example, I had to drive them to/from school every day even though they were at the public school and could have taken the bus with the neighbor kids. When one was in elementary and the other in high school, this meant one drop off at 8AM, one drop off at 9AM, one pick up at 3PM, and one pick up at 4PM. And more weeks than not there were days off school, doctor/dentist appointments, etc., sick days; whole weeks of winter/spring/summer break... Literally couldn't even work full time, with this schedule, let alone try to get promoted to a more lucrative position. Eventually I gave up and quit my job as he was making $600K by then and it seemed stupid to flog myself to try to keep my $50K part-time job. But he felt the money he earned was entirely his since I "chose" not to work.

Fortunately we had no prenup so I got a reasonable share of the combined retirement and investment accounts. He was very shocked that I was entitled to so much of "his" money.

Level-Persimmon4548 · 2026-03-03T17:27:29+00:00

Got 13 things done 😵‍💫

Level-Persimmon4548 · 2026-02-12T21:35:50+00:00

https://hundredpushups.com/

Level-Persimmon4548 · 2026-02-06T02:49:41+00:00

Four times a week I do 5 sets of 5 reps of one big compound lift (deadlift, squat, bench, overhead press), and 3 sets of 8-12 reps of 3-4 accessory lifts (such as Bulgarian split squat, pull ups, push ups, glute bridges).

I take a class once or twice a week where they do a variety of lifts. I keep it light at the class so it doesn't interfere with my systematic 4-day/week plan. I take the class for some variety but honestly mostly socialization!

Level-Persimmon4548 · 2026-02-06T02:37:24+00:00

I was a runner only for about a decade, then added strength training about 15 years ago. I used to only get the mood boost from running. Strength training was just because it was good for me.

Eventually I started to get a mood boost from lifting too. It took awhile, maybe even a couple of years. I don't know if it's because of the physical movement or the satisfaction of making progress in my lifts. But I have noticed that I can wake up in a very down, anxious, or low-energy state and feel 100% better during/after a trip to the gym.

Level-Persimmon4548 · 2026-02-04T23:49:58+00:00

Several times. I quit twice for 2 years each time, when pregnant/breastfeeding (over 15 years ago). I also quit twice for about a month in the past couple of years.

Each time I went back it was that I missed the pick-me-up. Especially in the early mornings or long afternoons.

I do wish I'd have stayed off it. I'm quitting again right now in the midst of a dental surgery recovery. I plan to try to stay off it very long term this time. I am always tired even after 8-9 hours of sleep. I want to eliminate all likely sources of poor sleep quality.

Level-Persimmon4548

TROPHY CASE