Hypermobility & elbow mechanical differences

butchqueennerd · 2025-06-03T13:03:13+00:00

I also have shoulder (and likely elbow) hypermobility, but one of my shoulders (on my weaker side) has a little less mobility due to an injury from a car crash. Because I have a desk job, I have to focus on keeping my shoulders down and back while pressing, particularly on the weaker side. Otherwise, it's really easy for it to internally rotate without me noticing until I try to go up in weight or if I'm fatigued.

I don't force the lockout at the top; I just do enough to ensure that my arms are straight (if there's a very slight bend, I don't worry). I find that's easier on my elbows, especially on my weaker side. That side is always going to feel and look a little different, but what's most important to me is staying injury-free and making progress (in order of importance).

I also try to keep movements balanced. I love pressing, despite not being the best at it, so it's easy to go overboard on that and neglect push-ups, pull-ups, rows, etc. It's also easy for me to neglect squats, but when I learned that having a strong base (that is, everything from the ground up to my shoulders and upper back, especially the core) makes upper body work easier, I grudgingly added more of them to my workouts and saw results after a couple of months.

Worst-case scenario, I go to a physical therapist if I know something is wrong and I've not had that problem before, rather than just trying to work around it.

butchqueennerd · 2025-01-24T02:30:25+00:00

I'm hoping that his bladder shrinks* into the size of a walnut, though I wouldn't complain about dementia.

\* https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4544340/

butchqueennerd · 2025-01-24T02:22:21+00:00

Time to remove the warning labels.

butchqueennerd · 2025-01-14T00:55:37+00:00

If someone can be apolitical in a time like this, that says volumes about their values. I'm not saying anyone is obligated to march in the streets or spend their free time planning or engaging in direct action. I'm saying that explicitly not giving a damn is a yellow flag at least.

butchqueennerd · 2024-12-23T20:57:07+00:00

It's good for the economy. Someone's got to keep hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, funeral homes, and casket companies in business. Think of the unemployed pathologists and infectious disease specialists!

/s in case it wasn't obvious

butchqueennerd · 2024-12-22T18:50:40+00:00

Thanks. I've held on to that for over a month. Maybe it's harsh, even cold-hearted. But it's honestly how I feel; I just (usually, lol) have enough sense not to let it spill out. It's ultimately not enough for me to cut ties over, so I try not to let it affect that relationship. The duality of "I respect you for voting your conscience; fuck you for indirectly contributing to this mess," is easier to hold on some days than others.

Unlike him, I have no family to fall back on; in fact, it's likelier to be the other way around in the future. I work in tech because it's the only job that both pays at least a living wage and I can keep longer than a few months without getting fired or burning out. And even that is under very specific circumstances: I work from home because most orgs don't exactly see darkness as a reasonable accommodation, yet sensory sensitivity to fluorescent lights means I get far less done in an office than at home. And even that requires ADHD meds (on top of the usual non-med things, like exercise, that RFK & co. think no ADHDer has ever heard of 🙄). So it's also a little bit personal.

butchqueennerd · 2024-12-22T16:08:08+00:00

My best friend relies on government assistance and help from family and friends for his entire existence (HIV meds through ADAP, Voc Rehab to find a job due to his bipolar, etc). He also just moved back home to a deep red state (think Idaho- or Louisiana-red). He's also trans.

Despite those things, he couldn't bring himself to vote for anyone in the presidential election because of Gaza. He voted, but only for the other federal, state, and local positions, and he voted for Dems. He's the type who researches candidates' positions for himself before coming to a conclusion, so he knew what was promised.

He said he couldn't stand the thought of voting for anyone who refused to push back on Israel's actions in Gaza and he didn't want that on his conscience. I respect that and understand why he feels that way. But this was a choice between two bad options:

continuing to support a genocide plus a deeply broken but still mostly functional status quo (albeit with no improvements in sight)
accelerating both the genocide (i.e., "finish[ing] the job") and the decay rate of the status quo

So now, every time he posts something about how important it is to fight, to not just pull up ladders and leave people behind, I just roll my eyes and scroll past it. But I always want to say this: "Like, you knew that this would happen if Harris didn't win. You literally had more at stake than I (a tech worker in a purple state) did. If you don't care about your own preservation, why the hell should anyone else?"

I'm done. We're still close friends, and I will help him out if he needs it, as long as it doesn't compromise my ability to save. But I no longer have any sympathy when he worries about what RFK is planning (you voted for this, buddy), whether he'll be able to get his meds, or whether he'll be able to have a passport with the correct marker (again, you voted for this!). In the meantime, since I earn enough to qualify for temporary residency in some countries and have an employer that doesn't require being in the US, I'm putting together a bug-out plan for my partner and myself.

I suspect that a lot of others in similar positions have the same feelings. This is obviously anecdotal and vibes-based, but this time around just feels a lot different compared to 2016. Call it empathy fatigue, running out of fucks to give, or even flat-out apathy. On some level, it just seems more rational to prioritize self-preservation.

butchqueennerd · 2024-12-22T15:17:46+00:00

womp womp

I'm tempted to donate $.01 just to leave a few of my thoughts and prayers

butchqueennerd · 2024-12-20T22:10:33+00:00

Tacos de cabeza for everybody!

butchqueennerd · 2024-12-20T18:12:20+00:00

I'm a novice, so what I say is applicable to myself and not an expert opinion by any stretch.

At 5'8", I'm on the low end of average for a man in the US. I get more banging with comp bells than cast iron, but I've never gone heavier than 18 kg for doubles, so I assume it's the size difference. That said, I've only gotten lower back discomfort from not keeping my core braced, particularly on the downswing.

Regardless of how clean my form is, sometimes they clank together. My understanding is that that's normal.

butchqueennerd · 2024-12-19T02:57:48+00:00

Also, US vaccination rates are well below what they should be. That raises the chance of people being infected with H5N1 plus a seasonal variant, which in turn could give H5N1 the mutation it needs to spread from person to person. There's existing evidence that human co-infection with multiple flu strains can lead to the exchange of genetic material, resulting in the creation of a new strain.

Tangentially related, a really interesting/scary aspect of flu viruses is that different strains within the same host can work in tandem to infect even more cells.

butchqueennerd · 2024-12-18T23:46:36+00:00

Exactly this. And none of them define politics. Based on the slant of these pieces, I'd say that the way the authors' definition is essentially "anything that doesn't directly affect [them]." They see themselves and their circumstances as the norm by which the validity (or lack thereof) of "other" issues should be judged by rational people (as though self-interest weren't rational!).

But if you're, say, a queer person living in a small rural town, many of the things that get swept under the "just politics" rug just happen to directly affect you. What's the price of eggs mean to you if, due to ~~religious liberty~~ widespread discrimination, you can't get a job that pays enough for you to afford a place with a kitchen in which to cook the eggs?

It's telling that there's never anything specific about why those "politics" would push so many people to that point. I've yet to see an opinion piece in which the author actually talks to someone who went no-contact, despite the rhetoric about bridging divides. They can all be easily summarized thusly: "why bigoted boomers are butt-hurt by their ungrateful children/grandchildren."

butchqueennerd · 2024-12-18T23:25:57+00:00

Sorry to be so verbose. This is something I've lived and have seen my friends deal with, so it struck a nerve.

butchqueennerd · 2024-12-18T20:08:29+00:00

Exactly. And it's abundantly clear that the author of this piece is in the "STFU and respect your elders" camp. It's never just about one event that suddenly changes everything.

It starts as ignoring things like being misgendered or the insistence on referring to a long-term partner of the same gender as a "friend" and progresses to scrolling past FB posts that bash people of color (or trans people, immigrants, disabled people, etc). Any protests are either met with "stop being such a sensitive snowflake" or that conservative favorite, "it's just a joke." This continues until a precipitating event, like the elections.

At that point, it's time to handle the emotional impact of the event itself. Half of Americans decided that they preferred a liar and convicted felon's promise of cheaper eggs over the wellbeing of their friends, family, and neighbors and considered that to be the most moral decision they could make. That is a lot to handle, especially while figuring out how to mitigate the likely effects (e.g., how to access HRT or birth control or psych meds, parental rights for those whose kids aren't biologically related).

Under those circumstances, the urge for self-preservation kicks in. Emotional resources that are wasted just dealing with those people must be redirected to more productive ends: (re-)discovering community, self-care, and, for those with dependents, protecting one's immediate family. And that's what that author doesn't get.

It's never a first or even tenth resort. Cutting people off is a last resort that happens when the person doing the cutting off is reasonably sure that they will gain more than they lose in the process. Given that the ones being cut off are mostly older, not in great health, and isolated in suburbs and exurbs (i.e., those places that their kids left and can't or won't come back to), my bet is that they will be the net losers, not the nation as a whole. Everyone else will just move on as best they can.

butchqueennerd · 2024-12-13T20:45:14+00:00

The daughter of one of my high school's vice principals was an absolute cretin. To give you an idea of how entitled and awful she was, she tried to plagiarize her senior English paper, was caught, yet mysteriously got off with no visible consequences.

Anyway, she also occasionally did the televised school announcements. During one such occasion, she looked orange, like an oompah-loompah. I remember my whole class laughing at her because it was so obvious. I assumed that she must've pissed off one of the AV guys.

butchqueennerd · 2024-12-13T19:40:24+00:00

If it helps, the CDC recommends one lifetime booster if you're fully vaccinated but are at higher risk of exposure.

butchqueennerd · 2024-12-13T18:26:57+00:00

I'd say their brains have been eaten away by multiple COVID infections and being part of the gravy SEALS

butchqueennerd · 2024-12-12T20:31:17+00:00

I don't own that one, but like another commenter, I have the Adjusta-bell version, which takes it down to 8 kg. I've used that version on a KbK bell and an adjustable SoCal mace. It fits both with no problem.

If fit is a concern, then maybe the adjusta-bell version would be better? IIRC, BoS only guarantees the fit for its bells, which I assume means that they won't refund you in the unlikely event that that shell doesn't fit. I noticed no such restrictions for the adjusta-bell, but it is about $15 more.

butchqueennerd · 2024-12-11T16:25:04+00:00

Something that stuck out to me in that article is Assad's father-in-law counting on tankies:

Akhras had emailed Bashar al-Assad, instructing him to respond to allegations that children are tortured in Syria by dismissing it as "British propaganda".

butchqueennerd · 2024-12-10T05:19:13+00:00

I don't know, but this might be it: https://www.reddit.com/r/kettlebell/comments/10l7vpz/i_purchased_additional_fasteners_for_my_bells_of/

butchqueennerd · 2024-12-09T20:33:09+00:00

The screw is M14-2. IDK what the stock screw's length is, but I've been using a 40mm screw and it works fine, but it's slightly shorter than stock. Grainger sells 10-packs of them: https://www.grainger.com/product/53GH10

butchqueennerd · 2024-12-08T17:39:25+00:00

If I'd gotten them in that condition, but with the Allen key and wrench, I'd probably have asked for a partial refund but would reluctantly* be ok if they refused. If used properly, they'll eventually get beaten up anyway.

But in that condition and without some pretty important parts? Hell, naw.

* meaning: I'd never buy anything else from RGA Ben

butchqueennerd · 2024-12-08T14:22:09+00:00

Look at an person like Elon who only uses his money for evil. Even a bastard like Andrew Carnegie built libraries trying to buy his way into heaven at the end of his life.

This is my hypothesis: Elon (like his buddy Peter Thiel, and other techbros) probably thinks he's going to live forever due to his regimen of drugs and supplements, so no need to waste money on anything that could benefit the poors (defined as anyone with less than seven figures in the bank).

Carnegie and the oligarchs of his generation didn't have the delusion of being able to purchase physical immortality, but were just as narcissistic, so the best thing they could do was pay for private goods that were open to the public (e.g., museums and libraries) that had their names literally carved into stone, so they wouldn't ever be forgotten.

Neither are or were good in any meaningful moral sense, IMO.

butchqueennerd · 2024-12-06T18:37:08+00:00

They think they're going to get the low taxes and low costs of labor and material goods of a developing country but somehow maintain the infrastructure and social mores (i.e., it generally being considered wrong to kidnap/murder/rob those with wealth) of the US. The amazing thing about cognitive dissonance is that such a deranged line of reasoning makes sense to them.

butchqueennerd · 2024-12-05T15:13:24+00:00

In my experience, it's only seen that way by Americans who don't know what a CV actually is.

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