Welcome to the Victory Sunday Thread
It is Sunday, 6:00 am here in the eastern half of Hyder, Alaska. It's time to ask yourself: What was the one, best thing you did on behalf of your fitness this week? What was your Fitness Victory?
We want to hear about it!
So let's hear your fitness Victory this week! Don't forget to upvote your favorite Victories!
I started lifting 6 months ago now.
I remember bench pressing with just the empty barbell and it being so heavy that I couldn't get it off my chest anymore and had to ask someone nearby to help. Now I can do 55kg for 5+ reps.
I remember not being able to do a single push-up for at least the first month. I started doing them standing against a wall. Now I can do more than I can be bothered to count.
I remember thinking even a single pull-up was impossible. Now I can do almost 10 and hoping to soon transition to a weighted version.
I've had a dedicated arm day in my routine and it shows. I have way bigger arms now, nice shoulders and nice forearms.
Hell yeah
I got coached how to dive off a 1m board, quite a different skill than moving heavy weights!
Stuck to the eating plan, which has become more difficult to do lately. The 'mental lab' has become a big focus point for me, making sure I'm doing what I need to do in the face of wanting to do anything but
29M, 5'9, 156 lbs, just hit my short term bench goal of repping 150 lbs yesterday! I'm sure that's very unimpressive, but I'm pretty happy with it since I started at about 95 lbs a little over a month ago.
I've been out of shape for the last few years and never lifted before in my life. When I was in shape it was mostly bodyweight stuff I learned in the Army, so I'm pretty happy with myself for finally investing in a home gym (I hate working out around other people,) and starting lifting finally.
Family win. On this day of all im grateful for the time with my kids. 18 year old comes to the gym with me and just hit a 120kg bench at 80bw. Hes annoyed he couldn't jump right to 125 as the 120 felt so comfortable but that's often the way.
- 5'4 150lb bodyweight, been bulking since September, started doing barbell seated shoulder press 2 months ago. Hit 135lb for 6 reps 3 days in my second set. Very very happy that I managed to hit this before my Christmas PR. I think I'm going to stay at this weight for a while to work on improving form and slightly longer pauses
- I think without water weight/food weight I might be around 148 though, which means I've gained a lot more than I expected for a lean bulk. I've been slowing it down a little (maintenance calories+a little cardio)
- Dexa Scan came in, with my BF at 14.5%. Confirmed some other things like my arms not really storing much fat and they are also small lol. To be honest, the exact % doesn't really matter to me but I wanted to get a trend data thing going on. I wish I did it when I was cut though so I can see lean mass improvement.
In reality, I believe my body %s are September at 14-15%, and right now at 17.5-18%. But I can't say that it's not nice having a low number attached. But what matters at the end of the day to me is size. And my arms are SUPERRRRRRRR lagging behind everything else imo. Also I do think I prefer being in the 15-19 range. I feel the healthiest at this range
- I was able to note that my lower glutes are super lagging behind my other body parts despite doing back-supported hip thrusts, so I will try to incorporate lunges
I got into paddleboarding last summer and whenever I went I wore a sun shirt, sure its better for skin health, but I was doing it because I was embarrassed by my belly
So I set a fitness goal of being able to shamelessly be outside with my shirt off next summer. Im around 4 months into it, and while I want to lose more weight and put on more muscle, if I was going paddleboarding today, I wouldn't have a shirt
A beautiful woman at the gym smiled at me and said "wow" today, and when I asked what she meant she said she was impressed with how defined my arms and shoulders are. It made me happier than it probably should. A, whatever, it made me feel seen and appreciated, and I liked that.
Started off the year with bad knees from years of running. I would often go into a leg day, tweak my knee and couldn’t finish the workout, would have to skip the next leg day for the week. Have been grinding it out 6 days a week since then and now at the end of the year my legs are stable and stronger than ever. I have been hitting PRs the last several weeks and best of all no more knee tweaks.
Do you still run? If not, did you lift when you were still running?
I’m on cloud nine. I completed my five month long weight loss/recomp journey this past Wednesday.
On July 4, I dropped alcohol, fixed my sleeping and hydration habits, and locked in on nutrition. Got started at home with Peloton strength workouts, then joined my gym in late August.
I went from 185 lbs and around 28% body fat to 155 lbs and around 12% body fat (5’ 10” - 35M). Gonna chill at maintenance for the rest of the holidays and start my first bulk in January. The plan is to finish my cut by July 4, 2026, exactly one year after I started to turn my life around.
Never been more proud of myself. Never been more excited for my future. I couldn’t have done it without the wealth of knowledge and guidance from online communities like this. Thank you all so much.
After two months of varying degrees of knee pain, I finally saw a physio about it and he found the cause within 15 minutes. Now I can rehab it, and actually use stairs without feeling like an invalid.
I assume the issue wasn’t actually the knee but something else causing the pain?
Yeah, apparently there's a small muscle just below the back of the knee that can get really tight, which then pulls on tendons and ligaments inside the knee, leading to pain. Massaging/foam rolling it and engaging it in a certain way with a resistance band loosens it up.
Have you ever heard of or looked into deep squats? They are really good for the back and knees, and personally, I have experienced an increase in leg flexibility and comfort in the position. Often, they are said to “reverse ageing”, not literally, but in terms of reducing pain in the body and stiffness.
If you want to learn more about it, here's a good video on the benefits:
https://youtu.be/wnW-QtqlXko?si=bDtBx4XLlW-6zuOt
I tried squatting through it. It either did nothing or made it worse.
I did 30min abs workout with a trainer and it felt easy (OMG) which has never happened before as this has been challenging for me after having kids. Yeah my kids are teens but I’m also pretty strong RN.
I can't do push exercises while my rotator heals so I am just doing pull work for the last three weeks. I've noticed my delts are actually getting slightly bigger. Could be the calorie deficit, but they are definitely not getting smaller which is an area I'm focused on.
Hit squat of 135kg, I think I can try for one 140 this week. Even if I fail I will close out with 135
I squatted 315 lbs for the first time in a decade. It wasn't the 5 reps I want, but I'll happily take the two 3 rep sets.
I'm 49 years old and 14 months into my lifting renaissance. I'm trying to get to 1/2/3/4 plates 5 rep working sets on the 4 major compound movements before the new year. I have bench and ohp squared away. I'm pretty sure I can gut out the 5 reps on the squat in the next 2 weeks. However, my deadlifts are stuck at 385 lbs.; 405 lbs did not move off the floor yesterday.
I probably could've hit all these goals if I really dialed in my programming, diet, and recovery this year. But I'm satisfied with the weight I'm moving and the size I've managed to gain at my age.
How's your basework for deadlift?
Nonexistent. I run a power building PPL where I always start with a main, heavy compound movement. Earlier in the year I used to RDL as an accessory after my squats. I actually took about 3 months off from deadlifting this past spring because something was off with my form and i used to suffer from a ton of tightness in my right hip after pull day. I fixed all of that, deloaded, and pretty quickly got up to 5x365 lbs.
I'm also naively biased as a long-limbed lifter who previously got up to 405 lbs+ very easily via SL, SS, and the Texas method. Deadlifts used to be my best lift.
Any suggestions?
Keen eye notices that's a single set. How's your 3x3? 3x6? 3x9? 3x12?
I only do my deads on one of my pull days each week. When I do, I warm up and work up to that 1x5 set. I don't use any other rep schemes because that's what the powerlifting programs instructed me to do back in the day.
Then you'd benefit from doing more than one set.
And that's it. Deadlift supports deadlift. Definitely checkmarks "don't go heavy every week". Program on an upper/lower as a leg day. Maybe hit gripwork and lower back stuff afterwards, or hit a token extension/curl superset.
Since you cite 5 @ 365, I'd knock the weight down to
If that seems too aggressive,
Thank you for being so generous with your time and attention. I appreciate your detailed reply and I'm going to incorporate it into my programming. Redditors like you are what make this place great.
Entrenar muy duro en el gymnacio a diario. Mi falla, no dormir temprano pues me acoste muy tarde todos los dias..
Yesterday was 600 days without a rest day and the first time I did a themed workout.
I did a 6-exercise cable circuit that added up to 600 reps, 100 reps each of six other exercises, 200 reps each of three more, and 600 crunches. 600 pound leg presses. And a 600 meter run.
I’m going to keep lifting something heavy every day, and doing these themed workouts when it feels right.
Small win, but I’ll take it: I didn’t skip workouts this week. Even on low-energy days I still showed up and did something instead of nothing. Consistency > motivation, and it feels good to finally prove that to myself 💪
I've been having more people comment on my muscles lately. 2 friends just this week. I'm still not used to it as I've been super skinny all my life. Crazy that I still think I don't look that different.
Yeah this never changes. Everyone will see you grow except you lol
As I work for 9h per day, I was at gym only once. But hey what can I say small steps are better than no steps at all. I’m trying to get back to my fitness routine when I was at college but it’s super hard to do it when the adulthood kicks in. So yeah I hope that next week will be better and I will make at least 3-4 workouts. But in the other hands I take a good care of my dishes ( I wanted to eat less meat and I reduced it to eat only 2-3 times per week)