u/BeautifulAcrobatic73

this group has been so helpful! another question -- i've decided to with a gravel base for my hot tub, so will dig down 8 inches, lay down landscape fabric, fill it with crushed stone (tamping down every two inch level), place the hot tub on it, then cover the remaining visible gravel with pea gravel or something more pretty. this will be framed with 4x4 pressure treated ground contact wood.

my questions:

1. can i put a nicer gravel on top of ALL of the crushed stone (and then sit the hot tub say on two inches of pea gravel, which will have 6 inches of crushed stone below that?), or does the hot tub itself need to sit on the compacted crushed stone?

2. where/when do i place the wood frame? is it the first thing that is done, where the wood gets put directly on the landscape fabric, and then the gravel gets put in? or do i put the gravel directly into the hole and then the frame sits on top of the foundation of gravel, and then you put more stone inside the frame to get it all flush before you put the hot tub on?

3. do i need rebar to stake the wood into the ground, or is it just sitting on the ground good enough?

4. is landscape fabric necessary? i have used it in our garden before to suppress weeds and find it kind of useless after a year or two. wondering if i can skip this step/cost and put the gravel directly on the dirt.

thank you!

Hi all!

TL;DR: I'm struggling with boredom in my workouts when I was doing a really consistent program that only prioritized the compound lifts. Is it still effective strength-training to do a variety of machine / cable / dumbbell workouts without a consistent program if it helps increase motivation/joy while working out? Can I still see gains/get most of the same benefits in terms of health and maybe some body-recomposition (obviously combined with tracking macros/having a good diet)?

More Context:

I used to do CrossFit for three years, and it was a ton of fun and I really loved the variation in programming. Fast-forward to six months ago, my schedule has changed drastically and the times of the CF workouts no longer worked for me, and I didn't want to spend such a pricey monthly fee for essentially only going to Open Gym, so I started to build a home gym (I have a rack, barbell and various bumper plates, and some dumbbells/kettlebells) and have been trying to do three workouts a week from home for past couple months.

I've been following Phrek's Greyskull programming of doing the three big lifts with some light accessory work, however since I'm not a beginner anymore I wasn't seeing the growth the program said I should be seeing, and also I was getting sooooo bored and really unmotivated. Again I was trying to do three workouts a week, but often only actually getting two in because I struggled with getting the drive to do it. This past week however, my friend took me to Planet Fitness twice and I have been playing around with the machines/different dumbbell exercises, and I noticed how much fun I was having trying different things, and now I can't wait to go back and play with different movements later this week for my 3rd workout.

MY QUESTION! If I know I'm in a bit of a transition period life-wise and making massive gains are not my goal, but instead the goals are keeping the habit of strength-training and maintaining the strength I have (and maybe doing a bit of body re-composition), does it work to play around with different machines without a super clear program to follow? I would still be mindful of getting a good mix of leg/push/pull exercises in, and would still try to do each compound lift (bench, DL, squat) once a week, but then the other time I spent at the gym would be doing a variation of other machines/cable/dumbbell work.

Is that ok? Or is a really consistent program focusing on only the compound lifts really that much better?