u/Quick-Bee6843

I mostly do band and bodyweight work at home, about 4-5 sessions a week, but last weekend I had a chance to go to the gym with my gf so i decided id use it as a testing session to see where i was strength wise on the machines in terms of lbs.

Was definitely really different than my usual sessions. I ended up doing like 15 machines for 2 sets each. Was just plugging away for about 2 hours.

Biggest difference I noticed was how much less machines gas me out vs bands. Bands quickly make me gasp for breath, sweat like crazy, etc. that's usually the biggest factor slowing down my sets.

Machines have so much less of an impact here that those 2 hours almost snuck up on me.

Some exercises I was exactly as strong as I expected to be (like curls and squat/leg stuff, etc) others I was way under what I expected (chest press lbs, etc).

Biggest negative is that I went so long by accident that I ended up being quite the wreck afterwards: It turns out with cardio gasing out, I have a hard time really limiting myself or getting a good idea of how exhausted I am.

I think I also had a thing where I kept logging machines, knocking them back, and i just wanted to keep it going (plus gf kept working out too so that limiting factor took a while to materialize).

Either way I def have made progress in the past 5 months of band work. Def a good situation 😁

Greetings y'all. Ive been on a pretty awesome run so far with staying consistent and making fitness a regular part of my life. I hit a very consistent benchmark of exercising week after week for about 6 months now but there's been a lot of stuff happening that's made the past 1-2 months really difficult.

Several sicknesses (bronchitis and a bad stomach virus both made worse by my GERD acid issues), a couple of very minor injuries, and some family drama flair ups (killing my sleep schedule) has made keeping up my routine very difficult.

Its starting to feel like whenever I make another push to ramp things back up, something new horrible happens and I can't make it stick again right.

To be fair I'm still not 100% recovered from my bronchitis weeks later (Ive had about 3 weeks+ of recovery so it's gotten better but I got a few more weeks for total recovery) so I know my energy levels will be getting better soon. That alone will probably make it easier for me to ramp things back up and make it stick, but still! It would be nice to hear other people's stories about bouncing back when you seem to keep rolling critical fails week after week after making it work for a while. Would be nice a motivational.

(It also goes without saying that I've modified my previous plan to prevent future injuries and lower the difficulty of ramping things back up: I just feel like I'm also running into bad luck too)

Just wow. I was skeptical at first, not going to lie. Footboards didn't seem worth it. I just wear sandals and it isn't too crazy on my feet or anything, but Ive only been at it 4 months.

However deadlifts are hella awkward using my feet and I'm facing issues with enough resistance and holding different leg stances.

So I decided to try the cheapest possible option: plastic stair step board.

I took a lighter and file and burned/smoothed down the two hard edges* I didn't want rubbing up on my bands and got it so they where smooth and nice.

Then went for it. DAYMN. Deadlifts really do need footboards. It kicks up resistance and I can move my feet to where I want them.

Not too shabby for a 0$ new resistance band tool (because I just had it laying around).

*The hollow points at the base, probably leftovers of where it was molded. One was a sharp point.