Agreed on core and cardio. It’s just always felt like a missed opportunity to not get two full rotations of the ppl in each week, but this is working for me so far.
I like the spin bike. I bought a Sunny off Amazon and used two external wahoo sensors to get cadence and rpm measurements. I don’t use that data much though, tbh.
I chose the spin bike because I also just cycle normally for recreation. I have a knee injury from several years ago that keeps me away from running. I do like erg machines a lot, but my gym is a home gym in my garage and I don’t really have the floorspace for it.
I’ve only been lifting a couple of years, but I just wanted to piggyback on this comment to provide real life testimony about the magic of a lifting belt for squats.
I always had mind body connection problems on my squats. Doing an honest to God proper form back squat requires you to really be present in your mind for the lift, especially when it’s heavy. I would often have issues with my core “collapsing” on the upward portion of the back squat.
Then I tried a lifting belt and ust having that extra bit of resistance from the belt to “press” against while squatting really helped to correct some form issues for me.
OP mentions ankle mobility issues, which I don’t think a belt would specifically help with? But as a PSA if you’re squatting within 20% of your 1RM and haven’t tried a weight belt I really recommend picking one up and watching a couple videos on how to use it. It really changed squatting for the better for me.
This is probably obvious to most lifters, but if you’re like me and just never thought about it, go give a belt a try.