ᕙ(⇀‸↼‶)ᕗ ||| The 2023/2024 Gym Rats Thread ||| ᕙ(⇀‸↼‶)ᕗ

[Somnambulist]

I guess it’s up to me to do it again. Some traditions are worth preserving though.

Another year, another thread.

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2022 thread
*** Big Fat Weight Loss Thread ***
Official Home Gym Building Thread
Any other useful threads go placeholder
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Hierarchy of importance for Nutrition
Hierarchy of importance for Training
How to squat
How to bench
How to conventional deadlift
How to sumo deadlift
Addressing weaknesses in the above ^^^
Exercise demonstrations (scroll down for individual playlists for each muscle/muscle groups)
Food macro cheat sheet

 

[ShortWarning]

Was waiting for this, haha.

What's everyone's aim this year?

I'm still recovering from my knee injury. Able to do leg extensions without any pain or discomfort. Squats and Deadlifts are still out.

Ultimately, I want to improve my powerlifting numbers this year, but this first 12-week block has no squats or deadlifts while I recover. It's mostly concentrated on chest/shoulders/upper back with a few ham exercises in there.

Hopefully, by block 2 my knee will be in better shape.

 

[Syla5]

Yes 2023 thread, lets go.

Aims for the year, get stronger, get bigger, get leaner again.

Im coming for your numbers @ShortWarning, gotta take advantage of the handicapped

 

[CaptainRAVE]

Planning just to keep the gains going, especially over the summer that won’t be in my home gym, that’ll be a new challenge.

250kg squat by the end of the year ideally.
6 weeks away from a 170kg bench if I can keep this up.
Holding deadlift steady, but may push this again.
See how close I can get to a 100kg OHP, on 95kg currently.
Most importantly try to remain injury free.

 

[booyaka]

Damn - some big numbers in here already!!

I'm tempted to give myself something to aim at this year. I'm knocking on a bit at 46 years old.... fairly regular crossfit for last 4 years and play around with squatting/bench/strength stuff at the same time.

I like the challenge of:

1 x BW bench
1.5 x BW squat
2 x Deadlift.

Floating around 88/89kg BW/6ft 3". I've squatted 140kg before about 3 years ago, deadlifted 155kg around the same time. But bench has always been awful for me - very poor (think 68kg or something is my best as I've never really bothered with it)

Going to start next week with stronglifts 5x5 for a period to get back to Sq/DL/Bench on a more regular basis.... I'll update as I go weekly or something if that's ok....

 

[Somnambulist]

Keep gaining weight and hopefully muscle whilst remaining semi-zen about the fat gain (nobody else cares). Only when I’m bursting out of my work trousers will I diet down again. Being around 10% bf is easy to maintain but my training goes nowhere. Need to get chonky.

 

[arc@css]

Carrying on with a variation of HIT, though I've been reducing the volume even more of late due to a lack of energy (maybe partly age related),
and also probably due to running on very low carbs almost the whole time (HIT/low-carb = maybe not a good combo ).

I think realistically, for the long term, keto levels of carbs may not suit me, whereas a slightly more generous lower carb range of ~80 to a little over a 100grams is far easier to maintain. In the long term, I don't do well on mid/high-carb, though it is nice once in a while.
However, even with a slightly more generous level of carbohydrate, I find HIT - particularly on leg day, really quite challenging. Maignes syndrome, although not exactly painful, doesn't help as my right leg/hip/lower back feel uncomfortable most of the time.

Enjoying doing an additional 20 mins or so of cardio during each session, and that should help with my weight-related goals. It's been consistently coming down since the summer, about 2 stone so far. Currently consuming around 2100 - 2200 calories, though at times wishing I could still lose when ingesting at least another 500, or more.

For the next life, I would like a faster metabolism!

 

[oHUTCHYo]

I'm currently at 93KG which I've maintained for the past year or so now, after being my heaviest at 107KG. The training was there but not the diet. Whilst I feel like I've lost some strength I'm pleased with the aesthetic. I do have some ongoing niggles, particualrly with my left shoulder which even an extended leave over lockdown did not resolve. I've also had two henriated discs leading to back surgery and two hernias fixed - so adapt and dodge certain big compounds thede days - namely back squats and deadlifts.

What is on my mind currently is I've been running the same programming for far too long. A modified PPL. It's served me well but I'm pondering if I should mix it up. I do mix up the exercises themselves and across barbell, dumbell, cable, machine etc but the actual programme still amounts to PPL in essence. Feel I should maybe drop some accesory work and spend more time on compounds. Biggest weakness currently seems to be chest where I'm topping out at 46KG dumbells and cant seem to progress to my target 50KG with reasonable reps. Cautious of moving to barbell chest press at fear of my left shoulder kicking off and causingf injury.

5 days per week rotational typically consisting of...

Push
Incline dumbell
Flat dumbell
Cable/machine flyes
Unassisted Dips
Skullcrushers
Rope tricep extension
Cable crunches

Pull
Barbell bent over row
Cable rows
Lat pulldown
Unassisted Pullups
Incline dumbell curl
Preach bench barbell curl
Hammer curls
Shrugs
Back hyper extensions

Legs / Shoulders
Hack squat
Leg press
Hamstring curls
Leg extensions
Calf raises
Overhead barbell press
Dumbell lateral raises
Facepulls
Hanging leg raises

 

[Syla5]

For anyone looking for programs i would strongly suggest downloading the boostcamp app, lots of big names have their programs on their available for free. Super useful for inspiration alone, and even better if your happy just running premade programs.

 

[haaammit]

Thought I'd pop in and say hi, newbie lifter here. I have a question regarding protein intake. My current target is, depending on what you read, between 125 - 170g per day. Because of work and family commitments I'm going to struggle to eat 5 or 6 times a day, and wanted to know if there's any benefit to having say 3 meals of 50g or would that just be wasting protein if that makes sense? Some of the stuff I've read seems to say that there's no point consuming more than ~30g per meal as the body can't fully utilise more than that per sitting.
Ta for any pointers!

 

[Syla5]

Thought I'd pop in and say hi, newbie lifter here. I have a question regarding protein intake. My current target is, depending on what you read, between 125 - 170g per day. Because of work and family commitments I'm going to struggle to eat 5 or 6 times a day, and wanted to know if there's any benefit to having say 3 meals of 50g or would that just be wasting protein if that makes sense? Some of the stuff I've read seems to say that there's no point consuming more than ~30g per meal as the body can't fully utilise more than that per sitting.
Ta for any pointers!

You wont waste protein if you have it in fewer sittings, its not a problem at all. 30g per meal is total bummph and can be ignored, disproved by many studies. The body will be able to absorb all the protein you eat and put it to use no matter what.

 

[Somnambulist]

The basic rule is you need around 20-25g minimum per meal (assuming from decent source which will have enough leucine) to maximise the muscle protein synthesis response. More protein than that per meal isn’t wasted, it just means potentially less opportunity to maximally spike it again later in the day if you‘ve sticking to cals/macros. Most studies show while 1-2 feedings is probably sub-optimal if the goal is maximising muscle growth, 3-6 spread out over the day seems the ideal, and whether you’re on the high or low end of that it just boils down to preference and how many calories you‘re actually consuming since larger intakes are likely easier to consume when split up a bit more.

 

[MikeTheNative]

Damn - some big numbers in here already!!

I'm tempted to give myself something to aim at this year. I'm knocking on a bit at 46 years old.... fairly regular crossfit for last 4 years and play around with squatting/bench/strength stuff at the same time.

I like the challenge of:

1 x BW bench
1.5 x BW squat
2 x Deadlift.

Floating around 88/89kg BW/6ft 3". I've squatted 140kg before about 3 years ago, deadlifted 155kg around the same time. But bench has always been awful for me - very poor (think 68kg or something is my best as I've never really bothered with it)

Going to start next week with stronglifts 5x5 for a period to get back to Sq/DL/Bench on a more regular basis.... I'll update as I go weekly or something if that's ok....

That's roughly what my target is; 100kg Bench, 150kg Squat, 200 Deadlift.
I've only started ramping up squat and deadlifts past 3 weeks as I'm joining @ShortWarning 's knee injury pity party. Knee feels good though and feel at the point now where it doesn't feel to be a weakness, just my poor strength to blame now......

 

[booyaka]

That's roughly what my target is; 100kg Bench, 150kg Squat, 200 Deadlift.
I've only started ramping up squat and deadlifts past 3 weeks as I'm joining @ShortWarning 's knee injury pity party. Knee feels good though and feel at the point now where it doesn't feel to be a weakness, just my poor strength to blame now......

nice one - I'm starting this week properly - shaken off this cold/flu thing I've had for the last 2 weeks solid.... Will update progress every so often.

 

[ShortWarning]

That's roughly what my target is; 100kg Bench, 150kg Squat, 200 Deadlift.
I've only started ramping up squat and deadlifts past 3 weeks as I'm joining @ShortWarning 's knee injury pity party. Knee feels good though and feel at the point now where it doesn't feel to be a weakness, just my poor strength to blame now......

Oh no, it's catching!

Still not able to squat. The tendon feels okay but I can still feel swelling in my knee, restricting movement. It's getting better each week though.

 

[DarkShadow]

Did any one else get ill last month? I hit a 4 week stint (3 weeks bed-ridden) and pretty much starting from baseline again

 

[booyaka]

Did any one else get ill last month? I hit a 4 week stint (3 weeks bed-ridden) and pretty much starting from baseline again

had a week with a stinking cold at the start of the month.... .2 weeks later, still coughing and wheezing like an old man.... Gym/Crossfit stuff still feels horrible after that.

 

[arc@css]

Did any one else get ill last month? I hit a 4 week stint (3 weeks bed-ridden) and pretty much starting from baseline again

I got covid at the end of November, which surprised me, as I'm rarely ill.

 

[Syla5]

First real push of the new year last night, hitting a deadlift AMRAP PB set, 8x152.5kg. The aim was to hit RPE 9, this felt at the end like an 8-8.5 but had i done 1 more rep, the one to follow would have definetely been ugly. Anyway super happy with this as the most ive ever done before was a 3x157.5kg.

 

[Chuk_Chuk]

Well, fell off the weight loss train the last few months of 2022, we'll just say I was bulking . I guess what is important is that I'm back on the train.

The nerve irritation in my leg is getting a lot better and I'm doing more glute work to resolve it, as per the physio's instruction. Finally back to doing deadlifts (3 months off because of the nerve irritation). Slowly working my way back up to what I was doing before.

With my commute now being much shorter, I'm hoping to work my way back up to my fitness levels at the end of 2020. So more sports (mostly running) mixed in with my weight work.