*** The 2010 Gym Rats Thread ***

We had one of them at our old gym.

He was quite big, only ever trained upper body and was really loud mouthed, constantly posing after every set in the mirror etc. We seen him there most times we went and he started giving me and my training partner advice such as "to get the best results you need to go as heavy as you can on every set, including WARMUP."

He then went on to say he was 19 (clearly wasnt) and that he had only been training for about 6months to get to his stage.

Next he took the **** out of us (or tried to) for doing deadlifts and squats, saying that we were training for worlds strongest man :confused:

He was always walking about trying to give **** advice to people even though he had the worse form on everything all the time.

Thankfully at our new gym we dont see him and hope not to as you just cant concentrate when hes around.
 
Simon said:
I've just witnessed the most incredible thing Ive seen in a gym, and not in a good way.

The weights room was pretty busy with about 12 people, me and a mate on the incline press and my housemate and his friend on the squat rack.

There is a well built guy there who recently joined, but just sits there most the time watching people with his wooly hat on. After a while he will go over and give tips to people. He is a personal trainer apparently, despite not actually being qualified it turns out.

However today he told my housemate he was spotting on the squat rack incorrectly ('not being close enough' despite only 65kg squats) which is fair enough. My housemate has been going to the gym for over 10 years aswell as playing rugby at the highest amatuer level, commented that he wasnt going for a 1RM so didn't feel the need to be right behind him.

The instant he disagreed with this big guy it just kicked off, honestly it was like being on a night out. First the raised voices, then the 'dont you talk to me like that', befor escalating into threatening and shouting. Imagine the scene one person who has visibily lost control of his temper talking to someone who remains pretty calm with the other 10 people just watching in disbelief. The highlight for me was 'when you can lift as much as me you can tell me what to do'.

Luckily one of the gym staff was fetched before it really kicked off.

My housemate has not been to the gym for about 3 months due to a shoulder operation, before that he was benching 140kg despite only an average looking build, however cause he hasnt been there for a while I can only assume 'big man' :p thought he was a noob.

Amazing people are like that really, this guy must get a kick out of correcting people and i guess most people don't usually disagree.

Hard to explain in a post, just wondering if anyone else has had anything like it? Hopefully he will be kicked out as behaviour like that shouldnt be tolerated.
Click to expand...

One of many ***** you'll unfortunately meet in a gymnasium:o. I have only ever given advise when asked and if I'm not 100% sure on what to do, I'll send them over to a personal instructor!
 
Looking to start training again after stopping in November! Looking forward to it, I do have a question though ... will it be just like starting out all over again, I heard a myth not sure if its true that your body remembers that its worked out before and that you find it easier to retrain, any truth in that statement?
 
easier to retrain
Click to expand...
is the wrong word depending perhaps on how hard you train? Saying that, you might want to read this and jump to the last 3 paragraphs. In fact I'll shift most of it as it is not really relevant:

Muscle memory: scientific fact or bodybuilding fantasy?
by Jose Antonio Ph.D
(taken from july 1996 issue of Muscle Media 2000)

the concept of nuclear domain or DNA unit:


Muscle memory at work!:

In one study, a group of women weight trained for 20 weeks, detrained for about 30 weeks, and then retrained for 6 weeks. The 20 weeks of training increased fiber size 16%-47%, while the 30 week detrained period resulted in only a small loss of fiber size (1%-14%). A mere 6 weeks of retraining increased muscle fiber size to levels similar to what were found after the intial 20 weeks of training! Thus, gains made from training seem to be retained for extened periods of detraining, and this, of course, plays a part in the quick return to the highly trained and competetive state of many of the athletes.

What happens to muscle-fiber number?":

There have been no definitive studies in humans (at least at the time this article was published) to determine how fiber number changes in response to detraining; however, our avian friends may have shed some light on the subject. Some of you may remember a previous MM2K article I wrote on muscle fiber hyperplasia [Jan. 96]. In that article, I mentioned the work of several scientists (myself included) who did some work using a stretch model of muscle overload. In essence, one wing has a weight attached to it (about 10% of a birds weight), while the other wing served as the control. In this model of avian weight training (I know I'll get in trouble with other scientists about this, but it's just an analogy, OK?), 30 days of constantly holding a weight resutled in large increases in muscle mass, muscle fiber area, and muscle fiber number! But guess what happened when you removed the weight? Of course, muscle mass goes down. But which decreases the most, muscle fiber area of muscle fiber number? The answer will suprise you.
Thirty days after the removal of the weight, the cross-sectional area or size of the enlarged muscle fibers shrunk back to their original sizes; however, fiber number was higher than the control even 120 days after the removal of the weight! So it seems that, in birds at least, a hypertrophied muscle seems to "want" to keep some of the newly formed formed fibers despite the lack of an overload stimulus. Apparently, losing muscle fiber size is no big deal, but losing newly formed muscle fibers is!

The bottom line:

OK, enough of this science babble. What does this mean to you and your training program? Because each myonulceus governs a small domain, it makes sense that the adaptive response of a muscle fiber is region specific. For example, one study showed that leg extension exercises cause greater growth in the proximal region vs. the distal region. Thus, the myonuclei in the region may have been "stimulated" to increase the synthesis of new muscle protiens. This would suggest that different exercises are needed to stimulate different regions of a muscle in order to produce a maximal increase in muscle volume. That is, there is no single best exercise for producing muscle hypertrophy.
Secondly, the addition of myonuclei to enlarging muscle occurs through the proliferation and fusion of satellite cells to existing muscle fibers. One very important factor in the activation of satellite cells is the exercise-induced damage to muscle fibers. Eccentric contractions seem to do that quite well.
Thirdly, it's not entirely known what happens to myonuclei added to an enlarged muscle fiber when an overload stimulus is removed. Let's say you've lifted hard and heavy for years and, for one reason or another, you take a few months off. You then resume training and find that it takes only a few weeks to recover to your original strength and size. Why? Perhaps when a previously hypertrophied muscle fiber shrinks, it retains a greater proportion of myonuclei (i.e., proportionately greater loss of muscle fiber mass than myonuclei). So now you have a smaller muscle (but still larger than sedentary pencilnecks) but one with proportionately more nuclei. Maybe the muscle fiber is now more sensitized to an internal stimulus (e.g., high tension, injury, exercise) and will respond more quickly by increasing in size. In addition, there may be a neural component to strength that is likely retained when you embark on a retraining program. It's kind of like once you learn to ride a bike, you never forget how.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
Simon said:
I've just witnessed the most incredible thing Ive seen in a gym, and not in a good way.

The weights room was pretty busy with about 12 people, me and a mate on the incline press and my housemate and his friend on the squat rack.

There is a well built guy there who recently joined, but just sits there most the time watching people with his wooly hat on. After a while he will go over and give tips to people. He is a personal trainer apparently, despite not actually being qualified it turns out.

However today he told my housemate he was spotting on the squat rack incorrectly ('not being close enough' despite only 65kg squats) which is fair enough. My housemate has been going to the gym for over 10 years aswell as playing rugby at the highest amatuer level, commented that he wasnt going for a 1RM so didn't feel the need to be right behind him.

The instant he disagreed with this big guy it just kicked off, honestly it was like being on a night out. First the raised voices, then the 'dont you talk to me like that', befor escalating into threatening and shouting. Imagine the scene one person who has visibily lost control of his temper talking to someone who remains pretty calm with the other 10 people just watching in disbelief. The highlight for me was 'when you can lift as much as me you can tell me what to do'.

Luckily one of the gym staff was fetched before it really kicked off.

My housemate has not been to the gym for about 3 months due to a shoulder operation, before that he was benching 140kg despite only an average looking build, however cause he hasnt been there for a while I can only assume 'big man' :p thought he was a noob.

Amazing people are like that really, this guy must get a kick out of correcting people and i guess most people don't usually disagree.

Hard to explain in a post, just wondering if anyone else has had anything like it? Hopefully he will be kicked out as behaviour like that shouldnt be tolerated.
Click to expand...

To be fair most of the people I know who go to the gym on a regular basis wouldnt have tolerated said guy, he would have been out the door in a stretcher before gym staff even got there.

So good on your friend for tolerating an idiot.

As for me, im just rowing, doing something called tabata, 5 min warmup, 4 min tabata, 5 min *cooldown* every other day.

Most knackering 4 minutes of my life.
 
Freefaller said:
Did a quick check on measurements just for a laugh:

bis (flexed) just over 18"
thighs (flexed) knocking on 28"
calf (flexed) over 16.5"
waist still at 36"
chest just over 47"
forearm touching 14"

no wonder my bike leathers were feeling a bit tight over the weekend!! :D

sure most of it will undoubtedly be some water but what the heck eh?! :D
Click to expand...

not bad mate, not bad at all.



*secretly puts "match Freefaller's measurements" as a long term goal*
 
I've recently just been listening to my body for when it needs breaks. I have now trained heavy weights for the last 6 days yet I still feel good each evening.

Shall I just continue until I am actually physically aching or tired? Because I feel pretty good still and my lifts are still slowly going up.
 
tbh i find you stop aching if you do the same exercises regularly (even increasing the weight)

also you need breaks to let ur body rebuild so be aware of that.
 
Aching is just the muscles you havent used before. Therefor if you do the same excersise you wont ache, as the same muscles will be used.
 
Aye, DOMS usually only present themselves when you train regulary used (or unregulary used) muscles to a frequency/intensity that they aren't used to.

Say you have a light session compared to normal you wont ache but you still need to rest to recover & grow.

Personally I'd have a day off. Come back even fresher and give you CNS a break too. I've burnt myself out many times and it doesn't feel great!
 
Is anyone ever as silly as me when it comes to resting, for example, yesterday I did my chest/tris, and they're a bit tender today. Needed to wash my car today, a full hand wash, but I always worry that I'm, well not overtraining, but doing damage to my recovering muscles and hampering my recovery

Am I needlessly worrying, and as long as I'm staying out the gym or not doing stupidly intensive stuff with the worked muscle groups and sleeping well, my recovery/progress won't be affected?
 
Went to set my Bench Press max today, it was a complete Disaster!

BW 68kg

40x6
60x6
70x6
80x2 ( Never tried 80's before, was very easy, almost no effort required)
85x1 ( Very easy yet again )

Went for 90kg, was quite easy, went up well and controlled, then about 3.5 inches from the top I suddenly got a Sharp Stabbing pain on the inside of my left elbow and what feels like just below inside on the start of my bicep.

The arm just gave away then and the weight came down fast, thank goodness I asked my friend to spot me for it.

Pain is persisting, tried some light exercise for the chest with dumbbells and the arm feels weak as hell. Slight stabbing when I drank with my water bottele aswell :(

The bench press has never agreed with me, I never feel much chest activation any way, so I switched to dumbbells a few months ago and I've had nothing but success and great growth in strength and muscle.

Oh well, time for a hot shower, some Fastum Gel on the arm and to relax, hopefully it's nothing serious and I'll be all set for my back session on Thursday.
 
I don't bother giving people advice in the gym anymore - I just let them get on with it as long as it doesn't put me in harms way. If people come to me for advice, I'll give it, but I just can't be dealing with ignorant people anymore.


Steedie, sorry buddy, but you're being ridiculous, washing your car will not over train you.
 
Forgot how awesome wide grip pull ups are!

Have been doing regular grip pull ups for a while now. Decide to go as wide as possible today. Feels like I have ballons under either arm :p
 
BennyC said:
Forgot how awesome wide grip pull ups are!

Have been doing regular grip pull ups for a while now. Decide to go as wide as possible today. Feels like I have ballons under either arm :p
Click to expand...

Love training lats, when you hit them well you can feel them kind of working in everything you do, like cleaning your teeth etc. For me atleast :p
 
ben90 said:
Love training lats, when you hit them well you can feel them kind of working in everything you do, like cleaning your teeth etc. For me atleast :p
Click to expand...

Yeah, next week is my return to a body part split. Which means I'll get some nice blood pooling and pump. Something that's non existant with a push/pull I've found!

I also did some side raise dropsets & static holds so I felt as wide as a house :p

Can't beat a lat spread with some killer pump going on :cool:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom