*** The 2010 Gym Rats Thread ***

[Ultra_Extreme]

Also just read this



I do front raises atm but think i might switch to side raises. Are they with arm straight or bent google seems to vary its answer?

Personally Cable raises i find work best, the problem with other free weight variations is that the percieved resistance increases the further the freeweight moves from your body (as the weight is as a result of direct vertical motion from mavity). The cable lateral raise (from a low pulley) pulls at 45 degrees to the vertical giving the muscle constant tension throughout the ROM and minimising possible injury.

The position i adopt is upright leaning very slightly forward, with the cable under tension and arm slightly bent with the handle roughly level with your man-parts. The motion should be smooth with a pause at the top position minimising arm extension, that is to say avoid rapidly straightening the arm as this uses the tricep to accelerate the weight. Hold for a second or two at the fully extended position.

On the question of front/rear lat raises, for 99% of people they will be unnecessary. BOR's and pull downs work the rears and bench press and flyes etc will work the fronts, they are only isolated for symmetry in competetive BB's really, and ill informed beginners

 

[Freefaller]

Also just read this



I do front raises atm but think i might switch to side raises. Are they with arm straight or bent google seems to vary its answer?

I'd vary it, you can do them seated or standing. Doing them with cable is even better as it keeps the tension on at all times.

Rear delts are hit with rows, front delts with incline and flat bench really. Side raises get no attention in any exercise at all hence why I brought them up.

Aedus, will reply later!


U_E - great to see you back dude!

 

[Skillmister]

Personally Cable raises i find work best,

and ill informed beginners

I'll give them a go on friday.

Oh and this is me On the curve of learning!

Rear delts are hit with rows, front delts with incline and flat bench really. Side raises get no attention in any exercise at all hence why I brought them up.

OK good stuff. Will switch to cable ones instead of front raises, ta!

 

[Skillmister]

Well in complete contrast to monday, today was great

Deadlifts:

8x60kg
6x80kg
1x100kg
8x60kg

Form was getting a bit sketchy on the 100 so i think i'll lay off maxes for a while but am pleased!

 

[Buffman]

(I cut down milk from the diet already, as I thought it was 1 of the main contenders for why my weight has shot up so rapidly)

That looks like a lot of food to me but suprisingly the macros arent too bad, as said though cut the carbs a bit and up the fats (adding almonds/nuts is an easy way, also could change the tuna for fattier fish eg salmon/mackerel)

 

[ben90]

Aedus, unless i missed it (probably ) what is your weight?

 

[Freefaller]

Aedus, unless i missed it (probably ) what is your weight?

About 3-4 weeks ago my weight was about 184lbs, now it's 198lbs.

 

[Participant]

Cutting progress

I know all you big boys won't like all this 'already light and still trying to lose fat' malarkey, but my cutting progress has been going well. Four days in I've lost 2lbs (water I'm sure) and am now down to 166lbs (5'11").

It's a very low carb good fats only diet and it's taking it's toll.

Yesterday I felt weak and lethargic and had a slight headache. Today I feel much better, so I hope I've progressed past the early stages of ketosis and am ready to begin maintenance for another 3.5 weeks before I go on holiday.

Today so far I've eaten:

Only drinking black coffee first thing and water for the rest of the day. All the beers in the fridge have gone back in their box (who wants to drink a warm beer?!).

At 3.30 I'll have another protein shake (always with water, no milk allowed), at 5 it's off to the gym for a 45 minutes of bench / dead / squat if I can manage it, then I cycle home to get on the chinup bar for chins and leg raises. 7pm is dinner: 2 steaks and as much broccoli as I can force down my throat.

Like the method or not, I'm hoping for dramatic results. I may be imagining it, but I'm sure I can already see more definition around my stomach than I had five days ago! Pics will be up in the pics thread 24th July.

 

[Aedus]

That looks like a lot of food to me but suprisingly the macros arent too bad, as said though cut the carbs a bit and up the fats (adding almonds/nuts is an easy way, also could change the tuna for fattier fish eg salmon/mackerel)

Yeah will try lowering my carbs a bit and having some nuts or something in its place. I'm fairly okay with knowing what to eat, just seems like I went a bit OTT with the carbs without realising.

I was just shocked at the rate my bodyweight shot up, 1 stone in a month isn't good, I expected it to take me 2 months or more to get to this weight, the actual weight isn't bad, I know I'm slightly bigger but it's not a big difference anywhere except my face, which I noticed straight away and so does everyone else at work.

I will admit, though, I like the gains I've made already in terms of lifts, which is always nice, just a few tweaks to diet and a bit of a change of routine and hopefully I can level everything out a little.

 

[Ultra_Extreme]

I'd vary it, you can do them seated or standing. Doing them with cable is even better as it keeps the tension on at all times.

Rear delts are hit with rows, front delts with incline and flat bench really. Side raises get no attention in any exercise at all hence why I brought them up.

Aedus, will reply later!


U_E - great to see you back dude!

Good to be back m8, very impressed with all the progress some/most members have made. Benny's looking huge as are you great to see the standard of advice is high as ever.

Sadly i got sick, still not sure what with but its really thrown me off my game, good news is ive had tests for about everything that could kill me and it looks like ill probably make it lol docs reckon some weird virus apparently can last years !! Anyway im back on the weights and im hitting squash 3 times a week semi-copmpetitively so as my diet comes back into line im expecting better than ever results by chrimbo.

I'll give them a go on friday.

Oh and this is me On the curve of learning!



OK good stuff. Will switch to cable ones instead of front raises, ta!

One important note m8:
The biggest thing i learned through the first few formative years of training were that to put on mass you only need to do a handful of compounds for a few sets to pack on the pounds. The amount of guys i see who couldnt deadlift 100k for reps but insist on doing upside-down-reverse-double-overhead-rear-delt-extentions etc is ridiculous. Im sure most of the bigger guys you see on here would agree that in a pinch they would drop 90% of their routine in favour of -

Bench
Dips
Deadlift
Squat
Overhead press
Chins
Bent over rows

With the right weight and diet those alone will get you to a really good level

 

[ben90]

Well I had only just woken up...

 

[Skillmister]

One important note m8:
The biggest thing i learned through the first few formative years of training were that to put on mass you only need to do a handful of compounds for a few sets to pack on the pounds.
With the right weight and diet those alone will get you to a really good level

Thanks for that I changed my routine about 3 and a half weeks ago now along with my diet pretty drastically and got rid of lots of upper-reverse-incline-rear-whatsits and now mainly compounds. Seeing a lot of progress in everything except bench but hopefully that will come with time Another week or 2 and i'll probably cut back the diet a bit when i reach 70kg.

 

[Ultra_Extreme]

Thanks for that I changed my routine about 3 and a half weeks ago now along with my diet pretty drastically and got rid of lots of upper-reverse-incline-rear-whatsits and now mainly compounds. Seeing a lot of progress in everything except bench but hopefully that will come with time Another week or 2 and i'll probably cut back the diet a bit when i reach 70kg.

With bench plateau's are a real problem for what seemed like the longest time i was stuck on 99kilos, some was mental of course but i really was at a physical limit. I tried varying grip, partial ROM overloads, huge volume EVERYTHING.

One day i gave up and wrote bench completely out of my plan and hit the parallel dips, since i weigh 115kg by the time i started adding weight to a belt and getting sets of 8 reps i was feeling really strong, the next time i hit the bench i put 100 up for TEN reps. It blew my mind. I still maxed out at 130ish but this was really in about 8 weeks or so. An increase of 31kg in that time frame i doubt i will ever see again unless taking a huge amount of AAS lol

 

[Buffman]

Yeah will try lowering my carbs a bit and having some nuts or something in its place. I'm fairly okay with knowing what to eat, just seems like I went a bit OTT with the carbs without realising.

Mainly looks like a lot to me as I dont eat much and manage to gain weight , currently cutting down too so keeping carbs low and they're mainly all from fruit. I think a lot of that weight will probably just be water binding to carbs

 

[Aedus]

Mainly looks like a lot to me as I dont eat much and manage to gain weight , currently cutting down too so keeping carbs low and they're mainly all from fruit. I think a lot of that weight will probably just be water binding to carbs

I can hope, just unsure why all the weight went to my face and hardly any is noticable anywhere else Had to be the worst place to put it on, didn't it? I have the most crappy luck.

 

[Skillmister]

With bench plateau's are a real problem for what seemed like the longest time i was stuck on 99kilos, some was mental of course but i really was at a physical limit. I tried varying grip, partial ROM overloads, huge volume EVERYTHING.

One day i gave up and wrote bench completely out of my plan and hit the parallel dips,

I think one of my main problems is not having a spotter now im at a different gym. So once it starts getting really tough ive got to stop rather than squeezing out a couple of slightly assisted reps.

Speaking of increases though ive gone from 60kg to 100kg deadlift in 3 weeks, admittedly 60kg wasnt my max at the time but it was the heaviest i could do with decent form now 100kg was tough but had reasonable form

 

[burtie]

Finally found something to do dips with at home I was going to spend £130 on a dip and pull up station but found this instead http://www.ukfitnesssupplies.co.uk/ProductDetail.asp?ProductID=3427

Anybody have one of these? I'm going to buy It anyway as I've never really done dips before and It saves £90 so the Wife will be happy.

 

[BennyC]

Can't see that link at work as 'Sports' has been filtered during the world cup

Can always make a dipping station from scafolding parts. Should be dead cheap. I think Makanouchi did something similar.

 

[Aedus]

Finally found something to do dips with at home I was going to spend £130 on a dip and pull up station but found this instead http://www.ukfitnesssupplies.co.uk/ProductDetail.asp?ProductID=3427

Anybody have one of these? I'm going to buy It anyway as I've never really done dips before and It saves £90 so the Wife will be happy.

Yeah I posted this a week or so back, I got 1 too off the bay.

Works well, doesn't slip or anything and it's built solid, no damage to my doorway so far after 3 uses so i'm taking that as it won't do anything to it (Hopefully), also you can put it up higher in the doorway and use it as a pull-up bar, so it's effectively 2 items for the price of 1.

 

[Freefaller]

Gonna reply to each part in steps.

How many g should I cut my carbs to? Or if it's not such a lean bulk what would be a better amount to have?
Will do some HIIT skipping I think, how much per day? 30minutes?

I like to keep carbs under 200g, if you're able to keep it under 150g you'll be doing well in terms of keeping lean whilst achieving some sarcoplasmic hypertrophy.

HIIT is hard work, 30mins is challenging. Start low and work your way up.

Try the following programmes 30s, 60s, 90s going from beginner to advanced on each:

http://www.intervaltraining.net/hiit.html

[/quote]

My sleeping pattern needs to change a bit, goes bad when it's hot weather



I was doing 1 day on 1 day off, the thing is work makes it more difficult, but I could always do Monday, Weds, Thursday, Saturday, Monday etc. and roll it over as you say. The split was harder for me to work out, I asked some people for tips on that before but didn't get much, because I had chest and shoulders on the same day, which was killer, so I had to re-arrange everything. What bits would you change around?

Can't help with the sleep, but can suggest you read a book before bed, and don't use the computer for 30 mins before bed time, same goes for tv.

Chest and shoulder aren't fun to mix.

You've got several options. Do 3x full body work outs. With about 5/6 exercises per workout (roughly). Or incorporate some supersets with them.

Or do some push/pull splits.

Or a more classic chest/bi, back/tri, leg/shoulder split.

When you roll it on just do one day on one day off one day on, off etc... This importantly means you're hitting each body part twice in 10 days which gives good time for recovery and growth, but still capturing your CNS firing hard. Clearly with a full body workout this is less curcial and a 3x a week workout will be fine - but a lot harder!!

Was doing lunges and things before, but had to be 1 of my most hated exercises, so I dropped it. If they're worth taking up again I can always do that.

If you didn't get on with them then you won't be motivated to do them, step ups, split squats, and front squats are worth looking into though.

4 sets and 8 reps per set, unless it's pull-ups or dips, then it's 4 sets and done until failure.

Ok how challenging is the last rep? Do you feel you have more in you? If so shove another set in, or increase the weight!

Will look in to some of these, how many exercises per session would be good, and what would be considered "Too many"

Depends on your intensity and rest/recovery times. 5 exercises per session is good. I do 4 normally but I train more often and do a different volumes. I sometimes superset, in which case it might increase to 6. It really depends on how you feel your body responding.