*** The 2010 Gym Rats Thread ***

The Craig said:
Gonna need a lot of luck/drugs on your side, considering he's 300+lbs if I recall correctly.
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Not to mention a mean set of genetics and some pritty impressive natural strength too.

I don't see anybody 'behind the neck push pressing 200KG' with all the drugs in the world without the genetics for it :cool:

Edit: Looks to be 4 plates but god knows what they are, 20's, 25's, 15's, 10's. Can't tell as powerlifting plates can all be the same diameter. Either way it's still ridiculously heavy!
 
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I'm away in September for 3 weeks in Greece, what would you guys suggest I can do? Pushup/Pullups etc? I have not had such a long break since I started lifting and am quite scared to loose size etc. On the plus side I can eat loads as it all inclusive so a very good time to bulk :D
 
Do everything uni-laterally....which would be insanely hard! Could burn some serious time trying though!

One legged squats, SLDL, calf raise (shouldn't be tough!)
One armed press ups, pull ups, chin ups, one armed inverted rows.

Or you can just do exercises as you would regulary but focus on utilising one side as much as possible using the other to just assist (to increase load) and then alternate between sets. Slowing negatives down doesn't require anything, except time :p

Probaly not the best suggestions but they'd be some challenging workouts! Just make sure you don't hurt yourself :)
 
BennyC said:
Do everything uni-laterally....which would be insanely hard! Could burn some serious time trying though!

One legged squats, SLDL, calf raise (shouldn't be tough!)
One armed press ups, pull ups, chin ups, one armed inverted rows.

Or you can just do exercises as you would regulary but focus on utilising one side as much as possible using the other to just assist (to increase load) and then alternate between sets. Slowing negatives down doesn't require anything, except time :p

Probaly not the best suggestions but they'd be some challenging workouts! Just make sure you don't hurt yourself :)
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Cheers for that, sound advice :) I have being thinking it will probally do my body a whole load of good having some time off, I hope :p
 
ughh I can't believe I've been doing the bent over barbell rows wrong for so long. :o
Forearms should do no other work besides holding the weight. You have to pull the weight towards yourself with your elbows not the wrists/biceps. I had to lower the weight but I could really feel my lats working. This applies to any rowing exercise really.

on a good a note, I got some killer DOMS from yesterday's chest/tri's session. :D

I got a question. Tomorrow I'll be working shoulders and bi's. Which muscle would you work first?
 
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Settleddown said:
Cheers for that, sound advice :) I have being thinking it will probally do my body a whole load of good having some time off, I hope :p
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It's a holiday enjoy the time off!

Settleddown said:
I would put all my effort into shoulders and hit them HARD!!!!!!!!! :D
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Damn straight! I currently ruin mine along with chest & tri's at the moment.

Personally I'll aways hit the bigger group first. Plus having canned biceps means all the blood will be in your upper arm/forearms which, if you pump up like I do, can make holding anything very hard!

Plus imo shoulders are a more important group than biceps so get primary attention ;)
 
I tend to put tris with legs and shrugs. I hit shoulders on there own as by the end I cannot lift a thing lol! Always give them a very hard workout.

I tend to work, chest shoulders and back on seperate days just working them on there own, its worked for me.
 
BennyC said:
HIIT - high Intensity interval training.

If you can manage intense intervals for 1 and a half minutes you're either superhuman or they aren't intense enough.

When doing intervals I favoured the rower as you can instantly switch to flat out without having to wait for anything to speed up.

Work rest ratio's should be 20/40 for no more than 20 minutes or if you fancy some tabata protocol for 4 minutes at 20/10.
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BennyC thanks for abvice

tried higher intensity at weekend.

30 min session on the running machine, first 1.5k just as a warmup, then 1 min @ 15km/hr and 1min at 6km/hr - about 11 sets or so - first 5 sets were quite easy -t he last 6 weren't and I felt absolutely shattered afterwards, during each high intensity set my HR increased vs the previous one as it wasn't quite recovering between sets, I think max was about 188 or so - maybe a bit higher

have to say the 2 interval sessions I've performed already seemed to have helped a bit - as last week on my day in the gym of doing a "longer run" - I only managed the 1st 3km @ 11.2km/hr (then walked 300m then ran another k repeat etc) - tonight I managed to run a complete 4km @ 11.6km/hr - then a small walk then 1k @ 11.6 ramping up to 14k - then a walk etc - completed the 7.5km in about 45 minutes which wasn't too bad

thanks again

another question for you all please - last 4 weeks or so I've been doing a load of assisted pull-ups - which seem to be doing wonders for my overall upper body strength, I'm doing 8 sets (gradually reducing in number of reps but less assisted weight etc) - 1st set palms forward - hands wider than my shoulders (just on the "kink" in the bar), then 2nd set palms towards me hands about a foot apart, doing pull-ups (presumably this works on chest and biceps ?)

should I also add to the mix close together hands and palms forward for triceps ?

have to say all the pull-ups not only seem to do wonders for overall upper body - but I don't think I've performed an exercise that makes my forearms burn so much ! - its good though as its making them expand quite nicely !

pull-ups seem to be helping my running posture too
 
KizZ said:
Forearms should do no other work besides holding the weight. You have to pull the weight towards yourself with your elbows not the wrists/biceps. I had to lower the weight but I could really feel my lats working. This applies to any rowing exercise really.
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Erm, really you need to pull the bar towards you with your back, those are the muscles you're exercising. :) You arms are just anchor points to the bar, nothing else. :)
 
Buckster said:
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What you're doing there is similar to OBLA and a form of interval training but they are 'High Intensity', Pushing through the onset of blood lactate by working over and then just under your capable working rate will help to improve fitness and also endurance (and race pace).

However intervals need to be much much shorter. It needs to be a maximal effort. And I really mean maximal. If you can run flat out for 1 minute for effectively 11 sets then you aren't going hard enough I'm affraid! You'll still see results though.

You need to be sprinting for 10-20 seconds then jogging for 40 then straight back into sprinting...and so on. Sprinting as fast as physically possible for you, which is why it'd best done outside or on different Cv equipment like the rower or x-trainer where you can just switch speeds instantly.

While doing this sometimes I'd do 30 seconds on 30 seconds recovery for 1-2 rounds just to mix it up a bit. It's very tough but very rewarding.

Try 10 minutes of say sprinting for 15-20 seconds @ 18kph and then 40 seconds jog @ 10kph. It's very difficult to fiddle with a treadmil and sprint (unless you can program it to do speed increases/decreases automatically). It's also a little dangerous as as you fatigue you won't be able to keep up with the tredmill and will probally fall off the back! Hence why sprinting on a road is probally better.

Let me know how you feel after that ;)
 
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hi guys, just want to know your thoughts on muscle ache..
i did skipping on Saturday (not long, but 1000 jumps), and my calf muscles are still aching now! It's not my first time skipping, but everytime i do skip I end up aching for days, sometimes even a whole week.

Anyway that didn't stop me from going to the gym last night, and I was fine, didn't get muscle cramps or anything. But my question is, should I let the aches go away completely before doing more exercise? I can still exercise with the ache, but just don't know if it's a good idea in case there is a higher chance of me injuring myself or something.

A friend once told me that if you let your muscles heal completely before exercising again, you'll end up building muscle (or the other way round). True or false? I don't want to purposely build muscle though, I just want to burn calories and lose weight :/
 
Just listen to your body, if you feel as though you can make it through, do it. If you dont feel upto it, rest until you do. Just lookout for twitches and strains as its signs your body wont cope and will end up injured.
 
Thanks. I am limping a little when I walk now but apart from that then the aches aren't bothering me. I'll give myself a days rest then before hitting the gym again :)
 
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