***The 2021 Gym Rats Thread*** ᕦ( ͠°◞ °)ᕥ

[Captain]

Quick question for the experts in here;

When should I be eating? Before the gym, after or both?

I’m currently working 12 hour nights and my routine is as follows;

Wake up Sunday morning, fast all day and get to work for 6pm Sunday evening, eat a meal at midnight and then nothing else until midnight Monday so I’m effectively going without food for 24 hours.

This suits me as I’m not a big eater anymore and on average I’m consuming around 1400 calories in a 24 hour period. This is easy though as I’m sleeping for 8 hours, working out for 90 minutes and 30 minutes in the sauna.

Should I change my eating pattern so I’m eating after the gym before I go to bed in the morning?

Goal at the gym is to tone up but not really bulk up as I do want to lose my small gut I’ve gained since lockdown began.

 

[tom_e]

Quick question for the experts in here;

When should I be eating? Before the gym, after or both?

I’m currently working 12 hour nights and my routine is as follows;

Wake up Sunday morning, fast all day and get to work for 6pm Sunday evening, eat a meal at midnight and then nothing else until midnight Monday so I’m effectively going without food for 24 hours.

This suits me as I’m not a big eater anymore and on average I’m consuming around 1400 calories in a 24 hour period. This is easy though as I’m sleeping for 8 hours, working out for 90 minutes and 30 minutes in the sauna.

Should I change my eating pattern so I’m eating after the gym before I go to bed in the morning?

Goal at the gym is to tone up but not really bulk up as I do want to lose my small gut I’ve gained since lockdown began.

1400 kcals, 12 hour shifts and working out sounds like a disaster waiting to happen unless you don't like functioning like a normal human being.

What do you weigh at the minute? How tall are you?

If you don't want to change anything other than meal timing then I'd move it to 90-120 minutes pre gym to fuel your sessions, or even better split whatever you're eating to pre gym and then the other half post gym.

 

[SideWinder]

You’re going to put fat on when you’re in a surplus, it’s just part of the process. If your surplus is too small you just end up eating at maintenance by accident and not much happens. If it’s too big you get fat too quickly. If it’s a sensible rate of gain (like 0.5-1% total bw gain every 4-6 weeks) then you can spend quite a long time gaining before you start to get fluffy… and realistically you need a long time because muscle gain is painfully slow. Abs will start to disappear/go soft but your lifts will have hopefully all gone up a fair bit which makes up for that. Then you just diet the fat off, which as a process can be achieved FAR more quickly.

The key - if you’re aesthetically inclined - is to start the gaining phase at somewhere like an estimated 10-12% bf and call it a day once you get to the higher teens so you don’t have to diet for too long to get back to 10-12% again. That way you’re never that far from beach lean. Some people gain for like 12-16 months then diet for a few months to reset, some people will gain for 6-8 months then throw in shorter more aggressive cuts. What you don’t want to do is be yo-yo’ing between gaining weight too quickly then panicking and dieting over a short time frame and making no progress.

Appreciate the detailed reply here. I guess I am just so cautious about losing the bit of definition I have but appreciate you do need to get bigger = muscles grow as well with a larger amount of cals. My diet is awful over the past week so going to sort myself out, lean down again a bit and see what I can do.

 

[Captain]

1400 kcals, 12 hour shifts and working out sounds like a disaster waiting to happen unless you don't like functioning like a normal human being.

What do you weigh at the minute? How tall are you?

If you don't want to change anything other than meal timing then I'd move it to 90-120 minutes pre gym to fuel your sessions, or even better split whatever you're eating to pre gym and then the other half post gym.

I’m 15st 5 at the moment and 5ft9”, 1400 calories isn’t actually too bad for me, I’ve only started eating 1400 or so since being on nights, when I was working 12 hour days, I was eating close to 2500 calories a day but that was all junk, takeaway every night, cooked breakfasts at work and chocolate and crisps every day.

Government BMI calculator recommended I eat 2800 calories a day to lose weight, seems way too high.

 

[Somnambulist]

Appreciate the detailed reply here. I guess I am just so cautious about losing the bit of definition I have but appreciate you do need to get bigger = muscles grow as well with a larger amount of cals. My diet is awful over the past week so going to sort myself out, lean down again a bit and see what I can do.

One thing to consider is that if you’re not yoked your 10% bf might not lead to as defined a look as someone at 10% that is - the skin gets stretched by muscle after all, so one incentive for committing to gaining seriously is that as you grow each time you should keep your definition for a bit longer before you get fluffy, and likewise see more anatomy on display quicker when you do diet down again. Consider person A here who has several kgs of muscle over person B (who may think they need to lose more body fat to look like person A when they really just need to grow).

I think my abs were down to a 4 pack when the first lockdown hit which would have been an ideal place to diet from but I was making a lot of progress and didn’t want to stop… then I couldn’t train except do some token stuff at home and it went down to a 0 pack… When stuff opened again I had to get my strength back first, which took a while.. and finally at the start of July I started my first diet in a few years which finishes this weekend (had a 2 week break in the middle) and am happy enough to call it a day. Hopefully I won’t diet again properly till 2023 although I might have the odd ‘blast’ of 4-6 weeks at some point between now and then. Takes a while to get fluffy if you keep weight gain to a slow creep!

 

[CaptainRAVE]

After having 4 months of no progress over the summer, I’m back to adding over a kg of mass each month and unsurprisingly my lifts are feeling easier and easier. 4 scoops of nuts a day have definitely helped as have switching chicken breast for duck breast occasionally along with a larger pile of rice. A few extra scoops of oats too. I should probably be pushing my squats more, but it’s great to see my OHP still gaining above 90 and bench over 160. Slow and steady seems to be working for me. 2.5-5kg a month onto most lifts currently. It’s funny how gym progress ebs and flows for often no obvious reason, but I’ll definitely savour this period.

 

[Josh]

Gents failed my deadlift 2RM PR today - grip just wasn't there for the second lift, did 1x1 for 2 sets instead but annoyed as I could have done it if it wasn't for the weak grip.

I double overhand and do traditional deadlift stance, is it worth giving over/under a try with my grip? Chalk or straps etc? Or just keep pulling and build the grip strength that way?

 

[CaptainRAVE]

Gents failed my deadlift 2RM PR today - grip just wasn't there for the second lift, did 1x1 for 2 sets instead but annoyed as I could have done it if it wasn't for the weak grip.

I double overhand and do traditional deadlift stance, is it worth giving over/under a try with my grip? Chalk or straps etc? Or just keep pulling and build the grip strength that way?

Depends what your goals are. I’m not competing and just want to build overall strength, so use straps. I also build my forearms through other exercises. I used to do over/under, but ended up with a decent imbalance for a while.

 

[Josh]

Depends what your goals are. I’m not competing and just want to build overall strength, so use straps. I also build my forearms through other exercises. I used to do over/under, but ended up with a decent imbalance for a while.

Just strength for me, only just gotten back into lifting again after about 6 years off, I'm tempted by straps but also need to build my forearm strength.

The only time I remember over/under it just felt awkward as I felt I was pronating my wrist too much.

 

[uncle_rufus]

Far from an expert here but are you doing any dedicated grip + forearm training outside of what you get as a side-effect of everything else? I just use a broom handle with a light weight taped to the far end to do controlled raises in the 4 different wrist directions and I guess you can also do stuff like wrist-rolls etc.?

 

[Josh]

Nothing specific to forearm or grip, just the usual incorporated into pull training days (pull ups, rows etc).

Have some of those spring loaded grip strength things somewhere, might start to do those and some forearm training when I'm wfh in the quieter moments of the day.

 

[Somnambulist]

I have one of those wooden climbers wrist rollers which give a pretty gnarly forearm pump - think it was £15 off Amazon. I like either hanging off a bar for time or weighing myself down w/the weight belt for set times - gives my upper back and shoulders a decent stretch too (although I don’t hang completely so passively I’m hanging off my tendons/ligaments).

TBH w/deadlifts if you’re not using straps, chalk or liquid chalk should be basically mandatory given most gym barbells don’t tend to be aggressively knurled. Double overhand is for warm-ups then you can either use mixed grip or hook grip if you have aspirations to compete, or straps if you don’t care.

Personally when I used to deadlift my preference ended up being hook grip for singles most of the time - mostly because it felt more ‘legit’ than any other reason - then straps for any rep work to reduce the wear and tear on my hands as although my callous management routine was okay I did get the odd rip/tear and wasn’t a huge fan of it.

 

[CaptainRAVE]

Well, that’s 1.3kg gained this month and 0.4kg off my end of year target. No wonder my lifts are still progressing well. Bench for 147x2x1, 120x3x3, 112x3x6 followed by CGBP 113.5x3x6. Today was the first time in a couple of months where it felt like I’m closing in on a wall again, but it could be an off day. Deadlifts are gaining quickly, but based on a 1RM that I was lifting years ago and definitely my weak point at the moment. Overall into a good rhythm of exercises.

 

[Martynt74]

Are you guys able to suggest a fairly simple routine to follow. It's to complement running rather than get big, but more to add some strength to help carry me up big hills etc. I've got a training plan with a running coach who's got 2 sessions a week in my diary.

One being Core and the other being Legs. I'd like to top those up with some upper body work to maintain balance and avoid a skinny tall look as i look to decrease weight. The main thing for legs is that whilst he's told me to go heavy/low reps to build strength, i don't want to be destroying my legs for days which then means i can't run the next day. He's suggested 3 exercises x 3 sets at most so i assume Squats/Calf Raises/Lunges are probably the way forward. I can them mix things up by varying the type of squat/lunge.

For the core workout i'm generally ok, but mainly focus on balance/bodyweight core stuff (Planks, bridge, alternating superman, type stuff). I imagine it's going to be beneficial to also throw in something like deadlifts.

Does the following look sensible?

Core Day
Single Leg Bridge x 30 seconds
Alternating Superman x 10 each side
Crunch/Hand to Foot x 10 each side
Weighted Russian Twist x 30 seconds
Repeat 3 times

Bench Press 8x3
Shoulder Press 8x3
Tricep extension (cable) 10x3
Bicep curls 8x3
Bent over row 8x3

Leg Day

Squats 6x3
Single legged deadlift with kettebell 8x3
Hamstring deadlifts 8x3
Calf raises 10x3
Jump/Step onto box weighted
Lat Pulldown 8x3


I know it's a lot of stuff crammed into only 2 sessions there so there may be a better to do things. The other option is to strip out any Core based stuff and do that at home as it doesn't really need any equipment. That would free up some time to switch some stuff around.

Ideally i'd like to keep each session to 30-45 minutes and only twice a week as i think more than that and i'm unlikely to stick to it.

 

[uncle_rufus]

I think I'd move the curls and rows from day 1 to day 2 as then you've kind of split up your push and pull type movements

 

[Josh]

I have one of those wooden climbers wrist rollers which give a pretty gnarly forearm pump - think it was £15 off Amazon. I like either hanging off a bar for time or weighing myself down w/the weight belt for set times - gives my upper back and shoulders a decent stretch too (although I don’t hang completely so passively I’m hanging off my tendons/ligaments).

TBH w/deadlifts if you’re not using straps, chalk or liquid chalk should be basically mandatory given most gym barbells don’t tend to be aggressively knurled. Double overhand is for warm-ups then you can either use mixed grip or hook grip if you have aspirations to compete, or straps if you don’t care.

Personally when I used to deadlift my preference ended up being hook grip for singles most of the time - mostly because it felt more ‘legit’ than any other reason - then straps for any rep work to reduce the wear and tear on my hands as although my callous management routine was okay I did get the odd rip/tear and wasn’t a huge fan of it.

Some really good advice there thanks, got myself some straps to try and will go from there

 

[Martynt74]

I think I'd move the curls and rows from day 1 to day 2 as then you've kind of split up your push and pull type movements

Cheers, do the exercises themselves seem reasonable without missing anything important out or under/over doing certain muscle groups?

I'm the kind of person who knows enough about each exercise, but never really sure if there are better things out there, particularly for my needs.

 

[uncle_rufus]

Cheers, do the exercises themselves seem reasonable without missing anything important out or under/over doing certain muscle groups?

I'm the kind of person who knows enough about each exercise, but never really sure if there are better things out there, particularly for my needs.

I'm more or less in the same boat to be honest! So I wouldn't necessarily take my advice too seriously

But what I tend to do is try to go heavy and target strength on compound lifts but ultimately aim for hypertrophy / full exhaustion of the muscles used via isolation movements on a given day (doing a Push-Pull-Legs split) - leaving the accessory muscles until last in the workout so as not to affect/destabilise the compound lifts...

So for example on my Push day I do chest-focused stuff first including my main bench set, then shoulder work, then finish with tricep work. I tend to think through the different muscles and try to hit everything if I can. But yeah not really sure how you're meant to tell if you're under/over working a particular group - just experience probably; what feels like it has been worked properly afterwards... what is progressing etc...

 

[Martynt74]

Cheers. It's a tricky one as the upper body stuff won't really benefit my goals from an activity point too much (except for light scrambling), but it's more just to avoid ending up looking like a skinny tall runner.

I'm also reluctant to go full exhaustion as that then has a knock on impact on my ability to run the next day. However i say that, i accept it's going to happen in the short term. I went on Monday and did some chest/arms to try and get back into it and they're still aching today!

 

[uncle_rufus]

Yeah it'll hurt bad when first getting into it and/or when you take a break for a week or two and then start again - sometimes if I've had to take an unexpected break and then go back to a leg day my legs are hurting all week and I can barely get up off the toilet or walk down the stairs properly but hey you know that it was a good workout! It's almost always much much better from the second week in a row onwards, with just a little soreness a couple of days after (so just don't stop!)