*** The 2011 Gym Rats Thread ***

Awesome session for me tonight although I've picked up a slight calf pull just below my left knee from squats. Also hit my limit with the rows because I was starting to pull myself towards the weight rather than the weight to me.

Squats
190 x 3
190 x 3
190 x 3

Bench
117.5 x 3
132.5 x 3
147.5 x 3 PB

Pendlay Rows
90 x 3
100 x 3
112.5 x 3

Skillmister said:

Fuuuuuuuuu not sure what happened but did something to my back during, i assume, deadlifts. Really aching. The only way to sit comfortably is to thrust my man sausage forward and slouch Gonna hockey ball it...

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Rounded back or hyperextending at the top would be my guess. Give it a few days rest and see how it feels. I've done the same and it's not a nice muscle to **** up

Skillmister said:

Fuuuuuuuuu not sure what happened but did something to my back during, i assume, deadlifts. Really aching. The only way to sit comfortably is to thrust my man sausage forward and slouch Gonna hockey ball it...

Click to expand...

Going to hockey ball WHAT!!!??!??

Haha!

Anyway, it was legs this evening...Man I suck at squats, couldn't even manage 75kg today (which is my max) managed 70kg though...Then dropped it to 60kg and did some reps on that.

I find I always fail right at the bottom, I just don't have the 'mmmpff' at the bottom to thrust it back up again...anything I can work on to help with this or?

Also, anyone know of any good articles / videos on SLDL's please? I want to make sure i'm doing them right

Delvis said:

Anyway, it was legs this evening...Man I suck at squats, couldn't even manage 75kg today (which is my max) managed 70kg though...Then dropped it to 60kg and did some reps on that.
I find I always fail right at the bottom, I just don't have the 'mmmpff' at the bottom to thrust it back up again...anything I can work on to help with this or?

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I'm pretty new at all this, but i got up to 65kg, then deloaded when i started stronglifts, and went through progression, and i feel i'm much more effective now.

Delvis said:

Also, anyone know of any good articles / videos on SLDL's please? I want to make sure i'm doing them right

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http://vimeo.com/25264828

Good RDL video. Personally I prefer it, all of Rippetoe's platform video's are well worth a watch. Particularly his BB Shrug & Lying Tricep Extension vids.

Delvis said:

I find I always fail right at the bottom, I just don't have the 'mmmpff' at the bottom to thrust it back up again...anything I can work on to help with this or?

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Before squatting with weight, assume squat position with no bar and perform 10 really deep, really explosive squats. Literally launch yourself up into the air (keep your feet on the ground though!), keep it really slow on the negative. Feet wider than shoulder width, I'm talking really quite wide, feet pointing out ever so slightly (maybe 10-15 degrees from parallel at most).

That'll allow you to go really deep, ass almost touching the floor. Exploding up from that position should help when you actually get the weight on your back.

Give it a go, I found it helped a lot.

Got a membership at my work gym, and a student personal trainer for 6 weeks. I've only been going for 3 weeks and trying to go twice a week.

Don't feel too sure about what I'm doing at the moment. I'm aiming to build some mass, I realise I need to eat more and eat right so I'm planning on reading up.

As far as weights go I've not done a huge amount of leg work, leg pressing about 110, 8 reps x 3. Upper body I'm doing shoulder press into arny press super sets, chest press into dumbbell flys, tricep pulldowns, lat pull downs.

I've got a bench and weights at home that I'm about to start using too..

Saytan said:

I'm pretty new at all this, but i got up to 65kg, then deloaded when i started stronglifts, and went through progression, and i feel i'm much more effective now.

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Thanks, I'm probably going to be doing Stronglifts after XMas, so we'll see...I just find my squat poor in general weight wise

Chris1712 said:

http://vimeo.com/25264828

Good RDL video. Personally I prefer it, all of Rippetoe's platform video's are well worth a watch. Particularly his BB Shrug & Lying Tricep Extension vids.

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Cheers, I'll take a look at the vid later

Mansize_tissue said:

Before squatting with weight, assume squat position with no bar and perform 10 really deep, really explosive squats. Literally launch yourself up into the air (keep your feet on the ground though!), keep it really slow on the negative. Feet wider than shoulder width, I'm talking really quite wide, feet pointing out ever so slightly (maybe 10-15 degrees from parallel at most).

That'll allow you to go really deep, ass almost touching the floor. Exploding up from that position should help when you actually get the weight on your back.

Give it a go, I found it helped a lot.

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Hmm okay...Will give it a shot, I already try and do a third world squat before leg days to loosen up a bit, so we'll see

Pull day today! Although, still sore from the weekend, but hopefully it will be gone by time I do them tonight.

Chris1712 said:

http://vimeo.com/25264828

Good RDL video. Personally I prefer it, all of Rippetoe's platform video's are well worth a watch. Particularly his BB Shrug & Lying Tricep Extension vids.

Click to expand...

Oh also, only reason I stated SLDL as it's what I do for hamstrings...

Shortest gym session EVER. Lifted the bar to the rack to strip the weight off it and I can't budge one of the collars more than about 2 inches - that side of the bar has always been a little bit harder to put a collar onto but now it's just stuck solid

Any good ideas other than nuking my garage?

Psymonkee said:

Shortest gym session EVER. Lifted the bar to the rack to strip the weight off it and I can't budge one of the collars more than about 2 inches - that side of the bar has always been a little bit harder to put a collar onto but now it's just stuck solid

Any good ideas other than nuking my garage?

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Is it an Oly bar? Just wondering if taking the whole end off would be of any help...

And is it the spring type ones or the locking weighted ones if that makes sense?

If you were 6'3" and 80kg, would you be going for a bulk or going shredded?

Delvis said:

Is it an Oly bar? Just wondering if taking the whole end off would be of any help...

And is it the spring type ones or the locking weighted ones if that makes sense?

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Yeah Oly bar - never knew you could take the end off! Unfortunately it still has 20kg of weights sitting on it as well.

Also the collars are the spring type ones. Utterly frustrating as the other side the collar slides on and off no problem!

kenmare said:

If you were 6'3" and 80kg, would you be going for a bulk or going shredded?

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Just from those details I'd say bulk but without pictures it's just a guess

kenmare said:

If you were 6'3" and 80kg, would you be going for a bulk or going shredded?

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Depends on bodyfat. Probably bulk though unless it's pretty high

Skillmister said:

Gonna change my HST a little for this set of 5s, dropping most/all isolation exercises.

Something like this?

Squats
DL
BoR
Pullups
Flat BB bench
Inc DB press
Seated shoulder press
Dips

Not sure on number of sets though, maybe 3 sets of squats, dl, bench, 2 on the rest?

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I'd drop one of your chest exercises (inc db press probably), but looks good apart from that. 3 sets across the board for me too.


Spent some of yesterday tweaking my powerlifting program and also did the first session with it.

Box squats: 5x3x135kg speed work
Bench: 6x3x105kg re-learnt how to bench for the last three sets, which was useful!
DB row: 3x8x38kg too easy, but DBs don't go high enough to allow for a decent progression otherwise
Dips: 3x5xbw+55kg thought this would be a struggle after bench, surprisingly do-able!
Facepulls: forgot them

Felt good. I've stripped it down quite a bit and changed some of the exercises around so the days are loaded more elegantly. Planning on having one extra day of mobility and cardio, which will probably rarely happen

Did 2 because i feel my chest is quite a weak area. Certainly seemed to work on my arms doing a few extra sets, they've gone up more in the past couple of weeks than in the month or so prior.
But yeah other than screwing my back up it was quite a nice session. Threw on 10kg for the dips and plenty of room to do more.

I'll try and get a photo of myself in a bit, when my room mate isn't here, so I don't look like a fag. Body fat isn't low to be honest, and I don't look "muscly" at all, but I'm still bigger than most of the people I know. (strange world eh!)

I've been keeping to press ups, running etc as I cannot afford a gym. My concern is still on posture as you can't look good turtle necked!

kenmare said:

I'll try and get a photo of myself in a bit, when my room mate isn't here, so I don't look like a fag. Body fat isn't low to be honest, and I don't look "muscly" at all, but I'm still bigger than most of the people I know. (strange world eh!)

I've been keeping to press ups, running etc as I cannot afford a gym. My concern is still on posture as you can't look good turtle necked!

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Then do other things to balance? Get a door gym and stuff, so you can do press-ups, dips in some form and pull-ups

Then you can do squats at BW or buy some small weights to help the load

Skillmister said:

Did 2 because i feel my chest is quite a weak area. Certainly seemed to work on my arms doing a few extra sets, they've gone up more in the past couple of weeks than in the month or so prior.
But yeah other than screwing my back up it was quite a nice session. Threw on 10kg for the dips and plenty of room to do more.

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You've got dips as well, so still two chest exercises. I wouldn't want to be doing more pushing than pulling as a general rule, which was my only concern.

My dip to bench ratio confuses me. Why can't I bench 5x~145kg sonofa... Breaking parallel on every rep of my dips too. Stupid bench.

kenmare said:

I'll try and get a photo of myself in a bit, when my room mate isn't here, so I don't look like a fag. Body fat isn't low to be honest, and I don't look "muscly" at all, but I'm still bigger than most of the people I know. (strange world eh!)

I've been keeping to press ups, running etc as I cannot afford a gym. My concern is still on posture as you can't look good turtle necked!

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I'm giving on waiting for internet to arrive at my flat any time soon, so I'm just going to re-write your program. Better that you actually have stuff to be working on.

Did you manage to buy the things I suggested?