*** The 2010 Gym Rats Thread ***

Don't get me wrong, partials have their place. I'm not talking about an isolated incident but a whole training day's worth of rubbish. I do just let them get on with it, but I have nothing but contempt for them.
 
N19h7m4r3 said:
What about bicep boys that even do half reps. Or some that don't even bend that arms they just rock forward and back and use their shoulders.

Ugh, that's just nasty looking.
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[RANT]
ahhh yes bicep boys, the fake tanned ones with bleached hair that have perfected the "swing" motion, there's a fair few in our gym. I normally ignore them and let them get on with it, but the thing is they often try to tell you how to do stuff or smirk at you when you lift less than them, this really annoys me (the smirks that is) as i often try to encourage everyone, even those that aren't training with us. We have once sung "swing low sweet chariot" whilst one guys was doing his bicep "curls" after he laughed at one of the smaller new guys fail and almost drop something on himself. I love living in a chavvy area.

As for incorrect bench press don't get me started on that, people come up to me and ask how much do you bench and then go "ohhh i lift that too" only to find they're only going down half way!!!!

yes i am a miserable so and so lol

[/RANT]

Whilst i am here i would like to hear some of your opinions on arm workouts. I have been stuck at the same plateau for ages now and i am getting nowhere with regards to arm workouts, primarily biceps as i quite enjoy working triceps. These are a favourite of my training partner (probably as he is good at them and making gains) however i find them boring as hell. i'm bored by my second set of bicep curls and all enthusiasm drains from me at that point. Currently i work out three days a week, Monday is chest and biceps, Tuesday is legs and tris and Thursday is back and shoulders.

My bicep workout consists of the following:

Bicep curls
3 sets at 20kg (6 a side)
curls with the cable pull and rope, 3 sets of 10 at 28kg
holding curl 8kg starting with 8 a side, then 6, 4, 2 without break in between

the curls on the cable pull machine is often switched for other exercises but the other 2 are constant.

Now my dilemma is i am making no gains (8 months and nothing) and i do not enjoy this part of my training at all. i don't even seem to be able to increase my reps, going down a weight to 18kg is too easy and the 22s are far too hard i only get about 3/4 a side before i fail.

Now i get the impression some of you guys don't rate working your arms separately as they get worked in other exercises. Is this posably the best course of action for me or should i just man up and get on with it?
 
Freefaller said:
I don't really know much about arm work outs as I hate doing them :( :o
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I hate them too, like i said i get bored very quickly doing these, since the introduction of a new walk in squat rack at our gym all i want to do nowadays is squat, god i hated that old smiths machine.


Freefaller said:
Arms however, respond well to supersets and lots of volume, but it has to be relatively heavy too.
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Well that looks like something to try, my training partner seems to have an obsession with supersetting everything at the moment.Our tricep work out is pretty much all super sets, and we've now got them in our leg work outs so i imagine this would go down well with him too.

so i'm thinking something along the lines of bicep curls at my normal weight (20kg) superset with curls on the easy bar on a lighter weight and just hammer through them. maybe go for 4 sets each and finish on the holding curl.
 
Thing about gains is all the top coaches and even people here know if you want size and strength you need compounds.

Squat
Deadlift
Standing Militarypress
Dips
Chinups/Pullups
Benchpress/Dumbbellpress
Bent Over Rows
Barbell Curls

These will work your arms like no other, not to mention the entire body.

I've only recently started doing my arms, it's boring and I hate it.

Before that I always got on grand doing Chin Ups for biceps at the end of my Back day and Dips at the end of Chest day.
 
N19h7m4r3 said:
Thing about gains is all the top coaches and even people here know if you want size and strength you need compounds.

Squat
Deadlift
Standing Militarypress
Dips
Chinups/Pullups
Benchpress/Dumbbellpress
Bent Over Rows
Barbell Curls

These will work your arms like no other, not to mention the entire body.

I've only recently started doing my arms, it's boring and I hate it.

Before that I always got on grand doing Chin Ups for biceps at the end of my Back day and Dips at the end of Chest day.
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Oh of course, i don't dispute this and do most of those listed above and slight variants on the ones i don't (seated military press as oppose to standing). What i am trying to establish is would i be better off getting rid of the arm workout all together to focus more on the exercises you listed.

I'm probably going to stick with it until september as my training partner wont want to drop them and my brother who trains with us as well wont want to either but i return to uni in September so i'm exploring a few ideas for when i have to train alone for a while until i find someone else to train with.

EDIT: something has stumped me on what workout would i put dumbbell pull over? seems to be an odd one to me.
 
Bent over rows and pullups/chin ups are far far better than DB pull overs for lats.

If I was you I'd stick with the current workout if it suits you and your partner.

It's just I find arm workouts pretty point less. If you can still do loads of arms after a proper back or chest set you didn't work hard enough during it :p

Also with the standing press opposed the sitting, it hits and core and stabiliser muscles much more. It's much harder at first but it's so much worth it.

Not only that but the standing military press, Bent over rows and dips greatly increase your bench aswell. :)
 
If you dont enjoy doing arms then dont do them! If it was legs you didnt like doing ofcourse you should keep do them regardless, but arms dont need any direct training (IMO), all the heavy compounds will do a good enough job.

You can do more compound like movements for arms such as upright dips, close grip bench, chins etc.
 
N19h7m4r3 said:
Bent over rows and pullups/chin ups are far far better than DB pull overs for lats.

If I was you I'd stick with the current workout if it suits you and your partner.

It's just I find arm workouts pretty point less. If you can still do loads of arms after a proper back or chest set you didn't work hard enough during it :p

Also with the standing press opposed the sitting, it hits and core and stabiliser muscles much more. It's much harder at first but it's so much worth it.

Not only that but the standing military press, Bent over rows and dips greatly increase your bench aswell. :)
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We often leave a spare slot or two in our work outs for random exercises (keeps things interesting) but keep the main core exercises the same. dumb bell pull over would be one of these randoms, just needed to know in which workout would it be used. Like you suggest i'll keep going for now and drop them or drastically reduce them when i return to uni (however i will have more time to train then so this may require some thinking through)

Captain Planet said:
I found drop setting 21's pounded the biceps. Did this a few weeks on the trot and made some good gains :)
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We tried these instead of the rope pull thing one day and the best word i can use to describe these is brutal. What else did you do with these when you were doing them or did you do just these?

ben90 said:
If you dont enjoy doing arms then dont do them! If it was legs you didnt like doing ofcourse you should keep do them regardless, but arms dont need any direct training (IMO), all the heavy compounds will do a good enough job.

You can do more compound like movements for arms such as upright dips, close grip bench, chins etc.
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hmmmm seems there's not a lot of arm workout love on these forums as suspected, i'm not alone yay! Like i said i'll leave my routine as it is for now and try captain planet's suggestion for the mean time then have a re-think when i go back to uni.

cheers guys.
 
Just got back from the gym :) I'm liking this 3x8 routine a lot. Was really pleased to get a 1*BW rep out on deadlift, didn't know i had that in me.

Dead Lifts------------8,6,1,8 40,60,70,40kg
Single Arm Rows------8,8,8 20kg
Chin Ups-------------8,8,8 10lb assist
Barbell Curls----------8,8,6 15kg
Dumbell Curls---------8,8,7 8kg
 
Very good mate!

You'll find that after you get to BW, you'll quickly start surpassing that.
Once you've reached BW with exercises you've reached where you're supposed to be, then it's only upward form there :)
 
Thanks :D

Oh and on the subject of half reps, there was a guy on the smith next to me with 70kg on doing probably 1/3 reps nevermind half reps, bashing them out like no ones business. Hah!
 
ben90 said:
If you dont enjoy doing arms then dont do them! If it was legs you didnt like doing ofcourse you should keep do them regardless, but arms dont need any direct training (IMO), all the heavy compounds will do a good enough job.

You can do more compound like movements for arms such as upright dips, close grip bench, chins etc.
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Agreed. Of course if you're competing you'd need to train them to get some specific shape, but for size alone, I've managed decent size without doing much/any isolation work. So size is possible without isolation.
 
I wish I hadn't neglected dips for such a long time, just occasionally throwing them into a workout, because I think my chest and tricep development would be so much better. For the last 3 months I've been doing weighted dips just using a belt that came free with a pair of jeans from Primark, one of the ones with two metal loops rather than a buckle and it's been ok. Today's dipping looked like:

3x15 at bodyweight
3x10 @ 15kg
3x8-9 @ 30kg
Then a few slow negatives at bodyweight.

Because it's just a belt, at 30kgs it's very uncomfortable on the hips and probably will be quite hard to add another `15kg bag to it, so finally I decided I needed to buy a real dipping belt.

I was in a bit of a bind deciding what belt to buy. I know just about everyone on here with a belt uses a standard leather/neoprene one with a chain and they cost about £20 (though I think I read that Freefaller and Benny modified theirs because the chain was too short). The thing is those leather/chain belts retail for about £40 here in Thailand (!!) and shipping for one from the UK or US would wind up at about £40 too. Then there's the fact that on my return flight I only have 25kg of luggage allowance, so a heavy chain would be a problem and I wouldn't want to have to dump it having paid so much.

So.

I went for the IronMind De Rigueur Dipping Belt. At £38 it's quite a bit more expensive than a normal belt, (plus about £20 for shipping) BUT because it's all fabric it's very light and wraps up to about the size your hand, so getting it back to the UK won't be a problem. Once it's back it'll be very convenient to carry around with me so it'll get good use. Plus, because it's being sold to the strongman market, the loop is big enough for a serious amount of weight. The fact that it can hold 1,000 lbs sounds a bit superfluous but it means the build quality is so high that it shouldn't break or wear out and will last for years to come. I think I've probably managed to justify paying £60 for a dipping belt there :-D

IronMind shipped my Captains of Crush gripper to Thailand in about 2 weeks back in February so I'm really hoping for another speedy delivery!
 
Right, guys, I'm in need of some help, back home for summer and currently doing starting strength to get my strength up some more, the only problem is with squatting 3 x a week, I don't think its a great idea to go running as well, since my knees have never been tip top. So, I'm looking for some suggestions for cardio which has low impact on my knees. I'm still training at home too, I was thinking maybe some HIIT with upper body movements? Any advice would y be greatly appreciated. Cheers.
 
skippy2421 said:
We tried these instead of the rope pull thing one day and the best word i can use to describe these is brutal. What else did you do with these when you were doing them or did you do just these?
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We did 21's and variants of, i.e. switching to dumbells. We would also drop the weight on the bar once we fail, start over until we fail on that weight, and keep dropping until we was exhausted just doing the bar. With DBs we were mixing it up by doing as many full curls as we could, then going straight to alternating hammer curls, but holding the weights out infront of your body the whole time though, curling them up for as many reps as possible, then changing to extending them down to you sides for as many reps as possible. Keeping your foreaarms up parrallel to the floor for all that really burns. Does that explanation make sense to you?

After a short rest I'd go to a light weight and do Vics basic method to completely burn out.

 
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