*** The 2010 Gym Rats Thread ***

I've been doing a 4 day split for the last week or so, legs tend to take a full session away from me as firstly I'm seemingly shift a few sets, and secondly it completely knackers me out!

Doing all my work outs mon - thurs this week as I'm busy on Friday and Saturday. Back and triceps on Monday resulted in my Deadlift personal best being moved from 55kg @ 8 reps to 60kg @ 8 reps/3 sets. Quite chuffed with that and will aim for 65kg or 70kg next week. That's not necessarily building strength though, rather finding what I'm actually capable of lifting as I've not done a lot of deadlifting yet. Happy with my technique now though, REALLY felt it in my lower back! Triceps was bit of a wasted session as I don't feel my gym buddy's routine was particularly hard hitting.

Did legs yesterday and set another PB. Last week saw me finishing 5 sets with a set of 8 reps @ 75kg and as such I wanted to break 80kg this week. Well, I did:
40kg @ 8 reps (warm up)
60kg @ 8 reps
70kg @ 8 reps
80kg @ 8 reps - POW, hit my target. Figured I had a bit more steam left in me so went for...
90kg @ 4 reps - was all I could knock out unfortuntely! At that stage I was definitely feeling the weight and I was genuinely concerned that I wouldn't be able to get back up! Felt it in my back in one of the reps as well, so I could tell my technique was going to ****! :D
Also hammered out a new PB on the leg press; old PB was 140kg for 3 sets @ 10 reps. This time:
140kg @ 10 reps
160kg @ 10 reps
160kg @ 10 reps
180kg @ 5 reps
Then just lunges, leg extensions, leg curls, then some ab work (crunch machine and explosive push ups) then crawled back to my car!

Question Time:
I've not done any calf work so far...... So I obviously feel I should incorporate that in to my routine at some point. Should I ditch the leg extensions for calve raises, seeing as my lunges and squats will already be hammering the quads?

tl;dr version:
Oww, my legs :p
 
BennyC said:
Think he means 1-2lbs overall from food intake, fat gain and muscle growth. It does seem almost impossible but he did say maximum!

Anything from 10-14lbs per year if you eat well and train hard is more realistic naturally. However if you're just starting out you should be able to pile some on pritty quick with your n00b gains.
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Right ok, well the first time I weighed myself (start of march) I was 88.4kg. Now i'm 80.2kg as weighed yesterday meaning i've lost 18lbs in 8 months. That was without actually trying to lose weight, more a result of just gym 3-4 times a week, lots of lifting and some cardio in the first few months to get my endurance and general health up. Oh, and a reasonable diet to boot (not perfect by any stretch of the imagination).

Got to say I feel absolutely fantastic, twice as strong as when I started (and able to make my friend throw up in a 1000m rowing race on the concept 2 as of friday just gone ;)), but I think I can start to bulk up and start actually looking big and solid now.

Will I be getting noob gains still? Not sure how these things work.
 
Had a nice leg session on Monday, serious DOMs today - couldn't face the one flight of stairs at my flat this morning so took the lift :o

Squat: 5x5@140kg
Hamstring Curl: 5x5@84kg
Leg Press: 5x5@178kg (max machine can do :()
Calf Raises: 5x5@178kg (max)
Quad Extensions: 5x5@84kg

The squats were very comfortable, easy in fact but I'm trying to increase my flexibility by going as deep as I can without falling over, which at the moment is a fair way below parallel but I can't hit ATG yet, so going for that before I up the weight. Might even lower by 10kg or so next week to see if I can get lower. Also going to try some lunges next week.
 
kinobestew123 said:
Will I be getting noob gains still? Not sure how these things work.
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You've been training for about 8 months with what sounds like some structure. Though I don't think you've been at your full potential or hitting the weights 'properly' so you may well find you make some quick progress if you get serious with the weights.

Hard to say really if you've all ready had them don't be put off! You can still make decent gains in reasonable time periods even if you've been training 2-3 years! As long as your diet, training and rest are sufficient.
 
i had a wisdom tooth extracted yesterday (was growing sideways and had been broken in half) and the dentist said i couldn't train yesterday. will it be okay now or should i let it heal more?

im not looking for medical advice, just advice on how long i should wait before i start training again.
 
I gave blood on Monday and trained yesterday. Legs, albeit much less volume and intensity than normal as it was my de-loading week. I have trained on the same day I've gievn blood before :S

I don't see why not unless you've had any special drugs/injections which would make it unsafe to do so. But I'm not a medical expert. If you feel fine and any anestetics have worn off, if it was me, I probaly would.
 
BennyC said:
I gave blood on Monday and trained yesterday. Legs, albeit much less volume and intensity than normal as it was my de-loading week. I have trained on the same day I've gievn blood before :S

I don't see why not unless you've had any special drugs/injections which would make it unsafe to do so. But I'm not a medical expert. If you feel fine and any anestetics have worn off, if it was me, I probaly would.
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anaesthetics wore off after 3-5 hours yesterday. had a bit of pain this morning but nothing major. i just didnt want the "pump" to burst the blood clot in my gum. i think it should be fine so long as i take it easy, just wanted a second opinion as i wasn't too sure. apparently it can take up to 6 months for it to heal fully. but i should be back to normal within a month.
 
BennyC said:
I gave blood on Monday and trained yesterday. Legs, albeit much less volume and intensity than normal as it was my de-loading week. I have trained on the same day I've gievn blood before :S

I don't see why not unless you've had any special drugs/injections which would make it unsafe to do so. But I'm not a medical expert. If you feel fine and any anestetics have worn off, if it was me, I probaly would.
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If it makes any diff I was in hospital for whole of march and most of april so month and half and go out on 4 occasions and went straight to gym :p.

Your good to go tbh!
 
I shouldn't worry about any NO supplements bursting blood clots etc. If anything, as they increase vasoldilation, it should increase blood flow and might even make it heal quicker. Most of the blood will be in muscles elsewhere other than your mouth so I really wouldn't worry.

Unless you plan on muff diving for 3 hours.

Edit: Good to hear Delvis! took long enough!
 
Delvis said:
Woop, hosp booked :)

Finally get to see if i've damaged something :o

Then got to book physio
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i got a letter today from orthopaedics, my appointment is at the end of november, 2 years after some idiot destroying my knee when playing football (tackle from behind) im finally getting it seen to by a specialist.

BennyC said:
I shouldn't worry about any NO supplements bursting blood clots etc. If anything, as they increase vasoldilation, it should increase blood flow and might even make it heal quicker. Most of the blood will be in muscles elsewhere other than your mouth so I really wouldn't worry.

Unless you plan on muff diving for 3 hours.

Edit: Good to hear Delvis! took long enough!
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lol, my muff diving sessions are mostly weekends only, i do core throughout the week:p
 
i think it was delvis who i gave some info about building a home gym.

thought i would upload some shots of mine.

















a good sound system is an integral part of my workout. major lazer - pon de floor is a good track to blast when really going for it.
 
^Nice one I like that quite a lot. Looks good equipment to probs cost a bomb though!. But very nice none the less. Wish I had my own home gym but no space and can't afford that much lol.
 
B1C3P said:
^Nice one I like that quite a lot. Looks good equipment to probs cost a bomb though!. But very nice none the less. Wish I had my own home gym but no space and can't afford that much lol.
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rack is powertec with lat pulley attachment (i have at least 5 different handles/grips to use with the pulley system, including some leg and thigh ones)

bench is body solid with 3 attachments (normal, preacher and legs)

dumbells are bodypower and so are my olympic weights and bars.

overall including my boxing equipment, i reckon i have spent close to £2.5K, that wavemaster free standing punch bag (over 100kg when filled with sand and water) was near enough £300, all the other boxing stuff was cheap in comparison.

the only stuff i got second hand was the cheap matting(the good mats under the rack were bought new), dumbells and the rack for them. everything else was brand new.

my dumbells are 12.5kg to 25kg, im hoping to buy more in the future, slowly. e.g. 27.5kg and 30kg in a few months time, then 32.5kg and 35kg a few months after that. once you start hitting these numbers, a couple of dumbells start to cost hundreds.

it is expensive, but i had this fat kid who came into my restaurant with his girlfriends father or something along those lines. this guy was very obese and he was bragging about how he had spent £7K or thereabouts on a sound system, £3.5K on the amp alone. I couldn't help but think, maybe you should have invested in a gym.
 
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B1C3P said:
1-2 lbs every 2 weeks? of muscle? naturally?
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BennyC said:
Think he means 1-2lbs overall from food intake, fat gain and muscle growth. It does seem almost impossible but he did say maximum!
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As benny said^^ Personally I'm going for around 1lb maximum of food, water and muscle every 2 weeks, that'll prob. taper down to 1lb every month or so though tbh.
 
Well first session after my volume training and carb control. Seems I need to either increase my carbs as my fatigue was a little bit ridiculous, or, wait for my body to catch back up to where it was. Not used to having concentric contractions in closer succession!

Bench I went for a simple pyramid
WU:
60 x 10

70 x 10
80 x 10
90 x 8
100 x 4
80 x 6

90, 100, 80 were all upto when I fatigued which is a little bit disheartening! but I know not to expect miracles as volume training screwed me up last time! Not had more than 70KG on the bar in 6-7 weeks. Though I finished 5x5 back in July at 110KG so I've got some work to do! :p

3 sets incline DB, 3 sets BW dips, 3 sets DB flyes and then 3 sets tricep push downs.

Nice little session to get me back into different tempo and heavier weights. Got a reasonably good pump considering!

Feeling 2-3 weeks of pyramids and then onto a 5x5 I think to grab some of my strength back quickly!

On another note my calf DOMS are horrific to the point putting my leg out infront of me to walk is stretching my calves. I only did 3 sets of seated and 3 sets of standing calf raises!
 
BennyC said:
Edit: Good to hear Delvis! took long enough!
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Indeed!

Apparently the department I was ringing are only open between 9 and half 12 =/

Doesn't state that on any of the letters or on the answer machine =/

However I know everything will be fine, then the physio will be like yeah its fine...When it quite clearly doesnt feel it

Psycho Sonny said:
i got a letter today from orthopaedics, my appointment is at the end of november, 2 years after some idiot destroying my knee when playing football (tackle from behind) im finally getting it seen to by a specialist.
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Bah, that sucks :(

Hope it gets sorted man!
 
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