*** The 2010 Gym Rats Thread ***

Freefaller said:
That's basically what it's saying. :)
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wow, okay. So if I train VERY hard and eat very well, building at 0.5lbs of muscle per week means a VERY maximum of 130lbs to be gained in 5 years :p
However, the article said that at best the human body could synthesise at 0.5lbs per week. To be honest, if I could gain 50-60lbs of lean mass in 5 years, that'd be a fantastic achievement.
 
Yup, though that'd be a maximum (assuming your maths is correct, I haven't checked) however you've got factors affecting your growth outside of your control. For example sickness, work commitments, family, weather (should the gym close for bad weather and short staff) and worst of all injury.

As long as your lifts are going up, your clothes are getting tighter and the scales are moving up without taking your waistline with it then you're headed in the right direction.
 
OT: Going to give some Tabata a go with some front squts today (neck permitting) should be quite brutal! Next week I Will try it with 'Thrusters' which is basically a double DB front squat into OHP :eek:

Thinking I'm be starting super light as I've got just over 2 and a half minutes of total time to squat my buttocks off. This will be after a Tabata row, if I have it in me.
 
HST starts today! Not looking forward to the 15s as my fitness is shocking. Frustratingly I'm slightly limited by the dbs in my gym, only go up to 40kg, so I'm going to aim for 3-4 second negs where needed.

First light "A" day of my 15s looks like this:

Squat 112.5kgx15x2
SLDL 110kgx15x2
Inc DB Bench 30kgx15x2 (4 sec negs)
Pulldown 75kgx15x2 (can't do 15 pullups with significant weight)
Dips 20kgx15x2
Hang Clean To Push Press 40kgx15x2 (these are HORRIBLE at higher rep ranges)
Calf work (more than the program describes - injury recovery)

All weights pre-calculated quite conservatively so I might increase them more aggressively than prescribed by the program (usually 5kg increments day by day). The 15s always seem to start so light but end up kicking my ass by the last A and B days.
 
Well the Tabata row was taxing but no problems there at all.

Front squats for the second Tabata, I know this isn't advised however the overall volume of intervals is lower but the intensity higher than 20 minutes of a 20/40 split so I'll see how this works for me.

I'm not flexable enough to hold in the clean grip so it's crossed arms pour moi. I have no shame in picking up nice light weights with my working front squat rep ranges going from 60-110KG I decided 30KG was a good starting point. I decided not to de-rack the bar from my shoulders as I didn't see the point for 10 seconds.

First set, 12 reps, 10s rest
Second set, 12 reps, 10 s rest
Third set, 12 reps, 10s rest de racked
Fourth set, 10 reps, 10s rest de racked
Fifth set, 10 reps, spent!
Sixth set 10 reps, collapse.

Can't describe how horrific it is. You've got all the lactate build up but with hardly any muscle pump which is quit strange. Once you finish the pump comes. My front delts also b egan to fatigue from keeping my elbows up nice and high. I'd picked the barbell up from the pit and took it to the mats so I wasn't in the way. 5 minutes later I'm walking it back in with sweat dripping of me totally gassed which got some suprised looks!

Deffinatley enjoyed it though :D
 
icecold said:
HST starts today! Not looking forward to the 15s as my fitness is shocking. Frustratingly I'm slightly limited by the dbs in my gym, only go up to 40kg, so I'm going to aim for 3-4 second negs where needed.

First light "A" day of my 15s looks like this:

Squat 112.5kgx15x2
SLDL 110kgx15x2
Inc DB Bench 30kgx15x2 (4 sec negs)
Pulldown 75kgx15x2 (can't do 15 pullups with significant weight)
Dips 20kgx15x2
Hang Clean To Push Press 40kgx15x2 (these are HORRIBLE at higher rep ranges)
Calf work (more than the program describes - injury recovery)

All weights pre-calculated quite conservatively so I might increase them more aggressively than prescribed by the program (usually 5kg increments day by day). The 15s always seem to start so light but end up kicking my ass by the last A and B days.
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Me too :). I can't be bothered to put mine up cause it would take a while on my phone because we still have no internet :(. My hamstrings are cooked from saturdays SLDL's, was fun though. I'll ring you later to let you know how it goes.
 
UltimateBadger said:
Are you sure that's what it is saying mate?

"And for most, gaining more than ten pounds of solid muscle per year (once they're past the beginner stage) will be very rare."
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Well, ok, if you read the more muscle mass you have the more glycogen storage you have, ergo you will put on more mass when you first start training properly as you will not ever have used up your reserves and your body will be adapting and building new muscle, so you will necessarily put on noticeable weight as you've never trained before! :) As such, there will be an initial "peak" however, in another article which I'll try and dig up he basically says that beginner gains are seldom lean muscle mass and generally fatty tissue.
 
TheCenturion said:
wow, okay. So if I train VERY hard and eat very well, building at 0.5lbs of muscle per week means a VERY maximum of 130lbs to be gained in 5 years :p
However, the article said that at best the human body could synthesise at 0.5lbs per week. To be honest, if I could gain 50-60lbs of lean mass in 5 years, that'd be a fantastic achievement.
Click to expand...

Absolutely. That's a HUGE amount of lean mass. MAssive. If you weigh 150lbs, 50lbs of lean mass is 1/3 of your original bodyweight. In 5 years that's pretty bloody good.

Artificially increasing protein synthesis, which is ostensibly what gear does, is why you can develop more muscle mass in a shorter period of time.

However, there is no replacement for hard lean natural gains. When you get to your 40s you can be 200+ lbs of good solid muscle with very little fat storage. That's why a lot of natural lifters look so good in their later life as their muscle is thick and dense as the body has had time to develop it gently.

BennyC said:
Yup, though that'd be a maximum (assuming your maths is correct, I haven't checked) however you've got factors affecting your growth outside of your control. For example sickness, work commitments, family, weather (should the gym close for bad weather and short staff) and worst of all injury.

As long as your lifts are going up, your clothes are getting tighter and the scales are moving up without taking your waistline with it then you're headed in the right direction.
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Indeed. Lab results != real life results unfortunately. Else this game would be too easy ;)

The key, was the more fat you develop the more your body has a tendency of having fat owing to the increase of adipocytes in your body.

Hence why I always harp on about lean bulking :p
 
It's deffinatley made me re-think my cut coming up in January. I'll try and be a bit smarter around it if I can without having to resort to a restricted diet. However I know this works for me and I can do I'd just rather not sacrifice muscle unless I have to!

I think some carb control and slightly less calories coupled with plenty of HIIT for 3/4months should see me retain if not gain a little mass whilse reducing bodyfat and then I'll keep on top of things now I've go more routine and am settled.

Tricky thing with dropping bodyfat is that it's very easy to thing 'crickey I'm stacking it on!' (muscle) which is actually just the illusion of better conditioning :( still yay for conditioning \o/
 
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Freefaller said:
Well, ok, if you read the more muscle mass you have the more glycogen storage you have, ergo you will put on more mass when you first start training properly as you will not ever have used up your reserves and your body will be adapting and building new muscle, so you will necessarily put on noticeable weight as you've never trained before! :) As such, there will be an initial "peak" however, in another article which I'll try and dig up he basically says that beginner gains are seldom lean muscle mass and generally fatty tissue.
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wouldn't surprise me if glycogen storage played a big role for an untrained individual too.

Also I think progressive overload is much more common as a beginner which can be hugely important in terms of mass gains. Then as we get bigger and stronger we become reluctant to lower the weights to allow for daily or weekly ramping and completely kill the progression and end up stagnating.
 
Freefaller said:
Absolutely. That's a HUGE amount of lean mass. MAssive. If you weigh 150lbs, 50lbs of lean mass is 1/3 of your original bodyweight. In 5 years that's pretty bloody good.

Artificially increasing protein synthesis, which is ostensibly what gear does, is why you can develop more muscle mass in a shorter period of time.

However, there is no replacement for hard lean natural gains. When you get to your 40s you can be 200+ lbs of good solid muscle with very little fat storage. That's why a lot of natural lifters look so good in their later life as their muscle is thick and dense as the body has had time to develop it gently.
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Yeah, I see what you're saying FF.
If everything goes as I plan for it to go, at 18 I'll be studying medicine. It's a 5 year course, hence my 5 year plan. So for those 5 years, I'll train and eat hard. I reckon I'll be starting at around 9 stone, possibly a little bit more if I'm lucky, so I'd want to gain around 3-4 stone of lean mass in those 5 years. But it's going to be difficult, as the guy said "you want to look good all year long!" So what I might do is do a big cut before hand and try to get myself below 10% BF before I start lifting.
 
As you'll be studying medicine you'll be a in prime situation for understanding the intricacies of what is happening to your bodies. I know a fair bit, but nothing to the clinical levels that you will undoubtedly touch on.
 
I found the time to train hard and pack on some respectable size whilst at University but I had a course that required very little of my time, well I managed to give it little of it!

With a course like medicine you might have less time than you think.

However you've a bigger window than 5 years to pack on muscle :)

Plenty of members here are well into their 30's here and still building.

I understand that it is a pritty good place to start getting into it as you have total control of your diet & daily routine. You just have to remember you're there to work and you're paying quite heavily for the privilage. This isn't to say that it's not do-able because it is. If you've got your head screwed on and keep on top of your work you should still be able to find time to train, I know I did :)
 
Freefaller said:
As you'll be studying medicine you'll be a in prime situation for understanding the intricacies of what is happening to your bodies. I know a fair bit, but nothing to the clinical levels that you will undoubtedly touch on.
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Imagine if my knowledge surpassed that of the great FF! At times you are too modest, but you are indeed the God of BB knowledge on this forum, and a few of the more senior lifters are like demigods.

BennyC said:
However you've a bigger window than 5 years to pack on muscle :)
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I'm not sure, as a junior doctor, if I can find any free time to myself it'll be spent sleeping. So for a for a few hours after graduating, I'll have practically no time to myself. So I'll have the 5 years of uni, and then the rest of my life later on when I become a more senior doc, assuming I get in at all that is ;)
 
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Just came a cross this image and thought to myself what a cracking sig it would make for someone! Its Dorian Yates, Ronnie Coleman, Arnold Schwarzenegger from left to right! :)


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