*** The 2010 Gym Rats Thread ***

ConTRo13R said:
I thought that was just for energy resevres no?
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Glucosamine is marketed as being good for joint flexibility and suppleness but it seems there is some doubt about the effectiveness of it. If it's relatively cheap then it might not hurt to try it and see.

Quick update on my progress is I managed BW dips +25kg x3 on Sunday just to see if I could do it along with the normal dips I'd do and front squats are up to 45kg x5 for 2 sets with 3 sets of 40kg. It may not be much but it's progress, I've only done the front squats in maybe 5 sessions now so I'm reasonably happy with how it is going. Back to skipping again tonight and I'm managing to skip with less stopping and a bit smoother until I actually start thinking about what I'm doing, that's when it usually goes to pot.
 
stick your ass out more
i.e. sit into the squat

other than that looked pretty decent

also dont squat so far away from the rack :P
 
PAz said:
stick your ass out more
i.e. sit into the squat

also dont squat so far away from the rack
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Ok, will try to focus on that more next time, thanks. Unfortunately the rack is total pants and has no safety bars lower down, so how far I am away from it if I fail makes no odds. I won't be using it for long hopefully.

As to holding your breath, I'll give that a try I guess, but when I've tried to do it previously after reading about it helping to support the lower back etc, I've always found it to be uncomfortable and leads to a headrush/headache, spotted vision etc. I'll try to make my breathing more even but I'm not sure I want to be holding for over 4 seconds on the way down.
 
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Its not that, its better if you are closer to the rack as you take less steps to get into position. Especially when you start going well over bodyweight on the bar
 
I inhale on the negative as opposed to holding. Feels more comfortable for me.

Looks good. As said stick your butt out a bit more and imagine your curling one out but the toilet seat is on fire and you don't want to get poop on your heels :p

You'll find the timing of driving your hips foward becomes more natural the more you do the lift and you won't 'good morning quite so much'. Same with deadlifting, just takes a bit of practise. Looks like you felt the strain on your core on those last few reps, it's killer!

Thumbs up in general. I'm sure we've all seen a lot worse!

Edit: You could bring the rack further foward ;)
 
BennyC said:
Looks good. As said stick your butt out a bit more and imagine your curling one out but the toilet seat is on fire and you don't want to get poop on your heels :p

Thumbs up in general. I'm sure we've all seen a lot worse!

Edit: You could bring the rack further foward ;)
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Lol, I never thought of moving the rack, I feel stupid now :o

It seems when I try to stick my arse out more, my back ends up at a more acute angle, and I thought the point was to try to keep it as vertical as possible. Maybe I have gotten this wrong?
 
Makunouchi said:
Lol, I never thought of moving the rack, I feel stupid now :o

It seems when I try to stick my arse out more, my back ends up at a more acute angle, and I thought the point was to try to keep it as vertical as possible. Maybe I have gotten this wrong?
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Your back doesn't need to be kept as vertical as possible. If you watch squatting videos you'll find it's probaly at around 60ish degrees. You just need to keep your balance and center of gravity without letting your back round or pelvis tuck.

You should find it a lot easier once you stop trying to stay vertical. Might be why your video looked a little uncomfortable. However don't be leaning too far foward either. From a side profile you should look simillar to the letter 'S' from the rock band 'kiss', in their font. Not all curvey like :p

http://images.google.co.uk/images?u...&q=barbell+squat&btnG=Search&aq=f&oq=&start=0

The squats to parralell or deeper have a much more 'natural' angle. It's physically impossible to squat with a vertical back as your center of gravity is too far behind you and you fall over. Unless on a smith ofc.
 
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Makunouchi said:
I think you're right considering how it feels when I'm doing it. Ok then, expect another video next time :)
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You should find it easier to get deeper too.

Do a bodyweight squat with your arms out infront of you. Look sideways on in the mirror. Like this except you'll have the bar on your back and hands placed accordingly.
 
Makunouchi said:
Ok then guys, how's this?

LNA-DJ9JF2I

Only 60kgs :(

And it was raining :(
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Looks pretty good to me. Good to see you're going ass to grass - it's so annoying when you see people at the gym barely bending their legs and then saying "yeah, I squat 200kg" or whatever.

The only thing I'll say is your motion isn't symmetric. You can see that your positive motion isn't the reverse of the backwards motion. I think this is most likely due to balance issues, I'm sure you'll get there eventually. Try and bend your elbows forward a bit when moving back up as this will help your balance. I personally think the most important thing is if you can feel the squats working your legs and glutes.

Don't worry about the weight. Only idiots will judge you on the weight and like I said, most people don't do full squats like what you're doing, so keep up the great work ;)

Hajime no Ippo is awesome by the way.
 
Makunouchi said:
Lol, I never thought of moving the rack, I feel stupid now :o

It seems when I try to stick my arse out more, my back ends up at a more acute angle, and I thought the point was to try to keep it as vertical as possible. Maybe I have gotten this wrong?
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Think this is a bit of a common misconception with squatting - the point is that the back should be straight as in not rounding - rather than vertically up all the time. Its ok to bring the back over as long as its straight. Mark Rippetoe in a couple of his videos even talks about the importance of the hip drive from the bottom to bring the ass right up while the shoulders are down.

Your form is pretty spot on, keep adding weight slowly and you will be fine. As exhashdotdot said the weight is not important - you are going low and you will benefit :)

Ah man...I love squatting so much and it pains me so bad that I can barely do it these days. If it wasn't for deadlifting and cleaning I'd probably have given up :)
 
On another note my bench was **** tonight. I only got about 1 hours sleep last night (no idea why just couldn't nod off) - 5 reps @ 105kg felt insanely heavy when last week I got 5 @ 107.5 and 3 @ 110. There was no way I was going to match that so went down and did more reps with 90kg instead today.
 
Cheers for all the help guys, I appreciate it :)

I think the misconception you're talking about PAz is probably my misunderstanding as well. I actually wish my legs were rested so I could go out again and try all this out :D

exhashdotdot said:
Hajime no Ippo is awesome by the way.
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exhashdotdot... would you believe in over four years of having Ippo as my signature, avatar, forum name etc etc, you're the first person to say that to me? I think you're my new best friend :D
 
Makunouchi said:
Cheers for all the help guys, I appreciate it :)

I think the misconception you're talking about PAz is probably my misunderstanding as well. I actually wish my legs were rested so I could go out again and try all this out :D


exhashdotdot... would you believe in over four years of having Ippo as my signature, avatar, forum name etc etc, you're the first person to say that to me? I think you're my new best friend :D
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I think watching Ippo made me even more psyched to start working out. I love how much emphasis is on the road work, core stability and endurance. It's probably the first anime I've seen which actually made me laugh as well.

Totally awesome anime, any bodybuilder should watch it. It's up there with Pumping Iron and the Rocky movies (I'd actually say it's a far more realistic portrayal of boxing than Rocky at any rate).

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19237394756840256797600.jpg


Took this picture while watching it. So awesome.

On a different topic. I'll be doing squats tomorrow. I totally didn't think about emphasising the hip drive you mentioned Paz so I'll bear that in mind.
 
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That's exactly why I love it so much, in most animes the main character has some sort of naturally awesome ability, but Ippo works damn hard for everything he achieves, and the boxing theory is actually somewhat valid as well. It was HNI that made me take up boxing in the first place.
 
Makunouchi said:
That's exactly why I love it so much, in most animes the main character has some sort of naturally awesome ability, but Ippo works damn hard for everything he achieves, and the boxing theory is actually somewhat valid as well. It was HNI that made me take up boxing in the first place.
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It's made me want to take up boxing as well. The problem with that though however are a couple of problems.

I have a big nose and I really can't afford for it to get broken and sometime in the future I might undergo orthognathic jaw surgery which would effectively give me a glass jaw for the rest of my life :(
 
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