*** The 2011 Gym Rats Thread ***

[MoNkeE]

Skillmister, it's not nice to poke fun at someone's squatting when they have no arms ;(

 

[Freefaller]

...and personal trainers saying "that's deep enough"

Good to see you back training FF! Any reason why there is no "standard" chest work?

Never really been a big fan of flat chest, and I find it less painful on my shoulder doing incline (I had RC issues, which I will always have to an extent after a dislocation - I have a couple of screws in my shoulder still!).

Might add a bit of cable work for chest, and some dips as a secondary movements - but concentrating more on some bigger movements at the moment.

Yup I'm back - with a vengance... my hunger has already started to pick up!

Good see you're starting back FF!

I'm doing something similar with my work.

Doing a reset on your lifts can really help. I'm thinking of doing the same with my work.
In light of me having access to so many free weights now.

Yeah, it'll really help focus me - I've been in "the zone" in my training all week - really lots of aggression and passion. Can't wait!

 

[franco_22]

I just started doing the SS program from Rippletoe, I am only on my second session and perhaps I'm doing something wrong or it's just normal, I started squatting and the first day I developed kinda like a hard lump just below my neck in the middle where the bar restsm it's painful if you touch it but it's not too bad, anyway, I assume I put the bar in the wrong place but now, it's been almost a week and it hasn't gone away yet , is there anything I can do to help it go away or do I just need to man up and bear the pain when squatting ?

If anything, it taught me to put the bar in the right place after my first session but still. Great session today, tried power cleans and presses for the first time, couldn't get much weight, press I think my maximum was about 80 lbs but still, feeling pretty good.

 

[N19h7m4r3]

Yup I'm back - with a vengance... my hunger has already started to pick up!


Yeah, it'll really help focus me - I've been in "the zone" in my training all week - really lots of aggression and passion. Can't wait!

I know full well about trainin aggression, my problem is that I focus so much on the work that by the time I'm done I've done about 25-30 sets haha.

You would have loved the guy doing squats after me yesterday. He loaded 100kg straight up, followed by a few more sets up to a max of i think 160kg. Bear in mind this guy was no bigger than me i would have been impressed but this was how low he went;

epic paint skillz

Oh lord I see that quite a bit even with all the tanks in my gym.

Can't even really call it partial squats as they don't really move down.

Did he bend forwards with back almost parallel to the floor?

Also Morba it seems an aweful lot of training methods advocate leaning forward. I think it just looks like a goodmorning/romanian doing that.

Lately I've been having to force myself as upright as possible and squeeze to get down below parallel.
I'm so use to a smith's machine after a year and a half.

 

[Freefaller]

If you want to stay upright, front squats are the key. Once you've got the body position mastered for them (and the flexibility, usually glutes and/or hip flexors), back squats seem to improve significantly (for me anyway).

I do a bit of showboating with front squats by holding my arms out in front of me Always makes people stop and stare I know I know...


Franco, that's just the knurling from the bar, just wear a hoodie, or just grin and bear it. OR use a bar which has the knurling in another place. Once in place the bar shouldn't be rotating anyway, so you shouldn't get too much of a friciton burn.

 

[Skillmister]

Did he bend forwards with back almost parallel to the floor?

On the lighter sets he did but the on the heavier ones it just looked like he was racking it constantly



There was a also a great pair of bicep monkeys in short shorts and string vests, i counted them doing around 15 sets of biceps, nothing else. Both had chicken legs, no triceps at all. Not to mention spending a good 2 minutes between each set watching football and looking ****ed off when i asked to use a bench they were 'resting' on.

 

[icecold]

FF I somehow missed the incline press when I read your list, I even checked a few times

That program is going to get horrible in a few weeks!

 

[Freefaller]

LOL!

Yeah it's going to get tough, which is why it goes 50-60-50-60 - gives a fair bit of "medium" weights to get your body used to the onslaught of 70->90%!!!

It's going to be good fun though!

 

[Morba]

Yep that's my thinking, depending on how the exercise went it could have been a good morning

 

[Skull]

Does anyone else get a weird feeling in their stomach after drinking green tea?

If I drink green tea in the morning, on an empty stomach, it makes me feel nauseous!

 

[Skillmister]

Yep that's my thinking, depending on how the exercise went it could have been a good morning

I dont think so, looked like he was meant to be squatting.

Either way it was terrible form

 

[LiE]

I've seen a guy do something similar on the leg press. Loaded up every plate in the room and did a slight bend of the knee before locking out again. Immense...

 

[icecold]

Saw some rugby guys come to the gym and do a bit of over head pressing and then jump straight on the leg press. Now I have nothing against leg pressing in general, but for an athlete it's practically a waste of time compared to squatting.

 

[LiE]

I've dropped leg press completely, I don't find it very good and if you have to put that much weight on to get some feeling something isn't right.

 

[Morba]

Leg press, like most exercises, has it's place

 

[icecold]

Absolutely, but not as a replacement for squats if you're hoping to improve athletic performance.

 

[N19h7m4r3]

I saw to small new lads at the gym today attempting to squat.
They were horribly bending their back forward and it was clear they were doing it wrong and it was too heavy.
I offered to help and wow, they actually wanted to learn. Within 5 minutes they had good form and even good form when deadlifting.

They wanted to do a back day, but since they didn't know anything and someone told them squats are for your back they were trying that.
Took 20 mins out of my training, but hell within that hour the lads got some good deadlift form, did proper dumbbell rows with good form and tried their hardest at pullups.
Very determined alright. They did everything to the letter and even helped correct each others form during it all.
Even got a thanks before they left.

Also on a note on the squat discussion even these lads knew that if you don't get to parallel or break it, you it won't do anything for you.
I really dislike seeing huge guys or athletes that can't squat and can't even use the leg press propperly.

As such I get some really dumbfounded looks when I suddenly out squat, deadlift, press and dip them by a mile.
This rather large man today was busting a vein in his head trying to dip +10kg on the belt, but he can bicep curl like a demon from what I've seen.
They've never seen someone less the half their size dip 40kg for multiple sets or reps and doing down more than 2 inches.
Such a shame really.

At any rate, it's a HUGE ego boost me for daily haha.

 

[Skillmister]

I like doing leg press after squats to just ensure i cant walk home afterwards

Nice one N19h7m4r3


Woke up this morning to find i still have severe chest DOMS from friday. Absolute madness! I guess its my own fault for going straight back into my normal routine after about 3 weeks of no chest

 

[N19h7m4r3]

I get the same when I take a break sometimes.
Although I rarely get chest DOMS, which is rather annoying because if I train any other body part I get them.

 

[Andr3w]

Went with a friend today, we did squats, deadlifts and power cleans..... I am totally ruined right now.