*** The 2011 Gym Rats Thread ***

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Have to bare in mind that deadlift vid is over a year old now from after I just started.

Although my lordosis made it all troublesome a bit. It was going well until I got injured recently.

Also before I got converse I used normal runners like most people.
So I started off badly with improper footwear a bad back and learned on my own and from just some magazines.
It took me a year before I really got into things and read plenty of articles and watched videos.

By then I had already developed a bad foundation with which to train.
You have to remember Olympic and Powerlifting aren't done much in Ireland, sure they'll host some competitions, gyms that focus on them are mostly centred in Dublin and other major cities.

Like in my town there are 3 gyms, town council one, energy fitness and my current hotel one.

The hotel is the only one with an olympic bar( 5foot ) and plates, and other usefull items. The rest are just loaded with dumbells and machines.

I just really hope the new gym and sports centre my college is building will be good. That smiths machine was annoying as hell and the rubgy gym was the only one outfitted with proper olympic items. Yet if you didn't play rubgy you weren't allowed in.
 
Leg day

Biked it to gym then worked the legs hard

Squated 70kg 10 reps with no sweat in squat rack, happy with my form and strength to push on
 
cheets64 said:
Leg day

Biked it to gym then worked the legs hard

Squated 70kg 10 reps with no sweat in squat rack, happy with my form and strength to push on
Click to expand...

Being able to ride home after a leg session doesn't say 'worked legs hard' to me :P

good that you are building a good base though and not being silly by doing too much too quick.
 
Does anybody else NOT stretch after a workout, or am I a really bad person?

I only ever stretch once a week after a run, and thats just my legs, quads/hams/calfs.
 
Morba said:
Being able to ride home after a leg session doesn't say 'worked legs hard' to me :P

good that you are building a good base though and not being silly by doing too much too quick.
Click to expand...

huh, as rather doing a leg session then sitting in a metal box going home, just because I do a session doesn't mean I can't pedal my bike, put in over 280 miles cycling this month, every time I have been t'gym I have gone on my bike.

deal with it

NeverWinter said:
Really? It's the 'no sweat' part that did it for me ;)
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what, it was easy, not straining myself going in thinking I am the boss, slow and sure wins the race

Andr3w said:
Does anybody else NOT stretch after a workout, or am I a really bad person?

I only ever stretch once a week after a run, and thats just my legs, quads/hams/calfs.
Click to expand...

I always go for a swim, few laps, always warm down, 5 mins in jacuzzi, 10 mins in steam room

I stretch, before and after cardio, sometimes do it before going to bed, notice I do feel as stiff in the morning :eek:
 
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Alrighty just back from training with the new Adidas Power Perfect II's.
Damn good shoes I think.

Today was technically my chest day, although I did some deadlifts, clean and preses, front squats and back squats along with the normal stuff to give the shoes a little work.

Deadlifts
45kg x5 x3 sets Felt good, very good even felt the quad activation Rippetoe was talking about in his article over using these shoes for deadlifting.

Cleans and Presses
45kg x5 x3 sets. Good as well, the shoes have good base and are very flexible at the toes where they need to be.

Front squats
45kg x5 x3 sets. Very good, shoes felt awesome and I used the strap up top to really make sure my feet couldn't move.
Back was upright a lot more then with my converse.

Back squats
45kg x5 x3 sets. Super easy aswell along with feeling very good. Back was more upright then usual and I could feel my lower back working just like in the front squats.

Benchpress
70kg x5
90kg x5
90kg x5
90kg x5
70kg x5 for 3 sets.

The 90kg felt like my 100kg did before the injury, although that's probably due to all my down time.
Back felt amazing during bench pressing alright, no issues there.

Bicep curls, ugh.
35kg x8
35kg x8
35kg x8

Thoracic spine mobilty, foam rolling and stretching.
Click to expand...

The shoes felt great during it all, they're even comfy to walk in. They're snug and can be made tighter using the strap up top. They have good heel support and the back and sides around the heel seem to have an insert to make them solid.
Good ventilation as well, better then converse or my Nike runners.

There's not much arch support though. I have normal arches and felt it well enough against my arch. Although someone like Sonny might need to either get insoles, which if they're soft defeats the purpose of these shoes.
Or has to spend that extra £50-60 on the adiStars which have light arch support but still feature the old wooden heel block instead of the new composite.

I have to say I really enjoyed the shoes, they feel far more stable then Converse and well there's no point in even mentioning how much better they are compared to normal runners.

They were a treat to use during all the lifts, especially squats and clean and presses, even good on the deadlift. I can see why Mark Rippetoe, Ed Coan and others prefer them for all the lifts.

Next week I'll be able to add 20kg to my lifts so I'll keep upto date with the shoes and how they perform with better weights as I improve again.
 
cheets64 said:
huh, as rather doing a leg session then sitting in a metal box going home, just because I do a session doesn't mean I can't pedal my bike, put in over 280 miles cycling this month, every time I have been t'gym I have gone on my bike.

deal with it
Click to expand...

wow, you're nice aren't you? i even added a smiley and a nice comment after it.

what, it was easy, not straining myself going in thinking I am the boss, slow and sure wins the race
Click to expand...
Lets just get this into perspective, you said you worked the legs hard.

We were just commenting that it doesnt seem like a hard workout if you could do what you were doing... you then say it was easy.

You need to stop throwing your toys out of the pram tbh. Guessing you are this highly strung in real life as well?
 
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Morba said:
wow, you're nice aren't you? i even added a smiley and a nice comment after it.

Lets just get this into perspective, you said you worked the legs hard.

We were just commenting that it doesnt seem like a hard workout if you could do what you were doing... you then say it was easy.

You need to stop throwing your toys out of the pram tbh. Guessing you are this highly strung in real life as well?
Click to expand...

I am nice but sometimes I dont know if people are having banter or are actually spiteful

:(

No not highly strung in real life just going through a rough time, you don't see me commenting on your gym routines saying "oh was that all" etc.

I mean so far its just been negative and no positives, I dont know why I bother posting here, you all seem to have summed up
 
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N19h7m4r3 said:
Have to bare in mind that deadlift vid is over a year old now from after I just started.

Although my lordosis made it all troublesome a bit. It was going well until I got injured recently.

Also before I got converse I used normal runners like most people.
So I started off badly with improper footwear a bad back and learned on my own and from just some magazines.
It took me a year before I really got into things and read plenty of articles and watched videos.

By then I had already developed a bad foundation with which to train.
You have to remember Olympic and Powerlifting aren't done much in Ireland, sure they'll host some competitions, gyms that focus on them are mostly centred in Dublin and other major cities.

Like in my town there are 3 gyms, town council one, energy fitness and my current hotel one.

The hotel is the only one with an olympic bar( 5foot ) and plates, and other usefull items. The rest are just loaded with dumbells and machines.

I just really hope the new gym and sports centre my college is building will be good. That smiths machine was annoying as hell and the rubgy gym was the only one outfitted with proper olympic items. Yet if you didn't play rubgy you weren't allowed in.
Click to expand...
I'm not criticising you personally at all, sorry if it came across that way. People have to make do with the knowledge and equipment they have to hand at the time, and everyone makes mistakes in the beginning. I'm just trying to share stuff that I've picked up because I've been lucky enough to train with some talented guys with some superstar coaches.

While your deadlift vid is old now, like you were saying bad habits become learned patterns. So even if you don't deadlift like that any more, the concern is that it's left it's legacy on your movement patterns and mobility.

If you posted up some recent footage of you lifting I could give you some very quick stuff to work on. I've had the experience now of triaging most of my american football team, and everyone I've worked with is moving better and lifting more.

Chris1712 said:
Interesting vid. I absolutely cannot get that deep with my heels still on the floor, Infact just stood up I can barely raise my toes off the floor more than an inch. Its like my achilles tendon is really short.

That's what I'm saying, thats bad! I can go ATG but I'm on tip toes, which is obviously not good! I can't keep my heels on the floor below parallel, infact its taken me ages to even get to parallel without my heels raising!
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Calf/heel cord

You can do a version of this on the floor too, just push your bent knee as far forward over your toes as you can with your heel down, and lean into it.

Ball in the back of the knee from this
The Craig said:
I fall backwards trying to do that :|
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Tight glutes, hips, and hammies! Ball in the back of the knee from previous vid, and...

Glutes!
^be super aggressive with those, the key is to let your back leg hang and then to slump forward to add more load to the stretch. Some of the worst pain ever.

Hamstring


Hips


...and in general for people who find that having feet more parallel a problem (which is everyone, if it isn't you're lying :p)

...and something I do before every squat session that isn't "stretching" exactly, but it's kind of like these two
- done on the floor
so I'm forcing the femur into the back of the socket.

cheets64 said:
Leg day

Biked it to gym then worked the legs hard

Squated 70kg 10 reps with no sweat in squat rack, happy with my form and strength to push on
Click to expand...
I wouldn't class 10 reps with "no sweat" as working one's legs hard :p
 
some cracking vids there, will watch them and some more in the series this weekend when i get chance :)
 
Ah Icecold, all that stuff my physio sent through with me.

Haha I'm fairly up to date, YESSSS!

The glute stretching is tough though specially since I've just been sitting on my ass for three weeks now doing nothing really.

I'm very stiff in my legs, specially my glutes and adductors.
Nothing I can't fix though, I also can't wait to start swimming.

It'll be my first time in over 7 years I even got near a pool.
 
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