*** The 2011 Gym Rats Thread ***

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I've resorted back to 2 medium-length runs a week - and on those days a day off the gym - and noticed real improvements in fitness and definition on abs etc

don't enjoy an hour run (11k+ ) but seems to do the trick :(

so now day 1 - weights (biceps+chest+ 30mins aerobic), day 2 - weights (triceps+back+shoulders+30 mins aerobic), day 3 - 11k run

after 3/4 weeks - already my legs feel like they have far more spring, and it seems enough to keep shape whilst sucking in the waist area :)
 
This seems like the best place to post:

I'm 16, skinny (57kg 177cm) and want to get a little big bigger or just more toned really. I don't want to change my diet drastically as the mother provides my meals and it would be a pain on her really. I don't have a job so affording going to the same gym as my mates £28 a month would be pretty costly on me. I think there is one near me that is about £20 a month which seems more reasonable. Despite being skinny I feel that most of my weight/flab goes into my stomach haha which is annoying.

At the moment I do pretty much no exercise, I go out on my bike maybe twice a week into town. I tried biking to college for the first couple of days I went and getting there was okay, it was just getting home I could not be bothered with. 4 miles there, 4 back. All up hill on weigh back really. I've heard cardio is one of the best ways to look toned, plus I love feeling fit (I don't feel fit at the moment). I know I do as I used to play football a couple of years ago and could cycle/run for ages without getting fatigued really.

What do you guys recommend then? I could start the gym or would just cycling be more beneficial? I hate running for the sake of running because my knees are a bit bent haha so I run really stupidly. I don't want to get much heavier really, I do like being pretty trim and tallish but I definitely want to tone a bit plus broaden chest and shoulders. Cheers guys.
 
dont join a gym purely to do cardio. Cycle or run, and keep the £20 a month for something else

if you want to build muscle, that's the time to join the gym. If you want to build muscle, look at stronglifts 5x5, it's a great point to start from
 
The Craig said:
Anyone read up on alkaline diets? Currently trying to improve skin and was reading into it.

Also any cons to soy milk? I dont mind it when I get a craving for cereal (bran flakes is all Im gonna have available to me now! no more binging on rubbish!)
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Whats wrong with your skin? Tend to find oilyer skins are much more soft and youthful looking over dry skin.

If your skins looking a bit worn, aside from the usual moisturising and treatments in terms of diet I wouldn't worry about anything fancy, your just aiming for pure high quality foods, lots of good quality fish, vegetables and types of fresh fruit.

Supplementation your going to aim for your A, C and E just think of it as ACE to remember it, these are your anti oxidants, basically get rid of free radicals which causes the damage to the skin and body in the first place, so will all help with elascicity in the skin itself and condition.

Stay away from crappy food high in poor fats (sats, trans) chinese, chippy infact any fast food really as this does reflect on your skin, theres a long list but just use common sense on biggest part. Next plenty of water will hydrate the skin and keep it supple, and most of all eliminate alcohol, toxins get poured out onto the skin by the body i..e your whole "sweating out" process you hear off. This clogs pours causes a general mess anyway imo. Anyone who drinks alcohol regularly getting smashed etc 9/10 times their skin will look or feel crap, maybe that small percentage with genetically blessed skin will be ok lol but don't risk it.

Or is acne your problem?
 
B1C3P said:
Or is acne your problem?
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This, not paticularly bad tbh, just looking to improve it on my face.

Dont really eat fast food etc. Sometimes eat junk food like chocolate but stopping buying it now! Also completely cutting out (diet) fizzy juice! (built up the habit ~2 cans a day :o)

As for eating fish, meat etc apparently they're very acidic in your body =/ (particularly canned tuna, which I have lots of)
 
icecold said:
On bench? I hope not! But probably yes. I'm actually about to sack off HST (it's ended up being far too disjointed) and go back to my normal routine so I may or may not test my maxes soon.

Shorter people tend to have mechanical advantages, yes.

There is no set way of increasing strength, but if I was training you solely for strength then you would be doing something like this...

For deadlift:
Take 70% of your max and do it for 3 sets of 5 reps. Do all the reps explosively. Increase the weight by 5kg per week (1 deadlifting session per week) until you get to 80%. Then continue by doing 3 sets of 3 reps, and then 3x2 at 90%. Keep going after this until you get to your old max, and then in your next session test for a new 1 rep max.

This is a very simple progression, and at your current max should take 8 weeks.

Accessory work: pullups, DB row/bent over row (STRICT form - no movement in legs or change in back angle). All done with 3 sets of 5.


Squat:
Similar approach, but start at 60% with 5 reps so you're stopping at 90% with 2 reps, again, doing ALL the reps explosively. The next session work up in single reps to your old max and then see how high you can go.

The key issue with squats is going to be with form, hence starting with lower weights. Any advice would completely depend on how you currently lift, but there has been some good discussion in this thread recently (you will need to go back several pages). Adjust your increment so you spend at least two weeks at each rep range. For example, you might reduce it from 5kg to 2.5kg.

Accessory work: stiff leg deadlift, front squat and cable pull throughs (search on youtube).


Again, you will have zero progress and possible hurt yourself if you compromise your form. If I was actually training you, you wouldn't be going over ~80kg until you'd nailed the form. Don't assume you've got it yet, especially because an instructor said you do ;)

:D
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Thanks! some great advice there going to hit the gym today and see what I can get with the squats so I can see what I will work at. I'll set up the smith machine, well thats what I think its called, it says powerrack on it tho? Incase I have to ditch the weight and it doesn't just drop to the floor causing everyone to look at me =P. Will implement that deadlifting advice into my routine on monday then squats on wednesday or friday depending on how I feel :) I want to train these purely for strength but keep the rest of my routine 8 reps 3 sets to help me lose the rest of fat on my body :( .
 
Ultra_Extreme said:
excessive much?
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Slice 6 beat me. Will resume later after a rest :o

Ultra_Extreme said:
My brain is so heavily conditioned now that when i have white rice with my chicken i feel guilty all day. Having said which i have indulged in the odd pizza
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I try and eat enough protein, the right kind of carbs and fats when I can but I'm not too fussed about my diet. I've tried the clean and health diet and although I made slightly better gains in the gym and generally felt healthier I didn't enjoy it one bit.

stiv121 said:
Why avoid it? It is a lot safer than the other thing, maybe when I get better I will move on from it :)
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It forces your body in to a unnatural movement which puts more stress on your lower back and knees and doesn't work the stabiliser muscles which are extremely important for free weights.
 
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its only safe if you a typical gym homo that will never bench 3 figs and never squat double BW.

Otherwise you will end up strong in a single plane but weak as soon as that plane becomes deviated. Thus you build up lots of strength on the smith then try to help a m8 lift a fridge and your own muscles tear your joints apart.

Real safe
 
To be fair I taught someone how to squat using the smith.

Before anyone throws a brick at me, she was falling on her ass without the bar on her back when squatting, it was that bad. Didn't know much about mobility exercises back then but she couldn't hold the natural squat position.
2 weeks of squatting on the smith in the right position (maybe a bit too forwards - so that she ends up using the bar for the support a bit and that the movement was not too unnatural) and then we moved on to regular squat.

Another 2-3 months later she was repping body weight squats going parallel with decent form on the free weights, never gone back to squats ever since.
 
100kg front squat
1x3, 1x4.... I was wanting 5 damnit! had a poor positioning of it on my neck for the first set. Oh well thats 6 weeks of HST done for me, wasnt a great day for 5 rep maxes, got 87.5kgx3, 85x4 on the bench and 67.5kgx2x5 on CGBP. Deadlift was shoddy.
 
Saytan said:
it pretty much forces you to use poor form. Safety is relative....
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Aww ok I didn't realise this :( but I don't see how because all it does is stop the bar tipping from side to side, the bar is still able to move back and foward ? Maybe its not a smith machine I'll post a pic of it later.

Just back from the gym, great session as there was only a few people there :D I used the smith machine to get my max squat as I could set it so the bar wouldn't go much lower than the position where my thighs were parrallel to the floor so that I could drop it without it falling far.

Well worked my way up from 50kg 5kg at a time and I failed at 95kg twice :( got 90kg tho which I am over the moon with! It didn't feel as if I was putting any strain on my back but I still wore a belt :) The only thing was I took a wide stance as it fell much better ( A little bit more than shoulder width)

Over all great session felt a lot stronger on the bench tonight so I will have to increase the weights more next time :)x
 
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