*** The 2012 Gym Rats Thread ***

[Noroom]

Has anyone here tried one of those spin classes, feel the need to get back into cardio more than I have and from what I've heard there quite good.

 

[Amadeus]

leg press

Well first time post here, been going to gym on and off for years, only recently spent a couple months getting into it. Goal is to shed fat build some muscle and get fit. Doing kettlebells which have made a real difference in my look in terms of pulling the whole together.

However, my knees are not great and squats are awful for me. I have started to use the leg press and up to 10reps with 130Kg. Weird thing is only glutes and hamstrings are sore. I never seem to get quad soreness even when trying to position feet lower down and 'squeeze'. I wonder if tendon strength is really 'working' the weight up...or am I misguided here?

Any thoughts appreciated!

 

[currantloaf]

Had quite a good return to the gym. been extremely busy and didn't get to go for about two weeks. Nice chest and lolbicep workout. Need a lot of work on triceps but i do not seem too efficient at maximising them, gonna try add another set of dips and skullcrushers however my elbows seem to turn out a lot. Hmm

 

[icecold]

Hmm, the Eggs for breakfast sounds like a good idea, and I'd considered the milk myself, so will look at it.



Yeah, but it's only 3 sessions a week (5 hours), nothing like what I used to. Saying that when I used to train my diet was probably worse than it is now and I never had any issues with adding muscle...

Edit:
In light of comments above xD
I've figured, I'll add in one egg, as I've now increased the chicken in my fajitas, I can probably fill up another wrap, and also I've added in more rice at lunch. Added in the extra half pint of milk as well. Calories are now slightly over, but should help with the swimming - as everyone's pointed out.

kd

Still not enough IMO, to scrape into your minimum protein amount while including protein from sources that don't have the best amino profiles isn't ideal.

THREE p) eggs in the morning, and you still probably need something else.

 

[Psymonkee]

Finally back in the gym after just over a week out with chaotic car (breakdowns are fun) and feeling unwell including balance issues

Hit the weights hard tonight to make up for it - glad to be back on it

 

[odevans]

Well first time post here, been going to gym on and off for years, only recently spent a couple months getting into it. Goal is to shed fat build some muscle and get fit. Doing kettlebells which have made a real difference in my look in terms of pulling the whole together.

However, my knees are not great and squats are awful for me. I have started to use the leg press and up to 10reps with 130Kg. Weird thing is only glutes and hamstrings are sore. I never seem to get quad soreness even when trying to position feet lower down and 'squeeze'. I wonder if tendon strength is really 'working' the weight up...or am I misguided here?

Any thoughts appreciated!

What is stopping you from squatting? The usual cause of being crap at squats, is poor mobility. Do you stretch much? If not, you should try stretching after your workouts;I recommend PNF.

How wide are you feet positioned when you use the leg-press? As with squatting, the wider you go, the more weight is shifted to your hamstrings, the narrower you go, the more weight is shifted to your quads. When I use the leg-press, I have my feet a few inches narrower than shoulder width. I should also add, that when you go wide, more torque is put on your hips, and more torque is put on your knees when you use a narrower stance.

 

[Delvis]

Has anyone here tried one of those spin classes, feel the need to get back into cardio more than I have and from what I've heard there quite good.

Not personally, but someone I know loves them. I can see how they knacker you out, but they're not for me really

Then again the person who I know who goes to these is a stick anyway and a female

 

[Delvis]

Chest session last night, should felt alright, some slight tightness, but I think it's in better condition than previous sessions due to the form check last week:

Bench:
1 x 10 x Bar
1 x 4 x 32.5KG
1 x 2 x 40KG
3 x 8 x 45KG

I actually found this easier than last week...So maybe the form has made the sets easier? God knows, there was less discomfort in my shoulder, so it's got to be a good thing.

Flys:
3 x 8 x 7.5KG
Same as last week due to my shoulder being a bit funny from last week, I didn't want to overload it, and flys are reasonably troublesome for aggravating it.

French Press:
3 x 8 x 15KG
These are getting hard now. Question, Should I have my back supported in some manner?

CGBP:
3 x 10 x Bar
Not done these before, but they're pretty awesome. Again, where should the hands be on the bar?

Push-ups with kness down:
14

Push-ups done purely to kill me really.

 

[MoNkeE]

Push-ups with kness down:

That's not a push up, or even a variation of a push up. It's a move I often refer to as a "woman-up"

 

[Delvis]

That's not a push up, or even a variation of a push up. It's a move I often refer to as a "woman-up"

It is indeed. However I'd rather bash out a load of them to cain my tri's rather than 2 push-ups

 

[Chris1712]

Well first time post here, been going to gym on and off for years, only recently spent a couple months getting into it. Goal is to shed fat build some muscle and get fit. Doing kettlebells which have made a real difference in my look in terms of pulling the whole together.

However, my knees are not great and squats are awful for me. I have started to use the leg press and up to 10reps with 130Kg. Weird thing is only glutes and hamstrings are sore. I never seem to get quad soreness even when trying to position feet lower down and 'squeeze'. I wonder if tendon strength is really 'working' the weight up...or am I misguided here?

Any thoughts appreciated!

Make the angle of the back support shallower to emphasise quads, steeper to emphasise hips.

Unfortunately the leg press is not even a little bit comparable to a back squat, within about 6 months of active gymmage I max'd the leg press weight stack at our gym but couldn't squat even half that a year later.

 

[Sider]

Hi Guys,

Just after some general advise really. So here is my background:
I currently weigh in at 12st 8 which for me is a little high, im 6 foot with a little bit of a belly. So I joined a local gym in Liverpool where I am currently working in an attempt to shed some pounds and hopefully gain some definition. Now I'm no, what I would call, 'beefcake' or do I ever really intend on looking like one. However, I would like to have more definition all over really. At the moment however all I tend to do is ~15 mins jogging coupled with me wondering around the resistance machine room with no plan and about 10 mins of core (planks etc)

So this is my problem: I have very little experience of using weights at all, infact going in to the free weights room scares the life out of me (sissy i know ). I used to get on well with kettlebells at my old gym and I had a pretty good routine nailed down but unfortunately the gym I am now at does not have any

So can any one advise me on a good starter workout to go along side some cardio that mainly uses dumbbells to help me achieve a bit of weight loss with some added definition?

Thanks

 

[King Damager]

Was time to test out Leg Max's today.

Quite painful, but wasn't too bad.

Quite pleased with my 80 second Static Squat. No doubt others would demolish it, but it's a nice starting point

kd

 

[LiE]

Not done static squat, is it a case of holding the rep at the bottom for as long as possible? What kind of weight do you do?

 

[King Damager]

Not done static squat, is it a case of holding the rep at the bottom for as long as possible? What kind of weight do you do?

Yeah, hold at the bottom for as long as possible. Most times Static Squats are done without weights, although you could throw them in if you wanted.

No idea what weight I could squat at the moment though, as I'm just grabbing whatever weight I can find (about 20kg), and doing as many reps instead. Perhaps not the best method, but it'll do for now until I find room in the budget for the gym, or more weights. Frankly Gym is going to be the better choice as it'll obviously give much more room to improve in future.

kd

 

[oddjob62]

Sucks that i'm now doing 5x5 squats with a weight i used to 20rep easily. Man i feel old

 

[MoNkeE]

Have you just got back in to it after a break oddjob? Or I seem to remember FF saying you've cut down tremendously?

 

[rhysduck]

To shift fat you're going to have to spend more calories than you take in each day. Whether this is from diet, training or a combination of both is up to you. If you like eating you'll need to put more time into training and it will likely slow down your progress.

Do I need to be training EVERY day?
I'm slowly starting to eat 'normal', IE breakfast. and cutting down the size of my lunch meals. I need to stick to eating at a sensible time after work too.

 

[oddjob62]

Have you just got back in to it after a break oddjob? Or I seem to remember FF saying you've cut down tremendously?

Nah it's probably more to do with the fact that back then I weighed 5stone more, did very little cardio and didn't care about how much I ate (lets just say 3000cals in one sitting wasn't extreme). Still annoying.

 

[tom_e]

Do I need to be training EVERY day?
I'm slowly starting to eat 'normal', IE breakfast. and cutting down the size of my lunch meals. I need to stick to eating at a sensible time after work too.

Nope, if you're training with weights then having a day off in between sessions for recovery is best. If you then want to drop some cardio in on your off days then that's up to you.