*** The 2012 Gym Rats Thread ***

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MoNkeE said:
Drop a cardio day (I'd drop the day after your leg workout), you'll burn yourself out and it's nice to have a day of absolute rest.

Move abs on to a cardio day, and do it before cardio. Legs should leave you completely fried and not wanting to do more, so you'll either always skip abs, or jnot put my effort in to it!

Diet needs some work too. Drop the granola bar and have smaller portions of chicken and rice throughout the day if you're cutting. I wouldn't have an apple as a snack either, as the sugar will just make you feel lethargic, and personally (others may disagree) I'd avoid nuts if I were trying to lose weight! Very calorific.
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Hmm yes when I did the Abs it was just me struggling, I really tried to push it on my legs. I think 1 rest day sounds best, and I will drop the apple and other snacks for some more protein, cheers for the advice man.

Fluttershy said:
Not much point giving diet advice until he's worked out how many calories it is. Could be eating 5 nuts and tiny chicken portions anyway and could even be under eating with that.
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Guess I should have added more detail, I try to aim for around 100-120grams for chicken/fish, and the nuts its about 20g just to let me nibble on something at work. I haven't calculated the exact calories I taken in I will search for a good tool to figure that out now and post back thanks.
 
Looks like I'm under eating, only taken in 1550 calories today (including a cheat 1/2 chocolate bar that my GF forced down my throat). I think I will sub my snacks for some brown rice and chicken that should help boost it up.

Finally I was thinking to get some good WHEY protein to drink after my work out, and recommendations?

Thanks for all the advice guys feel like I know what I'm doing more now.

Scon said:
Myfitnesspal works well for me!
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This seems quiet good, going to sign up. I found a site that was also really nice http://www.livestrong.com/myplate

Looking at livestrong it seems I'm taking 25% protein, 55% crabs and the rest is fat, think I will increase the protein.
 
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Very tiring session today.

Took a chance on some box squats (hip crease below knee obvs) and there was zero adductor pain \o/. Top set was 180x5 which I think is actually a box squat PB, and not too bad for not squatting for a few months. I was fatiguing very quickly though, so there is definitely some adaptation to occur. Might have been more there if I'd backed myself to go heavier on my initial, but because of the fatigue there was no way I was going to increase after 180kg.

Bench was a little weak, but I PB'd on wide grip when I moved on to it, so I think it's just an anomaly. Also did RDLs with 200kg for 3 sets of 5, which I shall also claim as a "sets" PB. My hammies are so much stronger than my upper back at the moment, the hardest part was keeping my scaps pinched.
 
Absolutely knackered now.

Box squat, bench, paused deads, various rows and topping it all off with core work.

Session was waaay too long but managed a nice rep PB of 140kgx4 on box squat and again on paused deads with 160kgx4. Vids to come.

Also finally sorted out the videos from nationals and it is just uploading now.
 
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Freefaller said:
Why is it that anterior loaded step ups kill me so much??! :( Well I know why, it highlights weaknesses in my single leg strength, but also highlights glute activation in a big way. So close to failing a few times, just like that stage at the bottom of the squat when you know it's going to "go".

Feels good , but bloody hell it's not easy.
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Hah! :D

I always spank on split squats for instance :p That and reverse lunges, my balance is terrible nowadays.
 
icecold said:
Living the diet dream!
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Disregard carbohydrates, acquire crabs :X

Fallen god, stick everything through MyFitnesspal - really is very good just to find out how many kcals you eat on an average day. You don't have to fill it out every day, just for what your daily diet is.

I have a love hate relationship with my shoulder routine. I just don't seem to be making progress, been stuck at 42.5kg OHP for ages now.
 
My shoulders just plain suck. Slowly working on them and the shoulder seems to be holding up, just got to do it slowly sadly.
 
Oh mine isn't from painful shoulders, I just want to break through on to 45kg for 3x8. Gon' take a while though I think!
 
MoNkeE said:
Oh mine isn't from painful shoulders, I just want to break through on to 45kg for 3x8. Gon' take a while though I think!
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Maybe try lower reps as I know my shoulders fatigue pretty fast when doing 5+. Once you got past it by a good margin, then go back and try 3x8.
 
Caffeine. Lots of caffeine.

Remember the shoulders are pretty small as muscle groups go, so the gains will always be smaller than for stuff like squats, dead lifts and so on.

As Deception suggests, you might want to drop the size of each set and concentrate on upping the weight lifted. Also, you could always do 'assistance' work by push pressing a bigger load, and then lowering it to shoulders slowly to get some eccentric loading of the shoulders...

I tried the latter, and found 80kgs can go up via push press (glute drive ftw) and actually comes down nice and slowly. But my goodness does it hurt afterwards. :)
 
Deception, think I'll give that a go next week :)

mrthingyx, I always finish off the set with push press when my shoulders fatigue to the point of failure!
 
MoNkeE said:
Oh mine isn't from painful shoulders, I just want to break through on to 45kg for 3x8. Gon' take a while though I think!
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As said, either up the weight and lower the reps, or do the opposite for a bit. Failing that, try and do 1 set of 8, then the next, then the next. Each week you should theoretically improve unless (which I'm presuming) it's on the end of your scale weight wise.

I think I'm only on 32.5, can't remember currently, but it's going up still so I'm happy
 
MoNkeE said:
Deception, think I'll give that a go next week :)

mrthingyx, I always finish off the set with push press when my shoulders fatigue to the point of failure!
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Hehe... Same here. However, if you push press a much bigger load (I was also stuck on 45kg shoulder press for ages), and get some good eccentric loading done, ate shoulder press will benefit. I changed to this routine and manag around 2kg/week as an average gain. Honeymoon period, obviously (into sixth week now), but still nice to see. :)
 
Delvis said:
As said, either up the weight and lower the reps, or do the opposite for a bit. Failing that, try and do 1 set of 8, then the next, then the next. Each week you should theoretically improve unless (which I'm presuming) it's on the end of your scale weight wise.
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So I shouldn't be doing all three sets instantaneously? :confused:
 
MoNkeE said:
So I shouldn't be doing all three sets instantaneously? :confused:
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Well yes, but you've hit a plateau.

For instance, I can't do 3x10x40kg on DB bench at the moment, but by progressively adding more reps each week I will hopefully do it this week. It may be different for me as I'm still making some significant strength gains due to training like a pansy previously, so it may be different in your case.

EDIT: And to clarify, I'll just add on an extra set of something if I feel it needs more work.
 
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