*** The 2013 Gym Rats Thread ***

Much more impressive and respectable to be able to lift strong in all areas rather than just one.
 
Gecco said:
Thanks LiE & Delvis

The owner of the gym i go to mentioned that I might be overtraining arms - his reasoning was that you always use biceps/triceps (sorry for the biZep/triZep spelling I'm native austrian) when doing other exercises. Not sure about his qualifications but he is big:D and he only does 6 sets in total. And reading on BB forums/youtube some say the same thing.

And yes I know my deads/squats are not as good but then again I don't really care as I do not enjoy them as much as bench pressing.
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If you've adopted that philosophy, then yes - you probably are overtraining arms.

If you're natural, then squat and deadlift (mostly squat) are vitally important to your deveopment as either a bodybuilder or powerlifter.
 
question for the more experienced trainers....for building mass (with some strength of course :) ), what do you think is the best type of training...

High Volume with slightly lower weight...3-5 sets of say 6-10 reps

or High Intensity type Training...1-2 warmup sets getting heaveir with high reps 10-15, then say 1 set heavy to total failure 7-9 reps

thoughts on a postcard please :D
 
Managed to do 6 Reps of 120KG Deadlift + 1 Rep 130KG Today, 2 Weeks ago i could only do 2 reps on 120kg :)
 
toxic said:
question for the more experienced trainers....for building mass (with some strength of course :) ), what do you think is the best type of training...

High Volume with slightly lower weight...3-5 sets of say 6-10 reps

or High Intensity type Training...1-2 warmup sets getting heaveir with high reps 10-15, then say 1 set heavy to total failure 7-9 reps

thoughts on a postcard please :D
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You don't need high volume for size and/or strength. High frequency, low volume and a progressive load will give you both. (HST)
 
I really do want to cry now.

Squats are down by 50kg. DB Shoulder Presses down 10kg :(

It has only been 2 months since I last lifted. Please someone tell me it's just a case of brushing the dust of my muscles and next week I'll be back to what I'm used to or at least lifting far more than this week. Muscle memory or whatever it's called!

Sorry for being petulant but some wise words would make me feel much better.
 
Give it a few weeks and you should ave recovered a fair bit of what you feel you ave lost. Time frame is entirely dependentn how ard you are willing to work :)
 
mrthingyx said:
Give it a few weeks and you should ave recovered a fair bit of what you feel you ave lost. Time frame is entirely dependentn how ard you are willing to work :)
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I've changed my gym routine now so the focus is mainly around compound movements and giving each set my full effort. In fact the session I just did was pretty much entirely Squats and DB Shoulder Press.

I'm putting so much effort into nailing my diet at the moment gym sessions are pretty much the highlight of my day. I'm only training 3 times a week for 1 hour but I'm giving it my absolute 100%.
 
You don't need high volume for size and/or strength. High frequency, low volume and a progressive load will give you both. (HST)
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You may not need but I would personally alternate with both to see what provides the most gains.
 
Am I overtraining arms or not?
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There's no easy answer to this one apart from the fact that if you feel you have sufficiently recovered to handle your next upper-body workout then I would say no.
 
Gym today:

Bench Press
30 x 10
60 x 8
60 x 8
70 x 1 (lol)
30 x 12

Seated Row
40 x 10
80 x 10
120 x 8
120 x 8
This seems like a very easy machine to me and I'm suspicious of it

DB Shoulder Press
17.5 x 10
17.5 x 10
22.5 x 5
17.5 x 8(f)

DB chest fly
17.5 x 10
20 x 8 (f)
20 x 8 (f)

Lat pull down
40 x 10
55 x 8
55 x 8
40 x 15

Lateral DB raise
7.5 x 10
7.5 x 10
12.5 x 3
7.5 x 10

Doing a split upper/lower body workout at the moment. My bench is terrible and needs work. Would you change anything in this upper body day? I'm a bit inconsistent with my sets and reps. I try to do a lighter warm up set for the "big exercises" bench, row and shoulder press then 3 working sets. I've been trying drop sets and I quite like them so will continue with this I think. I was previously doing 5x5 but I'm going to try a month of this then switch back to 5x5 to keep it fresh.
 
tom_nieto said:
Doing a split upper/lower body workout at the moment. My bench is terrible and needs work. Would you change anything in this upper body day? I'm a bit inconsistent with my sets and reps. I try to do a lighter warm up set for the "big exercises" bench, row and shoulder press then 3 working sets. I've been trying drop sets and I quite like them so will continue with this I think. I was previously doing 5x5 but I'm going to try a month of this then switch back to 5x5 to keep it fresh.
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I would highly recommend dropping the Lat Pull Downs and doing wide grip pull ups instead. You'll find your strength increases far more quickly, not to mention pull ups work a larger range of stabiliser muscles. I have also found you tend to really give it 100% with pull ups so as to not fail and look like an idiot, that may be purely psychological but it counts. That said I'm not sure I'd have the energy to do a decent set of pull ups after bench press and shoulder press.

Also from experience when I struggled to get heavy lifts from the BB bench I switched over to doing DB chest press. I found I could push myself harder - not in terms of weight - but you don't need a spotter and you can really give it 100% without having to worry about anything. I quickly progressed from managing 8 reps of 30kg (based on your shoulders you should be able to manage this or just under) to 40kg and then went back to the BB bench to progress on lifting heavier weights.

I would add that I am no expert compared to some of the other members and have only been doing weights seriously for about a year but those are two observations I have made from my experiences in the gym so far.
 
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I feel that my bench is comparatively weak and for my size (100kg) I should be pushing a lot more, althought I don't think I've ever benched more than 80. Also lol because it probably looked like I was curling out a particularly stubborn turd. I wasn't exactly graceful, more get the damned thing in the air whatever happens.

I'll replace lat pull downs with pull ups, although I'm not sure how many I'll be able to do, especially wide grip!

The problem at the moment with work (yes, cry me a river) is that I'm only regularly getting 2 sessions in a week. My gym also closes at 9. This is 2 more sessions a week than previously, but I do feel that I'd really benefit from a third. Going to man up after the clinic from hell on Thursday and squeeze in some HIIT on the treadmill before closing time.

EDIT: still seeing noob gains :D. I'm down 3 kg and increasing strength (albeit a little slower).
 
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Weak in comparison to what? Your bodyweight? That doesn't really make any sense does it ;). Generally if your squat is 1.5-1.75x bench and deadlift is 1.75-2x bench then your on the right track, ish.
 
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