*** The 2013 Gym Rats Thread ***
- Thread starter Morba
- Start date
I wear knee sleeves when I'm squatting. They only give a little bit of extra support and warmth but its enough to make me hate squatting without them.
I don't use a slingshot myself but a guy I train with sometimes uses one and he's a raw bencher with a 195kg max. Konstantinov also claims to use one in 90% of his bench training. Both of them use quite a narrow grip though.
Sounds like you want to strength train.
For the lose of weight, you'll need to check your diet.
Cheers Ice.
I'm going through a transition at the moment and trying to adapt most of my training to using barbells, for the usual reasons but above all because from September I'm going to start bulking.
My workouts at the moment during this cut are almost entirely revolving around the big 3 (still learning to deadlift properly) and then weighted parallel dips, chin ups, pull ups, wide grip pull ups, close grip bench press and a few accessory things. RPT with the squats/bench/cg bench seems to be working incredibly well to the fact I'm still getting stronger despite losing weight on a weekly basis
However... one problem I have is shoulders. I hate the standing military press, at the moment I'm using DBs and getting up about 30kg on each shoulder for 8 reps but I'm stagnating. I've never been able to get above that. What would people on here suggest I do for my primary shoulder compound? How about a seated BB military press? Any suggestions? I just want something I can get stuck into and increase the poundage progressively week by week when I'm bulking.
Could putting the press at the start of your workout help? See if you can manage more weight/reps, seeing as shoulders tire quickly.
The sleeves are fully allowed in competitions and if they help I'd like all the support I can get, NI squat record stands at 230
don't want to drop £60 on something that's useless though, I appreciate the feedback 
Caporegime
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They're not useless but if you're buying them to increase your squat you're wasting your money.The sleeves are fully allowed in competitions and if they help I'd like all the support I can get, NI squat record stands at 230
howdy folks, so what a good number of sets to do. i tend to do a ton. around 8-10 sets of any exersise im doing.
it seems to be working as i see improvements in the areas im training - still cant see my abs though
i just see the training logs and people dont tend to do that many sets.
it seems to be working as i see improvements in the areas im training - still cant see my abs though
i just see the training logs and people dont tend to do that many sets.
well when using dumbells on a flat bench 30kg dumbells, i warm up for 1 set using 26's and then the remaining using the 30's. (thats the biggest they have)
decline is the same, incline i do 1 set at 24kg and the rest at 26-28kg.
when i can get on the actual bench. i do 1 set at 60kg and then the rest at 80-85kg sometimes up to 90kg.(have no spotter so wouldnt wanna go much higher, the max i have ever done is 110kg for 1 rep)
apart from that i do curls with a straight bar. doing dropsets 30kg, 20kg, 15kg (i do this around 8 times)
im 5ft 6" (yes i know im midget sized) i weigh 79kg. and i dont know BF%. doing it in the 3 places (leg, belly, chest it would vary so much. leg is lean from a lot of bike riding, chest is lean from lifting, belly is podgy from doughnuts and biscuits)
dips i do BW + hold a 10kg dumbell between my legs.
Ok. That's interesting.
As LiE points out, you're not lifting enough weight and not pushing your body hard enough.
Generally, a very rough, basic guide (unless doing something specific) somewhere around 25 reps (3*8, 6*4, 5*5, etc.), with hypertrophy in the "more reps, less weight" category, and strength in the "fewer reps, more weight" region.
As you haven't said how many reps you're going for, it makes it difficult to determine what you're actually doing.
And you have a belly because your diet is bad. Your chest and legs are lean because your diet is also bad... not much to do with your cycling or benching, I'm afraid.
how does the bad diet contribute to leanness?
i do around 10 reps per exercise. i aim for 10 anyways, with the curls dropset style i start off at 10 and then by then end im down to around 6-7.
i have tried tracking stuff but i get so confused by it all and can never stick to it, to be fair i dont think my diet is mega bad nowadays.
ive cut out all biscuits now, cut out all sugar from tea/coffee. tea intake is down to 1 a day (either 1 tea or 1 coffee) the rest is water or squash.
general day goes as follows.
Breakfast : Cereal (either granola or special k)
lunch: either a microwaveable uncle bens rice or the previous nights left overs.
pre-workouts: banana
dinner: spag bol, chilli, grilled chicken & rice, omelette, chicken tonight.
on the weekends, lunch is normally a sarny.
i do have a protein shake almost daily as its clear i dont get enough protein from foods.
thats my intake for the day, i dont snack and when i do its a banana
it doesnt really ever deviate from that. (on occasions - once or twice a month we have a takeaway on a friday night)
i only drink beer when on nights out (around once a month)
this is a picture, albeit a bad one.
my stomach (i constantly tense as it looks flatter
)So you don't really have a belly, I take it?
without tensing, using a caliper jobby i measure around 20-25% BF on the belly.
will read the sticky.
i dropped all the crap in the hope the bf percentage would drop but it doesnt seem too. i could eat double and it stays the same.
so if i up my weight as much as possible (physically cant on the dumbells unless there is a clever way of picking 2 at a time up)
i need to try get on the bench much more. ill just use the boxing stance and hopefully the big dudes that use it will run.
i feel doomed.
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Callipers don't work that way.
Once you've read the sticky you will understand a bit more. Eating too little with not help your goals.
Yes get on the bench press more.