*** The 2014 Gym Rats Thread ***

Freefaller said:
Sycho I suggested that you don't need to focus on arms initially as you wanted to get yourself lifting the important compounds well. :) Isolation is fine if you want to concentrate on definition and size specific training, but overall, do the right exercises you will get some bicep/tricep activation. Sure, it won't be the same as an isolated movement.

You do chest and triceps twice - personally if you're going to do a body part twice, it either has to be back or legs. For every pushing exercise you should do at least twice as many pulling movements.
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Yeah i've been going by what you said with my training the last few months, i.e more compounds which is working great and they've(my arms) definitely got bigger aswell as my body overall plus my fat gone down too.

I put them down as twice because it's a rotated workout- on the Sunday it would be Back/Bi then Shoulders/Legs Monday.

I do care a lot about definition....size is somewhat important so i've upped my reps to 12-15 on majority of exercises with usually 4 sets.Sometimes i'll do more contracted(?) training too which seems to work well?

Been doing swimming too lately after some workouts which is helping aswell but not too much of it.
 
Total training volume (or more specifically an increase in) is what matters, not a specific rep range. Higher rep work is useful for some exercises where low rep work could be potentially risky (small muscle groups/isolation movements) - most coaches these days recommend people work in several rep ranges, either per workout, light/heavy days or as part of their training cycle.

 
I like light / heavy splits personally. The light stuff can centred around form/mobility work. Heavy stuff can be lots of doubles and triples spread over numerous sets. The volume can still be high, but it's the intensity that matters too.
 
Indeed - it's all a balance between volume, intensity and frequency which will be individual based on things like training age, age/genetics/dr00gs, available time to train and so on.

In b4 someone says read Practical Programming.
 
I've seen people claim they incorporate heavy squats into every training day. Must have good recovery times unless they only train once or twice a week.
 
I am a bit stuck at what to do program-wise. I want to aim more for a bodybuilding perspective more than strength. I seem to have stagnated on stronglifts and I always preferred doing more individual days for a more intense burn in my muscles. How does something like; legs, chest/tri, back/bi, shoulders/tri sound like?

Legs: Squats 5*5, stiff leg deadlift, 3*8, leg press 3*8, bulgarians 3*8.
Chest/tri: Bench 5*5, dumbell press 3*8, dips 3*8, flyes 3*8, narrow-grip bench 3*8.
Back/bi: DL 5*5, BOR, 3*8, chins 3*10, 3*8, Lat pulldown 3*8, curls 3*10.
Shoulders/tri: OHP 5*5, dumbell press 3*8, tricep extension 3*8, lat raises 3*10.
 
Ayahuasca said:
I've seen people claim they incorporate heavy squats into every training day. Must have good recovery times unless they only train once or twice a week.
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I squat 2-3 a week at 80% at the moment. It is hard work, but the right diet and recovery is important.

However, it usually is a deload weight and a heavy weight session. Deload is about 75%. But that's how I respond.. But then again I'm not a beginner. It isn't something i would would recommend to a new trainer. You need to know what you are doing to do high volume and intense work outs.
 
Ayahuasca said:
I've seen people claim they incorporate heavy squats into every training day. Must have good recovery times unless they only train once or twice a week.
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It's something that can be built up - a mistake people think when they see Olympic lifters or people like Tom Martin training is that you can just jump straight into it, when in reality it takes a long time to develop that kind of work capacity.

Also you can go heavy (high intensity) without doing a ton of volume every single day - you can squat heavy to different degrees; back squats for sets/reps, front squat triples, a daily max (not a true 1RM attempt). Squatting every day doesn't necessarily mean 'every day is leg day'.
 
Freefaller said:
What do you do for your back at the moment?
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chest/back/trap day -;

chins - 10x4
dead - 5x5
bb shrugs - 10x4
bb rows - 5x5

rest of it -;

benches incline/decline/flat - 5x5 each
dips - 10x4

adding extra volume and replacing bb rows with pendlay rows might help get more thickness.. ?
 
Macky said:
I am a bit stuck at what to do program-wise. I want to aim more for a bodybuilding perspective more than strength. I seem to have stagnated on stronglifts and I always preferred doing more individual days for a more intense burn in my muscles. How does something like; legs, chest/tri, back/bi, shoulders/tri sound like?

Legs: Squats 5*5, stiff leg deadlift, 3*8, leg press 3*8, bulgarians 3*8.
Chest/tri: Bench 5*5, dumbell press 3*8, dips 3*8, flyes 3*8, narrow-grip bench 3*8.
Back/bi: DL 5*5, BOR, 3*8, chins 3*10, 3*8, Lat pulldown 3*8, curls 3*10.
Shoulders/tri: OHP 5*5, dumbell press 3*8, tricep extension 3*8, lat raises 3*10.
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Lyle McDonald's Generic Bulking Routine or other well-programmed Upper/Lower x2 a week split
HST
Brad Schoenfeld's MAX Muscle
Some Legs/Push/Pull x2 program every 7-10 days.
 
Somnambulist said:
It's something that can be built up - a mistake people think when they see Olympic lifters or people like Tom Martin training is that you can just jump straight into it, when in reality it takes a long time to develop that kind of work capacity.

Also you can go heavy (high intensity) without doing a ton of volume every single day - you can squat heavy to different degrees; back squats for sets/reps, front squat triples, a daily max (not a true 1RM attempt). Squatting every day doesn't necessarily mean 'every day is leg day'.
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Indeed, and I don't recommend doing 10+ tonnes of just leg work in a session, it is horrid! :D

It's about clever loading/deloading, and cycling through differing levels of effort (intensity) and volume (sets x reps) and rest times (intensity).

grudas said:
chest/back/trap day -;

chins - 10x4
dead - 5x5
bb shrugs - 10x4
bb rows - 5x5

rest of it -;

benches incline/decline/flat - 5x5 each
dips - 10x4

adding extra volume and replacing bb rows with pendlay rows might help get more thickness.. ?
Click to expand...

Urgh! No shrugs! Naughty boy! Pointless exercise.

Okay how about this (again I personally would spread this over a couple of days).

Weighted pull ups - pyramid up to what you can achieve about a few reps. Then drop set for as many reps as possible. So for example,
BW*10,
5*8,
10kg*6
15kg*4
15kg*4
15kg*4

Dropset

BW*as many reps as possible

Do that sort of progression for a few of the following exericses:

DB Rows.
T-Bar Rows.
BORs
Cable rows.
Chins (alernative to pull up)

Also work on your timing, nice slow negs.

Then of course you've got your deads which you are doing.

Or as an alternative progression, start off on a weight you can do say 10-12 reps. Then add the weight to 8-10, then 6-8, then 4-6 (for a couple or so sets) then a dropset.

Short pauses, slow negs, good form.
 
Freefaller said:
Urgh! No shrugs! Naughty boy! Pointless exercise.

Okay how about this (again I personally would spread this over a couple of days).

Weighted pull ups - pyramid up to what you can achieve about a few reps. Then drop set for as many reps as possible. So for example,
BW*10,
5*8,
10kg*6
15kg*4
15kg*4
15kg*4

Dropset

BW*as many reps as possible

Do that sort of progression for a few of the following exericses:

DB Rows.
T-Bar Rows.
BORs
Cable rows.
Chins (alernative to pull up)

Also work on your timing, nice slow negs.

Then of course you've got your deads which you are doing.

Or as an alternative progression, start off on a weight you can do say 10-12 reps. Then add the weight to 8-10, then 6-8, then 4-6 (for a couple or so sets) then a dropset.

Short pauses, slow negs, good form.
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really? I like the burn it gives to my traps.. so I wonder why is it pointless? I know deadlifts etc work my traps enough but that little bit extra cant be bad?

thank you, that does sound intense! and I do love pull ups..

will give it a shot and play around with my routine see if I can balance everything out over 3 days, 4 is going to be difficult with my work pattern..

DB rows are kinda limited too, dumbells max out at 30kg!

I'll probably be back soon with a revised routine for a review haha.
 
I look at this way, you only get to perform so many hours of exercise per week. Doing too much is detrimental to progress as it eats into your recovery and increases wear and tear on joints, tendons and eventually lowers your motivation.

So the trick is to choose workouts with exercises, sets and rep scheme's that offer the best bang for buck. So to have exercise X then you must drop exercise Y and so on...

Shrugs are one of the poorest bang for buck exercises out there, unless you have a very specific need to do that exericse for a limited period of time I'd avoid them. Could be useful when coming back from injury, looking to improve your grip but otherwise there's better ways to spend that vital time and energy.

DB Rows are one of the very best back builders and there are ways of making a 30kg DB plenty heavy enough. Try doing them lying forward on a incline bench (lowest setting, about 30 degree's) to remove any kind of cheating, fully stretch the lat at the bottom of every rep for a count of 2, bring the DB up to the side of your waist, squeezing the lat hard and hold for a count of 2 and lower the weight for a count of 3.... aim for 4 sets of 12-15 reps.
Do these after Deadlifts and Weighted Chins then come back and tell me 30kg isn't heavy enough :)
 
As above you really don't need much weight for bodybuilding, it's all about the mind muscle connection and dat squeeze. I regularly see the biggest bodybuilders at my gym using comparatively low weights, but their concentration and form is bang on. It's especially noticeable when using cable machines for some reason.
 
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