*** The 2014 Gym Rats Thread ***

Associate
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Will losing 1stone by may be a fairly easy task if I stick at it? I'm just under 6ft and currently 13st4 - 13st10 (varies quite a bit). Over Christmas and this month I've gained a noticeable belly and am not happy with it really. I've given up alcohol, but seem to have swapped to snacks on a night now so mainly need to stop that and do a bit more exercise.
so losing 1st (mainly the belly) by my mates wedding in may, fairly easy?
 
Man of Honour
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A small private gym called kinesis the layout looks like this:

14.jpg


It's only been there 2 months.

There are 3 floors - but all the big weights are downstairs.
 
Man of Honour
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Will losing 1stone by may be a fairly easy task if I stick at it? I'm just under 6ft and currently 13st4 - 13st10 (varies quite a bit). Over Christmas and this month I've gained a noticeable belly and am not happy with it really. I've given up alcohol, but seem to have swapped to snacks on a night now so mainly need to stop that and do a bit more exercise.
so losing 1st (mainly the belly) by my mates wedding in may, fairly easy?

Very, that's roughly 1lb per week which means you only need to cut down by 500kcals a day whether that's by taking it out of your diet or exercising enough to burn 500kcals or a combination of both.
 
Soldato
Joined
25 Sep 2006
Posts
14,358
Will losing 1stone by may be a fairly easy task if I stick at it? I'm just under 6ft and currently 13st4 - 13st10 (varies quite a bit). Over Christmas and this month I've gained a noticeable belly and am not happy with it really. I've given up alcohol, but seem to have swapped to snacks on a night now so mainly need to stop that and do a bit more exercise.
so losing 1st (mainly the belly) by my mates wedding in may, fairly easy?

Yes, with everything in check that should be a walk in the park.

A small private gym called kinesis the layout looks like this:

IMG/Snip

It's only been there 2 months.

There are 3 floors - but all the big weights are downstairs.

Looks delicious.
 
Soldato
Joined
16 Nov 2004
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London
I'm about to hand my notice in at David Lloyd! \:cool:/ I shall be saving myself nearly £600 this year as a result.

Goodbye DL you bloody useless POS gym. Bloody 3 month notice, but meh, it's done.

Happy days.

My mate was paying £90 a month for them, everytime he went some machines didn't work, staff were rude and it was completely hammered at peak times.

He saved £700 joining the one i go to now, the new one you are going to has a very nice layout.

Done my first deadlifts today, only started with 40/50kg as i want my form perfect but did 4 sets and it felt great.Done 4 sets of benchpress too but only 40kg as again i want to get my form perfect.(i've only done it twice before since starting but form was lacking.)

Did my first squats last weds....my legs hurt like crazy until Friday could barely walk downstairs.:D

It's wierd that i legpress 100kg 3x8 yet on squats i was struggling with 50/60kg 3x8 at first....seems my core needs a lot of stengthening which will come with time.
 
Man of Honour
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I'll be spending most of my time in the middle on the olympic platform. ;)

To the door in the bottom left there's another little alcove where there's a smith machine - so again I shan't be going in there either :p

All the machines are Cybex plate loaded ones so whilst I don't use machines very often, sometimes they're good - they also move in 2 dimensions so better than most.
 
Soldato
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17 Jun 2010
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London
They have a hack squat machine in my gym, everyone bottoms out on it and you see all kinds of butt-tuck. :-/ Equipment isn't bad overall at mine it's just a pity there's only one squat rack which is often used for the usual other things and it's a bit tight space wise as they have so much crammed in + above some shops so they get a bit arsey about deadlifts unless you use a few mats - I end up having to stand on mats to get the bar height back to normal...

http://www.rippedmuscleandfitnessltd.co.uk/gallery.html

There's this gym down the road from me too which I'd rather go to but the current one is better placed being nearer the train station (when I come back from work) and has better bus links. http://www.elitegymuk.com/ I believe they have at least 2 squat racks. Gah, dem need to squat but can't cuz someone is doing shrugs/rack pulls/curls/rows feels. :(
 
Soldato
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23 Apr 2006
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Nottingham
Hi Gents

Quick question, are gloves in the gym a no no :) I seem to struggle at times with grip so was going to grab a pair and see if they help

Thanks

If anything it will probably make it worse. Would be far more beneficial to pick up some liquid chalk from MyProtein. Could always do some heavy grip work too (will let someone else chime in on that if you want a list).
 
Man of Honour
OP
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3 Apr 2003
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15,627
Location
Cambridge
Hi Gents

Quick question, are gloves in the gym a no no :) I seem to struggle at times with grip so was going to grab a pair and see if they help

Thanks

The actual 'grip' of your hand relates to the strength of your forearm muscles (i.e. the contractile apparatus of the fingers: what you're effectively saying is that those muscles are not as strong as you would like. They are no different from the others in your body and need strengthening. On that basis, do you really think sticking another notsogrippy layer between your hand and the bar/dumbell is going to improve the situation?

If anything it will probably make it worse. Would be far more beneficial to pick up some liquid chalk from MyProtein. Could always do some heavy grip work too (will let someone else chime in on that if you want a list).

As Deception points out, they won't help, and will actually make the problem worse over time as the unstable grip will probably lead to greater fatigue of the interosseous muscles (those between the metacarpals) more so than lifting without.

The best 'augmentors' of grip come in four (edited because I can't count) sizes:

- More static bar/weight/whatever holds: load up a bar with something heavy that you can lift and just hold it; towel holds, plate pinches, etc.
- Chalk: absorbs the sweat from your hands, making the bar easier to hold.
- Lifting straps: if your hands are tiring before whatever muscles are being worked, then these will take the strain off your forearms in specific circumstances.
- FatGripz/Bar work: increasing the diameter of the bar/dumbell you're holding significantly increases the amount of work your forearm muscles have to do, leading to untold misery, but a much better group strength.
 
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