*** The 2016 Gym Rats Thread ***

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Cosmic182 said:
Do you guys think I'm eating enough?

Around 6 months ago I weighed 15 stone, today I'm nearly 16.5.
I can post my training plan if it helps.

Now obviously I've put weight on and it doesn't look nor feel like fat. I can see gains and can tell arms and chest are growing. But one of my main concerns is am I still eating enough...

Typically I start the day with a big bowl of porridge along with a protein shake.
Around 10am I have a granary bread sandwich (baguette - chicken)
12pm usually a bowl of wholewheat pasta and pesto)
5-6pm or dependent when training, I usually stack my dinner up post workout, usually consists of around a 4 egg omelette, broccoli, big steak or chicken breasts and a protein shake.
Hour or so later usually have a bowl of cereal (along the lines of wheatabix or something - none of these sugary ones, then a couple hours before bed some nuts.

Is my diet good, bad? Could be improved?
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Without a macros/calorie breakdown just listing food is mostly meaningless.
The most important thing is getting the majority of your intake from nutricious sources, getting plenty of variety in (no matter how 'clean' a diet is, if it lacks variety you can be lacking/deficient in certain things) and it being stuff you actually enjoy eating.

If you're gaining weight at a crawl while you're also making progress in the gym then that's all that matters; barring newbie gains or coming back from a layoff, muscle growth is a slow process and while you need to be gaining weight to be sure you're actually in a surplus, there's no point gaining weight quickly as most of it will be fat and the higher your body fat, the worse calorie partitioning gets and the worse the ratio of fat/muscle gain becomes in a surplus.
 
How much time is too much time for trigger point therapy?
I try and do some every session (sometimes pre, sometimes post workout), so about 5/6 times a week and I spend at least 30 mins and anything up to (like today) 1.5 hours :o and I could've easily done more.
It's just that when you have so many points to work at, time just passes by.

Just wondering if there's a more effective/efficient way of doing things or something?

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Also on a separate point (going to generalise a lot here), but how come physios don't seem to know what exercises to prescribe patients? Surely if they know the human anatomy and what muscles need be strengthened for the client they should know the appropriate exercises?

I had one person in today who didn't have anything wrong with her in particular (she just burnt out last year due to built up stress, etc, so just building up the fitness again), and she has made great progress with the cardio side of things, but the physio now said she needs to build some general full body strength so prescribed: very partial squats, lat pulldown, glute bridge, tricep pulldown and bicep curls :confused: ?? And the best part.. for the weights to be about 1-2kg?!
Now to put into context, this person is a young adult, normal BMI, not great strength but going through some stuff she could do 20kg on lat pulldown/leg press and squat with quite decent form to parallel without trying too hard.


And on a separate occasion (different physio), they needed me to show them some exercises for this fragile elderly lady that had dislocated her shoulder, to rebuild some strength in her shoulder joint.

Surely they should know all of this?
 
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There are physios and there are physios... The same way there are PTs and OTs. ;)

Some are sporty themselves and know a lot; others, not so much.

Regarding trigger point therapy, what are you trying to achieve? Sounds like a lot of curl time going to waste...
 
True true. It just seems that it's a very fundamental part to the job.


Well, I've been playing badminton for about ~7-8 years for several hours (can be anything up to ~12 hours) a week.
At the start I had quite bad technique so over time developed tendonitis (have had it for the best part of my time playing) and just beared it.

So everything around my shoulder (right side particularly more so) is so tight. I started trigger point therapy about 6-8 months ago (I can remember the first time I tried it; the PAIN! :eek:) and it's tons better but with the frequency/intensity that I still play badminton it's kind of a continual thing.

Up until now I've only really been rolling out the infraspinatus, mid and upper traps, teres minor and lats. Only recently started doing my chest/biceps tendon, and glutes/hip flexors (they both tight af). The supraspinatus is part of the problem as well but it's just too difficult to get by myself; I might get a sports massage for that.

So short answer; to minimise tightness, maintain/improve shoulder mobility, and improve hip mobility (I've also started mobility drills).
 
Tbh, get some yoga skills and assist with a band - nothing beats trying to wrench your arm out of its socket (I say this as somebody who has had to maintain fun overhead mobility).

Trigger point work is interesting, but ultimately needs doing as part of an overall regime:

- release/massage
- stretch
- strengthen

Doing any of those without the other will be counter productive.
 
If you take up yoga, then yes. ;)

Heavy stretching before a heavy (3RM) workout can be unhelpful, so it is worth thinking about how you structure your workouts. Lats on leg day, pecs on back day, etc.
 
Can confirm yoga. Helps having a hands-on teacher that likes pushing you deeper into stretches, hates comfort zones and makes you do some gruesome poses, arm balances and inversions every practice though - it's a lot harder than pushing and pulling metal plates about!
 
For their weight their strength is immense. Tremendous respect to powerlifters, especially Karl Ingvar, 1280 total and a realistic weight exceeding 1300 if he needed, the only weakness to his arsenal and the PL rules he follows is an equipped bench. Here is Kirill Sarychev developed more he would be unstoppable in the field

My preferred strongman guys I think Eddie Hall I gonna pull that 500kg this year. A friend says he pulled a 480 in training last year. Plus the size of him at the moment, if that holds come comp time its gonna blow the 463 away!
 
In PL for me it goes Jesse Norris > Brett Gibbs > the rest.

Despite being assisted Tom is definitely closing in on those two in my book.
 
MoNkeE said:
Do you think the others aren't assisted?
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Yea I do, the closer I get to the upper end of the spectrum the more I realise what can be achieved without assistance.

Given I'm only in the sport a bit more than 3 years (and I've only just started to understand what I'm doing) I could see how guys with proper training and nutrition over a longer period of time could achieve such levels.

I don't doubt there are more assisted lifters out there in the tested federations but I don't think it is as many as people believe :)
 
Interesting Reiyushin. I suppose it's the difference between someone wanting to be competitive NOW and having to spend 5 years catching up, just because you're 5 years younger?

FF, why?
 
My last ever session with my PT tonight, we agreed that a 1RM testing session to benchmark where I'm at would be a good idea.

Pretty pleased with the results, given that 6 months ago I couldn't do a bodyweight squat without falling on my arse.

Bench (my weakest lift)
55kg

Squat
85kg

Deadlift (and hurrah, my form has returned!)
135kg.

Gives me a good indication of what I should be looking at when I start DUP next week.
 
Freefaller said:
I thought he had achieved all this naturally.
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He only recently left the IPF and started competing in an untested federation - his strength and lifts were unreal up to that point already, as we all know! My guess was he was point where his total was only improving marginally, and if he wanted to compete with the Dan Green's of the world and break Coan's record at 100kg etc, then he'd have to use the same magic tricks they did. The fact that he hasn't stayed in the IPF and played the dodge-the-testing game a lot of them do is commendable since he can do what he likes now and not have to lie about it.

I'll copy/paste what he wrote on his training log in November when someone asked about it:

Firstly, thank you, and secondly I'm going to say this once and once only.

I post under my real name. I'm not only widely recognisable in the lifting community, but pretty ***king easy for anyone outside of the lifting community to find out anything I have publicly admitted to should they wish to. As you've not specifically mentioned what it is you're alluding to, I feel somewhat comfortable replying in this one instance by saying, if you can't tell by now, then you have no business knowing in the first place, and if you can tell, then you don't need me to openly admit to anything. By leaving the IPF and moving to this particular federation, I've made it nobodys business but my own what I want to do.
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I'm not putting down his achievements. I just naively thought he was natural. As you say he was and is phenomenally strong without - I just hadn't realised.

I'm not suggesting it's a magic potion - it still requires extremely hard training, and good diet etc... I guess if he wants to compete in a different field he has to level the playing field and I totally get that, and that's perfectly fine.

I just hadn't clicked or realised his new journey. I wish him all the best, and will continue to follow his progress and be amazed by his lifts.

I just personally think it's a shame as he did so well naturally. I know I will never be that strong or be a world class lifter, but I'm happy to accept that and not willing to compromise on that, each to their own and all that jazz.
 
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