* The 2016 Gym Rats Thread *

mrthingyx · 3 Jul 2016 at 21:04

Baxter said:
I'm going to start some shoulder mobility work. I've started doing some shoulder dislocations, internal and external rotation and scaption raises. Would I be ok doing these everyday? I will probably do them in the evening with some light dumbbells at home whilst my main workout is during lunch. Also thinking about slinging some push ups in each evening cos dat chest.

Everybody should do them every day.

And as long as you stretch your pecs and your shoulders are behaving, push-ups are fine. Although a tad pointless for size by themselves without weight (if you bench more than 60% BW)...

NexusK · 4 Jul 2016 at 10:11

OHP is really falling behind for me on SL. I had to de-load everything a couple of weeks ago as i hadn't been to the gym in ~10 days but i was stalling a lot on it even before that and was only at 37.5KG, now it's taken me a few sessions just to complete 5x5 on the 30KG it dropped me to.

Everything else is progressing fine but i seem to struggle with it a lot.

So far i'm at :

Squat - 80KG
Bench - 52.5KG
OHP - 30KG
Deadlift - 90KG
Rows - 52.5KG

Squats felt easier than normal this morning so randomly decided to see if i could do a single squat of 100KG after thm and managed to do a set of 5 instead. Was well chuffed as i thought i'd fail with just 1

tom_nieto · 4 Jul 2016 at 12:35

Week 4 is indeed a PB week! Managed 165 but sadly couldn't get 170. That's 15kg better than this years PB and 10kg better than lifetime PB.

I'm wondering whether to do a de-load week next week and try the same programme again.

Also strangely managed 5x5 wide grip pull ups for the first time this year.

mrthingyx · 4 Jul 2016 at 13:04

NexusK said:
OHP is really falling behind for me on SL. I had to de-load everything a couple of weeks ago as i hadn't been to the gym in ~10 days but i was stalling a lot on it even before that and was only at 37.5KG, now it's taken me a few sessions just to complete 5x5 on the 30KG it dropped me to.

Everything else is progressing fine but i seem to struggle with it a lot.

So far i'm at :

Squat - 80KG
Bench - 52.5KG
OHP - 30KG
Deadlift - 90KG
Rows - 52.5KG

Squats felt easier than normal this morning so randomly decided to see if i could do a single squat of 100KG after thm and managed to do a set of 5 instead. Was well chuffed as i thought i'd fail with just 1

(Almost) everybody sucks at OHP. It is entirely normal.

Be prepared to start playing with push press, or training OHP much more frequently (tiny muscles involved relative to the squat)...

reiyushin · 4 Jul 2016 at 13:07

Awesome

if you're not feeling banged up and slow then Idon't think there's a need for a deload week.

If you are then take an easier week with much lower % say 5x3x50% to keep the movement pattern nice and sharp

Erich Kriegler · 4 Jul 2016 at 13:41

Whenever I squat and get to parallel a tendon behind my knee on the outside, I think its could be the hamstring tendon, sort of pops out. It has never caused me any pain in a few years of squatting.

Do you guys think it is worth seeing a physio or should I just smash the area with foam rolling and stretches?

XeNoN89 · 4 Jul 2016 at 13:50

Somnambulist said:
The longer you're in an energy deficit, the leaner you get and the less available energy is to the body at any one time, the more it prioritises certain things like processes that keep you alive over things like the reproductive system. It doesn't know all this is in aid of looking better and you're just choosing not to eat etc, it just thinks you're starving to death slowly. If you're not yet that lean it can be a sign your calories and/or your average fat intake over a week might be unnecessarily low, although sometimes it's just a case of people's individual tolerance to energy restriction.

The only way to restore negative hormonal adaptations is to not be in a deficit. For some things like leptin this can be restored to baseline over several days, for others it can take over a week, hence the occasional use of 10-14 day diet breaks during a cut.

I read around and found a lot of places saying it could have been due to fats dropping too low so slightly increased my fat intake and things seemed to come back to normal after a couple of days - so maybe it was that or maybe a coincidence? :confused:

tom_e · 4 Jul 2016 at 13:52

XeNoN89 said:
I read around and found a lot of places saying it could have been due to fats dropping too low so slightly increased my fat intake and things seemed to come back to normal after a couple of days - so maybe it was that or maybe a coincidence?

Saturated fats play a massive part in hormone creation and therefore testosterone/DHT creation so it would make sense that if you had dropped them too low you'd start to suffer.

mrthingyx · 4 Jul 2016 at 14:04

Erich Kriegler said:
Whenever I squat and get to parallel a tendon behind my knee on the outside, I think its could be the hamstring tendon, sort of pops out. It has never caused me any pain in a few years of squatting.

Do you guys think it is worth seeing a physio or should I just smash the area with foam rolling and stretches?

All of the above. It might be worth seeing a strength and conditioning coach to make sure you aren't squatting weird, too.

Baxter · 4 Jul 2016 at 18:22

mrthingyx said:
Everybody should do them every day.

And as long as you stretch your pecs and your shoulders are behaving, push-ups are fine. Although a tad pointless for size by themselves without weight (if you bench more than 60% BW)...

Great I'll keep at it. My mobility is proving to be worse than I thought.

Whilst I can bench 90% to 95% BW it's never a comfortable movement. Was thinking of popping the push ups in so that my body gets used to the movement a bit more. My biggest problem has always been I don't enjoy bench press at all so have let it lag behind the rest of my lifts. Dropped the weight and concentrated on form much more recently, all appears to be going well and some pain I've been experiencing has disappeared.

icecold · 4 Jul 2016 at 18:38

Guys, please don't continue to do the same things if you're in pain or experience weird tendon slippage. These are serious warning signs, you can't just "jog them off".

Most likely there are some serious gaps in technique and mobility. Fix them, and lift better as a result.

GSVBagpuss · 4 Jul 2016 at 19:00

mrthingyx said:
(Almost) everybody sucks at OHP. It is entirely normal.

This. Make sure your technique is right though - grip width and pushing the bar back behind my head as it goes up helped me.

reiyushin · 5 Jul 2016 at 14:40

https://www.facebook.com/reiyushin/videos/10154298418664731/

There's a little video of my lifts and a write up of my lifts at my recent meet

things didn't quite go as planned!

DarkShadow · 5 Jul 2016 at 15:09

Incredible performance Reiyushin! You will come back stronger and I really look forward to you smashing those numbers. Really gutted for you on that deadlift, it was there

reiyushin · 5 Jul 2016 at 16:01

Thanks, I really need to cue myself better on the deadlifts, I'll get it though

DarkShadow · 5 Jul 2016 at 16:12

How did you feel on stage?

reiyushin · 5 Jul 2016 at 16:22

I was shakey during the squats but started to enjoy it more as the day went on.

Loved the crowd, the video only has commentator audio (which might include a few cheers) but the crowd were unreal

Ayahuasca · 5 Jul 2016 at 16:45

Awesome strength fella

MartynB85 · 5 Jul 2016 at 17:57

NexusK said:
OHP is really falling behind for me on SL. I had to de-load everything a couple of weeks ago as i hadn't been to the gym in ~10 days but i was stalling a lot on it even before that and was only at 37.5KG, now it's taken me a few sessions just to complete 5x5 on the 30KG it dropped me to.

Everything else is progressing fine but i seem to struggle with it a lot.

So far i'm at :

Squat - 80KG
Bench - 52.5KG
OHP - 30KG
Deadlift - 90KG
Rows - 52.5KG

Squats felt easier than normal this morning so randomly decided to see if i could do a single squat of 100KG after thm and managed to do a set of 5 instead. Was well chuffed as i thought i'd fail with just 1

I found I only made gains on OHP during a proper bulk, when I was cutting I got so far and just couldn't improve. A few weeks into my bulk and I started to progress again. My last session I did 66kg for 5, 3 sets which I don't think is too bad as I weigh 66-67kg. I just takes time for those tiny muscles to develop.

RaohNS · 5 Jul 2016 at 20:05

reiyushin said:
https://www.facebook.com/reiyushin/videos/10154298418664731/

There's a little video of my lifts and a write up of my lifts at my recent meet things didn't quite go as planned!

Fantastic stuff Reiyushin! Its all experience and often experience can ultimately put 5-10kg on everything the more you do it!

You should be very proud. Not many peeps can say I'm 14th in Western Hemisphere??? Under 105kg!

My training has taken a big hit with a spate of unlucky injuries in the last few weeks. Started with minor grip injury that lasted all of one session. Elbow has been very painful, feels like a tricep pull but I am suspecting it may be tendon. Injured back which I haven't gone heavy squatting this week ready for next DL session.

Now picked up a trap injury through compensation on bench.

Training careful and lighter. Managed a 185kgx2 on bench tonight with slight twinge and then eventually a 160x7. Aiming get back to the 160x9/10 range in next 3-4 sessions.

*** The 2016 Gym Rats Thread ***

* The 2016 Gym Rats Thread *