*** The 2017 Gym Rats Thread ***

GiraffePencils said:
I've never clicked with the 'up' part of that que.
Click to expand...

I think that cue is designed to help people focus on keeping the quads loaded/active throughout the squat, as it can be easy to shift the tension/load elsewhere. When you flex your quads standing, it looks/feels like pulling your knees up, and obviously standing up from a squat invovles using as much of the muscles involved in knee extension (hi quads) as possible so those quads need to be flexing!
 
I'm getting the urge to return back to the gym again. It's definitely a missing piece at the moment. But I've been out of the gym for nearly 3 years now. My dream is to return.

I injured my shoulder. So stopped training. Various physios, surgeons and doctors have given me their verdicts. Nothing conclusive.

One said I had a subluxed shoulder and there was nothing that could be done not even surgery.

Recent one has said I have 'scapula discharnisia' (may not have spelt that right) after giving me one of those all body scans.

They couldn't see any tears or other issues in the shoulder so I guess that's a good thing. But I've had pain in my shoulder for almost 3 years now.

What he said 'scapula discharnisia' meant was I have a slight winging of the shoulder blade as well as the muscles are not firing in the correct pattern.

From working with my current physio I think it's becoming clear that I have an issue with my rotator cuff. It's very very weak. Which may have meant due to compensation other things have been triggered.

At the moment I'm doing the following exercises 3x10 once aday:

1. Lying down rotator cuff movement.
2. Some sort of shoulder blade squeeze head down.
3. Holding a weight vertically lying face up and reaching up as far as I can go with injured shoulder.
4. Standing up rotator cuff movement.
5. And recently a sort of cable (latex band) pec sqeeze.

My weights are only light at the moment. 0.5kg. I'm stepping up to 1kg tomorrow. as 0.5kg is too light.

But how heavy are you expected to go for strong rotator cuffs? Whats normal?

I really want to make this work as the gym as I said above is a missing piece in my life at the moment.

---

Heres the funny thing, I'm capable to do press ups, but it hurts to push in tighter angles. For example, today, I was opening a heavy self closing door and my hand was very tight to my chest and it really hurt to push the door. The shoulder at that angle was too weak.

---

One of my friends keeps pushing me to forget the NHS and go and pay a sports physio. He's line is that sports people get worse injuries and return to sports so it can be done.
 
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Struggling with my diet at the moment, hell I'm just struggling with my apetite in general.

I'm only aiming to take in 2000 calories as still cutting, 160g of protein a day but its been a real struggle the last few days. The amount I've been training I would expect to be absolutely famished, instead I'm having to force myself to eat. Even tried knocking back a couple of ice creams tonight and every bite was torture.

Imagine you're allergic to nuts, most fish, and sick to death of chicken - where would you get your protein from?
 
Rids said:
Imagine you're allergic to nuts, most fish, and sick to death of chicken - where would you get your protein from?
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Lean beef/pork
Ostrich
Whey (can be drunk or made into fluff, pudding, put in oats etc)
Skyr
Quark
0% Greek Yoghurt
Cottage Cheese (low fat)
Beans/Pulses
Quorn
Eggs/Egg whites
'Complete' liquid foods like Huel/Whole Fuel
Some seeds
Protein bars and snacks
 
opethdisciple said:
I'm getting the urge to return back to the gym again. It's definitely a missing piece at the moment. But I've been out of the gym for nearly 3 years now. My dream is to return.

I injured my shoulder. So stopped training. Various physios, surgeons and doctors have given me their verdicts. Nothing conclusive.

One said I had a subluxed shoulder and there was nothing that could be done not even surgery.

Recent one has said I have 'scapula discharnisia' (may not have spelt that right) after giving me one of those all body scans.

They couldn't see any tears or other issues in the shoulder so I guess that's a good thing. But I've had pain in my shoulder for almost 3 years now.

What he said 'scapula discharnisia' meant was I have a slight winging of the shoulder blade as well as the muscles are not firing in the correct pattern.

From working with my current physio I think it's becoming clear that I have an issue with my rotator cuff. It's very very weak. Which may have meant due to compensation other things have been triggered.

At the moment I'm doing the following exercises 3x10 once aday:

1. Lying down rotator cuff movement.
2. Some sort of shoulder blade squeeze head down.
3. Holding a weight vertically lying face up and reaching up as far as I can go with injured shoulder.
4. Standing up rotator cuff movement.
5. And recently a sort of cable (latex band) pec sqeeze.

My weights are only light at the moment. 0.5kg. I'm stepping up to 1kg tomorrow. as 0.5kg is too light.

But how heavy are you expected to go for strong rotator cuffs? Whats normal?

I really want to make this work as the gym as I said above is a missing piece in my life at the moment.

---

Heres the funny thing, I'm capable to do press ups, but it hurts to push in tighter angles. For example, today, I was opening a heavy self closing door and my hand was very tight to my chest and it really hurt to push the door. The shoulder at that angle was too weak.

---

One of my friends keeps pushing me to forget the NHS and go and pay a sports physio. He's line is that sports people get worse injuries and return to sports so it can be done.
Click to expand...

Your rotator cuff is weak because it is not being used either at all or in the right way.

The exercises you have been given are to get it active through various movements, not to actually "make it stronger."

The key principle to work around is your RC needs to be active the right way, and so using greater weight will actually be counter-productive: use a light weight, do bazillions of reps, but do them PERFECTLY, with your shoulder, chest and arm in the perfect relative positions.

Why? Because your RC is not being used, you want it to become active in the right way, otherwise it will exacerbate the problem.

To add proper activation, make sure the eccentric contractions are as slow as you can handle: 10 seconds... even 30 seconds.

And it is dyskinesia (not moving properly). :)
 
Hi all, after a little advice about what would be the best routine for me.

Been away from the gym a few years and at 16 1/2 st at 6ft and approx 30% bf its time to get back on it and shed a few stone.

Used to do stronglifts years ago but I guess my goal is slightly different this time ie. Lose weight and once I've shifted the fat, look to build a bit muscle.

Does stronglifts with some cardio added on fit the bill or should I be looking at less sets more reps etc?

I had started with stronglifts but after talking to one of the instructors at the gym, they'd said the 5x5 isn't really suited to weight loss and I'd be better off 3x10 and adding a lot of other stuff in.

Is that good advice or should I stick with stronglifts?

Cheers

Ps I know nutrition is the most important part and I've got that covered
 
Training in general stays the same regardless of if you're in a deficit, maintaining or in a surplus. Volume is something that CAN be reduced (the amount of work needed to maintain an adaptation is a lot less than the work that was required to gain that adaptation in the first place) but it really depends how lean you're trying to get - for most people whose goal is 'beach body' they won't need to reduce their overall workload compared to someone whose goal would be bodybuilding stage lean whose recovery and ability to push hard really takes a hit as they get ridiculously peeled. In either example at the start of the diet their training will probably look the same.

If you're coming back from a long lay-off and at 30% bf then even in a deficit you'll gain strength and some muscle due to having plenty of available energy from fat, then as you get leaner that will slow down and depending on how lean and how long you diet for, it'll get to the point where the goal is just to maintain your lifts at the lower bodyweight/bf%.

Doing SL5x5 is a pretty safe beginner program if you enjoy and want to be good at squat/bench/deadlift.
 
Rids said:
Struggling with my diet at the moment, hell I'm just struggling with my apetite in general.

I'm only aiming to take in 2000 calories as still cutting, 160g of protein a day but its been a real struggle the last few days. The amount I've been training I would expect to be absolutely famished, instead I'm having to force myself to eat. Even tried knocking back a couple of ice creams tonight and every bite was torture.

Imagine you're allergic to nuts, most fish, and sick to death of chicken - where would you get your protein from?
Click to expand...

I have the same if I don't drink enough water.
 
mrthingyx said:
Your rotator cuff is weak because it is not being used either at all or in the right way.

The exercises you have been given are to get it active through various movements, not to actually "make it stronger."

The key principle to work around is your RC needs to be active the right way, and so using greater weight will actually be counter-productive: use a light weight, do bazillions of reps, but do them PERFECTLY, with your shoulder, chest and arm in the perfect relative positions.

Why? Because your RC is not being used, you want it to become active in the right way, otherwise it will exacerbate the problem.

To add proper activation, make sure the eccentric contractions are as slow as you can handle: 10 seconds... even 30 seconds.

And it is dyskinesia (not moving properly). :)
Click to expand...

I'm trying my best, but any work I do on my shoulder just makes it more sore and painful. Bloody miserable today. A weeks worth of work on my shoulder and it feels worse than ever. I'm at 1kg weight at the moment. Dunno if I should just go back down to 0.5kg again.
 
opethdisciple said:
I'm trying my best, but any work I do on my shoulder just makes it more sore and painful. Bloody miserable today. A weeks worth of work on my shoulder and it feels worse than ever. I'm at 1kg weight at the moment. Dunno if I should just go back down to 0.5kg again.
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Without knowing what your physio has said, it is difficult to know what is wrong.

Get a bike inner tube and use that for resistanceat first.
 
chris06 said:
Ps I know nutrition is the most important part and I've got that covered
Click to expand...
I'm no expert, but I'm in a very similar position and just wanted to offer some support! My research concurred with yours - that nutrition is the most important thing, and my understanding is that whilst you're eating in the calorie deficit you need to lose the weight, any exercise you do is really just to try and minimise muscle loss.

I've been using myfitnesspal to track calories, whilst doing a mix of weights and short high-intensity rowing. I can't really tell you about muscle loss - I certainly don't seem to be getting weaker - but the weight loss has been observable and significant - 4 kgs in just under 4 weeks.
 
Rids said:
Struggling with my diet at the moment, hell I'm just struggling with my apetite in general.

I'm only aiming to take in 2000 calories as still cutting, 160g of protein a day but its been a real struggle the last few days. The amount I've been training I would expect to be absolutely famished, instead I'm having to force myself to eat. Even tried knocking back a couple of ice creams tonight and every bite was torture.

Imagine you're allergic to nuts, most fish, and sick to death of chicken - where would you get your protein from?
Click to expand...

The protein bar and shake I buy from Home bargains for £1.70 has about 45g of protein. Turkey sausages are good. 5% mince with some low fat bolognaise sauce. Gammon. There's also loads of different ways to season and cook chicken, mix it up. Make Fajitas.
 
What's the best way of working on butt wink when squatting? The missus does it quite noticeably and I'm wondering if it causes her issues. She's been squatting for a while, but whenever she reaches a certain weight she seems to pull a muscle or injure something and has to have some time off and work her way back up to that weight again, hence she's never really progressing!
 
Street said:
What's the best way of working on butt wink when squatting? The missus does it quite noticeably and I'm wondering if it causes her issues. She's been squatting for a while, but whenever she reaches a certain weight she seems to pull a muscle or injure something and has to have some time off and work her way back up to that weight again, hence she's never really progressing!
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I've always attributed the reps I 'butt wink' to a failed brace.
Maybe she needs more work on bracing/core strength?
 
works mad busy at the moment and I am leaving work absolutely knackered, so not going the gym. I set my alarm to go do my normal morning workouts and I just don't have the energy.

I think I need to get on the pre workout or at least force a coffee down my neck when leaving work (I don't like tea or coffee)
 
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