*** The 2018 Gym Rats Thread ***

Hi guys after some advice, my general diets great during the day and working out, but have a sweet tooth before I go to bed and a bit hungry, what would you recommend to have? My aim is to lose a bit of belly fat at the moment I have a bowl of coco pops or nesquik powder in milk (I know a bit childish) but feels nice before bed to have for my cravings. Is it okay to do or what would you swap with it?
 
apadhiar123 said:
Hi guys after some advice, my general diets great during the day and working out, but have a sweet tooth before I go to bed and a bit hungry, what would you recommend to have? My aim is to lose a bit of belly fat at the moment I have a bowl of coco pops or nesquik powder in milk (I know a bit childish) but feels nice before bed to have for my cravings. Is it okay to do or what would you swap with it?
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I would definitely cut that out if you can replace it with something else. I have those when I am bulking and need more calories :)

Not sure what to replace it with. Something that fills you up, but has less sugar? Plenty of cereals out there that must be a better option. A protein shake generally kills my hunger. I am sure someone here will have a good idea.
 
apadhiar123 said:
Hi guys after some advice, my general diets great during the day and working out, but have a sweet tooth before I go to bed and a bit hungry, what would you recommend to have? My aim is to lose a bit of belly fat at the moment I have a bowl of coco pops or nesquik powder in milk (I know a bit childish) but feels nice before bed to have for my cravings. Is it okay to do or what would you swap with it?
Click to expand...

You want somebody to tell you it's okor recommend something else?

A glass of milk.

I often eat a bowl of Wheetos before bed, but I know that doing so adds a bucket loads of crud to my daily intake that would reduce the likelihood of me cutting down.

Best advice is avoid it entirely and break the cycle but that won't happen easily.
 
Can't beat a good deadlift session. Funny how some weeks I just have so much more energy for no apparent reason. Much heavier week this week than last, yet flew through the lifts. Bit cooler which probably helps.
 
apadhiar123 said:
Hi guys after some advice, my general diets great during the day and working out, but have a sweet tooth before I go to bed and a bit hungry, what would you recommend to have? My aim is to lose a bit of belly fat at the moment I have a bowl of coco pops or nesquik powder in milk (I know a bit childish) but feels nice before bed to have for my cravings. Is it okay to do or what would you swap with it?
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What about some low carb brownies/cake with some cream?

ud3Tx2r.png

Kitchen Must Haves
  1. Baking tin - ideally 8″ square
  2. Cake release spray (optional but it does make life easier)
  3. Mixing bowl & mixing utensils
  4. Bowl/cup for melting butter in the microwave
  5. Measuring cups & spoons
Ingredients
  1. ½ cup almond flour
  2. ¼ cup ground chia seeds
  3. ¼ cup of stevia
  4. ¼ cup of xylitol
  5. 3 tbsp cocoa powder
  6. ½ tsp baking powder
  7. 3 eggs
  8. ¼ tsp salt
  9. 4 tsbp butter - melted
  10. 1 tsp vanilla extract
  11. ¼ cup dark chocolate - broken into small chunks
Steps
  1. Preheat over to 175C & spray/grease baking tin.
  2. In a large bowl mix flour, chia seeds, sweetners, cocoa powder, baking powder & salt.
  3. Melt butter and a low to cool slightly.
  4. Add eggs, vanilla & butter to dry mix & mix well.
  5. Finally mix the chocolate chunks into the mixture.
  6. Place mix into the baking tin & bake for 25-30 mins.
Notes
  • For the choc chunks I have used Plamil no added sugar mint /w xylitol or their no added sugar baking chocolate catering drops 71% Cocoa (dairy free & vegan friendly).
  • You can replace the vanilla extract with other flavourings. I've made a batch of mint, and orange ones in the past.
 
GiraffePencils said:
They look good,
On the other hand the brownies I make have tonnes of carbs and cause heart palpitations :D

Is that not a lot of xylitol though? being in the brownie mix and the chocolate?
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Xylitol can be a bit much on some folks's stomach that is true. Originally the brownie mix used just stevia, but I found it had an odd aftertaste so tried halving and using an alternative.

In the past I've only eaten as brownie as big as the one in the bowl & I've been ok, but it would easily vary person to person. I'd likely recommend using normal dark chocolate chips/chunks to start with and using sweetener(s) that you know don't make you need copious amounts of toilet roll & air freshener afterwards :P
 
Been trying 8 reps 4 sets for the past week and its amazing. The muscles in my chest actually feel tired by the end of the set rather than just a little sore. Moved all my other lifts to use this method.
 
Question about deloads.

I've been training consistently now for two months. A friend advised me to take 2 weeks as a deload.

I did some Googling and the internet seems to suggest a deload phase is one week long. But I'm imagining the second week is to get back to where you left off? As you probably cant go straight back to heavy after a rest week.

Does this sound right? I ended up doing 50% of my working weight this week. Hardly much of a workout if I'm honest. Although I read some people opt to take the week off entirely.

Any better way to do this or was this sufficient?

---

Another issue I have is I seem to have a groin strain from leg pressing. How can I avoid this in the future? I warm up pre workout on the rower this days but do I have to do some stretches or adductor strengthening?

What do you think is a good reps/sets routine on the legs? I was doing one heavy and one light session a week. So heavy was 4 x 6-8 and the light was 4 x 12-15. I stopped the 4 x 6-8 as I was hitting some very heavy weights and I thought I had maybe maxed out what I could get out of it at this range. Also having two bad knees the really heavy sets where putting too much stress on the knee joints. Also I didn't think much growth was happening in this range.

I've opted for a middle ground of 4 x 10-12 twice a week on the legs now.

Any better rep schemes out there? I tried high rep 15-20 as I read some people find this good for growth, but that rep range is too brutal.
 
opethdisciple said:
Question about deloads.

I've been training consistently now for two months. A friend advised me to take 2 weeks as a deload.

I did some Googling and the internet seems to suggest a deload phase is one week long. But I'm imagining the second week is to get back to where you left off? As you probably cant go straight back to heavy after a rest week.

Does this sound right? I ended up doing 50% of my working weight this week. Hardly much of a workout if I'm honest. Although I read some people opt to take the week off entirely.

Any better way to do this or was this sufficient?

---

Another issue I have is I seem to have a groin strain from leg pressing. How can I avoid this in the future? I warm up pre workout on the rower this days but do I have to do some stretches or adductor strengthening?

What do you think is a good reps/sets routine on the legs? I was doing one heavy and one light session a week. So heavy was 4 x 6-8 and the light was 4 x 12-15. I stopped the 4 x 6-8 as I was hitting some very heavy weights and I thought I had maybe maxed out what I could get out of it at this range. Also having two bad knees the really heavy sets where putting too much stress on the knee joints. Also I didn't think much growth was happening in this range.

I've opted for a middle ground of 4 x 10-12 twice a week on the legs now.

Any better rep schemes out there? I tried high rep 15-20 as I read some people find this good for growth, but that rep range is too brutal.
Click to expand...

Deload - lower the weight, volume and or frequency. Everyone is different, try them all and see what works for you. Personally I reduce my frequency by 50% and reduce the weight by about 80%. You don't need a deload every x weeks/months though. Just take it when you feel like you need one.

Groin strain - stretch. Limber 11 is a good lower body stretching routine.

Rep schemes - pick a program and stick with it.
 
Was pleased with the MyProtein high protein cookies for travelling purposes - wanted something to take to the south of France on a yoga retreat I went to (amazing food by the chef Baz - www.bazfood.com for all your catering needs!) ... just all vegetarian and not enough lacto-ovo stuff: 38g a pop and didn't melt like a bar would have, decent consistency etc.
 
opethdisciple said:
Question about deloads.

I've been training consistently now for two months. A friend advised me to take 2 weeks as a deload.

I did some Googling and the internet seems to suggest a deload phase is one week long. But I'm imagining the second week is to get back to where you left off? As you probably cant go straight back to heavy after a rest week.

Does this sound right? I ended up doing 50% of my working weight this week. Hardly much of a workout if I'm honest. Although I read some people opt to take the week off entirely.

Any better way to do this or was this sufficient?

---

Another issue I have is I seem to have a groin strain from leg pressing. How can I avoid this in the future? I warm up pre workout on the rower this days but do I have to do some stretches or adductor strengthening?

What do you think is a good reps/sets routine on the legs? I was doing one heavy and one light session a week. So heavy was 4 x 6-8 and the light was 4 x 12-15. I stopped the 4 x 6-8 as I was hitting some very heavy weights and I thought I had maybe maxed out what I could get out of it at this range. Also having two bad knees the really heavy sets where putting too much stress on the knee joints. Also I didn't think much growth was happening in this range.

I've opted for a middle ground of 4 x 10-12 twice a week on the legs now.

Any better rep schemes out there? I tried high rep 15-20 as I read some people find this good for growth, but that rep range is too brutal.
Click to expand...

What is your normal routine? Most people don't need a reload because they don't hammer their nervous system enough... Based on your rep range from leg press, my guess if you are in for hypertrophy than strength?

Legs will grow on pretty much any rep range, provided the volume is high enough.

As somebody else said: pick one and go nuts.
 
mrthingyx said:
What is your normal routine? Most people don't need a reload because they don't hammer their nervous system enough... Based on your rep range from leg press, my guess if you are in for hypertrophy than strength?

Legs will grow on pretty much any rep range, provided the volume is high enough.

As somebody else said: pick one and go nuts.
Click to expand...

I do Mon/Thu - Chest/Shoulders/Tris and Tue/Fri - Back/Biceps/Legs.

I didn't really want to take the week off (50% of max), but he said to me you need to take deloads every 6-8 weeks if you want to be at this over the long term.
 
Also, obligatory joke about using the leg press instead of doing a proper leg exercise. ;)

Although to be fair, if you are leg pressing as your primary workout, I would suggest that might be where your problems are coming from.
 
opethdisciple said:
I do Mon/Thu - Chest/Shoulders/Tris and Tue/Fri - Back/Biceps/Legs.

I didn't really want to take the week off (50% of max), but he said to me you need to take deloads every 6-8 weeks if you want to be at this over the long term.
Click to expand...

There's two ways to approach deloading which ultimately come down to whether you have someone monitoring your progress, or you're just following a a training template/program and both are then divided into planned v.s. reactive deloading.

Professional strength sports athletes usually have frequent light weeks planned in, because they train so hard with so much volume... but most people aren't full time athletes, so typically with a recreational lifter being coached online, they're either going to have a deload given based on performance + how beat up they feel, or if they're quite advanced and the coach knows how they respond to training well, they might have them deliberately built into their programming.

If you're not being coached then you're just following a training template. Templates can't account for individual differences in recovery of how hard you train and can't see what you're doing, so planned deloads (like Lyle's GBR routine which says to take a deload after 6-8 weeks of pushing hard) are thrown in as a general safety net, or opportunity to switch out exercises because that'll probably be adequete for a broad spectrum of people. If a program expects you to deload reactively then beyond the beginner stage where you're just using programs that have you backcycle, then you have to be pretty good at judging your own performance/progress/recovery yourself, which can take some skill to do objectively.
 
Somnambulist said:
Was pleased with the MyProtein high protein cookies for travelling purposes - wanted something to take to the south of France on a yoga retreat I went to (amazing food by the chef Baz - www.bazfood.com for all your catering needs!) ... just all vegetarian and not enough lacto-ovo stuff: 38g a pop and didn't melt like a bar would have, decent consistency etc.
Click to expand...

I find these to be really useful to up my protein intake when out and about.
 
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