*** The 2018 Gym Rats Thread ***

I get to the gym at peak time yesterday wanting to do squats in one of our three squat racks. Each is in use - one guy doing dumbbell raises of some kind, one guy doing shoulder rotations and a woman doing band exercises. Seriously. At least the shoulder guy eventually moved!

LiE said:
I've always been a big bencher, until I killed my shoulder in 2013. Back then I was 83kg and knocking out 165x1 and 130x8 PBs.
Click to expand...

I assume you killed your shoulder benching based on those numbers? Looking back pre and post shoulder injury, I am now lifting much less weight and more comfortably, but my whole chest/shoulder frame is much much bigger and stronger. I cringe when I see some people benching in the gym. Especially with the instagram culture now and the 'experts' with their elbows flaring wildly.
 
CaptainRAVE said:
I assume you killed your shoulder benching based on those numbers? Looking back pre and post shoulder injury, I am now lifting much less weight and more comfortably, but my whole chest/shoulder frame is much much bigger and stronger. I cringe when I see some people benching in the gym. Especially with the instagram culture now and the 'experts' with their elbows flaring wildly.
Click to expand...

My form was good, all benching was done paused as I competed back then. The issue was my dominance and imbalance of front to back, coupled with me working at a desk and driving a lot I was immensely front dominant and my shoulders just didn't sit right in the end.

I'm no longer aiming for big numbers now, since I don't have a desire to compete. I am focusing heavily on my back to balance my front and also doing some work on my rotator cuff/scapular to keep that in good health.
 
Hmm,
I've been concerned about my bench, while we're on the subject, at the bottom I've had a 'tightness' across the front of my right shoulder.
I was thinking to try some rotator cuff warmup stuff next time, but does anyone else have any suggestions?
 
Not one for posting much in this section, just wondering what type squats people tend to be doing? Front, back with a high bar position or a low bar position. Myself i have starting using back with a low bar position and have found it to be excellent, my squats have improved greatly.
 
Last edited:
inflames said:
Not one for posting much in this section, just wondering what type squats people tend to be doing? Front, back with a high bar position or a low bar position. Myself i have starting using the back with a low bar position and have found it to excellent my squats to have improved greatly.
Click to expand...

Back, high bar (but with a wide grip). Low bar seems to be all the rage at the moment.
 
inflames said:
Not one for posting much in this section, just wondering what type squats people tend to be doing? Front, back with a high bar position or a low bar position. Myself i have starting using the back with a low bar position and have found it to excellent my squats to have improved greatly.
Click to expand...

I'm not a powerlifter or have any desire to be, so low bar doesn't appeal to me. I've played around with front squats but it's mostly:

15202779_10155537007148642_5236829112791531535_n.jpg


/highbar4evaaaaa
 
GiraffePencils said:
Hmm,
I've been concerned about my bench, while we're on the subject, at the bottom I've had a 'tightness' across the front of my right shoulder.
I was thinking to try some rotator cuff warmup stuff next time, but does anyone else have any suggestions?
Click to expand...

Shoulder capsule stretching, lat stretching, deadlifts, rows...

inflames said:
Not one for posting much in this section, just wondering what type squats people tend to be doing? Front, back with a high bar position or a low bar position. Myself i have starting using back with a low bar position and have found it to be excellent, my squats have improved greatly.
Click to expand...

Whatever suits my needs. I notionally do snatch/clean'n'jerk, so low bar isn't much use to me. However, a lot of people have to adapt their technique to a particular bar position and often fail to do so... this results in pain, injury and/or stalling: when they move bar position, they find the "stock" technique works for them.

But low bar is for people that can't squat, anyway. ;) :D
 
As a man approaching 40 with a history of injuries I am thinking of cutting my routine down from 4 to 3 days a week.

Rather than go in to details, would you ever start a chest/shoulder/triceps day with heavy shoulder press (6-8 reps) first then chest press for reps (10-12)?

Is that a valid training method?

I do a heavy chest day (6-8 reps) where I start with chest and do shoulders for reps (10-12) and then switch it on the next chest/shoulder/triceps day.

Or should I just stick with heavy chest followed by shoulders on my chest/shoulder/triceps day?
 
opethdisciple said:
As a man approaching 40 with a history of injuries I am thinking of cutting my routine down from 4 to 3 days a week.

Rather than go in to details, would you ever start a chest/shoulder/triceps day with heavy shoulder press (6-8 reps) first then chest press for reps (10-12)?

Is that a valid training method?

I do a heavy chest day (6-8 reps) where I start with chest and do shoulders for reps (10-12) and then switch it on the next chest/shoulder/triceps day.

Or should I just stick with heavy chest followed by shoulders on my chest/shoulder/triceps day?
Click to expand...

Sure you can. A lot of 4 day general strength programs have a bench day and an OHP day. Just take into that your chest press performance will likely be lower on the day where it's the 2nd exercise.
 
GiraffePencils said:
How do people plan their cuts?
I was thinking of using a HR monitor to help estimate the calories burned during exercise etc, that a reasonable plan?
Click to expand...

Lifting burns sweet F.A calorie wise and trying to eat according to calories burnt is overcomplicating things.

I take my bodyweight in pounds, then multiply it by 12 (would be 10 if I was a complete sedentary potato) to get some calories that'll probably be in the right ballpark, set my ranges for macros. Then I just eat that everyday, weigh daily first-thing every morning, do a weekly average and adjust cals as needed based on if the rate of loss is too fast/slow and how my body is feeling. I prefer shorter, more aggressive cuts because if you're training and protein intake is adequete, risk of muscle-loss is largely overhyped unless you're deep into contest prep and are down to single digits and you can get it over with faster and get back to trying to gain again.
 
Somnambulist said:
Lifting burns sweet F.A calorie wise and trying to eat according to calories burnt is overcomplicating things.

I take my bodyweight in pounds, then multiply it by 12 (would be 10 if I was a complete sedentary potato) to get some calories that'll probably be in the right ballpark, set my ranges for macros. Then I just eat that everyday, weigh daily first-thing every morning, do a weekly average and adjust cals as needed based on if the rate of loss is too fast/slow and how my body is feeling. I prefer shorter, more aggressive cuts because if you're training and protein intake is adequete, risk of muscle-loss is largely overhyped unless you're deep into contest prep and are down to single digits and you can get it over with faster and get back to trying to gain again.
Click to expand...
I sit all day at work, sit when I get home, cycle between the two. I always put myself down and sedentary, 1600 calories sounds like hardly any though :eek:
 
Somnambulist said:
Lifting burns sweet F.A calorie wise and trying to eat according to calories burnt is overcomplicating things.
Click to expand...

This. My old fitbit showed I was burning 400-500 kcals per workout. When bulking I would eat based on the 'extra' calories I was burning then wondered why I was putting on like 2 lbs per week.

I've now got a Garmin Fenix 5, it's expensive but a lot more accurate. I'm lucky if I reach 250 kcals on most days (legs different ofc). Base your TDEE on weighing everyday/multiple times per week and counting your calories.
 
GiraffePencils said:
I sit all day at work, sit when I get home, cycle between the two. I always put myself down and sedentary, 1600 calories sounds like hardly any though :eek:
Click to expand...

You cycle so you wouldn't be totally sedentary. Activity multipliers are annoying in a way because there's never much point of reference for what 'lightly active' for example means. Relating it to step count seems to work okay in my experience.

Anyway, just do x12 to start and monitor your weight for a week or two then adjust, numbers are always just starting points after all. Losing too fast = eat a bit more. Going slower than you want = eat a bit less.
 
Im a bit of a newbie but im looking to start going to the gym 3 (Mon, Wed, Fri) evenings a week for 1-1.5 hours per session.

I do mostly cardio or circuits 5 days a week at work so just looking to focus on weights.

I'm 32 5.10 and 76kg.

I'm not overly focused on my legs as they get pretty worn out from my exercise during work.

So want to focus on my upper body.

Any suggestions on how to split the different areas of the upper body up for those 3 sessions and what sort of reps and sets I should be going for to build size?

Cheers
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom