*** The 2018 Gym Rats Thread ***

Few question regarding creatine.

I've been dieting since Jan and lost 7kg. I'm close now to switching to a more muscle building focus and found my old stash of creatine.

It's two years out of date. Safe to use, or chuck it away?

Second question is dosage. What do you recommend for amount I should take?

I train on a Mon/Wed/Fri basis. So do I take it all week long (including rest days) or just on workout days?

Cycle it?

Thanks
 
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Still a frustrating time for me, shoulder pain is persisting, having to avoid all pressing movements as they result in much pain. Can feel the reduced range of motion and instability, its also starting to interfere with my sleep.

Visit to the GP was painfully useless, I need physio, the waiting list is 5 months. Trying to scrape together enough for my own physio over the next few months.
 
Hi guys, trying to improve my rowing during my gym schedule, atm doing weight training mon, wed and Friday. I do rowing normally on the Tuesday or Thursday do twice a week. My schedule for rowing is as follows -

3 min warm up rowing at steady pace
60 sec sprint
1 min steady
This goes on for 7 minutes
Then 15 sec sprint
15 sec steady
This goes on for another 7 mins
Then 3 mins steady pace row

My goal is to lose belly fat and increase strength. I currently weight 75kg and 5 ft 9 have been training on and off for 2 years. Can someone recommend whether I should stick to the above or maybe change my rowing a bit more to lose more fat?
 
Before you try and get super technical and make fine adjustments to your workouts I would make sure you have your diet in check to support your goals.
 
Jester* said:
Before you try and get super technical and make fine adjustments to your workouts I would make sure you have your diet in check to support your goals.
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Thanks for the reply, I do diet and have a good diet plan, lost around 4kg in 2 months but still retaining muscle mass, What would you recommend as a diet for someone with my build?
 
I am not the best person to ask regarding diets or plans as I eat how it suits me and to maintain the level of training I am at.

All I can recommend is do what I did, go through your diet and make sure you are eating as cleanly as possible, low processed foods, drink plenty of water and don't kid yourself with any of it.

There is no magic bullet or exercise that will help you loose fat in a specific area, all our bodies are different after all. It is a combination of diet, putting hard work in and proper recovery.

I am sure someone on here is better able to advise you on an actual programme to help you!
 
Outside of being a beginner or having a high body fat % you generally won't get much stronger whilst dieting (assuming sensible training with some form of progressive overload) and sometimes it's a given your strength might actually drop in certain movements.

Your activity levels are one of the factors that determine your total daily energy expenditure, your calorie intake relative to this TDEE dictates if fat is lost, gained or bodyweight is maintained. Size of deficit, daily protein intake and sufficient stimulus from training are what influences lean mass retention, the rest is minutiae. Swings and roundabouts as to what sort of cardio you do; preference, available time, ability to recover from it, etc. Making sure you're eating at a low to moderate deficit > what kind of rowing you do.
 
Right now I am indeed trying to add muscle and strength to my frame.

I've just come off a cut and lost 8kg. My plan was 4 days a week weights and 20mins cardio afterwards.

Any harm in making this 30 mins of cardio?
 
apadhiar123 said:
Hi guys, trying to improve my rowing during my gym schedule, atm doing weight training mon, wed and Friday. I do rowing normally on the Tuesday or Thursday do twice a week. My schedule for rowing is as follows -

3 min warm up rowing at steady pace
60 sec sprint
1 min steady
This goes on for 7 minutes
Then 15 sec sprint
15 sec steady
This goes on for another 7 mins
Then 3 mins steady pace row

My goal is to lose belly fat and increase strength. I currently weight 75kg and 5 ft 9 have been training on and off for 2 years. Can someone recommend whether I should stick to the above or maybe change my rowing a bit more to lose more fat?
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What Jester said. You don't need to get particularly fancy. Just make sure your calories are in deficit and do your cardio. (Swimming/rowing particularly good) Weigh your self daily, keep a weight log and your start to see changes.

Not seeing changes on the scales? Cut more food / add more mins to cardio.
 
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rotters said:
Thoughts on Beta alanine, my PT mentioned it as I get to the point I feel like im going to puke, he suggested this might reduce the pukey feeling, have you come across this?
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Beta Alanine appears only to be of some potential use in specific circumstances, quoting Eric Helms because he's smart and authors/reviews lots of studies:

Next, let’s address beta alanine. I categorized beta alanine as a conditionally beneficial supplement because it only has a small performance enhancing effect when efforts reach a duration of at least 60 seconds [18]. So, for powerlifters, Olympic lifters, and anyone training primarily for strength, it doesn’t serve a purpose. With the typical tempo that most people lift with, you’d need to be doing sets of 15 reps+ to get a benefit from beta alanine. So perhaps bodybuilders could benefit from taking beta alanine, but only if they are doing a large volume of high rep work. However, there is not a requisite rep range for hypertrophy training per se. Equal hypertrophy can be achieved with both 10RM and 3RM loads given equated volume; the only advantage of moderate repetition ranges (8-12) is that it is easier to accumulate volume compared to using heavier loads which requires more sets, long rest periods and thus takes much longer [19]. Simply put, to optimize hypertrophy enough volume needs to be performed with loads that are “heavy enough”, because high rep, low load sets (20RM+) don’t produce as much muscle growth as moderate and heavy loads when volume is equated [20]. In fact, to get comparable muscle growth to that which can be achieved with heavier loads, one may have to perform three times the volume with high repetition low load training [21]. Therefore, I would argue that only during phases of training where high reps (15+) are emphasized, or potentially when one is performing HIIT cardio using intervals lasting 60 seconds or longer, would it be advisable to consider beta alanine supplementation.
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More importantly, if your PT is insistent on making you work so hard you feel like puking frequently, I'd be slightly concerned about his programming, particularly if the goal is strength/hypertrophy and not some sort of HIIT cardio.
 
Somnambulist said:
More importantly, if your PT is insistent on making you work so hard you feel like puking frequently, I'd be slightly concerned about his programming, particularly if the goal is strength/hypertrophy and not some sort of HIIT cardio.
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Im stupidly unfit...I was the same in pre season when I was fit and playing rugby. The same in jitsu gradings...when it comes to cardiovascular knackardness...my prevalence to vomiting increases.
 
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