***The 2020 Gym Rats Thread*** ᕦ( ͠°◞ °)ᕥ

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Somnambulist

Somnambulist

Somnambulist

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Last time I went to the gym, my right leg temporarily stopped working followed by a couple of years of various issues with both legs :p:o.

Signing up again next week but going to stop running, start doing some classes and try a bit more weights. Hopefully I won't get bored.....
 
I name this "The Forge", and it has a membership of one.

xSKEAxv.jpg
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It's impossible to photograph properly as it's so small, but it's just the perfect size to use the power rack properly and also use the fully adjustable bench in the open area next to it.

I have a barbell, EZ bar, up/down adjustable bench, high/low cable and many attachments, Ironmaster adjustable dumbbells and kettle bell with the 45lb extension weights, and more plate weight than I will ever lift.

I also have an airdyne air bike in the house for non-weight lifting days. I'm using a modified version of the Fierce 5 routine to have a dumbbell focused day and a barbell focused day as that's what I enjoy.

My goals this year are to get down to 70 kg (currently 77 kg) while maintaining 120 kg Squat and 90 kg Bench for 3x5.
 
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'Mirin that setup

Plan to get back on stage this year. Had a consistent year at the gym and made some good progress with a training partner and a decent gym with decent equipment. Unfortunately had to leave that gym as they just kept having stupid offers which made it far too busy. But I'm starting PureGym this week, already been a few days and it looks to be a good gym

I'm at 105kg at the moment, was 101kg before Christmas. Ate far too much on Christmas day and Boxing day but been pretty good apart from that. Hoping to be around 85-86kg on stage a fair bit to lose, but I've never trouble losing it, just putting it on (the good weight) that's the hard bit :p
 
Steedie said:
'Mirin that setup

Plan to get back on stage this year. Had a consistent year at the gym and made some good progress with a training partner and a decent gym with decent equipment. Unfortunately had to leave that gym as they just kept having stupid offers which made it far too busy. But I'm starting PureGym this week, already been a few days and it looks to be a good gym

I'm at 105kg at the moment, was 101kg before Christmas. Ate far too much on Christmas day and Boxing day but been pretty good apart from that. Hoping to be around 85-86kg on stage a fair bit to lose, but I've never trouble losing it, just putting it on (the good weight) that's the hard bit :p
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In for photos in posing trunks hnnnggg. You staying natty or going on the creatine?


2020 I'm hoping will be the year that I ascend and achieve the physique I've always wanted. I'm 82kg now and pretty lean, I think I look better than when I was at my previous peak in 2013. Consistently hitting 5 days a week and enjoying the upper, lower, push, pull, legs routine. I just need to be smart and keep the injuries away. I managed 130x5 paused bench press yesterday which was comfortable, strength is decent there. Squat I'm still dialling in, currently around 130x8 / 140x5 for a top set. Deadlifts aren't upto much, can still pull 200, but working on some form tweaks at the moment.
 
I may post more this year than I have in the past couple, who knows!

Sitting at around 110kg atm, strength levels are solid but not the strongest I've ever been, cardio levels are better than they've been for years, fat levels however are a little on the high side. Aiming to drop over 5kg before 14th of February as I'm booked to climb Kilimanjaro and I'm sure my knees will thank me for it.

Deadlifting ~200kg
Benching ~100kg
Squatting ~ when I need the loo.
 
Not really sure what I'm going for this year. I guess a mix of strength/physique with maybe a little more emphasis on strength.

Going to drop my squats by 10% tonight and build back up (stronglifts). I've only failed twice but there is no way I'm making it tonight so I may as well drop it now and build back up. :p

It looks like my gym buddy (spotter :p) has broken his hand and I'm getting pretty close to my max on bench press so I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do there.
 
Steedie said:
'Mirin that setup

Plan to get back on stage this year. Had a consistent year at the gym and made some good progress with a training partner and a decent gym with decent equipment. Unfortunately had to leave that gym as they just kept having stupid offers which made it far too busy. But I'm starting PureGym this week, already been a few days and it looks to be a good gym

I'm at 105kg at the moment, was 101kg before Christmas. Ate far too much on Christmas day and Boxing day but been pretty good apart from that. Hoping to be around 85-86kg on stage a fair bit to lose, but I've never trouble losing it, just putting it on (the good weight) that's the hard bit :p
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Nice.

I'd like to get to 325W+ FTP at my current weight (between 85 and 88kg), but not look like a stick insect.
 
Syla5 said:
That's some artistic license with the thread title right there!
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Thought I'd take the opportunity to jazz things up (and show my pre-emoji internet age) with this year's thread whilst everyone else was most likely out doing normal person stuff on NYE. :D

ShortWarning said:
Not really sure what I'm going for this year. I guess a mix of strength/physique with maybe a little more emphasis on strength.

Going to drop my squats by 10% tonight and build back up (stronglifts). I've only failed twice but there is no way I'm making it tonight so I may as well drop it now and build back up. :p

It looks like my gym buddy (spotter :p) has broken his hand and I'm getting pretty close to my max on bench press so I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do there.
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He'll be fine with a one-hand spot. It takes surprisingly little assistance to help someone through the sticking point on bench, at least with the sort of weights someone on a beginner program will likely be using. Alternatively you can just not put clips on the bar and if you fail, tip the bar so the weights slide off. It's loud and everyone will look at you, but it's better than pinning yourself and doing ye olde roll of shame (or worst case scenario choking yourself out). The third option is if you've developed a reasonable idea of how many reps in the tank you have left, don't be a hero and try and grind out a rep you're not sure if you'll be able to make it. Training to failure isn't a necessity when it comes to getting bigger or stronger and ending a set when you know you've only got 1-2 reps left is a better strategy more often than not on big compound movements because those last couple of reps before failure tend to be ugly form-wise (which isn't helpful for a variety of reasons).
 
First time doing deadlifts this morning for a few weeks....even my forearms are tired and I'm struggling to make a fist :p.

What are the benefits, if any, of doing front squats instead of back squats?
 
Andr3w said:
First time doing deadlifts this morning for a few weeks....even my forearms are tired and I'm struggling to make a fist :p.

What are the benefits, if any, of doing front squats instead of back squats?
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Not many if you’re not an Olympic weightlifter. For most people....

- If you can’t stay upright in the bottom position because of your limb lengths or mobility, you can’t use any meaningful load (in the sense of stimulus for your legs if you can back squat far more weight) because you’ll be tipped forward too much

- People overwhelmingly lose tightness in their upper backs performing front squats well before their legs fatigue, which similarly to not having a vertical bottom position leads to losing the bar forward and either having to use your arms to keep the bar up and using the back to help, or just dumping it. This results in the same problem as above as far as using effective loads

- The cross grip position isn’t very comfortable, but learning the full clean grip front rack requires a good level of mobility most people can’t be bothered to attain. There’s also the issue of pushing the bar too far into your neck and pressing against your carotid artery; at best a set gets cut early because of light-headedness, at worst you faint and drop the bar on yourself or the pins

For someone who low bar squats, who wants a greater quad-dominant variation in their training to build the legs more specifically, I’d much rather go with either a full range high bar squat, a Safety Bar squat if there’s access to that, or machines like the hack squat or belt squat if available.

If your front squats look like this then maaaaaybe for strength training in certain applications. For hypertrophy... it’s likely no better than doing overhead squats (that is to say, there’s much better things you could be doing that would be more effective). I pride myself on having developed a good looking front squat, but don’t actually use in my training cycles because it’s just not that useful compared to other stuff I could do.

 
Somnambulist said:
Not many if you’re not an Olympic weightlifter. For most people....

- If you can’t stay upright in the bottom position because of your limb lengths or mobility, you can’t use any meaningful load (in the sense of stimulus for your legs if you can back squat far more weight) because you’ll be tipped forward too much

- People overwhelmingly lose tightness in their upper backs performing front squats well before their legs fatigue, which similarly to not having a vertical bottom position leads to losing the bar forward and either having to use your arms to keep the bar up and using the back to help, or just dumping it. This results in the same problem as above as far as using effective loads

- The cross grip position isn’t very comfortable, but learning the full clean grip front rack requires a good level of mobility most people can’t be bothered to attain. There’s also the issue of pushing the bar too far into your neck and pressing against your carotid artery; at best a set gets cut early because of light-headedness, at worst you faint and drop the bar on yourself or the pins
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Thanks!

I can't use the cross grip position, I find it much comfier to use the position shown in the video. I can squat considerably more doing standard back squats. I imagine limb length (LONG!) and mobility are contributing to poor front squats. I did feel like I was losing stability way before my legs felt fatigue.

Think i'll just stick with standard back squats for now, maybe throw some light front squats in during the warm up.
 
Andr3w said:
Thanks!

I can't use the cross grip position, I find it much comfier to use the position shown in the video. I can squat considerably more doing standard back squats. I imagine limb length (LONG!) and mobility are contributing to poor front squats. I did feel like I was losing stability way before my legs felt fatigue.

Think i'll just stick with standard back squats for now, maybe throw some light front squats in during the warm up.
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Don't listen to Somnambulist. Front squatting looks cool, therefore gives you gains. :cool:

In all seriousness, there is *some* virtue in front squatting if you fulfil some very strict criteria (hip geometry with some limb length and training outcome dependent), but that is a discussion between you and an experienced coach.

But even if you want quads, deficit Bulgarian split squats are far more efficient a way of brutalising your leg biceps.

The one thing they do teach (more effectively than overhead squats, IMHO) is a practically bullet-proof core: if you can front squat well, then keeping your core tight for back squats is the easiest thing going.
 
Goals for the year, start lifting again when it gets a bit warmer, and get used to my 3" lifting belt as finally got one ordered. Want to see if conventional deadlifting in a belt is going to be a viable option for me with this.
 
My goal is to thin out the gut a bit while hopefully continuing to build strength. I'm doing some heavy bag HIIT as well as weightlifting. I started 13 months ago so last year enjoyed rapid progress. Under no illusion it will be so fast. On my second cycle of madcow and that seems to be going OK, increased all lifts a little and finally made some progress on OHP.
 
New Year, New Program, Right?

Anyways, I'm running this for a while, this is weeks 1-4 - Week 5 is either a taper and max later in the week or deload/rest and run it again :) the weights are all %s so input your numbers and away you go. Good luck

pjVvP4f.png
 
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Somnambulist said:
He'll be fine with a one-hand spot. It takes surprisingly little assistance to help someone through the sticking point on bench, at least with the sort of weights someone on a beginner program will likely be using. Alternatively you can just not put clips on the bar and if you fail, tip the bar so the weights slide off. It's loud and everyone will look at you, but it's better than pinning yourself and doing ye olde roll of shame (or worst case scenario choking yourself out). The third option is if you've developed a reasonable idea of how many reps in the tank you have left, don't be a hero and try and grind out a rep you're not sure if you'll be able to make it. Training to failure isn't a necessity when it comes to getting bigger or stronger and ending a set when you know you've only got 1-2 reps left is a better strategy more often than not on big compound movements because those last couple of reps before failure tend to be ugly form-wise (which isn't helpful for a variety of reasons).
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He's not going to come to the gym just to spot me. :p

The thing with leaving some in the tank is I'm not sure how well that works for stronglifts? How will I progress and know when to up the weight?

I'm considering using the roll of shame, failing that putting a bench in the squat rack but I've never seen anyone doing that so I'm not sure on the etiquette of it.
 
Steedie said:
'Mirin that setup

Plan to get back on stage this year. Had a consistent year at the gym and made some good progress with a training partner and a decent gym with decent equipment. Unfortunately had to leave that gym as they just kept having stupid offers which made it far too busy. But I'm starting PureGym this week, already been a few days and it looks to be a good gym

I'm at 105kg at the moment, was 101kg before Christmas. Ate far too much on Christmas day and Boxing day but been pretty good apart from that. Hoping to be around 85-86kg on stage a fair bit to lose, but I've never trouble losing it, just putting it on (the good weight) that's the hard bit :p
Click to expand...
In for lazy log in trunks pics...
 
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