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

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reiyushin said:
My gym best is 817 but my comp best is 785 so I want to narrow the gap between those two :)
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:eek:

reiyushin said:
My bench is in the toilet :D it's at about 50% strength at the minute, the usual assortment of problems from lowbar. It is rapidly improving as I've learned some new things to improve my flexibility in that area and just not annoy it in the first place.
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To be fair your 50% is still a lot :p
 
Freefaller said:
Interesting.... do explain!
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I seen one of those "Ramsey has a rant" headlines pop up on Facebook yesterday and the review the rant was about had a rather unusual name attached and it was about small steak portions.
I thought I know a man with that name who would be very disappointed with a small serving of meat :eek:
 
I’ve definitely hit a wall at 245kg (deadlift). About 15-20kg down from pre-lockdown. Frustrating. First time I’ve stopped progressing with each 2 week cycle since I started back. Bodyweight is down about 2kg I guess, but still annoying. It’s the 5 rep part of my program that is becoming more of a problem than 1-3 rep sections - classic me, arse backwards. As ever with me, where one stalls others progress - squat and bench doing well. I weighed in at 85.4kg Wednesday morning, but I think I had lost water in the heat. I’m usually closer to 86-86.5kg. A lean 90kg+ will forever elude me.
 
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if you give it a few years, you'll pack on some more lean sinew - I find myself as slim as I was 5+ years ago, but a lot heavier. I'm 94kg now, but no bigger than I used to be. Managing your hormone levels is also key as you get older. keeping cortisol at bay during recovery, getting lots of sleep, and lots of the right foods.

To punch past a plateau you need to do more accessory work I find and really innovate a little on what you're doing - whether it's sticking points, mobility, or something else altogether. I did a 6 week programme of intense high volume (I threw up twice!). The weights weren't big, but the volume was brutal. I then went back to my more regimented PL progression programme, and after a couple of weeks blasted past some of the plateaus. Added to that mobility and alternative movements it really unlocked progress.
 
I think there is a bit of a physiological component, too, where a body simply doesn't want to support extra mass in a hurry without unnatural reasons.

Heaviest I have ever been was 101kg, but I was eating EVERYTHING I could find (not going to pretend it was lean mass) with some comical training regime to boot. "Comfortable" weight was between 94 and 96kg... And "lean" me at present is between 86 and 88kg.

As FreeFaller says, however, keep at it and the mass slowly accumulates...
 
That’s the thing, I could have course go crazy, but I don’t want to go ‘full power lifter’. It’s a tricky balance.

I think for the next few weeks I’m going to do a much shorter deadlift session, building up to 1 rep lifts (ideally not max weight) and adding 2.5kg each week to see where I can get to. I was happy with a 220kg pull yesterday, but it took more out of me that I was expecting, even though the lift itself was pretty much effortless. In a few weeks I’ll go back to the program that @reiyushin posted ages ago. On the plus side where as the last few weeks my deadlift portion has been reduced, I’ve substituted with more and heavier bent over rows with the bar and landmine - those have progressed well. I often go through these period where I psych myself out of lifts.
 
I picked up some cheap weights the a few weeks ago, bought a couple of 5l tubs of white vinegar, they had 3 days soak took them out there was still a bit of rust so put them back in soak tbh I forgot about them until I opened the shed today ;)

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Washed and scrubbed them
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tbh wiping them was enough only prob is they look like this after they've dried

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Debating if I should spray them now, last time I bought hammerite direct to rust but didn't think I'd need that this time as they've had a good soak, so just bought black spray paint instead.

Not sure if I should buy a small tin of hammerite black paint instead
 
It depends how well the paint sticks I guess. They've certainly come up well.

After a bit of a meltdown on Friday and having thought about it a little more I've realised that I'm only 17.5kg off my best deadlift and my heaviest lift on Friday was very smooth. I'll try to get closer over the coming weeks. When I look at my weight app its an upward trajectory from when I first bought the scales, but what is most telling is my body fat going down and my muscle mass going up. That fits in with what I felt by the end of lockdown, fat had gone up and muscle had gone down - so it would make sense that if just looking at overall bodyweight it may not always be increasing by much, but body composition is changing correctly.
 
I've gone and got some hammerite smooth black paint.

Anybody got any recommendations on a programme after stronglifts?
 
My buddy Mike pulled 370kg in a proper sanctioned meet in the <105kg’s (weighed in at 99.2kg just to make it even more silly) yesterday for a British record. Scroll to the 9th clip for the big pull. Took it ‘easy’ with squats then matched his competition pull to his training one as there was quite a difference due to some 3rd attempt misses from losing his grip. Reckon he’ll pull 400kg+ at some point, madness.

Note the #hookgripmasterrace in action.
 
Somnambulist said:
My buddy Mike pulled 370kg in a proper sanctioned meet in the <105kg’s (weighed in at 99.2kg just to make it even more silly) yesterday for a British record. Scroll to the 9th clip for the big pull. Took it ‘easy’ with squats then matched his competition pull to his training one as there was quite a difference due to some 3rd attempt misses from losing his grip. Reckon he’ll pull 400kg+ at some point, madness.

Note the #hookgripmasterrace in action.
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Lovely squat and deadlifts... Looked within his limits, too! Well done!
 
I did some cable crossovers today for the first time, very nice exercise for the chest. And incline chest press machine you can load with plates (someone called it hammer something).

And changed my split too. Chest and triceps today. Back and biceps tomorrow. Legs Thursday.

Saturday upper general. Sunday lower general.

Have to squeeze shoulders in somewhere....
 
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