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

[mrthingyx]

If you're not training for chest hair gains, are you even training?

My chest hair improves with time (although suspect age is a greater gainer than training), but it now sprouts white, so it doesn't make a visible difference anyway.

 

[SideWinder]

Try anabolic aliens 5 minutes bicep workout. (on youtube) Do it at the end of your session or you can try it at home if you have some dumbbells, go for 5KG. You will feel it for 1-2 days afterwood..

I do there calf 5 mins workout once a week on leg day.

This looks good thank you! Usual "oh that will be simple" but see if i can do more than halfway.

 

[Freefaller]

I hear that hitting your 40s gives you mad anabolic gains

 

[SideWinder]

Legs.

So i am starting to get a bit unmotivated with leg day. I warm up with the crosstrainer (backwards as my hamstrings are v tight - PT at the gym advised i do this) at max level the machine does for 5-7mins.

Then i squat 5x5 or 5x6.

.....then i am a bit hmm. I do DB lunges stepping forward plus goblet narrow squats.

Could i get away with just squatting?

I am doing a push, legs, pull, legs...just to focus on legs for a bit.

Thoughts?

 

[Freefaller]

If you want to really go through pain, bulgarian split squats. Even more pain... deficit bulgarian split squats.

You won't thank me later - you'll learn to hate me for this suggestion.

 

[B&W]

Legs.

So i am starting to get a bit unmotivated with leg day. I warm up with the crosstrainer (backwards as my hamstrings are v tight - PT at the gym advised i do this) at max level the machine does for 5-7mins.

Then i squat 5x5 or 5x6.

.....then i am a bit hmm. I do DB lunges stepping forward plus goblet narrow squats.

Could i get away with just squatting?

I am doing a push, legs, pull, legs...just to focus on legs for a bit.

Thoughts?

Once a week I do legs with shoulders. I just do squats first, (warm up is stretching and an empty bar or light weight).

Rest of the workout is shoulders... And then I have one day in the week just for legs. Squats, RDL's. Calf raises/lunges and leg press at end.

 

[mrthingyx]

I hear that hitting your 40s gives you mad anabolic gains

I am looking forward to this.

If you want to really go through pain, bulgarian split squats. Even more pain... deficit bulgarian split squats.

You won't thank me later - you'll learn to hate me for this suggestion.

This guy...

... Is so right.

 

[SideWinder]

If you want to really go through pain, bulgarian split squats. Even more pain... deficit bulgarian split squats.

You won't thank me later - you'll learn to hate me for this suggestion.

This is actually one i wanted to try so this works.

Notice when i look around, no one does lunges but they do these instead...obviously squatting is my priority. Managed 70kg 5x5 yesterday (BW 58kg) so slowly edging upwards.

 

[DrToffnar]

Decided I'm bored with trying to balance everything out a few weeks ago and made the choice to just eat for strength. Incredible how quickly the gains come when you stop budgeting calories. Not going mental of course, 2700 a day and maybe sometimes a little over, but with every session I've been able to bump up the volume in some capacity. Such a great motivator, so much more so then maybe seeing a little more ab definition once a month.

Bench is still **** weak though. Fighting off the realisation that bench might be my weakest area

 

[Freefaller]

This is actually one i wanted to try so this works.

Notice when i look around, no one does lunges but they do these instead...obviously squatting is my priority. Managed 70kg 5x5 yesterday (BW 58kg) so slowly edging upwards.

DBSS are a great support exercise for squatting - hits the glutes hard and the stabilisers and obviously great for the quads as well

 

[SideWinder]

DBSS are a great support exercise for squatting - hits the glutes hard and the stabilisers and obviously great for the quads as well

I attempted it at home but i don't think i have the mobility for this yet...my legs are quite stiff/muscles tight from years of not exercising them correctly hm.

I used the leg ext and leg curl machines (sitting down ones) for the first time in a while. So lower weight and reps of 12...felt such a burn! May stick to these for now plus squats beforehand.

 

[Freefaller]

Start without them being at a deficit - leg extension and curls are pretty pants to be honest.

 

[CaptainRAVE]

7.5kg off my deadlift PB . Where has this strength come from? Didn’t feel too bad either. I swear I’m taking in fewer calories, but I guess they are better calories than when I was bulking hard at the start of the year.

 

[SideWinder]

Start without them being at a deficit - leg extension and curls are pretty pants to be honest.

This wasn't with the def.

I think my body is really not used to this movement...even lunges is "new" to me. May try to practise more with much lower weights.

@CaptainRAVE - Did you have a strong coffee prior?

 

[CaptainRAVE]

This wasn't with the def.

I think my body is really not used to this movement...even lunges is "new" to me. May try to practise more with much lower weights.

@CaptainRAVE - Did you have a strong coffee prior?

Definitely a decent dose of preworkout - my face is tingling again

When I started lifting toward the end of lockdown I wasn’t sure I’d ever get remotely close to my deadlift max. I’ve lost the endurance that I had, so I’ve reduced the sets, but the heavy lifts are still there. I think I was doing too many sets anyway, I’ve gained more since I’ve scaled back my deadlift program.

 

[Somnambulist]

Legs.

So i am starting to get a bit unmotivated with leg day. I warm up with the crosstrainer (backwards as my hamstrings are v tight - PT at the gym advised i do this) at max level the machine does for 5-7mins.

Then i squat 5x5 or 5x6.

.....then i am a bit hmm. I do DB lunges stepping forward plus goblet narrow squats.

Could i get away with just squatting?

I am doing a push, legs, pull, legs...just to focus on legs for a bit.

Thoughts?

I don’t know how much of a beginner you are but most leg days for me involve a squat pattern movement, a hip hinge pattern movement, something higher rep for quads, something higher rep for hamstrings, then low back/abs. Just doing squats and variations of squats is a bit zzz - need other movements not just for variety but to hit things more directly than doing squat-type stuff can accomplish.

 

[B&W]

Loved my dumbbell upper body session today, managed 38x5, 36x8 for tricep standing overhead extension. Got DB bench to 34x5 for two sets.

On the negative side in 2 weeks I've put two pounds on lol but it's quite difficult to motivate yourself for a walk in this weather..

 

[Somnambulist]

Been enjoying Eugene Teo’s content on YouTube. Great technique tip from one of his vids that’s helped differentiate my horizontal and vertical pulling as far as using one to target more the upper back and one to target more the lats each workout.

- Upper back - more shoulder abduction, focus on elbows going back
- Lats - less shoulder abduction, focus on elbows going down into the sides

I always do a couple of big movements each upper or pull workout and was doing a lot more of the former than the latter, so hopefully I can make some lat gains now. We have the Nautilus pullover machine at MuscleWorks which is a lat-destroyer, but you need to be quite big or broad-shouldered for it to be ergonomic as far as the pads go... and I’m not.

 

[CaptainRAVE]

Getting to an interesting few weeks in my training now. Had scaled back by 1RM considerably after lockdown and have added 2.5kg to each cycle (weekly or two weekly) and it doesn’t feel any more challenging across my lifts. Getting close or passed my previous max lifts now and at this point it would be easy to psych myself out because I know how much I was having to grind once I got into this range previously. I think easing the assistance work has helped funnily enough.

 

[B&W]

These Bulgarian split squats are so hard to pull off. I barely did 2 sets of 4 just bodyweight. And with awful form...