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

[Somnambulist]

Ah the memories of the original Jack3d, such good workouts on dem amphetamines.

9mg/kg caffeine, jesus! That's 750mg! Even at the lower end of 3mg/kg that's still 243mg for me. I currently take 150mg.

Yeah most sports science things will cap it at 6mg/kg because the cost/benefit ratio is just not good for most people.

Usually you experiment at the bottom end of the range and see how adding a little at a time affects you, since some people experience adverse sides more than others or don’t build up as much of a tolerance to it. Dem genetics. IIRC the positive effects on output in the weight room for 3-6-9mg/kg scales somewhat with working in descending rep ranges, and the shift from strength to explosive power, so for an Oly lifter it might not be useful as they’d really have to push the advisable dosage for it to make any difference, where as a true bro might feel they get something out of the lower end of the recommendations and not need to go higher. I think you’ve said you’ve been doing more moderate to higher rep work, in which case more wouldn’t be better!

 

[Somnambulist]

On the OHP flex, I got my technical 1RM (i.e. not turning it into a standing incline press) to less than 10kg off bodyweight... then covid happened, I put on a few kg, and now it's more than 10kg off. Nearly back to where I was strength-wise though, so hopefully after a pre-xmas diet I might be able to nudge closer to that holy grail of a BW strict press maintaining lifts as my weight goes down.

Rep work going well since I came back though. I had a tendency before to hold my breathe which doesn't really work for sets of 6-8 (nearly fainted once or twice lol) as the exhales would mess my bracing so I tried to avoid doing them but I've correct that enough that it's less of a problem, because I had the strength to keep going but I'd lose my positioning and have to stop the set prematurely. Quads still start to tighten uncomfortably when it gets intense though!

 

[Somnambulist]

My next milestone is 60kg, to see a wheel a side would make me feel more manly. Currently back to 41kg for sets of 6-8 and a best single of 55kg @ 68.2kg average bw which is almost where I was before lockdown. Am almost certain I'll hit that milestone this year, then hopefully a quick diet and another few months and I'll get that mythical 1 x bw press. Doing seated high incline (one down from the most vertical position on the bench) DB press as my other vertical push and that seems to be helping with the OHP sticking point.

And obviously using dem 0.5kg plates for the in-between progressions in load,as 1-1.5kg jumps are far more manageable than 2.5kg a time (I do the same for all upper body free-weight movements bar weighted dips/pull-ups, as you can just use the 1.25kg plates individually).

 

[Somnambulist]

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]

Lovely squat and deadlifts... Looked within his limits, too! Well done!

He’s like a RL Captain America. God-tier genes but he’s also been training for 10-11 years (he’s 24-25 IIRC) as well so has that blend of having the right parents and strong training ethic. Now trains at another gym from me though because it’s cheaper and has an IPF spec competition bench, so I won’t get to hear the whole building reverberate when he’s pulling 300kg+... but at least more 20kg plates will be available to use!

 

[Somnambulist]

Having a deload week this week, I should start tracking the weeks and schedule them in because I tend to go by feel and usually end up wrecked when I’d do better with more frequent ones that pre-empt fatigue.

Gym has just replaced most of the barbells now and we only have a lot of Texas power bars and a few of their squat and deadlift bars. This is good stuff, nothing like fresh knurling, but I will now be even more upset when I see people bending them by slamming rack pulls down on the pins.

I kind of wish they had signs explaining the bars as well as I’ve seen loads of people squat with the deadlift bars and wonder why they get thrown about by the whip, and use the squat bar and wonder why their normal weights feel heavy (it’s a 25kg bar as it’s longer and fatter).

This will also put off all the weightlifters from training as they don’t spin like the Jordan Olympic bars that were for the platforms/racks.

 

[Somnambulist]

150-160g protein, 300g-ish carb and 60-65g fat, roughly estimated. Maintaining and letting body recomp/return to normal after lack of proper training during lockdown. Once my lifts are back where they should be in a few weeks I’ll diet for 4-6 weeks on pretty sizeable deficit, then I’ll sit at an estimated new maintenance for a couple of weeks, then start a slow bulk again.

Food is usually two proper meals (i.e. whole foods, nutritious, salad w/one, veggies w/the other) for lunch and dinner and there’s a mid-afternoon protein + carbs thing before the gym usually, and something like proats before bed. When I cut I usually keep protein the same but slash carbs right down and some fat, although it’s not a ‘low carb’ approach, just a lot less of them.

EDIT - for the protein take into account I include everything, not just the high-quality sources like meat/dairy (although every meal has 20g protein minimum from those), so today for instance it’s something like *does maths in head quickly* 120g-ish from primary protein sources and 30g or so from secondary sources that are more often than not primary carb sources too.

 

[Somnambulist]

Ah, the deload week, when everything is easy and it looks like you train at RPE 7 only, and not a single gym face is pulled.

 

[Somnambulist]

Thoughts on going to the gym 5 days per week when doing a workout A / workout B type routine?

I'm currently doing the Ice Cream routine which is every other day but I'm working from home until way into next year and going to the gym every weekday gets me out of the house without me spending hideous amounts of money whilst relieving some boredom.

I was thinking of doing cardio / mobility stuff on non workout days, I just don't want to hinder weightlifting progress too much.

As long as you’re not doing long runs or really high intensity stuff like hill sprints you’ll be fine. Rest is just as important as training so any activity should be low-impact, enough to get your heart-rate up a bit but still hold a conversation. I can stick a podcast on and incline walk for a bit but it’s always a last resort if I haven’t got many steps done that day, being stationary for ages is not my thing!

Doing some properly structured mobility work would be good if that’s an area that’s lacking, it’d just be a matter of choosing a program to follow, of which there are a lot (specific to resistance training individuals I’m thinking of Pavel T, callisthenics guys like Tom Merrick, GMB, the guy who people link to a lot on r/Flexbility whose name I forget). Or you could just do a couple of yoga classes, although again there’s a lot of content out there and only a selection of it is what I’d describe as effective/good.

 

[Somnambulist]

Is that barbell overhead tricep extensions?

This sort of thing:

Some people make it more explosive on the way up and finish with the arms vertical but it's differentiated from a skullcrusher because you allow the elbows to drift back and the bar to go behind the head. My grip is usually more narrow than this guys when I do them but it depends on your mobility, structure, etc.

 

[Somnambulist]

What is full power lifter?

There’s a long-running joke that since powerlifters care the most about 1RM squat/bench/deadlift strength and ‘weight moves weight’, they tend to forget about body fat %.*

*This has gotten less true now the sport has gotten more professional (for an amateur endeavour) since outside of the weight-unlimited category you ideally want to fill your weight class with as much muscle as possible, but regardless your average powerlifter will tend to have a bit more fluff than their bodybuilding/physique ‘sport’ gym relatives) during the off-season.

 

[Somnambulist]

Soooo as promised. Realised they should be the other way around. Using a renpho to monitor progress.

I was 73kg last December at 20% bodyfat or so. I could have made progress faster but i have a weakness for Greggs/pizza when hungover plus alcohol normally once a week.

Aim is to remove that last lower bellyfat before increasing calorie intake slowly. Currently taking in 1500 a day with at least 100g of protein.

Now
BW: 58kg
Bodyfat: 10.1%

Can't see my legs but squatting 65kg 5x6, deadlift 90kg 5x5, ohp 35kg 5x5 and bench 50kg 3x8. These are approx as i am pushing hard at the moment.

Before (Pic taken in March of this year)

I’m not sure how much leaner you need to get really, especially at your bodyweight. How tall are you? Your % looks low enough to bulk slowly now for a good while and put on some mass. I know it can be fun getting diced, especially if you haven’t done it before, but what you find is your body does not like going under or even maintaining a certain % (which will be different for everyone and only you’ll know) and mood/sex drive/hunger/training quality and progress all suffer.

I say this as someone who has dieted down to silly bodyfat levels to see what was lying underneath, but ultimately realising if I had more muscle in the first place I wouldn’t need to go low enough that my body looked like a road map. This is a couple of years ago when I last dieted hard: about 60kg @ at 5”8 (with my hair styled lol) and in need of far more fat-free mass. I’ve grown a bit since this but still a long way to go!

 

[Somnambulist]

@Somnambulist Hmm noted. I think as i am hovering between 10.1% - 10.5% i want to push a bit further. I am definitely not showing as many veins as the pics above so think i can do it. Must be 7 or 8% in those pics maybe?!

I am 5"8.



Noted on mood etc. Will keep an eye out on that. If anything, i am happier/more determined/energetic so it isn't impacting me at all.

I know i need to add direct ab exercises...used to do a lot but it paused when gyms re-opened. Starting to add in leg raises every so often and need to try hanging ones soon.

Vascularity is really individual/genetic. I think a lot of the time we want to get leaner to see more definition etc, but if you haven’t got much underneath in the first place it’s not going to appear no matter how lean you get. Ultimately we want to grow (and be beach lean closer to 70kg than 60kg at our height!) so the less time we spend dieting the better.

Leg raises are really more of a hip flexor exercise unless you’re doing the crunch at the top; ideally for hypertrophy you want a mix of stuff that takes the abs through their (very small) ROM like cable crunches that you can progressively load easily, and some anti-flexion/rotation for the deeper core muscles to strengthen your braced position in squats/deads.

 

[Somnambulist]

What are people's thoughts on reaching your genetic limit? Lets say you've peaked, you cannot really gain anymore size or strength due to your age/limits of your hormones. In fact, you know you've reached your peak and it's a gradual decline over the next few decades. Does it affect your mind set when it comes to training? For example, if you knew that hitting the gym hard each session wouldn't result in any growth or strength size.

I think it's unlikely most will ever reach their limit: that requires getting close to both optimising the variables and also training like an animal for years. With the exception of Tom Martin, I can't think of many people who squeezed pretty much everything out of their natural abilities before trading in their natty card (and even in his case that was only the pursuit of SBD 1RM strength and not hypertrophy). That said, it's inevitable that size and strength gains slow down the more advanced you get, and you end up trying to squeeze out little improvements here and there via things like specialisation cycles or just chipping away Jeff Alberts style over decades.

This is where a lot of people get fed up because their sole enjoyment from training comes from making progress. I know quite a few people who got fairly advanced and now simply do the minimum in the gym to keep their physique where it's at, and then use that extra free time for things like family, other hobbies etc. They still enjoy the feeling of training it's just less of a focus. Some try out other forms of resistance training for variety because the need that stimulation, some are toying with the idea of drugs because even if they don't compete, they're obsessed with getting bigger/stronger.

It doesn't seem like ageing is a big deal until you get into your 50's so plenty of time for progress for all of us here.

 

[Somnambulist]

Btw if anyone is interested in the physiological effects of exogenous test and it's derivatives, even if you never plan on trading in the natty card, my internet friend Peter Bond wrote an amazing book on it (fairly readable, LOTS of citations, because science).

 

[Somnambulist]

Is Tom natty?

Agree though we can all continue to make progress. I'm seeing the fruits of my labour now - and really enjoy seeing the change.

I'm never going to be bodybuilding lean, and never will I be a competitive PL person, but I'm just enjoying getting strong for me.

No - he got as far as he thought he could in the IPF/tested powerlifting (I think he still has a couple of records that have remain unbroken), pulling 360kg whilst looking like a beanpole, then because he felt he had the potential to go for some of the all-time numbers he left and started competing untested and as well as pulling 420kg+ now looks like a viking superhero. He doesn't talk about his usage much but as he says it's somewhat self-evident given the shift in federations and change in physique + numbers.

 

[Somnambulist]

Great minds think alike - was watching Alberto Nunez’s last vlog and like me on his 2nd leg day he uses the Cybex Squat Press (the pivot-style leg press) and adds padding to raise the height of the seat up, which improves the ergonomics considerably when performing full ROM since you can’t adjust the seat angle. I often try and tinker with machines where I can because I’ve come to appreciate the inherent advantage they have over free weights in certain situations and their usefulness for gainz (different resistance profiles over the ROM, minimisation of form deviations and the ability to flirt with or go to failure more safely, less faff setting up, etc). Good not to be dogmatic about a barbell-only life, and avoid the ‘you HAVE to do x movement or you’re a pu$$y’ mindset.

 

[Somnambulist]

Had a nose on his page. 22kg in 6 months. Was j00cy pre-lockdown, did a Kevin Levrone and lost a load then blew up again in no time at at all. Must be something in his steak... (and the magic of myoclei).

 

[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.

 

[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.