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

[kai]

Charles Poliquin and Christian Thibaudeau have some rather painful views on the topic, but ultimately it comes down to what you - as a person - want.

Agree, everyone has their own views and opinions. There is so many contractions out there, its just best to find out what works for you. I know what works for me and how my body adapts to certain foods, and training splits. However, what works for me, does not translate 1:1 to someone else.

Also so many people obsess with the finite detail. Form is important, however there is a tolerance especially for the average gym goer. If you are moving serious weight or focused solely on an exercise then yes, 100% going into granularity.

 

[mrthingyx]

Agree, everyone has their own views and opinions. There is so many contractions out there, its just best to find out what works for you. I know what works for me and how my body adapts to certain foods, and training splits. However, what works for me, does not translate 1:1 to someone else.

Also so many people obsess with the finite detail. Form is important, however there is a tolerance especially for the average gym goer. If you are moving serious weight or focused solely on an exercise then yes, 100% going into granularity.

As the saying goes: the best routine is the one you stick to.

 

[kai]

Found the photo, i posted on OCUK over 10 years ago .



I recall asking the likes of Steedie and LiE for advice as i had ZERO idea what i was doing. I have been in better shape but this my current condition albeit a grey filter

 

[B&W]

This ppl isn't gonna work for me. No way can I work push muscles in one session without sacrificing quality for one muscle group.

I'm an hour in and just started my triceps. No time for shoulders.

Nice body Kai. No homo.

 

[B&W]

Did BP, Incline BP, OHP. After that just time for triceps.

OHP suffered as muscles were tired by then, think I'll stick to my bro split.

 

[nicktay2605]

This ppl isn't gonna work for me. No way can I work push muscles in one session without sacrificing quality for one muscle group.

I'm an hour in and just started my triceps. No time for shoulders.

Nice body Kai. No homo.

There's no way it should be taking you an hour just to do chest on a PPL plan, so I can only imagine the workout plan you're following isn't very good. I'm guessing you're just doing too many different exercises or way too many sets. There's a good PPL plan floating about on here somewhere, can't remember which user posted it (@reiyushin maybe?), otherwise there's this one from Reddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Fitness/comments/37ylk5/a_linear_progression_based_ppl_program_for/

 

[LiE]

Here is my push workout from yesterday. I've noted weights for the top sets and exercises where it's important. Takes an hour.

Bench press 95x8 100x8,10

Seated DB Shoulder Press 34x8,8,8

DB Lateral Raises

Dips super set DB Flys

Cable Rope Extensions

Cable push down

 

[kai]

Agree, this is why i cant justify push/pull sessions. I feel like i am short-changing body parts. I spend 40-45 minutes on a train session. In that time, i move a fair amount of volume on a single muscle group whereby i can work the muscle in all different types of angles and exercises to exhaustion.

 

[LiE]

I feel like i am short-changing body parts.

Unless you trying the same body part 3 days later

 

[B&W]

There's no way it should be taking you an hour just to do chest on a PPL plan, so I can only imagine the workout plan you're following isn't very good. I'm guessing you're just doing too many different exercises or way too many sets. There's a good PPL plan floating about on here somewhere, can't remember which user posted it (@reiyushin maybe?), otherwise there's this one from Reddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Fitness/comments/37ylk5/a_linear_progression_based_ppl_program_for/

Bench press. 7 sets.

Incline BP. 3 sets.

OHP. 2 sets.

An hour done. I then did 3 sets of CGBP and and 3 sets of skull crusher's.

 

[DrToffnar]

Managed to find a reasonably priced set of steel plates. Well, I say reasonably priced... £290 for 77.5KG...

Do you guys think I should get them powder coated for an additional £70?

 

[tom_e]

Managed to find a reasonably priced set of steel plates. Well, I say reasonably priced... £290 for 77.5KG...

Do you guys think I should get them powder coated for an additional £70?

I'd just get a couple of cans of spray paint or leave them plain but I'm tight and I'd already be crying paying out that much

 

[DrToffnar]

I'd just get a couple of cans of spray paint or leave them plain but I'm tight and I'd already be crying paying out that much

Aha yeah it's going to leave a pretty sore wound once I pull the trigger on them. Just can't find them anywhere any cheaper... 4 quid a kilo brand new seems to be cheap

 

[Somnambulist]

Managed to find a reasonably priced set of steel plates. Well, I say reasonably priced... £290 for 77.5KG...

Do you guys think I should get them powder coated for an additional £70?

If that was Pro Plates then THICCBOI10 (I lol’d) gets you 10% off which makes it slightly less gross. The bare steel will need cleaning when it’s delivered as it’s usually greased up for transport and they’ll probably need a rust protection spray, so if that all sounds like a lot of faff the powder coating might be worth it.

Taking about 100 orders a day too so I don’t think delivery times are going to be speedy.

 

[SixTwoSix]

Did my first Stronglifts session Monday in what's probably close to 4 years without lifting weights, top of my legs today are agony. I didn't even go heavy as i've been office based now for close to 5 years and turned into a soft lump

 

[DrToffnar]

If that was Pro Plates then THICCBOI10 (I lol’d) gets you 10% off which makes it slightly less gross. The bare steel will need cleaning when it’s delivered as it’s usually greased up for transport and they’ll probably need a rust protection spray, so if that all sounds like a lot of faff the powder coating might be worth it.

Taking about 100 orders a day too so I don’t think delivery times are going to be speedy.

It's with a company a pal of mine has dealt with a lot, 'Weightlocker'. I messaged them last night and thankfully they do a 10% NHS discount which as you said makes it slightly less painful. Think I'm going to go for the uncoated option. If all it'll take is a spray with some anti rust stuff then that's not too much of an issue.

Saying this, just looked at Pro Plates and they're options seem much cheaper! Can get it powder coated for the same price and their delivery is cheaper.

 

[Somnambulist]

It's with a company a pal of mine has dealt with a lot, 'Weightlocker'. I messaged them last night and thankfully they do a 10% NHS discount which as you said makes it slightly less painful. Think I'm going to go for the uncoated option. If all it'll take is a spray with some anti rust stuff then that's not too much of an issue.

Saying this, just looked at Pro Plates and they're options seem much cheaper! Can get it powder coated for the same price and their delivery is cheaper.

There seem to be loads of these steel plate companies that have popped up - seems to be one of the lockdown entrepreneur opportunity areas - and they’re all super similar... but Pro Plates had a bunch of reviews so I went with them for my order for the Mira short-handle Oly DBs I got.

The plates are only 2cm thick so I should be able to get to 30-35kg per DB without needing to buy/use 10kg ones... as big plates on dumbbells don’t work well and that’ll be enough to at least do some meaningful lower body work with.

 

[Somnambulist]

Bench press. 7 sets.

Incline BP. 3 sets.

OHP. 2 sets.

An hour done. I then did 3 sets of CGBP and and 3 sets of skull crusher's.

Too many similar movements, too many sets, which I’m guessing are a bit easy as if I did 7 sets of bench I’d have nothing left for any other pressing.

Pick a couple of compounds for that day - ideally in different planes of movement - do like 6-8 sets total, then do a couple of sets of isolations for chest/tris/side delts. A good rule of thumb supported by the research is something like 10-20 hard* (as in <3 reps in the tank) sets per body part per week over 2-3 sessions.

Past the beginner stage, doing more is better than doing less for gains, but only up to a certain point: as you increase volume you get into something like diminishing returns where you can keep adding more but it doesn’t do anything more for you and just extends your workout time needlessly (called ‘junk volume’). Add more still and you start going down the other side of the hill where progress is slower, non-existent or you even start to backslide because the amount of work you’re doing is past your ability to recover from it properly for the next session. Something that always stuck with me I heard years ago was ‘do as little as you need to do to keep progressing’ - so if you’re not a complete beginner and doing say 12 sets for chest each week (both from compound and iso work combined) and lifts are all going up, why add more gym-time doing 13-20 sets if you don’t have to?

*most people don’t train hard enough and their ‘2 from failure’ actually turns out to be 5+ from failure when actually pushed in a sports science lab getting screamed at by a spotter - you can get a LOT out of a few sets if they’re done with focus and intensity. I don’t like training to failure but sometimes doing it for a session or two in a safe way can be illuminating as to what you can actually do vs what you think you’re doing and get you better at judging reps in the tank.

 

[B&W]

This is today's Pull session:

Thursday 19 Nov 2020, 11:30

Deadlift (Barbell)
Set 1: 80 kg × 10
Set 2: 100 kg × 10
Set 3: 110 kg × 4
Set 4: 110 kg × 4
Set 5: 110 kg × 5

Bent Over Row (Barbell)
Set 1: 70 kg × 8
Set 2: 80 kg × 5
Set 3: 80 kg × 7

Bent Over One Arm Row (Dumbbell)
Set 1: 18 kg × 15
Set 2: 20.5 kg × 12
Set 3: 26 kg × 12

Bicep Curl (Barbell)
Set 1: 40 kg × 9
Set 2: 40 kg × 9
Set 3: 40 kg × 6

Hammer Curl (Dumbbell)
Set 1: 10 kg × 12
Set 2: 10 kg × 12
Set 3: 10 kg × 20

Took me one hour 5 mins, wasted time on deadlifts as work colleagues wanted to test there strength. otherwise would have been done 10 minutes earlier.

On last set of every exercise I tried my hardest to get more reps. Apart from BB Curl, form would have sufferred.

I don't get Deadlifts, some days I can pull 120 for triples some day I can't get it up....

 

[LiE]

Set 2: 100 kg × 10
Set 3: 110 kg × 4

What's happening here?