***The 2021 Gym Rats Thread*** ᕦ( ͠°◞ °)ᕥ

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Felt quite hungry last night but managed to stick it through.

Are all carbs equal? I had around 365 carbs yesterday mostly rice. If I had the same amount in bread/wheat based stuff it would probably fill me more..
 
B&W said:
Felt quite hungry last night but managed to stick it through.

Are all carbs equal? I had around 365 carbs yesterday mostly rice. If I had the same amount in bread/wheat based stuff it would probably fill me more..
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Without getting really bogged down in the detail pick whichever you feel digests best and keeps you feeling fullest for longest.

You can pick the "best" by the book carb source but it's useless if it leaves you feeling bloated or hungry again soon after.
 
I need a reset and new programme. I did well through last year and early part of this but have gone off the boil and have just got back from an almost 3 week holiday with zero training (just good intentions).

I started with strong lifts and did really well with that. Then went to a PPL type programme and recently an upper lower split.

I'm 46 and have increased my strength a lot but not sure that continuing just to push for higher weights is right for me. I have a gut and want to work on that whilst maintaining strength.

I started to add some heavy bag hiit on none gym days (which is effective for me and I like it) but have gone off the boil on that.

Thinking I do heavy bag hitt and other interval type training (kayak, SUP/cross trainer) on non gym days.

Any suggestion of a programme for my gym days. I would like a new programme to get excited about and throw myself into. 3 days a week or 4 at a push.

I have rack, bench, bars and plates and dumbells but no machines.

Any programmes you good people would suggest?
 
Was supposed to be a lower body day today - squats, db split squats and so on. In the warmup (empty 20kg bar for 10+ reps) I noticed a peculiar feeling in my groin. It's hard to describe. It wasn't pain or discomfort, but I'm certain I was being warned not to continue.

So I moved on to upper. I won't be playing footy on Sunday due to self-isolating but I think I may have to stick to upper exercises, with maybe deadlifts and calf raises thrown in there.
 
B&W said:
Felt quite hungry last night but managed to stick it through.

Are all carbs equal? I had around 365 carbs yesterday mostly rice. If I had the same amount in bread/wheat based stuff it would probably fill me more..
Click to expand...

100g of carbs - assuming they’re both equally digested properly - is 100g of carbs, 400 calories. The main thing is a variety of sources = a variety of micronutrients (and secondary protein sources to a lesser extent) is superior to necking table sugar, so it’s usually a good idea to get some from fruit, some from starchy veg, some from grain-based stuff and then if you want to eat some Haribo before you train to get some sugar into you quickly with minimal digestion time and can fit that in you’ve ticked the other boxes that’s no problem either.

Also as you alluded to some things are more filling that others due to the calorie to volume ratio; 100g of carbs from Haribo is going to be a lot less food on the plate than 100g of carbs from rice which again will be less than 100g from potato. On a diet it’s usually pretty helpful to try and swing towards the higher volume/lower calorie stuff and vice versa for when you’re trying to slam down a ton of carbs when bulking.
 
How are you chaps developing your rear delts?

I've recently found a move I've connected with which is incline bench reverse flies. I'm finally seeing some growth.

uc
 
I usually just do face pulls with the cables (or I will once I finally get my cable pulley machine, for now just using resistance bands which is okay). Every time I've tried to do reverse flies like you describe I just find the movement feels extremely awkward and ineffective, any tips? If I could get it right maybe it's a more effective exercise than pulls as I find with those it's easy to let your back do too much of the work
 
I had some builders working on my drive while I was away. They seemingly have done it with the garage door open (my gym) and may be even mixed and cut in there. Everyhitng has a layer of dust and mud (I am no neat freak it is proper filfthy) as well as my 3d printer and so on too. Absolute bellends. Unusable right now!
 
For rear delts I either do these on the lateral raise machine at both my gym and the Pure one at work (except I minimise scapular retraction to actually make it an isolation movement) the first day I train them.


On my other day I usually cycle between either the rear delt fly machine with the following cues:


Or I do these except with cuffs rather than holding the cable to shorten the moment arm.

 
uncle_rufus said:
I usually just do face pulls with the cables (or I will once I finally get my cable pulley machine, for now just using resistance bands which is okay). Every time I've tried to do reverse flies like you describe I just find the movement feels extremely awkward and ineffective, any tips? If I could get it right maybe it's a more effective exercise than pulls as I find with those it's easy to let your back do too much of the work
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Tips wise,
good footing
Chest out with a slight arched back
Brace core, arms perpendicular, I vary the arm angle plus or minus 30degs over the reps to get a better spread.
Thumbless grip, lead with elbows and visualise the rear delts in action.
Not too heavy on the weight, enough to do 20 solid reps before I move up. In on 8kg dbs at the minute. 5 or 6 sets every other day.

Start with a lower weight to build up a good mind muscle connection, took me a while do get proficient.

The thing I like about laying on the bench is that I'm supported and don't have think too much about stabilising myself vs a standing face pull. And having independent dbs vs rope or barbell give me more freedom of movement and helps reduce and flag up muscle imbalance left vs right


HTH.
 
Sets per body part per week:

20 for chest
15 for back
20 for legs
9 for triceps
9 for biceps
3 for Anterior deltoid
2 dropsets for lateral deltoid
3 for rear deltoid.


rest/push/legs/pull/rest/upper/lower
Thoughts?
 
Are you not counting the indirect work for arms/delts? Any pressing movement involves the anterior deltoid to some degree so 3 sets for that and 2 for lateral deltoid (which doesn't get directly unless you're doing a lateral raise type motion) seems low.

Also deliberately doing more volume for chest to grow that specifically?
 
Gym is going great at the moment; OHP is finally back on track (need to catch up with @Freefaller haha) and been throwing in some cleans and press after for upper back(traps always burn the day after), been doing RDL to get form back on track, but been switching it up with wide grip and paused for the extra back torture. Mobility still somewhat sucks for getting under the bar on squats, so is putting stress on elbows. So, just been using the hack squat machine, blowing up my quads via the prowler and split squats.
 
Deception said:
Gym is going great at the moment; OHP is finally back on track (need to catch up with @Freefaller haha) and been throwing in some cleans and press after for upper back(traps always burn the day after), been doing RDL to get form back on track, but been switching it up with wide grip and paused for the extra back torture. Mobility still somewhat sucks for getting under the bar on squats, so is putting stress on elbows. So, just been using the hack squat machine, blowing up my quads via the prowler and split squats.
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Nice work! I'm on holiday for 3 weeks with just resistance bands to keep me tied over. And a sea to swim in. So you'll catch me up!
 
Somnambulist said:
Are you not counting the indirect work for arms/delts? Any pressing movement involves the anterior deltoid to some degree so 3 sets for that and 2 for lateral deltoid (which doesn't get directly unless you're doing a lateral raise type motion) seems low.

Also deliberately doing more volume for chest to grow that specifically?
Click to expand...

Yeah ANT 3 sets seems enough due to amount of pressing I do.

Laterals twice a week? Will be hard to fit in..

Chest twice a week, first session Bench 9 sets. 2 warm ups. so 7 working sets. Incline 3 sets towards end of workout.

Second session 9 sets bench again 2 warm ups. And 3 sets heavy DB bench.

I don't think it's too much I love pressing movements so it's biased towards that.

Tris is mostly CGBP, am happy with my tris not so happy with my biceps tho they don't seem to grow. :(
 
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