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

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Admiral Huddy said:
Doing plenty of running and cycling, it's just not the same..
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I'm trying to get faster at cycling, but I am making those gains so painfully slowly. However, I am fortunate enough to have my own gym at home, and squatting/benching/deadlifting all work quite happily when I get around to them...

Just need to decide if I am going to keep plugging away at this cycling thing, or just accept my body wants to lift...
 
mrthingyx said:
That is probably beta alanine, which has no place in a pre-workout. :confused:
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Yep, can confirm. Gave me terribly itchy hands as well.

Slowly but surely running out of plates in the home gym. My RDL and Squat have gone through the roof this past month. Something about working out from home has really pushed my numbers up and I’m really having to stop myself from throwing all the plates on to see what 1 or 2rm’s I can do. Such a pain as I won’t be able to afford new plates until March now.

Thrown most of my accessory stuff out the window which I think is almost certainly why I’m seeing such solid progress in my compound movements. Feels very odd to leave a session with a little left in the tank but hey ho.

B&W said:
Did some nice pause squats, really felt the pump afterwards. I do find they are really good for helping with depth and general form.
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Definitely man, especially with regards form. Fighting that wobble after a pause has done wonders.
 
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Getting increasingly peeved off with my Bench progress. It’s always been my weakest compound movement by a country mile but my progress since the 4 month lockdown break has been pathetic. Previous PR was 110 which is nothing really, but now I can’t get above 80KG which I feel is just embarrassing for someone who’s been lifting consistently for nearly 3 years now. I’d like to blame it on the sub standard home equipment I’m using but I know that’s not really the reason.

Just very frustrating. Bench is something I think we all want to see big numbers in and seeing it consistently left behind with no real progress has me dreading chest day at time.

Going to throw a vid up next week for you guys to critique. Sure I’m doing a thousand things wrong despite obsessing over form for months.
 
Technique tweaks will always help. So will just getting a strong back and triceps. Many people can put up respectable numbers with squat and deadlift as the muscles involved are huge compared to those in the bench press. You can’t just force reps up in a bench press like you can in squat and deadlift.

In short, dial in technique and press more.
 
DrToffnar said:
Getting increasingly peeved off with my Bench progress. It’s always been my weakest compound movement by a country mile but my progress since the 4 month lockdown break has been pathetic. Previous PR was 110 which is nothing really, but now I can’t get above 80KG which I feel is just embarrassing for someone who’s been lifting consistently for nearly 3 years now. I’d like to blame it on the sub standard home equipment I’m using but I know that’s not really the reason.

Just very frustrating. Bench is something I think we all want to see big numbers in and seeing it consistently left behind with no real progress has me dreading chest day at time.

Going to throw a vid up next week for you guys to critique. Sure I’m doing a thousand things wrong despite obsessing over form for months.
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Focus on technique. Weeks where I can’t bench as high will always be down to my technique. Post shoulder injury I had to make huge adjustments to my form and I learnt to keep a very strict movement - whereas I hit a wall pre-injury, I’ve since hit some pretty big numbers on bench vs a lot of other similar weight and powerlifting focussed friends that I have. Really drilling my shoulders back into the bench and taking a huge breath helps, too often it’s easy to throw your shoulders into the lift, not actually focussing on pushing with and squeezing your pecs.

One of the biggest differences I’ve made post injury is focussing on shoulder work, particularly OHP that has helped give me huge stability. Tricep work has obviously helped too.

Funny thing is since having my home gym - I’ve cut out most of my chest movements. I now just do loads of flat bench and CGBP (quite heavily based on the program by @reiyushin ) - the rest then includes a just few landmine barbell flys and incline presses.
 
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I think you guys are absolutely right about technique. I focus focus focus through the warm up sets, then when it gets to a weight I know to be challenging it all goes out the window in favour of just getting it off my chest.

The annoying thing is my Tricep work always feels great with good progression every week or so. Same with OHP. In fact the ceiling in my home gym is too low for standing OHP so I’ve been forced to do them seated. Was very apprehensive about this to begin with but have since PR’d and am very close to body weight. Taking all this in mind, it must be my bench technique which is completely lacking.

There’s been times where I’ve just wanted to sack it off completely and stick to DB’s. Always felt more comfortable with them from the start, but I’m a dude with an ego so obviously BB press is one of the things I’d like to nail.
 
LiE said:
My 48kg dumbbells arrive tomorrow on a pallet, all by their lonesome :p
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I did have a pallet for 8 quite small floor panels once. It seemed a little overkill. My drive is sloped too, the drivers always seem to be filled with dread when they see it until I tell them to just leave it all at the bottom.
 
They aren't as expensive as you think. Our old supplier was better, this new guy we've been using (Twister Barbell) isn't great for service tbh. Delivery is expensive (£70).

And man, that stone is heavy. Can rep the 140kg onto platform comfortably but the 160kg is an absolute pig to get off the floor.
 
Been doing some kettle bell and resistant band based workouts with gym closures. Just ordered myself a "pull up mate" which I'm really looking forward to. Anybody on here got one?
 
I did get the new PR in the end tho lol.

On another note due to left elbow pain I haven't benched in two weeks.

Anyone recommend any elbow sleeves, did see some iron bull ones on the rainforest for £35.

I'm hoping with these I can start benching again...
 
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