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

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What is up with the ridiculous price of supplements at the moment?

Got back into the gym recently after only having been a handful of times in the past two years and feeling really good in my lifts at the moment so just thought I'd check out the price of protein with Black Friday around... 2 years ago I paid £27.01 for a flavoured 2.5kg bag at 40% off (I calculate a full price of approx £44.99) and now the full price of that same bag is £72.99... Nuts!
 
Monkeymatt said:
What is up with the ridiculous price of supplements at the moment?

Got back into the gym recently after only having been a handful of times in the past two years and feeling really good in my lifts at the moment so just thought I'd check out the price of protein with Black Friday around... 2 years ago I paid £27.01 for a flavoured 2.5kg bag at 40% off (I calculate a full price of approx £44.99) and now the full price of that same bag is £72.99... Nuts!
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Yeah everything has gone up. I usually buy a few 4-5kg bags when they’re cheapest then that tides me over till the next big sale.

50% off everything on MyProtein atm for Black Friday.
 
Hit my PB on squats today, 100KGx2, not the heaviest weight but after coming back from doing both of my ACLs over the last 10 years I'm happy as larry now.

Had to tell internet people for the endorphins as the wife was nonplussed!
 
Josh said:
Hit my PB on squats today, 100KGx2, not the heaviest weight but after coming back from doing both of my ACLs over the last 10 years I'm happy as larry now.

Had to tell internet people for the endorphins as the wife was nonplussed!
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Great achievement. Most people I've found with knee issues, rarely get under a bar again. Congrats!
 
What do people honestly thing of the Lyle McDonald’s Bulking Routine?

Its my go to gym routine.

I run it like this:

Mon: Lower
Leg Press: 4X6-8 (3 min rest)
SLDL 4X6-8 (3 min rest)
Leg press: 3X10-12 (2 min rest)
Ham curls: 3X10-12 (2 min rest)
Calf raises
Abs

Tue: Upper
Dumbell Flat: 4X6-8 (3 min rest)
Row: 4X6-8 (3 min rest)
Shoulder press: 3X10-12 (2 min rest)
Lat Pulldown: 3X10-12 (2 min rest)
Triceps: 2X12-15 (1.5 min rest)
Biceps: 2X12-15 (1.5 min rest)

Repeat for Thu and Fri. Only difference is on the Thu instead of starting with Leg press I do deadlifts.

I know there is no squats in there but I have two bad knees and squats will cause me issues.

I got talking to a big guy in the gym and he saw my routine and said it wasn't 'balanced'.

He thinks I am hitting the front delts two munch and thinks I should have lat raises in there and incline chest press etc....

I am only a basic gym goer. I want to make gains sure but I am not looking to spend hours in the gym.

When I google what people think of this routine the general consensus is that it is basic but good.

So I thought I'd ask here what you guys think.


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OK, I'll be honest the big guy in the gym is a PT who wants to charge me money to make me a routine.

We got talking because I have a loose left shoulder and he thinks a session with him on form and a custom routine might help.

Its hard to doubt him with an Arnold physique though.
 
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It’s a middle of the road template for hypertrophy for early intermediates that’s a good starting point to build on. I used to run it in and had different movements on the different days rather than repeating the same workout twice. I see loads of people still think you’re supposed to just copy the exercises choices and not use your brain and pick what works for you ala quad movement, hamstring movement, pressing etc.

He has updated it slightly (see his 3-part Training Volume series on his website from a year or two back) - more side delts and pec isolation, something like that anyway.

Based off all the research the current ‘this is probably enough for most people without being too much or too little’ recommendations for hypertrophy are:
Reps per session per body part: 40-70
Reps per week: 80-140
Sets per week: 8-18 sets/week (maybe 10-20 for legs)

GBR falls into the middle of that. It’s not a fancy periodised program or anything but just a basic “go in and work hard for 6-8 weeks trying to get your lifts up, deload, repeat” type thing.
 
Somnambulist said:
He has updated it slightly (see his 3-part Training Volume series on his website from a year or two back) - more side delts and pec isolation, something like that anyway.
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Can you link to it please in case I cant find it.

OK, I think I found it here.

Cool, thanks for that. I did actually have lateral raises and rear delts in my routine up until a few days ago but removed it as it felt like too much volume. Looking at this update you've pointed me at it definitely shows me it wasn't too much volume.
 
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Das in mane. It’s simple, but hypertrophy seems to be a fairly simple adaptation provided nutrition and sleep/recovery are adequate (and patience as muscle growth is pathetically slow). Obviously you’ll get a bit stronger too but it’s not the same as training for powerlifting or something.
 
Somnambulist said:
Das in mane. It’s simple, but hypertrophy seems to be a fairly simple adaptation provided nutrition and sleep/recovery are adequate (and patience as muscle growth is pathetically slow). Obviously you’ll get a bit stronger too but it’s not the same as training for powerlifting or something.
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How does this look then for an upper day?

Chest Press 4 x 6-8 – 3min
Row 4 x 6-8 – 3min
Shoulder Press 3 x 10 – 12 – 2min
Lat Pulldown 3 x 10 – 12 – 2min
Lateral Raise 3 x 8 - 10 – 2min
Reverse Flys 3 x 8 – 10 – 2min
Bicep Curls 2 x 10-12 – 90s
Tricep pushdown 2 x 10-12 – 90s

In the link he includes 4 sets on Lateral Raise and Reverse Flys which I know for me is too much.
 
Yeah it’s fine. Depending on how you execute the shoulder press and pulling exercises you might target the side and rear delts more or less and tbh set quality is often more important than quantity (go watch Jeff Alberts of 3DMJ train in his home garage - every rep is *chefs kiss*). I always liked having different workouts as you could do like, more focus on horizontal movements on day and more on vertical the other but as ever it’s down to preference and what you have available to use.

Also stick to a progression scheme that works for you, e.g. some people like to hit max reps across all sets before using more weight, some people fade quicker and instead add weight for set 1 then reduce if necessary for subsequent sets to stay in the rep range.
 
Since it's come up - hypertrophy considered a reasonable goal/method to aim for? I'm not really totally sure what I'm doing but that's sort of what I aim for, targeting bigger compound lifts after warming up and then switching to more singular/isolation type movements across the session aiming to exhaust each target muscle (in a way that preserves accessory muscles)... So for instance on my Push day I would do a short warmup then bench + ohp, then other things that target chest until that is basically exhausted, then shoulders until the same, the finish off with triceps until they are just done. I guess my idea is to avoid knackering out my triceps while they are still assisting with shoulder + chest movements etc.
 
Bodybuilding as an endeavour is almost entirely directed towards hypertrophy training. There’s different approaches as far as higher intensity/lower frequency or vice versa but the goal is basically ‘get bigger’ everywhere in proportion. Nothing wrong with that. You still get stronger over time but obvious there’s less/no emphasis on expressing/peaking strength in the lowest rep ranges. Plenty of drug-free BBers to follow as well e.g. the 3DMJ guys, the Revive Stronger guys etc.
 
Cool, just checking :D my biggest obstacle really is just finding the time at all - I expect as my daughter gets a little older I will be able to train a bit more consistently again (right now it's basically a case of taking opportunities as they arise!)
 
uncle_rufus said:
Cool, just checking :D my biggest obstacle really is just finding the time at all - I expect as my daughter gets a little older I will be able to train a bit more consistently again (right now it's basically a case of taking opportunities as they arise!)
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Just do what you can when you can - you need surprisingly little work to maintain what you have (as long as that work is done at sufficient intensity) - and obviously routine-wise things like full body tend to work better if your frequency is really low. I don’t know your training situation but upper body stuff can be taken a long way at home without a dedicated home gym (chin/pull-ups, dips, push-ups, inverted rows + a weight belt to overload, some DBs for arms), it’s just leg work that tends to plenty of weights and either a bar or equipment.
 
Somnambulist said:
Just do what you can when you can - you need surprisingly little work to maintain what you have (as long as that work is done at sufficient intensity) - and obviously routine-wise things like full body tend to work better if your frequency is really low. I don’t know your training situation but upper body stuff can be taken a long way at home without a dedicated home gym (chin/pull-ups, dips, push-ups, inverted rows + a weight belt to overload, some DBs for arms), it’s just leg work that tends to plenty of weights and either a bar or equipment.
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I think I'm quite well setup at home thanks to lockdown - have a bar, half rack, a decent amount of weights (probably around 150kgs if I stuffed absolutely everything on, but nothing I am doing is getting close to that for now) and an adjustable pulley/cable station. So I think I am able to do pretty much anything one way or another. Aiming to do 3 days a week (PPL) but depending on what's going on I sometimes don't manage 2/3 of the days; so I've made sure the one day I can consistently make (Sunday :D) is leg day, as I just hate how painful it is restarting if you miss one or two of those.

(TLDR next bit, X-factor sob story)
Things were going quite good over the summer, I was sitting at about 92kgs (am 6'2") and making some progress etc. then when our daughter started nursery the sickness began lol - and after one particularly bad week where all 3 of us got a pretty nasty stomach bug it knocked me out for a couple of weeks and with colds and things as well I probably missed close to a month or so. At the same time I got braces with these bite block things that make it really hard to eat properly so been having to blend a lot of meals and just generally eating less. Dropped all the way down to 80kgs :o - can't work out if it effectively ended up being an accidental cut or whether I just lost a bit of everything (probably the latter though tbh). Still, onwards and upwards - I'm already back to around 83kgs
 
Out of curiosity, which would you say was better between a lat pulldown and an assisted pull up rack?

I like to say that i'm overweight and understrength. So by no means "limited" by a pullup as some people may be. At the moment i'm ~100kg and tend to add around 60/65kg on the assisted pull up to be the equivalent of around 35/40kg on the lat pulldown. However my thinking is that the pull up would be better as a general exercise to engage more muscles around the upper back and also help elsewhere.

As i've mentioned before, i'm by no means an expert, but if i can get to the point of being capable of doing a pullup i'll be happy :p
 
Martynt74 said:
Out of curiosity, which would you say was better between a lat pulldown and an assisted pull up rack?

I like to say that i'm overweight and understrength. So by no means "limited" by a pullup as some people may be. At the moment i'm ~100kg and tend to add around 60/65kg on the assisted pull up to be the equivalent of around 35/40kg on the lat pulldown. However my thinking is that the pull up would be better as a general exercise to engage more muscles around the upper back and also help elsewhere.

As i've mentioned before, i'm by no means an expert, but if i can get to the point of being capable of doing a pullup i'll be happy :p
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It doesn’t matter that much, you can put more/less focus on the upper back, lats and contribution of the biceps depending on your grip and grip width, line of pull, or for the lpd the type of attachment you’re using and how you angle your torso, both are easy to progressively overload.

In my experience the assisted machines can either be decent or terrible depending on things like what the handles are like and where they’re located and how the assistance is provided, where as it’s harder to mess a lat pulldown up. That said, assuming it’s decent, the assisted machine is less hassle to execute if you’re going down to something like the 5-8 rep range which will have more specificity if you’re working towards being able to do a bodyweight pull-ups.
 
Martynt74 said:
Out of curiosity, which would you say was better between a lat pulldown and an assisted pull up rack?

I like to say that i'm overweight and understrength. So by no means "limited" by a pullup as some people may be. At the moment i'm ~100kg and tend to add around 60/65kg on the assisted pull up to be the equivalent of around 35/40kg on the lat pulldown. However my thinking is that the pull up would be better as a general exercise to engage more muscles around the upper back and also help elsewhere.

As i've mentioned before, i'm by no means an expert, but if i can get to the point of being capable of doing a pullup i'll be happy :p
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I always found negatives were good. Climb up on a box/rack, grip onto bar and slowly lower yourself to floor best you can. Repeat that a bunch of times and it might help eventually.
 
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