[[[The 2022 Gym Rats Thread]]] ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ

@ShortWarning this really sucks to hear!! i would follow the advise given and seek advice asap, i would also strongly suggest looking in to the ATG program. This might be an ideal time to be able to take advantage, and avoid any surgery.
 
Bad luck @ShortWarning I've just got back from 3 months with a shoulder injury, nothing serious but it still niggles, frustrating as hell but you need to be patient.

But, heading into the New Year, from being less than 10 stone 18 months ago and never having set foot in a gym, I'm going to set some benchmarks as to where I'm at now after 18 months of PT once a week and 12 months being a gym member.

I've put on 2 stone so I'm about 75kg now.

I can squat 150kg

Bench press is poor because of my shoulder so I doubt I could do more than about 40kg just due to the pain, though I can front press 60kg on the machines in the gym as that doesn't hurt for some reason.

Dead lift I'm still learning the technique and building there, but this morning I did 10 reps of 80kg on the trap bar.

I'll be 47 in Feb, June will be 2 years of training and Aug 2 years of the gym, so those are my next target dates, what would be a reasonable gain from where I am do you think?
 
ShortWarning said:
Argh, so I popped/tore something in my knee at BJJ last night. It was loud, everyone stopped to see what it was (sounded like your classic ligament tearing/stretching). It doesn't hurt too much but I can't walk on it without a limp, any lateral movement causes agony and my ROM is at about half. I'd expect this for a while after any injury/niggle but I'm pretty sure I've torn my ACL (although probably not a serious tear).

So annoying as my lifts were progressing nicely.

Does anyone have any experience lifting without surgery? Obviously, I'll give it a week or 2 but the consensus seems to be that squatting and deadlifting should still be okay. I'm guessing that doesn't mean PR's though?
Click to expand...
That sucks to hear. I'm 8 months into a high level torn ACL without surgery. I would highly advise seeing a proper sports physio even for just one session.
Apparently ACL tears, even high level ones, sometimes don't hurt that much. A week after doing my knee in it was making good progress and went into physio appointment quite positive. Then he had to break the news to me like I was terminal lol.
You don't want to go be near anything heavy legwise for a while at least. Pushing it too far can easily turn a minor tear to a major one. Exercise wise on injured leg it was very light, low ROM one leg squats to start off with. Trap bar deadlifts I could put a bit of weight on but I was doing it off two 20s so not much ROM. Straight legged deadlifts and any hamstring strengthening exercises are good as they are going to be doing the heavy lifting while your ACL heals. It may feel strange at first but doing things one legged leg press where you do heavy on the good knee then very light on injured knee. Don't worry about imbalances, not much you can do about it while your ligament is the weak point.
Most important thing of all though is listen to your body and try not to push yourself too hard.
Any time that knee starts to feel uncomfortable make sure you stop and rest it if it's sore, it's a long way back and progress will be slow. Sometimes it feels as though my knee hasn't got better in a few weeks then all of a sudden it feels as though I've made massive progress, it's a bit strange.
 
MikeTheNative said:
That sucks to hear. I'm 8 months into a high level torn ACL without surgery. I would highly advise seeing a proper sports physio even for just one session.
Apparently ACL tears, even high level ones, sometimes don't hurt that much. A week after doing my knee in it was making good progress and went into physio appointment quite positive. Then he had to break the news to me like I was terminal lol.
You don't want to go be near anything heavy legwise for a while at least. Pushing it too far can easily turn a minor tear to a major one. Exercise wise on injured leg it was very light, low ROM one leg squats to start off with. Trap bar deadlifts I could put a bit of weight on but I was doing it off two 20s so not much ROM. Straight legged deadlifts and any hamstring strengthening exercises are good as they are going to be doing the heavy lifting while your ACL heals. It may feel strange at first but doing things one legged leg press where you do heavy on the good knee then very light on injured knee. Don't worry about imbalances, not much you can do about it while your ligament is the weak point.
Most important thing of all though is listen to your body and try not to push yourself too hard.
Any time that knee starts to feel uncomfortable make sure you stop and rest it if it's sore, it's a long way back and progress will be slow. Sometimes it feels as though my knee hasn't got better in a few weeks then all of a sudden it feels as though I've made massive progress, it's a bit strange.
Click to expand...
Thanks! To be honest, it barely hurts now but feels a bit awkward and swollen. I've got an MRI on Wednesday and I'm not going to train until I have the results back. With a bit of luck, it's nothing and I can carry on. If it's a tear I'll have to change the way I approach training I guess.
 
MikeTheNative said:
That sucks to hear. I'm 8 months into a high level torn ACL without surgery. I would highly advise seeing a proper sports physio even for just one session.
Apparently ACL tears, even high level ones, sometimes don't hurt that much. A week after doing my knee in it was making good progress and went into physio appointment quite positive. Then he had to break the news to me like I was terminal lol.
You don't want to go be near anything heavy legwise for a while at least. Pushing it too far can easily turn a minor tear to a major one. Exercise wise on injured leg it was very light, low ROM one leg squats to start off with. Trap bar deadlifts I could put a bit of weight on but I was doing it off two 20s so not much ROM. Straight legged deadlifts and any hamstring strengthening exercises are good as they are going to be doing the heavy lifting while your ACL heals. It may feel strange at first but doing things one legged leg press where you do heavy on the good knee then very light on injured knee. Don't worry about imbalances, not much you can do about it while your ligament is the weak point.
Most important thing of all though is listen to your body and try not to push yourself too hard.
Any time that knee starts to feel uncomfortable make sure you stop and rest it if it's sore, it's a long way back and progress will be slow. Sometimes it feels as though my knee hasn't got better in a few weeks then all of a sudden it feels as though I've made massive progress, it's a bit strange.
Click to expand...

See my post @ShortWarning

Ok, by the time we are talking about ACL's heres my two pence worth.

I had an acl reconstruction and meniscectomy back in 2004 in my left knee. The knee was also a little lose but 18 years I lived with it and it never bothered me.

During the pandemic in the summer of 2020 with the gyms closed I decided I wanted to go to the park to do some exercise. In my idiocy I decided to do sprints up and down the park.

I did it on a Monday no problem. I did it on a Wed no problem. I did it on a Sat and thought no problem. I walked home had my shower everything was normal.

However the following day after breakfast it was the summer so I was sat at my pc in shorts. I noticed my knee had swollen up! It was much but there was definitely some swelling and this had me worried especially with my history.

As the days/weeks went by the pain in the acl was acute. I Couldn't bend on it and basically every single day it was really really swollen. It was also giving way. When I say giving way I mean a complete slip of the knee. the bottom half of the knee was traversing forward.

Oh dear. For someone that has a phobia of surgery and needles etc I was fearing the worst.

From around July 2020 - Jan 2021 my knee was swollen and really loose. In my desperation I started taking turmeric. Well actually I found a turmeric teabag in the cupboard and thought what the hell. After a bit of time I was thinking to my self... hand on is something happening here?? I was imagining the swelling was going down!! So I got the idea to buy some turmeric supplement form the River.

After two weeks of taking turmeric al the swelling had gone in my knee!!! After 6 months all it too was some turmeric.

However the acl its self was still painful and swelling up every single day. I think I continued with he turmeric but I think it wasn't helping any more.

Eventually I stopped taking it.

Fast forward to Sep 2021 I got my self back in the gym. As I have patellar femoral arthritis in my right knee I was not squatting. So it was Leg press and hamstring curls for me.

My knee slowly slowly improved in strength. Mostly measured in the fact that it was no longer slipping with every step I took whilst walking.

However my main improved started in May 2022 when I started squatting. I decided to try sumo squats as thats the angle I take on the leg press due to the patellar arthritis in right knee.

I found luckily that the right knee tolerated me squatting like this and now I have gone from 40kg to 80kg squat. Not big numbers but its my PB.

This has helped my knee massively, however the acl still remained swollen and painful. Swelling leads to instability, instability leads to swelling.

In September 2022 I started taking turmeric again and boswellia. The turmeric I think started to have an effect again, the boswellia I stopped taking after a month as it didn't help me.

Whilst doing some research on what supplements help with acl (sprains in general) I came across a medical paper talking about the supplementation of collagen (and a few other things) with the healing of acls after reconstruction surgery.

With nothing to lose I bought: two products bovine collage (usually accompanied with vitamin c) and a glucosamine, chondroitin, msm combination.

Usually the literature says you need to wait around 3-6 months maybe more to start to see any benefit form taking collagen for ligament injuries.

However I am not lying, within 2 months my knee has improved tremendously. The acl is not swollen any more on a daily basis!!! This is miraculous as in August 2022 I was on the phone to surgeons to find out how much it would cost to have a revision acl done.

The knee is still loose. Well the acl is loose to be precise. I stretched it. But the knee is so much more tolerant now of daily use. I can bend, jump, even do a little jog and it doesn't hurt or swell up.

Its still loose and will probably be loose for the rest of my life. Only way to fix it would be with surgery but I think and hope with physio and collagen supplementation I can avoid it.

So if I have any advise to you or anyone with a ligament/tendon issue try taking collagen (usually accompanied with vitamin c) and a glucosamine, chondroitin, msm combination.

The collagen comes in both bovine, porcine and marine types. I do not know what's best but bovine seems to be having an affect for me.

Here is the medical study I was talking about.
 
Last edited:
I could have used glucosamine/chondroitin when going through the worst stage of my rotator cuff injuries, though they both seem considerably better now. I am now able to do dumbbell side lateral raises - something I thought would never happen.

I expect the tons of ester-C I took during a recent bout of covid won't have hurt either, seeing as it's involved in the function of the nervous system and collagen formation.
 
Another week another 1kg of weight added bringing me to my largest muscle mass and heaviest overall weight ever. The great thing is I now know which foods work for me. Loving the increased mass and also the lifting gains it’s bringing. 135kg bench for 5x5 was laughably easy today. The next two week cycle will be an overall PR for reps/sets and I’m just hoping Christmas and new year doesn’t hamper my progress as it did last year, although that was mostly due to weeks of illness.

2.2kg to my target bodyweight and then I feel like I need some actual cardio somewhere in my week. Not gaining a belly though somehow.
 
Last edited:
Had a little get together with some of the old school OCUK Gym Rats (talking about you 2010-2012 prime OCUK Rats!). Was great to see everyone. Well it marked almost a year to the day of my return to lifting and really focusing on my training and nutrition and overall general health.

I was even able to get some tips on progress and utilised the best gym lighting (the disabled toilets no less!) for a couple of back shots, which i've never felt happy with, well im happy with how things are looking now.

Just to see a little before and after of what small tweaks can do to really show things off.

EUT2y7G.jpg

BnUnWIP.jpg

mnmDgAD.jpg
 
Last edited:
Thought I'd check on my progress this year before the xmas binge :p
I hit my heaviest (fattest) around this time last year - currently I'm the lightest I've been for about 10 years.
KKbvixOh.png.jpg

Pretty happy with this so far, I know the body comp scales aren't known for their accuracy - but the trend should be pretty representative I think. No real targets, but I'd like to end up 15-20% BF by April when I turn 40 :eek:.
 
Time for another weigh in tonight. Haven’t quite hit every meal target this week, but it doesn’t feel so far off that I won’t have gained a small bit of weight and I certainly feel stronger than last week.

It’s been stuck for a few weeks, but have finally moved 160kg bench again, mid sets too, so not a perfect ramp up. Onto 170kg. I wonder how close I can get to 200kg before I get too old for this crap :p

I don’t usually post videos, but am pretty happy right now. It’s not competition perfect, but it’ll do. Apologies for the war cry.


Every single lift up this week and almost every one a PR too :)
 
Last edited:
Insane! Benching my squat there. Lovely stuff. :)

I got my MRI results back. Good news is I have no ligament tears or anything. I have a suspected tendon tear and some other injury that I don't understand (it's in doctor speak). Lots of swelling as well. I've booked into a doctor to see what the next steps are. The knee doesn't really feel any better than it did a few days after injuring it. Little bits of pain every now and again and it just feels weird. Body weight squats are uncomfortable (just tried 1 or 2 to see how they felt).

Went back to the gym this week but I'm at a bit of a loss really as I'm not going to be working towards any PRs or squatting/deadlifting at all for a while. I don't really know how to do anything else effectively.
 
92kg at the start of my bulk in September. Up to 97.7kg, it’s really ramped up in November/December (the complete opposite of this time last year). Wouldn’t be against hitting 100kg. It’s translating to lifting gains nicely. Next week or so mostly off and then back to it.

arc@css said:
For those that take creatine, can you suggest a good place/price to shop, or is it much the same wherever you go? Ta.
Click to expand...

Can’t say I’ve noticed much difference from place to place, just check the ingredients list. I’d always buy a well known brand.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom