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

Josh · 26 Mar 2022 at 14:18

I pulled the bottom of my traps doing OHP yesterday.

Went from slight pain to no neck movement and wanting to cry in the corner in about 2h.

Movement went fine, weight was fine, must have been a **** form lift - never liked OHP and was just getting to the point where I was comfortable with it too.

CaptainRAVE · 26 Mar 2022 at 14:32

Josh said:
I pulled the bottom of my traps doing OHP yesterday.

Went from slight pain to no neck movement and wanting to cry in the corner in about 2h.

Movement went fine, weight was fine, must have been a **** form lift - never liked OHP and was just getting to the point where I was comfortable with it too.

Did that doing a shrug years ago. Was in agony for days.

Somnambulist · 26 Mar 2022 at 20:10

Me too! Only ever gym injury I've ever had was I woke up with a crick in my neck, went and trained and then tore a muscle around my traps/neck doing OHP. Couldn't even get out of bed or tie laces for a while without my head being supported first. Couldn't turn my head to one side either. No me gusta.

Freefaller · 27 Mar 2022 at 08:46

Shoulder workouts are always sketchy if you don't get it absolutely right. Horrible joint to deal with and anything neck related incapacitates you!

tom_e · 28 Mar 2022 at 16:15

Six months work and actually having a measurable testosterone level again!

Martynt74 · 28 Mar 2022 at 16:19

Impressive, i assume the muscle was pretty much always there and therefore this is just the result of substantial weight loss?

tom_e · 28 Mar 2022 at 16:35

Pretty much, I've trained for over 10 years now so there was a good base there just massively let myself go over the last few years.

There's only bang on 2st difference between the two pictures though so there's definitely been some muscle gain as well.

CaptainRAVE · 28 Mar 2022 at 18:14

Ouch. A shard of metal from by fractional plate caught my thumb as I loaded the plate. It’s like a paper cut on steroids. That’s going to be annoying for a few days and I only have a limited few days to work out this week, darn.

Why are nearly all of my gym injuries from loading and unloading plates!

I posted a picture to the family and started to write ‘not to worry, my fingers are strong enough to compensate’ but didn’t like where that was going

Syla5 · 28 Mar 2022 at 19:58

CaptainRAVE said:
Ouch. A shard of metal from by fractional plate caught my thumb as I loaded the plate. It’s like a paper cut on steroids. That’s going to be annoying for a few days and I only have a limited few days to work out this week, darn.

Superglue, stat!

Deadlifts today and my form was just off..... such a frustrating movement, only 5kg more and my mid back start to give. Potentially my belt was looser this week due to weight loss and bracing was reduce. Will have to wait and see how they go next week, timed nicely as my current plan swaps around next week so deadlift volume goes up, weight goes down.

subbytna · 29 Mar 2022 at 14:16

tom_e said:
Six months work and actually having a measurable testosterone level again!

Well played chap. Looking swole

subbytna · 29 Mar 2022 at 14:19

Testing week in my gym this week. I went for a PB on the benchpress last night and didn't get it. Really gutted

Need another month of gainz to get it I think. My left shoulder is hampered due to C5 disc being destroyed in an accident. i have a titanium implant in there now instead of the C5 disc. The nerve damage that happened means I have a much weaker left side than my right so I couldn't get the bar back up properly on that side.

Was going for 125kg. PB is 120KG (just about locked out 120kg a few weeks ago)

Wednesday is Squat and Deadlift testing
Going for 180kg squat and 250kg deadlift
Current PB is 170kg squat and 240 deadlift.

Freefaller · 29 Mar 2022 at 16:32

Nice numbers! You're only 50kg off the 600kg club!

Bench is also my weakness after a shoulder issue (rugby), had a couple of dislocations and microsurgery but although the shoulder is now very strong, it doesn't have the right path and I can never engage all the muscles to help with the lift.

ShortWarning · 29 Mar 2022 at 16:43

tom_e said:
Six months work and actually having a measurable testosterone level again!

Awesome transformation! Good job.

Syla5 · 31 Mar 2022 at 17:54

Weight lifting belt tightened another notch, diet progress

Somnambulist · 31 Mar 2022 at 21:33

Speaking of belt notches, I’m kind of tempted to get the Titan PAL belt (and sell the SBD if it’s legit) - it’s still a lever belt insofar as big changes in circumference require getting out the screwdriver and moving the base, but with any given position you can adjust the tightness by a few inches in half-inch increments. The SBD only lets you adjust inch by inch, which sometimes means I find myself wanting to be in between notches for the ideal tightness for various reasons.

You can buy the adjustable lever on it’s own as well although they recommend it with a 13mm belt and it’s not compatible with some belts (like the SBD) but should work with most lever ones.

Syla5 · 1 Apr 2022 at 10:04

I guess once you hit a relatively stable weight range then the smaller adjustment amount of the Titan belt would be more useful.

Somnambulist · 1 Apr 2022 at 12:08

Exactly that - even when dieting my waistline isn't changing more than a couple of inches so I'd imagine at most I'd have to get the screwdriver out towards the end of a diet/bulk to shift it one notch, but otherwise the adjustable range would be sufficient.

MikeTheNative · 4 Apr 2022 at 09:03

Did a 1rm deadlifts on Saturday before I get into my working sets of 3x3. Managed to get 155, first target is 2x body weight which is only an extra 10kg hopefully should be getting that soon. Coming to the end of rugby season now so I can focus on heavy deadlifts on a Saturday.

Syla5 · 4 Apr 2022 at 12:28

nice work, im torn between starting another cycle of my current routine today or having a mini rep max test week.

Syla5 · 4 Apr 2022 at 12:31

mushtafa said:
I thought I'd ask here as this sections seems to be all gym related.

My training is currently 12, 10, 8 reps, and I'm stuck at upping my bench press.

72.5kg is doable, 75kg isn't. I get stuck at about rep 8 or 9 and have to rack the weight and go again.
Last week I dropped back to 72.5kg and felt good again, but again today, the 75 was too much.

How do I progress from here?

Do more reps at 72.5kg?
Up the weight and go for 5x5 reps?
Or just keep going as I am at 75kg until I can complete the full set?

@mushtafa This is the best thread to post any gym related questions you might have regarding lifting.

In terms of this progress isnt just increasing weights, you could try sticking to 72.5kg until you can do all 3 sets for 12 reps, then next week increase the weight to 75kg and go back to 12/10/8, each time progressing until you can do the weight for 12 reps each and then go again.