ᕙ(⇀‸↼‶)ᕗ ||| The 2023/2024 Gym Rats Thread ||| ᕙ(⇀‸↼‶)ᕗ

CaptainRAVE said:
Yikes. Any insight into what caused it?
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Ultimately it's wear and tear and age related, although i'm only 44 but spent the best part of my late teens and twenties doing quite laborious work (fair bit of that being up trees on a rope/spikes with a chainsaw plus hefting heavy logs as an arborist) so that could have accelerated the issue.

I've been told in no uncertain terms it will not get better, I can just mitigate it from getting worse, luckily there is no encroachment into the spinal cord or bone spurs and no requirement for surgery or anything invasive at this point.
 
Was woken up at 4am by mother nature on Friday morning. So by the end of the day when I saw my PT I looked wiped lol.

We managed to a cardio dance session which was actually a lot of fun (They are good at making me laugh).

This morning I reached 96.4kg which is a 28kg loss so far and bang on target.
 
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Hoping someone could have a look at my new workout plan:-

I am 50 yrs old and been doing 5x5 on and off for years and been training on and off since I was 20. This session after 2 years break I have been training for 7 months.

I have changed my workout from 5x5 to something similar 3 weeks ago to target hypertrophy and some strength:-

Day 1
Flat Bench Barbell 4 x 8 (75%1RM)
Incline Bench Barbell 3 x 7
Bent Over Row 4 x 8 (75%1RM)
Seated Cable Row 3 x 8
Triceps Rope Pulldowns (3 x 8)

Rest

Day 2
Squat 4 x 8 (75%1RM)
Barbell OHP 4 x 8 (75%1RM)
Dumbbell Side Raises 3 x 8
Deadlift 1 x 5
Chin-ups weighted 3 x 8
Seated Incline Dumbbell Curls 3 x 8

Rest

So I am training every other day some weeks its Mon Wed Fri Sun / Other weeks its Tue Thu Sat

I was thinking of only increasing weight when I can do 4 x 10 on an exercise - does this sound okay?

Is this enough volume/too little/too much?

I was thinking of alternating Incline Barbell with Incline Dumbbells for chest.... would there be any other alternates worth doing (home squat rack gym)

Any other tips?

Thank you
 
spluff said:
Hoping someone could have a look at my new workout plan:-

I am 50 yrs old and been doing 5x5 on and off for years and been training on and off since I was 20. This session after 2 years break I have been training for 7 months.

I have changed my workout from 5x5 to something similar 3 weeks ago to target hypertrophy and some strength:-

Day 1
Flat Bench Barbell 4 x 8 (75%1RM)
Incline Bench Barbell 3 x 7
Bent Over Row 4 x 8 (75%1RM)
Seated Cable Row 3 x 8
Triceps Rope Pulldowns (3 x 8)

Rest

Day 2
Squat 4 x 8 (75%1RM)
Barbell OHP 4 x 8 (75%1RM)
Dumbbell Side Raises 3 x 8
Deadlift 1 x 5
Chin-ups weighted 3 x 8
Seated Incline Dumbbell Curls 3 x 8

Rest

So I am training every other day some weeks its Mon Wed Fri Sun / Other weeks its Tue Thu Sat

I was thinking of only increasing weight when I can do 4 x 10 on an exercise - does this sound okay?

Is this enough volume/too little/too much?

I was thinking of alternating Incline Barbell with Incline Dumbbells for chest.... would there be any other alternates worth doing (home squat rack gym)

Any other tips?

Thank you
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Now I'm very much a beginner, I'm the same age as you and I've been exercising with my own set up at home for the last 18 months and my routine is based around the first post in Gordy's sticky.

I started off 3 days a week mon/wed/fri but as the weight increased I found I couldn't cope with multiple compound lifts a day and I'd be utterly wiped out on the rest day. I split the lifts up over five days mon-fri

Day 1
Bench press
Incline bench press
Skull crushers
then finished with dbell bench

Day 2
Bent over row regular grip
Bent over row wide grip
ezbar curls
hammer curls

Day 3
Back squat (barefoot)
Back squat (heel raised)
Hip thrusts
seated calf raise

Day 4
OHP (standing)
Narrow grip bench press
Lateral raise
Finish with seated dbell ohp

Day 5
Deadlift
Weighted chin up
incline dbell curl

All 3x8
 
Guys, quick one, been training for a while now but only track progress via notes on phone. Is there a reliable iOS app where I can choose the workout and input the reps/sets/weights. A few out there but not sure which is best. Cheers
 
Andybtsn said:
Guys, quick one, been training for a while now but only track progress via notes on phone. Is there a reliable iOS app where I can choose the workout and input the reps/sets/weights. A few out there but not sure which is best. Cheers
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If you want no frills, straight forward with no bloat, I recommend Strong, been using it for years.

www.strong.app

Strong - Workout Tracker & Gym Log

Strong is an intuitive, easy to use workout tracker and strength training planner, trusted by more than 3 million people to help them stay on track in the gym.
www.strong.app www.strong.app
 
SixTwoSix said:
If you want no frills, straight forward with no bloat, I recommend Strong, been using it for years.

www.strong.app

Strong - Workout Tracker & Gym Log

Strong is an intuitive, easy to use workout tracker and strength training planner, trusted by more than 3 million people to help them stay on track in the gym.
www.strong.app www.strong.app
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Same here, nice little straightforward app. I actually bought the lifetime subscription in the end.
 
I've had a couple of weeks of eating very well and doing some resistance training so weight wise I've only gone down to 96.1kg.

However I have had to put another notch in my belt as my waist is now down 7.5 inches total.

People have commented on seeing some ab definition too which considering I really do store my weight on my tummy is good progress
 
I have a few months free so I'm back at the gym for the first time since 2015. I went last night for about an hour and 20mins and worked on everything but chest, back and quads. I'm not as strong as I was but also not as weak as when I started in 2015. What I'm surprised at is the doms is quite mild, I guess my everyday activities of work and cycle commuting 13k everyday has kept me fitter then I would have thought.

I'll back be back there tonight.. every week night really for the next two months.
 
I’m so old I had Strong when it was like £5 for the Pro version before they went to a subscription model - thankfully they left all the early adopters with full access forever. Can’t imagine using anything else although I’m vaguely interested in getting semi-coached by the RP Hypertrophy AI app.
 
I need to share this, I feel like I've won a gold medal.

I've never considered myself capable of any meaningful run/jog. Two years ago during lockdown I took up walking around my local park and at times I would even run, and I was pathetic, I did get better of cause being able to sustain the effort for about 1 minute. I would start running at the same start point and make way points like let's try and make to the bridge and then the tree beyond that and this different patch of concrete past the tree.

Back in 2015 when I went to the gym I was a fan of the treadmill, I would come off it red like a lobster. I posted here last week on Monday iirc that I'm back at the gym so today is my 8th day of working out(weekend off). I went on the treadmill tonight and put the incline on 3 and speed on 7 to have a fast walk but if was too fast so I though F it and decided to run it for as long as I could, and this it what I'm pleased about because I sustained the effort for 10 minutes and did 1.15 miles... I couldn't even have done that when I was 14! and to take this even further I could have KEPT ON GOING! I wasn't even that tired.

Now you may think I've been underestimating myself, I don't think I was, but I grant you I have not challenged myself on running over the last 1.5 years and the last 1.5 years is relevant because I've mainly commuted my 4.2 miles to work by bicycle, which I would say has had a way way way bigger impact on my cardio then I would have thought.

So that's it, maybe it's nothing for most of you but for me I've jumped ten plateaus.

Thanks for reading.
 
esoteric said:
I need to share this, I feel like I've won a gold medal.

I've never considered myself capable of any meaningful run/jog. Two years ago during lockdown I took up walking around my local park and at times I would even run, and I was pathetic, I did get better of cause being able to sustain the effort for about 1 minute. I would start running at the same start point and make way points like let's try and make to the bridge and then the tree beyond that and this different patch of concrete past the tree.

Back in 2015 when I went to the gym I was a fan of the treadmill, I would come off it red like a lobster. I posted here last week on Monday iirc that I'm back at the gym so today is my 8th day of working out(weekend off). I went on the treadmill tonight and put the incline on 3 and speed on 7 to have a fast walk but if was too fast so I though F it and decided to run it for as long as I could, and this it what I'm pleased about because I sustained the effort for 10 minutes and did 1.15 miles... I couldn't even have done that when I was 14! and to take this even further I could have KEPT ON GOING! I wasn't even that tired.

Now you may think I've been underestimating myself, I don't think I was, but I grant you I have not challenged myself on running over the last 1.5 years and the last 1.5 years is relevant because I've mainly commuted my 4.2 miles to work by bicycle, which I would say has had a way way way bigger impact on my cardio then I would have thought.

So that's it, maybe it's nothing for most of you but for me I've jumped ten plateaus.

Thanks for reading.
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I think physical capability markers even if it's just "walk up the local hill and not be out of breath" or "Run X distance non stop" are great ways of tracking progress.

Well done and keep it up.
 
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I ran another mile yesterday at a faster pace so the mile took about 8 minutes which was harder. I felt the accumulation of it this morning as soon as I got on my bike to go to work, even cycling down hill was an effort.
 
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First time having to use the safety bars for a squat in years and years. Not well fuelled, not enough sleep, failed my squat at 229kg. Safeties worked exactly as intended. Perfect height, caught the bar at a comfortable level and just enough so I could easily get out from under it.
 
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CaptainRAVE said:
First time having to use the safety bars for a squat in years and years. Not well fuelled, not enough sleep, failed my squat at 229kg. Safeties worked exactly as intended. Perfect height, caught the bar at a comfortable level and just enough so I could easily get out from under it.
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Glad to hear it, why people dont use them every time they squat I really dont know! Chance of death gets significantly reduced with their use that's for sure!
 
I've been slowly upping the amount of crunches and sit-ups i've been doing as my abdominal strength has needed work, up to 30 reps of each in each set.

I went on holiday and came back a couple of weeks back, i've managed to work off all that and am down to 94.9kg so still heading down :)
 
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