Poll: ***The all new gymrats thread***

Do we archive this thread and start a new one for 2010?

  • Yeah good idea.

    Votes: 11 78.6%
  • Nah I'm happy with this one.

    Votes: 3 21.4%

  • Total voters
    14
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Soldato
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You do realise I know all about protein shakes right?

Whilst protein & carbs are good after a workout it's only part of the story, a hearty meal outshines all shakes. Not saying I don't use shakes, I just spend a fortune on food a week and it offers me a helping hand.

Of course I know you know.

But it's so true about a decent meal.

When I went to the gym at college guys were always touting their shakes before and after. Yet during it all they just mucked about and talked most of the time.
 
Man of Honour
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Whilst a little banter is fine, it bothers me when people mess around and fart arse around it's so irritating. Couldn't agree more.

I don't take a shame before, cup of coffee and a banana is all I need. You can take EAAs and BCAAs during but I don't. :)
 
Man of Honour
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You need to eat more low gi carbs, and just munch on good sources of energy like nuts, oat cakes, fruits, mackerel and other oily fish. Cous cous is great at lunch with some mince. There's lots of stuff you can do, you just have to put the effort in. I don't calorie count, but working out a quick sum leads me to just over 3k cals which is a heck of a lot of food. Weekends I peak to over 4k but it's my cheat day :p
 
Soldato
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Sadly diet is the tricky thing, most of my meals are veg with fish.

But Tesco here doesn't even stock mackerel even though it's one of the best fish I've tried.

I usually have a lot of chicken with even more veg.

I've not tried cous cous before though, luckily I have loads of mince so I might try that with it like you do.

I'll stocking up on nuts and such this coming week. I love having a snack of a glass of milk some almonds/pumpkin seeds and a banana.
 
Soldato
Joined
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What do I do now?

Getting annoyed on my diet now, its been over 4 months now, current loss is 4st 5lbs, considerable bodyfat loss. Dependin on the mirror (haha) I can see top 4 abs (even though not super prominant) and i can clearly see my serratus (the finger looking things by your ribs).
Waist is now 32.5" before food and thats down from 41", but my arms are slightly under 16 and chest is 44". My overall weight is 14st (down from around 18st 5lbs) and bodyfat maybe around 14% and i was probably mid 20's before easy.
But now im feeling flat/small/weak and generally feeble ha, and im pondering over weather to go on a nice lean bulk (im used to bulking pretty dirty and eating **** ontop of my diet) and gain some quality muscle mass and hopefully keep my bodyfat pretty close to what it is now. Or do I carry on dieting down and try to get to 10%

The good thing (which maybe happening in 4-6weeks) is my mate who is a competitive bodybuilder is trained by a current pro and this pro does diets/training/supplements etc and he is going to put me in contact with him.
So hopefully i would have everything mapped out for me (he even apparently gets you training with him now and again).

So do you think i should carry on the cut now and then wait and see if i can get a plan from the boybuilder (it will cost...a lot ha) or just start a lean bulk asap


Sorry if thats all a bit jumbled about:o:)
 
Man of Honour
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If you could afford it and you feel that you HONESTLY have the commitment to train and follow the plan of the pro and be true to yourself I'd do it in a second. :)

I've never done the bulk/cut thing as I don't believe in it - so lean bulking for me is the only way to train/maintain. :)
 
Soldato
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If you could afford it and you feel that you HONESTLY have the commitment to train and follow the plan of the pro and be true to yourself I'd do it in a second. :)

I've never done the bulk/cut thing as I don't believe in it - so lean bulking for me is the only way to train/maintain. :)

I know the price and It is quite expensive but for what could be gained its well worth it. I have the commitment to train and follow the plan of a pro. If it can get me where i want to be i would do anything.
 
Soldato
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Nottm
My routine was starting to get a bit stale and I was finding it difficult to beat my PB's (which I was expecting to happen sooner or later - the start of the plataeu maybe?) even though the weight I'm shifting is pretty low compared to most.

So I've decided to quit trying to push PB's for now and drop the weight slightly with extremely long negatives in each rep. I tried it last night and it drains my muscles so quickly and I got a massive pump. The thinking behind this is it will help strenghten and also increse the 'stamina' (is that the right word?) of the muscle too, this will hopefully aid me when I go back to trying to beat PB's again.

It might mean my sessions in the gym are longer but I want to get this right from the beginning instead of throwing heavy weights around to look good. I'm no expert but I can see no end of people throwing there back in to bicep curls with 15k plates on either side.
 

kai

kai

Soldato
Joined
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Wales.
3 weeks apart from going on the gym machine that measures BF i have lost 3%, while maintaining the exact same weight :) im down to 14%.
 
Soldato
Joined
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Ireland
Seems some slow negatives are really the way.

I just want to say thanks to everyone in this thread. I've learned a lot lurking the past 4 months in this section.

I've improved my form, amount I can lift and more importantly I've gained size and deffinition.

I can't add much but all I can say is some good elevated press ups with your legs on a gym bench are great after bench pressing. Strict form ones, where you come up slowly.

Since including 3 sets of press ups I've finally gotten DOM's on my chest.
 
Man of Honour
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My routine was starting to get a bit stale and I was finding it difficult to beat my PB's (which I was expecting to happen sooner or later - the start of the plataeu maybe?) even though the weight I'm shifting is pretty low compared to most.

So I've decided to quit trying to push PB's for now and drop the weight slightly with extremely long negatives in each rep. I tried it last night and it drains my muscles so quickly and I got a massive pump. The thinking behind this is it will help strenghten and also increse the 'stamina' (is that the right word?) of the muscle too, this will hopefully aid me when I go back to trying to beat PB's again.

It might mean my sessions in the gym are longer but I want to get this right from the beginning instead of throwing heavy weights around to look good. I'm no expert but I can see no end of people throwing there back in to bicep curls with 15k plates on either side.

Negs will do you some good.

Also try small rep sets. i.e. 2-3 reps. And incrementally increase. So say, start at 70%, 80%, 90% 100% of 1RM.

Remember to keep the concentric movement explosive and powerful.
 
Soldato
Joined
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West Lothian, Scotland
I'm in a bit of a predicament, I'm at a stage where my arms are too weak to lift the weight that I can squat with. I can't really justify purchasing a squat rack nor do I have a place to permanently house one, does anyone have any cheap and cheerful solutions?
 
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