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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PAz said:
Post your general diet then we can give you a better answer.

General rule of thumb though is;

Shake on wake
Shake after training
Shake before bed

But ultimately depends on your diet / how long you've been training / goals
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Diet id say is quite good...ish

3 Eggs in an omelet withe either 100g prawns or 100g of bacon lardons

Full fat yogurt

2 Slices of toast with peanut butter

Banana

Half pint of semi skinned milk

Mackerel in tomato sauce in pita

Egg noodles with 200g chicken or 100g pasta with tin of tuna

100g couscous with added vegetables or salmon and veg or white fish in butter sauce and veg

100g peanuts

This is about my average day, usually its less than this as i get out of bed very late :( and so end up with less eating time in the day i guess
 
dun said:
Cross over or standard front squat technique is really not something you need to be focussing 100% of your effort on at the moment. Lift heavy and hard with what ever you feel suits you best, if thats standard grip then go ahead :)
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There's no benefit to Oly over cross in front squatting if the person doesn't have any wish to do cleans or jerks (in which case for obvious reasons you need to do it). I'd always recommend Oly so you have more options though. Can take a few weeks of stretching the wrist to feel comfortable, which a lot of people don't want to do.
 
oddjob62 said:
There's no benefit to Oly over cross in front squatting if the person doesn't have any wish to do cleans or jerks (in which case for obvious reasons you need to do it). I'd always recommend Oly so you have more options though. Can take a few weeks of stretching the wrist to feel comfortable, which a lot of people don't want to do.
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I just cant do clean grip, i see no problem with cross grip but it does require shoulders and bi's which i have so im bias :D
 
Back day 2-3 hours

Neck harness- 5x5 25 kilos.

Wide grip pull ups- 5x5 body weight.

60 inch wide lat bar- 5x10 25, 45, 65, 85, 105 kilos.

Close grip pull downs- 5x5 100, 150, 200, 250, 300 kilos, grip going now.

Seated row- 5x5 100, 150, 200, 250, 300 kilos. with my trusted hooks.

Stiff leg good mornings- 5x10 50 kilos including Olympic bar.

Shrugs with my trusted hooks- 5x5 100, 150, 200, 250, 300 kilos.

Sit ups- 3x30.

Cross trainer for 30 minutes.

And now I have the shakes!
 
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Robbie G said:
Not having a squat rack at my 'gym' (more of a 'wellness centre'), I had to learn the clean grip method. My wrists were horribly inflexible but every time I went to the gym I grabbed an empty bar and practised the grip. Eventually I managed to keep good form in my wrists and arms enough to add weights, so all I can really suggest is do some light ones and keep working on the flexibility in the wrists.

It might hurt or feel uncomfortable to start with but it'll happen eventually.

Of course there's always the hack / overhead squat (shudder).
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Cheers mate, I'll start doing a could have light sets with the clean grip on leg days. I do do powercleans, and an issue I have is when I bring it up to rest on my shoulders, I cant! So my arms and traps get drained pulling the weight into position before I put it back down and pushing up with my legs does nothing to help. Hence my weight is pretty low on them.
 
just to add something from me, i use xover grip when front squatting. It can hurt a bit, but then working sets of over 100kg will do that to you.

Fair shout to you all for front squatting though, its an awesome exercise for you quads, don't forget to do more ham work to make up for the lack of activation from not doing back squats :)
 
oddjob62 said:
There's no benefit to Oly over cross in front squatting if the person doesn't have any wish to do cleans or jerks
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Except that the weight is less likely to fall off your shoulders.

dun - you're right, I can't talk from experience in terms of the mass on my legs. But I've tried both methods and found what I've read to be true; i.e. that the weight is more stable on my shoulders with the clean grip.

I would always encourage beginners to the front squat to learn the clean grip, if only for this reason. As the weight gets heavier then surely this stability factor becomes even more of an issue.
 
Yeah the total weights lifted across all exercises and sets come to more than 30 tonnes

You could cheat and just do 10 sets of calf raises at 200kg which is easy and you're already most of the way there, but obviously not really much to shout about then and you're conning yourself

But doing a full leg routine and coming to 30 tonnies, it's very rewarding and an awesome target to set yourself
 
Today was bicep day but I threw in a few sets of lockout bench presses (or rack presses or whatever the name is) to try and build up some maximum tricep power to help my bench. I worked up to 120kgs which is SO heavy to do from the rack every time! I'm chuffed though because it's nice to know what that sort of weight feels like now and I hope in a few weeks it'll make a difference to my bench.

The biceps weren't neglected though, we had a real good workout!
 
Well guys now I am heading toward my 50 visit mark and hoping to improve myself over the next coming months, the only problem is I am feeling that maybe I need to work on new stuff or just do more of what I am doing!

Currently I visit the gym three times a week and run through the same routine - maybe you guys could give me some pointers? I'll list below what I do, and forgive the stupid machine names as I can never remember what they are called.

15 minutes cross trainer (mainly for cardio and to get me in the mood and warm up)

3 x 50 x 65KG + 25 x 72.5KG Ab press machine
3 x 25 perfect ab bench thing
3 x 15 x 8KG dumbbell curl
3 x 15 x 10KG
3 x 15 x 10KG (these two are exercises I was shown but for the life of me don't know there names - they are similar the curl but one is kneeling on a bench moving it in an arc to your chest, and the other is a picking up type motion)
3 x 10 x 20KG shoulder press thing

There are probably things that I am missing out, and fully expect some posts saying "Dude, you totally are missing out your hyper gladius maximo-bicep!" to which I will be glad you are helping, but will probably reply, "Oh right, that muscles in my face, right?"

The weights I am doing probably seem ultra low to you fellows, but I am working my way there - and personally I am a very slight guy anyway and do not want to get huge I just want to have a bit more to me which it is already doing! I have broader shoulders and my stomach is really going quite flat and defined, with the edition of fabled "Man-lines" over the last few weeks - I am vaguely proud of my ability to move my body away from geekish paleness.

Thanks for an advice you can give me, I am planning to book in and have a chat with the fitness guys next time I am off work about this - but you blokes all seem to know your shizzle, and would like your advice too!

Rich
 
titchard said:
and the other is a picking up type motion)
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That sounds like a DB bent over row but I'm not quite sure on the other from your description.

What are your goals here? I'm a long way from an expert but from my understanding your rep range is a bit on the high side if you want to build size, you should be building stamina but a lower rep range (say) ~8ish would be better for size and <5 if you were just going for power. It's not an absolute definition but it's a workable one generally.

Oh and don't worry about suddenly getting huge, it takes a long time and lots of hard work before you'll get anywhere near it.
 
semi-pro waster said:
That sounds like a DB bent over row but I'm not quite sure on the other from your description.

What are your goals here? I'm a long way from an expert but from my understanding your rep range is a bit on the high side if you want to build size, you should be building stamina but a lower rep range (say) ~8ish would be better for size and <5 if you were just going for power. It's not an absolute definition but it's a workable one generally.

Oh and don't worry about suddenly getting huge, it takes a long time and lots of hard work before you'll get anywhere near it.
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That's the badger! The other one is same kneeling position, but if you stuck your arm out at 45 degrees, and swung from your elbow to your chest and out again.

My goals are, one, to get a lot more active and get into a fitter state. I may be only 23 but I want to start getting into the swing of going the gym and burning off excess energy and such before I get older and it's a lot harder. I am also not the strongest of folks, and I want to improve this.

Secondly it is for appearances, it sounds vain I know but I guess it's on the backs of every gym persons mind, it's mainly as I am just a slim guy thats not too skinny and not by any means over weight - there is just nothing there and I am looking to add too it.

This is why I am so pleased that within the 25 visits I have managed to improve the strength/size of arms & shoulders slightly and noticeably, and also made my stomach start to go toward that lined and chiselled look (It's a long way off from what GordyR was like, but everyone starts somewhere!)

So its mainly for two things, general fitness and also to improve body image - I don't want to get huge (and know it won't happen over night, it takes time) I would look stupid personally and it would not suit me.

Thanks for your time, mate!

Rich
 
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