Sorry I'm the twat. Squats.
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Sorry I'm the twat. Squats.
You're squatting 150KG X 5? That's impressive.
I'm having a fucking mare with this list. One more edit.
Hit 100kg on the squat tonight with a little more in the tank. Chuffed.
Failed 85kg squat this morning. Got to the bottom of the 4th rep on the 5th set and just couldn't get back up. Didn't really know what to do. Tried to dump the bar backwards onto the rack and then kind of fell back with it. One of the trainers and the guy he was training were close by and came running over to see if I was okay. I was but I felt like a tit.
It happens. Did you not use one of those racks with a bar for failure?
I did yeah but I had the pins set a bit too low. It wasn't something I'd really thought about before but I'll know from now on.
Aye, it was always my biggest fear doing squats that I wouldn't be able to get up.
I'm going to be changing up my routine from here on. I'm absolutely bored with the standard bodybuilding routine I've been following for the past few years.
Going to be going back to more 'functional' work outs. Circuits, running, sprints etc. etc.
Get into kettle bells they are great for functional strength.
Didn't have the car today so didn't go to the gym but used my dumbbells at home for a bit of a workout.
Took some photos of myself with my top off so I can hopefully see some progress in a few months' time. Christ, I look awful though. And that's after seven weeks or so now. It must've been even worse at the start.
No, you can't see them, you perverts.
Yo, anybody got recommendations for supplements? Not specifically exercise supplements, but any nutritional supps that improve overall health / aren't bullshit wastes of money
I take a multi-vitamin, a vitamin c, and a fish oil (which probably is a bullshit waste of money, but I convince myself that me knees grind when I run out).
Bananas.
Fish oil I'm pretty sure is legit, there seem to be studies about it released every weekQuote:
Originally Posted by Lewis
Plus one for vitamin C.
Haven't stepped into the gym since Wednesday. Not looking forward to the hoards of new people.
What do you folks do for cardio?
Gonna add some in now and keep a stricter eye on my diet in order to try to lose the flab. I read that just walking at an incline on the treadmill is meant to be really good. I suppose HIIT is meant to be good too but I'm a bit worried it'll leave me knackered.
Cycle on a hill setting or row if in the gym. Otherwise I run home from work which is 5k.
I've tried HIIT a few times before and I've only ever sustained my desire for a couple weeks at a time. I start out day 1 with a 15 minute session and it gradually decreases to where by the end of week 2 I'm getting on the treadmill and saying fuck it after two minutes. Sports are better for that shit anyway.
Oh, and also HIIT on treadmills are pretty dangerous, assuming you were considering doing that. Stick with the bike machine.
2X20 intervals on the bicycle are good. Warm up for ten and then do twenty minutes at a pace where you are working but can still talk, make sure those legs are spinning. Rest for five spinning easy and repeat. Cool down for ten.
Biking, swimming and rowing are pretty good for the HIIT kind of stuff, I've found. And far more enjoyable than sprinting, so that's always good fun.
Get yourself into a few spinning classes, Boyd.
Christ, no.
Those 7 minute workouts are decent for HIIT aren't they?
I'd build it up steadily, Boydy. I wouldn't go charging into some class that's going to push you to a ridiculous degree.
Find whatever it is that you enjoy most (bike, rowing, etc) because that's the thing you'll stick with.
You could try some kettlebell work for cardio and strength training at the same time.
Yeah, I'm not going to a class. I have a rowing machine at home that I was on today. I did 3 mins warm-up, 30 seconds flat out and 30 seconds rest x 10, 2 mins cool down. I don't know if that's proper HIIT or not but I was sweating quite a bit by the end of it and was pretty tired.
Kettlebells look annoying. And I'm happy with the strength stuff I'm doing.
Can't really develop much 'cardio' doing ten minute workouts, can you? Not a dig, genuinely curious.
Fat burning is better in short, intense bursts. I know thats Boydy's M.O. so thats what we're going for here.
Useful cardio is probably better over longer time stretches yeah but who goes to the gym to actually get fit? If you legit want to be "heart healthy" then you might as well subsist solely on Cheerios and even that is probably going to be more fun than running a fucking marathon every week
Yeah, cardio is boring. And surely getting your heart rate up for a bit using HIIT is going to do something positive for it at least?
Yes, it should increase your ability to do short, hard efforts.
Fair enough on the losing weight thing.
i just wanna grind some joocy bishes
Just do something that tires you out (and isn't totally dull) and steadily increase the amount you do of it.
That sounds about right.
Bare with me now lads, I've been skinny then skinny-fat for my whole life, and even when I was toned up from caving and climbing I could never build.
After culling the fat early this year and getting back down to a 21BMI I've set my sights on adding [some] muscle. I've been working with two 10kg dumbells and a 30kg bar for a few weeks and for the first time, and am seeing some really good results. It's all a bit messy in terms of my sets at the moment, and consciously so as I'm just keen to make myself do it every three days for half an hour or so in preparation for getting a PT once my knee surgery (spent the last year hiking on a complex tear of my medial ligament apparently) and rehabilitation has been and gone (likely to be late Spring), but despite the haphazard nature, I think I've put on around an inch on each arm, and a little on the chest/back so I'm feeling fairly pumped to try and do a lot more once the knee is sorted and I can justify the gym membership by also doing my yoga and swimming there too.
Question is - any tips for strength conditioning at home with limited equipment?
You've put on an inch in each arm in a few weeks? Bloody hell.
That's poorly phrased. I mean over the year. Before that I was also swimming and had used some free passes to lift with a colleague four or five times, as well as using (yes, sigh) a slendertone arm trainer (which works nicely actually, I now stick it one after fatiguing my arms and back with the bells. I suppose it will have been the last 4 months in terms of the swimming and slendetoning which came straight after the gym passes, and about 3 weeks on the weights.Quote:
Originally Posted by Boydy
Ah right.Quote:
Originally Posted by The Merse
I used to do this at home sometimes before I bothered to join a gym. It's not bad. You can definitely go higher than some of the weights it says on there though.
Looks Handy. Annoyingly the knee prevents squats, otherwise I'd be all over the thigh stuff in general, but would be good to follow a structure like that so I'll give it a go cheers Boydy.Quote:
Originally Posted by Boydy
Oh yeah, I meant to say just leave the squats out since you've got knee trouble. It'll be good for upper body though.
I think I've just about lost sufficient weight to think about getting a bit of tone. I've lost a load of fat only to discover the body of my dead grandad was lurking beneath it all. I have membership to our shit gym at work. I say shit, it's just small but it's hardly used and has one of all the stuff I imagine you need. What weights/exercises do I need to be doing to prevent the slide into looking like a naked Jeremy Corbyn?
This was exactly my reaction after shifting 2 stone in Q1 - bit of a let down when you work hard to get rid of the flab. Either that or a target for Jimmy Saville. Hence, the focus on sorting out some definition.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lee
I haven't been able to squat above 90kg since pulling my quad the other month, but I'm hoping it's pretty much recovered now and I'll be able to push on to 100kg+.
The thing about running being boring - you've just got to grind it out and keep going and after a while you'll find (at least I did) that it's no longer tedious*, but a part of your lifestyle. I actually find it easier to motivate myself to go for a run than I do a weights session.
*A good selections of choons is essential, too.
Nah, I did running regularly before, a few years ago. I finished the couch to 5k and had moved on to the bridge to 10k programme but stopped during it for some reason and never went back to it properly. It's boring. Not to mention it's too fucking cold and dark all the time in Northern Ireland for it.
Fucking hate running. Unlikely to ever take to it, I'd rather swim for my cardio even if it's a little less efficient.
Having got onto the weights recently myself from always hating gyms before, I'd definitely recommend the Stronglifts programme. Not too many different lifts, no really complicated routines and the weights going up every time gives you a real sense of achievement. Also the app is free and tracks everything for you, it's great and really simple to use.
I'm not sure I'll stick to the programme after the initial 12 weeks they recommend (I'm considering lowering the squats to 3x5 already) but it's definitely a good way to introduce yourself to it.
The gyms at school have a little monitor in front of every treadmill that shows a video of a shitty nature trail advancing at the rate you're running . I guess It's meant to be encouraging, but every time I turn it on I get stressed out about how little progress I'm making and turn it off. If you want to run a trail just run a fucking trail. What a shitty piece of technology.
Yeah, even I'd be bored running on a treadmill.
I don't think I could be arsed running (I have done so in the past but I just don't like it) but I really like walking and have really picked it up again while dieting. I do 5k as a minimum per day (most of that at work during the week) and make sure I do 10k each day (normally split into a morning and an evening walk) at weekends.
I have two routes; one urban and one rural, so don't get bored in that respect and I just stick episodes of In Our Time or a football podcast on the phone and end up really enjoying myself. It has definitely helped with the with the weight loss and has arguably had a bigger role in making me feel healthier than the sensible eating has.
I quite like the idea of that Stronglifts programme, if only because it's very straightforward. My issue would be fitting cardio around it.
'Don’t start too heavy or you’ll get sore legs and feel like skipping workouts'. A pretty obvious point I guess but very true. I had a decent enough programme going where I'd do regular core/leg days and not feel too bad afterwards, but a combination of work and pulling my quad meant I had to take a break. Because at the moment I'm only doing core workouts once a week/every 10 days or so, I'm trying to max out (if that's the right term) and it's killing me for days afterwards. I've been exhausted.
I'm weighing up doing a 5k parkrun on new years day. It's probably a horrendous idea.