Weight Loss and Fitness 2013

[Mr_Odwin]

At last, the snow is gone! Back on the bike for getting to work today. The last couple of weeks driving to work have made losing weight so much harder. An extra 250 or so calories a day makes a big difference.

[Charlie]

Body is tired today. Worked my back yesterday (pull-ups, deadlifts and rows, with some shrugs) and am feeling drained. Need some moar food! Thought about having another workout today but I wouldn't get much out of it, I think. Deadlift was 110kg for 4 this time, which I managed two sets of. Getting better. Need to involve the legs more.

 

Last night for the first time I squatted 85kg and then deadlifted 1x5 90kg. Really pleased with myself! Deads were tough but I managed them.

 

Loving pull-ups too on the horizontal bars. Really feel it in my back and biceps.

[Ashley]

Finally got around to joining the gym.

 

Have an induction thing Friday morning (next available slot)...but may reschedule as it interferes with my plans to watch the 30 Rock finale. Priorities! (it would only be rescheduling from 7am to 9am)

 

Anyway, now to figure out what to do when I'm there...may just stick to the running machines this week to ease myself in, before I'm reminded how to lift things without dying.

[Charlie]

Finally got around to joining the gym.

 

Have an induction thing Friday morning (next available slot)...but may reschedule as it interferes with my plans to watch the 30 Rock finale. Priorities! (it would only be rescheduling from 7am to 9am)

 

Anyway, now to figure out what to do when I'm there...may just stick to the running machines this week to ease myself in, before I'm reminded how to lift things without dying.

 

Read this.

 

Couldn't recommend this workout more highly. It's very simple to do too. 3 sessions a week doing 3 exercises in each one.

[Fierce_LiNk]

Last night for the first time I squatted 85kg and then deadlifted 1x5 90kg. Really pleased with myself! Deads were tough but I managed them.

 

Loving pull-ups too on the horizontal bars. Really feel it in my back and biceps.

 

Good stuff, dude. Deadlifts are fun.

 

Not feeling too great today, but still went ahead with leg day. Feel like I needed to sweat it out. Managed to do 5 reps of 105.5kg squats, found it easier than last week. Did a final set of 4 reps but struggled as my legs were like jelly.

 

Question: How low do you go on your squats?

[Jon]

Good stuff, dude. Deadlifts are fun.

 

Not feeling too great today, but still went ahead with leg day. Feel like I needed to sweat it out. Managed to do 5 reps of 105.5kg squats, found it easier than last week. Did a final set of 4 reps but struggled as my legs were like jelly.

 

Question: How low do you go on your squats?

 

I suppose it depends on how heavy you're squatting. I believe the optimum technique is your arse in line with your knees.

[Fierce_LiNk]

I suppose it depends on how heavy you're squatting. I believe the optimum technique is your arse in line with your knees.

 

I read the BB.com forums and quite a few people are doing the ATG (arse to grass) squats.

 

Looks a lot like this.

 

Not the best pic, but the idea is that your arse is lower than your knees. I go for my knees and arse to be in line or roughly there. Wondering if it's worth attempting these.

[Jon]

I read the BB.com forums and quite a few people are doing the ATG (arse to grass) squats.

 

Looks a lot like this.

 

Not the best pic, but the idea is that your arse is lower than your knees. I go for my knees and arse to be in line or roughly there. Wondering if it's worth attempting these.

 

From some of the videos i've watched from prominent strength & conditioning coaches, they advise against that. Put's far too much stress on the knees, they all say the ideal is to keep a straight line between the knee and the arse.

[pratty]

All depends who you listen to, I've read from countless experts that ideally squats should be as low as possible, and at least "break paralell" (ie go past the point where your thigh is paralell to the floor). It's obviously harder to squat lower but I would think if you can do it then you must be stronger as a result.

 

An old school coach like Mark Rippetoe would insist on breaking paralell to consider it a 'proper' squat:

 

"Squat depth is critically important, but so is correct form. ATG-level depth most usually requires that the lumbar muscles relax the lordosis and that the hamstrings relax before extreme depth can be reached. It doesn't sound like a good idea to me that anything be relaxed in a deep squat, since doing this kills your good controlled rebound out of the bottom and risks your intervertebral discs. Those rare individuals that can obtain ass-to-ankles depth without relaxing anything might be able to get away with it, but as a general rule you should squat as deep as you can with a hard-arched lower back and tight hamstings and adductors. This depth will be below parallel, but it will not usually be "ATG"."

 

I've even read that squatting to just exactly paralell is actually worse on the knees than going beyond it, because your pausing at the point where the knees are under the most pressure, or something.

"The knee has four main protective ligaments that keep the femur from displacing on the tibia. These four ligaments are most effective at their protection during full extension and full flexion.

 

When the knee is at 90 degrees of flexion (the halfway point), these four ligaments are almost completely lax and cannot exert much if any of a protective force at the knee.

 

Unfortunately, the position where the protective ligaments of the knee are not doing any protecting is the common recommended stopping point of a squat. Therefore, as it as it turns out, this is the exact worst place you could reverse the motion under load."

 

Though of course everybody has their own specific goals and limitations when squatting so I guess everyone will squat slightly differently, personally I always aim to squat as low as possible, as I don't have a rack I want to get maximum benefit from what weight I can use. I haven't had knee trouble from it, though to be honest I've never squatted any serious weight.

[Jon]

Yeah, it's personal preference. For me, having suffered a serious knee injury a few years back, i'm always paranoid about putting too much stress on it and I do feel it when I start going past a certain point.

[Charlie]

From what I've read and heard, squatting is actually good for your knees and "the lower the better" in terms of your arse.

 

But then again, if you already have a bad knee then would you really want to risk it?

[Ashley]

Read this.

 

Couldn't recommend this workout more highly. It's very simple to do too. 3 sessions a week doing 3 exercises in each one.

 

Cheers. Got an induction Friday morning so will wait until next week to make sure I don't fuck up in any regards. Just going to do basic treadmill/bike stuff the next few days.

 

Woke up with legs on fire. Fun times!

[MindFreak]

I also squat as low as possible but when having 100 kg on your back, I can't go much deeper than parallel so that's just slightly below. I've also suffered from a knee injury and I've found low squats to be soothing on the knees.

 

Your squat depth depends heavily on how flexible you are in your hip and ankles.

 

Edit: Just got home from a testing day. Did a Wingate test with an average of 522 watt, I think, and placed second best on a yo-yo-test out of 21 persons so that's fine. I also got my body fat percentage measured and I'm pleased: 8.5 % of 65.7 kg is fat. That's rather good.

Edited January 30, 2013 by MindFreak

[Fierce_LiNk]

I normally go around parallel, but I'm going to try going a bit lower next time. The trouble is that as there's no mirrors about, it's not as easy to judge how far you are going down. I've found a solution to that, which is a box/stool thing we have in the house, which will take me to at least parallel when sitting on it.

 

Will try to put it into practice next time. Tried using the bench but it was too high. I'm not really flexible so it's a struggle to go really, really low.

[drahkon]

Don't have the time to go to a gym regularly and I don't want to spend a lot of money on dumb bells etc.

 

Soooo, n00b question: are sit-ups, push-ups (more exercises?) enough to help me lose weight/train abs (other muscles)?

Will start to jog as soon as I get good running shoes.

 

Don't want to look like body builder, but I'd like to get rid of the extra weight I gained over Christmas and make my body a bit more defined.

[Blade]

Don't have the time to go to a gym regularly and I don't want to spend a lot of money on dumb bells etc.

 

Soooo, n00b question: are sit-ups, push-ups (more exercises?) enough to help me lose weight/train abs (other muscles)?

Will start to jog as soon as I get good running shoes.

 

Don't want to look like body builder, but I'd like to get rid of the extra weight I gained over Christmas and make my body a bit more defined.

 

Doing sit ups will not lose you weight. A combination of eating properly, cardio, weight training and sleeping will.

[Raining_again]

I can't do static squats at all, got a meniscus tear.

 

Can get into the squat position but it feels like I'm ripping my knee and all its tendons off my leg when I try to get up. Yet I can do the squat part of the snatch with no problems at all! Going to a physio on monday to see if there's anything that can be done to fix it, although I'm thinking its likely to be a relatively permanent thing

 

In other news, I'm kicking ass and taking names in everything asides squats... lol

 

I'm doing a lot of triceps work at the moment as it seems to be my current weakness. In the barbell clean and press I'm getting to the point of the press where my triceps need to activate, and I'm struggling with the 35kg/40kg. So I've been doing lots of tricep xtns and dips (ew worst exercise ever) to improve it. I've also been working on my glutes to help fire it up in both the C&p and the snatch i've been working on. Yoga class last night was good. I seem to be great on flexibility but weak in strength.. I can do the stretchy things with ease, but if I have to hold my body in an awkward shape or position I find it really difficult. I can get my elbows to the floor in a wide leg forward bend, but I can't hold a downward facing dog for more than a minute... lol

[Jon]

You can do all the sit ups you want and have perfect abs but you won't be able to see them if you're carrying around too much fat round the belly.

 

Anyways, sit ups are a waste of time, they're of very little benefit and put unneeded stress on your back. Better off with a combination of exercises that work the abs in different ways, like planks, bicycle kicks, crunches/reverse crunches and some leg raises.

[pratty]

I agree with Blade and Jon St, sit ups should be low on your priorities for losing weight, and even then there are better things for abs/core.

 

You simply need to excerise more and eat less, maintaining a slight calorie deficit this way should cause you lose weight.

 

The excerice you do could is up to you, you could do calisthenics, play a sport, swim or just walk. All I'd say is work the biggest muscles (especially legs, glutes etc), if not the entire body. Circuits of "prison squats

" (and/or lunges), pushups, pullups and planks would be great.

 

I can't do static squats at all, got a meniscus tear.

 

Can get into the squat position but it feels like I'm ripping my knee and all its tendons off my leg when I try to get up. Yet I can do the squat part of the snatch with no problems at all! Going to a physio on monday to see if there's anything that can be done to fix it, although I'm thinking its likely to be a relatively permanent thing

 

As suggested in my earlier post, around halfway is apparently the weakest position for the knees to pause a squat. But obviously check with the experts, no point wrecking your knee further for the sake of squats.

 

Maybe you'll find a squat variation you can do, though as awesome as squats are, if you can still snatch, clean, deadlift etc then you may not even miss them. There are even deadlift variations you could try that bring the quads into play more than the standard deadlift.

[drahkon]

Doing sit ups will not lose you weight. A combination of eating properly, cardio, weight training and sleeping will.

 

I know that, what I wanted to know is, if it will be sufficient to do these 'kinds' of exercises as opposed to exercises with gym machines. Probably didn't express myself to well.

[MindFreak]

It'll take longer to build muscles (and thereby lose weight) using only bodyweight exercising but it's doable. You should tire your muscles completely for it to be most efficient without weights.

[Raining_again]

Would be an idea to buy something like a kettlebell maybe, as its got SO many uses. And relatively affordable. bodyweight will only get so far, oh and weights won't bulk you out, just saying. I've been lifting as HEAVY as possible, going as hard as I can for 4 months and I still haven't got that much definition.

[Jon]

You can lift the empire state building and you won't see that much difference, it's more about what you're eating.

[MindFreak]

Whew, just got back after the first training session in the experiment. We were tested today so it took 3.5 hours! We had tests in sprinting, jumping (vertical and horizontal), weights, KB-swings, shuttle run, and L-sprint.

 

Did a PB 1RM in back squat (110 kg) and clean (80 kg) whereas I deadlifted 130 kg which is a little below my old record (134 kg I think). Also managed to jump 249 cm horizontal from a standing position. That's rather good.

[Ashley]

Went swimming this morning and it's really made me realise how weak my upper body is compared to my lower body (and that's not saying much!) To be expected I suppose, as I walk/cycle a lot whereas the heavies thing I lift is a Boris Bike.

 

Going to chat to trainer person tomorrow at my delayed induction about this. Hopefully s/he'll have some tips.

 

My back and shoulders are starting to feel better. They're still a long way from being perfect, but I'm less prone to feeling them lately.