Weight Loss and Fitness 2015

[Daft]

Poor form is now the most annoying thing I see in the gym.

 

Seriously, maintaining form >>>>> pushing for heavier weight.

[MindFreak]

Yeah, you see poor form constantly. It's so sad but you can't really go around telling it to everyone - you'd never get anything done youself!

 

I often see people doing half push-ups, never extending their arms fully, never hitting the floor with the chest, perhaps not even moving their thighs down. Squats, never even to parallel, deadlift with a bended back (I do tell them this, though, as it can be quite serious), people moving their upper bodies from side to side when biking... I sometimes wonder what the instructors at the gym are paid for!

[Charlie]

Poor form is now the most annoying thing I see in the gym.

 

Seriously, maintaining form >>>>> pushing for heavier weight.

 

So many people do this, it's quite funny. Thinking they've got an amazing bench because they lift a high weight but the bar never goes close to their chest.

[Raining_again]

I hate bad form, so much.

 

Even if I did have bad form (i don't) they are too scared to approach the blue haired freak in the squat rack :-)

 

I'd rather sacrifice reps/weight over form. Your 1rm is never going to be pretty but at least keep it safe. Rounded back is noooooo. half assed squats... NO you should at least GET to parallel. Bench, now you're just being a dickhead, do it properly.

 

But then I just zone out on everyone else, my focus is me and that bar, not a single other thing.

[Fierce_LiNk]

Thinking back to my time being in a gym that wasn't at home, I hardly ever saw people squat or deadlift anyway. No matter what time of the day I went or what day it was, I've only ever seen a small handful do both. But then, I've only ever been to gyms like Fitness First or Bannatynes. So, they weren't really the types of gyms where you go to primarily lift weights, I guess. Bannatynes' weights area is a bit poverty, thinking back on it.

 

Curls are the type that I saw the most. Mostly dudes swinging the weights as they lift them or rocking forward and back.

[Raining_again]

Yeah FF and all those "cheaper" gyms are terrible for that kind of thing. They have employment terms/prospectives that really only attract newbie trainers with minimal knowledge - thus that follows through with the kind of stuff you see happening in a gym. No good trainer will ever stay in FF etc because they get better paid offers. I know FF is all based on a self employment ideal, the PTs used to pay about 700 a month in gym rental fees and had to make that back (plus any of their own bills like rent etc) within that month. Absolute con for them.

 

 

Oh yeah, on another note - i rejoined a gym, just until i get a bigger place of my own. Realistically I haven't the space here but one day i plan to.

 

I was up at the gym on Tuesday past, had my sensible head on as it was my first time back. Here's me thinking I'd do what used to be my warm up.... squats - 5reps bar only, 3 x 3 of 40. Then i think i did 2x3 of 40kg hang clean/p.press.

 

I used to be able to do bar x 5, then keep adding 10kg for 5 reps up til 75kg which i did for 5x5. Mind blown. The glandular fever has fucked me over and i've probably got less muscle and less strength than even before I started weightlifting !!!

 

I was fucking crippled the day after, like no doms I have ever experienced before. Even today 3 full days later i am still aching and struggling to walk normally. Shockingly bad.

[MindFreak]

Apparently I'm too strong for my body! I saw a physician today to address my groin injury - I had suspected that it might not be due to sports but was actually due to my posture and body allignment, which she agreed on. I have problems using my inner muscles for the small stuff, like lying on your belly and just bending your knees - I can't do that without activating my back muscles! And my hip is a bit tipsy when lying on my back and just letting my knee fall to one side.

 

She gave me some VERY basic exercises that I must do for the next week and then I consult her again. Looking forward to seeing if this could be the problem.

[Daft]

Is that the result of a muscle imbalance?

[MindFreak]

To some extent, I think. I think it's more due to my hypermobility that can have caused my hip bones to be uneven. She noted that my legs weren't the same length as well. It all caused my back to wind a bit. Not.much but enough to cause a little trouble.

[Daft]

Took yesterday and today off the gym (and I never do anything on the weekend anyway) because I was feeling really sluggish this week, manly due to a cold. Hopefully I can hit the ground running but I feel bad for not going to the gym for a couple days.

[Fierce_LiNk]

Took yesterday and today off the gym (and I never do anything on the weekend anyway) because I was feeling really sluggish this week, manly due to a cold. Hopefully I can hit the ground running but I feel bad for not going to the gym for a couple days.

 

I'm in a similar boat, but this was expected and I knew this would happen because of work.

 

I think I'm going to continue bulking and strength training until Christmas, then will start cutting. Might be time to start changing things up then.

[Raining_again]

Deadddddlifts. Got up to 90kg after a 2 year hiatus. PR before that was 120kg (and that was with a womens bar - smaller diameter) so wont be long before I'm chasing PRs again

 

I can feel the callouses forming again :yay::yay:

[MindFreak]

I went for a run yesterday (just because I couldn't pull myself to the gym for a cardio session) and I tried focusing on my breathing, really getting the air down in my belly rather than only using my chest, and I'm surprised that this actually made a significant difference to my flow. I felt lighter and less out of breath, even though I was running at about 15 km/h. Of course, I only ran 3.3 km but still. I must definitely look into this more and experiment with it!

[EEVILMURRAY]

Reading these posts makes me wonder how my form looks. I think I do alright with my squats, although I go nearly all the way down holding the weight outwards.

 

Had a small issue with one of the PT's this week, cutting down my workout schedule down (like it's something I religiously stick to) and I felt like I had to complain. Sent this email this morning before work:

 

Hi,

 

Earlier this week I attended your gym for one of my gym sessions. I was on the cross trainer and noticed one of your staff cleaning the treadmills in front of me, a common sight. Not long afterwards the same member of staff approached me mid-workout forcing me to remove my headphones (trivial I know but it made me lose my rhythm) and introduced himself as John, a personal trainer. I assume John is new as I had never seen him before. He told me he had been watching me and wanted to know if I had any questions. I had only been there 15 minutes, 10 of them being on the cross trainer and having someone coming up to me saying they've been watching me for the majority of my time was quite unsettling.

 

I told John I was fine but he kept pressing the issue on my supposed curiosity of the gym, despite not expressing any interest in wanting to find out more. I made an excuse that I was on my lunch break from work so I wouldn't be staying around for much longer that day. John said he would be there the next day from 10am so he could answer "all my questions with no charge" and that I should "bring plenty of water" and he disappeared. I tried continuing my workout on the abdominal machine but couldn't concentrate and left and not been back since.

 

I appreciate that John was trying to drum up some business, but approaching me like he did and the pressure he kept putting me under made me feel rather uncomfortable.

 

I'm not sure if I'm the only one who felt like this, but wanted to bring it to your attention anyway.

 

Got this reply later today:

 

Hi Derek,

 

Thank you for making me aware of this. Yes John is new and very passionate about fitness and speaking to members though I do agree, this is going a bit far. Apologies for interrupting your workout and I hope it doesn’t put you off coming to the gym in future. He is spending some time with me on Monday and I will get the chance to go through a lot of things with him is hasn’t had much training in such as over bothering members and becoming more of a nuisance than someone there to help.

 

If you are at all interest in our GRIT classes I would be happy to give you some vouchers to try them out as an apology.

 

Anything we can do to help or make the gym better, please let me know.

 

Alex

 

Might give the GRIT thing a go.

[Shorty]

I can feel the callouses forming again :yay::yay:

 

Callouses are so weirdly satisfying. For some reason I loved when I started getting them on my fingers, on the other side of the bar to the normal upper palm ones.

[Raining_again]

Callouses are so weirdly satisfying. For some reason I loved when I started getting them on my fingers, on the other side of the bar to the normal upper palm ones.

 

They REALLY are!!!!

 

my fingers used to be calloused to hell, but now they're all soft again dammit

[MindFreak]

I've grown quite fond of rowing. Recently I've gone to the gym to row 3k (11:22 is my fastest time, not impressive but good enough) and I feel so empowered afterwards! It's freaking great exercise as it, opposed to biking and to a lesser extent running, really hits your entire body and leaves you out of breath quickly if you don't strategically plan your effort. Last time I did it I had just biked 8 km home from work, went down to row 3k and then I killed myself by taking 10 minutes on an indoor bike. Great exercise.

 

My physician told me that I simply use way too much muscle power in everyday tasks. When just standing I tighten my buttocks and abs to hold me upright but this actually does the opposite so I'm trying to teach myself to relax a lot more. To supplement this, I'm also doing a bit more yoga which feels great. Hopefully this can alleviate some of stress in my groin area and put my pelvis back in place.

[EEVILMURRAY]

Gonna crowdsource for some contributionsings.

 

I had been planning on making this article for awhile and finally forced myself in getting round to it.

 

VIDEO GAINS: A Man’s Guide for Game Music at the Gym

 

And although it will be updated on da fly, any suggestions people may have is welcome.

[pratty]

My physician told me that I simply use way too much muscle power in everyday tasks. When just standing I tighten my buttocks and abs to hold me upright but this actually does the opposite so I'm trying to teach myself to relax a lot more. To supplement this, I'm also doing a bit more yoga which feels great. Hopefully this can alleviate some of stress in my groin area and put my pelvis back in place.

 

You can't really win can you? Most of the time we relax too much and our posture sucks, now you're too active.

 

As for yoga I'm considering going exclusively yoga/bodyweight for a while to try and work out my injuries and tightness, I think they're beyond regular stretching. I'm interested in trying out DDP Yoga style yoga with a bit of Animal-Flow stuff.

 

Gonna crowdsource for some contributionsings.

 

I had been planning on making this article for awhile and finally forced myself in getting round to it.

 

VIDEO GAINS: A Man’s Guide for Game Music at the Gym

 

And although it will be updated on da fly, any suggestions people may have is welcome.

 

Cool idea,

 

how about City Escape from Sonic Adventure 2? If that doesn't make you want to run nothing will.

 

And when you want to embrace your inner savage and show the weights what's up, how about a bit of Aint That Funny from Mad World?

[MindFreak]

You can't really win can you? Most of the time we relax too much and our posture sucks, now you're too active.

 

As for yoga I'm considering going exclusively yoga/bodyweight for a while to try and work out my injuries and tightness, I think they're beyond regular stretching. I'm interested in trying out DDP Yoga style yoga with a bit of Animal-Flow stuff.

 

Nope. But then again, doing anything too much or too little is bad for you so it makes sense. I just never thought about it.

 

I don't care for the zen-part of Yoga either but the techniques for relaxing are good to me and the core exercises are really good. In my gym we have two different yoga-styles - vinyasa and flow. Vinyasa is more about breathing, relaxing and holding poses for a longer period of time and flow is more fast-paced. I do vinyasa at the moment to become better at doing the different poses - some of them are quite challenging and hard on the core. When I feel that I know the poses well enough, I might move on to flow but for now I just stick with vinyasa.

[Blade]

So i've started back on the weight training properly this week. I've been half arsed attempting it these ladt few months. I've done back, shoulders and today I have done chest.

 

Chest always gives me DOMs, always. That and legs are the only two body parts that I suffer DOMs from every time!

[Raining_again]

I think with underuse vs overuse of muscles / flexibility vs strength there is ALWAYS going to be a fine balancing act and only when you really know your body its weaknesses and strengths will you be able to keep that steady.

 

That's why I love olympic lifting, its a perfect balance of usable real life strength, coordination and flexibility.

 

Yoga's great by the way, but its harder than you could ever imagine lol

[Blade]

Worked arms today. My favourite body part haha!

 

I'm on a roll!

[Kav]

Don't forget cardio @Blade

[Daft]

I benched 110kg for five reps today...although the person spotting me was a bit over zealous, so I can't really tell how much of it was me. Only expected to do one, maybe two, but pushed out four good ones and a weak fifth one. So yeah, not a fucking clue.