Weight Loss and Fitness 2015

[Josh64]

@Animal That sounds like heaven. But yeah, I'm not sure where to begin, I'm back to struggling to bother getting out of bed ATM so maybe exercise is something I need to motivate me, gotta get me some of those natural highs.

[pratty]

I'm a bit off the rails again. This time of the year fucks me up. My raynauds is on a rampage more than it ever was and my hands and feet are numb most of the time. The fact I can even type this is just evidence of my skills as a typist rather than physical ability. Unhappy Hannah gets herself into a spiral and can't get out of it :-(

 

Sorry to here that, hang in there.

 

When I'm too injured, ill or de-motivated to train I like to at least read about training instead. Brush up on the latest fitness articles and such to get some new ideas and tips, then maybe a healthy dose of Mark Rippetoe straight talk to make sure I haven't wandered off too far down the trendy 'fuctional training' rabbit hole, then plan what workout I will do once I'm able.

 

I also like to read about the history of physical culture. How people trainied from ancient times to modern day, the history of bodybuilding and the sport of weightlifting, and the old time strong men like Eugene Sandow and Arthur Saxon etc. I feel like I should know a bit about the history of my hobby.

[Beast]

@Animal That sounds like heaven. But yeah, I'm not sure where to begin, I'm back to struggling to bother getting out of bed ATM so maybe exercise is something I need to motivate me, gotta get me some of those natural highs.

 

Begin by thinking that your bae, Nev from Catfish/Zac Efron, doesn't want a fatty and you get on Just Dance 2015 and work it out! #FatShaming #SlutShaming

 

Nah, for real though, I've downloaded an app called 100% Army Fit which has achievements so that's keeping me occupied at the moment. I also use dance videos that are like Zumba (don't you judge me, bitches)

 

I follow Nicholas Jacobs and Lauren Fitz. Two of my favourites to do:

 

 

Club Fitz has playlists that give you 4 workouts that are 60 minutes each.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJYqB9IxpJsQl9mFmJd28JQ

[MindFreak]

Saved someone from serious back problems in the future today in the gym. He was deadlifting with a spherical back, yes, spherical!! 60-70 kg. I just said "Stop that!" to him and he put it down. Told him the problem, he was like "Thanks for telling me, it's my first time with this exercise." WHAT?! First time you should never go that heavy, and he was even doing it alone. He was young so would probably be able to handle it but better start early with the proper technique.

[pratty]

^ Nice one, sounded like he was headed to snap city with a rounded back at that weight.

 

Anybody else watch the Weighliftng World Championship on Eurosport? Probably at bit late to mention it really as it's just finished. It's a fairly dull sport to be honest and yet I find it strangly compelling.

[Josh64]

Haha, Nev and Zefron are constant inspirations, though can you BELIEVE he's not gonna be on the UK series? Sickening.

 

But yes, I'm all seriousness, it's my food intake and I can take control, I've just gotta stop letting myself go wild. I've done it many times before and I'll do it again!

[Ellmeister]

What protein shake/ recovery drink would people most recommend on here for being effective and price efficient?

[Jon]

What protein shake/ recovery drink would people most recommend on here for being effective and price efficient?

 

I've always used Optimum Nutrition. One of the top rated brands.

[Shorty]

What protein shake/ recovery drink would people most recommend on here for being effective and price efficient?

I buy from myprotein, all their stuff is good. For a while I was having their "total breakfast" every morning because I wanted the caffeine from that instead of coffee. Also partial to Musclepharm Assault pre-workout but you must drink plenty of water throughout the day if you're going to have it.

[Blade]

Myprotein all the way. Been using them for the past 10 years.

[Shorty]

This week I picked up my weights for the first time in maybe 2 months, hit my old 5rm easy on squats, new 3rm on deadlift, new 5rm on bench.... Dunno if it's a change of diet or what but really didn't expect to be able to lift that much after feeling like my arms had shrunk. DOMS on my legs for the last two days though... dayum.

[Fierce_LiNk]

This week I picked up my weights for the first time in maybe 2 months, hit my old 5rm easy on squats, new 3rm on deadlift, new 5rm on bench.... Dunno if it's a change of diet or what but really didn't expect to be able to lift that much after feeling like my arms had shrunk. DOMS on my legs for the last two days though... dayum.

 

Dat muscle memory. Change of diet goes a long way, though.

 

For protons, I used MyProtein, too. Good website and they're quite reliable.

[Fierce_LiNk]

I'm absolutely fucking knackered. Work has been relentless this term and we've got our Christmas play tomorrow, which I've been in charge of organising. We had reports last week. But, I've been trying to keep going with the exercising. Got 150kg for 5 reps on the deadlift today, which is the first time I've been able to go that heavy and cleanly since about July. Pretty happy with that.

[Eddage]

Fucking hell.

 

Just played 5-a-side for the first time in about 3 years. I am dead. Huge blisters on both my big toes, one of which the skin has come off leaving a nice skinless section of toe, now covered in plasters! I'm gonna be walking funny for a week after this.

 

At least I managed to score... in my own goal :/

[Fierce_LiNk]

160kg deadlift for 5 reps!

 

Just did my set

Legs shaking. Heart racing. Kill me.

[Daft]

Nice one! Good job @Fierce_LiNk I'm working on my deadlift again, just as a supplement to a new program so I'm going to try and not push for too heavy a weight and just look to be comfortable on it (because...it's the first exercise I do on leg day before squats LOLthisissuffering).

 

I have started a new program. Gave it a quick run through before I went to New York a couple weeks ago but now I'm half way through the second proper week. It's a Push Pull Legs routine and I'm really liking it. It does kind of require me to go six times a week but I might alternate between 5 and 6 depending on how I feel.

 

At the moment I do P/P/L/P/P/L/Rest.

 

Push (Chest/Triceps/Shoulders):

 

Flat Barbell Bench Press: 3x5

Seated (or Standing) Barbell Shoulder/Overhead Press: 3x5

Incline Barbell Bench Press: 3x5

Dumbbell Side Lateral Raise: 3x10-12

Rope Pushdowns (circuit machine): 3x10-12

Overhead Dumbbell Extension or similar triceps exercise: 3x10-12

Shrugs(circuit machine or dumbbells): 3x10-12

 

Pull (Back/Biceps):

 

Barbell Rows: 3x5

Lat Pulldowns with (Long Bar or V-bar) (circuit machine): 3x8-10

Seated Rows (circuit machine) - optional if already doing barbell rows: 3x8-10

Face-pulls: 3x-10-12

Barbell Bicep Curls (Alternate between close and normal grip): 4x-10-12

Choice of one other bicep exercise (typically Hammer Curls): 3x10-12

 

Legs (Quad/Ham/Calves):

 

Deadlifts: 3x5

Barbell Squats: 4x5-6

Leg Press (optional if already doing above squats): 3x8-10

Leg Extensions (circuit machine): 3x10-12

Hamstring Curls (circuit machine): 3x10-12

Standing Calf Raises (circuit machine): 5x10-12

 

I've really had to up my food intake. I'll take this through to end of march then look at where I'm at.

 

I've identified a couple areas of weakness:

 

Biceps. Any advice? While my arms are pretty big, it's mainly because of my awesome triceps. But I don't feel great doing bicep exercises. I do them at the end of routines and they a little boring to do.

 

Abs. I just find these kind of dull to do and I semi-hit them with all the core lifts I do but still...could add one or two more exercises in to help.

[Fierce_LiNk]

Nice one! Good job @Fierce_LiNk I'm working on my deadlift again, just as a supplement to a new program so I'm going to try and not push for too heavy a weight and just look to be comfortable on it (because...it's the first exercise I do on leg day before squats LOLthisissuffering).

 

I have started a new program. Gave it a quick run through before I went to New York a couple weeks ago but now I'm half way through the second proper week. It's a Push Pull Legs routine and I'm really liking it. It does kind of require me to go six times a week but I might alternate between 5 and 6 depending on how I feel.

 

At the moment I do P/P/L/P/P/L/Rest.

 

 

 

I've really had to up my food intake. I'll take this through to end of march then look at where I'm at.

 

I've identified a couple areas of weakness:

 

Biceps. Any advice? While my arms are pretty big, it's mainly because of my awesome triceps. But I don't feel great doing bicep exercises. I do them at the end of routines and they a little boring to do.

 

Abs. I just find these kind of dull to do and I semi-hit them with all the core lifts I do but still...could add one or two more exercises in to help.

 

Cheers, brah.

 

I'm still doing Stronglifts, so full body three times/four times a week. My squatting and deadlifting has improved, so I'm happy with those. I'm a bit disappointed that my shoulder/overhead press didn't improve all that much, but that's life.

 

Going to start cutting after Christmas. It's time, I feel.

 

With Push/Pull/Legs: That's quite a lot of volume to do. I love that routine as I've done PPL before, but I'd cut down the volume, imo. I always found it best where you do one compound plus one or two accessories. So, bench press plus one, shoulder press plus one. It's a rewarding routine, but it can be monotonous reeeeeally quickly if you're thinking "shit, I've got ALL of this to do....5 or 6 times a week". It was by far my most time consuming routine.

 

I find biceps really boring, too. Plus, I don't find them comfortable. I'm doing hammer curls these days and it's fine but...I find training triceps more enjoyable. There's more variety in the exercises you can do, too. Every bicep routine is either a curl, a form of curl or a secondary to something like pull ups or rows.

 

Also also, I really would think about doing deadlifts after squats. The thing with deadlifts is that it's working your lower back pretty hard and you'll need that when trying to keep yourself stable when squatting. Most people seem to suggest doing squats first then deadlifts, mainly for that reason. I guess it may depend on how heavy you're going with both.

Edited December 16, 2015 by Fierce_LiNk

[Daft]

I'll give squatting a go before deadlifts today. Thanks for the heads up.

 

When you say cut down on volume, do you mean the number of reps every set?

 

Yeah, I'm finding PPL taking well over an hour to do but I'm not too phased by the 5/6 times a week. I've never usually gone to the gym on the weekend so it's the 6th one that I'm not sure I'll stick to. I've been doing five days a week for the past six months. but we'll see, it's easy to not get bored starting off because I'm noticing a lot of strength gains but we'll see how that progresses. I'm hoping limiting this to about 12 weeks is going to give me a target to work toward, thus making it a little less monotonous. But yeah, we'll see.

[Fierce_LiNk]

I'll give squatting a go before deadlifts today. Thanks for the heads up.

 

When you say cut down on volume, do you mean the number of reps every set?

 

Yeah, I'm finding PPL taking well over an hour to do but I'm not too phased by the 5/6 times a week. I've never usually gone to the gym on the weekend so it's the 6th one that I'm not sure I'll stick to. I've been doing five days a week for the past six months. but we'll see, it's easy to not get bored starting off because I'm noticing a lot of strength gains but we'll see how that progresses. I'm hoping limiting this to about 12 weeks is going to give me a target to work toward, thus making it a little less monotonous. But yeah, we'll see.

 

By volume, I mean the amount of exercises that you do. It really depends on how it feels for you and how much you enjoy doing it all per day and per week. For example, for push day, I'd usually do bench, shoulder press, dips and then maybe one accessory like shoulder raises. It depends on if you're finding that amount of work OK. With the accessories, sometimes I find them a chore at the end because I've exhausted myself with the earlier stuff.

[Daft]

Nah, I'm a big masochist. I kind of like being in the gym for so long. I've basically started taking 90-minute lunch breaks. If I make my workout shorter it just means I go back to work sooner anyway. Ha!

[Fierce_LiNk]

That's a good way of doing it. Think midday to mid afternoon is the best time to lift. Some days I get home and it's a struggle to get going after a long work day. Working at a gym would be great...just lift whenever you want.

[drahkon]

Look at you guys...talking big :p

 

Here I am, doing my lowly body-weight work out...but hey, it's something. I noticed a bit of progress during the past 4 weeks.

 

As soon as my immune system has finished fighting the infection I'll get back to it : peace:

 

Hoping to take up interval runs again next week. 10 minute warm-up, 8x 20 seconds almost sprinting followed by 10 seconds almost standing (which sounds weird) and then walking back home. This once a week and the body-weight workout should help me lose a bit of fat.

 

I don't eat as much sweets as I used to 2 months ago. Occasionally I do eat some, but hey...it's tasty

More importantly: I don't drink juice and all that stuff any more. Something I'm a bit proud of, even though it sounds like nothing.

 

Need to start eating a bit more...healthy? Currently only eating rice, chicken, pasta, bread. Have to get used to salad again...I really don't like it but it has to be done

Edited December 16, 2015 by drahkon

[pratty]

Nice one! Good job @Fierce_LiNk I'm working on my deadlift again, just as a supplement to a new program so I'm going to try and not push for too heavy a weight and just look to be comfortable on it (because...it's the first exercise I do on leg day before squats LOLthisissuffering).

 

I have started a new program. Gave it a quick run through before I went to New York a couple weeks ago but now I'm half way through the second proper week. It's a Push Pull Legs routine and I'm really liking it. It does kind of require me to go six times a week but I might alternate between 5 and 6 depending on how I feel.

 

At the moment I do P/P/L/P/P/L/Rest.

 

 

 

I've really had to up my food intake. I'll take this through to end of march then look at where I'm at.

 

I've identified a couple areas of weakness:

 

Biceps. Any advice? While my arms are pretty big, it's mainly because of my awesome triceps. But I don't feel great doing bicep exercises. I do them at the end of routines and they a little boring to do.

 

Abs. I just find these kind of dull to do and I semi-hit them with all the core lifts I do but still...could add one or two more exercises in to help.

 

I agree with Fierce Link that's a lot of volume for a 6 day a week routine, maybe you can handle it but I think I'd burn out personally.

 

One way to reduce it would be alternating similar excises. So for exmaple on your first push day of the week you do flat bench press, then on your second push day of the week you do incline, hammer curls on your first pull day, regular curls on your second pull day, squat on your first legs day, deadlift on your second etc.

 

For curl alternatives there is the chin up if you can manage them, maybe you can do both neutral and supinated grips.

 

Also you could do some kind of clean, say the dumbbell hang clean. Though this would take more energy than just doing curlos, however this would use more weight and use more muscle, burning more calories.

 

For abs maybe do goblet squats and waiter walks, more exciting than sit ups and planks.

Edited December 16, 2015 by pratty

[Daft]

Apart from the big exercises, I don't stick to the program 100%. For example the gym I go to during the week has pretty different equipment from the one I go to on Saturday so my Legs day is unavoidably different. The exercise I do for biceps also differs on both Pull days; I switch between wide-grip, over-hand grip, close grip, hammer curls pretty freely. I'll have a look into cleans. So yeah, I vary exercise as much as I feel I need to to stay interested. I'm totally with you guys with watching out for burn out but I'm not that strict with exercises and I'm only aiming to do this program for 12 or so weeks, then I'll find a new program. I tend to get bored of programs after about four months anyway, so that's within my comfort zone.

 

I'm going to look up Goblet Squats and Waiter Walks now. Did some weighted decline sit-ups today. They were okay, easier than earlier in the week so there's that.

[pratty]

Apart from the big exercises, I don't stick to the program 100%. For example the gym I go to during the week has pretty different equipment from the one I go to on Saturday so my Legs day is unavoidably different. The exercise I do for biceps also differs on both Pull days; I switch between wide-grip, over-hand grip, close grip, hammer curls pretty freely. I'll have a look into cleans. So yeah, I vary exercise as much as I feel I need to to stay interested. I'm totally with you guys with watching out for burn out but I'm not that strict with exercises and I'm only aiming to do this program for 12 or so weeks, then I'll find a new program. I tend to get bored of programs after about four months anyway, so that's within my comfort zone.

 

I'm going to look up Goblet Squats and Waiter Walks now. Did some weighted decline sit-ups today. They were okay, easier than earlier in the week so there's that.

 

I think alternating exercises but still doing them consistantly is a good way to avoid boredom with variety, without giving up on a beneficial exercise before you've stopped making progress from it.

 

 

This is a dumbell hang clean, you may find you don't need the jump/ankle extension, thus making it more of a 'power curl'.

http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/OlympicLifts/DBHangClean.html

 

I suggested the dumbbell hang clean because it's one of the more safe and least technical cleans, less technical because of the dumbbells, and more safe because you're using less weight and not pulling from the floor. It also doesn't use as much leg drive as other cleans so you're focussing more on your upper body, and therefore less taxing on your body overall.

 

You may find goblet squats are demonstrated with a kettlebell but don't think you need to use one, the goblet squat originiated using a dumbbell. The reason it works your abs is because the weight infront of your centre, it's essentially front squat. It may look like a leg exercise but you'll probably find your abs give out first, mine do anyway. It also hits the biceps and upper back somewhat aswell so good bang for your buck.

 

Of course you could just do barbell front squats, but heavy ones would be exhausting if you're already doing compound exercises first, and light ones may be uncomfortable for a long set.

 

Infact you may not need to squat at all, if the abs are the target you could simply do goblet carries, or even simply just stand still and hold the weight for time.

 

You may not find you need waiter walks if you do goblet squats/carries, I mention them more for variety or an alternative, and as they are unilateral they hit the obliques well. They are a good upper body warm up/cool down too, but as I say may not be necessary.

Edited December 16, 2015 by pratty