The Exercise Thread
 

Because every forum needs a /fit/ ;)

Do you work out? Do you even lift? What sort of stuff do you do?

I'm still movin' on up with my workouts. Physically it's night and day compared to what i was when i started, nearly a month ago now. I'm saving on pictures 'til i've really got something to be proud of though :laughing:

Here are my last 2 workouts:

Workout 9 - 9th February (6.45am - 7.45am)
Squat - 32.5kg/70lb - 3x5
Bench - 32.5kg/70lb - 3x5
Deadlift - 45kg/100lb - 1x5

Workout 10 - 11th February (12.15pm - 1pm)
Squat - 35kg/75lb - 3x5
Seated Press - 25kg/55lb - 3x5
Pendlay Rows - 35kg/75lb - 3x5

My latest revelation is on squat bar positioning, which has paid dividends. I'd heard so much advice warning about having it too high that i ended up putting the damn thing too low - i've finally sorted it now, and it's made a huge difference. Elsewhere, the form on my Pendlay's isn't great, and i'm highly considering just resetting it and making sure it's perfect (or as near as is possible). Also, deadlifts are awesome. Watch out Seth! I'm coming for ya! :tongue1:

I know these PB's aren't anything to brag about, but a month ago i'd never lifted a weight in my life and struggled with just the bar! This is a real revelation for me, and i'd highly recommend weight training for anyone who's never done so. No matter how low i feel beforehand, i always feel buzzed after a workout.

Your turn! :d

Re: The Exercise Thread
 

*SEVERE BUTTHURT WARNING*

how are you doing with the "two years of physio while continuing to work in an exhausting job so you don't lose your home" part of the regime? most noobs skip that part, choosing the pathetic "starting out from a position of normal physical health, with no exhausting job to worry about" option, instead. LIGHTWEIGHT :laughing:


yeah so i'm out, most people seem to have missed the fact that my deadlift pb thread wasnt a pb thread at all. it was a "oh, i seem to have finally regained some sort of function in my legs" statement :laughing: my left leg is still wasted, i've got an appointment with a surgeon in march. still limping on in the meantime. meanwhile, i'm very worried about my back, i'm away over to one side and without the thousands of pounds i'd need to see a chiropractor for several months, i don't really know what the future holds there. basically i've been going around doing a sternuous job for a few years unable to put any weight on my left leg so my back is seriously wonky.

meh don't mean to bring your thread down but i just thought pretty much everyone missed the point of mine, where i'm actually coming from with these problems that affect me constantly. : /


/back on topic


i've started backing off on the deadlifts a bit so i can start getting into squatting a bit. i have to do everything extremely gradually because of all of the above (just doing a few sets of 10 squats with no weights left me walking all screwed up at work for the rest of the week. welcome to my world of hurt :B). wasnt so bad the next week, and this week i know what i'm doing with the rep range, shouldnt be too bad. so yeah, maintaining the deads and working in some squats very gradually, getting to know the motion and the correct posture and stuff, my plan is to eventually do more deads one week and more squats the next, i can only work legs on one day in the week so i can rest up before work again.


you been looking at your diet at all robby?

Re: The Exercise Thread
 

omg i just noticed you get to do squats only two days apart :laughing: my muscle recovery operates on geological timescales, this is why i dont think theres a fitness plan in the universe i could actually follow, bar the ones i make up myself :smash:

Re: The Exercise Thread
 

deadlift and squat day for me today. have been having migraines the past week and nearly fainted on my 3rd rep. so i stopped briefly and then did my fourth rep :B ...and nearly fainted even more :smash:

cant wait to see how much butthurt i get from the squats this week, shouldn't be too bad i reckon.

Re: The Exercise Thread
 

^ they are often the best ones! Rigid following of routines if it works is more by luck than anything or because you're a beginner where almost anything will work.

I'm doing a weightless strength routine at the moment:
4x5 pull ups, 1 min rest (-30secs each session)
3x5 Single arm pushups 19" box, reduce height each workout
3x5 Pistol box squats 13" box, reduce height each workout
3x10 Fatboy pull ups on suspension straps with 1 sec pause at top
3x10 Suspended flies
3x10 Rear delt flies on straps
3x 1 minute handstands
3x 10 Glute ham bridges on straps
3x 10 kneeling ab wheel rollouts
2x 1 minute side planks

Re: The Exercise Thread
 

i guess. your routine doesnt know if you have a bit of a cold or a migraine or if you stepped off a kerb funny and messed up your leg, or if you've been having trouble sleeping. :smash:

whats that mean, that in two sessions you have to do 20 in a row? x0

Re: The Exercise Thread
 

Quite!

well it's supposed to be just 10 seconds off but that felt easy starting from 3 minutes. But I've decided once I get to 30 seconds I'll go down by 10 seconds.

Re: The Exercise Thread
 

ah got you, no sense wasting time with that at the start if its too easy for you :smile2:

Re: The Exercise Thread
 

That looks pretty exhausting, I'm being a lazy git at the moment and doing the following on alternate days. Taking about 25 mins a day, my intention was to do it 6 days a week but in reality I'm missing a few.

3 x press ups to failure
3 x sit ups to failure

and

3 x pull ups to failure
3 x goblet squats to failure

I'll either stick them all on 1 day and do it just 3 times a week or I might go back to the strong lifts 5x5 routine. The garage its packed with stuff at the moment so I can't get in there.

Re: The Exercise Thread
 

^ I think yours sounds more exhausting tbh! Training to failure I find quite taxing especially mentally. I probably only do that twice a week but I'm improving steadily so that's good enough for me. I have the some problem with my weights gear being in my lodgers room being used as a make shift clothes rack atm :(

Re: The Exercise Thread
 

i'm very interested in the pros and cons of going to failure just now, would love to hear your take on it.


i'm becoming convinced that i was seriously overtraining on my chinups out of sheer bloodymindedness for the past year, i'm stepping back from it a bit now and realising that while i was going batshit trying to squeeze out reps, i didnt notice that i'm not engaging my left arm very well at all...i've been going to the gym instead of doing chins at home, so i can work a different rep and weight range, assisted chins , seated rows, and some one-armed thing i made up with this pulley machine, to target my left arm specifically.


loads of guys will bang on about failure in every set. others will say as soon as your form starts to suffer even slightly, thats the set over. others still will say aim to stop about 2-3 reps before failure, you'll recover faster and can get back in the gym quicker.

i guess the answer is always gonna be "see what works for you", but i'd still be interested to hear how you are working.


disclaimer - my opinion is with something like squats or deads going to failure is serious shit and that should only be going on very infrequently

Re: The Exercise Thread
 

Lol, I fail pretty quickly! Pull ups in particular are an absolute ball ache. I get about 4-5 out max. Sometimes do chin ups so I don't feel like such a wuss.

Re: The Exercise Thread
 

I don't follow any plan or do a specific amount of reps, or anything. I just do everything until fail. I focus, mainly, on squats and deadlifts, and my DL is 160kg at the moment, and my squat is 125kg. I'd be doing way better if it wasn't for my hip flexor and knee issues in my right leg, but hey-ho, I do my best with it. I'll see some sort of sports physio/chiropractor about it, though, when I have the money.

Other than that I do weighted pull-ups & chins and also stick a couple of plates on my pack when doing the ab roller. I want to progress to doing those insane standing rollouts with it, but I'm a while off of that yet!

Re: The Exercise Thread
 

Ab roller sounds good, will ditch the sit ups and get me one of those babies.

Re: The Exercise Thread
 

Firstly if we are talking heavy exercises, the big three, I wouldn't recommend training to failure. For me the risks of injury if you miss are just too high for too little gain. It's not fun being pinned under a bar and even if you have a good spotter it can put a lot of stress on your body.

Training to failure provides greater overload of more muscle fibers, and thus more growth. The obvious.

BUT..

It's an enormous strain on the nervous system, not to mention the muscles themselves. Extended recovery periods force one to train less often. Post-failure sets occur with dramatically reduced loads, and thus much lower intensity. And finally, the nervous system may learn to 'give up' prematurely.

Psychologically, and this is just my take on it, I don't like teaching the mind to get used to 'failing'. I think you should end on a success.

Overall training to failure can be beneficial but I'd stick to the accessory work and not the big compound lifts except very occasionally when you want to really kick start things. Preferentially my personal approach is to always leave one in the tank. If I hit a max during a work out, I finish that exercise right there. Recovery for me is the limiting factor in getting stronger. I'm not getting any younger and I just can't abuse my body like I used to! As long as I'm making progress I'm happy I'm doing enough.

I have all sorts of problem with assymetry. That's why I'm working isolateral movements recently after years of ignoring it. Have you tried assymetric chins? Have your stronger arm further out so that it is just assisting your weaker arm. Or for something more challenging you can do (cheating) one armed chins but have the hand of your non working arm hold the wrist of the working arm.

Re: The Exercise Thread
 

cheers for that, interesting reading :smile2:


that is so badass, i never thought of that! :D cheers for the recommend. yeah i'm just getting started with my left arm problems, something aint right with my left shoulder. hopefully it'll get better if i just actually tailor my training to allow me to concentrate more on it, it could be that ive just never really used it right.

Re: The Exercise Thread
 

Ate two half-pounder cheeseburgers today. I done my deadlifts yesterday (165kgs, motherfcker!). Makin' AAAALLLLL KINDZZZ of gains!

Re: The Exercise Thread
 

today i did just dance 4. Dancing with richards simmons and walking.

Re: The Exercise Thread
 

Done a 165kg deadlift again. Felt solid. Gonna go for the 170kg next week. Also done 155kg for 3 reps.

Still working on my squat. Managed 130kg for 2 (the second rep was a bit off, though). My hip flexor and knee issues seem to be getting better, as I concentrate more on using my right side, but it's still playing up.

Overall, pretty sweet. :smile2: *stuffs face with protein*

Re: The Exercise Thread
 

I want to get back into jogging again, also. I was managing over 10k at my peak, but then I stopped for a couple of weeks, went back, and the cold hit my asthma like a tonne of bricks. I was on strong medication for three weeks because my breathing was so bad :( (I hadn't had any issue with my breathing for about 3 years until that point, as well!). I was jogging in the cold before that, too, but I'd built a resistance up, I guess. I'll get straight back to it when the weather gets a bit warmer.

Btw, to put all of this into perspective, I used to be a severe asthmatic that could barely jog half a mile without feeling like I was going to die, and the only weights I'd lifted were dumbbells, and that was on and off because I was often too depressed and unmotivated to do anything.

Just goes to show, and all that...

Re: The Exercise Thread
 

your lifting is going awesome bro, thats INSANE xD :hug2:


good news on the weightloss front for me today :,] when i weighed myself last week i'd barely eaten the day before as i was ill. i kinda expected that to be like a false reading, and to have put on weight since starting to eat proper again. but nah, i'm STILL half a pound down since then :rockon:


i'm getting AAWWLLLL KINDZ A RIPZ

Re: The Exercise Thread
 

i did running on the treadmill for 15 mins burned 75 calories.

Re: The Exercise Thread
 

Ah very nice Goddy! You'll hit the magic 180 soon at this rate, then you'll be part of the exclusive 4 wheel club!! :thumbpur:

I just did 4 sets of 5 reps pullups with 10 seconds rest in my quest for 20 straight but that last set was hard. Think I'll do another 10 sec rest session before moving to 5 secs. And once I hit 20 then it's time to start chasing that mythical beast, the 1 arm pull up.

Re: The Exercise Thread
 

I like the emphasis on consistentsy. I've always struggled with doing anything regular until I started working on a farm. Building work (digging holes, carrying materials) and sometimes even chasing after an escapee animal, mean I'm stronger than Ive ever been.

Plus I recently got a hyperactive puppy! We chase each other round a field. 100000000x better than a gym. :)

Re: The Exercise Thread
 

Thanks! :smile2: lol, 4 wheel club. Never heard of that one. I like it! Unfortunately, I've been feeling a bit shitty lately, so haven't been consistent with it. I done my deads yesterday, though despite this, but I only done 165 again as I didn't want to overdo it. I'll be hitting the 180 soon enough, though! My ultimate goal is 200.

I'll give that a go myself. Won't be trying no one-arm pull-up any time soon, though! Sheesh...

Re: The Exercise Thread
 

smart to slow it down while you feel shit dude, slow and steady and all that.



my latest PB is twice on a heart monitor inside 10 days. snap city O_o

Re: The Exercise Thread
 

I ran 25 mins on the treadmill at 3.0 speed and burned 125 calories :)

Re: The Exercise Thread
 

Squatted 130kg for 3 and 135kg for 1. Felt solid. Another pb. :D

Re: The Exercise Thread
 

I started doing the olympic lifts. Really, really exhausting. Also fried my glutes.

Re: The Exercise Thread
 

today is a beautiful day outside after eating lunch i plan to go bike riding even if it is by myself. :)