The Workout Thread

[Fred Derf Veteran]

I didn't have the car today when I went to ball hockey. It's easy enough on the bus for some reason I decided to walk home today. 7.1km (about 4.5mi). The thing was that I was already tired from playing hockey but I had twisted my ankle a bit right near the end of the game so I decided to walk on it for a bit to see how it would feel. It seems fine.

Yes, there is another ball hockey on Friday nights that is only 2km away. That is a lot more walkable. I don't plan to make a habit of walking home from my Scarborough hockey. That's a little too far.

[Jimmy0]

What sort of routines do you guys follow?

I started going to the gym a couple of months ago and was just bashing out any random mix of cardio and machines. Then a few weeks back I decided that to get any real gains I would need to follow a proper routine, so did some researching online, which then led me to read that free weights were better than using machines and so I switched to doing them instead of machine weights. And since doing so I noticed that even though on a machine I can set the weight to 60-80KG, doing a free weight I am only able to do about half of it when doing a similar exercise, almost giving a false sense of strength if you will.

I stumbled across stronglifts.com and he seems to have a pretty simple 5x5 workout guide that doesn't require me to live in the gym. So I think I will give this a go for a couple months and see if it benefits me!

[JTaylor69]

I've started dieting now as I'm beginning to realise that most weeks I had pizza more than twice!

Started to eat a lot of fruit now, cutting down on fatty foods and replacing fizzy drinks with water. 50p for big bottles at Asda isn't too bad!

For exercise, I'm doing swimming once a week and walking to and from college where possible!

Will probably do more as the weather gets warmer.

Oh and guys if you're interested in any apparel for your workouts check out wear2gym.

Personal favourite!

www.wear2gym.co.uk

[dead.cell]

What sort of routines do you guys follow?

I started going to the gym a couple of months ago and was just bashing out any random mix of cardio and machines. Then a few weeks back I decided that to get any real gains I would need to follow a proper routine, so did some researching online, which then led me to read that free weights were better than using machines and so I switched to doing them instead of machine weights. And since doing so I noticed that even though on a machine I can set the weight to 60-80KG, doing a free weight I am only able to do about half of it when doing a similar exercise, almost giving a false sense of strength if you will.

I stumbled across stronglifts.com and he seems to have a pretty simple 5x5 workout guide that doesn't require me to live in the gym. So I think I will give this a go for a couple months and see if it benefits me!

Strong Lifts are good. Starting Strength is also great for starting out, best suggested with Mark Rippetoe's book Starting Strength. (wherever you can find it cheapest) Free weights are MUCH better, will give you noticeable results, and a whole new level of confidence. Just make sure to stay safe, focus on form, and hell man, take vids of yourself! Never hurts to ask for help/advice. The folks at Fitocracy have helped me a LOT.

I'm currently quitting lifting though for the next 2 weeks. Leaving to the Air Force on March 20th so I really don't want to risk any sort of injury with squats or deadlifts. I've started making my weight cut, since I'm done bulking. I'm not a very strong person, but I'm a lot strong than my post from August. Got up to:

135 on bench press (in pounds)

145 on squats

225 on deadlifts

At least I'm looking pretty good though, which makes me happy. I've come a long way, and I'm pretty happy about that. Time to start a new chapter in my life now. :)

Progress pic, taken yesterday:

[Jimmy0]

Strong Lifts are good. Starting Strength is also great for starting out, best suggested with Mark Rippetoe's book Starting Strength. (wherever you can find it cheapest) Free weights are MUCH better, will give you noticeable results, and a whole new level of confidence. Just make sure to stay safe, focus on form, and hell man, take vids of yourself! Never hurts to ask for help/advice. The folks at Fitocracy have helped me a LOT.

I'm currently quitting lifting though for the next 2 weeks. Leaving to the Air Force on March 20th so I really don't want to risk any sort of injury with squats or deadlifts. I've started making my weight cut, since I'm done bulking. I'm not a very strong person, but I'm a lot strong than my post from August. Got up to:

135 on bench press (in pounds)

145 on squats

225 on deadlifts

At least I'm looking pretty good though, which makes me happy. I've come a long way, and I'm pretty happy about that. Time to start a new chapter in my life now. :)

Progress pic, taken yesterday:

</snip>

Yeah it certainly does work! Have been on and off the 5x5 program since my last post and am currently up to the following weights:

Squats: 90kgs

Bench Press: 60kgs

Standing Press: 50kgs

Barbell Rows: 60kgs

Deadlifts: 110kgs

Squats I have never stalled on, and am able to up it 2.5kgs every time I do them so far.

Bench Press is a struggle for me, and I stalled for ages in between the 50-60kgs mark, until I deloaded back down to 40, and was able to then blast my way back up to 60kgs. (Which I failed today on first attempt of doing it).

Standing Press has also been a staller for me, takes me about 3 goes to get it each time I up the weight, but I can just about do 5x5 for 50kgs now.

Barbell Rows have been ok for me, 60kgs and counting.

Deadlifts has been another good area, 110kgs for 5 reps feels fairly light, and I should be able to make some good progress with this over the next few months.

Currently however, the guy I go to the gym with is a fan of isolation exercises, so my current routing is the following:

Monday - Chest / Triceps

Tuesday - Back / Biceps

Thursday - Squat / Bench / Rows (5x5)

Friday - Squat / Press / Deadlift (5x5)

So I am still managing to do the stronglifts which I like, whilst also incorporating his preferred isolation exercises into the week.

There is still plenty of room for improvement, for example doing pullups I can only manage about 3 in a row before I fail. (I'm 6'1 and weigh 87kgs). Also in the tricep isolation exercises, doing things like skull crushers... good god! I have never worked my triceps like that before and after the first workout doing them they hurt for about an entire week afterwards! :laugh:

[dead.cell]

snip

That's good man! I've almost gave a proper display of a skullcrusher once when I didn't have a spotter, and my triceps were already becoming tired. Caught it maybe an inch above my head hahah.

But yeah, I struggled with the bench press too. Are you having issues at the lockout portion of it? I read up improving tricep strength can help with that.

On deadlifts - are you still using regular grip, or have you changed already to switched grip?

I'm around 72kg right now in weight. I might lose a bit more weight before I'm off, but not sure how much I want to cut. Been running my ass off now since I've given up lifting though, running a 10k the other day, and a 5k again today. Shaved 5 minutes off my last record.

Also, have you checked out Fitocracy at all? Don't mean to hound you or anything, but I'm a big supporter of the site. They helped get me where I am today as a matter of fact. :p

Big props to your efforts good sir!

[Jimmy0]

snip

Haha, yeah if I hadn't of had a spotter I would of definitely dropped the bar on my head! :laugh:

Yeah that is the exact section, and if tricep work helps then hopefully this new routine with me hitting my triceps hard on a monday will help me progress!

Still using regular grip, never actually tried the switched grip as I haven't had a need to yet. Sometimes I can't manage all 5 reps in a row with my grip, I usually do 3, take a slight pause to re-grip the bar, and then finish the last 2.

Yeah I could stand to lose a bit of weight (especially around the mid-section!!), but the only cardio I do is 1.5 hours of football a week. So aside from that I would have to diet better, but personally I cannot be bothered with that at the moment. I like being able to eat what I want, when I want.

I have not checked it out, I will give it a browse now as you rate it so highly. ;)

[rajputwarrior]

i take epidrin and caffiene pills in the morning everyday (1 ephedrine pill and 3 caffriene pills then later on in the day a multi which has a mixture of all of that and aspirin) i usually work out in the early AM's unless I have hockey/soccer that day. great pick me up and hunger suppressant. try to hit the gym at least 3 times a week. usually go a cycle to get all my muscle groups worked out and run at least 30 minutes at the end of every workout. good times.