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I'm joining a new gym tomorrow as the other one will be a bit further from my current campus, I'm going to trial it for a month (I'll be there for a maximum of 6 months before going back to my old gym). Had a gander around this afternoon. It's next to the hospital and looks fairly quiet. There were 3 people using it when I popped in. The free weights area looks smaller, but more light and airy, and they have more bars for deadlifting rather than just the one.
Looking forward to trying it out.
Some decent exercise advice for women for once!
Gave up on the hospital gym because I just couldn't concentrate in there, as sad as it sounds, I really missed my old gym. I now have my timetable through for my surgical module which means I have a few afternoons off, so I can afford to go to ULU
As it's freshers week, the gym is a) packed with newbies paying 125 pounds for a years membership that they'll use for about 3 months tops and b) looking like it's London fashion week since the girls are on the cross trainers in attire that makes me think :eek2: and make up on (why girls wear make up in the gym is beyond me).
Anyhoo, as soon as I started deadlifting I was like, "Why did I take a break for so long, rawr!!!"
I'm deadlifting less than what I was, because I don't want to overdo it, and it's also near impossible to! Hopefully that'll return soon?
Nice being back though
I thought this was an interesting read, a woman who was 270lbs and lost 100lbs Being fat sucks
God I hate this at the gym too. Girls that go to the gym in enough make up to weigh there face down and dressed up like it's a fashion show! Lol how old do I sound?! I just look like a sweaty mess in minging old t shirts about 5 times too big.
Don't get me started on the girl who was standing half on half off the treadmill, talking to the guy working out. Did I miss the, "Treat the gym like any regular hang-out joint" memo? But it was cardio equiptment, so I guess I was more forgiving
It annoys me so much when people take up machines and are just sat there talking or on their phone, I feel like saying will you move your ass! But most of the time the gym staff will ask them to get off the machine if there not using it.
Only figured out I was so big when I was getting fitted for my kilt and my belly was 41 inches :eek2: :impissed:
However, weights have been on the back burner pretty much since I got sick and poorly. My body is itching for a proper workout but I've been unable to take any days off (to get over my sickness) so I don't want to overdo it. Hoping that after next week things will calm down.
I lost a lot of weight this summer and it's a totally different life I'm living now. I plan to lose even more before the end of this year where I'll stop. I'll start working shifts in two weeks so I'm contemplating whether to go to two gyms. I get free access to one and my friend's dad owns the other so so far I've not had to pay. Need to talk to her and see if I can pay for the summer and maybe continue my membership for a bit and see how goes. That way I could go to work gym on workdays and the other on my days off. Will have to see...
SO glad to be back in action. I was kinda lazy the second half of summer and it shows in the weights I've dropped down to.
Just started a new job and found a wicked local gym (not health club) right next to the tube, 5 minutes from the office. Proper gym. Big metal plates. No TVs on all the cardio machines. No people mincing around. Superb
Lemme just give you a small snifter of what this has that I have not had access to for MONTHS:
2 x squat racks
3 x benches + bars (one reverse incline, one adjustable and one fixed horizontal)
Z-bar
Smith Machine
WOoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
RAWR!!
Squat rack? Whatever could this be? I know, I'll just take up space and do my BICEP CURLS here
I have been a bit unwell this week so haven't gymmed. I will on Friday :yes:
AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes :mad: :yes:
So far the people I've bumped into there have been really nice, friendly and just into the training. Perfect!
Getting my trainer friend (assuming he has time) back on my case, and have a backup lined up (just in case) who I've already briefed on what I am looking for!
Also gonna line up some physio to try sorting my foot out. All in all, I'm buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzing
I hopes thee feels better soon!
As far as I'm concerned, unless there are people actually waiting to squat, then people can do whatever exercise they want in the racks if they are paying members.
Seems to be very fashionable to moan about it now though lol.
Anyways, my training is going well, getting a bit of mass back, except I'm in for surgery on my groin next month due to tearing something, probably an abductor muscle doing heavy squats, well only 110k but olympic style following by 160k deadlifts which just fucked me totally.
So going to be off training for a couple of weeks after surgery.
Also concentrating a lot of my time on my cardio at the moment, got an 8 mile cross country challenge to compete in December, right before my op lol.. great.
1. There are some people on the board that are looking for real hardcore advice, and also who are wanting to post their full on training details, which may not be much use to people who are just wanting to diet a bit etc.
2. It's a good place for people to vent about gym issues, new training tecniques etc etc I used to get a real buzz from reading and writing in this thread. That has gone, somewhat, and I want to get that back. I like giving advice, but I need to be able to bounce ideas and thoughs off people at the same level, or training with similar goals etc etc etc
A perfect example is Stitty, which I have brought over from the drugs forum:
Are you getting any compound lifts in there? Deadlift, squat etc? Can you give us a breakdown of what you're doing? Saying that, I'll post this in the gym rats thread. I think it's time to bring that one back to life as it's more focused than people losing weight.
When you say you work your abs Monday to Friday, what exactly do you mean? Also, 3 exercises/9 sets is almost nothing. There are so many variations of things you can do for your stomach that you're rare to do them all. Have you consulted a trainer about a programme for maximum hypertrophy?
I'd go with what others are saying - you need to be working at this way longer than you are before hitting the 'roids (if you really have to...). Personally it's not the way I would go. There are plenty of supplements in there that will see you make decent gains. Branch Chain Amino Acids are essential if you're looking to pack it on, combined with the protein.
Also, yes, I agree with Nash - you're carbs are not great in your diet.
I had a half decent session at the gym today - got right onto finishing off my legs (did squats yesterday along with calf raises, but I didn't feel anything in my calves today):
2 x 20 reps at 140kgs
2 x 15 reps at 180kgs
had a bit of an arm/shoulder workout too. Time was a bit of a squeeze as it always is at the moment, but I walked out of their suitably weak
I'm keen to check out Afterburn training which I will be doing after... I've borrowed it from the g man
My body fat is around 17% at the moment. Ideally I'd like to get it down to around 15 - 16% by May, it'll probably be the latter, although my abdominal fat has been shifting quite a bit recently, most pleasing.
Still haven't ordered Gourmet Nutrition yet, I think it's going to be an early birthday present to myself, I'm dying to try out some of the recipies.
I think I need to bite the bullet and get a spotter for my bench press. I think I've been holding back from adding weight for some time, I need to make myself annoying and get one of the instructors to spot me, so I can pack the weight on sooner.
I'm always a little dubious about 'researching' on the internet, but every single fitness website/blog/etc always say going below parallel is absolutely fine, provided form is correct, no existing problems etc. to the extend where me asking this question will result in replies like, "Are you fucking stupid?"
Granted, my friend squats with weights in excess of 160kg, and he said that the advice to him was when he was training in the late 80s/early 90s, so it could be outdated. But it has left me a little
Thoughts?
This is from the weightloss thread and I hadn't answered your question so far so I decided to answer it in this thread.
I'm doing front squats now and I was going to do a bit of weights then realised I wasn't squatting low enough so I went back to the basics. I'm now pretty confident about my form so I've thought about adding weight again.
However there's one obstacle in my gym as there's no free barbell, there's only the bench press bar and it weights a ton! I've thought about asking around if a barbell can be bought for the gym, it shouldn't be hard as we have the weights for the bench press so I'd have thought they only need to purchase the barbell. I can't decide whether to ask pre-qualifications or post-qualifications.
As for the knee thing, it's something I've actually been thinking about myself. I'd love to figure out the truth, maybe asking a doctor would give some answers. I need to have a health check shortly maybe I should see if the doctor knows anything about maintaining good knees. I'd have to say that my knees and my back are the two things I worry about the most, although I am also starting to be a little concerned about the wellbeing of my shoulders.
On knees, I'm tempted to give Krista of Stumptuous an email, she's on facebook and I don't think she'd mind giving me links to the papers she has read.
I found this quite interesting in one of the facebook comms:
Really stacked at work today (and hungover to hell too... bugger) so will have to keep it brief, but both of my trainers (one who does sports rehab as a speciality) I've used over the past few years have really pushed for squats at varying depths and also varying angles of how far apart your knees are. I'll try to follow this up with more detail later on - but I don't see any problems as long as your form is reet.
Was flicking through an old edition of bf's muscle and fitness mag, will be making this tonight. It sounds like more of a post-workout lunch type meal, but looks good all the same:
Steak 'n Pepper Bowl
1 medium red pepper
75g rump steak
garlic salt and pepper to taste
300g brown rice
1-2 tbsp steak sauce (I'll be using soy)
1/2 tbsp chilli oil
Cooking process is pretty simple in terms of chopping, lightly frying etc so I don't think I need to write that all down.
60% carbs
16% protein
24% fat
I had my reprogram yesterday and so I started it today and it was definitely harder! Goes something like this:
10min cardio
Lat machine 3 x 15
Chest press on bench with dumbells 3 x 20
Triceps pushdown (pulley) 3 x 15
Tricep dips 2 x 8
Leg press 3 x 15 close then 3 x 15 wide
Abductor 3 x 30
Sit ups on Power plate 3 sets
Side Plank on power plate 2 x each side
25-30 mins of cardio
I'm aching thats for sure! And doing my cardio after my weights made it much more knackering.
They look fun, but I can see myself losing my balance and losing the bar, so I think it'll be a case of trying it out with the mop in the living room (such a good look)
Crossfit London are having another Kettleball seminar. I'm sure I could do some of the exercises with a dumbbell, but a lot of them look cool so I might give it a shot (and hopefully I'll get in there before it sells out)
Can you change gyms?
I'm getting better with increasing my weights. Though after a week of not going the gym I went today and felt like all my hard work had gone
Still got two weeks off now to practically live at the gym