JB

Don't get me wrong, I watch the Walking Dead but only if I've got nothing better to do. I don't think it's crap by any stretch but I genuinely don't understand the love it gets. The story repeats itself season on season and it's nothing special dialogue-wise. At times it's just plain boring. Haven't watched any of the new season yet so hoping it picks up. But I think I've got a pretty good idea of what will happen. Again.

Haha I don't know about that - a lot of my weight is taken up by my height. And my big arse.

Finn Balor was in my gym last night. D-von, R-truth and Eden(?) as well.

I'm 110kg so that probably has something to do with it but I can't imagine I'd be able to lift 25kg more for the nearly the same amount of reps on my final set for any other exercise!

I have a weird issue with pull-ups. Like Stevo, my consecutive bodyweight sets drop off significantly (13,10,9,7 last time out). However, I can do 4 sets of 6 with 25kg around my waist no problem. I've tried adding 25kg after three bodyweight sets and still hit 6 reps. I can't figure out why my reps on the fourth set reps are always similar, even if I'm 25kg lighter...

I stopped eating bread with sugar in it for toast and stopped adding sugar to my morning coffee, also started drinking seltzer instead of OJ in the AM I basically eliminated big helping of sugar from my daily diet. I ended up losing weight, just shedding pounds, about 10 in total. So sugar can go do one, IFAIC The weight loss is down to consuming fewer calories. The same would've happened if you'd reduced intake of any other food stuff. But as sugar has very little nutritional value, it's a good place to start .

Disagree with everything you've said there. Apart from the not eating too much bit. Nothing wrong with eating a decent amount of meat and nothing inherently unhealthy about sugar. Added sugar is bad for you, end of. Small amounts of naturally occuring fructose in eg fruit don't do any serious harm. Agreed. With the greatest respect, you're both totally wrong. Precisely how is sugar bad for you? Go on. Oh and I can name many nutritional experts who share this view. I didn't pluck this information from thin air. "End of". This could go on a while as we're probably arguing semantics. I'll concede that 'inherently unhealthy' in itself is correct. But my view is also not 'totally wrong'. To debate correctly the evils or merits of sugar, you need to define what sugar is, because it refers to a wide range of substances. The body and especially the brain needs sugar to function, so that part means sugar is absolutely good. However, it fuels obesity, it's addictive, people very rarely get the right amount, refined sugar is all kinds of bad for all of the additives such as sulphur etc. You get all the sugar you need from eating fruit in a healthy balanced diet. So, as a general statement, I stand by 'sugar isn't especially good for you', because it isn't. Thanks for a well-reasoned response (no sarcasm). I agree that to an extent we are arguing over semantics. But that's the whole crux of it isn't it? And kind of proves my point. I would certainly agree that "sugar isn't especially good for you" as it has very few beneficial nutritional properties and it rates very low on the satiety (fill you up) scale so weak-willed/uninformed/apathetic people will invariably eat more of it to satisfy hunger. There are certainly more beneficial ways to consume carbohydrates (i.e. fibre). However, there is absolutely nothing in any form of sugar that is toxic or will cause you any harm if consuming sensible amounts. But that applies to literally everything! Hell, even water is toxic if consumed to excess! Sugar does not fuel obesity. Caloric excess/sedentary lifestyles do. It just so happens that fatties tend to like sweets . That said, there was a study that showed that the amount of sugar in the average American diet has decreased in the period that obesity has soared. There have also been studies where subjects have consumed up to 43% of their daily calories from SUCROSE while in a caloric deficit and there has been no detriment to any health markers. Oh and, crucially, I think there is a difference between "addictive" and highly palatable .

Disagree with everything you've said there. Apart from the not eating too much bit. Nothing wrong with eating a decent amount of meat and nothing inherently unhealthy about sugar. Added sugar is bad for you, end of. Small amounts of naturally occuring fructose in eg fruit don't do any serious harm. Agreed. With the greatest respect, you're both wrong. Precisely how is sugar bad for you? Go on. I can name many nutritional experts who share this view. I didn't pluck this information from thin air.

Disagree with everything you've said there. Apart from the not eating too much bit. Nothing wrong with eating a decent amount of meat and nothing inherently unhealthy about sugar.

On a related note, the demonisation of sugar really grinds my gears. There is nothing inherently harmful about sugar. It's certainly not the poison it's being made out to be by some "experts". Just like everything else, it's the amounts that count. Jamie Oliver is a **** moron. Superfoods my arse.

and I haven't stopped eating meat on the back of the WHO's announcement as frankly they are speaking a load of bollocks Or the media has massively misreported/misrepresented the findings. Shocking, I know.

Anti-extension and anti-rotation exercises like roll-outs, RKC planks, Pallof presses and suitcase carries are awesome for strengthening the core and are worth doing even if your abs aren't visible, as they can help with the big lifts. But sometimes it's good just to get a bit of a pump with some old school crunches and raises.

Yep. Haven't read the article you posted but did read a study (which it probably references) that said that ab activation is actually higher in tricep pushdowns (I think. It was an isolation exercise, anyway) than squats or DLs.

Yeah I can understand that as well. There are no 'jokes' as such. But even things like a vampire talking in a kiwi accent calling someone "mate" really tickled me!

Absolutely loved What We Do In The Shadows. Reevaluating my relationship after my girlfriend said it was one of the worst films she'd ever seen...

**** Trailer Park Boys. Amazing.

1000 calories?! Woah. Bit excessive no? Going to be pretty tough to maintain muscle and fuel training on that surely?

That's exactly right. It's a more quad-dominant lift. Because the weight is positioned laterally, rather than in front of you, you can't get the hips as far back without bending the knees. In fact it's hard to actually lower the bar at all without bending the knees which turns the hex/trap bar deadlift into an almost deadlift/squat hybrid. Some people know the bar as the 'dead-squat bar'. With quads generally being stronger than hamstrings, it's possible to lift more weight, especially if using the high handles (not all hex bars have these) which reduce the range of motion.

Cheating what? Take the bar just below the knee and you'll have enough tension on the hammys. They worked great for DY. Ive trained everyday this week since having a month off, strength is back and i feel great, its bulk time now. Calories will be upped and ill be aiming for a PB on bench during this mini 8 week bulk Cheating in that you're not lifting it off the floor. It's not a true deadlift. And you can lift significantly more weight. Removes what's generally the hardest part of the lift. Rack pulls are great but only for specifically training the lockout portion of the deadlift IMO.

Very much this! My girlfriend had a minor collision a couple of months back. It was debatable as to who was at fault but her insurers advised her to admit liability, which she did just to get things sorted. It turned out that her car was a write-off due to the damage to the door. The insurers eventually paid out, minus her excess. Then, last week, she received an email from her insurers that had been intended for the other party's insurers and was sent to her in error. It stated that her insurers were not accepting the other party's demand for an outlay as they held the other guy involved to be 100% responsible! All this after telling her to accept liability and her excess from payout! Absolute bastards. She's obviously complained but they are being incredibly shit at getting back to her meaning that she's had to call their premium rate phone number on several occasions. Chances are it's their standard practise but we never would've found out if they hadn't dropped a bollock and sent her that email by mistake. Looking at least get her excess back as well as reinstate her no-claims. 1st Central BTW. Avoid.

See I don't like rack pulls at all as I find that I can't get enough tension on my hamstrings meaning that my lower back tends to take the strain again. Plus they're cheating . Lock-out is my problem and where I've done the damage, anyway.

Doing deadlifts didn't make me stronger at anything other than deadlifts. My other lifts increased at the same rate they were before. I didn't deadlift for two years and then when I came back to them earlier this year I was still relatively strong on them. In fact I haven't got much stronger on them since. My head is saying ditch them but as I say, it's a pretty satisfying lift...

Not sure what it is about deadlifts that makes me so impatient but I just can't help pushing it with them... I'm far happier taking the slow and steady approach with everyting else. Since starting them again earlier this year, I haven't noticed any improvements in terms of muscle or carry-over strength. All they've done for me is get me stronger doing deadlifts (and maybe made my back feel better when I've done them properly). There's nothing more satisfying in the gym than a good deadlift but sometimes I wonder if they're worth it on the risk/reward scale, particularly given my lack of discipline when it comes to weight selection...

**** didn't follow my own advice from number 3 yesterday... Aiming for three sets of 5 on 190kg deadlift. All was going well until the last set where I felt things starting to go wrong form-wise... Wasn't in any pain, though, so was determined (stupidly) to finish the set. Knees were locking way too early meaning that my lower back bore the brunt of the load. Didn't start hurting until late last night but it's absolutely **** today. Goddamn it. I have a real love/hate relationship with the deadlift! Do it right and my back feels amazing - push it too hard, which inevitably leads to a balls-up, and it messes me up for days.

Pretty much everything about Southern Hemisphere rugby seems to be on another level. The kiwi approach to rugby in childhood seems to be the model to follow. At risk of sounding like a bitter Englishman, I'm bit confused by the media love-in for Wales. Front page of the press round here calls them heroes and say they've done the country proud... To me, they've been bang-average at best in pretty much every game and, Biggar apart, seem a pretty limited side. They had the game handed to them by England (who would've been out of sight if Ford had played at 10) and I thought Fiji were massively unlucky against them. Again, apart from Biggar, they seem to be massively lacking in any sort of creativity and it could be argued that he dragged them into the quarter finals single-handedly.