Gym Routine

[Dante_Lockhart]

Since I'm feeling sexy, here's a hot pic for you from my vault of 'progress' pics.

[BOF]

You see what you've done there. You've crossed the line

[Dante_Lockhart]

You see what you've done there. You've crossed the line

It could have been worse

[Stevo985]

I turn my back for one second

[regular_john]

I can see why the top is off, but why God why are the jeans undone???

[Baselayers]

Hairy. Like teenwolf. But more paedo.

[Stevo985]

Ha!

Anyway, 155kg deadlifts last night. I'm catching you Dante!

[Dante_Lockhart]

I can see why the top is off, but why God why are the jeans undone???

It's a long story. Besides, I like to look sexy for you guys.

Ha!

Anyway, 155kg deadlifts last night. I'm catching you Dante!

It's not a competition...

*buys straps*

Hairy. Like teenwolf. But more paedo.

Rawr.

[Tomaszk]

Been a member of a gym for a month, as it came as a bit of a bonus at work.

First time I've ever set foot in one and don't have any set plan whatsoever.

Probably been about 12 times and I just lift things up and down until everywhere on my body hurts. Is it all a waste without some sort of plan and focus on one part of my body?

I'm also not dieting at all, eat OKish most of the time but do occasionally get accidentally drunk and eat kebabs.

[Stevo985]

In short, yeah it's a bit of a waste.

It's better than not going at all, but it's likely it'd be a much better use of your time to find a set routine and stick to it.

The key to anything in the gym is progression. If you're just doing whatever when you're there you're unlikely to be consistently adding weight to your exercises.

Your diet depends on yoru goals. If you want to add muscle, eat a lot. If you want to lose fat, eat a calorie defecit (I could go into a lot more detail about diet)

You can work out all you like, but if you don't eat right you won't see much in terms of results.

If you're serious about the gym you need to put a bit of time into researching

1. What your goal is

2. What routine fits that goal

3. What diet fits that goal

4. How to track if you're meeting that goal

There's a lot to it.

[BOF]

On the assumption that you don't want to be too obsessive about the gym and assuming you are already eating relatively healthily then you should just start on a programme. The fact you've only just joined a gym means you will get very decent gains fairly quickly. The trick after that is in continuing those gains beyond the initial phase, but you're a way off that yet. Stevo I'd be conscious not to scare someone away from the gym by showing them how much can be involved I'd say it's nearly better to get someone in and started on something, then if (when) they get into it (read - addicted) they'll probably be back for the more intense dietary advice

Must say I can't fault the stronglifts programme.

[Stevo985]

True

But also I'd say the amount of times people join the gym and end up quitting after a month because they don't see any gains and don't realise how much can be involved is a lot.

Stronglifts is an excellent place to start whichever way you look at it

[BOF]

Oh I agree you need a programme. But weighing your protein intake is not for everyone

[Stevo985]

I'm an accountant. Adding shit up is what I do!

[BOF]

Think I'll start on Madcow in the new year. Whaddya think? Is it good? I'm only really progressing consistently on the deadlift whereas the others have stagnated. So I think it's time to come at it from a different angle. I also don't think Christmas is the time to be starting anything like this; as I'll likely fall off the wagon over the next 2 weeks (if I have any say in the matter).

[Stevo985]

I've enjoyed it.

I didn't do Starting Strength though so I can't compare it to that (I did a standard split routine previously before converting to 5x5)

But I've made serious gains on it.

Start of August my 5RMs were

Squat: 90kg

Deadlift: 125kg

Bench: 75kg

Row: 70kg

And my maxes now are

Squat: 127.5kg

Deadlift: 155kg

Bench: 92.5kg

Row: 85kg

So the gains aren't as rapid as Starting Strength, but they're big enough.

The things I'd look out for, if you start it, are firstly, it doesn't feel that intense.

Especially when you start. If you don't know how it works, it ramps you up from below your max. So you'd start week 1 and only be lifting up to about 85% of your max in your top set. THen week 2, it would be 90%, week 3, 95%, week 4 100% and then theoretically you start hitting PBs in week 5 and go from there.

Also, your sessions are ramped up. So on squats, for example, you'll do 5x50%, 5x60% etc up to a top set of 5x100% (Fridays you do a top set of 3 and then a set of 8, but I won't get into that yet!).

Bottom line, you'll only do 1 working set per lift per session.

So in those first few weeks, it feels like you're not doing anything. I got worried that i just wasn't working hard enough. BUt the sessions will get intense and you'll soon be feeling it. And whatever it does, it works.

I'm on Week 14 now and the only lift I've had to start a new cycle on is the BB Rows. Everything else (bar a 2 week stall on deadlift due to grip more than anything) has been consistent PBs every session since Week 5.

So I don't have much to compare it with but it definitely worked for me. I haven't crunched my numbers lately, but after 8 weeks I'd put on 6lbs of muscle (and 3lbs of fat, but we won't mention that ) I'll probably weigh in at 16 weeks which will be about when I start my cut, but I'd be expecting the same sort of gain. So I'd be looking at 10-12lbs muscle in 16 weeks. Which aint bad.

One other thing BOF, I know I mentioned this wayyy back in the thread, and you said you didn't want to change it, but it might be your diet that's holding you back. If you're always eating low calorie (which I think you said you were) and you've run out of "newbie gains" then you'll struggle to add much muscle and increase your lifts. I've been eating like a pig for 3 months now

[BOF]

Yeah I won't be changing that. I might make more of my calories into (naturally occuring) protein but I won't be increasing my ~1,500 daily intake (except over Christmas ...). If my diet is holding me back then I'll just lift what I can lift. At the end of the day once you're in good shape then that's all that matters

[villamark]

Just reading through this topic made me think of my worst gym training mistake. I used to do 3 weight sessions a week as well as 2 rugby sessions. One pre season the club fitness coach sent the front row players a pre season routine before we reported back for the start of pre season fitness. It was cardio with weights , so run 200 metres as fast as you could with 20 shoulder press’s X 5 with no rest until you had completed the whole 5, then there was one using the cross trainer and latt pull downs and the rowing machine and burpees. The last exercise was cycle 500 metres then 20 body weight squats X 5, I misunderstood that a body weight squat was just a squat without any weights. I tried to squat my body weight (120 KG) 20 times. It took me a week for my legs to recover.

[BOF]

Just reading through this topic made me think of my worst gym training mistake. I used to do 3 weight sessions a week as well as 2 rugby sessions. One pre season the club fitness coach sent the front row players a pre season routine before we reported back for the start of pre season fitness. It was cardio with weights , so run 200 metres as fast as you could with 20 shoulder press’s X 5 with no rest until you had completed the whole 5, then there was one using the cross trainer and latt pull downs and the rowing machine and burpees. The last exercise was cycle 500 metres then 20 body weight squats X 5, I misunderstood that a body weight squat was just a squat without any weights. I tried to squat my body weight (120 KG) 20 times. It took me a week for my legs to recover.

Must say, given that description I'd have made the same mistake.

[villamark]

I got to the last set before I gave up, it nearly killed me.