General Workout Routines and Questions

[Omnis]

Creatine is good for a few extra reps, I've found. You know when you feel like your muscles can lift the weight, but it feels like your nerves aren't telling them to do it? Creatine helps that, I've found.

Do I take it? No way. It's like eating chalk. But the studies all say it improves performance.

You get all the creatine and the protein you need from a nice steak. Most supplements are bull.

 

[Omnis]

So I just got back from the gym. I've added about 20 pounds per week to my wide iso chest press. Last week I did 230. This week was 250. Each for 8 reps. I can only bang out one set before my chest and tris are fried though. How long can I keep this up? Lol. I'm not going back to the bench until I have a good spotter, but I think I'm gonna have to head there because it's hard to keep my scaps retracted in an upright position. My left shoulder under the scap has been achey after the last two sessions.

Also, Holy Jesus I laid eyes on a fine specimen today. She was smokin. Praise he who invented yoga pants.

 

[Convergent]

So I just got back from the gym. I've added about 20 pounds per week to my wide iso chest press. Last week I did 230. This week was 250. Each for 8 reps. I can only bang out one set before my chest and tris are fried though. How long can I keep this up? Lol. I'm not going back to the bench until I have a good spotter, but I think I'm gonna have to head there because it's hard to keep my scaps retracted in an upright position. My left shoulder under the scap has been achey after the last two sessions.

Also, Holy Jesus I laid eyes on a fine specimen today. She was smokin. Praise he who invented yoga pants.

Amen!

 

[Pako]

Creatine? Pour it on your ice cream, mix it with your coffee, sprinkle it on your cereal. What's the problem?

So...., dead lifts today.

135x10
225x10
315x10
405x8

I made some gains on my 405 reps from 5 to 8 reps. I think I will continue to do reps at this weight until I can confidently get 12-15 reps.

Hoping to hit 495 this winter. Need to get my squats to 495, and my bench to 405. That would be a respectable goal.

 

[Michael88]

I do a lot of dumbbell and barbell forearm work. Not much else you can do. Just do ridiculous sets. They're like calves, they can take some serious abuse. I mean 20-30 rep sets.

Aha, seems like I babied my forearms too much, never did more than 4 sets of 10 reps. Seems like I have to up my reps and lower the weights, maybe I'll get gains that way.

Hoping to hit 495 this winter. Need to get my squats to 495, and my bench to 405. That would be a respectable goal.

Adding 90lbs would be a lot of weight for just a couple of months, are you sure can make such a leap in that short time? Especially at your level?

Today I had my favorite day of the week, shoulder and triceps day! With no warm ups or stretching whatsoever and a belly full of pizza I hopped on my bench and did 6 reps of 70 kilograms with beautiful form, thats one rep more than last week. Each time I lifted the barbell I counted to three to make sure that I didn't jerk the weight. Also used the suicide grip while pressing, makes shoulder exercises much more comfortable.
And boy, no other exercise feels better than heavy overhead presses, no even bench pressing. Next time I have to find out what my max one rep press is, I guess its somewhere around 85 kilograms, maybe a tad more if I push faster powerlifting-style.

 

[Pako]

Aha, seems like I babied my forearms too much, never did more than 4 sets of 10 reps. Seems like I have to up my reps and lower the weights, maybe I'll get gains that way.


Adding 90lbs would be a lot of weight for just a couple of months, are you sure can make such a leap in that short time? Especially at your level?

Today I had my favorite day of the week, shoulder and triceps day! With no warm ups or stretching whatsoever and a belly full of pizza I hopped on my bench and did 6 reps of 70 kilograms with beautiful form, thats one rep more than last week. Each time I lifted the barbell I counted to three to make sure that I didn't jerk the weight. Also used the suicide grip while pressing, makes shoulder exercises much more comfortable.
And boy, no other exercise feels better than heavy overhead presses, no even bench pressing. Next time I have to find out what my max one rep press is, I guess its somewhere around 85 kilograms, maybe a tad more if I push faster powerlifting-style.

I hear what you're saying on the 90lbs jump. I'm hoping that with my lack of deadlifts in the past, I will be in store for some serious gains, like in the old days when I first started out. I've already doubled my reps at 405 from 4 to 8 reps. Seems I should be able to hit 495 if I can rep 405 12 times. That will be my rep goal anyways before I start doing single pulls at 455, 475, then 495.

Bench will take a bit more time with my bum shoulder and painful elbows, but I will still push as hard as I can. Today was 23 reps at 225, 315 for 4 solo reps then spotted to 9, 405 spotted for 4 killer negs, than back to 365 for 6 spotted reps.

Squats? Well....if I can keep my knees and hips together, shouldn't be a problem. Will start hitting free weight squats next week. Shooting for 495 in 6 weeks. Should be doable. Honestly, 405 on bench will be the hardest I think.

I love shoulders to, take care of them! Nothing like a great shoulder pump!

 

[Bram Turismo]

You get all the creatine and the protein you need from a nice steak. Most supplements are bull.

Which is incorrect. Because 5g of creatine every day equals to 1,5kg of red meat. Eating 1,5kg of meat every day is an absurd and unhealthy amount of meat. Red meat is incredibly overrated anyway. I'd take chicken over red meat any day, every day.

Creatine increases the amount of water transferred to your muscle, thus also nutrients. And because of this you should be able to squeeze out 2-3 extra reps. This is assuming you have been loading creatine for a month or so. They also say it increases muscle explosiveness, though I have not noticed any such thing yet.

Creatine doesn't taste anything, it's so easy to take in. Just a glass of water is all you need for it.

Supplements are bull is a partly correct statement. I believe creatine and protein supplements are no nonsense because I do not have the time to prepare meals to get an equal amount of protein I get with two shakes a day. If you have all the time of the day to constantly eat proteins, then all the power to you. The fact is that protein supplements are very cheap, and thus it is an easy way to make sure your body has the tools it needs for muscle repair. Note that I am not saying that you should opt for supplements over diet.

Pre-workout supplements is something you won't catch me taking. Some guys in the gym sometimes walk in so aggressive that one would almost kindly ask them to leave. It's absurd just how loud, aggressive and swearing some of those guys can become. I very often struggle to find my own focus when others are so overly loud.

 

[Omnis]

(1) You don't need creatine supplements. Your body can use it, and any amount needed is covered plenty by diet.

(2) I didn't say all supplements are bull. I said most of them are.

Face it: the supplement industry is billions of dollars revolving primarily around ********, or things that people don't really need.

 

[Omnis]

How many people think I can do 270 this week? Let's see if I can keep this +20 per week combo going. My pecs are really developing under the collarbone. Looking forward to how this all turns out by next year.

 

[Omnis]

Pako, you chose wisely. Pushed up 90 for 8, then 180 for 5, then 270 for 3 on the hammer strength wide press. New PR; another 20 pounds on there.

Then I hopped on the iso chest press/pulldown and did supersets with 180 for 5, and then 90 for 10 alternating from the pulldown side to the chest press side. My chest was fried at the end lol.

The chest press side is sort of inclined, but it's right there between an incline press and a bench press. It's pretty hard.

After than it was half-kneeling rotating cable presses (below) and then hammer strength pullovers, followed finally by a bit of light band work for the rotator cuff and other accessory stabilizing muscles.

 

[Pako]

Did some deep free weight squats yesterday:
10x135lbs,
10x225lbs,
10x315lbs,
and finished off with 6x365lbs.

These were deep, starfish kiss kind of squats where your hips rotate out of the lift and your glutes are reaching out to the west coast.

Felt good, better than I thought I would do as I haven't done these in years. I started going about my day which consisted of about 2 hours of driving and waiting in the car after my workout. When it was time to get out, I had a really hard time standing straight. My lower back had tightened up on me. The rest of the day was pretty uncomfortable.

Note to self: Stay upright and vertical and push with your heals you noob.

 

[Ryanswannell]

Did some deep free weight squats yesterday:
10x135lbs,
10x225lbs,
10x315lbs,
and finished off with 6x365lbs.

These were deep, starfish kiss kind of squats where your hips rotate out of the lift and your glutes are reaching out to the west coast.

Felt good, better than I thought I would do as I haven't done these in years. I started going about my day which consisted of about 2 hours of driving and waiting in the car after my workout. When it was time to get out, I had a really hard time standing straight. My lower back had tightened up on me. The rest of the day was pretty uncomfortable.

Note to self: Stay upright and vertical and push with your heals you noob.

I love a good workout consisting of squats, they're by far my most favourite exercise .

Talking of squats, I had to start off my new routine doing them earlier today 👍. For the past 3 months, I have been doing a five-day split, focusing on a certain muscle group every session e.g Chest on Monday, back on thursday etc.
However, it has come to my attention that a beginner such as myself should be focusing on routines emphasising the use of large, compound movements such as squats, deadlifts, rows etc., rather than focusing on isolation exercises, which I have been doing .

The programme I opted for was the ICF 5x5 routine, which has two workouts, A and B, that are performed on non consecutive alternate days (Monday, Wednesday and Friday).

Today I did workout A, which involved 5 sets of 5 reps doing Squats, Bench Press, and bent over rows. Then, I had to do Tricep Pusdowns for 3x8, as well as some Bicep Curls and Shrugs. After that, I finished up doing some Hyperextensions and crunches.

On Friday, I will be doing Squats, Rows and Standing Presses 5x5, Deadlifts 1x5, and then Close Grip Bench Press 3x8 followed by some Curls and Crunches.

Just out of interest, has anyone else here done the ICF 5x5 routine?

 

[Omnis]

Back to the gym earlier today where I did some leg work. Did some deep, seated leg presses at 400ish. I couldn't bend over enough while in the bottom position to see what pin I wound up using. It was just pretty much the whole stack give or take a plate.

I'm already 300 pounds, so it wasn't too bad. I'm trying to work on being more explosive though. As I'm getting older at this weight, I feel like I'm in slow motion all the time. It totally sucks.

And I have some other good/bad news. I think I diagnosed my squat problems. I have some pretty gnarly ankle impingement. I have a feeling I've sprained my ankles multiple times over the past ten years. It's just that the pain was never as bad as when I really had my bad sprains, so I just ignored it. Anyway, I think there's some scar tissue or something really stuck together that's not letting me dorsiflex the way I need to. My lower legs below the gastrocs are like rocks. I can't even massage them or move anything around. It's like literally pressing on a leather-wrapped rock. I've been trying to work it for like a month now, and have improved lateral mobility, but the only thing I accomplished for dorsiflexion is giving myself a bad case of plantar fasciitis.

So I did some real heavy standing calf raises on the machine at the gym. When I got home my traps were bleeding from where the seams in my shirt dug in. I found my left ankle was highly unstable in full flexion. I can feel something stuck in there. I have bad crepitus in my right ankle, so aside from the ghastly pop it lets out, it felt a little freer. It seemed to have loosened up my soleus and upper ankle fleshbits to have hung out in a stretch at the bottom of those raises though. I certainly couldn't put enough force through it to get that stretch on my own. I can now at least feel my achilles all the way up to its gastroc attachment. So something's moving in the rock legs now.

When I finished with that, I hopped back on the chest press/pulldown combo machine and banged out a few sets to keep me primed for next saturday. I was able to successfully do one rep of my new wide-press PR on the standard press, so that is indeed solid progress.

I don't think I'm going to add another 20lbs again on Saturday. If I were able to, it'd probably just a new one rep max. I want to be able to rep out this 270 so I can move to a barbell bench press with some confidence.

Also, question for you guys: I saw a guy at the gym that looked a little younger than me, let's still say 20s. He was in better shape than I was, but he was doing seated military presses. This is all happening right in front of me while I'm hanging out on the calf raise stretching. He gets up, bothered by his shoulder, and starts complaining to another pretty swole looking dude. "I dunno about these things," he says, rubbing his shoulder, "It doesn't even feel like a pump, it just hurts." The swole guy says yeah yeah and that he doesn't do those because he has bad shoulders. Well, I watched him do another set and it was all wrong! His elbows were way flared out to the sides and I knew instantly that he was most likely impinging something underneath the acromion. But I didn't say anything. Later he moved on to the same exercise with dual cables instead of a bar. What do you do in a situation like this? Speak up? Correct someone? I generally don't because I see people doing dumb **** ALL THE TIME. It's ridiculous. These kids are gonna shred their shoulders and hurt themselves some other way before they turn 30.

 

[Bram Turismo]

I love a good workout consisting of squats, they're by far my most favourite exercise .

Talking of squats, I had to start off my new routine doing them earlier today 👍. For the past 3 months, I have been doing a five-day split, focusing on a certain muscle group every session e.g Chest on Monday, back on thursday etc.
However, it has come to my attention that a beginner such as myself should be focusing on routines emphasising the use of large, compound movements such as squats, deadlifts, rows etc., rather than focusing on isolation exercises, which I have been doing .

There's nothing wrong with a 5-day split to be honest. I think the best starting program is probably Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe. You only need 5 exercises to start really: the bench press, the deadlift, the squat, the overhead press, and the barbell row.

I've been doing a 5-day split since June and I'm having a great time. Except for arms day, I include these basic lifts every day. Bench and incline bench on chest day, deadlifts and barbell rows on back day, over head press on shoulder day, and the squat on leg day.

I don't believe in "should and should not" when it comes to weightlifting programs. I only believe in learning and understanding the 5 big lifts and carve out your own path from there. Many programs say "You'll become this big in this timespan", but ultimately there are of no use if you are not enjoying yourself in the gym. 👍

Had leg day myself today. The past two weeks leg day absolutely sucked because for some reason my legs were destroyed after two sets of squats. Today went much better, did 16 sets in total, all with 60 seconds rest in between them. Was absolutely drenched in sweat. Went for a 75 minute walk after that, and felt just exhausted when I came home. Had a good shower, and now it's time for some lovely dinner!

@Omnis I feel you! Seeing guys doing "shoulder curls" every day with the weight barely actually moving up. I'm also seeing guys doing behind the neck military presses. It's a very popular exercise, but havign a bar with weight on it behind your neck is not a natural position for the shoulders to be in. So I don't understand why people just don't stick to regular shoulder presses which are awesome as it is! I don't speak out, though. Mostly, in my gym, they are loud people that act like they've worked incredibly hard after 2 sets, and then sit on their smartphones for 15 minutes sipping on their coffee. I'll be smiling the day they snap their 🤬 up and learn to leave their ego at home.

EDIT: This guy is hilarious:

 

[sesselpupser]

Ok so I'm like a tiny baby when it comes to fitness - I only really started last week - but I have some basic dumbbells (no bench yet though) and I'm trying to find a good general workout that touches on everything. However I also want to tone up my chest and stomach to try and finally rid myself of my man boobs (they're bigger than my ex's were, seriously, but then she was like an ironing board so I guess that's not saying much) and gut.

Searching around I can only really find either a general workout or abs/chest-only, but obviously I don't want to become more unbalanced than I probably am now; I've also been doing 45-50 minutes a night on an exercise bike for the past week so my legs are even bigger than they were (they've always been pretty big because I've been between overweight and obese most of my life up to the past year) and I've also been doing a seven minute workout consisting of:

• Jumping jacks
• Wall sit
• Push up
• Abdominal crunch
• Step up
• Squat
• Triceps dip
• Plank
• High knees
• Lunge
• Push up and rotation
• Side plank

Morning and night every other day, only one cycle so far but when I can do it without being totally wiped out I'll probably start doing two cycles and build it up to three... If that's a good idea? Should I vary it more? I have no idea. I'd join a gym to get this advice in person but the only one near me that I'm aware of is £60/$100 per month, so, hah. No.

Any advice or just some links I could look at, please? Thanks.

 

[Luminis]

Haven't been visiting this thread in what feels like ages...

@neema_t : I'm not an expert when it comes to routines you could do at home, but you might find some useful information on Bodybuilding.com's exercise guide library. Just deselct all the equipment except for dumbbels/body only/none, select the muscle group you want to target and sort the excersises by rating. With dumbbels, you could probably do:

• shrugs, alternating shoulder pushes, flies and raises for the shoulders and traps
  
• differnt rowing variations for the lats and upper back, some sort of deadlift for the overall back; also pull ups, if you've got the means to do them
  
• butterfly-types of exercises and dumbbel bench press for the chest (as long as you have something sofficient to lie on) or inclined/declined push-ups
• planking exercises, crunshes and spellcaster-type exercises for the abs
• weighted squats and lunges for the legs
  
• bicep curls, hammer curls and triceps extensions

Personally, I'd recommend some sort of split instead of working the whole body every day. Split the cycle up into two or three workouts, maybe devided by what muscle groups you're focusing on or by whether you're doing pushing or pulling motions. Gives your body more time to recuperate, which isn't to be underestimated - especially if you're starting out. Also, don't forget your rest day A mistake I've been making lately...


As for myself, made a lot of progress in the mean time. Been on a slow cut for half a year or something and managed to cut down my body fat to roughly 10%. Visible abs, yay Thanks to cutting that slowly, I even managed to gain strength while doing. Ever so slightly, but I was afraid of actually becoming weaker, so that's quite the achievement for me.

Thing is, I feel like I've developed some minor eating disorder. Maybe it's just that I'm stuck in a habit that has really settled in, don't know. I've been basically aiming for a caloric intake of about 2,000 calories per day. The diet worked well enough, alongside my cheat days, which pushed my daily average to some 2,250 calories. Thing is, two cheat days beecame one, one cheat day became a cheat meal, one cheat meal became a semi-clean meal and by now, I'm at the point that even that makes me feel bad about myself. Kinda, at least.

It's winter now, though, and while I don't want to go on a huge bulking spree, I'd like to stop cutting and start at least a slow bulk. I know I'd be able to cut back on excess fat come spring, but I have a really, really tough time eating more. I know, sounds stupid, especially since a lot of people are probably having the exact opposite problem, but I feel quite bad about myself whenever I don't eat clean or go aabove my "usual" calory budget. It's utterly stupid because with changing goals come changing means to achieve them, and I know as much, but still...

I guess my question boils down to this: Have any of you guys experienced that sort of stuff? If so, how have you been dealing with it? I'm back to having at least one cheat meal a weak and I'm pushing my caloric intake up slightly by eating more clean stuff, but there's always that nagging feeling that I shouldn't be doing it I just hope that that's going to pass...

 

[Omnis]

Why are you worried? Just do what you feel like doing. If you get bigger, great. If you get too fat and think you don't look good anymore, then you can cut again.

BB.com is a bunch of BS if you ask me. The only pressure you should have is what you put on yourself. Learn your own body and don't worry about how your process compares to other idiots on the internet-- half of whom are doing drugs anyway.

 

[Luminis]

Yeah, it's irrational, really. Might just be a habitual thing that'll blow over in a few weeks. Old habits die hard, they say, and I might need to see some gainz to be happy with the changes I've made to my diet. It just feels really, really awkward, as I've never experienced that sort of feeling.Which is why I'm asking whether others experienced something like it as well

Anyway, I'm not a member of bb.com. Never really cared about tracking my progress on that site - I'm only using their exercise guides to find new stuff to mix my routine up from time to time. I'm not one to compare myself to others a lot in general. I did that to a certain degree in the past and it never did me any good, so I just stopped it

 

[Omnis]

Also, Holy Jesus I laid eyes on a fine specimen today. She was smokin. Praise he who invented yoga pants.

Remember me posting this? I was looking at my gym's FB page for maintenance updates and look who I found on the little friends panel... I had a feeling she was a pro.

I should probably go more often.

 

[Luminis]

Yowza, that first photo is smokin' hot. Her bodyfat's a little too low in the second pic for my taste...

Speaking of taste, the whole eating issue is solving itself. Started eating noticeably more, but I don't gain weight. There's no additional fat building up, at least. It actually feels like I've lost a few centimetres around my waist, if my belt's anything to go by My girlfriend keeps reminding me that she won't mind a bit of fat on me, either, so that helps as well 👍

Stupid irrational thoughts

 

[Ryanswannell]

I've been doing ICF 5x5 for a month and a half now, and I am fairly happy with the Strength gains I am getting . My main compound lifts are increasing on a weekly basis pretty much, and I hit the 100KG (~220 lbs) mark for the first time last week on my deadlift (5 reps).

It seems like a very back and leg-heavy routine to me, using them for squats and deadlifts, and as stabilisers for bent over rows and the overhead press. My back definitely feels a bit thicker, and my quads look and feel like they have exploded in the past two months (thanks to squatting 3x a week, I suppose ).

On the topic of size gains, I bumped into the two guys I used to go to the gym with when I first started about 4-5 months ago, and both said I definitely looked bigger since I last saw them. One even said I "got solid really quick", and others have noticed as well such as my boss at work and my friends .

Really makes it worth it 👍

 

[phillgt2002]

I've been doing ICF 5x5 for a month and a half now, and I am fairly happy with the Strength gains I am getting . My main compound lifts are increasing on a weekly basis pretty much, and I hit the 100KG (~220 lbs) mark for the first time last week on my deadlift (5 reps).

It seems like a very back and leg-heavy routine to me, using them for squats and deadlifts, and as stabilisers for bent over rows and the overhead press. My back definitely feels a bit thicker, and my quads look and feel like they have exploded in the past two months (thanks to squatting 3x a week, I suppose ).

On the topic of size gains, I bumped into the two guys I used to go to the gym with when I first started about 4-5 months ago, and both said I definitely looked bigger since I last saw them. One even said I "got solid really quick", and others have noticed as well such as my boss at work and my friends .

Really makes it worth it 👍

Good job, dude. Like I said a while back, it's easy to keep a routine once you know what you have to do. Many people are unsure on what to do when weight lifting so they just shy away from it.

-----

I haven't been working out much due to the time consumption of school.

I'm also moving away and I think that being able to prep my own meals will help me get on a healthier diet. One of my main problems of living at home is having to witness all of these tasty snacks come in from my super fit brothers that can eat this **** without gaining much weight. It also doesn't help that my mom bakes constantly.. really, what I have to work on resisting my craving.

Where I'm moving, it's a-lot warmer during the winter so running will not be a problem, and there is a 24hr Fitness a mile away. Sounds like a game plan

 

[Omnis]

You know what's pretty funny? All these Mr. Olympia guys are actually pretty small. Look at this stacked instagram-whore next to Jay Cutler...

Her body is redonkulous, but she's 5'5 and just as big as Jay. Lol roids.

How's everyone's lifting coming along? Ever since I smashed my knees on all the consoles and steering wheels and dashboard of all the cars at the auto show, I've had a really bad time. I think I have a bursitis in my left knee because it's always swelling when I stand on it for too long. I was on my knees on saturday to fix that fence where my dogs were escaping, so yesterday my knee was killing me. It's amazing how much swelling goes down with elevation though.

 

[Luminis]

Huh, would've thought that Jay's bigger. Not to take away from his muscles or anything, but he's a runt, ain't he?

Either way, been doing quite well for myself. Got my gym mate and, thus, my spotter back so I can actually bench some proper weights again. My pecs are getting some attention now, I feel like they're kinda weak compared to the rest. However, I'm comfortably able to bench my bodyweight (about 175 lbs / 80 kg) and manage five sets with six reps each. That's 20 kg / 45 lbs up from half a year ago. My next goal is the 220 lbs / 100kg mark.

Getting better results on the back-related stuff as well. I'm doing pull-ups (low and wide grip) with a 22 lbs / 10 kg dumbbell to up resistance and still manage five sets of 8 - 10 reps, which is considerably better than what I managed six months ago; back then, getting five sets of six reps each without additional weight was quite a challenge. Barbell rows are sitting at ~ 155 lbs / 75 kg and haven't really been improving much, lately, but I got my reps up and been working on my form a lot, so there's that.

Legs... Well, that's a bit of an issue. Got a lot of problems doing squats and stuff because my feet and hips aren't properly aligned or something like that. My orthopaedist told me to stick to lunges and they work far better than most other exercises for me, especially standing lunges, which I'm currently doing with about 65 lbs / 30 kg of additional weight. Five sets of 10 reps per leg. Up from... Well, from skipping leg day whenever possible and doing squats with a sorry 33 lbs / 15 kg barbell plate And some exercises on the calves machine. Not much of a measurement there, but my calves definitely look bigger.

My legwork isn't impressive by any means, but I'm quite happy that things are getting better. Plus, I've finally stopped using the hypotonia and various issues with my joints and whatnot as excuses to skip leg day. I'll never be squatting anywhere near as much weight as you guys, but my legs look and feel considerably better than they did a few months ago and that's what matters, right?

My triceps is stagnating somewhat in terms of weight; gains have been minimal over the last six months. Been working with underhanded cable pulldowns and triceps extensions, but I've managed to up the reps. Still, lagging behind the biceps a little. Those are doing great - I'm up to hammer curling 23 kg / 50 lbs from 17.5 kg / 38 lbs.

Abs have come a long way as well. They look considerably bulkier than earlier this year. Upping my caloric intake over the last few weeks didn't hurt, either (even though I'm getting about 500 additional calories a day) and a little cutting in February should get me ready for the summer.

All in all, I'm quite happy where things are going. Need to focus on my chest and my abs, especially the obliques over the next few months and I think I'll be set for the coming summer. 👍

 

[Omnis]

So I've been killing myself for 4 months trying to get the right mobility to squat, etc.

Well, I got fed up with waiting to be satisfied with a barefoot squat. Threw on my Do-Wins, and, hey, whaddaya know! I'm able to squat.

I can go all the way down, ass to grass, but my butt and lumbar spine tucks way under. I can get to just parallel before the tuck starts. That's fine with me. I'm a little worried about squatting under load, but as long as I keep it light and don't go past parallel, it should be fine.

I need to do some exercises to get used to having a neutral spine in the bottom position. I've literally never hung out there unless I've been stretching in a sumo squat.

 

[Pagey279]

I was hit by a pretty nasty virus last week, so I haven't been to the gym for a week and a half, maybe two weeks. I've felt better for the past couple of days but is it wise to go straight back into my normal routine?
I mean I lost half a stone in the space of a few days, I've heard a few horror stories of people who have gone back to the gym too soon after a bad illness and ended up in hospital.

 

[Team THRT Drift]

I was hit by a pretty nasty virus last week, so I haven't been to the gym for a week and a half, maybe two weeks. I've felt better for the past couple of days but is it wise to go straight back into my normal routine?
I mean I lost half a stone in the space of a few days, I've heard a few horror stories of people who have gone back to the gym too soon after a bad illness and ended up in hospital.

Take it easy. Go back to your routine but cut everything by half. Weights, reps, etc.

 

[phillgt2002]

I was hit by a pretty nasty virus last week, so I haven't been to the gym for a week and a half, maybe two weeks. I've felt better for the past couple of days but is it wise to go straight back into my normal routine?
I mean I lost half a stone in the space of a few days, I've heard a few horror stories of people who have gone back to the gym too soon after a bad illness and ended up in hospital.

Yeah, just take it easy and don't push yourself doing things too taxing.

 

[Omnis]

Finally was able to squat in the gym! I'm so proud of myself. I used to fall backwards and never had the mobility to squat properly. Now I finally did it with 135. Granted, the squat rack was taken by a gentleman finishing his not-even-parallel sets, so I started my workout with deadlifts. By the time I got to the squat rack, my back was sort of fried. However, I was still able to maintain pretty good neutral spine throughout the whole range of motion, or at least I think so anyway.

This was after deadlifting 1x10@135, then 2x6@225. First squat set was 6 reps of 135, then I recorded sets 2 and 3. Video below:





Sorry for the portrait video. It was the only way I could get everything in frame. I was surprised at how wobbly my knees were. I'm so glad my problem is a lack of stability more than a lack of mobility now. I have to work on strengthening my low back. It's on fire right now from struggling to maintain posture. You can see my form break a bit on the last set. Not perfect, but considering it's my first past-parallel squat, I'm pretty happy with it.

Also, 🤬 my shoulders. I spent so much time getting the mobility in my lower body that I never really did anything for my shoulders. They hurt like a mother after each set. It doesn't help that I can't put my hands wide enough on the bar without getting my fingers caught in the squat rack. What an ordeal.

 

[Omnis]

I guess these racks were built for half squats. Pinching your arms on the rack sucks.



Also, the HTC One sucks after a while. Disaster camera.