What training are you doing/have done today?

[balders118]

I'm bored and at work at the gym and thinking of what I'm going to train today when I finish my shiftin 40 mins. So what are you doing today? or is it a day off (lazy )

I've got back and shoulders today so;

1000m row - warm up

Bent over row, 4 sets
Wide grip chins, 3 sets
Close grip pull downs, 3 sets,
Low row, 2 sets
Reverse flyes, 4 sets

Barbell shoulder press, 4 sets
Barbell upright row, 4 sets
Lateral raise, 4 sets

And maybe 2 sets of front raises if i'm feeling good to finish.

[balders118]

Morba said:

back and shoulder day but no deadlifts or cleans / hang cleans?

Deadlifts go with legs, much better way of doing it. Cleans get done, but not in a my bulking program at the moment. Use them more in strength and or ripping phases.

ETA I put some abs in there too as I missed them out from my last workout.

Edited by balders118 on Monday 25th October 20:04

[balders118]

DownUnder. said:

Chest and tri's

Flat bench - 4 sets then dropset
Incline bench - 4 sets
Decline dumbell bench - 4 sets

Cable crossover - 4 sets high, 4 sets chest height
dumbell fly's decline - 6 sets (to exhaust chest)

Tri's
Cable machine kneeling over head pull??
Dumbell over head.

BED.

12 sets of press!! crikey, thats a lot.

[balders118]

roboxm3 said:

Posting this now so that I have to go tonight and therefore won't have lied to you all!! (First session back after 8-10 weeks)

Back to basics for me...

Squat = 3 x 8
Bench = 3 x 8
Deads = 3 x 8

Probably finish with an ab combo of planks, crunches and side-to-side ankle touch things (crunch position).

Not 100% sure what weights yet, as I say, it's been a while and if anyone can give me a bit of an idea what bench to squat to dead ratio is ideal it'd be much appreciated. i.e. if squat is 80kg, bench should be ?? and dead should be ??


Happy gyming.

Missed your post earlier.. Its different for everyone. But maybe if you call bench press 1 the ratio BP:S:DL for me is 1:1.7:2.1 but I have a good press relative to my two other lifts.

EDIT: messed up quoting + speeling

Edited by balders118 on Tuesday 26th October 00:16

Edited by balders118 on Tuesday 26th October 00:17

[balders118]

Legs and biceps today so....

Front sumo squats 4 sets, between 6 and 10 reps
Deadlifts 4 sets, 12 first set, 10, 6, 2 (went heavy as I got carried away, lol)
Calf raises 3 x 18
Leg extenstions 4 x 12-8
Dumbell leg curls 3 x 8

Standing EZ curls 4 x 8
seated hammers 4 x 8
Cable reverse curls 4 x 8

I'm trying to focus on legs and side of hence the front sumo's and leg extension, rather than the normal workout which includes normal squats and lunges instead. Trying to take lower back and gluets out of the equation. Seems to be working nicely. Lets hope for some increased leg growth!

[balders118]

LordGrover said:

What are "Trap bar bent rows"?
I can't work it out...

I'm going to guess..... Bent over rows with the diamond shaped bar that you stand inside that is useful for shrugs? 10 points if i'm right...

Edited by balders118 on Thursday 28th October 15:23

[balders118]

Did chest and tris yesterday. Back and shoulders today. Oh and abs.

Yesterdays workout was:

Barbell press - 4 sets
Dumbell barbell press super setted with pull overs - 2 sets each
Flyes - 4 sets
Close grip press - 4 sets
Close grip dips - 4 sets
Skull crushers - 4 sets#

ETA the back, shoulders and abs today...

Pretty much the same as last time for the back and shoulders. Went heavier sooner on the barbell shoulder press. Good workout considering i'm tired from haloween antics out in Leeds last night which involved carrying my OH on my shoulders, lunging down from halo to town (not lunging the whole way, lol).

Abs was a good one, short and sweet because I didn't have much time.

Started with 3 x 20 crunches

followed by this with no rest in between exercises..

jackhammers (v-sit kind of exercise) 10 reps
30 second plank
Bambi's 10 reps (don't know the real name for these so i call them bambi's as you point your toes and look a bit girly)
30 second side plank
reverse crunch 10 reps
30 second other side plank
russian twists 20 reps
30 second plank

finshed with 3 x 15 of bosu ball full body crunches. I wanted higher reps, but was flaging by this point!

Edited by balders118 on Sunday 31st October 19:03

[balders118]

Lost_BMW said:

Davie_GLA said:

Bar bell bi curls, can't remember the name of it but one set comprise of 21 reps split into three at different positions.

D.

Known as "21s" - all the rage for the past couple of years, or at least the Weider mags would have us believe.

Pardon my cynicism and I'm not trying to knock you (more sceptical about the faddists in the press) but I can't see much point in (regularly) doing - except, maybe as a change or shock tactic - something that forces such light weights to be used and to accomodate 7 'reps' in a portion of the movement where little tension is on the biceps, ie top 3rd of movement.

I'll throw them in to my workouts every now and again. IMO the reason they should be used is to force training the whole range of motion of the bicep. Working in two gyms, I see some simply unbelievable form for curls, sometimes with the bicep doing very little concentric contraction at all. When people do 21's its all about training in different ranges, so they will train all of their bicep, not just the but in the middle that so many people seem to do. However, I have seen poor 21's form, where each different section looks the same!

[balders118]

Davie_GLA said:

With 21s, what is considered good form?

David.

Elbows pinned to your sides. You don't move them forward, back or out to the sides. This ensures that you totally isolate your bi's as much as possible.

For the bottom half, arms should start straigh and go to 90 degrees and back to straight. Top half, from 90 degrees to as flexed your bi's can be (do not move your elblows from yout position in order to ger the bar further up!). Then the full curls should be a combination of the above, from straight, to gully flexed.

HTH

[balders118]

Davie_GLA said:

Must be some size of elastic band!

I use the assisted machine with as little assistance as i can but i guess i should narrow my grip for now.

The idea of wide chins is to focus high up yout lats to really give you back width. Narrower grips will focus lower down your lats. So by swithcing to closer grip, you won't be training the same part of your back. Because of this, i would have to disagree with what LG has said. I would build the reps up with an assist (or just do 4 sets of as many free ones that you can do, and build the reps up each week), or try building the weight up with some wide grip lat pull down.

[balders118]

Lost_BMW said:

Davie_GLA said:

Just back, and i'm done in. Motivation was lacking tonight, but i got done what i had to.

reading through and thinking about internal clicking, part of my warm up is just to roll my arms round and my shoulders can make some interesting noises. Something i should be worried about?

the only time i feel any pain is doing arnolds (which i think i'll stop reading this) and heavy seated rows.

Did 21s tonight @ 25, 30, 30 (kg) - some straight cable curls and good old dumbell curls. Meant to stick some preachers in but forgot

Edited by Davie_GLA on Thursday 4th November 21:36

Might be just air pockets etc. but I wish I'd gone and got checked out earlier when mine started. Pretty well recovered now but it took years of pain and lack of training and still don't think I'm out of the woods totally (shoulder flexibility is now my main worry).

From my physio (who lifts) and reading I would never do Arnold press or close grip upright rows again.
IMO wider grip versions are sfare and better for shoulder development and shrugs, highpulls and deadlift far, far better for traps.

I used to do loads of upright rows - always limited by pain to no more than around 60kg - but never got much trap development out of them, a couple of month of shrugs and ability to work traps with over double that weight and they are noticeably bigger!

To add to that, my shoulders have grinded and popped a bit for as long as I can remember (way before I started training). If its something you've noticed appear, and it didn't use to happen then there is no harm in getting a physio/professionals opinion.

[balders118]

Chest and tri's today. Literally just finished. Beauty of peing a gym instructor, when its quite - train. Alreday posted this workout so wont do it again. Was supposed to abs buts its getting late and i'm tired so they'll get done on the end of tomorrows workout instead.

Davie_GLA : Everyone wants DOMS!

[balders118]

LordGrover said:

I fail to understand why women seem to think ... too drunk.
I'll either complete this thought or delete this reply tomorrow.

Quote to force completion

[balders118]

I've heard that people use lbs so the number is bigger giving the illusion that they are lifting more

Supposed to be having a rest day today, but time ran away with me the last two days so wasn't able to fit an ab/core training onto the workout where its supposed to be, so today will be a focused ab session. Not sure what i'm going to do yet. Will probably do a mini ab circuit with maybe 5 exercises, no rest and 20 reps for each exercise and go through that 3 times. Usually a bit of a killer. However, I may decide to do more core focused stuff.

Anyone want to throw any killer ab/core exercises that are a bit ab-normal (poor pun intended) at me? Can never know enough ab workouts.

Edited by balders118 on Sunday 7th November 15:04

[balders118]

I'll give you a good core one.

Two medicine balls (same size), about shoulder width apart. Start in the press up position with one hand on each ball, back straight, abs tight - nice and flat. Bring your left knee to the right hand ball, then back to your start point. Same with right knee to left hand ball. 20 reps. Then, five deep press ups, maintaining great form with a flat back. Follow with 20 more knee to ball reps.. repeat till you can't do it any more.

Edited by balders118 on Sunday 7th November 15:04

[balders118]

DownUnder. said:

Right, hereth' the question, my left tricep appears to be struggling lately, hence the lighter weights... Could this just be it being tired or possibly an underlying problem I need to address.

Unless it hurts, feels uncomfortable or aches in anyway I would says its just an inbalance. Keep training and given time (sometimes a lot of time) it should even out. Most people suffer from this.

How long have you been training? If its been years of weights then I would expect for it to be sorted and balanced by now. I know people who have been training for around a year or more and still have inbalances from left to right.

Don't train your stonger side harder as your weaker side won't ever catch up. Let your stronger side wait for your weaker side if you get me?

Edited by balders118 on Sunday 7th November 19:10

[balders118]

powwerr said:

balders118 said:

I'll give you a good core one.

Two medicine balls (same size), about shoulder width apart. Start in the press up position with one hand on each ball, back straight, abs tight - nice and flat. Bring your left knee to the right hand ball, then back to your start point. Same with right knee to left hand ball. 20 reps. Then, five deep press ups, maintaining great form with a flat back. Follow with 20 more knee to ball reps.. repeat till you can't do it any more.

Edited by balders118 on Sunday 7th November 15:04

doing this tonight just to try out, sounds like a bd!

I did 'em yesterday. I had a little play around, and if you want to make it harder rather than placing one foot down then picking the other up, kind of skip so your hopping from one to the other. Its pretty hard in the first place though

[balders118]

Some smith machines are counterbalanced with cables. Some are not, and weigh the same as a normal olympic bar.

[balders118]

DownUnder. said:

balders118 said:

Some smith machines are counterbalanced with cables. Some are not, and weigh the same as a normal olympic bar.

Ahhh didn't know that.

Day off today, going to do chest/tri's/abs in the morning, got 2 days off thanks to being a student.

Quick one, i've started a new creatine cycle today, loading it this week. Wanted to know if there are any things about creatine/protein and alcohol as i'm on the lash tommorow night.

Nope, creatine is in your diet anyway (as long as you eat meat), and your body produces it naturaly too. It won't react in anyway to alcohol, and of coure protein won;t either. The only point to note is that creatine can have a dehyrating effect, whic of course alcohol does too so make sure you stay hydrated otherwise its a recipe for the worlds worst hangover.

I've got chest, tri's and abs today. Nearly at the end of my bulking phase, probabaly just a few more weeks. Then i'll be into a stripping phase. Quite looking forward to it, and the training should be easier to fit around my current work schedule as i'm working like a bit of a mainac at the moment.

[balders118]

Yesterday was my last day of bulking. Reached my weight target (just) but I've been training really hard and the last few leg workouts I have struggled through. Had to lie down for 10 mins due to cramps in my lower back after dead lifts last workout! I think i've been over dong it a tad. But i've got bigger, heavier and stronger so i'm happy.

Tomorrow the shreading starts. Intense all body workouts and some haarcore circuits/cardio too.