Strength at the gym, give yourself a bit more time between sets.

Took a buddy "under my wing" at the gym. He started at 115 on the bench, squats with 95lb, curls with 50lb bar, military press w/ 20s. Now a month after hes at 155 on the bench, 145 on squats, curls w/ 70lb bar, military press w/ 35s. Definitely helping him out. I just started bulking and going heavy again so i'm looking forward to pushing over 300 again. Yesterday 275 of 12 felt quite good on the bench.

So did one of the dude bros on like broscience or something do a video about jump rope? The last month people with spa tans and overly large arm holes cut in their sleeveless shirts have started jumping rope in the gym.


Also, when you do 405+ on anything people in the gym like freak out. I was just doing my last set of shrugs today and some guy was just like holy shit thats a lot of weight, last week someone said something too. Its just weird, I dont think its like a ton of weights to shrug, its a short movement.

Yeah its funny when u turn around and see someone staring.

The key to shrugs though is not weight, it's range and form. As u said though its a short range move which makes it very easy to cheat. See too many people doing calfs, quads, back and delts while doing "shrugs".

Yeah, I always concentrate on form and not cheating with everything. Good form and not jerking = not getting hurt.

Best way to avoid cheating is doing a 3 second reps. Divide the rep into 4 positions. So min, 1/3, 2/3, max range and from step to step is 1 second.

So today i decided to start with dumbbells for incline chest instead of the usual bar... after i was done i told my buddy that if i ever got that idea again to smack me in the face.. lugging around a set of 125s around the gym is not as fun as I thought it would be.

At least you didn't have to use dumbbells. No safety rails + empty gym + no gym buddy = use the dumbbells for the first 8 months.

Once you get past the 90lb'rs it just becomes retarded. I spend more time taking them off the bottom rack and setting them up than I actually do exercising.

On that note: I'm starting Wendler 5,3,1 next week. I want to bench 300lbs at least once before I die :vash:

I'd much rather lift bar bell with no spotter than dumbbell. Barbell, if you fail you rest it on your chest and tip the weights off, it makes loud noises you look like a newb but you're ok. Dumbbell, if you fail the weight hits you in the face.

So thought this might be a good place to ask, if not, tell me to GTFO. I am not very knowledgeable about muscle gain etc, my only health conscious activities until recently were just eating better and dropping some weight by reducing processed/junk food etc

So about two months ago I finally joined at the gym after only having been running/biking to stay in shape. I decided I finally wanted to start working out and gain some muscle, but still want to be lean, not bulky body builder style, and more muscle definition. my scale at home always fluctuates a bit but it looks like I have gained about 3-4 lbs (im averaging around 174lbs, 6") which is nice, but I think I expected more muscle over a 2 month period, and I dont seem to have gained any definition so Im starting to rethink my diet maybe there is room for improvement to aid muscle gain, without adding "bulk" i think of when I picture weight lifter that may be strong as shit but just arent defined at all. I am going for lean definition.

Workout : typically 4-5 days a week,
3-4 mins on bike/elliptical to warm up
stretch/flop around on the floor
do my weight lifting alternating muscle groups different days, 3 sets of 8-10 reps with whatever weight I struggle to get out my last two reps on
~20 mins of cardio (bike/elliptical/stair stepper/treadmill) trying to keep my heart rate around 140

Diet:
Bfast-shake with banana, cup of 1% lactaid milk, 3 tbs natural Peanut butter, 3 eggs raw
Snack- low fat turkey sausage
Lunch- some form of turkey (sausage, burger) avocado, eggs
snack - banana or apple or orange, 2tbs peanut butter or very rarely yogurt
(GYM TIME)
whey isolate in water (36g pro 4 g fat 4 g carb) pretty much right after my cardio
Dinner - turkey product (occasionally fish but usually turkey) eggs,sometimes spinach or other sauteed green, apple or orange
snack -lactaid milk before bed if im not at ~2500cals for the day yet

So even just typing this up made me realize how little variety I get in my diet. I take Vyvanse every day so food just doesn't appeal much anymore anyways so i don't mind, but should I be concerned about my diet on just a health level?

Additional factors: lactose intolerant, gluten intolerant, I think nuts are starting to upset my stomach gradually more and more, sugar irritates my stomach. should I be concerned at my level of egg intake? I keep hearing opposing views about how much of a concern eggs are for cholesterol

So summary (assuming anyone actually cared enough to read all that):
1- is this diet safe first of all?

2- is there something I could change to boost muscle gain while staying lean

3- is there really any meal replacements that are well balanced? I seem to find you either get protein shakes which i assume are not sufficient to replace all meals, or meal replacement shakes which have sugar/glucose/gluten/bunch of artificial nonsense that irritates my stomach. (just theoretically, is there any replacement you could completely replace all food with and still be getting balanced nutrition?)

4- does my style of workout match my desired goals? talking with some trainers they seemed to think it was a good plan for me so I assume it's appropriate but I would be interested to hear suggestions from others

How much of this thread have you read?

I would think you could make some tweaks to your diet (damn, that's a lot of turkey) and you would probably be better off lifting heavier with less volume.

Did bench today.

In order

Flat
12x135
12x185
7x305
8x295
12x275
12x235

Incline
12x225
12x205

Dbs flat
12x85s
10x95s

dbs incline
12x80
11x80

105 pushups 3 sets of 35.

I did my first Crossfit-style routine recently. Ran 1 mile, then 20 reps of:

• Tire flips
• Wall burpees (chest high wall)
• Overhead barbell press (65 lbs)

Then, ran 0.5 mile and did 10 reps of the above. Finished with another mile.

Total time was 42:xx minutes. That class is going to be the only time I lift weights. Going to the gym just to pick up and put down heavy things is just not for me.


I also started back up with Muay Thai. Unfortunately, I'm in that weird intermediate stage where I have enough years of experience and skill that some of the basic classes get a little boring (especially when there are a lot of new people so the class gets dumbed down) but will probably never be able to get my cardio back up to the level necessary for the pro classes.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1387214620

Please, please, please do not buy into the "crossfit is more superior than god" bullshit. Otherwise, please enjoy all your future shoulder/back/hip/joint problems.

-5 lbs after 1st week of keto and almost zero exercize. It's something.

I liked Rippetoe's recent article on Crossfit. Good balanced perspective.

T NATION | CrossFit: The Good, Bad, and the Ugly

Crossfit is only as good as what you put into it. You NEED to give it hell to get something out of it though. With weight training you'll put on some muscle no matter what, crossfit on the other hand cardio will be ur main limitation, not ur muscles. Many of the excercises are about form and body/eye coordination vs strenght.

But dont give it too much hell or you'll get that cross fit disease that fucks up your muscles and puts you in the hospital. I forget what its called.

And of course there's all the joint problems from doing power lifts with shitty form.

I dont see them problem:



if you're not giving yourself indian burns on your palms, you're doing it wrong.


learn the form, then ignore, then use diclaimers:



legit right?

Notice how I said, "Crossfit-style" routine and not "Crossfit class." An actual Crossfit WOD (workout of the day) is typically only like 5 - 12 7 - 20 minutes long as I understand it.

This is a professional MMA gym. While there are plenty of people (like me) that do the classes as a hobby, there are professional athletes that train here and the instructors (of the ones that I have met and trained with) are intelligent, experienced athletes. [Edit: They have to worry about getting injured enough via the actual fighting, they aren't going to risk the sort of injuries that could sideline someone for weeks or months by doing heavy lifting with shitty form.]

I like the idea of Crossfit and think I'd enjoy a lot of the aspects. I also understand that I am incredibly competitive and, left to my own devices, would sacrifice form for speed and hurt myself.

I specifically chose not to join a Crossfit class because I have a chronic back injury (two bulging discs that press on a nerve cluster) and doing certain heavy lifting with shitty form will have me walking wrong for four days.

The instructor is cognizant of that and is a form stickler. It's quality over quantity on the reps for everything.

I don't think lifting weights is dumb or bad or less good. I just can't stay engaged and get bored, so it is not for me. No value judgment. This sort of training (Muay Thai and the composite interval training) is much more engaging for me. Ideally, I'd lift weights and do Muay Thai and the interval training but I have to stack mad chedda and there is only so much time in the week.