GRcade

Bloody hell, nice one!

I've been back at things more seriously for the last 8 weeks, built up a decent amount of the strength I lost and while I've lost no weight I have lost some fat so I'm happy about that. I was thinking about getting a bit more strict with my diet for the next 9 weeks, at which point I have a race, but the world cup is really getting in the way of that.

Oh well, I work out to improve my life, not for it to be my life. At least I'm still working out most of my intended seasons.

Brerlappin wrote:Thanks to Facebook Memories, i saw that this month marks 6 years since i first made the effort to get off the sofa and get fit. And its still one of the best decisions i ever made. Since June 2012 ive done a shitload of stuff, from general weight training, to HIIT, Ran 10k's, dabbled in MMA, BJJ and Judo, done TRX classes, Kettlebell classes, and im still on the lookout for new gooseberry fool to do I realized recently that im 100% addicted to fitness. Like i couldn't give up the gym if i tried. I still struggle with being a lazy gooseberry fool and wanting to stay at home and eat cake and play videogames instead of gymming but most days the gym wins out. Im a year and a half away from 40 and i swear to god i look and feel better physically and mentally than i did at 20. So heres to another 6 years of brogress with you dudes

Nice work man. I had something similar when my girlfriend got a Facebook memory of a wedding in Greece three years ago and age said she can't believe how different I look now. Not that I was ever really overweight but I did let myself slip after being very fit in my teens and 20's. I really miss martial arts, my teenage years were all about Tang Soo Do (Basically Tae Kwon Do) and late teens early twenties I changed to Muay Thai. Are you still doing BJJ?

Do you ever find that when you have one of these days when you feel knackered and can't be arsed that you end up with a new PB when you go to the gym?

We need to start this thread again really. It's very old and is one of the last remaining front pagers to jump several posts back when using the 'most recent post' button.

Obviously I'm too lazy (not to mention currently far too gooseberry fool at health & fitness) to do it myself.

Where's Shime Waza when you need him.

Brerlappin wrote:

Hime wrote:

Brerlappin wrote:Thanks to Facebook Memories, i saw that this month marks 6 years since i first made the effort to get off the sofa and get fit. And its still one of the best decisions i ever made. Since June 2012 ive done a shitload of stuff, from general weight training, to HIIT, Ran 10k's, dabbled in MMA, BJJ and Judo, done TRX classes, Kettlebell classes, and im still on the lookout for new gooseberry fool to do I realized recently that im 100% addicted to fitness. Like i couldn't give up the gym if i tried. I still struggle with being a lazy gooseberry fool and wanting to stay at home and eat cake and play videogames instead of gymming but most days the gym wins out. Im a year and a half away from 40 and i swear to god i look and feel better physically and mentally than i did at 20. So heres to another 6 years of brogress with you dudes

Nice work man. I had something similar when my girlfriend got a Facebook memory of a wedding in Greece three years ago and age said she can't believe how different I look now. Not that I was ever really overweight but I did let myself slip after being very fit in my teens and 20's. I really miss martial arts, my teenage years were all about Tang Soo Do (Basically Tae Kwon Do) and late teens early twenties I changed to Muay Thai. Are you still doing BJJ?

Do you ever find that when you have one of these days when you feel knackered and can't be arsed that you end up with a new PB when you go to the gym?

At the moment, no. It jsut got a bit too expensive for me, thats why i went looking at Judo recently as its like 1980s style pricing. 7 quid a class as opposed to a monthly fee of 90-100 euro for BJJ. But i do hope to go back eventually when i can afford it. Do you still do MT at all?

Definitely get that about hitting PB's on the days when you're just "ugh" about training too. Its a great feeling!

Are you just doing normal gym training then? I can't believe BJJ is that expensive, how are kids supposed to get into it? Nah I haven't trained in MT for probably a decade now, my career took over and I work shifts now which makes sticking a constant routine very difficult.

To be honest I've really taken to resistance training, I promised myself I wouldn't get too obsessed but 6 months later I'm constantly reading articles and watching videos. I enjoyed internal training but I'm not sure my body can take the punishment, with weight training I feel I'm constantly getting stronger and old injuries are actually improving.

Brerlappin wrote:

Hime wrote:

Brerlappin wrote:

Hime wrote:

Brerlappin wrote:Thanks to Facebook Memories, i saw that this month marks 6 years since i first made the effort to get off the sofa and get fit. And its still one of the best decisions i ever made. Since June 2012 ive done a shitload of stuff, from general weight training, to HIIT, Ran 10k's, dabbled in MMA, BJJ and Judo, done TRX classes, Kettlebell classes, and im still on the lookout for new gooseberry fool to do I realized recently that im 100% addicted to fitness. Like i couldn't give up the gym if i tried. I still struggle with being a lazy gooseberry fool and wanting to stay at home and eat cake and play videogames instead of gymming but most days the gym wins out. Im a year and a half away from 40 and i swear to god i look and feel better physically and mentally than i did at 20. So heres to another 6 years of brogress with you dudes

Nice work man. I had something similar when my girlfriend got a Facebook memory of a wedding in Greece three years ago and age said she can't believe how different I look now. Not that I was ever really overweight but I did let myself slip after being very fit in my teens and 20's. I really miss martial arts, my teenage years were all about Tang Soo Do (Basically Tae Kwon Do) and late teens early twenties I changed to Muay Thai. Are you still doing BJJ?

Do you ever find that when you have one of these days when you feel knackered and can't be arsed that you end up with a new PB when you go to the gym?

At the moment, no. It jsut got a bit too expensive for me, thats why i went looking at Judo recently as its like 1980s style pricing. 7 quid a class as opposed to a monthly fee of 90-100 euro for BJJ. But i do hope to go back eventually when i can afford it. Do you still do MT at all?

Definitely get that about hitting PB's on the days when you're just "ugh" about training too. Its a great feeling!

Are you just doing normal gym training then? I can't believe BJJ is that expensive, how are kids supposed to get into it? Nah I haven't trained in MT for probably a decade now, my career took over and I work shifts now which makes sticking a constant routine very difficult.

To be honest I've really taken to resistance training, I promised myself I wouldn't get too obsessed but 6 months later I'm constantly reading articles and watching videos. I enjoyed internal training but I'm not sure my body can take the punishment, with weight training I feel I'm constantly getting stronger and old injuries are actually improving.

Just regular gym for now yeah. Aye BJJ is the new hotness thanks to UFC & MMA so gyms absolutely charge a premium for membership, its a bummer. I might go back and do some more Judo soon tho. Ill see how it goes. I was initially put off by how old the instructor is, but it turns out he actually trained with the very first students of Jigoro Kano (the guy who invented Judo!) so it would be nuts to turn down a chance to train with someone with a lineage like that.

Whats involved in resistance training? Ive not heard much about it.

That's a bit gooseberry fool for a martial art to try and profit from the popularity of MMA. Do you even need much equipment to train? MT was very cheap considering the amount of equipment the club provided, this could be different now as I assume MT has also increased in popularity as it's pretty much what everyone uses in UFC isn't it? That's cool, I love stuff like that and like you say you should take the chance to train with someone like that. Excuse my ignorance but do you think Judo has any practical applications in actual fighting be it sport or self defence? I don't think I would train in anything other than MMA or the martial arts associated with them these days. A BJJ instructor has just started training at a gym near me so I'm definitely tempted to give it a go.

I just mean weight lifting when I say resistance training. Three training programme I'm doing has turned deadlifts from the thing I hated doing to my favourite exercise. I reckon I'll be up to 90-100Kg in the next couple of months which I know isn't particularly heavy but because I've had some lower back issues I've just concentrated on form with low weight and just built it up every week.

I remember deadlifting 100kg for the first time. It felt amazing. The next session, I went in and put 102.5kg on the bar for that incremental next step, and it felt easy. Then I got cocky, decided to jump up to 105kg, and nearly blacked out.

Speaking of martial arts training, now I'm in my new place, with a garage that has space, I'm buying a wall bracket and a heavy bag, so I can get back to doing some MT drills. I really miss bag/pad work, but the gyms are so expensive.

I was the opposite to you in that I don't mind being hit and like hitting other people but joints locks can strawberry float right off

It's interesting you guys talk about hitting a ceiling, I've been trying to find out if there is an optimal point you reach that actually increasing the weight will see minimal gains without drastically increasing your calorie intake and you actually increase the risk of injury. I mean you can't just keep increasing the weight can you? I guess if you want to look like Dwayne Johnson you don't have a choice but I would have thought most mere mortals don't have the time to train and prepare all that food.

Brerlappin wrote:Thanks to Facebook Memories, i saw that this month marks 6 years since i first made the effort to get off the sofa and get fit. And its still one of the best decisions i ever made. Since June 2012 ive done a shitload of stuff, from general weight training, to HIIT, Ran 10k's, dabbled in MMA, BJJ and Judo, done TRX classes, Kettlebell classes, and im still on the lookout for new gooseberry fool to do I realized recently that im 100% addicted to fitness. Like i couldn't give up the gym if i tried. I still struggle with being a lazy gooseberry fool and wanting to stay at home and eat cake and play videogames instead of gymming but most days the gym wins out. Im a year and a half away from 40 and i swear to god i look and feel better physically and mentally than i did at 20. So heres to another 6 years of brogress with you dudes

Go Brer go! Ta for all the motivation (same goes to everyone else who posts in here), and here's to many more years of sweating our balls off and not caring because we're drowning in a post-workout high.

Out of curiosity what do you guys have any lifts that you really struggle with? I've found that for all the progress I've made, my overhead press has remained pretty static. Seated over head press in particular I find very difficult. The most I've managed with seated overhead press is 20kg dumbbells but I messed my shoulders up a bit with some crappy form chest press and I've really struggled to build it back up.The wierd thing is that my shoulders are actually pretty well defined.

Currently at 80kg after dropping from 102kg in around 12 weeks. Via a calorie deficit which is currently at 1750 on a training day and 1590 on non-training days? Was doing a mix of high rep work outs with weights that were getting heavier but kept injuring myself one way or another? (knee, back, shoulder, bicep)

I've been doing 5x5 for around 5-6 weeks now. Weight has stayed at 80kg throughout this and i've now added the odd day of hypertrophy style lifting to keep the heart rate up.

So yeah.. wondering if continuing 5x5 will help as building up that core strength to avoid injuring myself and will help with dropping the fat? Or if I need to find another plan?

souljahsstory wrote:Currently at 80kg after dropping from 102kg in around 12 weeks. Via a calorie deficit which is currently at 1750 on a training day and 1590 on non-training days? Was doing a mix of high rep work outs with weights that were getting heavier but kept injuring myself one way or another? (knee, back, shoulder, bicep)

I've been doing 5x5 for around 5-6 weeks now. Weight has stayed at 80kg throughout this and i've now added the odd day of hypertrophy style lifting to keep the heart rate up.

So yeah.. wondering if continuing 5x5 will help as building up that core strength to avoid injuring myself and will help with dropping the fat? Or if I need to find another plan?

I'd recommend the programme I posted a few pages back. You do the heavy 3-5 rep sets but mix it with higher rep low weight lifts. I really feel like I'm starting to see the benefit now.

I'd definitely like to try 5x5 though. I'm thinking of putting together a little home gym and it looks like this would be ideal if all I get is a power rack.

If I read that right, you dropped 22kg in 3 months? That is not healthy, or sustainable, surely...

Hime wrote:

souljahsstory wrote:I'd recommend the programme I posted a few pages back. You do the heavy 3-5 rep sets but mix it with higher rep low weight lifts. I really feel like I'm starting to see the benefit now.

I'd definitely like to try 5x5 though. I'm thinking of putting together a little home gym and it looks like this would be ideal if all I get is a power rack.

Thank you! I’ll look it up.

Rocsteady wrote:If I read that right, you dropped 22kg in 3 months? That is not healthy, or sustainable, surely...

It has been sustainable. I think going vegan helped as it felt like i was doing mega gooseberry fools the first two weeks whilst my digestive system cleared itself up, and just focused on whole foods and vegan protein.

I tracked my macros. Which was a healthy mix of protein, carbs and fats and managed the calorie deficit via intermittment fasting. Did resistance training over cardio and walked everywhere. I would have higher calorie days on training days.

It’s been 3-4 months since and i’ve maintained the weight at 80kg it’s hovered around that mark as i’ve been injured and had moments where i haven’t been tracking my macros and managing the calorie deficit.

In terms of sustainability longterm? The macro tracking i feel helps. As if and when i do have junk food/eat out. I try and make sure i keep them within my allowance. So i never feel i’m depriving my body of stuff.

But my biggest issue has been picking up niggling injurys through training that has stopped me from
Hitting the gym and getting rid of that excess fat without getting skinny fat.

I don't know enough about it too say for sure but I'd imagine a vegan diet wouldn't help weight lifting if you're looking to build muscle.

Fair enough, come to think of it I think in tiredness I’d messed up the conversion to stones, still a hell of a lot of weight to lose that fast. Good work.

Why do you keep getting injured? Weight lifting injuries should be very rare.

Best 1rm for squats and deadlifts were done many years ago:

182.5KG squat
190kg deadlift (only have 180 on video).

Early 2017 = benched 120kg as a 1rm.

Hime wrote:Out of curiosity what do you guys have any lifts that you really struggle with? I've found that for all the progress I've made, my overhead press has remained pretty static. Seated over head press in particular I find very difficult. The most I've managed with seated overhead press is 20kg dumbbells but I messed my shoulders up a bit with some crappy form chest press and I've really struggled to build it back up.The wierd thing is that my shoulders are actually pretty well defined.

Out of the big 4 lifts, it's the one that uses the least amount and smallest muscles so progress on it is hard.

I struggle to get past barbell overhead press 5x5 at 60kg (no cheating by doing push presses), but that's 75% of my bodyweight and I can easily do 3x10 pull ups with nice form.

Would suggest creatine = best legal supplement. Always feel stronger at the gym with it.

I think strength is something I have decent genetics for but in terms of bodybuilding, very much mediocre genes in that sense.

My latest pull up video has a guy in the background doing the worst shadow boxing I've ever seen.

Grumpy David wrote:Best 1rm for squats and deadlifts were done many years ago:

182.5KG squat
190kg deadlift (only have 180 on video).

Early 2017 = benched 120kg as a 1rm.

Hime wrote:Out of curiosity what do you guys have any lifts that you really struggle with? I've found that for all the progress I've made, my overhead press has remained pretty static. Seated over head press in particular I find very difficult. The most I've managed with seated overhead press is 20kg dumbbells but I messed my shoulders up a bit with some crappy form chest press and I've really struggled to build it back up.The wierd thing is that my shoulders are actually pretty well defined.

Out of the big 4 lifts, it's the one that uses the least amount and smallest muscles so progress on it is hard.

I struggle to get past barbell overhead press 5x5 at 60kg (no cheating by doing push presses), but that's 75% of my bodyweight and I can easily do 3x10 pull ups with nice form.

Would suggest creatine = best legal supplement. Always feel stronger at the gym with it.

I think strength is something I have decent genetics for but in terms of bodybuilding, very much mediocre genes in that sense.

My latest pull up video has a guy in the background doing the worst shadow boxing I've ever seen.

Thanks man that's nice to know that it isn't unusual for overhead press to be considerably lighter than the other big lifts. I was reading notes on strong lifts and the progression goals are pretty intense but the overhead press is 'only' 45Kg which makes me feel a bit better about my progression.

*Edit* I've been looking for some help with dumbbell overhead press. Should your elbows be at 90 degrees or should your arms be in the position they would be if you were using a barbell?

Hime wrote:

Grumpy David wrote:

Hime wrote:Out of curiosity what do you guys have any lifts that you really struggle with? I've found that for all the progress I've made, my overhead press has remained pretty static. Seated over head press in particular I find very difficult. The most I've managed with seated overhead press is 20kg dumbbells but I messed my shoulders up a bit with some crappy form chest press and I've really struggled to build it back up.The wierd thing is that my shoulders are actually pretty well defined.

Out of the big 4 lifts, it's the one that uses the least amount and smallest muscles so progress on it is hard.

I struggle to get past barbell overhead press 5x5 at 60kg (no cheating by doing push presses), but that's 75% of my bodyweight and I can easily do 3x10 pull ups with nice form.

Would suggest creatine = best legal supplement. Always feel stronger at the gym with it.

I think strength is something I have decent genetics for but in terms of bodybuilding, very much mediocre genes in that sense.

My latest pull up video has a guy in the background doing the worst shadow boxing I've ever seen.

Thanks man that's nice to know that it isn't unusual for overhead press to be considerably lighter than the other big lifts. I was reading notes on strong lifts and the progression goals are pretty intense but the overhead press is 'only' 45Kg which makes me feel a bit better about my progression.

*Edit* I've been looking for some help with dumbbell overhead press. Should your elbows be at 90 degrees or should your arms be in the position they would be if you were using a barbell?

Being tall / having longer arms also makes it harder to progress too (not sure what height you are).

I'd consider 45KG to be a light overhead press unless the person doing it weighs less than 70KG. Its rare to see people doing standing overhead barbell press at 60KG. Usually they're people who look big.

The easiest thing to do is to train it 3x a week as your first lift each session until you break through the plateau.

I try to mimic barbell press when doing dumbbell overhead press.

Brerlappin wrote:Grumpy David upload that video, I want to see this shadow boxing

*turns out its me in the video

It's so cringe worthy!