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[Matt]

As Marklar says - squat with a bar, legpress with a machine. Totally different Charles. Squats are hard at first.

It always hurts when you start with the bar. Everyone has slightly different positions. Too many people put it on their ****ing neck, which is stupid. You want to push your shoulders back and then up, getting the traps up, and sit the bar as LOW on your shoulders / back as you can, body leaning forward slightly but not bent over, still upright. Bigger / broader guys should put their arms wide on the bar, thinner guys arms quite narrow to help get the shoulders up and together for some padding.

Don't use a towel or pad on the bar, just practice to find the position you feel comfortable with. But remember they're squats, they're meant to hurt 8)

[Matt]

Oh and Charles, leg press machines are much easier than squats and you can usually do at least twice the weight on the leg press - it's "fixed", so no balancing issues, and you're not using your own bodyweight. A few weeks training I could probably get back to 300kg leg press, but in my current state it would be maybe 3-4 months before I'd be squatting half that.

[charlesr]

Yeah, any improvement on that front?

[Matt]

Hard to say. Sometimes it's OK, but then I can bend down and I'll scream in pain It's going to be a slow recovery, honestly mate I'm so fed up now. I can see this going on another 4-6 months.

Maybe within 2-3 months I'll be able to put some light stress on it.

Still it's making me train differently and I'm learning a lot. I'm doing chest Mon and Thurs, but (usually) only one exercise - done two last Monday, but was training for mates for fun. Say I'm bench pressing, I'll do 1 or 2 "heavy" sets, something I can manage say 3 reps, then do two more work sets dropping around 10kg each time, so 6-7 reps, then 10 reps. That's it, done! Everyone at the gym thinks I'm not doing enough, all that "attacking from different angles" bollocks, but I'm telling you, my strength is greatly increasing. I think the combination of doing just enough lifting for each muscle group, and then getting enough rest as I can't do much else for the next few days, means I can train twice a week.

I'm doing the same with biceps, just seated dumbbell curls 2 to 3 times per week. They're coming on nicely after only a few weeks, starting to get a little extra muscle.

Could be a case of this new change will work a month or two, then stop. Could be that I've stumbled on to something that works well for me.

Trying to be optimistic about it all! Truth is, without deadlifting and squats, and no ab work, my waistline is getting out of control

[Rossco]

That sucks mate, hope your able to get into the full swing of things soon!

Looking for some ab advice, I kinda neglect it a little too much so now have a dedicted day to chest and abs so I can make sure I get a good workout in for them every week.

Was trying various hanging leg raises in the gym yesterday and they seem to work really well. Raising your knees right up to your chin, bringing your hips right up and forward too and holding then back down again. And also side ones for the obliques just by turning your hips and legs to either side then down again. What you think of them?

Along with that, I feel crunches do work well if done the proper way along with bridge and side bridges straight after the crunches holding them for 60 seconds.



Any improvement on that you think?

[spagmasterswift]

Third morning this week in the Gym. I struggled to lift the same weight as I did on Wednesday which is annoying as I was hoping to up it a little each visit. Feel good but bit weak today. Starting to see a little definition between my ribs above me belly - man I really should look into the muscle names and weights and stuff

Looking forward to not hitting the wall on both the cardiovascular and the weights so quickly and have full alternate session of both instead of having to do them together as I am now. Just can't lift weights for an hour or run/cycle for an hour yet

Its early doors though...

[Matt]

Rossco, remember your abs are like every other muscle - you don't need to do loads of sets, just enough to exhaust them to instigate growth. As well as crunches, I like reverse crunches, cable crunches, and hanging leg raises. Add a twisting movement, say with a cable crossover machine twisting to one side like an ax (don't know the exercise name), and that's more than enough.

[spagmasterswift]

remember your abs are like every other muscle - you don't need to do loads of sets, just enough to exhaust them to instigate growth.

I've been working off the idea of doing a easily manageable weight, lift it 12 times, have a break, lift it 12 times, break, etc until I can't do anymore. Should I be doing a heavier weight and lifting it 6 times then? Or is 12 lifts a small amount to begin with?

TRAIN ME CHAIN!!!

[Swallow]

I've got an old Mr Olympia book, and all the champions in there have different ways of training from each other for every bodypart. Yes, get informed on what science says is good, but you gotta find out what works for you.

btw, I can do 15 reps now at 100kg squat, got 4 at 115kg. It was my sixth or seventh set, started at 80kg and worked up.

[Matt]

Swallow, just be aware that all Olympian Champions are genetic freaks, in most cases they could do the worst lifting program in history and still make amazing gains.

Oh, plus they're goosed to the eyelids.

Spags, 12 reps is bollocks! Aim for a much heavier weight, I'd say go for 4-6 reps, and if you can (but not necessarily) 2 or 3 sets - 3 sets on the bigger muscle groups, 2 sets on the smaller. Each set is done TO FAILURE, that means you'ev given everything you can. Intensity is the key.

Mate, I've done a few programs in this thread that are pretty good, read the last 30 pages or whatever

[spagmasterswift]

OK, will up the weight and cut back the amount of reps then. Cheers, will read the last 30 pages at some point over the weekend and go at it hard on Monday morning!

Did that sound intense enough :ermm:

[Rossco]

Each set is done TO FAILURE, that means you'ev given everything you can. Intensity is the key.

GRRRRRRR!!!!!!!! ARGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Like that spagmaster! Shouting and grunting is ok when doing sets to failure, its actually expected!!

Give em hell!

[Spagoli]

........ Each set is done TO FAILURE, that means you'ev given everything you can. Intensity is the key.

Wonder what results I'd get running TO FAILURE, cant say I'm too tempted to be honest but reckon Ive only really trained enough to want to puke a couple of times although my food coming up a bits fairly frequent even if I have eaten hours and hours ago if I'm running quick and after a marathon I cant move my legs at all.

Final set of hills last night 15 reps and soooooo happy to have finished that part of the programme. Tough week this week,18miles sunday, 15X 400m intervals max 90 secs and 2 mins recovery mon, 30min tempo at 6min 30 miles tue, 90 min recover run wed, 15X hills .3 mile in 1min 55 last night so tonights hour recovery is well needed. Dont feel tired or even ache just feel like had enough running mentally sure by sat morning i'll be all fired up again!

[spagmasterswift]

I imagine there is failure and FAILURE right, I lift until I can't do it anymore but I guess FAILURE is a couple more after that right

[Matt]

Well I don't believe in forced reps. You've got to be intense from the start, nice and aggressive. Failure isn't the point where it hurts and you want to stop. Lots of people also fool themselves in to thinking that's all they can do. You've got to WANT to lift the weight another rep or two.

I find calling myself a fat bastard helps

Spagoli I don't think running to failure is the same thing mate.