[Chad Daring]

(01-13-2012 11:53 PM)P Dog Wrote:  

(01-13-2012 07:48 PM)mofo Wrote:  

Pushups

I did push ups for quite a while. Then I switched to bench press on a smith machine, now just regular bench press. It's far far more effective.

Be careful with thinking like that. Every exercise is different. There are certain aspects of a pushup that cant be emulated on a machine, just like there are aspects of a bench that cant be emulated without the additional weight.

I like pushups because there's a million and one ways to do them and each one has a different effect. You can work almost every muscle in the upper body by doing a variety of pushups.

[mofo]

(01-14-2012 01:33 PM)Chad Daring Wrote:  

(01-13-2012 11:53 PM)P Dog Wrote:  

(01-13-2012 07:48 PM)mofo Wrote:  

Pushups

I did push ups for quite a while. Then I switched to bench press on a smith machine, now just regular bench press. It's far far more effective.

Be careful with thinking like that. Every exercise is different. There are certain aspects of a pushup that cant be emulated on a machine, just like there are aspects of a bench that cant be emulated without the additional weight.

I like pushups because there's a million and one ways to do them and each one has a different effect. You can work almost every muscle in the upper body by doing a variety of pushups.

Pushups are the bomb. You can do it everywhere. You don't have to go to the gym. Just do 5 sets of 20 reps every 2-3 days and you're cool.

[Hencredible Casanova]

Kettlebells have improved my strength and conditioning drastically as of late. I recommend doing these CF exercises (scroll down to the kettlebells section and watch the short videos).

http://www.crossfit.com/cf-info/excercise.html

*Note: The Turkish Get-Up is an advanced move. Start with the swings and presses and then work your way up.

[Mr.GM]

I'm on Stronglifts 5x5 , 3 times a week.

[travolta]

(01-17-2012 07:43 AM)Hencredible Casanova Wrote:  

Kettlebells have improved my strength and conditioning drastically as of late. I recommend doing these CF exercises (scroll down to the kettlebells section and watch the short videos).

http://www.crossfit.com/cf-info/excercise.html

*Note: The Turkish Get-Up is an advanced move. Start with the swings and presses and then work your way up.

Yes, Kettlebells are awesome. Don't do ANY swings until you can do a deadlift PERFECTLY.
Swings are a posterior chain exercise, not just a shoulder raise. Make sure you actually know how to hinge from your hips.

[mofo]

After not working out for a month, a week ago I started doing pushups every other day and I almost totally got back into shape. The power of pushups baby. I don't even eat as much as it would be necessary to grow, I eat like 3-4 times a day and not that much.
I did 60-80 pushups per workout.
The simple things are almost always the best ones.

[Chad Daring]

(01-19-2012 08:50 PM)mofo Wrote:  

After not working out for a month, a week ago I started doing pushups every other day and I almost totally got back into shape. The power of pushups baby. I don't even eat as much as it would be necessary to grow, I eat like 3-4 times a day and not that much.
I did 60-80 pushups per workout.
The simple things are almost always the best ones.

Best thing about push-ups is a small change in positioning makes a whole new workout. I did a few months of just body weight exercises, had about 10 different pushups in the line up, was an entire upper body workout.

[mofo]

(01-20-2012 06:04 PM)Chad Daring Wrote:  

(01-19-2012 08:50 PM)mofo Wrote:  

After not working out for a month, a week ago I started doing pushups every other day and I almost totally got back into shape. The power of pushups baby. I don't even eat as much as it would be necessary to grow, I eat like 3-4 times a day and not that much.
I did 60-80 pushups per workout.
The simple things are almost always the best ones.

Best thing about push-ups is a small change in positioning makes a whole new workout. I did a few months of just body weight exercises, had about 10 different pushups in the line up, was an entire upper body workout.

Cool. What was the result of that few months?

[Deluge]

(01-14-2012 01:33 PM)Chad Daring Wrote:  

(01-13-2012 11:53 PM)P Dog Wrote:  

(01-13-2012 07:48 PM)mofo Wrote:  

Pushups

I did push ups for quite a while. Then I switched to bench press on a smith machine, now just regular bench press. It's far far more effective.

Be careful with thinking like that. Every exercise is different. There are certain aspects of a pushup that cant be emulated on a machine, just like there are aspects of a bench that cant be emulated without the additional weight.

I like pushups because there's a million and one ways to do them and each one has a different effect. You can work almost every muscle in the upper body by doing a variety of pushups.

Push ups do tone your arms and chest but the Bench Press is better for bulk which is what I am working on.

My current routine is on the top post of my blog (check my sig).

As for machines, it is advised that one doesn't use the Smith Machine to squat. Something about range of motion leading to poor technique. Also, machines balance the weight for you, balancing it yourself increases the difficulty by quite a bit. Personally I see using say a Smith machine for Squats or Bench Press being like using training wheels on a bike.

[Alfonzo]

Smith Machine are a good alternative if you work out alone and you have no body to spot you .
I use it also when I have an injury and want to be safe . Other than for theses reasons you should
give a priority to bench press or barbell squat , you work you stabilisator muscles who will be useful when you practice a sport .

For my self I do boxing and saw that a few here boxe too . When I train I do explosives workouts in circuit . Each circuit have to last a minimum of 3 minutes to be representative of a boxing round .


Ohh and I restart to do swimming in a public pool . If you want to upgade your cardio and in same time workout your full body that's a good complement . Ohh and a very good spot to meet women ,especially the lifeguards .

Another thing, for people who want to upgrade their cardio and lean their body , I do a lot of conditioning training when I miss times . They are 20 - 30 min max .

Take a look on bodyrock.tv for some exemple or just take a break and check out Zuzana .
Theses training are design for women but I always take a look to have some ideas , change my routine and adapt my workout . They are very good .

ENjoy

[travolta]

(01-21-2012 07:42 PM)Alfonzo Wrote:  

Smith Machine are a good alternative if you work out alone and you have no body to spot you .

A better alternative to working out alone with no spotter is to use dumbells.

[Deluge]

(01-22-2012 03:39 AM)travolta Wrote:  

(01-21-2012 07:42 PM)Alfonzo Wrote:  

Smith Machine are a good alternative if you work out alone and you have no body to spot you .

A better alternative to working out alone with no spotter is to use dumbells.

Yup. Never use the Smith Machine. When I went from using the Smithy to free barbell weights my work weight plummeted because how easy it makes your exercises.

[Basil Ransom]

I just got back into squatting, doing a Starting Strength routine with pullups and chinups instead of power cleans, for now.

Was thinking about starting another thread about a question I had:

Have your sexual preferences changed since you started lifting or put on muscle?

Since I've started lifting, I've become a total ass-man. No ass is too big for me, provided it's natural, and the waist is slim. Bigger is better. I recall reading on the Gene Expression site how research found personality differences between tits, ass and legs men and their preferred sizes. I like 'em all big, but my ranking would definitely be ass, legs, tits. The big boob-man description fits me best, but it's lowest among my preferences.

Also, girls thick with some muscle look good too, provided their bodyfat % isn't too low. When I see them in pictures, they're not as appealing as the thin girls, but in person, especially in the gym, they look incredibly sexy. Anyone feel the same? I admit, I have this strange resentment aimed at the invariably white girls who obsess about fitness and appearance and yet are rail-thin. It's like a sign that these women don't care at all about satisfying the man in her life, and her thinness is a ticket to feeling superior to all the other women in her life. She's just working out to win some stupid status game among her friends, which is okay I guess, but it deviates from what's actually sexy.

I also got into the game, girls and just plain got older over the same period, but I feel like lifting and getting a huge squatter's ass myself had something to do with it. My anger is also more intense.

[WesternCancer]

what i like has changed, now im more into healthy looking girls. a huge one for me is skin, if she has flawless smooth skin either super pale, olive or nicely tanned i want to fuck her brains out, its like when a dude sees a nice pair of tittayz. the ass has always been up there for me, but since hitting the gym hard as opposed to not at all if a girl has a firm looking ass all i can think about is hitting her doggystyle. ive gone half chub during my warmups before staring at the girls on the stairmaster. tits arent too big on my scale, if they look nice on her its a bonus but i can usually overlook small or weirdly shaped tits.

I too have gotten more intense anger because of it, usually within a few hours after lifting. I get really impatient and just snap, especially with slow computers or when something doesn't work like I want it to.

I also agree with your rant thing, dancers usually have the best bods to me, sure they'll have a bit bigger legs but they arent skinny fat they have some tone to them.


as to the pdog/travolta/alfonzo quote thing above. if you can bench press under a power rack if you're by yourself, if youre at a commercial gym and no one is there ask someone at the front desk usually they have trainers on, or ask anyone who just finished a set. dont be afraid of looking like a wuss either, i have problems with getting my bench press anywhere close to big so i get a spotter with even light (compared to other dudes) weights. if they look at you funny ask them how much they squat and that will shut them up (assuming you squat big)

[Alfonzo]

When you have the time to wait for a random guy or one of the trainer of couse use them . If your like me and you can't wait , dumbell and smith will help you .

For the shape I don't know I guess when you train a lot you upgrade your % of testosterone and in counterpart you are more attract by typical feminine traits (ass and tits) . It could be just that your women taste have change and it's just the age factor who explain that . I am in the same situation as you .

[wi30]

Has anyone ever had experience with German Volume Training? Regardless of different variations, it is doing 10 sets with 10 reps for each workout. My roommate just got me started on it today and I spent almost 2 hours just on biceps and triceps. I can hardly lift up my arms to type this.

[Alfonzo]

Yes I did this workout before . 10 x arm is a little to much for my taste , especially if you need your arm to work the next days . But for the core muscle you will have strengh gain with it . Give it a try for one month .

[Chad Daring]

(01-20-2012 11:09 PM)mofo Wrote:  

(01-20-2012 06:04 PM)Chad Daring Wrote:  

(01-19-2012 08:50 PM)mofo Wrote:  

After not working out for a month, a week ago I started doing pushups every other day and I almost totally got back into shape. The power of pushups baby. I don't even eat as much as it would be necessary to grow, I eat like 3-4 times a day and not that much.
I did 60-80 pushups per workout.
The simple things are almost always the best ones.

Best thing about push-ups is a small change in positioning makes a whole new workout. I did a few months of just body weight exercises, had about 10 different pushups in the line up, was an entire upper body workout.

Cool. What was the result of that few months?

I originally started because I was having weird joint pains from the heavy weights, to much to fast I reckon, I did the body weight workout for about 9 weeks and saw a good gain in my strength, but not much in size.

I was benching more then I was at the beginning, not by much, but enough to notice.

[solo]

Mondays: Chest, triceps, shoulders

Wednesdays: Quick yoga as warm-up and stretching, abs, lower back and other exercises to strenghten special areas of my body (specifically related to a back problem I used to have and to prevent migraine attacks). Sometimes legs as well.

Fridays: Back, biceps

I strive to get at least one cardio work-out and one or two days of rest per week. I usually take a few weeks off per year, maybe I should do that more often.

Other than this I want to diversify my training by doing other stuff like martial arts, dancing, skiing (alpine and cross-country), gymnastics, horse-back riding, skating, surfing, rugby, swimming, cross-fit and other sports in periods. There are so many things you can do to complement going to the gym. Another challenge is my diet. I'm not overweight but sometimes I eat too large portions. I want to become better at cooking in order to improve my health, energy, stength and appearence.

[Thomas the Rhymer]

I used to do Stronglifts while I was still a member of a gym, it did great things for me, I lost my gut and built a healthy looking physique.

Being poor in both time and money, I decided to quit the gym and invest in weights to start a home gym. I reckon this will pay itself off in the long run. Unfortunately, the place I'm living in at the moment is just too small for barbell training, so I decided to try out dumbbell training this year and see whether it really is as bad as everyone says it is, compared to barbell training.

I started with very light weights on the dumbbells to get used to the forms, they are unlike barbell forms. It's harder to keep a dumbbell stable, for example. This put me back a bit in my training but I'd rather master the forms and avoid injury. But so far I'm making good progress.

My program:

Workout A
Dumbbell squats 5x5
Dumbbell bench press (actually use a ball rather than a bench) 5x5
Dumbbell rows 5x5

Workout B
Dumbbell squats 5x5
Dumbbell reverse curl and overhead press 5x5
Dumbbell Deadlift and shrug 1x5
Dumbbell Pendley rows 3x5

Basically a dumbbell version of Stronglifts (Although Mehdi, the guy who made the program, would crucify me if he could for saying that). I added Pendley Rows and Curls to compensate for my lack of a pullup bar: the Pendley Row hits the Lats and the Curl works out the brachioradialis, so it sort of compensates.

The shrug seemed like a natural addition to the deadlift, as an additional aid to develop the shoulders. It's easy to add a shrug movement on top of the deadlift.

I don't have space for a bench so I use one of those big yoga/pilates ball thingies. It's not a bad substitute, and I can roll the ball out of the way easily in the tight space I'm living in.

I like the results I'm getting from my dumbbells so far, even though I can't move as much combined weight as I did with the barbell. It's hard keeping heavy dumbbells stable, my body shakes a lot more than when using a barbell, and I think this activates my stabilisers a lot more than with a barbell. I'll see over the course of the year whether this helps with muscle development.

[Blanco]

P90X

I have 3 weeks left.

Being an ectomorph the the toughest part for me is eating enough calories to support muscle growth. I want to put on at least 10 more pounds of muscle before the summer.

[billy]

I keep seeing this strong lifts thing and I may have to try it because as yet I have never met anyone who got dramatic results from the traditional 4/5 day splits unless they were either on the juice or were big to start with. eg my pal can walk into a gym having not trained for 3-4 months and squat 10 x 200kgs, he is not typicial but every non genetic 'big' guy I have known admits that they trained splits for years with minimal change until the juice. The strong lift thing is similar to HST. I recently found some stats from 2010 when I moved gyms and went form a full body workout 3 times a week to a usual body builder 1-2 muscle a day splits and after 2 years of hard training and careful diet and I have slightly less muscle and more fat. I am starting to think that 99% of typical gym thinking is bullshit. The other problem is that weights 4-5 days a week for an hour leave no time or energy for any boxing training and even if you are huge. getting knocked out by a man half your size because he trains to fight and you train for vanity would be pretty embarassing.

[HawkUnit]

Crossfit WODS or Gym Jones. I am addicted to olympic lifts, esp clean&jerk or snatch. Can't go back to muscle isolation and old gym rat routines...

[Clyde]

(01-10-2012 01:57 AM)Only One Man Wrote:  

Rudebwoy- Is there a reason you do squats on the Smith machine? From everything I've heard, that's not a good idea as it's not really a normal movement since the bar is fixed on a plane.

Here's mine:

Monday: Legs
Squats
Lunges/Front squats
RDL (For hamstrings)
Calf raises
Abs

Tuesday: Chest
Bench press/dumbells
Incline press/dumbells
One arm dumbell press
Chest flys
Dips/Close grip bench/Skull crushers

Thursday: Back
Deadlifts
Pull ups
Bent over barbell rows
Lat pull downs/Cable rows
Abs

Friday: Shoulders
Overhead press (sometimes standing sometimes sitting)
Arnolds
Upright rows
Front/side raises
Shrugs

I do 3-4 sets of around 6-10 reps and as soon as I can get 3 sets of 10, I increase the weight. I got back into this routine about 6 weeks ago after not lifting for a year and I have literally gained 10 pounds of muscle since I started, as I haven't changed my diet at all. I also play pick up basketball a few times a week

We have a similar workout. I usally keep my reps around 5-6. During my off days. I do KB swings and Cardio.

I lost 10lbs, and see much more definition. I have to work harder on my diet. But I can see progress.

[Pacman]

when it comes to workout, this is the shit, but it's only available in spanish, german and french:

http://www.amazon.com/Metodo-musculacion...906&sr=1-3

http://www.amazon.de/Krafttraining-f%C3%...3442338484

http://www.amazon.com/Methode-musculatio...906&sr=1-1

In english, this might be the equivalent:
http://www.amazon.com/Pushing-Yourself-P...y_b_text_b

Here is a video sample:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWoi43WxAlk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8tFDF99C54

Here is a small summary I found on a forum:

The LAFAY method for physical training.
Anybody heard of Olivier Lafay method? I dont think it's very popular in the US.

Ok it goes like this: Oliver Lafay is a psychology graduate, an instructor in KravMaga, and a personal trainer. He wrote a book about a revolutionary method (mark my words, I didn't say "program") for developping your body without the use of any weights exept your own body.
Basically the goal is to shape the body of your dreams in the shortest amount of time (without the use of any roïds or anything else), without compromising strenght, flexibility, or stamina. It is also specially designed to motivate your mind into getting in shape.
The book comprise info on diet, and basic psycology.
Originaly Lafay made this method during his student days, when he didn't have much time to work out, and couldn't afford any gym equipment.

Here a link to his website, gotta warn you it is in french, but you have some videos that showcase the progress of people who follow his method: http://methode.lafay.free.fr/

The book itself is the number 1 best seller in bodybuilding and conditioning in France.

Is it effective? Judge by yourself, I know it works for me after 4 months of practice I gained 5 kilos and have become more flexible than ever.:icon_thum :icon_thum Two thumbs up.