Strength Training Club

[alligatorob]

Thanks Trusylver, this is very helpful. Some of it is a bit over my head, but I get the idea. My first 2 sessions were full body, my second today was lower body only and then Friday I have an upper body session. I think it will be 3 sessions a week, and she plans to rotate muscle groups. For me I think your advice that most any training will work for a beginner makes sense. I need most everything, so for a while it may be hard to go wrong.

So far so good on the DOMs, I was pretty sore the day after the first session but since then it hasn't been too bad. Nothing I can't live with, and its getting better.

I appreciate your expertise, helps to have a reliable second opinion. I may be back with more questions when I know enough to ask.

 

[Trusylver]

With training taking a backseat for a while, it is time to kick things back into gear tomorrow with Bench Day with the following

Warm-up - push-ups
Primary Movement- 6 sets bench press - climb the rack to get a feel for where I need to be setting my training
Mobility in between sets - snow angels over foam roller, bow pulls
Accessory 1 - Close grip bench, wide grip bench, landmine press
Cool-down - Bike

 

[Trusylver]

It was back training today mostly volume as I have been slack with training

Exercise Reps Sets Weight
Bent over DB Row 15 5 20 kg (44 lb) High reps working on muscular endurance
ExRx.net : Dumbbell Bent-over Row
Deadlift 10 5 100 kg (220 lb)
ExRx.net : Barbell Deadlift
Inverted Row 8 5 Body-weight
ExRx.net : Inverted Row
T-Bar Row 10 3 40 kg (88lb) bit awkward with my setup but ok
ExRx.net : Lever T-bar Row (plate loaded)
Back Extensions 10 5 10 kg (22 lb)
ExRx.net : Barbell Hyperextension
Pallof Press (band) 15 5 Band
Pallof Press – Form, Muscles Worked, and How-To Guide - BarBend
DB External rotations 15 3 5kg (11 lb) rehab exercise
ExRx.net : Dumbbell Upright Shoulder External Rotation
Bottoms up KB walk 3 5 kg (11 lb) three walks to momentary failure, shoulder stability exercise

 

[Trusylver]

How is everybody going with their strength training ? any questions, post them here

 

[Spencer82]

Hi, new person here! I found this thread literally minutes after posting my first diary entry!
Loving the Exercise Directory - definitely will be using this.

At the moment, we are stuck in isolation again. Gyms are closed and I have no equipment here.
I have arthritis in both knees, my right is particularly bad (verging on replacement bad), so running, jumping, lunges etc are out. Ive been working hard on weighted squats, leg presses, calf raises and other leg-strengthening exercises, as well as core and upper body weight training (aimed at HIIT).

I'll look through your list, but do you have any suggestions for good ones to do at home for the next 6 weeks, without fancy equipment, until the gym re-opens?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Trusylver]

Making use of exercise bands can give you a lot of options at home if you have them, but be careful of gym equipment suppliers price gouging with the new lockdown arrangements in Victoria if you need to buy some. There are quite a few exercise options that can be done at a kids playground if your lockdown conditions allow it.

equipment for home use as a makeshift gym include things like a good stable solid chair, milk bottle or two filled with sand/dirt/rocks, a step a good length towel and a solid piece of railing, and the most important piece of equipment, some flat open space.

I am starting to feel like I have more arthritic joint than I have normal joints so I get where your coming from regarding the pain.

 

[River Bird]

Hi, new person here! I found this thread literally minutes after posting my first diary entry!
Loving the Exercise Directory - definitely will be using this.

At the moment, we are stuck in isolation again. Gyms are closed and I have no equipment here.
I have arthritis in both knees, my right is particularly bad (verging on replacement bad), so running, jumping, lunges etc are out. Ive been working hard on weighted squats, leg presses, calf raises and other leg-strengthening exercises, as well as core and upper body weight training (aimed at HIIT).

I'll look through your list, but do you have any suggestions for good ones to do at home for the next 6 weeks, without fancy equipment, until the gym re-opens?

Thanks in advance!

I use dumbbells. I do bicep curls, push up position row, and farmer's walk. Since you have trouble with your knees, maybe just the bicep curls, you may want to do bicep curls with a lighter weight.

 

[Kawe]

@PLB had started a couple of activity specific clubs, which is a great idea, This thread is adding to that idea.

Healthy weight loss should not only include healthy diet changes but also increasing physical activity in the form of both cardio (Walking, Hiking, Cycling etc) and strength training.

Strength training does not have to be time in a gym but often is. Strength training can be as simple as body-weight exercises in the privacy of your own home.

This thread is to help each other with technique, ideas and motivation.

Join the Strength training club.

Hi it is kawe. I lost 15kg using partial fasting meaning that I only eat twice a day and only after 12.00p.m. Now I want to shift to keto diet . Have you heard of it? Please let me know.

Regards
Kawe

 

[alligatorob]

Hey Trusylver, I guess its been a while since I last posted on this thread, and I do have a few more questions for you.

I have kept at the strength training, mostly at the gym but some at home. I had to do only the home exercises for about a month during the covid shutdown. I know I have gotten stronger since starting the exercising, not so sure about my muscle size they feel bigger but its hard to sort out the effect of losing the body fat that kept them hidden from growth. I say I am getting stronger, but I am not sure I am stronger at regular non-exercising things than I was before I went on the diet. I went deep sea fishing back in June and discovered that I was not as strong when it came to pulling fish from the depths as I was a couple of years ago, before my weight loss. I am guessing that is due to having lost some muscle along with the fat... does that make sense?

My objective now is to try and maintain my weight, I don't think I need to lose much, if any more and to try and build my muscles a bit. Back maybe to where they might have been a couple of years ago. I also have a lot of lose skin from the weight loss, filling some of that with muscle would be great, but I don't expect too much along those lines. I don't need to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger or anything close. I am ok with just looking normal.

I have stayed with the trainer, but have reduced the number of times I see her to twice a week, I do a lot of days in the gym or at home on my own. I may eventually just do it myself, but she has really taught me a lot and she does help motivate me. Right now she has me on a very high protein diet, what she wants to see is 40% of my calories from protein and at least 20% from fat. The protein part is challenging, I have been doing that with a lot of protein powder and egg whites. I have increased my calories to 1,500 per day, and will increase more if I keep losing weight, which seems likely. She did a caliper based % body fat thing a couple of weeks ago and said I was at 16%, which she declared as "fit".

I am doing an average of 2 hours in the gym about 5 days a week. The two hours is typically 20 minutes or so of aerobics, exercise bike or something, and the rest weight training. The trainer has taught me a lot of exercises and I rotate between them, doing different ones different days. I try to get some good leg, chest, arm, back and ab exercises in at least every other session.

Ok, I know that's a long story, and what I am looking for is something like what you did for me back when I began. A second opinion as to what I should be doing now. Particularly as I am heading into the maintenance stage of my process. I know this is kind of an open ended question, and maybe hard for you to answer. I guess I value your opinions and if you saw something that you thought I was doing wrong or not doing I would like to know.

As a reminder I am a 67 year old in relatively good health. I have lost about 160 pounds, half of my body weight, since May of last year, more than that from my peak years earlier. I have lost about 50 pounds since I started the weight training. This is the first time I have ever gone to a gym or done any real planned exercise, though when I was younger I was pretty active, mostly doing outdoor things.

Thanks for your time, as I say I value your expertise, and your no nonsense advice. Your advice getting me started was a real help.

 

[Trusylver]

I do have a few more questions for you.

Everything looks pretty good, 40% of 1500 calories works out to be around 150 grams per day which is more than you actually need, so it would be ok for it to be a little less, 16% bodyfat is excellent.

I went deep sea fishing back in June and discovered that I was not as strong when it came to pulling fish from the depths

yes you would have lost some muscle, but also exercise relies on the principle of specificity. While general strength may help an activity to a lesser or greater degree, to be most effective the movements trained need to mimic the activity as close as possible, in this case fishing.

in my case for example If I want to improve my squat strength, I will make the most improvement by squatting, but if I choose to do a front squat I will still see some improvement in back squat just not as much and squat in a smith machine would show even less.

We still need the general exercises to maintain muscle balance and joint health.

 

[alligatorob]

Thanks for your thoughtful answer, always appreciated.

What kind of "general exercises" do you mean or recommend? Would walking or biking qualify?

Can I tell my wife that the exercise expert recommends more fishing to rebuild those muscles?

 

[Trusylver]

Walking, biking, lifting using a wide selection of muscles in a balanced way, and yes getting out and fishing, people who have never tried to bring in a big fish can often under estimate the physical effort needed.

I think at times people loose sight of how unhealthy the training regime of athletes can be, we aim for specificity, overlooking balance in favour of ever increasing performance. A lot elite athletes are a physical and mental mess once their career is over and they are out of the spotlight and should not be used as a guide for exercising for good health.

 

[Ælfric]

I am doing an average of 2 hours in the gym about 5 days a week… typically 20 minutes or so of aerobics… and the rest weight training.

Unless you're planning on being the next Arnie, that's far too much time in the gym, especially as you're spending most of that time moving metal (8+ hours/week). That suggests you're not training efficiently (you're diluting your effort with too much volume), and that you are probably holding yourself back by doing too much weight lifting, and not enough recovering.

Please post an example of one of your workouts, or better yet a full weeks workouts (exercises done, number of sets, number of reps, and weights used), so Trusylver can see exactly what you're doing in the gym.

 

[alligatorob]

Ælfric, thanks for your interest and sorry to be slow answering, but I have not been back to the gym since Thursday. I did go today and will try to remember what I did, I don't keep records, these are pretty much in order:

• 20 min on the exercise bike
• 5 min of general warm up exercises
• 4 sets on a leg extension machine, one leg at a time
• 30 reps on a back extension machine, weight set to maximum, only the one set
• 12 reps on an ab wheel followed by 7 reps of back rolling, 2 sets no resting; I usually do 4 sets but the trainer showed up so I stopped to work with her.
• Seated over head press using free weights, 3 sets with rest in between
• Bench press using free weights in each hand, 3 sets with rest
• One arm rows using free weights, one hand at a time, 3 sets with rest
• Side arm lifts using cable machine, one arm at a time, 3 sets with rest
• Overhead triceps exercise, kind of a chopping motion using cable machine, 3 sets with rest
• Triceps push downs using the cable machine, 4 sets with rest
• Curls using cable machine, 4 sets with rest
• Glute exercise using cable machine and moving leg to the rear, 4 sets with rest
• A few minutes experimenting with the cable machine and hip exercises, a few different things to fatigue, but only once. Did not find anything I liked, I usually use the hip abduction Nautilus machine, will probably stick with it.
• Curls on Nautilus machine, 4 sets with rest
• Calf press on old cable machine, one leg at a time, 4 sets with rest
• 5 min of general stretching and warm down exercise

It took 2 hours and 35 minutes total. I probably missed a few things but not much. That is my longest session yet, I probably average 2 hours. I just go till I am either out of time or energy. Today the time ran out before the energy. I try to keep moving, but do not push myself too hard, except when it comes to lifting to fatigue, that I take seriously. We are required to disinfect the machine before and after we use them, and super-setting is not allowed, all Covid restrictions, it slows things down a bit.

In general when I am using the trainer I do 3 sets, on my own 4 sets. All are done to fatigue as best I can, 7 to 15 reps, if I get over 15 reps the weight increases, if I can'd do 7 it decreases. When with the trainer I do 2 minute timed rests after major muscles, and 1.5 after minor. When on my own I do a bit shorter rests.

I don't keep records of the weight but have gotten pretty good at judging what I can do when I get to a machine, sometimes it takes a little trial and error, but not much. The trainer does keep records of weight and reps, and since I began in March I have been increasing the weight I can lift, some exercises more than others. However the trainer tries to constantly give me new routines, so I have not been doing the exact same exercises all along.

I do different exercises on subsequent days, only sometimes repeating abs. I have the trainer for 50 min, 2 or 3 days a week. She is very good at teaching me new exercises and keeping my form good. I do more without her than with. My average is probably 5 days a week, but I have varied from 3 to 7. Depends in part on how I am feeling, if tied I don't push it. I will be back tomorrow when legs will be my focus. Probably no repeat of today.

I have no desire to be the next Arnie, only to get into better shape and rebuild some of the muscle I lost along with the weight. And maybe fill a little of my newly sagging skin with muscle, but i don't expect a lot of that to happen.

Any comments or suggestions are welcome.

 

[alligatorob]

I probably missed a few things but not much.

Just remembered the Arnold Press, did 3 sets with rest inbetween.

 

[alligatorob]

Just finished 2 hours and 15 minutes today. Will try to reconstruct, one thing I can see is that I do more day to day repetition than I thought. Keeping track is a good idea.

• 20 min on the exercise bike
• 5 min of general warm up exercises
• 4 sets on hip abduction machine, 3 exercises legs apart to maximum possible spread, legs squeezing together inner thigh exercise, and than legs apart maximum weight but less spread, then rest and repeat
• 4 sets on old cable machine, 2 exercises triceps push down and then lat pull down, then rest and repeat
• 4 sets chest press on the old machine (kind of like bench press)
• 3 sets Inverted leg press
• 3 sets split squat, one leg at a time
• 3 sets old cable machine kick back, glute exercise
• 3 sets leg extension, ~20 reps, trainer says more reps at lighter weight is easier on the knees
• 3 sets leg curl, one leg at a time on Nautilus machine
• 4 sets bicep curls on Nautilus machine
• 4 sets RDL "landmine"
• 5 min of general stretching and warm down exercise

That's most of it, if not all.

 

[Ælfric]

I have no desire to be the next Arnie, only to get into better shape and rebuild some of the muscle I lost along with the weight. And maybe fill a little of my newly sagging skin with muscle, but i don't expect a lot of that to happen.

Any comments or suggestions are welcome.

I should probably give you a little background so you know I have some legitimate basis for making my comments. From about 15 years ago to 12 years ago I was working as a personal trainer, with the appropriate qualifications (Cert IV. in Australia). I'm no longer doing it for a number of reasons, but primarily because running your own business isn't really compatible with depression. Anyway, I do have a background in the fitness industry, but my qualifications are out of date.

Anyway, on to the comments.

Too much volume: too many exercises, and too many sets. If you were aiming to be the next Arnold, or the next Ronnie Coleman, this sort of training might be appropriate. But for your stated aims, there are better ways to do it, involving fewer, more effective exercises.

Too many pushing exercises and too few pulling exercises, while will lead to a muscle imbalance.

So lets look at the exercises you're doing, which I'll try to group into categories.

Legs

You did five leg exercises on Monday, and seven on Tuesday:

• leg extension (twice): isolation exercise† for quads; can be really hard on the knees.
• glute kick back (twice): isolation exercise for glutes.
• calf press: isolation exercise for calves.
• leg curl (twice) isolation exercise for hamstrings.
• hip abduction (twice): isolation exercise for abductors
• leg press: compound exercise‡ for quads, glutes, and hamstrings; calves as auxiliary.
• split squat: compound exercise for quads, glutes, and hamstrings; calves and core as auxiliary.
• landmine RDL: compound exercise for glutes and hamstrings; core as auxiliary; this dead lift variant may put shearing forces on the lower spine.

If you look at that list, the last three exercises each work a large list of muscles, while the first five only cover a single muscle group. The only one of these that covers a muscle group not covered by the compound exercises is the hip abduction, and unless you're involved in activities where that muscle is used (breast stroke swimmers, football [soccer] players, football [rugby league, rugby union, and grid iron] goal kickers [but only "round the corner" style kickers, horse riders and maybe gymnasts are the only ones that come to mind), I would question the functional value of training that set of muscles.

† isolation exercise: an exercise involving movement at a single joint that works a single muscle or related group of muscles, e.g. the bicep curl, where only the elbow moves and which works only the biceps.
‡ compound exercises: an exercise involving movement at multiple joints, which works a chain of muscle groups, e.g., the lateral pull down involves shoulder and elbow movement and works the lats (shoulder) and biceps (elbow).


It's gone pumpkin time in my part of the world, so I'll have to continue this tomorrow.

 

[alligatorob]

Ælfric, thanks for your thoughtful reply. I do appreciate your expertise, and your input. A little about myself, I know nothing about this except what I have learned from the trainer I use and from people here. I started this in March, before that I had not seen a gym since high school. So my expertise is near zero.

You say more pulling exercises, what are you thinking? Specifically what should I do.

Are exercises that cover a set of muscles better than those that focus on a single group? Again what do you suggest? I like the hip abduction machine, but none of the things you list are things I do or plan to do. I could give that one up I guess, but it seems to be good for just exercise.

If I do few exercises and fewer sets but still want to fill a couple of hours what do you suggest? One option at my gym is a Tabata training class, I have gone a few times.

I spent 2 hours at the gym today, and made this list before I saw your post. Different exercises, but I suspect you will see much the same pattern:

• 5 min on the exercise bike
• 5 min of general warm up exercises
• 4 sets on an old leg curl machine, laying down facing the ground
• 4 sets on a seated fly machine
• Calf press on old cable machine, one leg at a time, 4 sets with rest
• 4 sets on Nautilus ab machine
• 30 reps on a back extension machine, weight set to maximum, only the one set, not to fatigue
• 3 sets, 12 reps on an ab wheel followed by 7 reps of back rolling, 2 sets no resting, not to to fatigue
• 100 reps doing a kind of short situp using some kind of upper ab tool, don't know what it is called. Not to fatigue
• 4 sets triceps press on nautilus machine
• 3 sets, 10 reps situps on incline bench holding 35 lb weight, not to fatigue
• 4 sets on hip abduction machine, 2 exercises reversed and facing the chair, one legs apart to maximum possible spread, the other legs squeezing together inner thigh exercise
• 5 min on the exercise bike
• 5 min of general stretching and warm down exercise

Thanks again for your advice!

 

[alligatorob]

You say more pulling exercises, what are you thinking? Specifically what should I do.

It occurs to me that you may mean things like rows, I do some of that, could do more.

 

[Ælfric]

Pushes

These are exercises where you push the weight away from you, or exercises that use the same muscles as pushing exercises. On Monday you did six of these, and on Tuesday your did two:

• seated overhead press: compound exercise working the shoulders and triceps.
• bench press: compound exercise working the chest and triceps.
• side arm lift: isolation exercise working the shoulders.
• overhead tricep: isolation exercise working the triceps.
• tricep push down (twice): isolation exercise working the triceps.
• Arnold press: compound exercise working the shoulders and triceps.
• chest press: compound exercise working the chest and triceps.

Again, there's a lot of isolation exercises working just a single muscle, and a few compound exercises working a number of muscles.

Pulls

These are exercises where you pull the weight towards you. You did two of these each day:

• one arm row: compound exercise working the back and biceps.
• bicep curls (twice): isolation exercise working the biceps.
• lat pull down: compound exercise working the back and biceps.

The big thing to note here is how few of these you are doing compared to the list of the pushing exercises.


The reason I wanted to get these listed out in groupings is that it makes it clear where the duplication is, and where the imbalance is.


I'll start looking at the solutions, and your specific questions, when I log on again tonight (time to go to work now).