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Fitness |OT9|...You looked better before

Boogie

Member
Any fit Canadians ever done or trained for the PARE test for the RCMP and other police forces ? I'm interested in becominga mountie. I'm not worried about the strength portion, but the cardio. Thinking of starting some HIIT classes. Any tips or experiences to share ?

....maaaaaybe. :)

Tip#1: apply to everyone but the Rcmp first. You'll be making $15k more a year as a municipal cop than a Mountie these days. ;P

No, but seriously, I'll give some real tips later, and feel free to hit me up via PM for any other general questions.

HIIT is great prep for the PARE, but you'll want to look ahead to the training academy itself and do some distance running too, because you'll do lots of that at Depot too.
 
I don't do much cardio anymore. In fact, I primarily lift weights. I'm 6', 185lbs. I have some abdominal and back fat I badly want to get rid of, but cardio is just too damn boring to do to ensure I lose it.

I am fully pledged to squats and deadlifts as my main forms of exercises and have been for months now (not including all the obvious forms of exercise for the rest of my body, but these two I enjoy doing the most when it comes to leg day). If I continue at this and don't do cardio but check my diet into submission by eating much better (which I have been), can I expect to lose this fat?

Or do I really need to suck it up and get cardio in?

I ask because I've heard stories of people losing all excess body fat and getting shredded without a lick of cardio because they lifted an enormous amount of weights.

If you eat at a deficit, you'll lose fat and a little bit of strength. Eating a deficit on non-training/non-leg days, and at maintenance on leg days should result in gradual fat loss with a maintenance of strength. tbh i hate cardio too and find that it detracts from my lifts. i have lost 12lbs doing this method - so it should work for you too hopefully.
 

Oblivion

Fetishing muscular manly men in skintight hosery
Came back from the gym after a really long time. Much too long, in fact. Feels good, boys.

Unfortunately, that problem that I mentioned a couple of weeks back (which everyone ignored) is still with me. I have ulner nerve entrapment on my left elbow. It hurts when I bend my elbow in a certain way and when I make it stretch. It makes doing bench presses impossible, and as a result, tricep work via this exercise is out of the question. Interestingly enough, I have zero pain when it comes to barbell curls and pull ups.

Are there any workouts I can do to build my triceps that doesn't require me to use the same motion doing with the bench press?
 
Quick fitgaf, there's an intermittent fasting thread in OT and it's home to amazing gems like this:

Calorie restriction has proven to not work well for weight loss. If you're interested in losing weight fast and easy, look into starting a keto diet.

Including IF with keto and you'll likely start seeing results quicker.

I know I only come here when gaming side gets overly stupid but my god I'm stuck in some weird limbo where I can't go and read anything intelligible.
 

mdsfx

Member
Forgot to share. PR 7:07min/mi for 5 miles at the Bank of America Shamrock Shuffle 8K. Next year is 6:50 or bust!

h0aqNiz.jpg
 
Fighting off either the flu or a really bad cold. Missed my Monday workout and still feel really weak, so probably will miss tomorrow which sucks.

Looking at it in a glass half full manner, I am officially below 300lbs. Been probably a good 7 years since I've weighed less than 300lbs. 365 was my heaviest 3 years ago.

Have dropped about 45 pounds since I started doing 5x5 stronglifts and keeping track of calories back in November.
 
Quick fitgaf, there's an intermittent fasting thread in OT and it's home to amazing gems like this

Ahah... gold. I love how people jump on the latest trends and then talk about them like they're experts on the subject.

Looking at it in a glass half full manner, I am officially below 300lbs. Been probably a good 7 years since I've weighed less than 300lbs. 365 was my heaviest 3 years ago.

Awesome. I looked back like this recently and realised that vs my peak, I've lost something like 45% of my bodyweight. That's over something like 8 years though.

Nice avatar by the way. I love that stuff (IN MODERATION!).
 

velociraptor

Junior Member
So since this is a knee problem, and you guys are only able to provide an answer with what I give you, and even though I'm about to take a lot of time off from squats, if my knee doesn't get better, I will go see a doctor.

Basically due to going heavy on squats and poor form, the middle part of left knee has been causing problems. It has been going on for months, BUT the reason why months is I never took time off from squats.

If I take a week off, and I come back to squats with my form good, my knee continues to get better. If my form is bad, I feel it in the middle of my left knee. When I relax my knee cap and press in the middle of my knee, it hurts. Not excruciating pain, but definitely slight pain.

It pops a lot. I can squat all the way down in a duck walk position, and doesn't cause problems as for range of motion.

There is a slight bump, like swelling in the middle of the knee cap. It's a very small bump.

I started a new job months ago, and it's my first desk job. Also, I wear work shoes, which probably doesn't help with healing.

If I tore something in my knee, would I be constant pain or something like that?

I'm really hoping I just need to rest and lay off squats for awhile.

I hurt my knee so I haven't squatted for the past 3 weeks. My knee was painful when walking, and seemed to give way at times too.

Right now my knee feels fine, and I managed to leg press without any issues. However, if you are having a recurring issue and persistent knee pain which wasn't remedied by resting, it is worth going to the doctor.
 

Szu

Member
Pretty decent progress with my squats today.

Started with a bar warmup for 10.
135 x 10
185 x 8
225 x 5
275 x 5
295 x 5
300 x 3
305 x 2

I've never gone over 300. It took me a while.

There was a trainer there that gave me a little critique. His main gripe was that I looked down too much near the end of the set. In turn, there's risk of me turning the squat into a good morning. It makes sense because I kinda block things out during the set, so I may not be aware of where I'm looking. I corrected as the sets went on.

This trainer is a beast too. He holds a record for a max squat at 700 lbs for the 60-69 year division.
 

LogicStep

Member
I feel like the scale is counterproductive to my motivation. I've been at the same weight for weeks. I'm​guessing because I'm working out hard and eating relatively clean I must be loosing fat, slowly, and gaining muscle, slowly so my weight isn't moving.. but I can't be sure.
 

Oblivion

Fetishing muscular manly men in skintight hosery
skull crushers?

I'm actually kind of shocked that you'd have trouble finding exercises for the triceps. If you look around the gym at any given time at least half the people there are doing some sort of bicep or tricep exercise lmao. Well regardless...

https://www.jefit.com/exercises/24/Dip
https://www.jefit.com/exercises/54/Dumbbell-Lying-Triceps-Extension-
https://www.jefit.com/exercises/155/Cable-Rope-Overhead-Triceps-Extension

Tate Press

Nope, these all have the pressing motion of a bench press. :/
 

lenovox1

Member
Nope, these all have the pressing motion of a bench press. :/

That's because the tricep is a pressing muscle. Almost any tricep exercise becomes a different exercise once you take that out. So now you have to focus on things you can do on a machine, things you can do with the rope accessory or on a literal rope, and things you can do with straight arms.


Try straight arm tricep kickbacks with dumbbells, rope pulldowns, climbing an actual rope, battle ropes, and there's likely a few tricep machines that you can try (with the aide of someone experienced). Keep in mind that working around injuries is what those machines were even made for (is what I learned in FitGAF).
 

GrapeApes

Member
Pretty decent progress with my squats today.

Started with a bar warmup for 10.
135 x 10
185 x 8
225 x 5
275 x 5
295 x 5
300 x 3
305 x 2

I've never gone over 300. It took me a while. .
Just looking at the numbers it's surprising that you've never gone over 300. You should be able to go over 315 easy.
 

sphinx

the piano man
cut going well, inspite of giving in to a couple of temptations, I think the philosophy of changing habits is working,

I am down about 7 pounds, I started like 3 or so weeks ago.

seriously people, if you want to have low body fat or have a sexy body, DO NOT go to Mexico, the food is so fucking delicious but it's terrible, everything you don't need is right there. One month brought me to 74.5 kgs, I am now 71.2 kg

Szu! I wanted to be more like you with arms so I took these for you.

what time of the day was that? :D I've never seen such a big gym so empty.

also, great shape and size on your arm man congrats
 

Oblivion

Fetishing muscular manly men in skintight hosery
Tricep pushdown.

https://www.jefit.com/exercises/159/Cable-Rope-Triceps-Pushdown

I do this with bands (I don't have a cable) and nothing gives me isolation in the same way. Also there's the very old, and quite unfashionable tricep kickback (which can also be done with a cable).

Reverse triceps pull downs
titanic-triceps-add-serious-size-to-your-arms_07.jpg

That's because the tricep is a pressing muscle. Almost any tricep exercise becomes a different exercise once you take that out. So now you have to focus on things you can do on a machine, things you can do with the rope accessory or on a literal rope, and things you can do with straight arms.


Try straight arm tricep kickbacks with dumbbells, rope pulldowns, climbing an actual rope, battle ropes, and there's likely a few tricep machines that you can try (with the aide of someone experienced). Keep in mind that working around injuries is what those machines were even made for (is what I learned in FitGAF).

Thanks, will try these!

MrToughPants said:
Lying tricep extensions aren't a press.

Good point. But they do have some motion in there that hurts me.
 

lenovox1

Member
I am down about 7 pounds, I started like 3 or so weeks ago.

seriously people, if you want to have low body fat or have a sexy body, DO NOT go to Mexico, the food is so fucking delicious but it's terrible, everything you don't need is right there. One month brought me to 74.5 kgs, I am now 71.2 kg

Really? I think Mexican food can be the easiest food to make healthy, even with all the fried stuff. Just no crema, no cheese, no bread, and you're good.
 
Starting to see gains on my chest finally. Visually it's showing as well. I'm a skinny guy so still a long's way to go. But I'm finally to hit a plate with 6 reps on flat. Aiming to push that to 155 by the end of April
 

MrToughPants

Brian Burke punched my mom
415/385/365x6 paused...was so humid in the gym almost passed out after each set since I hold my breath in the hole for ~2 seconds.
 

Chittagong

Gold Member
Has been a while, but wanted to pop in to share that I can finally squat more than I bench, like most human beings...!

Box squats + a program that really works for me did it

12 reps x 3 sets x 2 weeks
10 reps x 3 sets x 2 weeks
8 reps x 4 sets x 2 weeks
5 reps x 5 sets x 2 weeks
3 reps x 5 sets x 2 weeks
1 reps x 4 sets x 1 week

Alternating A Squat/Press and B DL/Bench, ABA week and BAB week.

Same program got me to 100kg bench, next stop 110kg.
 
I'm in a really strange place at the moment.

For pretty much the first time ever, I look like I lift. My arm veins have veins and they run all over my biceps, chest and shoulders. If I take my shirt off, aside from a little loose skin at the bottom of my stomach, I genuinely have good abs / adonis belt etc. Legs are obviously solid, but that's no major surprise.

...except, I'm weak as fuck, and I mean REALLY weak, even by my standards. Three weeks running I've had to drop my lifts, and what concerns me is that the compounds were already fucked because I had to switch to a brosplit isolation based workout for a couple of months whilst my broken rib healed.

I really don't know how to feel. I like looking like this, and my cycling performance is as good as it ever has been... but holy shit, there are genuinely 5 foot tall 14 year old girls out there that can out lift me right now. =/
 
haven't done deadlifts in 4 weeks. ended up singles up to 435lbs. grip is all over the place. make sure you go poop and fart don't try to hold it in while lifting. lmao.
 

ILoveBish

Member
Haven't been lifting at all, working 12 hour days nonstop at work, I hate my job so much. It's killing my life at this point. Need new job ASAP.
 

Jackpot

Banned
Getting an exercise machine to help treat my anxiety. I want something I can rest my laptop on so every time I watch tv I have to use it.

I'm 6 foot and 90kg. Not that fat but a 12 year old could probably beat me in an arm wrestle. What do you recommend? Treadmill, bike, that thing that looks like a skiing machine? I'm not looking to get buff, just to tire myself out.

Is it ok to go second hand on exercise equipment or more trouble than it's worth?
 

Chittagong

Gold Member
Getting an exercise machine to help treat my anxiety. I want something I can rest my laptop on so every time I watch tv I have to use it.

I'm 6 foot and 90kg. Not that fat but a 12 year old could probably beat me in an arm wrestle. What do you recommend? Treadmill, bike, that thing that looks like a skiing machine? I'm not looking to get buff, just to tire myself out.

Is it ok to go second hand on exercise equipment or more trouble than it's worth?

Depends on your goals, whether you want to

- lose weight
- improve your overall fitness
- become stronger

I would say that you don't need to lose much weight at 6ft/90kg. So you probably want to become fitter or stronger. For becoming fitter, a threadmill can work, in case you can't go out running. However for getting stronger, you don't need any equipment initially, start by doing bodyweight exercises. They are great for getting stronger, and also fitter.

So I'd suggest getting a yoga mat, and starting a circuit training home program. Work your way up to pushups, planks, burpees, squats, lunges... don't get discouraged, it takes time to be even able to do one if you start from no exercise.
 

Teggy

Member
As I increase weight in my bench sets, I start to get popping in my left shoulder (and only my left). It's not painful, but it is clearly not right.

I think my form is pretty good - back arched, leg drive, weight on shoulders, arms at 45 degrees from body to avoid impingement - is there any fixing this? Am I already dead?
 
Hey guys, sorry if this is redundant, but can anyone recommend mass gainer supplement brands that work?

I lift 5 times a week and strive to eat enough to grow, but as an ectomorph, eating enough to retain mass and size is always a struggle. If there are any powders that I can drink in addition to my meals, it'd make consuming enough to get bigger far easier.

Thanks.
 
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