InternetSwag
Expert Member
Dude, no offence, but maybe gym work is dangerous to your health
I'm too stubborn to quit:twisted:
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The Bodybuilders Thread!
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I'm too stubborn to quit:twisted:
MagicDude4Eva
Banned
Just a question (assuming you go to a gym) - why don't you get a personal trainer for a few sessions to ensure that your form is right and then carry on by yourself. Will be a lot easier than going through the effort of producing movies - or?
Tinuva
The Magician
He already mentioned he doesn't, and gym at home.
APoc184
Honorary Master
Thanks for the idea. But I gym completely on my own in my garage due to personal/family circumstances and responsibilities.
I also hope that my videos and the subsequent advice/tips will help others here.
MagicDude4Eva
Banned
Sorry, I don't religiously read every post in this thread as I only enjoy cardio and running (and with it only leg-days) and due to my upper-body strength being slightly less than that of a kitten. I pretty much just cross-train and try the lean-and-mean approach.
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RogueTr00per
Honorary Master
I don't know what a 'kitten pretty' is but why not work on your weaknesses?
MagicDude4Eva
Banned
Lol - punctuation helps a lot - TGIF. I do gym 3 times a week: Mon (functional & core), Tue (upper body) and Thur (legs). On gym days I run 6km (at 4:50/km) after the gym session and the rest of the week I do my 6-8km street runs with weekends doing 10-12km. The gym days are really just for strength training and it is highly frustrating as most people want to grow big muscles and lift a ton of weight - something which is counter-productive for me as I enjoy running.
I guess my weaknesses are directly related to what my personal trainer wants me to do (i.e. "let's stop working on your legs, they are strong - we need to get you bigger arms") as I often have to pull him back into that I am interested in endurance and cardio and heavy strength training does not really benefit me. I can do calf-raises on the heaviest weight until the cows come home, the same with lunges (but make me do pull-ups, thats when I get frustrated).
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RogueTr00per
Honorary Master
^ Evidently another weakness of yours 
Batista
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ShaunSA
Derailment Squad
Tinuva
The Magician
I understand your goals, and it is great that you do have them. In my opinion, you know what you want, and keep doing and focus on that. Just don't forget completely about upperbody, at least keep it somewhat in shape. I personally believe in balance, both upper and lower body needs work. You just need to work less on upperbody, ie. keep it in maintenance mode while you go balls to the wall with endurance.
ps. Strength doesn't necessarily mean big huge muscles
InternetSwag
Expert Member
Hey guys, looking for some advice on training to run a 5km event thingy.
I don't know that much about cardio.
I been doing this
Routine A)
I been doing interval training, 60 seconds run, 30 seconds walk, 60 seconds run, 30 seconds walk. I do this for as long as I can which is usually 20-25 minutes.
Routine B)
Leg 'weight' training. Bodyweight squats (cause of ****ed up lower back), lunges, leg press, whatever leg exercises I feel like doing.
I been alternating between those two routines.
Any advice or adaptations are welcome.
I don't know that much about cardio.
I been doing this
Routine A)
I been doing interval training, 60 seconds run, 30 seconds walk, 60 seconds run, 30 seconds walk. I do this for as long as I can which is usually 20-25 minutes.
Routine B)
Leg 'weight' training. Bodyweight squats (cause of ****ed up lower back), lunges, leg press, whatever leg exercises I feel like doing.
I been alternating between those two routines.
Any advice or adaptations are welcome.
APoc184
Honorary Master
Oh man... Here goes.
Squat video uploaded for help and critique. I filmed my 4th and 5th set to make sure I catch any bad form/errors because I was getting tired by then. I do feel at times that I come unto my toes a little bit and not drive through my heels. Otherwise I am pretty clueless and will appreciate any help.
Total weight of 80kg.
Excuse the cap. I was busy dirt biking the whole day and my hair was standing in all directions. MyBB cap was the easiest fix for filming.
/flamesuit on
Video here: http://youtu.be/EK8Fr33IlF0
EDIT: I'll probably only see replies tomorrow as I am going to bed now.
Squat video uploaded for help and critique. I filmed my 4th and 5th set to make sure I catch any bad form/errors because I was getting tired by then. I do feel at times that I come unto my toes a little bit and not drive through my heels. Otherwise I am pretty clueless and will appreciate any help.
Total weight of 80kg.
Excuse the cap. I was busy dirt biking the whole day and my hair was standing in all directions. MyBB cap was the easiest fix for filming.
/flamesuit on
Video here: http://youtu.be/EK8Fr33IlF0
EDIT: I'll probably only see replies tomorrow as I am going to bed now.
Tinuva
The Magician
@APox184,
I can see 2 mistakes, although there probably are more, I just can't see them.
1. Most important one, your form is a bit off. In the first half of your video, if you compare the direction of the bar from your right to left vs your feet right to left, you will see that they are not in line. On your left side, the bar is further back than on the right side. It is easy to fix, watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEQQle9-0NA
Basically, before you go down, you need to contract all your ab muscles as well as your butt muscles, to fix the line of the bar to be the same as your feet. You need to keep your ab muscles contracted throughout the whole movement. Also keep your chest out. This will fix a lot in your squat, because currently it looks like you don't have full control over it, you lose balance in more than 1 direction.
2. You need to squat a little bit deeper. I had to pause the video a couple of times while you are at the lowest point to confirm, but you are not going below parallel. In fact, you go almost far enough, but then stop just before you get to the final point. Basically your butt needs to be just just below your knees.
You may need to drop a little bit of weight from the bar, while you practice the above. That said, don't let the above discourage you, you already doing better than most people at my gym, who doesn't even go half as far as you.
I can see 2 mistakes, although there probably are more, I just can't see them.
1. Most important one, your form is a bit off. In the first half of your video, if you compare the direction of the bar from your right to left vs your feet right to left, you will see that they are not in line. On your left side, the bar is further back than on the right side. It is easy to fix, watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEQQle9-0NA
Basically, before you go down, you need to contract all your ab muscles as well as your butt muscles, to fix the line of the bar to be the same as your feet. You need to keep your ab muscles contracted throughout the whole movement. Also keep your chest out. This will fix a lot in your squat, because currently it looks like you don't have full control over it, you lose balance in more than 1 direction.
2. You need to squat a little bit deeper. I had to pause the video a couple of times while you are at the lowest point to confirm, but you are not going below parallel. In fact, you go almost far enough, but then stop just before you get to the final point. Basically your butt needs to be just just below your knees.
You may need to drop a little bit of weight from the bar, while you practice the above. That said, don't let the above discourage you, you already doing better than most people at my gym, who doesn't even go half as far as you.
RogueTr00per
Honorary Master
^^ Is there any effective way to make a non-Olympic bar thicker? I can imagine the fact it's so thin can't help stability or comfort.
MagicDude4Eva
Banned
5km is fairly easy in the sense that you should be able to crack it at 25min for the event (i.e. 5min to the km). I would do the following (depends on your level of fitness):
- If you are new to running, get some decent neutral shoes (such as the Nike Pegasus 30/31) - provides you with enough stability and cushioning
- Do not overstride (i.e. your foot should not land far in front of your knee). If you overstride, your foot will break your stride and it will take more effort
- Do a lot of core exercises - especially planking - tremendous benefit for your form
- Try and run at 180bpm - i.e. the ideal run is that you do 180 steps per minute
- If you are new to running, rather to treadmill hill runs (intervals between 0-5% at varying speed). For a 5km run, you should target a min speed of 9m and a max speed of 11km on the treadmill for this
- Get a GPS watch to measure your speed and a HR belt to watch your HR-zone.
- Run according to your HR - if it means you start off at 6:30/km, that's fine - over time it will improve. You should be able to get from 6:30/km to 5:30/km in 6 weeks
- With regards to gym work-out, I found calf-raises, lunges, box jumps valuable. Focus on single leg exercises as well.
- I think your interval training is wrong, in the sense that you should rather focus on interval distance than time - i.e. do 3x400m then walk 1x200m and then rinse/repeat 5 times and you have your 5km
- At gym I typically do rowing as a warm-up (as it works core/legs) for 12min, then do leg workout for 50min and then finish it off with a 30min run at 5:20/km (I normally run at 4:45/km)
InternetSwag
Expert Member
A lot of info here, thanks man.
Didn't know it was that complicated though! I hadn't even paid attention to my strides, will have to monitor that the next time I run.
Yoh that is a long leg workout, you have some serious endurance there, don't think I could run after leg day heh, but if you're doing both on the same day, do you take the next day off?
I see what you mean about the distance interval training, I'll track that next time then.
How much would a GPS watch set me back and does it work on a treadmill? (lol I don't know).
Thanks hey
MagicDude4Eva
Banned
Hi there,
I find that if I run after leg-day, I recover and do not have as much pain. I don't take off and run every day - in winter I do treadmill either in the morning or at night after gym. I only do 10km runs on weekends (I used to run with a headlamp, but it is not much fun at 5am in the morning). I can easily do a 6km every day and 10kms on the weekend - I think Glutamine helps and On Performance Amino during gym for recovery.
I would probably go with a Garmin Forerunner FR15 as it is a reasonable entry level GPS watch and activity tracker and will go for about 2,5K and comes with HR strap. I am using now the FR620 (which is over 6K, but gives a lot more technical detail when you want to work on form, but I would hold off on this until the running bug bites).
You would still need to get a Garmin footpod for treadmill/indoors (costs another 1K). As an alternative you could go with a Nike Sportswatch (costs about 1,8K and comes with a Nike footpod, but you would still need to fork out about 1K for a Polar HR strap) - just note, that Nike has discontinued the footpod and you will not be able to get running shoes where you can fit the pod into the sole of the shoe.
BTW: I deliberately did not mention GPS running apps on your phone as I think it is too distracting/heavy - but you could use Strava/Endomondo/Mapmyfitness etc. BTW: Are really good website to track performance is Smashrun: http://smashrun.com/magicdude4eva/invite
APoc184
Honorary Master
Thank you for the advice and tips Tinuva. I really thought I was going to be terrible and totally useless.
As I've said. Never seen the inside of a gym, no partner and I just try to replicate what I saw in videos and articles.
I totally get the balance thing and I have actually watched that video you suggested a few weeks back. I do actually implement that but obviously as I tire, I lose focus and form. Will need to stay more focused and perhaps slow down each rep.
I'm definitely going to work on all of these issues. And I really hope it helps other people too.
Next I will film bench and then probably deadlifts.
Batista
Executive Member
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Why are the personal trainers always such lard-arses?
You just want a picture of my rippedness
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