Anyone here bench, lift weights, etc?

Hammer strenght incline bench and shoulder press are great machines. There are a variety of rowing and pulling ones as well and while I don't like them all, they do allow to really focus on contraction.

 

Hit the gym hard today. Deadlifted 365 lbs to get things moving and carried on to the rest of my workout. Today's workout buddy: Kevin Freakin' Bieksa of the Vancouver Canucks! OK, not really, but he was there in the same gym! Mrs. Sage got a picture with him and everything.

 

Did you at least consider giving him a "d'ya even lift bro?" lol.
Actually he's not exactly pumped looking, but then again having Arnold muscles on ice skates probably wouldn't be best for the job.

 

I seldom see hockey players being shredded and huge. I mean, sure they're probably strong, but they don't seem to be as big as say football players.

 

What you don't see from the photo is his legs are enormous compared to his upper body. I watched his entire session and it was all lower body/core focused with the exception of some barbell and dumbbell rows. He was using fairly light weights, I didn't see him put up any more than 135 lbs on any given lift, but I think he might have been there for a form tune-up. The guy that runs the physio out of the gym is widely considered to be an excellent trainer and he was with him the whole time, just giving little pointers here and there. I'll tell you one thing, it was worth the price of admission today. Watching a 5 million dollar a year hockey player getting form tips and seeing what sort of exercises he does was really eye opening. Also, watching a hockey player getting tuned up to start his off-season training before the NHL playoffs are even over really shows what sort of dedication and hard work goes into being a professional athlete.

I did consider a "how much you bench?"

 

Trained legs with a PT yesterday. Never knew I could dig so deep! Felt great.

So hooked on the gym right now, it's become my new addiction.

 

Yeah I guess it's not wise to joke a guy who can come back with a "do you even make thousands of dollars per minute bro?".

 

I have a weights bench in my house and my friends and I are planning on working out 3 times a week at my place for about 2 months during the summer. I've put myself in charge of organising a workout regime and general diet plan for me and the guys, but I have no idea how to make a weights regime. For the cardio I'm planning on doing a 7 minute HIIT workout that I found online, it seems to be pretty good it involves doing 30 seconds of one exercise such as press-ups, or planks, followed by 10 seconds of rest followed by another 30 seconds of exercise and so on until we do 12 different exercises, here's a video of it:

it has some funny songs with it too
I'm thinking of throwing in a bit of yoga into the workout regime, I have a book about yoga somewhere in my house, but any advice on that would be appreciated.
If anyone could tell me how I would go about coming up with a weights regime I would much appreciate it because I don't know where to start and I didn't understand any stuff that I've read about workout regimes so far. I know that I'll have to learn about proper weight lifting form, I've watched a few videos on form so far. Cheers guys.

 

I found this workout regime: Easy 3-Day Workout Routine - AskMen

How does this sound?

 

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It's fine, as long as you're lifting heavy with big, compound exercises and eating well you're gonna see gains.

I personally would do chest/tri and back/bi instead of having a separate arm-day.

 

Ok that sounds good. I read that high weights and low reps is what you want to be doing to build muscle.

Do I need to eat as much on rest days as I do on the days when I'm working out?

 

If you want to gain you should eat a lot, workout day or not.
This is where I usually fail

 

Week 2. Still loving it. Missed a day becuase I didn't know the gym closed earlier on sunday. Made up for it with an extra hard workout.

So far my workout consists of stretching to warm up, lifting, then hitting cardio for 40 mins (started at 25 and hit 40 mins on the third day!! ) then I hit the foam roller to help with muscle tightness and then do a post workout stretch. Feels amazing.

I need to develop a routine for lifting though!

 

Terrible. You're doing abs every single time you go to the gym. You're hitting your shoulders every time you go to the gym. You're doing "legs" ONCE a week. You're only going 3x a week. And you're trying to cram way too much into one session. Chest, Back, abs, and cardio all in one session- seriously? That would take me nearly three hours and by the end of it I wouldn't be worth a shit at all. It's far more effective to split that up into three one hour sessions over three days. Think about it- instead of being completely gassed, your intensity will be much higher through each workout.
Do the cardio on "off" days. Do the abs with the cardio on off days. Don't do shoulders and legs together. The regiment you listed is begging for an injury or a burnout- whichever comes sooner.

 

Assuming a 3-day split, how would you do it? I've seen people recommend back/bis, chest/tris and leg/shoulders but I'd go with a good ol' push/pull/legs.

 

Granted I do a 4-day push/pull now, I have squats on my push day.

 

day 1: chest and upper back

day 2: legs and lower back (throw abs if you want)

day 3: arms/traps/shoulders/HITT/abs if you want

cardio in day offs, or short HITT to wherever your body/energy level lets you fit it in...

at least that works well for me.

though i think i need to add a 4th day to do heavy legs on day 2, and then light legs on day 4.

 

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Do you deadlift and squat in the same day? I would split those exercises apart, because your core and legs are going to be so exhausted after one of them that the other is going to suffer immensely.

I'm just blindly assuming that you are doing to those exercises.

 

my legs day consist of these from start to finish:
warm up for arms/wrists/forearms.
warm up for lower back, and legs via body weight alternative lunges, jumps etc

deadlifts 5X5 (between sets i try doing box/bench jumps or step ups)
leg press 5X5 (cant do squats for more than 150 as they start hurting my upper back. unless its me holding it behind me, under my butt. but again, my wrists cant support the weights. so leg press)
a set of bench step up or box/bench jumps

weighted jumping alternating lunges 5 sets of 10+ (between sets i do supermans)

leg extension 5X5

leg curls 5X8 (dropping weight just to complete the 8 reps)

leg abductor

lower back extension weighted (5 sets of 10+)

if i feel like, i throw in abs or tredmill/bike for a few mins afterwards. if its abs, then its weighted leg raises, planks etc)

my legs days are fairly intensive. and i usually cramp all that in about 1.5ish hours. i am sweating buckets, but my energy level usually stays fairly high all through out.

my other two days in the gym i dont sweat while doing weights. i sweat during HITT that is in between sets.

my energy USUALLY stays high regardless of the days. and my muscles usually take about 2-3ish days to recover.

but my gains for deadlifts are VERY slow. and my calfs need a shitload more work. so thats why i'm thinking of adding a second day for legs. a light and heavy day. light day may include more HIIT like leap frogs, bench step ups, bench jumps and other pylometrics.

 

So much wrong with this.

1. You shouldn't be feeling any pain in your upper back. Check to see if your bar placement is correct, and the bar is resting on your traps or traps and rear delts if you're doing low bar.
2. Your wrists aren't supposed to support any weight at all. Keep them in line with your elbows. If you allow the bar to be supported by your wrists you will snap them in no time.
3. Squeeze your scapula together tight while setting up under the bar. You don't want the bar to be resting on your spine.

I feel no pain while squatting over 4 plate. I simply stay tight and keep the bar on my body, not my wrists or spine.