CORE body workout...

So at the gym I attend they hold a "CORE body workout" class, now normally I shun classes but as I often get lazy and skip the abdominal work at the end of my routine and as an attempt to encourage my wife to do hit the gym (she is paying for her membership after all) I suggested attending it.

The first week we went it was - I have to say - really good. My lower back was tired (the day before was deadlift, so this was slap bang in my recovery time), but my abs and obliques were hit as well and I left feeling good. Everything was done on several levels, so the class worked for people of differing abilities; unfortunately that was the last day with the old instructor and this week was all change.

Well the start was NOT good, we started with "wood choppers" these seem to be squats only waving a giant inflatable ball around. We then continued with fast paced side lunges - again with a big silly ball. Now fast paced lunges, mean lunges with poor technique and these are a surefire way to fuck up your joints - my wife and I went away with one knee hurting in a bad way! We then did a whole series of other exercises that didn't hit your core and all involved waving or balancing a giant inflatable ball around. I don't want to sound like I hate exercise balls, but use then where you need them, don't just find silly ways to include them in exercises where you really don't.

In short it this class reaffirmed my negative opinion of classes. The exercises were pathetic and to make matters worse didn't even hit the areas they were suppose to. Where the week before I had seen the previous instructor discreetly correcting people technique, this one just went around been a bitch. I know this motivates some people but it just pisses me off; particularly when it comes form an idiot who tells you to train your core you should walk around consciously flattening out you back rather than arching it?!?!?!?

oops

So I have discover that through my own laziness I have not posted in my blog for a couple of weeks! In my defense during this time I have been hitting the gym hard and not slacking off with my training which lets face it is important, I've just not been writing about it.

Too clean!

so I joined up at the local lifetime fitness today and did my first workout there. Now in my experience the first time training in any gym is never great, each varies slightly in etiquette, feel, equipment, layout ect and until you feel comfortable you don't work out 100%. Not to mention I am just getting back into training and had already worked out Monday and Tuesday so was somewhat tired, and woke up unexplainably at 4AM for a couple of hours, and was training at a different time of day to normal.

Anyway putting these aside I am not convinced by the gym, but the best way to explain it is that it's too clean. After years training in crappy gyms with no natural daylight and equipment older than me it seems weird to train at this place. I kind of get the feeling from rocky 3 (I think) where he trainings in the modern plush gym and loses his edge, so goes back to the crap hole gym to find it. I like crap hole gyms and this place is way too nice. That said it's $10 a month more expensive than the local rec center (council gym) and has way better amenities... If only there were a craphole gym nearby.

Sleeping with the enemy...

So my local rec center isn't working out so well... there are lots of little gripes, the place is badly laid out, inadequate facilities and the lack of background music. However the biggest problem are the packs of middle age women that permanently seem present getting "personal training".

There are continual groups of at least six middle age women getting "personal training". Unfortunately rather than working in with each other the same trainer gets each to use 2-3 different pieces of equipment before rotating the group to use what the other one was, so taking over most of the gym. I try to train at an off-peak time (10AM on a weekday) yet still the undersized free weight section is littered with bouncy balls, trip sticks (aerobic weights) and groups of people having a friendly chat with their trainer - whilst their sweat towel and weights are left out on the equipment you want to use.

So you say cut in with these people, firstly if you don't grab them the second they switch to the other equipment they claim to be using they wander off so you have no clue whose sweat towel is in your way. If you miss them - short of dumping their stuff on the floor - you have to wait five minutes to identify whose stuff is in your way. Secondly if you ask them if you mind if you cut in with them, they look blankly at you, then go talk to their trainer to decipher the gym terminology whilst you are left waiting for an answer, cooling down when you want to be lifting. Oh and did I mention the stink, this is a place you go to sweat, deal with it, shower before and afterwards but don't drench yourself in so much acrid perfume the rest of the gym can't breathe.

The net result is I'm going to try out the local corporate gym a "lifetime fitness". I have previously ranted about these places so you know my general attitude. However it is the only other nearby gym I've so far found and the membership only requires one month cancelation (immediate with refund if within the first 30 days). Now the free weight section is adequate with free plates, Olympic bars, power cages, a plate load T-bar row, cable crossover and a leg press rated for 1100lbs but not great, they only have dumbbells up to 110lbs, the pin load lat machine only does 200lbs and the benches and dumbbells are miles away from the cages.

We (my wife and I) have the grand tour today, I plan on going back tomorrow and trying out the place in anger. My biggest problem is it all seems very clean to me, too clean and I don't want the fancy place to distract me from lifting. I previously trained in a semi-converted industrial unit with tones of real steel, no changing rooms and serious regulars who workout in ex-army boots. I fear this warm cushy environment will make me soft and distract me from the real business - lifting. Whilst I don't want or need 95% of this place at least it doesn't look like the women's institute have taken over the free weight section for a social...

Pet peeves... I

Yesterday at the gym I was remembered of one of my pet peeves, people who use the exact same weight for lots of different exercises. I can do dumbbell rows with twice the weight I can overhead press and this is again twice the weight I use for deltoid raises. Each exercise is different because you are stressing different muscles in different ways, so guess what, you need a different weight to do them effectively.

I know there are people who work primarily on cardio and so rush through a series of exercises trying to tax the heart and lungs rather than the muscles, and these people I will give some slack to. However the majority of the offenders are not trying to do this, they just do not understand that different muscles have different needs.

If you work one of the large muscle groups with the same weight as one of the smaller muscles, you will simply not train the larger muscle properly. If you are training at the rate of the smallest muscle group you are both stunting you own progress (be that muscle growth, weight loss or "toning") and will end up with a bizarre body type with big secondary muscles and underdeveloped large core muscles.

Leg position whilst pressing...

So today at the gym I have been reminded of the golden rule of leg position whilst pressing weights with your arms (eg bench press, shoulder press, Arnold press ect). Whenever you are pressing you need to brace your feet on the floor, pushing through your heals, so your knees are angled at 90 degrees or a slightly greater angle (or to put it another way your feet should be further out than your knees).

How was I reminded of this? I made the rookie mistake myself today. I would like to blame the equipment - the seat of the bench is unusually close to the floor, but I guess my technique just got sloppy after the break. Well lesson learnt (again), I've now paid the price having tweaked a nerve or a muscle in my hip... how bad I'm not sure, hopefully I will good tomorrow as it's another squat day.

Meathead Gyms

Good "meathead" gyms are hard to find, hard to find information on and seldom the most welcoming of places. The staff are usually unwelcoming because they are run by people who want their own gym and to pay the bills are forced to charge others to use it. They usually have the same resentment as you would for getting $5 to let a stranger sit on your couch watching your TV. After a suitable number of months you can hope they (or at least the other regulars) warm to you and treat you as a friend over coming over.

These places usually don't want to lock people into long memberships, as said above they usually (initially at least) don't want you there at all. The overheads are covered by the regular meatheads and the owner who gets their ideal gym on condition they sit around watching it for no wage. This does have the bonus you can check the place out without getting locked into stupid membership plans.

For the equipment they have a plethora of free weights and good sectorized machines in functional but often shabby condition however the cardio section is normally pathetic. The other amenities (pool, hot tub, sauna even changing rooms) are usually nonexistent and the general cleanliness is often sub-par.

At these places there are always people there who can lift more than you, that said there are always people to learn from (and get a spot from). These are normally in far from ideal places to keep the rent low, let's face it when you are a regular at a meathead gym you have no fear walking in an unlit industrial unit late at night. With the shady location, poor cleanliness, suspicious staff and huge patrons rumors (from non-members) of steroids are frequently rife; that said I have never seen any problems at these and have trained in some really shady places.

Fat lazy parents taking little Jimmy to the pool

What is with the fat lazy parents taking their offspring for swimming lessons whilst they sit on the side lines doing nothing? If you feel you need for a professional to teach your child to swim, let them do their job, they do not need twenty parents of the ten children in the pool looking over their shoulder. Can you not use the time to nip to the grocery store so I don't have to listen to your tired, hungry and board offspring screaming whilst I do my shopping? Alternatively here is an idea, whilst you are already at the gym for an hour, whilst your brood is been looked after by the staff why don't you take the time to do something for your own health?

Whilst you might at least credit the parents for caring about their child's health this is not the case. In an attempt to do as little as possible they cut the corners off the designated walkway leading their children through the weights area. Having random small children wandering oblivious in an area where lumps of iron often heavier than the child in question is guess what, not the safe. The number of children who have come within inches of been kicked in the head whilst I do leg raises I cannot count and rather than the parent rescuing the unfortunate child from danger they simply give you a distaining look for daring to exercise in the area marked "weights gym" and "no children".

Corporate chain gyms,

Corporate chain gyms are run to make money, occupied by clientele who think that they can purchase fitness and funded by those who were suckered into membership plans they don't want. Indeed this is my biggest gripe with these establishments, they offer long term, expensive and restrictive membership options sold by used car salesmen who lock you into multi-year memberships before you can try the place out to see if it fits your requirements.

In order to keep the place looking so pristine it seems all is done to keep drive away people who actually workout. Whilst during the sales pitch the sectorized machines appear to be plentiful and immaculate this is because on closer inspection they are predominantly useless focusing on very specific muscles, doing nothing for strength any supporting muscles or overall fitness and so remain lightly used.

On the plus side the cardio equipment is generally excellent, well arranged well maintained and surrounded by an impressive array of media options. Now I am not a big cardio fiend and the few I know do cardio where you can do it for free - outside. I can only assume this is generally true as looking around most users are reading, watching TV or talking on cell phones... none of which you should be able to do if your pushing your limits.

That said the free weights are generally insufficient both in quantity and range and whilst neatly arranged that is usually so the gym can devote as little space as possible to them. These weights and people who use them are unwelcome reminders that the gym should be about working out not posing on flashy equipment.

The regular attendees (and apologies to anyone who breaks this mold), seem to think that getting fit is a matter of going to the gym regardless of what you do there. You rarely see them break a sweat, they unusually spend more time chatting (either on a cell phone or to other patrons) than exercising and the immaculate latest fashion lets you know they spent more time than that picking out an outfit. The fashion also runs past the clothing and to the myriad of bizarre fad classes you can take.

new gym blues...

So after moving I need a new gym... not as easy as you might think. I have found that commercial gyms fit into three different categories, corporate (chain) gyms, meathead gyms and rec centers (local council gyms in the UK) and will be posting more on each of these in turn.

A gym needs to match your goals, it has to have the right equipment at the right cost in the right location and be open when you want it however most of all the right feel. Remember when you change gym it will most probably not feel right precisely because its different, however the longer you train the better it should be. That said, the best way to find out if it's a good fit is to train for as long as necessary to decide if its right and postpone locking into memberships until you know.

I train with my own personal mix of power lifter (shit heavy weights), bodybuilder (purely aesthetics) and general fitness (keeping the heart healthy). As such I need a gym that has the right balence of equipment for each of these, I also view a pool, hot tub and sauna as nice bonuses but personal trainers, spin classes and a crèche are most definitely not. I will not touch corporate chain gyms with a barge pole, so need to find the right balance between a meathead and a local rec center... wish me luck

New training pains...

So I'm in the new training pains at the moment. I find it hard to go to the gym and do a half-arsed training session, that makes easing myself into training difficult. I have also suffered this several times so know the timetable of pain to come, first day bad, secondary worse, third day onwards improving and a week later I should be mostly back to normal.

I did my first squat/deadlift day on Friday last week and by my standards I was restrained, I stopped squats a full plate each side less than my pre-break rep max. That said there was a deadlift machine in the gym so I did machine deadlifts as well as free weight deadlifts.

I knew I was going to be in pain after the routine before I even walked into the gym, this was reaffirmed when after the gym by how weak my legs felt. Saturday was bad that said I could walk - my wife did keep telling me to bend my knees something that wasn't going to happen. However Saturday was filled with the impending doom that Sunday is going to hurt worse.

True to form Sunday was worse, the idea of doing anything productive that day was gone. Walking generally was slow and painful and I needed support from nearby furniture, Doing a half flight of stairs took 5+ min, and going for a crap was dam near impossible.

I'm now into Monday, so things are improving and by Friday I should be mostly back to normal. The bad news is that I will be doing squats again by then, on the bright side this pain is a only ever this bad first time around.

I should say for those who think lack of warming up or cooling down is to blame trust me it isn't. I always do both warm up and cool down cardio even more so when I know I'm going to get the first time pains. I should also say there not injury pains - I know the difference well, these are waking my muscles up pains - they now what to expect next time and so will be prepared to deal with it this week.

Where I am now...

I am currently getting back into training after taking the summer off for a variety of reasons, not least moving house. This time of year is (for me at least) the perfect time to hit the gym. The gyms are in a relatively low season (compared to the Christmas chaos or summer holiday rush) and so it's a good time to get routine settled.

Looking at where I am now, I weigh in about 188lbs with more body fat than I would like and the edge taken off all my pre-summer max lifts / general fitness levels. The obvious initial goal is thus to get back to where I left off in July, the next goals are to improve on this. Specifically for next year I want to increase my lifts, general cardio fitness and work on my weak points - inner pec development, upper back thickness, outer bicep, grip strength and of course general body fat.

The weight loss is the lower priority, whilst caring more weight than I would like I don't need to look good on a beach until holiday season next year. I dropped 40lbs last year for the trip out to Cali, so as long as I'm sensible training and eating I am fine for next year.

Progress is always both diet and routine, however I know my diet is relatively good and the lack of time down the gym is the weak link and so needs solving first. As my training progresses I can worry about the diet side more.

Thus the initial route map is relatively simple, to regain my previous achievements I need to start training down the gym. For the first few weeks I will edge in slowly with a view that by the end the month I can do two heavy weight days and two high intensity days a week.

Ed's new blog...

So I have decided to keep a training blog. I have never kept a diary and could not see the point of sharing my thoughts on the world with a whole bunch of other people. That said I think the discipline of writing down my training will be useful for me, it will also hopefully give me an opportunity to share my gym knowlege and learn from others. Wish me luck :0D