Blonde will make you STRONG

[iRaise]

Little deadlift session today, slight progress from last week which is always nice.

Hopefully three strong days then 5 days off for some sun.

[arbboy]

Yesterday had a pretty inspiring day all round as hooked up with Harvey in Loughborough where we attended a wellness and nutrition seminar for 3/4 of the day run for free by some pretty successful people on FB and whilst some of what they said was geared around the message they want to promote it was thought provoking.

We then headed to the Uni campus and found our way to the power base gym and managed to blag a free session by telling the guy on reception we were up from Essex for a seminar and heading back in a couple of hours and after telling us it's normally £10 each he said as you are here just go through.

The gym was immense and it's rare I would feel intimidated or inferior in my gym and probably less so Harvey but this place everywhere you looked were unbelieveable specimins of youth with the girls doing weights that some guys would be proud of and making it look easy.

It was massive with at least 10 Squat racks and a big message in various places around the gym  "WHERE HISTORY BEGINS"

It's pretty hard not to be inspired seeing this and we had a good session where Harvey sorted out some form issues I had on Squat firstly and the RDL which I realize have probably contributed to my back injury but despite trying to keep up with Harvey for the rest of the session and 1x3 at 110k box squat I felt no issues today so it was definitely form or lack of causing some of the injury.

This was the place, albeit only 1/2 of the actual space and equipment




Motivated to smash it up this week and continue the upward curve and a big thanks to Harvey for his time.

Ditto on the gym, would love to train there all round. Seeing 18 year old guys/girls just smash OL and powerlifting is awesome. Always feel I am pretty well rounded but would be lucky to scrape out the bottom 10% of performers in there. Great form and work ethic and some seriously strong people, speshly for age/weight.

Shame they didn't have all that when i was studying there 20 years ago.  The gym we used to train in on campus was so bad we all had to train in a local roid gym in the middle of town.  Looks truely amazing set up there now.

[Marky147]

Some setup they've got there. Very impressive!

My aim, is to get in the squat rack, by Xmas.

I'll worry about numbers once I'm there, lol.

[iRaise]

Yesterday had a pretty inspiring day all round as hooked up with Harvey in Loughborough where we attended a wellness and nutrition seminar for 3/4 of the day run for free by some pretty successful people on FB and whilst some of what they said was geared around the message they want to promote it was thought provoking.

We then headed to the Uni campus and found our way to the power base gym and managed to blag a free session by telling the guy on reception we were up from Essex for a seminar and heading back in a couple of hours and after telling us it's normally £10 each he said as you are here just go through.

The gym was immense and it's rare I would feel intimidated or inferior in my gym and probably less so Harvey but this place everywhere you looked were unbelieveable specimins of youth with the girls doing weights that some guys would be proud of and making it look easy.

It was massive with at least 10 Squat racks and a big message in various places around the gym  "WHERE HISTORY BEGINS"

It's pretty hard not to be inspired seeing this and we had a good session where Harvey sorted out some form issues I had on Squat firstly and the RDL which I realize have probably contributed to my back injury but despite trying to keep up with Harvey for the rest of the session and 1x3 at 110k box squat I felt no issues today so it was definitely form or lack of causing some of the injury.

This was the place, albeit only 1/2 of the actual space and equipment




Motivated to smash it up this week and continue the upward curve and a big thanks to Harvey for his time.

Ditto on the gym, would love to train there all round. Seeing 18 year old guys/girls just smash OL and powerlifting is awesome. Always feel I am pretty well rounded but would be lucky to scrape out the bottom 10% of performers in there. Great form and work ethic and some seriously strong people, speshly for age/weight.

Shame they didn't have all that when i was studying there 20 years ago.  The gym we used to train in on campus was so bad we all had to train in a local roid gym in the middle of town.  Looks truely amazing set up there now.

Those photos I guess are a few years old now as there is obviously some wear and tear. But from a facility point of view, albeit a small sample, it is the best I have ever been in by a long long way. Would absolutely love to go there on a regular basis. Have serious gym envy of all the students there now.

It looks like they have redeveloped the entire campus over the last 5-10 years.

Trent did this to me, year I left they upgraded everything.

[iRaise]

Some setup they've got there. Very impressive!

My aim, is to get in the squat rack, by Xmas.

I'll worry about numbers once I'm there, lol.

Any progress is what it is all about.

I did see way too many people (for my ego at least) warm up with my maxes yesterday.

Always someone better, in my case a 21 year old girl who is probably like 60kg.

[PokerBroker]

Some setup they've got there. Very impressive!

My aim, is to get in the squat rack, by Xmas.

I'll worry about numbers once I'm there, lol.

Any progress is what it is all about.

I did see way too many people (for my ego at least) warm up with my maxes yesterday.

Always someone better, in my case a 21 year old girl who is probably like 60kg.

Watched the Scottish under 16's yesterday.  Great competition our kids managed to win 6 out of 8 categories.   We only had lifters in 7, so pretty impressive. 

The feat of the day was our 2 superstars Danny and Jason.  Danny broke the Scottish Snatch record with a 103kg after Jason had beat the previous best of 101kg.   In the Clean and Jerk Danny got his opener of 125kg.  Jason went and done a 129kg  both beating a 10 year record to take  the C&J record and the Total record.   These records were held by Peter Kirkbride who was a London 2012 Olympian and a Medal winner in Dehli in 2010.   The 2 boys were buzzing, Jason qualified for the European youths.  Both are just out of a strength period and will be starting speed work and timing in Monday.   It's inspiring stuff.   This is only the 2nd time both lads have faced each other in the same category.  They have always been kept apart.   A few weeks ago in the gym young Jason smashed in a 145kg Jerk of the rack.  I have always said whatever he cleans he will jerk.   

The next comp for the boys and the one they are training for is the British Schools.  Which is in 8 weeks I think. 

[EvilPie]

Yesterday had a pretty inspiring day all round as hooked up with Harvey in Loughborough where we attended a wellness and nutrition seminar for 3/4 of the day run for free by some pretty successful people on FB and whilst some of what they said was geared around the message they want to promote it was thought provoking.

We then headed to the Uni campus and found our way to the power base gym and managed to blag a free session by telling the guy on reception we were up from Essex for a seminar and heading back in a couple of hours and after telling us it's normally £10 each he said as you are here just go through.

The gym was immense and it's rare I would feel intimidated or inferior in my gym and probably less so Harvey but this place everywhere you looked were unbelieveable specimins of youth with the girls doing weights that some guys would be proud of and making it look easy.

It was massive with at least 10 Squat racks and a big message in various places around the gym  "WHERE HISTORY BEGINS"

It's pretty hard not to be inspired seeing this and we had a good session where Harvey sorted out some form issues I had on Squat firstly and the RDL which I realize have probably contributed to my back injury but despite trying to keep up with Harvey for the rest of the session and 1x3 at 110k box squat I felt no issues today so it was definitely form or lack of causing some of the injury.

This was the place, albeit only 1/2 of the actual space and equipment




Motivated to smash it up this week and continue the upward curve and a big thanks to Harvey for his time.

Ditto on the gym, would love to train there all round. Seeing 18 year old guys/girls just smash OL and powerlifting is awesome. Always feel I am pretty well rounded but would be lucky to scrape out the bottom 10% of performers in there. Great form and work ethic and some seriously strong people, speshly for age/weight.

Shame they didn't have all that when i was studying there 20 years ago.  The gym we used to train in on campus was so bad we all had to train in a local roid gym in the middle of town.  Looks truely amazing set up there now.

Those photos I guess are a few years old now as there is obviously some wear and tear. But from a facility point of view, albeit a small sample, it is the best I have ever been in by a long long way. Would absolutely love to go there on a regular basis. Have serious gym envy of all the students there now.

It looks like they have redeveloped the entire campus over the last 5-10 years.

Trent did this to me, year I left they upgraded everything.

A lot of the Loughborough upgrades were due to the Olympics. It was the official training camp of team GB so from when the games were announced there was a fuck ton of cash pumped in to the place.

The gym is a tiny element of their facilities. I've had a quick glimpse at a lot of the buildings and they're incredible.

[EvilPie]

I keep toying with the idea of changing my routine but I really enjoy what I'm currently doing so I'm going to stick to it a bit longer. No matter what routine I think of it doesn't look as good as the upper, lower, upper, lower routine so I can't bring myself to change.

Maybe at some point I'll hit a plateau and that will be my motivator to change things but for now I'm still getting stronger so I'll stick at it.

Had a mediocre week last week which meant I'd only done one day of press ups before Friday. Anyway I managed Friday, Saturday and tonight so I'm back on track. I made a slight change tonight trying to push to failure on each set rather than stopping a bit short. I've been doing 5 x 30 and 1 x 35-40 most nights but tonight I just did 4 x 40. It was a lot tougher and obviously less reps overall but as the last few of each set were close to failure I think I'll get more out of it.

I'm surprised at how few press ups I can do in a single set to be honest. I'd have thought by now that I'd be doing over fifty but forty is really pushing it albeit I can do another three sets in reasonably quick succession. This is definitely a case of my body getting used to its routine and it'll be tough to break it and try for a single set of 100 without jeopardising the overall count. Anyway I'm up to 8329 so far for the year which is 451 ahead of target. Very confident with this at the moment

[muckthenuts]

Good stuff everyone. Anyone going to be brave enough to post pictures soon?  

[Marky147]

I've got some from when I started, which I'll post when I take some more before I go to Vegas if everyone wants putting off their food.

Some setup they've got there. Very impressive!

My aim, is to get in the squat rack, by Xmas.

I'll worry about numbers once I'm there, lol.

Any progress is what it is all about.

I did see way too many people (for my ego at least) warm up with my maxes yesterday.

Always someone better, in my case a 21 year old girl who is probably like 60kg.

Definitely, and even if my lower body is shot to bits, I can hopefully make my upper strong.

The owner of my gym usually trains around the same time as I do most days, so I get to watch him leg presssing 600kg, and then struggle with my 140

I'll be happy to get back to leg pressing what most 21yo girls are.

[Marky147]

I keep toying with the idea of changing my routine but I really enjoy what I'm currently doing so I'm going to stick to it a bit longer. No matter what routine I think of it doesn't look as good as the upper, lower, upper, lower routine so I can't bring myself to change.

Maybe at some point I'll hit a plateau and that will be my motivator to change things but for now I'm still getting stronger so I'll stick at it.

Had a mediocre week last week which meant I'd only done one day of press ups before Friday. Anyway I managed Friday, Saturday and tonight so I'm back on track. I made a slight change tonight trying to push to failure on each set rather than stopping a bit short. I've been doing 5 x 30 and 1 x 35-40 most nights but tonight I just did 4 x 40. It was a lot tougher and obviously less reps overall but as the last few of each set were close to failure I think I'll get more out of it.

I'm surprised at how few press ups I can do in a single set to be honest. I'd have thought by now that I'd be doing over fifty but forty is really pushing it albeit I can do another three sets in reasonably quick succession. This is definitely a case of my body getting used to its routine and it'll be tough to break it and try for a single set of 100 without jeopardising the overall count. Anyway I'm up to 8329 so far for the year which is 451 ahead of target. Very confident with this at the moment

A couple of my mates are on about having a press-up comp, at a do they're going to in May.

One of them reckons he's doing 50 in 32 seconds, and the other 50 in 49 seconds, and then today he did 100 in 89, which makes no sense.

Think they're doing it for charity, so it's all for a good cause, and I'm looking forward to seeing the video footage, regardless

I was never great at them, but got reasonable after a few months of beastings at Raleigh, and still can't remember any of the lads being this quick at so many.




Expecting something like this.

[EvilPie]

Good stuff everyone. Anyone going to be brave enough to post pictures soon?  

I might do a press up video tomorrow if I feel generous.....

There won't be any pictures though I can assure you!!

[iRaise]

I've got some from when I started, which I'll post when I take some more before I go to Vegas if everyone wants putting off their food.

Some setup they've got there. Very impressive!

My aim, is to get in the squat rack, by Xmas.

I'll worry about numbers once I'm there, lol.

Any progress is what it is all about.

I did see way too many people (for my ego at least) warm up with my maxes yesterday.

Always someone better, in my case a 21 year old girl who is probably like 60kg.

Definitely, and even if my lower body is shot to bits, I can hopefully make my upper strong.

The owner of my gym usually trains around the same time as I do most days, so I get to watch him leg presssing 600kg, and then struggle with my 140

I'll be happy to get back to leg pressing what most 21yo girls are.

All things considered 140 seems absolutely massive right? I'm not exactly sure where you're at, but that seems pretty dam heavy.

[zerofive]

Good stuff everyone. Anyone going to be brave enough to post pictures soon?  

Yup. I'm going to post a few "before" pictures as I'm heading into a hypertrophy phase. I won't lie to you, doing nothing over the winter months but yoga and a few light weights here and there means I've lost some mass and actually got kinda fat. Not like fat fat but think I'm around the 18% mark right now, hoping to drop that to ~12% by end of July. I'm going to be busy, but I've got a routine and meal plan in place so the only reason I will fail is if I lack discipline.

So prepare yourself for some completely unflattering photos

Also thanks for the invite boys, didn't want to train in Loughborough anyways

[Marky147]

I've got some from when I started, which I'll post when I take some more before I go to Vegas if everyone wants putting off their food.

Some setup they've got there. Very impressive!

My aim, is to get in the squat rack, by Xmas.

I'll worry about numbers once I'm there, lol.

Any progress is what it is all about.

I did see way too many people (for my ego at least) warm up with my maxes yesterday.

Always someone better, in my case a 21 year old girl who is probably like 60kg.

Definitely, and even if my lower body is shot to bits, I can hopefully make my upper strong.

The owner of my gym usually trains around the same time as I do most days, so I get to watch him leg presssing 600kg, and then struggle with my 140

I'll be happy to get back to leg pressing what most 21yo girls are.

All things considered 140 seems absolutely massive right? I'm not exactly sure where you're at, but that seems pretty dam heavy.

Feels heavy

Don't really have anything to base it off, as I've not done any leg pressing since I was playing Rugby quite seriously at school/6th form. Still, I have a base now, and can just see how things improve over the coming months.

Think I might buy myself a kettlebell, so I can do some swings with that, which should help strengthen my core/glutes a little bit.

For balance, I can't even curl the minimum weight on the hamstring curls machine, and my hip flexors are much the same when lifting my legs.