Anyone Here Strength Training?

gazz98 said:
1. Sort of
2. Bleh

I joined Planet Fitness about 9 months ago.
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Planet Fitness is better than nothing, but not the place to be if one is serious about strength training, IMO. I feel their equipment, and particularly their policies (the "lunk alarm") discourage it. And what kind of fitness club has pizza nights?

I tried PF for a while. About the time I was feeling I didn't know if I could stand working out in "Barney Land" any longer (the purple and yellow colour scheme), I found out about the lunk alarm. That was the end of that.

Moxy said:
I find it hard to do any significant amount of steady state cardio without it compromising my performance/progression in strength (while in a calorie deficit).
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First of all one cannot build while running a calorie deficit, cardio or no cardio. Secondly: If it's fat one's trying to dump: They don't need a calorie deficit, but reduced carbs. Some people have found intermittent fasting (aka: interval fasting) two-to-three times per week effective. It's where you don't eat or drink anything (save plain water, or coffee or tea w/o sugar or cream), between dinner and lunch the next day. The goal is 16-18 hours of no nutritional intake. This forces the body into ketosis, where it has to burn fat for energy, but not for such a length of time it goes into "lean times are coming" panic mode and starts storing fat, instead of burning it.

Beyond that: Aim to eat clean. Avoid simple and processed carbs (white bread, white flour and things made with it, sugar of all types, etc.) to the extent reasonably possible. I'm not saying "low carb," necessarily. Many people are believers. I'm not one of them. Oh sure: It works. I've done it. But, to me, life w/o cookies, cake, pie, pasta. bread, potatoes, pancakes, chocolate, and so-on is boring. Just eat sensibly and avoid in particular the high-carb between-meal snacks.

You can still do cardio when you're weight training. I've found interval training on non-weight-training days effective. Interval training yields a better calorie burn rate, that will last long beyond the end of the session, but it also hits the glycogen stores, which is why one has to do it on non-weight days.

Different things work for different people, but the above has worked well for me.
 
Planet Fitness is more of an average person's solution to fitness. They don't have barbells so they can't really be for hardcore training. But their rows of treadmills and ellipticals along with dumbbells and machines are perfect for most people. You also can't argue with the price. I'd recommend anyone starting out (no experience in weight lifting/general exercise and wanting to lose weight) to go with PF.

But yeah, when you're ready to get serious go to a "real" gym.
 
Astronaut FX said:
Kudos to everyone who has weighed in (no pun intended) with their efforts to stay healthy. I’ve always found it an interesting that many folks who are heavily intro survival gear and survival related activities ignore perhaps the most important aspect of survival - their personal health. No knife, no gun, no amount of gear will fend off a heart attack.
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The number of guys who are preparing for the end of the world but couldn't jog a mile never ceases to amaze me. Good luck with your 60 lb bug out bag when you can't walk up two flights of stairs without a nap in between.

I started strength training a couple years ago with Starting Strength. It's made a huge difference in my fitness and general health. Hoping to hit 3/4/5 plates on bench, squat, deadlift this year (very close on squats (385) and deads (485), have quite a bit to go on bench).
 
I used to lift a ton as part of the sports I was in, wrestling, football, track as a thrower, the latter two in college. Kind of got burned out of the standard stuff after I graduated and got into highly aerobic circuit training and dynamic Olympic lifts: power clean, clean and jerk, hang snatch, etc. I really liked that a lot until I got into cycling which had the same suffer factor but for a lot longer duration. It also got me outside a lot more and racing was a good adrenaline rush to get a fix from time to time.

My current strength training involves a lot of dead trees and saws and axes. I chop em up and carry them around. No power tools. Most turns into firewood and it gets hauled 1/4-1/2 mile. I'm looking to get a backpack so it will be weighted. After not being in the weight room for a while I have a hard time staying inside, especially after sitting in an office for a long time. I have been toying with the idea again depending on how the outdoorsy stuff works out as it was nice to be able to move things around that a person shouldn't be able to move around.

I don't miss trying to find jeans that fit though.
 
I agree with the PF thing im at planet finltness now and im finding it lacking with the new workout program. Its likely on borrowed time.
Any good gym reccomendations?
My only cardio is typically warm up and conditioning days.
So far the Athlean X program is great. Not used to 2 days off from the gym, but i needed it this past weekend. On to week 2!
 
ShannonSteelLabs said:
I agree with the PF thing im at planet finltness now and im finding it lacking with the new workout program. Its likely on borrowed time.
Any good gym reccomendations?
My only cardio is typically warm up and conditioning days.
So far the Athlean X program is great. Not used to 2 days off from the gym,but i needed it this past weekend. On to week 2!
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If you have room, you could always get your own!


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ShannonSteelLabs said:
I agree with the PF thing im at planet finltness now and im finding it lacking with the new workout program. Its likely on borrowed time.
Any good gym reccomendations?
My only cardio is typically warm up and conditioning days.
So far the Athlean X program is great. Not used to 2 days off from the gym, but i needed it this past weekend. On to week 2!
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Not sure what kind of area you live in, but weight doesn't change just cuz your gym has more benefits. So I say, go for the cheapest gym that has the machines and weights you need.
 
lieferung said:
Not sure what kind of area you live in, but weight doesn't change just cuz your gym has more benefits. So I say, go for the cheapest gym that has the machines and weights you need.
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Its not just the weights more like different machines and more free weight options. I do like that PF is basically everywhere though.

Misthailin said:
If you have room, you could always get your own!


View attachment 888742
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Haha i wish! I cant afford that at the moment, on the list for a new grinder so that takes priority at the moment!
 
lieferung said:
So I say, go for the cheapest gym that has the machines and weights you need.
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IMO there's more to a gym than equipment. So I say find the most affordable gym you like.

My current gym is a small, one-off place owned and run by a husband and wife team. I've made more friends there in the less than two years I've been there than I did in the 12+ years I was at Life Time Fitness. They don't have the variety of equipment, and no sauna or steam rooms, but they have enough equipment and I can live w/o the sauna and steam.

ShannonSteelLabs said:
Its not just the weights more like different machines and more free weight options. I do like that PF is basically everywhere though.
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So you travel a lot, then?

Otherwise I'm not sure their being "everywhere" much matters, does it?
 
EDCeeker said:
IMO there's more to a gym than equipment. So I say find the most affordable gym you like.

My current gym is a small, one-off place owned and run by a husband and wife team. I've made more friends there in the less than two years I've been there than I did in the 12+ years I was at Life Time Fitness. They don't have the variety of equipment, and no sauna or steam rooms, but they have enough equipment and I can live w/o the sauna and steam.


So you travel a lot, then?

Otherwise I'm not sure their being "everywhere" much matters, does it?
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Yea i travel quite a bit for work. Ive put 20,000 miles on my car in roughly 6 months.
 
Burke said:
The number of guys who are preparing for the end of the world but couldn't jog a mile never ceases to amaze me. Good luck with your 60 lb bug out bag when you can't walk up two flights of stairs without a nap in between.

I started strength training a couple years ago with Starting Strength. It's made a huge difference in my fitness and general health. Hoping to hit 3/4/5 plates on bench, squat, deadlift this year (very close on squats (385) and deads (485), have quite a bit to go on bench).
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Keep at it! I got up to 325 bench, 500 squats and 650 DL about 3 years ago. With 48 right around the corner, I can't do it anymore without constantly being down with some type of injury. I have cut way back and still maintain a lot of strength so I'm content where I'm at. As long as you keep progressing, you'll get there.
 
I've been doing DDP Yoga for the last few months. Not strength training but for someone completely out of shape, its helped a bit. The stretching is helpful. I was able to do a full (unweighted squat) for the first time since before my hip replacement surgery in 2015.
 
Shann said:
I've been doing DDP Yoga for the last few months. Not strength training but for someone completely out of shape, its helped a bit. The stretching is helpful. I was able to do a full (unweighted squat) for the first time since before my hip replacement surgery in 2015.
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Yoga is great for the "lazy" person, who doesn't want to be particularly athletic but still wants some sort of physical health improvement. It's alot like body weight training, but with a focus on balance over strength. It does favor a lighter individual though (hence why the pros are basically twigs). Holding awkward positions is extremely hard for us hulkier guys.
 
I hit the gym, if you have any sort of base built from either genetics or hard work, maintaining and improving boils down to getting your ass into the gym every week not what you take, eat or the latest training fat. Just putting in sustainable work day in and day out. Anyone wants to chew the fat on lifting I'm down
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So far the Athlean-X program is working. Starting to see more definition for abs and so on.
I just completed my first Athleanx 400 challenge on monday.
100 reps each of:
Pushups
Reverse rows
Sit ups
Unweighted squats.

I miraculously survived to tell the tale. I never would have thought i could do 100 pushups in a day or 100 sit ups. The situps was the hardest followed by reverse rows. Finishing up the first month this week.
 
ShannonSteelLabs said:
So far the Athlean-X program is working. Starting to see more definition for abs and so on.
I just completed my first Athleanx 400 challenge on monday.
100 reps each of:
Pushups
Reverse rows
Sit ups
Unweighted squats.

I miraculously survived to tell the tale. I never would have thought i could do 100 pushups in a day or 100 sit ups. The situps was the hardest followed by reverse rows. Finishing up the first month this week.
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Congrats man! One of the best feelings is when you have more mastery over your own body.
 
EDCeeker said:
I tried PF for a while. About the time I was feeling I didn't know if I could stand working out in "Barney Land" any longer (the purple and yellow colour scheme), I found out about the lunk alarm. That was the end of that.
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Jackasses at our gym dropping the friggin dumbbells has broken a number of them. Busted the rather large bolt holding the plate on the end.
Some of them haven't broken fully yet, but rattle all over the place.

I am seriously tempted to pepper spray them in the face for being such asses.
Since I use the dumbbells for pullovers, if the bolt gives out, the weight could fall right on my face.

If they cannot put the weight down without slamming it, they are too dammed weak to be using that weight.
They should come back to it when they have grown stronger.

Now sure, it's different if you're doing powerlifting practice, with the proper weight set-up, and some sort of pads to absorb some of the impact. And if the gym replaces the bars when they get worn.
But that's with barbells, not dumbbells.
 
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