Workout: What did you do today?

[jadis]

I am a newb, but did receive some instructions on proper way to squat some years back. I'm gonna check out some YouTube vids on proper form in the coming days.

Spent a little time in our gym today doing situps, pushups, squats, bicep curls probably and whatever you call it when you're on a bench and lift manuals straight up.

Finally using our gym, so will try to do something there every day, even if it's just 10 minutes.

It's not pretty and could def use some paint or refurbishing in general, but this is what our cheap home gym looks like.



Importantly, and something you don't see in the pic, it has a TV so I can watch Seinfeld while exercising.

Otherwise, it's got some second hand stuff in it. The treadmill was too heavy and complicated to get out, so was left there by the previous owners.

Edit:

Btw, thought I might try out these 3 (as well as other stuff):

I like the pendlay row! First time I hear about it tbh. Will try today 

[jimmy jazz]

I have one of those pull-up bars you can fit in a door frame and it seems to work, at least for the purpose of doing pullups.

I think my wife has a resistance band 😄 guess we might get some more.

The mirror is from another part of the house where it took up too much space. But of course it's important to find any little way to keep up motivation and watching the beef grow might help with that 👍

The door pullup bars are fine but you can only really do underhand grip pullups on them (also known as chin ups). To do overhand you'll need a wider grip. I don't have a pullup bar but I do them using my squat stand with a barbell on top. It's not the normal way but it works.



(Obviously need to tuck my legs up so I'm lifting my whole body)

The resistance bands you can use to assist you with pullups so whatever level you are at you can do them. And also for a load of other stuff. They are such a good tool.

Keep posting your progress mate 

[jimmy jazz]

Wanted to post this. This is a great, entertaining video that will help anyone. 10 things to avoid. Greg is the funniest fitness guy on YouTube.

💪

[jadis]

Wanted to post this. This is a great, entertaining video that will help anyone. 10 things to avoid. Greg is the funniest fitness guy on YouTube.

💪

I like this!

[jadis]

I hate cardio lol

The stomach exercises I do are mostly cable crunches and even there I put on way more weight than I can lift through the abs so it's more of a back exercise that also works the abs

[jadis]

This is great @DJChameleon

[DJChameleon]

This is great @DJChameleon

Good one!

[FETCHER.]

I trained legs today at the gym. My new coach has me doing some sort of cardio before I do any weights, I guess it is to keep my heart rate higher while I'm doing the weights? On any of my old plans I never used to get so sweaty/tired and the only difference I can think of is that I'm doing a decent amount of cardio before I lift anything.

[DJChameleon]

I trained legs today at the gym. My new coach has me doing some sort of cardio before I do any weights, I guess it is to keep my heart rate higher while I'm doing the weights? On any of my old plans I never used to get so sweaty/tired and the only difference I can think of is that I'm doing a decent amount of cardio before I lift anything.

How much cardio did you do? Like 10 mins. I see some gym bros doing it and my old trainer used to make me to it too. Cardio to get your heart rate up then doing the circuit.

If you do more than 10 mins worth of cardio it tires you out and you end up lifting less than you would without doing cardio.

[jimmy jazz]

You can always do cardio after you lift.

[jadis]

I trained legs today at the gym. My new coach has me doing some sort of cardio before I do any weights, I guess it is to keep my heart rate higher while I'm doing the weights? On any of my old plans I never used to get so sweaty/tired and the only difference I can think of is that I'm doing a decent amount of cardio before I lift anything.

Could it be just a warm-up? Based on what several trainers have told me over the years, it makes more sense to do weights first, then cardio. Your metabolism skyrockets after weights and then cardio would have a much greater effect. 

[Guybrush]

Didn't like the bench much as I figured it was for exercising abs/back and not for bench presses, so threw that out and bought a new (well, second hand but unused) from someone who lives right by here. The new one comes with a barbell rack for bench presses and was quite a bit more fancy.

Then I picked up a straight barbell from a sports store as the ez/curl thing we had was small for the rack and anyways seems a little less suited for the squats and bench presses.

So I got the gear buying part of fitness pretty much down and it's a lot of fun.

[jimmy jazz]

Didn't like the bench much as I figured it was for exercising abs/back and not for bench presses, so threw that out and bought a new (well, second hand but unused) from someone who lives right be here. The new one comes with a barbell rack for bench presses and was quite a bit more fancy.

Then I picked up a straight barbell from a sports store as the ez/curl thing we had was small for the rack and anyways seems a little less suited for the squats and bench presses.

So I got the gear buying part of fitness pretty much down and it's a lot of fun.

You will outgrow this eventually but even if you're lifting five times a week you will be cool for a year or so.

If you look to upgrade or want something better, I'd recommend something like the following:



+



Obviously use the squat stands for your benching as well as squatting. Mine have a weight capacity of 300kg and my bench is 250kg so I'm well within those limits even with myself included in the bench. Basically all you need in a bench if you're training at home is something you can set to incline and with a good weight capacity, plus separate stands as ones that are part of the bench don't tend to have much capacity, also you can't move them around to suit your grip.

[Guybrush]

The one I bought now is pretty much like the first image you posted, but does have the stands sorta integrated. It seems useful enough for me, at least for a while I'm relatively weak and not lifting a lot of Kgs, so it'll probably last for a while and then I can swap it out later. Something I love about the second hand market is how easy it is to sell for the same-ish price as you paid earlier.

The free stands look really useful. I'll keep an eye out for those.

So I have the beginnings of an exercise program that I made myself. It could be shit, so maybe you guys have some tips. I don't have any particular problem areas in terms of strength that I want to address. My fitness goal is basically to be a little stronger, better mobility, a little sexier maybe and better condition overall.

So this is what I have sketched out so far:

I plan to start each session with some short warmup, like maybe 5-10 minutes on a treatmill or perhaps some power yoga. Then I have:


Monday (cardio day)
Situps
Reverse situps
Biceps curl
Jogging (main focus)


Tuesday (compound day)
Pendlay rows
Squats
Bench press


Wednesday (rest day)
Being a slob
Watching TV
Stuffing face
Masturbation (but not too rigorous)


Thursday (Mobility day)
Situps
Reverse situps
Biceps curl
Yoga (main focus)


Friday (compound day)
Pendlay rows
Squats
Bench press


Saturday (rest day)
Gettin' my chub on
Playing video games
Daytime napping


Sunday (compound day)
Pendlay row
Squats
Bench press


Besides squats, maybe I need more leg exercices, although I will be doing a fair bit of jogging as it's the most likely warmup to each session.

My reasoning for including the biceps curl is I think the compound exercises don't cover them that well (?) and we have this curl bar anyways, plus a few dumbbells. Not sure what else I'd use the curl bar for, but I'm aware an abundance of answers are just a google search away.

My reasoning for including situps and the reverse variety is I also don't think lower back and stomach are greatly targetted by the compound exercices (?).

There was a time when I could do 10-12 pull-ups, but that's a long time ago. Now it's more like 3 so until I get a little stronger, I've left those out. The pullup bar is so that you can put it on the floor to do pushups with and that's quite nice as I have a wonky wrist. I guess I might trade some of the bench pressing for pushups.

[jimmy jazz]

Wednesday sounds great.

You can do Romanian deadlifts and hip thrusts for hams. And you can add Bulgarian split squats for quads. They are challenging but fine to do with just your bodyweight.

Good shout on switching between bench press and pushups as that's what I was going to suggest. You could do that with everything BTW. Switch between two exercises each week. So have a week 1 routine and week 2. Week 1 squat, week 2 Bulgarian split squat. Etc.

BTW, you use the curl bar for bicep curls and also you can use it for skullcrushers.

Other than that it looks OK, keep reps to no more than 12 and sets to 3 for the first month or so, if you don't have debilitating muscle soreness that stops you moving around the next day then you're safe to increase. Remember, slow and perfect form and mind to muscle connection. And progressive overload.

Good luck Tore, post if you need anything.

And remember physique pics.