The all new and only slightly recycled off topic thread (read post 1)

awec

Greys Anatomy is the really cheesy hospital show right?

Yea she likes that.

Yea it's terrible.

Podge_irl

umop.episdn wrote: »

Does this woman in London know you've appointed her as your "girlfriend"?
Kinda like me telling everyone I was going to marry Daryl Hannah after I saw Splash

Ha. Swiwi and awec have met her, so if she's put up with meeting "these guys I know from the internet" then I think I'm safe.

LostArt

.ak wrote: »

Kicked up my training this week and starting a new S&C course over 6 weeks. It's a 5 day week job, so because I've very little times in the evenings as well as rugby training I've started doing it in the AM, get to the gym for 6am.

Hell, is the only word I can describe what I'm going through, hell.... Hopefully I get over the first week hump, but the super strict nutrition plan isn't helping either. I never crave junk food, but right now I could eat a smoked cod and chips, easily, for breakfast. Twice.

Tell me about it, I've been lifting weights 5 times a week for the last 6 weeks with a pretty strict diet.
Went out all day on Sunday though, then Monday consisted of pizza, chips and a tub of ben and jerrys.

.ak

You need those cheat days to recharge the batteries and make it a little bit more bearable.. My off-day meals are pretty okay, lots of poaches eggs and smoked salmon and stuff like that. I'm happy with that. But yeah, maybe at the 2 week mark I'm gonna have a blow out sunday.

Taco Corp

.ak wrote: »

You need those cheat days to recharge the batteries and make it a little bit more bearable.. My off-day meals are pretty okay, lots of poaches eggs and smoked salmon and stuff like that. I'm happy with that. But yeah, maybe at the 2 week mark I'm gonna have a blow out sunday.

would you be willing to post your diet plan?

mfceiling

.ak wrote: »

You need those cheat days to recharge the batteries and make it a little bit more bearable.. My off-day meals are pretty okay, lots of poaches eggs and smoked salmon and stuff like that. I'm happy with that. But yeah, maybe at the 2 week mark I'm gonna have a blow out sunday.

Surely that bbq festival in Herbert park must meet the blow out conditions?

*loosens belt in anticipation*

19543261

Captain_Hindsight wrote: »

would you be willing to post your diet plan?

This. Also, whats your routine look like mon-fri? Details, .ak.

dregin

Where do you actually get all of these routines? A personal trainer? Books? Online?

.ak

Captain_Hindsight wrote: »

would you be willing to post your diet plan?

Absolutely, would be pretty standard to what you'd expect a week-day training diet designed to keep your body from crashing as you have no rest days mid-week. An example of it would be as follows, based on morning training and I am 70kg, roughly 3 hours between each meal (not including post work out supplements etc).

• Breakfast: Shake of 50g jumbo oats, 1x scoop of whey protein, 2 egg whites, banana, teaspoon of organic peanut butter and water.
• Post work out: ON 2:1:1 Recovery formula
• Snack: Small Handful of pumpkin seeds/cashews/almonds etc.
• Lunch: 150-200g of grilled chicken, 50g of quinoa, mixed veg (spinach, peppers, asparagus etc)
• Snack: 1x scoop of whey protein
• Dinner: 150-200g of grilled chicken or beef or salmon & mixed veg, avacado, flax seeds
• Snack: Casein (before going to sleep)

So obviously a bit of room for movement, but usually I'll grill/poach a lot of chicken for use over 3 days. Key really is to change it up now and again, whether that's in terms of meat, spices used to cook meat, or the veg you eat with the meat, otherwise you'll go insane. Everything is griddled and no oils used (maybe a touch of coconut oil just so the meat doesn't stick). No extra salt unless absolutely necessary. No condiments apart from sugar free/fat free ones, i.e; Franks Hotsauce or el Yucateco habenero sauces.

mfceiling wrote: »

Surely that bbq festival in Herbert park must meet the blow out conditions?

*loosens belt in anticipation*

Absolutely. Must pick up tickets for that. If you haven't tried the pear, Gorgonzola and parma pizza from the big blue bus you have to try it.

19543261 wrote: »

This. Also, whats your routine look like mon-fri? Details, .ak.

Routines are split into bi-weekly. First two weeks is a switch routine of resistance and core work. So for example there would be two routines, alternating on each day. Routine 1 is resistance, and would consist of things like bench press, deadlifts, cleans and presses, squats, pullups and dips and curls etc.

Second routine is mostly core; cable crunches, extensions, weighted sit ups, weighted planks, incline leg raises etc.

With the weights you decide how much you lift based on what your goals are. For example I'm looking to add a bit of muscle and strength, as I'm mostly doing this for the incoming season. Based on that I would basically be lifting 8 reps for 3 sets. The idea is I'm looking to fail on the last rep of the last set. Essentially that's the heaviest I can go without form dipping. That will encourage a higher tear rate and build more muscle. If you wanted to lean out you would be aiming for 12 reps for 5 sets.

I get down to the gym at 6am and it takes about 75 minutes to do a routine including rest times etc. I'm a bit new to this level of training so those more experienced would probably do it in 60.

dregin wrote: »

Where do you actually get all of these routines? A personal trainer? Books? Online?

You can build your own so long as you know how really. I mean, once you have a basic understanding of opposing muscle groups etc there's no reason you can't. A good resource is bodybuilding.com's forums. There's plenty of sticky's there about how to build your routines. There's also a lot of starter routines floating around the net for free, like StrongLifts 5x5 which I can't recommend a enough. Something I used to get my form correct and basically what I always go back to during the season as a way of improving your core strengths.

But to be honest, I'm fairly new to all of this. Have only been actively getting fit for the past 2 years - before that I was a butterball! I do like to try these pre-set routines now and again. They all offer the same thing though, which is basically just a sheet of routines and perhaps a basic nutrition guide. The thing that it doesn't give you is self-motivation, and it's why a lot of people fall of them. But they're a pretty good way to kickstart yourself into a routine and perhaps get you into a gear you probably couldn't get yourself into.

In regards to learning form, it's good to maybe talk to a personal trainer about certain exercises. However, I find a lot of them don't really know their stuff to be brutally honest. You can learn form from videos and then videoing yourself. Or even better, go to a good physio. As part of my rehab my physio had me doing a lot of lifting by the end of it and had me lifting in safe, great form.

I'm currently doing the TotalRugby one. It's fairly close to what I was doing already but is probably a level above what I'm used to - which is exactly what I wanted.

LostArt

where do you train .ak?

.ak

At the moment in Flyefit Macken st. Cheap as chips and generally you always get a rack free in the morning.

LostArt

I actually train there myself, I'd never be there at that hour of the morning though!

.ak

Only started this week, would usually be in after work. But with rugby on monday/wednesdays and generally wanting a bit of evening time I thought it'd make sense to get down there before work. It's taking it's toil though, but I say it's like anything once ye get used to the routine of getting up that early...

awec

6am. ha!

Middle of the night.

.ak

The alarm goes off at 4am.

.ak

Funny thing is when I went down for the first time at that hour I was expecting the place to be deserted... but I actually had to wait for a rack! There was a fair few people there. Busier than a lot of gyms during the day I'd say.

awec

.ak wrote: »

The alarm goes off at 4am.

Buer

.ak wrote: »

The alarm goes off at 4am.

Do you swim to the gym?!

I live northside and work on the quays. Alarm goes off at 7am and I'm showered, fed and in work by 7.50am.

I could never do what you just outlined for a variety of reasons. You are a crazy person :pac:

awec

My alarm goes off at 9:30 am . :cool:

Zzippy

awec wrote: »

My alarm goes off at 9:30 am . :cool:

I'm on holidays. What's an alarm?

pickarooney

I got exhausted just reading that. What level are you playing at or aiming for, .ak?

ssaye2

pickarooney wrote: »

I got exhausted just reading that. What level are you playing at or aiming for, .ak?

13 at Leinster this season.

Has a chance.

thomond2006

pickarooney wrote: »

I got exhausted just reading that. What level are you playing at or aiming for, .ak?

Replace Jonny at Toulon

.ak

Buer wrote: »

Do you swim to the gym?!

I live northside and work on the quays. Alarm goes off at 7am and I'm showered, fed and in work by 7.50am.

I can't stand getting out of bed when the alarm goes off. I set my alarm, snooze on and off until 5am and then get up.

.ak

pickarooney wrote: »

I got exhausted just reading that. What level are you playing at or aiming for, .ak?

Just at a social level to be honest. Like I said, I've only really been actively trying to get fit in the last two years. I'm still at 18% bodyfat but compared to what I was (in the overweight range) that's allright, and my plan is to get down to 12% this summer, maybe 10% if I push hard enough. Only went back playing rugby last season so I'm pretty ****e tbh, spent most of it rehabing old injuries.

TBH at anything below J2 level fitness means feck all. I could be the fittest person in the squad but still be absolutely shocking. The fitness thing is a bit rugby related, but mostly just personal. I'm 28 now and I feel if I don't get into top shape now it'll just get harder with each year that goes by.

molloyjh

.ak wrote: »

Just at a social level to be honest. Like I said, I've only really been actively trying to get fit in the last two years. I'm still at 18% bodyfat but compared to what I was (in the overweight range) that's allright, and my plan is to get down to 12% this summer, maybe 10% if I push hard enough. Only went back playing rugby last season so I'm pretty ****e tbh, spent most of it rehabing old injuries.

TBH at anything below J2 level fitness means feck all. I could be the fittest person in the squad but still be absolutely shocking. The fitness thing is a bit rugby related, but mostly just personal. I'm 28 now and I feel if I don't get into top shape now it'll just get harder with each year that goes by.

I can attest to that...

.ak

molloyjh wrote: »

I can attest to that...

Atleast I didn't do my knee in running around an astro park!

justsomebloke

.ak wrote: »

I can't stand getting out of bed when the alarm goes off. I set my alarm, snooze on and off until 5am and then get up.

Chances are you are doing yourself a big disservice doing this. Rest and food are just as important as working out and by setting your alarm for 4 instead of 5 you are basically getting an one less of rest. So stop it and just learn to get up when your alarm goes off you big wuss

molloyjh

.ak wrote: »

Atleast I didn't do my knee in running around an astro park!

Hey I took that knock at a breakdown on astro in the snow!