What's your favorite exercise in teh gym?

Muscle development, so important.

Nobody wants to look out of shape, and with such a dynamic range of exercises and equipment - we'e spoiled for choice.

Muscle development is based on extension and contraction, which means you lengthen the muscle, then apply the contraction force to shorten it; rinse and repeat.

(sounds obvious but often neglected).

So for bicep curls, you start with the arm fully extended, then contract the bicep to flex the arm - shorten the muscle = get swole around teh pythons.

The concept is applied to muscle development for every individual muscle or muscular group in the body.

i.e. ab crunches = start with body extended, then flex it = contracting abs = washboard definition.

.....

So with all that being said, what exercises are your favorite?

Me?

• A new one I've found that gives killer definition to the abdominal-obliques are known as, "suitcase carries", which is basically like a "farmers walk" but with only one side loaded (half a farmers walk), as it causes the opposite side of the body to go into contraction-overdrive to maintain posture = burns the obliques.

I also like,

• dragon flies
• invert back flairs (aka reverse front levers)
• lateral dumb bell extensors

But at the moment my overall favorite has got to be,

• upside down hanging batman's

....

What exercises do you enjoy and find effective to look good, appropriately chiseled etc., so's to impress whilst going minimalist with clothing?

French Toast

Dumbbell bench-press. Great exercise as an aside to the barbell bench press, I enjoy the challenge of keeping the separate weights stable. Also a good indicator if one side of your body is lagging behind the other. Experimenting with higher reps / lower weight can also be fun.

Degag

Pornhub leads me to believe it to be the Wheelbarrow

Mister Vain

I like the preacher curl.

Sgt Hartman

I used to love doing leg building weights but I haven't gone near weights in over 3 years due to severe sciatica. It cost me over €3k to get it sorted with injections and physio. Thankfully I haven't had a bad attack of sciatica since then.

Nowadays my favorite exercises are cross trainer and spin bike sessions accompanied by frantic Japanese metalcore music and video game OSTs on Bluetooth headphones for added motivation.

Canis Lupus

Squats. I leave all the dragon flies and upside down batman and robins to the dudes who spend half their session looking at themselves in the mirror.

Capt'n Midnight

My favourite machine ? The vending machine.

wotzgoingon

Best to stay out of the gym just in case you become a cult leader. As we all know what happened Hitler....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTO6fAJf1GM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117940153#Comment_117940153

I just got to ask, as exercises targeting the hip carriage are normally used to alleviate sciatica, what type of leg-building exercises were you doing?

johnny five

Walking to the exit unfortunately.

I used to love going to the gym. The deadlift was my favourite. I managed to deadlift 200kg.

For some reason now though I just have no motivation and I don't go anymore.

Sgt Hartman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117940365#Comment_117940365

I was mainly doing squats, leg presses, and calf raises. I think it was single arm shoulder presses that caused the nerve to get pinched in my back though. I couldn't walk unless I was dosed with solpadol and difene.

completedit

There's so many meme exercises out there like deadlifts. There's no reason for your average normie to do deadlifts. Even squats are overrated. Low reps is also a major delusion. So much advice is spouted by people on tren who will grow doing any sort of workout routine.

Celticfire

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117940767#Comment_117940767

Meme exercises? Interesting , never hear that description before. Seeing as you've dismissed squats and deadlifts for "normies" could you perhaps guide us in the right direction and impart some of your wisdom on what us "normies" should actually do in the gym?

johnny five

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117940869#Comment_117940869

He sounds like a textbook internet expert. Wouldn't take any of his advice if I were you.

jester77

Squats, hits lots of the muscle groups and can move over twice my body weight with it.

mary 2021

I like eating in the health bar, protein shakes and healthy meals.....

Ush1

Heavy bag.

Fiery mutant

None of them. I know going to the gym is good for me, and I do it. I don’t particularly enjoy it though. The best part of the gym for me is doing laps in the pool after. So refreshing and makes me feel alive after.

Ash.J.Williams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058210410/whats-your-favorite-exercise-in-teh-gym

c0ck pushups

iamstop

Various free weights exercises. I'm terrible with the names of the various exercises. I like tricep curls and shoulder presses.

endacl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117940767#Comment_117940767

Jaysus. Even on topics that have nothing to do with your weird inferiority complex…

’Normie’… FFS…

billyhead

Pull ups. True sign of strength.

wotzgoingon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117946661#Comment_117946661

Back when I used to go to the gym I used to love doing pull ups and chin ups. But I have a injury in my arm that will not heal and gets 10 times worse if I do any weight training or pull ups. So quit the gym a few years ago. And I am feeling great and now play computer games and now look like my role model in pic below:

Blitzkrieger

Can't beat a good snatch! When you hit all the positions just right and it feels like that bar just flies up overhead. Really should have gone out and bought an olympic bar and weights at the start of the first lockdown...

AllForIt

I don't have favourite exercises. I have least favourite ones though.

Strumms

Generally my hour now is...Treadmill, cross-trainer, leg curl machine...

20, 15 & 15 on each and 10 minutes spent on misc stuff like sanitizing equipment / drinks break and moving between equipment, that’s my booked hour...

exercising that doesn’t involve equipment I can do at home...

I never took to the gym. And as a story I told before shows - it did not take to me either.

As for my "favourite" things to do while I was in there? I instantly gravitated towards the things that were poor emulations of things I was doing in my life anyway. So running machines and the like.

As usual with these threads I see one person quickly changed the topic from what your favourites are to what you "should" or "should not" or "need to" be doing. I am always sceptical when the conversation goes there. If you are someone who is not doing a whole lot of movement or exercise in life - I assume this is what the "normie" above refers to - then the only thing you "need" to do in a gym is whatever gets you to keep coming back. The "bruh do you even lift" crowd can go sit on a dumbell until it slides up where their head has previously gone :)

Find what keeps you going back - and stick to that. For me there was nothing in the gym that did it for me at all. It was just too boring and mundane and repetitive. I prefer to be out in the real world exploring all the ways to challenge my body's limits of strength, motion, and balance. I'd get bored after 1k on a running machine quicker than I would out doing 20k along roads and forest. I need the outside and the constant changing scene and the real world.

mohawk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117949421#Comment_117949421

Same. Most of them are terrible and some of them are truly the work of the devil. Burpees being the absolute worst of all.

Once I have recovered enough to exercise after having this baby I do want to get back to the gym I prefer having a trainer/class environment so I don’t slack off. As awful as a session could be you feel great afterwards. Your energy is better, your strength, flexibility etc. A strong core means less back pain. You do have to mind yourself and if a particular exercise causes pain then that exercise is probably not for you. Also when you kill yourself with thrusters and snatches you really rethink your diet and ask yourself if that sweet treat is worth it.