Altra 0 drop varieties are brilliant for gym, wide toe box and flat,
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Right, all my summer holidays etc. are out of the way. Time for a concerted effort to put in a solid block at the gym and tick off some more of the targets I still havenāt managed. Iāve decided to not exactly do a bulk but to track food and make sure Iām getting @180-200g of Protein a day plus calories as high as practically possible without force feeding myself or eating crap.
GC/MFP give me a lot of credit for the steps I do dog walking (@10k per day) so 3000 calories a day is still showing me in deficit most days. but Iām not convinced thatās the case so Iāll keep a watching brief.
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Starting to see the odd PB at the gym again so think things are going the right way.
Flat Bench - 5x110kg (Iāve done 1RMs higher than that but thatās a PB for reps and my best was 4x110kg when I did 1x130kg earlier in the year)
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Blimey, thatās some serious weight.
I had (20 years ago) a BP PB of 155kg. There was no chance I could do 5 x 110kg.
Kudos Sir.
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And thereās no way I could do 155kg; 135, maybe 140kg.
It shows you have to take those 1RM calculators with a pinch of salt. 5x110kg puts me at 126kg when I did 130kg off 4x110kg and probably could have done a bit more. 155kg would put you at about 11/12 reps for 110kg.
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Weird weekend of training.
Wasnāt really feeling it Saturday morning but dragged myself down there and ended up with a couple of good PBs.
7x110kg on Flat Bench (then did 1x120kg but shouldnāt have bothered as clearly hadnāt recovered from the 110s enough as Iāve done 130kg before)
3x70kg on Military Press after 8x60kg (been stuck on 6x60kg for ages so particularly pleased with that)
Felt even less like it on Sunday so didnāt bother going and spent a couple of hours messing with the moped instead.
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Not had a lower body PB since God was a boy, but finally seen a couple over the last week or so.
Squats - 4x150kg & Deadlifts - 4x160kg
In terms of my strength targets, Iām pretty close now. Iām definitely going to chuck 75kg on the Military Press and give it a whirl before the gym closes, the estimated 1RM suggests thatās doable.
Deadlifts are another story, an extra 20kg is quite a lot to just throw on and have a bash, Iām not sure Iād get that off the floor (but I may try if the mood takes me); 200kg is a pipe dream at the moment, so thatāll have to be carried over into 2026.
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Umbelical Hernia.
I got diagnosed with this by my doctor when I was running 4-5hrs a week in ā22, he said I might die if the intestine got trapped. So I stopped with the running and itās always been on my mind discouraging me from lifting but Iām still alive. I can feel it but I donāt think itās visible bumps.
- If I started lifting heavy again, would a weight belt stop it getting worse?
- Do powerlifting movements help or risk sudden death?
- And, unrelated, is it The Highlander where a guy gets his stomach sliced and is holding his own guts in place?
Got to the gym at the weekend, but thatās probably it for this year now so below will be final position for 2025.
I had a go at 75kg on Military Press and managed 3 so thatās that sorted.
I could have gone for more reps at 160kg on Deadlifts to hit the estimated 1RM but decided to go sh1t or bust and hold back on warm up sets then give 180kg a go, but couldnāt do it. Got it about an inch off the ground but then it just wouldnāt move so Iāll be carrying that into 2026.
Ps. Interestingly there was a lad there who trains with some more powerlifting type chaps in the evening and he said Iād have a better chance with a different bar, which Iād never really thought about before; I just use whichever oneās there.
There are 2 types of bar at the gym, most are quite thick and barely flex at all whatever weight you put on them but there are 1 or 2 slimmer ones (still 20kg) that flex quite noticeably when they get heavy; and he said I should use one of those for Deadlifts as theyāre much easier to get moving. I guess the logic is thatās itās more progressive as youāre only lifting part of the weight to begin with, because of the flex, until the whole bar comes off the floor. With the rigid bar, youāre lifting the full whack as soon as it moves. Maybe something to try in the new year.
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Wiped down all my bumper plates with degreaser and paper towels.
I was not expecting so much brown, disgusting.
First clean I think in five years. Need to hoover the whole space and wipe down the powercage too.
My sonās old dumbbells are next level rust and gross. Maybe be the dump for those.
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This is no place for euphemisms like that 
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Struggled to get back into gym routine at start of year and, after a bit of thinking, decided itās time for a change of routine.
Iāve doing a variation of Push, Pull, Legs, 5 days per week including weekends and been finding it a bit of a bind, particularly weekends when thereās other stuff I could be doing and the gym is only open limited hours so it puts a bit of a whole in the middle of the day.
Iāve decided to drop down to 4 days (Mo, Tu, Th, Fr) leaving weekends completely free (or maybe a catch-up if I miss a session).
I could do upper/lower and still train everything twice a week (which seems to be the science based recommendation) but have also been reading/watching a lot of stuff about sticking to once per week to give sufficient recovery/growth time (Mentzer, Dorian Yates etc.), especially as you get older (Iām 55)
As such Iām trying some kind of āBro split.ā
Iāve started with Chest & Bis, Legs, Back & Abs, Shoulders & Tris but am also considering a Push, Pull, Legs, Arms split; as I think my arms are a bit of a weak point so that would give them extra focus.
Ps. Think my Deadlift target may have to go on the back burner for a while as Iām not seeing where to fit that in & I donāt want to get obsessed with a strength target that I donāt really have any justification for in reality.
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I wouldnāt bother with leg day if I were you
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That looks like 140kg to me. I think he is absolute bellend but that lift looks legit to me.
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I saw the video of that posted elsewhere and the general opinion was that the weights werenāt real
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Itās not like theyāve got form for B\S or anything 
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Itās brave to assume each plate is 20kg absent the traditional colouring. At my gym the 5 and the 10 are all black, and the 5 is twice as wide as the 10
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Iāve never really bothered with him, or America much in the past couple of years, so googled him and see what I thought was a fake image but now seen similar ones on family holidays, but does a member of Trumps team really have 5 iron crosses tattooed on his chest 
Canāt imagine that would have gone down well in his military days, yet they kicked him out for Deus Vult.
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