View All Posts: JimXVX
| » squashed disc (Go to post) | 11-11-2015 @ 09:25 | ||
| Several years back I ran into a disc issue (L4/5 so just a tad higher than yours) that meant I had to stop training in a 'tradtional' manner & stop doing the big 3. Never mind spinal loading via squats or deadlifts, even arching my back for bench caused me problems. My problem was due to a very slight congenital hip condition; not a problem in day to day life, but not good for powerlifting. After a couple of years of constant re-injury & spending a stupid amount on physios/osteopaths and the like eventually I got to the stage where a specialist who'd worked at places like Loughborough Uni told me I should quit the gym altogether. So yes I was pretty depressed about it for a while but then decided to reassess my training style & now looking back it was the right decision & I'm stronger than I was before. Plus I'm not risking the long term health of my spine for a hobby! Thesedays my upper body work is based around dip & pull up variations. This may sound limited but once you add weight via a belt, use paused rep patterns, work on gymnastic rings etc etc there is plenty of scope for progression. The gymnastic rings were the best £40 I've ever spent. I 'enjoy' learning gymnastic moves like muscle up, levers & crosses to keep things varied. Lower body is more tricky obviously. Hip belt squats (using the 'super squats' belt sold by Ironmind) are a great way to squat with almost zero pressure on the spine. Of late my preferred option is to start a leg session with very heavy prowler pushes, then move onto Bulgarian split squats - by doing the prowler first I can then use relatively much lighter weights for the squats. Kettlebell swings & hip thrusters are a good way to keep the 'hinge' movement you'll lose if you stop deadlifting. I guess what I'm saying is that there is life after powerlifting so don't get too down about it. | |||
| » How many people consume dairy? (Go to post) | 28-09-2011 @ 17:05 | ||
MattD90 said:  I have always found dairy farmers individually to generally hold the highest standards of welfare. The industry itself has its flaws but individuals always tend to show a level of respect for their herd that you just don't see on other farms. One dairy farm I worked at practically had first names for every cow! Like a previous poster, I'm also from a dairy farming family. Needless to say my relatives weren't too impressed when I went vegan; my gran never quite looked at me in the same way once I turned to the dark side! I have to say that I completely disagree with the notion that animals are treated well. The image of the benevolent dairy farmer who dotes on his/her animals (an image that the dairy industry spends millions to promote, using UK & EU government subsidies) is bullsh*t. The dairy industry, particularly the industrialised version that now generates 99.99% percent of the products people consume, is by definition based on the principle that animals are a commercial commodity. People may try to disguise this by saying they give their cows pet names or by putting smiling cows on their product labels, but it doesn't change the fact that these animals, that feel pain and fear and grieve for their calves when they are forcibly separated, are treated as nothing more than 'biomachines'. Once they're no longer useful they soon get packed off to the slaughterhouse - as even staunch meat eaters like Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall readily admit 'the meat industry is the dairy industry'. Even if you think the above is hippy nonsense, it's also worth noting that animal based agriculture is massively wasteful in terms of land and water use. | |||
| » How many people consume dairy? (Go to post) | 25-09-2011 @ 22:34 | ||
streak said: Why not? Intolerance? No I just think that it's pretty disgusting from an ethical point of view so I'm vegan. | |||
| » How many people consume dairy? (Go to post) | 25-09-2011 @ 20:52 | ||
| No dairy ever. Even if dairy was optimal for strength gains (which I'd dipsute) I still wouldn't touch it. | |||
| » Faith (Go to post) | 05-08-2011 @ 20:04 | ||
| Put simply, religious faith = mental illness. | |||
| » straight edge (Go to post) | 05-08-2011 @ 08:51 | ||
| I've been straight edge for about 15 years now, vegan too as it happens. Straight edge is a personal choice, for me personally it's very important but I really couldn't care less how other people live their lives. None of my mates or my missus are into it. Actually the missus, my siblings & my closest handful of friends are the only people who even know about it. To everyone else, including all my work colleagues, I'm just the bloke who doesn't drink; funnily enough everyone just assumes it's because of my training. BenMac said:Length of Time LOT were not a straight edge band, complete beer monsters, although they were awesome live & on disc - excellent gym music! | |||
| » gyms in lincoln (Go to post) | 24-09-2010 @ 12:59 | ||
| The problem with Lincolnshire is that the roads are bloody awful. Horncastle isn't far from Lincoln distance-wise, but the journey can be a bit of ball ache & might not therefore be an option if time is tight. | |||
| » Papal visit to the UK (Go to post) | 17-09-2010 @ 11:14 | ||
Shaun said:The Pope is a c**t and the Catholic Church is one of the most disgusting organisations in the world. ^ Came here to post. Nice take on the pope's speech yesterday here: [url=]http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/international/pope-congratu... [/url] | |||
| » Gym in or near Derby (Go to post) | 14-09-2010 @ 10:23 | ||
| I'm in Derby myself. Not great on the gym front really for a place of its size. No strongman facilities as far as I'm aware. Couple of 'hardcore' gyms to choose from: Atlanta Gym near Pentagon Island & Full Force Gym on (I think) Monk Street. Both fairly central. Don't know much about Force Force & have never trained there. I'm currently using Atlanta,it's on Dunton Close on the West Meadows Industrial Estate. Open 12-9 Mon-Fri & 10-3 I think on Saturday. £3.50 session / £9 per week / £30 per month. More geared towards BB I reckon but plenty of powerlifters training there & it has got a monolift. Only been going there since my old gym shut a few weeks ago but seems really friendly. | |||
| » First deadlift session since my bicep tear (Go to post) | 13-08-2010 @ 10:06 | ||
richards9876 said:Great deadlifting. Quite amusing that youve got Big Terry pulling 380kg then behind him theres some young lad making a meal of the pec dec. Yeah I've noticed this a few times with strongmen videos! I remember one with some guy pulling 400+ (think it was Big Z) whilst in the background some dude was curling an empty bar  | |||
| » Dipping Belts (Go to post) | 05-08-2010 @ 17:10 | ||
| Regarding belt squats, my preference is to strap an EZ bar between my legs using the daisy chains & stand on a platform so that the plates don't hit the floor in the bottom position. Obviously you can't get a huge amount of weight on an EZ bar but for some reason belt squats are really tough so not much weight is needed compared to barbell work. For someone like me with a dodgy back this exercise is a life saver! | |||
| » Dipping Belts (Go to post) | 05-08-2010 @ 16:06 | ||
| Another vote for Ironmind here, although the belt I use is actually the pricier Super Squats version 'cos I do belt squats too. The most I've had on it is 80kg but it's completely rock solid. | |||
| » Bulging Disc (Go to post) | 05-07-2010 @ 21:32 | ||
| I've had a recurring bulging disc issue for the last 3 and a half years. To be honest I got to the stage where I was so tired of constantly being injured (not to mention skint due to constant physio & osteopathic treatment!) that I've completely changed the way I train to avoid all spinal loading as for me this is the real trigger - that means basically no free weights apart from hip belt squats where the load is carried on the hips & not the spine; besides the squats I do GHR, pistols & stuff like pull ups, dips & gymnastic ring work for upper body. Accepting I was never going to 'lift weights' again was hard but at least now my back is generally free from that f*cking awful pain & I've not had to quit working out as I'd been advised to numerous times. (I've discovered I have an underlying hip issue that makes my back injury prone, so I'm sure most folk including the OP would recover better than me; basically mine was an accident waiting to happen I've been told). | |||
| » Body weight training (Go to post) | 01-07-2010 @ 16:20 | ||
| All my upper body work is bodyweight based. Apart from the aforementioned stuff, I love using my gymnastics rings. Good for pull work like chins & inverse rows of course, but especially good for push work where they add a large degree of instability. Weighted ring dips are my current fave. | |||
| » Squat alternatives (Go to post) | 01-07-2010 @ 12:46 | ||
| I'm in a similar position myself - basically I have a slight congenital hip issue that pulls my pelvis slightly out of alignment, which in turn affects my lower back. Not a problem in day to day life but any kind of spinal loading or even arching causes me serious trouble so I've customised my gym routine to work around the problem. Obviously any type of barbell squat is out of the question for me. Pistols squats are OK but my go-to leg exercise now is hip belt squats using this [url=]http://www.ironmind.com/ironmind/opencms/Main/homesweathome4.h... (which I got from Joni ). What I do is use an 'EZ' bar (as a barbell can move around mid exercise) & stand on an aerobics step platform so that the plates don't hit the floor at the bottom of each rep. Quite difficult to get used to but works brilliantly with a bit of practice.Maybe this could work for you? | |||