Whenever I finish my weight routine at the gym lately, I have this urge to punch something. I don’t know whether it’s the endorphins or my frustration at rarely being able to make progress over my previous session. Seriously, I keep written records of every set of weights I lift, and sometimes I even see regression in my ability. I give myself a few days between each session and I drink lots of protein powder and eat lots of chicken and other protein-laden meats. And yet little progress. I feel like I plateaued in March after two months of weights and have made very little headway since.
Oh, the other annoyance: people who set up weights on two different machines at once, when I want to use one of them. And these people are often staff members.
Grrrr. Angry.
isn’t testosterone a wonderful hormone?
That’s okay. Often while I’m lifting weights at the gym, I get the urge to grab guys by the package. They don’t even have to look like you.
First, the staff hogging the equipment problem: complain to the management about how you feel that the staff is not allowing the paying members to use the equipment first. Let your money speak.
Second, the plateau issue: instead of writing down what you lifted and making all kinds of records, why don’t you just lift weights? Take the pressure off by just lifting a certain amount that you know you can. Eventually, you will be able to lift more. Unless you are going for a type of body in a set time period, writing down everything you do is just unnecessary. Make it more something you do as part of your day. Trust me, the results will be much more rewarding if you take away the pressure.
Well, to clarify, the staff member wasn’t using the machines for himself, he was working with a client. But it’s still annoying when someone is using two different machines and going back and forth from one to the other and I want to use one of them. I just don’t like having to work in with people and keep changing the weights and settings back and forth.
And I was just particularly annoyed today because the gym was nearly empty, and yet this trainer and his client were almost ALWAYS on the machines I wanted to use. It was like this trainer and his client were one step ahead of me. Grrr.
Testosterone; It’s an amazing drug, especially in such large releases. Just go with the chemical-flow and follow your emotions, real or not.
In due time, no one will dare hog any machine near your “the crazy gym-Jew’s space”, as they said at my gym.
;-]
rob@egoz.org
Pretty impossible to diagnose at a distance, but it sounds like you’ve got diet and frequency covered. That leaves questions of: 1) are you OVER-training biceps? 2) are you “cheating”/failing to isolate biceps? 3) are you mixing it up enough, exercise-wise?
Review good form. No elbows leaning into your sides for leverage. No “bouncing” at the end of reps – come to a complete stop between each, arms fully extended. Make the release part of each rep slower and more controlled than the lift portion. If you can’t maintain good form for six to eight reps, use less weight. But if you can handle it for ten to 12 reps, use more weight.
There are dozens of exercises to work biceps (standing, seated, inclined, kneeling, simultaneous, alternating, dumbbells, bars, cables, concentration, preacher, etc. – Google ’em). But you should only do sets of a couple types in any one workout, then mix ’em up workout to workout. Attack from many angles. Modulate shield harmonics.
Instead, work in more exercises that only hit biceps secondarily. Push ups, presses, underhand facing-the-bar pulldowns and pull ups. Do cardio on a rowing or cross-country/elliptical machine, trying different elbow angle and underhand/overhand combinations. Bikers develop legs from extended medium intensity, not just three sets of six to eight reps. Bet your arms would develop quickly if you operated a jackhammer, or worked for UPS.
To get large upper arms overall, not just the peak at the front, you have to work triceps too (dips,downward presses…). They provide twice the arm mass of biceps. And while you’re logging and tracking, tape measure those upper arms once a month, too.
Mike: it would be easier for me to communicate with you if you had an email address.
What’s your email?