LMAO!!! That's some funny sh**.... Just buy a used bench for 50-60 bucks

 

 

I agree with all of the above. Your friend is correct too. If you want some "light reading" you should pick up the Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding by Arnold Schwartsenegger. I don't know of many (if any) training tecniqhes that book does not cover. I read most of it and got my other work out knowledge from reading years worth of muscle magazines (Musclemag was is probably my favorite...Flex was pretty good too).

When I was 17 I weighed 176 at my "most ripped form"(my ideal bodyweight is probably more like 185). I am 5'11". At 185 I could bench press 315 lbs for three reps. I used 225 lbs for my "warm up" for 10 or 12 reps. I never "maxed out" after I could do 315 three times. I never saw a point in it. After you hit 300lbs, the bench starts to cut into your back& sometimes it would cause big bruises down the sides. I never was a big fan of squats, so I never went much over 350 or so on them. I routinely did in excess of 600 lbs on the leg press though.
Everybody knew me at the gym. I used to work out with a guy who was only about 5'6" maybe and he could do way more weight than me on everything.
I never touched a steroid in my life, nor did any of the guys I worked out with. All of that reading I did never once glorified them.We did take creatine and whey protein out the wazoo though. We also took ephedra to cut the fat. I still don't believe ephedra is harmful as long as you don't take more than the recommended doseage.

I guess my problem with not going to the gym now is that I don't have a workout partner to call me on the phone every night and tell me I'm lazy, weak, and fat if I don't go to the gym with him. Me and one of my workout partners used to do that to each other all the tie. if one was like "I don't feel like working out tonight." the other would always be like "Enjoy becoming a fat, lazy weakling then! I'm going to the gym beyotch!"
I am now overweight at about 235 or 240 lbs. I don't work out anymore. I gained 30 lbs during my wife's pregnancy...she only gained 20. I blame it all on her McDonalds cravings!

 

I'm 6'-0", 185 lbs. I haven't maxed anything in years and have only started to do some strength training again yesterday.

The last set of maxes that I can remember was in highschool. I weighed 160 and had less than 6% fat (per wrestling certification testing). My bench was 265, sqauted 275-8 times, and hang-cleaned 235. We didn't do dead lifts, but once, just hacking around in weightlifting gym class, I did 650 lbs. on the sled. ...... the low body fat lead to not being able to shake a cold that lasted all summer resulting in self-inflicted mono (never got the Epstein-Barr virus, so I'm still suceptible [sp?]).

My focus right now is not to improve or even work on max lifting. I've been doing cardio on the eliptical for a half hour 3-5 days a week (whenever I can get in during the week, meetings suck!). My strength training is geared toward my muscles that have atrophied more than the rest of my body (chest, quads, hamstrings and glutes). Pretty soon I'm going to add hips and lower back to help with learning to ride a snowboard. Around the end of the winter, I plan to change from specific strength training to the 22 minute wholistic "Fast Track" training that is already set up at NYSC ...... and after all of my muscles are in shape enough, I will switch again to train specific muscle groups per day ..... at this last stage, I expect to do strength training 3 days a week and cardio 2. Running and push-ups are the 2 perfect exercises ..... you can maintain yourself with just those 2 ...... I've been slacking on the push-ups though (at my best, I was doing about 400 a day, daily)

 

Arnold is my governor! Woot. I remember when I took whey and creatine and ate like a ****. I was up to 180 and a lot stronger than I am in my present condition. Just became too much stuffing my mouth with foods and supplements.

I need to get in better cardio shape. I tried playing basketball a month ago, full court, and I could barely keep up. I can't believe how out of shape I was. I look like I should be in shape, but man, I was sucking air like an intake without an air filter.


So far i'm the shortest guy...ugh.


When there are several dudes hanging around a specific piece of equipment that you want to you use, do you guys wait or kindly ask them if you rotate in? I'm too shy and usually just wait and sometimes skip the machine all together bc they take do darn long!

 

Haha! It looks like we are making this thread into a "How much ya bench?" thread! Sorry bout that.

I usually skip the machine/equipment and move on to another excercise near by and keep my eye on them until they are done. I don't want to screw up their workout if they are trying to do specific rest intervals in between sets. If it is only one guy on a machine though sometimes I'll ask if he minds if I work in with him. As long as either the weight is easily and quickly changed or he is using about the same amount of weight I want to use. (This doesn't matter on cable machines that use pins to select the weight.)
If it's a squat rack or the smith machine I never ask to work in. Maybe on a bench press if the guy is doing similar weight, but most of the time I don't.
I'm pretty much a loaner in the gym. Unless I can find a good work out partner that doesn't try to talk to me the whole time and will push me to work out harder (a rarity)

 

You should see these guys....they are all around late 40's and they just chat like a bunch of school girls. I think they just go to the gym to avoid their families or something. No joke, sometimes they are at a machine for 1/2 hour....

 

I hate that more than anything in the gym. i want to be like: "If you want to talk, get out of the way to do it. Go to the locker room. Stand in a corner. But get your dumb a** off the machine I want to use!"
I used to see girls do it all the time when they were just sitting there watching their boyfriends work out and trying to talk to them. They would just plop their ditsy butt down on a bench and there would be like 3 guys standing there waiting for them to move.I always wanted to strangle the boyfriend for bringing her there in the first place.

What I also hate in the gym:
girls that come in with a face covered in makeup and they get on the eliptical machines and move at a snails pace. They never even break a sweat. If they had even planned on it they wouldn't have worn all that makeup! AAAHHHH!!! I like to use the eliptical machines too b****! And I want to actuallybreak a sweat and get my money's worth out of this $100/month gym membership!

 

I hope that 100/mo memebership was an exaggeration. Well, i'm off to the gym. Lunch crowd is a good crowd. They usually get their shizzle done fast and don't mess around like the evening crowd.

 

The gym I was at a little over a year ago was 100/month for a "family membership" i.e. myself and my wife. It was $60/month for a single membership. Of couse, they did have a "day care" center that would watch your kids while you worked out, so I'm sure that played a part in the price.
I may start working out at the YMCA now cause it's much cheaper.