Saturday 14 May 2011

Day 20

I cancelled my gym membership a couple of days ago because I'm tired of their "just use machines and you'll get jacked!" mentality and their soft rubber mats underneath their squat racks.  I'm looking for a gym with bumper plates and some more serious lifting equipment.

I'd stick to my university gym, but the way their benchpress is set up, they're asking for people to get shoulder problems.  It's because of the "J" hook that is being used on all of the benches.  Instead of using a hook that's shaped like this (the proper way):

Part of the bench that holds the hooks ->  ||___/  <- flat area before the small hook that keeps the bar in place when not being lifted

They use pegs that go directly into the bench stand, and so they end up looking more like this:

||/

With no flat area before the hook.  What this unfortunately means is that you must be able to lift what you're benching entirely with your shoulders in order to bring the bar out in front of your chest, since the bar is always going to rest above your head and not your chest.  With a correctly made hook, you should be able to slide the bar out using a small amount of momentum from the flat area, and just be able to push horizontally to get the bar into place.

I believe this is stopping me from progressing with bench press as fast as I should be able to.  Even if it wasn't, I doubt I'm going to be able to lift that much more on just my shoulders, and so it would be safer to find a gym with correctly made hooks and the rest of the gym equipment I'm looking for.

9 comments:

  1. looks good man, keep it up

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  2. good luck on your search!
    i can see a change already, good job dude

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  3. So what are you going to do in the mean time with the cancelled membership?

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  4. i'm trying to lose weight, i'm all cardio cardio cardio until i hit the point i'm trying to reach.

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  5. Lookin' good, it will only get better. Keep it up!

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  6. I think you're doing good! Hope you find a gym to your liking.

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  7. @Xenototh: I still have access to the gym until this payment period finishes. If I haven't found anything by then, I'll probably go to my university gym and do dumbell press and flies until I can find something better.

    Can't keep away from bench press for too long though

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  8. I hope you do well man!
    You have alot to work with and I can see you'll get fit in no time! Just stay away from the junk food and sodas/beers.

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  9. why not try calisthenics? free, no gym needed, it's what ive done for 9 months, and i've never been bigger/stronger/healthier/happier in my whole life

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