Gym And Supplement Discussion

[markos]

There are very few Olympic lifting gyms in Australia, 2 in Vic, HWC and Phoenix.

Power racks are unheard of, they all use squat stands.

Any missed front squat is simply dumped on the ground, hence the bumper plates

I dont expect lifters or PT's in commercial to understand front squats, just like I dont expect a car dealer to understand why my car needs to tun 10 second quarters

Very few gyms even have bumper plates, all Crossfit gyms do though.

We have

26 x 25kg bumpers

26 x 20kg bumpers

14 x 15kg bumpers

18 x 10kg bumpers

4 x 5kg bumpers

These are just the bumper plates, we also have calibrated plates and regular plates

[Birds]

You can bag the media, but they are only feeding the people what they want: death and disaster. Infinitely more fascinating to the human eye than success and happiness.

Oh well, any publicity is good publicity, as they say.

[bozodos]

What's so special about the front squat? Apart from it looking like an inherently harder movement than a back squat.

We have 170kg of bumper plates in our gym - they are generally only used in the power cage for squats and deadlifts / shrugs etc (until idiots pinch them for the smith machine).

[markos]

Thats a sign Bozo

[bozodos]

I think the biggest sign was when they took away some of the free weights area to run more classes on and installed more elliptical machines haha.

Oh well, another 6 months and I'll probaby be training with the Crossfitters (I've already had some try to convert me lol)

[markos]

Front squats are the #1 assistance exercise we do for our powerlifters, along with high bar squats and pause squats. The whole team does these lifts on squats day

[Nee-san]

I think the biggest sign was when they took away some of the free weights area to run more classes on and installed more elliptical machines haha.

Oh well, another 6 months and I'll probaby be training with the Crossfitters (I've already had some try to convert me lol)

Did they try and blow you ?

[L33SH]

Shit gets better; we now have gym etiquette posters everywhere with 10 different rules lol

Edit: I've just noticed the signs are stuck to every pin loaded machine and also stuck on the mirrors...

Edited September 24, 2013 by L33SH

[Mitcho_7]

Front squats are the #1 assistance exercise we do for our powerlifters, along with high bar squats and pause squats. The whole team does these lifts on squats day

I Love front squats, but I rarely ever see anyone else do them and I dont get why

[markos]

Today at PTC

[bozodos]

looks hard on the wrists! Why is it such a good assistance excercise?

The crossfitters pitch to me was "come and join us to train functional strength, don't be a 5 day bro split meathead!". Not a fan of the high rep olympic lifting and random workouts they do, but some of the cardio stuff looks like it has potential (apart from the whole burpees thing). They do have much better set up gyms than any of the commercial ones here that seem more interested on cashing in on women feeling guilty than making anyone stronger.

[rev210]

front squats are great , quads get more focus. Not hard on the wrists actually . You can either cross the arms over or hold the bar as pictured but the bar balances on the upper chest and delts as a platform, so the hands are really just for balance (not strained).

[bozodos]

yeah I figured it dosen't actually strain the wrists - otherwise why would Markos be instructing with it - just an interesting angle!

[-FIGJAM-]

Boz the workouts aren't random, they are designed to completely f**k the body. Remember crossfit isn't new and it isn't body building or strength training. They try to be strong and fit.

Crossfit wont make you super strong as thats not what their only goal is, they do stuff like a bunch of deadlifts and then sprint just for fun.

A guy I went to school with does it and competes, I spoke to him not long ago about it his words were "never been as fit in my life, never been as strong and never in my life had i ever had abbs"

One crossfit gym I went to look at and spoke to a couple members, they were based in Holsworthy and part of the Commando regiment trust me when I say they were fit.

[bozodos]

I know what it is and what they do - the issues I have with it are: the elitist attitude, high rep olympic lifting, pushing people too far (high amounts of injuries and the prevalence of conditions like rhabdomylosis), kipping, and the obsession with fad dieting. I also know some very fit / strong guys who do it, but none of them started out as crossfitters - they all crossed over from other styles of training, or do regular bench/squat/dl in addition to their WOD.

It actually first gained traction with emergency services over in the US, and the conditioning aspect of it would of course be popular with soldiers etc, and the quality of training given does seem to vary greatly depending on the gym.

I was more amused that my crossfitting mates can only see crossfit as a way to be strong, they mean well though.

[markos]

Boz absolutely nailed it.

Crossfit as a sport is interesting and exciting, Crossfit as an exercise regime has some issues, good to see Boz knows them and understands them

[-FIGJAM-]

personally I don't see how crossfit is any different from any other sport specific workout or even sport itself.

my biggest grime with crossfit is how they claim its new and exciting when in fact its old as shit and marketed extremely well.

but Boz if I was you, I would be thinking about what i hope to gain from working out and then decide what training method is best for you and where you should train. I guarantee if you go to cross fit thinking its shit then you will get shit out of it. Same story would be if you went to a PTC gym and got coached and thought its gay then you wont achieve. Mentally you more then likely wont put the effort in, unless you are one of those people who when told to jump ask how high?

[bozodos]

See the reasons I listed above. If you want to do it good on ya - go for it, just don't try and convince me that it's a silver bullet all encompassing exercise regime!

My big issues with it apart from the mentality and marketing are that it pushes unprepared people too hard and in the wrong way, coupled with the variance in quality of teaching.

I like the high intensity cardio idea, just not that particular approach to doing it.

I was attracted to this particular gym because I'm told I can go there and get proper coaching on getting stronger and that the Crossfit part is optional. That and my current gym has made it fairly clear that they only really want people using machines and doing group fitness classes, which I'm not interested in.

[-FIGJAM-]

im not trying to tell you its the bees knees here boz, simply that it serves a purpose and does the job it sets out to.

I could also argue all of the points you posted above and link it to different sports. The best comparison that I can come up with is to look at different martial arts.

No matter where you train or if someone is training you, no matter what sport, if the instruction is shit it will result in shit practice. I get a number of tradesmen come through my factory doors, some good, some bad, all went to different Tafes and worked in different factories, same industry but different individual results.

[Dani Boi]

Boz, now that you are losing weight and taking care of yourself, do you still have a fetish for obese women? plzrespond.