I LOVE Anatoly, guy’s a monster!
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I am with you on this. I have never once enjoyed exercise, which is why I don’t do it. When I do do it, I just spent the time thinking about all the other more enjoyable, more important-to-me things I could be doing.
I also find it really hard to justify the time sink. I spend all day at work, I don’t want to spend more time after work doing something I actively dislike. I also don’t want to use my relaxation time over the weekend to do it, as a good chunk of my weekend is taken up by various chores and non-work responsibilities.
I know it’s something I should do, but fuck me if it isn’t the most boring and uncomfortable shit I’ve ever forced myself into.
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Well you just casually said my thoughts word for word.
Maybe I’m secretly your doppelganger .
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That’s how I feel about cardio, but I find with strength training there’s a lot of fun in it for me in seeing big number go up. I haven’t been to the gym since December 30th, but I’ve been absolutely swamped with obligations. 
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My feeling with going to the gym as well. Something I’ve been doing this past year that solves that is to have a small routine of whatevers (I’m doing calisthenics, say, pushups, pullups, lunges, abs, that kind of thing) but separated over the day. 1 series of somewhat? That couple of minutes is enough for now, I can keep doing something else and then come back. I also fixed my diet a bit and oh boy I am huge. I think I gained like 5-7 kg of lean mass during that time alone (and some fat as well but that’s because I’m not a psycho that wants to look chiselled over anything else and I still indulge myself from time to time). That might not work for everyone but I can fit that into basically every day without that much effort.
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Are you just going for fitness or trying to look swol? I’m sorry, but big bulgy muscles that look like you’ve some kind of weird growths on your arms is superbly ridiculous IMO.
That thing with gyms is…I don’t wanna pay the money. The cheapest near me is like £20 a month. No way man. Sorry, but I just don’t find it that valuable.
I’m really sorry for my stupidity, but I’m not following you here.
Not at all. I think there’s a pretty big popular misconception - with most people, not just you - that confuses strength training and bodybuilding.
They’re both gym activities, but they have different goals. Body building is almost strictly about aesthetics, so having those big muscles. Body builders tend to not be especially strong… Stronger than the average person, sure, but in order to get those muscles that pop like you mentioned, they leave their muscles in a damaged state, where the tissue is torn and swollen. Hence “swole”.
Strength training is more about building strength, and this isn’t strictly about being a brute. For me, I do it because I work a very physical job and keeping my body strong and somewhat fit is going to prevent strain injuries. That and because I want to lose weight and be more conventionally attractive. I think I mentioned it previously on this topic, but even for elderly people, doing low-stress strength training keeps them mobile for longer, and can provide a higher quality of life. This is especially important for people who work sedentary jobs.
Also worth noting that the “gross” muscles you mention are often a result of steroid use, which is a massive problem in bodybuilding in particular. The current best Olympic lifter in the world, Lasha Talakhadze, looks like this:
I’m not gonna say he doesn’t use steroids, Olympic lifting has had its own steroid controversies… But he’s undeniably insanely strong but doesn’t have those ridiculous muscles you might envision.
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My job involves being Infront of a computer all day so I should probably do that. Is it just like using light weights? As you’ve probably guessed, I’m pretty ignorant about this stuff?
Basically, I do a sort of “home gym routine” but instead of doing it all at once and spending 1h-1:30 h all at once, I parcel it in little 3-5 min packages during the day, something I can definitely manage alongside my other responsibilities.
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Yeah you’ll always start with lighter weights. It’s hard to give a recommendation on where to start, but one nice thing about gyms is that you can configure the cable machines to any weight. So what you would do is basically sit at the machine and keep putting the weight up until it’s at a weight that’s challenging, but doable in 10 repetitions. So for instance, on the tricep push down, my weight is at 95lbs - I could probably push that much higher for a single rep, but a single rep isn’t going to do much in the way of actual strength training.
Generally speaking, you want to do three sets of 10 repetitions to start. Setting up a routine is probably the most difficult part, so if you were seriously looking at establishing something for just some basic strength training, I would look at getting a personal trainer for a few sessions. Most gyms offer in-house personal trainers.
You can realistically do all this stuff at home with just a set of dumbbells and bodyweight exercizes, but the gym gives you a lot more options and I personally find that having to go to a separate building makes it easier to stay regular with my routines. You also don’t strictly need a personal trainer, there’s a lot of really good routines online, but a personal trainer is really handy for creating a program that works well for your needs and includes stuff that you won’t despise doing.
I think you’ll find too that gym people are not necessarily what you’d expect them to be. I generally don’t like painting with broad strokes, but I do find that the people who I regularly see at the gym are from a very wide sampling of the general population, and are there to be healthy and not to show off. And I’m talking to people of all ages, body types, and presumably different careers. Your gym bro bodybuilder types are definitely there, but they kind of stick to their own corner and don’t really mingle with everyone else.
It’s not really the people that puts me off the gym, but the price. I just can’t justify how much it costs.
I love watching Lasha lift. It’s insane that a man who weighs 180 kilos can move the way he does. I just assume everyone at his level is on steroids. There’s no way in my mind that you can be as dominant as he’s been for 12+ years without some “recovery aids.” Especially at his size and the amount of weight he throws around.
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He was banned from a competition a couple years back because he tested positive for some sort of steroid. But nevertheless, still super impressive though! In terms of fitness (bodybuilding, olympic weightlifting, powerlifting, etc.), it’s almost necessary to take some sort of performance-enhancing drug to compete on a world-stage level. Not saying that there aren’t any elite naturals, but it’s just so much harder to be elite as a lifetime natural.
Someone suggested that for all fitness-related competitions, there should be a separate competition for naturals and for people blasting gear. Gives naturals time in the spotlight, while also seeing what someone on gear can do. I also think that this idea would probably reduce the amount of gear-users who try to evade and exploit drug tests for competitions.
If anything, just do calisthenics (bodyweight exercises). It’s free, will make your body strong and mobile, and you can practically do it anywhere.
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I definitely second this. Just doing stuff like split squats, crunches, push-ups, shoulder taps, makes a huge difference versus no activity at all.
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I have no idea what most of those are, but they all sound horrible 