Haha yea I know. :( I'm probably about 173cm tall (Not exactly sure) but anyway when I started working out in Jan 2013 I was 52KG. :shock: So yea unfortunately built like a stick, but I'm slowly getting there.

Sounds exactly like me :lol:

Not an actual Parkrun but i have a convenient 5km route around home.

Started once a week back in Nov when my weekly kick around was cancelled due to people going on holiday. Then got a bit hooked with trying to beat my time and run a few times a week now.

Currently at 23:45 with the ultimate aim of getting <20 min by mid-year.

Mate, I've offered you plenty of my 95kg of brawn. You haven't taken up the offer.:lol:

Seriously, losing weight is now thought not to be as good as it once was by the health experts. Any loss in muscle is supposedly detrimental to one's health.

Squats, bench presses, incline bench presses and dead lifts are good for building muscular bulk if one does low reps of 5-8.

Also, do negatives. That is, after pushing the weight up or out, when you return the weight to the starting position, or preferably just before it, count to 4 seconds as it returns.

I cannot believe how much harder this is. I nearly passed out in the gym a few weeks ago. I've had to moderate the workout since. The muscular strength increases have been astonishing using this method, even at my age of 59.




Edited by Decentric: 8/2/2016 04:13:54 PM

I thought I saw you post that you are a stick man, EG.:lol:

How many kgs are you?

16kg weight gain is excellent in that time span.=d>

Are you jacked now? gives me confidence to go to the gym :)

Tell us your secrets R_B :)

I don't have any secrets. :lol:

I really didn't workout out as much as I should've in most of that time, plus I didn't eat enough either, for a good eight months there I drank 2 liters of milk a day as I was pretty lazy with getting the calories in. :lol:

Workout 3 to 4 times a week, focusing more on the compound lifts: bench press, squats, deadlifts, pull ups & lunges and don't be that fuckwit who goes to the gym and only does dumbbell curls.

Go on bodybuilding.com and find a workout on there, make sure you eat a shit tonne as well.

First few weeks are tough as it hurts like a bitch but the first six months or so are the easiest in putting on weight.


God no I'm still only 68KG but yea there's certainly a difference from me now to when I was 52KG. Just got to stay committed.

Like this guy?



Well done on your progress. I thought i was a small guy in Year 12 at 175cm and 57kg!

I did the GOMAD thing too with 5x5 Stronglifts and was up to 78kg in my mid to late 30s, but became a walking injury with weight training.

Now I'm 43 and 67kg, doing calisthenics and hill sprint training and finally injury free.

in year 12 i was like 168cm 45kg. man i was tiny lol.

Getting back into the swing of exercising by playing soccer at lunch, twice a week.

Managed to hurt my ankle taking my first kick of the game 👌

You really are unlucky my fish friend.

is this you Decentric :D

Ugh, so jealous of all of you naturally skinny guys.

:lol:

In Russia and the Ukraine they call it body shaping, not body building. Sums me up.

That bloke doesn't look like he consumes the beer and food that I do.:lol:

In the last 30 years I've trained in gyms where the other trainers were almost exclusively males, or by myself. Recently in the last few years I've joined a gym chain where both genders train.

There is one area where males and females are unequivocally different - body shapeR

It seems that women can have great success at shaping the body they want, to an extent, beyond genetics. I try not to look, having a countersexist consciousness, but there are quite a number of women who train at the chain of gyms I do, who must be pretty comfortable with their own appearance because they are keen to expose quite a lot of flesh in tight fitting gym attire.

Many of these women have either trimmed down from carrying more weight than they would like, or from skinny physiques have developed more shapely curves.

One woman I know of 61 , has only recently started weight training in the last three years. She was always very overweight. Now at 60 after a few years of weight training, she looks amazing.

She has lost heaps of flab, has a trim waist and looks incredibly toned. She has started wearing mini skirts and revealing clothes for the first time in her life.

She really likes showing off a body most women of her age admire, regardless of any age. The same woman, a teacher, looks as though she is in her late thirties ( she has dyed hair), after she looked much older than she was when she was young. Each to their own, but she certainly feels good about her body image.

I've certainly learnt a lot more from observing female trainers than males, as I need to work hard on my core to strengthen a dodgy back. They are doing the same type of exercises as me for a dodgy back, often for them to develop shapely buttocks, taut thighs and slim waists.

The difficulty is talking to them in the pursuit of knowledge. They are often recipients of unwanted male attention, but one is trying to learn how and why they do specific exercises to benefit one's health and well being. It is very easy approaching older males for advice.

A combination of circuit training, that is where one never stops working out ( no rests between sets) using;

a combination of high repetitions with weights - 20 minus 5, or plus 10, in the upper body and legs with weights,

similar exercises performed without weights ( squats and lunges),

plus intermittent types of sit ups, planks, lunges, burpees, jumping rope or skipping,

as well as the tread mill, exercise bike, rowing machine and cross trainer.

All this appears to develop close to the hour glass figure for females , but with a lot of curves for many woman, even older ones.

The weird thing is that some older folk have developed taut, muscular bodies that look peculiar because of their grey hair and old facial characteristics.:lol:

One probably needs to train at least 6 times a week for an hour's duration in the gym to shift a lot of excess weight in the initial few months.

Social football and futsal are also excellent for weight reduction. One can also instersperse football twice a week with four gym sessions, plus walking for half an hour each day. One will certainly feel good for all this exercise.

Given that W League players are so fit, I'm surprised some of the players carry the weight they do. :?

Dancing and Zumba is really good too.


The most important aspect is enjoyment. Many women I know enjoy organised classes. One woman I know over 50 looks fabulous after a lot of deep water aerobics. She had more trouble shifting weight from an hour's walking each day.

Many of the the best female bodies I've seen anywhere, including overseas travel, train in the gyms I frequent. One can also see them evolve over time if they put in the effort. So weight training must be highly beneficial for female body shape.

I also spent a lot of time doing kick boxing training over 20 years, but not competition. Apart from facial damage and brain cell loss , many female competitive kick boxers have superb physiques. The same with female sprinters.

A few women I know have put on too much muscle from weight training. I'd contend if they dropped the weights and increased repetitions to 30, they would simply look toned and lose muscular bulk.

In Cuba women care little about perceived body image. They are completely comfortable with their genes and their appearance in swim suits. They are liberated well beyond any Western country.





Edited by Decentric: 16/2/2016 11:03:05 AM

Edited by Decentric: 16/2/2016 11:04:41 AM

People who use multiple pieces of gym equipment at the same time when the gym is busy should be executed. It's so f*cking annoying. I do not want to talk to roid-freaks to try and work in with them.

Surely they put equipment away as they stop using it, or vacate stationary equipment so others can use it?

You'd be surprised. Most have good gym ettiquette but some people hoard equipment when it's mad busy

I talk to our gym manager abou this all the time. I'm gobsmacked at how some leave equipment out all the time after using it, as though some servant is going to put it away.

There are certainly a number of blokes around the gym chain ( about 15 local gyms), who could be on steroids, who exude a level of arrogance to anyone who cannot lift as much in the gyms they visit.

The gym manager and the personal trainer at my regular gym are both champion powerlifters at national /international level, but are not particularly big. They note how these guys' attitudes change to them only when they see how much they can lift. :lol:

One of the guys who is short and stocky was doing sets of squats of 10 reps at 220kg . He was astonished to see how the attitude change from some of the cocky gym members when they see him lift these sorts of weights. The attitude changes from being arrogant to sycophantic.:lol:

Most people can't even take 2 steps to put dumbbells away.

It's more people who will go circuits in the weight room when it's really busy. For example they will do the machine chest press at the same time as occupying the flat bench. They don't usually use a towel on either and yet go ape shit when you go to take the vacant equipment. I had a go at a bloke the other day for it. Sick to death of trying to guess what people are using.

The other painfully annoying thing is people who can't rack weights properly on the weight trees. Its like FFS small at the top, big at the bottom. Clearly they failed basic shapes in year one.

Pretty selfish behaviour from him.](*,)

When I do circuit training, I always have a piece of equipment to use if another is occupied.

I stopped using a multi - station pulley machine in my program partly because of it's popularity. I've also incorporated a lot of dumbbell and fit ball weight exercises in my circuit. One can always find a vacant fit ball and dumbbells.

Circuit training just annoys me :lol: I go to a relatively small gym (Anytime Fitness) so you can guarantee you're screwed if one person is being a circuit douche :p

Walked home from work the other day, which apparently is about 7km. Very up and down in terms of hills.

Also did a 6.5 hour canyon/walk in the mountains on Sunday which was fantastic.

Did it involve that really seedy bush section you took myself and Heine through?

The Canyon was far worse than that, the walk home from work wasn't quite as seedy ;)

I take my own mat to the gym.

So that when doing exercise bike, various sit ups on the mat , leg exercises with and without weights, and upper body with weights, I can usually find a piece of training apparatus to work on whilst resting one part of the body simultaneously
working another, at the same time leaving equipment I've just used for someone else.

There are about 5 exercise bikes and two stations of dumbbells, about 6 fit balls, etc. The worst thing is not being always able to do the order of exercises one wants.

With circuit training there is no wasted time between sets through inactivity. It probably simulates other ball/team sports for fitness. One can develop strength and cardiovascular fitness from circuit training, possibly better than anything apart from that new HIT system for anaerobic fitness.

I go to ZAP which has excellent equipment. I think they only exist in Victoria , South Aus and Tasmania.

I think I've been in a few Anytime Fitness gyms. They probably have a similar range of equipment to ZAP, although not quite as much of it.

I had the same problems mentioned here with equipment douche hogs.

I started going at 4am 6 mornings a week. Never have i ever enjoyed the gym more.