Ladies Gym Thread - Don't skip arm days.

[Greedy Fly]

Do you guys wear thermal leggings during early winter? I'm thinking of getting a pair but I don't know if they can withstand single digit Celsius weather. Or should I just layer up with a pair of jeans over my leggings?

For running in the winter (like -4 to +8 Celsius if my conversions are right) I wear leggings with sweat pants or loose yoga pants on top. A double layer of anything traps a lot of heat to keep you cozy. I have a couple pairs of Underarmor Coldgear leggings which are noticeably warmer than regular leggings, but not warm enough to be worn alone when it's freezing, the wind still cuts right through them.

If you're just looking to stay warm on your way to the gym I think a pair of jeans on top of regular leggings would be warm enough and convenient for changing when you get there. When working out inside a gym, I think thermal leggings would be too warm.

 

[TakeMyWorf]

For both. I take the public transport to the gym and I would prefer not to change leggings before I work out.

I don't recommend working out in fleece-lined leggings at all. I pretty much live in them during the cold months and they trap body heat really well. I forgot to change out of them once before doing cardio and it was miserable.

 

[Hate Campaign]

Niggers still aren’t re-racking their fucking weights

 

[Toothpaste Chocolates]

I don't recommend working out in fleece-lined leggings at all. I pretty much live in them during the cold months and they trap body heat really well. I forgot to change out of them once before doing cardio and it was miserable.

Damn... thanks for the info. I ended up wearing jeans or denim pants over my regular leggings. It does keep my legs warm but sometimes I get a weird sensory feeling over my legs. Still better than constantly shivering.

 

[HahaYes]

Niggers still aren’t re-racking their fucking weights

I have come to the conclusion that niggers will never re-rack their weights. They are too retarded

 

[CaseyTatumm]

So I recently re-joined the gym after a verrrry long hiatus. Now I’ve lost a significant amount of weight (finally almost to a healthy BMI!!!) and was honestly shocked at how not strong I am now lol. I know that it will increase in time but dang, it’s wild. On a positive note, I can somehow do the stair step machine all day long!

Anyway, what does y’all’s gym schedule look like? Do you have set days that you do set things (arms/core/legs/chest/cardio) or just go with the flow? Which is better?

Also, how do you get over the awkwardness of starting to use the free weights without feeling like a complete noob?

 

[NoReturn]

Anyway, what does y’all’s gym schedule look like? Do you have set days that you do set things (arms/core/legs/chest/cardio) or just go with the flow? Which is better?

This is going to sound like a bullshit answer, but it's both.
You should develop a consistent routine that works for you, but sometimes (maybe even often) you'll find yourself breaking that routine. The trick is learning how to do things like "This should be leg day, but I twisted my ankle a bit, so what can I do today instead of my normal set of exercises?"

 

[CaseyTatumm]

This is going to sound like a bullshit answer, but it's both.
You should develop a consistent routine that works for you, but sometimes (maybe even often) you'll find yourself breaking that routine. The trick is learning how to do things like "This should be leg day, but I twisted my ankle a bit, so what can I do today instead of my normal set of exercises?"

Ok, that actually makes a lot of sense! Thank you

 

[Coffee Druid]

So I recently re-joined the gym after a verrrry long hiatus. Now I’ve lost a significant amount of weight (finally almost to a healthy BMI!!!) and was honestly shocked at how not strong I am now lol. I know that it will increase in time but dang, it’s wild. On a positive note, I can somehow do the stair step machine all day long!

Anyway, what does y’all’s gym schedule look like? Do you have set days that you do set things (arms/core/legs/chest/cardio) or just go with the flow? Which is better?

Also, how do you get over the awkwardness of starting to use the free weights without feeling like a complete noob?

I've been going consistently (2x a week, sometimes 1x when school or work is rough) for a year now. Haven't lost much more than 3 pounds but that's okay. I feel much stronger now so I probably traded some muscle for fat. I still want to lose some weight, so now that I'm in the groove I can tweak things a little. Seeing the weight numbers go up feels pretty good. You'll get there. I use an app called Strong to track my weights/reps on different machines or exercises and it will show you a time graph so you can see your improvement.

I go on certain days and times, mostly based on my work schedule. So weekday evenings or anytime Sunday. I don't do "insert specific body part" days. I just do a mix of different areas and try to hit each broad muscle group at least once a week. It's also down to machine availability. If people are hogging the leg press, I'll do some other leg exercise that day. I briefly tried doing an all chest/shoulder day and pulled a muscle (maybe rotator cuff) that hurt and made me drop down weights for a bit. So I prefer to not go hard on one thing for a whole workout. I personally only do strength training at my gym, and try to get some walking in on trails near me for cardio.

My gym is the purple cheap one. It has a very good amount of weight machines, lots of dumb bells, and some small barbells. There are also smith machines, but no "legit" barbells. A lot of things, like bench press or dead lift, can still be done with dumbbells. I've been slowly branching out into free weights with what's available. The main thing to remember: people probably won't look at you or care*. Second: watch videos on proper form. The Strength app has short animations for most exercises and Youtube has tons. Just start doing it. You'll get used to it. Everyone was once a noob.

*I will judge you if you don't re-rack the weights, or take dumbells out to a leg machine to "work in" some bicep curls during a busy time of day though.

 

[ChompChomp]

Anyway, what does y’all’s gym schedule look like? Do you have set days that you do set things (arms/core/legs/chest/cardio) or just go with the flow? Which is better?

Also, how do you get over the awkwardness of starting to use the free weights without feeling like a complete noob?

When I used to go to a gym, my only main scheduling requirement was to do it before work, which meant getting up at ~4am three or four days / week.

Never had a "-days" schedule, but had s few core exercises i might do, with each one targeting different areas.

As for awkwardness, I assure you nobody cares. The only thing I that really bothered me was people having full blown conversations near me. Like, if you want to chat all day, go to a coffee shop.

 

[NoReturn]

I've been going consistently (2x a week, sometimes 1x when school or work is rough) for a year now. Haven't lost much more than 3 pounds but that's okay. I feel much stronger now so I probably traded some muscle for fat.

Highly likely, actually. How are your clothes fitting? How do your movements feel?
Muscle weights more than fat, so you can loose a lot of "bulk" and stay the same weight. Look for body fat measuring machines or something similar.

 

[Susanna]

Highly likely, actually. How are your clothes fitting? How do your movements feel?
Muscle weights more than fat, so you can loose a lot of "bulk" and stay the same weight. Look for body fat measuring machines or something similar.
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You can get a Xiaomi Smart Scale (you don't have to connect it to your phone, it works on its own). It has sensors that will tell your BMI and fat percentage.

 

[Plantation Barbie]

Eww, don't want to get all heavy and muscular.

Speak for yourself. I want to crush a man's skull with my thighs.

 

[Coffee Druid]

Speak for yourself. I want to crush a man's skull with my thighs.

I have a pretty high weight on the hip adductor machine. When I see watermelons at the store I sometimes wonder if I should put them to the test...

You can get a Xiaomi Smart Scale (you don't have to connect it to your phone, it works on its own). It has sensors that will tell your BMI and fat percentage.

I have a scale similar to that, though connected to an app. I get a different fat % compared to calculators based on body measurements though. I wrote down measurements at the beginning of the year, so I should find where I put those and compare to really see my progress.

 

[Safir]

I want to whine somewhere, might as well do it here.

So I'm greedy and a luddite (anti-AI, anti-social-media, anti-smartphone, the works). I have an Android 9 phone, bought in 2017 for corporate espionage at Yandex. Two years ago, I bought my mom a phone using an "interest-free" loan. I kept paying it off little by little, because I am a retard and I thought the "profit" of not paying it off immediately was worth the bother of remembering to make the monthly payment. On December 30, due to upcoming legal changes (small loans would hurt one's credit score), I finally paid it off in full and immediately egged on my mom ("congratulations, now debt collectors won't come for your puma videos" etc, I promise it sounded better in Russian and in context).

Today, January 1, I signed up for Concept2 January Revolutions (I have a rowing machine and a stationary bike) and found out their app doesn't work on my phone anymore (I had pneumonia the whole December and skipped the Christmas challenge). It launches, it loads local data, it just refuses to connect to the Concept2 server because fuck me wrong Android version. (The bike has the newest PM5 meter without a memory stick slot, there are sockets to connect computers at indoor rowing/cycling/crossfit competitions, but for a home user it's now the phone or nothing.) Looks like I'll have to buy myself a phone with a new interest-free loan. Meanwhile I'm bumming off mom (the new app version has user profiles, how convenient). Go me, way to start the year getting bitchslapped by the universe.

 

[wide hide]

Collagen peptides taste gross, no matter what smoothie recipe I try, which makes me think I might just be bad at making smoothies. I have a pretty decent Ninja blender and I'm a half-decent cook that knows how things should taste, so I feel fairly confident in saying it's a skill issue.

But these smoothies can't be worse than my husband's, which consists of a fairlife shake + whey powder + 2 scoops collagen. When held to the DQ Blizzard test, the concoction clings for dear life in an upended glass before sliding out in a single mass like a cursed scobie, and landing with a congealed plop like a jrpg slime with gains.

We've never been smoothie people. Smoothie making is a skill I didn't know I was lacking. Would appreciate any help in supplemental liquid calories more tolerable, bonus if it masks the supposedly-flavorless bovine gelatin taste of collagen.

 

[Greedy Fly]

Collagen peptides taste gross, no matter what smoothie recipe I try, which makes me think I might just be bad at making smoothies. I have a pretty decent Ninja blender and I'm a half-decent cook that knows how things should taste, so I feel fairly confident in saying it's a skill issue.

Does it have to be a smoothie? I take mine in hot drinks (2 tbsp with my morning green tea, 2 tbsp with my evening herbal) and it's utterly undetectable, I don't even use milk or sugar to mask it. In cold drinks it doesn't dissolve completely and I have to eat some of the collagen goo from the bottom of the cup.

 

[wide hide]

Does it have to be a smoothie? I take mine in hot drinks (2 tbsp with my morning green tea, 2 tbsp with my evening herbal) and it's utterly undetectable, I don't even use milk or sugar to mask it. In cold drinks it doesn't dissolve completely and I have to eat some of the collagen goo from the bottom of the cup.

I suppose not, don't have much of a hot drink habit but it could be developed. It's fine in broth and such too, but that's more for me than my husband/training partner, who hates soup. For muscle mass/body comp benefits during weight training, it takes something like 15-20g daily of the stuff over weeks, which is a fair amount of tea/coffee/soup at 2 tbsp a go. Smoothies just seemed efficient and basic, so it figures it's a skill I never learned....

 

[Greedy Fly]

20g daily of the stuff over weeks, which is a fair amount of tea/coffee/soup at 2 tbsp a go.

I haven't been weighing it out but 4 tbsp should be about 20g of the brand I take (Vital Proteins). According to its serving size recommendation anyway.

 

[wide hide]

I haven't been weighing it out but 4 tbsp should be about 20g of the brand I take (Vital Proteins). According to its serving size recommendation anyway.

I'll have to check my brand. Maybe the volume just "feels" more extreme to me because I do prep for 2.5 people. I'll see if I can turn us into hot drink types this season.