skittles

@Khann: Thanks man!

After I posted here, my friend said "how about you try your workout, and I try mine, and we see who gets better results?". I asked him if he was just being a dick, or if he was suggesting (as you suggested) a friendly competition. He said it was about 50/50 :P I think that's what we'll do though. I know for a fact that my diet will be better than his while we're doing it, because I'm really concentrating on it at the moment. So with your guarantee and my hard work, I'll be surprised if I don't convince him after a couple of months ;)

Stronglifts you say? So Squats, Bench Press and Barbell Row, and that's it huh? Sounds good. I'll give it a go tonight and see how I do.

If I wanted to add some things on to that routine, what would be appropriate? I wouldn't mind including some chin-ups in there, but I wonder if that's overkill on my arms, since I'm already going to be doing rows and bench press. We've started ending our routines with decline sit-ups, so I might tack that on the end. I don't see that being a problem as far as over-working a particular muscle group.

@Khann: Man, everything you're saying makes complete sense to me. Same with a lot of what @Phr4nk0 is saying. Particularly about compound exercises.

My gym buddy is pretty hung up on isolated exercises, focusing on a different group of muscles each day. I'm trying to explain to him the benefit of going for these compound lifts rather than isolated ones, but he doesn't seem to want to listen. He says we're getting gains with the routine we've got now, but personally I don't see it. I guess we've been at it for 4+ months now. In first two months, we both saw improvements. We gained a bit muscle in our arms, and we've gained overall weight - two of our main goals. Strength has also increased, as we steadily increased the weights we were lifting, going from 10kg, to 12kg, to 14kg on whatever exercise. The problem is, we've started to plateau. I think we've been doing the same weights on most of our exercises for the last couple of months, maybe more. I'm not saying that we should be increasing our weights every week or anything like that, but I feel like we should be feeling more of a difference. At the moment, I'm not getting that. I'm also not feeling the burn after a workout like I used to, even though I push myself to failure on most exercises.

I've explained that for beginners, Starting Strength comes highly recommended. He seems to think that because we've been lifting 4-6 months, we're not beginners anymore, but I'm inclined to disagree. I'm 5'9 and about 70kg, and he's maybe 5'11/6'0 and slightly lighter than I am (but stronger than I am). I don't know if those figures speak for themselves, but we're both pretty skinny dudes, and it's my opinion that we should be doing a routine like starting strength that uses a lot more compound exercises. I feel like there's a limit on how far we can progress with an isolated exercise like a bicep curl, because we aren't building up the supporting muscles.

Anyway, any tips for how I can convince this guy to try a routine like starting strength? Going to the gym is a lot easier for me when I've got someone to go with. My friend and I have been going after work 3 or 4 days a week for a while now, so we've got a really good thing going, and it would be a shame to stop because of a difference of opinion on what routine is the best.

It'd be nice if we could combine the two routines, but I think the two routines are so opposed that it might do more harm than good.

@TaliciaDragonsong

@zombiebigfoot: Have you seen Deadwood? You definitely should if you're an Olyphant fan Olyphan. I kinda feel like watching it again, just so I can savour all the barely contained rage in his face. He gets a bit angry in that show...

Timothy Olyphant.

Hitman? Awful.

Die Hard 4? I enjoyed it, but his performance was forgettable.

Deadwood? Holy shit. This guy is amazing.

*edit*

Oh, and I've been on the Leo train for a while now. I'm not sure which movie sealed the deal for me, but I'll mention one of my favorites that hasn't been mentioned. Catch Me If You Can. I love that movie.

My favorite line was probably "We both know I have to kill you now. You'll just have to imagine the heat."

I think I got that right...

Yep. What he did was pretty great. Some people were calling for it on facebook, and I ignored them, while thinking it probably would be a great thing for him to do. Off his own back though.

On the topic of some people thinking he's an asshole because of his freak outs... I'm totally cool with it. I have this image of Christian Bale as being something of a mix between Patrick Bateman from American Psycho, and his portrayal of Bruce Wayne, particularly during the party at the end of Batman Begins when he pretends to be wasted. I'm aware he's probably not like that, but I think it's funner to imagine him that way. A massive c***, but one you can respect.

Thanks to this thread, I'm ready to redouble my efforts in achieving the size/strength goals I have for myself.

I'm aware that diet is a big deal, and in the past I've gone to efforts to eat a lot more, and eat the right type of foods. Lately I've been pretty slack though. I'm never going to have a super strict diet, because I enjoy eating whatever I like way too much, and I believe I can get the results I want without having to resort to that. But I'm also aware that I can do a lot better than I have been.

I popped out to the supermarket at lunch time and bought a heap of fruit, canned tuna, wholegrain bread + turkey breast + cheese + mustard for sandwiches, some muesli, and a container of mixed fruits and nuts. Plenty of food to eat while I'm at work :)

The next thing I have to do is convince my gym buddy to shake up our routine. For the last few months we've been working out targeted muscle groups, with high reps. I'd like to try a high weight, low rep routine for a bit. I also want to start doing some exercises that will get my whole body moving, instead of just doing bicep curls and machine stuff.

They definitely don't need to release any more trailers to sell me the game. I was sold before I even finished the first one.

That trailer is brilliant. It wasn't pushing the game very hard either. It felt like it was made purely for the fans.

Borderlands is a pretty special title. I know a few people (not saying myself here) who have downloaded the game illegally, and then gone out and purchased it purely to support the Gearbox.

@Shirogane said:

@L44 said:

@believer258 said:

@skittles said:

Why the fuck didn't anybody else think of this?

Yes this.

If you really think about it, what about the aliens who are in possession of these guy's galaxies? And so on.

But yeah, Lovecraftian False Gods/Old Gods/whatever you want to call them probably take the cake here.

Assuming it just continues to scale up and up and up, which can't be proven >.<