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No:1 Final Fantasy Fan wrote:

Oblomov Boblomov wrote:Hadn't played football for a year because of a hip injury. Finally got back into it last night at a casual five-a-side game and... ended up in hospital with torn ankle ligaments .

Pissed off as I've been doing well at the gym lately. Going to be out of action for a while.

Torn ligaments? That sucks sorry to hear that. Very unlucky! Do you need surgery? As I heard that ligaments don't heal on their own.
I think I've torn/damaged some ligaments in my shoulder but haven't been seen yet.
It's limited my mobility at the gym which is frustrating but ever since I've been take glucosamine supplements it's gotten a lot better.

Torn not ruptured, so they should heal on their own with enough time. Although bear in mind this is on the basis of a physical exam only. If they'd suspected a rupture then I assume I would have been referred for an MRI scan.

I hope your shoulder isn't too bad. Not sure that supplements would have any effect if your ligaments had torn...

Has anyone got a Peloton? I am considering it in the future if my misses is keen to go half with me.

Rubix wrote:Has anyone got a Peloton? I am considering it in the future if my misses is keen to go half with me.

I have never used one or no anyone who does but I feel they are overly expensive and you can get a an excercise bike or a turbo trainer much cheaper.

What do you guys do to maximise protein between meals? I've been trying to put on some muscle and been aiming to hit about 130-140g protein a day (I'm 5ft 10/80kg for context) but finding myself coming up short a lot of days. I do have a protein shake each day so I guess I could just do another but it's a bit dull so looking for some decent snack ideas?

Tomous wrote:What do you guys do to maximise protein between meals? I've been trying to put on some muscle and been aiming to hit about 130-140g protein a day (I'm 5ft 10/80kg for context) but finding myself coming up short a lot of days. I do have a protein shake each day so I guess I could just do another but it's a bit dull so looking for some decent snack ideas?

Anything eggs. I love omelettes and scrambled eggs. Add some veggies for texture and flavour like green peppers, chillis, onions, shallots etc.

Semaglutide has been on the news today.

It's originally a diabetes drug that's now been given usage as an NHS approved drug to target obesity.



Once a week injection and crushes your appetite.

It's also available privately via self-certifying your BMI on online pharmacies so you just enter a higher weight to reach a BMI of 35. Can see that being popular in the bodybuilding community when cutting. Far safer than something nuts like DNP (I think discovered by accident with Russian soldiers in winter using it to keep warm).

Tomous wrote:What do you guys do to maximise protein between meals? I've been trying to put on some muscle and been aiming to hit about 130-140g protein a day (I'm 5ft 10/80kg for context) but finding myself coming up short a lot of days. I do have a protein shake each day so I guess I could just do another but it's a bit dull so looking for some decent snack ideas?

I'll occasionally buy Quark, it's basically yoghurt but low fat and high protein. Only tried this brand.

+1 for eggs, I eat a minimum of 4 per day. Scramble them up and they're super easy to eat. Or chuck in a huge tray of chicken wings/thighs/etc into the oven and you can chew on them when hungry.

Grumpy David wrote:Semaglutide has been on the news today.

It's originally a diabetes drug that's now been given usage as an NHS approved drug to target obesity.



Once a week injection and crushes your appetite.

It's also available privately via self-certifying your BMI on online pharmacies so you just enter a higher weight to reach a BMI of 35. Can see that being popular in the bodybuilding community when cutting. Far safer than something nuts like DNP (I think discovered by accident with Russian soldiers in winter using it to keep warm).

Tomous wrote:What do you guys do to maximise protein between meals? I've been trying to put on some muscle and been aiming to hit about 130-140g protein a day (I'm 5ft 10/80kg for context) but finding myself coming up short a lot of days. I do have a protein shake each day so I guess I could just do another but it's a bit dull so looking for some decent snack ideas?

I'll occasionally buy Quark, it's basically yoghurt but low fat and high protein. Only tried this brand.

Yeah I've been getting these from Aldi which look similar:

https://groceries.aldi.co.uk/en-GB/p-br ... 8600212531

Rocsteady wrote:+1 for eggs, I eat a minimum of 4 per day. Scramble them up and they're super easy to eat. Or chuck in a huge tray of chicken wings/thighs/etc into the oven and you can chew on them when hungry.

Have started doing this with chicken wings on the air fryer. Pretty easy to sort with that.

Morning lads, currently in the market for a new bench, was wondering if anyone has any recommendations? I have one but it's old and really cumbersome to change position plus doesn't go to 90 degrees which is a pain.

I've found this on Amazon:

JX FITNESS Adjustable Weight Bench

Which looks good to me for £70-any thoughts?

Have any of you lads had a Virgin Active membership before? Even with a work discount, I'm looking at circa £90 pcm to use a pool at the one local to my office. I like the idea of doing some resistance work and using a rowing machine, but not sure how I can get value for money from the cost. Any suggestions or feedback on Virgin gyms would be welcome.

No personal experience relevant to either question, sorry!

Just wanted to share this article instead:

Sarms: Illegal muscle drugs sold in UK shops, BBC finds

"Dangerous" muscle-building drugs are being sold illegally in shops around the UK, a BBC investigation has found.

The substances, known as Sarms, can cause erectile dysfunction, mood swings and liver problems, doctors warn.

Secret filming by the BBC found they were widely available in shops that sell bodybuilding supplements as well as online.

Responding to the findings, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) called for the law to be tightened.

Sarms - which stands for selective androgen receptor modulators - are body-enhancing drugs that mimic the effects of anabolic steroids, which increase muscle mass and strength.

Worth looking at the article even if only to see the image of the label that can be found on a bottle of this stuff...

Kids are so strawberry floated these days. They've got no money, everything is outrageously expensive, and they have to deal with the unrelenting pressures of social media that can lead them to using products literally marked as not for human consumption.

Basically anabolic steroid-lite eh. I agree though, the pressures for kids now with things like these are gonna be way worse.

I remember starting lifting almost 15 years ago and I was the only one in my uni course really building muscle. Bet a significant % of the average student base are at it now.

Rocsteady wrote:Basically anabolic steroid-lite eh. I agree though, the pressures for kids now with things like these are gonna be way worse.

I remember starting lifting almost 15 years ago and I was the only one in my uni course really building muscle. Bet a significant % of the average student base are at it now.

I was going to say the exact same thing. I was 17 in 2005, when I started going to the gym, and remember it still being considered a bit weird. I couldn't understand why not everyone wanted to go to the gym – and now, apparently, they do!

I bet there is enormous pressure nowadays on men around the 18-25 mark to not have a 'skinny' body. There must be endless videos on social media of roided up lifters flexing absurd muscles as though it's normal. Probably very similar to the pressures girls/women have faced for decades now, with images of abnormal women plastered everywhere. The difference these days (for everyone) is that this stuff is constantly being hammered into them by their own active interactions, that they can't help but be compelled to engage with every single day.

Edit - oh, and apparently the side effects of this stuff are even worse than traditional anabolic steroids

Rocsteady wrote:Basically anabolic steroid-lite eh. I agree though, the pressures for kids now with things like these are gonna be way worse.

I remember starting lifting almost 15 years ago and I was the only one in my uni course really building muscle. Bet a significant % of the average student base are at it now.

Thing is when you're young, you're going out every weekend, maybe a couple of times a week drinking and probably not watching your diet that well, both because of cost and lack of discipline. So from a lifestyle perspective it's going to be difficult to properly build muscle. So there's gonna be greater tempetation to take "shortcuts" and look for alternative ways of achieving the look they feel under pressure to hit.

The fitness industry on social media is terrible too. Even if people aren't using something as drastic as photoshop, there's still plenty of misleading tricks you can use to look better on camera-lighting, types of poses, dehrydration, fake tan etc. And a lot of them are on steroids anyway.

Oblomov Boblomov wrote:

Rocsteady wrote:Basically anabolic steroid-lite eh. I agree though, the pressures for kids now with things like these are gonna be way worse.

I remember starting lifting almost 15 years ago and I was the only one in my uni course really building muscle. Bet a significant % of the average student base are at it now.

I was going to say the exact same thing. I was 17 in 2005, when I started going to the gym, and remember it still being considered a bit weird. I couldn't understand why not everyone wanted to go to the gym – and now, apparently, they do!

I bet there is enormous pressure nowadays on men around the 18-25 mark to not have a 'skinny' body. There must be endless videos on social media of roided up lifters flexing absurd muscles as though it's normal. Probably very similar to the pressures girls/women have faced for decades now, with images of abnormal women plastered everywhere. The difference these days (for everyone) is that this stuff is constantly being hammered into them by their own active interactions, that they can't help but be compelled to engage with every single day.

Edit - oh, and apparently the side effects of this stuff are even worse than traditional anabolic steroids

On that, I would say we shouldn't buy in to any scaremongering (not saying that you are).

If looking purely at long term health, I'd probably still run a cycle of ostarine or similar than anavar or hgh, etc. Though it is a bit of a crapshoot - some are probably worse, others better. As with current anabolics that have been around for decades.

Agree with all the other points you and tomous make though. Especially with the amount of fitness influencers that are defo on gear but claim natty, giving massively false standards of how a realistic natural body will look.

Talking of social media influencers, I've been watching James Smith on YouTube quite a bit lately - he's pretty good.

Clarkman wrote:Have any of you lads had a Virgin Active membership before? Even with a work discount, I'm looking at circa £90 pcm to use a pool at the one local to my office. I like the idea of doing some resistance work and using a rowing machine, but not sure how I can get value for money from the cost. Any suggestions or feedback on Virgin gyms would be welcome.

My current gym was originally Virgin Active before becoming a Nuffield Health gym.

The swimming pool is quite small (25 metres, not particularly wide and a shallow 1.2m depth throughout). Although the Virgin Active pool in Woodford Green in a converted church looks great: https://londonist.com/2016/07/the-london-church-that-s-a-swimming-pool

Chances are your local council leisure centre will have a better swimming pool if that's important. And it'll be a lot cheaper too.

Oblomov Boblomov wrote:Edit - oh, and apparently the side effects of this stuff are even worse than traditional anabolic steroids

I think that's probably unlikely. SARMs are quite new so there isn't any long term data on how they work so it's more like the mystery box option. We just don't know.

It's probably fair to say they disrupt homeostasis in the body since it's a exogenous substance. Which always means your body will reduce / stop the natural testosterone production, the same thing happens with AAS but Testosterone injections at least offset that.

And there are other drugs to prevent ball shrinkage and to ensure Post Cycle Therapy goes well (going cold turkey isn't a good idea). One of the PCT drugs is actually often used issued by doctors for women with breast cancer.

Steroids by comparison are well understood & have been around for decades with a decent level of scientific research (main issue being small sample sizes, would be great if they could do a study with a few thousand men but even then it would quickly become apparent who's on the good stuff and who got the placebo).

Jo Linder (Instagram joesthetics) died recently, a lot of misinformation about it being Covid vaccine related but almost certainly a strawberry float load of Test, Tren, Anavar and all sorts of underground lab injectables are to blame. No one would look at him and think he's natural. And some of the more well known guys like Larry Wheels are quite open about steroid usage.

If I ever was to experiment with PEDs I'd probably stick with Testosterone injections.

TRT is increasingly commonly used by older wealthy men (Joe Rogan, Jeff Bezos and Robert Kennedy come to mind) on a long term basis and no doubt get regular medical checkups to ensure side effects are minimised / controlled. Getting old is inevitable but delaying getting frail is very appealing!

I was gonna mention Jo Linder as well, crazy he was only 30.

Apparently he had a huge appetite so drank insane amounts of coffee to suppress that, alongside obviously a huge stack of steroids. Strongly suspect the cycle he was running was probably the cause of the aneuryism, he was so strawberry floating shredded year round.

Tomous wrote:What do you guys do to maximise protein between meals? I've been trying to put on some muscle and been aiming to hit about 130-140g protein a day (I'm 5ft 10/80kg for context) but finding myself coming up short a lot of days. I do have a protein shake each day so I guess I could just do another but it's a bit dull so looking for some decent snack ideas?

Biltong is very high in protein. Can be bought relatively cheaply on Amazon.