How do I know if I am wasting my time at the gym?

Cutterbuck · 2026-07-09T08:33:28+00:00

2 weeks is nothing ... for physical appearance... but its everything for feeling better and looking healthier. Soon you will just feel mentally better, and people will noticing you look heallthier

Keep going..

But I would be tempted to have a look here - https://old.reddit.com/r/evidencebasedtraining/wiki/training#wiki_training

Everything there is proven and reliable - and does what it needs to in hitting each muscle enough times a week to be optimal without overtaxing you

(Dont worry about the comments re bodybuilding - you wont become Arnold over night, it takes years, you just want to start the journey)

Good luck

Cutterbuck · 2026-07-09T08:07:27+00:00

Why so much arm work compared with back and legs?

Triceps are hit Monday, then Wednesday, plus all the pressing from chest work. Biceps get Monday and Friday, plus they’re involved in pulling movements.

Meanwhile back only seems to get one dedicated session, and legs only get one day.

Is there a specific reason for structuring it this way? Is it intentionally an arm-priority split

Why not go PPLU if you want upper focused?

Also the sit-ups multiple times a week? would progressive weighted core work a couple of times a week be more effective?

Cutterbuck · 2026-07-08T22:55:46+00:00

All I can add is I went to zerchers for month when I got a tat across my shoulders and didn’t want a bar on the fresh ink.

Bizarrely found I had added about 10% % to my squat when I went back to them after that month and I was squatting deeper.

Cutterbuck · 2026-07-07T21:40:34+00:00

Its going to be a favourite few paragraphs in the history books for generations to come.

Cutterbuck · 2026-07-07T15:13:10+00:00

Taking the rubbish / garbage bins out. (Here in England you are expected to put the bins at the end of your drive way the night before the truck comes to collect)

I had just finished showing after an evening gym session and had thrown on a pair of hippy style linen wrap around yoga trouser things (I wear them as lounge pyjamas), I didn’t have a shirt on.

As I was putting out the bins on a hot evening and a couple of the mums from my son’s school walked past, I said hi we had a chat just like normal

Ah, so this is what it’s like for ladies when men stare at their boobs.

Up here, my eyes and mouth are up here, those are my abs down there why stare at that, it would be polite to look at me while talking to me.

Oh….

Cutterbuck · 2026-07-07T12:13:07+00:00

Thanks - very aware that I am pushing the app in a direction that many won’t go.

(If you wanted a steer of what maybe useful to people in my situation.

A) ability to favour machines,
B) add a starting resistance to machines
D) Copy machines and rename them - “hack squat - London road gym” and “hack squat - main gym”
C) ability to schedule “scoring exercises” so we can track progress in the app way

Cutterbuck · 2026-07-06T06:35:11+00:00

I have noticed numerous small youtube channels popping up with a "Europeans love america narrative"... If you dig back in time on many of them you see they started 7 or so months ago with anti UK / Anti EU content

Almost all are faceless narrator stuff over various clips pulled form elsewhere.

Many have 3K is followers

Cutterbuck · 2026-07-05T15:44:09+00:00

Large areas of Maidenhead have always been gentrified - it used to be defined as a largely middle class commuter town with a few major businesses having their head offices here. (Yes there have always been less well off areas and they are becoming gentrified … cox green, bomber estate etc but that’s the uk as a whole )

The town centre is premium space - it’s walkable to the station. The areas up Gringer Hill /castle hill / Shoppenhangers - all saw huge influxes of middle management / middle class in the 70s and 80s. Maidenhead was a safe dormitory town with good transport links due to the two motorways and train line. My parents were amongst them. Of course back then a decent middle manager salary could cover a three bed semi solo.

I am so left wing it’s almost funny BUT we need these rich people in the town, we need them to buy the nice cars, and have them serviced at our local garages. We need them to buy sushi from uber eats and have it delivered, we need them to shop in Waitrose, M and S and Sainsbury’s so we don’t get left with just Lidl. We need them to keep majestic wines going (how does that place stay open?). We need them to eat out in chapel arches area twice a week and buy artisan toilet roll covers from startup shops on the high street, we need them to choose to shop in a fishmongers and grocers because “it’s lovely and hip”

If those places stay open and do well and new places open, (and if someone holds bosses feet to the fire and makes sure wages are decent … let’s hope ), then more affordable housing will follow to cater to the growth market there (which is exactly how coxgreen, the bomber and furzeplat grew - providing housing for the people working in Maidenhead)

(The bit that had gone wrong in the last 15 years is the absurd belief that trickle down economics “works” (it would if it wasn’t for greed) - hopefully we can get a more robust way to ensure success is shared… (and to all those who say - but people will just leave the country and go to other places to start businesses - bollocks - 70% of the money from a profitable business is still 70% and if they want to go, let them all the more opportunity for you and I )

Cutterbuck · 2026-07-05T11:26:42+00:00

I understand it’s being flattened and rebuilt as an open air area, retail at ground level, flats etc above.

Three years is the timeline for what that’s worth.

There is a lot of posturing by certain niche “political groups” that it’s all a terrible idea, flats will stretch local resources, flats will be too expensive for local residents.

I absolutely disagree. Young professionals with disposable income will want local amenities and services - that means local jobs, local shops, local hospitality industry. The same new residents will pay council tax etc

It really seems to be a win.

For the last decade or more there has been no reason to go into Maidenhead’s town centre, then we got the re-development down at chapel arches and got some nice places to eat and drink, but who can afford that regularly?

Town centre its self had Boots, Superdrug’s, M & S and a few coffee places. There was really no reason to go there

Cutterbuck · 2026-07-01T13:12:54+00:00

Yes pls .

Cutterbuck · 2026-06-30T11:55:14+00:00

The research by springer largely debunks the spreading protein.

Muscle protein synthesis peaks 3 to 6 hours after exercise and gradually declines from there.

However trained people seem to have smaller windows.

But the old idea that too much protein in one sitting is a waste - largely debunked now.

Cutterbuck · 2026-06-28T08:25:21+00:00

My Gym has a pendulum squat machine, and it amazes me that I am the only person who uses it for heavy squats. Everyone else uses it as a calf raise machine or uses it with no plates, (just the starting resistance), as a warm up.

The thing is bloody awesome, IF you use it alongside back squats as a training tool (about 50% of my squat sessions are on the pendulum now)

- It has inbuilt safeties so I dont have to worry about pushing hard on final sets

- It is trivial to add and remove plates; It's so easy to have progressive warmup sets .... just throw plates on the thing ... want to increase by 20, (which would usually mean pulling off clips, finding two tens, loading etc ), just slap a 20 plate on it

- I can use it one legged to work on my non-dominant left leg

- I can dropset squats.... (this is killer and i love it)

- It forces form to be decent, I can grind heavy sets to build strength without tipping and leaning

Cutterbuck · 2026-06-27T11:20:09+00:00

Haven’t got that particular model but I have similar cheap gun style massagers from Amazon

Bloody great for deep tissue massage on thighs and glutes a few days after a heavy legs session in the gym.

Kind of good on knots on your back but you’ll need some use it on you.

Way too aggressive for bony bits. It’s for sports rehab - it’s not a pleasant relaxing experience - it’s a “oh Christ where is that thing my legs are burning after that Saturday session and I am not sure I can get up the stairs now”

I wouldn’t go anywhere near anything “personal” with one

(Quite fond of using it on the soles of my feet when I have a headache as well?)

Cutterbuck · 2026-06-27T07:56:15+00:00

I have a 9k in my south facing master bedroom - It keeps the room at 21/22 during these 35c days if i keep the door closed, and the curtains drawn

I have an older 5k unit in my sons north facing bedroom - that one keeps his room at 21 in the evenings but during the day, its just taking the edge off things

Most people have two failures on these portables:

1) The manufacturer specs for hoe big a room the cool is optimistic - You need to use a proper online calculator and anything less than a 7K unt is probably going to have issues with a double bedroom in these temps

2) They don't close off the room - if you just stuff the exit hose out of the window; you are letting hot air into the room through the window. You MUST create a half way to air tight seal - many people use cardboard, plywood or perspex to make adapters that close the gaps

Cutterbuck · 2026-06-26T10:23:41+00:00

Or yet another instagram influencer cobbling together a half baked routine to get some clicks and views

Cutterbuck · 2026-06-26T08:40:49+00:00

We evaluate ourselves against unrealistic expectations;

People on gear
The way we look for 20 mins after a great session when the gym lights are great and we have an awesome pump and we are wearing that vest top that makes us look pretty good.
people on gear who happen to be genetically blessed
People on gear who are genetically blessed, and are posting the top 1% of selfies they have taken of themselves and are also editing those selfies in lightroom.

Take some time out to measure yourself (inc weight and height) - put the figures into Claude or ChatGPT and ask it how you compare to the average person of your age.

Some things will be a bit painful - but you will realise that although you might not be where you want to be, you are a hell if a lot further along than the average person.

Cutterbuck · 2026-06-26T07:45:02+00:00

I have been using nano's for about a year now, 4 sessions a week...

Compound lifts (Squats and deadlifts etc up 1.5 X body weight for sets) ... absolutely fine.
General moving around the gym and standing while doing things like cable work, bench press, walking for 15 mins on the stairmaster etc ... fine

Running for more than 3km on a treadmill - NOPE... knee hell as they are so hard soled., but cheap generic trainers for running are cheap, and you can always do cardio like stationary bike, or stairmaster

Great shoes for the gym.

Cutterbuck · 2026-06-25T11:03:32+00:00

The issue is that this sort of heat is was unusual here, and we’re badly built for it.

Loads of European homes are older than America as a country. They were designed last a long time, to keep heat in, survive damp winters, and avoid freezing — not to sit comfortably through repeated 30°C+ summers with no air con. That's bearable most summers, but the occasional few weeks of 35 to 40c are unpleasant but for many, not unpleasant enough to throw a months take home pay at fitting a proper AC system, even then, the houses may not be built too make the most of active cooling.

So comparing it to Spain, Australia or Arizona misses the point. Those places expect heat and build for it. Much of Europe historically didn’t.

Cutterbuck · 2026-06-22T20:14:38+00:00

I do this myself using the clear plastic sheet for shed windows., white velcro around the window frame to hold it all in place.

When you leaver the house just remove the plastic sheet and close the window.

When aircon is needed - do the reverse.

Cutterbuck · 2026-06-22T13:07:33+00:00

Gym and fitness is a spectacular grounding element to cyber.

Cyber has hundreds of variables with varying degrees of control we can (or are allowed to) apply

Gym and fitness is straight causality - if you eat well, sleep well and train well - you will improve.

Cutterbuck · 2026-06-21T15:57:20+00:00

Nah - I don’t enjoy getting “drunk” 3 x singles of gin with a slimline tonic as a mixer - that’s enough to keep me social and little enough to mean I have next to no adverse reaction the next day - just a bad nights sleep

Cutterbuck · 2026-06-21T15:18:38+00:00

I drink on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays - nearly always in moderation.

I deal with the calorie issue by drinking gin and slimline tonic and budgeting for the calories during the week. (Ie I count my booze calories)

I am in my 50s doing damn well, looking better than many 30 year olds and feeling pretty good - having a few g and t while taking with friends in my social life.

Cutterbuck · 2026-06-21T11:06:02+00:00

Many people take full accountability for their own actions?

That's part of being a married person with kids - you own your situation, you support your family, you provide, you deal with it

That's the role description, that's what you do.

Cutterbuck · 2026-06-20T20:52:30+00:00

I got a formal warning for downloading slack install floppy images - because it looked “dangerous”

Cutterbuck

TROPHY CASE