I do dead-lifts every other week, I tried doing them every week at first and actually felt that my body wasn't fully recovered. I love doing dead-lifts and squats, I agree with Vince that they are a  dangerous movement, but that's why you have to work on your form. There are dozens of little adjustments that I have had to make for these two excercises from figuring out the best warm-up routines to hand and foot position, posture alignment etc.. You can't just blindly follow someone's idea of good form, you have to adapt your form to your structure until you feel completely comfortable and the stress is felt only on the muscle, not the joints. I also very rarely try to max out on any movement. To me, being able to consistently up the weight in a certain rep range is a better and safer assessment of strength gain.

Were you shoulder pressing 130lbs total, or were you pressing 130lb dumbells? If you are using 130lbs total, that's nothing to grunt about.

$10-$20 a month is pretty damn low. I can see how they get so many people to sign up. Around my area, LifeTime gyms are pretty popular. A couple of the people I work with are members and are paying about $60  a month. The gym does offer a lot, most of which I won't use. But they also have dumbells going up to 130lbs and deadlifting is allowed, no chalk though. The place is huge and there is at least three different ones that I know of in the Chicagoland area. It's not a World Gym but it sure as hell beats a concept like Planet Fitness. The way I see it, most people don't see $10-$20 a month as big investment so they don't care if they waste it by not going. However if you are shelling out $60 a month,  you will think twice before signing a contract if you know there is a slight chance you will eventually quit. This goes directly against the concept that Planet Fitness is using, but the fact is that LifeTime fitness is doing very well. If your product is good and you have the right target consumer you don't have to lure business in with low prices. Both models work, but I think that the Planet Fitness model will not stand the test of time.

He looks way off from his best. I have his Real Deal DVD and in it he seems to hit his quads pretty hard, one thing I gotta give him is that he does use very good form on just about all of his movements.

You have more experience in running a gym than I do, I take your word for it that it's very difficult. But I believe that there are gyms in this country that have overcome this. It's easier to just cater to the "majority". But if you dig into to it deeper, you find that your typical "mainstream" customer is not renewing his/her membership, you might think no worry I just had 400 new members sign up this month, what you should be thinking is, why the hell aren't these people renewing their contracts? Are the "lurk" alarms not working? What's wrong with my facility? Is it my target clientele?

Yes, I know I am sounding idealistic but it's just my view. The businesses that are put there to make a quick buck fade away the ones with a strong business plan that cover ALL areas of the market stay. Why would you want to give away even 5% of your possible profit, an intelligent owner will figure out a way to get that 5% back instead of alienating it.

I know that since it's their gym I have to follow their rules, since I don't agree with their rules I will not support them with my membership fees. I won't try to go in there and purposely break their rules to prove a point, it won't get me anywhere but possibly arrested. What I would do is write a well worded letter to the company and urge others to do the same, there is strength in numbers and if there is enough people they will eventually be seen as dollar signs.

Planet Fitness is cashing in on a fad, they are looting the fitness industry and anyone who is truly serious about training. Yes, they do make money, but like many other business ventures just because something is profitable it doesn't necessarily mean it's moral.

Opening a gym is an idea I have been considering for a while now, I am trying to see how profitable it is in the long run. If I had the money I would open one up right now as kind of a "pet project" where all I would care about is it not losing me any money and not worry about making a living off it.

That's classic, if the smaller member is intimidated by the fact that the guy next to him is warming up for barbell curls with the weight of his max bench then HE is the problem not the bigger guy. A person like that does not belong in a gym, he belongs behind a desk as a sectretary eh.., I mean Administrative Assistant (didn't mean to trample on his feelings). Someone who belongs in a gym would be motivated to see someone bigger and stronger than them, that's a lifetime member and a customer, not someone who wants to try "working out" for a month and see how it goes.

This is happenning all because the public of the United States has started to put a lot of emphasis on sensitivity and people's feelings. Basically a male child growing up today is not taught to be the man his grandfather and maybe father was, agressiveness is frowned upon. This is starting to creep into every area of our society and it's disturbing. We are taught to be passive, anyone who doesn't conform is frowned upon, and with a smirk called a "hardass". I would not be surprised if we saw a gay version of James Bond in the next twenty-years. I belong to a World Gym and if it ever converted to Planet Fitness I would leave. Problem is in my area that is the only gym with dumbells over 90lbs.. In my opinion the "fitness fad" will blow over eventually and these gyms will again have to cater to their old clientele. I applaud people that are letting their voices be heard, maybe it will help maybe it won't. At least you are acting and not being passive about the situation.

Serge's upper body overpowered his legs, from the waist up he was awesome.

Whether or not we agree with UK Gold's tactics is not important, what's important is that snotty little bitch will never try to pull that shit again.

I like wearing basketball shoes whenever I train legs, either the mid height or high tops. They provide great ankle support and their soles are relatively flat compared to running shoes and  cross-trainers. I have an old pair of Jordan's that I have been wearing for the last two years, I love them. Wearing whatever you are the most comfortable in is key, for me it just happens to be basketball shoes. When I train other bodyparts it really doesn't matter as far as what shoes I wear.

Mike Mentzer is another guy who is never mentioned in the movie and should have been, he is in it for about a second.

If you are looking to build explosiveness I would definitely do power cleans. It's a very explosive movement and allows you to use heavy weights. Jumping with just bodyweight puts a lot of stress on the knees, I can't see jumpsquats as an excercise that someone can do on a consistent basis and not develop knee problems.

That's the reason why I have never stopped doing exercises like pull-ups and chins, now I do them with added weight to make them more challenging. Being strong and not being able to handle your own bodyweight is useless.

Perfect example of wigger on wigger violence.

At one point in time that he/she thing had to have had a penis.

Unless someone has a lot of experience fighting in the ring, they have no business going up against Mike Tyson. 99% of people on this forum would not be able to defend themselves for a round.

Why would anyone go on TV looking like that? The sad part is that the guy probably thinks he looks awesome.

They purposely cut their calories, if they didn't they would still gain weight. If a person is naturally strong realtive to his bodyweight, it's to his advantage to stay at his current weight and try to only increase his strength.

He was 180lbs and pretty lean when he was still playing basketball. So to be 190lbs at his first show naturally isn't unreasonable. Once he stopped playing ball it would be much easier for him to put on muscle, add to that the fact that he then actually started to train for bodybuilding it's believable that he could gain that amount of muscle naturally. I am not saying that he was for sure a natural in his first show, but it is possible.

It seems pretty amazing to me that MD won't want to report on the latest contest that one of their columnists was in and won, not to mention the fact that Lee has been on the cover of MD many times and is the most popular pro that the magazine has at the time. The only way that  I can rationalize this is that they think that Lee's bodybuilding career is going downhill fast and that it's not worth it to them to take extra heat for him from the IFBB.

The threaded ends sticking out from the screw on collars will really hurt when you put a 100lb+ dumbell on your quads in order to clear the dumbells to your chest or shoulders for pressing movements.