On June 26 2010 03:20 travis wrote: u warm up right?
I usually warm up by sitting in the sauna before I work out.
No I'm just kidding, I do my warmup sets. =)
You know, every time I go to the gym, I see these people. They're working their asses off... but they're doing exercises that aren't optimal, or their form is suspect, or whatever. But they look way better than me, and they go to the gym consistently.
And to me, I'm realizing, that is way more important... to have that continuous drive to stay disciplined, to never miss a gym day. To focus on working hard and kicking ass. "70% of success in life is just showing up," they say.
I think about that, whenever someone posts their routine. In the back of my head (and maybe even on the keyboard) I'll think "LOLZ NEEDS MORE SQUATZ AND DEADLIFTZ" but you know what? What's more important is that he or she is getting his ass to the gym after not ever doing it. That's a reward all in itself. And it's those truly motivated people, in the end, who end up looking the best and making a real change.
Experience and changing in programming will come with experience and knowledge. But passion and drive is something invaluable and something that I want to harvest within myself and others.
On June 26 2010 03:52 7mk wrote: well atm I'm not really doing any sports so I dont think I need any of my muscles to be stronger for every day life, but I dont like the thought of having this unbalanced body where I have this one super strong muscle group opposing that other weak muscle group, can't imagine it's that healthy either.
Off to the gym now
A large reason for doing these compound lifts is because they are balanced, and work out the body in a way that is representative of real use. What's unbalanced is doing isolated exercises on certain muscle groups, especially when it's probably not the bottleneck in your body.
A lot of these questions are actually answered on the Starting Strength wiki. I recommend reading through it to learn about how and why the program works.
About to go max out my squat. hoping to hit at least 425, if not more. i'll try it also with wraps + belt after to see if i can do more. will report back soon!
On June 26 2010 06:42 decafchicken wrote: About to go max out my squat. hoping to hit at least 425, if not more. i'll try it also with wraps + belt after to see if i can do more. will report back soon!
Record it if you can! Im going heavy tomorrow too :DD
Got 425! I lost it on my first attempt when i tried below parallel but then i got it on second try at parallel. I got 440 with knee wraps + belt. I'll try to take a video when i max out deadlifts hopefully next friday. Just got a new phone so i can use that!
I usually warm up by sitting in the sauna before I work out.
No I'm just kidding, I do my warmup sets. =)
You know, every time I go to the gym, I see these people. They're working their asses off... but they're doing exercises that aren't optimal, or their form is suspect, or whatever. But they look way better than me, and they go to the gym consistently.
And to me, I'm realizing, that is way more important... to have that continuous drive to stay disciplined, to never miss a gym day. To focus on working hard and kicking ass. "70% of success in life is just showing up," they say.
I think about that, whenever someone posts their routine. In the back of my head (and maybe even on the keyboard) I'll think "LOLZ NEEDS MORE SQUATZ AND DEADLIFTZ" but you know what? What's more important is that he or she is getting his ass to the gym after not ever doing it. That's a reward all in itself. And it's those truly motivated people, in the end, who end up looking the best and making a real change.
Experience and changing in programming will come with experience and knowledge. But passion and drive is something invaluable and something that I want to harvest within myself and others.
That's what I need.
Thank you for that, it's what I needed to hear and what I know I want as well. I just wish I could stay in this state of mind forever.
On June 26 2010 09:32 decafchicken wrote: Got 425! I lost it on my first attempt when i tried below parallel but then i got it on second try at parallel. I got 440 with knee wraps + belt. I'll try to take a video when i max out deadlifts hopefully next friday. Just got a new phone so i can use that!
On June 26 2010 03:52 7mk wrote: well atm I'm not really doing any sports so I dont think I need any of my muscles to be stronger for every day life, but I dont like the thought of having this unbalanced body where I have this one super strong muscle group opposing that other weak muscle group, can't imagine it's that healthy either.
it's not imbalanced.. ur ignoring my question
if there is a muscle that ur body naturally uses for stability/balance rather than actually moving a load, why would you need to increase it's strength in regards to moving a load?
think about what movements are actually functional. do those movements with resistance. then all the muscles incorporated into those functional movements are used. there is no imbalance unless you skip over functional movements.
if you're that worried about targetting everything you can do gymnastic holds not lifting weights... but it's mostly the same thing.. you're still going to be using muscles like adductors for stability and not moving a load.
hm I guess that makes sense. Though I certainly wouldn't say that abductors/adductors are used for nothing but stability, at least of were talking about sports too and not just about carrying things in every day life. I mean think about gluteus maximus, if that muscle isn't important then god/evolution surely wouldnt have made it the most powerful muscle in our body.
on another note. for you guys who do standing BB presses (dim? decaf?), does your form look like how they do it in the vid below? i just can't understand how your wrists wouldn't hurt when pressing heavy weights. i'd like to think i'm doing it the same way, but it just doesn't feel right on the wrists
on another note. for you guys who do standing BB presses (dim? decaf?), does your form look like how they do it in the vid below? i just can't understand how your wrists wouldn't hurt when pressing heavy weights. i'd like to think i'm doing it the same way, but it just doesn't feel right on the wrists
It looks fine to me. Just remember to stick your chest out to give yourself a big base to put the bar on your shoulders. If your wrists are hurting, maybe drop your elbows a bit to put less pressure on your wrists.
On June 25 2010 19:14 7mk wrote: Thanks for the responses eshlow&decaf Still got some questions though. So basically you're saying I dont ever need to do splits unless I wanna become a professional bodybuilder? How long is each workout supposed to be? I remember doing up to like 90 minutes when I was a beginner (about 6 months in) and did full body workout. Then I read up about the subject and switched to splits and 40-45 minute workouts. What I still don't understand is how such a simple setup like squats/bench press/pullups covers all the muscles that I wanna improve (e.g. leg adductors,gluteal muscles like I mentioned last post). And biceps training is purely done by doing pullups/chinups?
1. Splits are MORE useful for higher level BBers or athletes who either need more volume for set muscles for adaptations OR need to integrate lots of skill/technique practice with their sport.
2. Starting Strength should take at most an hour. Most full body routines will be around this long, and can be adapted to shorter periods if necessary with some modifications.
3. You're splitting volume over the course of a week. If you're doing a split where you "bis/back' once or twice a week... when yo're doing full body 3-4x a week you're getting a compound exercise that many times a week. Splitting volume over the course of a week does not make it ineffective as doing it all at once; on the contrary, it can be even more effective.
4. Full body is going to be more effective in the sense that you're getting more work on more muscles. But total volume on individual muscles is spread out during the week instead of being condensed in some session as previously stated.
Overall, full body will lead to more cumulative stress on the musculoskeletal system which will lead to greater gains. There are no good S&C coaches or fitness professionals who will do splits for novices.
If you WANT to add in some specific work afterwards that's fine, BUT most of the time it isn't necessary until you're much stronger.
Also what's the reason for 3x5? I always read that one should switch it up and do 3x15 for "endurance", 3x9-12 for muscle growth and 3x 5-9 or less for maximum strength. And if I understand you correctly I should just keep doing 3x5 (or another variation with X * 5 like decaf does) for years. What's the reason for that? Somewhere in that sports wiki I saw a table that seemed to show that x5 seemed most effective but some sort of explanation would still be cool.
A. 1-3 is maximum strength, 4-7 is strength-hypertrophy, 8-11 is more hypertrophy mixed strength/endurance, 12-15 is hypertrophy-endurance, 16+ is mostly endurance.
You can define this with time under tension principles too.... but it's kind of redundant IMO as there are multiple paths of hypertrophy.
Generally, the 4-7 rep range is best for both getting strong and for hypertrophy for novices as it provides the msot benefits. The endurance isn't going to help you as much as the strength long term, especially when trying to force adaptations.
B. There's no reason in between cycles you can't switch it up from 3x5 to 3x10-12 if you wanted. The forced switching can actually be beneficial depending on your goals.
But this is more along the lines of when you start getting into intermediate-advanced range when you have to start relying on some sort of periodization to make good gains.
I'm sorry if these are all questions that have already been answered in this thread, I'd normally read through it to find out, but 64 pages is kind of a lot ^^ Also dont misinterpret these questions as some sort of criticism, in fact I'll probably switch my workout to full body tonight, I just wanna understand why I do what I do.
Btw. I tried fartlek for the first time yesterday, crazy shit :p
P.S. what's your opinion on a split between a building muscles phase and a fat-loss/muscle definition phase? Are you one of those who think this is absolutely obligatory or do you think that one can get stronger while losing fat or at least while staying somewhat slim/barely gaining weight? Atm. I intended to be in my muscle definition phase but then after workouts I keep on thinking "man if I dont eat enough stuff now I'm just wasting this workout"
Oh another question :D what do you think is an optimal fat percentage, if it's not about any sports in particular? I got myself a new scale a few weeks ago, says I have 15.3% body fat, sth. like 64% water and 44.1% muscle (was a bit disappointed about that last part since I've been working out for a while now ^^)
mmh I think that is all for now :p
1. Muscle building/fat loss..... do you mean Bulking and cutting?
Technically, that is THE fastest way to gain muscle over long term.... BUT most people don't want to fatten up and look out of shape while they're doing it. So it's not for most people, but you have to realize if you skip this type of stuff then you're not going to progress as fast as someone who did do this.
If you're aiming to build muscle you DO need excess kcals though so pig out. If you're gaining weight too fast (too much BF being put on) then cut back kcals a lot. But most people are on the undereating side of the spectrum so it's better to go too much than too little because you can always take out a little but you'll never know if you're limiting your gains if you're undereating.
2. Optimal is hard to define, heh. There's no real good answer.
So this is it, I am fucking overweight. When I worked out last time I weighed myself and it said 82.5 kg and I am like 175-8 cm. I don't have any double chin or something like that but my thighs and stomach is a little bit fat. My question is now, if I work out on tuesdays and run 5 km on thursdays, perhaps even playing tennis on saturday depending on the weather, is it possible for me to lose that overweight easily? Thanks for advice!
On June 25 2010 00:24 AoN.DimSum wrote: Right now I'm trying to fix my technique. I cut my pull on my clean and snatches. I have a timing issue with my snatch, which is because I don't stay over the bar long enough and it causes me to swing and miss behind. Also I push my jerk a little forward. So I am not consistent with any of my lifts.
so my competition pr are snatch= 88kg clean and jerk 105kg
training pr snatch = 85kg clean and jerk 110kg clean= 115kg power snatch=80kg power clean=93kg back squat= 155kg front squat= 135kg clean off blocks= 110kg clean pull= 140kg snatch balance= 105kg
For others exercises I never max or so I dont know. I just need to keep working at my technique and get stronger. I am hoping to hit 95kg snatch and 120 clean and jerk. I just need to work a lot on my pulling. If I can get under the bar, I can handle any weight squatting it up.
Thats fucking nuts for being 145 pounds...you can out clean and jerk me by like 20-30 pounds and you weigh 60 less than me rofl. Very solid lifts all around though. Whats the diff between a clean and power clean? and a clean pull and a deadlift?
Clean has the third pull where you pull yourself under the bar and front squat it up. In the power clean you just pull the bar much higher and don't need to drop under it. You can clean more weight than you can power clean because you don't need to pull the weight as high and drop under the bar instead. Clean pull is always double overhand and you shrug the weight up while you're on your toes at the top as if you were going to jump up and clean it. It's a more explosive movement. The starting position is also different than the deadlift, your hips are lower and your shoulders stay over the bar more.
pretty much what drowsy said. More simply if you catch the clean above parallel, its a power clean. If you catch the bar below parallel, then its a clean. Clean pull is just to mimic the second pull of a clean, so it just looks like a deadlift + a shrug.
btw drowsy what gym did you join?
Phoenix weightlifting club. We kinda suck and only 2 guys are close to bw snatch. The coach is fairly knowledgable and the equipment is awesome. There's even a powerlifting room with 2 half racks and thin kg plates. There's no air conditioning and it's regularly over 110 degrees outside.
EPT
