The official gym & weightlifting thread! rep #2

[Chebass88]

Finally got back into the weight training routine. Seeing really good gains with the "Starting Strength" routine.

Adam

Adam,

Great to hear! Hope you keep seeing results.

ian

 

[Combat Chuck]

The rec at my old college was amazing - it was huge, had a crapton of everything, and the only times you ever really had to wait for much was the first week back from each semester and about the two weeks before Spring break.

The rec at my new college is tiny, and it's really sucked my motivation to work out in general. I've considered buying a membership to a local gym (and my sister works at a nearby YMCA), but I don't really want to have to -drive- to get to where I can work out.

Has anyone else had such a quality shift in gyms in the past? I went from having a scheduled time to go to having to spend about an hour each day convincing myself that it's worth it.

 

[Vorago]

I went from a crappy almost freeweight free gym to an old BB old iron & red leather + 80's BB posters gym last year.

Absolutely brilliant, stopped lifting weights though.

 

[Jereth]

Has anyone else had such a quality shift in gyms in the past? I went from having a scheduled time to go to having to spend about an hour each day convincing myself that it's worth it.

My local gym closed down back in May, so I had to shift to one that was a 20 min drive away(doens't sound like much but my first one was only 5mins away). The new one had much better gear, was more 'lifter friendly' and I saw the biggest man I've ever seen trained there.
However, I prefered my old gym. Not sure why, I just like training in there much more. It opened back up and I went back before my short term membership on the second gym even expired.
Where you train really has an affect on your goals, results and how you percieve training.

 

[Jereth]

My coach was like "If you squat below parallel at 6'5 your knees are gonna explode!!!1!1"

Wrong. You need to find a new coach.
Individual anthropometry affects percieved depth on things like squats but it is astonishingly rare to see someone who has such radical physical dimensions that one cannot correctly perform a full squat.

Mark Rippetoe makes some excellent points about why below parallel squats are actually the safest exercise for the knees. Keeping in mind that correctly performed barbell movements(squats, deadlifts, bench press, military press etc) are essentially the functional expression of the human anatomy.

Easy to see how people can fall into that. I think the only time I may cheat a bit and bounce is if its light weights and higher reps

With a decent weight on there, hit the bottom, give it a second before coming back up

I see nothing at all wrong with a little bounce at the bottom. It'll make 'coming out of the hole' a lot easier most times. I'd struggle to call it cheating as the weight stays the same and if you are hitting below parallel you are still covering the appropriate ROM.

 

[Jereth]

If you do not break parallel, the squat does not count, period. Also, doing half squats is much harder on your knees because they are what stops your downward motion at that angle, rather than the glutes and hamstrings stopping the movement in a full squat. You should try to go ass to ankles with as much weight as you can in order to build your squat up.

Funny story: Being a crossfitter, I can care less about how "big" someone is, they are not functional. I had a roided out body builder approach me and ask me about what I do for my legs (my best muscle group). I told him I do tons of squats, dead lifts, lunges, etc. He asked me how much I could squat and I told him 440 (that is below parallel) and he just laughed. He then told me that he could squat 500lbs. I told him that there was no way which upset him, so we scheduled a squat contest. He could not even get 315 parallel, not even close. I guess that some people feel that if they can break at the knees the squat counts. Good luck in a competition...

Always do FULL squats.

I'm not a CF fan, but I am a Rippetoe fan. Obviously I agree with going past parallel with the squats but since when is having big muscles not functional? The biggest guy I've ever seen(had to have been hitting 300lbs at maybe 10ishBF%) was a competitive BB'er and a young NCO in the armed forces. Not exactly a job where one could get away with having 'non' functional strength.
I don't think his inability to have a legal 500lb squat at a PL meet would bother him. He obviously has different goals.

Hell, even Greg Valentino managed to still be perfectly 'functional' every day.
And what evidence did you have to support the notion that this guy was roided out?

 

[adammazza]

Just got back form my SS Rippetoe workout. Only thing I'm having problems with are the power cleans, form is just horrible. I've been doing pull ups or barbell rows instead.

Adam

 

[Jereth]

Just got back form my SS Rippetoe workout. Only thing I'm having problems with are the power cleans, form is just horrible. I've been doing pull ups or barbell rows instead.

Adam

I had a lot of trouble learning power cleans as well. I also started to develop a wierd pain in my biceps after doing them. I weighed up my options and just switched to BB rows after a while. I'm not training for a sport and power production was of little importance to me. I may start doing Oly lifts at some point in the future, but I just wanted to be bigger and stronger at the moment. So they worked for me but realise what you will be giving up if you omit them from your programme.
Bill Starr once commented that if your exercise programme was to have one exercise, power cleans should be it.

 

[adammazza]

Understood, I'm not training for a sport either. I may come back to the power cleans once I work my press, and deadlift up.

Once other benefit of SS has been I've actually gained a good deal of flexibility in a short period of time, I can now bend over and touch my toes which I couldn't do before.

Adam

I had a lot of trouble learning power cleans as well. I also started to develop a wierd pain in my biceps after doing them. I weighed up my options and just switched to BB rows after a while. I'm not training for a sport and power production was of little importance to me. I may start doing Oly lifts at some point in the future, but I just wanted to be bigger and stronger at the moment. So they worked for me but realise what you will be giving up if you omit them from your programme.
Bill Starr once commented that if your exercise programme was to have one exercise, power cleans should be it.

 

[bassist 4 life]

I stopped for about a month now and just recently got back because I had to move from the middle east to ohio for uni.
The rec at my uni is pretty sick, 2 olympic sized swimming pools, an all cardio floor, etc.
you americans are built as ****! it must be that you play american football and we play normal football (soccer). i've seen some pretty huge cabinet sized dudes at the gym haha, kinda intimidating.

I need to catch up on everything, I'm an ectomorph. It took me 6 months to gain 20lbs and 1 to lose 7. kinda messed up.

 

[daystcity]

I do squats with a free bar in the smith machine squat area (stupid, but hey, I don't know how to drop a squat correctly without the bars). Because the smith machine doesn't move from side to side the sides are stupidly far apart, you have like a half inch space to rack the bar . So on my last set (200lbs) I hit one of the stoppers with the 45 plate and wobbled before getting up. My left knee is bugging me, gonna give it a week or two on squats (again ) But I think I'll still deadlift. It pisses me off that my form was fine, but when I walked back I walked like an inch too far to the right and now that screws up my training plans. I'm gonna talk to someone about how to dump the weight if necessary so I can move outside of that cursed cage! (to the guy who was wondering I do full sqauts, havn't had any knee problems until now). GAH! Can any of you guys tell me how to dump it without like annihilating some part of my body? Also would deadlifts be ok with a wierded out knee? (slight pain in ACL when havn't moved in awhile IE school)

 

[Chebass88]

Hey all,

I wanted to post about 2 PRs I achieved last night:

235 lb Back Squat x 5 (yes, with proper form & below parallel). My previous PR was 185 lb.

Consecutive kipping pullups (the type of pullup preferred by CrossFit) - 2-3 consecutive kipping pullups, multiple sets. Now the question is going to be learning how to connect them & get more done!

Keep charging!

ian

 

[iamlowsound]

Hey, I just decided to start hitting the gym since I am in school and not working physically anymore. I know a good workout for arms, but nothing else. I would like to do arms, core and legs. Three days a week with the two off days on the squash court, weekends off. I should also mention that I am more interested in building lean muscle, not large. I like definition better than size.

lowsound

 

[adammazza]

You need to build muscle in order to tone it. Take a look at:

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It will make you stronger very fast and through pretty simple exercises.

Adam

 

[iamlowsound]

You need to build muscle in order to tone it. Take a look at:

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

It will make you stronger very fast and through pretty simple exercises.

Adam

I already have the muscle mass from working construction, running and playing squash.

lowsound

 

[adammazza]

The Starting Strength routine will help your core, this includes, legs, etc. Take a look at it, a lot of people would say it's the best beginning routine around. Here are my squat results after being on it a month or so:

Adam

 

[scottyd]

Bump to this thread! cause Ol Scottyds got his butt back in the gym. It's only been three months and my bench is back up to 305, Haven't maxed on squats yet but did 6 reps on the leg press last night with 450. Not too great but too shabby seeing on how the last time I touched any iron was 9 years ago. Muscle memory is an awesome thing! I'm hoping to get my flat bench up to 405 by this Christmas.

 

[Mazatleco17]

Monday: Chest/shoulders/triceps
Bench-press
Incline db press
Dumbbell overhead press
Tricep Extension With Rope

Wednesday: Legs
Squat
Leg-curl
Seated calf-raises

Friday: Back/biceps
Deadlifts (have to do lots of research, to obtain proper form)
Cable seated row
Pull-ups as many as possible.
Preacher curl

10min light cardio and stretching before each workout to get the blood flowing

Tuesday/Thursday Cardio

How does it look? Yay-Nay?

 

[ekb16b]

How does it look? Yay-Nay?

To me, your routine doesnt seem quite intense enough, mixing chest triceps and shoulders all on one day is kinda pointless as they're primarily the biggest muscles in the upper body. If you do all of em on the same day you'll get fatigued quickly and most likely give it a halfass effort.

Personally i like to do chest, tris and shoulders on separate days, as the muscles are connected and you'll be able to push harder when fresh.

For you chest workout I'd incorporate incline and decline db presses as you work on little muscles that help with balance, also well as flat and incline fly's help with the connection to the shoulder muscles. Even just doing presses the tris get a wicked workout.

For triceps, using just cable pulls won't be enough to completely rip em, I personally start with skull crushers (best workout for tris) then go to cables and finish off with some dips (feet up on bench with an extra weight on lap)

 

[Tsal]

Yay, I'm back to the gym after a few months break over the summer! I'm doing a light single-day split at them moment, to get me back to speed. Unfortunately, my lower back is acting up again, so I might have to settle for machines instead of squats and DL's. Oh well, I can always do lunges.