thread of getting sw0le

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-w2FALws0Xk4/UFR3NeLqogI/AAAAAAAAB6Q/v7T5pTRjjvE/s1600/ronnie.jpg

ok I'm never opening this thread again

dying

He would do well in a hunter-gatherer-type of society.

Nah. He'd lose muscle mass like crazy in a hunter-gatherer society, cuz hunting is only a marginal source of protein and calories in such societies.

Plus if he tried to run he'd just tip over.

all his gym equipment would just be rocks

karl malone to thread

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vA5f07iM_TQ/Tl13APZ-giI/AAAAAAAAAbU/zNUoEUy80fY/s640/untitled.bmp

The navel on that guy is ugly as sin.

Never done this, but I think it would be... relaxing? Does that make sense? De-stressing, anyway.

Is it supposed to be combined with cardio in particular ways?

Could I do it at home without practicing with a trainer at a gym first, or would that inevitably lead to screwing up?

is this any weight lifting or only free weights, olympic lifts?

it's just getting sw0le

kk *getting sw0le*

i got this book called the new rules of lifting for women and i finished stage 1 but instead of moving on i decided to keep working on basic things and doing things i want to do. i did it at the gym. i think there are limited things you can do at home but not all of it. ljub aren't you in school? you have a gym! it's best to have access to barbell and heavy dumbbells. it is very de-stressing. you don't have to do cardio. it's like how you are supposed to feel after yoga but not bored. i did not use a trainer. it only felt awkward for a few times then i started to not give a shit about looking dumb. my gym is all gays anyway. i watched some youtubes about how to do stuff.

um what's the difference betweengetting sw0le and getting swOle? and which one is easier to accomplish if I'm not the bodybuilding type? swole with an O sounds like it might be more work.

one is on i rate everything, one is for a general audience

http://i.imgur.com/OJxLK.jpg

xp yeah, I'm in school, but the gym is kind of far and I'm too stressed out to make it a priority to get there. Home I might actually do. 'Like yoga without the bored' is exactly what I'm after.

frank yang appreciation the2ad

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdiCB-pdC6g

that's me

Mark Rippetoe's Starting Strength Routine:

*note the dip/chin isnt in the original program

Here is a routine from Mark Rippetoe’s book called “Starting Strength”. You can buy the book at www.startingstrength.com. It includes endless useful info that all beginners should learn. But as for the program he suggests, his clients that he gives it to on AVERAGE gain 30-40 pounds in about 6 months or so which is amazing gains.

The program is as follows:

You alternate Workout A and Workout B every other day, 3 times a week. So you could either do Mon, Wed, Fri or Tues, Thurs. and Sat. Depending on what works best for you.

Example:

Week 1:

Monday - Workout A
Wednesday -Workout B
Friday - Workout A

Week 2:

Monday - Workout B
Wednesday - Workout A
Friday - Workout B

Etc.

For the actual workouts read below:

Note: This doesn’t include warm-up sets

**Means this is OPTIONAL**

Workout A
3x5 Squat
3x5 Bench Press
1x5 Deadlift
**2x8 Dips (if you cant do these or no assist machine then do Decline Dumbbell Bench Press with your hands Facing each other)

Workout B
3x5 Squat
3x5 Standing military press
3x5 Pendlay or Bent Rows (or power cleans)
**2x8 Chin-ups (recommended mainly if doing the cleans)

Assistance work:

Most people cant get it through there head that compound lifts also work your arms Plenty and always Insist on direct arm work. As quoted by Madcow2, “Don't **** with this. Every bodybuilder seems to have Attention Deficit Disorder and an overwhelming desire to customize everything.” If you are one of these people note that you have the option of doing the dips and chins which give PLENTY of arm work. Abdominal work is fine to do also if needed.

I recommend weighted decline sit-ups and/or Hanging Leg Raises at 2x8-10.

Weight:

As for the weight, make sure that you use the SAME weight throughout the sets. For example if I do the first set if Squats with 200lbs then I do the other 2 sets of squats with 200lbs.

Every week make it a goal to increase each of your lifts by 2.5%. Meaning if I lifted 100lbs for my Bench Week 1 then Week 2 I would try for 102.5lbs. If I did 200lb Squats Week 1 I would try for 205lbs in Week 2. Sometimes you will be able to do more but don’t mess with your form just to lift more.

Warm-up Sets:

Before all your working sets it is best to do a few warm-up sets. Specifically for your first lift. You don’t have to do the whole thing for the other lifts but definitely the first.

What you do is you ramp your weight up to your working sets.

For example:

2x5xbar (sets x reps x weight)
1x5x85
1x3x125
1x2x155

And the working set weight would be 175.

If you are lifting your working sets under 150 I would cut out the 3rd warmup set of 1x5 because it wont be needed.

The Lifts:

**Used references and quotes from Madcow2 and Bodybuilding.com**

Barbell Squat: These should be full range Olympic style squats. Use the full range of your body - that means as low as you can go which for almost everyone is past parallel. If the top of your thighs aren't at least parallel it's for sh!t. If you think this is bad for your knees going low, you and whoever told you that are relying on an old wives tale. Anyone who knows the human body will tell you that below parallel is MUCH safer on the knees whereas parallel and above put all the sheer right on them and doesn’t allow proper transfer of the load to the rest of your body (this is how your body was designed).

Rest a barbell on the upper portion of your back, not your neck. Firmly grip the bar with your hands almost twice your shoulder width apart. Position your feet about shoulder width apart and your toes should be pointing just a little outward with your knees in the same direction. Keep your back as straight as possible and your chin up, bend your knees and slowly lower your hips straight down until your THIGHS ARE AT LEAST PARALLEL TO THE FLOOR. Once you reach the bottom position, press the weight up back to the starting position.

Video: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/2003/barbellsquat.wvx

To be honest ATG (Ass to the Grass) squats work the best IMO. What you do is you go ALL the way down until your hamstrings touch your calves and keep the same Olympic squat form.

Barbell Deadlift: Each rep is deweighted fully on the floor. No touch and go. This is called the 'dead'lift because the weight is 'dead' on the ground. You can touch and go warm ups but that's it.

This is a very complicated exercise so here is bodybuilding.com’s detailed instructions on this lift.

Flat Barbell Bench Press: Lie on a flat bench and firmly position your feet flat on the floor a little more than shoulder width apart. Keep your back flat on the bench! Using a grip broader than shoulder width, hold the barbell above your body, then lower slowly to the middle of your chest. Without bouncing the weight off your chest, drive the barbell up over the middle of your chest until your arms are straight and your elbows are locked. Lower the bar down slowly.

Standing Barbell Military Press: Standing overhead presses. Supporting weight overhead is a fundamental exercise and stimulates the whole body.
Raise barbell to your chest with your hands shoulder width apart. Lock your legs and hips. Keep your elbows in, slightly under your bar. Press bar to arm's length overhead. Lower to your upper chest or chin (depending on what is comfortable).

Bent Barbell Row: Raise barbell to your chest with your hands shoulder width apart. Lock your legs and hips. Keep your elbows in, slightly under your bar. Press bar to arm's length overhead. Lower to your upper chest or chin (depending on what is comfortable).

Power Clean:http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/OlympicLifts/PowerClean.html

Chin-Up: Hold the chin-up bar with a supinated grip (palms facing you) with your hands about 6 to 8 inches apart. Pull yourself up and try to touch either your chin or upper chest to the bar. Return slowly to the starting position. Do NOT swing back and forth! Using this grip works more of your biceps than your back or lats.

Dip: Using the parallel bars, grip the handles and push yourself up to your starting position. With elbows close to body and hips straight, lower body until shoulders are slightly stretched. Push body up in same posture and repeat. You can bend and cross your legs or keep them straight.

The Diet:

If you are bulking, which is what people usually do on this program, you need to be eating like there is no tomorrow. 3000-4000 calories a day. Make sure you get 1 to 2 x your bodyweight in protein (in grams) and more than that in carbs. Mark Rippetoe also suggests that you drink up to a gallon of milk a day and plenty of water.

Your bulk could be clean but its hard to do so. I suggest just going all out and getting any protein you can get your hands on. For example lean grilled chicken and egg whites is best but if you want to gain that muscle fast then ground beef, steaks, whole eggs, cheeses etc is great. Eat a lot of oats, pasta, wheat bread, yogurt, cottage cheese, tuna, etc.

Make sure you get a huge breakfast. Mark recommends 4 huge meals a day with breakfast being the largest. Make sure all your meals have plenty of both carbs and protein! Also look into getting a PWO shake for post workout to get some carbs DIRECTLY into your system when your done lifting. Then an hour later eat a meal. Its also good to eat a snack before bed. Just remember to get big you need to eat big because eating is 90% of your muscle gains.

Quote:
1. What are ATG Squats?
ATG is short of Ass To Grass. It means a full squat. Go as low as you can go.
Squat depth is extremely important and makes a huge difference in your development. Going deeper is more uncomfortable and difficult, but by far more beneficial. Not only does greater depth require greater muscle fiber recruitment, which means greater overall training benefits, but the degree of squat depth strongly influences the loading of the different hip and torso extensor muscles and stabilizers.
[kethnaab]
Hamstring flexibility and structure will ultimately decide how low you can go without your lower back rounding under (which is VERY bad bad bad). Each person's structure will differ, so what is "ATG" to one may not be ATG to another. Ultimately, you cannot control your structure, but you CAN control your flexibility, so ensure adequate hamstring flexibility to maximize benefits, range of motion, and safety.

2. I've got large legs already. Do I really need to squat?
Yes. You need to squat. Squating will stimulate growth in the whole body given that the leg muscles are so big. If you take the squats out, then this isn't Starting Strength anymore.
Still not convinced? Read this

3. I work out at home. I don't have a squat rack. How can I do this routine?
You need to be able to squat. This is the single most important thing in the program. Get a part time job to make enough to buy a squat/power rack or gym membership.
Without someplace to squat you absolutely cannot do this program.

There is also an alternative if you've already got a bench. Did you consider grabbing the barbell from the back of your bench? You may need to re-arrange your home gym, but you may well be able to squat from behind your bench setup.

4. Do I need a belt?
No. You shouldn't need a belt. A belt will take away from the natural 'core' belt that we're all equiped with. If you wear a belt, you'll become more reliant on this and your core muscles will not get a workout.

Later in your training, you may need to use a belt, but for now, part of "Starting Strength" includes "Starting your Core Strength" to prepare you for your further training.

5. I know this is mainly for building strength and mass. Can I do it while I cut?
[kethnaab]
Newcomers can frequently add muscle so rapidly that, with a clean diet, they will lose bodyfat as if they were cutting. Also note, cutting typically involves an abundance of cardio, which will be VERY detrimental to gains. Younger fellows especially will probably be able to get away with zero cardio while on this program, and will notice a substantial fat loss.

[Ripstone]
Cutting is more about changing your nutrition plan, not your lifting routine. One is going to find it very difficult(if not near impossible) to gain size on a cut, however strength gains on a cut can(and should) occur. In order to gain size you need to a) eat a caloirc surplus, which during a cut one is obviously not doing b) progess in the weight you use, which "Starting Strength" will take care of.

In order to gain strength you need to:
a) progress in the weight you use, which again "Starting Strength" should accomplish.
b) become more neurually efficent
c) obviously progress in the weight you use.

However, you DO NOT need to eat a caloric surplus to gain strength, it just makes it easier to gain strength if you do eat at a calories surplus, but again you DO NOT need to do so.

6. My arms are small, and there isn't any direct work for the arms. Can I add in some curls?
Your arms will still get worked through every day through the Bent Over rows (or PowerCleans) and with pressing and pulling motions.

Do NOT add any arm work for AT LEAST the first 2-3 weeks. At this point in time, you can add in dips and chins on alternating workouts, 2 sets of 8 reps (Add weight if needed).
As your workload increases, you can add a 3rd set and more weight to keep your repetitions at 5 reps per set
Note: According to the book Starting Strength, this additional work is not included.

7. It seems like I'd have this all done within 10 minutes of walking into the gym. Is that all there is to this program?
Yes. That's it, but you need to take into account that there are warm up sets. Overall, this workout should take you around 45 mins to complete, which is ample for a workout.
The amount of time you spend lifting really doesn't matter all that much. All the matters is if you are progressing in the weight you use as often as possible(ie; adding weight to the bar, which is the goal of "Starting Strength").

8. I keep hearing different opinions of how to progress. Do I need to increase EVERY workout?
That's right. The intention is that you start light. You should be able to add 2.5% of each lift every workout. However, if you feel it was heavy for you then do the same weight next time. It's recommended that you do this only to a maximum of 3 workouts in succession. If you're still having trouble, then you'll need to reset for this weight.

[kethnaab]
Keep in mind that adding repetitions is also progress. If you try 100 lbs and get 5, 5, and 3 repetitions on your 3 sets, then next workout, you try 100 again. As long as you get 5, 5, and 4 (or 5), then you are progressing. Adding weight to the squat on a weekly basis is a must, however. There should be no reason to go 2 consecutive weeks using the same weight.

9. Why is there only 1 set of 5 for deadlift? Surely that's wrong
No. Again, these are the working sets and don't include warm ups. Deadlifts are a very intense exercise for the body, and is ample in conjuction with the squats being done.
Trust the program as it is. Mark Rippetoe has the knowledge to create it. Have faith and trust that it will work for you.

10. What is a good rest interval?
As for the rest interval, Rippetoe suggests 1-2 minutes for the worksets, with no rest needed for warmups You can take up to 3 minutes for the heavy sets, depending on how you feel.

11. I think I hurt myself doing the squats. The bone at the top of my neck is sore
[kethnaab]

1) Use the closest grip on the bar you can use comfortably. This forces your upper back, delts and traps to tighten up and support the bar better.

2) Make sure your elbows are BEHIND the bar, not underneath the bar. This takes strain off your wrists and helps ensure your delts, traps and upper back muscles are flexing nice and tight during the squat.

3) Do NOT NOT NOT look up! This is ridiculous! This forces your upper body to lean forward slightly as it will naturally put the bar off center. Just look forward, i.e. neck in a "neural" position. If you were to stick a grapefruit underneath your chin and hold it there for the duration of the squat, your upper back and neck would maintain proper alignment. You'd also look liike a jackass, but that's beside the point.

12. What angle rows are we talking about here, is 45 degress ok that is what I usually do with bent over rows.
[kethnaab] ideally, rows will be done with your body parallel to the floor.
Go here and wade through to the bottom where I describe (and post a nifty pic) of how to do the row properly (known as "Pendlay rows" or "JS Rows"

13. So, if i do the Rippetoe's program, and eat a lot of protein and all those calories, wouldn't I get fat, instead of gain muscle? all those calories kind of a lot.
As commonly seen, "Lifting builds strength, eating builds muscle". If you ate all those calories while you sat on the couch and didn't lift weights, then yes. However, given the workload of this program it will assist with building muscle

Age and, of course, metabolic rate, play a role. Typically, a skinny teenager will be able to eat anything and everything he sees, as long as he is lifting with this program. The eating will fully support the training. Chubby teens or older people will obviously need to cut back a bit on the caloric info, and as mentioned earlier in the cutting question, a clean-eating trainee can gain a significant amount of strength and muscle mass while burning bodyfat, and cardio won't necessarily be required.

14. How long do I do this program?
You continue doing it until you stop progressing.

15. I know my 5RM for each of the exercises. Do I just start with that?
No. It's intended that you start light, and that you shouldn't even KNOW your 5RM. If you do, then you can safely start with 70% of your 5RM, and start progressing from there. Yes. It will seem light, but you'll be lifting your 5RM (and more) before long as you're adding every workout

16. I'm not in the US. How can I buy the book?
You can try www.amazon.com. I'm in Australia (Short One), and I've been informed and seen that the cost to Australia isn't too bad. 11.98USD (as of 20-Jun-2006) for one book. Cheaper if you buy more than 1 book

18. Is doing cardio ok with this program?
It's fine to do moderate cardio with this program.
Note: Beginners will build enough muscle with a clean diet that that fat will be burnt with minimal to no cardio.

19. I see lots of people saying PR!!! what does PR stand for?
Personal Record.

20. Is taking creatine and an NO ok with this routine? such as cellmass and NO-xplode?
It's fine but it likely won't make much difference. The most important thing is to be eating a lot of quality nutritious food. Diet is the big factor, supplements are a very small factor and not at all necessary.

21. Is it ok if I do militaries seated?. I have a low ceiling and I'll punch a hole in the ceiling if I do.
It is recommended that you do them standing up as it will give your core a workout as well stablizing.
However, if doing them outside/elsewhere is not an option then doing them seated is better than not doing them at all. If you have to do them seated be mindfull of your form so that you don't turn it into an incline press

22. Do I have to do the workouts on Mon, Wed, Fri?
The requirement is 3 nonconsecutive days each week. The exact days are up to you.
You don't have to do it on Mon, Wed, Fri. You can do Tue, Thu, Sat, as long as you're having at LEAST 1 day rest between each workout. If you can't manage this, then the program is not right for you at this point in time.

23. My calves are lagging. What exercise can I do to bring them up?
If you're not already doing the Power Cleans with this routine, you may wish to consider doing them, as doing PowerCleans properly encourages the use of the calves
Squats will work your calves too, and as all pro is quick to point out. "Have you ever seen a powerlifter with small calves?"
I started the program this week, and am looking forward to the strength gains that are bound to come.

A couple of things I've learned sofar:

Warmups:
It's always a good idea to do a warmup that closely resembles what you're about to do for the main part of your workout session. In this case, the strength session, we want to start off with bodyweight or lightweight excercises that mimick the excercises that are about to come, and work up to our 50-90% max. This is not set in stone, if you want to do burpees, pullups and squat-jumps as your warmup feel free to do so.

Most people however, including BlessedSamurai (to name a familiar name ) and other strength and conditioning coaches, do something similar this:

1x8 Bar
1x6 50%
1x4 70%
1x2 90%
3x5 100% (Work Set)

Rest periods:
Keep the rest periods between 60-120 seconds, you can get away with 60 seconds or less when the weights are still light. As the weight increases you might want to add to the rest times aswell. I'm with Chad Waterbury on this when he says keep the rest periods low for strength and muscle gains.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Chad Waterbury
I define short rest periods as any time less than two minutes between sets. The antiquated 3-5 minute rest periods recommended in every ****** newsstand muscle mag made me incredulous. As it turned out, my instincts were right on target.

My empirical evidence has shown that short rest periods will lead to a great hypertrophy response. In other words, five sets of ten reps with 60 second rest periods will induce more hypertrophy than five sets of ten reps with three minute rest periods. An even better option is to utilize short rest periods with low-rep (1-5 repetition) training parameters. This is precisely what 50% of my ABBH program is based on.

If you keep the rest periods short, you’ll stay more focused. In addition, you’ll keep the nervous system revved up, and you’ll get out of the gym quicker. For certain trainees who only seek maximal strength increases, shorter rest periods are still possible by alternating between opposing muscle groups (antagonist training).

Bottom line: If you seek hypertrophy, keep your rest periods under two minutes. It’s preferable to utilize a 60-90 second range when training more than six sets at a load greater than 80% of your 1RM.
Extra excercises: (Accessory Work)
Again, the accessory work isn't set in stone, but it's a good bet to add chins and dips with a set/rep range that you're comfortable with. I'm using 3x3 for pullups and adding 1 rep every week, I'm also doing GTG for pullups on a daily basis so I kept the workload low.

The program calls for either Rows or Snatches, you might want to do both, so here's what another forum member did:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tad_T
Workout 1

Core lifts
Squats = warmup then 3 x 5
Bench = warmup then 3 x 5
Deadlift = warmup then 1 x 5

Accessory Work
Dips = 3 sets
Pendlay rows = warmup then 3 x 5
Abs = 3 sets

Workout 2

Core lifts
Squats = warmup then 3 x 5
Overhead press = warmup then 3 x 5
Power clean = warmup then 3 x 5

Accessory work
Pullups = 3 sets
Abs = 3 sets

What's going on itt?

I'm kinda swole and looking for a community.

it's about lifting heavy shit

do your squats and deadlifts yo

i do something pretty much like what carne asada posted there

i drink a lot of whole milk but that "gallon a day" business is crazy

i hit a PR last week! overhead press 100lb 3x5

did 2x2x2x2x2 of heavy box squats yesterday

Milo z. to thread he knows what's up

if you get annoyed by old dudes with wack form and young dudes doing curls, this thread is for you

if you get annoyed by people who don't squat past horizontal and put that foam roller thing on the bar, this thread is for you

my squat is good, my overhead press is feeble.

also my row form is pretty awful (via hilarious flexibility)

strict OHP always makes me feel so weak because i want to dip at the knees and get a little jump in.

about 6 months ago i could not even do an air squat to depth without falling over but my squat is pretty good now

are u guys gonna beat someone up

too old to get swole, but I support this thread

watch that lower back position, y'all

i am not getting sw0le, but i am getting fat. maybe i can get fat and sw0le.

Yes im always super deliberate on my lifts for fear of messing up my back xp

I'm just lurking here bc I'm somewhat interested, though I can barely lift my groceries

also bc cheering on harbl :)

i knew i'd hit some kind of beginner threshold for sw0leness when i found myself enjoying mark rippetoe youtubes for an hour at a time

haha otm

I recently hired a personal trainer on a contract for a tremendous number of sessions to ensure my commitment to working out, and despite certain small wrenches in the works, it's starting off nicely and making me feel good about the mid-term future of my physical and mental health. Last time I had a trainer I was only half-assing it (drinking tons (not drinking at all now) skipping sessions, not really 100% in the game) but the cosmetic results still blew me away. That's not what I'm in it for, and body definition is gravy that will make the other benefits extra good.

honestly part of the mental game with this for me was finally admitting to myself that yes, a strong minority motivation was 'cosmetic'

goole congrats on being sw0le :)

oh man i'm nowhere near my sw0le g0ls

learning to do olympic/power lifts *correctly* (or so i hope) in the past year or so has been really mind-blowing. sort of a light turning on: "so THIS is what it's supposed to feel like." I actually enjoy squatting, dead-lifting, and all that now. and i pretty much gave up any exercise that doesn't work at least a few muscle groups at a time.

i go to the gym every 4th day (doing yoga on the 3 days in between) and try to pack in the protein and i've never felt better in my life.

i think a big part of the mental game for me was that I realized for the longest time i'd actually do whatever I could to make things *easier* rather than build the foundations to really improve.

honestly part of the mental game with this for me was finally admitting to myself that yes, a strong minority motivation was 'cosmetic'

― goole, Thursday, October 25, 2012 11:01 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm

people doing curls make me literally vomit

yeah. those kinds of things are such a total waste of time. you drop all that and all of a sudden your workout takes a 1/3 of the time and is 10x more effective.

i've cut the weight in half or more on every major lift over the past year or two just to connect or reconnect with form / what i'm actually doing / why i'm doing it and it's made such a huge difference. also yoga 4 core 4 life.

xp i don't get curl hate. done right they're amazing. cable press-downs on the other hand....

i am kind of doughy at the moment because my gym is 10 yards away from ground zero in this video and was shut for all of september http://vimeo.com/48399328. it's really nice at the moment because a lot of the guys seem to have quit or moved to another gym.

one thing i like about gyms in germany is the squat racks are always free because people are either doing curls (lol) or doing serious calisthenics (some of these dudes are amazing).

going in a couple of hours actually. iirc tonight i will squat 5x5 175lb (i.e. 1xBW), bench 5x5 100, row 5x5 100.

seriously, everyone on earth should squat. this is key to universal consciousness.

squat. eat broccoli, quinoa and sardines. live forever.

and if i see you using the foam pad on your barbell during the squat then i hope you poop accidentally during your first set.

I go 2 gym and do not squat, I have had back problems in my life and am worried about technique

start by doing 'air squats' ie no weight

when those get ok start with an empty bar. that's 45 lb, you could even start by holding up a couple of small dumbbells

i have bad knees (poss hereditary) and fear doing any leg-related lifts

yeah I do air squats already

when squatting to proper depth your knees are not being taxed so much xp

unless you have disk problems, i think squat is pretty a low risk exercise for your back. all the weight goes straight down your spine. there's not much torque. maybe give it a try with an unloaded bar to see how it feels.

saw a calisthenics guy do a one-handed chin-up last week btw. wanted to cry.

yeah make sure you don't stop your squat half-way, that is bad for your knees

i have 'bad knees' and they've never felt better after a year of this

i have turned around halfway when i've had to on a weight. it was agony. i have no idea what those guys who go to like 30 degrees above horizontal think they are doing.

xp otm. squats are good for strength but they are #1 for knees, groin and lower back stability

when i've had to bail on a weight, i mean.

lol i totally use the foam pad. i used to be so anti-foam pad but now i'm more anti-sores on my back.

xp goole caek carne asada otm, keep the weight off/low, keep tight form go low and back/knees should be ok.

what were you lifting to get sores?

it's spine/neck contact, guess this means i should take off the pad and get the bar where it's supposed to be.

low-bar position will fix that but it does take some getting used to

yeah i had the same issue until i figured out the right place to rest the bar

yeah i think part of the problem with the pad is it means the bar is less stable. it's kind of like people who wear gloves and running shoes. the barbell is the size it is for a reason, and unless your body is unusual proportioned, you're screwing that up.

i've had the benefit of some good coaching that has help me a bunch, otherwise i'd probably being doing a bunch of stuff wrong

if you've spent most of your life doing it wrong like me it really takes some time/dedication to turns things around. but eventually your body just starts to "set" better, even in daily life.

totally.

goole i got semi-sw0le for like 9 months before i had a babby and got un-sw0le

but if you are looking for sw0le central in mpls, get a membership at Los Campeones gym on Franklin, dudes are serious! it's the best gym, super cheap, never crowded and all free weights and lots of space, barely any bullshit like eliptical trainers etc

ha! i have been to that gym. i was staying round the corner and they sold me a week pass. it was 100x better than my gym here.

i was kinda intimidated at first because there were these crazy big dudes lifting for serious, but i ended up finding out that they were always really helpful and encouraging if you asked them to spot or for help

though i did become pretty much certain that certain dudes there were heavily into r0ids

huh wow that is a pretty good deal. but i kind of love my busted-ass Y, and it's right around the corner from me

yeah, i guess the most important thing is having a gym you'll actually go to, so around the corner probably trump whatever advantages los campeones has.

which Y do you go to? blaisdell?

midway, dog! apart from people's kids i feel like i'm on the low end of the age curve there

haha what's the midway scene? drunks from the Trend Bar?

ha maybe in a couple cases. it's kind of everybody except your uptown young single white people. kids playing ball, moms on treadmills, old dudes benching in the smith machine, guys who hang out and watch cable in the locker room for hours, etc

i am working pretty hard on having a nice squat. i feel that barbell squat is currently pretty bad but improves every time. now my thing is i do goblet squats to get the heaviness in (i am up to 50 lbs for 5 reps!) and a number of low-bar back squats at a lighter weight to work on technique. at first i was so so bad at it and couldn't figure out where the bar went and my shoulders hurt. but i found the "shelf" on my back and moved my hands wider. front squats i need much more work on because my wrists hurt.
everyone should do this a million times before using the bar imo http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/goblet_squats_101
i can't believe i have turned into a person who reads articles on T NATION

i don't work hard enough on hamstring flexibility is part of the problem

i also have very long femurs and long everything so stuff might be less natural and i probably look like a daddy longlegs doing lifting

the right to get sw0le

http://i.imgur.com/CdXlO.jpg

i wasn't working on bench press at all until last week, just overhead presses and incline pushups. i have the weakest triceps in the universe.

also do you guys like to look at other people's butts a lot when you're out, i do

i can't believe i have turned into a person who reads articles on T NATION

― Online Webinar Event for Dads (harbl), Thursday, October 25, 2012 3:35 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

oh god, loool (don't read too many). you are awesome. i'm glad you started this thread cuz now i know i gotta fix up my squat. those mark rippetoe youtubes are v. helpful. it's easy to miss problems when you're self-taught. think i'll look for a copy of starting strength.

this would be a good place to post useful links

esp wrt good form

ilx needs a forum.bodybuilding.com appreciation thread

i don't have starting strength but i keep meaning to get it. i watched this like 40 times and now his voice is in my head when i set up for deadlifts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Syt7A23YnpA

hmm looks like i have to fix my deadlift too

Flexibility thing is very key IMO for good form on a lot of exercises--I think yoga has made a really huge difference for me in that regard. Soon getting really good form in squats wasn't such a struggle. I think yoga in general is a really good complement in general to any muscle building stuff you do.

my flexibility, at least during exercise, got much better when i switched to dynamic stretches

oh man i have watched that rippetoe deadlift video sooo many times

that 'timdohaney' youtube channel has a whole bunch of those, but this one, on grip, is not

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTqNSgCmM2s

this helped me a lot too

yeah, it's been really good for my hip mobility. if i gain mass in my legs/back/chest it really helps all the connecting structural stuff catch up. also breathing and body awareness.

xp yoga's basically a lot of dynamic stretching iirc?

i don't know anything abt yoga, dynamic in this context means stretching via movement rather than 'static' ie reaching for your toes and holding it for 10 sec or whatever. the literature on that is that static is worthless basically.

yes exactly.

re: Starting Strength - great in concept, but it's a lot of work and really geared toward athletes or potential athletes. Gym sessions will be long (if you're at the average gym with one squat rack) and DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) comes into play with the volume.

personal theory as to an exercise program that would meet the needs of 90% of humanity, if you had an average of one hour a day:
1. modified version of Pavel Tsatsouline's Power To The People program - two lifts, 2x5 - usually deadlift and press; the program is 5 days/week, but let's say 3 days
2. weighted walks once or twice a week - farmer's walk/suitcase walk/waiter's walk or just putting 20-30 pounds in a backpack and walking a couple of miles (aka rucking) - or you could throw in whatever functional shit you like here - sledgehammer swings, walking with a heavy-ass wheelbarrow, kettlebell swings
3. hour of walking on the nights you don't do the above for recovery/general health benefit; even better if you can walk more

truthfully, you could probably simplify shit even further by just doing a whole lot of rucking and things from 2. - it's worked for militaries for centuries. If you can march with a 40# (actually 100+ pounds for modern soldiers) for mile upon mile, you'll be in good shape

add stretching/yoga to 3., mobility stuff is v. v. important as you age

we're not trying to get army in here milo, we are getting sw0le

i thought one of starting strength's "things" was that gym sessions are unusually short. i probably do more than it calls for now and i never take more than an hour. i like work.

p.s. i am not walking a wheelbarrow through my neighborhood

that sounded like a knock on SS, shouldn't be. It's a great way to get stronger - I couldn't squat that much because I have random days that I spend climbing ladders. Climbing up on a roof with legs locked stiff from squatting the afternoon before seemed like a good way to break my neck.
Deadlifting (my preferred lower-body exercise) doesn't make me hurt as much and it's more of an all-over thing. Deadlifting and pressing happened to be the two movements I felt had the most value/carryover to real life, and there was a program that accomodated them quite well (PTTP).

with SS you should be doing ~5 warmup sets for each move before the three real ones, and you should be resting for a couple of minutes between the real sets and probably close to that for warmups. You want to recover as much as possible between each set with strength work

yeah it does seem like quads to get the most sore. it stopped for me after about 2 weeks of squatting though. however i'm just a lawyer and do not use my quads at work.

i'm only really sore from squats if i miss a week or three. lunges (warrior poses in teh yoga) the morning after usually help.

note: Ronnie Coleman (dude at the top of the thread) gave me a speeding ticket in high school; my assumption is that the local PD doesn't drug test for anabolic steroids

i'm gonna buy it now. tbh i am always wanting to do more sets but am disorganized about how much warmup i do. gonna get so sw0le.

there's a great video (maybe on youtube) of him in the late '90s following his average day - his cop job, then changing out of his uniform to work out, then spend his night in a super-depressing suburban living room walking very slowly on a treadmill watching TV
it seemed pretty depressing, even moreso because of the nasty protein shakes and boiled chicken that appeared to be his entire diet

that + internet forums + what supp companies call themselves are all reasons why i have contradictory feelings about wanting to get sw0le.

I fear their bowel movements

i think it takes more than some squats to get like sad huge ronnie coleman size

i said that wrong i mean, there are different degrees of sw0le

I feel like I Should lift things. But it always sucks.

bodybuilding.com was the first place i registered when i started working out a few years ago, and then i realized that these guys actually like know the size of their biceps in inches and it vave me this ~sad~ feeling. it is a super helpful site, though, they are truly martyrs for their cause

Call for I Lift Everything fitness sub-board

it doesn't suck Jeff, it's the funnest

A sad moment during this last marathon train cycle is when I tried on my old arm warmers and they kept falling down off the top of my arms. They used to fit tightly! My arms have dwindled down to skin and bones.

good lift imo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlRrIsoDpKg

also pro tip: don't wear a polo shirt when doing squats

people saying starting strength type routines are short are otm. not counting 2000m on the rowing machine at the end, i probably do my workout in 40m.

who does cardio the same day they lift here?

http://i.imgur.com/AfXz8.jpg

i finish with 2000m on the rower, but usually not on days i deadlift because i am dead.

I am not affiliated in any way with Grey Cook, but I've got his books and have found them really helpful in improving my movement patterns and coaching others ... before getting under heavier weights, it's a good idea to do this self-screening to discover and address any imbalances in your basic mobility and stability. Check out the squat test in particular (it's the first of the five tests shown).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8G6jkEf1uI

"people saying starting strength type routines are short are otm. not counting 2000m on the rowing machine at the end, i probably do my workout in 40m."

They are only short at the beginning. As you start to reach your max lift weights and improve as milo z points out you'll need both longer warm ups AND longer recovery times. So while the time actually spent lifting may be short, the time at the gym is generally not.

I've used Starting Strength and various Mad Cow routines and a couple of different Body Weight routines in the last couple of years and they're all fine, but the key is really to switch it up after a while anyway (if for no other reason than doing the same exercises after a while gets boring). Currently doing the New Rules of Lifting routines (about 2/3s of the way through them) which are pretty good. Unfortunately the time I spend lifting has stayed pretty static while the time I spend running and biking has decreased dramatically (thanks a lot 2 yr old!)

I don't do ss, so im not doing his warm up sets. And obviously any resistance routine is going to get longer as you get stronger.

xp Gray Cook, not Grey Cook -- too much time on ILX

who does cardio the same day they lift here?

^ I do. at least 4 days a week. Then cardio itself two other days.

*GRUNTS*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDl0yF2HB98

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kRSopj87qbU/TZXWjhTauII/AAAAAAAAADc/VzAM_i23-Gk/s1600/over-the-top.jpg

The last time I tried lifting weights, I tried the Body by Science method of only going once a week and doing super duper slow reps. As slow as possible without degenerating into starts and stops. You only do 5 exercises each workout. It was miserable and only lasted 2 weeks for me.

my sister has been training me at the gym so I can get swole-ish. Or something. Is there a guide or FAQ somewhere on the internet I could read so I can keep up with this thread and not be confused? Right now she is doing core strengthening and working on balance before I move to free weights.

btw this guy cracks me up with his eating habits. some of it sounds so gross. his rule is that if it tastes good you should spit it out! and he regularly eats beans from the can that he keeps in the trunk of his car.

scoobysworkshop.com

slow reps you hate and won't do? spitting out food that tastes good? yeah idk guys

when i got semi-sw0le i used this book and it worked well:

http://img2.imagesbn.com/images/103860000/103861710.jpg

^ good book

haha i just realized i've seen that scooby dude on youtube before

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuNYjG6YTBQ

xpost

i mean it's probably not anything a lot of ppl on this board don't know -- lots of basics with free weights

but i liked that they had these pages with all your daily routines that you could photocopy and then mark down your reps and stuff

mostly it was just nice to know exactly what exercises you were supposed to do and not have to think about what you were gonna do each day

homo ii i got new rules of lifting 4 women (no idea if it's different than regular or if there's any point to them having two different ones beyond taking a lot of space to explain why typical women-focused advice is totally wrong) and i think it would probably have what you're looking for. and i would try some free weights now, they will strengthen your core and improve your balance!

i'm going to do some deadlifts today

well one thing that might be useful about the for women book is it talks about how women have stronger quads and abs than the muscles on the back of the body and it makes you have bad posture.

my gym doesn't have enough of the stuff i need to do every exercise though. there are no steps or boxes in the weight room. i have been doing step-ups on a bench but i need something a little higher. stage 2 has you doing deadlifts from a step but tbh i'd prefer to just do regular deadlifts so i'm pausing nrolfw for now.

I feel like I Should lift things. But it always sucks.

― Jeff, Thursday, October 25, 2012 10:52 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

deadlifting v good for running they say

It's weird, I like being tortured by exercise, it's part of the appeal for me. But only in certain ways. I'd rather run for 3 hours than have to lift heavy things for 20 minutes.

But I certainly want to like lifting. I've got really muscular legs but nothing up top.

i did some squats today

p good, kindof hurts my knees

Not even close to getting sw0le (in fact, keep LOSING weight lately despite eating more) (also battling through injuries like all the time, currently sprained thumb makes simply holding onto dumbbells awful), but really like Al Kavadlo's (freely available) stuff: http://www.alkavadlo.com/

He emphasizes minimal equipment workouts (e.g. pullup bar, ground) and body-weight workouts, though some of them look like they scale up in difficulty really steeply.

i did 5 front squats and 5 back squats with the bar after i did my deadlifts

i always feel myself leaning forward a lot at the bottom

i always find the descent on squats way more difficult and terrifying than standing up. those last couple degrees around parallel are often where my mind goes haywire.

Sounds like maybe a hamstring problem - either strength or flexibility? Hard to say without seeing what you're doing but my unprofessional internet suggestion would be glute ham raises.

probably a little of both

no i mean mentally

sounds like a mindstring problem

You could try lighter bottom position squats - where you start with the bar on the safeties and squat it up - to get more confident in/out of the hole.

i was referring to my problem being probably a little bit of both strength and flexibility
i wish i could do box squats but i need a box

Okay I'll stop posting unsolicited advice. But re getting sw0le:

http://articles.elitefts.com/training-articles/twelve-steps-to-getting-big/

man that is exactly the type of advice I want more of

lool that is awful

“When was the last time you ate an entire carton of eggs?”

hah

Dave Tate:

There was a time at the Old Westside gym where I couldn't gain weight to save my fucking life.

There was this dude who trained there who could just put on weight like fucking magic. He'd go from 198 to 308 and then to 275 and back down to 198. And he was never fat. It was amazing.

I finally asked him one day how he did it.

"You mean I never told you the secret to gaining weight? Come outside and I'll fill you in."

Now remember, we're at Westside Barbell. And this guy wants to go outside to talk so no one else can hear. Think about that for a minute. What the hell is he going to tell me? This must be some serious shit if we have to go outside, I thought.

So we get outside and he starts talking.

"For breakfast you need to eat four of those breakfast sandwiches from McDonalds. I don't care which ones you get, but make sure to get four. Order four hash browns, too. Now grab two packs of mayonnaise and put them on the hash browns and then slip them into the sandwiches. Squish that shit down and eat. That's your breakfast."

At this point I'm thinking this guy is nuts. But he's completely serious.

"For lunch you're gonna eat Chinese food. Now I don't want you eating that crappy stuff. You wanna get the stuff with MSG. None of that non-MSG bullshit. I don't care what you eat but you have to sit down and eat for at least 45 minutes straight. You can't let go of the fork. Eat until your eyes swell up and become slits and you start to look like the woman behind the counter."

"For dinner you're gonna order an extra-large pizza with everything on it. Literally everything. If you don't like sardines, don't put 'em on, but anything else that you like you have to load it on there. After you pay the delivery guy, I want you to take the pie to your coffee table, open that fucker up, and grab a bottle of oil. It can be olive oil, canola oil, whatever. Anything but motor oil. And I want you to pour that shit over the pie until half of the bottle is gone. Just soak the shit out of it."

"Now before you lay into it, I want you to sit on your couch and just stare at that fucker. I want you to understand that that pizza right there is keeping you from your goals."

This guy is in a zen-like state when he's talking about this.

"Now you're on the clock," he continues. "After 20 minutes your brain is going to tell you you're full. Don't listen to that shit. You have to try and eat as much of the pizza as you can before that 20-minute mark. Double up pieces if you have to. I'm telling you now, you're going to get three or four pieces in and you're gonna want to quit. You fucking can't quit. You have to sit on that couch until every piece is done.

And if you can't finish it, don't you ever come back to me and tell me you can't gain weight. 'Cause I'm gonna tell you that you don't give a fuck about getting bigger and you don't care how much you lift!"

Did I do it? Hell yeah. Started the next day and did it for two months. Went from 260 pounds to 297 pounds. And I didn't get much fatter. One of the hardest things I've ever done in my life, though.

I want you to understand that that pizza right there is keeping you from your goals.

pouring oil all over the pizza really puts it over the top

i'm gonna try some of this stuff, just to see

im willing to eat ice cream and pizza, tho i must warn you i have tried it before

I decided a couple months ago to try to put on weight, and just following this sort of advice - eat as many calories as possible while lifting heavy. I've been going for four big meals a day, plus a couple of protein shakes. I haven't weighed myself but I've gotten substantially bigger - mostly muscle, but also getting a gut. Also, I can no longer walk up the stairs to my second storey office without getting out of breath, so I am reluctantly accepting that I need to start doing some cardio.

12) Eat barbeque sauce. If you have a penis, you should be using barbeque sauce. End of discussion. Vinaigrette and balsamic are for women.

have penis: use barbecue sauce. got it.

mental note: get penis.

quietly confident that if i followed weird dude's plan i would throw up seven or eight times a day.

maybe i am naturally unsw0le. :(

Powerlifter diets sound even worse than bodybuilding diets in their own way. BB diet is going to make you salivate at anything with some seasoning, but PL diets seem designed to make you hate yourself.

Eat until your eyes swell up and become slits and you start to look like the woman behind the counter

i would maybe like to have a diet where i eat tons of junk food but i dont want to get sw0le or really lift heavy things tbh, lifting kinda heavy things is ok

kinda heavy like turkey legs + beef ribs

exactly

*hi five*

Corey
Posted October 23, 2012 at 10:54 AM

Awesome! Epic! Beards! Vikings! Bacon! Swole! 8,000 calories a day! GOMAD! Maple syrup bacon omelet!

Did the Swole Patrol write this? This kind of humor needs to die.

my commitment to getting swole ends at those crazy diets, im sorry to say. besides, i've decided being a strong as fuck wiry mofo is equally desirable.

i tried to do glute-ham raises in the thing but it hurts the front of my legs so bad i had to stop. it was already as high as it could go, maybe there's something else i didn't see to adjust though. what i did do was barbell glute bridges. it's fun to hump the air in the squat rack.

look i'm an amateur know-nothing but i'm really suspicious of isolation or remedial exercises now. the solution to problems in squat is more squat

i did squats first!

i know!!

that was a belated reply to my thing upthread

i am having starting strength delivered to my job and now i'm afraid my office will blow away and i'll never get it!

everyone on body building.com has a bodyspace profile.
do people actually do that???

i guess they are into building not getting swole

wtf is bodyspace

myspace for juicers? idk

its social networking for people into body building... ha!

gruntbook

Checked out the gym after all (thanks for the push, harbl). They have 45-min 'orientation sessions' available in the 'strength and conditioning centre'. Only the 'SCC' (strength and conditioning?) ones are available as women-only sessions, the others are available as co-ed. Why would whatever 'TRX core training' and 'Field House Circuit' are be unavailable as women-only sessions?

TRX Core Training
SCC Circuit
Field House Circuit

trx is doing bodyweight exercises while hanging on a strap. kinda weird. you should do the scc orientation, they probably show you where all the weights are to get you on the path to becoming sw0le.

thanks, I will check it out.

TRX is fun, enhances or mitigates body weight workouts, it's mildly popular generally so that classes tend to be coed.

Pole fitness, otoh, obviously has women only classes and a body weight component.

Avoid TRX at all costs that shit will get u crazy strong and lean but not sw0le

Am I kicked off this thread if I'm happy with crazy strong and lean but not sw0le?

The advantage to using free weights over something like TRX (or other bodyweight stuff) is that to get stronger you need the exercise to get progressively more challenging in a structured way. This is easy if you can add small weights to the bar each time but with bodyweight stuff you will either need to keep adding more reps indefinitely or perform increasingly difficult variations of the movement, which can be really complicated and difficult.

i don't think you should avoid it but this is a thread about lifting heavy weights because it is fun

i am never actually going to look sw0le

I've enjoyed the TRX that I've done.

TRX does offer variable resistance -- just change the load angle -- but it's inexact and does max out (albeit in some pretty challenging places). Great full-body/core workout. Just more Tarzan than Conan.

Does anyone here compete? I'm thinking about trying my first powerlifting meet mid next year. I wouldn't be putting up spectacular numbers or anything but it seems like it would be fun.

TS: Tarzan vs. Conan

man i wouldn't even dream of competing!

Lol the only competition I daydream about is for crossword puzzles.

Would general fitness talk be appropriate here, or should someone start a new fitness fascist thread?

i tried to do glute-ham raises in the thing but it hurts the front of my legs so bad i had to stop. it was already as high as it could go, maybe there's something else i didn't see to adjust though. what i did do was barbell glute bridges. it's fun to hump the air in the squat rack.

― Online Webinar Event for Dads (harbl), Monday, October 29, 2012 3:38 PM (5 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i never had a knack for ghrs. and you should probably keep at em. but stiff leg deadlifts: it's a different exercise and you're moving in a different way but a good supplement on days when you want to light up your posterior chain. light light is key at the start. feel what muscles are firing when you do it, feel what's sore the next day.

i know it's broscience but i find deadlifting every week is way too taxing on my cns. my recovery is way too slow and it fucks up my week. but i can build my deadlift with stiff leg deadlifts and heavy rack pulls (sometimes good mornings although i know they might have been discredited and will fuck up your lower back and i don't let anyone see me do them). i can come back from weeks of not deadlifting in the conventional way and hit PRs.

walking lunges with barbells is another ham killer for me.
box jumps.
sprinting, fuck yeah, just pull all that power from your posterior chain.

what i do instead of using ghrs :%

Good mornings are the shit! Discredited how?

starting strength came in the mail yesterday

The advantage to using free weights over something like TRX (or other bodyweight stuff) is that to get stronger you need the exercise to get progressively more challenging in a structured way. This is easy if you can add small weights to the bar each time but with bodyweight stuff you will either need to keep adding more reps indefinitely or perform increasingly difficult variations of the movement, which can be really complicated and difficult.

― strike curious poses, Tuesday, October 30, 2012 7:39 AM (4 days ago) Bookmark

great post/dn combo

Good mornings are the shit! Discredited how?

http://www.askthetrainer.com/top-5-worst-exercises/

discredited by the american college of sports medicine, internet broscientists, fat guys at my gym, other pussies.

<3 broscience

That article's basically just saying if you do them with bad form or more weight than you can handle they will hurt you, which is true but not exactly a devastating critique. Louie Simmons is pro-GM and I really enjoy doing them, that's good enough for me.

I mean, I'm not trying to have an argument and I know you said you do these anyway, just saying.

TOP 5 WORST EXERCISES, even if it says you can do them with proper form ain't exactly a ringing endorsement. i was just making reference to the fact that i always come across people saying they're responsible for horrifying lower back injuries, and i've been told face-to-face by guys at the gym not to do them.

but we're on the same page, bro! it's a great exercise and a great posterior chain builder.

Sweet christmas, I lost 5-10 lb. in a month. /sonotsw0le
Being injured sucks! >.<

Good mornings famously the exercise with which Bruce Lee fucked up his back

agh i'm in stallsville. a few days of getting bad sleep and forgetting my afternoon trail mix, maybe.

always been super jealous of people that fight to gain weight. i've been as high as 280 without trying and have to keep my diet painfully strict to maintain weight + slowly gain lean muscle.

i know lots of people that tnation reps/who write for tnation have been mentioned here but i wanted to mention it because despite the near omnipresent pimping of their supplements it's a great site, esp for diet stuff, old school getting sw0le advice

carlos ‏@famouscrab
yeah i got a gym membership. its called life. watch me lift this big ass rock. now im gonna do 20 reps of pretending im a beautiful bird

i did second day of starting strength today. i was so afraid of bench press before so i stuck with dumbbells. last time i tried to really bench press was in college and i couldn't do the bar for more than a few reps. so i did my first warm-up sets with the bar and the first one i was like lol what a joke. it was like lifting a broomstick over my head. i did my work sets at 65 lbs! i am proud. standing presses are hard for me though. also i deadlifted 135 for the first time, doing work sets also. his example says do one set of 5 for work sets. there are 7 warm-up sets. yes it takes a long time in the gym but it's fun.

after watching a bunch of videos i'm not too worried about leaning forward at the bottom of my squat anymore. it's a consequence of sticking my butt out which i think is ok and it's not like i get stuck there. it just feels exaggerated but i don't think it looks that way.

also a trainer ran over and "helped" me put the 45 lb plate on the bar i was thinking i just picked 125 lbs up off the ground 10 seconds ago i don't think i need help?

sorry i mean 5 warm-up sets

last time i tried to really bench press was in college and i couldn't do the bar for more than a few reps. so i did my first warm-up sets with the bar and the first one i was like lol what a joke. it was like lifting a broomstick over my head. i did my work sets at 65 lbs! i am proud.

hi5!!

re: the trainer: i think that's called 'flirting' but idk

thread of getting go0le

this answers all of my squat questions
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wY4gwVlO_k0&list=PLC03D688F10C4DE1F&index=3&feature=plcp

http://brianfinke.com/most.html

i look just like those ladies

just when i was finishing up today a guy came and loaded 4 45 lb plates on the smith machine and did like 8 of something really fast. i couldn't look but i could hear and it was sad. i wanted to put my hand on his shoulder and say, "no. stop." then he waved some huge dumbbells around. anyway i am the most superior person in the gym now.

squatzi

hit a dead lift PR on Saturday 300# !!

damn dude

i did 140 lbs today

i'm not sure what constitutes a significant gain but that's up 25 lbs from 6 months ago.

is that x1 or

i saw a guy squat 315 5x5 a while ago. crazy.

yeah 1x with good form. i felt like i could have put up a little more even. 1x max is something i hardly ever do but i was feeling strong. xp

at my gym, i mean. you can find crazy lifts on youtube but that's the heaviest thing i've seen irl.

there was a dude who used to work at my Y who could bench around that much. i guess i forgot about him.

My squat dropped from 185 to 160 via back soreness over the past couple of weeks. I am reading the squat chapter in starting strength as penance.

biggest challenge for me at that weight is grip strength so more then one pull would be really difficult.

there was a dude who used to work at my Y who could bench around that much. i guess i forgot about him.

― goole, Monday, November 12, 2012 3:32 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Not bragging, but i can do this (bench 315x5x5). The last rep on the last set might be a little tough. I did four sets of 12 at 245 on the incline press on Sunday, i was happy about that.

Im only doing high reps from now on.

i'm buying some cute fractional plates

Bill, what do you weigh? Benching 315 x 5 with good form would give you an estimated one rep max of 354, which would be Elite for anyone under 181lb. Even if you weigh 242lb that's still Class II - if you are putting up these numbers you should think about competitive powerlifting (and forget about high reps).

Carne, 25lb in 6 months is great work, congrats on the PR.

I weigh 235.

Im also 6'4" so i have long arms, so that wouldnt do me so well in a competitive situation. Also i'm 42 years old, and the powerlifting game is for guys younger than me. Also: i like to drink.

so my sister has been training me for about a month, and at first after every workout - for a few days - I'd be totally sore. REALLY sore. In the last week, even though the workouts are still really challenging, I don't feel sore anymore afterward. I mean, maybe a bit but nothing at all noticeable. Do I need to up my reps? Up the weight? I feel like I am not getting any results if I am not feeling sore after.

I’m not sure if that’s really a barometer of the effectiveness of your workouts. If you’re training for strength the only way to know is with measured gains. But if I had to choose between more reps or more weight I would lean towards more weight.

otm, more weight, but your goal is not to get s0re, it's to get sw0le, so don't confuse lack of pain with bad training. i travel a lot so i often have to take a month or two off and effectively start again. i progress quickly, but i am always sore at the start. it goes away after a couple of weeks. i think it's just a flexibility issue for me.

saw a lunatic dwarf patrick bateman looking guy in my gym last night squat 150lb with no hands. he also loaded 350 on the squat rack, took it on his back and just stood there like he was about to squat for a minute, looking at himself in the mirror, then reracked it o_O

the "rack walkout"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqRhFDh6koE

omg youtube for no hand squat is cr4zy

I lifted weights this morning! I had no idea what I was doing!

so wait
wait wait

if I am NOT sore this is not necessarily a bad thing? My sister makes it sound like if I am not PRACTICALLY CRIPPLED that I didn't do much.

that's not true!

Some people just get more sore than others. I don't get sore very often doing my regular lifts. My body just seems to adapt after I've been doing a particular lift for a few workouts. If I add something new, a lot of times that will make me sore, but not always. I think it has to do with diet and recovery. I went through a period a few weeks ago where I was extremely sore for a whole week. I still don't know exactly why it happened, but I seem to recall that I did not get enough sleep. I also take fish oil once a day and eat a ton of protein, which is supposed to help with soreness.

guys I don't wanna get sw0le I wanna get STRONG

they are not unrelated!

i wanna be sWelle
just like in that ramones song.
strenght optional.

yeah homo not being sore is good. you wanna just go heavier because it's getting easier, not because you're not sore anymore. i'm generally in a state of not that sore when i'm doing the best job.

i eat a lot of protein. probably 100g a day, or more. maybe that's what's helping. I definitely have lost inches and gained a lot of flexibility, so I am seeing improvements already in a month.

other than it rhyming, is there an origin to the pain = gain thing?

100g is like really really a lot? Maybe more than you need? I don't remember the formula.

one gram for every pound of lean body mass.

I am reading between 50g-175 is normal/acceptable for women. Doesn't seem that high? When I was vegetarian it was less than 50 every day I'd say.

huh @ rack walkouts

i eat around 100. feels good. i wish i could eat more!

Crimped Hair ‏@DinkMagic
shyah.. I work out and stuff.. im a big bro and stuff ha ha but like.. only sarcastic *does dozens of extremely heavy squants and dead lift*

squanto

my tiny plates came. i haven't gymmed since monday and i'm not today. i worked late all week and i got so tired.

box squats ftw! love'em

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/19/health/teenage-boys-worried-about-body-image-take-risks.html

he started lifting weights for two hours a day, six days a week.

too much, bro

Tina
Idaho

hello everyone,
I am a firm believer in holistic medicine and the power of yoga and it is my personal belief that one can attain strength and health through these two things my son, however, does not think similarly. he is on a work-out program called "starting lifts" that is extremely dangerous: they use a barbell with very heavy weights and then do excercises that can destroy the back and knees (for example, one he calls the deathlift) well, I am unable to convince him to stop this crazy program. my problem is I caught him taking the steroid "creatine" yesterday after his work-out. I snatched the container away from him and told his father later that evening, who agreed with me that we had to stage an intervention. I honestly do not know what I should do next. does he have to be sent to a rehabilitation center? I am not familiar with steroids and how abusers make recovery.
thank you very much,
Tina

the deathlift is p bad for you iirc

anyone know of any good paleo blogs or sites with good recipes? ??

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3TQajOXSeA

Paleo diet thread here, may have more info.

Paleo diet

a series of events have derailed my plans and i have to travel for thanksgiving. i'm going to have to resume next sunday and try not to feel guilty about it. i was doing a good job since august so i shouldn't get too weak, right?

i love to deathlift

get some good recovery time in and eat a bunch of food. when next week comes around you'll be ready to hit it hard

i'm ready. it's been almost two weeks. i didn't eat as much protein and i felt tired and now i feel fat. i gotta clean a bunch of stuff and get less st1ff. i drove 7 hours yesterday and my butt and knees hurt. then i can go.

getting enough sleep is impt, and i never do

that sucked. i had been doing such a good job before. i shouldn't be allowed to take that much time off.

10kg deadlift pr yesterday, feeling pretty sw0le

"Fitspo":

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mbsbtyHGRD1rx7gjso1_500.gif

i am trying to learn the press (not that way ^) how rippetoe says to do it. it's awkward. also i am weak. i like to bench press though.

i am still in stallsville but my rows are improving. PR 3x5 @ 167.5! but i'm going to re-do because of shaky form.

love standing shoulder press. not sure how rippetoe says to do it. i usually use a standard barbell not an olympic bar, and never in a rack. clean the weight off the floor to wresting on collarbones, then adjust my grip/shoulder position/hand position. hands wider than shoulders, elbows pointed at the floor. as i get up to higher weights, i use some leg drive to get it up and don't come down as far. toss bar to ground like a badass after finished.

i usually do fairly low weight front db raises to follow and that's it. cannonball delts + sikc trapz + upper body power.

using leg drive turns it into a push press, so not really a strict press at that point - but not an uncommon way to eek out a few last reps either, as "cheating" is possibly better than quitting. Personally the leg drive doesn't do much for me because what I struggle with the most is the lockout.

Rippetoe's press technique, in the latest version of SS, involves leaning back at the hips with a tight trunk (no lower back arch), and pushing hips back and torso/head forward as you lift the bar explosively. I've see it critiqued as something that works better for max effort lifts but not high reps. I try to use it when I'm having trouble grinding out the last few reps. I love the overhead press, but it is one of the most difficult of the main compound lifts for me. I found more success using a closer grip as well as thumbless "suicide" grip.

Bear in mind with the technique Rippetoe favors that at no point should the knees be bent.

I missed a workout last week due to the Holiday, jumped right back into it on Saturday and it seemed especially difficult. I am still pretty sore. Definitely gaining strength, as I was able to up my weights and I was able to do more pushups!

my overhead press is dreadful

my overhead press is so much better then it was 6 months ago. i attribute it to handstand push-ups because i hardly seem to work presses into my routine.

1RM of 200lb on the squat last night. oof.

1RM of 220 deadlift

5 set max of (embarrassingly small weight) on bench.

a good night.

nice!

been doing a fun warm up routine

load the bar with a weight you can use for all 5 movements - i usually go through two sets 65# and 95#

5 x rdl
5 x Hang Clean
5 x push jerk
5 x front squat
5 x rows

without setting the bar down in between.

i deadlifted 150 lbs 5 times and bench pressed 67 lbs 5 times 3 times. i am still pretty bad at squats but my technique is not necessarily correlated with weight going up, which i guess is a good sign.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FliZY2DTd44/ULa88dJyTpI/AAAAAAAAA_4/jEAZWpAdbO0/s1600/Marilyn+lifts.jpg

back squat 1RM PR - 225#

nice

i taught someone about goblet squats in the gym today

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=mK_1EPdM70k

oope embed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mK_1EPdM70k

i haven't been too consistent. a lot of working. i wanted to go 12 times between thanksgiving and xmas and it looks like i will only manage 10. i did deadlift 165 today, but bench press is barely improving at all :(

I have to go to Sri Lanka and then I come back and don't have a full time job and am gonna get swOle-ish before I go to a tiny town in Mexico where there is no gym. If I do SS stuff for like 9 weeks and then don't have access to weights, wtf do I do next??? I guess bodystrength stuff but oh my god toooooo complicated.

I got a jump rope, does that help, I guess not for swoleness

you'll have to make your own weights out of rocks i guess, or be a cardio queen. i hate the idea of bodyweight stuff but just me personally. there is a lot of stuff i am too weak or inflexible to do lol

i am travelling for basically all of december and january. feeling doughy already. all i manage is burpees.

i am dreading the gym tonight

weights is no prob. but god i hate cardio.

i skipped warming up today because i only like the treadmill by the wall so i can put all my stuff (notebook, fractional plates, longsleeve shirt) down between the treadmill and the wall. i try not to do that all the time but it was ok. i am not a cardio hater but i hate the treadmill a lot. i haven't been running much at all and i have a 5k jan 1. oh well!

also the treadmills have tvs that only get a few channels and one of them seems to be constantly playing guy fieri!

it's like, CNBC, food network, HGTV, MSNBC and something else

ugh there is this one guy always there at the same time as me who does innocuous thing that makes me irrationally angry: come to weight room, load barbell with 130 pounds of weights, do a few sets of bench presses without warming up at all, get up, don't wipe down the bench, don't put the weights back

also chinese kid who tried to help me take the weights he left on it off before who does swiss ball crunches while looking at iphone

those are the characters. the only person i like is girl who takes the squat rack for a long time, she's nice

oh yeah also huge guy who does various different kinds of rows only

everyone who squats at my gym is cool, i.e. only me and some girls.

that patrick bateman guy i mentioned upthread never came back

also chinese kid who tried to help me take the weights he left on it off before who does swiss ball crunches while looking at iphone

― Online Webinar Event for Dads (harbl), Wednesday, December 12, 2012 8:40 PM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

sorry I won't look at my iphone anymore

also stop doing sets of 20 bench presses with heavy weights where i think you are going to hurt yourself because your feet are on the bench and the bar is tilting like you loaded it unevenly

I can take it

It's our Shaolin training.

oh i got some characters at my Y but i've outlasted most of them, ha ha ha.

there's a young dude who seems to do different kinds of curls for 3 hours.

there's another thick-necked young dude who stomps around in aggro mode the whole time. does sets of 10-12 as fast as possible and is not grunting but ROARING on the last couple.

there used to be a crew of cool strong-ass women who'd deadlift and squat but i've missed them for a while i guess

hit two PRs tonight!!

squat 3x5 @ 235
bench 3x5 @ 157.5

...and rows that kind of went nowhere after that.

one worry: i was in an old rack with no mirror. but it felt plenty low.

hey I haven't been posting here but I have been reading and benefitting.
I've did four weeks on Escalated Density Training followed by two on Power To The People (plan explained here http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/mahler72.htm ). I am big and strong

Personal point of pride: yesterday I capably did a set of six full-length neutral grip chin-ups with a 40 pound weight on my feet, yeehaw

yesterday i drank 12 beers

i have these pants i really like a lot but i can't run in them because they fall down, so when i wear them i don't warm up. therefore i can't squat good. so i just did many lighter squats. it's mentally difficult now because i know i'm going to be away from the gym for 5 days next week and i remember how bad that made me stiffen up after thanksgiving. i think january will be a good month though.

the huge row guy was there again with his gf, who never does anything at all except kick really high, and he tried to teach her how to do deadlifts and she just stood by the bar he set down for her and changed the tv to real housewives of something. i wanted to smash her YARGHHHHHH

i'm starting to work on chin-ups now. i can do 0.

Are free weights the only true weights?

I'm working on chin-ups, too, starting with the weight-assist machine, b/c when I installed the bar at home and tried, I could do 0. Humbling.

Pissed b/c I lost my training log that contained my first two months worth of workouts, plus starting measurements, body fat, and weight. :(

I wonder if I could do a pull up. I haven't tried in years. Probably not. Je55e, I'm coming by your place to try.

got a bad cold this week and was only able to exercise on monday. i can't stop coughing for long enough to do anything. after xmas i will be free of travel and hopefully of colds, so i give up for now

ljubljana idk what you mean by that question except are you asking about machines?

je55e fwiw ime the weight assist machine doesn't actually translate that well to real chinups/pullups. given u have a bar you may better off doing jumping chins and going slow on the negative.

xp yeah, just whether it's worth bothering with them.

harbl: have you had any trouble eating? I've had a cold this week as well, and have had a hard time getting myself to eat much of anything, since I have no appetite, energy (duh) or sense of taste. Judging by the bathroom scale, I've dropped somewhere between 2 and 3 kgs this week, despite forcing myself to eat when I really, really didnt't want to, and drinking just ridiculous amounts of water. Hopefully most of it is water-weight and will pack back on really quickly, but I can't help but think of that hideous comic of some guy's gainz putting on a coat and leaving. I'm not looking forward to my next trip to the gym, which seems like it might be possible in two or three days. My last session, just before I really got sick, was just horrible.

I started doing chins a couple of weeks ago, with "neutral grip", which is where your palms face each other rather than towards you or away from you. I can do, uh, four. First time I managed three, so hey, progress! A trainer at my gym recommended I do two sets of max repetitions, then one set of inverted chins. That's apparently supposed to be much easier, but I'll be damned if I didn't find it to be nearly as tough. I tried to boost myself up by jumping, which might not have been the best way of going about it -- but I'm not about to go find something to climb up on.

Meanwhile, shoveling snow is way easier this year than last year. Woohoo!

Come on over, Jeff.

The weight assist machine gave a jump start to being able to do a single chin-up without its assistance. I can do 2 or 3 now.

I weigh 186, so I guess it shouldn't be a surprise that it's hard to do them.

I had done some deltoid damage doing benches a couple months back ... was worried about being able to carry through with any presses or benches without making it worse. Decided to return to proper Rippetoe-approved form and review all the literature, follow through with all the warmup sets, etc. to see if I could put myself in the hands of the master and get back into the game after months of just winging it/phoning it in. Astonished when halfway through the warmup sets any pain or discomfort vanished. Religious experience.

i'm back but weaker and fatter after things slowed down in november. i kept eating the same huge amounts. great job.

Signed up for a four-session women-only intro to weights starting mid-Jan. Machines + free weights.

good! let thread know how it goes

yes, do!

i lost weight and got weaker over the holiday. looking back i spent more time in my car or sitting in my apartment than drinking.

er, or eating

ime if you can make it through the holidays remotely sw0le then you stay sw0le through anything

can^

Not looking so sw#le after schmas and new year's but reps don't lie, I'm lifting and pulling what I was two weeks ago, I'm sure that heaven is just a pull-up away

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6ip41iqy3w

i tried kettlebell swings today. kind of awkward but i think if i do it more i can get it. i found some youtubes to help me, i'll post them sometime but i need to find them and i also need a shower and a dinner

cool vid

those overheads are O_O

Any tips for staying swole on the road? Anyone use resistance bands?

That is a great video!

Yesterday I saw a very swole guy at the guy methodically add 100 lbs to his powerlifting machine and do reps of 4... 3... 2... By the time I finished he was up to 910 lbs? Ridiculous.

Resistance bands are annoying to take on the road, and they destroy doors and towel racks and shit. You'd be surprised how cheaply made is your motel room.

On tour, when there's no gym, a big superset as recommended by my Crossfitted friends: 10 jump squats + 10 butterfly sit-ups + 10 burpees + 10 chair dips (legs on chair, one in the air pls) + 10 scissor switch lunges + 10 military pushups. Repeat the cycle 3 times with no break. Then, take a 3 minute break, then do one last cycle at a slower pace.

what's a powerlifting machine? leg press?
also i'm lolling at the idea of a hotel room destroyed by an innocent sw0le guy wanting to stay in shape. everything ripped apart, holes in the wall. i like that superset idea. i def can't do it, i need to work on that.

i want to have a gym room like that in my house when i win the lottery (nb, i have never played any form of lottery in my life)

here's some kettlebell swing stuff i have found helpful

i'm in love with a stripper (from http://www.girlsgonestrong.com/5-tips-for-a-better-kettlebell-swing/)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wL7Cd0zY0f0

whoa
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5L4RvLITlxM

instruction manual for glute guy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwiZ96wqje0

those overheads are O_O

― goole

Yeah they are bad. The bar path is all over the place and it looks like she isn't even locking them out. I don't understand the point of complexes that involve upper and lower body movements. How hard can it be to front squat what you press or RDL what you can row? seems like unless you're doing 3x as many reps (which she isn't), you wouldn't get much out of that approach, but I don't know.

This one makes more sense to me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOd_VaYDFSw

in college i had rowing buddies that had to The Bear and it sounded like just the most horrible thing

i would definitely drop the bar on my head. you guys should see me try to overhead press. lol :(

i have read that an overhead pushing motion from behind your head is really unwise

I think it is okay unless you have shoulder problems, and as long as you can control the bar on the way down (i.e. avoid smashing yourself in the head, neck or back). I love doing a bear once in a while, it is brutal but fun.

love barbell complexes!

I've also heard that the behind-the-neck pressing/pulling is hard on the rotator cuff. I think EXRX has them listed under "controversial" exercises.

Dont ever do behind the neck pressing or pulling.

god i see so many people doing so much wack shit

if you get annoyed by old dudes with wack form and young dudes doing curls, this thread is for you

― goole, Thursday, October 25, 2012 10:48 AM (2 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol allow me to repeat

hey codger doing benches with a thumbless grip and his feet up on the bench, you are making me fucking nervous

i definitely get mad nervous for some ppl

my squats and deadlifts have improved a lot thanks to this thread.

If you have weak external rotation, behind the neck presses are going to be a problem. If you have healthy shoulders and you maintain control I think they're okay. If you're doing a barbell complex like a bear - which is going to mean higher volume and lower intensity - I don't see a problem unless your shoulders are already trashed.

Marius does them, this is my gold standard.

Clarification: Marius and the bear both use a behind the neck push press, which means you get leg drive through the worst part of the ROM. Would still not recommend these unless you have good external rotation and can control the weight.

Damn, I have to cancel my course because I now have a class that clashes with it. Going to try to reschedule for four weeks in early Feb. Hope they don't want to make me pay again.

I figure this would be the best place to ask, are there any cool ways that I can increase my flexibility that don't involve yoga class, I would like to touch my toes

Uh, yeah, so yoga would be the answer here. Sorry. fwiw if u go to trad ashtanga u get to keep yr hardman card.

Just find the right yoga class, the right instructor, you'll have an "oh I see" moment
Re: touching toes. You can get that done. Next time you do some deadlift-y stuff, once you're finished, take a break, then touch your toes 20-30 times with no weight. (Don't lock your knees but don't bend them either, just stretch out your hamstrings). TRY IT you'll surprise yourself

http://i.imgur.com/SpMRG.gif

oh man, he's flying through the air like george of the jungle

wtf is going on there

where do people even get this stuff

hahahaha

"oh yeah, one legged jump crossover ab crunch pulldowns. they totally shred!!"

Men's Health, Sept '09

wtff

in soviet russia cable presses down you

my hamstrings are getting a little better. now i just need to go to gym as frequently as i did in the fall and i will actually be able to squat more weight and not stall.

bench pressed my body weight for the first time EVER!

lol wtf?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFBcOrZe6IE

nice work!

yeah idk about that rubber bar stuff

I would not feel foolish using that thing. Surely not. Particularly not if I did, well, whatever the hell that bro is doing at 11:45.
"As you can see, there's nothing else out there quite like the tsunami bar. That's what makes it superior to any other training device out there." Well I'm convinced.

Last week I went to the gym in mornings, to not clash with the January rush. It was great -- felt really awake and good at work all day. This week I haven't managed to get myself up in the morning, and ended up skipping the gym altogether. Really don't know what to expect of tomorrow's workout. Superset-day too, which I have in no way gotten used to yet.

rubber barbell concept seems like it could be accomplished with a $25 slosh-pipe you make at home

http://tsunamibarbell.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/581308_10150857512617776_1678211672_n.jpg
Uh.

Would like to see a video of him racking that.

do at least 9 distinct tricep exercises per workout if you want to be sw0le, bro

YOU MUST USE

CHAINS

i swear to god i'm getting weaker. i'm struggling with amounts that would be difficult but basically automatic a month or so ago. this is crap!

idk if it's winter or what by my sleep and eating habits have gone to shit, i'm going to blame it on that.

how are you all doing out there, dyel

I am getting stronger, which is nbd given my uber weakness to begin with. I am almost ready to move to the actual 45 pound barbell instead of the 15 pounder, which I've been loading up an additional ~5 lbs per workout

i'm trying to add some more carbs to my diet to help with some gains. also going to cut out some of the intense metabolic conditioning i'd been doing and focus on recovery a little more.

idk if it's winter or what by my sleep and eating habits have gone to shit, i'm going to blame it on that.

yeah this is where it's all at. sleep is so important ime

i was not in the gym for a little bit (12 days!) bc of running group. can't figure out how to do both that well. i'm thinking i'm gonna skip one running workout per week from the schedule, probably the interval one. i'm the fastest in the group, of 6 people who are all older than i am. lol. i went back today and i didn't really lose any strength. but the tiny bald guy who dances on the ball thing was there and he makes me uncomfortable! he's so small! he tried to give me that velcro pad thing for the barbell.

i started to explain to him how it doesn't touch my neck and he said "i don't know, maybe i'm too short to do that." i'm still puzzled.

man there were some high school dudes in the rack next to me who were making me very nervous with their weird, bad overloaded squats

second workout in a row a guy has tried to give me that thing!

that thing, that thing, that ♪♫thing♪.

what the fuck

http://youtu.be/gJMdK7vJsLc

so i have this suit jacket that used to fit almost perfectly maybe a tiny bit small (i have big shoulders anyway) and now i can't even button it, i just realized today at work. so sw0le. but then i was also thinking my upper body looked skinnier. i have better posture now.

i only go twice a week lately

Finally started that 4-week course, but week 1 was a rush through a bunch of machines - disappointed. Going to read New Women's Rules of Lifting or whatever it's called and figure it out for myself.

still in stallsville on squats! dammit what do i have to do for you, sw0le g0ds

just a thought: have you tried taking some time off?

Back to lifting after a couple (OK, three) weeks off; lost some of my overhead press but seemed to hold the line at squat and deadlift. We'll see how bench press goes tomorrow.

that's what usually happens to me, o press goes to shit, squat pretty stable

man it's the other way around for me.

just a thought: have you tried taking some time off?

― ryan, Monday, March 4, 2013 9:21 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

taking some... what now?

was off for 3 months, until last week. back up to 5RM within a week on squat, but i look like http://vimeo.com/34678147 when i try to o press.

i went to the gym. i keep taking time off by accident and then i get anxiety like "if i go i'll get sore because i've been off too long and i don't want that" so i wait longer and have more potential for soreness. i didn't try too hard though. i found a new gym character who wears some weird shoes and velour pants pulled up really high.

CAEK this is not really swole-related (I will try to make it more so) but iirc you are the astronomer who did some work at McDonald? I go to there soon! Pls tell me all of the secrets of the universe (and of Marfa).

Swole: uhhhh OK I am on the road for another month or so and getting into the gym is a bit tricky, but I have been doing a bit of wimpy jogging and will get a temp membership at some uber cheap dumb musclehead gym next week so I can do two weeks of swole. I guess.

i like running or i pretend to but it's incompatible with swole. i can't figure out how i can get better at both :(

I kinda hate running but as the spouse reminds me, "the heart is a muscle, too." And er latest checkup was all "LADY U PREHYPERTENSIVE U GOTTA EXERCISE" so I'm all "FUCK guess I gotta run a little (very little) bit."

lifting is good for your <3

I feel like I don't get my heart rate up for a very long time when lifting. I'm doing Starting Strength, basically, and it doesn't seem to put the same aerobic stress on the ticker.

quincie, yes that is me! what do you want to know? i will actually be there again in april. webmail if you prefer or maybe we should just start a west texas thread?

my sw0leness officially suspended via gym membership cancellation via moving to nyc in a couple of months btw.

I will start a West Texas/Southern AZ&NM/CaliMex Border thread!

Was asked 'do you want to train for endurance or strength', avoided shouting 'SW0LE!!!'

Having trouble remembering the form for any lifting whatsoever, from week to week.

i also had to give up running b/c of my shit knees. since then though i've started using lighter weights with shorter rests between sets, and it gives you close to the same aerobic workout without just straight shrinking you.

all hail xxp

going to bed now so maybe link it here in case it falls of new answers.

nrolfw has a "bodyweight matrix" that looks like it would get hr up for a few minutes and not suck as much as running, i'll find it later. i didn't go past stage 1 of it because i got SS instead.

ha, got it xp

moving to nyc in a couple of months btw.

― caek, Thursday, March 14, 2013 7:54 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

nice, congrats man

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Q4KfTDju0zQ/UQSEAZrfQaI/AAAAAAAADP0/qB9L8NfesWw/s400/Squats+-+Cardio,+I+Lift+Weights+Faster.jpg

i'm getting sw0le from food + sendentary job am i doing it rite

ty goole, we talked about it a bit on i go to new york

sw0le danger
http://www.youtube.com/embed/VjEhUbrufKk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjEhUbrufKk

god damn!

i am s0re

I didn't enjoy this four week course at my school's athletic centre. Exercises not written down anywhere other than unreadable ancient photocopy of some book, too blurry to see where the arms and legs are going, and not in the order we did them. So I forgot them all between weeks. I can't seem to copy form properly when it's demonstrated to me unless someone actually grabs me and changes the way I'm positioned, which makes me worry about striking out with only a book from here.

We finally got to deadlifts and squats today, the final week, and I wasn't even flexible enough to pick up the bar with proper form.

Embarrassingly, the thing I hated most was seeing myself in the mirrors. I need to get over myself, obv.

I can't seem to copy form properly when it's demonstrated to me unless someone actually grabs me and changes the way I'm positioned

This is not uncommon, FWIW, and one of the things that makes a good personal trainer actually worth a few visits. You don't really need those people for programming or diet (thx Internet!) but a good one trained in barbell exercises can be v. v. valuable.

yeah, this is what I thought I'd get from this course, especially as there were only two of us on it, but there were too many exercises and not enough grabbing and repositioning! I will look into other options.

Do some of you sw0le individuals also subscribe to short bursts of cardio to skyrocket heartrate? Maybe there's another thread for that...

Do some of you sw0le individuals also subscribe to short bursts of cardio to skyrocket heartrate? Maybe there's another thread for that...

Hill Sprints, Tabata workouts ,kettlebells and double under jump rope at high intensity for my cardios

whats up with her form https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxAc97K2I5M

The back arch is a powerlifting move, helps you press your feet and shoulders on the lift.
I could tell if her elbows were properly tucked.

ljub it took me a couple months to feel ok doing barbell squats. do goblet squats. there are youtubes showing it and it's easy to do properly without hurting yourself. it helps you learn the motion of bending at your hips and the way you hold the weight lets you not have to focus so much on balancing. you just keep your knees pushed out and chest up and the rest falls into place. you'll be able to do it pretty deep and that alone will help you become more flexible. just work on hip flexor and hamstring stretches after you are done since you'll be warm.

you are 50 x more helpful than the 'personal trainer' at the athletic centre. thanks, will check those out!

that extreme back arch is just about shortening the ROM, nothing more. not to diminish what she accomplished there, but she is basically doing a partial ROM bench.

The extreme back arch is about maximising the weight she can lift, based on her physical attributes, according to the rules of the powerlifting comp she's entered. From lockout to chest, with your butt on the bench, is a full ROM, there is nothing partial about it.

You are correct that the arch is about maximizing the weight she can lift based on her physical attributes - I am not disagreeing with that at all. My point is that the only point in arching your back like that during a bench is to shorten the amount of distance that the bar has to travel in order to be a qualifying lift at a power lifting competition. It's not necessarily good bench form for regular non-competitive lifters like us, mainly because you aren't getting full ROM. It stops far short of where the bar would make contact with the chest when doing a normal flat bench, so you miss the hardest part of the lift which is from off the chest. It still boggles my mind that she was able to put up those kinds of numbers at her age and stuff. Also, I do not think that is a competition in the video, but it's definitely some kind of media spectacle. Most power lifting meets I've seen footage of are like 30 people in a basement. The company in the vid seems to sell supplements or something.

There are a series of EliteFS bench pressing videos called "So You Think You Can Bench?" on youtube that are definitely worth watching, but when I first started I took them a bit too much to heart, and started trying to do the extreme arch thing, and it hurt my progress over all. I also pulled a muscle in my lower back trying to get into that crazy ass position once and was like, maybe it's time to rethink this. A lot of the advice out there is meant for power lifters whose goals are more about getting up the heaviest weights and winning shit, sometimes with equipment, as opposed to long term safety.

There are all kinds of reasons to arch your back when you bench, including making it safer to lift without spotters (because you can set the safeties at a height you can flatten out under), reducing the stress on your rotator cuffs, creating a stronger base with your lats, getting more out of your leg drive, and shifting emphasis to different muscle groups.

i am the worst at bench press

chinese kid did them in jeans today. it was kind of like he stopped by the gym on the way somewhere. also i squatted with more on the bar than this other bro had on the smith machine, at the same time. he stopped early. i think he went upstairs to cry. i don't wanna say how much it is because i'm still embarrassed it's not enough. my flexibility is good now so i'm actually improving, not like before.

including making it safer to lift without spotters (because you can set the safeties at a height you can flatten out under

idgi

the rest of what you said kind of runs counter to what I understand about benching, too. you reduce stress on the rotator cuffs by packing your shoulders when you bench and doing antagonist movements like rowing and overhead work. I guess I can see the lat thing. I do use an arch when I bench, but I don't worry about it as much as I try to brace my abs and glutes really hard. I don't have a great bench either, though, It's the lift I've had the most trouble with.

Well if you lay flat on the bench, with no arch, and lower the bar to your chest without spotters, you will be kind of fucked if you find you can't lift the bar. If you arch, and you bench in a power rack, you can set the safeties so you can lower the bar to your chest, but if you can't lift it you can flatten out and the safeties will take the bar. This is kind of hard to explain in words, that is my best attempt.

i think every point you made about arch is good, especially getting the leg drive, but you can lock your core in an arched but less arched position esp if you got strong abs. -- but i'd say that if you're going to bench without spotters, you better be really fucking careful. i think our advice is the same: just set the solid bars really fucking low in a power rack (like right above your eyes). or do some other exercise in its place, like floor presses.

i go to the gym sometimes in jeans. because i'm a man.

Oh I see what you mean now. I didn't realize you were benching in a power rack. I'm envious. I'd be eaten alive at my gym if I hogged a power rack for bench pressing. I would love to be able to do pin presses, because my sticking point is pretty close to my chest, but there is almost always a line of people waiting to use the power rack.

BTW, if you're benching on a flat bench without a spotter, you should be able to do the roll of shame pretty easily, if you aren't benching too heavy.

Anyway, I still think the extreme arch is more for the purpose of shortening the ROM than healthy shoulders or leverage, but if it works for you go for it. I've never seen any of the 2 or 3 plate guys at my gym doing it, though.

i've been so out of it the last two months! Amazed at how quickly you can lose that like top 10% of your strength if you stay away for a bit.

but it comes back quickly as long as you don't leave it too long. like it took me 6m to get up to my current 1RM on squats, but i can get back there in like 3wks after my depressingly frequent 1-2month breaks.

Bought a rumble roller today because my upper back/'thoracic spine' has been tight lately. I think I should have started out w/ a regular foam roller, the rumble is insane. I've got a very high tolerance for pain and I didn't last a minute without needing a break.

what's rumble?
i had deadlifted up to i think 175 before but it hurt my lower back the day after. i took a break a while ago so i built myself back up by doing 3 sets of 5 at lighter weights for a while, from 135 up to like 155, then going back to one set of 5. today i did 170 and i really did get better bc it felt somewhat easy and i was using my lower back w/o hurting it. i think i will be up to 200 soon enough if my grip lets me. i need to have my own rack someday. i'm tired of people hogging it.

well it's also pretty hot and i was very warmed up besides so i'm sure that has something to do with it

It's a foam roller with deep knobs that dig into soft tissue.

owwwww the regular foam roller hurts enough!

since becoming sw0le my favorite hobbies are

• looking around at different people and thinking about whether i can pick them up
• looking at ppls butts

lol

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/05/the-quintessential-old-school-bodybuilding-gym/275922/

Aw that's wonderful

i was struggling with deadlift because of not enough grip strength. today i tried alternating grip for the first time and did 187 lbs 5 times with no grip problems at all. why wait!?!?!

like, left hand under right hand over? i think that's the only way to pull big weights. i warm up with plain two left hands over grip and switch to mixed grip when i'm set up to start pulling heavy singles or doubles. if you want to improve deadlift grip, i advocate farmer's walk with with the heaviest dbs you can lift (there's the ohshitohshit desperation moment when you have to walk back to the rack with every tendon in your hand screaming tension pain and racking them again without looking like a foool) + work with a fat bar, if it's available + when deadlifting holding the bar at lockout at your hips as long as you can. outside of deadlifting, i feel like good grip adds a lot of confidence when doing things like putting a bar over your head or even controlling the rise and fall of a bench press.

if you're still worried about your lower back, stiff leg deadlifts can work-- start fairly light and treat it as a stretch and an exercise in learning how the muscles in your posterior chain work, and go up from there. it's an exercise like good mornings that nobody does anymore but with those muscles strengthened and with a better feel for them, you can avoid injury.

http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance/romanian_vs_stifflegged_deadlifts

my lower back has been feeling good. i only deadlift once a week now. i have been stretching. i could probably do straight leg or RDL on another day of the week. i was trying to run and was only lifting 2 days a week but it's so hard to do both.
i wish i could have a better gym. some things like farmer's walk i would only try when no one's there. i shouldn't feel that way because i think i am one of the few people there who tries to do the right things and not hurt myself. kind of sad imo. the house i'm buying is gonna be too small with too shallow of a basement to make my own gym. maybe i could put a rack where the dining room's supposed to be :)

my handshake will be so intense, i will send people to the hospital

still working on dat sw0le!

when do you guys usually feel comfortable with adding weight? I try to do 5x5, three times a week of the three major lifts - with bench I feel like it's when you no longer really struggle with the last rep. I'm trying to do like 10 lbs every 2-3 weeks but I don't know if that's going too fast or too slow. I'm fairly new to this.

the program i'm on has you add 5 lbs to a lift if you complete it once! i got myself some of those nifty 1.25 fraction plates, so on the smaller lifts i increase by 2.5 lbs

if you can't do it after a couple attempts over a few days, you deload by 10-15% and build up again. maybe the next time you hit that max, you'll be able to do it.

If you mean you're squatting/deadlifting/benching 3 times per week 5x5, you should probably dial back the volume (alternate squat/bench/etc. and deadlift/etc. days) to make progress and not struggle with the last rep.

I have 345 on the bar at my shop where I deadlift (and clean and press when my elbows and shoulders don't hurt) - since I haven't been able to add weight I've put that on hiatus in favor of riding an Airdyne and playing with my 35# kettlebells.

google Starting Strength or Stronglifts for 3x5/5x5 exercise routines with alternating day splits

are we talking deadlift still? when i first started lifting, i would try to pull my 1rm every week, then add to it, sometimes incrementally and sometimes, depending on how i was feeling, by 10-20. i like pulling heavy singles close to my 1rm. there's a mental thing, where i think about the 1rm and hold, say, two five plates in my hands and feel how light and insubstantial the weight is on top of what i just lifted.

now, i usually have a week where i pull heavy singles, then a week where the deadlift day is occupied with related work like glute ham raises, high rep stiffleg deadlifts, good mornings, and sometimes that day is also taken with sprints. when i return to my week of heavy singles, i will usually pull my 1rm and sometimes add weight incrementally and i feel every fucking extra pound that's on the bar-- the difference between the first two years of lifting, where it's easy to progress very fast and add weight vs. staying serious about it for a few years and struggling to make progress. actually pulling heavy singles is the best time possible in the gym for me and i still want to add weight but it's become less about adding the weight and more about, i dunno, larger athletic goals.

If you mean you're squatting/deadlifting/benching 3 times per week 5x5, you should probably dial back the volume (alternate squat/bench/etc. and deadlift/etc. days) to make progress and not struggle with the last rep.

bench is the only one I really struggle with. I'm not sure what would happen if I tried to do too much with squats, or at what point exactly I would figure out that I was doing too much. Right now I feel like I am making progress but I dunno if it's at a good pace or if I'm hampering my growth some other way. I do worry about the form. Everything I read makes it seem as though form is incredibly important though I struggle to remember the 25 rules about shoulder positioning while doing a bench set. Is there maybe a way to simplify things. Like during deads and squats I try to push through the heels and not the toes, keep the bar close (during deads) and squat 'till your thighs are parallel, can't really do it all the way down yet. Though pretty much everything makes it seem as though I'll hurt myself if I'm not doing everything exactly right.

i don't really bench bc i need a girl spotter. my coworker said she was going to my gym but idk if she has signed up yet. i felt bad at it, couldn't remember all the rules either. i've been working more on overhead presses. since i'm a girl i can't do more than 50 lbs for 3 sets of 5 but i think i can add a pound each time for now with my small plates (¡tapas!). frog i don't think "can't really do it all the way down yet" is a good sign for your squat technique. do goblet squats i can't say enough times how much i love them. they make me sweat more than regular squats too. however i don't think you need to worry about being perfect. my most important cue to myself is to push my knees out and keep head neutral. and butt out. that's it.

oh and breathe in before u go down. heh.

By that I mean I can't go to the point where my butt hits the ground. I mean obviously I was kinda clueless at first but on the 2nd attempt I had some pretty incredible soreness in the right parts so I probably did something right.

well. still clueless. but it feels a bit more natural now.

i always feel weird/sarcastic when lifting weights, like i am doing it sarcastically when that's not my intention.

i deadlifted 200 x 2

are u sw0le

feel kind of fat lately tbh

that's rad

i mean, the deadlift. feeling fat is w/e

recently hit a personal max: bench 160 x5

i tend to not push very hard on bench b/c it's a little dangerous w/o a spotter