thread of getting sw0le

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

I think I'm ready to change to compound 100% of the time. I feel I'll injure myself without a spotter, though.

I've heard people get good results from a mix of compound and isolation workouts. Might experiment with different ones.

Does anyone feel like trying to stay lean somehow inhibits you from lifting heavier weights? Like, it's easier to overeat (not necessarily stuff yourself) and lift heavy, and then later cut down on your diet and increase cardio/sprints to get cut, instead of trying to stay lean and cut from the get go. I'm pretty lean, due to the fact that I do lots of cardio, but still gaining size at a slower rate, but it's like a fine line between eating just right and slightly overeating.

Like with so-called bulking, I've read a surplus of 200 calories is enough, but lots of people use it as an excuse to stuff themselves, but it seems like, I'm assuming, carbs gives them an extra boost of energy which allows them to lift heavier weights.

I've never been comfortable benching because of the spotter issue (and because I'm bad about moving on to the next set too quickly), so I just don't do it. I prefer push-ups and overhead pressing anyway, so it's not worth the effort.

500 cal/day either way from maintaining = 1lb/week lost or gained. it's that simple. so 200 cal/day is not going to result in anything dramatic.

I'm okay benching without a spotter, you just set those catch bars at the right place so if you can't make it you just drop it there. Maybe I'm lucky because my gym has it set up so I can get it just in the right spot where it can catch the bar without inhibiting the lift.

How often do you guys increase the weights on the bench? I can do a 5x5 of 150 but that's about my maximum right now. With squats and deadlifts I feel I'm progressing pretty fast but adding on even 5 lbs to bench really pushes it at first.

wait. i already asked that. oops

I think I'm going to try a reverse pyramid style - I could probably go 155 or 160 on the first set, then 150 on the next two, and finish with 145 on the last ones. I've always heard "the last set is the one that counts" though I don't see how that can be true!

10# shy of benching my body weight (205#) for the first time ever . Never was much into benching so it's definitely one of my weaknesses.