thread of getting sw0le

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.