thread of getting sw0le

see the little lean forward here - https://squatuniversitydotcom.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/low-bar-position.jpg

u+k: did you ever find your meme??

that guy's wrists are wrong tho

honestly just watch the rippetoe videos on youtube (on the cringingly named/conceived "art of manliness" channel, but w/e)

you can see rippetoe quietly judging and hating that dude's stupid mustache

good videos tho, the grip he uses on the OHP i stole for bench and it works really well (kinda coming in at a 30 degree angle across your palm to align wrists under the bar). for OHP it's suicide grip all the way imo

Just started reading about StrongLifts 5x5 and idgi - five working sets (plus several warmup sets)of three different major lifts in the same session? I’d think that’s a minimum of 30-40 mins per lift, seems like a long workout for most people.

hi everyone my pull-ups are looking super hot lately

i have kind of stopped working on my chin-ups. yesterday i was doing curls and noticed a big decrease in 'cep strength because of it. but this gym has nothing i can stand on to do my negatives and the bar on top of the racks is super rough. i'm going to get back into it next week though. i will just have to stack up like 6 45 lb bumpers. lol also last time i did it, i stood on a bench, which was too low and resulted in me swinging too much and almost kicking the mirror. which has a sign on it that says "these mirrors will break." why do we need mirrors again?

can i just complain about someone else. these people do no harm to me i just hate them. this one guy i have seen there twice and he does a lot of calf raises. he is very skinny. i am the person in the world most in need of calf raises but i don't do them because i don't care. he was on the phone like the entire time he was there yesterday. the only other sign in the gym is everywhere and it says "please restrict cell phone conversations to the lobby." honestly i don't know why that is the only other warning (like how about put your weights back where they were?) but i really respect it. maybe i'll do some calf raises next week, too, while i'm thinking about it.

calf raises are super popular in this gym. everyone loves them.

i am a baby giraffe

i don't really understand calf raises. there has to be a better way.

jumping rope with a weighted vest or something? god

these days my palms are actually wrapping OVER the bar on low-bar squats, which feels comfortable and my wrists are straight so..? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

gonna try squatting 2-3 times a week for a while. Now that I'm getting the hang of low bar my form is so much more natural and leaves my hips less tight after. Also, Rippetoe says that the bar "should be uncomfortable" on your back, not painful, but tight.

haha don't worry there's still plenty of weird tightness going on w me

keep us up to date on SQUAT MONTH

My first couple times low bar I had to lower the weight, less because of my ability to get down/up then because of difficulty with getting and maintaining the right bar position. So I just did working sets at like 165.

Got my low bar squat up to 205 x 5 now which is where my high bar squat was. Def still haven’t perfected the bar hold though, gets pretty uncomfortable at that weight.

Have you tried the thumbless grip? I found the low bar squat a fair bit more comfortable once I adopted it.

I've gone back to goblet squats. Screw it, they're hard enough and once I get some flat-heeled trainers I can try out on the bar bell stuff again. Yesterday was the first day back at the gym since Christmas where I didn't feel exhausted after 20 minutes. Feeling good!

One-leg squats are pretty awesome too partic for stability, get a heavy dumbell in each hand, try to keep perfect form and it's hard as shit

I just don’t like squatting. There’s no way around it.

i love squats

i can squat every day

engaging my leg muscles in general makes me feel good

which is probably how i pulled a groin

*squeezes buns*

*will smith shaking his head no*

https://im-01.gifer.com/3o4I.gif

i genuinely enjoy the challenge of how not good at squatting i am

i also like the challenge. it never gets easy. i've been working on front squats, so hard.

i've also been working on a clean and press. it feels great when i get the pull to hip extension to clean but sometimes my timing is off and i fuck it up.

my new gym has a lot of space, two stories in a converted warehouse, full of racks and platforms. astroturf strip upstairs for your sleds and farmer walks and rope juggling or whatever that is. lots of women lifting which makes for a good atmosphere. people are really into bands here. i had a dream where someone was all tied up with like 20 bands.

hottt

it's been linked in this thread a few times already, but i just found http://exrx.net/ and it's basically the site i've been looking for for years. comprehensive no bs no clickbait exercise information

i bought a 35 pound kettlebell and a book called "enter the kettlebell" that claims there is a routine of just two (grueling compound) exercises i can do four times a week to get jacked to all hell. don't discourage me.

have fun getting jacked to all hell!

Yes, I believe it’s referring to the bench-n-deadlift and the squat-row-n-press

i don't have a barbell. i went to crossfit once for an onboarding and an image of myself snapping my spine in half flashed before my eyes when i saw what those people were doing.

CrossFit has a very bad reputation among *lifters*

yeah, i know. if i had access to a gym with barbells and someone to spot me i think i would try to get into a bench/squat/dead routine and i might do that someday. but this kettlebell thing seemed like a good stopgap.

Yeah kettlebells are fine. Im curious what the two exercises are.

no one should ever bench

Kettlebell swing + Turkish Get Up are the two exercises IIRC

Kettlebell swings are awesome but my favorite KB exercise is the overhead press. Most natural feeling way to press overhead IME, even more than dumbbells because of the way they rest at the bottom.

treeship i'll spot you

i'm excited to bench press today, so excited i have been ~resting~ all morning, and i'm about to eat a load of rice, just to get ready

it was fun

one weird tip i tried yesterday: if you are doing bulgarian split squats hold one dumbbell in the hand opposite the planted leg and you will balance better than one dumbbell goblet or one dumbbell each hand

i like to hold 40kg tho - my gym's dumbbells only go up to 30kg. i will try with more reps tho maybe. also I'm kinda masochistically into the extreme difficulty of balancing, like the harder it is the better?! it's crazy how sore my ass is after split squats. even though it's less than half the weight i lift with the barbell.

ok those are small dumbbells! it wasn't better enough that i would discourage you from doing what you were doing. i kind of agree about the balancing, too. i have a sore ass right now because i hadn't done them in a while.

one of the ten songs that is always playing at the gym is that stupid slow hands song, wouldn't it be better if it was SORE ASS

or this! i don't think i really realized til just now that this was the pointer sisters doing COUNTRY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIKiB663JD0

I wear headphones at the gym as much to not have to hear the dumb songs they play as to hear my own music

Went back to doing a pre-squat mobility routine and hit 215x5 no problem. Could probably have gone for the psychologically satisfying two plates but saving it for next time. Not only was squatting easier but I felt much less knee pressure. Alan Thrall is wrong.

good one tracer

i don't mobilize but i don't mind if others do it's cool

225 x 5 squat tonight relatively easily. Low bar changed my life.