FallingEdge
Member
I just ask people in the gym.
Hey brah, can you give me a spot.
And then I proceed to bench my heart out at 135.
Hey brah, can you give me a spot.
And then I proceed to bench my heart out at 135.
Whats funny is im comfortable benching 310 with no spot but that extra 5 lbs for 3plates? NOPE.
This is off the topic of the article, but the points raised by both Mike and Jonty are both best addressed and dealt with by simply getting stronger. The stronger you are, the more room for error you have, even at PR weights. See Taranenko's WR266 C&J. Mike is quite correct: heavy weights do not feel like light weights, and all the practice in the world at 80% will not contribute to a PR. Strong does. But at the international level, downhill skiing is more technical than what Mike does at Taos.
Most of the quote doesn't matter. What matters is the bold and underlined. This made me realize it wasn't just me. This is a "THING." You HAVE to get used to how the weight changes in how it feels or you're gonna get stuck. "Too heavy" might just be in your head.
Lifting is totally a mental thing. Have you ever had someone spot you and then you do more reps than you thought you could? You thought you were receiving assistance on the last reps but really, it is just you? As you said, I see testing 1RM the same way. If you psyche yourself out before even getting under the weight, you are going to fail. You have to get used to the heavy weight. Get used to how 90% of your 1RM feels. I think that was the problem I had when trying my 1RM. I could have done more, but I wasn't ready for how "heavy" it really is.
Elbows up is the queue, they should be parallel with the floor:When doing power cleans, do your elbows have to be perpendicular to the ground? I can get them up 80 degrees.
He lifts heavy shit from the floorTell me your secret! Damn how the hell did you get your muscles that big?
Have you done Starting Strength? Because if you haven't, that the first order of business for you.Hey, introducing myself to the thread. I started lifting about 10 years ago when I was 17 and have been doing it off and on ever since, but never for more than 6 months at a time. I'm looking to stick with it this time now that I'm finished moving from place to place and have a nice setup right in my own garage that isn't going anywhere.
Age: 27
Height: 5'10
Weight: 183
Goal: Maybe 200lbs around 15% body fat? I don't care about getting shredded abs. Just want to get strong and develop some huge shoulders.
I can't begin to understand your program. Why 8 reps if you want to get strong? Why benchpressing and ohp-eing the same day? Why are you squatting only 1.2 times a week? Why are your doing barbell shrugs while your shoulder is injured? Why are you working out 6 days a week and only resting 1?Current training schedule: Working with exercises I'm comfortable doing and the equipment I have, I'm currently doing... (in parenthesis is my current repping weight for that exercise to help determine weaknesses. Obviously my legs are weak)
Why do you need to blow up your routine? Why is it important to have a long workout instead of a short workout? A workout will take whatever it takes to accomplish your goals, under you are doing some advanced depletion-metacon training, time is not a variable for the quality of a workout.I need to blow up my routine soon, it's usually over a bit too quickly for my liking (would rather do a 45 minute workout than a 20 minute). I don't really do any warmups or stretching so maybe that's why they are so short. That will probably bite me in the ass if I keep it up.
Yup I was so afraid of benching 135 lbs for so long but then my friend told me to just put a 35+10 and bam I got my sets in easy. Of course this was with a spotter. And anytime I'm goin for a PR or just unsure about benching a weight I ask a random to spot me.Happens all the time. A competent spotter frees your mind of any lingering need for safety by not lifting too much because of the chance you can't complete the lift.
EDIT: hell, happened last night. A weight I can throw up 7 on the bench without a spot I threw up 9 last night, and those last two reps were an immense struggle that I completed without any spot assistance, but I would not have attempted nor could have completed without the backstop of a guy ready to keep me from hurting myself.
hungry and need fooooooooood
so I'm starving, on 4 hours sleep, have an hour of class left, and today is my bench day. I'm supposed to hit 205 for 5+. where do I find the energy? I've got some PB sandwiches I'm gonna eat right after class. but that's it. my body hurts from basketball yesterday, and deadlifts the day before. today is going to be interesting.
Every bro I know is too unreliable to go to gym with. And yeah most randoms I have lift the bar for me. Now I just tell them let me lift and I'll let you know when I need help or only help me when it looks like I'm struggling.I don't like random spotters in my gym because they will always fuck up and want to help out on the last reps. Fuck off! I like benching with my bros though, they know what's up
I can't begin to understand your program. Why 8 reps if you want to get strong? Why benchpressing and ohp-eing the same day? Why are you squatting only 1.2 times a week? Why are your doing barbell shrugs while your shoulder is injured? Why are you working out 6 days a week and only resting 1?
With your height and weight, I would rather focus on improving your squat, deadlift and overhead presses up. I would not stop a linear progression progress until you can squat 285x3x5 at least and Deadlift 315x1x5, especially at the weight you want to end with. I would skip on the row and start doing power cleans. In fact I would just do Starting Strength with chinups on mondays, dips on wednesdays and arm accesories on Friday.
Ok, so while I've been gone I've been wanting to make a post. I came the the realization that as you progress in strength shit just feels "different."
That weight you're struggling with might actually not be your max. Your mind is fooling you because the weight FEELS different and you currently associate that "feel" with "too heavy." I came to realize this as I progressed with my deadlift. I noticed the weight still felt "too heavy" but my form wasn't breaking down as I tried to lift. I came to realize as weights get heavier they feel "different."
This seems so much like a "no shit" thought that when I clicked I realized how stupid this post would sound, but it may help others.
Think about it, you know the feeling of light weight, how easy it is how smooth it comes off the floor. You know the feeling of medium weight, how it taxes you a little bit but it's still not giving you a hassle. Then you have your max weight (what you think is your max weight) this shit feels heavy, uncomfortable etc. This is how the heavier weight will feel.
As you progress through heavier and heavier weight (weight most humans aren't lifting) it's going to continue to "feel" different, and that's something you have to adapt to.
There isn't just light, medium and heavy. There's a spectrum of how the weight feels and it continues to change as the weight rises. When I'm working up to 575 for deadlift 510 and up feels heavy as fuck, each one feels like (this is the limit of my strength) but ultimately I can get 575 up as of last month. It's something you have to realize to keep progressing.
What I find great and helped me "realize this" is working on mental toughness. With the Iron Sport method you're FORCED into it. One of the weeks has a 10 singles at 90% of your max. Last week I did 10 singles at 530lbs for deadlift and it completely annhiliated me, by sets 7-10 you feel like this shit is impossible. Yet I was still able to finish it out.
Then last night when reading T-Nation I read this post by Rip on Livespill.
Most of the quote doesn't matter. What matters is the bold and underlined. This made me realize it wasn't just me. This is a "THING." You HAVE to get used to how the weight changes in how it feels or you're gonna get stuck. "Too heavy" might just be in your head.
u on a cut brah?
Good post Shogun. It really gets to be a mind game at some point.
That's some food for thought. I need to keep this in mind.
God damn it's good to have you back Sho.
Lifting is totally a mental thing. Have you ever had someone spot you and then you do more reps than you thought you could? You thought you were receiving assistance on the last reps but really, it is just you? As you said, I see testing 1RM the same way. If you psyche yourself out before even getting under the weight, you are going to fail. You have to get used to the heavy weight. Get used to how 90% of your 1RM feels. I think that was the problem I had when trying my 1RM. I could have done more, but I wasn't ready for how "heavy" it really is.
I don't like random spotters in my gym because they will always fuck up and want to help out on the last reps. Fuck off! I like benching with my bros though, they know what's up
Darth, what belt did you order again?
Now, unrelated to the above, I was hoping some Gaffers could give comments on my 5/3/1 routine and food intake routine that I started just last week. I'm assuming it's fine, but an extra look-over would be appreciated.
Age: 24
Height: 5'9"
Weight: 171 lbs, around 17-18% body fat
Goal: Weigh more, lift more, be bigger/stronger/healthier. No set weight maximum, but I'd bet that 200 is the most I could obtain at a healthy body fat %.
Comments: I've been lifting on/off for 5 years mostly doing SS with some extra isolation exercises. I fell off badly when I came to grad school two years ago, so I've lost a lot of strength since my peak, but also a lot of weight (was up to 185 lbs at my top).
5/3/1 (not including warm-ups, and this is week one, so following weeks will increase weight/decrease reps)
"A" Day
Squat: 2x5, 1x5+ (1x5+ means I'm doing one set for as many reps as I can; so far I'm hitting around 10-12 reps for the last set on all my lifts for week 1).
Barbell Lunges: 2x5, 1x5+
DB Side Bends: 2x5, 1x5+
"B" Day
Overhead Press: 2x5, 1x5+
Preacher Curls: 2x5, 1x5+
DB Shrugs: 2x5, 1x5+
10-minute HIIT (stationary bike)
"C" Day
Deadlifts: 2x5, 1x5+
Seated Rows: 2x5, 1x5+
Bent-over Rows: 2x5, 1x5+
"D" Day
Bench: 2x5, 1x5+
Tricep Pushdowns: 2x5, 1x5+
Seated Cable Pulldown: 2x5, 1x5+
10-minute HIIT (stationary bike)
I bike to/from my campus daily, which adds on about 2.5 hours of biking per week. I am a graduate student, so I am on-campus ~10+ hours/day 6-7 days a week and spend about 50% of my time seated and 50% of my time in my lab/on my feet. I do weeding and general yard work for about 2-4 hours/week.
Diet
As of a few weeks ago, I was eating around 1800-2200 calories a day, ~100-120g of protein and the rest carbs/fats. I cook 90% of my meals. Since starting 5/3/1 last week, I've upped my calorie intake to 2600-3000/day and am achieving ~180-220 g protein/day (so, around 1 g protein per lb of target body weight). Lots of veggies, fruits, lean meats, dairy, some protein powder, oatmeal, and beef. Easily more than 100 oz of water/day.
Any suggestions/comments would be very helpful and appreciated. I think I'm pretty solid here and now it's just a matter of sticking to the plan. I'm getting married in around 380 days, so if I lift 3 days a week, I'll have around 164 workouts to go between now and then. My plan is to bulk and lift like a madman between now and July-ish next year and if I'm feeling a bit too fatty-fat do some cutting before the wedding. If I'm feeling/looking good as-is, then I'll just keep on keepin' on.
As shogun said, buy the book. Only the main compounds get the 5 3 1 reps breakdown. Other ones do diff reps. The assistance moves aren't intense enough to benefit from the low-rep scheme.Sorry to pester with such a large post, but any general comments or suggestions for me based on this? Just looking for any glaring issues. I promise to not spam this a 3rd time either way.![]()
Not taking it as a dick-based remark by the way Alien/fred, I appreciate the comments.
I own and have read through the book; I could have sworn it had a section suggestion doing 5/3/1 for the assistance work as well. I'll have to find the part that I read that at.
I will be attempting to finish with 425x5 on DL tonight after I was successful with 405x5 last week. I was also 182 today. A little lighter than I like to be....
Not taking it as a dick-based remark by the way Alien/fred, I appreciate the comments.
I own and have read through the (2nd edition) book; I could have sworn it had a section suggestion doing 5/3/1 for the assistance work as well. I'll have to find the part that I read that at.
EDIT: Under the section for "Programming Your Assistance Work - The Simplest Strength Template" it details using the 5/3/1 setup for assistance lifts, but my mistake was that I mis-read this as a suggestion for all assistance lifts when it is actually meant for one large, multi-joint assistance lift (front squat, close-grip bench, etc), not for isolation movements. The smaller isolation movements are recommended at 3x10-20. I'll correct my routine based on this.
Thanks for the input guys.
Yeah, sometimes I go back in and read a book just to be sure I didn't forget/misread something. I almost always find something I missed or got wrong. Or I make a new "revelation."
Go in with the mentality of hitting x8.
Also, are you dead stopping the reps or are you "touch and go" repping?
I find dead stopping between reps to have great carry over. Glad to see you back to tugging.
Dead stopping for about 1-2 seconds. Yeah thanks, glad to be back at it. It's helped my squats tremendously!
Nice, let us know how it goes. You're gonna be tuggin' 500+ in no time.
I gotta get back to 500. I have been putzing around for too long. My DL fell off a cliff when I transitioned to AM workouts with no chance to eat prior. Your DL videos have inspired me to get back to pulling serious weight.
425x5 deadlift...Done!
#team deadlift.
Immortal is in route to 600 too. It's going to be glorious. The road of progress this community has made in the last few years has been amazing. I look at other communities (while I was banned) and it's incredible the quality of membership we actually have in this fitness thread compared to actual fitness forums.
Yeah that's what in about to do so we'll see how it goes.tried to ball out after a lifting session and my j's weren't even touching rim
Yeah that's what in about to do so we'll see how it goes.
2 questions for you guys though.
Big but boring or Dave Tate's bible for the most size gains?
And what do you think about doing deficit deads? One of the trainers said it would make my dead lift skyrocket. Just thought I would check in with you guys before I go exhaust myself doing a bunch of extra work haha.
Yeah this thread is amazing. I trust you guys for like anything fitness. Everyone else I've talked to has usually been wrong and everything I've learned here has gotten results.
425x5 deadlift...Done!
Yeah that is where I have trouble at higher weights other than wanting to double over hand grip it and not being able to.Deficit deads are a supplemental lift and are good if you're weak off of the floor. If you're good off of the floor, there are better things to do. His "make your DL skyrocket" sounds like something an idiot would say unless he knows where you're having issues.
As for size, either one will work, the name of the game is high reps and waging war on food with your face. I'd go with DTPB over BBB though.
Something you need to realize too is size takes time. There isn't a magic bullet. Take the time, put the work in and you will get there. It took me 3 years (this month) to finally hit the point where people KNOW I lift by looking at me.
We try really hard to week out bad information. Sometimes at our own detriment, lol.
Good shit man!