Do you guys even lift?

[Old-Doomguy]

1 hour ago, Bridgeburner56 said:

You said, and I quote "To become strong you have to lift heavy" which is not correct. You don't have to lift heavy and there's a reason 1-3 rep maxes are done as a training regime other than as part of a tapering program to get ready for a competition, or to bench mark any progress on performance.

The main determining factor in pushing any body system to the point of growth is % of max intensity. Provide a strong stimuli for body adaptation. At a basic level you want your body to go "fuck me that was hard, better increase capacity in these systems so it's not so hard next time", and then you build on that microgrowth.

As for novices/people just starting out, form is king. And the majority of any performance increases in the first 6-8 weeks is mostly form neuromuscular improvements. Better cross bridge cycling, more efficient summation of force, synergist activation etc. Trying to "lift heavy" straight out the gate is a sure fire way to cause an injury. Because strength gains don't start and stop in the muscle. Tendons, ligaments, bone connection points, these all have to strengthen in concert with increases in force production.

The best way to keep progressing and improving? Variety. The human body is incredibly adaptive but it's also lazy. Body systems will always look for the shortest path to efficiency that uses the least amount of energy possible. If you keep providing the same stimuli it will "get used to it" (for lack of a better term). Mixing up exercises, rep numbers, training patterns etc is the best way to avoid plateauing. It's like people who constantly do flat barbell bench and don't mix it up. They might get some pretty big lifts in but give them a pair of dumbbells and watch them struggle.

 

 

👍

 

Any tips for a good switch up when stalling on the squats, bench, deadlifts, military press with 5x5?

 

What kind if variety could be beneficial in my case?

[Bridgeburner56]

36 minutes ago, Old-Doomguy said:

 

 

👍

 

Any tips for a good switch up when stalling on the squats, bench, deadlifts, military press with 5x5?

 

What kind if variety could be beneficial in my case?

What kind of split do you usually do and what's your workout frequency? I've got a 5 workout split and do each one once a week (cardio, legs, chest/triceps, back/biceps, shoulders/core)

[Old-Doomguy]

58 minutes ago, Bridgeburner56 said:

What kind of split do you usually do and what's your workout frequency? I've got a 5 workout split and do each one once a week (cardio, legs, chest/triceps, back/biceps, shoulders/core)

 

I'm at the gym three times per week, don't think I can manage to squeeze in any more days. 

 

Day 1: squats, bench, barbell rows - 5x5 on all

Day 2: squats, deadlifts (1x5), military press 

Day 3: squats, bench, barbell rows 

 

I keep increasing 2.5-5kg every session but I stall and reset back to low weights in order to try again. I stall at 130kg squats, 80kg bench and 160kg deadlift for reps. So I reset back and try again, that's my usual approach. 

 

I've recently had the covid so I'm not stalled right at thus moment but will probably be stalled within 2 months or . 

[Nikku4211]

I lift my legs every time I go up and down the stairs to my apartment. I live 4 floors high.

 

I should get some more CRTs so that I can do lifts while watching my favourite animes with really good black levels.

[TwinBeast]

Just started lifting again, hopefully this time I don't get sick again after getting into the rhythm, like couple previous times.

 

Doesn't seem to matter much if I start squats with very light weights after a break, legs are going to be sore couple days after.

 

Have been wondering about replacing my home weight plates with rubber coated ones. The metal ones that have paint leave marks on the floor. Thought I could also get a longer bar, but only a 10kg bar, so the same weight plates would fit in both the dumbbell bars and the long bar, also it would be shorter than the 20kg bars.

Edited February 26, 2022 by TwinBeast

[Old-Doomguy]

Here's me doing 55kg military press. I did 5x5 of these. Very close to failure, hopefully I can add some weight next week. 

[Old-Doomguy]

So moving forward, I've found that my squats aren't perfect, but tend to become a good-morning on the way up. So now I'm gonna work on that before progressing the weights. I'm gonna try some highbar squats for a few weeks and squat without shoes. Continuing on without good form is a recipe for injury.

[nrofl]

I do, I’m no physical phenom but I would consider myself pretty well built. 
 

If you don’t happen to lift, I would recommend you try it out. The amount of self confidence you gain after even the first week of lifting is huge.

 

Also if you happen to be only able to bench/squat a 45lb barbell and your afraid to lift in fear of people in the gym thinking your coming off as weak. Don’t. I can guarantee you 95% of the people there genuinely don’t care. Some random people will even be excited that someone has gotten into the hobby.

[Thelokk]

Judoka, my pastime is lifting people. 

[TwinBeast]

Today's exercise was with 2x20kg dumbbells at home. Did 4x10 dumbbell floor press (I don't have a bench), 8, 6, 6 dumbbell squat and 3x10 dumbbell deadlift. Previous exercise was also some lifts with the 2x20kg, dumbbell clean & press with 4 one rep series. Some few hammer curls, maybe I got 2 reps. Then changed them to 2x17.5kg and did more hammer curls, kickback and overhead press and some lateral raise with 2x10kg, forgot how many series and repeats I did.

 

Swinging my swords between the weight lifting days. I'll alternate light and heavy swords and the amount of single handed swings. Should have a higher ceiling for this. Now I have to sit on my knees. Soon it's summer and can take the bokken outside.

[PKr]

So... It's been almost two years. How are you guys doing nowadays? Have you progressed with your routines? Dropped them entirely?

[Fiber Wire]

I know this has been idle for a while now, but I wanted to bring attention to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s free new podcast on Spotify. It has really helped keep me motivated and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to improve their health, physique, or needs help getting unstuck in general. 
 

If you don’t use Spotify you can sign up to his free newsletter email instead here. It will give you the same information from the podcast only in written form. 

[smeghammer]

Walking.

 

Worked up to carrying 15kg weighted vest + 2x5kg wrist weights.

 

3.5 miles 3-4 times per week, doing high rep curls, lateral raises, forward raises, reverse curls, tricep extensions as I walk.

 

I get some funny looks...

 

Fuckin' works though. Been doing it for over two years now, since lockdown. Lost about 20kg.

 

I used to spend hours in the gym ego-pressing. Never worked though. The more aerobic stuff I'm doing now works much better.

[Biz!]

really wish i could, but i'm simply exhausted every day after school, i would take walks but my parents don't let me go farther than a block.

[insertwackynamehere]

I finally got back into lifting after the pandemic last October and I'm getting bigger than I've ever been. Just half a pound shy of 190 at 5'10.5" (179cm). Over a decade ago when I first started lifting I was maybe 130-135lbs and viewed myself as a "hardgainer" or "ectomorph" (both over-simplifications but useful for context).

 

I would always hit walls where I felt like I couldn't bulk more with the tradeoff being I also had trouble getting fat, but as I went through my early 30s during the pandemic just sitting around and leading an unhealthy sedentary lifestyle of eating, drinking and waiting, I finally experienced putting on visible fat. I ended up with like a 35" waist which is at the border of unhealthy for my height, but with no signs of stopping.

 

As disappointing as the slowing metabolism is in some ways, it seems to also have allowed me to break through my 165lb mid-20s "wall" as long as I try and focus this growth on muscle-building. Waist has shrunk (currently 33" in the morning during this bulk, but a minicut in January brought it down to close to 30" at 172lbs) and weight has increased so everything moving in the correct direction.

 

Starting to feel tired from the intensity of the gym sessions so my plan is to call it end of April, or when I see 190lbs on the scale if sooner (which is likely). Going to then spend May-August just doing pump and maintain work while casually eating at maintenance and basically give myself a planned break. I know in the past I wouldn't plan breaks and then I just stop. This time I want to get in front of that and give myself a break by making the gym fun and easy-going for a bit so I keep going consistently without stress and then see in the fall if I want to go for another bulk or what.