Weight Lifters Fi - Page 4

Has anyone tried 'running the rack' with dumbell bench press?  I've been lifting for years, but yesterday was the first time I did them-- intense stuff!  You start off a low weight, and do 20 reps, then go up 10lbs per dumbell and do 15 reps, up 10 lbs and do 10 reps, up 10lbs and do 6 reps, up 10lbs again and do 3 reps-- all in the same set!  I started at 20 and by the time I hit 60 I couldn't even lift it initially, thanks to my partner, though.  

I'm not a believer in belts, but my partner uses them, more power to him, though.  I believe it might compromise your inner core stability muscles that are the ones that give you great form and injury prevention to begin with.  I do love deadlifts, but I only do the Romanian variant.  Regular deadlifts are too much like squats IMO.

The chest has always been my weakest area.

I have tried almost everything! I think I don't isolate my chest muscles and use my triceps to cheat a lot?

That running seems like fun and I bet gets a great pump going. A sadistic  plan of attack!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Redcarmoose 

Weight belts are just a matter of preference as some don't believe in them. The truth may be that folks are going to get injured anyway it seems, belt or no belt.

 

I really believe sit ups help support the back and keep your body strong for deadlifts. I injured my back a little years ago just by doing deadlifts cold with no warm-ups. In hindsight I should have started off with less weight. My back is healed all up now I feel.  

 

Straight leg deadlifts should only be done with super low weights. imo.

How long did it take to heal? Its been close to a year now for me and although the pain is not as great as it was in the beginning, there is still a bit of pain when I try to bend forward or when I stand up after sitting in a chair for a while.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Decreate 

How long did it take to heal? Its been close to a year now for me and although the pain is not as great as it was in the beginning, there is still a bit of pain when I try to bend forward or when I stand up after sitting in a chair for a while.

Now days I have a friend who is a Chiropractor. He spent a session with me where you walk and he holds your pelvis top to see if there is any wrong side to side movement. He then does the same test while holding on to a sector of your lower back. 

What can happen in back damage is two fold, The muscles will get tight like a suspension bridge to try and bring everything back to normal. This is a protective mechanism of the body. Over the years as the muscles keep tightening you have the back pull other parts in a chain reaction.

In time the tight muscle "cure" for an out of place section ends up with maybe three different posture issues.

The second area that can happen over years is a fusion of two vertebrae. The fusion can be irreversible when the bones become one single non bending object out of two angling bones.

The less problematic semi fusion can be pulled apart by the Chiropractor. The body has a feed back system where after the communication is started up again in a damaged area the body can heal it back as normal as long as it was not abnormal for too long.

The third issue can be from slipped or herniated disks. These can be crushed or compacted into a different shape or just slip out over an area when the edge area is torn down. 

This is the areas of how I understand back damage.I am no expert am not giving anyone advise. I may not have a clue as to what I am taking about here. 

There are many different levels of damage to the back. Some fixable some not. I don't even know what I had? I did not go to a Chiropractor for my issues but an M.D.

The M.D. way is to give you muscle relaxers which slow down the "pulling" response your body is naturally doing. They can give you electronic muscle work-out devices which cause your back muscle to be exercised synthetically.

The M.D. way is also to give you stretching exercises and a daily routine like sit-ups and leg lifts to strengthen your back muscles. We all know they also can perform surgery in extreme cases, putting pins in and stuff.

After a couple years of sleeping on a hard mattress and being super careful in the gym my back problems went away. The only time they flair up is if I try to ride a bike again after prolonged abstinence from cycling. After a week it gets used to the bike again and the pain goes away foe as long as I am riding and getting in shape. I would get multiple views and try and decide what to do if anything. At times though from what I have witnessed, bad stuff can also happen from waiting too long and not having it fixed by a Chiropractor.    

I do Rippetoe's Starting Strength. It's all compound barbell exercises.

My squat has gone from 115 lbs to 235 lbs (5 reps, 3 sets) in a couple of months.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TMRaven 

Has anyone tried 'running the rack' with dumbell bench press?  I've been lifting for years, but yesterday was the first time I did them-- intense stuff!  You start off a low weight, and do 20 reps, then go up 10lbs per dumbell and do 15 reps, up 10 lbs and do 10 reps, up 10lbs and do 6 reps, up 10lbs again and do 3 reps-- all in the same set!  I started at 20 and by the time I hit 60 I couldn't even lift it initially, thanks to my partner, though.  

 

I'm not a believer in belts, but my partner uses them, more power to him, though.  I believe it might compromise your inner core stability muscles that are the ones that give you great form and injury prevention to begin with.  I do love deadlifts, but I only do the Romanian variant.  Regular deadlifts are too much like squats IMO.

We used to do this all the time in high school. We called it burnouts though, and we did it a bit different. You would start with 6+ 5lb-ers on each side of the barbell and we'd take off a pair of 5's after every 10 reps. By the time you've reached just the bar, you've already done 60 reps and it's really tough. It's funny to walk in on a big guy struggling to bench the bar after that many reps.

I'm not a big fan of deadlifts personally. I do (low-weight) RDL's just for lower-back strengthening, but I try to stay away from putting to much pressure on my back. I know my dad got injured pretty bad back in the day doing squats. After he told me the story how he busted open his gut from a hernia, I've always been careful with those types of exercises.

Quote:

Originally Posted by OJNeg 

 

We used to do this all the time in high school. We called it burnouts though, and we did it a bit different. You would start with 6+ 5lb-ers on each side of the barbell and we'd take off a pair of 5's after every 10 reps. By the time you've reached just the bar, you've already done 60 reps and it's really tough. It's funny to walk in on a big guy struggling to bench the bar after that many reps.

 

I'm not a big fan of deadlifts personally. I do (low-weight) RDL's just for lower-back strengthening, but I try to stay away from putting to much pressure on my back. I know my dad got injured pretty bad back in the day doing squats. After he told me the story how he busted open his gut from a hernia, I've always been careful with those types of exercises.

Funny though I had a small staple put in my left lower abdomen to fix a hernia, when I was 18 years old, before lifting weights. They told me my right would herniate one day, still never has.

Quote:

Originally Posted by devgru 

I have a gym in my home. When I clean it up I'll take some pics. 1,600sf of various cages, racks, benches. Have a Versaclimber and a Stairmaster 5000 "Gauntlet" (collapsing stair model). Wife wants an elliptical and a treadmill. 

 

As I entered my 40s I stopped the 4-day split and went to a whole body routine EOD or every third day, depending on recovery.

 

One set to failure (or near) with Oly bar:

 

Flat-bench press

Squats (ATG)

DLs (back thickness, traps)

Overhead press 

Bicep curl (heavy curl bar)

Palm-out pullups (in lieu of rows for back-width)

 

The one set to failure keeps recovery short and I feel I maintain nearly as well as doing "5x5s". When I hit 20-reps to failure I increase weight on lifts. I've been an avid lifter since entering the military. 

 

This very similar to how I train - after 8 years of "bro logic", I finally switched away from a 4 day split to started on more frequent lower volume training cycles.  Full body 3 times a week is definitely the best bang for the buck if you're diet and recovery are in check.  Throw in some periodization and it's an excellent combo.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Redcarmoose 

The chest has always been my weakest area.

 

 

I have tried almost everything! I think I don't isolate my chest muscles and use my triceps to cheat a lot?

 

That running seems like fun and I bet gets a great pump going. A sadistic  plan of attack!

I used to have this same problem until I learned how to bench properly (as in using your pecs as the main drivers and not your front delts).

Check out this article: http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/training/benching-with-the-pecs.html

elitefts.com also has some excellent power lifting bench tips that can teach you how to correct/perfect your form.

Quote:

Originally Posted by RexAeterna 

doing heavy compound movements will strengthen the core more effectively, especially deadlifts and squats, lot of compound movements involves the core a lot. also doing planks is very good. i really don't do sit-ups or crunches much anymore. might do leg raises but that's about it. mostly deadlifts,squats and planks and even high intensity running is where my core gets most it's work from.

Direct core work still has it's place to complement deads and squats.  The key is to train it both isometrically and dynamically.

I stopped doing leg raises a while ago because it's basically an isometric hold for your mid section.  Weighted crunches where you contract and your abs, I find are the best, especially if you can do them properly using an excersize ball, because you get a full range of motion without compromising your lower back at all.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DefQon 

My pre-wordout meal use to be 2 can's of tuna or a large bowl of chips and large chicken and coke from Nandos. I don't put on weight but I hit the weights pretty hard if I've a lot of unhealthy crap beforehand the pre-workout.

You're better off having something like that in the several hours following your workout.

All anyone really needs as a pre-workout meal is around 30 grams of carbs and 15 grams of protien.  If it's a particularly long and grueling power workout you could sip on a glucose drink, and then post-workout and the several hours following it is when you'd want to pack down protein and carbs with minimal fat.

Read up on intermittent fasting and EOD eating.  It revolves around intense full body workouts, and is backed up by a ton of nutritional science.

started lifting a couple of weeks ago. The infinite amount of info was daunting but i informed myself as best as i could. I started a 4 day routine where i work out a muscle group a day doing compound exercises. I actually enjoy the workout but then read i should do a 3 day full body workout instead as it is more efficient for a noob in the process of losing weight... i guess i am just going to keep doing this and change it up when i have access to a gym with more weight and do that rippetoe babylover routine.

also i found some bsn dessert protein at a thrift store not expired for 5 bucks. was worth a try and i can down that instead of eating more chicken or tuna trying to hit my protein macro.

Quote:

Originally Posted by washedupred 

started lifting a couple of weeks ago. The infinite amount of info was daunting but i informed myself as best as i could. I started a 4 day routine where i work out a muscle group a day doing compound exercises. I actually enjoy the workout but then read i should do a 3 day full body workout instead as it is more efficient for a noob in the process of losing weight... i guess i am just going to keep doing this and change it up when i have access to a gym with more weight and do that rippetoe babylover routine.

 

also i found some bsn dessert protein at a thrift store not expired for 5 bucks. was worth a try and i can down that instead of eating more chicken or tuna trying to hit my protein macro.

Are you trying to lose weight or gain weight?

still losing weight. read that incorporating weight lifting could help along with a 500 calorie deficit and eating appropriate food. that routine im doing is probably not the best but all i have is a bench and dumbbells.
 

i could sell some of my music gear and buy a used Olympic set on ebay but idk yet. one hobby for another....