General Workout Routines and Questions

[ROAD_DOGG33J]

The answer to everything is barbell squats:
-getting old
-bone density
-core work
-legs
-glutes
-hamstrings
-quads
-lower back

 

[Bram Turismo]

Deadlifts are way more awesome and fun. Deadlifts is my favorite exercise, but I absolutely hate squats.

 

[ROAD_DOGG33J]

I love them and I hate them. Doing heavy squats can be very scary, but finishing them feels great.

 

[MarinaDiamandis]

Deadlifts are way more awesome and fun. Deadlifts is my favorite exercise, but I absolutely hate squats.

Deadlifts are my favourite too, overhead press is probably my least favourite.

I love them and I hate them. Doing heavy squats can be very scary, but finishing them feels great.

Yup, when you're ass to ground, way down in the 'hole' and just stand right up with the iron across your shoulders, great feeling. I really love the feeling of the barbell flexing and springing as you stand up, and stepping forward to rack after a challenging set 👍

 

[ROAD_DOGG33J]

I really love the feeling of the barbell flexing and springing as you stand up, and stepping forward to rack after a challenging set 👍

I don't think I'm going that heavy yet. Funny thing is back at the university gym, a couple of people asked me whether I was or wanted to play sports(football, rugby) because they saw me squatting two plates below parallel.

I hit my first PR in a while on deadlift today, 1x5x275. It was a bit sloppy so I will try the same next week and hopefully move up 5 pounds per week from there on. Don't want to get too greedy.

 

[Bram Turismo]

I really love the feeling of the barbell flexing and springing as you stand up, and stepping forward to rack after a challenging set 👍

Even more awesome is when you start deadlifting and you feel the bar flexing before the weight comes off the ground.

It's not the idea of the squat I don't like, it's just the exercise in itself. I don't feel comfortable when squatting. I always squat with a very wide stance. Because if I squat with a close stance I always have pain in the gracilis muscle, the most inner muscles of your thigh.

I have had an injury from squatting in these muscles in the past, and either that particular muscle doesn't seem to cope, or my stance is putting too much stress on this muscle. As I said, I don't seem to feel any pain with a wide stance, but I'm careful with building up the load as I don't want another injury which could keep me off my bike.

Which is why I turned my focus to deadlifting instead; they are alternatives to each other, and I just feel generally a lot better and more confident during deadlifts. Perhaps because I train on my own at home, so i have no spotter and a lot more could go wrong when your legs suddenly fail you during a squat.

 

[Der Alta]

It's been a while, and wanted to pop in here and post a few updates.

First, here is the last Deadlift I video'd

For those that are counting, that's 555lbs.

And, while not fully breaking parallel, this is my heaviest squat to date.


And to help the upper portion of my deadlift, I've been doing rack pulls.


Yep, strength is really good, stamina = crap.

Although...
This shows stamina.

 

[MarinaDiamandis]

Picking things up and putting them down again

Your form on that heavy squat was a bit messy, but the squat, dead and rackpull are PRs or near enough, right?

Nice to see a lifter really pushing it, a lot of guys spend too much time worrying about perfect form and as a result never push hard enough.

Out of interest, how tall are you and how much do you weigh?

 

[Der Alta]

In most of these vids, I'm about 205lbs, and 5'9" That heavy squat was all over the place, and recent ones, with 405lbs have been much cleaner.

and yes, those vids are PRs'.

 

[Omnis]

I think you have too much back in your deadlifts. That's an impressive amount of weight you can move though. Drop your nuts on the bar and drive your hips more.

 

[MarinaDiamandis]

In most of these vids, I'm about 205lbs, and 5'9" That heavy squat was all over the place, and recent ones, with 405lbs have been much cleaner.

and yes, those vids are PRs'.

That's interesting, we're pretty much the same height and weight (since the last time I weighed myself anyway)!

I agree with Omnis, deadlift needs moar hipdrive, but on a PR lift it's excusable.

 

[ROAD_DOGG33J]

I agree with Omnis, deadlift needs moar hipdrive, but on a PR lift it's excusable.

I don't know about that. There was no attempt to set the back, just started off rounded. The same thing in the 15 rep set. I think fixing that should improve progress. Great work otherwise.

Rack-pulls I typically hear about being done below the knee, but I guess if it works it works.

 

[Der Alta]

Yep, form is off, but I'm an Experienced Bad Form Lifter.

I've hit a bit of a wall, and as such, I've been experimenting with Sumo Deads.

 

[MarinaDiamandis]

DA, I guess you've already tried de-loading 10-20% and building back up to max?

 

[ROAD_DOGG33J]

Yep, form is off, but I'm an Experienced Bad Form Lifter.

I've hit a bit of a wall, and as such, I've been experimenting with Sumo Deads.

I wish I could deadlift with form like that. I think the lack of tightness is costing you with unnecessary extra effort, especially in the squat. Have you ever tried to keep your lower back flat?


If you want to squat more you could look into the low-bar squat. You have the basic form down(minus the rounded back), but the bar sits lower. Don't know if it will make much of a difference since they style is similar, but it uses the glutes and hamstrings more. It could carryover a bit into the deadlift.

 

[Pako]

Nice DA! Good to see you are still growing even if you have hit some walls. Muscle confusion man!

Speaking of confusion, I was telling a buddy of mine about a leg workout I did this week. Officially, I have been back in the gym 7 weeks of hard training since I took the year of 2011 off.

Anyhow, here's how our leg routine measured out:


Did pukers on Wednesday for legs. On the leg press, in one setting did strip sets.

Individual Sets (in lbs)
265 x 30
465 x 30
665 x 30
865 x 30
1045 x 30
1225 x 25
1405 x 20
1585 x 15

Finished off with a strip set, all 80 reps, one sitting.

865 x 20
665 x 20
465 x 20
265 x 20

As far as hip sled technique, we kept a moderately narrow stance with our heals just at the bottom of the foot plate. This gave maximum pressure to the quads which is what our goal was.

After that, we did a different leg press machine for some deep seated squats then finished off with some leg extensions.

Good times, I love being back.

Yup, when you're ass to ground, way down in the 'hole'.......

We call that a "starfish kiss".

 

[MarinaDiamandis]

We call that a "starfish kiss".

Haha, I like that a lot!

I might tell the guy doing bicep curls in the squat rack that he has to vacate because I need to do my starfish kisses! That'll get him!

 

[Pako]

Haha, I like that a lot!

I might tell the guy doing bicep curls in the squat rack that he has to vacate because I need to do my starfish kisses! That'll get him!

Perfect! Tell him while he's in the middle of his set and watch him crumble to the floor with the weakness of laughter, then yell at him for stopping his set. 👍

 

[Villain]

Haha, I like that a lot!

I might tell the guy doing bicep curls in the squat rack that he has to vacate because I need to do my starfish kisses! That'll get him!

Just hope he doesn't offer to kiss your starfish for you.

On-Topic - I've been unable to train regularly since summer and even then I wasn't going about it intelligently. I have a tracker thread on another forum but I thought I'd show you guys what I'm up to.

Mon/Wed/Fri

• Alternate A and B each session
• Use same weight for each set
• Increase Squats/Deadlifts by 10lbs each session. Rows, Bench, Overhead Press by 5lbs. Chin-ups and dips get 6lbs of assist removed.

Workout A

• Squat 5x5
• Bench Press 5x5
• Barbell Row 5x5
• Leg Curls/Extentions 3x8
• One Leg Bosu Crunch/Press 3x16
• Burpee 3x10

Workout B

• Squat 5x5
• Overhead Press 5x5
• Deadlift 2x5
• Assisted Dips/Chipups 3x8
• Plank 3x45sec

I've been at this since the winter term ended (tomorrow cumulates the third week).

 

[MarinaDiamandis]

Is the forum Stronglifts5x5 by any chance? Just kidding. Looks good, 5x5 and the 'Big 3' is a good base to work from by anyones standards. Have you been training long? Height and weight? Oh, and age, home address, shoe size, and bank details?

 

[Omnis]

Yep, form is off, but I'm an Experienced Bad Form Lifter.

I've hit a bit of a wall, and as such, I've been experimenting with Sumo Deads.

Looks like your deads are part Romanian. I think you've probably got some weakness on the upper part of the lift because you've finished driving your legs before you get there.

 

[Pako]

Had back today.

We Setup two stations for so super sets on shoulder shrugs to hit the traps.

Station one: Squat Rack with Barbell.
Station two: 110lb dumbbells.

Station one (sets of 20 and in lbs):
135x20, followed by station two.
225x20, followed by station two.
315x20, followed by station two.
405x20, followed by station two.
495x20, followed by station two.
580x15, these were more or less just twitches. Range was only about 35%.
495x20
315x30 (20 slow, 10 faster to finish it off)

Station two (sets of 21 total reps, with a 2 second hold on the every third rep, "1-2-3 hoooold, 2-2-3 hooooold, 3-2-3 hooooold, 4-2-3 hoooold, etc)

Next on to one arm bent over dumbbell rows.
100x10 per arm
100x10 per arm
110x10 per arm

Next on to Hammer Strength Overhead Pull downs.
180x10
270x10
360x10

Finished off with close grip low cable rows.
220x10
260x10

And that concluded the back workout for today. We had 4 guys in our group including myself today and got this workout done in 50 minutes. We were cookin!

 

[Villain]

Is the forum Stronglifts5x5 by any chance? Just kidding. Looks good, 5x5 and the 'Big 3' is a good base to work from by anyones standards. Have you been training long? Height and weight? Oh, and age, home address, shoe size, and bank details?

I just like the idea of 5x5's instead of 3x8's at this stage of my training. I'm three weeks into my training. 6'1 208lbs.

 

[Pako]

6'1 and 208lbs? Nice! So how hard are you pushing with your 5x5, and do you count warmup sets prior?

I would love to get down to about 215-225 for my 5'11" frame. Working on it.

 

[Villain]

Well I'm only 3 weeks in so I'm really focusing on form and flexibility before it gets too heavy.

Here are the weights I used for the last workout of the respective exercises:
Squat - 175
Bench - 150
Deadlift - 165 (it was easy, I'm going to increase the load by at least 15-20lbs next time)
Overhead - 80
Bent-Over Row - 100

So those are weights I did for five sets of five. I don't know my 1RM. I'm doing the Chin-ups and Dips with 58lbs of assist (next time I go in it will be 52lbs). The leg curls/extensions are just bonus motions that I only do if I have energy left in my legs. Last time I did them was 80lbs both ways.

Oh and the forum I'm tracking my progress on is a sport-centered forum called virtualsportsdaily.com. It's kind of a madhouse but I like it. Crass, but surprisingly smart (you have to know your stuff in the sports debates or you will get called out and berated mercilessly). One needs a healthy sense of humor and some thick skin to get along with the posters there.

 

[Pako]

Right on! Are you new to lifting or is this and old familiar hat that you are wearing? It took me about 3 weeks before I started training hard again, and at the top of the 7th week of training hard, 10 weeks total, I am not starting to feel like I can move some weight again.

What is amazing to me is the muscle memory of the lifts. From hooking up different muscle groups and the mechanical movements that come naturally now even though I took so much time off. It's like riding a bike really.

I feel that I am starting to lift pretty consistently now where I know where my limits are again. I figure it's good timing to start a supplement stack to increase my protein intake and to help give my muscles fuel for "one more rep" or "one more set", etc.

 

[Villain]

Well I was an athlete all my life and up untill I was 16, then I got sick and wasn't able to play anymore. I always hated working out. After high school I gained a bunch of weight (got up to about 245-250) and then I lost it by changing my eating habits, hiking, etc. I started to finally enjoy the gym about a year and a half ago but then I also got back into school. So I have been working full-time and being a student full-time and therefore having availability to train for no time. I'd basically go into the gym once or twice a week and hit every muscle group until my whole body hurt and I'd make no gains at all. It was kinda like preventative maintenance.

Now that my school schedule has opened up (I'm only taking one class for one day a week), I actually have time to commit to a workout schedule. I looked around online and had suggestions from people to try stronglifts and/or rippetoes. I'm figuring to just keep it simple for now and slowly build a muscle base as I increase my form and flexibility (flexibility is one of my biggest issues).

In a few weeks my program will probably end and I'm hoping that I'll be fit enough to train along with some of the trainers here (I work at a tennis/fitness club) and soak up their knowledge. We're getting some new equipment soon (including brand new power racks with lifting platforms) so I figure to keep on with the deadlifts and squats while adding power cleans.

 

[Pako]

That's quite a journey but sounds like you are doing things right! You mentioned time and schedules...., the four of us that lift together do it on our lunch breaks in the middle of the day. It's imperative that we get in, lift, and get out. We are moving mass amounts of weight, getting full workouts in, and we are getting it done in under an hour. Granted, we are going in 5 days a week with a 6 workout rotation, so we are just hitting major muscle groups once a week, but the results are great!

Something to think about. I remember the full body, two-three hour workouts.... Them days are gone and I will never go back. I get more out of the first hour of "intense" lifting then I ever got spending a lot of time going from lift to lift.

I would also like to add in cleans and deads off the floor at some point. We'll do partial or Romanian deads, but we are also getting ridiculously heavy and getting reps out of it, so I guess it's getting the job done. It's not like any of us are training for power lifting comps, we just want to build muscle mass.

 

[Villain]

Yeah that's good that you only go for an hour. I try to keep my sessions that quick. Anywhere past an hour starts going into diminishing returns and then that cortisol starts flowing and you end up tiring yourself out for no good reason.

 

[Villain]

Some idiot kid wanted to give squats a try today. I guess he thought he didn't need to get any advice from the trainers (who he talks to all the time) before loading up 205lbs. I was in the power rack right next to him and I almost lost it when that weight hit the deck. Nobody got hurt, thank goodness, but that was of the stupidest things I've ever seen happen in the gym in my entire life. The bar rolled off his shoulders and crashed straight down to the floor.