General Workout Routines and Questions

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No, never, I've always had a pretty well working back, its just dead lifts that makes my back go crazy. Maybe its just too much weight, it starts to hurt at 300 (8 reps), 270 is still fine but want to keep my reps at 8-10 not 15+.

But barbell bend-overs, hack squats, and shrugs seem to replace dead lifts just fine, I still miss it though because it was very time-efficient.
 
I would agree on the partials and making sure form is good. I forget sometimes about the small stuff, but do you wear a lifting belt? Do you have time to do plenty of warmups?

On partials, a typical lift for me would be:

The Bar for 10-15 reps.
95 for 10-15
135 for 10-15
225 for 10-15
315 for 10
405 for 10
495 for 5-8 reps

As you can see I am doing plenty of warmups before attempting heavier weight. I also will do partials after shrugs so I am generally warm before I attempt them.

If 300 lbs is your top weight, maybe your lift would look something like this:

Bar x 10-15
95 x 10-15
135 x 10-15
185 x 10 - 15
205 x 10
225 x 10
275 x 5-8 reps

Gradually work your way up keeping very strict form. It's common for the back to tighten up, but what you don't want is any sharp pains, or sciatic nerve pain down the back of the leg. If that happens, stop immediately and maybe have a chiropractor straighten you out. Advil and ice packs will also work wonders in those minor situations.
 
Speaking of back day, my pull ups are improving. Up to 3 sets of 15 now. This is huge for me, by the way. It was a great preload to narrow grip pull downs and seated narrow grip rows.

Nice. 👍

I'm actually looking to improve on pull ups myself. I'm not good at the overhand/wide grip pull ups and was hoping you could gice me some advice on how I can get better at them? I know the obvious would be to keep doing them, the more and more I do, the better I get - but at the minute I can barely manage one or two.

Unlike the inner grip, where I can manage 3 sets of 8. What other excercises could I do for my back, to help me get better?

Thanks.
 
I have a detailed log on the other forum I visit, but here's a glimpse at what I've got going on:

So I started up in mid-February with a new regimen (school and a knee injury derailed me in August), starting with just the bar (45lbs):

3x/week, A/B Workouts rotated.

First four weeks:

Workout A
Squat 5 x 10
Bench Press 5 x 10
Assisted ChinUps 5 x 10

Workout B
Squat 5 x 10
Standing Press 5 x10
Romanian Dead 5 x 10

Saw this through fairly well. Started with just the bar on everything and never missed a rep. 5lb increases for uppers (besides Standing Press - very weak shoulders), 10lbs for lowers. Obviously that volume couldn't be sustained for very long so I've since scaled it back into a compromise where I do "5x5+" - for the work sets I do four sets of 5 and a fifth set of 5 or more. If i can only do 5 on the fifth set, that's fine but I like to go longer if there are extra reps in the tank. I do not go to failure.

What my workouts look like now:

Workout A
Squat 5x5+
Bench 5x5+
Trap-Bar Deadlift 5x5+
Assisted Chins 5x10
Extras*

Workout B
Squat 5x5+
Press 5x5+
Straight-Bar (conventional) Deadlift 5x5+
Rack Barbell Row 5x5+
Extras*

Extras are assistance moves that I only do if I still have energy after the main lifts. I try to superset them and I shoot for high-reps/low-weight exercises.

Single-Arm Bench/Single-Arm Row (B days)
Modified Burpee/Barbell Curls (A and/or B)
Cable Fly/Cable Row (A days)
Standing Press/RDL (A days)

==============
So I'm just over a month into all of this so here's a glance at the progress I've made. Every lift began at 45lbs 5x10. This is what I did for the most recent work sets of all of my lifts:

Squat: 3 x 5 x 205
Bench: 4 x 5 x 130, 10 x 130
Press: 4 x 5 x 65, 8 x 65
Straight-Bar Deadlift: 4 x 5 x 185, 8 x 185
Trap-Bar Deadlift: 5 x 5 x 205
Barbell Row: 4 x 5 x 120, 8 x 120
Assisted Chins: 3 x 10 x 90lbs of assistance
 
Have you tried dropping the weight on DL or doing partials?
Yeah, dropped the weight by ~30% once, no back pain but it was way too easy and I could do too many reps, that way I'd only be improving my endurance.
I'm going to try partial DL next time, see if things improve. 👍

So, today is biceps and forearm day, my favorite day of the week! :dopey:

Preacher curls with curl bar: 5 sets of 10, 9 and 8 reps 97 lbs

Biceps curls with reverse grip, curl bar: 5 sets of 10 reps 72 lbs

Forearm-curls sitting, straight bar: 5 sets of 8 reps 80lbs

Forearm curls, reverse grip, straight bar: 5 sets of 12-10 reps, 66 lbs

And to finish biceps-forearm day some 44 lbs 20-15 reps dumbbell concentration curls.
 
@Yukon,

A couple things to help with pullups. Yes the overhand wide grip is probably the hardest as it really isolates the lats and your biceps aren't much help. Pretty much any back exercise will help strengthen this, but Wide Grip Pull Downs, Bent over rows, and wide seated rows will probably help the most. Also, if you get your buddy to put BF3 down, have him spot you on pull ups. With your legs bent, and the bottom of your feet facing back, have your spotter push on the bottom of your feet to swing your body forward. This will allow you to raise your chest and pull up to your pecks instead of pull straight up. Also, gripping with your thumb behind the bar will help you isolate your back for some odd reason. Don't ask why, but with your thumb wrapped around the bar, you will more easily incorporate your bicep. The previous exercises mentioned are nice because you can control how much weight you use, but don't be afraid to increase the weight as you get stronger. It will only help your pull up.

@Villain,

Nice gains! Keep at it and keep pushing hard. When you plateau, don't be discouraged, just know it's time to change things up to keep muscle memory fresh. 👍
 
Today I did..
1 lap of track and 50 squats
1 lap and 50 sit-ups
1 lap and 50 lunges
1 lap and 5 runs up and down the bleachers.

And after this, a 5 mile walk.

Result? I'm limping my right foot. :irked:
 
This was Luminis' friend. :lol:
Who, suprisingly, got off his butt today :lol:

Anyways, worked my shoulders today and it feels like I overdid it a bit. Went neck pressing, 10x 155lbs, 5x 165lbs, 9x 155lbs, 9x 155lbs, 9x 155lbs, 12x 110lbs.

You know, I've got a seriously hard time to figure out the names for some of the exercises I did :lol: I know that one where you, well, shrug your shoulders are called shrugs (did five sets of 12 with 155lbs per arm), but there's an exercise that consists of close-gripping (is that a word?) a weight with both arms in front of your body until it reches the height of your chest (or thereabouts). Seems to work well for my traps and shoulders :lol: Did only two sets of twelve of that, though, with 44lbs.

Also lifting a straight bar dumbbell over my head from around the waist's height, three sets of ten with 75lbs. Also some simple flies with 16.5 lbs per arm (extended arm), also only two sets of twelve.

As you might guess, I was pretty much spent after doing the neck presses... But I at least managed 10lbs more than I did last week. Yay.

Sorry for the lack of knowledge, but I don't even know what some of these exercises would be called in German, much less in English. It's all a bit "monkey see, monkey do, monkey keeps doing what works for him" with me.
 
@Yukon,

Sorry about the mix up. I thought everyone has a buddy that plays too much BF3. :lol:

@Luminis,

Sounds like a nice shoulder day. 👍 The lift you were describing I just call, Front Shoulder or Front Delt (anterior deltoid) Lift. Lots of differnet ways to do this lift. Single handed with dumbbells, two handed with a bar bell, cables, etc.

There's some crazy names out there, but don't worry about they called, just do them right! :) There are several sites that break up different body part lifts and give videos and proper names. If you want to change things up a bit, check out one of these sites and see some different shoulder lifts, for examples. Bodybuilding.com is a popular one. Pretty good archive of lifts.

@Leonidae@MFT,
That's a whole lotta laps! 👍

Had a GREAT leg day today. I am pretty much wasted and will no doubt sleep very well tonight.

Smith Squats:
135x20
185x12
225x10
315x10
405x8
495x6

Leg Press:
395x20 (half reps) + 10 Full reps
395x20 (half reps) + 10 Full reps
395x20 (half reps) + 10 Full reps

Leg Extensions:
265x20
265x15
225x20
190x20

That was at noon today. Later in the day, getting out of my chair at work, I almost hit the ground! :lol: I call that a perfect leg day! :D
 
Thanks, Pako, will check the site out 👍 Also, congrats on 15,000 posts :cheers:

Your leg day looks downright scary though :scared: Personally, I just add some leg work to other days - same with my abs, actually. Like, say, 45 minutes of biceps workout and 15 minutes of legs. I do these shorter workouts three times a week as opposed to once a weak, though. Total time per week is quite similar, that way :lol:

Dunno whether that's the best idea, but that way, Ia t least do the stuff I dislike :lol:
 
@Leonidae@MFT,
That's a whole lotta laps! 👍

My right leg agrees. My left leg is like "huh, is that all?"

I think I might my right leg gets sore because either posture during walking or range of motion issue or because of my little crash way over ten years ago. Or maybe I don't do enough stretches.. But then my left leg would be hurting too. If this keeps going I'm going to go and get it checked.
 
Did some good work today.

Deadlifts:
135x5 warmup, then I took my shoes off and did 225x5 and 275x5 like it was nothing. On my warmup set the bar was already off the ground just from me trying to pull on the bar to squeeze down into starting position. Once I took my shoes off, I didn't have to do any work trying to stabilize my knees or keep my back in check. It all just worked naturally, and I was stable and solid as a rock.

Then I hit the machines and did leg extensions and curls at 135lbs each for 3x10. And they were good reps squeezing at the top and going slow on the way down. It's funny how shot my motor unit recruitment is. For the eccentric motion on reps 8-10 it was like an earthquake was hitting the gym since I was shaking so much while lowering the plates.

I almost tripped walking to the water fountain because I wasn't picking up my feet. I tried some stretches and pigeons to try to get myself in working order, but for every muscle I stretched, the opposing one cramped. Lol. Feels good though.

Went to get my blood pressure checked about an hour later. I was kind of nervous since I've been having a lot of pressure headaches and even a nosebleed last week. But, thank god, it's perfect-- dead center of the normal range-- so I'm pretty happy about that. I think I'm just ultra-stressed out from all this med school prep and these hard freaking classes.

Lifting heavy-ass weight is the healthiest thing you can do!

Edit for responses:

Michael: I would NOT be doing that many reps on the deadlift! That's probably your problem. Keep the reps low and do a few perfect lifts. All it takes is one try to hurt yourself. If you're too fatigued to do it properly, I would not recommend any further attempt until you've taken a minute or two to recover. I'd say 5 reps is a good maximum. I use bumper plates and an oly platform so I can just drop the weight when I've completed the lift. Don't let go of the bar, but drop the weight and go down with it so you don't recruit any back muscles and strain anything on the way down.

As far as back pain during the lift goes, the way I think of it is to think of your nuts as two huge super-magnets. You want to keep your back rigid, but not in a straight line. You want your body to be locked in a totally neutral position since you're using your hips and not your legs or back to lift the weight. If you stand behind the bar and try to drop your nuts on the bar, your back should naturally fall into place where it should be. Look at your nuts in the mirror, tuck your chin and pack your neck in rigid with the rest of the spine. No looking up or down-- keep the whole thing neutral and in a line. Try laying on the floor, fixing yourself into that linear alignment, and then roll over while maintaining that rigidity. You're going for that same feeling. The only thing left to do is keep rigid in that position while dipping your hips and driving your heels into the ground. Once the bar comes off the ground, you're going to want to drive your hips into the bar and smack your magnetospheres into it with as much force as you can manage. Pull the ground apart with your feet and pull the bar into the magnetic field until you're in the finished position. I've had low back soreness but never low back pain. You may be doing the lift with your legs first and doing good-mornings to finish it. If that happens to me I just drop the weight and start over. Once your hips are driven, you should be upright in the finished position.
 
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Today was biceps day for me. Here's how it went:

Preacher Curls (both arms, EZ barbell):
10x 65lbs
7x 110 lbs
7x 110 lbs
6x 110 lbs
10x 90 lbs

Preacher Curls (one arm, dumbbell):
7x 40 lbs
10x 40 lbs
7x 40 lbs

Hammer Curls (using the cable tower):
10x 45 lbs
7x 55 lbs
6x 65 lbs
7x 55 lbs
10x 45 lbs

Did a static contraction exercise after finishing each of these exercises. Dunno what to call it, but I just align my upper arms with my body, keep my elbows at a 90° angle and my forearms parallel to the ground, grip a 35 lbs barbell plate and hold it in place for about a minute. Just a bit of experimentation after one of our coaches mentioned static contraction exercises. Not sure what to think of it yet.

Being the lazy bum I am, I skipped my abs routine for today :lol:

Also did lats yesterday.

Narrow Grip Pulldown:
8x 190 lbs
8x 190 lbs
5x 200 lbs
7x 190 lbs
8x 175 lbs

Wide Grip Pulldowns:
10x 175 lbs
8x 190 lbs
7x 200 lbs
6x 210 lbs
8x 175 lbs

Wide Grip Pulldowns (tilted to incorporate the back a bit):
10x 175 lbs
10x 175 lbs
10x 175 lbs

And I did legs, too, yesterday.

Leg Press:
12x 400 lbs
10x 400 lbs
10x 400 lbs
10x 400 lbs
8x 400 lbs

Just one exercise of five sets. Not a lot, but I usually do that three times a week, as mentioned earlier in this thread. So, yeah, today concludes my week as tomorrow's my day off. I'll be enjoying a nice, hot bath tonight to relax my sore muscles - looking forward to it 👍

Also, what are you guys eating to get enougn protein in without too much calories? Aside from lots of fish, chicken and spinach, I've started to eat a mixture of low-fat curd cheese, oatmeal and skimmed milk, flavoured with the vanilla casein I purchased recently. A decent replacement for a meal, tastes okay and is cheap, to boot.
 
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^ I am liking those sets! Nice job man. Hopefully you will get good and sore. Break it down, build it up! :)

Be careful on those heavy hammer's that you don't incorporate too much shoulder. Keep up the good work.

You to Omnis! 👍
 
Thanks Pako 👍 Yup, I'm trying to isolate the biceps as much as possible. That's why I'm liking preacher curls so much :lol: Lots of people I'm seeing at the gym tend to swing their whole body around while doing standing biceps curls to lift dumbbels that are far too heavy, it seems :indiff: Can't be good.

I should write down my sets on a more regular basis, though. Makes it easier to keep track of how it's going. So expect me to spam this thread more often from now on :lol: Won't see good gains for a while, though, as I'm gonna start cutting from April 1st on... :(
 
Lots of people I'm seeing at the gym tend to swing their whole body around while doing standing biceps curls to lift dumbbels that are far too heavy, it seems :indiff: Can't be good.

Cheating with form isn't such a problem, as weight is weight (unless you are in competition, or the lift is dangerous with poor form, etc.).

The best thing to focus on is simply upping the weight and/or reps and making progress.

An interesting video (I might have posted it before, not sure):
LANGUAGE WARNING
 
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That's a great video, actually. I've got to admit that the guy's way beyond where I want to go with my body, but I still found it quite interesting. Especially the part about form. Everybody's been telling how important it is to make sure your exercise is done with perfect form... Well, dunno. It'd at least be closer to the nature of my personality ot just try and up the weight and reps as far as I can, even it means not doing the reps with perfect form.
 
MarinaDiamandis
Cheating with form isn't such a problem, as weight is weight (unless you are in competition, or the lift is dangerous with poor form, etc.).

The best thing to focus on is simply upping the weight and/or reps and making progress.

An interesting video (I might have posted it before, not sure):
LANGUAGE WARNING
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHsh2G-SPRU">YouTube Link</a>

Lol nice babyslayers video.
I have to totally disagree. Form is the most important thing. This guy has some of the best genetics in the world. He can do anything and grow. Just last year he did pull ups with 4 plates on him. It came to like almost 400lbs. It does not work that way for normal people. Amazing genetics is the same as steroid guys. They play by a different set of rules. If you push yourself super hard every time to the point where your form breaks I promise after a couple months you can say bye to your gains. You will burn yourself out. Once you hit a certain limit your muscles virtually stop working and your nervous system takes over. That drive to push more and more just for the sake of doing it. Power lifters vs bodybuilders is the best example. Bodybuilders all do higher reps and there muscles get bigger. Powerlifters just focus on a few reps that are real heavy and in tern grow less muscle. They work there nervous system more than taxing the actual muscles. My opinion is if you wanna hit a certain muscle do the form that will hit it properly at a high bodybuilding rep range. If you wanna lift heavy weight with explosive movment than do that separately. Don't combine them into one sloppy set, you're just not gonna be able to recover and could easily get injured.
 
Here is the issue I have with bad form. You can usually rep more weight by recruiting other muscle groups to aid in the lift. This can lead to actually taking weight away from the muscle group you are trying to grow. Further more, with heavier weight, you are going to be more prone to injury.

If I can get the same benefit from a 50lb. curl with perfect form that I can get from a 90lb. curl with not so perfect form, my body is better off in the long run with the low weight, isolated rep then the full body marlin fishing rep. I say this because it is less wear and tear on your structure and supporting ligaments. :)

That's my take on it anyways. As I get older, ligament health becomes more of a concern, and these are issues I wish someone would have pushed into my brain earlier. 👍
 
Cheating with form isn't such a problem, as weight is weight (unless you are in competition, or the lift is dangerous with poor form, etc.).
But then bicep curls can suddenly become a hip thrusting core-exercise, and a military press becomes a calf exercise, for example, and to the detriment of the target muscle group.

If you choose to train dynamically then, as long as it's safe, form isn't an issue. But then I wouldn't expect dynamics exercises to be using DBs (generally).
 
Thanks TB, completely forgot that he drops a few f-bombs. My apologies.

I have to totally disagree. Form is the most important thing.

Really? I'd argue that work done is the most important thing, whether that's low weight over high reps or vice versa. There is no way to cheat form in such a way that it makes a lift easy, as if a lift is easy you should increase the weight/reps.

This guy has some of the best genetics in the world. He can do anything and grow.

Which he states in his video. His results go far beyond just genetics though - he works hard. Most people in the world, if following the right plan, can grow and grow. Again, as the video states, the ones who claim they can't are often the ones who want to eat clean and not gain fat mass while bulking.

It does not work that way for normal people. Amazing genetics is the same as steroid guys. They play by a different set of rules.

Having good genetics or being on steroids still requires a lot of hard work to get big/strong. They play by exactly the same rules as anyone else, just that they can grow bigger, quicker. They still eat big, lift hard and sleep long. Neither are a magic pill.

If you push yourself super hard every time to the point where your form breaks I promise after a couple months you can say bye to your gains. You will burn yourself out. Once you hit a certain limit your muscles virtually stop working and your nervous system takes over.

Maybe if you were working out everyday, and not eating or sleeping right. I've never lost gains through anything but not working out, and I push myself very hard every workout. Your body will adapt to these things, just like it adapts to most things - but you still need to take care of its basic needs.

My opinion is if you wanna hit a certain muscle do the form that will hit it properly at a high bodybuilding rep range. If you wanna lift heavy weight with explosive movment than do that separately. Don't combine them into one sloppy set, you're just not gonna be able to recover and could easily get injured.

I agree with you, but it's not like you won't make big gains by doing heavy weight and high reps, even with isolation exercises, it's just that most people aren't conditioned to do that sort of thing. If we were all told to do heavy weight and high reps from the very first day that we lifted, that's what we would be good at because our bodies would adapt to it.

You wouldn't be lifting as much per rep as if you were pure powerlifter, or for as many reps per set as if you were pure bodybuilder, because doing both at once is a compromise, but you wouldn't be so far off.

On the subject of form, I feel I should clear up what I meant when I said that form isn't that important. From a safety point of view, form isn't that important for certain exercises, such as bicep curls, as there is little risk of injury unless you are being really silly - swinging a little on curls isn't going to do you much harm. Other exercises, such as bent-over rows, need strict form because without it they become dangerous.

From the point of view of efficiency/hitting muscles well, cheating form on an exercise that doesn't require strict form to be safe isn't much of an issue, unless there is a requirement to perform it textbook (competition, etc.). The extra weight/reps that cheating with form allows you to achieve will quickly be made up with the extra weight/reps you add to keep the exercise challenging.

In response to Exige, if someone is cheating to the point that they start to do a completely different exercise to what is intended, they need some help.
 
I've had a spotter for so long, I get forced reps all the time without having to break form. I suppose if you were going solo, you would have to break form in order to get that last rep. I would still argue, however, that keeping form and isolating, is better than going heavier and breaking form when lifting strict can be just as hard and taxing on the muscle as heavier weight while cheating the rep.

Edit: Just watched the video - I am not a form Nazi, but when I have offered form advise to people, during their set (when warranted), the general response is, "Oh wow, that's a lot harder to do!" It corresponds with what he was saying in the video, if it's hard, and you are pushing back, working harder, you will get gains. If you can get gains with lighter weight, if you can make it harder on yourself with lighter weight, isn't that a better scenario than going heavier at the cost of other group recruitment and/or injury? Something else with what he was saying in the video that I also agree with is that you will invest the time needed to figure out what works for you. I have discovered for me, and my lifting partner, with a stronger emphasis on form and technique, we are actually making more gains in strength and mass. If thrusting your hips forward, and dropping your legs to get that curl bar up helps you, great. For me, it hasn't done much good. I would rather dig in, lift it right, and pull until my skin rips.
 
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I've had a spotter for so long, I get forced reps all the time without having to break form. I suppose if you were going solo, you would have to break form in order to get that last rep. I would still argue, however, that keeping form and isolating, is better than going heavier and breaking form when lifting strict can be just as hard and taxing on the muscle as heavier weight while cheating the rep.

Again, I completely agree. If I need to cheat to finish a rep, i'll rack it, count it as a missed set, and be done.

I'm just playing devils advocate here, really we shouldn't be judging other gym-goers just because they are cheating form, or whatever. As long as they're not being a 🤬, who cares? Their routine is their routine.
 
Again, I completely agree. If I need to cheat to finish a rep, i'll rack it, count it as a missed set, and be done.

I'm just playing devils advocate here, really we shouldn't be judging other gym-goers just because they are cheating form, or whatever. As long as they're not being a 🤬, who cares? Their routine is their routine.

Yes, exactly. To each their own. Sometimes if it's really really bad and it's clear they are going to hurt themselves or someone around them I might mention something to them, otherwise, my advise only comes when asked of me.

I will say in my younger days, I had much the same attitude as the guy in the video. With chronic elbow pain, pain in the right brachialis and a detached left bicep that needed reattached, I wish I started lifting smarter sooner. I'm still making gains and lifting harder than ever, but also lifting smarter than ever. I hope to be doing this for many years to come. ;)
 
Pako
Yes, exactly. To each their own. Sometimes if it's really really bad and it's clear they are going to hurt themselves or someone around them I might mention something to them, otherwise, my advise only comes when asked of me.

I will say in my younger days, I had much the same attitude as the guy in the video. With chronic elbow pain, pain in the right brachialis and a detached left bicep that needed reattached, I wish I started lifting smarter sooner. I'm still making gains and lifting harder than ever, but also lifting smarter than ever. I hope to be doing this for many years to come. ;)

Totally with this. Biggest mistake I ever did in my entire life was go to gym and train like babyslayer as hard as I could. I hear everyone say push it, get intense, one more rep, etc and yes it's important to actually try but always train smart, not hard. Most things in life the harder you work the better your results will be. In bodybuilding this does not apply because you are limited by your genetics. This isn't a commercial here where I'm trying to sell you anything, it is real life. Honestly genetics are gonna play 70% in what you do. I would give anything to train as hard and as long as babyslayer can no problem, but I can't. I'm forced to slow it down, takes weeks off, be very careful with how many days between workouts. I can only put in that extra 30% of training and eating and no more. If I focused on form early on my nervous system would have an amazing muscle mind connection by now where I could get a little crazier and still feel it. People need to forget the magazines and step back into reality. Training at a gym is only to replicate real life movements in order to build muscle. A dead lift is designed to be an exact form in order to build muscle and strengthen your nervous system so when you do go to lift something heavy in everyday life your spine doesn't rip out. Doing horrible form is just setting you up to get hurt faster. You push to the limits of form failure that's when you know your muscles have given up. Any more where you are swinging around etc means the muscles you were trying to hit are done and your body has now switched to secondary muscles in order to move the weight. A much smarter way if you feel like pushing it here and there is drop sets. Do 40lbs dumbbell curls with perfect form and when you can't do any more drop them and grab the 30's to knock out some more reps. Keeping your body tight the entire time and focusing hard on the actual bicep moving the weight is gonna be way more intense and 10x more effective.
 
Meh, I'll just stick with proper form for the time being. I agree with Pako on the aches, because improper form is probalby what caused my elbow issues - don't wanna make that worse or get somethign similar.

Anyways, biceps day today. Doing biceps twice a week annoys the hell out of me, but until my biceps catches up to the triceps, it's gonna stay that way. Anyways:

Preacher Curls:
9x 110 lbs
9x 110 lbs
9x 110 lbs
7x 110 lbs
10x 90 lbs

Preacher Curls (reverse grip, palms downward):
12x 65 lbs
10x 75 lbs
8x 90 lbs

Hammer Curls (cable tower):
10x 55 lbs
10x 55 lbs
10x 55 lbs
8x 55 lbs
10x 45 lbs

Did the static contraction exercises I described last time again, 60 minutes with 35 lbs barbell plate after each exercise.

Didn't skip the bas today, though. Did 150 straight crunches. Also went running for 15 minutes to help with the cutting a bit.
 
Yes, exactly. To each their own. Sometimes if it's really really bad and it's clear they are going to hurt themselves or someone around them I might mention something to them, otherwise, my advise only comes when asked of me.

I will say in my younger days, I had much the same attitude as the guy in the video. With chronic elbow pain, pain in the right brachialis and a detached left bicep that needed reattached, I wish I started lifting smarter sooner. I'm still making gains and lifting harder than ever, but also lifting smarter than ever. I hope to be doing this for many years to come. ;)
I also agree with Pako. Form is very important and most people that use proper form, cant lift as much as when they are just throwing the weight around. Form is mainly important to prevent injury. Especially since I am climbing up toward 36 years old. When you are young its so much easier to throw the weight around with little to no consequences. However, years and years of bad form will usually catch up to you over time. But to each his own, I just support good form mainly to prevent injury. Just be careful.

I havent posted my weight in the last 2 weeks but I put on another 2 lbs since my last post. Now up to 184 lbs aiming to get back to 190 lbs. I am happy with earning about a pound per week while maintaining my visible abs. So I will continue to stick with 3500 calories and 240 protein per day. I have been doing a lot better sticking with my diet on the weekends and that has helped a lot! Usually my diet goes south quick on the weekends but I am doing a lot better with it.
 
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