General Workout Routines and Questions

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Sorry for the double post but this really wasn't seen in the running thread but here's my track conditioning workouts starting Monday and they'll get harder in February and even harder as the season begins in march. I currently run now but only easy runs (7:00 mile pace and about 4-7 miles). If you want train for distance running or just build your stamina you can follow this
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Today was a good day!

My orthopaedist handed me a new pair of inlays for my shoes. They change my posture and, thus, the alignment of my joints ever so slightly. He told me to try them at the gym and lo and behold, with those things, I was able to squat properly without hurting myself for the very first time! Granted, my performance was utterly poor; the best I managed was a set of six reps with 120 lbs, but I'll get stronger eventually and not being in pain after five sets of deep, unassisted squats is a pretty big achievement for me 👍
 
I finally found a protein powder I actually enjoy.

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This is on sale at Costco right now. It tastes exactly like Swiss Miss powder. You don't get that bitter taste of raw whey at the end. I'm gonna try making mochas with it in my morning coffee.

Did my pause squats late today. 135x8, 155x8, 185x6, 185x3. Just slowly went down and then hung out in the hole for a 1- or 2-count before coming back up. It was more of a breathing exercise lol. Certainly works the cardiovascular and respiratory system. It's great to train a stable position in the hole though. I was able to fix positioning to optimize tibial rotation and prevent lateral knee pain. You wouldn't believe the effect "screwing in" your heels can have. I was able to create much more torque at the hip with my feet literally twisting against my shoes.

There was a bro with his bro friends waiting to hop in the rack next. Once I was done he was like, "You have good form." Uhh, thanks. lol. Then he went and did some crazy elbows-back, close-grip, sumo-stance low bar squats with light weight. I didn't know what to say. Didn't really look like westside technique, especially with the light weight. It was just weird. I let him do his thing and finished my workout.
 
I'm having troubles increasing the weight on my front squats, any suggestions?
I always do them after dead lifting three stints 440lbs. My front squats, even though they feel very good and I go as low as I can with my butt almost touching the floor, are pathetically weak compared to my other lifts since I can only do 4 stints of 7 repetitions with 170lbs. I cannot make any improvements and I lift as hard as possible. :(
Today I just went for it and tried 90kg but I could only do three reps, then my knees started to point inwards.


But I'm happy to report that I can now shoulder-press 198lbs / 90kg with perfect form, no leg drive, no lean, standing unsupported. 5 more kilograms and I can shoulder press my own body weight. :dopey:
 
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Somebody please kill me.

Anyway, I can't comment on a front squat unless I see a video. Do you have long femurs? It's natural to have a weak front squat if you're not quad-dominant. The posterior chain is usually much, much stronger, making the hip-hinge the strongest movement.

Make sure you're externally rotating your hips so you get as much glute activation as possible. This will help you when you get out of the hole where most people hit that speed bump on the way up.

What kind of shoes do you wear for the lift? flats? oly shoes?

Also, a day or two before you squat, go slam out some "Bad Girls" on the hip abductor machine.
thigh-abductor-2.gif

I found this helped a whole lot with knee stability for me while coming out of the hole. I was able to keep my hips open and stable and my legs shaked a lot less. You'll probably be able to use as much weight as the machine has available. Go heavy and go SLOW while returning your knees to the midline. Work that hip stability.
 
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So I got back in the gym on Monday and Tuesday. Did squats, deads, and abs. Then walked 2 miles for 30 minutes on an incline. My lower half is still feeling like complete ass.

Then on tuesday I benched, pulled vertical and horizontal planes for back, and then finished with some chest fly machine and also rear delts on the same machine.

I haven't felt this sore since I started. This is ridiculous. Does anyone else find that the chest fly tears you up so much? I feel it in my chest next to my armpits. So sore.
 
Omnis
Does anyone else find that the chest fly tears you up so much? I feel it in my chest next to my armpits. So sore.
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Yeah the chest fly and bench press tear me up completely. Pain starts from obliques, move up under armpits, further up to deltoids and across to the pecs.

Also my trapezius (trapezi?) have gotten really large.. and I haven't done anything that targets them specifically... oh well, a plus I guess.
 
I weighed myself just for laughs today and found out I've lost 10lbs since Christmas. This while still being saturated on creatine 👍

Strength is going up, and bodyweight is going down. Needless to say I felt like a king today and went on a 2-hour brisk walk.
 
I'm signing up for the school gym. They have a $75 signup fee and a $35 monthly fee.

I stopped running/working out since I moved, but that's going to change.

Mainly, I plan on hitting the weights hard. Cardio is good, but I get sick of that, so I'm just going to incorporate a small amount of that into my plan.

Seriously, I'm feeling damn motivated. I'll be hitting that gym daily since it's on campus. Another thing, I've been eating much healthier (apart from the two times I bought cookies).

Lots of healthy nuts, spinach, less soda-more water, just less calorie intake since I moved.
 
Omnis
I haven't felt this sore since I started. This is ridiculous. Does anyone else find that the chest fly tears you up so much? I feel it in my chest next to my armpits. So sore.
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Chest flyes has been a fixed exercise in my chest workout day for many years now, I never skip them. Currently I'm doing them with 55lbs dumbbells (long arms) 8 reps 4 stints and they still make my chest feel sore on the next day. But if you think thats bad try flyes with drop sets. Which means start with the regular weight and make your usual reps till the chest is exhausted - then drop the weights and immediately grab a new set of dumbbells weighing 15% less and lift them till exhaustion. Repeat the process one more time with again 15-20% lighter weights. Do 4 Sets.
If regular flyes make you sore those will kill the living crap out of you, those are definitely only for those who love pain and suffering. :P ;)

I love drop sets and forced reps, I use them wherever I can.
 
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Today I just realized on my 2nd strength assessment that I am now weak. Its crazy how your physical peak strength can fall after a year.

Workouts I did about a year & 1/2 ago were a struggle for me. On top of that, it's my first time truly lifting since I broke my hand last summer.

I guess I just have to start from scratch, but I'm still disappointed in my current abilities. I will say, I was never a person for crazy upper body strength. I tried getting assessments of my bench strength, dumbell/barbell curl strength, shoulder strength.

I found myself very twitchy and unstable when benching.

Ugh, it felt bad walking out of there, but I guess I have to just soldier on.

Did a 2-3 mile walk to make up for the odd performance..
 
If you find yourself twitchy and trembling during bench presses there are four things you can do which might do the trick:

Improve your shoulder presses. If you find yourself twitchy and unable to balance the weight your shoulders might be the weak link while your chest could handle the load. The shoulders stabilize your arms and thus the weight while your chest moves it. (mostly your chest)
Do more dumbbell shoulder presses and Arnold presses and see if your bench presses improve. Just make sure to have at least 2 days of rest for your shoulders between your bench presses and shoulder presses.

The next thing you can do is doing those bench presses in a slight decline, this helps with stabilization because it moves the weight your shoulders have to push on a flat bench to your chest. Decline bench presses almost isolate the chest, the shoulders have very little to do just your chest and your triceps.

Strengthen your neck. Which means your upper and middle trapezius. Believe it or not, your upper back is working hard to stabilize your upper body during heavy bench presses, it builds the foundation for your chest and shoulders and holds them tightly in place so they can move correctly. If your foundation is weak, you will tremble and twitch under heavy loads.

And last but not least, when benching try to pull your shoulders down and back, that way you'll be more solid when pressing the weights. Keep your upper back tight and tense. That also makes your chest a little stronger and you'll be able to handle heavier weights.

Really, work on your shoulders and your upper back and you'll see, if you tighten your back muscles and keep them tense during your lift and your shoulders are strong enough to balance the weight you'll be able to move ridiculously heavy weights while staying rock solid. Your arms will push the weight calmly and steadily like a pair of hydraulic cylinders.
 
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Michael88
Improve your shoulder presses. If you find yourself twitchy and unable to balance the weight your shoulders might be the weak link while your chest could handle the load. The shoulders stabilize your arms and thus the weight while your chest moves it. (mostly your chest)
Do more dumbbell shoulder presses and Arnold presses and see if your bench presses improve. Just make sure to have at least 2 days of rest for your shoulders between your bench presses and shoulder presses.
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Nice. I can incorporate shoulder presses into my trap routine. Really, all I've been doing is shrugs. So, I'll start doing shoulder presses alongside shrugs and maybe something else to really get myself stable.

Michael88
Strengthen your neck. Which means your upper and middle trapezius. Believe it or not, your upper back is working hard to stabilize your upper body during heavy bench presses, it builds the foundation for your chest and shoulders and holds them tightly in place so they can move correctly. If your foundation is weak, you will tremble and twitch under heavy loads.
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Michael88
Really, work on your shoulders and your upper back and you'll see, if you tighten your back muscles and keep them tense during your lift and your shoulders are strong enough to balance the weight you'll be able to move ridiculously heavy weights while staying rock solid. Your arms will push the weight calmly and steadily like a pair of hydraulic cylinders.
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All of this is really good advice. I'll definitely start working on my shoulders and the upper foundation of my back.

I don't know if I feel comfortable squatting the amounts that I can do without a spotter so what I ended up doing for a somewhat calf exercise was walking on the treadmill at an incline. I had the treadmill at 10% which I'm not sure how useful that is, but it felt like I was walking up the hills in SF.
 
phillkillv2
Like I said in the post above, I mainly do shrugs. There are others, but I'm not too experienced with upper back and trap exercises.
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Team THRT Drift
What kind of workout targets the upper back and trapezius?
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For middle traps you can do reverse flyes and bent over rows, and besides shrugs you can do overhead shrugs. They are very efficient. Also don't forget to use different grip widths when doing regular shrugs to target everything. Try some really close grip shrugs, with your hands almost touching. You'll be surprised.
Also one of the best exercises for upper back is dead lifting with dumbbells. Your upper back will have to pull and stabilize the entire deadlift weight during the early stages of the lift before your lower back takes over. I always get a sore upper back when doing heavy dumbbell dead lifts.

Alternatively you can do incline shrugs, lie on your belly on an incline bench, grab some dumbbells and do shrugs with your upper back which targets the middle and upper traps.

I don't know if I feel comfortable squatting the amounts that I can do without a spotter so what I ended up doing for a somewhat calf exercise was walking on the treadmill at an incline. I had the treadmill at 10% which I'm not sure how useful that is, but it felt like I was walking up the hills in SF.
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I work out at home and do not have a spotter, what I do is front squats which are completely save to do without any help. You basically power clean that bar and rest it onto your shoulders, elbows high and slightly flared out. Then you squat as low as you can, I do it beyond 90° leg angle.
First you'll notice you can do much less weight that way compared to regular squats but boy, it targets the thighs and especially the core like crazy. Its one of the best core workouts there is. Its a great way to improve your deadlifts and as a bonus its super save for the back because you have to keep it straight in order to lift the weight.
Believe me, having the weight in front of you instead resting only a couple of inches behind your neck makes a world of difference.
 
I'm going to do the shoulder press tomorrow. I focused on my arms today and did barbell curls, dumbell curls, tricep extensions, etc.

My chest is ****ing shredded from the other day.
 
phillkillv2
I'm going to do the shoulder press tomorrow. I focused on my arms today and did barbell curls, dumbell curls, tricep extensions, etc.

My chest is ****ing shredded from the other day.
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A not so insignificant amount of the power for shoulder presses comes from the triceps, and a little bit from the upper chest. Also when doing chest your shoulders do a lot of work too.
You will not be able to use your shoulders to full capacity of those muscle groups are still recovering.

Do legs or back instead so you give your chest and tris another 24 hours for recovery. You'll be able to press more and you'll get stronger faster that way.
 
I'm going light on the chest today. You're right, Michael. Working on my shoulders and back yesterday took away from some of the strength that I have today.

Frustrating thing today. I'm sitting doing inclined chest presses and this guy starts yelling "five more!" I stop and say "what?" he says "ten more, 10 more lbs...." Then I have to give him a reason as to why I'm going light. Just lame gym circle jerk kids.

Edit.... after getting home...... I can barely walk... Calfs are screwed.
 
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Today I did 5 sets of 7 reps dumbbell deadlifts, each dumbbell weighing 74kg (163lbs), then I did 4 sets of lunges with 7 reps each, with 82kg (179lbs). The latter was a real killer exercise, it felt like single legged crunches with your buddy sitting on your shoulders. And last but not least I did weighted crunches, with legs in the air whole holding a 25kg plate (55lbs) over my head.

This is my assist-workout to improve my regular deadlifts.

I feel tired.
 
I stayed home and rested over the weekends. The buses here have limited services on the weekend, so getting to the gym takes twice as long. I skipped today for some weird reason... Wait... I skipped because my clothes took on the smell of the gym it'self... The part of the gym that I work out in smells like spoiled broccoli, my shorts, shirts, and socks smell like it now.. Just vile.

Since I'm well rested, I'm going to do a nice medley instead of focusing on just two lifts.

Arms
Chest
Back

I'm not going to let myself get lazy.. not one bit.
 
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Have been working out now for two years but never really took it serious until this year. Almost 2 and a half months of working out daily and the changes are really becoming much more visible than ever. I'm taking whey shakes and creatine, which are really helpful. Still need to work on my belly to get it close to a six pack and to have less cheat days, instead of two a week:sly:. Still need some tips to really be ripped fast, atleast before June.
 
Does anyone think that supplement companies-- especially south american ones-- may really just be a front for drug dealing? I was just browsing the instagram page of one CEO. There's Ferraris (La Ferrari too) everywhere and private jets, etc. There's no way you can afford all that. Unless you're just spending all of your money or, perhaps, selling steroids and other illegal drugs to all the half natties out there.
 
Lost 15lbs since Feb 4th. That was the last time I was weighed at my Dr's office. I'm still kinda skeptical, though I have been consuming less since then.

Does it seem odd for a guy that was rated at 269lb to lose 15lb after eating right and going to the gym almost daily? I do a good bit of cardio on incline treadmills and elliptical.
 
That's not odd. That's expected.

Keep it up! 👍

On a personal note, I've been hovering around 220lbs for the last year...

Not really working at it as I don't have the time.... just been drinking lots of water and doing sit ups and push ups for 15 minutes every morning.
 
Does anyone else feel such incredible gains while slacking off so much?

Last week I had a great monday and tuesday in the gym. Matched my squat PR (315x2) with more work sets before it. Did some good deadlifting afterwards. Also hopped on the quad extension and hammered out sets of 200 pounds like it was nothing. Hamstrings were about 20 pounds weaker than normal, however. Unless, that is, there was just nothing left in them by the time I got to the curls. The next day I had a really great benching session. The technique felt amazing since I think I finally figured out how to keep my elbows down and skull-crusher the bar off the rack. I really felt like my shoulders were set and that I didn't have to worry so much about the bar path. Then I followed it up with some great back work.

Anyway, the rest of last week has just been an eating frenzy. I have been binge eating on whatever I have that's good. The only thing that has been stopping me is actually running out of food. I don't eat junk food (unless I specifically make a point of it), but I can only fit so many things in my fridge that don't require making a big commotion during the night. Then my cousins from Long Island visited us so it's been like a non-stop food fest.

Moving on. All night last night was the great unloading. Gavage des sewage. I woke up super dehydrated and looked at myself in the mirror and was like "Damn look at dem gainz!" Rather, it was nice to see myself so deflated. It looked like my bodyfat percentage halved, and that my shape was starting to be determined more by musculature than adiposity.

Maybe I should do this weightlifting thing full time.
 
Omnis
Does anyone else feel such incredible gains while slacking off so much?
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I feel like **** after slacking. Once I head for my break on the weekend, my muscular tone just goes away, so does my inflated ego. :( :lol:

I'm not really feeling the gains that much, but I have only been lifting for only two weeks. I haven't been feeling shredded after lifting like the first week. I guess I'm just getting used to the workouts? The first week 1/2, I felt extremely sore.. I don't know.. I just don't feel my chest workouts afterwards. I like that feeling afterwards when you're done, though I'm not feeling it at all when I do chest. I'm clueless :confused: It could be me taking too long of breaks in-between workouts?


Omnis
Maybe I should do this weightlifting thing full time.
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I'm hoping I can stick with this. I've been going to the gym every week-day after classes. I usually stay 2-3 hours with at-least 1 hour of cardio.
 

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