Arkk's Weight Lifting / Fitness Thread

Sounds like bad programming or shitty variables.

Random question. Have been lifting on and off for 17 years. Heard it both ways: during bench press, are you supposed to touch the bar to your chest? The standard is yes, and I think it's required to be a recognized rep under power lifting or NFL/sports criteria. But as far as health, I've heard it's actually bad for your shoulders to have your elbow to go below 90 degrees in order to do it.

The problem comes if you flare your elbows out. Keep them tucked (45 degree angle to your body) and you should be fine.

It's the same thing as people saying your knees should never go past your toes when you squat. In theory it sounds right, but it's mostly crap.

Flaring your elbows will definitely put extra pressure on your shoulders but so will going past parallel. You're using a completely different set of muscles for the initial power move to get the bar moving up and it puts a lot more pressure on your shoulders when you do.

Touching your chest with the bar is a requirement for competitive lifting as you said but how many people do you know that competitively lift? Think of it this way, someone telling you "touch your chest with the bar" is leaving out a lot of other factors. Take your powerlifting competitions for example. If you look at any high level competitor and watch their bench you will notice absolutely none of them ever get past parallel with their elbows, even when touching their chests. Their chests are so massive and their form dictates arching the back as much as possible to get your chest as high to the bar as possible that it's basically impossible for their elbows to get past parallel. It's done to decrease the distance you have to move the bar as much as you can for obvious reasons.

So taking a newbie at the gym who is laying with a flat back and telling him to touch his chest as a catch all for proper form is ridiculous.

I have shoulder issues. I've had shoulder surgery on my left shoulder and I have a separated right shoulder. When I go past parallel on a bench my shoulders scream at me.

If you watch any good power lifting form video, especially videos with top level professional competitors they will all say the same thing "Every body is different". Some guys like to squat high bar and can drive more power through the bar from a much more upright position. Some guys would fall over if they tried that and prefer a low bar squat where they squat from a more forward position. Some guys have bigger hips than other which changes their deadlift position.

That guy benching 800 lbs is probably moving the weight half the distance you are when you bench 225 so anyone telling you to always touch your chest without any other context can probably be safely ignored.

Touch the bar to your chest.

ZyyzYzzy said:

Are you saying you never failed a squat set at that weight when starting out?

Been sticking to SS and only missed 3 workouts when I had the flu since starting.

I'm going to blame my 5th rep failure on the dude who started during pullups right in front of me mid set too

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No, I'm saying if you were able to complete the previous week's programming, you should never fail the first set of the next weight. So either the programming was bad (too big of a jump, but I'm assuming you went from 280 or 285 to 290, which is fine) or other variables (sleep, stress, diet, etc.) played a role in you failing that first set.

I'm actually trying to tell you it shouldn't feel bad. Rest up, fix whatever external shit is going on, and blast through 290 next week.

ZyyzYzzy said:

O I failed the 5th set for the 5th rep

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Your phrasing suggested you failed the first set lol.

Not a big deal either. Probably approaching a wall. Deload and work back if you fail again.

Funnily enough my program called for 290 today. 4x5 and then an AMRAP which I always stop at 8 to manage fatigue. Probably had another 4 reps which would put me in the 390 range so sounds about right.

405 before the summer is still the goal.

Preview of how my 6 month bulk is coming. 2 months left. 158lbs to 177lbs so far

Just increased calories to 190g protein, 90g fat and 380g carbs on rest days, 190g, 90g and 450g carbs on training days.

Solid, but I know the second pic is zoomed in more you cheeky fuck.

Ignoring the zoomed in which makes it hard to compare, he's definitely put some size on his traps (they were non-existent before) and medial delts, and probably triceps.

There's definitely a good deal of fat though. You can see it around his waist. It's probably about 5 pounds of muscle and 15 pounds of fat. But for 6 months that's pretty good. Hopefully he can shed the fat with minimal muscle loss.

Why are you going with a time period of bulking (2 more months) versus a certain size?

no the pictures aren't zoomed in ROFL, I stand in the same place in the gym toilets, using the tiles as indication where to stand and resting my phone on a soap dispenser. Sometimes I'm in a hurry because people are using the toilets and don't want to get snapped with their cocks out rofl. In the last year I've had 3 different phones so that might be why the positioning isn't identical

15lbs of fat lol. Well as I'm getting another DXA at the end of the 6 months we'll see exactly how much fat I've put on. Obviously I'm softer but still have definition in my abs.

My last DXA was just before starting this bulk and that put me at 9kg /19.8lbs of body fat, so the suggestion that I've almost doubled my total fat mass is way out, but nice try I guess

I also know what going up to 176lbs from 158-160lbs and having it be mostly fat gain is like, because I've done that a couple of times over the years from falling off the wagon and it's incomparable to my current appearance. Should also note that 158lbs start weight was off a low carb so at least 3-4lbs of my weight gain will be water.

Increasing calories was my trainers suggestion - he said "So we could push quite aggressively if you're happy to accumulate a little extra body fat?"

Well, you're also suggesting that you somehow put on more than 5 pounds of muscle in 6 months. Unless you're a brand new lifter (we both know you aren't) or on a bike, you've somehow defied the physical limitations of humans.

Gravel said:

Well, you're also suggesting that you somehow put on more than 5 pounds of muscle in 6 months. Unless you're a brand new lifter (we both know you aren't) or on a bike, you've somehow defied the physical limitations of humans.

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Heh, I'm not a new lifter but in my five years of lifting this is my first serious and sustained attempt at eating at a surplus

As referred to above, I've gone through several cycles of falling off the wagon and dieting back down. My only real previous attempts at getting bigger were ended early because I was scared of getting fat

So I feel like I still had some untapped growth potential

I actually went with my online coach because he'd written an article about how trying to gain muscle with minimal fat was a slower way of doing it. I wanted to break out of my permacut mindset and told him I don't care about fat I just want max gains, hence putting the calories up


But like I said you're way out with your 15lbs estimation. 75% fat 25% muscle gain is more into "dirty" or uncontrolled bulk territory. We've increased my calories slowly and I track everything every single day

If from the 19lbs 4 is water then that leaves 15lbs of fat and muscle. Maybe 50/50 split is the best estimate - that would roughly mirror what my Wi-Fi bio impedance scales say, and yeah yeah I know they're not accurate but they weren't that far it from the dxa

Glad to see you're finally making an effort to lift like a man Ossoi. I support your endeavor.

Either it's zoomed/different angle or your head grew as well.

Confirmed HGH.

But yeah, you finally have some traps. Congrats!