Arkk's Weight Lifting / Fitness Thread

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Brahma

Obi-Bro Kenobi-X
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My gloves finally bit it. Snagged some of these. Buddy swears by them. Will see how they feel.


These suck ass. Strap is too short. Not comfortable. PITA to do anything else like answer your phone or putz with your Kindle.
 
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escrima

Blackwing Lair Raider
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One year of rotating John Meadows routines. Health Nutrition Fitness Customized Meal Training Plan Program Coaches Mountain Dog Diet
PXL_20201206_190024189.jpg
 
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Erronius

Macho Ma'am
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I wasn't sure where else to post this, but maybe someone in this thread knows some of this.

I watch a lot of different shit. One channel on Youtube is Jujimufu. I'll watch a few videos in a row, forget about the channel, then several months later do it all over again. It's an interesting channel. Juji seems like a laid-back dude. I remember seeing Stefi Cohen on his channel and just thinking "No way her legs are real". Their channel also got me derailed into watching arm-wrestling stuff for a while.

So I haven't watched the channel in a few months, maybe before Christmas. And now I see I missed a lot.

I guess that a while back, the guy that Juji worked with, and who shot and edited a lot of their footage (Tom) had complained that given all the work he put in, that he deserved more equal footing/billing. So Juji changed his channel name from Jujimufu to "Juji and Tom", and AFAIK went out of his way to be accommodating. I remember that happening, and if I cared to go back and dig for it, I could find the video they put out together explaining the change.

Well....that was before the shit hit the fan, I guess.

The two of them are done, and Juji hasn't said what happened. But some folks went digging and found out that there's a lawsuit against Tom. Apparently there's some business dealings in regards to "Grip Genie" and Tom took a fuckton of money out of their Paypall account. And he took like $30K out of what I'm guessing was "Juji and Tom"'s account. So over $100k stolen to cover gambling/tax debts, and now they have to take him to court.

Fucking bizarre.

 
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Kuro

Naxxramas 1.0 Raider
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Failed a 5x set last week for the first time since starting lifting back at the beginning of November, so looked up what to do and it suggested doing a "deload" week, which I am doing now. It feels really lame driving to the gym to do 20 minutes of what's normally warm-up reps.

Hit three plates on squat, so felt pretty good about that. Deadlift is still substantially weaker than the squat (and is the one I failed), so thinking about getting one of the renta-trainers for a day to tell me whether I'm retarded or not. Probably retarded. It's hard to tell, since literally everyone I see doing deadlifts does them differently.

It's kind of hard to figure progress, since the internet gives a bunch of conflicting messages on how fast you should expect to gain strength at the start. It's either soys saying "if you can lift the bar you're stronger than 95% of humans" or trolls saying they hit 1/2/3/4 the day they started.

Current progress at ~6 months for the x5 sets:
Overhead Press: 55=>115
Bench Press: 85=>155
Squat: 105=>315
Deadlift: 115=>260
 
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Louis

Trakanon Raider
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Failed a 5x set last week for the first time since starting lifting back at the beginning of November, so looked up what to do and it suggested doing a "deload" week, which I am doing now. It feels really lame driving to the gym to do 20 minutes of what's normally warm-up reps.

Hit three plates on squat, so felt pretty good about that. Deadlift is still substantially weaker than the squat (and is the one I failed), so thinking about getting one of the renta-trainers for a day to tell me whether I'm retarded or not. Probably retarded. It's hard to tell, since literally everyone I see doing deadlifts does them differently.

It's kind of hard to figure progress, since the internet gives a bunch of conflicting messages on how fast you should expect to gain strength at the start. It's either soys saying "if you can lift the bar you're stronger than 95% of humans" or trolls saying they hit 1/2/3/4 the day they started.

Current progress at ~6 months for the x5 sets:
Overhead Press: 55=>115
Bench Press: 85=>155
Squat: 105=>315
Deadlift: 115=>260
Yeah, deadlift form can vary a good bit depending on your body makeup. People will tend to have bad form due to lack of body awareness and missing that mind to muscle connection that is needed more than you need for more straightforward lifts.

Your deadlift weight seems to be somewhat inline with your other lifts. Your squat just seems really high in comparison.

When I first started deadlifting I had stupid bad form. My non lifting hips/lower back posture was terrible from sitting in a computer chair way too much. I would get whatever friend I was lifting with to film it so that I could actually see a side angle of where I was going wrong (you dont want to try looking at a side mirror while doing it).

I also tried my best to stay at a lower weight until I could consistently pull with form I was satisfied with. If going to heavy is forcing bad form and things are firing off out of sync itll hold progression back.

Being that it works your whole body there can also be a lot of points of failure that could be hindering progress as well. I'm sure you have read a lot of this stuff elsewhere. Just throwing out my own personal experience with um.
 

Khane

Got something right about marriage
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Did you fail the deadlift because of difficulty driving up or was it more grip strength? I always hit grip strength walls rather than actual posterior chain strength walls with deadlifts. So I started doing Kroc Rows and those have helped immensely. Farmer carries always bored me.
 

Zaide

TLP Idealist
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I’ve recently gotten into rucking and with that I’ve started hitting the gym in an effort to help improve my ruck times. I've always been active and relatively fit, but I've mostly done body weight and cardio related bullshit, so you'll see in these workouts I slowly lean in harder on resistance training.

Anyway, here’s my workout the past few weeks:

Friday 02 April:
1/4 mile sprint
21 side plank dips
21 burpees
21 lunges
1/4 mile sprint
15 side plank dips
15 burpees
15 lunges
1/4 mile sprint
9 side plank dips
9 burpees
9 lunges
1/4 mile sprint
Saturday 03 April:
Warm Up:
10x Lunges
10x Broad Jumps
40x Mountain Climbers

Ruck:
1 Mile Ruck (60lbs)

PT:
Plank (2x30 seconds)
Side Plank (2x30 seconds)
Frog Squats (2x40)
Crunches (5x30)
Pull Ups (5x5)
Jog (5x 200m)
Rest 2 mins
Farmer Carry (4x20m 60lbs)
Walking Dumbbell Lunges (4x20m 60lbs)
Walking Overhead Lunges (4x20m 30lbs)
Sunday 06 April: Rest
Monday 05 April:
1/4 mile ruck run (60 lbs)

Navy PT:
1.5 mile run
Burpees (3x10)
Hand Release Push Ups (4x10)
Crunches (3x20)
Jumping Jacks (3x20)

PT:
Pull Ups (3x5)
Crunches (3x20)
Burpees (3x10)
Rest 2 mins
Plank (5x30 seconds)
Side Plank (5x30 seconds)
Knees to Elbows (5x10)
Flutter Kicks (5x40)
Rest 2 mins
Crunches (8x50)
Run 1.5 miles
Tuesday 06 April:
Warm Up:
10x Lunges
10x Broad Jumps
40x Mountain Climbers

PT:
Plank (2x30 seconds)
Side Plank (2x30 seconds)
Frog Squats (2x40)
Crunches (5x30)
Pull Ups (5x5)
Jog (5x 200m)
Rest 2 mins
Farmer Carry (4x20m 60lbs)
Walking Dumbbell Lunges (4x20m 60lbs)
Walking Overhead Lunges (4x20m 30lbs)
Wednesday 07 April: Rest
Thursday 08 April: Rest
Friday 09 April:
*My first day in the gym proper, I didn't have a spotter so I didn't go crazy on any particular lifts and I was still sore from earlier in the week*
Bench Press (5x5 135lbs)
Deadlift (5x5 185lbs, focusing on form mostly)
Pull Ups (3x5)
Plank (3x35 seconds)
Side Plank Dips (3x10)
1 mile run
Saturday 10 April:
Ruck Run: 1 mile in 10 minutes (20lbs)
Ruck: 1 mile in 15 miles (20lbs)
Sunday 11 April: Rest
Monday 12 April:
*No spotter again*
Bench Press (5x5 145lbs)
Deadlift (5x5 195lbs)
Squat (5x5 185lbs)
Tuesday 13 April:
Ruck: 3 miles, 25lbs
Wednesday 14 April: Rest
Thursday 15 April:
1 Mile Hill Run
Hill Sprints (5x30 seconds)
Friday 16 April:
1/4 mile sprint
Bench Press (5x5 150lbs)
Deadlift (5x5 205lbs)
Farmer carry (3x40m 60lbs)
Walking Lunges (3x20m 60lbs)
Tricep extension (3x12 30lbs)
Bicep Curls (3x8 60lbs)
Bicep Curls (1x12 30lbs)
Flutter Kicks (2x50)
Crunches (2x35)
Saturday 17 April:
Ruck: 4 miles 26lbs (+4lbs of water)
Mile 1 - 14:25
Mile 2 - 27:45 (13:20)
Mile 3 - 41:18 (13:33)
Mile 4 - 55:23 (14:05)
I had to stop to take some rocks out of my shoes after I finished the third mile, hence the sudden time change
Sunday 18 April: Rest
Monday 19 April:
Bench Press (5x5 150lbs)
Deadlift (5x5 225lbs)
Farmer carry (3x40m 60lbs)
Walking Lunges (3x20m 60lbs)
Tricep extension (3x12 30lbs)
Bicep Curls (4x8 60lbs)
Flutter Kicks (2x50)
Crunches (2x35)
Tuesday 20 April:
Ruck: 4 miles 26lbs (+4lbs of water) - This was a trail ruck in the blue ridge mountains w/ serious elevation
Wednesday 21 April:
Ruck: 2 miles 20lbs - Another trail ruck with significant elevation
Run 1 mile, significant hills
Hike: 3 miles, no added weight
Thursday 22 April: Rest
Friday 23 April:
Bench Press (5x5 160lbs)
Deadlift (5x5 250lbs)
Run: 1 mile
Farmer carry (3x40m 60lbs)
Walking Lunges (3x20m 60lbs)
Overhead Press (3x10 60lbs)
Upright Row (3x10 60lbs)
Tricep extension (3x12 30lbs)
Bicep Curls (4x8 60lbs)
Flutter Kicks (3x40)
Plank (3x40)

I want to fit squats in here but I'm not sure where they'd really fit without reducing my performance in some other area. Right now I think I can keep adding about 10lbs to my deadlift and 5lbs to my bench every week for a few more weeks while I enjoy newbie gains. I want to at least deadlift 320 for a few reps and I'd like to bench 200 for 5 reps eventually.

My overall PT plan is about to turn into
Monday: Weights
Tuesday: 3 mile run, 3 mile ruck
Wednesday Rest
Thursday: Long Run (4 miles this coming week, adding miles every week or two up to a max of about 12 miles)
Friday: Weights
Saturday: Long Ruck (at 5 miles now, working up to as long as 27 miles @ 65lbs)
Sunday: Rest

I'd like to ultimately run a 5 miler in about 36 minutes and be able to ruck at a 10 minute pace w/ 65lbs indefinitely.
 
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Animosity

Bronze Baronet of the Realm
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Add longer rests between sets if you thinking adding squats will hurt your performance. Or try rotating lunges and squats. I’d also split up doing 4 compound lifts in the same session. That’s a lot on the body to handle. I’d do bench/OHP one day and DL/squat the other.
 
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Asshat wormie

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Planks are kind of shit for ab work too. Shit like landmine twists, russian twists, leg raises, rope climbers and windshield wiper are where its at imo.
 
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Zaide

TLP Idealist
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4,337
Planks are kind of shit for ab work too. Shit like landmine twists, russian twists, leg raises, rope climbers and windshield wiper are where its at imo.
Yeah I don’t feel like I get much out of them aside from being able to hold a longer max plank. Unfortunately it’s part of my PT test for work so I have to deal with it.

Today was my long ruck day, results as follows:
Ruck with 30lbs
11:56 for mile 1
12:00 for mile 2
12:57 for mile 3
12:14 for mile 4
Total time 49:07

7:16 seconds faster than last Saturday with 26lbs

I am going to try replacing lunges with 5x5 squat this week and see how it goes.
 

Zaide

TLP Idealist
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4,337
Deadlifting today, did a set at 235, two at 245 one at 255 (PB) and then I was feeling good so I threw it up to 260 and on my second rep I felt a strange pain right in my perineum. Immediately sat the weight down and called it since it was my last set anyway, but I’m still feeling it. Feelsbadman.

Benched 165 today which was nice, not as high as my younger years but I am getting there.
 

Kuro

Naxxramas 1.0 Raider
8,264
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Yeah, deadlift form can vary a good bit depending on your body makeup. People will tend to have bad form due to lack of body awareness and missing that mind to muscle connection that is needed more than you need for more straightforward lifts.

Your deadlift weight seems to be somewhat inline with your other lifts. Your squat just seems really high in comparison.

When I first started deadlifting I had stupid bad form. My non lifting hips/lower back posture was terrible from sitting in a computer chair way too much. I would get whatever friend I was lifting with to film it so that I could actually see a side angle of where I was going wrong (you dont want to try looking at a side mirror while doing it).

I also tried my best to stay at a lower weight until I could consistently pull with form I was satisfied with. If going to heavy is forcing bad form and things are firing off out of sync itll hold progression back.

Being that it works your whole body there can also be a lot of points of failure that could be hindering progress as well. I'm sure you have read a lot of this stuff elsewhere. Just throwing out my own personal experience with um.
Took the filming advice and had a friend film me doing it at various weights, was able to get some help from the gym owner using the film without having to shell out extra, so that was helpful!

My squat's probably pretty high from a lifetime of being a fatass :D Came to weightlifting with those useless nerd arm-noodles, so my legs were probably the only thing getting worked before that.

A lot of what I ended up having issues with were largely leg and hand orientation/placement. I was starting with the bar too far forward, because my legs were too far apart, so the only way I was grabbing the bar was by leaning my arms out past my legs while my knees were out.


Did you fail the deadlift because of difficulty driving up or was it more grip strength? I always hit grip strength walls rather than actual posterior chain strength walls with deadlifts. So I started doing Kroc Rows and those have helped immensely. Farmer carries always bored me.

Grip strength is definitely an issue for me with the deadlift. Before I switched to doing hypertrophy-level amounts of accessory work I basically never felt tired or "burn" in my legs/butt, it was always my hands hurting/going-discolored by the time I was "done" with the straight 5x5 style "lift the heaviest you can" sets. The lower weight and higher reps/sets on 5/3/1 has helped a bit, as my hands don't seem to tear as much at ~10-15% less weight, but I definitely feel like I need to find some accessory to do that increases hand callusing/grip-strength. I tried out the kroc rows this week and they seemed good.

Weirdly, my traps are the only upper-body muscle that was actually visible/developed before I started working out (at the 6 month mark I can now actually see other muscles when I flex, so that feels good, even if there's a flap of flab hanging from the underside of the muscle shelf). I assume that's from hauling around piles of books, computers, and 5000-count cardboard boxes all day for years like a good little nerdling.
 
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Scoresby

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Nice work, congrats! I had never heard of John Meadows but there's some really good material at that link.

Over the past several months, I've been using the Juggurnaut Method and have seen some really nice gains. Keep in mind that you don't actually 1RM (I will take a week off at the end and do this just because) in this program, but do have a lift at the end of each phase where you do AMRAP so can get a fair estimate of where you max is.

Thus far...

OHP - 165>205
Bench - 295>360
Squat - 405>475
Deadlift - 475>525

Working out with higher volume has given me much better neuro-muscular coordination. My squats (and to a degree DL) were very quad-dominate and became considerably easier once you learn to 'feel' the hip hinge. Overhead I had weak traps and external rotators and de-loading has allowed them to catch up making the lifts considerably easier and safer (my left shoulder doesn't click anymore). I've tried tons of stuff over the years and maybe there is something to the 'old-man strength' myth, but I think maybe I've historically over-trained and this schedule has slowed me down enough to realize the stimulus I was putting my body through. Especially with the larger compound lifts, it seems recovery is critical.
 
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Animosity

Bronze Baronet of the Realm
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John Meadows is a fucking monster. His workout programs are well regarded. He has a really good YouTube page too.

Those are some nuts numbers dude keep it up!
 

Brahma

Obi-Bro Kenobi-X
11,812
41,169
So I have totally changed my routine, diet and general philosophy on going to the gym.

My philosophy was I MUST be the strongest in the gym. To be honest I usually was. No roids, just protein and creatine.

I'm done with that. No more heavy strength regiments. No every day lifting. No shakes, no creeatine.

Since the beginning of the year I have gone from 305 in weight, down to 235 as of this morning. I feel like I'm 20 years younger!

I do lifting for 3 sets of 15. Maintenance weight. Like last year I was curling with the 55's. Now I use the 20's. I do this 4 days a week. 3 days cardio. Whether bike/elliptical/stairs. 45 minutes, and end it with usually ropes or burpees.

I JUST started stretching...I might still skip this. This is a PITA time wise.

My diet. I stuck it out a month, and ate MUCH smaller portions, now it's the norm. I would say have a whole chicken after the gym. Now? A leg. Now my appetite is so, that I'm forcing myself to eat that leg!

I must admit...I feel like a bitch now though. See those fuckers I was laughing at for their weights and gains...damn near doubling whatever it I do now.

I also look like a crackhead. BUT I feel soooo much better.

I met my goal in weight. Had to type this out!
 
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