medman

Here's a summary of my results from the past week: Squat: 5x5 @ 180lbs (PR, 136% BW) Bench Press: 5x5 @ 115lbs Pendlay Rows: 3x5 @ 100lbs (PR due to better form) Weighted Dips: 3x5 @ 30 lbs (PR) OH Press: 5x5 @ 80 lbs (PR*) Deadlift: 1x5 @ 205lbs (PR, 155% BW) Weighted pullups: 3x5 @ 10 lbs After nailing the 180lb squats, I had basically no energy left. I've never been so devastated after a set of anything, ever. It made me realize my previous record of 80 lbs on the overhead press didn't really count, because it was done on the day I skipped squats for the sake of recovery. When I tried 85 after squatting, I just had nothing left in the tank. So yesterday when I lifted 80 lbs on the overhead after squatting, I considered it a personal record, since I had never lifted that much after having squatted. I think I'll probably do 80 lbs one more time before re-attempting 85...80 was near failure as it was. Dips are getting crazy hard, but I haven't failed yet. Next up is the 35 lb plate. Deadlifts are my pride and joy. First time I've lifted over 200 lbs of free weight, and I did it for the full 1x5 yesterday, which is over 1.5x bodyweight for me. Just did my 3x5 of pullups with a 10 lb plate, so next up I'll be doing chins with 15 lbs. I've been doing chins/pulls with 3 grip positions (one per workout that I'm supposed to be doing chins on), moving from the easiest (supinated, i.e. chins), to hardest (pronated, i.e. pullups), and only adding more weight once I've succeeded with the chins. Not sure if I explained that well...in any case, it lets me do my pullups with a different grip/different muscles each time, moving from easy to hard before adding weight. I always go from arms locked out at full extension, up until I touch my chest to the bar at the top. No partials here! Also, after a couple of weeks of my weight being stable at 132 (though I think I traded a bit of fat for muscle in that time), I realized that, because of how busy I've been, I hadn't been eating enough. I've upped the calories significantly this week and am hoping to start gaining again.

I'm glad your poor shins are doing better! I wear pants when I work out and fortunately have only lightly bruised them - no bleeding yet! It's interesting to me that this program isn't working for you, while 5x5 was. Makes me wonder what I'm going to move to next! I still have a ways to go with this one, fortunately...

I hear you on the overhead presses - they've been causing me trouble lately. Nice deadlift!!

To quote my gym partner after starting stronglifts, "I feel like I didn't get a good workout. I don't feel it in my arms."

My best recommendation is to get a used road bike. I don't know what places you have where you live, but in my city we have a great used bike shop. If you have anything similar in your city, you can get an old but well-functioning road bike for just a few hundred bucks.

Good work! Hate to say I told you so, but...

Ah, I know what you mean. My gym has stackable plastic aerobics platform thingies right next to the pullup bars, so I just grab a couple of those and I'm good to go. Maybe yours has something similar? I agree, jumping with a plate chained to you = asking for an injury! What you're describing is perfectly normal on squats done with proper form in a beginner. I have had a similar experience. Right now, in terms of tiredness afterward, I find it's about 50% hips/35% core muscles/15% legs. One thing I would just want to rule out as a cause of lower back tiredness is that some people end up leaning too far forward when getting to the bottom of their squat (when you're near/at/below parallel), because it takes a lot of hip flexibility to get that low while keeping the torso fairly upright. If you're leaning too far forward (I was for a week or two when the weights started getting heavy), you end up doing a partial Good Morning with each rep, which brutalizes the lower back. A certain amount of forward lean is necessary, and this also depends on your bar position, but my limited hip flexibility was causing me to do this at first, and I really felt it. Now, I'm much better at maintaining a rigid torso, and getting low with proper positioning, and I feel the work in my entire core instead of just my low back. The powerlifting guru who corrected my form said both of these things (leaning forward at first, and a tired core when doing it right) are extremely common in beginners and aren't of much concern if you're aware of your form and aren't making any foot/knee/depth errors.

Haha, "bitching out". I know what you mean. Sometimes the only explanation for why I fail a set is that my mind wasn't fully committed to it. Don't let it get you down! You've made such impressive squat gains, I'm sure you'll be able to destroy it next time. What are you weighing these days? And are your pullups weighted or BW?

I love the pain. It's one of the few times where I do anything macho, haha. I love that, in order to git 'er done, I have to push myself way beyond the comfort zone. I also love that I'm now out-squatting/deadlifting guys who are much bigger than me, due to the fact that most guys at my gym are concerned with the whole "beach body" thing, so their leg strength is easily 1/3 of what it could be.

This looks so much better than what you originally posted! And yes, adding weight with a dipping belt is the best way to increase volume and intensity while keeping the reps relatively low. There are different ways of "doing up" a dipping belt that will keep the weight from hanging too low (I'm 5'6 myself, so I hear ya). The rule is that there are no rules. Loop the chain through the belt before attaching the weight, tie the chain around the weight several times, do anything you can picture to make the combination of that belt + that weight + that length of chain comfortable for you to use.

Are you pointing your toes straight ahead, or letting them point outward? I have hip flexibility issues (that I'm working on), and an experienced powerlifter looked at my form and told me that if I let my toes point a bit more outward, it would get easier to go all the way down to/past parallel, and he was right!

You're a beast! Good for you for pushing through despite the lack of sleep! It's inspiring me to go to the gym tonight (I'm also running on 3.5 hours of sleep right now, plus about 4 cups of coffee so far...)

Judging by his actions, I'd say something along the lines of "I'm sleepy. When is this over?" And pazios2002, I agree, I'd love to hear what GSP was saying. What angers me is that people (who don't understand wrestling) accuse him of "not doing much" in his fights, when in fact, he's working so hard from start to finish. It's just less eventful-looking because he completely neutralizes people. Silva was the one who showed what "not doing much" actually looks like.

True, but that's precisely why they'll probably give the shot to others first. Let someone take the belt off Edgar, let Florian take the belt off that guy, and then give Penn a title shot vs Florian. That's probably what would make for an exciting progression of champions.

Florian has had 2 title shots. I think Joe Silva is going to look to give other people a shot first. I think Florian could win (and I'd love to see that), but I don't know if he could justify giving him a 3rd shot when other similarly ranked fighters haven't had one. I don't know WTF happened with Anderson. I mean, seriously. I've never seen such a waste of talent. I think, as punishment for his WWE-like antics, he should be put up against Lesnar (after Lesnar fights Carwin). I mean, Brock got flack for his WWE-like smack-talking, but this was on a whole other level. Let Silva try to play air guitar with 300 pounds of angry wrestler in front of him.

Yeah, I started doing mixed grip a couple of weeks ago and it made things a whole lot easier. Next up, I'm going to get myself some chalk when I'm doing some serious lifts (maybe when I hit 2X bodyweight).

A summary of the last couple of sessions... Squat: 5x5 @ 175lbs (PR, 133% BW) Bench Press: 5x5 @ 115lbs (PR, 87% BW) Pendlay Rows: 3x5 @ 100lbs (PR, 76% BW) Weighted Dips: 3x5 @ 25 lbs (PR) OH Press: Failed miserably on my first attempt at 85 lbs. Deadlift: 1x5 @ 195lbs (PR, 147% BW) Weighted Chin-ups and weighted neutral-grip pull-ups: 3x5 @ 10 lbs (PR) Two sessions ago, I had a really friendly and experienced powerlifter in the squat rack next to me (squatting 420 lbs with great form, which you don't ever see at this gym), so I took the opportunity to speak to him about my form on a few exercises. He told me I was doing well, but made some minor corrections to my squat and deadlift form and gave me some great hip flexibility exercises. As a result, my 175 lb squats felt better than my 160 lb ones did last week! My 195 lb deadlift also felt f'in great, and I'm psyched to break 200 next time! He also told me his personal preference for barbell rows was a supinated (underhand) grip, and showed me his form for that one. My gym partner got all excited because he has a boner for bicep exercises, so it looks like we might switch from Pendlays to supinated rows, or maybe alternate between the two. Basically, everything has gone great except for the fact that I need to deload my overhead presses. The time I nailed the 5x5 at 80 lbs, I realize I had skipped squats because of my hip muscle soreness. This time, trying them after heavy squats, 75 lbs was all I could manage. I guess I didn't appreciate how much more energy I have before squats vs after, so I might have to deload and work my way back up to attempt getting 80 lbs in my "after squat" state.

I've heard a bit about this. I looked at the schools in my city, and only one school is certified by the IKMF. The instructor is a black belt in both kyokushin and chito-kan karate, and did his instructor training with 4 of the highest-level trainers in Canada and Israel, and has to be re-certified yearly in person by one of the few Master-level trainers in order to maintain his IKMF certification, so I trust that he's the real deal.

Just ask Ben Saunders and Mac Danzig, both of whom are currently vegan to my knowledge. I think the whole point of this forum is to show that healthy, fit, even competitive athletes can do it while vegan. However, I don't think there would be any significant performance benefit in the ring/octagon vs a well-balanced omni diet (like a Mediterranean diet). Training, skill, and the mental side of the game play too big a role. It doesn't matter if your skin is a bit healthier if you've been mounted and are eating elbows. I think everyone here would agree that a well-balanced vegan diet can fuel the most intense training, and certainly wouldn't hold someone back. I'm just not convinced that a fighter would see any significant improvement, so long as their current diet is healthy (e.g. not McDonalds twice a day).

Intense! I did 185 for my 1x5 last time, and will be shooting for 195 tomorrow. I'm doing farmer's walks to try to prevent my grip from becoming a limiting factor as well. I'm excited to break 200...it will be the first time I've lifted 200lbs of free weight (I've lifted "big" numbers on leg press machines, but those use a mechanical advantage and obviously don't count). Thanks! Yeah, it was a nice little boost before my last exercise of the day (pull ups). I'll be posting my new numbers after my next workout tomorrow...I'll be aiming for a 195lb deadlift and 175lb squats, along with an 85 lb overhead, though I'm not confident I'll be able to get all the reps on that one.

Keep up the good work! Can't wait to see what you're lifting next week!

I think you've done well on the stronglifts program, but I can totally see how the structure of the intermediate program might get frustrating. If it doesn't feel right, though, there's no reason you couldn't look for something else. So much of lifting is mental, and if you aren't enjoying the program, maybe that would be enough to stunt your progress? I will reiterate that you 25kg weighted dips are ridiculous...good job!!

Thanks for the input. I think I'd like to learn KM for the sake of feeling more safe, though BJJ is something I'd like to start when I feel I'll be able to do it regularly for a long time (in the next couple of years, I'll be moving around every few weeks, which would make attending regular lessons difficult).

Another alternative is to put a chair slightly in front of you, put your feet flat on it and use your legs to assist you. The nice thing about that is that, as you get stronger, you can just start using a bit less leg strength and start letting your arms and back do more of the work.

My personal recipe is two parts testosterone to one part HGH. (I kid. I kid.)