Board 8 > Yearly weightlifting topic

(+) Yeah! (+)

What were we just talking about? High volume and overtraining and injury risk? Made it to rep three on the deadlift and took the knee out. Took so much out of me that I literally put a yoga mat down and fell asleep in the gym for 30 minutes. Its been a time bomb and Ive felt it on squats/leg extensions but not on deads. Clock hit zero on the platform this morning for sure

Waluigi1 posted...

Damn dude, you're looking great! Your traps are crazy haha.

Thank you! Happy to be in a spot that im proud of again! As for the traps, consistent deadlifting/overhead pressing as well as heavy cheat lateral raises/lat pull downs

i do lateral raises 4x a week, both on my push and pull day, and I have to say that I highly recommend it for shoulder strength and muscle growth in that area. Im a small framed dude but can bang out 3 sets of 20 at 35 and 15 at 40 if I went max effort on them. There will be a little cheat there but honestly it gives me better results to the overall shoulder/trap area than perfect form lateral raises at 20 pounds. Its also made my overhead press strong as fuck. There also zero cons to walking around with a side delt pump constantly

I have shoulder issues so I've gotta be really careful about shoulder exercises. I also recently figured out I may have something called popping elbow syndrome? It's apparently pretty rare and there's no fix other than surgery. It really sucks because I can't do anything that puts too much pressure on my elbows, anything like a skullcrusher or hold the weight overhead and coming down. At least cable pulldowns don't seem to effect it so I've still got some options for tris.

Alright, did triceps yesterday and then biceps/brachialis today. Hooray for glory muscles!

Feels good to be back on track. What doesn't feel good is I've got a full length mirror set-up in my workout space now and I definitely need to focus on leg day. Not that something like that should be a surprise to anyone who read the first line of this post.

I got an Olympic hex bar for Christmas, that I haven't got to use yet (thanks to the move). So, I think it's time to start putting that hog to use and dedicate tomorrow or Friday to my "lesser" half haha. Then we'll work in chest Friday or Saturday, pending on which day I rest. Sunday is the Super Bowl, so that's probably wasted, but so long as I don't get so wasted that I can't lift on Monday, then we're officially back in business!

Another challenging day. Shoulder is feeling rough as hell. I feel like its a pattern here of a. I incur an injury or illness that takes me away from the weight room. B. I recover from it and get back into the gym c. I get in crazy good shape again from going HAM and want to talk about the hobby with others so I make a topic here d. As a result of going HAM I am always right at the verge of hurting myself when I make this topic so within a week or so I fuck myself up e. Injury takes its full hold and I have to back away from the gym and abandon this topic, and the cycle repeats itself

hopefully I can break the cycle lol

i did get some singles at 175 OHP today but thats when I noticed the shoulder was having issues. Did block work on the bench at 225 to reduce the shoulder stress but I could still feel it. Finished the workout but a lot of things had to be adapted. Hit some rep prs on low weight with stuff like incline dbs just to say I progressed on something

Zenithian Legend posted...

Alright, did triceps yesterday and then biceps/brachialis today. Hooray for glory muscles!

Feels good to be back on track. What doesn't feel good is I've got a full length mirror set-up in my workout space now and I definitely need to focus on leg day. Not that something like that should be a surprise to anyone who read the first line of this post.

I got an Olympic hex bar for Christmas, that I haven't got to use yet (thanks to the move). So, I think it's time to start putting that hog to use and dedicate tomorrow or Friday to my "lesser" half haha. Then we'll work in chest Friday or Saturday, pending on which day I rest. Sunday is the Super Bowl, so that's probably wasted, but so long as I don't get so wasted that I can't lift on Monday, then we're officially back in business!

l will say this. Fuck leg day. All of it. Straight to hell. It is merely a bridge to the fun days and I absolutely do not look forward to it. The only real days I get hyped for are like 1-2 rep deads/squats just cause you feel like a fucking animal, but normal leg days fuck that

however

of all the nice and strong muscles Ive formed I n my upper body and such, the thing that gets me FAR AND AWAY the most compliments from women and men, is the ass and thighs. Like its not even in the same ball park, and you better believe your boy gets plenty for the arms and shoulders. But man, take those squats and make a nice booty and you wont hear the end of it. And the strength translation to stuff like Ohp/bench is through the fucking roof. So I hate you leg day, but thank you for all youve done for me

The really bad part for me here, is I haven't done a leg day since December. Last time I was sore for about a week! Not looking forward to this, but it has to happen. I'm definitely going light to start as I get back into those exercises.

Pre, intra, and post workout protein shakes will greatly reduce if not entirely eliminate that type of soreness

Yeah, also just don't go so hard the first few times. Stop well before you feel like you've reached your limits

Yeah leg days always leave me sore for a week+
I read somewhere once that having low testosterone will lead to longer soreness but idk if that's actually true. Would make sense for me if so though.

of all the nice and strong muscles Ive formed I n my upper body and such, the thing that gets me FAR AND AWAY the most compliments from women and men, is the ass and thighs. Like its not even in the same ball park, and you better believe your boy gets plenty for the arms and shoulders. But man, take those squats and make a nice booty and you wont hear the end of it. And the strength translation to stuff like Ohp/bench is through the fucking roof. So I hate you leg day, but thank you for all youve done for me

That's both funny and also encouraging cause I'd love to have compliments about my ass/quads lmao. Gotta admit now you've got me curious, but I won't ask you to share a pic lol

Had two bad workouts in a row.

My max effort bench was 1-2 reps off where it should have been.

My squats were just atrocious. I feel so in the weeds at the moment on them. I've got this right hip thing where it feels like I need to "crack" the joint like you do with your back or shoulder or whatever, and I just can't get it done. So when I'm squatting I feel like my hip is not "clearing out" on that side and it causes discomfort. And then my left knee clicks, which while maybe not good, doesn't cause issues...except today where it felt a little sore. Oh, and my left ankle isn't as flexible as my right. So I tried to push through some heavier sets and now my lower back is a bit sore, because I was obviously compensating on technique.

All that, despite the fact that I stretch every morning. And I make it a point to be safe and "a little short of parallel" rather than past parallel, because in the past I've gone too deep on my low bar squat and had all sorts of leg/lower back issues.

^ This is a fear of mine as I get older, and guessing from our registration dates we're not the youngest guys here.

Managed to get 4 workouts in over the past week, which is just fantastic. Hoping to keep the same pace this week, although I'm exhausted from an 8am meeting today and don't really want to workout tonight. Hopefully posting here helps!

No working out for me this week. On vacation lol

I've been trying to do hack squats lately and I can just not figure out how my stance needs to be. I just don't feel much resistance when I do it.

I'm a tall dude and my optimal squat stance is wider than normal. Do I need to place my feet higher and wider?

started back up, gotta lose 5-6 pounds of flubber before my April vacation.

Max effort overhead press was 1-2 off but overall not too bad, though again, wasn't quite feeling it.

Max effort deadlift was actually exactly where it should be. I can (almost) always count on deadlift day to make me feel good!

Overall, 2nd cycle of the year, and my numbers were down for bench, squats, and overhead but up for deadlifts. Next week's a light/rest week, so going to go easy and hope the 3rd cycle goes a little better.

Zenithian Legend posted...

This is a fear of mine as I get older, and guessing from our registration dates we're not the youngest guys here.

Late 30s, so old is simply relative. I'm sure I've got 5-10 years on most of the regulars I see at my gym. But I stay committed. Once you start slacking it's easy to fall off completely.

Hip has been feeling better, though it usually does until squat day. No idea how it always ends up being that way. But I've really been working on stretching it out and working on some range of movement with it. We will see if that pays off.

The "clicky" knee has had a little bit of, let's call it "not good sensation", when doing some warm up body weight squats. Damn thing sounds like a firecracker every rep of deadlift but doesn't impact the exercise, thankfully.

Yeah, getting older sucks. I wish I was this focused when I was younger. But it is what it is. I'm just trying to hold off the entropy as long as possible.

Cycle as in cycle?

Yesterday I measured my arms 15 inches cold flexed, today I benched 225x17 for the first time. Those were my two goals before I turned 30 (in a few weeks) that I set back in September or October. Super pumped. Time to set new goals :D

Think I'm going to try and start dropping back down to 190-195ish since I've been above 200 for a few months. Going to try and get back into legs as well since I've never technically hit the 1000 club and my bench is way ahead. Plus more arms growth. At this point maintaining my bench would be satisfying enough, but that isn't how this game works.

Nice dude, congrats on hitting your goals!

Waluigi1 posted...

Cycle as in cycle?

Sorry, cycle as in periodization. Which...yeah, I should probably explain!

Week 1: 5 reps @ 65% of max, 5 reps @ 75% of max, 5+(+ meaning as many as you can) @ 85% of max, 5 sets of 10 @ 55% of max
Week 2: 3 @ 70%, 3 @ 80%, 3+ @ 90%, 5 sets of 10 @ 55% of max
Week 3: 5 @ 75%, 3 @ 85%, 1+ @ 95%, 5 sets of 10 @ 55% of max
Week 4: 5 @ 40%, 5 @ 50%, 5 @ 60%, 3 sets of 10 @ 55% of max - This is a light/rest week so you don't try to push it. It's just about keeping that muscle memory and avoiding the soreness from taking the week off completely.

Then I increase the max by 1.25 for upper body (bench, overhead) and 2.5 for lower body (squats, deads) and start the cycle again. How much you increase is up to you but I like to be conservative/slow and steady. I'm still pushing myself because the last set is to just before failure, so still make progress that way ("last time at that weight I did 8 reps, this time I did 9").

If I happen to fail to get a rep on the 1+ week, I'll usually still do the increase the next cycle and hope for better results. If it happens again, you reset 10% or whatever you'd like and then start the climb again.

I usually take a bit of a longer break at the end of the year, then I'll reset the numbers a bit to start the new year.

Got my workout in today (thank you to this thread for motivation), triceps and worked in a very small amount of leg exercises at the end. I'll probably try to do calves every other day and then we'll see about the rest pending soreness, etc. Should be alright though given how light I'm starting and aside from calves I only did bodyweight exercises for the legs portion.

late start today but first leg day since my knee got fucked last week. Lets see what happens

Knee feels great. Just chilled at 295 on the squats. Honestly was more awkward for my strained shoulder than it was on the leg

Shoulders fucked to shit

still banged out push lol

200 for 7s bench 120 for 12-13s overhead. All I could really handle on the main lifts

Fell asleep immediately around 5-6pm and woke up pretty late, so no workout today. No excuses tomorrow now.

Weird thing I've tried when benching for reps the last few times is splitting the reps. So if I'm going for ~16 reps, I count to 8, then restart my count at 1. I'm not sure if it serves as a nice mental reset to refocus form, or if sticking to one syllable numbers keeps the cadence more consistent. Regardless, it actually seems to help prevent awkward reps that normally happen in the 12-15 range for me.

imthestuntman posted...

Weird thing I've tried when benching for reps the last few times is splitting the reps. So if I'm going for ~16 reps, I count to 8, then restart my count at 1. I'm not sure if it serves as a nice mental reset to refocus form, or if sticking to one syllable numbers keeps the cadence more consistent. Regardless, it actually seems to help prevent awkward reps that normally happen in the 12-15 range for me.

That definitely sounds like a mental thing. But if it works it works. Counting "14, 15, 16" it's like "wow that's a lot of reps" but hearing "6, 7, 8" it's "I haven't even done 10 yet!"

I know when I'd swim I'd start counting laps over once I reached a mile for the same reasons.

Just got done with my workout. It was technically a easy day but I was so wiped out before I even got to cardio. Not going for a weak and eating like shit will do that >_<

imthestuntman posted...

Weird thing I've tried when benching for reps the last few times is splitting the reps. So if I'm going for ~16 reps, I count to 8, then restart my count at 1. I'm not sure if it serves as a nice mental reset to refocus form, or if sticking to one syllable numbers keeps the cadence more consistent. Regardless, it actually seems to help prevent awkward reps that normally happen in the 12-15 range for me.

I do something to similar but like if Im doing 16 once I get to 8 I then start going 8 7 6 5 etc

its helps mentally but also my CNS is fucking waxed at 13-14 especially on the compounds so I often lose track of where im at if Im just normal counting through the teens

but yeah. I almost kinda break my sets into minisets based off breathing. I usually can get a little more than half my reps on the first huge breathe and brace. So if Im doing a set of 12 its like, huge breath, a set of 7, breathe, set of 3, breath, single, breath, single

if you know you know

Also continuing the carousel of injuries

knee: healed
shoulder: seeing progress
hamstring: colossally fucked after simply the bent part of bent over rows today

Took a couple days off to "reset" and tried a new arms workout I was excited about. I did supersets and tri-sets for triceps, brachialis and biceps with a focus on pushing as much weight as possible without risking injury.

I'll do legs tomorrow and then chest, back and shoulders next, with calves mixed in every other workout. I'm gonna stay consistent with this rotation until at least April and see how it goes.

Splitting biceps/brachialis and triceps made sense for awhile, but I got to a point where I was overworking my beloved glory muscles and it's time to try something new!

Is the brachialis a separate muscle from the biceps?

Waluigi1 posted...

Is the brachialis a separate muscle from the biceps?

Without doing any research, I think it's something to do with the "long head" vs "short head" muscles (i.e. the more internal arm muscle versus the "show" muscle.

My squat woes continue. Even at the lighter weights I was still feeling the hip issues. I've begun to suspect that perhaps the cause is that I'm more "dropping" into the hole rather doing a controlled descent. Or to put it another way, maybe I feel like my hip isn't clearing out because I'm literally not giving it time to do so!

And that makes a certain amount of sense based upon deadlift issues that I had in the past. I was rushing the reps, almost bouncing the weight off the floor rather than resetting each time, and I ended up throwing my lower back out. Nowadays I always make sure to pull from a dead stop, making sure to take a deep breath and realign. Even loosening and then tightening my grip to make sure I don't rush.

i think it all stems from mentally wanting to push beyond your capabilities. Whether it's more weight or more reps, you want to see the numbers go up in some way. But you've got to do it right and maintain proper form. Ultimately, working out (for 99% of people) should be about health rather than "competition" (internally or externally focused).

Waluigi1 posted...

Is the brachialis a separate muscle from the biceps?

Short answer, yes. I think a diagram works best here:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/2/4/AAAR_BAAC8gc.jpg

Now I'm no doctor or fancy scientist, but from my understanding this is a muscle that lies between the biceps and triceps. So, by focusing on that and building a bigger brachialis, you'll push the other muscles out further creating a "wider" looking arm.

Oh ok interesting! This is the first I've ever even heard of it.

Finally did leg day! I went light, but I can already feel it haha. Pray for Mojo.

iiaattgg posted...

I do something to similar but like if Im doing 16 once I get to 8 I then start going 8 7 6 5 etc

its helps mentally but also my CNS is fucking waxed at 13-14 especially on the compounds so I often lose track of where im at if Im just normal counting through the teens

but yeah. I almost kinda break my sets into minisets based off breathing. I usually can get a little more than half my reps on the first huge breathe and brace. So if Im doing a set of 12 its like, huge breath, a set of 7, breathe, set of 3, breath, single, breath, single

if you know you know

I think I'm misunderstanding this, because this reads like you aren't breathing through your reps....? I'm pretty sure that breathing properly while doing compound lifts is more important than being actually strong lol.

imthestuntman posted...

I think I'm misunderstanding this, because this reads like you aren't breathing through your reps....? I'm pretty sure that breathing properly while doing compound lifts is more important than being actually strong lol.

I think it amounts to breathing properly (i.e. in and out at the right times, depending upon the exercise you're doing). Failure to do that will 100% affect your lifts, especially on high weight sets. Not to mention the injury risk. As an example, on something like overhead press, you actually kinda do want to bang out as many reps as possible before breathing because it affects your ability to keep your chest high and tight.

Seanchan posted...

I think it amounts to breathing properly (i.e. in and out at the right times, depending upon the exercise you're doing). Failure to do that will 100% affect your lifts, especially on high weight sets. Not to mention the injury risk. As an example, on something like overhead press, you actually kinda do want to bang out as many reps as possible before breathing because it affects your ability to keep your chest high and tight.

Gotcha, thats what I was meaning. Like on bench its in as the weight goes down, out as the weight goes up.

Seanchan posted...

I think it amounts to breathing properly (i.e. in and out at the right times, depending upon the exercise you're doing). Failure to do that will 100% affect your lifts, especially on high weight sets. Not to mention the injury risk. As an example, on something like overhead press, you actually kinda do want to bang out as many reps as possible before breathing because it affects your ability to keep your chest high and tight.

Yeah. I absolutely get better results holding that first breath as long as possible on the compound lifts.

Breathing is one of the things I've tried to make myself more aware of as I lift. Especially in terms of feeling like I'm taking the air "deep" into my belly rather "shallow" than into my neck/throat.

I'm really bad about my breathing. For some reason my natural instinct is to breathe in as I'm pushing out my reps instead of out.

Alright, chest/back day is happening come hell or highwater tonight, ended up adding in an unexpected rest day (again). Not the worst thing since that still keeps me on an every-other day schedule, but I'd like to get to at least 2 on/1 off, or ideally 3 on/1 off. In the words of Arnold, "C'mon, let's get serious!"

I wish I had the discipline to do 3 on 1 off. I am weak. Both mentally and physically T_T

Waluigi1 posted...

I wish I had the discipline to do 3 on 1 off. I am weak. Both mentally and physically T_T

One you get a good routine then things get easier and easier. If I can consistently get to 3 and 1, I'll be happy and that's about as far as I want to push at this point in life.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2_Mn-qRKjA

Been getting lazy. Lifted a bit two days ago, my arms are still sore.

Anagram posted...

Been getting lazy. Lifted a bit two days ago, my arms are still sore.

Stay at it homie! Long term consistency is key

speaking off, I took two more rest days tues/weds to help everything heal overall. Did some light deadlifts today 325 for 3 sets of 5, and felt fine in the Hammy and knee. Did some light squats however and could tell that the shoulder still has some challenges. Either way was glad to get a meaningful lift in

Ha! And I'm doing deadlifts with maybe 120-130lbs max right now, we'll see tonight for another exciting leg day!

Anyway, I need to pick up more weights for certain exercises, I could use a 60lb and 70lb dumbbell for triceps presses. I'm also trying to decide on a good Olympic weight set or just pick up a few individual plates for that hex bar. Dick's and Dunham's both run a regular special for a 300lb set at $300, fairly solid price, but there's a handful of complaints about the plates being jagged.

Everything is pretty much 50-100% higher priced than pre-Covid, seems most weights are $1.50/lb instead of the standard $1/lb we used to see. Looked like about $1/lb for used weights now, which is what I'm leaning. I'm going to run by the used sporting goods store today and find out, they had some photos with a ton of bigger weights just sitting there on the floor. I'd imagine some of them are salvageable and I think/hope I'm targeting weights that aren't in as much demand.

I digress, anyone else purchase dumbbells and/or plates recently? What did you go with and from where? I have a little over 300lbs in plates ranging from 1.5 to 15lbs, but the bars I put them on only have so much space!

^Updating, Dunham's had cast iron weights at $1.19/lb, which all things considered isn't bad in the current market.

The used sporting goods store was $1/lb used and $1.70 for new! Dick's Sporting Goods was on the higher end too, and don't even get me started on how much of a joke FB market place is right now. People must think their old weights are made of solid gold.

My favorite part of working out is right after I finish my last set, when I'm the farthest I will be from my next workout.