I havn’t done them before, and today was my first time actually trying them. After the 5 rep I had to put the bar down because my heart started pounding really hard and it was somewhat hard to breathe.
Does anyone have an idea what that could be from?
[quote]michaelangelos wrote:
I havn’t done them before, and today was my first time actually trying them. After the 5 rep I had to put the bar down because my heart started pounding really hard and it was somewhat hard to breathe.
Does anyone have an idea what that could be from?[/quote]
Are you out of shape? Do you normally do heavy compound movements? You might just be out of shape due to whatever you normally do/don’t do.
Squats should be a very demanding movement which if you are not used to it, can cause you to feel that way. Even if you are in shape, you will hear guys talking about puking due to the extreme energy exerted with squats.
Weakness or just plain working hard. However you want to look at it.
Squats work a large part of the body, and can be very taxing for the beginners and advanced lifters alike. It could be true that your cardio is in such weak condition that just those five took you out, but don’t get discouraged. Keep working on them regularly, and you will improve.
You may also consider bodyweight squats (deep knee bends, as to the grass). Once you can perform 100 non-stop you’ll be getting somewhere. This will improve your muscular endurace/cardio with the required muscles, but once you put some weight on there you’ll likely feel that heart pounding again.
[quote]michaelangelos wrote:
I havn’t done them before, and today was my first time actually trying them. After the 5 rep I had to put the bar down because my heart started pounding really hard and it was somewhat hard to breathe.
Does anyone have an idea what that could be from?[/quote]
Welcome to squatting. That’s called exertion. Can be accompanied by muscle tremors, shortness of breath and a sincere desire to quit. Those who don’t quit see a major postive change in their strength and fitness levels.
Your GPP(General Physical Preparedness )/ conditioning is poor. I find that squat tend to make this more obvious than other exercises, so that might be why didn’t notice it before. Personaly, squats have been good indicators of how well my GPP(General Physical Preparedness )is doing. You need to working building some endurance both muscular and cardiovascular.
Or it could just be nerves and lack of confidence, especially since it was your first time.
It’s OK to start with bodyweight squats, then squat just the bar, and increse weight gradually once you’ve got the form and the breathing down.
I’ve been thinking about doing cardio, but I’m trying really hard to gain weight so I’m thinking that it will have the opposite effect.
I’m 5’9" about 130 pounds.
[quote]michaelangelos wrote:
I’ve been thinking about doing cardio, but I’m trying really hard to gain weight so I’m thinking that it will have the opposite effect.
I’m 5’9" about 130 pounds.[/quote]
Then keep squatting and drink milk. (whole milk)
This is not a joke.
I try to drink as much milk as i can through out the day. Usually around 8 glasses now.
Does anyone have an opinion on whether or not I should do cardio? I’m trying to gain weight, but I don’t have good endurance.
I would look into doing some incline walking or other GPP work on off days. Do a search for GPP articles, I know many have written about it in the past. I liked the ones by Dave Tate and I believe Waterbury wrote a good one a few years back.
[quote]michaelangelos wrote:
I try to drink as much milk as i can through out the day. Usually around 8 glasses now.
Does anyone have an opinion on whether or not I should do cardio? I’m trying to gain weight, but I don’t have good endurance.[/quote]
As long as you’re eating enough, then cardio shouldn’t be detrimental. However, if you really want to get your wind up forget about long duration low intensity cardio (walking, jogging, eliptical, etc… at a steady pace for long periods of time).
Instead focus on techniques like interval training, circuits, strong man exercises etc… Those exercises will have much more carry over to lifting, improve both your aerobic and anaerobic endurance. And many people believe that they are better in terms of preserving lean mass.
But remember, if you’re not eating enough, then you’re not going to be building muscle regardless of whether or not you’re doing cardio.
Good training,
Sentoguy
[quote]michaelangelos wrote:
I’ve been thinking about doing cardio, but I’m trying really hard to gain weight so I’m thinking that it will have the opposite effect.
I’m 5’9" about 130 pounds.[/quote]
If you do you better be prepared to eat even more if you plan on gaining some meat. Lemme ask you this. What do you think will happen with your aerobic capacity (wind) if you keep squatting and doing other large lifts on a consistent basis? Any chance it will improve whether you do cardio or not? People tend to to draw much too stark a contrast between anaerobic work (lifting weights) and endurance work (aerobic work). Yes they are different and training for one will not provide OPTIMAL results in the other. However, keep training hard, especially big lifts, and check back here in 6-8 weeks. If you haven’t seen a drastic increase in aerobic capacity you’ll be the first.
In my opinion, you don’t need cardio now. You’re small and trying to change that and having a hard time to boot. Cardio will make that even harder. It will improve your wind, but so will developing decent training habits.
Oh yeah, like the other guy said, welcome to squatting my friend LOL!. There ain’t nuthin wrong with you, exertion it is. Few things in life will let you know what you’re made of like a healthy leg workout. Trust me, it’s your best friend if you have any plans on getting anywhere in this game.
[quote]Tiribulus wrote:
michaelangelos wrote:
I’ve been thinking about doing cardio, but I’m trying really hard to gain weight so I’m thinking that it will have the opposite effect.
I’m 5’9" about 130 pounds.
If you do you better be prepared to eat even more if you plan on gaining some meat. Lemme ask you this. What do you think will happen with your aerobic capacity (wind) if you keep squatting and doing other large lifts on a consistent basis? Any chance it will improve whether you do cardio or not? People tend to to draw much too stark a contrast between anaerobic work (lifting weights) and endurance work (aerobic work). Yes they are different and training for one will not provide OPTIMAL results in the other. However, keep training hard, especially big lifts, and check back here in 6-8 weeks. If you haven’t seen a drastic increase in aerobic capacity you’ll be the first.
In my opinion, you don’t need cardio now. You’re small and trying to change that and having a hard time to boot. Cardio will make that even harder. It will improve your wind, but so will developing decent training habits.
Oh yeah, like the other guy said, welcome to squatting my friend LOL!. There ain’t nuthin wrong with you, exertion it is. Few things in life will let you know what you’re made of like a healthy leg workout. Trust me, it’s your best friend if you have any plans on getting anywhere in this game.[/quote]
That’s what I was thinking. I just wanted to know if my endurance would go up from weight lifting more or if I needed to do cardio for that.
Yeah, I just wasn’t sure if it was normal for squats to drain you that much since I never did them before.
Does anyone have an opinion on how much weight I should try to use for squats? I’m 15 and never did any serious leg exercises, but it seems that when I tried doing squats, I could add 20-30 pounds and it was still as hard as before, so what is a good weight to try and start off with?
[quote]michaelangelos wrote:
<<< That’s what I was thinking. I just wanted to know if my endurance would go up from weight lifting more or if I needed to do cardio for that.
Yeah, I just wasn’t sure if it was normal for squats to drain you that much since I never did them before.
Does anyone have an opinion on how much weight I should try to use for squats? I’m 15 and never did any serious leg exercises, but it seems that when I tried doing squats, I could add 20-30 pounds and it was still as hard as before, so what is a good weight to try and start off with?[/quote]
Sentoguy has some good points, but I suspect he hasn’t been in your other threads yet. Strongman work would REALLY getchya both ways, didn’t think of that, but from what I’ve seen you’re still learning to walk and I don’t know how practical it would be for you at this point. I doubt if you even know what that is which is understandable just starting out.
There is no way for anybody else to attach numbers to your lifts for you. Start light, really light (always, unless you like hospitals) and work your way up until you find out weights wear you out at what points in a set. I’ll give you a hint. At your level you have more than you think if you learn to control some discomfort. Never sacrifice form though. Which leads me to the question of whether you have somebody more experienced maybe to help you out. Movements like squats can downright mame you if you don’t learn to do em right.
[quote]Tiribulus wrote:
michaelangelos wrote:
<<< That’s what I was thinking. I just wanted to know if my endurance would go up from weight lifting more or if I needed to do cardio for that.
Yeah, I just wasn’t sure if it was normal for squats to drain you that much since I never did them before.
Does anyone have an opinion on how much weight I should try to use for squats? I’m 15 and never did any serious leg exercises, but it seems that when I tried doing squats, I could add 20-30 pounds and it was still as hard as before, so what is a good weight to try and start off with?
Sentoguy has some good points, but I suspect he hasn’t been in your other threads yet. Strongman work would REALLY getchya both ways, didn’t think of that, but from what I’ve seen you’re still learning to walk and I don’t know how practical it would be for you at this point. I doubt if you even know what that is which is understandable just starting out.
There is no way for anybody else to attach numbers to your lifts for you. Start light, really light (always, unless you like hospitals) and work your way up until you find out weights wear you out at what points in a set. I’ll give you a hint. At your level you have more than you think if you learn to control some discomfort. Never sacrifice form though. Which leads me to the question of whether you have somebody more experienced maybe to help you out. Movements like squats can downright mame you if you don’t learn to do em right.
[/quote]
I don’t know what strongman is.
I think I have good form in everything. I’m pretty sure for squats you just have to stick your butt out and make sure your knees don’t pass your toes when you go down.
When I tried 110 pounds I found that when I went back up my back wasn’t straight. I was leaning forward slightly and had to straighten my back at the top. Does that mean I need to lower the weight?
No, I don’t have anyone to help me out.
[quote]Tiribulus wrote:
Sentoguy has some good points, but I suspect he hasn’t been in your other threads yet. Strongman work would REALLY getchya both ways, didn’t think of that, but from what I’ve seen you’re still learning to walk and I don’t know how practical it would be for you at this point. I doubt if you even know what that is which is understandable just starting out.
There is no way for anybody else to attach numbers to your lifts for you. Start light, really light (always, unless you like hospitals) and work your way up until you find out weights wear you out at what points in a set. I’ll give you a hint. At your level you have more than you think if you learn to control some discomfort. Never sacrifice form though. Which leads me to the question of whether you have somebody more experienced maybe to help you out. Movements like squats can downright mame you if you don’t learn to do em right.
[/quote]
Thanks Trib, and you’re right, I haven’t been in his other threads, so I was just throwing basic ideas out there.
Now, as to whether strongman stuff is necessarily more advanced or dangerous for a beginner, I’m not so sure. Think about it, a lot of strongman events (exercises) are simply mimicking manual labor chores (only to an extreme level).
For instance farmer’s walks are simply based on the idea of having to carry heavy things for distance. For instance a farmer having to carry two heavy buckets of water from one point to another. People learn how to do this all the time without any formal training, and often times as young children who’s bones haven’t even fully developed.
Of course I would agree that one could still hurt themselves if they used poor lifting form and/or tried to do too much too fast. There are also certainly more traditional lifting resources than there are strongman exercise resources.
Some easier, less dangerous lifts like farmer’s carries or pushing/pulling a sled might be good exercises to throw in at a beginner level that would give you both wind and strength, while still being fairly non technical and fairly safe.
Once again, just some ideas.
Good training,
Sentoguy
Well said fellas…
As said previously we can’t tell you how much weight you should do. However, starting light, lots of reps, and learning correct form should be your number 1 priority. Later you can add weight, then a little more weight, then a little more…
(p.s. This i’ve found to be the easiest and best way to learn to squat properly:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6529481301858251744&q=dan+john&total=5202&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0
Dan John is one of the authors here and in this video he goes from the Squat, to Overhead squat, to Snath. Highly recommended!!!)
For adding weight I would recommend a simple 5X5 method. For some ideas and variations check this article: http://www.T-Nation.com/readArticle.do?id=627517&cr=
Now… regarding endurance Vs strength…
Heavy lifting will build up your endurance. Period.
Ex: look at how tired you felt after squatting.
Later on throw in some complexes of compound movements, or some HIIT, to your training and your endurance will go up even further.
As other have said… Steady state jogging or up hill walking should be kept to your “off-days” when your not lifting. (although sometimes you may not even be able to that)
my 2cents
[quote]Sentoguy wrote:
Tiribulus wrote:
Sentoguy has some good points, but I suspect he hasn’t been in your other threads yet. Strongman work would REALLY getchya both ways, didn’t think of that, but from what I’ve seen you’re still learning to walk and I don’t know how practical it would be for you at this point. I doubt if you even know what that is which is understandable just starting out.
There is no way for anybody else to attach numbers to your lifts for you. Start light, really light (always, unless you like hospitals) and work your way up until you find out weights wear you out at what points in a set. I’ll give you a hint. At your level you have more than you think if you learn to control some discomfort. Never sacrifice form though. Which leads me to the question of whether you have somebody more experienced maybe to help you out. Movements like squats can downright mame you if you don’t learn to do em right.
Thanks Trib, and you’re right, I haven’t been in his other threads, so I was just throwing basic ideas out there.
Now, as to whether strongman stuff is necessarily more advanced or dangerous for a beginner, I’m not so sure. Think about it, a lot of strongman events (exercises) are simply mimicking manual labor chores (only to an extreme level).
For instance farmer’s walks are simply based on the idea of having to carry heavy things for distance. For instance a farmer having to carry two heavy buckets of water from one point to another. People learn how to do this all the time without any formal training, and often times as young children who’s bones haven’t even fully developed.
Of course I would agree that one could still hurt themselves if they used poor lifting form and/or tried to do too much too fast. There are also certainly more traditional lifting resources than there are strongman exercise resources.
Some easier, less dangerous lifts like farmer’s carries or pushing/pulling a sled might be good exercises to throw in at a beginner level that would give you both wind and strength, while still being fairly non technical and fairly safe.
Once again, just some ideas.
Good training,
Sentoguy[/quote]
Yeah, I was referring only to the fact of how brand new this guy is to everything. Farmer’s walks even with some dumbbells would be good, especially up and down stairs if he’s really looking to push it.
The injury thing was more in reference to regular lifts like squats and benches where it’s easy to hurt yourself if you don’t know what you’re doing or develop chronic issues if you don’t know you’re doing anything wrong which is why I’d hoped somebody could help him out, but it doesn’t look like that’s an option.
He’s also 15 years old which I don’t know if you knew… He needs a general “get me in better shape” ultra beginners program if you ask me.
What’s HIIT?
HIIT = High Intensity Interval Training, very intense and much better than long slow cardio. Google it for more info.
Take a look at “Starting Strength” by Rippetoe. (Google will help) He recommends starting with an empty bar and progressing by 5-10 lbs per workout. You will build tolerance for the exercise by working with progressively heavier weights 3 days/wk. You will get incredibly strong in quick order with his program.