here in lies the secret that most people dont want to listen too.
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I should actually respond to the substance of your post - youāre crushing it! Totally agree thereās nothing new. I do my best when I just let someone else decide what to do (via the magic of the Internet); why get in my own head if I donāt have to?
Awesome stuff on the weight loss while increasing strength. What has surprised me most with more ābeginnerā type clients is the number of folks asking if they can possibly consider lifting weights while also having some bodyfat to lose. The Internet has convinced everyone, even 60lbs. overweight, that they all have the same conditions as a natural bodybuilder (because Ronnie even doubled 800 days out from the Olympia) 2 weeks from stage. Itās wild how just doing answers the questions (which I need to remember myself - Iāve not been crushing it lately).
Good work!
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Love the sentiment here dude Itās funny: when I first viewed/joined t-nation, it was far more about āsurvival of the fittestā on the forums, where the weak were culled and the strong rose to the top. Thatās cool and all, but these days itās far more a community and the rising tide: weāre all collectively making ourselves better by SHARING our talents vs hoarding them.
Rather than making the best better and killing off the weak, I feel like weāre doing a fantastic job of growing our MIDDLE: and in doing so, we ALL get better.
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Congrats on the recent squats and deadlifts. Amazing.
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@TrainForPain ya know, I have always been a little confused by the concept that you canāt get stronger and lose fat at the same time. Growing up, that was just called getting into shape. And while I know all the āturn fat to muscleā stuff is a load of bull, you can certainly replace one with another, especially as someone new to working out.
@T3hPwnisher totally agreed. Iāve been following along in these forums sinceā¦. 2012? Didnāt start posting until years later, but definitely witnessed a change of audience, I think for the better. Donāt get me wrong, itās awesome to see those absolute freak shows, but a lot of them didnāt actually contribute much to others, rather just mocked anyone who lost a 405lb front squat challenge. (To date, the most epic thread I have seen)
@jdm135 thanks! Lower body strength really kicking off for me, good place to be in!
Work for today:
43 minutes elliptical. Went a little harder today, kept heart rate around 160 the entire time
AM weight: 221.6. Dropping a little too quick, I need to start eating more
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Totally agree with you and @T3hPwnisher that I prefer the community today.
But, to be fair, I donāt think anyone mocked the loser. The winner even told him to stay, but he was proud.
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Came into the gym angry, and decided before I even got there that today I was hitting 405x10 on deadlifts.
Anger is something Iāve noticed is very important with the deadlift. You have to be prepared and you gotta go in full throttle without any hesitation. Awesome PR, sounded like a RPE 1000 which is epic effort haha
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Work for today: 531c5w1d3
Bench; 45x15, 135x5, 165x3, 190x3, 215x3+ (5)
BBB: 155x10, 155x10, 155x10, 155x7, 135x10
Db row: 60x10, 85x15, 90x13, 90x12, 105x8
Db inc bench: 50x12, 55x12, 60x8, 60x8
Lat pulldown: 90x15, 130x12, 130x12, 130x12
Hamme curl: 20x12, 20x12, 20x12
Cable curl: 25x12, 25x12, 30x13
Db Lu raise: 15x15, 15x12
Notes:
- the bench free fall continues. Iām seriously considering running a different program just for my bench. Every other lift? 531. Bench? Maybe something like juggernautAi had me doing. I was feeling VERY strong without honestly feeling like I was pushing bench that hard. Idk the magic behind that, but I know that bench and 531 just do not mix well for me.
- walked into this after pulling an all nighter at work, fasted, only 1000 calories yesterday. Needless to say; itās been a fantastic week.
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Knocked out some meal prep today.
Made a chicken salad, swapped out mayo for Greek yogurt and then just a tad of low cal Mayo to get the flavor right, threw in a ton on red onions, celery, and almonds. Turned out better than I thought, definitely going into the rotation.
Continuing my sweet potato and chicken meal, tastes amazing with some low cal honey mustard
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Bench for me is very much connected to my weight. When I start to lose weight my bench suffers every time.
Work for today: 531 c5w2d1
Jumps: 5x3
Squat: 45x10, 45x10, 135x5, 135x5, 185x3, 225x3, 245x3, 280x3, 315x3+ (10, ugly PR)
FSL: 245x5, 245x5, 245x5, 245x5, 245x5
RDL: 135x12, 165x12, 185x11, 215x10, 245x9
Face pull: 42.5x15, 57.5x12, 57.5x12, 57.5x12
Hack squat: sledx10, 90x5, 140x5, 180x12, 180x12
GHD sit-up: 11, 10, 10, 9
Notes:
- 315x10 is a nice PR on squats. These were ugly as sin, squats felt like crap, had a ton of knee cave, was falling forward, even warmups felt like junk. Video shows, form was crap, which means brute strength is up lol. And honestly, the bar moved pretty well. Had the knee cave, pitched forward a bit on a few, but feeling explosive enough that none of it mattered, the damn bar was gonna move. Happy with that.
- quads still weak. Itās going to take a long time of focus to fix that. Iām all ass and hamstrings on pretty much anything lower body. I know the solution, just gonna take some time for the quads to catch up from the lastā¦. Oh idk, 8 years of lifting lol.
- I think hack squat really does need to become a regular part of my rotation. Never felt anything that isolated my quads that much, seems like a good thing to do after squats as a sort of assurance my quads got their āsquatā work that day.
- really thinking of trying a little Olympic lifting after this strongman comp, slowly make my training a little CrossFit-ish as I start to prioritize conditioning and explosiveness over strength. Not sure if I am down to really chase it, but at the least Iād like to learn how to do a halfway decent power clean
AM weight: 223.3, finally managed to stop the massive weight drop, settled out losing 12lbs in the last 5 weeks, happy with that
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we want to see it. LOL Nice work toughing them out mate
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@simo74 i was getting to that part! Lol. And Iām response to above, I totally agree, my bench likes me fat. Still, right now I can press 1 plate for 10, squat 3 for 10, deadlift 4 for 10ā¦. And bench 2 for 5? This lift hates me
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How many times a week are you benching and in what rep ranges ? How much dumbell bench are you doing ?
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Tagging in @wiseman83 also tagged him into your IG. You look like you have plenty of strength but the reps were rushed and a little messy.
Do you do any tempo pause squatting ?
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Definitely a little rushed. The pace between reps is fine, but yeah each rep itself looks rushed! And a result you look to be losing tightness, almost straight away.
Focus Less on getting the rep over with, and more on absolute control on each reps decent.
Might be harder at first. But eh. Quality over quantity when it comes to squats, especially high rep sets.
Paused squats would help here for sure. But I think the improvement can be made within these sets that youāre doing already, rather than change anything else. At least at first.
Squat with more purpose, not just for sake of getting the work in.
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@simo74 @wiseman83 appreciate the help gents
- I bench once a week, and then normally do some type of dumbbell bench on my overhead press day. Just following 531 on that one
- I do pause my warmups generally. I stop once I get to my 531 working sets, but normally up to 225ish has a little beltless pause
- You definitely hit the nail on the head with me rushing squats. 2 (and kind of 3) factors with this. 1) I hate squats, and the moment the bar gets on my back, I want the set to be over 2) I try to be āexplosiveā when I lift, which I think ends with me dive bombing some squats just trying to make weight move fast overall 3) all the racks were taken today and a cute gal asked if I wanted to work in with her (hence the other barbell in the rack behind me). Lizard brain says ālift it fast so it looks easyā.
- part 3 of the above is actually the only reason i have a video, I mentioned it was my top set and she offered to film it on her phone and then send it to me. This is in no way relevant anymore to my squats, purely bragging.
But overall, I do need to slow down. Strength is in a good spot right now (for me anyway,) but Iām not going to get where I want without a little more technical focus than I tend to give unless promoted. Definitely a weak point in my lifting game, Iāve always been more of a brute force kinda guy, but I think it limits me.
Any thoughts on the knee cave? Enough to worry about or should I just roll with it?
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Firstly who cares about squats, we want to hear about the cute girl. Hope she gave you her number.
OK back to squats. With regards to you pausing the warm up sets, I would not do that. Maybe some paused stretch at the bottom with an empty bar but other than that I try to make all my sets exactly the same. Same unrack, same step back, same controlled descent, same on the way up.
I would do some slow tempo paused work as assistance work on another day of the week, this will help with getting comfortable being tight under the bar. They suck.
Knee cave is not always an issue, depends on how bad and when in the movement. Do you have a video from directly in front that shows it ? @wiseman83 thoughts ?
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Lol, she specifically offered to videotape on her phone, so she would have to send it to me. I thought that was a clever way of subtly giving me her number. Navy girl, also an officer so no issues there. Tiny girl, hit a 240 back squat pretty clean.
Ahh yes, those.
Hmm, that is a good point on the squats. Honestly, I find that I fidget with my stance width and foot angle almost every stance, trying to figure out what really feels ārightā. Wider is definitely better, but then I go too wide and lose all quads. Sometimes I put my feet too far forward, then I overcorrect with toes pointed out. Getting a little better about it, but especially with low bar, Iām still kinda feeling out where exactly I need to setup. Your definitely right that keeping it consistent would help me out, I will have to focus on that.
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I read or saw an interview with Ed Coan where he talked about doing really sow squats, like 10 second descent. He did this so he could feel the bar in the correct path at any point of the movement. If the bar was a little forward he would feel it and correct it. I am sure @wiseman83 knows the interview.
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