[quote]Sxio wrote:
When I started benching, I benched the bar. I now bench about 80kgs. It’s not much for some. For me, it’s awesome. I never would’ve been capable of this if I hadn’t had done the hard yards and incrementally increased over the years.
And I’m not done yet. I’m not even half way there. But it’s a journey, not a destination.
One day, I will have a bench that impresses other people to hear about it. But not today.
One day. How many days is up to how hard I train, how well I eat and how much I sleep. [/quote]
According to your profile, you’ve been lifting for 5 years and you weight 90 kg (198 lbs). You can bench 80 kg (176 lbs). Something is wrong with that. Or was it a typo?
I’ve been training less than a year and can bench my bodyweight (205) for 5 reps, and my bench is a weak lift for me. I don’t see how it’s possible to not be able to do a bodyweight bench, or even worse not even being able to squat bodyweight, after even a year of lifting. Those should be easy numbers.
[quote]mrdav2u wrote:
I dont know man… I think the numbers around here are probably legit for the most part. Im 6’2" 240 and have squatted 5 plates, pulled 4, and benched 3 and think those are all pretty mediocre. I feel like I need to add about 80 lbs to my dead and 50 to my bench before Id even consider myself kinda strong.
[/quote]
Yeah…i’d cry myself to sleep every night if i was “only” hitting those numbers in the gym. many people would kill to be your size and have those numbers. from my experience, maybe one percent of the people in any gym i’ve been aren’t strong as you.
[quote]horny yoda wrote:
Vesson wrote:
My other hellishly weak point is chins, fuck I hate them, I used to be able to do about 8, hurt my neck doing them (about a year and a half ago) and have trouble doing 2 now.
Hm. I’m not sure how you can hurt your neck doing chins?
[/quote]
There have been a few people, including myself on this board that have mentioned this happenning. I think it is the trapezius muscle that is being pulled. Since I started pulling with my head tilted back (i.e. don’t stretch your neck to get over the bar) and pulling to the chest I have not had this happen to me.
[quote]uberswank wrote:
(i.e. don’t stretch your neck to get over the bar). [/quote]
Pull ups don’t require getting your chin over the bar. I had never heard of people straining their necks to the point of injury just to cheat their chin over the bar. I guess some people really do NEED personal trainers.
It’s very odd to me. But I guess just as there are people who are naturally very strong, there are people who are naturally very week. Still, that would seem to be a very long time of lifting weights to be lifting so little even for someone that’s naturally very weak
[quote]baretta wrote:
mrdav2u wrote:
I dont know man… I think the numbers around here are probably legit for the most part. Im 6’2" 240 and have squatted 5 plates, pulled 4, and benched 3 and think those are all pretty mediocre. I feel like I need to add about 80 lbs to my dead and 50 to my bench before Id even consider myself kinda strong.
Yeah…i’d cry myself to sleep every night if i was “only” hitting those numbers in the gym. many people would kill to be your size and have those numbers. from my experience, maybe one percent of the people in any gym i’ve been aren’t strong as you.
yeah, i’m bitter.
[/quote]
Most gyms are pretty lousy. I’m easily one of the strongest guys at my gym. Which feels pretty good, but it’d feel even better if it was a really high-quality one. It’s not that great a one.
I’ve seen posts from people who 1) claim they weigh a good 70 lbs less than me, 2) have been training just as long as me, and 3) squat 50-100 lbs more than me (ass to grass of course!)…
considering I’ve been lifting for less than two years, haven’t been skimpy in the food departement (thats putting it mildly lol), and have focused on things like full squats and deads for most of that time, I find it pretty hard to believe there are a bunch of skinny 18 year olds running around who have only been traing “off and on” for two years and are that much stronger than me…
Hell, I could be wrong, but I go to a gym with a lot of people and have yet to see a single 170 pound 18 year old do anything but quarter squats with 135. I’m not saying they arent out there, but unless every single one of them posts on this site, I call bull shit…
Just do it. Assuming you’re healthy, you should be MUCH stronger then that. While I think “strong” is 1.5xbw bench, bw military, 2xbw squat and 2xbw deadlift, I’d say anything less then bw bench, bw squat and bw deadlift is “weak”.
I agree with one of the above posters that you shouldn’t go off and hurt yourself, but you need to get some weight on the bar. Your numbers make me believe that your technique and/or motivation are all wrong.
[quote]Professor X wrote:
uberswank wrote:
(i.e. don’t stretch your neck to get over the bar).
Pull ups don’t require getting your chin over the bar. I had never heard of people straining their necks to the point of injury just to cheat their chin over the bar. I guess some people really do NEED personal trainers.[/quote]
Not everyone doing pullups knows to pull to their chest. I didn’t when first starting out, and my improper form contributed to me pulling that muscle. There are posts every couple of months from people with the same problem, so it is more common than you think.
Based on what I said earlier, and what was commented on in response, we are in agreement that not only do you not see many people squatting heavy, say over 300 lbs for reps, but you don’t actually see many people doing free bar squats at all.
In facr the last time I actually saw anyone doing squats in my gym, and its a busy gym, they were doing them on the smith machine with the bar weight plus 88lbs. They had knee wraps on too and were making so much noise I thought amateurhandjobs website was filming and I just couldn’t see the girl bringin him off.
The thing was the guy in question was pretty big…at least in the upper body, he just had no legs to speak of anyway.
In my book anyone regardless of size who can do reps say, 6 + with 308 lbs (6 plates in 44lb plates) for a few sets is pretty much damn strong. Once you can do 4 plates per side for reps, you are pretty much strong as fuck relatively.
Of course many people can do more (i’ll admit that includes me too) but they are even stronger. I know guys who can bench over 300 but not able to squat 175 too.
On the flip side of the argument about BS lifting numbers, I think there are a lot of people on the internet who like to call bullshit on numbers just because they aren’t lifting close to those numbers yet.
There is always going to be a guy out there who is stronger, and maybe even lighter than you.
Get over it, and compete with yourself.
Knowing what others do is fine, but take into consideration how long it took them to get there and how much work went into getting there.
The majority of posters on a site like this are not the same as the average gym goer, and even less like the average person.
I don’t see a reason not to believe the majority of the numbers I’ve seen written on here, unless their numbers are close to record breaking, in which case someone will call bullshit and the person in question will usually, eventually, post a picture or video proving it.
Not everyone doing pullups knows to pull to their chest. I didn’t when first starting out, and my improper form contributed to me pulling that muscle. There are posts every couple of months from people with the same problem, so it is more common than you think.[/quote]
All that points to is either gyms full of people who have no clue with no one more experienced even training there, or gyms filling up with people who have no clue who think they know so much that they won’t even watch or take advice from older more experienced lifters. I see many posts on this site where some newbie in the gym for the first time actually has the nerve make a post about how some larger lifter in his gym had poor form. Hearing people talking about Ronnie Coleman’s dumbbell press as if he did them wrong is painful. I wouldn’t be surprised if there weren’t many who thought they knew more than people much bigger than them everytime they enter a gym.
I never did pull ups that way because I watched other people. That was all there was to it. I would pick the guy in the gym that was beyond me in development and watch how he lifted. Is this simply not going on anymore? Should we expect more freaking neck injuries from pull ups due to acting like a giraffe? I wouldn’t even tell anyone I injured myself that way.
[quote]Victor Lustig wrote:
Based on what I said earlier, and what was commented on in response, we are in agreement that not only do you not see many people squatting heavy, say over 300 lbs for reps, but you don’t actually see many people doing free bar squats at all.
In facr the last time I actually saw anyone doing squats in my gym, and its a busy gym, they were doing them on the smith machine with the bar weight plus 88lbs. They had knee wraps on too and were making so much noise I thought amateurhandjobs website was filming and I just couldn’t see the girl bringin him off.
The thing was the guy in question was pretty big…at least in the upper body, he just had no legs to speak of anyway.
In my book anyone regardless of size who can do reps say, 6 + with 308 lbs (6 plates in 44lb plates) for a few sets is pretty much damn strong. Once you can do 4 plates per side for reps, you are pretty much strong as fuck relatively.
Of course many people can do more (i’ll admit that includes me too) but they are even stronger. I know guys who can bench over 300 but not able to squat 175 too.[/quote]
Wow, I am SO not the average gym-guy. I squat triples for 350, but my bench is shameful.
[quote]SWR-1222D wrote:
On the flip side of the argument about BS lifting numbers, I think there are a lot of people on the internet who like to call bullshit on numbers just because they aren’t lifting close to those numbers yet.
There is always going to be a guy out there who is stronger, and maybe even lighter than you.
Get over it, and compete with yourself.
Knowing what others do is fine, but take into consideration how long it took them to get there and how much work went into getting there.
The majority of posters on a site like this are not the same as the average gym goer, and even less like the average person.
I don’t see a reason not to believe the majority of the numbers I’ve seen written on here, unless their numbers are close to record breaking, in which case someone will call bullshit and the person in question will usually, eventually, post a picture or video proving it.[/quote]
I don’t think it happens that way much at all.
Now, when someone posts a picture and has a great build, and everyone shouts steroids, that is imbasyllic. But I don’t believe people call out others because their lifts are less.
But when someone claims to be National Elite level, yet ‘doesn’t know how they stack up’ or the whole package of numbers don’t add up, they get called.
I don’t see it actually happening that much and alot of times you never hear back from the poster.
For some people squats come natural. For others like myself they are the most unatural movement of all. Well close the most, deads are pretty bad too. For the people they are unatural for, overcoming that and getting to where you can squat at least a 100 lbs over your body weight for sets makes a huge difference in your overall strength and stature. They are well worth the extra effort and should be emphasized more if you are under strength in them.