DukeTheSlaya's Journey to Overhead Pressing Like a God

[Destrength]

I don’t think I used a belt until I was knocking on the door of a five plate deadlift.

[duketheslaya]

Thanks alot for the input guys! It seems like buying a belt is valuable for my lifting career.

@flipcollar

A belt is the absolute most essential piece of equipment for a lifter. Yes, he should get one. It doesn’t sound like money’s an issue from what he’s said to this point, so I’m working off that assumption. Duke doesn’t seem to be interested in spending money on anything other than lifting-related stuff. So yea, it sounds like he’s already made the decision that this is how he wants to allocate whatever funds he has. If he knows he wants to spend the cash, he should get a high quality belt now. These things last forever.

Bang on man. Im not interested in much other things really, all i do in my spare time is eat, lift , hang out with mates, study. Watch netflix or play ps4 etc so im not in need of thing else. At this point spending money on lifting gear is fine for me.

@The_Myth

Solid advice. I was getting nicked up doing squats and deads with “light weights” (heavy to me) because I was still learning and I didn’t have belt support. I bought a cheap fabric belt on Am

I generally feel fine with squatting , mind you atm im only front squatting but il mainly be belting up for heavy deadlifts. Soon when i change gyms for certain strongman lifts etc il be belting up too.

@lava2007

Gym swag > gym performance, 10/10 agree

Well i already have like 7 different bits of gym clothes ( 7 pairs of shorts, shirts etc ) might as well get tights. Its kinda got out of hand cos all i buy is gym clothes and end up having no decent casual or going out clothes.

@lava2007

I’ve heard great things about Inzer so I bought one of their belts a month ago. Just a heads-up to duke: if you’re going for an Inzer, they take forever to ship. That’s why they’re called Inzer Forever belts. 6-8 weeks to be manufactured and another 2-5 business days for shipping I believe. I should add that I bought a double prong red white & blue belt… single prong black is the only thing they keep stocked all the time I think. So that would probably arrive in a fraction of the time as a custom one.

what website did you use though?

@flipcollar

I believe the inzer would have lasted indefinitely, and I expect the pioneer and sbd belts I have to do the same. They just don’t wear out. I had the inzer for 4 years I believe. It had sweat stains on it. That’s it. All the holes were still in great shape. Hardware was like new.

I had my gym bag in the backseat of my truck, which was parked in my parking garage. I left the door unlocked to the truck over night, and I lost the gym bag with all my gym gear, 2 pairs of expensive sunglasses, and my wallet, which I tend to leave in my car. It did blow. The gym bag had my weightlifting shoes as well, along with a rehband soft belt, wraps, straps, etc. 600 dollars or so worth of gear. And I assume whoever stole it opened up the bag, said ‘I can’t use any of this’ and tossed it in the nearest dumpster.

Well, sorry to hear that. Hopefully they didnt toss it and atleast put it to good use.

[duketheslaya]

@Chris_Colucci

Is this still an issue you’re seeing?

Your account should have a 100 Likes/day max, but I have to look more into what happens in the (extremely rare and hard to do) situation that it’s reached.

EDIT: Seems like the hundreds of thousands of hours-thing was a bug in the system that should be sorted out now. If it’s still an issue, do me a favor and toss a thread over in the Forum Feedback section

Thanks @Chris_Colucci . Seems to be all sorted now.

[lava2007]

@duketheslaya

what website did you use though?

https://www.inzernet.com/search_results_belts.asp?txtsearchParamTxt=&txtsearchParamCat=8&txtsearchParamType=ALL&txtsearchParamMan=ALL&txtsearchParamVen=ALL&txtFromSearch=fromSearch&iLevel=1

Apparently they just take forever to ship. They said “it WILL take 6-8 weeks to be made,” but in my overzealous state of “OH MY GOD I’M GOING TO HAVE A BELT,” I misread it. I thought it said “it COULD take 6-8 weeks.” So, I’m salty but not mad. It’s my fault for not reading it correctly. lol

[duketheslaya]

Pressing day;

Some good stuff and bad stuff.

Worked up to 50kg on strict press to see where im at. I repped my old 1RM for three which was good so

50×3 pr

I was like fuck yeah i bet i can hit 60kg.

Welp no. Got it easily 4 inches up and just wouldn’t budge. Went for another and same thing happened.

What does this mean? Weak triceps? Just general weakness lol.

Incline bench; bad
2×8 50kg
Last set decided to use the unrack assistance on the station so instead of regular unracking, where the bar rests it moves forwards and goes more over your chest so its easier to unrack or you can just unrack normally.
Came way to low on my chest and starting rolling down my belly and kinda fucked my shoulders up. Never using the incline bench unrack thingy again

So yeah shoulders feeling all jacked up

After that just hit some kettlebell shoulfer press and bye gym.

Luckily for me next week is a week off , im staying at my sisters and il be doing a heck of alot of band pull aparts for a while. Hopefully its nothing bad and il see how my shoulders feels tomorrow.

[MarkKO]

Weak triceps maybe, probably also upper back starting to be too weak at that weight too. I’ve noticed I tend to fail around there too, and it seems similar to where I fail on bench. When I figure out exactly what causes it I’ll let you know.

[duketheslaya]

@MarkKO

Weak triceps maybe, probably also upper back starting to be too weak at that weight too. I’ve noticed I tend to fail around there too, and it seems similar to where I fail on bench. When I figure out exactly what causes it I’ll let you know.

Alright , thanks man. Iv ditched regular bb bench in favor of close grip a while ago so maybe i need another triceps exercises on press day. Or possibly a ROM pin press starting at my sticking point.

My upper back is kind of fried so i think you’re right.

[painter27]

@MarkKO

When I figure out exactly what causes it I’ll let you know.

Fill me in too yeah?

[Despade]

@duketheslaya

Welp no. Got it easily 4 inches up and just wouldn’t budge. Went for another and same thing happened.

Same, I can move up 5lbs (2.2kg ) and it simply won’t budge, remember, it is really a tiny muscle group attempting to do the primary moving, and once it’s fatigued it is just shot to shit (that’s what I’ve found in my experience, anyway).

[theonecamko]

For me, adding close-grip incline and lots of dips helped me break past that sticking point.

[duketheslaya]

@Despade

Same, I can move up 5lbs (2.2kg ) and it simply won’t budge, remember, it is really a tiny muscle group attempting to do the primary moving, and once it’s fatigued it is just shot to shit (that’s what I’ve found in my experience, anyway).

Its sooo frustrating man, like cmon if it can go up 4 inches surely i can complete the lift, well seems not😑

[duketheslaya]

@theonecamko

For me, adding close-grip incline and lots of dips helped me break past that sticking point.

Thanks man. For shoulder health regarding incline close grip, what tips do you have? I find my shoulders dont really like me when i do any incline work. I always have to make sure to pack the shit outta my shoulders

[theonecamko]

@duketheslaya

shoulder health regarding incline close grip, what tips do you have?

Use a thumbless grip and keep your elbows tucked as much as you can throughout the lift. Because you are using a close grip it shouldnt be too bad on your shoulders. If for whatever reason it is giving you trouble despite what i said, then a good alternative would be the pin press from the sticking point, like you mentioned earlier.

[T3hPwnisher]

@duketheslaya

What does this mean? Weak triceps?

Grinding a press rep is a skill in and of itself. Once you hit a bit of resistance, your body is going to twist and contort and lose form to try to bypass the sticking point, and in most instances, this will remove your base of power and make the rep not fire. You have to learn how to dig deep and maintain tension, and it takes a LONG time to learn.

This isn’t my grindiest rep ever on press, but was still a good one

Axle strict press 3x236

About the only thing that gets you good at it is constant exposure, which isn’t necessarily the greatest thing anyway. At your current level, you don’t need to be grinding out reps all the time, but at the same time, don’t interpret it to mean some sort of specific weakness. As your press proper gets stronger, you’ll press through the sticking points a little cleaner.

[danteism]

@T3hPwnisher

Grinding a press rep is a skill in and of itself. Once you hit a bit of resistance, your body is going to twist and contort and lose form to try to bypass the sticking point, and in most instances, this will remove your base of power and make the rep not fire. You have to learn how to dig deep and maintain tension, and it takes a LONG time to learn.

Oh yes, reps that take 20 seconds to complete are grueling but man does it feel good when you lock it out.

Even better when you grind for 20 seconds and pass out as you lock it out - given that you don’t die as the bar falls.

[T3hPwnisher]

My favorite part is looking in the mirror after the workout and seeing all the blown out capillaries across my face and body.

[danteism]

@T3hPwnisher

My favorite part is looking in the mirror after the workout and seeing all the blown out capillaries across my face and body

More than once I’ve been asked if I’m fine because of broken capillaries, got to admit, they don’t exactly look good, but damn I’m proud of them!

[TX_iron]

@duketheslaya

What does this mean? Weak triceps? Just general weakness lol.

Let me know if you figure it out, haha.

[duketheslaya]

@T3hPwnisher

Grinding a press rep is a skill in and of itself. Once you hit a bit of resistance, your body is going to twist and contort and lose form to try to bypass the sticking point, and in most instances, this will remove your base of power and make the rep not fire. You have to learn how to dig deep and maintain tension, and it takes a LONG time to learn.

Thanks @T3hPwnisher i guess i just gotta keep chuggin along and working hard to get that press up! I have years ahead of me so in time il learn to push through and get that rep.

@T3hPwnisher

As your press proper gets stronger, you’ll press through the sticking points a little cleaner.

[duketheslaya]

@TX_iron

Let me know if you figure it out, haha.

In ten years maybe lol.