I don’t have a home gym set-up. Eventually I may have to consider it though, or else join another gym. As I’ve mentioned before, the squat rack at my gym is un-useable, and the crossfit room only has enormous bumper plates that can’t accommodate more than 485. This may soon be an issue for me.
Yea, getting to the gym has been tough these last few months, but my wife and I are getting better at aligning our schedules. It just requires solid planning. She’s good with me going 4 days a week right now, as long as she can do Yoga every Monday night.
Baby is good. We’ve been very fortunate. No issues whatsoever with him. He’s very healthy and happy, and he sleeps through the night (has been since the first month.)
As far as sets and reps go, I do play that by ear, although usually I have some sort of plan by the time I get to the gym. Like a week ago, I had planned to hit 405 for AMRAP. This week I hit a max single since I didn’t the previous week. Next week I’ll likely hit 405 again for max reps, and see if I can squeeze out a couple more. And of course feel can play into this as well. I went for 455 last night because 435 went up so fast. I intend to do something along the lines of 40-50 total reps on my higher volume days (excluding deadlift. Deadlift will be more like 20-30). so 5x10, or similar. So my next squat session will likely be something in the 300’s (maybe 335ish) for 5x10.
Nothing real interesting in last night’s workout. No PR’s.
Worked up to 185x3, then 185x2, then 205x1 OHP.
Followed by deadlifts at 415 for a bunch of sets of 3. I spent some time working on my setup/stance. I haven’t liked my pulls recently, and I’ve felt really weak on them. I widened my stance by about 8 inches. This seemed like a much stronger position for me than my very narrow stance I’d been using. I obviously didn’t lift anything heavy, so it will be interesting to see how this feels when I go over 500 with it.
I did 1 set of pull ups, and my right arm felt really bad, so I quit.
I put off the home gym for a long while, finally bit the bullet recently and am SO happy I did it.
It wasn’t cheap, but if you factor in the cost of a gym membership for 2 people it “pays for itself” over the years.
I didn’t find it was financially reasonable to do until Black Friday/Cyber Monday this last year when Rogue not only had great prices, but only offered $5 shipping, which is what finally tipped the scales in my favor. I often find the prices on the equipment arent too unreasonable, but then shipping ends up being like $900. Something to keep in mind when that time of year rolls around if you have the time to wait.
That’s definitely something to consider. I hadn’t thought about that. Right now my biggest issue with starting a home gym is space. I have a 2 car garage, but it’s an absolute disaster right now. I can’t even park any of my cars in it at the moment. If I want to put together a home gym, I’ll have to create enough space for a car and the gym. I guess that’s something I should work on between now and the end of the year…
I definitely gotta vouch for the home gym. I’d never be able to train if I didn’t have one. These days, the only time available is at 0500, so that’s what I use. If you’re interested, I can link you to some great deals on the basics (even though the websites may be shady as hell, haha).
[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:
I definitely gotta vouch for the home gym. I’d never be able to train if I didn’t have one. These days, the only time available is at 0500, so that’s what I use. If you’re interested, I can link you to some great deals on the basics (even though the websites may be shady as hell, haha).[/quote]
I realize T-Nation probably doesn’t want me to link to competitors sites, so I’ll speak around as much as I can.
For a power rack, pretty much any cheap rack you find on amazon will be fine. I have the bare bones TDS rack, but they’re honestly pretty hard to fuck up. I’ve squatted over 500lbs in that rack for years with no issue, so it’ll hold up to most abuse.
If you ever want cheap bumpers, check out the Pendlay Econo Bumpers off of Muscle Driver.
For iron plates, I’ve never bought new. Play it Again sports is great, as is craigslist.
If you want a cheap glute ham raise, yukon fitness makes one called a “giant back extension”.
For other cheap specialty products, check out Black Widow Training Gear and Strength Shop.
[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:
I realize T-Nation probably doesn’t want me to link to competitors sites, so I’ll speak around as much as I can.
For a power rack, pretty much any cheap rack you find on amazon will be fine. I have the bare bones TDS rack, but they’re honestly pretty hard to fuck up. I’ve squatted over 500lbs in that rack for years with no issue, so it’ll hold up to most abuse.
If you ever want cheap bumpers, check out the Pendlay Econo Bumpers off of Muscle Driver.
For iron plates, I’ve never bought new. Play it Again sports is great, as is craigslist.
If you want a cheap glute ham raise, yukon fitness makes one called a “giant back extension”.
For other cheap specialty products, check out Black Widow Training Gear and Strength Shop.[/quote]
great stuff, thanks for all the info. Man, I’ve definitely got the itch to start building…
I also went with a Rogue rack and bought it with free shipping. For weight plates, you may be able to find a good deal if you find a gym that closes down. I went to Play it Again sports but wasn’t satisfied with their quality so I waited until a local gym equipment store stocked up on used Ivanko weight plates. I was able to get 1000 lbs for $500. Keep an eye out for used equipment (especially if you have a year to look) because good deals don’t come up often.
It’s nice being able to lift whenever you want and not have to wait for a rack or bench. You won’t regret it.
Something to consider in a “rack” is that if you buy a traditional rack you have potential of tipping it over with a significant load, thus it needs to be bolted to the floor. I got the Rogue SML-2 which is more of a “squat stand”, but the uprights start in the middle of the footprint, thus you dont need to secure it. They sell some supports as well which act as the safety bars you would normally have in a regular rack.
Was the issue with pullups because of your elbow? If so, have you tried a “voodoo band” on it? Have you tried finding and working out any knots in bis/tris/forearms?
[quote]LoRez wrote:
Ha, your log got busy pretty quickly.
Was the issue with pullups because of your elbow? If so, have you tried a “voodoo band” on it? Have you tried finding and working out any knots in bis/tris/forearms?[/quote]
It was more pain throughout my upper arm. I think there’s still damage from when I dropped a front squat on my right arm last year.
I haven’t tried the voodoo band yet. I meant to, and never did. I need to get one.
I do work on knots with a few different rubber balls. That seems to work well. I recently got a softer one (softer than a lacrosse ball) that I really like.
On Friday I worked up to a paused 315 bench press. It was kind of funny, because I almost didn’t get to press it at all. I had a spotter I didn’t know, and I didn’t tell him I was going to pause, so after the bar was on my chest for a second, he freaked out and started to reach for it like I was totally pinned. I saw him coming though, and pressed it, and fortunately he never put his hands on it. He came up to me later and asked how I did that, lol.
After that was ‘squats for volume’ which ended up being far less volume than I originally intended. I’m not conditioned for hitting all these lifts twice per week, and it showed here. I had planned to hit 315 for a few sets of 10. My biggest set ended up being 8 reps, and most were 5. I was sucking wind like crazy.
Sunday I deadlifted 515 for 1, then OHP’ed 135 for several sets of 10, then lateral raises with 25’s for 2 or 3 sets. Rear delt machine for accessory.
[quote]flipcollar wrote:
On Friday I worked up to a paused 315 bench press. It was kind of funny, because I almost didn’t get to press it at all. I had a spotter I didn’t know, and I didn’t tell him I was going to pause, so after the bar was on my chest for a second, he freaked out and started to reach for it like I was totally pinned. I saw him coming though, and pressed it, and fortunately he never put his hands on it. He came up to me later and asked how I did that, lol.
[/quote]
Ha! You need to start screening your spotters better, lol.
It is kinda funny: stuff that you take for granted, like a paused rep, it doesn’t even cross your mind to warn the spotter about it. Maybe you should carry around a manual of instructions.
[quote]flipcollar wrote:
On Friday I worked up to a paused 315 bench press. It was kind of funny, because I almost didn’t get to press it at all. I had a spotter I didn’t know, and I didn’t tell him I was going to pause, so after the bar was on my chest for a second, he freaked out and started to reach for it like I was totally pinned. I saw him coming though, and pressed it, and fortunately he never put his hands on it. He came up to me later and asked how I did that, lol.
[/quote]
Ha! You need to start screening your spotters better, lol.
It is kinda funny: stuff that you take for granted, like a paused rep, it doesn’t even cross your mind to warn the spotter about it. Maybe you should carry around a manual of instructions.
[/quote]
My criteria for spotters is basically ‘who is the strongest looking available person in the gym’.
Yea, I generally do give at least some instruction, like ‘don’t touch the bar unless it literally starts going back down, or I say HELP’. Sometimes I’ll tell the spotter I’m going to pause the rep, other times I forget. I’ll even give a little instruction on how I want the lift off to be done if I think the spotter will get it.
One thing I’ve learned is not to tell the spotter you’re just going for 1 rep. If they know that, they’re generally more eager to touch the bar on that 1 rep.
worked up to a 465 single. Also hit 445. The 465 was a grinder. Very close to my actual max. 10 LB PR.
Bench pressed @225 for 5x5. Treated this as speed work, something I’ve never really done. I figure one of my 2 bench days needs to be kept really light though. Felt good, speed was good through all 5 sets, and minimal rest was required.
Worked up to 185 ohp for 2 singles, and they were super hard. I started getting a little pain in my upper arms, and I felt like my performance was compromised. Moved onto deadlifts, intending to keep them super light (up to 365). Arm pain went crazy, so much so that I had to cut my workout short after 2 deadlift sets. By the time I got home, I thought my arms were going to fall off and die. Really deep, aching pain.
I think I’ve determined that the pain is actually a forearm issue, probably due to excessive tightness. It’s on the outside of my arm, between the biceps and triceps, in both arms. I know there’s a forearm muscle that runs up that high in the arm, and just feeling it with my fingers and applying pressure along the muscle makes me think that’s the issue. I’m gonna do as much soft tissue work as I can on my forearms over the next week and see how that goes.
[quote]flipcollar wrote:
Terrible session last night.
Worked up to 185 ohp for 2 singles, and they were super hard. I started getting a little pain in my upper arms, and I felt like my performance was compromised. Moved onto deadlifts, intending to keep them super light (up to 365). Arm pain went crazy, so much so that I had to cut my workout short after 2 deadlift sets. By the time I got home, I thought my arms were going to fall off and die. Really deep, aching pain.
I think I’ve determined that the pain is actually a forearm issue, probably due to excessive tightness. It’s on the outside of my arm, between the biceps and triceps, in both arms. I know there’s a forearm muscle that runs up that high in the arm, and just feeling it with my fingers and applying pressure along the muscle makes me think that’s the issue. I’m gonna do as much soft tissue work as I can on my forearms over the next week and see how that goes.[/quote]
Sounds similar to what I had been going through for about a week or so. Things that helped me were stretching the arms while the elbow is straight. Also, rolling out the outside of the arm with a tiger tail (or bean can with some creativity. The other thing is put a thick rubberband around your fingertips and open your hands to strengthen the extensor muscles. Took a few days but its feeling much better. YMMV, but good luck with recovery.