OK, Let's Lift! And 1 and 2 and 1 and 2

Training Training Logs
461

[quote]knokkelezoute73 wrote:
Congratulations about the meet, and abbout the deadlifts.
Re: dips, how much weight, if any, and how much volume do you do for these?[/quote]

Good question. I never add weight to these. Mostly because the dip bars are a million miles from the dumbbell rack. I add weight to pull ups from time to time, but never dips.

As far as volume goes, it varies, depending on what I’ve already done in my workout. I may do as much as 6 sets of 15-20, or as little as about 3 sets of 10-15. I also vary how I perform dips. Sometimes I just rep them out fast, sometimes I pause at the bottom. I rarely lock all my reps out at the top though. I’ll usually only lock out the last 3 or 4. Too much speed on the early reps to lock them out, it’s harder on my joints.

462

lol a heavy warmup set feeling light in your hands sounds like a PR day to me. I know the feeling.

Question: When performing your reps during heavy sets, do you let the weight rest for a second or 2 once completed, reset, then perform another rep, or do you perform a controlled negative and immediatly pull once the weight touches the ground? Both? Just curious is all. I’ve seen both methods done from some equally strong cats.

And nice lifts BTW. Your strength to weight ratio is impressive, not to mention the bodybuilder physique to go with it.

463

[quote]Steez wrote:

lol a heavy warmup set feeling light in your hands sounds like a PR day to me. I know the feeling.

Question: When performing your reps during heavy sets, do you let the weight rest for a second or 2 once completed, reset, then perform another rep, or do you perform a controlled negative and immediatly pull once the weight touches the ground? Both? Just curious is all. I’ve seen both methods done from some equally strong cats.

And nice lifts BTW. Your strength to weight ratio is impressive, not to mention the bodybuilder physique to go with it. [/quote]

Yea, I think on the deadlift, having fresh hands/forearms is what will generally make a heavy rep feel lighter. I hadn’t deadlifted since the meet, so my forearms weren’t overly tight. That combined with the fact that I’m very comfortable with my technique right now.

I’ve done both. In this case, I bounced off the ground, rather than setting it down. The first time I got 405 for 10, I did dead stop reps… I think. I know I’ve done it both ways. I also go back and forth on using straps, depending on how I feel. In this case, I didn’t use straps.

And thank you for the compliments. Hopefully both the physique and lifts will improve as I push my weight up over the next 6-12 months.

464

[quote]flipcollar wrote:

[quote]Steez wrote:

lol a heavy warmup set feeling light in your hands sounds like a PR day to me. I know the feeling.

Question: When performing your reps during heavy sets, do you let the weight rest for a second or 2 once completed, reset, then perform another rep, or do you perform a controlled negative and immediatly pull once the weight touches the ground? Both? Just curious is all. I’ve seen both methods done from some equally strong cats.

And nice lifts BTW. Your strength to weight ratio is impressive, not to mention the bodybuilder physique to go with it. [/quote]

Yea, I think on the deadlift, having fresh hands/forearms is what will generally make a heavy rep feel lighter. I hadn’t deadlifted since the meet, so my forearms weren’t overly tight. That combined with the fact that I’m very comfortable with my technique right now.

I’ve done both. In this case, I bounced off the ground, rather than setting it down. The first time I got 405 for 10, I did dead stop reps… I think. I know I’ve done it both ways. I also go back and forth on using straps, depending on how I feel. In this case, I didn’t use straps.

And thank you for the compliments. Hopefully both the physique and lifts will improve as I push my weight up over the next 6-12 months.[/quote]

Yeah I do both as well. It depends what I’m really trying to focus on that day whether it’s maintaining a tight strait back during the entire lift or explosiveness from the bottom. I think both are beneficial. At least that’s the case with me. I’m not a fan of over under grips so when I go heavy after warm ups, the straps come on.

I’m trying to put some quality weight on myself. Once I hit 180, gains have been coming harder to come by. But my goals are more bodybuilding oriented rather than strength even though the 2 have been coming in a package deal. Thanks for sharing that and good luck in your next meet.

465

[quote]Steez wrote:

[quote]flipcollar wrote:

[quote]Steez wrote:

lol a heavy warmup set feeling light in your hands sounds like a PR day to me. I know the feeling.

Question: When performing your reps during heavy sets, do you let the weight rest for a second or 2 once completed, reset, then perform another rep, or do you perform a controlled negative and immediatly pull once the weight touches the ground? Both? Just curious is all. I’ve seen both methods done from some equally strong cats.

And nice lifts BTW. Your strength to weight ratio is impressive, not to mention the bodybuilder physique to go with it. [/quote]

Yea, I think on the deadlift, having fresh hands/forearms is what will generally make a heavy rep feel lighter. I hadn’t deadlifted since the meet, so my forearms weren’t overly tight. That combined with the fact that I’m very comfortable with my technique right now.

I’ve done both. In this case, I bounced off the ground, rather than setting it down. The first time I got 405 for 10, I did dead stop reps… I think. I know I’ve done it both ways. I also go back and forth on using straps, depending on how I feel. In this case, I didn’t use straps.

And thank you for the compliments. Hopefully both the physique and lifts will improve as I push my weight up over the next 6-12 months.[/quote]

Yeah I do both as well. It depends what I’m really trying to focus on that day whether it’s maintaining a tight strait back during the entire lift or explosiveness from the bottom. I think both are beneficial. At least that’s the case with me. I’m not a fan of over under grips so when I go heavy after warm ups, the straps come on.

I’m trying to put some quality weight on myself. Once I hit 180, gains have been coming harder to come by. But my goals are more bodybuilding oriented rather than strength even though the 2 have been coming in a package deal. Thanks for sharing that and good luck in your next meet.

[/quote]

I agree with both of you on using both approaches. The dead stop helps with a tight setup and drive off the floor while touch and go helps with maintaining tightness even if slightly out of groove. I’ve been doing a bit of both and more of the one that I suck at.

466

HUGE PR last night.

I just looked through my logs, and unless I missed something, I haven’t performed an OHP since the end of March. That’s pretty crazy. The heaviest OHP I found in my logs was 205.

Anyway, I decided to OHP last night, because I already benched and deadlifted this week, and I didn’t really want to squat. worked up to 185x3, then 205x1, and had no issue, so I decided I might as well hit that 2 plate milestone. NAILED IT. And fast too. So I figured might as well shoot for the stars, and I hit 245x1. Super grinder through the middle, but I got it. A little bounce to get it started, but not much. The 225 was strict.

Did some barbell rows, then some seated OHP for reps at 115, and that was it. Pretty happy with a 40lbs PR after not performing a lift for nearly 3 months…

467

Nice job on that press, congrats. That’s a huuuge jump.

Where do you think that came from, since it wasn’t purely technique? Do you think it was mostly the tightness/stability you developed with your squat and deadlift work? Or just tricep/shoulder strength from the dips and bench work?

468

[quote]LoRez wrote:
Nice job on that press, congrats. That’s a huuuge jump.

Where do you think that came from, since it wasn’t purely technique? Do you think it was mostly the tightness/stability you developed with your squat and deadlift work? Or just tricep/shoulder strength from the dips and bench work?[/quote]

I would say it mostly came from getting stronger on the bench. That was actually I went for a max. I wanted to see how much carryover there was. Seems to be plenty. Being fresh for a lift never hurts either. Everything felt good on the lift.

469

You know, as much as I’ve wanted to believe that only doing overhead press and its variants is enough to drive up the press, it really seems that getting better at benching is also kind of necessary.

Really nice work in here getting all your lifts up, and also the resulting physique improvements.

470

[quote]LoRez wrote:
You know, as much as I’ve wanted to believe that only doing overhead press and its variants is enough to drive up the press, it really seems that getting better at benching is also kind of necessary.

Really nice work in here getting all your lifts up, and also the resulting physique improvements.[/quote]

it seems that for some people it is, for others it isn’t. I know plenty of strongmen competitors who really don’t bench at all, just do forms of OHP. I wasn’t seeing results from OHP’ing at all. That’s why I stopped. No results, it’s not a competition lift, and it hurt. I’m pretty sure I’d been stuck at 205 for at least 6 months before I stopped. I still don’t know if I’m going to incorporate it regularly now.

471

Forgot to log my Monday night lifting.

Well, it seems I can’t stay away from squats for long. I worked up to 415x5, then 415x3, then 365x3 paused squats, 2 more sets of 365x3, then 275xsomething, can’t remember. Then a set of deficit deadlifts at a light weight. 10 reps. That was all. Still hurting today.

Last night was bench press. I wasn’t particularly strong. Worked up to 315x3, with the last rep getting a touch of assistance. Not sure if I needed it or not, the spotter was quick to help. Not trying to strain myself, so it wasn’t a big deal. Dropped to a couple sets of 3 at 275, then a couple sets of 5 at 225, then a few sets of dips for 15ish. Then pullups. I only did 30, arms were hurting a bit. Then band tricep extensions and bicep curls.

Also thought I’d mention I went to Europa Dallas on Saturday. Never been to a convention like that before. Saw some big names, listened to Phil Heath talk for a bit. They had a pull up thing, max pull ups in 45 seconds. I got 33 I think. Over 30 won a jug of protein, so that was cool. Winner was 44. I also did clean and jerks (which were just presses, no time to jerk) with 135, max reps in 1 minute. I got 14. 24 was the best at the time. I won shortness of breath on this event, and nothing else.

472

deadifted sunday night.

Worked up to a couple TNG doubles, then singles, at 505. Did a few more reps working up to that point than I normally do. Then dropped it to 315x8, deficit deadlifts. First time doing these with any significant weight. Probably about a 3" deficit, I was using an aerobic step. Felt almost like a squat from the bottom.

473

Bench press, up to 275x3, x4, x3, x2, x2, 225x5, 225x3

3 sets of 10 dips

pullups

biceps curls with 70lbs barbell

tricep pushdowns, finished with a dropset

474

I missed logging squats earlier this week. Don’t remember the details but I worked up to a single at 455.

Bench yesterday. Worked up to 255x8, then did 5 sets of 10 at lower weights. Also machine rows, and arm stuff

475

squats: worked up to 405x5, then dropped to 275 for 5 sets of 10. that’s all.

476

Nothing real special to share. OHP last night. Did 185 for several sets of 3, last set at 2. maybe 6 sets total? I wasn’t really counting. Followed that with 3 sets of 10 at 115, then 2 sets at 95.

Then 50 pullups, bicep/tricep dumbbell superset, and face pulls.

477

It seems I’ve missed logging a few sessions…

Off the top of my head, I worked up to a deadlift double at 525 recently, and I did squats last night up to 375x3, then 345 I think for several sets of 3. Then 3 sets of 10 with 225.

478

bench press 3x275, 1x315, 10x225, 10x185, 10x185, 10x135
50 pull ups
lateral raises with 25’s
tricep press downs

479

squats
8 sets of 12, 90 seconds rest. first set at 225, the rest at 185. 14 minutes. I can’t remember the last time my legs were so weak several hours after the workout. I almost fell when I tried to go up some stairs.

480

[quote]flipcollar wrote:
squats
8 sets of 12, 90 seconds rest. first set at 225, the rest at 185. 14 minutes. I can’t remember the last time my legs were so weak several hours after the workout. I almost fell when I tried to go up some stairs.[/quote]

Ha!

I guess this proves “it” then. It being whatever was argued in that thread. I don’t even know who was arguing what by the end. Except that somehow a weight you squatted 20 times without racking was “not your 20RM” because you stopped in the set to take a breath.