He has naturally high/good levels of testosterone. I made a joke about them being so high he was right at the level of your 1,000 total cut off from the other thread. I originally didn’t tag you as it was just a fun/joking post, but later edited as I felt if I was going to drop your name, even if in all good natured fun, you deserved to see it.
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I know you’re a good (and funny) guy. So feel free. I know you wouldn’t get me into some silly e-beef.
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Indeed, somehow I have high testosterone naturally despite being very skinny fat.
Fixed.
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Do you have a dedicated warmup routine that’s the exact same every single workout session? Could explain the day-to-day performance differences that are mentally disengaging you from your program. If I don’t have time to do Agile 8 before I lift, I don’t have time to lift.
Also this
means that your current physique is a result of your lifestyle choices DESPITE having good genetics for lifting. Get on a good program that has you doing heavy compound lifts 2-4 days a week with progressive overload, eat 3-4 servings of fruit/vegetables and hit 180g protein a day, and do some intelligent cardio. If you do all of those with 90-95% consistency, there’s absolutely no way you won’t make big progress in 3-6 months.
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, that would be accurate.
To be honest I don’t have anything to blame except terrible historical habits, but I am confident I will make it in a matter of time.
Yeah I am trying now, over the years I have at least gone from smith machine bar to 155 bench but yeah lets see, first time with a proper written program last 3-4 weeks and consistency so having optimism, just need some time.
It’s still a crappy bench but one step at a time.
I dont have any dedicated warmup, just lower weight for multiple reps (say bench just barbell for 25 reps and then 115 for 7)
FWIW, maybe ixnay on the RPE 10 on the main barbell lifts. I recall a post about you allowing your butt coming of the bench recently. Maybe there was something in there with regards to grinding it out (I don’t remember).
I’ve heard it stated repeatedly by people that have had greater success in the gym than me that the main barbell lifts will progress just fine without ever sacrificing form or allowing a single rep with questionable form. I can’t exactly speak from my own experience, as I get self-competitive and genuinely enjoy straining. But I have had to deal with some aches, pains, and injuries from that behaviour and you are early in your path and might have an easier time forming good habits than I’ll have re-programming my poor habits into good habits
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I would change this immediately. You need something to loosen up all your tissue so that your body functions. It helps get blood flowing, breaks you out of being sedentary the rest of your day, and mentally prepares you for the work. If I don’t do Agile 8 plus 5 warmup sets, I can guarantee I’ll be way more injury prone and at least 3-5 reps weaker on every set.
Also, if this is true it’s absolutely hampering your progress. Any lift you can’t do with good form isn’t a lift you can/should count. As you get stronger you’ll get hurt doing this too.
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Ok great, thank you! I will take a look at this Agile 8 and give it a go
FWIW I don’t think you should stop logging and posting. Just do the bare minimum–daily lifts, sets, reps, weight and update on weight or macros once a week–without all the daily ruminations and self doubting. Let this log be a place void of the overanalyzing, and maybe it’ll even carry over to your mind state IRL.
You’re part of the bunch now, and people like you. We wouldn’t keep posting if we didn’t.
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Agree with this. Zero reason for him to be going to RPE 10 and zero reason for his butt to be coming off the bench. And, if his butt is coming off the bench so he can complete the rep(s), then I’d say he is most likely going to a true RPE 10. There’s just no need to do that with the frequency with which he’s doing it and in fact it is counter productive to what he is trying to accomplish.
RPE 10 should really not be involved in training very often at all, except MAYBE for competitors, and even then, just sometimes. That’s basically what I consider a competition lift, nothing else. If you’re pushing yourself to the point where you truly are that close to failure, where you’re trying to be EXACTLY on the edge of it, it’s way too easy to be pushing past what you’re actually capable of. Most good lifters avoid failed lifts, unless we’re talking about like burnout sets on accessory lifts where you’re pushing like 20+ reps and you just can’t go anymore and you’re down to partial movements. Main lifts? Nah. Most training should really be done at like RPE7-8 (depending on how this is defined/felt by the trainee) and below. Like 5-8 is ideal for most training.
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I’m definitely going too hard, maybe I’m going too hard for my own good then but a lot of haters will dismiss this and call me lazy so inb4 that already.
Basically every compound lift I’ve been at RPE 9 or 10, last set always a 10 even if I start the LP at 7.
I started with 140 lb bench as my working set RPE 7, I guess I could have got 155 for 1-2 back then.
I completed 140 for 3 sets of 5, moved to 145, immediately I felt it was heavier and RPE went up to 8/8/9 maybe then I had a huge block at 150.
I tried LP as the program states and got stuck hard at 150 for 2-3 weeks almost, getting 5rep/5rep/4rep, all RPE 9-10 with 4-5min rest between each set to recover.
Now finally I got 155, first set is probably RPE 9, second is 9.5 probably, I have to use just very little cheat still, third set is surely RPE 10, if I dont lift off a little bit the last rep I would be doing the roll of shame. It isnt a crazy big lift off the bench but there is slift there for sure.
LP should technically work at such low strength levels without any issue but maybe I haven’t been recovering properly and I was somehow dropping BW even at 3100-3200 calories.
DUDE.
A: you don’t have ‘haters’. haters are people who are dislike others for their successes. With all due respect, nobody posting here is jealous of your accomplishments. I don’t qualify as a hater, I’m just a person who thinks you have a lot of bad ideas. Not the same thing.
B: it shouldn’t matter anyway. Your training program should absolutely not be tailored to how you feel your lifting effort will come across on an internet forum. this is such a bad place for you to be mentally, which is something I, and others, have tried to convince you of. It’s an immature perspective. Bare in mind, I am not calling you names, so let’s not go there again. I’m observing, and I’m relaying my perspective. Take it how you like.
I’ll address this in a more general way too. You can put in very, very hard work without approaching failure. One of the most important ways good lifters do this is by approaching every lift AS IF it were an RPE 10. High levels of attention to details, setup, bar speed, etc. I can be performing a bench press at, say, 50% of my max for a set of 5. Well below my actual capacity. But when I treat each rep as if it were a true max, I will get the results I want.
So, I want to remind you that the results you want are changing your body. Not impressing anyone on the internet, and not ‘shutting up haters’. That sort of motivation is not sustainable, I promise. It may get you fired up for a minute, but it flickers out fast, and you’ll be left with nothing. Treat this like a grind, embrace the grind, and you’ll be better for it.
So here’s something to think about in that regard. A lot of times we get caught up in the idea of making strength gains in increments of, say, 5 lbs, 10 lbs, etc. But you have to remember that at lower strength levels, a 5 lbs gain on your working sets of bench press is more meaningful than a 5 lbs gain for a stronger person, because you’re talking about the weight being lifted going up by a higher percentage.
I’ll use really simple examples for this: Let’s say I have a max bench press of 100 lbs. I add 10 lbs to it in 6 weeks. So now I’m still ‘only’ benching 110 lbs, and I think ‘well shit, I’m still week’. But I’m TEN PERCENT STRONGER. That’s massive for a 6 week block.
So you might see the 400 lbs bench presser add 20 lbs to his bench in the same time period and think ‘well shit, he’s already stronger than me, and he STILL made more progress than I did’. But in actuality, he didn’t, he made less. He got 5% stronger.
Hopefully some of these things can help your mindset for where you are now. Progress is slow, and you need to deal with it. Perfect your sets/reps at lower RPE’s, and grind your way up, as long as it takes. You can’t always just start lifting more weight before you’re ready. Too much work at RPE 9/10 is just going to grind you to dust. It’s not sustainable.
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Thanks, something like this is very constructive I can appreciate and am thankful for.
I agree with all of what was mentioned above. The only time you should ever be approaching an RPE10 is at a competition or a mock meet. And these should be far and few between.
Believe it or not, most strength gain comes from high volume in the 75-85% range. I’ll give you an example.
Scenario 1: You work up to a 160 bench @RPE10. You then do some low quality back off sets because you just taxed your complete pressing muscles. You’re now sore and can’t bench again for 4 days. Your frequency is low, your volume is low and your intensity is high. You’re now more prone to injury.
Scenario 2: You do 5x5 with 80% of 160, which is 128. We will round to 130. That’s 3,250 Lbs of tonnage. You have energy for accessories, you get a good pump but you recover in 1, maybe 2 days. You get to session 2. You do 5x5 with 130 again. Another 3,250 Lbs of tonnage. You recover, you’re onto your 3rd session in 1 week. Another 5x5@130. You’re now at 9,750 Lbs of bench press volume for the week. Compared to a 1/4 of that using scenario 1.
You repeat scenario 2 for a 3 week block. Once week 4 comes around you up the weight, maybe 5-10 Lbs. Repeat. You go through 3 cycles of that block, increasing weight slightly each block, you’ll be surprised where you end up. Your form stays good, you stay healthy, workouts aren’t gruelling, you make good sustainable progress.
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Thats good advice, I am truly going too much on compound intensity and thats why failing at LP because I am always at RPE 10 and then I try moving up 5 lbs and no chance I can get 3x5 again (for bench).
I wonder though, I have often seen people claim they have gone from 135 bench to 225 bench (naturally) in under 5 months which really makes me wonder what are they doing that is so different from LP? I find that if they have gone from 135 to 225 bench in just 20 weeks that basically strong LP progression trend every week and ability to move up 5 lb without constant fatigue every week as well.
Are these outliers or is this generally the norm?
Someone who can go from 135 to 225 on the bench in 5 months is an outlier. Edit: I should say being able to do this naturally.
Unless I see pics, videos and/or real life lifting, claims, especially on the interwebs mean absolutely nothing.
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