Barbell rows
200x6
200x6
200x8 (got a little bit more explosive)
200x7
Cuban presses
10x12
10x10
10x10
Shoulder was fucking KILLING me all day today. I’m starting to get worried. I want to keep on doing what I’m doing, but it was outright painful to do floor presses (of all things).
I’m fairly certain it’s something that’s built up over time with my bench press; my left arm is often slightly uneven and out of position, I think. It’s now become something that’s holding me back. Looking back, I think I probably would have had a 300 bench months ago if not for this.
My plan of action for my shoulders is the following. If anybody has any advice, please, please feel free to add as necessary.
Get a safety squat bar and Swiss/parallel grip pressing bar ASAP. It’s expensive, but at this point even just squatting and doing good mornings is starting to bother my joint slightly. I think these two would go a long way towards alleviating the problem.
No more floor presses. They bother my joint something fierce, always have. Great exercise, but not great for me, seems like. I’ll give board presses a try. I need something in a limited range to strengthen my tri’s.
NO bench pressing. Close-grips and regular benching in the 6-8 range doesn’t really seem to bother me that much (all else being equal) but I’ll give even that a rest for a few weeks and see how that does.
Be aggressive with my pulling. I think adding pullups and more sets of rows is probably just what I need to balance things out and prevent an injury.
So now, my selection of upper body pushing exercises that I can do without screwing myself up (at least for the next little while) are;
Military press/push press/jerk (doesn’t really seem to bother me that much)
BTN press/push press/jerk
Rack lockouts
Board presses
DB press (don’t know if I could do these on the flat or no, but in any case I still need lots of plates)
Overhead lockouts
I’ll do my best to work around it and strengthen the area enough so I can get back to benching.
Worked a couple of double shifts at work these past couple days, so I’ve had to take my training where I could get it.
ME SQUAT
135x5
225x5
270x5
290x5
325x5
Went to work, came back 13 hours later and;
GMs
135x6
200x6
225x6
240x6
EZ bar curl
85x6
90x7
95x7
100x6
That was it. Had a piss-poor bench session the day after that I won’t even bother to recount. I’m about to go do some shoulder/rep stuff in a few minutes.
Going pretty good. My squat and deadlift strength are coming along nicely. I’m babying my shoulder as much as possible for now. Overhead presses are doing okay, despite that. I’m trying to add more volume on my lighter days, but I have to work around a wonky schedule.
Diet’s still not back on track. I’m stressed out and drinking lots of soda again. I’ve put a little size on my shoulders and arms, but I still need to get things down diet-wise.
Seated military press, high incline (more on this)
135x8
155x6
165x5
170x4
185x1
Overhead lockouts
135x6
185x4
185x4
3 board press
200x6
225x5
245x4,1 (almost dumped the bar, had to rest for a second)
Attached is a photo of the angle my bench was at when I did my seated military presses (I put it up to 90 degrees for overhead lockouts).
I like the angle and I can really feel my shoulders working hard during the exercise, but: is this angle too much of a cheat? (I’ve been to gyms and the benches for seated overhead pressing all seem to be about that. The lift starts just in front and below my chin and then I drive my arms back over my ears. Didn’t bother my shoulder a bit, too.)
I’ve always struggled with form on seated presses, but now I feel like I finally have it down once and for all. Just wanted some opinions as to whether the set is at too extreme of an angle.
I was so tired after that last set it too me the better part of an hour after this to slog through four sets of curls and three sets of good mornings. Good stuff, though.
I do not think you are going to get to where you want to be without going to a modern day gym. You won’t even be able to develop certain muscle groups to the full extent in my opinion by working out at home, unless you had the space to stuff your living quarters with all kinds of pulley units, calf machines, leg press machines, hack squat machines, various Hammer Strength machines, all kinds of benches, a dip-chinup unit, etc.
[/quote]
I disagree with this. At least for the time being. You can go a long way with just the basic lifts you are using. A 5x5 program doesn’t require any of the crap listed above and works very well for intermediate lifters. There are plenty of big guys on this site who train at home.
After a couple years of the basics, then you can worry about getting fancy. It will save you both time (commuting to the gym) and money.
I would think that if you’re trying to be a bodybuilder and you’ve been lifting for two years and you are still using the usual 5x5 powerlift programs you are either a freak that develops in perfect proportion, or (more likely) a guy with strong powerlifts and a wacky disproportionate physique.
Using exercises that are more in tune with your body and directly stimulate all the major muscle groups isn’t “fancy”, its effective.
Just my opinion. I think 3x5 and 5x5 routines are great for beginners (as far as BODYBUILDING goes).
[quote]mr popular wrote:
I would think that if you’re trying to be a bodybuilder and you’ve been lifting for two years and you are still using the usual 5x5 powerlift programs you are either a freak that develops in perfect proportion, or (more likely) a guy with strong powerlifts and a wacky disproportionate physique.
Using exercises that are more in tune with your body and directly stimulate all the major muscle groups isn’t “fancy”, its effective.
Just my opinion. I think 3x5 and 5x5 routines are great for beginners (as far as BODYBUILDING goes).[/quote]
The OP has been lifting less than one year. I’d call him a beginner.
If you are serious about bodybuilding, then it takes more than two years to build up the kind of mass you need. Until you get that, there is no real need for fancy exercises. Until you are a lean 200+ you don’t need to worry much about whether your deltoids are proportional, or about your biceps’ peak. If you just want to be 280 and not super fat, you never need to worry about that.
All the major muscle groups can be stimulated just fine for a beginner/intermediate with the equipment he currently has. The benefits from cables, leg press etc. are simply not worth the cost of a gym membership at this point in the OP’s lifting career IMO.
That is fine I understand that, I personally use freeweights (mostly barbells) for 95% if my training and will continue to do so for years.
What I was commenting on was the fact that most “5x5” programs are geared towards increasing the powerlifts, typically along with the military press and barbell row.
Which is great and the OP will probably do just fine for a while with this, although personally if someone is looking to break into bodybuilding I’d consider a barbell curl just as “basic” as a squat, and these programs don’t usually have any direct arm or calf exercises.
Where exactly are we drawing the line of what is “fancy” and what isn’t is what I was trying to get at.
That and the fact that sticking with a program focused almost entirely around the powerlifts is going to lead to muscular imbalances in most people.
Perhaps we misunderstood each other. I said 5x5 merely as an example of what can be done with the equipment he has. Although I’m not sure what imbalances you think it would create. To me it seems fairly well balanced, and no routine is going to be perfect.
Of course curls should be done, although they are not as “basic” as a squat. My point is that he doesn’t need to go to a gym (and pay the monthly dues) to do them.
For the purposes of this thread, I would define “fancy” as any exercise the OP can’t do at home. Cables, Leg Press, Preacher Bench etc. are all nice, but really not required at this stage IMO. Many great physiques have been built without relying on these things.
At this point, I’m more concerned with building basic levels of strength and slowly trimming down. The 5x5 is fairly recent.
My lower body seems to developing well enough, but I have narrow shoulders and thinner arms than I should. I’m doing my best to rectify this and some shoulder joint discomfort with less bench and more direct shoulder & arm work.
I dont think you need a gym mate the list of exercises given you miss out on can be replicated, or more importantly - the original version of the listed choices is yours to do!
Bench dips can be done, rack chins, chins, front squats, barbell hack squats, db work, calf work…etc etc.
As for 5x5 causing an imbalance… bollocks tbh. If you have less volume for biceps and triceps and calves than chest, delts, abs which have less than back, legs etc… you will do fine. I have kept my workouts proportionate since a very young age, and it has resulted in the growth of a balanced, symmetrical and proportionate physique in all major areas. Smaller than i’d like… but!
(5-10 sets for Bi’s, 10-15 sets for chest, 15-20 sets for back etc… see?)
ME SQUAT (yesterday)
Box squat, box @ parallel
135x5
225x5
270x5
290x5
330x5
330x2 (I was DONE)
GMs
200x6
225x6
245x6
Deadlifts w/ normal grip
225x4
245x4
265x4
290x4
315x4
320x3 lost grip
And some curls. I’ve noticed that the bar tends to lean over to the left, to the point where there’s an extra six inches of bar on my left side on my final reps. I figure this can’t be good, s I’m going to try moving my grip inside the rings and see if that helps at all.
I felt kind of loose this session; like I wasn’t firing on all cylinders. Still got a PR, though, and I’ll be well rested on Saturday and ready for more.
I tweaked the squat warmup ever so slightly, parked the bar lower and it paid dividends. I’m just going for speed and grip strength on the DLs, so I’m pleased. 4 plates here I come.
One arm DB push press
5x40
5x60
(Was going to go up to 80 (possibly even 100) but ran out of room on the bar. I’ll buy some more thinner plates. I really like this movement.)
Lying triceps extensions
95x8
105x8
Wasn’t really digging the extensions. I can’t quite get the hang of the form on these. Was really pleased with the 3 board press. Weak as shit, I know, but I feel like I could do 3 plates on these in a relatively small amount of time, and that can’t be anything but good for my full-range bench. Especially seeing as how most of my problems are at mid-range or lockout.
Saturday’s my day off, so I’ll do some rep squatting then and a shitload of deadlifting.
Good session. Parking the bar fairly low and a medium to close stance seems to work well for me.
I usually deadlift with my palms facing in, since I want to build up my grip strength as much as possible. Had to switch to a mixed grip in the middle of the fifth set, though.
