new to group... (wave)

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Hi everyone!

I have been consistently lifting for almost a year and I L.O.V.E. it. After focusing the last few years on weight loss (I've lost over 90 lbs), I am finally at a place mentally/physically that I am happy and content with not being a scale slave. I'm naturally fairly strong and that is what has drawn me to this program... focusing on performance goals is exactly what I want to do. Of course I would love to lean out some more but I know it will come with more time. (Hopefully!)

I am a bit confused as to what starting weights I should use.... going back to only the bars seems like such huge steps backwards but I understand the weight increments will add up quickly?

I am used to training 4 days a week and have been doing an upper/lower body split with 2 days focusing on power and 2 days focusing on hypertrophy.

Any advice / suggestions would be great... thanks for reading! :)

Replies

  • Fittreelol
    Fittreelol Posts: 2,535 Member
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    Welcome!

    What are your current lifts for squat/bench/ohp/dead, and are you feeling comfortable that you have correct form?
  • Mom3LoveBugs
    Mom3LoveBugs Posts: 29 Member
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    Hi!

    185 squat
    125 bench
    205 dead

    haven't done an ohp in a lonnnnnng time so I'm not sure on that one

    I've just started focusing more on these moves the last month and I feel my form is ok... I don't have anyone to show me but I watch a **** tonne of videos.
  • Fittreelol
    Fittreelol Posts: 2,535 Member
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    Medhi recommends 50% of your 5RM as a starting point then. There is a handy calculator here: http://www.miniwebtool.com/1-rep-max-calculator/?weight_lifted=200&number_of_repetitions=5 or here http://www.ivannikolov.com/calculators/rep-max-calculator/

    I found a really good one the other day that had all the different formulas, but I can't find it again :sad: So if you're using the first calculator and your 1rm is 185 squat your starting weight with squats would be 83.5 lbs or you know 85 to make it normal. So then you would get back to your old squat weight at a bit past 5 weeks which doesn't sound unreasonable. I'm running madcow right now which is an advance beginner/ beginner intermediate and the program is designed to get to your previous 5rm at around week 4 or 5.
  • rlw911
    rlw911 Posts: 475 Member
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    Welcome!!!
  • jstout365
    jstout365 Posts: 1,686 Member
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    Typically I would say to drop to the bar to work on form, but your current weights are pretty solid so I would go with fittree on the 50% calculators. OHP you can start with the bar and see how that goes.

    Feel free to take some form videos and post them here for comments.
  • Mom3LoveBugs
    Mom3LoveBugs Posts: 29 Member
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    Thank you everyone. :)

    This is what I did last night.... I didn't follow the program but was just trying to get a feel for focusing strictly on these exercises and playing around with the weights.

    Squat:
    bar x 10 x 3
    95 x 5 x 2
    115 x 5 x 2
    135 x 5 x 2
    155 x 5 x 2
    185 x 1

    Bench:
    bar x 10 x 3
    95 x 5 x 3
    115 x 5 x 3
    135 x 1 x 2

    Rows:
    65 x 10 x 3
    75 x 5 x 3
    80 x 5 x 3

    OHP:
    50 x 5 x 3
    60 x 5 x 3
    75 x 3 x 3

    Deads:

    135 x 5 x 3
    185 x 1 x 3
    205 x 1 x 2
    235 x 1