Strong Lifts & no squat rack

Supadoopafly

Hi folks,

Tameko mentioned in her (excellent) summary in the strong lifts group that an Olympic bar is 45/35lbs men/women respectively.

Today I did workout B (did A Sunday), having read the summary after reading Medhi's manual(!), I had a look at the bar I was using today. It's a Jordan Olympic bar with 1500lbs inscribed on it. My exercises and weights as follows:

Squat - 5kg plate on both ends
Overhead press - 10kg plate on both ends
Dead lift - 20kg on both ends

(Possible silly question) What weight did I actually lift?

Also there isn't a squat rack at the gym (there is a smith machine), I think that will affect my progress going forward, what are your thoughts and suggestions to combat it?

Thanks

steve_mfp

A true Olympic bar should be 20Kg...should.

Edit: No squat rack is a serious limitation if you want to follow most strength programs. If you're serious...purchase a rack for home and make a home gym or find another gym. Your legs will quickly surpass your upper body and if they have no squat rack, i highly doubt they have an Olympic style lifting area for cleans, snatches, etc.

If you have no choice though i'd take a leg press machine of a smith machine any day of the week.

Supadoopafly

A true Olympic bar should be 20Kg...should.

Edit: No squat rack is a serious limitation if you want to follow most strength programs. If you're serious...purchase a rack for home and make a home gym or find another gym. Your legs will quickly surpass your upper body and if they have no squat rack, i highly doubt they have an Olympic style lifting area for cleans, snatches, etc.

If you have no choice though i'd take a leg press machine of a smith machine any day of the week.

Hi thanks for the reply. However I was hoping to get an answer to the question regards the actual weight I lifted so that if I find myself in another gym without the same equipment I know exactly what to load on. Does the inscribed 1500lbs mean anything?

Also, not sure how you define "serious" .... home gym is neither practical or affordable. However I ll take on board what you said about the leg press, they have one of those. I think the legs press machine is dull and feels too easy I can almost press the entire rack.

abuck_13

I've never heard of a different weight olympic bar for a female, but hard to say.

I'm familiar with the 45 pound bar (~20.5 Kg)

so with the 5 Kg plates, ~30 Kg

with the 10 Kg plates, ~40 Kg

with the 20 Kg plates, ~60 Kg

Someone will probably know the official weights better than I do

In terms of the 1500lbs, probably max load on the bar, though I don't know anyone who could do that

Supadoopafly

Great, thanks.