Squat rack noobie

chispaza wrote: »

anyWendy wrote: »

Thank you all! I had originally planned to wait until I'm a little closer to goal weight to start on a real free weight lifting program (sw 225 cw 201 gw 165, 5'8"), but I am feeling like I'm ready to jump in now.

Will get Starting Strength - have seen lots of recommendations for it.

Strong Lifts is another one you might look at. It's simple and there's an app you can get and just follow what it tells you to do.

Stronglifts is suboptimal compared to Starting Strength for a novice lifter who wants to get strong ASAP whole holding form.

Five sets of five is unnecessary higher volume and will stall earlier than three sets of five. Twenty five reps is more appropriate for a intermediate.

Chieflrg wrote: »

chispaza wrote: »

anyWendy wrote: »

Thank you all! I had originally planned to wait until I'm a little closer to goal weight to start on a real free weight lifting program (sw 225 cw 201 gw 165, 5'8"), but I am feeling like I'm ready to jump in now.

Will get Starting Strength - have seen lots of recommendations for it.

Strong Lifts is another one you might look at. It's simple and there's an app you can get and just follow what it tells you to do.

Stronglifts is suboptimal compared to Starting Strength for a novice lifter who wants to get strong ASAP whole holding form.

Five sets of five is unnecessary higher volume and will stall earlier than three sets of five. Twenty five reps is more appropriate for a intermediate.

Chieflrg wrote: »

chispaza wrote: »

anyWendy wrote: »

Thank you all! I had originally planned to wait until I'm a little closer to goal weight to start on a real free weight lifting program (sw 225 cw 201 gw 165, 5'8"), but I am feeling like I'm ready to jump in now.

Will get Starting Strength - have seen lots of recommendations for it.

Strong Lifts is another one you might look at. It's simple and there's an app you can get and just follow what it tells you to do.

Stronglifts is suboptimal compared to Starting Strength for a novice lifter who wants to get strong ASAP whole holding form.

Five sets of five is unnecessary higher volume and will stall earlier than three sets of five. Twenty five reps is more appropriate for a intermediate.

TBH, I was dead set on doing Stronglifts (just starting out) until I remembered I purchased a digital copy of starting strength. Just followed the instructions on "how to squat" and lo and behold I squatted. I am very much a beginner (in fact, I ditched the notion of lifting back in March because I was a bit overwhelmed by it and intimidated to go to the gym, still being quite a bit overweight).

I stuck with running, which I am glad I did because I have also achieved some great success running--but it's clear I need to work on retaining and gaining some lean muscle mass from a near 100lb weight loss. I'll still do running, but lifting will make me a better runner and get my body looking more like I want it to look like. I'm roughly 10lbs from maintenance and am very tired of eating in a deficit (even at losing .5lbs per week). I feel like a steady beginner lifting program complimented by *some* running is where I want to be at the moment.

And the gym doesn't scare me any more.

OP--sorry I derailed your thread--but it helped me have my "aha" moment I needed to find and work toward my next fitness goal.

fitoverfortymom wrote: »

What if one struggles with getting "low enough." Is that a form issue or a keep working at it issue?

It can be a weight/strength issue. Can you get to parallel at body weight, bar only, whatever is a lighter weight for you and just have trouble when going up? If so, it could be just keep working on it. You need to increase strength perhaps with more intermediate weights.

The StrongLifts app has settings that allow you to switch the rep scheme to 3x5, so there’s that.

But I would recommend Starting Strength as well do to reasons posted above.

anyWendy wrote: »

Another question:
Any reason not to start by squatting with these "long dumbells"?

I get that at higher weights, the rack is needed to safely get in and out of position, but if I'm starting at low weights to practice form, any reason not to use these? (I ask more because of availability. Racks are more often in use. )

I don’t think there would be an issue with that. I’ve not personally used those to squat but I don’t see why they couldn’t be used as a progression tool. Though, they’re not as wide as a normal bar, there’d be another adjustment with the balance difference once you do go up to the full size bar.

Re: squat depth
This is something I constantly have to keep myself in check on, which I attribute to poor ankle mobility. The more you squat correctly the more you understand what being “in the hole” at the correct depth feels like. Starting Strengh is the gold standard as far as form guides go, there are plenty of other guides and videos published about form out there too; nuances to lifts click for different people in different ways. Do some research, take some videos and don’t be afraid to ask others (here or IRL) for form checks. R/fitness has a pretty good cache of info and a knowledgeable user base as well. I relied upon the bodybuilding.com video database quite a bit to see standard videos of what different movements are and what options there are for variations with different equipment, similar movements, etc.

anyWendy wrote: »

if I'm starting at low weights to practice form, any reason not to use these?

only reasons i can think of are

a) you're basically doing a behind-the-neck press to get it into position and remove it again when you're done. not everyone's shoulder anatomy works well with that. if you think that could be a problem for you, then let your shoulder strength be the limiting factor just to be safe.

and b) ymmv but i personally find it's just hard to get quite as tight with a 'dynamic' setup. i.e. when i'm moving the bar, compared with when i'm not.

you could try using a broomstick for bodyweight warmup and practice, if either of those things feel to you like a concern.

Based on internet memes, I think squat rack is where you are supposed to do curls

ijsantos2005 wrote: »

Yeah, I hate it when I see people squat in the curl rack.

. . . . but what if you forgot your curling iron at home?

#girljoke