jhc7324 Member

I don't have much experience with women and strength training, but its pretty rare that I see one squatting > 135, to the point that if I do see that, I assume she's been at it for a while. That said, I think at some point 90% of the "talking" about what produces maximal gains is just semantics. 99% of the threads that are…

I still follow it. I'm not the most advanced of lifters, but I've been running 5/3/1 for quite a while now so I'm up for some discussion. Hopefully some activity will pull others out of the woodwork.

I never did stronglifts, but the beginner program I used was similar. The first few weeks you'll feel like you're slacking off on the lifts. Use that time to focus on your form. Take vids of yourself, watch them back, compare it to vids of people you trust on the web (Mehdi @ 5x5, or any of Mark Rippetoe's videos are a…

Without seeing a vid of your lifts its impossible to assess your form, so that could easily be the problem. That said, you don't need to add other exercises to the 5x5 routine. The workout itself hits all of the muscles. Early on you probably feel like you're not accomplishing a whole lot with the relatively fast workout,…

MFP doesn't add them back. There's not a real good way to calculate your actual burn from strength training. It will depend a lot on the intensity you put into it. If you want to record something for the calorie burn, they do have a "strength training" entry in the normal, cardio exercise list. Personally, I've stopped…

Make a video of yourself squatting and post it here. I have a tough time trusting in person advice on lifting form since I'm only getting an opinion from the one person I'm lifting in front of. On the web you can easily get dozens of people looking at it and if one of them isn't correct in his critique, somoeone will…

I agree with this too. A way that might make this work better for you would be to try his Practical Programming template: http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Programming-Strength-Training-Rippetoe/dp/0982522754 Its a very similar program, but it removes power cleans, and replaces them with pullups and chinups. In this template…

I started in January 2013, so about 18 months. Before that I'd never lifted a barbell. I wish I'd discovered this 20 years ago though.

I'd recommend checking out craigslist in your area. People are always selling used weight gear and you can get it much cheaper than on CL. I recently got a 300 lb olympic set for $120 and it included the bench.

I've never heard anything like that at the gym, but if I had, I would definitely say something to them. Nobody should have to deal with that when trying to improve their health, and I'm sorry you had to hear that. Next time, stand up for yourself though, and say something back. I can almost guarantee that there are others…

doing x minutes of cardio isn't going to do a whole lot to get your muscles ready for a lifting session. It'll warm up your heart and lungs, but if you're doing a full body lifting workout (like stronglifts or starting strength) it doesn't do much for you. Your warmups for lifting should be lighter weight sets of the…

There's no such thing as "spot reduction", that is doing lifting focused on your calves isn't going to do anything to reduce the cankles. All you can do to reduce fat is to focus on your diet and have faith that eventually your body will decide the fat there is what its going to lose. If you're focusing on the big compound…

I weigh about 175 OHP - Actual 1RM 135 Bench - Actual 1RM 205 Deadlift - Actual 1RM 365 though that was a little while ago and I should be able to beat that now Squat - I haven't done a true 1RM, but my heaviest working set has been 275 x 5 Nothing amazing, but is miles from where I was when I started.

I'm not sure i'd recommend doing Insanity and anything else at the same time... Insanity is tough as hell on your body, and its going to be difficult to get much in the way of strength gains out of a lifting program while you're doing 45 minutes of HIIT every day. IMO, insanity (or any similar HIIT program) is great for…

I'm not sure about that either, where someone stalls out on a straight linear program like starting strength will depend on a lot of things (age being a big one, its a bit easier for a 22 year old guy to keep progressing linearly than it is a 36 year old). Personally, I stalled out and couldn't keep making gains on…

With Starting Strength, you don't go right to the empty bar to start, he has a relatively straightforward way of figuring your starting weights.

This You'd be surprised how many times the question "How many sets do you have left?" gets answered with "just one more" when the person was obviously screwing around and hogging the space. Just asking the question seems to make the oblivious and inconsiderate guy using the equipment realize what's up and hurry the hell up.

In Wendler's program you do all your lifts at a % of your estimated max... so warmup: 5x 40% of max 5x 50% of max 3x 60% of max Working sets 5x 75% of max 3x 85% of max 1+x95% of max every time you start a new month long cycle you increase the max by some amount, so every 4 weeks your 1+ set gets closer to a true 1RM. I…

this. I use 5/3/1 and the program is built so you essentially work up to a 1RM over a several month period, and then end up deloading when you get to a point where you can no longer progress. Doing it this way gives me a pretty good idea where my 1RM is without actually attempting it, and when I get there, it'll be after…

Also, I've gone with a downsized notebook. I use a "mini composition" notebook. It has room to write down the 4 lifts I plan to do, and the weights to use for each set. It fits in my pocket when I going from area to area, and I just set it on/near the bench or whatever other piece of equipment I'm using. The pen clips…

and when he says the reps should be 5 or less, that means by the time you get to your 5th rep it should be pretty hard for you to actually complete the rep.

Stronglifts is a good program, just stick with it and keep adding weights until you have to deload a couple of times. Then you can/should look into finding a different program, but until then there's no need to work some body parts more. Get your 5x5 in and increase the weight for the next workout. There are some programs…

:lol: @ the very fit man struggling to deadlift 215.

Instead of pullups you can try hanging leg raises. Its an ab exercise, but if you can't do a pullup it'll give you the grip work of holding your body weight up while accomplishing something else at the same time (instead of just a static hold which is boring). I like Step-ups with heavy dumbells too. Kind of like a…

This is what I was going to suggest. I'd recommend finding something that you enjoy doing to start with, and then do it regularly, consistently for 30 days. Even if its something you enjoy you;ll find it tough to make yourself do it at first. I've read that it takes a human about 30 days of consistently doing something to…

Faster weight loss <> efficient weight loss. Your body has a lot of muscle that it needs to keep you moving at a higher weight. You can set your diet at a 500-1000 daily calorie deficit, stick with some high intensity cardio for an hour a day and you're going to lose weight pretty quickly. But part of what you lose will be…

This. For a while the squat racks were extra busy at my gym on Sunday mornings when I got there. I made friends with the other squatters, and they were sure to flag me down from across the gym when one of them opened up while I was doing something else where the rack isn't needed. Its not ideal, and usually my work sets…

How many squats are you doing in a workout? I think the initial responses were assuming that you were doing something like 5 sets of 5 reps at a relatively heavy weight, but if you're using 8 lbs I think you're doing dozens and dozens of squats at a time.

Strength gains will level out at some point whether you're eating at a deficit or not. If they didn't, everyone in the world would be bench pressing 500 lbs and squatting 1,000 .The stronger you get, the harder it will be to get even stronger.

Whenever I hear that I think of these posts from a guy I know on another message board... followed by this a couple months later... In other words, you can make strength gains by using machines, but those gains are going to be limited to the muscles that the machine allows you to use, and don't come close to replicating…