Quote:
Originally Posted by Lug's Spear
Welcome to the logs, I have a couple of questions...
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Thanks, hope I can keep adding to the text ... I have a bad habit of not writing stuff down.
-What is your current body weight? I was 120 out of high school so I am curious.
I'm now just around 135-138. I weighed 125 all through college. I added 10+ lbs in the past 8 weeks by changing my diet. All my lifts went up, except those where I move my own body weight.
-Have you read the FAQ, your routine appears to be more body building centered than strength and power.
I have read lots of weight lifiting literature and the like and talked with other avid lifters to gain insight into what they do. I've found that I don't necessarily buy into all the theorizing and here's my reasoning:
Everyone's body is an incredibly dynamic and complex mechanism. And body to body, there's a ton of difference. I believe in the basics: diet, lots of hard work, the right supplements, rest etc. I've restructured my workouts countless times: different combinations of muscles and rest periods and cycles, varying the volume and weight, using more and less time, etc. I've found some basic things that work for me over the years:
1. You have to get the right technique. If this means sacrificing weight and trying to compensate with volume (I know this obviously doesn't work for real strength, but for athletic strength, it can be adequate), then by all means. I don't bent over row 135 lbs, I do a lot less, because I want a good, clean pull. I only do dumbell raises w/ 10 lbs, one because I have a 70" reach standing only 66", and two, I use the volume to build endurance, just like hitting the heavy bag.
2. I'm not looking to gain much more strength, because I'm going to have to keep gaining weight. My philosophy is to develop my core strength groups (chest, lats, core, back, legs, ~traps) and use the secondary muscles (delts, ~traps, small back muscles, gastrocnemius, arms and forearms) to support those lifts. That is why the volume and weight of my lifts is not even across the board.
In the end, I've found all the theorizing about specific structure of how you lift to be ultimately not as important as keeping the motivation to lift hard every day. This might be a case of lifting "dumb" where gains could be easily made by comprisiming structure, but from past experience, they just don't seem to work, at least not for me.
Also, I still have two days in my circuit, shoulders and triceps and then back on Saturday.
-Why are your lifts restricted to "core and leg stuff"?
They aren't. Only my "power" lifts are core and leg. I consider these are lifts like hang cleans, one arm dumbell snatch, medicine ball set-ups, and box jumps where the speed of the rep helps develop nerve and muscle response as well as power, rather than just pure strength.
-What are your goals?
Maintain where I am, eek out small strength gains that I can
without gaining weight.
-Do you have access to a squat rack? It is preferable to a smith machine.
Yes, I alternate smith machine squats with normal squats. Squats are very hard on the body, but I prefer them. My squat index starts at 135 then I go up to about 195x10. I don't try to train legs with the intent of lots of strength. Therefore, the smith machine doesn't bother me. I only want leg strenght gains so my power lifts go up, because these are very important to me: hang cleans, power cleans, box jumps etc.
-What are your current lifts? (Bench/Squat/Deadlift/SOHP).[/quote]
Bench: I haven't done in a while, but I can certainly bench over 185, as I can do 185x2-3 at the end of my workouts. I'd guess I can put maybe 195 up.
Squat: Again, I don't do SRmaxes often. I'd guess w/ a 195x10 I could do maybe 230+.
Deadlift: I don't do these very often, I do SLDL's. I did 270 in college when I was 125 during IM weightlifting. I would hope being 10lbs heavier I could do 270 considering I am stronger and heavier now.
SOHP: 125 though this I don't feel comfortable doing this outside of the safety rack. I haven't done it recently.
I tend to measure my strength gains not by single rep maxes but by how my pyramids change in weight. For instance, if I raise my bench press by 10 lbs across every set, I know I've made significant gains (likely up to 15lbs on single rep). If it raises on only the front half or back half, I know I may have made a 5-10lb gain.
Anyone have tips on improving grip strength? I just recently went up to 135 on this lift. Can you use wrist straps or those Nike power grip things?
