Does Anyone Here Lift Weights?

[Shitty Rambo]

Thanks Big!

[jerseydave77]

Race #3 is in the books. Last months I stated I aimed to get to 1:10:00.

 

Result: 1:05:54
Beat my previous race time by 7 minutes. Getting there but seeing how deep the field was this time was pretty inspiring. Finished in the top 25%.

I'm most proud of my 5k run split since I worked on it pretty hard the last 5 weeks.

July Race: 27:06.9 9:02/M
August Race: 23:19.3 7:46/M

Tons more room to improve. Took Sunday off to recover then got out to start training again at 6:00am this morning. 

 

Oh, and I'm down below 185lbs - after one year of no gimmicks, just improved diet and exercise, I am down over 28lbs. I want to hit 180 since my running feels better and better with less weight. 

[thejesseb]

So got another question for you guys and it may be really stupid. IS there a certain time during the day that is better for a workout? I've been doing mine in the afternoons and early evenings during the summer but am probably going to start doing them early morning ~7am once school starts in order to avoid the madness at the gym. Just curious if time of day really matters.

[jerseydave77]

I prefer early morning and late evening myself but that's mostly related to digestion. If I could do every workout starting at 5:30/6:00am with only a protein shake in my belly and the inspiration of a new day then I would. Life doesn't allow that but it's my preference. I like being rested, with full energy and to allow my workout to help clear my head for what lies ahead. 

[bigbruise]

So got another question for you guys and it may be really stupid. IS there a certain time during the day that is better for a workout? I've been doing mine in the afternoons and early evenings during the summer but am probably going to start doing them early morning ~7am once school starts in order to avoid the madness at the gym. Just curious if time of day really matters.

I have heard that it's better to lift in the afternoon or evening due to spinal fluid levels being too high, or low in the morning. I can't remember exactly, because again, I just heard this. May be worth researching. I lift in the mornings though usually 1-3 hours after wake up.

Other than that, I have never heard any negatives about a certain time of day.

[thebiglebowski]

The advice that I've read is that you just want to avoid really early or late. The same workout at 10 am will have the same effect that it will at 10 pm. You just naturally have lower energy as your body ramps up or slows down.

Another factor might be whether you have a physical job or not. You really want to work hard for 30 minutes than hour and then rest. If you worked hard at 6 am then went out and moved furniture (for example), you wouldn't get the rest part and would risk overtraining (your body going into survival mode rather than rebuilding stronger)

Outside of the extremes, though, I think it's just about working it around your life. If there was a standard, there would be clearer guidance in the lifting community.

[thebiglebowski]

Put up 265x3 on the bench yesterday. Wanted to go for 300x1 but I balked. Definitely a personal record I'm pushing for. Just going to do it with a spotter. I lift in a power rack so it won't kill me but wiggling out from under 300 would not be fun. I keep the safety bars low enough that I can touch my chest but high enough that if I roll it down by my waist I can get out. Happens once in a while. Probably not pushing hard enough if it doesn't.

[jerseydave77]

I should also have noted that due to the balance of life and work I need to do 90% of my workouts at the extremes of early or late. I've found my body respond much better to early. I also love the mental high that comes from a morning weigh in.

[Guest]

is this just the general personal fitness thread now? i haven't visited in a while, but last i remember, people were addressing all sortsa stuff.

 

but anyway..

 

after smoking a bit and doing some yoga in the backyard, i decided to grab my nikes out of my car and go for a run. that's probably the first time that i've gone running as its own activity in about 3 or 4 years.

did about a mile and back. huffed and puffed the whole way up the first time. it's a gentle to moderate slope the first way. coming back, i was able to kind of shift gears the whole way, and then rev up to a full sprint in the homestretch.

 

caught my breath, jumped in the pool, and now i feel 

 

 

[Shitty Rambo]

A guy a know who's a "MMA fighter" swears that your body produces more testosterone when you work out your legs. Is that BS? Sounds made up to me.

[thebiglebowski]

A guy a know who's a "MMA fighter" swears that your body produces more testosterone when you work out your legs. Is that BS? Sounds made up to me.

Well, kinda. An intense workout actually decreases your body's testosterone levels, but then super compensation occurs during recovery (same principle as muscle size -- a muscle is worn down with exercise, then in the recovery phase, is built stronger). So given that leg exercises are some of the biggest lifts, they are going to be key to your body starting testosterone super compensation.

Nothing inherently special about the legs, though.

[Shitty Rambo]

If I can only hit an amount of weight for 3-4 reps per set is that good or should I lessen the weight and try and get a few more reps in? I increased my amount by 10lbs and feel like I can do it and get a work out, just can't do as much.

[bigbruise]

It depends on what you're trying to do. What are your goals, lose weight, get bigger?

[dethrock]

I'm currently working on my dead lift (it sucks) to try and have a 1000lb total between bench press, deadlift and squats.

[Shitty Rambo]

It depends on what you're trying to do. What are your goals, lose weight, get bigger?

Get bigger.

[bigbruise]

Then I'd stick with that. Maybe find a weight where you're pushing 4-6 reps, and aim to increase often. Keep your calorie surplus going and you're good.

[thebiglebowski]

What program have you been using? Looking for the exercises, frequency per week, and the number of reps in addition to the reps per set. That pretty well paints the full picture.

 

I know you posted a lot initially in the thread. Have you progressed? Hope so.

[Shitty Rambo]

What program have you been using? Looking for the exercises, frequency per week, and the number of reps in addition to the reps per set. That pretty well paints the full picture.

I know you posted a lot initially in the thread. Have you progressed? Hope so.

I usually work out 3 days in a row, take a 1 day break, start the 3 days over, take a 2 day break. First day is arms and I'll usually bench(5 sets of 4 reps), curl dumbbells (or use the pulley, preacher curl machine, or do hammer curls - 5 sets of 5 reps), tricep extensions (or tricep pulldowns, ect. - 5 sets of 5 reps), and dips with a weight on my lap (4 sets of 7 reps).

Second day I'll do back and shoulders, dumbbell shoulder press(5 sets of 4 reps), shrugs(5 sets of 5 reps), lateral raises(4 sets of 4 reps), reverse cable cross over(5 sets of 5 reps), deadlifts(4 sets of 3 reps).

Third day I do legs, using the leg press(4 sets of 5 reps), barbell or dumbbell squats(5 sets of 5 reps), dumbbell lunges(4 sets of 4 reps per leg), ankle raises(5 sets of 15 reps).

This isn't 100% exact because sometimes I'll swap out exercises to break the routine and the ones I didn't mention I don't know the names of haha. I'll use some machines from time to time but this is basically my go-to. I don't take huge breaks between sets, usually about 30 seconds, at the very most 2 minutes. My workouts usually last 1:20:00 and if I'm off work I'll go for an extra 30 minutes.

I have put on 20LBs, definitely got a lot of mass in my shoulders and biceps but not so much my forearms and marginally in my legs. I think my biggest issue is eating. I try to eat as much as I can but I'm pretty busy at work and don't have time (or an appetite, working in the heat makes it hard to want to eat a lot and my job is very physical so I burn through a lot of calories just doing my job). I need to organize a meal plan and have food lined up and just make myself eat more. I should probably drink more protein shakes but that shit is expensive.

[thebiglebowski]

Don't worry about forearm size. Smaller muscles, don't a ton, harder to work out. Your forearms should grow some with the rest of your upper body but probably not at the same rate. Glamour muscle, even more than the bicep.

 

Legs not strengthening is something that should be corrected. If not eating enough is the problem as suggested, then you know what you have to do. Yeah, protein costs more money than carbs. Just part of nature. You can get chicken breast for $2 a pound, though. Just gotta make it a priority I guess.

 

From the picture you paint (physical job with nutrition leaning on the lower calorie end) I would think that working out 6 out of 7 days is too much. Lately I do:

 

Monday - Squat, bench, shrug, weighted situps

Wednesday - Deadlift, pull up, overhead press

Friday - Squat, bench, shrug, curl

 

That's a good deal less volume than your plan but I focus on increasing weight and it's working for me. I consciously don't do rows because of an injury.

 

Another thing you might consider is a periodized workout. If you have put on 20 pounds of mass (nice work...) then you might be moving from beginner to intermediate (subjective titles). Higher you go, the more care must be put into a workout. An olympic weightlifter might have an 8 week lifting cycle where the weight moved each workout day is different and carefully planned. For you, maybe you just alternate light/heavy workouts. Throwing in lighter days allows you to push yourself further on the heavy ones.

 

Other than that, I'd suggest reading the two books by Mark Rippetoe (can be found online) if you can spare the time. Plenty of others out there, but his are pretty well respected. We do our best to answer questions, there are good website resources out there on different topics, but nothing can paint the full picture and cover all the topics like a book can. Worth the time. Easy read.

[thebiglebowski]

Maybe being a little too hard on the forearm. It would be a problem if grip is the limiting factor in the deadlift (and we aren't talking about a deadlift over 400 pounds, which is probably gonna require lifting straps).

 

Outside that, shouldn't care.

[jerseydave77]

Haven't been in here in a while.

 

I had my fourth triathlon this year today and finished #25 out of 205 in my category. In fact, I finished third in my age group so I got a podium finish of sorts. Pretty exciting stuff to see myself go from not being able to run a mile straight to blowing by folks with years of experience. 

[vialister]

Haven't been in here in a while.

 

I had my fourth triathlon this year today and finished #25 out of 205 in my category. In fact, I finished third in my age group so I got a podium finish of sorts. Pretty exciting stuff to see myself go from not being able to run a mile straight to blowing by folks with years of experience. 

 

Congrats man!

[Shitty Rambo]

Don't worry about forearm size. Smaller muscles, don't a ton, harder to work out. Your forearms should grow some with the rest of your upper body but probably not at the same rate. Glamour muscle, even more than the bicep.

Legs not strengthening is something that should be corrected. If not eating enough is the problem as suggested, then you know what you have to do. Yeah, protein costs more money than carbs. Just part of nature. You can get chicken breast for $2 a pound, though. Just gotta make it a priority I guess.

From the picture you paint (physical job with nutrition leaning on the lower calorie end) I would think that working out 6 out of 7 days is too much. Lately I do:

Monday - Squat, bench, shrug, weighted situps

Wednesday - Deadlift, pull up, overhead press

Friday - Squat, bench, shrug, curl

That's a good deal less volume than your plan but I focus on increasing weight and it's working for me. I consciously don't do rows because of an injury.

Another thing you might consider is a periodized workout. If you have put on 20 pounds of mass (nice work...) then you might be moving from beginner to intermediate (subjective titles). Higher you go, the more care must be put into a workout. An olympic weightlifter might have an 8 week lifting cycle where the weight moved each workout day is different and carefully planned. For you, maybe you just alternate light/heavy workouts. Throwing in lighter days allows you to push yourself further on the heavy ones.

Other than that, I'd suggest reading the two books by Mark Rippetoe (can be found online) if you can spare the time. Plenty of others out there, but his are pretty well respected. We do our best to answer questions, there are good website resources out there on different topics, but nothing can paint the full picture and cover all the topics like a book can. Worth the time. Easy read.

I'm going to give your routine a try for the next couple weeks (flipped it around because I just did my abs). I feel like going to work after my workout causes me to burn more calories than I can eat. I feel really burnt out lately, so maybe I'm overdoing it and not giving my body enough time to recover.

I found that book I PM'd you about. I'm gonna start it ASAP.

[bigbruise]

I'm going to give your routine a try for the next couple weeks (flipped it around because I just did my abs). I feel like going to work after my workout causes me to burn more calories than I can eat. I feel really burnt out lately, so maybe I'm overdoing it and not giving my body enough time to recover.

I found that book I PM'd you about. I'm gonna start it ASAP.

Rest is probably good, and you can always try eating more!

I had been feeling tightness and a dull soreness in my lower back for a few weeks so I took about 3 weeks off squatting, and like 2 weeks off deadlifts. Then I started messing around with sumo deadlifts and low bar squats. Great exercises but I've learned that I seriously lack flexibility.

First time with sumos, I felt it way more in my hamstrings than I should have and I was hitting my knees on the way down every time. Couldn't even put up 225 that day. My hips were killing me, but not a bad hurt just "holy shit I'm not in this position very often" hurt.

Second day, made some tweaks to my form, and now I like it a lot. Still, 225 was feeling heavy, but I'm feeling better with the exercise so it's cool.

Low bar squats were incredibly painful in the shoulder and chest area. The positioning under the bar is a stretch for me. But the weight felt so light! It really felt good on my back that low, I see great potential with this.

Definitely need to stretch more, make it part of my routine as well. Been doing some research on that. So yeah, that's my story.

[thebiglebowski]

I use a pad that wraps around the center of the bar for all squats. Much more comfortable.