Bodyweight - 254
Incline -
barx40,30
135x15
185x5
225x5
275x5
315x4
365x3
405x2
435xM < -- fuck you!!!
365x5....and fuck you too!!!!
Tittay machine - 210x9 drop set 130x4
Pushdowns and upright rows blah blah blah
Notes - total -10% shit sucking session. God damn it was awful.
Strength Life Legacy
Monday, September 30, 2013
Saturday, September 28, 2013
Deadlifting - straps or no straps, touch n go, or deadstop...
Recently I've seen more and more guys doing strapped up deadlifts, with touch and go reps. Someone asked me what was the benefit of doing deadlifts this way, as opposed to dead stop reps, or without straps.
What are some of the reasons you would, and would not pull with straps and touch and go deadlifts?
Overload is one reason. And really, the only one. One of the things that getting strapped up and eliminating a grip issue does, is allow you to pull more reps. This in turn allows you to overload the musculature involved in the deadlift to a greater degree, of course. When you add in touch and go reps, you can generally pull more reps that way than dead stop style. This can be useful for strengthening and building the actual muscles involved in pulling, because of time under tension.
So as a tool, strapped up-touch and go deadlifts are a solid tool for actually building the "posterior chain". However, they are a terrible way to train to get ready for a powerlifting meet.
To start, using straps double overhand and pulling mixed grip (if that's how you pull) without straps, are mechanically different movements altogether. Not even remotely the same. Straps allow you to go double overhand, and then let you get very "long" in the pull. Much longer than you are going to be when you get to the platform, and go mixed grip.
When you pull double overhand-strapped, this is not the position you are going to be in when you pull mixed grip. At all. The body will get into an entirely different position when you have to go back to mixed grip. Thus specificity is lost, and the carryover will be minimal, if at all.
So the last thing you should be doing is training double over hand with straps, when you pull with a mixed grip in competition.
For guys that do pull double overhand in a hook grip fashion, there may be more merit to it, because you can indeed mimic the same position you will have with straps. However otherwise, you need to ditch the straps and the touch and go reps, 4 or 5 weeks before your meet, so that you can actually train the deadlift and strengthen it in the style of which you will be asked to demonstrate it. I mean, this only makes sense.
You need to practice like you play.
Finally, there is nothing "wrong" or "right" about pulling with straps, or touch and go reps as a whole. It's only wrong or right, depending on what you are trying to use it to accomplish.
You don't play tennis to get better at playing basketball. So you shouldn't use strapped up-touch and go deadlifts if you are trying to prepare for a powerlifting meet. If you are preparing for strongman, and straps with touch n go reps are allowed, then go to town.
What it really comes back to is using a method correctly for what you will be applying it to.
Thursday, September 26, 2013
Awesome write up from Stan Efferding
This thing is just gold. I mean gold. And he also covers all the guys who write in with a question...and another question....and another.....and another.......
You know who you are.
Anyway it's here, but I want to paste it as well.........
Over 90% of the questions I’m asked at the gym or via email are about the best weight lifting routine to get huge and strong. How many sets, reps, drop sets, super sets, rest time, frequency, duration etc…?
My answer is always the same. It doesn’t matter You don’t grow in the gym, you grow at the dinner table.
It’s never the training routine that’s limiting growth, it’s always the recovery phase, eating and sleeping. The vast majority of people who want to get bigger and stronger already train hard enough to grow, they just don’t eat and sleep enough to grow. They carry a notebook and want to show me every rep and set of every workout and routine they’ve done for the past three years, but there’s not one page with a record of their meals. I feel bad for them because I know they work hard in the gym and they rarely miss a workout, but the notebook just documents all the muscle they’ve broken down and has no record of what they’ve been doing to build it up. I know because I did it myself. When I started college nearly 30 years ago there was no Internet and few reliable resources to find information about getting big and strong. I started lifting two hours a day, six days a week, doing endless sets and reps of every exercise in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Encyclopedia of Bodybuilding. I struggled to put on five pounds a year until I finally came across an experienced lifter who told me I was wasting my time with all that lifting and told me to go home and eat. By cutting my training back to an hour three days a week and hiking my calories up to over 5,000 a day, I was able to put on 20 pounds in less than a year!
In the book outliers, they speak of the 10,000 hour rule as the necessary amount of time to become an expert at any given sport. It doesn’t apply to bodybuilding or powerlifting. PowerBuilding is not a skill like pitching a baseball, sinking a three pointer, hitting a golf ball or even playing the piano. Those pursuits require thousands of hours of practice to perfect the motor skills necessary to become an expert. PowerBuilding is very different. Lifting weights is not a skill (Olympic lifting not withstanding), it is simply a stimulus for size and strength, and it doesn’t actually build muscle, it just breaks down muscle. And lifting light weights that don’t force the body to adapt provide little to no stimulus at all for growth. Don’t get me wrong, walking around the neighborhood and doing a few curls with the pink rubber hand weights is great for your mom to stay healthy, but you’ll never get huge and strong doing her workout – I don’t care how many hours a day you do it!!
It really is this simple:
Lift heavy weights three times a week for an hour. Eat lots of food and sleep as much as you can.
That’s it. There’s nothing more to add. I’d love to be able to just stop there and trust that the person asking the question will do exactly those two things and get huge and strong.
But, there’s always a million nit picky questions to follow, the answers to which really make very little difference. People have become well informed and read everything they can about the sport, so they want to hear me confirm or negate every last theory, belief, bias, research study, proposal, hunch, testimonial and Dr. Oz episode they’ve ever watched. The truth is, it doesn’t matter. It’s always a good idea to educate yourself and keep track of your training and diet, but there is no holy grail. Using a bunch of words nobody understands and trying to explain to yourself or others every detail of the Krebs cycle has very little effect on your progress.
I’m as bad as anyone about trying to learn all the latest training and nutritional information, but I understand that 99% of progress comes from those 2 simple rules: Lift heavy weights and eat and sleep a lot. Therefore, I don’t let myself stray from the basics and I don’t waste half my time chasing the 1%, I spend most of my time and effort making sure I’m doing the 99% as hard and as consistent as I can. Train heavy, eat and sleep. Repeat.
What is heavy? Don’t over complicate the answer. If its too easy, add more weight. Repeat.
How much is enough food? If you’re not gaining muscle, eat more. Repeat.
Sure, if you try to lift too much weight with horrible technique, you’ll get hurt. Duh!
Sure, if you eat hot dogs and pizza all day, you’ll get fat. Duh!
Beyond that, don’t get caught up with all the details spewed out of the mouths of every card-carrying-weekend-online-personal-training certificate holder trying to tell you that you HAVE to keep your elbows tucked to your sides, arms perpendicular to the floor, don’t go past ninety degrees, slightly bend at the knees, breathe in, now breathe out, don’t lock out, two seconds on the way down, four seconds on the way up, 10 more, 9, 8, good, 7, 6 more, you can do it … Somebody shoot me in my “amp;@:/#” face so I don’t have to listen to that any more!
Likewise, don’t stock up on bags of shiitake mushrooms, seaweed and fish eyes because you heard Japanese people eat it and they live longer. They live longer because they have 1/10 the obesity rate of Americans so the fish eyes aren’t the answer, just stop being a fat ass and you won’t drop from a heart attack four years before a Japanese person!
Don’t chase the 1%, there is no magic training routine or diet that’s going to provide any measurable results over the basic principles for getting huge and strong: Train heavy, eat and sleep more.
Again, I should stop there because I don’t care if I piss off the wanna-be’s and know-it-alls we hear advising everyone who mistakenly comes within earshot of these self proclaimed experts and perennial advisers of the masses, but I know there’s some very hard working and passionate lifters out there who are struggling to get better results and need just a little more to chew on so they don’t keep wasting endless hours in the gym and untold dollars on the latest worthless pill or potion at the store.
For them, I will peel back one more layer of this simple recipe for results, but don’t be disappointed when you see behind the curtain and find out the Wizard of Oz has no magic powers. You’ll see it’s all common-sense stuff you already know and it boils down to hard work, discipline and consistency.
1 Train heavy
Hypertrophy is best achieved in the 5-10 rep range. Lift the heaviest weight you can handle for at least 5 reps and if you can lift it more than 10 times, increase the weight. Google “Dorian Yates Workouts” to learn all about “growth sets” so you understand that maximum intensity provides the stimulus for muscles to grow, not endless reps and sets. For example, If you’re doing incline dumbbell presses and you do 10 reps with the 60′s, then ten reps with the 70′s, then 10 reps with the 80′s, then finally go to failure with seven reps plus two more assisted with the 100′s, you didn’t do four sets. The only set that counts is the growth set. The set you put maximum effort into, the one where you failed and struggled through a couple more assisted reps. You did one set. The rest of those “warm up” sets were a waste of time and only served to put unnecessary repetitive strain on your tendons and ligaments. Just do a few reps of each lighter weight to warm up on your first exercise then even fewer warm ups on subsequent exercises. Save your energy and your joints for the sets that count, the growth sets.
2 Don’t sweat the small stuff
How many sets and exercises? It doesn’t matter. I can build an entire workout around one or two max effort growth sets and go home and grow. Volume doesn’t improve results, intensity does. Don’t train for more than an hour and don’t count all the warm ups. Do one or two Max effort sets of a couple multi-joint mass building exercises and go home. Don’t follow up a couple sets of 400 pound bench presses with cable crossovers and don’t do five reps of 500lb rack lockouts for triceps then try to follow that with some cable push downs, it’s a monumental waste of time!! If you can’t grow from heavy squats, the leg extension machine ain’t gonna help you one bit so skip it and do the squats! And quit doing curls in the squat rack simply because the lighting is better and the mirror is full length!
3 Less can be more
How often? Three days a week is plenty. Push, pull, legs is still a great way to grow. Chest, shoulders and triceps one day, back and biceps another and then legs. The basic movements like bench and dips work all the muscle groups in the push chain so you don’t need a bunch of isolation exercises if any. Same is true of T-bar rows and chins for the pull chain and squats for legs.
If you are powerlifting then transition from the hypertrophy phase into the powerlifting phase about 8 weeks out from a meet and begin doing heavy doubles and triples on the powerlifting movements followed by maybe one or two sets of one or two ancillary exercises afterwards. For example, work up to two or three sets of doubles or triples on flat bench then follow that up with a heavy set or two of rack lockouts or dips and go home.
When I squatted 905 lbs raw in training, I was only squatting every OTHER week. Twice a month! I deadlifted on the alternate weeks and benched once a week. You heard correctly, I trained twice a week when I hit my 2,303 pound raw total and set the all-time world record. I would bench on Mondays and squat OR deadlift on Saturdays. Wednesdays was stretching, balance and core work. That’s it!
It’s about recovery. I didn’t do any “light” days, waste of time. I have no idea what’s suppose to be accomplished by doing a few reps with 60% of your max. What about “Speed work?”. What about it? Waste of time!! If I don’t bench heavy on a Monday night then I sure as hell don’t do some really fast light reps or a bunch of push ups. I load up the incline press with 500 pounds or grab the 200-pound dumbbells and knock out as many reps as I can or behind the neck press 315 for reps. I try to take my body somewhere it hasnt been before so it will adapt and grow when I eat and sleep.
The only reason to lift weights is to stimulate a growth response. Lifting half what you’re capable of isn’t going to stimulate anything.
I really have come to believe that all these fancy machines and “cutting edge” routines are designed BY lazy people FOR lazy people who can’t or don’t want to do the hard work necessary to get results. How many years have you been going to gyms and see the same people lifting the same weights and looking the same as they did when they started?
Don’t let that be you. Take your body somewhere it hasn’t been before then give it enough food and rest so it can adapt and grow!!! I know it’s difficult to look yourself in the mirror and admit that it’s your own fault if you’re not getting results. It’s not because you don’t know something someone else knows or haven’t figured out the right set and rep scheme or bought the right blend of supplements, it’s because you need to get back to the basics and train heavy then eat and sleep with the kind of consistency and intensity that will create results.
4Eat lots of food and sleep as much as you can
The sleep part doesn’t need any explanation. Don’t run if you can walk, don’t stand if you can sit and don’t stay awake if you can sleep. Done.
What do you eat? The answer to this question has been made more confusing and complicated by everyone trying to sell you their version of the latest greatest diet or supplement program but it’s not rocket science either.
Eat numerous meals a day, each one consisting of a quality animal protein source (eggs, lean red meat, fish, chicken, milk) along with some complex carbs (rice, oatmeal, bread, pasta, vege’s). It’s that simple.
If you insist on percentages then go with 33/33/33 for fats/protein/carbs. If you’re gaining too much fat, reduce the calories. If you’re not gaining weight, increase the calories. Easy enough.
There’s your 99%. All the other stuff combined (meal timing, ratios, supplements, high carb, low carb, no carb, high fat, low fat, Atkins, Paleo, Zone, etc…) doesn’t add up to 1%. Most of the time, going to one extreme or another sets you back instead of improving your results.
I told you – it’s common sense. Problem is, executing a successful plan every day, every week, every month and every year is the stumbling block. It’s easy to understand, but are you doing it?
Every time I’ve reached a “plateau” in my results, I’ve never been able to solve the problem by implementing some new training routine or diet. I’ve always had to admit to myself that I wasn’t executing the 99% plan. You have to be honest with yourself about wasted workouts, missed meals or a few short nights of sleep. That’s always where the problem is. So if you see me at the gym or a show, just tell me you already know what the problem is and you’re gonna train harder and eat and sleep better. That way we can skip all the worthless postulation about the 1% and talk about something more meaningful like your family or your business.
All my best!
You know who you are.
Anyway it's here, but I want to paste it as well.........
Over 90% of the questions I’m asked at the gym or via email are about the best weight lifting routine to get huge and strong. How many sets, reps, drop sets, super sets, rest time, frequency, duration etc…?
My answer is always the same. It doesn’t matter You don’t grow in the gym, you grow at the dinner table.
It’s never the training routine that’s limiting growth, it’s always the recovery phase, eating and sleeping. The vast majority of people who want to get bigger and stronger already train hard enough to grow, they just don’t eat and sleep enough to grow. They carry a notebook and want to show me every rep and set of every workout and routine they’ve done for the past three years, but there’s not one page with a record of their meals. I feel bad for them because I know they work hard in the gym and they rarely miss a workout, but the notebook just documents all the muscle they’ve broken down and has no record of what they’ve been doing to build it up. I know because I did it myself. When I started college nearly 30 years ago there was no Internet and few reliable resources to find information about getting big and strong. I started lifting two hours a day, six days a week, doing endless sets and reps of every exercise in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Encyclopedia of Bodybuilding. I struggled to put on five pounds a year until I finally came across an experienced lifter who told me I was wasting my time with all that lifting and told me to go home and eat. By cutting my training back to an hour three days a week and hiking my calories up to over 5,000 a day, I was able to put on 20 pounds in less than a year!
In the book outliers, they speak of the 10,000 hour rule as the necessary amount of time to become an expert at any given sport. It doesn’t apply to bodybuilding or powerlifting. PowerBuilding is not a skill like pitching a baseball, sinking a three pointer, hitting a golf ball or even playing the piano. Those pursuits require thousands of hours of practice to perfect the motor skills necessary to become an expert. PowerBuilding is very different. Lifting weights is not a skill (Olympic lifting not withstanding), it is simply a stimulus for size and strength, and it doesn’t actually build muscle, it just breaks down muscle. And lifting light weights that don’t force the body to adapt provide little to no stimulus at all for growth. Don’t get me wrong, walking around the neighborhood and doing a few curls with the pink rubber hand weights is great for your mom to stay healthy, but you’ll never get huge and strong doing her workout – I don’t care how many hours a day you do it!!
It really is this simple:
Lift heavy weights three times a week for an hour. Eat lots of food and sleep as much as you can.
That’s it. There’s nothing more to add. I’d love to be able to just stop there and trust that the person asking the question will do exactly those two things and get huge and strong.
But, there’s always a million nit picky questions to follow, the answers to which really make very little difference. People have become well informed and read everything they can about the sport, so they want to hear me confirm or negate every last theory, belief, bias, research study, proposal, hunch, testimonial and Dr. Oz episode they’ve ever watched. The truth is, it doesn’t matter. It’s always a good idea to educate yourself and keep track of your training and diet, but there is no holy grail. Using a bunch of words nobody understands and trying to explain to yourself or others every detail of the Krebs cycle has very little effect on your progress.
I’m as bad as anyone about trying to learn all the latest training and nutritional information, but I understand that 99% of progress comes from those 2 simple rules: Lift heavy weights and eat and sleep a lot. Therefore, I don’t let myself stray from the basics and I don’t waste half my time chasing the 1%, I spend most of my time and effort making sure I’m doing the 99% as hard and as consistent as I can. Train heavy, eat and sleep. Repeat.
What is heavy? Don’t over complicate the answer. If its too easy, add more weight. Repeat.
How much is enough food? If you’re not gaining muscle, eat more. Repeat.
Sure, if you try to lift too much weight with horrible technique, you’ll get hurt. Duh!
Sure, if you eat hot dogs and pizza all day, you’ll get fat. Duh!
Beyond that, don’t get caught up with all the details spewed out of the mouths of every card-carrying-weekend-online-personal-training certificate holder trying to tell you that you HAVE to keep your elbows tucked to your sides, arms perpendicular to the floor, don’t go past ninety degrees, slightly bend at the knees, breathe in, now breathe out, don’t lock out, two seconds on the way down, four seconds on the way up, 10 more, 9, 8, good, 7, 6 more, you can do it … Somebody shoot me in my “amp;@:/#” face so I don’t have to listen to that any more!
Likewise, don’t stock up on bags of shiitake mushrooms, seaweed and fish eyes because you heard Japanese people eat it and they live longer. They live longer because they have 1/10 the obesity rate of Americans so the fish eyes aren’t the answer, just stop being a fat ass and you won’t drop from a heart attack four years before a Japanese person!
Don’t chase the 1%, there is no magic training routine or diet that’s going to provide any measurable results over the basic principles for getting huge and strong: Train heavy, eat and sleep more.
Again, I should stop there because I don’t care if I piss off the wanna-be’s and know-it-alls we hear advising everyone who mistakenly comes within earshot of these self proclaimed experts and perennial advisers of the masses, but I know there’s some very hard working and passionate lifters out there who are struggling to get better results and need just a little more to chew on so they don’t keep wasting endless hours in the gym and untold dollars on the latest worthless pill or potion at the store.
For them, I will peel back one more layer of this simple recipe for results, but don’t be disappointed when you see behind the curtain and find out the Wizard of Oz has no magic powers. You’ll see it’s all common-sense stuff you already know and it boils down to hard work, discipline and consistency.
1 Train heavy
Hypertrophy is best achieved in the 5-10 rep range. Lift the heaviest weight you can handle for at least 5 reps and if you can lift it more than 10 times, increase the weight. Google “Dorian Yates Workouts” to learn all about “growth sets” so you understand that maximum intensity provides the stimulus for muscles to grow, not endless reps and sets. For example, If you’re doing incline dumbbell presses and you do 10 reps with the 60′s, then ten reps with the 70′s, then 10 reps with the 80′s, then finally go to failure with seven reps plus two more assisted with the 100′s, you didn’t do four sets. The only set that counts is the growth set. The set you put maximum effort into, the one where you failed and struggled through a couple more assisted reps. You did one set. The rest of those “warm up” sets were a waste of time and only served to put unnecessary repetitive strain on your tendons and ligaments. Just do a few reps of each lighter weight to warm up on your first exercise then even fewer warm ups on subsequent exercises. Save your energy and your joints for the sets that count, the growth sets.
2 Don’t sweat the small stuff
How many sets and exercises? It doesn’t matter. I can build an entire workout around one or two max effort growth sets and go home and grow. Volume doesn’t improve results, intensity does. Don’t train for more than an hour and don’t count all the warm ups. Do one or two Max effort sets of a couple multi-joint mass building exercises and go home. Don’t follow up a couple sets of 400 pound bench presses with cable crossovers and don’t do five reps of 500lb rack lockouts for triceps then try to follow that with some cable push downs, it’s a monumental waste of time!! If you can’t grow from heavy squats, the leg extension machine ain’t gonna help you one bit so skip it and do the squats! And quit doing curls in the squat rack simply because the lighting is better and the mirror is full length!
3 Less can be more
How often? Three days a week is plenty. Push, pull, legs is still a great way to grow. Chest, shoulders and triceps one day, back and biceps another and then legs. The basic movements like bench and dips work all the muscle groups in the push chain so you don’t need a bunch of isolation exercises if any. Same is true of T-bar rows and chins for the pull chain and squats for legs.
If you are powerlifting then transition from the hypertrophy phase into the powerlifting phase about 8 weeks out from a meet and begin doing heavy doubles and triples on the powerlifting movements followed by maybe one or two sets of one or two ancillary exercises afterwards. For example, work up to two or three sets of doubles or triples on flat bench then follow that up with a heavy set or two of rack lockouts or dips and go home.
When I squatted 905 lbs raw in training, I was only squatting every OTHER week. Twice a month! I deadlifted on the alternate weeks and benched once a week. You heard correctly, I trained twice a week when I hit my 2,303 pound raw total and set the all-time world record. I would bench on Mondays and squat OR deadlift on Saturdays. Wednesdays was stretching, balance and core work. That’s it!
It’s about recovery. I didn’t do any “light” days, waste of time. I have no idea what’s suppose to be accomplished by doing a few reps with 60% of your max. What about “Speed work?”. What about it? Waste of time!! If I don’t bench heavy on a Monday night then I sure as hell don’t do some really fast light reps or a bunch of push ups. I load up the incline press with 500 pounds or grab the 200-pound dumbbells and knock out as many reps as I can or behind the neck press 315 for reps. I try to take my body somewhere it hasnt been before so it will adapt and grow when I eat and sleep.
The only reason to lift weights is to stimulate a growth response. Lifting half what you’re capable of isn’t going to stimulate anything.
I really have come to believe that all these fancy machines and “cutting edge” routines are designed BY lazy people FOR lazy people who can’t or don’t want to do the hard work necessary to get results. How many years have you been going to gyms and see the same people lifting the same weights and looking the same as they did when they started?
Don’t let that be you. Take your body somewhere it hasn’t been before then give it enough food and rest so it can adapt and grow!!! I know it’s difficult to look yourself in the mirror and admit that it’s your own fault if you’re not getting results. It’s not because you don’t know something someone else knows or haven’t figured out the right set and rep scheme or bought the right blend of supplements, it’s because you need to get back to the basics and train heavy then eat and sleep with the kind of consistency and intensity that will create results.
4Eat lots of food and sleep as much as you can
The sleep part doesn’t need any explanation. Don’t run if you can walk, don’t stand if you can sit and don’t stay awake if you can sleep. Done.
What do you eat? The answer to this question has been made more confusing and complicated by everyone trying to sell you their version of the latest greatest diet or supplement program but it’s not rocket science either.
Eat numerous meals a day, each one consisting of a quality animal protein source (eggs, lean red meat, fish, chicken, milk) along with some complex carbs (rice, oatmeal, bread, pasta, vege’s). It’s that simple.
If you insist on percentages then go with 33/33/33 for fats/protein/carbs. If you’re gaining too much fat, reduce the calories. If you’re not gaining weight, increase the calories. Easy enough.
There’s your 99%. All the other stuff combined (meal timing, ratios, supplements, high carb, low carb, no carb, high fat, low fat, Atkins, Paleo, Zone, etc…) doesn’t add up to 1%. Most of the time, going to one extreme or another sets you back instead of improving your results.
I told you – it’s common sense. Problem is, executing a successful plan every day, every week, every month and every year is the stumbling block. It’s easy to understand, but are you doing it?
Every time I’ve reached a “plateau” in my results, I’ve never been able to solve the problem by implementing some new training routine or diet. I’ve always had to admit to myself that I wasn’t executing the 99% plan. You have to be honest with yourself about wasted workouts, missed meals or a few short nights of sleep. That’s always where the problem is. So if you see me at the gym or a show, just tell me you already know what the problem is and you’re gonna train harder and eat and sleep better. That way we can skip all the worthless postulation about the 1% and talk about something more meaningful like your family or your business.
All my best!
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
Meet Prep - week 3 - Skwats and Pulls
Bodyweight - 258
Squats -
barx20,10
135x10
225x5,5
315x5
405x5,5,5,5,5,5,5 8 sets of 5
500x1 just checking speed
Deficit Pulls -
225x2
315x2
405x2
500x2
545x3,3,3
Deficit Stiff Legs - 455x10
Leg Press - 4 plates per side x 10
6 PPS x 10
8 PPS x 10
Notes - Solid. Unspectacular, but solid.
Squats -
barx20,10
135x10
225x5,5
315x5
405x5,5,5,5,5,5,5 8 sets of 5
500x1 just checking speed
Deficit Pulls -
225x2
315x2
405x2
500x2
545x3,3,3
Deficit Stiff Legs - 455x10
Leg Press - 4 plates per side x 10
6 PPS x 10
8 PPS x 10
Notes - Solid. Unspectacular, but solid.
Why beginners shouldn't bench press....at first
I'm not going to launch into the usual diatribe nonsense that has been written before, vilifying the flat bench press as a "worthless movement" or "terrible pec builder." I've read of that shit from carbon copy writers and "gurus" for a few lifetimes.
I personally think the bench press, done correctly, is a great movement for building upperbody strength and mass.
I'm not writing this for "controversial" reasons either. I have my beliefs on why pure novices shouldn't start out benching right away, and some reasons why I believe beginners should avoid the movement for at least a few months.
Overdoing it -
Almost everyone does this with benching in the beginning. "What cha bench?" is the most common lifting question asked because well, we're a culture based around upperbody looks and strength. Like it or not, that's a fact. Otherwise no one would ever complain about people curling in the squat rack, or the 97 dudes that come into the gym that have jacked arms and chests, but no legs, glutes, back, or calves to speak of.
Beginners always bench way too much without off setting it by including enough pulling movements. Eventually they get that "hands in my pocket" appearance. You know what I'm talking about. Their shoulders rotate forward so far that they end up with imaginary lat syndrome, and their palms end up in front of their thighs, almost as if their hands are in their pockets.
This is a great way to set the stage for injury down the road. Some might say "well, that's from just too much pressing in general." Possibly. I don't know for certain however, because I've never seen a beginner male not obsessed with benching more. I've never seen one that did an inordinate amount of back work to offset his benching, nor have I seen a beginner focus on the incline press or overhead work as the two main staples instead of the bench.
Terrible technique -
This goes without saying. Most noobs aren't lucky enough to have a truly qualified expert to teach them how to bench properly. The bench is actually a fairly complex lift to perform. There's far more to it than just lying flat on the bench, and pressing. Learning how to get tight, set up properly with scapular retraction, leg drive, elbow tuck/flare degree, wrists over elbows, etc all play a part in benching pressing properly, and safely.
So what usually happens is, ol boy learns how to bench from his brother or his buddy who has been lifting for 6 months and "suddenly got jacked". So the blind ends up leading the blind right into irritated rotator cuffs, torn pecs, and sore shoulders.
This ends up happening because said lifter trains long enough to get some weight on the bar, in spite of how he is lifting, and won't change his technique later due to ego.
"Lifting any other way, I feel weak." Well duh, that's because you've been training in this one putrid way for months. So changing it, would feel awkward.
So they don't change. Nevermind that if you take months and months to get to a certain strength level, but then get injured, that injury could set you back for the same amount of time it took to get strong, or longer.
Spotters and forced reps -
This could probably fall under the technique issue however I wanted to address it separately because I feel it's almost epidemic like with young/new lifters.
When one noob is spotting the other noob, he has no idea how to really "spot". I've seen this for years. One guy is benching, and he eeks out that 8th rep that is REALLY fucking hard. He doesn't rack the weight of course, because he's got a spotter. And what is the job of a noob spotter in that situation? To help you do 8 more reps, of course.
So ol spotter boy then proceeds to stick two fingers under the bar or, my favorite, when he puts his index finger and thumb around the bar in an "O" fashion, and pulls up with that fucking mess while the dude pressing shoves his crotch in the air. Apparently forced reps also cause the bench itself to scald your ass, because every time I see a noob bench and do forced reps his ass juts right up off the bench.
Noobs love them some forced reps, regardless if they are benching or spotting. And they teach each other this is how you bench. With forced rep after forced rep, of course using the dog shit technique mentioned above.
So now when you throw all of those things together, most noobs....
1. Bench with too much volume, and too often
2. Use shit technique
3. And then make sure to drive home the fact they will be injured soon by doing a shit done of reps after failure.
So what would I have beginners do instead?
Incline Press, dumbbell bench press, and overhead press.
Incline is not a very difficult movement to learn, technically. Essentially you do in fact lie down on the incline, unrack the bar, lower to the upper chest, and press.
There's not a lot of "setup" involved to be honest. I do have scapular retraction on incline, but I don't have to worry about leg drive or a host of other things like I do on bench. I can just focus on the pressing aspect of the movement.
I also believe that it has better carryover into the athletic field because you're pushing at an angle far close to say, drive blocking, like one would do in the NFL.
To borrow from Poliquin (because he worded this almost exactly like I would have):
The pressing angle of an incline bench press is more specific in terms of sporting movement due to the shoulder joint angle in relation to the trunk. Whether it is a punch delivered in boxing, the release of a shot put, or the push-off position in the short-track speed skating relay, you will notice that the upper arm is at a 45-degree angle upward in relation to the trunk.
With incline, a new lifter can just concentrate on pressing, and progressing. Not having to figure out all the nuances of bench pressing properly. So progressive overload can be at the forefront, rather than worrying about the technical aspects of the lift.
Also with incline, there's better carryover to other pressing movements in my opinion, because it's at an in between angle of flat and overhead.
After incline, I would have said noob do some overhead work. I know that the "gold standard" is always to do military press (standing barbell press), however I personally do not have an elitist attitude about that shit, and I think that ALL forms of overhead pressing have merit. Doing them standing won't make your cock huge or your vagina smell rosy. I'm sorry that I had to be the one to break that news to you, but it's true.
Building shoulders is building shoulders. Pressing shit overhead, seated or standing, barbell or dumbbells, is still pressing shit overhead. All the god damn cock measuring about seated vs standing, is just that. If you're building big ass shoulders, just do all of it. Don't get fixated on JUST doing standing press, or JUST seated press. Do both. Be able to press a fuck ton overhead regardless of what implement implement you are trying to put there, or if seated or standing.
Lastly, I suggest noobs do flat dumbbell press --with a caveat. The palms should be facing, and it should be a full range of motion. Not that shit I see where you either don't lower it down all the way, or only press it back up half way. Actually, it's not generally noobs I see doing that, it's some assbag trying to justify pressing that way by claiming it "puts more tension on the muscle." Hey, reality check here bud, pressing through a full ROM still keeps tension on the muscle the whole time. Jesus Christ, I still can't believe I read that shit. It's like still reading from someone that you can only digest 30 grams of protein in a meal.
Where was I? Oh yeah, palms facing and play with that a bit so that when you do go to flat barbell bench pressing, you will know what it feels like to press with a proper degree of elbow tuck. I like dumbbell bench pressing for novice guys better for this reason. Because when they do move to barbell benching, I can simply have them reference how their elbows move with the dumbbells, and almost immediately they bench with the proper elbow alignment.
If you're in a position where you have a qualified coach to learn from properly, then by all means, bench press. But if you're just learning from your buddy, who learned from his brother, who learned from his other brother, who learned from Uncle Johnny who learned in prison, then it's fine to wait and just get strong on the previously mentioned movements first.
So what does one do after a few months of this, and they want to bench? The beauty of this is, there will be a small foundation of strength already in place, and that will help the transition to benching. The incline, overhead, and dumbbell benching will have put some things in place to at least setting up a good starting point for not developing bad habits early. Strong shoulders, pecs, and proper elbow movement are a nice starting point for someone who then wants to incorporate the bench into their program.
When my training partner first started training with me, this is what I had her do, and when I finally introduced benching to her, she was strong enough and had enough muscle control, that I basically had to teach her nothing, and she benched very well.
If you never plan on competing in powerlifting, truth be told, you don't ever need to flat bench press. However, most guys are going to be able to answer that age old question of, "how much ya bench?" at some point. If a novice lifter is smart, and doesn't make all the usual noob mistakes, he won't have to answer that with "well I was benching X amount, but then I hurt my shoulder........"
I personally think the bench press, done correctly, is a great movement for building upperbody strength and mass.
I'm not writing this for "controversial" reasons either. I have my beliefs on why pure novices shouldn't start out benching right away, and some reasons why I believe beginners should avoid the movement for at least a few months.
Overdoing it -
Almost everyone does this with benching in the beginning. "What cha bench?" is the most common lifting question asked because well, we're a culture based around upperbody looks and strength. Like it or not, that's a fact. Otherwise no one would ever complain about people curling in the squat rack, or the 97 dudes that come into the gym that have jacked arms and chests, but no legs, glutes, back, or calves to speak of.
Beginners always bench way too much without off setting it by including enough pulling movements. Eventually they get that "hands in my pocket" appearance. You know what I'm talking about. Their shoulders rotate forward so far that they end up with imaginary lat syndrome, and their palms end up in front of their thighs, almost as if their hands are in their pockets.
This is a great way to set the stage for injury down the road. Some might say "well, that's from just too much pressing in general." Possibly. I don't know for certain however, because I've never seen a beginner male not obsessed with benching more. I've never seen one that did an inordinate amount of back work to offset his benching, nor have I seen a beginner focus on the incline press or overhead work as the two main staples instead of the bench.
Terrible technique -
This goes without saying. Most noobs aren't lucky enough to have a truly qualified expert to teach them how to bench properly. The bench is actually a fairly complex lift to perform. There's far more to it than just lying flat on the bench, and pressing. Learning how to get tight, set up properly with scapular retraction, leg drive, elbow tuck/flare degree, wrists over elbows, etc all play a part in benching pressing properly, and safely.
So what usually happens is, ol boy learns how to bench from his brother or his buddy who has been lifting for 6 months and "suddenly got jacked". So the blind ends up leading the blind right into irritated rotator cuffs, torn pecs, and sore shoulders.
This ends up happening because said lifter trains long enough to get some weight on the bar, in spite of how he is lifting, and won't change his technique later due to ego.
"Lifting any other way, I feel weak." Well duh, that's because you've been training in this one putrid way for months. So changing it, would feel awkward.
So they don't change. Nevermind that if you take months and months to get to a certain strength level, but then get injured, that injury could set you back for the same amount of time it took to get strong, or longer.
Spotters and forced reps -
This could probably fall under the technique issue however I wanted to address it separately because I feel it's almost epidemic like with young/new lifters.
When one noob is spotting the other noob, he has no idea how to really "spot". I've seen this for years. One guy is benching, and he eeks out that 8th rep that is REALLY fucking hard. He doesn't rack the weight of course, because he's got a spotter. And what is the job of a noob spotter in that situation? To help you do 8 more reps, of course.
So ol spotter boy then proceeds to stick two fingers under the bar or, my favorite, when he puts his index finger and thumb around the bar in an "O" fashion, and pulls up with that fucking mess while the dude pressing shoves his crotch in the air. Apparently forced reps also cause the bench itself to scald your ass, because every time I see a noob bench and do forced reps his ass juts right up off the bench.
Noobs love them some forced reps, regardless if they are benching or spotting. And they teach each other this is how you bench. With forced rep after forced rep, of course using the dog shit technique mentioned above.
So now when you throw all of those things together, most noobs....
1. Bench with too much volume, and too often
2. Use shit technique
3. And then make sure to drive home the fact they will be injured soon by doing a shit done of reps after failure.
So what would I have beginners do instead?
Incline Press, dumbbell bench press, and overhead press.
Incline is not a very difficult movement to learn, technically. Essentially you do in fact lie down on the incline, unrack the bar, lower to the upper chest, and press.
There's not a lot of "setup" involved to be honest. I do have scapular retraction on incline, but I don't have to worry about leg drive or a host of other things like I do on bench. I can just focus on the pressing aspect of the movement.
I also believe that it has better carryover into the athletic field because you're pushing at an angle far close to say, drive blocking, like one would do in the NFL.
To borrow from Poliquin (because he worded this almost exactly like I would have):
The pressing angle of an incline bench press is more specific in terms of sporting movement due to the shoulder joint angle in relation to the trunk. Whether it is a punch delivered in boxing, the release of a shot put, or the push-off position in the short-track speed skating relay, you will notice that the upper arm is at a 45-degree angle upward in relation to the trunk.
With incline, a new lifter can just concentrate on pressing, and progressing. Not having to figure out all the nuances of bench pressing properly. So progressive overload can be at the forefront, rather than worrying about the technical aspects of the lift.
Also with incline, there's better carryover to other pressing movements in my opinion, because it's at an in between angle of flat and overhead.
After incline, I would have said noob do some overhead work. I know that the "gold standard" is always to do military press (standing barbell press), however I personally do not have an elitist attitude about that shit, and I think that ALL forms of overhead pressing have merit. Doing them standing won't make your cock huge or your vagina smell rosy. I'm sorry that I had to be the one to break that news to you, but it's true.
Building shoulders is building shoulders. Pressing shit overhead, seated or standing, barbell or dumbbells, is still pressing shit overhead. All the god damn cock measuring about seated vs standing, is just that. If you're building big ass shoulders, just do all of it. Don't get fixated on JUST doing standing press, or JUST seated press. Do both. Be able to press a fuck ton overhead regardless of what implement implement you are trying to put there, or if seated or standing.
Lastly, I suggest noobs do flat dumbbell press --with a caveat. The palms should be facing, and it should be a full range of motion. Not that shit I see where you either don't lower it down all the way, or only press it back up half way. Actually, it's not generally noobs I see doing that, it's some assbag trying to justify pressing that way by claiming it "puts more tension on the muscle." Hey, reality check here bud, pressing through a full ROM still keeps tension on the muscle the whole time. Jesus Christ, I still can't believe I read that shit. It's like still reading from someone that you can only digest 30 grams of protein in a meal.
Where was I? Oh yeah, palms facing and play with that a bit so that when you do go to flat barbell bench pressing, you will know what it feels like to press with a proper degree of elbow tuck. I like dumbbell bench pressing for novice guys better for this reason. Because when they do move to barbell benching, I can simply have them reference how their elbows move with the dumbbells, and almost immediately they bench with the proper elbow alignment.
If you're in a position where you have a qualified coach to learn from properly, then by all means, bench press. But if you're just learning from your buddy, who learned from his brother, who learned from his other brother, who learned from Uncle Johnny who learned in prison, then it's fine to wait and just get strong on the previously mentioned movements first.
So what does one do after a few months of this, and they want to bench? The beauty of this is, there will be a small foundation of strength already in place, and that will help the transition to benching. The incline, overhead, and dumbbell benching will have put some things in place to at least setting up a good starting point for not developing bad habits early. Strong shoulders, pecs, and proper elbow movement are a nice starting point for someone who then wants to incorporate the bench into their program.
When my training partner first started training with me, this is what I had her do, and when I finally introduced benching to her, she was strong enough and had enough muscle control, that I basically had to teach her nothing, and she benched very well.
If you never plan on competing in powerlifting, truth be told, you don't ever need to flat bench press. However, most guys are going to be able to answer that age old question of, "how much ya bench?" at some point. If a novice lifter is smart, and doesn't make all the usual noob mistakes, he won't have to answer that with "well I was benching X amount, but then I hurt my shoulder........"
Monday, September 23, 2013
Meet training - Week 3 - Bench
Bodyweight - 258
Close Grip Pause Bench -
barx40,20
135x15
185x5
225x4
275x3
315x2
365x1
385x1
405x1
385x5,5,5 all paused. Fast. Felt good.
Tit Machine - up to 210 x 10 and then 170 x 15 I believe.
Notes - Pleased with this session because I was not feeling the greatest. But the 385 moved fast for all 3 sets of 5. Elbow was a little tender so I didn't do 335x2x8. Cut it at the 3 sets of 5.
Close Grip Pause Bench -
barx40,20
135x15
185x5
225x4
275x3
315x2
365x1
385x1
405x1
385x5,5,5 all paused. Fast. Felt good.
Tit Machine - up to 210 x 10 and then 170 x 15 I believe.
Notes - Pleased with this session because I was not feeling the greatest. But the 385 moved fast for all 3 sets of 5. Elbow was a little tender so I didn't do 335x2x8. Cut it at the 3 sets of 5.
Saturday, September 21, 2013
Training - Assistance work
Bodyweight - 256
Barbell Rows -
barx20,20
135x8,8
225x6,6
315x5
add straps -
365x4
405x5
365x10
Still too sloppy for my taste.
Hammer Pulldowns -
2 plates per side x 8
3 PPS x 8
4 PPS x 10
Hammer Shrugs -
7 plates per side x 20
Good mornings - 135x10,10,10
Notes - Nice assistance work day. Had a little more energy than usual so I did some extra.
Barbell Rows -
barx20,20
135x8,8
225x6,6
315x5
add straps -
365x4
405x5
365x10
Still too sloppy for my taste.
Hammer Pulldowns -
2 plates per side x 8
3 PPS x 8
4 PPS x 10
Hammer Shrugs -
7 plates per side x 20
Good mornings - 135x10,10,10
Notes - Nice assistance work day. Had a little more energy than usual so I did some extra.
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