Arkk's Weight Lifting / Fitness Thread

I've just never known someone to use machines and transfer so well to free weights. My friend can bench 110 dumbbells cleanly, but shakes like a fucking Parkinson's patient with 225 on barbell and benches lopsided. And that's just free weight to free weight, never mind a machine.

Daly_sl said:

Anyone have any recommended workout routines other than 5x5? I've been doing that for about 6-9 months and looking to move on to something else to spice up my workouts.

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Assuming you're past the Starting Strength stage yeah I agree with the 5/3/1 suggestion. I'm doing it now and it's great.

Itlan_sl said:

I've just never known someone to use machines and transfer so well to free weights. My friend can bench 110 dumbbells cleanly, but shakes like a fucking Parkinson's patient with 225 on barbell and benches lopsided. And that's just free weight to free weight, never mind a machine.

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It doesn't really feel like it transferred that well. First week I had trouble even benching 265 pounds, namely due to stabilizer. But for some reason, this week went by better (still a little wobbly) and hit 305 (couldn't get the 5th rep).

The problem with dumbbells to barbell is that your shoulders automatically find a natural posture with dumbbells while with barbells you have to sort of force a posture in order to balance the barbell. I guess if anything, I can usually reprogram myself pretty quickly to adapt to a new exercise.

Negatives build stabilizers really well.

Current:
Due to knee problems that kept me at 135 on squats until November, my squat and deadlift are still making linear gains using SS. In addition, I only recently started cleaning (was doing bent over rows before), so that is still making linear gains as well. However, my bench and press are just stopped dead at 185 and 120, respectively. I'm ready to switch to 5/3/1 (texas method?) on those exercises, but still want to keep the linear gains of squat/deadlift/clean as long as I can.

Is there a problem with doing SS routine for squat/deadlift/clean while switching to 5/3/1 for bench and press?

Well I just started doing that 5x5 routine two? weeks ago, and for some I dropped down to 135, others I just did whatever I felt best.


Everything has been pretty god damn easy so far, although doing ass to grass squats 3x a week is a bit much at the moment but I'm getting used to it I think. The deadlift, bench, and press have been clean 5x5, and I suspect I don't see much struggle on bench until 225, deadlift 300+ range, and press I don't really know. I never did barbell press, so I started with just bar to get the technique down.

I also don't do barbell rows cause color me retarded but they seem to require a pretty perfect form and no one I know, or in my gym, does them. Instead I've just been doing inverted rows on the power rack or smith bar.

Itlan_sl said:

I also don't do barbell rows cause color me retarded but they seem to require a pretty perfect form and no one I know, or in my gym, does them. Instead I've just been doing inverted rows on the power rack or smith bar.

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Its not as hard as you'd think. I had trouble the first couple of times, but after the third time (2nd week) I got it down pretty well.

My numbers as of now:

This go around I'm really trying to get my upper body lifts up. Bench and press, and also things like chins, pull ups, rows etc. Also skill lifts like cleans and snatch. In the past I had all my focus on squat, trying to correct that.

I've been doing these rows for 5/3/1 assistance work (with much, much lighter weights wtf 225). So far so good.

kaosu_sl said:

Its not as hard as you'd think. I had trouble the first couple of times, but after the third time (2nd week) I got it down pretty well.

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I'm talking about these.

I didn't watch that first video with sound, but when I think barbell rows, I think the second one. I can't imagine having to hold the weight the entire time while doing bent rows. I got up to 180 when I used to do them...yeah, fuck holding the weight that long. My issue was I got extremely lightheaded doing pendlay rows. I think it was mostly due to the position you put yourself in (bent forward, having to lift your head) and stay in, that caused it.

In that 2nd video, he doesn't even hold on to the weight. He just does a quick pump then sets it back on the ground.

The form is fine, but there are variants out there. Your body does not need to be parallel with the ground in order to get the benefits of bent over rows. I'm canted up more than the man in the 2nd video, but I hold on to my weight for the entirety of the set.

The point is that bent over rows work your traps and biceps more than anything, while barbell rows work the entirety of your back.

Elurin, teach me bro.

Itlan_sl said:

The point is that bent over rows work your traps and biceps more than anything, while barbell rows work the entirety of your back.

Elurin, teach me bro.

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..You are confusing something. A barbell row IS a bent over row. Barbell row is just a type of exercise. The variant that the man is using in the 2nd video is called a Pendlay row. Its a much more complete exercise, but obviously much harder. A bent over row is when the body is angled (with variants). It focuses on middle, upper back.

The pendlay row is known simply as a barbell row in most places. The bent over row is what you demonstrated, and is usually called as such. It's not that serious.

Itlan_sl said:

The point is that bent over rows work your traps and biceps more than anything, while barbell rows work the entirety of your back.

Elurin, teach me bro.

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I don't do them anymore due to the above where I explained that I'd get super light headed. I didn't really feel safe doing it. My back got huge (although how much can be attributed to the rows, I don't know), but I didn't feel that it was worth it.

Now my back days are deadlift, dumbbell shrugs, seated pulley rows, facepulls, and pullups. I just recently added the pulley rows, and I'm not sure if I'll keep them since they feel like they're just doubling down on the same muscles as facepulls (and I fucking love facepulls).

Ever smack yourself in the face doing a facepull? I saw a meathead do it the other day and I started cracking up, and he looked like he was going to beat the shit out of me but whatever, it was too funny.

The only thing I don't understand with the barbell row is how much I need to bend over. It just seems like a weird position for me, idk.

That might have been part of my problem. The more I bent over, the more my head was in a neutral position to my body and I would get light headed from the blood rushing to it. If I went and bent my knees more, I felt like the blood was pooling up in my legs too much and I'd get light headed from not enough blood (and my legs would get fucking tired from being in that position).

It might just be that it's not a good exercise for me. My legs might be disproportionately long compared to my torso.

As far as facepulls, it's possible I've smacked myself in the face. I'd imagine the only way to do that would be if you were pulling more with your biceps/deltoids and not your back, though (and so it would've been something I did when I first started lifting). If you're just pulling with your back, I feel like it's hard to get that close to your face.

Yeah I've just been doing inverted rows because it doesn't feel natural to me. I also have a small torso compared to my legs. Got big polish legs.

New Year's Resolution was to learn how to snatch. It has not gone to plan working out at a globo gym at 5pm.

A few things. Worked out earlier and wanted to attempt a front squat. Man, thats eye opening. Told me a couple things - Bad posture and a lack of mobility/flexibility with wrists/arm/shoulder. I'm already working in corrective stretches along with (sigh) additional small light front squat workouts to help improve form and mobility. It annoys me to no end I can't perform a proper Olympic grip front squat with any sizeable weight on it, so hence the previous.

In the meantime, I've completely done away with what I was previously doing in backsquats and started doing ATG. For this session I started pretty light, only doing about 5x5 200lb. I'll probably stay light for a little while longer, once I'm completely comfortable with ATG. Noticed more leg muscle activation.

Incidentally, I accidentally deadlifted 375 (didn't pay attention and ended up adding more by accident), making it the most I've deadlifted yet. I dropped it back down to 350 so I could complete a set, but I felt I could've probably done more one rep of 375 but was surprised so I stopped after one.

Gained ten pounds on standing overhead press since doing it slightly less than a week ago.

All in all, not really bad since I'm still gaining on a weekly basis but progress seems slow since I'm still finding that I'm all sorts of fucked up on posture and am working to correct that (along with improving mobility/flexibility).