Arkk's Weight Lifting / Fitness Thread

Ya the bench allows decline and I also never thought about using the squat box for dips. Another plus I guess. As far as the plates I think I am going to spend the extra and get the ones with the rubber coating because dead lifts are in my routine. I think I will start with the 300lb set ( two each of 45, 35, 25, 10, and 2.5 and four 5s) first and then just get extra 45s as needed.

Doesn't look like decline-capable. Honestly, you only need bumper plates at 45, so you can get the cheaper plates at all other weight considerations, and depending on the size of the bumpers (my experience is that they have a slightly larger radius) you might be able to get away with just getting two 45 bumpers. That's my current setup, actually. I put the bumpers right next to the guards, then the slightly smaller 45s next to them. Btw, bumpers are -way- more expensive than regular plates for similar weight, so if you are trying to not spend a shit-ton, only do 45s as bumpers.

edit: nevermind! It didn't look decline capable from a glance, hah.

Depends on the bumpers Rezz. The Rogue ones are the same size, I believe the thick ass ones are a little bigger, so you do make a good point.

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Yeah, it is totally going to be manufacturer dependent. Mine are Gold's, and like 1/8th an inch larger than the other 45s I have, which are Olympia. Not a huge difference, but when setting it down I know it is just setting on those two Gold's bumpers.

1/8th of an inch makes me think once the bar begins to bend 315+ you may run into issues. I'm guessing if I deadlifted 495 the iron plates might hit with or even before the bumpers.

I plan to get a couple of those black mats that were linked earlier to place around the squat box so it shouldn't be that big of an issue. Bumpers or not, I don't see myself dead-lifting right on top of the concrete slab.

Always makes me laugh to be on elliptical or something, hear a huge bang/thud, and turn around to see some jack off and his buddy dropping 225 doing deadlifts like it took some herculean force to be able to pick it up and there is no possible way he could set it back down. Fuck no, the entire gym needs to stop what they're doing and turn around to see his mighty lift and strut.

Anyone have experience with sarms specifically ostarine?

taebin_sl said:

Always makes me laugh to be on elliptical or something, hear a huge bang/thud, and turn around to see some jack off and his buddy dropping 225 doing deadlifts like it took some herculean force to be able to pick it up and there is no possible way he could set it back down. Fuck no, the entire gym needs to stop what they're doing and turn around to see his mighty lift and strut.

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Not going to lie, I drop the weight pretty loudly. I mean, I'm not Elliot Hulse dropping it from the fucking lockout, but I let them baby bring me down with gravity.

I'm also pulling 4+ plates, and don't feel like fucking straining my back lowering the weight.

You SHOULD essentially drop the weight to reduce risk of injury. People who complain about shit like that at a gym are prima donnas.

Of course, but some people take it too far.

Khane_sl said:

You SHOULD essentially drop the weight to reduce risk of injury. People who complain about shit like that at a gym are prima donnas.

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Yea, Planet Fitness was created for people like that.

Khane_sl said:

You SHOULD essentially drop the weight to reduce risk of injury. People who complain about shit like that at a gym are prima donnas.

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Well... you -should- if you are lifting something that you can get up but can't reliably get down. To me, unless you are training for something, that should most likely not be a common occurrence. The power lifters who are pulling up 400+ on their deads should probably drop it, but really if you aren't competing, why the hell are you lifting something you can't reliably get back to the ground? It is like the crossfitter mentality sometimes, where their personal record of 250 needs to be loudly heard everywhere. I could probably one hand 250 up, but I wouldn't even try it unless I felt like I could get it back to the ground without dropping the weight.

Honestly, the people consistently dropping weights are more concerned about numbers than actual strength, which unless they are competing for something I feel is the entirely wrong attitude. Being able to pick something up and put it down in the same state is real strength.

I don't drop my deadlift bar from waist-height out of courtesy (plus, that'd look pretty retarded for most of my sets). But my understanding is that Khane is right; the lift ends at lockout... everything after that just stems from people like Rezz/taebin adding on an extra step? Now, the most I've ever pulled is 3x355. While I didn't drop it from waist-height, it also made some noise when it hit the ground. My wife hates loud deadlifts; she associates it with gym douchebros... but I'm slowly convincing her that A) I have no interest in being a gym douchebro, and B) its really hard for me to silently deadlift once 3 plates are on the bar.

It seems rather arbitrary: if my goal is to progress in strength and form, should I do the official lift or should I lower weight so I can do the Rezz/taebin-approved variation in which the bar needs to be set down gently? Everything I've read indicates that the eccentric portion of the deadlift is dangerous and unnecessary; is there any reason to just decide that it's better to do light enough weight in order to achieve a quiet controlled eccentric?

Depends on your goals. Like Rezz said, I am actually trying to be a competitive powerlifter, so for me, the eccentric portion is nothing but an injury waiting to happen imo. I do have a friend who deadlifts in the 550 range and he generally lowers the weight softly in the 400 range, but once that 5th plate gets on there he tends to drop the weight more viciously.

I should mention, he's pulled his lower back like 5 times while I've never had an issue. And it's always from deadlifts.

If you're looking for hypertrophy or general strength gains, the eccentric portion can help I suppose. As a powerlifter, all the eccentric portion does is fatigue me and make it more difficult to pull weight later on. There's really no advantage for me lowering the weight.

Like I said, it really depends on what you are doing in the gym. From a general health standpoint, you shouldn't be putting more weight on the bar than you can reliably move around without injuring yourself. So if you are deadlifting and the weight is too heavy for you to reliably lift and then put back down (reliably doesn't mean dropping) then you aren't really doing a safe lift to begin with. The negative part of the deadlift continues working all the same muscle groups that were used to lift it, so it isn't good for hitting max numbers in the slightest. But if you can pick it up and put it down without dropping, you are effectively doubling the work you get from a single lift, and the secondary/support muscles get more attention. I know most people aren't dropping from their hips, and usually it's from the break point of the knee. And I've definitely dropped a few in my day, usually from overestimating how much I had left in the tank. I just feel from a general strength and health standpoint that you get more out of a complete up/down lift than simply going up for numbers.

Again though, I'm most definitely not advocating that people holding shitloads of weight up should try and play with it once they got it up. If you can't get it down gently, you still need to eventually get it down hah. But it definitely falls into my spectrum of unnecessary for healthy lifting for non-competitors. I feel the same about using straps, to be honest. If you are lifting for strength, then you should only pick up what you can hold on to. If you are lifting for numbers, then strap away. Otherwise you should improve your grip strength and increase reps instead of weight, until you can reliably hold onto heavier amounts. I do sets of 8 at 325, as I'm a little dude and not trying to power lift in the slightest.

Eidal: honestly, once you get to 250+ lbs, it is hard to set it down quietly no matter how big you are. The plates will start rattling regardless, even if you have bumpers on. But making the entire lift one complete smooth motion means that you are less likely to injure yourself since the muscles going up and going down are all getting work. It's more of specific lifting mentality than a hard fact. My opinion is that if you have to drop the weight, you weren't lifting something you could reliably control. Going for max weight by definition is lifting something you can't reliably control hah.

That's not really true Rezz. You can't create the negative portion of a deadlift like the concentric. Your legs do not come into play the way do when you're pulling straight up, your back is under significant duress during the eccentric portion of a deadlift.

Elurin_sl said:

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I do not watch enough YouTube. That guy is hilarious.

Yeah, I worded that kind of wrong. Just like any lift, you aren't using the same muscles for both entering and exiting. You are still using a lot of the same support muscles, but it puts more work on your glutes/hamstrings/lower back and takes almost all the pressure off the quads. You aren't using the same exact muscles in both stages, just that once you get it up, you are getting more out of the lift by setting it down vs. dropping it. Again, it entirely depends on what your goals in the gym are. I do deads that way because I like the amount of work it takes to fully control it up and down, and it minimizes the amount of time I need to spend on other lifts by engaging more muscles for longer. The numbers don't really matter aside from a reference on what I need to grab off the rack to get a decent workout. Anecdote and all that, but the only lifting related injury I've ever had was a rotator cuff tear in highschool. Since I've always done them that way, I'm not worried about getting out of form and into injury land on the way down.

Like I mentioned above, once you are into the 400+ range, you are lifting to raise that number for a reason, so the lifting part is the important thing. Setting it down is secondary from both a strength and safety standard in that case. Since I'm more about using it as tool to work a bunch of muscles, the setting down part is equally important to me. Different goals; different styles.