Strength / Weight Training

I have found with SL that you don't need to set targets as such. If you miss a week, or get injured, just follow the app with the deloads and it works. I had to start at zero after an injury but managed to get up to heavy ( for me) weights in a relatively short time as I did 2 or 3 days in a row.

All good fun!
Richard

Sl?

First day of deadlift... Easy 115kg for 4 reps.

Still feel fat though

SL - StrongLifts. I'm too lazy to type it out.

I managed 140kg again today, but it was a struggle today. Some kept making me laugh.

#gameface

Anyone had actual experience of plateauing on a linear progression? Just interested to know what this feels/looks like in practice, having never got that far...

Essentially the weights just feel too heavy and you end up missing reps/fucking up your form to scrape by lifts.

If you do Stronglifts, you WILL plateau at some stage. I struggle with the OHP and expect to plateau soon. SL gives you three opportunities to complete the reps - effectively a week. If you fail, it will drop the weight by 10% and you work back up. This has happened me a number of times and I managed to break through the plateau each time. An example - squat at 100kg. Lift the bar, go down, don't go up! Fail. 3 tries at this and if you continue to lose reps, weight drops to 90kg. If you complete another three days the bar will be back at 100kg - 90, 92.5, 95, 97.5. Hopefully you will break the plateau at that point.

To address what it feels like - it feels heavy, very heavy. I am only a newbie but I know what heavy means - you wobble, you may twist or shake, you forget about form, you sweat, you get annoyed, you grit your teeth, you push or pull against an immovable object and get frustrated. The feeling of getting over the plateau is a much nicer place - you feel as if you have personally achieved something - which you have; you feel uplifted and have more confidence with the new heavier weight. Until the next plateau ....

Richard

Is there a good resource for weight-training for sprinting? I did the usual 5x5 over the winter to get some strength in for racing this season, but after the summer I'd planned to go back to the gym a bit more seriously with the aim of improving 5s and 1m power. My fast twitch muscles are puny at best.
And get Hoy thighs at the same time, obvs.

sounds like a good coach is required.

Yes!

This is gold - from Aussie Institute coaches.

Chapter 4 especially relevant.

I know this feeling, every session feeling heavier and heavier until form breaks down significantly, deload and work back through, I understand that the eating and sleeping can be reason for this. I mean actual total plateau, like your body can't actually get any stronger on the linear progression and you need to switch up programs (I have been led to believe this does happen) - perhaps this might be around 140kg x5x3 for back squat for a healthy young man? Anyone here up around that level?

I only do oly lifting now, but before I kind of specified my strength work to aid sprinting too.

sets of 5 is a good starting point, so are sets of 3 if you're confident in technique and really want to improve power. However for really short, maximal efforts on the track it's just as important to get the legs going and practice really high cadence spinning.
I believe I got the biggest benefit from paused squats. Simple, you control it, get to the bottom, pause for a bit, the really explosively stand up. No bounce, nothing, just push the ground down. I don't think lifting for high end speed requires really sophisticated strength training, heavy squats/deadlifts and that's it. Just wanted to recommend paused squats instead of normal squats.

For 1min efforts, there are some more sophisticated shit you can try. Things like heavy singles EMOM, hypertrophy sets with more focus on speed of the lift, shorter timed rests between sets. I think it can really depend on where you are now, whether you need to spend more time on the bike doing maybe lactate tolerance kinda stuff for endurance or need more power to your engine to really push that 1min.

(also, I am pretty sure all the cleans and clean/snatch pulls help massively with explosive power if that's desired)

perhaps this might be around 140kg x5x3 for back squat for a healthy young man? Anyone here up around that level?

I was in the mid 140's but 6 weeks into a cut atm and dropped quite a bit. I found 120kg the end of my linear progression then started mixing up volume and intensity, so 3 times a week were something like x8x5, x5x5 and a x3x3 or x2x3 and was as a steady increase from there. Also used a leg press and occasionally lifting chains and powerbands to mix things up.

Thanks all - a coach is definitely a good idea, but not for my wallet...will see how those links and tips can be put into practice. I like the sound of modifying straight back squats to increase explosive power.

Nice
Ok, so maybe I was relatively close to limit of my possible LP, I got up to 117.5x5x3, absolutely grinding the last ones out, then I hurt my right knee (think it might be mild patella tendonitis) so squats are going to have to wait a bit until it feels right again. I'm up to 130x5 on deadlift, but this feels waaay easier comparatively, like it could keep going up for a bit longer without much change, thoughts?

My powerlifting coach does online coaching which is a lot cheaper that may be an option?

Just needs people to video lifts and you need to tell him nutrition / sleep.

I'm at 140kg for 4x5, been at this weight for a few months now. I think loss of interest is more the case instead of plateau but I've been going heavy on front squat recently in the aim to hopefully up the back squat soon.

OH Hai. is me again.
Stupidly, I've joined my work gym (which is well stocked and importantly QUIET). However, I'm off work for 5 months from the end of May....

I quite like strong lifts (it's a simple "do this. now do this" and the apps quite useful). However, at home I don't have a bar/rack/bench and I don't have the space. I do have dumb bells. So...
Can someone point me to a simple, similar to a 5x5, with dumbbells??
I mean, I imagine it would involve squats, walking lunges, some type of press up...

It might be worthwhile having a look at Mark Lauren who does Bodyweight exercises. A quick look on google reveals a lot of useful info too.

Richard

Thanks for this. There's an app (you are your own gym). £4. Has programs and, importantly, 200 + videos of said exercises. This is ~500 mb.

I'm old skool - bought the book!

Richard

Do not buy apps, download jefit and do it yourself.

Ha! Being old skool, I bought a book to do this!

Jefit looks good though, perhaps time to bring myself into the 20th Century?

Richard

More squats yesterday. Still can't get past 70kg for 10 reps. We have a smith machine at work but I'm worried I'll filed in half if I lift anymore.

Also found out today My deadlifting form is all wrong