Strength / Weight Training

Fuck the hook grip - that shit is painful. Just get straps or reverse grip if you need to lift more than you can hold

Fuck the hook grip - that shit is painful.

Yup.

I used to use normal grip to about 100kg then reversed it above that. use chalk.

Well, I don't know until I try it. I don't think I'm lifting heavy enough that I need straps yet and I don't want to use reverse grip as I have enough shoulder imbalances as it is. No chalk. Was trying to avoid gloves as long as possible. I'll be bike racing again before I go much bigger.

Now I wonder what my 1RM is if I skipped the earlier sets. Does anyone just go in cold and bust out their biggest lift?

Pics don't work for me either and I'm in sunny manc on home wifi.
Congrats on pb!

Can you see these?

I can see those, couldn't see the earlier ones

Warm up is to warm you up. It the heat is on in the gym you don’t need to do very much. 75% 1RM - a few reps and then go for it.
I’ve no heat in the garage and when weights get heavy, warm up takes longer than working sets!

Yep, thanks

I ride to the gym so I'm pretty warm. Sometimes do legs to elbows (reverse crunch) between sets to loosen up. I'm just thinking I should try doing less beforehand and seeing what I can do. Now I'm starting to take an interest I see an injury in my future... hahaha

I'd already deleted the last bit though so if you need that I'll have to take another pic.

Callouses -

https://youtu.be/_ZBmiQm4MF4

"It's important to develop callouses."

Sorted. :)

Ah yeah chin-ups, they are the other things that fuck with my hands.

Mine are nothing like tearing off though.

UAE - can see the re-up so possibly not that. Thanks for the link!

I cycle about 5km to the gym so legs are nicely warm but always, always start squatting with the bar before loading any plates on. Trying to go straight to work-sets (especially 1rm) is just not a smart idea. A good warm-up will let you lift MORE than going in cold (think about hitting a club 10 fresh out of the car). If you really need to hit a single big set then keep the warm-up sets but just drop the reps right back down (e.g. doubles and triples rather than 10/8/5/whatever).

Remember, you're there to build strength, not test it (especially with your goals).

Cheers, I'll try that with deads but the chinup bar is so high I'm jumping up to it anyway so don't really control my grip much. I don't do many chinups so that's not much of an issue.

Beginner on 5x5. #pbserryday

Yeah, but I'm an idiot and now I've seen some guy doing 3xBW that seems like something to have a crack at :D

Today I started with maybe 20 on the bar, doing sets of 10s, going up each set from there. It dropped to sets of 5s when I got near my previous best. But bare in mind my previous 'best' is still 5 reps of what I can do, quite comfortably. None of my lifting thus far has involved me testing my 1RM potential. I'd like to keep it that way because the last I need is a gym injury that messes with bike training.

I was going to start doing that 5x5 stuff in another gym but they reckon don't do it when you're doing other training. It's too much without the rest days.

Yeah I know that feeling. Where did you start - empty bar?

Yeah I'm getting to the point where it's getting difficult and I'm going to have to change something up in order that I can still ride my bike and enjoy it.
Overall aims were to improve strength (but not get crazy strong) and address lower body muscle imbalances.

@Bainbridge yeah basically empty bar! I think deadlift started on 30?

Dropped some weights at xmas but the ones I felt most comfortable on I kept constant after the break.

Red = bodyweight
Green = deadlift
Blue = squat
Grey = bench
Yellow = barbell row
Purple = overhead press

If you are doing Stringlifts you start with the empty bar each time. The app produces the warmup sets. As a novice, like me, this is really useful to improve your form. Your body recognises the movements with light weights and as the weight increases you follow the same form.

A couple of years ago when I started this - Day 1 was a PB. Empty bar weighing 20kg was my best lift ever! I had a PB every day after that until around 92kg squat which I failed.

You have to start somewhere.

Doing something is better than doing nothing.

Also, I enjoy it - maybe not right at the time but certainly afterwards when you feel you have achieved something - doesn’t matter about anyone else as long as you did your best - you have to be proud of yourself for that.

The lifting is getting hard or cycling is getting hard? I started going to the gym because the evidence indicates that strength work makes for faster cycling. I continued going because I found it much better mentally (and probably physically) than suffering like a dog through shithouse conditions over winter when I'd usually be playing my HTFU cards. These days I'm sick and tired of ruining equipment and spending hour after hour out in the cold and mentally I find the gym different and fun, so a proper off-season activity that's probably not doing much harm.

Hippy buy this

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This is also good and includes nutrition and a lot of other fitness type stuff

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