Strength / Weight Training

Shoulder sorted itself out. Happy days...

However...

I'm leaning too far forward on my squats despite trying to watch myself in mirrors. One of the gym trainers came over tonight to warn me.

If I use a Smith machine I'm guessing that, as it moves the bar strictly vertically, it'll help me learn the right form. Or should I practice unloaded squats more until I get it right without mechanical aid?

first, I think you need to know why you lean forward. There might be many reasons for it, shape of your back, tight muscles or simply just poor technique. Each should/could be treated differently. If it’s just poor technique, keep practicing, best is to do them without any weight and facing a wall. Try and squat facing the wall as close as you can without touching it. This forces you to keep a good posture. You can also do some seated squats in paralell, trying to keep your chest up all the way until you are sat. Lots of video online showing how to do squats against a wall.

Also smith machine is ok and will help you build strength in your legs keeping a good posture but because you ‘locked’ to the machine it won’t give you all the benefit that a squat would. Same applies to leg press machine.

Everything I have read says avoid Smyth machine. If your form isn’t good it may be you are lifting too heavy.
Looking in a mirror means your neck is straining and you risk injury.
Check your bar path - it should be vertical. I know when I struggle, the bar path shows it up.
Too tip - buy Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe - it has everything you need to squat and more.

You can also squat using dumbells which can allow you to focus on form, rather than worrying too much about the bar.

Asking someone to film you squatting different weights, see if you notice any difference in form - this has been the best way of me correcting things.

Anyone got a simple routine to bulk up using body weight excersizes?
I’m short of time with work and family commitments. Best I can manage is popping to the park for 40mins. Been doing some sets of pushups with my legs raised on a log, and pull-ups on the swings. Drinking a protein shake on top of my normal diet everyday. It would be good to have something more structured. I’m naturally pretty scrawny. Maybe there’s a book or app people would recomend. Advice appreciated cheers

A resistance band is going to help you here and good for a park workout. TRX cables and Kettle Bell could also be nice.

Mountain climbers, Burpees, Squats, Bulgarian squats, all the crunches, hanging leg raises, step ups & all the crunches etc. Write down a plan and take a watch - stick to it.

Lean meat, oily fish, nuts, oats, sweet potato, eggs - there's lots of stuff out there for bulking and others here can probably help more than me.

Mark Lauren - book and app. Book is good, I haven’t used the app.

Convict Conditioning isn't too bad, but take all that's written with a piece of salt. And the Reddit Body Weight routine is a good starting place too.

Convict training? Like this?

1 Attachment

^thats the workout plan I was looking for, cheers.

No, a bit more like this:

The writing isn't the best, and the story is probably best taken with a lot of artistic license, but, the six work out moves are good with the way they progress. To get to level 10 in all six exercises would mean you have pretty good overall strength. And little equipment needed (apart from a pull up bar) is a bonus.

Whose the bigger convict? Or, worryingly, the most successful?

I am joking.

Funnily enough, that book arrived yesterday from eBay...

Will be reading it this weekend.

To be honest, I need to pay for a trainer to help me with form. I just hate spending money on stuff but with the amount of money I'm saving from not drinking I can let the moths out of the purse I guess.

Read the book - absorb the info and see how you get on. It covers everything

Dont look in the mirror. Pick a point on the floor, about 10ft infront of you and lock onto it. The fixed focus point adds a lot of stability.

Are your trainers soft squishy foam runners. Again, reduces stability.

Are you positioning the bar correctly for your (high/low bar) type of squat and really using your arms to get some tension across your shoulders and brace your upper back.

Are you breathing big into your belly and bracing hard, to support your lower back.

Are you doing the above at setup, but loosing concentration when your at the bottom.

Lift the empty bar with the best form and technique you can.

*im only new to this, so been instructed, watched and corrected plenty in the past three months.

Is doing starting strength, commuting 40-50km 5 days a week, and one long weekend ride too much or am I just not eating enough? 4 weeks in and I have all symptoms of overtraining, including depression which is really annoying.

I think it says in the book if you’re used to cycling it’s probably ok to continue doing it while on the program but that sounds like a lot of cycling maybe drop the weekend ride for a bit?

Eat more if your body weight isn’t going up. Do you have the SS app? It’s great

Yeah I've read the book. My body weight is stable, it's the recovery that worries me. I'll cut down my commute to two days a week and see what happens. Weekend rides are non negotiable.

Do you mean 40km x 5 per week + weekend ride?

If so that seems like a lot in exercise and time, so not surprised you're feeling a bit naff

Yes, that's correct.
Lowering the volume should help then.

It's not too much but it isn't gonna be easy.

I was in a similar boat a couple of years ago (300km/week), you need to accept that you can't push both ends of the fitness spectrum hard and make progress. If you want to make real progress you need to prioritise one over the other. Your body will feel like crap and that's okay, that's what happens when you're pushing hard. Right now, I'd reframe the current issue as under-recovery rather than overtraining. You need to be eating plenty, getting macros right (protein especially) and you need to be taking plenty of care of your legs (hot/cold baths, massage, whatever it is that works for you). I know you said your weight's staying the same but that just means calories in/out are balanced. I'd be aiming to see a slow increase in weight to ensure you're actually building muscle.

Couple of things that worked for me in creating some semblance of balance depending on my focus: either lowering commuting intensity to an easy Z2 (Z1 after a big squat session) or reducing lower-body frequency to once a week (Saturday's ideal). Going slower only added an extra 10mins to my commutes but made a massive difference in my ability to recover. And plenty of people have gotten strong squatting heavy just once a week, even at an elite level.

Man, this has gotten long. Basically, if the strength work is to supplement your cycling, keep it as a bonus and accept you won't be able to effectively run a dedicated 'full time' strength program. If you want to get bigger and stronger you need to dedicate time to building muscle and make your commuting as easy as possible to help facilitate that.

This is some good advice. Thanks.

My goals are to get back to 10% body fat and pre ankle injury lifts (1x bw bench, 1.5x bw squat, 2x bw deadlift).
I'm going to switch from SS to 4 day Nsuns531, cut the commute to 2 days, and keep my weekend riding to minimum. Will report back in 4 weeks.

There's loads of body weight / park fitness stuff on youtube. Some of it's super impressive and probably only possible when you're 19 but worth a look. I switched over to quite a bit more bodyweight stuff and more simple compound lifts a while back and it seemed to make a difference. I've come to the conclusion it's easier not to put the shit in than try and work the shit off though and reduced what I was eating quite a bit. i'm probably the lightest, and strongest, I've been since I was about 20. I use the gym but at least 50% of it I could do in the park with somewhere to do pull-ups.

I'm actually doing a bit of simple, initial research into sport supplements at the mo and most of you in here seem to use them. If any of you have 60 secs would you mind ticking a few boxes for me? It's really basic, just age etc., what you use and how you feel about it. Would be much appreciated if anyone could spare a minute.
In a nutshell, I'm wondering if everyone is as confused as me...

I'm also going to post it in the general thread as I know most on here use them for cycling reasons but I'm also interested in the general fitness users.

It's just a google form and you can find it here.

Ta much.