Strength / Weight Training

A lad at my gym has just entered his first powerlifting comp. He’s 16, weighs about the same as me and is just crazy strong. Thought I could help him out with his first meet prep before we found out he outlifts me. I feel old.

If you find a cure for being old, please share - I’m rather interested.

15 yr old rugby players at my daughters school are doing 100kg squats as a warm up! Getting old is crap.

Don’t feel old, he’ll probably have both hips and knees replaced long before you do.

Really enjoying the 5x5 version of lifting weights. Certainly making quick progress through the weights.

Obviously getting ahead of myself here, but does anyone ‘cut’ in the summer? Any advice tips etc etc would be helpful.

Cutting is super simple. Just reduce calories. The confusion and complexity is in how people go about that.

I find just eating the same meals but cutting out the main carb source (except for pre-training) tends to work well for me. Some people find it easier just cutting out breakfast (fancy name for this is ‘Intermittent Fasting’). Whatever strategy you think will help you reduce overall calories while keeping satiety as high as possible. And more than anything, just be prepared to feel hungry at times and accept that as part of the process.

I find that cutting out beer and crisps helped... I love beer and crisps...

I hate being hungry.

Ensuring you eat a good amount of protein (1.6-1.8g per kg of bodymass is enough for most people IMO) will help you feel more full and maintain strength and muscle mass, and doing low impact cardio to increase your deficit (walking, easy cycling if you ride a lot anyway) helps, as does ensuring your cut isn't too big - capping it at up to 20% of your maintenance calories is a good start. and in terms of lifting maintain intensity.

Easiest and most flexible way to cut (imo) is to track everything, but some people don't like living like that, you've just got to find a way that works for you.

I looked into macros a while ago and struggled to convert the amount of carb, fat, protein into real world meals

Been working on my new fangled descending pyramid scheme for the last couple of weeks - quite enjoying it, the "heavy" reps (x6) are now 6-8kg above the old 5x5 values on all the exercises - i've been sticking 2kg onto everything each time & largely so far, so good.

Might be time to pause the bench press increases for a week or 2 as I nearly pinned myself under the bar on this morning's bench press, closest i've come in years to my arms folding on the last rep, proper fuzzy head moment, not fun! The catch bars were in place (safety first kids) but I would have needed someone to lift the bar a couple of inches to slide out - the height of the notches mean the bars either sit very slightly above chest height & I bounce off them on every rep, or they're very slightly too low - above shoulders but below chest level so you need to lie there & casually wave for help, lol, the higher setting plus a couple of 2kg plates under the bench might be the best option.

Sounds like you had a lucky escape.

I don’t really bench because my chest is weak and for the reasons you just mentioned. Tried it today for the first time in years and felt Ok so will try the 2kg on next international chest day.

Or the perfect set moments before death

(a vikings death)

It's all good - i've bailed out a couple of folk in the same situation, no embarassment, no gain. If I wasn't going for the last rep I probably would have racked it on the previous one, but hey - that's what the safety bars are for!

If you're at all nervous just set the safety bars high so the bar bottoms out before it touches your chest & get used to pushing it up again to build your confidence - I always have the safety bars in, just in case something goes awry, I see guys benching 100kg for reps & only putting the bars in for the last "heavy" set - sack that, if something goes pop that's an interesting new hat you'll have.

I did feel like tearing my shirt off after I got it back up without passing out - I decided not to stand up for a couple of minutes however, just in case, lol

There was a genuine dramatic pause halfway up complete with Hulk Hogan back-from-the-dead style shuddering, truly a magnificent sight. Would have been more magnificent if there were a heroic number of plates on the bar instead of a random assortment of coasters, but i'll take it

I wish my bench had saftey bars

I only bench with dumbbells now after a nasty experience on a decline bench 😅

Mark Rippertoe is a complete ripper but he has good point in SS where he advises to bench in a power rack with an arched back that lifts your chest just higher than the safety arms. Then if you get stuck you should have room to escape once you lie back flat.

Try putting the safeties one notch higher and putting boards under your bench to get the perfect safe height.

Safety first always!

I go heavy on dumbells and use my Smith for higher volume lower weight.

I never normally bench but felt like I was ready for it. Only been back lifting for about a month.

Not sure what the etiquette is but I only had the 25kg bar plus 15kg on each side so 55kg in total. I’ve always had a problem with my chest muscles. I saw a musculoskeletal therapist years ago and he said my pec muscles didn’t ‘fire’ at all. So I’m hoping lifting weights regularly will solve this issue.

Yeah that's the plan - I vaguely remember a few years ago I did this with a couple of small plates under the bench & it worked perfectly for height, I find it gives so much more confidence when you can just set it down without worrying about death by bar rash

Leg day today. Going to try a new machine that I’ve never used before.

Looks like a reverse leg press but more of a squat if that makes sense.

Photos needed...

Hack squat machine? Tom Platz has an interesting way of using those...

https://youtu.be/bM16nkXRR9w

And everybody wants legs like Tom ....

Hack squat machine

1 Attachment

Tom Platz has insane thighs.

He’s no Robert Förstemann though

I’ll try those squats today. Looks like there’s a lot of technique