Strength / Weight Training

FWIW, I did away with a nagging knee tendon pain by adopting a v slightly wider stance with my feet angled slightly further outwards than what’s usually recommended. My coach suggested starting with just body weight squats to be extra mindful of how things moved and felt, and then building new muscle memory using just a 10kg bar.

Cheers, that makes a lot of sense - I sometimes switch to 3x10 if I'm tired or against the clock so I'm not adverse to mixing it up a bit. Last couple of weeks the squat & bench have been pretty tough so I'm happy to switch to 3x5 & see how that goes - i read an article / paper on diminishing returns on increased sets fairly recently (was linked in here a while back I think) but it's hard to get out of the mindset that "moar=better".

At ~76kg bw my (5x5) bench is 83kg & squat is 115kg, which isn't exactly earth shattering, but is as much as it's ever been so i know it'll take a serious effort to put another 5-10% onto that with the current routine - will maybe switch to 3x5 or even 5x3 with the heavy stuff and see where that goes, then fill in the gaps with 1000 bicep curls & get mad swole bro

Being able to squat 1.5x body weigh for 5x5 is impressive to me.

Ta!

It's just consistency really - when I started hitting the gym again in my late 30s my squat was 70-odd kg, I followed the stronglifts routine for a while & it suited me pretty well, I'd been in the gym plenty in my early 20s but never followed any structured plan which in hindsight was a missed opportunity as I was much fitter then & also had plenty of time to hit the gym.

Stick at it - even 0.5-1kg every week or two onto the big lifts adds up eventually, something else I wish I'd been able to tell myself 20 years ago

Being able to bench your body weight is also good. Esp for reps.

Here's a list of exercises and the % vs bodyweight / age

I also think this may be biased towards those that lift weight as it would only account for those that take part in the 'study' which would only be those that would do weights really.

The gym rubber bands keep disappearing and as we are too weak atm to do a lot of chins/dips without any, time to get some online! The guy from the gym "yeah people swipe them..."

Nearly done with a 5 week cycle, fitness is returning, husband has a funky back so his deadlift is going well and then the genetic sciatica kicks in with "lol no" but it is an upwards line.

I am weak still compared to "the past" but I am not doing the whole calorie protein tracking either... perhaps time to get into that again and add 1-2kg to my body weight with "clean" eating as my upper body strength just hasn't recovered. The husband is being fed a chicken breast a day which he does not mind, but I just cannot get him to take protein powder so it is what it is there ;)

Adding a 12" box as we both hate squatting w/o a "where am I" point and since we don't need to compete, deep with a hint is fine. We aren't sitting down like with the box squat.

Our raw squat ain't great, so also doing the leg press machine to hit the muscles a bit more.

That's good! Many people in the gym don't squat more than BW or they squat more but it is miles high :)

The definitions are based on people who lift...which I will assume is people who regularly train those exercises. The elite figures are for the top 5%. The truth is that if you chose 1000 80kg men between 18 and 45 at random I reckon you'd have less than 50% chance one of them could perform one of those lifts at elite level. Maybe much less than 50%.

What is everyone's goal atm? My goal is to do 1 strict pull up. Doesn't sound like a lot but at 102KG it takes a lot to pull me up.

My long term goal is just to feel strong but I can't see myself continuing 5x5 beyond 120KG squat. Not sure what the alternative is though.

This is impressive. My heart rate has increased just reading the numbers. I was doing 100kg deadlift the other day and the guy behind me was casually smashing out 200kg, it made me think about when do I stop or will I be that guy.

That's a useful site - never really looked at the age demographic before, but yeah it's unlikely they have any non-lifters in there! I don't ever do 1 rep max stuff but the estimates look realistic (the Strong app gives you estimates for 1RM too which look similar to these numbers).

Went to the gym this morning & switched to 3x5 too see how it went - got bench / squat / row AND ohp done without issue, not ideal doing ohp a the same time as bench but maybe the reduced volume will let me get away with it? I'll try doing this Mondays / Thursdays & chuck in some swimming / cycling (wtf)/ kettlebells into the Tuesday / Wednesday slots to keep it varied - still hoping to creep the weights up gradually so eventually it might need some 3x10 lighter sets thrown in but we'll see how it goes.

Not training for anything in particular - just general strength / conditioning as i'm now officially closer to 50 than 40, delaying the inevitable as long as possible, haha!

The definitions are based on people who lift...which I will assume is people who regularly train those exercises. The elite figures are for the top 5%. The truth is that if you chose 1000 80kg men between 18 and 45 at random I reckon you'd have less than 50% chance one of them could perform one of those lifts at elite level. Maybe much less than 50%.

Yup. That's why I think is biased. But it gives you an estimate. Plus if you add in Vit S, will skew the numbers even more because the higher the weights the more likely its done enhanced.

I think it's like
Very good is=
Bench =1xBW
OHP=0.75xBW
DL=2xBW
Leg Press=3xBW
... if that is your thing.

Cheers! I still always look around the gym & feel I should (could?) be doing more too though - I think everyone does to an extent... even the guy deadlifting 200kg will see someone doing 240kg and that's their inspiration, to beat that guy!

My recent motivation was one guy who i'd seen bugger off & leave all his weights on the bar, there was 80kg or so on the bench & think he'd managed a couple then walked off - probably just forgot or followed through & had to run, but in my mind he had to be defeated so I kept chipping away at the bench until I could rattle out 5x5 at 80kg fairly comfortably. Strange how the mind works.

I’m working out twice a week to build up my ‘body armour’ again. Three years ago I was as fit as I ever was at almost 40. Wanted to weigh 80kg for the first time in my life (scrawny 6’1). After I succeeded I stopped lifting, stopped running, almost stopped cycling and after a year I did my back in and couldn’t really work out or mountainbike for over a year.
Started lifting again two months ago, started stretching/yoga four months ago, and I’ve been to a bike park three times.
Goal is being able to squat and deadlift every week without triggering my sciatic nerve and keep working out every week until I’m six feet under.
82kg bw right know. 50kg bench, 40 squat, 50 deadlift, 50 pendlay row, all sets of 8 with some reps in the tank because I’m shit scared of tweaking something again so I’m building up sloooooowww. And 4 sets of 8 chin-ups or 4 sets of 5 weighted.

What is everyone's goal atm?

To have great posture, the best posture, posture that is so good that people talk about it behind my perfectly straight back. And to eat less biscuits.

Is it worth getting shoes and then start squatting or start squatting with a view to refine the process later?

https://www.pullumsports.co.uk/products/adidas-power-perfect-3-tokyo-weightlifting-shoes-white-black-green

I’ve found these for a reasonable amount. But now trying to find out if they fit true to size.

Totally your call but I'd go with some trainers with a solid sole and learn to squat on those.
Recently bought some Adidas crossfit type trainers (in hot pink, @Chalfie would approve) and they are great for everything in the gym.

I should clarify that I'm not doing Crossfit. Fuck that.

I'd say try to just find what works for you. Try squatting in flat shoes (converse / vans / plimsoles / similar) and see how it feels. If you don't feel the need to get WL shoes then there isn't one.

What is everyone's goal atm?

Short term 200kg * 5 deadlift, 180kg * 1 safety squat bar squat.

Longer term - Shed 10-20kg bodyweight, get back to 8 BW pullups, 100kg * 5 bench, 80kg * 1 OHP.

Keep being able to throw my kids around and show them who 's the boss.

Goals for the next 12 months;

-learn to squat properly
-bench 100kg
-lose more body fat

Get my bench back up to 50
Deadlift 130
Squat form and squat 65
Be able to dip without bands
Do 3 chinups

Get the husband to bench 80, deadlift 150, squat 100 😈

also see folks use little plates (2.5-5kg) under their heels to get a bit of lift in normal shoes - though not tried it myself so can't speak to whether it caused any stability woes