Strength / Weight Training

this made me lol...

Classy palce youre in!

Needs a story about someone with skid pants on their head.

yeah man. The beginning and the end are sus as shit, but I think it explains that hollow hold/banana position the best (I mean for me, who had a hard time understanding what it was all about). I'm just trying my hardest to win all of the warmups. I look at the guy next to me who is just jogging in place and sniff derisively.

I have decided that all of the things that are weird to me are just because I am living in europe. As I am sure you know, europeans aren't uptight like americans or brits. It's almost rude not to have 1/2 of a boner at least when entering the steam room.

I used the hotel weights room last night, some of the dumbbells had a much thicker grip (fnar) than the ones I noormally use and I've now fucked my wrist.

This is how I fecked both my wrists. I used to wear thickish gloves. I stopped wearing them, and now all is well.

Try this well before comp to test how it impacts you:

Cut carbs 3 days out (but do eat fats, nuts, fish to get cals) (lose 400 grams per 100 gram stored carbs)

Waterloading:
Day 1 - Loads salt and water
Day 2 - Load salt and water
Day 3 - Load salt and water
Day 4 - Only lots of water
Day 5 - Lots of water STOP 12 hours of out test time (say 10 in morning)

OR, what I do: I just go nuts of water only for 2 days + cut the carbs 3 days out.

I do calorie tracking on MyFitnessPal. Once you are into the habit, it's great, and it means you can have your chips/beer as you know how to "correct" for the macros, eg by eating chicken breast salad.

Good luck ^_^

The science of weight cuts are interesting to me (although I never have cut weight myself). In the MMA world Mike Dolce is (in)famously the czar of it and you often see him in the corner for fighters. They have to weigh in the day before.

A decent overview of the modern way to do it is here http://fourhourworkweek.com/2013/05/06/how-to-cut-weight-ufc/

If you listen to Dolce much, though, you will hear/see that there is a lot more salt manipulation than they put in. He adds salt in the water and food a bit out and switch over to plain water and no salt in food the last few days or something like that. He also is a proponent of rehydrating with iv bags afterward. He talked about it a bunch on a Joe Rogan podcast.
The whole podcast is interesting* and good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gU4_mW_HCUc

Going through what he did with Nick Lentz was especially detailed. It's like ten or twenty minutes from here:
https://youtu.be/gU4_mW_HCUc?t=1h19m9s

Dolce believes some stuff that I am not too sure about (metabolism changing, colon impacting, etc) and a lot of his diet plan is stuff that gym types have known about for ever. That said, the people on his programs always look better off making weight than the people who aren't. The worst thing you hear about him** is that he is expensive.

*if diet stories from fighters is interesting to you. It is to me for some reason.
**unless you talk to BJ Penn I guess

Fucking love the Joe Rogan podcast.

Weight cutting is easy to feck up. I train with an MMA guy, he did MMA weight cutting for his first comp and didn't feel that great (though it doesn't bother him with MMA).

He puts lots of Epsom salts in his hot bath. I lose a whole 300 grams in the bath. Woo...
Then about 1 KG with water loading/drop carbs. Yay...my kidneys are too good? ;)

The 40 hour week is sound, I would add from experience:
Boots ORS (rehydrate)
Diluted/isotonic sportsdrinks (water has nothing in it, sugary drinks will cause upset)
Drink FIRST then eat.

At least if it isn't MMA you don't have to worry about your brain missing its cushiony fluid. I had a while in the hospital where they had to lower the fluid in my brain. They did that by sucking it out (via spinal tap which was the god damned worst) and keeping me from drinking much water.

I kept mini-concussing myself just by flopping down in my bed because the brain was just hitting my skull. I guess fighers/boxers have the same problem if they don't rehydrate enough. i can imagine.

Here's a cutting and rehydrating protocol from some top USA powerlifters .

7 days out – salt your food, bring water intake to 1 gallon per day minimum 1.5 gallons maximum.
4 days out – decrease salt intake, keep water intake at 1 gallon per day minimum.
3 days out – Eliminate salt in food, continue drinking 1 gallon of water minimum
2 days out (day before weigh in) – Continue no salt added foods, hydrate upon waking, as of noon small sips of water throughout the day. Drop carbohydrate intake to 50g per day. Prior to bed, 2 cups of black tea with no sugar or dairy. Up to 4 cups if not stimulant sensitive. Avoid disrupting sleep.
1 day out (day of weigh-in) – Upon waking begin consuming black tea, double bagged. Drink throughout the day until one hour prior to weigh in. No food at this time.

You can use Dandelion tea or root for greater diuretic effect .

if you have to weigh in the morning of the meet, then I recommend you stay within 4 to 6 pounds of your desired weight. In this case the dehydration process is a bit simpler:

7 days out – salt all foods, consume 1 gallon of water per day
3 days out – eliminate salt, continue 1 gallon of water per day, decrease carbohydrate intake to 100g per day
Night before weigh in – consume 2 cups black tea prior to bed
Day of weigh in – begin consuming black tea and try to eat two small meals with 40% carbohydrate and some fruit by weigh in time.

Immediately after weigh in begin drinking the 50/50 mix of pedialyte and water (or the mix detailed below ) and start pushing carbohydrates down your throat.

You get a good safe natural diuretic effect from loading vitamin C . Make sure you have it in divided doses and start with 3g on Mon , 4 on Tues , 6 on Weds and 10 g on Thursday and Friday . For bodybuilding you take the 10 g the day of the show and the day before so you might have to adjust according to when you weigh in .

Rehydrating .

Electrolytes and creatine if it's 4 kg or under .
Food after weigh ins should be salty and carby . Pizza , chinese food , potato crisps , chocolate milk etc .
Get some food grade Glycerine , raw organic coconut water which is better than pedialyte and has the same mineral balance as plasma , and some Creatine Monohydrate .

mix 1 teaspoon of glycerine to 1g of creatine to 80z of coconut water drink after weigh ins .

Over the course of the remainder of the day, you will drink a gallon of coconut water mixed at the ratio of 1tsp/8oz of glycerin and 1g/8oz of creatine. It's easiest to just put 16g of creatine and 16 teaspoons of glycerin, in an empty gallon jug and then fill it with the coconut water. Have another gallon of regular water and mix consumption until you can time finishing the coconut water gallon about 2 hours before bed. Eat excessively during this time as well.

With that said, unless you're looking to break records or hunt down a top 10 pro ranking it's not worth cutting more than 2 or 3 lbs. Seriously.

I was wearing a t shirt, jumper, down vest and a suit jacket and the airline stewardess referred to me (to my colleague) as "the skinny bloke", so maybe I'm not as fat as I thought. Anyway- I have been trying to build upper body muscle, and have a question- as a very general approximation, what is the expected/general ratio between squat and bench?

I tend to do sets of 10, generally 3 - sometimes when fatigued I will do 6 sets of 5.

I've never tried an "all out" single lift, for fear of dropping the bar on my chest and the associated massive shame.

The maximum weight I use for 3x10 is 40kg on the heavy bar- I have been told various stories about the weight of this bar, and it is (possibly) 18kg on its own- but might be 28. I've never been motivated enough to try to work that out.

I use the same bar to squat with, just wondering (as I am new to these) what I should be aiming for in a general routine.

I assume the bar to be 20kg. But they are sometimes 25kg. Strikes me as weird its never written on there somewhere. The one I use merely states 880kg. Which is good to know so that I dont overload it ?

If you're trying to build 3 x 10 seems like a lot of reps. You might get a better effect from going 12, 8, 4. Increasing weight each time. With the 4 reps often only being 3 because of the weight.

Difficult to predict a good squat weight. But 12, 8, 4 again IMHO.

unless the bar actually weighs 880kg... But then again, weve all known youre a bit of a beast.

dreams

I'm actually losing weight (moar biek, less rugby). My bench is dropping at at least 5kg per 1/2kg weight loss I reckon.

the bars ive ever used were 20kg bars. But i see no reason why they wouldnt be 25kg

Tx :)

Weight class is 63 KG, IPF, GPC it's 60 which would be very hard. So I just need to hit that (usually can do it easily). I tried the basic one, 2 lbs, but didn't try vitamin C yet :)

I can tell from experience Aquaban gives you the shites. Don't use it ;)

No real need to do a 1RM really. Its simply to see how strong you are at 1 Rep.

And your strength in your legs will be sdtronger than youtr chest. You do know youre a cyclist right?

Yes, I am just wondering if there is an accepted "squat twice what you bench" type formula for roughly normal humans I.e. Not built like a chicken or an orangutan

from http://wannabebig.com/forums/threads/124642-Chart-for-Bench-Squat-and-Deadlift

For an intermediate trainee I would set the following goals:
Bench Press - Bodyweight
Squat - 1.5X to 2X Bodyweight
Deadlift - 1.5X Bodyweight

Advanced / Elite Goals (after training for 1-3 years):
Bench Press - 2X Bodyweight
Squat - 2.5X to 3X Bodyweight
Deadlift - 3X Bodyweight

http://www.exrx.net/Testing/WeightLifting/StrengthStandards.html

https://www.t-nation.com/training/know-your-ratios-destroy-weaknesses

ChainBreaker

t-nation.com/training/know-y­our-ratios-destroy-weaknesses>

love the ads on that site - all natural!
might have to pick some up

hahahaha

that is TOTALLY natural.

That is so gross.