*** The 2013 Gym Rats Thread ***

Massive change of plans, now have to evade the Roast Dinner & Mother's Day BS because my mate's got a spare ticket to Man U Chelsea! Looks like I'll be carb loading all day with Pies and beer instead :D. So long gains! It was nice knowing you.
 
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I've been lifting probably around four months, and my bench is 67.5kg x 5. I'm finding it really hard to progress on bench, I manged 5 reps today, 4 reps on the second set and 3 on the last one despite resting for quite a while.
 
I'm going to go out on a limb and say smolov would be a bit advanced for you, are you using a program like starting strength at the minute?
If you are failing on that many reps knock the weight down for a few weeks and start increasing it when you can get 5x5 out.
 
kcon1 said:
Has anyone tried Smolov jr for bench?
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Know a few how have run a single cycle of it, worked well. Not heard of people chaining it and doing a few runs in a short time, don't think it would work so well.

Just saw your experience, i'd leave this well alone tbh.


What general routine are you following at the moment?
 
I started on Starting Strength, and now I'm doing it with chinups, curls and sometimes tricep work. Also I'm not squatting three times a week.

I've found it really easy to increase my deadlifts and squats but bench and OHP has been a struggle. One suggestion I got for bench was to do 5x5 on Monday and then 3x5 on Friday working up to a new 5 rep max.
 
You've only been going for 4 months, go back to basics with starting strength and don't change anything unless it says you can.
Eat well, rest well, lift hard and your gains will come.
Bench is something a lot of people struggle to progress well on and in general it'll never be as quick as progression in things like squats and deads.
 
Tom is definitely right. Smolov is way to advanced for you. You just need to bench more and while smolov does accommodate this the volume and intensity is much to high for someone like you. If you are doing stronglifts or other such beginner routines be aware that they will not be the best routines for getting strong, they are about teaching you how to lift. Four months is a very short period of time so don't worry about the weights you are moving now, from the looks of your deadlift videos your thoracic spine is very rounded which, if you cannot correct, will be impacting on your bench quite dramatically. If you could get videos of your bench from various angle we would be able to tell if this is the case or not. For now, just keep benching, throw in some dumbbell bench inc/flat and some dips or close grip as well but don't push it too far, you aren't going to be moving a lot of weight at the moment because these programs are designed to try and prevent most snappage :).
 
Is squatting 90kg @90k half decent or pretty w***?

Got shown how to squat yesterday by trainer helped me out with form which he thought was was pretty decent after 30 mins, ended up going to 60kg (had already done normal routine)
Today went up to 90kg was doing 5 x 5 and increasing weight each set.
Would you guys recommend higher reps before going any higher?

Was going atg and was totally ****** after lol.
 
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Muzza1875 said:
Is squatting 90kg @90k half decent or pretty w***?

Got shown how to squat yesterday by trainer helped me out with form which he thought was was pretty decent after 30 mins, ended up going to 60kg (had already done normal routine)
Today went up to 90kg was doing 5 x 5 and increasing weight each set.
Would you guys recommend higher reps before going any higher?

Was going atg and was totally ****** after lol.
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DYEL?
 
tom_e said:
No
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x2.

You aren't stressing your body anywhere near enough to need any form of belt right now.

Stop thinking about the routines, the equipment, the accessories.
Lift, eat, sleep. Or if you are lucky enough: sex, weights and protein shakes.
 
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