Man of Honour
Agreed 5/3/1 gives you some good time under the bar and a structured and solid progressions curve. As long as you choose the weights sensibly, and add the increments sensibly a lot of improvement can be had.
*** The 2014 Gym Rats Thread ***
- Thread starter mrthingyx
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Agreed 5/3/1 gives you some good time under the bar and a structured and solid progressions curve. As long as you choose the weights sensibly, and add the increments sensibly a lot of improvement can be had.
Man of Honour
Embarrassingly I squat the most of anyone in my gym :/ There's no challenge there. Similar to deadlift. I don't even lift that much!
I'm excited about getting back to my old 1RM on both though. At my current weight that would be awesome
The staff at my place actually stop and watch me lift because they've never seen anyone come close, if they seen most of the guys on here lift they'd probably have a heart attack considering I'm very weak for my size.
Man of Honour
Yeah I have a bit of a fan club going apparently however I shut off the world when I lift as i have so much to remember and usually have to put in shed load of effort!
Man of Honour
Soldato
enjoying doing strongliftsSquats are coming along nicely, started at 30kg and finished 45kg this morning.
Doing the workout that involves deadlifts this morning, i did 40kg which was a little hard but did it without loosing any form at all but i have noticed the weights at nuffield only go up to 45KG and they're those rubber ones fixed to the bar so i can't add any more on.
Any ideas? if there a machine i can use to get the same result or should i just do more reps of 45kg instead of just the one?
Nuffield as in Warwick way? I used to live near there.
I moved from my old gym because of this very issue. It felt pointless me going to the gym when I could do unlimited reps with light weights. Unfortunately a lot of the older council gyms are the same. I've moved to a new gym (still council owned) but the facilities are much better, and I pay less money for it... dunno how that happened!
Tom, you aren't far from me.. what gym are you at?
Man of Honour
I train at the park hall hotel in Wolves, which probably explains why they're not used to seeing any real weight moved in there
Soldato
I train at the park hall hotel in Wolves, which probably explains why they're not used to seeing any real weight moved in there
haha indeed! bit posh!
I'm at Portway just off the wolves road... being relatively close to Oldbury/West Brom its generally full of Polish people, thus finding it difficult to find a training partner
Man of Honour
haha indeed! bit posh!
I'm at Portway just off the wolves road... being relatively close to Oldbury/West Brom its generally full of Polish people, thus finding it difficult to find a training partner
It's 5 minutes from my house which is great because I don't drive and it is so quiet it's basically my own personal gym and pool so while it is over twice the price of the pure gym down the road it means I can actually use the equipment!
But yes I did feel a bit dirty becoming a member of a hotel gym
Soldato
It's 5 minutes from my house which is great because I don't drive and it is so quiet it's basically my own personal gym and pool so while it is over twice the price of the pure gym down the road it means I can actually use the equipment!
But yes I did feel a bit dirty becoming a member of a hotel gym
Not a bad point really, if its got what you need there then it makes sense!
I normally have to go early evening or late evening to avoid the rush! only has one power rack.. thankfully there's plenty other stuff to do!
Caporegime
It wasn't LiE was it?
Associate
Cheers will try 5 3 1 on my deadlifts next time.
5 x 60kg
3 x 80kg
1 x 100kg
Will this be better at building strength than five final reps at 95kg? I'm still pretty weak and skinny so thought doing more reps would build mass/strength up better, which is why I've been sticking to lower weights, or not adding and doing more reps instead of adding and doing fewer.
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Not necessarily: whilst all lifting is good lifting, pushing a certain threshold is quite important.
I think it's kcon1 who's managed to make some big deadlift numbers from a limited number of reps/sets, but this is far from the ideal.
The big issue with deadlifts is that the fatigue derived from the pressure on the central nervous system, and its inability to maintain central drive for a number of reps over a number of sets at a given intensity (proportion of your 1RM).
My personal preference for deadlifts (bearing in mind I don't really deadlift) is 9/10 reps at a minimum, with 15 reps as a nice mid-range for strength, and then 25 reps or similar if you really want to punish yourself with deadlift-specific regimes. Deadlifts are only really a low-rep exercise unless you are after something very specific.
Your structure for sets/intensity will be a bit inefficient as you're only really stressing yourself for the last four reps, given you're used to working at around 90kg for 5 reps.
I'd use your set structure like this:
5*80kg
4*85kg
3*90kg
3*90kg
This will keep you working more within a more intense weight range and be better overall for your strength. You will be knackered, but that's the point.
Just my take - do with it as you will.
I think it's kcon1 who's managed to make some big deadlift numbers from a limited number of reps/sets, but this is far from the ideal.
The big issue with deadlifts is that the fatigue derived from the pressure on the central nervous system, and its inability to maintain central drive for a number of reps over a number of sets at a given intensity (proportion of your 1RM).
My personal preference for deadlifts (bearing in mind I don't really deadlift) is 9/10 reps at a minimum, with 15 reps as a nice mid-range for strength, and then 25 reps or similar if you really want to punish yourself with deadlift-specific regimes. Deadlifts are only really a low-rep exercise unless you are after something very specific.
Your structure for sets/intensity will be a bit inefficient as you're only really stressing yourself for the last four reps, given you're used to working at around 90kg for 5 reps.
I'd use your set structure like this:
5*80kg
4*85kg
3*90kg
3*90kg
This will keep you working more within a more intense weight range and be better overall for your strength. You will be knackered, but that's the point.
Just my take - do with it as you will.
Associate
Sounds like what I've been doing up until now and been absolutely dead afterwards. Obviously I've not been able to pile on the weight each session because of so many reps, but I kinda prefer it for the workout it gives me.
10 x 60kg
10 x 60kg
5 x 70kg
5 x 80kg
5 x 90kg
What I've been doing the past 2 weeks.
Do you think it's better then that I stick to what I was originally doing? I suppose I could try my final set on 95, but think it might be too much unless I take a few second breaks inbetween reps, or just go up slightly each time, 92kg then 94 etc.
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I think you're actually missing my original point.
I'm suggesting you work for more reps at a higher intensity than 60kg (because that's a waste of your time and energy) and fewer at the very high-end, unless you think you can.
This will mean you spend more time getting stronger and less time burning valuable workout energy at 60kg for 10 reps.
And you're not piling on the weight because you're not eating enough. But that's a different question.
I'm suggesting you work for more reps at a higher intensity than 60kg (because that's a waste of your time and energy) and fewer at the very high-end, unless you think you can.
This will mean you spend more time getting stronger and less time burning valuable workout energy at 60kg for 10 reps.
And you're not piling on the weight because you're not eating enough. But that's a different question.
Associate
Ah ok. Will bin the 60kg warm-ups as they just burn energy and go for what you suggested then. Yep, trying to eat more.
Soldato
Decided now's the time to pass on the knowledge to my 17 year old son. Signed him up at the gym (£30 pm even with student discount!) and he's my new training partner. Skinny as a whippet at the moment, he'll be a beefcake in 6 months haha!
He popped his gym cherry on legs day, which is epic! He's been walking funny the last few days and I didn't even let him use any weights, bodyweight only Going to try and teach him, chins, dips and deadlifts tonight....
"it's gonna hurt in the mornin son!"
He popped his gym cherry on legs day, which is epic! He's been walking funny the last few days and I didn't even let him use any weights, bodyweight only
Going to try and teach him, chins, dips and deadlifts tonight.... "it's gonna hurt in the mornin son!"
Soldato
Mirin' the hell out of seal rows atm.
Can be done with DBs (also listen to Alberto talk about why it's so good):
A barbell like a full BOR w/stretch at the bottom
Or how the Chinese Oly lifters do it which is kind of like a Pendlay row but with a Yates style lat sweep:
(skip to 1:07)
Have to get creative with the benches, matts and some 20kg plates but it doesn't take long to set up. Also use the pussy pad so the barbell doesn't smack the bottom of the bench when I do the BB version. Feels unfy. Try eeet.
Can be done with DBs (also listen to Alberto talk about why it's so good):
A barbell like a full BOR w/stretch at the bottom
Or how the Chinese Oly lifters do it which is kind of like a Pendlay row but with a Yates style lat sweep:
Have to get creative with the benches, matts and some 20kg plates but it doesn't take long to set up. Also use the pussy pad so the barbell doesn't smack the bottom of the bench when I do the BB version. Feels unfy. Try eeet.