@Tom|Nbk Where have you gone dude? Really keen to see how the deadlifts are going now your are back at them after your year off. 300kg this year?
Haha, my main reason was my borked elbow, that the pain is a bit better these days. So, now its just getting some motivation..excuses excuses
Guys I just recently dislocated my shoulder, what exercises are a big no no that put a lot of stress on the shoulder when I finally go back to the gym, which won't be soon at all!
Few old pains and aches popping up now, including my shoulder on which I can barely sleep at the moment so I think I'll have a deload week and then take a week off Stronglifts after that.
Heavier weights vs shorter rests What's best? Say I am lifting 100kg but I have to rest for 4 mins between sets, is that better than lifting 90kg and resting for 2 mins between sets? Is there any difference?
Yeah but been a very stressful year so far and will be for next couple of months so sleep has been an issue. Been very fatigued last 2 weeks so a lighter week and week off weights should help hopefully. I'll up the cardio to make sure I'm still burning the calories as diet is finally good and concentrate on mobility work as well.
I had my second "induction" yesterday. I told the guy I just wanted to go through the exercises I was doing, so he took me through deadlift, rows, squat, OHP, bench and showed me how to barbell press as well. It was really helpful actually. I'm not 100% sure I have the deadlift down but I'm feeling a little more confident. As I said before, I might do Romanian deadlifts for a while to give my hamstrings some exercise as they're pretty tight. Rows he said were fine, just keep my elbows tucked in. Squat I was going too low and bending more to give the appearance of squatting lower. In reality, I was just bending my back unnecessarily. OHP was absolutely fine. Bench was interesting. I haven't found it massively challenging yet and he said that I needed to get my shoulders flat on the bench and showed me how. It was as much effort to lift as it was to keep my shoulders flat. I was still able to lift the same weight so that was great. So, very valuable overall. I can book in with him again for free if I need to, so that's good.
I think it was a good two years before I felt happy with deads. Longer for squats and there are plenty of sets where I reevaluate my form.
Bigger and stronger are not necessarily mutually exclusive (depending on your training history), but you need to determine what you're after (depending on your training history) because the training methods are different. To answer your original question (2mins vs. 4mins), there will be a slight difference in your nervous system's excitability (depending on your %RM for both lifts), but biochemically the difference between 2mins and 4mins is minimal. If 100kg was for a single 1RM effort and 90kg was for a triple, then the latter will be better for strength development (see how I threw 2 more variables in there to confuse matters?). The typical approach for hypertrophy is rests shorter than 1min: after this, the biochemically anabolic situation in your working muscles starts to dissipate... If you're after strength (where the anabolic biochemistry is less interesting than keeping your nervous system from exploding), then it's better to keep your rest periods longer - around 2mins. If you're finding that you need longer rests than 2mins between sets, you're probably lifting too heavy in the first instance and need to look at your weights. If you're relatively new to lifting (i.e. training history is less than 6-12 months), then training for strength will be more beneficial in the immediate term.
That's good to know, thank you. It's my lower back that really worries me - I had a herniated disc a couple of years ago, which is part of the reason why I'm thinking Romanian deadlifts might be more suitable for now along with some supplementary exercises for strengthening my lower back. I'd certainly rather do those than, for example, trying to have bigger or stronger arms.
Try a hex/trap bar if you have one at the gym, produces less load on the spine than regular Olympic bar.
