Can confirm @Freefaller has tight glutes powering strong squats.
***The 2020 Gym Rats Thread*** ᕦ( ͠°◞ °)ᕥ
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You should see me now. Like a fine wine improving with age.
Delighted to hear life is treating you well. It does move fast. My son was 12 today and off to secondary school (sister nipping at his ankles). Madness.
Nice to see you post again. You can raise my blood pressure and get me hot under the collar any time.
Good morning all!
Anyone got any good suggestions other than farmers carries/ DB walks and deadlift holds for improving grip strength?
Im now back to 140KG deadlifts on madcow (not amazing i know but slow progress is progress) and have been using standard grip for all sets, but now (at 140) it seems the grip is the thing that might be stopping me soon.
I use liquid chalk for the last set of 5 @ 140 and hold each rep for as long as I can at the top for improving my grip, but I think I'm going to have to start heavy DB walks in to help improve this or something else to help me push further.
I didnt really want to start using straps until a bit heavier weight, as I want to ensure good grip strength and i read straps basically stop this improving, or should i look to be strapping for the last set of 5 and continue to do all other workup sets standard grip to improve?
Sorry if the questions seem dumb only been going to the gym for about a year now, and before was doing stronglofts 5x5 before moving onto madcow a few months before lockdown, so never really hit an issue with grip until now.
Anyone got any good suggestions other than farmers carries/ DB walks and deadlift holds for improving grip strength?
Im now back to 140KG deadlifts on madcow (not amazing i know but slow progress is progress) and have been using standard grip for all sets, but now (at 140) it seems the grip is the thing that might be stopping me soon.
I use liquid chalk for the last set of 5 @ 140 and hold each rep for as long as I can at the top for improving my grip, but I think I'm going to have to start heavy DB walks in to help improve this or something else to help me push further.
I didnt really want to start using straps until a bit heavier weight, as I want to ensure good grip strength and i read straps basically stop this improving, or should i look to be strapping for the last set of 5 and continue to do all other workup sets standard grip to improve?
Sorry if the questions seem dumb only been going to the gym for about a year now, and before was doing stronglofts 5x5 before moving onto madcow a few months before lockdown, so never really hit an issue with grip until now.
Man of Honour
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I bet the women are untameable during the school run.... how do you make it out alive?
Tempus fugit indeed - my age starts with a 4 now... I mean how the **** did that happen?!
Nice to see you post again. You can raise my blood pressure and get me hot under the collar any time.
I've got to be careful with blood pressure now!
Use hook or alternate grip for deadlifts...
Well I was doing this pre lockdown (using a switch grip for the last set) but Ive read a bit about it causing an imbalance in many people so its good to avoid it if you can (similar to straps) and also doesn't really help much with grip strength improvement (again similar to straps).
I guess what Im trying to gauge is; Should I need alternating grips at this kind of weight range? What kind of weights did grip become an issue for other people who deadlift, and is there a good way I can improve or approach it?
Man of Honour
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It's all quite personal, I can do double overhand without hook grip for around 200kg, but no for reps. For reps I need to use straps or hook grip or alternate grip.
Some people struggle with grip at 100kg - it's not a 'bad' thing per se, everyone has different capabilities grip-wise. Of course you can practice grip-specific training. But just because you cannot grip 140kg well doesn't mean you are bad at gripping the bar, you just have a different ability to grip the bar in that way. A rock climber friend of mine has amazing grip, but can't hold a bar with the same weight as me - but I can't hold onto a ledge like he can. It's all different elements that play into it.
I don't see the issue with mixed grip if you're sensible about it, switch it regularly, and don't pull using the bicep. That said, hook grip is amazing, albeit painful.
Ultimately, the deadlift is done not to be a grip exercise but to do your posterior chain, legs, back, arms, core (pretty much everything!), so just get the weight moving, even if it means using straps. Keep practicing without straps until your grip fails, the more you do that the better your grip will get in time (or do grip specific work as I said), but that said, using straps isn't a bad thing. You'll get more benefit from lifting than not lifting.
As Freefaller suggests (at the end) hook grip is epic. Yes, it hurts for the first two weeks, but most things in the gym do anyway.
I have never gotten on with mixed grip, but that is because of my weightlifting history...
Soldato
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I use overhand then hook grip for the heavier weights.
I'll just go till it's distracting then throw on the straps, Don't let it effect my DL
I'll just go till it's distracting then throw on the straps, Don't let it effect my DL
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As long as progressive overload is occurring over time (in conjunction with sufficient food and rest) you’ll grow. For the purposes of hypertrophy, it seems that the 6-12 rep range tends to be the most practical for a variety of reasons, but there’s good arguments for utilising both higher and lower reps than that strategically. Low rep (1-5) shouldn’t make up too much of your program if the goal is maximising growth, because of the adaptations being geared more towards neuromuscular efficiency/recruiting a greater % of the muscle mass you have, but that doesn’t mean you can’t include some strength-focused work in.
Example - my first lower day I squat and RDL in the 4-6 rep range, then the rest of the workout is in the 6-8 and 8-12 rep range, where as on the second day it’s 6-8 on the squat press and hip thrust, currently, then 8-12 and 12-15 for the rest. When you look at the overall volume of work (sets x reps x load), 80% occurs in that moderate 6-12 range, but there’s some strength work at the start of day 1 and some pump-y stuff at the end of day 2.
When I deadlifted I warmed up double-overhand, then used hook grip, at first for everything then eventually for singles and straps for rep work (ala Tom Martin). I never had aspirations of competing as a powerlifter, so I didn’t really care that much. I personally use the Olympic weightlifting style straps because they release when you let go, which is safer than the kind that trap your wrists and cut off your circulation, at the cost of less ‘help’. I’m using the Weightlifting House Chinese-style straps atm, but also have had the IronMind Sew Easy ones.
The guy at my gym with an insane deadlift (well over x3 bodyweight, IPF powerlifiter) used those Captain’s of Crush or similar brand type things a lot and swore by them, as well as a loading pin with a thick bar grip as it’s a bit less taxiing on the rest of the body than farmer’s walks or doing iso holds from the rack with >deadlift 1-5RM weights.
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This week has been a tough adjustment, I’ve under fuelled almost every day. I’ve generally gone for heavier shorter sessions.
Deadlifts are getting there though. Will continue with my steady progression though, hoping 2.5kg every 2 weeks will continue up to previous totals. Then I’ll switch back to 1.25kg.
It was a slow journey home with lots of diversions, but it’s great knowing there’ll be no queue for the deadlift platform
Bodyweight seems to only be 1-1.5kg off prelockdown totals.
Deadlifts are getting there though. Will continue with my steady progression though, hoping 2.5kg every 2 weeks will continue up to previous totals. Then I’ll switch back to 1.25kg.
It was a slow journey home with lots of diversions, but it’s great knowing there’ll be no queue for the deadlift platform
Bodyweight seems to only be 1-1.5kg off prelockdown totals.
Thanks for the reply. I've figured best way to beat 75x5 max was to go heavier so tried that today first time. 77.5, 5 sets. Two of 3 reps. Last three 4 reps. I think this is best way to progress on my BP.
This is full workout for upper day today.
Upper B
Saturday 5 Sep 2020, 08:34
Overhead Press (Barbell)
Set 1: 47.5 kg × 5
Set 2: 47.5 kg × 4
Set 3: 47.5 kg × 5
Triceps Extension (Dumbbell)
Set 1: 32 kg × 8
Set 2: 32 kg × 8
Set 3: 32 kg × 8
Bicep Curl (Dumbbell)
Set 1: 16 kg × 8
Set 2: 16 kg × 8
Set 3: 16 kg × 9
Bench Press (Barbell)
Set 1: 77.5 kg × 3
Set 2: 77.5 kg × 3
Set 3: 77.5 kg × 4
Set 4: 77.5 kg × 4
Set 5: 77.5 kg × 4
Lat Pulldown (Cable)
Set 1: 52 kg × 12
Set 2: 52 kg × 11
Set 3: 52 kg × 10
Pullover (Dumbbell) for chest
Set 1: 30 kg × 8
Set 2: 30 kg × 8
Set 3: 30 kg × 8
Waiter curl
Set 1: 26 kg × 12
Set 2: 26 kg × 12
Set 3: 26 kg × 15
with Strong
Anything to change or anything im doing wrong?
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Is that the order you're doing them in? I and most others would do the compounds first then isolation stuff last, so: bench, lat pull-down, OHP, pullover, tris and bis (not sure why you need two different curls).
As for progression, I find this to be my favourite way, at least for non block-based or fancy periodisation. Do this for a few weeks, have a lighter deload week, repeat.
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