***The 2020 Gym Rats Thread*** ᕦ( ͠°◞ °)ᕥ

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Somnambulist said:
Got into the habit now on my first exercise of the day each session of working up to a heavy single at about RPE 8-8.5 before dropping back to my working sets... felt unusually strong on OHP and my single ended sticking 84% of bodyweight up pretty nicely (other than seeing stars from bracing so hard)... hopefully this year I can acquire holy grail 'can strict press 100% of bodyweight overhead' status.
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I sometimes do this. Combined with 8x3 at a heavy working weight I continually progress on most movements.
 
GiraffePencils said:
It's often agreed you should do 3x5 as it's a bit light on the deadlifts
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I was thinking about changing my approach on this too. I managed to pull 3 reps of 122.5 kg on Friday, which is a PB. But I was really at the edge of what I could do. I'm thinking about pulling back a bit and upping the sets/reps. I could probably start with 3x5 of 90 kg and work my way up from there in 5 kg jumps. What do you think?
 
dirtychinchilla said:
I was thinking about changing my approach on this too. I managed to pull 3 reps of 122.5 kg on Friday, which is a PB. But I was really at the edge of what I could do. I'm thinking about pulling back a bit and upping the sets/reps. I could probably start with 3x5 of 90 kg and work my way up from there in 5 kg jumps. What do you think?
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90 seems a bit light, if your 3RM is 122.5
I'd have gone like 97.5 or even 100

But if you're getting used to a new thing, go with what's comfortable, you'll be upping the numbers in no time :)
 
Speaking of deadlifts - since I've got up to close to my maximum I've just been doing 1 working set (following stronglifts 5x5). After killing myself with squats I struggle with my deadlifts (energy wise). I just about managed 5x125kg last session (hopefully 130kg today). On the positive, after doing so many low bar squats by back and core feel a lot tighter during the set.
 
tom_e said:
Quite a bit for most people, your stronger side can't compensate for any weakness and you're using a lot more muscle to stabilise them than you would have to on a bar.
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It's also harder to get the weights into position rather than just taking the bar off the rack. I can do in the low to mid 90s with bar but struggle to max out my slectable dumbells which go to i think 32 or 34
 
Skidder said:
It's also harder to get the weights into position rather than just taking the bar off the rack. I can do in the low to mid 90s with bar but struggle to max out my slectable dumbells which go to i think 32 or 34
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Yep there is that as well, I find resting them on my knees and kicking up as I lie down makes it easiest.
 
mrthingyx said:
Similar in principle to Bulgarian weightlifting methodology: find a training max and use it as a guide for loading range.

The guy who adapted it for Squat Nemesis was also talking about doing it for deadlift ING and bench, so my guess would be it would apply to all compounds...
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The Bulgarians would go up to a true 1RM every day - bananas of course, but they were on all the drugs, didn't care about breaking athletes etc - and then all these 'inspired-by' programs came out which lowered that from a true 1RM to a training max and then it isn't really Bulgarian anymore, but anyway, I do what in PL terms would be a conservative opener and it seems to work well as a predictor of how the actual work sets will go. I don't tend to adjust load too much, but knowing gains will occur as long as the relative tension and volume for that session is sufficient means I don't freak out now if in absolute terms it's a little less weight or I've lost a rep or something.

CaptainRAVE said:
I sometimes do this. Combined with 8x3 at a heavy working weight I continually progress on most movements.
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Yeah, my first movements are either 4 x 4-6 @ RPE 8-9 on my first upper and lower days and 3 x 6-8 on my lower, push and pull days, so ATM that's squat (+ sometimes rdl), bench (+ sometimes seal rows), Pit Shark belt squat, OHP and ring pullups. Objectively I don't know if it makes a difference, but subjectively when the weight goes back down for the sets the load feels slightly lighter than if I'd just done the usual warm-up scheme. Keeping to the RPE guidelines seems to be the biggest thing driving progress ATM because my inclination otherwise is to 'just one more rep!' it / add more weight even if the movement was getting uglier and uglier, and end up grinding away on everything, not recovering in time for the next session so ending up stuck at the same weights for ages. Who'd have thought training sensibly would lead to progress!?
 
This is most of what I'm working with at my office gym as far as free weights goes. Up to 30Kg DBs, up to 45Kg BB, Smith machine, hex bar.

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There's also a cable machine, leg machines, and a lat pull down machine.

I squat using the Smith, deadlift using the hex bar, oh press using the BBs, and bench using the DBs. Not sure how much longer the oh press and bench will last me.
 
I've switched from BB to DB a year ago and found that although much harder, you jump up in weight pretty quickly at the start as your body adjusts. Dumbbells not only require the extra stability bringing the weight in as you push up but you also have a larger range of movement when you are not restricted by the bar.

I bet if I went back to BB now I would struggle to do 90kg for reps when I have been doing 45s on DBs, simply because it's not something I've done in a while.
 
2nd day back and finally remembered why I shouldn't rush prowler.. Puking up all the water I had for the morning haha. Still a good session. Will carry on with it as im throwing in some different variations, to target different muscles.. Time to build a stable base :D
 
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