For weight plates, your best bet is to go to whatever good well-stocked sporting goods store you have near you, like Dick's or something like that. Getting weight plates shipped is cost prohibitive because of the shipping charges. Sometimes large warehouse membership clubs like Costco or BJ's will have weight sets with a standard set of weights and Olympic bar for a very good price. You need to research the brand before you buy one of these. The weights may be off in weight but otherwise okay to use, but the barbell might well be a piece of crap. But you can sometimes find a decent set this way.

Bigger, stronger, leaner, faster or even maximal strength and endurance type strength. Should one come before the other? One goal at a time? I always hear a lot of people say get steonger and the rest will follow. But that just seems like wishfull thinking. While others say get lean so you can get big.

I ask because I'd like to get back into running. Building up to 20-30 miles per week. But every time I've done that my strength gains seemed to stop instantly.

Bench Press
2sets X 5reps X 185lbs
2sets X 4reps X 190lbs

Rackpulls
3sets X 6reps X 290lbs

Sunday
Bench Press 3x3
Rackpulls 3x3

Wednesday
Pullups. 3x3 ( 65lb band assisted)
Barbell Rows 3x5

Thursday
Squats. 3x3

So far SDT for most lifts has worked well. When progression slows I just go back to base volume or singles for a while.

I spent a couple years doing 5x5 then 3x5 and basically got nowhere. Found SDT, singles scene and all the other great articles and have been makeing good progress ever since. Which is ironic since its very close to how I initially started strength training but was told to stop. To this day I'm still told frequently I'm doing it all wrong and to "buy a good program."

The way I see it is the proof is in the results.

I'll try to get my routine up for criticism shortly.

Keep in mind that the fancy day labeling is all my doing just to keep things as organized as possible…. Anybody reading this will probably wonder why I'm giving so much importance to Deadlifts and not to Squats: I'd like to tell you that I'm a Deadlift ONLY guy. Other than that, doing squats right now is a bad idea because my back needs to rest and heal.

Sunday: DEADLIFT Training

1. Deadlifts - Aggressive Progression

Monday: PULL-UPS & ROWS Training

1. Weighted Pull-ups - Heavy
2. Supported Rows - Choose either Head Supported Rows or Incline Rows for 4-6 sets

Wednesday: POSTERIOR CHAIN Training

1. Choose either Step-ups or Lunges (any variation) for SDT Progression 4-5 sets of 5-6 reps
2. One Arm Dumbbell Rows - SDT Progression 4-5 sets of 5-6 reps
3. Choose either LIGHT Deadlifts or LIGHT Romanian Deadlifts or Hip Pullthroughs

Thursday: LEFT OVER Training

1. Choose either Bench Press or Floor Press or Pin Press or Incline Press - any pressing exercise that does not strain the lower back in any way
2. Banded Push-ups
3. Pull-ups using Bodyweight Only - focus is on resting the lower back as much as possible

This is mostly so that I remember the do's and don'ts for my own protection lol

See also: http://www.gustrength.com/forum/t-456417/betneton-for-benign-essential-tremor-treatment

Layout:

MESOCYCLE 3

Day 1 = Deadlift & PC

Day 2 = Pull-up, Squat & Press

Day 3 = Deadlift 2, Pull-ups & Back

Day 1: Deadlift Training

Deadlifts –

I am starting with Quality Volume Training (QVT) for 4 Weeks.My goal is to begin at a Conservative amount of weight ,with which I can do 3-5reps easily, after which I will keep adding weight and doing 1-3 reps arbitrarily till I hit something that appears difficult.
For e.g.
255lbs x 3reps,
260lbs x 3reps,
265lbs x 3reps,
270lbs x 3reps,
275lbs x 2reps,
275lbs x 1rep,
280lbs x 1rep.

If I Feel 255lbs was too conservative.Next week I can take 265lbs x 3reps as my 1st workset and add 5lbs/set from there,this is to be repeated each week ,till I figure out how to do 7-10 sets in total with some heavy weights.

After 3 weeks of QVT I will begin with the Singles Scene.
I am going back to doing heavy Deadlifts after a very long time.I hope it goes well.

Step Ups – 3 sets of 6 – 10 reps out with Bulgarian Split Squats.

Grip Training – Static Barbell Holds

Core Training – 3 sets

Day 2: Pull-up, Squat & Press Training

Pull-ups – Stay the Same Top and Bottom Work with Band Assisted Pull Ups/ChinUps.

Front Squats – I have been given permission to play with Front Squast as much as I want.The goal is to progress from the past week doing 4-7sets with 1-4reps/set.

Overhead Press – SDT protocol the same stuff.

Day 3: Deadlifts, Pull-up & Back Training

Snatch Grip Deadlifts

I have a 4 week wave of this.
Weeks 1 & 3: 2 sets of 4-6 reps and 1 set of 6-8 reps
Weeks 2 & 4: 3 sets of 4-6 reps and 1 set of 8-10 reps

I am Really excited to try this,I have seen ashiem doing snatch grip deadlifts and have always wanted to try this.So excited!
(P.S.Bring on the Snatch Grip Deadlifts with the ball Guard ofcourse!!)

Pull-ups – Top End and Bottom End work
Back to Twice a Week Pull Ups.YAY!

Dumbbell Rows – 4-5 sets of 4-5 reps

Cable Rows – 3 sets of 6-10 reps

Facepulls – 2 sets of 15-20 reps

Supine GHRs on the Swiss Ball – 2 sets of 10-12 reps. I am going to take weighted plates and work from there.

As provided to me by Ashiem
For which I am truly grateful.

For instance, a lifter may have his or her lumbar flatten and begin to round during the performance of a very heavy deadlift. But the lower back will not be allowed to flex past a certain range of motion. Past this range of motion the lifter would abandon the attempt. This is not cheating. Instead it is the reality of lifting heavy objects.

This excuses my form :-P

I'm kidding…

It really does boil down to what you've said:

What many people call "cheating" in strength training movements are actually compensations that are a natural part of lifting maximal loads. These compensations are simply natural deviations from "ideal form" and experienced lifters tend to have a educated sense of acceptable and unacceptable deviations.

I know I get critiqued for my DL form but even on Front Squats, I have that rounding thing except I am now able to tell instinctively when it is too much and dumping the weight is a better idea.

Feet Up Benching on a Smith Machine
Worse than Cheating?

Cracked me up

This means that only a few exercises can actually be "cheated" on productively and somewhat safely owing to their strength curve. Basically, for these lifts we are weakest at the bottom and strongest somewhere around the middle. Obvious examples are biceps curls, overhead press, and pullups. In fact, a cheat movement on the strict overhead press has it's own name, the Push Press, and this can be an effective tool. So cheating, again, is not always the right word and the appropriateness of it depends on the intentions and context in which it is used.

This reminds me of your article on Kipping Pull-ups vs. Normal Pull-ups. Similarly, the Push Press and the Overhead Press shouldn't be called the same thing even though neither is "wrong".

Thanks

By Eric Troy

Progressive Overload is one heck of an over-used piece of jargon. It seems to be a required component of most strength training articles but nobody seems to have a clear idea of how the general concept really extends itself to all the various things we do within a training career. It's so damned vague it's meaningless. Basically, it means "progressively doing more" and this means more quantity of some training parameter. Big deal, Captain Obvious. Hardly the base of a Nobel Prize winning article. The term reminds me of the Lenny Bruce or George Carlin thing of repeating a word until it loses all impact and meaning.

But one thing I do want to say about training for Maximal Strength is that applying more weight to your 1RM in a lift, i.e. getting a PR, IS THE ULTIMATE GOAL. This is not the "progressive overload" it is the point. The progressive overload is in the training that leads to this achievement.

The reason I am saying this is because I am seeing this trend where people say "I am not going to chase PR's and obsess over numbers and progressive overload anymore." Well, I do not believe in chasing numbers, either. But the language tells the tale. Those who believe they have been chasing numbers probably had unrealistic expectations of getting PR's every week or something similar. When this fails to come to be the reality there is this mental backlash and they throw out the baby with the bathwater. Striving to achieve a goal is not "chasing" something because to chase something means that you are desperate. It's the desperation that needs to go, not the PR's. Realistic expectations, always.

However, if you are not regularly planning and attempting PR's in your lifting you are not doing maximum strength training. You may be bodybuilding or just "getting stronger" but the maximum part has a very specific meaning and the only way to express maximum strength is against a maximum load. So, I don't care what you are doing in your training, but do not tell people who are going for PR's that they are "chasing numbers."

By Eric Troy

Bench press is especially prone. These leaps,when they are used, seem like perfectly sound reasoning to the practitioners.

Sort of like, I did deloaded barbell rows and my bench press shot up. The funny thing that happens, is that a guy gets 20 more lbs on his bench press after years of struggle, and it just happens to coincide with these (hypothetical) deloaded rows, so not only is an unjustified causal inference made, connecting a 'cause', the rows, to a DIRECT 'effect', the new PR on bench, BUT the rows also become a KEY INGREDIENT of bench press success in general. So, here we have a guy who can bench press, say 250, and works his way up to 270…not only are the rows deemed the secret to that additional 20lbs, but they also become a key ingredient in "achieving 270lbs" even though 10000 other things and a couple of years of training happened to get to the 250, none of which had anything to do with barbell rows.

The more authority the guy has (on the internet!), if he passes this around, the more chance this has to become dogma which will stick for years to come, all owed to an anecdotal experience that lead to an unjustified assumption.

Eat like a Bodybuilder Train Like a Powerlifter

In fact, you should do neither, unless you are, in fact, one or the other.

On the GUS site and FB channel, we get a lot of people telling us how they think you should eat a bodybuilding diet even if you just want maximal strength and you are not a bodybuilder, per se.

I've explained so many different ways why this is not so. Here is a quote by Joe Weir that sort of illustrates it. This was in response to someone having their appetite go down the tubes for a while:

"For you to be doing something "wrong" you have to qualify what would make it wrong. Your goals should dictate this. One diet might be correct for weight loss but incorrect for weight gain. If your goal is to gain weight then a caloric deficit is "wrong". If your goal is to lose weight then it is "right". That being said, I know your goal is to deadlift a house so I would say that having a bit of a caloric surplus is a good thing. At the same time you don't want to be the size of a house, so don't make the surplus a surplus haha. One of the beauties of strength training is that you can make decent gains without shoveling down ungodly amounts of food."

The last sentence would almost seem sacrilege to those who get all their strength training bro science from glorified bodybuilding boards (most of the "strength" boards, are in fact, glorified bodybuilding boards).

I followed up Joe's statement with:

"Yep don't over-react to short term fluctuation in mood and appetite. Getting stressed over being stressed is not really a helpful reaction to being stressed, lol. Sometimes it is what it is. And remember regression to the mean.

Beyond that, what Joe said about eating for strength versus "bodybuilding" is very important and you've heard me say the same thing a lot of times. Yes you need a lot of nutritional support for strength training but short term alterations in diet don't make that big of a difference except in performance. And that is the key: how much and for how long is performance affected? Strength training, at the end of the day, comes down to performance (rather than the size principle, eh Joe?). If you can 'perform' while dropping weight then do so. If you can perform while "eating when your hungry" then all the better, I say."

Again, sacrilege. But why is it so difficult to accept? Because bodybuilding and strength training never have really been separated in people's minds, even though they long ago became distinct pursuits. The fact is that strength is the only area of human performance where people do NOT eat for performance! They eat for size, they eat for "protein synthesis" and they eat to be hardcore. Yes, they do. People think that gluttony is impressive, when you are into lifting. They think it makes them legit.

Yes, to get very strong, you need a lot of high quality nutrition. But the basic question is not WHAT you should eat but what are you eating for? You are training for strength. This means that your performance in strength is what dictates your diet!

The reason people can get away with telling you to eat such a surplus (i.e. bulking) diet is because it is easy to get people to believe that they will get strong faster because more food (and especially protein) will basically act like an anabolic steroid in the body. But it will not. Your body has a finite ceiling of protein synthesis and all the calories and protein in the world will not make it increase this threshold, sans pharmaceutical help.

For maximal strength gain, cutting and bulking is just stupid. That is, if you sole goal is to get as maximally strong as possible, then you have no reason to ever put on a bunch of puffy padding, nor do you have any reason to ever "cut down." If those things are your goal, then maximum strength is not your sole goal. And that is okay, but be honest about it!

See, neither very high, nor very low, body fat percentages are good for gaining pure strength. Or, I should say they are not AS good. Go for a sustained 10 to 12% body fat, for men. For women, a little more. If you fluctuate up to as high as 15% sometimes, that is okay. Just try to hover at the sweet spot. If you are getting fatter than that, then you are getting into territory where you will slow down your progress, not speed it up. Likewise if you go below it.

And before anybody gets all pissed off and tells me I am being naive, that everybody wants to look better and more cut, well, I speak to a limited audience. I accept that. You should too.

I want to get something straight, because I am tired of the expectations and discouragement that people get out of it. There are NOT many many men who deadlift well over 500lbs. Okay? If you are a person who is into the strength training "scene" then, yes, you will be AWARE, of many that deadlift gargantuan amounts. Because, within the POPULATION of powerlifters or strength trainees, if you're a guy who struggled for years to break that 500 barrier, you're easily left thinking about all the people you've seen on Youtube lifting 800 or something.

But in the larger population of MEN, to deadlift AT ALL is unusual. And to deadlift over 500, very unusual. It is a GREAT achievement, especially for an average size guy, to do this, and you should be proud because yes, you have done something that not many will ever do. How you look at it depends on your yardstick, but if your only yard stick is the "strength training tribe" then, you may just want to think about getting a wider perspective on what it means to achieve something in life.

Getting past 350 or even past 400, well, that is not that unusual but that next 100 pounds can be a killer, let alone to break through 500. The only standard is your own.

(fixed typo - eric)

I just came across a series of deadlift images that reminded me of a misconception about the lift. People try to compare it to the clean. The deadlift is not like the clean, except superficially (the deadlift came first!). This series of image showed a deadlift with the bar on floor, then at around mid shin, then at lockout. They were labelled "Phase 1, Phase 2, and Phase 3".

The clean, and the snatch have phases. The deadlift does NOT. The dead is a continuous lift from the floor to the waist. There are no discrete phases or parts. Anything that appears to be a separate "part" when you watch heavy lifts, is an artifact of the adjustments needed to lift a max, with nothing to do with the intentions or or fundamental technique you are going for.

Originally Posted by Eric Troy:

I want to get something straight, because I am tired of the expectations and discouragement that people get out of it. There are NOT many many men who deadlift well over 500lbs. Okay? If you are a person who is into the strength training "scene" then, yes, you will be AWARE, of many that deadlift gargantuan amounts. Because, within the POPULATION of powerlifters or strength trainees, if you're a guy who struggled for years to break that 500 barrier, you're easily left thinking about all the people you've seen on Youtube lifting 800 or something.

But in the larger population of MEN, to deadlift AT ALL is unusual. And to deadlift over 500, very unusual. It is a GREAT achievement, especially for an average size guy, to do this, and you should be proud because yes, you have done something that not many will ever do. How you look at it depends on your yardstick, but if your only yard stick is the "strength training tribe" then, you may just want to think about getting a wider perspective on what it means to achieve something in life.

Getting past 350 or even past 400, well, that's is not that unusual but that next 100 pounds can be a killer, let alone to break through 500. The only standard is your own.

He goes on to write…

Just makes the process that much more rewarding. And not really the whole one hundred necessarily. This all depends on your strength ceiling and I've explained this to people using an actual ceiling as an analogy. Imagine that you were floating up toward the ceiling in your house. As you first begin to rise, you go up very quickly, so that your rate can be measured in feet. But the higher you rise, the slower you move, so that your rate becomes measured in inches, and then fractions of an inch. At some point, each little new increment of movement becomes so slow, that you never quite reach the ceiling! That is how strength training is, it's just the reality. This is why beginners see such great progress and then get discouraged when that rate of progress doesn't last, and then drop out…explaining why not many ever break 500.

So, knowing this and STILL doing it, is the mental discipline and self-regulation that strength training can give to you. Personally, I lift because I simply enjoy it and I do not need any grand reasons to do it, but to keep on going as you float up toward that ceiling little tiny bits at a time, takes a great deal of fortitude and it is this that is the true accomplishment, no matter what number you end up with. There are plenty of things that are comparable, not just strength training, but it is ONE of those things that people do because it is hard, not because it is easy.

Original Post by Eric Troy:

What is Performance?

Most strength trainees think that performance equates only to how much weight is on the bar or other implement. Load is only one of many aspects of performance that must be taken together. In regards to a single strength training exercise performance is, of course, proficiency, but it is also:

Coordination
Efficiency
Amplitude of Movement
Correction of Technical Faults

All of these factors define how well we perform an exercise. Load on the bar is how much you lift. How much you lift says nothing about how well you lifted it. Put another way, your old pickup truck may be able to haul tons like a champ. But if it burns a quart of oil and drops a universal joint in the process you cannot say it's performing very well.

A Strength Training Myth: Beginners Don't Need Variety

He went on to make this post on the GUS Facebook Page:

Original Post by Eric Troy:

I just posted a link to an ezine article of mine about exercise variety for beginners. I'm going to use that to make a segue into a series of short posts about "Beginner Strength Training Myths." Here is the first:

1. Beginners will get stronger by not having any (or much variety), as needless variety just slows down their progress that they could have been using for the squat, etc.

The real myth here is actually the myth within the myth, which is a way of thinking about "very fast progress" that beginners can have. The idea is that the FASTEST possible progress is always the best for a beginner, and that this makes a difference down the line.

The fact, however, is that it make NO difference, in the long run, if you have a beginner trainee train like he's running a sprint race for the first several months. It all evens out. Think of it the same way that, even if you try to teach your toddler math and reading, before school, he won't be ahead of the other kids after a little bit of schooling.

Variety doesn't actually slow down progress or learning. That is not to say that a beginner needs a big list of exercises but that having more than just a squat, deadlift, and press is not going to trim 50 pounds off his lifts a few years down the line because he "wasted time with useless variety."

A little variety goes a long way in staving off one very big problem: Training Mundanity. Being bored out of your mind with the same drudgery and mindless repetitive crap day in and out does not help you stick to a productive training career. But, as I wrote in the previous linked article, variety helps you learn to learn.

More to come!

I don't have a fixed plan on this and pretty much each and every exercise that I haven't done in the week is game for this day. The only rules are that the workload cannot be too much and I can't go super heavy on anything.

I try my best to do something different each week on this day so I'm gonna update this thread once a week at minimum. I figure it will help to keep all my thoughts somewhere :-)

So let's see…today I plan on doing:

Something for Squats - I'm thinking core type work i.e. Front Plate Squats, Side Dumbbell Hold Squats done in a "circuit" type fashion..about 8 reps or so for 2 sets total.

Posterior Chain type thing - Supine Glute Ham Raises with 45 lbs for 2 sets

Forward Jumps - 2 sets

Pull-ups - 2 sets to failure

Overhead Press - rest pause with 165 lbs for 3 mini-sets

Low Incline Dumbbell Bench Press - 65 lbs for 2 sets to utter failure

Banded Push-ups - No. 3 x 3 sets

That's it for today!

Importance of Farmer's Walks exerpt from FB Discussion by Eric Troy

Posted by Eric Troy:

You guys are right of course but it does carry over, to some extent, to your training, and depending on how heavy the farmer's walks are, to your near max deadlifting. The thing is, that even when you are performing singles, your grip is subject to fatigue. This is happening even as you work up the weight getting ready for the max lifts. So anything that helps with strength endurance on grip helps to some extent, as long as it is reasonable. Obviously, holding onto tiny dumbbells for an hour doesn't count. Given all that, the farmer's walk and similar thing carries over more to just being able to do all the various pulling that you are going to have to do, some of which may be higher volume, such as if you were doing Romanians or what have you, which are heavyish but much more subject to grip fatigue due to the higher rep ranges typicially used. It's a mistake to think that a max strength trainee has no need for any other type of grip strength than "max" supporting strength. Not that anybody is thinking that…I'm just elaborating.

Beginning Years of Weight Training

I'm looking back at my very first training years…wayyy back in 2004 and I can't believe the utter crap routines I've cycled through: Arnold's Programs, German Volume Training, anything and everything by Chad Waterbury who came up with a new routine every month, same with Christian Thibaudeau who was the bomb on t-rag, DoggCrapp training, DFHT, Rippetoe's SS, etc.. Zero accomplishments for 3 years just hopping from one program to another. It's a miracle how someone with ADHD like me has been able to stick to Eric Troy's system of programming for 53 months now… The dude that got this ball rolling was Eric Cressey with his Maximum Strength Routine back in 2007.

I got a funny story from the old bb.net days where my handle was "Anuj" and I kept switching programs and being a 16 year old know-it-all I always "modified" these programs that weren't mean to be modified. The experienced folk got so annoyed with me they changed my name to a verb.."Do not Anuj this program!" LOL… But the good news is, that all those programs SHOULD have been modified and it's a good thing I had the natural instinct to change them. The bad news is that at the time I knew nothing so I had zero knowledge to back up my changes lol..

Happy New Year everybody! It's time for a new log!

I posted this on my Facebook status and I wanted to share it here as well. I'll post the exact status first:

Deadlifting from today. The 515 x 1 Relative Max pretty much destroyed me and was the longest rep of my life. This is Eric Troy's Consolidation Cycle Week 2 with a target of 6-8 doubles with 460. I did 8 doubles. So all in all it was a great workout but very challenging. The funny thing is, it's easy to understand and explain that as one gets stronger training NEVER get's easier. 500 isn't gonna be easier than 600. BUT, this is much easier to say than to do.

Just to elaborate on this, I think it's really important not to get mesmerized by all the pro's and promoters of various routines that try hard to make it sound "easy" to get to the next level in training. It isn't easy at all. The journey from 500 to 600 is more difficult than the journey from 400 to 500, etc. It only gets more and more difficult in terms of training.

I'm starting a new food log. Let's see how this goes. I'll try to put up pictures and such from time to time. Hopefully this will be reasonably detailed but atleast we'll see an emerging pattern.

All food is logged through FitDay.com

Foods eaten today:

1. Whey - 3 scoops
2. Fish Oil Tablets - 6
3. Oatmeal - 1 packet, instant
4. Indian Bread (Naan) - 2
5. Chicken - 500 grams or 17 oz uncooked yield after cooking boneless
6. Rice - 1/4 cup
7. Peanut Butter - 4 tablespoons
8. Pizza from Domino's 12" thin and crispy extra cheese
9. Soft Drink - 2 cans of coke
10. Ice Cream - 2 scoops

Good Lord….

Total Calories = 4417
Protein = 286 grams (26%)
Carbs = 438 grams (39%)
Fats = 172 grams (35%)

LOL….So much for a terrible start!

Regarding lifts, I like back squats and presses mainly, so I intend to build around those. As for new skills, the overhead squat seems worth having from what I've read here. On the mobility front, I have a few flexibility issues, on of which is seriously tight calves which make it difficult for me to do a correct hip-hinge (Deadlift, Swing, etc.). I intend to work on this too. Regarding reps and sets, I like to work with power ladders, which are adaptable and self-regulating. Fat loss diets do drain you a bit, so I'm trying to keep everything relatively low on volume. I'm basically a beginner to weight training (max back squat aroung 90 kg, bench 70 kg, etc.).

My current idea is as follows (currently doing something similar):

Sunday

Back Squat ladders (1-2-3x3)
Bench Press ladders (1-2-3x3)

Tuesday

Overhead Squat (practice form and technique)
Turkish Getup (progressively heavy singles)

Thursday

Front Squat ladders (1-2-3x3)
Overhead Press (1-2-3x3)

I also do some pushups or pullups every morning, to maintain some basic bodyweight skills. Stretching is at night, really hammering those calves. I was thinking of doing calf raises on my training days, really emphasizing full range of motion to see if it improves my horrible calf flexibility.

As to other activities, I usually do some solo martial arts training on wednesday afternoons and a class (2 hours) on saturday.

Do you think this could work as a program to keep my strength while I loose weight, maybe even progress some?

I would like to ask for your take on how to structure a program while on a fat loss diet. Which would be the correct section of the forum for such an inquiry?

Thanks!

Ezequiel

Update: My physio therapist told me that my visits would soon be coming to an end and now the visits are getting farther and fewer between. After my last visit she told me not to do anything crazy in the gym. I took this is that she's giving me more freedom in what I can do and to start slowly getting back at the grind (Very slowly). I have an appointment next week sometime so I'm going to try to start my new template before then while continuing to do my physio exercises atleast 4 times a week if not more.

With myself and Ashiem touching base frequently during my injury, we were able to make a template (By we I mean he knows what he's doing and I'm good at asking questions). That looks a little like this:

Day 1
Deadlifts
135lbs x 3 x 3 (Adding 5lbs each week till a certain point, then adding reps)

Bulgarian Squats
___lbs x 3 x 7-11

Step Ups
___lbs x 3-4 x 6-10

Barbell Static Holds
___lbs x 4-5 Sets

Day 2
Pushups (Progressively leading to pushups with bands)

Inverted Rows
4-5 Sets

FacePulls
__lbs x 2-3 x 15-20

Shoulder PreHab Work
-Push Up Plus
3 x 10
- Band Pull Aparts
- Band Resistance Hold Raise (Self Named)
- Overhead Shrugs
1-2 x 15-20

Day 3

Front Squats
4-5 Sets max, Reps up to me but stay conservative

Deadlifts
4 x 2 Focus on technique

Cable Pullthroughs

Core Training
Front Plank for 2 sets of 60 seconds

Further discussion, questions, potential template changes, videos, and my journal will all go here.

Eric Troy would have been on this list, but they couldn't find a picture of him :)

Joking aside, Eric would get my vote to be on the list.

Interesting list, some guys I expected to see, some guys I didn't expect to see, a lot of guys I never heard of.

Phil

Eat This Much

One of the silliest concepts ever.

Exact words for anyone to Google:

“You have to eat your way through the sticking points” – Hugh Cassidy

Actually, here's what I think: Hugh Cassidy DID actually say this but I am willing to bet that the bodybuilding and fence sitting crowd who're trying to be bodybuilders through a convoluted perception of "strength training"; have jumped onto this quote and made it one of their holy commandments.

Eric Cressey came up with a video that I've found to be useful in ironing out my form issues with various rowing exercises that I've been doing.

Here's the video:

The mistakes:

Mistake One: Humeral Anterior Glide

The front part of the shoulder joint - the anterior head tends to pop out forwards while rowing. This has to be checked and the shoulder should be in line with the body.

Mistake Two: Arm Too Close to the Body

If the arm is too close to the side of the body, then the tendency for Mistake One to happen increases. So, keep roughly a 30 degree angle between the arm and the body.

Mistake Three: Forward Head Posture

Keeping a neutral neck position is important.

Mistake Four: Scapular Depression

The bodybuilders and muscle inclined folk out there are gonna love this. If you try to row back and down you end up with scapular depression and the load gets transferred to the lats instead of the mid/lower traps.

Mistake Five: Scapular Elevation

Inverse of Mistake Four. Bottom line: if you tend to shrug up your row: you're doing it wrong and if you're doing a psuedo lat pulldown while you row then that's wrong as well. Keep everything in a neutral position.

Mistake Six: Lumbar Extension

Keep the spine neutral too. Think of Deadlifts: is there ever a highly accentuated curve? Not when one gets to the heavy weights. You have to keep it neutral. No need to exaggerate the tightness of the lower back.

Mistake Seven: Kyphosis

This is pretty self explanatory in the video. It's the inverse of Mistake Six. You cannot Row with a rounded hunched over back. It has to be neutral.

Mistake Eight: Elbow Flexion Only

Think of scapular retraction and not elbow flexion.

Watch the video. Notice that Cressey loves unilateral standing cable rows!

I've been struggling with getting that "big ol' belly breath" so many Powerlifters gulp while setting up for their Big Deadlift.

I've spent the better part of this year working a lot on volume and as usual when you're doing high (relatively speaking because after all 5 reps is super high for me) volume training, getting that breath in isn't about being able to complete a rep it's more about finishing the total number of desired reps. But, since I've migrated into the maximal end of the spectrum of intensity: I cannot slack off on breathing in the first 2-3 reps knowing that the critical juncture is going to be on rep 4 or 5. Here, I need to bring my A-Game on Rep 1 itself.

So, I know Eric's written articles on this but I'm gonna give a small example of what I've found to be useful.

I kept thinking that I need to take a huge breath in..so the main cue words running in my head were "breathe in breathe in breathe in come on big breath right into the stomach…" But that's not how it should be.

I've found that the key is to NOT breathe in totally; to leave a little room in there. And the most important point is to keep the abs tight - it's not about inflating the stomach till the walls extend out as far as possible.

Doing core work is NOT essential at my level and at times doing excess core work can actually hamper me. But, because of all the volume work I'd been doing the nature of the beast had me forget this ability to keep my core clenched. So, I threw in some planks once a week and I did a couple of static holds on the swiss ball for Supine Glute ham raises and I've relearnt how to keep my core tight, leave a little room in my stomach and only breathe in just a little bit over what I think is enough to keep me tight during a big pull.

I just felt like sharing this little experience of getting back into the swing of things.

It's very gripping. I love this mind candy :-)

Ps…one of the killers is a hot Indian chick called Kali (not a spoiler at all as this isn't a whodunnit story)

Basically how it goes down is, I did day one of physio today. I was able to do all the exercises assigned to me pretty well with minimal pain. I don't seem to have full mobility of my shoulder yet. It hurts whenever I put it behind my back and move my arm up. Also whenever I reach across my other shoulder. And some exercises I did today as well. I remember at one point, the therapist had me doing shoulder presses with 2lb dumbbells and when I fully extended and locked out, there was a little pain in my shoulder. The pain seems to be in the front of the shoulder around the collar bone area?

My next appointment is monday morning, but she told me to do whatever exercises I could over the weekend.

A question I have is, I want to lose some weight, and I know heavy lifting is out of the question for awhile. But can I do cardio? Should I wait? Would it be to much moving around for my shoulder atm?

As always, thanks for the time and advice guys. Ground Up Strength all the way! :)

Click HERE for original link

525 DL @ 190 BW means I fall into the Weight Class of 198 and my DL crosses 513 required so I'm a Class I.

1stly the New TEMPLATE

Hi Guys I am starting my Training Log here.
So here's My plan

I have been doing SDT training for a whole 11 weeks but here's the new plan.

Day 1 - Deadlifts

Day 2- Pull-Up Training and overall Back Training**

Day 3 - Front Squats

Day 1

1) Deadlifts Volume Work starting with 3x3 and moving to 8x4

2) Bulgarian Split Squats - 8reps x 2sets

3) Grip Training 3-4secs static Bar Holds

4) Core Training - Whatever

Day 2

1) Pull Up Work I will elaborate more on this when I post the workout.

2) Overhead Press - 3-4sets of 6-12reps.

3) Dumbell Rows 4-5sets x 6-12 reps

4) Inverted Rows

5) Seated Cable Rows 3sets x 8-12 reps

Day 3 : Off

Day 4:-

1) Front Squats - 3-4 sets x 1-4reps

2) Rack Deadlifts - 3sets x 3-5reps

3) Supine GHRs - 3sets x 8-14reps

4) Core Training to finish

Day 5 - Off

Day 6 - Off

Day 7 - Off

I was looking for articles for newbies to strength training. Any tags or forum posts that have already discussed this comprehensively would help greatly.

I currently follow a BB Push-Pull regimen over a 3-4 day split and completely understand this will involve a fresh approach. My exact goals are not clear, to be honest. Presently, the intent is to go through all articles of note and to help myself form an idea about what I truly want from weight/ strength training.

Yes I am fascinated by it.

1. train for function bodybuilding - wtf does this mean, you ask? nobody knows: that's why it's the forbidden secret ;-)

2. perform 1 bodypart a week, 3-4 exercises per bodypart, 3 sets per exercise and 1 power exercise per bodypart plus 1 strength exercise per bodypart plus 1 minimum hypertrophy exercise per bodypart

3. Have a yearly strength plan of 3 months for "fitness" aka athletics, 3 months for "strength" aka POWERLIFTING!, 3 months for "size" aka BODYBUILDING and 3 months for "power" aka CROSSFIT!!!

What an amazing plan….

/sarcasm

Rough sketch..

Day 1 Sunday = Deadlifts

Day 2 Monday = Weighted Pull-ups + Rows (Dumbbell, Cable, etc)

Day 3 Wednesday = Squat Variant (Front Squats - Regular, Box and Anderson & Back Squats - Regular and Box) and Deadlift Variant (Banded, Deficit, Snatch Grip and Rack)

Day 4 Thursday = Left Over Training (Pistol Squats, Pressing, etc)

Deadlifts
Front Squats

Deadlifts
Pistol Squats

Unilateral Overhead Press
Unilateral Lat Pulldowns

Overhead Press
Weighted Pull-ups

Weighted Pull-ups
Dumbbell Rows

Front Squats
Rack Deadlifts

What are your favorite exercises to pair up?

Day 1:

Back Squat

Cable Pullthroughs

Core stability exercise of choosing

Day 2:

Bench Press

Row

Day 3:

Deadlift

Pull ups

Dumbbell Overhead Press

Single Leg Exercise

( P.S. - I started to boil whey to check if the powder I purchased is whey actually as there are so many vendors here selling flavored carbs as protein to the newbies and none will know what's there in the tub and if you find this funny, you can laugh !! :D )

- Creatine - mostly monohydrate- there are so many diffrent types of names - nitrates, ester, etc.
- Glutamine - L- glutamine
- BCAAs - leucine, valine and isoleucine
- Caffeine
- beta alanine
- citrulline malate
- Arginine as AAKG and L-arginine

So, I have a question that which one of these make sense for supplementation while training.

But now I aspire to lift heavy(not that i didnt before :P ) but for powerlifting .

Currently following 3 day push pull training schedule(all weight mentioned are for final sets)

Day 1 Chest Shoulder triceps
Bench press ( 155 pounds )
incline dumbbell press (50)
Parallel chest dips (10 reps)
Overhead dumbbell press (40)
Laterl raise
close grip bench press (135)
Triceps push down

Day 3 Back Biceps
Deadlift (265)
Bent over row (135)
chin ups (8reps)
Reverse deltroid
shrugs
Dumbbell bicep curl
Hammer curl

Day 5 or 6
Back squats (225)
Steup ups
lunges
leg curls
standing calf's

Ashiem Matthn told me to post here hope to get help from you and Santosh thanks for introducing me to Gustrength :D

@Ashiem how should i modify my schedule for maximum strength ? Am also confused about how many reps are suitable . Goal is to lift as heavy as possible :D

I have been following a routine that isn't oriented towards any goal. I have been struggling to increase my lifts from past 2 months and there isn't much progress. I have been eating a lot - about 200 grams protein a day and 400 grams of carbs. Using creatine, bcaa and glutamine along with whey protein. I want to increase lifts by at least 30% by the end of this year. There have been loops that I realize - I don't do cardio seriously and I just read this thread about warm ups - " how to warm up for deadlifts" and admit that I don't do warm ups properly.

If you can give me a link so that I can follow a routine that will help me lift more quickly, I will be grateful :) Please suggest what I must do.

Regards

My exercise schedule -

Monday - Chest -

1. bench press which is neither flat nor too much decline - (10 or 15 degree) -
5 Sets -

50 kilo* 12 reps
60 kilo* 8 reps
70 kilo* 5 reps
80 kilo* 2 reps
90 kilo* 1 rep

2. Incline Dumbbell press -

4 Sets

50 kilo*10 reps
60 kilo* 8 reps
70 kilo* 5 reps
80 kilo* 2 reps

3. Cable Cross 3 sets

Tuesday - Back

1. Lats pull down - 2 sets ( 10 reps then 8 reps)

2. Barbell rowing - 4 sets ( 10 reps, 8 reps, 6 reps, 4 reps)

3. Pull ups - one set - 10 reps

4. One arm DB rowing - 2 sets ( 6 reps and 4 reps) - 32 kilo and 42 kilo DB weight respectively

5. Deadlifts - 5 sets

70 kilo* 12 reps
80 kilo* 8 reps
90 kilo* 6 reps
100 kilo* 4 reps
110 kilo* 2 reps
120 kilo* 2 reps
130 kilo* 1 rep
140 kilo* 1 rep

Wednesday - rest / sometimes cardio session + 3 sets of 20 reps each ab crunches

Thursday - Shoulder -

1. Push press 5 sets
40 kilo* 12 reps
50 kilo* 10 reps
60 kilo* 8 reps
70 kilo* 5 reps
80 kilo* 2 reps
90 kilo* 1 rep

2. Front raise

2 sets

15 kilo* 10 reps
18 kilo* 6 reps

3. Lateral raises - 3 sets

15 kilo* 10 reps
18 kilo* 6 reps
20 kilo* 4 reps

4. Face pulls - 2 sets

5. Shrugs - 2 sets maximum reps.

Friday - cardio / rest

Saturday - Legs -

1. Squats - 4 sets

50 kilo* 10 reps
60 kilo* 8 reps
70 kilo* 6 reps
80 kilo* 4 reps
90 kilo* 2 reps
100 kilo * 1 rep

2. Front squats - 2 sets ( 10 reps and 8 reps)

3. Lunges - 2 sets ( 15 reps)

4. sumo deadlift - 2 sets ( 10 reps and 8 reps)

5. Leg curls - 2 sets ( 12 reps and 10 reps)

6. Calves - 3 sets ( 20, 15, 10 reps each set)

Swole Me

The trap is that if you go into something thinking your outlook is limited, you will never enjoy it like you would if you new that so much achievement was not only possible, but likely!

I used to think I would never be able to deadlift beyond 300lbs. Of course, that was before I came here. I definitely enjoy my training more now than ever before. : )

I came across your quote on mobility on the GUS FB page:

WARM UPS for lifting consists of three parts. The general warm up to mobilize/warm the body. The specific warm up for the exercise. And the acclimation to become "used" to the heavy weight AFTER you are warmed up. This will result in more weight lifted. Although it is possible, for practical purposes, to teach your body to respond to performance needs at "a moment's notice" it is not possible, for most of us, to perform at our absolute peak for one particular task, without some prior preparation.

The part I'm really interested in is this:

Although it is possible, for practical purposes, to teach your body to respond to performance needs at "a moment's notice" it is not possible, for most of us, to perform at our absolute peak for one particular task, without some prior preparation.

Could please explain this part a bit more.

day 1- upper1—-

deadlifts- 3x5
Barbell/db rows- 3x5
weighted pullups- 5x5

day 2- upper2 —-

Overhead press- 3x5
db flat bench press- 3x5
weighted straight bar dips/
CG bench press- 3x5
Core work- 2 x of any two- (palloff press/ weighted planks/ renegade rows/ leg raises/ woodchops/ db windmills/ barbell core rotations/ barbell rollouts )

day 3- lower1—-

back squats- 3x5
front/overhead squats- 3x3
pistol squats/
barbell lunges- 3x5

day 4- lower2—-

Snatch practice
RDL- 3x5
GHR on a bench- 3x5
sometimes calves on this day

a week goes like

m- upper1
t- upper2
w- off
th- lower1
f- lower2
sa- off
su- off

In the above, upper1 and lower1 are most taxing days, upper2 and lower2 are not as much taxing. The reason i say i found this good is because i get sore a lot. and i mean a lot. I would not want to squat if i am sore from deadlifts and vice versa. in this format, deadlifts and squats are evenly spaced out so i'm not sore for either of these big lifts. I'm fresh actually and i can say this is the reason i've progressed in deadlift and squats both. IF there isn't any major drawback with the above template, i'd like to follow the same. If its fine to work with then please suggest to make this better. If its crap then please help me in planning a new one.

The way i have been progressing is something like this-

deadlift progression

week 1- 1x115kgx5
1x115kgx5
1x115kgx5

week 2- 1x115kgx5
1x115kgx5
1x120kg x5 (progression of 5kg)

week 3- 1x115kgx5
1x120kgx5 (progression of 5kg)
1x120kgx5 (progressionof 5kg)

week 4- 1x120kgx5 (progressionof 5kg)
1x120kgx5 (progressionof 5kg)
1x120kgx5 (progressionof 5kg)

What i essentially do is I increase the weight in the last set and aim for 5 reps. If i hit 5 reps, next week I up the weight on the second set and aim for 5 reps on the second set. now In the third set, If
the weight seems heavy or i'm out of energy I aim for only 3 reps. Then next week i'd aim for a progression of 1or 2 reps on the third set. further breaking down progression something like this-

week 1- 1x115kgx5
1x115kgx5
1x115kgx5

week 2- 1x115kgx5
1x115kgx5
1x120kg x3 (progressionof 5kg)

week 3- 1x115kgx5
1x115kgx5
1x120kg x4 (progression of 1rep)

week 4- 1x115kgx5
1x115kgx5
1x120kgx5 (progression of 1rep)

week 5- 1x115kgx5
1x120kgx5 (progression of 5kg)
1x120kgx3

week 6- 1x115kgx5
1x120kgx5
1x120kgx4 (progression of 1rep)

week 7- 1x115kgx5
1x120kgx5
1x120kgx5 (progression of 1rep)

week 8- 1x120kgx5 (progression of 5kg)
1x120kgx5
1x120kgx5

What i aim for is to lift a heavier weight for 5 reps in all 3 sets. When i get to this point, i may stick with the same number of weight and reps for a couple of weeks or more before starting the cycle again. I've done the same for both squats and deadlifts and i have progressed in both the lifts. I don't follow the routine as if it is set in stone. I might play around, skip something or do an extra 2 sets. but the basic template remains the same. I am also very keen on learning the olympic lifts so i practice power cleans, snatches as a part of my warmup sometimes. Please note I have never had any kind of training under anyone. I have never gone through any book. The way i have been training is solely based on my little experience and occasional lurking into this site. my diet too is not what it should be like. Being a lacto ovo vegetarian and low on budget for the luxurious protein supplements, all my protein comes from 10 whole eggs and 1.5 litres of whole milk.

My stats are-

BW- around 63kg
Height- 5'4
Deadlift- 130kgx5
Squat- 117kgx5
Front squat-100kgx1
Overhead squat- 65kgx3
pullups- bw+17.5kgx5
Ohp- 57kgx4
full clean- 80kg
split jerk- 75kg
full snatch- 50kg

If you'd like to see my form on major lifts, the videos are here-

http://www.youtube.com/user/Artster8489/videos

(I tried embedding the videos but i get an error saying i have low karma and guests and low karma users are not allowed to post links?)

I hope this is all you would need to know. My english skills aren't very good but i hope you get the idea of how i have been training so far.