(11-24-2017 04:51 AM)Horus Wrote:  What do you fellas do about calluses on your hand? Now that I'm lifting more regularly there's less time in between sessions for the calluses to heal, and it's actually impeding me on deadlifts and pull ups where I know I have more in the tank but I can't grip any longer.

Use chalk (powder or liquid) every time you do an exercise that relies on grip, and take care of your hands outside the gym - find a hand cream that works for you, if your calluses have bits of loose skin, cut them off with nail scissors so that they don't get ripped off.

(11-24-2017 08:21 AM)Benoit Wrote:  

(11-24-2017 04:51 AM)Horus Wrote:  What do you fellas do about calluses on your hand? Now that I'm lifting more regularly there's less time in between sessions for the calluses to heal, and it's actually impeding me on deadlifts and pull ups where I know I have more in the tank but I can't grip any longer.

Use chalk (powder or liquid) every time you do an exercise that relies on grip, and take care of your hands outside the gym - find a hand cream that works for you, if your calluses have bits of loose skin, cut them off with nail scissors so that they don't get ripped off.

Wear them with pride. I agree on using chalk; but chalk or not, you will get callous. They stop hurting after a while. Plus, you don't to have soy boys' hands. Also, grip strength is not decreased because of callous, just work out through them .... and find an exercise to strengthen your grip. It is natural for the grip to give up first during the deadlift, as it is the weakest link in this exercise ...as another poster said, in the deadlift you are only as strong as your grip. He suggested an overhand grip to make the grip stronger. A mix grip will allow you to lift more but will not strengthen your grip in the same way an overhand grip will. They also say that a mix grip has other disadvantages such as a non symmetric development. Anyways, whatever you do, take care of that form and keep on lifting brother.

(11-24-2017 04:51 AM)Horus Wrote:  ...but I can't grip any longer.

Time to buy a set of straps.

I've had lower back issues from a car accident that took place 8 years ago. For the last two years that I have been lifting my lower back has been my weakest link.

Its been steadily getting stronger but only marginally. However, I just pulled a 315lb deadlift for 3 tonight. I love seeing progress like this. I was and always have been in a caloric deficit for the last two years coming down from obesity. I will be down enough weight to start bulking in February. Needless to say; its gonna be a fun year boys.

(11-24-2017 05:38 PM)Swell Wrote:  

(11-24-2017 04:51 AM)Horus Wrote:  ...but I can't grip any longer.

Time to buy a set of straps.

Straps don't build grip, they help you do more volume after your grip strength is already exhausted.

Easy things that build grip: Deadlifts with double overhand grip, static hangs, hook grip if you can take the pain.

One of the best exercises I've done for grip strength is dumbbell farmers walk. Beats the hell out of you.

Past a certain point you just need a hex bar to keep farmers walks viable.

(11-25-2017 04:11 PM)Steelex Wrote:  Past a certain point you just need a hex bar to keep farmers walks viable.

Totally, it is quite dependent on your gym as well. I currently do 85lbs dumbbells for 100ft each set. My gym only goes up to 100lbs dumbbells so I'll be moving to a hex/trap bar soon.

(11-24-2017 09:06 PM)Ivanis Wrote:  I've had lower back issues from a car accident that took place 8 years ago. For the last two years that I have been lifting my lower back has been my weakest link.

Its been steadily getting stronger but only marginally. However, I just pulled a 315lb deadlift for 3 tonight. I love seeing progress like this. I was and always have been in a caloric deficit for the last two years coming down from obesity. I will be down enough weight to start bulking in February. Needless to say; its gonna be a fun year boys.

Kudos to you ... keep it up ... marginal gains are better than no gains .. the huge gains you read about on the internet do not happen overnight. Even if you increase, let's say your deadlift, by 55 lbs a year; you will be deadlifting over 400 pounds in two years and over 500 pounds in 4 years. That is a gain of 1 pound per week, very doable. Some weeks you gain and some weeks you don't, but the only person who doesn't gain anything is the person who doesn't get off his ass and do the exercise. And for you, with your history of the car accident and obesity, it is extremely important to keep your body healthy. Keep lifting and push through new boundaries !

(11-25-2017 05:17 PM)Ivanis Wrote:  

(11-25-2017 04:11 PM)Steelex Wrote:  Past a certain point you just need a hex bar to keep farmers walks viable.

Totally, it is quite dependent on your gym as well. I currently do 85lbs dumbbells for 100ft each set. My gym only goes up to 100lbs dumbbells so I'll be moving to a hex/trap bar soon.

I have to have a membership at two gyms. One has dumbells that go up to 200 and the other has some better machines.

(11-25-2017 06:48 PM)Plus Oultre Wrote:  

(11-24-2017 09:06 PM)Ivanis Wrote:  Snip

Kudos to you ... keep it up ... marginal gains are better than no gains .. the huge gains you read about on the internet do not happen overnight. Even if you increase, let's say your deadlift, by 55 lbs a year; you will be deadlifting over 400 pounds in two years and over 500 pounds in 4 years. That is a gain of 1 pound per week, very doable. Some weeks you gain and some weeks you don't, but the only person who doesn't gain anything is the person who doesn't get off his ass and do the exercise. And for you, with your history of the car accident and obesity, it is extremely important to keep your body healthy. Keep lifting and push through new boundaries !

Definitely agree. I've been recomping for around two years now, I started at 320lbs(At the time I was 16), and I am currently right below 240, with intentions of dropping to around 215-220 and then beginning a slow bulk with a 10%-20% caloric surplus. Hopefully I will continue to progress with my lifts more so then I am now. I'm in a thousand calorie deficit at the moment and I gain around 2.5-5lbs/week on my lifts, with the exception of lower back intensive movements that are slightly slower as I don't work as intensively on them. Mind you this is while I am dropping roughly 2lbs a week. As of now, I'm gonna continue to ride this wave but I am willing to bet that I will start to plateau somewhere before I reach my weight loss goal. Can't wait to bulk man, gonna be fun times.

Thank you for your post!

(11-25-2017 08:47 PM)Steelex Wrote:  

(11-25-2017 05:17 PM)Ivanis Wrote:  

(11-25-2017 04:11 PM)Steelex Wrote:  Past a certain point you just need a hex bar to keep farmers walks viable.

Totally, it is quite dependent on your gym as well. I currently do 85lbs dumbbells for 100ft each set. My gym only goes up to 100lbs dumbbells so I'll be moving to a hex/trap bar soon.

I have to have a membership at two gyms. One has dumbells that go up to 200 and the other has some better machines.

I'm currently getting free access to the gym because I've helped some of the people there and they let me get free membership on the down low. I'm trying to ride that train until I can't anymore then I'll probably go and join one of the better gyms in my area. The other place I believe has similar dumbbell numbers to yours, but I am not gonna look a gifted horse in the mouth just yet!

Busted a plateau. I was stuck at 145kg on deadlift. I decided to start doing deadlift every other week.

Today I was at the gym doing Chest and arms. I was about to head home, then saw that someone had left some weights on a bar on the ground. I started pyramiding up from 50kg and got all the way up to 170kg for a single. That's 2.25x Bodyweight for me.

I slammed it back down and went "wooooooo!" The gym manager came over and said, "You need to stop being so noisy! You're scaring the other customers."

I just nodded and smiled. I could not stop smiling.

Feels good.

(12-03-2017 07:45 AM)Fortis Wrote:  Busted a plateau. I was stuck at 145kg on deadlift. I decided to start doing deadlift every other week.

Today I was at the gym doing Chest and arms. I was about to head home, then saw that someone had left some weights on a bar on the ground. I started pyramiding up from 50kg and got all the way up to 170kg for a single. That's 2.25x Bodyweight for me.

I slammed it back down and went "wooooooo!" The gym manager came over and said, "You need to stop being so noisy! You're scaring the other customers."

I just nodded and smiled. I could not stop smiling.

Feels good.

You just saw the results of one very important point in strength training. We have to give the muscles time to not only recover but to grow. Each individual is different and we have to find and stick to what works for us individually for optimal grow, and for you in this particular exercise might be two weeks between maximum effort frequency.

Well said already by Arthur Jones in the Nautilus Bulletin #1, Chapter 5 "Frequency and Extent of Exercise"

Quote:The subjects of this chapter are perhaps the most controversial issues in the field of physical training today;
while there is some agreement on the types of exercise that are most effective, there is nothing approaching
agreement on the subject of just how much exercise is required for best results or how frequently it should be
repeated. The old expression, "A thousand different experts, a thousand different theories," is almost literally
true in this instance.
At least in part, this situation arises from the fact that almost any amount of the right type of exercise can
produce striking results in a very high percentile of test subjects; thus, almost any individual will show marked
improvements in both muscular mass and strength within a short time after being placed on a weight training
program – and this result will be produced in most cases regardless of the actual amount of exercise employed,
at least for a while.
But while this is clear evidence of the effectiveness of such methods of exercise, in at least one important
respect it is an unfortunate situation – because it has led to a commonly practiced habit of overworking, as
opposed to proper training; "if some exercise is good, more is better", seems to be a common – though badly
mistaken – theory.
During the Second World War, a number of very large-scale experiments were conducted in this field, and
insofar as I have been able to determine, the results of these experiments were unanimous in at least one major
conclusion; "there is a definite limit to the 'amount' of exercise that will produce beneficial results – carried
beyond that point, exercise will reverse its own previous results, leading to losses in weight, condition, and
stamina."
Yet, since then, it has been clearly shown that it is almost literally impossible to overwork insofar as "intensity
of effort" is concerned; and to many people, these seem to be paradoxical conclusions – where, in fact, no
paradox exists. The problem apparently is one of nomenclature, a simple –if widespread – misunderstanding of
terms; "amount of exercise" has been confused with "intensity of effort."
And confused it has been, on an enormous scale – and thus we see thousands of examples of individuals
training as much as twenty or more hours weekly, sometimes for periods of several years, in attempts to better
their progress; where, in fact, far better results would have been produced in the vast majority of cases if such
training had been limited to a maximum of not more than five hours of weekly exercise. And in the author's
opinion, best results will be produced in at least ninety percent of all cases if training is limited to less than four
hours weekly.
But – because such marathon training programs will produce a marked degree of results if continued long
enough – it is almost impossible to convince people who have fallen into such training habits that even better
results would have been produced by a much briefer workout routine.
The Arthur Jones Collection
Nautilus Bulletin #1
A recent article described the training routine that one young man has followed for a period of seven years, four
hours a day, seven days a week –twenty-eight hours of weekly training; and his results, in the end, have been
fairly good – if not spectacular. But it is the author's contention that far better results would have resulted in far
less time from the practice of a training routine that required only about fifteen percent (15%) of the weekly
time that this individual spent training – and if even the same degree of results could have been produced in one
third of the elapsed time, then it is obvious that only five percent (5%) of this subject's training was actually
required.
The actual requirements for exercise vary on an individual basis, of course – but do they vary on such a scale,
on the order of two-thousand percent (2,000%), as was indicated in the above example? I think not. On the
contrary, I think that this individual has merely developed a tolerance to this amount of exercise – and I cannot
believe that it is an actual requirement.
Within the author's own personal experience, there have been literally hundreds of examples of individuals that
have shown far better results than those produced by the above mentioned subject – while practicing a total of
less than three percent (3%) of the number of exercise movements that have been employed by that subject
within a period of seven years.
This being true – as it is – then what is the possible excuse for such extensive training programs? "Misdirected
effort," seems – to the author –to be the only possible answer. Yet such misdirected effort is being employed on
a vast scale – in tens-of-thousands of cases.
But what do the results of research indicate? Twenty years ago, in the course of experiments conducted by the
author upon his own person, the greatest degree of results came from a program limited to four hours of weekly
training – three weekly workouts of exactly; one hour and twenty minutes each.
And while I am fully aware that the results produced by one such case are of no real significance, this
experience was at least enough to convince me that the then most common practiced training programs would
be improved if reduced insofar as weekly training time was concerned. This conviction was primarily based
upon the fact that I had previously been training more than twice as much, and that my progress had been at a
standstill for several weeks – but then, almost immediately after reducing my training by approximately sixty
percent (60%), I started to gain in both size and strength.
On a much reduced training program, my progress was far faster than it had ever been previously – and I very
quickly reached new levels in both muscular size and strength, levels which I had previously considered
impossible for me as an individual.
That experience occurred at a time when I had been training for almost ten years – during that time I had tried
almost literally "everything" in my attempts to better my progress. Nothing was involved except a reduction in
the amount of exercise that I was doing previously; otherwise, the training program remained unchanged – I
performed exactly the same exercises in exactly the same way, reducing only the number of "sets" of each
exercise and the frequency of workouts.
But while one such example proves almost nothing by itself, this personal experience was enough to trigger my
thinking into a new direction; since then, almost all of my interest has been directed towards attempts to
determine the exact length of training time that is required for the production of best possible results in most
case. Twenty years later, the weight of evidence is simply indisputable; "in almost all cases, best results from
heavy exercise will be produced by the practice of a very limited number of compound exercises that involve
the major muscular masses of the body, and such training should be limited to not more than five hours of
weekly training in any case and to about four hours in most cases."
In practice, best results are usually produced by three weekly workouts of less than one and one-half hours each.

He used to invite bodybuilders to work out at his Lake Helen, Florida place, and pay for the trip to test his machines. As soon as they arrived he would start measuring the arms cold, then make them rest for two full days before the first work out. After the first work out, measure the arms again, and they without exception had achieved at least a 1" grow.

Lets talk elbow pain and how to get rid of it.

Anyone else out there experience some real acute outside elbow pain when pressing? I also get it when squatting too. Now I'm not so sure this is a "tennis-elbow" sort of issue as that pain typically comes from the lateral forearm area (correct me if I'm wrong). My pain is actually slightly above the elbow sort of at the very bottom of my tricep where it connects to the elbow.

   

The pain is equal on left and right arms and flares up with I bench press and also when back squatting. Sometimes after a real bad flare up I will experience this pain mildly into the next day and doing basic things like lifting a box will cause discomfort.

I've spoken about it before, I have the same symptoms but they are getting better. For a while even very simple pushing motions after a workout were hurting it, like digging through a couch cushion to find some lost keys. Ridiculous.

For me the trick was avoiding pressing movements that aggrivate it and doing the ones that dont. For me that meant switching to dumbell incline press and dips instead of flat bar bench and skull crushers. I think elbow sleeves are a must but you only see the benefit after a few months of use.

You gotta use the tendon to heal it, but you gotta reduce the movements that cause that acute oh shit pain.

A day of injury is a month of recovery.

Roger that. I got a bunch of good therapy tips today from some gym.bros of mine too. I will try these out and will also be taking it very easy for the next week especially considering I have the strongman meet next sat

(12-03-2017 07:45 AM)Fortis Wrote:  Busted a plateau. I was stuck at 145kg on deadlift. I decided to start doing deadlift every other week.

Today I was at the gym doing Chest and arms. I was about to head home, then saw that someone had left some weights on a bar on the ground. I started pyramiding up from 50kg and got all the way up to 170kg for a single. That's 2.25x Bodyweight for me.

I slammed it back down and went "wooooooo!" The gym manager came over and said, "You need to stop being so noisy! You're scaring the other customers."

I just nodded and smiled. I could not stop smiling.

Feels good.

Musta been Planet Fitness.

Planet China. I live in China where no one lifts heavy or does compound lifts with appreciable weight.

Elbow pain: Gotta listen to your body on this. If you start getting serious pain on a lift, don't try and fight through it. Also, when you're at home, down stretches to promote blood flow and flexibility. Also, make sure your desk and chair at home are ergonomically-designed. I used to get forearm and elbow pain and I thought it was the gym, but it was actually my keyboard and chain. It was not lined up properly, so I got a new chair that allows me to sit perfectly. I find that a lot of stuff we do outside of the gym can help or aggravate our joints more than the actual training does.

What's the general consensus on working out in the morning at home post bang with the girl still there?

Whenever girl asks if I work out I always said I never go to gym, I just do martial arts. Girls don't wanna know you worked for those muscles.

On the other hand most girls say that watching their ripped lover working out in front of them half naked is the best turn on.

I have never heard of a girl being less impressed with a physique knowing that you earned it. Every girl I banged assumes I go to the gym and appreciates it. I don't have a home gym, but if I did I definitely wouldn't be doing any kind of appreciable workout with a girl hanging around watching me.

Dammit, this is the second time I'm getting knee pain from squatting. Gonna rest a week, drop the weight way down and do box squats to try to nail down the form. I think there's an asymmetry in the chain somewhere from my ankle surgery about a year ago.

I have those problems when I squat.remember to stretch the hell out of your lega before you squat.all that tightness in your legs will have you applying all that weight to the front of your foot instead of the whole foot which will cause pain in your knees.

So i've managed to finally get into a gym habit (haven't been to gym since i was 18). I'm in my early 30's and been a couch potato for most of my life and a skinny "hardgainer".

Last month I started going to the gym one day and started doing squats and deadlifts with a bar to get familiar with form. Next day i did it again with very light weights. Then i went again next day, and then developed a habit of just going gym.
So far, so good.

So after one month i'm currently doing 5x5 mainly compound exercises:
I notice i get weak after no workouts on the weekend, and would have to lower my best lifts.

(Weights below are currently my best and may not necessarily do that weight for all 5 sets)
Day 1:
Skip rope warmup 5 min
Flat bench press: 40kg
Standing Military shoulder press: 20kg
Dips: 5x5
Ab roller:

Day 2:
Back squat: 35-40kg
Stiff deadlifts: 40-45kg
Turkish get up (squat style) 3.7kg 5 each arm
Hanging oblique knee raise

Day 3:
Pullups: 4
bent over barbell row: 35-40kg
ez bar curl: 11-15kg
hanging leg raise
abroller

and recycle.


Diet is healthy and as much as i'd like to add muscle mass and bulk, i'm saving money so unfortunately i'll be nourished with a fairly low caloric intake (estimating about 2200 calories daily). I just did this for getting into a positive habit and for the health benefits, especially now in 30's where it will be an important foundation for the aging phases.
So i'd like to hear comments on what to do next? I feel like i've already reached plateau and start out weaker after the weekend. I know i'm lifting peanuts compared to everyone else but i gotta start somewhere. So i'm not sure what else to do. I think i'll keep this routine going until i know for sure i can't increase anymore weight, and then look into another strategy. Also are there other compound exercises to substitute, so i'm not doing the same thing every time? I'm looking for maximum efficiency and functional strength and overall health.

Good work on making a positive change and forming a new habit!
Skip the curls and isolation exercises, you simply need to do compound exercises which work multiple muscle groups at the same time. Instead try the "Starting Strength" barbell program and don't modify it.
It's promising that you're doing dips and pull-ups already but the squats are relatively low compare to bench and barbell row.

You didn't mention how much you weigh?

Also, eating well/lots doesn't need to be expensive. Get a slow cooker and use a longer cooking time to prepare cheaper cuts of meat for example.

Did squats and deadlifts 2 days ago and pushed myself really hard, my form wasn't the best and my final deadlifts got sloppy. After I walked stiff which is normal but today I suddenly got pain at the top of my spine and it hurts when I turn my neck back one direction only, the pain is also offset to the left of the spine. I tried vaping some CBD oil to alleviate the pain and it only worked for 1 hour, I will fall asleep and pray that I haven't done anything serious to my spine, if the pain persists I might have to see a doctor.