The examples that you give of edging up a deadlift and turning a squat into a good morning are incorrect form and have nothing to do with mind muscle connection. If the technique is correct then the target muscle is working full stop. Poundages are everything when it comes to results and people that get caught up in mind muscle connection usually get stuck using light weights slow and controlled and never build any real strength or muscle. Do you think that you can bench 315 with correct technique (shoulders back, slight arch, leg drive, touch bar to sternum, then get the bar back and press in a J-curve) without the pecs, delts and triceps working? Do you think that by focusing on the chest the training response will somehow be better?

I can go in the gym and rep 100kg with perfect slow and controlled technique, squeezing the muscle, and get an amazing pump, but it won't do fuck all for me compared to using everything I've got to press 130kg up reasonable technique (this is very heavy for me), in an explosive manner, taking advantage of the stretch reflex at the bottom, even if I don't feel the muscle working as much as I would with light weight.

I've been there and tried all that mind muscle connection stuff and it does nothing for results (it feels effective though). Train the movement not the muscle and focus on poundages is my advice.

I'm saying getting good form can look like muscle concentration to some people, and like I said earlier and you confirmed: that sort of thing gets difficult with heavy weight. Practicing the technique with lighter weight and during every warmup will ensure it is ingrained into you when you perform top sets.

I'm not arguing that mind/muscle connection is necessary to move weight with good form, but for some people it is a technique that helps. It's helped me.

We're probably on the same page then I'd say. Just wanted to emphasise the importance of increasing poundages and not getting too caught up in trying to feel the muscle at the expense of weight on the bar (presuming form is acceptable).

I just experienced an interesting illustration of how importance sleep is for performance. On Thursday, I went to the gym after only sleeping 4 hours the previous night. I didn't feel like it, but I forced myself to go. After doing some warm up squats, I started with 110kg intending to do 5 reps, something I know I can do comfortably. When I reached the bottom of the squat, I had no strength to even attempt to lift the weight, and the barbell ended up on the safety bar. Strange I thought, since I have really lifted that weight many times recently. So I tried again with the same result. I ended up giving up and going home. Then today I tried again after a full 8 hours of sleep. This time, 110kg seemed ridiculously easy, and I then worked up to 120kg for five reps, equal to my personal best. It's true what they say about sleep being one of the most effective performance enhancers.

Yeah man, same thing has happened to me with food. I've failed submaximal lifts on an empty stomach, but hit the same weight for easy triples after a good day of eating.

After months of squatting with narrow, feet parallel stance I attempted yesterday to squat with regular/mainstream stance (shoulder width feet, 30 degrees feet). I stopped squatting like that several months ago because of left hip pain and that is why I squatted with narrow stance all this time.
Regular stance felt fine and weight was a bit easier and I could utilize hip drive more easily. I had no hip pain, why is that so, I don't really know. Anyway, I will continue doing them like this.

(11-03-2018 05:36 AM)sterling_archer Wrote:  After months of squatting with narrow, feet parallel stance I attempted yesterday to squat with regular/mainstream stance (shoulder width feet, 30 degrees feet). I stopped squatting like that several months ago because of left hip pain and that is why I squatted with narrow stance all this time.
Regular stance felt fine and weight was a bit easier and I could utilize hip drive more easily. I had no hip pain, why is that so, I don't really know. Anyway, I will continue doing them like this.

You probably had a muscular inbalance when your first started that was being exposed by the wider stance that has been strengthened with the more limited movements and is now holding up.

It's amazing how delicate the body can be to things like that and pain is its way of letting you know.

Core excercises:

https://www.self.com/gallery/core-exerci...s-swear-by

I did #4 and 5 yesterday after a HIIT workout and I swear I can see an improvement in my obliques already. I much prefer #5 to using a cable machine. Anyway, on to leg day today

That's an it in that self article Repo. I think its a woman, but those muscles look like a guy. Planks, side planks are great too. Also hanging sit ups or what ever its called when you raise your legs up straight, ideally from a roman chair device. Don't forget to work out the rhomboids too, its in the core and is responsible for posture.

^^^ Thanks, yup doing all of those already. Hanging leg raises I've started to strap a belt on so I can hang weights from it. Either that or grab a dumbell with my feet. For rhomboids I'm doing light weight face pulls with a hold at the end. It feels very refreshing when I'm done. . . I treat it as more like a stretch than a lift though.

Hey, any brand of workout bands that you guys would recommend? Looking online and I see alot which seem priced too good to be true, I suspect many of the cheaper bands wont hold up well or arent true to the stated resistance weights

Rubberbanditz is great, I used to use them for assisted pull ups.

https://www.rubberbanditz.com

crossover symmetry is a pretty good band system for shoulder workouts. Expensive though. I use it at pt.

What do you guys think of nutrobal? From what I was reading it's pretty effective with few side effects. Anyone have personal experience with it or a friend?

Are you talking about MK-677? I looked up “NutrobAl” (emphasis on the a) and a vitamin product came up.

MK-677 makes me hungry all the time, and always makes me sleep well after about the first week. I’ve used it a few times in conjunction with LGD-4033 and never had a negative side effect, aside from some difficulty falling asleep the first week or so.

Nutrobal is interesting. I don't think it does much other than make you hungry. It isn't a true substitute for GH. It is a hunger-inducing peptide IIRC.

I used it for a few months. I didn't find it useful for much other than making me hungry.

So these things are basically legal steroids without unpleasant experiences sometimes associated with them? Sounds awesome I must admit.

(11-09-2018 12:13 PM)sterling_archer Wrote:  So these things are basically legal steroids without unpleasant experiences sometimes associated with them? Sounds awesome I must admit.

No, just like everything that's still legally available once it's popular, they will potentially give you a slight boost but you won't be able to hulk up like real gear.

I went to bang out a late workout at my apartment gym a couple hours ago. The place was completely empty so I was screaming stuff like (each line is a rep)
BOW
THE
FUCK
DOWN
YOU
BITCH
MADE
FAGGOT
MOTHER
FUCKER

Had a good time (heavy metal in the headphones as always)

Adding some progress pics along with a few afterwards.

From left to middle in the progress pic was 5 weeks. From middle to right most pic was about 6 or 7 months.

Before getting fat, I was in pretty decent shape. I was an athlete in high school and stayed active in BJJ on and off, but depression, bad eating habits, and a sedentary lifestyle took over. To lose the fat I I lifted 4 or 5 days a week and rode my bike everywhere, biking about 12 miles a day some days and cut down on carbs. I would blend up kale or other leafy greens and chug that before I ate a meal to fill myself up.
To build muscle I lifted heavy 4 days a week and trained jiu jitsu 4 days a week on average.

These days I lift heavy 2 to 3 times a week, do cardio with abs once or twice a week, and try to get BJJ in 3 to 4 times a week.

I still eat pretty clean, but I have my moments when I eat junk food, but it's usually the days before my leg days.

I'm now in my mid 30s and look the best I have in my life. I'm full natural never used steroids and I think I look pretty good considering that and my age.

I never thought it was possible to get back in shape, but once I made the decision to change my habits, I wonder to myself why it took so long.

In the last pic those are hickeys on my chest

Amazing progress!

I watched Ronnie Coleman: The King the other night on Netflix.

I used to be big into bodybuilding but stopped sometime in the 90's so I never really got to see what happened in the years after Lee Haney, then Dorian Yates. I'd seen RC of course, but he was always an also-ran, I missed all his subsequent Mr Olympia victories.

I got the shock of my life seeing how crippled he now is (only in his early 50s). Popped a disc doing squats, hip replacement, loads of operations, can't walk unaided, constantly on painkillers. He seemed like a real nice fella though and impressed with his grim determination to haul his ass to the Metroflex gym still every morning at 4.30am.

It was weird seeing Shawn Ray, Kevin Levrone, Dorian Yates, Flex Wheeler as they are now. I'd last seen these people in their absolute prime in Flex, Musclemag and Muscle & Fitness. I had a lot of happy memories lifting weights in the 80's and 90's but looking back now, pro bodybuilding (I'm sorry to say) has become a freakshow and I'm kind of relieved that I didn't dive any deeper down the rabbit hole all those years ago.

He kept lifting massive amounts of weight and taking massive amounts of PEDs deep into his 40s. He seems like a really nice guy, but he was very foolish and careless with his health.

The human skeletal system and joints aren't meant to carry that much mass, let alone squat 800 pounds into middle age.

He also ignored doctors orders several times to stop lifting.

You can only be an invincible freak for so long.

(11-16-2018 02:52 PM)TeachNExplore Wrote:  He kept lifting massive amounts of weight and taking massive amounts of PEDs deep into his 40s. He seems like a really nice guy, but he was very foolish and careless with his health.

I sure he knew the risks. How many guys would trade their health in old age to be the greatest in their field during their prime? No matter how bad his health gets, thats something that can never be taken from him. I don't think that's a foolish trade off.

(11-17-2018 02:26 AM)Horus Wrote:  

(11-16-2018 02:52 PM)TeachNExplore Wrote:  He kept lifting massive amounts of weight and taking massive amounts of PEDs deep into his 40s. He seems like a really nice guy, but he was very foolish and careless with his health.

I sure he knew the risks. How many guys would trade their health in old age to be the greatest in their field during their prime? No matter how bad his health gets, thats something that can never be taken from him. I don't think that's a foolish trade off.

Hes 54 years old and hes now essentially a cripple. And has been already for a few years. Its not like hes in his late 70s and he traded "his health in old age". Hes lost 30+ years of healthy, happy, life.

Plenty of people become the greatest in their field without throwing away half their adult life. Its a pretty horrendous deal.

Its an awful shame, as he did always come across as a very nice guy. But at the end of the day its nobody fault but his own - nobody forced him to do it to himself.