Weightlifting for Kiwis - Discussion and support regarding the art of swole

[Jasper2K]

460 ibs squat PR today. Thought I shit my pants. Would have been pretty grim in a busy gym....

 

[Harambe]

I started a 5x5 program a few months ago and it’s only a couple of lifts. It’s very easy and only takes about an hour to knock out. Maybe a little more. The lifts are simple and don’t require much thought. I also mix it up depending on my time available so I may do 4x8 or 3x10 with different amounts of weight.

Bench
Pullups
Overhead press
Bent over rows
Squats

It’s a full-body workout without much thought required. I’m really enjoying it. I’m an old man so I’m listing for functional strength and not aesthetics.

You might want to swap bent over rows or pullups for deadlifts, it's a fun exercise and it gives you that thick back and crazy exhilaration of 'fuck that was heavy how'd I do that.' It's about as safe as bench or squat, you just have to keep your form dialed in and wear a belt earlier in your progression than you would with a squat.

Anyone mind sharing their mental cues for squatting? Right now my squat's been going to shit, I had to take about a month away from it because I injured my wrist, and I'm out of practice. I'm having trouble figuring out the appropriate stance width and keeping my chest up and getting my hip drive optimal. I tend to squat lowbar, but I fold forward too far when I get into the hole, and end up wasting a lot of effort combining a good morning with my squat basically.

My hip mobility may not be the best, which I'm working on by doing deep squats and holding them at the bottom for about 30 seconds a couple times a day, and as part of my general warmup. I'm doing ankle stretches too. I'm trying to find the appropriate width for my stance, I think my legs are too long and my mobility is too crap to hit a shoulder-width stance like with a deadlift, so I try to go wider for sumo, but I keep worrying that my feet aren't aligned or whatever. I don't know if I'm just too in my own head or out of practice.

This week I'm going to be doing 3 second pause squats with a wide stance to try and work on that getting out of the hole thing. My thighs are big and I'm pretty sure they're strong. On leg press machine I can still hit my old PBs with ease (which makes sense, it's easier than doing a squat) so I know it's not strength per se but technique.

Switching to high bar and doing pause squats are helping. Ever feel stuck with your squats? Fuckin do 60% loads and get down in the hole for a few seconds a rep. Ankle stretching and holding squats are helping the mobility and feet positioning and stability a bit.

Saw some good improvements on my depth and back positioning yesterday, hit 125kg for 3 reps without too much trouble, RPE 8.5 or so.

 

[Johnny Salami]

Anyone mind sharing their mental cues for squatting? Right now my squat's been going to shit, I had to take about a month away from it because I injured my wrist, and I'm out of practice. I'm having trouble figuring out the appropriate stance width and keeping my chest up and getting my hip drive optimal. I tend to squat lowbar, but I fold forward too far when I get into the hole, and end up wasting a lot of effort combining a good morning with my squat basically.

My hip mobility may not be the best, which I'm working on by doing deep squats and holding them at the bottom for about 30 seconds a couple times a day, and as part of my general warmup. I'm doing ankle stretches too. I'm trying to find the appropriate width for my stance, I think my legs are too long and my mobility is too crap to hit a shoulder-width stance like with a deadlift, so I try to go wider for sumo, but I keep worrying that my feet aren't aligned or whatever. I don't know if I'm just too in my own head or out of practice.

This week I'm going to be doing 3 second pause squats with a wide stance to try and work on that getting out of the hole thing. My thighs are big and I'm pretty sure they're strong. On leg press machine I can still hit my old PBs with ease (which makes sense, it's easier than doing a squat) so I know it's not strength per se but technique.

I've been doing hip and ankle mobility recently before squats, as well as a a body bridge. Then I deadhang to really activate my back before squats. it helped me break my plateu

Has anyone else noticed an uptick recently in people saying they find body builders/muscular people unattractive?

I wonder what the reasoning is? Is it cope that they are blobs and will never be able to compete with fit people of the same gender for a mate, or too lazy that they can't be bothered to be healthy and keep up with a potential partner so just say it's gross and unattractive making themselves not the problem?

It's certainly a trend I've been seeing on Twitter and Reddit (I know........not the best places to see sane people responses) wondering if people have noticed on other social media though.

Bodybuilders have always been an outlier, as overtly muscle physiques seem unnatural to most people. People will say they find a small amount of muscle unattractive to either soapbox and grabd stand about how virtuous they are or because they know they'd never met their standards

 

[coof coof]

This fucking thing is my new favorite piece of workout equipment. Lights up my delts and back like nothing else. Really helpful because my arms and traps tend to take over on a lot of other lifts.

 

[Harambe]

This fucking thing is my new favorite piece of workout equipment. Lights up my delts and back like nothing else. Really helpful because my arms and traps tend to take over on a lot of other lifts.

Ver archivo adjunto 4238608

What exercises besides pull aparts can you use them for really? I see how they can blow up rhomboids and rear delts, but are there any other uses?

 

[ITK]

Bodybuilders have always been an outlier, as overtly muscle physiques seem unnatural to most people. People will say they find a small amount of muscle unattractive to either soapbox and grabd stand about how virtuous they are or because they know they'd never met their standards

A natural bodybuilder literally cannot get too much muscle. It is possible to prefer a lither physique, but without the use of drugs, muscle will always be proportional and never so engorged as to become grotesque.

 

[AncientPhosphur]

I mean there does seem to be a lot of cope out there these days. I saw some tik tok saying lifting weights and going for fitness is white supremacy and fatness is just black culture. I think a small amount of lazy jealous coperswith no motivation have just diversity hired themselves into office positions making it capable to push out this love your fat body nonsense. It’s not just left wing but even the right has America First being a group of short twinks or beer bellied (or gunted) individuals who hate fitness.

Personally I love fitness. It’s got that tough take command of your own life warrior spirit. Plus the compliments from people are nice and women seem to love it too. Don’t let the cope get you down, you’re doing something the average person is incapable of doing and all they can do is seethe while you’re out building muscle and lifting heavy.

 

[Accept Only Substitutes]

N00b question about DOMS. If I'm still sore two days after a workout should I wait another day (or more) until I'm not sore? Or is one day between enough rest even if I'm still sore?

 

[coof coof]

What exercises besides pull aparts can you use them for really? I see how they can blow up rhomboids and rear delts, but are there any other uses?

It gives a crazy squeeze when I put my foot in one end and do curls with it. You can do lat raises with it or work your triceps like crazy holding it behind your back too. I also do archer pulls with it. The only thing is if you try to buy one off of amazon the Chinese "steel" springs are going to stretch after a few uses. I got this one if anyone is interested.

 

[MS Paint Gigachad]

N00b question about DOMS. If I'm still sore two days after a workout should I wait another day (or more) until I'm not sore? Or is one day between enough rest even if I'm still sore?

Excellent question, and an inevitable one at that! For me I usually wait till I'm not sore before working out at the usual intensity, I usually go for half the number of sets and further from failure until then

Some other anecdotes:

Spoiler: anecdotes

- soreness seems to come more from high reps, light weight than low reps, heavy weight
- "confusing the muscle" by introducing new movements causes soreness
-- doing the same workout later (similar sets, reps, proximity to failure) when you're more used to it doesn't result in as much soreness
- working out "harder" (closer to failure, more drop sets etc) increases soreness
- resting more between sets reduces soreness
- eating more protein reduces soreness
- stretching the day after seems to reduce soreness

 

[Jasper2K]

N00b question about DOMS. If I'm still sore two days after a workout should I wait another day (or more) until I'm not sore? Or is one day between enough rest even if I'm still sore?

Allowing muscles to rest three days is ideal. Most programs have muscles resting 2-3 days. You don't want to work out the same muscle or muscle group back to back. Will hurt your gains. Don't forget to stretch too will help with doms and lactic acid.

 

[MS Paint Gigachad]

Allowing muscles to rest three days is ideal. Most programs have muscles resting 2-3 days.

Piggybacking off of that, this is part of my doctrine. I've either done Push/Pull/Legs or Upper/Lower, ensuring 3+ days rest

 

[William Tyndale]

This fucking thing is my new favorite piece of workout equipment. Lights up my delts and back like nothing else. Really helpful because my arms and traps tend to take over on a lot of other lifts.

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You have piqued my curiosity. What is this contraption called so I can buy one?

 

[MS Paint Gigachad]

You have piqued my curiosity. What is this contraption called so I can buy one?

AlphaDestiny/Alex Leonidas made an IG post on it a while back, i think he called it an expander
EDIT: I tracked down said post

He also added an amazon link in the comments: amzn.to/3fRyLJ7

 

[William Tyndale]

It gives a crazy squeeze when I put my foot in one end and do curls with it. You can do lat raises with it or work your triceps like crazy holding it behind your back too. I also do archer pulls with it. The only thing is if you try to buy one off of amazon the Chinese "steel" springs are going to stretch after a few uses. I got this one if anyone is interested.

God damn that’s $200.

AlphaDestiny/Alex Leonidas made an IG post on it a while back, i think he called it an expander
EDIT: I tracked down said post
Ver archivo adjunto 4246210
He also added an amazon link in the comments: amzn.to/3fRyLJ7

Thank you. After some research done with your post as the first clue, I have discovered them to be called “chest expanders”.

 

[MS Paint Gigachad]

Dumb(?) question: is there any advantage of using a chest expander over a set of resistance bands?

Sorry if I'm shitting up the thread with constant minor posts

 

[William Tyndale]

Dumb(?) question: is there any advantage of using a chest expander over a set of resistance bands?

Sorry if I'm shitting up the thread with constant minor posts

That’s a great question actually and one I was asking myself during this discussion. At my CrossFit gym sometimes we will do the chest expander motion with really thin blue bands (high volume, like 150 per session) and I was wondering if it’s just the same thing in essence. When we did them I got a killer burn in my back muscles, which is why my interest was piqued when I saw this contraption.

 

[No Batty Boys in Jamaica]

I mean there does seem to be a lot of cope out there these days. I saw some tik tok saying lifting weights and going for fitness is white supremacy and fatness is just black culture.

Whoever says that has never seen a bodybuilding competition. This was the field for the 2022 Olympia:

A Pajeet ended up winning.

Or is it white supremacy because having a bunch of muscular black guys up on a stage gives people slavery flashbacks?

 

[coof coof]

Dumb(?) question: is there any advantage of using a chest expander over a set of resistance bands?

Sorry if I'm shitting up the thread with constant minor posts

The main difference over resistance bands is that the strength curve is a lot more linear. Bands will be closer to a parabola i.e. it will be too easy at the start of the motion and then become difficult towards the very end of the motion. An expander just feels way smoother throughout the motion. it's also really easy to just add a spring once you can get 10-15 reps for a few sets with it so you can keep the volume in a reasonable range. Its hard to put into words, but to me it just feels way better than cables or bands.

 

[William Tyndale]

N00b question about DOMS. If I'm still sore two days after a workout should I wait another day (or more) until I'm not sore? Or is one day between enough rest even if I'm still sore?

In the beginning I’d suggest waiting until the soreness is gone or close to gone. Eventually you won’t get sore anymore. It’s bittersweet because I like feeling the soreness because it’s in muscles I haven’t used in a long time. It makes me feel alive. But eventually that only happens if you have to take a long break.

You can also do light work while you’re sore just to get your blood flowing. Whatever you do, keep going. Don’t stop.