13
Moving around a weight room has caused more injuries than training has, for me.
You can trip, people leave crap strewn about, and as you mentioned it's easy to drop a plate. Shoes won't protect you from a falling 45lb but they'll probably prevent or at least greatly minimize a stubbed toe. Something stupid like that can sideline you for a week. Walking ...
10
Wow, you're lucky! Kudos to your gym for acquiring one of these. I wish my gym had one too.
What is that?
It's commonly referred to as a "bamboo bar" because of its resemblence. It's actually plastic, as I'm sure you've surmised if you've tried it out.
Eric Spoto (one of the best bench pressers in the world) is a strong advocate for incorporating the ...
10
Yes, it's the right thing to do. Your shoulders should be retracted at the end of a deadlift rep.
Those videos have the answer. The deadlift is not finished until you achieve full (but not over-) extension, and that includes thoracic extension. "You can't cheat the [deadlift] by leaving your shoulders forward" is exactly correct.
I don't agree that ...
9
Any fitness regimen can be done by women.
As far as the gains, that is going to be highly personally dependent. Another woman (or even man) might increase every few days, someone else might only go up every couple months. It will depend on many factors, only one of which may be nutrition.
Training history, regular sessions, proper form/technique, proper ...
8
This sounds like muscle fatigue and is absolutely normal and expected. This happens to every single person who works out.
Your muscles aren't going to be able to curl forever during a workout session. You're breaking down muscle fibers with each repetition. This means the muscle will be temporarily weaker.
Resting and eating repairs muscle fibers, and make ...
8
Everyone wants a six-pack and everyone wants to increase core strength, but should you do abs exercises every day to accomplish that goal? Some of the most frequent questions I get about abs training are – “Can you work out abs everyday“, or “Should I workout abs everyday“? Conventional wisdom tells you the more abs exercises you do, the better.
The short ...
8
The 2019 IPF Technical Rules Book includes these items which will lead to your deadlift being disqualified in a competition (see Page 9 of this PDF):
"Failure to lock the knees straight at the completion of the lift."
"Failure to stand erect with the shoulders back."
You describe a severe amount of agony in ending the deadlift with your ...
7
Presuppositions
The presuppositions in this question are mistaken. A) It is possible to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time if the conditions are right. B) It's not true that one should not change one's training program while cutting--one should still do some heavy lifting, but the program should change.
The point of heavy lifting during a cut is to ...
7
In short, following a competent fitness program is the single best thing that you can do.
But let's explore your question more and extrapolate on why that is. First and foremost I want to point out that this isn't a stupid question, it's entirely valid. The stupid thing to do would be to NOT ask questions and pretend to know what you're doing, in that ...
7
I assume that you mean either the Starting Strength or Stronglifts 5x5 program. Either of those programs would be fine for someone who is new to resistance training, though I would also incorporate some additional GPP with either one (e.g. 20 min of low intensity steady-state cardio on a bike or rower before/after each session).
For some unsolicited opinion, ...
6
General Advice
When I was learning the lifts, my first step was always to read the entire Starting Strength chapter on that lift, then re-skim it the next day I was doing the lift. The book is quite dense, and multiple reads enhance its utility greatly. I strongly recommend reading and rereading that chapter of the book. Make time for it.
As to the power ...
6
There's the answer in the general case, and there's the answer for this case. First this case, then the general.
You Are Fucking Around
Starting Strength, but with carrying exercises...StrongLifts, but with Olympic work...no, wait, pull-ups...then planks and front squats...plus overhead squats...and now round-backed deadlifts? I don't say this to be mean, ...
5
I'm no expert, but I trained oly lifts for a while. My best power clean was 265lbs at 6'1", 190lbs. I can give you anecdotes and tips, for what they're worth.
It takes quite a while to start getting comfortable with the clean. It took at least some months for me, possibly 3 or 4 before I started trying to progressively overload. I didn't want to go ...
5
No.
Starting Strength is developed with a purpose, and it's written the way it is for a reason. You can morph it however you'd like, but then it's no longer SS3x5, and for better or worse, you can't expect the same results.
4
I don't know as much about the biological makeup of muscles as I should, so my answer is going to be based on the results I and many other fitness fanatics have had from doing workouts similar to the ones you have described.
"How can you be expected to do (exercise A) properly when you have just exhausted the
muscle group from (exercise B)?"
Simple - ...
4
First a couple of points to consider:
6-8 weeks is not long enough to lose all of your strength
It is long enough to lose a little of your strength
You will be sore the first week back doing Stronglifts.
The answer will essentially be the same as the question you pointed to, it's just a matter of degree. Nothing is more demoralizing than trying to work ...
4
You have made solid progress. Congratulations, keep up the hard work.
If I were you I'd switch to a program that adds weight weekly or monthly, such as Rippetoe & Kilgore's Texas Method from Practical Programming, or 5/3/1, or another similar program. That will keep you adding strength for quite a while longer.
I'd consider switching up exercises, to ...
4
I had a tough time learning cleans, but they're really awesome to master and unlocking the olympic lifts feels like getting accepted into a barbell fraternity. As a frame of reference, watch this youtube on a slow motion of clean and jerk.
I have a hard time doing the explosive pull (the third step when you
are effectively doing an upright row). Do I ...
4
The other answers from Dave and Eric cover the various physiological reasons for resets, being overtraining, rest, etc. I won't go into that. Instead, I'll address the often overlooked psychological factor.
Every time you plateau, you fail. You are failing to get to that next weight and bypass the roadblock. Sometimes this is just a speed bump, and next ...
4
Within a few weeks, you'll start noticing increased muscle definition. This will depend upon your body fat: the less fat you have the easier it is to see muscle definition.
Your low carb diet will probably throw you into ketosis, and you're probably calorie deficient (although that's a big assumption), so you'll be doing a lot of fat burning.
You will ...
4
When I start to pull, inevitably my knee angle "wants" to open first to the point that my back is horizontal before the bar actually leaves the ground
This sounds fine. Fully horizontal is a bit much, but lots of people get to near-horizontal and that's the way it should be. There's no need to keep your back angle constant from your setup. It's very common ...
4
The key to continued progress
...is variation. Like TestWell said in a comment, "after a year of any program, it's time to switch it up", and that's honestly the best answer. But allow me to elaborate.
Options
There are enough options out there to fill entire volumes of books. It's not really a case of choosing the right one. It's more a case of finding ...
4
Deadlift properly
It's almost impossible to remotely determine what the trouble is, but:
during deadlift, while pulling, my upper back is rounding but once I reach the top most position, everything is locked and I attain perfect 'chest up'
That's not good. For a strong back, you want a perfect, tense, straight, shoulderblades-retracted position for the ...
4
Changing Starting Strength to Sets of 12
The heart of Starting Strength is an interdependent synthesis of the following factors:
Progressive overload every workout
Squatting every workout
Focus on few compound lifts
Sets of 5
There are other contributing elements, but I'd argue those are the core of the program. The key is that each element depends on the ...
4
The trapezius and rhomboids are adductors (or retractors) of the scapulae, meaning they pull them backwards. "Anchored" in this context just means "held in place".
So the traps and rhomboids are pulling the shoulder blades back and holding them in that position. A common cue for this is to tell the lifter to try to use their shoulder blades to pinch and ...
4
The simple answer is: No, you can't do SS without a power rack. In the beginning you can get away with cleaning the bar, but that stops soon enough.
And this isn't even specific to SS. Every program should have some form of heavy squats. You just need a power rack or something for that.
4
This won't really be an answer but it's most likely mobility. Being physically incapable of a front rack (without injury) would be extremly rare.
The usual mobility culprits are thorasic spine, shoulders and forearms. There's plenty of mobility drills online for you to try.
Personally i'd recommend trying front squats with the front rack position until you ...
4
Stronglifts and Starting Strength are beginner strength programs designed for all ages and body types. Whether you're young, old, weak, obese, male, female, new to the gym, coming back from an injury, etc. The focus is strength gain as opposed to increasing muscle mass. With these two factors in mind, the programs target the largest muscle groups for a ...
4
SS (Starting Strength 3x5, 5x5 is the SL StrongLifts template) isn't inherently bad but for a perfect beginner such as I was when I first lifted, I think it would have been better if I had done any other program with a more emphasis on assistance, mobility and conditioning.
Mark Rippetoe will always answer that the best way to learn to squat is to squat, and ...
Only top voted, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible