The Official Gym & Fitness Thread

what weight class? My friend hit a 500+ bench raw in USAPL 198. Hes 5'2" short arms and huge chest so hes kind of made for benching.

 

Costco 10lb bag of ON for $55

 

Be carful what you wish for. Its not that fun when you have trouble finding pants that fit or look stupid on you because you have to get 2 sizes larger just to fit your ass and legs but the waist is really huge. Or shirts that allows free comfort movement around the shoulders but look stupid because it looks like you have a tall tee on. That's when people usually start wearing basketball shorts and tank tops, not because theyre a douches buts its the only thing comfortable and maybe a little because they wanna show the gainz.

 

After studying like a fucking madman all week, I took my final yesterday and was exhausted both physically and mentally afterwards. Was gonna go hit shoulders after work, but decided to just go lay in bed and play GTA V. I played from about 6-11 and finally went to bed. I think my brain needed that lol. Gonna try to do shoulders this afternoon and legs in the AM.

$50?

 

I was seriously considering buying one of those arnold shirts but the size chart talked me out of it. I measured some of my other shirts and my mediums are in line somewhere between the XS and S on the size chart for those. I know if I buy one of those the sleeves are going to be way too small but I hate when a shirt is baggy in the chest or down my sides. I feel like I'm wearing one of those squirrel suits people jump out of airplanes in...

I think he made those shirts only for people built like him

 

Order a schmedium.

 

Haha thanks!!! I think I can hit two plates soon.

Great commentary

Question in squats. Does anyone out a bench in the rack to squat to a seated position then stand? Does that count as a full rep?

That's half the cost of Amazon. I know where I'll be going when I run out.

Shirts I can work with since I'm tall and long going up sizes is fine. I'm starting to realize the issue with the legs. Pants that use to fit great all around are now tight in the thighs. Pants that use to be baggy in the legs now seem more fitting.

You got some man? I need a hit......

 

This is called box squats since most commercial gyms don't have a proper box people substitute it with a bench which is incorrect because the bench may not be the proper height for the squat. box squats are supposed to teach you to stay tight while going down and work on exploding up. but since people have no idea what they're doing and just copy what they see on instagram they just bounce off the bench or rock back and forth when going back up which is incorrect. the move is to control the decent all the way down to the box and stand up without rocking.
a better way to practice this which takes more effort is called rack squats where you squat to the safety pins at about 2 inches above parallel pause on the pins while staying tight and lifting the weight up. This is usually done with about 40-80 lbs above your 1RM. this technique is used for overloading and getting used to walking out with heavier weight

 

^^^ beat me to it...

That's a "box squat." The depth would be proper, probably a little high for the purists such as myself, but it's not the same as a regular squat. When you sit down, you take tension off of the muscles. Box squats also place more of an emphasis on the hamstrings and glutes. Good for developing technique and building muscle, but, again, not the same as a regular squat.

 

This is why I love this thread. Thanks for the great info. I'll stick to normal squats for now.

 

IMO its good to get a powerlifting coach who has been powerlifting for years. I lifted for 3 years before i went to my coach. my bench was 300lbs, squat 415lbs, deadlift 525lbs. in about a months time my bench shot up to 314, squat 440, deadlift 540. all he did was correct and tweak my form. No matter how long you have been lifting you can always learn new tricks from old timers. even if you're not into powerlifting, powerlifters have the best form IMO because in competition they have to hit depth, they have to touch chest on bench.

 

One of my good friends goes to a power lifting coach and his numbers sky-rocketed because of it. I have wanted to go, but it was pretty expensive. I just lift with him every now and then and have him coach me on my form based on what he has learned from the coaches.

I agree re: form to a certain extent, specifically with squat and dead lift. Bench is a little different though, because the goal is moving the most weight, and not developing muscle. Yes, muscle is grown by moving the heavy amount of weight. But, unless you're in a competition, I would stick to flat-footed, back and butt on bench when benching. Then, when you do use PL technique to bench, you would be surprised to see how much you can move.

@manethon 's workouts are kicking my ass. I am going to stick it out for the cycle, but it takes a heavy toll on your body and CNS.

 

Don't use a bench if you do them. It isn't low enough and you will develop bad form. I have been doing box squats for the past week or so. I do them every few months as a form check. I'll get to squatting so much and start going up in weight and I think I am doing great. Then I'll put a box under me and realize how bad my form had been (someone broke the mirror that used to be near the squat rack so it is impossible to watch myself when I squat now). I look at it as a way to develop muscle memory for when I take the box back out...

I use the pilates step up thing that you can adjust with risers. I use 5 risers on each side and it puts me at the right height. I go down to where I can barely feel the box and then explode up. I learned them as 'butterfly box squats' and that you have to imagine a butterfly sitting on the box and you can't squash it so you can only lightly graze the box before going up again.

These things...

 

you are correct on this. with powerlifting you do lose a lot of accessory muscle if you are a strict powerlifter. i know this first hand, i trained with my coach a little under a year and i lost my shoulder development, arm definition, and quads. I still use all my powerlifting techniques i learned but now i concentrate more on accessory muscles also such as lateral raise, front squats, arms, incline bench etc.

 

Send me a couple pics

 

never watch yourself in the mirror while squatting you'll throw yourself off. face away from the mirror if possible. just my $0.02

 

I need to do more front squats, although my squat is already terribly quad dominant, and I am afraid front squats will make it worse. Any fix for that?

 

Well luckily someone broke it so I don't have to fight temptation anymore

Some newb came in and was squating with 25s on each side sans clips and let one slide off and it slammed into the mirror

 

I feel like I lose my balance if I'm not looking in the mirror. My roommate literally can't squat if he isn't looking in a mirror, he'll lose all of his balance. Its kinda funny. lol

 

I can't do curls without staring into a mirror