The Official Gym & Fitness Thread

yep, all around improved my form


thanks

 

Been working legs a helluva lot more

Started over summer squatting 135 since I've never really focused on legs other than running... did a few solid full ROM sets of 225 tonight

 

ran to the gym, 2.6 miles away from campus

in 13 min, 20 secs

did legs

5x5 squat up to 225
4 sets of 10 inverted press, up to 420lbs
4x10 hammy curls
5x10 calf raises, up to 300 lbs

had to catch the bus back home. haha

 

I was in that same range then got super serious in lifting and I just hit 255 yesterday ... I was pretty pumped

 

Damn dude that's a fast pace. About 5:15 a mile. You ran XC or something?

 

nope. always hated running
just did a lot of PT with the ROTC and kept running after that

my secret is 3/4 of the run is downhill

I like the feel a lot better. douchy vibram gym shoes ftw

 

Speaking of squats and deadlifts. I did front/back/1legged squats and dead lifts in the same day. 5x8 of each. I've been walking like an old man since Saturday morning.

I usually split abs up half in the beginning and half at the end. Couldn't even do one set on for the latter half. I won't be doing that again any time soon haha, but felt pretty good

 

Doing back AND front squats will give your core a workout thats for sure.

 

i had such a weird day today at the gym.

So I was trying Seans plates under the heals technique for squats. and some tall (6'2") guy ask if he could work in. So i'm a nice guy, I say yes.... But he has high heel running shoes on.


The guy tries squatting 135 lbs with his shoes on and plants his feet on the plates. This guy struggles to get 3 shitty formed squats in and on the fourth falls forward crashing into the squat rack. SMH


BTW this helped a lot when you're barefooted. Thanks Sean

 

Is there a difference between wearing a pair of shoes and using a plate barefooted? Both cases your heel is raised

The point of going barefooted is to get a more 'natural' squat. Might as well use shoes till you're more flexible

 

Heel compression with shoes makes it weird and squishy feeling

 

I've done squats barefoot, with minimus, Nike Free Run 5.0 and the 5lb plate. So far I personally like the plate

It allowed me to go past parallel with ease. more so than my Nikes

 

That makes sense

I just lift in flats with my rock hard inserts so I guess I've never had squishy feeling.

 

Try stretching your calf muscles more both with you leg straight and then bent. should help with that

 

The plates help lessen the angle of your ankle, which a lot of people have issue with that when going deep, which makes the person's heel lift, giving them nothing to press against but the balls of their feet, which is unstable and leads to an unstable position. As well as pushing with just the ball of the foot, people tend to lean forward, with the bar accompanying their body thus throwing the bar/weight forward.

The plates do basically the same as a real lifting shoe. A normal running shoe has a heel, but it's a soft compound that compresses and doesn't have any support, so the weight is easily shifted in a soft bottomed shoe. You can use the weights on a minimal shoe like the New Balance, Merrels, Vibrams, etc... and achieve a similar outcome but it's still not as stable as a lifting shoe. A lifting shoe gives you a hard surface throughout the lift

Nothing will outperform a lifting shoe though. Much more stable then any other option. Plus you can't strap a 5lb plate to your heel and do cleans. A weight lifting shoe is an all around good investment for someone who is looking to do squats, cleans, etc... Reebok even makes one now, and can usually be found at Dick's sporting good.

I'll do some lifting here and there without a lifting shoe, but when I start getting into set of 5 or less, the shoes always come out.

Couple articles on shoes if you're bored
http://www.dynamic-eleiko.com/sportivny/library/farticles015.html
http://www.liftbigeatbig.com/2012/07/you-need-olympic-weightlifting-shoes.html

Deadlifting is usually not recommended in a weight lifting shoe however. More so a minimal type, chucks, or barefoot are preferred.
If you are a low-bar squater, then I'll leave that up to you to decide which shoe you like.

 

There are lots of lifters and programs that do big lifts always. Before you deem the 5x5 program bad, double check your programming and form to see where an issue could be.
For example, doing front squats, hang cleans, and presses in the same day is probably going to lead to some elbow and wrist pain from being in the "shelf" with each lift. Try switching those around and not overloading one part.
Also, I've seen dudes do their 5x5 but then tack on a bunch of other stuff after for isolation. Lastly, I've seen people do 5x5 everyday, 6 days a week. That is going to lead to some joint pain too.

Not saying you're doing any of those, but it's always good to look at your programming and form to determine where an error might be. You can also try a different lifting program and see if you like it better. Not uncommon for someone to do 5x5 then once they get a good base, start branching out to other programming.

Post an update after the higher rep try. Would be interesting to hear the results.