Lift things up and put them down.

[sid3000]

teck im not sure how practical let alone safe it is to actually perform your 1rm if youre not competing or lifting professionally. Most would say you would be better off doing a few reps of 80-85% of your max, which you probably already know.

[thug]

not sure how to tag people on here

teck: This is my first year, but i'm a freshman so it's not a big deal. Very hard sport. I've been doing BJJ for awhile too, still really hard.

[thomaspaine]

Sometimes I wonder how much I stunted my growth due to weight cutting and crash diets during HS wrestling. Restrictive calorie diets are generally not recommended for children because they're still growing and it doesn't help that almost every wrestling coach I can think of is under 5'7".

In the middle of a weight cut now though. It sucks.

[kewks]

why am i so lazy, why can't i get back on a nice routine of just going to the gym instead of going home to sleep blah

i kind of want to get into something that will force me into exercising like kickboxing or something. there is a muay thai place near my house. anybody have any experience with that?

[bels]

My friend said that when you do kickboxing you learn to watch fists come towards your face with your eyes open rather than flinching.

[thomaspaine]

It depends on the gym but most muay thai/kickboxing/boxing group classes I've seen are just pad or bag work. Sparring is usually separate so If you don't want to spar/get hit then you don't have to. Good mix of aerobic and anaerobic cardio. The psychology of working out with a partner or in a group setting definitely makes you work harder than you would by yourself.

[teck]

thomas how much do you have to cut? I think cutting alone would preclude me from any serious BJJ/grappling. i love eating.

[thomaspaine]

10 - 15 pounds

[teck]

damn. how do people cut weight? just a lot of dieting and then sitting in a sauna? sounds awful.

[thomaspaine]

I've been doing a cyclical diet, where I eat very low calorie and mostly bean energy 5 days out of the week and then a 2 day carb up. You gain and lose so much water weight from carb depletion, and it's kind of fun to watch yourself gain and lose 15 lbs in the span of 2 days.

For actual water weight cutting I try not to do more than 1-3 lbs because most bjj tournaments require you to weigh in right before your match so you don't get time to rehydrate.

[anonomous]

i felt like shit when i fought last month due to weight cut. IMO best to cut early and stay there instead of rushing and feeling like shit while training towards the competition. It's not just bad performance during the comp, performance while training for the comp is greatly affected too. I suddenly had super low morale and confidence during my weight cut.

kewkiez - Why not try a kickboxing lesson? You might enjoy it and I'm sure they give taster/tester sessions for free.

For me, i've been lifting constantly for about 2 years now.. At first i loathed going to the gym but now it more or less has become a lifestyle. Going to gym 3 days a week just becomes a habit i guess and if i skip one session i usually feel terrible.

[teck]

anon that sucks man. what belt are you? i think cutting weight would preclude me from competing im a terrible dieter.

i woke up early this morning and new PR power cleaned 175 lb. form was wonky tho. also now im super tired at work.

[bels]

I was sick for a couple weeks and so was out of it. Been back to the gym this week though and went for a run today. So slow though. I was never very fast and now I'm slower. There's a 1mile fun run thing on Wednesday that I was going to enter but it seems pointless now.

[anonomous]

teck i'm a white belt. Had a seminar with Vitor 'Shaolin' Ribeiro today, then went to curry with him and team. Super nice guy, really funny too!

[teck]

im always surprised at how nice BJJ guys are. there's something about being constantly tapped out that makes a guy really mellow.

[anonomous]

I've heard people say that it's because regardless of your size, you'll bound to get wrecked by someone smaller/thinner, that's why you always stay humble i guess.

[sid3000]

My squats have been suffering lately. I want to blame it on seasons changing or lack of harmonic convergence but I think it's time for a new program. The "do it until failure" method isnt really effective at higher weights for me I'm afraid. What system are you guys on?

[UnwashedMolasses]

I was on Greyskull, which is 3 x 5, last set is As Many Reps As Possible. If that's <5, deload by 15%. If it's 5<x<10, increase by 5. If it's >10, increase by 10.

I've actually cut squats out of my lifting for about a month due to jacked up proportions.

[thug]

I'm doing Starting Strength, and I like it a lot.

I work out a good amount during the week and my body isn't too destroyed doing other things close to my lifting days.

It might be because i'm a teenager but I've seen decent gains and would recommend it.

[teck]

i plateaued pretty hard after about a year on 5x5. i backed the fuck off and just focused on other things (running, burpees, swimming) while still doing squats maybe once a week with high reps. then i went back to focusing on lifting. right now im cycling between high intensity and high volume. so its like 3 weeks of 5x5, 4x6, even 3x8, then i'll do three weeks of very heavy weight at 3x1, 1RM, 2x3. its helped a ton and i've seen a lot of gains altho i think itll level out.

my bench and overhead press suck. any tips?

[thug]

My bench and overhead suck too, try searching for some shoulder stability exercises for the OHP

may or may not help you

[UnwashedMolasses]

I've found drop sets (finishing with one last set dropped 10-15 pounds), extra sets (5x5 instead of 3x5), and higher reps (8-12) to all help when plateauing on OHP.

[anonomous]

If something plateaus for me, i do a complete form check

Bench:
1. Arched lower back
2. squeezed shoulder blades (that means your chest is up too)
3. Tight lower body with a good base. Meaning the whole lower body doesn't move.
4. elbows at a 45 degree angle when doing bench
5. bar touches nipple
6. exhale when pushing and inhale when lowering

Besides that... deload about 10 pounds and work your way back up, or eat more, or do something that supplements the bench, like triceps exercises or dumbbell bench press

[RycePooding]

Found a friend to teach me how to lift. Went for the first time this morning before class. My legs hurt.

[teck]

switching to my volume cycle - did 7 x 5. was so hard.

might do an indoor triathlon in january which is the opposite of weight lifting.

[RycePooding]

I have no idea what I'm doing re:routine. So far its been lift,day off, lift, run, lift, run, day off. Anyone have good reading on this type of stuff?

[bels]

I do run day, lift day, run day, lift day, run day, lift day, rest.

Lift days are just the two SS routines alternating.

It's resulted in me being rubbish at both lifting and running.

I dunno though, I feel just do what fits your schedule and what you can cope with. Don't sweat too hard getting the optimum routine.

[RycePooding]

But bela i want to be beautiful

[SteevMike]

Been doing linear progression for a couple weeks now since my lifts (except bench, for some reason) were stalling. Really been liking where my squat's been going lately, December should be full of PRs.

[teck]

ryce this article ( ) really helped me think about getting fit. basically, it's about having a goal (strength, endurance, etc) and just having a plan, working towards that. Every workout should have a point, to inch you closer to your overall goal.

with lifting, think of every workout as an opportunity to add weight, reps, etc towards your plan.

not sure if you're doing 5x5 or starting strength but thats good.

also its tough to do multiple aspects at once (strength and endurance are usually opposites, for example) so maybe focus on what you really want. i used to really want to have tons of endurance so i could ride my bike so i did tons of reps, swimming, etc.