The Weight Lifting Thread

[RichForrest]

I know my weakness is my back and have stayed away from deadlifts.
Must try harder!

Have been trying harder with the deadlifts, changed foot and grip position slightly which has helped the weight to go up.
A lot of it's been in my head thinking I will hurt my back, a lot more has been working on form and trying to get it better.
Managed to pull 180kg this morning, grip gave way at the top so it looks I need to start using mixed grip.
Along with a 170 squat and 120 bench means I have entered the 1000lb club 

One thing I have noticed, you have to eat shitloads to get stronger! I have put on nearly 10kg in weight so far this year, don't think I have gained much fat though!!

[simonp]

 

Not lifting at the moment. Probably should do some but cycling and rowing training are plenty.

[Chinaski]

I know my weakness is my back and have stayed away from deadlifts.
Must try harder!

Have been trying harder with the deadlifts, changed foot and grip position slightly which has helped the weight to go up.
A lot of it's been in my head thinking I will hurt my back, a lot more has been working on form and trying to get it better.
Managed to pull 180kg this morning, grip gave way at the top so it looks I need to start using mixed grip.
Along with a 170 squat and 120 bench means I have entered the 1000lb club 

One thing I have noticed, you have to eat shitloads to get stronger! I have put on nearly 10kg in weight so far this year, don't think I have gained much fat though!!

Yeah you don't eat a lot the strength gains stall.

Started in December and have added 4kgs, mainly muscle.
Pulled 170kg on deadlift Wednesday which is twice bodyweight!! Yahoo!

I've done 2 300km rides so far this year; only bike training was one 100km ish ride a week with strength work. Went fine able to diesel away at 25-26km but no conditioning for high intensity.  That work starts now.

Have dialed back strength training with last few weeks so will just try maintain most strength for multi day event in June.

[simonp]

I did this.

[caerau]

For the first time in about 8 years I am now weight lifting again. Although it's physiotherapy for the arm I damaged back in January.
On my last stint of weightlifting in 2008ish I trained myself up in the Uni gym as a powerlifter just out of curiosity on how much I could deadlift, bench press and squat.  Those who've met me will have observed that I'm kind of naturally big and muscly, this has therefore given me a natural penchant for this during my life.  My record, before I pulled an intercostal muscle deadlifting and lost interest was 200 kg deadlift, 150 kg bench press (on a Smith machine - never dared do that free weight doing it solo) and 190 kg squat (damn that was annoying being 10kg short of the magic round number).


So it is somewhat humbling at the moment to be able to currently only curl .... weight* for it... a WHOLE 2kg and not even that with my palm 90 degree supinated (1 1/4 kg is comfortable that way). 
It seems this stuff is tricky with weakened a tendon 


I shall get there 


I'm not really fussed about weight pumping these days otherwise - having massive strong muscles isn't too handy for long climby audaxes and I satisfied my curiosity on the power I could deliver back in 2008.


*Sad pun I know

[Jakob]

Got back in the squat rack yesterday for the first time in.....well, many months.
I get rather severe DOMS, so was just going very light with 60kgs x5. Did 4 sets, then stuck 80kg on it and while it was easy enough, I could feel my quads going "You're going to pay for this!" and stopped after 3 reps.

I'm now in a 'regular' gym, as I changed jobs 5 months ago and no longer have easy access to a CF gym, but at least they have squat racks and they seem relatively under-utilized...plan is to lift 2x a week and row on as many days as possible.

[CrazyEnglishTriathlete]

Have got an Olympic bar and weights at home but no rack.  Its fine for deadlifts, but am thinking about some form of stand to hold and rest the bar so that I can squat safely.  Any recommendations?

[campagman]

Single leg squats?

[Jakob]

Have got an Olympic bar and weights at home but no rack.  Its fine for deadlifts, but am thinking about some form of stand to hold and rest the bar so that I can squat safely.  Any recommendations?

Front squats with the heaviest weight you can clean?

[campagman]

Have got an Olympic bar and weights at home but no rack.  Its fine for deadlifts, but am thinking about some form of stand to hold and rest the bar so that I can squat safely.  Any recommendations?

Landmine exercises?

[Jakob]

With the physio giving me the go-ahead, I'm back in the gym.Want to avoid DOMS (I suffer badly from it), so have been building up gently with 5x5 of each of the lifts (bench, squat, deadlift). Due to my more or less chronic shoulder issues, my bench has always been pathetic, but shoulder is now better than ever, so no more excuses.
Currently aiming at 3x per week, although today (3rd time), I skipped on the deadlifts as my back was more sore than I liked.
Currently I'm at: 105lbs bench, 175 squat & 185 dead. Still not approaching max, but as mentioned, really want to ease into this.

[Jakob]

Bench 5x5: 125lbs
Squat 5x5: 205lbs
Dead: 3x3: 215lbs

Squats are getting heavy enough that I have to split them out from the deadlifts very soon. Also approaching 'max' for the bench.
Best thing is that shoulder is reacting to it very nicely and DOMS is manageable, even in the legs.

[Jakob]

Did some row intervals at first, so was pretty cooked by the time I got to the rack. Was going to bench first, but all the benches were busy (Gym was surprisingly busy for 9:30pm!), so jumped straight onto the squats. With legs being semi-cooked, my plans of doing 225lbs/100kg went away and I ended up with 5x5 of 205lbs instead.
 Did some rehab work on my calf (one-legged box jumps) and called it.

[Jakob]

2k row in 8:44. Stamina/endurance is still lacking.
Was planning to deadlift and/or bench, but bench racks were all used and so was the deadlift bar. One guy was finishing some push-press and asked if I wanted to warm up during his rest, which was perfect.
Despite (or because of?) the row, I felt good, warmed up to 205lbs, slapped 225lbs/100kgs on it and did a 5x5. Yay!.
It was hard work but entirely doable and it's a really nice bench mark to get back to.
Finished off with was supposed to be a cool-down spin on the spin bike, but recovered and decided to finish with a set of Tabata sprints. Sucked, but recovery is also improving.
Going to cool down on the squats a bit, focus on the bench/deadlift and then add some squat-cleans.

[ElyDave]

Now that I've got my gym sorted I'm trying to pick up the strength training again, and finally have one kettlebell and will probably add more later.

I have a few workouts to do with them, but can anyone recommend any particular sites for KB routines?

[Jakob]

8:29 for the row and racks free, so 5x5 bench at 125lb. Still not very stable, but improving. Deadlifts 5x5 at 220lbs. Still a bit rusty & cautious, but last 2 sets were comfortable, so can add more weight.

[Ashaman42]

What's this? The program I'm supposed to be following specifies increasing the deadlift by 15 lb a week and I've been going up 15 kg. No wonder if got hard work rather quickly 

Still I managed a set of five at 90 kg cf a bodyweight of 63 which isn't bad but it was a bit of a winch up for the final set.

The other lifts I've also been increasing by too much per session but not to the same extent.