Lifter problems
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A thread I can relate to…
6'1 (185cm), 101kg, 27" thighs, squatter's ass, 36" waist.
Jeans are a nightmare, almost nothing nice fits well. Yes, Levi's 541s fit like a charm but the quality isn't good and they wear out.
I have the 1955S and wear them all the time. Lovely and comfy, and I'm happier in them than anything else I own. Not without flaws, as touched on already in this thread, primarily the front rise: it's so high it means I can't put shoes on with a phone in my pocket, can't use a larger phone, causes hip flair and crotch buldge, and just looks a bit odd generally. As they've worn in after 300 or so wears it looks a lot less odd I'm happy to say.
Not many suggestions in this thread sadly offer much hope to me: thighs either inadequate or rear rise is too low. As I get back to heavy weights I'll only grow again too...
I'm well off my old numbers in the gym at the mo, after a couple of bad injuries playing sports. Currently 170kg deads, 120kg squats for reps.
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Not many suggestions in this thread sadly offer much hope to me: thighs either inadequate or rear rise is too low. As I get back to heavy weights I'll only grow again too…
A new IH cut is on its was to save us all. Just don't call it a lifter cut…
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Not many suggestions in this thread sadly offer much hope to me: thighs either inadequate or rear rise is too low. As I get back to heavy weights I'll only grow again too…
A new IH cut is on its was to save us all. Just don't call it a lifter cut…
Oh really? Is this confirmed? Would be great for all the lifters/sportspeople out there… it saddens me that so much of fashion panders to scrawny blokes who've never played a jot of sport... well, them and distance athletes
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Oh really? Is this confirmed? Would be great for all the lifters/sportspeople out there…
Oh yes:
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More rise at the back AND more taper! Just what they needed! The 1955S taper, but when cut down to a regular leg length the leg opening is a tad too large still, makes them look scruffier…
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A thread I can relate to…
6'1 (185cm), 101kg, 27" thighs, squatter's ass, 36" waist.
Jeans are a nightmare, almost nothing nice fits well. Yes, Levi's 541s fit like a charm but the quality isn't good and they wear out.
I have the 1955S and wear them all the time. Lovely and comfy, and I'm happier in them than anything else I own. Not without flaws, as touched on already in this thread, primarily the front rise: it's so high it means I can't put shoes on with a phone in my pocket, can't use a larger phone, causes hip flair and crotch buldge, and just looks a bit odd generally. As they've worn in after 300 or so wears it looks a lot less odd I'm happy to say.
Not many suggestions in this thread sadly offer much hope to me: thighs either inadequate or rear rise is too low. As I get back to heavy weights I'll only grow again too...
I'm well off my old numbers in the gym at the mo, after a couple of bad injuries playing sports. Currently 170kg deads, 120kg squats for reps.
Haha replied to you in the jeans thread as well but we're pretty much the same proportions. I'm 5'11", 195, 25" thighs, 34" waist. I'm also a pretty far off my strongest due to two jobs and a kid, and not wanting to compete in powerlifting anymore.
I never liked 5-3-1 either. I just can't wrap my head around the higher rep sets. I need target weight for target reps, and do far better with intensity (5 reps or less). Don't get me wrong, it's a great program for some, usually people who need more volume and/or older people who should push the weights as far up. I have a 45 year old client than ran 5-3-1 for a long time to great effect.
Since it seems like we're doing this, workout yesterday was…
EMOM is fat bar deadlifts, bar facing burpees and side bridges
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Haha replied to you in the jeans thread as well but we're pretty much the same proportions. I'm 5'11", 195, 25" thighs, 34" waist. I'm also a pretty far off my strongest due to two jobs and a kid, and not wanting to compete in powerlifting anymore.
It's hard to stay at one's strongest isn't it! Keeping the necessary weight on isn't easy on stomach or knees either, though I do kinda like hovering around the 245lb mark.
I never liked 5-3-1 either. I just can't wrap my head around the higher rep sets. I need target weight for target reps, and do far better with intensity (5 reps or less). Don't get me wrong, it's a great program for some, usually people who need more volume and/or older people who should push the weights as far up. I have a 45 year old client than ran 5-3-1 for a long time to great effect.
I mix up my rep ranges through the year, currently I'd do squats 7-7-7-5-5 and deads along the lines of 6-6-6-4-2 with ever increasing weight. The 2 may prove to be a 1 depending on how successful I am.
EMOM is fat bar deadlifts, bar facing burpees and side bridges
Never had the chance of playing with a fat bar- my grip does need work honestly, I struggle to hold onto 120kg without straps, which is a bit rubbish
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It's hard to stay at one's strongest isn't it! Keeping the necessary weight on isn't easy on stomach or knees either, though I do kinda like hovering around the 245lb mark.
Indeed it is. When I started powerlifting I was just under 170. Got up to 218 at my biggest (never quite made "morbidly obese" BMI, to my shame). Now oscillate between 193-198, which is a far better athletic weight for my frame but there isn't as much of me between the bar and the ground so absolute strength does suffer. I'm older with a kid now so that pretty much means I've decided to do what I like doing, which is lift, so I'll hopefully creep back up a bit.
I committed some serious food crimes on the way up, as anyone who's been in the powerlifting world is probably familiar with. Several people considered having a food intervention on me. Although almost no one believes me when I tell them, I gained a pound per day for the first 2 weeks. I tell people that when you're trying to gain weight, if the takeout people don't put 4 sets of silverware in your bag you didn't get enough food. I went through a 6 month period where I wasn't hungry at any moment. So, yea, not the most sustainable lifestyle but it was great fun being strong! (For those that haven't done it, the food is fun for about a week, and burden thereafter)
I'm actually in the gym right now, going to be hitting up some squats momentarily. Nothing like having a gym all to yourself!
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@TrickHell Where are you failing on the press. Around eyebrow level? A few things might help.
-People universally set up their hands too wide in the press. You want your forearms vertical in the bottom, so your elbows can be directly below your wrists. I set up with the web of my thumb inside the knurling, and I have somewhat broad shoulders.
-Another tip is your grip on the bar, you want the bar sitting over your wrist bones. A trick to achieve this is to rotate your elbows out when grabbing the bar, which will put it diagonally over your hands and you should feel the weight in the butt of your palm when picking it up. Gonna try and load a vid of what I mean.
-Lastly, extensor muscles potentiate other extensors. It'd be great if you could press with open hands, but you can't for obvious reasons. However, your butt is a huge extensor that can be activated without consequence. Every rep in the bottom flex your butt hard like when doing a glute bridge. It'll get you that extra pop out of the bottom of the press.
Sorry if all of that is old news to you, but I always have to chime in where the OHP is concerned.
Vid didn't work. Pics are normal grip vs better grip.
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Another tip that I've found useful to engage the lats is to apply some torque to the bar, as if you we're trying to snap it between your hands.
One of the most counterintuitive thing on the bench press is how to use the feet. They should be glued to the floor, pushing away from the bum.
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I'm going to air this "problem" here as I feel safer doing it here than asking on a weightlifting forum and getting 69 different flavours of bro wisdom.
The short version is, I need an alternative exercise to leg presses. Are sumo squats a good replacement? Any other suggestions?
The long version is, the leg press machine at my gym is unreliable and out of order more than it works. I do two lower body days a week. Day A has deadlifts at the top of the routine and then the problematic leg presses, followed by a few assistance/isolation moves. Day B has Squats at the top, followed by Bulgarian split squats and isolation work. For the squats I'm doing 3x8, with a relatively standard, narrow stance (feet lining up between hips and shoulders), and I'm squatting to parallel. This suits my body type, allows me to go heavy and spares my 43 yr old knees the stress of going deep/ATG. I'm tempted to replace the leg press permanently with some more squat work, maybe sumo or wide stance and initially using lighter weights and breaking parallel with a view to getting as low as possible. Thoughts?
Any and all answers appreciated.
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If you've got access to some decent dumbbells, you could always try the goblet squat.
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If you've got access to some decent dumbbells, you could always try the goblet squat.
Goblet squat is absolutely an option!
If it were me I'd replace all the machines with squats 3x5 and/or leg mobility work.
Leg press is the only machine I use. But this is certainly a good chance to get shot of it forever.
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^completely agree with @TrickHell you shouldn't be afraid of squatting to the limits of your mobility/skeletal mechanics. There's much higher risk to your knees from not doing so and only going to parallel since this doesn't make use of the stretch reflex action. It's been mentioned by others in this thread, but I'd highly recommend reading Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe, and/or watching his YouTube vids.
Leg press machines are useful for bodybuilders but not so useful if you want to build functional strength and not compromise joint mobility. If you're squatting with proper form (and full depth) and on a good program for your specific goals then you shouldn't need to be doing leg presses, so I'm curious as to what you felt they were providing?
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Just to be clear, I have nothing against going ATG or breaking parallel and I'm not a stranger to Rippetoe. But without boring you all with specifics about my body shape and injury history, my knees definitely don't like the concentric movement of a below parallel squat done with normal foot stance. They tackle breaking parallel in a front squat and they tackle ATG with an exaggerated wide stance/borderline sumo squat, as long as my feet are properly flared and my knees track over them.
I'm going to keep on doing my regular Friday squat regardless. I've made great progress with it and it has done wonders for power, muscle growth and, in fact, my knees. The point was I guess, is a squat variation a useful substitute for the leg press. The consensus here seems to be it's actually an improvement. So I'm going to do straight sets (3x10) of wide stance deep squats on deadlift day, in addition to standard squats on squat day. My standard squat at the moment is 3x8 @ 140kg, so I guess 90-95kg (my bodyweight) would be a good place to start the wide stance, ATG variation?
Either way, thanks for all the input guys.
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Bit late on this, but I do front squats and rate them much more than leg press. I do them after low bar squats, 5 sets of 10 reps.
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@jvicente86:
@neph93 that should be a good starting point for the wider stance…
Thanks for the advice. First day with the wide stance was yesterday. Did 90kg for 3x10 with my ass way below parallel. Felt good, but different for sure. Could really feel the work my hip joints and core muscles were doing. Looking forward to perfecting form and throwing on weights.
I made the mistake of starting hill sprints at the same time as I tried moving into a calorific surplus. I was eating about 2000 cal more a week and still lost a kilo [emoji28]
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@jvicente86:
@neph93 that should be a good starting point for the wider stance…
Thanks for the advice. First day with the wide stance was yesterday. Did 90kg for 3x10 with my ass way below parallel. Felt good, but different for sure. Could really feel the work my hip joints and core muscles were doing. Looking forward to perfecting form and throwing on weights.
I made the mistake of starting hill sprints at the same time as I tried moving into a calorific surplus. I was eating about 2000 cal more a week and still lost a kilo [emoji28]
I'm late to the party but +1 for ditching the leg press. Consider switching every other week between front squats and overhead squats
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