Anyone here bench, lift weights, etc?

[Alcoholocaust]

Ah, lost 3kg this week

Shame, I was about to crack 80kgs, but then work dumped an extra 30 hours on me this week and last, also just starting skating again so a bit more cardio. But I'm back to the usual 38 hours work a week and hopefully I can hit 80 in the next month

Them feels.
Don't worry muscle memory is awesome. I was skeptical but when i was on tour last year i got food poisoning and couldn't eat for around 3 days. Lost 7kgs!
I put it straight back on in 2 weeks when i was home and back into my normal diet.

 

[Kidneythief]

Well after doing some reading and researching I came up with the following plan. Gonna be interesting to say atleast... don't know how it will work out for a newbie like me. Offcourse I won't be doing these at first with maximum weights
Tried to cover as much areas as I could, again if you have suggestions feel free

1st day Going for chest, triceps, shoulders, and a bit of leg:
Benchpress
Triceps Extension On Cable
Shrugs
Flyes
Seated Triceps Extension
Standing Lateral Raises
Squats
Situps

2nd day: biceps, back, legs
Benchpress
Standing Barbell Curls
Front Lat Pulldown
Wrist Curl
Incline Curl With Dumbbells
T-bar rows
Leg press
Calf raises
Situps

 

[MikeH]

I wouldn't recommend benching both days. If you hit your chest hard enough on your first day, you should still be burnt out on your second day. Not to mention, it's a chest workout anyways. So, instead of that, maybe do some wide-grip pull-ups. That's always my go-to back workout, aside from deadlifts. I wouldn't recommend deadlifts to you until you do a heavy amount of reading and video watching about them. I also don't think you should do squats by themselves. Add it to your leg day instead. That way you're hitting your legs hard one day, then have 6 days of rest after that. Other than that, it doesn't look too bad.

Good call on not doing max weight. Always start small, focus on form and hard muscles contraction. Feel every rep.

 

[UnderTheSign]

I'd also recommend a more logical order, chest > shoulders > triceps and back > biceps > legs. Might want to drop a curl variation and add a back exercise as right now it's 3 for arms and 2 for back while usually it's the other way around.

If you do legs on one day, I'd recommend changing leg press for some sort of hamstring movement too. Maybe change side lat raises for shoulder presses as I feel those hit the full shoulder more than one type of raise.

 

[TRENCHLORD]

I think recovery/growth is too often overlooked.

Try this;
Push day- 2-3sets of bench (after warmups), 2-3 sets of shoulder press, 2-3 sets of tricep pushes (any kind)

take a day off

Pull day- same scheme using rows/pullups/pulldowns

take a day off

Legs/Core- Squats or Deadlifts then hit the abs

take a day off

Repeat cycle (there is no law that says the split needs to be done over 7 days, 6 or 8 can work fine also, or whatever)
You can also rotate the chosen lifts for the day, like inclines instead of flats, or leg-press instead of squats or ect......



^I realize this isn't geared for powerlifting progress.
My training philosophy has always been "the most amount to show for the least amount of work, over the longest amount of time" (decades).
I want to feel good and be muscular when I'm 50, even 60 years old.

 

[MikeH]

Well, he said that he can only work out 2 days a week, due to his schedule, which makes his split a bit cramped.

 

[Kidneythief]

Yeah, I know it's not very ideal to cramm the whole thing into 2 days but what can you do.

But thank you for the advices I'll have another look at it. Once I'm done with work dammit...

 

[Winspear]

Here's what I'd be doing with 2 days a week:

On weeks where it's 2 days in a row or just one day between them:
Day 1:
Squats 4 x 6-8
Leg Press 4 x 6-8
Bench 4 x 6-8
Overhead Press 4 x 6-8
Tricep Dip 3 x 6-8
Tricep Pushdown 3 x 6-8

Day 2:
Deadlift 4 x 6-8
Pullup 4 x Failure
Bent Row 4 x 6-8
T Bar Row 4 x 6-8
Bicep Curl 3 x 6-8
Preacher Curl 3 x 6-8

And on weeks where you can hit the two sessions with two or more days rest in between:
Squats 5 x 5
Bench 5 x 5
Deadlift 5 x 5
Bent Row 5 x 5
Overhead Press 5 x 5
Pullup 4 x Failure

I think a two day a week routine especially where the days are potentially close together is very good for focussing too much on the smaller exercises. I have my girlfriend on a very similar program to the above at the moment (2-3 / wk), minus tris/bis right now, and it's going very well. A routine like this should be focused enough to get some solid noob gains going

 

[gunshow86de]

Started the Base Mesocycle of Smolov this week, and it is kicking my ass. I barely have energy to do my bench and overhead pressing work.

Monday was 4 sets of 9 at 295 lbs. Today was 5 sets of 7 at 315 lbs. Friday is 7 sets of 5 at 335 lbs. Saturday is 10 sets of 3 at 355 lbs. Repeat next week, bumping the weights up 20 lbs each day.

I will say that for anyone considering doing it, I would recommend taking some weight off of you 1RM before calculating the weights for all your sets. I took 15 lbs off of mine and it's still pretty brutal.

 

[Winspear]

Smolov and Smolov JR are sounding fun. Definitely going to try sometime later this year. Lol, 'fun'...

I finish my 8 week program this week with a 104% deadlift on Friday. It's been super fun. Definitely going to run it again but in a caloric surplus because my strength gains while cutting have been fantastic. Real test will come next weekend at a meet going for 107-111%.
Going to hit triples for 3 weeks after that just before the competition. I checked out some PDF previous results and records today and it's quite likely I will take 1st for 74kg Under 23's and perhaps the whole 74kg Category (only a under 23s and over 40's comp). Also likely to set regional squat+dead records for U23 74kg May only be a regional but for just a few months into powerlifting I'm very happy with this progress.

My birthday in October though and I'll be moving up a weightclass too, so this is the last time I'll ever be at the top of anything for a while

 

[MikeH]

Need to get back into my squat groove before I hit Smolov. I'm super happy with Stronglifts right now, though. Seeing solid gains every week, pretty consistently. My bench is struggling, but I expected that. I've still gone up 20 lbs with my working weight, so I'm happy about that.

 

[gunshow86de]

Week 2 of the base mesocycle started. I've resigned to the fact that I'll be sore all the time. Even with rolling, stretching and light warmups, I still can't get the lactic acid out until about the 3rd set.

 

[MikeH]

Deadlifting at 300 lbs. for my working set now. A goal that I thought was way far off. I've seen crazy gains lately, and I'm about to kick things into overdrive. This week I'm really focused on eating way more, and making every rep in my workout count. Today kicked my ass because I made every squat rep touch my ass to my heels. Felt like a real man, but it also felt like I was doing what this exercise was meant for. I was in a little bit of a slump, but today was a slump-buster for sure.

 

[ddtonfire]

Just joined the 1000 lb club!

245x1 bench
375x3 squat
395x3 deadlift

Total: 1015 lb

 

[MikeH]

Killing it! Just bumped my total up today with a bench PR at 205. Went for 225, but got stuck midway through and let it hit the catch bars (controlled, I didn't let it drop). Wanted to try for 215, but I was hit after the 225 attempt. There's always next week, though. So:

Squat: 301x1
Bench: 205x1
Deadlift: 370x1

Total: 876

Pretty stoked about it. About to smash through 900.

 

[Winspear]

^ Grats both How much are you weighing now?

Got my 4 weeks out test meet this Sunday, looking forward to it! I'm finally at the 74kg mark now, going for a 445kg total this week

 

[MikeH]

I'm sitting at 158 currently. Just started getting my food intake in check this week after slacking off, so I'm hoping I get the gains back. Looking for 180.

 

[icos211]

Man, I love my back. Did some dumbbell rows 3x7 @ 80lbs. May not seem like much, but for only lifting for 3 months they are the biggest dumbbells I've ever touched.

Going swimming with a girl I'm into tomorrow. I'm bulking though, so I'm definitely anything but swimsuit ready. I'm going to hit the gym bright and early, though, and try to get the biggest pump I possibly can. There's an innuendo in there somewhere...

 

[MikeH]

Fvcking bombed out at the gym yesterday. Did two sets of squats at 220 with a pause at the bottom. 3rd set, got two reps and then folded like a pretzel. Luckily I had the safety bars set at a decent height. After that, my legs were shot. I'm blaming it on my recent lack of sleep, as I was up until 1:30am the night before, and woke up at 6:45. Gonna take today and not do shit, then hit it hard tomorrow morning before my tattoo session.

 

[gunshow86de]

Just finished week 2 of the base meso cycle of Smolov. FVCK I'M BEAT!

Monday - 315 lbs x 9 reps for 4 sets
Wednesday - 335 lbs x 7 reps for 5 sets
Friday - 355 lbs x 5 reps for 7 sets
Today - 375 lbs x 3 reps for 10 sets (10 motherfvcking sets!)

It's interesting that, for the Friday and Saturday workouts, the weight somehow gets easier in the second half of the workout. The 9th and 10th sets today were better and easier than the 1st and 2nd. It's weird, but I suppose you just kind of go in to "auto-pilot."

I'm definitely expending a lot of calories. I've already gained (lost?) a notch on my weight belt (it comes in an extra notch).