Back in the Lifting Game, anyone else coming back? What are your goals?

That's right on the money. Used to be 6'1" until I broke my back.

 

Ugh - how did that happen?

 

Would love to get back to it, but 3 hernias later I'm hesitant to say the least...my favorite lifts were the bench press and dead lifts. Anyone here go back to lifting after multiple hernia surgeries? Would love advice on how you returned to it

 

Alcohol and the military.

 

Check with your doctor first, but I don't think even lifting light would be a bad idea.

 

I had just one hernia operation. Regardless, I have found that at 45 the key to avoiding injury and getting back at it is to be humble and ramp things up slowly. Chart everything and be sure to stick to a program.

If you progress safely and don't let your ego decide your lifts you should be fine.

 

Exactly, and why I'm not going for strength tests. I'm fine higher reps with slightly lower weight.

Of course, in time, increased strength is a natural benefit, so increased weight will have to be used.

 

Hahahaha. You are spot on!

 

Thanks for the advice Anthony and Jason! gonna check with the dr and I may be back at it with light weight and a lot of reps! Charting my progression will help me advance in weight at a safe pace while not getting carried away.

 

Ask the doctor about exercises focused directly on strengthening your back.

Try out a hack squat machine with just your body weight. That way you can focus on kepping your back flat and easier to keep the core engaged and focus on your legs.

 

Yeah, just started again after yet another hiatus. This time though I decided to switch it up and go back to basics. The last reboot was at the beginning of the yr and I made great gains in short order but only in a couple areas, I could tell my overall strength was way down from yrs ago. So for this routine instead of super and compound sets with a 6 day schedule I went with purely barbell lifts, the common 5x5. Good lord was I sore the first week! I've been able to add on avg 20lbs to each lift per week. I started at 60% of my 1RM and have been moving towards it quicker then I thought I would.

Decided to track the data for each lift and also body measurements. In the past I've naturally adjusted my lifts to suit my size (6'4") but this time around I did a bit more digging into the skeletal structure and joint length ratios to really optimize my lifts.

 

Awesome, and great plan!

Once your gains start plateauing, I shoot for 10 pounds a week extra for lower body and 5 pounds for upper body. Once you hit a point where you can no longer finish your sets after a weight increase, I do one more week of the old weight and try again. If I still can't make the new weight, I do a soft reset (minus 15% or so) and work my way back up. After two soft resets, I do a hard reset (minus 30%). I've blasted through all my PR's this way in the past.

Of note: you'll notice that when your squats start getting big, your other lifts get really big quickly too. This is due to the enormous skeletal and nervous system loading of heavy squats, which promotes large testosterone release. Heavy squats are truly nature's steroids, and you'll see the benefits quickly. This is why guys like Rippetoe program squats into every workout.

 

Really like your workout plan for blasting through PRs. I had to start from a very low bar (no pun intended) and so while I targeted gains in weight, I also varied reps from mid-high to mid-low (8-12 on higher and 3-5 on lower) to get both my CNS up for heavy and also to add some muscle mass through volume.

One thing on squats, you can get the same testosterone release doing anything that requires lots of work (f x d). That includes deads, bench, and even leg press too.

Leg press is something I think many people misunderstand because it's a machine and because of the math. To get the same workout on a leg press just requires additional weight on the machine vs. barbell squat, due to leverage and the body weight element being taken out of the equation.

As an aside, squat vs. leg press reminds me a bit of smith machine, when I find it amusing that people say they can do an extra ~30 pounds on flat bench vs. smith ... typically without realizing the smith machine bar is 30 lbs lighter than a bench bar and you just need to add another 30 lbs in plates to equalize. I actually bench more using free weight bench press than a smith machine (which I admittedly rarely use), because I don't bench straight up and down and because of the incentive of not having the weight come back down on me (even when spotted) vs. the safety pins on smith.

Just a thought for those who aren't comfortable doing squats, not all hope is lost! I more than doubled my bench press in ~3 years, and never went too heavy on squats.

 

This week, plateau! could only go up by 10&5 then on the last set had to drop to last weeks weight. I had cut my calories back when I wasn't lifting to avoid gaining weight, I can tell I'm not consuming enough calories now that I'm back lifting, for me that's probably the hardest part. Eating is a chore and eating lots of clean calories is a lot of work, OK time consuming to me as I've always found eating to cut into time otherwise spent doing other things. I'll sooner skip a meal then eat junk food. I really don't want to have to eat round the clock like I did yrs ago, but how else does one get 3500~4k in a day? right now I'm working on getting my calories up to at least 2500, I know, I know, got to feed the machine. Fully aware of the fat storage problem when the body senses starvation. I had down regulated to the point where I just don't get hungry that often.

Squats are such a fundamental lift, it's amazing how many lifters get it wrong too. I'm guilty of it myself, get lazy part way thru sets. Done right requires tremendous balance and core strength, something many do lack. Getting out of the 'hole' has to be the hardest part, esp for those over 6' like myself. A long Femur can really make it tough. Squats are part of every routine. Just like pull-ups and my other favorite hanging hand curls. I have a pull up bar that spins freely, makes it a real ***** to hang from without a strong grip. Hang from the finger tips and curl your hands up then the wrist. amazing forearm workout with just your body weight. also requires stabilizing your core to maintain not flopping about. Gifted with a naturally strong grip helps, my dad had a brutally strong grip, though his hand was shorter then mine by a good inch. Heck shaking his hands was like grabbing a bunch of bananas! His pinky finger was thicker then my thumb!

 

Free weights vs machine.... always a debate

Personally I prefer free weights even when doing isolation lifts as it always requires stability from other muscle groups. Now if someone is training as a 'bodybuilder' going for that 'look' then machines offer the ability to really isolate and focus on weal part training. But even those guys will use free weights for the foundation of getting to that point.

I think for even the avg joe who looking to stay fit free weights offer soo much more then you could get from a machine. full body recruitment and most importantly less risk of injury. That last bit may sound counter-intuitive, the problem is many who go for free weights are more concerned with the number of plates or how heavy it is vs proper form and building the core strength needed. Once that foundation is built avg joe will find that he or she is stronger then 90% of those in the gym. Someone could squat heavy on a leg press, but if they tried that same amount on a barbell they are inviting injury.

Proper form for the bench is critical to a safe lift. Shoulders are prone to injury when the moment arm is not neutral. Wrist elbow and shoulder all need to stay in line and the smith machine forces a linear vertical movement, so if one is placed correctly under it then the moment arm will stay neutral but it robs one of developing proper form and recruiting other muscles to maintain that form. But using free weights also means having spotters to avoid major injury when pushing the limit, or at the least a power rack.

 

Machines are easier and safer for novices, which are their only two merits.

Smith Machines are my arch enemy because people would rather use a Smith with heavy weight than a free lift with lighter weight. Ego, man. Smith squats are downright dangerous sometimes, unless you are doing hack squats.

Give me a squat rack, a bench, bumper plates, and a few kettle bells and I'm all set.

 

I always incorporate both. Usually start with free weights and finish with cables and machines. I tend to be a high rep lifter no matter the weight I'm using.

I highly recommend using cables. It will truly help your chest development.

 

I hear you but a novice should get proper training on free weights and not have to worry about sub-par foundation building. But not everyone at the gym is actually interested in doing right.

 

Not to be an ass but if your within 15% of your 1RM there is no way you're going to manage high reps with perfect form and no cheats.

When I started lifting I was more interested in strength and strongman training then bodybuilding. At the time I had a friend who also decided to train, so we did a 6 month routine and he went for the high-rep isolation lifts with a mix of free weights. I will admit he managed to trim down and get fairly ripped but man he was a zombie most of the time and had very little actual strength. He switched routines after that. I know it sounds goofy but the old 5x5 is a brutal and dead simple way to build core strength and make great gains in a relatively short time. You will kick your own ass if done right. After a couple weeks now my rest time between sets has increased from ~45sec to a staggered 1-3-5-7mins after each set it gets progressively longer to rest for the next smack-down.

muscle belly development can be very specific to each person and their genetic makeup. I'd argue that dumbell flys are better then cables but do require significantly more control to avoid injury. Don't get me wrong I do have some cable exercises that I'll do when isolating a specific muscle but that's only after I've gotten back up to overall size and balance in strength.

In other news:
I just picked up a pair of fat grips, having bigger hands then the avg, and with the barbell bar being a bit small to me it makes some lifts a bit painful on the palm. Also there is no real strain on gripping even the heaviest of lifts, when your hand can wrap all the way round and touch your palm again the strain on your forearm is next to nil. The fat grips change all that very quickly! makes overhead and benching a dream, but conversely dead lifts and rows now induce a bit of a burn. I like them, ordered another set so I don't have to move them around as much. For those with avg hand length it would add another level of pain to your workout.

I wonder how many lifters know that there are different barbells depending on the lift? spring vs no spring....

 

I may start since I'm a civilian now, but I've never trained for vanity reasons before and so I rarely use any isolation exercises.

Our trainers at my old job put together, begrudgingly, a "beach body" two month workout plan that was ROUGH. My god, man, it worked really well but they made you pay for it. No machines, all free weights, but had these ridiculously nasty barbell complexes for arms, back, and shoulders. I literally couldn't pick up a cup of coffee the next day after one of the bicep/forearm complexes.

If anyone is interested, I could be happy to forward on some of the workouts from then. I still have most of the spreadsheets. They would require a bit of translating and definitely aren't for novices, but they are awesome if you have the equipment.

 

I've always wanted to try those. I'm a chalk guy but I work out at home so I don't have a gym manager getting pissed at me for slinging chalk around

 

I never said anything about my max though, which I don't truly know since I typically workout solo so i lift as heavy as i can without feeling i will injure myself or have to throw the weights down. I beg to differ on my form. if I'm going heavy, using dumbells or regular bench im usually not going any higher than 8 reps. I make sure Im concentrating on feeling it in my chest or back or whatever I'm working using free weights. If not, ill put them down and reset.

Maybe I should have clarified that by heavy high rep sets, I'm talking about using machines.

I do do DB flies, cables are just a great finisher to exhaust the chest or back or delts, at the end of the workout and really get a good stretch.

I have no specific routine I follow currently. I just go in and do whatever feels good, albeit each day is usually a specific body part.

 

Yea, you've been training for an actual purpose, not for fun. Much different of course.

That routine sounds interesting and tough. Would love to just see what it's about.

Come January I'm going off alcohol during the week, and going to try a new regimen, although I have no idea what it'll be. Something I'll just make up.

I'm actually dealing with a hemorroid right now, so I don't plan on squatting or deadlifting any time soon.

 

Fat Grips do far more than forearm work.

Thick grip barbell training has been done in olympic, powerlifting, and elite bodybuilding circles for years. No one can say exactly why it works to pack on size and strength. But the best explanation is that it "inhibits an inhibition." Basically, when using regular gripped barbells and dumbbells, your brain goes into autopilot. The amount of muscle motor units recruited are minimal. But, if you suddenly change the grip size, your brain/body gets confused and recruits a much higher threshold of muscle motor units, resulting in more strength and more size for the entire targeted muscle group.

Highly recommended that you use them for six weeks, and throw them out for six weeks. Alternate this way, and you'll get the most benefit. Or, if you wanted to, order the even larger size, so that you could have an extra six weeks of confusion in rotation.

Alternately, if just put a ring of tape on your equipment's barbells/dumbbells/pull-up bars every few weeks, I've heard of great results from doing this as well.

 

I got fat grips strictly for pull-ups, chin ups, and bar muscle ups. They are awesome.

I also use a sweet Elieko bar specifically for deadlift. Makes a big difference for me.