Well that's kind of depressing. Adding size to my arms is probably my #1 goal because I'm absolutely sick of my little girl arms and would like to bulk them up so they look acceptable.
It takes a long time to add size. If you have 13" arms, you're looking at a good year or two to get them to 15". Unless you have a micrometer, you aren't going to see any size difference by measuring your arms weekly. It doesn't happen over night. If it did, everyone would look like this. It takes years and years and years of dedication to the gym and to your diet.
Anyone have a recommendation for good back workouts that can be done from home? I'm doing the P90X and my chin-up bar is too unstable because the doorways in my apartment are too wide, so I quit the back workouts as soon as I feel like the apparatus is going to collapse. I can fenagle some row exercises using dumbbells and body weight, but I want to know if there were other good back exercises that require basic or no equipment.
Get resistance bands, only way around that. Look for the ones that have some sort of door aparatus where you can use a sturdy closed front door. I ALMOST finished the P90X Ab Ribber X in one go today. We're getting closer.
Got my 1 rep max dead lift today, 255lbs. That may not seem like a lot to most people, but it does to me since my last max was 225. I'm slightly less than 160lbs myself and decided to give my max a whirl today. Also, does anyone have any advice for doing a snatch? What I have so far is as follows: One smooth motion Keep it close to the body Don't pop your hips out You'll end up slightly off balance backwards on top. Anything else?
Seconded. The snatch is one of, if not the most technical lift. Also, to become proficient in the oly lifts you really have to train at them specifically. Although you can do other lifts to supplement it, like romanian deadlifts, overhead squats, and push presses. But yeah, trying to fix your technique on your own takes forever, and there's no guarantee you're doing it correctly.
Trying to snatch uncoached is a fantastic way to get hurt. Videos, self videoing, etc. can only go so far. Finding someone who understands the nuances of the lift and can see your biomechanics and can make recommendations on your form based on their knowledge is pretty essential for this one.
Done properly, the snatch is performed in many different phases. There's the first pull, the second pull, the dip under, the catch, and then finally the squat. As said before, it is perhaps the most complex lift in all of lifting and to do it properly takes years of training with an experienced coach. That's not to say that you can't walk into a gym and play around with it, but if you want to do it with any significant weight, it's going to take a lot of practice and a keen eye to develop proper form. Quite frankly, a 255 lb deadlift isn't really sufficient to try snatching with anything more than a broomstick right now (which is how most of us started) You may want to start out with power snatches instead.
May god have mercy on your poor soul. Many a great man have begun the journey. Few have found the finish line. Stick with it and you'll benefit greatly.
I've looked at Smolov a couple of times since I first read about it, and I think my legs and ass could handle it. I just can't see my back surviving it. I've always been too much of a pussy to try.
Honestly Ive always feared the squat more than anything else. Just getting the form right took long enough. With my back issues I still never thought I was doing it right. I never pushed my max weight very far. Thinking about breaking my legs off at my knee caps like that youtube video with the guy in timb boots doing them. Deadlifts, after I got over my breathing issues during the lift, made much much bigger gains.
I'm a fat kid who went soccer/weight training with rugby players and down hill mountain bikers/jujitsu/kickboxing. My squats have always been the one lift where I could keep up and genuinely compete with my freak training partners. My deadlifts have been good at different points in my training cycles - but squats have always been the lift that I'm actually proud of the numbers I move. The downside is that all my shoulder/wrist/terrible posture/nerve injury bullshit means that my upper body which has always been behind the 8ball has never kept track. My shoulders are now what slows down my squats. I'm squatting 135kg/300lbs lbs at the moment and that's pretty much threshold for being able to recover enough to squat twice a week and get through the rest of my workout. Just taking the weight of the bar across my shoulders ranges from uncomfortable to more discomfort than the last rep of the lift. I leg press something like 360kg/790lbs pretty comfortably. I think I could probably leg press at the smolov intensity. Even if I dropped weight of the squat - I don't think I could handle the intensity across my shoulders. My lower back is currently coping with my squat weight - but I get the feeling that if I push through the shoulder pain to go heavier - it's my lower back that will tell me to go fuck myself. And I know form past incidents that my life turns to shit when my lower back decides to stop cooperating.
Squats should have at least a little but of intimidation to most people, you're basically putting a garbage compactor on your shoulder blades and using your legs as dubious hydraulics. I have always used a Smith Machine for squats. I trust my form out in the open, but it's just so much safer especially if it has fall locks on it. Plus, it's WAY easier to hang up. Squat accidents are usually unpleasant when on that rare occasion they do happen, but's it's "tip-over" accidents that usually occur (which sometimes are triggered by light-headedness) and they either get pinned by the bar in a badly bent way or land on it when they fail to let go on the fall. Nothing funny about that.
First arm curls, now this? (Kidding!) Dude I like you, but no. Just...no. http://stronglifts.com/smith-machine-squats-power-rack-free-weights/ tl,dr the Smith machine is horrible for proper biomechanics. And it will wreck your lower back. Get away from the Smith machine. If I could burn them all I would.
Nooo. This is unfortunate. Please learn to squat correctly without using a Smith machine. Your body will thank you. For those of you afraid of squats, really really study form. Look to Rippetoe's book Starting Strength and read up on range of motion etc.
There's pretty much nothing unsafe about using a squat rack/power rack. You fuck up, just dump the bar and it lands on the rack. Smith machines are not only for babies, they're way more dangerous in terms of not working your stabilizing muscles, which in a squat is a LOT. You'll just hurt yourself eventually.
I forgot I used to use the power rack, shows how long Ive been out of the gym. It does take some of the danger away. Still squatting requires a greater use of balance with your center of gravity that I was always afraid Id fuck up. Even dropping it on the rack still leaves room for dangerous error, I don't need to fuck up my knees or my back any more than it is. Im thinking of getting a gym membership again but Id probably focus on dead lifts first while working out my back and flexibility issues. I'd really want to hire a competent trainer to teach and critique my squat.