Lifting Support Thread 3

[Proteinpud]

Continuing from @Work2live 's original thread, with the following intro post

"Thought I’d start this thread as a few people thought it’d be a good idea.

"It might be a nice place to support each other and talk about lifting in general, ask for tips and advice on workouts, how to get enough protein etc.

"All levels very much welcome, from complete newbies to those who’ve been weightlifting for years! 💪🏼"

Yeh I’ve been watching Worlds. I lift IPF so that’s my federation. Training is going good, not long at all till British now!

Oooh @RayKray exciting!!

training was going really well - progress on flags and dips and bench - and then I went on holiday 😀. I’m in the Austrian alps walking and it is wonderful. I tested the hotel gym yesterday and it was pretty good for a hotel so I’ll try to get another session or two in there but I probably needed the break, as this year has been pretty solid.

It is incredibly inspiring! The A/BPU Europeans have been on too this week, had a lot of lifting friends there so it's been nice to see so many gold medals coming back to the UK. I was helping out with a local comp yesterday which was great, so that's relit the fire a bit. My next comp isn't until the end of the year, so training is a bit more varied at the moment with a lot higher rep counts, and more cardio. Absolutely dying to get under/lifting a heavy barbell again though!

@2andadogthat feeling of itching to get under a heavy bar is great fuel for future training!

I have got paused squats on my program at the moment, they are moving ok but of course I have to go lighter. I don't want to lose my confidence under a heavier bar so after my working sets and before my backdowns I throw some extra weight on the bar and do a single rep to remind myself I have still got it. I did an easy single at 80% of my 1RM today and I reckon if I can do that after paused squats then it's still there!!

Good luck @RayKray for this weekend 💪🏼 🙌🏼

Oooh is this it @RayKray ? Good luck, enjoy, and report back!

Loving my air-conned gym atm (London).

Good luck @RayKray

I’ve spent today getting wetter than a swimmer doing a new walk in the Lakes - went out just for a nimble and five hours later …. The rain was supposed to lift but instead it got heavier and the visibility diminished. I did a lot of scrambling over wet rock. Great fun while out there but freezing wet once I stopped moving. So pleased to have good upper body strength and mobility.

Thanks everyone. I had a great time and PBed all my lifts so that’s pretty cool. And I need an early night!

Ah great job @RayKray!!

My training is good, squats are FINALLY moving well. I surprised my coach with the speed of a single at 85% of my one rep max which I did after a looooong set of paused squats. It flew up despite having fairly tired legs so that bodes well!

Fantastic @RayKray Congratulations!

@RayKray well done! That's great news. Was the atmosphere good?

@everycowandagain that sounds great and very satisfying!

I've made some slow pull up progress - but I am now secure in getting 5 sets of 6 in under 20 mins. I started with 15 mins but it meant I couldn't move for three days 😀. This means I can do more after the timed sets, eg started adding tiny wight on, doing chin ups, and can train back the next day, and do it again two days later.

Dips have gone to pot though.....

@MsMartini I was thinking about you the other day, after I struggled to do my one solitary pull up - there's something about this movement that really puts other people's achievements into perspective!
I'm working from home a bit more over the next few weeks so I'm hoping to get a few daily reps in 'greasing the groove' I think it's called. I'm also hoping to eat a bit better as I suspect part of the difficulty is my middle getting wider...

I have been getting quite frustrated with my programme - stronger by the day - as the volume has been getting a bit ridiculous (in my opinion anyway) I can't justify a personalised programme from a PT though, so feels a bit like I'm stuck with it or need to write my own. I do find the way it calculated the compound lift numbers and reps useful though, so I might just stick with it to keep using that, and worry less about the accessories.

Also belated congrats to @RayKray and @everycowandagain !

Hello @Proteinpud , that's nice that you were thinking of me and pull ups 😀!
They are very humbling movements - my form still needs lots of work too.

Do you definitely need a written programme? I've never had one - I always record reps and sets (once I'm into an exercise, if experimenting I go with the flow). And we (I train mostly with a partner) make sure the week is roughly balanced overall but we also follow our noses - if we are really onto a skill (front lever say) we train more of that and cover the bases on everything else. And change it up regularly. Goes in phases. I guess I would probably have made more progress across the board with a programme but I really enjoy the variety this way offers, and the chance to focus on different things including some skills training (which bang for buck may not build so may strength in itself).

@MsMartini I've mainly worked without a programme in the past, I realised when I do have one though I make more progress - it's psychological really. A bit like having a coach, if someone has written a target for me that seems a bit ambitious I'm more likely to reach for it, whereas if I'm left to my own devices I tend to think I'm pushing myself but I'm not really!

I have stopped worrying about missing a session if I'm replacing it with bodyweight work though. There's some capoeira moves that I really want to work towards and it means being more comfortable with things like bridges and bent arm strength. So I'm trying to do some sessions at home to practice those movements, and it's an ideal time to work on other bodyweight movements like pull up progressions as well.

Yes, I'm sure that's true about pushing. I think working with a partner does that somewhat but you are spot on - when I've had a few weeks solo, I often do think I have been pushing myself but I haven't really.

Your current plan sounds great! I think that's what I was getting at too, thinking further, that a programme could be targets and skills practise rather than all fixed sets and reps. I do my pull up sets twice a week and always first, usually the same days, PT is Sunday and is flags, Monday is usually cardio and core-based.....other things fit in around those so I can't expect to be consistent as fatigue varies but equally my lovely little gym is too crowded to be able to say Thursday is bench then xyz.....

How is everyone doing? I hage started some high rep/technique work and sets of 12 squats officially suck! I need to get a bit of fitness back i think, might have to sneak in some cardio.

@everycowandagain funny, I've been thinking about cardio....in the past I've done boxing or park bootcamps as well as my very slow running and a bit of Xtrainer....not for a year or so though. So I did some hill sprints this week...aaargh. It felt like a good use of 20 minutes tho and leaves upper body fresh-ish for strength so maybe that's the way to go......

Strength training going well I think despite holidays and other stuff interrupting - I've got a short (couple secs) slightly twisted straddle flag hold (with PT lifting me into position) which is a major breakthrough even though on one side only and am getting my pull ups volume back after holiday (I find pull ups go off really quickly). I've lost a couple of kg which really does make a difference in cali so would like to keep that off if I can.

Enjoying the cooler weather and quiet gym.

How's everyone else doing?

All good here. I’m on a deload before starting prep for next comp. So sets of 12 on sbd and 15 on accessories. Just finished a block with a pretty good deadlift reps PB.

No specific cardio here.

Well done on the straddle flag hold @MsMartini

@everycowandagain 12 rep squats sounds too much like cardio to me 😁

I tried to lose weight for a little while but realised I really hate limiting my calories, my appetite seems huge these days. Combined with a programme in my stronger by the day app I really like, and I've decided to try and get strong AF instead! In the long run I still do want to get a bit lighter for the capoeira and Cali moves like MsMartini said, but I want a higher baseline of calories if I can. My current programme includes hip thrusts, zercher squats and barbell lunges in the 6-10 ranges which feels a good compliment to my sports. Today though I've ruined myself by going hiking, it's a recurring issue which I think I've finally resolved to see a PT about. All the things that I do and it's cardio that screws me over...

@MsMartini congrats on the straddle flag, any progress with those is impressive!
@RayKray what comp are you aiming for next?

@RayKray exciting about the next comp. This may be a silly question, but does it all feel really heavy after a deload?

@Proteinpud respect on barbell lunges and zercher squats - find the former terrifying, and as for zercher squats, I found zercher marches required more mental toughness than I had at times!!

@Proteinpudi need to qualify for nest year’s British now so a divisional open.

@MsMartinino because in the run up to competition we always start lower again and build. So I’ll be lifting less than I did before deload. If it was a graph it would be an upward trajectory overall but made up of lots of downs then ups if that makes sense. But it never doesn’t feel heavy. Deloads still feel heavy too. I’m on a constant treadmill of heavy 😅

@RayKray yes, thank you, I can visualise the graph. And we know you love your treadmill of heavy 😀

I loved what you said @RayKray, "it never doesn't feel heavy". So true, and that's why we love it I suppose

I am embracing the suck on my high reps and it's getting gradually less sucky!

Hopefully I can join the thread.
I posted recently on the weights room asking for some advice on my plan and have added in some different exercises as a result.
Lifting is not top priority for me as trying to get stronger for a sport so progress has been a bit slow.
I added in deadlifts following asking on here. So started with one session 3 sets of 5 at 40kg. Then week 2 upped to 4 sets x 5 at 40kg. Then today week 3: I did 1 set at 40, 1 set at 45 and 2 sets at 50. Pretty pleased with the progress. May stick at this for September before trying another increase.

Just plugged the figures into Strength level, which I've seen mentioned on here and it gave me a novice level so fairly pleased with that.