WeaverWho are you?What do you want?Registered Userregular
edited February 2010
I lost my right pinky nail once from slamming it in a door at Neville's old place, but the only other time I had a nail issue, I let the blood out by slicing up under the nail.
I did a "sprint workout" with my brother today (his workout). It involved sprinting for 30 seconds, walking for a minute or two then sprinting for 30 seconds, etc., etc. About half way through there was a bigger break of about 4 minutes. We did this for about 25 minutes, something like 10 sprints total. It was pretty fun, and really hard to keep going.
Anyhow, is this a good way to begin sprinting, or is it a terrible workout? I know nothing about sprinting, really.
And a little background info if it'll help: I'm 5'10", ~140lbs, gaining weight, and following the starting strength program (squatting 3x/week!)
To be honest, thats not sprinting. It may be sprinting for the first 30 second rep, but the recovery time is nowhere near what is needed for you to recover in order to have the same quality.
Attempting to sprint when exhausted is not going to make you faster (in a top speed/faster acceleration sense) as it will dramatically increase your ground contact time, lower your force output with each step, etc.
A real speed workout would be the hill sprints that RDM and I prescribed before or, once you progress past that, flying sprints on flat ground. Give yourself 40 or so meters to get up to top speed gradually then hit it hard and hold your top speed for 30m. Rest 5-8 min. Repeat 6-8 times.
1. You guys are squatting 3x a week? Tube's dealie has me only squatting on Fridays. It's 3x5 with a working weight -- so 165 lbs. at present for me. I've been doing leg work on all three days, though, because I don't do any at all on Monday or Wednesday, and I wanna help up my squat as much as possible.
Would it be wise to throw squats into the mix on Monday and/or Wednesday? I already do bench + deads on those days, respectively.
2. Shouldn't make a difference if I swap my bench days if I feel my job is messing with progress, right? Specifically, I'm having to do a lot of stockroom work over the weekends, including lifting relatively heavy merchandise overhead (which is heavy and repetitive use of my shoulders, which I feel is holding back my bench). For reference, this is Tube's Mk.II:
Friday: Squats, military press, hamstring curls, calf raises, shrugs.
I don't think the sequence of the schedule matters much, so shuffling the days shouldn't make much of a difference if I feel I'm being held back.
3. Is the SS program much different from what Tube's put together? I don't have the cash on-hand just now to get the book, and although it might be on the SS Wiki... I have class in a few minutes, so I can't check right this second. :P
4. If I'm able to do more than 5 reps with a given weight for an exercise, I'm not using a heavy enough weight, right? This really only applies to pullovers, but I feel like something's wrong.
Ham, here is the most cut and dry outline of the novice program that Mark Rippetoe talks about in his book:
Workout A
3x5 Squat
3x5 Bench Press
1x5 Deadlift
Workout B
3x5 Squat
3x5 Press
5x3 Power cleans
Workouts A and B alternate on 3 non-consecutive days per week.
"For young males that weigh between 150-200 lbs., deadlifts can move up 15-20 lbs. per workout, squats 10-15 lbs., with continued steady progress for 3-4 weeks before slowing down to half that rate. Bench presses, presses, and cleans can move up 5-10 lbs. per workout, with progress on these exercises slowing down to 2.5-5 lbs. per workout after only 2-3 weeks. Young women make progress on the squat and the deadlift at about the same rate, adjusted for bodyweight, but much slower on the press, the bench press, cleans, and assistance exercises."
– Mark Rippetoe, Practical Programming, Pg. 122
I did a "sprint workout" with my brother today (his workout). It involved sprinting for 30 seconds, walking for a minute or two then sprinting for 30 seconds, etc., etc. About half way through there was a bigger break of about 4 minutes. We did this for about 25 minutes, something like 10 sprints total. It was pretty fun, and really hard to keep going.
Anyhow, is this a good way to begin sprinting, or is it a terrible workout? I know nothing about sprinting, really.
And a little background info if it'll help: I'm 5'10", ~140lbs, gaining weight, and following the starting strength program (squatting 3x/week!)
! Edit ! - The following is to be taken only as how to increase max velocity. If you want to remain injury free do NOT do this any more than twice a week and definitely do not do this on back to back days. That is an excellent way to make your hamstrings explode off your legs. Sprinting is like lifting big or building a cake, each layer is pretty simple but try and build it the wrong way and you'll end up with a bit of a mess and possible injuries.
To add a smidgeon to what jyardana already said (quite correctly btw) but that workout will get your heartrate up and definitely help with conditioning but it's about as effective at developing speed as a bodyweight circuit is at developing bulk. It just won't happen. I'm not shooting it down as a bad thing to do, it just may not be doing what you hope, that's all.
In order to increase your max Velocity you need to condition your body to repeatedly perform at max Output. That's impossible to do when you're overloading the system with maximum effort runs but giving yourself only half a minute or so to recover.
If you want to hit peak velocity consistently you're going to have (as a beginner) maybe 2, 3 or 4 runs of around 40m where your body will be able to hit its peak velocity during workouts. The easiest way to get these sorts of runs are doing something like a flying 40m or ins and outs... :winky:
Flying 40s are basically taking a full and relaxed 40m acceleration and then for 30-40m you relax and throw away the breaks. You're trying to hit maximum frequency, relaxation and speed for those 40m (and ONLY 40m, anything more and you're asking for trouble) then decelerate and rest until fully recovered (around 3-5 minutes depending on your fitness levels. The emphasis is on quality not how much of a hardman you are by dropping the rest to 30 seconds and then straining like meat-head.
Ins and outs or speed-float-speed are the same concept only in reverse, you accelerate HARD for 20-30m then once you're upright and sprinting hold that form and just relax for 30m or so and when you hit that final 30m fire those secondary burners and see if you've got anything left in the tank. Don't tighten up, just let it go and see what happens. If you don't feel it, or you feel yourself tightening up and straining that's not what you're looking for so your central nervous system is probably done for the day. Go back and do some bodyweight circuits at this point.
Fallout, the weight being on the balls of your feet is a pretty good indicator that your form is off. This is not a flexibility thing
If your weight is on the balls of your feet, you're leaning too far forward and relying on your quads rather than getting any hip drive involved. I guarantee that your knees are coming forward as you're coming out of the hole, which should be avoided. Weight should be in the centre of your foot, drive your heels into the ground. Learn to get depth by dropping your hips.
You said a while ago that you recently got Starting Strength. You should study the hell out of it, as Rippetoe will explain this far better than any of us
I thought some people had flexibility issues too, and that's why squat shoes have raised heels?
If you want to gain weight, my recent experience says:
1. eat casually, don't be super strict
2. squat all the fucking time.
Got to the gym after two sucky days off; this has made me feel much less like a loser.
why would not going to the gym for two days make you feel like a loser?
do you got self worth issues?
Maybe because she's committed to going to the gym and letting yourself slack is letting yourself down? It's a lack of discipline. What does self worth have anything to do with it?
It's basically wook's leg day except with less volume. I never get anywhere near 10 sets on anything.
Squats
deadlifts
romanian deadlifts
I try to do weight that I can lift 3-4 times for 4 sets
standing calf raises
seated calf raises
standing calf raises are 3 plates to failure, 2 plates to failure, 1 plate to failure with no rest. repeat twice.
seated are light weight (~70 lb) for 3 sets of 20 reps
I'm thinking about replacing regular deadlifts with lunges. I don't really get enough hamstring work currently. Do lunges help with that or should I look at doing good mornings or something?
Do any of you guys do squats and lunges in the same day? Thinking about doing a new leg routine that has lunges instead of a second type of deadlift.
I been doing some lunges after squats lately. For me they are the absolute worst for DOMS. I was basically crippled before I left the gym.
I'd say it's because they're not an exercise I do frequently.
What does your leg routine look like at the moment; and what is it changing to?
Lunges are easily the exercise where I end up with DOMS the most. Going up and down stairs for a few days or sitting on (crashing down onto) the can was always super fun and not annoying at all.
I have routinely done lunges after a squat workout, that is just for the sake of information, I can't really comment on whether it's considered a good idea. It didn't seem to hurt me (outside of the DOMS) at least.
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The GeekOh-Two Crew, OmeganautRegistered User, ClubPAregular
edited February 2010
Moved up my working weight on my squat a couple of kilos to 110 yesterday. Also did some overhead press at 50 kilos.
Then pushed "the prowler" back and forth through parking lot a 8 times.
If you want to gain weight, my recent experience says:
1. eat casually, don't be super strict
2. squat all the fucking time.
Got to the gym after two sucky days off; this has made me feel much less like a loser.
why would not going to the gym for two days make you feel like a loser?
do you got self worth issues?
Maybe because she's committed to going to the gym and letting yourself slack is letting yourself down? It's a lack of discipline. What does self worth have anything to do with it?
Because having two days off in a row isn't really 'letting yourself down'. In fact it can be very good for you.
So feeling like a loser for giving yourself a couple of rest days is a little odd tbh.
Because having two days off in a row isn't really 'letting yourself down'. In fact it can be very good for you.
So feeling like a loser for giving yourself a couple of rest days is a little odd tbh.
It is if they were scheduled lifting days. I never said going to the gym 7 days a week is healthy.
I guess I should mention that I'm not white knighting around for calendine. I feel the same way if I miss scheduled workout days, so Runcubed's comments got under my skin. Personally I think a little guilt over flaking on commitments is a good thing.
I got self worth issues up the wazoo, but I also try to be diligent about going to the gym.
Though this week, in truth, it isn't such a big deal because supposedly you're supposed to rest before meets?
I've heard that some people take the entire week off before the meet. I personally didn't work with anything near my openers 12+ days out. Then during the "meet week" I just did my normal warmup routine with no actual work sets on those specific days. I jogged a little on the treadmill, did some light abs... just kinda took it easy.
I got self worth issues up the wazoo, but I also try to be diligent about going to the gym.
Though this week, in truth, it isn't such a big deal because supposedly you're supposed to rest before meets?
I've heard that some people take the entire week off before the meet. I personally didn't work with anything near my openers 12+ days out. Then during the "meet week" I just did my normal warmup routine with no actual work sets on those specific days. I jogged a little on the treadmill, did some light abs... just kinda took it easy.
I've heard similar accounts and every coach I've met (including the ones I rate highly intelligent) suggest reducing your workouts substantially to maintain sharpness only. There should be no attempt to increase lifts or even hit maximum anything during the week (3-5 days) before competition.
For lifts I was doing juuuuust enough so that I knew I was lifting something, and was counselled to cut everything but power cleans and incorporate jump squats with extremely light weights. Basically just waking up the nervous system and letting everything recuperate so that when you go to compete your body is just WHAM fully recovered and ready for maximum effort and huge gains.
trying to reconcile the 2 suggestions of:
a) drink a shake soon after working out
b) your body can only absorb so much protein at a time
I have no factual evidence for either claim, but I have seen them tossed around often (Are they bullshit, I dunno).
I go to the gym on my lunchbreak, and once im back in the office eat my lunch. I bring my lunch from home so it usually is something extremely high in protein, pretty much no carbs and low fat.
Should I drink a protein shake after this post work out meal? Is it just going to be wasted protein? Should I wait till later? I suppost that eating my meal before working out is a possibility, but not one I really love.
trying to reconcile the 2 suggestions of:
a) drink a shake soon after working out
b) your body can only absorb so much protein at a time
I have no factual evidence for either claim, but I have seen them tossed around often (Are they bullshit, I dunno).
I go to the gym on my lunchbreak, and once im back in the office eat my lunch. I bring my lunch from home so it usually is something extremely high in protein, pretty much no carbs and low fat.
Should I drink a protein shake after this post work out meal? Is it just going to be wasted protein? Should I wait till later? I suppost that eating my meal before working out is a possibility, but not one I really love.
Anyway help me out!
Just drink the protein whenever you want and forget the bullshit that other people have heard and passed on.
unless it's okay to rock onto the balls of your feet when you're squatting at full depth?
(i'm guessing not)
Good way to fix this is to just sit down in the bottom of a squat and try to get as comfortable as you can. This is good to do on your rest days, just practice sitting down deep in the squat. Once you are down there, comfortable, with your heels on the ground, you can practice other stuff, like shoving the knees out, picking up your toes (this is the best for your problem), or stretching the ankles by leaning on way or the other.
It isn't really going to make that big of a difference either way. If I had a choice, I would go for the food first, then wait a couple hours and drink the protein later. But I also like to get some carbs post-workout.
Or you can just drink the shake immediately... then when you get hungry in an hour or so, eat the food.
Good way to fix this is to just sit down in the bottom of a squat and try to get as comfortable as you can. This is good to do on your rest days, just practice sitting down deep in the squat. Once you are down there, comfortable, with your heels on the ground, you can practice other stuff, like shoving the knees out, picking up your toes (this is the best for your problem), or stretching the ankles by leaning on way or the other.
For a second I thought you meant doing this with a loaded barbell. It sounded like the worst idea ever.
EDIT: And I think I'll just start squatting on all three of my gym days, since that seems to be what most folks here are swearing by. It's also nice that squats are probably my favorite exercise -- the scariest, but also the most interesting.
Mojo I'm no expert, but I've been lunging for a while (not on squat days) and the big thing I've noticed is that the length of your stride changes the muscle that the movement focuses on. A short stride slams your quads, a longer stride definitely puts more stress on your hamstrings and glutes (oh how my butt was sore after the first few times I did heavy lunges). I'm not at all qualified to say whether they can replace a deadlift variant but that's my 2 cents.
Man, there's no sore like the sore after a heavy back day.
Thanks big l, Jyardana, and RapidDeathMoose for the advice! I figured what I was doing wasn't entirely optimal for getting faster since towards the end of the workout, it was closer to jogging than sprinting. I'll try out the hill sprints and flying 40m and see how it goes.
Db lunges are pretty great except that I like doing walking lunges and my gym's been full of resolution lifters and lunging while weaving around people is a pain in the ass.
Edit - psyck0 that is the best feeling! Makes all the effort worth it.
Point of note for lunges: Try and step over your planted knee when you're bringing your trailing leg through and stepping forward. You want to try and mimic the motion of running. Or maybe you don't I suppose, if you're attempting to be a world champion ground glider I guess.
Posts
Haha yeah, hat's what I did.
It's on my left foot toe though.
I heated up a pin and punched a hole in hat bitch and out the blood came.
I felt so commando
To be honest, thats not sprinting. It may be sprinting for the first 30 second rep, but the recovery time is nowhere near what is needed for you to recover in order to have the same quality.
Attempting to sprint when exhausted is not going to make you faster (in a top speed/faster acceleration sense) as it will dramatically increase your ground contact time, lower your force output with each step, etc.
A real speed workout would be the hill sprints that RDM and I prescribed before or, once you progress past that, flying sprints on flat ground. Give yourself 40 or so meters to get up to top speed gradually then hit it hard and hold your top speed for 30m. Rest 5-8 min. Repeat 6-8 times.
1. You guys are squatting 3x a week? Tube's dealie has me only squatting on Fridays. It's 3x5 with a working weight -- so 165 lbs. at present for me. I've been doing leg work on all three days, though, because I don't do any at all on Monday or Wednesday, and I wanna help up my squat as much as possible.
Would it be wise to throw squats into the mix on Monday and/or Wednesday? I already do bench + deads on those days, respectively.
2. Shouldn't make a difference if I swap my bench days if I feel my job is messing with progress, right? Specifically, I'm having to do a lot of stockroom work over the weekends, including lifting relatively heavy merchandise overhead (which is heavy and repetitive use of my shoulders, which I feel is holding back my bench). For reference, this is Tube's Mk.II:
Wednesday: Deads, bent-over rows, barbell curls, pullups, chinups.
Friday: Squats, military press, hamstring curls, calf raises, shrugs.
I don't think the sequence of the schedule matters much, so shuffling the days shouldn't make much of a difference if I feel I'm being held back.
3. Is the SS program much different from what Tube's put together? I don't have the cash on-hand just now to get the book, and although it might be on the SS Wiki... I have class in a few minutes, so I can't check right this second. :P
4. If I'm able to do more than 5 reps with a given weight for an exercise, I'm not using a heavy enough weight, right? This really only applies to pullovers, but I feel like something's wrong.
http://www.powerliftingwatch.com/node/14570
This isn't until next year, but this is huge news. I bet we'll see Benni Magnusson, Konstantinov, and maybe Savickas giving this a go. I'm excited.
Workout A
3x5 Squat
3x5 Bench Press
1x5 Deadlift
Workout B
3x5 Squat
3x5 Press
5x3 Power cleans
Workouts A and B alternate on 3 non-consecutive days per week.
"For young males that weigh between 150-200 lbs., deadlifts can move up 15-20 lbs. per workout, squats 10-15 lbs., with continued steady progress for 3-4 weeks before slowing down to half that rate. Bench presses, presses, and cleans can move up 5-10 lbs. per workout, with progress on these exercises slowing down to 2.5-5 lbs. per workout after only 2-3 weeks. Young women make progress on the squat and the deadlift at about the same rate, adjusted for bodyweight, but much slower on the press, the bench press, cleans, and assistance exercises."
– Mark Rippetoe, Practical Programming, Pg. 122
why would not going to the gym for two days make you feel like a loser?
do you got self worth issues?
! Edit ! - The following is to be taken only as how to increase max velocity. If you want to remain injury free do NOT do this any more than twice a week and definitely do not do this on back to back days. That is an excellent way to make your hamstrings explode off your legs. Sprinting is like lifting big or building a cake, each layer is pretty simple but try and build it the wrong way and you'll end up with a bit of a mess and possible injuries.
To add a smidgeon to what jyardana already said (quite correctly btw) but that workout will get your heartrate up and definitely help with conditioning but it's about as effective at developing speed as a bodyweight circuit is at developing bulk. It just won't happen. I'm not shooting it down as a bad thing to do, it just may not be doing what you hope, that's all.
In order to increase your max Velocity you need to condition your body to repeatedly perform at max Output. That's impossible to do when you're overloading the system with maximum effort runs but giving yourself only half a minute or so to recover.
If you want to hit peak velocity consistently you're going to have (as a beginner) maybe 2, 3 or 4 runs of around 40m where your body will be able to hit its peak velocity during workouts. The easiest way to get these sorts of runs are doing something like a flying 40m or ins and outs... :winky:
Flying 40s are basically taking a full and relaxed 40m acceleration and then for 30-40m you relax and throw away the breaks. You're trying to hit maximum frequency, relaxation and speed for those 40m (and ONLY 40m, anything more and you're asking for trouble) then decelerate and rest until fully recovered (around 3-5 minutes depending on your fitness levels. The emphasis is on quality not how much of a hardman you are by dropping the rest to 30 seconds and then straining like meat-head.
Ins and outs or speed-float-speed are the same concept only in reverse, you accelerate HARD for 20-30m then once you're upright and sprinting hold that form and just relax for 30m or so and when you hit that final 30m fire those secondary burners and see if you've got anything left in the tank. Don't tighten up, just let it go and see what happens. If you don't feel it, or you feel yourself tightening up and straining that's not what you're looking for so your central nervous system is probably done for the day. Go back and do some bodyweight circuits at this point.
I thought some people had flexibility issues too, and that's why squat shoes have raised heels?
Maybe because she's committed to going to the gym and letting yourself slack is letting yourself down? It's a lack of discipline. What does self worth have anything to do with it?
I been doing some lunges after squats lately. For me they are the absolute worst for DOMS. I was basically crippled before I left the gym.
I'd say it's because they're not an exercise I do frequently.
What does your leg routine look like at the moment; and what is it changing to?
Squats
deadlifts
romanian deadlifts
I try to do weight that I can lift 3-4 times for 4 sets
standing calf raises
seated calf raises
standing calf raises are 3 plates to failure, 2 plates to failure, 1 plate to failure with no rest. repeat twice.
seated are light weight (~70 lb) for 3 sets of 20 reps
I'm thinking about replacing regular deadlifts with lunges. I don't really get enough hamstring work currently. Do lunges help with that or should I look at doing good mornings or something?
Lunges are easily the exercise where I end up with DOMS the most. Going up and down stairs for a few days or sitting on (crashing down onto) the can was always super fun and not annoying at all.
I have routinely done lunges after a squat workout, that is just for the sake of information, I can't really comment on whether it's considered a good idea. It didn't seem to hurt me (outside of the DOMS) at least.
Then pushed "the prowler" back and forth through parking lot a 8 times.
This is the prowler:
I don't remember how much weight was on it.
Because having two days off in a row isn't really 'letting yourself down'. In fact it can be very good for you.
So feeling like a loser for giving yourself a couple of rest days is a little odd tbh.
120kg squat today
Improving!
Though this week, in truth, it isn't such a big deal because supposedly you're supposed to rest before meets?
http://numberblog.wordpress.com/
It is if they were scheduled lifting days. I never said going to the gym 7 days a week is healthy.
I guess I should mention that I'm not white knighting around for calendine. I feel the same way if I miss scheduled workout days, so Runcubed's comments got under my skin. Personally I think a little guilt over flaking on commitments is a good thing.
I've heard that some people take the entire week off before the meet. I personally didn't work with anything near my openers 12+ days out. Then during the "meet week" I just did my normal warmup routine with no actual work sets on those specific days. I jogged a little on the treadmill, did some light abs... just kinda took it easy.
I've heard similar accounts and every coach I've met (including the ones I rate highly intelligent) suggest reducing your workouts substantially to maintain sharpness only. There should be no attempt to increase lifts or even hit maximum anything during the week (3-5 days) before competition.
For lifts I was doing juuuuust enough so that I knew I was lifting something, and was counselled to cut everything but power cleans and incorporate jump squats with extremely light weights. Basically just waking up the nervous system and letting everything recuperate so that when you go to compete your body is just WHAM fully recovered and ready for maximum effort and huge gains.
a) drink a shake soon after working out
b) your body can only absorb so much protein at a time
I have no factual evidence for either claim, but I have seen them tossed around often (Are they bullshit, I dunno).
I go to the gym on my lunchbreak, and once im back in the office eat my lunch. I bring my lunch from home so it usually is something extremely high in protein, pretty much no carbs and low fat.
Should I drink a protein shake after this post work out meal? Is it just going to be wasted protein? Should I wait till later? I suppost that eating my meal before working out is a possibility, but not one I really love.
Anyway help me out!
Just drink the protein whenever you want and forget the bullshit that other people have heard and passed on.
Good way to fix this is to just sit down in the bottom of a squat and try to get as comfortable as you can. This is good to do on your rest days, just practice sitting down deep in the squat. Once you are down there, comfortable, with your heels on the ground, you can practice other stuff, like shoving the knees out, picking up your toes (this is the best for your problem), or stretching the ankles by leaning on way or the other.
It isn't really going to make that big of a difference either way. If I had a choice, I would go for the food first, then wait a couple hours and drink the protein later. But I also like to get some carbs post-workout.
Or you can just drink the shake immediately... then when you get hungry in an hour or so, eat the food.
I like this video on supplements:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsTVqv2MCAA
EDIT: big l beat me again
For a second I thought you meant doing this with a loaded barbell. It sounded like the worst idea ever.
EDIT: And I think I'll just start squatting on all three of my gym days, since that seems to be what most folks here are swearing by. It's also nice that squats are probably my favorite exercise -- the scariest, but also the most interesting.
Man, there's no sore like the sore after a heavy back day.
I like lunges but strangely dumbbells are much harder than barbells. Must be a balance thing. Even just 40's are hard.
http://numberblog.wordpress.com/
for like forever
i used to be able to hold two plates and do wall sits for two minutes at a time. ability to walk after that was nonexistent
Point of note for lunges: Try and step over your planted knee when you're bringing your trailing leg through and stepping forward. You want to try and mimic the motion of running. Or maybe you don't I suppose, if you're attempting to be a world champion ground glider I guess.
http://numberblog.wordpress.com/