Bigman thread, I need your advice. I've recently moved and joined a gym that does not have a squat rack. They do, however, have several smith machines. I've read on the web that squatting on smith machines is rubbish (it is) compared to proper squats (which I love) -- but I also heard it can be dangerous. At this point I'm only squatting about 275 pounds. Am I putting myself at risk here on the smith machines?
Joining another gym isn't really an option at this point for financial and geographic reasons.
Don't squat with a smith machine. You'd be better off doing heavy goblet dumbell squats or something, you don't want to use any machine that's going to guide things along a path like that.
Yeah, you're right. But I don't know if I can give up squats completely. Even if they're shitty Smith Machine squats.
Go heavy with the goblet squats, or start some single leg training and try that for a bit. Smith machine squats are just going to get ya injured there and yelled at on here, there's better options you can do until you can get somewhere that has a squat rack. Bulgarian split squats can be kinda awesome by the way I've been working them a good bit.
"I will f**kin' beat you into the ground in front of your whole life that I don't get to have." -Nick Diaz
At one point a dude on here, I think it was @necrosys, said that a Smith machine can be ok for doing front squats. Maybe switch to that and see how it goes?
If I had a gym with only a smith machine, I don't think I'd squat in it.
I'd probably use a combination of leg presses, unilateral dumbbell work (split squats, lunges), leg curls, GHRs, Reverse hypers. I would probably also force myself to learn the clean/power clean properly so I could do front squats with a decently heavy weight (190+ lbs for me [assuming there are free barbells lying around]). Oh and pistol squats.
All this talk about different kinds of exercises that are 'similar' makes me wonder, what weight does one start with for a brand new lift anyway? A certain % of your max?
to start, tomorrow i will do bench, barbell row, ... incline DB bench? dips? probably those, and some mobility stuff.
Well you've got 3 days a week, so you could have a few different formats. Your leg work (if there is any) I assume will be quite low volume and light, so you could just do it at the start or end of 1, 2 or all 3 days. Or you could have 2 days purely for upper body and leave the 3rd day for rehab and legs.
The format I usually follow is 2 or 3 heavy exercises, for example BB Bench press and Pendlay Rows, followed by lighter / less intense work such as bodyweight dips and pull-ups, and then "auto-pilot" stuff (shouldn't be straining too hard with these) like face-pulls and shoulder mobility.
Or you could try having a chest and back day and stick to the respective exercises for those days. Day 1 - BB bench, Dips, DB incline bench, some shoulder mobility. Day 2 - Heavy pullups, DB rows, horizontal cable rows, face pulls. Day 3 - OHP, legs etc etc
I think as long as you focus one or two heavy lifts per day, it doesn't matter too much what your accessories are, just keep them simple and not too taxing, or they'll cut into your recovery time and hamper progress on the main lifts.
All this talk about different kinds of exercises that are 'similar' makes me wonder, what weight does one start with for a brand new lift anyway? A certain % of your max?
Depends on the lift. Just pick a weight you can do comfortably for 3x5 and go from there. Any variation of the main squat, DL and bench is generally going to be less weight, unless it's a partial exercise like rack pulls or lockouts.
Because I can usually only put in a solid hour, maybe an hour and a half, in the gym every day, I've been doing leg work/lower body on even days and upper body on odd days. I usually follow both up with some cardio. As long as I make sure to not work the same body part on subsequent days, is this okay? I've been keeping up with this schedule for a couple of months and haven't seen or felt anything go wrong, and I have been making noticeable gains, but I'm open to some new ideas if there are better ways to do it.
Bench question. Does anyone have any guesses as to what would cause your hand to slide outward on the bar when doing a bench press (particularly under weight)? It's always the same hand. I've tried adjusting my grip to make my palms more parallel to the bar and squeezing like a bastard but I still have issues under heavy sets.
I'm guessing it's either a distinct lack of grip strength, or my arms are possibly too tucked/hands too narrow and the triceps are pushing my hand out on the upper portion of the lift. I'd welcome any other educated guesses though. My google-fu turned up little to nothing, and I have a hard time believing I'm a unique snowflake here.
Bench question. Does anyone have any guesses as to what would cause your hand to slide outward on the bar when doing a bench press (particularly under weight)? It's always the same hand. I've tried adjusting my grip to make my palms more parallel to the bar and squeezing like a bastard but I still have issues under heavy sets.
I'm guessing it's either a distinct lack of grip strength, or my arms are possibly too tucked/hands too narrow and the triceps are pushing my hand out on the upper portion of the lift. I'd welcome any other educated guesses though. My google-fu turned up little to nothing, and I have a hard time believing I'm a unique snowflake here.
Well, what are you deadlifting and with what grip? And how wide is your bench grip width?
Bench question. Does anyone have any guesses as to what would cause your hand to slide outward on the bar when doing a bench press (particularly under weight)? It's always the same hand. I've tried adjusting my grip to make my palms more parallel to the bar and squeezing like a bastard but I still have issues under heavy sets.
I'm guessing it's either a distinct lack of grip strength, or my arms are possibly too tucked/hands too narrow and the triceps are pushing my hand out on the upper portion of the lift. I'd welcome any other educated guesses though. My google-fu turned up little to nothing, and I have a hard time believing I'm a unique snowflake here.
Well, what are you deadlifting and with what grip? And how wide is your bench grip width?
My previous max for deadlift was 305, but my estimated new one rep max is 335. That's with a mixed grip.
I typically have my ring finger on the rings.
Left hand slips considerably (by the end my index is usually out at the ring) while doing 185+ on the bench.
to start, tomorrow i will do bench, barbell row, ... incline DB bench? dips? probably those, and some mobility stuff.
Well you've got 3 days a week, so you could have a few different formats. Your leg work (if there is any) I assume will be quite low volume and light, so you could just do it at the start or end of 1, 2 or all 3 days. Or you could have 2 days purely for upper body and leave the 3rd day for rehab and legs.
The format I usually follow is 2 or 3 heavy exercises, for example BB Bench press and Pendlay Rows, followed by lighter / less intense work such as bodyweight dips and pull-ups, and then "auto-pilot" stuff (shouldn't be straining too hard with these) like face-pulls and shoulder mobility.
Or you could try having a chest and back day and stick to the respective exercises for those days. Day 1 - BB bench, Dips, DB incline bench, some shoulder mobility. Day 2 - Heavy pullups, DB rows, horizontal cable rows, face pulls. Day 3 - OHP, legs etc etc
I think as long as you focus one or two heavy lifts per day, it doesn't matter too much what your accessories are, just keep them simple and not too taxing, or they'll cut into your recovery time and hamper progress on the main lifts.
Gracias.
Today I did (with not too heavy since it's been a while and I needed to see where I was at) bench, pendlay rows, internal/external cable shoulder rotations, face pulls, and some dips (and started everything with some of the PT leg exercises I was told to do).
Though it's been so long since I gym'd that I was silly enough to forget my gym clothes and not realize till I was there. But I wasn't going to not work out so I was that goon wearing jeans and a button down shirt.
I do! I do them at the same time and weight as the deadlift. I'm not really sure what they work that regular squats and the deadlift don't, but I figure I've taken the time to load the bar I might as well do something else with it.
I've been doing Smith Machine squats, because I decided it was better than doing no squats at all. I'll try fronts if people think that works better with the apparatus.
I do! I do them at the same time and weight as the deadlift. I'm not really sure what they work that regular squats and the deadlift don't, but I figure I've taken the time to load the bar I might as well do something else with it.
I've been doing Smith Machine squats, because I decided it was better than doing no squats at all. I'll try fronts if people think that works better with the apparatus.
Bench question. Does anyone have any guesses as to what would cause your hand to slide outward on the bar when doing a bench press (particularly under weight)? It's always the same hand. I've tried adjusting my grip to make my palms more parallel to the bar and squeezing like a bastard but I still have issues under heavy sets.
I'm guessing it's either a distinct lack of grip strength, or my arms are possibly too tucked/hands too narrow and the triceps are pushing my hand out on the upper portion of the lift. I'd welcome any other educated guesses though. My google-fu turned up little to nothing, and I have a hard time believing I'm a unique snowflake here.
Or you have sweaty hands or it's a crap bar or any number of other things.
Chalk up. I'm at least partially chalked for pretty much every exercise.
0
Options
NogsCrap, crap, mega crap.Crap, crap, mega crap.Registered Userregular
Dropped the weight on my squats to get full ROMs while upping my reps and damn, could really feel that in my legs. Also taking a little while off of barbell rows and deadlifts (or at least I'll be dropping the weight to get full ROMs) to work on my back a bit (doing back extensions is really nice and will hopefully improve my back issues).
Good day in the gym though!
0
Options
KakodaimonosCode fondlerHelping the 1% get richerRegistered Userregular
Bench question. Does anyone have any guesses as to what would cause your hand to slide outward on the bar when doing a bench press (particularly under weight)? It's always the same hand. I've tried adjusting my grip to make my palms more parallel to the bar and squeezing like a bastard but I still have issues under heavy sets.
I'm guessing it's either a distinct lack of grip strength, or my arms are possibly too tucked/hands too narrow and the triceps are pushing my hand out on the upper portion of the lift. I'd welcome any other educated guesses though. My google-fu turned up little to nothing, and I have a hard time believing I'm a unique snowflake here.
Or you have sweaty hands or it's a crap bar or any number of other things.
Chalk up. I'm at least partially chalked for pretty much every exercise.
Are you dipping the bar to the right as you go up? And do you know when you're sliding your hands? Is it during the down movement, the push off the chest or during the upward press?
You could also try taping your hands to the bar and seeing when you feel the tape pulling to find out when you slide.
I'm wondering if there is any place that would sell the kind of racks I've got for my bench. They are tube shaped, so I'd need to get the measurements on them. With my luck though there probably isn't, had the idea that maybe I could get different ones so I could raise it up higher or even have them facing the other way around so I can rack/unrack for other exercises.
Oh man that's awesome. I've heard he's a hell of a good guy, he used to write my brother back with lifting advice in e-mails back when he was trainin real hard.
"I will f**kin' beat you into the ground in front of your whole life that I don't get to have." -Nick Diaz
This made my day. Even retired, his arms are actually the size of my upper thighs.
Haha that is awesome.
Also you're pretty solid-lookin'
I remember you saying that you look stronger than you actually are and I chuckled because you are strong compared to your average joe (and to many above-average joes too I wager).
Better question than my last one actually. I'm trying to focus on doing warm up sets more, and my Wednesday workout looked something like this.
Barbell Bench Press:
38 lb x 10 reps
38 lb x 10 reps
53 lb x 5 reps
73 lb x 5 reps
73 lb x 5 reps
73 lb x 5 reps
Barbell Deadlift:
73 lb x 10 reps
109 lb x 5 reps
Barbell Squat:
68 lb x 10 reps
93 lb x 5 reps
93 lb x 5 reps
93 lb x 5 reps
Thing is I'm pretty much just choosing a weight that's lower and I think I should be trying to be more precise. Given that my bar only weighs 18 lbs alone, should I still do a 2x5 with that alone or add some weight (something like the 38 lb I have there). Other than that I'm just wondering what I should be working out to get the right warm up weights. I'm not much of a fan of spreadsheets just to note, would prefer to just know what's being calculated so I can do it on my own. I'm hardheaded like that.
So other than the sets/reps being a little... odd at the moment, I'm doing it right? I know the idea is NOT to wear you out, the warm up shouldn't be leaving you too tired to do the real set. I made that mistake Monday when I decided to do a set of 20 for my shoulder press.
You're overthinking it a little. Just do what it says in SS.
The warm up will generally ramp up to your working weight for any given day. The first warmup set might be something like 30-40% of your working weights, just to get the body moving. The next set or two after that ramp up from there. At your weight level, it's not really a big issue.
Quite often with my squats and deadlifts now I'll just start my first warmup at 135lbs because I can't be bothered loading up smaller plates. I'll just make sure to do some nice deep bodyweight squats (and hold them at the bottom) to get my hips, groin and hamstrings moving.
That's all I needed right there, the percentages. I know it might seem silly to worry about any of this at my current weights but it'll get me into the habit of figuring it all out.
Also I've decided to put my fitocracy page on in my signature, liking it a lot more than the other online thing I was using. More options.
Hey TRB what gym do you train at? I know a couple of Kiwi PL blokes on Fitocracy, and I suspect one of them may train very close to you.
Powerhouse Gym in Wellington. New Zealand's powerlifting mecca. I am the little guy at this gym.
It's an amazing place, a lot of great people with decades of knowledge about the sport and a really strong atmosphere to train in. Impossible to get a big head when you turn around after a hard set of squats and see someone repping more than that on the bench.
Posts
Go heavy with the goblet squats, or start some single leg training and try that for a bit. Smith machine squats are just going to get ya injured there and yelled at on here, there's better options you can do until you can get somewhere that has a squat rack. Bulgarian split squats can be kinda awesome by the way I've been working them a good bit.
I love south american ground karate
I'd probably use a combination of leg presses, unilateral dumbbell work (split squats, lunges), leg curls, GHRs, Reverse hypers. I would probably also force myself to learn the clean/power clean properly so I could do front squats with a decently heavy weight (190+ lbs for me [assuming there are free barbells lying around]). Oh and pistol squats.
Well you've got 3 days a week, so you could have a few different formats. Your leg work (if there is any) I assume will be quite low volume and light, so you could just do it at the start or end of 1, 2 or all 3 days. Or you could have 2 days purely for upper body and leave the 3rd day for rehab and legs.
The format I usually follow is 2 or 3 heavy exercises, for example BB Bench press and Pendlay Rows, followed by lighter / less intense work such as bodyweight dips and pull-ups, and then "auto-pilot" stuff (shouldn't be straining too hard with these) like face-pulls and shoulder mobility.
Or you could try having a chest and back day and stick to the respective exercises for those days. Day 1 - BB bench, Dips, DB incline bench, some shoulder mobility. Day 2 - Heavy pullups, DB rows, horizontal cable rows, face pulls. Day 3 - OHP, legs etc etc
I think as long as you focus one or two heavy lifts per day, it doesn't matter too much what your accessories are, just keep them simple and not too taxing, or they'll cut into your recovery time and hamper progress on the main lifts.
Depends on the lift. Just pick a weight you can do comfortably for 3x5 and go from there. Any variation of the main squat, DL and bench is generally going to be less weight, unless it's a partial exercise like rack pulls or lockouts.
This is awesome.
Seriously, how cool is that? I want to see them test some other brands.
I love south american ground karate
I'm guessing it's either a distinct lack of grip strength, or my arms are possibly too tucked/hands too narrow and the triceps are pushing my hand out on the upper portion of the lift. I'd welcome any other educated guesses though. My google-fu turned up little to nothing, and I have a hard time believing I'm a unique snowflake here.
Well, what are you deadlifting and with what grip? And how wide is your bench grip width?
My previous max for deadlift was 305, but my estimated new one rep max is 335. That's with a mixed grip.
I typically have my ring finger on the rings.
Left hand slips considerably (by the end my index is usually out at the ring) while doing 185+ on the bench.
Today I did (with not too heavy since it's been a while and I needed to see where I was at) bench, pendlay rows, internal/external cable shoulder rotations, face pulls, and some dips (and started everything with some of the PT leg exercises I was told to do).
Though it's been so long since I gym'd that I was silly enough to forget my gym clothes and not realize till I was there. But I wasn't going to not work out so I was that goon wearing jeans and a button down shirt.
i am just making things up but that sounds like it could work
I do! I do them at the same time and weight as the deadlift. I'm not really sure what they work that regular squats and the deadlift don't, but I figure I've taken the time to load the bar I might as well do something else with it.
I've been doing Smith Machine squats, because I decided it was better than doing no squats at all. I'll try fronts if people think that works better with the apparatus.
I would clean and front squat if I were you.
Or you have sweaty hands or it's a crap bar or any number of other things.
Chalk up. I'm at least partially chalked for pretty much every exercise.
I got the 5-3-1 book after reading some other reviews. look good.
Think I'm gonna do the 2-day-a-week routine and then keep up with 3-day-a-week kickboxing/jiujitsu for
that should hopefully get me "north of the vag" pretty well.
PARKER, YOU'RE FIRED! <-- My comic book podcast! Satan look here!
Good day in the gym though!
Are you dipping the bar to the right as you go up? And do you know when you're sliding your hands? Is it during the down movement, the push off the chest or during the upward press?
You could also try taping your hands to the bar and seeing when you feel the tape pulling to find out when you slide.
Guess who met Big Ron today...
Photo incoming when I get it.
This made my day. Even retired, his arms are actually the size of my upper thighs.
but i really don't have to go that far to find some skinny bastard, and that's just not impressive
I love south american ground karate
Try using a resistance band wrapped around a pole. I think this will simulate the movement much better than lying face down on a bench.
Haha that is awesome.
Also you're pretty solid-lookin'
I remember you saying that you look stronger than you actually are and I chuckled because you are strong compared to your average joe (and to many above-average joes too I wager).
Barbell Bench Press:
38 lb x 10 reps
38 lb x 10 reps
53 lb x 5 reps
73 lb x 5 reps
73 lb x 5 reps
73 lb x 5 reps
Barbell Deadlift:
73 lb x 10 reps
109 lb x 5 reps
Barbell Squat:
68 lb x 10 reps
93 lb x 5 reps
93 lb x 5 reps
93 lb x 5 reps
Thing is I'm pretty much just choosing a weight that's lower and I think I should be trying to be more precise. Given that my bar only weighs 18 lbs alone, should I still do a 2x5 with that alone or add some weight (something like the 38 lb I have there). Other than that I'm just wondering what I should be working out to get the right warm up weights. I'm not much of a fan of spreadsheets just to note, would prefer to just know what's being calculated so I can do it on my own. I'm hardheaded like that.
The warm up will generally ramp up to your working weight for any given day. The first warmup set might be something like 30-40% of your working weights, just to get the body moving. The next set or two after that ramp up from there. At your weight level, it's not really a big issue.
Quite often with my squats and deadlifts now I'll just start my first warmup at 135lbs because I can't be bothered loading up smaller plates. I'll just make sure to do some nice deep bodyweight squats (and hold them at the bottom) to get my hips, groin and hamstrings moving.
Also I've decided to put my fitocracy page on in my signature, liking it a lot more than the other online thing I was using. More options.
http://www.fitocracy.com/group/3187/
Powerhouse Gym in Wellington. New Zealand's powerlifting mecca. I am the little guy at this gym.
It's an amazing place, a lot of great people with decades of knowledge about the sport and a really strong atmosphere to train in. Impossible to get a big head when you turn around after a hard set of squats and see someone repping more than that on the bench.