Strength training

At 115kg DL I could really feel my grip being the weak link and close to failing. Never bothered with straps and a way off that again now. Its hard when increasing weight by a lot on DLs for your grip strength to keep up which I guess is where straps are useful

Agree, I can’t Deadlift much above 100 without having to split over/under grip. But I don’t RDL that much.

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Glad it isn’t just me then. I think when I was young and lifting more I had er…

… a stronger grip

Do you grip your thumb under your fingers as that helps a lot with grip strength but does hurt like f*ck when it gets heavy?
ETA - not really aimed at anyone in particular just a general question.

Yeah I’m about the same. I’ll change to split over/under grip at about that DL weight. Hook grip is the thumb one. Yeah it hurts like fuck! I’ve practiced with it a few times.

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Sorry yeah Trap DL. Same movement as a squat ( ish ) as I can’t squat due to really poor ankle flexibility. I end up bent forwards with the weight on the back of my neck.

No brag at all. I’m doing around 100kg. Which as I weight 65kg isn’t as bad as it sounds, but can’t hold the bar for many reps, so it ended up being a finger exercise rather than legs. :joy:

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Still going with 5x5

Today was
Squat 62.5
Overhead press 35
Deadlift 80

Still more headroom on squat and deadlift.

OHP - I got the sets completed but with poor form and I clearly have an imbalance with left side weaker. Should I continue to increase weight per the plan as I did the reps or stay where I am until I can do it with good form?

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Could you swap to dumbbells?

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Yeah what @pacha says. Move to DB for the overhead to improve form and help balance up the strength. And/or drop back down the weight and concentrate on form and equal movement. Also are you pushing your head through your arms during the stroke.

Dumbells are good for imbalance as the others have said. If you stay with the bar then never give up form for weight, if you cant do it well then lower the weight.

Other things to focus on. Your core. You are pushing the weight with your arms but all that force is going through your body to the floor. Bend your knees slightly and tense your core, lock your spine in place. Hold your breath as you push up that will keep your core tight.

Towards the end of the push you want to almost be trying to push your hands together, you cant of course because the bar is solid but that will help you recruit your delts and not overly rely on triceps. The same applies to benching to bring the pecs fully into play.

Think about your shoulders as you lift, tense your delts, the mind muscle connection is key and its often hard to engage but it will come.

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Couple of weeks doing the 5x5 as well…lat pull down, squats, bench, deadlift…gradually adding weight.
More focussed doing the 5x5 compared to the session I was doing before, so thanks for the advice…

yep

Willl give this a go and focus on core and muscle activation.

Thanks for the feedback

So you use your own judgement here to determine but if it’s a total bodge then count it as a missed rep and stick with the same weight. If it’s just a real struggle but you completed move properly then yes, increase the weight.

With squats and deads and rows it’s easy to get the movement wrong, but I’m not sure how you fail an overhead unless you bounced to get it moving or didn’t fully extend at the top?

Would weight training like this lead to putting on weight or am I just being a :pig:

Don’t think I’m eating differently but scales are not being kind.

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According the smart scales I never gained a gram of muscle weight even in my most dedicated strength periods.

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Possibly from drawing fluid and glycogen into your muscles. If youve never weight trained before you can get beginners luck snd put some on quickly. Muscle is very dense and heavy so you can add a few kilos and not look any different.

Can be useful to measure belly, thighs and arms as well as using scales to see changes.

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No, it really won’t.

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So it’s down to my eating. Well, something to focus on anyway.

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But where does it come to the point where if you want to grow muscles and get stronger then you need to be eating more? This is an area I really don’t have much knowledge in. I’m just getting back into a few double day training weeks now with run and weights and am obviously finding my self eating significantly more and hungry a lot of the time!

You get stronger by weight training, you get bigger by eating more, you can do either.