Weightlifting & Fitness - Everything old is new again!

[naptownskinsfan]

Really got the running bug now…….I’m running the Chesapeake Bay Bridge 10k on Sunday, the half-marathon in Annapolis in December, and I’m signed up for half-marathons in DC (March), Wilmington DE (April) and Frederick (May) along with a 10 mile race in Baltimore (June.). I am also debating a half-marathon in February in Las Vegas, where they are closing the strip for the race.  

Also going to do a full marathon in Baltimore in the fall next year, and complete one Spartan event.  

[GHARMON9]

Knocked out 225 for 27 Reps on the Bench.  hopefully 30 by the end of this year. Weighing 270 right now.

Aiming for 35 reps by the end of next year 2023 at 250 pounds and I can say I'm done.

Now I want to hit 315 for 20 on squat. Thats going to take 2 years due to my knee injury. 

[jetsfan4life51]

6 hours ago, GHARMON9 said:

Knocked out 225 for 27 Reps on the Bench.  hopefully 30 by the end of this year. Weighing 270 right now.

Aiming for 35 reps by the end of next year 2023 at 250 pounds and I can say I'm done.

Now I want to hit 315 for 20 on squat. Thats going to take 2 years due to my knee injury. 

Have you ever done Breathing Squats? It’s 1 set of 20 reps with your 10RM. After each rep you take 3 deep breathes and continue until you hit 20. It’s brutal. 

[OkeyDoke21]

18 hours ago, jetsfan4life51 said:

Have you ever done Breathing Squats? It’s 1 set of 20 reps with your 10RM. After each rep you take 3 deep breathes and continue until you hit 20. It’s brutal. 

I've never done that, with the deep breaths, but I've done 20 with your 10-12RM.  We always called them Terrible 20's.  Same concept, without the breaths.  You just never re-racked, and took as long as you needed.  One set might take 15 min.  I never went past 315 though.  I'd be afraid the 3 deep breaths would make me pass out lol, or at least feel like it.  What's the reasoning behind the breaths vs normal breathing?

Edited November 11, 2022 by OkeyDoke21

[GHARMON9]

25 minutes ago, jetsfan4life51 said:

Have you ever done Breathing Squats? It’s 1 set of 20 reps with your 10RM. After each rep you take 3 deep breathes and continue until you hit 20. It’s brutal. 

Yeahhhhh I don't see the point of that. Especially on squats. Might die forreal lol 

 

[jetsfan4life51]

22 minutes ago, OkeyDoke21 said:

I've never done that, but I've done 20 with your 10-12RM.  We always called them Terrible 20's.  Same concept, without the breaths.  You just never re-racked, and took as long as you needed.  One set might take 15 min.  I never went past 315 though.  I'd be afraid the 3 deep breaths would make me pass out lol, or at least feel like it.  What's the reasoning behind the breaths vs normal breathing?

You can do it the same way, 20 reps without re-racking, whatever you need to do in between each rep.

For old timers it was paired with Dumbbell pullovers to expand the chest/rib cage.

[jetsfan4life51]

1 minute ago, GHARMON9 said:

Yeahhhhh I don't see the point of that. Especially on squats. Might die forreal lol 

 

The breathes serve as a pause.  I supposed you can just hangout for 3-5s in between each rep.

[Sugashane]

2 hours ago, OkeyDoke21 said:

I've never done that, but I've done 20 with your 10-12RM.  We always called them Terrible 20's.  Same concept, without the breaths.  You just never re-racked, and took as long as you needed.  One set might take 15 min.  I never went past 315 though.  I'd be afraid the 3 deep breaths would make me pass out lol, or at least feel like it.  What's the reasoning behind the breaths vs normal breathing?

Yep. Really got into DC training and this is exactly what I did. Then Stan Efferding recommended it too. I find I take more breaths as the reps go on, but I try not to get more than 3-4 seconds between reps until 12-14 reps. The weight isn't getting any lighter as you stand there. lol

[ramssuperbowl99]

16 hours ago, GHARMON9 said:

Yeahhhhh I don't see the point of that. Especially on squats. Might die forreal lol 

 

Said out loud to no one, "yeah **** that".

[MWil23]

16 minutes ago, ramssuperbowl99 said:

Said out loud to no one, "yeah **** that".

The most maniacal squat related thing I used to do/have to do in college was weighted jump squats. 225 x 20 followed by an immediate superset at 225x10 jumping...5 sets.

Needless to say, that was absolutely horrendous and I used to love leg day.

[ramssuperbowl99]

20 minutes ago, MWil23 said:

The most maniacal squat related thing I used to do/have to do in college was weighted jump squats. 225 x 20 followed by an immediate superset at 225x10 jumping...5 sets.

Needless to say, that was absolutely horrendous and I used to love leg day.

Weighted jump squats...JFC. And you wonder why the knee problems came later. And did they pick 225 because it was the perfect weight, or because the 45s looked cute on the bar.

I'm not gonna train like that anymore. 50% of the HS effort, which is still lifting to failure or a few reps short, gets me 80% of the results. Good deal.

[MWil23]

4 minutes ago, ramssuperbowl99 said:

Weighted jump squats...JFC. And you wonder why the knee problems came later. And did they pick 225 because it was the perfect weight, or because the 45s looked cute on the bar.

I'm not gonna train like that anymore. 50% of the HS effort, which is still lifting to failure or a few reps short, gets me 80% of the results. Good deal.

Leg day in college was "show off day". 5'10.5 and a catcher with a squatty V build, so what I couldn't clear on bench I made up for on leg day. Strong core, strong lets, strong forearms...weak-ish chest by comparison.

Today, I can't do squats, I can't do deadlifts, I can't do side to side weighted anything, so it's a bunch of weighted alternative lifts (Kneesovertoesguy on Youtube) with leg extension, curls, Romanian Deadlifts, calf raises, and lunges, and ride my stationary bike a few times a week.

It was very emasculating at first, and I had to swallow my pride and realize that my goals are different and I'm trying to be healthy, ride out my prime a little longer, and be here as long as I can on my end for my family so much as it's in my power/on me in terms of what I can control in my own health.

I'm not power-lifting anymore or going to look quite as good, but I can still "reach back" to show out a few days here and there if I want to embarrass a college gym bro who gives me side glances when I'm doing alternative workouts. I can lift there for free since my wife is full time at the local university. I had a 21 year old come up to me and talk with me/introduce himself since we are both quiet workout guys, so that's always a good time. 

[ramssuperbowl99]

42 minutes ago, MWil23 said:

Leg day in college was "show off day". 5'10.5 and a catcher with a squatty V build, so what I couldn't clear on bench I made up for on leg day. Strong core, strong lets, strong forearms...weak-ish chest by comparison.

Today, I can't do squats, I can't do deadlifts, I can't do side to side weighted anything, so it's a bunch of weighted alternative lifts (Kneesovertoesguy on Youtube) with leg extension, curls, Romanian Deadlifts, calf raises, and lunges, and ride my stationary bike a few times a week.

It was very emasculating at first, and I had to swallow my pride and realize that my goals are different and I'm trying to be healthy, ride out my prime a little longer, and be here as long as I can on my end for my family so much as it's in my power/on me in terms of what I can control in my own health.

I'm not power-lifting anymore or going to look quite as good, but I can still "reach back" to show out a few days here and there if I want to embarrass a college gym bro who gives me side glances when I'm doing alternative workouts. I can lift there for free since my wife is full time at the local university. I had a 21 year old come up to me and talk with me/introduce himself since we are both quiet workout guys, so that's always a good time. 

And like, for what? Did it even really make a difference in your pop time, batting average, or even HR power? Not a damn bit.

I love that the overtraining BS is getting dropped more and more. Back in the day, high end distance swimmers were pulling 20k yard days, which is hell. A few of my former teammates went into coaching, and even Olympic level swimmers aren't pulling more than 6k on an average day, and often it's half that, but they're psychotic about diet and making sure the kids are getting enough sleep. Turns out kids are better swimmers for it and they've stopped quitting in droves - who would've guessed?

Learning how to go to the gym and push yourself as a kid is great. It's an essential part of life, as is understanding the fulfillment that comes from perseverance. But once you're out of college, you've gotta realize that the lesson has been learned, applied elsewhere where it actually matters, and now it's time to go the gym to make friends, be healthy, and appreciate what your body can still do.

Edited November 11, 2022 by ramssuperbowl99

[MWil23]

3 minutes ago, ramssuperbowl99 said:

And like, for what? Did it even really make a difference in your pop time, batting average, or even HR power? Not a damn bit.

What's really funny about this is that our team faded down the stretch, and my coach actually turned to me and said "That 24 week off-season program we did really was great early on, but yeah we peaked too soon and faded down the stretch. We won't do that again next year."

(The next year we basically did CROSS FIT, LOL)

I was actively dropping weigh in season, the coaching staff noticed, my power faded from the plate. My endurance/ability to catch games was pretty good. For point of reference, we played 55 games my junior year and I caught about 40 of them...most of them double headers.

3 minutes ago, ramssuperbowl99 said:

I love that the overtraining BS is getting dropped more and more. Back in the day, high end distance swimmers were pulling 20k yard days, which is hell. A few of my former teammates went into coaching, and even Olympic level swimmers aren't pulling more than 6k on an average day, and often it's half that, but they're psychotic about diet and making sure the kids are getting enough sleep. Turns out kids are better swimmers for it and they've stopped quitting in droves - who would've guessed?

We should hire Sherlock Holmes to solve this mystery or do a Harvard study...probably really tough to figure out.

3 minutes ago, ramssuperbowl99 said:

Learning how to go to the gym and push yourself as a kid is great. It's an essential part of life, and understanding the fulfillment that comes from perseverance. But once you're out of college, you've gotta realize that the lesson has been learned, applied elsewhere where it actually matters, and now it's time to go the gym to make friends, be healthy, and appreciate what your body can still do.

It turns out, waking up at 4:30 AM to hit the weightroom 4 days a week in the off-season, coupled with 3.5 hour practice in the afternoon does active damage. Hard to believe.

I'll never forget when UM was busted for violating the 20 hour a week NCAA criteria, and this is coming from someone who is a diehard OSU fan who hates them. I literally turned to a friend and said "Wait, there's a 20 hour a week MAX? Dude, we've violated that every week I've ever been here."

We jokingly talked about forming a union.

*Mumbles incoherently* years later, here we are in college athletics.

[ramssuperbowl99]

1 hour ago, MWil23 said:

What's really funny about this is that our team faded down the stretch, and my coach actually turned to me and said "That 24 week off-season program we did really was great early on, but yeah we peaked too soon and faded down the stretch. We won't do that again next year."

(The next year we basically did CROSS FIT, LOL)

You had me. I was all happy someone learned something. Nope.

1 hour ago, MWil23 said:

It turns out, waking up at 4:30 AM to hit the weightroom 4 days a week in the off-season, coupled with 3.5 hour practice in the afternoon does active damage. Hard to believe.

I'll never forget when UM was busted for violating the 20 hour a week NCAA criteria, and this is coming from someone who is a diehard OSU fan who hates them. I literally turned to a friend and said "Wait, there's a 20 hour a week MAX? Dude, we've violated that every week I've ever been here."

We jokingly talked about forming a union.

*Mumbles incoherently* years later, here we are in college athletics.

This was so common it's stupid. Per state rules, we had to have 1 day off a week, so every Sunday, we had "optional team meetings" where the coach wouldn't show up but magically there was a workout on the board we all had to do.

There were BS reasons we'd give about how important it was to not take a day - some of them are even partially true. But the real reason was this:

https://olympics.com/en/news/michael-phelps-don-t-be-afraid-to-dream-as-big-as-you-possibly-can

Quote

“We went five or six years without missing a single day. 365 days. No days off, no birthday, no Christmas. We were in the water every single day,” Phelps explained. “I was willing to do anything, anything it took to have that chance.”

Pure ego, all the way down.