The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:
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Requests for advice and / or encouragement. On basically any topic and for any scale of problem.
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Updates to let us know how you are doing. This provides valuable feedback on past advice / encouragement and will hopefully make people feel a little more motivated to follow through. If you want to be reminded to post your update, see the post titled 'update reminders', below.
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Advice. This can be in response to a request for advice or just something that you think could be generally useful for many people here.
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Encouragement. Probably best directed at specific users, but if you feel like just encouraging people in general I don't think anyone is going to object. I don't think I really need to say this, but just to be clear; encouragement should have a generally positive tone and not shame people (if people feel that shame might be an effective tool for motivating people, please discuss this so we can form a group consensus on how to use it rather than just trying it).
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I stumbled across this article of lifting advice on Substack.
This year I've been far less disciplined about going to the gym than I'd like, and have accordingly found that my progress on most of my key exercises has plateaued. I'm planning to follow the advice outlined in this article:
I have, of course, built an Excel spreadsheet to track my progress and make sure I'm doing equal amounts of all five exercises. Keen to see if it'll pay off before the end of the year.
How's it going so far? I was searching "protein" because I'm lifting again and found this post again. I was looking ahead to Stronglifts 5x5 Intermediate, and it cuts out overhead press, which is my favorite lift. So maybe once I outgrow regular Stronglifts, I'll do something like what you're doing. 5 sets of 5 is fun enough.
Hmm, you seem to only have 5 exercises. Are you doing one of these exercises on both days?
The last few weeks, I've been doing strength training on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. On each day, I do three of the five exercises, for which I do five sets of as many reps as I can before I have to stop. I vary it so I only repeat one of the exercises on consecutive sessions, and after five sessions I've done an equal amount of all five exercises. For example:
Every Monday I increment all the free weight exercises by 2.5 kg.
I'm making steady progress on my deadlifts, and can now do ten* reps of 152.5 kg without stopping (this website puts my 1RM at 203kg which would put me in the intermediate category for my age and mass – that being said, I've never actually lifted that much weight). Partly this is because I've started using lifting straps: I always found my grip strength was the limiting factor, and it's always the grip on my right hand which falters first, even though that's my dominant hand. I can do fifteen squats without stopping, although admittedly only 80kg (I gave up on squats probably two years ago and have only recently taken them up again). My current goal there is to squat my bodyweight at least ten times, which if I maintain this program I will achieve by January at the latest. I'm a bit frustrated to find that, while my reps and maximum weight are steadily increasing on these two exercises, when it comes to the bench press my maximum weight is increasing but not my reps: last week I could do ten reps at 70kg without stopping, but on Wednesday I could only do seven reps at 72.5kg. My pull-ups are shockingly poor, and with the overhead press I'm starting from literally nothing, having never done one before a month ago.
I think taking protein powder every day (immediately after working out, where possible) is improving my motivation: it doesn't feel like such a struggle to go to the gym before work as it used to.
*True at the time of writing, I did eleven this afternoon.
Haha, it's interesting that your squats are closer in weight to your bench press. The bench and deadlift are pretty impressive to me!
I'm glad you're making steady progress. I've only just started lifting again recently, so I'm making steady progress, too, but the weights are all pretty underwhelming. I squat 185 lbs yesterday, bench of 105 lbs, and barbell rows of 85 lbs. I've been jumping up 10 lbs each workout instead of 5 lbs on bench and squats, and usually barbell rows, too. I might reconsider that for bench later this week.
My main problem is deadlifts. They scare me too much, and they also put me at risk of passing out if I do too many at once. I've got them at the same weight as squats. The squats scare me a little, too. There is some kind of pain in my right hip on each squat that I'm not sure if I'm causing it with my form somehow or what.
Eating all the required protein is way more fun, though. Protein power + water actually tastes good to me. And obviously, I love eating chicken, and I love eating carbs that have some fat in them.
A long time ago I asked on this forum for deadlift advice, and someone linked this video which pointed out numerous things I was doing wrong: bending my knees too much etc. For deadlifting I wear a weightlifting belt and lifting straps. Yesterday my girlfriend pointed out that I may be leaning my head too far back at the top of the lift which could be hurting my shoulders.
With squats, I find the single most important thing is that the barbell should only move up and down: if it's moving forwards and backwards, you're doing something wrong. Maybe film yourself on your phone to make sure.
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