Going back to College and Lifting

If it's one of the finger sensors it should work well enough when your still and waiting. It's mainly to make sure your HR comes down a certain amount before the next set.

After you've done it a few times it will help you gauge how much time you need, but without it the estimated rest times are good enough.

you probably know your body well enough to how you feel between bag work/sparring rounds as to how recovered you are.

 

Yeah I was wondering. My heart rate isn't very high when I'm lifting to be honest. I felt it yesterday when I shortened the rests to 1 minute but I felt fine.

 

I expect you are still in the "beginning" phase of your lifting potential, so after 3-6months on this routine you will find your HR gets stressed more as you're able to lift more.

When I did starting strength, I found the first 6 months my rest was 2-3 minutes, HR would be about 120-130bpm at the start of rest, and down to about 90bpm before the next set

Once I was squatting 1.2x body weight, and deadlifting 1.6x body weight my HR after would be 150-160bpm at the end of working sets, so it would take closer to 5 minutes to get down near 90bpm.

All the cardio you do in martial arts will contribute to your recovery time also, you may find that a shorter rest time is expected.

 

65kg dl 3x10 and BP 35kg 3x10.

Bench is just as hard every time. Dunno if I'll ever get better. Maybe I should eat before. I've been going to the gym without food so far. Doubt there's much benefit to fasting.

 

The LAST thing you should be doing is avoiding food, particularly before lifting. Seriously. Try to have gotten at least one full meal before any training session of any kind (although not immediately prior of course, because digestion ).

 

Also try not to lift your butt early in the movement. Hips, shoulders and bar should start and finish moving simultaneously.

 

I'm not avoiding it, it's just a time issue. I get up and go straight to the gym. I'll have to prepare something the day before maybe.

 

Gotcha. Prepping the night before is a good idea. Doesn't need to be a big meal, especially if you have little time between eating and lifting, just make sure there're some carbs and some protein and that it's something that digests quickly. Or the easier way, big dinner to ensure leftovers and just heat them up for breakfast

 

Any recommendations for reheatable breakfasts that digest quickly?

 

Tuesday I went 50kg squat and 35kg Bench

Today I went 70kg DL 3x10 and 40kg bench

On the bench I actually did 10, 8, 9 because 3x10 was just too much.

Also makes me think that I used to be a lot stronger. I remember being able to do 50kg without worrying too much. I'm disappointed that I've got to get back to that. I also am not feeling particularly strong yet, but it's only been 5 weeks.

Lifting is very disheartening in general I have to say

 

Something that's bothering me is that I struggle to squat with the bar as much as my heaviest weights. Like my knees will shake just as much with the bar as with plates on the bar.

Why is this?

 

keep at it, you'll have bad days and good day.
How long do you rest between the 3x10 sets? If you struggle to grind out more that 10 after the first set and you feel you are sufficiently rested, then you can add some pyramid or more sets at a lower weight. Where about in the bench do you struggle the most? bottom, middle, top of the movement?
You can add assistance for certain parts of the bench, but in a lot of cases just more bench over time helps.

I know how you feel about the historical strength loss, a couple weeks out of a lifting routine and everything feels heavier, I am more sore after, there is something about resistance training that isn't triggered in general that leads to gradual loss of the maximal strength, but it comes back quick enough.
In 3-6 months you should feel some difference, take into account that your regularly training will slow the progress somewhat.

I often focus on strength over winter, and less of it during summer, when I start back at it in Autumn everything is heavy and it feels daunting, but after a couple months I'm able to lift close to my maximum again.

wobbly legs on squat is your leg strength even on lower weight, it will get better over time, I cannot remember where I read about which part of the leg strength it relates to. Are you doing high bar or low bar squats? (looked like high bar on your videos)

 

I'm not struggling to do the other reps except when it comes to bench. when I'm at 40kg I'm really pushing it.

I think the result is that overall I don't know how much my maximum is. Once my leg strength is significant I'm hoping my squats and DL's will push much further. I might do the bar with a heavy chain for bench? That might be more consistent resistance throughout the whole motion.

I also reflected on it today and my diet is completely non-existent. I'm really just focusing on calorie intake but it's a bad diet. I'll improve that over the next few weeks.

It's good to know that I will eventually be stronger overall and I'll stop shaking when I squat without a weight The squat is a high bar one I think.

Also, thank you man for coming back to this thread and giving me advice. I really appreciate the time you take out to help!

 

OK long post, on every rep when trap bar dead lifting your backside comes up first and your legs straight a fair bit then you start your lift using mainly your back.

On your squats your knees come in every time you stand up.

These two things added to the fact you shake with just the bar tell me you have weak legs in general and a fairly strong back and are probably having trouble stabilizing and firing your muscles in the proper manner.

To fix this do a few things:
Firstly make sure on the trap bar you start each rep fresh don't bounce or rush reps, make sure you push through your heels and don't allow your weight to drift forward or your hips to raise until the bar comes off the floor.
Make sure your weight is centred before each rep sit back don't let your weight drift forwards.
Secondly the same on the squat treat each rep as a new one don't rush them, push your knees out on each rep.

Next add some single leg work in, lunges or step ups this will strengthen your quads and also help you with your knee tracking and hopefully stop the knee folding in. Sets of 12 three or 4 sets total going slow and working through a whole range of motion should do it.

Finally on bench pressing growth comes on way slower than squats or deads so don't try to increase them at the same Rate, normally you increase them at 50% of the others so if you add 5kg to your squat in a workout only 2.5kg to your bench.

 

@Pretty In Pink, have you seen the hip band/slingshots to help with knee tracking? Seen it help a training partner of mine, but will defer to the master, @icefield where do you stand on using slingshots round the knees/thighs on squats?

 

Never tried them to be honest warming up with mini bands around the ankle and knees to help fire the hips is a good idea, so I imagine these would help as well if its a real problem the lifter has.

I don't think this is a real problem more than a new lifter not used to what should be going on, simple cues would probably help that's what I normally use when spotting or helping new lifters.

Its also the danger of high rep sets. They are great to get volume in and learn technique as long as you are using good technique each rep, otherwise you are Reenforcing bad motor patterns

 

I tried those a few times in my crossfit class. I found them great for warm-up (especialll warming up the shoulders before nasty numbers of push-ups), but once I was using them around knees when squatting to help me keep the knees pointing out. It was a good exercise, I'd say!

 

Agreed with Icefield re: weaker legs and stronger back. Butt shooting up can be summed up as the legs trying to continue to extend, but not while moving the weight, so the butt scoops out from under the bar. I recommend giving this a read:

Don’t Good-Morning the Back Squat | Yasha Thoughts
Check Your Balance | Yasha Thoughts

It'll also get better with time as yout legs get stronger AND you get more used to actually using them (ie forcing the body to remain in the proper positions all throughout the movement). Also, if your proprioception is good enough, check where your ankles are, rather than your knees. Knees have very little sideways motion (just enough wiggle room to act as a safety buffer, basically), so any movement at the hip will move knee and ankle pretty much simultaneously, while your feet are fixed on the ground, so ankle ankle motion will displace the ankle joint itself rather than the foot. Keep the ankles directly over the feet and that will immediately take care of knee positioning.

 

Here is a doodle of the ankles thing