A rack pull is essentially a deadlift but with the bar starting at knee height on a support then? Mitch
Pretty much. The height can be varied according to what you want to achieve and the higher up it is the more you can probably lift.
*Puts on best Simon&Garfunkel tones* Hello deadlifts my old friend Did them with a weight roughly equivalent to my own left leg, but it was still great to do them again and my knee felt fine! We'll see how it is tomorrow. I did the dumbell rows instead of curls to try them out and liked them a lot too, thanks Fish Should I do them leaning one knee and hand on a bench or just bent over? I may look at tricep dips too, are they best done with handles or off the edge of a bench? Mitch
yay! re: rows: bent over is best for doing them with two DBs, but it'll also put some stress on your back from having to hold the position (plus the inevitable cheating by heaving the shoulders upwards and backwards), although on the other hand, you'll take less time because it's bilateral. with a bench you do them one handed, so you'll take more time, but you can use more weight, and you can rest your forearm on the bench to help prevent cheating and/or to control the angle of your torso (the more vertical your body is, the more you work the upper back rather than the mid-back/lats), and of course if you actually want to cheat a bit, you can rest your hand on the bench, flex your elbows and give yourself a little push-off each rep. re: dips: bench dips are easier, so you could start with those and then progress to full ones. careful with the ROM at the bottom though, as it can strain the shoulders if you do it wrong (i like to do them from the top down because of that). good luck!
25th September Did the fitness test from the Insanity workout programme. I won't be able to do the programme properly as I won't be able to do the workouts it specifies every day. I want to keep lifting on alternate days, plus I need to be able to move to teach/train TKD But I reckon alternating lifting one day and an Insanity workout the next may be OK. Maybe. The fitness test has a lot of deep squats and jumps in the movements, but by being careful with form I managed to keep most of the load on my glutes and hamstrings, not on my knee. As a result my knee was fine during it. It did wake me up during the night with some pain though so I'm going to be careful. My hamstrings are a bit sore today, we'll see how my deadlifts go later. Any suggestions on a good set/rep range for them? Mitch
My normal deadlift sets would be as follows: 1x5 1x5 1x5 1x3 1x2 1x5 with the first 5 sets being warm ups (starting with around 20kg and increasing the weight in regular increments each set) and the final one my working weight. If I was pushing max lifts I might drop one or two of the warm up sets and finish with 5 or more sets of heavy singles.
So if I'm essentially starting from scratch and aiming to increase the weight I'm lifting as quickly as possible what would be a good pattern? I was doing 3x8 around the 90-100kg range when I stopped because of my knee, I'd like to get back to that asap. When doing warm ups, what sort of % should I go for? Start at 60% then 70%, 80% etc? Mitch
Just split the weights into relatively regular increases, depending on what plates you have in your set. Don't worry about exact increases down to 3 decimal places! 1x5 30kg 1x5 45kg 1x5 60kg 1x3 75kg 1x2 90kg 1x5 100kg or something. If you're going to do 3x8 for your working weight you might want to drop a couple of the warm up sets. Maybe do 1x5 30kg 1x5 50kg 1x5 70kg 1x2 85kg 3x8 100kg I wouldn't be in a rush to get your lifts back to 100kg, you might be better working with lighter weights for awhile just to get your knees used to lifting again. Any particular reason for using 3x8 for your working sets?
No real reason other than I used it a while ago and it seems like a sort of default setting? So I started with it thinking that I could always change if I hit a plateau. As I'm at novice levels I don't think that'll happen for a while though. Would a different mix be better for hitting my targets? Mitch
If you're making progress you could always stick with what work for you. Deadlifts are particularly stressful for your system to handle, and a number of trainers recommend fewer sets and reps with them. My reps range was based on Rippetoe's starting strength, so 1x5 reps on the working set. As my weight got heavier and my pathetic grip started to suffer I changed that to 2x3 (or 4) at my working weight, using mixed grip and swapping the hand positions each set. I then started adding in some heavy singles at the end of my workout to really hit heavier weights. The other method you could try would be the version Jim Wendler uses for his 5/3/1 programme. Calculate your weights and sets/reps with this: http://www.strstd.com/ There are several different versions of the programme, depending on what accessory work you want to do.
You might have to tweak the programme round your other activities - depending on how often you do cardio. One way to do this would be to give up on the idea of a week as training period and just run the programme alternating days and including a day off. Day 1 lift Day 2 cardio Day 3 lift Day 4 cardio Day 5 lift Day 6 cardio Day 7 lift Day 8 rest Day 9 back to day one. I've done something similar in the past and it worked fine. You're not training for a powerlifting comp so adapt the sessions to fit in with what you want to achieve. Or do a 3 day split like this: http://www.muscleandstrength.com/wo...t-jim-wendlers-5-3-1-powerlifting-system.html
re: deadlifts: i prefer warming up for them with other things like squats (although of course your knee will dictate whether you can do that at the moment or not), due to how fatiguing deadlifts are, both on the lower back and on the hands. so the fewer warm-ups you need (need, not do, always better to play it safe), the better. i also dislike big sets, so i'd recommend doing singles, doubles, or at most triples instead of sets of five, at least on your work weights. more time to adjust your position, more time to breathe, more time to recover, etc. re: sets and reps in general: common set-rep protocols from more strength focused to more endurance focused (with hypertrophy in the middle): -singles -doubles -triples -1x5 -2x5 -3x5 -5x5 -3x8 -3x10 -4x15 the higher up that list, the more weight that can be used, and the greater the strength gains. technique is better developed with higher reps except in highly technical lifts (such as the oly lifts) which are usually done via triples at most because fatigue borks them up massively. if you'd like to get strong again quickly, i'd go for nothing below 3x5, and just hammer in extra sets at varying weights (say, you hit your goal with 3x5 work weights, and then you do a given amount of extra sets at between 80 and 50% of that work weight, for sets of 3 to 5). for warm-ups, i tend to go in 5 or 10 kilo increments, depending on the lift, starting between 15 and 30kg away from my work weights, but it's something i recommend you experiment with to find out what feels more comfortable within each individual lift, as your squat warm-ups won't necessarily be the same as your deadlift ones, both of which will be different to OHP and row warm-ups (i also try to keep regular weight increases, so if i make a 5 kilo PR but i warm-up in 10 kilo increments, i'll add 5 kilos to the first warm-up set i do, and then proceed normally the next session). a good rule of thumb IMO is to start with the heaviest lift you can get 10 reps in without any grinding, and do 5 reps, keeping the reps at 5 or fewer before your work sets.
*Ushers Fish into a cupboard and throws a towel after him* Didn't have time to plan a new routine or do the cardio I wanted today, so just lifting in the garage as I babysit the kids as Mrs Mitch is out on a jolly. New routine is: Bench press Chin ups Overhead press Inverted rows Deadlifts Bench tricep dips I just 3x8 on all of them because I simply couldn't be bothered working out anything complicated My initial target is just to hit Novice lifting targets for all my lifts from here. Bench press is going great, I should hit that next week. Overhead press I always progress ridiculously slowly at so a couple more weeks for that I think. Deadlift is going to take time because I'm not willing to risk my knee. I did 3x8 at 60kg which was fine, the weight is not an issue, but I'm going to keep going up incrementally and seeing how my knee copes each time. In a couple of weeks I'll introduce squats too and see how those go. I am now fully in love with deadlifts again, and definitely falling for the dumbell rows too So I'm a happy Mitch after that session, lots of positives But 3 questions: 1. Has anyone got any suggestions for something that might help me with my overhead press? 2. I may have to revisit my inverted rows too, I don't feel like my back is really getting worked, any suggestions? 3. In deadlifts I find the palm outwards grip quite uncomfortable; can I use palm facing me for both hands? Mitch
1- i like arnold presses: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odhXwoS3mDA"]Arnold Press - YouTube[/ame] they more or less mimic the shoulder/elbow motions of the barbell OHP, so they can be used to fix technique boo-boos. they're also pretty good for the obliques (when done standing). 2- you could try increasing your training volume and/or intensity (ie more total reps with at least the same weight you're using now, and/or a higher weight). could be as simple as adding a set to failure with a weight of your choice after the 3x8, or use one of the more strength focused. 3- that is double overhand, and is actually the standard deadlift grip, so yes, you should have started with it in the first place
