thread of getting sw0le

yeah i had the same issue until i figured out the right place to rest the bar

yeah i think part of the problem with the pad is it means the bar is less stable. it's kind of like people who wear gloves and running shoes. the barbell is the size it is for a reason, and unless your body is unusual proportioned, you're screwing that up.

i've had the benefit of some good coaching that has help me a bunch, otherwise i'd probably being doing a bunch of stuff wrong

if you've spent most of your life doing it wrong like me it really takes some time/dedication to turns things around. but eventually your body just starts to "set" better, even in daily life.

totally.

goole i got semi-sw0le for like 9 months before i had a babby and got un-sw0le

but if you are looking for sw0le central in mpls, get a membership at Los Campeones gym on Franklin, dudes are serious! it's the best gym, super cheap, never crowded and all free weights and lots of space, barely any bullshit like eliptical trainers etc

ha! i have been to that gym. i was staying round the corner and they sold me a week pass. it was 100x better than my gym here.

i was kinda intimidated at first because there were these crazy big dudes lifting for serious, but i ended up finding out that they were always really helpful and encouraging if you asked them to spot or for help

though i did become pretty much certain that certain dudes there were heavily into r0ids

huh wow that is a pretty good deal. but i kind of love my busted-ass Y, and it's right around the corner from me

yeah, i guess the most important thing is having a gym you'll actually go to, so around the corner probably trump whatever advantages los campeones has.

which Y do you go to? blaisdell?

midway, dog! apart from people's kids i feel like i'm on the low end of the age curve there

haha what's the midway scene? drunks from the Trend Bar?

ha maybe in a couple cases. it's kind of everybody except your uptown young single white people. kids playing ball, moms on treadmills, old dudes benching in the smith machine, guys who hang out and watch cable in the locker room for hours, etc

i am working pretty hard on having a nice squat. i feel that barbell squat is currently pretty bad but improves every time. now my thing is i do goblet squats to get the heaviness in (i am up to 50 lbs for 5 reps!) and a number of low-bar back squats at a lighter weight to work on technique. at first i was so so bad at it and couldn't figure out where the bar went and my shoulders hurt. but i found the "shelf" on my back and moved my hands wider. front squats i need much more work on because my wrists hurt.
everyone should do this a million times before using the bar imo http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/goblet_squats_101
i can't believe i have turned into a person who reads articles on T NATION

i don't work hard enough on hamstring flexibility is part of the problem

i also have very long femurs and long everything so stuff might be less natural and i probably look like a daddy longlegs doing lifting

the right to get sw0le

http://i.imgur.com/CdXlO.jpg

i wasn't working on bench press at all until last week, just overhead presses and incline pushups. i have the weakest triceps in the universe.

also do you guys like to look at other people's butts a lot when you're out, i do

i can't believe i have turned into a person who reads articles on T NATION

― Online Webinar Event for Dads (harbl), Thursday, October 25, 2012 3:35 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

oh god, loool (don't read too many). you are awesome. i'm glad you started this thread cuz now i know i gotta fix up my squat. those mark rippetoe youtubes are v. helpful. it's easy to miss problems when you're self-taught. think i'll look for a copy of starting strength.

this would be a good place to post useful links

esp wrt good form

ilx needs a forum.bodybuilding.com appreciation thread

i don't have starting strength but i keep meaning to get it. i watched this like 40 times and now his voice is in my head when i set up for deadlifts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Syt7A23YnpA

hmm looks like i have to fix my deadlift too

Flexibility thing is very key IMO for good form on a lot of exercises--I think yoga has made a really huge difference for me in that regard. Soon getting really good form in squats wasn't such a struggle. I think yoga in general is a really good complement in general to any muscle building stuff you do.

my flexibility, at least during exercise, got much better when i switched to dynamic stretches

oh man i have watched that rippetoe deadlift video sooo many times

that 'timdohaney' youtube channel has a whole bunch of those, but this one, on grip, is not

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTqNSgCmM2s

this helped me a lot too

yeah, it's been really good for my hip mobility. if i gain mass in my legs/back/chest it really helps all the connecting structural stuff catch up. also breathing and body awareness.

xp yoga's basically a lot of dynamic stretching iirc?

i don't know anything abt yoga, dynamic in this context means stretching via movement rather than 'static' ie reaching for your toes and holding it for 10 sec or whatever. the literature on that is that static is worthless basically.

yes exactly.

re: Starting Strength - great in concept, but it's a lot of work and really geared toward athletes or potential athletes. Gym sessions will be long (if you're at the average gym with one squat rack) and DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) comes into play with the volume.

personal theory as to an exercise program that would meet the needs of 90% of humanity, if you had an average of one hour a day:
1. modified version of Pavel Tsatsouline's Power To The People program - two lifts, 2x5 - usually deadlift and press; the program is 5 days/week, but let's say 3 days
2. weighted walks once or twice a week - farmer's walk/suitcase walk/waiter's walk or just putting 20-30 pounds in a backpack and walking a couple of miles (aka rucking) - or you could throw in whatever functional shit you like here - sledgehammer swings, walking with a heavy-ass wheelbarrow, kettlebell swings
3. hour of walking on the nights you don't do the above for recovery/general health benefit; even better if you can walk more

truthfully, you could probably simplify shit even further by just doing a whole lot of rucking and things from 2. - it's worked for militaries for centuries. If you can march with a 40# (actually 100+ pounds for modern soldiers) for mile upon mile, you'll be in good shape

add stretching/yoga to 3., mobility stuff is v. v. important as you age

we're not trying to get army in here milo, we are getting sw0le

i thought one of starting strength's "things" was that gym sessions are unusually short. i probably do more than it calls for now and i never take more than an hour. i like work.

p.s. i am not walking a wheelbarrow through my neighborhood

that sounded like a knock on SS, shouldn't be. It's a great way to get stronger - I couldn't squat that much because I have random days that I spend climbing ladders. Climbing up on a roof with legs locked stiff from squatting the afternoon before seemed like a good way to break my neck.
Deadlifting (my preferred lower-body exercise) doesn't make me hurt as much and it's more of an all-over thing. Deadlifting and pressing happened to be the two movements I felt had the most value/carryover to real life, and there was a program that accomodated them quite well (PTTP).

with SS you should be doing ~5 warmup sets for each move before the three real ones, and you should be resting for a couple of minutes between the real sets and probably close to that for warmups. You want to recover as much as possible between each set with strength work

yeah it does seem like quads to get the most sore. it stopped for me after about 2 weeks of squatting though. however i'm just a lawyer and do not use my quads at work.

i'm only really sore from squats if i miss a week or three. lunges (warrior poses in teh yoga) the morning after usually help.

note: Ronnie Coleman (dude at the top of the thread) gave me a speeding ticket in high school; my assumption is that the local PD doesn't drug test for anabolic steroids

i'm gonna buy it now. tbh i am always wanting to do more sets but am disorganized about how much warmup i do. gonna get so sw0le.

there's a great video (maybe on youtube) of him in the late '90s following his average day - his cop job, then changing out of his uniform to work out, then spend his night in a super-depressing suburban living room walking very slowly on a treadmill watching TV
it seemed pretty depressing, even moreso because of the nasty protein shakes and boiled chicken that appeared to be his entire diet

that + internet forums + what supp companies call themselves are all reasons why i have contradictory feelings about wanting to get sw0le.

I fear their bowel movements

i think it takes more than some squats to get like sad huge ronnie coleman size

i said that wrong i mean, there are different degrees of sw0le

I feel like I Should lift things. But it always sucks.

bodybuilding.com was the first place i registered when i started working out a few years ago, and then i realized that these guys actually like know the size of their biceps in inches and it vave me this ~sad~ feeling. it is a super helpful site, though, they are truly martyrs for their cause