****Official Beginner Question Thread****

[Hardball47]

Originally Posted by waq

Thanks Hardball. Unlike you I have no experience with aliens in my stomach.

LOL np. It feels as though the stomach is gonna burst from trying to maintain tightness.

[pageh656]

OK. I am gonna need some help w programming. Last time I wall of worded like this no one read it but I have hope. Past few workouts were very taxing so I am reviewing my plan.

I have been doing SS since beginning of year every other day. My weight has gone from 190ish-178. I have DL'd basically every workout unless it was a day I failed a squat set. I have been microloading for a bit now. My last reset on each lift I have gone from(x means didnt try set), Squat fail 250(5, 5, x), up to fail 265(5, 4, x). Press fail 115(5,4,x), success at 120. DL fail 250(3), to fail 270(4). I am happy with both strength and appearance improvements. I am not against staying on current program but I don't know if it is best. Lately I have been gettin my ass kicked by squat sets, failing 265 was brutal on recovery. I have made progress with each reset besides my current DL's due to exhaustion by end of workout. There was one week where I poked myself in eye with a screwdriver because I am an idiot so I did a small reset on all lifts.

Current PR worksets, most recent workset and number of resets.
Squat: 262.5, 245, 2
Bench: 167.5, 167.5, 0
Press: 120, 120, 1
DL: 267.5, 255, 2

Reasons I am stalling:
I have been on a deficit, I am down about 12 lbs since beginning of year. My protein is not always adequate.
I have been DL'ing every workout and adding things like chinups, farmers carries, heavy bag at end of workouts. While I feel ready for each workout, my recovery is definitely being hindered. 2 hour workouts every other day, Overall FPS.

My goals are to:
Continue losing weight until at 170. Estimating it will be about 2 months. Then I will re evaluate weight goals.
Maintain or improve my current lifts while on deficit.
Add in more conditioning oriented work. Perhaps sprints and kettlebell work.
Would like to add these exercises: Power Cleans, Pendlay Rows, Kroc Rows, and using DB's for BP and OHP sometimes.

Do I?
Continue SS and resetting as previously planned until I am eating at maintenance/surplus again?
Start the Advanced Novice Program? Doubt I can restrict myself to deadlifting so little. Modified Advanced Novice? Could add some things to it. Consider GSLP? other program? Suggestions for anything?

I realize programming is not of utmost importance while on a deficit. If you have taken the time to read this, thank you. I will come up with a program to ask about after some feedback. Thoughts Please.

[bixby snyder]

Originally Posted by pageh656

Reasons I am stalling:
I have been on a deficit, I am down about 12 lbs since beginning of year. My protein is not always adequate.
I have been DL'ing every workout and adding things like chinups, farmers carries, heavy bag at end of workouts. While I feel ready for each workout, my recovery is definitely being hindered.

You seem to have a good grasp on the issues...

[JL514]

yeah also add working out heavy every other day to the stalling causes

[the_riddler]

help me hnf i have been a lanky mofo all my life ( 21 ) much like this guy

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/85...bigger-414115/

after reading over his thread i obv want to try and do the same but dont really know how to start? have use of a bench press, dumbbells, some bars, chin up bar ( one that hangs up on doorframe , dont even know if it will work on the frames in this flat ) annnnd a skipping rope ( lol ) . can someone please give me a list of exercises i could use /try for a few weeks ? id like to do full body workout maybe 3 times a week if this means anything.

[AcesFullMoon]

Originally Posted by Hardball47

LOL np. It feels as though the stomach is gonna burst from trying to maintain tightness.

Used "alien in the stomach" as my mental breathing cue a couple hours ago! Helped out immensely, as I'd been holding too much breath in my throat. Course, I offset it by letting my shoulder blades go slack a few times. Holding my breath so deep helped my bounce out of the box enough that it didn't matter though.

Following this thread closely has helped me tweak my squats to the point that I feel like I'm approaching textbook form Gonna pull it all together next workout. 300 pound work sets by weekend I think.

[Hardball47]

Originally Posted by AcesFullMoon

Used "alien in the stomach" as my mental breathing cue a couple hours ago! Helped out immensely, as I'd been holding too much breath in my throat. Course, I offset it by letting my shoulder blades go slack a few times. Holding my breath so deep helped my bounce out of the box enough that it didn't matter though.

Following this thread closely has helped me tweak my squats to the point that I feel like I'm approaching textbook form Gonna pull it all together next workout. 300 pound work sets by weekend I think.

[bobboufl11]

So I have a bad knee that tends to swell up and I can't fully extend anymore, and despite physical therapy sessions I can still feel the imbalance during heavy squat sets. Most legit single leg stuff to fix it or should I just do the best I can? The physical therapy method of doing a ****load of reps of various stuff with little to no weight kinda bores me but I figure they must know more than I do.

Some common things I notice that hurt me are:

when knee is worse its tough to stand properly at the top

sometimes there is a little cracking or general lack of stability where I feel like the rest of my body is there but I dont have enough in my knee to get the weight

Its a little tougher to get good depth consistently although I do think I most of my reps are fine sometimes I mentally am holding back a little



not sure maybe its not a huge deal and certainly better than not squatting

[saw7988]

My power clean racking technique is too slow, causing me to catch the bar on my wrists temporarily, before my elbows get all the way up. Does anyone have some good tips/cues/drills/etc to help whip the elbows through faster? Just thinking to myself things like "faster elbows" doesn't seem to be doing the trick. Thanks.

[PNHH]

Muscle "balance" question:

Does anyone have an idea of the optimal ratio between rows and bench? Sort of like the 2:3:4:5 ratios between press:bench:squatL.

[Soulman]

Which rows? And...who cares about some ideal that will vary greatly anyway?

[PNHH]

Bent-over-rows/Pendlays. And I care. I want to lay off some lifts and focus more on others if there is a clear imbalance. Even if it will "vary greatly", I'm assuming it will vary around some mean. I don't consider my anatomy skewed towards something or an outlier, so I have to take the average as my best bet.

Added to that, I'm generally just curious about stuff like this as rows are often described as the opposite to bench, although this might be broscience.

[Soulman]

Right, I didn't mean to imply that correcting imbalances is stupid. I haven't seen any ratios for rows like that at least.

If you haven't any horizontal pulls before, I'd just add them to your program in lieu of something else/as an addition, depending on what you're doing. It's not really the opposite of benching though - see http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_...lls_and_shrugs. According to Robertson (and he makes a good case imo), push-ups are in fact better for balancing out the bench. I <3 weighted push-ups. Also nice for chest size, sort of like a boob job that takes a long time.

[KPowers]

xposted from log

If I'm on a deficit and not getting enough protein, will my muscle mass go down faster than my fat? I've lost a bunch of weight and the only place I see it is in my arms.

However, my lifts aren't really stalling at all. I thought protein was necessary to be able to finish sets/move up and weight and calories were necessary for hypertrophy/atrophy.

[Soulman]

Faster than fat loss? Depends on the size of the deficit imo, and what you mean by "not enough protein". And it's not quite that simple.