Strength Weight Training: Anything and Everything II

Apr 18, 2005
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Straight up. I’ve never read about retracting the scapula in a shrug, what are the benefits? Might have a look into it.
I read somewhere ages back that you should shrug up and back as that’s the natural movement of the way the scapula moves. It also encompasses the traps better that way. Whether it’s right or not, who knows, I’ve done both and must say up and back feels more natural. But it’s personal preference I guess.
 
Oct 6, 2005
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I read somewhere ages back that you should shrug up and back as that’s the natural movement of the way the scapula moves. It also encompasses the traps better that way. Whether it’s right or not, who knows, I’ve done both and must say up and back feels more natural. But it’s personal preference I guess.

I showed my chiro a video of me heavy shrugging, he wasn’t very impressed with my head position (too far forward) or the fact my scapula wasn’t set properly and that it was leading to some improper cervical curvature/lordosis.

Shrugs have never caused me any sort of inflammation though so I kinda ignored him. The chiros I’ve dealt with have always tried too hard to ascribe a binary of good or bad form to an exercise without adequately factoring the individuals biomechanics. My physio is pretty awesome in this regard (I’m sure some chiros are a bit more open minded too).

Shrugs have been an absolute god send me me in relieving trap tension and tension headaches.
 
Apr 18, 2005
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I showed my chiro a video of me heavy shrugging, he wasn’t very impressed with my head position (too far forward) or the fact my scapula wasn’t set properly and that it was leading to some improper cervical curvature/lordosis.

Shrugs have never caused me any sort of inflammation though so I kinda ignored him. The chiros I’ve dealt with have always tried too hard to ascribe a binary of good or bad form to an exercise without adequately factoring the individuals biomechanics. My physio is pretty awesome in this regard (I’m sure some chiros are a bit more open minded too).

Shrugs have been an absolute god send me me in relieving trap tension and tension headaches.
Yeah I agree with that. Since getting my traps working I’ve very rarely had headaches or tension in my neck. I guess it’s about developing that muscle group so it bears load where it should. I don’t know how much work it does in supporting the weight of the head, but it must contribute a fair degree.
 
Aug 11, 2006
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Just started getting into lifting weights

My squats are pathetic, issues with my knee means when I started i wasnt pushing past 60 and just trying to get as low as possible.
hit 3 reps of squats (90) deadlifts (145) and Bench press (70)
Think ill hit 160/165 deadlift as I was a little tired hitting 145 and had a big day at work before I pulled that. Whats some good alternative exercises to work on mobility/strength for squats?
 
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Teagueeee15

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Sep 15, 2004
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Just started getting into lifting weights

My squats are pathetic, issues with my knee means when I started i wasnt pushing past 60 and just trying to get as low as possible.
hit 3 reps of squats (90) deadlifts (145) and Bench press (70)
Think ill hit 160 deadlift as I was a little tired hitting 145 and had a big day at work before I pulled that. Whats some good alternative exercises to work on mobility/strength for squats?

For somebody just starting out, your squat numbers aren’t pathetic and your deadlift numbers are great!

Because you are just starting out, for support exercises I would recommend starting out with more basic movements like hip thrusts/glute bridges, Romanian deadlifts (possibly start with dumbbells before moving to barbell), walking lunges and also some of the machine stuff like hip abductions, leg extensions...etc. then once you are more experienced, I would consider moving onto things like Zercher squats, deficit deadlifting.

If you keep at it you never know what you can achieve. When I started in June 2012 I could only bench a couple of reps at 30kg and had to go to the gym around 10pm because I was so embarrassed. Now my 1rm at incline bench is around 1.5x body weight and approaching 3x body weight at deadlifting.
 
Aug 11, 2006
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I started because of consistent basketball injuries, wanted to get stronger legs to stop consistent knee pain, and help speed. I've been going for about 2 months now, Its pretty good considering I wasn't even getting 45 degrees down on my squats at 50 kilos

Considering Im about 97 kilos and probably a little bigger then most guys I still really want to get my Squats up. Never really got lifting weights. However really enjoying it and hopefully after the 2+ months ive built a habit out of it.
 
I’ve been apart of a few high performance programs and I’ve been training with Carlton. What differs from Carltons Program is that they don’t prioritise the standard squat and deadlift for their compound lifts and programmed RDLs with weighted squat jumps as a superset. Definitely a really good program that made me even stronger.
 

Coolangatta

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Oct 27, 2007
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Because they're harder to do with good form? Because the loads are heavier? There must be a reason why they don't do them as much because why wouldn't you want your players to do them? I think one poster in this thread said a while back that the WCE perform trap-bar deadlifts instead of conventional.
 
Oct 6, 2005
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Because they're harder to do with good form? Because the loads are heavier? There must be a reason why they don't do them as much because why wouldn't you want your players to do them? I think one poster in this thread said a while back that the WCE perform trap-bar deadlifts instead of conventional.
I can think of many reasons a football club would elect not to include conventinal squat and deadlift in their player's gym work but that wouldn't include an increased risk of injury.
 
So, I presume gyms are closed until 80% double vaxxed, then open to vaxxed people only with density limits?
Gyms open in SA, no vax required.

Masks on entering and leaving, wiping down of equipment and social distancing expected. Basically none of this is really enforced now.
 

Coolangatta

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How necessary are they, though? AFL training isn't powerlifting, so I don't see why they couldn't use SSB squats, single-leg movements, and trap-bar deadlifts as alternatives. I don't think they're easy movements to learn, and they aren't necessary to develop a good base of fitness and strength, which would be the most logical answer to my question of why you wouldn't do them that I can think of.
 
FMD

Yesterday I did a slight hamstring "strain" on the elliptical. :drunk:

I presume its a strain as I was able to run on the treadmill afterwards. Probably shouldnt have, then again I was get sometimes aches or pains when warming up that turn out to be nothing.

Any posters masquerading as part time doctors on Bigfooty?
 
Oct 6, 2005
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How necessary are they, though? AFL training isn't powerlifting, so I don't see why they couldn't use SSB squats, single-leg movements, and trap-bar deadlifts as alternatives. I don't think they're easy movements to learn, and they aren't necessary to develop a good base of fitness and strength, which would be the most logical answer to my question of why you wouldn't do them that I can think of.
I didn't mean to sound combative but I have a bit of an allergy to people making claims about the 'dangers' of squatting and deadlifting. I spent too much of my early listing days buying into that kind of rhetoric and it mean I didn't make as much progress as I should have.

All lifts are potentially dangerous if completed improperly

All lifts are safe if completed in a responsible manner using proper form and progressive overload.
 
Oct 6, 2005
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Yeah, but would you say it's easier to learn good form with a trap bar and a SSB bar than conventional? If so, isn't your form less likely to break down?
I honestly don't think a trap bar or ssb makes the lifts any safer or make the user more likely to use good form
 

Coolangatta

Norm Smith Medallist
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I honestly don't think a trap bar or ssb makes the lifts any safer or make the user more likely to use good form

I'm not certain about the SSB, but I am about the trap bar since it's common for me to read that the movement is easier for trainers to teach clients, so presumably, they don't screw it up as much and avoid injury. Surely the percentage of people who get injured using a trap-bar or SSB bar is lower than the percentage using a conventional barbell, even if both groups are a small number. So much more can go wrong with the conventional movement pattern, in my view.
 
Jun 27, 2013
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The Dogs definitely squat and do a heap of barbell training and training out of a rack out of the video gym footage I've seen over the years. Looks like push presses, strict presses and cleans and stuff they'll do too.

Not sure about deadlifts though with them, but I guess doing cleans will hit those areas anyway.
 
Oct 6, 2005
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I'm not certain about the SSB, but I am about the trap bar since it's common for me to read that the movement is easier for trainers to teach clients, so presumably, they don't screw it up as much and avoid injury. Surely the percentage of people who get injured using a trap-bar or SSB bar is lower than the percentage using a conventional barbell, even if both groups are a small number. So much more can go wrong with the conventional movement pattern, in my view.



and

 
Jun 27, 2013
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I've seen the Rippetoe video before. I won't throw my hat into the beefcake ring because I'm not an expert, but many in the strength and fitness community disagree with his argument.
Agree

The deadlift is simply one of the hardest exercises to perform in the same way because everyone has different leverages, be it having larger or shorter legs, having a lower centre of gravity etc

Rip ain't the tallest guy, he's obviously got a far lower centre of gravity than most, conventional deadlifts would benefit him far better than someone with longer legs

At least deadlifting sumo or using a trap bar helps people with different biomechanics still deadlift comfortably from the floor, otherwise they'll have to do some sort of elevated deadlift, like a rack pull to stand in a similar position to conventional
 
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