Strength Weight Training: Anything and Everything II

Any tips on what weight to use for 3-4 sets of a stiff-leg deadlift? Would you use about 50 or 60% of your deadlift 1RM?
Go lighter than you think the first time - I find eccentric hamstring movements give you DOMs like nothing else.
I SLDL pretty much every week as my hamstring accessory exercise, often on Tuesdays after squats (noting I deadlift the day before!)

Worth noting the rep range too - my DL rep range is 5 for working sets, for SLDLs I use anywhere from 8-12 (normally 10-12). Have to do it slowly or I find it become a lower back exercise and I use it to target hammies.
 

Coolangatta

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Go lighter than you think the first time - I find eccentric hamstring movements give you DOMs like nothing else.
I SLDL pretty much every week as my hamstring accessory exercise, often on Tuesdays after squats (noting I deadlift the day before!)

Worth noting the rep range too - my DL rep range is 5 for working sets, for SLDLs I use anywhere from 8-12 (normally 10-12). Have to do it slowly or I find it become a lower back exercise and I use it to target hammies.

Yeah, I do 3x2-5 reps for my main working sets of deadlifts. I'll do 3x8-12 SLDLs to complete "leg" volume for that session. Then it'll probably be something like 5x5 OHP, 3x8-12 T-bar rows and 50 lying leg raises.
 
Just take one of every lighter dumbell. And all the collars. Annoy the hell out of them.
 
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The IOC has just axed weightlifting from the Olympics. What bullshit, weightlifting is one of those quintessential Olympic events for me. It won't be long before the Games are all just new age stuff like skateboarding, breakdancing and parkour.
That stinks

Are they that paranoid about PEDs?
 
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Any tips on what weight to use for 3-4 sets of a stiff-leg deadlift? Would you use about 50 or 60% of your deadlift 1RM?
Stiff leg or RDLs?

They are a different exercise, check out Alan Thralls tutorials on this (one of the better comparison videos I've seen)

You're probably thinking of RDLs, you could probably go 30-40% for RDLs, I normally do, all about getting the hammies to fire with that one.

Stiff legged deadlifts though, you can definitely go heavier than a RDL, I don't deadlift conventional anymore, I pull sumo so I don't do them.
 
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Ok, I think 110-120kg range bench is like the borderline between strength and hypertrophy now for me, used to be 100-110 for a while with 120 around double territory so that would've been 90-95%, so clearly 110-120 is 85-90% for me now and benching 100 is a standard 75-80% upper end hypertrophy now.

Will be interesting to see how I progress in the new year with my 100-110kg bench rep ranges as I will be changing my overall goal from strength to a fat loss/hypertrophy/maintenance routine. I would say I'd bench 100-110kgs most weeks with the odd 120 thrown in to see where my 85% thresholds would be. I've had some noticeable improvements across the year in regards to improving rep ranges, particularly in the last 10 or so weeks since I got my new power rack where I know I can back myself to go harder safely, so yeah, I think 4x10 at 100kgs is achievable before my birthday in March, 3x8 at 110 I'll chip away at across the year.

Got good pec/ant delt DOMS today from last nights session, after warming up at 50/70/90kgs, I only did 2x6 at 110 and a triple and a quadruple at 120 then did some tricep pushdowns, extensions and kickbacks afterwards.

Day 1 of an 8 day break then will attempt the 145kg pb on Wednesday next week hopefully.
 
loudmouth dude banging on and on to everyone about anything and everything before/during warmup at crossfit yesterday... old mate couldn't handle the session and left halfway through. i wasn't disappointed

was he telling everyone he does crossfit?
 

Coolangatta

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Stiff leg or RDLs?

They are a different exercise, check out Alan Thralls tutorials on this (one of the better comparison videos I've seen)

You're probably thinking of RDLs, you could probably go 30-40% for RDLs, I normally do, all about getting the hammies to fire with that one.

Stiff legged deadlifts though, you can definitely go heavier than a RDL, I don't deadlift conventional anymore, I pull sumo so I don't do them.

I watched the video. I thought I was doing stiff-leg but I was doing Romanian. It was 50% of my 1RM. It wasn't particularly challenging; makes me wonder if I'm getting the most out of my deadlifts. I don't mean to but I think I'm still too reliant on pulling and not leg drive, and that's probably because I make a conscious effort not to drop the hips much. Although, I haven't tested my 1RM in a while and it's probably gone up.
 
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I watched the video. I thought I was doing stiff-leg but I was doing Romanian. It was 50% of my 1RM. It wasn't particularly challenging; makes me wonder if I'm getting the most out of my deadlifts. I don't mean to but I think I'm still too reliant on pulling and not leg drive, and that's probably because I make a conscious effort not to drop the hips much. Although, I haven't tested my 1RM in a while and it's probably gone up.
I occasionally go 60-70% for RDLs, but it won't be high reps, normally sets of 5-6 there, also harder to maintain good form

I feel 40% is about right for me, hit sets of 8-10 and just get the hammies going, also feel more comfortable in the lift with good form

In my early days of training all the PTs and gym brahs got it wrong and called RDLs stiff legs so can see why people are mislead there, I eventually talked to someone who knew his lifts when I was 18 and he taught me how to squat, deadlift and clean
 

estibador

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So I've just finished building my own place and I've converted the front living room into a home gym. Pretty happy with how it's turned out.

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Anyone struggled with workouts on night shift.

i hadnt worked out this week because of it, but went to the gym this morning after quite possibly my shittiest shift ever. Dealing with bs all night.

I ate well, plenty of carbs, protein, water. Woke up at 11pm before my last shift. Got to the gym and my 1 arm hang best was 36 seconds, and I could barely manage 14 seconds. Other exercises were about 50% so I packed up and went home. Im going to sleep and try the rest of my workout later, then stagger back to a day time routine.

Ive had bad workouts from overtraining but not this bad even on night shift, unless Im unwell or somethijng. Hopefully I can get back on tomorrow
 

Teagueeee15

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Anyone struggled with workouts on night shift.

i hadnt worked out this week because of it, but went to the gym this morning after quite possibly my shittiest shift ever. Dealing with bs all night.

I ate well, plenty of carbs, protein, water. Woke up at 11pm before my last shift. Got to the gym and my 1 arm hang best was 36 seconds, and I could barely manage 14 seconds. Other exercises were about 50% so I packed up and went home. Im going to sleep and try the rest of my workout later, then stagger back to a day time routine.

Ive had bad workouts from overtraining but not this bad even on night shift, unless Im unwell or somethijng. Hopefully I can get back on tomorrow

Don’t worry - I train at nights and can randomly have these problems as well and had one on Monday/Tuesday. I reckon it happens once a week at least despite consistent diet and movement patterns during the day. I can sympathise as I get really down when it happens and it weighs on my mind when I’m in bed trying to sleep.

Monday/Tuesday over head pressing went like this, before I gave up.

Set 1 - 3 reps at 57.5kg (would have failed on 4th rep)
Set 2 - 5 reps at 55Kg
Set 3 - 5 reps at 55kg
Set 4 - 4 reps at 55kg (failed on the 5th rep)

Then yesterday it went like this (best ever session)

Set 1 - 5 reps at 57.5kg
Set 2 - 5 reps at 56kg
Set 3 - 5 reps at 56kg
Set 4 - 5 reps at 56kg
Set 5 - 5 reps at 56kg
Set 6 - 5 reps at 55Kg
Set 7 - 5 reps at 55kg
Set 8 - 5 reps at 55kg
 
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Popped in to NC Fitness in Hallam this arvo to grab a couple pairs of dumbbells to see me out for the summer.

If you live in the southeast/Gippsland, east or bayside areas of town I'd highly recommend you check them out. Good range of equipment for crossfit, strongman and general strength, alot of leg machines there. Well priced, dumbbells and plates at $3.50 per kilo still (everyone else is going up in that regard)

Bit of a hike for me coming from the west, but I think they'll be useful if I buy in bulk every 12-24 months from now on. Their commercial fat pad flat bench is a beast, will be on my 2022 shortlist.
 

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I feel like this is a pretty good back blueprint


T-Nation always brings the goods
 

2006_Eagles

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Anyone struggled with workouts on night shift.

i hadnt worked out this week because of it, but went to the gym this morning after quite possibly my shittiest shift ever. Dealing with bs all night.

I ate well, plenty of carbs, protein, water. Woke up at 11pm before my last shift. Got to the gym and my 1 arm hang best was 36 seconds, and I could barely manage 14 seconds. Other exercises were about 50% so I packed up and went home. Im going to sleep and try the rest of my workout later, then stagger back to a day time routine.

Ive had bad workouts from overtraining but not this bad even on night shift, unless Im unwell or somethijng. Hopefully I can get back on tomorrow

I used to come off nightshift and go into something like F45 I had booked into

Group training has a lot of benefits. I'm someone who really gets the best out of it, outside of those who phone it in
 

2006_Eagles

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Re: Weight Training: Building Muscle

I quite enjoy it. It's the only day where you can almost break PB's on a weekly basis.

Lol, I only enjoy the end result. It's super pain central to get your legs to grow, ******* hate it

I can get my back to grow and jerk off to every second of it. * legs

Having said that, I have been putting myself through excruciating pain with every leg press and squat variation you could think of and seeing growth. I'm proud of that
 

Coolangatta

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For Zercher squats, I've been following a linear pattern that goes like
3×5
79%​
3×4
81%​
3×3
83%​
3×2
86%​
3×5*
79%​
3×4
81%​
3×3
83%​
3×2
86%​

I was wondering if you were following that scheme, what you'd do to accumulate extra volume for that exercise on that day, and what you'd do on the alternative day of the week if you did Zercher's again. I like doing them twice a week, I just need to round out the rest of my programming. I have the rest of my exercise volume covered pretty well.

Edit: What I'm doing is an alt version of Wendler's 1000% awesome leader but the two cycles go for a month each and my TM is my 1RM.

So, in Wendler's, in this template, you do 5sPRO squats (3x5, warm-ups not included) on day 1 and 5x5 80-85% on day 3. Low squat volume, arguably, at 40 reps a week; more if you add single-leg assistance work, I guess.

I've been tweaking around the volume in my first cycle but want more consistency for the second.

I was thinking of my day 3 being 5x5, but since Wendler's is 5x5 80-85% of TM and I'm using a 1RM, 5x5 @ 80-85% of my 1RM sounds horrible, especially since I'm already doing one heavy day, so I was thinking of doing 70-75% 5x5 as my "lighter" day.

For 3x4 maybe take off 5-10% and do one back off set, 3x3 I could do two back off sets, and to change it up, take off 20kg or 20% from 3x2 and do one AMRAP set.

What do you think? I used to think I should hit 24-25 reps for Zercher's per session, but since I'm dealing with higher TM percentages on heavy days, I should be fine hitting 15-16 reps.
 
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2006_Eagles

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Its funny you mention this.

Today, I was doing incline bench press and literally less than a meter away a very stunning girl wearing leggings was doing kneeling one arm single arm row on a bench directly in front of me.

To be honest it was awkward as f**k.

Normally when I finish a set, I have blank stare and zone out, till my 2-3 min break is out. Being on the incline bench, Its not like I could just stare in front of me as her arse was literally in my face, so after finishing every set, I had to go walkabouts.

To her credit, she stayed there the entire time. Im almost certain she is a dancer so naturally she is very confident, as in the open area of the gym, Ive seen her practice dance moves for the entire workout.

Holy ******* s**t, literally the exact same thing happened to me a few weeks ago.

I too was doing incline bench in the squat rack, with 3 or 4 empty benches the area in front of me. A chick picks the bench directly in my line of sight and starts doing one armed dumbbell rows in the manner you described.

That is ******* uncanny
 
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Cleared the 145kg this time around

I probably spent far too much time on the warm up/pyramid last time around 3 and a half weeks ago.

I think last time I went something like

50 for 10
70 for 10
100 for 5
120 for 3 (probably 1 rep too much)
130 for a single
140 for a single (maxed out here obviously)
Then failed 145 and 142.5

This time I went
Band work for warm up, shoulder mobility, pulls and presses.
12.5kg dumbbell presses and rows for a bit of extra activation/ROM

Then went over to bench
50 for 10
70 for a very slow 6 focusing on ROM
100 for 4
120 for 2
130 for a single
Then got in my 145

The left side was a little sluggish and there was a sticking point but I got through it, once the triceps kicked in in the top half of the lift I felt relatively comfortable and wasn't struggling to rack it

I think if I were to compete I'd say 135-140 would be my range as I'd probably fatigue a little waiting for the press command, other than that I ticked off the PB on the bucket list, but most importantly it was a PB that happened post back injury

So yeah, I think next year and beyond to improve on bench next time to get to that 150kg milestone I'll need to

1. Improve the left side, so will probably do a 6-8 week cycle primarily dumbbell pressing, maybe see how I go pressing 2.5lb heavier on the left side compared to the right with the Ironmasters

2. Tempo bench, particularly hitting the initial half of the concentric (my unrack and eccentric is pretty sound, so not sure I'll need much concentric work). Maybe some cheat half rep work?


Anyways, my summer hypertrophy block starts from now, targeting fat loss mainly, will take it easy next week then I'll ease into it after New Years
 
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