Grassroots Strength Training - Bodybuilding, Power Lifting, Etc.

ProDarwin said:

I'm back to doing limited-equipment workouts.  I have a 16 and 24kg kettlebell in my apt, and the apt gym has dumbells up to 50lb.  Anyone have any recommendations for good programs that would work with the light dumbells?  

Similar question after trying to get back into things. I usually do a few different compound movement routines but always want to hear more. I have access to up to 70lb dumbells and cable machine, but that's about it.

A few that I do:

15 reps of each, then 14, then 13 on down of alternating kettle bell/dumbell swings and burpees then I usually do a set of curls to finish up the day

40sec on 20sec off, 2 min rest of below repeat 3x
goblet squats
mountain climbers
kettle/dumbell swings (20 sec per side)
T pushups
squat jump or threaded lunges (for my knee issues)
bent over rows
side lunges (20sec per side)
push up position rows
lunges w side twist and curl (single dumbell)
push press (smalll squat w shoulder press)

40sec on 20sec off, 2 min rest of below repeat 3x
squat with 90deg twist single arm shoulder press
mountain climber with pushup
dumbell side lunge and curl
plank walkup and dumbell drag
dumbell stepover
single arm alternating clean
pushup, row, squat thrust
goblet squat and alternating reverse lunge
dumbell russian twist
dumbell deadlift and row

Would love to see different versions of these kinds of workouts. Maybe less on the swol but good for overall fitness for sure.

   After a few years of performing the kettlebell clean and press I feel like I'm finally getting quite good at it. Others probably knew this already but, today during my Rite of Passage I made a conscious effort to really squeeze the handle of the kettlebell (once it was it the rack position and preparing for the press) like I was Homer Simpson and I'd finally had enough of Bart's E36 M3 and it seemed to make the pressing nearly effortless. 


      

I stumbled upon a team grappling tournament-type thing on youtube a few days ago and I really like the format. This one has MMA legend Kazushi Sakuraba competing at the age of 54! I know there are a few other martial arts geeks here.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6QYfaosx2E

St Jude is  having their pushup challenge fundraiser again this year. I am failing to raise money, but I am doing lots of pushups. Last year was 3,000 goal from them and I did 3,200. This year they dropped the goal to 1,000 and I am sitting around 5,500 with the rest of today to go. Can I get 6,000?

That sounds fun.  Over what period of time?

My update is:  I'm on antibiotics right now and have to take it easy because one of the side effects is potential tendon problems when exercising hard.  Ugh.  This year sucks :(

ProDarwin said:

That sounds fun.  Over what period of time?

 

 

My update is:  I'm on antibiotics right now and have to take it easy because one of the side effects is potential tendon problems when exercising hard.  Ugh.  This year sucks :(

One month

tuna55 said:

ProDarwin said:

That sounds fun.  Over what period of time?

 

 

My update is:  I'm on antibiotics right now and have to take it easy because one of the side effects is potential tendon problems when exercising hard.  Ugh.  This year sucks :(

One month

Finished 6,000 for the month, which meant 700 yesterday. The fundraiser didn't go terribly well, something like $180 for St Jude. If you want to donate, give it to Bill instead for Ukrainian humanitarian relief.

That is a ton of pushups!

I usually work out before work. That means getting up pretty early. On days where I dont work, I almost never work out because SWMBO doesnt appreciate racking a weight bar while shes trying to sleep in. This includes weekends.

I took off a few days before and a few days after thanksgiving, so that meant i didnt work out for about 8 days straight. In the past, a break that long meant that my max bench had regressed. Well, I still hit 315 earlier this week on my heavy bench day. Feels good that the gains are sticking in the >40 category.

Wanted to do an interesting update after this thread fell for the past 2 weeks. For the past 4-5 months I've been in active training as a nurse, so suddenly I went from a decently active lifestyle to now demanding 10-12K steps walked on my working days. Frequently doing lots of heavy lifting, as my clientele tend to be multisystem failure, older, and immobilized due to things like intubation.

I didn't realize how heavily it was going to affect my lifts- if I go to the gym right after work I can maybe get a good set out, but the next several will suffer terribly. To deal with that, I decided to alter how I did my training days- I now only jog after work (going from 12K steps to over 16K lol) and I tend to spend at least a full day off after a working week to fully recover before lifting. Because of that, I tend to lift 3 days in a row now but it means that I hit my normal levels.

Next thing was altering and improving my diet. Saying I was tired doesn't explain it properly- I wasn't to exhaustion, but I knew I wasn't eating enough because of how gassed I quickly felt. I've since increased how much I eat, and while I'm still not doing it properly (I have yet to actually download and install a tracker) I've begun ensuring that I take in 500-750 kcal every breakfast with at least 2 snacks a day, and it speaks volumes that I visibly haven't gotten fatter and just feel better overall, and that's just with altering my cooking. I'll probably use Mike Isratei's app.

I'm still using the program made for me, and I still haven't yet found a way to squeeze in martial arts instead of things like jogging. Working 12 hour shifts means that on work days, I effectively have ~45 minutes to do this and every extra minute spent means I get less sleep, which I cannot allow.

Yesterday our Crossfit WOD was 1600 m run, 800m run with a 20 pound sandbgg on my shoulder, 400 m run with a 52 pound kettlebell and then a 200m run with two 52 pound kettlebells. It would have been fine but my calves siezed up and the last 600 plus 30 minutes after were agony as they cramped into solid blocks. I did it in 18:57 which was a lot slower than I had planned.

I got my Strava end of year recap. Strength training was my main single percentage of activity at nearly 40%, with a blend of cardio/movement taking up 60%.

This is the first year I've gotten the recap, so the primary use will be to do better next year.

Anybody got any lifting resolutions for the new year? Personally I'm trying to get more serious about my whole routine - lifting heavy with progressive overload, getting in lots of protein, and doing at least a full push/pull/legs split every week, in addition to dance classes and bouldering.

I started a week early on all of this because I had free time to spend at the gym between xmas and new year's, and I'm already feeling really good about it. I also switched up my gym memberships so that I have access to a bigger 24hr gym with a better variety of equipment now.

In reply to Nicole Suddard :

Planning on a lot of back & core in '24.. Felt like I was fighting injuries every time I stepped into the gym last year. My posterior chain was not happy with sitting at a desk for prolonged periods and then working out one day per week.

Dedicated stretching and months of light lifts finally got things realigned. Back to doing weighted pullups, I'd love to hit the same numbers I did while rock climbing, but that was 15 years ago...

Posting here as it's related to this tread Moog/Blair from Mighty Car Mods posted this hour long video recently and finally gotten around to watching it. It's pretty long but very inspirational 

I drank the CrossFit Kool-Aid 2 years ago and now I go five times a week and usually an hour early to work on skills. My goals for this year are two bar muscle ups and two ring muscle ups, 10 unbroken toes to bar, a freestanding handstand, 10 Kipping handstand push-ups and two strict handstand push-ups. All that stuff is way more fun to me than going to a gym and pushing machine weights. I have been working on these goals for quite a while now so it's not that I'm starting from zero but I think they're achievable in the next 12 months.

Nicole Suddard said:

Anybody got any lifting resolutions for the new year?

The same thing we do every year. Try to take over the world!
No, wait, that's not right. 

Not so much a resolution as a redirection: I'm not going to chase numbers this year. I'm going to concentrate on form and volume and work on getting more muscular endurance and fitter overall. I was spending too much time with minor, avoidable strains and injuries chasing numbers.

 

Nicole Suddard said:

Anybody got any lifting resolutions for the new year?

deadlifts, finally try and work them back in after multiple back injuries

In reply to Nicole Suddard :

Hmm, resolutions for this year?

I'm a former semi-professional powerlifter, and took a soft retirement in 2016. Since then I've spent some time focusing on strongman events (and successfully carried the Husafell stone in 2019). However, a year and a half ago I decided I wanted to get back into rock climbing: I used to climb quite a bit when I was lighter, but gave it up in favor of powerlifting.

Now I'm trying to be basically the heaviest person to climb 5.12s at the rock gym, and would like to be back to climbing 5.11s outdoors. I'm still about 275lb. I'm climbing outdoor 10s and indoor 11s and am finding it REALLY WEIRD to try to mix a balance of size and strength for strongman/PL training and leanness, balance, flexibility, and small muscle strength for climbing.

Goals this year? At the very least, to continue having fun. Oh, and in May, birthday squats: Every year I do 315 on the bar for my age in reps in a single set. They're terrible. It's awesome.

Nicole Suddard said:

Anybody got any lifting resolutions for the new year?

Recover from all the injuries and stuff that's hit me this past year, but I'm not making setting any hard goals.

Things I generally want to get back to:

• Focus on full depth on squat. (Get 3 plates at full depth?)
• Focus on climbing more frequently. (Boulder V5's regularly?)
• Deadlift 4 plates again?
• Back into 1000lbs club?

We'll see. Right not my plan is just "continually make progress".

I think climbing is going to be my primary exercise focus this year. That means not eating as heavy and being as bulky as when my focus was big numbers on lifts, but I don't think is going to shift things too much. I should still be able to get to the 1,000lbs club at 175 instead of 185, and be able to climb V5's.

I'm having trouble coming up with a goal / resolution.  Last year was such a berkeleying E36 M3show, and right now I am dealing multiple medical issues again.

I think the most reasonable goal is to :stick to a program, including diet, at 100% for multiple cycles during the year.  But I really can't get more specific than that right now :(

I have two copies of starting strength by Mark Rippletoe.  I only need one.  I don't follow the program but I do deadlifts and squats a lot after reading this.  
 

If any needs and will use it, I can GRM New Years it to you directly.  Happy New Year!

Because we like Stuff... considering adding an Open Trap Bar and/or an ez curl bar to our garage gym.

Any thoughts on trap bars?

I'm leaning towards Rep Fitness trap bar. For an ez curl... probably either hunt down one used on FBM, or possibly a house brand from Dick's.

In reply to Beer Baron :

So, trap bars. What is your use case? They keep your hands in a more neutral position for deadlifts, to be sure, but also have their limitations: They're useful only for the one thing, and take up a lot of room (and of course they limit you to a conventional stance). Do you already have a deadlift bar you use regularly? What sort of training protocol are you doing that would make good use of a trap bar? That being said, the one you linked looks nifty: I like that it has an open frame and can be used as an ad hoc cambered bar, if that's your thing. 

I use a trap bar sometimes when deadlifting when I don't want to drag a barbell against my shins, but I also come from a powerlifting background where, well, that's just what you do. 

For curls, sure, an easy-curl bar makes sense: It reduces supination of the wrist and elbow and can reduce joint pain associated with such. I'd go so far as to say that curling with a straight bar is generally a bad idea. 

In reply to brandonsmash :

Right now we deadlift with just a standard barbell (Rogue power bar for me; Bella Bar for her). Biggest advantage I think would be for my wife who often has wrist and grip issues.

I like multi-function equipment that opens up lots of options. I wouldn't normally consider a standard hex trap bar, but the split bar seems like it would open up a lot of options: lunges, split squats step ups, farmer walks, bench rows, etc. Things where we're normally using dumbbells.  I'm also curious about what advantages a cambered bar opens up.