Weightlifting

[Basil]

Re: Weightlifting

My favorite workout is one that kicks my ass!!! For this I have found that crossfit is the best way to go. Olympic Weightlifting is the core of the program, but it is far more expansive. I like to mix the weightlifting with a variety of other things. I have found that crossfit is great for avoiding something that becomes too routine, and for keeping the muscles guessing.

http://www.crossfit.com/

[strittmatter]

Re: Weightlifting

tried that once..........

http://www.hulu.com/watch/4090/satur...-drug-olympics

actually ever since college I have always been a closet semi-lifter. Nowadays I do free flat bench and a fairly rigorous parallel squat workout once a week. at my age (42) once weekly with the squats is enough. takes that long just to recover.

[Basil]

Re: Weightlifting

actually ever since college I have always been a closet semi-lifter. Nowadays I do free flat bench and a fairly rigorous parallel squat workout once a week. at my age (42) once weekly with the squats is enough. takes that long just to recover.

I am glad to hear it is not just me. I bike for transportation and have almost had to rule out squats entirely, as they turn my legs into lead when combined with too much biking.

[doom&gloom]

Re: Weightlifting

just restarting myself. put in a home gym courtesy of Craigslist.

[Captain3D]

Re: Weightlifting

Great life, but that's a sumo deadlift! :eek:

I alternate between Sumo and conventional...

conventional deadlift

Currently in conventional mode (360lb x 10 reps last week - 177lb body weight - age 42). Wifey is at it as well...

Deepa lifting 205lb @114lb body weight

We are progressing down to single lifts some time in April. Then we stop the weights and start running for the San Francisco marathon again in August.

phil

[BadJuju]

Re: Weightlifting

If you do not mind me saying, your wife has a great body, and her lift was perfect! And she looks like a fish : O : o : O : o : O while preparing to lift.

[BadJuju]

Re: Weightlifting

aha, I love the way you shake her hand at the end. :cool:

[Captain3D]

Re: Weightlifting

aha, I love the way you shake her hand at the end. :cool:

Ha yes so romantic ;-)

phil

[BadJuju]

Re: Weightlifting

Some guys at the gym were trying to say the way I do squats is bad. In my defense, I do squats the way they are meant to be performed. Full, ass-to-the-grass squats, the kind where your legs go below parallel.

It is sad that they have such a fundamental misconception about the most important lift there is. And unfortunately, I am skinny, so they probably look at me and think, "Who the hell does he think he is?"

[Captain3D]

Re: Weightlifting

Wonder if they can do this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjfEnUT2A-g

[Spartacus]

Re: Weightlifting

That's utterly insane.

Looks like more than Tom Platz ever squatted, yet his quads look HALF the diameter of Platz's

Who is he & how does he train?

And how did he pick his parents?

Wonder if they can do this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjfEnUT2A-g

[Guest]

Re: Weightlifting

I've got a story for you guys. A friend of mine is in med school and told me this just yesterday. There was a case study they reviewed in class of a man in his forties who was admitted to hospital with severe back pain? Turns out he was messed up critically - as in "lifetime disability". What had occurred was this: His son was out in the family garage, worlking on the engine of a VW bug. They had the car up on some blocks, and the father went into the house. He then heard a thud from the garage and rushed out to find the car had fallen off one block and his teenage son appeared to be pinned under it.

Actually the car had landed on a slightly lower backup block and the son was slightly pinned but not in any danger. Unfortunately what followed could have been avoided if the father had known this. Seeing this situation in an instant the father rushed behind the car, and pumped blind with huge adrenaline, picked up the rear end of the Volkswagen and the son was able to crawl out. He had some bruises but was unharmed. The father? He totally blew out, as in "exploded" four lumbar vertebral discs, of course had to undergo major surgery, and was effectively confined to a wheelchair and saddled with permanent crippling sciatic pain the rest of his life. True story.

I know others, people like construction contractors for instance, doing far less heavy lifting that these sport competitors, and it's totally common for perhaps 10% of them after 20 years in the biz to wind up with badly herniated discs, horrific sciatica that renders them zombies with sunken eyes at the ripe old age of 45, whereafter they lived on painkillers for the rest of their lives. I know whereof I speak as I've had a nerve injury in one shouldere to a much milder disc compression in my neck and after trying everything under the sun as treatments, including a fanatical swimming routine (50 laps a day 5 days a week) this "minor" disc injury is within an inch of putting me out of work.

I've carried this consequence of a very minor compression around like a nasty gremlin on my back for 13 years. I've been chomping pain killers for a decade.

You guys are maybe enthralled with the rush of adtrenaline this sport imparts. But the rush of adrenaline and physical strength may blind you to the horrific attrition that occurs to ALL activities which require the spine to be the central performer. I've seen it before several times. Men in pursuit of ultimate fitness, flush with the sense that they can "will" themselves to accomplish ever greater feats of strength, then pursue an unnatural regime wich places demands upon their spines which nature's design never intended - read up on some stories of what's happened to people who go on to blow out those delicate little pads between the vertebrae. And when you do blow even just one out, you can never get back the health you had before you crushed it. Even just one impaired disc, can utterly change the quality of your life. They can give out with no warning at all.

I would not go near this sport with a gun pointed at my head. The reason this happened to that man, is that the intense rush of adrenaline blanked out the signals his body would have given him to STOP before it gave out. The adrenaline of a habitual pursuit of this sport blots out the more sensible instinct. Strength training is fine, but this is one hazardous sport. The spine is a wonderful instrument and core to our health. You want to mess around with that you must be brave towards a lot of potentially unintended consequences - they can sneak up on you quietly, over time.

[BadJuju]

Re: Weightlifting

Sounds like your med friend has no idea what he is talking about and nor does that case study, which is a pretty awful way to get a picture of the injury rate of a sport. :p

I have the injury statistics with me, and aside from volleyball, weightlifting has the least amount of injuries per year.

[Captain3D]

Re: Weightlifting

Thanks for the concern Lukester. I do think about injury a lot and although I push my self hard I do try to lift within the limitations of good form. We also only attempt heavy single lifts for a few weeks out of the year. We literally take 8 months of steady progression starting with 20 reps sets and lighter weights down to 10 reps after several months then to 5's, 3's, 2's and singles. This steady controlled progression is absolutely the opposite of most sports that give your body a beating during a game.

After our single lift attempts we have a break, stop the weights and start running and loosing weight for the next 3 months to get ready for a marathon. After that we have a break then start all over again.

Think of it as diversification ;-)

I am 42 have weight trained injury free (thankfully) for over 23 years and set a personal best just tonight of 10 deadlifts of 370lb at a body weight of 178lb.

You can do any activity safely or dangerously the individual must learn how. The biggest problem in sports is just like the credit crisis where young health folk start taking steroids etc to 'get what they deserve' sooner than is reasonable.

cheers...phil