Weekly Question Thread - Week of 10/1/2018

[paparazi257]

In the hopes of reducing the amount of low quality, simple, and beginner posts on the sub we are going to try a weekly question thread. It would help if users keep it sorted by new and check in every few days to help people out.

• Week of 8/20/2018
  
• Week 0f 8/27/2018
  
• Week 0f 9/3/2018
  
• Week 0f 9/10/2018
• Week 0f 9/17/2018
• Week 0f 9/24/2018

 

[theomordha]

@paparazi257 Looking for a solid High Stim Pre-Workout. Most of the ones I’ve looked at have been super high stim and low mallate or not much going for them in terms of pumps, seen edge of insanity, however I’m in the U.K so extremely hard to get a hold of any anyone have any ideas?

 

[sarange]

@paparazi257 Who is Mike Israetel’s practices supposed to be for? Is supposed to be only for the advanced intermediate to very advanced who can’t necessarily add weight and/or reps regularly? Or can beginners to intermediates train that way to? I’ve heard him mention how beginners and intermediates have very low MEV’s and very high MRV’s, but advanced lifters have very high MEV’s relative to their MRV’s.

I’ve been lifting for about 7 years now, a majority of it was program hopping and screwing around without making any real progress. Only just this past year I started on a PPL and made some decent progress in strength AND size, and want to take it to the next level. Just wondered if his philosophies are appropriate for someone at my level

 

[trumpeter2]

@sarange If you have your personal MRV, MV and MEV then it applies to you.

The numbers he provides are general average for intermediate lifters.

Without adjusting them to your needs they are worthless.

 

[dawn16]

@paparazi257 What causes this?

Leg day 4 days ago:
Squatted 80kg 3x8 and 70kg 2x10
Lunges 18kg db 3x10

Leg day today:
Tried squatting 80kg, did two and felt like I was struggling like fuck
So dropped it to 60kg and repped out 2x15 and a 20
And did 140kg leg press x10, 130kg leg press x12 and 120kg leg press x16.

 

[trumpeter2]

@dawn16 Usual suspects: Sleep, stress, nutrition, soreness, just one bad day

If it's none of the above its probably: Overtraining

 

[dawn16]

@trumpeter2 I didn't eat any cabs 5 hours prior which was dumb and usually something I'm on top of.

Overtraining I can rule out, however, I think 4 days is optimal between leg days for me which royally fucks my 3days 1 rest 3 days routine

 

[fdb]

@paparazi257 Looking at https://strengthlevel.com/strength-standards/bench-press/kg

My bench is 120KG, no spotter, no arch (due to lower back injury).

I tried DB press yesterday...

So why on earth can I only DB press 20KGx3??? Wth is going on.

I do DB flies with 14-24KG if that helps.

 

[trumpeter2]

@fdb DB press is less stable than barbell.

To control the weight in an instabile exercise the antagonist muscles need to work too. That acts as additional resistance for the muscles.

That's why you can press more in the Smith machine than barbell and less with dumbells that the barbell.

If you never did that you are just really bad at controlling the weight and should get stronger fast just by being better at controlling it and providing less resistance from antagonist muscles. You will always be weaker on the less stable version but the difference between the two will be less extreme as you get better.

This increased activation leads to more fatigue without providing meaningful stimulus to your antagonist muscles.

Then these things also need skill, you simply aren't neurologically adapted to that exercise.

 

[fdb]

@trumpeter2 As simple as that huh. Thanks for the breakdown!

My triceps are strong enough for a noob lifter, 6x10 59KG I finish quite comfortably. So I shouldn't think I'll struggle with 20s once my Neuro picks up.

 

[dawn16]

@fdb Do you normally do DB Press? Or first time in a while? Or first time? If none of those I’m not sure

Your strength will go up after you get used to the exercise. Gotta work extra hard to balance the weight vs a Barbell Bench Press.

 

[fdb]

@dawn16 First time in a while, yea. 2 months ago I tested it and did 28KGx5. I was completely untrained then, it's all logged in Strong.

Yesterday I went in and had a look at the app, thought I should definitely be doing more now after 2 months of training and eating/gained weight. I was barely moving 20KG to be completely honest. It was so disappointing. I curl more than that!

I can't judge how far low I should be going down with the db. I have a knack to go down as low as possible where it touches my outer pec, flare my elbows a bit to where I can feel it stretching my outer pec. Should arms be tucked in completely when pushing up? Where shoukd the db touch on the body? I've seen so many different versions everywhere, it's confusing.

I cannot risk injury!

Other gym goers lifting half my bench are doing 38KG DBs on presses, but their ROM is also half of mine if not less so I dont want to waste my time imitating them and getting very inefficient gains.

Thanks!

 

[ianb321red]

@paparazi257 Best way to target the TA for growth/increased strength?

 

[brendan3248]

@paparazi257 Best cardio machine or form to build quads/hams/glutes/calves? I can't lift weights for 10 more weeks post-open heart surgery, but I'm allowed to do cardio. I'd like to try to maintain my leg strength and possibly build up some nice quad sweep.

Incline walking on the treadmill?

Stationary cycling?

Elliptical?

I'll be doing 60 minutes or so per day as part of my outpatient rehab.

 

[niecey85]

@brendan3248 https://bayesianbodybuilding.com/the-cardio-comedown/

Scroll down to "the cost of cardio".

My advice to you is make peace with the fact that you're going to lose some muscle mass and strength, but also don't worry too much because as long as you're not in a caloric deficit, you're going to retain mass pretty well, and anyways whatever you lose it's going to come back up really fast once you start training again because of muscle memory. It's good to do some form of light cardio for recovery and health, but don't overdo it or think you're going to build muscle with it.

 

[dawn16]

@paparazi257 Anyone have any easy to understand articles explaining periodization, micro cycles and meso cycles, undulating. Stuff of that nature?

See a lot of articles talking about that but I’m just wanting to understand what all that means at its most basic level.

Nvm, just found this

http://www.jtsstrength.com/articles/2014/10/29/one-type-periodization-part-1/

In case anyone else was curious

 

[ambivalent]

@paparazi257 Hey guys! I just recently changed from high bar squat to low bar squat. I don't know if from now on, I should do some extra quads exercises since low bar squat doesn't seem to engage quads that much. What do you guys think?

Btw, I'm in a PPL routine. Thanks a lot!

 

[dawn16]

@ambivalent No need

 

[ambivalent]

@dawn16 How so?

 

[dawn16]

@ambivalent The difference between high and low bar squat isn't that much in quad activation, but in hamstring activation and stress on the spinal erector. Hamstring activation increases, spinal erector stress decreases -> squat more low bar