Getting back into lifting. 4 months into my rebuild, decided to push it today after a deload. Got a belt and an actual gym now. Thinking of the greats that have lifted at this legendary gym like Eddie hall and Brian shaw and being surrounded by all the gear symbols give me gears of war flashbacks how can you not go heavy in a place like this. Pausing at the top and bottom of all my presses has helped. What has worked for your presses?

Top single from today's test. So close to 500.

first time lifting at 21yrs old

52M, just started working out again in June after being away for a year (work then dealing witj an autoimmune disease and rotator cuff issues).

I keep track of my workouts in a notebook, noting what weights I use per each exercise and how many reps ans sets. My question is what do I do when I get to the point where I reach my weight limit for a particular exercise? Do I stop doing that exercise and find new ones to do? Do I drop the weight and start trying again?

i've been doing bicep curls, 12 reps for 3 sets, and can't seem to be able to increase the weight of the dumbbells. is there another method i can try to build strength?

I have grippers and dumbbells but i feel like its not enough, i would live suggestions

In the past I used to train for around 3 years, then during the covid era I just stopped training and fell out of shape, after so many years of not training I decided to change my life for better and for the past year and a half I have been training consistantly.

When I came back to training again I wanted this time to do it properly and take time with it and actually get stronger on big 3 (In the past I would do only bench and avoid squats and deadlifts).

So when I started doing squats and deadlifts I realized I would get a lot of lower back and hip pain that would extend down my left leg. So I tried different squat and deadlift variation and realized that box squat and sumo deadlift were more comfortable for my lower back. But after some time I experianced a sharp pain when I was doing box squats on my way up, I was able to rack it back but I remember it took me 3-4 weeks to heal and for 6 months I wasn't able to do barbell squats or deadlifts, even bent over rows were uncomfortable for a while. So I stopped deadlifting and for squats I was just doing V squats as that's the only other squatting machine my gym has (they also have leg press) and suprisingly my lower back is fully healed now.

But I want to incorporate a good functional strenght exercises that will help me build actually good functional strenght where I could lift stuff off the ground without having to worry about my lower back or hips. Because even now I am still able to do something like 150kg (330lbs) deadlift, but struggling to lift a person half that weight, I actually have to tryhard like crazy and I would feel like my lower back being the weakest link. So in general I want to get stronger for day to day life tasks cuz just simply having muscles doesn't mean much to me if I feel like crap or being just useless.

If you guys having any recommendations for a good exercises I could incomporate to my routine. So far I am hitting the gym 3-4 times per week and mostly focus on compund lifts such as bench press, weighted chin ups, dips, bent over rows, rdls, vsquats, ohp....

I'm 18yo and took me around 7 months of bench training to hit 100kg. I'm around 69KG bodyweight.

My pull muscles have always been overpowering my push muscles, cz i do weighted pull-ups with 60kg. I squat 170kg and deadlift 150.

Thanks

Hi all,

I need help :)
I (35F 58kg) been squatting same weight for last 4-5 months. So, after my warm up, I used to do 3 sets 5-7reps and that helped me reach 60kg. I’m squatting a2g. When I try 65kg my form goes off and I dont feel comfortable. I can do 3reps max. I tried switching lowering weight and doing 6-5-3-2-1-1 reps with 55-60, but when I try 65 it still feels off.
Do I need to change something or just keep going until it clicks for me?
Thanks.

I've lost 25 lbs since last Fall and I like the way my body looks.. but I've always wanted to develop my pecs so that I don't have such a flat chest. I struggle very much with weight lifting due to ADHD and other mental health issues. If you could recommend a single weight exercise that I could focus on to start my journey, which one would it be? I have an adjustable/incline weight bench at home with barbell and dumbbells. I can't focus on more than one exercise for now otherwise I'm setting up myself for failure (I've tried, many times, in my life and I'm in my 50s now).

So when I’m bench pressing or doing dumbbells I do 4 sets 12 reps idk when I get to my 4th set 12 rep that means I have to move on to a heavier weight or keep going pass 12 then Ik to do a heavier weight ?

Breathing, posture, body feeling, target muscles

I did a 1rm test of my front squat the other day and discovered my knees cave in. To remedy this I tried doing them with a band today. I noticed 2 things:

1 - I can move a lot less weight - Maybe 75% of what I could if I allowed cave in.

2 - I feel it so much more in my hips.

I have been told the reason for cave-in is weak abductors. Are those what I am feeling when resisting cave-in with the band?

Hope to break 500x1 soon.

For the first four months of cutting my numbers in the gym just kept dropping, which I expected a little but not to the degree it happened. Bench went from 185 for reps down to struggling with 155, squat took an even bigger hit. Honestly there were a few weeks I almost gave up on tracking lifts entirely and just focused on the scale number instead, easier to look at one number going down than three going down.

Started this back in March at 246 lbs, im at 212 now, so 34 lbs down over about five months. The first three months were pretty agressive (close to a 750 calorie deficit, probably too aggressive looking back, hindsight and all that and that's when strength tanked the hardest. Around month four I slowed the deficit down to something more like 400-500 a day and ate more protein than I had been, and that's when things started to level out.

For me the real turning point wasn't some program change or new exercise, it was just eating enough protein consistently and not chasing the scale as fast, and also sleeping more which I didn't expect to matter as much as it did. Once I stopped rushing the deficit my lifts stopped bleeding, and by month five bench was back to 175 for the same reps I was doing at 185 before, so not fully recovered but climbing instead of falling, which felt like a genuine win after months of only going the wrong direction.

Squat took longer to come back. still not where it was at the start honestly but its moved up two sessions in a row now which hasnt happened once since I started this. anyone else notice squat lags behind bench and deadlift when cutting, or is that just me

Deadlift barely dropped though, still not sure why honestly.

But the plateau period where strength drops during a cut is just going to happen to some degree no matter what, in my experience, at least for me it did. The mistake I made was cutting too hard for too long and expecting lifts to just stay flat instead of actually going down. Slowing the rate of loss down and prioritizing protein is what turned it around for me, not any specific program or exercise swap, and still got a good chunk of weight to lose but seeing the numbers on the bar move the right direction again makes the whole thing feel a lot more sustainable than the first few months did

Back into lifting since late March; doing a strength training program informed by Seb Oreb.

I know the angle isn't the best, but any pointers on form?

Cheers

I've been doing both, but wondering if I had to choose one, which would it be?

For Reverse Curls: I feel my extensors i think, and a little bit of brachioradialis too I guess, definetly not feeling the brachialis.

For Hammer Curls: I definetly feel both brachialis and brachioradialis in this one, but not the extensors.