finally deadlifted 300

[rubthebuddha]

ford -- good point. i used to use pushups as my chest work, and i'd train sets of 100 with regularity. i haven't trained pushups for more than the couple sets of 10 in a warmup in eons, but i can still crank out 70ish on command. same goes for calf raises. i can do more on those than i can on leg press, and i never train them.

[rubthebuddha]

and no, i never do leg press. i just tested it once after a set of calf raises.

[IronFist]

An untrained person squatted 300 pounds? I doubt it. And if he did, I doubt he went all the way down. The squat is a very difficult motion to get right, especially if you've never done it before, and I don't think anyone could get 300 pounds on their first try. Even if they had the strength, they wouldn't have the coordination.

Maybe he leg pressed 300lbs.

[Samurai Jack]

Congrats RTB. Squat has always been really almost ridiculously easy for me. My weakest spot has always been deadlifts. It's one of the many reasons I've focused on them so much over the years. Plus, I don't need a rack...

Have to check out that craig's list idea.

[fa_jing]

he wasn't untrained - he was a soccer player. Running, sprints, etc. He just hadn't really lifted weights. I'm sure it was a barbell squat as that is what you are tested on in college sports.

[IronFist]

^ Well, coming from you, I'll believe it, but I still don't believe it.

[Ford Prefect]

Iron,

I've actually seen similar things from even high school athletes. Makes me feel weak... real weak. Some people are just naturally ridiculously strong.

[fa_jing]

more wierd news - my record for pushups is 40 or 45 and that was in college. I couldn't do more than 25 now. Specifically I have trouble stabilizing my shoulders and keeping them level, especially with the tightness I have in my upper back on the right side. Pushups don't make it better, so I never really practiced them.

[lianweizhi]

300 pounds for a 200 pound athlete on squat is not that unusual, especially for soccer players. I weigh about 145 and I rarely barbell squat (I opt for the leg press to protect my back), but when I have done it I have done well over 245. All those horse stances paid off!

It's true that some people are just naturally strong at certain exercises. I can still do about 80-90 pushups, my max flat bench is about 240. However, I am particularly good at military (shoulder) press and incline bench - I can 6 rep 215 on both military and incline - I know people who flat bench considerably more than I do (and weigh more than I do, as well) but don't do as well on the other two exercises. Similarly, while I can only pull down about 170 pounds, they can pull down over 200.

The way your body is balanced influences which excercises you are "natural" at quite a bit.

To increase your shoulder strength and stability, I would recommend doing what I call "rises" (there is probably a real term that I just don't know). Basically just lift dumbbells from your waist to shoulder height, slowly, arm fully extended, directly in front of you, alternating right and left, or to the sides simultaneously. Doing this with 20 pound dumbbells regularly for a few months greatly increases the stability and strength of your shoulders. Before I started lifting regularly, I followed this routine to kind of "prep" my body for heavy weight training:

http://grantspad.blogspot.com/2006/0...-work-out.html

It really gave me a good balance for my upper body strength which complemented the leg strength I got from my kung fu practice.

[Ford Prefect]

more wierd news - my record for pushups is 40 or 45 and that was in college. I couldn't do more than 25 now. Specifically I have trouble stabilizing my shoulders and keeping them level, especially with the tightness I have in my upper back on the right side. Pushups don't make it better, so I never really practiced them.

Even weirder... For the last 5 weeks, I haven't so much as touched a weight (besides doing maybe 6 sets of kb snatches). Climbing season is fast approaching, so I've been focussing on bwe endurance type work. Since I've been doing circuits, I never did more than 15 dips at once. The other day I had one max set on dips and one on handstand push-ups. Now I haven't done any overhead work in these 5 weeks either... no handstand push-ups even. I nailed 39 dips and 26 handstand push-ups. My endurance wasn't close to that in either exercise 5 weeks ago.

[lianweizhi]

I don't find that weird at all, FP.

Often, the body needs nothing more than a nice break before you come back and are stronger than before. Since starting weight training, I have taken up to three month breaks, where I would not lift weights at all and occasionally do some pushups and crunches. The first time I did this, before the break I struggled to bench 175 pounds. When I first got back to lifting, I was only putting up around 165. Two months after the break, I had exceeded 185. 6 months after that break, I broke 200 for the first time. Then I took another break, and when I got back, I started at around 185 and quickly moved to 225 within 4 months. The last time I took a break, I when I got back , I was still benching over 205, and in 4 months I had broken 260.

In contrast, before I started taking the breaks, I was lifting 6 days a week on a fast 3-day rotation for over an hour a day. I did this and improved from 125-165 rather quickly, but for nearly 10 months, I barely improved at all until I took the break and switched from 6 days to 4 days, and started practicing more kung fu (right around the first break).

Similarly, I broke my right wrist sparring, and for several months I couldn't lift weights. I made up for it by learning to do one-armed pushups (I can do around 40 per set), and after my wrist had "healed" I started to improve dramatically in the weight room. The body needs to take breaks and you need to change up your program, otherwise the body has no incentive to get stronger.

How do you do your handstand pushups? I do mine against a wall or someone supporting my thighs. It is a pretty good exercise, but I find myself limited primarily by the blood rushing to my head. I definitely prefer shoulder presses with a barbell. I also do an exercise where I hold an L-sit for 5-10 seconds (lift your butt and legs off the ground, legs parallel) then tuck my legs, invert my body, and push up into a handstand. It's quite a difficult exercise and really works all the shoulder fibers, but it's difficult to maintain balance. I would suggest doing it as far away from walls and chairs and tables as possible. Carpet is good too.

[Ford Prefect]

I'm pretty familiar with strength training concepts and generally take a week off of all but light exercise every 9th or 12th week for such a reason. This goes way beyond any super-compensation I've ever seen from a period of inactivity. The only thing I can think of to explain is the sheer volume of dips and push-up variations done in my circuits has greatly increased my deltoid and tricep endurance more so than I was expecting.

I've overhead pressed 1.75x my bodyweight on a barbell, and during that time, hadnstand push-ups hadn't felt as easy as they did the other day. I do my handstand push-ups against a wall although I can get a few free-handed on paralellettes. I do the exercise you are talking about with the L-sit more so when I am just playing around doing gymnastics stuff, which I do once a week or so. Try doing it with a straddle planche in between the L-sit and handstand.

[IronFist]

My endurance wasn't close to that in either exercise 5 weeks ago.

Maybe you lost a lot of weight

You're right, tho, that doesn't sound like typical supercompensation...

[fa_jing]

Ford - OH pressed 1.75 times your weight?

[Ford Prefect]

Just about. It was a jerk, so it's not like I was calmly military pressing it.