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Post by Oti on Nov 23, 2011 15:33:09 GMT -5
In an attempt (a futile one) to salvage milktruck's previous topic, I'm making this one. So, lady and gentlemen: Got a question on something training related? Shoot.
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Post by UnrealCanine on Nov 23, 2011 15:47:27 GMT -5
Whats the best cliffhanger/ledge pull up technique?
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Post by Badalight on Nov 23, 2011 16:27:07 GMT -5
Does this count?
- How fast can you run 400 meters?
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Post by yamfriend on Nov 23, 2011 20:36:11 GMT -5
Is there any specific type of wood that is best for building Cliffhanger ledges (such as for grip purposes)?
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Post by Oti on Nov 23, 2011 21:22:58 GMT -5
Whats the best cliffhanger/ledge pull up technique? "Best" tends to vary with whatever you're training for, but in my opinion, pull-ups should always be done with a pronated (overhand) grip that is wider than your shoulders and a full range of motion. None of that stick your chin up over the bar stuff, either. Touch your chest to the bar. Fully activate your lats. It's awesome. On a side note, I don't particularly like ledge pull-ups because I feel they mess with the normal pull-up mechanics. It's nothing serious and it won't hurt your training in any way. I just notice a distinct difference between pull-ups on a bar and pull-ups on a ledge. I've also found that a full range of motion (remember, chest ) is easier to achieve on a bar, but that could have been caused by the ledge I was on. So if you do them, more power to you. Just do your best to not butcher the range of motion. Does this count? - How fast can you run 400 meters? It wasn't pretty the last time the topic of personal achievements was brought up. I'd like to avoid that and keep this topic educational if you don't mind. Is there any specific type of wood that is best for building Cliffhanger ledges (such as for grip purposes)? I don't think it matters. I prefer softer wood because it's usually cheaper and easier to work with, plus it sort of feels a little nicer on the hands, but anything should do. My advice if you go with a hard wood, however, is to get some kind of grip enhancer. Chalk, spray, whatever. Back in Mississippi when my hands and the UCH ledges were dry, I couldn't hold on to save my life. It wasn't a matter of grip strength, but just traction. It was literally just... slippery. This problem went away after I made/started using my first homemade chalk ball and I cleared the UCH for the first time soon after that. Coincidence? Nice questions so far, guys. Keep 'em coming.
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Post by mikessssssss on Nov 24, 2011 13:55:01 GMT -5
I Joined a gym six weeks ago and it's going well, my cardio has greatly improved and im losing belly fat- which is great. Although im not happy that i'm losing weight in other areas, i accept that that is just gonna happen. I want to start doing some weight training - mainly for aesthetics i won't lie. What dya think is a good way to start? Best excercises and such. And it's nice to have you back Oti Edit: Just realised i've lost 11 lbs in 6 weeks; kinda shocked because it doesn't look like i've lost that much weight. I wasn't overweight to begin with either.
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Post by Oti on Nov 24, 2011 15:34:20 GMT -5
It's nice to be back, mike. Thank you. This looks like a monster of a read, but it's really not. As far as aesthetics go, it's really up to you. You can look like a curl bro, a t-rex, a strongman or anything in between. Assuming you want a nice, normal-looking, symmetrical body, I recommend the basic lifts that everyone should be doing anyway: bench, row, press, pull-up, squat and deadlift. I'll break these down somewhat quickly and then explain why I've doubled the number of them. "The big three" or "the powerlifts", as they've been called, consist of the bench press, the squat and the deadlift. These are the lifts that, you got it, POWERLIFTERS do. These are some of the biggest, baddest exercises you can do. The bench press isn't just a chest exercise. It works practically every muscle in your upper body. Even the lats, muscles we use to PULL with, are used during the bench press. The squat works your entire lower body and most of your posterior chain (butt, back, you know. Rear stuff) and the deadlift works that and then some. You can build a basic routine (strength, aesthetics, whatever) around these three movements alone. But wait, there's more! What else can you do with your body? The legs and back are pretty much tapped, but we can still press stuff overhead, pull stuff down FROM overhead and pull stuff behind us, like a negative bench press of sorts. Enter the press, the pull-up and the row. The press is often referred to as the overhead press, the military press or just the plain old simple press. Although these three names are often used interchangeably, I feel there's a slight difference between them all. The overhead press seems to have a wider grip with elbows at about 90° at the mid point. The military press and the press are very, very similar but I feel the military press is too strict (hence the name), whereas the simple press allows for some movement (you lean back a bit in the press, then stand upright again once the bar is past your face). This is probably debatable, plus I have been known to be insane, so don't lose sleep over this. The bottom line is that you're to take a barbell and push it over your head. Whichever technique you choose (I highly recommend this, a cross between military and press), your shoulders, traps and triceps will get bigger and stronger. Plus, fun fact: The press used to be in powerlifting back in the day. They eliminated it because it was too hard to judge what was a clean lift and what was not. As for the pull-ups and rows, these are considered by most people to be assistance movements, but I love 'em so much I treat them as main lifts. Either way, they'll help widen and thicken your lats, as well as your biceps and forearms if you work them hard enough. Why include extra lifts, especially hard things like the press and pull-ups? Simple. We should all train... like bodybuilders. No, we don't need 'roids, fake tan cream and fancy poses. We DO need balance, though. So many Sasuke-hopefuls have terrible upper/lower body training balance. Yeah, there's a stage three. It uses your upper body. We get it. But look at how slow and weak you look on the Warped Wall. Look at how low you jump. DO SOME SQUATS FOR THE LOVE OF VELLU. Nope. Not off-topic. I'm coming back around. My advice is to build a routine around these lifts. Everything else is assistance work. Curls are assistance. The leg press is assistance. If you get the six big lifts nice and strong, chances are you're going to look good. Even if you're 30% body fat and nobody can tell, underneath it all you'll look good. And like I said at the beginning, it's all about what you want. If you want huge pipes, add a lot of things like curls and tricep push-downs. If you want a huge V-shape, focus on the lat, shoulder and trap work. If you want to be more specific about your goals, I'd be happy to help you further. Note: This aesthetics routine outline is still pretty much geared toward strength/performance. It would get you a really nice "athletic" body, whatever that means. So yeah. Keep that in mind, too. The weight loss isn't too surprising. I'm guessing you were at a fairly stable weight for a while and the added cardio screwed it all up and made you drop some pounds. That's what happened last summer with me when I upped my training for ANW2. I hadn't weighed that little since... probably... 8th or 9th grade? Since then it's all been gaining muscle AND losing fat, keeping me at this ridiculous number. No big deal, though. But yeah. Anyway. If you're working hard at it, it makes sense that you would lose about two pounds a week. It's pretty safe as far as muscle is concerned (provided you're eating correctly). /novel
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Post by mikessssssss on Nov 24, 2011 16:52:31 GMT -5
I've stopped eating junk food and my diet is pretty good now, but i could probably raise my calorie intake a bit because ideally i want to be around 175 lbs but with muscle this time not just fat.I was 180 lbs ish and i had a bit of a belly as well as some excess boob fat. With my shirt off i looked like i needed to lose a little; but i wasn't fat per se.
This is all sounds great and im gonna take it all in (re-read it a few times) and devise a routine. The advice is greatly appreciated. I'll get back to ya.
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Post by mattskills on Nov 24, 2011 18:15:50 GMT -5
Every time I do my salmon ladder (3 jumps/gaps) when I get to the top the bar has moved from being centered to being all the way to right. How can I avoid this? (Keep in mind I don't have a normal technique, I put my legs above my head and then sortof "kick" myself up to the next rung, with very little pull up action).
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Post by Oti on Nov 25, 2011 0:26:50 GMT -5
I've stopped eating junk food and my diet is pretty good now, but i could probably raise my calorie intake a bit because ideally i want to be around 175 lbs but with muscle this time not just fat.I was 180 lbs ish and i had a bit of a belly as well as some excess boob fat. With my shirt off i looked like i needed to lose a little; but i wasn't fat per se. This is all sounds great and im gonna take it all in (re-read it a few times) and devise a routine. The advice is greatly appreciated. I'll get back to ya. Diet doesn't matter too much. Get your calories and macronutrients (proteins, carbs and fats) and you should be fine. Big Macs are a staple of serious bulkers because of the protein, carb, fat and caloric amounts, for example. You CAN bulk on a clean, healthy diet, although it's much harder. Either way, gaining muscle will take a caloric surplus and some system of progressive resistance training. You can find your daily caloric requirements using this handy little site. Alternatively, you can keep a log of, say, three days worth of calories and then average them together. I prefer the website myself. Either way, once you know how many calories you need to maintain your current weight (with the resistance training included, mind you), add 200 or 300 calories per day. This gives you a surplus, which means weight gain. Every 3,500 surplus calories will give you one pound of weight gain. Whether that weight gain is fat or muscle is determined by your genetics (to a degree), but mostly your training. Now, 200-300 is on the lower end of the scale. Some people will eat an extra 2000+ calories PER DAY to bulk. Your plan is obviously more reserved than that. Stick with it for a few weeks and then see where you are. Do you weigh more? Do you look a little bigger? Do you think it's muscle or fat? Adjust your daily calories as necessary. If you think you're getting fatter (which shouldn't really be an issue here), cut back a bit (again, this should not be an issue. You need SOME kind of surplus). If you haven't gained anything or you've only gained a miniscule amount and you'd like to speed up the process, up your calories another 200-300 per day. You may gain a little bit of fat along the way, but if your training is in order most of your weight gain will be muscle. REMEMBER: Losing fat is relatively easy in the long run. Reduce your calories by 300-500 per day, lift heavy (but low volume, think 1-3 reps) to preserve muscle and throw in a little cardio and viola. Slow, continuous (to a point) fat loss. It's building the muscle and strength that's the real challenge. Every time I do my salmon ladder (3 jumps/gaps) when I get to the top the bar has moved from being centered to being all the way to right. How can I avoid this? (Keep in mind I don't have a normal technique, I put my legs above my head and then sortof "kick" myself up to the next rung, with very little pull up action). I recommend a more standard technique like mine or David's, but that's entirely up to you. Regardless, is there a reason the bar moves? Do you kick up sideways? Do you throw the bar up sideways? You must be doing something. Bars don't just fly to the right on their own. Get a video of yourself doing the Salmon Ladder if you can and inspect it. If you can't get a video, just pay close attention. What's going on? And if none of that works, try throwing the bar to the left when you jump. See if you can even it out.
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Post by mattskills on Nov 25, 2011 9:34:04 GMT -5
I think it's just because my right side is way stronget than my left side, so the bar moves to the right more.
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Post by Oti on Nov 25, 2011 10:29:52 GMT -5
The answer is obvious then: Correct the imbalance.
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Post by japantv1210 on Nov 25, 2011 15:25:59 GMT -5
How do the benefits of a leg press compare to the benefits of a squat? I'm curious about this because recently I've been doing leg press instead of squats, and I find it much more comfortable to do.
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Post by mikessssssss on Nov 26, 2011 12:19:35 GMT -5
Did some bench presses and the overhead presses and they both really felt like they were helping, my buddy agreed.
Haven't tried the pull ups and rows mainly beacuse im not sure sure what you mean. Normal pull ups?
Gonna keep it up, thanks again.
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Post by Oti on Nov 26, 2011 21:24:25 GMT -5
How do the benefits of a leg press compare to the benefits of a squat? I'm curious about this because recently I've been doing leg press instead of squats, and I find it much more comfortable to do. The squat wins, hands down. It's more taxing on the body and forces the body to utilize more muscles than it would have to during the leg press. This gives us better strength, power and size gains. It's also more applicable to sports (squatting and standing with a bar is more natural than simply sitting and pressing), which is important to us considering we're athletes and our training should apply to what we're training for. The value in the leg press lies in two areas, in my opinion: preparing someone to squat or adding extra strength/size to the quadriceps. If someone isn't strong enough to squat the empty bar with proper form, the leg press can be used to strengthen most of the same muscles in roughly the same way. The leg press is less useful in terms of progress than the squat, but to say it doesn't strengthen you at all is a lie. This brings me to my second case: using the leg press as assistance work. Squat 5x5 with your 5RM (good luck), then do 5x10 leg presses and leg curls, both with as much weight as you can handle. You won't walk normally for at least one week. While the squat comes first because it's the biggest, baddest movement in the workout, the assistance work adds onto that. It adds extra strength. It adds extra size. Just remember to keep the main, heavy lifts your priority. Remember, it's called assistance work for a reason. My final thought on the matter is essentially that the easier, more comfortable thing rarely works in training and this is no exception. I think that if you allow yourself to get more accustomed to squatting, you'll see and feel how it outshines the leg press in every primary function. It also takes quite a set of cojones to get under a loaded bar, knowing damn well it's heavier than it was last week when you nearly failed your final set. God speed. Did some bench presses and the overhead presses and they both really felt like they were helping, my buddy agreed. Haven't tried the pull ups and rows mainly beacuse im not sure sure what you mean. Normal pull ups? Gonna keep it up, thanks again. Yes, normal pull-ups. I outlined what I believe to be the best way to do pull-ups (the standard pull-up at least, variation is nice) above: "Best" tends to vary with whatever you're training for, but in my opinion, pull-ups should always be done with a pronated (overhand) grip that is wider than your shoulders and a full range of motion. None of that stick your chin up over the bar stuff, either. Touch your chest to the bar. Fully activate your lats. It's awesome. Is there anything else you're confused about? I'd be happy to clarify things.
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Post by Philip on Nov 26, 2011 22:09:54 GMT -5
Is monkey bar endurance training good for upper body?
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Post by Oti on Nov 26, 2011 22:31:00 GMT -5
As far as endurance goes, sure. Just don't neglect your strength training.
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Post by UnrealCanine on Nov 27, 2011 7:01:51 GMT -5
Do you ever get awkward training in playgrounds? (if you do train in playgrounds that is)
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Post by Oti on Nov 27, 2011 11:09:22 GMT -5
Not really. Most people actually like seeing backflips and human flags.
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Post by japantv1210 on Nov 30, 2011 15:58:07 GMT -5
How do the benefits of a leg press compare to the benefits of a squat? I'm curious about this because recently I've been doing leg press instead of squats, and I find it much more comfortable to do. The squat wins, hands down. It's more taxing on the body and forces the body to utilize more muscles than it would have to during the leg press. This gives us better strength, power and size gains. It's also more applicable to sports (squatting and standing with a bar is more natural than simply sitting and pressing), which is important to us considering we're athletes and our training should apply to what we're training for. The value in the leg press lies in two areas, in my opinion: preparing someone to squat or adding extra strength/size to the quadriceps. If someone isn't strong enough to squat the empty bar with proper form, the leg press can be used to strengthen most of the same muscles in roughly the same way. The leg press is less useful in terms of progress than the squat, but to say it doesn't strengthen you at all is a lie. This brings me to my second case: using the leg press as assistance work. Squat 5x5 with your 5RM (good luck), then do 5x10 leg presses and leg curls, both with as much weight as you can handle. You won't walk normally for at least one week. While the squat comes first because it's the biggest, baddest movement in the workout, the assistance work adds onto that. It adds extra strength. It adds extra size. Just remember to keep the main, heavy lifts your priority. Remember, it's called assistance work for a reason. My final thought on the matter is essentially that the easier, more comfortable thing rarely works in training and this is no exception. I think that if you allow yourself to get more accustomed to squatting, you'll see and feel how it outshines the leg press in every primary function. It also takes quite a set of cojones to get under a loaded bar, knowing damn well it's heavier than it was last week when you nearly failed your final set. God speed. Thanks alot man! I really appreciate the information. I've definitely got to start incorporating squats back into my leg training. I've been kind of afraid to ever since my knee injury haha.
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