triqqey

That's smart. Most guys want to just get into the gym and start lifting the heavy weights that the biggest guys at the gym lift. Very dangerous like too many days straight of binge drinking, something's bound to go wrong

triqqey's Sig:

"The iron never lies to you. You can walk outside and listen to all kinds of talk, get told that you're a god or a total bastard. The iron will always kick you the real deal. The iron is the great reference point, the all-knowing perspective giver. Always there like a beacon in the pitch black. I have found the iron to be my greatest friend. It never freaks out on me, never runs. Friends come and go, but 200 pounds is always 200 pounds."

-Henry Rollins

hunt0r

Yeah having proper form is really important, but so is pushing yourself in the gym. I see some guys who do way less then what they are capable of doing and basically never get bigger. I wasnt trying to say your not pushing it I just was encouraging you thats all.

hunt0r's Sig:

"You can succeed if nobody else believes it, but you will never succeed if you don't believe in yourself."
-William J.H. Boetcker

22 yrs old
6'3 220lbs
Goals: Add lean mass and cut body fat.

EricT

I doubt your really spending too much time on that. It's a very smart thing to spend time on like the other's have said. Sometimes what it comes down to is taking a little more time for a long term benefit. Meanwhile you aren't losing much. It's not like you are back sliding.

On the other hand Hunter has a point. Like he said it's not like you're not pushing yourself but you can't always expect every rep to be perfect while strength training. But it becomes a question of whether the last one or two reps were so bad and perhaps cheated that they really should be repeated at the same weight or rather they were just really slow....

In the end maintaining proper form as you're progressing is going to pay off. And it sounds like to me that you already have a sense of what is going on and you are exercising judgement. BTW, if you have a session where you are dubious about form but don't feel it's something that should hold you back from loading the bar it can be beneficial to do some back off sets.

This would be something at perhaps around 65% of your working weight for that day that you did for set that left one or two in the tank. In other words, you do it only as much as you can maintain perfect form. What this does is to maintain proper motor pathways and just simply give you more "practice" doing it with a weight that will not introduce any appreciable extra fatigue. Practice does make perfect!

EricT's Sig:

I'm tired of the myth that bb'rs aren't flexible. As a group, they are extremely flexible. They have an amazing ability to bend over, place their heads between their legs, and blow smoke up their own asses.

Topshelf

Thanks guys, and I didn't take it as an insult at all. The thing I love about these journals is the help and motivation from the rest of you guys/gals. The squat progressed pretty well until the 145lb mark, from there it seemed to slow down, and my new goal was to add 5lbs at the beginning of each week figuring 3 days of squatting the same weight should be enough time to get both the strength and form correct. I really think my caloric intake maxed me out as well since my body weight came to a halt at the same time my squat did. So hopefully these additional calories will help push things along again. I'm just afraid I see a pattern already. For years I've wanted to get to 180lbs, now that I did it, I want to get to 200lbs. What happens when I get there?

Oh, I was going to take a video of me squatting since I think I have a tendency to lean forward. Would anyone *cough* Eric *cough* be able to take a look at it and let me know if my form is correct? lol

Hmm, while I'm on a roll, I have one more question regarding "pushing it"...When is it time to add weight? For instance, over the last 3 bench press sessions I've added 1 rep to the final set, so I finally got a true 3x5 at 135lbs. How long should I stay at 135lbs before going to 140lbs? Am I better off doing 3x5@135 for another week? Or should I move up even if it means 2x5@140 and then only 1 or 2 reps on the third set?

hunt0r

I know it is time to move up in weight when I am not struggling on my last few reps of my set. As of right now my first three reps go up really strong and then my last two are a fight. When those last two reps arent a battle I usually know its time to up it 5lbs.

hunt0r's Sig:

"You can succeed if nobody else believes it, but you will never succeed if you don't believe in yourself."
-William J.H. Boetcker

22 yrs old
6'3 220lbs
Goals: Add lean mass and cut body fat.

EricT

Sounds good to me. It could be you are coming to a point where you'll need to switch to weekly progression or something different. If you are progressing on a weekly basis at this point then keep doing it but if it is a case where you are not adding more weight to the bar at least once a week then even you may need a backoff and if that doesn't get you going there could be more efficient ways to train....but food intake for sure is critical.

I'll be happy to study any vid you post. Be prepared though, that if I do see something wrong I will probably need a whole lot of info from you in order to iron it out.

EricT's Sig:

I'm tired of the myth that bb'rs aren't flexible. As a group, they are extremely flexible. They have an amazing ability to bend over, place their heads between their legs, and blow smoke up their own asses.

Topshelf

OK, I'm gonna try to make sure I add 5lbs each week to my squat. So far I've been able to get a full 3x5 on all my squats, it's just the form gets a little sloppy towards the end. So I'm going to really push myself and continue to increase my calories to see if that helps as well. I'll try to take a vid tomorrow, although I might not like the critique. lol

One last question for tonight...I'm leaving for a 2 week vacation on September 1st. What is my best plan for not losing strength? I'll have access to a pool, but no gym. I was actually thinking those 2 weeks would be good for me since it will be week 10 of my training and would give me a little time to recoup. But I don't want to do nothing for 2 weeks and then hit the gym and be all weak again.

EricT

Wait a minute now if your gonna take it personally I might better not do it . No, trust me nothing you could be doing could be worse than what MOST people do as a matter of course. The fact that you are taking the time and asking the questions, THAT is what make you smart, not how well you might or might not be doing right now.

In two weeks you will drop a little strength. Nothing major and it will be quickly regained. Do pushups and any other kind of fullbody work you can do. You could do bw lunges and stuff like that. Anything to let your body know it ain't over. It's better than nothing. But try to have a decent vacation and certainly you don't need to be doing stuff at full frequency. A little time to recoup could help but when you get back you might want to drop the weights back just a little bit.

EricT's Sig:

I'm tired of the myth that bb'rs aren't flexible. As a group, they are extremely flexible. They have an amazing ability to bend over, place their heads between their legs, and blow smoke up their own asses.

Topshelf

Workout B
Squat
3x5 - 155lbs

Overhead Press
3x5 - 85lbs

Row
3x5 - 125lbs

Pull Ups - 7/5

Alright, just completed what should have been yesterday's workout, but I was having a rough day and felt very weak. Kinda funny story, I actually started my workout and realized things weren't going to be good during the warmup since even those felt heavy. But I thought I would press on and be a man. So somewhat out of it I load the bar up for my first set of squats, get under the bar, squat down and basically just stayed there. I couldn't get any upward movement going. So I just racked the bar and said screw it. So today I heaed down stairs to start the workout and noticed that instead of 155 on the bar, I had 185!!! No wonder I couldn't get moving. lol Maybe it was a good thing I called it quits yesterday. Anyway, I took a few vids and will get them up soon. I'm going to be very curious to hear about these because I think I spotted a few mistakes already.