unsatisfactory after 1.5 year of training, pics

[Ross86]

Originally Posted by Darkvision

"i didn't read ur other post, but do deads squats rows and bench...that should be the majority of ur workout. "

every workout?! how do you split exactly man?

Read the DFT 5X5 routine in the training forum.

[MONSTAFACE]

Originally Posted by Darkvision

How exactly does one go about developing a good mind-muscle connection? Can you go deeper into this?

dont know if you are asking about developing the right attitude or not.


but if that is what you are asking about, IMO you have to just want to do it. when you first start out, it feels like the worst thing every...your sore, you can barely move, you dont see results immediatly etc. you have to get over that huge hump.


secondly if you are looking for motivation, just picture yourself fighting with the weights. thats how i look at it. dont let the weight beat you. have a goal of theight and reps you want to do and i fyou dont finish............the weight beat your ass in front of everyone. thats one way to look at it from a motivational standpoint

[Eric3237]

Alright, good, Dark.

Keep in mind that if Rippetoes doesn't seem to be right for you you can do a slightly different program. A more concervative one, for instane. Something more like a Beyond Brawn beginner program. You do not have to keep trying the same thing over and over in the face of failure. But if you are reading Starting Strenghth that should help you understand the goals. And you can make changes to it if need be after a bit.

The good news, after all this, is that these "functional" movements, if you keep the movement quality good, will have form follow them. In other words all those little issues you have with individual muscles will start to iron themselves out. But you have to be paitent. You set short term goals but a short term goal for a beginner might be 3 months. Then you set another. And anther. All of those used to get to a more nebulous future long term goal which you have to have in the back of your mind.

Once you get a very good strength base, if you still have issues with "shape" it will be much more easy to iron those out with some well chosen exercises or variations.

[Darkvision]

I don't think I'm going to start a journal until I find a program I'll stick with. So Beyond Brawn sounds good? DFT? Rippetoe's?!

There's so many... I don't know where to start. I guess I'll go do research on them now, if you have any personal reccomendations please let me know. I think the only reason I didn't like rippetoe's was because I had the wrong attitude about it in the first place.

[Eric3237]

^^^Well that's why I did the whole sermon on attitude. It's everything. It's kind of tied in with self-image.

Think about it. Are you "picturing" yourself as a strong guy on his road to being big? I.E. picturing your goals? Or are you picturing youself looking like Brad Pitt or Chris Angel? I know that can seem like some kind of "self-help" pie in the sky thing but it's really CRUCIAL. Your goals have to mesh with what you are doing. Sometimes, also, you have to except short terms goals that are a bit different than you started with so you can achieve long term goals later. Which is sort of what you did here.

Rippetoes can be modified if you need it later after discovering you can't progress well or whatever issues may arise. I'm not the hugest fan of the exact Rippetoe layout but I'd rather not get into it becasue I think in this case it would do more damage than good. As it is it is still superior than the way most of us started you. You just have to believe in it and want it. Like I said before and like Monsta just said. The rest is details.

But absolutely not DFT for you.

[Ross86]

Originally Posted by Eric3237

But absolutely not DFT for you.

Yep, definitely not. I wasn't recommending it when I posted it earlier. I guess I should have just mentioned SS because it has all of that in there also. It's just the first thing that came to mind.

[Eric3237]

Just so you know I know you weren't recommending it. I only said that because he asked about it. DFT is so oft mentioned and reffered to it has become almost a knee jerk question "should I do DFT"?

[Darkvision]

Wait whoa whoa whoa! NOOO!! Why is DFT bad?

http://www.bodybuilding.net/showthread.php?p=56062#post56062

I started it already =[

[Ross86]

Hahaha, sorry that's just funny because I just read your journal and then went back to this page to link you back and saw you already read all of that. I'll let Wolf or Eric give a better explanation...or anyone else. I did DFT for a while, but I've learned so much since then that I won't go back to it until I get stronger and become a better lifter. If I ever go back to it. And I have a broken body, so it's not a great idea.

[Eric3237]

Dude, if you had read through all the information you would know why it is not the right thing for you. And frankly I don't even see how you've had time to plan out a run...

Nobody is reading this fucking thread. They are just looking at the first post and going for it. If people were reading it they would know and I wouldn't have to continually tell them. I'm not going to get into my personal feeling about whether it is a good way for "advanced" people to get stronger. But it is supposed to be for 'advanced' people. There is no use in driving a nail with a 16 pound sledge hammer.

I am also getting the feeling that you never really read about and understood the SS program before you started that.

I'm not going to explain to any more newbies or beginners why DFT isn't right for them. They can take the trouble to read through it or not. And they can do it or not at their own risk. I can't do that when just about every single person who comes here gets referred to the thread and then misunderstands it because they DON'T READ IT. That sticky is NOT "The principles of resistance training for newbies".

Sorry if I sound like an asshole to anyone but I don't think everyone always takes much responsibility for the kind of info they send people too and those people do not take much responsibility for themselves a lot of the time. For those of you who do take the time and responsibilty, you know who your are. For those of you who don't, it would be better to say NOTHING.

This whole attitude of "oh this is just a forum" is really not cool, imo. Forums are a HUGE part of what goes wrong in this sport, industry, whatever you want to call it. Most people would be better off getting NO advice than getting advice that wasn't really thought out to be appropriate to the person it is given to.

I huge amout of the damage I've done to myself has been becasue of that kind of advice given to me. My back in particular has been injured and re-injured because of "one size fits all" bullshit. But I digress. The point is a lot of confusion is continually being created and I'm not going to be the one stop shop to fix it in the end (none of this was aimed at you Ross, bro) I've just gotten a bit fed up with it is all.