VIII. General Weight Training Questions, Part 2
Question - How much does the bar weigh?
The basic 84" (7-foot) Olympic bar will weigh 45 lbs. The variation that typically comes with metric weights is going to be 20kg (44 lbs)
Curl bars, triceps bars, fat/thick bars, Safety Squat bars, trap bars, etc. all vary greatly in weight, so you are best served by weighing them yourself.
Question - Will this program help me punch harder, I want to be a UFC champion?
Learning to punch harder is as much a function of technique as it is pure physical strength. This program will make you strong. If you are extremely strong, but your punching technique sucks, then you will punch like an oversized puffball, but you'll look pretty strong doing it.
Strength is always a good thing, and assuming you know how to punch properly, then this program can help you punch harder simply by making your muscles stronger.
Question - I bench more than I squat or deadlift. Is this okay, or is this weird?
Yes, it is weird, but it is not all that uncommon. The bench and curl jockey mentality that pervades the typical youth culture certainly lends itself to greater development of that associated musculature despite the inherent relative weakness of the pectoral girdle and elbow flexors/extensors when compared to the hips and legs. I mean, when people say "make a muscle", they don't mean "flex your hamstrings".
Evenly developed people have a stronger deadlift than squat, and their deadlift and squat is much higher than their bench press. If you can bench more in skivvies and a t-shirt than you can deadlift or squat, then you have some serious muscular imbalances. This program will help you correct your weirdness.
Question - Should I work out in the morning, in the afternoon or the evening?
This is going to vary from person to person. There is a bit of evidence that suggests weight training is ideal in the later morning/early afternoon timeframe, especially for adults in their 30s or older, but I would worry less about this and more about what works better for you. Some people train best on a stomach without much food, others train best with several meals in their bellies. You need to find out what works in with your time schedule and your meal planning best.
Question - I'm sore after my first workout, should I skip the next workout?
No, assuming the soreness is basic muscle soreness. If the soreness was felt during or immediately after the training session, then seek medical advice because you might have an injury. If, however, the soreness didn't seem to be problematic until several (i.e. at least 8-12) hours after the training session, then it is probably Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). A good (and common) indicator is that you feel fine when you go to bed, and wake up the next morning with a serious tightness in the muscle that hurts (yet feels good) as you stretch.
DOMS is very common, especially upon the initial undertaking of a training program. Since the volume on the Starting Strength program is quite reasonable, it is almost guaranteed that the soreness isn't actual serious damage. Just continue to work through it for the first several workouts. Chances are good that after the first weekend of rest, you will be fine. In fact, training through the moderate soreness you should feel after the first few workouts will help condition you so that DOMS isn't such a problem after future workouts. The soreness is merely your body's way of saying "you were a Nintendo-playing couch potato for too long."
Interestingly enough, skipping workouts due to DOMS is a GREAT way to guarantee you will continue to get sore after your training.
Train through the basic DOMS. If you have acute, severe DOMS which interferes with basic ROM, then that is a case-by-case basis that needs direct, rather than indirect (via the internet) attention and advisement.
Question - My doctor says that I'm too young to lift weights, and that it'll stunt my growth. Is this true?
Yes, it is true, weight training in youths causes the stunting of the youth's growth...if, by "stunting of growth", you mean "will help the youth develop thicker, denser, stronger bones, muscles and connective tissue."
Weight training will not stunt your growth. This myth arises from a few poorly conceived, poorly conducted studies which demonstrated that some young weight trainees suffered from fractures "related" to weight training.
What they neglected to mention is that almost all cases were the results of unsupervised, excessive loading and poor technique.
So essentially, these studies demonstrated that using too much weight and poor technique can cause injuries in adolescents....
just like it does in adults.
As long as the training is supervised by a competent (And preferably knowledgeable and sensible) adult, incidences of injury are very infrequent when compared to other youth sports, such as football, soccer, basketball and track and field.
Question - I can squat a lot more than I deadlift, and I've done both for awhile. What should I do?
Squat deeper! Unless you are a mutant with stumps for arms or tiny hands, you should be able to deadlift more than you squat after a significant period of training on both lifts.
Assuming your technique on both lifts is fine (this is rarely the case, it's almost always due to poor squat depth), examine what your weakpoints are in the deadlift, and you can make adjustments from there.
If you are weak immediately off the floor, you might notice that after a few reps of a lighter weight, your hands start sliding around. If this is true, then you need to use a mixed grip (one overhand - pronated, one underhand - supinated), and get yourself some
chalk. Your body will not pull from the ground what your hands cannot grip securely. Your body will sense the "weak" grip, and your hips and legs simply will not fire optimally, and the bar will sit there on the ground.
For a good demonstration of this, find a weight that is about 5 lbs more than your max deadlift with a double-overhand, chalkless grip. Chalk up, use a mixed grip, and notice how easily you rip it from the ground.
If you notice your lower back rounds frequently, then you need to lower the weight a bit, using a weight that does NOT cause your lower back to round, and get some training volume in so that your lower back gets stronger and becomes conditioned.
The lower back MUST stay contracted solidly, so that your upper body can remain stiff and rigid, thereby transferring power from the hips to the bar. Power has to go through the body, and if the body simply isn't rigid, then power transfer will not occur, and the lift will fail. Your knees will end up locking out, and your hips will fail miserably at trying to lift the weight via your flimsy upper body.
Oh yeah, you can also cripple yourself by destroying your spinal disks.
For more information, get Starting Strength and read up on the deadlift and squat chapters. There are 84 pages dedicated to the performance and execution of these 2 lifts alone, so I won't attempt to reproduce it here. Don't be a cheap bastard, go buy the book.
Question - I can lift <this many> pounds. Is that good for my age, height, weight, sex, experience and astrological sign?
Go
here and see where you rank.
What should I do if I have to skip a workout?
Don't. The workout takes ~45 minutes. You'll spend more time watching TV than that today, so don't blow off your workout ya lazy sack a beans!
If missing a workout is unavoidable, then it is unavoidable. Push that training session to the next possible day. Hit it up, and no more excuses for missing a workout! The most important factor in training for beginners is CONSISTENCY.
Question - Should I do a "deload"/"active rest"/"cruise" period after 6 weeks on this program?
No. Stay with this program for as long as it works. Once your lifts all stall, you will reset your lifts and continue on again until you have to reset once again.
Reset no more than 2x before you begin to make adjustments to your training, discussed extensively in Section III - Programming, as well as
Practical Programming
Question - How do I know if I am overtraining? When should I deload?
Overtraining is one of the most misunderstood phenomena in all of weight training. Overtraining is a SYSTEMIC event, not a local one. You won't overtrain if you do biceps every day. You will overtrain if, over a period of weeks, you train so hard for so long that your body gets overcome by fatigue and you are unable to recover from your training.
Symptoms of overtraining vary widely from person to person. Severe appetite and energy drops are probably the most common. Aches, fatigue, restless sleep, muscles that always feel fatigued, odd body temperature (odd compared to what you are normally), etc.
For me, I know it's time to deload when I don't want to eat. For you, it might be different.
Remember, it takes SEVERAL WEEKS of hard training before overtraining can possibly occur, and for a beginner, the chances of overtraining on this program are almost 0. You simply will not be lifting enough weight to truly tax your system. You will end up resetting a few times and cycling off of this program before you will overtrain from it.