VIII. General Weight Training Questions, Part 4
Question - Do I REALLY need a squat rack? I have a Weider 110-lb plastic weightlifting set and a bench at home. Can I still do this program without a squat rack?
No. With a 110-lb plastic weightlifting set, no bench, and no rack, you can do a little bit of nothing, and a whole lot of nothing.
Start mowing lawns and save up your money. Do the dishes. Get a paper route. Come wash my car. Whatever. But if you're serious about gaining muscular bodyweight, then get some real equipment. Uncle Joe's 110-lb plastic poptarts won't make you big and strong. Iron will.
Question - Should I use a weightlifting belt, knee wraps, or gripping straps?
The purpose of a weightlifting belt is to provide more efficient stabilization of the torso and lower spine while doing exercises such as the squat, deadlift, clean and row. As you progress in your training to more intense poundages, a belt will eventually become a potentially useful tool. For beginners, squatting and deadlifting without a belt, assuming you are using proper technique, is beneficial because it forces your torso and core stabilizing muscles of the midsection and lower back to get stronger.
HOWEVER...since most people don't have a knowledgeable coach to observe them, I feel very uncomfortable recommending that people skip the belt, so I will take the easy way out.
1) If you have someone watching/coaching you who knows how to perform the exercises properly, then skip the belt, and tell him to be very watchful of your technique, and have them watch for anything, such as lower back rounding or hips tucking "under" that will be indicators of a potential injury.
2) If you do not have a coach, then do your warmups without a belt, and make sure you do at least your last 2 work sets WITH a belt. You may very well be able to get away with skipping belt use during the first set of your
3) IDEALLY, a novice will not use a belt at all until they are moving much heavier poundages. However, I don't want a lawsuit because some knucklehead tried to perform a rounded-back good morning with 100 pounds too much, and tells the orthopedic surgeon "but kethnaab said I should squat without a belt", so I'll say now, to avoid lawsuit, that not only should you use a belt during ALL squats, you'll use a belt during every single exercise you do, and in fact, you shouldn't do any exercise at all because you might drop the bar onto your neck or something...and that would be bad [/personal responsibility]
But seriously, do as much work as you can without a belt, but do NOT push it if you don't have a competent coach. When in doubt, wear a belt. If you decide to use a belt, get a
powerlifting belt Notice the belt is the same height throughout the entire length, and only "tapers" inward near the buckle? That is the key. Don't get one of
these kind of belts, with the wide back and super-narrow midsection.
As for knee wraps, they are completely unnecessary for now. If you are an older type and you need some support at the knee joint, I recommend you pick up some neoprene "sleeves", such as
these. They should be loose enough so that you can comfortably keep them on throughout your entire workout. They should provide a minimal amount of spring while keeping your knees warm and they should also help your knee track properly. Excessively tight sleeves and/or wraps that are wrapped wrong are going to be worse for your knees than nothing at all.
Grip straps are a no-no also. You'll want to develop some grip strength now because if you don't develop it now, you stand to develop a serious strength deficit. Nothing wrong with a more advanced lifter using them at the proper opportunity, but a newb has no need for straps.
Question - Should I start off a program by using machines to develop some basic strength first, then move on to free weights later?
It's very commonplace to recommend machines when a trainee first starts out. Assuming the OP is not a 75-year old woman with osteoporosis, and is, in fact, a young guy or gal (young meaning younger than about 50 or 60), then I'm going to have respectfully but adamantly disagree with this concept. The initial training of a novice, regardless of age (aside from extremes), really is best served, IMHO, by ensuring they move on to basic movements ... bench, military, rows, squats and deads. These are good base exercises and hit virtually every muscle, directly or indirectly.
See, there are several problems when you start off with machines:
1) Development of the prime movers (i.e. pecs, delts, lats) without developing the strength of the associated stabilization musculature (i.e. rotator cuff, spinal erectors, etc)
2) Reinforcement of non-natural motor skills - you learn to do the exercise in the ROM (range of motion) that the machine allows. This will NEVER be a natural range of motion. Starting a novice off with this will reinforce a very negative muscular recruitment pattern which must be un-learned prior to mastery of the basic exercises. In other words, you have to "unlearn" the motor recruitment pattern from the Cybex chest press before you can really learn how to bench properly. The same goes for other exercises as well.
3) Lack of workload conditioning - one of the primary reasons a newb gets bigger so easily when they are new is the rapid conditioning aspect that free weights have on the body. Obviously neural improvement is far more rapid and prevalent in the novice, but the drastic increase in conditioning from "Nintendo-playing couch potato" to "hey, I train 3 hours per week" is enormous, and this results in some pretty substantial strength and muscular gains, aside from the basic improvements in neuromuscular coordination.
Free weights and strength-type conditioning (i.e. sled/log dragging, sledgehammer work, farmer's walks, etc) are far more suited to this, and take advantage of this far better than any type of machine
There's nothing wrong with a more advanced trainee adding in machines, especially near the end of a workout. They are useful for adding volume to a session once you are "smoked" from heavy barbell and dumbbell work, and can be used especially well to focus on weak spots because machines are generally very physically easy to use.
Potentially great and useful tool for a more advanced trainee, but definitely not good for the novice.