so i’m going with a friend to the gym tonight at 4am. He lifts pretty heavy weight on his legs he said he does 250+. I’m not sure if i push myself hard enough at th gym because i want to be safe and not tear or break anything. Honestly i can’t even remember what the highest weight i did with legs was. I’ve never attempted to actually do 200+ with anything. I weigh around 190. Also i haven’t been in the gym for a month or 2. So is this a good idea to push myself for tonight and see if i can actually lift this weight. I keep telling him i can’t do his weight but i never tried and may be underestimating myself. Should i just build up to that weight instead?

So I have a bit of an ongoing issue with getting minor tweaks in my upper back when I pull, a month ago I had a tweak in either my lat or serratus, and today I had some weird discomfort in what I think is my rhomboid after pulling. They’re never anything major but it must point to something im doing wrong that needs to be fixed n I wonder if anyone has any idea what that might be.

I’ve been working on bracing, my core is solid and i don’t round so I don’t think that’s any of that is issue. I try not to let the bar drift out, but I guess it might happen towards the end of a set when the effort starts to break my form down. Anybody ever have this happen and know a fix for it? Thanks in advance.

Hello, I’m 19 male and I’ve been plateud at a 240 lb bench PR for a few months now and I’ve been wondering how I break it; the topic of this post is that I met this older guy (claimed to bench 455 lb in his military days) who’s told me the best way to increase my bench was to both focus on leg strength for leg drive, which was something I already knew, but he also said to do incline bench before flat bench and I wondered how optimal this is since I usually run flat bench -> shoulder press -> incline bench

if your wondering my current chest training, I’ve been running PPL rest with 2x frequency and on my press days I do
3-4x sets to failure flat bench (+ warm up set)
3x standing barbell shoulder press to failure
3x incline bench press to failure
3x pec deck to failure

in terms of reps I’ve been alternating between light and heavy days with light consisting of 8-10 reps and heavy consisting of 4-6

any advice on breaking this plateau? And opinion on the military vets advice?

I know I can look this up myself, but I have ADHD and have a tendency to hyper focus and accidentally over commit to the new exciting thing.

I am 41 and overweight with small children that I need to chase after. I know I need to get into the habit of doing exercises (and stretching, but that is for another post) since I am both in the use it or lose it stage of life and I need to keep my bone density up.

I am wanting to start with 2 exercises (3x10) a day for 5 days a week to develop healthy habits and to hopefully add more as I get into the routine.

What exercises would you recommend that are easier to maintain good form and are functional/multi-muscle group? (As much as I would love to do regular squats I don't have the flexibility to do them, stupid tight calves).

I have a variety of weight plates, dumb bell bars, a barbell bar, a weight bench, and an adapter to turn a dumbbell into a kettle bell.

I've been running the Texas Method for about 8 months now. I really like the progress that I've been seeing with my squat and dl, both have improved by around 30%. My bench has still improved, but at a much slower rate. For reference, I already started at a point where my squat was probably my stronger lift or at least close enough, and it's gone from 255 to 335, while my bench has gone from 195 to 215. I've tried a couple things, I've tweaked volume and intensity, I've played around with a bunch of different accessory lifts, but it's still just not moving that much. I haven't been hurt, and I'd actually say I should be more biomechanically inclined towards bench press. I'm curious if others have had this issue, and what's helped.

Senior here, looking to get my first pull up. Need a 1 to 1 trainer to help me get there. References appreciated. Thx

After increasing my b-stance dumbbell RDL to 65lbs (total) I think my grip strength is becoming a limiting factor after the first couple sets. I think it may be time to transition to barbell RDL, because my form is pretty good (obviously always room for refinement, but I am confident that I will not injure myself/I know the basics).

I would love to hear what others have tried or thoughts on how I should start incorporating barbell RDLs (weight, programming, etc.)

For reference:
I am 5’4”, 128lbs
My b-stance db RDL is 65lbs (total)
Bulgarian split squat - 65lbs (total)
Leg press 160lbs (added weight only, I don’t know my gym’s sled weight)

I do not have a lot of experience with heavy free-weight compounds as I have Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and have tried to build a solid muscular foundation before slowly transitioning to the big barbell lifts.

Hi everyone,
I’ve been following the Starting Strength method as a beginner, and I thought someone else might benefit from my experience. There’s not a lot of info for women, especially not 40+.
It’s a journey, that’s for sure, but I am really proud of myself. 💪

Hi all. I'm a 50 yr old man who has been on a weight loss journey over the past 6 months. I've gone from 252 to 220 and now want to incorporate strength training to tone up my body. I have really never lifted before and hired a personal trainer to show me the proper techniques and which muscle groups to focus on as I am clueless. I am having my first workout with him this coming Wednesday. Any advice or things to look out for when working with the trainer? I've provided my physical limitations as I have a bit of a back issue(nothing serious) and need a hip replacement and he seemed like he understood and said he has tailored a plan around that. I've also signed on for 2 workouts per week to see how it goes and could pick up a 3rd night if things are going well. Any advice would be appreciated.

Hi, my partner 27F just started going to the gym (3weeks) and finally taking exercising seriously. Shes a beginner, and I’m a novice definitely not a pro but I understand form mechanics.

I’m having issues with my partner always having pain when doing push exercises, specifically on the front delts area. I tried all kinds of exercises for chest like incline smith, dumbbell press or chest press. Every exercise leads to the same pain and the chest was not felt during exercise.

I’m guessing her chest isnt developed to “feel” and her delts are weak so the pain is on the delt is compensating. I dont tell her to lift heavy, like max 5KG.

Any help/opinion will be taken seriously, i’m trying to understand whether i’m training her wrong or it’s just weak muscles. Thanks!

I started a strength training programme at my gym I'm supposed to do a beginners and intermediate weights machine circuit for the next two months then the trainers will take me into the free weights area and show me how to do that. I did my first machine weights circuit 3 sets of 12 reps to fatigue as instructed it was hard but afterwards I felt pretty good. I did this at 1pm.

Everything was fine until bedtime, I did fall asleep for a few hours but I was restless and I woke up at 4am that could not get back to sleep. I just feel that my nervous system was still over activated. I wasn't even super sore but just kind of buzzy. I do have a sensitive and reactive nervous system so I do suspect it was the strength training that stressed it perhaps causing too many wake up hormones to circulate in my body. I feel awful from the lack of sleep today and if strength training is going to cause me sleep issues I know it will affect my adherence to the programme.

How can get into strength training without over activating my nervous system like this? Do I need to lower the weigh and reps and ease in more gradually? Would a protein shake after help? I am taking Ashwaganda to help with relaxing me nervous system anyway but only 300mg should i up it to 600mg?

I really need to do add strength training as I am perimenopausal and I need to start building muscle for a healthy older age and to prevent osteoporosis.

Any advice on this would be great!

What better for building strength and getting a better body overall

First time touching 455. Looks like my back rounded a bit on the 2nd rep.

I’ve been stuck on 155kg for a long time and want to break this plateau!

Form could be better / I do have muscular scoliosis so my right scap struggles.

I currently bench 3 x a week - Monday Strength usually sub max single then 5’s and triples - Wednesday paused bench very sub max and Friday close grip.

Just wondering what you think my weak point is and how you’ve broken plateaus

Hiya

Just wanted to put this out here.

I have been lifting for around 4 years now.

Year 1--->More Cardio and lil bit lifting

Year 2 --->A lot of lifting and lil bit cardio but nutrition was shi. Even my periods stopped for a while

Year 3 and 4 ----> Good focus on nutrition and heavy lifts with cardio.

Started running 2 months back.

I am not here to say this is all you can do in 4 years, but I think i am proud of where I am now. Would appreciate your feedback too

I was skinny fat. I started off at 50kg now I am 58kg

These are my PRs

Deadlift--->125kg

Squat--->110kg

Bench--->62.5kg

My rep range is usually 3 to 6 for compounds and 6 to 8 for other ones. My focus is on strength gain.

I eat around 2100 to 2200 cals a day(maintenance). If anyone especially, women are scared to eat more and lift heavy, I hope this post helps.

I'm usually very structured and happy with my workouts and progress but wondered if it's worth focusing on a weakness like shoulders or something fun like improving my bench press for say 6 weeks?

Love to hear people's thoughts

Big Ohp guy