Brickhead: 'Ramp to 1-2 All-Out Sets'?

[quote]bendthebar wrote:

This is exactly what happens to stubborn lifters. Don’t stretch, don’t foam roll, don’t take the time to warm-up, think you’re invincible? Think again. Heavy feelings of nostalgia right now. I wish I took the time to do my sets as safe as possible, not like a form nazi but at least do them to make my joints and bones stronger instead of with the intent of destroying my body, to make it bigger, to contract harder, etc. I wish I took my time, realized that the more time I took, the better it would be. Anyone who ends up getting a certain weight really fast with no care, no caution will always end up behind the tortoise. I wish I could turn back time. But no use in whining to change the past. [/quote]

I am curious what specific issues you are dealing with. As someone that has never stretched or foam rolled and does minimal warming up, I have no issues performing those movements, and may be able to offer some assistance.

What is the specific limiting factor?

[quote]Aopocetx wrote:

[quote]bendthebar wrote:
This is exactly what happens to stubborn lifters. Don’t stretch, don’t foam roll, don’t take the time to warm-up, think you’re invincible? Think again. Heavy feelings of nostalgia right now. I wish I took the time to do my sets as safe as possible, not like a form nazi but at least do them to make my joints and bones stronger instead of with the intent of destroying my body, to make it bigger, to contract harder, etc. I wish I took my time, realized that the more time I took, the better it would be. Anyone who ends up getting a certain weight really fast with no care, no caution will always end up behind the tortoise. I wish I could turn back time. But no use in whining to change the past. [/quote]

Dang bro. I know what you mean although personally I cut that shit out early on because I knew I was going for longevity.

Having said that, I don’t think you’re fucked. I think you can make a serious effort to work on your posture, mobility, and muscle imbalances (very important IMO, like not having your chest way stronger than your back), and drop down a good amount of weight and re-learn each exercise with proper form…

Everything you said just reeks of improper form or possibly no form at all.

But again, dropping the weight you use and focusing on body control, keeping tension in the right places, etc. will help you a lot more than using leg press instead of squats your whole life (and not using the exercises you mentioned). I think that’s what you should focus on. [/quote]

Sorry, have been out of action as I’ve had technical difficulties logging on to the forum. Finally was able to log in today. My form is actually pretty close to perfect. But instead of focusing on perfect form only, I actually try very hard to contract and just target the muscle I want to work on i.e. only using chest to lift the dumbbell, using quads to lift the leg press. Someone a long time ago told me that is a bad way to lift and can even lead to injury. I believe him now.

[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:

[quote]bendthebar wrote:

This is exactly what happens to stubborn lifters. Don’t stretch, don’t foam roll, don’t take the time to warm-up, think you’re invincible? Think again. Heavy feelings of nostalgia right now. I wish I took the time to do my sets as safe as possible, not like a form nazi but at least do them to make my joints and bones stronger instead of with the intent of destroying my body, to make it bigger, to contract harder, etc. I wish I took my time, realized that the more time I took, the better it would be. Anyone who ends up getting a certain weight really fast with no care, no caution will always end up behind the tortoise. I wish I could turn back time. But no use in whining to change the past. [/quote]

I am curious what specific issues you are dealing with. As someone that has never stretched or foam rolled and does minimal warming up, I have no issues performing those movements, and may be able to offer some assistance.

What is the specific limiting factor?
[/quote]

Probably wrists and knees. I am clearly limited in weight because at the weights I’m doing, they actually feel decently, heavy which should not be happening for an intermediate lifter. I mean 55 lb incline feeling decently heavy? Something is wrong. I mentioned I trained to failure all the time and brickhead lamented that that was the wrong thing to do. I still have been training every last set to failure and wonder if he meant that even that will be damaging at this stage. I did it for the first time in a long time, meaning not going to failure on any set. It did not feel right. I didn’t feel sore at all during the workout and it was completely gone by the end of the workout. I felt like I did nothing, but guess it had to be done.

He is definitely right as the damage has progressed and I am start to hear and feel the elbow cracks on db bench press. I am so focused on keeping what I have that I start to wonder if I’m going to have to take three steps back in order to move one step foward. Even my friends did not want to admit it but they believe I’ve been stagnant…for the last couple years. They share the same belief I have. The longest I’ve ever taken a break was 1 month. I wonder if a longer break is necessary.

To clarify, your only specific issue is that your elbows crack?

@OP, I am in no way calling you out or anything of that nature, but are you sure this “pain” isn’t just discomfort? I could be completely wrong here, but what I think Pwnisher is getting at is that any of the harder exercises (squat, deadlift, OHP, etc.) are going to be uncomfortable, especially for someone who has yet to perfect their technique in the given lift. If what you’re experiencing is truly painful or joint trouble, then I apologize.

Otherwise, I would say just try and improve your technique based on YOUR leverages and figure out what works for you. If you still have trouble, there are dozens of extremely good lifters on here who just need a video to critique your form.

For example, I fractured my ankle BAD in high school playing basketball. After getting out of the cast I wanted to get back on the court ASAP, so said screw rehabbing the ankle (not the best idea, but whatever). Afterward, squatting was miserably uncomfortable for me. It’s taken me a long time with just baby weight to get used to that movement and position again. The discomfort disappeared as I progressively got stronger.

Get stronger and I almost bet that “pain” will be gone, just don’t hurt yourself if you’re truly injured, ill, whatever.

I am genuinely not “getting at” anything. I simply want to know what the actual problem/limitations are in this regard, as I believe I know a few work arounds depending.

I’ve trained through and around countless injuries, and have become pretty talented at it.

[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:
I am genuinely not “getting at” anything. I simply want to know what the actual problem/limitations are in this regard, as I believe I know a few work arounds depending.

I’ve trained through and around countless injuries, and have become pretty talented at it.[/quote]
Gotcha, my apologies. I agree with that last sentence completely, just taking time off has never, ever helped me.

No worries. The internet is full of doublespeak, snarkiness, sarcasm, passive aggressiveness, etc. It’s very easy to read into things, and I find that a lot of times I will have to re-ask very direct questions to get the very direct answer I am hoping for, haha.

[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:
To clarify, your only specific issue is that your elbows crack?[/quote]

It’s that my wrists and knees cannot support the load I subject it to and afterwards, afterwards up to 3 days, my legs feel like they’re going to snap in half and my arms feel like it too, like the joints and ligaments are really weak. Trust me, I know the feeling of fatigue and I love every minute of it. But now, I don’t get fatigued anymore, I get knee cracks and arm cracks and my walking and movement feel unnatural at the time. I don’t know how to explain it, but if it was fatigue, I would be happy. I would go right back to pushing for all hell, doing 8 second reps for squats, and benching for 3 reps, taking pushdowns to even 10 second reps if possible. But of course, that’s probably why I’m here in the first place.

[quote]kollak95 wrote:
@OP, I am in no way calling you out or anything of that nature, but are you sure this “pain” isn’t just discomfort? I could be completely wrong here, but what I think Pwnisher is getting at is that any of the harder exercises (squat, deadlift, OHP, etc.) are going to be uncomfortable, especially for someone who has yet to perfect their technique in the given lift. If what you’re experiencing is truly painful or joint trouble, then I apologize.

Otherwise, I would say just try and improve your technique based on YOUR leverages and figure out what works for you. If you still have trouble, there are dozens of extremely good lifters on here who just need a video to critique your form.

For example, I fractured my ankle BAD in high school playing basketball. After getting out of the cast I wanted to get back on the court ASAP, so said screw rehabbing the ankle (not the best idea, but whatever). Afterward, squatting was miserably uncomfortable for me. It’s taken me a long time with just baby weight to get used to that movement and position again. The discomfort disappeared as I progressively got stronger.

Get stronger and I almost bet that “pain” will be gone, just don’t hurt yourself if you’re truly injured, ill, whatever.[/quote]

I wish that was the case. Uncomfortable to me is nothing. I would take debilitating fatigue over what I’m currently dealing with anyday. Even bodyweight squats don’t feel right, but I’m tempted everyday to warm-up and push for everything i have on 315, joints be damned. Warm-up to 405 with deadlifts, and stay there until I can’t complete a rep. I’ll wait 30 seconds to complete a rep too, til my body cannot budge it past my knees. As you can see from my posts, I still have a problem straying away from failure and it definitely is one of the problems that has led to my predicament. All I wish for is for my joints and ligaments to heal. I have no problem doing hardwork, gasping for air on every set, pushing for everything I have even if the weight/reps hasn’t progressed much. I’ll have to see about videos as my gym has restrictions when it comes to recording.

Have you considered wrapping your wrists/knees when you train?

[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:
Have you considered wrapping your wrists/knees when you train?[/quote]

I am putting in an order later tonight. I thought that this would be a bad band-aid, in the fact, I’ll be alright now but my wrists will be weaker once they’re off because they’ve grown accustomed to that protection. Once the protection is gone, my wrists will have grown weaker. But at this point, I’ll try anything, if even for a month of not worrying about this. Hopefully what I think may happen later will never come to light. Also, form on all exercises is pretty much perfect. I make sure every single rep looks the same as the last no matter how hard it gets. Like I said before, I’m trying to treat them as movements now instead of concentrating on just using one muscle to do the work.

[quote]bendthebar wrote:
I am putting in an order later tonight. I thought that this would be a bad band-aid, in the fact, I’ll be alright now but my wrists will be weaker once they’re off because they’ve grown accustomed to that protection. Once the protection is gone, my wrists will have grown weaker. [/quote]

So what you’re saying is that, if you go from benching 400lbs with wrist wraps to 450lbs with wrist wraps, your wrists will grow WEAKER during that time? I feel as though the wrist would still grow stronger, as even though it’s being protected, it’s still bearing a load, and that load is being increased.