[quote]Cephalic_Carnage wrote:
Well, that’s really no different than what you can see in the average commercial gym here.
In fact, you can visit some 50+ gyms here never seeing anyone bench more than 220, squat or deadlift at all… Unless they’re tall and overweight (and bench like 270 for their troubles)… Before you run into one serious gym where the majority put up 300+ benches squats and 400+ deadlifts.
[/quote]
Ok, I understand. What surprises me more than the absolute strength of some of the people is how FAST people actually get strong from when they begin. Iv not seen beginners move forward that fast here. There’s one guy I see fairly often at the one of the gyms I train at; He’s about 40 - 45 and has a pretty good physique. I aint hating on him or anything because he IS stronger than me, but Iv seen him use the 75’s on the incline and have to get help during the sets. When I compare him to guys like HolyMac who haven’t been training as long, are younger and using the 130’s ALONE, I get quite surprised.
[quote]Cephalic_Carnage wrote:
Unfortunately, from what info you have given I still don’t know how they actually train (periodization for example), whether they’ve gained bodyweight in that time-frame and how much, etc.
[/quote]
I don’t have the specifics on how they train, but from what I see most are on body part splits.
I can inquire further on that though.
The people who put up the biggest numbers are all some 200lbs plus for sure. The guy i described above is about 188 - 195 lbs with visible abs.
The stronger ones have trained for 5+ years though I don’t know just how much they gained in that period. I’d have to ask.
[quote]Cephalic_Carnage wrote:
What’s the average gym like where you live?
[/quote]
I’ll just do this randomly since i train at 2 of them;
-Most are commercial.
-Personally Iv only ever seen 3 squat racks
-Never seen a reverse hyper or GHR
-Most of the people who train at ‘‘hardcore’’ gyms are not very well off in terms of money but are usually the strongest
-Iv seen a total of 3 people do DL’s at commercial gyms
-I once saw a lady take the plates of one side of the bar before a guy was about to bench them
-Iv only seen one woman lift serious weight before
-Commercial gyms have instructors. As a beginner, they sent me down the wrong path completely. The only free-weight exercise i was doing was bench press, curls and bent over row.
If there’s anything else your curious about, just ask…
I’ve worked out in quite a few gyms in England and Scotland and the most impressive lifts I have seen, on separate occasions, have been 507lb deadlift, 440lb squat and 440lb bench press. These have all been done by different people I just happened to witness. Having said that, these lifts are EXTREMELY rare in my experience. Honestly, 9 times out of 10 if I see someone benching in this country they are doing under 130lb with shoddy technique.
These lifts are really weak compared to everyone on this site but I can honestly say they are better than 99% of people I have seen in gyms here in the UK.
however it seems general standards of strength in the UK are much lower than the USA. I doubt most people in the gym could bench 60kg for 10 reps with decent technique. However there are a few good gyms and places if you know the know
[quote]lumbahjack wrote:
Hey people, Im curious what age many of you started lifting and what were your numbers on your starting lifts, and what your CURRENT age and lifts are at this point?
I live in Kenya and I have NEVER seen some of the shit that happens abroad (generally outside of Africa, but particularly USA and Europe) going on here. From reading some training logs here and there plus watching vids, theres a huge lot of you who are strong as f*ck or who get strong really quickly from the time you begin lifting. Im trying to understand whats the variable that makes such a difference in strength other than the whole ‘‘genetics’’ thing.
For example, I am yet to witness ANYONE perform a 500lb squat or a 400lb bench here, yet from what I gather, its not an unusual thing in other continents. (And its not because my sample size is small)
People here train hard, eat right, rest enough etc but the differences in strength between here and other countries is VAST…[/quote]
I don’t trust most internet lifts until I see video proof, you should do the same.
[quote]spar4tee wrote:
I ignore most posters with an agenda. You should do the same.[/quote]
Got any videos of your lifts, bro?[/quote]
Some old ones and one recent one[/quote]
Link to the recent one?
If real, those lifts are great. Miles ahead of anything I put up at your age. MILES.
[/quote]
Want2getlean, I’m not sure how I can respectfully request this, but can you please stop derailing threads? You are a pretty effective troll, and you’ve managed to waste a lot of Bonez and ProfX’s time in that other thread already. So congrats on that, I guess, if that’s your purpose in posting on this forum. But there’s no need to turn another thread into a train wreck.
[quote]spar4tee wrote:
I ignore most posters with an agenda. You should do the same.[/quote]
Got any videos of your lifts, bro?[/quote]
Some old ones and one recent one[/quote]
Link to the recent one?
If real, those lifts are great. Miles ahead of anything I put up at your age. MILES.
[/quote]
Want2getlean, I’m not sure how I can respectfully request this, but can you please stop derailing threads? You are a pretty effective troll, and you’ve managed to waste a lot of Bonez and ProfX’s time in that other thread already. So congrats on that, I guess, if that’s your purpose in posting on this forum. But there’s no need to turn another thread into a train wreck.
[/quote]
Go take some anti estrogens, you baby.
I’ve never ‘trolled’ and I’m certainly not trolling here.
I gave OP some valuable info here; Don’t trust most things you hear on the Internet until you have proof, because the Internet is a great platform for bullshitting.
And then I asked for spar4tee’s videos, because those lifts, especially for an 18 year old, are commendable and awe inspiring.
Wannabe big guys and grown men crying about trolls at every given chance, funny stuff.
[quote]furo wrote:
I’ve worked out in quite a few gyms in England and Scotland and the most impressive lifts I have seen, on separate occasions, have been 507lb deadlift, 440lb squat and 440lb bench press. These have all been done by different people I just happened to witness. Having said that, these lifts are EXTREMELY rare in my experience. Honestly, 9 times out of 10 if I see someone benching in this country they are doing under 130lb with shoddy technique.
These lifts are really weak compared to everyone on this site but I can honestly say they are better than 99% of people I have seen in gyms here in the UK. [/quote]
Don’t hate on yourself man, every big bencher anywhere had to start somewhere.
Anywhore, how old were you when you started out?
[quote]Bambi wrote:
however it seems general standards of strength in the UK are much lower than the USA.
[/quote]
Why would you say that? I kinda put them at the same level. USA is bigger in population (im assuming) so i think you’d tend to have more 400lb benchers in US than in UK.
[quote]Kill That Shit wrote:
Don’t really remember what i first lifted besides i deadlifted 400 lbs my first time.[/quote]
[quote]furo wrote:
I’ve worked out in quite a few gyms in England and Scotland and the most impressive lifts I have seen, on separate occasions, have been 507lb deadlift, 440lb squat and 440lb bench press. These have all been done by different people I just happened to witness. Having said that, these lifts are EXTREMELY rare in my experience. Honestly, 9 times out of 10 if I see someone benching in this country they are doing under 130lb with shoddy technique.
These lifts are really weak compared to everyone on this site but I can honestly say they are better than 99% of people I have seen in gyms here in the UK. [/quote]
Don’t hate on yourself man, every big bencher anywhere had to start somewhere.
Anywhore, how old were you when you started out?
[quote]Bambi wrote:
however it seems general standards of strength in the UK are much lower than the USA.
[/quote]
Why would you say that? I kinda put them at the same level. USA is bigger in population (im assuming) so i think you’d tend to have more 400lb benchers in US than in UK.
[quote]Kill That Shit wrote:
Don’t really remember what i first lifted besides i deadlifted 400 lbs my first time.[/quote]
Impressive
[/quote]
Thanks a lot :). I had just turned 18 when I started properly and that was 3 years ago.