Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

lol, I was going to insert a video here of Vicki squatting 110kg tonight, but I'm a little scared bozo might put his back out throwing the computer across the room

it might help get my numbers up :D

I noticed my gym has removed some of the free weights area to make room for "true grit" classes, I suppose at least they are using barbells and doing compounds... really wish they would get a second power cage / squat rack though.

Edited by bozodos

Markos, I remember you saying not long ago that nothing you see amazes you anymore. I'm curious: what's the most impressive or amazing thing you've ever seen with regard to lifting?

Great question, but I was amazed last night.

Firstly, the hardest set I've ever witnessed was actually performed by an SAU forum member, Nick Rankin. He squatted 160kg x 20, no wraps no belt. He could easily have quit at 5, it was that hard. He hit every upright in the power rack, he was stumbling, I thought he would pass out, but he never quit.

Most impressive lift I saw in the gym was Max at 16 weighing 70kg, take out 125kg on his back like a squat, then jerk it overhead, behind his neck, stunned everyone. But next, he didnt dump the bar on the ground like most, he lowered it to his shoulders and re racked it, no belt, nothing. This was before he switched to powerlifting

Last night a guy from a Crossfit gym near town trained at PTC, he was there for over 3 hours, he foam rolled everything, including forearms, used bands to stretch every square inch of his body, it was amazing. The lifting he did was overhead squats with 25kg x 3 and push press from the rack with 25kg x 3. I've never seen anyone do less for longer

Crossfit dude might have been working on rehab/recovery? Weird otherwise.

Regarding the more's....

If I can get 8 reps out on sets 1 and 2 but say only 4-5 on set 3 (each set heavier than the one before it) and I see this trend for a good few sessions, am I "better" off (I know that's a loose term) doing more reps of the final set weight? The second set weight? A higher weight? etc.

At the moment, if I fail out at 4-5 on the final set I take a short break, then grab a few more reps at that weight, until I've done 8 total at that weight. Good approach to mores or would more weight be better?

I ask because for 3 sessions I've done the more sets at the same weight thing, to make sure I get 8 at that weight, but I'm not seeing a correspodning improvement in how many I can get out in one go on that final set, still topping out at 4-5, and I'm not racking it assuming failure on the 5th or 6th rep, I'm going for it and trying, getting half way or so, not making it, putting it on the safeties, crawling out, re-racking, going again.

I know effort is key, so im going to failure, when I take a 60sec break and can get out a few more reps, how should I go about them? Same weight, more, less etc.

The problem I see with what your doing is tracking progress.

If your getting 8 on lighter sets then 5 on the only work set youre doing, thats not much work, is it?

I'd rather see bench - 80kg x 5,5,5 than bench 60kg x 8, 70kg x 8, 80kg x 5

Hmm fair enough, I only consider the first set to be a warm up and the next 2 to be "work".

Likewise though, If I was using the same weight on all 3 sets, and going 8, 8, 5 (or 5 5 3 in your example) would you then do a few more reps at the same weight to get the full 8 (5) reps up or would you add weight to push through that plateau?

The question is what to do when the endurance isn't there, that it,s you have the power to move the weight, but would like to move it more times in one go rather than stopping/starting.

What I've done in the past is move the final set weight to the second set and added weight for the last set above what I was doing before.

The problem I see with what your doing is tracking progress.

If your getting 8 on lighter sets then 5 on the only work set youre doing, thats not much work, is it?

I'd rather see bench - 80kg x 5,5,5 than bench 60kg x 8, 70kg x 8, 80kg x 5

Since you pointed out the whole MORE thing, I now completely understand why any sets at lighter weight prior to your working sets are a waste of time. I like to do one set at a fairly bitch weight just to see if there's any joint/muscle issues before I push out the working set, but only now do I truly realise that anything short of your working weight is doing nothing but burning calories (unless you push to ridiculous failure reps or something). It won't be promoting any kind of growth since it's not MORE.

IMO (as per your example Markos) - 60x 5-8; then 80x 5,5,5,3,3,etc to however many you wanna go lol. But no point wasting energy on the initial sets, since it's just calories that could've been put towards pushing MORE than last session.

Since you pointed out the whole MORE thing, I now completely understand why any sets at lighter weight prior to your working sets are a waste of time. I like to do one set at a fairly bitch weight just to see if there's any joint/muscle issues before I push out the working set, but only now do I truly realise that anything short of your working weight is doing nothing but burning calories (unless you push to ridiculous failure reps or something). It won't be promoting any kind of growth since it's not MORE.

IMO (as per your example Markos) - 60x 5-8; then 80x 5,5,5,3,3,etc to however many you wanna go lol. But no point wasting energy on the initial sets, since it's just calories that could've been put towards pushing MORE than last session.

My thoughts exactly, I get into working sets ASAP.

My thoughts exactly, I get into working sets ASAP.

I take my sweet ass time coz I'm a big f**king girl.

Also Dan I dare say it depends on how many reps/sets you're aiming for, but regardless of whether it's 10x3 or 5x5 - whatever the max weight you can manage those reps and sets at would be your working weight. Which you WILL increase next session. Failing that, you know what to do (more reps or another set :P)

If you like to ramp the weight up and reps down, which is fine if youre not interested in absolute strength gains, then a system I prefer is the pyramid but with "control" reps up and "everything you got" on the way down.

40kg x 5

60kg x 5

80kg x 5

100kg x 5

80kg x 11

60kg x 12

40kg x 12

Too many reps, take too long as I do a full body routine 3x a week so 3 sets is about all I have time for on each thing.

Squat, Bench, DL, Bent Row, Weighted Chins, Weighted Dips.

3x8 with 2min breaks takes about an hour.

Would there be much benefit in going 3x5 and going heavier? I'm happy to get stronger, but not looking to get any bigger or heavier (I have a race suit and seat that I need to fit in). I realise calorie intake is part of that.

Edited by ActionDan

But its NOT 3 x 8 if you only do 1-2 work sets, 3 sets with the same weight is the correct way, 1-2 sets is crap if youre not going to absolute positive failure every set, and I know youre not doing that because you train alone.

A couple of sets at 80% is not enough work to improve unfortunately

What does positive failure mean? I am going til failure on the 3rd and any subsequent sets.

That is, I know I won't make another rep but I go for it and fail out on the way back up (using bench as example)

Ok...

Well I'm going to regular people failure on every set at the highest weight I do I do as many sets as needed to ensure I've done at least 8 reps at that weight, for every exercise.

But I see that I'm better off doing one warmup set and doing all my sets at that weight.

Failure is a state of mind, too deep for this thread or forum even.

Is it the point where quite simply put, the muscles you're pushing just switch off? As I've only pushed to what I'd consider absolute failure once or twice, and as an example one of these occasions was dumbbell press - the point at which I failed, my left arm was going to absolute jelly, shaking like crazy etc etc, then after what seemed like a lifetime (probably a few seconds of barely moving up, but not going down), it felt as though my arm just switched off and went limp, causing me to bounce the 34kg DB off my chest lol

Is that absolute failure? I mean, as far as I'm concerned without proper mental training there was no way I was completing that rep.

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now



  • Latest Posts

    • The average previous owner for these cars were basically S-chassis owners in the US. Teenagers or teenager-adjacent. I often tell people that neglect is easier to fix than something that was actively "repaired" by previous owners.
    • Update 3: Hi all It's been a while. Quite a lot of things happened in the meantime, among other things the car is (almost) back together and ready to be started again. Things that I fixed or changed: Full turbo removal, fitting back the OEM turbo oil hardlines. Had to do quite a bit of research and parts shopping to get every last piece that I need and make it work with the GT2860 turbos, but it does work and is not hard to do. Proves that the previous owner(s) just did not want to. While I was there I set the preload for the wastegates to 0,9bar to hopefully make it easier for the tuner to hit the 370hp I need for the legal inspections that will follow later on. Boost can always go up if necessary. Fitted a AN10 line from the catch can to the intake hose to make the catchcan and hopefully the cam covers a slight vacuum to have less restrictive oil returns from the head and not have mud build up as harshly in the lines and catch can. Removed the entire front interior just shy of the dashboard itself to clean up some of the absolutely horrendous wiring, (hopefully) fix the bumpy tacho and put in LED bulbs while I was there. Also put in bulbs where there was none before, like the airbag one. I also used that chance to remove the LED rpm gauge on the steering column, which was also wired in absolute horror show fashion. Moved the 4in1 Prosport gauge from sitting in front of the OEM oil pressure gauge to the center console vents, I used a 3D printed vent piece to hold that gauge there. The HKB steering wheel boss was likely on incorrectly as I sometimes noticed the indicator reset being uneven for left vs. right. In the meantime also installed an airbag delete resistor, as one should. Installed Cube Speed premium short shifter. Feels pretty nice, hope it'll work great too when I actually get to drive. Also put on a fancy Dragon Ball shift knob, cause why not. My buddy was kind enough to weld the rust hole in the back, it was basically rusted through in the lowermost corner of the passenger side trunk area where the wheel arch, trunk panel and rear quarter all meet. Obviously there is still a lot of crustiness in various areas but as long as it's not rusted out I'll just treat and isolate the corrosion and pretend it's not there. Also had to put down a new ground wire for the rear subframe as the original one was BARELY there. Probably a bit controversial depending on who you ask about this... but I ended up just covering the crack in the side of the engine block, the one above the oil feed, with JB Weld. I used a generous amount and roughed up the whole area with a Dremel before, so I hope this will hold the coolant where it should be for the foreseeable future. Did a cam cover gasket job as the half moons were a bit leaky, and there too one could see the people who worked on this car before me were absolute tools. The same half moons were probably used like 3 times without even cleaning the old RTV off. Dremeled out the inside of the flange where the turbine housing mates onto the exhaust manifolds so the diameter matches, as the OEM exhaust manifolds are even narrower than the turbine housings as we all know. Even if this doesn't do much, I had them out anyways, so can't harm. Ideally one would port-match both the turbo and the manifold to the gasket size but I really didn't feel up to disassembling the turbine housings. Wrapped turbo outlet dumps in heat wrap band. Will do the frontpipe again as well as now the oil leak which promted me to tear apart half the engine in the first place is hopefully fixed. Fitted an ATI super damper to get rid of the worn old harmonic balancer. Surely one of the easiest and most worth to do mods. But torquing that ARP bolt to spec was a bitch without being able to lock the flywheel. Did some minor adjustments in the ECU tables to change some things I didn't like, like the launch control that was ALWAYS active. Treated rusty spots and surface corrosion on places I could get to and on many spots under the car, not pretty or ideal but good enough for now. Removed the N1 rear spats and the carbon surrounding for the tailpipe to put them back on with new adhesive as the old one was lifting in many spots, not pretty. Took out the passenger rear lamp housing... what do you know. Amateur work screwed me again here as they were glued in hard and removing it took a lot of force, so I broke one of the housing bolts off. And when removing the adhesive from the chassis the paint came right off too. Thankfully all the damaged area won't be visible later, but whoever did the very limited bodywork on this car needs to have their limbs chopped off piece by piece.   Quite a list if I do say so myself, but a lot of time was spent just discovering new shit that is wrong with the car and finding a solution or parts to fix it. My last problem that I now have the headache of dealing with is that the exhaust studs on the turbo outlets are M10x1.25 threaded, but the previous owner already put on regular M10 nuts so the threads are... weird. I only found this out the hard way. So now I will just try if I can in any way fit the front pipe regardless, if not I'll have to redo the studs with the turbos installed. Lesson learned for the future: Redo ALL studs you put your hands on, especially if they are old and the previous owners were inept maniacs. Thanks for reading if you did, will update when the engine runs again. Hope nothing breaks or leaks and I can do a test drive.
    • No those pads are DBA too  but they have colors too. I look at the and imo the green "street" are the best.
    • I’m not sure what happened I told them about sonic tunes free OTS tune and the next the I know .. I was booted..   To funny 
×
×
  • Create New...