advice on my workout

[Gavin LeFever]

any advice? oppinions? am i missing anything?

getting back to the gym so i'll try a little lighter than what i was doing before and figure out my weights from there--that's what's up with all the '?' shit.

(8x? is one set of 8 reps for ? lbs)

mon
- bench
-- 8x?, 6x?, 4x?, 3x?, 2x?, 1x?, 4x?

wed
- squat
-- 8x?, 6x?, 4x?, 3x?, 2x?, 1x?, 4x?

fri
- cleans
-- 6x?, 6x?, 6x?

sat
- deads
-- what kind of sets/reps do you guys do for with dls?

i keep thinking im forgetting something..

 

[Sean S]

The only thing I wonder about, and this is because I am no expert on olympic lifts, would 6 reps per set be too many?

 

[Urban]

I'm no oly lifter, but what I've been doing with them lately (when I do snatches) is working up to a max and dropping down to 90% and doing 10 singles or so. I've been using this method for all my key lifts, but it seems to work particularly well for snatches.

 

[Gavin LeFever]

you talking about the pyramid charts i'm doing for bench or something different?

what kind of sets/reps are you doing on DLs in your routine? 3 sets of 6? it feels like a bit too much on the reps, but 3 sets of 6 is perfect for cleans, imo.

 

[Urban]

Really lately I've been doing the same thing with deads that I described with snatches. however, What I would reccomend (what has worked for me in the past) is keeping the reps real low. do a couple higher rep warmups, then some singles building up to your working weight and then a bunch of triples. If I don't feel warmed up from previous exercises, I would start out with just a plate on each side for a set of 8, 5 at 50%, 1@ 65%, 1 @ 80%, then 5x3 or something @ 85. The figures don't have to be exact, mine never are.

 

[Gavin LeFever]

thanks. i'll try something like that.

should i fill my workouts with a bunch of asst lifts shit? how many lifts do most of you go for in one session? should i keep with 1 type lift per week (ex, only 1 day for bench, clean, squat, deads per week) or try to pack in more and end up with each lift twice a week? is once a week for lift enough to build strength in the lifts?

current plan is to use this workout to get back into the swing and if my schedual stays open i might go like:
bench mon/thurs
squat tues/fri
clean wed/sat
deads sun -or- deads before cleans on wed/sat with sunday off

i dont know how much i really value asst lifts.

 

[Urban]

you're lifting too often if you're lifting 6 days a week. Really you should only be doing it three days a week as a newbie. In any event I would keep your total weekly workload under 16 exercises. So maybe three or so per session with an ab exercise at the end a couple times a week. Right now you're setting yourself to burn out fast by lifting heavy 6 or 7 days a week. 3 days is a good start. I didn't say anything cause I didn't think you were going to do something stupid... then you gone and done something stupid by setting up a shitty schedule.

 

[Duncon76]

On Deads, don't max out that often. Do sets of 3,2,1, 1,2,3 or 5x5, 3x3, 5,4,3,2,1 rep..take your pick..

 

[Gavin LeFever]

you're lifting too often if you're lifting 6 days a week. Really you should only be doing it three days a week as a newbie. In any event I would keep your total weekly workload under 16 exercises. So maybe three or so per session with an ab exercise at the end a couple times a week. Right now you're setting yourself to burn out fast by lifting heavy 6 or 7 days a week. 3 days is a good start. I didn't say anything cause I didn't think you were going to do something stupid... then you gone and done something stupid by setting up a shitty schedule.

dunno. im going to give it a week or more with the 3days/week thing but i feel more burnt out when im not working out. know what i mean? do you think one type of a lift a week is enough to improve?

on a side note, the strength im concerned about is grip and forearm strength. plays a huge role in grappling. you guys believe in farmer walks and stuff like that? thoughts?

 

[Urban]

You're opening a whole other can of worms with grip training. but here's what I think for a grappler: Lever a sledgehammer and do some thickbar and blockweight work. of course farmer's walks are good medicine too, but for more reasons than grip strength.

 

[Gavin LeFever]

i'm about to get free access at a gym but i cant go in yet, have to wait about a week so i'm not sure what they have. when you talk about a sledge do you mean grab a 40lbs hammer and crack some rocks or is there a lift you're talking about?

blockweight? haven't seen that before. i just know the basics with an olympic weight set. i'm googling this now.. so a hunk of metal? use it like a dumbell?

for farmers walks, how do you do sets and etc? grab the heaviest thing you can and hold it until you physically cannot? dont know if i can get my hands on anything over 70 and that should be alright. you walk around until failure, rest, do it again? do you work towards sets with this or until you cant do much more than rack the dumbbells? i've seen it described but haven't been around the people who actually know how to do it.

 

[Urban]

Find me a 40 lb hammer and tell me where you got it. I'm interested. I've seen them at one place and they were a bit pricey. Heaviest I've seen in person is a 20 lb sledge (my favorite tool on construction sites), but yeah, a regular sledgehammer is what we're after here. I use my six lb sledge just fine, but clay edgin can use an 18.5 lb sledge for some of the same exercises. there are basically three exercises.
- The first is taking the sledge in one hand, holding it straight up in down with your arm at crucifix position (or it can also be straight in front of you). now, slowly lower it to your dome making an arc with the head of the sledgehammer, and raise it back up to starting postition (perpendicular to both your arm and the ground).
- The second is the opposite range of motion. Put a sledge head down and handle up on the ground. Now grab it by the handle and arc it up in front of you (there will be some bicep cheating on this one, guaranteed).
- The third exercise is rotational. For this I usually rest my lower arm on a bench or something with my hand over the end, but I've seen it reccomeneded you do this from standing as well. Sledge in hand rotate your wrist clockwise and counter-clockwise back and forth.
This is basic levering.

A blockweight is the chopped off head of a dumbell. Originally blockweights (blobs) came from york dumbells (cyllindrical with a slight arch on the sides) however, since those are no longer being produced, hex blockweights are a common substitute. The only one I have right now is a pair from a 65 lb dumbell. They're great for snatches, clean and jerks, farmer's walks, and just tossing them back and forth from hand to hand while catching them overhand.

ok, on farmer walks what you can do to substitute for heavy dumbells is use a trap bar. Load it up, stand in the middle, and take it for a stroll. I reccomend a medium distance of 70-100 feet. How to go about doing it? set a goal of 10 walks in 20 minutes. When you get that goal at a certain weight, increase the weight next time. IE, if you could only get 9 walks in 20 minutes this week, keep it the same. If you got 10, increase the weight for next time.

 

[BoxingFanNoMore]

Speaking of sledgehammers and grip strength, does anybody here do sledgehammer pullups? There sort of a mix between regular pullups and towel pullups, but with a sledgehammer of course. I love them, but I just about love anything that involves a sledgehammer, especially breaking up driveways.