The Fysical Phitness Thread

[Stathakis]

with regards to running, here is my opinion:

you can and should tack on easy jogging to any days that you have time. it absolutely does not break you down but rather makes you feel better, and in the meantime increases overall fitness. seriously, just go out and jog as often as you can. doesn't have to be too long, and if you feel like crap slow down. if you still feel like crap turn around and go back inside. the gains I've made in fitness just from adding easy jogging to all my days have been crazy. of the 13 runs I do a week, 10 of them are easy jogging, with the other 3 being a tempo run, a long run, and repeats. of course, I push the pace on many of those 10 easy jogging days when I feel good, but if I feel bad jogging is perfectly fine. and in the recent months I've gone from barely managing 40 mpw at 8:00 average pace to 60+ mpw and most of it sub 7 flat, with tempo runs in the 5:40-5:50 range for 25+ minutes at a time. seriously, just GET OUT AND JOG. it won't stop you from recovering. it'll help you if anything. the best tempo run I've ever had, 4 miles at 5:32 avg pace, was after a day of pretty brisk jogging in the morning.


do it phaggots





edit: in other news, today I threw down 10x400 in 65-66 with 60 seconds jogging recovery. combine this with the aforementioned 4 miles at 5:32 pace and you've got the indicators of a sub 4:20 mile this season! I'm stoked as hell

 

[Venom]

A question to people with experience with the bench press, how easy is it to increase weight in this lift? I find it hard to increase weight on this, but on my squat, military press, and deadlift I have no problem. I can pretty much say I can increase 5-10 pounds a week in my squat with no problem, and my deadlift as well. Military press about 5 pounds a week, but this is a hard to increase weight lift to everybody, so I'm not worried. My bench press annoys me though. I can probably increase 5 pounds in 1 week and a half, if not 2 weeks. I don't know why I have this problem. I do have somewhat weak forearms, so I'm guessing this could be a problem. I figured I had weak forearms when I was struggling with armbars and keeping control of somebodys wrist with my hand in brazilian jiu jitsu while rolling. Does anybody have/had this problem? Or is this normal and I'm just overreacting?

 

[Stylish Interval]

edit: in other news, today I threw down 10x400 in 65-66 with 60 seconds jogging recovery. combine this with the aforementioned 4 miles at 5:32 pace and you've got the indicators of a sub 4:20 mile this season! I'm stoked as hell

Hello Stat :D holy crap man, that's fast haha. i bet you could get sub 4:00 eh? shavin off 20 seconds at that level, nbd for you amirite :D but seriously, congrats and props to ya man. i wish i could run that fast!

Now that I've got you all buttered up ... :P Would you be willing to help me out with a running plan? I'm looking to build more endurance than speed, and I can definitely run every day if I need to. I was thinking of doing something like 1 mi/day and increasing a half-mile or a quarter-mile every week. I haven't run in a while outside of speed work, but from last summer I can probably still do 1.5-2 miles, just not nearly as fast haha. Tips, if you would, grand master runner! (Also I now want to crank out like 10 pistols in a row if ya catch my drift :P)

A question to people with experience with the bench press, how easy is it to increase weight in this lift? I find it hard to increase weight on this, but on my squat, military press, and deadlift I have no problem. I can pretty much say I can increase 5-10 pounds a week in my squat with no problem, and my deadlift as well. Military press about 5 pounds a week, but this is a hard to increase weight lift to everybody, so I'm not worried. My bench press annoys me though. I can probably increase 5 pounds in 1 week and a half, if not 2 weeks. I don't know why I have this problem. I do have somewhat weak forearms, so I'm guessing this could be a problem. I figured I had weak forearms when I was struggling with armbars and keeping control of somebodys wrist with my hand in brazilian jiu jitsu while rolling. Does anybody have/had this problem? Or is this normal and I'm just overreacting?

Have you tried just dropping like 20% and re-working your way up? What's your regimen at the gym in regards to bench? 5x5? 1x5 / 1x3 / 1x1? I think if you drop and work your way back up you'll be able to start putting on regular increases, but don't take my word for it. Although, I do have the same problem it seems and I should probably take my own advice.

My coach has us do something like 1x5 [weight], 1x5 [weight + 5 lbs] 1x5 [weight + 10 lbs] which I personally hate and I feel like it's just getting me minimal gains. I'm still not even up to 1x bodyweight and it's been like, 4 months. :( My squat is way out of proportion now too, I did 5x3 of 250 last week, which is way more than I can bench (first time back at it today and I managed 5x5 of 130, greatttt >__>). But I hope to get back on the horse (or is it saddle...i don't know the damn saying and i cbf to google it); I'm considering just benching after workouts ((which are now going to be speed and squat / deadlifting with "general fitness" on fridays whatever that is)) and doing 5x5 after so that I can build up more. Thoughts, anyone?

 

[jwoozie]

For increasing bench I've been put on to what is sometimes called negative bench.

What you do is throw way more weight than you can lift by yourself. Say something like 25 pounds over your single lift maximum and have 3 guys to spot you. Have your spotters bring the bar to the top so that your arms are fully extended and then have them let go. Now it's on you to take the bar down as slowly and controlled as possible and once you get to the bottom have your spotters lift it back to the top and do another set.

 

[Stathakis]

nahh, Lee's 15 low 5k still beats (by far) anything I've ever done, and 5krunner's 2:50 marathon from high school age is also crazy. I'm sure there are other crazy runners on smogon, but provided I can train like I have and not get injured, we'll see what I can do. if I run sub 4:00 within the next two years, that'd be pretty crazy, but I don't see it happening =( maybe in college.


anyways, for a running plan here is what worked for me, endurance wise (before this summer it was repeats, repeats, repeats all day and I never ran faster than 19:30ish for 5k). I went out one day for 15 minutes, going out in one direction for 7 and a half minutes, then trying to come back in the same amount of time. after a few of these 15 minute runs, you should be able to find the "sweet spot" effort, where you go out slow enough that you can keep the pace up on the way back, but at the same time fast enough that you can't come back any faster without a significant increase in effort. Keep going out for 15 minutes at that pace for a week or two, keeping the effort the same always. if you feel like absolute crap, take it significantly slower, but try not to miss too many days. once you feel like you can do that fairly easily, up the time to 20 minutes total. do something like 15, 15, 20, 15, 15, 20. if that feels good, try 15, 20, 20. keep upping it whenever you feel good, taking easy days or slow days when you need them. progress like this till you can run an hour easily every day, then gradually raise one run a week to an hour and a half or so, or even up to two hours if you really want! (I only go up to 2 hours maybe once a month, to put it into perspective). once you can run easily for up to an hour, just chill around that area for a little while. the pace of your runs should have dropped significantly by now, with the effort staying the same (note: never try to push the pace of your runs just for the sake of going faster than the last week--let the fast pace come to you whenever it does). as far as soccer goes, that's all the endurance you'll ever need. you should be able to get there in 4-5 months or so, and after that it's really just maintenance. if you run easy a couple of times a week with a longer run once a week, you should be able to maintain your endurance no problem. actually to be honest, if you just do the once a week 90-120 minute run and go to soccer practice 5 days a week, you should maintain it just fine. you can build it in the offseason when you have more time.


feel free to throw in weights and sprints, but make sure to keep the sprints extra short (i.e. 100m or less, probably better is like 60m) and keep the recovery super long. this way, you get your max sprinting speed but don't tire your legs. as far as the weights go, I know that if you lift for strength you go super heavy with low reps and lots of recovery, which probably is about right in order to build strength but not throw down the ph of your blood too much.

oh, and whenever you have the time, go out in the morning and jog SUPER easily, like crawl around. this gets blood flowing through your legs and makes your afternoon run feel waaaay better.

and of course, eat a lot and sleep a lot as always

 

[CBshuckle]

Reposting...

Hey Lee I have a question about running xc. I'm asking you because I know you're big into long distance running and yet you're still very strong. I want to pick up cross country again because I've always been pretty good at running, but at the same time I've heard that running cross country can make you skinny and light. Currently I go to the gym a lot to try and get stronger for sports like rowing (which I also do), but can I pick up xc, get good at it, and still remain strong enough for more strength-related sports?

 

[Venom]

Hello Stat :D holy crap man, that's fast haha. i bet you could get sub 4:00 eh? shavin off 20 seconds at that level, nbd for you amirite :D but seriously, congrats and props to ya man. i wish i could run that fast!

Now that I've got you all buttered up ... :P Would you be willing to help me out with a running plan? I'm looking to build more endurance than speed, and I can definitely run every day if I need to. I was thinking of doing something like 1 mi/day and increasing a half-mile or a quarter-mile every week. I haven't run in a while outside of speed work, but from last summer I can probably still do 1.5-2 miles, just not nearly as fast haha. Tips, if you would, grand master runner! (Also I now want to crank out like 10 pistols in a row if ya catch my drift :P)





Have you tried just dropping like 20% and re-working your way up? What's your regimen at the gym in regards to bench? 5x5? 1x5 / 1x3 / 1x1? I think if you drop and work your way back up you'll be able to start putting on regular increases, but don't take my word for it. Although, I do have the same problem it seems and I should probably take my own advice.

My coach has us do something like 1x5 [weight], 1x5 [weight + 5 lbs] 1x5 [weight + 10 lbs] which I personally hate and I feel like it's just getting me minimal gains. I'm still not even up to 1x bodyweight and it's been like, 4 months. :( My squat is way out of proportion now too, I did 5x3 of 250 last week, which is way more than I can bench (first time back at it today and I managed 5x5 of 130, greatttt >__>). But I hope to get back on the horse (or is it saddle...i don't know the damn saying and i cbf to google it); I'm considering just benching after workouts ((which are now going to be speed and squat / deadlifting with "general fitness" on fridays whatever that is)) and doing 5x5 after so that I can build up more. Thoughts, anyone?

I'm doing Ripptoes which is 5x3. When I started I was a shitty 75 max bench back in June, and now my max on the bench press is 155, so Its been working. But I've been struggling since then on the bench, I actually do not look foward to it lol. And to your question, I think if you're already doing Stronglifts 5x5, doing more after it might be overtraining

 

[Stylish Interval]

I'm doing Ripptoes which is 5x3. When I started I was a shitty 75 max bench back in June, and now my max on the bench press is 155, so Its been working. But I've been struggling since then on the bench, I actually do not look foward to it lol. And to your question, I think if you're already doing Stronglifts 5x5, doing more after it might be overtraining

*googles Ripptoes*

*puffs chest* seems like a weaker stronglifts to me! nah, i kid. seems solid enough, and if it works it works! but i stand by my prior statement that dropping the weight back to a comfortable level where you're gonna look forward to pushing the bar and knowing you'll get it done is the way to go. you'll build confidence first of all -- i mean you're hitting all these weights easy, you're good -- and then you'll hopefully be able to push this plateau away for another 50-60 lbs :D maybe start at 115 (this is 5x3 with assistance training too if my googling didn't let me down) and then work back up. but i strongly believe you're going to break this plateau. like yugi always said, "believe in the heart of the [bench]!"


and I'm not actually doing Stronglifts during workouts because my coach has us doing this ridiculous routine that i highly despise but i have to do it to get free gym access. i go with unsatisfaction in my head, regret in my heart. but i figure doing 5x5 after workouts (since they're generally light) is gonna work out great. i just haven't done it yet because i like to row after workouts, but i'd rather this than that. yeah, stronglifts followed by stronglifts probably wouldn't work out too well :P

also i am pumped at the recent activity in this thread, will post my soon to be workout tomorrow probably and hopefully you guys can review it for me :D

---
---

Hey Lee I have a question about running xc. I'm asking you because I know you're big into long distance running and yet you're still very strong. I want to pick up cross country again because I've always been pretty good at running, but at the same time I've heard that running cross country can make you skinny and light. Currently I go to the gym a lot to try and get stronger for sports like rowing (which I also do), but can I pick up xc, get good at it, and still remain strong enough for more strength-related sports?

Since Lee hasn't been on since the 9th, I figure I'll give this a go after some research! I've read a lot of articles, forum threads, and watched a few videos. There were differing opinions. Some said that you can and should lift for all muscles, some said just upper back as running will deal with the legs, some said light legs and rigorous upper body. Here's my take on the whole deal:

I think that you can and should lift while running. However, I think that you should do less weight, more reps as opposed to more weight, less reps. This is because I don't think you're going to want to bulk up; it'll probably slow you down if you're doing massive gains all over your body. However, Lee was pretty swoll, but I've only ever seen two pictures of him: one of his back (huge as fuck) and one of him running (good leg muscle). I assume he did light leg work + lots of running, which would probably build his legs to be huge, and then a ton of upper body work. I know weight-lifting improves your cardiovascular endurance, so I assume that you can build your upper body - not too much - and be safe.

Just remember I spent about 20-30 minutes looking this stuff up, I'm not a cross country runner nor am I an athletic trainer. So take this with a grain of salt, and I say do some of your own research while waiting for Lee to comment. Maybe Stat will say something (although he does track and not cross country, he may have done cross country before or be picking it up!) or possibly someone else will mention something. I just don't want you to feel like you aren't getting any response and I wanna help you if I can. Lemme know what you come up with and hopefully Lee will get on soon and chime in! I hope this might help haha :)
just asked a friend regarding his lifting alongside xc, i'll be sure to let you know what he tells me (:

 

[Stathakis]

lifting+distance running is fine. lift hard and eat a lot and you'll still be able to grow. of course, getting big and getting fast are counterproductive towards each other. you can get bigger and faster at the same time, but if you dropped one your improvement in the other would increase. that said, yes, you can get big and fast at the same time but no, it won't be easy. you'll have to lift hard (imo high weight low reps like rippetoes or stronglifts is best, since that gives the biggest strength gains) and eat a shitload in order to gain weight. you can always just lift to get stronger and use your diet to keep you from gaining weight i.e. just get strong and not big, while running at the same time. from a xc standpoint, that's probably best.


oh and stylish interval, I do cross country every fall! i'm just not so much of a 5k runner as I am a 800 runner, so my 800/1500/1600 times are a billion times better than my 5k times and i just don't mention xc much ~_~

 

[CBshuckle]

Thx for the responses, the info was helpful and maybe Lee will have some extra insight. I guess I'm gonna have to eat more to compensate for lifting + xc running, I've always tried to eat in moderation because I used to be overweight but maybe that's what's keeping me from gaining a lot of muscle since I've started lifting. Anyway, I'll keep you posted on how xc goes!

 

[Stylish Interval]

oh and stylish interval, I do cross country every fall! i'm just not so much of a 5k runner as I am a 800 runner, so my 800/1500/1600 times are a billion times better than my 5k times and i just don't mention xc much ~_~

haha, my bad. i've never seen you mention it but now i have; won't make that mistake again :P

Thx for the responses, the info was helpful and maybe Lee will have some extra insight. I guess I'm gonna have to eat more to compensate for lifting + xc running, I've always tried to eat in moderation because I used to be overweight but maybe that's what's keeping me from gaining a lot of muscle since I've started lifting. Anyway, I'll keep you posted on how xc goes!

yay! i like it when people keep us posted, i care more about your life than i do about mine (it's true, i spend all my time on the serebii advice and relationship threads just to see how people are doing after they post haha). i wish you luck in your endeavors!

 

[Stylish Interval]

Double postin like a boss (plus it's been 8 days and who even comes to the sports forum)

Alright, so I got some nice equipment over the past week. My dad works two jobs (Architect and works with Pods...it's storage shit) and he got access to a storage unit that was being evicted or some shit and it had some very excellent equipment in it. This came with plates too: 4x10, 4x25, 2x35, 4x45. I'm going out to Sears this week to buy some 5 lbs plates since I am going to need those too. I think I might have mentioned breaking my wrist; I broke it 3 weeks ago. I was supposed to go back to the doctor for a cast last week but I decided I didn't want to be out for 4-6 weeks (total of 6-8 weeks) when my wrist felt fine. I did a little light lifting today and it was just a little tense, so I'm going to wear my brace all day, every day (bar showers) through this Friday. If it still hurts then, I'll get a cast. The cause of the problem I think is that I only wear the brace in school (never wore it the full time anyway) and I've been using my wrist through various activities anyway, so this ought to fully heal it. When I said there was a little tenseness, I very literally mean little. It didn't hardly hurt and the pain went away within 10 minutes. I figure this'll be good, and I might ice it too. We'll see.

Now that that wall of text is over, I'd like to explain what I plan on doing. I'm going to max out this Saturday and start Stronglifts on Monday. I'm done with my weightlifting at school; I'm only going to go on Wednesdays for speed workouts. But I'll take off 20% of my max for all my lifts and then start working from there. I'm thinking and hoping to start with the following:

Bench: 115-135
Squat: 180-225
OHP:115-135
Deadlift:180-225

yes, the Bench / OHP and Squat / Deadlift are similar because I'd like for them to be around the same and I feel it's better if they're around the same. Plus from previous experience, I think this is where I'll end up starting anyway. And regarding cardio, I'm thinking that Speed will cover that, but if I feel more is necessary, which it shouldn't be, I'll do HIIT 1x per week.

Hopefully I'll manage to get this wrist purely healed up over the next couple days with ice + splint, and then next week I ought to be able to start up. I'll also have a log on StrongLifts :) That's all the update I've got...

How about you guys? Ala, CBshuckle, Venom; I'm sure a couple more of you guys in here lift, let's hear some progress! (It's been at least a week since the last post anyway :D)

e: forgot to mention, going to be doing pull-ups starting today. doing the "twenty pull-up challenge" that many of my online friends have had success with; I can only do one pull-up and I'd love to be able to do weighted pull-ups before spring break. before starting SLs I'll be sure to post my short- and long-term goals :D

 

[thehunter784]

I run a lot of distance track and xc but i also play basketball, does anyone know anything about vertical training? I can kinda barely dunk but wana be able to throw down on people.....so any ideas to increase my vertical?

I'm 6'2 180ish

 

[jwoozie]

Plyometrics, plyometrics, plyometrics.

Squats will help too, but the best thing is plyometric excericises. I'm talking weighted lunges, weighted step ups, depth jumps, bounding. Man I love plyos.
My cousin is an athletic freak he's about 6'5 and jumps higher than everybody. He started dunking in 8th grade but he skipped a grade so it was basically his 7th grade year. What he does a lot is dunk with a medicine ball. Take a simple 8 pound medicine ball and just dunk with it. That kind of thing will help a ton.

So yeah just google plyometrics and look up some workouts to do. I would recommend getting some plyo boxes, and some cones. If you really want to go all out you could look into Jumpsoles or Strength shoes, although you should be able to achieve similar results without shelling out the $130 or so.

 

[thehunter784]

I've done plyos before i was just looking for a new exercise to change up the routine

 

[jwoozie]

Well like I said, dunking with a medicine ball should help. You can also do rim jumps. Jump up vertically and touch the rim with 2 hands and as soon as you land go straight back up and do it again. Over and over.
And there are tons of plyometric workouts you can do so it should never really get old and if you mix and match routines every 2 weeks or so.

 

[Stathakis]

stylish interval, you should start jogging =(


oh and in other news, 20x100 with 300 jog in under 13 for each

 

[Stylish Interval]

stylish interval, you should start jogging =(


oh and in other news, 20x100 with 300 jog in under 13 for each

pssssh, jogging is for suckers :P nah though, i might jog instead of hitt. rather than immediatly push for less bf% i might just jog to get into it. i'm thinking sl begin., sl immed. madcow (linear one), then the t-nation workout to drop bf% to 6-8%. this is looking at 2-4 years training but it sounds realistic to me. good long term goal maybe idk and but so anyway

also if you'd explain what that last stuff is i might congratulate you haha. i have no idea what you even said :P but congrats on team rater alumnus (i think i noticed within the past month your usual team rating badge was gone..didn't see this one till just now)

 

[Venom]

Well I ended up de-loading all the way back from 155 to 145 last week and I'm hitting 160 since last night, so I can say that de-loading was the way to go. The rest is of my lifts are going great.

SI; I think Ripptoe's is better that Stronglifts to be honest. The only thing that changes is that SS makes you do 2 more sets. I tried doing SS and I did it for 4 months, and I can tell you recovery is a bitch. Trust me by your 3rd set you feel like you want to throw up, because you are lifting your maximum capacity. With 3x5 (SS) you are progressing EVERY session. With 5x5 you are progressing once per week. I can really say that it is easy to add weight with 3x5, thus making it easier to get strength gains, which is what this program is all about. 3x5 makes squatting 3x a week much more manageable, because squatting might seem easy when you're lifting light weight, but when you start squatting HEAVY, it gets painful 3x a week.

Ripptoe's is pretty much;

Workout A
Squat 3X5
Bench 3X5
Deadlift 3X5

Workout B
Squat 3X5
Press 3X5
Power Clean 5X3

And that's about it. You should be able to add 5 pounds to your Squat and Bench each session and 15 pounds to your deadlift. If you want a link to a good Ripptoe's FAQ reply.

 

[CBshuckle]

posting weightlifting amounts... note this isn't max but what I've done in my most recent workouts. I do the standard 5x5 stronglifts.

height: 5'9''
weight: ~145 lbs

bench: 110, up by 5 every two workouts (tried every workout but failed miserably, it's working much better now since the 2nd workout w/the same weight I go till failure)
overhead: 75, though I go 6X6 because I started this one more recently and it's not as difficult yet. up by 5/workout
bent-over rows: 90, also not very impressive, usually go 5x6 and up by 5/workout.
Squat: 205, 5x5, this I'm more proud of but I can't do this completely free, I do squats on a system that provides no extra force like most of the machines do, but merely supports the weight so I don't become unbalanced/fall over. up by 5/workout, though I'm fast approaching my limit to doing this (may change to 5/two workouts)
Deadlift: 215 last time, at 5x5 as well. also up by 10/workout. this is my favorite exercise to do because I can impress many of my peers.

 

[ak_Archangel]

Hieght 5'2
wieght 112
(im a short girl)

sports:
Cheering
Gymnastics
track
in-door track
Cross country

I can do a mile in 5;42.

I need a good exercise to work out my biceps without getting buff.

 

[Stylish Interval]

words and then i decided to reply.

i guess i'll look into it before i start, but SLs has never seemed to steer any of my friends wrong, but a good faq ought to clear things up. like hellen keller always said, "_____". nah but really, i guess i ought to look into it haha. thanks for the offer!

CBSHUCKLE DON'T USE THAT MACHINE BALANCING THE WEIGHT IS PART OF THE EXERCISE seriously thought don't do that. the point of using free weights is to learn to balance the weight yourself, otherwise there would be no point. really though, do it free weight strictly.

ak archangel, idk i guess bicep curls? that's a bodybuilding thing and that looks like what you wanna get in to, but eh i don't follow that kind of stuff. beyond me, sorry

also i am going to carry this thread until i eventually disappear so that i can be remembered in addition to the great three y/y

 

[Stathakis]

ak archangel, if you dont wanna get buff then don't eat too high over maintenance and boom, you won't get buff

 

[ak_Archangel]

im a vegan so i dont haft ot worry about that.

 

[Venom]

Man no offense but if I was a girl I would try to get thicker and more defined legs than biceps. Squats maybe?

Regarding your question on biceps (might be for athletic purposes so please excuse if I sounded rude); if you don't really want to gain size on biceps I would avoid reps of 8-15, if you want more strength then 5 reps at the most weight you can handle would be a good workout. You will get stronger with 5 reps at maximum weight (a weight that it is heavy enough that you can only lift 5 times).