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Monique

bounceswoosh
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Nov 12, 2015
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10,561
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Colorado
Please stop beating yourself up about the bench. We all reach our limits. Be very careful if you have elbow pain. You might want to dial back a bit.

I have! No pain during the test, or I wouldn't have kept going. The rest week was a big help. So is rolling my triceps attachment points with a marble ... oy ...
 

no edge

Out on the slopes
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1RM test day. I came in with trepidation. I didn't sleep well; I've had to take squats down a good bit to fix mobility issues; bench has seemed stagnant. Can't even begin to express my joy! Deadlift: 300. Squat: 195. Bench: 110. That's an increase of 72.5 pounds in two months, and a combined total of 605. I'M IN THE 600 POUND CLUB, YOU GUYS!

What do you call that test. We did that at Crossfit and it was a great benchmark.

Regarding the bench press of 110: that sounds great to me. It's always an individual goal. I would like to suggest... rest is the key to strength. I am not trying to design a program for you. But the key to improving bench is heavy weights and rest. Can your body do that, no idea.

I remember... Crossfit total. But wait, Crossfit total is Press (as in military press), (not certain) squat, and Deadlift. I do not like Press.
 

Seldomski

All words are made up
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'mericuh
"Crossfit Total" is shoulder press (strict), deadlift, and back squat. You are supposed to max out on all three in one workout session for it to 'count.'

Crossfit does very little with bench press. Workouts favor burpees, wall ball shots, push ups, and shoulder to overhead. Plus some others I cannot recall off the top of my head. These all train muscles related to bench press while providing better cardio. Occasionally a crossfit workout includes maxing out on bench to get an idea of your current strength there. At my 'box,' bench is something we do *maybe* once every 3 months.

FWIW my bench press max went up significantly when I stopped doing that lift specifically and started doing Crossfit.
 

Monique

bounceswoosh
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Colorado
What do you call that test. We did that at Crossfit and it was a great benchmark.

Regarding the bench press of 110: that sounds great to me. It's always an individual goal. I would like to suggest... rest is the key to strength. I am not trying to design a program for you. But the key to improving bench is heavy weights and rest. Can your body do that, no idea.

I remember... Crossfit total. But wait, Crossfit total is Press (as in military press), (not certain) squat, and Deadlift. I do not like Press.

Thanks! Yes, you're right. Objective numbers don't matter. It's just frustrating when my boyfriend's 1RM on bench exceeds 300 pounds, and I'm helping him load a bar well over 200 pounds for several sets. But that's unusual even for men his age with a lot of experience, and out of proportion compared to his other lifts.

(Deadlifts, now, those are another story. He keeps joking that he'll need to take steroids to stay ahead of me, as his deadlift hovers above 400. I'm already at 75% of that after a little over a year of lifting. He says that even two months ago when I tested at 260, he was amazed. He said even most men have a plateau before that, while I still haven't hit a sticking point. When comparing my lifts to other women in my age and weight category, my bench and squat numbers are novice, while my deadlifts are more similar to someone who's been seriously training for several years. I'm really in this for the deadlifts. I wish I'd discovered this aptitude when I was much younger!)

On rest - I think I mentioned this - my trainer has me rest one week out of every four. It feels weird to laze about for an entire week, but it seems to pay off. Not just performance, but joint happiness. Heavy lifting puts a lot of strain on ligaments, especially when you're gaining strength quickly. This (plus my known elbow/triceps issues) is the same reason my trainer has me targeting 5-8 reps per set for bench, whereas I target 3-5 for deadlift and squat.

My trainer is a big proponent of "doing less." Thus I have three workouts a week - and during hypertrophy, only two. Lots of rest. He is the first to tell me that he is NOT a power lifting coach; he's always trained people with more of an interest in rehab, overall fitness, or improving climbing/skiing/cycling. But working with him has always kept me injury free, and I'm making huge gains, and he is really good at figuring out and fixing my compensation problems - so I feel lucky to be able to train with him. My number one goal is to avoid injury, number two to improve function, and number three is racking up big numbers - but that last one is the most fun :)

I choose to track squat, deadlift, and bench as my metrics because they are the three powerlifting moves, and I've toyed with the idea of competing eventually. Because they're the power lifting moves, it's also relatively easy to find stats for weight/age etc, so I get some idea of what's realistic or possible. My workouts are largely designed to get those three numbers up as fast as possible (without injury). It really just started with wanting to pursue deadlift strength, and then the other two just seemed like natural additions.

Here's how my trainer has me do the 1RM test. I do deadlifts, then benches, then squats. Three minutes between sets, even for the warmups. Start with a very light set of 5, then up a bit and 3, then 2, then 1, and keep trying one rep until either I fail, or my trainer declares I'm done. For example, I went to failure on bench and squat, and he even gave me a second shot at 200 pounds for squats. But even though we both knew that I had a bad start for the 300 pound deadlift, he wouldn't "let" me go any higher. He saw some form stuff creeping in. There's no point risking injury to "prove" that I can lift five more pounds.

When you do maxes in Crossfit, I'm guessing they're not quite as leisurely?
 

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Monique

bounceswoosh
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Joined
Nov 12, 2015
Posts
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Location
Colorado
Crossfit does very little with bench press. Workouts favor burpees, wall ball shots, push ups, and shoulder to overhead. Plus some others I cannot recall off the top of my head. These all train muscles related to bench press while providing better cardio. Occasionally a crossfit workout includes maxing out on bench to get an idea of your current strength there. At my 'box,' bench is something we do *maybe* once every 3 months.

FWIW my bench press max went up significantly when I stopped doing that lift specifically and started doing Crossfit.

Definitely makes sense to do a lot of different exercises. I tend to think that bench is sort of useless - when in life do you really use the ability to push things away at that angle? But it feels really baller when you do it. And it's definitely made my impromptu workouts on the bag more impressive - my punch used to be pathetic. But Crossfit as you say has a strong cardio / general fitness angle, while I'm specifically trying to build strength, in the sense of being able to lift a very heavy thing just once. Intense cardio is at cross purposes with heavy lifting.
 

Seldomski

All words are made up
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'mericuh
When you do maxes in Crossfit, I'm guessing they're not quite as leisurely?

The progression 5-3-1-1-1-1 etc is similar. The time to do all three different lifts is limited simply by the time of next class starting plus warmup time. So 30-45 minutes. (Classes every 1 hour)
 

Corgski

Getting off the lift
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Dec 5, 2017
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Southern NH
On rest - I think I mentioned this - my trainer has me rest one week out of every four. It feels weird to laze about for an entire week, but it seems to pay off. Not just performance, but joint happiness. Heavy lifting puts a lot of strain on ligaments, especially when you're gaining strength quickly. This (plus my known elbow/triceps issues) is the same reason my trainer has me targeting 5-8 reps per set for bench, whereas I target 3-5 for deadlift and squat.

My trainer is a big proponent of "doing less." Thus I have three workouts a week - and during hypertrophy, only two. Lots of rest.
Hmm, I think @Monique's account has been hacked :nono:. If I am remembering correctly, the real Monique diligently implements something like four different exercises routines, doubles up on reps/sets just to make sure her muscles and joints are totally beaten into submission, and then gets annoyed when people suggest she is over training. I am not buying any of this until she is able to convincingly argue that this is really her ;).
 

Monique

bounceswoosh
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Colorado
Hmm, I think @Monique's account has been hacked :nono:. If I am remembering correctly, the real Monique diligently implements something like four different exercises routines, doubles up on reps/sets just to make sure her muscles and joints are totally beaten into submission, and then gets annoyed when people suggest she is over training. I am not buying any of this until she is able to convincingly argue that this is really her ;).

My signature covers this eventuality ;-)

I do get annoyed when people suggest I'm over training. That's what I pay my trainer for ;-)

I did sneak a six mile, somewhat technical hike into my last rest week ...
 

Marker

Making fresh tracks
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Kennett Square, PA & Killington, VT
We rejoined a gym over the summer and are trying to rebuild our strength and stamina that took a hit during the pandemic. Last ski season's start was a little rough consequently. Unlike my last gym, this one has a nice variety of different ellipticals, stair masters, bikes, etc. for cardio. I'm trying to mix in the different kinds for more variety in my fitness. The one new piece of equipment that I really like that I've not seen before is a lateral elliptical by Octane Fitness. It's not a Skier's Edge, but the action should pay some dividends next season. You can adjust the intensity and the range of lateral motion (0-10). I usually start at 6 and work my way out to 10 then cool down at lower settings. The photo shows the lateral setting sat 10.
IMG_20210812_124436747.jpg
 

cantunamunch

Meh
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We rejoined a gym over the summer and are trying to rebuild our strength and stamina that took a hit during the pandemic. Last ski season's start was a little rough consequently. Unlike my last gym, this one has a nice variety of different ellipticals, stair masters, bikes, etc. for cardio. I'm trying to mix in the different kinds for more variety in my fitness. The one new piece of equipment that I really like that I've not seen before is a lateral elliptical by Octane Fitness. It's not a Skier's Edge, but the action should pay some dividends next season. You can adjust the intensity and the range of lateral motion (0-10). I usually start at 6 and work my way out to 10 then cool down at lower settings. The photo shows the lateral setting sat 10.
View attachment 139842

That machine emphasizes abducted pushing out to the side. On skis that translates to tail-pushing.

There is a way to use that machine closer to a ski type motion but you have to stack your body on top of the long leg (the one going out to the side) and ride it until the other pedal is as high as possible - then transfer the stack onto the short leg and ride that.

This works fine to recreate a more skiing motion but it will kill all the scoring metrics - it will drop your cadence and your muscular effort. Your calorie burn will be around a third of what you normally score.

In other words, that machine rewards (read: scores highly) a torso-centered (read: A-framed) stance where you push outwards (read: tail push). It's better for water polo players trying to train fitness for an egg beater kick than it is for skiers (or skaters) who have to stack on top of the tall leg. You can use the machine in a ski-appropriate way, but a session like that will not score highly on the cardio metrics.

That Precor to the Octane's right - try to work in a few sets on that in the anti-bicycling direction (long leg's foot moves forward). That motion is brutally hard to recreate outdoors (unless you're into backwards running) but really gets the upper leg/hip area where skiers need it.
 

Seldomski

All words are made up
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Have not been to a gym since March 2020 and I am missing it. I planned to go back after fully vaccinated, but broke my hand at about the time I was about to go back. Once I can do push-ups again without pain I will get back to it - hopefully in September. Maybe delta will have peaked by then and it will be safer anyway? I have been doing some exercise at home but I really prefer the gym.
 

cantunamunch

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I have been doing some exercise at home but I really prefer the gym.

One thing I've done to get my brain out of the "but I really want to be" mindset is completely separate exercise types - home is isometric, electrostim, resistance bands and Indian clubs/mace; gym is machines, freeweights and classes.
 

TheArchitect

Working to improve all the time
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One thing I've done to get my brain out of the "but I really want to be" mindset is completely separate exercise types - home is isometric, electrostim, resistance bands and Indian clubs/mace; gym is machines, freeweights and classes.

What are you doing the electrostim for? Just curious.
 

Rod9301

Making fresh tracks
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Electro muscle stimulation is a great attentive to weights to build muscle.

It's pretty intense, but it adds muscle mass and strength very quickly
 

Marker

Making fresh tracks
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Kennett Square, PA & Killington, VT
That machine emphasizes abducted pushing out to the side. On skis that translates to tail-pushing.

There is a way to use that machine closer to a ski type motion but you have to stack your body on top of the long leg (the one going out to the side) and ride it until the other pedal is as high as possible - then transfer the stack onto the short leg and ride that.

This works fine to recreate a more skiing motion but it will kill all the scoring metrics - it will drop your cadence and your muscular effort. Your calorie burn will be around a third of what you normally score.

In other words, that machine rewards (read: scores highly) a torso-centered (read: A-framed) stance where you push outwards (read: tail push). It's better for water polo players trying to train fitness for an egg beater kick than it is for skiers (or skaters) who have to stack on top of the tall leg. You can use the machine in a ski-appropriate way, but a session like that will not score highly on the cardio metrics.

That Precor to the Octane's right - try to work in a few sets on that in the anti-bicycling direction (long leg's foot moves forward). That motion is brutally hard to recreate outdoors (unless you're into backwards running) but really gets the upper leg/hip area where skiers need it.
Maybe I'm fooling myself, but I did think about tail pushing and try to focus on pressure with the balls of my feet. I also use the Precor and another elliptical that hybridizes that motion with a stair climber motion; basically if you don't engage your arms to make it work elliptically it resorts to a stair climber. THAT is really hard to do right in the anti-bicycling action, at least for me, but I keep trying...
 

TheArchitect

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I was on crutches from last Christmas through Easter and using it statically; now that I'm allowed to do weight bearing on that foot and ankle I am using it dynamically (in combination with weights) as well as statically in recovery/endurance mode.

Thanks. Good luck with the ongoing recovery.
 

Plai

Paul Lai
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About June this year, the local gym reopened; although my employer's gym and it's programs are still closed.
Been trying to get back into strength training on top of all the tennis I play. I found myself hurting myself by just lifting 40% of the weights from a year and a half ago. What I've lost in the year without!

Anyways, after a few false starts with strength training and injuries, looks like I've finally found my balance point of amount of weight, types of exercises, and duration. Can now start "gaining" again.

Maybe my legs and core will be strong enough for (better?) skiing this winter.

Fingers crossed.
 

Rod9301

Making fresh tracks
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Maybe I'm fooling myself, but I did think about tail pushing and try to focus on pressure with the balls of my feet. I also use the Precor and another elliptical that hybridizes that motion with a stair climber motion; basically if you don't engage your arms to make it work elliptically it resorts to a stair climber. THAT is really hard to do right in the anti-bicycling action, at least for me, but I keep trying...
I hope that you're not serious when you say pressure the ball of the foot. Eth skiing, the pressure should be under the tibia, approximately under the arch.
 

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