Squats, Bench, Deadlift: This is your fitness thread

I'm about to go back to exercise, stopped 3 months ago because you know acid reflux nausea kinda kills your desire to do anything but attempting not to throw up. Also always listen to the guys with awesome mullets:

 
One of the worst things about going to the gym is hearing guy making noises when they are lifting weights. Some of them sound like they are having sex or something. The best thing is the hot chicks there.
 
Mise said:
I just do 3x8 curls and 3x8 bench press.
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This is a bit idiotic as it will cause unbalanced development and mess you up, at least add some rows of some kind to balance out the benching. Also, to quote Mark Rippetoe, strong people are harder to kill and more useful in general. And you're not strong unless your legs and butt are strong, let me tell you. Attracting girls is one type of motivation (appropriate enough for people who are not old and not married, I guess); being able to usefully move heavy crap around without injuring yourself is another. (Or, in my case, just living day to day without semi-crippling back pain.)

Me, I'm actually training to compete in powerlifting now, planning for my first meet in a few weeks' time (and then maybe two or three more meets later this year). Squat, bench, deadlift, in that order. Started out lifting by myself a couple of years ago as a way to keep my body in decent working order, got kind of hooked and just recently joined the local club. Most of this time I've been doing powerlifting-ish programs. Started with Rippetoe's Starting Strength plan, then did some classic Bill Starr 5x5, experimented a little with some powerbuilding stuff, spent four months on Eric Cressey's "Maximum Strength" deal, then Wendler's 5/3/1. Currently trying out a powerlifting peaking cycle designed by the coach for the Norwegian national team. I suppose I'll mostly be doing 5/3/1 in the future as it's so damn flexible (which makes it especially brilliant for a busy adult with a job and a family), with occasional breaks to try out more specialized things for fun and variety.

My ambitions are fairly modest, maybe I can be a contender for regional titles etc. some years down the road when I can compete in the older age classes where there aren't so many active lifters (although there are some scary strong geezers -- my long-term ambition is to be one of them). I guess I count as an intermediate lifter now -- have already squatted four plates and am within shouting distance of benching three or deadlifting five plates; am likely to manage those some time this year (that's a 180 kg squat, 140 kg bench and 220 kg deadlift respectively -- 396 lbs/308 lbs/485 lbs for the metric-challenged). Intend to compete raw, in the sub-120 kg class.

For cardio I hate most of the traditional methods -- I used to run a little along side roads etc. but the only running I'll do on pavement anymore is when I have to catch the bus. Have a 5 km forest trail near my house which I kind of enjoy running in the summer (very uneven ground, full of glorious mud and rocks and tree roots -- you have to remain alert in order not to fall and break something, which makes it much less boring than running on roads). I use kettlebells a little, as well as bodyweight conditioning stuff (have recently rediscovered the good old burpee, an exercise we used to know and hate back in the day as "The Nazi" (as in "drop and give me twenty Nazis!", an appropriate name) -- anything I can do indoors without too much fuss is good, as I have a young kid and a wife who often works evenings/nights (making me housebound at those times). Also I get to do quite a bit of interval toddler chasing, toddler clean and jerk, toddler snatch, uphill toddler sled pulling, etc. -- those activities can raise a nice sweat.
 
classical_hero said:
One of the worst things about going to the gym is hearing guy making noises when they are lifting weights. Some of them sound like they are having sex or something. The best thing is the hot chicks there.
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I mean this in the friendliest way but that reads like one of the most closet-gay things I have laid eyes on in a long long time.
 
Disgustipated said:
I use machines mostly to try to avoid injury.
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NO! Machines cause injury by reducing range of motion, causing unnatural movements, and isolating particular muscles. Also, machines decrease the effectiveness of exercise by preventing you from working multiple muscle groups simultaneously. The reason squats are so awesome is that they work so many different muscle groups at the same time.

Although my left elbow is hurting right now from the bicep curl machine, so I guess it hasn't helped. I used to have problems with my right shoulder, and that has been good thankfully. I have more problems when I use free weights, or do pushups as I find it harder to keep proper form. So I stick to the machines. I just wish my left elbow would heal.
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Yeah, the point it that it's harder to keep proper form, so you have to work harder and build stabilization muscles!
 
Hygro said:
I mean this in the friendliest way but that reads like one of the most closet-gay things I have laid eyes on in a long long time.
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Even my personal trainer thought it was weird to be doing that. She did say it was funny.
 
Gogf said:
NO! Machines cause injury by reducing range of motion, causing unnatural movements, and isolating particular muscles. Also, machines decrease the effectiveness of exercise by preventing you from working multiple muscle groups simultaneously. The reason squats are so awesome is that they work so many different muscle groups at the same time.



Yeah, the point it that it's harder to keep proper form, so you have to work harder and build stabilization muscles!
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The word we're looking for is stabilization muscles. This is why I'm trying to do more free weights but its pretty daunting just starting out.

And like I said, Squats get a bad rap despite being one of the best, if not THE best compound exercises out there.
 
So what are you guys eating for your goals?

Since my goal is to lose weight and build muscle I've gone a more protein/veggie/nuts diet and am drinking 3 complete protein shakes a day (Whey before workouts, Casein at night before bed). I'm trying to cut down the amount of calories I'm eating but when you exercise you need energy so it's kinda hard to do.

I'm not really hungry throughout the day cause I always have nut snacks like almonds and drink all those shakes but I certainly am starting to miss some staples like pasta and baguettes (or at least eating them like i used to.).
 
Hygro said:
Go ahead and dig a little deeper, eh?
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The funny thing is, I workout at a gym that's about 66% gay men (Gold's on Capitol Hill) and there isn't a whole lotta grunting going on. Or sqauts for that matter.
 
how do you know they are 66% gay men? Unless you slept with them of course.
 
I don't work out very much in winter because I don't live near a gym and you really can't go outside for very long, so lately I've just been doing situps when I wake up. I also have to walk to and from school, but that's only 40 minutes a day so I don't know if that counts.

I'm not doing gym this quarter, which is good because gym is nicer in summer when you can actually go outside. I was going to take weight training at school, but I see some ripped-out dudes in the weight-training room with monster biceps lifting a ton and then some, and I don't want to lift my pansy weights 'cause I'd look like a fool.

I actually don't care about muscles, I just don't want to be a fatty when I grow up.
 
Mango Elephant said:
I was going to take weight training at school, but I see some ripped-out dudes in the weight-training room with monster biceps lifting a ton and then some, and I don't want to lift my pansy weights 'cause I'd look like a fool.
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I can't speak for high school (I think I remember you saying you were in high school somewhere...), but I know that at my university gym no one cares if small or out-of-shape guys are working out in there. I bet you'd be the only person in there thinking you look like a fool.
 
I was going to take weight training at school, but I see some ripped-out dudes in the weight-training room with monster biceps lifting a ton and then some, and I don't want to lift my pansy weights 'cause I'd look like a fool.
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Just go with a friend. I can barely bench 100 lbs but it isn't that bad if you have a friend doing to spotting.
 
mrt144 said:
I live in a gay neighborhood. Most the hetero guys are skinny hipsters that are anorexic.
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why you gotta call me out like that :(


aaand speaking of skinny guys, I find I can do minimal effort and get a huuuge gain.Especially the misleading muscles-are-swollen-after-a-workout bit, which always makes me look buff. But even afterward, the gains I get from 3 workouts visibly last me for months.
 
Eat_Up_Martha said:
I can't speak for high school (I think I remember you saying you were in high school somewhere...), but I know that at my university gym no one cares if small or out-of-shape guys are working out in there. I bet you'd be the only person in there thinking you look like a fool.
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Only idiots look down on other people based on how much they are lifting in the gym. Of course, there are no guarantees that you won't run into idiots, but the good thing about idiots is that you don't have to care about their opinion.
 
My experience is that the bigger dudes appreciate the little guys trying. Most of the cuttest, rippedess, buffest guys I know started really weak and unmuscled.
 
My experience with powerlifters, at least, is that they tend to be friendly and helpful and go out of their way to be nice to anyone they see trying to squat etc. properly.
 
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