EZ fix when you don't have access to heavier DBs.

[TT Eric]

I thought I would share this since it's an easy solution!

The gym I goes only have DBs up to 120lbs, so when I need more weight then that I just bring a roll of duct tape and voilà:

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y275/Eric21/Maison/DSCF3198_zpsec16927b.jpg (http://s7.photobucket.com/user/Eric21/media/Maison/DSCF3198_zpsec16927b.jpg.html)

The 5lbs fit perfectly to the DB's end, if I need more weight then I add another plate with another strip (across) of duct tape over the previous one, it make a + with the tape and so on.

Obviously it might not be doable to do 150lbs DBs out of 50lbs DBs in an hotel... but it can help.

Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do to make it work.

Eric

[Hosehead]

I do it at home. My 120's can be 140's or 160's for one arm rows.

[Delt King]

I used to own a gym and would not want duct tape residue all over my dumbells nor the insurance risk of a plate falling off smashing you in the face in the middle of a set. At home is a different story altogether.

[TT Eric]

Never left any residue on those DBs, ever! Most gym have rubber DBs and it's perfect for this.

If needed you can strip another line of tape across to be on the safe side, in case you think it would fall.

I use to have huge rubber elastics, it work well also with that.

Eric

[TT Eric]

And beside that, I'm pretty sure if you had a gym, you'd have DBs over 120lbs! :)

Eric

[Delt King]

And beside that, I'm pretty sure if you had a gym, you'd have DBs over 120lbs! :)

Eric

You got that right.... 150's

[kindofabigdeal8]

ohhh Eric, I can only guess how happy the queen st staff will be when they see me stick 6 plates to the end of those stupid 120's.. god sake, why cant they just have real weights...

[steve_d]

I must be really weak compared to all you guys. Never had a problem using <100 pound dumbells for anything.

[TT Eric]

ohhh Eric, I can only guess how happy the queen st staff will be when they see me stick 6 plates to the end of those stupid 120's.. god sake, why cant they just have real weights...

For rowing DB, no problem so far, but like DK said, not sure they would like to see someone benching that over his face.

And yeah, I can't believe they just renovated everything and increased our floor space by 50%, but managed to reduce the space for free weight!

Before renovation we had over 2000 people checking-in per day, now since it's all new, we have more people then before, but less machine, less floor place for free weight... for a crowded place we only have 2 bench press, 3 cages, we have basically only one of the other machine (1 incline, 1 smith, 1 seated bench, etc...), DB stop at 120s, we have like 6 individual bench always taken... plus many good stuff are missing, like no T-bar, no hyper-extension...

I think they can do whatever they want cause they have no competitors, the 2 GL are the only place around.

Eric

[kindofabigdeal8]

Agreed, and it’s not the fault of Jeff the GM or Ian the head trainer. As far as i understand it is a good life corporate decision, i remember Anthony or Ian telling me they would have to hide the 120's so that cooperate would not remove them. Honestly, I renewed my membership because the staff is great, the facilities are everywhere i turn, every city i go and I think good life thrives on that. My one complaint about good life is that it is a fitness club and not a power lifting, strongman, cross fit, bodybuilding gym.
This is not Good life’s problem; these groups are niche groups and have gyms that cater to them. This is why I go to good life not to mention corporate deal gives me a steal of a rate. When i have time i pay the walk in fee to mom and pop gyms like New Body Dimensions, phase1 in Pembroke, YMCA in Kingston… Iron gyms are the best but they are usually few and far in-between. Best believe they have 160lb DB..
Steve, unfortunately I have an overdeveloped chest and 150lb db when I am at full strength still feel like nothin but a peanut.

[TT Eric]

Yeah I hear you, I'm at GL for the same reason pretty much : I can walk there from home and I travel often so I can train in almost every city I go.

Steve you should try Ted's method, it helped me make good strength gain, I've done his method for a little more then a year and I can say many methods are good, but this one is the best long term method I have ever tried.

[steve_d]

I always considered myself relatively strong for my size. Although I only gauge this based on deadlifts, bench and squats. Some of the other exercises I think I am relatively weak in, although for the most part I am not doing them fresh. For example, at a bodyweight of 165 I was deadlifting 560. When I hit 180 I was deadlifting 610 (1 rep maxes). But at that time, I wouldn't need more than 80-90 pound dumbells for rows. Which is funny because some guys/girls can handle that weight who can barely deadlift their own bodyweight! Funny though, I find I am REALLY weak on T-bar rows to, as well as bent over single bar rows. So perhaps some sort of muscle imbalance. Back + Biceps being my strengths you would think it would translate on rows!

For raw squats below parallel, I was at approx 450-475, yet leg extensions I could do nothing. No matter who was using them prior to me, I would always drop the weight. But again, I'll do these after a destruction set of squats. For chest, well, either doing flat bench or dumbells I am pretty strong. Double body weight pause shirtless bench. I suppose I'd need >100 pound dumbells to get a good set in. Although again, I tend to do all my flat bench / incline/decline bench before going to dumbells, so by then usually 100 pound dumbells are plenty for a quick set of strict reps.

Nowadays I focus less on strength and more on form. I get injured way too quickly with heavier weights. What's the method? Perhaps a link to thread?

[scottlove]

I always considered myself relatively strong for my size. Although I only gauge this based on deadlifts, bench and squats. Some of the other exercises I think I am relatively weak in, although for the most part I am not doing them fresh. For example, at a bodyweight of 165 I was deadlifting 560. When I hit 180 I was deadlifting 610 (1 rep maxes). But at that time, I wouldn't need more than 80-90 pound dumbells for rows. Which is funny because some guys/girls can handle that weight who can barely deadlift their own bodyweight! Funny though, I find I am REALLY weak on T-bar rows to, as well as bent over single bar rows. So perhaps some sort of muscle imbalance. Back + Biceps being my strengths you would think it would translate on rows!

For raw squats below parallel, I was at approx 450-475, yet leg extensions I could do nothing. No matter who was using them prior to me, I would always drop the weight. But again, I'll do these after a destruction set of squats. For chest, well, either doing flat bench or dumbells I am pretty strong. Double body weight pause shirtless bench. I suppose I'd need >100 pound dumbells to get a good set in. Although again, I tend to do all my flat bench / incline/decline bench before going to dumbells, so by then usually 100 pound dumbells are plenty for a quick set of strict reps.

Nowadays I focus less on strength and more on form. I get injured way too quickly with heavier weights. What's the method? Perhaps a link to thread?
I think you hit it right when you mentioned form. Most people that you see hoisting the heavy weights have no idea where they should be feeling that particular exercise. I've been watching some Dennis Wolf training videos and he almost always uses a lot less weight than he looks like he should be using but he says he's going for the proper feel. My current partner likes to pile the weight on when we're working back but he uses all arms and delts and almost lies on the floor when we're doing pulldowns. I haven't seen any growth in his back in over a year. I, personally, keep my reps in the 8-10 range and really go for the squeeze and don't care about putting on a show for anyone.

[steve_d]

I think you hit it right when you mentioned form. Most people that you see hoisting the heavy weights have no idea where they should be feeling that particular exercise. I've been watching some Dennis Wolf training videos and he almost always uses a lot less weight than he looks like he should be using but he says he's going for the proper feel. My current partner likes to pile the weight on when we're working back but he uses all arms and delts and almost lies on the floor when we're doing pulldowns. I haven't seen any growth in his back in over a year. I, personally, keep my reps in the 8-10 range and really go for the squeeze and don't care about putting on a show for anyone.

You're probably right. Not saying you guys are all lifting with ego - but I know a lot of people do. It's a common complaint I hear (need heavier dumbbells). And usually I hear it from guys who might weigh 150 tops. I always think to myself that unless you're over 225 of solid muscle, you probably can easily get the proper results from a 100 pound dumbbell - unless of course you're deadlifting it, lol... I've been to gyms with big weights, and for the fun of it, I can use them for a set of 8-12 - although I wouldn't want to video tape it! Same idea with a lat pulldown, or seated row - I can load the machine, and do some good reps, and I could probably fool the average person watching me that I have 'good' form... But I can't fool myself. Nothing against cheated reps, I do them all the time depending on my mood. Ex, I can get just as good a bicep workout with 40 pound dumbells as 70.

[TT Eric]

Steve, Ted talked a few time about his method on here. In short, after warming-up, your 1st working set is your heaviest set, usually in the 3-4 rep area, then you remove 10% of the weight, you go for 5-6 reps, -10%, 7-8 reps, -10% 9-10 reps... that way your a wide range of muscle fibers. You do one hard week, one moderate week, where you still train but lighter, mostly to give a break to your CNS.

Scott, keeping good form is a priority, I also like full ROM (when there is no physical restrictions), I'm pretty fuzzy on that. Sure there is clowns in every gym that use heavy weights and do stupid, but when you do use good form you progress faster in your strength goal, if strength is a goal of course. Yes there is some Dennis Wolf, but there is also some Ronnie Coleman who train heavy with good form. Using heavy is not necessarily link to bad form.

Personally I treat every hard week almost like a competition, I use a lot of mental preparation, always strive to progress, either increase the weight or reps #.

Only exercise I use a bit of cheat is curl on the 1-2 last reps, more like forcing reps, but do slow negative (Arnold also believed in cheated curls). And I have to admit I've tried a little swing for the 1st time on pulldowns 2 weeks ago, I've been stuck with the same weight for the last 6 months, so I'm trying to increase the weight a little and try to come back to no swing with that same weight, I also go for slow negative. I intend to try this for 2-4 trainings to see how it goes.

Eric

[TT Eric]

Oh and by no means I wanna claim that I'm strong, I've strive for it, but still have a long road ahead. Like everyone I have stronger parts and weaker parts. My weakest strength link is the flat Bench press, I'm very ashamed, but will unleash it anyway, the most I have bench is only 295lbs, I tried 315lbs and failed, needed help from a spot. For some reason I was able to bench 225lbs on incline bench way before I was able on the flat. My back is a stronger part for me, was able to use 225lbs x10 on rowing barbell, full ROM 4 sec negative, can't do it anymore, even with 95lbs my lower back isn't able to take it. I can use 140lbs+ full ROM in rowing DB though.

I have some weird experience with muscle memory I wanna talk, but later, I have to go to the gym now! :)

Eric

[steve_d]

Steve, Ted talked a few time about his method on here. In short, after warming-up, your 1st working set is your heaviest set, usually in the 3-4 rep area, then you remove 10% of the weight, you go for 5-6 reps, -10%, 7-8 reps, -10% 9-10 reps... that way your a wide range of muscle fibers. You do one hard week, one moderate week, where you still train but lighter, mostly to give a break to your CNS.



I sort of do this, but with a slightly different structure. Basically I have 3 main workouts. bench, squat, deads. I warm up 3-4 sets until I get to my main working set in which I go to failure. I strip about 10% and see if I can get similar reps. If I were to fail at 6 reps though, -10% it would be hard to get 8 reps. well, maybe, depends on the exercise. The hard vs. moderate week I do as needed. Typically if I need the break my body lets me know! At the same time I keep things pretty dynamic... where one week I might be doing a hard set in the 6 rep range, whereas the next week it is 8 reps, and so on. Essentially no two workouts use the same weight, and buy the time I rotate back into the same weight, I hope to be stronger and completing more reps than previous. It's how I've been training my whole life essentially. Not only in weightlifting, but in anything I did. Ex. cycling I might have had 5-6 different routes, I would complete in my fastest time, and rotate back, hoping to break my personal record. If I can set a record with each workout, it means I am constantly improving. If I did the same weight each workout, it wouldn't make sense. Each workout i might be improving, but impossible to gauge. ex. bench 8 reps, than 8.2 reps, than 8.5 reps, etc.

One thing for sure though is that I find after doing that 'main' set, I am exhausted. and after 3 all out sets of deads or squats, basically it doesn't even matter what I do next. Lately I've been splitting my workouts a little more and focusing on weak body parts so they are 'fresh', and I've noticed some success.

[TT Eric]

I hear you on improving, I do feel the same, the last rep previously hard become easier and easier from week to week until you can push one more then the cycle start over.

It's a bit off topic, but the thing I wanted to say about muscle memory is you all know/experienced that if we stop training for a while, even if we lost a lot of mass/bodyweight, when we start back training it does come back pretty fast. For example I have been sick a few time pretty hard and lost 25-30lbs pretty fast, but when I went back to train, muscle memory just kicked-in and those pounds came back in no time, but the longer you wait to get back in the gym the longer it take to re-gain what you've lost.

Now as I often said, I began to train in 83 until 91 then I stopped for almost 20 years, I do have train maybe the equivalent of 3 years during this time in the first decade, 6 months here, 1 year there, etc.. but never long enough to came back where I was in 91. Now I have started back training slowly in 2010 at home and seriously in early 2011 in gyms. I knew that with a 20 years break, muscle memory was far away and it would take a while to get back where I was, I figured (hoped) it would take a solid 2 years to be back (granted I have not the same age and hormone profile I had at 20y/o). But since now I'm at 2.5 years+ since I started back seriously and here is what I experienced so far:

-It seems there is no more (or barely) muscle memory after 20 year, I had to make my way up slowly like a newbie, strength and mass.
-But as far as the technique/form, it was like I never stopped, was very comfortable with everything.
-Where is become weird, is it's like I'm another guy, I mean for example my legs used to grow extremely fast compared to the upper body, even when I was doing only leg extension for a whole year, they would still grow faster then the rest of the upper body. Now, they grow pretty slow compared the upper body, whatever I do. Some muscle that were stronger then others are the other way around now, for example I was pretty weak on leg curls, was barely able to use half of the stack, but strong on the leg extension, I could use easily the whole stack, now it's the absolute contrary, I'm one plate short of the whole stack on leg curls, but use about half the stack on leg extension. Some exercises (very few) I'm already stronger then what I was 20 years back, some others I'm a lot more weaker and I have put a lot effort to get back at it, for example, BB curl I used to do 175lbs x6 (2 last with a bit of swing or 155lbs x6 no swing), now despite all my efforts I'm only at 115lbs for the same thing.
-My arms despite being weaker then before seems to grow faster then before.
-Some muscles seems to develop differently, like the shoulders, but granted I do only side raises now, not pressing much now, beside chest work. Or traps, I had not much upper traps before and now they seems to be showing up slowly.
-I eat about half of what I ate back then and I'm gaining weight much faster, but this would be more related to age.

Eric

[steve_d]

-My arms despite being weaker then before seems to grow faster then before.

Eric

Goes to show the body is a complicated thing... I quoted the above because I find I can relate to this on a whole bunch of exercises. If you put a side by side of me at 33 and me at 23, you would never expect the 23 year old version of me could out deadlift, squat, and bench the 33 year old me. But for some reason, with about 20 pounds less muscle I could do quite a bit more. Now though, I am stronger in every other exercise (ex, dumbbell curls, shoulder press, laterals, etc). Strength and size do have quite a correlation, but there is a whole lot more to the body then just the amount of muscle.

You would think though, that since I am still me, that I could eventually train myself to out lift my personal bests in the big 3. I guess training 'smarter' doesn't necessarily mean getting stronger. Seems you have to push your body past certain limits to get large strength gains. when I was younger, I wouldn't get injured too often so I could train that way - now I guess not so much. Boggles my mind how some 40, 50, and 60+ guys can still train 1 rep maxes and train like a weightlifter / powerlifter without too much injury.

[steve_d]

It's a bit off topic, but the thing I wanted to say about muscle memory is you all know/experienced that if we stop training for a while, even if we lost a lot of mass/bodyweight, when we start back training it does come back pretty fast.
Eric


you got that right. After I had my first, I stopped going to the gym for a few months before my wife gave birth, and another 2-3 months after. To add insult to injury, I started biking quite a bit, and ate more like a competitive cyclist than a bodybuilder. Lost about 20 pounds, muscle and fat, and my bench went down a good 100 pounds, and I don't think I could have even dared squat or deadlift more than 3 plates. Within 2 months back at the gym, in my basement, I was back to passed my maxes in all exercises. Joined a real gym again, and continued from there.

[TT Eric]

I think I already told this story here, but one other weird experience with muscle memory is when I wanted to compete in a competition held the April 28th, 1990, my goal was start dieting right after the holidays, I would have a good 15 weeks to be ready, I was 195lbs fairly lean, I was hoping to be 176lbs on stage, since heavy was 176+, but what I didn't know is that a the Christmas party one child had the chicken pox and guess who got it ? I almost died the week after, it was so intense that the doctor who saw me said he could take my picture and put it in encyclopedia to show what is the extreme of this sickness and he told because I was in great shape it helped made it, but I lost 30lbs, so I was at 165lbs in mid January, 14 weeks out, I called quit but my training partner encouraged me to do the diet and go anyway so I could have a 'practice' (it was my 1st comp), so I began dieting at 165lbs, it was a static low fat diet that I held for the 14 weeks (didn't knew better at that time). And the weird part is that in a calorie deficit diet I gained back 8 lbs, up to 173lbs!!! So technically I leaned and gained at the same time, but granted it was special circumstance, I ended up back at 165lbs a few day before the comp.

Eric

[kindofabigdeal8]

I actually remember a story Rich Gaspary told to a similar effect, he got pneumonia 3 weeks pre-show and it actually was beneficial in the end. These old school guys always claimed to go up in weight 2 weeks before show anyhow i guess. Sorry, i know that just compleated deviated off topic.

As for strenth, form and ROM.. I agree, however after your body is conditioned and used to performing a lift after years and years your ROM should be full with heavy weight. I know myself, my chest ROM with 120 is down to chest, pause but not rest and up. I can do this up to 20 reps. I dont claim to be strong either I have a terrible max dead lift of 435, max squat of 315 but when it comes to my upper back, chest and delts i think i have some insane strength. In hopes that i will be able to get my squat and deadlift this way by next year so i can start going deep at a moderate heavy range to build core strength and lower mass for provincials.


I think I already told this story here, but one other weird experience with muscle memory is when I wanted to compete in a competition held the April 28th, 1990, my goal was start dieting right after the holidays, I would have a good 15 weeks to be ready, I was 195lbs fairly lean, I was hoping to be 176lbs on stage, since heavy was 176+, but what I didn't know is that a the Christmas party one child had the chicken pox and guess who got it ? I almost died the week after, it was so intense that the doctor who saw me said he could take my picture and put it in encyclopedia to show what is the extreme of this sickness and he told because I was in great shape it helped made it, but I lost 30lbs, so I was at 165lbs in mid January, 14 weeks out, I called quit but my training partner encouraged me to do the diet and go anyway so I could have a 'practice' (it was my 1st comp), so I began dieting at 165lbs, it was a static low fat diet that I held for the 14 weeks (didn't knew better at that time). And the weird part is that in a calorie deficit diet I gained back 8 lbs, up to 173lbs!!! So technically I leaned and gained at the same time, but granted it was special circumstance, I ended up back at 165lbs a few day before the comp.

Eric

[Hosehead]

Pushing the 120's for 20 reps is extremely strong IMO, at least where I'm concerned. I might push those for 15 on a good day and I am a fat 250. You have done well to build your legs up based on what you lift. Not that weight is the be all and end all. It's bodybuilding , not powerlifting. The goal being making your muscles look like they can push or pull a lot of weight. Whatever it takes to get that effect. Having said that , if you increase your lifts you can not do anything but improve those body parts, as you've stated. Yes, 435 deadlift and 315 squat are not good at all. I squatted 315 for 15 tonight with a torn MCL , not having trained legs in a month and I'm older than dirt. 315 for 30 is my best. I was benching 315 and squatted 185x3 when I decided legs were a bodypart lol. I probably deadlifted the same. So you are way ahead of me in both areas, plus you have genetics on your side. I bet your legs are not gentically inferior to your upper body. They just need to be your number one priority. Mine were superior to my upper body but I trained them like a pussy. One day I was going about my normal 275 x8 squat routine and a monster at my old gym asked if i had ever even tried to train above 275. I said no, I couldn't. So he slapped 315 on the bar and then slapped my upper back so hard it left a welt. I did 315 x4 past parallel. Within six months 405 x8. My legs went from whatever they were (shit) to 27.5 inches. No gear whatsoever. I bet you can exceed that. Start a journal here solely based on your squats and other leg lifts. Measure them at the start and in three months intervals. I bet you add 3-4 inches in a year.

[TT Eric]

^^Agreed!

Eric

[kindofabigdeal8]

Thanks Guys, I appreciate the vote of confidence.. I will start a log, never had a log but i guess it will make for a good off season project. You train in Kingston Hosehead?

[Hosehead]

Thanks Guys, I appreciate the vote of confidence.. I will start a log, never had a log but i guess it will make for a good off season project. You train in Kingston Hosehead?

Yup. Goodlife and at home. Nice to have an option other than Goodlife lol. I've never tried using a log either. Maybe once my knee heals up I'll start one too. I think next year at this time your legs will look radically diffferent. Try a bit of everything but keep using the big compound lifts as a benchmark for your progress. I like the rep scheme Prae suggested that Eric refers to. Once you warm up and get acclimated to progressively heavier weight you make that first working set 5-6 reps, drop the weight by 10% for the next set and so on. I tried it today for bench press and loved it. Gonna give it a go for leg press and squats eventually.
Be sure not to make the mistake I made which was to train quads much harder than my hams. It became addictive watching the progress in the mirror but half assing what I couldn't see.The imbalance has led to several hamstring tears and I think my meniscus tears and this MCL tear are also partly due to my hammies lagging behind. At 44 time is running out but I could still rectify the situation with smarter training. You have all the time in the world to bring up the lower body and back. You should kill it right away though. Good luck.

[TT Eric]

Me too I used to be all quads, but not anymore, what I do now is I train the legs twice a week, one day more oriented toward hamstrings and one on quads, so far it work better then just one time a week with everything mixed up in a huge workout.

Eric

[Hosehead]

Me too I used to be all quads, but not anymore, what I do now is I train the legs twice a week, one day more oriented toward hamstrings and one on quads, so far it work better then just one time a week with everything mixed up in a huge workout.

Eric

If I had the time I'd probably do it that way too. What I might start trying is finishing my back session with straight leg dead lifts folowed by high rep leg curls and on my regular leg day just do quads and heavy leg curls.