Weightlifting coaching

[bbell]

Hey guys,

Figured I would throw out some encouragement to those hitting the weights. I have lifted off and on through out my life and recently have been wanting to progress heavier in the weight I can lift. I tweaked my back when I reached about 190lbs on my squat. Totally due to form.

Last week I spent about $50 and got some coaching for my squats and deadlift. An eye opening experience! Within 10mins he hit the big things and I felt a lot stronger in my lifts. Spent an hour working on squats, deadlift, and bent over row. Basically I was way to loose while doing my sets. He showed me how to correctly engage my core and set a good base for lifting. Walked out doing sets of 5 at 180lbs and deadlift at 220lbs.

Really feel that now I know what it should feel like and have a lot more confidence to keep increasing the weight.

If you haven’t had someone look at your form I would highly recommend it. I wasn’t off a lot but enough that it totally was inhabiting lifting past my body weight.

Thanks for listening. Hope it can help someone.

 

[Eldoradotim]

Same here, although still doing the coaching, online based. And same with always lifting on and off. Finally got with the program. Felt I was approaching limits of the progress, got the coaching and immediately fixed a wonky squat. Went from feeling like approaching 300 was going to flatten me, to fixed form and now at 350. Deadlift going smoothly and about to top 400.

Assuming you're not much older....you have a lot left to go! And you can do it, 5 lbs at a time! If you haven't already OP, look up Starting Strength.

Hiking with weight is easy when you're stronger, guys focus way too much on cardio. And a base of cardio is quick to train and can be built in a month or 6 weeks before the hunt. Strength takes time.

Keep it up and that body weight squat will be just a warmup weight before long!

 

[insanelupus]

Most endeavors can be improved by a knowledgeable coach!

 

[Eleven]

Starting Strength for the win. Ripptoe goes through proper form and what to look for. Follow his linear progression before doing anything and you will be strong! It’s boring but it works.

 

[*zap*]

Strength is good and takes time to gain, aerobic capacity is also good and may take longer than strength to gain to a high level.

 

[Eleven]

Sorry, my response wasn’t exactly helpful. It came out different in my head…. Original post was on getting a from coach; Mark Rippetoe wrote a book titled ‘Starting Strength’ and in it he goes over the proper form on the low bar back squat, deadlift, bench, standing press, power clean and a few others. He shows the physics in depth and makes the case for becoming strong. He goes over a basic program and makes the case for using it before working on anything else (hench the title starting strength). So, if you can’t find a form coach, and even if you can, reading through his material is very beneficial. Proper form is everything in lifting, if its not there you’re not going to train the muscle groups correctly and injury is a very likely eventual outcome.

 

[bbell]

I agree with you all. I’m doing starting strength for my weight program. Really like the simplicity. I’m newer to it so just got over 100kg deadlift. But with the coaching it immediately felt lighter and looking forward to going much further in my strength.

From the reading I’ve done I think a proper base for aerobic (like described in uphill athlete work) and strength takes quite awhile. I’m only 37 but want to get ahead of the curve when it comes to building strength. Need to make more time for aerobic base though. I walk and bike a lot but not for extended time. Always something to improve on.

 

[LostArra]

Sometimes just taking a video of yourself during a set and watching it can be very helpful.
What you think or feel you are doing may not be what you are actually doing.

 

[Eldoradotim]

bbell - Since your doing Starting Strength, look up Rippetoe and conditioning (cardio). He's got some good articles on the subject and you'll learn the importance of following the program while doing your linear progression (i.e. not messing it up by trying to add a bunch of conditioning work) and then after you've exhausted your linear progression, you can add in conditioning work to build a decent cardio base for hunting. Which you can do relatively quickly compared to months/years to get strong.

p.s. IF you follow the program, and rest & eat, you have a good ways to go yet on the LP. Take if from me who's now 42, who screwed around and did not do the above multiple times and never truly got the most out of it.

 

[mtwarden]

I think getting a coach (or at minimum reading/watching videos) for proper form is solid advice. Get the form down pat first and the weight will come.

I will disagree on a how long (or short) it takes to build a solid aerobic base for endurance endeavors (think moving through the mountains for hours and hours, day after day)- not weeks, not months- think longer

 

[lamarclark09]

We don’t realize that we need coaching from some knowledgeable coach until we actually do. I’m glad you had that eye-opening experience. Such things always bring some really great insight and uniqueness.

 

[BT_707]

Check out Dr. Andy Galpin on YouTube. He puts out some really good content on lifting and protocols.

 

[jimh406]

Although some people at gyms are knowledgeable, a lot of people who work at gyms don't know much. I know people including myself who were coached into injury by gym staff. Ease into their coaching.

 

[Poser]

I’ve been using the Starting strength methodology for 10+ years. Made a few converts along the way. If you follow SS, you’ll get strong. Period. Almost everyone who has done the program as prescribed will tell you that even if that hate the SD brand. There are other methods for strength, but few if any have a comprehensive methodology and a infinite amount of free information and resources. sS online coaching includes uploading videos of all of your worksets for a full analysis, but there are SS gyms popping up left and right now and coaches all over the US.

For the novice lifter, NLP is the best and most proven strength program out there. Even for a person who has been lifting for years, if you’ve never run a cycle of Linear Progression, you probably haven’t realized your potential.

One thing you’ll notice after spending time using SS NLP and intermediate programming is that many programs have too much junk volume and that is to their detriment. Especially with the hunting specific programs, there is this idea that excessive volume will make you tough. You don’t need more volume than you need to stimulate the stress recovery adaptation cycle. Excessive volume just makes you tired, limits your potential and, especially once you start throwing in conditioning with your strength training, you need maximum recovery.

My gf, a former D1 athlete with a CrossFit certification and has formally competed in weightlifting, had never done a basic strength liner progression in favor of always doing super complicated training/works outs. She ran NLP for a mere 6 weeks and blew her previous strength PRs out of the water. Then picked up a Barbell and hit snatch and C and j PRs despite not having down either lift for over a year. Even Beat her previous competition PRs.

That’s an extreme example, but goes to show how much strength is left on the table. Variety and excessive volume are seductive, but that doesn’t mean they are productive.

 

[bbell]

Yeah I love the simplicity. Looking forward to progressing through it.

@jimh406 i totally agree. Went and got coaching outside of my actually gym. Went to a Olympic weightlifting club instead.

 

[mtwarden]

Even for a person who has been lifting for years, if you’ve never run a cycle of Linear Progression, you probably haven’t realized your potential.

Variety and excessive volume are seductive, but that doesn’t mean they are productive.

agreed

I think a lot of folks buy into the get fit in (fill in the blank) weeks. Many programs run you into the ground right of the gate-" it has to be working because it's kicking my a$$ right?" No, actually it isn't.

 

[JStol5]

Just ordered starting strength, excited to give it a try. My workouts are sort of all over the place and very inconsistent, want to join a gym and get my sh!t together a bit more. Shooting for 3 days/week of strength training, 2 days of running/rucking, and 2 days of dedicated yoga/mobility training.

 

[*zap*]

It depends what your goals are. Is strength a 1rm squat or a long heavy farmer carry? Is endurance more important than your 1rm? Where do you want your body fat %? Is rippatone himself a result of what he preaches? I never seen him do much but he don't look fit/athletic too me. Maybe he is though. How would he do in a yoga class? I think there is lots more involved in being fit than a couple of compound exercise 1rm's especially as you age.. I think if your whole program of lifting is geared to max 1rm's for a few movements your missing out on alot. But I am no expert.

 

[Eleven]

Yah, *zap* this is a great point that is often missed. You need to define “fitness” for yourself. Rippetoe makes an argument for strength being the end-all-be-all. He’s getting up there in age (maybe 60??) and can still deadlift 600, and regularly squats 500. He is self admittedly fluffy but he also argues that having some excess BF% is not a bad thing.

Me personally, I take what anyone says with a grain of salt and run it through my own judgement and set of goals. Strength is not the only goal I have, and I suspect all others on RK would agree that climbing the mountain for days on end is just as important. But I also can’t argue that being strong makes one better in all areas. I recommend starting with getting measurably stronger and then adding in the conditioning and other things to meet your own goals.

JStol5, glad you got the book. Read it. Pay attention to the definition of a novice and the linear progression that is laid out. I did a NLP in my mid 40s and got to be the strongest I’ve even been, and I was a collegiate athlete. I stopped doing any formal training a few years after that because of a divorce and then covid. At the beginning of this year I’ve started a NLP progression again, I’m 52 and I’m progressing on the program exactly as written and the results are exactly as predicted. The program works and is THE best way to put on measurable strength in a relatively short time.

 

[bbell]

Defining your goals is definitely important. Honestly not sure how far I want to go. I would like to get to 1.5x body weight squat. Beyond that not sure how far to take the program. We’ll see how it goes and just enjoy being stronger than I was the week prior