rmifaabsbb

elong at the gym, compared to past <1 month attempts when I hated going each single time. I don't want to get overconfident though so I want to kind of present what I've learned as an average Joe hoping that there are no pitfalls in my knowledge or mindset. Also, my goals are: Build lower body strength with squats, eventually move to exclusively weighted bodyweight exercises for upper body. I basically want to be impressive above the bar, and below it. Stats:

• Bodyweight: 79KG
• Height: 181cm (6ft?)
• Squats: 40KG => 80KG
• OHP: 25KG => 40KG (Goal is 55+ till end of year, my girl weighs 55)
• Bench Press: 30KG => 50KG
• T-bar Row: (Without Bar weight) 30KG => 45KG
• Push-ups (In one go): 7 Reps => 23 Reps
• Dips: 0 Reps => 3 Reps
• Chin-ups (In one go): 4 Reps => 12 Reps

Some wisdom I consider true for now:

1. Workouts must be goal specific, even variations of a single exercise should be dependent on your goals. If the goal is to be good at Olympic lifting, front squats and high-bar squats, powerlifters should go for the low-bar squat as it engages more muscle. If you don't have specific goals, you can mix it up sometimes, but not too often.
2. Your body mechanics might prevent you from performing certain exercises well, in which case you should change up the variation of the exercise (example: short torso and long femur makes the low bar a bit awkward since you have to lean forward way more or spread your knees way more which affects your hip position and demands way more mobility. In this case you'll feel better with a high-bar squat)
3. Compound movements are king, isolations are done only after
4. High weights, explosive fewer reps for strength. Lots of slow reps, lower weights for size
5. Explosiveness and momentum are two different things, pauses are important
6. If I can't do it right, I either lower the weights until I can do it right, work on mobility or don't do the exercise at all
7. Injury and weakness are two different things, weakness is there to be fixed, injury should be treated as the doctor advises. If your lower back is weak, you should train it. Instead of being afraid of injuries, if I'm careful I'll be fine
8. don't do 50 exercises, just do 5-10 of them intensely
9. Whey protein is convenient, not a replacement for food. You don't need 40 protein shakes everyday. (I just use whey protein when I feel that protein intake was low for that day, or I can't be bothered to cook)
10. Active recovery is underrated, does magic to progress
11. The best workout method is consistency
12. Progressive overload is the most important, de-load phase can be important for long-term progress (Note for future)
13. Most supplements are unnecessary
14. A good workout is the one where you accomplish your goals for the day
15. I slump for 3 weeks straight and then progress drastically unexpectedly, I don't really know why
16. It doesn't actually take all that long to look good, not a model, but even 2 months can be enough to look healthy and athletic. At least for me it was
17. Every man should be able to overhead press his significant other. Difficulty may vary. I'm working on it
18. The Bench press is a glorified isolation exercise
19. Always take a dump before squatting or so I'm told
20. Soviet style stretches my grandpa did are apparently the best way to do it. Nothing static

CommanderFun

Well, I do think 17 is a good goal if circumstances make it feasible. It's a nice press milestone to put before pressing your own bodyweight. A lot of the rest of it looks like a laundry list of common misconceptions though.

PrimalFish

I know close grip bench press is commonly thought of as a tricep builder, but the press uses close arms too and has a more closed elbow angle. So I'm surprised the press is not thought of as more of a tricep exercise then close grip bench. Maybe I'm mistaken though, does bench or press use triceps more?

MartinB

Isn't the elbow joint ROM part of the equation? I think I misunderstood, I apologize but the author seems to use "bench" and "close grip bench" interchangeably in the title and in the post. Obviously the press and the CG bench have a similar ROM around the elbow joint.

Mark Rippetoe

No, Rabbi, the question should be rephrased as, why do we bench more than we press? We have already answered that for you, in the book.

Mark Rippetoe

Except for the fact that the triceps lift more weight over a very slightly shorter ROM (which varies with anthropometry), it doesn't have anything to do with the triceps. I don't care about the triceps. If you care about the triceps, do LTEs.

Mark Rippetoe

Yeah, probably. How would you answer the question?