Frustrating progress for the upper body!! Me MAD!

[Platus]

I looked at the 35kg video - your form looks fine (though, sometimes you pause a bit too long at the top or the bottom of the lift).

Sorry if this has already been asked, but are you microloading your pressing movements? Even if you add only .5kg to your press every workout, it will add up to a significant increase over a couple of months.

[confuzzl3don3]

Thanks every1 for the helpful advice. I was adding 0.5kg every workout, but when i upped my calories i found myself getting stronger and so i started back to increasing weights by 1kg each time and i could still get 3 x 5 so i kept going at 1kg/workout. You suggesting i drop back to 0.5kg again.

And about how much i weigh, it's 70kg (154lbs) and i just gained like 1-1.5kg from last week so i thought that was pretty decent.

I'll try and get some new vids up from my next workout and rewatch the DVD and reread the book to try and make sure i'm doing everything right.

PS. I was still wondering, since i failed even to break my deadlift at 115kg from the floor, should i just forgot about it until next workout, or try again in a while from now?

[Nauticus]

Thanks every1 for the helpful advice. I was adding 0.5kg every workout, but when i upped my calories i found myself getting stronger and so i started back to increasing weights by 1kg each time and i could still get 3 x 5 so i kept going at 1kg/workout. You suggesting i drop back to 0.5kg again.

And about how much i weigh, it's 70kg (154lbs) and i just gained like 1-1.5kg from last week so i thought that was pretty decent.

I'll try and get some new vids up from my next workout and rewatch the DVD and reread the book to try and make sure i'm doing everything right.

PS. I was still wondering, since i failed even to break my deadlift at 115kg from the floor, should i just forgot about it until next workout, or try again in a while from now?

If you failed to break it from the floor, then you would probably have terrible form even if it were liftable - just lower the weight and go from there.

And rest more between sets if you already don't for 7+ mins.

[Paul Sousa]

As for your weight gain, at 154 lbs. you should be gaining more than a couple pounds in a week if you are eating enough. I was 188 lbs. in October and have been eating at least 5000 cals per day since and weighed in at 213 lbs. this morning. Steak, milk, egg nog, peanut butter should all be in your diet.

[confuzzl3don3]

Wow 7+ minutes. I usually go for breaks between 3-5 minutes. I find if i go for too long breaks i seem to let myself relax and all, and then i can't get that tight intra-abdominal pressure and all that, that is so important.

And so your advice is probably just to forget about the workout and just try again next time, and not to try and give it another shot again today?

[knox]

Just watched your press video with 35kg. First thing I noticed was your wrists. Do not let them bend. Keep your wrists straight and squeeze the bar as hard as you can to create tension in your arms. You may also want to widen your grip just a bit (try it during warm-ups and see how it feels),

Paul, do you mind clarifying exactly how this is done? In a post a while back Ripp stated that for the 3rd edition of SS he will be changing the chapter on the press to say that the wrists should be straight instead of bent, similar to the bench press, because this allows for more efficient transfer of power. The problem with this is that I can't rest the bar anywhere at the bottom of the lift. Having bent wrists at the bottom allows me to rest the bar on my chest just below the clavicle in between each rep, whereas with straight wrists at the bottom I'm holding the bar in mid air in front of my chin. Is this correct? I don't mean to hijack Confuzzled's thread, but maybe this advice will apply to him as well?

[confuzzl3don3]

Definitely. I've always wondered that too. To rest the bar at the bottom of the rep, you see how my wrists are bent and elbows are heaps in front. But as i go to lift, my elbows pul back to being only right in front, but i can't seem to line them up to just be slightly in front of the bar at the start to have them rest nicely on the anterior delts.

[Paul Sousa]

Paul, do you mind clarifying exactly how this is done? In a post a while back Ripp stated that for the 3rd edition of SS he will be changing the chapter on the press to say that the wrists should be straight instead of bent, similar to the bench press, because this allows for more efficient transfer of power. The problem with this is that I can't rest the bar anywhere at the bottom of the lift. Having bent wrists at the bottom allows me to rest the bar on my chest just below the clavicle in between each rep, whereas with straight wrists at the bottom I'm holding the bar in mid air in front of my chin. Is this correct? I don't mean to hijack Confuzzled's thread, but maybe this advice will apply to him as well?

Honestly I don't have a great cue or anything. The best thing I can say is to just squeeze the bar tight. I assume once you relax your grip you can't hold your wrists straight, and the relaxed grip will also mean you don't have tension in your arms which will kill your press. Think of it as your midsection in the squat, if you don't hold everything tight you won't move bigger weights since you lose power from the floor to the bar. Same thing with your arms in the press, and the best way to ensure that tension is to grip the hell out of the bar.

Edit - also, the bottom of the press was why I suggested widening your grip a bit. You can get the bar closer to you in the bottom that way. Not sure if Rip would agree with any of this, but it's worked pretty well for me in my limited training with the press.

[stronger]

Wow 7+ minutes. I usually go for breaks between 3-5 minutes. I find if i go for too long breaks i seem to let myself relax and all, and then i can't get that tight intra-abdominal pressure and all that, that is so important.

And so your advice is probably just to forget about the workout and just try again next time, and not to try and give it another shot again today?

Rest longer, eat tons and don't try and go up a full kg per workout. The press has to be coaxed to get stronger. Any progress is good progress

[confuzzl3don3]

Ok thanks guys. I'll err for a lower weight increase on the press and bench. I guess i just wanted my upper body lifts to "catch up" to where my lower lifts were at least progressing