On topic, slightly different perspective - is form a subject one can over analyse?
I hit 100kg squats, posted up a video a form check and had some issues with knees drifting forward. I took some advice from learned members of the forums and attempted to resolve the problem with limited success, eventually I just said fuck it and started increasing the weight again, now my squat is 120kg and my 100kg squats look better (duh).
I dun goofed? Don't think so.
Note suggesting for a minute that the advice given was not welcome or useful btw, just that I was not able to apply it successfully.
I definitely wasn't eating enough, and that would attribute to my lack of progress much more than anything in the gym. The product of having fat-fearing parents - they make you think food is evil. It's not that I didn't want to eat, it's that I'd been taught all my life that doing so would make me fat rather than improve my strength. When I discovered that food isn't evil after all at the age of 19, I gained about 7kg in 4 months while still having visible abs. Prior to that, I'd only gained about 13kg over 4 years. For two years following that I maintained weight and wasn't trying to get bigger or stronger, I was just trying to fix up all the things that I'd f*cked up, which at this time was most limbs. Then I decided to try SS, went well for 3 months before some medical problems got in the way causing me to lose the progress I'd made in that time, and finally started training again in September 2010, gaining 15kg over the following year and doubling my squat and deadlift in that period.how much weight did you gain Ryan, how was your diet?
one of the things that I did when I was young was not eat enough, definitely not enough protein.
you must get the basics right,
the whole Idea is that there may be more people that trained for years, that haven't gained. But instead of looking at the big picture, they start doing 21's or dropping 2 reps per set.
when you think you can do no more, do 3 more. and eat food.
I've had to back off a bit lately due to crippling cramps in my upper back
Up until recently, I had always thought that I had been training hard and at my full capacity.
Everything is relative.
I was doing between 10-14 sessions a week for a good month and maxing out squats, press and deadlifts pretty much every session.
At this point, I'm finding ways to get myself to be able to train harder.
Pulling from the floor every day makes my upper back cramp up, low bar squats inflame my SI joint - but I can kill it every day with front squats, shrugs and rows... so I have found the exercises that I can work to death without dying myself
I'm pretty much of the opinion now that most people who are training for strength "should" be gradually increasing their volume, average intensity and frequency until they physically can't increase it any more due to cramping, injuries or time constraints and then backing off.
To put it bluntly, if your body isn't screaming at you to stop then you've probably not been anywhere close to your limit.
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I'm pretty much of the opinion now that most people who are training for strength "should" be gradually increasing their volume, average intensity and frequency until they physically can't increase it any more due to cramping, injuries or time constraints and then backing off. To put it bluntly, if your body isn't screaming at you to stop then you've probably not been anywhere close to your limit.
The whole point of working out, whether it's for strength, building muscle or general fitness is to improve your well being, health and life in general, not to punish your body to the point of it breaking down.
If that's what you're doing or think you should be doing then you are missing the mark by a long shot.
ObviouslyI don't train to increase my health, lol.....