Hey, have you been working out?

[Pekka]

Thanks

These are kg (in europe right now). In 2008 I was stuck for a year doing 15/15/15 of 70 lbs or 65 lbs depending on how well I had been working out recently, I really pushed in late winter/spring of 2009 and got up 75 lbs on 5 separate occasions, on all occasions I did 6-10 reps.

It's odd and very frustrating.

I have had issues with getting exhausted during workouts (even with eating ~1 hour before hand, if I didn't do that then I really couldn't do much). I am hoping that it is at least partly due to the thyroid issues.

Body parts are biceps, triceps, chest, back, shoulders, and legs?

Right now I am trying to get up to doing cardio 4+ times a week, once I am back there I should probably try to increase my weight lifting frequency.

JM

Without knowing your size, workout history or anything I'll say what caught my eye first.

You've been doing 15/15/15 for a year. No matter what the weights are, you could change the pattern a bit. The longer ones (less weight) is good for stamina sort of strength, the lean thing. If you want strength as in pure strength and muscle mass, I suggest you go for lesser repetitions and higher weights. 5/5/5, something like that, or even less, 3/3/3, with maximum weights. Put it your maximum and add few pounds. Lift it with pure adrenaline. Rage. Put your mind into it first, focus on the iron, don't even think about quitting or letting it defeat you. It's mind over matter, and give it your all.

You say you feel tired, do you work out often? If so, maybe you can lessen the days you work out or use some extra nutrition, those shakes and stuff. You really need them if you work out a lot, otherwise your body won't recover in time and you will feel tired working out and also you will be stuck and you think the weights you used to lift the week before have become heavier.

It's probably, though, in your program. You probably do too long sessions. Are you going over 1 hour? Try to do it in less than that. Take 30 seconds between repetitions, and 90 seconds between different exercises. Make sure you drink enough so you won't be dry and cold.

Also, you have done the same thing for a year now? Man, time to spice it up!!! No wonder it's getting boring or feeling like you're stuck with the results. If you do the same exercise, you should at least vary the patterns (how many times you do it etc.), grips, and overall how you are doing the exercise itself, you can, for example, usually have 5 to 6 different grips on dumbbells alone, and then the stimulus to your muscle is different. This is really important if you do the same moves all over again for a long time, give your muscle a different stimulus.

These are things that might help you or might not help you. What you describe is normal given what you have just said, it would be expected and not necessarily a health issue.

[Al B. Sure!]

It could also be a form issue for the sudden decrease or some sort of weakness like a rotator cuff weakness or a flexibility issue exacerbated by the weight. Jon does say he struggles to get deep on dips.

[SpencerH]

I'm guessing that Jon is not going as deep as he could/should on the dumbell bp. Thats why the first rep is the toughest, and he either gets it up or not, it's the deepest rep. A lot of guys will have a spotter lift their elbows for the first rep for that reason then they'll pump out a few less deep reps. Nothing the matter with that but it kinda nullifys the reason for doing dumbell bp over bar bp, ie the added depth that you can get with dumbells. I never really did much dumbell bp, with the weights I've used over the years they're just too unwieldy and dangerous.

Jon mentioned his shoulder popping so rotator could be an issue (as anticipated my left one is sore right now) and it can certainly have weird effects on your mind (and lifting). Prior to them allowing bench shirts in the IPF I had chronic rotator issues. I'd hit 125 Kg for 3 x 6 but my max in competition was only 137.5 Kg or more normally 135 Kg (I mostly competed at 82.5 Kg). What happened was that my rotator didnt hurt while lifting 125 so I could rep out. In competition though you have to pause the bar on your chest. The extra stress of a totally motionless bar plus the added 10-15 kilos caused sharp rotator pain as I started to push. The pain broke my concentration and I'd miss the lift. The problem ended when the IPF allowed bench shirts. While learing to use the shirt I couldnt do as many reps and I started to pause while training. In addition, the shirt holds the shoulder in position tighter. Anyway, my rotator healed up and I never looked back while benching until age caught up with me. Now I'm in slow decline.

[SpencerH]

Jon

"Body parts" are variable. I'd say that most people train
1) chest and arms with shoulders seperate
2) chest and shoulders with arms seperate (usually guys with naturally big biceps or bodybuilders IMO)
3) Chest shoulders and arms
4) Legs
5) Back
6) Legs and Back

Over the 35 years I've been lifting I've done pretty much every version but I mostly do 3 and 6. There are a lot of small common muscles used in most lifts and I would overwork them when training more than four days a week (two groups x two workouts = 4 days a week). In order to get variation I work light back with heavy legs and vice versa and do something similar for upper body (although I always bench first for safety reasons). That way I never do the same workout twice in a week and I dont get bored. You have to vary what you're doing to keep getting strength gains.

[Jon Miller]

A lot of back exercises do arms to, how to do you isolate the back?

JM

[SpencerH]

The small muscle most at risk with back workouts is the bicep. You'll never completely isolate the back but with practice you can minimize bicep involvement though. When performing back exercises (rows, pulldowns, etc), focus on moving your elbows back or down (depending on the exercise) since that motion is dependent on back muscles and ignore how your hands are moving. I try to pretend that I dont have biceps (especially when deadlifting, which can be a bicep killer). Also focus on a moving through a long range of elbow motion since that will increase the % that the back muscles contribute compared to the short motion of the bicep. Think of it this way, if you do a back workout and the next day your biceps are killing you but your back is not, then you're doing it wrong!

[Al B. Sure!]

A lot of back exercises do arms to, how to do you isolate the back?

JM

Well you can't. Your back muscles are used in conjunction with other muscles. If you do back extensions or straight-legged deadlifts or good mornings, you're still using your hamstrings and glutes in conjunction with your erector spinae. If you do pullups or rows, you're using your arms and deltoids as much as your traps and lats.

[Jon Miller]

Attempts to follow. I felt a bit 'blah' for various reasons. Also, my thumb was still not 100% from slicing it up real bad last Thursday, so I didn't want to use free weights (I still had it wrapped, although it hasn't bled much for a while).

5/4/3 pullups
5/5/5 leg press (144/154/154)
6/3/3/5/4 iso-lateral machine bench press (negative) (80/90/85/80/75) (1.4x weight for negative)
stomach
4 chinups
10/10 machine lat pulldowns (negative)
8/6/6 machine vertical press (negative)

JM

[Jon Miller]

Attempts at least:

5 pullups to warm up
8/8/5 upright row 24/24/29
8/8/5 seated vertical dumbbell press 16/16/16
12/8/8 incline dumbbell bench press 22/22/22
spine rotations
8/8/8 lateral dumbbell raises 7/7/7
6/8/6 cable tricep pulldown 25/25/25
8/8/8 shoulder shrugs dumbbells 29/32/35

JM

[Al B. Sure!]

I haven't been updating but I think this is where I left off...

Squats 3x5x260; Press 3x5x120; Clean 3x3x145 (cut on hand re-opened)
Squats 5x245 5x255 2x265 (decided to try it like this but couldn't get 5 reps at 265)
today: Squats 5x235 5x245 5x255 5x265; Clean 5x3x150; Press 3x5x120

My squats seemed to be plateauing again but I'll see if doing it with progressive loads allows me to handle it better. Looks promising so far. I'm hoping to reach 5 reps at 300lbs by the end of the month.

Here's a cool resource that tells you where you should be on the major lifts for your weight (these are 1RM's though)

http://www.exrx.net/Testing/WeightLifting/StrengthStandards.html

For an ESTIMATE on your 1RM based on other numbers, check http://www.exrx.net/Calculators/OneRepMax.html

[Jon Miller]

Press: Untrained
Bench: Intermediate
Squat: Intermediate (note machine squat gives Elite, this is definitely incorrect, lunges gives Untrained so I don't really know what to put, Intermediate?)
Deadlift: Untrained
Clean: No idea, Untrained probably

I have been training regularly for 4 years.

JM

[Jon Miller]

Attempts at least:

4/4/4 dumbbell lunges (29/29/29)
8/8/8 machine calf raise (98/98/98)
6/6/6/5 machine deadlift (30/40/50/60)
stomach
3 sets abductors (Setting 8)
3 sets adductors (Setting 8)
5/4/5 machine leg press (139/139/139)
back extension

Let's feel pretty worked out, as does glutes and lower back. I could still climb stairs though so I use to do harder.

JM

[Jon Miller]

Attempts at least

warpup - pullups
8/5/6 overhead pullovers dumbbell (27/32/32)
4/1/2/2/4 machine bench press isolateral reverses (85/90/85/80/70) (1.4x/1.4x/1.4x/1.4x/1.4x) - means the reverse was 1.4x as heavy
spine rotations
8/3/3/4 - cable fly seated (35/55/50/45)
8/8/7 - incline press dumbbell (22/22/22)

I felt my right arm, shoulder start to do something, tear? Anyways, I stopped there. Probably won't be able to do shoulders this week. It still feels a bit... I hope it is OK.

It doesn't really hurt, I don't have restricted motion but I can feel it when I move.

JM

[Al B. Sure!]

It didn't tear. You would definitely know if you had a muscle tear and your ROM would be shot. I think I had a muscle tear once as a kid playing tackle football on concrete. My arm had zero mobility for weeks and it was a month before I regained full ROM. And I'm not even sure that was even a tear instead of a really bad strain. It is the scariest thing as a 7th grader to not be able to move your arm.

My shoulder problem which I mentioned before which becomes an issue on dips comes with a clicking sound in my shoulder as I rotate my arms (like if I were to do arm circles). Is that what you mean by you can feel it?

[SpencerH]

Press: Untrained
Bench: Intermediate
Squat: Intermediate (note machine squat gives Elite, this is definitely incorrect, lunges gives Untrained so I don't really know what to put, Intermediate?)
Deadlift: Untrained
Clean: No idea, Untrained probably

I have been training regularly for 4 years.

JM

IMO, machine squats dont count. I'm not denigrating their value as a part of some peoples training routine (I never liked em) but there's a big difference between a machine squat and a real squat.