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I am neither a top fitness bloggers nor a strength coach (yet) but hell, I haven't been writing here at all and thinking about this half-inspired me to post. So, my three favorite (not necessarily most effective) exercises:
1. The deadlift. Could you have guessed? I love deadlifts because they allow me to lift more weight than any other exercise (255 lbs. was my last heavy deadlift and 300 lbs. is my short-term goal). I feel like a badass standing there with that much weight in my hands (no straps, no belt, no equipment whatsoever). Additionally they have made my back thick and heavily muscled, and I do love the aesthetics of a muscular back on either a man or woman. I will take new back photos by March, which would be one year since the photo in the icon. I'm lazy about taking photos but I'm looking forward to seeing what another year of heavy deadlifting has added to what I think was a pretty damn good foundation.
2. Pullups (all the variations I can do, which is currently just chins or parallel-grip). I don't think I've had a moment in the gym as exhilarating as my first chinup. Again, I love these because they make me feel like a badass. I've just installed a pullup bar in the doorway to my rec room and am going to start doing them several times a day. Hopefully the frequency will help me work back up to sets of 5-10, even though I weigh fucking 75 kg. Yes, I can only do sets of two right now. :-P
3. Overhead press. It was tough to decide which lift to include last; there are so many which have endeared themselves to me. But I had to go with overhead press because I'm still riding the exhilaration of the 100 lbs. overhead press I got in Nov. I did sets of five with 90 lbs. last week! So my one rep max is clearly over 100 lbs. now. Even though I knew overhead strength was supposed to be a particular challenge for women, how many times did I tell myself, "I'm not truly strong until I can lift 100 lbs. over my head?" I will most certainly continue to keep this lift a priority.
4. The power snatch from hang. I love the power of this lift. It feels awesome to hurl the bar over my head and I like to stomp my feet as loud as possible when I catch it.
5. Weighted dips. Because even most men don't do them full range of motion with a 45 lbs. plate strapped on. But I can.
6. Back squat. The lift I love to hate.
7. Overhead shrugs. Because I got to know what it feels like to hold 100+ lbs. over my head long before I was able to press it up strictly. Because it takes so much mental strength to do sets of 12 while your brain is yelling "OMG you're holding so much weight over your head and it's hard to stabilize and don't fucking drop it on you head fuck!" I think these really helped me get my overhead press strength up.
What are your three favorites?
1. The deadlift. Could you have guessed? I love deadlifts because they allow me to lift more weight than any other exercise (255 lbs. was my last heavy deadlift and 300 lbs. is my short-term goal). I feel like a badass standing there with that much weight in my hands (no straps, no belt, no equipment whatsoever). Additionally they have made my back thick and heavily muscled, and I do love the aesthetics of a muscular back on either a man or woman. I will take new back photos by March, which would be one year since the photo in the icon. I'm lazy about taking photos but I'm looking forward to seeing what another year of heavy deadlifting has added to what I think was a pretty damn good foundation.
2. Pullups (all the variations I can do, which is currently just chins or parallel-grip). I don't think I've had a moment in the gym as exhilarating as my first chinup. Again, I love these because they make me feel like a badass. I've just installed a pullup bar in the doorway to my rec room and am going to start doing them several times a day. Hopefully the frequency will help me work back up to sets of 5-10, even though I weigh fucking 75 kg. Yes, I can only do sets of two right now. :-P
3. Overhead press. It was tough to decide which lift to include last; there are so many which have endeared themselves to me. But I had to go with overhead press because I'm still riding the exhilaration of the 100 lbs. overhead press I got in Nov. I did sets of five with 90 lbs. last week! So my one rep max is clearly over 100 lbs. now. Even though I knew overhead strength was supposed to be a particular challenge for women, how many times did I tell myself, "I'm not truly strong until I can lift 100 lbs. over my head?" I will most certainly continue to keep this lift a priority.
4. The power snatch from hang. I love the power of this lift. It feels awesome to hurl the bar over my head and I like to stomp my feet as loud as possible when I catch it.
5. Weighted dips. Because even most men don't do them full range of motion with a 45 lbs. plate strapped on. But I can.
6. Back squat. The lift I love to hate.
7. Overhead shrugs. Because I got to know what it feels like to hold 100+ lbs. over my head long before I was able to press it up strictly. Because it takes so much mental strength to do sets of 12 while your brain is yelling "OMG you're holding so much weight over your head and it's hard to stabilize and don't fucking drop it on you head fuck!" I think these really helped me get my overhead press strength up.
What are your three favorites?
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then, well, a few months? i can get exact dates from log, but not that long.
the next major attempt was with a crossfit routine that include 5x of each lift to a potential working maximum... though the warmup was a 1x version to get to a good starting weight. the last weight series i did with deadlift, actual number:
Max Effort 5-Rep Deadlifts (08.10.2009)
Deadlift 5-5-5-5-5
235 / 265 / 295 / 315 / 335 lbs
i tried 375 after those and it didn't feel doable, tried 355 and that was better.
so, no crossfit for me the last 4 weeks... sprained my knee in a fall. waiting until it went from *SCREAM* to pain to sore to tolerable. i'm all for full healing for this injury. i think i'm ready for monday. i hope :)
400 seems doable, but i'm not identifying as a lifter, and am not very goal oriented with regards to records per se, just logging the progress, and seeing where we get.
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