Questions & Answers

There is no crystal clear answer to how many days you should train per week. If you are a beginner you would likely benefit the most from a heavy compound, full body oriented program like SS or SL, which you will need quite a bit of rest for when you hit heavier weights. Programs like that are mostly 3days/week.

When you get more advanced your body can handle more volume and still recover properly so the training days can be increased. If you went for the bodybuilding route after you would also be able to train more because there's a lot of isolation movements and mostly a bit higher reps which are not as taxing.

In short it depends on how you train. I had a much easier time recovering while doing a bodybuilding program like PHAT, which involved 5-6 days a week of 1.5-2hrs in the gym compared to when I did coan/phillipi, involving a deadlift day and 2 upper body days ~1 hour.

Last edit: 2012-04-16 02:12:50

I have found the Iron to be my greatest friend. It never freaks out on me, never runs. Friends may come and go. But two hundred pounds is always two hundred pounds.

myzael Poland. April 16 2012 05:01. Posts 565

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I play volleyball recreationally with friends 1-2 times a week. Lately I've noticed some minor problems with my shoulder joint mobility. It does not hurt but is a bit uncomfortable. Is there some execise I could do to improve the situation? Or any other thing?

DeceiverSC2 April 16 2012 10:17. Posts 36

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I have a question about arthritis and RA.

I have severe pain in my hands wrists and fingers, as well as elbows and knees, worst is my hands, fingers and wrists.

To explain to you the pain I have two exposed nerves in my mouth and they feel like nothing.

History: Has been going on for over a year getting worse and worse, my entire mom's side has arthritis.

I can barely type without the use of T3's and even then this hurts.

I have trouble sleeping from the pain as well as doing anything that revolves school, chores etc...

I'm 17 years old.

I've broken both wrists and two fingers.

I may have RSI.

My wrists and hands swell an insane amount.

I have prescription strength Naproxen 500mg, It does nothing (I had for a old sprain), and I can't go any futher with NASID's because of severe asthma.

My t3's were prescribed for my teeth, not for the pain in my hands.

I'm also on 20mg of abilify 1-4 mg of Clonazepam a day 100 mg of Seroquel and I was just taken off Desoxyn.

I need this pain to stop...

I have a strong tolerance for opoids, and I need some form of pain relief right now, and then can look into therapy.

What do I do...

Sorry if this is beyond sporadic, like I said of my Desoxyn.

billy5000 United States. April 16 2012 14:13. Posts 610

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I have a question regarding 1x5 deadlifts and how much I should try to lift. I made very good progress throughout this past month, and now I'm at the point where my lower back rounds just slightly on the last two reps. It's not hurting me at all (I've been doing this for about 1.5 weeks now), and I haven't been adding weights since then. I'm not sure whether I should keep adding weights or not.

Tiger got to hunt, bird got to fly; Man got to sit and wonder, 'Why, why, why?' Tiger got to sleep, bird got to land; Man got to tell himself he understand. Vonnegut

mordek United States. April 17 2012 00:16. Posts 3300

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This should help: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=299453&currentpage=166#3307

It is vanity to love what passes quickly and not to look ahead where eternal joy abides.

Elegance Canada. April 17 2012 02:24. Posts 840

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Hello, summer is about to start and I want to start working out - to have a purpose in life. A friend of mine and I agreed on this so I will have another person with me.

So I guess I need to tell you guys how I am currently and what I want to achieve. I am 6'0 and around 145lbs. My goal is pretty simple, I just want to get big (and therefore heavier). Now I've tried to do some research beforehand, but a lot of the information seems quite stifling, or there are a lot of jargons etc. A lot of people here say the TL health/fitness forums has been of great help so naturally I came here.

So with that in mind, I would like to know how/where to even begin. Thanks guys

Power of Ze

mordek United States. April 17 2012 02:28. Posts 3300

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Welcome! First things first, you should check out these stickies in the Health and Fitness subforum:
Training Recommendations
Nutrition Recommendations

Read through those and if any questions come up feel free to ask in this thread or the Initiative thread but make sure you read through it all because Eshlow has done an awesome job of compiling resources and links.

Last edit: 2012-04-17 02:29:16

It is vanity to love what passes quickly and not to look ahead where eternal joy abides.

Elegance Canada. April 17 2012 02:59. Posts 840

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On April 17 2012 02:28 mordek wrote:
Welcome! First things first, you should check out these stickies in the Health and Fitness subforum:
Training Recommendations
Nutrition Recommendations

Read through those and if any questions come up feel free to ask in this thread or the Initiative thread but make sure you read through it all because Eshlow has done an awesome job of compiling resources and links.

Hello, and thank you for the warm welcome. So from what I can see, I basically need to do squats, bench presses and dead lifts while eating a ton of food?

Power of Ze

KOVU Denmark. April 17 2012 03:00. Posts 681

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On April 17 2012 02:59 Elegance wrote:

Show nested quote +

Hello, and thank you for the warm welcome. So from what I can see, I basically need to do squats, bench presses and dead lifts while eating a ton of food?

That pretty much covers it. Stretching will most likely turn out to be beneficial for you as well.

mordek United States. April 17 2012 03:05. Posts 3300

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On April 17 2012 02:59 Elegance wrote:

Show nested quote +

Hello, and thank you for the warm welcome. So from what I can see, I basically need to do squats, bench presses and dead lifts while eating a ton of food?

You will be surprised to see how far it goes. I'm up 10+ pounds in 2 months time.

Also, overhead press and power cleans are good too

It is vanity to love what passes quickly and not to look ahead where eternal joy abides.

Elegance Canada. April 17 2012 03:28. Posts 840

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Awesome. I should also add that I was 130lbs a couple of weeks ago, and after a week and a half of beginning to do some light-weight dumbell exercises, light bench presses (we're talking like 80lbs) and eating more, I've gotten to 145lbs so I think my body is ready to gain which is why I came here :D

Power of Ze

KOVU Denmark. April 17 2012 03:36. Posts 681

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On April 17 2012 03:28 Elegance wrote:
Awesome. I should also add that I was 130lbs a couple of weeks ago, and after a week and a half of beginning to do some light-weight dumbell exercises, light bench presses (we're talking like 80lbs) and eating more, I've gotten to 145lbs so I think my body is ready to gain which is why I came here :D

Aim for around 500+kcal a day, should net you about 2lbs weightgain a week

Dirkzor Denmark. April 17 2012 03:54. Posts 1341

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Hi there.

A colleague of mine wants me to come and do some strenght training with his soccer team. He is the coach and the players are 14-15 year old boys. My background for doing this is that I was an physical (mostly running) instructor in the military and is now doing crossfit.

I just wanted some ideas and inputs.

Basicly they have no equipment. So we can only do body exercises. The strenght training is supposed to happen after normal soccer practice so they should already be varmed up - at least in the legs. My plan was to start of with some 'games'. I would of course show the exercises and see if they can do it properly (mostly the squat) before starting.
3 and 3 together and they are all on push-up start position. Goal is to slap the other guys on their hands. If you get slapped you do 5 push-ups.
3 and 3 together. You have to touch eachother thighs while not getting touched yourself. If touched you do 5 squats.
Same as above. Just sit ups instead of squats.

The actual exercise would be an AMRAP (as many rounds as possible) for 15 min. Each round consisting of:
5 push-up
10 sit-up
15 air squats.
5 burbees

When done I would finished with 1 min in the plank, 30 sec on each side and 1 min on the back with legs above ground.

I've tried to keep this as simple as possible so they can do this workout themself. The point to make it an AMRAP instead of just a set amount of reps is that they are all on different levels and can continue the same workout but just increase the intensitet.

Any thoughts, ideas or anything please write me. This would happen on thursday so before then please =)

Last edit: 2012-04-17 03:56:01

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eshlow United States. April 17 2012 05:00. Posts 5009

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On April 17 2012 03:54 Dirkzor wrote:
Hi there.

A colleague of mine wants me to come and do some strenght training with his soccer team. He is the coach and the players are 14-15 year old boys. My background for doing this is that I was an physical (mostly running) instructor in the military and is now doing crossfit.

I just wanted some ideas and inputs.

Basicly they have no equipment. So we can only do body exercises. The strenght training is supposed to happen after normal soccer practice so they should already be varmed up - at least in the legs. My plan was to start of with some 'games'. I would of course show the exercises and see if they can do it properly (mostly the squat) before starting.
3 and 3 together and they are all on push-up start position. Goal is to slap the other guys on their hands. If you get slapped you do 5 push-ups.
3 and 3 together. You have to touch eachother thighs while not getting touched yourself. If touched you do 5 squats.
Same as above. Just sit ups instead of squats.

The actual exercise would be an AMRAP (as many rounds as possible) for 15 min. Each round consisting of:
5 push-up
10 sit-up
15 air squats.
5 burbees

When done I would finished with 1 min in the plank, 30 sec on each side and 1 min on the back with legs above ground.

I've tried to keep this as simple as possible so they can do this workout themself. The point to make it an AMRAP instead of just a set amount of reps is that they are all on different levels and can continue the same workout but just increase the intensitet.

Any thoughts, ideas or anything please write me. This would happen on thursday so before then please =)

Getting them stronger would be most beneficial.

In the absence of equipment I would suggest working pistols/single leg squats, king deadlifts, shrimp squats, etc for the legs.

Same with progressive strength for the upper body

Circuits won't do much... it's better to just have them do lots of running for cardio work for the aerobic base you need for soccer. That and proper sprinting <100m with long rest times

Overcoming Gravity: A Systematic Approach to Gymnastics and Bodyweight Strength

Dirkzor Denmark. April 17 2012 05:23. Posts 1341

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To some extend I agree that exercises focusing on pure strength training would be beneficial. I just never meet these kids (and don't forgot they are kids) so I don't know their fitness level. Doing pistols seems a bit over the top i think?

I also want them to actually think its fun. Thats why we start with the games which is also a good way to introduce them to the exercises.

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Demoninja United States. April 18 2012 00:35. Posts 1072

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So I just started working out like 2 weeks ago. Last time I benched I did 3x5x100 but when I tried to bench again today I failed that same weight. Today I did 1x5 then 2x3. What do I do from here? I was thinking the next time a bench day comes up I'd try again and if I can't do it I'd probably go back and start again from a slightly lower weight.

phyre112 United States. April 18 2012 01:10. Posts 2314

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On April 18 2012 00:35 Demoninja wrote:
So I just started working out like 2 weeks ago. Last time I benched I did 3x5x100 but when I tried to bench again today I failed that same weight. Today I did 1x5 then 2x3. What do I do from here? I was thinking the next time a bench day comes up I'd try again and if I can't do it I'd probably go back and start again from a slightly lower weight.

How much sleep and food are you getting? Everyone has bad days, and even bad weeks. Keep it under control, don't let yourself spiral off, get discouraged, and quit lifting.

"Limitations are for people that have them and excuses are for people that need them"

Demoninja United States. April 18 2012 01:31. Posts 1072

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On April 18 2012 01:10 phyre112 wrote:
How much sleep and food are you getting? Everyone has bad days, and even bad weeks. Keep it under control, don't let yourself spiral off, get discouraged, and quit lifting.

Haha, don't worry there's almost no chance I'd quit so quickly. I sleep a good 8-9 hours a day and I wake up by myself without using my alarm clock. Eating wise I think I'm doing okay. For breakfast I eat fruits, yogurt, granola, and drink milk. Lunch is usually a bad meal haha. Usually the two choices are I eat salad at school with some meatballs or I go home and cook pasta. Dinner I eat rice+random meat+try to choke down some vegetables.

Anktious United States. April 19 2012 08:01. Posts 179

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Hello everyone, been reading through the stickied posts and I haven't been able to find anything on stretching yet, or maybe I'm not looking hard enough :/

I've recently started working out at a local boxing gym where one of my employees is a trainer. He has a class every mon, wed, and fri for anyone who would like to show up, work out and/or learn to become a boxer. I'm only wanting to go for some weight gain and to get into a healthy shape. After attending his class on Monday, my body is extremely sore in many places and hurts in others. I know for a fact that I didn't stretch enough to have my body prepared for the intense workouts that he has the class perform, so I came here to the TL H&F threads to see if there are any proper stretches to be doing before or after working out.

The entire class pretty much runs 3 miles before the workout itself, and during the workout it's mostly calisthenics, bodyweight training and some light sparring (if you want to get into the ring). The calisthenics part is what made me hurt the most. I just want to know if there are any proper ways to stretch before doing any part of those workouts or after the workouts to make my body not feel as shitty as it does at the moment. Any help would be amazing :D

On January 23 2009 04:38 {88}iNcontroL wrote: I hate it when i sit at my computer and post on this forum when suddenly my dick launches out of my pants and makes me type incorrectly.. starts mashing ont h legnskzsnmklbf oh fuck there we go again.

KOVU Denmark. April 19 2012 16:17. Posts 681

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On April 19 2012 08:01 Anktious wrote:
Hello everyone, been reading through the stickied posts and I haven't been able to find anything on stretching yet, or maybe I'm not looking hard enough :/

I've recently started working out at a local boxing gym where one of my employees is a trainer. He has a class every mon, wed, and fri for anyone who would like to show up, work out and/or learn to become a boxer. I'm only wanting to go for some weight gain and to get into a healthy shape. After attending his class on Monday, my body is extremely sore in many places and hurts in others. I know for a fact that I didn't stretch enough to have my body prepared for the intense workouts that he has the class perform, so I came here to the TL H&F threads to see if there are any proper stretches to be doing before or after working out.

The entire class pretty much runs 3 miles before the workout itself, and during the workout it's mostly calisthenics, bodyweight training and some light sparring (if you want to get into the ring). The calisthenics part is what made me hurt the most. I just want to know if there are any proper ways to stretch before doing any part of those workouts or after the workouts to make my body not feel as shitty as it does at the moment. Any help would be amazing :D

Hello and welcome Anktious

Food, sleep and consistent training will make your body adapt. As for stretching, if you want mobility I would check out MWOD.

Last edit: 2012-04-19 16:18:11