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Less gym time, same results: Why ‘lowering’ weights is all you need to do

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Re: Less gym time, same results: Why ‘lowering’ weights is all you need to do

#131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For good climbing, I'd have thought you need to be able to do muscle-ups (pullups that end with you balanced over the bar, pushing down to support yourself).

That's probably a level beyond where the majority of people who frequent the climbing gym get to. Even pro climbers might not be able to do any muscle ups. Here's Alex Honnold talking about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDUeh8nyLT0&t=490s He demonstrates he can only do 5 pullups (though it's possible he was being modest).

Thanks - my preconceptions about climbing are corrected! (A little.)

Re: Less gym time, same results: Why ‘lowering’ weights is all you need to do

#132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

May I know what you are referring to as the "classic body building" exercises. To me the classic ones are squat, bench and deadlift. I am curious why you think it's a disaster.

Those are powerlifting exercises. In fact, that's the exact order of events in most powerlifting competitions. I competed in powerlifting in my 20s; my life revolved around squat/bench/deadlift. I enjoyed it, but yeah, he's right: training like that is very specific, like anything else, I suppose. I could squat, bench and deadlift a ton, but literally anyone could beat me walking up the stairs, or even arm-wrestling.…

> Those are powerlifting exercises.

They are also classic bodybuilding exercises.

Re: Less gym time, same results: Why ‘lowering’ weights is all you need to do

#133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure but anyone who’s heavy would struggle climbing. Even truly athletic and flexible heavy athletes like football or basketball players.

There are professional climbers who are 'heavy'. Finger strength, overall strength, flexibility, coordination, balance, and technique all play a massive role as well. I don't know why the bodybuilders I've climbed with seem to be worse than overweight/obese people I've seen climbing for their first time, but I've had this observation as well.

I have never rock-climbed, only briefly messed about enough to know it's not happening despite my pull-ups peaking with +50kg added weight.

The "not happening" was that my weight distribution feels like it was ripping me off the wall. I just can't get much percentage of my bodyweight supported by my toes because my big back, ass and quads are going in another direction. Turns into an upper body exercise and one-arm pull-ups on a sheer face aren't happening.

Re: Less gym time, same results: Why ‘lowering’ weights is all you need to do

#134

From my personal experience, for the majority of people, I would recommend to stay away from classic body building weight trainning. I trainned that way for several years in my early twenties (back then, I was even a certified body bulding trainner) and the overload in my joints was a recipe for disaster + the kind of body I developed was disfunctional for activities other than weights themselves. The excercises I've…

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Re: Less gym time, same results: Why ‘lowering’ weights is all you need to do

#135

From my personal experience, for the majority of people, I would recommend to stay away from classic body building weight trainning. I trainned that way for several years in my early twenties (back then, I was even a certified body bulding trainner) and the overload in my joints was a recipe for disaster + the kind of body I developed was disfunctional for activities other than weights themselves. The excercises I've…

IRC barbell strength training injury rates are lower than most activities for CASUAL practitioners but explodes (like most sports) when progress towards relatively advanced levels, which IMO, and in agreement with you, is probably counter productive for most people. I can't seem to find the routines NASA gives astronauts on ISS to prevent muscle atrophy and maintain bone density, but it was something stupid easy (as in achievable for gen pop) like 10s with around body weight on squats / deadlifts on their fancy ARED lifting machine, and 50-75% for overhead / bench, with the explict goal of minimizing injury chance. But they do exercise very frequently, almost everyday since no gravity, but I think most people are fine with doing even a reduced volume version a couple times a week.

Issue with bodyweight activities, is they're pretty poor for developing and maintaining lower body strength, and that (i.e broken hips) is one of the top reasons people break themselves in later life. It doesn't take much for one badly leveraged move climbing/gymastics/martial arts to enter snap city. Especially with explosive concentric components, i.e. something like depth jump is considered extremely high risk injury exercise. There's a lot of bodyweight movements especially in context of activities where one can over-exert/commit. Modest weight training is calibrated and repeatable and less risky in that sense.

Re: Less gym time, same results: Why ‘lowering’ weights is all you need to do

#136
Has anyone else had a complete lack of success with any kind of weight lifting?

I find that whenever I try to lift, it starts well, but after a few weeks, the amount I can lift over time begins to decrease and I start getting pain in my tendons.

I've tried low reps low weight, high reps low weight, 1 day a week 3 days a week, etc. had my form checked by a personal trainer and there doesn't seem to be any obvious reason for it. It seems like any time I put more load on my body than it experiences through normal day to day life, it just slowly accumulates damage quicker than it can heal.

Re: Less gym time, same results: Why ‘lowering’ weights is all you need to do

#137
As someone who has lifted for a long time, negative reps are great. I primarily do negative reps in my lifts for both safety and locking in gains - if you can do negatives in reps of 10 it's hard to lose that ability even if you take a long break.

Re: Less gym time, same results: Why ‘lowering’ weights is all you need to do

#138

From my personal experience, for the majority of people, I would recommend to stay away from classic body building weight trainning. I trainned that way for several years in my early twenties (back then, I was even a certified body bulding trainner) and the overload in my joints was a recipe for disaster + the kind of body I developed was disfunctional for activities other than weights themselves. The excercises I've…

My personal anecdotes agree, somewhat.

A genuine full-body movement(like the various modes of crawling, my go-to for general exercise) involves more joints and stabilization than bodybuilding motions, which tend to be isolated. Training naturally, it's easier to experience overall healthy results with a balanced approach since everything supports everything else.

At the same time, bodybuilders tend to be as big as they are in large part because of an intense drug culture. Advanced natural bodybuilders will top out around the physique of a Steve Reeves, which is big, but nothing like a Schwarzenegger or later pros where the drugs are in play. With that degree of hypertrophy it's going into a realm where the muscles are often stronger than the joints; mobility tends to suffer and injury rates rise. Olympic weightlifters and powerlifters don't have quite the same problem because their training emphasizes overall strength, which also improves their mobility, so you can find video examples of heavy lifters who break their PR and then jump up in the air and do splits. Those guys are still using PEDs, and they are still heavy and gas out quickly in another athletic setting like climbing, combat sports etc., but they avoid having precisely the same kinds of issues.

I do think the weights are good at being efficient, which is a different aspect of this. Programming in some weights as a way to progress through a plateau elsewhere can be a great idea. But they add a ton of fatigue because they're so efficient, so it's quite easy to overtrain without a periodized approach, and in my weightlifting days I was basically always near or over that line of overtraining.

Nowadays I use bands, but as a supplement, just as with the weight vests.

Re: Less gym time, same results: Why ‘lowering’ weights is all you need to do

#139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be the same burden. You're still using the same dumbbell, you're just working one arm at a time instead of two.

While it's the same amount of mass, the distribution of force on your body will change as will the muscles engaged etc. no?

The mass would halve, because you are now only lifting one dumbbell with one arm instead of two dumbbells with two arms.

Re: Less gym time, same results: Why ‘lowering’ weights is all you need to do

#140

Has anyone else had a complete lack of success with any kind of weight lifting? I find that whenever I try to lift, it starts well, but after a few weeks, the amount I can lift over time begins to decrease and I start getting pain in my tendons. I've tried low reps low weight, high reps low weight, 1 day a week 3 days a week, etc. had my form checked by a personal trainer and there doesn't seem to be any obvious reas…

I don’t know you but everything you’ve described sounds like symptoms of suboptimal nutrition.

tl;dr: Eat a gram of protein per pound of body weight daily, eat carbs and good fats. Supplement with creatine 5g a day (improves ATP). Drink a lot of water.

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