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Let's Get Physical - The PC Fitness Club

180
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12
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  • Age 36
  • Seen Aug 12, 2023
Sometimes I notice these girls that look bootylicious but I think it's because lordosis as their backs are unusually curved. Does that come from squatting too much? Is it something to watch out for?

Lordosis is only an extreme case of inward back curvature. As far as squatting causing your back to bow in, no it won't. As long as proper form is maintained and you aren't overdoing it, you will be fine.
 
5,983
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15
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I was just thinking if there's too much development of back muscles, and not enough development of hip flexors, wouldn't it lead to an imbalance?
 
180
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  • Age 36
  • Seen Aug 12, 2023
I was just thinking if there's too much development of back muscles, and not enough development of hip flexors, wouldn't it lead to an imbalance?

Not directly, no. The antagonist muscle to your back muscles (and I believe you're referring to the lower back muscles erector spinae) are the rectus abdominis (your abs, six pack). The antagonist muscle of the hip flexors is the gluteus maximus. The main imbalance that I've experienced when doing squats is during the concentric phase: When you come back up, your hip adductors might contract and make your legs close in. One way that I've battled through that is to concentrate on spreading your legs as you come up (activate the hip abductors).

Man, I've almost forgotten how much innuendo there is talking about lower body kinesiology. o_O

Anyway, don't worry about muscle imbalance if you're still puny, just gain that size and strength until it's way too hard to ignore. The main ones I've seen besides hips are the upper body anterior and posterior chain. A lot of people have slouched shoulders, making their posture look like they grew up with gorillas, it's bad. You definitely want to keep your chest and back muscles pretty balanced :P (bench press vs barbell row). Just practicing good posture overall is healthy, period. Don't rely on resistance training to completely fix those type of problems.
 
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Dark Azelf

☽𖤐☾𓃶𐕣
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Lordosis can be caused by several things; when you have tight hip flexors, weak core/abs, tight erector spinae, tight hamstrings are the main culprits.

Squatting would actually benefit Lordosis to an extent as it engages the core muscles.

Make sure you dedicate some time to stretching muscles and dont neglect muscle groups and you should be fine.
 
180
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12
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  • Age 36
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Hey blah, what's your exercise schedule like? I'm curious.

DA, man.. careful on not over doing anything. I know you're a certified PT, but you do a crapload of work for someone who's cutting. Are you lifting light, medium, or intense? Also, a rest day with HIIT cardio? I don't know if I'd consider that a rest day! lol
 

Dark Azelf

☽𖤐☾𓃶𐕣
7,210
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16
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  • Age 33
  • Seen Mar 26, 2024
Hey blah, what's your exercise schedule like? I'm curious.

DA, man.. careful on not over doing anything. I know you're a certified PT, but you do a crapload of work for someone who's cutting. Are you lifting light, medium, or intense? Also, a rest day with HIIT cardio? I don't know if I'd consider that a rest day! lol

Haha, well its a mix of medium and intense. I lift heavy on lower body, low reps high weight and about 70/75ish% of 1rm on upper body for 8-12 reps. For the most part im trying to maintain my weight at the moment. I seem to get the best results from high volume stuff as i put on weight (fat and muscle, stupid endo body type lol) really easily. So the high work volume helps me get leaner quicker and also stay on the leaner side when i bulk up ive found, i still maintain muscle on a cut this way. Ive also found it allows me to eat slightly more if i keep up the volume and intensity and as said still be able to achieve my goals easier (which is good cos i mean who doesn't enjoy eating? :P). Obviously ill drop some cardio when i do bulk up but yeah. In contrast i wont do HIIT much (if at all) when cutting.

Speaking of HIIT cardio, well its only intense for a relatively short amount of time, i count it as a rest day mainly as im probably sat on my ass the rest of the day haha. :P
 

Dark Azelf

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Pretty much, well...apart from the first 6 months when i worked out. It was more full body approach then lol.
 
180
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  • Age 36
  • Seen Aug 12, 2023
Pretty much, well...apart from the first 6 months when i worked out. It was more full body approach then lol.

When you start bulking again, you should probably go back to it till you can't put anymore weight on the bar or increase amount of reps you can do every week. I keep hearing from various lifting forums and coaches that body part split workouts are only ever really good for really advanced bodybuilders. 3 day a week compound lifts (squat, bench press, overhead press, deadlift or variation of any of the 4.. probably don't wanna do squats and deadlifts every single workout day, and alternate between bench press and overhead press) with some assistance (chin-ups, dips) should be great at about 3x8-12. I had some decent gains doing this for hypertrophy.. add in some calf work if you want.

BTW, what are you pushing on the squat, bench, overhead press, and deadlift?
 

Dark Azelf

☽𖤐☾𓃶𐕣
7,210
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16
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  • Age 33
  • Seen Mar 26, 2024
When you start bulking again, you should probably go back to it till you can't put anymore weight on the bar or increase amount of reps you can do every week. I keep hearing from various lifting forums and coaches that body part split workouts are only ever really good for really advanced bodybuilders. 3 day a week compound lifts (squat, bench press, overhead press, deadlift or variation of any of the 4.. probably don't wanna do squats and deadlifts every single workout day, and alternate between bench press and overhead press) with some assistance (chin-ups, dips) should be great at about 3x8-12. I had some decent gains doing this for hypertrophy.. add in some calf work if you want.

BTW, what are you pushing on the squat, bench, overhead press, and deadlift?

Bear in mind im only 5'4 and about 154lbs atm (hovering about 12% bf mark still atm) so im not as big as some people but yeah lol.

Squat i usually work at 3x5 at about 285-300lbs

Deadlift i work at much lower reps its more like 8x1/2 at about 350lbs, i will drop the weight down a bit sometimes though.

Bench is meh, but i guess its ok for my size and height, its like 180 for 4x8.

Overhead press is usually about 135 for 4x8

Im not really concerned with alot of size on my lower body, i prefer training for sheer strength there.
 
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180
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12
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  • Age 36
  • Seen Aug 12, 2023
So I've been wanting to workout for a while now, but my damn upper back pain isn't going away as fast as it used to, so I'm gonna resort to going to a chiropractor (UGH). The pain is mild overall; it's mainly a nuisance, and it stretches from my left upper back to my forearm. Never had it go down that far (usually just went as far as my tricep). I really really really wanna get back into working out. Get back up to 265lbs for my squats at 3 sets of 5 reps, and make 315lb (6 45lb plates on a 45lb barbell... be awesome). As well as 225lbs bench 3x5, 365lbs deadlift, and 160lb overhead press...

My ultimate goal is 1200 total (300 bench, 400 squat, and 500 deadlift at 1RM or something around there that equals 1200 lol). After that point I'll worry about sculpting my body.
 

Impo

Playhouse Pokemon
2,458
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14
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I haven't posted in a while but I just finished my second half-marathon today!

It took me 1:47.?? and I should have trained, whoops. Such a satisfying pain
 
180
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12
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  • Age 36
  • Seen Aug 12, 2023
I haven't posted in a while but I just finished my second half-marathon today!

It took me 1:47.?? and I should have trained, whoops. Such a satisfying pain

Keep it up, man! I'm lucky to run half a mile without getting so winded, lol. Cardio has never been my strong suit.

Half marathon is 13 miles, right?
 

Impo

Playhouse Pokemon
2,458
Posts
14
Years
Keep it up, man! I'm lucky to run half a mile without getting so winded, lol. Cardio has never been my strong suit.

Half marathon is 13 miles, right?

Thanks!

It wasn't my best -I did it at 1:45 last time, I just need to get a good pre-race routine the week before so I do okay with the carb loading.

Yeah, a half-marathon is 13.1 miles, to be exact, and a full is 26.2
 
180
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12
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  • Age 36
  • Seen Aug 12, 2023
I'm gonna start working out this Monday (edit I started Tuesday). For about 2 weeks now I've been stretching out my stomach a bit so I can handle more calorie intake in a day, and my upper back pain is almost gone, so I feel confident in lifting weights without too much trouble. My diet isn't set in stone, rather I'm just gonna eat all I can, but it'll mainly look like this.

For breakfast: full plate of scrambled eggs, with bacon, sausage and 2 pieces of toast.
During my 10-15 minute break at work: Peanuts, yogurt, and some cottage cheese with applesauce
Lunch time: Turkey sandwich and tuna sandwich, some strawberries, bananas, yogurt, and some cottage cheese with applesauce, and maybe a multivitamin every couple days.
Post workout: Protein shake (I might try to make a key lime protein smoothie someday... just sounds so delicious)
Dinner: hamburgers, chicken, mac n cheese, vegetables, potatoes.. basically whatever sounds good.
I'll drink about 2 cups of milk during breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

I know it's not the cleanest of diets, but that's not my goal. I just need enough caloric intake to stimulate growth and optimal recovery between workouts. My workout is gonna look like this BTW. 3x5 = 3 sets of 5 reps.

Workout A: 3x5 Squat, 3x5 Bench Press, 1x5 Deadlift
Workout B: 3x5 Squat, 3x5 Overhead Press, 1x5 Deadlift

Week 1: A, B, A
Week 2: B, A, B
Repeat

I increase weight on the exercises every workout. On bench press and overhead press I'll increase 5lbs, squats by 7.5lbs, and deadlifts 10lbs. When bar speed starts going really slow on the last rep of the last set I'll lower the amount of weight I increase each workout. Once deadlifting every workout day gets too tiring for me, I'm gonna switch up to alternating deadlifts and powercleans. Powercleans are gonna be performed 5 sets of 3 reps (5x3), and I'll increase weight about 5lbs every workout until it becomes real difficult.
When I can't get all 15 reps (5 reps per set), I'll reset back about 10-20% on the weight if I can't get 5 reps on all sets after three workouts with the same weight. If I still stall on all exercises after a couple resets, I'll change up my program a bit.

BTW, this is part of starting strength from Mark Rippetoe. The only things I'm not following from him is the ridiculous GOMAD (gallon of milk a day) thing, and his form instruction on the squat and powercleans. I've heard a lot of officianados have some serious issues with it.

---------------------------

Alright, here are my stats and my previous PRs

26 years old, 5'11, 195-200lbs depending on time of the day, unknown bodyfat %. I'll guess and say 16%

Squat PR: 265 5RM
Bench PR: 210 5RM
Deadlift PR: 320 5RM
Powerclean PR: 215 1RM
Overhead Press PR: 135lbs 5RM

Alright. So I re weighed my barbell.. it's 20lbs. I used to think it was 15lbs. I know it's a pretty light barbell, but luckily I don't have a whole lot of weight on it yet. Once I have 2 weeks of lifting under my belt again, I'm gonna join a gym since I don't have access to lump sums for a new barbell.

I'll omit the specifics on warmup sets.

Back Squat:
5x3x170lbs

Overall felt good. My dad was spotting me to make sure my form was good. He's no certified coach, but he at least was there to critique my form from us watching SS videos. 1st set was ok, 2nd and 3rd set felt the best.

Bench Press:
5x3x120lbs

Good here! I'm doing bench presses like I've never done them. I used to do them pure bodybuilding style: Elbows pointed out to the side. Now I'm doing them as prescribed in SS and powerlifting circles. Made sure my back was squeezed and with a natural arch with my elbows closer in my body.

Deadlift:
5x1x170lbs

Meh, my form needs work on this. I need to make conscious effort to keep my upper back from rounding. I need to keep it tight, and I also need to find the sweet spot for the barbell from the floor.
 
61
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12
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Right, let's do this!
Username: Goldengyarados
Overall Fitness Goal: 100 consecutive pushups, 30 consecutive pullups and to run 10k in under 40 minutes
Summer Fitness Goal: Summer is over but I guess a short term goal is to improve my core strength
Favorite Physical Activity: Swimming

Currently I can do about 5 pullups and 30 pushups in a row, and I have absolutely no idea how fast I can run 10k.
 
180
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12
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  • Age 36
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Right, let's do this!
Username: Goldengyarados
Overall Fitness Goal: 100 consecutive pushups, 30 consecutive pullups and to run 10k in under 40 minutes
Summer Fitness Goal: Summer is over but I guess a short term goal is to improve my core strength
Favorite Physical Activity: Swimming

Currently I can do about 5 pullups and 30 pushups in a row, and I have absolutely no idea how fast I can run 10k.

Are you trying to get into the military or is this just a personal goal thing? Either way, I found this gem a really long time ago. It worked pretty well. I stopped when I reached my goal of 20 consecutive pullups. It does list an exercise called dips, not sure you know what those are so just in case: click this here

As far as training to run 10k in 40 minutes, not sure what to tell you there. Cardio is an area of fitness I know very little about, but I found this for ya. There are more links for more intermediate runners up at the top under 'training' if you have more than a year or 2 of long-distance running under your belt. Good luck, and welcome to the club!
 
180
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12
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  • Age 36
  • Seen Aug 12, 2023
Date: 10-24-13

Today's workout overall was great. I also reworked some progression math because I realize I'm squatting and deadlifting 6 times over a 2 week period, while I'm doing OHPs and BPs 3 times over a 2 weeks period. So I'll keep it at 5lbs for the presses, 5lbs increase on squats, and 7.5lbs on deadlifts instead of 5, 7.5 and 10lbs respectively.

Back Squat:
5x3 @ 175lbs

Overall really well. I realized I was too careful on coming up on the squat on my first 2 sets, so I made a conscious effort to really drive the bar up on the concentric portion, while still maintaining a tight core on the eccentric on the 3rd set. I did have one little mishap however. On the 1st rep attempt on the 3rd set, I didn't go down far enough, so I didn't count that rep, and just did 5 more at a deeper depth.

Overhead Press:
5x3 @ 70lbs

Nothing too special to report here. I just gotta make sure my breathing is correct.

Deadlift:
5x1 @ 177.5lbs

This went so much better than my Tuesday's workout even with the increased weight. The reps were a lot faster since realizing on the squat I should focus on going fast and hard, and that mindset carried over to my deadlifts.

I could increase the weight a bit more than what I prescribed myself, but I don't want to stall too soon. I wanna keep a steady pace.

No, I'm not trying to get into the military it's really just a personal fitness goal lol. I might never even reach these goals but for me the journey is more important than the destination.
Cool. Just try not to have the mindset of "I'll never reach the goal". Just keep contuining on your journey and you'll eventually reach it. I hope the links I gave were of some help to you, too.

Edit: My main log is located at this link. http://startingstrength.com/resources/forum/showthread.php?t=43872
Basically I increased my lifts by 5lbs again last Saturday, still continuing linear progression, and I hope I can milk it for all its worth. If it all continues smoothly, my strength levels should be back to where I was before I stopped in 2 months time.
 
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Dark Azelf

☽𖤐☾𓃶𐕣
7,210
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16
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  • Age 33
  • Seen Mar 26, 2024
Been doing a bit of bulking recently, put on a few lbs and im about 158lbs atm (im 5'4) and i still look reasonably lean and vascular which is cool considering that is the second heaviest ive ever been. Im apparently 13% bf which is cool. Id say im not doing too bad considering Franco Columbu was my height and 185lbs when he competed (and also on steroids, which im not lol). :P

Gradually increased my calories to about 2500ish a day and started taking creatine again along with plenty of complex carbs.


Im still doing a few sessions of light cardio per week to minimize fat gain.

Lifts have gone up a little also.
 
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