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You skullcrusher what I bench.

Are you kidding me? Wow. Well you could probably kick my ass. LOL you train more in mma then weights am i right? That would probably be the reason. All I do now is weights so. Also don't take anything away from yourself remember I'm shorter with shorter arms and all that.

Right now I can't kick anyone's ass, it's sad. I'm not training as much MMA as I used to and what I do is much lower intensity. No face contact yet so no sparring or even no-contact pair work.

But yeah I bench 5 x 67.5 as a max, that's like 5 x 150 pounds. Your triceps can do that by themselves. :D

it only means that you have room for improvement my friend. Like I tell anyone I lift with if they can't lift a lot thats a good thing. Meaning that when you gradually get stronger it will be noticeable as well with size and weigh gains. I believe you can get stronger you just have to put your time in eat the right stuff and bust your butt. I used to weigh 135 lbs at this height when i was in highschool. After weigh in yesterday the dieting I'm doing is cutting down the fat a lot and I only weigh 204 now. I have a feeling I'll be below 200 when I get the look I want but then eventually get back over that. It's all desire I bust my butt in the gym I try and I'm consious of everything I eat. Although dieting SUCKS. haha. You can get huge if you want to but with mma I'm not sure you'd want to lol.

Read your entry just now. If the gym maxes at 75# dumbbells, three things come to mind:

- go higher reps on the dumbbell rows. 3 x 5 is great but if you're not at 85-90% of your 1RM it's not really that productive. No more than doing 3 x 10 with 50% of your 1RM, you know? So you could just do these rows as higher reps. Match the workout to the gear.

- bring your own adjustable DB handles if the gym will let you. If not, see if they have one of these:
http://www.warehousefitness.com/ProductImages/RB-48.jpg

...and load it up and use IT as a dumbbell. I used to one-arm row and do sidebends with one of those. Got to watch the foot position more but it's easy to load it up. I prefer those for some "dumbbell" exercises because of the hand position.

- Bug the gym management about heavier dumbbells! "I love to come here, you guys are the best, but I need some heavier dumbbells...they're so cheap, I'd really appreciate it, I don't want to go somewhere else..." Might help. Or get them to get some adjustable bells for you!

And dude, you hijacked my comments thread! Honestly, I don't know with rows. "Pendlay Rows" are the ones where you get horizontal to the ground and de-weight the bar between reps. The usual bent-over-rows are less horizontal. But I only do BB rows in complexes, so I do the less horizontal version and do them light for reps. When I go heavy, I always go with one-arm dumbbell rows.

John--How long does it take you to get through your workouts? You commented a few days ago that that day took over an hour. How about the other days?

Depending on the day it used to take like an hour and some change maybe hour and twenty minutes sometimes one hour and thirty minutes but that stuff is over with. If my workout partner wants to talk to people fine. I'll lift by myself. I told him the other day we are here to workout not socialize were here to lift and improve on what we are not on our vocabulary skills or to even try to help everyone else in the gym. So I'm trying to make my weight training portion of my workouts less than an hour and then maybe tops 20 minutes of cardio and supposedly in 20 minutes of intense cardio I can burn over 300 calories! Which is pretty awesome.

Also peter sorry about hijacking your thing I asked you on yours with hopes of getting an answer there. By the way this is my last week of strength training with the 3x5 and then im Going to go to a muscle specific workout. Not sure which i should target first. I'll still be hitting every body part but focusing on one twice a week for eight weeks. Calves chest and back are what I believe are my weak points. Ok I'm blabbing....haha

Pete I might end up changing gyms cause my gfs gym, yes she now goes!! haha has dumbells up into the hundreds!!! Thats whats up. I just like having workout partners.

When you switch to a bodypart split, are you switching rep schemes too? If you go higher, you should be able to handle more weight on 3 x 10s or on 12-10-8s or whatever thanks to gains from doing 5 reps. Even just psychologically, once you've squatted a real 5RM and then drop to a lower weight for 10 reps it feels like nothing.

Awesome thats what I was thinking. The 4 week strength training program I am on is almost over three more days and its DONE. It was amazing though and I can't wait to post my shoulder workout yester day... awesome. ok lol

Well basic hypertrophy/strength periodization I've seen goes like this:

Cycle of hypertrophy
Cycle of strength, test new 1RMs.
Cycle of hypertrophy based on new 1RMs.

So it feeds into one another...you get stronger at lower reps faster, so you can do heavier high reps and get bigger.

And don't worry about that clean and press man. You got the lower weights...you'll get a full clean and press of 185 next time. It's just a marker of progress...you know you're really doing your 5RM when the next set can't be done!

Thanks man def need encouragement after that. I felt so defeated. It's funny sometimes I look at the weights as my enemy trying to hold me down and I won't let it happen. Or in last nights instance I kinda lost. By the way man I'm dropping weight and getting cut. Kinda excited I now weighed 203.5 lbs last night before I ate dinner and 205.5 this morning so I'm dropping weight but I'll add it the right way slow and continuously<--did I spell that right? haha. I'm actually looking to possible get into mma I just really don't have a lot of time. Work then gym then home shower eat watch shows with the woman and then sleep.... never ending cycle.

Also shes going to the gym now too I'm training her she's on a great diet shes improving already and she's only gone the past week. She's 5'1 and she now weighs I think 106... pretty awesome. She wants to be a muscular chick... and I'm there to help her lol. ok im rambling. thanks pete appreciate the convo bro.

John--about your lunges. You use an Easy Bar--why? Do you hold weight in front or on your shoulders like for rear squats?

I'll be he's using the EZ Curl bar because it's easier to get it into position and hold it there without help. That's why I used to use it for behind-the-neck presses.

John, do you think the 5-rep max work weeks you did helped you lift heavier on your higher rep work? Did you get a bigger jump than you'd expected, not as big, etc.? Since I was one of the guys who was bugging you to try it I'm really curious if you feel it was helpful.

Jungle doc-the reason I use the ezcurl bar is the lack of size in my "fitness center" its not as long as a barbell so with it I have more room and ability to turn around with it on my shoulders.

Peter- I did notice gains but I will have to go back and actually look at my journal to see how much. I'll post my bench numbers and stuff from yesterday and take a look back and see where I stand.

I do believe that the 3x5 workout for 4 weeks is beneficial but you really have to push yourself hard, I'm extremely intense and a lot of people avoid me at the gym and you have to keep at it. I'll reply on here my gains poundage wise... talk to you guys later.

and I clean and press it and then set it on my shoulders in get it comfortable and go with it. Everyone at my gym looks at me like I'm crazy. It's really funny but I'll be the one getting results.