ExRx.net

A pipino is called a cucumber here.

Don't be afraid of having dressing on your salad. The fat in the dressing is important for absorption of the nutrients in the salad. If you have a choice, get one made from Olive oil or canola oil. Avoid fat free dressings. They defeat the purpose.

ok. well, the only dressing that the canteen had was like this colored pink gooey substance. it looked like a mix of mayonnaise and ketchup but that's just me guessing what the dressing was.

Hey, it's just a fun run. Run and have fun, if such a thing is actually possible. One day of rope skipping won't make any difference. Besides, rope skipping is good preparation for rope skipping. The only good preparation for running is, well, running.

Anshan--What's a "cos convention"?

And how did the fun run go last week?

a cos convention is like comic con if you're familiar with it. it's an event where people get to dress up like it's halloween. you get to take pictures with some people in really cool costumes, try out the latest games, watch the catwalk competition of costumed fellows, exclusive toys and comics for sale....it's just really a fun event for kids and kids at heart :)

there was no fun run. typhoons have been coming into the country and it rained on the fun run day. well, that just leaves more time to build endurance

Oh no, cosplayer!

Okay, just kidding. But it was weird when I was in grad school and went to Japan Club events to network and half the folks were dressed as Vash the Stampede or the women from Tenchi Muyo...


I'm glad to see you are keeping up the workouts, loss of enthusiasm or not. Your squat has been holding steady at 3 x 7 x 75 for a while, though. Is it a form issue, a lack of additional weight? If you're running out of weight, I'd just up the reps and/or lower the rest.

Peter

i guess your familiar with cosplay since you were in japan
it was the first cosplay event that i attended and i am planning to join sometime in the future although i don't really watch anime. i just like the concept of cosplaying

right now, i try to pump myself up before working out. listening to rap song and 'get-you-angry' songs. i have much more energy and motivation when i exercise pumped up or angry

anyway, my max weight is still 75 lbs. i tried buying additional plates of 15 lbs a couple of weeks ago but they said those were either sold out or they don't make them anymore. how much should i increase my reps? i'll try to find weights again next month

I actually knew more cosplayers here in the USA than in Japan. Although one of the cosplayers I knew in Japan was a Brazilian Jiu-jitsu brown belt...but he'd dress up as Ultraman for conventions.

Since you're stuck at 75# as your max weight. I'd just add reps each week. Next time, try for 3 x 8 x 75# on the squat, then once you get that go for 3 x 9 x 75#, etc. Once you get to around 10-12 reps you'll mostly get endurance but you'll get really good at squatting. Then when you can afford plates you'll be plenty strong.

Another option is to swap out the squats for lunges with the bar across your shoulders. You'll have to go light, but you can get each leg stronger than way. Then you can go back to squatting once you get more weight.

Hope that helps,

Peter

yeah! ultraman go! that dude can't fight for his life but when he crosses his arms, you better run away! LOL

i can afford plates now. the only reason why i can't get any is because i can't find any. so will 12 reps be my max rep limit for squats or should i just continue adding reps until i get new plates?

i love doing squats. the only thing that i don't like about that is my wrists hurt. see, i always try and do the low bar position but until now, my upper body area ain't flexible enough to hold the bar correctly. right now, i am holding the bar with a wide grip since any narrower than that and i can't hold the bar anymore. also, even though i am doing a wide grip, i still can't get the wrist position correct because of flexibility issues. if you have a reference to the squatter's book (i forgot his name), he placed a tape across the back of the hand to the lower part of the forearm. he said that when doing squats, that tape should be straight. mine ain't straight. i need to bend my wrists in order to hold the bar (which is also illustrated in the book but said that it's the wrong position)

You can keep going but past 12 reps or so it's going to be almost all stamina...but you can go as high as you want. More than 20 is probably a waste unless you really want to work your squat stamina for that level of weight.

Some folks swear by 20-rep sets in squats and deadlifts - Stuart McRobert, who wrote "Brawn" and published Hardgainer magazine was a big fan of 20-rep work for those exercises. But your program has you working 5-7 reps for a reason, so the sooner you can get more weight and get back to where doing 3 x 5 is hard, the better!



You mean Mark Rippetoe's "Starting Strength" - that's where I got that tape tip too.

You might try to change your grip. I have to hold the bar pretty wide to keep my wrists straight. So much so I have to keep my pinky off the bar because otherwise it might get mashed into the rack. That's because of my big wingspan (I'm 193cm tall and proportioned).

You can also try riding the bar a little higher, if it's down so far it's causing your wrists to bend painfully.

Just a couple suggestions. A recent video showing the problem might help, it's possible you've got something else going on and the wrist is just a symptom.

Pete, just a comment on the 20 rep squats popularized by McRoberts; it's actually a rest pause thing done by using a 10 RM weight and gutting out 10 more rest pause/breathing reps. It's NOT taking a light weight and doing 20 reps.
Tim

And it's brutally hard.

Oh, yeah, I know that. But I don't think the rest/pause 20-rep type squats will help too much at the max weight Aarshan has handy. Although it's an option, I bet if he works up to 20 x 75# it won't really be as brutal as it could be. It's just not a lot of weight...it'll help endurance though until he can find some plates!

Way to nail 3 x 20 back squats.

When you say you stretch before you lift, is it dynamic stretching like this:
http://www.t-nation.com/readArticle.do?id=1778726&cr=

or static stretching like this:
http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_art ... ng_part_ii

The consensus now seems to be saving the static stretching for post-workout.

i always do static stretching before and after workouts. i see to it that i stretch the muscle at least twice