Gym & Misc Your starting lifts

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ioppolo

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What weight did y'all start at when you first got into weights? And how much have you increased in what time frame?

I first started lifting when I was 17 to lose weight (I was chubby) but stopped just before I turned 19. I weighed any where between 55-58kgs between 19-21.

I started getting back into lifting a few months ago after weight was coming on easier post christmas. I wanted to take advantage of finally having a slower metabolism. My bench has increased 15/20kgs. Squats 10kgs. Military press 10kgs. Barbell row 15kgs.

I'm also 67kgs these days with only 1% extra body fat at a guess.
 
Started in 2013 at 19 weighed 52kg (173ishcm) (Now weigh 67KG) although playing lots of sport growing up I was built like a rake and had very little upper-body strength.

Bench - couldn't even lift the 20KG Bar properly at the start - can now bench 65KG.
Squat - Just the 20KG Bar - can now squat 90KG.
 
way back in the mid 90's i was 57-58kgs playing senior football as a 17yr old and not really having an impact (obviously)...that off season our new coach set up a huge gym fit out in our club rooms and i went every mon/wed/fri for 2 months i think...put on 7 - 8kgs in that time...cannot remember at all what weights i started and finished with though but once i started legs i deadlifted a huge 20kgs and have got up to 160 a few yrs ago..i
m pretty old now so i don't really go heavy for the lower much anymore, just a 4 - 6 week period in the off season
 
I started lifting around 22 years old. I'm now 26. I would've weighed in at about 68kg (I've posted a pic on the member profiles before, cbf finding it). I'm 185cm. I weighed myself today and I sit at a pretty lean 82kg. So about 14kg heavier.

Me and my mate joke about the weights we used to lift, so I remember them exactly.
Chest - 12kg DB's. 30kg bench. Currently pushing 80kg x 10 reps. Can bench 100kg for a couple. This has been my hardest lift to increase, it's definitely my weak point.
Legs - 40kg squat. I can now comfortably squat 120kg for 5.
Deadlift - I didn't deadlift when I first started. I was deadlifting 160kg x 3, but then hurt my back and stopped for a while. Just slowly building back up again, doing sets at 120kg.
Shoulders - 8kg DB's. Can now do 30kg x8, 36kg x 3.

I guess it's a bit funny when you don't even warm up on the weights you used to lift. I remember looking at the 20kg DB's for chest thinking that's my dream! Now I do that for incline flys.

Nothing more satisfying than seeing progress.
 
i was about 80kg at 6 4inches at 18 and now at the same hight at 90kg 23 years old.
struggled with bar now i can bench 100kg
 
21 y/old @ 66kg ish. Can't remember just getting 5x5 with an empty bar on bench, think I managed a plate squat/deadlift first crack for a double or triple.
by 26 y/old I'd gotten to 88kg ish with a 230kg squat, 127.5kg bench and 240kg deadlift before blowing my back out.
year later I'm about 81kg with a 235kg squat and 137.5kg bench, dead is still 240kg and seems to have suffered the most from the back injury
 
BrockBlitz said:
Started at 14 recreationally. No idea what my lifts were. I know I could do 3 chin ups.

Now 26 and 89kgs 6ft. Dead 220, squat 150 (terrible knees) , bench 120, strict press 75, dip +70 , chin +50.
Click to expand...

Do you still free squat?
Or stick to other variations like box etc?
 
BrockBlitz said:
Always free squat. I have patella tracking problems so most of my accessory work revolves around keeping VMO a boss and trying not to over develop the rest.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure what sort of warm up you have, but I've solved a bunch of peoples tracking problems by prescribing 2-3 sets of 20 hamstring curls prior to squatting.

Also, the vastus medialis has the same nerve as vastus intermedias and vastus lateralis so they either all fire or none do.
Latest indications suggest patellofemoral friction syndrome is actually to do with femur/hip rotation (or tibial rotation - I'd have to double check)
 
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Aeglos said:
I'm not sure what sort of warm up you have, but I've solved a bunch of peoples tracking problems by prescribing 2-3 sets of 20 hamstring curls prior to squatting.

Also, the vastus medialis has the same nerve as vastus intermedias and vastus lateralis so they either all fire or none do.
Latest indications suggest patellofemoral friction syndrome is actually to do with femur/hip rotation
Click to expand...

All of this I true - however this is a genetic issue. My whole family has it, our knee caps are way too lateral.

The nerve innovation may be the same, but the muscles have different ranges where they take the most load. So, you can work within a small range and target VMO. You are right in that the nerve innovation at a max attempt will tell all the muscles to fire the same. The difference is that with all the targeted work of building VMO up, the load that each muscle takes will be split differently from a mechanical point of view and hence I will have a more symmetric loading of the patella and less tracking issues.
 
Aeglos said:
21 y/old @ 66kg ish. Can't remember just getting 5x5 with an empty bar on bench, think I managed a plate squat/deadlift first crack for a double or triple.
by 26 y/old I'd gotten to 88kg ish with a 230kg squat, 127.5kg bench and 240kg deadlift before blowing my back out.
year later I'm about 81kg with a 235kg squat and 137.5kg bench, dead is still 240kg and seems to have suffered the most from the back injury
Click to expand...
Strong squat..
 
BrockBlitz said:
All of this I true - however this is a genetic issue. My whole family has it, our knee caps are way too lateral.

The nerve innovation may be the same, but the muscles have different ranges where they take the most load. So, you can work within a small range and target VMO. You are right in that the nerve innovation at a max attempt will tell all the muscles to fire the same. The difference is that with all the targeted work of building VMO up, the load that each muscle takes will be split differently from a mechanical point of view and hence I will have a more symmetric loading of the patella and less tracking issues.
Click to expand...

Do you have anything that backs up the emphasis at certain ranges?
Everything I've found so far points to an even/consistent contribution between medialis/lateralis through full knee ROM
Eg https://www.strengthandconditioningresearch.com/perspectives/vastus-medialis-squats/ (there's a graph just under the 3rd reference to "Ninos et al" if you search that which has vastus activation between 10-60deg which suggests the ratio is constant through those joint angles - Id post the graph but my phone skills suck)

*edit* either way, probably not going to help you too much if it's genetics. Can't pick your parents unfortunately!
 
Aeglos said:
Do you have anything that backs up the emphasis at certain ranges?
Everything I've found so far points to an even/consistent contribution between medialis/lateralis through full knee ROM
Eg https://www.strengthandconditioningresearch.com/perspectives/vastus-medialis-squats/ (there's a graph just under the 3rd reference to "Ninos et al" if you search that which has vastus activation between 10-60deg which suggests the ratio is constant through those joint angles - Id post the graph but my phone skills suck)

*edit* either way, probably not going to help you too much if it's genetics. Can't pick your parents unfortunately!
Click to expand...

I did all that stuff at uni a number of years ago so I can't remember where I read it. VMO works particularly in the last 30 degrees of extension. I did sports and mechanical engineering so the loading around joints is my bread and butter. Try some anecdotal evidence. Give this a crack for a set of 30 with just your body weight and let me know where you feel it.
Essentially we can use a lot of body building principals to build up wear areas so they take more load.
 
BrockBlitz said:
I did all that stuff at uni a number of years ago so I can't remember where I read it. VMO works particularly in the last 30 degrees of extension. I did sports and mechanical engineering so the loading around joints is my bread and butter. Try some anecdotal evidence. Give this a crack for a set of 30 with just your body weight and let me know where you feel it.
Essentially we can use a lot of body building principals to build up wear areas so they take more load.
Click to expand...


Interesting.
Thoughts on this article?
https://www.painscience.com/articles/patellofemoral-pain-and-vastus-medialis.php
 
Aeglos said:
Interesting.
Thoughts on this article?
https://www.painscience.com/articles/patellofemoral-pain-and-vastus-medialis.php
Click to expand...

Absolute crap. The guy is a stereotypical exercise science person. He's probably Read a couple journal articles and now knows everything. The thing he's skipped is thinking about it with some logic. He describes himself as "an overqualified massage theiripist".

Don't think about a human as a skeletal system with muscles. Think of it as a machine. The patella for example is a pulley. Each muscle is pulling in a slightly different direction and therefore each one creates a vector and together a sum of the vectors. If this vector has a lateral component the patella or pulley will wear out. So to fix the problem you need to change the vector.

So, for arguments sake let's say your VMO sucks and it is only taking 8% of the load in a maximum contraction. We know we can't change the innovation so the only option is to make the muscle stronger. Knowing that VMO is super active in the last 30 degrees of extension means we can train for this. In a clinical setting rather than for a strong person we would put a foam roller under their knee and externally rotate the leg and do extensions with just the weight of the leg. If they are strong we'd do those heel elevated step offs. This will load VMO significantly more than under normal circumstances. So, now after 10 weeks your VMO might take 14 % of the total load at maximum contraction. Now the vector doesn't have a lateral component and the wearing of the pulley has been reduced or is gone completely. A good example of this is track cyclists who work mainly in the end range of extension. Their VMOs are unearthly.

I hope you can make sense of this rambling mess. I'm off to bed.
 
BrockBlitz said:
Absolute crap. The guy is a stereotypical exercise science person. He's probably Read a couple journal articles and now knows everything. The thing he's skipped is thinking about it with some logic. He describes himself as "an overqualified massage theiripist".

Don't think about a human as a skeletal system with muscles. Think of it as a machine. The patella for example is a pulley. Each muscle is pulling in a slightly different direction and therefore each one creates a vector and together a sum of the vectors. If this vector has a lateral component the patella or pulley will wear out. So to fix the problem you need to change the vector.

So, for arguments sake let's say your VMO sucks and it is only taking 8% of the load in a maximum contraction. We know we can't change the innovation so the only option is to make the muscle stronger. Knowing that VMO is super active in the last 30 degrees of extension means we can train for this. In a clinical setting rather than for a strong person we would put a foam roller under their knee and externally rotate the leg and do extensions with just the weight of the leg. If they are strong we'd do those heel elevated step offs. This will load VMO significantly more than under normal circumstances. So, now after 10 weeks your VMO might take 14 % of the total load at maximum contraction. Now the vector doesn't have a lateral component and the wearing of the pulley has been reduced or is gone completely. A good example of this is track cyclists who work mainly in the end range of extension. Their VMOs are unearthly.

I hope you can make sense of this rambling mess. I'm off to bed.
Click to expand...

I still disagree, but if you are seeing results with your clients I'm certainly not going to try and dissuade you from your current rehab methods
 
Aeglos said:
I still disagree, but if you are seeing results with your clients I'm certainly not going to try and dissuade you from your current rehab methods
Click to expand...

Ok. Why do you disagree? I'm not trying to be confrontational I promise - just explain things.
All the evidence you have shown thus far is about innovation or trying to target VMO during a squat. Both are correct. So forget about them for a minute.

Couple weird fun facts about VMO
* fastest atrophying muscle in the body
* only takes 10-15ml of fluid in the knee capsule before VMO stops being activated. (crazy I know)

Now, think about what you said earlier about the hamstrings and knee pain. The hamstrings being activated and ready to roll after a few sets of curls pulls the tibia backwards to counter the moment on the tibia given by the quads. Essentially this loads up the posterior chain and keeps everything in balanced. The other bit you mentioned about hip and tibia rotation is basically about valgus or varus knees. Both of these are generally to do with hip/core and ankle instability which cause poor knee mechanics and the loading is terrible unbalanced. Hence the knee pain.

What we are talking about in my case is a completely different kettle of fish. All of the above are fine.

We know that the VMO has a mechanical advantage (this should not be confused with innovation, people assume that it means the same thing. It doesn't. A muscle can be working twice as hard at one point in the range but produce less force because of the angles and lever arms) during the last 30 degrees and take proportionally more load than the other muscles. In the same way that Rectus Fem works harder in a static lunge on the back leg - different extension angles give a mechanical advantage or disadvantage for some muscles. So, if you work specifically in the range where VMO works the hardest it will become more fatigued and become stronger at a higher proportion than the other muscles involved in knee extension. All the extension muscles will get stronger - but VMO will get stronger comparatively. This will reduce the lateral friction of the patella on the lateral condyle of the femur because we now have a greater proportion of extension from VMO than before.

If you want to talk more about this stuff DM me, we are quite off topic here and I'm sure everyone else is getting a bit jack of it.
 
Dunno what I started at but some of my current lifts look like this:
Bench 90kg for 12 reps x3. Last time I did a 1RM I got 115kg but I'd imagine that would be higher now
Squat 160kg for 1RM and Dead 180kg for 1RM.

Prolapsed my L5S1 in Sept 2015 and had double hip surgery in Jan this year so progress has been slow for deads and squats.

Currently at 107kg/185cm mid bulk (19% BF on 8 point caliper test), will be cutting from the beginning of December. Cut weight will be around the 94-95kg mark with around 9-10% BF
 
NickCC said:
Dunno what I started at but some of my current lifts look like this:
Bench 90kg for 12 reps x3. Last time I did a 1RM I got 115kg but I'd imagine that would be higher now
Squat 160kg for 1RM and Dead 180kg for 1RM.

Prolapsed my L5S1 in Sept 2015 and had double hip surgery in Jan this year so progress has been slow for deads and squats.

Currently at 107kg/185cm mid bulk (19% BF on 8 point caliper test), will be cutting from the beginning of December. Cut weight will be around the 94-95kg mark with around 9-10% BF
Click to expand...

Sounds pretty narly if you ended up with an op. Were your hips anything to do with your back?
 
Aeglos said:
Sounds pretty narly if you ended up with an op. Were your hips anything to do with your back?
Click to expand...
Nah they were unrelated, I've had hip impingement issues for about 5 years now (genetic but exaggerated by playing basketball for 20 years)

The L5S1 has never fully improved although I don't suffer any more nerve issues so I'm back lifting but I'll probably never go down the powerlifting route since my body will just break.
 

Gym & Misc Your starting lifts


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